23rd February 2005, 8:32 PM
Well, for one, it's cheap, and that's about it!
I mean depending on unstable external sources to find puzzle solutions is cheap. All puzzle solution sources must be completely static and unchanging, in that one can always get to them, otherwise the puzzle is cheap. I've seen these things before, they make you do things where they EXPECT you to have the solution, but you might not and you end up looking around forever in your room for something you'll never find.
For example, for some reason in one puzzle they actually EXPECTED that EVERYONE had posters on their room walls and that was a MAJOR part of the solution of that puzzle. That is "look above your bed" was the hint. Took me forever to solve it, but not because it was hard, it was because it was a horribly designed puzzle. I fear this is the same thing.
Another example is the Metal Gear Solid "check the box" puzzle. The idea is that you would finally eventually look at the package the game came in. Clever, except what if you bought the game used without the box? Then, there is no hope of ever solving it and it won't be your fault.
I mean depending on unstable external sources to find puzzle solutions is cheap. All puzzle solution sources must be completely static and unchanging, in that one can always get to them, otherwise the puzzle is cheap. I've seen these things before, they make you do things where they EXPECT you to have the solution, but you might not and you end up looking around forever in your room for something you'll never find.
For example, for some reason in one puzzle they actually EXPECTED that EVERYONE had posters on their room walls and that was a MAJOR part of the solution of that puzzle. That is "look above your bed" was the hint. Took me forever to solve it, but not because it was hard, it was because it was a horribly designed puzzle. I fear this is the same thing.
Another example is the Metal Gear Solid "check the box" puzzle. The idea is that you would finally eventually look at the package the game came in. Clever, except what if you bought the game used without the box? Then, there is no hope of ever solving it and it won't be your fault.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)