Grundo's Cafe - Mystery Pic Weekly Event

[Dasvidaniya]

I'm down to try and help out with this also Add me to the list!

[Dero]

New MP is up.
This week:
(you need an account to see links)

Prize
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Glowing Book


Pinging @(you need an account to see links) @(you need an account to see links)
Please exercise caution if you post in this thread and you have an account in GC. The thread is closely being monitored by GC developers and administrators, so do not include your answer exactly as how you enter it in game.
Instead I'd choose to just submit the image of the correct guess and have everyone come up with their own interpretation of it so a diversity of answers can be achieved.

[Buizel]

Honestly curious, but how do you know they're monitoring this board? They're that serious about this contest?

[Dero]

Answered privately

[Sakuras]

boop dee doop

[Zenitsu]

Thank you for the thread, @(you need an account to see links)! I'm glad you guys are having lots of fun with GC. *um* I'm curious too, though.

Are people getting into trouble for sending in the same answers and working together? Because if that's the case, this is fucked.
I really hope this won't turn into a Noah thing. :/

[twooldcat]

I presume they're talking about me. I'll be honest, I don't want to become a persona non grata over here. I respect Clraik, and I'd never consider publicly outing cheaters like that whole Noah debacle.

But I've gotten enough heads up that this thread exists that it's hard for me to ignore. Sharing answers is clearly against our site rules, and I receive a lot of pressure to do something about it. I was hoping that the whole Puzzle Emporium point system would be enough disincentive for answer-sharing (the more people who guess right, the fewer points each correct guesser receives). So you're not just hamstringing yourself by sharing answers - you're hamstringing everyone.

Should we remove all the fun item prizes from the competitions so the stakes are lower? Or just remove the site feature altogether? Those options bum me out - especially for what's essentially a hobby project that runs on our collective free time. Maybe virtual pet sites and puzzle competitions are fundamentally incompatible - I'm open to hearing thoughts.

[Buizel]

Ohh, do you own GC? Personally, I don't have an account, I just play Neo, so that's why I was asking. I apologize if my question came off as dismissive or anything like that. I took the monitoring to mean that strikes may be handed out to those players for using this thread or something.

[Zenitsu]

I have talked to you before, so I know that you're a very nice guy. I'm sorry you're under a lot of pressure, and it certainly does put you in a very tough spot. This is an interesting situation, and I understand both sides. It does seem like you really don't want to, but you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place while feeling pressure to take action. I'm curious to see what other opinions our members might contribute here. Thanks for opening this discussion reasonably and asking for honest thoughts!

[Dero]

I respect what you do on that website and commend you for having the knowledge to work together with more of the developers that made GC a possibility.
I think in the end it boils down to you doing your job and doing what is expected out of you; the other developers want you to keep an eye on this thread then so be it and have that become a side responsibility for you.
There's of course the possibility that this 'hunting' of people as a product of hawking this thread gains you some repercussion on this website, but that is not up to me to decide. It will eventually be discussed by this site admins if it gets to that point. As Buizel and I coincided privately, it feels odd to have lurkers take advantage of whatever goes on here for another purpose, in this case incentivizing secrecy and lack of interaction in my opinion, by fear of getting directly punished by you or other lurking GC site staff.

I want to add as a last note that the Emporium doesn't serve to disincentive people from answer sharing, as there's no possibility of gaining 0 points and adding this feature would defeat the Emporium's purpose. This sole characteristic of the system makes it perfect for its passive grind and allows for collaboration between guild members, close friends and other societies (such as this) to take place. (Things that do happen and do take place as we speak, I can confirm from first hand from all 3).
All in all, the answers get shared if someone is of enough trust to you and so the cycle continues, albeit more privately.