[Basil Dreadflint]

I have a few things to say, so put on your reading glasses, grab a beverage of your choice, sit back and get comfortable!

First off, You all amaze me! I cannot believe that you would all fight so hard and long to participate in an event that has absolutely no signifcance other than to say "I did it!" I admire all of you, and am proud to play the game with you!

Second, Obsessive Compulsive doesn't even BEGIN to describe it. I never intended for anyone to sink the entirety of ALL 3 FLEETS. You don't even get points for the third one! The instructions were for one, then a bonus for a second one. Yet every team tried for, and I think got, all 3! (Haven't really gotten a chance to verify that.)

(Note: for those of you who got pics, but because of the Lightning reflection or other reason, can't see the ships value: I will look at the shot to verify it, and give you the same value as the LOWEST of the other teams for the same ship type. EG. A Juggernaut, but can't see it's score, the other teams score a 41, a 43, and a 44 for the Juggie, I will give you 41. I think that is fair.)

Thirdly, those of you who posted were even concerned about the double posting rule here on POF. Asking the Mods to forgive, or even merge the posts for you! Unbelieveable!

I apologize to those of you who stayed up til the wee hours, trying to finish the complete list, but again, I never asked/expected you to go after all 3 fleets, and I even said that early in the Hunt, when questioned. 2 fleets got you all the points. The third fleet earned you nothing, except bragging rights.

Next, I would like to thank you all for being so flexible. The intent is for the teams to be stable, evenly matched, and well organized. Adding, making up for losses of crewmates, taking on 'extra' players, in my opinion, makes it that much harder. Trying to get a screenie with 7 players is much tougher than with 4. I know, because I've tried it. To answer Max's question in the earlier post, of course they all count! I watched, and commented on, the number of people getting booted, relogging, etc., and I would never penalize a team because of that, or the lack of the "added" players that came in in the middle of the game.


Most importantly, to me as GM and as organizer of the Hunt, I HOPE EVERYONE HAD A GOOD TIME!!! After all, it's just a game, and our guild nite events are just a way to break up the monotony of grinding weqpons, June, and Gunner, only playing alone, or in our small groups that we would otherwise tend to break up into.

I"ll start scoring as soon as I can, but it's going to be a little tough on me from now through Friday. Ending this job assignment tomorrow, got to pack up and ship the 6 computer systems, travel to another hotel tomorrow night, and travel Friday. I will work on it as time is available.
(Since I just got notice of my 24 hour Disney vacation, I should have a little time, since I won't be ingame! See the Ban thread.)

Now for the part of this post that I have had to sit and debate for the past hour or so:

I was notified by PM, from a few different people, that there was some "cheating" going on during the contest... Not just a little, or for one or two items, but throughout the entire event, covering both nights.
Basically, one person, on one team, was having friends from outguild go look for the targets/ships/enemies, telling that person to teleport to them, then bugging out, so that that person could bring their team to the proper site to claim the enemy. I also heard that they were using 2 ships to go after the enemies, but since they were crewed, the pic depicts them as all being on the same ship. (I even had something in the rules/ list post about this.) It's not just one person reporting this, but a few.

My original inclination was to just say"PIRATE", the way Jack, Elizabeth, Will, Barbossa, all say it in the movie. Lie, Cheat, Steal, and generally bend the rules to the breaking point to achieve your desired outcome. But after hearing about this from different sources, finding out that people left the game early because of it, and knowing how hard everyone else worked at it, I can't just do that!

These Guild Night events are just that, for the GUILD! We all belong to this guild for our own various reasons, but a large part of that is because we actuallly enjoy each others company, and think of each other as friends. If I, or anyone else in the guild, had wanted this to be open to the entirety of the POTCO population, all 2,000,000 + registered members, then it wouldn't be a Guild event.

Cheating such as this is a violation of our trust in each other, and our friendships. It taints the entire Scavenger Hunt game, and puts all the results in question. I strive hard to make the contest fair, accurate, and the teams evenly matched. I did allow a couple of outguild people to "Ride Along" , but that would not skew the results. They were CREW, not scouts.

I've been sitting here staring at this post, trying to decide what to do, how to score and deal with this. I don't want to cause any consternation amoung you, my friends and guildmates. (Notice, I have not named names nor pointed any fingers. And I won't!) SInce I won't have too much chance to score it over the next few days, I am going to act as if it didn't happen (for now), until after I have done a full scoring. Before I post the final results, I will have to come to some decision.

I post this info more for myself and those who PM'ed me, than for general comment or feedback. (Not that I could stop any of you from providing feedback.) Those of you who know me for the past almost year, know that I will try to do what is most fair for the group, and try to minimize any and all problems with the best of intentions.

One last item: YES, As Max said, I tend to put at least one "Impossible" task in every list! Or one Unanswerable or trick question. No, it wasn't a typo, it was deliberate. For a short time, there were level 41 plus enemies, usually as Captains on the Colossus or Behemoth Flag. Putting that, or a trick question int he list, gives the Hunt the added challenge of "Finding" the one task that should be ignored. Most of the teams caught the unanswerable questions from last week. The NPC poker players at the table vary! They are never the same from server to server, or sometimes from one time you enter the tavern to the next. The other one was the amount of gold given out by Captain Job. It varies depending on the level of the pirate taking on the quest.

AGAIN, Thank-you ALL for making this a great event, and an even greater GUILD!!!