N O T O R I O U S :: A Pointless Game

[rcannon100]

I steal all my best ideas from er, Mikey, yeah, that’s the ticket…. Mikey. If I am not mistaken, a few years ago Mikey ran a FS game called “The Presidents.” The game was simply a list of the Presidents in order. Players cycled to some location in Washington D.C. that could be identified with that president in some way. The player took a picture and posted the photo to the forum. If the photo got three likes (if people could figure out what the photo had to do with that president), then the player got the point and the game moved on to the next president on the list.

Notorious is a game played the same way, only instead of a list of presidents, it is a list of Washington D.C.’s notorious history – some good, some bad, some ugly. Players take a photograph (with their bike) that in some way identifies that item on the list. If the player’s photograph and post to the forum nets four likes, it receives the point, and we move on to the next item on the list. Players can choose to explain their photo or not.

* Item is in play after the score is posted for the previous item
PHOTO
* Photo should be taken after an item is in play +
* Photo must include your bicycle
SCORING
* Photo must net FOUR likes to get the point
* If two posts net four or more likes before I notice, the post with the most likes wins. If there is still a tie – I will find some other arbitrary and annoying way to award the point.
* Group finds, everyone in the photo who is identified gets the point
* Tim the Enchanter gets all the cookies

+ This is a soft rule. It’s one thing to take one photo on your way in because you know the item is going to be in play today. It is another thing to spend sunday racking up photos – posting pictures of an item at night time when the item has only been in play during the day time – or posting a picture on a bright sunny day when its snowing outside.

There will be prizes. Probably a bunny or a hand grenade. Not really sure at this point.

And of course we start with:

1. Watergate {Tim the Enchanter}
   
2. Exorcist Stairs {SteveO}
3. Air Florida Flight 90 {Benihana}
4. Seven Dirty Words {Huberww}
5. Titanic Memorial {Benihama}
6. September 11, 2001 {NemaVeze}
7. 1968 Washington D.C. Riots {Streetsmarts}
8. Ghost Bike {SteveO}
9. Borf / Bobby Fisher Memorial Building {NemaVeze}
10. Headquarters of the American Nazi Party {Kitty}
11. “The Bitch Set Me Up” {Judd}
12. Bonus Army {Kitty}
13. John Wilkes Booth {Kitty}
14. “I Invented the Internet” {Kitty}
15. Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II {Kitty}
16. Price, Birch & Co. Dealers in Slaves {Emm}
17. Charles Syphax {Reji}
18. Cool “Disco” Dan {Kitty}
19. Dead Man’s Hollow {Kitty} {SteveO}
20. Dwight W. Watson and his tractor {PeteD}
21. Pork Chop Row {Kitty}
22. George Lincoln Rockwell {Emm}
23. Deep Throat {kitty}
24. Elizabeth Ray {NemaVeze}
25. Aldrich Ames {EMM}
26. Joan Mulholland {SteveO}
27. Kathryn H. Stone, Virginia Legislature {Reji}
28. Mary Ann Hall {NemaVeze}
29. Fanne Foxe {Streetsmarts}
30. St Asaph Racetrack {CBGanimal; Karen W}
31. Fawn Hall {NemaVeze}
32. Democracy, An American Novel {kitty}
33. John Warnock Hinckley {NemaVeze}
34. Slacker {Kitty}
35. Carlo Valdonoci June 2, 1919 {kitty}
36. Assassination Attempt on Harry Truman {NemaVeze}
37. May 10, 1970 bombing of National Guard Association {SteveO}
38. 1977 Hanafi Siege {SteveO}
39. Sherry Rowlands {Kitty}
40. Richard Berendzen {Reji}
41. Monkey Business {SClaeys}
42. Lunch counter sit ins, Arlington VA {CBGanimal}
43. Rita Jenrette
    
44. Brigadier General Albert Pike {Benihana}
45. Hall’s Hill Wall
46. Laurence Henry, Glen Echo Amusement Park
    
47. Cornelius Hawkins {Kitty}
48. MCI, “A law firm with an antenna on the roof“
49. Helen Lane, Arlington School Board Member
50. Charles Sumner School
    
51. The Langley Aerodrome {PeteD}
52. Lt. Thomas Selfridge {Kitty}
53. June 22, 2009 WMATA
    
54. The assassination of Orlando Letelier {Benihana}
55. Freedman’s Village
56. Hurricane Agnes
    
57. Ronald Deskins, Michael Jones, Lance Newman, and Gloria Thompson {SteveO}
58. The Pagans and the Avengers {NemaVeze}
59. May 22, 1856: Abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner
60. Assassination of James Garfield
61. H.R., Bad Brains
    
62. 1972 Public demonstration of the ARPANET / Internet, and AT&T’s refusal of DOD’s offer to sell the Internet to AT&T {Benihana}
    
63. Berman v. Parker {SteveO}
    
64. Gandhi Statue {Benihana}
65. Jackson City
66. Victims of Communism Memorial
    
67. Three Sisters Island {Nemaveze}
68. Obey Andre the Giant
69. Raoul Wallenberg
    
70. Pizzagate {NemaVeze}
71. Notorious Ruth Bader Ginsberg {Benihana}
72. The Underground Railway/Harriet Tubman {Kitty}
73. Spiro Agnew
74. Robert Hansen
75. Walter Krivitsky, Bellevue Hotel
76. Harold “Kim” Philby
    
77. Bill Clinton’s McDonalds {SteveO}
78. Federal Relocation Arc, Cartwheel Tower, Mt Weather
79. Marv Albert
80. Luna Park
81. Henry Rollins
    
82. Salad Days / Minor Threat {Benihana}
83. Jack Kent Cooke
84. Jhoon Rhee
85. The Mayflower Club
    
86. Old Capitol Prison: Belle Boyd and Rose O’Neal Greenhow {Benihana}
87. Jonathan Pollard
    
88. Mary Pinchot {SClaeys}
89. Rick Adams
90. Jon Postel hijacks the DNS, DNS Wars, CORE, ICANN
91. NSFNET, ANS, MAE-East, Priv-Com
92. Vitaly Sergeyevich Yurchenko
93. Rose O’Neal Greenhow
94. Rayful Edmond
    
95. Hell’s Bottom {NemaVeze}
    
96. Washington Senators {PeteD}
97. Murder Bay
98. Dickie’s Gulch

Topic

[rcannon100]

@Judd 173743 wrote:

Lock Bob up! Lock Bob up!

Alway’s look on the bright side of life

[Emm]

@rcannon100 173821 wrote:

Interested in feedback. Pending feedback, I will go ahead an implement these rules in the canon of the first page of the thread.

I like this overall–I think the game would slow down ALOT if you didn’t let people take a few photos ahead of time while they’re out exploring on weekends/after work, so it’s best as a soft rule.

My 2 cents on other possible rules: If you want to prevent people from dominating too much because they racked up Sunday rides with 45 photos and post one after the other after the other (which I really think makes the game much less fun since many of us can’t do that due to other constraints on our lives), make it so you have a 24 hr wait between posting more photos, and not “scoring” for so many hours after the first entry was posted. This would allows someone else to run out, take a photo if they suddenly have an idea, post, and try to get some likes before the pre-taken photo is made the winner. It’d also open the playing field up a little since people couldn’t keep posting one photo after the other after the other, which allows others to jump in.

Overall I like the way the game has been working, but I have been playing less than I otherwise would since some players have dominated so much by posting a ton right in a row.

[Judd]

@Steve O 173773 wrote:

Just to be clear, both Kitty and I took our pictures of the Jefferson Hotel well in advance of the scoring of the Hanafi Siege. Only one of us was admonished for violating the spirit of the game. Of course, she is much cuter than I am, so that may be why.

As Steve O’s official Press Secretary, I’d like to clarify that Steve O has never done anything wrong in his life and that Kitty is a villain. A lot of people are saying that we can’t trust someone who likes Corgis and penguins.

[bentbike33]

One idea discussed at HDCC this morning was a randomization of the selection of the next item of notoriety to be in play. That is, don’t strictly follow the list, but either Tim the Enchanter or the awardee of the last point would declare the next item (if the awardee, then that person would be ineligible for the point for the item he/she named).

[Steve O]

@Kitty 173805 wrote:

For the record, I rode to the Wilson building first for the Hanafi seige, but it was too cold to upload from there. I did visit Jefferson hotel from there just in case someone scooped the seige first (as you did).

Because I don’t know if someone will upload and change the objective while I’m out, I fully admit to looking ahead at the list, doing the necessary research, and then taking photos before they are announced as “in play.” My interpretation of the rules was that was okay under RCannon’s ruling.

If doing advance work, short of posting, prior to an item being in play is invalid, I won’t do it again. Otherwise, seeing as multiple pics can go up for each item, I’ll do the research and take photos when I can, as I am trying to fit this into my commute/errandneuring.

Despite her deep-down villainous nature, I’ll go rogue here and say that what Kitty did seems completely fine to me (under the older rules). It’s unreasonable to think that working stiffs can run out during their work day to try to capture a photo when they could get one slightly in advance by leaving early for work (or showing up late !)

If the new guidelines are adopted such that there’s a xx-hour window, then that helps accommodate those with restricted schedules. That said, a picture taken on a commute in the dark (am or pm) for play that day or the next morning, or vice versa, does not seem unreasonable either, given that some people, like Trey, have commutes in the dark both ways. The day/night consideration seems arbitrary.

Another interesting twist could be that no one individual may score two in a row, reducing the incentive to try to stack the deck.

[Steve O]

Monkey Business
[ATTACH=CONFIG]16646[/ATTACH]
ANOTHER unscheduled solar eclipse!

Okay, just kidding. You may like this picture, but it’s in violation of the spirit of the game (I took it Monday night), so it’s not an official submission.
A resident came out just after I took this picture and he was aware of the ignominy of this townhome. He told me that the upstairs bathroom is exactly the same as it was back then.

[NemaVeze]

I would say, can’t score two in a row and/or can’t score two within 24 hours. That prevents the “run the table” approach without being too nitpicky on when something is officially in play / when the photo was taken, which we seem to agree is good for a number of reasons.

I also think, since Tim the Enchanter is the one to officially post the scores, it would make sense for him to have the right to NOT award points to a rules violator EVEN WHEN that post gets the requisite number of likes. I think a “Like” should indicate “This photo counts as a photo of that event,” and no more; it’s too much to expect everyone on the forums to be experts on NOTORIOUS jurisprudence.

[Judd]

@Steve O 173841 wrote:

Monkey Business
[ATTACH=CONFIG]16646[/ATTACH]
ANOTHER unscheduled solar eclipse!

Steve O’s Press Secretary here again. A lot of people will look at this picture and slander Steve O by saying he took it at night two days ago. The truth is that he took it just five minutes ago and then sun was blocked out by his great intellect. A lot of people say that he’s really smart, that he’s, like, a genius.

[chuxtr]

Rule #1 – There are no rules
Rule #2 – See Rule #1

[reji]

@rcannon100 173821 wrote:

Okay, I am waffling on my waffling (I posted something and then thought about it and then deleted it)

I have read what Kitty and Judd posted – and you know this is just a game. It’s designed to be fun. So I am most willing to tweak it to make sure the game works.

What doesnt work is if someone goes out on a weekend and takes 20 pictures – and then during the week just runs through them. Then this becomes an instagram game, not a cycling game.

So thinking to myself – does this work

* Item is in play after the score is posted for the previous item
* Photo should be taken after an item is in play +
* Photo must include your bicycle
* Photo must net FOUR likes to get the point (this should afford a bit more playing time to allow competitive submissions)
* Tim the Enchanter gets all the cookies

+ I want to say this is a soft rule. It’s one thing to take one photo on your way in because you know the item is going to be in play today. It is another thing to spend sunday racking up photos – posting pictures of an item at night time when the item has only been in play during the day time – or posting a picture of a bright sunny day when its snowing outside.

Interested in feedback. Pending feedback, I will go ahead an implement these rules in the canon of the first page of the thread.

Soft, subjective rules seem like they would be hard to manage. If you sense that someone has stockpiled pictures, which IMHO goes against the spirit of the game, what about summoning Tim to randomize the remaining sites?

[reji]

@Judd 173857 wrote:

Steve O’s Press Secretary here again. A lot of people will look at this picture and slander Steve O by saying he took it at night two days ago. The truth is that he took it just five minutes ago and then sun was blocked out by his great intellect. A lot of people say that he’s really smart, that he’s, like, a genius.

I LOVE these!!!!

[bentbike33]

@Judd 173857 wrote:

Steve O’s Press Secretary here again. A lot of people will look at this picture and slander Steve O by saying he took it at night two days ago. The truth is that he took it just five minutes ago and then sun was blocked out by his great intellect. A lot of people say that he’s really smart, that he’s, like, a genius.

But, is he stable?

[Judd]

@reji 173864 wrote:

Soft, subjective rules seem like they would be hard to manage. If you sense that someone has stockpiled pictures, which IMHO goes against the spirit of the game, what about summoning Tim to randomize the remaining sites?

Do you want to trade off hiding the Calvin ball at each other’s houses?

[sjclaeys]

@reji 173864 wrote:

Soft, subjective rules seem like they would be hard to manage. If you sense that someone has stockpiled pictures, which IMHO goes against the spirit of the game, what about summoning Tim to randomize the remaining sites?

How about this?

1) Don’t be a jerk
2) The more people play the game the better
3) It’s just a game
4) If you’re unsure if you should do something, see Rule #1

[Judd]

@bentbike33 173866 wrote:

But, is he stable?

Steve O is an expert at animal husbandry. His stable includes horses that have won the Kentucky Derby the past 37 years in a row.

[Author]

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