Update to Brandon Sanderson's "Great Hunt" Challenge

[Lironah]

It might be important to ask whether the clue is in a book by Brandon Sanderson. That would give us the yes or no on whether it's in a bookstore, too.

[JenniferL]

I have a question regarding this process....Brandon says to have someone official email him, so when you guys do, do you think it would make the most sense to ask the questions one at a time and wait for the answers before asking all ten? That way if you do start out with really broad generalized questions (i.e. North/South of the equator, etc.) you could ask more specific ones depending on what you get for the answers. I would say this is the best way to do it, as opposed to submitting a list of 10 questions and getting all of the answers at once. Before I go crazy and make a list of 100 questions in descending order depending on how the previous ones were answered, I'd just like to know if this is a possible way to go at it.

 

No, we have to submit them all at once.

[Shmuel Goldberg]

I have a question regarding this process....Brandon says to have someone official email him, so when you guys do, do you think it would make the most sense to ask the questions one at a time and wait for the answers before asking all ten? That way if you do start out with really broad generalized questions (i.e. North/South of the equator, etc.) you could ask more specific ones depending on what you get for the answers. I would say this is the best way to do it, as opposed to submitting a list of 10 questions and getting all of the answers at once. Before I go crazy and make a list of 100 questions in descending order depending on how the previous ones were answered, I'd just like to know if this is a possible way to go at it.

 

It seems like all ten questions have to be submitted at once. So, we have to be smart. I like what 'ThatGuy' wrote. Don't waste more than 3 questions on the country. Maybe another 3 questions on the city and then you've still 4 questions left which give you location within the city. Remember also from where most of the non US posters are from. Canada, UK, Down under, Scandinavia, Central/Western Europe. The clue won't be in Mongolia or Mali or some place like that.

[Lironah]

Also, I think it is important to ask questions as precise as possible.

 

For instance the suggestions:

 

 

 

are good ideas but not so well formulated. What, for instance defines a 'major book chain'? What means 'near' a 'major city'?

 

Better to define things, such as: major city='city with at least 500,000 inhabitants'. Near='within 10 miles of the city limits'. Major chain='chain with at least 200 stores'.

 

Obviously, you might pick some other numbers depending on prior information. Say, if we knew it's in a tiny country such as Liechtenstein, then 'major city' would be a different beast than it would be if it were in China.

 

Let's give it 30 miles from a major city. 500,000 sounds good. And somebody else suggested that 10+ could constitute a chain, which I agree with.

[ThatGuy]

It might be important to ask whether the clue is in a book by Brandon Sanderson. That would give us the yes or no on whether it's in a bookstore, too.

Seconded.

[tinymitymo]

to isolate the city may be hard. One question could be "is it in the capital city?" but a no to this leaves all the other cities. I think if you ask about city populations you also won't narrow it down much. I think geographic area may work best for that one. Maybe something like was mentioned about in the northern half of the country and in the eastern half of the country. That will narrow it down to a quarter of the area. You probably should be specific though and say something like "if you draw a line that runs in the north/south direction, directly through the geographic center of the country is the clue on the east side of that line?" Perhaps you could repeat the questions with the city to break it down to quadrants too.

[Shmuel Goldberg]

to isolate the city may be hard. One question could be "is it in the capital city?" but a no to this leaves all the other cities. I think if you ask about city populations you also won't narrow it down much. I think geographic area may work best for that one. Maybe something like was mentioned about in the northern half of the country and in the eastern half of the country. That will narrow it down to a quarter of the area. You probably should be specific though and say something like "if you draw a line that runs in the north/south direction, directly through the geographic center of the country is the clue on the east side of that line?" Perhaps you could repeat the questions with the city to break it down to quadrants too.

 

Maybe

'Is it in or near (within 30 miles) one of the largest 5 cities in the country'?

Is the clue located within 20 miles of the coastline? Or: Is the clue located on an island? (which would help with the country, too).

Does the name of the place (city, village, county...) start with the letter a-k?

[Shmuel Goldberg]

Who placed the clue in its current location?

 

I don't think we know. And it's not a yes/no question.

[ThatGuy]

OK, I've changed the list a little. Please help if you know anything about WOT's popularity in these places or others that I've missed, Portugal and Belgium for example. I pulled most of these countries out of the air. Anyway.

 

1. Is the clue hidden in a country with a population of more than 34 million people? I've divided the list below already.

 

Australia

NZ

Norway

Netherlands

Ireland

Denmark

Switzerland

Sweden

 

Germany

France

UK

Italy

South Africa

Spain

Canada

 

2. Is the clue hidden in a country from the following list: UK, Spain, France, Italy, Australia, Switzerland, Norway, Ireland? This cuts it down to 3 or 4, importantly cutting down the favourites.

3. One more country-based question. We could use first-letter or timezone, not sure.

4. Does the city start with a letter between a-h, inclusive?

5. Does the city start with a letter between h-p, inclusive?

6. Maybe a city population question. Over 500k? I'm not sold on it. Also it's very hard to accurately measure so we might get conflicting results.

7. Is it hidden in a book written by Brandon Sanderson

8. Is it hidden in an airport?

9. Does the name of the facility/business its located in start with a letter between a-m, inclusive?

 

I ripped a few of these off the TL thread.

[Isabel]

During World Con i did check the Way of Kings copies in the dealers hall and there wasn't anything in it.

The con has ended already for a week or so. So if it's in Australia and someone placed it in a book, it could be anywhere. (assuming that Brandon mailed the clue to someone who is still travelling in australia, or new zealand)

 

I did check the Way of Kings books in a bookstore in the mall in Cairns. (ok, i could only reach to the top two ones. the others were placed to high).

[Luckers]

During World Con i did check the Way of Kings copies in the dealers hall and there wasn't anything in it.

The con has ended already for a week or so. So if it's in Australia and someone placed it in a book, it could be anywhere. (assuming that Brandon mailed the clue to someone who is still travelling in australia, or new zealand)

 

I did check the Way of Kings books in a bookstore in the mall in Cairns. (ok, i could only reach to the top two ones. the others were placed to high).

 

 

Indeed--though someone was responsible for getting the bumper stickers and bracelets to the con in the beginning--those that were there largely passed through my hands, but whatever person brought them might have kept one to place later at Brandon's direction.

[Lironah]

OK, I've changed the list a little. Please help if you know anything about WOT's popularity in these places or others that I've missed, Portugal and Belgium for example. I pulled most of these countries out of the air. Anyway.

 

1. Is the clue hidden in a country with a population of more than 34 million people? I've divided the list below already.

 

Australia

NZ

Norway

Netherlands

Ireland

Denmark

Switzerland

Sweden

 

Germany

France

UK

Italy

South Africa

Spain

Canada

 

2. Is the clue hidden in a country from the following list: UK, Spain, France, Italy, Australia, Switzerland, Norway, Ireland? This cuts it down to 3 or 4, importantly cutting down the favourites.

3. One more country-based question. We could use first-letter or timezone, not sure.

4. Does the city start with a letter between a-h, inclusive?

5. Does the city start with a letter between h-p, inclusive?

6. Maybe a city population question. Over 500k? I'm not sold on it. Also it's very hard to accurately measure so we might get conflicting results.

7. Is it hidden in a book written by Brandon Sanderson

8. Is it hidden in an airport?

9. Does the name of the facility/business its located in start with a letter between a-m, inclusive?

 

I ripped a few of these off the TL thread.

 

Maybe 7 should be and/or Robert Jordan. It's easy enough to check for both, if you're there anyway.

 

I think the last two (unclaimed spaces 3 and 10) should be either about which half of the country it's in (N/S + E/W) or which half of the continent/island.

 

I also think question 8 is a little iffy. The airport thing is Brandon's trademark, and it sounds like he either had somebody else plant it, or dropped it off on a theoretical side-trip north to Canada.

 

Edit: You're right, 500,000 is too much. Salt Lake City only has a population of 183,171, so I suggest using the number 100,000.

[ravenfier]

i think 100,000 might be a little to low for a major city pop maybe 250,000?

 

 

hum wondering if he snuck into the bookstore down the street from me and planted on there when he was in the bay area.....

 

now that i think on it tWoK is consipiciously missing from the local BN aswell hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[Lironah]

i think 100,000 might be a little to low for a major city pop maybe 250,000?

 

 

hum wondering if he snuck into the bookstore down the street from me and planted on there when he was in the bay area.....

 

now that i think on it tWoK is consipiciously missing from the local BN aswell hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

 

The point of the questions is to split the choices as nearly in half as we can. So 'major' isn't as important as defining a reasonable outside limit.

[Jaric Mar Tedronai]

How about "Is it in a country that was part of the British Empire?" Maybe specify "...the British empire at x point in history," or the current Commonwealth of Nations. Just a suggestion, and it would rule out the U.K. and Canada, and several other major countries in one question.

[Shmuel Goldberg]

OK, I've changed the list a little. Please help if you know anything about WOT's popularity in these places or others that I've missed, Portugal and Belgium for example. I pulled most of these countries out of the air. Anyway.

 

1. Is the clue hidden in a country with a population of more than 34 million people? I've divided the list below already.

 

Australia

NZ

Norway

Netherlands

Ireland

Denmark

Switzerland

Sweden

 

Germany

France

UK

Italy

South Africa

Spain

Canada

 

2. Is the clue hidden in a country from the following list: UK, Spain, France, Italy, Australia, Switzerland, Norway, Ireland? This cuts it down to 3 or 4, importantly cutting down the favourites.

3. One more country-based question. We could use first-letter or timezone, not sure.

4. Does the city start with a letter between a-h, inclusive?

5. Does the city start with a letter between h-p, inclusive?

6. Maybe a city population question. Over 500k? I'm not sold on it. Also it's very hard to accurately measure so we might get conflicting results.

7. Is it hidden in a book written by Brandon Sanderson

8. Is it hidden in an airport?

9. Does the name of the facility/business its located in start with a letter between a-m, inclusive?

 

I ripped a few of these off the TL thread.

 

I wouldn't do question 4 and 5, both. If the answer is yes to 4, question 5 is useless. Let's have one question about starting letter and use the other question for something else.

[Sid]

I wouldn't do question 4 and 5, both. If the answer is yes to 4, question 5 is useless. Let's have one question about starting letter and use the other question for something else.

one is a-h, the other is h-p

 

which would be kinda nifty if the answers were 'yes' and 'yes' B)

[JenniferL]

We've got about an hour so before questions are due. Last chance!

[adrienne]

It might be important to ask whether the clue is in a book by Brandon Sanderson. That would give us the yes or no on whether it's in a bookstore, too.

 

I'm not crazy about this idea. I have books by Brandon Sanderson. That doesn't mean I live in a bookstore. It's possible he mailed it to a fan.

[yoniy0]

jenniferl, will you post the final list, once a decision is made?

[Shmuel Goldberg]

1) Is the clue in the Western hemisphere?

2) Is the clue in a predominantly English speaking country?

3) Is the clue within 5 miles of a body of salt water?

4) Is the clue located on an island?

5) Is the clue located within the city limits of a city with at least 250,000 inhabitants?

6) Does the name of the lowest administrative unit (city/county) in which the clue is located start with the letter a-m (inclusive)?

7) Is the clue within 25 miles of an international airport?

8) Is the clue within 1/4 mile of a train/subway/underground station?

9) Is the clue within 10 miles of a major (15,000+ students) university campus?

10) Is the clue in a book written by BS or RJ, or with a bookstore employee?

 

The latter questions will help to triangulate within a city and also might help to identify the city. The distances might have to be tweaked a bit.

[Random Man]

I liked these ones from Shadowsfell at Theoryland. This could be used for countries, cities or bookstores:

 

9. Does the name of the establishment start with a-m?

 

10. Does the name of the establishment start with a letter that falls into either a-g or n-s (as opposed to h-m or t-z)?

 

Using these two questions, you can narrow the starting letter of any place to seven or eight letters.

[JenniferL]

jenniferl, will you post the final list, once a decision is made?

 

 

Yes, we will.

[Shmuel Goldberg]

Yes, we will.

 

Is it time yet?

[adrienne]

Is it time yet?