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Pay-to-play Adventure Cache


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For the past couple of months I have been putting together an Indiana Jones Adventure Cache. It's a multi-cache with lots of puzzle solving and research, all working towards finding the final prize. I'm putting the finishing touches on the website, and should have it up for perusal soon.

 

One idea for this cache was making it pay-to-play. In other words, to participate, you'd need to pay an entrance fee of $20 or so. At the end of the game, the winner would get ALL of the money taken in (it's a non-profit cache). I've been debating whether to do this or not.

 

For what it's worth, I have emailed the Groundspeak folks and asked whether this would be acceptable, and never heard back. Since none of the money is being kept by me, I would think this isn't an issue.

 

Let me know... would you pay to play? Or would you rather not pay, and have a smaller physical reward at the end?

 

Thanks for any input.

Edited by Indiana Cojones
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If I feel the game you organized was worth it, I would pay $10, maybe $20. I just worry about the slippery slope of having to pay to cache. Is this going to be very similar or very different to regular geocaching? Please post the url when its available, I would be interested in checking it out.

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I can't commit without the details, but I'm not shutting the door automatically. Sounds like it could be interesting, especially since it sounds like it will be more than a mere capture the flag type competition.

Edited by Toron
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I once wanted to put together a similar event, except the winner would only get half the proceeds and the rest would be donated to a charity of his / her choice.

 

Groundspeak said no. If I wanted to do that, Id have to find another website to list it on

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Not to be pessimistic (sp?), but if a prize is involved you'll have to make sure you cover every possible situation. i.e.

 

person a sees the cache first but person b gets to the cache first

persons a and b get to the cache at the same time

person c accuses person b of cheating, etc., etc.,

 

I've learned that just from running a FREE fantasy football league that some situation you didn't think of will be bound to come up.

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I've tried to plan for the unexpected, and so there's no possibility of two cachers arriving at the final cache at the same time. I even have a contingency plan set up on the remote chance that the cache wasn't able to be completed, say due to a cataclysmic earthquake or other catastrophe.

 

I'm hoping to do more themed caches like this one, if it's well received. Alas, the cache(s) would be in Colorado, so that limits the number of potential entrants. But we've got some great cachers around here, so I'm optimistic!

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I'd pay out to several places. I would be more motivated to P2P if you charged $5 and the "winner" gets $50ish and then the rest of the cash was given to the next few places. But then again, sometimes i lack the drive to feel like i must be #1.

 

Another Idea... Make your first really cool cache free, but include a piggy bank letting others know that thier donations will be funding your next super cache. Not sure how much you could get, but it may be worth a try.

Clements Cacher

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I think the concept could be fun if some of the aforementioned things are taken into consideration. I would have to see all the details before I could say whether I would want to compete for money caching. The most important thig is that the cache remain active after the contest, so people can enjoy it after the race for the prize.

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but if a prize is involved you'll have to make sure you cover every possible situation. i.e.

 

I think this is very important. If everything was covered though, and I thought I had a chance to figure out the puzzle (i'm not very good at them...) I would definitely pay to play.

 

It's not like it's going to change the whole game or anything. You would be paying to find one cache, not all of them. I wouldnt imagine GC.com starting to charge you for coords.

 

20 bucks is a fair price, expecially if all the proceeds from the other participants went to the winner. That could possibly end up being a great monetary prize.

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I know Indiana Cojones from the Indy Gear board. He's a good guy.

 

I would love to take part in an Indy themed cache. $20 does seem a bit steep. But if it's a quality multi-cache with a nice find at the end, it would be worth it. Colorado is a bit out of my way, but not entirely undoable.

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It looks as if most people would be willing to pay if they thought they could solve the puzzles, although not everyone is in agreement that $20 is a fair price for it. That's not set in stone, I coulld easily lower (or raise) it. Of course, the smaller the entrance fee, the smaller the cash prize at the end. Still, there's more for the winner than just cash. Quite a bit more. Tell me what you think is a good price.

 

As far as the difficulty of the puzzles, I've decided to open the first stage to everyone so people can see a good representation of what type of puzzle solving is involved. Note that some of the stages are harder than this one, while others are easier.

 

CO Admin, if this doesn't fit into the guidelines for the Geocaching website (possibly as an event cache) I understand. Take a look at the website and let me know what you think, and feel free to email me with any questions.

 

Anyway, this seems like as good a time as any to unveil the website, although the cache won't be opening for a month or more.

 

Adventure Cache

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Interesting idea. I had wondered about the possibility of trying to combine geocaching with paintball somehow. Basically caching under semi-combat conditions. Don't have any idea how to implement or combine the two, but thought it would be intriguing. You'd have to have some sort of protection for your gpsr, obviously, but...just an idea I've tossed around a little.

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Interesting idea. I had wondered about the possibility of trying to combine geocaching with paintball somehow. Basically caching under semi-combat conditions. Don't have any idea how to implement or combine the two, but thought it would be intriguing. You'd have to have some sort of protection for your gpsr, obviously, but...just an idea I've tossed around a little.

That sounds interesting combining it with paintball. You could have some sort of "Capture The Flag" using your GPS's in paintball.

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Many of your pages are covered up with artwork and we can't read the rules.

I was experimenting with layers and PNG files, which are only supported by newer browsers. I'll turn them off, but I recommend you update your browser, as most browsers released after 2001 should be supporting it.

Edited by Indiana Cojones
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Sounds like this could be interpreted as gambling. I don't have a problem with gambling myself, but many do, and would this technically be illegal in some areas?

 

Since this is a game of skill instead of a game of chance, does that make it not gambling?

 

Do we want the image of geocaching.com tarnished by possible misinterpretations?

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Interesting idea. I had wondered about the possibility of trying to combine geocaching with paintball somehow. Basically caching under semi-combat conditions. Don't have any idea how to implement or combine the two, but thought it would be intriguing. You'd have to have some sort of protection for your gpsr, obviously, but...just an idea I've tossed around a little.

I might not be all that hard to combine paintball with geocaching, Some paintball fields do event games that last all day, Some have done them that go for 24 hours. You could have caches of paintballs hidden on the field, like an ammo dump and the teams would have to find clues to the coordinates to find them.

Buy the way, if you approach a paintball field, they may not like the combat term, some of them do not like the name PaintballGUN, They tend to call them Paintball Markers. Sounds like a fun idea, It's been a couple years sence I have played. Maybe I should have one of my Markers converted to full auto from semi auto HHHMMMM B)

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It wouldn't be something that I would be interested in. Not because of the $20. It could only cost $1.00 and it still wouldn't appeal to me. Makes caching too competitive for me. I like to cache for the hikes and scenery. BUT, each person gets something different out of caching and for those with highly competitive natures, it might just be their idea of the best event ever.

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There is already something similar to this that has been ongoing for some time. Not my cup of tea, but some people think it's a lot of fun. Maybe you could get some ideas on how to clearly determine a winner from their rules:

 

Some links related to The Game:

 

An article in Stanford Magazine.

 

Here is an interesting site that has a bunch of info on an offshoot of The Game. It has good links to other related sites.

 

Anyway, it's might be a good source for ideas.

 

--Marky

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Thanks for all the input, guys, it's greatly appreciated.

 

I realize this isn't for everyone, but I think there are a number of people who will greatly enjoy the ability to exercise their minds as well as their muscle while enjoying their favorite sport. It's a puzzle cache on steroids. B)

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Interesting idea. I had wondered about the possibility of trying to combine geocaching with paintball somehow. Basically caching under semi-combat conditions. Don't have any idea how to implement or combine the two, but thought it would be intriguing. You'd have to have some sort of protection for your gpsr, obviously, but...just an idea I've tossed around a little.

I might not be all that hard to combine paintball with geocaching, Some paintball fields do event games that last all day, Some have done them that go for 24 hours. You could have caches of paintballs hidden on the field, like an ammo dump and the teams would have to find clues to the coordinates to find them.

Buy the way, if you approach a paintball field, they may not like the combat term, some of them do not like the name PaintballGUN, They tend to call them Paintball Markers. Sounds like a fun idea, It's been a couple years sence I have played. Maybe I should have one of my Markers converted to full auto from semi auto HHHMMMM B)

I had tossed around the idea months ago, and even got the OK from a local field to place some caches there. Still, I couldn't figure out how to get around the possible "commercial" aspect of it. You do have to pay to play on their field.

 

Still, I like the idea of caching paintballs around the field, and having teams of players begin the game with limited amounts of paint. They would have to find the caches using their GPS in order to have enough paint to continue playing. It could probably be worked into a scenario game fairly easily, but I doubt it would fly as a permanent cache.

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Sounds like a great idea and it looks like you have taken alot of time to prepare for this. I live very near by and would be interested in doing the cache ( whatever the entrance fee ). Unfortunately I would have trouble blocking out so much time to participate. I would be interested in entering anyway just to do a few of the clues and follow the progress of the other players. I Will wait until more of the schedule is revealed. Such as how far might we be traveling and how long might this take. It sounds like this would be a good adventure to enter into a partnership with another caher.

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