[Hunt03] How to make the Hunt more social

["Kiran S. Kedlaya" <kedlaya math mit edu>]

So it seems that one big reason, if not the primary reason, that Eric
doesn't like the idea of having a small team is that he won't get to hang
out with as many of his friends that way. I have various suggestions for
how to get around this, but first a personal complaint.

I have the following concern about oversized Hunts--no matter what size
team I'm on, I only get to experience a piece of such a Hunt (unless I'm
on the running team). Ditto for everyone else. So everyone "solves their
own Hunt" and a lot of the basis for post-Hunt camaraderie is gone. (Even
within teams... so large teams for me are not the answer. In fact, I
played on the "small" Setec team last year--no more than 15 people
*total*--and would gladly do so again.)

Okay, so back to how to socialize when teams are small. Some thoughts, 
first for players.
    -- Visit other teams. Or call them. Or whatever.
    -- Make your team more visitor-friendly. Have a "reception area" where
you can entertain visitors without revealing answers. (I visited ACRONYM
last year and they basically had such a setup.) Call friends and
specifically invite them to come visit. (After all, they may not even know
where you're stationed.) Or better yet, have your own party (Saturday
evening, anyone?).
    -- Here's a more radical idea: solve some puzzles with people on other
teams. This would take a statement from the organizers that "we don't mind
if you solve this, this, and that puzzle with other teams," since trading
information would ordinarily violate the Spirit of the Hunt. (See also 
below.)
    -- Similarly radical idea: trade team members during the Hunt. Of 
course they would be honorbound not to reveal anything about puzzles they 
have already solved.
    -- And in following any of these suggestions, do *not* just hang out 
with your NPL buddies. Meet new people on new teams. Or better yet, join a 
team where you don't know many people. Then you'll meet new people, and so 
will we when you invite us to come visit.

Now thoughts for organizers.
    -- Post a list of team headquarters on the Hunt site. That will make 
it easier for people to visit others.
    -- We already have some recent Hunt traditions that involve people 
coming together. The party is a great one. (Just ask Tivol.) The game show 
is also good. Introduce more.
    -- Puzzles that involve visiting one particular location (and not 
several) tend to bring everyone to the same place.
    -- Have "make an appointment" puzzles where teams have to go in to
solve in pairs; these could be pairs of their own choosing, but better if
it's just whoever else is scheduled then. (You have to force everyone
to come in during a particular interval to make this work. Of course, if 
a team needs to come back later, they can do it solo.) 
    -- Variant: have a single time when everyone sends one team member, 
and they all work on something together.
    -- Have puzzles that force teams to share information. (I recall this 
was attempted in Carmen Sandiego. I also recall that we (Setec) backsolved 
the puzzle and never shared our information with anyone. Shame on us.)
    -- There is a Hunt tradition that teams do not get information about 
how other teams are doing. I think that's a good way to keep 
competitiveness in check. But a separate piece of information might be 
worth making visible: how many teams have solved any particular puzzle. 
(Of course you should only be able to get this information for puzzles 
that you actually possess.) Why is this relevant here? If you know many 
teams have solved some puzzle, you probably have to be less cagy about it 
when talking to other teams.

I could continue, but that's plenty for now. Other people's ideas would be 
great too, especially for things that can be implemented on the solver 
side.

Kiran