The Disturbing Puzzle Game That Nobody Can Solve
March 15, 2015 7:13 PM Subscribe
"If they work together, and only then … they will find the answer and complete the whole riddle someday next year." Do Not Believe His Lies is an iOS puzzle game that was released 8 months ago. No one has solved it yet, despite crowd solving efforts.
When the kotaku article came out everybody had been stuck on 37. Now that has been solved and now 38 has been solved as well.
I was initially impressed at the app but then I saw the solutions after the first couple where it was just obscure things and what not, the product of just being bored and just coming up with something that would take a while to figure out, like if you had to look through a bunch of my FPPs for one that had a secret code in it (it does). I deleted the app. If it would have been all puzzles like figuring out to turn up the brightness, or having to print out the screen and reassemble the pictured puzzle, or even the one that was audio morse code behind some other audio, cool, but a lot of the solutions were basically just do you have the time to sit around and mess with this, rather than you needing to be clever and anyone could do it.
posted by cashman at 7:23 PM on March 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
I was initially impressed at the app but then I saw the solutions after the first couple where it was just obscure things and what not, the product of just being bored and just coming up with something that would take a while to figure out, like if you had to look through a bunch of my FPPs for one that had a secret code in it (it does). I deleted the app. If it would have been all puzzles like figuring out to turn up the brightness, or having to print out the screen and reassemble the pictured puzzle, or even the one that was audio morse code behind some other audio, cool, but a lot of the solutions were basically just do you have the time to sit around and mess with this, rather than you needing to be clever and anyone could do it.
posted by cashman at 7:23 PM on March 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
Nice try, Samaritan.
posted by figurant at 7:29 PM on March 15, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by figurant at 7:29 PM on March 15, 2015 [7 favorites]
Save your effort. The annual May Day Mystery is only weeks away.
posted by charlie don't surf at 7:35 PM on March 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by charlie don't surf at 7:35 PM on March 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
but then I saw the solutions after the first couple where it was just obscure things and what not, the product of just being bored and just coming up with something that would take a while to figure out
I recently (for obvious reasons) looked up the first Discworld game. My reaction was similar.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:40 PM on March 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
I recently (for obvious reasons) looked up the first Discworld game. My reaction was similar.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:40 PM on March 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
*payphone rings*
posted by clavdivs at 7:42 PM on March 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 7:42 PM on March 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
This reminds me of working on "this is not porn," one of the earlier ARG web games.
Turns out we couldn't solve it because we were outpacing him at solving things and he was making impossible challenges to slow us down.
Still, it turned me on to the works of Haruki Murakami.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 7:51 PM on March 15, 2015
Turns out we couldn't solve it because we were outpacing him at solving things and he was making impossible challenges to slow us down.
Still, it turned me on to the works of Haruki Murakami.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 7:51 PM on March 15, 2015
Now that has been solved and now 38 has been solved as well.
Did someone solve #38? I skimmed the reddit thread and didn't find any solutions, just enough stupidity to get a slight headache.
posted by effbot at 7:58 PM on March 15, 2015
Did someone solve #38? I skimmed the reddit thread and didn't find any solutions, just enough stupidity to get a slight headache.
posted by effbot at 7:58 PM on March 15, 2015
Also, clicking around on reddit brought up this comment:
"... I found that the application uses an XML form layout that relies on an Amazon S3 web backend. Basically, the application has no information about the solutions, but relies entirely on its web server."
so basically what uncomplicated soup said, it'll just keep going as long as the author makes money and/or until he gets bored.
posted by effbot at 8:11 PM on March 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
"... I found that the application uses an XML form layout that relies on an Amazon S3 web backend. Basically, the application has no information about the solutions, but relies entirely on its web server."
so basically what uncomplicated soup said, it'll just keep going as long as the author makes money and/or until he gets bored.
posted by effbot at 8:11 PM on March 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
The only way to win is not to play?
posted by gideonswann at 8:12 PM on March 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by gideonswann at 8:12 PM on March 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Surely that's the right way to build something like this? If the solutions were stored in the local executable, some frustrated and technically minded individual would eventually just try to prise them out with a decompiler. Even one-way hashes can conceivably be cracked if you were using them to store the solution strings.
posted by figurant at 8:17 PM on March 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by figurant at 8:17 PM on March 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
The trouble is in where you give too much information - one of the hints was a steganographic sound file hidden in an image that with a spectrograph turned out to be a CD cover from a band etc. etc.
It was all very good crowdsourcing as we worked it out, but at the end of day was just the author thinking "well they'll never find this!" and never had anything to do with anything.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 8:44 PM on March 15, 2015
It was all very good crowdsourcing as we worked it out, but at the end of day was just the author thinking "well they'll never find this!" and never had anything to do with anything.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 8:44 PM on March 15, 2015
but a lot of the solutions were basically just do you have the time to sit around and mess with this, rather than you needing to be clever and anyone could do it.
This was exactly my reaction. Morse code? Ok, I'll painstakingly write down letter by letter but it's not actually fun.
posted by zardoz at 8:51 PM on March 15, 2015
This was exactly my reaction. Morse code? Ok, I'll painstakingly write down letter by letter but it's not actually fun.
posted by zardoz at 8:51 PM on March 15, 2015
just the author thinking "well they'll never find this!" and never had anything to do with anything.
Yeah I call those "guess what I'm thinking" puzzles, because that's the only way to solve them. It's true that with enough people working on it eventually someone will eventually manipulate the data in a way that turns out to be correct. But even when I solve that type of thing I don't find it very satisfying.
posted by aubilenon at 9:23 PM on March 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yeah I call those "guess what I'm thinking" puzzles, because that's the only way to solve them. It's true that with enough people working on it eventually someone will eventually manipulate the data in a way that turns out to be correct. But even when I solve that type of thing I don't find it very satisfying.
posted by aubilenon at 9:23 PM on March 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yeah I call those "guess what I'm thinking" puzzles, because that's the only way to solve them.
Ok, I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 1 billion. What is it?
Now send me a dollar, I'll give you a hint. I'll even give you the first hint free: it's not 3.
posted by charlie don't surf at 9:40 PM on March 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
Ok, I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 1 billion. What is it?
Now send me a dollar, I'll give you a hint. I'll even give you the first hint free: it's not 3.
posted by charlie don't surf at 9:40 PM on March 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
I don't have an iPhone. Not available on Android. What do you get if you solve it sometime next year apparently? Is this just an "attaboy" prize?
posted by 724A at 9:56 PM on March 15, 2015
posted by 724A at 9:56 PM on March 15, 2015
But even when I solve that type of thing I don't find it very satisfying.
Honestly, that's how I feel about the Voynich manuscript.
posted by Apocryphon at 10:55 PM on March 15, 2015
Honestly, that's how I feel about the Voynich manuscript.
posted by Apocryphon at 10:55 PM on March 15, 2015
Yeah I call those "guess what I'm thinking" puzzles, because that's the only way to solve them. It's true that with enough people working on it eventually someone will eventually manipulate the data in a way that turns out to be correct. But even when I solve that type of thing I don't find it very satisfying.
I feel like that about a lot of classic adventure games.
posted by lumensimus at 11:17 PM on March 15, 2015
I feel like that about a lot of classic adventure games.
posted by lumensimus at 11:17 PM on March 15, 2015
Someone post this to AskMefi, it will be solved in 3 minutes.
posted by Pyrogenesis at 2:16 AM on March 16, 2015
posted by Pyrogenesis at 2:16 AM on March 16, 2015
Now send me a dollar, I'll give you a hint. I'll even give you the first hint free: it's not 3.
We can do this metafilter! I'll start: 4!
posted by Cannon Fodder at 2:24 AM on March 16, 2015
We can do this metafilter! I'll start: 4!
posted by Cannon Fodder at 2:24 AM on March 16, 2015
It's 3 because that's the number you thought of while typing.
posted by ardgedee at 3:43 AM on March 16, 2015
posted by ardgedee at 3:43 AM on March 16, 2015
Do Not Believe His Lies And Do Not Waste Your Time On His Stupid Game Either
posted by Segundus at 5:48 AM on March 16, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Segundus at 5:48 AM on March 16, 2015 [3 favorites]
Wow, I didn't expect this hostility about ARG-type stuff on Metafilter. Did that community on here just completely go away?
posted by flatluigi at 12:16 PM on March 16, 2015
posted by flatluigi at 12:16 PM on March 16, 2015
Wow, I didn't expect this hostility about ARG-type stuff on Metafilter.
An ARG designed to show you as many ads as possible, and where most of the stuff in the game is just plain tedious? We already have the Internet for that.
posted by effbot at 12:20 PM on March 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
An ARG designed to show you as many ads as possible, and where most of the stuff in the game is just plain tedious? We already have the Internet for that.
posted by effbot at 12:20 PM on March 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
This reminds me of working on "this is not porn," one of the earlier ARG web games.I thought Notpron has had an end to it for years? It currently says it has exactly 140 challenges, with 32 people having solved all of it. Those are pretty much the numbers I remember from 8 years ago.
Turns out we couldn't solve it because we were outpacing him at solving things and he was making impossible challenges to slow us down.
posted by Martijn at 1:37 PM on March 16, 2015
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