Yet *Another* Quote Game [First line game]

Zybahn · Post by **Zybahn** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:53 am

Actually, I'll pop into the library next door in a bit and hunt something down as I will need to run in there anyway.

Zybahn · Post by **Zybahn** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 1:57 pm

(Ok, I just figured out what a Sherlock is. I think.)

Here's the quote:

On an exceptionally hot evening early in July a young man came out of the garret in which he lodged in S. Place and walked slowly, as though in hesitation, towards K. bridge.

He had successfully avoided meeting his landlady on the staircase.

tollbaby · Post by **tollbaby** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 2:15 pm

I'm probably wrong about this, but could this be Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse?

voralfred · Post by **voralfred** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 2:39 pm

I know the answer, but I suppose I'll have to wait for others to try for five days... or does this rule only apply in a "normal" situation, when you actually guessed the answer two steps before, not when you jump-start a game that had been cold for months?

Anyway Zyban0 posted so I've awarded the Sherlock

Zybahn · Post by **Zybahn** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:00 pm

It's not Hesse. You're not far off though.

The landlady is the biggest clue; should be a giveaway to most who've read it.

Zybahn · Post by **Zybahn** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 9:16 pm

One final hint before Voralfred gets it.

Published in the second half of the nineteenth century, and features an idealistic student, a cranky landlady and a ruthlessly rational police inspector.

Post by **wolfspirit** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 9:24 pm

You got a PM.

I actually got this book out of the library today to read (as it is the top of my recommended books list that me & Peter are testing).

Zybahn · Post by **Zybahn** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 4:20 pm

Yes, you got it. Do you still receive a Sherlock (I'm new to this Sherlock business) despite not announcing it, or do you just not want to post a quote?

Either way, kudos to both you & Vf.

Post by **wolfspirit** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 6:22 pm

ERm, I just PMed becaue I forget which games we post and which ones we PM.

The book is:
Crime and Punishment
by: Fyodor Dostoevsky

I'll put up a quote in the morning, when I can get to the library.

Scott

Post by **wolfspirit** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 3:41 pm

Twisting around on his galloping camel and glimpsing the pursuing XXX resoving into form within the dust cloud stirred to life by their own pounding mounts, YYYY spared precious breath to curse the day ZZZZZ had come to Egypt.

XXXX
YYYY
ZZZZ

are names.

Scott

voralfred · Post by **voralfred** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 5:28 pm

Can this be considered cold? MOre than a week, now. I have a "first line" to propose.

Post by **wolfspirit** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 6:07 pm

voralfred wrote:Can this be considered cold? MOre than a week, now. I have a "first line" to propose.

I guess, although it makes me sad, as we have a forum dedicated to the author of this book here at the site. I'll give it until the day after christmas, as people are probably rushing about and don't have the same time to sit and relax and chat on the book site (at least, it is my current situation, doing 6 performances on the cello, and giving about 20 hours of donation time to the boy scouts this week).

I will however, follow the community decision.

Scott

ODDBALL715 · Post by **ODDBALL715** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 10:40 pm

Is this The Buried Pyramid by Jane Linskold? It sounds like it, but I only read a sample chapter, and that was awhile ago.

Post by **wolfspirit** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 6:29 pm

ODDBALL715 wrote:Is this The Buried Pyramid by Jane Linskold? It sounds like it, but I only read a sample chapter, and that was awhile ago.

That it is. You are up!

Scott

ODDBALL715 · Post by **ODDBALL715** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 6:39 pm

Alright here it goes.

The island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile above the storm-racked Northeast Sea, is a land famous for wizards.

Post by **wolfspirit** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 7:23 pm

ODDBALL715 wrote:Alright here it goes.

The island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile above the storm-racked Northeast Sea, is a land famous for wizards.

Of course I know this one

This is easy (at least, to me)

Scott

mccormack44 · Post by **mccormack44** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 9:33 pm

Is this "The Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula LeGuin?

ODDBALL715 · Post by **ODDBALL715** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 10:01 pm

Yes, your turn.

ravenwing989 · Post by **ravenwing989** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 11:13 pm

Here's one. ^^

Color is the great magic.
I learned that one day as I watched my mother preparing for the most recent of her lovers. She, intent on the mirror over her elegant, gilded vanity, did not see me as I watched her from a mirror set in the boder of a picture frame, two reverses making the image right again.
I was some years older that I had been in that rainless year when I had been born -- five, maybe six years old.

Let's see who can get this one. ^^

tollbaby · Post by **tollbaby** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 9:48 am

Ravenwing, the last person to have correctly guessed is the next person to post a quote. That's how the game works

Instructions are at the beginning of the thread.

mccormack44 · Post by **mccormack44** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 7:45 pm

WOW! I finally got one correct; here's my entry.

John Daniels had been in the pressroom almost an hour when Merrill McDaniels came in.

Sue

voralfred · Post by **voralfred** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 8:25 pm

tollbaby wrote:Ravenwing, the last person to have correctly guessed is the next person to post a quote. That's how the game works Instructions are at the beginning of the thread.

That is how the game works, sure! That rule is (almost) clear.
But detailed instructions are not so clearly defined.

Concering this game: same as MQG says Kvetch on the top
viewtopic.php?t=1994&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

So go to MQG:
viewtopic.php?t=650&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
but the prohibition to answer the quote just after the one you proposed is not at the top but only near the bottom of the first page
viewtopic.php?p=7313#7313
and the lifting of this prohibition after 5 days proposed and decided on the last post of that page and the first one of the second page
viewtopic.php?p=7505#7505
viewtopic.php?t=650&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=25

However, in the case of the "First line Game" there is also a proposal by RecluceMage
viewtopic.php?p=33016#33016
which is not formally accepted but seems to be more or less followed.
Here "cold" does not just mean the proponent of the antepenultimate quote can now answer (which is the meaning of cold in MQG), but is stronger: the quote is cold, no sherlock for it, and anyone can propose a new one.
Also RecluceMage says the new quote should be posted within 24 hours. But here ravenwing posted only two hours after Sue (mccormack44) solved wolfspirit's quote, so he should not have done it so early. And Sue did just now post a new entry, within the 24 hours time limit.
On the other hand, torybear's accepted rule about the proponent of the penultimate quote being barred to answer for 5 days is only if (s)he got a sherlock, (to prevent the game from being highjacked by two players), but not if (s)he restarted a cold game. I did hint about that, when I posted that I knew the answer, (_Crime and Punishment_) to Zyban0's quote (who had answered my quote, but the latter was resurrecting a year-cold game, not after winning a sherlock), but by courtesy I did not post before getting the OK. I was rather shocked at wolfspirit's taking the turn within 5 days instead of admitting that the 5 days exclusion did not apply in that case. Conversely, and still by courtesy, I did not highjack his turn when he waited for a whole week before posting, while RecluceMage 24-hour rule would have allowed me to. And when no answer came after 10 days, once more by courtesy I did not use RecluceMage's other rule to consider that quote cold and post a new one witohut asking first. Again wolfspirit after first admitting his quote was cold still considered it should hold for another week or so (contradiction within a single post:
viewtopic.php?p=1834369#1834369
waiting for a "community decision" was just a dilatory move that gave time to ODDBALL715 to find the answer.)

So I move that the very precise rules of the game be defined now, because they are very unclear.
Do we include RecluceMage's rule about posting within 24 hours?
When is a quote cold, so anyone can post a new one? Seven days? That should be clear and universal, no tarradiddle about peope being more or less busy, a rule is a rule.
If a X's quote gets cold, and Y posts a new one without getting a sherlock for X's quote and Z solves Y's quote, does Y has to wait for (how long, by the way? 5 days as in MQG, or just 3 as RecluceMage proposes) or can Y answer immediately Z's quote as explicit in torybear's rule that mentions the "sherlock" (and it is logical: the rationale of that rule is to keep too players to highjack the game, which is not a danger if there is no win beforehand)?
Also a queston of etiquette: in MQG and LMBQG, even if one knows for sure one has the answer (with the book in frot of one), the etiquette is not to post until the proponent gave the OK, but here, in the previous years, I've seen many cases where the person who solved the previous entry immediately proposed a new one (I'm not giving links, just go up a few pages and see by yourself) . So what? Do we consider these numerous precedents as the acceptable etiquette in this game or do we insist on the same courtesy as in the MQG and LMBQG?
I'm not taking a strong stand on any of these issues (though I rather like RecluceMage proposals, but longer, "penultimate poster's prohibition" for 5 days rather than 3, "cold" after 10 rather than 7 and maybe 48 hours rather than 24 to post after guessing, and torybear's postion that "penultimate poster's prohibition" applies only after winning a sherlock, not after a cold quote; also, considering the precedents on this game, if one knows the answer is correct rather than just guessing, post a new one at once), but they are all ambiguous and unless a decision is taken and clearly stated somewhere one cannot just claim that "Instructions are at the beginning of the thead"

Edit: changed my mind, can't hurt to give links to support my position on the etiquette of not waiting for the OK
viewtopic.php?p=32997#32997
viewtopic.php?p=33000#33000
viewtopic.php?p=33001#33001
viewtopic.php?p=33004#33004
viewtopic.php?p=868855#868855
however these precedents seem to be concentrated at the beginning, lately the etiquette shifted to that of MQG, even when one was sure. In case of a guess, of course one must wait!
So that this long digression does not confuse the game, I remind everyone that the current quote is Sue's proposal:

mccormack44 wrote:
John Daniels had been in the pressroom almost an hour when Merrill McDaniels came in.

ravenwing989 · Post by **ravenwing989** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:28 pm

Sorry, sorry. Jeez.....

tollbaby · Post by **tollbaby** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:41 pm

Alfred, i'm not even scrolling through all that.... *sigh*

Ravenwing, it's not a big deal, but this is the third game you played without really understanding the rules. I was just trying to be helpful

ravenwing989 · Post by **ravenwing989** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 11:07 pm

Third game?!

The Internet Book Database of Fiction

Yet Another Quote Game [First line game]