Forum Thread

What people didn't know and it's because people were making the conclusion, was that if you GOOGLE the letters (because that's what I originally did beforehand ewe) in the same order, it brings up Gravity Falls, more specifically Bill or whatever he's called and I bet you Riako, changed your icon to that guy to throw people off because I bet you knew that too, right? uwu'

I'm really looking forward to future events! <3

@ShivaLeRoux
I never watched the show Gravity Falls but some research on breaking codes on Google brought me to the Caesarian Shift which in the end helped me break the code. So it wasn't impossible to do.

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@poland0202 I never even heard of something like ceasar codes before. So if someone doesn't know anything about those sort of code, they're not able to solve it ö.ö

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So I was right about the message! I'm glad and happy for everyone who managed to get the Darkrai. No I don't envy you. I like my purple Lapras. It was a fun event, and I certainly enjoyed the challenge.

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@ShivaLeRoux
Neither did I. I started my search by googling "breaking word codes" and tried quite a few different ways of breaking a code before I found one that gave me the answer. All I wanted to mention was that Gravity Falls had no play in the event and it was doable without watching the tv show.

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I've never heard of ceasar code before, and if I knew what ceasar code was, I'd never have asked for hints about the final word, because I honestly thought it was 100% Gravity Falls related. Until I threw "Gravity Falls (code words)" into google which brought up the result Nightmares. Even then, I thought it was a translation from that triangle character.
I agree, I think it should be kept Pokémon related, even if the inclusion of GF was totally unintentional.
Again, huge apologies to the whole PH community for "cheating", there's my reason why I did. You'll have one less cheater to filter on the next event, I assure you. If you can't solve it yourself, you can't be a winner.

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I'm really happy to hear that you'll still be working on events, Riako. <3 You rock.

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I figured out all the riddles and stuff up to 9 :) but didn't have time for 10 :( but still had fun. :D
I am happy to see that people did give the enishitive to figure out all the code. (Y)
But also disappointed in our community. :(
The people I've talked to seem like great people but this is sad and I can see what Riako is talking about. :,(
Even if there isn't an event like this again I hope that Riako doesn't loss faith in us.

The page said not to tell anyone the code word, but it didn't explicitly call sharing the code word "cheating." A lot of people, including myself, were confused about the way it was worded, and didn't comprehend that it was a *rule* and not *advice.* I'm sure that this was not your intention, but that's how it came about.

In addition, the community had been giving each other hints about the puzzles for a while, and I'd never heard anybody complain that the hints were "cheating." (But, then, I wasn't on the forums, just on my news feed.) Some of us didn't *reveal* the code word, but gave each other *hints* about it, not understanding that as being "cheating" because it was not explicitly *called* cheating.

Watching this community come together under this event was fantastic, and seeing us called out over helping each other when many of us didn't really understand that the rules were, well, *rules*... That really hurts.

In the future, why not create an event that *isn't* a raffle, where the prizes might not be as good but are evenly distributed, and where the rules on what constitutes cheating are much more clearly stated? Please don't punish us for trying to help each other.

I didn't cheat and it was really fun :D
What a shame we don't get events like this again, but i understand :(
Congratz for the winners!

Congratz to the winners!

guess I sort of count among the cheaters since I gave the hint "letter shift" to someone...

and told someone how to do mystery 10, if that counts in it. whoops.

if you ever change your mind, Riako, I will turn my heart to stone and not give out even a tiny hint. I really did enjoy the event a lot, and figured the code out myself- and was ecstatic when I did, since I normally suck at breaking codes.

again, congratulations winners! nice work, all of you!

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Im sorry, I "cheated" and gave hints to people, though I never gave anyone the direct answer to any... I'm sorry Riako ;~;

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Congratulations to the winners! And thank you Riako for hosting this event. I'm sorry it was marred by cheaters, but I'n glad people still enjoyed it. I myself wracked my brain to try to figure out Mystery #1, but my severely limited Pokemon knowledge prevented me from figuring it out. Then real life got in the way and I didn't have time to focus on the rest of the mysteries. But I enjoyed the "annual" Halloween event involving the sweets!

Ah, dang. I had the right idea for the last one but didn't go far enough. (Only went back to last Halloween.) Still wouldn't have gotten the last one though.

That's boggling that there was that much outright cheating. It's just a game... it's not worth cheating to win.

I really hope that you change your mind in the future on this. I loved this event and although at times it was beyond frustrating - #3 had me hung up forever but it was so awesome when it clicked!!

Please do reconsider, I was already looking very much forward to the next one.

aaw I'm kinda sad we won't have another event like this one I kinda like it I just didn't understand the caesar cause I never heard of it before,don't know why I'm 25 I should've known it? XD I think you should try again but set rules on forums for events that should help

and congrats to the winners :D this was a fun event

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As one of the first users who solved the big mystery (I think), I'd like to make a general analysis of Darktober (about cheating, riddles, and so). I'll try to be as objective as possible.

About events and riddles:
I always liked riddles since I was a child (around one century ago, more or less). I really enjoyed this event, sometimes I felt really annoyed for not being able to see the right answers, but that just made me put even more effort on them.
I've enjoyed every single event here on PH, and I think I haven't missed a single one. From the clicking ones to the thinking ones, they were all awesome. It'd be a real pitty if there are not more events like this one, but I can understand your reasons for being upset.

About the rules:
It's true that is not clear if spoiling (both ways, asking for info and giving info) is against the rules or not. PH Rules just talk about not spoiling how to get the badges. In this event there's an advice about not giving the codeword to others, but just to avoid lowering your own chances of winning the event. It doesn't say it's forbidden.
And about giving hints (not a direct spoil of the codeword), there's nothing said. At least I can't find it.

About Gravity Falls and google:
Well, I felt really disappointed when I knew that there were websites related to this TV show (show that I never heard about) that let you solve the mystery without any kind of work. Just googling the letters of the mystery in google gives you the codeword... well :(
In my case it took me days to figure out what the mystery code could be and a lot of failed tries. At least till I had the clever idea of using a grid on excel with all the alphabet.

About spoiling the code word:
If we have the premise that giving hints/info is not allowed... well, I don't think that having an avatar that let's you relate PH to websites that let you solve the big riddle was a great idea. Many users didn't even tried to solve the mystery, after watching the new avatar they just googled the letters + gravity falls annd Bingo! mystery solved.
On the other hand, after I solved the big riddle I've even seen people just making feeds and/or comments with the right answer =/

About the rewards:
One thing that I've realized here in PH is that getting legend shinies is almost impossible, or at least so difficult that people go crazy when they see an easy way to get one. In this specific event, and after a feed I made when I solved it (ohhh, I was so so so happy) I started to receive a real flood of palpads, PMs and skype conversations asking me for help. I've even felt pressed by some close friends to gave them the right answer to the mystery. I don't recomend it.
Anyway, I always liked to participate more than winning, and I'm always happy to see new shinies onsite, no matter if I'm the owner or not, so... BIG CONGRATZ TO THE WINNERS!

General impression:
My general impression was that darktober event was great, funny and sometimes tricky, and I'd love to repeat. I probably missed something in this long post, but it's late and I don't like writing in English as many of you might know.

Quote from Riako

we have evidence that 260 users were cheating: Either by spoiling the code word or by asking for code word spoilers.

I can unterstand this - because most of the users did not unterstand one or another mysteries. Like me, i didnt unterstand mystery no 3, the mystery with "daycare" and i think it was with "What did i do.. What did i do" (till 2 days before 31 oct.) Anyone else did not unterstand the mystery with the pokemons that we should placed in our party or the mystery with "Focus Focus" or the last one.

And when 3 or 4 or 5 mysteries are not solved at 31 Oct - one or another user did not have fun or getting fun to solve that..

All mysteries i did not unterstand, i have the same questions "What the ******** hell ist that?" and " How should i solve that? I don't know what this mystery want from me"

So i can unterstand that users that were cheating. And the info about Spoiling.. How should we know that is against the rules.. The Event only said: "But be careful: Do not tell anyone your code word!" Spoling about trading informations or hints for the one or another mysteries are not in that text.

Sorry for my english.. I know it is not good ^^

EDIT: congratz to the winners

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Thanks Riako, this event was awesome! I work together with my friend to solve all of the mysteries... Does that count as cheating?

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Trollkitten and Loketoke summed up my thoughts on "cheating" perfectly. I honestly don't care about not getting the Darkrai because I probably wouldn't have won it anyway, but I'm extremely bothered by the amount of bashing these so-called "cheaters," including myself, are getting. Riako, I get that English isn't your first language, so obviously I don't blame you for the rather ambiguous wording, but for future reference, if you say "be careful" and then elaborate on why it isn't in someone's best interests, that generally means a given command is advice, not a rule. So please, I don't expect you to redistribute the Shiny or anything like that, but at least make this clearer in the future and try to intervene in regards to the constant "I'm so disappointed in the cheaters," "ban the cheaters from all events for six months," "this community is saddening" and so on, all of which are ACTUAL THINGS that people have said.

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