GC 38 has begun! Good luck everyone!

Thanks Terry! It's now off to the races!

Do you think it would be a good idea to put a time limit on answering the questions in Global challenge? It would stop people from looking up the answers. One player is scoring 15/15 in 500 seconds on a regular basis in the Impossible section of the global challenge.

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There is a time limit if you play Hardcore. No credit if you take more than 130 seconds (which is really annoying when you have connection issues while playing).

In normal mode, the penalty increases significantly from 1 point per second below 130 seconds to 2.5 points per second starting at 131 seconds. I believe there is a maximum time penalty of 700 points (which is at least something of a relief to people with connection issues). So 9 correct in 100 seconds is the same as 15 correct going over the maximum time (and takes a lot less time)

It's also possible that the person has a daily challenge to get a certain number of points in one of the Impossible games and researching the question is the way they decided to ensure accomplishing it.

So the maximum time penalty of 700 points seems to be the problem. Being able to guarantee yourself an equivalent score of 9 correct in 100 seconds in Impossible seems wrong to me and lends itself to abuse.

Does it really lend itself to abuse? One player is taking a long time this go round of the Global Challenge. If it was done on a regular basis I'm sure it would have been noticed before.

Yes I think you are probably right. 800 points is much more than I think I average in impossible when I play GC so it would be in my interests (but I'd never have time to do this) to simply spend as long as it took to look up every answer. Thereby gaming a system that is supposed to be penalising (the presence of the stringent penalty above 130 seconds is proof of this intention) researching of answers.

I've just looked at the top 50 scores for the Impossible game which is currently running. Only 7 are above 800 points. Of the other 43, 7 are hardcore players, so 36 people in normal mode would have been better off gaming the system and googling the lot, no matter how long it takes. (Plus all the normal mode players below the top 50)

That'a 100 immortals. Please will you turn the GC off after this set?

Thanks.

Yes please! I'd like a rest now!

Thanks, this is the last set.

And we'll find out how we went when?

Monday!

Thanks Terry! You do such a great job and I really appreciate it ... however, now it's Tuesday where I live, lol!

Kittens - if I could clone ten copies of him, I would

GC 38 results posted and awards have been issued. Congrats all!

Any sign of GC39 - allegedly due today?

Just what I was wondering!

They do this every time.

And every time it's explained that starting GC, stopping GC, publishing the results and awarding badges/upgrades has to be done manually. If it's not done on time, it's because Terry is busy.

True but why post a date and time and then leave players waiting at least somebody could post something saying that the GC has been delayed.

The person who would make that post probably isn't available, otherwise he would likely be kicking off the global challenge rather than posting that it is delayed.

Never thought of that.

The Evil Twin took it