[HN Gopher] Mystery-o-matic.com random murder generator is open-...
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Mystery-o-matic.com random murder generator is open-source
Author : galapago
Score : 83 points
Date : 2023-11-26 11:06 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| galapago wrote:
| I'm the main developer behind mystery-o-matic, happy to take
| questions and feedback regarding its engine here!
| MrLeap wrote:
| This is cool. What was your motivation?
| galapago wrote:
| I wanted to create an alternative to murdle.com (which is
| very good, btw!) and learn a little bit of about web
| technology
| HPsquared wrote:
| While we're at it, what were the means and opportunity?
| galapago wrote:
| What do you mean exactly?
| buzzy_hacker wrote:
| They're joking. The cliche in criminal investigations is
| the suspect needs means, motive, and opportunity to
| commit the crime. You gave motive, so means and
| opportunity remain.
| galapago wrote:
| Thanks!, I know that cliche, but I tend to take comments
| too literal :)
| LVB wrote:
| Can you explain a bit more how Ethereum fits in "for obtaining
| a random mystery prompt and its solution"?
| galapago wrote:
| Ethereum as a platform is not really used, but Solidity smart
| contracts simulated inside a testing tool. Check my
| explanation here:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38422232
| foundry27 wrote:
| Really cool experience! :)
|
| Having been cheerfully awarded the sleuth-o-matic rank of
| Barely Conscious (the murderer was was clear, the precise
| weapon+time wasn't) I was wondering: is the mystery generator
| implemented in such a way that there's enough "metagaming cues"
| in the clues to allow someone clever to get a good score on ALL
| generated mysteries?
|
| For context: my partner correctly solved today's mystery seven
| clues earlier than I did, and she explained that her answer was
| based on the fact that that 1. In literature certain weapons
| are predominantly associated with killers of particular
| genders, and 2. Killers will try to minimize their time spent
| at crime scenes to reduce the risk of detection, so if the
| murderer was found there, it's probable that the murder was
| recent.
|
| I was suitably impressed, but I'd be curious to know if human
| psychology and behavior patterns in literature are actually
| taken into account for the mysteries.
| galapago wrote:
| > Having been cheerfully awarded the sleuth-o-matic rank of
| Barely Conscious (the murderer was was clear, the precise
| weapon+time wasn't) I was wondering: is the mystery generator
| implemented in such a way that there's enough "metagaming
| cues" in the clues to allow someone clever to get a good
| score on ALL generated mysteries?
|
| Well, the mystery generation is stochastic (where some of
| them will be more complex and difficult, while other ones are
| simpler) and the scoring is still under development (it
| usually very difficult to get a good score). Expect some
| changes in the near future to make the score more adaptative
| and fair.
|
| > For context: my partner correctly solved today's mystery
| seven clues earlier than I did, and she explained that her
| answer was based on the fact that that 1. In literature
| certain weapons are predominantly associated with killers of
| particular genders, and 2. Killers will try to minimize their
| time spent at crime scenes to reduce the risk of detection,
| so if the murderer was found there, it's probable that the
| murder was recent.
|
| > I was suitably impressed, but I'd be curious to know if
| human psychology and behavior patterns in literature are
| actually taken into account for the mysteries.
|
| Assumption 1 is incorrect, all the weapons are randomly
| assigned so it was a lucky guess (however, it is an
| interesting one to make, so I will think about it to include
| it in the future..). Assumption 2 is .. actually correct. The
| mystery generation has a "minimization" procedure, where the
| actual input (the action from every agent) are reduced while
| keeping the murder mystery. This will indirectly, tend to
| make this assumption true.
|
| Thanks for your feedback, it was really interesting.
| rmccue wrote:
| I'm not sure exactly what happened, but there's definitely some
| sort of bug - I entered what I was certain was the correct info
| and got the "incorrect" phrase. Rechecked about 100% times
| using all clues and still the same. Switched to a different
| browser and entered the same answers and... it said correct.
|
| Might be because I clicked through to either the sleuth-o-meter
| or the how to play and then hit back? I also filled in the
| example table on the how-to-play.
|
| (Also, glad I'm not going crazy!)
| galapago wrote:
| I suspect there is a bug in the selector. I need to
| investigate. Thanks for the report!
| op00to wrote:
| This is cool! I would like to a look and see if I can build
| something a little simpler for my kid that uses characters he
| likes. Some day... Thank you!
| tabitech wrote:
| Yep, looks cool to me.
| zoklet-enjoyer wrote:
| A Solidity smart contract that doesn't involve cryptocurrency.
| I've never heard of such a thing. Very cool
| galapago wrote:
| It was used because of the nature of blockchain transactions as
| operations, but everything is simulated so no cryptocurrency is
| involved. Instead, every transaction represents a possible
| state change in the murder mystery (e.g. Alice walks from the
| Kitchen to the Bathroom). If the state change breaks any rule
| (e.g. let's say no more than two characters in the same room),
| then the transaction reverts and the fuzzing tool keeps
| exploring.
|
| Edit: I guess an expanded version of this should be in the
| README
| barbariangrunge wrote:
| Anyone have a link to examples?
| k1t wrote:
| https://mystery-o-matic.com/
| shlip wrote:
| Fun fact about mystery-o-matic.com, and I suspect the HTML page
| generated with linked software : with JS disabled, you are able
| to see all clues "for free". When you don't know what the UI
| ought to look like, you just read them before realizing you're
| not supposed to.
| galapago wrote:
| This is correct, JS should be enabled to play :). The
| alternative is using a server to get clues which I want to
| avoid (the website is a single, static html). This enabled to
| play offline as well.
| 8organicbits wrote:
| You can probably hide those with a `display: none` via CSS
| and remove it with Javascript. People with poor connections
| may fail to load the JS, or see the clues until JS finally
| loads.
| galapago wrote:
| Good catch, thanks a lot!
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(page generated 2023-11-26 23:01 UTC)