This is such a crazy story - just chocked full of intrigue, greed, naivite, pissiness, selfishness, poor communications, and a golden prize. So kinda sorta straight out of Willy Wonka.
This fall, a NH video game designer came up with a treasure hunt in which hunters would follow cryptic clues and scour around looking for a solid gold statue worth $25K. But the solid gold statue wasn't the big deal prize. The statue contained a decoding mechanism to access a far more lucrative prize — a bitcoin wallet worth $87,600."
$87,600? Now you're talking.
Anyway, Dan Leonard is a local meteorologist who works for the Weather Company. He thought he could use weather data to pinpoint the location of the solid gold statue. And he was right.
The initial map that the designers posted covered pretty much the entirety of the northeast, but each day they zoomed in, getting closer and closer to the prize location. In addition to aerial photos of the statue in its hiding place, players (who had paid a $20 entry fee) saw the real-time temperature in the area.
Leonard began analyzing the temperature data, cloud cover, and sunlight on the forest floor, narrowing the location down to a few square miles. He then added in analysis of the types of trees in the area. Bingo! Or whatever seekers of solid gold statues shout when they solve a mystery.
Anyway, Leonard got there first and on his way out of the forest, he met with some other treasure hunters. He brandished his trophy and - naturally - folks took pics and posted them. Ooops. The decoding info for the bitcoin trove was out there in the big wide world.
Luckily, the game's designer, Jason Rohrer, hadn't yet put the $87,600 in the bitcoin account. Phew. Rather than just give Leonard the money, Rohrer decided to keep things interesting and devised yet another treasure hunt that would lead to a jar of real gold coins. But this second hunt was set up so that Leonard would be the only one who could find the prize.
One might ask - this one did, anyway - why they didn't just give Leonard the money. But the mind of a gamer, I guess. (Or maybe they were just punishing Leonard for being dumb enough to hold up his solid gold statue in such a way that he revealed the code to access the bitcoin.)
In any event, the new hunt was on.
This one involved a puzzle that Leonard would need to solve. Other players could play as well, but the secret words Leonard was given pretty much guaranteed that he'd be the winner.
At this point it got a bit convoluted.
A fellow player, Chris Passmore, asked Leonard if he could use some help.
Passmore, 39, who lives in southern New Hampshire, had followed a strategy similar to Leonard’s in the initial treasure hunt and reached out to chat about it. The two men built a rapport and Passmore suggested they team up to solve the new puzzle.
“The approach at the time was, ‘Hey, whatever I can do to maybe help you out, it’d be cool just to be part of the winning team and be part of your story,” Passmore recalled. (Source: Boston Globe)
Other players also contacted Leonard and asked if he wanted an assist, but Passmore passed the trust test. So after strategzing with him for a few days, Leonard gave Passmore the secret code words - boulder, barrel, anger, piano - in hopes that Passmore would help crack the code.
And here's where things took a definite hinky, human nature-y turn.
Passmore decided that he and some fellow gaming buddies had been spending so much time helping Leonard out that they deserved a cut. Not the smartest thing in the world to wait until the treasure hunt was nearing its end to talk turkey, but fair enough to want some reward beyond it being it being "cool just to be part of the winning team and be part of [Leonard's] story."
For his part, Leonard said he'd been planning on cutting Passmore et al in. But when it came to getting things in writing, the fellows couldn't come to terms. Not surprising, since Passmore was asking for 65%. Hmmmm. That sounds a bit excess. Almost blackmaily, given that at this point Leonard suspected that Passmore was nearing the find.
And then Passmore et al. cracked the code. The jar of golden coins was a mere 20 minutes from his home. When Leonard figured out that Team Passmore was closing in, he asked the gaming (Discord) community for some help, and he soon had the location coordinates in hand.
Alas, Leonard had his jacket on and one foot out the door when his wife stopped him. Too late (10 p.m.), too dark, too dangerous, too much money at stake. So Leonard "and his wife turned on the livestream, assuming Passmore would eventually arrive and take the gold." Which he did.
Passmore took a few days, but then posted a video online showing off the bottle full of coins.
The players who had participated in the game and followed it closely were up in arms. Passmore was savaged, and even received a few threats. He had a change of heart. He didn't want to seem greedy. He didn't want people pissed off. And he certainly didn't want his family threatened.
Although technically he had the rights to it, Passmore called the game designers and told them he would forfeit the gold. It would go to Leonard.
“After four or five days of playing the villain, being the tough guy, and bragging about the gold he had taken, Chris essentially told us that what he had done was against his personal values,” Rohrer said. “He’d been trying to justify it to himself but that cognitive dissonance was friction in his soul and he was just at his breaking point.”The men made the hand off in person.
“It felt good to have a happy ending,” Passmore said.Note to Dan Leonard: Yes, Passmore was a dick to claim the prize after saying he was partnering with you for the glory, but he really doesn't sound like a terrible guy. And you weren't at your peak brightness when you gave him those four secret code words out without having a deal in place.
Leonard hasn’t shared any of the bounty with Passmore, but he’s considering it.
“I still might, maybe someday,” he said
Live and learn for both of you.
And it might be nice in the spirit of the season to tuck a few bucks in a Christmas card and mail it off to him.
Think four little words.
Get this boulder off of your shoulder. Passmore had you over a barrel and decided to give up, give in. How about giving up your anger? Maybe tuck enough in that card so that Chris Passmore could buy himself a nice little piano.
Happy Gaming to All, and to All a Good Night!
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