24/02/2024
Intro
Whilst some puzzles on the wyfio gameboard are essentially self contained, or play out slightly more widely over the site itself, there are also those internet puzzles that will have you circumnavigating a lifetimes supply of tangential rabbit holes if you want to solve them.
And whilst that's all part of the fun, designing puzzles that are likely to rely on some external source of information to solve is a risky business. Search rankings fluctuate, links die, content is edited and so on.
ascension 2021
The first example of dynamic difficulty playing out on the wyfio gameboard that I can recall is 'ascension 2021' at the spiral attractor. The originally intended source of information for this puzzle disappeared not long after the puzzle was published – and it has not been captured by archive.org either. But it didn't take long to realise that the link was dead, confirm that there were alternatives, and then breathe a sigh of relief knowing that people had not inadvertently been presented with an 'impossible' puzzle.
Perhaps, if you're super thorough, you have already figured this out having discovered an 'Easter egg' on one of the wyfio socials?. Unlike the puzzles on the gameboard, tools will be required...
in need of some refinement, imo
Now I'll admit, this one had me slightly worried. I noticed that 'in need of some refinement...' had gone unsolved for 8 months – so set about trying to 'verify' the intended route to solution. Guess what? I couldn't! Another dead link? Nope... Edited content? Well, not exactly...
I don't want to say too much, but I can confirm the information you need to solve the puzzle still exists. If you're pretty confident what the puzzle is about, it's not going to stop you from finding the information that you need. But if you only have an inkling, and perhaps try to confirm your suspicions solely by relying on one of the lines – you might have a harder time of it.
I did think about changing the solution in some way, but it's one of the original 24 from the very first version of the gameboard, so I will remain reluctant for now :)
violet sky
Finally, I will take this opportunity to briefly pass comment on violet sky. This isn't a puzzle 'afflicted' by some dynamic difficulty issue. The information required to solve the puzzle is readily available. It's just that nobody has fully figured out what it is yet. I look forward to the day.
il y a là cendre