Perplex City's "Guest Architects"
I'm all for puzzle designers getting proper credit for their designs. The famous puzzle designers I know often mention seeing their best designs, uncredited, in stores around the world.
But one of the Perplex City's author credits pisses me off. Card 68 of Season 2 is a riddle you have to solve. The card lists Michael Fox as the "Guest Puzzle Architect." Fair enough, but look at the riddle:
If you eat it, you will die.
It is greater than God, yet
more evil than the devil.
The rich need it. The poor have it.
What is it?
This is fine as a puzzle, but I'm willing to bet a fair amount of cash that Michael Fox isn't the original author of this riddle. It's one of the best-known of the riddle chestnuts that everyone's seen. Don't give him credit for "Architecting" a puzzle where he probably said, "Hey, we should use this zillions-of-years-old riddle." Maybe Mind Candy should do a bit more research before they slap "Guest Puzzle Architect" on a card. Probably no one knows who first wrote that riddle, but Michael Fox shouldn't get credit for something he didn't really do.
posted by Derrick @ 12:25 PM
1 Comments:
Ooooh, a random internet post mentioning me!
Well, hello there. I'm Michael Fox, the Guest Architect on this here card. And no - I am NOT hundreds and hundreds of years old... but I am going to explain what happened.
Obviously this is one of the oldest riddles about. However, as a designer, I submitted a completely different version of the card to the one that was finally released. Initially, it was to be gloss black lettering printed on a matt black background (giving an additional clue to the answer, with the card appearing to be *nothing*). That is where my architect-y thing came from - the original design of the thing. I was a bit gutted when the design was changed because yes - it's not my riddle at all, so having my name on it is, as you say, a bit silly. Still, they were the bosses, not me!
Hope that clears up stuff - albeit a looooong time after the event!
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