Rules and Terms of the BioQuest

Last updated - 31 July, 2019.

QuestaGame's BioQuests are governed by QuestaGame's Terms of Service. We've done our best to make the terms easy to understand, so we recommend you give them a read. All competitors should also ensure they’ve read and understood the Safety Check.

Competition Period - Start and End Time

All BioQuests have a start and end time. Sightings must be submitted within this period to be eligible. Once the period is over, all eligible sightings can still receive identifications, and identifiers of these sightings still receive points. The competition is officially over once all eligible sightings have been identified and verified.

Winners will be announced as soon as possible on the BioQuest results page once all eligible sightings have been verified.

Winners will be notified using the email address provided upon creating a QuestaGame account. 

Sightings - Eligibility

To be eligible, sightings must be:

  • submitted during the competition period (though may be taken prior to the competition period),

  • meet the terms of acceptability as expressed in the game.

QuestaGame will accept just about any sighting of a living organism in the 'wild' that’s considered suitable for biodiversity records.

QuestaGame may choose not accept a sighting. Some example of why sightings might not be accepted include…

  • Photo is of a human (homo sapien) or includes a recognisable human. We humans are part of biodiversity, but right now, we need to learn more about the life all around us so we can better protect it.

  • Multiple species in single sighting. Please try to only submit one species at a time. You can submit up to 5 photos of the same species in a sighting, but not multiple species in a single sighting.

  • Photograph(s) not clear enough to identify a specimen; or not enough photos of the specimen from different angles (you can submit up to 5 photos per sighting).

  • A screenshot, copied image, or a photo of a photo.

  • Duplicate submissions.

  • A dangerous situation, for example near a road or from a car.

Pets (e.g. dogs and farm animals) and cultivated plants (e.g. potted house plants) are sometimes not accepted, but even if they are accepted, they will likely score very low.

QuestaGame won’t accept a second sighting of the same species if it’s within 1 kilometre or 24 hours of the previous sighting. So for example, if you submit a photo of a monarch butterfly resting on a statue, QuestaGame won’t accept another sighting of a monarch butterfly within 1 kilometre of the same statue, unless 24 hours have passed.

The standard daily sighting limits still applies, as per the game. However players can store sightings and submit on following days. Players also boost their daily sightings limits by providing correct IDs in the in-game QuestaLab or in the Bio-Expertise Engine.

You can use photos from your iOS or Android mobile device, or from your own camera (e.g. a DSLR device). Sightings will require date stamps. Photos from your own camera can be submitted through the mobile device, or through bee.questagame.com > Menu > Upload Sighting (beta)

Photos have to be your own work. If you are suspected of using someone else's image(s) you will be warned, and repeat offenders will have their account deleted.

Sightings - Scoring

Scoring for sightings is based on QuestaGame’s in-game ‘gold’ rewards. Gold is awarded for sightings that you submit, based on the perceived “remarkability” (by location and season) of what you find. “Remarkability” is based on a combination of expert feedback and existing biodiversity data.

For the protection of wildlife, players are discouraged from disturbing the habitats of any species. Players should note that sightings of rare and/or threatened species, will often NOT receive extra gold. These species are usually well surveyed previously and we encourage the public to give them their space.

Certain gold bonuses in QuestaGame will not count towards your score for the purposes of this competition. These include quest bonuses; head-to-head challenge bonuses; player of the day bonuses; clan of the day bonuses; and equipment bonuses.

Identifications - Eligibility and Scoring

To be eligible for the 'Champion Identifier' prize, identifications can submitted through the in-game 'QuestaLab' or through the BioExpertise Engine (https://bee.questagame.com). 

Identifications must be given during the period from the start of the competition to the time when all eligible sighting submissions are verified (i.e. when there are no more unverified sightings from the competition period). This means identifications you provide after the competition period may still be eligible. 

A correct identification is only awarded for a specific identification if your suggestion matches - or betters - the final verified identification. That is, if you correctly identify a sighting to a genus, but the final verified identification is at species level, unfortunately you miss out. But if you identify a sighting to genus level, and the final verified identification is family level, you receive full credit.

Prizes

The prizes on offer, and the terms for winning, are listed on the BioQuest results website and may change prior to the start date of the competition. By participating in a BioQuest, your give QuestaGame the right, if required, to share your contact email address with the appropriate prize giving entity, for the sole, non-commercial purpose of awarding you the prize.

Cart (0)