Rules for the ICCB QuestaGame Challenge

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

Competition Period - Start and End Time

The competition runs throughout the International Congress for Conservation Biology 2017, and for the 3 days afterwards. It will commence at 12:00am, Sunday, 23rd July (Cartagena time), and end at 12:00pm, Tuesday, 1st August (Cartagena time). Sightings must be submitted within this period to be eligible. However identifications can be made during this period through until the time when all eligible sightings have been verified (i.e. the time when all players can been confirmed of the final identifications of their eligible sightings).

Winners will be announced on questagame.com when all eligible sightings have been processed. Winners will be notified by email as well.

Sightings - Eligibility

For this competition, sightings must be taken and submitted during the competition period. The competition period extends for three days after the ICCB 2017 to allow extra time for uploading sightings from the final days, and to compensate for any issues regarding lack of internet access during that time. Sightings must be located within Columbia.

For players registered in this competition, the daily sighting submission limit will be set to a minimum of 5 per day, throughout the competition.

QuestaGame won’t accept a second sighting of the same species if it is within 1 kilometre and 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.

QuestaGame will accept just about any sighting of a living organism in the 'wild'. However we may not accept a sighting if we consider it "not suitable" for biodiversity records. This may occur if:

  • 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.
  • It’s a It’s a domestic animal (such as a pet or farm animal), or living in an enclosure (such as a zoo). (such as a farm animal), or living in an enclosure (such as a zoo).
  • It’s a cultivated plant. We all want to know more about the plants in our gardens, but we don’t accept sightings of cultivated plants.
  • 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.
  • A duplicate submissions.
  • A dangerous situation, for example near a road or from a car.

The easiest way to submit a sighting is to use your phone’s camera. However QuestaGame does accept sightings that use photos taken on non-mobile phone cameras (so long as you can work out how to upload them to your camera). The system does confirm the date stamp of the image though, so if that metadata is missing, it won’t accept the photo.

Photos obviously 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 rarity (by location and season) of what you find. Note that plants are not yet scored on rarity, and instead receive minimum gold.

For their protection, sightings of species considered to be threatened will not be awarded any gold.

Certain gold bonuses in QuestaGame will not count towards your score for the purposes of the ICCB 2017 QuestaGame Challenge.

Bonuses that will be included:

  • Correct ID bonus

  • Field notes

Bonuses that will not be included in scoring:

  • Quest bonuses,

  • Head-to-head challenges,

  • Player of the day

  • Clan of the day, and

  • Equipment bonuses

Identifications - Eligibility and Scoring

To be eligible for the 'Champion Identifier' prize, identifications must be done through the BioExpertise Engine - http://bee.questagame.com (and not in QuestaGame's in-game 'QuestaLab'), through a logged in account.

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 unidentified sightings from the competition period). This means identifications you provide after 1st August may still be eligible. 

All identifications you provide through BioExpertise Engine during this time will be eligible, and they do have to be against sightings eligible for this competition.

A correct identification is only awarded for a specific identification if your suggestion matches 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.

All players who register for the ICCB QuestaGame Challenge will by default have The Society for Conservation Biology recorded as their chosen organisation to support through QuestaGame's Pays to Know Nature Fund.

Prize categories

  • 'Champion spotter' will be determined based on the highest overall score for an individual for sightings submitted during the competition period. The prize is 2-year membership in SCB + 50% discount on your Full Congress Registration to ICCB 2019 or any Section Congress in 2018 (non-transferable).
  • 'Champion identifier' will be determined based on the highest number of correct identifications provided by an individual through our Bio-Expertise Engine during the competition period, and for the period after until all eligible sightings have been verified. The prize is 2-year membership in SCB + 50% discount on your Full Congress Registration to ICCB 2019 or any Section Congress in 2018 (non-transferable).
  • 'Best find' -  will be determined based on the highest scoring individual sighting. The prize is 2-year membership in SCB.

Coordinating Prizes

Prizes will be coordinated by the Society for Conservation Biology. Upon registration for this competition you are providing consent for QuestaGame, in the case of you winning a prize, to provide your player name, and associated contact details, to the Society for Conservation Biology for the sole purpose of their coordinating the relevant prize.

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