Rules for the Wildversity Spring 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 QuestaGame's Safety Check.

Competition Period - Start and End Time

The competition starts at 12:00am, Saturday, 12 August (AEST) and ends 11:59pm, Thursday, 30 November (AEST).

Winners will be announced on questagame.com once all eligible sightings have been processed. Winners will be notified via their registered email addresses.

Sightings - Eligibility

For this competition, sightings must be taken and submitted during the competition period. 

For a player's sightings to be counted towards this competition, the player will need to be registered within the 'Wildversity' clan at the time the scoring is being finalised (the first couple week in December, 2017).

The standard QuestaGame daily sighting submission limits will apply for players throughout the competition period.

Sightings must be located within the boundaries of The University Of Melbourne campuses.

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 unfortunately we can't accept sightings of cultivated plants. If it's a weed on the other hand, send it in!
  • 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.

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.

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), with a logged in account, or through QuestaGame's in-game 'QuestaLab'.

For a player's identifications to be counted towards this competition, the player will need to be registered within the 'Wildversity' clan at the time the scoring is being finalised (the first couple week in December, 2017).

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). That is, you can still 

All identifications you provide during this time will be eligible, and they do not 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.

Prize categories

  • The winner of the 'Best Identifier' will be determined based on the highest number of correct identifications provided by an individual through the Bio-Expertise Engine, or through the in-game QuestaLab, during the competition period, and for the period after until all eligible sightings have been verified. The prize for 'Best Identifier' is a $200 prepaid VISA card.

  • The winner of ‘Champion Spotter’ will be determined based on the highest score from eligible sightings during the competition period. The prize for 'Champion Spotter' is a $200 prepaid VISA card.

  • The winner of 'Best Find' will be determined based on the highest score for any single eligible sighting that is submitted during the competition period. The prize for 'Best Find' is a $100 prepaid VISA card.

  • The winner of 'Best Photo' will be determined based on popular vote through QuestaGame's Facebook page, with a short list of photos to be decided by QuestaGame. The prize for 'Best Photo' is a $100 prepaid VISA card.

Coordinating Prizes

Prizes will be coordinated by The Melbourne University. By partaking in this competition you are consent to QuestaGame, in the case of you winning a prize, provide your player name, and associated email address, to The University of Melbourne for the sole purpose of their coordinating the relevant prize.

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