More Cultural Bias

I'm going to talk again about cultural issues in SL trivia. I know, I blogged about it before, and when I did you gave me lots of interesting comments and perspectives on the issue. This time I'm not looking to grumble or stir up controversy, just to acquaint you with our Culturally Biased plans.

Cully and I were chatting about cultural bias a few weeks ago and we decided finally we should do something about it. And we decided that if you can't beat 'em, we'll join 'em!

So I'm going to tell you about the 100% culturally biased event we've set up at Flanagan's Pub. Our idea was to try and recreate an RL British or Irish Pub Quiz, and quizzes like would have the sort of questions I would never dare to make an event out of in SL.

It's unashamedly culturally biased, and we worried we might not attract enough British and Irish players. But you all did us proud, and a hardy few from over the pond even ventured into our wallowing in Father Ted and Coronation Street.

Olmstead Fanshaw, our latest winner of a Karmel and Lotus Challenge T-shirt. The question was "Who was the wife of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian?" The answer was Theodora.

Oh yes, before I forget, the sim has the wonderful father Ted Parochial House, complete with Pat Mustard, Chris the sheep and the miraculous holy image of Bishop Brennan on the skirting board.

Here are my questions from 14 September. I've left out dingbats, and I've put the answers at the foot of my post.

1: Which Coronation Street character first appeared in 1974 and died on 18 January 2008?

2: What did Harold Wilson view as his greatest achievement?

3: Who extinguishes fires in Pontypandy?

4: Which guidebook writer wrote a seven-volume “Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells”?

5: Where would you find the National Media Museum?

6: Which university is descended from the Catholic University of Ireland, founded in 1854?

7: Which parliamentary constituency did Tony Blair sit for?

8: What is the deepest lake in England?

9: Who is the captain of the England Test cricket team?

Anyway, I want to tell you that we will be doing another Great British Pub Quiz next Monday 5 October at 1.30 slt. Watch events for details. I've written my questions, I do hope Cully finds the time to do hers, from her last blog post she sounded just a little bit overstretched...

Lette and I have another idea for a UK/US event, but I'll keep that one under wraps until we fix it up. It should be a real laugh if we can make it work, so I'll let yo know about that one another time.

And your answers were:

1. Vera Duckworth
2. The Open University
3. Fireman Sam
4. Alfred Wainwright
5. Bradford
6. University College, Dublin
7. Sedgefield
8. Wastwater
9. Andrew Strauss

Do I hear you say Dingbats? 10L pain in world for our first each correct answer posted in comments!

Try this one!

Let's try a different puzzle this time, post your best time in comments and the winner by, shall we say 11pm Saturday wins 100L. Leave your times and your SL avi name in comments, please. Be honest!

Click on the puzzle to start it, the timer should be in the new window.

Chaos and confusion

I'm normally an early riser, but not many things get me out of bed at 5am, but Chaos Truth or Dare does.

Chaos is a special kind of trivia event, but when I say trivia the questions aren't the main thing, just a vehicle to keep the game moving along. It's the Truth or Dare element that makes it so special. Now before I go any further I need to say that we at Chaos must agree that what happens at Chaos stays at Chaos, and that any pictures taken at Chaos may only be reproduced with the permission of those involved. And, I'm pleased to say, the people in question have said yes!



Mako's dare was to sent this naked pic of himself to another player. Sadly I only saw the censored version. Thanks Mako for permission to use your Flickr pic


It works like this. Lette asks a question, and the person who gets a question right picks someone else to do a Truth or a Dare. The Truths are a mixed bag, and the Mistress of Amok Lette asks supplementary questions with forensic skill. Being asked to tell everyone how I masturbate isn't something I do every day, and I can feel myself blushing when I write this sentence, but in the interests of accuracy a good blogger must tell it how it is!

The Dares are fun. Rach Borkotron is the Daremistress, and it's so nice to see someone enjoying her job, even if her enthusiasm has to be reined in by Lette from time to time. There is strip hangman, where the dared player must guess a word, and lose an item of clothing for every wrong letter. I'm sure we Mac users are at a disadvantage with naked mudwrestling, because I had my face pushed in the mud several times. Lately I sense a pattern for myself, which is me getting dares that lead to Nelly doing mean things to me. She, of course, enjoys that.

And that's another thing about Chaos. Once I've got to know people it's even better, and it's got better yet for me when Nelly and Kiri come along. There is nothing like seeing your friends given silly dares to do!




Nelly enjoying her dare, which was to spank me ten times















By the way, I know I'm digressing, but have you noticed this at events? People tend to stand in the same place. At Lilly's Anamaria and Becki are always near the fire, Rain always on the mantelpiece, Lette, Kiri and Rickson towards the bar, and Sharon always seems to be by the door for some reason, maybe in case her creditors appear. This does make it easier to pay winners if you know where they will be, and a problem I have at EyeQ is the lack of landmarks makes it hard for me to locate winners.




I told you I'd post a picture of me in a Chaos wet T shirt and thong if I ever won one. Here I am drying out afterwards in front of my fire!














Anyway, getting back to our subject, our Chaos hosts treat new players gently, and don't be afraid to come along and join in, you won't be made to get naked on your first outing. I keep saying so, but Chaos really is fun! Chaos is on 8.30 pm SLT Saturdays.

Anyway I promised you lindeny Dingbats, and here they come! Ten of them, 10L to each person with a first correct answer in comments. Please leave your avi name and I'll pay you in-world. Good luck everyone!

Buckybowl 9

By now I'm an experienced Buccaneer Bowler, and I've only ever missed two events. But it's still the biggest event for me in my trivia diary, and the event is just different.

It is, for me, easily the most competitive trivia event in SL. Almost all the best players are there, and the team element means I don't want to let down my team mates. I always get to Buckybowl with my low-ARC (36 this time) avi, and I feel the tension rising right away...

Because the sim with the pirate ship has been sold without Lette's knowledge, Buckybowl 9 was at Monochrome, which is always a great trivia venue, and which performed admirably, with very little lag for me.

I don't know if I was imagining it, but the competition this time seemed fierce, and after a good start in the first round where we got the first bonus, we had a 'mare in the second round where we failed to get a single point. This has never happened to us before, but we bounced back to win the third and fourth rounds, and a solid final round saw us home first.

Trumpton, the winners of Buckybowl 1, ran us close, and a new team Zen and the Koans (read all about Koans here) were a very strong third.



The Triviators with their low-ARC avis at Monochrome, picture courtesy of Mako


But we did it, and we're champs for the sixth time, so wtg Mako, Starla, Alanna and absent-this-time Nelly, you are such awesome team-mates.

I'm now starting to feel tense about Buckybowl 10 as I write this...calm down girl!

Altercations

The alt wars have broken out again (here and here), and although it isn't a subject I have strong feelings about, I thought I'd give you my two penn'orth.

I have two alts, and neither of them has been out in months. I just don't find any use for them, and I want to be myself and not a multitude of identities.

On the whole, I'd rather know who I'm dealing with in SL, but alts are a fact of life, and I can't do anything at all to change things.

And if everyone else thought like me, what sort of a boring place would SL be? So my view is, why should I waste my time worrying over something I can do nothing about? If people want to have alts, I'm happy to go with it. I know some of my friends' alts, and in IMs we sometimes maintain the fiction of talking about the main avi in the third person, which can be quite fun if you don't do it too often.

But..do be careful who you're talking to about somebody else, it might just be her alt.

Oh yes, there's a new poll in the sidebar, all about alts. Please vote!

Nelly reminded me I haven't posted for a while, and I'm going to post a longer entry in the next day or so, complete with dingbats, so watch this space!

A few more dingbats

You seemed to like them, so here's ten more.

Same as before, but 10L for each this time. Have fun!

Typing faster than the speed of light

Speed typing. Becki posted on this recently, bemoaning her 3MB connection, and how it handicaps competing at Buccaneer Bowl. I just checked my speed now which came in at 3.5MB, and I'm just a two fingered typist, but my Buccaneer Bowl record is respectable soooo I think I'll keep quiet on that subject...

First of all let me say right away that I think there's no avoiding it. If you give people enough time in SL trivia they will Google. You can ask people not to as much as you like, and most will play to the spirit of the game, but once someone starts Googling everyone else is at a big disadvantage. And in my opinion all efforts to kill speed typing founder on the rock of Google.

Tori, Sharon, Kiri, Polaris and Lotus are the naughty girls in the penalty box at Sharon's Diner

My own opinion is, if we can't eliminate Google, we may as well embrace it, and there are countless times when I'm hosting that I've been glad of someone Googling a question that has turned out to be too hard. Karmel says in an ideal event everyone would win once, and while I think this is right, I find it harder to do in practice. Some people are just very good, but here's my thoughts on how we hosts should think about it:

• Avoid themes unless they are very broad
• Do not run events about one country's popular culture
  
• Be generous with Pity Lindens (I love that phrase, was it Nelly who came up with it?)
• Try and find something that can involve everyone
• Try and make it fun! Don't be too serious!
  

I try to do this myself, and that's why I've run the Easter Eggs and money for typos. But no matter how hard I try, it tends to be the regular players who get the Easter Eggs, and my typos seem to be a major income stream for Sharon Scofield and Nelly Swindlehurst. Please, everyone, check my Lilly's and EyeQ notices for the Easter Egg links. It's money for jam, it really is. I want to give you the Lindens!

Glimmer Mattercaster wearing a Karmel and

Lotus shirt after she won the Challenge question at Lilly's.

The question was "In the Harry Potter books, who does Harry marry?"

I've rather strayed from the speed typing subject, but the reason why it's so prevalent is that all efforts to deal with it turn out unsatisfactory to my way of thinking, in one way or another.

Samantha Poindexter uses an innovative HUD system for her strip trivia event, where you have to choose one of four answers. The winner is chosen randomly from the correct answers, the losers remove an item of clothing and it's rather neat and fun. But for me it lacks something, because multiple choice questions are so hard to write. Either they are far too easy, or so hard it just seems like guessing, and I rather think this is intrinsic to the system, and not the fault of the question setter.

Tori Lok and Sweejen Stourmead at Lilly's

I wonder if this could be solved by removing the multiple choice element and the host marking free text answers right or wrong? I wouldn't like to have to mark 20answers for every question myself, though.

I've played games where players send answers in IM, but I don't much like this. Anyone who wants can Google answers, and it removes much of the social aspect of the game. I would far rather play a fun game for fewer Lindens than a boring one for lots of Lindens.

Personally I think we are stuck with speed typing, and it's the job of us trivia hosts to make it interesting for people without lightning fingers, but who know their trivia. And that brings me onto your lindeny questions, and those of you who come to my events might just be familiar with Dingbats. I've got five for you today, 20L for each first correct answer in comments, paid in world.