SPORCULATION
(Trivia)
In each round a group of players is given the description of a trivia quiz from the Sporcle website. Each player in turn chooses one answer to the described quiz; correct answers are written on a score sheet and incorrect answers are disregarded. Players try to rank the answers by difficulty based on Sporcle website statistics. Players score points for correct rankings and for correct answer choices: more difficult answers score more points than easier ones.
Sporculation is an adaptation of the BBC quiz show Pointless. On the show the difficulty ranking of answers within a category is determined by a set of 100 pre-game test takers. I realized that the statistics on the Sporcle website could be used in the same way. The game was presented as an after-hours activity at the 2010 NPL convention in Seattle. In each session eight players played eight rounds with quizzes including “Can you name all the Monopoly Properties?” and “Can you name the 50 different words in Dr. Seuss’ ‘Green Eggs and Ham’?” After the sessions a few players proposed a impromptu beat-the-champ version using a portable Internet device: A moderator announces a quiz and the players take turns choosing answers; a player wins by either choosing the most difficult answer or by making it through one round of guesses without any other player choosing a more difficult answer.
life as a puzzle 