Event Profile: ScatterBraiN'd

AnaMalene Yokosuka and her kittens

The trivia calendar is positively crowded these days, so new games need to find a new niche in order to attract a crowd. Of course, no trivia event is a money-making venture, so it's not a matter of competing in a financial market, but traffic is a commodity in SL, and many locations have stores attached to them. Plus, having a good number of people there just makes the game more fun.

The niche that AnaMalene Yokosuka and Giddeon Oh are trying to fill is the international one. AnaMalene is from Denmark, and she seeks to provide a wider variety of questions than we usually see in trivia hosted by North Americans. Those who attended the debut of this event on Sunday got a glimpse of this variety in questions such as:

[2009/05/31 16:11] AnaMalene Yokosuka: HOORAY FOR NORWAY

QST 16: The narcissistic character, Marve Fleksnes was aired on Norwegian TV from 1972 to 2002 and it gained cultic status in especially Finland and Denmark. The show in which Fleksnes appeared was known as "The Fatalities of Fleksnes" [Fleksnes Fataliteter], but who was the actor behind this role?

This question was met with a bit of surprise from the players, none of whom, I believe, were from a country where this program actually aired. But never fear, googling is not only permitted but encouraged at ScatterBraiN'd. On some questions, it was not only encouraged but practically pushed. In addition, the questions about Scandinavia came with higher prizes and are mixed in with some less intimidating ones:


[2009/05/31 15:54] AnaMalene Yokosuka: A BIT MORE HISTORY

QST 13: She is one of three patron saints of France and was beatified in 1909 and later canonized in 1920...

[2009/05/31 15:57] AnaMalene Yokosuka: THE MOVIES

QST 14: In 1997, half way through a screening for this movie, Kenpachiro Satsuma who from 1985 to 1995 had played the "character" of which the previous movies aswell as the new one got their names from, uttered his opinion and said "This is not - - - - - - - -, it doesn't have the spirit..." and left. Fill in the blanks.


After all, the idea behind ScatterBraiN'd is that it's meant to be a little scattered. There was no theme to the trivia, and the payouts varied from L$15 to L$50 each. Not even the time and day of the event is likely to remain consistent. The first one was held on May 31, starting at 2:00, but most of the people there arrived after the game at [MonoChrome] finished at 3:00, and it ended up running almost until 5:00. This is not a set time, however, as AnaMalene plans to move it around according to where the gaps seem to fall in the calendar. These days, nearly every time period conflicts with something, but she's realistic about the scheduling. "We are going to try to put it at times where people can make one half of ours and then scoot onto the next trivia, the more well-known ones," she says. "People can stay for a bit and then move on. We will, however, always check schedules to see if anyone of the regular trivias are up and let them have their time and try to find our own."

There is a group you can join if you want to make sure not to miss these irregular events. AnaMalene and Giddeon are also planning larger events, such as those with DJs and contests. The trivia takes place in the courtyard outside of their store. Living room-type couches were rezzed for a cozy hangout feel. In the store, they sell motorcycles created by Giddeon and clothing from a variety of vendors. Some of these products might turn up as prizes in future events. In honor of AnaMalene's cat's new kittens, there was a contest for best in neko/feline look during the trivia.

Giddeon Oh makes the motorcycles, owns the land, and occasionally interjects a bonus question.

Coming out of the game, I had a few thoughts. Of course, I'm not the authority on how things must be run; gotta disclaim that these are just some ideas, not demands. If there are countering points of view, feel free to include them in comments.

Although they have a lot of plans for where the event is going, and there's no doubt they'll be able to accomplish their goals, there are a few wrinkles to iron out, most notably the pacing of the questions. There were twenty-seven questions, which ought to be a workable number for a two-hour event, but the gaps in between them varied from two minutes up to eleven, with a "five-minute" break in the middle that actually lasted about twenty. It's possible that this sort of timing is all part of the scatterbrained approach, but the pacing of an event is more integral to the overall feel than question topics and payouts. The latter two can be switched up to make the game unpredictable, but ten-minute gaps shouldn't happen unless you tell your players, "Sit tight, I have to take a phone call," or what have you. I assume it was because most of the players showed up an hour into it that the event lasted as long as it did (she was on #4 when I arrived shortly before 3:00), but it would have been more enjoyable if she had kept it moving at a brisk pace for the remainder of the game once there were people.

I expect she'll be fine-tuning her question-writing over time, as well. As I mentioned in a previous event profile, lengthy questions are hard to read quickly and give the advantage not to those who know the answer but to those who can get through several lines of text the fastest and can rattle off a few guesses. I really like the idea of having a few questions about a part of the world that few people in English-speaking countries know particularly well and making them hard enough that they must be researched (i.e., googled), since this is the sort of instance in which the process of finding the answer might lead to additional knowledge, so big props to AnaMalene for bringing those types of questions into the mix. In fact, if she were to focus these questions on broad themes in culture, politics, and geography of Scandinavia, rather than on specific and highly detailed points of information, it could turn out to be a very educational format. That is, I doubt if any of the players who were at the game on Sunday retained the information about "The Fatalities of Fleksnes" after the question was (mercifully) resolved, but having people look up the Norwegian equivalent of the U.S.'s Emmy Awards has more potential for long term knowledge. Even if we don't remember the name of the awards, we'd certainly remember that they exist. If the game evolves in this direction, I'll surely be back frequently.

On that note: What is the name of Norway's annual television award?

Still, I'd like to emphasize that Sunday's game was a very good first event, and the hosts are not lacking in the energy and ambition that could make future games even better. I look forward to seeing how ScatterBraiN'd develops.

Chadd, sitting with Lou, goes neko for the contest.

Specs:
=> Time/Day: Check the events listings or join the ScatterBraiN'd group, as this will change
=> Location: ScatterBrain'd, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bleston/131/119/30
=> Host: AnaMalene Yokosuka
=> Prizes: Cash prizes in varying amounts, from L$15 to L$50 per question; number of questions will probably vary, but there were 27 at the first game; merchandise from AnaMalene and Giddeon's store will be offered as prizes in the future.

Answers to questions in this post:
=> [2009/05/31 16:12] AnaMalene Yokosuka: A: Rolv Helge Wesenlund.
Born September 17th, 1936. Before turning to TV he worked through the 60s as a jazz musician (playing the clarinet he won the Norwegian Jazz Championship two years in a row) and later as the daily jazz reviewer in the Norwegian news paper Dagbladet. A decade later, despite having had his hands in many a theatrical production within Norway and having appeared in numerous Danish movies, his fame was undeniably only known by his character of Marve Fleksnes.

=> [2009/05/31 15:56] AnaMalene Yokosuka: A: Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc).
Joan asserted that she had visions from God that told her to recover her homeland from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War. The uncrowned King Charles VII sent her to the siege at Orléans as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence when she overcame the dismissive attitude of veteran commanders and lifted the siege in only nine days. Several more swift victories led to Charles VII's coronation at Reims and settled the disputed succession to the throne. She was however still captured by the Burgundians, sold to the English, tried by an ecclesiastical court, and burned at the stake when she was just nineteen years old.

=> [2009/05/31 15:58] AnaMalene Yokosuka: A: Godzilla.
Satsuma acted out the role of Japan's favorite monster, Gojira, for the first time in 1985 in "Godzilla - The Legend Is Reborn". In 1997 he refused to continue his work on the American production of Gojira, because Tristar didn't fulfill the agreement made with Toho by ignoring several guidelines set by before mentioned aswell as Tomoyuki Tanaka. Tanaka, the producer of all Gojira movies before this one, died a month before the 1997 production started and Satsuma felt they disrespected all his previous work by blatantly ignoring the terms on which they were allowed to make an American Godzilla.

=> The Gullruten awards are Norway's annual awards for television. They have been around since 1998.

********