SYTYCA & Thoughts on Standardization

Billy2Times Krams hosting Disney trivia and Best in Disney at Metal Shop on August 17.

If you can decipher the set of letters in the title of this post, then I would, as a trivia host, interpret that to mean that it's a commonly enough known -- or at least easily enough understood -- acronym or abbreviation to be accepted as an answer at one of my games.

If not, then as far as I'm concerned, it's just a shortcut to try and squeeze ahead of the other players who are typing their butts off to get "So You Think You Can Abbreviate" into play before the others who are likewise typing furiously.

This is the basis of my "out of context" rule by which I judge typos and abbreviation use. If it's a common abbreviation that you most likely used because that's how you're accustomed to referring to the person/place/thing in question (or answer, more accurately), then go for it. NASA, ASPCA, Rte, St, FDR, JFK, whatever... these are all fair game because other players are likely to have used them, too, and they know exactly what you're talking about.*

* Of course, if a person hasn't heard of the entity the abbreviation refers to at all and wouldn't know it even if "American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals" were spelled out, then the problem isn't the abbreviation.

Finding the absolute shortest version of an answer you can give and still get away with it, on the other hand, is not. Not in my book.

In terms of the spectrum of hosting styles, I fall someplace in the middle. At one end, there are hosts who accept anything they can understand, knowing what the player was probably trying to say. At the other end, there are hosts who accept no abbreviations whatsoever. A few follow the guideline "none except UK and USA." I have the feeling that these stricter hosts have a goal in mind similar to mine -- to curb the Incredible Shrinking Answer trend before it begins -- but for my part, I don't want to penalize someone who uses an abbreviation not to see what they can get away with but because the version of the answer they use is the one that is freshest in their minds.

Although I am generally respectful of other hosts' decisions, the acceptance of abbreviations that are clearly intended as shortcuts makes me shake my head every time. I apologize to those whom this confession insinuates, and I acknowledge that every host is entitled to run his or her game however he or she chooses. I have recently gotten into two tiffs over abbreviations, however, that sparked this as a blog topic.

The first took place while I was hosting Chaos. For those who haven't been to Chaos Trivia/Truth or Dare, I'll mention that those who win questions are given L$10 and the chance to challenge another player to a truth or dare. I asked a question to which "North Pole" was the answer, and the person whose answer came in first used "NPole" as a shortcut abbreviation. Since it was only a minor shortcut (it's not like he tried to say "NP") and he had arrived late and had never heard me give my rules, I gave him the benefit of the doubt, which meant compromising: I gave him the money and offered the truth/dare challenge to the second person who answered. Imagine my surprise when he protested that I should give him a break because he is in a country far from the SL servers and that this gives him more lag than most.

This is a ridiculous argument for many reasons, but I'll only mention one: everyone in SL suffers from lag. One article on lag identifies nine different kinds. The one this player was being huffy about, referred to in the piece as "pure network lag," is right at the top. Unless he believes that special treatment should be provided to people experiencing any of the other eight kinds of lag, I'm uncertain why I should provide it to him. Is there such a thing as privileged lag? Does that make the other kinds ghetto lag?

But I digress.

The second incident just took place this weekend. The answer was "New Yorker" (as in the magazine, not a New York resident), and the first answer given was "NYer." I was second with the correct answer. When the host gave the question to the other player, I had to re-read the chat log because I hadn't seen anyone answer correctly before I did. I'm a former New Yorker. I subscribe to The New Yorker. And I have never seen the abbreviation NYer before. I didn't recognize it as an answer at all. So for my one time in a thousand, I spoke up, made some comments, and quickly apologized for doing so. The apology was directed toward the host, who I was worried would think I was protesting his call, and to the group. It was not directed toward the person who used this abbreviation.

Alanna Robianni, dressed as Cinderella, won the top spot in the costume contest; I won second as an Alice in Wonderland card painting the roses red; a wee little Snow White snagged third.

This leads me to the purposeful part of this post, which was not actually intended to become a rant about abbreviations. Rather, I want to use the abbreviation example as a jumping-off point to talk about standard expectations. When you do trivia at club Shiraz, you expect leniency. When you attend Lou's Clues, you expect to type out your answers in full. The UK/USA rule seems to be fast becoming standardized, though, adopted as it's been by hosts at Lilly's, at Moysies, and sometimes at Double Standards.

There are some advantages to standardization: players can have an idea of what will and won't be acceptable even if they miss the rules, for instance, and consistency allows players to develop habits that will benefit them. By this latter one, I have in mind the "training" that Gogomodo has given to many who forget that when they do trivia with a live host, they can often skip first names when the answer is a person.

There are also some disadvantages, not the least of which is that no matter how many hosts adopt comparable rules, the trivia circuit does not begin and end with the several dozen of us who know each other, host each other, and run into each other at the same games. Grassroots trivia will continue popping up at random clubs, and some active hosts will simply have different opinions about what qualifies as an acceptable answer. Thus, a player who gets used to the UK/USA rule might find herself frustrated, like I was on Sunday for other reasons, at places that are either more or less strict.

The main disadvantage to standardization in my mind, though, is something that can already be seen in the trivia landscape in its current state. I'm so accustomed to certain conventions that when I visit a game off the beaten path and find they have a rather unusual format, I'll often be hit by a wave of snobbery before I take a step back and remind myself, "It's not wrong, it's different." Admittedly, most of the time, I do end up disliking those other methods (such as answers in IM, voicing during events, anything that replaces live hosts with a machine of some sort), but you never know when a gem will appear. These instances are more about format than rules, but it's easier to develop a sense of "how things are supposed to work" if they work the same way at most of the events you go to, and that sense can easily translate into snobbery, elitism, or know-it-all-ness, which I believe was one of the factors that had precipitated the problems at The Village, way back in ancient history.

I don't have a firm conclusion, since I would selfishly prefer not to get cranky over a lenient abbreviation call again, while at the same time I think that maintaining a diverse set of events that cater to varying skill levels, speed levels, and specializations would render the strongest benefit to the most people. Borrowing or adapting another host's rules is also not necessarily standardization; sometimes you just think it's a good idea. I get pleased when I've seen hosts pick up a rule that I originated, and goodness knows I've developed my style under the influence of many strong predecessors. What I like to see is evolution, though, with hosts using others' rules and ideas but making them their own. SL trivia is totally different from how it was a year ago, with all sorts of innovative games and a schedule simply crammed solid with events. I look forward to seeing how it continues evolving.

Vegas Ember owns Metal Shop.

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