I'll Have Three Trivias to Go, With a Side of Fries

(Pictures were taken at the Metal Shop on vampire night during Billy2Times Krams's trivia.)

Chaddington Boomhauer

Some people recently received an unsolicited group invitation that read as follows:

Phenicia Gravois has invited you to join a group. You will have to pay a signup fee of L$500. Trivia Anytime Anywhere: We are currently building up our membership. We will start playing trivia once we have reached 22 members. For those of you who love trivia but don't like to hang around at a venue for questions to be asked. We will ask at least 3 questions per day via group notices. The 1st person to answer correctly via group IM will receive at least 50L. At times when group funds are low we will ask less q's [sic] or pay less, but we do not expect this to happen often.

There has been some discussion of this since the invitations went out (I should mention that I did not receive one, but the bulk of this text is also in the Group Charter), mostly negative, though one person has been to the owner's live trivia and gives it high marks. It has also been noted that charging a group fee, while practically unknown among trivia groups, is not unheard of elsewhere in SL.

The most frequent objection is that if you're not online at the time a question is asked, then you're out of luck. I haven't yet heard anyone say they would give this group a second thought. Because I'm all about the sociocultural, I've been thinking about what kind positionality or social location some people who do trivia in SL have compared with those who identify with the "trivia community."

For instance, it is difficult for me to imagine that any host I know would have thought of a group of this sort. It simply wouldn't have occurred to them (or if it would, then I don't know them as well as I think). The reason is in the group description: "For those of you who love trivia but don't like to hang around at a venue for questions to be asked." Although most of us engage in things besides trivia while we're in-world (at the very least to buy clothing and costumes for themed events), this blog and others like it exist largely because the venues provide centers of social activity for us, even for those who don't go to them often or who don't go as often as they used to.

Nelly Swindlehurst

The venues are what define us as a community and have allowed us to build friendships and other social relationships with each other. It doesn't mean that we wouldn't enjoy trivia without the social context. Certainly, very few of us had the social context before we started coming to the trivia events. Some of us play along withJeopardy! at home. Some of us sit around a Gogomodo board and zone out on our own. But if you are reading this blog, then chances are, you are part of a community of trivia players who have been influenced, to a greater or lesser extent, by the existence of trivia venues, the way that events are run there, and the fact that they are capable of drawing together our odd mishmash of personalities.

I'm imagining what my day would be like as a member of the Trivia Anytime Anywhere (TAA) group. I go about my gridwide hunts, my unpacking of prizes, I might do some 7Seas fishing or simply hanging out by a Lucky Chair while getting RL work done. I chat with friends, occasionally seek out new places to shop or explore. During all of this, would it be kind of nice for a random trivia question to come through in a notice, with the chance for winning L$50? Of course! I can even see standing in front of an outfit at a store, wondering if I'd be able to afford it, when voila! In come the fifty lindens more that make it a done deal. But would I pay a L$500 membership fee in order to make this happen? Pretty much no.

It's not because I'm inherently cheap: if Marine Park, with its L$100-L$800 questions, for instance, had a huge membership fee instead of nightly entrance fees (and would not be constantly on the verge of banning paying members), I'd pay it. It's not because I'm afraid I'll miss all of the questions because I'll be off-line when they appear. It's because chances are, I'll already be anticipating the trivia event I'm planning to go to that afternoon or evening or the next day. And if I'm about to go to an event that either doesn't charge or charges a moderate fee with the promise of chances to win huge prizes, then why would I pay to receive questions I'd need to answer ten of to eventually make back my investment?

In addition, even though I'm obviously not at an event every minute of the day that I'm in SL, the events at the venues are what make me feel connected to this amorphous group of people and what we've built up for ourselves in our little corner of SL. I don't even mean that in a mushy way. The venues anchor us. They give our network of acquaintances some shape. I have done trivia by group IM a few times in the Buccaneer Bowl group, and it's fun as a supplement to the other events announced via that channel, but one of the reasons that it's fun is that you're competing with other people in that group IM with whom you have a competitive or team relationship already. I've formed familiarities with people who are mostly names I recognize in a particularly active group IM (e.g., hunt groups), but I can't say I've developed a friendship that way. Maybe others do. But even if the trivia from TAA were to generate conversations in the group, any real camaraderie is likely to be due to pre-existing friendships.

All of this is fairly obvious, even if I'm the only nerd who bothers to write it down. But it raises a more compelling question for me: whom this group is meant for. Who do the owners expect to be their target audience? It's unclear how they chose those they invited, since Ms. Gravois does not have any trivia groups visible in her profile aside from her own and most people I know who received invitations didn't previously know who she is. Simply because this group isn't designed for people who already build their social second lives around trivia, however, it does not mean that it doesn't have a place somewhere in the trivia landscape.

JoshuaStephen Schism

As the description says, it's for "those of you who love trivia but don't like to hang around at a venue for questions to be asked." I'm sure there are plenty of people who fall into this category. Some of them probably like "dancing with trivia" more than "trivia with dancing." Many probably have stronger social ties at other types of clubs and don't have the time to spread out to the trivia venues. Some might have other obligations in SL throughout the day so that they are in-world but cannot attend events very easily. And some may not like the atmosphere of trivia events for a variety of reasons; I even know trivia regulars to whom this applies. What the group fee essentially pays for is the ability to play competitive trivia without having to go to an organized event, ever. This fee might be worthwhile to any of these people. TAA is thus not that dumb of an idea when viewed through the eyes of those who are, to put it bluntly, "not us," that is, not the sort of people who are likely to write and/or read trivia blogs. It does have a fatal flaw, however, and it is directly related to the concept of "us":

It will probably be difficult to locate the people who are interested, since most existing groups for trivia are based around events -- the ones that the target audience, by definition, doesn't want to go to.

Unless Ms. Gravois already knows a number of people to start her off (since it's always possible she began the group to meet a demand, not to shape one), it will probably take a lot of legwork locating players who love trivia enough to pay L$500 but not enough to "hang around at a venue." There are other things notable about belonging to social circles in SL outside of the trivia community, though, and the way we handle money is one of them. A lot of us do trivia specifically because we found we're good at it and can generate or supplement SL income with it, so our brains actually think in terms of SL economy over RL economy. L$500 doesn't equal US$2 (or your country's currency's equivalent) for us, it equals twenty-five questions at Shiraz or twenty questions at Blaizing Inferno or five correct first-place wins from Thorn. For those who are good at trivia, it is a reliable enough source of income to support a second life but not, for most, a second life of leisure.

There's no way to generalize how people outside of the trivia community think of money (and of course the description I've just given doesn't apply to everyone within it, either). But for those who see SL more as a game to invest in as one would pay to belong to World of Warcraft, I imagine special expenditures have a different meaning than for those of us who are self-sustaining in-world. When you approach the platform expecting it to be something you pour money into, it shapes your experience differently from what it's like for those who do not. What all this means is that L$500 may or may not seem all that exorbitant to people who are not accustomed to SLiving off of their winnings.

To sum up, the Trivia Anytime Anywhere group sounds like a good idea. It's just not a good idea for most "trivia people," and for that reason, I'll be very impressed if it gets off the ground. More than that, though, it's another one of those interesting indications of how social circles operate in Second Life. The introduction of an entirely different kind of format makes us notice how central the venues are even to those who only visit them on occasion. It also brings up the issue of money and how different the SL economy is for different people. I wish Ms. Gravois luck with her venture and will try not to be snarky from now on when I ask questions via IM in one of my groups.

Virtual Trivia Flickr Stream

We now have a central outpost for people to send their photos taken at trivia events. Go there to view, to join, to reminisce, to laugh, and/or to add to it.

Here's the URL: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1169830@N21/

And here's a sampling of stuff you can find there:

by Chaddington Boomhauer

by Lillian Shippe

by Mako Kungfu

by tapper Gopheller

by Lette Ponnier

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Personal Profile: Chaddington Boomhauer and Shale Nightfire, Part 2/2

Here's the continuation of my chat with Chadd and Shale. Enjoy!


Lette Ponnier: Is there any trivia writing process either or both of you follow in deciding on questions for events?
Shale Nightfire: Both of us have played trivia a lot pre-SL, so we have a bit of a trivia collection mentality, I think? Usually, we aim for variety. Anything can trigger a trivia question: a conversation with a friend or colleague, a current event that triggers some deep-hidden knowledge. I retain it til I can enter into a wiki we use for collaboration (typed into my laptop if I have that with me or jotted on a napkin at a café). We always strive for primary sources when we do our fact checking.
Chaddington Boomhauer: There's a balance to get between hard and easy. Sometimes I will try to get very far away from a current news story or the "on this day" news to get hard decent variety. I search the web and use ones I make up, like "who will get this first" kind of thing.
SN: We have a lot of fun writing the questions – I've even pulled up articles in newspapers from other centuries at the library. I think sometimes a bit too much of our humour comes through. Usually one of us will say something to the other if something seems a bit too off/difficult/etc., but we give each other a lot of leeway. The ordering we do at the end, putting together what we've both come up with and seeing if there are any natural segues.

CB: There's only one version of them even if one of us wrote most of them that week.
SN: One feature of wikis that is very overlooked is the ability to view history and discussion of previous versions. So if you are looking up an issue that you suspect is "contentious" on Wikipedia, it's good to read the previous discussion and history. True, a few "griefers" might post there, but a lot of experts also provide their opinions with backup links to authoritative, primary sources.
CB: It amazes me times when we think it's varied and someone gets more than half of them at an event. If anyone has complaints we would love to hear them :)

LP: That's everything I had planned. Is there anything that the two of you wanted to talk about?
CB: There aren't enough early trivias. I wish there were some between 2-7AM. Sure that means people actually in SLT will be drunk or asleep. Lotus has been having one but it's a little too early.
SN: We really do try to do questions from every perspective. We have tried very hard to include European and Australian questions, for example. We tried hosting that time period too, but the scheduling was ad hoc, so no chance to build-up regulars. We still play Gogomodo Trivia; some people don't see the point of it, but I find it really helps my memory. Always learning (or re-learning) new things. It can be quite fun when you get a competitive group together, too.


CB: The adult regions opened. Heh, well, one! There's a new test adult area. It's not the "real" place. You can test how many of your friends won't be able to get in.
LP: Do you think that trivia games that move to adult regions will take a hit?
CB: I get the impression the large number of unverified users would be an issue. I did one quick poll once and it was more than half the people I asked. The grief-free part is somewhat appealing, but I think many of them don't have a credit card they can use.
SN: Or are leery to? But isn't that changing? What's the current percentage of online shoppers? The comfort level has definitely risen.
CB: It seems higher in there, though. In the circles where this is a secret life for them, they don't want to get ID'd.
SN: Identity is a fascinating topic and ties in with the use of alts.
CB: Some days I pretend everyone is an alt.
SN: When I was new, Chadd told me there were really only 10 people on SL; everyone else is an alt.
CB: It mostly freaks me out when I meet a new person who is not new and knows everyone around me well, i.e. acting chummy. It's confusing. Friends who "leave" due to bad relationship drama, then you make a great new friend a few days later who likes all the same places. Gets you paranoid.
SN: Yes, but you don't want to make assumptions either. Each new person needs to be treated as an individual, not an alt or "reincarnation." I did find SL was better for this though. On IRC, there were quite a few different networks, channels and bots, but often a big chunk of the questions all came from one initial source. You could become an expert in one place, then show up in a new place and you already knew all the questions. People suspecting you of being an oldbie in disguise could be quite nasty. Here on SL, however you personally feel about using one, alts are a fact of SL life. We've only done one "trivia redux," where we did an actual replay. And no one swept it.
CB: It was on a different day though. I recycled some questions for Sharon's BYOT.
SN: We do love to reuse questions though that weren't answered on previous weeks. We thought everyone would catch on to that quickly, but there have been questions that went 5 or 6 weeks I think. It surprises me when there is headline news on NASCAR, for example, and no one comes prepared with an answer. We also like to make sure new people are welcome and that everyone has a chance at winning something. That's one reason our random prizes came about. Plus, we just like to have fun! We've given out some crazy ones.
CB: The first few times we just made them up.

SN: We did a "guess the theme" trivia, where the answer had to be specific to fit the theme. We asked 20+ questions and they all related to a theme. Knowing us though, there was a bit of quirkiness involved. At the end, you could guess the theme for 1000 or 2000 Lindens. No one got that one. We might try it again with an easier theme.
CB: I don't think anyone got the first one, it was impossible
LP: What was the theme?
SN: Well, I don't think we should tell... In case we want to use it again.
LP: Haha, ok.

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Personal Profile: Chaddington Boomhauer and Shale Nightfire, Part 1/2

Lette Ponnier: Could you both tell me how you ended up doing trivia in SL? Were you doing other stuff in SL first?
Chaddington Boomhauer: I was doing random stuff before trivia, mostly being confused at how to do things, and how-to classes on SL at TUI, NCI, classes on building, land, clothes, etc. Definitely useful. After figuring it out, I was looking for stuff to do, and had played trivia online elsewhere so searched for it.
Shale Nightfire: Friends had told me about SL and in a way that made me scared of all the sex-fiends I would come across. I've played trivia in other places too so I searched for it on SL, and found that the trivia people are a really good crowd!

LP: Were you both involved in other virtual worlds before SL?
CB: I played NTN and pub quizzes, I BBS'd, played trivia in IRC.
SN: Similar for me, plus hosting in real life venues.

LP: Were there any particular spots you found early on here when you started looking?
CB: Cafe Trivia would always come up first in my searches. The Shelter one was one of the first ones I went to that wasn't Gogomodo.
SN: I think I tried all of the Gogomodo spots that were listed when I started and found a few that had good people to talk to and a nice atmosphere. The Angry Penguin Tavern was one of my early favourites, and the campfire at AMS.

LP: Another question that is sort of related has to do with your creating Shotgun. It started in the fall, right?
CB: I think October but I'm not sure.
SN: We had been planning to open up our own trivia spot for a long time, but I was away for the summer. We bought Zoo La La in August; our first Shotgun Trivia was September 5th. In October we started having it in the Zoo Bar, but we still hold it on the mountain or the waterfront.


LP: What were your goals for it? It’s a higher paying game than average. Was it your intention to create a game that stood out for that reason?
CB: I think the prize money was to make sure people came at first.
SN: We got our own land so we could be creative - to build and experiment. Plus to have our own Gogomodo spot and host fast-paced trivia contests, since we had been to some slow ones. Games where you can learn something and have some fun. We found that the higher prizes do bring out a more competitive crowd, but it isn't so much about the actual money.
CB: Ones where you go nuts waiting 3-5 minutes between and it's not that talkative are annoying.
SN: A lot of the winners are other trivia hosts, who then give out money in prizes too.
CB: I do like some where it's slower and not much money, but mainly because of the people talking between questions.
SN: We did try holding Molasses Trivia btw. It wasn't as popular.
CB: Shelter trivia is fun but feels very slow compared to other ones. I got there from NCI. It's a good place if you need some help with SL.

LP: Do you still go to NCI?
CB: Yeah I became an NCI helper.
LP: What does that involve?
CB: Just sitting around answering whatever people ask or helping them with an immediate issue like box on head, can't stop dancing, where is my penis, etc.

SN: We have had classes at Zoo La La primarily for newbies; we do like to pass on what we learn, whether it's trivia or SL information. Usually the Q&A format was most popular.
CB: Open Q&A for Newbies and Slex 101. There is a sex kit now to give to people urgently in need of slex. With free parts, landmarks.
SN: We didn't have live demonstrations, but we had volunteers! It was just a basic intro and where to go next. Tastes really vary, so we weren't going to address them all. The reason we did some of these special newbie classes was due to a huge influx of people that happened following media attention about sex on SL. So many people were signing up with the wrong impression, that we wanted to do something to help the situation.
CB: SL seems a bit small because of that, I go somewhere I see in a blog then notice half my Flickr contacts posted pics of it a few days before.


LP: There's one topic I wanted to bring up, but I didn't actually come up with a way to phrase the question. I recently joined the ranks of a special class of citizens of whom Chadd is a part as well: those who have been banned from Marine Park.
CB: heh
SN: Well, can I say something about that then? With respect to several events that have happened at trivia contests over the last couple of months...

As hosts, we've rarely had problems at our events. In fact, the only occasion we've ever had to ban a trivia player at the Zoo Bar happened two weeks ago. This was only after the player in question (not a regular) insisted on ignoring all the rules and causing a fuss that was disruptive to other players. Even after the ban, we made every attempt to be fair and to resolve the situation.

While I agree that landowners and hosts have the right to ban; moderation, tolerance, understanding and rational behaviour would be nice to see. In my opinion, responsible management includes clearly articulating a venue’s rules and/or customs. When ejecting/banning is necessary, it should be accompanied by an explanation. It would be nice if people were judged by their own individual actions, not those of their friends. Although yes, an influx of players arriving en masse to a new event who appear to be acting as a group could provoke defensive behaviour.

As for MP, I wasn’t even in attendance when Chadd got banned from MP, so I was bewildered when I was ejected from the group. When I asked the owner what happened, I got no response whatsoever. Hrm.

CB: I think they're within their rights. They act weird about everything, there's a weird vibe there, so strange, inexplicable bans don't seem too surprising. I guess I'm lucky: I know exactly why they banned me, and they warned me twice before they banned me, even told me if I behaved I could stay. But I think everyone should be free to make whatever whacky rules they want. There is a trade off between sucky events and wanting the prize money. Missfortune made me realize it is better to try to decide based on the fun or challenge involved and not the money
SN: It's "only SL," but it's all too easy to click a couple of buttons and hurt a lot of feelings. On the other hand, almost all of the regular games I attend have very tolerant hosts and focus on the fun. It's great to see, too, when hosts put a lot of effort into their questions so you leave knowing you learned something new.

Come back tomorrow -- same time, same place -- for the conclusion of "Buccy Goes To the Zoo." :)

Shale and Chadd hosting Shotgun at Zoo La La

Except where otherwise noted, all photos were taken at Midsomer Isle, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Midsomer%20Isle/149/124/27

Shotgun Trivia:
=> Times/Days: Saturdays, 3:00-5:00pm; Chadd and Shale also sometimes announce games at other times during the week in the Zoo Bar group
=> Location: Zoo La La, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ishel%20Down/58/36/317
=> Prizes: Shotgun prizes are usually L$100 per question in the first round of ten questions; players can donate money to the bonus round kitty, and the hosts calculate the prize amount for the remaining questions. Other games at Zoo La La are subject to variation.

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