Event Profile: Charitable Bliss

I'll start by confessing that I put off checking out Charitable Bliss because the L$15-per-question payout did not constitute an especially persuasive pitch. And to be sure, with only around fifteen questions during the game, this is not the event to go to if you're trying to pay your rent. But curiosity won out, and as it turns out, the event fills a particular niche that might appeal to people hoping to ramp up their trivia karma.

In many ways, this is a pretty standard game: the questions follow broad themes (I was there for flag trivia and for television trivia), and as at Destiny's, longtime players will find them familiar; the crowd is perfectly nice and the music perfectly enjoyable; the sploder is perfectly splodery.

Charitable Bliss's distinguishing element, though, is right there in its name. This club's events are all geared toward raising money for the real life charities they support, currently the Breast Cancer Foundation and Autism Speaks. The club provides several means of contributing to these causes. You can donate money directly, of course, at displays on the premises. If you'd like something for your trouble, however, you can purchase women's clothing priced at L$25 per item provided by QT Clothing, including lingerie, casual apparel, and breast cancer ribbon pasties. Finally, if you'd really like some bang for your buck, you can participate in the ongoing silent date auctions for members of the staff, both male and female. Receipts on the walls indicate that they've managed to raise approximately US$65 for St. Jude and US$90 for Big Brother/Big Sister in recent months, which calculates to over L$40,000 in contributions.


Bliss's other main feature is to hook people up. From owner Jasmina Kline's description: "Looking for a date? Or true love? Charitable Bliss is here to help. People from all over come to our club to find true love. Whether it be a blind date, a charity date auction, or just to hit on the dancers. Everyone is welcome." (As an aside, this makes me want to conduct a dual interview with Jasmina and David Tuck, the other club owner on the circuit who aspires to be matchmaker to the masses.) So if courting members of your preferred sex(es) through out-answering, out-smartassing, or out-typoing them (or letting them do the same to you) hasn't been working out for ya, then maybe they can be of assistance over that-a-way.

As far as the trivia itself goes, as I said, there are no bells or whistles, no gimmicks, no huge payouts or goofy costume themes. The events have live DJs and dancers (not the stripping kind as far as I'm aware). Jasmina begins the game at half past the hour and moves at a brisk but not rushed pace thereafter. Both times I was there, the questions wrapped up in under 45 minutes. The time slot coincides with Double Standards' usual weekday slot, but the trivia is scheduled only two days a week, Mondays and Thursdays, so that with DS's currently abbreviated schedule, only one of those days poses a conflict.

Sample questions from the TV theme event:

[2009/06/29 16:39] Jasmina Kline: Q: What company was the original sponsor of I Love Lucy?


[2009/06/29 16:45] Jasmina Kline: Q: What is NBC's longest running soap opera?

[2009/06/29 17:05] Jasmina Kline: Q: What popular TV personality claims he was once fired as a weekend TV weatherman for describing a storm as having "hailstones the size of canned hams"?

Drop in at Charitable Bliss if you get a hankering for it, but take note that if my previous visits are any indication, the trivia will likely happen between 4:30 and 5:15, so don't arrive at 5:00 expecting a full hour to go. Those who are not specifically there for the trivia will still be around, and they're certainly fun to hang out with, but in case that's not you, just saving you that potential disappointment. I began with the admission that I am a bit of a payout snob, but after learning of Charitable Bliss's non-profit focus, I felt humbled. If you need someplace better to drop your lindens than the latest hair mega-sale -- possibly the lindens you just won from Jasmina -- Bliss provides an option.


The Specs:
=> Location: Charitable Bliss, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kensington/50/18/502
=> Times/Days: Mondays and Thursdays, 4:00 to 6:00pm SLT
=> Host: Jasmina Kline
=> Prizes: L$15 per question, 17 questions were asked the last time I was there

Answers to sample questions:
=> Philip Morris
=> Days of Our Lives
=> David Letterman

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Event Profile: Destiny's Lounge

Yesterday, my efforts to attend new games brought me to a little place called Destiny's for a DJed event with dancing, sploding, and trivia hosted by Loraine Alter. What made the strongest impression on me there was the warmth and friendliness of the group. There were few familiar faces there and none who stayed from beginning to end, but the club's staff and regulars were very inviting and amiable. I had a nice time dancing and talking and will probably return sometime for that reason alone.

The event took place on a little "pirate bar" pier (if you've been to an event on Marine Park's Big Sky Bay sim -- the northern sim -- it's the same structure). DJ Mudge Ashbourne fed the stream, guests fed the sploder, we all clicked the dance kitty to boogie, and eventually the trivia kicked in. There were twenty questions with no particular theme, and for a correct answer, you had your choice of either L$20 or the opportunity to ask a staff member to remove one item of clothing. Since I didn't know any of the staff, it was an easy choice.

As for the questions... here's where I confess that I felt a little overexperienced there. There are some trivia events that attract a lot of very good players, and since we're a social group, too, we sort of gravitate toward each other and to those games. There are other events that seem to be more "grassroots," in a sense. A host at a club or a cafe decides to incorporate some trivia into the normal event. The regulars have fun with it, maybe one or two stand out and have a knack for it, but there's still a big difference between what this type of game is like compared to one in which a number of the players rely on trivia winnings as their primary (or only) source of income in SL.

When I go to those sorts of events, I find myself sitting on my hands a lot (to borrow a friend's favorite phrase). At this one, most of the trivia were questions I'd heard before, probably a couple of times each, a few of them word-for-word. I made it a point not to answer two in a row, and still I took enough of the questions that others at the event began commenting (though not enough to attract serious plinking). But like I said, they were very friendly people, and several invited me to come back and bring friends. Earlier today, I received a notecard from the host about the next event because it was to be at a different location and I didn't join the group for announcements. That kind of effort to reach out is impressive.

Sample questions:

[2009/06/15 13:25] Loraine Alter: What organization elects the 15 judges of the World Court?

[2009/06/15 13:35] Loraine Alter: What socialist writer's last words were: "Last words are for fools who haven't said enough"?

[2009/06/15 13:43] Loraine Alter: Who did Henry VIII have beheaded for witchcraft and adultery, along with her wolfhound?


The club was filled not with trivia sharks answering these questions but with people who just wanted to have a good time and one guy who evidently located Loraine's resource on the web and was copy/pasting the answers (correct spelling, everything capitalized, just the right amount of time between the question and his answer). I would be curious as to how the place would change if more hardcore trivia players came to take advantage of the friendly atmosphere and familiar question topics. Most of the regulars would likely get shut out of the running on the questions as the competition picked up, but I'm not certain whether the increase in attendance would make up for that, where the club is concerned. Are more people always a good thing if they change the whole vibe?

Of course, my profiling the event makes that more likely, though I'm not expecting a mass exodus, since other trivia events take place at that time of day. But if you're looking for a new crowd or a new setting, even just for a day, or if you would rather have a staff member (males and females were present) remove an article of clothing over taking lindens, check in with Loraine and all of Destiny's babes. You probably won't be humming the Jeopardy! theme song in your head on any of the questions, but the social atmosphere is as friendly as could be.

The Specs:
=> Time/Day: Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, 12:00 to 2:00pm, though the trivia didn't start until nearly 40 minutes after the hour when I attended.
=> Location: Destiny's Lounge, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Darling/114/79/22 ... different events take place in different parts of the sim, so check your mini-map when you arrive and follow the green dots
=> Host: Loraine Alter
=> Prizes: L$20 per question for 20 questions, though you can elect to have a staff member remove an article of his or her clothing instead of the money

Answers to questions in the article:
=> United Nations
=> Karl Marx
=> Anne Boleyn

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.

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Event Profile: Cafe Casablanca

Dae's Cafe Casablanca

There was no one there except for the host when Lou and I arrived at Cafe Casablanca. He was dancing alone in the corner of the club and was very friendly with his greetings as we came in. The place didn't bring in many more people over the next hour, but Daedalus Lemuria never lost his positive and welcoming demeanor. He put on a translator for a single guest who spoke only Portuguese and was not doing the trivia. He tossed out teasing banter with the other customers in between the questions. He never let on that he noticed that there were never more than six people in the room at once.

The topic was Big Band Trivia, you see, and, well... it's what we might call a highly specialized area of expertise. I don't know how much of a crowd Dae gets for his non-trivia events -- normally he holds live music and DJed dances -- or for trivia nights with less specific topics, but he was happy to see those who were there and did not seem at all self-conscious about it being a smaller group.

Daedalus Lemuria at "his little gin joint"

The trivia was conducted by way of a trivia machine, but unlike most trivia orbs, it seemed completely controlled by the host, in terms of timing and questions. Dae even had some of his music stream designed to complement the questions. Nonetheless, you had to have exact spelling and the precise versions of the answers for the machine to pick it up. But when it did, it shelled out a generous L$50 per question. Dae sometimes gave clues to help people along, saying "Steal" to indicate that someone was close but didn't have the exact answer.

I was never quite sure why he was using the trivia machine. At one point one player squeezed in with an answer that he'd wanted to pay someone else for knowing first, and he asked the former to pay the latter, saying the game would continue once she did. On another question that everyone was struggling with, he offered a hint in exchange for half of the prize money back from the person who answered it. Each of these could have been much more easily handled if he were managing the prize money himself instead of filtering it through the trivia machine. Trivia machines are useful for busy events when the trivia is only a side-attraction, for instance at a DJed dance or live music event, when the host might have other things he or she needs to attend to. When the questions are as much as L$50 each, the trivia becomes the focal point of the event, and when the trivia requires as much attention as a notecard full of questions to copy into chat, it seems like it would be easier for the host to do the asking and the judging and the paying.

Yes, he is all about Casablanca. Even quotes the movie during the event. And he has hidden on the grounds "The Letter of Transit." Find it and you win L$200!

Aside from the awkwardness arising from the superfluous use of a trivia machine, though, the questions and the game were pleasant enough. I don't have enough background in the subject matter to judge the difficulty level of these questions, but they were all answered eventually. Sample questions:

[2009/05/26 17:05] Trivia Master v1.30: Question: 5. What was "Count" Basie's real first name?

[2009/05/26 17:19] Trivia Master v1.30: Question: 8. Duke Ellington's famous theme was "Take The A Train" where did "The A Train" go?

[2009/05/26 17:27] Trivia Master v1.30: Question: 13. Earl Bostic was famous for this instrument?

These are actually on the easy side, since they're the ones I either got or was close to getting, but they give you an idea.

Dae also does movie trivia sometimes. The club has been open for two years and at its current location for one. Although none of us there on this occasion had ever noticed it listed before, he intends to have trivia nights twice a month. Movie trivia will have more questions at a lower payout (there were twenty questions in this game). He also presents music trivia that is not Big Band-themed but typically sticks with various genres of jazz. The group to join to make sure you don't miss the announcements next time is Cafe Society. Dae's a nice guy, and if these topics are your cup of tea, make the effort to pay him a visit at a future event.

Genevive, me, Lou, Zarya, and a whole lotta Ingrid Bergman.

The Specs:
=> Time/Days: Once every two weeks. Probably continuing on Tuesdays from 4:30 to 5:30, but check Events to be sure.
=> Location: Cafe Casablanca, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Valtor/30/64/22
=> Host: Daedalus Lemuria
=> Prizes: Twenty questions, L$50 each

Answers to sample questions:
=> Bill
=> Harlem
=> saxophone

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Event Profile: Triana's Music Trivia

It seemed that if I am writing a blog entirely about SL trivia, it would make sense to include a profile of the event that is billed every week as the longest running trivia game in Second Life, Triana's Music Trivia. This event takes place Sundays at 7:00pm in a sim called Velda. I was curious to find out how it is that such a long-running event could be so absent from the chatter and recommendations of the trivia crowd that I am accustomed to. When I started telling people I was planning to go to it, a few told me they'd been once or twice but weren't too keen on it, mostly because the organizers use a buzzer system instead of awarding the fastest typists. I was willing to keep an open mind, however, because I was mostly talking to fast typists.

The room the trivia takes place in is cozy and mostly adorable, with all sorts of food furniture (I sat on a doughnut) and comfortable stairs and alcoves. It's a great little hangout space. There was a voting mechanism for selecting a trivia theme. That night, the options were Random Trivia or Fleetwood Mac. I voted for the latter, but unsurprisingly, my gal Stevie wasn't too popular, and the votes were heavily in favor of Random questions.

I didn't end up being too frustrated with the buzzer device. There is an object that you click if you want to answer the question, and it selects someone randomly among those who've done so. If that person is right, they win the money; if they're wrong, the buzzer is reset and you can start volunteering to answer again. It's a pretty good system for slow typists, certainly. And it makes sense that those who normally do well in fast games would not entirely enjoy it. I don't have any serious qualms about it in theory. In practice, however, there is one aspect of it that can potentially ruin someone's game regardless of how fast they are: the random machine makes it possible to spend an hour at Triana's Music Trivia and never even have the chance to answer a question.

Sample questions, by the way:

[2009/05/17 19:24] Triana Caldera: QUESTION 5. What singer is featured in the song Rock 'N' Roll Shoes by Ray Charles?

[2009/05/17 19:29] Triana Caldera: QUESTION 7. This new age singer and composer is one of Ireland's most popular and best selling artists. She won her fourth Grammy Award in 2007 for her album Amarantine. What is the popular name that she is known by?

[2009/05/17 19:55] Triana Caldera: QUESTION 18. Finish this line from a famous TV theme song: "Movin on up, to big time to..."

It's possible to have a good time at a place with such a system, if you go for more than just the trivia. And the event at Triana's is packed with other things going on. In fact, in some ways it's the cousin of Chaos Trivia/Truth or Dare: some of the people there wore onigokkos, the attachments that we use in Chaos to cause everyone to run amok during the trivia questions (hence the name "Chaos"), and set the onigokkos running every once in a while. There was also a truth or dare machine that someone periodically hit, and anyone who wanted to could respond to the truths (I don't remember anyone performing a dare). There was also a lot of raunchy conversation, a guy dancing in tie-dye undies and fishnets, and the distracting and somewhat cliquey bantering of the regulars in voice chat.

...which, I must note, annoyed me a lot more than the buzzer system. The atmosphere at Triana's was hectic, noisy, and seemingly geared toward the general amusement of a group of friends, with a smattering of outsiders sitting around awkwardly and silently like significant others invited to a wedding in their loved one's distant family. After an initial and very brief greeting, no one really addressed the new people directly except during questions. Those who were on voice, which included host Triana Caldera, inevitably became the focal participants in the conversation, and though they sometimes responded in voice to text people wrote in local chat, the interaction was still unbalanced and not very newcomer friendly.

At one point, a first-timer who had come in late and didn't hear the rules caused a bit of confusion when he answered a question out of turn. The locals (I was never sure who was staff and who was just a regular there) started referring to the mistake-maker entirely in the third person. "Hold on, that's not right." "It's one of the new people." And then the canned announcement pasted in local, "FOR THOSE JUST JOINING US, WELCOME! TO GET RULES ON GAMEPLAY, CLICK THE OLD LADY SIGN FOR A NOTECARD." The poor guy didn't even play for the rest of the game. At another point, a player's answer was met with comments in voice such as, "That was googlicious," while the host mused out loud over whether she would directly accuse the player of googling or not, saying in text, "and that was supposed to be my stumpy of the evening." This conversation, too, took place in voice and in the third person. The player hadn't been answering a stream of tough questions; this was the only one. If this were a place that didn't mind, I would have assumed they were teasing, but the rules warn, "IF I THINK YOU ARE GOOGLING ANSWERS, YOU WILL BE ELIMINATED FROM GAME PLAY." With the player's participation in the game at stake, such conversations should be kept in IM until a decision is made.


Not only was the use of voice by some alienating to others but it added to the sensory overstimulation. If you had all of your sound tracks on, you would hear the music stream, the onigokko, the buzzer blaring out, "Wrong!" and the chatter of the voice chatters all at the same time, while trying to answer trivia questions. Or at least to pay attention to the machine and the chat so see whether you even can.

The dynamic with the voice chat was such that if I or another new visitor were to put on our headset and join in, it probably would have felt just as awkward as sitting around the room, listening to the Triana and Friends Show. Theirs was a conversation that added nothing to the atmosphere for some of us and could have taken place in a private conference call.

Still, if Triana's is the longest-running trivia event in SL (and I haven't heard of anyone trying to contest that claim), then they must be doing something right, even if it's for only a few core people who return consistently. In a room of approximately sixteen people, I counted five whose names were in the parcel's name and only five (including myself) whom I've ever seen at other trivia events. They have a system that works, at least for themselves and some enthusiasts, and it's likely that a few new people come through who click with their vibe immediately or who at least prefer the buzzer system over speed-typing. I would thus hesitate to draw any generalized conclusions about whether this is a good or a bad place to visit.

Any game is worth checking out once. Possibly twice. I'd like to return to see if I like it any more if I turn my sound completely off (I turn music off during trivia, especially music trivia, anyway). I've mentioned the use of voice chat to others who've tried Triana's, and it seems that I might have arrived on a fluke night, since no one else remembers them having used it before. We tried voice chat for anyone who wished to use it in Chaos briefly last fall, but we jettisoned it in response to complaints that it was exclusionary. After experiencing Triana's, I understand where that complaint was coming from.

To sum up, I found the buzzer system interesting but potentially frustrating, which shifts more emphasis to the other aspects of the event. It's possible to go to a trivia event, never get a question right, and still have a good time, if you enjoy the crowd and/or the music and/or the other things going on (like in this case the truth or dare game). If you go to Triana's and you find that you're on the same wavelength as the regulars, then it's possible you'll quite enjoy it. My sense is that voice chat makes it more difficult for newcomers to surf that wavelength, but it isn't impossible. Go to Triana's at least once, if it's in your schedule to do so (it's a bit late for Europeans), even if it's just to say that you went to the longest-running trivia game in SL.

Specs:
=> Time: 7:00pm Sundays (one hour)
=> Location: Triana's Music Trivia
=> Host: Triana Caldera
=> Prizes: twenty questions, L$25 each

Answers to the sample questions:
=> B.J. Thomas (this one was the stumper)
=> Enya
=> that deluxe apartment in the sky

Event Profile: The U'Bar

In my effort to travel off the beaten trivia path, I checked out an event at a place called The U'Bar on Sunday. Polgara Weyland's movie trivia follows a straightforward format: she gives us a movie quote and we give her the movie. As trivia hosts seem to be wracking their creative brainstems trying to develop ever more complex games in order to differentiate themselves from each other (not that someone who developed Chaos Trivia and the Buccaneer Bowl would consider that a bad thing), it's nice to show up at a friendly club, hang out and dance for a while, and do some basic answering to basic questions. Very chill, in fact.

Polgara began doing her quiz two weekends ago and found herself stumping her patrons on many of the questions. This week, half a dozen trivia gluttons descended on (or ascended to, rather) the U'Bar skybox 3000m above Lusiana sim. Needless to say, she had little trouble finding a winner for most of the quotes this time around. The Sunday schedule is normally very competitive and chock full of good games, especially in the middle of the day, but a couple of the usual events did not take place this week, possibly due to a combination of Mother's Day and [MonoChrome]'s big weekend event the day before. The hole in the calendar allowed some of us to enjoy this laid-back little gem.

Sample questions:

[2009/05/10 13:41] Polgara Weyland: 2) "Are you the singing bush?"

[2009/05/10 14:07] Polgara Weyland: 9) "We have clearance, Clarence." Clarence: "Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor?"

[2009/05/10 14:16] Polgara Weyland: 11) "Snakes, why'd it have to be snakes?"

(answers given at the end of this post)

Such questions are easy to put together and easy to ask. They can be found via search engine, of course, but when the room is full of movie trivia buffs, most will be answered before anyone can scavenge IMDb, and Polgara says she will continue using movie quotes "until I run out of movies people know." Sounds promising!


On other days of the week, U'Bar is a dance club. "Our main event is the Cher & Carm show...done by the owners," says Polgara. "They usually do their radio show on Mondays and Thursdays, with contests of all kinds, and even have a link where you can watch them in the studio while they do the show." Although she is probably partial in her opinion, she does assure us that "It's absolutely fantastic!!!!!" This event will not be held for the next two weeks, but when I returned to take pictures around 1:00pm-ish on Tuesday, the place was hopping to DJed rock tunes, with a very amiable atmosphere and not a single spammy gesture during the ten minutes I was present.

The trivia began later than was stated in the events listing and finished up relatively quickly, but it moved at a comfortable pace while it was going on. The sixteen questions took place over an hour's span. On the side of pleasant surprises, the listing said that questions would pay out L$25 each; when Polgara accidentally announced that they would be L$50, she decided just to go with it. Payouts will normally be L$25 per question in the future, but this was our first indication of the coolness of Polgara.

The trivia will continue weekly on Sunday afternoons. The schedule will pick back up with its normal pm crowdedness next week, but if you enjoy movie quotes, dancing, and a change of setting, keep The U'Bar in mind.

Specs:
=> When: Sundays, 1:00 or 1:30 (check the calendar) to 3:00, but the trivia goes fast, so if you show up at 2:30, it may be over
=> Where: The U'Bar, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lusiana/120/207/3004
=> Host: Polgara Weyland
=> Prizes: Sixteen questions (though I don't know if that varies), L$25 each

Answers to questions in blog:
=> The Three Amigos
=> Airplane!
=> Raiders of the Lost Ark

Event Profile: Armada Breakaway

One of the newer games to hit the Second Life trivia circuit is Mako Kungfu's short but sweet weekly event in the fabulous steampunk sim of Armada Breakaway. The sim itself is rather new, opened just over two months ago. A floating city based on the novels of author China Mieville, it is a roleplay sim welcome to any and all types of SL citizens, RPers and non-RPers alike. Native to the environment are mermaids, street urchins, pirate-looking folks, and at least one arachnid. Stores such as Grim Bros, Viv Trafalgar Outfitters, and ZAiGear skirt the walkways, and the organizers host a range of events friendly to visitors, including burlesque, discussion groups, synchronized mer-swimming, and of course trivia.

Me, Posableman, Rach, and Chadd

Armadans approached Mako to host themed trivia in the sim (his sky capsule store, Atomic Owl, is there), and the games have so far attracted a mix of people who hear about it through Armada and through trivia sources. The questions are written to be relevant to the sim's themes but are always accessible to others. For instance:

[17:28] Mako Kungfu: 4. Synchronized swimming demands advanced water skills, and requires great strength, endurance, flexibility, grace, artistry and precise timing, as well as exceptional breath control when upside down underwater. Competitive swimmers keep their hair in place by "knoxing" it with this edible translucent substance, found in wobbly desserts, trifles, marshmallows and confectioneries like Peeps and gummi bears.

[17:45] Mako Kungfu: 8. In Mieville's novels, the Vodyanoi are a fat and froglike race of water magicians who can fashion temporarily-solid objects (such as walls) out of water. They are based on the Vodyanoi of Slavic mythology, male water spirits who occasionally get angry and break dams, cause floods and drown victims... and who may give you a fish if you drop a pinch of a certain substance into the water. This substance comes from the dried leaves of plants in the genus Nicotana and can be smoked, chewed and sniffed. Name it.

[17:47] Mako Kungfu: 9. The word aeronautics comes from the Greek "aero" (air or sky) and "nautis" (sailor). For much of his life, this Renaissance icon was fascinated by the phenomenon of flight, and was one of the first modern Europeans to study aeronautics. He published a Codex on the Flight of Birds and designed flying machines like his famous helicopter and a light hang glider. Name him.

(answers at the bottom of the blog)

Lengthy questions like these aren't usually ideal for fastest-answer trivia because they advantage those who either speed-read or are most accustomed to the format of the questions and know which parts to skim, and newer players are likely to grow frustrated. They seem necessary for this context, though, so that they provide both steampunk/period relevance and a means of answering for those who aren't familiar with the Mieville mythology. They're also well-written enough that I usually return to read them more thoroughly after zipping through an answer. Mako's questions and explanations of the answers are among the most thorough and informative around. You can't leave without learning something new, and a few of the people who come who aren't regulars at other trivia events still seem to do fine.

Mako and sheep

The setting is a little park, one of the very urban Armada's only pastoral spaces. Sheep roam and sometimes find someone to cling to. Jazzy, bluesy, and old-time tunes come in on the audio stream. A few couches are set about, though most people seem to prefer standing. The tone is low-key, and the locals are friendly. Three weeks into it, though, it still feels like it's off the beaten path, perhaps because it sounds specialized, doesn't take place at an established trivia club, and conflicts with Double Standards. It's only one hour a week, though, to DS's 14+, and I've been able to get in an hour of the latter before heading over. If you like your trivia laid back and intellectual, don't let the unfamiliar territory discourage you. Throw on that Victorian dress or suit buried at the bottom of your inventory (or don't -- steampunk duds are optional) and swing by next Monday.

Specs:
=> Time: Mondays, 5:00 to 6:00pm SLT
=> Place: Armada Breakaway, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Armada%20Breakaway/149/73/22
=> Host: Mako Kungfu
=> Prizes: Fifteen questions, at L$40 per question; bonuses also include gifts from local stores, including Grim Bros and ZAiGear

Answers to questions in the blog:
=> gelatin
=> tobacco
=> Da Vinci