Hi Everyone - I really value all your opinions so wanted to get your thoughts on creating a very exciting and mass appealing game online. I want to make a trivia game on our website but don't want it to get boring...Any ideas how you can make a trivia game that you play online something that people really get excited about playing, really want to play?? How the game should work, etc Would really appreciate your ideas!
Thanks!
Hi,
Hey, I like this idea, it's real neat. Sorry that I can't give advice, as I'm not well versed in trivia games. I wouldn't know where to start. Though I'm sure there are many here willing to help.
Live long and prosper, Qundar out.
Hi,
I see one problem with this. If it's online, then how do you monitor people cheating? I can easily google a question and get an answer in a few seconds.
I like the idea, it's very original. But I just don't think it's do-able.
What are other peoples thoughts?
Love you,
Rob
The thing about a trivia game is that if a person interested in the topic (assuming it's not a general knowledge trivia game like Trivial Pursuit) that it will be interesting for them. If you are not interested in the topic, you wont be interested in the game. The good thing about doing it online is that you can probably find a decent number of people interested in your topic since you don't have geographic limitations.
The thing about a trivia game is that if a person interested in the topic (assuming it's not a general knowledge trivia game like Trivial Pursuit) that it will be interesting for them. If you are not interested in the topic, you wont be interested in the game.
I agree - I don't like trivia games in general, so advertising it as a trivia game woudl be enough to turn me off.
As such, perhaps one option is to market it differently (unless you really want to focus on trivia enthusiasts). This coudl be done so that answering trivia impacts on the game play in a thematic way, such as best places to dig for oil ... or playing your own version of a race around the world where good trivia skills let you make more optiomal choices about your options.
just an idea ...
If you want a trivia game with mass appeal that is not boring you’re going to have to include something for people like me. Even if it is in my favorite subjects answering questions is not interesting to me. Either I know it or not, there is no process involved like in a strategy game were you are constantly re-thinking your moves watching what other people do and adjusting your plan. If you must make a trivia game, make one that you do something other than answer question. Involve me in the game make me think not just recall some fact from a book or movie that I may or may not have read. Be creative, break new ground in the trivia game genre. Anyone can compile a list of facts, do more with it and you can make a game worth playing.
Suggestion: a detective game, a la the Carmen Sandeigo series, but with a less childish theme and set of 'clues'. Disguise your trivia as clues to a crime, and let the players figure out as they play that you're slowly forcing them to learn about ABC subject.
Good luck!
Hi sunup!
Unless I missed something, it appears that all the responses assumed that online = multi-player. If that's what you want, then you really need to focus on what trivia players find exciting, rather than trying to focus on mass appeal.
Tom Clancy writes the greatest thrillers, but if you only like Harlequin romances, you'll never Hunt for Red October!
So, based on that assumption (multi-player) and my suggestion, here is an idea that comes from the earliest days of online interactivity: BBS Doors.
Door programs were utilities configured by BBS system operators to coordinate multiple users' input to the server (which, back then, was a single PC hooked into a rack of modems). The sysop could run multiple instances of popular games on his PC, and each instance could support a goodly number of concurrent players (trivia question: anybody out there remember TradeWars? How about Solar Realms Elite?)
Somehow, the door utility could queue responses and would know the order in which people sent input. This was used to great effect in a Trivia-based environment. The sysop would set up what would now be called a "bot" program - an automatic trivia server, if you will.
There were actually three or four of these "bots", programmed to serve trivia based on a single category. In this way, players could sign up for the next "Star Trek" or "Sports" trivia game.
Of course, being a program, it also kept score. At the end of 20 questions, the winner was announced and that "bot" shut down until the next scheduled run.
Anybody who plays online games probably recognizes this format. It proliferates because it works and it's fun.
That is my suggestion. If you have the skills - or access to someone who does - you can set up a really nice trivia server.
Mitch
P.S. My dad is on AOL and I understand that chat room trivia is all the rage. Maybe you could just implement a chat server and have people run live trivia.
The only advantage that I can see of making it online is to allow people to add their own question to the database. This can prevent you from making research for the question but you might have wrong answers or badly evaluated question ( target audience, point reward, category ).
Also consider that on a online game( web based), you can hardly make direct competition between the players. You must make a game that each player plays alone and maybe their results or score is compared with other players.
Maybe you could take advantage of it being online and twist it around a little, sort of like Jeopardy. Instead of posing a question and seeing who can answer it first, post a fairly specific "answer" (topic) and set a time limit. Each player then submits a "question" (fact) relating to the topic, or makes one up. Players then vote on which is the best question -- you can't vote for your own, of course.
For example, if the answer is "Vienna", some questions could be "What is the capital of Austria?" (boring), "Where was Mozart born?" (slightly more interesting), "What European city marked the farthest west the Turks reached in 1635?", "What European city was the setting for a John Irving novel involving a dancing bear and a bantamweight wrestler?", "What city are wieners named after?", etc. (Note -- I haven't verified these questions, but I think they're all more or less true.)
I see one problem with this. If it's online, then how do you monitor people cheating? I can easily google a question and get an answer in a few seconds.
Well maybe that's your twist right there.....
A trivia game where the players are SUPPOSED to cheat.
An online trivia game where the answers are amazingly obscure and can't really possibly be known UNLESS you google them.
The questions can actually be ABOUT specific website content.
Q. On the website photobooth.net, there are some pictures from the movie "Superman III" which show a little boy in a baseball cap. The cap has two colours. What are they?
Huh? Huh?
~Josh
Hi,
OutsideLime, I really like your idea of the really obscure stuff. If I had time, I would play a game like that. If any of the questions were on Star Trek, I'd rule of course. Ha.
Live long and prosper, Qundar out.
Q. On the website photobooth.net, there are some pictures from the movie "Superman III" which show a little boy in a baseball cap. The cap has two colours. What are they?
Huh? Huh?
~Josh
Cerulean and amber.
(I Won, I won!)
Mitch
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Unless, you make the game education-based. Believe it or not, teachers are constantly looking for online education sites. These are alot of math sites, but I have not seen many social studies questions. Here are 2 good places to start.
Hot Potatoes, http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/
Jefferson Labs, http://education.jlab.org/solquiz/index.html
They maybe education based but they give you some ideas.