Subject: Quality of quizzes
Posted by: agony
Date: Mar 13 10
Some of the older quizzes on smaller countries have not really been all that great, and I've been giving several "average" ratings for this game. Picky questions on minor details of places none of us have heard of, with no way to make any kind of educated guess.
Today, with St Kitts and Nevis, I'm so happy to be able to give a good rating to a good quiz. This was a good example of how to write a quiz on a subject that many of your players don't know anything about, but still make it possible to score reasonably.
There have been a few other really good quizzes so far in this game, and I am learning things that I will actually remember. How about the rest of you - how do you feel about quiz quality so far?
Posted by: agony
Date: Mar 13 10
Some of the older quizzes on smaller countries have not really been all that great, and I've been giving several "average" ratings for this game. Picky questions on minor details of places none of us have heard of, with no way to make any kind of educated guess.
Today, with St Kitts and Nevis, I'm so happy to be able to give a good rating to a good quiz. This was a good example of how to write a quiz on a subject that many of your players don't know anything about, but still make it possible to score reasonably.
There have been a few other really good quizzes so far in this game, and I am learning things that I will actually remember. How about the rest of you - how do you feel about quiz quality so far?
50 replies. On page 1 of 3 pages. 1 2 3
| Terry
Head Honcho 
|
The offer still stands -- if anyone wants to create new quizzes to replace any old ones in the tour, go ahead! I will add them in the next run of the tour. Reply #1. Mar 13 10, 10:21 AM |
guitargoddess 
|
I think the difference is, of course, that the quizzes we all just recently wrote in the challenge to create a quiz for every country are going to be a lot better than some of the quizzes for other countries that have been online for years. To me, it'd make sense to choose a quiz for every country that a) has sunglasses (or at least close to sunglass ratings) and b) is Average in difficulty. But that's not possible if there's only one quiz to choose from! I do plan to write quizzes for some of the countries we've already been to, so that they may be used on the next world tour, as I had a lot more fun than I expected writing my Rwanda quiz awhile back. But Geography isn't a subject in which I can bang out a good quiz in a couple of days, and I don't know *anything* to start out with about these countries, so it's more than research than almost any other subject for me. But hopefully I'll get a couple done before the 195 days are finished! Reply #2. Mar 13 10, 10:51 AM |
agony
|
Yes, I'm a little wary of writing a Geography quiz, too, but I've had a few tickles of "I could do better than that" which are probably a good sign! Reply #3. Mar 13 10, 10:56 AM |
| bucknallbabe
|
As the author of today's quiz, I thank you for your comment, Agony, as I have been getting more and more miserable all day. This quiz started the day as my highest-rated, with sunnies in the top 1000. It had had about 40 genuine plays (120 estimated) and has been played as part of the bus ride over 250 times already - the tending towards average due to the fact it's in a challenge and has a high number of plays is very evident - by comparison with my other quizzes, unless Terry's new algorithm for rankings really takes this into account, it will lose it's sunnies on Monday and probably rank about 25000. And I can't see any way it can recover. I have had several compliments so I know it is a nice quiz - but at the moment, this bus driver feels she's been pushed off a cliff by a juggernaut! Reply #4. Mar 13 10, 3:36 PM |
redwaldo
|
agony, you make important points about the country quiz's; I've stopped playing the bus trip because quite a few of the quiz's don't 'make the grade'. Reply #5. Mar 13 10, 3:50 PM |
| guitargoddess
|
Ouch.. that kind of makes me dread the day when my Rwanda quiz comes up.. right now it's one of my highest rated, I guess it won't be eventually.. Reply #6. Mar 13 10, 4:20 PM |
looney_tunes
|
is there a way that authors thinking of writing a quiz can find out how many quizzes there are on each country? Even if I didn't enjoy the quiz on a country, I wouldn't necessarily go to all the effort of researching a totally unfamiliar country if there were actually several others that could go into the rotation - I'd rather pick a country with only one quiz, unless it was one I had enjoyed. St Kitts and Nevis was one of the few so far which I have felt rated above Average, and it felt like quite a relief! (Not that I am giving up on the trip. If nothing else, I am going to find something for lunch every day!) Reply #7. Mar 14 10, 2:07 AM |
| agony
|
I'd say the easiest way would be to go to that page in Geography, and see what you find. Looking in Central America, for example, I see only one quiz each on Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and El Salvador. And I'm not giving up on the bus ride, either. The good quizzes are highly enjoyable, and the poorer ones are just encouragement to write some of my own. Many of the older quizzes were written when quizmaking standards were lower than they are now. I'm noticing a familiar name on quite a few of the older quizzes on small countries. Vermic was a pioneering quiz writer, often the first and - even after all this time - the only author on dozens of subjects. Sadly, he passed away seven years ago. Even though the quizzes were simpler than what we expect now, I've never found a valid correction on a vermic quiz - his research skills were amazing. Reply #8. Mar 14 10, 8:18 AM |
| guitargoddess
|
I agree, there's nothing *wrong* with Vermic's geography quizzes, they're just not as informative as newer quizzes with lots of interesting info. In terms of knowing which countries have only one or two quizzes about them, most likely most small more 'unknown' countries have only the one. You can also go back to the thread in the Quiz Authors Lounge where the list of countries who had NO quizzes is. Those ones definitely only have the one quiz now, unless someone wrote another since we finished that challenge. Reply #9. Mar 14 10, 11:19 AM |
glendathecat
|
Maybe then we should rewrite Vermic's country quizzes as a tribute to him. If he was pioneering enough to want to get quizzes online covering all those countries, am I right in thinking that he would want to see up to date quizzes compementing them and reflecting up to date standards? Reply #10. Mar 14 10, 12:57 PM |
| bucknallbabe
|
Just in case anyone's interested, I was rather too pessimistic about the effect of being a stop on the Bus Ride on my quiz - it didn't drop 25,000 places, just 21,343! Luckily, I was prepared for this as I could see what was happening in real time so it wasn't that much of a shock. My sympathies go out to anyone who has had a similar experience. Is this fall in rankings over one week any kind of record? If so, I don't want anyone to take it from me :) Reply #11. Mar 15 10, 5:59 AM |
| agony
|
I agree, I think vermic would be pleased to see new quizzes online in those categories. Reply #12. Mar 15 10, 12:24 PM |
salami_swami
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That is so sad, I had no idea Vermic passed away... I have played a lot of his quizzes. :-) I'd help in that quest, GTC and Agony. :-) No, that is not a record, I don't think, by the way... One of my quizzes dropped from 30,000 to 70 or 80,000. Not good, for sure, but it happened. But on a positive note, the new algorithm bumped one of my poorly rated quizzes to a sunny. The quiz has been quiz of the hour, it's in a scavenger hunt, so it doesn't get rated that great. ;-) Haha. Reply #13. Mar 16 10, 9:04 AM |
| Terry
Head Honcho
|
"Ouch.. that kind of makes me dread the day when my Rwanda quiz comes up.. right now it's one of my highest rated, I guess it won't be eventually.." That's easy to rectify. Our new quiz ranking system is very flexible. I can easily give every quiz in the "bus" rotation a sizable ratings boost. Reply #14. Mar 16 10, 4:09 PM |
| Terry
Head Honcho
|
For authors interested in a new challenge, check out this post on the author's board: http://www.funtrivia.com/bb.cfm?action=details&qnid=24538&boardid=2222222 Reply #15. Mar 16 10, 4:25 PM |
| glendathecat
|
The other thread seems like the way to go but if anyone is interested specifically in Vermic's "country" quizzes, then I think this is a complete list. Solomon Islands Suriname Trinidad and Tobago Vanuatu Luxembourg Hungary The Netherlands Denmark San Marino Uruguay Czech Republic Eritrea Tonga Maldives Indonesia St Lucia Kiribati Cook Islands Georgia Zambia Reply #16. Mar 16 10, 4:57 PM |
janetgool
|
I'm enjoying the bus ride quite a bit, even if some of the quizzes are rather old. Bucknallbabe, don't be upset. I had the same experience when quizzes of mine became "quizz of the hour" and I even wrote about it on the forums. The quiz got LOTS of plays, but always fell in the rating. I fugured that it was due to people playing the quiz who really weren't in the subject. As for Vermic's quizzes, I think it would be a lovely tribute to update some of his quizzes. Since the standards were different when funtrivia was first created, it is unfair to compare some of those older quizzes to newer ones. I'll try and have a look at the list, and try and write a quiz about some place unfamiliar. Reply #17. Mar 17 10, 9:12 AM |
| salami_swami
|
I would think quiz of the hour quizzes need a little boost, too. Not as big of a boost as the bus ride quizzes, because they are only played for an hour, but just a minor bump. I notice they always drop in ratings with being quiz of the hour. :-) Reply #18. Mar 17 10, 9:56 AM |
| triviapaul
|
Indeed, kudos to Vermic and all those who made quizzes before wikipedia came along. Reply #19. Mar 17 10, 10:19 AM |
| bucknallbabe
|
Terry has made an adjustment to take account of a quiz being on the bus ride and I have my sunnies back. So I'm no longer upset - thanks for caring. Reply #20. Mar 17 10, 2:42 PM |
50 replies. On page 1 of 3 pages. 1 2 3
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