I often receive this question, and thought that with the start of the new Global Challenge that it would be a a good time to discuss this.

The question, in some such form, is:

"How on earth do people answer 15 questions in 20-30 seconds? They've GOT to be cheating!"

We see fast times like these most frequently in the easy game, some smartest game categories, and the early divisions of the global challenge. Occasionally you see fast times in other games, although it tends to be rarer. It is no secret that a small number of FunTrivia players are incredibly fast.

It's a good question, because those times do look fast, and perhaps even suspicious, don't they? That's an average of less than 2 seconds or so per question. Clearly it's difficult to imagine reading all of the text of each question, reading each answer, thinking, clicking, and then scrolling to the next question in 2 seconds.

It is all, however, occurring completely legitimately. For starters, every single FunTrivia tournament (daily/hourly/GC game) has built in cheat protection. Very rarely will you actually receive identical questions to someone else. Yes, there is often overlap and the difficulty levels are the same to keep a fair playing field, but our algorithms are pretty effective at stopping intentional cheating. We also have other methods for detecting cheaters, multiple-computer users, multiple-account players, etc.

The secret of scoring fast is twofold: small question pools, and repetition.

A lot of our "very easy" question pools are fairly thin. There aren't a ton of questions in these pools because there are only so many "very easy" questions that one can ask about "religion", for example. Our difficult categories tend to have many times more questions.

Next comes repetition. FunTrivia has been running for over 10 years, and it's not a stretch to say that a good number of our active players playing today have been here for 5+ years. Many of our top players have been playing 8 years or more. Almost every day. Multiple times a day. Multiple games per session. We're talking about millions of trivia questions viewed per player.

Some of our top players have literally seen each of our "very easy" questions hundreds or in some cases likely closer to a thousand times.

Add these two together, and our faster players don't even need to really read the easier questions. They just know the answer by identifying a keyword or two in the question or answer. The amazing thing is that some players can do this even in some of the larger question pools, where there are thousands of questions. I'm sure some likely have photographic memory too, allowing them to memorize some of our deeper question pools.

As for scrolling tactics, some players use their keyboards (tab, etc), others use their middle mouse button to scroll. Some people hit page down.

It's precisely because of the group of super-fast players that we added the "division" system within most hourly and daily games a while ago, to give newer players a chance to challenge themselves against players of similar experience level on the site. I actually added this after playing some games myself and getting irritated at the fast scores! As a newbie player myself, I wanted a fairer comparison of my scores. The division/level system allows fast players to put their legitimately earned skills to test, while also allowing us mere mortals to play against one another by reading and thinking.

As such, don't be disappointed when you see other players score insanely quickly. Perhaps if you play a few thousand games you too could one day have a chance against them! Even then, maybe not. Some of us just are never going to be fast. I constructed a set of games specifically for such people (monster quiz, 195 day bus ride, scavenger hunts, treasure hunt, mind melt casual mode, etc). FunTrivia really does have something for everyone.

If you're the type that likes to compare yourself to other players, save yourself some heartache and compare yourself to those in your experience/level range where the comparisons at least are somewhat fair.

Happy trivia!
Terry

When I first joined FT, it took me 51, or more, seconds to complete one game in Globals.

Practice helped me reduce the time.

Thanks for everything!

Practice, practice, practice.

Well said Terry. I've been here over nine years myself.

hi all
my results refer only to the latest global challenge test results that i can find on the screen.
there are 3 scores. 3 of 3 were 13 in an average time of 71 seconds.
in my teens i was a speed reader but after numerous strokes, heart attacks and general old age (now 78+) this is the best i seem to be able to do.
the best game i did was the first global challenge were i was 10th but that game (in a surprise to me) only counted the top players. so in the first game when i was younger i should in my opinion gotten an immortal badge but did not. i still wonder how come?
but at least i can still play and still run my team. one of the best (classicalmusic/mensan).
so thanks for the memories.

I haven't figured out how to speed up my brain yet, but using the Control Settings certainly speeds up your mouse.

I know just what you mean cowdunking.

I've been playing (and reading) for a little over four years and although I can have flashes of brilliance, for some reason it can depend a lot upon what time of the day I play - like early in My morning around 2 or 3am!

I am on the hunt to break my 20 second mark.

But it Is fun to battle friends.

And I was upset that it now resets at 11:00 my time. Suddenly I don't feel so bad. I'll have to come up with another excuse for 'slow brain syndrome'. CD

20 seconds? Even with a mouse on steroids I can't click them that fast, never mind any kind of speed reading. I'm not complaining and I'm not jealous. Just in awe.

One case I can't see an explanation for (other than system error) was a 15/15 in 4 seconds for a Religion category in a GC round a year or two ago. I assume Divine Intervention might have been involved.

Happy Speed Demon Trivia!

Perhaps time travel has finally been invented. I know I would need to start in the future and score in the past to manage 40 seconds much less 4. Tried playing once with my son's mouse, which is set super fast for gaming, but couldn't seem to keep it on the screen. I guess it's just a matter of how your brain functions, and mine is getting slow.

Even clicking at random I can not beat some of the fastest times I sometimes see

I hope this is close to the right Topic folks?

A query?

Recenly a Tournament Hostess banned a member for Googling. I feel so strongly about this unfairness that I just had to post about it.
On a particular Tournament one Day everybody got 9/10 right in their usual times, except for one member who got 10 in about 160 seconds or something and he/she got banned for that??? because the Hostess deemed Googling as Cheating???
I'm sorry but I think that Hostess has it all wrong and is trying to make Her own rules to suit her own Tournaments.
I think that is absolutely ridiculous. Of course people can Google, it's all about learning isn't it? and the Tournaments are about time and memory mostly and if somebody wants to Google, why not?
They're wasting loads of precious time doing that but what the hell? That's up to them.
I actually thought it was clever that that member took the time to try and get the 10.

So...my query is..does anybody think that's fair to be banned for Googling or is this Hostess trying to dictate to us how we play?

Regards,

Dec (Strum)

You will get very divided feelings on this issue! Some players definitely consider googling as tantamount to cheating, as they feel they are pitting their personal knowledge and speedy reflexes against others. I belong to the group who feel that research is fine, since the extra time taken is its own handicap, and it is all about learning as you go. You might as well find out the new information as you are answering the questions instead of waiting for someone else to tell you the answer. The issue iof googling has been extensively debated here in the forums, with no concensus being reached.

I would also like to remind everyone that not every 160-second quiz means that the taker googled or otherwise looked answers up. I can't tell you how many times my answers just don't take on the first two or three or four times I click or double click. Sometimes, when they finally go through, I get the message that I've already taken the quiz, and can't even see which ones I got right or wrong. When this happens, my times are inflated, and I didn't google. So if it happens to me, it happens to others. Not everyone has the fastest connections and the newest equipment.

Regardless of your feelings about Googling, in my opinion, for a private quiz, the quiz host has the right to ban anyone he/she wants.

I agree with Mike - you say it yourself, her tournaments and her rules!

I agree - she has the right to do whatever she wants.

That said, however, players also have the right to play or leave any private tourney and if I had been a player in that tourney, I would probably leave and never come back. A tourney host can set rules and enforce them but banning a player without warning because they once violated a rule that possibly wasn't even clearly communicated before - at least not with these consequences - is a style of leadership I would not wish to play under.

The Cat People have their tourney and the intro page says "please do not google, this is for fun". I am also pretty sure one member does at least occasionally look up answers but yet I would never ban him from the event just for that - it would be handing out a severe penalty without proof!

I think I'm the banned player. Strum, I wrote Deborah about it. I made it clear that there's just as much skill in googling as there is in memorizing answers after having seen them over and over again. After all, I do just as well in P of C as I do in WTS or FMI. I play so many private tournaments anyway. I won't miss playing one out of the dozen or so I play every day. If folks are looking for purity in their games, they will inevitably be disappointed. She grants folks the use of the hall, it's her rules. I've since shrugged it off. Don't sweat it too much Strum.

-Dave

I'm glad to hear it's not a problem for you, cubswin2323, but I still dislike a snap judgement made without proof. haven't any of you gotten a phone call in the middle of one of these quizzes or gotten otherwise distracted and then submitted your answers late? There are so many ways other than googling to have a long quiz time.

If a player has difficulty reading due to vision handicaps, high scores are par for the course. But then that exhibits itself on every test not just once in a while.

So Cubby, did you get to take your virtual flower vase and virtual hot dog with you when you were cast out into the cold?

Yes it was you Cubs. I thought it was ridiculous but there you go.
Thanks for all the replies folks.

I will never be afraid to stick my neck out there. I believe in freedom. Freedom in what one says, freedom in how one plays. That is ABSOLUTE! BE BRAVE!

-Dave Miller

I wasn't given a home version of the game if that's what you mean. Meh, I overcome mehaul. Arrogant or not, I'm too damned good to let that bother me. Fleas and flies son, fleas and flies. Easily flicked off. Ha!

-Dave

"Winner!"

-C.Sheen

If I inject myself with tiger blood, is that illegal doping under FT rules? I haven't read any rule against it. Just wondering.

It was far from a snap judgment, and there was plenty of proof. We PBSers are a Google free team. None of us do it, and none of us like it. When we compete against other players, we do it with only what's in our head. We don't know an answer? We roll the dice and take what score is given to us. There is no skill in Googling. Anybody can get all the questions right when the answers are given to them.

If we're following the immortal words of Mr. Sheen, then you might as well close your eyes and make it so with the power of your mind.

Anton, can you PROVE that not even ONE of your team members has googled even a single answer? I believe googling takes just as much "skill" as it does to memorize answers from questions you've seen in the past and have just grown to recall the correct answer. How many of us got 10 right in the easy game the very first time we played, and in a quick time? How many of us aced the daily game without any previous knowledge of the questions? A very tiny number, for sure. Googling and memorizing aren't much different, in my opinion.

If someone doesn't think Googling takes any skill, and they think that their scores without Googling are totally fair and equal scores, they are very wrong. They have memorized the answers, and in essense, they have researched the answer by using the question itself previously.


I think both ways are perfectly fine; we all memorize answers, and there is no way around it. Only a few Google. So those who don't like our Googling shouldn't complain.

Yes, I can. Every single person on my team gets horrible scores from time to time. What does that mean? They guessed and didn't look up the answer.



Googling and memorizing are as different as night and day. memorizing happens when either you guess and get it wrong and guess and get it right. Either way you didn't look up the answer to assure you get it right.



This makes no sense Swami. You are saying that a player remembering the answer they got in a previous game is the same as looking up the answer to pad their score. Come on, Swami. What skill is there when Google is doing the work for you?




Imagine this scenario: Everybody who has played a certain game has struggled and the top score is a 6/10. Along comes a player who takes almost three minutes and gets them all right. That's an obvious Google job, and that player did not earn the win You'd be ok with that?

This is an issue that has been discussed many times and Terry has altered many games to give clear penalties for those who take their time to complete the timed quizzes. Unfortunately, Googling is one of those topics that will have both supporters and opposition and Terry has made it a point that it's not cheating. Some games promote it and some do not.

What about two people working on the same account to complete a quiz? Is that fair? Combined, if two people answer the questions together and win the quiz in a shorter time than everyone else, are they entitled to the win even if everyone else played solo?

Unfortunately, there's no way to stop this. This may be one of those ones where people have to agree to disagree. There's no point in flogging a dead horse.