First, the question - Do “we” need to modify the New Questions (NQ) guidelines? Or do we need to simply refresh ourselves on the guidelines as they are written?

Background - My first post, and I hope it‘s in the right place. I’ve found two recent threads on single questions (28 May and 06 June 2015), but neither touches on the specifics I want to address. Apologies for writing a book, but I need to include all the facts (as I see them, admittedly).

First - some excerpts (i.e. guidelines?) from the rules for NQ:
“Many submissions…tend to be too difficult for the average player. Ask …whether English speakers around the world of varied backgrounds would have a reasonable chance (say, 80%) of getting the question correct. If the answer is no, then the question is too difficult for this form.”

And also (actual bold face text as shown in guidelines):
“Difficult questions can be made easier by offering hints, more information, puns, etc." My interpretation - don’t make items insanely hard; tough ones are OK, but consider giving the reader a bit of help. Keeping those guidelines (not dictums - guidelines) in mind, please consider the following questions that have been in the daily New Question over the last month or so.

The herbal liqueur 'Unicum' is one of the national drinks of which European country?

In the 1950 Looney Tunes cartoon "The Ducksters", Daffy Duck hosts a show that is similar to which former game show?

ENGLISH SOCCER. Soccer: Eric Djemba-Djemba may have been one of Manchester United's big flops, but he was there on the pitch when which youngster made his debut for the club in 2003?

Entrants to which annual competition, sponsored by San Jose State University in California, are invited "to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels"?

Babycham is a popular alcoholic beverage made primarily from what fruit? The II did state that the drink is from Britain, so that does presumably make more people aware of it, than it was made in …Tanzania, for instance. But still.

What type of art was the Venezuelan artist Jesus Soto famous for?

The popular tourist resort of Magaluf is located on which island?

BASEBALL: Whitey Herzog is best remembered for his decade as manager of the Saint Louis Cardinals, including a World Series win in 1982, but which team did he lead to three straight division titles in the 1970s?

What photographer captured the famous photo "Migrant Mother" in 1936?

AMERICAN FOOTBALL: Which Auburn quarterback was taken as the first overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft by the Carolina Panthers? Hint: His throws may defy gravity.

CRICKET. Which Australian batsman died as a result of being struck in the neck with a bounced delivery and succumbed to his injuries three days before his 26th Birthday in November 2014?

Melville Cooper would be most closely associated with which profession? (he was a British “character actor” in the 30s-40s)

Which English novelist and poet wrote "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel"?

Who was the first ruler of Mauryan dynasty?

Which of these people never held the title of "Downing Professor of Medicine"?

From which soccer team did Southampton sign Kevin Keegan in 1980?

I was unable to save this last question, but it essentially asked: “Which sport had a ‘bodyline‘ controversy in the 1930’s, causing protests and riots? I think the four choices were: rugby, cricket, Aussie rules football, and…..maybe soccer.

There were far more very good questions offered during all those NQ games, of course. But did any of the above questions seem too difficult, too specialized, etc? They certainly did to me. Perhaps NQ’s are intended to get harder as we move up in level. I’ve never been at this level before, so can’t say. I presume these questions will be used in many other quizzes, if they earn certain ratings. That’s editor stuff, and far beyond my pay grade. But I still have to ask.

I brought this subject up in my team’s chat several weeks ago. The general consensus was that NQ is fine as is. So I pondered a while before going “public” with this concern. Thanks for your time and consideration.

I find it very difficult to comment on the difficulty of any of these questions, without seeing what the multiple choice answer options were. Sometimes this is where the help is given. The question about the English novelist might have three Americans as the incorrect choices; the photography question might have three choices who were not yet born in 1936; the Kevin Keegan question might have three rugby teams as the incorrect choices.

The "bodyline" question I know the answer to, so I find it easy, but the same sort of logic could be applied, thinking about which of those sports involves throwing towards the opponent's body.

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Spanishliz (Editor in Movies, Geography, Brain Teasers and Crosswords)

The New Question Game will contain a mixture of difficulties. Editors do not refuse questions that seem a bit tough, only those that are insanely difficult (What color was the second shirt Monica wore in a particular episode of 'Friends'? will probably be dismissed!), because as they are played they get graded by difficulty according to the percentage of correct responses, and then used in the appropriate hourly and daily games. The medium-difficulty target means that people will not be trying for either extreme, but it is more than fine to have some of them. Who's the Smartest, The Expert Game and Obscurity all need questions, and Piece of Cake turns into a boring speed contest without a steady flow of new questions that have to be read, and not just answered after seeing the first word.

I actually knew about half the answers to the questions you listed, especially the bodyline controversy, since that arose in a series of cricket matches between Australia and England, infamous in both countries - it was a very easy question for players from countries where cricket is a popular sport, although more obscure for Americans. For Australians, the death of Phillip Hughes a year ago is still a vivid memory, and easy. Sports questions tend to be easy if you follow the sport, and very difficult if not - over the entire audience, that averages out reasonably well.

Thank you both for your time in explaining. Your comments did help with some of my concerns. Much appreciated.

Goat

Don't forget, you can vote down the questions...

I have brought this up several times before.

The criteria says 80% should be able to answer the question this means you should average a score of 8/10 over a period of time. I'd be surprised if the average for most average players was 6/10.

I have always said the criteria either needs to be changed or stuck to. Just one or the other please. Especially as this quiz is part of the everything challenge and you need to be able to score well in it.

That stated target is a guide for authors, not a promise that they will succeed. Editors, likewise, aren't clairvoyant, and do not attempt to predict whether the question will in fact reach the goal of around 80% correct, other than to block ridiculously easy (What color is the sky on a sunny day?) or ridiculously difficult (What is the name of Monica's sister's best friend from second grade?) questions. As I have stated above, there is also a need for interesting questions that are both harder and easier than that, for different games. The New Question Game is where their difficulty is determined based on actual players' results, and they then appear in play in the appropriate games.

There were two questions in the list above, which was clearly composed as a collection of supposedly impossible questions, that I would have assumed, as an editor, that any reasonably alert person would know. To me they appear to be basic mainstream knowledge, and I would have accepted them without a second's hesitation.


The estimation of a question's difficulty is extremely subjective. We do assume, I think, that players are people interested in trivia, and who therefore tend to be noticing types with good memories. I accept questions which appear to be ones that a person could stumble across while moving through life, rather than requiring intense and specialized study.

I was able to answer 3 questions easily, and would have been able to answer more if I had the slightest interest in sport. I'd probably have been able to answer more if the 4 choices were in front of me. As has been said, you can always mark them down if you feel they're not suitable for the game.

Regarding the difficulty level, it's hard when authoring questions to gauge how difficult they are to other people. For example, I didn't think this one of mine was too difficult:

"Which ship saw the light of day for the first time in over 400 years in October 1982?

The Mary Rose
The Marie Celeste
The Queen Mary
The Titanic"

Titanic was launched and sank in 1912, The Marie Celeste is famous for being a 'ghost' ship found abandonded in the late nineteenth centuryand the Queen Mary was launched in 1936 and is now docked at Long Beach. To me, these are not particularly obscure facts, yet only 43% of players got the question correct.

A while ago there was a series of ridiculously easy questions in the game on capital cities. As they were not in the 'For Children' section I rated them as poor as I felt they were fairly insulting.

Regarding my own questions, there is little or no correlation to the difficulty level and the rating.

I suppose there's 2 elements to this game. The authors are hopefully trying to add interesting and informative questions to the question pool and the players are racing the clock to answer quickly, so reading the whole question or actually considering the wrong answers gets overlooked.

Of the list of questions above I instantly answered two without any clues or seeing the choices, Babycham I occasionally drank back in the day and I have been to Magaluf.

Back in that day Sue, Babycham was the drink of choice for a young girl trying to appear sophisticated and in my case, failing miserably!

And if there was no Babycham there was rum and black; I'm not sure which was worse. As for the questions... Sue has been to Magaluf? I never have, but I've been past it, on my way to another part of the island. I hardly ever drink (the rum and black, not to mention Babycham, put me off), but I also know the answer to 'Unicum'. We went there for a weekend last year but I don't remember drinking that, perhaps I saw it on a menu.

I know a bit about cricket so I know about Philip Hughes and about the Bodyline controversy... I'd yell "Larwood!" but it would be just my luck if an Aussie leapt out of the bushes to wrap a bat round my head.

I might get the Mauryan one with some help from the answer options - it's often the longest name offered. Not sure about the Keegan one but every time he's mentioned I can see his hair, it had a life of its own.

And as for the San Jose competition? It was a dark and stormy night when Alan Titchmarsh wrote his first sex scene; "add some compost," he said, chirpily, "and dig over before winter."

Yeah, when I saw that question about the San Jose competition, all I could think was "Well, anyone who saw Snoopy hunched over his typewriter will know that one".

I don't know what kind of cricket bats you use over there - here is Australia they are made of wood strong enough to be broken over your head, not wrapped around it. Perhaps it was one of those floppy ones that Gatting held when he faced Shane Warne?

I, admittedly, didn't know a single answer, but would assume I'd know more with options. Cam Newton was the first draft pick in 2011, so says Google, but now the hint makes sense and I would have gotten it right if I had options.

I would hasten to add that I visited Magaluf back in the mid 70s when it wasn't full of lager louts, we played bridge in the evenings with another couple who were staying in the hotel!

When I went to Magaluf (in the mid 60's) there were lots of "working ladies"...., but not me.