Quizzer Questions

Matt Vinyl · Post by **Matt Vinyl** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:00 pm

Evening all, in my never ending, always changing quest to actually complete my own SWP type game. One is finally taking good shape! I've come up with something pretty cool, which takes a lot of the good parts out of some recent games and (hopefully!) improves on them...

Now, what do you guys think would be a 'sensible' size question database for a well-rounded quiz game? Over the last week or so, when I've had spare moments, I've been collating questions in a text file that will be able to be read by my game, and so far, I've got just over 300. These are all General Knowledge, with a few obscure ones thrown in. I've also included the answer, along with three incorrect answers.

I've also got a 'random generator' that will come up with mathematical questions also, which form a good part of the game. So this will increase the number greatly. I've also designed this so as it'll calculate three incorrect (but 'sensible') answers along with the correct one.

My main question though really, is what do you think would be a sensible amount of questions?

dm · Post by dm » Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:06 pm

nice one

with 300 you'd only have to ask about 25 questions randomly before they started to repeat. Also depends if they are in categories, most of us have our favourite categories which minimises it further.

3000? minimum?

grecian · Post by **grecian** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:08 pm

My gut feel would be 5-10,000 questions plus a few randomised generators to make things really tough.

Matt Vinyl · Post by **Matt Vinyl** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:26 pm

Cool, sounds good to me - I've plenty of time, so should be able to get up to a few thousand. I've just raked out some old Trivial Pursuit cards and getting a few off of them (watching out for the out of date ones!)

If anyone wants to contribute, this is the thread! Format needs to be:

[Question] ending in a '?' then [Correct Answer],[Wrong1],[Wrong2],[Wrong3]

So an example:

What was Marilyn Monroe's real name? Norma,Jean,Gina,Doris

Also, they're uncategorised, as it's a'la DOND, whereby you can't select the category. I'll have to have spoilers of course, and a random generator is under way for the classic 'Which year did some unknown do something that no-one knew about' ones...

Istenem · Post by **Istenem** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 9:55 am

good work Matt. keep it up, iirc the standalone millionaire had 12,000 Qs (i may not have rced though)

i'm into daft middle names at the moment so here are a couple for you

what is billie piper's middle name? paul,charlotte,bernard,sophie

what is bruce willis's real first name? walter,julian,bruno,sophie

what was siegfried sassoon's middle name? lorraine,herschelle,ignazio,sophie

what is richard gere's middle name? tiffany,spike,clovis,sophie

what is emile heskey's middle name? ivanhoe,emily,dreadnought,sophie

grecian · Post by **grecian** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 9:58 am

Sue Denim wrote:good work Matt. keep it up, iirc the standalone millionaire had 12,000 Qs (i may not have rced though)

i'm into daft middle names at the moment so here are a couple for you

what is billie piper's middle name? paul,charlotte,bernard,sophie

what is bruce willis's real first name? walter,julian,bruno,sophie

what was siegfried sassoon's middle name? lorraine,herschelle,ignazio,sophie

what is richard gere's middle name? tiffany,spike,clovis,sophie

what is emile heskey's middle name? ivanhoe,emily,dreadnought,sophie

A favourite of mine too Sue. My answers would be Paul, Bruno, Herschelle, Tiffany, Ivanhoe although two of those are guesses.

Istenem · Post by **Istenem** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 10:13 am

do you know any more? (especially wrong gender ones)

the answers are all the first listed as per Matt's rules. so walter bruce willis and siegfried lorraine sassoon

Matt Vinyl · Post by **Matt Vinyl** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 11:01 am

Good work, that's the sort of thing! I got up to 400 Q's last night, so still well short, but I find that an evening spent doing this is far more productive than watching the dross that is on TV recently.

Sue - those have been added. Any contributors will get their 'names' mentioned in the credits and possibly either a free or serious cut-price version of the game. Screenies to come soon!

Istenem · Post by **Istenem** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 11:19 am

ah but sue is not my real name

the quiz phœnix forum might be a good place to harvest some semi-obscure but interesting questions. this is where so many quizzes fall down; if there is some sort of interest factor in the questions it is wholly more edifying than reeling off lists of long rivers and oscar winners.

granted, it is always easier to crunch digests into questions. but to make things fun is part of a successful quiz. imo.

in a wholly self-satisfacted burst of egotism i will sort out some foreign language pseud Qs too. you can use them as ungenerated spoilers if you want to.

Cardinal Sin · Post by **Cardinal Sin** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 11:30 am

How's about a few picture rounds too? You could even do music rounds although I understand that wouldn't really work for machines in pubs...

Picture questions could include:

Name the famous picture from a baby photo / picture of a relation
Name that fruit machine
Name the country which uses this flag
Name the football stadium

In fact I'm sure you're perfectly capable of thinking up your own picture question categories!

DildoDez · Post by **DildoDez** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 7:41 pm

grecian wrote:
Sue Denim wrote:good work Matt. keep it up, iirc the standalone millionaire had 12,000 Qs (i may not have rced though)

i'm into daft middle names at the moment so here are a couple for you

what is billie piper's middle name? paul,charlotte,bernard,sophie

what is bruce willis's real first name? walter,julian,bruno,sophie

what was siegfried sassoon's middle name? lorraine,herschelle,ignazio,sophie

what is richard gere's middle name? tiffany,spike,clovis,sophie

what is emile heskey's middle name? ivanhoe,emily,dreadnought,sophie
A favourite of mine too Sue. My answers would be Paul, Bruno, Herschelle, Tiffany, Ivanhoe although two of those are guesses.

lol read the full thread :P the first answer is the correct one lol

stuart4010 · Post by **stuart4010** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 9:08 am

Which forum member first appeared in an SWP question?

Ernest W Quality, Unknown Pseudonym, Cardinal Richeleu, Grecian

Or something along those lines, tip your hat to the forum!!

Cardinal Sin · Post by **Cardinal Sin** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 9:15 am

I'd say technically it would be me, since none of the others are named after famous people! However, that's a bit of a con since I chose to name myself after a famous person.

There is a word game out there (Word Wise??) where once you complete the game, you get to enter your name, or choose from a list of names - most of which are regulars on this forum.

Scrabble & Cops and Robbers are 2 games which featured UP and Demmerz (wonder where he went?) respectively - I'm sure there were others

grecian · Post by **grecian** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 9:51 am

Sue Denim wrote:do you know any more? (especially wrong gender ones)

One that comes immediately to mind is:

What is Bob Wilson's middle name? Primrose, Hyacinth, Bluebell, Foxglove.

Matt Vinyl · Post by **Matt Vinyl** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 8:59 pm

Thank you gentlemen, all duly added to the list. About to kick off another 'Q' session, this time by perusing the Pheonix section...