With the help of two friends who I have known for more than half of my life, I have been able to pass my time in both entertaining and informative ways. The catalyst of this pastime is so beyond puns it is a pun: Trivial Pursuit. Until now, I haven’t given Trivial Pursuit much thought. It was just a good form of entertainment when the idea of urban adventures and hijinks made my feet hurt and my liver cringe. I had no idea then where Trivial Pursuit would take me.
The Genesis: (History)
Hanging out after a large helping of homemade fajitas one evening, my friends and I decide to play Trivial Pursuit. Now once this decision has been reached it can take anywhere from 2 to 26 minutes to decide which version we want to play. You see my friends Keith and Ringo live together and over the years have accumulated many versions of Trivial Pursuit. We are currently up to 9 games: 4 Genus and 5 supplementary editions. I can say we because I keep my Lord of the Rings edition at their house because, let’s face it, they are the only people who would ever want to play that edition with me.
We had decided on Trivial Pursuit and started debating which game to break out when an idea sparked through my brain. I started twitching and stammering with excitement because this idea/scheme/waste of time hit me so thunderously that I couldn’t get the words out fast enough to explain. I think I stammered something like this, “Oh!!!...We could…but no!...if only….it could happen!!” And instantaneously the spark flew to the two of them, “No!...but how?...we must!”
We could have….a Mega Game!
Somehow we could combine all of the games we have of Trivial Pursuit, and just Mega out! All over the place! This is an idea that should have come to us much sooner than it did. It took a while to amass all of our editions but until now, I don’t think we realized where the universe was taking us. Once the spark happened all we had to do was agree on the logistics:
The Game: (Sports & Leisure)
Combining the 9 Versions; Genus 1, Genus 2, Genus 4, Genus 6, Baby Boomer Edition, Silver Screen Edition, 20th Anniversary Edition, Saturday Night Live Edition, LOTR Edition; for a total of 54 Pie Pieces!
We knew this could take us at least one year to finish because, as much as we like hanging out and playing Trivial Pursuit, we have jobs and lives and TV to watch. We came up with a system to regulate the game play for multiple meetings:
- Each session a different board will be chosen and the non-pie questions asked will come from that Genus/Edition. Rules from each edition will be recognized, specifically when we play the LOTR edition, the One Ring and the Ringwraith will be in play. If you don’t know what this means I will explain when we come to it but, as you can imagine, it’s both dorky and ominous.
- To begin each session we will roll dice to see who goes first, each session must end so that everyone has the same amount of turns.
- When a player lands on a Pie space they can choose which Genus/Edition question to be asked.
- Pie questions answered will be tracked by separate grids for each player. A pie piece is only earned once the pie question has been answered for each Genus/Edition.
- End of Game! Once someone has accumulated all of the pie pieces they can move toward the center spoke. When they land on the center spoke the other players will ask one question from each Genus/Edition, choosing whichever category they wish for each Genus/Edition. In order to win the game the player must answer a majority of the questions correctly (5).
The Players: (People and Places)
A game is always more fun when you have a rooting interest. Below are player attributes that I believe can be used in rating odds of success (not sure about the legality of online gambling but in this case it is happily encouraged). I think we’re pretty evenly matched at this point but you can be the judge of that:
Corey (Me)
Education Level: Took 5.5 years to graduate with a Liberal Arts degree in Theater.
Entertainment/Educational tools available at Home: Digitally Converted Antenna TV, Internet , Netflix instant, Roku, no cable, has a wife, owns a cat
Work Experience/Street Smarts: Mostly non-profit theater box office customer service, some independent sports front office experience. Some independent theatre experience, acting/production.
Podcast listening: 2 years experience, 5 months steady experience; Doug Loves Movies, Boston Globe Red Sox Podcast, ESPN: Baseball Today, The Moth Podcast, The Nerdist, The Pod F. Tompkast, Sklarbro Country, Slate’s Political Gabfest, This American Life, WNYC’s Radiolab, WTF with Marc Maron and some BS Report with Bill Simmons.
Categorical Advantages: Strong in Sports categories but no clear advantages in other categories or other Editions.
Categorical Weaknesses: Weak in Science and Nature, which is tough because Green Pies are often either Sports/Leisure or Science/Nature. Also weaker in Silver Screen and Baby Boomers because Ringo and Keith have played that more on there own. Has a tendency to second guess.
Wild Card Experiences: Married to a Music/Pop Culture savant, especially in the vein of 90’s trivia, has a movie obsessed brother who is in film school, worked in Tower Records for a year in 2003 so has that year down pop culture/music wise.
To Summarize: Sports-Geeky, Artsy-Fartsy, doesn't have cable.
To Summarize: Sports-Geeky, Artsy-Fartsy, doesn't have cable.
Keith
Education Level: Graduated from an almost Ivy League school in 4 years with a B.A. degree in both Religion and Theater. Hardly more than a thesis away from a graduate degree in Museum Studies from an unranked school.
Entertainment/Educational tools available at Home: Digital Cable with On Demand and DVR, Blue Ray with Netflix Instant, Internet, extensive DVD collection, irrelevant VHS collection, no pets
Work Experience/Street Smarts: Worked primarily in Development Office of Non-Profit Organizations including Art Museums, Universities and Historical Societies. Also has experience from a start-up theatre company and history museum.
Podcast listening: 4 years of increasingly-obsessive experience (inactive podcasts have been removed for brevity): A.V. Talk, BBC Global News, CNN News Update, Coffee Break Spanish, Comedy Death-Ray Radio, Doug Loves Movies, Grammar Girl, Hey, We're Back!, How Did This Get Made?, Learn Spanish - Survival Guide, Legal Lad, Mike Detective, Money Girl, New York Times Front Page, Nutrition Diva, Onion Radio News, Planet Money, The Pod F. Tompkast, Ricky Gervais Podcast (free version), Savage Love, Sklarbro Country, Slate's Audio Book Club, Slate's Culture Gabfest, Slate's Daily Podcast, Slate's DoubleX Gabfest, Slate's Hang Up and Listen, Slate's Political Gabfest, Slate's Spoiler Special, Stuff You Should Know, Technology in the Arts, This American Life, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, WNYC's Radiolab, and WTF with Marc Maron
Categorical Advantages: Strong in Arts and Entertainment and History, special advantages in Silver Screen, moderate in Science/Nature.
Categorical Weaknesses: Weak in Sports knowledge. Not a fast reader so moderate to weak in Literature.
Wild Card Experiences: Keith is a film completionist, including influential lists and pop culture goodies. Took a week and watched all of the Friday 13th movies 12 years ago. Has been a Juror for the Philadelphia Film Festival and routinely sees 30-50 movies per festival.
To Summarize: In-The-Know Film Geek who is as smart as his iPod is close.
Ringo
Education Level: Graduated from High School and some Community College schooling.
Entertainment/Educational tools available at Home: Digital Cable with On Demand and DVR, Blue Ray with Netflix Instant, Internet, extensive DVD collection, irrelevant VHS collection, no pets
Work Experience/Street Smarts: Worked primarily in the Restaurant business as a waiter/bartender/manager. Some data entry work. Has been working at a music venue in Philadelphia for almost 3 years.
Podcast listening: Podcasts: 4-5 Years solid experience included but not limited to: NYTimes Tech Talk, Doug Loves Movies, Air America: Al Franken Show, Air America: Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC: Countdown with Keith Olberman, The Moth Podcast, NPR-All Songs Considered, NPR-This American Life, WNYC Radiolab, Never Not Funny Podcast, Savage Lovecast, NPR-Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, NPR-Planet Money, Tekzilla, Slate Political Gabfest.
Categorical Advantages: Strong in Arts and Entertainment, special advantages in Silver Screen and Baby Boomer, moderate in Science/Nature. Fast reader, moderate in Literature. Very confident he knows the answer.
Categorical Weaknesses: Weak in Sports knowledge, even more so than Keith. Sometimes too confident he knows the answer.
Wild Card Experiences: Very handy and knowledgeable on automobiles and automobile history. Has read Tolkien more than some priests have read the bible. Spent a lot of time listening to 60’s and 70’s music in his youth. Drove across country twice and has a very tangible experience with American geography and culture. Extra props cause his name is Ringo.
To Summarize: Mr. Fix-It/Know-it-All who knows a lot, can geek with the best of 'em, name is Ringo.
To Summarize: Mr. Fix-It/Know-it-All who knows a lot, can geek with the best of 'em, name is Ringo.
What’s this about: (Literature)
With this blog I will be posting on three different topics related to the Meganess. These will be done after each session of game play which will most likely occur once every three weeks.
Game Updates: (Arts and Entertainment)
Each of these posts will be describing each session and tracking player progress. My hope is that I’ll be able to synthesize the inherent competitive drama that transpires during each session as well as the naturally arrogant and apprehensive feelings that will arise in between the sessions. This will make my defeat more cathartic when I yell at Ringo or Keith to: “Take their apology, and their trophy and shove it straight up their ass!” I guess we need to have a trophy now.
Statistical Analysis: (Science and Nature)
I don’t claim to be an expert on this but I am a big baseball fan (as evidenced by the quote above) and a handle on sports statistics. I also have rudimentary game theory and probability knowledge that I remember from a Statistics class I took in college. My hope is that the Mega-game will expand the data points available so that we can discuss strategy of game play and quantify how well the players are doing on a session by session basis. There are no limits to the degree in which I plan to geek-out over this stuff. Terms to look forward to:
PQA: Pie Questions Asked
PQWP: Pie Question Win Percentages
RS: Roll Streaks
PQA/T: Pie Questions Asked for every number of Turns
Interesting Happenings: (Wild Card)
Within these posts I will be sharing unique game play scenarios that could arise. Guests may join in the game briefly and their impressions and disappointments will be noted and discussed. Any comedy that arises through funny questions, insightful tangents, and competitive goading will be hard to come by; but the attempts at comedy will be there in full force and will be documented here.
Thanks for reading this very long first post. I promise the rest of the posts will be a much more reasonable way of passing your time.
