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Quizarium the multiplayer trivia app is nearly ready for prime-time
Quizarium [free], a multiplayer iPhone/iPod touch trivia game, arrived in the App Store today. I got a chance to look at a pre-release copy and I found some problems with the interface and flow of the game. Some problems will be solved either upon release, since an update is being approved right now, or within a few days after release. According to Anthony Almanza, one of the developers at Lithuanian software development firm On5, Apple has gotten much quicker with approving updates. I spoke with Anthony at length about the app and offered a number of suggestions that will be implemented quite soon. Quizarium uses the Plus+ social play network which allows many players to compete against each other by answering trivia questions in a number of set category rooms, or in new rooms that can be created by users. A server problem was found yesterday (and a revision quickly submitted), so room creation may or may not be activated upon release. I really didn't get a great feel for how a multiplayer game would look since, at most, I played against two people from On5, but I can imagine that the action will be pretty intense. To play, you flick the screen up to view the entire list of category rooms, and when you tap on a room, the game starts. You are shown with a trivia question for 60 seconds, or until someone gives a correct answer. You can see the minute tick down by watching a progress bar at the top of the screen. Hints are given as time passes, showing you how many letters are in the answer and, as time is running out, you'll see the first few letters of the answer appearing. If you are the first with the correct answer, you gain points and receive awards courtesy of the Plus+ network. Tapping the Plus+ button on the main screen shows you your awards and takes you to the leaderboard where you'll see just how well you've done. Weekly leaderboards will be updated every Monday night. There is also an overall Plus+ network leaderboard.
Catch the VanaFest bug with Final Fantasy XI trivia
With a little over a week left until VanaFest 2010 commences, long-time fans of Final Fantasy XI might well be taking the opportunity to think back on the memories the game has produced. If those memories happen to include some obscure facts, you might be in luck with the VanaFest 2010 trivia contest, yet another chance for fans not in attendance to enjoy some of the spirit of the event. And just to prove that Squre-Enix is an old dog fully capable of learning new tricks, the contest is on the now-ubiquitous Twitter! Running from the 23rd to the 27th of this month, the contest will have an official question asked on the official feed. The first five players to answer the question correctly will get to take away something very special: the Chocobo Beret! Yes, the same hat given away to attendees, a celebration of Final Fantasy XI's long tradition of hats that look like things. Read the full rules on the official VanaFest site, and get ready to start tweeting some serious trivia. After all, even if you don't win you'll be getting up-to-the-minute information on all the big news, and isn't that prize enough?
Sunday Morning Funnies: Epic win
First of all, I would like to congratulate Keyra for winning the virtual cookies! This batch is vegan upon request, comes with a nice tall glass of cold soy milk, and I'll even throw in some fresh berries. Khloe Kardashian was the right answer to last week's impromptu trivia question! Watch out for this week's trivia question, buried in amongst the comics. Unfortunately, I didn't receive any new comic tips, but I don't think you'll be disappointed! On a side note, I feel very lucky that photographing one's collection of My Little Ponies is a relatively popular occurrence, for how else would I have found such a lovely epic pony? I had more to choose from than I would have imagined, but I finally narrowed it down to the lucky pony on the right.
THQ buys a vowel, licenses Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy
Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. What are the two Sony Pictures Television game shows that THQ has licensed for video games? The publisher announced that it has acquired multi-year licenses for the two venerable game shows, specifically for the Wii and DS/DSi, with options for other platforms. The first games will be out later this year. A statement from THQ Kids, Family, and Casual Games Executive VP Doug Clemmer suggests that THQ has online play in mind for its adaptations: "The opportunity to implement new features such as Wii Speak will re-imagine how these games are played and engage fans with a whole new level of interactivity," he said. No longer will it be shameful to leave the show with naught but the home game! An aside: We find it extremely odd that there's a sudden uptick in Wii Speak use a year-and-a-half after the accessory was released.
1 vs. 100 free for Xbox Live Silver members from Dec. 24 - 28
Looking for a cheap way to stave off that post-holiday depression that we all immediately experience as soon as the last present is unwrapped? (You do experience that, right?) Microsoft's got new Xbox 360 owners covered -- from December 24 to December 28, 1 vs. 100 will be free-to-play for Xbox Live Silver subscribers. What's more, the show on December 26 will be deeply saturated with holiday spirit, featuring "Holiday-themed trivia, a decked out set, and laughs with Chris Cashman." If you're still on the fence about subscribing to Live, you should give this free 1 vs. 100 trial a shot. After all, nothing can better distract you from the fact that you won't get to open more intricately ribboned gifts for another 364 days like taking part in an interactive game show.
Congrats to our Creative headset winners
A couple of weeks ago, we announced a huge contest with Creative to give away twenty-five of their new World of Warcraft wireless headsets, one for each person in one big lucky raid. That contest has been over for a little bit, and we've finally picked a winner: congrats to all of the winners in the guild Rusty Blades on Cenarion Circle! They, along with the nine random winners in each of our single headset giveaways, as well as the lucky winners in the five man contest (who've all been contacted and confirmed) will all get their very own units when the headsets are finally released later on this month. And if you didn't win, don't worry -- Creative will of course be selling the headsets, so you can make sure to put them on your Christmas list, and maybe a loved one will help you out. The latest that we've heard is that they're still due out for release sometime this month, so stay tuned and when we know more about the release, you will too. Since our 25-man contest was actually a bit of a trivia contest as well (guilds had to find five locations in-game and then take pictures at each place), we've put the Rusty Blades' excellent answers after the break. Hopefully you haven't been wondering desperately about the answers for the last month but in case you were, there you go.
The Daily Grind: Attending the 1 vs. 100 season premiere?
It's massive. It's multiplayer. And it's adding achievements! 1 vs. 100 is back again on Xbox Live, and the live version of the online game show where you can win real prizes is starting up again on November 19th. While the game doesn't exactly generate a cash cow of news, it is a lot of fun to play. Plus, you know, it is free if you have yourself an Xbox Live gold account (which almost every Xbox 360 owner does, otherwise you're doing it wrong.) So we want to know are you going to be there? Will you be jumping in with your friends online, or are you assembling yourself a 1 vs. 100 premiere party? Are you going to be aiming for prizes, or are you going to be shooting for all of the achievements you can grab? Dropping your thoughts in the comment box below and clicking send is way easier than pushing A, B, or X on your Xbox controller! (Ok, so maybe it isn't, but you should really do it anyway. It's fun!)
Second season of Xbox Live's 1 vs. 100 starts Nov. 19
If you've been missing your trivia fix on Xbox Live, you should be happy to learn that Microsoft has dated the second season of its Xbox Live quiz-'em-up, 1 vs. 100. Expect the game to return on November 19 at 5:00 PDT, where it'll dish out another 14 weeks' worth of questions -- and this time around, your chance to be The One or a part of The Mob will be determined by one thing: score. Multiple-choice maniacs will be able to play the new season of 1 vs. 100 on a daily basis through themed Extended Play sessions every night, including "Finish the Lyrics," "80's" night and -- yes, we're totally serious -- "Vampires." Finally, a theme night your 12-year-old sister can get behind!
Test your friendship with Buzz! on Facebook
Are you really friends with your Facebook friends? It's time to find out with the new Buzz! application. The "Friend Quiz" lets you and your invited friends to partake in a trivia contest about your mutual buddies. The quiz will draw information from mutual friends' status updates, comments, interests and photos.Buzz will be narrating the entire game, so expect some snide remarks from the short British host. Each question, in typical Buzz! style, is timed: make sure you answer quickly to get the most points. At the end of the game, you'll be able to post your total score to your Wall, as you wait for your invited friends to beat you. It's a terrific twist on classic Buzz! gameplay, and best of all -- it's free.[Via PlayStation.Blog Europe]
Scene It? *will* use BUZZ! controllers (on PS3™)
The battle of the console-exclusive peripheral-wielding weirdly-punctuated trivia games has come to an end ... with PlayStation the victor. WBIE is bringing Scene It?, the former 360-exclusive trivia game, to PS3 and Wii. While the 360 version was bundled with a set of special Scene It? controllers, the PS3 and Wii versions of the game will let you simply use your ol' fashioned DualShocks and Wii Remotes.But what if you want to use a wacky peripheral? Don't fret, as you'll be able to use your BUZZ! controllers with Scene It?. Considering many of the modes of Scene It? require buzzing in, the translation is incredibly faithful.
Join us in-game Tuesday for the launch of Aion and Fallen Earth
We did it in Champions Online, and now we're ready to do it in both Fallen Earth and Aion. In-game launch day events have been quite a hit so far, and we really look forward to a double-header coming this Tuesday, September 22nd.Whether you're looking to get into one or both, we'll be in-game right along with you for those first few levels. Plus, we'll come bearing gifts! In Aion, we'll have some in-game goodies to hand out, and in Fallen Earth we're looking to do a bit of post-apocalyptic trivia to prepare you for the wasteland. We'll have more details on Monday, including exact locations and times for these events. See ya there!
15 Minutes of Fame: Pre-Raid Trivia pumps up enthusiasm, strats
15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.How do you get guild members to log in nice and early before raids, remember their consumables, build a steam head of enthusiasm and polish up their knowledge of strats and game skills? Believe it or not, it's not a struggle - it's what Relyimah of <Klatoo Verata Niktoo> on Kilrogg-US and her guildmates do for fun. If it's an hour before raid time, it's time for Pre-Raid Trivia.Most of Relyimah's trivia sessions cover the gamut of WoW knowledge, but every session is capped off by strategy questions pertinent to the encounters the raid will be tackling that evening. She calls the learning process "strat by osmosis." "All rounds are 20 questions worth one point a piece, and the five bonus-round questions are worth five points each," Relyimah explains. "I have a lot of fun writing the questions, as it makes me learn the strategy as well. I usually grab my info from WoWWiki or Tankspot.com." Winners scoop up 25 gold plus prizes such as an epic armor kit or Frostweave Bag - but the best reward, she notes, is a raid that succeeds.
15 Minutes of Fame: Pre-Raid Trivia
"I never thought of playing WoW like that!" - neither did we, until we talked with these players
iSuppli estimates the iPhone 3GS costs $179 to make
Did you know that after it is broken down into all of its composite metals and materials and parts, your human body is really only worth about $4.50? Yup, you're cheap in the broadest sense -- all of that oxygen, magnesium, iron, and sodium isn't actually worth all that much in the rare metals market. In fact, according to iSuppli, you're worth way less than the iPhone 3GS -- they looked at the component parts for Apple's new handset, and calculated its raw value at around $178.96. The most expensive components are the 16gb flash memory (ringing in at around $25 per part) and the display (at $19), all the way down to the audio codec board, which Apple reportedly picked up for a cheap $1.15. Of course, there was lots more cheaper stuff (we assume the screws weren't a buck each), but iSuppli didn't actually go that granular. That also doesn't include any of the non-hardware costs: shipping fees, R&D, distribution, marketing, and so on. But it's way more than you're worth, and it's $40 more than the Palm Pre costs to make, too.Lest you start worrying that your spouse will start valuing their iPhone more than your body, however, there is a silver lining. If you break down to the mineral components of the human body, we're cheap, but the actual components of the body are pretty expensive, it turns out. Expensive to the tune of $45 million, if you count up all the money you could pick up from taking out your bone marrow, extracting your DNA, and selling off a lung or two. Just like the iPhone's parts, when assembled, are worth more than iSuppli's $179, you too pick up some value when assembled the right way.[via Engadget]
The voice of the Headless Horseman
It is over, your search is done! Let fate choose now, the righteous one."Over here, you idiot!" ring a bell? We've had a bunch of readers ask us lately just who does the voice for the Headless Horseman -- corny poetry aside, players are really loving the laugh and timbre of the guy who doesn't even have a throat to speak with. The most common guess we've heard is Gerard Butler, star of 300, but that doesn't really compute, as Blizzard usually uses lesser known voice actors and even most of their sound crew and artists (Chris Metzen does quite a few voices, actually, including most of the Orcs in game).We've got two guesses for the Headless Horseman: the first is voice actor Michael McConnohie -- he's done a few other voices for Blizzard before (including Kel'thuzad). While his voice is definitely recognizable (he sounds like the Human male to me), the other strong male voice we know has worked for Blizzard is Mark Graue, who runs a voice studio in LA, and has worked on WoW since the beginning (he did the Undead emotes). Here's Graue's demos -- he sounded to me like the Horseman for sure when I first listened, but a few times in, I'm not so sure any more.You can listen to the voice demos for both those guys and judge for yourself. Again, those are just guesses, based on who's worked with Blizzard in the past -- we don't really know for sure who it is. But we do have a query in to Blizzard on just whose manical laugh that is you hear when you throw a Jack-o-Lantern on your friend's head, so if they get back to us with a name, we'll post it here.
Attend the WoW Insider Blizzcon meetup tonight, meet cool people
Blizzcon starts tomorrow in Anaheim, CA, and WoW Insider and Massively are already on-site to provide the best coverage we can! If you're in town, we want to invite you to the WoW Insider meetup tonight at 8:00 PM Anaheim time. You'll have chances to win cool prizes and swag if you know your World of Warcraft trivia, and the WoW Insider podcast will be taped in front of a live audience, so you can be a part of that mayhem as well.The meetup will be at The Lost Bar at 1150 W. Magic Way, near the Disneyland Hotel. The party will go on through much of the night, so even if you're not getting in until after 8:00, feel free to show up late and relax with the WoW Insider crew post-flight or drive.
Sony launches MyBUZZ in U.S., includes prizes for best quizmaster
Though the next installment of Sony's trivia-tastic Buzz franchise, Buzz! Quiz TV is still a few weeks from release, the company recently launched a web component for the game for would-be American quiz crafters. Titled MyBuzz, the site allows users to create quizzes which can either be taken online, or in-game when Quiz TV hits U.S. store shelves Sept. 23. Users can also rate quizzes submitted by other community members -- Sony is offering a PSP-3000 and a copy of Buzz! Master Quiz for the user with the "Top Quiz", and a PS3/Quiz TV bundle for the "All Time Top Author". One caveat -- hiring a local bridge troll to write your noggin-scratchers for you will result in immediate disqualification.
Wanted: a PAX attendee really good at video game trivia
If you're at Penny Arcade Expo this weekend and are really good and video game trivia, ChatterBox Video Game Radio is looking for you for a Family Feud gameshow they are hosting. We want to prove that our readership has the most expansive knowledge of video games, so leave a comment below if you fit that criteria and want to do us proud.
Game Trivia Catechism: Casual, homebrew gaming for the hardcore gamer
Programmer Multiple: Option continues to release some of the most interesting homebrew titles out there, this time with Game Trivia Catechism. Billed as a casual game for hardcore gamers, this original title takes the bland and basic multiple-choice trivia format, spicing it up with an intriguing storyline, a gaming theme, and a chiptune soundtrack provided by artists like 8-Bit Terror and PDF format. Instead of solving math equations or recalling historical facts, players will have to put their useless gaming knowledge to work and answer questions like "Which of these games was NOT designed by Yu Suzuki?" or "Which Mario game did Super Mario Advance remake?"It's a short game -- you can probably finish it within 15 minutes -- but Multiple: Option deserves praise for creating an entertaining title that doesn't rely on the assets or designs of other developers. If you have the equipment to play homebrew games, we definitely suggest you try this one out. Let us know if you're able to score any higher than a "C" without cheating and using the internet!
Sleeper Cartel holds their Summer party (and Horde Diplomacy)
Those wacky folks of the Sleeper Cartel guild (on Perenolde) emailed to let us know they are having their annual summer party this coming weekend, July 26th at 7pm server time, and it looks to be a hootenanny. They'll have player-run quests, trivia contests, and scavenger hunts, there'll be a snowball fight and fireworks aplenty, and they're even planning to give away an honest-to-goodness epic. If you're a fan of player-run events, this is the Super Bowl -- as you can see from their last party, they do it up right. Roll Alliance and show up in Perenolde on Saturday if you want in on the fun.And here's another player-run party: on July 27th, a couple of Hordies on Steamwheedle are planning a "Tribune of the Horde" RP event -- apparently they think the Horde needs leaders, and Thrall and the rest of the gang aren't cutting it. (see Update) So they're having a Horde meetup in ZG to talk things out -- one Horde member of each race has been chosen as diplomat, and diplomats will give their own speeches, while those in attendance will be able to ask questions and speak their mind as well.Sounds interesting -- we always love hearing about (and hopefully attending) events like this. If you're putting one on, feel free to tip us about it, and if you go, take lots of screenshots and send them back to us so we can see what players are up to in the realms.Update: I never did understand RP -- the people running the Horde event emailed us to say that they're not looking to replace Thrall at all. Instead, they're convening a Tribune of the various Horde races to voice their concerns and working up a scroll to take to the Warchief himself -- they're working in complete concert with the current Horde, they just want to make sure the voices of the little people (and trolls, and Undead, and so on) are heard. Our apologies for the misunderstanding, especially for the suggestion that anyone was trying to take over from Thrall. For the Horde!
