New Scaratings

Hello all,

BLZBUB is on walkabout this week, and posted the following on Badbart. He asked me to cross post it here. Behold!

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Showdown Recap for 18 Jul 2017

BLZBUB is out searching for new followers on the outer banks of North Carolina. The Jolly Roger Pub of Kill Devil Hills was the lucky venue. Thus, the recap will be a bit sparse.

Warm-up Round

1. Which northeastern city lies on the shores of Narragansett Bay: PROVIDENCE.
2. What does a lapidary work with: GEMSTONES.
3. ‘By the shore of Gitche Gumee’ is a FAMILIAR line from a famous poem by: HENRY W. LONGFELLOW
4. The stegosaurus was a dinosaur noted for its: TINY BRAIN.
5. This all-American company was purchased by AB Volvo in 2000: MACK TRUCKS.
6. The Senegambia Confederation was formed in 1982 in: WEST AFRICA.
7. ___ diagrams are used to teach elementary set theory: VENN.
8. Bernadine Dorhn was a former leader of this organization: WEATHER UNDERGROUND.
9. ‘Paris in the Twentieth Century’ was written in the 19th Century by: JULES VERNE.
10. The Crow Nation of Native Americans is located here: MONTANA.

Countdown Round

1. An event described as internecine would be: MUTUALLY DESTRUCTIVE.
2. Eugene Jerome is a central character in three plays by: NEIL SIMON.
3. Thuringia is one of the 16 Federal States of: GERMANY.
4. In astronomy, a prominence is a gaseous feature extending outward from the: SUN.
5. Lexi Thompson is a major star in women’s: GOLF.
6. A three-dimensional collage is called an: ASSEMBLAGE.
7. American and ___ are the two varieties of Akita dogs: JAPANESE.
8. Where in the U.S. would you most likely find a strand plain: EASTERN TEXAS.
9. What 1938 novel did its author describe as ‘a study in jealousy.’ REBECCA.
10. Which of these belongs to the genus sphyraena: BARRACUDA.
11. Victor David Brenner got his name in the history books by designing the: LINCOLN CENT.
12. Gosari is used to make edible greens served as a side dish in ___ cuisine: KOREAN.

Category Round

1. Cole Porter v CANADIAN HISTORY
The Meech Lake Accord assured constitutional protection of ___ language and culture: QUEBECOIS.

2. Cooking v ADVANCED MATH
In mathematics, the greatest common divisor of 24 and 32 is: EIGHT.

3. NURSERY RHYMES v Old Motorcycles
Silver bells and cockle shells are among her possessions: MARY QUITE CONTRARY

4. ADVANCED MATH v Cole Porter
The base 10 ___ of 10,000 is 4. LOGARITHM.

5. Old motorcycles v COOKING
A master chef would know that a confit uses meat or poultry poached and preserved in:
FAT.

6. Canadian history v NURSERY RHYMES
In the nursery rhyme ‘Little Boy Blue,’ the cow is standing in a field of this crop: CORN.

Lightning Round

1. ‘There ain’t nobody going to do nothing no-how is a good example of a: QUADRUPLE NEGATIVE.
2. Sepsis is a serious condition that arises from the body’s response to: INFECTION.
3. What crooner had a huge hit in 1979 with ‘You Take My Breath Away’? REX SMITH.
4. You’re working an extra job, that means you are: MOONLIGHTING.
5. Tiburon is a Spanish word for this animal:SHARK.
6. In which 2016 movie does Ben Affleck play the title role? THE ACCOUNTANT.
7. Born in 1752, Elizabeth Griscom became known in history as: BETSY ROSS.

Pyramid Round

1. In Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy,’ who is depicted as frozen in the Ninth Circle of Hell?
Choices: Pharaoh, Abel, Milton, Elijah, Satan
A: SATAN

2. Tropical rainforests are among the natural wonders of Madidi National Park in:
Choices: Bolivia, Bhutan, Belarus, Belize, Brunei
A: BOLIVIA.

3. Josef Haydn composed 68 ___ during his prolific career:
Choices: Masses, Piano Trios, Flute Concertos, Operas, String Quartets
A: STRING QUARTETS

4. Found only in animals, the massater muscle is used for:
Choices: Standing Chewing, Moving, Flying, Hitting
A: CHEWING

5. Since 1707, all English Kings have been named Edward or George, except for:
Choices: William, James, Henry, Charles, Albert
A: WILLIAM

FINAL TRAGEDY
Topic: VINCENT VAN GOGH

‘The Red ___’ is a painting sold by Vincent Van Gogh in 1890 for 400 Francs:

1. Dress
2. River
3. Vineyard
4. Barn
5. Chapeau

The correct answer was #3 VINEYARD. The order of the eliminations was 2, 5, 1, and 4.

A quick view of the Rankings displayed the Ragged Rascals at the BWW on Gibson Blvd in Albuquerque at ELEVENTH PLACE with 41,407 points.

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BLZBUB, DUFF and LOONEY from ABQ will be in Dallas this Thursday for the 'Palooza. Look forward to seeing everyone who makes it!

DUFF

1. COLE PORTER vs. canadian history
Cole Porter wrote 300+ songs while attending YALE.

--Rick Magnus
RickM, Blue Goose

_________________
liljol, still residing in a humble lil abode in Buzztime's Backyard, San Diego County, in The Horribly Site-Poor Golden State, California...

<--805 NTN Buzztime sites visited as of 11/13/2018...

F CUBS!!!!! FBOSOX!!!!!

FPDRES!!!!! FCHGRS!!!!!

For the 2nd week in a ro, we flamed out on the Final... ZERO correct answers. Last week, this got us something like 140th, this week it was 106th.

Ten years ago, this result would have gotten us more like 900th.

Folks, the game is dying.

If the game is dying, it may be because the final six questions have become so difficult that missing one can ruin your whole night.

That sure has a lot to do with it on Showdown, but overall player numbers in all games (including non-premium games) have been in a downward spiral for years.

Maybe, but I doubt it. Buzztime has been bleeding players in all the premium games for several years now for reasons that I suspect have more to do with questionable business and marketing decisions than with game content.

Assessing game difficulty is somewhat subjective, but the closest thing I can think of to an objective measure would be to compare average scores over the years. Using Don Denton's site, here are the annual averages of the weekly top 100 for each year since 2004:

2004: 49,437
2005: 46,753
2006: 44,963
2007: 42,753
2008: 44,381* (42,751)
2009: 43,374
2010: 43,283
2011: 39,981
2012: 35,364* (35,895)
2013: 35,920
2014: 37,238
2015: 36,822
2016: 36,330

*The two values for 2008 reflect the average with and without the weeks when Buzztime "dumbed-down" the games and the averages shot up dramatically. The two values for 2012 reflect the average with and without the Christmas Day game that had an average in the 8,000 range.

A cursory look at these data shows that the main periods of decreasing difficulty ran from 2004-2006 and from 2010-2012; and that the difficulty has pretty much leveled off since then--actually increasing a bit from the nadir of 2012-2013. This year's average so far is indeed lower (34,614), but can't explain the drop in playership that has all happened earlier. Showdown play has been in the high 3k range for years now.

Coming from a team that recently cratered on a difficult final question, I have to say that I would rather deal with that on occasion than deal with the dumbed-down Showdown games they tried to foist on us back in 2008.

_________________
Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Having been a daily player, more or less, for most of the last twenty years, I've seen a lot of players come and go. With only a handful of exceptions, the defectors have been players who aren't likely to win in a competitive, rather than a collaborative environment. While the good players have tended to stick around, for each one who has quit Buzztime, their less accomplished competition has walked away by the dozen. By far the largest demographic among players who have fallen off my radar are those players who are not competitive and yet refuse to play collaboratively. If only there were a powder, something that could be surreptitiously added to their drinks from a signet ring...