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Who is Dorothy? She is a long-standing member of the team Formerly Known As Mad River. Among her multiple talents, she is the reason why Lighthouse wins the vocabulary game as often as we do.
Words notwithstanding, her favorite night of trivia was Tuesday night, when she and we
played Brainbuster and Showdown. Then COVID killed Tuesday nights out. Some time later,
the COVID lockdowns and restrictions killed Mad River, and when it died, Buzztime at the bar
died in the whole of New York City. Two-and-a half years later; it is still dead, as it still is in
much of America.
She was more fortunate than very many Buzztime players because the Mad River team implemented a robust remote playing system. It was either that or no playing at all; the "nearest" location was much further away and much more expensive to get to than Mad River, and the next nearest locations were much worse than that.
So Dorothy played Lexitopia and History and Six and even the Tuesday favorite Brainbuster, but playing Showdown was no longer possible. This saddened her, and she often voiced the wish that she and we might get the chance to play Showdown again. She was not alone in that wish.
Some months ago, we got word that a bowling alley not too far outside New York City called Herrill Lanes had gotten the game. I didn't pay that much mind at that time because 1) there was virtually no gameplay there and 2) it looked like yet another long subway/commuter rail/major walk or cab ride marathon. For Dorothy, getting to this place would mean almost a 2 1/2 hour mass transit ride each way (commuter rail would save a little time, but then you'd have to take a cab or walk over a mile to and from the train station). This is a lot to ask from someone over eighty years old, and she is not alone in that category on this team.
Later, I heard word that some of the Long Island players (who had lost their long-time location) were going to give the bowling alley a try. I checked the Buzztime records, and sure enough, there had been some signs of life the last few weeks. I then took a closer look at my personal transportation options, and found to my amazement that there was a subway/bus combination that would get me to the bowling alley in around 90 minutes with minimal walking and expense. (in contrast, the more conventional commuter rail route would leave me over a mile away from the place in only slightly less time). For me, this was much better than any other possibility since COVID hit.
That gave me some ideas, and Hybrid Showdown was born. Here is how it works:
1) Schedule a Zoom meeting for the Mad River people.
2) Bring laptop to location.
3) Bring a separate webcam and use it to show the Playmaker screen.
4) Start Zoom meeting on laptop with Mad River people.
5) Brainbuster has always been available for remote play, so Mad River people play the game remotely as usual, just at Herrill's rather than Lighthouse. Those at Herrill's play as usual, and I convey answers back and forth. End of game, all scores, local and remote, show up on Herrill's scoreboard.
6) When Showdown begins, remote play is not possible for the Mad River/Zoom partipants. A blue screen comes up saying no games are available. This is because the Buzztime app has not been programmed for Showdown (or Spotlight). The Mad River people cannot play the game and cannot see it on their tablets or phones. They can only see it via the Zoom link.
7) All the Mad River people can do is to see the questions and provide answers to those actually playing at Herrill's. Only the boxes at Herrill's can sign in to Showdown, score points, show up on any leaderboard.
There are a number of challenges to this kind of play. Zoom chews up a lot of power, and I cannot operate the laptop on A/C power where we are seated. The standard battery on the laptop does not hold enough power to get through Brainbuster and Showdown; it died at the end of the Category round in Showdown last Tuesday, when we tried this for the first time. A new bigger battery took care of that problem last night. Sitting in a noisy cocktail lounge with a bowling alley outside makes it hard to hear people on Zoom; earbuds took care of that for me, but the other Herrill players can't hear them at all, so I have to relay answers, causing point bleed. In the long run, if the two sides don't hear each other directly, it's harder to develop a sense of who knows what and how well on the other side, and these groups have no recent and little of any kind of experience with each other.
Last night was the first time the technical problems were handled and the hybrid group played a full game of Showdown. We came in fourteenth. My initial impression is that this is no Frankenstein that will lay waste to Showdowndom but a team that would often come in somewhere in the top ten, but would only win on those rare occasions when everything went right.
Rather than some trivia monster, this seems more like a trivia dancing bear; you might be amazed it can dance at all, but you don't enroll it in a ballet company. "Playing" Showdown via Zoom is not a great or even terribly good way to play Showdown. You have no box; you get no personal score. You don't do this if you have normal options. A four-and-a half hour commute to play an hour-and-a-half game is not normal. You only do this when the real choice is this or nothing, and we were tired of nothing.
When it comes to Buzztime, the COVID lockdown never ended for us, or for many people in many parts of the country. Every time the head of Buzztime asks for comments on Facebook, the overwhelming majority of the responses say. "We have no place to play." A dozen years ago, there were over 10,000 Showdown scores every week. Today, there is not even 700. Buzztime used to have 3,000-4,000 sites, most of those are gone, gone like BWW. This is the new normal.
But last Tuesday, for the first time in two and a half years, Dorothy was happy to see and answer some Showdown questions when it didn't look like she would ever do that again. She was not alone.
We are not the only good trivia team in this position. The one that comes to my mind right away is the Grand Slam/BWW Crystal City team in the DC area. Buzztime has completely vanished from DC and the immediate suburbs, but there are places further out. Now I have no idea if those players would want or be able to do this, but just for an example, one or more players might want to go to a place like Kilroy's and set up Zoom for those players who can't readily get there. I'm sure there are other teams I am not even aware of that might find this something they could do.
It's not terribly hard to do. A Zoom license good for unlimited meetings costs less than a beer a week. I'm using a good but oldish laptop. An extra webcam, bigger battery, earbuds would be a bit over a hundred dollars. This can be used in other situations, too. If someone or someones cannot get to a place, temporarily or otherwise, Zoom can come to the rescue.
Hey, the more the merrier, right? Right??
If this isn't for you, fine, but if so, does it have to be that way for everyone else? Isn't that like the solo player who thinks team play is cheating?
In the next post, I'll talk about whether or not this is a legitimate style of play, along with some history on rules.
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