New Scaratings

I am SO writing a letter to the new CCO about quality control tomorrow morning.

I am willing to sign it. QC was non-existent tonight...

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Tiffany

Occassional Haunt - Jax Tavern, Forest Park, OH

And the answer is......4?? 42....the answer to life, the universe and everything

By question 3 of the category round, I was voting for my least favorite. I didn't know what we'd get, but it guessed that it wouldn't be that.

You go Akbar. That catagory round and Final Showdown were f'n messed up.

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Mitch (MTCHWF/WLFFLY)

Co-Home Bar: Buffalo Wild Wings Edwardsville, IL and Time Out in St Louis, MO

Not just that, either. That is a glitch we've seen before. (Still inexcusable, of course...) Additionally, there were two questions that were almost incomprehensible. One in the Showdown round and one in Lightning, I believe.

I didn't play tonight, but the category snafu happens once or twice a year and has for probably 10 years now. The categories are stored in a separate file that isn't uploaded with the rest of the game files. When the local CPU can't find the current file, it will insert an old one. Same principle applies when games aren't uploaded, the most recent repeat available is substituted.

BO

Would you agree, however, that it is inexcusable?

Yes, there were two questions that absolutely made no sense.

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"Truth Like Football. Gets kicked around much, before reaching goal." - Charlie Chan

" Don't look back, The bastards might be gaining on you." - Satchel Paige

Frank

For clarity when I write this letter, does anyone remember the exact wording of the questions? One was about Comcast's purchase of NBC; the other was about shoes, maybe?

Not just that, either. That is a glitch we've seen before. (Still inexcusable, of course...) Additionally, there were two questions that were almost incomprehensible. One in the Showdown round and one in Lightning, I believe.[/quote]

Yes, there were two questions that absolutely made no sense.[/quote]
For clarity when I write this letter, does anyone remember the exact wording of the questions? One was about Comcast's purchase of NBC; the other was about shoes, maybe?[/quote]

Don't remember the exact wording of the NBC one, but we surmised that the question "writer" put NBC as a placeholder where there would be a blank, and perhaps forgot to go back and put in the blank. Yeah, that's it.

Paraphrased: Buskins and are types of: SHOES

"and are" ??

And are all the

I believe the NBC question was something like "In business news, Comcast purchased NBC in January" which made me think they were looking for the year; however the choices were all companies, including "NBC Universal" which was the 'right' answer.

LOL. We were saying this at the time, too.

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

I think the question should have been something like "Buskins and brogans are types of ___" But the question-writer didn't put in a second type of shoe.

Of course any mistake is "inexcusable". And I'm usually one who gives no leeway in things like this and am very quick to point things out. But if this issue happens once a year only, I'm willing to laugh it off since you still get a valid, non-repeat question. QC of those couple of questions last night is what would piss me off much more.

But I would certainly say there are far too many things like this occurring in the world of BT.

BO

If anyone's interested in the letter....


Dear Mr. Edelman:

I am writing both as an avid Buzztime player and a manager of a successful brewpub that has incorporated NTN/Buzztime into its offerings for more than fifteen years. We are currently ranked 61st in trivia and 418th in overall activity and we lease 40 playmakers at a cost of over $37 a day. NTN/Buzztime continues to be a positive draw for us, but we have some serious concerns about its future and we have been talking about reducing our number of playmakers as a result. I hope that as the new Chief Content Officer, you might welcome some thoughts from us here on the front lines.

First, there have been some serious quality control issues recently. Last night, for example, the Showdown game listed the categories from the previous week in both the Countdown and Final rounds. This has happened once or twice a year for many years and I understand it occurs because those categories load as a separate file from the questions. Additionally, there were two incomprehensible questions during the game. One question asked, “In business news, Comcast purchased NBC in January.” The answer was “NBC Universal.” It looks like a writer used “NBC” as a placeholder in the question and forgot to remove it. The other question asked, “Buskins and are types of what apparel worn in the past?” It looks like a writer forgot to include another type of shoe in the question.

These are just examples of what seems to be a trend lately, which is especially troubling with respect to your premium games. Of course a typo will slide through once in a while when you are broadcasting trivia questions for fifteen hours a day. When it comes to the premium games, however, one would expect a more thorough review of the content before it is aired. This is especially true of Showdown, which is considered by many to be the highlight game of the week.

The other major issue is the trend that Buzztime has taken in recent years toward incorporating new media and embracing pop culture as a means of attracting new players. In short, it’s not working, at least for us or for anyone we know. I understand that social media are a growing phenomena that must be utilized simply to remain viable in today’s marketplace. That said, Buzztime has for the last several years seemed to be focused unsuccessfully on drawing in new players at the expense of losing the established players who were our bread and butter. It would help us attract and keep players if Buzztime would concentrate more on maintaining a good trivia product that appeals to trivia fans. We lost quite a few regular players when Buzztime switched formats and “dumbed down” the premium games in 2008. We are slowly building that playership back, but it would be easier to do so with more fresh, accurate content in the everyday games.

The demographic on which you should be concentrating is over 30 (some well over), college-educated and in search of intellectual stimulation. This has always been your core demographic. It is also the exact demographic that spends the most in our restaurants and who we would like to see come back again and again.


Thank you for your time in reading these thoughts. I hope that they might benefit you in some way in your new role.

Well said, Akbar. I would be interested in learning if you get a response.
XT

I think the actual Comcast/NBC question was worse than that. IIRC, instead of using the word "purchased", they used the word "acquired", except the spelling was something like "aquired". Geez.

Christina/HEELAX

Congrats are in order to the Home Turf Sports Bar of Portland. I see from Don Denton's site that they also won once about a year ago. Anybody from there on this group? Talk to me about the place. That was a wonderful score they put up in a tough game.

s o b

Nice letter, very well put!!! Now I hope it doesn't fall on deaf ears.