stevej84 wrote:
I know little or nothing of country music. After reviewing the questions from last week's headliner round, I would only have 2, 3 or at most 4 right in the headliner round.
So that means that my crappy score and the crappy scores of everyone else who did poorly on the game is the sole fault of the game design and has absolutely nothing at all to do with poor content writing nor ignorance and apathy towards the subject matter chosen????
For the most part, yes. Now of course I'm basing this assumption on the belief that if you're playing Playback, you at least have some general knowledge of popular music trivia. I understand that some people are just playing at the bar on a Saturday night, Playback comes up, and they'll play through it. But for the most part, if you're playing a game of Playback through its entirety you probably have (or at least think you have) at least some general knowledge of music.
The fifth round of the game is only 10 questions. Yet, it's worth 22250 points.
If Player A gets the first seven questions right and misses the last three questions, that player gets 11500 points. Player A got 70% of the questions correct, yet only gets 52% of the points.
If Player B gets all the questions right except for questions #3, #6 and #9, the player gets 7000 points. Player B got 70% of the questions correct, yet only gets 31% of the points.
If we asked any teacher if a student should deserve an F or a low F for C level work, imagine the reaction we'd get from the teacher.
Now I understand that a game isn't the same thing as school...but the point BO is arguing here that it's a flawed game when very few of the players can get even as much as 50% of the score. It's primarily the fault of the game design.
stevej84 wrote:
A well written game content-wise can compensate for flaws in game design..and poorly written content could ruin a well designed game very easily.
I agree, in general, but because of game design of the Headliner round...this pretty much goes out the window here. The buzztime writers are smart enough (or should be smart enough) to know they can write a question that 90% or more of the players are going to get right. And conversely, they know they can write a question that as few as 10% of the players are going to get right. (It should be no lower than 20%, given that you have a 20% chance of getting the question right by guessing blindly. But they can write incorrect answer choices that they know most people will bite on, which could knock it down to as little as 10%).
If they ask a 10% type question anywhere in those final 11 questions, where they position it makes a huge difference...thanks to the game design. As I've said, it's a lot like setting the pins on a green on a golf course. They can make it very easy or they can make it extremely challenging.
If you miss a 10% type question on a standard 1000 point question in round 2 or round 3 or round 4, it's no big deal. You can easily make that up and still get over 50% of the points for the game. Likewise, if the Headliner round was a straight 10000 point round, and you only got 2, 3 or 4 of those right...it's a hit against your score but not necessarily a fatal one. You could still make up that ground in the rest of the game and still get over 50% of the points.
If you only get 2, 3 or 4 in the last 11 questions of the game, the chances are pretty good you won't get 50% (and may not even come remotely close to getting 50%) of the total possible points for the game.