Pointless (Head to Head, pass 2)

[Duke Gnome]

I'm thinking of running a game based around the mechanics of BBC1's show Pointless. The basic idea is they give 100 people 100 seconds to either, depending on which round it is, name as many things from a list as possible (e. g "US Presidents who served at least 2 terms") or answer a group of questions on a theme (eg "clues relating to famous footballers", first question being "he is married to the singer formerly known as Victoria Adams".

Contestents than have to either name an item from the list or answer a question. They then score the number of people out of the 100 who got it, incorrect answers score 100, lowest score is best. The way I'll do it is have everybody playing send in a list they managed to complete in 100 seconds, and to select one of them as their best answer. Anybody not playing could also send in a list to beef up the figures.

You would score the number of people, excluding yourself, who included it. Incorrect answers would score the total number of submissions. Rounds may have 2 legs, or there may be forced 2-player teaming, depending on response. Ties would go to people with longer lists. There would be a deadline of about 120 hours for each round and the individual (or team?) with the highest score would be eleminated. The winner would play in a Jackpot round for the grand sum of $GL1000, I'm not sure how I'll run that one yet.

Lists will be adjudicated from the start, and anything following a wrong item will be discarded so it makes sense to put your most confident items first. If your chosen selection is after a wrong item, it will still be accepted although it won't be counted in other peoples scores.

I shouldn't have to say this but no external research is permitted

Current entrants

esme
lexprod
Dented Ford
Scurra
Elethiomel

Current question in post 70.

[Amb]

How will you run the 100 seconds part of it?

What is to stop someone submitting 1 item - and thus scoring less points?

[lexprod]

Listing only one item is not good strategy, since the more things you name the more likely you are to add points to someone else's chosen item.

I don't understand why the order should matter for submitted lists. If the question was "Name countries with red on their flags" and I sent

Mexico
France
USA
Canada
Ireland
China
UK

and indicated I thought Canada would get the least points, why not count my answers of China and UK for scoring other people's lists?

Regardless I'd love to play whatever format you choose, I think Pointless is a brilliant game
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I'll have a P please...

[Duke Gnome]

[DF*]

The show had a recent episode on TV in Britain which mentioned the most frequently asked questions from views, one of the topmost was "how to be one of the hundred people given 100 seconds...?"
They glossed over the details and said "it's all done online, and nobody knows they are being surveyed so that answers would not be skewed - nobody is allowed to volunteer. (The thing about people who like the show is that they like quizzes, and people who like quizzes tend to have more random facts at their disposal than a truly random representation.) So I don't think they stop the clock as soon as a wrong answer is given, it just wouldn't be included as a correct answer. If nobody knows they are being "surveyed" for results to include in a quiz show, then they wouldn't be skewing the figures. I dare say they have some quite sophisticated analysis taking place so as not to include distorted results, while allowing for "surprises" to take place. But... they didn't let on what they do to get the answers.

[DF*]

Likewise I am a fan of the show and would like to take part

[Duke Gnome]

OK, in order to generate larger lists, I think I'll scrap the "100 seconds" and replace it with "in one go". So you can name as many as you can think of at one time. Also I think I'll gloss over the first 2 incorrect responses on the list to encourage wider answers, but still cracking down on deliberately naming all the months for the 31 days question.

[esme]

/in
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Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

[Duke Gnome]

3 entries so far. I'll give it until Friday morning (UK time) and then I'll start with however many we have at that point.

[Scurra]

/in

This and Only Connect are the two best "quiz" shows on British tv at the moment by some distance. (I've got a bit of time for The Million Pound Drop but most other shows are just stupid. There's one that's based around that bizarre "drop a penny" pachinko-style thing...)
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_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[Duke Gnome]

Welcome to Pointless!. Let's meet the teams (click of the Fast Forward Button). Now that's done, let's crack on with round 1. The subject for round 1 is "Words" and the question is

(Don't look at the spoiler until you are ready)
["4 letter words with a single Z, that do not start with Z"]
When you're reeady you have as long as you like, in one uninterrupted session, to name as many words with that description as you can and give the answer you think is going to be pointless. First round will be 2 legs, and each leg will be normalised to being out of 100. (If I get 5 submissions, I'll multiply your score by 20. If i get 7 I'll mutiply by 14.28 and round scores down).

Words will be considered valid if either http://oxforddictionaries.com/ or http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ consider them to be. You may not check in advance.

I would appreciate anybody not playing who also sent a list in.

The deadline will be Wednesday 1100 GMT (1200 BST, 0700 EST)

[Duke Gnome]

Oh and to be clear, any capitalised or hyphenated word will not be acceptable.

[Elethiomel]

I'll play. So to be clear, I try to come up with as many answers as possible, then pick the one I think is most likely to be unique?

What's a reasonable duration for "one uninterrupted session?". If I go X seconds without finding another answer, I should stop? (The popcorn principle.)

[Duke Gnome]

Since the game has only just started I'll add you in, Elethiomel. I'll leave the session time up to you. (On the show the contestants don't generate lists themselves, but I have no oher way to do it.) As a guideline though, I'd guess if you're thinking for 20 seconds and you just can't come up with another one then that's enough. Anybody who doesn't want to be a contestant and just wants to help he game out does not need to choose a selection from their list.

[Elethiomel]

Alright, sent. Thanks for having me.

[esme]

[Duke Gnome]

That's right. (Although I doubt it'll matter for this round, and there may not be another "Words" round.)

[Duke Gnome]

Thanks to 3iff, The Potter, MNOWAX and novice for providing extra lists. Good job to all of you.

Sice all the players are all in and I haven't received a non-player submission for a few days I'll close the round down early. Due to there being 9 submissions all scores for the leg will be multiplied by 11.

"Esme, what's your word" "Well, we're in a quiz, so I'll go for that"
Lets see what that gets. 4 (44)

"Dented Ford, you're up next" "I remember visiing the Naze and I think it can also be used in lower case as a general term"
Is that right, and if so how many people said it? 0! A pointless answer, which adds $GL250 to the jackpot and scores you nothing.

"Scurra now" "Oyez, Oyez, I've got something to say. My word is oyez"
And it's going down.. past 5, past3, past 2, 1. And it stops. Scurra scores 1 (11)

"Come now to Elethiomel. Sorry you don't have a seat there, we'll get one out for the next round" "My word is dzos, more than one cattle/yak hybrid"
Annnd it's another pointless answer! Another $GL250 added to the jackpot.

"lexprod now" "How about raze, I hope that doesn't raise my score too much"
Going down and it's stopped at 4 (44)

Tally
Esme 44
Dented Ford 0
Scurra 11
Elethiomel 0
lexprod 44.
Jackpot: $1500

Dented Ford, you were lucky. Oxford dictionaries didn't list naze. M-W I did not realise when I chose it as a source, has a paywall on some definitions. As it claimed there was something behind it I signed up for their free trial for long enough to get the definition. If there is another Words round though, I'll be using a different American source. Probably American Heritage, which would not have listed 'naze'.

Other pointless answers include LUTZ, JEEZ (OR GEEZ), and PREZ.

Highest scoring answers were HAZE and GAZE both said by 7 people.

[Duke Gnome]

Round 1, leg 2 and it looks like a battle between lexprod and esme as to who will be going home. Anyhow let's press on. The next leg is "Geography" an the question is [Countries with exactly 1 land border]

And what do we mean by countries? As always on Pointless, when we say country, we mean a sovereign state that is a member of the UN in its own right.

Scurra has already said he may have trouble posting this week, so I'm putting a deadline up of the morning (UK time) of the 7th May. I'll close it down early if all contestants have submitted, and either i)It's been more than 24 hours since I received an audience submission or ii)it's been more than 96 hours total.[/b]

[Duke Gnome]

A clarification bought up by groza.
If a country only borders 1 other country it only has one border, whether or not there is a gap between borders.

[Dented Ford]

Wowch! I looked up naze after submitting and thought I was up for 100 points according to the oxforddictionaries site. I didn't sign up for the MW to check there, and guessed they'd not have it listed either. So I'm glad to have been flukey here - although, I was convinced it is a valid word which should be there.

[Duke Gnome]

Still missing answers from Scurra and Dented Ford.

[Dented Ford]

The above statement is no longer true.

[Scurra]

And I've made my entry too now. Thanks for waiting.
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[Duke Gnome]

Thanks to Thok, The Potter, Zag, 3iff, groza and novice I recieved 11 subissions so all scores are multiplied by 9

So we go back down the line

Lexprod: Lesotho, that's inside South Africa, right?
It is! Lexprod gets 6 (54)

Elethiomel:How about Brunei?
How bout that? Another pointless answer and another $250! Perfect round for Elethiomel.

Scurra: I'll go for one of the European ones, say San Marino.
It scores 2 (18)

Dented Ford. Haiti is on Hispaniola right?
Indeed, and it scores 6 (54). Another popular one

esme: I'll go for Lesotho too, for another 54

Tally
Esme 98
Dented Ford 54
Scurra 29
Elethiomel 0
lexprod 98.





(I've made a mistake here. Cyprus, (submitted by novice), is actually a correct answer. It doesn't affect the scoring though, so I'll leave the graphic be.)

The Vatican is not a member of the UN; Scotland, Wales and N Ireland are not soveirgn states, other incorrect answers had multiple borders.

Other pointless answers are Sri Lanka, Qatar and Papua New Guinea

lexprod goes home due to his shorter list. Goodbye lexprod, you've been a fanastic contestant. On to round 2.

[Duke Gnome]

I'll rejig the tie rules I think. Anyway Round 2, leg 1 On each pass I'll give you 7 questions. Please try to answer them all and then select the one you think will get less points. The subject is 19th Century Wars and the questions are:

[DF*]

To clarify, we're to attempt all the questions, and wrong answers will be closer to a pointless score for some other player who gets it right, right? We don't suffer 100 point penalties, unless it's a wrong answer for our nominated choice for this round?

[Duke Gnome]

That's right. You won't be penalised for attempting the questions you don't select.

[lexprod]

Dang, knew I misinterpereted the question. I thought alaska would DQ canada from being an answer. :shrug:
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I'll have a P please...

[groza528]

...Will our ridiculous wrong answers be publicized on the forum?

[Duke Gnome]

I was thinking of just doing a graphic showng whether each question was answered correctly for each submitter, not actually sharing the answers. I'm happy to do otherwise if people want, though.

[Zag]

In your graphic above, you have Swaziland in the row headed by me. Does this mean that you thought I included that in my list? Because I'm pretty sure I didn't. ~checks~ I definitely didn't.

[Duke Gnome]

No, it's colour coded. Swaziland is red because it's wrong. All your answers are light blue.

[The Potter]

Scurra's Vatican City was correct? I knew he cheated at trivia games!
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Artwork | Fractals | Don't ignore your dreams; don't work too much; say what you think; cultivate friendships; be happy.

[Duke Gnome]

I've already received 2 requests not to give out the answers I received, so I won't be doing that.

[3iff]

Yes, sometimes it's embarrassing. I've no problem with my answers being published (but I'm not actually playing).

[esme]

Actually, for me it would have been quite helpful to see the answers published, because up until now, I have only sent words that I was quite sure of. (This does not make it necessarily less embarassing, though.)
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Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

[Scurra]

[Duke Gnome]

[groza528]

No objection, though surely some of my answers will reveal that history is not my strong suit