Total Quiz XIII - Results and Awards

Woh Kilroy...mad skills...you got q11!

Haha yeh, I only just joined AE
Yes I certainly wouldnt mind if the time between Total Quizzes was shortened, they are a lot of fun, AND VERY CHALLENGING!
In saying that, I've only been in one, so I dont know what to make of previous ones.

One question: How do we vote for our favourite question?

Good work all

Peace out

Here are my comments on the questions:

1-7 were obviously meant to be the easier questions. 7 gave some people a little bit of trouble, since it looks like the wikipedia which many use as a reference is unclear about the history surrounding the question. Hopefully, my explanation clarifies any confusion about that question. On the other hand, there weren't many possibilities for answers, so most people got that right.

8,9, 10 were meant to be a little more involved. The key to 8 was probably the name of the figures mentioend, and the key to 9 was probably the phrase "Terrorized the continent." Personally, I was surprised at how easy 10 was for most people, probably because I know next to nothing about literature of that period.

11 This TQ is the first in a while for which I did not write any "hard" questions and most of the questions came from a single writer. 11, along with Decebal's and Rider's were included to add some variety to the question authorship. Question 11 was a huge surprise to us in terms of the actual difficulty. You can see that we placed it only ranked 11th in predicted difficulty, while it advanced to the second round. I think the combination of obscurity and the lack of solid clues made this question quite difficult in the end. In general, there are two types of "hard" questions: cryptic questions leading to well-known answers, and cryptic questions leading to obscure answers. We try to create questions of the first type, but I guess this was was a little off in the question picking.

12 Wasn't as hard as planned. It looks like people are well familiar with Carrhae and the Parthian-Rome conflict.

13 I thought was about a more obscure historical character. However, the requirement for being a woman probably narrowed down the question significantly.

14 was one that we originally had a few concerns about its practicality. The main issue that Poirot pointed out is that it was too "simple," containing too few clues. It was one of the questions for which you either knew the answer or you didn't, and apparatly we estimated this question to be easier than what it was.

15 "very large in area but with very little population" probably hinted strongly at the colonization period. Overall, this was a good question. I liked it.

16 This question is written in a cryptic fashion, although the events it described were rather significant in history. When we were making the quiz, Poirot noticed that we didn't have any questions on Turkish history and this was the result.

17 We originally thought this was a very hard question, and It turned out to be true. Unlike what we thought, it turns out that the topic described in this question was less-known than those in questions 18, 19, and 20.

18, 19, 20 were all hard questions.

Overall, I though the questions were pretty good this time around. I'd say compared to the past few Total Quizzes, the topics covered in this one were more diverse, which may be good or bad for some.

I wonder what questions we'll have next time.

How do we vote for our favourite question?

You can just say it in this thread. In the future, we can have a more technical way of doing this. (I forgot about this when I was making the new quiz engine).


Edited by Imperator Invictus - 29-Oct-2006 at 15:28

Does the 'obscure' way mean that you write in the style that 'I am/was a great something...'?

Breakdown of Quiz questions by region (regions may overlap for questions):

Western Europe related =  3

Eastern Europe related = 3

North America = 2

South America = 1

Islamic World =  4

Subsaharan Africa = 1

East Asia = 2

South Asia = 1

Southeast Asia = 1

Ancient/classical world = 4

Steppes = 1

  I hope the total quiz this time around reflects All Empires as being an international forum.








Edited by poirot - 29-Oct-2006 at 18:06

Congrates Decabel  I think that puts you one up on me maybe two.  You are a mighty Champ.  hopefully next time I will have less work and more time to give you a better run

Edited by Dawn - 29-Oct-2006 at 16:48

This was a good quiz and I enjoyed all questions with exeception of 11 and 17. Thanks to Poirot for great and consistent questions.
What follows is few thoughts about some of these questions:

Question 11 -
Zaydi is not a tribe, it is a religious sect related to Shia muslims. Its story is pretty interesting. We need to be carful about words we use.
I think using the word tribe was misleading.

In the question 17 using expression " I lived in the dark century of conflicts" was a bit misleading, because it pointed in the direction of dark ages or middle ages. In term of warfare the century in question is not darker than most of centuries in Europe. The Baltic region of Europe had also more of turncoat leaders than any other.

About my own question I did provide very subtle hints. The King was chosen (elected). The word coronation implied post-Roman and European history and massacre (religious masacres were most common in that period).
Congratulation to those who answered it.

My favorite question was question 12.

When we provide clues, we should make sure that they are not misleading.
    
    
    

Edited by cavalry4ever - 29-Oct-2006 at 18:23

Ah yes, one question: How do you get to make and submit questions for the Total Quizzes?