New Scaratings

Played one game only, but there were four straight-up pop culture questions and three that I'd categorize as questionable. So, no real difference there, with an admittedly ludicrous sample size. I'm not sure I care for the new color scheme and font. I'll give it some time, though, to be sure that it's not a knee-jerk reaction on my part.

Think I saw 6 games today and was initially impressed. Funny thing is, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th question I saw was pop culture! But after that it was pretty solid.

BO

I played a couple games today and didn't notice any appreciable difference in the content or toughness of the games. There was one problem with the graphics though. The new graphics feature black text on a yellowish orange background. The problem is that on Tuesdays, bw3's has their own custom background to promote their special on wings. That background is a dark red color and when combined with the black text of the question it's rather difficult to read. I was sitting at the bar right in front of the tv so it wasn't a problem for me but I imagine it could pose a problem for people sitting further away from the tv.

I arrived in the middle of the 9:00 MT game, mainly to see just how the new Pumpkindown game looks. I love black, but I don't like it here

But what caught my eye is that every question I saw during this game featured Brainbuster clues. 9:30 game, it was back to the standard style of hints

_________________
/°v°\ • Every time Linux boots, a penguin gets its wings
I'm a solipsistic conspiracy theorist. I'm sure I must be up to something, and I won't stop until I find out what
Why not downgrade Plutonium to a dwarf element?

I noticed this sporadically last Thursday as well. I think a Countdown game before the premium games began had a couple questions with Brainbuster style clues, and the first couple questions of the George Washington Topix game did as well.

I personally would love it if they went with BB clues more than 30 minutes per week

However, it will be quite maddening quite quickly if the hint style keeps flopping back and forth like a herring stranded on an ice floe. Especially during the same game

_________________
/°v°\ • Every time Linux boots, a penguin gets its wings
I'm a solipsistic conspiracy theorist. I'm sure I must be up to something, and I won't stop until I find out what
Why not downgrade Plutonium to a dwarf element?

At my BWW, the 5:30 game had white text on a yellow background.

I could barely read the questions/answers and I was at the bar, close to the tv.

Sucked.

Looking at my profile this morning, apparently that WAS Brainbuster, despite the vivid orange scheme. Premium games after 9 is evidently going to take some getting used to

(I can see the next post already: "[Eastern time zone player] replied 'Bitch, please!'")

_________________
/°v°\ • Every time Linux boots, a penguin gets its wings
I'm a solipsistic conspiracy theorist. I'm sure I must be up to something, and I won't stop until I find out what
Why not downgrade Plutonium to a dwarf element?

-Of course, no problems with rollout.

At Applebee's in Halifax Tuesday night, both Glory Daze and Brainbuster came up on the screens in Countdown frames, although on the Playmakers the correct names showed up.

We still do not know what happened to the one-hour 'Canada Eh'. I tried to check the schedule before leaving home that afternoon, but, of course, the site was down for 'scheduled maintenance'. At 1830 (6:30 p.m. AST), its usual start time, the ads were still calling for Canada Eh to be on 6:30-7:30, but a Countdown game came on. It turned out to be mainly Canadian questions, but was only one-half hour long. After 7:00, the screen froze on an ad, and eventually we got the manager to re-boot it (about 7:20). When it came up again, we had our scores still from the 6:30 game, and were able to add to them by answering the last two questions again! Perhaps we were getting the EST feed for it this time? Anyway, we came up on the leaderboards twice, first for the combined score, and 3rd for our original score, and it apparently was Canada Eh. Maybe they reduced it to a half-hour, and left the other half hour free for advertising.

_________________
Wayne Neily
Tremont, Kings Co., N. S.

"What mighty contests rise from trivial things!" - Alexander Pope, 1712.

"Beauty is truth, and truth beauty", John Keats, 1820.

From our friends at Buzztime...

"Countdown is going to get a little harder, with less pop culture. If you're looking for a general trivia game that will make you work for your points (and more... stay tuned) then Countdown will be the game for you in the afternoon."

I decided to take a look at these claims, starting with "less pop culture". From a sample of about 250 questions, I came up with these percentages, based on the traditional Trivial Pursuit categories.

Geography - 17%
History - 30%
Entertainment - 14%
Arts & Literature - 13%
Science - 24%
Sports & Games - 2%

Given that other studies of this kind for the game before 2/28 had shown the entertainment percentage to be at least double, we can safely say they have reduced the pop culture content.

Of note is the Sports & Games percentage, still extremely low. I believe I saw somewhere that they were going to incorporate some of the content from the Sports Trivia channel here; that clearly did not happen.

So far as their other claim, "a little harder", obviously this is more subjective. At least from my perspective, I'd have to say it's a little easier. However, the prior level of pop culture never bothered me much, so I would have to figure those that hated the level of pop culture before 2/28 would find the game somewhat easier now.

They also said they would make Lunchtime Trivia "a bit easier". Again, hard to make any conclusions here, and I can't say I've played as many questions as Countdown, but it seems to be the same level of difficulty. I didn't do the same percentage analysis as above, but I'd guess it'd be pretty similar.

The Late Shift is said to be "a bit easier and more pop culture oriented". From the games that I've played, the latter is certainly true. As before, judging how easy the game is somewhat subjective, although from what I've seen, it did seem somewhat easier to me.

One complaint I'd like to see taken care of for these games, particularly Countdown, is that it is difficult to read the text off of small screens. Not everyone plays off of 40 inch tvs, and with the color schemes and seemingly smaller type, it can be hard to read at times. Hopefully this can be addressed in the near future.

I'm not sure how much I trust previous breakdowns as I don't know that they parsed CD on its own merits without including data from BT games.
14% does seem lower than pre-2/28, though, and lower than the new ones I've seen. I would put the PC content around 20%-ish from my 24 games. But since you went to the trouble to write it down, I'll defer.
Speaking of 20%, did you chart content per game on Monday? It seemed that every game between 4:30 and 8 EST had exactly three PC questions, no more, no less.

I remember playing one afternoon quite a few years ago when I had three straight CD games with a sports question. I don't think I've had one since...

Noticed Monday night that BT is now only showing one pass of rankings for CD. IMO, this is unacceptable as the only difference is some extra ads before the rankings are shown. It now seems like an eternity before they appear.

And I believe the same goes for other non-premium games although not 100% certain.

BO

The "Tuesday Wing Special" screen at my home BWW site caused me to leave early.

Who puts white lettering on a yellow/orangish background?

I'd do better if the screen were in Braille...EGADS!!!

For what it's worth, my study years back had found a median of five pop culture questions per game of Countdown. It seems that they've cut the number roughly in half.

It also seems, perhaps not coincidentally, that I'm getting two fewer wrong answers per 15-question game.

The very first New CD game I played had three movie questions in a row. My first thought was, "how is this any different from old CD?" But I think those three turned out to be the only PC questions in that game.



The same thing (mostly) happened on Saturday. We'd get one flip of the CD rankings. At times, we'd get a quick glimse of a second flip of the top 10 locations, but it would cut off right at that point.

There's (obviously, except maybe to buzztime) more than enough time at the end of a CD game to show two full flips of the rankings.

With the exception of the new color scheme, I generally like the new Countdown. I think the former white on blue format was more pleasing to look at and seems easier to read, although the fact that my average game is about 1000 higher proves that I am still reading the questions fine.

-- RWM

_________________
"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

I struggle with the graphics and it wears me out after about an 1 1/2 hours (which pisses me off).

My average has stayed about the same, thanks to the two Canada questions every game and the odd Vegas/car questions.

I do enjoy the old west questions returning to the game.

I agree the content is much more to my liking.

I've only had seven games with a total of 9 Canadian content questions since 3/1.
I knew my clean livin' would finally pay dividends.
Oh, sorry. I mixed up myself and Mother Theresa again.
Then I guess I have no explanation for my good fortune.

My schedule limits me to not much more than Lunchtime Trivia now. Don't really think the questions are any easier or harder, but it seems as though each day has a "theme". Last week it seemed like one day had 3 musical/classical music/instrument questions a game. Another day was filled with world leader questions and the next was geography; today had a bunch of literture questions. Sports questions??? What are those?

My experience with Countdown and Lunchtime agrees with the consensus for difficulty and content.

One thing that should be noted is that Lunchtime features black text on a white background. They should really give up the graphics bullshit and make that the standard for questions in ALL games.

I consider white text on a dark background easier to read, which is why I prefer the prior Countdown screens. Until this past Thursday I did not have a serious problem reading the questions, but on that day, one of the booths at Adams Mill was positioned where the glare from an overhead light bounced off the monitor making the questions very hard to read. When I sat at this booth in the past, it was never a problem. Of course this problem went away by sitting at the bar, but it still shows that the former layout was preferable.

-- RWM

_________________
"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

There's a reason black text on a white background is the standard in publishing. It is the easiest to read.

I find the new screen easy to read... Washed-out orange is not exactly my favorite color, but the black type is easy to see.

I even like the new logo, for some reason...

The split network, on the other hand...

SUCKS.

I haven't played an hour-long premium game since this idiocy started, and doubt I ever will.

Edit to add: Just realized the new CD screens are similar to the color scheme BWW uses... More to add to the conspiracy theories!

It is also the least expensive option for the publisher, no doubt. But I'm not reading Countdown questions off of a newspaper or book.

I'll tell you what. I rarely play Lunchtime Trivia. Don't care for the game that much. But when I get the chance, I will play and then I can comment further. Can reading it be that different than Countdown's current black on light orange? I doubt it, but I'll let you know when I've played the new LT.

However, I can conclusively say that I prefer reading NTN games with white on dark blue as CD was before, at least over the current format for that game.

-- RWM

_________________
"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

I'd have to agree. Since the debut of the new Countdown, I don't think I've played a full game that was sub-13000. In the old game, I probably had a 40% rate at best, with the occasional sub-11 meltdown. Shows what I know about pop culture ...