FIRST Jeopardy! (7/5)

[EddieMcD]

This was the utopian land in Lost Horizon. 400 points on this one.

[Joel J]

What is Shangri-La?

[DanL]

This entire game is flawed. I've never heard of Lost Horizon, much less know that it's a movie or know the name of a Utopian land in it. Yet, after a .04 second Google search, I could have come up with the same answer from even just the first listing.

After the credits (with curving Chinese-style letters), the film opens with title cards from the pages of an opened book, inquiring about the utopian, idyllic mythical and legendary land of Shangri-La in the Himalayan mountains:

A lot of these questions can be answered by just being the first person to read the new question (i.e. 3 minutes after the question was posted). Thus, this entire game has gotten to the point where one mearly needs to hit the "Send me an E-Mail when a new thread is posted on this board" button, keep one's Outlook constantly open and checking for new mail every 3 minutes, then as soon one gets the clue, go to google, find the answer, and boom.

I'm not saying everyone does this - many of the answers probably were answered with one's geniuine knowledge. However, because it is so easy to find the correct answer, one has to wonder about the authenticity of many points that have been awarded.

This game can be fun, but not in its current state. My one request that in the future, before posting new questions, Eddy should try to Google for the answer. If the answer can be found in a site that shows up in the first page of results, a new question should be posted.

To make a point, I've looked at the past few days to point out how fast a question has been answered vs. time posted

7/3 Question Posted: 9:36PM Question Answered: 9:39PM Delay: 3 min
7/2 Delay: 13 min
7/1 Delay: 1 min
6/30 Delay: -
6/29 Delay: 7 min
6/28 Delay: 3 min

Again, this shows how easy it is to just hit "Notify me when new thread is posted" and then come here as soon as you get the announcement.

Another suggestion I'd like to add is to schedule a set time when the question will be posted so that no one can have a disadvantage of not being around when the question is posted. Atleast this way, you can't say that you stepped out when the question was posted, and so weren't around in the critical 5-10 minute window of opportunity. No, this isn't a perfect solution - I'm sure there are tons of counter-points, but I think this is better than the current system.

Now that the game has been going for a month, perhaps we should start a "Reform" or a "Version 2" thread with the intention of discussing ways to improve the game?

<edit>Merged posts. </edit>

[David Hoff]

I don't understand what the correlation of how fast the question is answered and someone looking the answer up. If someone knows the answer they just have to post it while someone who doesn't know the answer has to search on Google or some other search engine and that would take more time. Also I think not knowing when the question will be posted adds a bit to the game.

[Joel J]

Eh, I agree. I use Opera. When I right click on highlighted text, I am presented with the option of performing a google search on the.. highlighted text. I highlight the question, click search, the results open in a new window, and less than 3 minutes after reading the question, I have an answer. Whoever reads the question first (as I seem to have done for the last two questions) will generally get the points.. but hey, what can I say?

[David Hoff]

I'm not saying people don't search for answers because I have done it before and I'm sure many others have too, but not every quick answer has been found on a search engine.

[EddieMcD]

First off, let me say that Joel's answer is correct.

You're right, if there is any flaw in the game, it's that the first person to see it gets the answer. Of course, if you have to Google it, it takes time, and that can lead to you missing it. Now, I could set a specific time for me to post the question (and this seems like the best (i.e., easiest) way to do this), but I'm not perfect, and I could very well be out on a date (alright, bad example), and miss the scheduled time. I have a temporary solution I'm going to try out in the next few days. Also, other solutions suggested to me were the PM game (I absolutely hated that), and running a specialized javascript client. Obviously, the former is no good, and the latter, while it could be potentially awesome, is complicated.