Trivial FIRST ...FIRST is not trivial!

[GaryVoshol]

Companies have been sued (or at least sent a cease-and-desist letter) by Monopoly's maker (Parker Brothers?) for using a likeness too close to the Monopoly board. I know my former employer was one of them.

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

Companies have been sued (or at least sent a cease-and-desist letter) by Monopoly's maker (Parker Brothers?) for using a likeness too close to the Monopoly board. I know my former employer was one of them.

Parker Brothers is happy to sell you a customized version of Monopoly: http://www.mymonopoly.com/home.php

[Chris is me]

You can't really buy it in bulk though for any sort of reasonable profit, I think.

I'm pretty sure of all the people I know in various robotics teams (that's about a dozen outside of my team) only one of my friends would buy it and play it on a somewhat regular basis. You'd only get the hardcore FIRSTers...

[J93Wagner]

I sorta have to agree with Chris and most of the previous posters, while the monopoly/Trivial Pursuit is a good idea, The profit margin would either be so small that you have to sell a lot of boards to make a profit, or if from scratch, you would have to sell a lot to break even.

[kitfisto92]

We found a pretty decent way (price wise) of getting game boards a few days ago actually, and cards are easy to get too but we're more interested in who's interested in trivial pursuit for FIRST specifically.

While I agree monopoly would be AMAZING, it'd be extremely biased toward team's that we know, which is better at a state/region basis. And picking only certain teams would be hard because it'd be on a partnership or well-known (chairman's winners/national champions) basis. So, in that case, a lot of teams would be missed in some form of a judging process. Which is why i feel its unfair to teams, especially rookies.

With that in mind, I feel its better to explain our trivial pursuit in a little more detail:
Our plan is to have questions about FIRST in general, and some other categories (there are six total), but MOST IMPORTANTLY, a question about EVERY TEAM out there.
And we're willing to do the research on it; we basically are curious of who's interested. And how much you would be willing to spend on it. This will help us to know if we should order bulk supplies with a custom game board or create an expansion deck.

So, post below if any of those ideas appeal to you. Thank you

[ATannahill]

I would probably be interested in just buying the expansion deck to quiz myself or my team. Maybe divide the teams into regions? I am not sure if I would paid 10 dollars more for a board.

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by rtfgnow

I would probably be interested in just buying the expansion deck to quiz myself or my team.

This was my initial thought. I"m such a nut, I'd be interested in it just to see how much I don't know about FIRST, then proceed to astound everyone else when I actually know the answers to odd FIRST questions [: If it goes into production this year or even next year (assuming you can end up with a good profit margin, etc), I could probably even turn it into a team-building event...nothing like bonding over geeky trivia.

I can't see a lot of questions in FIRST Media. The 1114 one was pretty well-known by the community, but most media exposures are more obscure. I'd rather see a FRC Games category, including game objects, rules, etc.

Also, for team specific questions...
What team is -somewhat- famous for having a smoking robot at the 2006 Great Lakes Regional?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPCTEajtnIw
We're just cool like that.

[afowl]

Originally Posted by kitfisto92

We found a pretty decent way (price wise) of getting game boards a few days ago actually, and cards are easy to get too but we're more interested in who's interested in trivial pursuit for FIRST specifically.

Actually, right now cards are the problem. I think I've found a way around it but I won't know for a few days. We've found out that we can actually get vinyl game boards for pretty cheap (depending on how many are ordered) and then they would be easy to take along with you too. Any one like the idea?

[kitfisto92]

The categories we are considering are listed below:

Pop Culture: Questions about FIRST teams and the "FIRST culture"; example: What company does Dean Kamen work for? (DEKA)
FIRST (in general): Questions about/relating to FIRST; example: What year was FIRST founded in? (1989)
FIRST in the Media: All about FIRST gaining recognition by society; example: What national champion team had a guest appearance on the popular Canadian show, Degrassi? (Team 1114: Simbotics)
Teams: All about teams (one for each); example: Name the team that hosts and manages the "unofficial FIRST forums." (Team 47: Chief Delphi)
Technical :Questions about engineering and programming concepts (aka super-nerd-stuff); example: Robots are programmed through this computer software program. (LabVIEW)
Non-Technical: Questions about anything not relating to the robot, including common knowledge, awards criteria, and anything else FIRST related; example: What percentage must your website score to get website excellence? (80%)

Does anyone see this as fun for you and your team or anyone in particular that you know (like your coach)?

[EricH]

What? No FRC Games Category, with questions like, "What year saw the floor covered in corn?" (1993, Maize Craze)

I do see that that could wind up in "Non-Technical", but I find it hard to believe that the "Technical" Category would have lots of questions. (Also, note that you'll want to specify a year on the example question, and that particular one has at least 2 answers for this year, with C++ being the other--another thing about technical stuff is that there's rarely a single right answer.)

I'd probably see it as fun, but only because I know too much...

[ATannahill]

Originally Posted by EricH

What? No FRC Games Category, with questions like, "What year saw the floor covered in corn?" (1993, Maize Craze)

That's 1992.

[Chris is me]

Maize Craze was 1992.

FIRST in the media woud be a really shallow category. That could be replaced with game rules.

[Molten]

With response to how much I'd spend...honestly not alot. The last time I had enough people around with nothing to do to play trivial pursuit was a family gathering like 5 years ago.

Also, the idea of having all teams with ? is generous, but thats a ton of ?'s and alot of teams don't really get heard about outside of their area. I'd rather see more questions on teams that are semi-well known.

Just a bit of constructive criticism(I hope it was constructive) and good luck with it.

[Spiffizzle]

Originally Posted by kitfisto92

While I agree monopoly would be AMAZING, it'd be extremely biased toward team's that we know, which is better at a state/region basis. And picking only certain teams would be hard because it'd be on a partnership or well-known (chairman's winners/national champions) basis. So, in that case, a lot of teams would be missed in some form of a judging process. Which is why i feel its unfair to teams, especially rookies.

On the contrary - I believe this is doable:
I feel like Trivial Pursuit could only be played by FIRST-ers... but I do like it. I think a category for every team is a difficult one and rookie teams will be uninformed and left out... maybe the only team to win National Chairman's or stuff that's like - indesputable - but categories are difficult to make that remain applicable.

Recalling Game Rules excludes teams who did not play that game... Maybe include founder facts - things not everyone would know but, they'd be equally uninformed. Thus, everyone would learn...

Speaking of Monopoly:
If you made Monopoly... FIRSTers would appreciate it but anyone could play it. You could make properties Regionals and Boardwalk could be Nationals... the pieces could be the robots from the animations and Chance and Community Chest cards could be based on rule violations and winning awards and such (and have other names I haven't thought of.)

[Ryan Simpson]

Originally Posted by Spiffizzle

On the contrary - I believe this is doable:
I feel like Trivial Pursuit could only be played by FIRST-ers... but I do like it. I think a category for every team is a difficult one and rookie teams will be uninformed and left out... maybe the only team to win National Chairman's or stuff that's like - indesputable - but categories are difficult to make that remain applicable.

Recalling Game Rules excludes teams who did not play that game... Maybe include founder facts - things not everyone would know but, they'd be equally uninformed. Thus, everyone would learn...

Speaking of Monopoly:
If you made Monopoly... FIRSTers would appreciate it but anyone could play it. You could make properties Regionals and Boardwalk could be Nationals... the pieces could be the robots from the animations and Chance and Community Chest cards could be based on rule violations and winning awards and such (and have other names I haven't thought of.)

You could make Chance and Community Chest into Red Alliance and Blue Alliance and railroads could be FIRST founders.