What happened to the trivia game?
What has happened?
The trivia game is a genre game that has been sacrificed to the teen-driven comic character and role-playing games that are the mass market today. Having studied the market, I realized that one of the most widely used and socially accepted game genres was in real danger of being abandoned. Hopefully the advent of Big Bucks Trivia and other trivia game based sites will change that and regenerate the game of trivia on a global scale. The market for cash games of skill is growing at an exponential rate and the traditional trivia type game is being left out.
Online trivia technology
Very little thought went into developing a new trivia game product. For several years I oversaw the development of a Trivia site that would contain the best components of what the market had previously seen. I wanted to see a game that was engaging, had unique gameplay mechanics, and most importantly, fair to everyone who plays.
There is the technology to pay MMOG to play live cash tournaments for the Trivia audience. The obvious questions are “are they sure?” and “will they be fair?” Sophisticated security and auditing applications have eliminated a great deal of risk for both the gaming operator and the user. Game mechanics are the driver in terms of creating the differential for the user. What’s new that will bring Trivia lovers back to the game? I think the answer is a pay-to-play multi-linked MMOG tournament.
Changing the face of online gaming
Normally, to get into a TV production trivia show, one had to dial a premium rate phone number. This alone could cost hundreds of dollars. Then, if you were lucky enough to be randomly selected, you can make it to the studio for a recording. All this did not guarantee his participation in the game and consumed a large amount of time. The growth of file sharing, think “YouTube” has now made it possible for Mister or Miss Public to become a media star (see below). The commonization of websites has not yet penetrated the casual gaming market and it doesn’t look like it will happen anytime soon. Casual gaming website owners are not offering anything new, the same mush with a different label. There seems to be a real fear of being innovative on the part of these websites.
Here, a website like Big Bucks Trivia is trying to break new ground, not only in terms of the style of the game, but also by welcoming the user to become a part of the game.
Be an online trivia host
YouTube has bought the user’s face from the website. This “community” aspect has instilled a trust factor in communications over the Internet. Instead of being a faceless autoresponder, the website can now offer real people to interact with. At Big Bucks Trivia, which has a unique focus on the pay-per-play market, the user can submit a request to host game sessions even without having played a game. Give the community a chance to show what they can do. Organizing a game session could be the great opportunity they were looking for to enter the media. The opportunity is a very real and obviously novel option.
The future of online trivia games
This is the future of what the best trivia type games should offer, live sessions against the world, not against a software application that benefits the game operator. Calls for rewards, financial or otherwise, have fallen on deaf ears in the past. Cash games of skill are king right now. There are real people winning considerable sums of money, not only at online poker sites, but also in the growing number of cash games of skill.
Trivia game developers, in particular, have been slow to enter this market. The concern for game developers and publishers was “how can we make money?” and “if it’s not a downloadable game, we can’t make it.” A very myopic perspective indeed. If you look at the Big Bucks Trivia game, for example, for a relatively small payment you get entry to the game session, and over time, the cumulative jackpot can add up to millions. Everyone has a reward. Also, reading the game rules, there is no chance that a player could summon artificial assists to fool other players!
Contestants can host game sessions… this is a real community game. The past has not been kind to a game that has had millions upon millions of people of all ages enjoying a simple structure for years. The revival has begun and it is stirring.