We make mistakes in trivia games quite often. Most commonly, they are tied to under thinking answers, overthinking answers or talking ourselves out of correct answers.
Even for teams like ours who have been playing a minute – there is still a “first time for everything” variety of mistake 😜
Yup. We made a spelling error. One pesky letter switched for another in an actor’s first name cost us points in a recent trivia game.
Icing on the irony cake? It just HAD to be an actor from, arguably, the hottest trending series right now.
If this pointless blog is any indicator of how popular “Stranger Things” is right now, consider this – just yesterday, my blog about actors from ST whom are children of other famous actors (or ones who just sound like they are) – had a whopping 29 hits! That’s a LOT for a single day for a small time blogger like me!
Here’s a link to that blog:
Such devilry HAD to be the work of Vecna!! 😂
Before I go any further, yes I have read, I understand and am aware of My Trivia Live’s policies on spelling and answers. Which all of you can read here 🥱 😂:
Unless more information is requested in the question, when an answer requires a person’s name, a last name is acceptable for a correct answer (e.g. “Dickens” is acceptable for “Charles Dickens”).
Providing an incorrect first name with the correct last name is unacceptable for a correct answer (e.g. “Don Johnson” is unacceptable for “Dwayne Johnson”, “Bill Washington” is unacceptable for “George Washington”)?
Spelling does not count for a correct answer, unless the question asks for a correct or specific spelling. If a misspelling changes the spelling of a
word to remove syllables, add syllables, or become another word and alter the meaning of the response, it may be ruled incorrect (e.g. writing “Linkin” for “Lincoln” still provides the same pronunciation, but writing “Alex in Wonderland” gives a different meaning than “Alice in Wonderland”).
If a response is not complete or precise enough to make the answer completely correct, it may be ruled incorrect (e.g. “Coke” for “Diet Coke”, or “Die Hard” for “Die Hard 2”). Adding additional information that alters the accuracy of the answer may also be ruled incorrect. (e.g. “Northern Ireland” for “Ireland”, “Star Trek: The Next Generation” for “Star Trek”) When in doubt, ask your TJ for clarification!
Barring smaller words like “A” and “The,” titles of works need to be precise for credit. While The Picture of Dorian Gray is similar to The Portrait of Dorian Gray, the first is the title of the novel. Family Man is similar to Family Guy, but no one would expect the first to be acceptable when asking about a TV series.
Players should avoid using abbreviations when a full word provides more clarity and alleviates any confusion. (e.g. do not write “He” for “Helium,” do not write “AK” for “Alaska.”)
We were not as much upset about this flub as we were surprised. We have two former school spelling bee champs on our team, so spelling errors aren’t something that very on-brand for us. I’ll admit I do have to Google whenever I need to spell the last name of the actress who is the highest grossing actress right now. She goes by the nickname “Scarjo,” if you want a hint.
Just you wait! Now we’re probably going to get a trivia question asking us to correctly spell her last name! What you think such a thing will never happen? Back in 2015, we had a question in a Sporcle bar championship where we had to correctly spell the last name of an actress whose credits include Me, Myself and Irene, Chicago and Bridget Jones’ Diary. I kid you not!
Having been the one responsible for this flub, I’ll have to admit that now I’m a bit nervous about doing it again! Do I need to start memorizing how to spell celebrity last names? Also, how picky was our Sporcle Events host last Monday when we had to spell the name of that 12 Years a Slave actor whose name is not of English origin in a mystery round? I may need to ask one of their hosts about that!
hebspeaks 