Specific Question Discussion

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Specific Question Discussion

Post by Demonic Leftovers »

Please discuss specific questions here.
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Re: Specific Question Discussion

Post by Cheynem »

My Mukherjee-esque list:

The 1977 Trail Blazers question should have announced you needed the specific year at the beginning.

It was an interesting idea to write on the cutter. Not sure if I dug it, but there were clues for it.

I kinda thought the Cavaliera Rusticana clue was too early for Raging Bull; that's such a huge part of that movie. I waited on it just to make sure it wasn't some other film, but it seemed early.

There are some things that I think don't make good questions at all and amusement park questions are one of them.

There was nothing really wrong with the Stefon question, but I'll say there is such a limited clue space for this guy that his first appearance is a pretty easy clue to remember. The tossup should have been on DJ Baby Bok Choi.

We joked that packet 4 was written in 1980 as three out of the first four tossups were on Marty, Woody Woodpecker, and the Beatles on Ed Sullivan (the last a pretty cool question). This was probably just a quirk in randomization though. This was actually a pretty cool packet in general, what with Calvin's dad and insider trading.

The Chris Johnson tossup dropped Lendale White pretty early.

The EPA question was a great idea, although I only heard one clue of it.

Amusing quirk that tossups on "Gotham City" and "Superman" were in the same packet, although I think Superman was (probably?) just on his TV appearances. Thanks for using one of my favorite all time I Love Lucy episodes as the lead-in.

J. Jonah Jameson was a newspaper publisher for the majority of his appearances, not just editor. I agree that editor and publisher are different, but that was a bit of a hose for the Jameson clues.

I mentioned this to David, but the Ron Swanson tossup was very transparent.

Dale Cooper was a cool idea.

I have no idea if the cake clue about Kwame Brown is actually notable or it's just something I know because Matt Weiner mentions it a lot but other than him sucking, it's the only thing about the dude I know.

I'm amused that the only time I've heard City of Quartz come up in a packet I didn't write was in a trash tournament.

Why did the Doctor Strangelove tossup call it a "narrative" or something instead of a movie? I remember the lead in confusing me.

Excellent Animaniacs tossup.

The Yu Darvish tossup was...seemingly rather stats-heavy. I heard noise until they said he was a pitcher signed by the Texas Rangers GM.

I obviously way overthought the question and looking at it, it's not bad at all, but a little more specific clues for Mick Foley would have been nice other than alluding to the fact that he was "hardcore." I guess I'm not sure what clues you would use per se though without making it further transparent.
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Re: Specific Question Discussion

Post by Cheynem »

Also, can I see the Connie Britton question?
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Re: Specific Question Discussion

Post by Demonic Leftovers »

A few responses
Cutter- This was definitely an idea I really liked when I came up with it. I'm not sure the execution was great, but I think a TU on an individual pitch is a good idea if well written.
Chris Johnson-Yeah I definitely debated whether that clue was too early or not, but decided to chance it.
Kwame Brown-I didn't know the cake thing, but it very well might have been one of those more famous wacky anecdotes out there. I generally find it very hard to evaluate how well known those types of clues are.
Yu Darvish-This is one of the questions I had in mind specifically in discussing the use of stats questions. My thought process here was to use some stats early on that represented what made Darvish a good pitcher. I find stats analysis to be interesting and an important part of being a fan for me, so I wanted some clues that could represent that. I can see why I might have overdone it on this question though.
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Re: Specific Question Discussion

Post by Cheynem »

I negged the Connie Britton question with Joely Fisher (admittedly many clues later) after I misheard "this actress played the sister of Ellen's best friend Paige" with "this actress played Ellen's best friend Paige." I realize there isn't a way Joely Fisher would ever come up, though, but I felt the wording there could have been punched up--the description is lengthier in referring to Paige than Britton's character.
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Re: Specific Question Discussion

Post by merv1618 »

Pros:
Calvin's father was one of my favorite tossups of the whole weekend.
For what it's worth, I enjoyed the odd bits of academia thrown in at times. I loved the Aretha Franklin--Nessun Dorma bonus (even though my team didn't get it).
I'm glad someone finally tossed up Blaine Gabbert.

Cons:
In that same bonus, it might have been better had the Aretha part been a bit harder and not just "oh who sang Respect?" making the Turandot part kind of redundant.
Just "Marge" should have been acceptable on the Marge Gunderson tossup.
The tossup on Jack White seemed pretty transparent.
The tossup on Peterman should have started with "this man" in response to the cake clue, as I felt kind of hosed when my Elaine Benes buzz got negged. Semantics over who bought the cake seemed trivial at the time.
The common link "Otter" tossup was absolutely abysmal.

Also sports bonuses seemed notably harder than other subjects, and powers would have been nice. Still, I greatly enjoyed this seat.
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Re: Specific Question Discussion

Post by Bartleby »

One role played by this actress was Sophie, a woman who lives with her father-in-law played by Brian Dennehy in The Fighting Fitzgeralds and in an early role, she played the sister of Ellen’s best friend Paige on Ellen. One character played by this actress dates Tony DeMarco, whose mob connections force deputy mayor Mike Flaherty to resign his post on Spin City. In this actress’ longest-running role, she plays a character who is forced to resign her job as a principal after Becky Sproles gets an abortion; as a result this character moves to East Dillon High School. In her current role, this actress plays a character who collaborates with Juliette Barnes on the duet “Wrong Song”. For ten points, name this actress, who plays singer Rayna James on Nashville, and who previously played Coach Taylor’s wife Tami on Friday Night Lights.

ANSWER: Connie _Britton_
Admittedly the phrasing is a little bit clunky there. The alternative is to have "Paige" come first, which, if someone is fast enough on the buzzer, might just result in a Joely Fisher neg mid-clue.

Also, I'm sorry about Margie. I certainly intended for just her first name to be acceptable, but it looks like it just slipped me at some point. As for J. Peterman, Elaine eats the cake, but she certainly doesn't buy it (though she does buy a fresh slice of cake at Entemann's to replace it). Sorry if you felt hosed, but it's certainly an unambiguous reference to Peterman (I looked it up while editing just to make sure, because I know she does buy things for him in other episodes from time to time).
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Re: Specific Question Discussion

Post by Bartleby »

Cheynem wrote:My Mukherjee-esque list:

There was nothing really wrong with the Stefon question, but I'll say there is such a limited clue space for this guy that his first appearance is a pretty easy clue to remember. The tossup should have been on DJ Baby Bok Choi.

Amusing quirk that tossups on "Gotham City" and "Superman" were in the same packet, although I think Superman was (probably?) just on his TV appearances. Thanks for using one of my favorite all time I Love Lucy episodes as the lead-in.
The Stefon question was originally on "Clubs mentioned by Stefon" which I thought was probably a bit fraudable. I was hoping that by including the details about the normal aspects of the film (grandfather teaching grandson to play football) that people wouldn't clue in quickly to him being the answer; did this work less well in practice than in theory?

Yes the "Superman" tossup was just on his television appearances. The idea of a meta-crossover episode of a 1950s television series (George Reeves playing himself playing Superman on "I Love Lucy") was too amusing not to pass up, which is what birthed this question. This was a question that was technically classified as 2000s, and which took the bulk of its clues (Bomer in the Prius ad, Warburton, Tim Daly, Smallville) from stuff from the 2000s, but which threw in other references as well (as I mentioned in the other thread). Glad you appreciated it!
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Re: Specific Question Discussion

Post by Cheynem »

Heh, the Superman question was 2000's TV!

Oh, I couldn't tell you the plot of the film pitched by Stefon, i just knew he first appeared pitching a movie.

One way the Britton question might have been stronger is if you just gave her character's names in addition to the other characters, so like "this actress played Heather, the sister of Ellen's best friend Paige" or "in her role as Nikki..." But I think I'm just quibbling, it seems like a good question, I just misheard. I just wanted to feel good that I did correctly remember who played Paige.

I think Rob just said "Marge" and it was acceptable. There were a couple times where incomplete fictional character names weren't acceptable but I can't remember the others.
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Re: Specific Question Discussion

Post by Habitat_Against_Humanity »

Some quick responses:

To Mike:
Raging Bull: I know very little about classical music; I wanted the question to be more academic. My fault on that one.

You may be right about the Cedar Point question; when I thought of it it seemed interesting, but I can see why it doesn't play out well in practice.

Stefon: You mean I could have written on DJ Baby Bok Choi and gotten away with it? Damn. Really, I liked the "clubs recommended by Stefon" answerline, but I see why it was changed. I think both answers are fraudable. I might look at this again before future mirrors.

There were few quirky randomization things.

The Ron Swanson tossup was mine for the most part. The original had a leadin about reviews of Duke Silver's "Memories of... Tomorrow" album. After that, I see a lot of transparency. I'll probably take another swipe at this too. It turned out to be none transparent with Mr. Swanson.

City of Quartz: I gave Magin ten points after he answered "Dodger Stadium," before I was able to say "this team" in the first line.

Dr. Strangelove: I think the issue was an effort to be coy that wasn't well thought out by me. The original clue was that an early version of the script had aliens find the film in the Great Northern Desert. Those nouns should get fixed.

Animainiacs: Awesome, thanks Mike. I wrote that 5AM Sunday to fill out a gap we didn't notice. Completely off the cuff with no research other than filtering through childhood memories.

Mick Foley: That was me; I don't know what would make good middle clues for a wrestler. I worried that I was just giving chronological events about being hardcore.

To Adam:
The Marge thing is my fault. I'll change the packet to de-underline Gunderson.
Calvin's Dad was one my girlfriend came up with. I roped her into giving me ideas/clue sketches when I was running dry. She'll be glad about that one.
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Re: Specific Question Discussion

Post by Cheynem »

I also said Dodger Stadium before hearing the pronoun for what it's worth.

My problem with the Cedar Point tossup is that it sort of came off as a list of rides, but also amusement parks tend to be rather regional in terms of what people know about it, plus various generically named roller coasters appear at various parks.

DJ Baby Bok Choi was asked about at CO proper.

You chose one of my favorite Animaniacs bits (the beans/George Wendt survey).
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Re: Specific Question Discussion

Post by powerplant »

So I want to start off by saying that I had a great time playing this tournament, as did the rest of my team (who never post on the forums but told me to relay their praise).

The negatives (with the caveat that I do not write questions that regularly, I could very well be wrong about a lot of these things):

I know that the tossup on the quarter pounder got negged in our game with Big Mac, and I heard someone else say that the same thing happened in their game. I don't know if this is due to people just taking a chance and guessing a McDonald's menu item and missing or if there is something actually bad about the question.

I wonder about the use of the Arsheerio Paul Show as a clue for the Arsenio Hall show, because I know nothing about the show that was actually being asked about but happen to like Paul Scheer. Not that I mind getting the points, but someone who actually watched that show might feel slighted playing against me.

The tossup on Smaug was negged in our room off the first clue. I don't know if the Forbes Fictional Fifteen is a great clue because the rankings seem to shift based on whatever is popular in a given year. For what it's worth it was negged with Carlisle Cullen, who was top of the list in 2010.

In the round 4 bonus with the answers of endless runner/Temple Run/freemium, why wasn't free to play also an acceptable answer (or at least promptable)? Obviously "free" would be wrong but "free to play" is used interchangeably with freemium as far as I'm aware. I didn't protest it at the time, but I probably should have.

The tossup on June Cleaver was pretty difficult to understand, and it got negged early on in our game with the name of the actress who played her.

The tossup on hammers in video games mentions Red Faction really early on and I was definitely afraid to buzz in there, because as far as I know the most important thing about Red Faction is that you have hammer that you smash shit with.

I think it has been mentioned in this thread already, but the tossup on "Otter" was confusing and bad.

The positives:
I loved the video games in the set, especially the bonus on baseball video games, the Bioshock Infinite bonus, and tossup on shy guys.

I liked a lot of the TV, especially the decision to increase the amount of answer space dedicated to show runners/creators. My team didn't do so well on those questions but I definitely liked them.

Oh, and the bonus about "Closer" was one of my favorites (even though my team didn't get it).
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Re: Specific Question Discussion

Post by merv1618 »

powerplant wrote: The tossup on Smaug was negged in our room off the first clue. I don't know if the Forbes Fictional Fifteen is a great clue because the rankings seem to shift based on whatever is popular in a given year.
I second this, as I first-line negged Smaug as well.
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Re: Specific Question Discussion

Post by Auks Ran Ova »

merv1618 wrote:The common link "Otter" tossup was absolutely abysmal.
You seem to have misspelled "totally awesome" here. (Admittedly, I didn't hear much after the first two Achewood clues, and I hear it got a bit weird after that, but still!)
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Re: Specific Question Discussion

Post by merv1618 »

Ukonvasara wrote:Admittedly, I didn't hear much after the first two Achewood clues
That would indeed be the deciding factor here.
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