HQ Trivia hit the scene in August 2016 on iOS. It quickly garnered
viral fame with thousands of participants all around the world. The game launched on Android last night just in time for their New Year’s Eve special edition.
The app is technically in early access beta. Thus, the presence of bugs
should shock nobody. We decided to do a quick hands-on to show you what
it’s all about. We have the video linked above if you’d rather watch
than read! It’s also here on YouTube!
About the game
HQ Trivia is a hit quiz show game from the original creators of
Vine. It launched on iOS back in August 2017 and quickly became super
popular. Games often have well over 100,000 people. The New Year’s Eve
game had over half a million participants at one point. That’s fairly
impressive for a live game show game that’s less than six months old.
Games seem to take place every day at 9PM EST along with extra
games at 3PM EST on weekdays. That means there are a total of 12 games
per week. There may be the occasional special edition like the New
Year’s Eve game. That means there aren’t a ton of opportunities to play.
However, given that it’s live, it’s really not that big of a deal.
Mechanics
For the uninitiated, here’s how this game works. You essentially
participate in a live game show along with up to hundreds of thousands
of other people. The host asks 12 questions and each question has a
timer for ten seconds. Those who answer the question correctly get to
continue while the others are eliminated. You do get an opportunity to
miss a question and continue sometimes. At the end, the remaining
participants split the pot. The pot range from about $1,000 to the
$18,000 pot from New Year’s Eve.
Winning HQ Trivia gets you actual money. That money automatically
transfers into your PayPal account a few minutes after you win. Of
course, you do need to link your PayPal account to get the winnings.
That’s basically it. It’s simple. You log in a few minutes before
the game, you play the game for about 15 minutes, you collect winnings
if you have any, and then you turn it off and wait for the next game.
There is nothing to do between the actual show times.
There is a mechanic to stay in the game after an elimination. You
get passes if you refer people to the game with your referral code.
Those passes let you stay in the game if you miss a question.
It’s a pleasant gaming experience
There’s a lot to like about this game. It doesn’t force you to
sign into anything, really. It doesn’t have the kinds of mechanics that
usually make mobile games suck. There’s no energy counter, no upgrades,
no boosts, or anything like that. You can’t buy your way to victory. It
feels like a game show.
When playing, it totally felt like I was sitting on my couch
watching Jeopardy trying to guess the answers. Except in this case, I
get money if I’m right 12 times in a row. That’s a neat experience and
one that is totally unique to this game. HQ Trivia has no menus and
aside from an FAQ, nothing to look at really. You just open the app at
the right time, watch a dude talk, answer some questions, and go about
your day. There’s no BS and, frankly, that’s refreshing.
There are some bad apples, though
As per the norm, people can and will find a way to make this game
not so fun. It is possible to cheat HQ Trivia with a second device with
Google Assistant. It takes a bit of creativity, but you can get Google
to answer these questions for you before the timer runs out. When you
include that, bots, and all kinds of other stuff, it kind of kills the
spirit of the game. That said, it’s not against the rules to play with
multiple in the room with you and most games have fewer than a couple
hundred winners. Thus, the problem isn’t so widespread yet.
About the only other issues are the bugs. The company is less
than six months old. Games with tons of participants are going to lag or
lower the video quality, even on the iOS. Some have even complained
about being kicked mid game due to connection issues. The Android
version is in early access beta right now. These problems should clear
up in the future, at least mostly.
Final thoughts
There really isn’t much more to say. The game is just that
simple. Some have tried to extend the narrative beyond the game’s
natural bounds or slam it for various philosophical reasons. However, at
the end of the day, this is just a simple, fun, live quiz show game
with cash prizes. That’s it. Don’t read too far into it, it’s really not
that big of a deal.
The live host is a great touch and the promise of real money
gives the game some tension. The lack of menus or any complicated
mechanics gives the game an almost universal accessibility. The
occasional connection issues and Google Assistant hacks aren’t great,
but it doesn’t seem to affect things that much.
If you want to see a full game, I’ve linked a YouTube channel in
the video description that archives old HQ Trivia games. You can see
entire games from start to finish. I don’t know if it’s an official
channel or an enterprising individual, but the videos are clean and you
can see what it’s like. We’d recommend you try it at least once. It’s
something different that you don’t really see every day.
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