Now, having attended a great deal of quizzes over the past few years it may be surprising that this Monday night was the first time I had actually taken part in a Family Fortunes style quiz. I know from other quizzers that this style of quizzing and using these style of rounds is very common but for some reason this week was the first time I have played in one, and to be fair I enjoyed it.
However, the important thing here is that the Family Fortunes quiz was separate from the normal quiz. I can understand the annoyance if this was included in the normal quiz as one of the rounds. Indeed, it really tests a different sort of skill in my opinion and brings more luck into proceedings. Certainly, it is easier to guess at this sort of round and pick up points.
But this Fortunes quiz came at the end of the night, after the quiz had finished and offered Beer Tokens for winners. Everybody took part and looked very keen to do so. The format was the Red tooth style, 10 questions with a double point bonus if you get the top answer in the right box. 60 points on offer and our score of 41 (same as we got in the actual quiz) was enough to take a share of the win and beer tokens.
I think this was a really well put together set from Red Tooth. There were questions I could use my quizzing knowledge to gather, a few silly ones that produced laughs and plenty of variety so everybody in the team could have a go (although only two of us on this occasion). It was a good way to end the night and especially a Monday!
I suppose two questions come from this...
Would I attend "just" a family fortunes quiz? To be honest I do not think I would go out of my way to go to a quiz that was purely based on this. Yes I enjoyed it as part of a wider nights quizzing, but unless I was already in the bar for other reasons and was offered the chance, I would not make a night of just the fortunes quiz.
Do I think Family Fortunes rounds should be included in quizzes? Again I would say no as even though they are fun they work best in a separate game as I mentioned above. I imagine say a 10 point round on family fortunes could really effect the result of a quiz and seeing how its testing a different skills and relies a lot on luck it probably serves best on its own.
Either way, I enjoyed my first family fortunes style quiz at the end of the proceedings in The Isis on Monday! What are your thoughts on these kind of rounds?
If they do it as a specialist round which is not part of the quiz, and doesn't count towards it then fair enough, at least they won't skew the results of the proper quiz, and you can opt out of playing them.
ReplyDeleteOther than that they're crap.
Alright, that's maybe a bit strong. Being a little less perjorative,a Family Fortunes round is essentially a guessing game. This is purely my own opinion, so feel free to disagree, but I feel a quiz should be a test of knowledge, grounded in fact. Family Fortunes rounds, apart from lacking either interest or intelelctual content, are a randomising factor in a quiz. You might just as well ask a round of questions starting - I spy with my little eye, something beginning with etc. etc.
I accept that a large number of casual social quizzers actually enjoy Family Fortunes rounds. Good luck to them. I don't.