Friday, August 31, 2012

Trivia player Bill Kline (well, he was playing in 2003)

It's interesting to see the background of people who play Buzztime games.

While searching for some old information on NTN Buzztime, I ran across this website, last updated in January 2003, for a company called B K Services. At the time, the company was located in Miramar, Florida. It is apparently still a going concern (at least as far as the state of Florida is concerned).

In addition to discussing the services of B K Services (custom computer software, installation, telephone systems, etc.), the website tells you about B K himself - Bill Kline. Here's the portion that mentions the then-NTN Network, among other interests:

I play paddleball, raquetball, and handball at least once a week. I play the NTN trivia games every once in a while at a local TGIFridays or Nightclub. I've been playing Everquest since March of 2000. I am Octa the Barbarian Shaman and Gosx the Iksar Warrior on the Rodcet Nife server.

In addition, Kline enjoys all types of music and records his own (hmm), and listens to Art Bell and George Noory.

Sounds like someone who would do well in a lot of trivia categories.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Bugs on a bench in the tropics, continued

Now that yesterday's Lunchtime Trivia scores have been formally posted on the NTN Buzztime site, I can provide more details about the bug that I discussed yesterday.

If you didn't see that post, suffice it to say that I was playing Lunchtime Trivia at a site and answering questions, but the answers weren't being registered. At one point, I was even told that I had received 1,000 points for an answer, resulting in a total score of...849.

Well, now the scores have been posted at the buzztime.com website, and it appears that I was not credited for certain answers. In addition, according to the information at the website, I only answered three out of the seven questions in each of the two games that I played.

The first thought is that the Playmaker was malfunctioning. However, when I was answering the questions, the Playmaker would provide me with the message that I had answered with option whatever, and that I would get 1,000 points if the answer was correct.

So something happened between the time that I answered the question at the Playmaker, and the time that the answer was received (or not received) by the computer server at the bar.

Mystifying.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

More on the Tropical Trivia Giveaway

In a previous post, I mentioned NTN Buzztime's "Tropical Trivia Giveaway." More information on the giveaway can be found here.

This promotion is only taking place in two locations - Southern California and Milwaukee. Southern California locations include:

Clancy's Clubhouse, 2191 S Harbor Blvd, Anaheim
Deane's Bar & Thrill, 8108 San Bernardino Rd, Rancho Cucamonga
Fat Face Fenner's Fishack, 53 Pier Ave, Hermosa Beach
Lamppost Pizza, 10084 Adams Ave, Huntington Beach
Lamppost Pizza, 10130 Warner Ave, Fountain Valley
Out of the Park Pizza, 5638 E La Palma Ave, Anaheim
The Bench Sports and Grill, 3159 Yorba Linda Blvd, Fullerton

13 locations are participating in the Milwaukee area. See the list here.

Bugs on a bench in the tropics (an odd NTN Buzztime bug)

It had so much promise.

I recently received an email from NTN Buzztime announcing its "Tropical Trivia Giveaway," which awards prizes to select registered Buzztime players who play at certain locations between August 15 and September 15. The email listed seven locations, including one near my work that I had never visited before - The Bench Sports Bar and Grill in Fullerton, California. The bar had also announced the contest on its Facebook page, which was a good sign.

About The Bench itself - a nice place, with lots of TVs for sports and the like, but the lunches are pricier than at other NTN Buzztime locations in Orange County, including Lamppost Pizza in west Yorba Linda, the previously mentioned Out of the Park Pizza (which is also participating in the Tropical Trivia Giveaway promotion), and the late lamented Scottie's Smokehouse.

While playing Lunchtime Trivia, however, I ran into an odd bug. I'd enter an answer on my Playmaker, the answer would be marked as correct...but I wouldn't get any points for the answer.

Here's an example. I received 1,000 points (the maximum) for this answer, resulting in a total score of...849.

Something (literally) doesn't add up.

Perhaps the scores will be corrected on NTN's servers by the time they are finally registered, but as of now the scores for my two games were 2,253 and...well, less than 2,000. I didn't even bother to write the last score down.

This obviously wasn't a network-wide malfunction - during the first game that I played, at least one person got a perfect 7,000 score.

Has anyone else encountered a bug like this?