Researching trivia

Trivial Pursuit was obviously the benchmark by which all other trivia based games (or those that simply included trivia as one aspect of the game) were measured. Something that the Trivial Pursuit guys and those that have followed with successful trivia games have done (assuming that the game involves general trivia and is not baseball, literature, or some other topic specific category for instance) is create what might be called the "ah-ha" and/or "oh-yeah" response. It's creating a question that leads someone to the likely answer "ah-ha" and thus guesses correctly, or is familiar enough so that when they do hear the answer after guessing incorrectly that they respond "oh-yeah, I should have known that."

If asked a question about horse racing for instance, whatever the question actually is, the answer should be Secretariat, or Man o' War, or now with the success of the movie perhaps Seabiscuit. Even if you know virtually nothing about horse racing, you might be able to come up with one of these names. And if you answer correctly, your ego is reinforced and you're more likely to have a bit of fun and tell others what a great game they've been playing.

Or if you ask a question about gymnastics, the answer should be Nadia Comeneche (don't think I spelled that right), or Mary Lou Retton.

You obviously don't want every question to be easily answered (or maybe you do), but you don't want people to feel stupid either (unless you're game is "You Don't Know Jack"). You want them to play your game again and tell others. There's a difference between asking "Who won the gold medal in women's figure skating in 1984 and '88?" (Katerina Witt) vs. asking "Who took the bronze in ice dancing at the 1994 Olympics?" (Tourville & Dean).

The way in which you ask a question is important too. You're question may be about Secretariat. But asking "Which horse won the Triple Crown in 1973?" is much different than asking "In what year did Secretariat win the Triple Crown?"

As for researching trivia or developing trivia, I first usually create a list of topics or subjects that I want the trivia to be about and how many questions I want from that category. For instance I might jot down the topics 4 baseball, 2 hockey, 2 dogs, 2 automobiles, 5 presidents, 1 Samuel L. Jackson, 3 Star Wars, 6 American Literature, etc. I may refine the topics even further, but then come up with questions about the designated topic. If more than one question within a given topic, some questions might be easy and some hard. Some of the trivia I develop is stuff I already know and I'll simply use references to check my facts.

As for the reputable nature of a trivia source, I don't think publishers really care much just as long and the trivia is verifiable and correct. In some instances, should you be shopping your game to publishers and they in fact like it and want to license it, they're quite likely to change many of the questions anyway.

What kind of trivia are you looking to develop? Throw some topics out and I might be able to give you some more specific resources to look at.

Chip

back when I was living in Japan,
trivia shows were HUGE over there.

then came a show that wiped the floor with
the rest. And set a new standard.

Basically it was trivia but with a historical/cultural theme,
the main important thing was that after the show
you learned about a civilization and how ancient people
were very clever under low tech conditions.
There was a message to each show, and you come out
with respect and knowledge.

If you can do that with your game, I think you'd have something
that will stand the test of time.