***Please read entire post before replying, and make sure not to quote due to extensive size***
Most wardens use trivia to eliminate
danger. If you have 19 prisoners, and only 10 guards including yourself, you don't want to die, because your job is to stay alive. By eliminating 75% of, or 6 total prisoners, situation being the variable, you decrease the chance of there being a rebellion. It is far easier and safer to move 13 terrorists all the way across the map than 19. Moving 19, more than likely you will lose one, or a CT will be killed somehow. Sure, this is the job of the T's, but remember that the CTs want to have fun too, and dying isn't high on their priority list either.
A few ‘uncreative’ people will scream for warden, then say ‘I don’t know what to do. Freeday.’ Trivia wardens will give you something to do after.
If you want to be creative in trivia, you can:
a) speak very quickly and make it bloody bunny, so people may not know you said it.
b) make it 'feel good trivia' where the winner gets to feel good about themselves only.
c) Play any other variation of trivia found
here, under the disclaimer, first on the list of possible Jail game suggestions.
To avoid favourtism:
a) Mostly every warden asks 2+2, mostly every prisoner knows this. If the answer will be 4, everybody should be ready to type 4. If you miss it and you end up dying, that's on you. If same person chooses certain people to die or live, get on their good side. In fact, get on
everybody's good side.
b) Make it so its a speed test rather than trivia. I often have a trivia round where I say, word for word, "We're going to play trivia, the winner will pick [X amount] to die. The question is going to be 2+2, the answer will be 4. The first person to type 4 after I type 2+2 will win"
c) Have a real question. I have noticed a
very dramatic increase in the amount of wardens who have trivia questions that aren't simple math. For example, Quantum Fire asks you The meaning of live, the universe, and everything. The answer, according to the books
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the answer is 42. I have also seen many people asking historical questions, random trivia, geography, science, and facts many probably wouldn't even know, or would need to be educated; i.e. Captain Nighthawk demanding that you name alpha, gamma, and beta as the three types of radiation.
d) Throw the prisoners on the question. LR's do this all the time in order to have everybody start typing or copy/pasting (What is my in-game name?) so they may line-shoot all the CT's. I have often done this, using random variations of "If I have three apples and you have four oranges and you take five green bananas from me while Bob sits on an elephant who drinks coffee, what is 973094832+3?". A simpler version of it is "If a banana is red but turns orange and I smell like a duck, what is 2+2?" Yes, these are math. No, these aren't just 2+2.
*Points c and d also fit in with creativity.
There may be unrest and impatience in waiting, but you already wait 0:49-1:30 (times are approximated) to get out of your cell. What do you do during that time? You jump around your cell and knife things. In syntas, you break your shelf, knock over your chair, or move your bed around the cell. What does impatience do? Make you want to kill a CT. What does that accomplish? Your objective. If you're forced to go
directly to climb, every guard is watching you because the round just started. In trivia, once somebody wins, almost every guard has their eye on the winner, hoping to be the one that kills the poor soul elected to die. At the same time, guards also get bored during trivia, and therefore run around in circles, not watching you. Need to hide in your cell to rebel later? Perfect time. Would you rather have a quick trivia round and get 2+2 first, or waste a minute shiftwalking to a couch room where there is no escape, and leave it all up to chance?
Granted, there are almost always people who will say "Please no trivia". A minority. Ignoring the vote count of this poll, those who voice up against trivia are outnumbered by those who actually enjoy it. Those who voice up against it, also continue to win it. They are speaking out against the game that helps them.
You can also
take one for the team. Once in awhile, when I win trivia, I will instead look around for a guard slower on wits and attack them, or if everybody is staying sharp, simply killbind and end trivia, as only one round may be played.
Trivia is a warden's saviour, and not as a 'crutch', as is claimed. If I were to proclaim that, after the "leave cell and freeze" order is given, "We will be playing trivia. Feel free to cell hop and look around and run around, staying in cell area, but that may decrease your chance of typing the answer in time."
or "We're going to all shiftwalk to the soccer field and get in a goal." After we're all in the goal, I say "We're going to play trivia." Both scenarios would trigger fewer complaints. Why? Because they have something to do, and a chance to rebel.
If we eliminate trivia, then (hypothetically) the next game first played would be couch game. Would you like to guess a couch every round? No. Let's get rid of that. Terrible at climbing? Practice hasn't helped you? Too bad. Hot lava first thing, every round.
**In that same point, and in addition to the one above, it's possible/probable that trivia is hated because it is played first.
Fact of the matter is:
many people love and enjoy trivia. I've rarely seen a pub complain about it, and it's a given in most jails.
(At the same time, it will be excruciatingly tiresome to tell each and every person who hasn't played in our jail and is warden, that we may not play trivia). Trivia makes your mind work (yes, even for 2+2), and keeps you on your toes. Do you not feel pride when you are the only one who saw
I asked a trivia question: What colour is the sky?", before seeing a sea of
I answered trivia: 4.
Congratulations. Your eye was sharper. You didn't cheat and be prepared, but actually not. You won trivia. You don't die.
Some people have the personality where they can sit all day and play trivia. Generally called intellectuals. (No, this is not a statement of attack). Trivia is why they are there. To get a random question right, then strategically plan the rest of the round to win. In all honesty, I'd rather play trivia (or 'speed test to type 2+2') every round than play couch game. Others have had a bad day, and just need to frag. Sorry, but Jail isn't the right place for you. Play fy_iceworld to release your stress instead.
Ultimately, trivia should stay, rather than being the first game to fall. Setting the limitations of one round per day was more than enough. You'll find that Bloodybunny, Acid, and Cryptex trivia are very rarely played now. People play plain trivia first. When more than one round of trivia was allowed, multiple versions would be played. If trivia were eliminated, there would be way more freedays. You'll find people hate having 5 freedays in a row, rather than 5 trivia rounds in a row.
Jail is not perfect, but it is very well set-up as is. Trivia is not the right choice in creating a better jail experience, and should not be banned.
***2+2 was used repeatedly as a generalization, not an admission to 'uncreative trivia'
EDIT: I made this post before reading any replies, and saw afterwards that many had the same points that I made here. No points were stolen.
