The Problem with HQ
Last Thursday the Apple App Store featured an interview with Jesse Thompson, the lead question writer for HQ Trivia, titled “Creating the Perfect Trivia Question”. This seems an odd aspect of HQ’s game to choose to emphasize. While the mega-popular trivia app has garnered a massive following with its novel platform and charming host, the actual question quality has always been the weak link. Unfortunately, Thompson’s interview only confirms this. Asked about responses from the HQ community that surprised him, Thompson relates the following story:
“Another question I knew was tricky was ‘Which car company is credited with initiating the modern assembly line?’ [Answers: Packard, Ford, Oldsmobile.] Everyone thinks Henry Ford, but Ransom Olds actually brought the idea of the assembly line to Detroit. I expected a lot of people to get that one wrong, but there was a massive backlash on social media, with people saying, ‘No, you guys are idiots, you’re wrong.’ Seeing those kinds of reactions is interesting.”
The internet critics may have a legitimate beef, but more important is what this says about HQ’s question writing process. Any trivia question can be divided into two main components — the facts and how you ask about them.
The Facts
For the question Thompson wrote, the facts are mostly — although not entirely — on HQ’s side. To say nothing of The Long Shop in Leiston, the “modern” assembly line actually began as a “disassembly” line in the meatpacking industry in Midwestern cities like Chicago and Cincinnati. Beef carcasses were transported through a warehouse on hooks, and each worker was responsible for carving off a different cut. This process featured two hallmarks of the assembly line — fixed workstations and repetitive action.
In 1901, Ransom E. Olds brought the repetitive action concept to automotive production. In Olds’s system workers kept their tools on wheeled carts and would go around the factory floor from car to car performing the same task on each one. It wasn’t until 1913 that Henry Ford introduced the moving assembly line, in which the cars rolled along a conveyor belt, with workers doing the same job in the same location. In the end, Olds achieved an important innovation in manufacturing technique, but one which exists on a continuum that stretches from medieval prototypes to today’s fully automated assembly lines.
How You Ask About the Facts
The real issue arises in the way the question is asked. First of all, it wasn’t really a car company at all that first used assembly lines, rather it was the meatpacking industry. Secondly, what is meant by the term “modern”? The stationary assembly line used by Olds is not really what we picture when we think of modern mass production processes. Olds made a significant advancement, but Ford’s moving assembly line is closer to the modern sense of the term. All of this creates ambiguity, which is the enemy of a good trivia question.
There are many ways to improve this question. For example, you could ask “Which company was the first to mass produce automobiles?” This leaves out the thorny issue of the assembly line entirely. Turning out a then-unheard-of 20 cars a day, Oldsmobile was certainly the first mass producer. However, the “assembly line” clue is actually a key component of the question. Given the popular misconception that Ford was its sole inventor, bringing up the assembly line sets a tempting trap for those not familiar with early automotive history. A question like this can go a long way in helping HQ whittle down a million or so players to a more manageable number as the game progresses.
But it is still very possible to keep “assembly line” while dispelling some of the ambiguity in the original question. For example, “In 1901, which car company became the first to use an assembly line?” By including the year, this question points definitively at Oldsmobile. It might clue a few people in that the answer is not Ford, since 1901 is a little early for the magnate from Dearborn, but that’s a small price to pay for tightening up the question. You could also get ahead of the critics by nodding to the prior history of the assembly line: “Though it originated in the meatpacking industry, who brought the assembly line to automaking in 1901?” There is no mention of being “first” (a muddy issue) or being “modern” (a flimsy term). This question is just the facts, as it should be.
Griping about trivia questions is a time-honored tradition. I’ve fielded more complaints than I can remember from High School Quiz Bowl coaches and sloshed competitors at my bar trivia nights. In these cases, the best defense is a good offense — questions that are carefully worded to avoid ambiguity and opinion and instead stick to verifiable facts from reputable sources. With thousands of dollars on the line, question quality takes on even greater importance.
For all the bright colors and Scott’s cheesy quips, HQ can’t be considered serious trivia until the questions catch up.
