Topic: World history quiz thread

[Darth Mandarb]

I knew who you meant from the very beginning but it took me a while to remember her name:

Countess Elisabeth Báthory aka "The blood Countess".

Yes indeed!

Countess Erzsébet (Elizabeth) Báthory de Ecsed (1560-1614).

A fascinating (if macabre) character of human history.

[Sinitrena]

She lived in the 19th century. One of her daughters died as a child, her son committed a murder-suicide. She wrote poetry, was known for her beauty and probably had an eating disorder. She was assassinated. Who is she?

[Darth Mandarb]

I was able to figure this one out but I didn't know it until searching. Is that acceptable?

[Sinitrena]

I was able to figure this one out but I didn't know it until searching. Is that acceptable?

I'd say it's fine, but maybe give someone a chance who might know it without looking it up. If there's no correct answer in a day or two, your awesome google skills should be honoured.

[dayowlron]

I wanted to know who this was as well so i googled it, so will be disqualifying myself from this question but I must say the reading on the murder-suicide and the assassination is definitely interesting reading.

[Darth Mandarb]

I'm wondering if we should create some rules here?

With the movie title contest thread there's the obvious "don't reverse image search google to get the answer" but it's okay to search by actors in the shot to track down the answer. I'm thinking it should be okay here to do the same (by searching for data in the clues) to find the answer here. It is, personally, more gratifying to me to actually know it up front sure... but it's also nice to do some digital-sleuthing and arrive at the answer (all the while learning something new in the process).

Thoughts?

[Mandle]

I'm wondering if we should create some rules here?

With the movie title contest thread there's the obvious "don't reverse image search google to get the answer" but it's okay to search by actors in the shot to track down the answer. I'm thinking it should be okay here to do the same (by searching for data in the clues) to find the answer here. It is, personally, more gratifying to me to actually know it up front sure... but it's also nice to do some digital-sleuthing and arrive at the answer (all the while learning something new in the process).

Thoughts?

I think it's a bit too easy to google in this thread to find the answer.

99% of the time someone could most likely just copy/paste the clue directly into google and find the answer within 60 seconds.

Maybe it would be better if the current round host just keeps nudging in the correct direction via subtle hints, and then incresingly less subtle hints, until someone gets it via good old-fashioned brainpower.

This could take forever in the case of obscure history though, so maybe an alternative could be for the host to set limits on googling based on how difficult they feel their challenge is.

Or some other third thing...

[Darth Mandarb]

I think there's a small problem with a contest like this.

I consider myself fairly well-versed in world history but that knowledge tends to be on the "famous" events/people. Like Henry VIII, Alexander the Great, Cleopatra, etc. So while I might know something about Henry VIII, I would have no clue about the 6th century dynasties of Bavaria. Somebody from that region could post a question about a Bavarian King from 580 who is well known/regarded in that region but anybody not from that area probably never heard of the guy (but they could learn about them by Googling)!

I think it should be okay to provide the answer (no matter how you arrived at it) but maybe the poster supplying the answer could say, "I actually knew this one" or "I tracked it down!". Something like that?

The problem is that it is impossible to know if somebody Googled for the answer.

If we say that you cannot use Google to track it down people will still do it and just pretend they knew it without Googling.

Then it sort of leaves it up to the person posing the question to be creative on the hints!

[milkanannan]

^I think this thread is no different than a 'Guess the game' or 'Guess the movie' thread. Sure, people could use Google and pretend they knew the answer themselves, but my guess is we're (mostly) mature people that won't do this.

With regards to question specificity/accessibility, I also encourage mature judgement when coming up with questions. We want the thread to be fun, so questions with answers like 'Marie Antoinette' are good but answers like 'the cousin of Marie Antoinette's step brother with the lazy eye' might be a bit too specific for our purposes. In other words, the answer shouldn't require Google research. It should be something at least one in ten random people would know.

[Mandle]

Sure, people could use Google and pretend they knew the answer themselves, but my guess is we're (mostly) mature people that won't do this.

And if somebody was so insecure as to need the ego-boost of cheating to win a round of a history trivia quiz on the AGS forums then I would say they sorely needed that boost and that we are mature enough to let them have it with all good grace.

[Stupot]

If we can google it then the winner is always going to be the first person who saw the question and could be bothered to google it. I think we should at least wait for a few genuine guesses, or until enough time has passed, before providing a googled answer. I prefer a trivia quiz over a googling contest.

[milkanannan]

If we can google it then the winner is always going to be the first person who saw the question and could be bothered to google it. I think we should at least wait for a few genuine guesses, or until enough time has passed, before providing a googled answer. I prefer a trivia quiz over a googling contest.

Amen.

[Sinitrena]

That's more more less a consensus, isn't it? Don't google unless nobody comes up with a correct answer in a reasonable amount of time and be honest about it.

Okay, next hint:

Her murderer intended to kill the Duke of Orléans. When he wasn't there, he settled on her instead. She was stabbed on her way to a boat, colapsed, but managed to walk about 100m afterwards before she lost  consciousness twice and died soon after.

[Sinitrena]

Not even a guess yet?
Are my hints too obscure? Is it too difficult?

The fact that she learned Hungarian was of political significance.

[milkanannan]

I have no idea.

[LameNick]

Could it be the Austro-Hungarian queen Sisi? I can't remember her real name and I'm scared to check the wiki



Edit: I think her name was Elizabeth or something similar.

[Sinitrena]

You are entirely corrrect, it is Empress Elisabeth of Austria, Queen of Hungary, also known as Sisi (1837-1898). Your turn.

[LameNick]

Yay! For whatever reason after reading that she wrote poetry, was known for her beauty and had eating disorder, my brain refused to make any connection to a queen until much later on, when I remembered that she played big role in improving relations with Hungary, then the things mentioned here, that I knew clicked together.


What is the name of a pioneering aviator who crashed in the Sahara desert, while trying to break speed record?
He and his navigator were brought to the brink of death, experiencing hallucinations under heavy dehydration. This person later wrote a famous novella that was partially inspired by this event.

[Sinitrena]

Im fairly certain this is Antoine de Saint-Ekcupery (and I probably butchered the spelling of this name) who later wrote Le petit prince. (Had to read that one in French class.)

[LameNick]

Yup, that is correct! It is The Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint-Exupéry (copied his full name from wiki ) And I believe your answer just broke the speed record on these boards!