Trivia Crack – Can an App Be Too Much Fun?

The estimated reading time for this post is 6 minutes

If someone is holding their phone and asking you a trivia question such as:

• What is …?
• Where is …?
• Who is …?

then chances are they’re playing Trivia Crack, the record-breaking app that’s taking the world by storm.

Trivia Crack is a free quiz game that’s a combination of Wheel of Fortune, Trivial Pursuit and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? You compete against opponents to answer trivia questions on six different topics. While you don’t get a million dollars, pounds, euros or rupees for playing this game, you can still have loads of fun combing the recesses of your brain for answers. You may even learn fun facts as you play this addictive game!

This app broke the record for being the #1 free app in the US iTunes App Store for over 60 days and counting, breaking the previous record of 39 days for Draw Something. You can play Trivia Crack on your computer using Facebook or on your mobile device using the Trivia Crack app.

Check out this video showing Trivia Crack in action:

http://youtu.be/Jxoim1uLUnw

How to Play Trivia Crack

Sign up for Trivia Crack by linking your Facebook account or using your email address (hint: it’s best to use Facebook so you can play against your Facebook friends). Tap the New Game button to start to play.

Your opponents can be random strangers or your Facebook friends who are playing (you may be surprised at how many of your Facebook friends are playing this game!). As you answer questions correctly you Level Up and earn badges.

You’re given a choice of Classic or Challenge modes to play.

Classic Mode

The goal in Classic mode is to correctly answer questions in all six categories to earn characters and win. Spin the wheel to choose a category:

• Art
• Entertainment
• Geography
• History
• Science
• Sports

You have to answer questions in all of the categories to win, so breadth of knowledge matters more than depth with this game.

After the wheel picks the category you’re given a trivia question in that category with four possible answers. Pick the correct answer to keep going.

You get 30 seconds to choose the correct answer, which gives you plenty of time to ask other people in the room, but probably not enough time to do much Internet research or phone a friend.

If you pick the wrong answer you lose your turn and your opponent gets a turn. You each have two days to play your turn so the pace can be pretty leisurely.

The good news is that you can have more than one game going at a time. You’re given three “lives” to play with. You earn an additional life every 60 minutes or you can buy unlimited lives with real money if you’re so hooked on Trivia Crack that patience isn’t an option for you.

How to Win

Your goal for the game is to earn characters. Each category has a character for you to earn and you need to earn all six characters before your opponent does to win the game. You can earn up to three characters in your first turn.

If neither you nor your opponent wins all six characters in 25 rounds, the player who earned the most characters wins. If there’s a tie, you and your opponent will have a challenge round of six questions. Whoever answers the most questions in this round wins.

How to Earn a Character

You can earn a character by answering three questions correctly in a row. At the bottom of the screen is a 3-section crown gauge. Each time you answer a question correctly, you fill up a section of the crown gauge.

After you’ve filled the gauge, you have a chance to earn a character. Pick the character you want to earn and you’ll be asked a question in that category. If you answer correctly, you win the character. If you answer incorrectly your opponent gets a turn.

Crowns

The category wheel has a seventh slot: the crown. Think of this as a big bonus! Landing on a crown is a very good thing that can help you earn badges very quickly. No need to fill up the crown gauge when you land on the crown section!

If you land on the crown slot, you can choose the character you wish to play for and answer just one question correctly to earn that character. Boom!

Or you can take a risk choose Challenge where you have the opportunity to gain a character by stealing it from your opponent. Be careful though, you may lose and end up giving one of your characters to your opponent. In Challenge you both have to answer the same six questions. The one who answers the most questions correctly wins and steals a character from the other player.

Power Ups

Need a little help? No problem, use a Power Up. Trivia Crack gives you four different types of help called Power Ups:

• Extra Time – 15 extra seconds to answer the question
• Bomb – eliminate two wrong answers
• Double Chance – get a second shot at answering a question
• Skip – skip the question and get another question in that category

Power Ups cost coins which you can get by winning them or buying them with real money.

Challenge Mode

If you want a fast-paced game, skip Classic Mode and try Challenge Mode where you compete against nine other players to see who can answer the most trivia questions in the shortest amount of time. Choose between random opponents or Facebook friends, then try to answer 12 trivia questions in a row.

All 10 players are given the same 12 questions to answer at the same time. After the round is over you’re shown where you rank in the standings based on how many questions you answered and your speed.

Questions

Questions are customized according to country so your trivia questions may not be the same as someone who’s playing oceans away from you. Users can submit trivia questions that are then screened by the developer before they’re included in the game. After you answer a question, you can vote Boring or Fun!

You can submit your own questions to see if they get approved for use in Trivia Crack.

Languages

Trivia Crack is available in:

• Spanish
• English
• Portuguese
• French
• Italian
• Catalan
• German

Advertisements

A developer has to make a living and Trivia Crack earns revenue by advertisements, selling game coins, the ad-free paid version of the app and other in-app purchases. You can avoid the ads by buying the paid version of the app or by canceling out of the ads.

The ads range from videos to pop-up ads to banners to full-screen ads. Each ad seems to have the cancel button in a different place so be careful as you tap to skip the ad, you may end up in a different place than back in the game as you had intended. Think of this as training for the game. Tapping too quickly in the game often results in you picking the wrong answer!

Availability

Trivia Crack is available free for these mobile devices:

• Android devices
• iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch
• Windows Phone
• Fire and other Android devices

and on your computer via Facebook.

Your Thoughts

Have you tried playing Trivia Crack? Has anyone asked you a trivia question recently while they were holding their phone? Which would be your best category? Let us know in the Comments section below!

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Fun with Funk and Tech

I didn’t go to a tech high school but this video sure makes me wish I did. Check out teacher Scot Pankey inspiring students at A. Maceo Smith New Tech High School in Dallas to do their best and work in teams, both important skills for having a future in tech (or pretty much anything else in life).

Since its release on January 24 this video has gone viral with nearly 8 million views as of this writing. This dance routine to Uptown Funk may even inspire more kids to consider tech high school!