Illustration by Gemma Fa-Kaji
The clock reads 11:58 AM and around the room a notification pops up onto everybody’s phone. Each person looks to their phone, unlocking it and opening the same app. HQ Trivia is a twice daily (12 PM and 6 PM PST) trivia game that offers cash prizes to players who answer twelve questions correctly. The prize, which is typically five thousand dollars, is split up between all of the winners, which means players may only win a couple of dollars.
The game entices players with easy questions at first, but they quickly ramp up in difficulty. HQ gives players a sense of urgency with a ten-second time limit in which to answer each question.
The main problem with HQ Trivia is the broken livestream. There will often be technical difficulties that will prevent players from answering questions, causing them to lose.
While HQ hasn’t done a lot to directly combat this problem, it has introduced new types of gameplay to make it more interesting. One of these games involves HQ giving out $25,000 to a single person. The questions keep going until only a single person is left.
It’s incredibly aggravating when the stream glitches and lags, but still I come back to the game. The idea of winning $25,000 is too enticing to miss out on. I don’t win, but it’s a pleasant experience, seeing how far I can get, testing my own knowledge.
Another type of game is the sponsored games. Since these games are sponsored by a large movie coming out soon, they are able to give away much larger prizes. On April 11, Dwayne Johnson was a guest host promoting his movie Rampage. The prize during this game was $300,000. It was incredibly fun, albeit stressful. People band together to help each other out, and while oftentimes nobody wins, it is still an enjoyable experience.
These larger games don’t solve all the problems though. During the game promoting Ramage, countless players were kicked out due to glitches that prevented them from answering questions or even watching the stream at all. HQ must work to fix this issue.
HQ Trivia can be a fun way to spend fifteen minutes, but it is not worth it to go out of the way to play. If somebody has some free time, HQ is a pretty entertaining way to spend it, but that’s about it. Players shouldn’t go into the game thinking that they will win money, as they probably won’t. It’s more about the experience.