Amusing civ-related occurance

[Lockesdonkey]

You may or may not find this amusing...

Please know that I am a 16-year-old sophomore. I'm in high school in the United States. And I am sufficiently knowledgeable to be on my school's Quiz Bowl Team.

(btw, in quiz bowl two teams of four students go head to head and answer questions, rather like "Jeopardy!" with two teams, except that all questions are worth ten points, and if you answer correctly you get three extra ten-point questions--called a bonus-- which only your team can answer)

So I'm at a tournament at Michigan State University on Saturday and one of the questions is about the Yucatan. I don't get it fast enough and the other team gets the bonus.

The bonus was more or less as follows:

In the popular game Sid Meier's Civilization III, certain units are available only to one civilization. For ten points each, name the civilization from its "warlike" unique unit. (correct answers are in parentheses) [the answer given by the other team is in brackets]

War Chariot (Egyptians) [Greeks]
War Elephant (Indians) [Carthaginians]
Man-of-War (English) [British: which was noted as being an unacceptable answer!]

I laughed so hard.

 

[Tomoyo]

 

[Sub]

I'm surprised they would ask a question like that.

 

[The Omega]

 

[Beorn-eL-Feared]

this is awesome

 

[GeneralZed]

I don't get what is so funny

 

[Pentium]

Loooooooooooooooool

 

[Whomp]

I don't get what is so funny

A question like that was totally unexpected in a knowledge contest.


So did they get it right? Oops sorry I guess not....you must've been "dang I wish I knew more about the Yucatan pennisula!!

 

[Lockesdonkey]

A question like that was totally unexpected in a knowledge contest.


So did they get it right? Oops sorry I guess not....you must've been "dang I wish I knew more about the Yucatan pennisula!!

I knew the answer at the same time as the other guy, he just buzzed in before me.

 

[gmaharriet]

I'm also surprised they asked a question that only someone who plays Civ could possibly answer. It IS extremely funny.

 

[Cuivienen]

We had this question at New Jersey State Quizbowl Championships too! Our team got it, though, and an easy 30 points.

And not Civ players only could answer it. War Elephants should be pretty obviously India, and Man-O-War is definitely English. War Chariot is harder.

 

[niiru]

And not Civ players only could answer it. War Elephants should be pretty obviously India.

I wouldn't say that. When I was in college a LOT more time was spent on the history of the Roman empire and its varoius wars than on the Indian subcontinent. Quite honestly, if I was a non-civ-playing highschooler and I was presented with that question, the logical assumption I would make would be Carthage simply because of Hanibal and the Punic Wars.

 

[morchuflex]

Niiru has a point. In real history, war elephants are related to Carthage, not India. Every (knowledgeable) one knows about Hannibal's invasion of Italy and the panick the Carthaginian war elephants caused among the Romans.
Indeed this was a trick and unfair question, because people deriving their knowledge from historical sources were at a disadvantage compared to people relying on a fantasy (although somewhat history-based) game.
Next time, I guess they'll ask a question about Homer's Iliad biased in favor of those who only heard about it from the recent "Troy" movie...

 

[Lockesdonkey]

No, NAQT would never do that. It was supposed to be a computer-games, not history, question. In the same round they asked questions about the TV show "Alias", and questions which require you to have read a certain classic are par for the course. There are alot of these which require you to have watched a certain show or movie, or read a certain book, know a certain programming language, etc.