Announcement of LDS Trivia and Puzzles

[Jeremy A]

(I can't tell where to put this topic, so if a moderator feels this is the wrong spot, please move it to a better spot. I chose this one, because it's a game, and it's about the gospel.)

With approval from main moderator of this forum, I want to announce LDS Trivia and Puzzles, a game where players answer trivia questions, solve hangman-style puzzles, and a little word scramble that deals with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This will be a live game played over IRC (Internet Relay Chat), an old form of text chatting. The IRC client I use allows me to write a script to make the game easier to run. Besides, it's how I did the game about 17 years ago.

Games will take place once or twice a month, because games can last about four hours. Why so long? It's a live game, I don't have a huge amount of questions, and it's fun. A lot of IRC trivia games are run entirely by script, which means that players have to get the answer exactly right, which annoys me. Players can get right answers and not match the answer, but I digress.

The game will take place over DALnet, an IRC network that it originally ran, in channel #lds_trivia. It is also used to be an area for LDS chat, but I think it lost popularity when other chat modes came to existence. Anyway, there are two ways to connect: an IRC client or DALnet's web site directly.

To play the game, a nickname will need to be thought of. Just in case, think of one or two alternates in case the nickname is already taken. Nicknames will also be used to track scores.

Method 1 (probably the easiest): Go to DALnet's web site directly. Just Google DALnet, and their web site should be easy to get to. On the home page, you'll see an area where it says to pick a nickname and a channel with a go button. Choose a nickname, set the channel to #lds_trivia, and then click Go. It will connect to a random DALnet server and enter channel #lds_trivia. When the topic of the channel displays when the next game will be, that's the right place.

Method 2 (recommended): an IRC client. Personally, I use mIRC, but it's a shareware program that costs $20 to register, but it has a 30 day free trial. However, there are many other clients out there. Just Google IRC client and look at the various clients and choose one. Load the program up, choose a nickname and possibly an alternate nickname, and then connect the client to irc.dal.net . It will connect to a random DALnet server. Once connected, read the text that comes up, and wait for a message from NickServ saying that the nickname is taken. If one doesn't come up, the nickname can be registered. (DALnet's site has more information on how to do that in the Help menu and selecting services.) If a message from NickServ doesn't arrive, type /join #lds_trivia in the status window to enter the channel. When the topic of the channel displays when the next game is, that's the right place.

Oh, I forgot. Android and iPhone users should use their respective stores for an IRC client. I do not know which apps to use, so look in the store and possibly reviews to determine which one to use. Decide on a nickname and connect the client to irc.dal.net . I don't know how to use these apps, but I can try to help if there's difficulties.

A game hasn't happened yet, but I hope to have one in the next week or two before going back to school. One will start at around 5:30 PM Pacific, 8:30 PM Eastern on Sunday. It's difficult to determine a time because of time zones. Also, this should be in addition to going to church. Anyway, players that show up by 5:30 will receive a bonus of 1,000 points when the game starts. A game won't start until two players are in the channel.

Rules about the game will be discussed when the game starts. The basics is answering trivia questions and solving hangman-type puzzles almost simultaneously. The format goes: choose a category and level for a question, answer trivia question, guess a letter in the puzzle if a player gets the question right, and repeat until puzzle is solved.

There's a group on Facebook called LDS Trivia and Puzzles. Posts about when the next game occurring will show up there, and stats about games when one happens will show up there, too. I hope to see many people for the game on Sunday. If there are any questions about how to get to the game, please ask here. Hopefully, someone else will have the same question. Thank you.