“Sorry, I’m busy,” is my response when my friends try to make plans with me at 3 p.m. or 9 pm. It’s not like I actually have real plans. I’m just going to waste 15 or so minutes of my life answering trivia questions.
HQ Trivia has consumed my life. Well, actually only like a total of 30 minutes of my day. Every single time I get that “It’s HQ time!” notification on my phone, something comes over me and I can’t do anything but play this game.
Here’s a little crash course on HQ Trivia if you are not familiar with it. Basically, it’s a live trivia game show you play on your smartphone. The questions start off fairly easy such as “what do plants need to live?” and the answer is water. Then, the questions gradually get more difficult. Sometimes you get lucky and guess correctly in the later questions. If you get all 12 correct, you win or split the cash price, which is typically $2,500 (or $10,000 on Sunday nights).
Oh, and let’s not forget: you get to watch some guy named Scott make puns for a least seven minutes before the game even starts.
So now that you are aware of the game, you probably can’t understand how addictive it is until you actually play it. I’m not a genius. I would never say that I know a lot about everything. But there’s just something so enticing about proving how smart you are to your friends –– or just how lucky you are at multiple choice.
HQ Trivia has caused me to do a lot of things. I have hung up on people because the game was starting. I have double-fisted phones so that both my roommate and I can play even though she was driving. I have played it in a public place with my ear glued to the speaker. Am I ashamed? No.
Should I be? Probably, yeah.
I’ve actually developed a technique to this game. The more people that play it in the same room, the better chances you have of winning. Has it worked very well? Debatable, considering I’ve never won any money from this game. Good thing Momma didn’t raise a quitter.
Pretty much every night at 9 p.m., my roommate and I put our heads together to try our best at this app. If we are in between two answers, we both pick different ones to increase our chances.
I should really stop letting this game consume my time. There’s a very small chance I’ll win and if you do, you’re only getting a couple of dollars.
But this is a pride thing, you know? How much useless knowledge do you possess? There’s nothing quite like the feeling of bragging about how you know that crocodiles and alligators coexist in the everglades. Or that the lions outside the New York Public Library are named Patience and Fortitude.
Honestly, the best part of this game is that even if I get the question wrong, I gain a little bit more useless knowledge. You can always use these fun facts at parties or just build up a vast catalog if you want to go on jeopardy one day.
Moral of the story is: don’t make plans with me around 3 p.m. or 9 p.m., but if you do, please allow me to escape to a quiet room where I can turn up my volume and anxiously navigate my way through 12 questions and waste 15 more minutes of my life.
Oh, and not to brag, but I’ve made it to question eight.