“$18,000 dollars?! Sign me up!” I said to myself, opting to take an early work-break in order to partake in HQ Trivia’s New Years Eve challenge. Alas, it did not go as planned, as I wasted my break – and time, playing a trivia game where I couldn’t answer questions and for prize money that appears to not be rewarded.
For the uninformed, HQ Trivia is an Apple and Android app that runs a twice-daily online trivia show, you get 12 questions, and if you answer them all correctly, you win some money based on the prize pool and how many other people succeed. Typically the prizes range from 1500-2000 dollars, split amongst the winners.
So with $15000 up for grabs *right* before New Years on the east coast, many players flocked to the app in order to play and try and win their share of the massive prize pool. Instead they felt robbed, and trolled.
The questions never popped up. The sound didn’t work for many players. The game’s run time, which ran up until a few minutes after New Year’s Day on the East Coast, was a disaster, with no prizes awarded and no questions answered.
@hqtrivia exactly my thought! #fail https://t.co/hWle3kA5FP
— Brian Bagdasarian (@realbrianbags) January 1, 2018
I CAN’T BELIEVE I SPENT MY LAST MINUTE OF 2017 & FIRST OF 2018 GETTING SCAMMED BY @hqtrivia
@MeekinOnMovies @hqtrivia Idk and the host just sits there fucking rambling his head off stalling instead of just telling us what the real issue is. Like stop wasting our time.
A new game has been rescheduled for 12:30am EST, with the same $18,000 prize, signaling a do-over as a form of an apology. Yet the fact remains nearly half a million people spent some part of their New Years Eve being confused and angry at a phone app that offered them fabulous prizes and only delivered disappointment – and are now being asked to try again.
A similar problem occurred last weekend as well, when a computer glitch resulted in a total restart of the game after results from an answered question didn’t properly load. Such is the price of bleeding edge technology – there’s not much else on the Internet like this – and as the game has grown in popularity, glitches with server load and
Created by the brain-trust behind Vine; Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll, the game has gained massive success based on its innovative streaming model, the charisma of its host Scott Rogowsky, and a bit of controversy surrounding an unhinged on-the-record interview with the HQ CEO who threatened to fire the host if Daily Beast ran a profile about him.
It remains to be seen whether or not this glitch is due to the recent Android release of the app, released via Early Access in time for the game tonight.
Regardless, while the moment may have passed for East Coast Players, HQ Trivia is hoping you’re willing to travel back in time and try again. Who knows if players actually will.