The History of Trivia Games and Free Trivia Questions

Trivia: In the late 20th century the expression came to apply more to information of the kind useful almost exclusively for answering quiz questions: a perfect “trivia question” is one that initially stumps the listener, but the answer subsequently sounds familiar once revealed.

The Latin adjective triviālis, derived from trivium, thus meant “appropriate to the street corner, commonplace, vulgar.” The word trivia game was popularized in its current meaning in the 1960s by Columbia University students Ed Goodgold and Dan Carlinsky, who created the earliest inter-collegiate quiz bowls that tested culturally significant yet ultimately unimportant facts and resources, which they dubbed “trivia contests”. The first book treating trivia of this universal sort was Trivia by Goodgold and Carlinsky, which achieved a ranking on the New York Times best seller list; the book was an extension of the pair’s Columbia contests and was followed by other Goodgold and Carlinsky trivia titles. In their second book, More Trivial Trivia, the authors criticized practitioners who were “indiscriminate enough to confuse the flower of Trivia with the weed of minutiae”; Trivia, they wrote, “is concerned with tugging at heartstrings,” while minutiae deals with such unevocative questions as “Which state is the largest consumer of Jell-O?” Quiz shows.

On September 13, 1965, four Columbia students appeared on the TV quiz show I’ve Got a Secret and competed in a trivia contest with the show’s regular panelists. A much-publicized First Annual Ivy League-Seven Sisters Trivia Contest was held at Columbia the same semester. By 1966, other campuses had instituted Trivia bowls while colleges such as Lawrence University and Williams College began radio contests which continue to this day. In 1974, a former Sacramento air traffic controller named Fred L. Worth published The Trivia Encyclopedia, which he followed in 1977 with The Complete Unabridged Super Trivia Encyclopedia, and in 1981 with Super Trivia, vol. II. in the United States, reviving a quiz show genre that had been dormant since the quiz show scandals of the 1950s. In addition to the mass media trivia, there have also been two entrenched trivia subcultures.

Wilson Casey is an American columnist, book author, entertainer, speaker, and record holder. He earned two Guinness World Records for a thirty-hour live, continuous broadcast on radio station WKDY-AM on January 9 – 10, 1999 in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Casey is regularly called and labeled “The Trivia Guy”.

Board Games History

Board games have been played in most cultures and societies throughout history; some even pre-date literacy skill development in the earliest civilizations. A number of important historical sites, artifacts and documents exist which shed light on early board games. Some of these include:

  • The Jiroft civilization game boards
  • Senet has been found in Predynastic, c. 3500 BC and 3100 BC respectively. Senet is the oldest board game known to have existed, and was pictured in a fresco found in Merknera’s tomb
  • Mehen is another ancient board game from Predynastic Egypt.
  • Go is an ancient strategic board game originating in China
  • Patolli is a board game originating in Mesoamerica, and was played by the ancient Mayans.
  • The Royal Tombs of Ur contained, among others, the Royal Game of Ur. They were excavated by Leonard Woolley, but his books document little on the games found. Most of the games he excavated are now housed in the British Museum in London.
  • The Buddha games list is the earliest known list of games.

Common Game Sayings

Although many board games have a jargon all their own, there is a generalized terminology to describe concepts applicable to basic game mechanics and attributes common to nearly all board games.

  • Game board —the surface on which one plays a board game; the namesake of the board game, gameboards are a necessary and sufficient condition of the genre. Most games use a standardized and unchanging board, but many games use a modular board whose component tiles or cards can assume varying layouts from one session to another, or even as the game is played.
  • Game piece —a player’s representative on the game board. Each player may control one or more game pieces. In some games that involve commanding multiple game pieces, such as chess, certain pieces have unique designations and capabilities within the parameters of the game; in others, such as Go, all pieces controlled by a player have the same essential capabilities. In some modern board games, such as Clue, there are other pieces that are not a player’s representative.
  • Jump—to bypass one or more game pieces and/or spaces. Depending on the context, jumping may also involve capturing or conquering an opponent’s game piece.
  • Space (or square)—a physical unit of progress on a gameboard delimited by a distinct border. Alternately, a unique, atomic position on the board on which a game piece may be located while in play.
  • Hex In hexagon-based board games, this is the common term for a standard space on the board. This is most often used in wargaming, though some abstract strategy games such as Abalone use hexagonal layouts.