Forget Call of Duty 5: World at War. I've discovered an online multiplayer game that's more thrilling than Halo 3 and GTA: IV put together. Grand Theft Halo 7? No: Delta Coach In-seat Trivia.
I discovered this massively immersive game on a flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta. You compete live against other flyers on the plane to correctly answer multiple choice trivia questions as fast as possible to score the highest number of points. Sounds boring and lame, right? Wrong.
The challenge isn't the difficulty of the trivia, which isn't that tough. No. You're on a plane. If there's turbulence, the whole plane shakes, and makes it super hard to hit the right answer on the touch screen. Also, there's your kids. Try remembering the name of the highest peak in North America (Mount McKinley) while your three-year-old is screaming that her sister took the blue crayon and blue is her favorite.
More compelling yet is that you're only sort of playing against strangers. Instead of going up against an anonymous teenager in Hong Kong on Xbox Live, your enemies are on the flight with you. The game even tells you their seat number. You can psyche out “El Gato” in 34 E while walking to the bathroom.
If feeling intellectually superior to the coach-sitting masses doesn't do it for you, there's a bonus version of the trivia game. On the way home... you can cheat. Delta just doesn't have that many questions. So on the return flight, you can ace out everyone and seem like a super genius to twenty semi-adjacent strangers who know where you're sitting. Let your wife handle the kids.
Wow. They're REALLY hard up for customers, aren't they? Oh well.
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Though he's not Lev, I do hope that Church, Kemper, and Lostepic will find some BSG references to make. I look forward to it... *rubs hands together*
walkinghbomb
Jul. 2, 2009 23:57:pm
at 23:57:pm
And you can tell if "sizzlingirrl19" is false advertising. Just don't get the seat number wrong.
dennitzio
Jul. 3, 2009 02:59:am
at 02:59:am
@walkinghbomb- uh, I wonder if the crew and passengers on board the Olympic Carrier were too into a similar flight trivia game, and that's how they were infiltrated by the Cylons?
I think this one would be easier to turn into a Lost reference, not that I'm advocating that. But true, we don't bludgeon Matt, mainly because he has the good sense not to casually mention how disinterested he is in BSG.
anon76
Jul. 3, 2009 04:47:am
at 04:47:am
I'd like to be on a flight when Samuel L. Jackson was playing. "We've got to get this motherf***ing trivia off of this motherf***ing plane!!"
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@ wakinghbomb- Usually I save BSG for Lev, but since you asked. Having computerized trivia on a plane would make it easier to spot the Cylons. Just look for the ones with perfect scores and who have glowing red spines. Or are all made of metal. That too....
Kemper
Jul. 3, 2009 07:14:am
at 07:14:am
They've had this in bars for years now. If they can do it and have more than a flight's worth of questions, why can't the airlines? Hell, I've been playing Trivial Pursuit on my iPhone for over a month now and I've only had 1 question pop up twice.
suiter
Jul. 3, 2009 09:17:am
at 09:17:am
*wipes single tear away* Thank you, Kemper. That meant so much to me.
walkinghbomb
Jul. 3, 2009 10:36:am
at 10:36:am
That sounds like a great idea but having limited questions is ridiculous. I'm with suiter.
Rorschach
Jul. 6, 2009 12:23:pm
at 12:23:pm