Executive Vice President Brenna is here today to talk about truth, and much more:

What do we think we know, and what do we actually know? The gap between these questions can be deceptive, as any trivia player who’s just found out that Hydrox predates Oreos can tell you. I’ve always been a person drawn to creating stories from data; it’s what I love about journalism, and I wrote, on average, three articles a week all four years of college. Remembering not to start writing a story until I had the facts was one of the most important lessons.

One of my high school English teachers, Mr. Schulz – who had also taught my mom 20 years earlier – told a story about his prom night to every class. Ostensibly, we were writing five-paragraph essays, but he wanted us to delve deeper into how research supported a persuasive essay, how factual context would enrich a personal essay, how history or science would become more interesting with concrete, person-sized details.

His prom night went like this: After building up the courage to ask Caroline to prom, he then had to get permission from his father to use the Good Car. He did the requisite chores to get the keys, rented a light blue suit, and at the appointed time drove to pick up his date. Who was not home. He waited outside her house for an hour, disappointed and uncertain, and then he went home alone.

Or, his prom night went like this: He was thrilled and nervous about taking Caroline to the prom. On the night of the dance, his car wouldn’t start, and his father wasn’t home to give him the keys to the Good Car. He was too embarrassed to call Caroline, and stayed home, stranded and disappointed.

Or, his prom night went like this: He asked Carline to prom, but was late getting to her house. He arrived to find that she had already left with a friend. So he drove to the dance alone, met up with other friends, and had a perfectly nice time drinking beer at the park without her.

He told a different version to each class, naming the ideas of Happening Truth – he was meant to go to prom with Caroline, but didn’t – and Story Truth – something that felt true to an experience, and was perhaps a little blurred by bias or memory. The important thing was to recognize the difference between what is true and what feels true, the difference between what happened and what made a good story, between making facts interesting and making things up.

I don’t know what Mr. Schulz’s prom night was actually like. I do know that it’s tempting to make up details to fit the facts we do know, and I now work for a company where our whole ethos is to make it fun to remember stuff. Trivia questions exist in Happening Truth – Shaq, not Sinbad, was in “Kazaam” – but someone out there has a story about seeing Sinbad in “Shazaam” and it feels true.

A prime example of how our Player Survey helps us determine whether we’re telling ourselves a story about our trivia nights is gender identity. In 2017, when working for Trivia Mafia became my primary job, the assumption was that most trivia players were guys. In fact, in our survey that year, we found that to be only technically true: 50.5% of players identified as male. In 2019, that percentage held true, with 2.5% also identifying as nonbinary.

Another thing we learned from that 2017 survey: size does matter. Of our respondents, 72% believed we should enforce some type of limitation on team size, whether it be a point deduction or forcing a split, and 30% felt that the limit should be at six people. Since then, the rule has been that teams should be eight people or fewer, and it’s at the host’s discretion how to enforce – but that was not a consistent company policy prior to the survey!

From 2017 to 2019, we increased the percentage of players who had been to one of our non-regular events: 19% in 2017 had been to a tournament, theme night, or Laborial Day (RIP), while 26% had been to something special by 2019. So far in this 2023 survey, it’s 34%! So that may lead to trying even more cool things in the future, since people are actually seeking them out.

It’s also important to note the notes, and we do read them all! We allow respondents to stay anonymous, which means that sometimes the suggestions say “more buttstuff!” and we can only presume that is sarcastic (apologies to the sincere butt enthusiasts). But others comment about technical issues, or let us know that we need to make our events more friendly to POC, and we will take action on those as best we can.

Ultimately, we are a group of people who love to know things, and to know that what we know is true. A survey isn’t a perfect means to reach every player and pick their brains, but it does help us check our assumptions, better understand the ongoing story of our company and players, and find out how to make the world’s greatest trivia just a little better. (See the complete summaries from the 2017 and 2019 surveys here, and, if you haven’t yet, please take our 2023 player survey here!)