You're no Ferdinand Magellan

July 16, 2015 4:58 PM

Smarty Pins is a trivia game played with Google Maps
posted by desjardins (21 comments total)

It's clever, I guess, but it feels like the question difficulty isn't very well balanced. I'll get 10 in a row perfectly, then lose 600 miles on one bad question.
posted by tau_ceti at 5:07 PM on July 16, 2015

It's a neat idea for a game, but having to quickly zoom into and around the maps fast enough to beat the clock is really awkward. And a lot of place names aren't visible at all magnification levels.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:12 PM on July 16, 2015 [2 favorites]

I got an incorrect clue -- they said this was the location of the 2014 World Cup of golf, but this event is held only in odd years. The correct answer was Melbourne, which hosted the 2013 event, not 2014.
posted by Fnarf at 5:34 PM on July 16, 2015

QuizMap is a similar iOS game, played against other people. Can be difficult but quite fun!
posted by cozenedindigo at 5:39 PM on July 16, 2015

All I see are excuses, not scores. 22 Smartypins here.
posted by Grumpy old geek at 7:14 PM on July 16, 2015 [4 favorites]

I got 39, but I chose a category, plus that was my third try, because at first I didn't understand the miles v bonus thing. I thought both were counting down by time. The miles are just measured by how close you are -- there's plenty of time to zoom in/out and move the pin thingy around.
posted by trip and a half at 7:29 PM on July 16, 2015

There's some writing in that green bar at the top of the screen is there?
posted by biffa at 11:24 PM on July 16, 2015

Man this is quite an Americentric quiz. First history and culture questions: where's Vladimir Putin live. Second question, where's some fort from the revolutionary war?
posted by Cannon Fodder at 4:47 AM on July 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

22 at my first go. I got mostly European questions, so I assume this questions are asked based upon cookies.
posted by kariebookish at 5:30 AM on July 17, 2015

Second question, where's some fort from the revolutionary war?

Don't worry, most Americans won't know those answers either.
posted by aught at 6:08 AM on July 17, 2015

"This pearl of the pacific northwest could be called America's hipster haven"

Immediate answer, bonus points.

"Baseball player Miguel somethingorother was traded to this city"

1000 miles lost, game over.

I have some trivia weak points.
posted by postcommunism at 6:12 AM on July 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Darn it! Round 2 went:

"This building houses the national congress".

Off by 2 miles (map was too far out to see the mall).

"A Quebec team moved to this city in year whathaveyou, becoming the Avalanches."

Off by 1100 -- the answer was not Vancouver :(
posted by postcommunism at 6:19 AM on July 17, 2015

On first attempt: 22, Diamond Pin.
posted by kyrademon at 7:16 AM on July 17, 2015

First attempt: 26, still had 850 or so miles - then got "this coastal region of Australia has the world's highest concentration of sea cows." I was off by 2,400 miles.
posted by otters walk among us at 7:28 AM on July 17, 2015

Fun idea, but the bonus is so trivial that you might as well take a hint every time, and the hints make it really obvious. Also makes it a bit too easy when the map starts in the region you need to be answering in. Not to mention pretty Americentric in general. Cool idea though, reminded me of another google maps game I really like, GeoGuesser, where it drops you on a random street in google street view and you have to figure out where you are.
posted by DynamiteToast at 9:41 AM on July 17, 2015

34 and a Diamond Pin.

I feel like it's made a lot harder by the fact that the labels on some places, parks and major highways especially, don't show up until you're zoomed in way too far.
posted by ob1quixote at 9:56 AM on July 17, 2015

GeoGuessr is SO ADDICTIVE.
posted by desjardins at 11:25 AM on July 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yup, and it's so satisfying when you figure out exactly where you are. Makes up for all the times it puts you in the middle of Brazil or a logging road in Canada and you just have to put the pin in the middle of the country and hope you're close-ish.
posted by DynamiteToast at 11:56 AM on July 17, 2015

Question: Place where the beach scenes in [Movie I've never heard of] were filmed?
I need a clue.
Clue: [Other movie I've never heard of] was also filmed here.
Thanks!
posted by rocket88 at 2:33 PM on July 17, 2015

America-centric? It's more than that! The answer to four of my first 25 questions was "New York." London was a close second, with three.

I had to choose my own category to get past the second round. It reminded me of Trivial Pursuit - I would do fine until Sports or Entertainment came up. and then I was making random guesses.
posted by kanewai at 6:22 PM on July 17, 2015

Heh, it's definitely basing the questions on your cookies or physical location or something: mine were Australian-dominated, I don't think I had a single US one.

Nice idea, and I had fun playing it, but it needs work - I'd get trivially easy European questions (Joyce wrote about this city, the Little Mermaid is here, etc -and the map would practically be centred on the right answer) then 'Australian team from a sport you've barely heard of moved to this suburb in 1973' or 'so and so played at this theatre'.
posted by Pink Frost at 6:34 PM on July 17, 2015