New in the portfolio: Seven Ages of Britain – The Quest
by Antonio on 02/02/10 at 5:05 pm
Seven Ages of Britain is a new BBC show telling the story of Britain through its art and treasure. It’s presented by David Dimbleby and the first episode went out Sunday.
The Open University, who partnered with the BBC on its production, commissioned Six to Start to produce a game to complement the show.
I was kindly asked to be producer for the project, and this is the result:
Seven Ages of Britain: The Quest - Click to play!
How it works
Each week after the show we pose seven questions about the objects behind the show. Unlike a straightforward quiz, the questions are very tough – but you’re allowed to use any site on the web to answer the questions.
We even got David himself to do the links..
I’m really pleased with the results and our testers seem to have been having great fun trying to crack the answers.
A few specific things I like about the project:
It’s hard
None of the questions on this should take more than 3-10 minutes to solve – but each is a challenge and requires really reading into the subjects and in some cases clever web searches.
I always think difficult games are much more fun than easy ones. Even so, games and quizzes are often far too easy so they’ll be more inclusive. Cryptic crosswords aren’t inclusive. Nor is chess.
It gets people looking in new places on the web
To answer the questions, you have to look through (amongst other sources) the Domesday Book, Samuel Johnson’s dictionary and old copies of the Guardian. It’s been great seeing people’s excitement at finding these sources for the first time.
I’ve found that while people play they tend to get distracted by the things they find and occasionally have to remember to come back and carry on playing – in this context, this is a good thing!
It’s about searching, not knowledge
I think there’s a really serious point about new forms of education in all this. So much information is now available to us that knowing how to search for it, work out its validity and process it are going to be essential skills for the future.
I think games like this are a really fun way of teaching digital literacy.
So, have a play and let me know what you think.
PS thanks to Adrian Hon, exec producer for the project who asked me to be involved, and everyone else who worked on the project. More on the credits page.
caroline
Feb 3rd, 2010
tone…this is ace!
Alex
Feb 24th, 2010
dang, I was doing fine (I’m an ex-pat) until I got to a question where you HAD to watch the video piece to know what he was talking about. Sigh. Perhaps you could phrase the questions so that if you can’t see the video (due to being outside the UK), you can still participate?
Jane
Mar 8th, 2010
Quest 5. Question 6. Very Very difficult.
Please post the answer.
susie
Mar 22nd, 2010
Have enjoyed playing this, but concerned to find that a fee must be paid to view old copies of The Guardian. Is this correct?
Antonio
Mar 22nd, 2010
Hi Susie,
Thanks for the comment. You can definitely find it without paying – check the hint if you get stuck (their website is a little fiddly in this respect to be honest).
Good luck!
Antonio
Antonio
Mar 22nd, 2010
Hi Jane,
Sorry – only just saw your comment. I’ll give you a clue, it’s called The Great ______
Good luck!
Antonio
Andy
Mar 25th, 2010
Hi Antonio,
And Wikipedia never mentions the film in question, although this is recommended as a reference.
I really enjoyed the series and the accompanying quests. I liked the way, you had to think laterally to get some of the answers. I agree that Quest 5 Q6 was the most difficult. Even once I found the answer, it was never referenced in Wikipedia, like nearly every other topic in the Quests. I only found the answer, by searching for part of the question a week after initially trying the quest. Someone had posted the question on the Internet by then in a desperate attempt to solve it and someone else had supplied the answer. Perhaps this demonstrates the power of the Internet, ie how it constantly evolves and increases in information. However I feel I “cheated” on this one, as I didn’t find the answer the same way as the other questions. Even now I know the answer, searching for it finds only 2 small references – Edinburgh Tattoo and the BBC’s web pages. One observation – Quest 7 Q1 contains an error. Humphrey Jones is referred to as Henry Jones – a deliberate attempt to confuse??
However great fun – sorry it is finished. And it increased my store of trivia! Thanks.
tommy
Mar 31st, 2010
Excellent. Except one of the questions on quest 2 asked for the first name of the woman david is talking about in the clip; yes you guessed, the clip did not play.
Very enjoyable
tommy
Mac
Mar 31st, 2010
When is your site Quest back on.
Loved the serie and I am doing my last quest but the site seem to have “frozen’
Really enjoy the Quests and learned a lot about Britain.
Mac
Hannah Evans
Apr 2nd, 2010
I loved the quest trail… and I am in my seventieth year. Some of the questions were trivial in the extreme, but that was part of the fun.
Thank you – I look forward to something similar in the future.
Hannah