Help: joining and playing a game

Answers to the questions hosts and players ask most. If yours is not here, tell us and we will add it.

Test your connection

A player can't join my game. What should they check?

Check the join code first. It is six characters, it is not case-sensitive, and it never uses the letters I or O or the digits 0 or 1, so a look-alike character is never the problem. Scanning the QR code on the host screen avoids typing it. If the page will not load, try mobile data instead of the venue Wi-Fi, or another browser. If the game has already started, whether late players can join is the host's choice for each quiz.

What do players need?

A phone, tablet or laptop with a recent browser (Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox) with JavaScript and cookies turned on. There is no app to install, no account to create and no location permission to give. Players do not need to be on the same Wi-Fi as the host: mobile data works.

What does a school or company network need to allow?

Everyone's devices, and the host screen, connect to www.bettertrivia.com over HTTPS (port 443) and keep a live connection open using WebSockets. A network that blocks WebSockets or filters the domain will stop pages loading or freeze a game partway through. Ask the network team to allow www.bettertrivia.com on port 443 with WebSockets.

A player lost their connection in the middle of a game. Do they lose their score?

No. The team's name, score and streak stay in the game on the server. The player reopens the game from the same browser (scan the QR code or enter the code again) and is back in; a question that closed while they were offline counts as unanswered. If their phone is about to die, tap "Phone dying? Pass my team to someone" on it while it still works: it makes a one-time link that moves the team to another phone.

Can players join after the game has started?

That is a setting on each quiz, on by default: "Allow players to join after the game has started". A late player sees the game as it is right now and plays on from there. A player who is already in the game can always rejoin, whatever the setting.

A player tapped the wrong answer. Can they change it?

No. Only the first answer to a question counts, and the game does not accept a second one for the same question.

A phone is stuck or shows an old version of the page. What helps?

Refresh the page first, then open the join link again in a new tab. Clearing the browser's cache and cookies is a last resort: a guest's place in the game is remembered in the browser, so a player who clears it in the middle of a game rejoins as a new team.

How do I check that everyone is ready before I start?

In the lobby each player taps "I'm ready" on their phone. The host screen shows how many players are ready and names the ones who are not, and starting before everyone is ready asks for a second click. The tap also proves that the player's phone is connected.

For a network administrator

Better Trivia needs very little from a network. Everything below is outbound; nothing needs to be opened inbound.

• Required: www.bettertrivia.com over HTTPS on port 443, with WebSockets allowed. Players' devices and the host screen all use it, and it is the only address the game itself needs.
• Pictures in questions can come from other HTTPS sites. If those are filtered, the pictures do not show but the game carries on.
• Video questions play a clip from YouTube (youtube.com and youtube-nocookie.com). If it is blocked, the clip does not show.
• The "Trivia near you" map loads its map tiles from OpenStreetMap (tile.openstreetmap.org); the game does not use it.
• A connection with plenty of speed but a slow or unstable path hurts more than a slow one: the game sends small messages, and a stable connection matters more than a fast one.