Features

Ella Donesky
Staff Writer

Do you know what the most common transplanted organ is? Or what country is the largest producer of milk in the world? Perhaps you know what breed Scooby Doo is?

Okay, Me neither. But after a few rounds playing the App Store’s #1 game, Trivia Crack, you may find out.

Until I was tasked with reviewing the popular game, I had not played it. Now, I receive notifications hourly telling me my opponent lost and it’s my turn to spin. Soon after I first downloaded the app, I must say I became slightly addicted. Fortunately, I’ve lost some interest, but I still cannot resist tapping the colorful square icon when I open my phone.

The objective of the game is to unlock six characters, each named after their category: art, entertainment, sports, history, geography and science. In order to obtain a character, you must answer three questions correctly in any of the six categories. Then, if you and your opponent have both secured at least one character, you have the option to unlock a new character by answering correctly the question corresponding to the character. Or you can really test your knowledge in a match to secure your opponent’s character. It sounds complicated, more so when you mix in the occasional sports question (Honestly, who really knows what the logo is on the Oakland Raiders helmet?).

I immediately fell in love with the soft, cartoon-like graphics. It’s a bit cheesy, of course, but very cute, appealing, and well-organized, not to mention festive, with the tune which plays every time I answer correctly. In all seriousness, the aesthetics of the game are very important to the user experience. While it’s not the graphics that attract me to the game, it’s that it doesn’t looking rigid and distasteful which encourages me to not abandon it. The buttons are large and it’s clear that whoever designed the app invested considerable effort and detail in their creation.

Besides that, the interactive experience of answering questions via switches, buttons and toggles feel nicely, reassuringly, appropriately reactive, meaning, when I press a button, it behaves like a button. Trivia Crack switches in and out of screens without lag. Something I’m not too jazzed about, however, are the oodles of ads which pop up on my screen almost every other game, though this may be my fault, as I’m too stingy to spend $1.99 to upgrade to an ad-free version.

Though this comes as a disappointment to many players, I’m personally extremely grateful that you cannot start more than three games in one hour (it seems sometimes like people are only starting to catch on that social media is addictive). And while I found that the timespan bothered many users (about thirty seconds), it was just short enough that I couldn’t look up the question online.

As for the questions, I think they’re great! Admittedly, some of the questions are a bit trivial, but landing your spinner in any category besides entertainment will guarantee that you’ll learn something new. I appreciate the question generating system, another great interactive feature. Questions are created, approved and even translated by the Trivia Crack Community, so you’ll rarely encounter questions you’ve answered before.

Though it may not be important for one to know, for example, the name of Paris Hilton’s dog, I found that playing Trivia Crack has allowed me to memorize important historical dates, geographical locations, and has even made me curious to explore a topic further, especially when I answer incorrectly.

(In case you were wondering, the answers to the questions above are, Kidney, India and Great Dane)

On a side note, my spinner looks like this half the time:

Darius Purnell

Staff Writer

In the past few years many characters in entertainment that been around for years have experienced major changes in who they are, whether it has to do with race, gender, or some other aspect of their identity.

Many cases, these changes add a special new spin to the stories we know or add new situations we would never think of.

In 2014 a female Thor appeared in volume 4 book #1 of Ultimate Comics Thor. The comic sold great with critics giving it an 8.0 out of 10.

In 2011 the well known hero Spider man, had a brand new twist. The original Spider man, Peter Parker dies and the new Ultimate Comics Spider man begins with a young mixed African American and hispanic teenager named Miles Morales. The comic series was marked #1 of the 200’s debuts on Marvel’s website.They quote: “Smart but still clearly learning, scared but full of courage, wanting to be the ideal son, but driven to keep secret, Miles instantly connected with the audience.” The first book broke digital records in the first week of release.

Disney is famous for taking known Grimm Fairy Tales and turning them into animated children/family comedies. In 2009, Disney did something different from their usual set up. They took the story the Princess and The Frog and made the Disney Princess African American. Disney is not known for being diverse and that small change made the story much more interesting. There was a chance that because of this new change, they would not receive as much excitement for the movie as they thought it would, but instead it was a big hit. The Princess and The Frog was marked the highest-grossing start to date for an animated movie in December. The film fell just under its budget of $105 million by making $104,400,899 in the US and Canada alone and an additional $165 million overseas for a total of nearly $267 million. Overall the movie made a success at the box office. How would the movie had done if the main character was caucasian? We will never know, but we do know the change was a good turn.

Also in the recent events we have been given stories with complete role changes and have strong female leads.

Scandal is a show starring a woman named Olivia Pope and she solves scandals for a living for politicians. While dealing with personal troubles and situation of the US government, including an affair with the president. Besides the personal issues, the show involving solving political scandals the show would not be as good if Olivia was a male. Fans call her a feminist icon and such a great character for african american woman. Also the show gives talent and gives them a way to shine.

All these new aspects to entertainment changes it for the better. Though, there are cases where the changes had little to no effect at all; one recent example is the the recent version of the movie Annie. After 9 other adaptations, people now have lost their connection to the little orphan. The recent 2014 adaptation has scored no more than 30% by major critics. It may had nothing to do with the specific change of ethnicity but just change in all repeated is never good for movies or shows.

Angelica Owens

Staff Writer

On Thursday, December 18th, 2014, the Gay Straight Alliance at Science Leadership Academy held a mixer where other Gay Straight Alliance clubs came to SLA and had a social gathering. As a member of the club I suggested that we do this because I like meeting other people who are similar to me. Due to the student die-in, which also occurred on the same day, we didn’t have as big of a turn out as we would have. However, three people from Bodine High School did attend along with the members of our club and a few other students who are allies. During this time we ate snacks and advertised for our LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) Valentine’s Day dance on February 6th, 2015. We also played a game stating what candy we would be and why, which helped us get to know each other’s personalities even though we had just met. Even though most of the students did not attend, the meeting went well and everyone enjoyed their time. We look forward to doing more activities with other Gay Straight Alliances around Philadelphia.