Friday Flash Fun: Test your geography skills.

October 17, 2008 11:06 AM

Free Poverty.Kinda like freerice.com but they're giving water to places that need it.

I feel dumb now. Some places are not where I thought they were.

posted by Nauip (32 comments total)

Okay... 181 cups... and I still feel dumb.

This will be a great distraction during class, though.
posted by Navelgazer at 11:16 AM on October 17, 2008

That's fun! If only I wasn't sitting in a class where I needed to take notes. Is there a way to pause it? I didn't see one.
posted by lilac girl at 11:21 AM on October 17, 2008

379 cups! It didn't seem as random as it might have been: I had seven or eight places in Algeria to guess at in the harder levels.
posted by misteraitch at 11:23 AM on October 17, 2008

Free Poverty? Why would I want to be poor, even if it is free?
posted by blue_beetle at 11:24 AM on October 17, 2008

I suppose they chose that name because freewater.com was taken, although freewater.org looks like a domain parking page.
posted by Nauip at 11:27 AM on October 17, 2008

Yeah, the levels seem messed up. Dallas (in the Easy level) was hard not because I don't know where Dallas is but because the interior of the US is just a vast, featureless plain (in the game). Of course, Dallas is near the distinctive bump in Texas, so I got it "right" anyway. But then the Medium level had a bunch in Italy and France. If you can find a boot, you can get any Italy question right enough to pass. And if you can remember which is France and which Spain, anything in those two countries is OK.
posted by DU at 11:28 AM on October 17, 2008

485 cups in three rounds. I was way, way off on some. World geography was never my strong suit.
posted by hallowdmachine at 11:35 AM on October 17, 2008

829. Is it just me, or does the super hard level seem weighted towards the start of the alphabet? I kept getting a ton of questions in Algeria and Argentina, along with more than the fair share in Afghanistan, Australia, Angola, Bangladesh, etc.
posted by H-Bar at 11:36 AM on October 17, 2008

They asked me to identify Clearwater, Florida.

What is this supposed to be supporting, again?
posted by Navelgazer at 11:39 AM on October 17, 2008

Yeah, something in their database is broken - or maybe their data entry person hasn't got much further than 'Algeria' (Algeria has a lot of desert. Click 'somewhere near the coast' and you will be ok with the Algeria questions, until you accidentally click 'the middle of the Atlantic' instead).
posted by Lebannen at 11:48 AM on October 17, 2008

This would be considerably easier if it was a terrain map instead of a featureless gray slab.

Also, false advertising in the post title, the quiz is not flash. It's all javascript/CSS, which is much cooler.
posted by zeypher at 11:57 AM on October 17, 2008

I had the same thing in super hard - Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh.
posted by milkrate at 12:02 PM on October 17, 2008

"Toowoomba, Australia?" What the hell.
posted by sonic meat machine at 12:14 PM on October 17, 2008

The great wall of china is over 6000 kilometers long. Where the hell do you expect my flag to go?
posted by Lemurrhea at 12:15 PM on October 17, 2008

I got them all wrong on purpose.

*cackles*
posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America at 12:21 PM on October 17, 2008

You know, when I bought the Onion atlas Our Dumb World, I was mildly amused to see that all the miscellaneous archipelago nations had been classified as either "A Bunch of God-Damned Islands" or "More Fucking Islands".

I now wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment.

Fucking islands.
posted by Rhaomi at 12:33 PM on October 17, 2008

That's a lot of fun. Also, it turns out I have no idea where anything is in the fucking Caribbean. Thanks!
posted by languagehat at 12:44 PM on October 17, 2008

Wow, guys, thanks for making me feel like an idiot. 140 my first round, 177 my second.

It was a relief to mostly mess up on America my first round, anyway, although I definitely need to brush up on South America and Africa.
posted by bettafish at 12:47 PM on October 17, 2008

Yeah... I just finally cracked 300 (high score of 316!) and have no idea have some of y'all are scoring in the 800's, unless you're telling us your cumulative donation, which is of course cheating.

Cheaters.
posted by Navelgazer at 12:54 PM on October 17, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Also, if you have any idea where Albury-Wodonga is, you're either Australian or a better man than I.
posted by languagehat at 12:54 PM on October 17, 2008

I just got 621 in a single round (if I counted right, I got 9 easy choices, 12 medium, 15 hard, and 45 super hard), and I got zero points on more than I would have liked (turns out I also have no idea where anything in the South Pacific is), so I can believe someone could get 800, but it sure wouldn't be easy. (Having lived in Argentina is a big help once you get to the super-hard early-alphabet ones!)
posted by languagehat at 1:12 PM on October 17, 2008

I second the over abundance of algeria and argentina questions on the super-hard level. what are those countries full of labyrinths or something?
posted by eustatic at 1:19 PM on October 17, 2008

Why don't they just give water outright without people having to do Flash games?

(it does raise awareness, i know.)
posted by dunkadunc at 1:34 PM on October 17, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

For some reason I got countless places in Italy. Half of them were next to Rome or Venice and the rest was a Maradona question.

Recap: Show off your geography + do good (TM)? Instant winner.

U.S. state borders, please?
posted by ersatz at 2:15 PM on October 17, 2008

168 on my first try, including 10 cups (the max?) for Pittsburgh, PA and Kansas City, KS. I have no idea how I managed that level of accuracy, either. Blind luck, I guess.

I kneel at the dusty feet of those scoring over 600...
posted by yiftach at 3:41 PM on October 17, 2008

206 my first round. What is locked deep in my reptilian brain that was able to find Turkmenistan in 2.3 seconds?

Also, if you have any idea where Albury-Wodonga is, you're either Australian or a better man than I.

I'd like my sash with gold embroidery, thankyewverymuch. It sounds like a dreadful place, and simply clicked where I would least likely find an ass pimple Down Under.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 3:58 PM on October 17, 2008

hey here is an idea. if you can get some water to people who need it why would you give them less if i suck at your stupid game. give them the water goddamn it. wtf
posted by jcworth at 8:27 PM on October 17, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Okay... my high score is now 576, and I'm wondering if I've got some weird drunk-skill at this.

FWIW, my objectivist friend thinks that this sort of thing perfectly fits his ethical system in terms of charity, so maybe they're getting some help from them.

Plus, you build an addictive game for charity, and support some of it through ad dollars, that can't be all bad. Let's not look gift horses in the mouth.
posted by Navelgazer at 10:21 PM on October 17, 2008

"Thank you for your interest in raising funds for WaterAid through your website but unfortunately we are unable to work with you in this way. WaterAid is all about long term sustainability. The 'cups of water' message does not communicate this long term message therefore we are unable to be associated with this website. We would appreciate if you could remove the reference to WaterAid from your website at your earliest convenience. We do not have a contractual agreement in place with your organisation which gives permission to use the WaterAid name in this way."

weird. according to the FAQ... they aren't actually donating any money to any organization that provide any sort of service to alleviate poverty or dehydration... but that's just because WaterAid apparently refused the association and donations.

also. the "Cups of Water" is described as just a "motif" for keeping score. it doesn't necessarily have any direct correlation between the actual amount of water that will be donated when a suitable organization is found. it might be more beneficial if they donated the revenues to a few of the organizations that are providing water deprived areas with solar powered filtering plants, etc.

for those of you who are disappointed with the games "quality" ... might like geosense as posted previously on metafilter... it's basically the same game, just a bit better quality and set in a multiplayer environment ... oh yeah ... and it doesn't have the whole "save poverty" theme... so if that's what you're playing for ... you'll have to donate your own private funds to the pro-hydration charity of your choice.

so now that i've potentially crashed the friday fun party on three of my most favorite issues to promote (hydration, online geography games, and charity)... i'm going to go drink some water.

i guess it's technically saturday now...

GO HYDRATION!
posted by eli_d at 12:28 AM on October 18, 2008

Also, if you have any idea where Albury-Wodonga is

Trick question, it's two places.

(and actually, you can't miss it...)
posted by pompomtom at 1:15 AM on October 18, 2008

Also, if you have any idea where Albury-Wodonga is, you're either Australian or a better man than I.

Nine cups for my wild-ass guess that it just sounded Victorian. I don't claim any rational basis for that analysis. Turns out I was only half right anyway (it straddles the Victoria-New South Wales border.)

427 cups overall, and I'm sick. I also got an overabundance of Algeria and Argentina questions. It is really helpful to be able to locate the small countries and various islands without knowing where the city is itself. The bigger countries being featureless are a bit of a problem even if you have a general idea where the city is. Also, some of the island countries are utterly invisible.
posted by dhartung at 11:36 AM on October 18, 2008

251 was my best single-round run. Tuvalu was my downfall.
posted by wastelands at 5:57 PM on October 19, 2008