If you’re just doing this occasionally without recordkeeping, then it seems convenient to have the game result in “winners” rather than a more fine-grained score. But it could be fine to sometimes have multiple winners, or zero winners. Here’s a simple protocol that does that:
The person who asks the question also defines what counts as “winning”. e.g. “What’s the value of such-and-such? Can anybody get it within 10%?” Then everyone guesses simultaneously, and all the people whose guesses are within 10% of the true value are “winners”.
(“Simultaneous” guessing can mean that first everyone comes up with their guess in their head, and then they take turns saying them out loud while on the honor system to not change their guess.)
Slightly more complicated, the asker could propose 2 standards of winning. “When did X happen? Grand prize if you guess the exact year, honorable mention if you get it within 5 years.” Then if anyone guesses the exact year they’re the big winner(s) and the people who get it within 5 years get the lesser glow of “honorable mention”. And if no one guesses the exact year then the people who get it within 5 years feel more like winners.
If you continue farther in this direction you could get to one of Ericf’s proposals. I think my version has lower barriers to entry, while Ericf’s version could work better among people who use it regularly.
If you’re just doing this occasionally without recordkeeping, then it seems convenient to have the game result in “winners” rather than a more fine-grained score. But it could be fine to sometimes have multiple winners, or zero winners. Here’s a simple protocol that does that:
The person who asks the question also defines what counts as “winning”. e.g. “What’s the value of such-and-such? Can anybody get it within 10%?” Then everyone guesses simultaneously, and all the people whose guesses are within 10% of the true value are “winners”.
(“Simultaneous” guessing can mean that first everyone comes up with their guess in their head, and then they take turns saying them out loud while on the honor system to not change their guess.)
Slightly more complicated, the asker could propose 2 standards of winning. “When did X happen? Grand prize if you guess the exact year, honorable mention if you get it within 5 years.” Then if anyone guesses the exact year they’re the big winner(s) and the people who get it within 5 years get the lesser glow of “honorable mention”. And if no one guesses the exact year then the people who get it within 5 years feel more like winners.
If you continue farther in this direction you could get to one of Ericf’s proposals. I think my version has lower barriers to entry, while Ericf’s version could work better among people who use it regularly.