A game like Pointless you can play every day

The quiz where the obvious answer loses

In most quizzes, the answer everyone knows is the one that scores. The BBC quiz show Pointless turns that around: a hundred people answer each question beforehand, and contestants try to give a correct answer that as few of them as possible gave. A right answer nobody gave is pointless, the best result there is.

Family Fortunes, Family Feud in the US, is the mirror image: there you want the answers most people gave. Both shows are about the same thing, how common an answer is. Icillion is about the far end of it.

Pointless, Family Fortunes and Icillion side by side

• Pointless: name a right answer few of a hundred people gave. The lowest score wins. On television.
• Family Fortunes: guess the answers most of a hundred people gave. The highest score wins. On television.
• Icillion: name a right answer as deep on the iceberg as you can. The rarer it is, the more it scores. In your browser, free, seven new prompts every day.

How Icillion plays if you know Pointless

1. Each day there are seven open prompts, like “Name a country in Europe”, with 20 seconds each.
2. Every right answer sits on one of five levels, from The Tip (10 points) down to Below the Iceberg (100 points).
3. A wrong guess costs 2 seconds, not the prompt, so you can try again.
4. Your points add up to a dive: a perfect round reaches the bottom of the Mariana Trench. On the daily iceberg you also see how deep you went compared with everyone else who played.

One prompt, from obvious to pointless

“Name a country in Europe” accepts 55 answers. Everyone thinks of these first, and they score least:

• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Spain
• United Kingdom

A little further down are Portugal, Greece and Netherlands. Below those, 34 more answers are hidden until you play, and one at the very bottom is as close to pointless as it gets. See how deep “Name a country in Europe” goes.

Play it with friends

The head-to-head feeling of the show is in Seal Circle: two to twelve players take turns around a hungry leopard seal, every answer can only be said once, and rare answers fill your bar faster. For a quiz in one room, this trivia night format scores the answers no other team wrote.

Questions

Is there a game like Pointless I can play online?

Icillion is built on the same idea: a right answer scores more the fewer people would give it. It is free, plays in the browser and has a new set of seven prompts every day. It is not connected to Pointless or the BBC.

What is a pointless answer in Icillion?

Every prompt hides one legendary answer at the very bottom, Below the Iceberg. It is worth 100 points, the most a single answer can score.

Does a low score win, like on the show?

No. In Icillion the rarer your answer, the more points it scores and the deeper you dive, so a high score is good.

Can I play it with friends?

Yes. In Seal Circle two to twelve players share a room code and take turns, and every answer can only be said once.

Fans of other quiz shows: games like Family Fortunes, Tenable, Jeopardy! and more. Pointless is a trademark of its owners; Icillion is not connected to it.