Traveler IQ Challenge

Traveler IQ Challenge (TIQC) is a game that tests how well you know your world, and how fast you can click your mouse. It was made by the creators of TravelPod, a hybrid travel blog and social network site by Luc Levesque.

TIQC prompts you with cities, monuments or famous locales, and you have to click on their location. Speed and accuracy count, though accuracy seems to matter more. After each click, the game shows you a scoreboard of how fast you clicked, and how close you were in kilometers.

The game is embeddable, which is why I first heard of it through Facebook (when it was going around faster than mono at a freshman dorm). I'm still hooked. The fun aspect of TIQC's Facebook feature is you can compare how well you or your workplace /school stack up against others.

The easier levels of this game repeat the same cities a lot. There are no real cheats other than knowing your cities and using a proper mouse. If you find yourself lagging due to ignorance of a specific region, you can work on the subgames that test exclusive regions: North America, Europe, World Capitals, Canada, Asia, UNESCO Sites, Africa, Latin America, Oceania/Australasia, Flags of the World, Photos of the World, USA Challenge, and Amazing Race.

The world map is delicately shaded and really tiny, so when you're playing the world challenge version, good luck finding the Galapagos or Fiji. Actually, make that true for the real world as well. And someone please send this to Ms. South Carolina ASAP, I don't think she knows what a map is. In sum, 1/5 of Americans can't locate the US on a World Map because they don't have this game. So get on it!