1 vs. 100 vs. Show Me The Money

Two big budget Million (or more) jackpot gameshows with celebrities from the past hosting. Deal or No Deal is a fling, a no frills, practically brainless glam-tacular. It lives because it has endless special segments you can add. But these new contenders feature a trivia core, which makes me use a more critical eye when watching them.

Let me start by saying that I am happy both shows exist, as more gameshows are better than no gameshows. However, there are some game components that may be fixed.

1 vs 100 is full of ways to become boring. Between rounds, not every question anymore (luckily), the contestant can keep the money or risk all of it with no knowledge of the next question other than what "helps" they have left. Now the helps are a great component, and nicely named and explained so as to seem as intuitive as possible. However, once someone goes past 300k and has run out of helps, they run out the door. Thus the mob never gets the cash payout they'd like, leaving a group of a dozen or so disgruntled mob players aching for cash after spending about a week taping the show. See Ken Jenning's blog about 1 vs 100 for a better view as a mob member, as well as a better worded argument against it.

On the other hand is Show Me The Money. I like this show. First you get Shatner. Then you add pointless dancing and over produced set and TV screen displays. Add a free range contestant area, lost of cash, and no way to back out like a coward, and you get a good show. The premise is that the game ends when the player earns six pluses by getting answers correct, or six minuses with six questions wrong. This creates a high-adrenaline event as you are forced to watch the player's fortune fluctuate rapidly over the course of the show. Each question is worth a different amount of cash pending which of the thirteen dancers they choose. To make it more interesting and risky, there is a death card. Upon revealing the death card the player is asked a new question and must get it correct or the go home with only meeting Shatner as a prize.

Needless to say, I prefer the latter show, but watch both when it's on and I'm around. Gameshows are Gameshows.

The Race...non-amazing

Hey people. I am at Ithaca College as a first-year TV-Radio major and also work on the TV Station, ICTV. One show I worked crew on is Senior Pete Burg's project "The Race".

This is, obviously, a show in the style of The Amazing Race, but only features teams running around New York. 6 teams set out on a four-day adventure that was fun but exhausting to run. ICTV has a live webcast on ictv.org and they put most episodes of shows on podcast as well. As soon as the editing is over and I know when it will air I will announce it here.

It's gonna be great!

Tabletop Bottleball!

Alright, time for another game of my own creation.

Tabletop Bottleball.

It's similar in tabletop football in its main premise and core values of being simple to set-up and play. All you really need is a table and a bottle with some liquid in it and its bottle cap. The table would preferably have a trim color around the edge of the table that's different and about 3-4 inches in width. This is the end zone for each player. If you don't have the trim, then use the length of your pinkie, make a mark, use tape, something.

The goal is to push the bottle with your fingers as close to overhanging the table as possible. Two players sit at opposite ends of the table. Spin the bottle. Whoever the bottle points to goes first. The bottle is set up in the player's end zone. Then they place their hand with fingers bent against the bottle, fingers pointing toward the bottle. That player will push the bottle as far as they can without going over the edge by flattening their fingers out, pushing into the bottle.

Scoring goes as follows:
1 point for the opponent if the bottle falls over on the table
3 points for the opponent if the bottle falls off the edge of the table (too far. Does not count if the bottle falls over first, then only 1 point is awarded)
5 points for reaching the trim of the table, but not fully past it
7 points for being entirely in the trim and overhanging the table

If no score is made, the other player gains control of the bottle and plays it from where it stands, not back at their edge of the table.

The first player to 50 wins.

About one-third of liquid seemed to work best for us, but it's more fun to vary it per round. Games take about 10 to 20 minutes, depends on how distracted you get and how often you forget the score.

Quarto!

Hey people, last week on survivor some people did things which I no longer feel compelled to report. Also last week, I learned how to play Quarto, and you should too. The picture on the right shows the board and pieces, taken from this lovely site. The object of the game is to form a row of four pieces on the 4x4 board in a row so that they each share at least one of for attributes: height (short or tall), color (light or dark), shape (square or round), and um...density (holed or not). In the picture is seems someone has won with height in the back row with four tall pieces. Now so far this just sounds like connect-four-tac-toe for adults, but there's a twist. On each turn your opponent chooses which piece you will play. This makes for a much wider strategic game. It's also quite fun, especially when you've doomed your opponent. So there's my plug for this game that came out probably twenty years ago, if not earler.

Lack of Inspiration

I just decided that summarizing entire Amazing Race episodes was a bit tedious and unnecessary, so future recaps will be more game-focused.

Like this one.

The no motorbikes rule in Vietnam was a good idea on the behalf of the producers. Both by a safety and drama-creating standpoint. It also goes to show a basic Amazing Race watching tip: if an obscure rule is referenced by Phil, it will come into play. Tom and Terry paid for the motorbike ride, and I actually thought that the penalty was going to be worse than a half-hour. Then again in the most recent races it seems that steps have been taken to ensure teams don't straggle too far behind one another so a penalty longer than an hour could doom a team no matter how good their standing.

I also think that the detour wasn't polar enough to make the decision difficult. In fact no one chose to assemble the birdcage, only one team did it because they couldn't find the other task. The brick making didn't seem to take enough physical labor to make the birdcage a viable option. In reality, it seemed a simple enough task that would take about the same time, if not less, than making thirty coal brick things.

You Say "Sleep Deprivation" Like it's a Bad Thing

Hello gamers, just wanted to update you on a game that I have adored, envied, and have been jealous of for about half a year now. This game is The Game. Though it seemed egotistically titled, form what I've seen it deserves the title.

What is The Game? A series of riddles, clues, stunts, locations, races, and events that send teams of about 4 in minivans around for anywhere between 12 hours to 4 days. Typically without sleep. The codes, puzzles, and clues in this game are hardly obvious, most rookies land in horribly bad standings, and are slanted towards those with a propensity for codes and mathematics. Different variations of The Game and other massive clue hunts exist in multiple cities, but for reference I'll be referring to the The Game of www.gamecontrol.com and it's kin.

Here's an example of just how far The Game goes.

The Kids". At 3am, you arrive at a clue location, only to find the locked box containing your clues smashed open, clues are gone. A gang of pain in the ass high school kids makes fun of you, and Game Control refuses to help over the phone.

When a kid offers to take you to the mini-mart where the thief went with your clues, it doesn't even occur to you that the whole thing is a set up and part of the game... not until much later, when the kid starts reciting obscure poetry and tests you on your philanthropic skills.

Other clues of note include a clue inside a living mouse, clues on top of skyscrapers, the use of the Fremont Experience in Las Vegas, and stranding team members from each other in Las Vegas with their only clue being written on the back of their neck.

For more details of previous Games, check out the site.

Unfortunately I have yet to participate in one of these types of games. I plan on attempting at least one at some point, probably when travel becomes more feasible in my life. In the meantime I'm trying to create a similar, but lower scale, experience with a scavenger hunt around the Ithaca College Campus. My version will take 7 hours tops, but I hope the experience will be enjoyable enough to warrant another.

Survivor's Steeple Chase

This week's Survivor featured what may be the most thorough merge of tribes in survivor history, as it sought to balance genders and races in the new tribes. New buffs all around and people begin to strategize. In Raro, an alliance of four emerged, featuring Yul who owns a hidden immunity idol. Also finding a bond on Raro were the roller girl and Cao Boi, both being laid back. Tribes get settled then head off to challenge-land

This was an awesome immunity challenge. Tribes were chained to a rope together and each given a 15 pound weight to carry over a shoulder, like those fancy backpacks you see at Dick's. Then the two tribes line up on opposite sides of an oval track which is covered in knee-deep water. The first tribe chase down the other and tackle one member wins immunity. Now there was one more detail, any tribe member could leave the challenge, but must transfer the weight to another member of their tribe first.

When Jeff gave the sign, this is what went down. Raro, after a lap or so (as far as the editing tells me) decided to drop all five females from the chain and put their weights on the men. 15 pounds is a little under two gallons of milk to be carrying. Now, I'm not buff, but I can carry two gallons of milk for quite a while, and the longer you make yourself last the better off your stronger members (i.e. men) will be when it comes down to the wire. However Raro went with the "ditch all your girls cause they serve no purpose" strategy. Aitu held out longer, and one female held on quite a bit, helping hold the weight. It paid off and Aitu gained on Raro considerably. At this point one member of Raro had 45 pounds on him, knee deep in water, and expected to move at a pace faster than stranded-in-desert-wandering pace. That's a recipe for disaster. Or Tribal council as it turned out.

And in the end the group of four, one down during tribal council because a member was at exile island (effect of the challenge), managed to convince two other castaways to their side and Cece was voted out of the tribe.


And now for speculation. I realized in this episode that twenty people is a lot. Seriously. Survivor typically sticks with sixteen every year. This creates two options: four more episodes, or double elimination episodes. It would seem fairest to put a double-elimination round after the merge, to prevent a larger imbalance in tribes than necessary. Still, with each season of survivor trying to up the unpredictability, and with The Amazing Race pulling off a double elimination, it seems Survivor is the only show to nix it so far.

We shall see Mr. Burnett, we shall see.

Old School Amazing Race

Awww yeah, this is the Amazing Race I fell in love with. TAR returned to its roots this week with teams visiting very foreign cultures and dealing with obscure forms of livestock and crappy vehicles.

Teams fled out of China to the middle of Mongolia. On the way a bus and train seating situation bumped all the teams together to start Mongolia even. That's the thing about the Amazing race, unless you have an eight-hour plus lead, you can always get caught up to by other teams. In Mongolia the teams experienced local culture and got lost, as per usual.

The smushing of all the teams waiting for the buses gave us a look at the teams actually being quite friendly, something that usually isn't apparent of existent in previous seasons. Someone typically becomes a target and factions form. That's not to say that won't happen, but at least at that point teams were genial.

Moving on to the nitty-gritty, let's look at the detour. Teams could either pack up the fabrics and such that comprised the walls and ceiling of a nomad shelter and pack them in a specific manner onto a camel, or, take an oxen-like animal and cart out to a river and retrieve water to fill a tank. If in that situation I think I would've gone with the filling of water, though it's a close call this time. Far too often the producers make one task so simply physical that teams gravitate to it. This time the teams split a little, with some teams switching tasks more than once. My reasoning with the filling challenge is that you know exactly what needs to be done, herd this ox-thing to the river, get water, return, fill, and repeat. With taking down the nomad shelter, you can easily get stuck on not understanding the methods used and the only examples were pre-packed. No demonstrations.

Another game-note was the specifications of transportation. Almost every time teams receive route info they are given specific instructions on what types of transportation to take (on foot, by taxi, by bike, etc). This week the teams had to leave the detour area on the horses they rode there on, and with all the safety equipment provided. This meant funny looking helmets that more than one team had misplaced during the detour. Those are the most frustrating set-backs, when you assume you don't need to remember or keep certain things only to need them later.

The roadblock this week was shooting a fire arrow to a target. I just watched Survivor:Africa this weekend, and their fire arrow challenges were fresh in my head. Interesting to note: two roadblocks have been immediately before the pit stop, within a couple dozen feet of the finish mat. The first roadblock was actually in the middle of the leg, the fish eyes, but afterwards was the surprise elimination. This puts more pressure on roadblocks that typical for AR. Just something of note.

And finally, this episode we got a reminder on car policy on the AR: it breaks, you're screwed. Well ok, technically it's that the producers produce another car, but no time credit is given. My summary stands as accurate.

A plot, a discovery, and an execution.

After finally viewing the second episode of survivor, here are my thoughts.

The show opens with a small section showing the mood in each tribe. Hiki, the black tribe, tries to bounce back from Tribal Council last week by getting the fire going. This brings them together and eliminates the male/female divide that was apparent last week. The Puka tribe once again grows sick of Cao Boi's ethnic jokes, while tolerant of his headache remedy. Ironically, While the Asian tribe seems to not care about being the same ethnicity (except for the Korean alliance in the making), the Hispanic tribe finds Billy's lack of bonding irritating. To be far, Billy is also shirking duties, or at least not taking on any responsibility. Because of this Ozzy asks his tribe mates to throw the next challenge to give Billy the boot.

Now, throwing a challenge is a big risk. First, the tribes are only comprised of five people right now, so with each person lost a greater amount of work falls on each remaining person. (One could argue that with Billy, he's already not doing his share of the work.) Second, with five people, you have a one-in-five shot at getting booted, so Ozzy needs complete confidence that the rest of his tribe mates will follow through. This is why he comes down hard on Cristina who finds the idea of throwing a challenge shady.

Onto this week's challenge.

That's right, singular. Once again the producers clumped reward and immunity, giving me less to analyze. This week we are treated to another sectioned race. The start of the race is a story about which tribes must memorize details. Then, tied together, they must go under and over a set of logs, navigate a bamboo jungle-gym kinda of set-up that has 7 answer planks tied up. They are to retrieve the answers and cross a rope bridge over water. Then tribes arrive at a question board to match 5 of the answers with 5 questions. First tribe to answer the five questions gets immunity and tarps, the second and third immunity, and the last get a date with Jeff Probst.

As an added element, teams could elect to read over the story before starting on the logs during the challenge. When Jeff starts the event, that's exactly what Aitu does, aiming to boot Billy. When it comes down to the end, Jeff proclaims Puka the winner, even though it seems that Raro had finished just as fast. In fact after the dust settles and tapes are reviewed, Jeff claims it was a tie. That's what you get when you only have one ref.

While we're talking about Jeff, he makes a really good announcer. He either is informed on the team's progress via earpiece/production team, is very good at keeping track of who's got how many planks, or they put his progress checks in afterward. But still, most of the time hosts in such shows are typically distant, a rare entity only around to provide judgement upon elimination ceremonies and invoke boardroom-like interrogations. Jeff however has become quite settled in his role and a part of the survivor experience, giving color commentary, encouragement, discipline, reffing, and temptation. He's an all around hosting/emcee machine. And to think he was going to quit.

Moving on, the challenge was good. Survivor, having used many options, has decided multi-part challenges are the easiest way to not be repetitive. I had recently viewed Survivor:Africa, and those challenges were as simple as "roll this boulder to the finish along this course" or "shot the arrows at the targets". Now we get puzzle boats and shackles in the first two weeks alone. This challenge was not very mental though, as the story to be memorized was more of a short 7-sentence affair. But hey, this isn't supposed to be Jeopardy or Dog Eat Dog (the biggest, weirdest combinations of wits, smarts, and guts ever. And not just because the commercials said so.) This is survivor.

So yeah, Billy tries to work Cristina to get Ozzy out instead of him, but the fact that Billy was slacking off seemed to be the determining factor as the vote was unanimous, sans Billy.

So I'll be back whenever I get a look at the newest AR episode.

PS I just realized that CBS provides the episode online now, but inner tube is currently hating my FireFox on OS X

PPS Where the hell did the Billy and Candice thing come from? I mean I get it now that they showed Candice saying she feels bad, but man. Weird.

PPPS Yul found the hidden immunity idol, and the clues were actually pretty cool, with the island forming the letter and all. Just as good, if not better, than a Y shaped tree.

Basically, I Need Tivo

Ok, so due to events and groups I am involved in scheduling meeting times during the two shows I am regularly following, all updates regarding Survivor: Cook Islands and The Amazing Race will be seriously delayed. So hopefully you didn't use this site to keep up with who's on or who's off because I don't know. And that's not the point of this blog anyhow, this is game analysis. In theory. So there.

Cold Phil, that was cold.

AWWWWWWWWWWWW Yeah it's Amazing Race night! Just to get this out of the way, I am a huge AR fan, it's right after The Mole on my list. It's very classy, inspirational, and has Phil. Anyways, lets move on to the analysis.

This race looked hot from the start. The teams were awesome, including a Muslim team of friends, a pair of recovered drug addicts, Miss USA-ers, a triathlete short one leg, and a LESBIAN! They -never- put lesbians on reality shows! Ok, one season of BB I think there was a lesbian. Anyways, she's young and racing with her dad, but let me get organized.

THE TEAMS

Bilal & Sa'eed
Friends from Cleveland who are both Muslim and have opposing personalities. Bilal is the extrovert, Sa'eed is the introvert. Besides the handicap of having to turn to Mecca five times to pray a day, this team seems at about average standing.

David & Mary
Married parents from Kentucky that met first working at McDonald's. David is a coal miner and Mary is a housewife who hasn't been outside the Kentucky/Tennessee area much which may cause them to slow down when either being confused by international travel, or busy marvelling wonders. They get positive points for David working in coal mines, a physical plus. Once again an average rating.

Duke & Lauren
A father and daughter team (the first of it's kind, preceeded only by a mother/son team a few seasons back) with a twist, Lauren's gay and Duke is having a hard time with it. In fact Duke had ignored Lauren for the good part of a year before they began making amends. Be on the look for breakdowns, but both team mates are physically adept. I give them a slight above average standing, merely due to Lauren's youth and the fact that I like this team already.

Dustin & Kandice
Miss USA Pagaent contestants, they became friends after rooming during the competition. Kandice is supposed to be the impulsive one, and Dustin the conservative one, but they both are highly competitive. With only that to go on, I give them a slightly lower than average rating, even though team Miss USA on treasure hunt outdid many all-guy teams.

Erwin & Godwin
Harvard and NYU grads, these brothers think they got this race down. Not only do they have an impressive educational resume, they are built very well. I give them a high standing for determination (Harvard) bond (brothers) and physical strength (just look at'em).

Kellie & Jamie
Co-Captains of their southern College's cheering squad, these two are apparently full of determination and competitiveness, also known as spunk. I give them just above average standing, they're fit and cheerleaders, to generalize, know how to socialize properly.

Lyn & Karlyn
Friends since 9th grade, these two single moms have no major unique qualities. Sorry. They get a little below average standing for not having much travel experience nor physical strength.

Peter & Sarah
This team is AR gold. Sarah is handicapped, but only technically since her missing leg has not stopped her and her beau Pete from attending Iron Man Triathlons. They're in the beginnings of their relationship, but their huge physical advantage gives them an above average standing.

Rob & Kimberley
The dating couple. Stock L.A. reality show filler. Average standing.

Tom & Terry
Boyfriends that have been dating for two years. That's pretty much all you can gather from the previews and website. Average standing for being slightly older, but will get along with other teams somewhat well.

Tyler & James
Unlike the nipple-pierced frat-boys of last season, this year's young attractive best male friends actually seem deserving of a win. After coping with drug addictions, the two became friends again after rehab and now model together. They're fit, fun, and have the guts to fight drugs. Above average standing.

Vipul & Arti
Married Indian-American couple who are well travelled. Another situation of a slightly over-active male and a loyal female, and I give them a slightly above average standing.

Wow, that took a while.

Onto the first episode!

During Phil's opening speech to the teams, he warns of twists and turns and surprises, which I got giddy like a schoolgirl over. Anyways, his hand drops and the teams manage once again not to kill Phil. This first leg sent the teams into the heart of China.

After two flights arrive in the people's republic, a roadblock of eating fish eyes is awaiting the teams. I think they were required to use the chopsticks, because most of them goofed around using them. I would've gone in with my fingers and ripped them out like a low-budget Quentin Tarantino movie.

Anyways, some mild indigestion later and teams are ordered to pick a departure time for next morning from a podium. There were four 7 am, four 7:15 am, three 7:30 am, and one labeled "LAST TEAM". That's pretty ominous. Bilal and Sa'eed were unlucky number twelve to arrive, and grabbed the tile. It said to find Phil and headed to the mat map we all love. (CBS should sell it online, think of the awesomeness of coming home to the finish mat everyday!)

Phil then warned of the surprises, and informed the Muslim team that although this is not a pit stop, they are eliminated from the race.

Ouch. Really Jerry Bruckheimer, there could've been nicer ways to shake up the race. (Like bringing back more fast forwards. Grumble mutter...) C'est la vie. The teams get misty eyed, half due to some nice guys getting the axe, half out of pure fear of elimination at all times now.

The race goes on and a detour with a sneak brick pattern or tricky ball/pattern dance is provided. (I want to learn that ball paddle dance art so bad now.) Teams then took a quick climb of the Great Wall of China and Vipul and Arti showed up 11th.

Phil once again cut the team from the race, leaving only 10 left to start the next leg. I suppose the quick thinning of the crowd may have been utilized to help increase familiarity with the contestants. Most reality shows average 12 starting contestants, and AR starts with 12 teams of two, 24 faces that may or may not entertain the audience. So by quickly weeding out teams they increase fan devotion and interest in certain teams.
My faves are probably already apparent, Duke/Lauren, Erwin/Godwin, and Tyler/James. Plus, with three favorites out of ten, I've got a good chance and having a winner I like! And a 27% chance of at least one team I like landing in the final three. (that math was slightly BSed)

Ok, that was one loooong post. See ya later!

Cook Islands

Ok, not gonna lie, I was not in my dorm or otherwise in front of a TV at 8pm on Thursday night. Well, monitors in a studio, but not a survivor-viewing set. So once my audition for hosting on a local college "The Amazing Race" emulation "The Race" I ran for my dorm. Ok jogged. But I made it in time to only miss the stuff before the first commercial break. So I didn't get to hear Jeff go over everything, but I saw what I needed to see. On to the analysis!

Firstly, I already voiced my concern of the crappy logistics of four small tribes of five. It can only last three weeks tops, and I'm betting they'll mix it up after the next episode, if not during. So there was only one challenge this week (unless I missed one) that provided fire to three winning tribes, the fastest earning a fire kit, and the losing tribe heading to tribal council. (Where they'll also get fire, but lose a tribe mate. Awww.)

So, the challenge for immunity I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of it. I only hope they maintain that level for the entire season. The low down was a physical race to a construction of a boat puzzle with pegs and such. Then physical boat racing to a flame, and returning the boat to the beach. Then taking the slats holding the boat together they head to a puzzle of assembling squares scribed with the four cardinal directions. Once complete the team was finally allowed to use the slats to make a ladder to light up their flame, gaining immunity.

With four teams, the first three teams would earn flint and the first of them would earn a full fire kit and caboodle. The losing team would get Jeff for night. The Hiki tribe lost so as an added element they got to pick a castaway to uh....castaway on castaw-- er exile island. Same ole deal with the hidden immunity idol blah blah. Needless to say the first clue was wanting in details.

The Hiki tribe (black tribe for those remembering the race divide) had been branching into sects already, with two girls buddying up and the two guys wanting to team up against the women. Unfortunately there was a gender imbalance in the tribe, three girls to two guys. The interesting bit was that two of the women are becoming fast friends, leaving the third in a position to either ally with the women or the men. She held the gender line and Sekou was the first castaway voted off survivor. The tribe spoke, and I still don't know anyone's name on the island.

So yeah, seeya after the Amazing Race premiere!

I can't spell long words well.

So to take up more of my free time and keep my game-making brain occupied I've decided to try to run some medium to high difficulty scavenger hunts on campus here at Ithaca. I'm going to at least pull one off, and would need about 4-7 staff at the least to help as well as 8 hunters. These would be clue-driven and require a laptop for looking up information. So if anyone from Ithaca College has started reading this stuff, join the face book group "Scavenger Hunters Extrodeniare." Yes I spelled it that way. Yes it's wrong. No I don't feel like changing it.

In other news, Survivor starts this Thursday and The Amazing Race starts the Sunday afterward. I think I may post week-by-weeks, but from a game play standpoint, with my personal asides thrown in. Hopefully the game-focus will separate my posts from the vast array of more comprehensive gossip and recap websites out there. So I'll see you sometime after the Survivor premiere.

Survivor Cook Islands blah blah blah

Ok, now that it's everywhere, or at least relatively commonplace, time to comment on the "twist" on this season's Survivor.

Apparently the tribes are four tribes of five, racially divided into asians, latinos, blacks, and whites. This is a move for attention apparently from CBS because the not only get to use the word "race" a lot, but get to be high and mighty saying it's a social experiment and racism is not a motive.

I don't think there's anything racist about the split, I don't think it'll be really that much more interesting to watch, unless racist people are put on the show as contestants. It'll be like high school, clique-y. Which is what happens with tribes on Survivor anyways. Woo.

The actual problem I have with this set-up is it's obviously half-assed and won't really matter. Look at the numbers and think about last year's four tribes of four. The four tribes last year ended after one episode, three game days. Then they became two tribes as per usual. This year with the tribes of 20, the most they can technically hold out is three episodes before combining into two or three larger tribes. Once three eliminations occur one tribe could end up with two people, a voting block situation.

So yeah, nice try Survivor, but the four tribes thing can't really be done well without a whole bunch of people. At that point you need to balance number of people with how much you think the audience will remember each one. That's also "The Biggest Loser's" deal with its newest season coming up, with 50 initial contestants, one from each state. You can pretty much bet that after three episodes you'll be down to about a dozen or less so you can go to a personal level with each contestant, each episode.

That's it, seeya.

ZOMBIES ATTACK ITHACA

Ok, so there was this game called Zombies Attack Ithaca, and if I had the link to provide you with I would in two seconds. Unfortunately the site seems dead (or undead, hur hur). Anyways, I was hoping to eventually enact at least one round of this game at Ithaca College at some point this year/play it myself.

The concept of Zombies Attack Ithaca (held at Cornell) was ingenious. Players take on the role of either humans or zombies, both seeking to outlast the other. Humans must avoid being tagged (physical contact) by all zombies, while zombies must "feed" on humans every forty-eight hours to live. If a zombie runs out of time before feeding, they go inactive and are out of the game. If a human is tagged by a zombie they are then turned into a zombie.

To identify zombies and humans a system of bandanas is enforced and a website is used to keep track of zombies' timers as well as humans remaining. There are more details but they are kind of useless until/unless this thing gets running.

Anyone interested at Ithaca in helping or playing feel free to drop a comment.

DIY Reality Gameshows

I know I'm not the only person to have tried this because I've seen other people set up websites and programs for this kind of stuff...

Anyways, I decided late last summer that I love The Mole so much and was so pissed off the ABC killed it (even with celebrity mole giving them great summer ratings) that I would do something. I called my friend Scott and told him that I was going to do The Mole. With a bunch of friends. On our own time. So my first question to him, as he was my Mole-loving compatriot, was whether he was going to play or help. He decided to help and we were off. The next month was filled with auditions, game development, watching big brother, and finally the game itself with a real cash prize of about 42 bucks. It went well, at least that's what all my friends told me, and we filmed little and the days were spread out because of work and other obligations. Nevertheless it was a unique experience.

So as the school year was winding down 06 I got to thinking that we -have- to do this again. This time we had much more time to try to get as many people involved and interested so I wouldn't just be asking favors of my closest friends, but instead hosting a game for many interested participants.

This year had its share of problems before production, everyone interested either dropped out due to lack of interest or because this year it would be a five-day affair, no breaks or going home.
This put some of the parents on edge and I was surprised I got any female participants at all as the age range was 15 through 17. However all involved had a good time, some more often then others, and we got a large amount of filming done. I have yet to start working on episodes themselves yet because I'm going to have to voice-over a LOT. Sound issues and such. But there is a trailer for your viewing pleasure that's being hosted at Vimeo.com.




The Mole Teaser on Vimeo

If that doesn't work, it's here...http://www.vimeo.com/clip:94104

Vimeo is a great community that I highly recommend to you guys. It's main draw is that all videos posted must be user-created, so you get more creativity and less star wars kid edits and TV commercials. I'm not going to lie, I first thought that Vimeo was pronounced "Vih-MAY-oh" and not the obvious "Vim-ee-o."

So yea, as I make episodes they'll be uploaded to vimeo, posted here, and then after a while maybe I'll try youtube/googlevid if I'm desperate for exposure.

About the game of The Mole itself, I find it's slightly unfair at the start. The basis is that the players all try to complete tasks to win money that the winner at the end gets to keep. The Mole is a player who secretly must screw up as many tasks as possible to keep the group's won money to a minimum. The other honest players must try to figure out who the mole is and take quizzes on the mole's activity and personal information. Whoever does the best on these quizzes ends up winning.

In the first few rounds this set up is slightly unfair because often there is little or no possibility for sabotage nor does the mole often act in the first round. So these players must take their first quiz on gut feelings and how people are acting. I still love the game, it's just that the first few rounds would be pretty crappy to have to scrape through.

That's it for today folks.

Just to clarify..

This is how I break down things...

Reality TV shows

• rarely have any clear "goal"
  
• usually lacking in any type of competition, at least none of the producer's creation
• focus on a person or persons in some type of niche (former celebrity, unknown sport, occupation, etc.)
• tend to bore me to death

Examples include: Real World, Monster Garage, The Osbornes, The Anna Nicole Smith Show

Gameshows

• a television program in which a game is featured (duh)
• for money or prizes
• set of rules, whether strictly or loosely enforced
• are like candy to me

Examples include: Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, Price is Right, Family Feud

Reality Gameshows

• a game is featured, but takes place largely outside of a studio
• rules are enforced at the producer's discretion
• tend to be more difficult, lasting days or weeks
• often follow the contestants outside of mere game situations
• focuses on the people and how they relate to each other in the game
• are also like sweet sweet candy to me
  

Examples include: Survivor, Big Brother, The Amazing Race, The Family

Talent competition shows and Dating competition shows are weird sub-genres. Weird as in you can't call them a gameshow necessarily because it's not as much as a game as a quest to find the best. In shows like The Bachelor, the hopeful women are free to leave at any time if they don't particularly like the hunky well-groomed man, and the end result is marriage, something that's not quite as simple as money or a furniture set.
In Talent competitions the rules are usually "whoever the judges/audience likes best gets some money!!!" Even specific talent shows like Idol and So You Think You Can Dance with the different themes/genres the contestants have to perform, still have free reign and inevitably are popularity contests. This is not a bad thing, but it makes them somewhat less game-like.

In addition to gameshows and reality gameshows, I also like plain games. This includes, but is not limited to: card games, word games, board games, physical games, co-operative games, social games, video games, and mind games.

So that's pretty much what you (hopefully) can expect from this blog, in addition to random posts raving about bands/movies/whatever and anything and everything in my personal life I see fit to post.

Ta-ta!

This will probably suck.

Hi internet.

I am here to attempt to create content that may be interesting to at least ten people.

I figure if it's interesting to ten people, I'm not wasting the internet's infinite resources.

As the titles states, I'm a gay gamer who enjoys gameshows, so the posts will either be about games I make/play, gameshows I make/think-up/watch, or anything else that probably have equal or lesser reading value.

Here goes nothing.