I participate in a board game prototype group a couple of nights a week, and last night, instead of working on a possible expansion to one of the games that got picked up by a publisher, we sat back and watched game shows. Our most experienced designer had actually watched very little of this genre in his life, so some of the things we take for granted got his interested piqued. Some of the things we see on past shows have already manifested themselves in his other work (the Three on a Match cancellation auction is used as a start player determiner in one of his unpublished games, for example).
So after the three hour orgy thanks to youtube, pageoclips, etc, we spent time shooting thoughts back and forth on how to adapt some of the systems we see in game shows, into board games. (For example, he started playing around with taking the Deal or no Deal briefcase system and find a way to use it to represent the marshalling of forces in a military combat game.)
So what I'm wondering about (especially for those on this board who share the Eurogaming subculture) is just what mechanisms in game shows might make the most interesting transitions onto our table. This is not the same question as, "What game show has the best home version" -- I'm not looking for game show board games at all. I'm just looking for how to integrate game show mechanics into board game systems.
