Game Show Parties

[chris319]

What's My Line? is a great party game. It requires absolutely zero advance preparation, but I've found it plays MUCH better when played for well-known persons than for occupations.

[Adam Nedeff]

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'190405\' date=\'Jul 9 2008, 03:07 PM\']
What's My Line? is a great party game. It requires absolutely zero preparation, but I've found it plays MUCH better when played for well-known persons than for occupations.
[/quote]
So, what you're saying then is that Masquerade Party is a great party game.

[alfonzos]

Stay away from Jeopardy.  Using an old box version of the game doesn't work ("He won the 1968 Nobel Peace Prize in Physics"), and big groups don't work, either.  Did it in training class for a group of about 60 -- it went down to arguments over who rang in first, the answer we had was wrong, etc.

This looks like a job for Quizzard!

Match Game has to have good questions, remembering only about one question a show was salacious.  For a big group (like the 60 listed above), I'd bastardize it into two groups, having everyone but one person writing down their answers and throwing them into a hat, the one other person says their answer aloud, and then picking 10 answers from the hat (this also keeps, for the most part, the breathtakingly stupid answers anonymous).  Endgame would be a SuperMatch for each team, but bet the points all or nothing (a la Celebrity Sweepstakes).

The sixties editions of Milton Bradley's The Match Game had an alternative way of playing that involved giving everyone poker chips. The object of the game was to match the plurality. The people who didn't give the answer that was most often given gave one poker chip to those who did. There are no teams, everyone plays for one's self.

[Sodboy13]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'190401\' date=\'Jul 9 2008, 01:46 PM\']
[quote name=\'Sodboy13\' post=\'190381\' date=\'Jul 9 2008, 09:03 AM\']
when the category is "Things associated with a hot dog" and the receiver somehow comes up with an emphatic "Guacamole!"[/quote]
http://images.meredith.com/bhg/images/2007...100996458_1.jpg

Approves
[/quote]

Are there sprouts and micro-greens on that dog, too?  Jeebus.  This is Chicago, man.  There are rules.

For context, the cluegiver said, "It's green and chunky, it goes on top of a hot dog..."

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Sodboy13\' post=\'190425\' date=\'Jul 9 2008, 02:05 PM\']
For context, the cluegiver said, "It's green and chunky, it goes on top of a hot dog..."[/quote]
Guacamole-topped hot dogs aren't all that uncommon.

Of course, I grew up in California, where if it's a Mexican condiment, you can bet that someone has tried to put it on something.

[chad1m]

Outsides of the FF and Pyramid controls available that I use for my parties, I recently made a MDP PowerPoint control with time clocks built-in that I find works pretty well for the few times I've used it. The only thing is that you have to type and erase the word each time. Here's a quick screenshot of one of the slides for the game.

[chris319]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'190428\' date=\'Jul 9 2008, 02:26 PM\']
[quote name=\'Sodboy13\' post=\'190425\' date=\'Jul 9 2008, 02:05 PM\']
For context, the cluegiver said, "It's green and chunky, it goes on top of a hot dog..."[/quote]
Guacamole-topped hot dogs aren't all that uncommon.

Of course, I grew up in California, where if it's a Mexican condiment, you can bet that someone has tried to put it on something.[/quote]
Could you slice up some weenies and put them in gazpacho? I bet you could.


[quote name=\'Adam Nedeff\' post=\'190406\' date=\'Jul 9 2008, 12:14 PM\']
[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'190405\' date=\'Jul 9 2008, 03:07 PM\']
What's My Line? is a great party game. It requires absolutely zero preparation, but I've found it plays MUCH better when played for well-known persons than for occupations.
[/quote]
So, what you're saying then is that Masquerade Party is a great party game.
[/quote]
What? You'd have to have costumes and all that. Just play the Mystery Guest part of WML?

Damn this automatic message merge thing.

[GameShowGuru]

Hi everyone, long time reader, first time poster.

Game show parties is one thing I am reasonably experienced at.

I was at a men's retreat and when we were in our cabin we played Match Game PM, which frankly they weren't really interested in playing, but they put an honest effort in playing.  From what I recall, the main game ended with a score of 3-2, we had the two Audience Matches, which garnered 100 and 500 points, respectively.  And instead of a Star Wheel, we had multiplier cards where the winner successfully picked the 30 and matched the celebrity, winning 18,600 points.

We then played $25,000 Pyramid, which gave off a halfhearted vibe, but the Winners Circle had everyone accusing me of memorizing the game cards beforehand because I was very good at giving and receiving clues.  Funniest moment: When my partner and I got to the top of the Pyramid and I correctly gave the last subject in the alloted time, my partner puts down the game board and calmly says, "That's it."  No Pyramid jump or cheering or anything.  It was one of the funniest moments of irony in my life.

When my (6-9 yrs. old) nieces and nephew spent the summer with their dad (my brother) whom I was living with at the time, they loved to play "The Match Game" (60s).  The simplicity of the questions made for an entertaining time.  I later incorporated a homemade Audience Match, which made it even more fun.

Computer games: I can say this much, Press Your Luck is a kid magnet.  Kids LOVED it when I brought my laptop to a church picnic or a church social function, they would always beg me to play PYL.  I remember when this one girl tried the Michael Larson method of hitting the big money squares, and she took so long in concentrating, she would frustrate the other kids telling her to stop the board.  If I had known she was going to do that, I would've programmed the board Michael Larson style.

The BigJon version of TPiR entertained the grown folx; they really enjoyed playing that game.

[GameShowGuru]

[quote name=\'calliaume\' post=\'190313\' date=\'Jul 8 2008, 11:34 PM\']
Stay away from Jeopardy.  Using an old box version of the game doesn't work ("He won the 1968 Nobel Peace Prize in Physics"), and big groups don't work, either.  Did it in training class for a group of about 60 -- it went down to arguments over who rang in first, the answer we had was wrong, etc.[/quote]

The 60s box version had more difficult questions, so to help mitigate matters, I would often drop hints to help move the game along.  Usually this resulted in respectable scores.  Then again, kids and teens were often playing.  One time I had the Jeopardy book of answers and questions, which for some of the games actually significantly reduced my need to drop hints.

Password is simple enough so that even if some people haven't seen the game, it should still go okay.  And even though almost no one outside this forum remembers it, the box game of You Don't Say! still works just fine.

My 8th grade reading class would often play Password on various Fridays and days immediately preceding a vacation break.  By the end of the year, the teacher really needed to get new passwords, we would often figure them out 1-2 clues in.

[mrcity]

Maybe these are not necessarily "parties," but I work for a division of I.T. with Northwestern University that employs about 50 other students, and every quarter we have some sort of social event that I always manage to slip a game show into.  I always get a lot of good feedback from the games, even though I've had my fair share of stuff like technical glitches, getting confused doing 12 different things (running the game board, doing math, dealing with the contestants, etc), and what have you.  And, I offer real prizes and gift certs that I can expense on my paycheck!

1) TPIR - Made a Powerpoint file with all the games, prices, and whatnot.  A projected PPT presentation is not the best idea, obviously, for execution, but my small workgroup still had fun pricing all the video editing equipment and software we use in the lab.  However, I didn't have SCSDs or SCs.

2) Card Sharks - I've played this with the entire department a couple times.  My boss keeps a ton of interesting technology like this instant survey system for Powerpoint, so I could write questions in the traditional CS style, get the entire audience's feedback instantly, and have the contestants guess it.  Great questions are key to making this fun; I threw in some interesting stuff related to work, as well as one that read "How many people will answer Yes to this question?"  That was good for a laugh!  The bonus round is tricky though, as far as what exactly to award for the prize.

3) Pitfall - yes, I love bringing back the really obscure ones.  I used the same survey equipment as I did for Card Sharks, and represented the eight spaces by drawing numbers on a chalkboard.  We had fun with this one, again mostly with the questions I wrote.  Too bad the bonus round player sucked at trivia.

4) Whew! - This one was tough because I wrote a game board in Visual Basic and intended for someone else to use it while I hosted.  Well, they didn't bother to learn my program before we started the game. :-P  And, we also ran out of questions during the 2nd running of the Gauntlet, so we had to reuse some.  I got the most compliments on this game, nevertheless; folks thought the concept was really interesting.

5) Match Game - This one was the toughest.  We were at a restaurant (not conducive to game playing), and they ran through an entire stack of index cards.  (Well, we played a lot of rounds.)  I thought the questions were good, but it was a bummer that the best score anyone ever got was 3 matches after both questions were asked!

6) I didn't host this one myself, but our Special Olympics had a Family Feud fundraiser for which I wrote a very comprehensive game board, again in VB.  I ran the game board during the show, and the Special O exec spent lots of time taking (and then memorizing the results to :-P) surveys around campus, which I then loaded into my program.  If any of you folks are interested in it (or the Whew!), I'd be glad to give you a copy, but they both require a projector (or at least a 2nd monitor).

I'm especially looking forward to pulling off Trebek-style Double Dare and perhaps TJW some point next year!

Cheers,
Stephen "Mr. City" Wylie
Mr. City's Game Show Page

P.S. - The Special O exec board *still* lost the game when it was their turn to play in the tournament, even though it was clear at least one of the team members read through the surveys!

P.P.S. - Contrary to what my stepmom initially thought, we didn't have any Special O athletes actually participating in the Family Feud. :-P

[comicus]

I've had some really embarrassing episodes involving attempts to get party guests (non-GS fans) to play PYL (Curt's edition and Expert edition).  Word games, I've found, work a lot better... lessens the whole "ugh it's a game show, these people are really dorks" factor a great deal.  Hard to go wrong with Password.  I've always wanted to try Go... seems like it'd be a blast, especially if everyone was a wee bit buzzed.

[davidhammett]

[quote name=\'CountdownRound\' post=\'190993\' date=\'Jul 16 2008, 01:31 AM\']
I've always wanted to try Go... seems like it'd be a blast, especially if everyone was a wee bit buzzed.
[/quote]
Don't Go.  You might luck up and get a group that does well with it, but more than likely it would become a train wreck within minutes.  If you're looking to have a lot of fun and laugh at people's inability to form a coherent question, try it... but if there is any sense of competition involved and you expect the questions to be, well, questions, it's not worth it.

Based on personal experience; your mileage may vary.