A coulple of things regarding Wheel of fortune

[TLEberle]

If you want to discourage something/discourage people from buying a thing, you increase the price.

"Starting this year, buying a vowel will cost half of your bank."

Losing $250 at the beginning of a round isn't so terrible, but having to pay several thousand dollars for a crucial hint is an interesting investment question.

[Jeremy Nelson]

While I'm not nearly as passionate about it, I think the gist of his complaint is that even the slowest of slow players would have a hard time not finding an amount + letter early in the round that allows them to buy every relevant vowel in the puzzle. It's not in the spirit of the rule when the show debuted, where the top dollar was the value of two vowels.

Valid point, but it really is superb strategy, and Pat Sajak himself has pointed that out on the air countless times.

It's superb strategy, but it's not really superb as much as it should be "textbook". As said before, vowels under the original dollar amounts were meant as CLUES, not as a shopping binge. Players should have to think about whether they're going to spend their money on vowels or not.

$1,000 vowels would do the trick- it really never made sense to me that the minimum dollar value on the wheel was more than the price of a vowel.

[MikeK]

If you want to discourage something/discourage people from buying a thing, you increase the price.

"Starting this year, buying a vowel will cost half of your bank."

Losing $250 at the beginning of a round isn't so terrible, but having to pay several thousand dollars for a crucial hint is an interesting investment question.

True, but what if you buy consecutive vowels?  If you have $10,000 in front of you, to pay $5000 for the first vowel and then $2500 (half of the remaining $5000) seems odd.  How about $500 for the first vowel and $500 more for each subsequent vowel, with the final vowel costing $2500?

[TLEberle]

True, but what if you buy consecutive vowels?

Half your bank at the time, so it would be $5,000, then $2,500, then $1,250, then $625, then $313. If you want to buy out the alphabet in one go, it'll cost 97% of your bank. Though I'm intrigued by your escalating cost way, as well.

[BrandonFG]

If you want to discourage something/discourage people from buying a thing, you increase the price.

"Starting this year, buying a vowel will cost half of your bank."

Losing $250 at the beginning of a round isn't so terrible, but having to pay several thousand dollars for a crucial hint is an interesting investment question.

True, but what if you buy consecutive vowels?  If you have $10,000 in front of you, to pay $5000 for the first vowel and then $2500 (half of the remaining $5000) seems odd.  How about $500 for the first vowel and $500 more for each subsequent vowel, with the final vowel costing $2500?

I thought of an escalating vowel cost as well. Reading your setup, I like it more, as it presents a new strategy for contestants. Do I play on and spend more money, or do I try to build my bank?

[Twentington]

The lletters are being revealed.While that is happening the player/ spins again.After the spin the letters from the previous spin are still being revealed.

There was a celebrity episode in 1997 where Bonnie Hunt spun again before Vanna could touch any of the letters were called. She stopped the Wheel, and she and Pat joked about how "nobody's ever stopped the Wheel before". Finally, Pat just told her "spin the damn Wheel."

I don't know which is the bigger issue vowel-wise: a.) that they've been stuck at $250 forever, b.) that people still seem reluctant to buy them at times, or c.) that seemingly 90% of the puzzles these days have all 5 vowels in them.

(Unless you're playing the Facebook version, where you'll be rather quick to find that it's possible to have a 40 letter puzzle without E, T or A. Still better than trying to figure out CELLO in only 5 turns, though.)

[PYLdude]

True, but what if you buy consecutive vowels?

Half your bank at the time, so it would be $5,000, then $2,500, then $1,250, then $625, then $313. If you want to buy out the alphabet in one go, it'll cost 97% of your bank. Though I'm intrigued by your escalating cost way, as well.

Then why bother having vowels if you're going to make such a draconian change?

[TLEberle]

Then why bother having vowels if you're going to make such a draconian change?

'Cause a man's gotta poop somehow.

[PYLdude]

This all boils down to a case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." I don't think it's fair to penalize someone half their bank for guessing a vowel because it makes for absolutely terrible television. Say you spin $2500 in round 1 with that rule in place. Who's to say a contestant won't purposely call a wrong letter? That's basically what you're encouraging. You're telling a player that yeah, you can spin the wheel and win big money but any time you want a vowel, you put half of that at stake and you're telling me someone is going to like that?

If you HAVE to make a change, either make EACH vowel that appears worth $250 (i.e., 5 e's cost $1250) or raise the price of the vowel. Don't make a change that'll send the show to cancellation faster than you can say Rolf Benirschke.

[TLEberle]

This all boils down to a case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." I don't think it's fair to penalize someone half their bank for guessing a vowel because it makes for absolutely terrible television.

It isn't a penalty, it is a price to be paid. There is a difference. (and I am disappoint that you ignored my vowel pun.)

Your points are well made, and the idea was to turn something that is a no-brainer to do (because who wouldn't invest $1,000 to win $10,000?) into something that will give players pause. Make it a thousand each, increase it by $500 with each buy, but do something so that the moment a consonant pops up on the board the player can buy a vowel. It is supposed to be a hint to the solution, and not free-like-beer information. (Maybe you have a different Wheel of Jeopardy that determines the price to be paid for a vowel.)

How would you handle it if someone doesn't have enough cash to cover the cost of several vowels? "There are eight Es, but since you can only afford six of them, we'll leave two of them unrevealed." "...and you owe us $350, so that'll be a minus on your account?"

[clemon79]

The problem is that they made the bed, and now they have to lie in it. There's no good way to break the news of "yeah, due to these trying economic times, we've had to totally revamp the vowel buying system so they're a lot more expensive" without coming off looking like complete arseholes.

That said, of the ideas mentioned, I think I like the idea of escalating prices the most, 'cuz it lets you *kind of* mask the bad news. Start 'em at $250, double the cost of each subsequent one, up to $4k for the fifth one. You'd put a "NEXT VOWEL" reminder on-screen, much like they use in the Jackpot round now.

But no matter what you do, it's going to be a hard enough sell that in terms of viewer goodwill it's just going to be less of a hit to let it go and the 12 people in the viewing audience who are bothered by it will just have to live with it or take their eyeballs elsewhere. And with all due respect, the sort of person who would be indignant enough to stop watching over something like that is also the obsessed sort who will NEVER STOP WATCHING FOR ANYTHING. So Sony's pretty safe, on the whole.

[J.R.]

You'd put a "NEXT VOWEL" reminder on-screen, much like they use in the Jackpot round now.

Another chance to insert another sponsor too.

I can see it now. "The Next Vowel Tracker... sponsored by Mama Lucia Meatballs. Use as directed".

[PYLdude]

(keep in mind when I typed this that I didn't necessarily read any of the other suggestions posted after Travis' original response...don't want to make it seem like I didn't consider them. C)

This all boils down to a case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." I don't think it's fair to penalize someone half their bank for guessing a vowel because it makes for absolutely terrible television.

It isn't a penalty, it is a price to be paid. There is a difference.

Well, yeah, understandable- but you have to be careful that your price doesn't unintentionally BECOME a penalty, which is what I believe would result. (Which, admittedly, would also happen to one of my two suggestions, read on.)

(and I am disappoint that you ignored my vowel pun.)

That's because I completely whiffed on it. Upon further review, I give you props for the clever wordplay.

Your points are well made, and the idea was to turn something that is a no-brainer to do (because who wouldn't invest $1,000 to win $10,000?) into something that will give players pause. Make it a thousand each, increase it by $500 with each buy, but do something so that the moment a consonant pops up on the board the player can buy a vowel. It is supposed to be a hint to the solution, and not free-like-beer information. (Maybe you have a different Wheel of Jeopardy that determines the price to be paid for a vowel.)

Eh...I don't know if you really could pull an escalating cost of vowels (at least not on that level) without doing something to offset it (such as raising the values on the wheel). Maybe start at $250 and go up from there, or set a smaller amount to start and a slow rise like $100?

How would you handle it if someone doesn't have enough cash to cover the cost of several vowels? "There are eight Es, but since you can only afford six of them, we'll leave two of them unrevealed." "...and you owe us $350, so that'll be a minus on your account?"

I just said it was a choice you'd have to make if you wanted to revamp it...I fully admit the logistics that might arise would cause issues such as that one. (Then again, I'm not fully logical all the time, lol.)

[TLEberle]

I just said it was a choice you'd have to make if you wanted to revamp it...I fully admit the logistics that might arise would cause issues such as that one. (Then again, I'm not fully logical all the time, lol.)

I nominate we forget this nonsense and commence to play Hungry Hungry Hippos.

[WilliamPorygon]

True, but what if you buy consecutive vowels?

Half your bank at the time, so it would be $5,000, then $2,500, then $1,250, then $625, then $313. If you want to buy out the alphabet in one go, it'll cost 97% of your bank. Though I'm intrigued by your escalating cost way, as well.

So I start the round, spin one of the half dozen $300 spaces, and find one T.  Now, assuming that the bank is rounded down to the nearest dollar after each purchase, I get to buy all five vowels for $291.