Hardest Game Show To Understand

[clemon79]

Over Thanksgiving, I hoodwinked my entire family into playing Go, and after ironing out the rules and procedures, everyone dug it. When I tried again on Christmas Eve with half the same people and half different, it went really badly. One never knows, do one.

One of the potential problems with party games that require any sort of pop-culture knowledge whatsoever is that if you have *one* person in the group who is pop-culture-blind, and the game requires any kind of individual effort (like Go and its variants do), the whole thing comes crashing down because that person basically turns into a huge pool of quicksand.

[TLEberle]

One of the potential problems with party games that require any sort of pop-culture knowledge whatsoever is that if you have *one* person in the group who is pop-culture-blind, and the game requires any kind of individual effort (like Go and its variants do), the whole thing comes crashing down because that person basically turns into a huge pool of quicksand.

Since I had put together the material, I don't recall there being an inordinate amount of cards devoted to pop culture. I think some people just didn't buy in or couldn't wrap their brain around the premise. But everyone else understood it, and my cousin will probably want me to bring it to the next familial deal.

[fishbulb]

I don't see what was so difficult about You Don't Say!  I was five years old and I understood it.  And Tom Kennedy explained how the game was played at the start of every show.

[clemon79]

I think some people just didn't buy in or couldn't wrap their brain around the premise.

Well, same problem. We played Catch Phrase last Friday, and one of our number just freezes up under any kind of time pressure. So the beeping disc got to them, and there it usually stayed.

[Twentington]

You had to explain the $1m wedge and the Mystery Wedge? You couldn't just say "That's a special case, it'll get explained when it happens?"

The contestant actually landed on the $1,000,000 wedge, and since my friend reacted, "A million dollars?!?", I had to explain all the hoops (because Pat doesn't have time to talk through the full process, and to the casual viewer's eyes, the wedge is just sitting in front of the contestant like any other prize wedge).

And by that point, since we had gone through pauses for the $1,000,000 wedge and Free Play, might as well take the time for the Mystery Round, too.

I also constantly found myself explaining Wheel's rules every time my sister's boyfriend was over. This included the Million Dollar Wedge and Free Play, too.

The one that surprises me, though, was that our last two exchange students — both of whom seemed perfectly fluent in English, particularly since the second one had lived in the US before — both needed Jeopardy! explained to them.

[William_S.]

Thanks to Parliboy & Bryce L as well as Travis for helping me understand that bonus round. Travis had it more spot on. I had the chance to recheck it on You Tube and followed along.

It does? "You won $4,000 in the first two rounds of the game.

Let's say I have oh.. $5,726 in debt, okay.

It does? "You won $4,000 in the first two rounds of the game. You can bet that amount on a question from your Specialty Subject. Get it right and you double that amount to $8,000. Get it wrong and you leave with the $1,000 consolation. Or you can choose to pass on that and keep the $4,000 that you've won to this point."

How is that hard?

Ok from that I'd end up with $2,274 after that. Should I fail the first and win the second. Okay the way you put that, it seems more clear. Thank you sir.

You're saying this to a person who's still employing random capitalization.

....really?

And the same person who crapped his pants over the existence of Michigan J. Frog...

http://rs441.pbsrc.com/albums/qq135/UpchukCBR/AwJeezNotThisShitAgain.jpg~c200 We're really gonna beat this dead horse to a bloody pulp now are we?

First off, I've haven't used 1337 or LEET for some of you since 1997, or was it 1998?  So why are you jumping on me with this improper punctuation? Last I checked, everything was fine.
Second, I get it now people! I'm sorry for having a dislike for certain character for it's main channel from which it derives. That's for another forum post. You don't see me getting on someone Else's case for having a hate or love for an object of some kind. So please can we just move on and drop it already?

[William_S.]

Getting back on subject, yet changing it up a bit (sorta) It seems like whenever I try to show people a game of Chain Reaction, they just don't get the rules. I mean how hard can it be to figure out a game that has two words at the end of a chain grid and must be filled in one word at a time?

Let me explain and see if I'm just making things hard for any "Joe Q Liquor"

In each round a chain will consist of Seven words, the first and last words are already filled in.
Players will fill in the words by answering what the following or preceding word is . The words are filled in one letter at a time
until the player solves it. If right, They'll receive One point a letter, and Two points a letter for any line that has a "+" in it.
The first team to Fifty points will win the game!!

By the time I finish it that they start calling random letters. As if was hard to comprehend. So I tell them they have to chose where they want the first letter, before the bottom or after the top? to which they reply....Ok "X" on the top.... -_-..... And you those on the Dylan Lane show were dumb!

[Matt Ottinger]

You're saying this to a person who's still employing random capitalization.

....really?

You don't see me getting on someone Else's case for having a hate or love for an Object of some kind.

Yes.  Really.

[Steve Gavazzi]

You're saying this to a person who's still employing random capitalization.

....really?

Um, yes.  Why would it surprise you that that would stand out?

By the time I finish it that they start calling random letters. As if was hard to comprehend.

Actually, yes, that is hard to comprehend, because it's an absolutely horrible explanation.  If I didn't know how Chain Reaction worked and you tried to use that hot mess to explain it to me, not only would I still not know how it worked, I'd think I did and be wrong.

[TLEberle]

"You're going to see a chain of words; the ones at the top and bottom are visible. Each word relates somehow to the one above or below it. On your turn you can ask to reveal the next letter in the word above or below the words revealed to that point, then you get to guess. A correct guess keeps control for your team and scores you points for each letter in the word. A wrong guess means the other team takes control of the game."

[Adam Nedeff]

My two nominees for this subject: The Bob Eubanks version of "Dream House." A friend in West Virginia had a first-gen copy of the finale and after watching it, I still didn't have a firm grasp on how the main game worked. Also, the David Sparks version of "Cross-Wits." I hated it as a kid, then got nine episodes in a DVD trade, and just recently watched the DVD and remembered the problem I had with it. There were nine episodes on that disc, and at no point in the entire disc did anybody bother explaining how score was kept. For a game show that didn't have any visible score display on the set, you can see how that's a problem.

"Well, at the end of the second puzzle, Diane has 185 points, and Todd has 130 points."
"Why?"
"We'll be right back!"

[clemon79]

For a game show that didn't have any visible score display on the set, you can see how that's a problem.

Yeah, I had a huge problem with this too, especially since they didn't do score updates on the fly either, even with the Chyroned scores. Just a horrifically done show, top to bottom.

[Neumms]

I remember asking Mom to explain it to me ('cuz I was in school, of course) after the premiere, and she was able to get the point across in about two minutes.

I fondly recall my mom explaining Whew! to me, too. It took her five minutes and some paper. The basic rules seem straightforward, but there was much to leave you scratching your head. I just saw the final episode in which someone reached the top level without the Longshot, knew the answer, yet lost because Tom couldn't spit the blooper out fast enough. Yeah, I know them's the rules, but it's guaranteed to make a less rabid fan say "@#$%*!," not "whew."

[clemon79]

I fondly recall my mom explaining Whew! to me, too. It took her five minutes and some paper.

Crazy childhood memories department: I still remember the example of a blooper she gave me: Peaches and cake.

[Neumms]

I fondly recall my mom explaining Whew! to me, too. It took her five minutes and some paper.

Crazy childhood memories department: I still remember the example of a blooper she gave me: Peaches and cake.

Ha! It's a shame Wolpert never tried the bloopers-as-format-for-questions idea again. Or that nobody swiped it.