Massively multiplayer game shows

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Jan 28 2004, 03:31 PM\'] [quote name=\'Peter Sarrett\' date=\'Jan 28 2004, 12:18 PM\'] What I recall of Now You See It, however, is that it's a very easy game.  I'd have to hope to catch a couple of episodes on GSN to refresh my memory.  I suppose the difficulty could be modified by the specificity of the question and a time limit.  Definitely a possibility. [/quote]
What I wouldn't give to catch a couple episodes on GSN. Hasn't aired in YEARS.

NYSI was basically a four-line word search, with all words hidden horizontally, and in forward order. Not only could you adjust difficulty through the questions, but you could adjust difficulty through the size of the grid, and you could hide words vertically or diagonally, and/or backwards, and as part of the response a team would have to give coordinates of the first letter. (For backward clues I would suggest specifically telling the players that this was the case, I should think finding the word would be plenty hard enough even with that information since we're used to reading forward.

Ooh, Crosswits is an excellent idea, too...I could definitely see the excitement in the room when a team stands up and declares they would like to call a conference to solve the puzzle. Good one, Jimmy.

You might also be able to do something with the basic concept of Chain Reaction - you could have the room vote as to whether they want the next letter above Word "X" or below Word "Y". [/quote]
For an overhead game, how about (Super) Password (Plus)? Do it like this:

On a four member team (players A-B-C-D),

A and B can converse for find a good clue to give to their teammates, C and D. When it's time to guess the puzzle, all four can confer.

-OR-

Alternate clue-giving between the four members, where two members play at a time.

Example: For one password, A and B play, and for the second C and D play.

Alphabetics can be played with either format, whichever seems less complicated.

[Peter Sarrett]

To reiterate: 25 teams playing at once.

Communication games are Right Out.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Peter Sarrett\' date=\'Jan 28 2004, 03:08 PM\'] I haven't seen Cross Wits since I was a kid.  Was the gameplay basically 1) contestant asks for clue to any word in the grid, 2) contestant guesses at word, which is filled in if correct 3) contestant goes again if correct, else play passes, and 4) contestant can guess at the theme that unifies all the answers?
 [/quote]
 Essentially correct, except, as Zach mentioned, each contestant had two celebrities who would alternate guessing at the clues, and the contestant could pick it up if the celeb whose turn it was got it wrong. 10 points for each letter in the word

Also, Zach's correct in that the contestant would call for a seven-second conference, after which they had to guess the unifying theme for bonus points. IIRC each puzzle had seven or eight words, and then the endgame was 10 words in 60 seconds for a nice prize and/or a shot at a car.

But it sounds like you have the gist you need to adapt it to a crowd.