Worst scoring flaw?

[chrisholland03]

Also on Price is Right, the pricing game Money Game...a player can play it perfectly and win an automobile, but a player who makes 3 mistakes can still win the car PLUS extra money???  Should be one or the other, not both.  Seems wrong to reward more to a player who makes more mistakes in a game.

I understand your sentiment and agree in context of today's world.  There's an underlying strategy that you're missing, which had significance in the era the game was created.

I must be missing it too then--is the "strategy" to intentionally make wrong guesses if you already know the price?

Yeah, I feel like if you know the game and know the price of the car, a smart person can be rewarded by whiffing on three guesses and picking the highest amounts possible and then filling in the car. Of course, knowing the last two digits of a car’s price is difficult, but there was a period of time when they used stock cars with stock options. So, as long as they didn’t pull out a random luxury car, you’d have a good shot of memorizing it. Even today, they have many cars they like to use often while changing out trims and options, so if you remember the trim you’d probably have a good shot of knowing the first two digits.

I also don’t see the extra couple hundred bucks (while not nothing) as significant enough to feel slighted over anymore. Back when a couple hundred bucks could buy 15-20 tanks of gas compared to 3-4 now, maybe.

This.  The strategy carries the risk of - maybe you know the price of the car...and maybe you don't.  How confident and brave are you?  The side money lost its context with inflation.  In a context where the stakes are the equivalent of 1/10th the value of the car (1972), it carries a different meaning than one where it's 1/1000th (today).

[Brian44]

Does that mean the name of the game, Money Game, is itself flawed? If I wasn't a LFaT and, even if a contestant I knew already mentioned winning a car playing Money Game, my inclination would be to ask how money they won in addition to the car and I'd be a little baffled if they told me they only won the car.

Before the PG names appeared on the props, didn't Bob often call it "the old front & back game"? (I do realize in later years he mentioned the old front & back trick with the way the numbers were placed on the board.)

[beatlefreak84]

The 750 point round isn’t useless if you win it and the game as it becomes another $187 for each teammate.

Plus winning the 750 round gets you two shots at the bonus if your team won the 250 and 500 rounds.  It could conceivably be worth an extra $2687 per civilian player.

Yes, but we're specifically talking about the situation where the teams have split the 250 and 500 rounds.

The winning team got their score converted to money (so, a team who won with a score of 1500 won $1500), so that at least somewhat justified the "pointless" 750 round.

Anthony

[Jeremy Nelson]

I've got another- Play the Percentages. I thought that getting a percentage on the nose was definitely worthy of a prize or a jackpot, but winning the game outright? At least make them answer the follow up question.

[chrisholland03]

I've got another- Play the Percentages. I thought that getting a percentage on the nose was definitely worthy of a prize or a jackpot, but winning the game outright? At least make them answer the follow up question.

Cosigned.  Using the same device, Card Sharks made the contestants play the cards before declaring them winner.

[alfonzos]

Wordplay had a very quirky scoring system, as I recall.

I didn't like Wordplay's scoring either. It gave the advantage to the player who played second, fourth, and sixth. Simple solution: the player with the higher score plays in the third and fifth rounds.

[clemon79]

didn't Bob often call it "the old front & back game"?

Rest assured that's not the only thing Bob called "the old front & back game."

[BillCullen1]

I don't believe anyone mentioned High Rollers. On the original version, the players' fate was in the hands of Ruta Lee rolling the dice. I always thought the players should roll the dice themselves, at least in the "Big Numbers" round. This was rectified in the '78 version when the show returned without Ruta.

[Dbacksfan12]

What does that have to do with scoring?

[BillCullen1]

Depending on the dice, that affects a player's score.

[clemon79]

Depending on the dice, that affects a player's score.

Unsurprisingly, you completely fail to understand the assignment, unless you're being willfully ignorant.

Family Secrets came immediately to my mind. The $500-to-one-side-or-the-other third-round question either a) made the first and second rounds completely superfluous or b) was pointless on its own because the game was a lock.

[BrandonFG]

I don't believe anyone mentioned High Rollers. On the original version, the players' fate was in the hands of Ruta Lee rolling the dice.

Players still had the option to pass.

[CeleTheRef]

Pyramid in Italy had this wonderful rule: at the end of a round, if the score difference was 4 or more, score resets to 0-0.   

[clemon79]

Pyramid in Italy had this wonderful rule: at the end of a round, if the score difference was 4 or more, score resets to 0-0.   

So did the situation ever come up where a player with a four point lead sat there for seventeen or twenty seconds in silence?

[Dbacksfan12]

Pyramid in Italy had this wonderful rule: at the end of a round, if the score difference was 4 or more, score resets to 0-0.   

I want to make sure I’m reading correctly.  Each player player picks a category.  The score is 7-3.  The score are reset.

Did the better performing player receive any form of remuneration?