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Author Topic: Time to give my crappy GS proposal...  (Read 4012 times)

TonicBH

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Time to give my crappy GS proposal...
« on: December 10, 2004, 09:56:42 PM »
"Isolation Booth" (formerly known as: "The Ultimate Trivia Challenge")

I took some suggestions into consideration (mostly Travis E.'s comments from another MB), and decided to retool this game.

Two teams of three compete. To start, two players from each team are put into an "Isolation Booth" and won't come out of it until later.

The first round goes like this: The sole player on each team chooses a category and is grilled for 60 seconds on that subject. Each correct answer is $50. Then a new category replaces the old one and the opponent chooses a category and does the same thing. This goes on for two categories for each team.

Round 2 is "Opponent's Choice." The "captain" from each team chooses who gets to come down and help them out for the next round. Play is similar to round one, except the opposing team chooses the category they must play. In order for an answer to be valid, it must be said by the "captain". Each correct answer is worth $75 in this round.

Round 3 is the bidding round. the final player from each team comes down. In this round, the team that's behind chooses a category and gives a number on how many questions they can correctly answer in 60 seconds. Each bid is $100/question, so if a team asid they could answer 5 questions, the pot would go for $500. If they pull it off, they win the cash, otherwise the other team gets it. Highest Score wins.

The Bonus Round goes like this: The other players are put back into the booth and the captain is at center-stage. The host holds 3 cards, each with a teammate's "Category of Expertise." The captain chooses which card and then is grilled for 60 seconds on 10 questions pertaining to that subject. Each one right is worth $500. Get all 10, it's worth $30,000 ($10,000 for each player). The captain may pass and come back to the question if time permits, but wrong answers are immediately discarded for later. If the captain fails to get all 10, one teammate comes down and answers the questions the captain missed at 5 seconds/question. If that isn't possible, the 3rd teammate comes down and does the same thing. If the captain gets all 10 questions without help from their teammates, not only do they win $30,000, they each get a new car.

New contestants every show, no returning champions.

Pros: The "Isolation Booth" concept isn't really used conventionally in TV game shows nowadays, rapid-fire questioning is good.

Cons: Game itself might need more work (especially round two), may also need to think of a new title, since "Isolation Booth" sounds a bit bland.

What do you guys think? It's a bit better than my previous version of this show, which ripped off "Quiz Kids Challenge."
You Found a Secret Area: The place where I write about dumb game show and video game stuff occasionally.

SplitSecond

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Time to give my crappy GS proposal...
« Reply #1 on: December 10, 2004, 10:46:58 PM »
[quote name=\'TonicBH\' date=\'Dec 10 2004, 07:56 PM\']Pros: The "Isolation Booth" concept isn't really used conventionally in TV game shows nowadays
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Nor is it really used here.  How would your game be made any different if the players not in use for each round were just sitting offstage?

parliboy

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Time to give my crappy GS proposal...
« Reply #2 on: December 10, 2004, 11:05:43 PM »
Let's see where to start:

Part of the difficulty of making a team game is giving players a chance to strategically place less strong players in less important positions without taking them out of the game.  Family Feud was great at that.  Your concept really fails there.  One player from each team doesn't get involved until the third round.  You're going to have to find a way to get all of the players involved more.  For example, let each of the six players choose a category in round one, and give less time per category.

Opponent's choice, again, eliminates one of the players in each round.  "You're the weakest player, take a powder."  Again not good for team spirit, or for airing.  Instead, try this this variant:  The captain from each team plays solo.  The two non-captains on the opposing team together choose a subject.  In addition, they get to try to steal any questions missed by the captain.  This adds extra strategy to the category selection.  Do they try to choose an opponent's weak category, or one of their own strong ones?  Kind of a variant of a common quiz bowl round.

Your writing about round three may be unclear.  The way you've spelled it out is that whoever's behind tries to play catch-up at $100 / quesetion.  What does the other team do?  Additionally, bidding to answer against the clock add an extra variable that make things unfair: the length of the questions.  One category could be artificially easy or hard just because the questions take longer to ask.  You might consider borrowing from Debt, and make it a set of five questions (or 10, or whatever) so that question length is no longer a factor.  Besides, it will help to have a different cadence in a round, instead of everything being against the clock.

The set-up for your bonus round does intrigue me, though.  It's not simply who knows the most about their area, it's whether your own partners are comfortable in your own area.  Nice twist, IMO.  It won't seem as original to some given what ESPN Trivial Pursuit used earlier in the year, but I still like it.  Obviously, it's hard to do this in a returning champion situation without making new categories each time, so you seem to have thought of that.

You're going to get plenty of comments about the way you've set up your budget (and they'll likely be valid).  What do the other two players in that round do that merits them a car as well.  That reeks of mo' money.  Instead just give them the money.  Or to see some real fighting during category selection, dump the $10k and let them each choose from among three cars in the order they played the final round.  But don't give both.

EDIT: scratch those last two sentences.  That idea penalizes stronger players.  Just give them the money and call it done.

Finally: Where does the isolation booth really come into play?  The booth as a gimmick is only useful when there is information you need to keep from a player (the other person's score in 21, identical questions in WBSM).  Here, there's no reason to have a booth.  Without that, there's no real gimmick except that it's a rapid-fire quiz.  This community in general is partial to that type of format, but it's not nearly enough for the general public.

So in addition to tweaking the gameplay to allow more participation by all of the players, and the budgetary concerns, you need to find a gimmick that actually affects the game.
« Last Edit: December 10, 2004, 11:09:52 PM by parliboy »
"You're never ready, just less unprepared."

chris319

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Time to give my crappy GS proposal...
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2004, 11:14:05 PM »
Quote
you need to find a gimmick that actually affects the game
I prefer a game that affects the gimmick :-)

Dbacksfan12

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Time to give my crappy GS proposal...
« Reply #4 on: December 11, 2004, 12:49:38 AM »
[quote name=\'TonicBH\' date=\'Dec 10 2004, 09:56 PM\'][/quote]
If you personally think its crappy; how do you think the rest of the board will feel?
--Mark
Phil 4:13

Jimmy Owen

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Time to give my crappy GS proposal...
« Reply #5 on: December 11, 2004, 01:06:09 AM »
[quote name=\'Dsmith\' date=\'Dec 11 2004, 12:49 AM\'][quote name=\'TonicBH\' date=\'Dec 10 2004, 09:56 PM\'][/quote]
If you personally think its crappy; how do you think the rest of the board will feel?
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Sometimes, all that is needed for a great idea to blossom is a little fertilizer.
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Don Howard

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Time to give my crappy GS proposal...
« Reply #6 on: December 11, 2004, 08:30:00 AM »
[quote name=\'TonicBH\' date=\'Dec 10 2004, 09:56 PM\']Two players from each team are put into an "Isolation Booth" and won't come out of it until later.
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I like it. Stop right there.

JayDLewis

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Time to give my crappy GS proposal...
« Reply #7 on: December 11, 2004, 04:51:30 PM »
[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Dec 11 2004, 08:30 AM\'][quote name=\'TonicBH\' date=\'Dec 10 2004, 09:56 PM\']Two players from each team are put into an "Isolation Booth" and won't come out of it until later.
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I like it. Stop right there.
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Each booth could be different. We'll have a hot booth, then a cold booth and an "Under The Sea" booth. Earthquakes too. PLUS, the best part, we'll zap the contestants!

Get FOX on the phone...they'd love a show like this!
QWIZX.com  -- A little bit of everything

DrJWJustice

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Time to give my crappy GS proposal...
« Reply #8 on: December 11, 2004, 06:30:30 PM »
Isolation Booth should be put in the isolation booth.  This show would turn me off in one airing, I can tell you already.  The bonus round?  It's been done before.  A certain show called "Talk About" (which didn't last long) used a very similar concept.

Here's yet another Scarecrow Award going out.  Hang it up on the isolation booth's wall for all to see.....

parliboy

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Time to give my crappy GS proposal...
« Reply #9 on: December 12, 2004, 12:02:31 AM »
Take the shorter comments about the proposal with a grain of salt.  Some of what is said is tempered by seeing really crappy proposal after really crappy proposal.  What's here isn't crappy, just quite deficient.  It's hardly the worst we've ever seen, just not yet all that good.

(I'm not helping, am I)

And I have to say that JW needs to go re-read the rules sheet on Talk About.  His observation on the bonus round really doesn't apply here.
"You're never ready, just less unprepared."

DrJWJustice

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Time to give my crappy GS proposal...
« Reply #10 on: December 12, 2004, 06:06:33 PM »
[quote name=\'parliboy\' date=\'Dec 12 2004, 12:02 AM\']And I have to say that JW needs to go re-read the rules sheet on Talk About.  His observation on the bonus round really doesn't apply here.
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Wrong, bucko.  Re-read my comment more carefully.  Notice the word "similar' was used, and yes, it still does apply here.  It doesn't require much thought here to see that it does.  I'm very familiar with the show.  If you've played "Outburst" before, it's very similar to that, and don't tell me I need to re-read any rules to THAT game, either.
« Last Edit: December 12, 2004, 06:09:32 PM by DrJWJustice »