Make Your Mark Change - Good, Bad or Indifferent?

[Matt Ottinger]

246 posts into this topic, we began what became a rather heated argument about a reported rule change to The Price Is Right pricing game "Make Your Mark" (formerly "Barker's Markers").  Now's your chance to cast your vote and make YOUR mark on one of our very infrequent poll questions.  For those few of you unfamiliar with the game, the rules below are borrowed liberally from the Wikipedia article, edited for our purposes but with as little bias as possible.

MAKE YOUR MARK RULES:

The contestant is given $500 and is shown four prices on the game board. Three of the prices correspond with the three prizes; the fourth is an extra price that does not match any of the prizes.

The contestant is asked to place markers beside the three prices that correspond with the prizes. The contestant is not required to specifically match prices to their prizes; they are only required to choose the three prices that are correct.

The correctly marked prices of two of the prizes are revealed, leaving the third prize and two possible prices. The contestant is then given the option to return the $500 in order to move their marker to the unselected price if they believe their initial choice is wrong.  After the final reveal, if all three prices are selected correctly, the player wins all three prizes.

UNDER THE ORIGINAL RULES, if a contestant chooses to leave the marker at the originally selected price and that price is wrong, not only do they lose the game but they also lose the $500.

UNDER THE REPORTED NEW RULES, if a contestant chooses to leave the marker at the originally selected price and that price is wrong, they do not win the prizes, but they keep the $500.  In other words, if a contestant is not sure (or doesn't care), they can choose to keep the $500 no matter what, and may still win the prizes anyway.

[Millionaire81]

How about adding a choice that says, "There's $500 cash in this game?!"

Bottom line...who cares.  The game is still there.

[joker316]

OK, now that I understand what all the fuss was about, my question is (like many of you) what is the point of giving the player $500 if they keep it anyway?

To me, the player should have to earn the right to make a change (a la Pathfinder: match the price on a small item, etc.) and the $500 is not even given away. Or it could be earned if the player was right on the first try or (like the Shell Game) they could match prizes to the prices once they have determined they won.  

/My apologies to the Mods if my comment is "out of line"

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'joker316\' post=\'195010\' date=\'Aug 24 2008, 07:42 AM\']
/My apologies to the Mods if my comment is "out of line"[/quote]
A good rule of thumb is that a comment is not "out of line" if it doesn't attack a person.  And yours didn't.

[Robert Hutchinson]

I'm going to make a minor whine about the poll, because I already know that it's just a poll and doesn't need to have surgery done on it. I think that the change will have a decent impact on the game, but that said impact will not necessarily be either better or worse for the game, so I chose the third option.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'Robert Hutchinson\' post=\'195016\' date=\'Aug 24 2008, 10:57 AM\']
I'm going to make a minor whine about the poll, because I already know that it's just a poll and doesn't need to have surgery done on it. I think that the change will have a decent impact on the game, but that said impact will not necessarily be either better or worse for the game, so I chose the third option.[/quote]
Valid point.  I tried my best to word these things the best I could, but I didn't want to have a whole lot of nuanced options.  The third option probably should have read "little or no impact on the quality of the game."  Because of COURSE it has an impact on the game, it's a rule change.  But yes, for the purposes of our exercise, you chose correctly if you felt it was neither "better" nor "worse".

[tpirfan28]

Bizarre change.

Why give an unsponsored* $500 for doing absolutely nothing?

*Yes, I realize much/most/all of the items pawned on TPIR aren't sponsored anymore.  But why give $500 without even the possibility of a sponsor?  Maybe the new bank getting put into my local Wal-Mart could help.

[temptation1979ga]

I don't really understand the purpose for the change yet, and I can't condone the idea of giving away $500 even if they lose. I voted for "made the game worse," and although this alone isn't earthshattering, I think if the show gets a notion to keep making changes that really didn't have to be made, then even casual viewers will start to notice at some point.

[CarShark]

[quote name=\'tpirfan28\' post=\'195020\' date=\'Aug 24 2008, 11:40 AM\']
Bizarre change.

Why give $500 for doing absolutely nothing?
[/quote]To facilitate the main decision of the game: keep the money or switch the marker?

[clemon79]

I am finding the comments in this thread terribly amusing.

[Jimmy Owen]

I'm looking at the pros and cons, but I favor the change.  I mean, don't "contestants not appearing on stage" get a prize just for looking good and bidding lousy?

[PYLdude]

I voted no difference, and I'm surprised 9 people (thus far) have voted this bad.

If they gave away a ridiculous amount of money (which $500 isn't) just for playing the game, then maybe you can make that argument.

Since they don't...

[TLEberle]

[quote name=\'PYLdude\' post=\'195034\' date=\'Aug 24 2008, 12:54 PM\']I voted no difference, and I'm surprised 9 people (thus far) have voted this bad.[/quote] The answer didn't say "bad," it said "worse." There is a qualitative difference between the two.

Since they don't...

You'll declare yourself the winner and carry on like normal.

/Deja Vu isn't just an exotic bar in Seattle...

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'PYLdude\' post=\'195034\' date=\'Aug 24 2008, 12:54 PM\']
I voted no difference, and I'm surprised 9 people (thus far) have voted this bad.
[/quote]
You shouldn't be. At all. Heck, at this point you can even draw a flowchart to figure out how people are gonna vote.

[J.R.]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'195036\' date=\'Aug 24 2008, 03:15 PM\']You shouldn't be. At all. Heck, at this point you can even draw a flowchart to figure out how people are gonna vote.[/quote]
Approves.