New SB article up

[PeterMarshallFan]

It's a pretty good read.

http://tvgameshows.net/gscdiary1.htm

But God, does Mark Richards look old. Anyone know how old he is?

[dscungio]

I agree.  Nice read, but Steve namedropped everybody who showed up.

It sounds like that they all had fun and everything, but I have a question.  Just how many people showed up for this thing?  It's not a popular national event like a comic book convention.  Steve doesn't give any attendance numbers in his articles, so I'm suspecting that only a hundred people showed up.

Is anyone here seriously considering going to next year's event?


P.S. By sharing the letters \"GSC,\" do we have to make a distinction between the Congress and our fan-based \"Conventions\"?




Dean Scungio
dscungio@worldnet.att.net (dscungio@worldnet.att.net)
AIM & Y!: dascungio (Note the \"a\"!)

\"It's not how much we give away,
it's the way we do it.\" -Monty Hall

[Matt Ottinger]

I think this is another example of needless Steve-bashing.  For one thing, this isn't his event.  He certainly championed it on his fan site, but he was just another attendee.  And sure, my guess is that there were probably about a hundred people there (a couple of our members attended and could give us a more accurate total).  That's still about 85 more than ever attended any one of the original Game Show Conventions, to say nothing of the fact that there were some serious names worth dropping.

It sounds like it was a wonderful, intimate event.  I'd be very interested in attending next year.

[mmb5]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Aug 5 2003, 11:44 AM\']I think this is another example of needless Steve-bashing.  For one thing, this isn't his event.  He certainly championed it on his fan site, but he was just another attendee.  And sure, my guess is that there were probably about a hundred people there (a couple of our members attended and could give us a more accurate total).  That's still about 85 more than ever attended any one of the original Game Show Conventions, to say nothing of the fact that there were some serious names worth dropping.
[/quote]
There were about 75 people who were there for the TRASH tournament.  About half of those were interested in the Congress, the other half weren't.  In the sessions I was able to attend (other times I was off playing in the TRASH tournament), there were about 80 people in the room.  So, if you figure between 30-40 were TRASH people, the number was between 110-120 total.  Clearly not the Computer Associates convention that was rolling through town, but a decent showing.

SB got most of his facts right.  But he's not the only one messing up the facts.  Gordon Pepper has Kevin Olmstead as the Spokesman for TRASH, which is not true.  James Dinan (Millionaire and 2 Minute Drill contestant) is.

There will be a third Congress, it's time and location TBA.  Don't be one to knock it, you might actually *gasp* have fun.


--Mike Burger
3-time National TRASH Champion

[PeterMarshallFan]

[quote name=\'mmb5\' date=\'Aug 6 2003, 10:35 AM\'] --Mike Burger
3-time National TRASH Champion [/quote]
 Y'know, as soon as I saw \"Mike Burger\" I was ready to go into MG98 bashing mode again.

And I agree with everything he said.

[Timsterino]

Mike,

I have to say that I was seriously impressed with your Game Show T*R*A*S*H set up as was everyone else there including Bob Boden. Folks, if you ever get a chance to see the game that Mike devised, it is amazing.

Mike has a computer version of MANY game shows that you can play in a quiz bowl format. I was amazed. I have to say it was definitely a highlight of the weekend for me.  

I had no idea that was you or I would have said hello. I was playing on the first team with Steve Beverly and Jason Block. I was that guy on the end with the glasses, lol!

Great job on that Mike, really great!

Tim :-)

P.S. As Mike said, this was not Steve's event. The two particular names that come to mind are James Dinan (who is the TRASH master extraordinaire and Paul Bailey who ran the GSC2).

[CBSJokersWildFan]

[quote name=\'Timsterino\' date=\'Aug 6 2003, 04:03 PM\']I was playing on the first team with Steve Beverly and Jason Block. I was that guy on the end with the glasses, lol!

Tim :-)

[/quote]
I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but how did your team fare in the tournament, Tim?

[Timsterino]

[quote name=\'CBSJokersWildFan\' date=\'Aug 6 2003, 03:39 PM\'] [quote name=\'Timsterino\' date=\'Aug 6 2003, 04:03 PM\']I was playing on the first team with Steve Beverly and Jason Block. I was that guy on the end with the glasses, lol!

Tim :-)

[/quote]
I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but how did your team fare in the tournament, Tim? [/quote]
This was just the team for Mike Burger's game. It was Steve Beverly, Jason Block, Mike Leger (NTN player who won the million point Play it prize twice) and myself. We played against David Legler, his dad, Ben Tritle and Mark Richards. Our team won, but not by much. We played Pyramid, Blockbusters, Match Game and Family Feud.

In the TRASH tournament it was just Jason Block and I \"Millionaire Boyz\". We did not fare to well. That was my fault because I was sick at the time (no excuses tho ;-))

Tim :-)

[Peter Sarrett]

Is there a web site where I can find out more information about TRASH (format, where/when, etc)?

  - Peter

[Timsterino]

[quote name=\'Peter Sarrett\' date=\'Aug 6 2003, 10:23 PM\'] Is there a web site where I can find out more information about TRASH (format, where/when, etc)?

  - Peter [/quote]
 Here you go, Peter:

http://thetrashzone.blogspot.com/

Tim :-)

[Peter Sarrett]

Thanks Tim, but not quite what I'm looking for.  Aside from the incredible slowness of Blogspot and tendency to get Page Not Found errors, the content of the blog seems to be obsessed with the Vegas event but doesn't actually describe TRASH itself.

I'm looking for information about:

How is the game itself structured?
What's the player makeup like?  (college students vs. post-college adults)
When and where are events held?
Costs?  Rewards?

Basically, all the information that someone who just heard of TRASH but knew nothing about it would want to know.  I'm surprised there isn't any web site for this kind of thing.

  - Peter

[Timsterino]

[quote name=\'Peter Sarrett\' date=\'Aug 7 2003, 01:16 PM\'] Thanks Tim, but not quite what I'm looking for.  Aside from the incredible slowness of Blogspot and tendency to get Page Not Found errors, the content of the blog seems to be obsessed with the Vegas event but doesn't actually describe TRASH itself.

I'm looking for information about:

How is the game itself structured?
What's the player makeup like?  (college students vs. post-college adults)
When and where are events held?
Costs?  Rewards?

Basically, all the information that someone who just heard of TRASH but knew nothing about it would want to know.  I'm surprised there isn't any web site for this kind of thing.

  - Peter [/quote]
Peter,

Here are the TRASH rules:
http://members.aol.com/TRASHionals/trashrules.html

The game is structured in a Quiz Bowl format with a buzzer system (usually). It is usually teams of four on four but sometimes there may be less than four players (which puts the team at a disadvantage).

The questions are based on pop culture. Including current events, sports, movies, television etc. There are no academic questions in a TRASH tournament.  The player makeup is mixed (at least at Viva Trash Vegas). More often though it is comprised of college age students.  Our team was playing people who were a lot older and people who were just in college.

Events are held in different locations throughout the year. I believe the consideration for the National Tournament right now is in April and possibly in Los Angeles.  When I played with Jason in Las Vegas it cost our two member team $60 for a place. You are also required to write a packet (a group of 20 TRASH formatted questions) along with your entry.

The prizes are all glory. There are no real monetary prizes (that I know of). I am sure Mike Burger could better answer that question. His team ended up winning \"Viva Trash Vegas\" this year.

A TRASH question is about a paragraph long. It starts out vague and gets more detailed as the question goes along. As soon as one of the team members know it they can buzz in. But if they get the question wrong the team loses 5 points and the other team has a chance to answer the question after the entire question is read. The tournament is played in a round robin tournament, With the best scores advancing to the semi-finals, finals.  The matches are moderated by the question giver and scored by another person (or the moderator will score as well). There are 20 questions per game. Best out of 20 wins the match. There are also bonuses if your team gets the question correct. You can also help your team on a bonus although regular questions that you buzz in on can only be answered by the individual.

I hope that answers some of your questions. I may have gotten a couple of things confused (I only did TRASH one time) so I hope others will correct me if I am wrong.

Tim :-)

[PeterMarshallFan]

Hmmm.....the sentence idea sounds kinda like \"Hollywood's Talking,\" where the celebrity clues would start vague and get clearer as time ran out [and the value of the subject dropped]

[dickoon]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Aug 5 2003, 05:44 PM\'] I think this is another example of needless Steve-bashing.  For one thing, this isn't his event.  He certainly championed it on his fan site, but he was just another attendee. [/quote]
 I respectfully disagree.

This wasn't the first Game Show Congress; the first was an overtly Beverley-organised event. I think he chose the name. It seems unlikely to the point of being negligible that he didn't know about atgs' established Game Show Conventions in the past and the fact that we have long used the initials GSC for something very specific. Due diligence would have pointed out the term's reserved status. Every event he calls a GSC is an insult to the memory of the GSCs we have been enjoying for almost a decade now. GSC 1, GSC 2(-East!), GSC 3 and so on have had nothing to do with him. He could've attended any of the GSCs he liked, but he never did. Heck, he could possibly have asked for the online community's approval to bring his events into the GSC numbering system, but crucially acknowledging that people had long been organising events before him.

If he had called his event GameShowPalooza, or Game Show Symposium, or Game Shows '02 (now '03), or GameShowFest, or any of a hundred other names, then I would have no objection. However, I take his use of the combination of letters G, S and C in that order as a deliberate middle finger to atgs and the established online game show fandom at large. While I agree there that some of the Steve-bashing from time to time is needless, this is one situation in which I think he has been deliberately petty and for which opprobrium is deserved.

Rant mode disengaged. I might possibly be overreacting irrationally here (!) but I stand firmly by the point within.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'dickoon\' date=\'Aug 7 2003, 12:41 PM\'] However, I take his use of the combination of letters G, S and C in that order as a deliberate middle finger to atgs and the established online game show fandom at large. [/quote]
 I agree with all of the points in your post, particularly this one, but at the same time I ask you: what do you expect?

We _know_ he at least lurks here, if he's not an outright member. Too much of the news broken here eventually makes it to his site for it to be mere coincidence. And while he seems to have good relationships with select members of this group, I'm sure he knows, on the whole, that we generally and for the most part think he's a dink. (Me, I think he's an outright member whether he's registered here as a user or not, but that's another story for another time. )

So I figure: if we don't like him, he certainly has every right to not like us. And it's not like anyone went down to the patent office and slapped a copyright on the \"GSC\" abbreviation.

So his theft of the \"GSC\" concept (and the F-U that comes with) might strike you as somewhat childish. Sure. It is. There's been childishness on both sides of this feud. But it shouldn't be really surprising.