The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: DrBear on January 27, 2004, 08:23:02 AM
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OK, here's mine - up to the Hal March level ©ProfSteve a contestant can skip one question entirely but MUST take the next. Could be an interesting decision - if the question is on, say Broadway and you know nothing about the theater, do you skip it knowing you'd have to take the next one no matter what?
I don't think you could do that at a higher level, but at the lower levels, it might be interesting....
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[quote name=\'DrBear\' date=\'Jan 27 2004, 08:23 AM\'] OK, here's mine - up to the Hal March level ŠProfSteve a contestant can skip one question entirely but MUST take the next. Could be an interesting decision - if the question is on, say Broadway and you know nothing about the theater, do you skip it knowing you'd have to take the next one no matter what?
I don't think you could do that at a higher level, but at the lower levels, it might be interesting.... [/quote]
Not a bad idea for a lifeline, even if it is reminiscent of the PLay or Pass "red" category from Wink's TTD. All questions in that category were multiple choice with three possible answers IIRC.
Another idea: Make the $10 million dollar question a difficult Fastest Finger like question, and the contestant has to say the letters in the right order as their final answer. We discussed this back on Usenet as a viable Million Dollar question idea.
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At the million dollar level, you can answer the question but if you feel you can't, you can opt to eat worms. No wait, you're serious. How about having a "designated hitter" in the audience, it could be the person in the relationship seat or one of the fastest finger players or even an individual in the audience who is chosen at random and can get some winnings if they can help out. Another one could be "If You're So Smart, Why Don't You Answer It," in which Regis must answer the question for the contestant.
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[quote name=\'DrBear\' date=\'Jan 27 2004, 08:23 AM\'] OK, here's mine - up to the Hal March level ŠProfSteve a contestant can skip one question entirely but MUST take the next. [/quote]
Oh, no. If they skip the question, they must attempt to solve a dilemma. This is, of course, the picking of nits, but there will be no Hal March level due to the tenfold multiplier. There will, though, be a Jim Peck Jackpot ($10000--top cash award on The Big Showdown-- for answering the first five correct).
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At the million dollar level, you can answer the question but if you feel you can't, you can opt to eat worms. No wait, you're serious. How about having a "designated hitter" in the audience, it could be the person in the relationship seat or one of the fastest finger players or even an individual in the audience who is chosen at random and can get some winnings if they can help out.
Hmmm, the Major Ingram's Folly Lifeline, that one might work. The logo could be a profile of a person coughing. Of course you have to make sure it's only used once ;-)
I've been putting some thought into this and here are a couple that I came up with (feel free to change the stupid names):
Safety Net: Since there is so much to lose, and I can't imagine a reasonable person risking $630,000 to get to $1.25 million if they are only 99% sure, this would allow a person to say, "Ok, I'm pretty sure of this answer, but I will use the safety net." If they are wrong, the $640k they have goes down one level ($320k). If they are right, they move up to $1.25m, but no longer have a safety net, so a wrong answer takes them down to $10k.
I think they'll need some version of this or a moveable milestone, otherwise no one would be foolish enough to go past $640k (levels of foolishness/heights reached may vary. Check your local listings. Void where prohibited.)
This or That: A variation of the 50:50 where you select two answers and the computer will eliminate one incorrect answer. This way, if you have narrowed it down to two answers, rather than have the 50:50 knock out the two that you already eliminated, the player gets to knock out one of the answers that they want knocked out. This doesn't guarantee that the remaining answer is correct (you might still be wrong).
However, this lifeline would have to have restrictions. If you used it and then decided to use the regular 50:50, the regular one would knock out one more incorrect answer, leaving one wrong and the correct one. I can't decide if this should be usable after using the regular 50:50 (thereby leaving the correct answer). You get the answer, but burn 2 lifelines in the process.
That's it for now.
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Another idea: Make the $10 million dollar question a difficult Fastest Finger like question, and the contestant has to say the letters in the right order as their final answer. We discussed this back on Usenet as a viable Million Dollar question idea.
All I can say is that, if a contestant ever gets to see the $10 million question, it had better be very tough. $10 million is too much to just give away on something easy, and I thought some of the $1 million questions on the original version weren't that hard.
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You don't know the answer to a question, switch it for another one. (like Live UK BAM)
Have a set of experts backstage that you can ask a question of.
Ask your companion for help.
Bring one book with you and be able to research an answer.
Someone mentioned already Web search (sponsored by Google)
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The "Wildcard": this lifeline acts just like any of the original three, your choice.
The "Pass": This question moves to the top of your stack (ie $10mill) and everything else moves down. Do you use it on a question you know hoping to get to the $10 mill question or do you use it on something you don't know to try and win a smaller prize?
The "Ask our Library": The reference librarian who verified the question comes on and reads the encylopedia (sponsor) entry on any one of the four choices.
I like the saftey net idea. A movable fallback...
-Joe Kavanagh
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Flip
As with the UK Live episode have a contestant change a question at the same question level but have it as a full lifeline instead of a exchange for one of the regular lifelines.
Ask Your Partner
Since the contestants partner do have a microphone the contestant could ask if they know the answer and advised them whether to gamble or not.
and
Ask Regis
Since the Millionaire computer does not reveal the answer untill Final Answer is given, Regis could ask them what the answer could be since he has given advice of using lifelines before.
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LittleBigBrother's safety net is a brilliant idea. He also mentioned a moving milestone, and I'm offering my idea for one.
Should a contestant make it to $320K without using a lifeline, the 4th would be that the $10K net is raised a bit, maybe to the $40,000 level, since it's right in the middle of the stack (question 7).
I guess that's more of an incentive than a lifeline, but a minimum $40K might make a contestant consider taking the gamble, as opposed to $10,000.
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I like the idea of a panel of experts from whom you can select one to call on. Perhaps this can be a panel of former winners.
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My *guess* is that it's going to end up being the Flip option -- which of course might end up asking whether this version might be LIVE, but that's another point for another day.
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I like the idea of a panel of experts from whom you can select one to call on. Perhaps this can be a panel of former winners.
A similar idea was actually considered by Michael Davies as one of the "original 3" lifelines when WWtBaM was in develpoment.
Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")
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I had an idea for a "safety net" lifeline too, but slightly different from what was described earlier in the thread. I just thought that maybe a "safety net" could be an additional "safe level" like the $1000 and $32000 levels are, only the contestant chooses when it will be instated (ie before whichever question he or she is unsure of)
Another idea I had was "buy the answer". If a contestant is unsure, and not confident enough to have a stab at it, they could ask to "buy the answer", but at a cost of a quarter of that answer's winnings.
For example, if you're stuck on the $125000 question, and don't want to risk dropping down to $32000 you could "buy the answer" and effectively win $93750. That $31250 would then be deducted from the value of future prizes, and the Million dollar question would effectively be the $968750 question. If the contestant doesn't use the lifeline, and doesn't know the million dollar question, they could use it then and take home $750000.
So what's with this 1.25 million dollar level you're talking about? Has the game been expanded in the US?
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My *guess* is that it's going to end up being the Flip option -- which of course might end up asking whether this version might be LIVE, but that's another point for another day.
If you call the 212 area code number at millionairetv.com, it gives the tape dates of Super Millionaire. Each date is one day before the show airs on ABC, just like the taping in the beginning of the show's run.
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[quote name=\'CherryPizza\' date=\'Jan 27 2004, 07:47 PM\'] So what's with this 1.25 million dollar level you're talking about? Has the game been expanded in the US? [/quote]
Ok, forget that question, I just saw the article
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The "buy an answer" idea is OK, but the mathematics is a bit high. I prefer a 10% buyout option as opposed to 25%. That way, the contestant will win 90% of their total winnings($9 million). It's also easeir to deduce mathwise I think.
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"Search Engine" -- sponsored by Google. The player gives three words from the question, the results are fed into Google, and the top three results are shown as they would be on a Google search. It might help, it might not. (Phone-a-friends do it, why not the contestant?)
"Question Change" -- player may change one question in the stack with another of equal difficulty, not necessarily on the same subject.
"Audience Expert" -- if an audience member claims to know the right answer, they raise their hand. If picked, they get 15 seconds to tell why it's the right answer. If they're right they win $1000. Which could lead total boneheads to want to play, but that's the big risk of this one.
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[quote name=\'Robair\' date=\'Jan 28 2004, 06:46 AM\'] "Search Engine" -- sponsored by Google. The player gives three words from the question, the results are fed into Google, and the top three results are shown as they would be on a Google search. It might help, it might not. (Phone-a-friends do it, why not the contestant?)
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This would be a dandy until the first time the contestant gave his three words and was greeted with a pageful of hits for XXXXXX SuPeR Pr0n SiteZ...
"Audience Expert" -- if an audience member claims to know the right answer, they raise their hand. If picked, they get 15 seconds to tell why it's the right answer. If they're right they win $1000. Which could lead total boneheads to want to play, but that's the big risk of this one.
(A young lady is selected to answer a question about fashion designers.)
"Yes, um, I think it's the correct answer because I want to talk about my website, bigtitz.com! Everyone should go there! Don't forget the Z!"
(And yes, I figure if jackasses can walk around behind the crowd on the Today show with signs advertising their business and Web sites, then I see no reason why some idiot spammer wouldn't try to pull it off on national television.)
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Saw what they said on that in the interview... About a 27-hour turnaround, and if the qualification process begins on the 16th or so, it's got to be phone game...
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All of the ideas mentioned by you guys could work in some way. Is it true that you get the 3 lifelines back after the $1,000,000 question?
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I've always thought that as an alternative to having a Phone-a-Friend in front of the computer, it would be a good idea to have one who's situated in front of a dictionary. Make it blatantly obvious that you're calling them to use their dictionary ("Your time starts... now." "Dunlin! D-U-N-L-I-N! What's the definition?"), and you could nail a lot of "what type of ____ is [obscure word]" questions.
Which leads to my lifeline idea: Consult-the-Dictionary, or whatever you want to call it. The player picks any word in the English language (presumably one in the question) and is told the dictionary definition of that word. The only problem is that it could turn some upper-tier questions into real gimmes.
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Scott Robinson
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If I were a contestant, I think I'd rather have the safety net (only fall to half) than any of the other lifelines suggested here. If I were a producer trying to keep viewers tuned in, though, I think I'd go with the "pass" option, where you have to take the next question. (If a player still has the pass lifeline when he reaches the $10M question, can he take it for the automatic $10M?)
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[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Jan 27 2004, 09:27 AM\'] How about having a "designated hitter" in the audience, it could be the person in the relationship seat or one of the fastest finger players or even an individual in the audience who is chosen at random and can get some winnings if they can help out. [/quote]
There ought to be a constitutional amendment banning the designated hitter forever! www.techhecklers.com
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[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Jan 28 2004, 11:48 AM\'] This would be a dandy until the first time the contestant gave his three words and was greeted with a pageful of hits for XXXXXX SuPeR Pr0n SiteZ...
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Careful, buddy, that's looking dangerously close to something MoreHitz4U (sp?) would post, a certain ATGSer who made the occasional appearance on the old Moronionaire show. ;-)
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[quote name=\'DrJWJustice\' date=\'Jan 29 2004, 03:47 AM\']
Careful, buddy, that's looking dangerously close to something MoreHitz4U (sp?) would post, a certain ATGSer who made the occasional appearance on the old Moronionaire show. ;-) [/quote]
But will the old gang return to host and which of the former contestants are still eligible to be on Super Moronionaire, that is the question
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(And yes, I figure if jackasses can walk around behind the crowd on the Today show with signs advertising their business and Web sites, then I see no reason why some idiot spammer wouldn't try to pull it off on national television.)
Yes indeed! Total Jackasses! And Howard Stern spoofers as well! (And alt.tv.game-shows users too!)