The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: aaron sica on March 30, 2014, 12:38:43 PM
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The post about "painting yourself in a corner" in Grocery Game (i.e. making it pretty much unwinnable by managing the items badly) got me thinking..What other situations in a game show would allow you to leave the game virtually unwinnable?
I thought of "High Rollers", specifically the Big Numbers. Leaving only a "2" on the board would only leave one possible roll to win, but even more, just leaving a "1", you've screwed the pooch..
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Golden Balls: Showing at least 2 killers in the front row was the kiss of death, since the player would likely have to lie about the back row values and nobody would allow such a large quantity of killer balls to advance in the game. It's all about luck and chance, just like High Rollers.
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Hitting a Whammy on your last spin.
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There are the obvious ones like losing a True Daily Double late in the game and such.
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Piggybacking off of Kevin's point, going into Final Jeopardy! in second place, but the leader has more than twice your score. Unless you're going up against a true gambler, you're pretty much playing to keep your $2,000.
I'd also say that a Fast Money round where the team has less than 150 points going into the last survey question or two.
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Losing the Prize Puzzle on Wheel of Fortune.
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Golden Balls: Showing at least 2 killers in the front row was the kiss of death
I'd like to see someone show three killers in the front row. :P
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Golden Balls: Showing at least 2 killers in the front row was the kiss of death
I'd like to see someone show three killers in the front row. :P
Whoops. I thought three balls were shown in the front row of round 2. They only show two balls in the second round. It's been some time since I've seen Golden Balls.
/It's on my short list of the next overseas home game purchase.
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Losing the Prize Puzzle on Wheel of Fortune.
I lol'd.
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Someone calling a vowel and then solving the Speed-Up puzzle when they're behind by just about the amount of the final spin.
Someone ending their guesses in 10 Chances in a number other than 0 or 5 since that hasn't been a solution in any playing of the game in at least 15 years, if not more.
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Someone ending their guesses in 10 Chances in a number other than 0 or 5 since that hasn't been a solution in any playing of the game in at least 15 years, if not more.
Aaaaand we're rapidly approaching "twitch, twitch" territory.
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Aaaaand we're rapidly approaching "twitch, twitch" territory.
Which is just as well; this was a topic that needed to be taken out behind the shed early on.
Is it revolutionary to say "Whammy on last spin" or "miss a clue 60 Daily Double?" No, because those are obvious.
There was an episode of daily Weakest Link where one of the team was doing all of the heavy lifting while the alliance of dumbs plinked off everyone else leaving him to increase the pot. When it was two dumbs to Smart Guy, he saw that the handwriting was on the wall and stalled several seconds and then gave a wrong answer every time in order to add no more money to the pot before he was voted out.
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Someone ending their guesses in 10 Chances in a number other than 0 or 5 since that hasn't been a solution in any playing of the game in at least 15 years, if not more.
Aaaaand we're rapidly approaching "twitch, twitch" territory.
Okay, you call it what you want. I'm not twitching over a contestant who doesn't know a hidden rule in one game that isn't played anywhere near as often as it used to be. But if the question was asked, that is a valid answer. Sorry if it sounds too fanboi-ish for this thread.
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But if the question was asked, that is a valid answer. Sorry if it sounds too fanboi-ish for this thread.
The reason I mock you is because a) It is *exactly* Price-fanboi-ish, and b) it's not a valid answer. There's a difference between "working yourself into a bad situation" like the original Grocery Game example and leaving the 1 laying in the Big Numbers (especially when the latter can happen through no fault of your own) and "being an out-and-out dumbass" or "not knowing an OMG-secret rule." And it was only a matter of time before someone conflated the two and rendered the thread moot. Well done.
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I'll admit that looking back at the OP again, my answer is not valid and you're right, since you can't paint yourself into a corner if you don't even have the brush in your hands.
Sorry my single half a post could render this thread moot.
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The takeaway for me is that most game shows don't allow for this to happen. Sometimes a game will be a runaway but rarely is a game completely borked.
Right now I'm watching The Amazing Race and a common (ie, every time it happens) complaint of mine is the airport bunching. That as well as location start times keep most of the group in the race, but I wish there was a way to do something where on the final leg the teams are staggered in their start based on accumulated lead time. (Whether it's improved that every leg is a mass start is something I will leave to the philosophers.)
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Now that I look at Aaron's post, my examples aren't as much painting yourself in a corner as they are you just falling into an unfortunate situation.
How about getting "blocked" on every single acronym in a column in the Gold Run on Blockbusters? That's a bit more immediate, in that you get all five wrong, and the round pretty much ends.
/Has that ever happened?
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0How about getting "blocked" on every single acronym in a column in the Gold Run on Blockbusters? That's a bit more immediate, in that you get all five wrong, and the round pretty much ends.
/Has that ever happened?
Yes, a guy from England was on the show and not up to snuff on American pop culture. He was allowed to run out the time by answering remaining clues at $100 a throw.
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The takeaway for me is that most game shows don't allow for this to happen. Sometimes a game will be a runaway but rarely is a game completely borked.
Right now I'm watching The Amazing Race and a common (ie, every time it happens) complaint of mine is the airport bunching. That as well as location start times keep most of the group in the race, but I wish there was a way to do something where on the final leg the teams are staggered in their start based on accumulated lead time. (Whether it's improved that every leg is a mass start is something I will leave to the philosophers.)
Those airport delays are there to cut a lot of costs out of the production of the show. The Amazing Race has done a a few noticeable things like that to make sure that film crews aren't racking up billable hours waiting for teams to show up and do their things. That's also why they cut the number of Fast Forwards down to 1 or 2. They used to have them available on every leg of the race but teams wouldn't try for them and the camera crews and set-up went unused.
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0How about getting "blocked" on every single acronym in a column in the Gold Run on Blockbusters? That's a bit more immediate, in that you get all five wrong, and the round pretty much ends.
/Has that ever happened?
Yes, a guy from England was on the show and not up to snuff on American pop culture. He was allowed to run out the time by answering remaining clues at $100 a throw.
Bill didn't mention it frequently, but he did encourage contestants every so often about continuing on after being blocked out.
Now, did this happen at all on WordPlay?
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I feel like there's a difference between the Grocery Game example and the Blockbusters example, because Grocery Game isn't as binary. Two moves which are good on their own can combine into a bad move, whereas the Gold Run is as simple as right answer=good, wrong answer=bad as long as you're picking the right hexagons.
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What about spending at least 30 seconds on the first level of Nick Arcade's Video Zone? Sometimes the second level takes a long time, giving them very little time to beat the wizard.
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What about spending at least 30 seconds on the first level of Nick Arcade's Video Zone?
Do you really think "taking a long time" is a strategic decision?
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To the extent that a game based on luck can fit this topic, I'll offer the "Press Your Luck" example of being in a distant third place while holding the last spin of the game. Your only two options are either to hope for a miracle run of "+ one spin" spaces or to give up and just spite the leader with a passed spin.
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The takeaway for me is that most game shows don't allow for this to happen. Sometimes a game will be a runaway but rarely is a game completely borked.
Right now I'm watching The Amazing Race and a common (ie, every time it happens) complaint of mine is the airport bunching. That as well as location start times keep most of the group in the race, but I wish there was a way to do something where on the final leg the teams are staggered in their start based on accumulated lead time. (Whether it's improved that every leg is a mass start is something I will leave to the philosophers.)
Those airport delays are there to cut a lot of costs out of the production of the show. The Amazing Race has done a a few noticeable things like that to make sure that film crews aren't racking up billable hours waiting for teams to show up and do their things. That's also why they cut the number of Fast Forwards down to 1 or 2. They used to have them available on every leg of the race but teams wouldn't try for them and the camera crews and set-up went unused.
As a serious question, which came first: the bunching or the FF cutdowns? Because I wouldn't be particularly incentivized to attempt a FF unless I know I'm behind, given that I won't really get to save any real time from it the next day.
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As a serious question, which came first: the bunching or the FF cutdowns? Because I wouldn't be particularly incentivized to attempt a FF unless I know I'm behind, given that I won't really get to save any real time from it the next day.
My recollection is that the Fast Forwards were cutdown before airport bunching was used as a means to keep the race close/costs down.
An unfortunate side affect is that it makes going for the first of two Fast Forward passes a poor choice because the last time a team went for it all of the teams bunched at the next airport and the team that checked in first is the only team that definitely cannot try for the second Fast Forward. Some reward.
Since the Race is all about avoidance of risk (stay with the other teams, book the same flight, do the same tasks, don't break away from the pack) it makes the Fast Forward an unattractive option for all but the teams that lag the farthest behind who have nothing else on which to hang their hat.
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Now that there are only 1 or 2 Fast Forwards on the entire race, I feel the ideal strategy is to jump on the first one you see because you might not be the team in the lead when the second one appears. It's a free pass to the next round and the task isn't usually horrible*.
* = Except gross eating challenges. That's Fear Factor and it sucked there, too.
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Here's my suggestion for a nearly unwinnable situation: The only available square in Hollywood Squares is Gilbert Gottfried.
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Here's my suggestion for a nearly unwinnable situation: The only available square in Hollywood Squares is Gilbert Gottfried.
YOU FOOL!
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Here's my suggestion for a nearly unwinnable situation: The only available square in Hollywood Squares is Gilbert Gottfried.
YOU FOOL!
It took you five days to get to your keyboard, Johnny?
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It took you five days to get to your keyboard, Johnny?
I would have said something (about Johnny's rejoinder, not a rejoinder of mine own) but these days it seems like each time I do that I'm asked why I don't like fun. So I let it be.