1 vs 100 for Xbox Live (beta)
Oh what sweeter taste can there be then finally eating of the fruit from the idea tree. A tree that you never even planted but have always carried the seed.
I submit to you 1 vs 100 for Xbox Live. The best thing to ever come to the Xbox 360.
This is the video-gamation(tm) of said game show. It's currently in beta format, more importantly that means it's free, you can play live and you don't even need a gold account to do it. If you aren't familiar with the TV show 1 vs 100 you have 1 contestant going up against the mob, which initially consists of a 100 member wall of opposition. It's your goal, as the 1, to take on the mob in trivia battle.
This battle consists of a series of multiple choice questions each with 3 possible answers. If you answer the question you move on, if you fail you are ejected from the game and are forced to hang your head in humiliation for eternity. The remaining mob members divide the fruit of your failure. Let me explain that last part in a little more detail.
As you are asked questions and must submit answers so must each member of the mob. If you are right you get points for every mob member that is wrong. Each mob member that gets it wrong is also out of the game thus making the potential earnings for the remaining mob members all the better. You get 3 helps along the way but the helps are often a lie.
How this translates to Xbox Live is a thing of beauty. In it's pure form there are events scheduled dail,y usually from 8pm - 10pm or 10pm to 12pm. You sign into 1vs100 live and are placed into the audience. While as an audience member you answer the exact same questions the contestant does and doing so earns you points. At the end of each round the top 3 audience scoring members are given real prizes. These so far have been free Xbox360 Arcade games like Braid for example.
However, the more important purpose in racking up your score is it increases your chance of becoming The 1 or a member of The Mob. If you are The 1 the points you accumulate, should you win, translate into Xbox Live points. Same with The Mob should The 1 lose. They get that many number of Xbox Live points divided up by the remaining Mob members. So the goal is to stay in the game and answer questions as long as you can. To give you an idea of the kinds of points we are talking about, the other night in a two hour period I saw one person win 3,000 points, another 6,000 and the mob split 6,000 and 9,000 point prizes.
Outside of these windowed 'Prime' events there is extended play, which you can join at anytime. In extended play you can't actually win any prizes but it all builds into your total score and thus increasing the chance of becoming The 1 or in The Mob.
The trivia questions are right in that sweet spot. They generally feel easy and build up your confidence only to throw some obscure one in, out of your realm, that will send you reeling for help. It's the type of Bar trivia everyone loves and loves to hate. It's the type of game I can see being played in house holds where a family huddles around the glowing X, bringing in the movie cousin, the sports uncle, and the trivia buff all in hopes of maximizing their scoring potential. In a word, this is a genre transcending game. I could easily see my parents (and I plan on it) sitting around with this questionable technology fully helping me rack up my points total.
Now as to the fruit I've so sweetly dined. Here we have a video game who's direct mastery of, gives you more video games. Think of that for a second. It'd be like going to a restaurant and being rewarded with more food for doing really well at eating what you already had purchased. It's the gift that keeps on giving.
This is something I've wanted to see with Xbox since it's beginning. Being rewarded with gifts because you are playing their games, really well. My ultimate vision being that this kind of concept moves to future Xbox games. Finish Gears of War 3 with 500 achievements and you get a free GoW3 theme....
Microsoft has the tools fully at hand to addicting people to play games by rewarding them by playing games. No longer would dropping $60 for the next game be just that. No, it's another means to unlock more points and further reward you with what you love.
While that day certainly isn't here yet. 1 vs 100 is and it's awesome.
Perfection. 5 out of 5
I submit to you 1 vs 100 for Xbox Live. The best thing to ever come to the Xbox 360.
This is the video-gamation(tm) of said game show. It's currently in beta format, more importantly that means it's free, you can play live and you don't even need a gold account to do it. If you aren't familiar with the TV show 1 vs 100 you have 1 contestant going up against the mob, which initially consists of a 100 member wall of opposition. It's your goal, as the 1, to take on the mob in trivia battle.
This battle consists of a series of multiple choice questions each with 3 possible answers. If you answer the question you move on, if you fail you are ejected from the game and are forced to hang your head in humiliation for eternity. The remaining mob members divide the fruit of your failure. Let me explain that last part in a little more detail.
As you are asked questions and must submit answers so must each member of the mob. If you are right you get points for every mob member that is wrong. Each mob member that gets it wrong is also out of the game thus making the potential earnings for the remaining mob members all the better. You get 3 helps along the way but the helps are often a lie.
How this translates to Xbox Live is a thing of beauty. In it's pure form there are events scheduled dail,y usually from 8pm - 10pm or 10pm to 12pm. You sign into 1vs100 live and are placed into the audience. While as an audience member you answer the exact same questions the contestant does and doing so earns you points. At the end of each round the top 3 audience scoring members are given real prizes. These so far have been free Xbox360 Arcade games like Braid for example.
However, the more important purpose in racking up your score is it increases your chance of becoming The 1 or a member of The Mob. If you are The 1 the points you accumulate, should you win, translate into Xbox Live points. Same with The Mob should The 1 lose. They get that many number of Xbox Live points divided up by the remaining Mob members. So the goal is to stay in the game and answer questions as long as you can. To give you an idea of the kinds of points we are talking about, the other night in a two hour period I saw one person win 3,000 points, another 6,000 and the mob split 6,000 and 9,000 point prizes.
Outside of these windowed 'Prime' events there is extended play, which you can join at anytime. In extended play you can't actually win any prizes but it all builds into your total score and thus increasing the chance of becoming The 1 or in The Mob.
The trivia questions are right in that sweet spot. They generally feel easy and build up your confidence only to throw some obscure one in, out of your realm, that will send you reeling for help. It's the type of Bar trivia everyone loves and loves to hate. It's the type of game I can see being played in house holds where a family huddles around the glowing X, bringing in the movie cousin, the sports uncle, and the trivia buff all in hopes of maximizing their scoring potential. In a word, this is a genre transcending game. I could easily see my parents (and I plan on it) sitting around with this questionable technology fully helping me rack up my points total.
Now as to the fruit I've so sweetly dined. Here we have a video game who's direct mastery of, gives you more video games. Think of that for a second. It'd be like going to a restaurant and being rewarded with more food for doing really well at eating what you already had purchased. It's the gift that keeps on giving.
This is something I've wanted to see with Xbox since it's beginning. Being rewarded with gifts because you are playing their games, really well. My ultimate vision being that this kind of concept moves to future Xbox games. Finish Gears of War 3 with 500 achievements and you get a free GoW3 theme....
Microsoft has the tools fully at hand to addicting people to play games by rewarding them by playing games. No longer would dropping $60 for the next game be just that. No, it's another means to unlock more points and further reward you with what you love.
While that day certainly isn't here yet. 1 vs 100 is and it's awesome.
Perfection. 5 out of 5
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Comments
I've heard rumors that they will charge for the game on a per play basis once it's out of beta. Doesn't seem likely, but if it does happen, it will be a deal breaker.
The other thing is that the questions are reused in extended play. I only played twice, and I recognized about a third of the questions already when I played my second game. That means that the winners will be the people who have played more, and seen the questions already, not the people who already know the answers. I know it would be tough to essentially come up with a new trivia question for every waking minute of every day, but I think the questions must always be new in order for the game to work, even in extended play.
I haven't actually noticed any recycled questions yet in about 7hrs total of play. I can certainly remember questions that were similar, but I don't remember any that were identical.
Which isn't to say that they don't recycle questions. I'd be really surprised if they didn't. But with the amount of trivia available and only needing to change up questions slightly, they do have an ever growing database to use at their disposal.
Then again even if they do recycle questions, that doesn't really break anything for me. It's no different then avid watchers of any game show. While they do their best to not recycle questions they do come close and likely between two different game shows questions do get recycled. So if that happens in 1vs100 for live I don't see that as being a problem. Just a representation of the real thing.