name - michael bruno

claim to fame - first booted out of survivor-webcam 2.0

age - 17

location - dublin, ohio

Dec. 4th |02 Bloody Hell, good show kids! However, some of these antics are become way too much for me to handle. Shit, these final words have more unnecessary drama than a fourteen year-old valley brat. Bryan and Ron, point blank…your game is done. It’s a hard realization to come to, I should know. It sucks to not be able to live up the potential that you, yourself know that you possess. However, there’s a time and a place for your frustrations, and final words and videos might seem like a good place, but trust me…FROM EXPERIENCE, unnecessary venting in your final words, just makes you look like a dick. Poor Chock Dee, you’re now down to only five members left! Mick, Chris, Rodger, Hanneli, and Simone, the five of you need some serious team building exercises this week. I’m not kidding, scour the internet, look for some sort of team building puzzle, topic, song…frankly what it is matters nothing, that fact that you regroup, matters everything. Sanuk, you guys can’t do any worse that merging even with Chock Dee, than in an of itself should be a major accomplishment, well especially for the four of you who actually do stuff! Technically you could lose the next two, and kill some slack, but if that slack isn’t helping you vote…there’s no reason to let that happen, to tell you the truth. I would only suggest to you this week to keep working together, and maybe to make some last ditched efforts to bring those not participating back into the game.
 
Now, one big thing I wanted to talk about this week was “Player vs. Person”. I’ve seen a lot of bitterness and ill tempers in final words, and thirteen minute long final videos. Honestly though, people who are voted off so early have EVERY RIGHT to be pissed off, disgruntled, and angry at those who might have been responsible for it. However, please recognize that the way someone chooses to play a game like this, might very well bring out the worst qualities in a person, based on society’s aims of polite behavior. However, there’s very little that’s polite about this game. So my suggestion to all players who have been booted, or end up so in the next couple of weeks, is this: watch what you say and how quickly you judge a person’s overall character based on their game-play. I say this to also prevent you from being coined with the catchphrase, “hey pot, meet kettle”. Because if you’re malicious, and ruthless in your final words, that’s all that the audience and opposing tribe gets to see of you, and how credible do you come across then?
 
Finally this week, the subject of the “mysterious treemail” oooh la la! Well I have me theories on what this means, personally. Basically, I’m thinking that the “top two scorers from both teams” might now have been the top two after all. What if the top two were actually given a “pass”, so to speak, to this round of the game. Maybe someone like Miranda and Rhonda, were actually very dedicated players, and they won the ability to come in at this point in the game. Then there’s some challenge to see if each tribe gets one of them, or one tribe gets both. However, this could easily be done with two brand new individuals as well. I’ll just leave the remaining 12 of you with that starting point to ponder off of. So remember, AX + Maya = good thing.

Nov. 26th|02 Welcome to the Drama! Damn, you guys are giving me a great show here. The tension is so thick on these tribes that I can feel it suffocating me as I write this article. The lies, the manipulation, the intrigue, you guys kick ass! Last week I had to scorn all of you for being too pansy like in terms of how views perceive you, but this week, shit, you’ve come full circle. Now the challenge this week was very interesting. We see a completely intact Chock Dee tribe, participating and doing all that they can, however even when Sanuk has three missing members, they’re still kicking ass. I can’t possibly imagine how this is all working, but it is, and that’s the important part. So my hat is off to you Sanuk for being able to rally your four remaining members. However, for Alana, Molly, and Chris K., bloody shame on the three of you for signing up and taking the spots of possibly more valuable players. Worthless….and I really like all of your chances based on your profiles too…
 
Now, on to the boot this week, Ron, Ron, Ron…what can I say? You caused the biggest case of drama this week, and if my prediction holds true, (and shit, I picked the three most inactive players to do well) than your outburst in your final words will have a lasting effect in the game. There is always one pre-merger action that has a reaction that lingers into the merger, i.e. Gabe’s boot in Survivor: Marquesas or Kimmi’s big mouth in Survivor: The Australian Outback. So my prediction is that Ron’s final words will have some effect in the merger. Now Ron, I don’t know what to tell you, as far as how you could have done better, to tell you the truth. However, if you were as confrontational in your tribe as you were in your final words, that might have been the downfall.
 
Now Chock Dee, you need to repair. Put aside the damaging words and this week let’s see the six of your rebound and kick ass in he challenge. It’s time for you to take advantage of how active you are as opposed to self-destructing. Make Sanuk go to Tribal Council this week, they can afford it, you cannot. As for Sanuk, I’m going to say the opposite. You’ve proved just how powerful some of your members are, whether or not that’s a good thing to flaunt, it’s being shown for all to see. So maybe this would be the good time to throw a challenge, however I wouldn’t recommend it since you can afford to loose at anytime really. So tribes, let’s see which one of you is actually the most unified, the one with three inactive members and the one which seems to be rapidly growing more angry with each other. Should be fun, enjoy!

Nov. 15th|02 Tsk, tsk, 3.0! I thought I could have more faith in you, but what I’m seeing and hearing at this point is a little disappointing. What am I talking about you ask? The reactions of various contestants, concerning their placement in polls and what not, have come my way. I honestly thought that more of you would realize that the POLLS DO NOT IMPACT THE GAME. Just because the viewers don’t necessarily like you, doesn’t mean that your social status is in jeopardy. So my plea to the remaining fourteen of you at this point, would be to keep your heads further into the game, and try not to concern yourself with such superficial matters.
 
Well we are most definitely out of the honeymoon stage at this point and there are some things everyone should lookout for. Strategic personalities should be starting to form at this point. Now not everyone will be as aware as other in their tribes as who fits what role, but if you cannot accurately place yourself and everyone else in one of these roles, I would suggest reevaluating your position in the tribe. First off, there is always going to be your fox, or Queen Elizabeth type character. This person is a very sly person, very secretive about it though, and well liked by all the rest of the tribe. This is the best position to be in, liked, clever, powerful, and governing. However, the most interesting part of this character is that they don’t show that they’re like this. With seven of you left on each tribe there are probably one or two on your tribes at this points. Next, we have the snake, or Mary Queen of Scot type players. This person will be closely associated with the fox, however this character is the one who see right through the fox, and will be most inclined to challenge the fox’s leadership later in the game. There can only be one true snake, one true villain in each game, we’ll see who this turns out to be. Last week I mentioned something to everyone about how we’ll start seeing the Alpha-Males emerging in the coming weeks. These characters that are hungry to play and win, are the bears. They will most likely not wins games, due to their aggressive and slightly psychotically driven desire for victory.
 
Now we come to the bunny players. This is a lot of players in this and other games. The ones who fly under the radar, almost too the point that they do nothing, but contribute enough. They make it to the merger and are thought of as unsuspecting and non-threatening. To be quite honest, they’re my least favorite types of characters, the ones who let others think for them. Finally we come to the goat, or Fool players. These are the Ghandias, the Susans, the Keiths…the types of players that people generally kind of tolerate, but wouldn’t want to see win, because of past debaucheries. The Fool players are interesting, because while they could never win a game against a fox or even a snake, they could easily beat a bunny. So, I challenge the players left in this game, to try and pinpoint HONEST what type of character they are, and what type of characters the other members in your are.
 
Remember my message to you for the upcoming weeks, stop giving two fucks about the polls, and starts to figure out the types of games everyone here is playing. Hopefully this will be useful to everyone. Last notes for this week, it’s interesting to see that the Chock Dee lost this last challenge and that the tribes will be even now. It seems to be the theme that both tribes are correctly booting their most inactive players at this point, as they rightly should. So keep playing smart everyone and it will pay off, I promise!

Nov. 9th|02 OK, I’m muy sorry for not having this up on time everyone, (yah cause all of you were probably at the edge of your seats waiting for Michael to post his next column, huh?) but my schedule has been really chaotic right now. I have show for my advanced Theatre class that is going up all this week, so please…don’t stone me! Now as for my thoughts on the game thus far! Damn, four girls voted off in the elimination rounds, ladies you are at a serious disadvantage here. While you may be quick to assume that the remaining four of you might stick out on your tribe, I think you’re actually in a very precarious situation. Instead of sticking out, you might actually dissolve into the background while the other six males fight for that all “coveted” alpha-male spot! I assume that most everyone will probably assume that the females are allied at this point, however I think as we’ve seen in Sanuk, Alana cast a vote against Molly. This all goes back to the original point of don’t assume anything. While it might be easiest to just write of the females like that, just watch one of them turn it around on you Sean and Vecepia style for automatically grouping them together. What a brilliant play that would be! So my advise to the females in the game left would be to make sure that you’re not the center of attention, try hard, but don’t give them a reason to vote you out.

Guys, a lot of what I said so far has been advice for the women because of their peculiar disadvantage, however might I suggest that it would not be advantageous for any of you to write them off. Small in numbers, does not mean that their effect cannot be felt. This is about the time in the game when people are going to want to, or even be forced to become leaders on their tribes, (Personally, I already see the leaders, but would it be fair for me to spill that for others?! NO!) and we’re going to find our alpha male types. Now, god where do I begin, this is not a strategy I EVER believed in. Contributing to your tribe is always good, however directing and blatantly leading your tribe will most certainly cause one of two things to happen. One, you will be voted off instantly for being a threat before or after the merger. Or two, you will be voted off for being too bossy. Not a good idea you see. The best thing for your tribes right now would be to encourage all seven or eight members to continue to participate equally and make sure you try and make people as active as possible. This unites the tribe and prevents someone from being too bossy.

Sanuk, the seven of you are down one member. Wow, I know…what a surprise for everyone, you lost one member and now you have seven, isn’t math funny like that? Well, it seems like there’s going to be some new twist in the game coming up, so I don’t know how important immunity necessarily is, but it’s always a good thing to have in terms of personal safety. I would generally suggest that the seven of you work hard to build up communications, it’s always unfortunate to see someone vote for another person because they haven’t talked to them enough. So I would encourage some more group participation and general talk.

Chock Dee, congrats on immunity, hopefully it will help you to have eight members left in whatever sort of twists seems to be hinted at. I know that a couple members of the tribe somewhat…did their best to ensure a loss…I believe that’s the rumor I heard. However, it speaks very highly of the other member of the tribe that they would rally back from such a disingenuous action. So I would suggest the same thing to the eight of you. These are crucial times for a tribe, and while I don’t think I need to remind ANYONE that strategies should be forming around this time, be careful with what you portray yourself as.

Good luck to the remaining 15 tribes members in the upcoming week, and I can’t wait to see what happens. As for JR, damn I thought maybe someone voted out first would be a new media whore like myself, but even I had final words and an image. Hopefully you’ll get these up so we can see how you felt. Once again, thanks for reading guys and gals, enjoy the game, have fun, and play hard! Shout out to AX and Maya again (it’s going to be a trend) and Diane Amos.

Nov. 1st|02 Welcome to 3.0! Now, that's about as nice as I am going to be throughout this entire experience. I'm here to write about the occurrences in the game, comment on them and be myself at the same time. WOW, that's a hell of a lot to do for a small, unsuspecting, naive boy from Dublin, Ohio. Haha, shit...I've started to be nice and sarcastic again. Damnit, I must be tough, militant, and very strict with the twenty of you. Screw it, you know I’m too spastic to every maintain one persona. It should be interesting to view columns from the winner and the first loser, oh how I love juxtaposed situations. So anyhow, back to the columnist Michael. While my purpose is to guide and critique you all, I know you’re all probably wondering, “why is this loser telling us what to do?” or “he couldn’t even survive five days, so how the hell will he be able to guide me?” and as you should. However, I promise that I do know more than I let on.

There are a few things I can help you with that will hopefully aid you as you travel through the wonderful world of Survivor-Webcam. The first thing that I would suggest is that you read this article: http://www.survivor-central.com/columns/article.php?columns_id=329 Mario Lanza is very smart in his ways, and I think it will help you. One of the most important things that this article says is to “have people come to you”. We’ve already seen that this is all about “first impressions” as the website says, so above all else, make sure that you look like a nice, funny, intelligent and enjoyable. This way, if you look like an asset people will start coming to you. Also remember not to turn down others advances to you. See, people won’t go around bragging about who they’re allied with, that way you can have people trust you and people able to carefully dance around your alliances on your way to a win.

The one thing I don’t want people to do is start lying about who they are, and no one in the game becomes real anymore. If some people choose to do that in the game, there’s not much I can do about it, and it will probably work out for them. However, realize I’m telling everyone to read this, and if you slip up in the slightest, people will catch on. The important parts are the strategic references that you should catch on to. However there’s a lot of stuff that you can’t learn and involve in your game play just by reading this. There is a certain aspect of luck involved with EVERYTHING in these games. I suggest that everyone do the cliché and “expect the unexpected” however the fuck you plan to do that!   

Now, all of that bullshit aside, the most important part of this game is having fun. Even after I was voted out, I was able to enjoy the game from a spectator’s position. The people you’re playing with are pretty much very good, dedicated and honest people, and you will most likely enjoy talking to them after the game is over. My best friends from 2.0 are the ones that I didn’t have to play against, and got to know and form relationships with, outside of the game. Have fun with this, and make sure to not regret a thing that you do. So once again, have some fucking fun people, enjoy each other, and I want to see some really good playing. None of this “let’s all be friends bullshit”…no, no…let’s see people make great plays, amazing moves, and smart decisions. So until my next article, I just want to give a little shout out to Andy X. and Maya Rudolph, The Pine-Sol Lady, The Two Fat Ladies, Margaret Cho, and all of my SW.com bastards in crime! Once again, good luck, and I can’t wait to see how you guys play this out!
 
~Michael~

name - sebastian kumali

claim to fame - winner of survivor-webcam 2.0

age - 18

location - hilo, hawaii

Nov. 21st|02 Hoooohoooohahahahhahehehe! Week 3 has just pased us by what a rush so far huh? Wasn't Richie a loser? Listen up, why do you people fill out a lengthly application for nothing? Save us all the trouble and don't do it! This game was meant for active ones who participate and are willing to be social with others. If you block the whole crunkin' from you buddy list so early in the game, you'll get nowhere fast. I've blocked people from my buddy list, in fact, I still have a couple of them blocked. Nobody likes a sore loser(s) :p. If you don't see my on your buddy list, you know who you are. In Richie's case, he must have been either superconfident that he can get ahead without socializing and interacting or he just didn't want to bother at all.

Another thing, the poll results that you see every week doesn't count for how well you or the others actually play. Those are just statistics decided upon by the fans or audience members. They don't necessarily reflect on your actual abilities. In season one of survivor-webcam, Angel was at the top of the board pregame! Then slowly, she declined speedily...why, I don't know, could be revenge by a disgruntled former player. However, I happen to know that she is an extremely great player and a great person at that. Also from season one, our favorite and best season one contestant of them all, Mandi, was high up there on the polls until the end. She was also a fierce competitor that you would most likely be put away by if given the chance. Looks don't mean a thing either. Mandi was underestimated and look what happened to everyone, they got the smackdown layed on them. For her efforts, she won the game with a 6 - 1 vote. So to clarify once again, poll results DO NOT count on abilities, just looks or fan favorite points. Richie and JR went waaaaaaaay down in the polls because of their loser behavior. JR not making the effort to communicate and Richie outright blocking his whole tribe!

I also know that tribal council three was a big blow out, I wish I was there! A tip for the weary, put up your away message when in tribal council, it saves you from the annoying "Are you going to vote for me?" crap. That's one thing that always irritated me because I'd like to talk with my co-plotters but there was always someone in the way. Another thing you can do is download AIM+ here... AIM+ is a cloning program which enables you to clone AIM. What does that mean? You can actually open up another AIM window and sign on with another screen name. This enables you to have a conversation on the side with the people you want to talk to while the others wont know about it...as long as they don't have that screen name. The third thing you can do is just open up another chat room on the side while your away message is up. You can invite those who you want to plot with but leave out those annoying pleas for safety. That's all for this week, I'll be back next week with a whole new column aren't you excited??

Nov. 8th|02 Well peeps, what do you think so far?? We've seen four people eliminated before the real deal started and one person voted out of the game. Players, DO NOT start slacking just because you've passed the elimination rounds. That was just a pre-precursor to what you will soon be encountering. Michael and I both write columns here and we have our own opinions and they may vary but the one thing that we are both doing is to encourage you all to participate! JR was the first victim. When I logged my first impressions down from the first twenty, I gave JR high points based on his looks. It just goes to show that you can't judge someone on how they play the game by looks. I don't know what it was that made him not participate in the first and extremely crucial challenge but he was dumb not to. When you sign up for Survivor Webcam, you are making a commitment to be here and play the game to your fullest. Don't make us think that you signed up just to get some recognition in the gaming world. When you read my future columns, keep in mind that I love to strategize and to plot and play things out. This is why I will dissect your game every week to point out where you might have gone wrong or what you might want to do to get ahead. Most of you are putting forth a great effort and that makes the staff very happy, especially the big man Rob! There are others that...well to put it blatantly...suck! Get up off your ass and work your magic, don't sit around and wait for someone to drag you along. Lots of you work or have school to attend. Like I said before, you signed up for this knowing that it will take lots of your time away. Fortunately for me at the time, I was just out of school and wasn't working a full or part time schedule. But what can you do right? You can't quit school or work because that would be dumb, however, you are obligated to the game and you should put time in whenever possible. At times, others will tell you not to let the game rule your life. That's bullshit :) What do they want you to do? They want you to stop putting effort down by feeding you birdies like this. While at the same time, you don't want it to rule your life. Sometimes, you have to just a little bit if you want to win. Another thing you can do is keep up with Survivor Thailand! My favorites keep getting voted off one by one. First, Robb, then Shii, now Erin. Personally, I don't really care for Penny even though she's not all evil. Jan, its time for her to go! I'm not a fan of the sweet good nice people :). Ted, Clay, and Brian seem to have it set for the final 3. They seem to be worthy competitors out there. My favorites right now are Helen and Jake. Helen is a serious competitor yet, she's not bossy and pushy all the time. Jake is the oldest guy yet he doesn't look weak and haggard. If it's helpful to you, watch the show and take some points from the real survivors. My final words of the night goes to JR. Dude, you weren't into the game but if you want to prove better than that, atleast submit your final words and photo! Chock Dee and Sanuk, keep up the good work guys and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Nov. 1st|02 Good day everyone, might I be among the first to congratulate you on your first accomplishment in Survivor Webcam, and that is, making the final cut! You've obviously beat out countless others in the process to become THE ultimate survivor. Let me tell you, it's not going to be an easy ride ok? I signed up for Survivor Webcam 2.0 *the best yet by the way :)* not knowing that it was going to be the best damn thing the Internet has to offer! Survivor Webcam will take you on an emotional ride whether it be losing a friend in the battle or saving yourself from possible extinction. My advice, deal with it. You will need to pull yourself together if you want to play hardball. Just be on constant guard because you never know what kind of s*** is going down around you. Not to say you need to be paranoid all the time, just be careful.

Of course, you need to make friendships and no, I don't necessarily mean alliances. I find that friendships go a long way and superceed the whole "alliance" idea. When you're friends, you're naturally going to stick together but honestly, try to stay away from alliances unless you're willing to risk bad exposure. Once you're in an alliance and it doesn't work out, you get a bad rep from the others. You could be subject to persicution for your actions. However, it isn't wrong to wheel and deal your way to the end! After all, you do what you have to do to survive! That is the whole point of it right? The object of the game is to Outwit, Outcam, and Outlast. I encourage all of you to do what you need to do in order to get to the end.

This brings me to another point. If you think for one second that your merrits and accomplishments will account for even 50 percent of your chances of winning, you're so wrong. They mean absolute CRAP once you're sitting in front of very disgruntled jurors just waiting to hack away at whatever pride and happines you have left. Sadly, what counts for most people is how nice and sweet you are during the game. I'd like to think that I played the heel character especially in the last days of the game. What fun is a game where everyone loves each other. BORING! I urge you to play the game with any means possible! Don't just tag along or expect others to play it for you. You need to keep a watchful eye, perhaps play it low key for the first few days yet, establish yourself in the tribe. A very important thing to keep in mind here...do not play leader because there is always someone who will try to take you down.! It is in us to defy authority, especially if it's unwelcomed. Lastly, and most importantly, HAVE FUN in whatever you do. I garuntee you will even if you're not having the best of fortune. Follow all of Rob's rules, they're not that many so please abide by them. Rob is a humble guy but he also doesn't stand for s***. As long as the drama doesn't involve him, it's all good so don't skimp on it :)!