June
12 /03 - Simone Raves 13.0
Bart, Bart, Bart. The one the audience
loved to hate. He played the game hard, this is true, and some
of his tactics did get him in hot water with his tribemates,
but for me personally, the game is more fun with a joker in
the pack. A few weeks back, KW won a reward which he chose to
share with Bart. This reward was the right to post openly on
the SW Forums.
Now immediately I heard that this reward had been offered, it
brought to mind that moment in Survivor Thailand, when Brian
won the reward of seeing a video of his family. It was great
for him to see that, but it wasn’t all good, because it
sure did have the potential to change people’s perceptions
about him in a big way. When I was in 3.0, I was terrified of
drawing attention on the SW forums, and made a point of discouraging
my friends (yes I do have some) from posting there. KW and Bart
both posted, KW in a small way, but Bart with wanton abandon.
Whether this wanton behavior on his part had any impact on his
tribemates, I don’t really know. Were they jealous of
the attention he was getting? Looking at the voting over the
last few weeks, it is more than likely that Bart was on his
way out the door anyway, particularly after Joe’s defection
to the opposition alliance, but did the extra publicity slam
all the windows shut, as well as the doors?
I went to review the final words offered so far by our voted-out
4.0ers, and I found that Bart had close friends, and mortal
enemies among them. People have strong feelings about him, which
is why I enjoyed his being in the game so much. He DID add a
lot of drama to the game, even if it was exhausting at times.
And then I re-read my initial columns, and something struck
me. I went to check. With Bart and Steve on the bench, the Jury
now outnumbers the final 4.: Jeremy (Xingu), Alex (Xingu/Tapajos),
Darren (Japaru/Tapajos) and Joseph (Tapajos/Japaru). Interesting
that from the first week, where there were no tribal boundaries,
we should now come full circle, and we now see that the three
mid-game tribal groups really were artificial constructs, rather
than true tribal identities. These survivors are now, and ever
were Tagaeri.
June
12 /03 - Simone Raves 12.0
Last
week I posted a message of reassurance. I put to you that there
is a certain sameness, a pattern which a survivor game tends
to follow. This week I need to balance that, by talking about
the unexpected things the game of survivor can throw at you.
There are two main ways in which the natural order of a survivor
game can be upset. One is when the given target at the next
tribal council happens to win immunity. The other is when a
person who thinks they have someone watching their back, finds
to their disappointment that things are not as they seemed.
I have been in more than a few survivor games, and it is always
the case, that there are only ever two people who actually need
that immunity. There are usually a whole lot more than two who
think they need it, but it comes down to two - The person who
is going to be voted out, and the person who is next in line,
should the first choice to be voted out win that immunity. Thus
to the majority of the tribe, it is not so important who wins
immunity, as who does NOT. Over and over I have seen players
in a survivor game work together to ensure that the target of
their votes has no chance to gain that immunity prize. I have
also seen, at times, players go to extraordinary lengths to
win an immunity that they didn’t! need, even at the cost
of compromising their long-term position in the game.
Sadly for Steve, his great run in the game came to a sudden
and unexpected end. Unable to compete for immunity due to demands
of family, nonetheless he had the expectation of at worst a
tied vote at Tribal Council. Even if he had been aware that
he needed this immunity, he was not in a position to compete
for it.
Betrayal can be a real shock. The whole point of a backstabbing,
is that you just don’t see it coming. There are many personal
and strategic reasons for why it can happen, but it boils down
to this: The person who backstabs is almost always doing it
because they feel the game will be more promising for them with
their target out of the game. Joe could have forced a final
3 tie, but decided to vote for Steve. Just doing the numbers,
I feel there may be more going on than meets the eye here. However,
in this situation it is unlikely the vote was personal. Joe
had to see somehow ! an improvement in his situation as a result
of that vote.
Steve’s final words were positive and upbeat, reflecting
a mature pride in his accomplishments. And he should be proud.
I hope he will accept the retrospective “Brian”
award I have been holding onto since the inception of the awards,
for his dress-ups in the first week of the game. So many times
I have heard it said, that Steve was the only female in 4.0.
We might snicker at that a little, but I believe it is a compliment,
as it reflects the great spirit and level of commitment he had
to the game and the people in it. Well played Steve.
May
30/03 - Simone Raves 11.0
I find myself sighing a lot as I write this
week. I am not exactly surprised to see KW bite the dust at
this point in the game. I AM however a little unsettled by his
take on the remaining players though. Of course he’s angry
to be sidelined, but I disagree so strongly with him about what
is going on with the game, that I am going to have to say something.
I feel there is a reassuring kind of pattern to the way these
games play out, at least to the casual eye. Before you read
on, let me make it clear that what I am about to say is just
my opinion. Please don’t think I mean this happens in
every online survivor game, because I know each game is different.
I have been in over 10 online survivor games, and this is just
a general trend I have often observed to hold true.
Here goes:
Queen Simone of Chock Dee’s Quick and Easy Online Survivor
Study Guide:
Category 1 – Annoyances
In a survivor game on TV, the early boots are usually the misfits,
or the ones who are just sick or lazy. Similarly, online, knowing
that the tribe needs immunity to gain dominance, the first couple
of boots are usually the annoyances. These are the players who
are either inactive, or just plain drive-you-up-the-wall types.
In an online game you can expect to have at least a couple of
annoyances on your tribe. If you have ever been in an online
game and been first out, please don’t send me letters
explaining why you aren’t annoying. That would just annoy
me, and prove my point as to why you were voted out in the first
place.
Category 2 – Wannabes
After the inactive/buzzing annoyances have been booted, it is
time for any potential leaders of the tribe to have a minor
war. If you have more than wannabe leader in your tribe, they
will likely try to get each other in the firing line, if possible
before a merge. Leaders do like going into a merge with their
troops marching in formation. They don’t seem so keen
on having unpredictable people around.
Categories 3, 4, 5 – Immunity Whores, Loose Ends, and
Prom Queens
Once you have removed the non-productive, and the likely leaders,
the next to go are the ones who would perform well in individual
immunities, and any non-aligned loose ends. This usually happens
around merge time. After them, the tribe will turn on the people
who would be popular with a jury…. and before you know
it, there aren’t many people left!
Most of the 4.0 cast will likely fit into those general categories
I just outlined. I will leave it up to you to work out where
they belong. It would be too cruel for me to tell you who is
who.
Moving on, and the question is: Who IS left???? In 4.0, the
six who are left, are not all clones of Ethan Zohn, far from
it. Joe, maybe, but the other five have all talked to me enough,
that I get a sense that they have a whole lot more game potential
in them than their cast-mates have yet given them credit for.
These six are the ones who, in various ways, managed to play
so as to not become targets. This means, to my way of thinking,
they avoided being pigeon-holed in any of my five special categories
above. The final six, Alex, Bart, Darren, Jeremy, Joe and Steve
can now step out from the shadow of the players who have been
removed from the game, and strut their stuff. KW called most
of them sheep, but I see them as wolves in sheep’s clothing.
Their true natures are about to be revealed as they tussle for
final positions.
Jury Count : 3 Angry young men (and growing). I predict fireworks
at the Finale.
May
14/03 - Simone Raves 10.0
Regular readers will know that up until last
week, I had been waiting and waiting (and hoping and praying
just a little too) for a split vote. To go so long with clear
majority votes is a testament to the hidden power brokers in
the game. When we actually got that split vote, I wondered then,
if it signalled the end of an era.
Well, the word “Landslide” is kind of appropriate
now. I have a strong feeling that the Survivor Webcam game is
now being played at some crazy higher level. I am trying really
hard to find the sense in this brave new world that the 4.0
cast have created.
Created, did I say? Well, these guys certainly aren’t
gods (though some of them have suitably large egos). I doubt
there is a 4.0er that can’t already look back and see
at least one moment where they would go back and do it differently
if they could. I am sure many of them have thoughts of “If
I knew then, what I know now……”, and I am
not just talking about the two angry young men now cooling their
heels on the sidelines.
The only thing I am sure of right now, is that there has been
some kind of shift. This game has now changed from a team game,
to an individual game. I deliberately choose the word team,
not tribe, because I believe that Tagaeri was the only true
“tribe” this game ever had.
I am not sure if anyone remembers, but in my second column,
I talked about tribal identity, and how important that was in
determining how people would behave post merge in a traditional
two-tribe game. We are now truly back to Tagaeri. The voting
pattern of the last two weeks shows that. It is also clear that
Nick had no idea he was about to be voted out. Poor Nick I guess,
but nobody should ever get that comfortable in a survivor game.
I can’t predict what is going to happen next, but the
game has me fascinated and excited all over again. We are on
the wild and crazy Tagaeri roller-coaster ride, with no seatbelts,
and someone is going to be thrown from this moving vehicle very
soon.
……………………….
WheeeEEEEEEEeeeeeee!!!!!
May
14/03 - Simone Raves 9.0
After a merge into one tribe, we had a close
call in Tribal Council. To get a sense of the drama, all we
need to do is read Kevin W’s reaction, after receiving
four votes to Mike’s five:
“Thank you for keeping me... I’m shaking a lot right
now... I have tears in my eyes guys… I got really worked
up!”
Kevin W, the youngest person in the game, survived this particular
Tribal Council, but must now go on, knowing that three of the
seven that remain in the game with him actually cast votes against
him. We have to wonder how much pressure he can stand.
On the other hand, we have the cold hard anger of Mike’s
final words. I believe he has a right to be angry too. I encourage
everyone to take the time to read what he wrote, because I was
impressed deeply by his ability to write maturely and put together
a good argument, despite his immediate pain. This guy is hurting,
but he will be a very worthy and valuable jury member, and I
am looking forward to hearing more from him.
I am so taken with Mike right now, that I am giving him a “Brian”
award. Now go read his award-winning final words!
After reading what he had to say, I am definitely starting to
think from a juror perspective. Mike has a relatively long wait
before he gets to confront the final two. Revenge is a dish
best served cold, and Mike has a long time to chill. If the
eight people remaining in the game don’t take the time
to consider the way in which they deal with each other in the
nasty business of voting each other off, we could have an extremely
vengeful jury on our hands. Book your spot for the finale now!
May
05/03 - Simone Raves 8.0
Week 7. These guys know how a survivor
game goes. You start with 16, and when you get to 10 people
left, you merge….. right?
Well, Rob had a nice nasty shock for them. I know that term
seems contradictory, but it was nice for us to watch, and nasty
for them to deal with. Instead of a lovely happy huggly bunch
of guys all thrown together into one tribe, we were left with
three little sad sorry-looking huddles.
No merge at 10!!! Who’d have thunk. Sometimes pain is
just so morbidly fascinating. I know this, because I can’t
stop watching reruns of the Webcam Show.
Delaying the merge may have thrown out the calculations of some
of our players, who had plans in place ready for when the merge
occurred. But when it came to tribal council in Teenytown, it
seems few of the 4.0 players were surprised at who paid the
price of Xingu’s failure to win immunity. Bye bye, Josh,
and bye bye God Laugh.
So what is next for the nine that remain? It is likely that
with the demise of Josh, they are relieved. Not because Josh
is gone, but because we are now into Jury territory. They all
know they are guaranteed at least the balm of jury duty to soothe
their wounded egos. And for some, that may even be enough.
May
05/03 - Simone Raves 7.0
Week 6. Last week, I noted that the pressure
was building as the tribe numbers shrunk to critically small.
This week we got to find out what happens when there is no place
to hide, no room to move. My friend Rob W. helped me come up
with a little ditty, which goes like this:
In a tribe of four, or a tribe of three,
Preparation is the key.
Ever seen a worm on a hook? It will squirm every which way it
can, but it is very rare that it can work its way free. And
if you put it on the right way, it has no chance. In the same
way, relying on last minute attempts to swing votes away from
yourself is a not a reliable strategy. It rarely works, and
just makes everyone who is watching feel uncomfortable.
If you find out just before Tribal Council that you are the
worm on the hook, wriggle all you want, but don’t be surprised
if you end up dead in the water.
Now, Kevin Tracy isn’t really a worm at all. He’s
a decent young man from a nice family - at least, his Dad looks
pretty nice. It just seems that, in Tapajos tribe, KT was the
one who was caught short in the pre-planning department. At
Tribal Council 6, he was well and truly hooked, and when he
found out, there was nothing he could do.
As with the demise of Richie last week, we can’t be sure
on the outside exactly what went down, or about exactly what
kind of expectation KT had going to Tribal Council. He may have
thought he was in the majority for the vote. He might have expected
that the friendships he had with people on his tribe would be
enough to carry him through.
So, the question remains, why did KT end up as fishbait? Certainly
it is not a case of him letting the tribe down in the area of
performance in challenges. I am sure I am not the only one who
thinks this vote smells fishy. His vote off has to have been
strategic, due to alliances in place, and it is likely that
those who remain in the game are now looking hard at the relationships
in Tapajos, and indeed in the game as a whole, in an attempt
to fathom what is really going on, and what they can possibly
do now, to prepare for the merge - that malevolent storm building
on the horizon.
April
16/03 - Simone Raves 6.0
Yes, it’s that time of the week, Tuesday
night, when I sit down and frantically wrack my poor little
brain for something interesting to say about the game of 4.0.
Where do I start? Should I talk about the challenge or the politicking?
Andy Meeny Miney ... ahh, let’s do both shall we?
The challenge was an interesting development. These poor guys
haven’t had enough punishment. After embarrassing themselves
in front of the entire online ORG community, they now have to
let their nearest and dearest in on the truth about what they
really get up to in their bedroom/dorm/study/hallway, after
they close the door..... Poor Kevin W’s sister Courtney,
what a trooper she was...”Do it like a Lady” indeed...
She will make some guy very happy one day I’m sure....
Her tonsils were very impressive, so much so she wins a Brian(TM)
for her performance! Congratulations Courtney.
With that little awards ceremony out of the way, lets move on
to the game politics. We’ve seen some fascinating strategic
moves this week. There was a switchy type thing, and every tribe
ended up with at least one new bright shiny smiling face at
their campfire. Are those smiles for real though? Are the faces
shiny because they are glowing with happiness or glistening
with a cold sweat?
The only tribe in which we know the answer to that question
is Xingu, where they retained 3 of their original members, and
subsequently lost the Immunity. It was Richie, one of their
original 3 Xingu, and not the newcomer Josh, who became the
victim at Tribal Council. So, eager to understand, I did a little
digging. To understand why a seemingly safe Xingu member, should
be cut down as Richie was, we have to look back through the
days and weeks, when all sixteen survivors dwelt in a tribe
called Tagaeri.
(Flashback sequence - weird floaty music and smoke again.....hehehe
I love that bit).
Back at the dawn of 4.0, relationships were formed and some
were set in concrete during that first week. Some were set in
Jello, and have worked squelchily free of those initial slurpy
bonds, but many of those friendships remain, despite being split
from their allies of choice by the division into three tribes.
Richie outwardly seemed popular and hard-working, until this
week, when his game came to a screeching halt....
He had friends on the Xingu tribe, and his outgoing personality
led him to gain many friends in other tribes. Until this week
he seemed secure and confident. But credibility and trust are
just vital in a game like Survivor. Emerging rumors of an early
Tagaeri alliance were the fatal blows to Richie’s reputation.
The Xingu members were not prepared to risk that dormant ties
with other players in the game, might tempt Richie to switch
sides at a merge. Whether this would have happened will never
be known. Only the revelation of the journals after the game
will show whether it was likely, or even possible.
A hard fact is that the truth doesn’t matter in a game
like Survivor. It is appearances which count, and what your
tribe will base their voting decisions on. All survivors therefore
must be on their guard always to protect their future in the
game, by making sure that their allies continue to have faith
in them. If they choose to fraternise with the “enemy”,
it must be in the knowledge that it involves risk. and that
if they choose the path of being ambiguous and keep their options
open with other people, that their allies need to know what
they are up to. Otherwise they will be always open to the problem
of being doubted, or even attacked, as any player with the right
words, can manipulate the attitudes of people around them.
I don’t know whether Richie was trustworthy or not. I
don’t even know whether some bright individual pushed
the pebble which started the avalanche that blasted Richie out
of the game (guess who just watched XXX this weekend). The point
is, one way or another, that his reputation was tarnished, either
through his own actions, or through the manipulation of others,
and he fell victim to his own natural exuberance, which had
left his intentions so open to interpretation. The upside for
Richie, is that though he is out of Survivor Webcam 4.0, he
will probably still have friends when the game ends.
Having said all this, I am sure there is yet much more going
on than I have covered here in these few paragraph (like duhhh?).
We must all remember, that this was never truly a game of 3
tribes. Whilst in their three groups, the individuals have been
free to communicate, cooperate and manipulate with players from
other tribes. Clever strategic choices at the point where tribes
are picked can give powerful advantage to some individuals.
There are also the unanswered questions of how much tribe loyalty
there ever was in the first place in these three tribes, and
whether these guys would go so far as to deliberately lose a
challenge, in order to protect a vulnerable ally, or see a powerful
adversary on their own tribe cut down. With ! these tribe numbers
dwindling to critically small, the pressure continues to build,
and we might see a boil-over shortly.
April
09/03 - Simone Raves 5.0
A couple of people came to me this week,
and asked me why I’m not giving away more juicy details
of what is going on in 4.0. The simple fact is, I don’t
want to give away too much on the strategy side. Talking freely
about what is going on could compromise the game plans of some
of the guys in the game, and one of the main things I have in
mind, every time I sit down to write this column, is that I
have to report the game, not direct it.
Maybe when the guys did the Survivor Guides last week, we should
have had them do a “Surviving the Columnist” page
too.
Having completed a challenge similar to this in 3.0, I checked
out their work, interested to see what they had to offer in
terms of advice – to see if they had any clue what they
are doing.
Bart and Kevin W did the “Surviving the Audience”
pages for their respective tribes, and I was pleased to see
they were aware of the importance of not picking their noses
on camera. And then I came to Nick from Xingu’s page on
the same theme. His method of surviving the audience, is to
ignore us. At first I was outraged that he belittled our wonderful,
charming, intelligent audience, calling us fickle and crazy,
but after giving myself a nanosecond or three to get used to
the idea, I realized he’s probably got us worked out.
This means that Nick is probably ignoring me right now, but
I’m gonna say this anyway - Nick, when you made your page,
you left out “Don’t take personal phone calls in
the middle of making confessional videos”.
So as the audience, we laugh our asses off at the silly pictures
and the vomit-filled video clips. We see only a relatively small
part of the whole game, and yet we feel we have the right to
judge these guys by voting in the polls. We come back week after
week, and we all have our favorites, and our least favorites
too.
If I wasn’t a columnist, I’d be shouting my opinions
as loudly as anyone. However, Michael, Ryan, Jason and I stand
on the boundary line where staff ends and audience begins. What
we say each week, may carry more weight than the rest of the
“fickle crazy bunch” that Nick described so eloquently.
But it also means that we suffer the agonies of knowing a lot
more than we let on, and not being able to share it, because
it could affect the outcome of the game.
We can’t even discuss what we know with the players. Bound
by a similar code to the one that hosts live by, our conversations
with the players to gather information are very one-sided. One
of the 4.0ers asked me this week “What do you think my
chances of making the jury are?” It was one of those “Uhoh”
moments. Even though I could probably have given a fairly accurate
assessment, I had to leave him wondering, by answering: “You
should know better than to ask that.”
So, with these guys seeking guidance, how do I help them? Reliving
my personal experiences in 3.0 isn’t going to help them
much. This is a completely different game, and the 12 that remain
have to muddle their way through without coaching from the sidelines.
Having said that, there are always a few glimmers of enlightenment
to be seen from Michael and Jason (not sure about Stev....err
I mean Ryan).
So here is my nugget of wisdom for the survivors to chew over
this week - To date, nobody has patented a winning formula for
survivor games, but if they ever did - Adaptability would have
to be a key ingredient. I call it “rolling with the punches”
and sometimes that’s all you can do.
April
03/03 - Simone Raves 4.0
I’ve
had some feedback, that people like what I’m doing in
my column here, but sadly, its not all good. My once-nemesis,
now good friend Disney Diva Ron from 3.0, insists that I’m
being too nice (yes he WOULD say that). He wants to see more
of Evil Queen Simone, so I’m going to try to please everyone
here, and hope that I don’t come off as having multiple
personalities.
Here goes:
I’ve been looking at the voting over the last few weeks,
and guys - I have to admit to being disappointed to see no close
calls with the voting. I find it hard to believe that three
perfectly decent amiable hard-working guys like Kdawg, Aaron
and RobW were taken out of the game so easily. If these guys
had friends in the game (and I am sure they did), their friends
chose to desert them, and they were left to face tribal council
alone.
Michael’s analogy of summer camp, is probably fairly accurate
right now. If you can’t remember what he said, you should
revisit that column from a few weeks back.
I have a statement for all you guys to ponder – “There’s
safety in numbers, but there is also never-ending brown-nosing.”
If you want to be in this game for the long haul, maybe it is
time to start thinking about who you really want to spend the
time with. This is a long game. Do you really want to spend
the whole game bowing and scraping, hiding in corners and being
too afraid to stand up for your friends, or for what you really
want?
I don’t believe that the three who have been voted out
so far were without friends in the game. If you were a friend
to one or all of these guys, maybe it has been your strategy
to lie low and hide in the crowd. Just be aware that as the
crowd gets smaller, eventually you might find that you are the
one left out in the snow.
On the flip side of that, the ones who might feel like they
are the ones calling the shots so far need to be aware of the
dangers in overconfidence. If you think you have the game gift-wrapped,
you are almost certainly wrong. How certain are you that the
pecking order is as it seems to you? When you lay down to sleep,
you might want to think about keeping one eye open for knives
in the dead of night.
Enough doom and gloom – lets look at the positive stuff
this week… I got to see some truly revolting food challenge
videos – some of them looked even more painful than Hanneli’s
in 3.0, though I didn’t think that was possible. I enjoyed
watching these, but I have to wonder, why some of these guys
determinedly chose the BIGGEST pieces of food, and then took
so long to get around to putting them in their mouths. Rich,
the idea is to work fast, and use lots of little things –
a piece of fruit and a cookie just don’t do it for me
I’m afraid.
On the other hand, Alex did a fine job attaching whole food
items to his face, and Robert G, shoving chocolate fingers up
his nose!!! That was truly inspired work, Congratulations Rob
G, you win my first “Brian” award, which will henceforth
be presented to survivors in 4.0 who go beyond the call of duty,
and meet the strict criteria I have laid down. (Basically if
you grab my attention, you get the nod, ok?)
Anyone who doesn’t understand the reason why the award
is called a “Brian” should read my column from last
week. Yes. That’s right. Just think bug-chasing at 3am.
That’s it from me for this week, except to say Hi to Andy,
and assure him that just because I have his Kylie Minogue video,
I am NOT a stalker. Multiple personalities maybe…..ummm…..
…..Just keep going 4.0ers. You are all doing great!
March
26/03 - Simone Raves 3.0
Let me start by saying how much I enjoyed the
comments made by Mandi and Joey who judged the week 1 immunity
challenge. If you haven’t checked their critiques out
yet, please do. Our 4.0ers showed that they definitely need
some fashion gurus to take them in hand, and Mandi and Joey
might just be the ones for the job. Mind you, even some of the
homeless guys helping out Ryan in his Webcam Show couldn’t
do any damage to our survivors’ images right now.
At the time I wrote my column last week, I hadn’t had
the chance to view those pictures, but as I looked at them after
last week’s update was released, they raised some issues
for me. It was immediately apparent that some of our guys were
working harder at the challenge than others. There are a couple
of possible explanations for the dismal failures (you know who
you are):
Some of these guys could have done better, but are trying not
to look too strong too early. Some were probably too shy, worried
they’d look stupid (which of course they would have) and
were feeling secure enough with their situation not to put themselves
through the embarrassment of it all. Some were just confronted
by the idea of it.
From the guys who actually did try, we saw parade of glitz,
fake ( o Y o ) , nail polish, lipstick and plenty of accessories.
The most worrying thing for me - a few of these guys had genuine
smiles on their faces. Jeremy and Steve, you are supposed to
be uncomfortable remember? You two looked more at home than
Andy X in his Kylie Minogue video!!!!!
Throughout the Survivor Webcam series, Rob has always managed
to explore the boundaries of what people are prepared to do,
how far they are prepared to go in their quest to survive. Lets
face it, there are whole lot of online survivor games: some
of them have fairly basic tasks that go by the title “challenge”,
but I believe a lot of people in our online gaming world have
forgotten what the word actually means. My dictionary comes
to the rescue here, and it says:
Challenge - 1. A contest of skill or strength. 2. Something
that makes demands upon your abilities, endurance etc.
Immunity Challenges, are supposed to make demands, whether physical
(dumping water on your head), mental (making a torch to represent
you), or emotional (tasks that might confront your personal
thoughts and ideas).
Maybe some of the guys who failed to perform in week one, really
didn’t know what they got themselves into when they signed
up for Survivor Webcam. Silly boys, they should have known -
they really should have - all they had to do was look at previous
seasons…
The gross food challenge in 2.0 saw a certain Brian from Missouri
put catsup on his face, and consume a number of bugs and worms.
As bad as this sounds, the really funny part is, he had to do
several takes. Running around your hometown at 3am looking for
more bugs because you’ve run out is the essence of what
Survivor Webcam is about.
In 3.0 survivors were required to stuff their mouths with as
many food items as possible then sing for a full two minutes
without spitting or swallowing. I was one of the sad sorry ones
who had to do that. It took me six takes to get a video I could
send in. I’m proud that I managed to complete the challenge,
but four months on, watching the video still gives me chest
pains (the ghost of that rascally peanut that I inhaled in take
three).
This week, the guys have been split into three tribes, so there
it’s a whole new game.. When it comes to facing a challenge,
they now have the additional pressure of not letting their tribe
down, so it will be interesting to see how they cope in this
new structure. Was the first week a true measure of their ability,
and if they do much better this week, does that show up a mental
game going on for some of
these guys already?
March
19/03 - Simone Raves 2.0
Last column I wrote, I suggested that these
guys should be scared, and it turns out I was right yet again.
The game begins, with a twist like none seen before in the realm
of Survivor Webcam. The sixteen guys are in a single tribe.
Immediately there is a problem, because who is the enemy?
In a traditional Survivor game, where you begin with two tribes,
the fledgling survivors have an immediate identity, a sense
of belonging. You know who your tribe is, and though you may
have alliances within that group, you have a common enemy: You
know who you have to beat to stay safe. This sense of belonging
to a group is what allows the players to cope with the uncertainty,
and often that first tribal identity stays with the players
for the duration. Even post-merge, most often the two tribe
groupings endure.
Not so in this game. Stripped of even that security blanket,
it will be fascinating to see what comes. First things first
though - this week:
Paranoia sets in. You are afraid to talk to anyone, in case
they turn out to be your worst enemy. Any slight connection
with another person is immediately examined in minute detail
by the other players. There is no safety except personal immunity,
and in a group of 16 guys, that likelihood is so remote as to
appear nearly impossible to attain.
So, carefully, quietly, secretly, alliances and friendships
are worked at in dark corners. In a tribe of eight, the chance
of some kind of early majority alliance forming (five players
against three) is reasonably high, even if the line-up is changed
as people get to know each other better. However in a tribe
of sixteen, an alliance of nine might be too much to hope for.
Every person you invite to join up, increases your chance of
tipping your hand to the enemy, which at this point is every
person not currently in your alliance.
This first week, most of these guys were probably just trying
to get through to next week, not looking at a long-term strategy
for the game as a whole. It is highly unlikely that all the
commitments and promises made by these players this week are
going to last. I imagine some people are sliding through oblivious
to the machinations around them, while others are up to their
elbows in wheeling and dealing. The best part so far though,
is that they all seem to be having a lot of fun with it, so
keep up the good work guys.
And so with cheap special effects - here is my vision of how
this plays out for the first bootee Kevin Kibbey (Kdawg that
was). Let’s enter his dreamscape for a moment:
(Psssst, Andy - you can turn on the smoke effects/mood music
now)
You’ve crash-landed on a strange
alien planet called SW4.0. There are 16 survivors, and you know
that to stay alive, you are going to have to kill and eat someone.
How do you decide who the first sacrifice will be?
You try sitting in the circle, eyes front, trying not to look
different from anyone else, hoping that someone else will be
the first to break the line and suggest a target, and just praying
that it won’t be you. You think about just letting fate
decide, being yourself and hoping for the best. Then as the
week goes on, you realise that survival in this land will be
much tougher than you expected. You crack under the pressure
of it all, and panicking, run around in circles until the rest
of the pack rings the dinner bell. And just as they are about
to rip out your heart with the sharp pointy end of the immunity
idol, your mother wakes you up – “Don’t worry
Kevin dear, it is just a dream. Those mean nasty SW4.0ers can’t
hurt you any more……”
Such are the nightmares that disturb the sleep of SW4.0ers,
my friends, and let this be a cautionary tale to those who would
enter such a wilderness, without the nerve to steel themselves
against the panic that might so easily consume them.
March
06/03 - Premiere Column
Well,
we’ve seen the cast revealed and what a shock! The polls
in the weeks leading up to the announcement of the cast were
running hot. It seems that the audience are finally starting
to realize that they have to accept that they will never be
able to predict what Rob will bring to the game next. By a landslide,
the voters were actually right - it was something that nobody
could have imagined - All males, all under the age of 20. This
is Survivor Webcam 4.0 (Lord of the Flies edition).
I
am quite certain that none of these guys expected this. To be
honest, it never occurred to me either. Here I am, 34 years
old, female and at least 8000 miles away from any of these guys’
hometowns, and I am expected to enlighten the audience as to
what is going on? Here are my thoughts, talking blind, having
no idea what is going on right now:
As
soon as the cast went up, I suspect any of these guys with half
a brain were frantically checking out all the biography pages,
and all the downloads, looking for something to build a connection,
however tenuous. A couple of guys share the same name. We have
a pair from England, and a pair from Las Vegas.
We
all know of course, that the main reason SW3.0 failed was because
we only managed to scrounge up 2 guys called Chris, instead
of the necessary 3 (as in Andy of SW2.0). 3 Kevins and 2 Robs
will be confusing initially until they get nametags (like Kdawg
for Kevin Kibbey).
At
this point it is something, anything to get the conversation
started. “Hey you have a birthday this month, just like
me!”. “I like the same TV show!”. “How
about that Avril Lavigne, I just love her”, “Rule
Brittania!!!” The trouble with this of course, is that
any obvious reason to connect two people will be watched carefully,
and even if it turns out eventually that there is no relationship
between them, these links will be viewed with suspicion.
I
am sure that at least some of these young men have NO idea about
what they have really signed up for. This is the most intense
and competitive game out there. The single sex cast will really
be a minefield for a lot of these guys - with no girls around,
a huge chunk of game-play goes out the window.
From
my experience guys talk to guys very differently than they talk
to girls. Will we see Tribal councils similar to the first all-male
TC in the Amazon, filled with guy talk that is usually limited
to the locker room? For myself, I hope not. Come on guys be
original here!!!
Not
all these guys came into the game for the same reason. Some
are here for publicity, some want to win, others are just here
to meet people. A few of these guys might be here with a strategy
prepared, while others are probably thinking to wing it. Some
of these guys probably aren’t really thinking about what
they are going to do at all, just wait and see and pray.
If
I can offer any advice to these guys starting out on this fabulous
journey it is this: Don’t ever assume you know the game
- be prepared to adapt or you will be left behind. And remember,
if you can’t win the game, it is a great consolation if
you can win some friends, so don’t be assholes if you
get voted out.
A final thought - Right now each of these guys has a one in
sixteen chance of being the sole survivor of SW4.0. Every decision
they make over the next few days will either hurt their chances,
or help them. If they aren’t nervous, they should be.
Be scared, be very scared…. The game is on.
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