Game format fatigue

AARDVK · **Joined:** Thu Jan 14, 2010 5:30 pm **Posts:** 558

On Tuesday as we were playing our third CD in a row waiting to see what LS looked like, it started to feel more like work than play. One of SD players, MIKEEE, who also likes CD, had already left saying he didn't want to play another CD. And I realized that we've never had to play CD three times in a row before, because back before BT Trivia was introduced, there were Wipeouts to break up the strings.

It seems as though originally, BT understood that any game, no matter how popular the format, becomes monotonous if played over and over again. That's why they had Wipeout providing relief from CD, and the premium games providing all kinds of format variety. And then because BT personnel don't play the games themselves, they lost the concept in August 2008 when they thought an endless string of BT Trivia games would make players happy.

If BT weren't spending so much time screwing with the software to do separate feeds and to offer unwanted choices to players on whether the premium game gets played, they could devote their attention to coming up with differently formatted games that would eliminate game format fatigue and keep people playing longer.

At any rate, we went home early last night rather than face again a third CD. And we actually love CD.

Brooke/AARDVK

Nunz · **Joined:** Sat Nov 05, 2011 12:56 pm **Posts:** 38

I felt the same way at 11:10 last night after the fifth (fifth!) Late Shift game in a row. If you want to find a way to chase me out of the bar quickly, just keep running those 10-question games all night long.

Gogetem · **Joined:** Mon Jan 11, 2010 11:31 am **Posts:** 791

I have said this before back when the 10 question BT games were implemented. Why not have a Countdown and 2 BT games per hour? It would also work now.

liljol · **Joined:** Sun Jan 10, 2010 8:41 pm **Posts:** 2497

Nunz wrote:

I felt the same way at 11:10 last night after the fifth (fifth!) Late Shift game in a row. If you want to find a way to chase me out of the bar quickly, just keep running those 10-question games all night long.

Hells bells. Sounds like a good reason for me to drag my poor tired lil old grumpy ass home before they start. :roll:

zog741 · **Posted:** Thu Mar 01, 2012 11:28 am

I would rather see Wipeout brought back than Buzztime Trivia. But this is the situation where a voting round makes sense. The default in the event of a tie vote would be Countdown from 2 to 10 local time and Late Shift afterwards but with three possible games a voting round would certainly make things more interesting!

-- RWM

pengwn · **Posted:** Thu Mar 01, 2012 2:10 pm

Nunz wrote:

I felt the same way at 11:10 last night after the fifth (fifth!) Late Shift game in a row. If you want to find a way to chase me out of the bar quickly, just keep running those 10-question games all night long.

The old schedule had nothing but 10-question BTT games after a certain time, too. All that's changed is the game's title and appearance; it still plays and wears on you in exactly the same way

spotes · **Joined:** Mon Jan 11, 2010 11:27 pm **Posts:** 1558

AARDVK wrote:

On Tuesday as we were playing our third CD in a row waiting to see what LS looked like, it started to feel more like work than play. One of SD players, MIKEEE, who also likes CD, had already left saying he didn't want to play another CD. And I realized that we've never had to play CD three times in a row before, because back before BT Trivia was introduced, there were Wipeouts to break up the strings.

It seems as though originally, BT understood that any game, no matter how popular the format, becomes monotonous if played over and over again. That's why they had Wipeout providing relief from CD, and the premium games providing all kinds of format variety. And then because BT personnel don't play the games themselves, they lost the concept in August 2008 when they thought an endless string of BT Trivia games would make players happy.

If BT weren't spending so much time screwing with the software to do separate feeds and to offer unwanted choices to players on whether the premium game gets played, they could devote their attention to coming up with differently formatted games that would eliminate game format fatigue and keep people playing longer.

At any rate, we went home early last night rather than face again a third CD. And we actually love CD.

Brooke/AARDVK

For quite a few years before the '08 change, Wipeout only came on twice daily at 2:30 and 10:30 EST.
Every afternoon from 3:00 to 7:30 or so, depending on the day in question, was a string of CDs.
You're just out of Countdown shape. :mrgreen:

Actually, the graphics may be more of a factor.
Lighter backgrounds are tougher on the eyes over time; especially in contrast with the lighting at most pubs.

Nunz · **Joined:** Sat Nov 05, 2011 12:56 pm **Posts:** 38

pengwn wrote:

Nunz wrote:

I felt the same way at 11:10 last night after the fifth (fifth!) Late Shift game in a row. If you want to find a way to chase me out of the bar quickly, just keep running those 10-question games all night long.

The old schedule had nothing but 10-question BTT games after a certain time, too. All that's changed is the game's title and appearance; it still plays and wears on you in exactly the same way

Yeah, I ran into that one Saturday night when playing in LA. The national network had the last Countdown at 1 a.m. east/10 p.m. west, so from 10:30 on it was the 15-minute games. But five of those Late Shifts were enough.

IMHERE · **Joined:** Fri Aug 13, 2010 12:45 pm **Posts:** 153

[/quote]Spotes

For quite a few years before the '08 change, Wipeout only came on twice daily at 2:30 and 10:30 EST.
Every afternoon from 3:00 to 7:30 or so, depending on the day in question, was a string of CDs.
You're just out of Countdown shape. :mrgreen:

Actually, the graphics may be more of a factor.
Lighter backgrounds are tougher on the eyes over time; especially in contrast with the lighting at most pubs.[/quote]

Yes sir Harry I was thinking back to before the ten question game. What was bad that Wipeout came on here in AZ at one or two in the afternoon depending on the time change (as AZ does not change time like the rest of the country) Wipeout would come on at right after LT and go till the Premie game. Then at ten or so at night. The only time that it would come on a other time if I recalled was right before when Passport was to come on. Then on the NTN forum it was complained about to much Countdown ran to much back to back and some wanted more Wipeout or some other game like it. So BT did as a lot of people wanted and bang you got the BTT game.

richte09 · **Joined:** Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:24 pm **Posts:** 196

I prefer CD over Buzztime so I liked that change, but even 3 or 4 CD's in a row can get boring. I don't know why they can't bring Wipeout back to the mix or even bring 15 min Speed games back as a diversion. If BT would listen to their core players (and yes BO, I know they don't) they could create more excitng lineup of games :idea:

tiefly · **Joined:** Mon Jan 11, 2010 11:54 am **Posts:** 1665

ROYL between games would be great...EGADS!!!

The longest I've been able to stay is two hours of CD games. Scores go down quickly, too.

Guess I need to enroll in SPOTES' Trivia Gym and Spa to get back into
CountDown shape (not looking forward to the Diet Dew).

Rhino · **Joined:** Wed Jan 13, 2010 6:40 pm **Posts:** 633

No. I don't think we should be hypocritical about this. Most of us complained that we wanted Countdown back as the standard game. We certainly had as long or longer periods of Countdown before. It may not be particularly inventive or spontaneous but it's a solid game that we should be happy to see repeated so frequently. Especially if they actually do reduce the pop-culture content. Can't say I noticed that to date but I look forward to it.

WB TANAKA · **Joined:** Mon Jun 20, 2011 9:13 pm **Posts:** 288

Rhino wrote:

No. I don't think we should be hypocritical about this. Most of us complained that we wanted Countdown back as the standard game. We certainly had as long or longer periods of Countdown before. It may not be particularly inventive or spontaneous but it's a solid game that we should be happy to see repeated so frequently. Especially if they actually do reduce the pop-culture content. Can't say I noticed that to date but I look forward to it.

Concur.

By the way, I see a substantive reduction in pop-culture content in the Countdown I saw today. I think that Buzztime acted in good faith with the serious player crowd on this aspect of their recent changes.

BUD · **Posted:** Fri Mar 02, 2012 9:41 pm

I'll agree with Rhino. We do not need any 15 min games. CD is the better game, we asked for it and got it. We will easily get back to the playing style of multiple CDs. More beer will help.

However, I would like to see a new 1/2 hr. game inserted after every 2 CDs. There has got to be a writer at BT that can come up with an interesting new game played 4 or 5 times a day.

WB TANAKA · **Joined:** Mon Jun 20, 2011 9:13 pm **Posts:** 288

BUD wrote:

However, I would like to see a new 1/2 hr. game inserted after every 2 CDs. There has got to be a writer at BT that can come up with an interesting new game played 4 or 5 times a day.

Pyramid. Base an entire game on the Showdown Pyramid Round, with three five-question rounds. Deduct points for slow answers...for instance, the fifth correct question of a five-question round, with the selection made at the absolute last microsecond, would be worth 4,001 points, one point for the late answer and 4,000 points for getting the fifth correct answer.

spotes · **Joined:** Mon Jan 11, 2010 11:27 pm **Posts:** 1558

Played CDs from 2 to 7:30 on Thursday... no problemo.
Like putting on an old pair of well-worn slippers.
Mmmmmm....comfy...
Of course, I like to play 15 straight hours without so much as a restroom break. So, remember, your mileage may vary. :mrgreen:

Nomar · **Posted:** Sat Mar 03, 2012 12:31 am

I was fine with playing all the countdown games in a row today. I won't be playing as much due to my nephews playing baseball. It is opening day tomorrow, and I have to be up at 8. Damn kids

Jim · **Joined:** Sun May 08, 2011 9:39 am **Posts:** 294

BUD wrote:

However, I would like to see a new 1/2 hr. game inserted after every 2 CDs. There has got to be a writer at BT that can come up with an interesting new game played 4 or 5 times a day.

Insert a 15 minute Late Shift at at 4/3 pm and 5:15/4:15 est/cst It would give a break and show some of us what the latenight crowd plays. It wouldn't bother me if a couple Countdowns started on the quarter.

For a 30 minute game I think they should still have in their archives old games of Mini-Six, Retroactive, Jukebox, etc. that they could recycle because it's been so long and they wouldn't have to spend time doing the research for questions. Just mix one of these old gems into the mix after every two or three Countdown games.

zog741 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 04, 2012 1:00 am

Today, I spent the afternoon at Rookies - playing trivia. Just missed the start of the 2:00 Countdown, and left after the 7:00 game, so it was 5.5 hours playing just that one game. I only had opposing players for my last four games.

It wasn't boring at all, although that in part was due to it being near the start of the month, where I took over the monthly scoreboard; on my last game JOHN had a game that ended my quest for a 10-game sweep. I want to do this again next Saturday (by then sweeping the board won't be a reasonable option), and see if I can keep my interest up.

But I am sure that I would rather play 10 Countdown games in a row than to play 10 Buzztime Trivia games.

-- RWM

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