The Spirit of the Game: Cory’s 12/16′s DSW Reaction
I own the Jeopardy! DVD Game and as you, fair reader, might know, all the responses are in the form somewhat obvious multiple choice answers (or questions, as the case may be). Now, the fair way to play a game like that in the spirit of the game would be to buzz in if you think you know, then affirm your thought process by buzzing in. A friend of mine would buzz, no matter if he knew it or not, and the rest of us were pissed at him. Buzzing in without a thought and taking a random guess is rather annoying, especially if your guesses are excessively right or wrong. You’re not cheating; far from it. But, by being shady in your play tactics, you run the risk of ruining everyone else’s fun. “The spirit of the game” is essential to any kind of game. Bending the rules of a game just to win takes away from the fun of the game.
Today’s Double Showcase Win during the Price is Right was the perfect example of ruining the spirit of the game.
From poster Ted on the Golden-Road.net forums:
“There was a very long stopdown between the showcases and the reveal, and lots of conversations going on all over the stage between groups of people. I really don’t think they knew how to proceed, since this wasn’t like somebody bidding $17500 and being on the nose…For the record, this was the third time that I got a showcase on the nose while in the studio…Not sure if I’m welcome at Studio 33 anymore, but I’m sure I’ll find out one of these days…”
I should probably get this out of the way now: Congratulations to Terry on your big haul. $50K+ isn’t too bad, especially since you know my good friend Jay Lewis. Edit: J/K. I misread a journal entry. Sorry, Jay! You’re, at this point, a somewhat innocent bystander in a disappointing moment for two reasons: Ted, the producers of TPiR and Drew Carey.
First, the lashing at Ted: If I were the producer, I would more likely than not, if just for the sake of the budget, essentially ban you from the studio, just as other G-R.neters have already been essentially banned. You know the prizes. You know that the producers at Price don’t really change the prizes that often. Hell, even in Ken Jennings’ book Brainiac, he notes that the Jeopardy! writers will recycle facts somewhat. That doesn’t mean that you should shout out exact answers. The point of the Price is Right is not, as you may or may not think, to give away money and prizes, although that’s a fun side effect. The point is to reward those who make it on stage and have a knowledge of pricing items. What did Bob say on the first episode? “This is your favorite game, still based on the pricing of merchandise, with wonderful awards for smart shoppers.” The game is not meant to reward those with an encyclopedic, freakish nature of items given out on the show. If you would like to participate, then ignore your exact numbers and give ballparks so at the very least, you look less suspicious. Why do casinos frown on card counters? They have an advantage that the other players can’t or don’t have, and that’s against the spirit of the game. The young lady with the excellent bid? It seems as if she didn’t listen to the same help that Terry had, and she should have won her showcase because it was her bid and a very good bid at that. There is no excuse for what you did, it’s not cute, it’s not commendable and it changes the show from “I think I know how much that costs!” to “I hope Ted is in the audience so I can rob CBS.”
Now, the lashing at the producers: COME ON! You’ve sequestered two members of Golden-Road.net because they memorized products, and you’ve got the Banhammer coming down on the third one. Obviously, you guys are either not screening/banning people well enough or maybe you’re recycling too many prizes. I know the Chips Ahoy Snack Pack is 55 cents and I shouldn’t. I know that we’re in a recession and getting sponsors is difficult, but there’s no excuse for re-using prizes over and over again, especially in the largest, most expensive part of the show. If you’re going to stop tape for 45 minutes for a problem that 1) you know existed before, with people memorizing prizes and 2) someone listened to one of those guys, maybe you should start taking preventive measures to make sure you’re not giving Double Showcase Wins away every show.
Finally, Drew. Drew. Drew. I know you read us. I know you’ve seen our website. Listen to me: Your performance was inexcusable. I don’t care if you knew the outcome was shady. Jack Barry knew his outcome was shady and, for the sake of entertainment, pretended that everything was hunky-dory. Granted, that was rigged by the producers, but you get what I’m saying. You are getting chided throughout the internets (and therefore, the country, at least) for the most underwhelming display of emotion anyone has ever seen when someone has won $50,000. I was on Wheel of Fortune and I got beat by a f’ing Prize Puzzle and I still cheered and clapped for the two who beat me. You are, first and foremost, an entertainer and, to a lesser extent, an actor. Act like it’s big news, even if you know it’s not. Your performance this year has been shaky and unsteady, like a boat in the storm. You need to have a steadier performance, you need to think about how your actions on stage appear on the finished product and you need to act like a goddamn professional. You have the potential to be a very good game show host; act like one.
Alex will undoubtedly have more to say, so look for that in the upcoming hours.
We really have to consider what TPiR is and what can and cannot be changed if the producers want to avoid this fairly costly phenomenon.
First of all, I’m not going to comment on Ted’s moral stance other than to say that I have absolutely no problem with what he did. I put it on the level of if people watch a lot of Jeopardy to see trends and popular categories, and if the questioners recycle facts there. Jeopardy’s far better about avoid repeat questions than TPiR is about avoiding repeat products, but I put it there.
So, what can the show do? Well, what about the show can’t change? The obvious is audience participation. That’s the lifeblood of the show more than anything else in my opinion. The screaming of a largely ignorant audience as to exact prices (I wouldn’t know prices outside of the Chips Ahoy pack and the two iPhones) is what makes it fun. When they boo a selection that’s right, or wrong for that matter, it’s unavoidable without blacking the audience out. I feel that would destroy the tenor of the show. Let’s assume that it would never happen.
Let’s also assume every price matcher (like Ted and his more prolific counterparts) will not be caught. Some will, but some will be front and center and undetectable until it is “too late”. As I said, I have no problems with him, he was completely within the rules, but the studio obviously does have problems. So we have to assume many shows will have someone like him in there.
What does that leave? Well, the prizes and games. Basically, the only way the audience can cause real damage is if they have seen the products or know the MSRP of such products. Thus, avoiding products that have popular MSRP’s is obvious unless in a package deal. A trained monkey could figure out the two 399 dollar iPhones would work out to $798. The Wii is always 250, but that’s always in a package. Or other products as such. Most products don’t have the problem.
I know they have sponsors, but getting different sizes of grocery items is a good, easy way to switch it up. Maybe a 32 oz. jar of Prego instead of a 16 oz. jar, or a smaller bottle of Bayer, or whatever. For the bigger prizes, it’s easier. The TV can be a few inches smaller or 1080i over 720p, the Car can have four floormats (!), and so on.
When you get to points when thousands of dollars are involved, people will take their best advantage to win, and you can’t control that. Sure, you can try and limit the price matchers by moving/expelling them, but in the end, it’s still an audience participation show and people will slip through because they’re not open about knowing this stuff until it’s too late. So the show has to control on their side, and really, any other game show would be ridiculed if they acted like TPiR does with their questions. It was mentioned many times, but how foolish would Jeopardy look if every third week, the final Jeopardy question was the same thing, or in the same specific subject, for several times in a row? Or every show had a question as to who the 14th President was? And then people got upset at the people for knowing it. Would it be any better if Ted got called up and nailed it? Maybe in spirit, but the same problem exists as when you call up a person, you call up everyone around him.
This whole thing reminds me why I like the Punchboard so much. Yeah, knowing the prices of the 4 products is good. But, all that wins you is punches. The only way to KNOW what you’re punching for would be to have “an in” with the prop guy (aka “the hole stuffer”). If that happened, it would be obvious cheating, and both the contestant and “hole stuffer” would be called out on it.