I have written about You Don't Know Jack at least twice on this blog (here and here). Both times lamenting the fact that I can't play a current version of the irreverent trivia game on my living room TV with friends and strangers over the internets. This was brought painfully to mind again this week as I dipped my toe back into the world of trivia gameshows with 1 vs 100 on the Xbox 360.
More than a year after getting my 360, I finally upgraded my Xbox Live Account to Gold. Mostly I did this because there is a really good deal where you can get a chat pad, a headset, a year of live and a game (PGR4 in my case) for a good price. I did it for the chat pad (which is the most useful accessory for a gaming system ever).
So I was trying out some of the things I can do with a Gold account and I figured I'd give 1 vs 100 a go. My first expereince was in an Extended Play game. It's trivia, fairly straight-forward and quick paced. There is the odd add break, but the only thing they seem to advertise is themselves, so it wasn't too annoying. Not horrible, and it played smoothly, and I love me some trivia. So I figured I would try the Live game on Tuesday night.
I think I know what I'm going to be doing with my Tuesday evenings for the next while.
1 vs 100 is not perfect, but it does have something unique, especially when played live. It has a sense of being a part of a larger show. The trivia is rapid pace, there is a real host, real prizes (Microsoft Points, XBLA games, and a few other give aways), and a chance to show off to other real people (if you manage to land in the Mob or as the 1). It's quite fun, but it sadly still falls into the '90s and '00s suspense-style gameshow.
Trivia gameshows tend to fall into three categories: challenging, witty/irreverent, and suspenseful. You can guess my favourite. The first tends to attach those who are smart, like to see smart people show off, or generally like the challenge involved in the questions. Jeopardy has lasted for so long because of a solid niche audience that loves to see the smart rewarded for knowing that little bit more than their opponents (hence the popularity of Ken Jennings).
I've always found the third kind of trivia game to be rather low-brow. It substitutes challenge with cliff-hanger expectation and mass appeal questions. Now there is nothing wrong about pop-culture in a trivia game, but when the majority of players can be out-guessed by a 5th grader, then you have a problem. Fancy cutting and dramatic music try to keep the audience glued to the rather banal trivia, and drag what could be a very rapid-fire game into an hour long slog. Popularized by Who Wants to be a Millionaire, we were soon deluged by a glut of anxiety-ridden contestants on a raft of mass-consumable trivia. I'm very tired of these, and am glad to see them dissapear into third-string time slots.
Which brings me back to Jack, my favourite example of the Witty/Irreverent category (followed closely by Win Ben Stein's Money). Except for a short-lived foray into TV, YDKJ has always remained firmly in the realm of video games and yet they have always played best in a live environment. Many good times were had when mutiple people could be gathered around the keyboard, and my personal favourite installment of the game was also delivered live (sort of) to your screen every week over the net.
This begs the question: why isn't this on the Xbox right now? The technology exists to produce a high-quality game and play it live over distance. 1 vs 100 sets a precident for delivering weekly content. Jellyvision has always expressed a desire (with the right backing) to bring Jack to the masses. They are in fact long overdue. Almost a year and a half ago they brought an end to the YDKJ online experence (still playable) with an announcement that Big Things were coming for the series. This came shortly after they announced that Jellyvision was heading back into games after a long hiatus with some new leadership. So far these things have yet to materialize a Jack game.
But I hope they are working on something. I hope it's live, funny, and delivered weekly to my TV-connected console for me to play. I hope it gets here soon. Until then I'll be getting my trivia fix from 1 vs 100.
Showing posts with label Jellyvision. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jellyvision. Show all posts
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Monday, September 22, 2008
The End is Here
I know I'm a couple weeks late to ride the LHC jokes. This post isn't about that. Really.
(Although, if you ever need to be sure, you can always check...)
No, I'm talking about the end of the online You Don't Know Jack webisodes. One of my favourite weekly time-killers is ending.
Check out the very last episode (100).
The reason is that Jellyvision is getting back in the game. They are gearing up for some more Jack on bigger and better platforms. Not that delivering 7 question time-wasters twice a week isn't huge. They just want to make money for it again. Which I can respect.
With all of the current consoles having up to 4 controllers, and internet conectivities, and ways to download additional content, I can only imagine the sorts of fun that Jellyvision can deliver. In fact, that's what I'd like to do now.
Making Jack Social (again)
YDKJ has always been at its best when played with friends. Sure, you could play by yourself, but you often got mocked for it. By the game. This is a big part of the Jack fun that has been missing from the webisodes. The trivia is great to have, but being stuck alone with Cookie is limiting. The jokes and the wackiness just got better when you crammed three (or more) people around the keyboard to pound out answers. Now with upto 4 wireless controllers, you can have all that fun without having to invade anyone's personal space.
Taking Jack Online (again)
There is also the posibility to revive online play. YDKJ has now gone through three distinct online phases. The first was delivery of full episodes on a weekly basis. You installed a client (which had all the graphics, and a bunch of the generic audio) and streamed the episode you wanted to play. This provided the fun of the full (multi-player) game with a fresh batch of content each week. I'd love to see Jellyvision revive this.
The second phase was online multi-player play. YDKJ5 had an online play mode. Unfortunately it was fairly broken due to distribution and technology limits. Jellyvision put a lot of work into making the buzz-in system fair despite distance and lag. Each side timed locally, and then synced online to determine first buzz. It worked most of the time, but was confusing. You'd buzz in and think that you were first, then a couple of seconds later get bumped by another player. If you could even find other players to play against. Hopefully re-launching on major consoles will make it easier to find other people to play against when you have no firends at home.
The third phase was the one that just ended. It was a nice stop-gap. The content was short, punctual, and formulaic. Acutally, I missed some of the randomness and variety of the full games. I look forward to seeing many of the classic question types and characters return.
(Although, if you ever need to be sure, you can always check...)
No, I'm talking about the end of the online You Don't Know Jack webisodes. One of my favourite weekly time-killers is ending.
Check out the very last episode (100).
The reason is that Jellyvision is getting back in the game. They are gearing up for some more Jack on bigger and better platforms. Not that delivering 7 question time-wasters twice a week isn't huge. They just want to make money for it again. Which I can respect.
With all of the current consoles having up to 4 controllers, and internet conectivities, and ways to download additional content, I can only imagine the sorts of fun that Jellyvision can deliver. In fact, that's what I'd like to do now.
Making Jack Social (again)
YDKJ has always been at its best when played with friends. Sure, you could play by yourself, but you often got mocked for it. By the game. This is a big part of the Jack fun that has been missing from the webisodes. The trivia is great to have, but being stuck alone with Cookie is limiting. The jokes and the wackiness just got better when you crammed three (or more) people around the keyboard to pound out answers. Now with upto 4 wireless controllers, you can have all that fun without having to invade anyone's personal space.
Taking Jack Online (again)
There is also the posibility to revive online play. YDKJ has now gone through three distinct online phases. The first was delivery of full episodes on a weekly basis. You installed a client (which had all the graphics, and a bunch of the generic audio) and streamed the episode you wanted to play. This provided the fun of the full (multi-player) game with a fresh batch of content each week. I'd love to see Jellyvision revive this.
The second phase was online multi-player play. YDKJ5 had an online play mode. Unfortunately it was fairly broken due to distribution and technology limits. Jellyvision put a lot of work into making the buzz-in system fair despite distance and lag. Each side timed locally, and then synced online to determine first buzz. It worked most of the time, but was confusing. You'd buzz in and think that you were first, then a couple of seconds later get bumped by another player. If you could even find other players to play against. Hopefully re-launching on major consoles will make it easier to find other people to play against when you have no firends at home.
The third phase was the one that just ended. It was a nice stop-gap. The content was short, punctual, and formulaic. Acutally, I missed some of the randomness and variety of the full games. I look forward to seeing many of the classic question types and characters return.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Jack is Back
Jellyvision has a new studio head, and a new direction: back into games. *glee*
Gamasutra with the news (linkety).
Also, please note that they have one of the best senses of humour in the game biz. Even their press releases and "serious" comments are peppered with absurdity.
Gamasutra with the news (linkety).
Also, please note that they have one of the best senses of humour in the game biz. Even their press releases and "serious" comments are peppered with absurdity.
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Trivial
How'd it become June already? I seem to have missed a whole month. Ah, well.
Greg Tannahill over on The Dust Forms Words just posted a mini review of TV Show King, a trivia game and one of the first games to be released on Nintendo's WiiWare service. It's not complimentary. I'm not that surprised. The quick flicking about I've done on just about any trivia game for any platform in the last decade has done nothing to encourage me. I love trivia, random interesting facts, and testing my brains against others. Why must I lament the lack of a quality trivia game?
The only ones who seem to get Trivia right are the demented minds at Jellyvision. Never heard of them? How about You Don't Know Jack? These people have been creating wonderful and irreverent trivia games that are LOADS of fun to play since the early nineties. Not only that, they have been pioneering interactive media for just as long. Episodic content, they did that too. In fact they are doing it again.
Someone needs to give them a large bag of money and set them up on console development. Each platform has a mechanism that would allow them to produce a Netshow-like product for the current gaming era. Imagine playing a fun trivia game, that's pretending to be a trivia TV show, from you TV. With friend, family, and people from across the internet. Each week you'd find a new episode waiting for you.
I'm glad that Jack is back, now twice a week, with 7 question episodes. I've been getting my trivia fix for over a year now that way. But I miss the social aspect the game used to have. Trivia needs to be brought back to the TV, dragged kicking and screaming into our living rooms, and Jellyvision represents the only ones who have ever gotten it right.
If I can't get You Don't Know Jack for my Wii, can I at least get more game developers to start following the Jack Principles?
Anyway, free trivia for anyone who wants it:
Greg Tannahill over on The Dust Forms Words just posted a mini review of TV Show King, a trivia game and one of the first games to be released on Nintendo's WiiWare service. It's not complimentary. I'm not that surprised. The quick flicking about I've done on just about any trivia game for any platform in the last decade has done nothing to encourage me. I love trivia, random interesting facts, and testing my brains against others. Why must I lament the lack of a quality trivia game?
The only ones who seem to get Trivia right are the demented minds at Jellyvision. Never heard of them? How about You Don't Know Jack? These people have been creating wonderful and irreverent trivia games that are LOADS of fun to play since the early nineties. Not only that, they have been pioneering interactive media for just as long. Episodic content, they did that too. In fact they are doing it again.
Someone needs to give them a large bag of money and set them up on console development. Each platform has a mechanism that would allow them to produce a Netshow-like product for the current gaming era. Imagine playing a fun trivia game, that's pretending to be a trivia TV show, from you TV. With friend, family, and people from across the internet. Each week you'd find a new episode waiting for you.
I'm glad that Jack is back, now twice a week, with 7 question episodes. I've been getting my trivia fix for over a year now that way. But I miss the social aspect the game used to have. Trivia needs to be brought back to the TV, dragged kicking and screaming into our living rooms, and Jellyvision represents the only ones who have ever gotten it right.
If I can't get You Don't Know Jack for my Wii, can I at least get more game developers to start following the Jack Principles?
Anyway, free trivia for anyone who wants it:
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