Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

What Big Brother Teaches Us About Game Design

Posted by simoniker on from the act-like-chicken-george dept.

Thanks to Skotos.net for their article discussing why the TV show Big Brother 4 is an example of good game design, and what we can learn from it. It's pointed out that "a group of n/2 (rounded down) + 1 people can dominate the game", if well-organized, but "the producers of Big Brother have made changes which dramatically reduce the power of a majority", including the ability to veto potential evictees. But it's argued the jury of previously evicted players voting on the final two contestants means "...if you backstab someone or betray them, even if it gets you further in the game, it could prevent you from winning." Is there a perfect strategy for winning Big Brother, and if not, is the concept of "unworthy winners" dissatisfying?

4 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. maybe that's why it's a "reality" show by dario_moreno · · Score: 2, Insightful

    the author concludes that the best player never wins, but someone playing second place does if he does not backstab too much...this is exactly the same in real life ! We slashdotters know many underachievers from high school who ended up richer and happier than us ! Life is unfair, maybe because of that social element which makes people dislike and eventually disadvantage you if you are too good and/or too ruthless. The catch is then that one has to be a very good hypocrite in order to hide that.

    --
    Google passes Turing test : see my journal
  2. Re:Mod me down, but.... by thinlineofsanity · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ....the fact that these stories about obscure game design theories usually end up with less than a dozen posts ought to tell the editors something. Nobody cares but the editors. There are far better things to cover. Do so, please.

    Actually, I'm a lot more interested in this type of story, than those dealing with 'fantastic news about New Game X, or Evil Company Y'. The number of responses may not be overly high, because it's not considered "sensational", but that really doesn't bother me. It's a useful bit of info to me, anyway, and that's why I read games./. Post numbers don't necessarily determine the quality of an entry.

    -T

  3. new to slashdot, are we? Or are you a troll? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    What part of "News for Nerds, stuff that matters." do you not understand? I would think that game design is more nerdier and matters much more than coverage on the latest game titles or the market shares of Nintendo vs Xbox vs PS2, or even console mods.

    Without game theory, we'd still be playing variations of pong today. And no, the only thing different would be the graphics. (same AI, same rules).

    And you can't judge the quality of a story by the number of posts. Maybe a lot of people actually read and understood the material but had nothing to say about it. Certainly, this does not decrease its importance. /. is more than just a forum, it also has "bulletin board" value. Most people cannot possibly scour the net everyday searching for /.-stories, so thats why they come here and dont really care to comment on anything or care about anyone else's comments.

  4. Diplomacy by neonstz · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Isn't this what the board game Diplomacy is all about?