The History of Funeratic (2021)

Comeback

March 5: Maybe it's a coincidence, or maybe there's something in our collective mood this deep into a lonely pandemic that prompts several former participants in the site to return after many years. In the spring, Mike Eberhart is the first, solving a goo after a five-year absence and joining Tragic Comedy discussions about politics and mundane life. In the summer, Derek Kendzor is the second, looking up Funeratic and catching up with Scott in email about where life has taken him (albeit not participating in the site again). In the fall, Scott Horowitz becomes the third, returning to the site after eight years to solve goos and catch up in Tragic Comedy discussions about pop . All three are met fondly and welcome back any time.

Children

March 7: Rock Block's spring tournament draws inspiration from Live Aid, challenging players to "see" every performance at the legendary 1985 benefit show by winning concerts. Furthermore, since the real Live Aid raised money for famine relief in Africa, the Rock Block version does something similar, donating $50 to Save the Children for each participating player, with some players making their own separate donations on the side, ultimately raising hundreds of dollars for a great cause. As for the tournament itself, Scott misjudges the size and pace of the competition and neglects to include a rule ending the tournament after too long, so it drags on into the fall before Steve West finally earns the 67th and final performance to win.

Tally

August 29: With Celebrity Goo Game slowly losing players who have grown tired of the game and its scoring system of lucky cats and pagodas—some of the game's most accomplished and longest-lasting players have admitted fatigue—Scott abandons plans to build a complex new system of lucky cats in favor of a simpler approach: Simple numerical points. Each goo solved will earn two kinds of points, a public score and a randomized secret score to be revealed at the end of the season. It's intended to keep the game from having a tie at the finish line and to keep the outcome in suspense so that no one feels like they've already lost early in the season, but the change is very quickly unpopular, including with Scott himself: After multiple competitors play hard all season long and solve the same goos, one of them triumphs merely by a few random points. An effort to keep the game feeling fair has backfired and had the opposite effect. A decision is made to abandon it after a year.