R.I.P., WPS

Scott Hardie | January 30, 2004
Denise was right: Web Page Survivor 4 will not take place. This game simply cannot happen without my persistent recruiting of new players - I stopped recruiting in December and we haven't had a single person sign up since then. I got sick of harassing people to try something that should be fun, and also I had a bad experience with one person in particular. It is unlikely I will ever run another game that requires a set number of players to begin; it's just not worth the hassle.

I told myself months ago that if WPS4 did not happen, that it would be the end of the game for good. We haven't actually played since November 2001 anyway, so it's not that big of a loss, but I do regret not being able to do right by the concept. I think that weekly challenges are the meat of the game and they're what people enjoy; it's the central concept, the voting-each-other-out, that turns off most players. Would the game be better without that element, if I designed a similar game in which one player was eliminated each week by the challenge (like musical chairs)? I considered it, and I may still try it sometime.

Instead, I'm leaning towards a game that requires minimal regular input from me, that is after I spend a couple of weeks programming it. What I have in mind is a bit complicated, but should be a lot of fun for anybody who wishes to try it. It will be an ongoing game, with no champion every few months like GOO or WPS. (In other words, no winner; you just keep playing as long as you like.) I have discussed the concept with a few people, but I'm going to try to keep a lid on this until it's debut time in late February. Details will follow.

My thanks to Erik Bates, Nadine Russell, Amir Sufyani, Scott Baumann, Denise Sawicki, Bryan Carroll, Scott James, and Josh Honaker for being willing to give WPS a try.

Anna Gregoline | January 30, 2004
I'm sorry you have to give up on this for now, Scott. I know how much you like the real Survivor series, and your game was quite inventive for being an online thing. I'm eager to see what other things you have cooked up your sleeve. What?

Erik Bates | January 31, 2004
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | February 2, 2004
WPS is done for good, I'm afraid. I've tried to put together WPS4 three times now, so this time, I'm burying it forever. Some of the challenges I had considered:

- A chess game (team). Each team would designate a king and queen, and the remaining players would become rooks, bishops, and knights. If you were a king or queen, you could move any piece in your army. If you were a bishop or knight or rook, you could move only yourself or a pawn. We would play it out like a real chess game, back and forth until one side won. The team would have to use either teamwork to prevent a rogue player from moving and screwing up the team strategy, or delegation of power to the king and queen, which would have consequences for weeks to come in the game. I was reluctant to put up such a complicated challenge for the first week, but it was the only time to play 8 vs 8.

- Mystery guests (individual). I invite back one or more former players from previous editions (all could be researched in the WPS history section), who take a series of questions from current players who are trying to guess their identities.

- Albert Einstein travels (either). Reusing the classic Einstein-raspberries image that was part of a challenge in WPS3, I'd show him near famous landmarks around the world, and players would have to guess where he was next. (Maybe I'd sneak Carmen Sandiego into one pic.) This was inspired by "Amelie" of course.

- Baby pictures (individual). This one probably wouldn't have happened because of the difficulty in getting players to obtain and send me their baby photos, but I'd put up one from each player on the site, along with some fakes I stole from the web, and players would have to guess who was who.

- Mad libs (individual). I would take a real literary passage (albeit obscure and not searchable by Google) and remove key words from it. I'd present a form full of blanks to fill in: object, animal, color, number, etc., then present the results the following week for humorous effect. The player who got the most "correct" blanks wins.

- Story telling (tribe). I randomly select which tribe and player starts. Player from Tribe A posts a sentence to begin a story, and chooses a player from Tribe B. That person posts the next sentence in the story (made up), and chooses someone else from Tribe A. Back and forth the tribes go. The tribe who entered the final sentence of the week wins. This is just advanced hot potato.