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One of the things that often surprises me is how unprepared people are coming in to game shows. You can win your yearly salary but you walk in off the street wi
by jerf 5y ago
One of the things that often surprises me is how unprepared people are coming in to game shows. You can win your yearly salary but you walk in off the street with no preparation at all.
Obviously, I don't expect everyone to determine and memorize the information-theoretic optimal technique for extracting information from a word game or anything. But for Pete's sake, if you're going to be on the Wheel of Fortune, clock some time with one of the dozen or so computer or console implementations. If you're going to be on the Family Feud, take a moment to explain to funny Uncle Harry that saying the stupid-but-funny answer that popped into his head may cost him and four people who know where he lives a few thousand bucks. If you're going to play the old Concentration game, which was based on rebuses, spend a few hours brushing up on common rebus symbols and patterns.
(That's another show that, were it on today, would probably be broken by someone on the Internet. There is probably less than meets the eye when it comes to what can be done on a rebus. Someone could probably analyze the show's run and work out which are the most common syllables they can use, what is phonetically difficult to represent with rebuses, etc.)
ISTR that the Wheel of Fortune, for instance, edits out even more mistakes than you'll see on the show, which is plenty, according to one of the "behind the scenes" things. It isn't that hard, anyone can get it in 15 minutes or less, which suggests a lot of contestants come in with not even that much experience.
This is for many people the most bang-for-the-monetary-buck they will ever see in their lives. There are other things that will be more important, like having families, but monetarily, this is probably the most money-per-minute they will ever see. Put at least a bit of work into it!
- keville 5y agoWheel of Fortune is just as much about your luck on the wheel as your skill with the phrases, so practice doesn't guarantee victory. WoF's final puzzle awards contestants the "RSTLNE" letters now because nearly _everybody_ came in to the final prepared, knowing the most commonly-occurring English letters.
- jerf 5y agoYou are right. I know there's no way to guarantee victory. But there's still a lot of basic errors, if you pay attention carefully to the contestants (rather than the more-fun trying to solve the puzzle before them). My favorite is actually when you get towards the end and they are calling out letters that couldn't possibly make any words with the 2-5 blanks left over, for instance. Saying a vowel after a spin also happens much more often than it should. I don't watch WoF a lot but you can also tell they're playing games with the most common letters after RSTLNE too... simply picking the next three consonants and the next vowel is a great way to lose. And, I mean, yes, very stressful. But you might also be a bit less stressed if you prepared a bit more. Not relaxed, of course, but less stressed.
- dekhn 5y agomy dad plays game shows as a hobby. My main complaint is that he's really conservative and will basically fold at the earliest opportunity (many of these games are basically double-down, so you lose everything if you make an incorrect guess). I told him the amounts are so small (he won $5K on Who Wants to Be A Millionare and $15K on jeopardy) it's better to just take the risk to win a larger prize. He used to be a reference librarian so he's good with facts, and does crosswords (cryptics) constantly so he knows pretty much every word.
- GoodJokes 5y ago
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]