Post by Survivor Guy 886 on Nov 19, 2009 16:09:00 GMT -5
Here we go! Online Survivor 3 was the first great game of Survivor ever played online. It was the first game where everything finally came together and played almost flawlessly. This game almost has too many memories to recall...
Near the conclusion of Online Survivor 2, my AOL account became locked, and my household received a phone call from AOL informing us that we had been reported for illegal activity. Evidently, someone from Online Survivor 2 had become disgruntled and reported me for posing as an official game of AOL (due to the original name of "AOL Survivor") and advertising in chat rooms, message boards, and E-Mail. They said someone was probably out to get me, since the same person reported me three times. Regardless, to avoid any more conflicts, I shortened the game's name to simply "Online Survivor" for the third season and changed my screen name to "Survivor Guy 886" to better reflect the game.
About the same time, I was working at a steel mill for the summer. While I was packing support brackets into a box, I was thinking how I could improve attendance for OLS3, and an idea came to me. I decided to hold 8 preliminary games, consisting of 8 players each, over the next several months. Each game would consist of three days of competition where two people were voted out each day (with absent members automatically being eliminated). Thus, each game would have two winners, and determine our final cast of 16. When I actually did these preliminary games, so little people showed up that a vote was never necessary. However, it worked. Attendance percentage soared for this third season. After this game I dropped the voting aspect of the preliminaries and simply tested whether people would show up or not over these three days (now known as qualifying). The system has significantly improved attendance every time it has been fully used.
After I had determined my cast, it was time to plan the game itself. For the first time ever, I printed out a chart with rows for all 39 days of the game, along with columns for challenge type, rewards, and what challenge was played on that day in the real Survivor. I slowly began to fill in the blanks and watch the game's planner emerge. This gave me an excellent overview of what exactly I was planning, and I still use this process today. I still remember sitting in my car in between classes at my first semester of college working on this planner, and suddenly hearing that the September 11 attacks were orchestrated by terrorists. I rolled down my window and said to the guy parked next to me "Did you hear that? Can you believe it?" So for me, the answer to the question "Where were you when you heard that it was terrorists who had attacked the twin towers?" was "Sitting in my car at college planning Online Survivor 3." Odd one, I know.
Another random memory comes at the first individual immunity challenge. I don't know why, but I've always had a crystal clear memory of that day. Both of my parents were gone, and my father called on his way home and told me to heat up the lasagna that was in the refrigerator. I still remember running back and forth between lasagna and the challenge, to my father's bewilderment when he finally got home. Random thoughts like that are always funny.
As for changes to the game itself, I first addressed the "points" issue. In OLS2, it got confusing if I was referring to points in the challenge, or survivor points. Thus, from this point forward, I began calling the survivor points "SP" to distinguish them. In addition, the challenges were finally leveled out so that there was one, and only one, per day (either Reward, Immunity, or SP-Reward). The formatting of the game was finally starting to come together. Lastly, you'll see the last alternate ever used in Online Survivor. Luckily only one ever entered this game, but it was still enough to ensure it never happened again.
But how was the season itself, you ask? Incredible. In fact, a large majority of the cast is still active in Online Survivor today. This is where they got their start. You'll see Alec, Dale (CyberN 666), Spider, Khold (orioleseight), Inx, Dampe, Superfan, Prince (DaFro810 2), Mat, and Ashton all make their first major appearances in this game. It truly was the beginning of the Online Survivor era. With so many great players, the attendance was as near perfect as it could possibly get, and the strategizing reached a high point that not many games have eclipsed. Not to mention, EVERY juror was present at the end of the game, making for a spectacular season.
As far as the episodes themselves, Online Survivor 3 kept the same basic format of OLS2, but streamlined all the annoying little things, like revealing what the actual day number was, and reminding you who was actually voting at Tribal Councils. The design is basically the same, but is cleaned up, and stays that way for the next 5 seasons or so.
As for the music, I still did not use a "theme" to base it around until OLS4. I only used music for major events (you won't hear music on SP-Reward Challenge days) and did a much better job at selecting appropriate music than I did in OLS2. It still wasn't perfect, but it was getting there. The voting and last words background music would even become permanent mainstays for several seasons, just because it was so perfect. Again, here's the recurring music in case you're wondering...
Main Page = Final Fantasy VI - Overworld
Recap/Preview = Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest - Mount Gale
Theme = Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - Ice Cap Zone
Tribal Council = Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - Final Night
Voting = Super Metroid - New Brinstar
Voteout = Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - Ice Cap Zone (Slow Version)
Last Words = Secret of Mana - Theme
In closing, Online Survivor 3 was almost perfect. If you haven't started watching OLS yet because seasons 1 and 2 were boring, NOW is the time to start. You won't be disappointed, especially after the tribes merge and it's simply a free-for-all with the all-stars of Online Survivor's past. It's the true start of Online Survivor's glory. WATCH IT, ENJOY IT, POST ABOUT IT. I look forward to your comments.
Near the conclusion of Online Survivor 2, my AOL account became locked, and my household received a phone call from AOL informing us that we had been reported for illegal activity. Evidently, someone from Online Survivor 2 had become disgruntled and reported me for posing as an official game of AOL (due to the original name of "AOL Survivor") and advertising in chat rooms, message boards, and E-Mail. They said someone was probably out to get me, since the same person reported me three times. Regardless, to avoid any more conflicts, I shortened the game's name to simply "Online Survivor" for the third season and changed my screen name to "Survivor Guy 886" to better reflect the game.
About the same time, I was working at a steel mill for the summer. While I was packing support brackets into a box, I was thinking how I could improve attendance for OLS3, and an idea came to me. I decided to hold 8 preliminary games, consisting of 8 players each, over the next several months. Each game would consist of three days of competition where two people were voted out each day (with absent members automatically being eliminated). Thus, each game would have two winners, and determine our final cast of 16. When I actually did these preliminary games, so little people showed up that a vote was never necessary. However, it worked. Attendance percentage soared for this third season. After this game I dropped the voting aspect of the preliminaries and simply tested whether people would show up or not over these three days (now known as qualifying). The system has significantly improved attendance every time it has been fully used.
After I had determined my cast, it was time to plan the game itself. For the first time ever, I printed out a chart with rows for all 39 days of the game, along with columns for challenge type, rewards, and what challenge was played on that day in the real Survivor. I slowly began to fill in the blanks and watch the game's planner emerge. This gave me an excellent overview of what exactly I was planning, and I still use this process today. I still remember sitting in my car in between classes at my first semester of college working on this planner, and suddenly hearing that the September 11 attacks were orchestrated by terrorists. I rolled down my window and said to the guy parked next to me "Did you hear that? Can you believe it?" So for me, the answer to the question "Where were you when you heard that it was terrorists who had attacked the twin towers?" was "Sitting in my car at college planning Online Survivor 3." Odd one, I know.
Another random memory comes at the first individual immunity challenge. I don't know why, but I've always had a crystal clear memory of that day. Both of my parents were gone, and my father called on his way home and told me to heat up the lasagna that was in the refrigerator. I still remember running back and forth between lasagna and the challenge, to my father's bewilderment when he finally got home. Random thoughts like that are always funny.
As for changes to the game itself, I first addressed the "points" issue. In OLS2, it got confusing if I was referring to points in the challenge, or survivor points. Thus, from this point forward, I began calling the survivor points "SP" to distinguish them. In addition, the challenges were finally leveled out so that there was one, and only one, per day (either Reward, Immunity, or SP-Reward). The formatting of the game was finally starting to come together. Lastly, you'll see the last alternate ever used in Online Survivor. Luckily only one ever entered this game, but it was still enough to ensure it never happened again.
But how was the season itself, you ask? Incredible. In fact, a large majority of the cast is still active in Online Survivor today. This is where they got their start. You'll see Alec, Dale (CyberN 666), Spider, Khold (orioleseight), Inx, Dampe, Superfan, Prince (DaFro810 2), Mat, and Ashton all make their first major appearances in this game. It truly was the beginning of the Online Survivor era. With so many great players, the attendance was as near perfect as it could possibly get, and the strategizing reached a high point that not many games have eclipsed. Not to mention, EVERY juror was present at the end of the game, making for a spectacular season.
As far as the episodes themselves, Online Survivor 3 kept the same basic format of OLS2, but streamlined all the annoying little things, like revealing what the actual day number was, and reminding you who was actually voting at Tribal Councils. The design is basically the same, but is cleaned up, and stays that way for the next 5 seasons or so.
As for the music, I still did not use a "theme" to base it around until OLS4. I only used music for major events (you won't hear music on SP-Reward Challenge days) and did a much better job at selecting appropriate music than I did in OLS2. It still wasn't perfect, but it was getting there. The voting and last words background music would even become permanent mainstays for several seasons, just because it was so perfect. Again, here's the recurring music in case you're wondering...
Main Page = Final Fantasy VI - Overworld
Recap/Preview = Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest - Mount Gale
Theme = Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - Ice Cap Zone
Tribal Council = Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - Final Night
Voting = Super Metroid - New Brinstar
Voteout = Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - Ice Cap Zone (Slow Version)
Last Words = Secret of Mana - Theme
In closing, Online Survivor 3 was almost perfect. If you haven't started watching OLS yet because seasons 1 and 2 were boring, NOW is the time to start. You won't be disappointed, especially after the tribes merge and it's simply a free-for-all with the all-stars of Online Survivor's past. It's the true start of Online Survivor's glory. WATCH IT, ENJOY IT, POST ABOUT IT. I look forward to your comments.