Post by Survivor Guy 886 on Jan 29, 2010 15:51:49 GMT -5
OK, Online Survivor 5. Statistic-wise, OLS5 remains to this day as the second-best game ever, next to Online Survivor 7. At the time, it shattered almost all of the records, with a whopping 77% attendance. Its only downfall would be the final day where, curiously, not many jurors showed up.
It was clearly the apex of the Online Survivor era, as 51 people signed up to play. We have not even come close to that number since. Amazingly, of that 51, only 15 actually passed the qualifying round, and one person (pzzschooll) was simply placed in the game by default. In short, with such high anticipation and attendance, it's no wonder that this game came out amazing.
I must share one memory. During the fall of 2002, I was at college at Liberty University. Survivor 5: Thailand was airing and for the first time I decided to begin taping every episode of Survivor. Liberty being a Christian campus, we were not allowed to have cable TV, so I could only pick it up through pretty crappy and fuzzy antenna. During episode 4 (the Ted and Ghandia incident), which looking at the episode dates was evidently October 10, 2002, several people who were not Survivor fans happened to drop by the room and suddenly get captivated by the episode. For whatever reason, the campus decided that Thursday night at 8:30 PM would be the perfect time for a fire drill. I don't think I've been more ticked off in my life, lol.
To make a long story short, while we were standing outside, it was quite funny to hear non-Survivor fans say "I wanna get back in and see what happens on Survivor". Lucky for them, I was able to assure them that I had been taping it. The funny thing was, when we went back in and watched the tape, I assume since it was antenna, we could actually HEAR the fire alarm on the tape! I still have that tape today, and it brings back memories, lol.
I digress, however. Due partly to this incident, my interest in Survivor began to skyrocket, and my planning for each Online Survivor after this was impeccable. In seasons 1-3, I had typed up directions for challenges right before the challenge. In season 4, I had typed up vague directions for each challenge at the beginning of the game. Starting this season, mostly due to the fact I was antisocial and extremely bored at college, I typed out EVERY word I was going to say, from Day 1 through Day 39, at the very beginning of the game. I would continue this procedure to the present day, and it really made things much, much easier on myself.
As for changes to the game itself, this was the beginning of a major change for Online Survivor. In the past, tribes had always met at two separate times. This was due to the fact that I was using AOL, which did not allow for more than one chat room at a time. While away at college, I discovered AIM, and realized that almost an unlimited number of chat rooms (although only 4 at the time, I believe) could be used at once. Due to this, I started having both tribes meet at the same time, from 5:00p-6:00p Eastern Time. Challenges could now occur at anytime within that time frame, and I could talk to both tribes at will at anytime. This is still done today, although usually from 7:00p-8:00p.
In addition, I made a major change that was a long time coming. All of a sudden I realized "Why am I talking to the tribes during every meeting?". It finally came to my attention that this was very unrealistic, so I no longer talked, period, unless there was an SP-Reward Challenge I had to host, or some other major event related to the game. The tribe's camps were now truly their camps, with no interference from the host.
Another minor change dealt with SP. Over the last two games, every juror had shown up to the Final Tribal Council, making SP almost meaningless. I had tried to fix this in OLS4 by giving small advantages for SP leaders throughout the game, but it wasn't enough. In this game, I inserted a MAJOR advantage at the final immunity challenge for the SP leader. The ironic thing was I didn't have to do that, since it would be a long time until all jurors came to the Final Tribal Council again.
Other than this, this was the first season that involved MAJOR twists. You'll see a handful of them at the very beginning, but the big one will come around Day 20. In short, everyone was expecting the "delayed merge" twist that had been used in the real Survivor for this season. Despite this, I still managed to word everything perfectly to trick them into believing the opposite. They will say that they weren't tricked and "I knew it!" afterward, but if you'll watch the Day 20 meeting before the Day 21 twist reveal, you'll see that's simply hindsight bias. So did I use the same delayed merge twist as the real Survivor? No, although it was similar, there was a major change to the twist that completely changed the face of the game. That's what always happens in OLS.
As for characters in the game, look for the return of Frog, Bood, Ashton, Chr, Mat, Prince (Gestahl), Superfan (Yugi), Cybern (Dale), and Orioles/Masta (DDR). In addition, keep an eye on people that will become major players over the next several seasons, such as BP, JU, and Clear. Also keep an eye on Furtado. Although this is her only season ever, I feel she may have been greatly underrated at the time. As far as the game play of these players, well, everyone almost always showed up, so expect a colossal showdown.
As far as the episodes themselves, Online Survivor 5 still kept the same basic format, but continued to get slightly better. Starting this season I used, for lack of a better term, "Keyboard Character Themes". That is, the characters above your numbers and such: !@#$%^&*()_+-={}[]:";',.?/. From this season to the present, I would choose one of them and use it for almost everything in the game. This season, it was brackets: "[]". Although you will see {} mixed in there as well, the [] was the major theme of the game. Random, I know. Other than that, the formatting is pretty much the same. Hope you enjoy it.
As for the music, the theme for this season was Final Fantasy VI. Appropriate, considering Prince named himself Gestahl for this season. Again, there may still be a few "bad" music choices, but they were starting to get filtered out. Up to you if you wanna turn on your sound for this one or not. Again, some music had become mainstays by this point and wouldn't be changed for awhile, regardless of the theme. Again, here's the recurring music in case you're wondering (by recurring, I mean plays in every episode except maybe 1)...
Main Page = Final Fantasy VI - Ruin Overworld
Recap = Final Fantasy VI - Locke's Theme
Theme = Final Fantasy VI - Boss Battle
Tribal Council = Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - Final Night
Voting = Super Metroid - New Brinstar
Voteout = Final Fantasy VI - Shadow's Theme
Preview = Final Fantasy VI - Mt. Koltz
Last Words = Secret of Mana - Theme
In closing, Online Survivor 5 still remains the second best game of all time, statistically. The only criticism I have is that everyone was SO active, that it takes FOREVER to read each episode. If you don't mind that, or you're good at skimming, then there is absolutely no way you'll be disappointed with this game. Enjoy.
It was clearly the apex of the Online Survivor era, as 51 people signed up to play. We have not even come close to that number since. Amazingly, of that 51, only 15 actually passed the qualifying round, and one person (pzzschooll) was simply placed in the game by default. In short, with such high anticipation and attendance, it's no wonder that this game came out amazing.
I must share one memory. During the fall of 2002, I was at college at Liberty University. Survivor 5: Thailand was airing and for the first time I decided to begin taping every episode of Survivor. Liberty being a Christian campus, we were not allowed to have cable TV, so I could only pick it up through pretty crappy and fuzzy antenna. During episode 4 (the Ted and Ghandia incident), which looking at the episode dates was evidently October 10, 2002, several people who were not Survivor fans happened to drop by the room and suddenly get captivated by the episode. For whatever reason, the campus decided that Thursday night at 8:30 PM would be the perfect time for a fire drill. I don't think I've been more ticked off in my life, lol.
To make a long story short, while we were standing outside, it was quite funny to hear non-Survivor fans say "I wanna get back in and see what happens on Survivor". Lucky for them, I was able to assure them that I had been taping it. The funny thing was, when we went back in and watched the tape, I assume since it was antenna, we could actually HEAR the fire alarm on the tape! I still have that tape today, and it brings back memories, lol.
I digress, however. Due partly to this incident, my interest in Survivor began to skyrocket, and my planning for each Online Survivor after this was impeccable. In seasons 1-3, I had typed up directions for challenges right before the challenge. In season 4, I had typed up vague directions for each challenge at the beginning of the game. Starting this season, mostly due to the fact I was antisocial and extremely bored at college, I typed out EVERY word I was going to say, from Day 1 through Day 39, at the very beginning of the game. I would continue this procedure to the present day, and it really made things much, much easier on myself.
As for changes to the game itself, this was the beginning of a major change for Online Survivor. In the past, tribes had always met at two separate times. This was due to the fact that I was using AOL, which did not allow for more than one chat room at a time. While away at college, I discovered AIM, and realized that almost an unlimited number of chat rooms (although only 4 at the time, I believe) could be used at once. Due to this, I started having both tribes meet at the same time, from 5:00p-6:00p Eastern Time. Challenges could now occur at anytime within that time frame, and I could talk to both tribes at will at anytime. This is still done today, although usually from 7:00p-8:00p.
In addition, I made a major change that was a long time coming. All of a sudden I realized "Why am I talking to the tribes during every meeting?". It finally came to my attention that this was very unrealistic, so I no longer talked, period, unless there was an SP-Reward Challenge I had to host, or some other major event related to the game. The tribe's camps were now truly their camps, with no interference from the host.
Another minor change dealt with SP. Over the last two games, every juror had shown up to the Final Tribal Council, making SP almost meaningless. I had tried to fix this in OLS4 by giving small advantages for SP leaders throughout the game, but it wasn't enough. In this game, I inserted a MAJOR advantage at the final immunity challenge for the SP leader. The ironic thing was I didn't have to do that, since it would be a long time until all jurors came to the Final Tribal Council again.
Other than this, this was the first season that involved MAJOR twists. You'll see a handful of them at the very beginning, but the big one will come around Day 20. In short, everyone was expecting the "delayed merge" twist that had been used in the real Survivor for this season. Despite this, I still managed to word everything perfectly to trick them into believing the opposite. They will say that they weren't tricked and "I knew it!" afterward, but if you'll watch the Day 20 meeting before the Day 21 twist reveal, you'll see that's simply hindsight bias. So did I use the same delayed merge twist as the real Survivor? No, although it was similar, there was a major change to the twist that completely changed the face of the game. That's what always happens in OLS.
As for characters in the game, look for the return of Frog, Bood, Ashton, Chr, Mat, Prince (Gestahl), Superfan (Yugi), Cybern (Dale), and Orioles/Masta (DDR). In addition, keep an eye on people that will become major players over the next several seasons, such as BP, JU, and Clear. Also keep an eye on Furtado. Although this is her only season ever, I feel she may have been greatly underrated at the time. As far as the game play of these players, well, everyone almost always showed up, so expect a colossal showdown.
As far as the episodes themselves, Online Survivor 5 still kept the same basic format, but continued to get slightly better. Starting this season I used, for lack of a better term, "Keyboard Character Themes". That is, the characters above your numbers and such: !@#$%^&*()_+-={}[]:";',.?/. From this season to the present, I would choose one of them and use it for almost everything in the game. This season, it was brackets: "[]". Although you will see {} mixed in there as well, the [] was the major theme of the game. Random, I know. Other than that, the formatting is pretty much the same. Hope you enjoy it.
As for the music, the theme for this season was Final Fantasy VI. Appropriate, considering Prince named himself Gestahl for this season. Again, there may still be a few "bad" music choices, but they were starting to get filtered out. Up to you if you wanna turn on your sound for this one or not. Again, some music had become mainstays by this point and wouldn't be changed for awhile, regardless of the theme. Again, here's the recurring music in case you're wondering (by recurring, I mean plays in every episode except maybe 1)...
Main Page = Final Fantasy VI - Ruin Overworld
Recap = Final Fantasy VI - Locke's Theme
Theme = Final Fantasy VI - Boss Battle
Tribal Council = Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - Final Night
Voting = Super Metroid - New Brinstar
Voteout = Final Fantasy VI - Shadow's Theme
Preview = Final Fantasy VI - Mt. Koltz
Last Words = Secret of Mana - Theme
In closing, Online Survivor 5 still remains the second best game of all time, statistically. The only criticism I have is that everyone was SO active, that it takes FOREVER to read each episode. If you don't mind that, or you're good at skimming, then there is absolutely no way you'll be disappointed with this game. Enjoy.