So Survivor all over, S44 this time and what are we NOW gonna
talk about?

- What's good?

The product has, technically and visually, been refined to an
art of perfection. It looks SO good, it's just
a gorgeous show.

- What's bad?

Innovation is on the basis of tricky gameplay and advantages
- this - and such innovation - certainly has a place in the
game, and so is by all means encouraged, but advantage
inflation gets out of hand and reduces the "old tricks are the
best" part of it, which is the interaction between the PEOPLE
that are there, in the flesh and on the island.

Because, with the focus/inflation on and of advantages, we see
people play a game with little pieces they move around,
basically - not entirely, thanks heaven, but to a large degree
as this has been a tendency for a long time in the show's
history - so what we see is actually much _less_ of the
people, themselves the pieces of a tropical-island,
participating in a social-survival chess-party!

And why is that MORE interesting, for them and for us, for
everyone? Simple, then we get to see them as people, real
people IN a game, and we get to know them a little bit, or
their manifestation in this very specific context anyway, which
is exactly the point! so it is actually what we WANT to see -
and conversely, we DON'T want to see a bunch of detached
player playing an abstract game, shuffling around pieces and
advantages in their heads and between them, literally! "Hey,
can I hold on to your advantage ... ?"

Because Survivor is not, and should not be a board or
computer game!

Also, the more game, the less the survival aspect, the sport
aspect and, indeed - no matter how proud our beloved host
claims to be about it [not that I don't believe him] - yes, it
reduces the social-political, the personal-political aspect of
the game!

Add a few advantages, idols, yada yada, they interact with
what I have said in unexpected, natural ways that are
interesting and easy to understand. "Play the advantage", play
it on the tribe, on the island; claim you got it, threaten to
us it, do what ever - but don't just pull it up three or four
TC and no one understands what and why something happened!

In short,f too many advantages - just a mess of everything and
nothing at once, no one cares to keep track, almost, and those
who try fail, sometimes!

Notice that we never, not me at least, quite often I must
confess, understand why a person X is booted? It used to be,
this is now a long time ago, sadly, it used to be -
he tries to be the leader but had zero self-insight/modesty,
actually; she whined too much; that clever and articulate
player did the classical mistake of over-scheming, and it all
blew up in her face [1]; he fooled him, and when the other guy
realized, etc etc. Human - Simpler - Much better!

Okay, enough about that, then ...

Another note is, and I've said this before as well, innovation
can be made on other parts of the show, things that are easy
to understand for everyone, not necessarily something that's
has to be pulled from a bag (or too small pants, so everyone
sees it as they march in LOL) [2], - innovation can be put "in
game" with rules and stuff, but not necessarily with
a TC focus/execution model!

Just an example I made up now: First episode, Jeff asks, this
season, the twist is we start with a race. Three guys who
finnish 1st, 2nd, and 3rd get TWICE THE FOOD the entire
season! Problem is: everyone knows this. And: since they won
already, they are even without the 2x food physical threats,
and with extra calories and protein - obviously even more so!
So who dares to grab it? And can he still make it? Despite it?
Or thanks to it? Let's find out!

Just an example how innovation should be made BIG AND SIMPLE
(like me using everyday words, in capital letters), _not_
these complicated and unexpected twists that requires a one A4
letter (Survivor scroll) to explain it's own rules.

So:

1. Keep everything that is good, tech/production improvements
not the least, and keep refine, obv.

2. Reduce the numbers of advantages, but keep a couple, simple
ones like idols and the like - advantages that are erned,
rather than found in the Cornflakes box, and can easily be
integrated in the game, at TC but also before, at the beach
right after they are found - or not so - to
a clever/intuitive or even stupid player, who crashes his
game over it!

3. Innovate big and simple, not on the TC game pivot level,
but on the level on the whole show. Everyone should
understand instantly, oh, so _that's_ the S44 twist! Cool,
I wonder how that will work?

/rant :)

PS. Good to see you again guys :D Now, what do _you_ think?
I have Usenet from news.eternal-september.org since Aioe
went down for - IIUC - half-invented reasons, the ISP just
didn't want them hosting Usenet, really, as always, lots
of traffic and no real gain, for them that is.

Anyway I can really recommend news.eternal-september.org -
sign up at http://eternal-september.org free of charge,
just need a web browser with JavaScript support to do it,
then use it for example from Emacs Gnus or whatever client
you prefer/use. Thanks to my dataswamp-buddy bch for
telling me about it, he was also exiled when Aieo went
MIA but solved that for himself and now for me, in a good
way. Now let's enjoy this 44th installment of this great
show we all love <3

--
underground experts united
https://dataswamp.org/~incal