Sound Off: 1 Vs 100 Live

Even since 1 vs 100 Live was announced it immediately intrigued me, but I would always wonder if it would actually work. This past weekend I got a chance to dip into an extended round of the open beta for the massively multiplayer game show and got to see for myself. After seeing quite a few of my friends also logged onto the game, I wondered what our little corner of the internet thought of the pairing of Microsoft and game show giant Endemol.

For those unfamiliar with the game, it runs exactly like the original TV show: one person goes up against 100 others, affectionately known as "The Mob," in a trivia stand off. As "The One" knocks out members of The Mob by getting questions right when they don't, they are tempted by the host to accept escalating prizes (MS points!) or risk losing it to The Mob if they miss a question. The One has a few tricks up their sleeve that allows them to get out of those hard to answer questions, but they can only be used three times.

While it's quite clear that the game is still well within its beta-phase, I came away from the experience impressed. As part of the Mob, your interactions are simple and intuitive, the questions that I saw were fresh from the headlines, and the game did a good job of recreating "game show tension" with timer bonuses and correct answer streaks. The sensation of playing along with thousands of other people was easy to feel with detailed statistics delivered to the player after each round.

Perhaps the most fascinating thing about 1 vs 100 isn't what people know, but rather what they don't know. This aspect proves to be even more interesting when you realize you're playing with what seems like the stereotypical gamer. For instance, while most people knew that David Carradine was the Kung Fu star that recently passed away (and not oddball choice Jennifer Aniston, though I'd totally prefer that), few were able to identify the name of the "hit fashion show that is moving from Bravo to the Lifetime channel this year." Call it a hunch, but it seems like the game injects "girlfriend" questions to amp up difficulty after three to hour easy questions each round. Note that I'm not complaining about this. This helped get me farther along each round than I probably should have.

Another odd thing that popped up was when the whenever The One relied on "The Brain" to answer the question at hand. Used one of the three "cheats" the The One can use to avoid a tough question, this cheat automatically selects the answer given by the current rounds best/fastest player. What was odd that every instance I saw this used, it would always give The One an incorrect answer. I'm not sure if it's rigged, but it certainly looked that way.

These little quibbles aside, the game was a lot of fun, and something that I plan to return to soon. I would suggest that every 360 owner checks it out now mainly because it's free, but also because it's something that I haven't seen on the system outside of SeenIt. For a console renowned for its predominately hardcore gamer online content, it's great to see something like this come along. Have you played 1 vs 100 Live? Care to share your thoughts with us? Hit the comments and speak your mind!