By Mike Mullis
In the hubbub that is E3, and all the pomp and circumstance that is taking place in Los Angeles this week, something very cool and very fun has almost totally flown under the gaming radar. Monday night officially began the beta testing for Microsoft’s long-promised “Primetime” channel, and it’s first Primetime entry; 1 vs 100. With the exception of the icons being on the dashboard channels, there was very little fanfare for the beta. Microsoft made no mention of this during their press conference. And I have no idea why. Folks, often as the internet forums light up about Xbox Live and other online services, you always here the same tired argument; “Why isn’t Xbox Live free when “service X” is?” “What am I paying $50 a year for?” Well, 1 vs 100 can now be added to the long list of reasons. Xbox Live Gold Subscribers will get to play 1 vs 100 free-of-charge. And hopefully by the time you finish reading this article, you will be as hyped for this as I became after running through the first beta test.
To bring some of you up to speed on the idea behind 1 vs 100 on Xbox Live Primetime, this is not an Xbox Live Arcade game. It’s not something that you download and play anytime, canned and scripted. 1 vs 100 is an adaptation of a TV show that ran for about a season on network TV. 1 vs 100 on Xbox Live is just like the TV show, and it will run on a schedule just like it ran on TV. Just like the TV show, 1 vs 100 has a real-life host and a completely real-time experience. For those of you that missed the first beta, I am here to fill you in on what you missed and why you should feel ashamed about it.
So Monday night was the first in a series of beta tests for the ambitious game/show. About 50,000 of us were allowed in for the very first playtest. I am guessing they capped the number of players just to start working out the kinks. And I have to tell you, it sucks……….that I have to wait so long before the next game starts up Saturday night!! It’s been a long time since I was able to sit down for a 2 hour period and enjoy some nice relaxing gaming like this. If you are an Xbox Live Gold member, you have free access to the beta tests as well, so you need to get in there and give it a try when the next games come available.
So if you have never seen the TV show, which didn’t last that long, here is the skinny. 1 vs 100 is a trivia game which pits one lucky contestant (known simply as “The One”) against a wall of 100 other players (known as “The Mob”). The object; outlast all 100 players. Everyone else in the audience also gets to play the game and answer the questions (and they are known as “The Crowd”). The show is broken up into rounds, and each round a new One and Mob get chosen. Now the important two elements of the game are The One, and The Mob; but don’t think because you were left out into The Crowd that you are not important. You do come into play at times and I’ll explain that in a moment.
Now that we got all that straight (did you get all that, BTW?), the rules of the game are quite simple. You are asked a multiple-choice question with 3 possible answers. Everyone gets to answer the question no matter where you are. If The One gets the answer wrong, the game is over and he loses. However, if The One gets it right, then the game turns to The Mob. Whoever in the Mob got the question wrong is out. On the next question, The One only has to worry about the remaining Mob players. If The One can outlast the entire Mob, he wins. Pretty simple huh?
