1 Vs. 100

Last night myself, 3 friends, and about 50,000 total strangers from across the country participated in the beta (trial) of an Xbox Live version of the game show 1 Vs. 100 (pictured above). The live television version of the show was hosted by Bob Saget, and I'm not sure if the show was success or not, but it seems to be a translated well into a massive multiplayer trivia video game since everyone gets to play.


The online game is simple enough. You join a lobby of people (50,000+) and a "The One" (main player) is chosen at random, and so too is a "Mob" of 100 players for "The One" to play against. Everyone else joins "The Crowd." Multiple choice trivia questions are then asked, and points are awarded to the crowd based on correct answers, speed of answer, and streak of correctly answered questions. The One, meanwhile, is in a trivia battle versus all 100 members of the mob. The goal for the one is to one of two things: A.He can outlast/outanswer every member of the mob and win a prize, or he can try to dwindle the mob down to just a few people and choose to split the prize between himself and the mob. The prize, in this case, is microsoft points which are used to, for example, buy new Rock Band songs or additional downloadable content for other games. It's actually a pretty good prize considering 1 Vs. 100 is (going to be) free to play.

The whole process happens in real time and even has a live in-game host(Chris Cashman) because, so far, the beta of the game is not the kind that can be played at your leisure but instead only at certain times. For example, the next "show" isn't until Saturday the 13th, and each session lasts for 2 hours. This is unique, for sure. An xbox-live game that can only be played against other real players.

At first thought, it might seem that unless you're randomly selected to be The One or part of the Mob (read: you're in the crowd) that the game wouldn't have much point to it, but I disagree. First of all, you have to be in the crowd to be considered for the mob at any point. Second, the online version of the games move quickly enough that in a 2 hour span you'll have 10+ chances to be part of the Mob. Also, since all 50,000+ players are answering the same questions, being in the crowd still gives you a chance to see how you stack up against everyone (it includes a detailed statistics screen explaining how well you're doing)and you can also have competition against your friends who are online at the same time. Finally, the three highest scoring members of the crowd also receive prizes at the end of each game, so there's monetary incentive for that too.

The game in its current state fills a much needed multiplayer trivia void that up until now you could get only through bars and restaurants that host NTN trivia contests and Dave & Busters which has an 8-player trivia game with a ticket incentive. Of course, those options are both much more expensive and involve leaving your house.