PlayCafe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| PlayCafe | |
|---|---|
 PlayCafe beta logo |
|
| Genre | Interactive game show |
| Created by | Mark Goldenson Dev Nag |
| Presented by | Daniella Martin |
| Opening theme | "Burn" by Positively Dark |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 271 (as of May 31, 2008) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Collin Seaman |
| Location(s) | Redwood City, California |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | PlayCafe |
| Original run | April 2007 – present |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | LiveFire (May—Oct 2007) |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
PlayCafe (formerly LiveFire) is an interactive Internet game show network currently in open beta phase which bills itself as "the first online game show network." PlayCafe was founded in April 2007 by Dev Nag and Mark Goldenson, funded by angel investors including Ariel Poler (chairman of StumbleUpon) and Scott Kurnit (founder of About.com). PlayCafe has produced over 250 hour-long episodes, which are broadcast live from Redwood City, California and hosted by Daniella Martin.
PlayCafe broadcast two shows daily, Monday through Friday, at 6:00 pm and 7:00 pm Pacific Time (UTC -7) through May 30, 2008 when it was announced that it would change to a weekly format the following week. PlayCafe currently broadcasts two hour-long shows Thursday nights at the same time, although this is subject to change.
Contents |
[edit] History
Under the name "LiveFire," the show premiered in May 2007, which featured twenty players invited by the co-founders.[1] Production of one show a day, Monday through Friday, commenced on October 29, 2007 and expanded to two shows a day on December 31, 2007. The name changed to PlayCafe in late October 2007. However on May 30th, the show's format shifted from daily shows (Monday-Friday) to once a week shows on Thursday. The reason for this shift is that the company made repsonible for the show is shifting in new directions and an exact answer has yet to be revealed.
[edit] Interface
Every user that watches PlayCafe during a live show is a contestant on the show: players enter answers via an Adobe Flash interface, which displays the question, answer choices, statistics of the user, and a leaderboard after each question. PlayCafe is currently streamed through the Ustream.tv website.
[edit] Format
Each hour-long episode consists of three segments with a choice of six different formats: Media Mash-up, Predict the Poll, Mix and Match, Either-Or, Missing Links, and Letter Perfect. Players may also participate in Live Call-ins, which take place during the fourth question of each segment. Before the last question of the third segment, a Bonus Round is played.
[edit] Media Mash-up
In Media Mash-up, a video, image, or audio clip is shown, and players answer three questions about the media played. Each question has four answer choices unique to each question. Players are awarded points for each correct answer, the value of which is determined by how fast the player answers each question. The point counter starts at 3,500 points at the start, but continuously decreases to 0 at a rate of 100 points per second. Players may change their answers after answering each question, but each time a player changes their answer, the points possible for that question is changed to reflect the lower amount of points on the timer.
[edit] Either-Or
In Either-Or, players match four items in a list to one of two choices. Some examples of these choices, which were used so far, include "Play (Shakespeare character) or Plague (disease)" and "Dead or Canadian". Scoring and game play are identical to Media Mash-up.
[edit] Mix and Match
In Mix and Match, players match four different parts of question to one of five answer choices, common to each part of the question. Scoring and game play are identical to Media Mash-up.
A previous version of this round featured seven answer choices.
[edit] Predict the Poll
In Predict the Poll, players have ten seconds to answer one question. Players either type their answer or drag-and-drop a blue triangle to represent their answer to the question. Points are awarded depending on how close guesses come to the actual answer.
There are two types of questions in the Predict the Poll round. The original (and more common) format of questions featured in the Predict the Poll round ask players to try and accurately predict the findings of opinion polls, which are either national polls from polling organizations, such as The Gallup Organization, or in-house polls conducted online. An exact guess awards players 10,000 points. Players may guess within a thirty-percent range above or below the correct answer to receive points. Points gradually decrease over the thirty-percent range, as shown in the table below:
| Percent Incorrect | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 10 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 20 | 25 | 29 | 30+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points Awarded | 10,000 | 9,666 | 9,333 | 9,000 | 8,666 | 8,333 | 8,000 | 6,666 | 5,000 | 4,666 | 4,333 | 3,333 | 1,666 | 333 | 0 |
The second format of the Predict the Poll round is also known as Name That Number, which asks players to accurately predict a numerical quantity, such as a population of a country or calories in a food. Like the traditional format of Predict the Poll, this format awards 10,000 points for a correct guess. Players must guess within thirty percent of the entire range above or below the correct answer. For example, in a range between zero and 200 calories, the margin allowed would be 60 calories above and below the correct answer.
[edit] Missing Links
In Missing Links, players link words together to form a chain, each word being part of a two-word term, connected by common words. Four of those words are to be picked by the players, with other words already given. Occasionally, there is no given word between the two answers, meaning the two answers themselves link together, potentially raising the difficulty. Scoring and game play are identical to Media Mash-up.
[edit] Letter Perfect
In Letter Perfect, players are given a clue to a 6-, 7-, or 8-letter mystery word, then must fill in the missing letters to complete the word. Essentially, for each correct letter a player selects within the time limit, they are awarded points. Scoring and game play are identical to Media Mash-up.
This game was debuted on PlayCafe on May 15, 2008, and is particularly unique in that it is the first user-created game to be featured on the show.
[edit] Live Call-ins
Before the fourth question of each segment, a phone number is displayed and players are encouraged to participate in a Live Call-in and interact directly with the studio crew during question five. Only one player may participate in a Live Call-in each segment. No additional game points are won for calling in, but if the call-in player earns more than 5,000 points during the question, they win five additional entries in the weekly raffle.
[edit] Bonus Round
Before the final question of each show, the Bonus Round is played. For each 10,000 points players earn in a segment, they earn a key. Unlike points earned in each segment, keys are kept until the end of each show, when they are redeemed in the bonus round. Players choose a number of treasure chest icons equal to the number of keys they have. After 45 seconds, icons that were "inside" the chests are revealed. If a player matches a certain amount of identical icons, they win the prize indicated by the icon. Some prizes available in the bonus round include Reactee t-shirts, Amazon gift cards, Audible audiobooks, ITunes songs, Wiis, and US$1,000.
[edit] Weekly Raffle
The Weekly Raffle segment usually occurs during the first show of the week, but may also occur at other times throughout the shows that day.
As players answer questions in a segment, they accumulate points based on the objective of the round. If players have one of the ten highest point totals at the end of the segment, they earn between one and ten Raffle Tickets: ten tickets to the first-place finisher, nine to the second-place finisher, all the way down to one ticket for the tenth-place finisher. Should an equal score between two or more players result at the end of a segment, each tied player is given the same amount of tickets. After one week of shows, three tickets are randomly selected from the tickets of the previous week, winning an Amazon.com or iTunes Store gift certificate.
The decision to keep this raffle has not been revealed, due to the decision annouced on May 30th. The future of the raffle is yet to be revealed to players currently on the website.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Nguyen, Vicky. "Bay Area Company Brings Game Show To You", KNTV, 2007-12-20. Retrieved on 2008-01-29. (transcript)
- ^ "[Storm! Business Podcast: PlayCafe's Live Internet Game Show Network]". Brainstorm Business Podcast. 2008-01-09.
