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Playing The Game

Longbow

Self Destructoid
Excluding the U.S. and the first recent Canadian BB (as their format and show mechanics are very different than most others) i want to hear from a vast array of people on what they think about game playing in BB.

I didn't like Tim in the beginning of this season as i felt he was just doing his best to be Michael 2.0, now I've come around, i still think he still sounds like a car crash victim when he talks but at least I'm understanding why he does things and how he's positioning the chess board. This in itself is interesting, entertaining and in my eyes blasts Michael from last year out of the water as many were saying what a great game player he was.

I have watched many a BB, I'm kinda embarrassed to admit how many I've watched including all Australian ones about half of the U.K. ones with even a German and Swedish season (during the AUS BB drought) and through all of them there is this strong stigma about game playing and those that even 'dare' to attempt it.

I've found it very cheesy when housemates talk about being "true to yourself", "it's not about winning it's the experience", "i did this for the journey not the money" blah blah blah same talk with different faces. Why can't someone be there for the money? Why can't someone be allowed to play the game? I feel there's a few reasons for this but the one that always springs to my mind first is public perception. I think housemates care far too much about how they're perceived in and out of the house which i see straight through them, it's easy to spot when someone bites their tongue and holds back because they fear nomination, they fear that the public won't like them. When you have someone like Tim that doesn't possess that fear, well, then you have a unique and interesting dynamic. It's refreshing.

I always had the belief the game players were usually the interesting characters and regardless of how successful their plans were it would cause paranoia, distrust and arguments... a.k.a DRAMA!

Your usual housemate would immediately slander the game player, this is understandable as it's just a case of survival, better to label a housemate rotten that's trying to get you out rather than do nothing at all right? I get that, what i don't get is the public who usually vote game players out, surprisingly in the most recent BB U.K. civilian version the public kept the game player in to the end (didn't win though, the boring one did) which is highly and unfortunately irregular.

Tim feels like a different type of housemate this time round though, a different game player all together, playing the game similar to how i would if i was in the BB house which is to be absolutely transparent to the public in your thoughts of housemates and even your game plan. This is vital as they ultimately decide your fate in the game also telling it like it is and calling people out on their bullshit, I've found over any series of BB worldwide that calling someone out on their crap is major brownie points from the public. Don't trust ANYONE! Probably the best advice for any housemate game playing or not. Also messing with people's minds making them paranoid forcing them to make irrational decisions, exposing the fence sitters and low flyers etc... with more i can't think of right now.

So to end this god damn thesis i think Tim could maybe be the first legitimate house mate who's blatantly playing the game that the public can admire and even get behind, as if he takes us through he next play people will want to see how it plays out and if it actually worked. The only other successful game player in BBAU i can think of was... coincidentally... Tim from BB 5 (2005) who took a more strict pre-planned approach and followed everything he had to do to a T (still didn't win though but came second).

What are your thought's on game playing and perhaps Tim being the strong fan favorite right to the end if he does take a puppet master/villain role and possibly take this series out? Or do you prefer a frat house summer camp style show than a conniving Cluedo-esque game show?
 
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I personally have no problem with game players and I always find them entertaining and interesting. At the end of the day, they are all their hoping to win and get the money. Being popular and winning money are two things that everybody wants so who honestly does not want to win Big Brother?

Tim is my favourite housemate, he has been from the start. He is the best game player in a house full of game players and he is controlling the house. I love how unpredictable he is and his attitude inside the house which is basically care free with an aim to have fun and stir the pot. Housemates who stir the pot and expose the fence sitters will always get bonus points from me even if I do not like them but it is very rare that I am not a fan of a pot stirrer. Before this series started I said the thing that annoyed me last year was the lack of a pot stirrer e.g. Ben2003, Paul2004, Michael2006, TJ2007. This made the House turn into one big, happy, boring family with only 1 or 2 actually entertaining housemates with the rest able to simply cruise through the series unchallenged by anyone. It was therefore my wish pre season that the producers would cast a pot stirrer and I was so happy when I saw Tim on Launch Night and he has not let me down since.

I have never seen a housemate literally take over the show. It literally is the Tim show. Last night episodes there was a span of about 5 minutes when Tim was jogging around the pool and their were 3 different groups in 3 different parts of the House chatting about him. Without Tim, this house would be a bore fest. It is not like the producers favour him either. The producers favourite from the start was Ben but Tim has just been to good to ignore and he is the best housemate in the Big Brother house since 2006 imo.

Of all the 10 seasons of Big Brother Australia though, like I said above, this is the first season where I have seen a housemate literally take over the show. Even the spin off drama and controversy is usually started by Tim or Tim is connected in some way. It is brilliant! It is clear as day that Alex M loves him and I give all the credit in the world to Alex M for casting him. He auditioned last year and Alex M probably really wanted to cast him but could not because they wanted to bring it back with a clean slate and no controversy.
 
Interesting thesis... I think most players approach the game from an either/or standpoint: either you are being true to yourself, or you are playing the game. Tim, however, shows that you can do both.

Of course however you choose to play you still have to be likable enough for the public to vote for you - and that's where most contestants get it wrong, If they choose the former (being true), they get made to look unlikable (or find out that their true selves isn't vote-worthy in the public eye). If they choose the latter (playing hard), they look ungenuine, which generally puts voters off.

Playing the middle takes guts, and it's still no guarantee you will be likable enough to the public. And of course you have to be thick-skinned enough to shrug it off when others try.

I'll be curious to see if anyone else can try or even be half as successful as Tim has been being both.
 
The opposite is true in the US. Big Brother is all about game play. With a couple of exceptions the most popular players are the best game players. The liars, the pot stirrers, the manipulaters are held in high regard if their game play is good. The most popular ones tend to be highly creative in their game play and funny. They also use the diary room to tell it like it is, and make the viewer feel a part of their evil plan.
Floaters, people who do not form strong alliances and "float" to whoever has the power in a given week, are looked down on. Even Julie Chen(aka Chenbot) the host, has even said that she finds floaters the most annoying house guest.
However there is a cash prize given at the end of the season to "America's Favorite". This is the only prize voted on by the public. It typically goes to the most likable of the house guests, and is not given to the F2.
This is my first year watching Big Brother AU and I am still wrapping my mind around strategy for this game. Tim is first and foremost entertaining. I think this will make the public more open to supporting him even if in the past they haven't supported game players in the past.
I also believe the editing out of sequence and the rules regarding talking about game play make it difficult to determine what is game play and what is just everyday behavior. I think gameplayers would be more popular if it was easier to follow game play
 
Its a hard one if we were to place ourselves in the shoes of a HM, There is a challenge, Weeks living with others we know little about. Distance from home and familiarity most people like a smooth ride pleasantness, and some companionship. But the outside world is looking in often viewing harmony smooth sailing as boring, mundane and uninteresting to watch. Someone like Tim seems to have a grip on surviving and flourishing with both the internal and external viewers.
However it is a once in a life time opportunity cash is up for grabs, and future opportunities such as media employment. Without a doubt every HM plays the game to some extent, No-one applies for big brother to be the first evictee.
Playing the game is essential in the Big Brother environment. No matter how great a person you are it may not hold you in the house.
I think Tim plays the game smarter than others, i also think Tim is aware of the audience watching him outside, and he possibly may be doing what he does as he knows the public like it. But thats great, i feel without Tim this year we would have another BB06 love fest of promo type models and bogan guys.
Life is like playing a game look at most work places, sporting teams, etc.
Look at all previous winners they played the game hard...

Ben 01 Sympathy nice guy next door
Peter 02 Sympathy nice guy next door
Regina 03 Dumbness larkinism....still taking cash for womens day stories
Trevor 04 The loveable indinginous guy, romantic
Greg 05 The Aussie bloke
Jamie 06 The cool calm guy who snogged his way there with love
Aleisha 07 Sweet country bumpkin
Terry 08 The older wiser Aussie
Ben 09 The gay everyone loves
 
The opposite is true in the US. Big Brother is all about game play. With a couple of exceptions the most popular players are the best game players. The liars, the pot stirrers, the manipulaters are held in high regard if their game play is good. The most popular ones tend to be highly creative in their game play and funny. They also use the diary room to tell it like it is, and make the viewer feel a part of their evil plan.
Floaters, people who do not form strong alliances and "float" to whoever has the power in a given week, are looked down on. Even Julie Chen(aka Chenbot) the host, has even said that she finds floaters the most annoying house guest.
However there is a cash prize given at the end of the season to "America's Favorite". This is the only prize voted on by the public. It typically goes to the most likable of the house guests, and is not given to the F2.
This is my first year watching Big Brother AU and I am still wrapping my mind around strategy for this game. Tim is first and foremost entertaining. I think this will make the public more open to supporting him even if in the past they haven't supported game players in the past.
I also believe the editing out of sequence and the rules regarding talking about game play make it difficult to determine what is game play and what is just everyday behavior. I think gameplayers would be more popular if it was easier to follow game play

The game play is much harder in Aus, U.K. etc... because the public vote who to save/evict whereas the U.S. version the housemates or even a single solitary housemate have tremendous influence on the game i.e.

HoH - One person decides which two housemates get put up for eviction
PoV - One person decides which of the two to save from eviction (if they choose to save)
Voting - The housemates themselves then vote which of the two to evict.

So it's more closer to Survivor than traditional BB in terms of game play and strategy. In the AU version you ultimately play the public, you could be an absolute dirt bag in the house where everyone hates you, but if the public enjoy it they'll save time and time again. Housemates do also need to play each other and not just one person who has HoH or PoV as all housemates get to nominate and influence the nominations. So there's much manipulating on Tim's behalf to do and I'm very much intrigued by how he's going to pull it off.

But yes, i absolutely agree with you that if the public could follow housemates game play more easily so they can be intrigued to see how it will all unfold would be more endearing to the game players than those from the past who had little to no context in why they pulled a move that may seem stupid.
 
I prefer game players. And not just those who get into the nominations chamber and put up someone they don't like under the 'strategic' excuse, I mean legit game players like Tim this year, who are playing from the get-go. He fascinates me, I'd save him if I could be bothered voting.
 
Why can't someone be there for the money? Why can't someone be allowed to play the game?

Actually it seems more the other way. At the end of the day most people admit they're "playing the game" in some way and that "everyone is playing the game, that's what you're here for!" I wish more people could just get away with being themselves, but anyone that does that is "flying under the radar" because they don't get in arguments or something stupid.
 
I think the best thing about Tim's gameplay, which makes him stand out from others, is his ability to influence the public's vote with what he is saying, making others think in the house, without there being much evidence for to see to back up his claim. His favourite line to use is 'this housemate is playing both sides of the groups'. He has used it so far on 3 different housemates, 2 who have now being booted out. For that alone, Tim is the greatest game player BBAU has ever had. I do think he might push it too far. If intruders go in soon, they could use his game plan against him. The best way to stop him is to not react to him they way they have been. But that is getting a little side tracked.

I also wish that 'playing the game' would not be allowed as a nomination because its a game, they are all there to win. Being a threat sure, but 'playing both sides/hiding who they really are/etc' seem like cop outs to me. It would interesting to see what they would all do or say what they would do with the money if they did win.
 
maybe Tim should work for one of our goverment party that way he could convince that someone is worth voting for. if he can tell the people who to evict he could maybe tell you how to vote.
 
I don't think Tim is the first let alone the best game player we have seen on BB in Australia. If he wins or gets close to winning he may well be as it's too early to say yet. So far he has shown he's one of the most daring and overt but how is this much different to Paul from BBAU 2004? Paul stirred the pot and was being himself and didn't care if people knew about it. In the end though he became harder and harder to like so this could be the same fate for Tim.

I think Benjamin last year was a great game player.

I think the Aussie version makes it way more fun to watch as we ultimately decide their fate and therefore the game playing has to consider us which some game players don't quite get a full handle on.
 
Excluding the U.S. and the first recent Canadian BB (as their format and show mechanics are very different than most others) i want to hear from a vast array of people on what they think about game playing in BB.

I didn't like Tim in the beginning of this season as i felt he was just doing his best to be Michael 2.0, now I've come around, i still think he still sounds like a car crash victim when he talks but at least I'm understanding why he does things and how he's positioning the chess board. This in itself is interesting, entertaining and in my eyes blasts Michael from last year out of the water as many were saying what a great game player he was.

I have watched many a BB, I'm kinda embarrassed to admit how many I've watched including all Australian ones about half of the U.K. ones with even a German and Swedish season (during the AUS BB drought) and through all of them there is this strong stigma about game playing and those that even 'dare' to attempt it.

I've found it very cheesy when housemates talk about being "true to yourself", "it's not about winning it's the experience", "i did this for the journey not the money" blah blah blah same talk with different faces. Why can't someone be there for the money? Why can't someone be allowed to play the game? I feel there's a few reasons for this but the one that always springs to my mind first is public perception. I think housemates care far to much about how they're perceived in and out of the house which i see straight through them, it's easy to spot when someone bites their tongue and holds back because they fear nomination, they fear that the public won't like them. When you have someone like Tim that doesn't possess that fear, well, then you have a unique and interesting dynamic. It's refreshing.

I always had the belief the game players were usually the interesting characters and regardless of how successful their plans were it would cause paranoia, distrust and arguments... a.k.a DRAMA!

Your usual housemate would immediately slander the game player, this is understandable as it's just a case of survival, better to label a housemate rotten that's trying to get you out rather than do nothing at all right? I get that, what i don't get is the public who usually vote game players out, surprisingly in the most recent BB U.K. civilian version the public kept the game player in to the end (didn't win though, the boring one did) which is highly and unfortunately irregular.

Tim feels like a different type of housemate this time round though, a different game player all together, playing the game similar to how i would if i was in the BB house which is to be absolutely transparent to the public in your thoughts of housemates and even your game plan. This is vital as they ultimately decide your fate in the game also telling it like it is and calling people out on their bullshit, I've found over any series of BB worldwide that calling someone out on their crap is major brownie points from the public. Don't trust ANYONE! Probably the best advice for any housemate game playing or not. Also messing with people's minds making them paranoid forcing them to make irrational decisions, exposing the fence sitters and low flyers etc... with more i can't think of right now.

So to end this god damn thesis i think Tim could maybe be the first legitimate house mate who's blatantly playing the game that the public can admire and even get behind, as if he takes us through he next play people will want to see how it plays out and if it actually worked. The only other successful game player in BBAU i can think of was... coincidentally... Tim from BB 5 (2005) who took a more strict pre-planned approach and followed everything he had to do to a T (still didn't win though but came second).

What are your thought's on game playing and perhaps Tim being the strong fan favorite right to the end if he does take a puppet master/villain role and possibly take this series out? Or do you prefer a frat house summer camp style show than a conniving Cluedo-esque game show?


Thanks for your epic post which I happen to agree with 100% :)

I love how Tim's been the first BB housemate that I know of who's openly playing the game precisely by being completely transparent with the public about his gameplays and everything that he's up to. It's like he lets us in on his cunning plan, and who can't help but be charmed by that or want to cheer him on? I know I can't. I mean, we all know it's a game. Someone else here said that in the US version they are all-out gameplayers and the audience goes by who they think is the better gameplayer, which is interesting (I wonder if Tim got the idea from the US BB?).

Housemates are still a bit shy here in Oz about being so brazenly Machiavellian but I think we needed someone like Tim to really stir things up and shake things around in a way that the public hasn't seen before. This is good for Oz BB I think. (Didn't need BB twists so much, just a very clever housemate, goes to show).

But so far his strategy seems to be working, as the housemates that he doesn't like are either nom'd or evicted, such as Caleb for the first time being nom'd this week, and Jasmine leaving last week, and now Tully looks like she could be next in line. And his mate Mikkayla being saved yet again, someone who can potentially help him get to the very end.

I think if you can get the audience on your side, and being transparent is an excellent way of doing this, you can't help but succeed because of course, no matter how much the housemates dislike you and keep nominating you, the audience will never vote you out of the house. It's up to the audience at the end of the day. So it's a smart plan of Tim's. I'm interested to see in how he goes, assuming that of course, he survives this Monday night. Although I wouldn't be surprised if he gets too cocky down the track and stuffs things up for himself. But all these shenanigans are going to keep me watching the show. ;)
 
Thanks for your epic post which I happen to agree with 100% :)

Why thank you. I never thought about it before but i agree with you how it could help BB, that IF BB does come back next year Tim's strategy could influence future housemates to play a little more harder and smarter and interestingly. I also wanted to sandwich Casey's puny post... HULK SMASH!
 
I've found it very cheesy when housemates talk about being "true to yourself", "it's not about winning it's the experience", "i did this for the journey not the money" blah blah blah same talk with different faces. Why can't someone be there for the money? Why can't someone be allowed to play the game?
Rohan was the housemate with brutal honesty, saying that he was there to win and is playing the game.
 
Rohan was the housemate with brutal honesty, saying that he was there to win and is playing the game.

Sure and i give him 100% credit for trying, but it was a shocking game plan by being honest with the housemates. You can say what you want to the housemates, but when you say at one point to the public 'yeah, I'm here for the money' then a week later in the diary room start saying 'this is a growing journey for me to find myself'... that's where he lost me and obviously others as well. But don't get me wrong i believe utmost that entertainment is the A1 attribute a BB winner should have. If someone can play a lazy game and coast by but is incredibly intriguing that gets people talking about them, that's great. Tim's advantage over Rohan is that he's interesting and makes his own fun... Rohan just sat there.

EDIT: With the Why can't someone be there for the money? Why can't someone be allowed to play the game? Is a question intended for the public not housemates as i completely understand if someone came clean like that in the house you would do your best to get them evicted. I should've been more clearer, sorry :P
 
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If Tim continues playing his game & manages to stir enough friction in the house each week to get the public to save everyone except the person he wants to go (sort of like having them evicted)

AND

goes on to win BB - he could actually change BB Aust for ever, in that it may become the norm to openly plan, collude & stir the pot to get other HM's evicted.

Personally I don't like the way its done atm, where HM's 'pretend' to like everyone but in fact dislike them. I hate it when HM's nominate & say things like "Oooh I'm nominating "Luke", I really like him & think he is a fabulous guy with a great personality & outlook on life, blah, blah, bullshit blah ---- but I just have found it hard to connect this week" and crap reasons like that.

I'd rather a BB nomination where HM's say "I cant stand "Lucas" & want him out now because I think he's a lying idiot"

Some do this to a small degree, but I'd prefer BB not to allow the ' We havent connected' or 'I really like this person BUT' reasons.
& collusion, let them talk about nominations, how much fun would it be if Tim went up to Tully & said all the boys nominated you :) (whether they did or not) just to watch the retaliation & subsequent outfall. Doesn't have to be Tim & Tully could be anyone.

It would screw with their minds if they openly stated we want 'someone' out, colluded & nommed them - only to have the public keep them in. I think that'd be fun also.
 
The way Tim is playing the game, it's like the viewers are in the house them with, not just watching the show.

He lets us know what's happening in there & what he is going to do to try & stop HM from succeeding, he talks about them all.

The other seem to just target 2 HM's each week. They all bitch about Tim, but hardly ever nominate him.

They seem to nominate the ones Tim wants nominated. lol
 
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