What Is 1 vs. 100?
1 vs. 100 started out as a game show on NBC hosted by Bob Saget. The premise is that there is one person (the one) playing against a group of 100 (the mob) answering multiple choice trivia questions. If a mob member gets a question wrong, they are eliminated. The more mob members that are eliminated, the greater the potential prize money is. If the one eliminates all of the mob members, they win all of the money. They can also choose to simply take the money and leave the game if they want to. If the one gets a question wrong, they are eliminated and the surviving mob members split the prize money that had been earned up to that point.
How is 1 vs. 100 on Xbox Live Different?
Obviously, to play 1 vs. 100 on Xbox Live some changes had to be made. There are two versions of the game on Xbox Live. “Extended Play” which runs during the week and is purely a trivia game that everyone plays at the same time. And “1 vs. 100 Live” which takes place on the weekend or on specified days of the week where the real 1 vs. 100 game is played. It is important to note that if you perform well in Extended Play (answering questions both correctly and quickly) you increase your chances of getting into the live game.
During the live show, 101 people will be selected to make up the one and the mob and they play a round until either the one eliminates everyone, misses a question, or quits and takes the prize. Then another 101 people are selected and it starts over. The live game lasts two hours and generally fits 10 rounds into that time. If you aren't the mob or the one, you play from the crowd. The top three performers from the crowd also will win prizes at the end of each round.
Out of Beta, Start of Season 2
The first "season" of 1 vs. 100 on Xbox Live was a beta to get the kinks worked out. Now that we're onto season 2, we're playing for real. The only real differences between the beta and now are mostly cosmetic, the core game still works the same. One change, however, is that this season (and all seasons afterwards) will each offer up 200 Gamerscore points and 12 Achievements, which give you just a bit more incentive to want to play.
How Does the Game Work?
The game itself is pretty simple. When a question is asked, it pops up on screen and you have a few seconds to read it before the multiple-choice answers show up. The answers are attached to the X, A, and B buttons and you just press one of those buttons to answer. You earn a score just for answering, but correct answers get more points, fast answers get more points, and stringing correct answers together into streaks get more points.
Extended play is slightly different from the live game in that for every 3 questions you get right you earn a skip. A skip lets you skip a hard question in order to keep your streak multiplier intact. The only other real difference in gameplay is that if you get to be the one in a live game, you will have the option of using three help choices (trusting the mob’s popular answer, trusting the crowd’s popular answer, or trusting the answer of the person with the highest score in that round).
Another thing to note is that while you are really competing with everyone else playing (games can have as many as 200,000 people playing at once) you are also split off into groups of four to give the game a little bit more local excitement. You are randomly matched with other players (or if you have a party already you get to play with your friends) and while you don’t earn any special prizes for being the best in your group, it is a fun little way to kick up the competitive juices.
What Are The Requirements To Play? The only requirement is that you have to be a paying Xbox Live Gold subscriber. Silver members or 48 hour code users can’t play.
Can I Play With Multiple People on One Xbox 360?
Yes you can! Other players can sign in with a guest account (sign in with the main Gold account, then the other players press start on their controller and scroll all the way to the bottom of the list that pops up and select the guest option). Being a guest means you’ll only get to play in the crowd, but having guests on your account (as the main Gold member) does not affect your chances of being in the mob or the one. You can also sign in with multiple Gold accounts on one system, and in this case everyone has the same shot of being the one/in the mob and to win prizes.
What Are The Prizes?
The prizes for the one / surviving mob members / top three performers in the crowd will be XBLA games and/or Microsoft Points. The longer you last as the one or longer you survive in the mob will greatly increase your prize.
What Does The Y Button Do?
The Y button lets you do something called “amping”. By pressing the Y button, you make your Avatar dance and wave and a bunch of other stuff. Press it enough and they’ll go into a full on over the top action that is pretty funny. By pressing left or right on the left stick while you are amping, you can change the actions that your Avatar performs.
Who Are The Hosts?
There are two hosts of 1 vs. 100 on Xbox Live. Jen Taylor (voice of Cortana in the Halo games) recorded a bunch of lines for the game (so she isn’t live) and keeps the games moving along. Comedian and voice actor Chris Cashman is the host of the live games and reads e-mails, comments on questions, and generally makes fun of the contestants that do stupid stuff.
Tips & Tricks
The only real trick to the game is that you don't have to wait for all of the answers to pop up before you press the answer button. If the X answer is correct, press it as soon as you see it. Likewise, if you know the B answer is correct (because the other two aren't) you don't have to wait for it.
Where Can I Get More Info?
1 vs. 100 Live Official Website
1 vs. 100 Live Forum on Xbox.com
