I know I’m late to the game here, but I’ve recently started watching the reality series Survivor, and I’m addicted. The current season (not sure which one that is…16th maybe?) in Gabon is the first I’ve watched and I’m enjoying it far more than I thought I would. The gamesmanship is fascinating to watch, and I wonder if this show is popular with the rest of the gaming community or not.

Survivor melds together cooperative with competitive social play as well as I’ve ever seen done. Watching a group of five people come together to destroy the other four members of their tribe, all the while clearly plotting to betray each other, is a lot of fun. In the current season we’ve seen things like deals based on fake immunity idols, someone sent to “Exile Island” a record five consecutive times, and more. I’ve always felt that Diplomacy was one of the “purest” games, and Survivor ends up playing like a very elaborate version of it.

I’m enjoying this season so much, in fact, that we Netflix’d the first season of the game and started watching it tonight. It’s really interesting to watch how different the game was played in season 1. In most cases so far, it was barely addressed as a game at all by most of the participants. They’re more concerned with satisfying the fiction of the game - that you’re divided into tribes and that one needs to work first and foremost to make your tribe strong. By the season I’m watching though, the participants have long ceased to look at the experience as anything but a game, though that game dictates that they pretend they’re being genuine, regardless of whether it’s likely that their co-participants know they’re faking.

I like games where you are able to sort of redefine the landscape on which you’re playing midway through the game. Survivor feels somewhat like the equivalent of playing Quake where every player has an opportunity to, on the fly, rescuplt the dungeon/terrain that the game is being played on.