Showdown (game)
Encyclopedia
Showdown is a trivia and word game that tests players’ general and popular culture
knowledge, as well as their numerical skills and willingness to bluff and take a risk. It makes use of the Summit (puzzle)
scoring system which awards higher scores for long answers containing letters towards the end of the alphabet.
Showdown is one of the first boxed games to integrate mobile telephone and text message technology, as players can text their answers to a Showdown number which calculates the value of their answers and replies within 10 seconds with their score. The game was created by Winning Moves
in 2008. A mobile version of the game was launched in Ireland in 2002 by national broadcaster RTE and Zamano
.
Showdown has been described as "Trivial Pursuit
meets Scrabble
" by Peter Sterling, Puzzles Editor for the Press Association
.
character) to the everyday (something found in a bathroom).
Players have two minutes to come up with an answer to each of the five topics, keeping in mind that if they come up with the same answer as another player, both will score 0 points. They also bear in mind the Summit
scoring system, in which each letter A is worth 1 point, B is worth 2, C worth 3, up to Z which is worth 26. Other characters such as punctuation and spaces are ignored. For example, the band ABBA
scores 6 points whereas ZZ Top
scores 103.
When the time is up, players with a valid answer for a topic can choose whether to go “in” or “out” depending on whether they feel they have a high-scoring, unique answer or not. If a player chooses “out”, they bank 5 points.
Once everyone has announced “in” or “out”, everyone’s answers are revealed. If one or more players have chosen “in” and have the same answer, they are knocked out and score 0. If a player has chosen “in” and has a unique answer, they can bank 10 points.
Now that everyone knows the other players’ answers, players must decide whether to enter The Showdown to try to win the maximum 20 points for that topic. The Showdown is where the Summit scoring system comes into play; the highest scoring word in The Showdown wins, and anyone losing The Showdown scores 0. Players announce “in” or “out” again, with players going “out” at this stage scoring 10 points.
If two or more players go “in” to The Showdown, the scores are calculated and the highest-scoring answer wins 20 points. If only one player is willing to enter The Showdown (for example, if everyone thinks that one player’s answer is clearly much better than all the others) then that person automatically wins the 20 points. If two or more players have an equal Summit score (for example, the musicals My Fair Lady
and Calamity Jane
both score 114), then both players win 20 points for that topic.
The player with the most points after the 5 topics wins the game.
. This can either be in feigning confidence in the score of their answer before the actual score has been calculated, in an attempt to scare other players out of the game, or in feigning a lack of confidence in an attempt to suck other players into a Showdown and defeat them that way.
(26) beating Coffee
(40).
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
knowledge, as well as their numerical skills and willingness to bluff and take a risk. It makes use of the Summit (puzzle)
Summit (puzzle)
Summit is a word puzzle and scoring system developed by Winning Moves UK in 2008, and is published in Take A Break and Puzzler Magazines, and appears every Friday in The Evening Standard, and Monday to Friday in the Daily Mail, in the puzzle pages....
scoring system which awards higher scores for long answers containing letters towards the end of the alphabet.
Showdown is one of the first boxed games to integrate mobile telephone and text message technology, as players can text their answers to a Showdown number which calculates the value of their answers and replies within 10 seconds with their score. The game was created by Winning Moves
Winning Moves
Winning Moves Games is a maker of classic card games and board games, puzzles, action games and adult party games.-History:Winning Moves Games was founded in 1995 by four game industry professionals: Tom Kremer , Philip Orbanes , Mike...
in 2008. A mobile version of the game was launched in Ireland in 2002 by national broadcaster RTE and Zamano
Zamano
Zamano is a publicly listed internet and mobile technology company based in Dublin. Established in 2000, Zamano concentrates on mobile commerce, marketing and customer relationship management.- Business structure :...
.
Showdown has been described as "Trivial Pursuit
Trivial Pursuit
Trivial Pursuit is a board game in which progress is determined by a player's ability to answer general knowledge and popular culture questions. The game was created in 1979 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, by Canadian Chris Haney, a photo editor for Montreal's The Gazette and Scott Abbott, a sports...
meets Scrabble
Scrabble
Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15-by-15 grid. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary. Official reference works provide a list...
" by Peter Sterling, Puzzles Editor for the Press Association
Press Association
The Press Association is the national news agency of the United Kingdom and Ireland, supplying multimedia news content to almost all national and regional newspapers, television and radio news, as well as many websites with text, pictures, video and data content globally...
.
How To Play
Play begins when one player draws a Topic Card from the deck, and reads out the five topics on it. They range from general knowledge topics (a European country) to popular culture (a James BondJames Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
character) to the everyday (something found in a bathroom).
Players have two minutes to come up with an answer to each of the five topics, keeping in mind that if they come up with the same answer as another player, both will score 0 points. They also bear in mind the Summit
Summit (puzzle)
Summit is a word puzzle and scoring system developed by Winning Moves UK in 2008, and is published in Take A Break and Puzzler Magazines, and appears every Friday in The Evening Standard, and Monday to Friday in the Daily Mail, in the puzzle pages....
scoring system, in which each letter A is worth 1 point, B is worth 2, C worth 3, up to Z which is worth 26. Other characters such as punctuation and spaces are ignored. For example, the band ABBA
ABBA
ABBA was a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1970 which consisted of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog...
scores 6 points whereas ZZ Top
ZZ Top
ZZ Top is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "That Little Ol' Band from Texas". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based boogie rock, has come to incorporate elements of arena, southern, and boogie rock. The band, from Houston Texas, formed in 1969...
scores 103.
When the time is up, players with a valid answer for a topic can choose whether to go “in” or “out” depending on whether they feel they have a high-scoring, unique answer or not. If a player chooses “out”, they bank 5 points.
Once everyone has announced “in” or “out”, everyone’s answers are revealed. If one or more players have chosen “in” and have the same answer, they are knocked out and score 0. If a player has chosen “in” and has a unique answer, they can bank 10 points.
Now that everyone knows the other players’ answers, players must decide whether to enter The Showdown to try to win the maximum 20 points for that topic. The Showdown is where the Summit scoring system comes into play; the highest scoring word in The Showdown wins, and anyone losing The Showdown scores 0. Players announce “in” or “out” again, with players going “out” at this stage scoring 10 points.
If two or more players go “in” to The Showdown, the scores are calculated and the highest-scoring answer wins 20 points. If only one player is willing to enter The Showdown (for example, if everyone thinks that one player’s answer is clearly much better than all the others) then that person automatically wins the 20 points. If two or more players have an equal Summit score (for example, the musicals My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe...
and Calamity Jane
Calamity Jane
Martha Jane Cannary Burke , better known as Calamity Jane, was an American frontierswoman, and professional scout best known for her claim of being an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok, but also for having gained fame fighting Native Americans...
both score 114), then both players win 20 points for that topic.
The player with the most points after the 5 topics wins the game.
Unique answers
It is possible to win the game without ever entering The Showdown itself, simply by coming up with unique answers and banking 10 points for each topic. For example, if the topic is Football Clubs, a player might choose Leeds United (118) over answers such as Wycombe Wanderers (193) or Wolverhampton Wanderers (289), in the knowledge that whilst Leeds United scores less, other players are unlikely to choose it for exactly that reason and therefore it is probable that it will be a unique answer.Bluff
Players can attempt to deceive their opponents by bluffingDeception
Deception, beguilement, deceit, bluff, mystification, bad faith, and subterfuge are acts to propagate beliefs that are not true, or not the whole truth . Deception can involve dissimulation, propaganda, and sleight of hand. It can employ distraction, camouflage or concealment...
. This can either be in feigning confidence in the score of their answer before the actual score has been calculated, in an attempt to scare other players out of the game, or in feigning a lack of confidence in an attempt to suck other players into a Showdown and defeat them that way.
Risk taking
As players are generally likely to choose a unique answer, players willing to take a risk can attempt a double bluff and choose an extremely obvious answer in the chance that other players have avoided it for that reason. For example, if the topic is Countries of the World, United States of America is an obviously high-scoring answer (228) because of its length and the number of high-scoring Ss and Ts. But because it is so obvious, players may avoid it because it is unlikely to be unique. This affords a brave player the opportunity to take a risk on both a unique and high-scoring answer.Gameplay variation
Showdown can also be played where players are attempting to get a low-scoring answer rather than a high-scoring one. For example, in this variation, a Hot Drink topic would see TeaTea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
(26) beating Coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
(40).