Author Topic: Would It's Optional work with today's budget?  (Read 3763 times)

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Offline greg

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Would It's Optional work with today's budget?
« on: January 11, 2016, 11:24:35 AM »
On Roger's Facebook page someone asked him why It's Optional was retired.  He said mainly due to budget constraints was the reason.  It got me wondering, with games that give out 3 cars or $100,00, would that even be an issue today?  Also would people even understand options on cars since most are standard now?  Would the game work with elaborate stereos or other options?

Offline SteveGavazzi

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Re: Would It's Optional work with today's budget?
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2016, 03:04:41 PM »
On Roger's Facebook page someone asked him why It's Optional was retired.  He said mainly due to budget constraints was the reason.  It got me wondering, with games that give out 3 cars or $100,000, would that even be an issue today?

Yes.  It's no coincidence that the games that offer the biggest prizes are also some of the hardest to win -- the $100,000 in Pay the Rent comes directly out of the prize budget if it's awarded, and I doubt some of the bigger cars are sponsorship deals.  It absolutely costs them money they might not want to spend when those things are given away.
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Offline pannoni1

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Re: Would It's Optional work with today's budget?
« Reply #2 on: January 12, 2016, 07:22:00 AM »
Despire that, It's Optional was won for the majority of its playings in its life. Like I said in a separate thread, its the limited options that wouldn't allow this game to work, and this would likely come down to dealer's options (such as pinstripes, decals, tire rims) and most cars these days are based on trim lines (Honda started this trend) with only a few special packages (mostly on luxury brands) and individual options, mostly AT/MT, sunroof, and leather seats. The show has the money, but not the resources to play such a game since you will need at least eight different options to make this game reasonable for three choices, or ten options for four choices.
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Offline Alfonzo

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Re: Would It's Optional work with today's budget?
« Reply #3 on: December 19, 2020, 01:22:23 AM »
I figured it was OK to bump this thread, with It's Optional being played a few times on the Barker Era Pluto Channel.

I can see now what Roger meant by budget restraints. After watching a few playings I felt that It's Optional was too easy for the prizes being offered. So far it looks to have a perfect record in it's final season. That must have been a big hit on the budget, considering at least $13,000 in merchandise was  usually given away. It was starting to seem obvious what options the contestants needed to win and making the game way too predictable. Not surprised at all now why it was retired.
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Offline rn

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Re: Would It's Optional work with today's budget?
« Reply #4 on: January 02, 2021, 07:28:21 PM »
And with inflation, the range would have to be bigger, and so would the maximum price difference between the two cars.

Offline Casey

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Re: Would It's Optional work with today's budget?
« Reply #5 on: January 03, 2021, 11:59:35 AM »
Keep in mind too that back when this game was played, cars were much more configurable than they are today.  Yes you can order cars with different things, but you don't get the granularity of choices like you did back then.  That would make the game harder to set up.

Offline COINBOYNYC

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Re: Would It's Optional work with today's budget?
« Reply #6 on: January 03, 2021, 04:09:27 PM »
Would it work, could it work with something other than a car?
Fun fact: Evelyn Wong, the 5th person to be called on the first show (9/4/72), was actually the very first contestant to directly be called to come on down!  The original first four (Sandy Flornor, Paul Levine, Connie Donnel, Myra Carter) were individually told to stand up, and then, as a group, were invited to come on down.

Offline Vgmastr

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Re: Would It's Optional work with today's budget?
« Reply #7 on: January 03, 2021, 04:35:01 PM »
You don't really need two cars for the game.  You could just make it so you need to add X number of options to a car to get it to within a range of a target price without going over.

Offline Briguy

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Re: Would It's Optional work with today's budget?
« Reply #8 on: January 04, 2021, 10:50:13 AM »
Keep in mind too that back when this game was played, cars were much more configurable than they are today.  Yes you can order cars with different things, but you don't get the granularity of choices like you did back then.  That would make the game harder to set up.

Prior to the 1988 model year (for at least GM and Ford cars), the main way you ordered options on a factory-ordered car was individually selecting options. That means, if you wanted air conditioning but did not want cruise control, you didn't have to order a package with several other options just to get air conditioning (or any other option you wanted).

Yes, car makers have been doing this for some time. At least as far back as the 1960s, there were groups that bundled minor convenience and appearance items together to make building cars easier and save the customer money (by not having to buy separately) and – as their names implied – provide more convenience, appearance and protection for their cars.

I guess Chrysler Corp. was one that really jumped into the fray first in the late 1970s/early 1980s with Easy Order packages such as Basic, Popular and Luxury packages. Each of those groups had ascending groups of options based on what people most ordered, with the Luxury Package maybe containing the most "luxurious" options of the time like power windows, power seat and cassette player for the radio. This must have worked, as by the late 1980s, Ford and GM were doing the same thing.

Which, in turn, reduced the number of individually available options for vehicles. The main options were bundled into these option packages (such as air conditioning, AM/FM stereo radio, tinted glass and rear defogger in one package; those options plus intermittent wipers, cruise control and tilt steering wheel in a second, more expensive package, and so on). Individual options were now limited to basically seating configurations and upholstery, wheel covers and tires, maybe a premium luxury item (such as a compact disc player for the radio or a power-operated sunroof) and a few other items. Often, the only way you could get something like air conditioning – before that itself began to become standard equipment in most cars – was to order an option package.

Point: It's Optional was a victim of its time, and I believe that with the way car makers make optional equipment available today, the game would clearly not work.

It was a fun game for the 1970s and early 1980s, but when car makers began different marketing strategies for optional equipment – i.e., grouping equipment into option packages as the bulk of their optional equipment lists – in the late 1980s, the game became outdated.

Brian

P.S.: Not related to this discussion so much, but more to the point of the marketing option packages ... I recall reading a new car magazine that included a letter from a reader who was upset over the option package way of marketing options. He had wanted to order a new car (IIRC, a Toyota Camry) with only air conditioning, tinted glass and maybe an AM/FM radio, but was upset when told by his salesman that the only way he could buy the car was by ordering an option package with other items he absolutely did not want (likely, power windows and other electrical equipment he may have thought might need expensive repairs later on) and would in his opinion needlessly increase the price.

Offline Spmahn

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Re: Would It's Optional work with today's budget?
« Reply #9 on: January 04, 2021, 11:01:36 AM »
As I mentioned in the other thread, the biggest issue with It’s Optional would appear to be it’s lack of difficulty. Just based on the handful of playings we saw on Pluto, it would appear that you had to make the most boneheaded choices of all time in order to lose the game, which for a game offering two cars as a prize isn’t going to work. If it was going to remain in the lineup, it would have almost certainly required a retool of the rules to make it significantly more challenging, and I’m not sure how they’d do that. At the same time, it wasn’t a particularly memorable game, so I doubt anyone behind the scenes was exactly fighting to keep it either.

Offline actual_retail_tice

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Re: Would It's Optional work with today's budget?
« Reply #10 on: January 04, 2021, 11:16:39 AM »
The only thing that made It's Optional very interesting or unique was that it was played with two cars. Take that away, and...guess what...you've got Grocery Game.

Offline name456

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Re: Would It's Optional work with today's budget?
« Reply #11 on: January 04, 2021, 04:28:19 PM »
I remember plenty of losers in It’s Optional, just not so much near the end of its life