'1 vs. 100' could be future of gaming

Thanks to the Internet, as well as the sophistication and ever-shrinking nature of portable entertainment, we're nearing a time when we can watch any movie, hear any song or play any game wherever we want, whenever we want. You can fire up 1997's "Final Fantasy VII" on your PlayStation Portable while you wait for the bus, or watch "The X-Files" on your iPhone during a meeting.

With its free, online Xbox 360 game "1 vs. 100" (rated T), Microsoft has cut against the grain with a scheduled entertainment experience that revives those pre-VCR days when you'd clear your schedule to watch your favorite shows.

See, "1 vs. 100" isn't a game you can play anytime you want. As part of Microsoft's Xbox Live Primetime, it's on a schedule. The game is free for Xbox Live Gold subscribers, who already pay between $35 and $60 a year to game online. (Just like a televised game show, it'll have advertising and corporate sponsors.) The eventual plan is to schedule the game for Friday and Saturday nights, but "1 vs. 100," still in beta testing, has been taking place on many weeknight and weekend evenings since early June. (An episode is scheduled for 7 p.m. today. The game is accessible through the Events section of the Xbox 360 dashboard. You'll need to download a small application to play, so log on a few minutes early.)

If you've seen "1 vs. 100" on TV, Microsoft's version works much the same way. A live host, comedian Chris Cashman, runs the proceedings, in which one player competes against the Mob, 100 players who are eliminated if they wrongly answer questions the One gets right. As is common in our post-"Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" world, several lifelines are available to the One. Because the game is in beta, there aren't any prizes to be won yet, but the plan is to have the One and the Mob compete for Microsoft Points, the currency you use to buy downloads from the Xbox Live Marketplace.

In addition to Cashman, the One and the Mob, the game will feature a studio audience made up of thousands of other players, represented by their Xbox Live avatars. You can play along and answer questions, but unless you're one of the top three crowd scorers, you won't win anything other than a better chance at qualifying to be a member of the Mob in a later show.

While my evenings-and-weekends work schedule has prevented me from diving in full-bore and becoming a "1 vs. 100" addict, I finally got a chance to try the game last week. The night I played, Thursday, was an Extended Play night. Rather than the regular setup, all players were part of the Mob, there was no One and nobody could be eliminated. Instead, you just answered trivia questions and compared your performance with the Mob at large and the three other players in your group of four.

Even with the automated host (voiced by Jen Taylor, aka Cortana in "Halo"), I got sucked into competing against my fellow contestants and found myself wishing I could free up a little time to participate in the main game. But the little taste I got suggested "1 vs. 100" is the kind of easy but fun game a family could get into. Up to four people on one console can participate online at once, and the control scheme consists of using the four face buttons to answer. Even someone who's never played video games could quickly grasp the concept.

It's a simple idea, and the game show format and audience participation should provide plenty of addictive drama as time goes forward. Honestly, I'm amazed no one's launched something like this sooner. With a little care, a solid marketing campaign and an effort to keep out cheaters, a time-honored TV format could become gaming's next killer app.

Staff Writer Eric Wittmershaus blogs about video games at gamewit.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach him at 521-5433 or eric.wittmershaus@pressdemocrat.com.