How are the points scored, with a handicap for the celebrity’s age? I played in a pool where every death was worth 100 points minus the age of the dead person. It kept people from picking folks like the pope, who would have a low point value.
Bad choice. If we have a nuclear holocaust, the survivors will be Keef & the cockroaches.
That’s how we do it in this one.
And for people like me who aren’t doing too well, I’ll take the low points that JPII produced, and be happy. Or sad that he died. But still happy.
I’m not seeing a Pitting here so much as a polite discussion over the rules of an MPSIMS game, so I’m moving this to MPSIMS.
(In the unlikely event that Rachm Qoch wants to come in and call Trillionaire filthy, filthy names for starting this thread, I’ll see y’all back here again. Otherwise, it’s been swell.)
I really don’t know how we can come up with a definition of “celebrity” that everyone can be happy with. I think Little Nemo had a rule about “you can’t claim that your Uncle Lou, who served on the Kenosha, Wisconsin City Council for four years back in the '60s and '70s was a celebrity, if for no other reason than we will laugh at you.” (Something like that, anyway.)
We could insist that everyone’s picks have an entry in Wikipedia, except I don’t know that they have very many entertainment celebrities, and anyway it’s growing and changing all the time. Also, I would have to check every single entry against Wikipedia, and that just isn’t gonna hap – I mean, that just isn’t practical.
We all know of “celebrities” we’ve never heard of. Foreign politicians. Sports figures, if you don’t follow sports. Rap musicians. You know what I mean. But the point of the game is that nobody knows who’s going to die and when. It’s a lottery. So some of us put more effort into looking for celebrities known to be fighting ill health. Maybe they deserve to score higher. Last year everybody picked Sharon Osbourne, known to be fighting cancer … and then she went into remission. Zsa Zsa Gabor was in a car accident … and she slowly recovered. Who could have predicted Aaliyah’s death in a plane crash? We can’t know. That’s why it’s a game.
I was thinking, actually, of offering players a new option in next year’s game. I was thinking you could submit your picks to me via e-mail, so that no one else would know whom you picked, and then we wouldn’t have celebrities that everyone picked, so you have to pick them too, and then if they die, everybody has the same score. It seems to me the game is won and lost by unique picks (as well as good research). How many times have you added someone to your list when someone else drew your attention to that name by picking that person himself? If you had no idea whom everybody else was picking, you might come up with more unique picks. Maybe? Maybe I’m futzing with it too much.
Just an idea. What do you think?
While your heart is in the right place with the offer, I think you’re giving yourself way too much unecessary work, and setting yourself up for disputes. You may not get the e-mail, you may have forgotten to add a pick, someone may claim to have had a pick when they didn’t. etc.
I think if you keep the picks public like thay are now, you’re eliminating some potential conflicts. If I claim to have changed my pick of Pope John Paul II for Thomas Herrion, but that you must have either not gotten the e-mail or lost it, this is avoided by requiring me to post my change before the deadline in the open where everyone can see it, eliminating hard feelings, false accusations, and general wailing and gnashing of teeth.
He last posted in mid-September. It appears that he’s simply one of the many members who rarely posts.
Maybe he’s been vacationing on the Gulf Coast . . .
I actually like that the lists are public. Yes, it leads to a number of “late afternoon/early evening on New Year’s Eve” posts, but that is part of the fun of it.
For the most part, I think everything works pretty well, as is. But I did like the suggestion that the person should be famous for something other than being about to die. Of course, that’s still may lead to judgment calls.
I would be able to identify 8 of his picks.
I probably wouldn’t have thought of most of his choices if I entered the death pool but I would know who most of them are.
It’s a nice idea but it’s so much more work than the currently available option - submitting your picks at the last minute. Anyone who is really worried about others stealing their ideas need only wait until December 31 to post. On the other hand, my DH did offer to write a program that would accept the picks and automatically create a database from them. If you want, I could see if he will actually do that for you and it might take a lot of the manual labor out of compiling the lists while still providing secrecy for those who don’t want their unique picks “stolen”. Just an idea…
Oh, and I did check every single entry in Wikipedia the other day. Boy, was that tedious. If there’s ever anything I can do to help I’m willing, even if it means manually checking each of next year’s entries (or maybe if there are a couple of volunteers, we could divide the alphabet between us and work through it that way).
I put him on my list after I read that he was battling cancer. He seems to have a sense of humor about his condition – check out this article from April.
Actually, I have, and thus would have accepted the nomination of Father Barry Ryan had I been a member of the Fame Committee. I’d have identified eight of Rachm Qoch’s choices, with the exceptions being Larry David Norman, Gene Scott, Yon Hyung Muk, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, and Jack Chalker.
Of my own picks, Arthur Miller is the only one to have died so far, but I’ve got to assume the playwright was enough of a celebrity to qualify. Otherwise, my only selection not on the list is astronomer Frank Drake, whose name recognition among SDMB members is undoubtedly higher than it is among the general population. The roster of the “Rich and Feeble” is obviously limited to people who were picked in that site’s contest. Just among acting Jennifers, there is no mention of Aniston, Connelly, Garner, or Love Hewitt – all of whom would, I trust, be accepted if nominated.
As for your own list:
I was aware of all thirteen, and thus agree that protesting any would have been unjustified.
Of course Yogi Berra is better known now as aphilosopher .
Is any other Dead Pooler having trouble whittling down their 2006 list?
13 is such a pisser of a number.
I would love to have twenty picks. Cause I am indecisive or maybe waffling…
As for our Numbers Lady AKA The GateKeeper, I think your idea has merit, however, it would be alot alot alot of work on your part. KISS. Keep it simple, Silly!
Awesome new Band Name. my bolding
**To the OP: **
I don’t participate, but if this is a multinational deathpool and includes US sports figures, then you need to allow foreign Senior Officials and foreign sports stars.
Only seems fair. If you want a USA only then your complaints are fair.
I know everyone in USA knows Pete & Yogi but why would anyone in Europe or Asia know them. A few in the UK might know Yogi, but only because of his effect on the English language.
Oh My. How flattering to be Pitworthy with a postcount under 20!
But I don’t quite get it. Every person on my list is a public figure. Lots of dopers recognize many or most of them. You pitted *me * because *you * are ignorant of them?
On a board devoted to… fighting ignorance?
