Oh please. You think Rupert goes around stealing people’s gym shoes in real life?
I don’t know, I am missing a pair …
I think I finally realized this season that there are two types of Survivor players.
There are the Shii Anns, Boston Robs, and Hatches of the world that are there to play a game and will do whatever it takes to win, and if they lose, oh well, they’ve been bamboozled. Good play.
Then there are the Lexes, Toms, and Alicias, who think that the game reflects life and if you break your word in the game, you’re scum.
If it were me, I’d be in the first group. I play a lot of games. (no really, more than that, a lot) and I’m used to getting stabbed in the back repeatedly by my closest friends, and doing the same back to them. But the trick to winning the jury vote is judging who falls into which group and betraying only the people who can take it. You’re not going to change anyones mind by yelling “it’s only a game” or “but I trusted you” at them. Survivor is a game of reading other people and figuring out how to use them. Reading this aspect of the people is as important as any other.
I’m sorry, but Survivor is only a game. Only 1 person gets the big money. In an office everyone is getting paid and everyone has a role that they are supposed to fill. Working together with your fellow employees can increase the success of the company. But usually there is more than one winner. In Survivor the mantra is outlast, outwit, and outplay. It says nothing about morals. The concept is to make it to the end and eliminate others who have to vote you the money.
Mike
I think you’re quite right!
That hardly makes Survivor unique. People write articles that compare different games to real life all the time. (Baseball has been especially prone to mythologizing.) It’s at best an interesting metaphorical point, but it doesn’t prove something innate about the game itself.
Lying and backstabbing are OK because they are a necessary component of winning the game. Cheating is not okay in Survivor or any other game because, by definition, cheating is breaking the rules of that game. If an action is not against the rules of the game, it’s not cheating.
And if Survivor isn’t ultimately a game, why is there a $1,000,000 prize at the end of it? It may not be “just” a game, but not many games are. They all offer opportunities to learn and try things that you couldn’t or shouldn’t do in “real life.” They offer unique stresses. Survivor’s happen to be exceptionally intense because of the setting and time committed to playing.
Lying, etc., are OK on Survivor because they’re taking place within a game that accepts them as part of its rule system, not because they’re on TV. Lying is OK in poker, it’s OK in Diplomacy, it’s OK in any game or sport that allows you to bluff or feint or otherwise mislead your opponents to gain an advantage.
That doesn’t mean there’s no price to be paid for lying – I think Rob probably deserved to lose this round of Survivor because for all his strategic skill, he was exceptionally poor at interpersonal relations, which are also part of Survivor. But that price is paid within the context of the game.
I certainly understand people like Lex being upset because they were lied to, but as 7 previous seasons of the show demonstrated, lying is not against Survivor rules and it is part of the game.
Trying to win Survivor without lying because it goes against your values seems to me on par with trying to win a game of football without tackling anybody because you don’t believe in violence.
What I said was “The personalities of the players and how they act with others on Survivor are a window into who these people are and how they act in real life, outside of the game”.
I wasn’t pointing to any particular examples. And no I don’t feel that Rupert is a shoe thief in real life. This was on the level of a prank, as far as I am concerned. OTOH, I do feel that Rob’s consistent ease at lying and backstabbling points to a likelihood of him being a liar and not to be trusted in real life.
Perhaps we should distinguish between a blatant lie and what might more charitably be called a “white lie” or “misdirection”? Survivor is no different from everyday life. You can misdirect and you can lead someone to believe something while not having to break a direct commitment that you’ve made. Outright lying is too easy a strategy, if it could even be called that. Sort of akin to the saying that “violence is the last resort of the incompetent”.
We are generally taught that when someone gives you his word and shakes your hand, that he is making a commitment that he will stand by. Society as we know it would fall apart if no one could be trusted. Is it wrong for others to believe in honoring your word? It’s clear that Rudy was an honorable person and I’d say in general, that Tom and Rupert were honorable also. Perhaps they were brought up that way by their parents and unlike some, find it difficult to switch on and off between lying and truth?
I’m so happy that Ambuh won, because now those unfortunate people with “multiple dystrophy” will get some money. Feh. Is she an idiot or what? She obviously meant multiple sclerosis when she was talking about people in their 20s getting the disease too early. She looks and talks like a freaking Stepford Wife. I hate her. Can’t wait to see how long that marriage lasts.
Let’s leave you on a deserted island for 39 days having to boil your own water and fish, and see how coherent you are. I also can’t wait to see how long that marriage lasts, as I wish them all the happiness in the world. Anything less, and I’d hate to look like a complete asshole.
The disease is “muscular dystrophy”. Just like that telethon that Jerry Lewis has been hosting for, like, forever.
:wally
But that was months ago!! Surely she could have come to her senses in 5 or 6 months. Oh, wait, no. She did agree to marry the Rawbfather on national television, didn’t she? Perhaps you’re correct and improperly boiled water has affected her permanently.
And I do believe she said “muscular dystrophy” (or a close garbled approximation) while meaning “multiple sclerosis.” I wonder which of those two fine charity-diseases will get the dough. And how much of that million. . . . .
I fail to see how anyone is justified in judging Amber’s acceptance of Rob’s proposal based solely on what they’ve seen of these people on a *television show * edited by Mark Burnett.
Heh, Rob and Amber run the table winning everything of note against the supposedly best players there were and people still are vetching. They won. Rob got 2nd, most of the individual challenges, dominating many of the team challenges, called the shots for long stretches of the game and got the truck too. Add in the fact he got the girl with the million bucks makes it all the better.
The American Idol ripoff thing is a bit cheesy, but seeing Rupert is a shoe-in for the money I guess I can live with it as, like Rob, he earned it.
Lexx and Big Tom acted like complete morons. Alicia proved all the players right in voting her being least deserving player.
Well, that’s the problem with trying to translate Ambuh.
There’s a disease called muscular dystrophy, and one called multiple sclerosis. Since Amber mentioned (IIRC) that it affected adults, it is far more likely that she meant multiple sclerosis. Muscular dystrophy is more of disease which begins in childhood.
I took it as a sign that she could be seriously BS’ing about making a donation to help fight the disease since she couldn’t even get the name right. Was it due brain freeze, exhaustion from the 39 days, or that she was making up a warm and fuzzy “honorable” use of the money. (When she got throught tasting it, I guess.)
Munch, the reunion show was broadcast live, so I don’t see how Burnett could have edited her acceptance of Rob’s proposal.
Yes, but her entire on-screen persona has been crafted by Burnett’s editing.
I wonder will we see a Mark Burnett produced special: Survivor: The Wedding!?
I doubt Lex will be invited.
Thank you, YWalker. That’s exactly the point I was trying to make. Most people know that muscular dystrophy is a childhood disease, but she seemed to be talking about a disease that shouldn’t be occuring until age 40 or 5-ish, which would most definitely be MS.
Some people just look like morons regardless of what they say or do.
Tim Goodman, the SF Chronicle TV columnist has some good observations on the show: