Girl Gamer

The Tester: Episodes 4-6

By Joylia 1 year, 10 months ago • 1 Comment

Episode 4: “LARPing in the Park”

Episode 4 opens up with a performance from a group of experienced LARPers who bring to light a very unique experience. Unfortunately, the scenes were cut and kept flashing to the judges and the contestants to gauge their reactions so the overall effect was made awkward.

Judges Brent Glocke and Hal “HalDork” Sparks were present, of course, as was guest judge of the week, Katherine De Leon – producer of Playstation Home. The remaining contestants were broken into groups, headed by team captains Luge and Nauseous. Picking their teammates, Luge’s team consisted of Cyrus and Star, while Nauseous’ team included Doc, Amped and Big D.

The challenge was for the teams to create a live video game scenario. The team that created the most creative LARP would win and be safe from elimination. To help them out, each team would receive help and advice from one of the actual LARPers there.

Luge’s team was given the task of creating a LARP with a deep space theme, while Nauseous’ team had the topic of barbarians. From the start, you could tell Luge’s team was in trouble. Ideas and participation were slim as the three seemingly shyest of the contestants gathered together and blankly stared at their props. Eventually, they decided on doing their skit as space mall cops in a mall with donuts. Just the sound of it had me cringing. Their performance was just as bad as the idea.

As I watched their “collaboration attempts” I couldn’t help think, “Holy crap guys! When in doubt, fall back on the classics. Star Wars? Star Trek? Alien? Hell, Spaceballs? Hello!!!”

Team Nauseous seemed to be on the road to creativity but when it came time to showcase their combined efforts, the whole thing was an obvious copy of the experienced LARPers sketch. Down to the name for Amped’s character!

Out of all of the contestants Big D was the best rper, but voices his denial that the story they “came up with” is in anyway similar to the skit put on by the experienced LARPers. Yeah buddy, you need to watch this later and eat your words.

Unfortunately, Luge gets voted off at the end despite the blatant fact that Team Nauseous had no creativity in their skit because they COPIED IT! I mean come on! Sure Team Luge’s deep space skit sucked, but at least they were trying to come up with their own original idea.

But then again, I guess that’s the entertainment industry. Just look at all the remake projects that are starting to pop up! Originality be damned if you can just blatantly copy another idea as long as it was good.

Episode 5: “Buzz In or Buzz Off!”

Beginning of Episode 5 opens up with some “heartfelt” moments. Doc is bawling because his hopes of getting Luge in the sac have disappeared. Jeez man. Grow a set. I know she was cool, but remember – contest? Eventually all but one is going to lose.

After the “crying scene”, contestants are once again broken into teams of two. Fates of Destiny (name by Nauseous) consisted of Nauseous, Big D, and Ciji while the remaining three of the “alliance” joined forces as Trio Team Bravo.

The challenge presented to the contestants this week was inspired by the game, Buzz! Guest judge of the week was Jeff Wilkerson (Playstation Director of First Party QA and Brent Glocke’s boss). There wasn’t really much to describe about this challenge – it is a trivia game, what else is there left to say?

One person from each team would step up to the buzzers placed in the middle of the room and buzz in when they knew the answer. Once five questions were answered, the next two would go head to head than the last two after that. The team with the most correctly answered questions wins and would be safe from annihilation.

Categories for this challenge were: All Things Playstation, Sports and Racing, and Action and Adventure. First up – Doc versus Big D in All Things Playstation. Doc takes a one point lead for his team as he beats out Big D 3-2. Next is Sports and Racing with Amped going head to head with Nauseous and being defeated with a 1-4 score. The last is the Action and Adventure Category with Cyrus winning both the face off with Star as well as the overall contest with a score of 4-1.

During the judgment the judges advise that they were not just looking at the scoring, but also at how the contestants held up under pressure. The judges note that in regards to knowledge, they can teach Ciji, but they cannot teach someone how to deal with pressure successfully. In the end, Big D gets sent home.

Episode 6: “Focus, People, Focus!”

The guest judge for this week was the managing producer of International software of SCE and Killzone 2, Kyle Shubel. The challenge: shoot as many targets while standing in a marked off area in an allotted time with Mr. Shubel shooting paintballs at your feet.

Of course Doc has to be on TV, you know. He’s there bragging about how he used to be a marine and that he’s got it in the bag..blah blah blah.

Because Cyrus had the highest score from last week, he gets to decide who goes first, second, and so on. Targeting the two “non-alliance” members, he places Ciji first and Nauseous second – putting himself dead last to go.

Obviously nervous, Ciji heads out on the course, but gets negative reviews at the end because instead of hustling from target to target, she just….walks. Now footage is altered and cut, but unfortunately, a walk is a walk. And that was a walking pace she did during her turn.

Cyrus scores the highest with Amped taking a surprising second place. Lucky for Ciji, she manages to escape the chopping block once more thanks to Doc’s incompetence. The point of the challenge was to judge each contestant’s “focus” and Doc not only gets the lowest score, but he stepped out of the designated area which cost him more than just a point, it cost him his chance to win. And what were you saying earlier Doc? Shit-talker says what?

Of course he gripes and points out that Ciji has been in the bottom while he’s only been there once. And here is my point. So far, your butt has been saved by your teammates. Don’t think that the judges don’t know that this has been the case. Grow up!

Of course the tests, I feel, are starting to get Boooo-ring. Between the Buzz! and this paintball challenge – it was a challenge for me, as the viewer, just to stay awake to painfully watch this show. I’m just thankful there are only two more left.