The Problem of the Ever Changing Survivor Game

While there is so much we won’t yet know about Extinction Island, nearly the whole consensus among the few people I’ve read about this new twist, people think that they will hate it. I might as well and plan to write a post about the various island twists during the next hiatus or some point when I have the time and aren’t writing about an old season. But I thought that I would use this post to talk about some of the changes in Survivor that have happened. I thought that I would stick to just the permanent changes that Survivor has done for this post.

Something that we knew for sure was affected was the tie-breaker. We don’t know for sure what the original way of resolving things after a revote were since it didn’t come to that the first season. Then, we got to a reveal or possible change that previous votes would get rid of people, something that may not be considered fair in every way. It didn’t work when it was a tribe’s first tribal council and we will never know what would have happened if they had the same number of previous votes against them, which they might not have even known about.

From the fourth season, it was revealed that a rock draw would cause people’s eliminations. It was not done right the first time as there was no fair way to do it at four people left. Thus, we did not see it done in a correct manner until the twenty-seventh season. It has only appeared once more and did have the chance to appear again were it not for complicated rules that would have left only one person as the guy who could draw a rock. This still remains controversial and I still don’t know what was wrong with the natural quiz tie-breaker. Why not make the rock draw just between who is tied instead of the rest of the players in the game? The way they do it doesn't seem to make sense.

When it comes to permanent game changes, a lot of the earlier players would never know what it is like to have a hidden immunity idol as it wasn’t present until the eleventh season and only then, it appeared as partway through it. While it took a few seasons to have an idol that had good rules, it will probably not ever again be without presence on this show.

More recently, we got to a change that might not have been as well received by everyone. Before we get to that, let’s get to how the final tribal councils are done now. Instead of one on one conversations, we get to a more open forum. I have the feeling that this was done as a way of trying to get people to not win in landslides which was common regardless of the number of finalists that appeared at the end of the game. But now it seems like people might not show up as a presence in the jury or hog up a lot of the conversation as a result. We don't get the same results.

I should talk about the fact that they got rid of the final two, but I’m not sure that it works as a chance since they brought it back around three times. Still, it seems like more of a twist to have it now instead of not having it. And they largely have used it since bringing it back.

Now for a highly unpopular twist: the forced fire making tie-breaker that is used at the final four. It has arguably made the fourth place person come in first two of the times it appeared and actually brought forth the elimination of a player that had no previous votes against it. It has changed the game too much and seems like we are stuck with it forever. Did they not realize what a terrible idea it was?

Well, that’s all I can think of writing for this post. I hope that I have come up with good posts this hiatus, although I’m not sure that it was as good as it could have been. It is hard to believe that the new season starts next week. It feels like this hiatus has been shorter than usual. What’s more likely is that we were stuck with a lot of breaks from the show that were longer than usual so we got used to them. Know that my blog will be here on Wednesdays until otherwise noted. I’ll be back next week to talk about the first episode of the new season. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.