Archive for the 'Games' Category

By Guest Reviewer: Billy Gordon

As always, Improv Everywhere agents received a somewhat cryptic e-mail a week before the mission, which simply stated the meet up point and time, and what items were required for participation. For this mission we would meet up at the monument in Madison Square Park and needed to bring watches. A little after 3:30 the mysterious figure known only as “Charlie” announced that we would be infiltrating the nearby Home Depot on 23rd St. between 5th and 6th.

He then divided up the group according to our birthdays, planning to station half the people on the ground floor and half the people in the basement. He then further divided us to which street we would approach Home Depot from, and told us to scatter our entrances, so we would not be a giant mass of people approaching all at once. Our mission was to enter Home Depot and pretend to be normal shoppers until 4:15, when we would all shop in slow motion for 5 minutes, then at 4:20 return to normal. Then at 4:25 we would all completely freeze for 5 minutes. We synchronized our watches, and were sent on our way.

I entered the building, and made my way to the basement scouting out an ideal location to do some fake shopping. After settling on the welding section, I patiently waited around for a few minutes, trying not to catch the attention of the Home Depot employees. At 4:15 every agent began moving in slow motion, I was in a somewhat abandoned isle so my view of the big picture was limited, however I did notice the other agents slowly reaching out for tools and other items. At 4:20 everything returned to normal except for the somewhat weirded out employees.

At 4:25 the real fun began. My watch was a few seconds behind, but as soon as I noticed a frozen agent to my left I also froze in position. A few minutes went by, with almost no activity in my isle, then at around 4:28 a Home Depot employee began calling out to me. Our instructions were very specific, don’t break character and stay as motionless as possible, so I tried to think of the best way to react to him calling me. I stayed motionless for about another 7 seconds while he was calling “Excuse me sir, sir, do you need help with anything, sir are you alright, sir, sir, is everything OK?”. I then turned to him, moving only my head, and stared at him for a second, before giving a slow nod (while never taking my eyes off him), and then slowly turned my head back to its original position, freezing again. In the second before I turned my head back, I noticed the somewhat creeped out look on his face. I suppose it would have been strange for him to not be creeped out, working in a somewhat busy store, when all of a sudden the majority of customers became mannequins.

At 4:30 everyone unfroze, and began filtering out of the store over the next ten minutes. We then met up back at Madison square park for interviews and sharing our stories.

Looks like I dropped the ball on this one. Deadline to sign up is TODAY! But I just sent in my info and you should too:

*****UPDATE******

The game has been postponed in order to get more people involved, so it’s not too late. You get a ‘target’ and you’ve got three weeks to find them and shoot them with a water gun - but in the meantime somebody is coming after you. Whoever shoots the most people in three weeks wins. AWESOME! I’ve already signed up.
Send your info in now. And maybe you’ll get a chance to shoot an UNCOOLKID!!!!!

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“ASSASSIN

Object Of The Game:
In this game everyone that joins will be given a target to kill(A.K.A contract)(this target will be another player of the game). As an assassin your job is to search the city with the provided information of your contract and kill him or her. When a clean kill is done your (now dead) target must give up his or her contract to you and now you must seek out and kill the your new target. The assassin with the most kills at the end of the game will be declared the winner.

How To Kill:
In the Real world assassins woudl use guns, however we dont want anyone really dead on our hands. so we will use water. which means any of the following may be used:
a)really fake water gun~~~> nothing that looks even remotely real… so we suggest using something along the line of a super soaker
b)water Ballons
c)Bucket of water
d)Water hoses
e)Bottle of water
…this does not include holding water in your mouth and spitting it at someone…be nice we dont want any problems.

once a target is wet he or she is now dead and must hand over their contract.A player may defend him or herself by spotting and wetting there assassin first. By doing this two things happen. 1) your assassin may not harm you for an hour which gives time to run. 2) You now Know who Your assassin is, so from now on be on the look out!

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VH1 is looking for some rock stars. all you have to do is submit a 59 sec video of yourself air guitaring.

Photo courtesy of this online photo gallery

“Winner gets a trip to vegas, the chance to perform at our big Rock Honors show, and a spot in the US Air Guitar Championships in NYC. (we have some hott Gibson guitars up for grabs, too. kinky mirrored Gibsons, i might add.)”

Check the site for all the details and some funny videos.

Many people claim to be good at trivia, but few can stand up to the challenge of The Big Quiz Thing. Host Noah Tarnow is a master of writing questions that are hard enough to stump the trivia junkies, but still accessible to a complete newbie.

Last night some friends and I gave it a go (there must be at least 4 people per team, but many people come in smaller groups and join forces). The five rounds lasted about 2 and a half hours, but the time flew by.

The Big Quiz thing draws a big crowd. It doesn’t hurt that they offer $200 for first place, $50 for second and a collection of door prizes for 3rd, 4th and 5th. The majority of the crowd are regulars who show up as early as 6pm to get a good table. They are not there for the prizes, but because it’s one of the most comfortable evenings out you can have in this city. It’s one of the few places in New York where you can go and dork out and just have fun.

And to be honest, last night was not my first visit. My team and I started going there a year ago. And, not to brag, but we kick ass. Here’s a picture of the first place trophy to prove it:

So come on down and see if you can take us on. The Big Quiz thing happens every other Monday at The Slipper Room, on the corner of Stanton and Orchard. Admission is $7.

Improv Everywhere sounds at first like a type of Flash Mob, but really it’s so much more than that. It’s a group of actors and comedians commited to organized fun. Their mission is to create public scenes of confusion and joy, whether it be fake U2 concerts or just seeing the reaction of someone finding a bathroom attendent in McDonalds.
This Saturday they are gathering a group of people in Central Park. What will be happening? Well, that’s part of the fun, they won’t tell. Here’s the info they’ve given us so far:

1)Go to this webpage and download the Mp3.
2)Show up at Sheep Meadow, Central Park (West side, mid-Park from 66th to 69th Streets) in time for the 3pm start. (Don’t be late, it will be over by 4pm)
3)Sit down
4)Wait for the signal to start listening to the Mp3.

Based on their other events, I’m guessing this will be pretty fun.

Ok, I’ve been sick in bed for the past couple of days, so I haven’t had any events to review, but I thought I’d recommend the website where I’ve been killing all my time.

Not Pron is described as the hardest riddle on the internet. I can’t really tell you much without giving anything away, but I can tell you it’s 138 levels and of the 5,242,901 people that have started it, only 56 people have reached the end. You do need to know a little bit about computers to get it, but with the help of the forums, you could probably start with no knowledge and maybe learn something along the way.

I’m on Level 16 now, so if anyone else is playing and wants a hint, feel free to leave me a comment.