It has been 101 days of official lockdown in the UK. And a little longer than that since my last post on The Wasteland. To say WELCOME BACK, as restrictions ease again for the moment, I wanted to share with you one of the things that kept me going – namely playing Quizes and Games online with friends and family.
My personal journey during lockdown, and my decision not to post here during the worst of it, are a story for another time and place. I was sad not to be able to keep up the flow of cultural commentary for you during that time; especially as watching movies and TV shows became a big part of what we did to pass the time in isolation. So it had to be. And now I am extremely happy to be back talking nonsense about the media I cross paths with from day to day. I hope you continue to enjoy it! Comments and shares welcome. Shantih Kx
Playing online quizzes and games online in the last 3 months has been a massive phenomenon! As someone who enjoyed doing this, even at the best of times, I was thrilled to see everyone engaging in self made entertainment that had at heart a curiosity and hunger for knowledge, trivia, and the mostly lost art of community through play! Whether it was an hour long Zoom quiz or an invite to something more complex, it felt like a worthwhile and constructive thing to do.
I have been no stranger to inflicting increasingly complex, but hopefully fun, games via invite to a select Messenger group for some time; beginning with my popular annual Quizmas, which runs for the whole of December each year. When lockdown started in earnest during mid March, I knew I wanted to come up with something that brought people together and offered a daily distraction and a bit of a brain workout.
For the next few months I experimented with quizzes and challenges in different formats that lasted anywhere between 3 days and 3 weeks. Some worked well, and some fell flat, as I learned what rules worked logistically, what was the most fun, and what elements of play got around the issues of keeping folk engaged and able to compete freely at a time of day that suited them. The most difficult thing was always pleasing everyone, with a format that they felt they could keep up with, and also dip in and out of as their routine demanded, without losing the thread of gameplay.
At the beginning of June, being a little jaded by the usual Q & A trivia game, I took a break and came up with an idea that would add more of a board game feel, including tactics and the option for each player to invest in the gameplay in a richer way. Also, crucially, it would get around the problem that folk mostly played on their phones and tablets and had the option to Google whenever they wanted.
That game was the Movie Time Tunnel, inspired by my love for film over the years, and the beautiful ease of information available on IMDb.
I figured most of my regular players always enjoyed movie questions and related trivia – and it was something close to my heart, that I could really get my teeth into over a period of weeks. The rules became more complex as time went on and I strove to keep the competitive element alive and fresh, but in essence the idea was that each player was trapped inside an unnamed movie, in a certain year, and had to get out of it by identifying that film, by answering trivia on that film or buying clues to progress through a time tunnel to the present day.
I left it deliberately ambiguous at first, allowing them to figure out the gameplay as they went along; learning the tactics and rules that could be exploited to advance faster and with more lives / points, that could be used later to challenge other players or defend your position on the timeline.
I lost a few people early on, that either figured it wasn’t for them, or that sensed it would take up too much of their attention each day… but on the whole the balance of being an internet detective and the fun of learning which film you were currently in became compelling, and a core of very dedicated players emerged.
The thing I liked about it most, apart from learning an immense amount of things about obscure and familiar films that I didn’t already know, was watching how each individual player chose to play it in a different way. Some wanted to guess each film as quickly as possible and move on, whilst some were happier languishing in time and answering all available Qs on a given film. No two people were getting the same journey, and I loved that!
Quite often a Q or a clue would result in a chat about that film, or appreciation about an actor or director. For the more engaged players, it became like they really were travelling through the history of cinema. It was both a solo adventure, and also a curiosity to watch the progress of everyone else behind you going through the same films you had already passed through.
Of course, some casual players got stuck in the 50s, or even earlier, which was fine. After about two weeks, half a dozen or so that seemed to enjoy dipping in every day were looking competitive to actually make it all the way through and win the damn thing. As this happened I began folding in a few twists, such as Timewarp, Timebombs and Timetraps, that acted like the cards you might get in a board game, allowing you to advance faster or hold up a rival.
I got the impression not everyone fully understood what was happening at all times; especially after leaving it a few days and coming back. But, the key to success in the end was patience, endurance and building momentum. It did feel in the end like any family board game, where a handful desperately want to win, and another bunch kept going to the kitchen for another drink, or anything to distract from how this was dragging on longer than even the most epic game of Monopoly!
The final stages, however, were fairly gripping, as I turned up the dial on getting folk to compete and use tactics to stop others getting to the end of their Time Tunnel. Naturally, there could be only one winner.
As it looked like the long time leader would reach the 2019 goal line, the pack of regulars used every trick and tactic available to them in the rules to wipe them out in time! Seeing them defend every attack but slowly and surely run out of lives was both great for the game and unbearably ruthless. In the end, they made it to 2013, just six years shy of victory. Heartbreaking!
The following day the second placed player put in a shift and moved stealthily through over 20 years in a session, mostly incognito. Then the pack woke up and went for an even more vicious attack to stop them. This time, however, they had just enough ammo to hold them off, and sometime late on Sunday they identified the final film and became the Time Tunnel champ!
It was a genuinely thrilling thing to host! Making sure all moves were fair and in order, and that the climax did justice to the investment of so many weeks of play. And, importantly, having those who had invested be rewarded for indulging me with it. It was an honour and a joy to travel through so many movie memories with them all.
In the end, it was just a daft game to pass the time in hiatus, as we all waited to get real life back on track. But, it was possibly my favourite ever of the online games I have tried to make work. So much so, there were requests to see the full list, and a sense that a few even came out of it more curious about cinema history than perhaps they already were. Which is very gratifying indeed.
I wonder if it will ever be attempted again? Surely not in such a long-winded form, but maybe with a few tweaks it could become something playable over a single day. It could also be adapted into a real board game, or at least an app… hmmm…
Anyway, as with most Wasteland posts, it’s as much a record for me to look back on than expect anyone has bothered to read this far. Regardless, here is the full list of all 80 movies (all linked somehow, by actor, director, writer etc. – I will leave those links up to you to discover). Thanks for playing!
Movie Time Tunnel 2020
- 1939 The Wizard of Oz
- 1940 The Philadelphia Story
- 1941 Suspicion
- 1942 Valley of the Sun
- 1943 True to Life
- 1944 Murder, My Sweet
- 1945 The Unseen
- 1946 The Perfect Marriage
- 1947 The Bishop’s Wife
- 1948 Rachel and the Stranger
- 1949 Holiday Affair
- 1950 A Life of Her Own
- 1951 The Model & The Marriage Broker
- 1952 The Marrying Kind
- 1953 Let’s Do It Again
- 1954 Magnificent Obsession
- 1955 The Last Command
- 1956 Three Brave Men
- 1957 The River’s Edge
- 1958 The Black Orchid
- 1959 Warlock
- 1960 The Alamo
- 1961 The Commancheros
- 1962 The Longest Day
- 1963 Cleopatra
- 1964 My Fair Lady
- 1965 Ten Little Indians
- 1966 Our Man in Marrakesh
- 1967 Grand Slam
- 1968 Never a Dull Moment
- 1969 The Comic
- 1970 Where’s Poppa?
- 1971 The Panic in Needle Park
- 1972 The Godfather
- 1973 Sleeper
- 1974 The Godfather, part 2
- 1975 Dog Day Afternoon
- 1976 Network
- 1977 Equus
- 1978 The Wild Geese
- 1979 Moonraker
- 1980 Somewhere in Time
- 1981 Eyewitness
- 1982 The Year of Living Dangerously
- 1983 Phar Lap
- 1984 Rhinestone
- 1985 Rocky IV
- 1986 Back to School
- 1987 The Pick-Up Artist
- 1988 The Last Temptation of Christ
- 1989 Born on 4th July
- 1990 Edward Scissorhands
- 1991 Little Man Tate
- 1992 Malcolm X
- 1993 Philadelphia
- 1994 Forrest Gump
- 1995 Apollo 13
- 1996 The Rock
- 1997 Con Air
- 1998 The Big Lebowski
- 1999 Magnolia
- 2000 State and Main
- 2001 Jurassic Park III
- 2002 Laurel Canyon
- 2003 Underworld
- 2004 Shaun of the Dead
- 2005 Green Street
- 2006 Children of Men
- 2007 American Gangster
- 2008 Milk
- 2009 Duplicity
- 2010 Burke & Hare
- 2011 M. I. Ghost Protocol
- 2012 Avenger’s Assemble
- 2013 Now You See Me
- 2014 Mockingjay, part 1
- 2015 Joy
- 2016 10 Cloverfield Lane
- 2017 Gaurdians of the Galaxy, vol. 2
- 2018 Avengers: Infinity War
- 2019 1917
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