Source: Pixabay
The audience sits ready and waiting with bated breath. The lights dim and then fire up brighter, pitching you into darkness and illuminating the stage. You see the players anxious yet excited as the production manager gives the all-clear. And then the first bars of music begin. But you’re not at a gig. You’re at a gameshow taping. How exactly do gameshows compare to seeing live music? And how are the two used in a similar manner by the online casino industry?
The Tension Factor
One of the major comparisons between gigs and gameshows is the excitement factor – which has been harnessed by online entertainment. Gameshows create tension and atmosphere. Gigs also use light and sound to create an atmosphere conducive to helping the audience experience every bar of their music. The online casino industry – resonant with tension itself – has managed to encapsulate this and add it to a format of online gaming.
Fans of the show can play a Deal or No Deal game that incorporates the tension of the gameshow with the traditional gameplay featured in online casino games. The online casino industry, to further the similarities, has also taken influence from gigs to create a raft of slot games that are based around musicians.
Audience Participation
Gameshows and gigs are also related in that they have both developed an ability to engage audiences. For many, both watching a gig and watching a gameshow taping are momentous occasions and a ‘day out’. One of the key goals of a gig is for the artist onstage to create rapport with the audience so that they go home as fans. Creating a show on stage requires some presence and enough excitement to get people talking.
The same is true of game shows. Popular ones, such as the original run of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, became such hits because people talked about the show afterwards. Networks were established to get people into audiences and these quizzing communities still exist. The online entertainment industry thus uses this audience participation to add a deeper layer to the proceedings and allow audiences to play games based around the intertwining themes of gameshows and gigs.
Source: Pixabay
The Pageantry
The main comparison between watching a gameshow taping and going to a gig is that they are both things that can be done at home. But going to see them live adds an element of pageantry, VFX, and production design that helps elevate both. Both gigs and gameshows require a certain level of showmanship and the audience enjoy the host’s back-and-forth with contestants and when the contestants’ behaviour creating unintentionally funny moments.
As such, the online casino industry has taken the bells and whistles that make seeing live shows so exciting and integrated them into the design of online games. Taking inspiration in this way not only affects the content but affects how the content is delivered to players.
Whether seeing live music or watching the taping of a popular gameshow, the audience is interchangeable. Already likely to be fans, those watching will be waiting to see people they recognise say and do things that they have previously only witnessed from home. In the same way that music evokes emotions, especially when live, so too does the power of the gameshow. There are a lot of similarities between gigs and gameshows and both show how valuable live entertainment is.
