"The Online Reality Game of Survivor"
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"The Online Reality Game of Survivor"

Written by: Matthew Lui, ESCAPETHEROOMers // Writer

As the final ballot is revealed showing Terri’s name, I am thankful that Amy reached out to me and helped save me from being voted off. With the other 3 castaways in our alliance, we would be safe for a few more tribal councils, but the real question is how long I could trust each of them before they turn on me…


Outwit. Outplay. Outlast.


The Survivor motto for anyone who is familiar with it, which is about to air its 43rd season in September 2022. During the pandemic though, as with many things moving online, ORGs or Online Reality Games really gained a following. I first became familiar with them in May 2022 when Jarod, a previous Survivor ORG competitor posted about them in the escape room enthusiast discord. After some back and forth, we found out we were from the same city and had a common friend who has played the same ORG he did. He then tells me that they are recruiting for the next season of Survivor YEG (the airport code for Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) and sends me the application form. I sign up and think “Sure, how much time could this take to play?”, a question I would regret asking later.


Playing similarly like the TV show, the Survivor ORG runs about 40 days with someone aiming to be the final Survivor. Everyone is assigned to a tribe at the start and they must win challenges to secure immunity for their group. If not, the losing tribe will be sent to tribal council where one of the tribe-mates would be voted off. The ORG was played through Discord as it is an easy social platform to use as well as one of the hosts, Keegan, who wrote a bot called “Chenbot” to automate group chats and do more automatically. Discord was also easy to open up channels for challenges and tribal councils and control permissions for the hosts, participants, and viewers. Oh, yes, did I mention that there is an audience watching the game as well?


Joining Survivor YEG, I became a castaway for their 8th season titled Lost at Sea. As this season was mostly pirate themed and “located” at Alberta Beach near by, we were broken up into 3 tribes at the start, Blackbeard Tribe, Hook Tribe and Morgan Tribe. After competing in a few challenges and having the losing tribes vote castaways off, we slowly reformed into another 3 tribes named after more pirates; Drake, O’Malley and Sao. Finally, after a few more eliminations, I was lucky enough to join the final merge, which consisted of the 10 castaways in the appropriately named Sparrow tribe.


Due to the nature of the game, all of the challenges had to be set up to be played online. For some challenges, they were played live, where we were given 24 hour notice to select a time that would work best for us. We would then convene on the Discord server at that time and complete the challenges together. Some challenges we played live included games like Wheel of Fortune, Battleship and Memory Madness. Since we did have lives outside of the game, we were given 24 hours to complete other challenges which included things like the longest Wordle streak, Photo Scavenger Hunt, Emoji Movies and Name that Tune.


As with the TV show, you could also gain immunity idols and advantages through different activities. Some of them included a map search which you could do every day. Some were offered up during challenges under certain stipulations such as being the first to complete challenge. The final one (which was my favorite) were puzzlehunts hidden in the server. This season had 3 puzzlehunts (which were all completed by yours truly). For a more detailed rundown of the how the puzzles are hidden through discord, you can check out this video from one of the hosts Keegan.


As for this season, some of the highlights of the puzzle hunts included combing through different areas of the discord server, researching Cicada 3301, playing the "Pirates of the Caribbean" theme song, and (which was nominated as a favorite moment of the season) calling the Alberta Beach Library and Municipality to find who the first mayor of Alberta Beach was.


Survivor isn’t all about winning the challenges though. You have to have a social game where reaching out to people, starting alliances and getting to know people are key to making it through. During the game, there were a few people who reached out to me and a few people I had to reach out to. This was tough too because at times, I didn’t know who to trust and you have no way of testing how much to trust someone else, sometimes before it is too late.


Are you interested in playing one?


If you google search ORGs, you might be able to find some places on Reddit or others that are looking to recruit. When talking to Jarod, he said, “There are a quite a few Survivor themed ORGs and anyone can apply to play in a season. As for viewing, most ORGs allow anyone to view, but most use a "trusted spectator"; system which requires someone in

the ORG with trusted spectator status to vouch for new members. Viewers that can't be vouched for right away, can still watch the season but can only see the channels that all the players can see like the general tribe chat or tribal council. They wouldn't be able to see private confessionals or alliance chats. The purpose is to maintain the integrity of the game so that players aren't being told any game info they shouldn't have.”


The winner of Season 8, Lost at Sea ended up being Jack, who seemed like a new player to these games until it was revealed at the reunion that he has actually played 40 ORGs. Therefore, I asked Jack for his top 3 tips for new players. He says;

  1. Survivor is filled with moving parts; Never sit still to avoid being crushed. Play a fluid and an adaptable game to avoid sinking like a stone.

  2. The second you tell yourself "Wow, I'm winning this"; you're probably about to go home. Never underestimate your opponents because they're following the same strategies as you.

  3. Make sure you have at least one BFF who's tight with people you aren't tight with. (Note that BFF here stands for Best Friend For as long as keeping them furthers your game). Connections are crucial to getting far and winning a jury over. But be careful about how long you keep them, because if you both make the end.....you both can't win.

After a grueling 26 days, I did depart the game in 6th place after holding onto the trust of my alliance a little too long, (unfortunately while still holding an immunity idol). Joining the jury and viewing the rest of the game from Ponderosa island, the game finished with an epic ending with so many more twists and fun challenges to watch.


In the final Viewer Voted Awards though, I did win (in a 3 way tie) for Best Confessional and was a pivotal part in the Favorite Moment of the season, which was Tribal Council 9, where we went to Rocks (apparently the 2nd time ever in the 8 seasons Survivor YEG has been around).


This was a fun experience and very different from anything I have played online. Would I do it again? My FOMO says "yes", but my wife says "no". If someone tells you, the game only requires 30 mins a day, that is a blatant lie, but no doubt about it, what you get out of the game is completely what you are willing to put into it.


(Just want to give a big shoutout to all the hosts, Danny, Darren, Jess, Keegan, Kristin, Lance and Zoco, who organized and put on an amazing event as well as the final 10, Jack, Stat, Aimory, Amy, Megan, Melody, Jessica, Terri, and Tony, who all played a fantastic game and made for a great adventure!)


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