Hey Anthony -- I received that "Fact or Crap" game for Christmas. Believe it or not, it was mildly amusing for about 10 minutes. It is sort of a watered-down version of Trivial Pursuit. If all else fails, at least you have a 50-50 on getting the answer correct.

Congrats on finishing your 1st semester, by the way. I'm still waiting around to get my decision letters in for next fall.

This reminds me. Do you still have the bits and bobs of Corporate Hell we got done? I've left that hard drive in a different country and suddenly have time on my hands (doh!)

Actually, I was playing Fact or Crap last night. In good company, it can be quite a lot of fun. :)

Martin--yep, I'll get it sent to you as soon as I can.

Well, you can generate Cthulhu mythos adventures via card games, create B movie plots in a competitive atmosphere and compete for world domination as one of the illuminati -- and that is just in good card games that are fun and playable.

Good thing an idea is not subject to copyright and that this appears to be a release without patent pending [grin], I can visualize a card game based on your joke.

Players are trying to win by rating points, which require hosts, settings, audience and sponsors while other players send them guests and disruptions. Different host choices affect what kind of audience, sponsors and settings a player can use to generate rating points. Guests can drive off audience or sponsors, and have a disruption rating vis a vis hosts. Other misc. disruptions would include boycotts (playable against some guests if the host doesn't dispose of them and against some host styles -- different ones for each host style) labor issues, etc.

It could be fun. Too much work to finish (card games don't make that much money for the most part), but a fun exercise.

re: your post:

Yu-Gi-Phil!

I come home on vacation to recharge my batteries, and I know its working when I start being infected by the creative madness that is my friends and family. Last night, for instance, the conversation kept returning to two topics on which most of the table had definite opinions: Yu-Gi-Oh (a collectible trading card game with an attached cartoon that is a thinly-veiled commercial) and Dr. Phil (a psychiatrist chat show as thinly-veiled excuse for train-wreck voyeurism).

Within minutes, we'd come up with the worst idea ever for paying off my law school expenses: The Dr. Schmill Collectible Trading Card Game. Players take the role of competing talk-show hosts vying to come up with the most incredible guests, formats, and and events, while doing everything they can to sabotage the other's ratings. Forget 'Blade Warrior' or 'PokeScudMon,' this game's cards would include 'addict,' 'teenage girl in too-tight clothes,' 'single father,' and the feared 'distracting corporate sponsorship.' Decide whether you want to try to be the empathetic voyeur, the cry-on-the-shoulder TV-friend, or the Springer-style freak show!

OK, probably not half as good an idea as it sounded after a few drinks last night, but it's not like there aren't stranger games out there.