Gameshow Ch. 02

Vic Granger evaluated all applications to the IslandX Game personally. He'd had come up with the idea for the show 3 years earlier. It had taken him over 2 years to put it together. Then, about 9 months ago, it had become a reality. They had broadcast over 35 shows now and Vic felt they finally had the bugs worked out. It had taken a few games to refine the rules, but it seemed to work really well now.

It had been an interesting road Vic had taken to get here. He had grown up in Seattle and had frankly been one of those nerdy kids that did well in school, but that none of the girls talked to. He did nothing to dispel that image when he got a degree in computer science. After graduation he went into the biggest field in Seattle, computer gaming. Three years after starting with one of the major companies, Vic came up with an idea for a new computer game. His company refused to develop it. They felt it would take too much time and have too little market.

Vic felt differently. He knew that if he could develop this game, it would be a huge seller. Being only 25 and single, he didn't figure he had much to lose, so Vic left his firm and started his own gaming company. In the mid 1990s, finding investors for new computer startups wasn't difficult, and within 6 months GrangerGames had started development.

It took two years, but in January 1997, Vic's company marketed the first in a series of games that were designed to actually be played over the Internet. The game was hugely profitable. Not only did the company sell the game itself, but they could also charge monthly fees for access to the game on the Internet. Within a year, the company had produced two expansions to its original game, and had three new Internet games in late development. By June 1998, between its market share and the inflation in the electronics sector, GrangerGames was valued at 1.7 billion dollars.

In August 1998, GrangerGames went public. Vic sold 35% of the company and pocketed about $400 million. In January 1999, GrangerGames became the darling of the gaming industry. Its stock soared to $180 per share.

Vic would have loved to claim that he sold his company because he was so brilliant that he saw the electronics crash coming, but it just wasn't true. The fact of the matter was that Vic had simply become bored. He had decided to look for a new challenge, so he just got out. His sale of his 10,000,000 shares made him approximately $1.8 billion.

Of course, as he became wealthier and wealthier, Vic became a much more eligible bachelor. He had no illusions that he was any more attractive or witty than he had been before, but he enjoyed it anyway. Vic dated and slept with numerous attractive women, but he was too cynical to ever really develop a serious relationship.

As the 1990s ended and the new millenium began, Vic watched the market change. He was quick to realize that the hot commodities were entertainment and sex. Of course the major buyers for this were men, and what they wanted to see were women they would not normally be able to approach. Vic also believed that men would enjoy seeing women who acted like they were too good for them taken down a notch or two.

In November of 2000, Vic came up with his idea that would later become IslandX games. The first problem was legal. In all states, if a woman said yes and then said no, it was rape if you didn't stop. This would eliminate the main point of the game, which was that the contestant couldn't change her mind.

Then, in December, a novel and expensive solution presented itself. An island in the Caribbean went up for sale. The price was $500 million. The best part of the deal was that once Vic purchased the island, any action on it was only subject to federal law. Since the island was not part of any state, no state law applied. While there was a federal law against kidnapping, there wasn't one against rape. His lawyers told him that as long as the women arrived voluntarily and were allowed to leave after the game, he was in no legal danger. Certainly there would be protests from various groups, but money would be able to stop any serious action.

Vic purchased the island, named it IslandX, and founded IslandX Games, inc. By February he was developing the idea for the game. While the game was being developed, Vic took in four partners. Two silent partners were U.S. Senators. That would eliminate any possibility of federal interference. The other two partners were developers of an Internet Broadcast site. Vic sold the senators 10% of the company for $20 million each. The other two men got 14% each in exchange for 50% of their new company.

In July 2001, the game was ready for testing. Vic contacted an X-rated video production company. He hired 20 porn actors to test his new game. It took six months to refine the rules and to make a final decision on the 20 competitions, but by the beginning of 2002, the game was ready to go.

Now his new partners took over. The two men, Ted Andrews and Carl Montgomery, began marketing memberships to IslandX games. They broadcast some of the test games free over their site and began selling viewing memberships for $50 a month. They sold very few of course before the first actual game was broadcast, but the system was ready to go when broadcast began.

The other thing the website did was advertise for players. The three main partners had agreed on the monetary prizes to be offered. That basically guaranteed that each game would cost $150,000 in prizes. Figure in another $100,000 in expenses and each game would cost a cool quarter million. Since there would be four games broadcast a month, the company's expenses would run right around $1 million per month.

Vic and his partners estimated that conservatively, once the game became a reality, they should have a minimum of 100,000 viewing members around the world. At $50 apiece, the company should have a net profit of $4 million per month. The marketing of T-shirts, jackets, and other memorabilia could net as much as another 2 to 3 million dollars a month.

The last piece of the puzzle was to find a host. Someone had to broadcast the game and to interview the players at the opportune times. For a while that had proved difficult, reputable game show hosts were afraid to get involved with the new company. Then they found Bink Humperdink. Bink had hosted some obscure game show in the early nineties, but it had only lasted 1 season. Frankly, Bink had been so pretentious and self -important that people just turned him off. However, for what they had in mind, he would be perfect. It would take someone overly self-absorbed to seriously ask some woman how she felt while she was being publicly ass fucked.

After Bink, they found Carol Blondy. Carol was a young lady who had dreamed of becoming a model. She had a lovely face, an incredible body, and the IQ of a grape. Specifically, Carol was 24 and blonde. She had the biggest chest that any of the partners had ever seen. No one knew if it was real or not, and frankly nobody cared. The main thing was that she could introduce the show.

The one part of the game that Vic always kept to himself was the selection of the players. He always looked for two specific things. The men should be average looking guys who had never been overly successful with the ladies. Guys that your average man would be rooting for. The women should be attractive and have a certain innocence to them. They should not view the penalties as fun or exciting. It was important that the women be embarrassed if not totally humiliated by their losses.

Developing the website, building the final competition site, installing the cameras and hiring the staff took almost a year, but by November 2002 everything was ready. In December they ran a final test. Once again they used porn actors, but they broadcast the game as if it were real. Everything went wonderfully. Carol and Bink especially worked out exactly as planned.

After the last test, Vic picked the first two competitors. The woman was a housewife from Cincinnati and the guy was a pharmacist from Detroit. They decided they would run this game with no broadcast. Everyone involved would treat it as an actual broadcast, but they would evaluate this one before beginning real production.

The game ran on December 20, 2002. The woman lost 11 of the first 16 games. The look on her face as her clothing was removed was priceless. Vic made a note to always have a camera available for a close-up of the woman's face whenever a penalty was being paid. Later, the scenes of Bink seriously interviewing the woman as she was being displayed or actually screwed were wonderful. Bink never cracked a smile, but by the time they were done, all three men were rolling on the floor, laughing. It was perfect.

The test had pointed out a few bugs. The most serious were with the handicapping. The woman simply had no chance in 3 of the games, so the handicaps had to be increased. Vic knew that if the women did not win sometimes, they would stop getting good contestants.

On Monday, January 20, 2003, the first actual broadcast of IslandX games aired on the website. By Wednesday newspapers all over the world were writing about it, and by Friday women's' groups everywhere were protesting it. Everything was on schedule. Advertising the game could never have generated that kind of publicity. By the time the third game had finished airing on February 3, IslandX games had 115,000 viewing members.

Another windfall had been people who wanted to watch the games live. Vic had already had one hotel built on the island. Construction on two more began in February. These were completed in late June. By the first of July, every game was attended by between two and three thousand men, who had paid $2000 apiece to be there.

Since the first broadcast, viewership had increased steadily and membership was approaching 200,000. Vic knew that the most important part of the game was finding the most interesting players. Now, he had found something really special. A female seminary student, who wanted to use her prize money to finish her fundamentalist education. If this was real, it was perfect. All Vic had to do, was find the perfect male applicant to go with it. That didn't take long. On October 7, Vic sent an overnight acceptance package to Nancy Blake. He also sent an acceptance package to a college senior majoring in chemistry named Howie Marshall.

On October 8, 2003, Nancy Blake received an overnight package. It told her that she had been accepted as a player in the IslandX Games. She was to review the rules and regulations. If she still wanted to play, she was to call the 800 number enclosed. Making the call would schedule a car to pick her up on October 10. The car would take her to the airport where an airplane ticket would be waiting for her. She would be flown to IslandX where she would stay at their best hotel, all expenses paid. Finally, she would play in the game scheduled for Monday, October 13 at 10:00 AM. Failure to call the number by 2:00 PM on October 9 would void her acceptance.

Howie Marshall received the same package. Howie was about 5'8" tall. He weighed about 135 pounds. Howie had scraggly black hair and an acne problem that had never really gone away. He had always been a brilliant chemistry student, but his social skills were severely lacking. His sophomore year, Howie had dated his only girlfriend. They were together about 3 months. Becky had broken up with him because he never wanted to go anywhere. They studied together and occasionally slept together, but Howie was always too busy to go to dinner and going to a show was an irresponsible waste of money.

It had been almost two years since Howie had last had sex. It took him about 90 seconds to call the 800 number.

Nancy couldn't believe what she was seeing. She hadn't really believed she would be accepted, so she hadn't really thought about what she would do. Now she had to face it. Nancy sat down and reread those horrible rules. She also remembered that she had less than a week to come up with a payment.

The trashcan was next to her bed, and Nancy was actually walking the papers over to it, when she remembered that this was a test from God. She had to have faith. God wanted her to risk everything to prove her faith in him. If she trusted God, he would see that she came through this trial unscathed. Then she would be able to serve Him for the rest of her life. Nancy took a deep breath and picked up the phone.

A very nice lady answered the phone and told her how delighted she was that Nancy had accepted their invitation. A limousine would be sent for Nancy and would pick her up at her dorm room at 9:30 AM October 10. The car would take her to the airport, and she would arrive on the island at 5:30 that evening. Another limo would meet her, and she would be taken to her hotel suite. Since the game wasn't until the 13th, Nancy was welcome to enjoy the island, completely at their expense, until then.

Nancy packed clothes for 4 days and met the car right at 9:30. They had indeed sent a stretch limousine for her. Nancy had never been in anything so luxurious. This wasn't going to be bad at all.

The car took Nancy to the airport, where a first class ticket to the Bahamas, was waiting for her. Nancy got on the plane and spent the next 4 hours eating gourmet food and being given free drinks. Nancy didn't drink much, but free Dom Perignon champagne was too good to turn down. When she arrived in the Bahamas, a young lady was waiting for her.

Nancy asked the girl if this was IslandX, but the girl told her that IslandX was a private island and the only way to get to it was by boat. The show's private yacht was waiting for Nancy at the dock. This was getting better and better, Nancy had never even seen a yacht before.

The trip to the island took about 3 hours. During the trip Nancy was served caviar and more champagne. By the time the yacht docked, Nancy was sure that this was God's way of rewarding her for her faith. Nancy was escorted to another limousine, which drove her to a beautiful hotel. The bellboy took her bags and escorted Nancy to her suite on the top floor. She had two beautiful rooms overlooking the beach. The bellboy informed her that there were two fine restaurants in the hotel, as well as a complete room service menu. Nancy was welcome to dine at her leisure at the hotel's expense. Also, the beach she was looking at was private for the use of hotel guests only. She of course was welcome on it whenever she wished.

When the young man left, Nancy jumped onto the huge king-size bed. She had always imagined what heaven would be like. Whatever it turned out to be, it would have a hard time being better than this.

The next two days were wonderful. Nancy went to the beach both days. She had never been in the ocean before. The food was wonderful and there were fantastic shops in the hotel. The game even allowed her to shop at their expense.

Sunday night brought Nancy back to reality. A nice young man showed up with papers for Nancy to sign. They were release papers stating that Nancy understood the rules of the game that would be played the following day. They also reminded Nancy that if she decided not to play, she would be billed for all expenses incurred up to that point. Currently her balance was $6,468.

Nancy didn't even hesitate. She signed the papers and even thanked the young man for the opportunity. There wasn't the least thing to worry about. This was definitely Nancy's reward from God. He was going to take care of her.

Monday morning the phone rang at 7:00. It was the hotel manager. He told Nancy that a car would arrive in an hour to take her to the game site. She was not to worry about her hair or make-up. That would be taken care of for her at the game site. Nancy got up, threw some clothes on, and went downstairs and had a wonderful breakfast.

The limo arrived right at 8:00 and Nancy was standing outside waiting for it. The car took her to the game site, where a nice lady escorted Nancy into a large building. Inside the building, Nancy was taken to a dressing room where some very sweet ladies did her make-up and hair for her.

After her hair and make-up were done, Nancy was taken to a changing room. This was the first thing that concerned her. The ladies handed her a two-piece bathing suit and told her to change into it. Nancy had forgotten that she was to wear this for the game. She wasn't sure this was something she should do, but the bathing suit was a somewhat conservative two-piece. It wasn't French-cut and the top wasn't overly revealing. Nancy remembered that she had promised to have faith and she put on the suit.

It was now 9:55. Nancy was escorted out of the changing area into a long hallway. At the end of the hallway was a set of double doors. A young man at the end of the hallway told Nancy that this was the starting gate. Above the doors was a clock. When the clock said 10:00, Nancy was to go out the doors. This was her last chance to change her mind. Once she walked through those doors, the game began and she would not be allowed to withdraw.

Nancy spent the next 5 minutes praying. She asked God to strengthen her faith so that she would be worthy of Him. She was still lost in prayer when a loud bell clanged. Nancy looked up and the clock read 10:00. This was it. Nancy took one last deep breath. It would be okay, God would protect her. Nancy opened the doors and went through.