Gameshow Sites Woo Wannabe Millionaires

After turning the nation into a bunch of crorepati-crazed couch potatoes and making the day for GK book publishers, the KBC bug

has now bitten the virtual world too with a host of clones hitting the Internet.

While some like the AKSI Game Show, a GK based on-line quiz show, have modified the concept a little, others like Mindfever's Croremaster is a direct take-off on KBC replete with lifelines and 4 ka 2 to make it easier.

Then there are other gaming sites that are offering a huge database of questions that will help you say "Mein Banuga Crorepati" and "Who wants to be a millionaire."

The promoters of CroreMaster -- Igloo Farm and QuantumLink Communications Pvt. Ltd. -- say the game was inspired by their fondness for KBC: "Mr. Amitabh Bachchan's charismatic and over-powering screen presence and the human drama of the show inspired us to create CroreMaster as a tribute to this extraordinary show on Star Plus."

Mr. Amit Varma, Mindfever's co-promoter and Chief Creative Officer, says though CroreMaster cropped up soon after KBC went

on air, MindFever was planned months before, as a knowledge-based games site.

"Gaming traditionally has had a limited audience on the Web, thanks to heavy graphics, animation, which takes up huge

bandwidth not available online. We therefore decided to create a gaming site with low bandwidth, high quality knowledge-based

games," Mr. Varma says.

Croremaster, is a single player easy game, with 15 questions, and three LifeSavers too. While "4 Ka 2" is a copy of 50:50, "Ask

Babu Moshai" lets you solicit the opinion of their resident Bengali intellectual. The third LifeSaver is Random Poll,

displaying the results of answers of 100 different users.

Get an answer wrong and you're out of the game. And on each right answer, you win, not rupees, but points: the 1st fetches you 10,

and the last, 100,000.

Mindfever is tying up with companies for sponsorship of prizes. But, rather than have mega-prizes for one or two people, the

promoters want to "focus on having smaller (but juicy!) prizes for many people."

CroreMaster is still in the beta version and will be launched in three to four weeks, though anybody can register and play the

game even now. Croremaster intends to market the game through viral marketing on the Net.

Yet another site -- AKSI Game Show -- hosted by dog called Aksi, is a free databank of GK questions. The site in its beta version

was launched in November, and will go alpha in January.

The promoters say the game is aimed at sharpening your GK, to help you in "plenty of money-spinning opportunities nowadays."

And no prizes for guessing the prizes! The game points are counted in terms of "Biscuits" put in your box by AKSI, 50 being

the maximum for all right answers. AKSI, however, will soon announce gifts, converting the biscuits into cash/other awards.

"We were planning a game Website. But, KBC did give us quite a bit of inspiration. The response is pretty good. Already some

players are notching up more than 15,000 points in 15 days. Though the site is inspired by KBC, it is not influenced in any

way. In fact the entire format is our own," the AKSI webmaster says.

And the dog as a host? "Don't you feel he is any time more sensible than man?! Kidding apart, AksiGameShow.com has been done up with a long term perspective in mind. The game show will be developed as an edutainment product. In future we will be thinking of developing this into a product meant for school children also. A dog host like Aksi will then have a great appeal

with kids. Something like Mickey Mouse," adds the Webmaster.

Yet some other sites are pretty straightforward. Mein Banuga Crorepati is a vast database of queries on a range of topics

including Indian and world history, geography, religions and cultures, fine arts, science, world records, computers,

inventions and discoveries, abbreviations, and sports.

Besides, there are hundreds of clone sites of Regis Philbin's "Who wants to be a Millionaire," which has inspired the Indian

KBC. Among them is a game by the same name, with a mind-boggling database of questions, though too America-centric.

The game, developed by Buena Vista Interactive is being distributed in CD-ROMs by Gayatri Impex at Rs 850, offers prizes

in dollars, albeit virtual!