Challenge Discussion Thread

[Klick]

I think challenges, especially early-game challenges, are much more engaging when the primary skill they test is teamwork.

As a player, the challenges I find myself enjoying the most are ones in which I get to connect with my tribe. Some of the most fun I've had in these games are when I've gotten to team up with people to create something, or solve something silly, or form a strategy for a challenge. I've heard similarly from others during games. Particularly in the first 2-3 rounds, challenges that require tribal teamwork have a decent chance of influencing the tribe's social dynamics, which is always interesting.

I think having cooperative challenges also makes for a game that feels... I guess the word would be *consistent*? 95% of what players actually do in LSGs is about social interaction and working together, and having that supplemented by some jigsaw or flash game half the time makes it feel like the challenges have nothing to do with the 'actual' game. I suspect this contributes a lot to why Jurors tend to completely ignore challenges at the end; they're basing their vote on how the game as a whole is played, and many challenges feel like they're separate from the real game. If challenges tested similar skills to the game at large, they might be taken more seriously.

[Klick]

I'd also agree that adding challenges that advantage players that are already doing well in the game is a bad idea. It's a funny little line between 'test the same skills as the game itself' and 'give players on the top an advantage'.
I've always been a bit annoyed by the opposite as well though, where Final 3 members X and Y basically tie at Survivor and play a different game entirely as a tiebreaker. Maybe it's late-game challenges in general that annoy me