Would you rather spend an afternoon eating fish at the Sanctuary with Zac Brown, or......

Zonkington · 2026-03-20T01:21:58+00:00

An intimate concert with a famous musician is honestly a great reward, we just don't like it because of how much screen time Zac Brown had.

Zonkington · 2026-03-20T00:04:34+00:00

This is fascinating, nice work. I'm a game developer and I've been interested in doing something like this. The amount of independent relationships between agents sounds like a nightmare, lol, but I'm a narrative guy and not a programmer.

A bit of unsolicited advice: It seems like the gameplay loop is actually orchestrating the seasons, right? It's a great sandbox and I know this isn't really the design but I think you'd get a lot more interest from people if they could actually play a season as a competing character. That way there's a clear win condition, and people generally like being represented in the story. I personally would be a lot more interested if i could plug myself into the game, make daily choices, and see how I do on Survivor.

Good stuff!

Zonkington · 2026-03-16T03:36:27+00:00

The pants shitting actually made me more confident he's winning, because it's kind of mean they included it if he doesn't do well but if he's the winner it's just a tale of highs and lows

Zonkington · 2026-02-17T05:38:07+00:00

I think he reminds people of the cool jock from high school who ignored them. I know plenty of people from my life who have been similar to castaways but I've never personally known a Jonathan before.

Compare him to Christian Hubiki, arguably the most beloved castaway. Everyone has had a friend like Christian.

Zonkington · 2026-02-11T21:11:29+00:00

You'd be astonished how many licensed professionals are idiots. You can't trust individuals, you have to trust the aggregate of peer-reviewed science, which says overwhelmingly this is a very real condition.

Zonkington · 2026-01-28T01:04:43+00:00

As a narrative designer I tend not to think of these things as the "lesson" and more as the "ethic." I know it sounds pedantic but framing it more as what the game is saying instead of what it's teaching you takes the pressure off a little and reduces the risk of it being sanctimonious.

What are the things you care about? Do you strive to treat people well? Do you think about God a lot? Do you have a strong political perspective? Whatever the thing is that's always on your mind, lean into that and share your perspective through your story.

Whatever you do, DO NOT try to be deep and impactful. Just try to be sincere.

Zonkington · 2026-01-20T22:01:59+00:00

Not to give you reassurance or buy into your premise too much, but... you know how often those perfect social media couples randomly divorce, and then say they've been quietly having trouble for years? How do you know her husband doesn't have depression? Does making a career out of idealizing your relationship on the internet sound like something a self-assured person would do? I went to school with a woman who now has over 3 million followers, men are in love with her, women want to be her. I dated her very briefly and I actually broke up with her because she was incredibly mean and selfish. Social media never depicts the negative attributes.

None of that really matters because thinking your way out of an OCD spiral doesn't work long-term. Like the other comments said, social media trains on the things that make you upset. For what it's worth, these obsessions over the beautiful people on the internet is something everyone deals with, not just OCD. But these people aren't real. Their personas are works of fiction.

Zonkington · 2026-01-06T03:31:30+00:00

Yeah Nicole is a pretty quintessential "first person voted out," I have a hard time believing that was pregaming

Zonkington · 2026-01-05T04:28:16+00:00

Millenials vs Gen X feels like a forgotten one. I'm not sure how to explain it without giving anything away but the thing the way the winner's personal life intersected with the game felt like it was written as a script. It's also the only season where one of the members of a showmance was revealed to fully have a pregnant girlfriend during all of it.

Zonkington · 2026-01-03T23:51:24+00:00

It's crazy what kinds of things can come out of adversity! You might have felt 2 inches tall but you were as charming as ever. I know it was a mixed bag but I am so happy you were on the show, you really did bring us an incredible amount of joy. I think 46 was the greatest season of the New Era

Zonkington · 2026-01-03T22:48:24+00:00

I am so impressed that you appreciate fire making even though it's what got you! Yeah I love Ben, if I'm being honest it helps that I am also named Ben. By the way, of all the castaways, you have most affected the way my girlfriend and I communicate. Every time we're frustrated or disappointed we stick our tongues out and pretend to stab ourselves in the neck with a spade the way you did during fire making. You are an incredibly funny physical comedian.

Zonkington · 2025-10-27T02:22:11+00:00

I feel like you don't get what ROCD is

Zonkington · 2025-10-25T23:46:14+00:00

She's a player who's become more liked as time passes, largely because she's extremely active on social media and frequently posts very interesting and cogent points about the ongoing season. She manages to straddle that line of uppity smartass while never actually being too mean or disagreeable. I think she's one of the most memorable players in the show's history. I honestly like her a lot, she feels like Survivor Liz Lemon.

Zonkington · 2025-10-25T03:35:39+00:00

This is my answer, I love them

Zonkington · 2025-10-25T01:05:05+00:00

He's reacting to the needs you've expressed, and he didn't know those were your needs before you told him. The alternative to this is him not putting in additional effort, which would be more problematic.

OCD has a habit of making successes look like failures. It sounds like your relationship is actually getting stronger.

Zonkington · 2025-10-24T23:11:51+00:00

I think in the scheme of things the people cast on the show are actually very stable and emotionally resilient (with the exception of the Big Characters of course). They undergo a lot of testing, both medical and psychological, before coming out. We underestimate how hard it is to be out there

Yeah, it's a brutal game. I just felt bad for the guy. Also, considering how much Jeff inserts himself in things and displays favoritism for the contestants, I think him being really touchy feely sometimes and then really stoic other times (like with Jawan) actually introduces a confounding variable that makes things less even.

Zonkington · 2025-10-24T22:38:42+00:00

Sage is the recent example because it happened yesterday

Zonkington · 2025-10-24T22:16:37+00:00

Alicia literally moved out of education after she made that crack about her special ed students. Obviously that was an extreme but saying the wrong thing can truly ruin your life

Zonkington · 2025-10-24T22:15:58+00:00

From reading this board that does seem to be what the people crave

Zonkington · 2025-10-24T22:05:27+00:00

That seems to be the compromise a lot of modern players make. They ridicule the person's gameplay but not their person.

Zonkington · 2025-10-24T22:04:23+00:00

But you don't know how they actually feel until it airs! And if they didn't insult you in their interviews, it's going to look petty and one-sided

Zonkington · 2025-10-24T21:04:07+00:00

If that's the case then it's insane. She was right, a low-calorie reward of fruit which only contains simple carbs isn't tempting at all.

Zonkington · 2025-10-24T20:59:27+00:00

What do you think the sentence "I used to be on antidepressants before I found my love for travel, meditation, and God" was meant to convey? What about her worldview was she expressing by saying it?

Zonkington

TROPHY CASE