Games Big Brother 13: Starlight Stage

[mirdo]

My question, then, is this -- when you made your application for the season, how did you describe your attitude towards the game, and do you feel that your gameplay reflected your early expectations and ambitions for the season? (why/why not?)

I did come in a bit diffrently. I wanted to be this incredibly strong player. I wanted to basically perform a transformation. From all the way of beeing nothing but a goat in BB2 to now. Basically playing like Lorde or Cel.
But I quickly realised that my personal journey to becoming a good player isnt necessairly in trying to emulate someone else. My Journey lies in playing to my strengths. Thats how I will become the best version of myself in this game. And my strengths are in trying to analize what is happening. Snooping out who is in the strong seat and working my charm to my advantage and I think I was finally able to play the best possible version of my own game. Im not a powerplayer and thats ok. It was a bit of a journey to self realisation if you will.

I totally respect your thought process here, but if I may just respond to when you said that I shouldn't have to consider someone that just nommed me; I feel like this just speaks to the position that I was in for most of this game. Right from the get-go I had a group ready to evict me, but I was always able to find the in-road. In my opinion, if I'm able to get someone who just nommed me, to think that I was their best chance at F2, then that's good gameplay. But I do respect your thought process and I wish that I could have integrated into the larger masses right off the bat cuz that would've made things a bit easier haha

Just to add to that. I think your social game in general was good. But I think where your game was weaker in my opinion is 1) the reliance on winning the PoVs because you werent quite as connected as I e.g. 2) The Alliances you were in tended to be build around you. Not because of you. If I didnt have an interesst in keeping you, working you into the Alliance with Almonds and put good word in with Cel to fix your relationship. You wouldnt ve gotten here. In my Opinion.

 

[Draskk]

This is a great question! I think for me, especially after the last time I played, my attitude towards the game revolves around the idea that everyone is a potential ally. I do feel like my gameplay reflected this because I was constantly examining the wall of players thinking to myself "Okay so what are my options? Who do I enjoy working with/talking to enough to create a lasting relationship with?" You were able to witness this first hand! Trunkz was extremely quiet, but rather than see him as just an inactive, we still sought out that opportunity to make a potential alliance! Who knows what coulda happened if was more invested into the game! Also reiterating from my response to Drask, being able to see him as a potential ally rather than an enemy saved me in this game.

I very much appreciate that you were able to make it work, and your extreme adaptability over all, but what leaves me with some questions is the events that made you have to play out of a hole all game. From what I could see in game, it did legitimately seem like you didn't have much control over this, but I also don't think it would make sense for essentially half the house to want you out off the rip without you having done something to aggravate that.

 

[VioletValkyrie]

Just a reminder to you all that this is one question per juror to each finalist. This is not an open forum.

 

[Celever]

Hi I finally read the cases.

In the real show jurors get to make speeches leading up to their questions and I'm gonna partake in that proud tradition :]

What really struck me when reading the cases was that Mirdo's account of the season is what happened, and Sena's is off in several places. Brave was the target from the start, for instance. Clear was, too, before Sena-Drask was ever a thing; Drask openly still campaigned for Sena to go home that week, in fact. In the TE eviction, Sena was saying Clear should probably leave that week but did agree that TE was a fine option when I brought it up before the conversation died (my fault the conversation died, but still). This isn't wholly Sena's fault -- it seems as though his main ally was Trunkz for the early portion of the game, and no one knew that Trunkz was planning on just stopping playing. Though on that note, Blakers was in fact well aware that Trunkz probably gets modkilled and it was factored into the plan; there's a reason he suddenly played HOH despite having no interest in the game, that being the influence of myself and Blakers over Drask spamming his irl friend's DMs to submit. I was also totally ambivalent on Week 4 -- I wanted Sena and Clear out ASAP and there was a chance it was the last time either could be taken out depending on HOHs -- but taking Clear out was in fact the right decision in the end. Sena's longevity was predicated on comp wins as opposed to social or strategy, and if he didn't win a comp the next week then he was going home, as Drask's nomination proves. Clear would stay against anyone at that point if nominated, becoming a jury goat.

My impression of this final 2, if I'm bold enough to make an animal analogy in the spirit of Sue Hawk, is that Sena was a tortoise this season while Mirdo was a proud seagull. Sena retreated into his shell pretty early on -- from his first nomination, in fact -- resigning himself to the bottom of the house and relying on comp wins to skate by. Comp wins alone were insufficient; Sena depended on Mirdo to pick the barnacles and urchins off his shell by creating an opportunity cost to taking Sena out. It was clear from early in the season that betraying Sena was the equivalent of betraying Mirdo to an extent; Mirdo was dynamic enough to maintain relationships in spite of that, but it still factored into Sena's longevity significantly. The most important part is that at any point Mirdo could have picked Sena up and dropped him in the ocean, whereas if Sena tried to attack Mirdo, Mirdo could just fly off to safer ground.

In this sense Sena is correct in that he was an underdog of some description, but I don't think he understands the influence that he had. At some point in his case he says "the house" actually meant Blakers and myself. In truth, "the house" meant Mirdo and Almonds starting in Week 3. These just so happened to be Sena's main allies, and in that sense Sena had influence available to him that he didn't take up due to his misread of the state of the house, a misread that was sustained for the entire season. To an extent this was beneficial, as mirdo was able to keep Sena extremely close because of Sena's reluctance to influence mirdo very hard, but the case makes it evident that that was not an intentional move on Sena's behalf. Sena was an underdog because of his own turtling (I was very happy to work with him more, for instance) which gave him a lack of security; not because of his positioning. In that sense he's not an underdog, but rather he misplayed.

This isn't to say that you played a bad game Sena, a tortoise is my dream pet. This was an extremely high level season, and you would easily beat many prior PBB winners in a F2 with the game you played this season, but in the face of mirdo's effective game, I struggle to vote for you.

So I suppose my question to Sena is, what do you disagree about what I've said and why does that mean you should win?

To Mirdo my question is, your honesty and integrity is in my eyes a virtue, but what would you say to those who argue it makes it clear that you don't want to work with them or that it telegraphs your moves and plays too much?

 

[xSENAx]

Hi I finally read the cases.

In the real show jurors get to make speeches leading up to their questions and I'm gonna partake in that proud tradition :]

What really struck me when reading the cases was that Mirdo's account of the season is what happened, and Sena's is off in several places. Brave was the target from the start, for instance. Clear was, too, before Sena-Drask was ever a thing; Drask openly still campaigned for Sena to go home that week, in fact. In the TE eviction, Sena was saying Clear should probably leave that week but did agree that TE was a fine option when I brought it up before the conversation died (my fault the conversation died, but still). This isn't wholly Sena's fault -- it seems as though his main ally was Trunkz for the early portion of the game, and no one knew that Trunkz was planning on just stopping playing. Though on that note, Blakers was in fact well aware that Trunkz probably gets modkilled and it was factored into the plan; there's a reason he suddenly played HOH despite having no interest in the game, that being the influence of myself and Blakers over Drask spamming his irl friend's DMs to submit. I was also totally ambivalent on Week 4 -- I wanted Sena and Clear out ASAP and there was a chance it was the last time either could be taken out depending on HOHs -- but taking Clear out was in fact the right decision in the end. Sena's longevity was predicated on comp wins as opposed to social or strategy, and if he didn't win a comp the next week then he was going home, as Drask's nomination proves. Clear would stay against anyone at that point if nominated, becoming a jury goat.

My impression of this final 2, if I'm bold enough to make an animal analogy in the spirit of Sue Hawk, is that Sena was a tortoise this season while Mirdo was a proud seagull. Sena retreated into his shell pretty early on -- from his first nomination, in fact -- resigning himself to the bottom of the house and relying on comp wins to skate by. Comp wins alone were insufficient; Sena depended on Mirdo to pick the barnacles and urchins off his shell by creating an opportunity cost to taking Sena out. It was clear from early in the season that betraying Sena was the equivalent of betraying Mirdo to an extent; Mirdo was dynamic enough to maintain relationships in spite of that, but it still factored into Sena's longevity significantly. The most important part is that at any point Mirdo could have picked Sena up and dropped him in the ocean, whereas if Sena tried to attack Mirdo, Mirdo could just fly off to safer ground.

In this sense Sena is correct in that he was an underdog of some description, but I don't think he understands the influence that he had. At some point in his case he says "the house" actually meant Blakers and myself. In truth, "the house" meant Mirdo and Almonds starting in Week 3. These just so happened to be Sena's main allies, and in that sense Sena had influence available to him that he didn't take up due to his misread of the state of the house, a misread that was sustained for the entire season. To an extent this was beneficial, as mirdo was able to keep Sena extremely close because of Sena's reluctance to influence mirdo very hard, but the case makes it evident that that was not an intentional move on Sena's behalf. Sena was an underdog because of his own turtling (I was very happy to work with him more, for instance) which gave him a lack of security; not because of his positioning. In that sense he's not an underdog, but rather he misplayed.

This isn't to say that you played a bad game Sena, a tortoise is my dream pet. This was an extremely high level season, and you would easily beat many prior PBB winners in a F2 with the game you played this season, but in the face of mirdo's effective game, I struggle to vote for you.

So I suppose my question to Sena is, what do you disagree about what I've said and why does that mean you should win?

To Mirdo my question is, your honesty and integrity is in my eyes a virtue, but what would you say to those who argue it makes it clear that you don't want to work with them or that it telegraphs your moves and plays too much?

First, I just want to thank you for your honesty and transparency. I whole-heartedly believe that both myself and Mirdo played imperfect games, but I would be lying if I said it didn't sting to read this lmao. Yesterday, Drask asked me why I was targeted at the beginning of this game for seemingly "no reason". I would like to think, it's because you saw me as opposition or at the very least, a threat. I also want to elaborate on my description of the Brave vote, because saying "Brave was always the target" is difficult when no one knew which combination of 5 players would be on the block. Once we saw the names, yeah obviously Brave was the target. This was a "misread". I was literally in the chat that decided it! Also with the TE eviction, when did I ever say Clear should be the target? We had only discussed TE before you put me on the block. And considering I was put up against Trunkz, I was almost certainly your target until I won veto, resulting in TE's backdoor.

Now, I want to respond to your point about me referencing "the house" and not making any plays myself. I wanted Clear evicted over Al (sorry Clear<3). It would have benefitted me to have him still in the game and I expressed this to Mirdo. Mirdo decided not to listen to me at that vote and Al was evicted 3-1. Mirdo even said in his speech that he considered this to be a mistake. Answer me this, at what point did anyone, including Mirdo, actually want to help me with whatever I was planning? This seems like a knock on my game, but this is exactly what I've been talking about. I played a game this season where the entire time my back was against the ropes, looking for an in wherever I could. When I saw an in with Drask, I fudging took it. Mirdo didn't know how exactly close I was with Drask, and especially in that final 3/4/5 scenario, I held probably the most influence over who went. Granted, there weren't a lot of different combinations of eliminations at that point, so this outcome (unfortunately for me it seems) also benefitted Mirdo. But even Mirdo was afraid of my game, saying "if I didn't win Fhoh, Sena probably beats me". Why do you think that is?

I offer you this, (especially because I LOVE Sue Hawk): I wasn't the Tortoise, but the Hare. Just like a Hare, I had to dig myself out of a hole YOU put me in week 2. The Hare is quick-witted, and bob and weave whenever the hunters (you and Drask) try to shoot at it. Mirdo is still a seagull, but because unlike the Hare who must constantly flee and evade traps in order to survive (sometimes even triggering them i.e. the NG game) the seagull can simply flap its wings and perch on a branch while "the chase" happens below.

I do love this question though, and regardless of how you vote, hopefully we can talk more post-game about how you would have played if you were in my position, because I value your insight and would love to hear your thoughts <3

 

[mirdo]

Hello I went to bed super early. So here I am now answering to ya'll,

First of all thank you for all the kind words Cel. Especially the Seagull comparrision made me really happy .
Funnily enough my very early plans actually involved playing very close to you because 1) you will always be an incredible shield and command the house. So as long as I dont just blindly follow and take more of a second in comand role it should be beneficial (if I succeeded with that. You decide) and 2) I knew you would be an amazing Cheerleader for me in Jury if I played close and showed you how I improved.

Funnily enough. Also analogoue to Sue Hawk. You made mostly statements. And I would pretty much agree with all of it. I think my game was in its core based on beeing in good terms with the power players of the house. Keeping open to work with all of them and staying informed what was going on and on the other side keeping the "lesser" players closely bound to me so they have no reason to attack me. Basically attacking the ones in power but always having the net of the "common folk" to fall upon. I think in most votes Sena wouldve gone over me and that fact basically tells you all you need to know in this Final 2.

To answer your question. Yes I do think it can lead to overplay and it probably did in the Week Al got evicted. But even with people I wanted to target I kept the door open. I have stired the pot against you for weeks leading up to your eviction. But we still worked very close. That is cause I never attacked people for any other reason than what other people already knew to be true. Undeniable facts. You were by far the strongest player in the house and all Players left in the house were hungry to become the next star. To become a powerplayer themselfs. So no one would blindly follow you regardless. But I made sure to stoke the flames and make everyone KNOW that that is what they need to be doing.
I think the point that my moves were telegraphable was kind of to my strengths honestly. I was able to give everyone security. Everyone knew where I was at and had similar goals. People knew I had Target 1, Target 2, Target 3. None of them were them and thats why they trusted me. They all knew when it comes down to the hard core that we couldnt go to final with Cel and Blakers. So playing that role actually secured me more than it damaged me.
Obviously this playstyle got helped by how the season panned out and with what players were involved.

And also by the fact that I got to play the last Text Based comps with people who are less experienced in them.

I wasn't the Tortoise, but the Hare. Just like a Hare, I had to dig myself out of a hole YOU put me in week 2. The Hare is quick-witted, and bob and weave whenever the hunters (you and Drask) try to shoot at it. Mirdo is still a seagull, but because unlike the Hare who must constantly flee and evade traps in order to survive (sometimes even triggering them i.e. the NG game) the seagull can simply flap its wings and perch on a branch while "the chase" happens below.

I kinda agree with this. But the problem is that Cel didnt really attack you because you were so powerful. But because you didnt have much of a connection to him. And the point is right that I was sitting in the branches. I was watching over you. Always able to swoop in if I wanted to take you out. Plus I could have a protective roll from the vantage point.

In an unrelated note. This actually reminded me of a meme I posted in my DR week 1 when I talked about Brave and Al beeing kinda wild cards for me.

 

[VioletValkyrie]

Game Over
TITLE IDOL
​

---

Your time is up, all votes are in! The jurors have said their piece, the finalists have battled it out, and only one can leave here tonight as the winner of the Starlight Stage!

The jury votes are as follows:
One vote for...

Spoiler

...mirdo!

One vote for...

Spoiler

...Sena!

One vote for...

Spoiler

...mirdo!

One vote for...

Spoiler

...mirdo!

and a final vote for mirdo!

By a 4-1 jury vote, congratulations to the winner of BB13, mirdo!

---

Here's a breakdown of the jury votes:
Almonds: voted for mirdo
Blakers: voted for mirdo
Celever: voted for mirdo
Clear: voted for Sena
Draskk: voted for mirdo

Thank you all for getting your votes in! At this stage, please remain patient and stay with us, because we have our Houseguest Reunion coming very soon, as well as post-game content featuring rankings and a post from yours truly on the details of this game! But for now, a proper sendoff...

---

The music fades for one final time as you look out onto a familiar sea of beautiful lights, crowd full of cheers and chants for you. Your eyes, full of hope, burn this scene into your memories. This is the moment you finally made it.
A lot has been said and done on this stage. A feather glides down peacefully from the sky, and as you hold it between your fingers, you realize that not only had you found your dream...

You've achieved what you set out to do.

Thanks for playing.​

 

[VioletValkyrie]

Post-Game Writeup
​

---

Thanks for joining me. This is a lot, and it isn't the smoothest for me to go through.

General Concept
I need to immediately start this off by mentioning the biggest thing I thought when designing the general concept for this game. The goal was for this to be the third BB game in a so-called "Violet game" trilogy. The idea of having the game themed around an idol competition was due to how I enjoy basing my games off of whatever I'm interested in at the time. For House of Horrors I included a lot of horror or gothic ideas based around horror or horror-based games I enjoyed. For Sweet Sabotage I found myself really into slice of life anime and the tropes that came along with it, and based a game around ideas I enjoyed from those anime that I thought could translate well. I've recently been a big fan of Bushimo idol series such as Love Live! and BanG Dream, and the culture and fandom surrounding them. Being genuine, there are several moments throughout the years I've felt ostracized by PBB's community due to my interest in things such as anime and J-Pop and I hoped by directly delivering a game based around those themes, I could at least teach people some concepts or ideas I've learned, and at most clear up some misconceptions about the things I enjoyed. This is most notable by including something like Counting KBs, the flavour text of this game and the updates, and especially the final question I offered to the jury for Know Your Jury, being, "was there anything you learned about being an idol from this game?"
In fact, things included in the game such as Animal Tower, or the NG Word Game were directly taken from my interest in Japanese idol culture. Both games were things I learned of from watching idols in different points in time. One of the most interesting ideas for this game was how to translate the NG Word Game into something I could apply in PBB. I'd have given up on it if it weren't for the idea that I was making this game in part to introduce this culture to these people to clear up these misconceptions.
Overall, I think this goal failed, but in terms of the flavour and ideas presented in this game, I'm very satisfied and view that as a success. There weren't many people aware of this, but I named the weeks personally myself (people just didn't read the thread I guess?) and named them after the names of events in BanG Dream, one of the idol series I mentioned before. I wanted to keep a theme for each week, and instantly knew I wanted "TITLE IDOL" to be for the finale but I enjoyed Week 3 as "Searching for Stars" due to the inclusion of Fallen Stars) and Week 6 as "How My Heart Sings" due to the inclusion of Friday Night Funkin, a comp I was really excited to use.

Production
The very, very first draft for this game came sometime last year when I had an idea, of making a game that would be bastard and dismantled on purpose. My general concept for the game was to do something that no host would ever be insane enough to attempt. It's pretty fitting if you know me and know my history with PBB. In order to simplify my thoughts, let's refer to this old draft as "BBX". There were ideas such as a single week that played over the span of ten to fifteen minutes, leaking diary room or alliance messages, an advantage to swap a Head of Household and nominee, things like that. Obviously the final product is nothing close to this, and I can only tell you these ideas in confidence because I have faith that they'll never see the light of day. So what's the deal? Why was a "Violet" game so quiet in comparison to that, and why am I spilling my secrets for a game that never happened?

The earliest date I can trace this game back to was December 2020, and at that point it was still that BBX draft. There were previous mentions of the possibility that I'd choose to host PBB13 both between mirdo and I, and a conversation I had with Lorde and NP where I asked for guidance on a different draft I had. As 13 is a number associated with luck, along with 4 and 7, I thought it would be fitting to have a third game end up being PBB13. The announcement was made that PBB13 was looking for a host, and I reached out saying I had a slight interest, and was told I'd be accepted if I submitted a draft. I simply told Lorde I didn't have a ready draft, and just a simple mess of ideas. The fact this whole process of applying to host a game and needing my ideas to be "quality-checked", so to speak, is the crux of this entire discussion. I knew these BBX ideas wouldn't be approved, since I designed them on purpose to be exaggerated and ridiculous. So I made the decision to sacrifice a lot of what I had made in order to essentially have Lorde and NP design a draft for me, because I knew what I wanted ideally wouldn't be accepted. I've also recently mentioned that I have no interest in working with a co-host, because I feel my exaggerated ideas lose their entire point if I have to compromise or change them in a way I don't envision. It's selfish, but it's what I've always believed makes my ideas unique. That was reinforced by this game. I felt like a lot was lost in order to meet the standards I was pushed into in order to host the game, and I'm ultimately unhappy with the result. This game doesn't feel like what I envisioned.

Either way, once the game was decided on, casting was... difficult to say the least. You were all cast and knew how I had to reschedule date after date to even try to fill enough slots by the time I could actually host comfortably, and once I finally got enough people, I had to expel someone due to inactivity. The fact this game was announced in late August and started in mid-December speaks volumes. It was once again a miracle this game even had enough people to get off the ground, and a lot of that was due to Lorde's ability to cast people. Casting wasn't how I hoped, or at the very least how I even expected it could have gone.

Once the game started, there were occasionally hiccups as I went through. The fact this is my first game I've hosted alongside a part-time job in my personal life meant I couldn't update the game at work, and frequently woke up to messages about when I would upload on my days off when I needed more sleep due to my early work schedule. It led to a lot of mismanagement and difficulty updating the game. What I can estimate to be about half the twists or mechanics had some kind of issue with them when I posted the updates, and I'd be pulled into the game's production chat to seemingly be questioned about what I was doing or why I was doing what I was. At times I was messing up due to the fact updates were occasionally rushed whenever I had time to write them, and at times I felt scolded or judged for the way I interpreted ideas from my own draft or the way I hosted. During my own game. Due to the fact I wasn't around as consistently, Lorde often had to fill in gaps when I wasn't around. Over the course of the game, I had felt the house didn't even consider me their host anymore, and that title fell to Lorde instead. This peaked around the time the final 4 had their Special Eviction, where I planned to announce the Final Head of Household and felt brushed off by the house after Lorde had to host the Special Eviction. I don't enjoy the concept of live competitions as a host, but it was done anyways while I was busy because it's just the standard for PBB.

All this culminated to say that when all was said and done, BB13 didn't feel like my game anymore. Due to the busy nature of my life, my job, and the ideas I had, nearly everything slipped through my fingers.

Twists and Mechanics
The NG Word Game is easily the idea I enjoyed most about this game, but the Popularity Contest putting people into pairs for a duel tournament was the only surviving part of that original draft of ideas I mentioned. I thought it would be a fun way to subvert expectations of a Week 1 Head of Household (something usually seen as a trivial waste of time as PBB games have gone on) and give strong genuine reasons for both wanting to win the competition (putting yourself at a high social status) or not wanting to win (in order to not signify yourself as a social threat).

The Penalty Game was one of the most interesting ideas I was able to bring to the final product of BB13. The idea also came from my interest in idol culture, alongside things like the NG Word Game. The premise was simple enough, these idols would sometimes appear on TV programs and would compete in games together. The loser would often have to do something embarrassing, like act a certain way or say a certain embarrassing line. I thought the structure for Have-Nots would be a great way to implement these penalty games in a fun way. This is why the idea for the Penalty Game was more of just having to something embarrassing just for the fun of it, and not things like score reductions or added challenges like Have-Nots. I'd firmly state that the two are different concepts, and while similar, shouldn't be grouped together as the same.

I'd like to comment on the Encore here as well, an idea where I offered people a chance to play Winterbells once mirdo was crowned as the winner in order to have an extra penalty game for fun, but the simple solution to that is that no one cared. Half the house wasn't present for the houseguest reunion, likely due to being busy, time zones, or other daily schedules, and over 6 hours, not a single submission was sent in. The entire thing was essentially ignored.

Closing Thoughts
I apologize for the long wall of text here, but I think it's imperative that I express my full thoughts honestly in a situation like this. Not only did being at a very busy time in my life while trying to host make things harder, but so much of this game was lost to the point where I can neither say it was my game, nor that I hosted it.

Regardless of everything, I want to give special thanks again. Thank you to Lorde for filling a lot of space that would have been empty during this game. You helped me with a lot to keep the game smooth and keeping it on track, and that's way better than having a game that's slow to update.
Another big thanks to kyo, my boyfriend, for being there to support me and keep me going through this game. Often when I came to take some breaks from the process of hosting this game, I came to you to help me relax or just give me something to do. Thank you for spending time with me, I've needed that a lot.

To close this post-game write up, I want to say that I appreciate the messages I've received thanking me for hosting this game. It truly does make me happy, but due to the circumstances, I can't quite accept those thanks as I wish I could. However, I'd like to in turn give back to you by saying, however bittersweet...

​

 

[miki1]

Post-Game Writeup
​

---

Thanks for joining me. This is a lot, and it isn't the smoothest for me to go through.

General Concept
I need to immediately start this off by mentioning the biggest thing I thought when designing the general concept for this game. The goal was for this to be the third BB game in a so-called "Violet game" trilogy. The idea of having the game themed around an idol competition was due to how I enjoy basing my games off of whatever I'm interested in at the time. For House of Horrors I included a lot of horror or gothic ideas based around horror or horror-based games I enjoyed. For Sweet Sabotage I found myself really into slice of life anime and the tropes that came along with it, and based a game around ideas I enjoyed from those anime that I thought could translate well. I've recently been a big fan of Bushimo idol series such as Love Live! and BanG Dream, and the culture and fandom surrounding them. Being genuine, there are several moments throughout the years I've felt ostracized by PBB's community due to my interest in things such as anime and J-Pop and I hoped by directly delivering a game based around those themes, I could at least teach people some concepts or ideas I've learned, and at most clear up some misconceptions about the things I enjoyed. This is most notable by including something like Counting KBs, the flavour text of this game and the updates, and especially the final question I offered to the jury for Know Your Jury, being, "was there anything you learned about being an idol from this game?"
In fact, things included in the game such as Animal Tower, or the NG Word Game were directly taken from my interest in Japanese idol culture. Both games were things I learned of from watching idols in different points in time. One of the most interesting ideas for this game was how to translate the NG Word Game into something I could apply in PBB. I'd have given up on it if it weren't for the idea that I was making this game in part to introduce this culture to these people to clear up these misconceptions.
Overall, I think this goal failed, but in terms of the flavour and ideas presented in this game, I'm very satisfied and view that as a success. There weren't many people aware of this, but I named the weeks personally myself (people just didn't read the thread I guess?) and named them after the names of events in BanG Dream, one of the idol series I mentioned before. I wanted to keep a theme for each week, and instantly knew I wanted "TITLE IDOL" to be for the finale but I enjoyed Week 3 as "Searching for Stars" due to the inclusion of Fallen Stars) and Week 6 as "How My Heart Sings" due to the inclusion of Friday Night Funkin, a comp I was really excited to use.

Production
The very, very first draft for this game came sometime last year when I had an idea, of making a game that would be bastard and dismantled on purpose. My general concept for the game was to do something that no host would ever be insane enough to attempt. It's pretty fitting if you know me and know my history with PBB. In order to simplify my thoughts, let's refer to this old draft as "BBX". There were ideas such as a single week that played over the span of ten to fifteen minutes, leaking diary room or alliance messages, an advantage to swap a Head of Household and nominee, things like that. Obviously the final product is nothing close to this, and I can only tell you these ideas in confidence because I have faith that they'll never see the light of day. So what's the deal? Why was a "Violet" game so quiet in comparison to that, and why am I spilling my secrets for a game that never happened?

The earliest date I can trace this game back to was December 2020, and at that point it was still that BBX draft. There were previous mentions of the possibility that I'd choose to host PBB13 both between mirdo and I, and a conversation I had with Lorde and NP where I asked for guidance on a different draft I had. As 13 is a number associated with luck, along with 4 and 7, I thought it would be fitting to have a third game end up being PBB13. The announcement was made that PBB13 was looking for a host, and I reached out saying I had a slight interest, and was told I'd be accepted if I submitted a draft. I simply told Lorde I didn't have a ready draft, and just a simple mess of ideas. The fact this whole process of applying to host a game and needing my ideas to be "quality-checked", so to speak, is the crux of this entire discussion. I knew these BBX ideas wouldn't be approved, since I designed them on purpose to be exaggerated and ridiculous. So I made the decision to sacrifice a lot of what I had made in order to essentially have Lorde and NP design a draft for me, because I knew what I wanted ideally wouldn't be accepted. I've also recently mentioned that I have no interest in working with a co-host, because I feel my exaggerated ideas lose their entire point if I have to compromise or change them in a way I don't envision. It's selfish, but it's what I've always believed makes my ideas unique. That was reinforced by this game. I felt like a lot was lost in order to meet the standards I was pushed into in order to host the game, and I'm ultimately unhappy with the result. This game doesn't feel like what I envisioned.

Either way, once the game was decided on, casting was... difficult to say the least. You were all cast and knew how I had to reschedule date after date to even try to fill enough slots by the time I could actually host comfortably, and once I finally got enough people, I had to expel someone due to inactivity. The fact this game was announced in late August and started in mid-December speaks volumes. It was once again a miracle this game even had enough people to get off the ground, and a lot of that was due to Lorde's ability to cast people. Casting wasn't how I hoped, or at the very least how I even expected it could have gone.

Once the game started, there were occasionally hiccups as I went through. The fact this is my first game I've hosted alongside a part-time job in my personal life meant I couldn't update the game at work, and frequently woke up to messages about when I would upload on my days off when I needed more sleep due to my early work schedule. It led to a lot of mismanagement and difficulty updating the game. What I can estimate to be about half the twists or mechanics had some kind of issue with them when I posted the updates, and I'd be pulled into the game's production chat to seemingly be questioned about what I was doing or why I was doing what I was. At times I was messing up due to the fact updates were occasionally rushed whenever I had time to write them, and at times I felt scolded or judged for the way I interpreted ideas from my own draft or the way I hosted. During my own game. Due to the fact I wasn't around as consistently, Lorde often had to fill in gaps when I wasn't around. Over the course of the game, I had felt the house didn't even consider me their host anymore, and that title fell to Lorde instead. This peaked around the time the final 4 had their Special Eviction, where I planned to announce the Final Head of Household and felt brushed off by the house after Lorde had to host the Special Eviction. I don't enjoy the concept of live competitions as a host, but it was done anyways while I was busy because it's just the standard for PBB.

All this culminated to say that when all was said and done, BB13 didn't feel like my game anymore. Due to the busy nature of my life, my job, and the ideas I had, nearly everything slipped through my fingers.

Twists and Mechanics
The NG Word Game is easily the idea I enjoyed most about this game, but the Popularity Contest putting people into pairs for a duel tournament was the only surviving part of that original draft of ideas I mentioned. I thought it would be a fun way to subvert expectations of a Week 1 Head of Household (something usually seen as a trivial waste of time as PBB games have gone on) and give strong genuine reasons for both wanting to win the competition (putting yourself at a high social status) or not wanting to win (in order to not signify yourself as a social threat).

The Penalty Game was one of the most interesting ideas I was able to bring to the final product of BB13. The idea also came from my interest in idol culture, alongside things like the NG Word Game. The premise was simple enough, these idols would sometimes appear on TV programs and would compete in games together. The loser would often have to do something embarrassing, like act a certain way or say a certain embarrassing line. I thought the structure for Have-Nots would be a great way to implement these penalty games in a fun way. This is why the idea for the Penalty Game was more of just having to something embarrassing just for the fun of it, and not things like score reductions or added challenges like Have-Nots. I'd firmly state that the two are different concepts, and while similar, shouldn't be grouped together as the same.

I'd like to comment on the Encore here as well, an idea where I offered people a chance to play Winterbells once mirdo was crowned as the winner in order to have an extra penalty game for fun, but the simple solution to that is that no one cared. Half the house wasn't present for the houseguest reunion, likely due to being busy, time zones, or other daily schedules, and over 6 hours, not a single submission was sent in. The entire thing was essentially ignored.

Closing Thoughts
I apologize for the long wall of text here, but I think it's imperative that I express my full thoughts honestly in a situation like this. Not only did being at a very busy time in my life while trying to host make things harder, but so much of this game was lost to the point where I can neither say it was my game, nor that I hosted it.

Regardless of everything, I want to give special thanks again. Thank you to Lorde for filling a lot of space that would have been empty during this game. You helped me with a lot to keep the game smooth and keeping it on track, and that's way better than having a game that's slow to update.
Another big thanks to kyo, my boyfriend, for being there to support me and keep me going through this game. Often when I came to take some breaks from the process of hosting this game, I came to you to help me relax or just give me something to do. Thank you for spending time with me, I've needed that a lot.

To close this post-game write up, I want to say that I appreciate the messages I've received thanking me for hosting this game. It truly does make me happy, but due to the circumstances, I can't quite accept those thanks as I wish I could. However, I'd like to in turn give back to you by saying, however bittersweet...

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Designing this game was inspired by my interest in Bushimo idol series, aiming to challenge misconceptions about anime and J-Pop in PBB. Though the goal wasn't fully achieved, I'm satisfied with the flavor and ideas.

The production process shifted from a daring "bastard" game idea to the "Violet" game we have now. PBB13 faced casting challenges and delays due to my part-time job, making updates challenging. By the end, the game didn't feel like mine anymore.

Twists like the NG Word Game and the Penalty Game, inspired by idol culture, added unique elements. However, some ideas, like the Encore, were ignored, contributing to the game's disconnection.

I want to thank Lorde for his support and Kyo for helping me through this busy hosting period. Despite the challenges, messages of gratitude from players are appreciated, even if I find it hard to fully accept them. However bittersweet, this experience has been.

Offlinedino, your thoughts on this game would be valuable.