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2010’s revival of the You Don’t Know Jack franchise reminded us exactly how much we love the pop culture-infused trivia questions, and had us rolling on the floor laughing (that’s ROFLing, for those unversed in internet terminological devices) thanks to hilarious writing and voice acting. Today, YDKJ comes back for another at-bat, but this time he’s planning on sticking around for good thanks to a Facebook version of the game.
There have been plentiful changes to the formula, however, though none get in the way of the core experience of answering nonsensical questions. Games are quicker, only lasting five questions (with the fifth being the signature “Jack Attack”), and you’ll be playing against your Facebook friends asynchronously. At any time you can jump into a five-question episode, and you’ll immediately be paired against friends who have already completed it. Since it’s a trivia show that rewards every player for their correct or incorrect answer there’s no conflict – you’re essentially playing against your friends in real time, even though they’re not competing against you at that very moment.
And that works both ways. You’ll be automatically added to your friends’ games, and you’ll actually receive Jack bucks (the game’s currency, which is used to level up and unlock new episodes) depending on where you place in those games. At one point we played a few games and signed off for the night – in the morning we signed back on to see that we had earned $20,000 bucks for placing in our friends’ games.
Where the “freemium” system comes into play is in “boosters” (which give point bonuses), and unlocking episodes. Everyone who signs up is immediately given two games, and one additional play is unlocked every day. These are pre-determined “episodes” instead of random assortments of questions, so you’ll never get the same question twice, or compete against someone who already knows the answer. This also means that all of the game’s 165 episodes are unique.
But you’re not likely to run out of episodes thanks to what be the most exciting element of YDKJ on Facebook. Every week, Jellyvision is planning on adding three new episodes that’ll be added to the top of the pile, giving you fresh, timely pop culture jokes to trivialize about. The turnaround time on these is said to be quick, too, and the developers were already talking about themed episodes around current events that can be pumped out within a few days of them occurring. This takes You Don’t Know Jack and upgrades it significantly, turning it into a hybrid game show/Daily Show creation that we’re absurdly interested in.
Jellyvision is also hard at work on a mobile version, which will allow Android and iPhone users to play the same version of YDKJ that’s on Facebook, though it’s still a few months out. In the meantime you can check the game out now - it's free, after all - and start quizzing your noggin and drilling your Facebook friends immediately.
