A couple of friends and I have been talking for months about starting a DS version of The Apprentice, and now that the new series is well underway, it seems like the perfect time to do it. Essentially, we're planning to have 10-12 candidates compete in teams to 'win' at various internet-based tasks, but to make the game a success, we need somebody to play Lord Alan Sugar - somebody who can come up with fun tasks, terrify contestants in the boardroom, & ultimately decide which candidates to fire or hire.

We're hoping to start the game within the next week or two, and we already have about six or seven potential contestants, all of whom are utterly brilliant candidates for any job. If you haven't been involved in any games before, that's totally fine - we're just looking for somebody who's creative enough to think of great tasks for the candidates to participate in.

Whilst we know that games like this one have been created in the past & ultimately failed, we have absolutely no intention of letting that happen this time, and we hope we can find somebody who's just as reliable and enthusiastic as we are! Please PM me if you're interested, and I'll send you more details. (If you're interested in becoming a candidate instead, we'd also love to hear from you, so PM me if you want to know more!)

I played in the last one of these and became team leader, then basically the other team evaporated so ours won by default, but I would have liked it if we'd won thanks to my strategy and talent...

So I am put off from bothering again, sorry.

I guarantee you that this one won't fizzle out.

Well, okay. Thank you for your input. We're all fairly experienced, though, so I don't think the same will happen this time.

This seems great. How long would it take for each show? Do I need any preparation?

The tasks would take place over a day or two to give everyone a chance to contribute something & no, no preparation.

It sounded like a good idea when someone else did this a few years ago, but after I joined up, I heard nothing more about it, until discovering for not participating I was the first to be fired.

Kind of sucked, because I was looking forward to it. I don't think I'd have the time at the moment though, but I'd enjoy following it.

I'm surprised you don't have that. Partly because inventing tasks etc seems like one of the most crucial elements, and partly because (in my view) these things usually get proposed as an ego trip by someone who wants to play Lord Sugar and boss everyone else aroumd.


I don't see how any one person can guarantee that. Especially if you don't have a Lord Sugar or any tasks.

The show does now have a Lord Sugar ... and I'm sure the participants will be able to think of tasks as well they could hand over to Lord Sugar and see if they'' be decided.

Can you give us some examples of the tasks you have in mind.

Well, in that case, I hope you look out for it - it's scheduled to start June 9th.


Well, now we have both. If we hadn't been able to find anybody who wanted to be LAS, one of us would have taken the role, but now we all get to be candidates instead.

& honestly, yes, we can guarantee it - we have enough of a track record (albeit in the XF forum), as does everybody else involved, that the chances of this not-working are pretty slim. I don't want to sound arrogant, but that's kind of the truth.


I would feel kind of weird giving you exact tasks that we're hoping to use, but as a general idea, we've taken ideas from the real show - stuff like product design/promotion, looking for low-cost items - & worked out ways that they can be done online instead. Since the show won't be starting until June 9th, though, we haven't settled on anything yet (& in any case, it's up to our Lord Sugar).

Fab idea and would love to be involved but am up to the gunnels in work. May I please watch?

Of course! Whilst most of the tasks will be carried out offscreen (over MSN, etc.), we're planning to make it as viewer-friendly as possible (by introducing each candidate at the beginning, having the teams write up summaries of how each task has gone, & of course by having the boardrooms take place in the Apprentice forum). It won't be the most viewer-friendly DS game, unfortunately, but we hope you'll enjoy it anyway!

Imagine you had a buying task. Would you be using real money and try to get stuff from the internet on the cheap. Do you have a Nick and Margaret to watch. They would just go on ebay. It all sounds very vague to me. You have to give us a lot more information if you want this really to take off. A real example of a task is called for.

I highly doubt you will be using real money. I suspect for example a Scavenger Hunt, would be 'Lord Sugar' finding 10 items that is you can find on the web, that is very rare and takes a while to find, and whoever finds more would be the winning team.

If we have to actually pay with money I would like to drop out, but I highly doubt it.

...no, we aren't going to spend real money on this, but thank you for asking. We're really grateful that you're so interested in our game, but honestly, we have everything under control, and we already anticipated everything you've brought up.

& no, we don't have to give you 'a lot more information'; nor do we have to give you 'a real example of a task'. We already have more than enough fantastic possible candidates, & whilst we would love for the game to 'take off' and gain lots of viewers, that's really not the point of it, so it won't bother us especially if it doesn't.

Of course everyone is interested in your 'game'. It may turn out better than the original. Why shouldnt you want lots of viewers. Your contestants would gain then a few dragons. Asking if you will have a NIck or Margaret shouldnt be too difficult to answer and wont give the game away. I get the feeling your 'fantastic' candidates who have no idea like the rest of us what its all about are like the present bunch on apprentice who have never watched an earlier episode with the same likely outcome.

Anoctoria is actually very well known to be successful on The X Factor Forum, and everything they do, no matter how complicated succeeds. Of course they want it to have lots of viewers but it's not the priority. I applied to be a contestant, I don't know specific details, all I know is the basic - a task, two teams, and someone gets fired each task. I am looking forward to it! (if I get chosen!)

It's not our #1 priority. Viewers aren't NECESSARY for it to be a success.


I don't know what you mean by this?


Yes, there will be a Nick & Karren.


There's really not much to tell, it's not incredibly complicated, the tasks will be possible to complete and everyone who's chosen will be given more details nearer the time.

Firstly - we aren't aiming for lots of viewers because the premise of the game is for the participants to have fun. Like I said, having viewers would be great, but most of the actual action is going to take place away from the forums, so we're just hoping that a few people will overlook that & watch the boardrooms anyway. We've participated in plenty of interactive, viewer-focused games before, and those were awesome, but that isn't really the central aim of this one.

"Your contestants would gain then a few dragons." - I don't actually know what this means, sorry.

Secondly, yes, we probably will have a Nick and a Karren (not Margaret), and we do have people in mind for this. That said, it isn't set in stone yet. Nothing is. We are currently working out which people we want to work with, and we hope to have our list finalised within the next few days.

Thirdly, I think you're actually being kind of insulting here. Everyone we're hoping to work with on this has a good deal of experience in DS forum games, and whilst they might not have participated in an Apprentice game before, they're all reliable, lovely, intelligent people. However, you're right on one thing - they don't have a great amount of information about the game yet. That doesn't mean that we aren't planning it in great detail, and it doesn't mean that it won't be a success; it simply means that we haven't finalised our list yet, and once we have, they'll all be given a lot more details about how the game is going to go.

This sounds really fun guys!

Thank you! I really hope you decide to take part.

Well my mention of dragons I thought was obvious but it seems it isnt. I must be honest I have never seen these kinds of games on the internet before and I thought this was a first. But if you have successfully done it before I take it all back. I imagine that the present contestants on the apprentice even if they lose and dont get LS for a dragon will find others who like them and their product. Your contestants can do the same.

Umm...I hope you know that this is just a game and that there is no real business partnership for the winner? It's just for fun.

LOL