Here is the thread for Team Footprint to present their idea for a new DS Reality game for the DS Apprentice, please check both their idea and Hermes’s idea and let me know which you think would be a better idea for a game, by PMing me with your vote for the better game, you have until 6pm Tomorrow!

Over to you Footprint!

Good evening, and a big welcome to you from all of us here on Team Footprint. We are very proud to present to you our brand new idea, Glitz & Ritz, something we genuinely believe to be the next big game show phenomenon to sweep the Digital Spy boards. Bold, brazen, exciting and innovative, Glitz & Ritz takes elements from some of Digital Spy’s most popular games, but repackages them into a thrilling new format, placing the viewers firmly in control over the destinies of their characters. We strongly belive that this logo will be iconic and inescapable once the game launches. Over the next few minutes, we intend to show you just why we’re so excited about Glitz & Ritz. Ever wondered what it would feel like to be Simon Cowell for a day? Well, with our game, now you can. In Glitz & Ritz, fiction is more fabulous than the truth.

The basis of an RPG (or role-playing game) is really simple, which only adds to the excitement & fun.

Every person will take on the persona of a celebrity of his or her choice. There is a limitless number of places, and you can apply to join with any celebrity in the world (perhaps with some restrictions, but we’ll have to do that individually). We have all wanted to know what it feels like to be in the shoes of a celebrity and now, with this exciting new type of DS game, you can!

Once again I will emphasise how simple & easy the format of a RPG is. Our format is based around a hotel named Hotel Déshabille. We plan to fuse Big Brother, Hotel Babylon & a Jersey Shore style roleplay with celebrities, in which we each write for the celebrity (or celebrities) of our choice. The main focus on the role-playing aspect is the improvisation. Anything that is possibly in the living world goes – so unfortunately we can’t have Simon Cowell flying to Venus, or Lewis Hamilton racing Jeremy Clarkson to the moon, sorry!

The style of writing we decided was best was extended third person. This means that you would narrate for the character, for example, ‘Katy moved over to the bar to sit next to Russell. “Hey hun, you okay?” she asked.’

That was an awful example, but the point still stands. You will write both the action your character is doing and what they say and how they interact with other people's characters. All in all, lots of fun is guaranteed!

However – it is everything we forum posters LOVE! Gossip, bitchiness, celebrities & stars all in the same place providing us with entertainment with plenty of drama! What's not to love? It’s our own little alternate-universe, and the possibilities are endless.

We all came to a collaborative decision that it just isn’t as fun without a bit of friendly competition! To avoid a Big Brother stereotype, we’re not going to have a vote to evict a character from the hotel, because at the end of the day, it’s the writer's choice whether they want to get rid of one celebrity & replace it with another. So we came to a decision that a weekly Best Character award could be handed out. Nothing too prestigious, but it’d be a nice boost and a reason to continue the writing portion of the roleplay. I for one would love to have an accolade awarded in a vote for best in show, and I am sure you would too!

Glitz & Ritz will step outside the normal DS game construct, with no eliminations and no winner - instead, the celebrities will stick around for as long as their players choose to keep them there. Of course, no game can survive without any structure, and the hosts of Glitz & Ritz are here to provide that. Each week, these hosts will introduce a new plot for the characters to react to. These plotlines will range from the bizarre (the celebrities being roped into participating in a burlesque show) to the tragic (the unforeseen murder of Hugh Hefner), and they will force the characters to interact with each other in ways they wouldn't otherwise dream of. Throughout the game, these week-long plotlines will be intertwined with long-lasting character-driven stories: a passionate romance, perhaps, between Lindsay Lohan and Ozzy Osbourne; or, if a player feels like it, they might engineer an unforeseen drug addiction for their character.

Digital Spy wants a game like Glitz & Ritz. The concept is fresh and relevant, and fits in well with the overall theme of the site brilliantly, allowing readers to adopt the personas of some of the most discussed and controversial figures from the worlds of showbiz, television and music. Our market research indicated a strong interest in Role Playing Games; however the majority of people asked were yet to participate in one, showing a strong untapped pool of viewers and participants. Here are some statistics, showing the level of interest for a game like this. Whilst only 25% of people said they had taken part in a DS RPG before, 68% of people said they would be willing to take part in a DS online RPG. 90% of people said they were looking for a game that meant viewers could take part throughout, rather than just voting. 50% of people said a game involving celebrities would interest them. We feel Glitz & Ritz takes a step away from the obvious, and combines what our market research suggests are Digital Spy’s favourite topics – celebrities and figures from the worlds of television and music. Interactive games also scored well on our surveys, showing viewers want a move away from your typical “vote at the end of each show to eliminate a contestant” style shows, however we’ve included a weekly Best Character vote each week to attract casual viewers. Glitz & Ritz has something for everyone.

Glitz & Ritz can never take off, however, without participants who are prepared to take control of a celebrity's destiny, and in doing so, hone their writing skills and develop long-lasting ties. Contact us today if you want to be a part of this from the beginning - if you'd like to roleplay Cheryl Cole punching the paparazzi, or JK Rowling suing the creators of 'Harry Potter and the Magic Lovestick'. Nothing is sacred in the world of Glitz & Ritz, and this game format will introduce a very different type of interactivity to the DigitalSpy forums. We hope you've enjoyed reading this pitch, and we're crossing our fingers that you'll decide to join us at Hotel Déshabille, where romance, intrigue, and conflict combine to create a truly interactive game format.

We would now like to show you an example of how a typical 'scene' in Glitz & Ritz would work, to give you a clear idea of the how the game would run. We can not show exactly how it would take place, but we have done every other paragraph in bold to show how the posts would be seperated. We hope you enjoy it!

Rebecca was in the corner of the room, looking around at all the party goers. She knew that they hated her - she knew everyone hated her, all you needed to do was look at the dislikes on her Friday video. She felt her eyes start to sting a little, and tears began to flow. She looked at Katy Perry and felt a rush of envy. Nobody disliked her songs.

"Rebecca, darling!" The gleaming grin of a certain Mr Cowell was shining at the young girl in front of him, his eyes sizing her up. "Why are you crying hon? You have no reason to cry! You have the potential to be a SUPERSTAR! I can just see it now, you stood on a stage, everyone cheering your name... you have it Rebecca, IT! You look like a star, you act like a star... you ARE a STAR!" He shot her a bigger grin. "Take a seat, dear"

"Which seat shall I take?" Rebecca asked glumly, looking at the row of empty tables, as everybody was up on their feet dancing. She never had been good with decisions.

"Here" Simon said leading her to a table. "Now, I have a proposition for you Rebecca. I would like to sign you to my record label and turn you into a global superstar. I've got a great track record; just look at Steve Brookstein. I could take you far girl, all you need to do is sign this!" He pulled out a contract from his pocket.

"Oh my god, thank you so so much, Sir!" Rebecca signed the contract quickly, before the kind man could change his mind. "This had been my dream every since I was 11 years old! I can't believe it's going to come true after all these years!"

Love birds Katy Perry and Russell Brand are soaking up the ambiance at the bar in Hotel Déshabille. They are having a quite night after a long day and just want to be left in peace and quiet. Katie Price enters with Gary and Phil and heads straight to the bar. Inwardly both Katy and Russell groan.

It's obvious that Katie has already been drinking but she orders a double vodka with redbull. Ignoring Katy, she turns to Russell, bats her lashes and informs him "it's because I need the energy for later on, if you catch my drift". She tries to wink seductively at him but looks like she is having a stroke.

Russell wants the ground to open up and swallow him whole. Even at the height of his sex addiction, there wouldn't have been enough heroin in the world to allow him to play hide the sausage with that witch. She was making him feel unclean and he wanted to leave.

Katy is fuming. She has been enjoing a nice evening with her fella and now this skank is going to ruin it. She had kissed a girl and liked it and was starting to wonder if she punched a girl would she like it?

Katie downs her drink in one go. She doesn't even notice Katy. All she sees is Russell. She hasn't had a shag in two days and is desperate. "Come here you", she slurs to a terrified looking Russell, beckoning him with one of her talons.

Russell starts to back up against the bar but there is nowhere for him to go. From the corner of his eye he sees some paps at the entrance. Distracted, he doesn't notice Katie pounce, with her fish lips puckered in a pout that would suck out the soul like a Dementor. He is gagging and gasping for air when he is suddenly released from her clutches.

Katy has had enough. Who does this skankoid think she is? She has the cheek to jump on her man. Katy sees red and before she knows it she has grabbed Katie by the extensions and pulled her off Russell. She draws back her arm and is about to give her a well deserved bitch slap when Russell catches her arm and stops her. "What are you doing?" cries Katy, "the bitch deserves it".

"Yes she does" says Russell "and I'm soooo turned on right now, that was hot babe but the paps are over there and if you hit her, your career's over. Let's get out of here".

"You're right", says Katy. "She's not worth it".

Katy and Russell make a quick exit through the side door.

Katie Price didn't feel the pain of her extensions being pulled out as she was too drunk. She wonders where the nice scarecrow went and who is going to entertain her now. Then a familiar sound registers on her hazy brain-she can hear camera's and like a homing beacon, it is her call. She turns around into a blaze of lights and is delighted to be the center of attention again.

Katy was about to leave the grand hall when she saw Simon Cowell talking to Rebecca Black, and the girl looked like she had been crying.

Katy knew Rebecca after a video they had shot together, so she changed course and charged to the table, about to give Mr Simon Cowell a piece of her mind for making this young girl cry. "What do you think you're doing?" She barked at Simon. "Leave this girl alone, she doesn't need your 'star treatment'. Why has she been crying?!What have you been saying to her you vile man?! Why has she been crying?!"

Simon Cowell backed away, feeling quite scared for once. He wasn't used to people fighting back, HE was the one in charge! "Excuse me, Katy, dalring, me and Rebecca were just talking business here. I've decided to offer her a record contract!" He turned to Rebecca, and began to speak again. "Don't worry about Katy, she's just a bit frightened by how amazing you are, hon. I mean, you have a much better voice and let's face it, after those pictures of her without make-up, you are definitely prettier than her!"

"Excuse me!" Russell piped up, a blush rising on his cheeks. Katy still hadn't forgiven him for those pictures. "Please don't talk about my wife like that you old codger! And put your boobs away too; you've got put cleavage showing than that Jordan tramp!" Russell attempted to give Simon a menacing stare, but the affect didn't really work.

Rebecca had just been sat there for a while dumbstruck. Why was everyone being so nasty to each other?! Simon had been lovely to give her the contract, and Rebecca had a great time with Katy filming Last Friday Night. As they argued, she decided that they wouldn't notice her leaving, so she quietly slipped out of her seat and walked through a door just beside her. It lead to a staircase, so she began to climb in the hopes of finding somewhere quietly to call her mother and tell her the news.

"Oh, will you just be quiet, please." Simon began to rise from his chair. "Katy, Firework is quite possibly the worst song to have reached number one ever, though I do admire you for having the courage to attempt to emulate the sound of a cat in labour. Russell, your acting is about a convincing as Louis Walsh telling X FActor audionees that he can make them a star. Now if you would both kindly step aside, I have promised to dance with Mezghan. And Terri. And Sinitta."

Rebecca can still hear the heated voices of Simon and Katie as she slips out of the room. She doesn't care as she is on cloud nine. She has a record deal with Simon Cowell who is more famous than God and will make sure she becomes a credible artist. She wanders off to explore the nice hotel, already planning her next song. She thinks "Saturday" is the logical progression from "Friday".

Rebecca skips down the hall and enters the elevator. Still wrapped up in her dreams of stardom and credibility, she presses the wrong floor. The doors open and she gets out, not noticing her mistake. All the floors look the same to Rebecca, who is a bit ditzy. She plans on going to her room but can't remember what the number is. Looking around, she starts to panic. It was all fun just a while ago and she felt rather grown up when conducting business with Simon but now she was confused and felt like a scared little girl.

"Calm down", she told herself. "You're 13 and just lost in a hotel. It's fine. Just go down to reception".

She heads back towards the elevator but gets lost in the corridors. She is almost of the verge of panicking when she comes across the stairs. She decides to give up looking for the elevator and take them. The sooner she gets back to reception, the sooner she can find her room. Her parents must be wondering where she is by now.

She is walking down the stairs and is almost at the bottom. Her mood has lifted again as she can hear the noise from the party and realised with relief that she is safe again. She feels silly for panicking and is lost in thought, composing lyrics for her new song Saturday. Suddenly her foot slipss on something and she stumbles down the last few stairs and lands face down on the floor. Slowly she gets to her feet and checks herself for injuries. Her knee hurts like hell but apart from that there is no real damage. She turns to see what she had slipped on and goes into shock.

Slumped in the corner of the stairwell is an old man. Rebecca doesn't recognise him as Hugh Heifner. His eyes are open but there is no light in them. He is dead. Dried blood on the side of his head marks where he got thumped with the bloody hammer which now lies discarded by his side. There are long blond hairs stuck to the congealed blood. A cracked album is on the floor, it was what she had slipped on. She thinks it must've fallen out of someone's possession when they weren't paying attention. She recognises is as "Teenage Dream" and irrationally makes a mental note to apologise to Katie for breaking it.

Her eyes wander back to the old man. He clutches what looks to be a contract in one hand. As if in a trance, Rebecca's mind registers the word "Syco" in bold font on the top of the contract and wonders what it could mean. She wants to scream but seems suspended in fear. Her throat is dry and her legs have turned to stone. She wants to stop looking but she can't help it.

Her eyes are fixated on the grisley scene. It's the man's face. He looks in shock, as if he was hit by surprise. Rebecca wonders what he was doing down here. His clothes are expensive and he is still wearing his watch, so he wasn't robbed. A man of his age and obvious wealth would've taken the elevator so she thinks he must have been meeting someone in secret. The thought scares her even more. Suppose they are still here somewhere and try to harm her? The added fear breaks her spell like trance and she lets out a bloodcurdling scream.

Who did it and why? Who's blond hair is on the hammer and why would Heifner have a Syco contract? Did the person who dropped the album have anything to do with it or is that simple coincidence? Who knows... it's up to YOU!

So, that concludes our presentation. Thank you for reading, and we hope you are as excited and enthusiastic about the prospect of Glitz & Ritz as we are, and would consider voting for Team Footprints. Thank you!

Any questions you would like one of us to answer?

Will there be a limit to the number that can play?
And I am assuming people can enter and leave when they chose to?

What kind of structure would there be ?

Like it would be really hard to follow if you had no structure and people were just posting random conversations all over the place.

Would their be rules like follow on from previous post or an order given to the contestants to which they post ?

With a game like this, there is no limit on how many people that can be involved. Anyone who wants to join only needs to post introducing their character and they are free to play the game, and join in on the story. Due to the nature of their game, chances are that there will never be too many characters roleplaying at once, so this allows the story to continue at a steady pace, with many different characters and intertwining storylines.

People are free to enter and leave the story as they wish, which is the beauty of the hotel idea. If a user no longer wishes to be involved, then all they need to do is post saying that the character is leaving the hotel, and new characters can just jump straight in as new visitors to the hotel. Also, if a character does leave then they are definitely free to be able to come back into the story whenever they wish, so if anyone decides not to take part anymore, the door is left open for them.

I hope that answers your questions, and you and anyone else are free to ask about anything else you would like some clarity on.

How do you propose this game attracts a wider audience outside of the players involved?

Even though it was said that it is limitless, how long do you expect a game to last?

I can't see another one starting once the first one (seeing as it's limitless in time) finishes. Can you convince me otherwise?

We were planning on having a constant Hotel Manager character, who would be played by us five, who would each week give a new plot point; eg. Announcing that somebody has been found dead in one of the rooms. Then throughout the week he would slowly push the plot if it started to move away from the actual story, with a new revelation of some sort for the characters to react to. With a new plot each week, it encourages people to keep playing/tuning in, and keeps the game fresh.

If somebody is replying to a post then nothing needs to be done, but if there are two conversations happening at the same time then it would be logical for a user to quote the post that they are replying to.

To me that sounds a bit disjointed as posts would not be very easy to follow and understand. Perhaps you would have an idea that your best character of the week could be the contact person for new contestants and then head on from then.

Would be odd to read someone just appearing when others are in the middle of a scene well for me it would Context would be different if the others new the new poster was comming

Thanks for your question!

Well, anybody could get involved with whatever kind of character they want, from the stereotypical blonde bimbos such as Paris Hilton, to foulmouthed aggressive rockers such as Ozzy Osbourne. Literally anyone can get involved at any time, and the format is easily understood once the first post is read. There is no limit to who you want to be in this game, apart from your own imagination.

Hello!

The show will run for as long as there is interest in it, even if there are only 5-6 people still interested, it still has an interest & it could therefore be successful.

The interest will be sustainable due to new storylines, an almost neverending prospect of possible characters. People will be allowed to use any celebrity, from A list to Z list, that they want.

Not to mention the weekly "best character" awards. The thought of winning is what really brings to life an idea in the eyes of a competitive person. To be awarded an accolade, even though it's nothing huge, is a great thing. To know that people are reading what you write - it could be a benchmark for you wanting to write a fanfiction, or just something less big. It's a nice idea which will provide plenty of fun for lots of the writers, and there a LOTS, here! You can also make lots of new friends with fellow writers and socialize which is also a positive.

I disagreee with you saying that there cannot be more than one. This type of RPG can be huge - this one is set in a hotel; but there could be many branches - a ghost house, a tropical island or even just an inner city flat. The possibilities really are endless.

I hope that has convinced you otherwise.

That's a great idea about the best character taking responsibility for new participants, and we'd definitely take that onboard when considering how the game would run. However, we would also have the hotel manager to provide context to new arrivals, and we would strongly encourage the participants themselves to provide context in their initial posts.

It is not Xmas yet but Team Footprint have already come up with a Turkey.

Is it thanksgiving soon ?

Do you have any rules regarding grammar, spellchecks and text speak? I presume that you want the story to be coherent and legible, i.e. no text speak, but what about people who are dyslexic or have a learning impairment which affects the way they write, or speak? For example I know a few autistic people who say "Am" instead of "I" or just miss "I" out altogether, saying "Doing this" rather than "I do this". How will you ensure that this game is inclusive to all, while still readable?