Davao wrote:
I also felt that DOND became tighter with money as time went on, as you saw less of big wins and things like it. It was always people taking the offer at 8 box or 5 box. There was no risk at all.
People always assumed the recession was entirely to blame for this, but I felt DoND started to get tighter with money after the phone-in competition was scrapped - notice all the gimmicks, sob-stories, playings becoming more cautious etc. started almost immediately after the home viewer competition was axed? It just felt as if the show began to struggle with revenue from that point on and they began using (sometimes desperate) cost-cutting measures to help the show survive on a reduced budget as there weren't as many big wins or exciting games as there used to be
It got to the stage where people were (mostly) just taking the first offer of "good money" rather than playing the game statistically and at times i felt like they were deliberately trying to discourage players from gambling to save the show money, by having Noel and/or the wing contestants talk down the game by playing up the worst case scenario, the contestant in the chair's sentimental reasons for wanting money, how unbearable life would be for them if they played on and it went wrong and how "generous" the offers were (when they were like 15% of the average if that
) to get the person in the chair to deal