Just out of curiosity, which was the first game of DoND where the contestant was getting quite emotional?

I remember Jessica and Vanessa being rather emotional in their games, but were they the first?

Great, first everyone was being infected by the Ipswich Mark virus, and now people are starting to be infected by the kall4i59 virus and posting pointless threads in the general discussion section.

It's the 'general discussions' forum, Mr Rodriguez, the intention being that 'general discussions' are had here. This seems general enough to me.

I am trying to make discussion aren't I? That is the whole point to try and make people talk about DOND.

Nothing to worry about folks, just an unfunny attempt at portraying himself as a 'grumpy' character. I did this far better two years ago, mate.

First ever game with tears - the first one. Lynn.

I'm sorry if I offended anyone with my initial post.

I know Donna Rampton cried a lot.

I know Martin cried a lot.

Oh yeah, I remember his game. Declined an insulting £6,100 on a £1 / £35,000 finish!

I know Angela cried a lot but that was her own fault though IMO.

The first time I remember a contestant truly being so upset that they were crying wasn't even one on the wings, it was Marilyn in 1p Trevor's game way back in March 2006. She'd just revealed the £250k and absolutely broke down to the point where Noel had to reassure her it wasn't her fault - I remember because, as ridiculous as it seems now, it majorly stood out at the time as all contestants up to then had kept things under control.

From then on it depended on the contestant, the group of 22 and the games themselves. Sometimes you'd get everyone bursting into tears every few episodes and other times things were more subdued, right up until a guy called Ron played near the end of 2007. That game, for tears, was insane. Almost everyone was in pieces, Ron and what looked like the whole 22. Again, at the time, this massively stood out. It really was a truly emotional game as while people had cried before I'd never seen the entire show in floods of tears before.

And then it got ridiculous. Over the next couple of months it mutated into that happening every single episode, no matter what the game or the win, almost suspiciously so - like the contestants had either been told to, or simply it became the thing that contestants felt like they had to do as everyone else was doing it - if 21 people are crying then no one wants to be the one left out. But if you take something that's special and hammer it into the ground then it loses what made it special in the first place. I lose empathy with everyone if every contestant, every episode, is sobbing from the moment the cameras turn on. It's too much.

I'm not sure what the general trends have been since 2008 but from the episodes I've seen it's something that hasn't gone away.

I think the increase in tears being shed in the dream factory over the years has something to do with the whole silly cult thing the show has been doing over the last few years. It's part of the whole charade, along with the "saying it's a great offer, regardless", traditions like the 1p kiss etc. that the players seem to have been told to play now

In the early years, DoND was an easy-going game show with Noel being down to earth and the players being there to enjoy themselves and provide organic entertainment and banter, and there wasn't any of this sobbing over some £500 debt that needed to be paid off and stuff that made it look more like some 'quick payout for solving your life problems' charity show. it just isn't like that anymore, with all the weird traditions and charades being put on now (That AND the fact that they've deliberately been picking players who need money, thus resulting in predictable cautious dealing, board strength not being recognised and the banker lowballing his offers day in day out)

Whenever i hear of contestants on the wings giving lots of deal-biased advice when a player is considering an offer that is, in reality, poor for the board, talking about how amazing the offer is. I sometimes wonder if these players are actually being brainwashed backstage before filming starts!

That's something I'm fairly convinced of, actually. I see what the contestants say when they open their boxes - my goodness, how much more scripted could you get?! It's so blindingly obvious that it's almost painful...

Ouch - what a hideous game.