Come on Down! Play the Price is Right on Facebook!

As a kid I always loved watching The Price Is Right on TV. It was always a treat to be home on a weekday morning and watch Bob Barker and his beautiful models give away thousands of dollars in prize money to ordinary people lucky enough to be in the studio audience. Now that I'm older, I don't have the opportunity to watch The Price Is Right anymore. Though I understand Drew Carey is doing a great job filling Bob Barker's shoes, I'm not sure if it would be the same for me, anyway.

Then a few days ago, I was on Facebook and noticed some of my friends playing The Price Is Right game. Curiosity got the better of me and I ended up trying out the application. Created by FremantleMedia, Facebook's version of The Price Is Right is a pretty good copy of the television show. Everything from the cheesy 70s era music to a hearty invitation to "Come on down!" is like it is on the iconic game show, which was created in 1956 and revamped in 1972.

Pay to play

To play Facebook's version of The Price Is Right, you need two game coins. Don't worry, you get free coins just by visiting the application every day. You can get more free coins by winning, leveling up, and getting your friends to play. If you happen to run out of coins and still want to play, you can purchase them with a credit card or PayPal. At this writing, twenty coins cost $5, but I have seen the coins go on sale for half that price. So far, I haven't needed to buy coins, but I have a feeling I could easily get addicted and actually start forking out money to play this game!

Getting started

Once you've got your two coins, click on the big green button that says "Play Now". Once you click the button, your two coins are deducted and the show starts, complete with theme music and applause from the audience. There are five rounds to an episode.

In round one, everybody playing is in the audience. The game shows a video straight from the television show with a prize to bid on. Next to the video, there's a four digit row of zeros. Click on the zeros to change the zeros to whole numbers and set your bid from $0 to $9999. Hurry, because you only get about fifteen seconds to make up your mind and a timer holds you to the limit.

The players in the audience with the top four bids get called down to Contestants' Row for round two. The players on Contestants' Row are playing for the right to play a pricing game, but those who don't make it to the Row also bid on the prizes to win the right to be on the Row in the next round.

The game shows another video and you get the chance to enter a bid. If you're on Contestants' Row and your bid is the best, you get to play a pricing game. If you're in the audience and your bid is one of the four best, you get to be in Contestants' Row for round three. If your bid is exactly right, you get a $500 bonus. If you're in the audience and bid well but don't make the top four, you'll get a small cash bonus. If you overbid in the audience or Contestants' Row, you win nothing. Even if you're on Contestants' Row, your bid has to be in the top four in order to stay on the Row. If it's not, you go back to the audience to fight the masses for another chance at a pricing game or a $10,000 bonus.

Pricing Games

The pricing games you can play are determined by your level. At level one, the only pricing game you can play is Safe Crackers. As you continue playing, you earn levels, which allow you to play other pricing games such as The Clock Game, Bonkers, Three Strikes, and even Plinko, to name a few!

These pricing games are played much the same way they're played on the television show, but don't worry, the announcer will tell you how to play. As the announcer speaks, there's also captioning at the bottom of the screen. You can only win the right to play pricing games in rounds two and three. In rounds four and five, you play for a $10,000 cash bonus, which helps determine whether or not you'll make it to the Showcase Showdown.

The Showcase Showdown!

The two players who earn the most money make it to the Showcase Showdown. In this round, you and another player watch a video about three prizes. Then you bid. If your bid is closest to the actual retail price without going over, you win. If your bid is within $100 of the actual retail price, you win both showcases. Oddly enough, you only see one video, so for all you know, you're just winning the same prize twice!

Those who don't make it to the Showcase Showdown get to spin the Big Wheel. This works the same way it does on the television show. You click and drag your mouse on the Big Wheel and it spins. Your goal is to get as close to one dollar without going over. If you don't get a high enough value with your first spin, you can spin again. The players with the scores closest to one dollar without going over get bonus cash: $20,000 for first place, $10,000 for second place, and $5,000 for third place. This cash is added to the total you've earned in the game and helps you level up. The higher level you have, the more pricing games you can play and the more free coins you earn. You also can earn cash when your friends play this game.

My thoughts about this game

The Price Is Right for Facebook is a lot of fun to play. If you've ever seen the show, you'll find this game is pretty easy to get the hang of. You get a sense of playing with other people, since there's a chat function under the game screen. It's fun to read peoples' comments about the prizes and the actual retail prices of them. From what I've seen so far, most players are pretty good sports. One lady even apologized to another player for placing a bid so close to the other player's.

The drawback to playing this game is that after awhile, you start to see the same prizes being offered. It gets a lot easier to place accurate bids because you've seen the prizes before and have been told what the actual retail prices are. But I've found that this isn't too much of a problem after a week's worth of playing. It's probably just the diehard junkies who run into repeat prizes!

I only wish the cash and prizes I've won were for real! But right now, the game is holding a drawing and two lucky Facebook players will win tickets to Los Angeles and V.I.P. passes to see The Price Is Right live!

Want to play this at work?

Of course I'd never encourage my readers to waste time with The Price Is Right when they're supposed to be working! But I will share that this game has a mute button, which will get rid of the telltale music and sound effects. Whenever the announcer speaks, there's a caption of what he says so you can read the directions rather than listen to them.

Overall

If you're tired of playing Farmville and Mafia Wars and like playing pricing games, The Price Is Right for Facebook might be just the thing to break the monotony. Just be aware that this game can get very addictive!