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VoiceWar.com

Submitted by: Cory_Ross
Created: Feb 28, 2007, 1:21 pm

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The Idea

An online competition where two people debate on a certain topic -- on their webcams in front of thousands of viewers. This isn't just a battle of wit like you see online all the time; it's a battle of intimidation and charisma. It'd be a blast for the people debating, and would be fun and informative for the people watching. It'd be like watching really heated live arguments from regular everyday people.... And imagine how entertaining it will be when really controversial topics are chosen. The first set of debaters are chosen at random and put into a certain amount of rooms. All the viewers are then split up evenly to judge the debaters in each room (on a scale in real-time). This then goes on tournament style, with the best debaters against each other in the end for a showdown with the whole audience watching. The winner will get some awesome prizes for being the best. I could see this spawning some internet grown politicians and having a cult following.

I thought of this idea when I was...

I was thinking it would be kind of cool to have an online poker game where you could see the people playing on their webcams, but then thought this was a much better idea.

Comments Posted

generic_idea_machine Posted: March 1, 2007, 5:27 am

youtube will serve this purpose for "static videos"

live video debates...hmm. Not sure how this will make money
But you got me thinking here

Cory_Ross Posted: March 1, 2007, 6:36 am

Yeah, youtube does accomplish this a little bit, but I think a site that puts total focus on debates would be extremely popular as well.

Youtube is sort of "here's a random video" and then people sometimes reply to it with a video and with short comments. The comments are sort of like debates but forum/comment debates are nothing new and aren't really exciting because they are just waterfalls of quick, random replies. But when you make it a live competition, there's an adrenaline rush for the contestants and much more excitement for the audience watching.

Forum debates between two intellectual people are always more exciting than debates where hundreds of people post random half-thought-out replies. The contestants will usually be very passionate about subjects, and making this live is great entertainment.

Plus, the live aspect can make it a lot of fun to see people get really angry or embarrassed :), and can be watched like a TV show instead of read like a book, which most people prefer.

This website would be more like an online gameshow.

Cory_Ross Posted: March 1, 2007, 6:39 am

The site would make money through advertising to the audience in various ways, just like TV.

Joeri Posted: March 1, 2007, 4:15 pm

I'm really digging this.

thecougar Posted: March 1, 2007, 10:55 pm

I love it! Video is hot, and people who are active on the 'net are definitely up for debating and sharing opinions (see fig 1: blogs). Would be easy enough to develop, just needs a sweet design and you'd be set. Awesome.

generic_idea_machine Posted: March 4, 2007, 2:48 am

http://www.paltalk.com/

paltalk has been around for some time. I have never used it, but from their website...it is entailed that there are various chat rooms and user can pick and choose the one of their liking

what you are suggesting is making a website solely for the purpose of debate (live video)

so is the site going to evolve organically, meaning users pick and choose the topics they wish to talk about?

or would it be non-organic, i.e users are given a certain topic to debate/discuss.

if it is the former, then i guess paltalk serves the need. When it is the latter, then hmm then we need to do some market research

Cory_Ross Posted: March 4, 2007, 3:24 pm

I plan the latter. I want the website to be more of a static competition and play out like a TV game show.

Though an RHF style site could probably work too, as in people make their own debates and the best ones get voted up and rewarded. Then you have to deal with all the unfairness, though, and there are already a few sites that do that without video.

fish99 Posted: March 6, 2007, 2:59 pm

I love it...I love a good debate..either live or recorded.

Hello!

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