h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It’s been traditional to have the Deathlist game theatrically (and somewhat drunkenly) announced by its creator, Mu Beta, or alternatively by his spirit, as he’s no longer with us. Well, he’s still with us in that sense, of course - he’s alive and well and posting on Facebook - he’s just no longer involved with h2g2. This year, I thought I’d break with tradition and instead say a few things about the Deathlist Game, which is now entering its 12th year.

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Mu Beta started the Deathlist Game in 2006 by posting to Askh2g2. He mentioned that he’d unsuccessfully tried to run the game on another site, but it hadn’t taken off. Players in the first game were Mu Beta, Dr E Vibenstein, Fords, Demon Drawer, Mrs Bojangles, coelacanth, GreyDesk, Galaxy Babe, Orcus, Magwitch, The_jon_m, Guru Roghan Josh, SWL and Ganapathi (14 in total). Galaxy Babe, coelacanth and the_jon_m are the only original players enrolled in the current game. There were four joint winners in 2006: Mu Beta, coelacanth, GRJ and Demon Drawer.

No less than 20 of the celebrities picked in the first game are alive and kicking and still being picked 12 years on. They are: Ian Brady, Barbara Bush, Jimmy Carter, Dick Cheney, Liz Dawn, Olivia de Havilland, Pete Doherty, Kirk Douglas, Clint Eastwood, Queen Elizabeth II, Bruce Forsyth, Gary Glitter, Stephen Hawking, Vera Lynn, Prince Philip, Leslie Phillips, Keith Richards, Maggie Smith, Charlie Watts and Herman Wouk.

In 2007, Emmily joined to assist Mu Beta with updating the home page. Entries were still posted to Askh2g2, and not much checking took place - on 1st January 2007, Mu Beta posted: “Hmm...apparently number 14 on my list has been dead for 22 years. Never mind. “. An incredible 42 players took part that year, and the winner was Dai the Death. The game thread was one of the more entertaining conversations on the site, and stretched to over 1000 posts.

The 2008 contest saw the first of Mu Beta’s infamous drunken launch speeches. It was also the first in which players had to e-mail their submissions. Proving that there’s no skill whatsoever in this game, I came joint first with Demon Drawer, having picked a comedy-themed list.

In 2011, the BBC hosts complained about the tastefulness of the game, and its name was temporarily changed to the ‘Celebration of Life” game. Galaxy Babe took over as the game’s administrator.

Since then, numbers have steadily declined, mirroring the activity on the site in general. I took over from Galaxy Babe in 2016, and these days a hardcore of around a dozen people play the game, with many more commenting on the threads. The rules and scoring system have been tweaked over the years, but they’re now pretty stable. When the apocryphal site relaunch takes place, the Deathlist Game will be there to greet the seething hordes.

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Ok, so it wasn’t a drunken launch speech, but I hope you found it interesting. If anyone would like to post a pseudo-Mu Beta intro, then be my guest. I can’t do it as well as he did.

It remains for me to perform two tasks. First, I congratulate coelacanth, who dominated the 2016 game from start to finish. And second, I declare the 2017 Deathlist game… Open!

Deathless 2017 Home Page: A87883285
Deathlist 2017 Scoreboard: A87883294

Thank you Icy.

First points to coelacanth?

William Gladstone. Wikipedia page already updated:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Ewart_Gladstone



PP.

No, my choice is the retired teacher and ex Chief Scout, Sir William Gladstone, still a hale and hearty 91 I believe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_William_Gladstone,_7th_Baronet

Thanks Icy, that's a lot of research! Here's to a low-scoring 2017

Can you just please clarify which Michael Collins is the choice of The Groob, I found about 50 so-named on W*k*



GB

It's the astronaut. I'll update the page later to confirm.

Thanks. I wonder if I could be really cheeky and ask that you put the players in the editor bit as well, just so the game appears in our list of entries? Makes finding the page a lot easier,

Yes, it was cheeky

All done now

Thank you very much!

Forgive me, and RIP, but Liz Dawn is a pick ?

Yes, her character Vera Duckworth died in 2008, but the actress Liz Dawn is alive, and was picked by coelacanth this year.

We’re still waiting for the first successful pick of the 2017 Deathlist game. While we wait, I thought I’d share a few stats with you.

I’ve spent some of my spare time (i.e. during boring office meetings) cataloguing into a single spreadsheet all the players and picks since the game started in 2006. I can now tell you things like who the most successful players have been over the years, who chooses the oldest picks, and so on. I’ll post some of that stuff in the future, but one thing I wanted to cover today is people whose picks haven’t been credited.

You may be surprised to learn that in most years, one or two of our picks die, but nobody spots it, and so no points are awarded. Here’s a complete list:

2008: Harvey Korman (picked by broelan)

2009: Robert Novak (Beatrice) and James Whitmore (swl)

2010: Kama Chinen (tzjin_anthony_ks) and Martin Ginsberg (Icy North)

2011: William Duell (The Groob) and Chiyono Hasegawa (tzjin_anthony_ks)

2012: Sven Hassel (swl)

2013: John Nkomo (Peanut)

2014: Chapman Pincher (atinythorn and C Hawke)

2015: Dave Benton (Icy North) and Douglas Dick (The Groob)


Did this affect the final results? Well, in one case, yes it did. Peanut would have won the 2013 game had someone spotted John Nkomo’s death: A87781963


So, make sure you keep an eye out for your picks.


Icy

John Hurt.

PP.

(Predicted by just bob)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38778145

RIP John Hurt.

I never met him but it was his father, the Rev A Hurt who baptised me at St Aidan's church in Cleethorpes in 1955.

GB

My first ever points in three years of playing. :'(

Home Page updated: A87883285
Scoreboard updated: A87883294

Congratulations, Just Bob - it is indeed your first successful pick.

John Hurt was picked 3 times in this game, each time by Just Bob.


Icy

Yeah, I heard he had cancer a while back, and combined with the fact that he has looked unwell in everything I have seen him in recently, he seemed like a strong candidate.
Such a shame, he was an incredible actor and, on the basis of all the work he did based on sci-fi, fantasy, comic book works and so on, a true geek hero.

Brunhilde Pomsel

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/brunhilde-pomsel-secretary-to-nazi-propaganda-minister-joseph-goebbels-dies-at-106/2017/01/29/ab645200-dcf6-11e6-ad42-f3375f271c9c_story.html?utm_term=.10479b471116

A great pick by coelacanth.

Home Page updated: A87883285
Scoreboard updated: A87883294

Icy