DEATHMAZE (Patreon)

Social Media Post, Untitled, Collected in "The Forgotten Gladiators; Victims and Killers Both", Alibaba Digital Publishing, 2337

"This eyephone picture was probably snapped at the first night of arena filming for Deathmaze, arguably the most important reality death show of all time. Despite not finishing it's initially contracted release of ten full story cycles / arena combats, Deathmaze would leave it's mark on the media landscape of Earth and her primary, secondary, and even tertiary space colonies for centuries to come. The show had a deceptively simple format, which followed a handful of contestants through recruitment, training, indoctrination, and finally, inevitably, their violent deaths in the show's eponymous maze arena. The show's unique (at that time) appeal was its combination of two genres. It creatively, if clumsily, married the tried and true drama of reality programming with the gut-wrenching violence and pathos of the emergent real death shows that were taking over more and more of the WWW at the time. By allowing the audience to get to know the combatants the violence achieved more emotional impact than other, similar programs in which the gladiatrixes were highly sexualized, but ultimately anonymous victims. The first few rounds of gladiatrixes competing in the death maze quickly developed online followings in the hundreds of millions, almost instantly achieving levels of stardom that translated into massive profits for the Weyland Yutani corporation and other sponsors of the show. 

This novel approach; making the combatants in death sports real and allowing the audience to get to know them before killing them off, now the standard in almost all formats of lethal entertainment, would ironically prove to be the show's undoing. When, after the first four episodes were released, it became clear that the Maze actually had no escape and that none of the contestants had any chance at all of surviving, the backlash from the show's burgeoning fan base actually had a measurable impact on the profits of it's corporate state backers. Deathmaze was cancelled almost immediately and its three filmed, but not deliberately released arcs / combats became the stuff of WWW legend. Nevertheless, it's views had shown the emerging deathsport genre the path forward and although future programs would be careful to ensure that there was some chance of survival for their contestants, however small, they almost universally followed the basic format of Deathmaze..."

Seologom, Bavmorda. Deathsports of the 21st Century: Geosocial Impact and Implications. New Shenzhen: Alibaba Digital Publishing, 2353. Neural Induction.