ESP Biography



JB PARKES, MIT sophomore studying EECS and Japanese



Major: 6

College/Employer: MIT

Year of Graduation: 2013

Picture of JB Parkes

Brief Biographical Sketch:

I grew up loving games as a kid. Card games, board games (except Monopoly), video games, game shows, all are tons of fun for me. I was on my high school's "Quiz Bowl"-esque varsity team, where my strengths were not only answering questions about math and science, but also understanding how to play the game. When I was at home sick during middle school I would watch the Game Show Network because nothing else was on, and it really made me think about how thrilling gameshows are, and it amazed me how much money and how many prizes they could give away, and still run on the air.

So let's play.



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

W4706: Way Too Many Card Games You've Never Heard Of in Spark! 2011 (Mar. 12, 2011)
304 3-5-8 400 500 All-Fours Ambition Auction bridge Bacon Barbu Bashi Fen Belote Bezique Bid Whist Boston Bisca Bourré Botifarra Bridge Black Lady Bluke Briscola Calabresella Cắt Tê Cego Clabber Clag Contract bridge Doppelkopf Écarté Euchre Escoba Euchre Forty-fives French tarot Gong Zhu Hearts Hokm Jabberwocky Jass Julepe Kaiser Klaverjas Königrufen Krutzjass Make-A-Million Manille Marjapussi Marias Marjolet Mighty Napoleon Nines Ninety-Nine Oh Hell Ombre Pedro Pinochle Piquet Pitch Preferans Put Rams Renfield Rook Rowboat Ruff and Honours Schafkopf Scopa Set-Back Sheepshead Shelem Sixty-six Sixty-three Skat Spades Spoil Five Sueca Tarabish Tarneeb Tarocchini Tarot card games Thunee Tichu Tressette Truc Truco Troccas Trump Tute Twenty-eight Ulti Wendellhead Whist Wizard Authors Commerce Concentration Gilet Happy Families Kemps Literature Noddy Old maid Pens Phase 10 Pope Joan Rooky Schlafmütze Skitgubbe Soureh Svoyi Koziri Taki Thirty-one Three-card Monte Tri Vampire President Bartok Big Two BS Cards in the hat Castle Daifugō Dancing with the Stars Danish Donkey Dou Di Zhu Dupa Biskupa Durak Eleusis Flaps Flinch Ghost player position Give Me the Brain The Great Dalmuti Jungle Speed Killer Kings in the Corner Ligretto Linger longer Luck Plus Mao Musta Maija Once Upon a Time Palase Paskahousu Phase 10 Pits Pivot Pusoy Dos Red Nines Ristiseiska Rummoli Sevens Snip Snap Snorem Spank Pankis Speed Spit Stress Take the Train Tichu Tien len Tong-its Treasure Uno Winner Yaniv and more...


X2751: Game Shows Round 1 in Splash! 2009 (Nov. 21 - 22, 2009)
Introduce topics related to game shows including: statistics, entertainment value, the change of American game shows over time, foreign game shows, what makes a good game show, prizes, risk/reward etc.


X2752: Game Shows Round 2 in Splash! 2009 (Nov. 21 - 22, 2009)
Begin to explore game dynamics: What makes a good host? What makes a good contestant? Are shows with bigger prizes automatically more interesting? Games gone wrong?


X2754: Game Shows Round 3 in Splash! 2009 (Nov. 21 - 22, 2009)
Discussion further on aspects of game shows: "playing along at home", "having a live studio audience", pros and cons of celebrity guests. Information for "Game Shows Bonus Round" will also be gathered during this class.


X2755: Game Shows Bonus Round in Splash! 2009 (Nov. 21 - 22, 2009)
Let's play an actual game show. Probably a version of Match Game with student contestants, prizes, and MIT/minor slightly famous guest panel, and live studio audience.