Three Wise Men VS. Phone-A-Friend: Which one is the best?

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Ever since the beginning of Super Millionaire, the contestants were able to use the three classic lifelines when they played for the top prize of $10 MILLION. If they managed to answer the question for the second guaranteed sum of $100,000 correctly, they would receive the two exclusive lifelines "Double Dip" and "Three Wise Men". Since "Phone-A-Friend" and "Three Wise Men" are quite similar, I would like to compare the pros and cons of these two lifelines of the show and determine which one of them is the best:


Phone-A-Friend


PROS

1. The contestant can call anyone who they believe could help them in the question, whether they're experts, relatives, friends, colleagues, etc.

2. The contestant and the life partner could have a simple way of exchanging their thoughts and possibly come to a conclusion quicker within 30 seconds. In case the contestant isn't certain about the call partner's suggestion, he can use the lifelines to strategically determine whether the answer is right or wrong, instead of rather having to worry about multiple answers being involved in the situation.


CONS

1. The contestant heavily relies on their call partner to find the answer, but at the same time, he relies on the call partner's knowledge for the certain subject, which could not always work to the contestant's advantage.



Three Wise Men


PROS

1. The experts would always be able to discuss their thoughts on the question properly and come to a specific conclusion, whether it would be through one of the experts or all of them.

2. Like Phone-A-Friend, the contestant is able to use the answer given from the experts to see whether it is right or wrong instead of being "torn" between multiple answers.


CONS

1. The contestant cannot choose specific expert partners, which could have more knowledge in some difficult subjects.


Well, what do you think - which one of the lifelines is the best one? And if Super Millionaire was brought back, would you optimize and improve them?

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I think if Super Millionaire were to come back all five of the lifelines would be beneficial.  That being said, I believe that phone a friend would be more helpful than three wise men.  The reason I say this is because most phone a friends have access to the internet and look up the answers within the thirty second time frame.  If the phone a friend was not able to use the internet, the contestant would still have an advantage because they can choose anyone to answer the question.  Three wise men as you said has many pros, but I believe that phone a friend outweighs three wise men.

Heres hoping that Super Millionaire comes back eventually.  

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Oct 27, 2018 15:16:34 GMT -5 @sbarsodo said:

I think if Super Millionaire were to come back all five of the lifelines would be beneficial.  That being said, I believe that phone a friend would be more helpful than three wise men.  The reason I say this is because most phone a friends have access to the internet and look up the answers within the thirty second time frame.  If the phone a friend was not able to use the internet, the contestant would still have an advantage because they can choose anyone to answer the question.  Three wise men as you said has many pros, but I believe that phone a friend outweighs three wise men.

Heres hoping that Super Millionaire comes back eventually.  

Yeah, I hope so, too. If Super Millionaire were to come back, I hope that they will bring back many of the lifelines or possibly the format.    (Well, I kinda wish...)

One more thing: In case Super Millionaire actually returned, should there be any specific changes to the two lifelines?

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Oct 27, 2018 15:41:18 GMT -5 @mario64play said:

One more thing: In case Super Millionaire actually returned, should there be any specific changes to the two lifelines?

I don't think so.  If anything, do not give the three wise men a time limit.  The people at home know that they are seeing the question for the first time.  They do not have any outside resources to help them, so it is just based on their own knowledge.  The ask the expert lifeline never had a time limit and it worked out great.

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Indeed. Back when the "Ask the Expert" lifeline was introduced in Clocked Millionaire, it created a pretty good contrast between a question with a certain time limit and the lifeline. I kinda wish it would have been used in other versions of Millionaire.

Also, I wonder if the 30 second time limit for "Three Wise Men" was supposed to be intentional. After all, as you stated, the "Ask the Expert" lifeline worked out quite well... and there weren't too many issues in terms of answering the question without a time limit. Could the clock have possibly been implemented as an experiment to Three Wise Men in order to see whether the experts could answer the questions within a certain amount of time or rather not?