Okay... let's just say for now that I see your point that they wouldn't really be good blackmail material, 'cause nobody's gonna get a lot out of me insisting that one of them should be a special guest - I have no evidence for that either and it'd just make you trust me less. We've both gotta keep open minds in case the game proves us wrong or whatever, anyway.

What about the distribution in general? It's not, you know, uniform, our ages and races and everything. If this is a social experiment - at least part of it has to be turning friends and family against each other. Why us? And maybe even more important... why here? The cliche thing would be a bunch of petty deaths first, the real mystery coming out super slowly. Or, do you think we really might all just duke it out to the end without some deep reason? [That question is sincere, not dismissive]