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A game of exploring and racing through Wikipedia articles! Find the "degrees of separation" of sometimes wildly different topics in this addictive and educational game. Join or create a group and compete with other players.
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Computing Semantic Relatedness from Human Navigational...
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A game of exploring and racing through Wikipedia articles!...
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- The Basic Wiki Game
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There are many different games based on the idea of browsing Wikipedia, but all of them generally involve navigating from one article to another in the shortest amount of time or clicks possible, using only the links in the article -- no searching. Sometimes the starting article is randomly selected and the destination is fixed, sometimes it's the opposite, and sometimes both the start and end are randomly selected.
To get started with the most basic version, visit Wikipedia in your language of choice and click the "Random article" link in the sidebar (here's the English random article link). Now that you have your first random article, which can serve as your starting point, click the random article link again to set your destination. As a side note, Wikipedia has many articles about not-safe-for-work topics, so playing this game in a public setting on a large screen with completely randomized pages might be risky.
Clicking the random link twice gave me Daniela Calzetti, an astronomer, and Melanocorypha, a genus of birds. I couldn't immediately think of a common link between the scientist and a type of bird, so I backed up enough to reach articles about taxonomic ranks, and then simply went down the tree until I hit Melanocorypha.
Daniela Calzetti ➔ National Academy of Sciences ➔ Series (botany) ➔ Genus ➔ Species ➔ Dairy cattle ➔ Cattle ➔ Chordate ➔ List of chordate orders ➔ Bird ➔ Passerine ➔ Lark ➔ Melanocorypha
That attempt required 12 clicks, which isn't great. I tried again, this time with the goal of reaching the page for birds more quickly.
Daniela Calzetti ➔ National Academy of Sciences ➔ Abraham Lincoln ➔ Kentucky ➔ Northern cardinal ➔ Passerine ➔ Lark ➔ Melanocorypha
Even though that's the simplest version of the Wikipedia game, it might be the most frustrating -- with two randomized points, you're more likely to get stuck somewhere, or have a stub article as the start. Thankfully, there are more versions with different rules that add some fun. Here are some popular variations:
•Two-Player Challenge: One person picks two topics, and the other person must navigate from one to the other. Then, the person who played first gives their own two topics (different from the first pair) for the first player to complete. The person with the fewest clicks wins!
•Time Trials/Speed Wiki: A start and end article is set, and multiple people race to see who can get to the end article first. Time (and reading speed) is the most important factor here, rather than clicks.
•5-Clicks-to-Jesus: Starting on a random article, your goal is to reach the article for Jesus in as few clicks as possible. There are other versions of this that replace Jesus with other major historical figures.
Some of these versions are available to play online. The Wiki Game is one popular version, which automatically selects a start and end article and tracks your clicks. Your score is then displayed next to other people in the same round, like a Wikipedia Battle Royale. The site also allows account creation to record wins.
No matter which version you play, the Wiki Game is a fun way to turn an encyclopedia into a game that tests your general knowledge. After all, the best way to find the quickest path between two articles is to already know the link between them. Too bad I can't play it on my Switch -- thanks Nintendo, for not giving the Switch a web browser.
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Wiki Speedrun is a game that challenges you to find the next article on a wikipedia page, in the least amount of clicks and time. You can play in multiple languages, without registration, and with high precision timer and dark theme support.
Wikipedia:Wiki Game. The Wiki Game, also known as the Wikipedia race, Wikirace, Wikispeedia, WikiLadders, WikiClick, or WikiWhack, is a race between any number of participants, using wikilinks to travel from one Wikipedia page to another.
Mar 4, 2020 · Learn the rules and variations of the Wiki Game, a fun activity where you race to reach a random target page on Wikipedia by clicking links. The Wiki Game is also known as Speed Wiki and Click Wiki.
- Daniel Nations
A game where you traverse Wikipedia from point A to point B as fast and in as few moves as possible
People also ask
What is the Wiki Game - Wikipedia Game?
How do you play the wiki game?
Are there any games based on Wikipedia?
What is the goal of the Wikipedia Game?
The Wiki Game! is an app that lets you race through Wikipedia articles and find the goal word. It has 5 game modes, 200 levels, and Game Center features.
