Wikipedia:Wikipedia is an MMORPG
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- Wikipedia – The only absolutely free MMORPG in the world!
One theory that explains the addictive quality of Wikipedia and its tendency to produce Wikipediholics is that Wikipedia is essentially an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game). After all, the 'Pedia shares many characteristics with MMORPGs:
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[edit] Gameworld
Wikipedia has an immersive gameworld with over 7.3 million players and over 2.41 million unique locations, including about 4300 secret areas and 2100 boss levels. Magical items and powers can be found scattered over these locations. Some of these locations, as well as items and powers, become problematic, and unbalance the game world. Players will generally dislike these, and Game Masters respond by destroying them.
[edit] Game mechanics
Players can accumulate xp, allowing them to advance to higher levels. Players develop a unique distribution of stats, and can choose between a number of pre-existing classes (Arbitrator, Mediator, Vandal, Wiki-gnome, etc).
An in-game economy (wikimoney) does exist, but the real prize for being an experienced player is the acknowledgement received from the community. Players can take on quests, fight boss battles, enter battle arenas, and even take class change trials to become Game Masters. It is possible to stumble upon random encounters and defeat such monsters.
[edit] Social
Every unique location in the gameworld has a pub where players have the opportunity to interact with any other player in real time. Players often become friends with other players, and some have even arranged to meet in real life. On the darker side, some players become addicted, unable to leave the game, and spend all their waking hours on the site. It is often the most experienced players who end up spending the most amount of time in the gameworld.
Players with similar ideals will group together to form guilds, and raids may form to tackle exceptionally difficult quests.
People tend to play a given MMORPG for six to eighteen months at a high level of involvement; a similar pattern has been noted in highly-involved participants in Wikipedia.
[edit] Battle
Trolls are one of the most common enemies in the gameworld, and often turn up in boss fights. Orcs, the natural enemies of the Trolls, who oppose trolls using methods which are equally unethical or destructive (such as baiting) can also be fought.
Vandal-fighting is a form of combat that has many similarities to a subgame of Whack-a-Mole.
Illegitimate battle strategies are abundant. Sneaky players like to use excessive summons to trick Game Masters. And bots are sometimes used by some players to abuse the gameworld.
Players can also cause disruption by attempting to destroy, mangle or disrupt parts of the game world. Player-killing is strongly discouraged, but nevertheless happens. New players are most vulnerable. Game Masters attempt to control this by banning and blocking offending players, but more often than not, criminals end up being brought before the High Imperial Court of Justice.
[edit] See also
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