This game tests your ability to think of connections between two concepts. The idea is simple - you add to a chain of articles on Wikipedia.
To start a journey, use the random page link on Wikipedia to find a target page. If the page has no links, or is an orphan page, you should choose a new one, because otherwise either you or the next player will break the chain. Your starting page is the previous person's target page. You click through links on the page until you reach your target page. You can use any link within an article (or even list), but you can't click links common to all Wikipedia pages (for example, the talk page for an article), nor can you edit a page.
You score 1 point for each link you make. However, someone can attempt the same journey and if they do it in fewer links than you, you get 0 points. You may not take two journeys in a row - someone else must make a journey between your two consecutive ones. The first person to reach 150 points wins, and the next person should start a new chain. (But remember they can instead still remove you as winner if they post a shorter journey right after you.)
I'll go first to illustrate. I used a random page for a start page as well.
Jan Brożek
-> Polish
-> NATO
-> Cold War
-> United States
-> U.S. State
-> Indiana
-> counties
-> Sullivan County
-> Fairbanks
-> Riverview
Riverview, Indiana
The next player must either make a journey from Jan Brożek to Riverview, Indiana in fewer than 10 links or randomly get a new target page and make a journey from Riverview, Indiana to that.
I now have 10 points.
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Riverview, Indiana
-> Indiana
-> Mississippian culture
-> Atlantic Ocean
-> Fish
-> Chordate
-> Actinopterygii
-> Pipefish
-> Seaweed pipefish
8 points
I could have had six and knocked you down to zero by going bee-north america-great lakes-indiana-sullivan county-fairbanks-riverview, but i've spent enough time in Indiana not to wish it on others.
Bull Pipefish
->Atlantic Ocean
->Mediterranean Sea
->Italy
->Italian general election, 2008
Italian general election, 1865
4 points
James H. Knight
Des Moines, Iowa
Raleigh, North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Spencer Chamberlain
3 points.
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Ouch. This isn't going to be easy.
Spencer Chamberlain
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
United States
Canada
Vancouver
2010 Winter Olympics
Estonia at the 2010 Winter Olympics
Triin Ojaste
6 points
I took the easy way by using the United States and Canada pages. But I wasn't sure how else to link an american punk rocker and a non-medal-winning Estonian olympic athlete.
Triin Ojaste
Vancouver
Communauté métropolitaine de Québec
Quebec
Nova Scotia
List of communities in Nova Scotia
Oak Park, Nova Scotia
five points.
eight points total.
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I pick good ones.
Oak Park, Nova Scotia
Canada
Glacial Period
Geologic Time Scale
Therapsid
Pristerodontia
4 points. Up to 10 total for 2 posts.
you have 10 points, not 14. only count the links between the start and the target.
Julian Grimau
People's Party (Spain)
List of political parties in Spain
Spain
United Nations
Member states of the United Nations
United States
Mid-Atlantic states
New York
Columbia County, New York
Boston Corner, New York
16 points total.
Boston Corner, New York
Mount Washington, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
Worcester, Massachusetts
Joseph Petty
7 points
Next time I expect to find one with a direct link.
this is going to be impossible
Joseph Petty
Democratic Party (United States)
United States
North America
Asia
Vietnam
Vietnamese language
Vietnamese pronouns
22 points total
not that hard, really.
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Hypericum cumulicola
endangered species
baiji
China
Hong Kong
Jet Li
Once Upon a Time in China (film series)
Once Upon Time in China
7 points, am I correct?
6
Once Upon a Time in China
Hong Kong Film Award
Taiwan
Philippines
Cinema of the Philippines
Erich Gonzales
Suddenly It's Magic
27 points. still winning.
Erich Gonzales
Philippines
Wildlife of the Philippines
Tiger beetle
Platychile
10 points total
oh crap.
Platychile
Beetle
The Beatles
Liverpool
United Kingdom
G8
Canada
Religion in Canada
List of Catholic churches in Canada
34 points
I will bet anyone 5 bucks that this current game will end before someone gets a direct link.
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OK, RULES QUESTIONS:
What do we do if the "random page" we're sent to is truly impossible to connect to what we started with (such as if we go to one of the "orphan" articles)? Can we just mulligan the random page, and if so, how many times may we?
Also, is it ok to turn non-linked words already on the article into links if they weren't when we got there (for instance, "Electronics industry in Japan" lists Sony as one of the significant component companies, but unlike most of the others listed, it wasn't linked to the "Sony" article for some reason).
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It looks like in the rules that if the random page is an orphan, you'd mulligan until you have a non-orphan. It says you can't edit a page though, but I ran into the same problem with a Finnish soccer player who had a page but on the other pages where I was able to find his name it wasn't linked. We should be able to add a link if the name is already there. But not add content to create a link that wouldn't have been there before.
San Nicolas del Puerto
Seville
Spain
Europe
Asia
Iraq
Culture of Iraq
Iraqi literature
Category:Iraqi writers
Category:Iraqi poets
Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati
The Dragon (poem)
44 points.