What is a wiki game, how to play?

Wikipedia is one of the largest databases of information ever created. What if we want to use this resource in a more fun way? There are many variants of “Wikipedia games” that turn the world famous online encyclopedia into a competition. Today we will talk about these types and the version of The Wiki Game that makes the game very practical.

Games based on Wikipedia

Many different game ideas based on Wikipedia have been put forward from the past to the present. Nearly all of these ideas often included jumping from one article to the next as quickly as possible, and scrolling through Wikipedia only through the links in the article—no direct search. Sometimes the start element is randomly selected and moved to the target page, and sometimes vice versa, from the target page to the start page; these digital and rather simple games played with a random selection of both start and end pages; eventually began to catch the desired buyer.

In addition, these games were games that could be played without even having their own interface, simply by entering certain instructions in the browser. For example, to get started with the most basic version, all you had to do was visit Wikipedia in your language of choice and click on the “random article” link in the sidebar. Now that you have accessed your first random article to serve as a starting point, simply click on the random article link again to set the target link.

(As a side note, Wikipedia also has a lot of articles and images that you might be wary of opening in co-working spaces, so playing this game publicly on a wide screen with completely random pages can be a little risky.)

Wikipedia games with basic rules

It’s up to you to decide how strict or relaxed you want to play this game, so it’s up to you to decide the difficulty of the game, but in general there are a few basic rules that players agree on. You are limited to links within the article (no search links or sidebar) and cannot go back to your browser history. Jumping to articles that are too broad, such as articles starting with “Category:” or articles about a particular year, are also generally not allowed.

game genres on wikipedia

This simple version of the Wikipedia game can sometimes be the most frustrating. Because it’s entirely possible that you’ll end up stuck in the same place with two random articles, or pick a draft article to start with. Luckily, there are more versions with different rules that add a bit of fun. Here are some popular variations:

Challenge for two players: One person selects two Wikipedia pages, and the task of the other is to move from one to the other as quickly as possible. The first player to play then gives their two topics to the first player who has just selected two Wikipedia pages to complete their round as well. Whoever has the fewest clicks wins!

Wiki speed: The beginning and end articles are determined, and several people compete to be the first to reach the end of the article. It is not clicks that are important here, but time and, of course, reading speed.

5-Click-Jesus (5-Clicks-to-Jesus): In this version of the game, your goal is to start with a random article and get to the Wikipedia page of the prophet Jesus in as few clicks as possible. You can also create many new versions of this by replacing the name of the Prophet Jesus with other important historical figures.

WikiGame site

You can also play some of these versions of the game online with your friends and random people. Wikigame is a popular version that automatically selects start and end articles among Wikipedia games and tracks your clicks. After playing the Wiki Game, you can view your score along with the scores of other players who played in the same round as you, as is often the case in Battle Royale games. The site also allows you to create an account to save your scores and high scores.

Wiki Game also has apps for iOS and Android devices on the Google Play Store and App Store.

Whichever version you play, a wiki game is one of the best ways to learn and have fun.

After all, the best way to find the fastest path between two things is to know the connection between them, or be able to make that connection while playing.

You can also take a look at: Social media reaction to the discovery of Wikipedia, which was inaccessible for about 3 years.