User:Pip2andahalf/The Wikipedia Game

Draft of article: The Wikipedia Game

The Wikipedia Game is a method of entertainment that made its way into popularity via Wikipedia's internal link system. Players choose a topic as a "destination," then, using only internal Wikipedia links, navigate to it from a previously determined article's page or topic. The destination page can be decided by using the Random article button, or by other means decided upon by players. A popular method is to use the random article button for both the starting article and the target article. In another method of play, found commonly in internet forums, players navigate from the previous target page to a newly chosen destination, continuously using the previous target as the next starting point for further play. Some versions of the game are said to be based off of the well-known 6 Degrees of Separation theory, and as such the goal is to reach the target page in 6 or less clicks.

Sources: http://techtv.mit.edu/file/1373/

http://piggyhawk.wordpress.com/2007/02/09/wikipedia-game-five-clicks-to-jesus/

http://kirakiwibug.blogspot.com/2007/11/wikipedia-game.html

http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4681&start=80&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=108654

These two links reference the "6 Degrees of Separation" theory with respect to the game:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/02/15/lhave15.xml

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22044686-11869,00.html

Not that this is a good source, but it might be worth mentioning that it has become popular enough to gain entry into the Urban Dictionary: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Wikipedia+Game