Sunday, July 01, 2007

Wikigroaning

You know how they have these surveys of the 100 Best This and That in which the popular contemporaries are ranked higher than the established greats, so that in the league table of female vocalists Lily Allen is ahead of Ella Fitzgerald? Well Wikigroaning is a way of enjoying this dissonance.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia anyone can edit, is the basis of a game you can play while awaiting the second oblivion.

"The premise is quite simple. First, find a useful Wikipedia article that normal people might read. For example, the article called "Knight." Then, find a somehow similar article that is longer, but at the same time, useless to a very large fraction of the population. In this case, we'll go with "Jedi Knight." Open both of the links and compare the lengths of the two articles. Compare not only that, but how well concepts are explored, and the greater professionalism with which the longer article was likely created. Are you looking yet? Get a good, long look. Yeah. Yeeaaah, we know, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. (We're calling it Wikigroaning for a reason.) The next step is to find your own article pair and share it with your friends, who will usually look for their own pairs and you end up spending a good hour or two in a groaning arms race. The game ends after that, usually without any clear winners... but hey, it beats doing work."

Among articles hilariously compared are

Gray's Anatomy: Grey's Anatomy

Raphael (archangel): Raphael (ninja turtle)

God: Kevin Smith

Love: Masturbation

Japanese mythology: Japanese toilet

Sports: Chronic fatigue syndrome

Aristotle: Oprah

Ash Wednesday: Ash Kethchum

List of conflicts in the Middle East: List of furry role-playing games

Women's suffrage: List of fictional gynoids and female cyborgs

List of people who have disappeared: Characters of Lost

Go play!


No comments: