So, they had a Runescape (a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game, or MMORPG) winner-take-all competition. 2,000 players: $10,000 cash prize. Lots of excitement. Lots of buzz. Then they set it up – ACCIDENTALLY – so that the game killed 98% of the players in the first two minutes by slowly choking their characters to death with poisonous fog.
Lots of screaming. Lots of swears.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIanZajdLwU
To explain why this is worth a post… well, it’s like this. Gamers hate it when their characters die. They hate it more when it’s part of a contest. They hate it even more when it’s a part of a contest and they’re killed by another player. They hate it a lot more when they get killed by lag. They hate it still more when they’re killed by the environment in a contest… and at that point, they’re still expected to, you know, suck it up and stuff.
But when the environment is accidentally killing them, and there’s probably lag, and there’s definitely money on the table? Yeah, that’s worth a swear word or two. It’s still not worth whapping yourself in the head with a keyboard over, but I’m going to at least have a little sympathy because, dagnabbit, you were being provoked.
“Jerry, I’ve got a hot date in like two hours!”
.
“What do you want me to do about it, Tim? We’re running a tournament here!”
.
“C’mon, Jerry! There’s got to be a way to hurry this along! She’s really hot! She’s a real girl!”
.
“Okay, Jerry, I’ll fix it.”
.
*tap* *tap* fog toxicity, check *tap* *tap*
.
*everybody dies*
.
“Okay, Jerry, but you owe me! Find out if she has a sister!”
.
Mew
I tried playing Runescape once. It is a horrificly flawed game to begin with. I am shocked that it’s still around.