Justin Hall is experimenting with the idea of a "passively multiplayer game," a game that you get points and levels in based on the surfing you do on the Internet. This reminds me of the "bus-transfer wars" we'd have on the way home from school, adding up the digits in the serial numbers of our individual transfers to see who got the highest score. I'm really interested in seeing where this goes — I have a feeling it could be really satisfying and/or addictive to turn looking at the net into a game.
Update: Harri sez, "For a while now there's been an IRC game where players level up and gain items/experience by simply idling. They're penalised for speaking in the channel, leaving the channel etc. The original's on EFNet though I personally play on AfterX."
Update 2: Mike sez, "Here's another, rather more passive MMOG called 'Progress Quest'. You sign up, choose your race and just watch as your characters make their way up the rankings."
Update 3: Crankyspouse sez, "ZenMoo was a mud/moo from 1992 or so, probably the original passive multiplayer internet game. This is the closest thing I could find to original documentation for it."
Now, to make sure that you are really meditating, and not just in another
shell, you will be asked a question or riddle from time to time. You will
want to answer as quickly as possible, in order to keep from appearing
asleep. Students have dozed off during meditation and been booted, loosing
their vital idle statistics, and living in shame. Let me explain the output
from the "who" command.
