Wikipedia's been turned into a Pokemon TCG-like gacha game where you collect its pages, because the random article button wasn't distracting enough already

Wikipedia rabbit holes are a constant danger at the best of times, what with the "Random article" button and such, but now that someone's turned the digital encyclopedia into a gacha game? A threat to the fabric of society, and I love it.

As highlighted by Automaton, a Japanese developer called Harusugi is responsible for this drain on your productivity. The game is simply called Wikipedia Gacha, and it turns every entry on the site into a trading card. Each pack contains five cards, spread across multiple rarity levels, pulling from every nook and cranny from the vast pools of information Wiki boasts, not unlike the Pokemon TCG.

There are seven grades of rarity, ranging from Common up to Legend Rare, dictated by each page's quality rating. They all have attack and defense stats too: the former is decided by pageviews and rarity, while the latter comes from length and rarity. You can battle them for bragging rights. Open ten packs gets you a gold booster, for even rarer additions to your collection.

My first pack contained the American car racer Daniel Bois, a Russian air gun, the John Updike novel Rabbit at Rest, basketball player Marquis Teague, and Palestinian Justice. British politician Maria Eagle and French retail conglomerate Groupe Fnac Darty were part of my second. Clicking on any of them opens their full articles, providing all sorts of possibilities for procrastination.

Since launching, this has spread like wildfire, leading Harusugi to post about server stability and making safeguards for players outside Japan. Thus far, it seems like everything is fine, but I don't doubt the current structure is taking on considerable weight. The next time you've some time to kill, give this a look. You might even learn something!

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