WikiRyvals
From WikiRyvals, the free ranked Wikiracing.
This is a fan-made project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the Wikimedia Foundation or Wikipedia.
WikiRyvals is a competitive Wikiracing game played as a Google Chrome extension on the live English Wikipedia.[1] Players race from a starting article to a target article using only the hyperlinks found on each page; the player who arrives in the fewest clicks wins.[2] Unlike most casual wiki-games, WikiRyvals adds a ranked ladder, skill-based matchmaking, and seasons, summarized by its tagline, "Find your Ryval."
The game does not re-host article content: races take place on en.wikipedia.org in the player's own browser, with every hop validated server-side against the links that were actually present on the previous page.[3] The on-page search box and Ctrl+F are disabled during a race, and Wikipedia's donation banners are hidden for a clean view.
How it works [edit]
No new site to learn and no content re-hosting: play happens on real en.wikipedia.org through a lightweight Chrome extension.
- Get a start and a target. Open the WikiRyvals side panel and select Find a race. You are dropped on a start article with a target to reach.
- Click your way there. Use only in-article links; the search box and
Ctrl+Fare disabled mid-race, so it is pure navigation skill. - Beat par, dodge the doors. Reach the target in as few clicks as possible. If you walked straight past a page that linked to the answer, the finish card calls it out.
Get the extension [edit]
WikiRyvals is distributed as a Google Chrome extension. There is no separate website to visit; the race runs on real en.wikipedia.org.
Get it on the Chrome Web Store
The Chrome Web Store listing is pending. Until it is live, you can load it locally in under a minute:
- Grab the build. Download the extension folder and unzip it anywhere on your machine.
- Open Chrome extensions. Go to
chrome://extensionsand enable Developer mode (top-right). - Load unpacked. Click Load unpacked, pick the
extension/folder, then open the WikiRyvals side panel and select Find a race.
Features [edit]
The casual wiki-game space is crowded, but few projects ship a competitive layer. That layer is the point of WikiRyvals.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Ranked ladder (Phase 1) | Skill-based matchmaking on rating and route difficulty, plus seasons. Not just a leaderboard, an actual ladder. |
| "Missed win" callouts | The finish card flags if you walked past a page that linked straight to the target, and how many clicks it would have saved. |
| Graph built by playing | The link graph is learned from real races rather than by hammering Wikipedia's API. It self-heals when articles change and gets smarter the more people play. |
| Anti-cheat at the core | Every hop is validated server-side against the links that were actually on the page. URL-bar jumps and search-box teleports are flagged. |
| Plays on real Wikipedia | No re-hosted content and no mirror; the article you race on is the real thing, in your own browser, with donation banners hidden. |
| Daily challenge & ghost races (Phase 1) | One shared route every day, plus asynchronous ghost races against a recorded run, so there is always someone to beat. |
About par [edit]
"Par" is the shortest possible route between a start and target. Sometimes WikiRyvals shows it and sometimes it does not, for an honest reason: to know par, the link graph is needed around the pages between start and target, not just the ones a player happened to visit. That graph is built from real play instead of by crawling Wikipedia's API, so:
- If the neighborhood is known (from the seed snapshot or from races already run), par is computed with a breadth-first search over that merged graph and shown.
- If it is not known yet, par is simply hidden rather than showing a number that cannot be stood behind. No fake placeholder, no guess.
- It self-improves. Every race fills in more of the graph, so par appears for more matchups over time, without ever spamming Wikipedia.
The missed-win callout, by contrast, works on any race; it only needs the links on the pages a player actually walked through, which are always available.
Ranks [edit]
Tiers, placements, and variable Edit Points (EP) are based on how a player performed, not merely win or loss. The whole ladder apexes at a single rank, so "Find your Ryval" literally means reaching the top.
Iron › Bronze › Silver › Gold › Platinum › Diamond › Featured › Legend › Ryval
Familiar tiers up to Diamond, then three unique ranks (Featured, Legend, Ryval), apexing at Ryval. Final tuning lands with Phase 1.
About the creator [edit]
WikiRyvals is a solo side project by Ryan Polasky, who likes making silly games and sites. This one started as a "why is there no ranked Wikiracing?" itch and turned into a whole ladder, complete with seasons, anti-cheat, and a top rank literally named Ryval.
Got a bug, an idea, or just want to say hi? You can reach him at support@wikiryvals.com.
References [edit]
- ^ "How WikiRyvals works". WikiRyvals project README.
- ^ Polasky, Ryan. "Find your Ryval." WikiRyvals.
- ^ "Server-side hop validation". WikiRyvals technical notes.
A fan-made competitive layer for Wikiracing. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the Wikimedia Foundation or Wikipedia. Wikipedia content is available under CC BY-SA; the wordmark is set in Linux Libertine (SIL OFL). Gameplay happens on real Wikipedia in your own browser; article content is not re-hosted. Read the Privacy Policy.