Every mouse for himself

The other day I came across an internet game called Transformice. 

                          It’s part Lemmings and part social experiment. 

You are a mouse.  So is everyone else.  Your goal?  Get the cheese and get back to your mouse hole.  The other players, your fellow rodents, they’re trying to do the same.  It’s a bit of a rat race (had to say it).

Not only are the physics of the game world working against you but so are the other players; though not always as some obstacles require that players work with each other.  For example some levels have a giant balance beam where players can only reach the cheese by distributing their weight appropriately.  Also every level a player is randomly assigned as the mouse “shaman” who can wield magical powers to summon objects to help the mouse horde reach the cheese.

Often, however, it’s every mouse for himself with hilarious results.

That’s the weird beauty of the game.  It’s hysterically funny and tragic at the same time.  Probably more by accident than on purpose but there’s an allegory of base human behavior in there somewhere.  Why help your fellow mouse when you can push him off a cliff to make your cheese-quest easier?  Or will people forgo themselves for the sake of the mass? 

Suicidal leaps into bottomless pits are applauded by other players in Transformice as long as you give a great one-liner first; sometimes there must be sacrifices.

Transformice is buggy, the servers are slow, sometimes impossible to get on, and not designed for the sudden internet buzz the game has gained.  The in-game chat window can be uproariously funny with quips from the other players but like any internet based multi-player game the dregs of society also post there: bigoted 15-year-olds. 

The game is French and the game instructions on the English server haven’t been translated all that well.  I was selected as mouse shaman once and failed miserably.   I’ve read that you can create your own game session where you can practice being a shaman by yourself.

I highly recommend that you give Transformice a try .  The designers have built a fun game around a great idea and though overwhelmed with its rapid internet fame, I think it will grow into something impressive.