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It\u2019s Friday afternoon and I\u2019m listening to Bowdoin College\u2019s radio station, interspersed with ambient car honking noises. I am not in Maine. I am not in a car. I am at my desk. This is Internet Roadtrip<\/a>.<\/p>\n Internet Roadtrip is what I will call an MMORTG (massive multiplayer online road trip game). Neal Agarwal, the game\u2019s creator, calls it a \u201croad-trip simulator.\u201d Every 10 seconds, viewers vote on what direction for the \u201ccar\u201d to drive on Google Street View \u2014 or, you can vote to honk the horn or change the radio station. The direction with the most votes gets clicked, and the car continues on its scenic path to \u2026 wherever the chat decides to go.<\/p>\n Internet Roadtrip is reminiscent of Twitch Plays Pok\u00e9mon, an iconic stream from over 10 years ago in which viewers voted on what button to press as part of a collective Pok\u00e9mon Red game. But Internet Roadtrip is far less chaotic \u2014 both because only a thousand or so people are playing at a time, and because we have better organizational tools than we did in the Twitch Plays Pok\u00e9mon era (thank you, Discord).<\/p>\n Progress on the virtual roadtrip is slow. The car moves at a pace slower than walking. Discord moderators have had to temper newcomers\u2019 expectations, explaining that it\u2019s pointless to suggest driving to Las Vegas from Maine, since it would likely take almost 10 months of real-world time to get there. The same goes for Alaska, but it\u2019s not just a matter of time that\u2019s the issue.<\/p>\n \u201cGoogle Street View works by taking multiple pictures and putting them together. In some areas of the roads leading to Alaska, there are gaps in pictures available and so we would get stuck there, were we to go to these roads,\u201d the Discord FAQ reads. \u201cAll potential roads to Alaska have these gaps. We checked.\u201d<\/p>\n There is no objective on Internet Roadtrip, as opposed other Street View-based games like GeoGuessr<\/a>. Some Discord members discussed driving to Canada, which is a somewhat realistic goal, given our current position in Maine. But the destination isn\u2019t the goal \u2014 it\u2019s the joy of spontaneously listening to a college radio from a liberal arts school with a thousand strangers on the internet, while taking in the scenic backroads of Blue Hill, Maine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n