A game called One Million Checkboxes has sparked a terrible online war

I’m starting to get into the bad habit of posting right after work. In this case, I’m doing it because the whole thing might be over and done with by the time I get back to my desk. New York-based Nolen Royalty, creator of mischievous experimental games involving bouncing DVD logos and staring contests, has created another game that consists of a website with a million checkboxes. It’s probably the best thing I’ve played all year.

You can check or uncheck any box you like, and each checked box will appear checked for every other visitor to the site, with the game keeping a running total of checked boxes in the top right corner. There is no reward for your efforts. The whole thing is utterly pointless, idle clicking without the satisfaction of unlocking an image of a cookie or something similar. And yet. And yet. Look at all the strangers on the other side of the Internet busily checking boxes, working their way down the page like locusts munching through a giant stack of bubble wrap. Now notice how that running total goes up and down at the behest of an opposing army of unchecked followers. Who are you?

Over the course of five minutes playing One Million Checkboxes, I discovered the existence of several broad classes of checkers and uncheckers. First, there are the frontliners, who fight tooth and nail for every square, clicking on each other’s clicks as if they were stepping on heads in a scrum. Then there are the artillery checkers, who use the search box at the bottom right to get themselves way ahead of the running total, and crash into a pristine fortress of unfilled squares.

Their counterparts among the uncheckers are the saboteurs, who use the search function in reverse, digging through the landscape of checks and ripping open white seams amidst all the slanting blue as if bleaching the heart of a coral reef. And fourth, there are the clean-up crews from each side, running behind the front line, polishing away stray squares here and there as if they were stabbing the wounded with a knife. Checking squares is a brutal business indeed.

To view this content, please enable targeting cookies.

Manage cookie settings

At the time of writing, 525,939 boxes have been checked. A few minutes ago, that number was 820,552. It’s not entirely clear what might happen if all the boxes are checked or unchecked. Maybe we’ll find out in 30 seconds. Maybe we’ll never know. According to the developer’s tweets, they didn’t expect people to be so obsessed with checking boxes. Here’s a message from a few hours ago: “Alright, I’ve been trying to keep the site running for 14 hours straight. It’s 3am. I’m going to try and get some sleep. Everyone… just don’t check too many boxes in the next few hours, OK.” Posting this article definitely won’t help with that. Sorry, Nolen. Great game concept though!