AOLnews.com Features TwistDock in “Gamers Set ‘Endurance Record’ With 50 Hours of Playing Around” August 5, 2010!
by Joe Peacock, AOLNews.com
- Gamers Set ‘Endurance Record’ With 50 Hours of Playing Around
Updated: 1 day ago
Joe Peacock
Contributor
AOL News (Aug. 5) — The world likely won’t remember July 19, 2010. But video game lovers would do well to take note of that day, as it marked a new benchmark for hard-core gaming.
Six gamers from the Netherlands broke the Guinness World Record for “endurance gaming” by playing 50 — yes, 50 — hours straight, shattering the previous mark set by Chirantan Patnaik of India, who played for 40 hours and 20 minutes.
You can watch a video (in Dutch) of the attempt and the rewards: a 1,000-euro check and a free set of controllers from the event’s sponsor, TwistDock docking station. (It’s not just nerds playing games — there’s a hot chick around 0:42).
Dutch Gamers Shatter “Endurance” Record
Thomas Public Relations
Game on! A group of six Dutch gamers broke the Guinness World Record for “endurance gaming” by playing for 50 hours straight.
The Dutch easily bested the previous record, beating it by nine hours and 40 minutes. That’s the gaming equivalent of taking off your helmet and dancing on the opposing team’s logo during after a Super Bowl touchdown.
According to official rules posted on the Guinness World Records Gamer Edition website, at least one member of the Dutch group had to participate at all times, only one game could be played for the duration, players could take 10-minute breaks every hour (or pool up to five breaks, or 50 minutes of break time) and medical staff had to be on site the entire time.
The gamers’ public relations manager, Karen Thomas of Thomas Public Relations, said her clients chose “Red Dead Redemption,” Rockstar Games’ latest release, for its variety of game play options. It qualifies as an action-adventure game, which Guinness requires, but also offers multiplayer options and minigames within the game like Liar’s Dice and Poker.
She also told me that the medical staff on site confirmed that the gamers were not on any sort of stimulant or pharmaceutical, although I don’t know if coffee would count.
According to Thomas, although the rules actually allow for players to take turns, all six gamers played the entire time instead of going in shifts. They originally started to play as competition, to see who could outlast the others. But at the end, they united and finished at the same time as a team.
Here’s the question I have to ask myself, though: While these six players exhibited honor in establishing their record, what if a future team tried to take the record by playing in shifts?
There’s no doubt that 50 hours is a long time to do anything, even as a group. However, if a group of six or 10 or 20 decided to go for the record, they could take eight-hour shifts and sleep and eat all they wanted for weeks on end, so long as at least one of the team members played at any given moment.
One man only has the option to nap 50 minutes, at most, every five hours — and that’s only if he’s sleeping right in front of the console and chooses not to potty the entire time.
It seems to me that the category for endurance gaming should probably be split into two separate feats, solo and group. Or, perhaps the rules should be altered to require all participants to play at once. Being able to create a team and play in shifts isn’t quite fair if you’re considering a solo effort viable. Which is something I think needs to be rectified before I take on the attempt.
Yep, you heard it here first. I intend to take the Guinness record for endurance gaming from these guys — solo. Just me and the controller and 50-plus hours of sweet gaming goodness. Oh, and coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. Even though all six of my Dutch opponents played the entire time, I feel like the solo effort is the real achievement.
Bring it, Netherlanders.
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