RL Race Across Azeroth
1 virtual mile, 1/2 real mile, 5 minutes of brutality
We've always wondered what it would be like to run the same distance in the real world that we run every day in Warcraft. Finding out required duct tape, computers, custom scripts, sore legs, and elf ears. We had been wanting to connect a treadmill to Warcraft and calibrate the speed for a long time. Probably since we started calling Warcraft "RunCraft" because neither of us had mounts.
Step 1: Figure out how fast characters run in World of Warcraft
Tusky on the WoW forums already did a pretty convincing job. Tusky's conclusion was that a stock character runs at 12mph. That's fast. One mile world record holders aren't much faster than that.
Prym made some really cool calculations and came up with 14mph. So we chose 12mph.
Gaming rig of the future?
Step 2: Hook a treadmill up to WoW
We bought extremely cheap manual treadmills off of Amazon and decided to sense their speed with a mouse rather than trying to hook into the treadmill's output with some sort of analog interface. I wrote a quick script in GlovePIE to calculate the maximum speed my mouse could track. It's a nice MX Revolution, but I could only get it to track a little over 4mph. If we were going to run at 12mph on the treadmill, a mouse wouldn't be able to keep up.
Using masking tape to avoid hurting the mouse Lennie-style
We decided to use a bicycle tire pushed against the treadmill to reduce the speed the mouse would have to track. Eli used a 26" tire and tried to get the sensor about 1.8 inches from the axle so we could make sure to get the full range of speeds. I wrote another script in GlovePIE to convert the mouse speed to "w" pulses. So the faster we ran on the treadmill, the faster and longer the "w" would be pressed. Finally, when we exceeded 12mph, "w" would be pressed continuously so the character would run at full speed. I tried to get run/walk to work so that from 2-4mph the character would walk, but the bit saying whether or not the character was walking kept getting desynchronized between the script and warcraft.
I added a couple lines to the script so we could use joysticks to control our direction and simulate pressing the "a" and "d" keys. See the script here if you're interested.
Unfortunately, we found that we could only run at 8.5mph max on our rickety manual treadmills. Worse yet, we couldn't maintain 8.5mph for more than a minute, because of all the resistance of pushing a manual treadmill. We decided to make it so that if we ran over 6mph, our characters in Warcraft would run at full speed. 6mph is significantly easier than running 12mph on level ground.
Step 3: Silly costumes
Eli claimed that we needed costumes so that we had the same equipment as our in-game characters. I think he just wanted to load up on fun costume stuff and make me wear a ridiculous green wig. I liked the elf ears though.
Realizing that "running" and "pushing the w key" are different things
Step 4: The Run
We decided on a run from the gates of Shadowglen, through Dolanaar, to the sentries of Darnassus. We took level 1-2 elves so there would be a real danger that we'd get attacked along the way. We drank Mana Energy Potions beforehand to restore our mana, which was pretty low after calibrating the real world run speeds to the virtual world.
I'd first like to point out that Eli is in quite good shape. I, however, am not. I brave sunlight once or twice a week, but I drive the mile from my apartment to the office every day. We thought it would be a good representation of the gamut of gamers if we both ran the race. We donned the cheapest heart monitors we could find for kicks.
Step 5: Omg, I think my heart is going to explode
Eli and I stayed pretty even throughout the whole run. But about 3 minutes in, my heart rate reached over 205 BPM, and my max is around 195 BPM. I had to slow down to a walk because I thought I was going to pass out. Running in WoW is no joke. Fortunately, Eli's heart rate his 194 BPM and his max is around 185 BPM, so he had to slow down too.
Eli got attacked by something in the forest and almost died, but eventually beat me. Only by about 30 virtual yards.
Step 6: Conclusion
Could you run like your character does in Warcraft, even if you were in really, really good shape? Hell no. That run was sheer brutality. Eli regularly runs up and down 150 vertical feet of stairs over and over, and it destroyed him as well. Then again, that's why the characters you play in WoW are heroes.
The weird thing is that playing the game with the treadmill attached was actually really fun in small doses. If you're not running an all-out race on it, you forget that you're getting quite a workout. I have to admit, I wouldn't be entirely opposed to playing WoW with the treadmill once a night and getting in really good shape. Granted, I'd end up grinding through levels really slowly, and I'd save the long runs for the "w" key.
| Virtual World | Real World | |
| Distance | 1 mile | 1/2 mile |
| Speed | 12mph | 6mph |
| Time | 4:50 | 4:50 |
| Strain | Walk in the park | Brutal |
Step 7: Do stupid things on the treadmill
We wanted to try out other actions our WoW characters had to perform while running. Drawing a sword? Fail. Drawing a bow? Fail. Drinking spring water? Choke, and then fail. Eating an apple? Crunch, choke, apple chunks everywhere, fail.
This bit of treadmill machinima ridiculousness was sponsored by Mana Energy Potion
Questions? Comments? Email me at ai.rasmussen@gmail.com
