Tetris is 40 years old, and Polytrack is new; what they have in common is dedicated communities of players at Lincoln.

Polytrack is a new game that involves controlling a car race. Students say the game has gained a huge community at Lincoln in part because of its simplicity, but also because they use it to compete with their friends, compare times, and see who can finish each of the game’s tracks the fastest.

Sophomore Jackson Mosebach comments on how he found the game.

“My friends were playing and I was like, ‘oh, that looks pretty fun,’” said Mosebach. 

But, Mosebach identifies another reason for its popularity, its similarity to another online game.

“It has fun physics. It is like another game called TrackMania. But it is free.”

TrackMania, a series started in 2003, consists of similar racing games, where players can race on preset, and player-made maps to get the fastest time. The biggest difference is the accessibility, as Polytrack is available on browsers.

However, this isn’t the only facet that made this game so popular. Players can create their own maps that others can race on and compare high scores. Because of this feature, students who play Polytrack found a way to share their maps.

“There’s a document with like 50 people,” said Mosebach,  “and we all play Polytrack and make maps.”

While the Polytrack began gaining popularity at Lincoln, the Tetris community at Lincoln began as a club. 

Junior Ziyu Zhu created the Tetris club when she started playing Tetris during her freshman year. After seeing there wasn’t a preexisting Tetris club, she decided to make own, where she can connect with other Tetris players, and share their high scores on the game.

“The community is really good,” said Zhu. “In Tetris [Club], everyone is generally really supportive. [It’s] just friendly competition.”