King of the Hill (game)
Encyclopedia
King of the Hill is a children's game
, the object of which is to stay on top of a large hill or pile (or any other designated area) as the "King of the Hill". Other players attempt to knock the current King off the pile and take their place, thus becoming the new King of the Hill.
The way the "king" can be removed from the hill depends largely on the rules determined by the players before the game starts. Ordinarily pushing is the most common way of removing the king from the hill, but there are significantly rougher variations where punching or kicking is allowed. As such, the game is often banned from schools.
King of the Hill is also a method of play in airsoft
and the "woodsball
" variant of paintball
.
for any sort of competitive
zero-sum game or social activity in which a single winner is chosen from among multiple competitors, and a hierarchy
is devised by the heights the competitors achieve on the hill (what Howard Bloom
called "the pecking order
" in his The Lucifer Principle
), and where winning can only be achieved at the cost of displacing the previous winner. The game also lent its name to King of the Hill
, an American animated series.
players who would pit their warriors against each other's in fit for survival. King of the Hill tournaments have existed for Core War
since the 1980s.
King of the Hill has been featured as a game variant in many video games, especially first-person shooter
s like Halo: Combat Evolved
and the more traditional Perfect Dark
and more recently Gears of War 2
. It's also an option in some top-down games, such as many of those in the Army Men series. In these versions of the game, a player or team of players must keep control of a specific area or object for a predetermined amount of time. When that amount of time is reached, the round either ends or a new area is designated on the map. In the virtual variant, players are generally removed from the hill by killing them.
King of the Hill is also a popular game on Internet forum
s in which the posters take the hill from the previous poster, only for it (usually) to be taken away by the next, and so on.
Game
A game is structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements...
, the object of which is to stay on top of a large hill or pile (or any other designated area) as the "King of the Hill". Other players attempt to knock the current King off the pile and take their place, thus becoming the new King of the Hill.
The way the "king" can be removed from the hill depends largely on the rules determined by the players before the game starts. Ordinarily pushing is the most common way of removing the king from the hill, but there are significantly rougher variations where punching or kicking is allowed. As such, the game is often banned from schools.
King of the Hill is also a method of play in airsoft
Airsoft
Airsoft is a sport in which participants shoot round non-metallic pellets launched via replica firearms.Gameplay varies in style and composition but often range from short-term skirmishes, organized scenarios, military simulations, historical reenactments, to competition target shooting events...
and the "woodsball
Woodsball
Woodsball is a format of paintball gaming, in which players compete in a natural outdoors area using paintball markers to tag opponents....
" variant of paintball
Paintball
Paintball is a sport in which players compete, in teams or individually, to eliminate opponents by tagging them with capsules containing water soluble dye and gelatin shell outside propelled from a device called a paintball marker . Paintballs have a non-toxic, biodegradable, water soluble...
.
Use as a metaphor
The name of the game has become a common metaphorMetaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
for any sort of competitive
Competition
Competition is a contest between individuals, groups, animals, etc. for territory, a niche, or a location of resources. It arises whenever two and only two strive for a goal which cannot be shared. Competition occurs naturally between living organisms which co-exist in the same environment. For...
zero-sum game or social activity in which a single winner is chosen from among multiple competitors, and a hierarchy
Hierarchy
A hierarchy is an arrangement of items in which the items are represented as being "above," "below," or "at the same level as" one another...
is devised by the heights the competitors achieve on the hill (what Howard Bloom
Howard Bloom
Howard Bloom is an American author. He was a publicist in the 1970s and 1980s for singers and bands such as Prince, Billy Joel, and Styx. In 1988 he became disabled with chronic fatigue syndrome...
called "the pecking order
Pecking order
Pecking order or just peck order is the colloquial term for a hierarchical system of social organization in chickens. It was first described from the behaviour of poultry by Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe in 1921 under the German terms Hackordnung or Hackliste' ...
" in his The Lucifer Principle
The Lucifer Principle
The Lucifer Principle is a book by Howard Bloom. It sees a social group, not an individual, as a main subject of human evolution. It "explores the intricate relationships among genetics, human behavior, and culture" and argues that "evil is a by-product of nature's strategies for creation and that...
), and where winning can only be achieved at the cost of displacing the previous winner. The game also lent its name to King of the Hill
King of the Hill
King of the Hill is an American animated dramedy series created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, that ran from January 12, 1997, to May 6, 2010, on Fox network. It centers on the Hills, a working-class Methodist family in the fictional small town of Arlen, Texas...
, an American animated series.
In video gaming
The concept of "King of the Hill" in video gaming was introduced by Core WarCore War
Core War is a programming game in which two or more battle programs compete for the control of the "Memory Array Redcode Simulator" virtual computer . These battle programs are written in an abstract assembly language called Redcode...
players who would pit their warriors against each other's in fit for survival. King of the Hill tournaments have existed for Core War
Core War
Core War is a programming game in which two or more battle programs compete for the control of the "Memory Array Redcode Simulator" virtual computer . These battle programs are written in an abstract assembly language called Redcode...
since the 1980s.
King of the Hill has been featured as a game variant in many video games, especially first-person shooter
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
s like Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo: Combat Evolved, frequently referred to as Halo: CE, or Halo 1, is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The first game of the Halo franchise, it was released on November 15, 2001 as a launch title for the Xbox gaming system, and is...
and the more traditional Perfect Dark
Perfect Dark
Perfect Dark is a first-person shooter video game developed by Rare for the Nintendo 64 video game console. It is considered the spiritual successor to Rare's earlier first-person shooter GoldenEye 007, with which it shares many gameplay features...
and more recently Gears of War 2
Gears of War 2
Gears of War 2 is a third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games with lead design by Cliff Bleszinski, and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360. It is the second installment of the Gears of War series. The game was officially released in North America, Europe and...
. It's also an option in some top-down games, such as many of those in the Army Men series. In these versions of the game, a player or team of players must keep control of a specific area or object for a predetermined amount of time. When that amount of time is reached, the round either ends or a new area is designated on the map. In the virtual variant, players are generally removed from the hill by killing them.
King of the Hill is also a popular game on Internet forum
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
s in which the posters take the hill from the previous poster, only for it (usually) to be taken away by the next, and so on.