In massive open-world games with sprawling maps—such as 'Crimson Desert,' 'GTA 5,' 'Red Dead Redemption 2,' and 'PUBG'—there is a peculiar ritual that players seem to perform as if by unspoken agreement: the attempt to block and somehow halt the massive trains that endlessly circle the map.

This phenomenon has surfaced in recent releases as well. Players of Pearl Abyss' 'Crimson Desert,' which officially launched on March 20, have repeatedly tried to stop the trains traversing its world. In the process, one user even managed to briefly bring a train to a halt, drawing significant attention.

'Stopping the train' is not a one-off happening limited to a specific game. A search for 'stopping the train' on YouTube reveals a flood of experimental videos from players of all nationalities. For instance, world-renowned creator MrBeast produced a massive content piece centered on stopping the train in 'GTA 5,' which exploded in popularity, surpassing 110 million views on a single video.

The methods players employ to stop these trains are beyond imagination. Stacking dozens of heavy tanks on the tracks like a barricade is standard practice. Some players plant over 1,500 explosives along the tracks to trigger a massive chain reaction, while others gather in groups to physically stand in the path of the oncoming locomotive.

However, these experiments almost always end in spectacular failure. As if mocking the laws of physics, the carefully gathered trucks are often sent flying like scraps of paper, or the player's character is pulverized upon impact with the oncoming wall of steel. Despite the countless failures and futile deaths, gamers keep searching for new variables to throw in the train's path. Why? Why are gamers so obsessed with 'stopping the train'?

The Absolute Power of the 'User' vs. the Unchanging 'Train'

In a game, the user is an absolute authority who determines the fate of the virtual world. The world is designed for the user and revolves around them. A player's choices and actions can fundamentally alter the grand narrative of the game. Depending on the user's decisions, key characters live or die, specific factions rise or fall, and peace is restored to chaotic regions. They can take the life of a random NPC walking down the street or become a hero who saves those in crisis and reshapes the world order.

These narrative and environmental interactions grant the user a powerful sense of efficacy, reinforcing the belief that they perfectly dominate and control this world. Every event and character in the virtual space is perceived as a passive object that reacts and changes solely according to the user's will.

Yet, even in a world built for the user, there are things beyond their control. One such example is the massive train that endlessly cycles along a fixed route. This object permits no physical interference from the user. No matter how much effort or what methods the omnipotent player employs, the train cannot be stopped. The sense of efficacy the user feels vanishes in the face of the train.

In reality, there is a clear reason from a programming perspective why the train ignores all physical interference. If dynamic physics calculations—such as mass, friction, and real-time collision—were applied to a massive, constantly moving train object, the system's computational load would increase excessively. This would lead to severe frame drops and collision bugs in the physics engine.

Therefore, for the sake of optimization, developers implement these trains as 'kinematic objects' coded to move unconditionally along a fixed path (spline), omitting physics calculations. Players intuitively grasp this system through gameplay and develop a curiosity to attempt physical interference against an object that lacks physical laws.

'Stopping the Train' Through the Lens of Game Theory

The challenges posed by gamers can also be explained by game design theory. In his book 'A Theory of Fun for Game Design,' designer Raph Koster defined the fun experienced by users as the 'learning and destruction of patterns.'

The human brain finds interest in analyzing and learning new, complex patterns, but feels rapid boredom the moment a pattern is fully understood and becomes predictable. The way to provide a powerful stimulus to the brain again is to destroy that familiar pattern or create an entirely unexpected variable.

A train circling a fixed track at a constant speed forever is the most perfect and predictable pattern in a game. The reason players install 1,500 explosives or stack 100 trucks, knowing they will fail, is not simply to destroy the target. It is because they seek the catharsis—the fun—expected when they create a new variable, such as a minute collision detection error or a derailment, within a perfectly controlled system; in other words, when they achieve the destruction of a rigid pattern.

The 'Bartle Taxonomy' established by Richard Bartle also supports this. This theory classifies players in multi-user environments into four types based on their behavior: Achievers, Explorers, Socializers, and Killers.

Among these, players with a complex inclination toward being Explorers and Killers find the greatest fun in 'mechanical exploration'—testing the physical and systemic limits set by the game beyond mere spatial exploration. To them, the invincible train is a massive research subject representing the limits of an unbreakable system. It is an expression of intellectual curiosity, observing how much the engine can handle in terms of massive explosion calculations and where the flaws in the system might be revealed.

Beyond an Experiment: 'Stopping the Train' as Content

Attempts to stop the train have evolved from individual, one-off experiments into play content that the community enjoys together. Dozens of players gather in online sessions for experiments on a scale that a single user could not manage alone.

They systematically divide roles, steal large dump trucks, and build massive barricades at tunnel entrances or on narrow bridges. Gamers who don't even know each other's faces voluntarily create cooperative content for the singular goal of 'stopping the train.' The moment hundreds of vehicles collide with the train, the game's physics engine exceeds its computational limits, causing physical glitches where vehicles soar into the sky or overlapping objects vibrate.

Users do not view these as mere bugs, but consume them as a new spectacle and successful content. The experimental processes and results created through collective effort are shared via video platforms, forming a challenge culture that encourages the participation of other users. This voluntary way of playing, where users create their own rules and enjoy them together, remains a subject that attracts gamers' attention even years after a game's release.

A Longing for the Purest Form of Freedom

The fundamental reason users try to stop trains in games is to experience the purest form of freedom in a virtual space. In the real world, it is impossible for an individual to control massive physical flows or established rules.

However, in the space of a game, one can challenge taboos and test limits. The act of trying to stop a train that never deviates from its path is an attempt to reject controlled rules and create variables on one's own. Even if countless experiments end in failure and the carefully placed objects are destroyed in vain, gamers feel freedom in the very process of attempting control to create cracks in the system. The 'stopping the train' experiment in games demonstrates the essential spirit of challenge in gamers who seek to interact actively rather than passively following the path laid out by developers.