Back in the day, (wait a minute) – way back in the day, to prehistory as a matter of fact, drumming was the equivalent of today’s smart phone. Drumming was the primary way of communication. Tribes used their drums to forecast the weather or announce news of upcoming celebrations. Drums have led us in and out of battles and have been central to life’s rites and rituals for millennia.
When Ug picked up a branch to beat on log, fellow log-beater Iffy said “Hey I can do that faster.” Tribal drummers had a responsibility and obligation to be accurate and legit. There were no such things as auto clickers to simulate the hit.
In 1975 Boo McAfee, a young drummer from Nashville TN, got the idea for a device that would detect the speed of drummers hands and feet. That device is called the Drumometer. From the Drumometer grew the internationally recognized interactive brand WFD-World’s Fastest Drummer. McAfee has gone to great lengths to make sure the scores at WFD are legit and are actual single alternating hits, i.e. right, left, are cleanly performed by each contestant. The current WFD world record for hands is 1208 single hits in 60 seconds. This means the drummer’s hands are moving over 20 times per second, every second for a full minute. To give some insight, only 2 drummers in the world have been able to officially break the 1200 single strokes in 60 seconds.
McAfee and games developer Rise Up Labs recently launched a mobile game version of WFD to an enthusiastic buzz and steady downloads early on. This recognition quickly produced WFD mobile game online competitions. With the competitions came cool prizes… and with the cool prizes came a storm of users that did not have the same moral obligation and creed as the centuries old tribal drummers.
“We had mechanics and rules with tap location zones etc. to deter cheating, however the sheer amount of players ignoring the rules and applying ‘auto clickers’ to the game was staggering. So much so we have had to relaunch the game with stronger mechanics and warnings around invalid scoring. We were seeing impossible scores of 45,000 single hits in 60 seconds. It was a challenging decision. However, the leaderboard is the life of WFD events and gaming. As the Official Sanctioning body, it’s WFD’s responsibility to make sure these scores are legit according to the rules and game play.” said McAfee
Rise Up Labs worked feverishly to put auto clicker detection and control mechanisms in place to disqualify the onslaught of auto clickers in the latest WFD reboot of the game. Check out the great updated versions of WFD mobile!
Now available in the following stores:

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Last Updated
- IGD
- May 25, 2023
- 7:56 am