As Bob Marley once sang, "It's a disgrace, to see the human race, in a rat-race.".

If one were so inclined, they could consider Quake a rat-race. The items do resemble cheese. Being that people race to them, the concept of a 'rat-race' seems entirely appropriate. Honestly, does anyone want to be in a rat-race?

Personally, I enjoy death-match. For me, it's not about cheese. It's about combat. When the race for cheese becomes more prevalent than the combat, it becomes reasonable to consider the game of death-match to be more of a rat-race. Obviously, the items are what may confuse the outsider into thinking 'rat-race' instead of 'combat'. Shouldn't our focus be to make Quake the best first-person combat game?

To eliminate the rat-race and exemplify the combat, the items must be removed, or changed so they play a different role. The reason it's such a rat-race, is because the pieces of cheese are so central to the gameplay. Throughout almost the entire game, the rats, or 'players', are racing towards them. If there were only two races in the game, and the rest of the time people were slaughtering each other, the idea of rat-race would be inoperable. After-all, a rat-race is not something where the rats fight for five minutes, and then race for a piece of cheese, and then fight for another five minutes.

I have nothing personally against rats. They're smart, friendly creatures. Aside from their short life-spans, they make some of the best house-pets. Regardless, there is a reason why no professional rat-racing league exists.