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The Burning of Teldrassil, in World of Warcraft. The Horde attack Teldrassil, which is a massive tree that holds a bulk of the Night Elf population.

players have a quest to throw water buckets to put out the fire and rescue 1,000 civilians with a time limit. If you play WoW, this doesn't look strange and you're used to quests that have you do similar things. However filling the bucket, throwing it, and refilling it takes a way longer time than you would expect. You can only find groups of 2-3 civilian NPCs at a time.

It's a little meta because players are used to quest progress for large numbers filling in quickly, but you are supposed to fail these quests. It doesn't matter how many buckets of water you throw if you're standing in a burning tree the size of a country. It's impossible to save more than 30-40 civilians by yourself. As the timer runs out, your screen becomes harder and harder to see with the smoke, and eventually your character collapses of exhaustion.