The noob
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| the n00b | |
|---|---|
 Book 1 cover from "the n00b" |
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| Author(s) | Gianna Masetti |
| Website | http://www.thenoobcomic.com/ |
| Update schedule | About Twice weekly. |
| Launch date | June 2004 [1] |
| Genre | Video game, Comedy, Webcomics |
The Noob is a webcomic started by Gianna Masetti in June of 2004. The plot revolves around a new gamer named Ohforf'sake (generally referred to as "Ohforf") who represents the quintessential noob in a MMORPG. He encounters various groups in the game of "Clichequest" as he starts playing, such as the PKers who try to kill other players for loot and/or the fun of it. The comic serves as a parody and as something of a social commentary on the MMORPG genre in general. It notably criticizes how lousy the staff usually are in a MMORPG and also shows that many people get so addicted to these games that they don't know the difference between reality and the game (for example, characters often get mad at each other for minor offenses and so on). The noob is currently a full color comic, although in the beginning that wasn't always the case.
The comic was nominated for a Web Cartoonist Choice Award [1] in 2005 and it received an honorable mention in the Gaming category. Recently it has been invited to post on MMORPG.COMin their comic section[2].
Contents |
[edit] Print Versions
The Noob has been in print at Lulu.com since 2005, and is now on its 3rd volume.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Main Characters
[edit] Ohforf'sake
A neophyte player, Ohforf is more or less the "protagonist" and the main character of the comic. He is neither a role-player nor a player-killer, instead simply trying to have fun and become more experienced in Clichequest. The name was born from an early episode in which Ohforf's player is trying to think of a name only to find they are all taken, causing him to type in irritation "Oh, for f'sake!". The computer picks this up and creates the new character under this name. For a newbie, his luck isn't too bad since he narrowly escapes being killed by Fred the Dread, and he killed a vampire without even knowing it.
[edit] Hypatia
A slightly more experienced player of Clichequest and a close in-game friend of Ohforf'sake. A female character, she also reveals to Ohforf that she is female in real life leading him to constantly attempt to impress her in various ways.
[edit] Darkie
Known in full as "Sir Darkblade Wolfeyes Orcbane Raislin De Urden Von Strudel", he is a role-player. He is a friend of Hypatia and despises player-killers. He isn't very bright and would do anything for a girlfriend (he offers lady Emonika armor, 10 000 gold coins and helps her level so that he could be with her). He is one of the most popular main characters in the comic since the majority of the readers voted for him on the "who is your favorite character" poll.
[edit] The Righteous Protectors of the Crimson Star
A guild of role-players. At one point the guild tries to create an army (a "powerhouse of righteousness", in the words of its commander "Lord Ironman") by merging with other anti-PK guilds and forming the Zealot Elite Righteous Guardians (otherwise better known as [the] ZERG, an obvious joke referring to the total lack of planning or tactics that the group would use. Zerging the PKers derived from the term Zerg from the race of the same name in the game of Starcraft).
[edit] The PKers
The primary antagonists - though sometimes also the anti-heroes - of the comic, they kill other player characters for the loot and the fun of it. The five major PKers featured in the comic are "Your Name Here", "Dakilla", "D34dly D34dly", "Drakoola" and "Fred the Dread" who are members of a clan called "The Outcasts". Due to a past "limb loss punishment" introduced by the game masters at one time to counter overzealous player-killing however, "Fred the Dread" had to replace his hand with a hook, and all that remains of "Drakoola" is a disembodied nose due to his extremely high kill count in the past. There are also several other PKing guilds who are generally rivals to "The Outcasts", for example the previously named PKer's guild and the "Death Squad", who specialize in exploiting a bug in which a player puts his/her hand(s) on their behind and continually presses the jump button, allowing them to move twice as fast and become immune to attack while moving. This is commonly referred to as "arsemode" by other players.
[edit] The Developers
Shown in asides to the main story, the developers of Clichequest plot to make the game more profitable (generally with a very poor success rate and a chronic lack of creativity - all of their quests seem to involve the collection of one kind of tail or another.).
[edit] The GMs
The game masters of the Clichequest game and a spoof on the actual game masters of the Ultima Online MMORG, they have a tendency to zap gamers just for the fun of it. Some of them are also known to claim that no exploitable bugs exist in the game, instead stating that the "customer mistook a feature for a bug". Their attire bears an amusing resemblance to that of members of the KKK, a theme which is played upon in one episode when they accidentally light a giant wooden cross on fire. They have names based on the style of naming of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, like Famine.
[edit] Sir Bob
A flamboyant, very experienced, and skilled high-level player who quit Clichequest early on in the strip, but has since returned by popular vote among the comic's readers. It is revealed during his return that Sir Bob is not bothered by the fact that he uses exploits. One example of his exploits is standing on higher ground to kill high-powered monsters. He tends to show a considerably more benign attitude towards his fellow players than most others of his level of knowledge and experience would, though episode 224 shows that he was quite willing to use Ohforf as a bait to help him level. Sir Bob is a good example of a powergamer.
[edit] Other Notable Characters
- Cyrus "The Virus" - The only person to kill 'Fred the Dread' since 1992 (though in a previous text-based multi-user dungeon game rather than in Clichequest itself), he reappeared in the player vs player tournament in Clichequest with a level of 200 and started killing everyone there to demonstrate his "rogue admin powers". His goal was to attempt to unite all of the player-killer guilds in Clichequest into one single force in order to be able to take over all gameplay activity in the game, in a way that bore more than just a little resemblance to the efforts of his namesake Cyrus in the 1979 cult movie The Warriors. He eventually got himself pwned for his efforts by the "Death Squad" guild with Pete the Parrot's Eye for an Eye-Patch Attack in a scene which, again, was very reminsicent to how the leader of "The Rogues" shot Cyrus in "The Warriors" movie. If we examine his staff closely, we can notice that the GMs have the very same weapon...
- Lord Herpes - The guild leader of the role-players' guild "Righteous Protectors of the Crimson Star".
- Ur-Legolas and Cyborella - King and Queen of the Elves, residing in Elfboro, a city high in the trees very reminiscent of Kelethin in EverQuest. Cyborella recently encountered her teenage love Drakoola and escaped with him on a quest to find him a mithril body.
- Voltan - White Mage who is always AFK at critical times, as he is prone to outbursts about what is happening on TV while he should be healing his group.
- Tacobell - An over-weight, excessively chatty elven roleplayer/tradeskiller who loves to display her knowledge of game lore or read her poetry to whoever is unfortunate enough to be close. Her poetry is boring enough to turn people crazy in minutes, she also brews potions as a hobby.
- Emonika - A true succubus that often manipulates male players, such as Sir Darkblade, to give her items with flirting. She constantly complains about everything and everyone (notice the Emo part in her name). She and Hypatia are bitter rivals.
- Leggolas - A blacksmith in the town of Elfboro. Ohforf is referred to him by an elven farmer named Legholas(strip #143) for a tour of the town so that he can catch a gryphon flight to the human capital of Fandoria(strip #140). On arrival, Ohforf finds that almost all the elven citizens of Elfboro are named Legolas with slightly varied spellings, i.e. Legolaus, Legolazz, Leg'olas, etc.(strip #141)
- Bethany - Fred the Dreads ex-clichequest-girlfriend. When he broke up with her, she boiled his epic head armor in a Fatal Attraction style stalker strip.(strip #183)
[edit] Running Gags
The jokes found in the Noob are sometimes drawn from MMORPG players' culture.
[edit] Character Names
Some character names are references to the habit of MMORPG players to name their characters after icons of popular (usually fantasy) culture. This theme first appears in the third episode[3], where the player has to choose the name for his character. His first few tries all reference The Lord of the Rings, including obscure variants like xXxAragornxXx. All are taken. Then his naming attempts move on to Forgotten Realms, namely the character Drizzt Do'Urden. These two works of fiction are the most common source of MMORPG names, as players are often "inspired" by these works, and want to play a character "just like" the protagonist(s).
Later, on arrival in Elfboro[4], Ohforf finds that almost all the elven citizens are named Legolas with slightly varied spellings, i.e. Legolaus, Legolazz, Leg'olas.
Recently the author of The Noob has written that she had seen characters in World of Warcraft named after characters in The Noob.
[edit] Roleplayers
One of the distinct playing styles in MMORPGs is the "Roleplayer," defined as one who plays in character. On some of the more popular MMORPGs, like World of Warcraft, roleplayers are separated from the other players, on different servers. In Clichéquest, the roleplayers are put into a town instead, far away from the other players. When the PKers find this town, they think of it as a "jackpot", because roleplayers usually are at disadvantage when battling non-roleplayers.
One of the other references to roleplayers is the Healing Macro. A phenomenon that can be seen in some games is a roleplaying healer who insists on typing things like:
> Mnemosine says, "+++Be healed Ohforf, by the powers of the Light!+++"
Before actually healing the subject. When among non-roleplayers, this is seen as unnecessary delay and risk of death. An exaggeration of this habit can be observed in the following comics: (the healing macro) and (sir bob has an idea).
[edit] Reviews
- A review[5] by Alexander Schultz sums up Gianna's unique place in webcomics culture:
"Gianna Masetti is probably one of the few (real) female veterans who played basically every MMORPG since Ultima Online. Her WebComic "The Noob" pays homage to the daily madness every online-gamer regularly experiences within MMORPG-Worlds. If you are a real MMORPG-Fan, this comic is a must-have!"
- The noob was also reviewed[6] to critical acclaim by Damonk in Comixpedia:
"As opposed to many RPG-based comics out there, this is neither just a gag-a-day that mocks the game itself, nor is it a story based on characters as if they were real people. Rather, it is about real people who are playing a game, but seen through the game just as if you were watching it unfold on the monitor in front of you. So far, it is unfolding in a story fashion, which kills two birds with one stone: you get the witty barbs pointed at the flaws and idiosyncrasies in these types of games, as well as plot and character development... literally!"
- On Suizcomix, Hustler reviewed[7] The Noob, and gave it the neutral rating of 5.
"In all, The Noob is a comic that does seem to provide limited entertainment, both as a story and with each of the one-shot jokes. It's certainly not fancy in any aspect, and it lacks any major creative spark to set it apart from the pack, but it can still suffice as a reasonable way to pass the time. I give it 5 Suizys, for it's a comic that manages to fall just shy of being actually good, yet it still delivers too much to be grouped with the lower efforts I've seen thus far."
- On the European site of World of Warcraft, Caswallan reviewed The Noob in the News page on November 24, 2004.[8].
- On Yahoo-France Actualités and PC-Inpact, Bruno Cormier quoted[9][10] a related storyline of The Noob in an article about chinese gold-farmers in MMORPGs.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.ccawards.com/2005.htm
- ^ http://www.mmorpg.com/humor.cfm
- ^ http://www.thenoobcomic.com/daily/strip003.html
- ^ (Logolas by any other name)
- ^ http://www.lulu.com/content/178320
- ^ http://comixpedia.com/a_trio_of_previews_by_damonk
- ^ http://www.suizcomix.com/gc/article.php?id=8
- ^ http://www.wow-europe.com/en/news/wow-oldnews2004.html#nov
- ^ http://fr.news.yahoo.com/29112006/308/mmorpg-reportage-video-sur-les-recolteurs-d-or-chinois.html
- ^ http://akosh.pcinpact.com/actu/news/33074-goldfarmers-chinois-video.htm
[edit] External links
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