Forumwarz

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Forumwarz
The Forumwarz Logo
Developer(s) Crotch Zombie Productions
Publisher(s) Crotch Zombie Productions
Distributor(s) Crotch Zombie Productions
Designer(s) Robin "Evil Trout" Ward
Mike "Jalapeno Bootyhole" Drach
Jason "BINGEBOT 2015" Kogan
Engine Ruby on Rails
Version 1.0
Platform(s) Web browser
Release date February 7, 2008
Genre(s) Turn based RPG
Mode(s) Single player with some multiplayer interaction
Media Internet
System requirements Web browser, Internet connection
Input methods Keyboard, Mouse

Forumwarz is a multiplayer browser-based role-playing game based on a parody of Internet culture, designed by Crotch Zombie Productions, a Toronto-based company.[1] Written in the Ruby on Rails web application framework using the Haml markup language, the game launched on February 7, 2008.[2][3] In the first month since the game launched, around 30,000 users signed up.[4]

Forumwarz is notable for its humorous and sometimes ribald writing and references to Internet memes. It has been featured in both Wired News[5] and DigitalJournal.com[3], and was described by Gawker.com as "stupid, insulting, and really damn clever".[6] To ensure new players are aware of the potentially offensive content of the game, a player must type in "I am not offended easily" before they can begin playing.[7]

Contents

[edit] Plot and setting

Screenshot of the website's character page.
Screenshot of the website's character page.

Unlike many traditional role-playing games (RPGs), Forumwarz takes place on a fake, parodic version of the Internet. The primary battleground is Internet forums, as opposed to the fantasy settings found in traditional RPGs. Parody themes include furries, script kiddies, Boing Boing, Apple Computer, ricers, 4chan, Ron Paul, Fark, gamers, Bill O'Reilly, Otaku, Cory Doctorow, and the Church of Scientology.[2][6]

The player begins as a bored Internet user, searching on a parodied search engine (a thinly veiled analogue of Google). Soon their search query is interrupted by an instant message from "Shallow Esophagus", a mysterious non-player character who introduces them to the concept of "pwnage".

The player soon begins "pwning", or attacking forums through various trolling methods. Following the first mission, one of three character classes can be chosen — emo kid, troll or camwhore. As forums becomes increasingly difficult to pwn, characters earn experience in the form of "cred", thus improving their statistics.[8]

[edit] Gameplay

Forumwarz takes place on a parodic version of the Internet, and the interface reflects this with an Instant Messaging client, online shopping for virtual items and services, and Internet forum battlegrounds. The Instant Messaging Client is called sTalk, a pun on "stalk", and a parody of Google's IM client gTalk.[9]

The combat system is turn-based, and the player is given a set number of forum visits per day that they use to improve their character and proceed through the storyline. For each thread in a forum that is successfully "pwned," or derailed through persistent attacking, the player gains "Cred" and will be sent gifts from random Internet users as a reward the following day.[10] Attacking threads is done via an array of attacks specific to the user class including "self-mutilation" (Emo Kids), "threaten to contact authorities" (Camwhores) and "ASCII art attacks" (Trolls).[11]

Side quests include a very brief text adventure game loosely based on the urban opera "Trapped in the Closet," featuring R. Kelly.[2][6]

[edit] User-built forums

Players are able to contribute to their own forums using forumbuildr v2.0 Beta, an in-game application named after Web 2.0 jargon. Each week, players vote on a topic to collectively build. Once a topic is chosen, players submit and vote on its components, including the content, logo and style sheet. At the end of the week, the forum is published and can be played by users.[12][6]

[edit] Technical aspects

Forumwarz was written using tools including Ruby on Rails, MySQL, Haml, memcached, script.aculo.us and the Prototype Javascript Framework, Mongrel and nginx.[4] Despite the approximately 2 million dynamic requests a day (varying from 25 to 55 requests per second depending on the time of day) and 25Gb of data transfer, Crotch Zombie use a single 3Gb Xeon server (due to the small size of the requests).[4]

One of the elements used in the creation of Forumwarz was the creation of a machine translation tool, called Unintelligencer. The tool translates standard written text into "unnitelligence", mimicking "a literate person's text into something that wouldn't look out of place on a YouTube comment". The tool was one of the elements used by the Forumwarz creators to create unique personalities for the artifical denizens of its simulated forums.[13]

[edit] References

  1. ^ TSOT Ruby on Rails Project Night Returns March 11, 2008. PRWeb (2008-03-08). Retrieved on 2008-03-26.
  2. ^ a b c Baio, Andy (2008-02-28). Interview: Why You Should Care About ForumWarz. Gamasutra. Retrieved on 2008-02-28.
  3. ^ a b Silverberg, David (2008-02-16). New Game Parodies Internet Stereotypes, But It's Not For Those Easily Offended. DigitalJournal.com. Retrieved on 2008-02-18.
  4. ^ a b c Mike Drach, Robin Ward (2008-03-11). Forumwarz and RJS - a love/hate affair. Forumwarz. Retrieved on 2008-03-26.
  5. ^ Gilbertson, Scott (2008-02-22). Forumwarz RPG: Hilarious Satire Skewers the Web. Wired News. Retrieved on 2008-02-24.
  6. ^ a b c d Douglas, Nick (2008-02-26). This game is an entirely new and better Internet. Gawker.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-04.
  7. ^ Forumwarz introduction disclaimer. Forumwarz. Retrieved on 2008-02-18.'
  8. ^ Baio, Andy (2008-02-25). An interview with the Forumwarz creators. waxy.org. Retrieved on 2008-03-04.
  9. ^ Forumwarz Review. The Gateway (newspaper) (2008-02-27). Retrieved on 2008-03-04.
  10. ^ Flezz - Spoilerpedia: The Forumwarz Wiki. Forumwarz. Retrieved on 2008-02-18.
  11. ^ Abilities - Spoilerpedia: The Forumwarz Wiki. Forumwarz. Retrieved on 2008-02-28.
  12. ^ ForumBuildr - Spoilerpedia: The Forumwarz Wiki. Forumwarz. Retrieved on 2008-02-18.
  13. ^ Unintelligencer.com - Who Sed Yur Stoopid. killerstartups.com (2008-03-26). Retrieved on 2008-03-26.

[edit] External links