Worlds within worlds

June 11, 2008 12:11 PM

The record has finally been set for an Onion article (video, actually) to turn into real life. It's now a real game. You can download it. It's free. time: about 1 day. The subject is MMORPGS (pronounced 'more pigs') and how popular they are. (more inside for descriptions)

Essentially the joke of the Onion piece (but see it anyway, it's funny) is that the next World of Warcraft will let you play someone playing WoW.

The story the very next day is about an entry in a game design contest that is a builder-manager type game about managing a virtual world. Yes. You watch forum posts to see the popularity of changes you made. Fake forum posts.

posted by Miles Long (26 comments total)

I would like to highly recommend you spend the afternoon watching as many of The Onion videos as you can. Some of them are highly hilarious.
posted by ao4047 at 12:12 PM on June 11, 2008

pronounced 'more pigs'

I prefer Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw's pronunciation: MUH-MOR-PUH-GUH.
posted by Smart Dalek at 12:25 PM on June 11, 2008 [6 favorites]

It's pronounced 'more pigs'? According to whom? I've never heard anyone pronounce it beyond saying "em-em-oh-are-pee-gees."
posted by m0nm0n at 12:26 PM on June 11, 2008 [4 favorites]

I would submit to you that this is not the first occurrence of the Onion having 100% foresight.
posted by blue_beetle at 12:27 PM on June 11, 2008 [3 favorites]


MeFiHack, Copyright 1999-2008
See license for details.

Shall I pick a character's race, role, gender and alignment for you? [ynq] n
Pick a role for your character:
a - Programmer
b - Librarian
c - Bard
d - Samurai

Pick the race of your character:
a - human
b - troll

...
posted by weston at 12:31 PM on June 11, 2008 [17 favorites]

What i meant was the time from onion to reality, judged by when each story appeared on digg. was about one day.
sorry if that's not immediately clear.
posted by Miles Long at 12:35 PM on June 11, 2008

That's the funny thing about that word. There's no way to pronounce it, it's like "xkcd". I like 'more pigs' cause it's funny and is real words. You may choose to say all those letters one by one if you like.
posted by Miles Long at 12:38 PM on June 11, 2008

There's no way to pronounce it, it's like "xkcd".

Sorry. what's hard to pronounce about uckscuhkud?
posted by flashboy at 12:51 PM on June 11, 2008

Playing a character playing an MMORPG and playing a character managing an MMORPG strike me as two very different things, kind of like the difference between driving a train and managing a railroad company.
posted by chrominance at 1:05 PM on June 11, 2008

There's no way to pronounce it, it's like "xkcd".

Sorry. what's hard to pronounce about uckscuhkud?

Huh. I always thought it was just some vanity license plate version of "exceed."
posted by juv3nal at 1:06 PM on June 11, 2008

This Onion article (one of my favourites) also turned out to be prescient, although it took more than a year, and it was mentioned here before.
posted by breaks the guidelines? at 1:10 PM on June 11, 2008 [2 favorites]

I actually thought the Onion was quite late to the game on this one: in real-life people have been tricked into playing video games where their avatars play video games ever since The Sims, at least. The Sims also earned the distinction of having tricked young boys and grown men alike into playing for days on end before they suddenly realize they've been playing "house" with dolls.
posted by roystgnr at 1:13 PM on June 11, 2008 [1 favorite]

More interesting would be a game that simulates the experience of working at a MMORPGwhatever company. The development process, the business meetings, the caffeine-fueled all night debugging sessions, the cubicle drama, the commute (or telecommute), deciding whether to go out for lunch or reheat the leftovers you brought with you... that sort of thing.
posted by Eideteker at 1:15 PM on June 11, 2008

MMORPG Tycoon sounds like quite a bit of fun, and I look forward to playing it. It certainly sounds like more fun than any given MMORPG. Thanks, Miles Long!
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:16 PM on June 11, 2008

This Onion article (one of my favourites) also turned out to be prescient, although it took more than a year, and it was mentioned here before.
posted by breaks the guidelines? at 1:10 PM on June 11

That one is my favorite, and the one i had in mind, but the onion does it so often now, and it seems to be accelerating.
posted by Miles Long at 1:33 PM on June 11, 2008

I actually thought the Onion was quite late to the game on this one: in real-life people have been tricked into playing video games where their avatars play video games ever since The Sims, at least. The Sims also earned the distinction of having tricked young boys and grown men alike into playing for days on end before they suddenly realize they've been playing "house" with dolls.
posted by roystgnr at 1:13 PM on June 11 [+] [!]

True. Also, the game had to be in development for some amount of time before it was completed, and announced, so the game predates the Onion. You're falling behind, guys. (taps watch)
posted by Miles Long at 1:35 PM on June 11, 2008

I'll give this a try after I beat Blogger Tycoon. It's a great game, but sometimes the commenters wonder off the path and get hit by a roller coaster.
posted by drezdn at 1:46 PM on June 11, 2008

I like 'more pigs' cause it's funny and is real words

Me three. I was way bummed when they changed the name of our campus Center for Teaching, Learning, and Faculty Development (CTLFD) to something simpler because we had to stop calling it "cattlefeed."
posted by FelliniBlank at 1:48 PM on June 11, 2008 [1 favorite]

There's no way to pronounce it, it's like "xkcd".

   Sorry. what's hard to pronounce about uckscuhkud?


Jeez. The 'k' is silent.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 2:06 PM on June 11, 2008

Call me when Tycoon Tycoon is available.
posted by davejay at 4:44 PM on June 11, 2008 [1 favorite]

I thought this would be about an MMORPG Maker program. You know, create your own MMORPG using some simple tools, and invite friends to populate it. How cool would that be?
posted by naju at 5:31 PM on June 11, 2008

Whoa. Aren't we already living in the World of World of...?
posted by t2urner at 5:47 PM on June 11, 2008

Haha. Mike Morhaime, president of Blizzard, said "more-pigs" during his Austin Game Conference keynote last year. We all thought it was HILARIOUS, because I'm there with a bunch of other five or ten-year online game industry veterans, and we had never, ever heard anyone say that, much less even considered it.

Most people in the industry say MMO. M, M, O. There was a brief period where some people said "MMP," M, M, P. (I think it was started by some ex-Origin folks at Turbine. Maybe they still say that out there in Boston.) These days, people who want to be pedantic still say M, M, O, R, P, G. But for the most part, it's just M, M, O.

I speak authoritatively as an industry vet and attendee of many, many conferences where people discuss such games aloud and use the term frequently. :)
posted by liet at 6:00 PM on June 11, 2008

How cool would that be?

That'd be Neverwinter Nights, basically. In theory, it could be very cool. :) The trouble with such things is, it's a lot more fun (for most people) to play the game than to make it, and even if you find it more fun to make than play, it still takes a lot longer and requires more effort.

Procedurally-generated content, on the other hand, is a great way to resolve the "DM's Effort" problem, if you can get it to work: Sherwood is one I found just now. Haven't had time to try it but this review of it seems to indicate it's doing well financially.
posted by aeschenkarnos at 6:07 PM on June 11, 2008

There's no way to pronounce it, it's like "xkcd".

Sorry. what's hard to pronounce about uckscuhkud?

Huh. I always thought it was just some vanity license plate version of "exceed."

I believe one of the comics, or the site itself (I can't recall) explains that xkcd is actually a very esoteric math joke. I'm an innumerate dink, but I believe it's a combination of functions that -- were you to know what they mean -- would cringe and die a little inside upon seeing their application in the author's manner.

Either way, MMORPG and XKCD are abbreviations, not words. Just, uh, sound out the letters. You call it the U-S-A not "the usah".
posted by Dark Messiah at 12:31 AM on June 12, 2008

What XKCD means.
posted by drezdn at 8:09 AM on June 12, 2008