2008 video game
QWOP ( ) is a 2008 ragdoll-based browser video game created by Bennett
Foddy, formerly the bassist of Cut Copy. Players control an athlete named "Qwop" using
only the Q, W, O, and P keys. The game became an internet meme in December 2010. The
game helped Foddy's site (Foddy) reach 30 million hits.[1]
Background [ edit ]
Bennett
Foddy, QWOP 's creator, at Fondation Brocher in October 2009
QWOP was created in
November 2008 by Bennett Foddy for his site Foddy, when Foddy was a deputy director and
senior research fellow of the Programme on the Ethics of the New Biosciences, The
Oxford Martin School, part of the University of Oxford.[2][3] He taught himself to make
games while he was procrastinating from finishing his dissertation in philosophy.[4]
Foddy had been playing games ever since he got his first computer (a ZX Spectrum 48K)
at age 5.[4] Foddy stated:
"One of the things I found with QWOP is that people like to
set their own goals in a game. Some people would feel like winners if they ran 5
meters, and others would feel like winners if they inched all the way along the track
over the course of an hour. If I had put a social leaderboard or par system in, those
people would probably have all quit out of frustration, leaving only the most
determined or masochistic players behind."[5]
Gameplay [ edit ]
QWOP 's title refers to
the four keyboard keys used to move the muscles of the sprinter avatar.
Players play as
an athlete named "Qwop", who is participating in a 100-meter event at the Olympic
Games. Using only the Q, W, O and P keys, players must control the movement of the
athlete's legs to make the character move forward while trying to avoid falling
over.[6] The Q and W keys each drive one of the runner's thighs, while the O and P keys
work the runner's calves. The Q key drives the runner's right thigh forward and left
thigh backward, and the W key also affects the thighs and does the opposite. The O and
P keys work in the same way as the Q and W keys, but with the runner's calves. The
actual amount of movement of a joint is affected by the resistance due to forces from
gravity and inertia placed upon it.
Breakthrough and popular culture [ edit ]
QWOP
featured at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in July 2011
On July 27, 2011,
QWOP was featured at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and was part of an event
called "Arcade" hosted by the video game art and culture company Kill Screen.[7]
The
Guinness World Records awarded Chintamani, Karnataka resident Roshan Ramachandra for
doing the fastest 100m run on the game on April 10, 2013, doing it in 51
seconds.[8]
QWOP appeared on the season 9 premiere of the American sitcom The
Office.[9]
Alternative versions [ edit ]
An iPhone app of the game was released in
2011.[10][11] The App version follows the same gameplay as with the original version,
but the controls differ. The player controls QWOP's legs and arms by moving their
thumbs around in the diamonds on the screen.[12] Kotaku called the iPhone version "4000
Percent More Impossible" than the original game[13] and "An Olympic Challenge For
Thumbs".[14]
A 2-player multiplayer version of QWOP named 2QWOP was also released in
February 2012,[15] after being featured at an event in Austin named "The Foddy Winter
Olympics" displaying a selection of Bennett Foddy's games.[16][17] This version places
the game in vertical splitscreen, automatically assigning one player's thighs and
calves to the Q, W, E, and R keys, while the other player uses the U, I, O, and P
keys.[18][19][20][21][22]
See also [ edit ]
