Pure Pwnage

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The Pure Pwnage Logo.

Pure Pwnage (pronounced “pure ownage” , IPA: ['p^hjʊɹ oʊnɪdʒ]) is an Internet-distributed mockumentary series from ROFLMAO Productions. The fictional series purports to chronicle the life and adventures of Jeremy (played by Jarett Cale), a Canadian self-proclaimed "pro gamer". Originating in 2004, fourteen episodes of the series have been released to date. The creators of the show recently estimated their current viewer base to be well over three million. The series is filmed primarily in Toronto but has also included scenes filmed in Calgary, Montreal, and the Netherlands.

The episodes are filmed mostly from the vantage point of Kyle (Geoff Lapaire), Jeremy's brother and roommate in the story. Lapaire, a former physics student, is currently working full time on Pure Pwnage, making income from the "noobstore", an online store selling merchandise such as T-shirts and stickers based on the show. A DVD box set of the complete first season is available via the Pure Pwnage website (post). In an interview with Good Game, Geoff Lapaire (Kyle) stated that there will be three seasons each consisting of twelve episodes and possibly a feature length film, although their plans are not set in stone.

This show has generated a strong cult following. The characters, as seen through several episodes, are becoming known in real life. Although staged, the recognition seems genuine. As well, the official Internet forum has several users counting posts into the thousands discussing the show.

Most of the information about the Pure Pwnage series comes from the TeamSpeak chat public interviews, the Pure Pwnage website, the featurettes, and the regular episodes (see List of Pure Pwnage episodes).

The world of Pure Pwnage

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Jeremy, a “pro gamer”, in a promotional image from the series.

Pure Pwnage takes the audience to a world where the power and importance of video games is revealed to be far greater than the gaming layman might expect. Kyle appears to film the show in gonzo, and it seems to mix the real world with a fictional one, blurring this with references outside Kyle’s lens at times (shown in a letterboxed format). The show, and its extension in the internet community, extensively breaks the fourth wall. Hence fans typically address the show’s characters as if they were real people. However, in episode 12, the final episode of season one, this trend was altered. In the end credits, the names of the cast and creators of Pure Pwnage were revealed. The face of Kyle, which had never been seen before in the series, was also revealed.

Pro gamers vs. noobs

In the world of Pure Pwnage, certain elite gamers are quick to judge others based on their ability to master video games. Those with limited ability in a given skill, or who otherwise exhibit characteristics of one who is new to that skill, are collectively known as n00bs.

Persons with abilities that exceed those of others, primarily in video gaming, are referred to as pro. The n00b/pro distinction is not mutually exclusive, as a pro may be rendered a n00b by a more proficient pro. A complete n00b cannot become pro simply through training; this merely results in a trained n00b.

The term “pro gamer” does not necessarily mean that gaming is used as a source of income for the gamer, but rather a commentary on the gamer’s ability to do better than others.

Gamer Army

Often referred to as "Teh Gamer Army" or "PPGA", this is a small part of the Pure Pwnage community where gamers can sign up (for US$19.99) to obtain "gamer army" status on the forum, thereby gaining access to deeper parts of the forum where gamers discuss events that could be played between members of the gamer army. They also receive material recognition under the form of a dog tag with their gamer army number, name, and two other lines of their choice (suggested is favourite game, guild/clan name, date of birth or real-life name.).

The gamer army's soldiers have grown exponentially, and currently are led primarily by classified members of the Special Ops Division. Almost all knowledge of the Special Ops Division is classified, and unknown. There seems to be an Alternate Reality Game taking place, revolving around a kidnapped member of the Gamer Army. Though little is known as of now, perhaps more will be made public once the mission is "de-classified". The Current PPGA Logo/Badge is shown at http://www.purepwnage.com/member/dogtag/ppga_med.png

Micro

Most characters in Pure Pwnage exhibit a fantastic video game playing ability known simply as micro. The neologism micro stems from micromanagement strategies inherent in playing RTS games effectively. Micromanagement in RTS was originally known as the player's direct, real time control of any of his given units, causing them to behave exactly as intended, reacting on the small scale. This control method requires a high degree of dexterity, speed and skill in handling input devices such as a mouse and keyboard. Macromanagement, in contrast, is a management style concerned with planning and organizing economy, infrastructure, and strategic movements on a larger scale. One’s “micro” ability is applicable to any manner of video gaming, suggesting that any individual function of any given game peripheral may be managed with a significant level of refinement and expertise.

The primary function of micro is to win while playing video games, and otherwise pwning n00bs. However, micro can be both practiced and made use of in real life — otherwise known as RL. Examples of this include efficiently dialing telephone numbers and quickly checking one’s bank balance at an ATM.

When a video game player reaches a certain high level of ability, that gamer transcends mere micro ability, and thus possesses über micro. In order to attain a high degree of über micro, the gamer must undergo significant physical and spiritual training. This training is conducted under the tutelage of a person with much greater micro.

Those who possess partial or complete über micro abilities are able to practice their micro without the aid of an actual peripheral device. To the layperson, it appears that a person demonstrating über micro is keying and mouse-clicking empty space.

Those who have achieved a significantly high level of über micro may begin to manifest their video game playing abilities in more profound ways while in RL. In this way, characters in Pure Pwnage are not limited by the normal restrictions of reality.

Characters

During an interview, director Geoff Lapaire (although as "Kyle"; Lapaire maintained his "Kyle" identity among fans and media) insisted that all of the characters on the show are not acting. He suggests that the personalities on Pure Pwnage display their true-to-life abilities and eccentricities, and the characters take great pains to maintain that the Pure Pwnage world is simply an extension of the real world. Lapaire has finally admitted that they are in fact actors. The 6th fanchat with the crew was out-of-character, where the fact that the characters within Pure Pwnage are exaggerated versions of the actors was confirmed.

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Jeremy

Jeremy (aka teh_pwnerer) (played by Jarett Cale)

The protagonist of Pure Pwnage, twenty-five year old Jeremy is a stereotypical pro gamer. He lives in Toronto, Canada with his younger brother, Kyle. Jeremy spends the vast majority of his time playing video games and “pwning n00bs”, using the online handle teh_pwnerer (“the ownerer”). He has been playing games since the age of two, when he used to “tolly pwn Pong” (totally own Pong).

Due to Jeremy’s profound immersion in video game culture, his social skills have atrophied. Because Jeremy has lived in his basement for most of his life, he has had very little conversation with any other person and has therefore taught himself how to speak. This means his fictional accent is slurred and full of interjections such as "like" and "'n' stuff". However, he has also developed the ability to quickly master any video game, and can play competitively against extremely skilled opponents. Jeremy often makes narcissistic comments about himself. See Jeremy’s MySpace.

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Kyle

Kyle (played by Geoff Lapaire)

Jeremy’s younger brother and director of the show, Kyle is working full-time on Pure Pwnage, and ROFLMAO productions . He determines what events to film, but usually just follows Jeremy around. Occasionally, he tries to introduce Jeremy to a diversion from video gaming. According to Jeremy, Kyle is a “tol n00b” (total noob) in many ways.

The show is shot almost entirely from Kyle’s point of view and he often talks to the other characters. His face is finally revealed in Episode 12, as shown to the right.

Doug (aka fps_doug) (played by Joel Gardiner)

Jeremy’s boisterous best friend and rival, Doug spends most of his time playing FPS games such as Counter-Strike: Source, defeating his opponents by skillfully “getting the headshot”. Doug has serious anger management issues, and can appear to be a psychopath, obsessed with FPS games to the point that he goes out training and practicing real headshots in real life, (though with an imaginary gun).

Doug’s triumphant catchphrase, “BOOM! HEADSHOT!”, has become a popular exclamation among FPS players and has been displayed on many online message boards.

Dave (also known by his Chinese name, Dawei) (played by himself)

Jeremy’s friend, notable for his cooking skills and his nonchalant sense of humour, Dave is first introduced as a crew member in a “behind the scenes” featurette at the end of Episode 3 (“FPS Doug”). He excels at fighting games such as Street Fighter II but is usually seen cooking or casually observing Jeremy’s and Kyle’s antics. He has started his own web cooking show, named 'Pro at Cooking'.

Dave left the show after Episode 9 (“The Story of Dave”), saying he had things to do back in China (he later returned in Episode 13, entitled "Old Habits"). The webcomic later revealed that he was really moving to Vancouver for a new job. However, the creators of Pure Pwnage have been known to be misleading, and the webcomic could very well be a filler for those looking for an explanation on why Dave left the show. The Hak.5 episode 2x05 on Pure Pwnage implies that Dave simply didn't want to star in the show and requested to be written out in a positive way. Recently, Dave posted a story on the main page of the website about his life in China, with a picture attached. One of Jeremy's MySpace friends took pictures of the spot where Dave also took his picture, and is in fact located in Toronto's Chinatown. Dave returned to the show in season 2, rescuing Jeremy from his "near pwned" experience vs Doug and the Big Bad. He refused to say what happened in China but he resumes playing games and cooking for Jeremy and Kyle.

Teh_Masterer (voiced by William Craig and played by Geoff Lapaire)

Always clad entirely in ninja clothing, Teh_Masterer is a mysterious master gamer who trains Jeremy and others in the ways of being a pro gamer. His micro ability is so profound that he can play multiple video games at once, and he claims that he once “beat Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue with nothing more than a row of pawns and a single bishop.” He lives in seclusion in a small apartment, but he does have access to a training area (Kyle refers to this as the “room with no exits”). His true identity was unknown until Episode 12, where it is stated that Geoff Lapaire (who plays Kyle) plays Teh_Masterer. In Episode 11, when Jeremy visits Holland, Teh_Masterer appears to be under surveillance by some form of agency such as the CIA, who are tracking Teh_Masterer's network of gamers and apprentices. Whether this story arc will be picked up on or continued in the future is unknown. Teh_Masterer wears black ninja clothing to protect his exceptionally sensitive skin, a condition he developed from playing video games for fifteen straight years in a dim basement.

Anastasia (Nicknames: Stasia and Tagi) (played by Miranda Plant)

MMO-playing Anastasia is Jeremy’s first love interest on Pure Pwnage. She interacts with Jeremy off-camera in Episode 2 (“Girls”), but the audience never sees her meet him until Episode 6 (“Imapwnu of Azeroth”). She plays World of Warcraft under the pseudonym “Tagi”. In episode 14, Jeremy decides to delete her character in World of Warcraft after it becomes apparent that Anastasia has become addicted to it. Anastasia and Jeremy have different views about video games, as she believes they should be social — not just about pwning noobs. In episode 12, it is revealed that she has turned into a vegetarian because of the health benefits. See also Anastasia’s weblog.

Episodes

Main article: List of Pure Pwnage episodes

There are currently fourteen episodes available to the public. Episode 14 was released on July 24, 2007. Episode 13 was premiered first on April 14 2007 in Toronto, it also premiered in various other cities (including some in the USA) within the next few weeks. Finally, it was released to the general public on May 4, 2007. Episode 12 was the first episode to feature credits for the cast of the show. Episode 11 was released June 19, 2006 through an advance screening over the internet for US$2.99 and was released June 21, 2006 to the general public for free. They are all available for download in DivX-encoded AVI format and now also in Mac/iPod and PSP MP4 format from the Pure Pwnage website, HTTP mirrors, via BitTorrent, or via Xfire. Subtitles are available in 30 languages and counting. The entire season, as of Episode 12, can now be viewed directly on the site, using Macromedia Flash Player. On the release of Episode 12, the website was overwhelmed by the many users trying to watch the season finale.

Episode 1 of season 2 premiered on April 14, 2007, at 7 p.m. in the Bloor Cinema in Toronto, after some technical difficulty and was eventually shown in black and white. The next day, for the first time, it was screened in colour at Cinema du Parc in Montreal. It had also been screened on later dates throughout late April at several locations in the United States (such as New York, Houston, and San Diego.) and Canada. After much delay, Episode 13 (Season 2) was released as a streaming format on the Pure Pwnage Website early morning May 5th EST.

Episode 2 of season 2 ("Lifestyles") premiered on July 14, 2007, at 4p.m. local time, in the Fairfield Theatre in Croydon, United Kingdom. Due to local demand in the U.K., the originally-planned single screening was extended to two screenings, the latter at 8 p.m.. The premier featured a re-screening of episode 13 prior to the screening of the new episode, and was hosted by Cale, Lapaire and Plant.

Online community

Pure Pwnage has spawned a large online gaming community on the web; the Official Pure Pwnage Forums, which were created in early October 2004, boast more than one million posts to which over 20,000 members have contributed, and 1,338 users were simultaneously online on June 21, 2006. Pure Pwnage also runs a Community Internet Relay Chat and its own Teamspeak Server, in which many of its fan chats are held on.

Pure Pwnage: The Comic

Since February 28, 2006, the Pure Pwnage website features a regularly issued comic, of which a new page is released once every two to three weeks. Apparently set in the “real world” rather than in the magical world of Pure Pwnage, the comic breaks most of the fourth wall of the show. For example, Dave held in the show that he was leaving it due to unfinished business in China, the comic claims that the real reason was that he had found a new job in Vancouver.

However, both the show and comic clearly contain elements that are either symbolic representations of reality (for example, pwning an opponent with "micro balls" as a possible metaphor for pwning them in an actual video game) or are not based in reality whatsoever.

References to Pure Pwnage

• In Guild Wars: Factions, the player is capable of recruiting a ranger henchman called Yuun. During combat he occasionally taunts the enemy with "I can dance all day! I can dance all day!" and "Are you afraid of my…headshot?". These are most likely references to FPS Doug's taunts he uses while playing Counter-Strike.
• Über Micro Skillz is a title awarded by the online game Guild Wars to players who win sufficiently many of the mini-games available during seasonal festivals.
• An episode of the show Hak.5 is a special episode about Pure Pwnage, featuring Geoff and Jarett talking out of character about the show, its conception, and also documenting the showing of Episode 12 in Toronto, Canada.
• In episode 8 of Good Game at 3:50 there is text labeling the master setting on a HDD as "Master-er". Good Game has also interviewed Pure Pwnage twice.
• In "Call of Duty 3" there is text during one of the loading screens saying "Boom! Headshot!" followed by a passage explaining the importance of a headshot in the game, these are obvious references to FPS_Doug.
• In an episode of Weebl and Bob titled 'Housework,' there is an exploding hedgehog followed by an exclamation of "BOOM! Hedgehog!" There is also a dancing man who says "I can dance all day." These are possible references to FPS_Doug.
• In the movie Disturbia, when Kale is playing GRAW 2 he says "BOOM HEADSHOT".

Music

Pure Pwnage has spawned some related songs, usually sung by characters in the show. These songs are available at the official website.

• Get Outta Myspace - Sung by Geoff Lapaire
• I'm a Gamer - Sung by Linda Gallant
• I Feel Like Pwning N00bs - Sung by Kyle and Jeremy
• Teh N00b Song - Sung by Jeremy
• World of Warcraft is a Feeling - Sung by Davin Lengyel and Sabina
• Big big big da balls - Sung by Jeremy and Doug

More Series Music can be purchased on the Season 1 Soundtrack [2]

Music from some episodes (The website mentions episodes 2, 4 and 5) are taken from Interstellar's "To Sleep, to dream, to wake"

Trivia

• On March 27, 2006, Jeremy sold a lock of his hair with a signed bandana on eBay as memorabilia from Episode 10. It sold for US$4,200 (approx. C$5,000 [Mar 2006]) through 10 days of 99 bids. They used the money to travel to the Netherlands to surprise visit long-time fans of the show. The Pure Pwnage crew obtained the address from clothing that was ordered from those fans.
• Episode 10 received 597,893 downloads in the first 24 hours from the official mirror alone.
• The director, Kyle, made reference to its two failed “article for deletion” votes on Wikipedia while discussing legitimacy of such Internet television. (AFD Discussion: 1, 2). More votes had been put forth since.
• The episode 12 Pure Pwnage TeamSpeak chat was targeted by a cracking group who managed to close down the TeamSpeak server on more than one occasion throughout the chat, although the disruption was completely ignored by the organizers and the chat went successfully.
• Forum user Skrie from the Pure Pwnage forums is the attacker from episode 11. This can be explained by the fact that Skrie was given a surprise visit from Cale and Lapaire during their Netherlands visit using the money procured from Jeremy's (Cale) hair auction on eBay.
• On the day of Episode 12's internet release, Jeremy's friend count on MySpace measured 31337.
• Throughout the series, the show makes passive references to marijuana. For example, during the first few episodes of the series, their address number is 420; Kyle makes a passing camera glance on a sign of an Amsterdam coffee shop.
• The dog "Dick" that appears in episode 12 of Pure Pwnage has his own MySpace Profile: teh_kemo. It is revealed that his name is in fact Kemo.

Notes

External links

• Pure Pwnage website
• Pure Pwnage Artchive
• Pure Pwnage Documentary on Hak5
• Pure Pwnage Frapper Map
• Pure Pwnage Interview on Good Game
• Pure Pwnage Portal