Make Love, Not Warcraft
Template:Infobox South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft" is episode 147 of Comedy Central's animated series South Park and aired on October 4, 2006. This episode is a parody of the popularity of the massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), World of Warcraft, or rather, gamers themselves, and was announced by Comedy Central on September 30, 2006. It was advertised as the tenth season second half premiere.[1]
The episode uses machinima in many of its scenes to create a better emulation of the game.[2] It was originally scheduled to air as episode #145, but was later delayed because of difficulties in creating the machinima.[3]
Since the airing of the episode, it was planned that the fictitious Sword of a Thousand Truths used in the episode would be added as a part of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, although it would not have the same capabilities as in the show.
Plot
The boys of South Park are having fun playing the online game World of Warcraft when Jenkins, a rogue griefer, sets out to destroy them. A highly dedicated player, Jenkins[I] is said to have been playing each day for a year and a half and has advanced through many levels, allowing him to disobey Blizzard Entertainment's rules and kill players, as well as GMs(Game Masters), at random.[II] The boys attempt to defeat Jenkins, while Stan's father, Randy, also becomes fascinated with the game.
Cartman gathers all the boys of South Park and collaborates an attack on Jenkins. They all are to log on at the same time and attack him. However, Jenkins summons scorpions and easily dispatches the boys' characters. Afterwards, everyone gives up and finds other interests, with the exceptions of Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny. For several weeks, they play the game for twenty one hours a day, killing boars in the game's forests (to gain experience points) and hiding from Jenkins. In the process, the boys become grossly overweight, acne-ridden and lazy, and develop large Internet vocabularies, using terms such as "uber" and "pwned" in daily conversation.[III] The boys' characters grow so quickly that the Blizzard executives take notice, realizing that the boys have no personal lives at all.
Determined to help the boys slay Jenkins, the executives decide to give the boys the Sword of a Thousand Truths, a weapon so powerful that it was removed from the game and stored on a 1 GB flash drive. However, "Salzman from Accounting" predicted that it would eventually be put to use. Unaware of the plan, however, the boys have already begun a seventeen-hour crusade against Jenkins, which the executives predict to be unsuccessful. The executives arrive at Stan's house with the flash drive, unaware that the boys are actually at Cartman's house. Randy agrees to take the sword and give it to the boys, eventually logging onto a computer at Best Buy. Randy gives Stan the weapon, although he is mortally wounded by Jenkins in the process. With their combined efforts, the boys defeat Jenkins, moments before Randy's character finally dies.
As the World of Warcraft players celebrate Jenkins' demise, Cartman notes that the boys can now begin playing the game.
Production details
Collaboration
The South Park creators collaborated with Blizzard Entertainment, the company that created the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo franchises, to craft the machinima used in the episode. The machinima scenes were created using shots of the in-game footage, and re-creation of the characters in Maya, with Blizzard Entertainment providing their own character models and computers to test with.[3] Blizzard also gave the producers permission to use the alpha server of the expansion pack World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade to shoot the scenes on.[3] Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment, issued a statement over the collaboration:
We were excited to hear that the creators of 'South Park' were interested in featuring World of Warcraft in the opening of their new season, and we really enjoyed collaborating with them to make this happen. We're looking forward to sharing the experience with our employees and our players as well when the season debuts this week.[4]
However, the animation in the episode is modified from the gameplay of World of Warcraft,[5] and contains elements that do not exist in the game: talking animations, controlled NPCs, human hunters, and a gory scene.
Production time
Although the planning of the episode and data-collecting began on September 1, 2006, the actual production of the machinima was done in five "shooting" days, the first being September 20, 2006, which lasted about 3-5 hours, and the last being October 3, 2006.[3] The regular South Park animation was created simultaneously, with all the other non-machinima episodes of the series routinely finishing within 12 hours of their airing as well.[3]
Reception
The episode received generally high review ratings. IGN, a multimedia news and reviews website, reviewed the episode and gave it an overall rating of 9.3, labeling it as "one of the funniest episodes ever produced".[6] The episode also shows a user average score of 9.4 at TV.com,[7] an 8.8 average at IMDb,[8] and a reader average of 9.6 at IGN.[6]
The original television airing of the episode drew 3.4 million viewers, most between the ages of 18 and 49.[9] This popularity made the episode Comedy Central's highest-rated midseason premiere since the year 2000.[9] However, the highest ratings for the tenth season belong to the season's premiere, "The Return of Chef", which drew more than 3.5 million viewers.[10]
In the recent UK poll Paramount Comedies' Top 10 Episodes, this episode was ranked number 1.
Trivia
- A new theme tune is introduced from this episode onwards. The titles remain the same but the country-like tune has been replaced by the distorted bassline of Whamola by Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade along with a brief excerpt of the original theme at the start.
- The logo on the computers looks like the logo from Albino Blacksheep.
Notes
- I^ Although never named within the episode, the official FAQ of the show states that the renegade is named Jenkins, probably after Leeroy Jenkins, an Internet phenomenon character from the game.[11]
- II^ Kenny's World of Warcraft character dies after being killed by the renegade character several times like the rest of the group. Although he doesn't die outside the game, when he is first killed, Stan and Kyle say their catchphrase ("Oh my God! He killed Kenny!" "You bastard!").
- III^ During this scene, Live to Win, the title track from Kiss vocalist Paul Stanley's solo album is played in the background.[12] This episode, however, was aired over two weeks before the release of the album.
References
- ^ Ross Miller (2006-10-2). "South Park: make love, not Warcraft (update 1)". Joystiq. Retrieved 2006-11-12.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Dave Spohn (2006-10-1). "World of Warcraft Meets "South Park"". internetgames.about.com. Retrieved 2006-11-12.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b c d e ""Make Love, Not Warcraft" interview". machinima.com. 2006-11-15. Retrieved 2006-11-19.
- ^ "South Park celebrates 10 groundbraking seasons!!!". blizzard.com. Retrieved 2006-11-04.
- ^ Blizzard Entertainment. World of Warcraft. Vivendi Universal.
- ^ a b Dan Iverson (2006-10-05). "South Park: "Make Love, Not Warcraft" review". tv.ign.com. Retrieved 2006-11-13.
- ^ "Make Love, Not Warcraft". tv.com. Retrieved 2006-11-13.
- ^ ""South Park" Make Love, Not Warcraft (2006)". imdb.com. Retrieved 2006-11-13.
- ^ a b TV/Radio notes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 12, 2006
- ^ Reuters (2006-03-24). "Chef's grisly exit is a South Park hit". smh.com.au. Retrieved 2006-11-14.
{{cite web}}:|author=has generic name (help) - ^ "South Park official FAQ". southparkstudios.com. Retrieved 2006-11-12.
- ^ "South Park: Make Love, Not Warcraft recap". tv.com. Retrieved 2006-11-12.
External links
