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Pure Pwnage

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The Pure Pwnage Logo.

Pure Pwnage (pronounced “pure ownage”[1], IPA: [pjʊɹ oʊnIdʒ]) is an Internet-distributed mockumentary series from ROFLMAO Productions. The fictional series purports to chronicle the life and adventures of Jeremy, a Canadian self-proclaimed "pro" video game player. Originating in 2004, twelve 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, Montréal, and the Netherlands.

The episodes are filmed mostly from the vantage point of Kyle, Jeremy’s brother and roommate in the story. Kyle, a former film student, is currently working full time on Pure Pwnage, making income off of the "noobstore". The Pure Pwnage website states that ROFLMAO may go into full-time production after Kyle’s graduation, and, as of January 2006, is negotiating the airing of Pure Pwnage on television. A DVD is now scheduled to be released, as the first season is now over. The Pure Pwnage crew will have a brief hiatus before resuming the creation of Pure Pwnage. In an interview with Good Game, Geoff Lapaire (Kyle) revealed that there will be three seasons each consisting of twelve episodes and possibly a feature length film.

This show has generated a strong cult following. The characters, as seen through several episodes, are becoming known “in RL” (real life). Although staged, the recognition seems genuine. As well, the official Internet forum has several users counting posts into the thousands from daily in-depth examination of episodes or, more frequently, choice banter between enthusiasts.

Most of the information about the Pure Pwnage series comes from the TeamSpeak chat public interviews[2], 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 reversed. In the end credits, the names of the cast and creators of Pure Pwnage were revealed in the credits. 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.[3]

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.[4] A complete n00b cannot become pro simply through training; this merely results in a trained n00b.[5]

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 pwning factor.

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 specifically was originally known as the player's direct real time control of any of his given units exactly the way he intends them to behave and react on the small scale. This requires a lot of dexterity, speed and skill in handling the game's input devices such as mouse and keyboard in order to precisely control every single one of the numerous units involved in an RTS in-game battle. Macromanagement, in contrast, is an RTS player's ability of planning and organizing the economic, infrastructural and in any other way strategic management and development of his whole army, country or civilization on the big 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.[6] 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.[7]

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.[8]

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.[9]

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.[2] 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 given away 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. Template:Spoilers

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Jeremy (aka teh_pwnerer ) (played by Jarett Cale)
The protagonist of Pure Pwnage, twenty-two year old Jeremy is a stereotypical pro gamer. He lives in Toronto, Canada with his 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 “totally pwn Pong”.
Due to Jeremy’s profound immersion in video game culture, his social skills have atrophied. 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 weblog.
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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 “total n00b” in many ways.
The show is shot almost entirely from Kyle’s point of view, so even though he often talks to the other characters.[10] His face is finally revealed in Episode 12, as shown in the current shot.
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Doug (aka 'fps_doug') (played by Joel Gardiner)
Jeremy’s boisterous friend and rival, Doug spends most of his time playing FPS games such as Counter-Strike: Source and America's Army, 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..
Doug’s triumphant catchphrase, “BOOM! HEADSHOT!”, has become a popular exclamation among FPS players and has been displayed on many online message boards.
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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.
Dave left the show after Episode 9 (“The Story of Dave”), saying he had things to do back in China. 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. 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.
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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”[2]). 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.[11]
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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”. Anastasia and Jeremy have differing views about video games, as she believes they should be social — not just about pwning. See also Anastasia’s weblog.

The episodes

Main article: List of Pure Pwnage episodes

There are currently twelve episodes available to the public. Episode 12 was premiered on October 28, November 2 and 4 in Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto respectively, before being released to the general public, November 6, 2006, completing Season 1. It was the first episode to feature credits for the cast of the show. Supposedly, PurePwnage will take a break, but the show will be back next year. 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.

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Pure Pwnage: The Comic Issue 01 Page 04. Jeremy’s encounter with the jock is displayed as a spoof of a Final Fantasy-style battle menu.

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.

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$5000 (Mar 2006)) through 10 days of 99 bids.[2] They reportedly used the money to travel to the Netherlands to surprise visit long-time fans of the show. [3] The Pure Pwnage crew obtained the address from clothing that was ordered from those fans.
  • Jeremy, in his early childhood, played text-based adventure games, but later became utterly obsessed with empire-building games on his 386, and then competitive multiplayer gameplay as video games evolved. The Warcraft and Street Fighter series were of particular interest. He is more concerned with gameplay than graphics. His favorite game designer is Shigeru Miyamoto[2].
  • Despite Jeremy’s competitive persona, he contrasts with a professional video game player, whose primary source of income comes from winning video game tournaments. Rather, the implications of “pro” in Jeremy’s sense (and others like him) refers only to relative skill level. Jeremy spends the majority of his time playing video games and lacks employment. In the TeamSpeak chat, Jeremy stated that due to this lack of income, he cannot travel to competitions as much as he would like.
  • Kyle sometimes mentions film director Martin Scorsese when discussing his cinematography preferences, and he desires to be like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg[2].
  • Doug seems to shave his head and face specifically for episode filming. He was seen wearing a hair-concealing toque and scruffy beard during his live appearance for the theatrical screening of Episode 9.
  • 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.[4] (AFD Discussion: 1, 2). More votes had been put forth since.
  • While in the show Jeremy has noted that MMOs are “ghey,” in a recent TeamSpeak conversation he revealed that he bought World of Warcraft on its release date, played for 18 hours a day, and was the first priest on his server to reach the level cap of 60.
  • Jeremy said in Episode 10 “behind the scenes” featurette that he rubs all the Pure Pwnage merchandise shirts on his testicles before delivery. In a Good Game Episode 5 interview, he revealed it was a prank on the people who ordered t-shirts.
  • The official Pure Pwnage forums were defaced and cracked twice: at the end of April and at the beginning of May. This is due to recent vulnerabilities in the IPB bulletin board system. The forums were out for almost a week. The attack possibly occurred because the posters of the forums insulted the crackers.
  • The last public Pure Pwnage TeamSpeak chat was targeted by a script kiddie 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.
  • In the Episode 12 credits, the character's real names are revealed.
  • 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, and in Jeremy's MySpace profile there is a picture of him sitting in a coffee shop, with the caption "i dun liek coffee.. but coffeeshops r uber rofl," and in the picture he seems to have a glazed look in his eyes.
  • Dave is the only character played by himself, as well as the only one who hasn't revealed his last name on the show.

Notes

  1. ^ The word “pwnage” can be pronounced several different ways. The show’s creators pronounce it “ownage”. Jeremy justifies this pronunciation with the following statements: “When people say ‘/poʊn/’, they sound like a complete fag, and I’m not cool with being a fag, so I pronounce it ‘own’.” “‘Pwn’ was originally a typo of ‘own’, because the ‘P’ is near the ‘O’ on the keyboard. The person is still trying to say ‘own’.” [TeamSpeak chat, December 13 2005].
  2. ^ a b c d e Starting with Episode 8, the Pure Pwnage cast and crew hold a public TeamSpeak interview soon after the release of each episode, revealing many details about the show and the personalities involved in its creation. The recordings of each episode are linked in a post on the forums.
  3. ^ In Episode 1, “The Life of a Pro Gamer”, Jeremy refers to himself as “pro”, based on his superior video game playing skills, and refers to inferior gamers as “n00bs”. He also cites Kyle’s inept social skills and camera work as those of a n00b. A pro gamer is said to "Pwn" noobs.
  4. ^ In Episode 4, “Pwn or Be Pwned”, Teh_Masterer explains the nature of n00bs vs. pros. Moreover, pros such as Jeremy and FPS Doug are defeated and temporarily rendered n00bs — they become “n00bified” — in Episode 2 (“Girls”), and in “Pwn or Be Pwned”. Other evidence of the relative relationship between pros and n00bs is clarified in the “Jeremy’s mailbag” section of the Pure Pwnage website. An October 2 2004 letter from user “ID Project” asked about Jeremy’s new T-shirt. Jeremy responds “lol it sez i pwn n00bs bcuz evry1 is a n00b compared 2 me rofl.” This clearly suggests that pros may become n00bs when faced by superior pros.
  5. ^ Jeremy explains the trained n00b phenomenon in Episode 5, “M8s” at approximately 4:20.
  6. ^ Episode 2 (“Girls”) suggests that only pro gamers such as Jeremy possess über micro. Examples of his superior micro ability are apparent in every episode. Jeremy’s explanation of über micro were reported in the December 2005, UK edition of PC Gamer. He was quoted as saying, “to have über-micro is to be completely at one with the controls of the game. It’s to have a thought in your head, and never for one moment examine how that’s going to get out into the game; it just flows through you. To have über-micro is to know that at every moment all your units are doing exactly what you want. Your brain is flowing straight to your hands. It’s sort of like qi, you know. You’ve got to close your mind to all things, and focus on the micro.”
  7. ^ Episode 4 (“Pwn or Be Pwned”) shows Jeremy enhancing his micro with training by Teh_Masterer, who certainly displays micro capabilities greater than Jeremy’s in multi-genre gaming. Teh_Masterer is also seen training lesser video game players in Episode 9 (“The Story of Dave”). Episode 8 (“LANageddon”) shows Jeremy and Doug training each other in their respective genres, as each man possessed substantially greater micro than the other in their individual games before the training session.
  8. ^ Jeremy shows his micro to Teh_Masterer in Episode 4 (“Pwn or Be Pwned”) without the use of a keyboard. Being an experienced video game player, Teh_Masterer comprehends Jeremy’s micro ability. In Episode 2 (“Girls”) the non-gaming people do not comprehend Jeremy’s micro demonstration.
  9. ^ In Episode 9 (“The Story of Dave”), many characters clearly demonstrate abilities that transcend the boundaries of reality. Most notable is the ability for various pro gamers to use their micro to physically combat each other in real life. Kyle being knocked to the ground by a micro attack during the micro battle shows that micro can also be effective against non-gamers.
  10. ^ There are some instances where Kyle is caught on camera. In Episode 2 (“Girls”), when Jeremy is talking about the one time he pwned, the mirror behind him gives a presumably accidental glimpse of Kyle filming. In addition, Episode 9 (“The Story of Dave”), gives a third person shot of Kyle filming when the group is ambushed, but his face is hidden behind the camera as usual.
  11. ^ In the Pure Pwnage forums, a forum member's post pointed out a physical resemblance between Teh_Masterer and a musician named Geoff Lapaire (Kyle), based in Toronto. The presence of a link to the Pure Pwnage site at the bottom of Lapaire’s website suggests the possibility that he is the actor who plays Teh_Masterer and/or is Pure Pwnage’s music producer. In Episode 12, it is revealed that Geoff Lapaire plays both Kyle and teh_masterer. A later post in the same thread confirms Geoff Lapaire’s association with Pure Pwnage, as the purepwnage.com domain name is registered under the name “Geoff Lapaire.” His specific connection to Teh_Masterer remained unconfirmed until recently, although in a FAQ by a root admin of the forum [1] it was verified that “Geoff is the web guy, he makes the Pure Pwnage web page and the store page." In Episode 12, however, it was revealed that Kyle is played by Lapaire and that Lapaire directs Pure Pwnage, as well as composing music for the show
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