''QWOP'' () is a 2008 ragdoll-based browser

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

created by

Bennett Foddy Bennett Foddy is an Australian video game designer based in New York. Raised in Australia and trained as a moral philosopher on topics of drug addiction, Foddy was a bassist in the electronic music group Cut Copy and a hobbyist game designer w ...

, formerly the bassist of

Cut Copy Cut Copy (sometimes stylised as Cut/Copy) are an Australian synth-pop band formed in 2001 by Dan Whitford (vocals, keyboards and guitar). Originally a home-recording project, the band now includes Tim Hoey (guitars), Ben Browning (bass guitar), ...

. 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.net) reach 30 million hits.

Background

''QWOP'' was created in November 2008 by

for his site Foddy.net, 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 , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. He taught himself to make games while he was procrastinating from finishing his dissertation in philosophy. Foddy had been playing games ever since he got his first computer (a

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colou ...

48K) at age 5. Foddy stated:

Gameplay and reception

Players play as an athlete named "Qwop", who is participating in a 100-meter event at the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

. 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. The Q and W keys each drive one of the runner's

thigh In human anatomy, the thigh is the area between the hip ( pelvis) and the knee. Anatomically, it is part of the lower limb. The single bone in the thigh is called the femur. This bone is very thick and strong (due to the high proportion of ...

s, 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. Though the objective of ''QWOP'' is simple, the game, ever since it was released, has been notorious for being difficult to master due to its controls with the Q, W, O and P keys. Foddy says that he gets a lot of

hate mail Hate mail (as electronic, posted, or otherwise) is a form of harassment, usually consisting of invective and potentially intimidating or threatening comments towards the recipient. Hate mail often contains exceptionally abusive, foul or otherwi ...

for making ''QWOP''.Foddy, Bennett (December 2010)
QWOP
foddy.net. Accessed from June 16, 2013. Despite the criticism for the game's difficulty due to the controls, the game helped Foddy's site reach 30 million hits, according to ''

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...

'', and, also ever since the game was released, has been played by millions of people, although numbers have declined.

Breakthrough and popular culture

On July 27, 2011, ''QWOP'' was featured at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and was part of an event called "

Arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

" hosted by the video game art and culture company

Kill Screen ''Kill Screen'' (stylized as ''KILL SCREEN'') was a print and online magazine founded in 2009 by Jamin Warren and Chris Dahlen and owned by Kill Screen Media, Inc. It focused on video games and culture, but also included articles based on e ...

. The

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

awarded Chintamani, Karnataka resident Roshan Ramachandra for doing the fastest 100m run on the game on April 10, 2013, doing it in 51 seconds. ''QWOP'' appeared on the season 9 premiere of the American sitcom ''

The Office ''The Office'' is a mockumentary sitcom created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, first made in the United Kingdom, then Germany, and subsequently the United States. It has since been remade in ten other countries. The original series o ...

''.

Alternative versions

An iPhone app of the game was released in 2011. 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. Kotaku called the iPhone version "4000 Percent More Impossible" than the original game and "An Olympic Challenge For Thumbs". A 2-player multiplayer version of ''QWOP'' named ''2QWOP'' was also released in February 2012, after being featured at an event in Austin named "The Foddy Winter Olympics" displaying a selection of Bennett Foddy's games. 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.

References

External links