My favorite kind of game is role-playing games that turn repetitive real-life work into repetitive game work with fewer rewards. I'm not impressed by PMOG, the massively multiplayer RPG played by just surfing the web. It's cute, but it's too distracting for anyone doing Serious Business on the Internet. I want to intentionally waste a few hours. The real game to play is Forumwarz, which launched early this month. It's stupid, insulting, and really damn clever. [UPDATE: I've started playing and the game is requiring me to have cybersex with a predator. This game rocks.]

In Forumwarz, you don't play something stupid like a dwarf. You play something stupid like an Internet user, who goes to forums, wreaks havoc, gets points for lowering the quality of discourse to nil, and repeats. This gives the satisfaction of acting like a moron without the repercussions of actually screwing around on the web. Your constant raiding of Internet forums like YouBoob ("You'll spend hours searching for pornography at YouBoob - but you'll never find any!") and Fanfiction Freaks builds you "cred" and helps the secret plans of a shadowy Illuminati figure who gives you new quests.

Forumwarz knows its stuff. The game references 4chan, Fark, emo kids, camwhores, Ron Paul, and everything else that makes the Internet beautifully stupid. Blogger Andy Baio, who interviewed the game's creator, says there's even a minigame riffing off R. Kelly's "Trapped In The Closet."

The gameplay is actually simple and well thought-out. The copy is clever. And because users can create new levels, the jokes don't run out. If Kingdom of Loathing wasn't witty enough for you, and you'd rather be caught watching porn than playing World of Warcraft, give it a little try.


Forumwarz! Interact with the web's greatest intelligences and wits!