The Onion spoofs WoW with the World of World of Warcraft

by Daniel Whitcomb Jun 10th 2008 at 9:30AM

The Onion, a popular news satire site, has played off the World of Warcraft before with articles such as "Baby, you mean the World of Warcraft to me," but now they've taken it to the realm of video. The Onion News Network reports on Blizzard's latest (fictional) release, World of World of Warcraft. In it, you create a real life character and guide him or her through the process of playing World of Warcraft, helping them navigate the reading of the EULA and making sure they keep rested and fed with Hot Pockets and Soda.

As usual with an Onion article that targets one of my personal hobbies or lifestyle, I'm never 100% sure whether to laugh or be offended -- but in the end I pretty much always err on the side of laughing. Actually, looking the "game" closely, it almost looks a bit like The Sims. You have a character who's modeled after a modern real life person, and you have to keep them happy, well-fed, rested, and entertained. And really, WoW is a pretty legitimate form of entertainment, I'd say. In that case, maybe The Onion is just looking forward to that day when all games are connected in some sort of seamless on-line mishmash of characters and personas. Then again, maybe it's just a funny video. Anyway, go watch it.

Tags: blizzard, greg, hot-pockets, jonathan-parrish, level-3-gnome-rogue, onion-news-network, onn, parody, satire, soda, the-onion, tom-bolgman, world-of-world-of-warcraft

Filed under: Machinima, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, Humor

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Taeous Jun 10th 2008 9:41AM

Holy crap that's awesome. God I love the Onion!

John Vargo Jun 10th 2008 9:48AM

You should laugh, not be offended. The Onion is and always has been a spoof.

Besides, our lives really are that ridiculous.

F0REM4N Jun 10th 2008 9:55AM

Not haha funny, but it made me smile :) Good find Dan.

Eternalpayn Jun 10th 2008 10:02AM

That was full of win. I pick up the newspaper every week; I didn't know that they did this kind of show though. Thanks for the heads up! This made my morning.

Dotixi Jun 10th 2008 10:18AM

I think if you are at all offended then you might need to take a good long look at yourself and ask, "Am I taking this too seriously?" It's a game/hobby - not your real life.

That being said /hug The Onion.

biglou Jun 10th 2008 10:32AM

World of World of Warcraft. Im laughing so hard at the spoof Im about to piss myself. Err...I mean who do they think they are..... :D

Adam C Jun 10th 2008 11:13AM

Isn't there already have a game kind of like World of World of Warcraft?

It's called "The Sims"?

You can do chores and go to work in it. Also you can move furniture around (my wife loves that part). Sometimes your character cries, it reminds me of our newborn. Really fun!

Inscrutibob Jun 10th 2008 7:44PM

Did you read the second paragraph of the original post?

Adam C Jun 11th 2008 9:59AM

Obviously, I did NOT read the second paragraph of the original post.

See what happens when I try to be clever? Oh my.

Ugkul Jun 10th 2008 11:16AM

Gotto love the text crawl. "Steve Jobs appoints VP of Creative Gouging." Hah.

BookhouseBoy Jun 10th 2008 11:27AM

One of the more subtle jokes in this video... "play 100s of hours a week." There are only 168 hours IN a week, so it would be impossible to play "100s of hours."

Or I guess you could dual screen ?

katsuyakaiba Jun 10th 2008 1:18PM

If you're not playing 100's of hours a week, your guild is suffering from your lack of progression! Myself alone, I play 700 hours a week! Think of your guild and quit slacking off! /silly

Gulbrandt Jun 10th 2008 2:20PM

Well, if you multi-box and add up "/played" across all of your toons... ;)

beatphreek Jun 10th 2008 11:50AM

"The worst thing is your avatars internet connection can go down and then you have to make your avatar get ont he hpone with his internet service provider." Pure win.

Tinious Jun 10th 2008 11:59AM

omg this is an instant classic.

kunukia Jun 10th 2008 1:23PM

Love it, totally. Am posting it to my guild forum.

Mattarias Jun 10th 2008 1:36PM

The day all characters and games are connected? What is this, hints at some videogame instrumentality project?

Gulbrandt Jun 10th 2008 2:19PM

Hahaha! I love The Onion. =)

AC Jun 10th 2008 4:53PM

No Daniel, I'm pretty sure the Onion is making fun of the excessive nature WOW can take on--not just the game itself. The whole idea of spending extreme amounts of time in a cyberworld is only made more absurd by spending time in a cyberworld simulating a cyberworld. Like most onion articles its funny and has a point to make all at once. Thats why its genius.