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

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

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 wh ...

, 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 An Internet meme, or meme (, Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''MEEM''), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, primarily through Social media, social media platforms. Internet memes manif ...

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 The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. He taught himself to make games while he was procrastinating from finishing his dissertation in

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. Foddy had been playing games ever since he got his first computer (a

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer developed and marketed by Sinclair Research. One of the most influential computers ever made and one of the all-time bestselling British computers, over five million units were sold. ...

48K) at age 5. Foddy stated:

Gameplay

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

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

. 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 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 bone tissu ...

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, while the W key 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.

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 (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

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and was part of an event called "

Arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated video, pinball, electro-mechanical, redemption, etc., game ** Arcade video game, a coin-operated video game ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade video game's hardware ** Arcad ...

" hosted by the video game art and culture company

Kill Screen Since the origin of video games in the early 1970s, the video game industry, the players, and surrounding culture have spawned a wide range of technical and slang terms. 0–9 A ...

. The

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awarded Chintamani resident Roshan Ramachandra for doing the fastest 100m run on the game on April 10, 2013, doing it in 51 seconds. As of June 2024, the record is held by a Japanese speedrunner known as kurodo1916, achieving a time of 45.53 seconds in June 2022. ''QWOP'' appeared on the season 9 premiere of the American sitcom ''

The Office ''The Office'' is the title of several mockumentary sitcoms based on a British series originally created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant as '' The Office'' in 2001. The original series also starred Gervais as manager and primary charac ...

''.

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 ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...

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 Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

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