GAMING
"What I want to do," says Marisa Bowe, leader of the Word.com collective, "is break through the irony barrier."
Since its inception in 1995, Word has been more like an artists' colony than an actual business, with the operation often seeming to teeter on the brink of extinction. But it's also the first place mainstream-hipster media outlets like MTV.com go when they need a fresh idea.
Word's latest creations go by the namesGig and Sissyfight 2000. Gig, in bookstores in April, is a collection of first-person accounts of ordinary people talking about their jobs - sort of an updated version of Studs Terkel'sWorking.
Sissyfight 2000 (www.sissyfight.com) is less conventional, and considerably more fun: an online game set in an all-girls elementary school between combatants out to ruin each other's popularity and self-esteem. "It's supposed to be stupid-smart, likeSouth Park," Bowe says. From the official rules: "Since LICKING YOUR LOLLY makes you look innocent, if someone TATTLES on you while you're doing it, the TATTLE won't affect you. But, if you are SCRATCHED or GRABBED while LICKING YOUR LOLLY, you will choke on it and suffer double damage."
Sissyfighters face off against up to five players online, and quickly find that it's impossible to win without organizing attacks on other girls. Most of the action takes place in speech bubbles that pop up above your girl's head as you type. Bowe claimsSissyfight is the first game to take full advantage of new Shockwave multiuser features. By avoiding the monthly fees, rule books, and "tedious quest narratives" of multiuser games like Ultima Online, Bowe says she hopes to introduce the experience to a larger audience.
But can Word make post-irony pay withSissyfight? "Someone should fund it," says Bowe, "so we can all live in virtual worlds of our own making."
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