User:Timmccloud/The noob

The Noob is a webcomic started by Gianna Masetti in June of 2004. The plot revolves around a new gamer named Ohforf'sake (generally referred to as "Ohforf") who represents the quintessential noob in a MMORPG. The comic serves as a parody and as something of a social commentary on the MMORPG genre in general. Notably, it criticizes MMORPG staff for incompetence and also shows the perceived image of MMORPG players as inclined to act antagonistically with regard to seemingly minor infractions and situations in the virtual worlds in which they interact. The noob is currently a full color comic, although in the beginning that wasn't the case. The noob has been mentioned on Blizzard's official European website for World of Warcraft. .

The comic (as "The n00b") was given an honorable mention in the Gaming category of the Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards in 2005 after almost making that year's list of nominees. Since 2006, the comic has been featured on MMORPG.COM in their comic section.

Characters
right|thumb|Ohforf

Ohforf'sake
A neophyte player, Ohforf is the protagonist of the comic. He is neither a role-player nor a player-killer, instead simply trying to have fun and experience the game. His name comes from an accident at character creation; upon finding all the names he can come up with taken, and all the names from the random generator to be increasingly long and outrageous (Xvalglogiorull, for example) he exasperatedly declares "Oh, for F's sake"! the game accepts this as a valid character name, and he begins playing.

Hypatia
A slightly more experienced player of Clichequest and a close in-game friend of Ohforf'sake. A female character, Hypatia is well used as commentary on the situation of females (and those who play female avatars) in MMORPGs. right|thumb|Hypatia

Darkie
Known in full as "Sir Darkblade Wolfeyes Orcbane Raislin De Urden Von Strudel", he is a role-player. He is a friend of Hypatia and despises player-killers. He is generally regarded as fairly incompetent and eternally seeks female companionship.

The RPers
In full, "The Righteous Protectors of the Crimson Star", this is a guild of role-players. At one point the guild tries to create an army by merging with other anti-PK guilds and forming the Zealot Elite Righteous Guardians (the acronym of which is "ZERG", a humorous reference to the race of the same name in Blizzard's Starcraft). The word "Zerg" is associated with using large amounts of units to overwhelm the enemy, even though each has little skill in battle (such as a large mass of the cheap and quick to produce Zergling from Starcraft) and in the same way, the RPers are poor in battle but plan to overwhelm the PKs.

right|thumb|D34dly-D34dly

Fred the Dread
A generic oldschool PKer and the leader of The Outcasts. At one point, almost kill the main protagonist, before realizing that said main protagonist knows the location of the RPers' town. Later remarks that "We were PKing in Pong!" Apparently, he's unbeatable since 1992, when he kept getting beaten by Cyrus.

DaKilla
A dark elf archer with considerable knowledge of the lore of Clichequest. Used to be an RPer in the guild "Worshippers of the Forest Temple".

D34dly D34dly
Usually referred to simply as "D34dly". A greedy and somewhat tempermental fire mage who cannot resist the temptation to roast anyone unfortunate enough to be standing in a group. His eternally failing attempts to impress women may be considered a minor running gag in the series. He also has the uncanny knack of swallowing loot, to prevent it from being looted from his corpse.

Your Name Here
Another generic PKer. He hates Paladins for their overpowered invincibility and wields a giant wooden hammer. In late 2009 this was replaced with a spring-loaded, steel "ranged melee" hammer won from the server's top PK guild. At one point, Fred the Dread mentions that Your Name Here is from Latvia.

Drakoola
Another oldschool PKer, apparently a mage from what is seen of him. Has been mostly sidelined since the developers introduced limb loss into the game - apparently, he got so many kills that when someone finally got him, all that was left was his nose! Now, he's carried around in a jar and uses purple lightning in whatever combat situations he manages to get into.

Cyrus
A level 200 hacker-mage with rogue admin powers and almost-complete invincibility. Either the leader or a fairly prominent member of the best PK guild on the server, he and Fred the Dread share bad blood. The only way to kill him is to have Pete the Parrot attack him.

Sir Bob
A flamboyant, very experienced, and skilled high-level player who quit Clichequest early on in the strip, but has since returned by popular vote among the comic's readers. He has taken a shine to the n00b in the later comics, especially when Oh'forf has been deemed #1 raider of the year.

Game Masters
Game Masters, or GMs, in Clichequest eerily resemble members of the Ku Klux Klan because of a similar resemblance in Ultima Online. There are many GM's, and notable are GM Malevolence plus the four "GMs of the Nerfageddon"; GM Plague, GM Famine, GM War and GM Death (the true horsemen are interpreted to be Conquest, Famine, War, and Death). Each rides a colored "steed", making a clear reference to the Four Horsemen. Lord Saxon is the creator of Clichequest, a clear reference to Lord British from the Ultima Online series and brings about the Nerfageddon after being knocked into a pool of water, but before he can truly get into his rampage he is picked up by GM Famine while shocking a character with purple lightning and thrown into a small pond (referencing the end of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi when Darth Vader throws the Emperor into a giant shaft leading to the center of the Death Star, killing him).

Running gags
The jokes found in The noob are often drawn from MMORPG "culture".

Movie References
The noob often makes references to popular movies. Movies that have been referenced include Lord of the Rings, Blade Runner , and Apocalypse Now and The Warriors through a series of episodes.

Character names
Some character names are references to the habit of MMORPG players of naming their characters after icons of popular (usually fantasy) culture. This theme first appears in the third episode, where the player has to choose the name for his character. His first few tries all reference The Lord of the Rings, including obscure variants like xXxAragornxXx. All of these attempts fail as all variants are taken. His naming attempts consequently move on to Forgotten Realms (a D&D setting), namely the dark-elf character Drizzt Do'Urden. These two works of fiction, along with the Dragonlance novels (another D&D setting), are a common source of player character names in MMORPGs with a fantasy setting, as players are often inspired by these works and seek to emulate the protagonist(s).

Later, on arrival in Elfboro, Ohforf finds that almost all the elven citizens are named Legolas with minor spelling variations - for example, Legolaus, Legolazz and Leg'olas, all presumably named in dubious honour of the fictional elven archer Legolas from The Lord of the Rings.

Several World of Warcraft players have characters with the same name as a character from the comic.

Roleplayers
One of the distinct playing styles in MMORPGs is the "Roleplayer," defined as one who plays in character. In one of the more popular MMORPGs, World of Warcraft, roleplayers are given separate servers on which to play - these servers have a different ruleset that encourages appropriate naming and behaviour. In Clichéquest, the roleplayers exist in a separate town instead, and the comic often makes fun of this convention and the roleplayers themselves.

Print versions
Masetti has self-published The noob books through Lulu.com since 2005, and is now on her fourth volume. The books contain 50 episodes each.

Reviews

 * Comixpedia
 * World of Warcraft Europe

References by the media

 * Appeared as a guest comic in Pegasus Magazine (January 2007 page 4 ISSN 1890-0704).
 * Mentioned in a French article about Chinese goldfarmers.