The first time most people ever saw QWOP was around December 2010, when a YouTuber named Critical declared it “The Most Difficult Game Ever Created.” In the video, which has been viewed almost 9 million times, the monotoned YouTuber grapples with a simple game in which a runner constructed in blocky, primary colors, attempts to run 100 meters. He fails miserably. Over the course of six minutes, the runner performs splits, backbends, abrupt tumbles, and physical implosions, often not even getting past the starting line. He eventually settles into a weird, one-legged crawl, making it almost 10 meters before melting inevitably to the ground. You get the feeling the video’s six minutes were edited down from a much larger, more painful stretch of time spent grappling with the game. At one point, Critical calls the game “the robot’s asshole.” It seems to have been visited upon him by some malevolent god.
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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