Yep, you heard right: an RPG that actually serves a function. We all have or have had that one roommate who doesn’t do shit while everyone else is busting their asses to keep things tidy. Or maybe you’re the one roomie who does everything while your fellow residents don’t know what a sponge looks like. Chore Wars lets players pick a name and a character, then form a “party” with the people they live with. Your character claims “experience points” for the housework you complete, which you’ll log so that you can gain XP for each task. This works for the office too, of course, because apparently ain’t nobody got time for dishes at work either.
The “adventure list” is where you can keep tabs on what chores need to be done. Then users respond and post when they’ve actually done it. You can also go on quests, which are bigger chores like an urgent cleaning of your kitchen. On quests you can add incentives and make points and gold worth double the regular amount the sooner you complete them.
There’s a lot more to Chore Wars than this, as with most RPGs, so you can read about it in their FAQ. But seriously, who thought of this? It’s kind of ridiculous and kind of awesome. The site even has a number of suggestions for what to use Chore Wars for other than just making sure people are pulling their weight around the house:
-Use the weekly high-score table to give out a prize every weekend
-Use XP or gold as a target for children – award treats for levelling up, or allow them to ‘spend’ in-game gold pieces on toys and games in the real world.
-Agree to pick out the lowest scorer when the household needs a scapegoat to do a particular, -urgent chore (or when you need to pay a takeaway bill).
-Keep track of how often a particular chore actually gets done, when it was done last, and who does it the most often.
-Use the chore comments as a mini weblog for the household, or for a micro-blog of one particular chore (“making dinner” works quite well, if you want to keep track of what you’re eating).
-Use the site as a single-chore tea-making roster at work.
-Award XP for housekeeping duties on your Internet forum or wiki.
Use it for what you will, but all I know is my character is definitely this asshole:
Photos via ChoreWars.com and Bionicteaching.com
