Pure Pwnage, created by Jarett Cale, left, and Geoff Lapaire, debuts on Showcase on Friday.
Jarett Cale and Geoff Lapaire want to pwn television, and to do so they're banking on winning over plenty of n00bs.
Not familiar with video gaming lingo? You may soon be as Pure Pwnage, the incredibly popular Canadian Web series created by the two 32-year-old comedians is about to make the transition to television, premiering on Showcase this Friday.
But in making that leap - only the second Canadian Web series to ever do so - will the show hold on to the devoted fans who have watched the series online?
"I know that a lot of these people will be concerned we're making the jump to TV. It's more mainstream and more legitimacy and they've been a part of something that's very tight knit and underground. So naturally there's a little bit of hesitation for some of the fan base," Cale says.
The series, which launched in 2004, follows the exploits of Jeremy, played by Cale, a 26-year-old gamer who is so good at video games, he pwns (pronounced "owns") everyone he comes up against, meaning there is no player he can't conquer. To him, everyone is a n00b, someone without much skill or who doesn't play at all. But his skills online don't compute in the real world.
"Anyone that's played [video games]online has had an experience with a guy like Jeremy," Cale says.
Perhaps that is why the Web series has enjoyed such immense success. It has been translated into 15 languages and the site,www.purepwnage.com, receives over 200, 000 unique visitors a month.
The series' success caught both Cale and Lapaire by surprise, as fans started to demand more episodes of what had started off as a gentle parody of gamers, shot for between $20 and $6000 an episode, and designed to test out some video editing software.
"We didn't have a master plan coming into it. We just started making videos for this little community we were a part of," Cale says.
While there are a growing number of Web series to be found online, only one other such Canadian series, Sanctuary, has ever moved to television. That show was recently renewed for a third season on the Syfy channel.
Both avid gamers, Cale and Lapaire, who have known each other since they were children in Calgary, say those who duke it out on World of Warcraft or EverQuest are rarely asked to come up from their mom's basement and into the mainstream.
"There's been such a lack of representation of this culture in popular media," Cale says.
In making the leap to television, however, the pair are faced with producing a much more polished product compared to Web episodes, which were often largely improvised and ran at whatever length felt natural.
"Sometimes it was literally just me and Jarett with the camera walking down the street shooting a scene. Now there's 20 to 40 people standing around doing various tasks," says Lapaire, who play's Jeremy's brother, Kyle. "Things are very, very different on the TV show."
While the TV show's higher production values will translate into more legitimacy, their U.S. fans won't be able to see it broadcast on Showcase. Episodes will be available on the channel's website, but only to Canadian viewers. Still, the pair says they were ready for a higher profile.
"You can only write so many stories about a guy in his apartment or a guy walking down the street before you start to go crazy. You want the ability to do more," Cale says.
As well as the television series, Showcase will be rolling out 15 Web episodes of Jeremy replying to viewers' e-mails. Maintaining a strong presence online is an essential part of drawing those who have always watched the series on the Internet, says Tara Ellis, vice-president, Showcase and drama content, CanWest Broadcasting.
"With a known property like this that has loyal, almost rabid fans, we definitely did not want to alienate the existing fan base," she says.
And considering just how many people play video games these days, she is confident the show will have a broad appeal.
"The sheer number of [gamers]shows this is not a niche, it's not a cult. This is a phenomenon that goes across all ages and all genders," Ellis says.
Of course, non-gamers are welcome, too.
"I'm also hoping that the n00bs watch, the people who may not be the ones who watch the Web series," Lapaire says.
It's likely that many of those n00bs don't watch any Web series. But in making the jump to television, Cale and Lapaire say they aren't worried about finding an audience.
"I'm pretty sure that people still watch TV," Lapaire says.
Dave McGinn