Infrequently Asked Questions

Infrequently Asked Questions, abbreviated as IAQ, is a variation of video game FAQs, written about games that are made up by the authors. This is different from FWAKs, which are bogus FAQs made for existing games for humor purposes. Most IAQs are of a satirical nature. However, some can also be considered "concept sketches," so to speak, for video games that the author would create whenever they acquire the means necessary to do so (such as learning a programming language, using , or assembling a development team.)

While most gamers have had ideas for video games at some point in their lives, the "IAQ phenomenon" as we know it began when Fritz Fraundorf, of the now-defunct Gaming Intelligence Agency (abbreviated GIA,) created "Beath of Flams" in 1998. Soon after it was released, a popularity boom of the IAQ format occurred within the video game RPG community, which was reflected in the fact that many IAQs that came out during that time period were RPG parodies. Also popular were IAQs taking place in high school settings, many of which were based on the authors' lives, such as "The Life of Bob". There was even an IAQ equivalent of GameFAQs known as "GameIAQs" (it closed down after a few years, even though their message board is still available), and a web page for people into IAQs known as the "Midgar Swamp," which can still be viewed. Eventually, however, after a few years, the popularity of the IAQ dwindled down.

While IAQs have mostly fallen into obscurity, small pockets of people still produce IAQs in their spare time, which are also often of genres different from RPGs. This small resurgence of interest was initiated by Twelve of Disaster Labs in 2001, with IAQs such as "Skmcbjrklzydnim" (an RPG parody that was never finished) and "D12/R R". Twelve, so far, has been the most prolific of the new IAQ authors; he even hosted an IAQ contest on his LiveJournal in July 2004 in which the winner would get a small cameo appearance in fellow member Misteroo's Flash animation, "Arfenhouse the Movie 3" (later to become "Arfenhouse the Movie 6: The Episode that Skipped Five".) Even if IAQs are relatively unknown, one could say it would be interesting to see what comes out of the medium in this new age.

Examples of IAQs

The following are examples of notable IAQs.

; "CidFighter" by Fritz Fraundorf (1998): A fighting game parody starring every Cid who appeared in a "Final Fantasy" game at the time, up to "Final Fantasy VII", based upon the author's own fanfic portrayals of them. While "CidFighter" did not get as much recognition as "Beath of Flams" (see below,) it was created before "Beath of Flams", and is the first-"known" IAQ. While it does not mean it was the first IAQ ever "made", as someone else may have had the idea to write a fake game walkthrough predating this, it was the first such walkthrough to call itself one.

; "Beath of Flams" by Fritz Fraundorf (1998): This RPG parody tells the story of Dullard, a young swordsman with a lisp, as he and his gradually-enlarging party venture out to stop the Nameless Empire from taking over the world by obtaining the Yellow Chair, the sacred artifact of an ancient race known as the "Flams" that can revive the lost city of Sherbet. The first well-known IAQ, Fritz was inspired to create it after receiving an e-mail that erroneously referred to Capcom's "Breath of Fire" as "Beath of Flams." (Fritz had written an FAQ for "Breath of Fire III" that year.) On its release, "Beath of Flams" was so popular within the RPG community that people started to write IAQs themselves, many of which were RPG parodies.

; "Spork of Creation" by Raphael Lee (1998): Although this was dubbed a "QWAQ" by its author, it has all the qualities of an IAQ. Another RPG parody, "Spork of Creation" revolves around Rain, a young man who must obtain the Spork of Creation, a legendary weapon used by the warrior "Sun" in ancient times to eliminate an evil man who had granted himself ultimate power with the wish-granting "Ultisuperwishforcemagiciterelic," to vanquish an evil empire. One of the few IAQs that were finished in the early days of IAQs outside of "Beath of Flams" (it was finished in 1999,) the name was inspired from the way a fellow classmate of the author's in school wrote "The Spark of Creation," one of the songs in the musical "Children of Eden", which resembled "The Spork of Creation." This IAQ has recently been rediscovered and can be found [http://nopaste.com/p/azDx0iFVW here] .

; "Y8K" series by Joshua Rosen (1999): Yet another RPG parody, "Y8K", while unfinished, spanned six episodes, and had a number of side files for things that would otherwise provide massive clutter if it were put in one file. It is also notable for having an original soundtrack created for it (for the most part), and at least one trivia-related contest —— in one such contest, the winner would have his last name used for the currency in the game! Formerly the longest-running IAQ series in history, its title has since been relinquished to the "Dead Horse V" series (see below.) Neither "Y8K", nor its sequel series, "The Rohan Weir Project", can be found on the Internet anymore, because their creator has all but disowned them. However, he is still active in the online RPG fan community, and has designed several games with RPG Maker 2000.

; "D12/R R" (Daigohji, Twelve, and Rikka Racing) by Matthew Massey (2001): A parody of mascot racing games in the vein of "Super Mario Kart" and (primarily) "Sonic R", this revolves around the title characters, a trio of misfits who must stop the evil "genius," Baron Suck, from taking over the world, but must first race to obtain their soft drink of choice, Good $#^% Cola, as they are highly thirsty. Poking fun of the problems prevalent in such games, featuring an intentionally ridiculous story and tracks such as "Fux0r3d Farm" and "This Track is Way Too Long and Epileptic," this was the first IAQ to be finished since the early days of IAQs.

; "Dead Horse V" series by Matthew Massey (2003-2005): A parody of Capcom's "Mega Man X" series, the story of each game revolves around the title character, a cybernetic horse parody of X with a gun in its rectum who was accidentally left in a time capsule for five centuries instead of five minutes, thus turning up undead when he was discovered by a roboticist and used as the basis for the "Cash Dogs" (equivalent to Reploids.)) His partner is a Mary Sue "bishōnen" character whose name changes in every game (with each name more ridiculous than the last,) who is often focused on more than V despite not being the main protagonist, satirizing Zero. Both of them combat the Remakes (parodies of the Mavericks,) Cash Dogs who have gone berserk and "harmed many people's sense of security" (according to the first IAQ,) as well as their leader, Latin (a parody of Sigma,) and his never-ending desire for world conquest. Classifiable as a cringe comedy for its frequently vulgar humor, "Dead Horse V" is notable for being the longest-running IAQ series in history (a title that formerly belonged to "Y8K",) for containing an intentionally excessive amount of profanity, and for the fact that the author composed each entry in the series in 24 hours or less. The only exception is "Dead Horse V8: Missionary Position Lost", which was made in 48 hours. "Dead Horse V7" was also the first finished IAQ to be released exclusively in HTML format, along with "V8", and the first to be released in such a format, although it and "V8" are sparsely detailed. The name of the series is a reference to the idiom "beating a dead horse," implying that Capcom was doing so by continuing to make "Mega Man" games with unchanging gameplay.The series includes, with the individual games' subjects of parody in parentheses after the dates:
* "Dead Horse V" (January 11, 2003) ("Mega Man X")
* "Dead Horse V2" (February 1, 2003) ("Mega Man X2")
* "Dead Horse V3" (February 15, 2003) ("Mega Man X3")
* "Dead Horse V4" (March 1, 2003) ("Mega Man X4")
* "Dead Horse V5" (March 12, 2003) ("Mega Man X5")
* "Dead Horse V6" (March 30, 2003) ("Mega Man X6")
* "Dead Horse V7" (December 20, 2003) ("Mega Man X7")
* "Dead Horse V8: Missionary Position Lost" (April 1, 2005) ("Mega Man X8" and ""; the "X8" boss's desperation attack is named "Paradise Lost")

; "MattFighter" by Matthew Massey (2003, originally written in 1999): A fighting game parody starring several roleplaying characters of the author's that all share his name somehow, battling each other to determine who the "True Matt" is. This was originally written in 1999 as the author's first attempt at an IAQ, inspired by "CidFighter". Dropped in the middle of writing after a short while, it was eventually revived and released four years later on Matthew's Disaster Labs web page as a parody of itself, featuring non sequitur attacks, techniques derived from word plays (e.g. one character's taunt action is to "throw a fitness center"), and other forms of surreal humor. While it did not gain much popularity due to having been released at almost the same time as fellow Disaster Labs member Misteroo's Flash animation, "Arfenhouse the Movie 2", it is notable for being the first remake of an IAQ ever produced.

; "Orochinagi Fighters 4: Seventh Requiem of the Judgement" by the Orochinagi.com community (2004): The fourth installment of the "Orochinagi Fighters" series, a fighting game IAQ series made in collaboration between members of the Orochinagi.com message boards, this revolves around a fight to save the Multiverse from untimely destruction at the hands of a manipulative, malevolent woman named Chi, amongst other plots and subplots. Deliberately swiping world elements from the Swedish role-playing game, "Kult", using the "Guilty Gear" series (specifically "Guilty Gear XX") as the basis of its gameplay, and getting plagued during creation by internal strife (as have most group projects of this magnitude,) this IAQ, in spite of the amount of time and effort put into it by the forum patrons, was largely forgotten shortly after its release on the web page of Matthew Massey (who also contributed much to the project.) Constituting its place in this section, however, is that it, as of this writing, is the largest IAQ ever made at 4.51 megabytes —— so huge, it had to be compiled into separate .txt files and placed in a .zip for easiest access to those with poor modems (similar to the treatment that "Y8K" got.) Prior to this, "Clash of Galaxies", a 2002 collaborative IAQ between Massey and Eric "The Green Herring" Baker also available on the web page revolving around a "dream match" tournament between both authors' characters (à la Capcom's "Capcom vs. SNK 2",) was the largest at 1.98 megabytes, large for a single .txt file.

External links

* [http://gameiaqs.sakabatou.net/gameiaqs/ GameIAQs Message Board]
* [http://serpent231.tripod.com/faq-iaq.shtml IAQ page in The Midgar Swamp]
* [http://www.disasterlabs.com/Matt/ Matthew Massey's Disaster Labs web page]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20040625194423/www.clarkson.edu/~dellesfy/y8kpage.htm Y8K]