One Of South Park's Best Episodes Was Based On A Terrifying (But Hilarious) True Story

In the "South Park" episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft" (October 4, 2006), Stan and Cartman (Trey Parker) and Kyle and Kenny (Matt Stone) have fallen in love with the new online fantasy video game "World of Warcraft." They have created fantasy avatars for themselves and look forward to leveling up, becoming more powerful, and advancing in the game. Their efforts, however, are soon stymied by an anonymous, ultra-powerful player who slaughters them as soon as they log in. The four boys would like to fight this mysterious player — seen in his own apartment as an awkward adult — but they aren't nearly strong enough. The kids devise a plan to level up in secret, hiding out in the woods from their enemy, slaughtering boars for single experience points. points. Their plan, however, requires constant devotion, forcing them to stay at their computers for days on end. They soon gain weight and develop bad skin from their "Warcraft" habit. 

"Make Love, Not Warcraft" is one of the better episodes of the series, mocking the obsessive nature of online RPG players while also understanding a great deal about the appeal of the game and the lifestyle it fosters. The episode would go on to win an Emmy. 

"Make Love, Not Warcraft" also makes extensive use of in-game CGI animation, giving "South Park" some striking visual variety. The CGI portions were actually made in collaboration with Blizzard, the company that makes "World of Warcraft," and they were happy to loan "South Park" their visual and technical assets. However, as Parker and Stone were making the episode, using a real-life "Warcraft" game as a model, an online player somehow hacked into their server ... and began giving them grief. Gaming lexicon refers to such players as griefers. It was curious that Parker and Stone had written a story about a griefer vexing their fictional characters, and then suddenly had to deal with one in real life. Parker and Stone talked bout the incident in a brief video interview on the Comedy Mountain YouTube channel.

Parker recalls how exciting it was that they got to work with Blizzard. All the writers and animators on "South Park" were professed "World of Warcraft" fans, and would spend their spare time in the office idly playing the game. When they reached out to Blizzard, they were surprised to hear that they wanted to collaborate. From Parker's description, Blizzard installed several of their own computers in the "South Park" production offices, using a real server to extrapolate the desired animations. 

But, because the Blizzard computers were all on a shared network, they were able to be hacked from the outside. And, lo, a resourceful computer hacker somehow managed to locate and break into the Blizzard server. The Blizzard employees weren't even playing a proper game — they were just working on animations — and a griefer appeared to them. Luckily, when such things happen, Blizzard does have a contingency plan. They can "kill" the online character. Parker refers to this contingency as a "deathtouch." As he said: 

"We had everyone set up on these Blizzard computers in our offices, and we're ready to start the scene ... and suddenly this one character starts jumping around on the screens. And we're like 'Who is that?' And the employees were like 'Someone's hacked into us, someone's hacked into us!' What should we do? Should we get rid of him? Should we deathtouch him? Let's deathtouch him!" 

It should be noted that the "deathtouch" idea is also in Stone's and Parker's script for "Make Love, Not Warcraft." The in-episode Blizzard employees have an online tool they call The Sword of a Thousand Truths, which can kill just about any online character. It's so powerful, it lives on its own flash drive. It seems, however, that the real-world Blizzard employees have access to something similar. 

Stone expanded by saying that the "deathtouch" — their own term, not Blizzard's — was an extreme measure for the company. It's not something that is used often, and it requires a lot of security clearances to operate. Having a rogue inside their animation program wasn't acceptable, however, so Blizzard whipped out the big guns. They were able to essentially delete a character without the player's input. As Stone said: 

"To bust out death code — or deathtouch or whatever — Blizzard was like 'We have to ask permission. Get the double ... turn the keys. It was a big deal, and they actually did bust out deathtouch and kill that guy, whoever it was that hacked into the system." 

The hacker doesn't appear to have done any damage to the production other than to slow it down, so the making of "Make Love, Not Warcraft" seemingly went smoothly after that. The episodes aired on time and went on to be one of the more popular episodes of the show. "South Park" is made notoriously quickly, with Stone and Parker able to tinker with episodes up until about 12 hours before they air. "Make Love, Not Warcraft" required two simultaneous animation teams — one for the central sequences, one for the Blizzard in-game sequences — both turning in their scenes at the same time. As is usual for the show, the episode was turned in 12 hours before airtime. "Warcraft" went on to be a movie. Remember that? 

On IMDb, "Make Love, Not Warcraft" is the second-highest-rated episode of the series, right below "Scott Tenorman Must Die," and still above the recent anti-Trump episode "Sermon on the 'Mount." It remains astonishing that Parker and Stone, with their foul-mouthed little paper cutouts, still manage to strike pockets of cultural significance 28 years after "South Park" debuted.