ABSTRACT
Happy Wheels is an online flash-based rag-doll physics game where the mobility tethered avatar must be guided through a maze. The unpredictable nature of your avatar and their mobility system – Segway, moped, pogo-stick, lawnmower, helicopter – means that the dominant game-play experience is one of catastrophe, crashing, and crisis as your avatar cascades and careens through the maze erupting in spectacular dismemberment, carnage, and bloodshed. The first character created – wheelchair guy – appears as an offensive parody of disability. Closer analysis reveals a complex intersection with capitalism and the tropes of debilitation mobilised in dialogue between player, avatar, and game architecture.
