Anna Piccoli

Weewee-fighting-prince

When pee caused scandal and inspired a game

Have you ever heard of “Pipi-Prügel-Prinz”? Or now that you have read the name are you wondering what that is and are you willing to find out? Spoiler: it's an online game, but it's inspired by a real story.

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Prince Ernst August of Hanover - Prince Ernst August meets the bishop Ralf Meister in 2014

Pipi-Prügel-Prinz is the German name of an online game that for some time threatened the productivity of Geman offices - at least according to the Spiegel (article in German).
What is the mission? Helping a prince to go around the Herrenhausen Gardens in Hanover swallowing up beer tankards and then relieving himself, while beating up five paparazzi who are trying their best to document with a flash the wrongdoings of the prince. If a journalist comes too close, the game's noble protagonist waves around his umbrella according to the clicking rhythm of the player. If successful, he gets rid of the man with a camera and even gains points. That goes on and on and on. The only change is in the speed of the paparazzi. Indeed, they become faster, but not smarter, so that the mission is ultimately quite easy to accomplish with the two given commands – X to pee, Y to fight. As a matter of fact, drinking doesn't require any effort more than approaching the tankard.

You might wonder how come programmers came up with such an idea. Well, reality helped their fantasy. As a matter of fact, Prince Ernst August managed to cause a huge scandal in June 2000: when he visited the Expo event in Hanover, he was photographed urinating on the Turkish Pavilion and unwillingly gained visibility on the newspaper Bild. The cherry on top was the fact that Caroline of Monaco's husband was suspected to be drunk, since he appeared under the influence of alcohol the same night at the gala, when he actually fainted.

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Turkish Pavilion - The Turkish Pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hanover, Germany

Apparently, he even had a precedent in misguided public urination, that is micturating outside an hospital in France. And even more: he had already been easy prey for journalists insofar as he had insulted, beaten up or threatened several people in different occasions.

The online game thus mixes two stories: the first one when the prince pees on the pavilion, but is casually caught red handed by witnesses, allowing the newspaper Bild to make a scoop which now goes under the label “the pee-scandal”; the second one related to Ernst August's violent character.
I guess the prince was not really relieved after reading the morning newspaper the day after his stunt. But I can imagine it was quite a lot of fun for the players who virtually mimicked his "noble" gestures.

Here you can have an idea of how the game works and see if it something for you: