One Pragmata player with a keen eye for website domains has taken a fake, unclaimed website from inside the game and made it their own with humorous references to Resident Evil’s naughty Albert Wesker.
Within the game, while exploring the game’s digital New York City, players can see a website mentioned on one of the billboards: ‘aweskerproduction dot com’. It turns out this domain was unclaimed when the game was released, so a Russian Pragmata player decided to capitalise on it.
If you decide to visit this site, you’ll find a scrolling collage of Resident Evil memes and visual gags. These include, but are not limited to, Wesker taking off his shades only to reveal a second pair of shades, and Albert Wesker side-by-side with Hello Kitty. Other Resident Evil characters make appearances too, including Chris Redfield mid-boulder-punch, and Leon Kennedy with various distorted facial expressions.
Speaking to IGN, site owner Alexander Trisvyatsky confirmed he had bought the domain after seeing it in the game and built what we see today in only a few minutes. “I have no plans for the domain,” Trisvyatsky said. “This is just a one-time project, and I want to emphasise that I am just a regular fan, not a scammer. I did not include ads, I am not asking for donations, and so on – I just wanted to have some fun, and it seems it worked.”
According to Trisvyatsky, the website had 45,000 views as of this morning. He also had some fond words for Capcom, saying: “I respect Capcom’s works, I love their games, and if they ask, I will immediately transfer the domain to them. Great respect to Capcom for continuing to localise their games into Russian, including voice acting – Russian-speaking players truly appreciate this and are grateful.”
Pragmata is of course proving quite popular, having sold over one million copies only two days after its launch. Here’s hoping Capcom lets this website live on into the future – who doesn’t love a little community-managed joke now and again? If you want to know what all the fuss is about when it comes to Pragmata, check out Eurogamer’s review.