A highly detailed series of fake additions to the Left 4 Dead wiki has inspired fan-art and even a mod that puts the nonexistent content into the game. The vandalism focuses on a bizarre character called “Purple Francis,” a poorly recolored version of one of the game’s four Survivors. The vandal cooked up a surprisingly thorough backstory for Purple Francis, including his untimely death in a comic book, described by the article as a “national tragedy.”
Someone vandalized the Left 4 Dead wiki, for seemingly no reason, with an *extensive* article about a nonsensical nonexistent character called Purple Francis, including cross-referencing him on other pages on the wiki pic.twitter.com/XixF7VCSpq
— 🏴i open up my wallet and it’s full of blood.🏴 (@thinkiamsad) February 14, 2021
According to the articles, Purple Francis’s purple hue was caused by an iron-rich diet. Prior to Left 4 Dead, he owned a root beer factory and sired two sons, Cungulus and Skibbity. Though the wiki’s moderators sadly deleted Purple Francis’s page, a mod on Left 4 Dead 2’s Steam Workshop page will add Purple Francis to the game, which the mod’s author labels as “cut L4D content.” There’s also a Discord page to join if you’re a true Purple Francis enthusiast.
While there’s no word on the state of the Left 4 Dead franchise, the game recently got its first official patch in nearly a decade. Though the patch came from Valve, it was primarily built by more than 30 members of the game’s community. A spiritual successor called Back 4 Blood is currently being made by many of the game’s original developers.
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