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Tired of staring at the dry erase board on the fridge reminding you to take out the trash? Sure, you could sign up for a useful online service to help you and your roommates/family remember whose turn it is to pay the bills. Or you could try to make a game out of it.

Chore Wars takes the latter approach and almost kind of sort of succeeds. The web service is designed to resemble a multiplayer role-playing game. You can create characters, join guilds and go on adventures. But while the way to "level up" in most games is by performing repetitive tasks like slaying monsters, in Chore Wars you perform repetitive tasks like washing dishes.

Every time you complete a real world task, you can sign in to Chore Wars to check it off a list. You'll be rewarded with gold and experience points. Of course, both of these are meaningless in the real world. In fact, when you set up the tasks, or "adventures," you can select how large the reward should be for each activity.

You can also create monsters and treasures that you might encounter each time you complete a task. If, for example, you run across a rat when taking out the trash, you can read the blow by blow description of the battle you've had, although you have no control over it. Like some Greek hero (Sisyphus perhaps), if you die you get a little gold and experience anyway and have to take out the trash again tomorrow.

Is Chore Wars going to make you or your kid any more likely to make your bed or vacuum the house? Probably not. But we've seen your house, and we're going to root for any service that might prompt you to clean it up.

[via WebWare]