Penny Arcade

Okay, who do you like better, Jerry or Mike?

I'd have to say Jerry, because we're both linguaphiles and I just love the writing style he employs in the newsposts. His sense of humor is more bizarre than Mike's too, which I find more appealing.

Example: Jerry was the one who came up with the idea to give away waffles at Sakuracon '08, his hidden agenda being the hope that someone would have to approach them in an official capacity and formally request that they stop making waffles.

Jerry reminds me of one of my guy friends at times. They're both absolute assholes at times, but they're both so snarky it's hard to be mad at them for it.

Mike is pretty hilarious when he wants to be though. Like when he and Kara made dickerdoodles.

I love the latest strip.

(geddit?)

Gabe's addition to the newpost today was ADORABLE. Apparently his son is going to grow up to be as geeky as his daddy. Awwww.

The strip is kinda funny too.

Awww, I just read it. That is so cute. My son is four and he already wants to watch me play all my video games... including Half Life 2, which is something I probably shouldn't have shown him, even once. Oh, well. I haven't had a serious D&D group in ages, but I can just imagine having that kind of conversation with him about it. And World of Warcraft, can't forget that.

edited 22nd Sep '10 2:50:09 PM by Fighteer

When I read Mike's news post today, I thought to myself that by the time my son is six years old, I might already be running a simplified version of the game for him. He was 2½ when I had a regular D&D group a few months ago, and he was present during the sessions. Everyone in the group was good about having him run around, steal dice, etc. which I was definitely grateful for. Eventually, when the players came over each week, he got in the habit of walking over to them and asking, "we have to fight dragon?"

Makes me wonder what will happen when the kid becomes a teenager and wants to rebel.

"Screw you dad, I'm joining the football team!"

"You'll be a gamer and you'll like it!"

Somehow this seems like a conversation my friends and I would have if we were to see a place like that. Then we'd wonder why we're even talking about that.

Was this removed or is it a joke?

The comic was about "Now that Kirby's Epic Yarn has done so well, yarn is the new Cel-Shading! You can't get away from this stuff!"

The last panel showed the result: Resident Evil Yarn With Chris Threadfield.

Heh. It's a nice artstyle with certain things.

But that's here.

The "what's not to like" was about Gabe building a bathouse for a bat he found. I guess it wasn't up to their standards.

It looks like PA is trying to get another franchise spinoff vote from its readers, like the Automata/Jim Darkmagic/Lookouts thing a while back.

First comic: Sand

Second comic: The New Kid

I must say I'm liking Sand better on first impressions, just because of the unusual nature of the character. New Kid did pull a nice twist, though, but I wonder how well the Sci-Fi trappings will hold up. The third one should show up Monday.

edited 29th Oct '10 11:57:25 AM by Fighteer

Sand piqued my interest, New Kid did not. A mini-series can't rely on a first page twist, and we've been given nothing else to entice us.

The New Kid piqued my interest more.

The latest one looks really interesting, I would like to see what they have in mind for it.

Linky: Queen of Bells.

Interesting as a very broad concept but it clearly needs more exposition to establish its premises. I have more interest in this than in New Kid, less than in Sand.

I think I'm slightly more interested in this than "Sand". The comic on its own didn't grab me as much as Sand did, but the accompanying newspost makes it sound like this would be a lot more interesting just based on the passion they have for it and the idea behind it. I really didn't see anything interesting about "The New Kid", and the fact that they say it could be their biggest thing ever—I kind of want to think that's just sarcasm mode or trolling, but that's not very likely.

edited 1st Nov '10 3:10:39 PM by Haven

I'm the most interested in Queen of Bells. Of course I'm a hopeless romantic so any sort of romantic plot interests me. Plus, it'd be fun to see how they handle it.

The New Kid sounds cute. I can see where it's loosely based on Mike's childhood.

(Flanders)

What was Sand again?

Western vibe, guy who's apparently immune to hanging.

I find myself ironically appreciating today's comic. I am that dad too.

Edit: The Rant is pretty neat as well. I don't usually go crazy over Tycho's ramblings; they exist as background noise mostly, but sometimes he's got a very good point: what nebulous line delineates "honest play" from "wasting one's time", and how does one draw it for younger folks? My son is just as happy to play Ragdoll Blaster on my iPod Touch as he is to ride his bike outside, and as far as I can tell, both are completely valid leisure activities.

edited 8th Nov '10 11:49:35 AM by Fighteer

He's also talking to the narrator in Sand.