If I hadn’t recently seen the video of the dad elbow dropping his kid, I might’ve been unaware enough to not get it immediately, and too disinterested to spend much longer examining the meaning.
I’m still not sure I get it. I guess the idea is that they’re playing Kinect, and Tycho accidentally (?) grabs a real chandelier (?) and hits Gabe with it?
In other PA news, I got my PA: The Series DVD set today. When they announced the series it seemed pretty gimmicky, but I ended up really enjoying it (needless to say). The second season starts Friday, though it’s not being produced by 2 Player for reasons unclear to me. I thought they did a fantastic job with the first season.
MattKeil
1583
He hits the chandelier accidentally while “spiking” a ball in the Kinect game and it impales Gabe in the back of his skull. Anyone even vaguely aware of the current events in gaming would get this as the obvious situation being presented. The strange void they’re playing in makes it difficult to parse for the uninformed, and even for someone who does get it, it doesn’t flow particularly well. As we have seen in the past, linear storytelling is not Gabe’s forte.
The point is, for $0.99 you can’t go wrong.
So then you probably shouldn’t be shocked when the gaming comic seems a little impenetrable at times.
I often have to read the accompanying news post to understand it.
I have to do that when the strip veers into card games and PnP RPGs much of the time.
Those are the strips I don’t need explained. Of course, I don’t think this needs a lot of explanation:
Would it have killed the joke to add an Xbox or a tv in the first panel? Maybe I’m not the target audience.
Pogo
1591
Well, those comics still need some context for their full effect. Tycho’s fatherly look of acceptance as Gabe anxiously removes a fresh set of dice from the royal dice bag has more impact if you know the history of Tycho trying to get Gabe into PnP gaming.
Well, maybe it does need explanation after all. Pogo’s right, the joke depends on the long-standing back-and-forth between Gabe and Tycho over DMing, and the punchline is at least as much about Gabe shattering Tycho’s hopes for him as a D&D player as anything else.
fixed. seriously, who doesn’t keep their dice in an RC bag?
The people who keep their dice in a Crown Royal bag?
RC = Cola.
ITYM “Tycho trying to get Gabe into PnP gaming.” Tycho is the one in the blue shirt that knows what Warhammer is. Gabe is the one in the yellow shirt that likes Barbies and ponies.
It isn’t a particularly strong joke to begin with, and unfortunately the only thing it has going for it is the lack of context, I think. That such tragedy should arise simply from them flailing about like idiots.
If by “even vaguely aware of the current events in gaming” you mean “with specific knowledge of Kinect shovelware” then I agree. I didn’t know there was a volleyball game included with Kinect Sports, and their posture in the first panel did not immediately suggest volleyball to me, though they were obviously playing a Kinect game. With that in mind the narrative of the strip becomes clear.
The guy on the bottom looked like he was getting ready to bump the ball, but I couldn’t figure out what the brown-hair guy was doing. He looked like he was going to karate chop someone.
