A Penny Arcade strip you like and why

Quitch · 2010-11-24T14:24:20.000Z

Rimbo:

See, I would consider Penny Arcade to be a deliberate exception to this rule. Penny Arcade’s comic has always coexisted with Penny Arcade’s news post

Actually, there wasn’t a news post in the early days, just the strip.

Sebmojo · 2010-11-24T15:29:59.000Z

JM:

Again, anyone who knows about OnLive would know about the number one issue with it, which is the lag. Suggesting that it required an explanation may be true in your case, but I doubt that’s true for the vast majority of their target audience.

The Onlive one’s actually pretty straightfoward by comparison with some of them.

I think they take a bit of malicious glee in how obscure the strips are, sometimes.

Arbit · 2010-11-24T16:15:41.000Z

Bahimiron:

HAHAHA! Gus has it right, dudes! Completely self-explanatory and totally hilarious! At no point am I wondering ‘what the fuck is supposed to be happening in this strip and why is this shit funny’. Oh, that Trudeau. Truly a master of his art!

What’s confusing about it? It’s not particularly funny, but at least he gives you enough information in the comic to tell that they’re playing a videogame.

Gus_Smedstad1 · 2010-11-27T12:52:10.000Z

Arbit:

What’s confusing about it? It’s not particularly funny, but at least he gives you enough information in the comic to tell that they’re playing a videogame.

I agree the Doonesbury Black Ops strips haven’t been all that funny. However, as you point out, he tells you everything you need to know to understand the joke. Since my interest in Black Ops is nearly zero, I’ve actually learned a few things about the game just by reading those strips - I wouldn’t have known there were zombies in it if I hadn’t read them.

I read Penny Arcade because it’s occasionally brilliant. It’s not that I hate the comic in general. I seem to be more forgiving than many in the audience, since I thought the much-lambasted “dickwolves” strip was great, as was their follow up. It’s that I think there are serious problems with the OnLive strip in particular.

As to how they could have told it better, now and then they’ve broken out of the 3 panel format for a joke, and I think the “Onlive” strip probably could have benefited from that. Since the joke is about delay, you can’t really cut out any of the 3 panels, so what it needs is something like a game character trying for a running jump in an initial panel, the process, and then a final panel showing the character finally getting the jump order after running off the edge of something. I’m sure someone with more experience writing jokes could do better than that, of course, it’s just an example of how it could have been made clear to anyone who plays games at all.

JM1 · 2010-11-27T13:05:40.000Z

Their movements in isolation - without the context of the screen - is part of what makes the joke.

MattKeil · 2010-11-27T16:15:39.000Z

Gus_Smedstad:

blorp

Maybe you should just lay out exactly how explicitly the rest of the thread needs to tell you to knock off the 'spergtastic nitpicking of PA’s choice of content delivery methodology. Because it’s been three pages and you don’t seem to quite get it yet. Maybe the thread needs a newspost accompanying it.

Gus_Smedstad1 · 2010-11-27T17:49:16.000Z

MattKeil:

Maybe you should just lay out exactly how explicitly the rest of the thread needs to tell you to knock off the 'spergtastic nitpicking of PA’s choice of content delivery methodology.

Maybe you should consider that maybe not everyone agrees with you. You know, by reading some of the responses. Or maybe you could come up with a counterargument with more weight than “shut up.”

rhinohelix · 2010-11-28T16:43:26.000Z

Gus_Smedstad:

Maybe you should consider that maybe not everyone agrees with you. You know, by reading some of the responses. Or maybe you could come up with a counterargument with more weight than “shut up.”

I hate to be the one to tell you this but we actually had a meeting, and as it turns out, we do all agree with Matt.

Rimbo · 2010-11-28T18:32:12.000Z

rhinohelix:

I hate to be the one to tell you this but we actually had a meeting, and as it turns out, we do all agree with Matt.

Yep. We sure did. And none of the dissenters survived.

malkav11 · 2010-11-28T21:48:32.000Z

I think there may be a clue in the title of the thread being “A Penny Arcade strip you like and why.” Emphasis on the “like.” I mean, I agree that the strips are not always clear without context and even then not necessarily funny…but I don’t think this is the thread for discussing that at great length.

Pogo · 2010-11-28T22:11:15.000Z

It’s pretty much the Penny Arcade thread at this point.

Sebmojo · 2010-11-29T01:53:23.000Z

malkav11:

I think there may be a clue in the title of the thread being “A Penny Arcade strip you like and why.” Emphasis on the “like.” I mean, I agree that the strips are not always clear without context and even then not necessarily funny…but I don’t think this is the thread for discussing that at great length.

Exactly. This forum can be a sneering miserable shithole at times. It’s nice to have a place where you talk about stuff that you think is good.

So Gus - please. Find a strip you like and say why you like it. Or try another thread - there’s a bunch of 'em!

sinfony · 2010-11-29T03:17:39.000Z

Gus_Smedstad:

Maybe you should consider that maybe not everyone agrees with you. You know, by reading some of the responses. Or maybe you could come up with a counterargument with more weight than “shut up.”

You gave up the right to be taken seriously when you insisted that PA is just another comic strip and must adhere to the conventions of that medium.

Come back when you understand the medium, which is to say, when you’ve learned about the internet.

Rimbo · 2010-11-29T11:46:32.000Z

1108856019_wZAD4-L.jpg800×401

hoooooooooooooooo

OrfBC · 2010-11-29T11:54:57.000Z

I was just going to post that. Gabe looks like he’s going Hooooo on reflex or to be polite, which is hilarious for some reason.

Zylon · 2010-11-29T12:22:49.000Z

DanielElliot:

I was just going to post that.

You were just going to post the most recent strip? You savage rebel!

Erik_J · 2010-11-30T10:05:49.000Z

That’s a weird strip. I’m not sure the third panel needs to be there. Or at least, that’s not the panel that made me laugh. Just seems extraneous.

Staff_Sergeant · 2010-11-30T10:20:42.000Z

Yeah that’s one of the weirdest PA strips I’ve ever seen, I love it.

Dave_Perkins · 2010-11-30T11:48:16.000Z

Erik J.:

That’s a weird strip. I’m not sure the third panel needs to be there. Or at least, that’s not the panel that made me laugh. Just seems extraneous.

I feel like it’s the fourth panel, the one that shows what he’s actually doing, that makes the strip. And it’s definitely better not being there!

Rimbo · 2010-12-01T00:55:18.000Z

1110300748_6bTxk-L.jpg800×401

“Absolutely not.”

It took me a minute before I put two and two together.

Gardens… PopCap. Popcap… Gardens. OH SHIT ABSOLUTELY NOT AIEEEEE!!!