It's just a fact that Gabriel doesn't know shit about Lakeshire, let alone the surrounding Redridge Mountains. The creatures we were after are about ten paces out of town, indeed, you can see one wave a furry paw from the hills that overlook it. Instead, we were treated to giant birds, vicious boars, baby dragons, and the war-skilled orcs of the Blood Drinker clan. What was his fucking plan, here? Was I supposed to catch them all?

By all means, join a party with the man. It's a hoot. I call it "The Graveyard Tour Of Azeroth."

I suggested in an earlier post that the game - and I'm assuming you know the one I'm talking about - changes at the higher levels into a different thing, an almost purely social experience which the mechanisms just sort of decorate. Well, that was true for my first play through the progression, but I think that I perceived the change and its import incorrectly.

Now the entire game, regardless of level, is a purely social exercise. I like what I'm doing, but I've absolutely done it before, and there's simply no denying that I've played the game seriously since about this time last year. I've poured more time into this single game that I've put into any other, and trust me: losing myself a simulated space is kind of my thing. There's a shift in higher level play toward raids and grouping, I mentioned that, and it's true enough. But the game is so secondary now that I don't know if I'm even "playing" it. I found the social interactions required by higher level play so satisfying that, coming back through the game, it is the only point.

I never understood the Everquest Meetups. I'd see those chix0r in black body paint or whatever, smiling with their mundane friends in the picture, and I'd be like "Whatever, Dara Vareel." You know what I'm saying? Take a couple points in not being such a fucking weirdo all the time. I'm certainly not going to dress as my character, as it would require a surgical procedure. But I see now that the game constitutes a highly codified series of social interactions, and over time, with sufficient play, the veil simply becomes more sheer. The game has become a room full of people.

I've spent all week finishing up the new Penny Arcade book, and it's dragged me to the edge of sanity but I think it will be worth buying. Honestly, it'll be like thirteen bucks or something, so it won't be a terrible inconvenience. It will include the first two years' worth of comics, gripping commentary that runs throughout, a serious introduction, a friendly introduction, and The Webcomics Manifesto, which I believe will have the intended effect.

(CW)TB out.

you don't owe me to be so polite

We couldn't really say anything before it was announced, but the Penny Arcade card game from Sabertoof is a part of their "Universal Fighting System," a term which probably didn't make any sense. Well, they just announced their Soul Calibur set, so now you have a better idea what they're going for. Every set is mechanically compatible, so Gabe fighting Mitsurugi (or whatever) is entirely possible and perhaps even encouraged. Even if the idea of a PA set didn't turn your crank, there's probably some SC enthusiasts who might "dig" it.

(CW)TB

People often ask me how we write the comics. What the process is like. Let me lay out an average “strip day” for you.

In our office we have two giant white boards. Whenever anyone says something even remotely humorous it gets written on the board. Just glancing over there now I see gems like “Socks are funny”, “Corn Men!” and “Poop, like from a butt”. So when it’s time to write a strip we sit down and we examine our idea boards, we check all the latest gaming news and we discuss whatever games we’ve been playing. Recently all our talk has focused on WOW because honestly there just isn’t anything else to play right now. The summer months are always dry but it seems this year has been especially bad. It’s like the ocean drawing back before a tsunami. In November the 360 will hit and we’ll be flooded with games and news and everything will be right with world. In the meantime I spend every night killing Horde with my friends.

So Tycho and I always end up talking about WOW when it comes time to write a comic. We feel bad when we do Warcraft strips though because we think you guys must be sick of them. So we end up writing the ideas down and trying to move on to something that doesn’t involve murlocs. Our white board has no less than five WOW strips on it. From overzealous enchanters to the auction house we’ve got ideas for days. We even have a very detailed plot for a serious multi page comic about the Darkmoon Faire and its mysterious operator Silas Darkmoon. We honestly spend twenty or thirty minutes just trying NOT to make a Warcraft strip.

Obviously today our resolve failed and we gave into the temptation. My poor sense of direction combined with my desire to lead made for an easy target. I hope those of you who don’t play WOW will forgive us. We promise next week we’ll be stronger.

-Gabe out

I’d like to draw your attention to some new shirts over at Gameskins.com. Kiko has introduced a baby ringer version of his Jenkins Academy design. Also you can now pick up his defuse kit design in the form of a T-Shirt or a hoodie.

Kiko also worked up a logo for the Knights of Arcadia guild.

On the subject of WOW guilds, I’d like to congratulate a couple of Pandas. I was questing with Tycho and Kara last night. We had just finished up a fight with a group of especially angry Gnolls and I was sitting down to eat. The next thing I know a hunter's mark appears above my head. I spin around and spot two Horde, both of them showing up as level skull or as my friend Brad likes to say “level fuck”. The two of them chewed through us with ease. Some lucky Panda grabbed all three of us in just a couple minutes. It must have felt like some kind of Horde Christmas.

-Gabe out