Have you heard about the horse thing?

I would be happy to distill it. The "horse thing": Oblivion developer Bethesda Softworks recently released a mod, bonus content, DLC, what have you for their popular RPG which consists of two horse models. In what many gamers see as a reversal of the company's Morrowind policy, these ponies - and all future content internally developed for the title - will be available exclusively on a pay basis. We started making a comic about it, but then we got distracted.

Pay content is by no means exclusive to the 360 version. The gloating of the PC faithful on this topic turned to a vexed howl when it became clear that this was not some aberration from the distant world of consoles but was in fact a universal policy, secured with links of heavy chain. The pricing shakes out to 2.50 on the Xbox 360 and a buck ninety-nine on the PC - I don't think the mounts are an especially good buy. I don't find these amounts especially monstrous in a general sense, but as a person who has spent quite a lot of time thinking about micropayments I'm more than familiar with the yawning conceptual gulf between no cost and any cost at all.

This conversation has been on the way for a long time, and the pot has certainly boiled on more than one occasion, but in previous instances the developer took deliberate steps to ameliorate perceptions of double-dipping. The first Mechassault, just to give an example, delivered free game content prior to offering premium material. Bungie offered their map pack at retail, true, and that disc is a tremendous convenience at a LAN - but it was only a matter of time until those spaces were made freely available, and people understood that from the outset.

A lot of this could have been avoided if the barding were a part of a larger bundle. Optimally, they should have constituted a kind of olive branch - freely available, just to get people in the habit of checking. They've already revealed that the two packs beyond Special Horsey Times contain material that is of significant interest to many players - new places to explore. If each of these new packs also contained a steed, the mind's natural tendency to collect would be insidiously engaged. Or, as part of a single ten dollar pack which contained three other pieces of higher profile content, I doubt you'd hear the same outcry - even though the actual price is identical. It would be a "mini-expansion" then, something we already have a mental label for, with the expectation of a certain value threshold.

There are many themes and gamer pictures available for points on the service, but outside of Outpost Kaloki - a Live Arcade game that has multiple campaigns available on a fee basis - actual game content is rare, which is why the "Ex Hyper Fighting Extreme" version of this conversation has never emerged. Oh, sure - there were those outfits for Kameo, but nobody gives an F about Kameo. The doomsday scenario I hear depicted is that developers will no longer deliver complete games to consumers, that (in the manner of nigiri) we will be forced to purchase our games one tiny strip at a time and play them in an abandoned railway car. If there is an argument there, Oblivion is a terrible example of this force at work - the game as it was delivered has more content than any single player is ever likely to see, so much that paying for extra tiddlywinks is actually contraindicated.

I reject the idea that we teeter at the apex of some "slippery slope" - the slope you're referring to already done slipped. It slipped on mobile phones when people bought a vanity cover of the American Flag and a ringtone from Office Space and a strip of lights that twinkles on ring. Marketplace isn't a slippery slope - it's the codification of a recognized market tendency. You'd better believe there are motherfuckers riding those Goddamn horses along the shore of the Niben right now.

(CW)TB out.

in jet-black ringlets fell

During the panel at the Emerald City comic con I promised to post a couple things. Someone in the audience asked about Penny Arcade toys and I informed them that I had just completed the turnarounds for the characters. For those of you unfamiliar with the term it just means I drew each character from the front and from the back. It’s pretty boring stuff so I never posted it. Apparently this guy at the con was an animation student and he spends a good chunk of everyday thinking about or making turnarounds. So he asked me to post mine.

So here you go. These are not the poses for the toys just reference for the sculptor. I still need to draw each character in the pose I’d like to see for the toy.

His sketch was so fucking perfect and he must have just knocked it out in a couple minutes. I would have banged my head against my desk all day if it hadn’t been for his drawing. The title of that strip should have been “this comic brought to you by Mike Wieringo.”

I learned so much just from his little sketch that I couldn’t help wishing there was some sort of Mike Wieringo school I could attend. What’s funny is last weekend I ran into Stephen Silver at the Emerald City ComiCon. I’ve mentioned it here before but Stephen is easily the biggest influence on the way I draw. In fact for a couple years there I was trying to draw exactly like him. I feel like I’ve sort of got my own thing now so I don’t feel quite as embarrassed when I meet him. Anyway I asked him what he was doing now and he said Kim Possible got picked up for a fourth season, and he also mentioned that he was teaching character design out of his house in California.

What a fucking opportunity that would be. He said he’s only taking in six students at a time and immediately I imagined it as a sort of martial arts drawing dojo. I pictured his students all kneeling in a row with their sketchbooks in front of them. Stephen behind them shouting “Draw what you see, not what you think you see!”

“Yes sensei!”

I would love the opportunity to learn from someone like Stephen. The fact is Penny Arcade has become this ridiculous success and now I’m a cartoonist but I don’t feel like I deserve it yet. If you look at the work in the first couple of years and compare it to what I’m doing now you’ll see a pretty big change. That isn’t just a natural progression. That is a conscious effort on my part to learn this craft and earn what I have. Just when I start to feel comfortable I meet up with Stephen again or I see Mike knock out a sketch like the one above and I realize how far I still have to go.

Also I’m a fucking idiot. The spacing for the text in the comic has been screwed up lately and I didn’t even notice. Somehow my text settings got changed around. It’s fixed now though, so thanks for the mail. I apologize, that shit is fucking amateur hour.

-Gabe out

Kiko just sent me this link - If you are very busy and don't want to click it, essentially what has happened is that Apple is officially sanctioning dual-booting to Windows on their new Macs. There have been many attempts, and even a few successes, but the official seal is something I did not expect. The only missing piece is really driver support, hopefully the royal signet can bring that to fruition.

I'll fish around for an XP disc today and give it a whirl.

(CW)TB

I had mentioned it before, but I was not aware that there was a cost associated with it. There is! The cost is fifteen dollars.

Essentially, it's an event to inaugurate the new UFS card battle system, of which our own card game is but a small portion. Entry fee includes a goody bag which I am told contains mystery itself. We'll have books for sale if you want one, but it's not a big focus. They'll just sort of be there.

(CW)TB

We made another Podcast yesterday. I think I say something about vaginas so you might not want to listen to it at work. Or at least put some headphones on. We got stuck writing and went to get some lunch. Then when we came back we forgot to turn the mic back on. So this one ends a little bit before we come up with the final comic. I hope you like it, you can grab it here.

-Gabe out

As a rule, I one hundred percent do not paste press release information without significant editorial accompaniment. I may have to ratchet that down to around 99%.

I discussed the possibilities of Christian Gaming in a newspost not too long ago, so when the following subject line spooled into my inbox, I laughed outloud.

(begin press release)

When the RTS Rapture Comes Will You be LEFT BEHIND?

E3 is set to be the stage for the public premiere of LEFT BEHIND: Eternal Forces, the RTS based on the wildly popular LEFT BEHIND Christian book series that will break barriers and appeal to both the traditional gamer and the Christian market.

We'd like to schedule an appointment for you to meet with the developers and see a demo for the game that is poised to be the first break-out hit for Christian gaming.

Here are some more details about LEFT BEHIND: Eternal Forces:

- Conduct physical & spiritual warfare: using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world
- The first RTS where every unit has a unique identity; every character has a name and a back story, providing 1000's of hours of interesting reading - People are the most important commodity: players must protect the lives of their warriors and recruit "neutral" and even "evil" units to their side
- Command your forces through battles across the most realistic depiction of New York City in any game
- Recover ancient scriptures and witness spectacular Angelic and Demonic activity as a direct consequence of your choices. Unlock inspirational content that makes players consider the larger concepts of good vs evil
- Control more than 30 unit types - from Prayer Warrior and Hellraiser to Spies, Special Forces and Battle Tanks
- Enjoy a robust single player experience across dozens of New York City maps in Story Mode - fighting in China Town, SoHo, Uptown and more
- Play multi-player games as Tribulation Forces or Global Community Peacekeepers

(end press release)

I'd seen the empty pre-release ruse box situated on an EB shelf a month or so ago, and I meant to post about it then. The screens I've seen look pretty raw, and the books the game is based on are an act of war against the English Language, but I've been wondering where the sanctified games be at.

(CW)TB