Penny Arcade

I've been present for the aftermath of so many shows that it's very startling how gone it is and how quickly it is gone. You keep thinking, or… I guess, I keep thinking, that when something like this happens there's gonna be some kind of echo that blooms in physical space, some platinum tracery midair, some mark. As it is, it's like I like through five seasonally appropriate editions of A Christmas Carol a year, and then it all evaporates to the extent that I can hardly prove it was there.  I hope I'm learning whatever all these ghosts were trying to teach me.

I saw so much cool shit at this show. The other PAXes exist at such profound scale that I typically have to preselect what I'm going to see before I hit the floor, purely as a matter of self preservation. There are several conventions occurring simultaneously at every PAX, as I often suggest: multiple shows worth of content sprankled with the denizens unique to each of these multiplexed biomes. Outside of main panel content, I think it's possible to see everything at South and I think I did. I took notes the whole time, that's how much stuff - I was afraid I'd forget. I'll dispense it over the rest of the week when the act of decompressing it doesn't feel like it would give me a concussion.

I also learned that there is such a thing as a prickly pear margarita, and that such margaritas can be secured, yea, even unto the "thirsty-two ounce" which they serve in a decommissioned missile silo. Here's the Make A Strip strip, and Gabriel had enough time at the end to muse on a series of PAX South appropriate faeries.

Super fast turnaround from Josh on the Acquisitions Incorporated game from South, which I'm already pleased to offer on YouTube:

Gabriel suggested of this table that this must be what it feels like to be in a band, and I've been in a band - more than one - and I can verify that. I've never gotten more compliments after a show than this one - see what you think.

(CW)TB out.

This devil's hellthirst can only be quenched by novelty drinks - drinks whose vessels come included in the price of admission.  When I went to the elevator to hit the lobby, starved and feral, a boist'rous Gabriel emerged from the elevator I had, myself, summoned and told me to "drink margaritas" in all caps. And I did.

But not because he said to.

There is much to celebrate down here, and not just in terms of revelsome elixirs. Obviously, we have just taken the on-ramp to PAX South - a three-day show. We've also got THIS:

So join us on the PAX Tweetch Saturday, January 18th at 8:30 CT for the next chapter of Acquisitions Incorporated. But! We also have all the goodies the designers have been working on, including the 2020 look for PAX, best exemplified by these cool banners that Lidija sent me.

See you at the show!

(CW)TB out.

As someone who has been to more PAX shows than anyone else - only Kiko has been to as many, because it's the maximum number - I am privy to certain artisanal knowledges. I'm not saying this means we constitute a new pantheon or anything, but upon our Twinthrone we will sit in judgement over the affairs of men.

The mystery of PAX is that the vibe is always good, always PAX, regardless of which one you go to. You can stretch it and it retains its ratio; it is a quadrant which can be progressively enhanced. So Kiko and I mostly invest ourselves in the food.

At West, I'm not sure I really do eat. I live here. But Unplugged is a carousel of rad shit from Reading Terminal Market, with surgical additions of coffee and cheesesteaks from elsewhere in town. Boston is a Steak and Seafood Zone. Melbourne is so broad you'd think it couldn't also be good, but it is - Keek and I tend to focus our efforts there on Ramen and Boba. South, I mean… South is Mexican Food and Barbecue. Or both simultaneously.

The only time I've ever seen Kiko angry was when a taco place ran out of barbacoa. Understand that he wasn't, like, rude or anything. When Kiko is mad, I don't think most people would even detect it. I only saw it because his dad was laughing really hard about it, so I had to look close. Here are the telltale signs:

1. His reaction time is slightly, very slightly, delayed.

That's it. That's Kiko, reduced to an animal.

Gabe's South involves he and Kara eating a single, persistent, ritual meal for the duration of the show. Also, apparently he drinks now. I know he's a fan of Acquisitions Intoxicated, but I didn't know he was drinking at home before lunch. I was over at his house to play wargames or some shit a couple weeks ago, and he asked me if I wanted a hard cider at eleven o'clock in the morning, like some scurrying fraternity Rat Man. I don't know why this is all coming up now. Twenty years ago would have been a great time, kinda the traditional time for this. They had alcohol back then, as I repeatedly told him. "Man," I said. "This alcohol is somethin'."

(CW)TB out.

Today is my "Cake Day" over on Reddit. This is sort of like your Reddit birthday and it means I've been on the site for seven years. To celebrate, I'm doing a little AMA over on the rarely used Penny Arcade subreddit. Feel free to stop by and ask me anything! 

-Gabe out

Drake of the 99 Dragons is a time capsule from a novel era; there was a lot of stuff that hit as Xbox exclusive which was inexplicable or troubling for various reasons.  It also had bonkers shit like Splinter Cell, and credible multiplayer - graduating, ultimately, to Xbox Live, whose approach ultimately became definitional.  But Drake is a whole thing and you should look at the video.  You should also look at the Wikipedia page, specifically the credits to the right, and look those people up at MobyGames because a few of them went on to be associated with all kinds of stuff, some of it you might have enjoyed.  So many little stories have been borne out of it.

Entertainment as an industry is ravenous for trends, and to an extent I think Netflix is to be commended for choosing such a, well, mutant (for lack of a better term) in the work of Sapkowski.  And then to let them make part of it a kind of chronological puzzle.  Although, truth be told, it’s not that hard.  I mean, I don’t know if it’s yellow key/yellow door easy mode, but it is a piece of media that does ask you to consciously observe it and then reward you for it.  I’ve read some criticism of the fact that, unlike The Mandalorian, they didn’t deliver the series in the form of a crumb trail and instead did what they essentially always do and drop it all at once.  Netflix is a relentlessly data driven company, it’s plain in what they choose to produce, and among everything else it might be the service is really a database/wishlist for what people want to watch and that pulsing knot of data is - in the era we accidentally manufactured - probably its most valuable asset.

But I can understand why it would be useful for a pop culture media site if they had that weekly cadence, because it’s a bone that can be chewed in perpetuity, or maybe gristle is closer.  Maybe we’re looking more for something in the greasy rind category.  Maybe there’s a show it would work for, maybe there’s a timeline it would work for, it would depend on the show - but I don’t agree that it’s just how things should be.  Netflix invented the entire fucking category.  They aren’t wrong all the sudden because Disney took their ball and went home.  We watched The Mandalorian and now we’re done with the service.  Maybe they’re the ones who need some advice.

It snowed here, I think because I forgot some minor obesience to a fey sprite, and now we’re all fucked.  We’ve got PAX South to plan for, so I just spent the afternoon writing comics and all this horseshit, so it wasn’t any skin off my nose, but Josh is there facing death itself and also failed food deliveries to bring you more Blasphemous from The Game Kitchen on the stream from 2pm PST on.

(CW)TB out.