Penny Arcade

I always have a good time working with my friend Kris Straub; we’ve been working for years to find a project to do together, and it happened sort of without us realizing it - with AcqInc: The “C” Team.  I didn’t realize that’s what we had done at first, but we have three solid hours or so a week to make a story together now, we just do it in real time and he doesn’t know a hundred percent of it.  His entire character is an ironic OC Self-Insert called “K’thriss Drow’b” that he tucked into his intro videos for Acquisitions Incorporated, and - as is the way of these things - it became a truth.  It’s a thing.  I have been in at least three bands that started as jokes.

That’s how you end up with a name like The Righteous Corn Farmers.

We needed one extra strip to get through Master Krahulik’s absence, and I’m glad to say Kris was able to lend a hand.  There’s a podcast that’ll come out that covers the manufacture of today’s delight, which appears to follow a common theme around here these days: which is linguistically impenetrable cultures gaining enough stature (that is to say, being worth enough money) to be of even casual interest to the wider world.

If you are bored and or lonely this afternoon around 2pm PDT, my battle-brother Kiko and I will be ladling up semi-competent PUBG for your delectation on the Twitch channel, which has been a blast lately.  Yesterday’s episode of our brewing show Acquisitions Intoxicated and the third chapter of co-op Lovecraftian mystery Mythos Tales were a blast, and might provide you with good company.

(CW)TB out.

I had mentioned on the Twitch thing that I like hobbies that have a lot of custom language, that is to say Jargon; most hobbies are like this, but some are more dense than others.  Someone bellowing from the depths of Twitor, The Truncated Realm, suggested that my hobby is actually learning new words, and the particular genuflections of these hobbies are essentially just the rind.

I can’t imagine why I would argue with that.

Gaming has tons and tons of words.  It used to have even more, if you were playing during the MS-DOS era, and these terms weren’t flourishes - they weren’t simply monastic reiterations of normal concepts, made shadowed and distant from common use.  They were the equivalent of elf-words, and knowledge of them let you use the most powerful calculation engines ever devised to fuck around after school.  You could fix broken things and improve whole things.  It was pretty good times.  Gabe never went through that phase, he started with Windows on a 486, so when something is fucked up all he can do is curse the Gods.  He does not know the offerings.

Most of the new language these days has to do with the roiling kettle that is online social interactions.  Stream-sniping is, when compared to the whole of human history, a relatively recent phenomenon and requires several precursor events to even constitute a recognized dealio.  In some ways, it’s an example of why we can’t have nice things.  On other ways, and I don’t mean to be callous, but, uh…  wow.  That we consider this a problem may be a kind of indictment of our problems.

I like to joke when Keek and I are playing Battlegrounds that we’re being stream-sniped, but (as I’m almost certain I’ve suggested previously) the way I play normally is so filthy-nasty, my failures so naked, that it’s as though I’m playing against an omniscient opponent.

(CW)TB out.

Like any subterranean cloister, our people have tooled a lot of custom language to depict our mysteries.  Jargon serves many purposes, as a shibboleth it excels, but it’s also a form of linguistic compression that saves an incredible amount of time.

Most people can’t perceive what we’re talking about at all.  The best we can hope for often is a kind of bemused curiosity; many people respond to new information, especially densely coded information, as something between an insult and a chop to the trachea.  Even explaining the fundamental conceptual space of Pokemon GO Fest would require supreme patience on virtually everyone’s part.

So much stuff is about to come out.  Good God.  An idea that Ryan Hartman (Our Director of Events and Dragonborn Narcissist, Donaar Blit’zen) had for Acquisitions Incorporated: The “C” Team was to make recap videos that would cover a whole arc, and let you get caught up faster.  There is an amazing animator and fan of the show that goes by the name of Zee Bashew that we identified immediately as being somebody we’d want to work with on these.  He has animated a ton of scenes from the show just… because, and he was a dream to work with - I can’t wait to start on the next one.  Here’s his recap (Zee-Cap?) that condenses most of Episodes 1-4!

If you’re looking for more of the Acquisitions Incorporated that has Jim Darkmagic, Omin Dran, and Pat Rothfuss’ daring chandelier-ophile Viari, there’ll be more for you at PAX West - check the just released full schedule for more.  Who is the fourth player?  All I can say for certain is that we’ll have something special for the true enthusiast next Tuesday.

Hey!  Tomorrow - Saturday, August 12th, from 11am to 4pm - our Garage Sale will be open for business.  All kinds of stuff, from ancient rarities all the way up to televisions, ping pong tables, and even props from Acquisitions Incorporated stage games and production set dressing standees from Strip Search!  As I’ve said before: bring a friend, and bring a truck.  I’ll be there, if you want to nerd out on a variety of topics.  Grab your ticket, pick your time, and I’ll see you tomorrow!

(CW)TB out.

He gave one of my favorite PAX West kickoffs, though it might technically have been a PAX Prime kickoff back then.  It was about how art forms either go mainstream are or annihilated, and it was a timely medicine.  When I say Warren Spector, of course, I mean this Warren Spector.  I’ve never had an interaction with him where I didn’t feel smarter for it afterward, so we’re glad to have him leading things off at PAX Dev.  He talks a little bit about his…  well, talk, I guess, right here.

(CW)TB

I love this fucker so much.  Good God.  What a butthole.

I had a super good time with the inaugural episode of Acquisitions Intoxicated, a new brewing stream we’re doing out of the studio in back.  Beer is something like a life practice; like coffee, eventually it started to seem irresponsible for me not to understand it better.  It has what I want from a hobby, which is to say that - like Table Tennis, let’s say - it will meet me at whatever level I want to engage with it.  It’s a part of history you can actively participate in.  It is a human endeavor.

My friend and fellow Dungeon Master Eric Benson are going to travel through the entire Acquisitions Incorporated roster, making beers (or other intoxicants) for each - beers that are about characters, or artifacts of the setting.  Check it out, if you get a chance.

On Tuesday afternoons, after we wrapped up our Warmachine Show with Privateer Press, we’ve basically been trying to cut through our supply of shrink-wrapped games that the Age of Kickstarter has saddled with.  Eric brought over a copy of Mythos Tales, whose keywords would be something like “Cooperative Choose Your Own Adventure Horror” or perhaps the more piquant “Good T.I.M.E. Stories.”  In any case, it’s a super fun game and it’s also a super fun stream game, because (as it’s completely about reading and interpreting text) the stream can play along - especially at the end of a mission, where you literally take a test about how well you understood it.

It was a blast, and you can catch yesterday’s playthrough of Chapter 2 right here.  I’m hooked now, though.  I don’t see a situation where we don’t just play through the whole fucking thing.

(CW)TB out.