Penny Arcade

I don't even get exposed to these powerful features, because as a rule I don't join open chats, and haven't since the first parties were introduced on 360. Arguably, we used GameVoice even longer ago to inoculate ourselves from that seeping realm. There was a very brief time at the outset of Xbox Live where people were sorta cool about shit. There was the sense that we had emerged from a darker place into a lighter one, and like so many crawdads stunned by a tween's flashlight, we were mostly just shocked that it worked and thus lacked the wherewithal to fully abuse one another. This idyllic state lasted - if I recall correctly - ten or so full minutes.

No etiquette can hold in these realms, no Marshal can tame them, and I'm reluctant to be psychologically hijacked by strangers so I never give them the opportunity. I will never care about winning as much as the least of these creatures so we're always gonna be at odds. I completely understand why they would be mad, looking at my ratios.

I wouldn't want me on my team either. I tend to star in such games, very near the end, where the final kill is rendered in interminable slow motion. My destroyer snaps the weapon to the shoulder, already firing.

I am looking the other way.

(CW)TB out.

The "new console" I'm after is a 3080, but regardless of which one of these devices you want, you can't really buy it. The only way to get one of these things is to have one sent to you, or to hurl yourself upon the resale market to the tune of (last I checked) about eighteen hundred bucks. That appears to be something like a stable price for the device, having seen it many times, and it's a multiple of six which indicates - to me at least - the involvement of The Beast.

Today is kind of a big day on the store, as this header image will attest:

We have unleashed the Acquisitions Incorporated: Work From Home Edition!

We've got an incredible soft pant Dabe calls a "jogger," we've got a Blood Blood Blood Shirt, we've got an on-brand replacement for your mask, and we have a reversible blanket that will also serve as a mystical cape in a pinch.  

Longtime ally Enfu has a few items on sale now, including new entries in his Kitties and Puppies pin sets from Pinny Arcade.

Speaking of which... at 4pm PDT today, we unleash the Pinny Arcade Double Secret Boxes. Right now, that link says Sold Out, but this is a temporary condition I assure you.

Please note that all existing Salvage Protocols are still unlocked, with custom tier gifts for Christmas plus free shipping on orders over a hundred bucks.

(CW)TB out.

We talked about it a little bit when the movie for Ready Player One came out in the post and the strip. My policy on Nostalgia is the same as the laws sweeping the nation and perhaps the world - I think it should be legal for responsible, recreational use. If used in a work, optimally it's used in a way that interprets or transforms so that we get more work to interpret or transform. I adhere to the sourdough starter principle where such things are concerned.

As I said before, I do not adhere to the Catechism model where Nostalgia becomes just… recitation. Brenna really enjoyed Ready Player One, in a way I couldn't, because it gave her a whirlwind tour of the media I grew up with - a parallel universe in some respects, from an era where the overlaps didn't lap over quite so much. Some flaw in my cognition makes me very resistant to this lure, and resentful of those who wield it artlessly.

Today - that is to say, Wednesday Nov. 11th at 4pm PDT - we begin our (deep breath) Acquisitions Incorporated: The "C" Team, Tales From The Loop miniseries. This isn't like existing AcqInc stuff - it doesn't require knowledge of the last four years of The "C" Team, let alone the more than a decade of Acquisitions Incorporated content. This isn't like some test you have to cram for, it's starting now.  That said, it's not exactly a One Shot either, because this is a Good Time you can have every Wednesday for a month. Two completely self-contained stories, investigating the world and personalities "C" Team fans enjoy from a different angle. Come and git it.

(CW)TB out.

Kind Words is not new by any means, I got it a super long time ago - I think even before it was on Steam, though I could be remembering that wrong? For some reason I remember - as one does - unzipping a file into a folder and clicking on something inside there.

It is, functionally speaking, a kind of anonymous post office operated by a friendly deer. That's probably enough to bifurcate any audience, but let us cleave it further: this post office is designed to connect people with problems to friendly, concerned others who will respond with care and grace. I would say it exists in the infragame space, or maybe ultragame, in any case you don't earn XP. You do earn stickers and new lo-fi beats to listen to while you answer people's letters. I mean... that works for me.  I think that would probably work in real life.

I can't put my problems into a machine like this, even completely anonymously. The things that actually bother me are so bound up in shame and terror that I could never reveal them, even if I thought comfort might be forthcoming. I try to project myself just past the moment I subject myself to this device, to see what outcome I'm afraid of, and I can't discern it - it's like the timeline beyond it is just infinitely expanding white ash. I'll have to get around to that at some point I guess. But for now, I've been embroiled in enough nettlesome shit to offer something to the occasional tormented soul.

Hey! This Wednesday at 4pm PDT, we begin an excursion into the same terrifying wilds of Spokane that we plumbed with the Club PA enabled "The A.V. Club," the entirety of which you can now view on YouTube. The "C" Team has been on hiatus for a minute now; we founded that game looking at each other's faces, and that's how we want to finish it. But it occurred to me that if we changed systems and did something for a remote play game that we didn't have the other associations with, we could be together again in a way we could have some fun with. This miniseries, like The A.V. Club, doesn't require any prior knowledge of anything to enjoy it. You don't need to cram like a hundred hours of podcasts in at 4x or something. You might get some fun references if you've already spent time with us, but it's not even the same system! Tales From The Loop's 80's Movie Kids In Danger thing is its own delight as a format.  It's a game that really encourages players to take the reins, and when you have the kind of players I do…  Well, you should come see.

(CW)TB out.

This year’s Child’s Play auction has gone online and today is the last day to purchase one of the Mix and Mingle tickets. This ticket option includes a box with drink fixings and some other goodies that we want you to have on December 10th, the night of the auction. I’ve offered up a few of my original acrylic paintings this year. I did these back around 2008 along with a dozen more or so. This is the first time I’ve auctioned any of them off and I’m hoping they find good homes and help raise some money for a very good cause.

If you have something you think would be cool for the auction and you'd like to donate it to Child's Play you can do that right here. 

-Gabe out