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It's that time of year again! Child's Play 2005 is underway. Child's Play is a charity run every year by Penny Arcade, the well-known online gaming comic created by Gabe and Tycho. Child's Play is your chance to give to the proto-geeks of the world who not only might not have the chance to play games otherwise, but find themselves sick in a hospital during the Holiday season. Child's Play gives money, games, and toys to children's hospitals in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.. Gabe's kickoff post was put up yesterday on the site. The Child's Play site itself is chok full of information, including a F.A.Q., letters from former patients who have been touched by games in hospice, and an order form for tickets to the second annual Child's Play charity dinner. This last is a swanky shindig with a silent auction, at which you can bid on one-of-a-kind opportunities like a tour of Bungie's studios or the chance to be in a Penny Arcade comic. Most important, though, are the links on the front page of the site to the various Amazon.com wishlists. There, you can purchase a book, game, or toy to have sent to a deserving kid at one of the participating hospitals. These folks are our folks, and if you have anything to give this is the place to do it. Thanks.

It's that time of year again! Child's Play 2005 is underway. Child's Play is a charity run every year by Penny Arcade, the well-known online gaming comic created by Gabe and Tycho. Child's Play is your chance to give to the proto-geeks of the world who not only might not have the chance to play games otherwise, but find themselves sick in a hospital during the Holiday season. Child's Play gives money, games, and toys to children's hospitals in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.. Gabe's kickoff post was put up yesterday on the site. The Child's Play site itself is chok full of information, including a F.A.Q., letters from former patients who have been touched by games in hospice, and an order form for tickets to the second annual Child's Play charity dinner. This last is a swanky shindig with a silent auction, at which you can bid on one-of-a-kind opportunities like a tour of Bungie's studios or the chance to be in a Penny Arcade comic. Most important, though, are the links on the front page of the site to the various Amazon.com wishlists. There, you can purchase a book, game, or toy to have sent to a deserving kid at one of the participating hospitals. These folks are our folks, and if you have anything to give this is the place to do it. Thanks.

It's that time of year again! Child's Play 2005 is underway. Child's Play is a charity run every year by Penny Arcade, the well-known online gaming comic created by Gabe and Tycho. Child's Play is your chance to give to the proto-geeks of the world who not only might not have the chance to play games otherwise, but find themselves sick in a hospital during the Holiday season. Child's Play gives money, games, and toys to children's hospitals in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.. Gabe's kickoff post was put up yesterday on the site. The Child's Play site itself is chok full of information, including a F.A.Q., letters from former patients who have been touched by games in hospice, and an order form for tickets to the second annual Child's Play charity dinner. This last is a swanky shindig with a silent auction, at which you can bid on one-of-a-kind opportunities like a tour of Bungie's studios or the chance to be in a Penny Arcade comic. Most important, though, are the links on the front page of the site to the various Amazon.com wishlists. There, you can purchase a book, game, or toy to have sent to a deserving kid at one of the participating hospitals. These folks are our folks, and if you have anything to give this is the place to do it. Thanks.

It's that time of year again! Child's Play 2005 is underway. Child's Play is a charity run every year by Penny Arcade, the well-known online gaming comic created by Gabe and Tycho. Child's Play is your chance to give to the proto-geeks of the world who not only might not have the chance to play games otherwise, but find themselves sick in a hospital during the Holiday season. Child's Play gives money, games, and toys to children's hospitals in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.. Gabe's kickoff post was put up yesterday on the site. The Child's Play site itself is chok full of information, including a F.A.Q., letters from former patients who have been touched by games in hospice, and an order form for tickets to the second annual Child's Play charity dinner. This last is a swanky shindig with a silent auction, at which you can bid on one-of-a-kind opportunities like a tour of Bungie's studios or the chance to be in a Penny Arcade comic. Most important, though, are the links on the front page of the site to the various Amazon.com wishlists. There, you can purchase a book, game, or toy to have sent to a deserving kid at one of the participating hospitals. These folks are our folks, and if you have anything to give this is the place to do it. Thanks.

Anon1001 sent us the latest developments in the ongoing saga between Miami Attorney Jack Thompson and Penny-Arcade. So far the story goes that Jack has filed a wrongful death suit against Rock Star, claiming that GTA is a cop killing training simulator responsible for the murder of a pair of cops. He also offered $10k to charity if anyone who would develop some ridiculous murder spree game. When someone did it, and he changed his mind and Penny-Arcade donated the cash instead. All of this is being documented on the Penny Arcade website, in phone calls, rants and comics, as well as an 'I Hate Jack Thompson' T-Shirt. (Note, Slashdot's parent company owns ThinkGeek). He has now called the cops claiming harassment. Update: 10/18 17:40 GMT by Z : It seems like this confrontation has been brewing all summer. The most recent altercation is just another link in the chain made by Thompson's reaction to Hot Coffee and his crusade against the Sims 2. Further, PA has put up the scan of the letter to the cops, and a photo of the check.

Anon1001 sent us the latest developments in the ongoing saga between Miami Attorney Jack Thompson and Penny-Arcade. So far the story goes that Jack has filed a wrongful death suit against Rock Star, claiming that GTA is a cop killing training simulator responsible for the murder of a pair of cops. He also offered $10k to charity if anyone who would develop some ridiculous murder spree game. When someone did it, and he changed his mind and Penny-Arcade donated the cash instead. All of this is being documented on the Penny Arcade website, in phone calls, rants and comics, as well as an 'I Hate Jack Thompson' T-Shirt. (Note, Slashdot's parent company owns ThinkGeek). He has now called the cops claiming harassment. Update: 10/18 17:40 GMT by Z : It seems like this confrontation has been brewing all summer. The most recent altercation is just another link in the chain made by Thompson's reaction to Hot Coffee and his crusade against the Sims 2. Further, PA has put up the scan of the letter to the cops, and a photo of the check.

Anon1001 sent us the latest developments in the ongoing saga between Miami Attorney Jack Thompson and Penny-Arcade. So far the story goes that Jack has filed a wrongful death suit against Rock Star, claiming that GTA is a cop killing training simulator responsible for the murder of a pair of cops. He also offered $10k to charity if anyone who would develop some ridiculous murder spree game. When someone did it, and he changed his mind and Penny-Arcade donated the cash instead. All of this is being documented on the Penny Arcade website, in phone calls, rants and comics, as well as an 'I Hate Jack Thompson' T-Shirt. (Note, Slashdot's parent company owns ThinkGeek). He has now called the cops claiming harassment. Update: 10/18 17:40 GMT by Z : It seems like this confrontation has been brewing all summer. The most recent altercation is just another link in the chain made by Thompson's reaction to Hot Coffee and his crusade against the Sims 2. Further, PA has put up the scan of the letter to the cops, and a photo of the check.

Goalmaster3000 writes to tell us Joystiq.com is reporting that Jack Thompson has rescinded his offer of a $10,000 donation to charity if a video game were made to fit his model. Recently a group of GTA modders cooked up a scenario to fit the bill but apparently Thompson is claiming that his piece 'A Modest Video Game Proposal' was intended as satire that the video game community was not bright enough to grasp. Perhaps Thompson was just afraid he was going to have to sue himself? Update: 10/17 20:02 GMT by SM: It appears that the Penny Arcade crew has taken the next step by donating the promised $10,000... in Jack Thompson's name.

Goalmaster3000 writes to tell us Joystiq.com is reporting that Jack Thompson has rescinded his offer of a $10,000 donation to charity if a video game were made to fit his model. Recently a group of GTA modders cooked up a scenario to fit the bill but apparently Thompson is claiming that his piece 'A Modest Video Game Proposal' was intended as satire that the video game community was not bright enough to grasp. Perhaps Thompson was just afraid he was going to have to sue himself? Update: 10/17 20:02 GMT by SM: It appears that the Penny Arcade crew has taken the next step by donating the promised $10,000... in Jack Thompson's name.

ReverendLoki writes "The Webcomics Examiner has a story in their latest issue on The Artistic History of Webcomics, in which they examine and dissect how many of your favorite webcomics have evolved over the years and attempts to discern where they exist in the grand scheme of the webcomics universe. Expect to find some pretty insightful commentary on the likes of Sluggy Freelance, PvP, MegaTokyo, and the ever-present Penny Arcade, as well as others. An excellent analysis on how these comics work." From the piece: "The nerd's enthusiasm and experiences as an 'early adopter' of technological trends is easily translated into a revenue source for new cultural trends like the webcomic. This shows most clearly in the way that the super stars of the webcomic world have fairly consistently been the geekiest of the geekiest -- Penny Arcade, PVP, User Friendly, 8-bit Theatre, and yes, Dilbert."

Last week I packed my bags and went to Washington to partake in the event known as PAX, The Penny Arcade Expo. That sexy new rising star of video game conferences. Along with thousands of other fans of the comic strip, we filed into the Meydenbauer conference center unclear as to what would greet us inside.

When we arrived on friday it was already packed pretty solid. The hotel parking lot had many cars colorfully decorated with windows proclaiming cryptic messages like "OMFG PAX05". We were definitely in the right place.

We entered the hall in time for for Gabe & Tycho to give their opening panel before their legions of adoring fans. The pair speak charismatically and energetically, giving fun answers to the good questions, and handling the lame questions with expertise that can't be learned. jerry is the loud one, and he especially enjoys the crowd. He's fast, witty and very entertaining, even when they have to answer the question about where the (cw) in their nicknames comes from for what must have been the 103rd time of the weekend. Mike is more quiet, but when he speaks it is always draws a laugh. They clearly were speaking to their home crowd, but it also was very obvious to see the real chemistry that makes their strip so funny.

The Red vs Blue panel was similarly entertaining. They answered questions about some of the more ridiculous aspects of the show, to some more philosophical points about machinema and the relationship between the would-be director, and video game publisher. Most entertaining was the story of shots with the number of actors on screen outnumbering the number of performers, requiring dextrous feet to get the shots right. They screened a fair bit of RvB material for a receptive audience. What most impressed me was the schedule they work under. Writing the show, recording the dialog, and animating it over the course of a single week. It's no small task. I bought the Season 3 DVD.

For me the highlight of the weekend was the 'Make Monday's Strip' panel where the process of actually creating a single Penny Arcade comic was put up on a giant screen for thousands of fans to watch in amazement. Ok, so they cheated a little and pre-sketched the strip, but to actually watch Gabe ink and color all 3 panels in like 45 minutes was really cool to see. I used to do a lot of cartooning back in the day too, and I can only imagine the stress this put him through: drawing is hard, and to do it under the megascope of a couple thousand people, even tho the masses are fans, well he handled it well. To see him hold aloft his "Wacom Pad the Size of an Aircraft Carrier" like some sort of bizarre 2001 monolith was very fun. And somehow Jerry manages to spew forth a vast quantity of words, most of which get laughs. Talented boys, these two.

Of course there was more to the show than just the panels. The exhibition hall was packed elbow to elbow. The line to purchase Penny Arcade merch was like a mighty cobra coiling through the building. I'm sure that countless fruit fucker t-shirts are now spread around the nation like a plague of locust, descending upon electronics stores around the land causing children to shield the eyes of their unaware parents as PAX attendees strut by wearing the arcane symbols of their fellowship.

The big 3 consoles all had representation, but by far the Nintendo booth took the cake. I mean, they had the new Zelda up for all to behold. New Zelda. Do you understand me? New Zelda causes feelings in my pants that I find best to ignore in public. They also had Nintendogs which compelled me to visit the local Best Buy that very day. Tragically they were out of stock, but since I still have not 'caught-them-all' in Pokemon Emerald, maybe I should just say NO to a new portable addiction.

Turbine was demonstrating early builds of both their Lord of the Rings massive, and their Dungeons and Dragons massive. I spent a fair bit of time chatting with them about their plans for each of these games. Competing with the gorilla that is World of Warcraft must be a difficult place to be, but each of these games appear to be addressing different issues with the shadow that looms over their industry. D&D Online for example will only be implementing levels 1-10 at launch. The game will be less about the level grind, and more about compelling story line. Of course, for me, I'm a numbers guy. When I play Warcraft, I often don't even read the whole quest (this has screwed me in the past mind you). I need to kill 10 murlocs? Ok GO! KILL KILL! But the graphics for D&D On-line are very compelling. A definite upgrade from any other massive I've seen. I'm looking forward to the office going on an adventure in that world, if only because it is based on the D&D 3.5 rules, and that sort of thing has a fuzzy warm place in my heart.

The Lord of the Rings game was much earlier in development. By far the most interesting aspect of their system was their concept of difficulty-over-time instead of difficulty-over-location. If you go to The Hinterlands in WoW, you know you're going to be fighting 40-something monsters. And it will always be the same. When you kill the named char, he will re-spawn 5 minutes later for the next guy to gack. LotR is causing the world to change following significant events. A town that you visit at level 5 might burn to the ground following crucial story events. When you later visit that town, the inn will be ashes, and the NPC who gave you quests is a corpse. In other words, it's a sense of state that doesn't exist in WoW. They also had the interesting idea of allowing 9 player parties, but getting together parties that large is a lot more challenging. I love the concept in theory, but in practice, I think it would drive me mad.

Both games seem more tightly focused on compelling story and team play. Less about the level grind. Also they had some interesting puzzle type action unlike what I'm used to seeing in a massive. I definitely look forward to trying them out as they become available. WoW now has 4 million subscribers around the world. Since these games won't be available for many moons, I imagine the market will be ripe for a shift.

WidowPC was sponsoring a gaming room. It was neat to see rows of PCs with gamers slumped over them focused upon killing aliens, friends, or monsters with hope to earn points, repution, or most honorable of all, that glorious thing known as "XP".

The Bring-Your-Own-Computer space was also a sight to behold. The real surprise to me was the general quiet in these spaces. Almost tranquil at times. Everyone seemed very focused on the games they were playing. Personally I like a little more cussing when I play, but the whole weekend was a pretty clean affair. I wish I had lugged my box- Speakeasy was providing bandwidth and my arcanite transmute was cooled down!

And let me not forget Bawlz. The caffeinated drink of choice was available and sold for a buck a bottle. The beverage was everpresent: from people dropping the glass bottles in the audiences listening to panels, to watching literally dozens of people lugging cases of the stuff from the conference, to the hotel a half dozen blocks away, struggling under the weight, taking pause to lean against whatever flat surface would support the weight, hearts racing from the caffeinated equivalent of almost 3 cans of coke consumed in minutes. It reminded me of the time at ALS in like 1998 that we first discovered Penguin Mints. We didn't really know how much caffeine they put in those things so we were popping them like Pez all morning. By the end of the afternoon the concept of "Blinking" was foreign.

The saturday night finale was a concert by the Minibosses, MC Chris, and MC Frontalot. For Kathleen, the highlight was listening to MC Chris rant in front of thousands of attendees. I don't know how much was his voice and how much was the sound system, but it was often difficult to make him out when he was rapping, but when he was complaining, it was quite audible and crowd ate it right up.

Anyway, PAX was a fun experience. Next year they plan to move to a larger space in Seattle proper. They really need it: this place was packed. The sardines cliche doesn't do it justice. Every bit of wall had consoles and TVs on it with gamers glued to the screens playing Katamari Damacy, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and whatever other games they could get their hands on. Movement was difficult, especially in the exhibition hall.

I imagine that next year they larger space will open doors to more exhibitors, larger displays, more room for games, and attendees. Does PAX spell the end of E3 or CES? Obviously not. But would I choose PAX over COMDEX? Definitely. Any vendor would be crazy not to want to show their stuff here: this was a very hardcore crowd. Real gamers here to play, and talk about the games they love and hate. It's not about marketing or dollars, just about passion, and that makes for a far more fun weekend.

Last week I packed my bags and went to Washington to partake in the event known as PAX, The Penny Arcade Expo. That sexy new rising star of video game conferences. Along with thousands of other fans of the comic strip, we filed into the Meydenbauer conference center unclear as to what would greet us inside.

When we arrived on friday it was already packed pretty solid. The hotel parking lot had many cars colorfully decorated with windows proclaiming cryptic messages like "OMFG PAX05". We were definitely in the right place.

We entered the hall in time for for Gabe & Tycho to give their opening panel before their legions of adoring fans. The pair speak charismatically and energetically, giving fun answers to the good questions, and handling the lame questions with expertise that can't be learned. jerry is the loud one, and he especially enjoys the crowd. He's fast, witty and very entertaining, even when they have to answer the question about where the (cw) in their nicknames comes from for what must have been the 103rd time of the weekend. Mike is more quiet, but when he speaks it is always draws a laugh. They clearly were speaking to their home crowd, but it also was very obvious to see the real chemistry that makes their strip so funny.

The Red vs Blue panel was similarly entertaining. They answered questions about some of the more ridiculous aspects of the show, to some more philosophical points about machinema and the relationship between the would-be director, and video game publisher. Most entertaining was the story of shots with the number of actors on screen outnumbering the number of performers, requiring dextrous feet to get the shots right. They screened a fair bit of RvB material for a receptive audience. What most impressed me was the schedule they work under. Writing the show, recording the dialog, and animating it over the course of a single week. It's no small task. I bought the Season 3 DVD.

For me the highlight of the weekend was the 'Make Monday's Strip' panel where the process of actually creating a single Penny Arcade comic was put up on a giant screen for thousands of fans to watch in amazement. Ok, so they cheated a little and pre-sketched the strip, but to actually watch Gabe ink and color all 3 panels in like 45 minutes was really cool to see. I used to do a lot of cartooning back in the day too, and I can only imagine the stress this put him through: drawing is hard, and to do it under the megascope of a couple thousand people, even tho the masses are fans, well he handled it well. To see him hold aloft his "Wacom Pad the Size of an Aircraft Carrier" like some sort of bizarre 2001 monolith was very fun. And somehow Jerry manages to spew forth a vast quantity of words, most of which get laughs. Talented boys, these two.

Of course there was more to the show than just the panels. The exhibition hall was packed elbow to elbow. The line to purchase Penny Arcade merch was like a mighty cobra coiling through the building. I'm sure that countless fruit fucker t-shirts are now spread around the nation like a plague of locust, descending upon electronics stores around the land causing children to shield the eyes of their unaware parents as PAX attendees strut by wearing the arcane symbols of their fellowship.

The big 3 consoles all had representation, but by far the Nintendo booth took the cake. I mean, they had the new Zelda up for all to behold. New Zelda. Do you understand me? New Zelda causes feelings in my pants that I find best to ignore in public. They also had Nintendogs which compelled me to visit the local Best Buy that very day. Tragically they were out of stock, but since I still have not 'caught-them-all' in Pokemon Emerald, maybe I should just say NO to a new portable addiction.

Turbine was demonstrating early builds of both their Lord of the Rings massive, and their Dungeons and Dragons massive. I spent a fair bit of time chatting with them about their plans for each of these games. Competing with the gorilla that is World of Warcraft must be a difficult place to be, but each of these games appear to be addressing different issues with the shadow that looms over their industry. D&D Online for example will only be implementing levels 1-10 at launch. The game will be less about the level grind, and more about compelling story line. Of course, for me, I'm a numbers guy. When I play Warcraft, I often don't even read the whole quest (this has screwed me in the past mind you). I need to kill 10 murlocs? Ok GO! KILL KILL! But the graphics for D&D On-line are very compelling. A definite upgrade from any other massive I've seen. I'm looking forward to the office going on an adventure in that world, if only because it is based on the D&D 3.5 rules, and that sort of thing has a fuzzy warm place in my heart.

The Lord of the Rings game was much earlier in development. By far the most interesting aspect of their system was their concept of difficulty-over-time instead of difficulty-over-location. If you go to The Hinterlands in WoW, you know you're going to be fighting 40-something monsters. And it will always be the same. When you kill the named char, he will re-spawn 5 minutes later for the next guy to gack. LotR is causing the world to change following significant events. A town that you visit at level 5 might burn to the ground following crucial story events. When you later visit that town, the inn will be ashes, and the NPC who gave you quests is a corpse. In other words, it's a sense of state that doesn't exist in WoW. They also had the interesting idea of allowing 9 player parties, but getting together parties that large is a lot more challenging. I love the concept in theory, but in practice, I think it would drive me mad.

Both games seem more tightly focused on compelling story and team play. Less about the level grind. Also they had some interesting puzzle type action unlike what I'm used to seeing in a massive. I definitely look forward to trying them out as they become available. WoW now has 4 million subscribers around the world. Since these games won't be available for many moons, I imagine the market will be ripe for a shift.

WidowPC was sponsoring a gaming room. It was neat to see rows of PCs with gamers slumped over them focused upon killing aliens, friends, or monsters with hope to earn points, repution, or most honorable of all, that glorious thing known as "XP".

The Bring-Your-Own-Computer space was also a sight to behold. The real surprise to me was the general quiet in these spaces. Almost tranquil at times. Everyone seemed very focused on the games they were playing. Personally I like a little more cussing when I play, but the whole weekend was a pretty clean affair. I wish I had lugged my box- Speakeasy was providing bandwidth and my arcanite transmute was cooled down!

And let me not forget Bawlz. The caffeinated drink of choice was available and sold for a buck a bottle. The beverage was everpresent: from people dropping the glass bottles in the audiences listening to panels, to watching literally dozens of people lugging cases of the stuff from the conference, to the hotel a half dozen blocks away, struggling under the weight, taking pause to lean against whatever flat surface would support the weight, hearts racing from the caffeinated equivalent of almost 3 cans of coke consumed in minutes. It reminded me of the time at ALS in like 1998 that we first discovered Penguin Mints. We didn't really know how much caffeine they put in those things so we were popping them like Pez all morning. By the end of the afternoon the concept of "Blinking" was foreign.

The saturday night finale was a concert by the Minibosses, MC Chris, and MC Frontalot. For Kathleen, the highlight was listening to MC Chris rant in front of thousands of attendees. I don't know how much was his voice and how much was the sound system, but it was often difficult to make him out when he was rapping, but when he was complaining, it was quite audible and crowd ate it right up.

Anyway, PAX was a fun experience. Next year they plan to move to a larger space in Seattle proper. They really need it: this place was packed. The sardines cliche doesn't do it justice. Every bit of wall had consoles and TVs on it with gamers glued to the screens playing Katamari Damacy, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and whatever other games they could get their hands on. Movement was difficult, especially in the exhibition hall.

I imagine that next year they larger space will open doors to more exhibitors, larger displays, more room for games, and attendees. Does PAX spell the end of E3 or CES? Obviously not. But would I choose PAX over COMDEX? Definitely. Any vendor would be crazy not to want to show their stuff here: this was a very hardcore crowd. Real gamers here to play, and talk about the games they love and hate. It's not about marketing or dollars, just about passion, and that makes for a far more fun weekend.

The Second Annual Penny Arcade Expo kicks off today, with a weekend full of goodness planned. A GameCloud interview with organizer Mike Fehlauer goes into detail. From the article: "...the show was created as a party for fans, and everyone was cool with each other and had a good time despite a few first-show bugs. We expected about 1,500 people so when over 4,000 showed up we were a bit overwhelmed." Gamespot has a look at some of the vendors this year, the second Omegathon contest is set to run, and The Frag Dolls will be recruiting from the female convention attendees. Additionally CmdrTaco will be there getting his nerd on, so make sure to give him a hard time if you see him.

The Second Annual Penny Arcade Expo kicks off today, with a weekend full of goodness planned. A GameCloud interview with organizer Mike Fehlauer goes into detail. From the article: "...the show was created as a party for fans, and everyone was cool with each other and had a good time despite a few first-show bugs. We expected about 1,500 people so when over 4,000 showed up we were a bit overwhelmed." Gamespot has a look at some of the vendors this year, the second Omegathon contest is set to run, and The Frag Dolls will be recruiting from the female convention attendees. Additionally CmdrTaco will be there getting his nerd on, so make sure to give him a hard time if you see him.

Grym writes "The recently released Battlefield 2 was met with various levels of acclaim by reviewers. Besides the insane hardware requirements, the chief complaint was the amount of bugs in the game. Hoping to address the situation quickly, EA hastily released a patch to address the concerns cited in reviews. Big mistake. The patch turned out to be littered with bugs. One of the biggest was a huge memory leak. Another actually turned teammates' names red--just like enemies. The game became unplayable because of the patch. Tycho at Penny-Arcade discussed the issue in his latest news update. EA has owned up to the buggy patch and has said that there will be a hotfix released soon. In the meantime, gamers have been offically told to uninstall Battlefield 2 and play without the patch; advice that many fans are not happy to hear. Meanwhile, some sites are still offering the 1.01 patch for download on their front pages, only adding to the confusion. When are game companies going to learn? Quality assurance and play-testing should not be an afterthought!"

Joystiq brought to my attention the enormous collection of NES games currently up for bid on eBay. From the auction: "First off 776 nintendo nes games.. THAT is only 10 games from having the complete set of usa released nes games...I quit collecting six or seven months ago, but i'm sure the last ten games are on ebay right now.. this list is far to long for a two finger typer like myself to type so I'll try to make this as easy as possible.. First thing you need to do is google search MIKE ETLER'S RARITY LIST.. Print this list out... You need the first 17 pages.." Amazingly, Tycho Brahe (of PA) wrote in to mention that "We just picked this up to be the Omegathon Prize at PAX." Quite an incentive, eh?

Joystiq brought to my attention the enormous collection of NES games currently up for bid on eBay. From the auction: "First off 776 nintendo nes games.. THAT is only 10 games from having the complete set of usa released nes games...I quit collecting six or seven months ago, but i'm sure the last ten games are on ebay right now.. this list is far to long for a two finger typer like myself to type so I'll try to make this as easy as possible.. First thing you need to do is google search MIKE ETLER'S RARITY LIST.. Print this list out... You need the first 17 pages.." Amazingly, Tycho Brahe (of PA) wrote in to mention that "We just picked this up to be the Omegathon Prize at PAX." Quite an incentive, eh?

Last week was so interesting I caught the plague and died for two days. Now that I've gotten a rez and E3 has wrapped up, a look back is in order. Ferrago takes a look at E3 no-shows, like STALKER, while GamesIndustry.biz has a look at statistics. The big three PR conferences were some of the highlights of the Expo, and Gamespot tells us who 'won'. The best way to get a feel for what happened last week, though, is to get it firsthand. The Casual Gamer Experiment is over, with his impressions now available. Personal accounts are available at Press the Buttons, GamersInfo.net, CliffyB.com, Grimwell.com, John Davison's Blog, and Jeremy Parish's Blog. Was there any firsthand E3 coverage that you particularly liked this year? What did you think of G4's live broadcasting, if you caught it? Update: 05/23 18:56 GMT by Z : Obligitory PA link. From the post: "I don't believe there is any such thing as a 'Playstation 3' yet, and I don't believe in the Killzone video. What I do believe is that Sony harnessed the media and then rode it from place to place, one hand on the bridle while the other waved madly in the air."

The first day of E3 has wrested loose new information from Blizzard about its newer games, and they have a page up with dedicated links to the new content. World of Warcraft is sporting new trailers, wallpaper, screenshots, and a nice look at the capture-the-flag style Warsong Gulch Battleground. Meanwhile, Gabe and Tycho have allowed Nova out of the house, giving Blizz the opportunity to put up a new Starcraft:Ghost web site. The site contains a bevy of gameplay information, including multiplayer combat, psi powers, weaponry, vehicles, wallpapers, screens, art, and trailers. Update: 05/19 08:50 GMT by Z : Gamespot has some hands-on impressions of Ghost for you to check out.

Penny Arcade's semi-frequent column The Hook Up has published a new article, and this time around Stormy talks about the coming high-def revolution in gaming and the acceptance of gaming by the masses. From the article: "I'm definitely troubled about the 'dumbing-down' effect that bringing the casual gamers into our fold may have on the quality of games in the future. Sure, tight pants and big tits appeal to the hardcore elite just the same as the casual gamer, but I'm betting that Half-Life 2 on the Xbox will play a lot different than on its PC predecessor. For example, I really took it as a compliment when Valve simply threw me into the fray when I began the game. The beauty of it was that the storytellers assumed that we've all played a shooter before."

Just as a reminder, the Playstation 3 is going to take it's bow before E3 proper as well. The Guardian has the story that the PS3 will debut four days after the Xbox360's introduction on MTV, at Sony Pictures Studio in LA. From the article: "Sony spokesfolks have hinted in the past that PS3 - or whatever it will be called - will be launched ahead of E3. Past product roadmaps have pointed to an early to mid-2005 launch. The company gave the PowerPC-derived 'Cell' processor on which the new console will be based its first public outing in February." Penny Arcade, as always, has the best grasp of the situation.

ThinkGeek writes "ThinkGeek ThinkGeek ThinkgEEk ThinkGeek! ThinkGeek ThinkGeek THINK geek think GeEk thinkgEek. ThinkGeek. (TG is owned by OSTG, the parent company of Slashdot, so activate all conspiracy theories now). You can also look into the new iPod accessory iCopulate which allows intimacy between mp3 players never before fantasized. And for the suit that has everything, Executve Pong. "

mc chris, the "beloved" rapper behinds such classics as Fett's Vette and The Tussin in addition to voicing Hesh on Cartoon Networks Sealab 2021 has responded to reader questions. The riveting results are just one click away. You know you want it. And his tour has dates in NC, SC, FL, GA and more. You know you want those too.

yo mc (Score:3, Interesting) by tekunokurato (531385)

Hey mc, we know the generalized geek rapper from the songs, but tell us about YOU. What're the hardware and OS of choice? What kind of characters do you play in D&D? What're your favourite movies/books? Top five all-time desert-island superpowers?

I have a 12 inch mac top, and it's got all the usual programs attached. We made the cartoons on macs with photoshop and protools. so i have all those programs on there as well.

I don't play D&D. I used to when i was little with my brothers, but i wasn't into all the waiting around, I guess I found it boring. I had more fun devising my own version of it, drawing maps, being more creative with it.

A few of my favorite movies are It's a Wonderful Life, Meatballs, Fresh, The Apartment, Double Indemnity, Rear Window. I like the Harry Potter books, and any tale of teenage ennui like The bell jar, or catcher in the rye, or the perks of being a wallflower. I think I'll never shake highschool.

Birthday song (Score:4, Insightful) by kirkb (158552)

Since the 'Happy Birthday' song [snopes.com] is copyrighted, would you consider open-sourcing Hesh's Birthday Song [pod-six.net] under something like the Creative Commons License? I'd rather hear it than the cheezy home-brew birthday songs that restaurants are forced to devise.

I dunno. People ask me to sing it for them at shows because it's their birthday, and I'll try to do it, even though I always mix up the room full friends, mouth full of cake line. there's no feeling worse that letting someone down that knows the lyrics better than you. especially with all the cartoon stuff. it's not my favorite thing that i've done. I don't know why hesh raps. hesh has slowly turned into me over the years.

Whose Voice Work do You Enjoy? (Score:4, Interesting) by ewhac (5844)

Your work on the Adult Swim lineup is much appreciated in our household. But I wondered whose voice work you enjoyed (not necessarily restricted to Williams Street). Who's fun to listen to? Who's fun to work with?

Dave Willis (carl and meatwad) and Dana Snyder (Master Shake) are brilliant. I love watching Dave work, because he'll start out with the scripted line then say it a million times over slowly moving towards a totally different and far funnier line. and as for dana just about everything that comes out of his mouth as shake is funny. I was lucky I got to hear all of their outtakes. and that goes for andy merrill too. I used to cut his reads up in protools. that guy likes to swear and burp, in character.

Hey chris... this is NOT how PAX will be... (Score:4, Interesting) by (PA)Storm Shadow (863825)

Making music for the Nerdcore seems problematic to me. Namely, I don't think that one would be able to put forth a bunch of intellectual property on the internet and expect this group to actually pay for it. Are you 'making it' on the take from the door at your gigs alone? (Hat's off on leaving your day job and giving it a go in either case). Do you feel pressured to put forth a conventional full-length CD for your fans, or will you continue to offer up shorter, sweeter groups of songs for free on your website?

The albums will get longer and you'll have to buy them, but I plan to make some online only songs just so I don't lose internet street cred. I'd like to do that with a cover album since we could never afford to charge people for it.

Music and computers (Score:3, Interesting) by adeydas (837049)

Since you are a musician, you must be using computers for your musical needs. Do you trust Open Source or Propriety software for that?

Also for general computing, what do you use? Can you cite your reasons for the same?!

My dj, John, makes the music on protools with a variety of plug ins. I don't really understand how it works, but I know the sound improves daily. He's constantly seeking out way to improve the sound, which is great for me. We both used macs. I've got a 12 inch lap top, he's got a G5 and 15 inch laptop. We use macs because the industry uses macs, both television and music. and pc's are lame.

Real Question. (Score:3, Interesting) by hot_Karls_bad_cavern (759797)

Did you get to spend much time with the late Harry Goz?

(Harry was Captain Murphy on Sealab, amongst many other things). What are your thoughts on him? Will we see more work with AdultSwim in the future?

I only spent one day with him really. My first day of recording. I was very nervous and I think someone had a hangover so Harry suggested some tea with some jack daniels in it. he was a really nice old guy, very professional and very funny. He was such a strong part of the show, things just weren't the same afterwards. his wife said he was very happy to go out being as popular as he was on sealab. so it was cool that he left us in style.

If presented with an actual musical instrument... (Score:4, Interesting) by smitty_one_each (243267) *

could you play it?

no. I wish I could play piano but no such luck. it's the one thing I can't do. And I wonder if I'll ever try. I feel like writing, drawing, acting and rapping is plenty for one man's plate.

Adult Swim Ties? (Score:3, Interesting) by astyanax (8365)

How about some more computer raps? "Ratz" and "Boy's dont cry" are the closest I've heard of your work to a computer-related song, any chance of getting some Linux-related rhymes? :)

I think the songs will reflect the fan base as well as what i'm going through in my life. I'm not as hardcore a nerd as people want to think I am. I'm much more of a loser. I try to listen though and get to know my fans and what they're into and then put it into the songs to an extent. I think that being solely about geek stuff like computers is dangerous though, because then you get pidgeonholed. the music is mainly about me not so much the scene.

I'll be in Ann Arbor, but what about lip syncing? (Score:4, Interesting) by ian rogers (760349)

It says on your website that you have a meeting about preserving your voice, is this a joke? Are you really having problems or foreseeing problems with your voice? Am I going to see an SNL Ashlee Simpson type ordeal happen at your show at the Blind Pig?

The jist of it is, is that I smoke too much weed which is bad for my vocal chords. but after every show kids try to smoke me up. Any blue blooded stoner would love this charity, but I've learned to get the bulk of the shows done before I start indulging. This next tour is for a straight month, so I'll be gettin the shaky hands I'm sure. And I'll never lip synch. I'm very serious about performing. and letting people see and hear that I can do these songs live.

Hard to work with? (Score:4, Funny) by myowntrueself (607117) Is Master Shake hard to work with?

I think I answered this one. Dana Snyder is one of the nicest and funniest guys in the universe. One time we were all at the Claremont Lounge in Atlanta and I showed up and he was just visiting, and he pulled out a chair for me and made me sit next to him, and we caught up. he's way cooler than me and doesn't have to treat me as nice as he does, but he does and it's cool. He's the opposite of Master Shake.

What I want to know is... (Score:4, Interesting) by th3space (531154)

Why is it that MC Pee Pants gets absolutely no respect from Satan, whereas the WisdomCube/Dubmassahedron does? To me, MC Pee Pants, while not as intelligent as the aforementioned geometric characters, is vastly more entertaining than that lot.

I think Satan likes to torture Pee Pants. Is it a surprise to anyone that Satan is cruel and vindictive? Wait till you see what he does to me next.

Question (Score:4, Interesting) by vincent404 (588127)

How did you start your act? also When and how did you get into voice acting?

I just got discovered in a bar, by Dave Willis, creator of athf and the voice of carl and meatwad. Adam Reed was with him and they both kinda snatched me up. I don't know what it was about that night that screamed, "get this kid in cartoons!" but it was one of those life changing evenings I have no recollection of because I was hammered. people ask me how to get into voice acting, and I tell them to learn to drink a pint of beer in under five seconds. that's how it worked for me.

Your Real Voice? (Score:4, Interesting) by Laebshade (643478) I know some voice actors, for example, use their natural voices for cartoon characters (Bugs Bunny, etc.). When you rapped, as MC Pee Pants (or Sir Loin) for ATHF, was that your natural voice? If not, can you post a clip of your real voice?

my voice is much lower in real life, like james earl jone's. I use the high pitched version to get on tv (and get laid.)

my honest question ... (Score:4, Funny) by YankeeInExile (577704) *

Who the fuck are you, and why do I care?

No one special and you obviously don't. Nice use of the word, "fuck," though.

Re:Who? (Score:5, Interesting) by Golias (176380)

Any chance of your newer songs becoming available on iTMS?

I dunno what that is. So i'll say yes.

JonLatane writes "Some of you old Penny Arcade fans may recall a time when Gabe and Tycho were planning to publish their work, only to lose the rights to all their stuff to some scumbag. Well, Gabe said today in the bottom of his post that they have gotten back the rights to their own work. This means that we may finally see some new printed works, especially since Gabe and Tycho are much more legally savvy as a result of this whole fiasco."

JonLatane writes "Some of you old Penny Arcade fans may recall a time when Gabe and Tycho were planning to publish their work, only to lose the rights to all their stuff to some scumbag. Well, Gabe said today in the bottom of his post that they have gotten back the rights to their own work. This means that we may finally see some new printed works, especially since Gabe and Tycho are much more legally savvy as a result of this whole fiasco."

New site Xbox2News.com (via Evil Avatar) has up an interview with Trip Hawkins, founder of Electronic Arts and recent AIAS inductee. During the course of the interview, he is asked what he sees as the future course for Nintendo. His answer? "My magic eight ball says they will be acquired by Microsoft within five years." Tycho has commentary on the man's forcasting abilities in today's post.

Last week, Tycho mentioned a set of questions they'd sent in the direction of the folks at Blizzard regarding the downtime World of Warcraft has been experiencing. Today Blizzard responds to their questions. Tycho agreed to the interview being reposted below the cut, so read on if you'd like Blizzard's response in the face of player frustration. 1. You say that you sold six hundred thousand units. Is the game not capable of supporting this many users?

The short answer is "The game is capable of supporting this many players," but it would probably be helpful to provide some background information. Based on our market analysis, we made some initial calculations about the size of the massively multiplayer online games market in the United States. We then accounted for new customers to the genre based on our previous games. Looking over this data, we did believe that there was the potential for an extremely sizable interest in a Blizzard MMOG. According to our research, other successful MMOGs in the U.S. had achieved roughly 300,000 subscribers after 12 months of operation. What ended up happening with World of Warcraft is that we achieved double these numbers in approximately the first six weeks of launch. We absolutely can support the number of copies we put on shelves, but we believed it would take us longer to get to this number in terms of players purchasing the game and logging on.

We had not anticipated this amount of growth in such a short time; however, we did have a backup plan that was deployed rapidly. In the first week of launch, we more than doubled our number of game servers and server infrastructure to accommodate the demand. The fact that we had planned to grow the service over the first 12 months of operation was evident, as we had server hardware waiting to be deployed. We just anticipated that this server rollout would be gradual. Copies of the game were being purchased at a much faster rate than anticipated, so we had to abandon our slower-paced plan and go into rapid deployment to accommodate these additional customers. This meant we also had to advance our timetable for additional server purchases.

With such a rapid growth of the network, we started to see several bottlenecks in the infrastructure that exposed themselves very quickly when the expanded hardware immediately took on massive load. These bottlenecks were solvable, but they required additional upgrades to the backend systems to accommodate the load--which, again, we hadn't planned to see, even with the extreme estimates, until later in the year. Regardless, server stability has remained our number-one priority, and so we acquired and deployed even more equipment as part of the process of addressing these issues. All of this new hardware also required additional software and operating system upgrades on the backend. The problems that some players on the 20 or so most populated servers (out of the current total of 88 servers) have been experiencing are related to some of the upgrades not functioning as desired. We are working diligently with our vendors and internal technical staff to get as quick of a resolution to the problems as possible, and we believe there should be noticeable improvements soon. When our community team commented that people are working 24/7, they weren't exaggerating.

2. If it's true that the server problems are related to the overwhelming number of players, why was no effort made to better distribute players evenly across realms, or allow players and guilds to transfer to less populated servers?

We actually did have a number of checks in place at launch to distribute players as evenly as possible across realms. When a new account logged in, the game would ask what realm rule set and time zone the player preferred, and then it would suggest the realm with the lowest population that matched the selected preferences. That said, we're definitely working on resolving the overpopulation problems that ended up occurring on some realms despite our preventative measures. A realm-transfer option that would allow players to move from their high-population realm to one with a low population is one of the things we're investigating. We're exploring this option fully and hope to be able to communicate more detailed information about it to our customers in the coming weeks.

3. Currently, large scale player raids involving large groups of players experience a huge amount of latency. How do you plan to compensate for this in your upcoming PvP Battlegrounds feature?

The player raids often have hundreds of people per side in one area; that area is on a server that is also running the rest of the continent, and that can result in the latency you describe--depending, as well, on the total population of that server. We're continuing to look into the issues surrounding this dip in performance. Battlegrounds, on the other hand, will run on the instance server, so there should be no such issues. Additionally, players will be unable to "zerg" in Battlegrounds; there will be a limit to the number of players per side.

4. What accounts for the frequent "emergency" maintenance downtime? What issues are you attempting to resolve?

The emergency maintenance periods are to restore stability while we continue to narrow down the cause of the problems. Some of them are also to deploy temporary fixes to various in-game systems while we continue to develop a longer term, more stable solution. World of Warcraft delivers many complex features that are unique to MMOGs. Features such as the in-game mail system, auction houses, player inventories, flight paths, quest states, etc. use a lot of server bandwidth, which makes pinpointing problems on the server infrastructure much more complicated.

Recently, the extended emergency downtime for a certain number of realms was needed in order to better accommodate our growing player base. Some of the upgrades that we planned for all of the realms were made to these realms first, as they are among the most populated and thus most in need of aid. We set the realms up on the latest top-of-the-line hardware and made the software upgrades accordingly, but some unforeseen issues cropped up with the database that resulted in the problems players currently see. This is no fun for our player base, of course, and we don't want to keep the realms running in a condition that frustrates our customers when we can attempt to fix things . So, these downtimes have been used to change hardware and apply fixes that will hopefully alleviate the issues. We have not yet resolved the problems, but we're working on this around the clock.

5. What issues are you experiencing with your login/authentication servers? It is often the case for myself and the people I play with that we cannot access realms our friends are already logged into.

These types of issues stem from the problems described above. Conflicts occur between some of the internal applications running in the background, and the end result can take the form of temporary login issues. We're working to resolve these conflicts so that they are no longer a factor.

6. When do you expect to have the worst of these problems resolved?

We'll be constantly working on these issues each day moving forward until they're resolved, but we don't currently have a set date for when that will be. We're doing all we can to make sure these problems no longer occur -- it's our top priority, and we hope to have the issues fixed as soon as possible. We'll continue to provide players with regular updates on our progress.

7. Will the European launch utilize the same realms, or will these players be hosted on all new equipment? If they are hosted on new servers, what have you done to ensure that the launch will be free of the problems mentioned above?

They will be on their own set of hardware, as with our Korean release. Our teams are learning from the experience of our North American launch and are applying that knowledge to the servers in Europe. We hope to provide them with a smooth launch.

8. What would you have done differently?

It would be easy to speculate about what we could have done differently, but that wouldn't turn back the clock. Right now we're extremely focused on the issues at hand, and this focus is helping us methodically chase down the problems that are causing frustration for some of our players. The foundation of our company is based on providing a top-notch game experience and an equally top-notch level of customer satisfaction; we won't be happy until we feel we're consistently meeting those standards.

Last week, Tycho mentioned a set of questions they'd sent in the direction of the folks at Blizzard regarding the downtime World of Warcraft has been experiencing. Today Blizzard responds to their questions. Tycho agreed to the interview being reposted below the cut, so read on if you'd like Blizzard's response in the face of player frustration. 1. You say that you sold six hundred thousand units. Is the game not capable of supporting this many users?

The short answer is "The game is capable of supporting this many players," but it would probably be helpful to provide some background information. Based on our market analysis, we made some initial calculations about the size of the massively multiplayer online games market in the United States. We then accounted for new customers to the genre based on our previous games. Looking over this data, we did believe that there was the potential for an extremely sizable interest in a Blizzard MMOG. According to our research, other successful MMOGs in the U.S. had achieved roughly 300,000 subscribers after 12 months of operation. What ended up happening with World of Warcraft is that we achieved double these numbers in approximately the first six weeks of launch. We absolutely can support the number of copies we put on shelves, but we believed it would take us longer to get to this number in terms of players purchasing the game and logging on.

We had not anticipated this amount of growth in such a short time; however, we did have a backup plan that was deployed rapidly. In the first week of launch, we more than doubled our number of game servers and server infrastructure to accommodate the demand. The fact that we had planned to grow the service over the first 12 months of operation was evident, as we had server hardware waiting to be deployed. We just anticipated that this server rollout would be gradual. Copies of the game were being purchased at a much faster rate than anticipated, so we had to abandon our slower-paced plan and go into rapid deployment to accommodate these additional customers. This meant we also had to advance our timetable for additional server purchases.

With such a rapid growth of the network, we started to see several bottlenecks in the infrastructure that exposed themselves very quickly when the expanded hardware immediately took on massive load. These bottlenecks were solvable, but they required additional upgrades to the backend systems to accommodate the load--which, again, we hadn't planned to see, even with the extreme estimates, until later in the year. Regardless, server stability has remained our number-one priority, and so we acquired and deployed even more equipment as part of the process of addressing these issues. All of this new hardware also required additional software and operating system upgrades on the backend. The problems that some players on the 20 or so most populated servers (out of the current total of 88 servers) have been experiencing are related to some of the upgrades not functioning as desired. We are working diligently with our vendors and internal technical staff to get as quick of a resolution to the problems as possible, and we believe there should be noticeable improvements soon. When our community team commented that people are working 24/7, they weren't exaggerating.

2. If it's true that the server problems are related to the overwhelming number of players, why was no effort made to better distribute players evenly across realms, or allow players and guilds to transfer to less populated servers?

We actually did have a number of checks in place at launch to distribute players as evenly as possible across realms. When a new account logged in, the game would ask what realm rule set and time zone the player preferred, and then it would suggest the realm with the lowest population that matched the selected preferences. That said, we're definitely working on resolving the overpopulation problems that ended up occurring on some realms despite our preventative measures. A realm-transfer option that would allow players to move from their high-population realm to one with a low population is one of the things we're investigating. We're exploring this option fully and hope to be able to communicate more detailed information about it to our customers in the coming weeks.

3. Currently, large scale player raids involving large groups of players experience a huge amount of latency. How do you plan to compensate for this in your upcoming PvP Battlegrounds feature?

The player raids often have hundreds of people per side in one area; that area is on a server that is also running the rest of the continent, and that can result in the latency you describe--depending, as well, on the total population of that server. We're continuing to look into the issues surrounding this dip in performance. Battlegrounds, on the other hand, will run on the instance server, so there should be no such issues. Additionally, players will be unable to "zerg" in Battlegrounds; there will be a limit to the number of players per side.

4. What accounts for the frequent "emergency" maintenance downtime? What issues are you attempting to resolve?

The emergency maintenance periods are to restore stability while we continue to narrow down the cause of the problems. Some of them are also to deploy temporary fixes to various in-game systems while we continue to develop a longer term, more stable solution. World of Warcraft delivers many complex features that are unique to MMOGs. Features such as the in-game mail system, auction houses, player inventories, flight paths, quest states, etc. use a lot of server bandwidth, which makes pinpointing problems on the server infrastructure much more complicated.

Recently, the extended emergency downtime for a certain number of realms was needed in order to better accommodate our growing player base. Some of the upgrades that we planned for all of the realms were made to these realms first, as they are among the most populated and thus most in need of aid. We set the realms up on the latest top-of-the-line hardware and made the software upgrades accordingly, but some unforeseen issues cropped up with the database that resulted in the problems players currently see. This is no fun for our player base, of course, and we don't want to keep the realms running in a condition that frustrates our customers when we can attempt to fix things . So, these downtimes have been used to change hardware and apply fixes that will hopefully alleviate the issues. We have not yet resolved the problems, but we're working on this around the clock.

5. What issues are you experiencing with your login/authentication servers? It is often the case for myself and the people I play with that we cannot access realms our friends are already logged into.

These types of issues stem from the problems described above. Conflicts occur between some of the internal applications running in the background, and the end result can take the form of temporary login issues. We're working to resolve these conflicts so that they are no longer a factor.

6. When do you expect to have the worst of these problems resolved?

We'll be constantly working on these issues each day moving forward until they're resolved, but we don't currently have a set date for when that will be. We're doing all we can to make sure these problems no longer occur -- it's our top priority, and we hope to have the issues fixed as soon as possible. We'll continue to provide players with regular updates on our progress.

7. Will the European launch utilize the same realms, or will these players be hosted on all new equipment? If they are hosted on new servers, what have you done to ensure that the launch will be free of the problems mentioned above?

They will be on their own set of hardware, as with our Korean release. Our teams are learning from the experience of our North American launch and are applying that knowledge to the servers in Europe. We hope to provide them with a smooth launch.

8. What would you have done differently?

It would be easy to speculate about what we could have done differently, but that wouldn't turn back the clock. Right now we're extremely focused on the issues at hand, and this focus is helping us methodically chase down the problems that are causing frustration for some of our players. The foundation of our company is based on providing a top-notch game experience and an equally top-notch level of customer satisfaction; we won't be happy until we feel we're consistently meeting those standards.

_xeno_ writes "World of Warcraft has received many awards for being one of the best games released in 2004. Unfortunately, the game is still suffering from downtime. Over this weekend, twenty different servers went offline several times - enough for Penny Arcade to revoke their 2004 Game of the Year status from the game. As Tycho puts it, "...we loved the game and had faith that any hitches in the experience would be ground down before release. This has not been borne out."" Relatedly, Voodoo Extreme is reporting that the Korean release of World of Warcraft should be happening today.

_xeno_ writes "World of Warcraft has received many awards for being one of the best games released in 2004. Unfortunately, the game is still suffering from downtime. Over this weekend, twenty different servers went offline several times - enough for Penny Arcade to revoke their 2004 Game of the Year status from the game. As Tycho puts it, "...we loved the game and had faith that any hitches in the experience would be ground down before release. This has not been borne out."" Relatedly, Voodoo Extreme is reporting that the Korean release of World of Warcraft should be happening today.

Today we run the final strip in the Penny Arcade Christmas series "The Last Christmas". As a last strip, it is preceded by others. Strips 1, 2, 3, and 4, to be precise. Many thanks to Gabe and Tycho for allowing us to share in their Holiday fhtagn.

The fourth piece in the Penny Arcade Holiday Strip series is now available, just read below to check it out. Strips 1, 2, and 3 are also very good if you haven't checked them out yet.

We continue today our co-hosting of Penny Arcade's Holiday strip series "The Last Christmas". If you haven't seen the gaping maw of comics 1 or 2, make sure to do that before you check out Gabe and Tycho's latest.

We're happy to bring you more work from Gabe and Tycho, the co-authors of Penny Arcade and organizers of the Child's Play charity. This week the Holiday strip series continues with Page 2 of the story.

KJK::Hyperion writes "ReactOS (the open-source Windows clone) has been ported and successfully runs on the Microsoft XBox (screenshot), thanks to the interest and knowledge base of the XBox Linux project and the work of Gé van Geldorp (HAL and boot loader) and Hervé Poussineau (FATX driver)." (Read on for more.)

KJK::Hyperion continues "This port definitely establishes two facts: the XBox is nothing but a broken PC, and the kernel + HAL design that ReactOS inherited from Windows is sound - all of the changes to the core system necessary for the XBox port (namely, the blacklisting of a buggy PCI device and handling the fixed partition table on the built-in hard disk) were limited to the HAL. This is a first, important step towards better portability, as it has already underlined some shortcomings in our build system.

What the port is lacking is hardware support: especially, ReactOS has no USB support at the moment, so it basically just sits there being pretty, because mouse and keyboard won't work. The network and video cards should be mostly identical to their "real" counterparts, so the Windows drivers for them should work (except the video card, a modified GeForce - it's been established we need some HAL trickery to make the Windows driver load). We wouldn't mind some help :-)

To run ReactOS on the XBox you need our custom version of the Cromwell boot loader (not released yet) and the XBox HAL for for ReactOS."

We passed on your questions to Tycho and Gabe of Penny Arcade a while back, and today we have their answers. Tycho primarily answered the questions with consultation from Gabe and discusses the PA comic creation process, their views on the industry, and the possibility of an animated Penny Arcade venture. As usual, they do so with wit and verve: "I am not an industry analyst, so I dont feel like I'm qualified to talk about ebb and flow of hojillion dollar industries. However, it is easy to imagine a universe where small developers don't huddle in blasted out wreckage, waiting to be vivisected by the the next wave of EA Scion-class sawbots." Read on to check out their responses.

1.) Tools by cbrocious

My question is very simple: What tools do you use (both physical and digital) to create your comics?

I'm a long-time reader and have always wondered :)

Tycho:
He uses a pencil and paper for starters, and once he's scanned that in he does all the finishing work with Photoshop 6.1 and a massive 12x24 Wacom Intuos.

2.) Your Job by JediLuke

How much of your personal life does Penny-Arcade consume? On that note, great job, I love your strip.

Tycho:
Thank you for saying so. It is hard to know, actually, where to draw the line between our personal lives and Penny Arcade. The scripts come from our normal conversations. You knew almost to the moment when Gabriel was born. The site is virtually our diary, so I'm hard pressed to determine what corner of my life it hasn't yet been dominated by.

3.) First gaming webcomic by genessy

Was Penny Arcade the first, regularly produced gaming webcomic? I read approximately 20 webcomics on a daily basis, and many of them are dedicated to gaming humor or frustration. Were you guys the first, and if so or if not, who or what inspired you?

Tycho:
No, I don't believe so - in terms of a gaming focus, that honor goes to Scott Kurtz of PvP, by five or so months. We didn't know about him when we started, but we did know about Iliad from User Friendly who covered games from time to time, typically Quake. As for inspiration, we've always made little comics, but never considered doing them in strip form until we entered an online contest that Next Generation Online (now defunct) was holding. I can honestly say that if we had not entered that contest, there would be no Penny Arcade. It never would have occurred to us.

4.) Question Two by dgrgich

A question for both of you: Name the console and three of its games that you would take to that mythical desert isle.

Tycho:
Gabe suggests that a Playstation2 would suffice, with Disgaea, Phantom Brave, and Rez. If he had Internet access, and I submitted that this island might have some kind of satellite uplink, he would gladly bring along an Xbox, with the local staples Halo 2, Pandora Tomorrow, and Links for good measure.

Consoles are, in general terms, not my bag. I have come to enjoy them but they are not my preference, but I will answer the spirit of your question. It is clear to me that I would bring along a custom PC, with System Shock 2, Missionforce: Cyberstorm, and (this is a recent addition) World of Warcraft. That is, of course, provided their game begins to work properly.

5.) Gabe and Tycho: by mcc

Just curious: Are there any webcomics you read?

Tycho:
Sure. Gabe reads Kazu's Copper, Machall, and PvP regularly. I cast a fairly wide net, but the strips I read whenever they are updated include Boy On A Stick And Slither (which I crave beyond reason), PvP, Shaw Island, 8-bit Theatre, Machall, Wigu, Deisel Sweeties, Creatures In My Head, Scary Go Round, Exploding Dog, Goats, Ctrl-Alt-Del, and VGCats.

6.) Domesitification ... by SuperRob

Jerry's bought a house, Mike's had a baby boy. How has becoming bona-fide adults changed your lives, and do you find your priorities changing away from drawing comics and playing games.

Bonus Question: What advice would you give to geeks looking to in some way ensare geek grrls?

Tycho:
We are lucky enough to have really unorthodox jobs. Drawing comics and playing videogames is what we do for a living. It is an odd loophole, I admit, but if I don't play Half-Life 2 or whatever I'm actually slacking off.

As regards the laydays, Gabriel suggests the most important thing is that you simply be yourself, unless you are poor. Then, try to be someone who is richer and better looking, because you are kind of ugly. I am only only speaking for myself, but I have had good success with traps.

7.) Halo and Bungie by SilentChris

You guys absolutely roasted the original Halo, then gradually grew to like it. You've said you've met with Bungie since then. Were the meetings amicable?

Tycho:
It's important to note that what we came to like was the multiplayer mode, and the console LAN party culture it fostered, but yes - we did come around. As for the guys at Bungie, they have never been anything but nice to us, which always makes me feel bad.

8.) Collaboration... by kayser_soze

How far does the collaboration between you two go?

Does Tycho usually come up with the text/idea for the comic, then Gabe does the art as a separate process or is it more of a collaborative venture?

Tycho:
It's the collaborative venture you suggested there at the end, for the comic at least. They are written first, in a tag-team manner suggestive of the WWE, and then the art is created. For longer form projects, the full page stuff we've done for PA Presents, I handle the writing itself almost completely - but that's only after we've both come up with what happens on a page, and he has given me a light sketch of the events we've agreed on for me to write to.

9.) Rise of the Megapublishers by CarrionBird

Do you think that the industry is doomed to be under the thumb of less than a handful of publishers, buying up every promising studio?(and keeping the cost of promotion so high that small guys could never keep up)

Or is there a chance for a new wave if independent developers breaking free from the EAs of the world?

Tycho:
I am not an industry analyst, so I dont feel like I'm qualified to talk about ebb and flow of hojillion dollar industries. However, it is easy to imagine a universe where small developers don't huddle in blasted out wreckage, waiting to be vivisected by the the next wave of EA Scion-class sawbots. None what I'm about to say applies to closed platforms, consoles and so forth, where the relationship between the developer, the product, and the platform locked to varying degrees.

If you are not already familiar with Garage Games, Totalgaming.net, and of course Valve's Steam, I can understand why you might feel dread. As for the costs of promotion, I'm confident that community sites like this one can recognize quality and deliver shrewd gamers unto products missed by larger sites or publications. I'm very curious to see if, for example, the Steam platform gives rise to a number of retail quality mods for cheap. We'll see how it goes.

10.) Favourite comic? by ecliptik

Out of all the comics you've done, which one is your all time top favourite, and why?

Tycho:
Gabriel has suggested to me that his current favorite is Mr. Period Returns, where Mr. Period and his Bad Boys of Punctuation resolve issues in a collected, helpful manner. It often changes for me, typically I say Red and Blue in: We Deliver to deflect the question. Honestly, I just went into the archives looking for my favorite comic and I was stuck there for like forty-five minutes. The last strip we did is usually our favorite one.

11.) Life outside of games by hng_rval

How do you spend your free time outside of gaming?

Tycho:
I guess we don't understand the question.

And on that note, what do you and your spouses do for fun (outside of the apartment)?

Tycho:
Gabe and Kara don't really leave the apartment. They do escape from time to time to see a movie, but he just suggested that a fire might also make them leave. I typically accompany Brenna to interesting cultural events, like shows and plays, that are very interesting and cultural.

12.) Do you feel the pressure to self-censor? by Drunken_Jackass

As you get older and as PA's popularity increases to more of a mainstream level (thanks to the great job you did on last year's Childplay), are you starting to feel the pressures of self-censorship? I mean, how many news anchors could reference the good work you do with Childsplay without giving a Within that site, there be fruitfuckers warning?

Are you becoming too popular to maintain your riske side?

Tycho:
Not censoring ourselves is what made us popular, so locking up our most depraved ideas hardly seems like a recipe for success. The question itself implies that we are monitoring some kind of meter that determines how mainstream we have become, and can altering the mix of ideas to match our audience. You're giving us way too much credit.

The Child's Play thing is an issue, though it's more an issue for Child's Play itself than it is for Penny Arcade. I think about this a lot. Is it proper that a site like Penny Arcade should host or operate a charitable organization? I'll tell you where the thinking usually leads me: Maybe not, but that doesn't absolve us of our social responsibility.

13.) Difficulty of making a living via online comics? by Zeddicus_Z

Guys,

At the last SAGE-AU [sage-au.org.au] conference in Brisbane we had J.D. Frazer (Illiad) as guest of honor.

At dinner J.D. spoke of the difficulties he faced in the early years attempting to make a living from comics - the insanely difficult process of being sydicated into newspapers, working out a revenue model for a web-based comic when he realised syndication was too restrictive, and generally attempting to make a living doing something he loved.

With PA and UF being roughly as popular as each other these days and thus (hopefully!) both providing decent incomes, I'd like to hear how you guys coped with the early years and how you faced some of what seem to be the common difficulties such as the syndication process, creating a viable revenue model and dealing with early set backs.

Tycho:
Well, we walked different paths somewhat, and that should be firmly delineated. One of the few things we have in common with J.D. is that we both upload images to webservers. Gabe and I have never sought syndication as an end or a means to it. Don't forget that Illiad also made Userfriendly a public company at one point - try to imagine buying stock in Penny Arcade. The mind reels.

The main thing we share, and this is something that we have in common with all cartoonists making a living on the web, is that we keep at it until we find something that works, and when that stops working - and it will - we try something else. We don't confuse that business model with our creative work, imagining that its failure has revealed some desperate flaw in ourselves.

Over the course of six years, we have cycled through nearly every sequence the tumbler can produce. The first year and a half, we worked regular jobs until it could support one, and then both of us. We've done advertising, outside projects, joined a content aggregator for a percentage of the revenue, supported the site solely on donations, eventually moved to the quid pro quo, donations-for-gifts method that is fairly commonplace now, went hybrid with donation gifts and very limited advertising (no more than two per month), and finally stabilized on advertising alone. We've gone back and forth from doing our own merchandise to having someone else do it a two or three times, trying to find the right balance.

14.) Strawberry Shortcake by Anonymous Coward

A little while back, PA had a run-in with American Greetings over the use of the copyrighted and trademarked likeness of Strawberry Shortcake in what was obviously a (protected) work of parody.

American Greetings got called Nazis, but American McGee's Strawberry Shortcake is still missing from the PA archives.

What are the reprecussions of the Strawberry Shortcake debacle? If you had it to do over again, either the strip, or your interactions with American Greetings, would you have done anything different?

Tycho:
I think we made the best decision that we could have, and in retrospect I haven't gained any wisdom on the subject that leads me to believe we erred in judgement. We got the best advice we could from places like the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and the final analysis was that we weren't absolutely, one-hundred percent in the right. We could have been a good deal more feisty legally, but we're still in court over something that happened five years ago and I think we were hesitant to open up another front when the first one was already as much as we could afford.

I think I would be much more unhappy about the situation if people didn't have access to the comic, if they wanted to find it - it's not difficult to type strawberry shortcake penny arcade and have it revealed in all its sensual splendor. In fact, and I think I've said as much, I almost prefer that there is this hole in the archive where a comic should be. If the strip was just there, I think it would have been forgotten by now - you wouldn't be asking me about it. As it stands, virtually every time I'm asked to speak to people the Strawberry Shortcake Issue comes up, which keeps the notion that corporations overreach in these matters front and center.

Update: 11/30 19:09 GMT by Z : Tycho sent this in to answer some questions brought up in comments -

The "ongoing legal battle," and it's still with us, is over the book we printed a few years ago. People often ask us why we haven't produced another book, and there's people who don't know about the first one. Our publisher never paid us for the first book, and then told us the second book had to be in black and white, and we'd better start writing it for them if we ever wanted to get paid. Obviously, we did no such thing, but since they own the print rights we can't make books for ourselves either. Hopefully it's something that can get worked out in arbitration here in a few months.

15.) Question for Tycho by Captain Splendid

Despite the fact that you've mentioned a few times that your aspirations don't go much beyond PA, is there any chance your unique writing style may be found elsewhere in the future? Is that even a remote consideration for you?

On a related note, what kind of offers have you received from mainstream (and not-so-mainstream) publications?

Tycho:
Not having aspirations to write outside my comfortable context is sort of my cover story, I'm afraid. I shudder to think how the things I write would be perceived outside of my own comfortable context. Even inside what I consider my own community, there is considerable disagreement about whether my output has merit. So there you go.

I've been offered this and that every now and again, but I'm not unsatisfied with my life or the way I spend my time, so I'd usually rather reserve my energies for Penny Arcade. Offers to write for gaming blogs, do community management, editorials in magazines that cover games, review sites and the like make up the bulk of such offers. I'm very lucky, which is another way of saying our readers are good to us, but neither of us needs to take work that we aren't genuinely interested in.

16.) An Animated Penny Arcade by Altima(BoB)

Have you ever considered trying an animated form of Penny Arcade? It seems that your brand of humor makes particular use of precise timing, and while you tend to be successful at conveying that through comic strip panels, the formula could translate to animation quite well.

Tycho:
When we're writing a comic, we will often become too elaborate than we can reasonably achieve with three panels. Sometimes, we try to make it fit - but more often than not, we say That's One For The Animated Series, which is to say that it would be well served by the properties of that medium. We have been approached on multiple occasions to do just this sort of thing. In fact, there is something percolating even as we speak.

sinner0423 writes "Due to recent complaints on several forums, Steampowered announced they are working on a fix to this stuttering problem in Half Life 2. Usually, a game bug isn't news-worthy, but the sporadic nature of this bug makes me wonder - who else has problems with HL2 pausing/skipping? This site outlines the problem certain users are having in a very clear & concise manner, and also includes some stopgap solutions from Erik Johnson & other Valve employees."

Thanks to Penny Arcade for the heads up about the Child's Play Charity Dinner and Auction, which is going to take place Thursday December 9th in Bellvue, WA to benefit the ongoing Child's Play Children's Charity Drive. Gabe has a rundown on the event up, and a list of some of the auction prizes, including "a Tour of Wizards of the Coast, a Tour of Bungie's studio, Half-Life 2 and a lifetime subscription Steam, a Tour and gaming with Penny Arcade, a week-long Workshop at Digipen, a Lifetime subscription to Dark Age of Camelot, and a 1 year subscription to Gamefly."

If you're a gamer or a fan of online comics, you've likely already heard of Penny Arcade. Mike "Gabe" Krahulik and Jerry "Tycho" Holkins have been writing and drawing their comic for almost exactly six years under the PA name and in that time they've grown into something of a representative voice for the gaming community. An honesty in dealing with the delays, hype, and frustrations of being a gamer has made their comic into a shared experience for dorks the world over. Recently they've been involved with their games-for-kids charity Child's Play, contract work for game-specific comics, and efforts to improve the grammar of forum posters. They've kindly agreed to answer our questions, so ask away. One question per comment, please. We'll send the best on to the gents and post their responses as soon as we have them.

If you're a gamer or a fan of online comics, you've likely already heard of Penny Arcade. Mike "Gabe" Krahulik and Jerry "Tycho" Holkins have been writing and drawing their comic for almost exactly six years under the PA name and in that time they've grown into something of a representative voice for the gaming community. An honesty in dealing with the delays, hype, and frustrations of being a gamer has made their comic into a shared experience for dorks the world over. Recently they've been involved with their games-for-kids charity Child's Play, contract work for game-specific comics, and efforts to improve the grammar of forum posters. They've kindly agreed to answer our questions, so ask away. One question per comment, please. We'll send the best on to the gents and post their responses as soon as we have them.

As a follow up to the unfortunate incident on Wednesday, thanks to emfra (and others) who pointed out that BoingBoing has Nintendo's Apology Letter to the SuicideGirls site up. They even went so far as to offer up a free game system and game to the site owner. So alls well that end's well...but not before Penny Arcade had a chance to comment.

Many, many thanks to the gentlemen at Penny Arcade for the kickoff of their now annual Child's Play Charity Drive. The drive is intended to hook up willing people in our community with children's hospitals across the country, to spread some geeky christmas love to young folks that need it. This year the drive extends across the country, and you can donate toys to hospitals in Seattle, Oakland, San Diego, Houston, and D.C.. Tycho has a little startup post on Penny Arcade, as well.

The Big N's media event went off well, and people have finally had a chance to experience the playability and feel of the DS system. Penny Arcade has commentary from Gabe and Tycho, and Gamespot gives it a look as well. Quoth Tycho: "The final analysis: I am overjoyed that Nintendo isn't completely nuts, which was my fear initially. This is a pretty cool little machine. But the opening salvo is a little soft in the genres I prize most, and there's no stand-out title that forces my hand on the system."

JimLynch writes "There's a playable demo of Tribes Vengeance available (single and multiplayer)." Gamespot recently took another look at the Vengeance Multiplayer experience, and Tycho has thoughts on playing the demo over at Penny Arcade.

bigman2003 writes "In a big move earlier this year, EA started to offer games with Xbox Live support. One of the big concessions Microsoft made was to let outside companies run their own servers on Xbox Live. Today EA is having problems, partially brought on by their new title, Burnout 3." Tycho has commentary on the issue as well.

Jane_the_Great writes "The number of PS2 owners who have ventured online with their consoles has passed 1.4 million users. This article cites SCEA Executive VP Andrew House as saying, "What I think is particularly interesting is, not only are we seeing a lot of the numbers being driven off the Network Adapter bundle, but consistently there are sales of the standalone Network Adapter." Does this growth signal the arrival of online console gaming? And if there are so many people online, why can't I find someone that will play Madden 2005 like a reasonable and polite person?"

jasoncart writes "After the apparently poor uptake, and questionable design of the original N-Gage, have Nokia taken the hint when designing the next model - the N-Gage QD? Ferrago has a hands-on review."

etoychest writes "To be honest, I venture over to IGN.com about as often as I find myself in the all-natural food section at the local supermarket. That is, next to never. Still, occasionally some information does leak out of the site that makes you wonder if there is a reason to go back. This time, thanks to our friends over on the Penny-Arcade forums, I was made aware of a tidbit tucked away in the current IGN Pocket mailbag, as written by Craig Harris: 'Well, this was something that I've known for months about, but was literally sworn to secrecy by the people involved (just like many OTHER things I know but can't say). But since it's been mentioned in another publication, I can confirm that, yes, Halo is in the works for the GBA. That's all I can say, on risk of having my fingernails ripped off with a bottle opener.'" But are we sure they're not talking about this GBA Halo? Update: 06/12 12:05 GMT by S : There's a rather definitive official denial of this rumor over at Bungie.net.

Thanks to EvilAvatar for pointing to the official Produce Panic webpage, which now has a free PC download (23mb, 5 maps) of "the first Penny Arcade [themed] game for the PC", based on the Garage Games Torque engine, in which the player can "run (or fly) around as your favorite juicer in an all out death match, or play cooperatively with friends and compete against other teams of Fruit F@*kers to capture their receipt so they can be taken back to the store." The guys at Penny Arcade seem to approve, noting "There is even a movie theater in hell which, in addition to Tomb Raider and the Tetris Movie, also shows the latest strip up on the screen", and mentioning: "It is free, as I mentioned, but the guys at Plan B Games are accepting donations for their work - if you enjoyed it, please let them know."

Thanks to Slate for its article discussing the excessive difficulty inherent in some videogames. The writer argues: "Some [games] are so freakishly, spoon-bendingly difficult that they take 10 hours of solid play before you've even begun to master the basics... I usually discard them in frustration after a couple of hours and wonder: What's the point? What adult has the time to master this stuff? Could it ever be worth it?" He continues: "The latest test of this thesis is Tecmo's new Ninja Gaiden, a game so punishing that even some hard-core players fear picking it up." Although the piece concludes: "Just because a game is hard doesn't mean it'll have a payoff", what games have you played that are insanely tricky to master?