Penny Arcade Holiday Strip Series #2

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Penny Arcade Holiday Strip Series #2

Posted by Zonk on Monday December 20, 2004 @07:25AM from the bleach-their-bones-and-watch-them-gleam-fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la dept.

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.

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Whoah by Anonymous Coward · 2004-12-20 07:36 · Score: 3, Funny

That looks like my ex-girlfriend...
1. Re:Whoah by Destoo · 2004-12-21 04:43 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  Funny because it's what it's meant to be.
  
  Cthulhu is HP Lovecraft's representation of the female organs.
  
  He always was a party animal.
  
  --
  Nouvelles de jeux et technologies en français. TC
2. Re:Whoah by Destoo · 2004-12-21 06:44 · Score: 1
  
  you're right.. silly homepage. I should make something out of it.
  
  And the theory is not mine.
  It was related to us by a litterature teacher in a sci-fi/horro around 1990. He probably mentionned seafood but I have no recollection of it. But I do remember that HP, in a letter, did mention something to that effect. Along the lines of : when you have read everything that has ever been written about sex at age 10 and about love at age 12, these things don't make any sense anymore.
  
  Then again, I might be wrong.. My college years are pretty fuzzy, and taking physics at univ was a good move, but I lost a lot of my litterature lore in the process.
  
  --
  Nouvelles de jeux et technologies en français. TC
3. Re:Whoah by UrgleHoth · 2004-12-21 11:36 · Score: 1
  
  Is that with or without the beer goggle?
  
  --
  
  Dogma - "let's just say we'd like to avoid any empirical entanglements."
Re:Well gee by Methuseus · 2004-12-20 07:52 · Score: 1

well, you may be interested in the first couple pages of it... as you can see these are pages 3 and 4.

--
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, though I'm not yet sure about the universe. - A Einstein
South Park by spencerogden · 2004-12-20 07:53 · Score: 1

Reminds me of the last South Park, Dr. Seuss rhyming, evil creatures,etc. It always amuses me how Cthulu and the rest are so well known in open source circles, but just get blanks looks from most computer geeks, let alone normal people!

--
Spencer Ogden
1. Re:South Park by elmegil · 2004-12-20 08:11 · Score: 1
  
  I think you undergeneralize. Cthulu is well known in gaming geek circles, period. Just because there's a significant OSS -> Gaming overlap is no reason to claim "most computer geeks" don't know the Ancient Ones.
  
  --
  7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
2. Re:South Park by kLaNk · 2004-12-20 12:08 · Score: 1
  
  Ever listened to any of the good Metallica? Just a bit of the old Cthulu there. Yeah, I wouldn't classify them as geeks either (although they have rather gone to shit in the last 10 years or so).
Re:Well gee by Temporal · 2004-12-20 08:04 · Score: 4, Informative

Gabe personally thanked Slashdot in his post to PA's front page last Friday. Apparently the whole idea here is that Slashdot is "mirroring" these because PA's bandwidth has gone to shit recently and there's a lot of overlap in readership, or something. Personally I think the idea is pretty silly, but, yes, Gabe and Tycho approve.
Re:Well gee by fireduck · 2004-12-20 08:04 · Score: 3, Informative

click that second link in the story, the one that links to the previous slashdot story with pages 1 and 2. you'll notice the blurb points out that slashdot is helping alleviate some of PA's bandwith demand by hosting the cartoons here as well.
it's cool by Bishop · 2004-12-20 08:06 · Score: 1

See
The Newspost by feidaykin · 2004-12-20 08:12 · Score: 4, Interesting

Tycho comments on the whole death of suprnova thing, and one of things he says is:
There are conversations to be had about the morality of file sharing, but until those stern words are able to project a "morality field" that causes those in their radius to behave honorably such dialogues fall into the "adorable but irrelevant" category.
Wow. I think he just summed up an entire form of slashdot subculture... in a single sentence. That's awesome!

--
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking
1. Re:The Newspost by e2mtt · 2004-12-20 10:10 · Score: 1
  
  Tycho has a way of doing that... in one single intricately crafted sentence he will boil down the absolute essence of idea, game review, or personal opinion.
  
  However, quite often the sentence will require multiple readings to grasp the full meaning. He is an amazing writer.
2. Re:The Newspost by SetupWeasel · 2004-12-20 17:17 · Score: 1
  
  However, quite often the sentence will require multiple readings to grasp the full meaning. He is an amazing writer.
  
  Not to blast Tycho, but good writing is easy to understand. An "amazing writer" does not hand you a scrambled Rubik's Cube and ask you to solve it.
3. Re:The Newspost by SetupWeasel · 2004-12-20 17:48 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, I agree. That sentence is horrible. There are many big words and not much content.
  
  Tycho's sentence:
  There are conversations to be had about the morality of file sharing, but until those stern words are able to project a "morality field" that causes those in their radius to behave honorably such dialogues fall into the "adorable but irrelevant" category.
  
  This reads to me as follows: "Untill people listen to them, discussions about the morality of file sharing are pointless."
  
  He tries to say more, but there are phrases like "behave honorably" that don't connect to anything, as you said.
4. Re:The Newspost by LastToKnow · 2004-12-20 19:17 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  I disagree. I rather like Tycho's writing style; it reminds me of Douglas Adams and others who take the time to play with the language and create sentences that not only get the point across, but are a joy to parse.
5. Re:The Newspost by Swanktastic · 2004-12-21 01:21 · Score: 1
  
  An "amazing writer" does not hand you a scrambled Rubik's Cube and ask you to solve it.
  
  Well put. I couldn't agree more. I love Penny Arcade, but Tycho's writing is self-indulgent and oblique. Sometimes I think he checks every adjective for a possible thesaurus substitute.
  
  It reminds me of the witty banter that characters zip back and forth in shows like Dawson's Creek and Gilmore Girls-- SAT words get blasted around at 6 per minute, and they barely pause to think before rattling off a seemingly brilliant observation that is really quite ordinary.
6. Re:The Newspost by SetupWeasel · 2004-12-21 04:41 · Score: 1
  
  That is bullshit. Read Douglas Adams. He is never that confusing. Parsing is NOT a joy, ever.
7. Re:The Newspost by SetupWeasel · 2004-12-21 05:01 · Score: 1
  
  Regardless of how many "levels" a story has, you should be able to understand each individual sentence. Depth is not brought about by confusion.
  
  I've read Tolstoy (an "amazing writer"), Douglas Adams (ditto), as well as college physics textbooks (NOT amazing for the most part). The great writers convey their thoughts nearly effortlessly. Physics textbooks, more often than not, force you to read sentences and paragraphs over and over to gain any meaning at all.
  
  Tycho isn't the worst I've seen, but the particular sentence quoted is a horrible, twisted mess.
8. Re:The Newspost by jackbird · 2004-12-24 08:14 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, I agree. That sentence is horrible. There are many big words and not much content.
  Which 'big words' were tripping you up? With the cutoff at 6 letters you get:
  conversations
  morality
  sharing
  project
  honorab ly
  dialogues
  adorable
  irrelevant
  category
  are those really that hard?
Re:You might need to update your webcomic more if, by Anonymous Coward · 2004-12-20 08:25 · Score: 1, Informative

They have new comics monday, wednesday and friday but with the bandwith hit they have been taking with the Child's Play charity Slashdot is hosting the comics to allievate some of the load.

Maybe you should know what the hell is going on before you decide to hit that Reply button.
Does this really let up the load? by metroid+composite · 2004-12-20 08:42 · Score: 1

Y'know, I realize that these articles are here to try and help keep PA from being slashdotted by the charity links and all that, but these slashdot articles are reminding me that I'm a month behind in the PA comics, and that I ought to go browsing right now....
Wonder if the /. mirroring is actually helping their server overload....
1. Re:Does this really let up the load? by Wampus+Aurelius · 2004-12-20 09:02 · Score: 1
  
  Wonder if the /. mirroring is actually helping their server overload....
  
  I think it's actually making the server load worse. Slashdotters who don't normally go to PA are mindlessly clicking on the links Pavlovian style despite the fact that the comic is right there. And PA readers are clicking on the link to RTFA from Tycho. Today and Friday PA has been waaaaaaay slower than usual.
2. Re:Does this really let up the load? by hemebond · 2004-12-20 11:10 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  Probably not. Penny-Arcade would be better of coding their site properly. They could cut their bandwidth in half. Then there's the number of requests they make to the database. Yeesh.
Re:The Grammar could use a little work... by UWC · 2004-12-20 09:00 · Score: 1

If you've read much of Tycho's writing, you'll realize that the only reason English grammar is compromised in the strip is for the sake of rhyme. And just in case you're also a Composition Nazi, I apologize (Or would you prefer I use "apologise," as you tend to hold Americans' collective grasp of English in such contempt?) for using the passive "is compromised."

--
Honor Among Slackers. A veri
Re:The Grammar could use a little work... by Cabriel · 2004-12-20 10:09 · Score: 1

To be fair, a period after the second and fourt lines might have been nice, but it's still a nice rhyme. ^_^
Nice comic and all, but... by fondue · 2004-12-20 11:17 · Score: 1

Um, what does this have to do with games again?

--
Preferences > Homepage > Customize stories on homepage > Authors > Zonk > Uncheck
1. Re:Nice comic and all, but... by Synkronos · 2004-12-20 20:34 · Score: 1
  
  It's a gaming webcomic. And the reason /. said that they were prepared to host this comic is because of the great work PA are doing in their Child's Play charity, where they are raising money to donate game consoles to childrens' wards for long-term illnesses. So: Cthulhu, nothing. PA, everything.
  
  --
  Playing poker with a joker and some Uno cards
Re:The Grammar could use a little work... by Atrax · 2004-12-20 11:18 · Score: 1

> To be fair, a period after the second and fourt lines might have been nice

PA needs Mr Period

(hope I got the right URL, PA seems to be flattened right now)

--
Screw you all! I'm off to the pub
Re:Well gee by smoondog · 2004-12-20 15:29 · Score: 1

Do the image tags on penny-arcade point to slashdot? That would be an easy way to reduce bandwidth...
Re:You might need to update your webcomic more if, by RalphBNumbers · 2004-12-20 15:45 · Score: 1

meh, some people have no sense of humor (plenty of mod points though)

--
"The worst tyrannies were the ones where a governance required its own logic on every embedded node." - Vernor Vinge
Re:Well gee by Wandering+Wombat · 2004-12-21 05:16 · Score: 1

It's the least Slashdot could do, since PA's readership tripled with that first link a month or so back, and when 6000 people go through 6 years of archives all at the same time, ISP's tend to get pretty pissed off. PA plans to get a much higher-bandwidth provider in the New Year with whatever they can embezzle from the poor sick kids.

--
I like to place meaningful quotes in my sig, so people will know that I know what meaningful quotes are.
Re:OH BOY, CANT WAIT TILL THE NEXT PAGE! by Destoo · 2004-12-21 06:29 · Score: 1

That's TWO pages at a time.

Left and right.. 1-2, 3-4..

I bet we'll get 5-6 on friday or something...

O.. Spirit of Continuity..

Anyone know how many pages they plan for this drama?

--
Nouvelles de jeux et technologies en français. TC
Cthulhu and Open Source by dreadclown · 2004-12-21 22:14 · Score: 1

If you consider how H.P.Lovecraft and his fellow writers collaborated, it's no surprise that there's an open source connection. They were constantly (snail)mailing each other their latest works, incorporating and elaborating each others' ideas in one of the first really successful shared fantasy worlds.
A pity Arkham House went all Disney on licensing, but I guess they had to stay in business somehow.