There was some Discourse about them, so I did my yearly routine of randomly going through their comics to try to find a funny one. Not a single one in like half an hour. At best they felt like jokes I would politely smile at if someone told them in a conversation. Are Gamers just so lonely that they think that is worth reading the comic for? I genuinely do not get it.
Also, I challenge you to find a funny comic from them.
They started out at a time where the bar for webcomics and videogame humour was incredibly low. They were one of the early big sites for nerds to discuss their interests as that space was blowing up. They're now just continuing on inertia.
They’re big because of the conventions rather than the comic. It likely would have died off a while ago if they hadn’t branched out into PAX, child’s play charity, D&D, video series, etc.
Also you’ve made me think critically about why I read the comic; and I don’t seem to have a great answer other than “I have a weird parasocial relationship built up over a few decades.” Like, I probably am lonely like you said, I don’t really read the comic for jokes. I’m also about the same age as the creators so maybe I just find things more relatable?
One of them unironically said we should eat the rich, so that’s kinda cool.
I mean, it isn't like reading a comic strip every couple of days is a huge time comittment either. I stopped reading it about a decade ago when I purged all the webcomics I followed other than order of the stick.
No see it's because they do a video game reference. Get it it's a reference to a popular media product. They refer to a video game that has mass appeal. You look at this and see that it's a reference, and you go "Aha, I understand that reference to mass media". They find a lowest common denominator and make reference to it.
Legitimately though, g*/mers are thoroughly uncritical of their media consumption and seem to only be able to read the text at its most aesthetically literal with no further analysis. A video game comic needs zero actual good writing when the g*/mer brain will award dopamine just for the name drop of something familiar.
They talk about how awful working in retail can be , they dunk on youtubers , they make fun of the failing new york times ... I agree the humor is in the "politely chuckle" category but I don't think they deserve to be raked over the coals for lukewarm commentary. Jerry Holkins is even outspokenly anti-cap in his some of his commentaries.
Watch the Hbomb video about ctrl-alt-delete, it goes over this. CAD and penny arcade are literally the same thing
They are both on the same level. The "bad gaming webcomic from the early 2000s" level. Because they are both bad gaming webcomics from the early 2000s
PA is what you get if CAD was well made. Better art and writing, but still festering 2000's g*mer culture. Seriously would recommend that Hbomb video though. Superficially it's about CAD but ultimately it's about how we analyze bad art.
yeah, CAD is better. also the art has improved more.
they're both still bad though.
This one is good if you understand the niche:
https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/04/10 It's basically the only one I remember though and it's only funny if you're like deep in the know
Honestly back in the day (I don't read it anymore so I have no idea how it still is) Penny Arcade had really good writing. It wasn't an every day thing, but the guys who write it are clearly great writers. I know this thread is really just shitting on Penny Arcade but look at the date on that; 2006 was still baby internet media days, and you had these guys churning out 3 comics a week, often topical, in full color. The fact that they could do it at all in the early 2000s was impressive. I wouldn't say the format has aged particularly well or is particularly insightful especially these days, but this was 15 years ago. Penny Arcade was the most popular in a sea of imitators because they were the best.
If you want some real inside baseball the MAXFUN crossover is a classic.
edit: not in a good way
They just got in on the ground floor. It was I think, mostly the penny arcade forums that provided a backbone for community organization. They were there before myspace really. it was a large generally well moderated community and that was rare at the time. So if you didn't have an SA account, and you weren't a full chud or a full weeb it was one of the few good places on the internet at the time.
oh fuck, I tried to block that most of the way out. Yeah, people making old obscure games into weird little general interest or pirvate boards. Fucking, LUE man. That was web 1.0 4chan for sure.
i have no idea but i cut my Posting teeth in the penny arcade forums. It took me like a year of lurking to finally post something there. God i'm fucking old jfc
Same comrade. I clicked on their discord once recently. I still recognized some of the posters and mods. I was filled with such a mix if nostaligia and pain as I cannot describe.
I think it’s because it was from a time when ctrl+alt+del and similar webcomics were the norm, so it got recognized for being more “mature” in comparison. It’s like how back when big bang theory was a thing, redditors latched onto the IT crowd because it was more “realistic”
Nah, Penny Arcade was already established as one of the big webcomics by the time that CAD came around.
G*mers, having built their lives around the common hobby of playing the vidgy, basically absorb all media that panders to that hobby.
In essence, the g*mer is a sponge, only capable of absorbing and releasing the dingy gray dishwater of the vidgy
It's fine. It's essentially a newspaper comic in terms of quality. Sometimes if I read it I have a sensible chuckle, but mostly it's just nostalgia from when I was 13.
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/215546990_Nq5Qk-L-2.jpg
I liked this one
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-Mgr2Z6G/0/O/i-Mgr2Z6G.jpg
and this one
I don't understand this one but now I think you're into piss stuff
I'm fairly certain I said that a decade ago. Can't remember clearly, lots of stuff happened since then.
