Today's Penny Arcade is a near perfect commentary on the Unity debacle.
Whole comic linked above, but here's the one-panel that is perfect.
this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
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Oh yikes. I mean I agree that the first panel is solid but the other two reminded me why I stopped reading PA. So often the "punch line" is just edgelord violence or insults.
Reminds me of the Hbomberguy video that really dissects "gamer comics".
The way this CEO operates is absolutely worthy of condemnation and viewing him through the lens of unfeeling cosmic horror is, if anything, a nicer take. But it's fair to say that people operating at that level of wealth have become detached from and profoundly alien to normal folk.
I don't think you're parsing this comic fairly or engaging with its content by labeling it "edgelord violence or insults."
Pretty much ALL of Hbomb's substantive examples from the video are from CTRL-ALT-DEL which is like ... the worst example imaginable. There's screenshots of PA's art, but beyond the one dumb gag about "stake me bro" he never really gets into PA's writing. ODD, THAT. Because if you actually read Jerry Holkin's posts, you'll find a level of writing that puts the lie to the notion that these are idiots making cheap, derivative work. Setting aside the fact that they've been doing this so long that they basically defined the genre.
And as an aside, really Harris, web comic artists as targets? You've done it, you've achieved the epitome of punching down. These and other extremely sane takes from the guy that brought you an almost 2 hour long video on the goddamn Roblox "oof" sound effect.
Or a 3 and a half hour video about how a game is just okay. If you don't know how to edit down videos to a reasonable length, then you're just wasting my time.
That's disingenuous as hell. It's about the motifs of the genre and what the game was aiming to accomplish after it's predecessor.
And the Roblox video was only 28ish minutes. The rest of it is on Tommy "my mother's very proud" Tallarico.
And both deserve the full 3 hours.
Then perhaps he should have used a title and thumbnail that explained what the content of the video actually was going to be.
Also, this is not such a complicated topic that it takes three hours to explain. About the only long video that could justify its length is Folding Ideas' video about NFTs, and only because it's a very complex, very important, and, at the time, very relevant subject. Even then, some people just aren't going to watch a two-hour video on the subject even if it is important. That's the risk you take when you make a two-hour video.
It obviously doesn't, because then you wouldn't be trying to justify the runtime by saying it's only 28 minutes of real content. If the real content is only 28 minutes, then the video should also only be 28 minutes. He can rant about Tommy on a different video, and I can choose or not choose to watch it. See, that's how YouTube works.
That's putting words in my mouth. The Roblox video is only about 28 minutes. The rest of the video the author makes very clear is about the unveiling of a pathological liar in the game industry.
It sounds like your issue is he should have picked a different title. Sure, that may have helped.
That was a very interesting video though. Nobody's making you watch it, you're wasting your own time!
So from the game developer side, hbomber's video nails exactly why those comics exist. He gets into why the culture is draw to them and how it's a reflection of them. I was shown this from another dev and I've shown it to others. Everyone has come to the same opinion. Yeah, hbomber is absolutely right about gaming culture and gamers. It's really reflective in why the term hardcore gamer exists and why you jump so hard to defend the culture your are apart of.
Also hbomber isn't punching down, he's creating an informative video to help the culture around gaming grow. His channel is literally him doing that to several cultures. Including YouTubers.
You should give him a chance. Entirely watch the video and a few others. I'd give recommendations for some but I'm on Mobile in my way to bed. If you really want some though I can gladly give you some in the morning. Try to see them more as video essays rather than purely entertainment because that really doesn't give it a fair shake.
They've done the cosmic horror joke many times. I found it funny in my 20s.
Gabe's art has gradually deformed and is just horrible now.
The art is approaching cosmic horror on its own, or at least existential dread.
To be fair, that's not all the strips. That's the one the OP chose to show.
Like I'd say going through 20-30 strips only 2-3 were like that.
edit: here's a strip that I thought was pretty decent but isn't like the one in the OP
https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2023/06/09/conveniente
Well that one made me snicker lol. Maybe I am being too harsh. Idk, I used to read PA daily when I was in high school but at this point a few decades later, it's just something that I've grown out of so it seems pretty juvenile in retrospect.
This might be more of a "me" thing instead of "penny arcade" thing. 🤷
I found Jerry's writing to be exactly as it was. I no longer have a taste for it.
They're the "political cartoon" of gamers.