Penny Arcade's CGW Interview 68
1up is running an interview with the Penny Arcade guys, originally done for Computer Gaming World. They talk comics, the industry, Harlan Ellison, and (of course) games. From the article: "Jerry Holkins: My favorite quote comes from this one strip where I say 'Fetch it, and gaze upon your ruined world.' I'm not sure that anybody else really pays attention to that particular comic strip, but it's called 'They Hailed From Canadon,' and it's just this...it starts out in this weird, Penny Arcade way, but it has these spacefaring dogmen that for some reason really do it for me. I don't know why."
Re:Disappointing (Score:1)
Theres a line between being a friendly interviewer, and sucking up to the people your giving the interview to.
Re:Disappointing (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Disappointing (Score:2, Funny)
That's why slashdot is such a great read as well come to think of it...
Re:Disappointing (Score:1)
Re:Disappointing (Score:1)
Re:Disappointing (Score:3, Insightful)
Personally, I can't stand him. If he was half as good as he thinks he is, that attitude would be one thing, but as it stands it's pretty sorry.
Re:Disappointing (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Disappointing (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Disappointing (Score:1)
Slashdot PA Sidebar (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Slashdot PA Sidebar (Score:2)
Re:Slashdot PA Sidebar (Score:2)
Dear Penny Arcade (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Dear Penny Arcade (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Dear Penny Arcade (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Dear Penny Arcade (Score:1)
Re:Dear Penny Arcade (Score:1)
Because it is free, expect what you pay for.
Re:Dear Penny Arcade (Score:4, Informative)
I want to know how much they paid for this terrible, worthless site redesign that they got, because if there's a market for shitty sites, I want to know what I should be charging.
Don't get me wrong, I love the comic, but ever since the new design came around, it's been almost completely impossible to find any of the old content.
They Hailed from Canidon (Score:5, Informative)
Re:They Hailed from Canidon (Score:2)
Another PA interview that didn't get much press... (Score:5, Interesting)
Here [jivemagazine.com]
No Ellison Schtick (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:No Ellison Schtick (Score:2)
To paraphrase Clark's Law:
"Any sufficiently advance melodrama is indistinguishable from assholedom."
Actually, I really like his work (though I haven't read much of his from after the late 70s), but he is truly irritating in person, though I had a friend who really loved that about him. I guess its the lack of caring for social convention
Re:No Ellison Schtick (Score:2)
I've known a lot of writers, and you can't judge the writing by the person. Some of the greatest jerks are very good writers, many very nice people are terrible writers. But the very best writers are usually secure enough not to need to be assholes. Harlan is obviously terribly insecure, he's done a lot, but was capable of much more, and he knows it.
Re:No Ellison Schtick (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:No Ellison Schtick (Score:1)
Re:No Ellison Schtick (Score:2)
One of my favorite SF writers is Robert Heinlein, who was arguably the greatest writer of the genre in his era, and who did a lot to define the conventions of modern SF. I never met the dude
Re:No Ellison Schtick (Score:1)
I'm also a huge fan of Heinlein. though I have a feeling I'd get along very well with him. from my readings of his I find I share alot of his philosophies. (scary though that is).
Ira
Re:No Ellison Schtick (Score:2)
Dude, you say that like it's a bad thing.
Seriously, what's objectionable? If it's consensual, what's the big deal?
After all, isn't that what fame and fortune are for?
Re:No Ellison Schtick (Score:2)
The funny (sad?) thing is, Ellison "friends" think the same thing. I remember talking with one (who I will not name here, but (s)he's *very* close to Ellison) who said: "He's a bit of a dick."
A few words about Harlan... (Score:1, Troll)
Re:A few words about Harlan... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:A few words about Harlan... (Score:2)
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2005/09/26 [penny-arcade.com]
So Tycho and I are up in front of the audience with Harlen, and Hank (the con organizer) presents us with some jester hats ("Fool's caps"). Tycho and I put ours on because we are polite, but Harlen - who is apparently too cool for school - refuses to wear his. I turn to him and say, "Don't you want your
Re:A few words about Harlan... (Score:2)
Re:A few words about Harlan... (Score:4, Informative)
MY SECOND, AND FINAL, WORDS ON THIS MATTER
What the surly teenager posted on his website as having happened, did NOT, in fact, transpire in that way. Like Mr. Tycho's "gut feeling" or "assumption" or "telepathic intuition" or whatever it was, everything the surly teenager posted was HIS perception of an interchange that lasted for less than two minutes. His assumptions and interpretations are his own, and he's entitled to them. Weird and sad and skewed as they may be.
But for him, for Mr. Tycho, and for all of you, I am telling you they are no more accurate than MY understanding of the matter. I don't expect the surly teenager to pause even a moment to consider that his interpretations are wonky, he's incapable, I suspect, of assuming responsibility for ANYTHING he does, like some mook standing in front of Judge Judy. And he certainly isn't going to cop to fronting someone who meant him no harm, not in front of his worshipful gamer-tots. But this is the bottom line:
I did not know them, I had no negative feelings toward them, and I was neither rude nor discourteous to them.
Never insulted them. Never wanted to insult them. Didn't do it consciously or reflexively. Just didn't do it. ALL insults and disparagement came from the surly teenager. Mr. Tycho shouldn't be defending his associate's bad behavior; after all, Mr. Tycho was standing right there beside me.
My assertion is demonstrably more accurate than what the surly teenager posted to arouse his adolescent admirers. As verified by the CHAIRMAN OF THE FOOLSCAP CONVENTION, Hank Graham, who has stated very clearly THERE WAS NO JESTER'S HAT FOR ME. If that is so, then all that follows in the surly teenager's memoir is equally as skewed, equally as misinterpreted, and equally as unfair to me.
We were in each other's company less than two minutes. We were all four--Gabe & Tycho, Hank Graham, myself--on the stage in a small room. They were making "gifts" to the Guests of Honor. The first was an orange peeler. I did the expected "take" and looked at this small plastic kitchen implement with mock humor and confusion. I then got a SECOND one, intended for Kathy Roche-Zujko (my ex-secretary, who now lives in Bellevue, with whom we hung during the weekend, and who had picked Susan and me up at Sea-Tac). It was a thankyou from the ConCommittee for her good offices. With TWO of these items, I continued to do the aversion shtick, edging backward toward the audience, past the surly teenager, with one of the orange peelers behind my back and, openly to the entire room, slipped it to someone in the audience. Everyone laughed.
I then returned to my place next to the surly teenager, as Hank Graham placed jester's caps (signifying "foolscap") on Mr. Tycho and the surly teenager. Mr. Graham then handed me a lined yellow tablet in a plastic sleeve--foolscap, in the classic meaning of the word--and said, "Here's YOUR foolscap." I am a writer. Getting foolscap was appropriate. I am neither a clown nor an asshole, as so many of the PA adolescents who have no idea of my fifty-plus years' work perceive. It was fitting and proper that I should get a pad of
The surly teenager then asked me, not very loudly, "Don't you want to wear your hat?"
As there WAS NO HAT for me, I pretty much let slide the gibe.
Well, two aspects of the moment that followed:
1) Someone in the audience said something to ME, DIRECTLY, that I now understand as not having been heard or linked properly, by the surly teenager. I can't remember what it was, but it was a remark made my someone I knew, in a jocular vein, and I tossed over my shoulder the pro forma fuckyou or gofuckyerself or whatever it was. It was no more serious or rude a fuckyou than a Bart Simpson bite me or eat my shorts.
But it wasn't addressed to the surly teenager, who had already made snotty remarks at me, not once, but twice.
If the surly teenager misheard and thought he was EV
Re:A few words about Harlan... (Score:1)
Re:A few words about Harlan... (Score:2)
Re:A few words about Harlan... (Score:1)
Re:A few words about Harlan... (Score:2)
Re:A few words about Harlan... (Score:1)
Re:A few words about Harlan... (Score:1)
did you graduate high school?
did you RTFA? haha
Re:A few words about Harlan... (Score:2)
Since SF is something I read, rather than write, I could forgive his immaturity — except that it leaks over into his fiction. He's spoiled many promising storie
Re:A few words about Harlan... (Score:2)
I'd rather be around someone who admits they are wrong than someone who blindly believes in their own infalibility.
Or rather... I perfer people who take this view "I believe myself to be correct now, but given extra information or changes in stuations I understand and accept I could be horribly wrong in the future."
Being an ass and strongly believing yourself to be correct... does
And now you know... (Score:3, Insightful)
And now you know why you don't get invited out to parties.
I have a lot of "geek friends" and, while I can normally deal with this, I can tell you that you're not turning off "ordinary folks" because *their* insecure. You're just coming off as an asshole.
It's fine to have beliefs but, right or wrong, you're going t
Re:A few words about Harlan... (Score:2)
No, actually, it turns people off because you're an asshole. It has nothing to do with how secure other people are or aren't. But it does have a lot to do with how secure you are (but not in the way that you think).
And those people don't like to be shown to be wrong, either; it just makes them hurt and hostile.
So, because you;re shown t
Re:I don't get it (Score:2)
Re:I don't get it (Score:1)
Re:I don't get it (Score:2)
Re:I don't get it (Score:1)
Oh - and I got the quote slightly wrong... My bad.
Re:I don't get it (Score:2)
Re:I don't get it (Score:5, Insightful)
You have to be a fairly avid and experienced gamer to catch even half the allusions they make. You have to like sarcastic and satirical humor, as well as be able to understand and appreciate more juvenile humor (like the frequency of the word "wang" in their strips for a while).
There are a lot of PA strips that I don't laugh at, even when I see the humor. A few of them I just shrug my shoulders and move on to something more interesting. But they get out at least a couple a month that really make me laugh, and that's enough for me to spend a few minutes reading.
Re:I don't get it (Score:2, Funny)
Marmaduke:
First panel- Kid: "Hey Marmaduke! I'm playing a video game!"
Second panel- Marmaduke sits in front of TV.
Third panel- Kid: "No fair! You beat my high score!"
Family Circus:
First- Boy: "I don't want to eat my corn flakes! I want to play video games!"
Second- Dad: "Well, pretend it is a video game!"
Third- Dad: "First one to finish their bowl
Yeah, PA's
Really Does it for Me (Score:1)