Penny arcade ripoff

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Facilitypro	Penny arcade ripoff	Lead	[-]
Posts: 2372 (01/07/08 3:08 AM) Slow Daddy Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Tags : None A month or two ago this wow webcomic was spreading around the wow community: http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m187/jomc333/gg_03_new.jpg It's all about how the epic max level armor (which usually looks all badass) is replaced by better quality but lame looking pieces when an expansion comes out. Last week's penny arcade: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/01/02. The news along with the comic fleshes it out a little.
Crawl and 1OOO		#1	[-]
Posts: 11032 (01/07/08 8:50 AM) The Fuzzy Physicist Administrator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Okay.. I think the Penny Arcade strip was funnier. The previous one was just some sort of in-joke for World of Warcraft players, and is basically incomprehensible to me. Full tier 6, northrend, what the hell? I guess I could just take as a joke the visual at the end, but the text makes it seems like I'm supposed to be getting something I'm not. The way I interpreted the Penny Arcade strip was that before Gabe gave up on World of Warcraft, when he was losing interest, he started goofing around with the game rather than taking it seriously, and dressed up his character ridiculously as a joke. That interpretation might be incorrect, and I might know for a fact it was incorrect if I played World of Warcraft (or even if I read the news entry, which, for a change, is even more incomprehensible than the comic strip). But in the strip itself, that interpretation is allowed. And in any case, it's something funny that I can understand without having to play the game. On the subject of "rip-offs", it seems like there are a lot of cartoons that have episodes that have almost the same plot as one from another cartoon. I was telling FO about this the other day, but I forgot the example I used. Another one, though, and relevant to this topic, was that both South Park and The Simpsons had an episode based on World of Warcraft, and both of their plots centered around a griefer. The Simpsons seemed like the rip off in that case. (Actually, there was even an American Dad episode with a WoW-type-game subplot) After South Park got cooperation from the WoW people (while still satirizing the game), what more could The Simpsons bring to the table? There was even a joke in South Park about how Butters didn't want to play WoW, but wanted to play something like Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Then on the Simpsons, Marge used some Hello Kitty expansion pack to decorate Bart's game stronghold. Last Edited By: Flying Omelette 01/07/08 9:27 AM. Edited 2 times.
Crawl and 1OOO		#2	[-]
Posts: 11032 (01/07/08 12:27 PM) The Fuzzy Physicist Administrator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Also, the first strip gives me the impression that its humor is similar to that of VG Cats in a sense. VG Cats almost never makes a joke about something in a game until basically everyone who has played it has made the same joke. Like, Navi in Ocarina of Time is annoying. What makes VG Cats "special", supposedly, I guess, is that he bothers to illustrate the joke, but there's no personal expression in the humor. Now, I don't know about World of Warcraft, but I guess the idea must be that when an expansion comes out, it comes out with a series of armor, from least to most powerful, and so the least powerful must be designed to look lame, so the most powerful looks better by comparison. And if that's true, then everyone who has played World of Warcraft would have noticed that. And of course, the people who designed the game did that intentionally. So, that comic isn't really making a joke so much as it is pointing out something that everyone already knows; it's just that they bothered to illustrate it. Maybe it's exaggerated, too. If it's something that's common knowledge, not a clever insight, I don't even know how you can rip it off. See how your opinion ruined Christmas for everyone! Last Edited By: Crawl and 1OOO 01/07/08 12:42 PM. Edited 2 times.
James FP		#3	[-]
Posts: 2911 (01/07/08 1:44 PM) Schmendrick's Nose Moderator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	I'm just getting "Not Valid" errors for both of those URLs. Get out of my cheese, get into my corn!
Crawl and 1OOO		#4	[-]
Posts: 11032 (01/07/08 2:04 PM) The Fuzzy Physicist Administrator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	That's because the URLs are just http:/// You have to paste the text into your location bar. See how your opinion ruined Christmas for everyone!
Crawl and 1OOO		#5	[-]
Posts: 11032 (01/07/08 2:07 PM) The Fuzzy Physicist Administrator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Here: Link 1. Penny Arcade See how your opinion ruined Christmas for everyone!
CLOUDBOND007		#6	[-]
Posts: 10229 (01/07/08 6:09 PM) Lunitari Mage Moderator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	that when an expansion comes out, it comes out with a series of armor, from least to most powerful, And even the least powerful stupid looking stuff in the new expansion is better than the top of the line armor from the original game. CB007's Review & GPT Archive CB007's Gaming BBS Last Edited By: CLOUDBOND007 01/07/08 6:39 PM. Edited 1 times.
da dick		#7	[-]
Posts: 1734 (01/07/08 9:31 PM) and my bird can sing too! Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	i think the penny arcade rippoff illustrated the problem better. with less words. and i don't even play WoW. though i have a pretty good idea of how mmorpgs are like. "How can we jump over our shadows when we no longer have one?How can we pass out of the century (not to speak of the millennium)if we do not make up our minds to put an end to it, engaged as we are in an indefinite work of mourning for all the incidents, ideologies and violence which have marked it?" - THE END OF THE MILLENNIUM OR THE COUNTDOWN , Jean Baudrillard.
sethrashnoo		#8	[-]
Posts: 2453 (01/08/08 1:29 PM) I Look Like an Egg Moderator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	The Penny Arcade comic actually has more words, they're just smaller and less confusing. I don't think I would have understood either comic without having played the game or without an explanation. Do characters in that game really dress like that or is that just comic exaggeration? Got Shnoo? Proud Staff Member of Deathamster's Nest
Facilitypro		#9	[-]
Posts: 2372 (01/09/08 5:55 PM) Slow Daddy Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Crawl and 1OOO wrote: If it's something that's common knowledge, not a clever insight, I don't even know how you can rip it off. I disagree. It's the idea that's there, whether or not you consider it funny, or common knowledge, or what have you. Who knows, Gabe or Tycho may never have seen that comic. I'm just saying it's highly likely due to their connection with WoW and its' community. For sake of argument, lets assume they saw it. It's a joke about how, when an expansion comes out, the new but better quality armor does not look as cool. Penny Arcade not only made the same joke but illustrated it in the same exact way, both in the style itself and the comic exaggeration of the situation. It's not so much the topic that makes it a ripoff, but the way the punchline is delivered. As for common knowledge being funny (assuming something really is common knowledge), it's more in the delivery. The humor in the wow comic comes not from the fact that new armor isn't as cool looking as the previous top armor, but from the exaggeration of that fact. Now, if the orc in the 2nd panel was decked out in the actual game gear (which is rather plain looking armor) it wouldn't have been funny at all. As for some insight on how common it is....is the armor thing really something that the entire WoW comminuty is aware of? Probably. Is the issue the same magnitude of Navi being annoying, or tits in God of War? Not even close. So it's something that people are aware of but haven't discussed it much. (Most people care about what the armor does rather than how it looks.) So by portraying the issue in an exaggerated state, it's (at least to some) humorous. Personally, it was more of a "heh" reaction for me. I thought it was worthy of a post at our forum and a few LOL replies.
Crawl and 1OOO		#10	[-]
Posts: 11032 (01/09/08 6:11 PM) The Fuzzy Physicist Administrator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Okay, maybe that strip you posted has its merits. But the Penny Arcade has its merits, too. Again, it's in delivery. The improvement that Penny Arcade added to the joke (as I mentioned) was that the way they told it, it was more accessible. You don't have to really know anything about WoW to get a chuckle out of the PA strip. For some reason, Gabe has a ridiculous looking character he doesn't want to commit to posterity, but you, as the reader, don't need to know what that reason is. FO told me a story about how Jerry Seinfeld sometimes helped other comedians with their material. One guy had a joke: "This blind guy I know started going sky diving. I never heard a dog yell like that before." It didn't get a laugh. Seinfeld suggesting changing it to, "I never heard a German Shepard yell like that before." All of a sudden, people "got" the joke, and laughed at it. (Even when FO told me this, I laughed when she said the improved punchline) The principle behind the joke is exactly the same. But one version communicates the joke better. See how your opinion ruined Christmas for everyone!
Crawl and 1OOO		#11	[-]
Posts: 11032 (02/11/08 11:22 AM) The Fuzzy Physicist Administrator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	If it makes you feel better, it seems like the most recent Penny Arcade is WoW-based, and it makes no sense at all to me. See how your opinion ruined Christmas for everyone!
HiRider		#12	[-]
Posts: 154 (02/11/08 12:03 PM) :Insert Title Here: Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	The PA Comic that is linked is for something different anyway. It's about the figures you can get made of your wow characters. part one of the comic brings everything together. http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/12/31 Crawl, the most recent comic is just one guy running away in fear of the uber powerful enemy. not much more then that. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam! Translation:Give me all the money or I will fling an enormous rock at your head!
Crawl and 1OOO		#13	[-]
Posts: 11032 (02/11/08 12:21 PM) The Fuzzy Physicist Administrator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Yeah, I got that, but ... I don't know, it doesn't seem like a joke to me. There's no real danger in videogames, so why run away in terror? And like in the comic FacilityPro posted, animal forms and "HoT" and "seventy" make it seem like I'm supposed to be getting something I'm not. See how your opinion ruined Christmas for everyone!
Captain Ladd Spencer		#14	[-]
Posts: 1532 (02/11/08 6:07 PM) Behold the many uses of my amazing BIONIC ARM! Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	I gathered they put a shape-shifting race into a new WoW expansion, but that was it.
CLOUDBOND007		#15	[-]
Posts: 10229 (02/12/08 1:47 AM) Lunitari Mage Moderator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Yeah, I got that, but ... I don't know, it doesn't seem like a joke to me. There's no real danger in videogames, so why run away in terror? I don't remember WoW all that well, but in Lord of the Rings, when you die, your armor is beat up pretty badly and costs a lot to repair, costs a ton at the higher levels. Your character is also temporarily weakened and such. And like in the comic FacilityPro posted, animal forms and "HoT" and "seventy" make it seem like I'm supposed to be getting something I'm not. Level seventy is, unless they recently changed it, the max level. Regardless, that means that the character they're facing is pretty dangerous. HoT based on a google search means "Heal over time" so he's asking his teammate to heal him, but that teammate has already abandoned him at a high rate of speed. Really, the running away is the only particularly funny part, but I guess it can be enjoyable to be part of the group the particular comic is made for and instantly get it without having to look anything up. I don't mind as long as they don't make a habit of it. CB007's Review & GPT Archive CB007's Gaming BBS Last Edited By: CLOUDBOND007 02/12/08 1:51 AM. Edited 3 times.
Crawl and 1OOO		#16	[-]
Posts: 11032 (02/12/08 8:42 AM) The Fuzzy Physicist Administrator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	it can be enjoyable to be part of the group the particular comic is made for and instantly get it without having to look anything up. It seems to me that that's the real point of the comic. I mean, I might have to look up "HoT", but everything else -- the running away, the "seventy" -- I could figure out with deductive reasoning. But that's not really the way to enjoy a comic.
Facilitypro		#17	[-]
Posts: 2372 (02/13/08 1:45 PM) Slow Daddy Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	OK, that comic was pretty stupid. In the WoW guilde, there are couple other PA comics that feature the "I need help and you ran off" general theme. I guess they like it.
Lord Vyce		#18	[-]
Posts: 818 (02/13/08 1:53 PM) Lord of Women's Lingerie Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Spoondammit! No more World of Warcraft jokes, period! I want my cake, wanna eat it, too...I want blue diamonds and yellow moons. I spend my money on Lucky Charms...My favorite sausage is Hickory Farms. I want pizza, lots and lots o pizza...I want that pie in the sky. I want tuna, lots and lots o tuna...ain't got a fucking clue why. I wanna be fat! 0o

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