Even before I read the transcript of their appearance at MIT (which happened, alas, before I became a fan) I had figured out that the creators of Penny Arcade are really smart. Today’s strip is about Seattle’s Super Bowl loss, and (as always) it’s accompanied by commentary:
In any case, this will be the last time I invest myself in a game where I have no power to determine the outcome. I really feel a need to emphasize the distinction between this and the sort of game that usually occupies my time. When I feel the kind of plundered devastation I felt on Sunday, there is usually a “learning phase” that follows it. It’s the first step in a process, a chain of well-documented events which culminates in the expulsion of self-doubt and leaves as the remainder the possibility of future victory. Provided, of course, that I have internalized the deep wisdom presented by the universe - taken the yoke of that strange intellect which courses through defeat.
It’s like Everything Bad is Good for You, condensed into one paragraph.
I find that I’m consistently reading Penny Arcade, though I’m not sure why. It’s a comic about gaming, and despite my best intentions I really haven’t played a game in months. Other hobbies, and work, and friends both new and old have claimed the foreground. So I don’t really get most of the gaming references in the comic, and those that I do understand are tinged with melancholy: World of Warcraft sounds like such fun, and I just don’t have the time.
Penny Arcade is sufficiently foul-mouthed that I’m a little reluctant to praise it in public (curse my Catholic upbringing!). It has a strange tone which is hard to get used to at first. Many of the comics are completely inexplicable without the commentary track that accompanies each one –they’re not laugh-out-loud funny. Except, of course, when they are. The strip is very inconsistent. Actually, it’s brilliantly inconsistent, ranging from sharp commentary to gutter humor to surrealism in the course of a single week and usually (but not always) refusing to incorporate continuity or develop the characters.