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Penny Arcade - Comic - Unhelpful-ism
Dog
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Penny Arcade - Comic - Unhelpful-ism
Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.
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*looks at this comic*
lol, ok
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
By the way, has anybody seen the trailer for Dirty Grandpa? Funny stuff, ammirit!?
Really hope it does well, it sounds like an incredible piece.
Fuck cancer.
In retrospect, I suppose he wouldn't have been using an actual cancer-based personal tragedy of his as the focus of a joke in this comic.
maybe the game titles could be bolded instead. just to help me feel smart when reading the first time....I still wont get it until i read the comments, but i will feel better about it.
Also, as a parent, i wont be playing this.
2013: Jerry's dad.
Oh. Right.
RadioLab did a podcast about That Dragon, Cancer just this week. It included enough audio snippets of the game for me to "Nope" out entirely. As the father of a 10-month old, I can't even listen to it without losing it. While driving. In public. The 'crying scene' created a physical need for me to find and hold my son.
Playing it isn't even an option... It would utterly destroy me in ways I couldn't imagine before having been a father. I think Jerry's written about such things in previous news posts somewhere...
The game isn't polished. One could argue that it doesn't need to be; it's raw, just like the real life subject matter. It is amazing and unbelievable, nonetheless.
"That’s not really how it works now. Children carve something out of you, a place for themselves; people can twist the knife in that spot, and it just bleeds and bleeds."
That said, the catalyst of his feelings for today pains me. I hope writing the post was at least some small catharsis.
This. And oh my, those steam board comments. Is that normal? I'm almost never on steam. I mean, I know the internet is full of terrible comments, but those are some of the worst.
Still within my personal statute of Nope.
My wife spent three days with her as they got things locked down, and I visited before and after work each day. But in those days, I learned too what Child's Play is about. Our daughter was relatively "fine" compared to the other kids in that hall, and the stress we experienced was nothing compared to what I saw in the eyes of the other parents, and the nurses.
ANY force in this world that pushes against those emotions, those states of being, with love and comfort and support is as Holy an effort as we see these days.
I may not have much in the way of money these days, but once I do, I'm writing a big, fat check to Child's Play.
Yeah, that's the one I was thinking of. TLoU's cold open is brutal, and the first real 'Dad moment' I feel like I had in gaming, but it pales in comparison to That Dragon. Probably something to do with the fact that one is purely fiction, and the other not so much...
I don't know either of you; you aren't allowed to make me feel these things.
Curse this universal Dad-feels conduit. And these dusty contact lenses...
Needless to say, put me down for some of the Nope on TD,C.
Hey now, they can be both if they want!
(Mostly joking; I came here to say that this was a good news post and I liked it, in contrast with some of his other recent ones.)
When first reading your comment, I thought you wrote "the internet is full of terrible cowards".... Seemed true even if you didn't write it. I believe that is generally who writes the terrible comments.
Also for the "Jerry is a bad writer" crowd
This. He can actually write pretty powerfully when he really wants to do it instead of just play with words to amuse himself. His news posts about his father's illness and death are devastating to read.
I'm not as in-touch with gaming as I used to be. Kids, wife, job, life... many know what that's like. I read this comic today, and I didn't understand that "That Dragon, Cancer" was an actual GAME... so I read the text that goes with the post, and I said to myself, "You know what? That's a guy who needs some help. I know, because that guy has been me from time to time." Not the snarky-jackassery type help we see so often on the web. This kind of help is just a bit of guidance. I've been a registered nurse now for close to 20 years, and a lot of that was in the ER. Sometimes you do that kind of work, and it becomes overwhelming, and it's very easy to become sad, despondent, grieving, and generally, become a different person than you once were, especially when you spend a lot of time pondering the suffering kids like that go through. It helps if you've got people who care about you, and can help arrest your slide down into that dark, sad place. But sometimes, especially when it's the first time you really wind up looking full in the face of "kids who are dying and it's just so goddamned wrong"... you can find yourself a little too far down in the hole to make it out. Here's my guidance on beating that place: Go outside with your kids. The younger the better. Take them somewhere they can run. Maybe it's just down the sidewalk, or maybe you have a nice backyard. Tell them you want to see how fast they can run. Make it a game. While they run, take a big, deep breath. Pull your shoulders back. Spread your arms. Look at the sky. Realize that sometimes, there's no good answer for why some people suffer when they don't deserve to suffer, while some truly horrible people don't seem to suffer at all. No one has the answer to that question, and if they tell you they do, they're deluded or lying. Look at your kids again, and resolve to help them be the best they can be, and that's why you have to keep on, and that's what the point of it all is. Be grateful that you have enough emotional range to feel sadness over the suffering. Understand that you are not alone.
Sorry if this was long winded. I'm sure I broke a few grammar rules, but hey... stream of consciousness, I guess. Have a good weekend... and thanks for doing Child's Play. That's a huge good deed right there. You deserve mad karma points for it. You can go ahead, look in the mirror some morning, and think "Hey... that guy is kind of a hero". Smile, and carry on...
IrishHunter
Or his son's problems. It's like literary Picasso, you know? You get so good at a thing that you end up deconstructing it instead to better understand its form, but don't think for a second that guy couldn't paint you the best damned bowl of fruit you'd ever see if he felt like it.
Right. Some of his writing is difficult, but it's never difficult because it's not good enough. More often the opposite.
Nope.
NOPE.
Started misting up. I was kind of melancholy for the next hour or so, and might have maintained the hug with my son a few seconds too long.
I cannot face the dark truth about life. It's all RNG.