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Penny Arcade - Comic - Descenders

DogDog Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
in The Penny Arcade Hub

Descenders!

Penny Arcade - Comic - Descenders

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

Read the full story here

Posts

  • OverkillengineOverkillengine Registered User regular
    edited July 2024
    You'd think there would have been enough past experience with falling down holes to maybe start trying to recognize and avoid them.

    I mean, this particular dealer (Nexon) has been in the same trap-house under the same moniker for quite some time.

    Overkillengine on
  • klemmingklemming Registered User regular
    You can't just walk past a hole.
    I mean, what if there's cake down there?

    Nobody remembers the singer. The song remains.
  • RingoRingo He/Him a distinct lack of substanceRegistered User regular
    That's litter

  • LttlefootLttlefoot Registered User regular
    Are they shilling again

  • LucascraftLucascraft Registered User regular
    "It must be a premium hole" is a pretty good line.

  • HevachHevach Registered User regular
    klemming wrote: »
    You can't just walk past a hole.
    I mean, what if there's cake down there?

    There might be a shovel. That would be great for digging yourself back out.

  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    Lttlefoot wrote: »
    Are they shilling again

    Yeah, more of that premium "don't play this game, because it's not really fun but just a time sink" shilling.

  • palidine40palidine40 Registered User regular
    Somewhere a bucket of male reproductive organs is missing its gourmand known as Nexon. Get to work Nexon, for you shall finish, and I shall still not play your games.

  • v2miccav2micca Registered User regular
    Lttlefoot wrote: »
    Are they shilling again

    My thoughts as well. They have made two full comics about it now. My god, Gabe is practically demanding that Tycho go install the game. (At least, that is how Tycho is interpreting it)

  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    People really will read things they want to read them, I guess.

  • PyrianPyrian Registered User regular
    I'm not seeing how to not classify this as a shill:

    https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2024/07/15/tales-from-the-first-descendant

    Pyrian's Watercolor Game Art
  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    edited July 2024
    Pyrian wrote: »
    I'm not seeing how to not classify this as a shill:

    https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2024/07/15/tales-from-the-first-descendant
    It’s true I’m still hooked on The First Descendant but I haven’t actually tried to push it on any of my friends or family. I think it’s a game you have to come to on your own and decide for yourself if you like it or not.

    Yeah, that's a rousing endorsement of a game. Maybe we're having a definitional problem here.

    mk68yo1wfoud.png

    ogohnpcv2tjr.png

    And then at the end:
    Jerry did indeed try the First Descendant but I can see on Steam that he only played for 30 minutes. I don’t think it grabbed him in the same way it grabbed me and honestly I’m not surprised. This game isn’t going to be for everyone and like I said I didn’t even think it would be for me.

    You call this a sales pitch? You think he's pretending to be a satisfied customer?

    I think "shill" must have lost all meaning for some people. Irregardless, I could care less.

    dennis on
  • MichaelLCMichaelLC In what furnace was thy brain? ChicagoRegistered User regular
    edited July 2024
    I'm sure I'm not getting it quite right, but i always liked Tycho's words about 'selling out '.

    Something to the affect of, "We're often accused of 'seling out', while they would never do it. Not selling out and not having anything to sell are different things."

    MichaelLC on
  • PyrianPyrian Registered User regular
    Maybe we're having a definitional problem here.
    Yes, you seem to think that a shill can't have equivocal or descriptive statements in it. Perhaps you somehow imagine shilling is defined by its least persuasive elements. Here you are cherry-picking like crazy and the best you could come up with for claiming it's not a shill is literally telling the reader that they should try it and see for themself if they like it? You could find much harsher statements in something that's still overall a shill. But what makes it a shill are these cherry trees:
    This is a game I went into expecting to hate but ended up loving. That’s a hard trick to pull off.
    ...
    I’ve got close to 40 hours in TFD so far and I haven’t spent a dime.
    ...
    TFD is very transparent in this regard and will tell you exactly what missions or bosses drop the material you're looking for and even what the drop rate is.
    ...
    I had music going and my feet up on the desk and I was honestly having a great time.
    ...
    It all comes down to how much fun it is to pull that lever and in my opinion the core gameplay in TFD is excellent.
    This piece is like roughly 80% straight-up shilling and maybe 20% not totally shilling but still sort of shilling and definitely not somehow magically unshilling the larger portion.

    You're resting all this weight on the statement that the game isn't for everyone. ...No game is for everyone. It's a nothing statement.

    Pyrian's Watercolor Game Art
  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    edited July 2024
    I go off of what my understanding of what a shill is (typically a paid promoter, who enthusiastically promotes a product, often one that they don't use, and often without disclosing they are paid), and that the dictionaries back up. But I guess go with your own feeling about what a shill means, which seems to be "a person who likes something and says they like it, even though there is no financial incentive for them whatsover."

    I guess we're all shills now. I just shilled chicken fingers to my wife. I'm off to go shill some of my favorite native plants on reddit now. Maybe later I'll shill the book I just finished over on the Debate and Discourse book thread.

    dennis on
  • RatherDashingRatherDashing Registered User regular
    dennis wrote: »
    I go off of what my understanding of what a shill is (typically a paid promoter, who enthusiastically promotes a product, often one that they don't use, and often without disclosing they are paid), and that the dictionaries back up. But I guess go with your own feeling about what a shill means, which seems to be "a person who likes something and says they like it, even though there is no financial incentive for them whatsover."

    I guess we're all shills now. I just shilled chicken fingers to my wife. I'm off to go shill some of my favorite native plants on reddit now. Maybe later I'll shill the book I just finished over on the Debate and Discourse book thread.

    I shill this post.

  • RingoRingo He/Him a distinct lack of substanceRegistered User regular
    I still haven't forgiven PA for convincing me that Apex was an interesting game

    It was not

    https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/02/26/the-name-of-the-strip

  • DabbleDabble It has been a doozy of a dayRegistered User regular
    It's a goddamned video game comic/post on a videogame comic website.

    Jesus jumped up christ

  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    That sounds like shill talk.

  • LucascraftLucascraft Registered User regular
    I’m shilling for that hole. Premium hole.

  • LttlefootLttlefoot Registered User regular
    Heard that this game uses nexon game security / blackcipher. Should we avoid this possibly invasive anti cheat?

  • MichaelLCMichaelLC In what furnace was thy brain? ChicagoRegistered User regular
    Lttlefoot wrote: »
    Heard that this game uses nexon game security / blackcipher. Should we avoid this possibly invasive anti cheat?

    Sounds like one of many, yes.

  • OverkillengineOverkillengine Registered User regular
    Lucascraft wrote: »
    I’m shilling for that hole. Premium hole.

    It's a hell of a euphemism.

    "Bae, get down to the street corner and monetize that premium hole with some microtransactions."

  • LttlefootLttlefoot Registered User regular
    macrotransactions

  • Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    A Dabble Of Thelonius wrote: »
    It's a goddamned video game comic/post on a videogame comic website.

    Jesus jumped up christ

    Weird shill to die on

    [Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
  • bwaniebwanie Posting into the void Registered User regular
    Is it just me or are they making a lot of Gacha-related comics? Maybe someone should do a welfare check...

  • LttlefootLttlefoot Registered User regular
    That’s what the industry is up to these days

  • OverkillengineOverkillengine Registered User regular
    edited July 2024
    bwanie wrote: »
    welfare check

    Careful, they might spend any check you give them on more gacha.

    Edit: Or should I say.....some premium hole.

    Overkillengine on
  • palidine40palidine40 Registered User regular
    We shill eagery await the next comic, so as to never talk of Nexon again...

  • DjiemDjiem Registered User regular
    Shill out guys.

  • bwaniebwanie Posting into the void Registered User regular
    As a professional shiller-wingman i can guarantee you these fine lads did no such thing.

  • QuidQuid Definitely not a banana Registered User regular
    edited July 2024
    Wrong thread!

    Quid on
  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    Quid wrote: »
    Wrong thread!

    In so many ways.

  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    edited July 2024
    And now there's the ClubPA newsletter, in which Jerry said when Mike recommended The Last Descendant, Jerry installed a different game instead, because he found TLD's in game purchases offensive.

    It's shill-a-minute over here.

    dennis on
  • DjiemDjiem Registered User regular
    dennis wrote: »
    And now there's the ClubPA newsletter, in which Jerry said when Mike recommended The Last Descendant, Jerry installed a different game instead, because he found TLD's in game purchases offensive.

    It's shill-a-minute over here.

    This rousing endorsement left me shill-shocked.

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