Penny Arcade - Comic - Descenders

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Penny Arcade - Comic - Descenders

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

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Overkillengine

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.

klemming

You can't just walk past a hole.
I mean, what if there's cake down there?

Ringo

That's litter

Lttlefoot

Are they shilling again

Lucascraft

"It must be a premium hole" is a pretty good line.

Hevach

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.

dennis

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.

palidine40

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.

v2micca

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)

dennis

People really will read things they want to read them, I guess.

Pyrian

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

dennis

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.





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.

MichaelLC

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."

Pyrian

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.

dennis

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.

RatherDashing

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.

Ringo

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

Dabble

It's a goddamned video game comic/post on a videogame comic website.

Jesus jumped up christ

dennis

That sounds like shill talk.

Lucascraft

I’m shilling for that hole. Premium hole.

Lttlefoot

Heard that this game uses nexon game security / blackcipher. Should we avoid this possibly invasive anti cheat?

MichaelLC

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.

Overkillengine

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."

Lttlefoot

macrotransactions

Rhesus Positive

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

bwanie

Is it just me or are they making a lot of Gacha-related comics? Maybe someone should do a welfare check...

Lttlefoot

That’s what the industry is up to these days

Overkillengine

bwanie wrote: »

welfare check

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

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

palidine40

We shill eagery await the next comic, so as to never talk of Nexon again...

Djiem

Shill out guys.

bwanie

As a professional shiller-wingman i can guarantee you these fine lads did no such thing.

Quid

Wrong thread!

dennis

Quid wrote: »

Wrong thread!

In so many ways.

dennis

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.

Djiem

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.