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[PA Comic] Monday, February 23, 2015 - Convenience Itself

DogDog Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
edited February 2015 in The Penny Arcade Hub

image[PA Comic] Monday, February 23, 2015 - Convenience Itself

Convenience Itself

Convenience Itself

http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2015/02/23

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  • LRichLRich Registered User regular
    it would be hilarious if samus had a game genie slot built into her armor, and all she would have to do is stick the game genie in and input the cheat code that would give her infinite missiles. of course she would have to blow on the output connections to make sure that it worked properly. :p:p

  • GreasyKidsStuffGreasyKidsStuff MOMMM! ROAST BEEF WANTS TO KISS GIRLS ON THE TITTIES!Registered User regular
    this art is so goooooooood

  • kimekime Queen of Blades Registered User regular
    this art is so goooooooood

    It is! But I'm not sure I get the joke? Is it just mocking advertisements or something?

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  • IblisIblis Registered User regular
    edited February 2015
    I think the joke is in reference to the sort of crap inserted into freemium phone games.

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  • homogenizedhomogenized Registered User regular
    My guess is it's commentary on Pokémon Shuffle, a freemium game on the 3DS eShop. Though it might not all be on Nintendo, since The Pokémon Company has some degree of autonomy with the franchise.

  • mRahmanimRahmani DetroitRegistered User regular
    I haven't been following Nintendo super closely, and when I read this I was initially terrified that Metroid had gone F2P.

  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    Iblis wrote: »
    I think the joke is in reference to the sort of crap inserted into freemium phone games.

    Particularly the ones where they helpfully tell you the "best value" option, which costs more than most people make in a day.

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  • SkyEyeSkyEye Registered User regular
    Why is "best value" next to the cheapest option? It should be letting you know that giving them more money is better. For them.

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  • KageraKagera Imitating the worst people. Since 2004Registered User regular
    To be fair in real life if I could just click a button and get more missiles Instantly I would so do that. In this case the missiles would be burritos.

    My neck, my back, my FUPA and my crack.
  • jothkijothki Registered User regular
    SkyEye wrote: »
    Why is "best value" next to the cheapest option? It should be letting you know that giving them more money is better. For them.

    There have been games where the options actually get less and less efficient as they get more expensive. Which is actually kind of valid, considering that once you'll willing to pay a hundred dollars in a freemium game, your sense of value must be completely shot.

  • fullforce098fullforce098 In a van down by the riverRegistered User regular
    I never felt such a massive rush of panic and dread reading this comic. I had to take a breath and remind myself this couldn't be a commentary on a new Metroid game since there isn't a new one.

  • armatur3armatur3 San DiegoRegistered User regular
    Man, that's pretty. I love how the color/light help emphasize the movement. I'm really digging the evolution lately.

  • RonaldoTheGypsyRonaldoTheGypsy Yes, yes Registered User regular
    Didn't they do this comic about Tetris?

  • AntonNULAntonNUL Registered User regular
    They did this comic with Tetris but the joke here is so nicer.

  • sensitivepenguinsensitivepenguin Registered User new member
    feckin' micropurcharces

  • sensitivepenguinsensitivepenguin Registered User new member
    I know the joke is meta, but in-game, this makes as much sense as the merchants in a lot of Dungeon Crawler RPGs - "mighty hero only YOU can save our realm from the orcs besieging us. But yeah, that broadsword, that's going to be 600 GP. No discounts."

  • I'd Fuck Chuck Lidell UpI'd Fuck Chuck Lidell Up Registered User regular
    I know the joke is meta, but in-game, this makes as much sense as the merchants in a lot of Dungeon Crawler RPGs - "mighty hero only YOU can save our realm from the orcs besieging us. But yeah, that broadsword, that's going to be 600 GP. No discounts."

    Or even more relatable: Gauntlet having a ticking health meter that you have to keep feeding with quarters...

    Sure it's theoretically possible to beat the game on 1 quarter, but have you ever?

  • jwalkjwalk Registered User regular
    there was this 1 room in Diablo III where you entered, killed all the bad guys, then some townsfolk who were trapped in there offered a reward of a small chest of vendor trash items, and a pittance of gold.

    I always imagined after you left they were all "so this dude with the most incredible gleaming golden armor I've ever seen, and a huge flaming magic sword that could probably cut GOD in half, came in here, killed a shitload of horrible lizard demons all by himself, then snatched up ALL our shitty rusty weapons, which he obviously had NO use for, leaving us completely defenseless... oh and he took all the gold we had, even though just one of the fucking rings he was wearing is worth literally a billion times more than all our entire savings put together... thanks a lot fuckin JERK!"

  • RatherDashing89RatherDashing89 Registered User regular
    jwalk wrote: »
    there was this 1 room in Diablo III where you entered, killed all the bad guys, then some townsfolk who were trapped in there offered a reward of a small chest of vendor trash items, and a pittance of gold.

    I always imagined after you left they were all "so this dude with the most incredible gleaming golden armor I've ever seen, and a huge flaming magic sword that could probably cut GOD in half, came in here, killed a shitload of horrible lizard demons all by himself, then snatched up ALL our shitty rusty weapons, which he obviously had NO use for, leaving us completely defenseless... oh and he took all the gold we had, even though just one of the fucking rings he was wearing is worth literally a billion times more than all our entire savings put together... thanks a lot fuckin JERK!"

    Peasant: "I am not the warrior my father was. Perhaps you have use for these [Masochist Bracers of Unspeakable Things]... and 14 gold."

    Templar: "WHAT RICHES!"

  • Soul SanctumSoul Sanctum Registered User regular
    hahahaha, okay... this strip got me. This is great, classic PA.

  • Soul SanctumSoul Sanctum Registered User regular
    kime wrote: »
    this art is so goooooooood

    It is! But I'm not sure I get the joke? Is it just mocking advertisements or something?

    I just found the concept itself funny. Imagine you're shooting your gun, run out of bullets, then suddenly get an advertisement on the side to buy more.

    That's just pure comedy in my opinion.

  • -Tal-Tal Registered User regular
    things sure have changed since the last metroid game in 2007, metroid prime 3: corruption

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  • rembrandtqeinsteinrembrandtqeinstein Registered User regular
    im going to deal in absolutes like a sith here

    any game that has an in-game real money shop for non-cosmetic items is a bad game
    any game that has time gates that can be bypassed by paying real money is a bad game
    any game that has advertisements for its cash shop (cosmetic or not) that appear when you aren't explicitly looking for them is a bad game (looking at you borderlands 2 that puts cosmetic items I have to buy in the same list as the ones I unlocked from playing, then takes me to the "pay motherfucker" screen if i accidentally click on them)

    life is too short to play bad games

    (oldness detected) I feel sorry for kids growing up today who are conditioned to accept "wait or pay" as a valid gameplay mechanic

    the developers who work on these kinds of games are the same kind of low grade evil as telemarketers and spammers, they support themselves by making the world worse for everyone else

  • HeWhoSeesHeWhoSees Registered User regular
    im going to deal in absolutes like a sith here

    any game that has an in-game real money shop for non-cosmetic items is a bad game
    any game that has time gates that can be bypassed by paying real money is a bad game
    any game that has advertisements for its cash shop (cosmetic or not) that appear when you aren't explicitly looking for them is a bad game (looking at you borderlands 2 that puts cosmetic items I have to buy in the same list as the ones I unlocked from playing, then takes me to the "pay motherfucker" screen if i accidentally click on them)

    life is too short to play bad games

    (oldness detected) I feel sorry for kids growing up today who are conditioned to accept "wait or pay" as a valid gameplay mechanic

    the developers who work on these kinds of games are the same kind of low grade evil as telemarketers and spammers, they support themselves by making the world worse for everyone else

    Yes. YES. YES! YEEEEEES! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES! ALL MY FREAKING YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!

  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    eh, there are lots of examples of games that have done microtrans well, which would probably not have been viable under a traditional box or subscription purchase model.

    none of those things is actually problematic if the payment/time model is reasonable (although I agree that ingame ads have the potential to be obnoxious)

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  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    With Elite Dangerous I actually got annoyed that microtransactions weren't available.

  • mare_imbriummare_imbrium Registered User regular
    I don't know if I've ever done this before, but after reading the news post and a cursory inspection I purchased Hero Emblems two minutes after I learned of its existence. And in the past two days I've probably spent more time playing it than is healthy.

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  • emimonsteremimonster Silicon ValleyRegistered User regular
    I agree with rembrandtqeinstein re: F2P, but to be honest, as gamers, we did it to ourselves. We pirated and bought used, we didn't pay the creators for their work, so they introduced a model that cannot be GameStopped or Torrented. As a serious lover of puzzle games like PuzzleQuest, Henry Hattsworth, etc., I am the most affected by this, and it saddens me.

  • CambiataCambiata Commander Shepard The likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered User regular
    I think this comic is beautifully drawn, but if the message is "look at how these micro transactions and how they are ruining gaming!" I'm not really down. It sounds to me like an old person's complaint. Gaming changes and evolves all the time. A buy more missiles notice doesn't interrupt my imersion now any more than a "add more quarters" interrupted my immersion as a kid - though the lack of quarters certainly did.

    "If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
  • trident042trident042 Registered User regular
    I love this strip but I have now spent twenty dollars on Fallout Shelter, a game I would categorize as 'a five dollar game, tops' in any other context, because they did a 4th of July sale, and then again for the release of F4, and I was unable to resist the call of the discount. I recognize these symbols, now, especially with the help of Final Fantasy Record Keeper, and when friends tried to get me into Star Wars Uprising and the very first fake currency appeared, animated imagery sparkling and bedazzling me like a coveted gemstone, I immediately noped out.

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