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[TRENCHES] Tuesday, September 22, 2015 - Pokémon No

GethGeth LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
edited September 2015 in The Penny Arcade Hub
Pokémon No


Pokémon No
http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/pokemon-no

They can’t give an award out to everyone.

Anonymous

Working as a web designer and developer for the games division of a Very Large Software Company, I had the opportunity to work on some impressive and fun projects. Back in the day before Millennials were a thing, web sites were more information-focused and less complex than they are today, and “web masters” (as they were once called) often found themselves doing every aspect for a particular project by themselves.

So one day, my boss forwards me an email from product marketing; it was the specifications for a sub-site, complete with verbiage, some assets, and a list of functional requirements. I dutifully prepared the web site, going back and forth with marketing over the site on our development server. Once completed, the often time-consuming process of Final Approval™ was the only obstacle to delivery.

I went on vacation with my girlfriend and prepared an email to my boss and delegate as to the status of the project, as well as the 30 seconds’ worth of work required to make the web site go live. It went live while I was on vacation without a hitch.

Fast forward six months later, and I was assigned a small section to add to our Intranet site announcing the recognition of certain employees for their efforts on specific projects and that these employees would be awarded a plaque and a payment of $800 at a company awards banquet. One of the projects being “recognized” was my very own sub-site.

Shockingly, the people they mentioned were: the marketing folks (no problem), my boss, and the fill-in who had literally pressed a button to launch it. My name was notable in its absence.

I complained to the lady in whatever-division-handles-award-giving-out and explained my situation. I complained that I had worked on the entire project alone from an IT and design perspective, that I had completed 99.9999% of the project. I pointed out that it had been assigned to me, and not the other recipients. I pointed out that the delegate had only pushed the site live, and my boss had only forwarded the original email to me and that given those credentials, I was certainly due recognition, the plaque, and the little bonus cheque (given tax deducations, the plaque was the more valuable item).

You know what her response to me was? “We can’t give awards out to everyone who was involved in the project.”

Jesus.

When my boss and my coworker went up on stage in their tuxes to receive their accolades, I did not clap.


Geth on

Posts

  • GaslightGaslight Registered User regular
    "They work from home"?

  • DJSquiggyDJSquiggy Registered User regular
    bad word balloon placement. i had to read a few times to get the correct flow.

  • geniekidgeniekid Registered User regular
    edited September 2015
    DJSquiggy wrote: »
    bad word balloon placement. i had to read a few times to get the correct flow.

    The balloon placement in panel two is bad, but the comic is a bit disjointed overall.

    I think the author was trying to interweave two jokes, one about being forced to move around with the new Pokemon Go apps vs the ability to cheat with the old Pokewalkers and one about the term "walkers" to describe the undead. Unfortunately, the term "Pokewalkers" really muddles the two jokes (sounds like Isaac is referring to Pokewalkers in the last panel) and the entire comic ends up slightly incoherent. The 4th panel should've been left out completely.

    geniekid on
  • DJSquiggyDJSquiggy Registered User regular
    yeah, not sure why Isaac is trying to infer "Walking Dead" Walkers is what she is talking about. "you walkers" is clearly talking about people who walk - i.e. not her.

    her text could have been more vauge to allow that to make more sense. maybe even "the Walkers".

    sounds like the author had two jokes they wanted to make and figured one would allow them to make the other.... Glad i kept coming back to the site for like....2 weeks to get this gem :|

  • MattimusPrimeMattimusPrime Registered User regular
    I feel like with a little trimming, this would have actually been a pretty good strip if Panel 4 was the punchline. Also, Isaac's stroke victim face in panel 1 feels especially unnecessary to me... I have nothing against wacky faces, but it's weird seeing that face forming articulate sentences about arts and crafts.

  • Finnish_LineFinnish_Line Registered User regular
    So now new comics, but no new tales?

  • ruzkinruzkin Registered User regular
    Poor word bubble placement. A joke about how nobody gets the joke. Awful faces. This is... not the best Trenches.

    g4OlSIF.jpg
  • briguybriguy Registered User regular
    I actually really liked the faces and designs in this strip. The walkers joke was probably unnecessary and it could have ended after the fourth panel, though.
    But I really like the art and direction The Trenches has been going lately.

  • milskimilski Poyo! Registered User regular
    ruzkin wrote: »
    Poor word bubble placement. A joke about how nobody gets the joke. Awful faces. This is... not the best Trenches.

    TBF it's still above average for the recent Trenches.

    I ate an engineer
  • Morgan BlackpowderMorgan Blackpowder Registered User regular
    Getting tired of all these guest comics. I found a link to the last actual episode of the trenches, it's way back there....

    http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/continue

  • Morgan BlackpowderMorgan Blackpowder Registered User regular
    Also, it's been a year since we've seen or heard from Janet, or the Vampire guy, the EA contract did stipulate they got ALL employees.... What happened to them?

  • melaltonmelalton Registered User regular
    > Getting tired of all these guest comics. I found a link to the last actual episode of the trenches, it's way back there....
    and
    > Also, it's been a year since we've seen or heard from Janet, or the Vampire guy, the EA contract did stipulate they got ALL employees.... What happened to them?

    Look, it's clear that even though the Trenches has Mike, Jerry, and Scott's name on it, they've checked out. It's like they had a child together that they got tired of quickly, and are now ignoring and passing it off from relative to relative, or leaving at friend's houses. There's no coherent plot, characters pass in and out of the strip, and sporadic "big events" happen as somebody new tries to make a mark. At this point there's really only 3 options:
    1. Have Mike, Jerry, and Scott take the strip back and pay attention to it to fulfill it's early promise.
    2. or, Give it to another artist and writer and put their names on the strip, so they can own it and make something good out of it. It'll be their names on the line, so they'll put their best into it.
    3. or, Shut it down. It's embarrassing now. It's like Lexus started selling re-badged Daewoo subcompacts assembled by Chevy in Mexico with parts from wherever they could get them cheapest from. It's a blight on the Penny Arcade and PvP brands.

  • Kai_SanKai_San Commonly known as Klineshrike! Registered User regular
    The trenches never really decided between if it wanted to be a story driven comic or an individual joke comic. It kept trying to be the former while being the latter.

    I really wanted to like it when it WOULD start trying to put together a long standing plot. But I think by now we have seen Mike and Jerry at least do not really like to stick to anything for long, almost get bored. So starting a comic that really wanted to be that continuity thing they never could do was kind of doomed to failure.

    I just do not understand why no one else who has taken over was able to do this either. Nor why it continues to have its original branding that hasn't really changed since the pages were put up.

  • AegeriAegeri Tiny wee bacteriums Plateau of LengRegistered User regular
    There are very infrequent updates to this comic now, which make me wonder if it is dead or if they are transitioning it (again) to new people?

    The Roleplayer's Guild: My blog for roleplaying games, advice and adventuring.
  • fortyforty Registered User regular
    DJSquiggy wrote: »
    bad word balloon placement. i had to read a few times to get the correct flow.
    I still don't understand how it's supposed to read.

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