You know how you can tell an article is well written?
When its core subjects are a bunch of things I didn't read, didn't watch, didn't buy, and generally didn't pay attention in my younger years, but I still find it interesting and engaging enough to read about all the way to the meme at the end. They say a room full of monkeys can write Shakespeare. I say, why settle for a room full of monkeys when a single ape is more than capable of the same?
Hey man, I'm only the messenger. Believe me, I loved Rooster Teeth. I won't say no one is more disappointed in their tragic end than me, but I took no joy in watching them fall apart.
We'll always have the early seasons of RvB, though.
This was a fun read, Thank you. I feel like Thomas Jefferson must have felt greeting Merriweather Lewis when he and the Corps of Didcovery came back from trekking across the entire country, traversing dangers , taking copious notes, bringing samples ….. to let Jefferson know what the heck was out there in the great unknown. Thank you kindly for taking that journey for the rest of us.
Thanks for following up on my suggestion! It was a thorough and fascinating piece as usual.
There was a time when I was on board for everything Penny Arcade did. I bought the collections, I played the games. And then I slowly realized that the comic strip just... wasn't that funny any more. So I ended up bailing out, and now the whole thing feels like a fever dream.
Was it ever funny? Did it actually suck? Or was I just in the grips of a backlash generated by disillusionment? It's good to get some outside perspective on PA, and see that there is indeed some strange alchemy there.
Two more things:
1. The dickwolves strip, from what I recall, was the only mildly interesting strip for weeks leading up to that point, and for weeks afterwards. I want to say they went off their meds for a bit as an experiment, and the dickwolves strip was the result.
2. Just for the record, Time Magazine was trash for midwits by at least 2006, IMHO.
There is a surreal quality to most of that time and the things most of us liked during it. I look back at Channel Awesome the same way. Was it ever funny? Not as much as I remember. Did it suck? Well, maybe not suck, but I wouldn't say it was good, either. It was an interesting time, and I think both we and the wider culture had a dramatic shift in sensibilities. Honestly, that only makes it all the more incredible how they're still successful today. Talk about wise investments.
You have a good eye for these geek culture topics but fam I gotta be real witchu that they would be way more poastable if they weren't Over 9000 words. Just an opinion from some guy.
Hey, I appreciate some guy's candor and feedback. Honestly after this one got away from me the way that it did I was already thinking about dialing it back, or at least dividing long-form content into smaller installments for ease of access. Experimenting with hour-plus long writes has been fun but, for a lot of reasons, not quite practical for writing or reading.
Maybe not practical but I just spend an hour on Saturday morning with a cat on lap, coffee in one hand reading this ... So overall very enjoyable! Thanks for posting!
Thank you, I'm glad to hear it. That sounds like the ideal time to sit down with an article of this length. I'll still have the occasional hour-long write-up in the future, I'm sure, but that used to be challenge. Now the challenge seems to be reigning myself in and dialing down the verbosity. I blame my past English teachers for requiring word and page counts.
I think my only definite interaction with Penny Arcade (apart from the still inescapable phenomenon of people posting their strips on forums and imageboards) was in the very niche 2012 RTS game Airmech, in which Gabe and Tycho appeared as pilots.
The House of Mouse's attempts to freeze creatives out of licensing rights, esp. on legacy products, is probably a big reason of why their jerry-rigged superfreighter of nearly every popular ip in existence hasn't yet sunk. Residuals and royalties can eat up a very significant chunk of profit from a media product, so it's a savvy business decision on their part (if entirely morally bankrupt) to only pay them if absolutely forced to.
RIP Rooster Teeth. Halo fanboys really did get the short end of the stick; they were on top of the world by the time Halo 3 came out, and now that empire is naught but dust and disrespect. Thus the wheel of fortune turns.
That's a reasonable assumption about Disney. A lot of people make the claim that they're run by idiots because of the boneheaded decisions they've been making, and while I don't think that's entirely untrue... well, Bob Iger and his cronies must be doing something right, because under other leadership I think the same decisions would have tanked the company years ago. They're certainly unethical, but business illiterate, not quite. And, yeah, their movies have been losing money hand over fist, but if they already know their coffers will be restocked with fresh DEI money, or at the very least serve as a $100 million dollar tax write-off? I dunno.
Also, the saddest thing about Halo is that, ten years ago, it was primed to get a big budget theatrical adaptation directed by Peter Jackson. Today, the best Halo fans got was a show that wouldn't even be acceptable on the CW. Absolutely fucking abyssmal. Sometimes I forget what we had until I go back and revisit some of Halo 3's cutscenes or gameplay and I realize the magnitude of what we lost.
You know how you can tell an article is well written?
When its core subjects are a bunch of things I didn't read, didn't watch, didn't buy, and generally didn't pay attention in my younger years, but I still find it interesting and engaging enough to read about all the way to the meme at the end. They say a room full of monkeys can write Shakespeare. I say, why settle for a room full of monkeys when a single ape is more than capable of the same?
Thank you, that's no small compliment. I always appreciate your feedback. As do the typewriting monkeys I have on payroll.
Thanks for despoiling the fond memories I have of Rooster Teeth, ya shisno.
Hey man, I'm only the messenger. Believe me, I loved Rooster Teeth. I won't say no one is more disappointed in their tragic end than me, but I took no joy in watching them fall apart.
We'll always have the early seasons of RvB, though.
I still own Seasons 1-3 on DVD 😳
Better hold onto them. They're gonna be worth something, if they aren't already.
This was a fun read, Thank you. I feel like Thomas Jefferson must have felt greeting Merriweather Lewis when he and the Corps of Didcovery came back from trekking across the entire country, traversing dangers , taking copious notes, bringing samples ….. to let Jefferson know what the heck was out there in the great unknown. Thank you kindly for taking that journey for the rest of us.
I always appreciate the kind words Jenn, more than you know. I'm glad you enjoyed :)
Thanks for following up on my suggestion! It was a thorough and fascinating piece as usual.
There was a time when I was on board for everything Penny Arcade did. I bought the collections, I played the games. And then I slowly realized that the comic strip just... wasn't that funny any more. So I ended up bailing out, and now the whole thing feels like a fever dream.
Was it ever funny? Did it actually suck? Or was I just in the grips of a backlash generated by disillusionment? It's good to get some outside perspective on PA, and see that there is indeed some strange alchemy there.
Two more things:
1. The dickwolves strip, from what I recall, was the only mildly interesting strip for weeks leading up to that point, and for weeks afterwards. I want to say they went off their meds for a bit as an experiment, and the dickwolves strip was the result.
2. Just for the record, Time Magazine was trash for midwits by at least 2006, IMHO.
There is a surreal quality to most of that time and the things most of us liked during it. I look back at Channel Awesome the same way. Was it ever funny? Not as much as I remember. Did it suck? Well, maybe not suck, but I wouldn't say it was good, either. It was an interesting time, and I think both we and the wider culture had a dramatic shift in sensibilities. Honestly, that only makes it all the more incredible how they're still successful today. Talk about wise investments.
You have a good eye for these geek culture topics but fam I gotta be real witchu that they would be way more poastable if they weren't Over 9000 words. Just an opinion from some guy.
Hey, I appreciate some guy's candor and feedback. Honestly after this one got away from me the way that it did I was already thinking about dialing it back, or at least dividing long-form content into smaller installments for ease of access. Experimenting with hour-plus long writes has been fun but, for a lot of reasons, not quite practical for writing or reading.
Maybe not practical but I just spend an hour on Saturday morning with a cat on lap, coffee in one hand reading this ... So overall very enjoyable! Thanks for posting!
Thank you, I'm glad to hear it. That sounds like the ideal time to sit down with an article of this length. I'll still have the occasional hour-long write-up in the future, I'm sure, but that used to be challenge. Now the challenge seems to be reigning myself in and dialing down the verbosity. I blame my past English teachers for requiring word and page counts.
I think my only definite interaction with Penny Arcade (apart from the still inescapable phenomenon of people posting their strips on forums and imageboards) was in the very niche 2012 RTS game Airmech, in which Gabe and Tycho appeared as pilots.
The House of Mouse's attempts to freeze creatives out of licensing rights, esp. on legacy products, is probably a big reason of why their jerry-rigged superfreighter of nearly every popular ip in existence hasn't yet sunk. Residuals and royalties can eat up a very significant chunk of profit from a media product, so it's a savvy business decision on their part (if entirely morally bankrupt) to only pay them if absolutely forced to.
RIP Rooster Teeth. Halo fanboys really did get the short end of the stick; they were on top of the world by the time Halo 3 came out, and now that empire is naught but dust and disrespect. Thus the wheel of fortune turns.
That's a reasonable assumption about Disney. A lot of people make the claim that they're run by idiots because of the boneheaded decisions they've been making, and while I don't think that's entirely untrue... well, Bob Iger and his cronies must be doing something right, because under other leadership I think the same decisions would have tanked the company years ago. They're certainly unethical, but business illiterate, not quite. And, yeah, their movies have been losing money hand over fist, but if they already know their coffers will be restocked with fresh DEI money, or at the very least serve as a $100 million dollar tax write-off? I dunno.
Also, the saddest thing about Halo is that, ten years ago, it was primed to get a big budget theatrical adaptation directed by Peter Jackson. Today, the best Halo fans got was a show that wouldn't even be acceptable on the CW. Absolutely fucking abyssmal. Sometimes I forget what we had until I go back and revisit some of Halo 3's cutscenes or gameplay and I realize the magnitude of what we lost.
What a wild trip down memory lane.