I don't think it's entirely the fault of developers or the genre or any of those things. But we have been so rigorously trained in how to play Massively Multiplayer Games, in precisely the way we train rats, that you fall into that groove. Except it's not a groove, groove. The funk has long since fled. It's more like a rut. I have to break some of this stuff down to enjoy it again, I think. I have Optimization Sickness.

The Child’s Play Invitational 2014 is coming up on June 22nd and we have some stuff going on this time that might appeal to you even if you’re not into Golf.

I'm trying to get back en Twittre (Francais), and it's slow going. Presumably there is a bike metaphor we can leverage. Even though the whole thing is opt-in, people have to specifically choose to listen to me, I still feel like I'm being rude by using it! It makes no sense. So whatever I put in there has to be enough by some mystic standard, and it invariably isn't. As usual, Jane Austen nailed it two hundred years ago:

Card Kingdom has put together "corporate giving and volunteerism" program, read: a Being Rad program, and just like that famous truck it have started to move. They're holding a tournament called The Gauntlet this Sunday to kick the whole thing off. Myself and a few other stalwarts from Penny Arcade have joined in the fight, I don't know about our chances, because I suspect that Card Kingdom is going to draw in some truly savage brutes. But you can sponsor our team from the donation widget - just put PA in the text field, and we will do our best to earn your coin.

The thing you have to remember about Microsoft rumors is that all Microsoft rumors are true.

We have a new survey up that we would love for you to take a look at. We’re looking to get some more information about how folks collect and trade Pinny Arcade pins. Whether you’re already a Pin Pal or you’ve never purchased a pin from us, your info would be super helpful. You can find the survey right here and it should only take a couple minutes.

We were out at lunch with Skarth Quartz, talking about the frankly next level shit he's got going on in Table Titans, and we were talking about how Yelp could help adventurers. That's really it. When you hang out with comic artists, you have to call dibs on ideas like this, which then means you have an obligation to follow through strong. "Ensorcelled locally" is about as good as I can do, folks. Time to go home, maybe.

When I was in Australia, there was an arcade near our "serviced apartment" called Galactic Circus. My son and I used to go there whenever we could, interleaved around various cultural happenings, artisinal laneway grub, and what became known as the sharquarium.

Wildstar is in open beta now until the 18th. You should just go grab it right now. Seriously go start the download now and then come back and finish reading this post when you're done. I'll wait.

I think something along the lines of this strip started when we were streaming Amazing Spider-Man 2, it happens fairly early in the broadcast, but it apparently made some kind of dent in Gabriel's skull that proceeded to shape thought.

Gabe and Spider-Man sort of have a History.

As suggested by my opposite and my equal, Hearthstone is still spreading from the site of the infection. We have encountered several cards over the course of the last week or so that are probably due for a quick bake in the Nerf Furnace. Secret Cards in general, I mean literally as a mechanic, make me so mad it almost boils the eyes out of my face.

I’m legitimately obsessed with Hearthstone. I was sick over the weekend and spent the days playing what I would describe as a ridiculous amount of Hearthstone. I’m discovering that what I’m learning now isn’t so much about how to play my deck but how other classes play theirs.

It really, really is! So mosey on over.

There is a specific sort of editorial pose you can absolutely build a career around, the "hyperbolically negative caricature," and I know because I did that myself. I am by no means the only one to have done so. Eventually I came to find it a little pat, no doubt in concert with the hormonal changes that accompany the condition known as Early Onset Coot Disease.