Out here, up in the Game Spire, where we buy games and then play them, Public G is a big deal, if not the biggest deal. But a lot - and I mean a lot - of people play Fortnite. To give you entre into a world you may not be aware of, the Youngs play Fortnite almost exclusively. It doesn't cost anything. That's, uh… that's a pretty good price. There's nothing even approximating a Queue on the PC. Once you've decided you want to play, that's it. And from the sounds of it, that kind of community support is having an effect on their other titles. Weirdly, it's even having an effect on the PvE side of Fortnite, which you might recall was its original incarnation. I think that's temporary, though. I hope so, anyway. There's a path through this where the two halves inform each other. At this point, I think they're still reeling from the shock.

My flights were cancelled many, many times, both on the way into hashtag PAX South and out; while I was writing today's strip I learned that I'd lost the reservation I'd made to account for the previously lost reservation. It flipped several times during the next hour until I was able to get a flight that would work - sort of - provided I could get there in the next twenty minutes with my wife and moist larvae in tow.

I'll talk to Gabe later about changing the first i to a capital I, but since it's in the original script I suspect it's gonna have to be something I do myself with tools I fashion from wood and stone. Sometimes I can convince Kiko to do it in secret. I might be getting him in trouble, there. I have to admit that I've been quite startled by the viewership on Twitch for a few recent events, but this is what happens when a piece of content floods a new viewership into the platform. When I saw the OWL running on Wed - didn't see the new one on account of PAX - it was consistently over three hundred thousand viewers. Then again, notorious digital satan loltyler1 had around that, and he is a single person with no shirt on. The times we're living in are fucked and if somebody claims an ability to reckon the future of this, they can't. Not really.

I think it's kind of funny to be doing Division strips this long after the fact, but that's where we're at. A PAX is typically sufficient to break the habit for a game, ironic though that may be; there's a kind of radius around the shows that absorbs all conscious attention.

The vaunted Overwatch League manifests later today, five or so hours after I post this. I've been spending all my time trying to reclaim New York from the ravages of a manufactured disease and also from man who is the real monster, so this is the most Overwatchy I've been in a while.

I knew that there was one Paul Brother, because he got in trouble a few months ago for heaping expensive furniture into a pool and then setting it on fire. When Yoda said "there is another," that was ultimately an expression of hope and joy. This is a situation where there is another except it's not the best.

I asked our Technomancer Mike Buland to do some digging in our data mines and find out what the top ten Penny Arcade comics of 2017 were. He got back to me and said "...there are a number of ways the comic can be viewed that won't register on the analytics system, so what I can grab right now won't be fully representational..." and a bunch of other engineer type stuff that I didn't really understand. He did give me a list though!

PAX South is coming up next week and I'm getting excited. Last year at this time I had just ruptured some of the important plumbing inside my human frame. I ended up zipping around PAX South on a little scooter while the carbon fiber patch they sewed into my guts took root. This year I'm happy to announce that I'll be walking around on my legs like I usually do.

Not every game works for the format, but I think Paladins could have something to say in the "battlegrounds" space. I'll be very surprised if they can do so while calling themselves Battlegrounds, however. They'll probably have to change that part. Something like… Paladins… Fighting Place.

I've compiled all the Acquisitions Incorporated: The "C" Team art and fic here for easy access. Apparently there were ten pieces…? Thanks to the "C" Team for giving my great stuff to work from. And get caught up, because Season 2 of this shit starts Sunday, January 14th at Noon CST.

I'm married to a crafty lady, I know lots of people in the props biz; this is all to say that "some of my best friends are crafters." I have absolutely no beef with people who make enduring objects out of thread, I was just very surprised to see Gabe up knitting. I mean, it's just art I guess; I shouldn't be too surprised.

There are controversial ships, and then there are forbidden ships. Come get in these folds.

"Don't leave," says Walnut, seated with her back to the fire. Her hands are twitching furiously around a heap of twigs and, with a few tugs and twists, they were becoming something that looked intentional.

I've got a couple pieces of art here from Ryan slash Donaar Blit'zen, Dragonborn Narcissist, to go with Monday's veiled tale of Sorsha and Chronaar. The first is his sketch of the little scamp:

Nomenclature-wise, we use the term "Smurfberries" for any type of secondary currency. That's where the first truly massive unauthorized purchases were reported, and there's also a kind of insult nestled in the language. An imaginary currency named after an imaginary fruit eaten by imaginary creatures is, ironically, a pretty robust metaphorical statement.

Please deposit your PAX South Qs into our designated slot. We'll process them live on stage.