We were talking the other day about the kind of shit you can get up to with a PS4 having only purchased the box, and how freemium stuff like Warframe or DC Universe Online can mollify wastrels who might otherwise turn to vandalism or hard drink.

Mike Fehlauer is now Mike Hayes, since he got married, but it's been hard to make the shift because his nickname came from his old last name - Feh, pronounced "fay," and it's been in circulation for about a decade. I've tried to substitute other names of similar weight, like in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but "Hay" or "Haylauer" never took. I lucked out when I changed my last name because no nickname has ever stuck for me, ever; there was nothing to change. Anyway, he's at his folks' house on vacation, and apparently they are a people who collect books. He found this page about a moral panic related to the reading of "dime novels," and I thought it might be instructive.

Just a reminder that your Dickerdoodle pictures are due by December 21st. You can get all the details here.

I’ve been working on Automata for about the last month or so. That should mean I have a lot done but the problem is I keep drawing and then re-drawing the first two pages. I just can’t settle on anything I’m happy with and I’m starting to go a little crazy. I’ve got probably six completely different versions of these first couple of pages. I’ve tried some crazy stuff and done a few that are closer to my normal style. I thought I’d share a couple of the most recent iterations with you guys so you can see the process.

I don't feel like Age has distributed itself throughout my person in a uniform way. I feel like my aorta probably got the worst of it, its calcified accruals metering blood in strict measure. I would apologize to it if I thought it had any conception of my treachery. The only thing I can do now is to try and avoid reading articles about the shit my government gets up to without a couple pensive, preparatory breaths.

Gonna play some Killzone Shadow Fall multiplayer tonight and I'll go ahead and stream. You will be able to watch right here and even join in on the chat.

The Child’s Play Charity dinner was last week and I had an incredible time. This year Scott and Kris took over hosting duties and I was a big fan. Since I wasn’t on stage this was the first year I actually got to sit at a table and eat dinner with my friends and family. I enjoy running the auction but I have to say actually attending the dinner is pretty awesome.

My wife will deny it but she reads US magazine sometimes. I will occasionally find them in the house and thumb through them to see what Kim and Kanye are up to or if Miley really did that thing I heard about. They do this thing called “Who Wore It Best?” where they catch two celebrities wearing the same clothes and then ask their style experts to vote on who wore it best. Why am I telling you this bullshit?

It is that time of year again. No I’m not talking about Christmas. I’m talking about Dickerdoodles!

I didn’t watch the VGX awards live but I checked out all the coverage online after the event. When it comes to awards you’re never going to get everyone to agree. Even knowing that, I have to say I was really surprised at some of their decisions. I’m not going to go category by category but I figured I’d talk about game of the year.

The Child's Play Charity Dinner & Auction balled out of control. Scott and Kris (yes, that Scott and Kris) handled the auction itself, and well; my customary princess wave was not required. I just talked to people, actually talked to them because I had the opportunity, and tried to deflect the greater part of their gratitude for Child's Play onto you.

The 18th of last month was Penny Arcade's 15th Anniversary.

I’m still trying to take care of all my Christmas shopping and you might be in the same boat. If you are looking to the Penny Arcade store for your Christmas gift needs I should point out that today is the cut off day for items shipped first class international to arrive before the 25th. You can see the rest of the shipping deadlines over on the front page of the PA store.

Once Assassin's Creed 3 entered canon, it became possible to have a pretty sophisticated philosophical conversation about the setting. That's the one people don't like, of course; the one with the best twist, the one that drops the mask. The one that makes you understand at the edge of a knife that your entire conception of the narrative is essentially propaganda.

I don’t beat most of the games I play. It’s partly because I play so many games. I’m usually jumping to a new game before I’ve completed the last. I also have a short attention span and it takes a lot for a game to hold my interest until the very end. I’m telling you this because I actually beat three games just in the last week or so. What are they and why did I stick with them?

We've had a lot of conversations about "privacy" as a cultural value, because we are staffed by huge dorks who have become cyborgs to some extent. Certainly, in the strip, we declare that concerns in this vein are the sole purview of unmedicated psychotics, but that's obviously not true. Issues of privacy today are incredibly complex, and speaking from my own experience, the more engineering knowledge you have the more freaked these kinds of things make you.