OnLive is pretty much the belle of the ball at GDC thus far, and its promise of rapture must be pure exhilaration to anyone who has never worked IT. I wouldn't describe it as a fight, per se - the knives remained sheathed - but I would say that Gabriel and I entered into what you might call a scale model of a fight. There was fury, but it was a very compact fury.

Porkfry is at the forefront of Pokemon husbandry, as has been well established - his "Living Pokedex" is a beacon to the field.  It wasn't until the last round of Pokemon releases that it was absorbed by our group generally, and for some of us, it penetrated those membranes which cradle our most crucial organs.  Very early on, I felt as though I glimpsed the overall shape of Pokemon play. I couldn't push through it. As fascinating as the endgame of Pokemon is - and fascinating, as a word, is barely sufficient - I couldn't build a roster myself because the grind on low-level Pokemon play is just too brutal. Gabe was able to manage it, but for him (and presumably others) playing Pokemon is something you do while you are doing something else - autonomic, not a conscious act but rather a function of the body.

I'm a little late on this, hopefully your anger will not endure.  Should you crave additional Maw, which would be completely understandable, the "Brute Force" and "River Redirect" Deleted Scenes are up on Greenhouse.

In the fourth comic of "Further Songs Of Sorcelation," we posit that bad-ass sorcelator Grimm Shado once banished the Witchaloks to the dark shadows of the Shadowdark. Shadowdark is a word that - like everything else in the series - we constructed expressly to be as awful as is humanly possible. Imagine my surprise when, upon opening "The Manual Of The Planes," I discovered that this is an actual place in the base setting. We decided that this was a punishable offense and, speaking gnarled words that haven't been heard for ten thousand years, unleashed our most powerful techniques.

Specifically, I'm referring to the podcasts we sometimes produce.  Our newest offering details the writing process for today's strip, "In Which Much Is Revealed."

I've really enjoyed getting back into the live shows. I did another yesterday and recorded it. Like I mentioned before, the best way to catch one of these is to follow my Twitter. I'll send the word out via a tweet a few minutes before starting a show. I'll be broadcasting most strips so look for those shows on Tuesday,Thursday and Friday. If you watch the show from yesterday you'll see that I will sometimes answer questions from the live chat. If you want to participate in that you'll need a Ustream account. Also I've had a lot of comments about my musical choices. Everything from "this music is the soundtrack to an abortion" to "Great music...if you're a queer!" so as you can see it really varies. Honestly some people do like it and have asked for my Pandora username so they can check out my station. So if you use Pandora you should be able to search for cwgabriel and see my station. I've been tuning it for a while now and if you like bands like the Weepies, The Postal Service and cats like James Taylor you should enjoy it. 

Whenever I read things like this I always feel as though I'm going a little crazy, but it's possible I am more sensitive to shit of this particular variety.

Over the entirety of my experience with it, Army of Two slowly transformed into a "Net Positive." It was unexpected, and slightly annoying, because when I'm seated on a coruscating throne of black rage, I don't want it melting down into molasses. Optimally, this is a black throne I can hurl edicts from, proclamations with the unyielding vigor of natural law - carried forth by hackling beasts, who are my will made flesh.

I've started using Ustream again to broadcast myself drawing the strip. It took me a while to gather the right combination of software for the mac to get the video and audio streaming correctly. It's working great now thanks to Camtwist, Audio Hijack Pro and Soundflowerbed. If you're interested in watching one of these live shows the best thing to do is follow me on Twitter. I should warn you that I don't actually Twitter all that much. You won't see updates when I make a sandwich or stub my toe. I do send out a Tweet before every live show though. I'll also be recording the occasional show like I did yesterday. 

Every now and then, in Blood on the Sand, 50 Cent or another member of "G-Unit" will make an offhand comment about the architecture.  I doubt very seriously that "strong characterization" was in the product's charter, but these occasional flashes of context made me wonder what kinds of exploration the man could actually sustain.

** UPDATE **

We are tittering with delight that PAX 10 audience favorite and authentically delicious The Maw can now be had for your Windows PC Computron.  Savor the scrumptious demo, and marvel that even greater delights may be had for only ten dollars.

I don't remember the last time I traded in a video game, and this is coming from someone who - at one point - had an EB Games "Edge" card with over five hundred dollars in credit on it. I used to have no more than three or four games per system because I routinely harvested my collection with no hint of remorse. A couple years ago I began to wonder if the practice was on solid footing - if it had, as its outcome, the nourishment of an industry that had so elevated my leisure hours. I had no good answer, and as such, could not act.

I'm going to preface this post by saying that my job is rad. I cannot thank you all enough for letting me do this shit.

So a while back I mentioned the Dwarven Forge. They make some really cool 3D terrain for table top games and I was curious about how it worked. Well the Dwarven Forge guys saw it and actually sent me a set to try out. It showed up yesterday which was perfect since Monday is our game night. I was able to use what they sent me to construct the first two encounters of the night and my players loved it.



The first thing I noticed when I cracked the box open was just how heavy the individual pieces are. I had imagined them sliding all around the table as people move their minis but they don't. not only do they have enough heft to stay where you put them, but they have really classy felt bottoms.

As you may recall, the PAX 10 is our annual independent games showcase - the entries are judged by a panel of gamers, journalists, and industry veterans, and the top ten entries set up shop in a booth we provide in the PAX Exhibition Room.  It was a huge draw last year for pretty much everyone, so it's an amazing opportunity to get your stuff in front of people.  We'll be accepting submissions through May 9th, which will probably come sooner than you think. 

The Kindle has begun to proliferate substantially here, so that almost half the people I work with either own one currently or stand on the threshold, hands clasped, awaiting its imminent arrival.