I’ve finally been able to get my Nintendo DS to connect to my wireless.  Now I understand the mean of futility by attempting to play a game of Tetris against a faceless opponent from somewhere around the world.  I got my but kicked within a minute.  I shant be going online looking for competition for awhile because it just is not as fun as I thought it would be.  By definition I am a casual gamer, I have no real delusions about my gaming skills being better then they are.  That said, there is nothing more irritating than playing a game against someone more interested in their ranking that a simple fun game against an opponent.

Todays strip is a reflection of that annoyance of getting pumped up to play a game, and have it be over in under a minute.  I sometimes worry about doing strips with video game references mostly because it’s terribly done to death in the world of webcomics.  I love Penny Arcade, but what it’s spawned is crazy.  I read a number of webcomics and I am constantly coming across strips that seem to be attempting to exactly duplicate PA in hopes they will be as big as them.  But they won’t.  It kind of reminds me of super hero comic of the early ’90s where everyone was trying to cash in on the huge market that was coming out of this and it lead to the market crash that almost killed the comics industry.  Don’t get me wrong, some game strips are great, but they seem to get lost in mass that seems to be out there.  In fact, I think that a number of really good strips get lost in the ether that is webcomics.  For every interesting, funny, or creative strip there are a hundred sprite comics with Mario partaking in “wacky hijinks” and using “colourful language”.

This kind of leads into my next (and hopefully final) point.  Sprite comics.  I loathe sprite comics.  I think that for the majority of sprite comics out there are devoid of any real creativity.  Taking established video game characters and having them quote Chappelle’s Show is not being funny or creative, it’s like being that guy at a party who continually repeats a Family Guy quote in attempts to get laughs.  Also, recoloring Sonic the Hedgehog and calling him “Thrash” is not an original character, it’s stupid.

I don’t know why I have such a bug up my butt, I just need to get snarky once and a while.