A Roll of the Dice

Over at Commissioned, they announced the advent of a new comics collective, Gamers Pair of Dice. As someone who recognizes that webcomic collectives are generally a good thing, and being a gamer myself, I dutifully went browsing through several of the strips.

I was... well, I did find myself grinning at some of them. But I'm sad to say that the majority of them left me underwhelmed.

I wouldn't go so far as to call them Penny Arcade rip-offs. They are simply exploring the same field and making jokes on much the same subject matter, and that is perfectly fine.

But even if I don't make the accusation, the comparison is inevitable. Penny Arcade mastered that genre of strips before most of them began, and as such, it is hard for them to stand out. The mere presence of the webcomics juggernaut, in some ways, stifles those trying to follow in its footsteps.

On another note entirely, one of the strips - a guest strip, even - left its mark on me. More specifically, it set Gato's little song running through my head over and over again! I spoke yesterday about my poor memory, and I haven't played the game for years, but I'll be damned if simply seeing a virtual screenshot didn't send the song rampaging through my mind on repeat!