I understand that Modern Warfare 2 is a big release - playing last night, the game informed me that my rank was over two million, and that's just on the Xbox. But the granularity of the coverage it's been receiving projects somewhat beyond the threshold of utility.

I once made it a point to attend midnight launches, if for no other reason than it offered an excuse to hit Dick's on the way back - around one o'clock or so - when that unassuming burger window becomes the capital of a spontaneous nation.

It's back! The ultimate in friction-free, ultra-lightweight charity engines is here, ready to transform the slightest movements of your finger into much-needed respite for young people. Here's what's up:

We spent quite a bit of time trying to determine how we felt about the Dragon Age situation described in today's comic - a character appears in your camp who offers a questline that is only available in downloadable content. The character is literally a salesman. Is this an act of abominable evil? Or is the mass of this evil sufficient to unfold itself - like a Popple - into a creature capable of love?

My D&D group is so hungry for content that we actually play via email between games. Sometimes it's just the characters talking amongst themselves, other times it's more of a structured skill challenge. I tweeted an example yesterday of one of our exchanges and I got a lot of feedback as well as questions. I thought I'd respond to some of it here rather than trying to tweet back to everyone individually.

PAX East is coming up quick and we're going to need some new enforcers to help us out. We will be bringing over about 150 of our west coast enforcers but we'd like to supplement that with another 150 new enforcers from the east coast. Enforcers get into the show for free but in return we work you like a dog. If this sounds like a fair arrangement to you then fill out this enforcer application and mail it to klindsay@penny-arcade.com. We'll be accepting applications until November 25th.

I un... truncated it(?).  In the future, I will assess all posts for truncability.

Runic Games is doing the Lord's work, in an robust and unambiguous fashion.

Historically, we've had a strange relationship with SOE's John Smedley - though I think it's more or less reached equilibrium now.  We received a press release for a new game he's catalyzed over there, namely Magic: The Gathering Tactics, but since we don't run press releases there's no place for that.  This being established, I think a lot of their work out of their Tucson and Denver studios is woefully underappreciated, and I want to show some support.  I gave him a call yesterday to see if I could find anything out, and while I don't know if I succeeded especially well, if you share my vague enthusiasm for this currently mysterious game, read on.  I have taken the liberty of adding smileys where I believe he was being ironical.

-My D&D campaign is featured over on the Obsidian Portal site this month. You can check out a little interview with me as well as take a look at a bunch of info from my campaign. If you are not familiar with it, Obsidian Portal is a site full of tools to let you build and manage campaign websites for tabletop games like D&D. The basic stuff is free but they also have a pay option that has a few more features. They call this their ascendant level service and they have been kind enough to give me a coupon code that you can use to get one free month of the ascendant service.

Gabriel brought to my attention a post in a dungeonmastering board he reads, which detailed the circumlocutions some people go through trying to square their plans for a vibrant scenario and the Received Wisdom of official campaign materials. It might be because we think of every event, action, sentence, or phrase as something to pervert for our use, but I was made genuinely distraught by the notion that those books - which are suggestions, at best - would conspire to dilute your joy. Those things are tools, and what's more they're your tools, which means that they serve you. Our version of the base setting is practically unrecognizable. Rule Zero is invoked constantly, of which Assertion Twelve is a corollary.

Tycho and I will be playing Tekken 6 this Sunday Nov. 1st as a part of the Xbox Live Game with Fame thing. You can get all the details over on the Microsoft community calendar site. You'll need to send a friend request to Tekken6Tycho or Tekken6Gabe and then be ready to kick our ass Sunday night at 7pm Pacific, 10pm Eastern time. And yes the rumors are true, I can do a three hit combo with Paul. That's like three hits...in a row.

Tycho said he hasn't been playing Ratchet and Clank, but I sure as hell have. I've been putting a few hours into it every night this week and I love it.

Gabriel installed Windows 7 yesterday on his powerful new laptop, claiming that it "just works," which is a two-word phrase we typically associate with their competitors. He says it is "better," but saying that something is better than Vista is (as a statement) virtually content free.

is available here.

It seemed like it was about time for some Twisp and Catsby, which we hope is welcome. We wondered how the season might be interpreted in their strange realm, and now we have some measure of understanding.