It has always been my greatest fear that one of you will engage me in conversation when I'm going to the bathroom. It's not something I ever expect to happen, you understand - I don't think you're clamoring for the opportunity, it's just something I worry about. Thus far, we've been to cons where there was a certain percentage of readers among the attendees and it hasn't happened yet. In my apparently infinite wisdom, we chose to hold a convention populated almost exclusively by the readership. So it's starting to look less like my greatest fear and more like my secret wish.

It is not uncommon for Gabriels to deploy sophistry in the service of their goals, truly epic feats like sitting on the couch or watching television. In these situations, I can be counted on to act as his barely responsive interlocutor.

I like to play World of Warcraft. When I play this sort of game I tend to get attached to my character and I don’t really feel comfortable making new ones. I’m not sure exactly what it is, but once I’ve got my guy I stick with him no matter what. As each new patch comes out Blizzard opens up new classes for play. Once I started my Warlock though I never really saw any reason to switch. I guess that makes me a shitty beta tester, but I don’t really care. Besides, there are so many fucking hunters in the game right now it’s ridiculous. I was in Westfall yesterday and it was like Noah’s fucking ark.

I got this update from RedMachine regading the West Coast Super Trip. I’ll just go ahead and post it here:

You might already have read about those tragic events on Naboo, but there is no man alive who can pretend to be surprised by the predations of SOE's nefarious customer service at this point. Their behavior has been legendary since 1999, when they killed every tenth Everquest subscriber. They are the most diabolical force currently active on the world stage - teleporting player characters into orbit? Man, that's not even the main course.

I drew a new ad for Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow. I ended up having to crop it a bunch to fit it in the template. I thought some of you might like to see what the whole thing looked like. Here you go.

The conversation is real, but he didn't have it with Kara - I'm given to understand that she has the equivalent of super strength in this "trimester" or whatever it is called, and has the capacity to deal aggravated damage. Gabriel informed me yesterday that she lifted a car over her head, and threw that car at another car and then climbed up an office building. After a spectacle like that, your discourse tends to bear the proper reverence.

Dana has a new blog entry up.

Surely this installment of Penny Arcade is a falsification of the worst sort! Friends, if only that were true. When he started telling me about Dust, as though it were a topic that was somehow alien to me, alien to the tens of thousands of people that play every day on "Dust Only" servers, I felt something pop inside my mind.

It's hard to believe, but PAX is less than two weeks away at this point. We've been planning and preparing for this event for so long now that I can't remember my life before PAX. What did I do before I was helping to throw the greatest video game party ever conceived by man? Probably nothing.

I put up a new sketch dump this morning. You can see it right here if you’re interested. Some people have asked what I draw with. I actually just use a regular ballpoint pen when drawing in my sketchbook. I like them because I never have to sharpen them. Plus using a pen forces me to keep sketching rather than spending thirty minutes erasing and redrawing the same thing over and over again.

One day we will learn the trick of making our bullets intersect with enemy models - at least, that's the hope - as apparently emptying a submchinegun at point-blank range is not up to the task. In the meantime, we can ponder Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow's deep mysteries.

If you will be attending the event, and it is starting to look like that will be a couple thousand of you, please send us questions for any panels you'd like to attend - State of the Industry, The Development Process, anything - and we'll get them on the list.

I picked up the most recent issue of Official Playstation Magazine yesterday. I grabbed it because I saw it had a demo of Burnout 3 on the disk. I’ll just say I was not disappointed. That game is shit hot and I highly recommend you go get a copy of it for yourself. My only complaint is that after the one race they allow you in the demo you are kicked all the way back out to the main menu of the disk. I guess this is because they want to remind you that there are other games and movies available there but the only thing you’re going to want to play is Burnout. I almost feel bad for the other racing game demos on the disk. Maybe they didn’t know their game would be featured alongside Burnout 3. As I drove one of their destruction derby cars around a crappy looking track at approximately five miles per hour I actually felt embarrassed for them.

People who think that we go "too far" would fall over dead if they heard the discussions that actually produce these comics. The one catalogued in the strip is (to my mind) fairly minor. I'd rather not go into any more detail than that, and besides - you've probably just eaten breakfast.

Okay, so it looks like the Child's Play Raffle is over, because in the space of 18 hours you guys and the Hypothermia crew bought up every ticket. Unbelievable.