I, um... Hm.
I am open to the idea that we (as people who have a specific pastime) have needs that may not be satisfied effectively by ordinary products. I can't think of an example, but the universe is vast and somewhere its infinite reaches may contain the answer. But I don't, that is to say I do not believe that we need our own Goddamn food.
The reality is that, at the LAN parties I've been to, people often eat things that explicitly are not food. When the pizza is gone, the greasy box becomes a meal. The next hungry being, hand still working an unseen mouse, will tear the corner of the chili packet off and tip the powder down their gullet to feed a roaring demon furnace. Another person will eat the little plastic table each box includes, and the last person will chew the receipt slow, like cud. There's an entire beautiful ecology and we're a part of it. This is some amazing nature shit and someday someone will make a show.
So no, I don't think our "bar" needs are so extreme that existing bars fall short. Probably best to dig in now for the inevitable assault.
Final Fantasy XII enthusiasts should take note: Gametrailers has new videos of the DS sequel that show in greater detail how it would actually be played. It's similar to the twelfth Final Fantasy, as promised. When played with a stylus, the exact same system is an RTS with a rich progression structure - which (scientifically speaking) be fresh. While I was trying to enjoy FFXII, I kept wanting the ability to pull the camera out and watch everything, which is exactly what's going on here by default. It may be too much to hope for writing on par with the PS2 predecessor - I understand that the characters meet a special "sky friend" who is a winged boy with whom they can have adventures(?). Familiar faces do abound, though, and we may hope they are implemented with care.
Theater Hopper's Tom Brazelton asked us if we could deliver a guest strip for him, as he would shortly become a father and would need help holding down the (virtual) fort. A guest strip wasn't going to happen, because Gabriel enters the Art Mines for our game early and then emerges from them at the end of the day weary and smeared with soot. Unable to provide what he wanted - but also unable to let him twist in the wind - I offered up my side of the enterprise as a stopgap measure. I also wrote the intro for an upcoming compilation of Applegeeks Lite, presumably to cement my role as webcomics' elder statesman.
(CW)TB out.
