tycho posts

Penny Arcade has announced that its annual Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) will be based on the east coast in 2010. Those of you who make a pilgrimage to the west every year need not fret, however. Using the miracle of modern science, PAX will clone itself into a west and east version, with a different host assisting the Penny Arcade crew with the eastern iteration.

"We couldn't do two shows by ourselves - we tried," confessed Tycho in a recent Penny Arcade post. After selecting from a number of eligible suitors, the humorous pair signed on with Reed Exhibitors, the professionals who assisted this year's New York City Comic Con.

Not the kind of folks to relinquish their independent spirits, Tycho assures readers that Penny Arcade still calls the shots even though PAX has become a partnership. "We are its conscience. Reed provides the logistical muscle," Tycho wrote.

West coast, east coast, and then world perhaps world domination? Possibly. "Frankly, [PAX] should be global. I'm working on it," says Tycho.

Longtime fans of the Penny Arcade webcomic most likely already know what I'm about to say here. You probably know that On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One is an adventure-RPG set in the steampunk/gothic horror world of New Arcadia where similar-yet-different versions of Gabe and Tycho run their own paranormal investigation firm -- of sorts. But did you know that in this game you'll get to battle robotic juicing machines that copulate with fruits, men, women and sometimes small animals? Oh, you did. Well fine, but don't say we didn't warn you when their little metal protrusions puncture your tibia.

For those of you who don't know every little detail about the game, let us make you au courant on the subject of OTRSPoD:EO. Yes, we just went acronymical on your ass.

Having just downloaded and tried out the demo for (deep breath) Hothead Games's Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One, we had the chance to scan the End-User License Agreement (or EULA). Typically a standard boilerplate document that notifies the player of the constraints under which she must abide to play the game, this one was a bit different.

Each section features a couple of sentences about the content of that section, written in non-legalese, distinguished by italic (or in this case, underlined) text. For example:

3. Intellectual Property Ownership. In order to keep making cool games in the future, we need to make sure that you understand who owns the intellectual property rights to the Program. All title, ownership rights and intellectual property rights in and to the Program and any and all copies thereof (including but not limited to all copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, trade names, proprietary rights, patents, titles, computer code, themes ...

This is a welcome feature, and fits right in with Tycho's philosophy of wanting the user to be able to get unique text for everything she clicks on. And what's more, it's just a nice gesture. Hothead cares!