The gnome’s not stupid, just a typical socially awkward scientist/inventor. He seems quite sweet actually. On top of that he’s most likely worried about the impending bullshit Gastonians are about to lay down at this meeting. Despite their differences him and the archmage are in the same boat but reacting to it differently.
If this is an MMO, then who are these people?
AI? Players staying in character? Very good AI, in fact more alive than not, because the magic of the…book-thing…made this world, in fact, something of a real world?
Hrrrrm. My money’s on #3. I doubt people would play an MMO in order to roleplay /a political meeting/. …Well, unless they’re part of a very organized guild. Or a meeting of Admins*. But I doubt that’s the case here.
*: I googled ‘mmo lexicon’, to look for the best word to use here (Sysop? Moderator?). I came across something called “The daedalus project / the psychology of mmorpgs”. Is this where Guilded Age character Daedalus got their name? I think** so.
**: Looked up Daedalus on google; mythologically speaking, wikipedia says they’re the one who made Icarus’ wings. Eh…it’s possible that our Daedalus is named after greek-mythology Icarus, but I think it’s much more likely the project is named after mythological Daedalus, and guilded-age Daedalus is named after the project. Wikipedia disambiguation didn’t have any more-promising leads for Daedalus.
Can’t say I have seen an actual MMO who actually supports or encourages playing/roleplaying a political meeting, as you put it. That said, to this day there is a bunch of MUDs where that kind of thing is an important part of the gaming experience and the player base supports it faithfully. Achaea and the other games from that company are the first that come to my mind. (You dont know what a MUD is? Wondering what wet dirt has to do with games? Damn kids, get off my lawn and go google it!)
Dear god, I LOVED political meetings on the Mu* I used to play. My character would place bets on who would say the most ridiculous thing, who would blow up, and what herpderp their Tea Party equivalent would come up with.
Daedalus (from GK myth) invented a myriad of intricate designs, everything from labyrinths to wax wings that allowed a person to fly. In modern terms we would call him an artificer, inventor, or some kind of wizard.
Without nitpicking terminology further, Guilded Age’s Daedalus (sp?) invented an entire mythical universe (or at the very least, created the artifact that it is via some means indistinguishable from magic) in which all of those things have potential to exist. Much as any decent MMO creator has done, he has “invented” the “game”. The name is entirely appropriate, even if only as a name that represents a stereotype. Plus, he’s some kind of wizard.
As for the characters in today’s strip, I would argue that there are no true NPCs in this “game” – an immersive universe, which is after all what the Arkerra experiment is designed and implied to be, would contain a sizable enough amount of content (and present it to its players in such a way as) to give even the least roleplaying-savvy participants enough brain fuel that it would be difficult for them to break immersion over constant political feuds, magics/sciences, ancient artifacts, etc. simply due to the fact that it makes them solidly a part of it. Any important-looking characters we see can probably be assumed to either be GM-run, regular players, or community organizers who are given access by the GMs. NPCs go from being plot-integral to minor, automated security systems in dungeons, and all things similar in nature to that.
Not to mention all that MUD discussion above, there’s plenty of evidence for player- or operator-run characters. And given that only one man so far seems to have Administrator privileges outside of the game, the meaning of the term “GM” as it applies to Arkerra would seem to be different from what it means in most MMOs these days.
You may be correct that those are player-characters. I’m not sure, however. Have we ever before seen any part of Arkerra without one of the five present? The only previous time I can recall taking a break from their perspective was Chapter 9, with Daedalus and Carol in Sepia World.
Lately, I’d been assuming that to the five, everything looks like a self-consistent reality, whereas to any others, it’s obviously a game and a simulation. This page is the first real indication to me that this isn’t the case. I think it suggests that the “NPCs” are conscious beings.
On the one hand, we know the five are in VR tanks, in a game. On the other hand, we know that Daedalus doesn’t understand what’s going on, despite great efforts to find out. There’s something going on that we don’t understand yet.
We have seen a few scenes without any of “the five” before. We have the actual prophecy guy after Best leaves town, way back when. We have the meeting of the political leaders around the pirate fiasco. Those two stick out to me, and both have their people treat the world as persistent.
I don’t think their world is an MMO, more like a fantasy game like Baulders gate or Champions of Norath. The characters are too immersed, having complicated back-story made for them when they enter. Too many people in this world entering and leaving would break that. And even if it is going to be an MMO the server isn’t open so the average character you meet is going to be an NPC.
I swear, people do that just to torment me, because there’s no other logical reason why so many people get that wrong.
Also, I’m thinking their world might be an actual thing, and all the technosorcery does is somehow create player avatars in that world. It all seems a bit too detailled and intricate to be just a game, even if the other characters were somehow fellow players.
And besides, if there were players, you’d expect more people to talk like Frygg. Or worse. So yeah, too consistently in-character to be players, too complex to be NPCs. Either the game is crazy good (which is possible because of magic I guess) or Arkerra exists independently of the game.
Well, as an ARCHmage he certainly qualifies as a “Master of The Arcane”, and his ears don’t match the image of Winter Elves as shown in the elf-type rundown found in-
Nothing says “disdain for your mundane way of life” quite like spending the juice to conjure your own quill and ink rather than use the quill and ink provided.
That stuffy, cold-fish thing is just an act. I can tell with one look that this Caneghem is a barely-controlled psychopath who wants to strangle everyone with his bare hands and eat their hearts to fuel forbidden, impolite magics.
Yeah, but you know how *that* always ends. Soon enough he’ll be saying “It was only a setback!” and after that, well, you can forget any retirement plans.
…I’m not sure if (assuming this is Gastonia) the Gastonians are assholes or not for giving the gnome dude a huge chair.
On one hand they’re not giving him a tiny chair which would be laughable compared to the other large chairs. On the other hand, it shows they don’t care enough for his comfort to get him a gnome sized chair.
I’m going with assholes though because GASTONIANS ARE XENOPHOBIC DICKS.
Dude, we could only afford to rent this room from the community center for an hour and requesting special chairs would have cost extra. We could have brought him his own special chair but he never checked ahead of time and by the time anyone thought of it Ardaic’s van was already full.
We all feel really bad about this, but the guy should have spoken up. There’s a lot that goes into organizing these little get-togethers and unless people are telling us what they need we’re not always gonna think of everything. We totally forgot about Caneghem’s duck allergy too.
There’s a request box for just that reason. I don’t know why people aren’t using it. We’re totally reasonable here, you just need to tell us what you need. I got a cell phone, it’s on all hours of the day. Tell Reynolds to give me a call and we’ll work something out for him next time.
Gah. Now you’ve broken my brain trying to figure out whether it’s more racist to give him the same (almost mockingly huge) chair everyone else has or to bring him out a special chair that highlights how little he is compared to everyone else.
Give him a regular chair, but with a cushion on the seat, so he can see over his desk properly. Which he is doing, so maybe thae Gastonians have already done this.
This is very weird dialogue for characters that do not appear to be PCs in an MMO (they don’t appear to be adventurers or former adventurers). The fact they are even having this dialogue is unexpected. We very rarely get to see characters who are not the definitely PCs interacting, but apparently they do and with personality. This and the discussion among the heads of houses earlier lends credence to the idea that maybe there is more to Arkerra than some servers.
Well, we knew that there’s more to Arkerra.
What we still don’t know is whether it’s all created from the influence of the minds of the PCs trapped in the world or whether the world is independent.
Dudes, Reynolds is not that far away. There is no reason so cheapen out on drawing some eyes on him for panels three and four. If we can see the buttons of his boots we should be able to see his eyes.
Such cheerful sarcasm. I like this gnome.
i hear no sarcasm from the gnome.
It’s the best sarcasm: Undistinguishable from honest boot licking
Look at the alt text. Gnome is being honest. And stupid. Elf is realizing how thick the gnome is.
The gnome’s not stupid, just a typical socially awkward scientist/inventor. He seems quite sweet actually. On top of that he’s most likely worried about the impending bullshit Gastonians are about to lay down at this meeting. Despite their differences him and the archmage are in the same boat but reacting to it differently.
OK. I admit I was wrong. The gnome is *socially* stupid.
So who else feels bad for this Caneghem guy already?
I feel bad for the gnome actually
I have a sneaking suspicion he’ll say/do something soon that will take those feelings away.
I feel bad for the Shit Elf that will have to sit by the two of them.
Dean Fargoth Reynolds… from Seyda Neen.
If this is an MMO, then who are these people?
AI? Players staying in character? Very good AI, in fact more alive than not, because the magic of the…book-thing…made this world, in fact, something of a real world?
Hrrrrm. My money’s on #3. I doubt people would play an MMO in order to roleplay /a political meeting/. …Well, unless they’re part of a very organized guild. Or a meeting of Admins*. But I doubt that’s the case here.
*: I googled ‘mmo lexicon’, to look for the best word to use here (Sysop? Moderator?). I came across something called “The daedalus project / the psychology of mmorpgs”. Is this where Guilded Age character Daedalus got their name? I think** so.
**: Looked up Daedalus on google; mythologically speaking, wikipedia says they’re the one who made Icarus’ wings. Eh…it’s possible that our Daedalus is named after greek-mythology Icarus, but I think it’s much more likely the project is named after mythological Daedalus, and guilded-age Daedalus is named after the project. Wikipedia disambiguation didn’t have any more-promising leads for Daedalus.
Can’t say I have seen an actual MMO who actually supports or encourages playing/roleplaying a political meeting, as you put it. That said, to this day there is a bunch of MUDs where that kind of thing is an important part of the gaming experience and the player base supports it faithfully. Achaea and the other games from that company are the first that come to my mind. (You dont know what a MUD is? Wondering what wet dirt has to do with games? Damn kids, get off my lawn and go google it!)
+1 million hugs for you :D
Oh my god, not only is Achaea mentioned but HAWK comments? ‘lo! <3
Dear god, I LOVED political meetings on the Mu* I used to play. My character would place bets on who would say the most ridiculous thing, who would blow up, and what herpderp their Tea Party equivalent would come up with.
Funny, Achaea was also the first thing I thought of when ‘role-playing political meetings’ was mentioned. Man it has been a while.
Deus Ex players might see some other potential reasons for the name “Daedalus” popping up where computers are involved.
Daedalus (from GK myth) invented a myriad of intricate designs, everything from labyrinths to wax wings that allowed a person to fly. In modern terms we would call him an artificer, inventor, or some kind of wizard.
Without nitpicking terminology further, Guilded Age’s Daedalus (sp?) invented an entire mythical universe (or at the very least, created the artifact that it is via some means indistinguishable from magic) in which all of those things have potential to exist. Much as any decent MMO creator has done, he has “invented” the “game”. The name is entirely appropriate, even if only as a name that represents a stereotype. Plus, he’s some kind of wizard.
As for the characters in today’s strip, I would argue that there are no true NPCs in this “game” – an immersive universe, which is after all what the Arkerra experiment is designed and implied to be, would contain a sizable enough amount of content (and present it to its players in such a way as) to give even the least roleplaying-savvy participants enough brain fuel that it would be difficult for them to break immersion over constant political feuds, magics/sciences, ancient artifacts, etc. simply due to the fact that it makes them solidly a part of it. Any important-looking characters we see can probably be assumed to either be GM-run, regular players, or community organizers who are given access by the GMs. NPCs go from being plot-integral to minor, automated security systems in dungeons, and all things similar in nature to that.
Not to mention all that MUD discussion above, there’s plenty of evidence for player- or operator-run characters. And given that only one man so far seems to have Administrator privileges outside of the game, the meaning of the term “GM” as it applies to Arkerra would seem to be different from what it means in most MMOs these days.
Er… I trailed off in that last paragraph, but the “evidence” is evidence that the people in today’s strip are not NPCs.
You may be correct that those are player-characters. I’m not sure, however. Have we ever before seen any part of Arkerra without one of the five present? The only previous time I can recall taking a break from their perspective was Chapter 9, with Daedalus and Carol in Sepia World.
Lately, I’d been assuming that to the five, everything looks like a self-consistent reality, whereas to any others, it’s obviously a game and a simulation. This page is the first real indication to me that this isn’t the case. I think it suggests that the “NPCs” are conscious beings.
On the one hand, we know the five are in VR tanks, in a game. On the other hand, we know that Daedalus doesn’t understand what’s going on, despite great efforts to find out. There’s something going on that we don’t understand yet.
We have seen a few scenes without any of “the five” before. We have the actual prophecy guy after Best leaves town, way back when. We have the meeting of the political leaders around the pirate fiasco. Those two stick out to me, and both have their people treat the world as persistent.
I don’t think their world is an MMO, more like a fantasy game like Baulders gate or Champions of Norath. The characters are too immersed, having complicated back-story made for them when they enter. Too many people in this world entering and leaving would break that. And even if it is going to be an MMO the server isn’t open so the average character you meet is going to be an NPC.
Baldur’s Gate. Not Baulders. BALDUR’S.
I swear, people do that just to torment me, because there’s no other logical reason why so many people get that wrong.
Also, I’m thinking their world might be an actual thing, and all the technosorcery does is somehow create player avatars in that world. It all seems a bit too detailled and intricate to be just a game, even if the other characters were somehow fellow players.
And besides, if there were players, you’d expect more people to talk like Frygg. Or worse. So yeah, too consistently in-character to be players, too complex to be NPCs. Either the game is crazy good (which is possible because of magic I guess) or Arkerra exists independently of the game.
Balder the Fair’s gait.
Is the Archmage a Sky elf?
Well, as an ARCHmage he certainly qualifies as a “Master of The Arcane”, and his ears don’t match the image of Winter Elves as shown in the elf-type rundown found in-
http://guildedage.net/webcomic/chapter-1/chapter-1-page-13/
-so yes, I believe we can go ahead and assume he’s a Sky Elf.
Or possibly an up-jumped Shit Elf that’s mastered a cantrip or three …
I just noticed that the example for Shit Elves is Payet. I guess he is the best example…
You think he’s honestly happy to be segregated?
Tokenization always makes me feel cheerful.
Tolkienization on the other hand….
“… at least I’m not sitting next to a human.”
Nothing says “disdain for your mundane way of life” quite like spending the juice to conjure your own quill and ink rather than use the quill and ink provided.
Well-noticed.
That is a properly elfy elf. You’d never find him making demeaning comments about his own species for the entertainment of humans.
The little guy seems nervous.
Good eye, just noticed he was shaking in the first panel.
Hey, Jon van Caneghem reference. Not sure I can see someone that into Star Trek as a needlessly elfy elf, but hey.
Also, I love the eagle-arrows-and-thunderbolts motif. Everyone loves eagles, especially if they’re holding.
That’s what the US seal is missing, thunderbolts!
Wow, the axe head on that halberd is HUGE!
The better to THWACK! you with, my dear.
Also, that’s what she said.
I want to see a buddy-cop movie starring these two. Reynolds & Caneghem: Cops On The Edge. It would be HILARIOUS.
THEY FIGHT CRIME!
You forgot to preface that with:
“One’s a bumbling tinkerer and scientist. The other is a stuffy elven archmage. Together, THEY FIGHT CRIME”
To be scheduled in between “Grizzly Adam 12″ and “The Harold and Maude Squad.”
And, on Saturday mornings, the kiddiwinks get to watch “Sindar the Science Guy”.
That stuffy, cold-fish thing is just an act. I can tell with one look that this Caneghem is a barely-controlled psychopath who wants to strangle everyone with his bare hands and eat their hearts to fuel forbidden, impolite magics.
he’s a big cuddly teddybear really.
Yeah, but you know how *that* always ends. Soon enough he’ll be saying “It was only a setback!” and after that, well, you can forget any retirement plans.
I think Joel and the ‘bots put it best:
“Well, he seemed like a nice guy..”
“…AT FIRST.”
Hey, who invited Christopher Lee to the meeting?
…I’m not sure if (assuming this is Gastonia) the Gastonians are assholes or not for giving the gnome dude a huge chair.
On one hand they’re not giving him a tiny chair which would be laughable compared to the other large chairs. On the other hand, it shows they don’t care enough for his comfort to get him a gnome sized chair.
I’m going with assholes though because GASTONIANS ARE XENOPHOBIC DICKS.
Dude, we could only afford to rent this room from the community center for an hour and requesting special chairs would have cost extra. We could have brought him his own special chair but he never checked ahead of time and by the time anyone thought of it Ardaic’s van was already full.
We all feel really bad about this, but the guy should have spoken up. There’s a lot that goes into organizing these little get-togethers and unless people are telling us what they need we’re not always gonna think of everything. We totally forgot about Caneghem’s duck allergy too.
There’s a request box for just that reason. I don’t know why people aren’t using it. We’re totally reasonable here, you just need to tell us what you need. I got a cell phone, it’s on all hours of the day. Tell Reynolds to give me a call and we’ll work something out for him next time.
Is that the requests box that feeds directly to the paper shredder?
Wait, do I smell… powdered mandrake?
Crap.
You all remember the discussion about herbal sensitivities, right? Did anyone think to mention this to the archmage?
Okay, someone needs to go get a fan. In the meantime, someone please ask the archmage — very politely — to sit near the window.
Gah. Now you’ve broken my brain trying to figure out whether it’s more racist to give him the same (almost mockingly huge) chair everyone else has or to bring him out a special chair that highlights how little he is compared to everyone else.
Give him a regular chair, but with a cushion on the seat, so he can see over his desk properly. Which he is doing, so maybe thae Gastonians have already done this.
How about a footstool?
Or just bring him a box…
At least they’re bonding over their mutual disdain for humans, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
I’d like to say that Reynolds has a small problem with his disdain detector, but then again, you can’t argue with elves.
Or perhaps he is secretly designing a donkey-powered Elf squishing machine.
Oh I really do hope so. T, Phil, John, please? Gnome-designed donkey-powered elf squishers? Pretty please?
Nah. Sheep powered ray gun.
This is very weird dialogue for characters that do not appear to be PCs in an MMO (they don’t appear to be adventurers or former adventurers). The fact they are even having this dialogue is unexpected. We very rarely get to see characters who are not the definitely PCs interacting, but apparently they do and with personality. This and the discussion among the heads of houses earlier lends credence to the idea that maybe there is more to Arkerra than some servers.
Well, we knew that there’s more to Arkerra.
What we still don’t know is whether it’s all created from the influence of the minds of the PCs trapped in the world or whether the world is independent.
Anyone else think League of Non-Aligned Worlds from B5 when seeing this?
The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.
Caneghem looks a little too much like Saruman (at least from the movies) for me to not think he’s up to something.
I mean, check that Goatee man. He’s def. evil.
Dudes, Reynolds is not that far away. There is no reason so cheapen out on drawing some eyes on him for panels three and four. If we can see the buttons of his boots we should be able to see his eyes.
Disregard eyes, acquire women. The gnome knows what he’s doing.
Cue “Why Can’t We be Friends?”
Since conjuration is basic teleportation Caneghem just swiped someone else’s ink & paper.
Maybe it’s his stuff from home?
So he is not just the archmage, he is a thief too. He stole my heart already… Refusing to even use the ink of Gastonia like that…