Comics have got me rolling

By Holliday

I consider myself a PC gamer. I have a Playstation 2 but it does not receive anywhere near as much play as my PC does. As a PC gamer I tend to favor games with a somewhat realistic basis. I also sway towards the genres of FPS and RTS more than others. I haven’t purchased a “platformer” in over a year (I think Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was the last). But, for some reason, I cannot stop playing Katamari Damacy.

If you have not heard of it yet this is the basic gist of the game: The King of the Cosmos accidentally destroyed all the stars in the sky one night (he thought he was dreaming). So, to fix this, he sends you to earth to roll up stuff and send into space to make new stars. This is where the gameplay is. You, the Prince, have a ball that sticks to things. You roll it around earth and it picks things up. The more things that get stuck to it the bigger it gets and then you can roll up even bigger things. You’ll start rolling up coins, sushi, and cookies and end up rolling over houses and stadiums. That is about it.

Katamari Damacy is that odd little game that could. It took a ridiculous plot, simple gameplay, and a fetching price-tag and became a sleeper success. It already has a sequel in the works and has become a source of humor and discussion across the internet.

How on earth this game got popular is what interests me. While I am sure a good deal of its success can be attributed to how bizarre it is (as well as how fun it is) but there are many fun and strange games that receive little recognition. So I tried to think of what inspired me to purchase it. I remember briefly scanning over a review of it on Gamespy.com one day but not really being all that intrigued by the idea. Then it hit me. Webcomics. The reason I purchased this game was because it keeps popping up all over the web in various game related comics.

As the “webcomic” continually increases in popularity I don’t think we can deny the impact it has. Comics like Penny-Arcade have become so popular that they, in one way or another, influence the gaming industry as a whole. I know a good amount of people who put more stock in what an author of a webcomic says about a game than a reviewer. Perhaps it is because gaming websites are often owned by some corporation. They are a bit removed from the communities they serve. Webcomics, however, feel like that are part of the community they are serving. Even Penny-Arcade (which has now done some work for major game labels) still have that “homegrown” feel.

With webcomics you get to know the author(s) and artist(s) a bit more than you would a reviewer from a big-name gaming site. So you can find an author who has similar likes and dislikes and have a more accurate “reviewer” indirectly tailored for yourself.

Aside from straight reviews wecomics provide a large amount of exposure. Both for games and just general internet information. The other day at my place of employment (I am a bartender) I ran into an individual who, at some point during a conversation with some other customers, said “Rogues do it from behind”. We exchanged that glance two people would exchange when they are in on an inside joke. Oddly enough I was writing the beginning of this post that night at the bar.

So what do you think? Do webcomics have an effect on gaming or are they just humorous commentary? Also, do you roll the Katamari? Common I know you do.