This weekend I learned the unnerving fact that my family actually reads this strip. While this revelation put an end to the Naked Wood Nymph Dance Line I was considering adding to the strip, it also proved that I retain power over the impressionable young minds of my cousins. I present as proof this piece here. Though I do this in an attempt to embarrass one Matthew Severson, I forsee this simply encouraging him to bug me about posting more stuff here. His offering is amusing if only because it features a flaming rubber duck with a human head.

The rest of this post contains only my pointless rambling on the topic of video games. I hear it's the kind of thing webcomic artists are supposed to talk about in their rants.

It has been the case for the last five years or more, but I still refuse to accept that every computer and video game out there has to be 3D. I finally picked up Batman: Vengeance for the GameCube and, while it is perfectly playable, I can't help but wonder if it wouldn't be more fun if that third dimension wasn't always lurking there, just waiting for you to, for instance, walk though a door so you can be instantly shot at repeatedly from an unseen location. I think we need a new rating system for video games. One that would warn of things like "Uncooperative Camera" and "Indistinguishable Grainy Textures". I know I would save money if I saw "WARNING: Contains unnecessary 3D platforming obstacles" on more games.

The 3D infection is finally spreading into more of my favorite game series, including the upcoming WarCraft 3 and Command & Conquer: Generals. I'm not too worried about those, as strategy games usually suffer less from 3D than action/adventure ones. Like many people, I've had my reservations about a FPS Metroid game, but I put a little more faith in Nintendo (and associated companies) than the rest of the world (Zelda: Ocarina of Time managed to be perfectly playable, primarily by tying the third dimension up in a tight little bundle and hiding it in the closet most of the time). And I'm sorry, but Dungeon Siege was a great idea, destroyed by an incomplete conceptual design and the third dimension. It just didn't impress me.