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Here’s an interesting webcomics story for you.

Last Wednesday Penny Arcade, one of my favorite webcomics, posted a strip called “The Sixth Slave.” In it, a slave (in a video game) pleads with his would-be rescuer by saying “Every night, we are raped to sleep by the dickwolves.”

This quite understandably brought on criticism from people who found the joke offensive, tasteless, triggering, or some combination of the three. I sympathized with their concerns, but ultimately fell on Penny Arcade’s side; they are under no obligation to be tasteful, after all, or to censor their comic for universal consumption. (Some would probably argue that tastelessness is their stock in trade.)

Then I saw an exchange between Penny Arcade artist Mike “Gabe” Krahulik and fan Chris Rudnicki on Twitter, which is reproduced below:

rudniculous @cwgabriel @TychoBrahe Rape is not funny, particularly for survivors. Read this (http://j.mp/clMvpZ) for some more info.

rudniculous @cwgabriel @TychoBrahe Sometimes you just need to own up to your mistakes and say sorry, w/o hiding it in a joke-now is one of those times.

cwgabriel @rudniculous how did the fruit fucker not offend you long before dick wolves. He is A fruit rapist.

cwgabriel @rudniculous I don’t feel like we made a mistake.

rudniculous @cwgabriel Your most recent comic depicted a human literally pleading not to be raped, whereas the fruit fucker’s victims are, well, fruit.

rudniculous @cwgabriel I just feel reaching out to those who’ve been hurt is the right thing to do. It can’t hurt to have an honest conversation!

cwgabriel @rudniculous but they are not interested in a conversation. They want an apology. That’s not something I am interested in.

rudniculous @cwgabriel (1/2) I can’t speak for everyone, but I know a few who would appreciate the opportunity to voice their hurt in a space where

rudniculous @cwgabriel (2/2) their concerns won’t be dismissed. I think you would gain a lot of respect from those who feel hurt.

cwgabriel @rudniculous They are certainly welcome to mail me directly. I have tried to answer everyone that mailed me and said they were upset.

rudniculous @cwgabriel I’m glad to hear that. The people mailing you are all fans, and usually want nothing more than for you guys to keep doing your

rudniculous @cwgabriel your thing with a greater appreciation of how triggering rape jokes can be. I know it’s hard to understand rape culture as a man.

rudniculous @cwgabriel (1/2) I recommend this post (http://j.mp/19ciil) for a great introduction to the concept of rape culture. The author uses that

rudniculous @cwgabriel framework to address your comic specifically in this post: http://j.mp/aL3prd . Thanks for responding!

cwgabriel @rudniculous Some people seem to work really hard so that they can be mad. Life is too short.

rudniculous @cwgabriel Rape survivors aren’t necessarily mad, it’s just that coming across triggering depictions can cause them significant trauma.

cwgabriel @rudniculous the idea that our cartoon could cause “significant trauma” is bat shit fucking insane. I’m done talking about this.

rudniculous @cwgabriel (1/2) I’m sorry you feel that way. But I’m sure you you’ve had something awful happen to you or someone close to you, and I’m

rudniculous @cwgabriel (2/2) sure you’d rather others not joke about or make light of it; especially those you look up to.

What a dick.

Chris engaged Mike in the least confrontational way possible but was rudely shot down because…why? He had the audacity to suggest an apology? Krahulik could have spent three minutes on Wikipedia to counter his “bat shit fucking insane” assertion about rape triggers, but his apparent inability to consider whether he was wrong here, or even to validate anyone’s opinion besides his own, is embarrassing. This sorry-is-for-the-weak mindset is toxic bullshit, and they can do better — even if they keep the dickwolves jokes.

Tonight, while trying to figure out why the adorable (and successful) webcomic Daisy Owl suddenly went silent a couple of months ago, I stumbled upon this explanation from artist Ben Driscoll. Money quote:

When I started the comic, it was something I did because I loved it. It certainly didn’t hurt that lots of strangers on the internet seemed to like it too. My readership grew from a few friends, to a hundred people, to tens of thousands. Less than a year later, I had saved up enough money to quit my job and try to do it full time.

But then it shifted from something I loved doing, into something I had to do. Instead of drawing a comic when I had a funny idea, I had to UPDATE. And then I had to take time from comics, and spend it on making shirts and posters and prints, and ordering them, and packing them, and mailing them, all for very little profit. I won’t lie, it was fun to call myself a PROFESSIONAL WEBCOMIC ARTIST, but the reality is that it just took all the joy out of something I used to love doing.

God. Just thinking about that makes my stomach turn. If I’m ever pushed to that point I hope I have the sense to quit before I don’t enjoy anything anymore.

Hey, did you see that Harmonix announced Rock Band 3 a couple of weeks ago? It’s a pretty big deal! There’s a keyboard now, and there’s a real guitar controller (which I’ve been working on), and you can totally sing “Bohemian Rhapsody” in three-part harmony. It’s really fun!

(Harmonix is also making Dance Central, a game for Microsoft’s new Kinect peripheral, but I’m not working on that one. It’s really fun too though!)

Given the amount of time and energy I spend on music and video games, I feel a bit silly knowing next to nothing about chiptunes. After stumbling upon Shaun Inman’s blog post about Music Macro Language over the weekend, I’ve decided to make some headway in rectifying that.

Shaun, in addition to collecting some helpful links, has put together a fantastic TextMate bundle that compiles MML code as an .nsf file and sends it to Audio Overload. As he puts it, “I can listen to my composition as easily as I can preview my HTML in a browser.” For someone just starting out, it’s an invaluable tool.

After spending an hour or two learning the basics, I tested the waters with a couple of brief Beatles transcriptions. My MML code is below (update: thanks to JPLC for catching a couple of bugs!), along with mp3s of the bounced .nsf audio from Audio Overload:

#TITLE Here Comes the Sun
#COMPOSER George Harrison
#PROGRAMER Dan Bruno

ABCDE t120

@v0 = { 12 12 11 11 10 10 9 9 8 8 7 7 6 6 }
@v1 = { 8 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 2 2 }
@v2 = { 15 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 0 0 0 }
@v3 = { 15 9 6 5 3 0 }
@v4 = { 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 }
@v5 = { 3 3 3 2 2 2 }

A l8 o4 @01 @v0
B l8 o4 @02 @v1
C l1 o3 q8
D l8 o1 @v3

A r4 f+ e4 f+4 d4. f+ d e f+4. r4 f+ e4 f+4 d4. d e4 d4. r4 f+ e4 d4 <a b >d e <g >d e <a >d e <g >d e d c+ <b a r4 >f+ d e f+4 <b >c+ <b >c+ d4 e4.
B @v5 f+4 @v1 a g4 a4 f+4. a f+ g a4. @v5 g4 @v1 b a4 b4 g+&g+1 @v5 f+4 @v1 a g4 f+4. @v5 e4. d4. e4. f+4. g4 g4 f+4 @v1 a f+ g a4 r @v5 g1
C d d g e d g4. f+4. e4. d4. a2 d a
D [@v3 b b @v4 f @v3 b]10 [@v3 b b @v4 e]4 [@v3 b b @v4 e @v3 b]4 @v4 [b32 r32]6 b16

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Notes:

• I tend to be a pretty sparse arranger anyway, so it was nice to have an excuse for working with a small number of voices. After I wrote out the main melody and harmony lines on the A and B channels, I added in some additional harmonies with a new volume envelope (@v5) on the B channel to thicken the texture a bit.
• I originally tried to do something closer to the real bass part, but I didn’t like how it sounded. I suspect that I’ll be borrowing the pulse wave channel when I want to do something interesting with the bass; the triangle wave doesn’t have as many parameters to play with.
• I have no idea what to do for percussion yet; I just grabbed the notes and volume envelopes from the noise channel in Nullsleep’s tutorial and then redid the rhythm. This seems like it’ll be trial and error, mostly. What a godawful drum roll, eh? (Also, how do you get toms? Pitch bend on a pulse wave?)

#TITLE When I’m Sixty-Four
#COMPOSER John Lennon and Paul McCartney
#PROGRAMER Dan Bruno

ABCDE t180

@v0 = { 12 12 11 11 10 10 9 9 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 }
@v1 = { 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 2 2 }
@v2 = { 15 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4}
@v3 = { 15 9 6 5 3 0 }
@v4 = { 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 }

A l8 o3 @03 @v0
B l8 o4 @01 @v1
C l2. o4 q4
D l8 o1 @v3

A K1 e4 d e4 g4. e2 g4 a g4 >c2&e4. c4 e2 c4. <a4 >d&d1. <b4 b >d4 d <b4 b >d4 d <b4 b-4. a2&a4. b4. >c4. c+4. d4. e4 e- d4 c2&c4.<
B K1 g4 e g4 >c4. <g2 >c4 d c4 e2&e4. e4 g2 e4. c4 f&f1. g4 a b-4 b g4 a b-4 b g4 g-4. f2&f4. g4. a4. b-4. b4. g4 g- f4 e2&e4.<
C K1 c <g >c <g >c <g g >d <g >d <g >d <g4. a4. a+4. b4. >c <g
D [@v3 b4 b @v4 f4 @v3 b]16

A e4 d e4 g4. e2 g4 a g4 >c2&e4. r4 e4. e d4. <a4 >c&c1. c4 <a >c4 e-4. d2 c4 <a >c4 <a4. g2 >e4 e2 e4 e4. c1
B g4 e g4 >c4. <g2 >c4 d c4 e2&e4. r4 g4. g f4. e4 f&f1. a4.&a4 a-2.&a g4.&g4 a2.&a f+2. f2. e1.
C >c <g >c <g >c <g f >c <f f+ g a d g c4. <g4. >c
D [@v3 b4 b @v4 f4 @v3 b]16

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Notes:

• I didn’t have too much trouble with “Here Comes the Sun,” but trying to parse the note lengths here was a pain in the ass when I was “debugging” my transcription. (I effectively wrote it in 6/8 to account for the triplet swing.) There’s probably a better way to do this.
• Not really convinced by the timbres I ended up with. Maybe I should have tried a couple more permutations of duty cycles with the A and B channels (or messed with the volume envelopes some more; I’m still largely guessing at what I want for those.)
• It was really nice to be able to write in C and then transpose with a couple of keystrokes (“K1″). Interesting that they offer the same flexibility for assigning different tempos to each channel; how often does that come up?

So: in the short term, I’d like to get more familiar with the system, get more capable with the noise channel, and maybe learn how to use the DPCM channel. Long-term I’d like to incorporate some of these sounds into music with real instruments!

One of my posts on Cruise Elroy, “Syncopation in the Super Mario Bros. theme,” was syndicated on Kotaku Wednesday afternoon. A couple of people have asked what effect this had on my own traffic, so I went into web analytics nerd mode and pulled up Mint to find out.

As you can see, on days when I don’t post anything I tend to get 250-300 hits, and on Wednesday I got just over 2000.

Some more info:

• The post has gotten about 20,000 hits on Kotaku, and as best I can tell about 700 people have come to Cruise Elroy via the three links in the blurb at the bottom. Approximately 250 clicked the home page link, 100 went to read “Mother 3‘s battle music,” and 350 headed for the Ocarina of Time series.
• Many of the readers who came to Cruise Elroy went to multiple pages (note the dark and light green segments in the bar graph above). In particular, people who hit the Ocarina post tended to open the entire series at once! Perhaps the row of links in each of those posts inspires the “must open everything in tabs” behavior.
• For perspective, Kotaku sent more readers than Offworld but fewer than Metafilter. However, both of the latter sites simply linked to me instead of reproducing the post themselves.

I just updated my Cool Mac stuff page, a list of my favorite OS X programs.

I get weirdly nostalgic whenever I dig into that list; it reminds of launching this website and trying to figure out what I should use it for. The Cool Mac stuff page came just a couple months after the blog, in June 2005, so I’ve been tweaking it on and off for five years now. I think that’s longer than I’ve worked on any other single document in my life.

Anyway, I noticed that every time I update that page I end up removing freeware and adding commercial software. Why is that?

I have some theories:

• I need more specialized tools than I used to (like Sibelius, which I use for Cruise Elroy)
• My tastes have changed such that I now prefer more polished interfaces/user experiences, and am willing to pay for them
• I can justify paying for more software now that I’m out of college and have a real job

Also, I’m amazed at how high that page still places on Google even though it hadn’t been updated in two years.

I forgot to install the driver for my drawing tablet. This is from holding the pen down in one spot.

Two wholly unrelated things I’ve been consuming over the past week:

• Target Women is a segment on the Current TV comedy-news show infoMania. Host Sarah Haskins lampoons the bizarre and often nonsensical ways advertisers view women with shrewd observations and pitch-perfect delivery. Some favorites: birth control, laundry, Broadview security, yogurt.
• ErfWorld is a webcomic about a universe that works like a turn-based strategy game: cities have levels, characters have “move,” and the land is inexplicably divided into hexagons. It’s chock full of clever nerd-culture references and groan-worthy puns, but has enough depth to sustain a fairly engaging story as well. Check it out!

Well, this is the most unlikely ad I’ve ever seen:

I guess their previous campaign wasn’t working out.

I’ve been really into Paul Graham’s essays recently. They’re engaging, well-written, and charmingly hackerish. Some recommendations:

• The Age of the Essay
• What You Can’t Say
• Is It Worth Being Wise?
• Why Nerds are Unpopular
• See Randomness
• How to Do What You Love
• Post-Medium Publishing

From schadenfreude to inspiration:

• FMyLife.
• MyLifeIsAverage.
• GivesMeHope.

Pro:

• OS uses less disk space
• Marginally faster

Con:

• Breaks Keywurl

So far, that’s a net negative. I used Keywurl constantly, so I’ve more than cancelled out any performance increases by repeatedly typing search requests into the address bar.

Hello! I hope you had a nice summer. I have been busy not writing for my blogs!

I have, however, been working — today is my one-year anniversary — and Harmonix is doing some awesome shit that you might be interested in.

The Beatles: Rock Band comes out three weeks from tomorrow. This is by far the most exciting project I’ve ever been involved with, and I can’t wait to see what everyone thinks of it. For a thorough and accessible look at what we’re doing, I recommend the New York Times Magazine‘s feature story from last weekend.

Last month we announced the Rock Band Network, an initiative that will allow you to author your own songs for Rock Band and sell them. There’s lots of potential here, and once I get my butt in gear and write some Rock Band-style music, you can bet I’ll be there.

Two music projects I discovered recently that draw on the power of the internet:

• In Bb 2.0 is a “collaborative music/spoken word project” from one Darren Solomon. It has aleatoric elements similar to Terry Riley’s In C, but uses a menagerie of pre-recorded YouTube videos instead of a highly interpretable score. It’s much easier to understand if you try it out, though — take a look.
• Kind of Bloop is billed as “an 8-bit tribute to Miles Davis.” Organized by Andy Baio and funded through Kickstarter, it will feature a collection of chiptune musicians covering the tunes from Davis’ signature album. Baio hoped to raise $2000 to cover licensing fees and other costs, but after three days he’s already gotten more than twice that amount.

Digital distribution is only the beginning.

Just saying.