Weekly Webcomic Wrapup is a great babysitting tool

by Griffin McElroy on Apr 9th 2011 11:00PM

A lot of you were upset by PlayStation chief Jack Tretton's recent comment that the DS family of systems were nothing more than a "great babysitting tool." We saw it less as a condemnation of the platform, and more of a helpful tip. Have any of you actually tried your hand at babysitting on a professional level? It's rough, rough stuff. Anything these brave toddlerwatchers can use to get a leg-up on their grim charge is worth its weight in diamond-encrusted gold.

You know what else is a great babysitting tool? The seven gaming-themed webcomics we've arranged in the list below. Make sure you vote for your favorite in the poll posted after the jump!

Maker Help Us All (Virtual Shackles)
Early Bird Special (VG Cats)
Persona 4 Comic Part 3.5 (Hiimdaisy's LiveJournal)
One Man's Trash (Awkward Zombie)
Philips' Box (Brawl in the Family)
In the Chill of Night, At The Scene of the Crime (No Cash Value)
3DS (GG Guys)

Weekly Webcomic Wrapup: April 8, 2011
Maker Help Us All (Virtual Shackles)	137 (12.1%)
Early Bird Special (VG Cats)	446 (39.3%)
Persona 4 Comic Part 3.5 (Hiimdaisy's LiveJournal)	98 (8.6%)
One Man's Trash (Awkward Zombie)	155 (13.7%)
Philips' Box (Brawl in the Family)	185 (16.3%)
In the Chill of Night, At The Scene of the Crime (No Cash Value)	67 (5.9%)
3DS (GG Guys)	46 (4.1%)

Tags: webcomic

Reader Comments (53)

My kids (4 and 1) both have one (DS and DSi) and it does make a great babysitting tool. But my wife and I love the DS/3DS too! Right now I'm catching them all in Pokémon Black.

@GameboyHippo
Your one year old has a DSi???

Am I reading this right?

@GameboyHippo

Know what else is a great babysitting tool? Parental interaction...

@Nolan North

No, the 1 year old has my wife's hand me down DS original. My 4 year old has my hand me down DSi.

@Jonah Stein
Now for all you crazies who don't think I interact with my kids, you're full of it. We play together, read together, watch TV together, learn together, go to church together, and game together. That's a lot more than other parents do. That's why the average parent is clueless about what their kids are watching or doing because they wouldn't be caught dead playing Pokémon or Nintendogs.

My daughter began sounding out words at 3. Thanks to Scribblenauts she began to spell too. My son is learning cause and effect with Nintendogs. These are great educational tools. Do I sometimes give them their DSs and tell them to have at it while I work on grownup matters? Sure, but I do that with books, and television too. And if you think that's wrong, then you don't have kids. You cannot spend 100% of your time with them. Otherwise, how are you going to hold down a job, upkeep the house, or even pay the bills.

@Nolan North

Why is this surprising?

I've been playing games since I was one. True, most of the time I would just watch my older brother play, but sometimes we would play Co-op or he'd try to help me get through 1-1 in SMB.

Name me a better modern day console for a 1 year old to play than a DS.

@(Unverified)
Totally agree. There is no better console than the DS for a 1 year old. None. The DS is the best.

@Alexisonfire
I'm not surprised by a one year old having a DS, but the way it sounded, the one year old had the more advanced system than the 4 year old. Thats why I was surprised, but as stated, the 1 year old has the normal DS and the 4 year old has the DSi.

VG cats. Do I even need to say it?

VG Cats will win. Didn't even have to read it.

@AngryTurds
Oh, and No Cash Value will have the least votes. Didn't even have to read it.

@AngryTurds
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that VG cats is pretty funny, and No Cash Value isn't.

@AngryTurds
Even though NCV had the only one I even remotely grinned at...

Finally, another persona 4 comic. Guy took like a year break, lol.

If only he finished, that was hysterical

@ZexionArmando *she

@Roto13

Doesn't matter, boobs or man-boobs, it's a great comic.

But seriously, no females on the intarwebz.

Wow. A new Hiimdaisy, a new VG Cats and usual undeserved punching bags NCV and BitF. We're going to have so many complainers in the comments this week.

C'mon guys, it's just webcomics.

@Colin

Wait. I think I'm complaining about complaining. That's meta.

@Colin

Just annoying.

VGCats, only because every other comic was pretty lame.

Weak week. But seriously, I can't wait for Tretton to make a fake, forced apology because let's face it, he wasn't making fun of Nintendo he was making fun of gamers. But this time, we won't forget his naked contempt for us, will we? Will we?!?!

Who's us? There was no reason to line up for a 3DS, the guy's right. He also made the only comic that was even remotely amusing to me this week (although in fairness I didn't get a lot of the references), so I'm hardly going to be angry about it.

@Haywire

What are you talking about? I'm not referring to a comic at all, but rather the event that the post references.

Oops. My bad, for some reason I forgot who Jack Tretton was and thought he was the VGCats guy. Also I didn't read the article. I can only apologise.

No Cash Value.

You continue to be the worst thing I have ever witnessed.

@Alexisonfire
Well something had to replace Ctrl+Alt+Del

Now that you've forced me to read it again I'm perplexed by the use of capitalization in the first and third panels

@MarkezJM

You mean when they are referring to the name of the game (Spider-Man: Edge of Time), the name of the book (Let the Good Times Roll: Saying No to Negativity), and the name of a movie-turned-verb (Pod Peopled)?

Or do you simply mean why they did not capitalize the words "the" and "to"?

Because either way, that's both proper grammar when writing out book/movie/game titles.

@Hyperion45

Well "Food" looks capitalized but I agree that I don't think capitalization is the problem here; it's the art writing and joke.

@Special Agent Bob
You know, I used to hate CAD as well, but recently gave it another go. It's really picked up.

@Special Agent Bob

Man, there are like, 12 CAD demi-memes I wish I could use right now.

@Acosta02

There's a joke in NCV?

Awkward zombie, although as much as I've hated VG cats due to promising "comic'll be done by monday" and updating one year later, it was pretty funny.

@Shadow Hog

Jean Luc's Robes in the background? And the obvious mage shopping there?

Weird. I voted for hiimdaisy. I'm pretty sure I called this strip 'that horrifically shitty MSG' comic like a week or so ago. It's not *too* ironic because it's actually horrifically shitty again this week, the only reason I'm voting for it is my roommate is passed out on the couch in the living room the exact same way shooter is in the hiimdaisy strip. It's a really godawfully shitty strip.

Why is BitF also, again this week, horrifically shitty? This guy has really strayed from his wheelhouse. Seriously, keep it short, with cute Nintendo shit, it's the reason anyone liked you in the first place.

@MarkezJM

Well it is an April Fool's comic. tbh I didn't read it through all the way.

tldr some of the comics...

Start featuring one of the 3 usually hilarious Rooster Teeth comics instead!

@Schlecht THIS PLEASE!

I almost vote for No Cash Value if anything for the Austin Powers wanna be being killed in it! Yet I was weak at CDi Link laugh.

I wonder If Joystiq has some kind of deal with that shitty comic.

Voted for BITF just because I like lots of spaghetti.....

Youtube Poop - What is Spaghetti?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHRRhUKaWes&feature=related

Only watch if you have 3 minutes of your life to waste.

Awkward Zombie and NCV were the only ones that even deserve to be up there. The rest of them were not just mediocre, but utter shit. I know PA didn't have any stand outs this week, but all 3 were better than all of these. That shows just how terrible most gaming web comics are.

Wonder if they are going to discuss all the account creation and sockpuppetry by Sony this week.

@kgoo867

Yep, they're certainly playing your song. Your stupid, stupid song.

I gotta say, BitF and EBS was almost a tie for me, EBS seals the deal though as it pretty much solidifies why I didn't buy a 3DS at launch. That, and the revolutionary feature "Mains Tethering", enabling you to play for longer then 3 hours, didn't sucker me into a purchase.

Brawl in the Family by a country mile

@Mr Khan
I can't wait to bomb some dodongos...

@kgoo867

U dumb bro?

@kgoo867

Ah, "butt hurt", the common jab of the bewilderedly ignorant homophobe. It sufficeth me to say that ignorance in your lifestyle et al is simply mirrored by your piss poor taste in leisure activities. Pity that your life's joy be derived from hating an inanimate object that will never return or even acknowledge your tender feelings. Alas, moronic prince, tis better to have hated and bitched on the internet than never to have hated at all.

*END SCENE*

@A Sandwich

A Sandwich, please don't knock on the phrase 'Butt Hurt".

Without it, It would be as if there were no 'red flags' for determining who is a douche-tard.

Wow...I think Brawl in the Family might've been funny this time around. Too many strips in one posts though...*sigh*

My vote goes towards Awkward Zombie since I seriously LOL'd.

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Weekly Webcomic Wrapup is a great babysitting tool

Reader Comments (53)

Posted: Apr 9th 2011 11:16PM GameboyHippo said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 6:56AM Nolan North said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 10:25AM JonahStein said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 1:43PM GameboyHippo said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 2:19PM Alexisonfire said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 7:13PM GameboyHippo said

Posted: Apr 11th 2011 4:12PM Nolan North said

Posted: Apr 9th 2011 11:18PM 564731790 said

Posted: Apr 9th 2011 11:18PM AngryTurds said

Posted: Apr 9th 2011 11:20PM AngryTurds said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 6:24AM Sonictheratherquickhedgehog said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 10:26AM JonahStein said

Posted: Apr 9th 2011 11:19PM ZexionArmando said

Posted: Apr 9th 2011 11:23PM Roto13 said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 1:07AM Apsac D said

Posted: Apr 9th 2011 11:19PM Colin said

Posted: Apr 9th 2011 11:21PM Colin said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 7:48AM Puertoricarious said

Posted: Apr 9th 2011 11:21PM Nintendo Tim said

Posted: Apr 9th 2011 11:34PM A Sandwich said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 9:06PM Haywire said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 11:37PM A Sandwich said

Posted: Apr 11th 2011 6:35PM Haywire said

Posted: Apr 9th 2011 11:38PM Alexisonfire said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 12:17AM Special Agent Bob said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 1:16AM MarkezJM said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 2:40AM Hyperion45 said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 3:56AM Acosta02 said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 6:26AM Sonictheratherquickhedgehog said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 9:08AM Cypher FDP said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 12:36PM Alexisonfire said

Posted: Apr 9th 2011 11:53PM ironneko said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 1:02AM ironneko said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 1:09AM MarkezJM said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 3:56AM Acosta02 said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 1:46AM Nomi said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 1:58AM Schlecht said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 2:16AM Freddie Mercury said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 4:11AM Asakura H said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 7:26AM SamE said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 8:27AM Gnomicidal said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 9:58AM SnatchTease said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 10:48AM A Sandwich said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 11:25AM TheTjalian said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 11:31AM Mr Khan said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 11:44AM 564731790 said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 4:27PM A Sandwich said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 5:09PM A Sandwich said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 5:17PM Nofriendo said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 8:08PM The Only Girl said

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