2009 is almost upon us, and on a whim, I realized Winter-Een-Mas would be coming in less than two months.

For those of you who don't know, Winter-Een-Mas is a fictional (Meaning no time off from work) holiday entirely devoted to gaming, created by Tim Buckly for his webcomic, Ctrl-Alt-Del. Even though it is fictional, I was curious to see if members of the Escapist were planning on doing anything special to commemorate the event.

Winter-Een-Mas takes place on the last week of January, 25th-31st. Buckly's site doesn't have much on the topic yet, but most likely will in the coming months.

And please, try to keep the Buckly flaming down to a minimum. I'm not trying to incite a flame war, and I'm not a troll. I just want people's honest opinion, and if you disagreee with them, then calm down, pop a pill of ritalin and think before you type.

For more information about the Winter-Een-Mas holiday, go to: http://www.wintereenmas.com/
Or: http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/archives.php?b=c Search for Winter.

P.S: If this does not belong in the gaming section, I will gladly take it down.

I cannot restrain my extreme hatred of Buckley's no talent hackiness and his insufferable popularity.

Sorry.

OOOh, perhaps not the best place to post. Yahtzee/Buckley's fights are legendary.

Beeeeewwwwwaaaaarrreeeeeeeee

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/108-Webcomics

Flaming is when you attack someone needlessly.

What is sure to follow in some of the later posts of this thread, as in the stomping flat of buckleys head, is not flaming.

And with that, i think i had best be leaving. A gaming holiday is not what we need, we need to break away from a sub-culture status rather than isolate ourselves in the holidays of a man who thinks a miscarriage holds entertainment value.

A friend of mine is pretty into it and usually arranges an X-box 360 LAN, so I guess I'll be celebrating in some way ^^

In all seriousness, giving Gaming a holiday makes it feel all weird and cultish. The fact that Buckley seems to take it seriously is worrying.

Now "Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day" on the otherhand is some legitimate awesome.

A few years ago, i found that to be a neat idea.

Then i realized i'm pretty much gaming for at least 300 days a year, and didn't really see the need to celebrate it

In all seriousness, giving Gaming a holiday makes it feel all weird and cultish. The fact that Buckley seems to take it seriously is worrying.

Now "Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day" on the otherhand is some legitimate awesome.

Oh yeah, and that (although i never got an act together for that very special day)

what is with the hate of Ctrl-Alt-Del? its a web comic, if you dont like it, then dont read it.

Buckley has been stealing (and snorting/injecting) Suda51's liquid pretentiousness.

On topic, i have created my own religion based on the worship of the Lord of Pwn. We Pwnists celebrate the coming of the LoP on December 25th, an occasion known to antiquity as "Decemberween" which is 55 days after Halloween, which is when there is an awesome LAN party. Decemberween was first taught to us by a saint known as Saint Homestar The Runner.

Bright_Raven:
what is with the hate of Ctrl-Alt-Del? its a web comic, if you dont like it, then dont read it.

We don't, but for some reason Tim Buckley's popularity grows...

Also he has a reputation for trying to silence his critics.

But mostly it's because Yahtzee and John Solomon tell me it's okay.

It's really funny how everyone seems to get a boner off of bashing CAD, and telling us all how much more awesome Penny Arcade is, yet Penny Arcade is no better.

I doubt I'll be celebrating Winter-een-mass this year; I play games too much as it is.

If it's not christmas or talk like a pirate day, I'm not too bothered.
And what Richard Groovy Pants said.

If you post a comedy answer I'll pick that if my views are not sufficiently covered. Not that being gay is a bad thing. Just so you know.

Wargamer:
It's really funny how everyone seems to get a boner off of bashing CAD, and telling us all how much more awesome Penny Arcade is, yet Penny Arcade is no better.

I doubt I'll be celebrating Winter-een-mass this year; I play games too much as it is.

Penny Arcade is better for three reasons...

Twisp And Catsby
Paint the Line
The Rainslick Precipice of Darkness

Maybe it's more of a taste thing but Gabe's art and Tycho's writing are constantly evolving whereas Buckley has remained roughly the same for the past couple of years. As well Buckley just has no idea how to pace a joke.

Though mostly it's his attitude that makes me dislike him.

PedroSteckecilo:

Bright_Raven:
what is with the hate of Ctrl-Alt-Del? its a web comic, if you dont like it, then dont read it.

We don't, but for some reason Tim Buckley's popularity grows...

Also he has a reputation for trying to silence his critics.

But mostly it's because Yahtzee and John Solomon tell me it's okay.

weeeeeeellllll... mr Yatzee('s people at the escapist) attempted to sue PurePwnage after they parodied him with "Nhatzee" one episode. and he never apologised. i think he should put a video apology up. i wonder what he thinks of purepwnage.

Richard Groovy Pants:

Wargamer:
It's really funny how everyone seems to get a boner off of bashing CAD, and telling us all how much more awesome Penny Arcade is, yet Penny Arcade is no better.

I doubt I'll be celebrating Winter-een-mass this year; I play games too much as it is.

Usually Penny Arcade isn't in the array of webcomics I read (VG cats, Explosm) but at least I can see the difference between them, for example, the characters in Penny Arcade actually have expressions on their faces, unlike Ctrl+Alt+Del were everyone seems to have suffered from a stroke.

Penny Arcade also does something better than Ctrl+Alt+Del. They don't give up the joke until the last panel. If you give the joke in the first fucking panel like CAD is known to, then there's no sense in hanging around now is there?

Yes. B^U needs to learn to alter his style of drawing.

And how to cut back on teh frakking DIALOGUE!!!! it's more white and black bubbles than anything else!

And yes, PedroSteckecilo, i agree. he does need to learn how to pace a joke.

Will not be celebrating this.. "holiday", partly because it was started by Buckley (and I don't wanna give that credit), but mostly because it's just STUPID.

You take a holiday from work. You take a holiday for a significant historical event.

You do NOT take a holiday for your hobby. It's stupid. It's dumb.

And living in Australia, it's also not accurate, as we're in Summer currently.

As if I needed an excuse to game after Christmas.

Side note, I never understood why every seems to hate CAD. Sour grapes, perhaps?

Bright_Raven:

weeeeeeellllll... mr Yatzee('s people at the escapist) attempted to sue PurePwnage after they parodied him with "Nhatzee" one episode. and he never apologised. i think he should put a video apology up. i wonder what he thinks of purepwnage.

More like Poor Pwnage... because they were being sued for no reason. Still, unless Yahtzee initiated the suit himself why should he need to apologize?

Though Nhatzee clearly falls under Parody and Fair Use laws.

RAKtheUndead:
http://badwebcomics.blogspot.com/2007/06/ctrlaltdel.html

This is why certain people hate CAD. Including myself.

Yeah...John Solomon makes Yahtzee look nice.

I read it from time to time in the hopes that I catch something actually funny, which happens rarely. But as far as that main subject goes, I guess you could say I was planing something, but it is not based on the made up holiday.

Much to my shame, I sued to read CAD, until I realized that Ethan was a Gary Stu of epic proprotions.

Funnily enough, it was the wintereenmas storylines that really started bringing that to the fore.

blood77:
I read it from time to time in the hopes that I catch something actually funny, which happens rarely. But as far as that main subject goes, I guess you could say I was planing something, but it is not based on the made up holiday.

Hmm, a couple of the random gaming related ones recently were ok (with the exception of this one: http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20081114 Which sums up everything that is wrong with his comics; overly wordy, with the joke in the first panel, making the rest pointless.) Unfortunately he's now gone back to his idiots in space thing, done without any of the humour that makes a storyline based comic like LFG amusing.
And let's not get started on the whole miscarriage/Lilah-Ethan thing.

I do find chef Brian quite amusing for his sheer, unadulterated randomness though

whyarecarrots:

blood77:
I read it from time to time in the hopes that I catch something actually funny, which happens rarely. But as far as that main subject goes, I guess you could say I was planing something, but it is not based on the made up holiday.

Hmm, a couple of the random gaming related ones recently were ok (with the exception of this one: http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20081114 Which sums up everything that is wrong with his comics; overly wordy, with the joke in the first panel, making the rest pointless.) Unfortunately he's now gone back to his idiots in space thing, done without any of the humour that makes a storyline based comic like LFG amusing.
And let's not get started on the whole miscarriage/Lilah-Ethan thing.

I do find chef Brian quite amusing for his sheer, unadulterated randomness though

Yeah all the Chef Brian one are gold, laugh all the time. But other then that there are only a few really good ones and the rest are just ok. Same goes for some other web comics.

I'll say this much about Buckley: Thumbscrews.

As for the holiday? I never pass up an excuse to play excessive amounts of videogames.

I don't really like the webcomic anymore, but what he started was a good thing. We gamers deserve a holiday to come together and celebrate our hobby. My friends and I have celebrated Winter-een-mas every year since high school, and I doubt we'll stop anytime soon.

I would say it was a good idea if it hadn't been started by Buckley. Or if it actually had an effect on anything, since I game most of the time for most of the year anyway...

I was going to say something derogative about Tim Buckley, but it seems you all took care of that for me. Go Team!

I am not in the requisite state of perminant inebriation that celebrating fake holidays requires. Sorry.

Richard Groovy Pants:

...
Penny Arcade also does something better than Ctrl+Alt+Del. They don't give up the joke until the last panel. If you give the joke in the first fucking panel like CAD is known to, then there's no sense in hanging around now is there?

You know, I've seen many people reference this, and I think it's because of Yahtzee's fully ramblomatic post. Buckley doesn't usually give the joke away early (at least from the comics I've read). His main problem seems to be trying to fit jokes that would be much better executed in either less or more panels into 4. For example, there was one a friend sent me where skinny guy was trying to get revenge on someone, and found out his weakness was arrogance. He responds. 'so he likes to smell nice, does he?' It was rather amusing, but would have been more so if the previous three panels were not pointless filler. Also, Buckley may or may not be an asshole, but I don't think that should factor into considerations of his work (not that I'm saying his work is good, but if you think it is poor, you should have a better reason than 'he's a jerk') If I only enjoyed things made by people I like, I wouldn't be able to listen to a majority of the rock or jazz that I do.

Long story short: The original poster was apparently confused as to the total scope of the world that one web comic is capable of impacting, leaving this to be less a "who is celebrating this gaming holiday" thread and more of a "who is a CtrlAltDel fan" thread.

As for me, I'm indifferent towards CtrlAltDel. It's better than the average web comic, and the man is not completely without talent, but neither is John Elway and I'm not going to run around rubbing his jockstrap in the face of every person I see who may or may not have heard of American football.