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'''''[http://www.pvponline.com/ PvP]''''' is a gaming webcomic started in 1998 by cartoonist Scott Kurtz. It takes place around the office of a small magazine production company that produces the gaming magazine "PvP", focusing mostly on the office antics of a straightlaced boss, his snobby best friend, their bratty sixteen year old intern, a naive, careless troll, and two frat boys. Over time, the cast gained a female counterpart to the intern, a love interest for the snob in the form of a feminist gamer, and some other characters. It originally started as a pastiche [[Affectionate Parody]] of video games and geek culture in general, moving away from that towards just being a slice of life comedy about its characters and an [[Affectionate Parody]] of every 80s sitcom ever made.
''Not to be confused with the term [[Player Versus Player]]. Or the common abbreviation for [[Porn Without Plot]], for that matter.''
 
The strip had a [[Time Skip]] in May 2020.
''[http://www.pvponline.com/ PvP]'' is a gaming webcomic started in 1998 by cartoonist Scott Kurtz. It takes place around the office of a small magazine production company that produces the gaming magazine "PvP", focusing mostly on the office antics of a straightlaced boss, his snobby best friend, their bratty sixteen year old intern, a naive, careless troll, and two frat boys. Over time, the cast gained a female counterpart to the intern, a love interest for the snob in the form of a feminist gamer, and some other characters. It originally started as a pastiche [[Affectionate Parody]] of video games and geek culture in general, moving away from that towards just being a slice of life comedy about its characters and an [[Affectionate Parody]] of every 80s sitcom ever made.
 
It went on hiatus in February 2022, while Scott Kurtz concentrated on paying work, until a new strip was posted in September 2022.
 
''Not to be confused with the term [[Player Versus Player]]. Or the common abbreviation for [[Porn Without Plot]], for that matter.''
 
{{tropelist}}
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* [[Artifact Title]] - When was the last time the magazine itself meant anything?
** Lampshaded in a guest strip, where the characters find themselves looking at the magazine for the first time.
* [[Art Evolution]] - compare [https://web.archive.org/web/20131106200254/http://www.pvponline.com/comic/1998/05/04/mon-may-04 the first strip] with [https://web.archive.org/web/20110721160216/http://www.pvponline.com/2010/05/31/the-king-and-aiiieeee/ this more recent one], or again [https://web.archive.org/web/20120116060138/http://www.pvponline.com/2011/05/03/evening-wear/ this one].
* [[Art Shift]] - Kurtz did a Lolbat arc in the style of noir comics from [[The Thirties]].
* [[Atomic F-Bomb]] - In the ''[[Watchmen]]'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20131108132844/http://www.pvponline.com/2009/03/02/ombudsmen spoof].
* [[Author Avatar]] - Scratch is actually Kurtz's cat. As of Sept 16th, 2008, he can talk, has cool goggles, and a ray gun.
** Also, there is a dog in the strip, which was, and originally appeared as, Kurtz's dog. He later became Cole's. When the dog died in real life, the comic dog continued to appear.
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** Nowadays, Kurtz frequently uses Skull to reflect himself, but in a much less indirect manner. (His birthday reflected Scott's, etc.)
** Lolbat villain the Mad Hater seems to resemble a younger Kurtz in appearance, but in personality seems based on those parts of the fanbase who dislike the Lolbat interludes.
* [[Betty, Veronica and Archie Switcheroo]]: Parodied during an convention arc. Francis accompanies Marcie to a convention to cover it for the magazine. An older cosplayer named Neko flirts with him. Marcie as the Betty naturally gets jealous, while Francis due to being a [[Hormone-Addled Teenager]] doesn't know how to respond. The thing is that Neko is just flirting. Marcie eventually loses her temper and summons gamer powers to attack her. Francis is horrified, but Neko retaliates by turning into a mecha. Security has to break them up and kicks all the teens out. Marcie apologizes to Francis afterward because she was the instigator and ruined their assignment.
* [[Bi the Way]]: [https://web.archive.org/web/20130716181257/http://www.pvponline.com/2011/04/26/turn-of-the-bookworm/ Miranda, apparently]. Or maybe she's not, and [[Attention Whore|just likes attention]]. Or is just messing with her sisters.
* [[Blind Without'Em]] - In a somewhat unusual example, Brent, because [[Fridge Brilliance|he wears sunglasses so often that his eyes can't handle the sunlight.]]
* [[Brick Joke]]: In [https://web.archive.org/web/20130630141744/http://www.pvponline.com/2000/01/24/mon-jan-24/ this] [[PvP]] strip we get a punchline that looks like a throwaway line. Then, [https://web.archive.org/web/20110827093908/http://www.pvponline.com/2008/05/23/falling-down/ eight] [https://web.archive.org/web/20110916103945/http://www.pvponline.com/2008/05/26/change/ years] later...
* [[The Butler Did It]] - Not murder-related, but {{spoiler|Butler is the LOLBAT.}}
* [[But We Used a Condom]] - Jade's pregnancy scare
* [[Came Back Wrong]]: One of the party during the "Mines of Madness" [[DnDungeons & Dragons|D&D]] arc. {{spoiler|He thinks it's awesome.}}
* [[Captain Ersatz]] - Scratch Fury and the "[https://web.archive.org/web/20110721163124/http://www.pvponline.com/2010/01/04/my-buddy-and-me/ Cabbage Scratch Kid]" do a subverted riff on ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]''. The subversion is that the cat is real and the boy is a doll. Hungry Cat might be a riff on Moe and/or Susie Derkins.
* [[Cerebus Syndrome]] - The strip toys with this to some extent. It never goes full-over into drama, but for most of its run now it's alternated between Gag Per Day format, [[Dramedy]], and [[Rule of Drama|downright serious drama]]. Some people felt the strip fell full into [[Cerebus Syndrome]] during the Brent/Jade wedding arc, which happened to overlap with a surprisingly serious turn for Skull, Cole's marriage falling apart, and a story about Robbie and Jase falling out. Of course, the strip quickly went back to comedic arcs after a few months, just as it always had done before.
* [[Cheated Angle]] - Before Brent revealed his face (well, [[Negative Continuity|again]]), he would always be drawn so that you could never see his eyes behind his sunglasses. Now, when seen from the side, [[Art Evolution|you can clearly see his eyes]].
** Also Jase's eyes were always covered by his hat until he started dating Robbie's gardener and temporarily stopped wearing it. He got his hat back but now his eyes are clearly visible (and he's lost a lot of weight).
* [[Collectible Cloney Babies]]: We see some collectible trends that come and sweep the cast:
** Brett treats the new iPhone as this, wanting to be the first person in the area to get one. To accomplish this goal, he gets a job at the local Apple store in the hopes that employees get first dibs. It goes horribly wrong when he tries to quit at the premiere to get the first spot in line, and he ends up hospitalized.
* [[Colorful Theme Naming]] - Brent Sienna is a pun off of burnt sienna. Note that he's also pretty [[Deadpan Snarker|dry]]...
** And his wife is named "Jade".
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* [[Deadpan Snarker]] - Brent and Jade
** Also, Francis, but not fulltime.
* [[Deal with the Devil]] - [https://web.archive.org/web/20110727144742/http://www.pvponline.com/2010/07/05/brent-and-the-devil-pt-1/ One soul for a cup of coffee.] Then again 1) Brent didn't really think the barista was the Devil, and 2) it was a really good cup of coffee. The Devil(?), rather than taking Brent to Hell as is the usual way these deals turn out, uses his ownership of Brent's soul to make him his errand boy.
** {{spoiler|Also, [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot|he's not really the devil]]. He's a computer security expert, and he's using the terror and humiliation he's engendering by pretending to be the devil to soften up Brent and Cole to the notion of hiring him to redo their security.}}
* [[Deconstruction]]: Ladies and Gentlemen, [https://web.archive.org/web/20110721202019/http://www.pvponline.com/2009/12/07/high-pitched-pitch/ Gordy and the Prarie Dogs] "[[Alvin and The Chipmunks|Hula Hoops!]]".
* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: The brewing company arc. In real life making beer on that scale is a months-long process that requires careful monitoring at every stage of the game; Robbie should have had ample warning at how his beer was going to turn out way before brewing was finished.
* [[The Ditz]]: Skull.
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* [[The Faceless]] - Jase's girlfriend, Bonnie
* [[Fantastic Racism]]: Skull occasionally expresses some disdain over the usual portrayal of trolls.
** And apparently [https://web.archive.org/web/20110819212723/http://www.pvponline.com/2004/11/14/sun-nov-14/ dark elves are bastards].
** Skull has actually gone so far as to go on strike and protest against the unfair treatment of fantasy creatures.
** Skull and his dwarven (as in an actual fantasy dwarf) girlfriend Valerie have their first real fight as a couple after Valerie just assumed that Skull would try to eat her pet goat.
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** Also how Jade and Brent started dating. Francis played the GIRL for Brent and out of pity, Jade tried to bring Brent down gracefully.
* [[Girl-On-Girl Is Hot]] - Brent initially thinks Miranda is there to fulfill his fantasy of watching Jade get it on with another girl.
* [[Gratuitous German]] - [https://web.archive.org/web/20110721201438/http://www.pvponline.com/2009/09/28/schaden-fraud/ Here]. Made even more hilarious by the comic notes.
* [[Hello, Nurse!]] - [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20120213024459/http://www.pvponline.com/2012/01/05/hello-nurse/ here].
* [[Hollywood Nerd]]: To a certain extent, Brent is this. He pretends he's not a nerd, but his interests are very nerd-oriented. Furthermore, as in this trope, he's good-looking and socially adept (in other words, "normal"). The twist is that Brent is the ''only'' [[Hollywood Nerd]] in the main cast (except maybe Max Powers and Jade), since Francis and Cole are closer to popular perceptions of nerdom.
* [[I Did What I Had to Do]] - {{spoiler|Duck fires Cole}} and justifies it by claiming that {{spoiler|Cole is the reason the company is in such dire straits now. [[Jerkass Has a Point|Which is at least partially true]], since Cole did hide the company's floundering finances instead of seeking help earlier.}}
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* [[Intoxication Ensues]]- Skull gets stoned on a bad orange julius and takes a job as a [[Mall Santa]] while high.
* [[The Jeeves]] - Butler (Seriously, that's his name)
* [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]] - Brent. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in [https://web.archive.org/web/20110915042506/http://www.pvponline.com/2010/04/07/family-matters-2/ this strip.]
* [[Juggling Loaded Guns|Juggling Loaded Rayguns]] - [https://web.archive.org/web/20110717220209/http://www.pvponline.com/2008/09/15/count-of-two/ 2008/09/15], when Scratch tries to threaten someone with his [[Shur Fine Guns|ray gun]].
* [[Klatchian Coffee]] - Francis' twitch gamer 'power drink'.
** Except all it did was make him hallucinate and vomit uncontrollably. A bit too powerful
* [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall]]: [https://web.archive.org/web/20110915042506/http://www.pvponline.com/2010/04/07/family-matters-2/ This strip] starts out as this, but moves on to straight-up [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|breaking it.]]
* [[Level Up At Intimacy 5]] - Francis and Marcy. Literally. Came free with complimentary [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshading]].
** And [https://web.archive.org/web/20120109070836/http://www.pvponline.com/2011/01/13/all-grown-1up/ it happened again], only through [[The Power of Friendship]].
* [[LOL Speak]] - Lolbat and Retweet, nacht.
* [[Mall Santa]] - Skull becomes one while stoned on a bad orange julius.
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* [[Not-So-Imaginary Friend]] - Skull's super-intelligent cat.
** Inverted with Skull. Everyone in the comic can see Skull with the exception of Max Powers.
*** [https://web.archive.org/web/20110721190128/http://www.pvponline.com/2010/04/09/deja-view/ Not anymore.]
* [[Oblivious Admirer]] - Ricky "Turtle" Tuttle is this to Francis.
* [[Paintball Episode]] - a paintball storyline gets most of the rules right, then turns around and intentionally gets them wrong.
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** Lampshaded in a guest strip:
{{quote|'''Brent:''' You know, this is the first time I've actually seen our magazine.}}
** Lampshaded again [https://web.archive.org/web/20120102112941/http://www.pvponline.com/2011/03/30/glass-act/ here]:
{{quote|'''Marcie:''' Don't you have work to do?
'''Francis:''' Probably. My job description has never been very clear. }}
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Robbie: I own a couple of adult entertainment companies. They send me one of everything. }}
** At which point Francis starts making Smut Angels.
* [[Punch Clock Villain]] - [https://web.archive.org/web/20140914231741/http://pvponline.com/comic/2005/11/01/tue-nov-01 The Panda].
* [[Put on a Bus]] - Marcy went to college in one story arc, and [[The Bus Came Back|later returned]].
** Robbie and Jase. Robbie still shows up on occasion, but Jase is basically gone.
* [[Product Placement]] - Not necessarily in the comic itself, but several of the site designs have been lousy with it, almost to the point that clicking anywhere outside the comic accidentally would take you to a sponsor site.
** As of the end of July 2011, [[PvP]] is now sponsored by [[Magic: The Gathering]] (at least for the next quarter). Kurtz explains why at https://web.archive.org/web/20120127052259/http://www.pvponline.com/2011/07/22/oh-oh-its-magic/
* [[Proud to Be a Geek]] - The whole cast, with the exception of Jade. Even she might just be a different style of geek..
** Brent, actually is an aversion, and while he admits to "interests that coincide with nerdity" he denies being an actual nerd, which Francis (a straight example of this trope) calls him out on it. He's an avowed Apple geek who will buy ''any'' product they make, a D&D player, a gamer, he plays ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' with his wife (who's in many ways geekier than him), quotes movies constantly, has declared [[Joss Whedon]] his master, almost dropped out of college because he was hooked on Sega games, and consistently gets into arguments about genre fiction or gaming with Francis and Cole. [[Blatant Lies|But he's not a nerd. Definitely not a nerd.]]
* [[Protagonist-Centered Morality]] - Particularly obvious with the treatment of Max Powers. He is, by all appearances, a friendly guy who's happy to help, whose worst crimes are being successful and pulling bad jokes [https://web.archive.org/web/20140723024710/http://www.websnark.com/archives/2004/10/because_i_keep.html no worse than the protagonists would pull]. Yet every time he stopped by the PvP office he was received like he was some sort of colossal dick dead set on destroying everything the staff held dear, for no discernible reason. This was confronted and deconstructed during the [https://web.archive.org/web/20130324053605/http://www.pvponline.com/2008/11/19/excuses-excuses/ Thanksgiving 2008 arc].
** The trope is now moot, as Max is now [https://web.archive.org/web/20110915110526/http://www.pvponline.com/2010/04/06/now-hire-zing/ an accepted member of the staff.]
* [[Running Gag]]: Several;
** The Giant Panda savaging Brent.
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** Cole and Brent racing to an appointment by blasting off in the General Lee from ''The Dukes of Hazzard'' (after wishing for it from a genie)
* [[Seventies Hair]] - Bulldog and Cooch. [[LOL Speak|They haz it]].
* [[Sex as Rite-Ofof-Passage]] - Combined with a [[Plot-Relevant Age-Up]] with Francis and Marcy.
{{quote|"LEVEL UP! You gain: +3 Years Maturity!....Community College Courses!}}
* [[Shout-Out]]: There's one to ''[[Adventure Time]]'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20131106210421/http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2012/01/09/coming-up-for-air/ here.]
* [[Sitcom Arch Nemesis]] -: Max Powers.
** In [[Real Life]], Gabe and Tycho from ''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]'', their good-natured cruelty to each other popping up in a strip every once in a while. Scott's foreword to one of their print collections ended with "Fuck them, and fuck you for buying this book and not PVP," and Gabe and Tycho refer to Scott as "Steve Kuntz" on the regular. Now that Scott is living in Seattle and working in the Penny Arcade offices, one only assumes that the hijinks will continue.
*** Also, the old [[WoW]] guilds (Panda Attack for PVP, the Knights of Arcadia for Penny Arcade) were pretty much an online, massively-multiplayer extension of the real-life relationship between the two. [[Ctrl+Alt+Del|B^Uckley]] tried to get in on it with his own guild, but when Kurtz, Krahulik, and Holkins would have none of it, he ended things on a predictable note (iei.e. massive hostility for all).
* [[Skyward Scream]]{{context}}
* [[So My Kids Can Watch|So My Dad Can Watch]] -: [[Word of God]] says that Scott keeps it clean-ish for the sake of his father.
* [[Straight Man]] -: Cole
* [[Sunglasses Atat Night]] -: Brent: He- he wore them under his bandages when he was blinded, and when he took them off, he was [[Blind Without'Em]].
* [[Superhero]] -: Kurtz's earlier character Captain Amazing made an early appearance and earned a spinoff. More recently, we've seen Jingle Force Five (a Christmas-themed parody of the original ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' lineup) and The Lolbat, a combination of [[Batman]] and the internet lolcat phenomena, whose [[Rogues Gallery]] is made up of [[Grammar Nazi|Grammar Nazis]].s
** Captain Amazing also has a sidekick named [[Twitter|ReTweet]], who he [https://web.archive.org/web/20110717215205/http://www.pvponline.com/2010/03/05/tweet-titan/ did not want] at first, but has since reluctantly accepted as his sidekick, and has also obtained two allies, the Double Rainbow.
** He also has a sidekick named [[Twitter|ReTweet]].
* [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]]: After the [[Time Skip]], Francis [https://web.archive.org/web/20200806201551/http://pvponline.com/comic/2020-05-27 offers one]:
*** True, but he [http://www.pvponline.com/2010/03/05/tweet-titan/ does not want].
{{quote|'''Francis''': S.C.R.A.T.C.H. is our Smart Content Routing Algorithm Technology Compression Hub, which is a real thing and not [[Fun with Acronyms|just a bunch of words I forced to fit into an acronym]].}}
*** He's reluctantly accepted [[Re Tweet]] as his sidekick, and has also obtained two allies, the Double Rainbow.
* [[Take That]] -: Kurtz inserts plenty of these, aimed at a wide range of targets.
** Including the "MY PARENTS ARE DEAAAAAAD" take on Batman delivered by [[Superman|everyone's favorite dick]].
* [[Thanks for the Mammary]] -: Francis honks Jade's boob when he thinks that he's in the future and therefore his actions have no consequences ([[It Makes Sense in Context]]). This leads to Jade leaving PvP to start her her own magazine.
** Part of the reason she returns to PvP is because one of her (female) coworkers in the new magazine does the <big>exact same thing</big>.
* [[Time Skip]]: Katie goes from "preschooler" to "starting work" in May 2020. Francis has also aged up - as of late-May 2020, we haven't yet seen anyone else.
* [[Tribute to Fido]]: Kirby, Cole's basset hound, is named after (and modeled on) Scott Kurtz's own basset hound Kirby.
* [[Two Gamers on a Couch]] -: Robbie and Jase were very nearly a parody of this as a B side story. At one point they got locked in their playing room for a month and didn't even notice.
** Also later the couch broke and they had a funeral pyre for it.
{{quote|Robbie "Okay everyone stand back. This thing absorbed decades worth of farts and it's going to go up like a roman candle."}}
* [[Versus Title]]
* [[What the Hell, Hero?]] -: Done twice in a row. {{spoiler|Max breaks into Cole's office and figures out [[PvP]] is going under and Cole calls him out on it and promptly fires him... But then Brent, after finding out Max is indeed right and that Cole had been ignoring Max, gives Cole an epic slap to the face.}}
* [[Younger Than They Look]] -: Cole, Brent, Robbie and Jase were college roommates, which suggests they're around the same age. Cole states in one early strip that he's ''about to turn 30''. He looks a solid 15 years older than Brent.
* [[Your Mom]] -: [https://web.archive.org/web/20120127054550/http://www.pvponline.com/2009/06/16/old-the-phone/ Expertly delivered by Francis.]
* [[Zany Scheme]] -: Referred to as "Wacky Adventure". On one occasion Cole actually vetoed a perfectly good plan to discover the identity of Jade's online romance on the grounds that it wasn't interestingly wacky enough.
 
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[[Category:Web Comicss Long Runners{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:ShortWeb TitlesComics]]
[[Category:Web Comics of the 1990s]]
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[[Category:Web Comics of the 2010s]]
[[Category:Web Comics of the 2020s]]
[[Category:Gaming Webcomics]]
[[Category:Webcomics Long Runners]]
[[Category:PvP]]
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