Remembering What’s Your Tag?

The world of game blogs, and fans of game themed comedy comics lost another outlet earlier this week. What’s Your Tag? was probably not on your radar, but it should have been. Particularly if you enjoyed internet comics in the vein of Penny Arcade, the late Shortpacked, or VGCats. As is the case with most web comics it wasn’t a huge outlet with millions, and millions of readers. But it also had its own identity. The crude art style coupled with some crafty jokes made for a pretty unique feel.

Even if you didn’t agree with an underlying message in a particular strip the effort would still garner a laugh. Sometimes the strip would go for an obvious joke, but even then pull it off without making you roll your eyes. One of the funniest strips made fun of Assassin’s Creed Unity’s buggy launch. Most infamously was a bug that never loaded parts of character models. Leaving disembodied eyes, and tongues floating where heads should have been. Again, while it’s true a lot of people were laughing at this misfire, What’s Your Tag? made a joke that worked.

The strips mainly centered around two characters; Mileson, and Khafka. Each week they would find themselves in a gaming themed situation, leading to a punchline. On paper that might sound like Penny Arcade clone #5,689,769,023. But the humor was different. They may have also been making gags centered around gaming. But reading What’s Your Tag? felt a bit more like reading the Sunday comics from the paper twenty years ago. It had the word play of The Lockhorns, the sarcasm of Garfield, and the dryness of The Wizard Of Id. All of this topped with a dab of the silliness you’d find in a 15 minute Adult Swim short.

But beyond the comics, the site would publish game reviews. Most of them well written, with an honest look at the pros, and cons of the game in question. They focused most of their reviews on console releases, but there was the occasional PC release. Unlike the strips, the reviews didn’t evoke a lot of comedy the way one might expect from some video content producers. These were delivered in a traditional sense.

The staff will all go on to do other things. Founder Miles Dompier has focused on a new venture called Life is garbage, where he produces videos centered around silly things. Silly things, and Mountain Dew. You can’t discount the Mountain Dew. Bradley Keene has been keeping his own reviews going over at Cheap Boss Attack. He’s also gotten a few collaborations going with The Buttonsmashers. There haven’t been major announcements from the other members of the site, but that doesn’t mean they won’t go on to do great things.

What’s Your Tag? will surely be missed. If you followed it, hopefully you’ll follow these talented people in their new endeavors. If you haven’t, but now your interest has been piqued, check it out while the site is still up.