The webcomic follows the events at a fictional video game magazine company, featuring many running gags and references with a focus on nerd culture.

[5] On 2022-02-22, Kurtz announced on his blog that he was temporarily dialing back his daily work on PvP to concentrate on an upcoming book series based on Table |Titans.

1UP.com described it as one of the first game-based comics, but not the original, saying, "neither Scott Kurtz's PvP nor Jerry Holkins and Michael Krahulik's Penny Arcade were the first gaming-themed webcomic on the Internet.

It features the characters Andrew, Alan, and Valerie (who have appeared in PvP comics), and chronicles their adventures while playing Dungeons & Dragons.

Kurtz collaborated with Wizards of the Coast as a marketing partnership to run Table Titans, and Steve Hamaker was brought on to color some of the comics.

[# 4] However, when Cole came into a large sum of money from the World Wildlife Fund to house the giant panda that lives in the PvP offices (which attacks Brent throughout the series), he bought out Max's side of the partnership.

[# 7] Creative director of the magazine, Brent's name was originally inspired by the Crayola crayon color "Burnt Sienna."

[# 15] Brent married his longtime girlfriend and co-worker Jade in a lavish ceremony marking the strip's ten-year anniversary.

[# 16] The two began dating after Jade found out that Francis was pretending to be a woman named "Sasha" while chatting online with Brent.

Brent proposed at San Diego Comic-Con after a convoluted scheme whereby some stormtroopers "kidnapped" Jade and had her dress up as Princess Leia.

She temporarily left PvP after Francis grabbed her breast, opening her own pro-woman gaming magazine called "Valkyrie".

She flew out to Las Vegas to meet Xavier in person, but began to feel reluctance and guilt returning to the place where she and Brent broke up.

Technical support for the office (and also known to write the occasional review), Francis is immature, easily excitable and always eager to be on the cutting edge of fads and technology.

He rarely shows interest in anything besides computers or video games, though it has been stated that he owns a prominent collection of pony figurines.

Both of these times, Francis has thought the thing it was doing was more impressive building and coding, which allowed both robots to have some semblance of artificial intelligence.

[# 25] Due to his consummation of his relationship with Marcy as "predicted" in a previous comic[# 26] strip, in 2008, he "leveled up", aging three years and developing chin scruff.

[# 32] Skull debuted in another of Kurtz's web cartoons called Tales by Tavernlight, which focused on the world of Ultima Online.

He has actually threatened to eat Francis,[# 34] and doesn't always take Brent's abuse[# 35]—not to mention his epic battle with the crazed Emperor Blue.

His first assignment was a boy named Kevin with a somewhat sadistic streak, who lived near U.S. Route 422 in western Pennsylvania,[# 37] at least until his death due to a reckless wagon ride after four days (reader time) with Skull.

Eric Burns of the webcomic review site Websnark wrote an analysis of Max suggesting that he is actually "the good guy" of PVP.

After a year's absence from the strip, during which he drove cross-country on a motorcycle doing good deeds, Max returned to the PvP offices to ask Cole for a job.

The new Max, after realizing the company was doomed in a few months, broke into Cole's office and went over the financial statements to confirm his fears.

Francis attempted to give it to Brent to make the latter feel some Christmas spirit, but the ploy failed and Skull decided to take the cat in.

It is worth noting that while Scratch is still a genius – after Skull's departure, he was seen in the basement, working on a machine of some sort with a welding torch – he appears to be unable to communicate to the other members of the magazine.

He fights members of the Algonquin hate table, made up of internet supervillains like The Savage Critic, The Scrabbler, and the Mad Hater.

[p 5] The strip celebrated its 10th anniversary on Sunday, May 4, 2008 with the wedding of two of PvP's main characters, Brent Sienna and Jade Fontaine.

[p 6] Previously, Dork Storm Press printed 6 issues of original content as well as a trade paperback of online strips.

[12] In 2018, Kurtz launched a Kickstarter campaign to publish digital and physical media of PVP Online as a 20th Anniversary Collection printing of the previous 20 years of the comic.

Kurtz announced on November 27, 2006 that from February 2007, a traditionally animated cartoon series would be available over the internet via a subscription service, produced in conjunction with Blind Ferret Entertainment.

The announcement of the series was marked with some interest on video game forums due to Kurtz's previous criticism of Tim Buckley when he announced CAD Premium, an animated series based on his own web comic, particularly when both Buckley and Kurtz used the same animation studio for their respective ventures.