So, it would appear that Penny Arcade can't be bothered to revive their DLC podcast that their fans seem to desire without a kickstarter drive? What a shake down... It wasn't even edited, just recording as they went through the process of making a comic. How ridiculous!

Seems smart to me, they only asked for $10 so it's basically up to the fans to throw in whatever they want at it, it sounds like they were basically going to it anyway but this'll just make things easier (in terms of devoting time to it) and perhaps increase the quality in some minor ways.

I don't really see the point in complaining about specific kickstarter projects in this way, if you don't think it's worth your money don't donate.

Then don't give them money if you don't want. This isn't complicated: See something on Kickstarter that you want to support? Toss a few bucks their way. See something you don't care for? Move on with your life.

I think it's HILARIOUS that people are saying "what a shake down" about an entirely optional donation for a Kickstarter with a laughably low goal.

I can't tell if the OP is being sarcastic or not. This is just another reason we need a dedicated sarcasm font.

No interest in that, but I would pay for a weekly/bi-weekly video show where they play D&D with or without Chris Perkins. The one a year they do at the expo is never enough!

You make it sound they owe you a podcast. They owe fans nothing unless you buy something from them and then they only owe them the product.

Kickstarter is a place for you to help fund things you want, if you don't want it don't fund it.

The worst part is the $10 goal, that's like a slap in the face. " hey we know you idiots will pay"

oh my god, 10 bucks?! dasa ma life saveings

You aren't using the word "shakedown" correctly.

What? Ten bucks?! That's like two five-dollar foot longs. How dare they!

Don't like it, don't eat.

Why do they need money for a podcast?

hey guys keep giving us moneys!

after their sweaty, crazy-eyed used game rant I wrote them off.

Bandwidth and other resources, I assume. Podcasts aren't exactly the cheapest things to host on a website.

How about now?

This. Also the subject seems to think their last Kickstarter was lame when in fact, it wasn't at all. Those rewards were AWESOME at relatively low levels. They're not holding ANYthing from the current site hostage, so yeah, "shake-down" is a bit much.

Irony

The "bandwidth is expensive" and "they need the money" defense arguments seem to forget that this is Penny Arcade. The same Penny Arcade that has two online TV shows, three major gaming conventions, and a popular webcomic that sells merchandise like hotcakes. Do you know why the goal was $10? Because they don't need your money.

And yet people are giving away $100 to have their name read on the first episode. Penny Arcade aren't the monsters here. The internet is just fucking stupid.

It sounds so simple doesn't it? It sounds like it should be so easy to grasp doesn't it?

Watching people on Twitter get freakin FURIOUS about this (not all the neg. responses were this way granted) was just so completely absurd to me. Like, I don't understand it at all. I get people not liking it and it being something to discuss but if this is seriously upsetting you, you are TOO DAMN CLOSE to video games and the industry surrounding it.

Maybe it was because I had just been watching the news (Benghazi, 3 girls escape TEN YEARS of imprisonment, massacre in Syria) before going on Twitter and reading about this but holy crap, the lack of perspective, and what people get super mad about is staggering sometimes.

Hmm. I see what you're saying but I think I prefer this definition.

Penny Arcade beat me up and stole my lunch money :(

Thanks for the heads up I didn't know about this. I'll be donating now.

@morbid_coffee: We've all got these silly little fucking medals under our names, we're as stupid as any other fanbase.

@morbid_coffee: But if people wanna spend their money that way, what's the harm? They aren't conning anyone, nobody is being tricked or scammed. If a person wants to donate $5, $10, $100 to them why should anybody care?

Sure we could say "well they could be donating to a kickstarter who actually needs the money, or why not a charity" and yeah that's true but were any of those people going to do that instead? Probably not, they're donating because they like PA and wanna give them cash.

It's pretty much the ultimate example of "don't like it, don't participate".

@rebgav: True, but I feel like I get a lot more out of my $60 for Giant Bomb (store discounts, exclusive content, early feature testing) than I would paying the same amount for two guys on the internet to say "Thanks Morbid Coffee!" then forget who I am 5 minutes later.

No one is forcing any one to do anything here. If you don't like the fact that people want to give Penny Arcade their money, get mad at the people, not Penny Arcade.

@thesoutherndandy: While I'm not as angry as the rest of the internet of "OOO THOSE PENNY ARCADE RASCALS ARE GETTING MONEY FROM THE INTERNETS!" It rubs me the wrong way that they're basically saying "we only need $10 but we'll pocket everything else you give us." If they wanted to avoid controversy, the least they could do is say "everything past $10 will go directly towards child's play," or something.

Again, I'm not angry. Just baffled why people would give so much (and where they're getting $500 worth of disposable income) for almost nothing. I wish they would give me money. I should start a Kickstarter to help pay for my college tuition. If you pledge $10k or more I'll fly out to your house and give you a high five in person and maybe go out for some drinks using the money you gave me.

I really enjoyed that podcast, so I kind of don't give a shit.

@morbid_coffee: I kinda see that as them saying 'the goal is kinda irrelevant cause we're gonna exceed what we need no matter what' which is pretty much true. I see your point, it does come across kinda crappy but even if they listed what their actual expected goal was, people would still be getting mad about this. Not saying you, but my Twitter feed would still suck. The lesson here is I should spend less time on Twitter.

I think people are having a hard time understanding the goal is $10...

Penny Arcade agrees with you that to record their process is a low cost to them.

The $10 is also a subscription. You get links to the podcasts when they first go live; everyone else has to wait two weeks.

You are not obligated to pay anything to enjoy the podcast.

"nobody is forcing you to spend your money on it" is a bullshit argument against this. that shouldn't mean you can't criticise it. it's like telling somebody "if you don't like romney, don't vote for him" and expecting that to silence any kind of political debate. the internet is usually pretty fast to question the integrity of journalistic outlets, constantly guessing at money changing hands between writers and publishers, and it also hates the money-grabbing capitalist bigwigs of video games like EA and activision, ruining video games with their always-online and DRM procedures. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, I just can't see how you can defend this after denouncing all of that. is it just because it's penny arcade? let's not forget how shitty penny arcade are and how unfunny and reprehensible their content is. they have a bunch of money; they don't need donations. they didn't set the goal at $10 thinking they would just get $10, they just wanted a bunch more money. it's shameless, and probably against kickstarter's rules.

Kickstarter should only be used for important products like an app that lets me buy John Drake Diet Coke.

I'm surprised they haven't done a kickstarter yet where the reward is a drawing of 100 penises.

@epicsteve: why shouldn't they get paid for a podcast. Stop acting like its a free service. I think the GB dudes deserve a lot more money for the podcast than the complainers think they deserve.

Why do they currently have $42,000? That's ridiculous.

In other words, you don't like Penny Arcade and you're just using this as an excuse to rally against them.

Oh Internet.

@posh: Nobody is saying you can't dislike it. Comparing fans giving them money to journalists on the take or shady corporate dealings is a little dramatic though. I can easily ignore this PA kickstarter and it doesn't affect me at all. If pubs buy reviews or Activision includes some bs DRM in a game, that CAN cause me issues. There's a difference.

Doesn't this violate the entire point of Kickstarter? You know, kick starting an idea by providing funds, because it would never exist without the help of supporters?

Asking for money for a podcast is an entirely different question, but this thing shouldn't exist on Kickstarter. They just seem to be exploiting the platform and taking advantage of what people assume is going to be on there.

@zeik: you like penny arcade, so you decided to dismiss my post. i can be an asshole too

@thesoutherndandy: I recognise the difference, but things don't have to affect me directly to irk me. it's still wrong

Let me pose this question: What benefit does having this on Kickstarter have over putting a button on their own website that says "If you like what you hear, feel free to donate!"

@morbid_coffee: publicity, platform, forum threads/debates like this, news articles

True, but last time I checked hosting on youtube is free. Granted it makes it more difficult for people that want to listen to it on the go, but it's free and easy to download youtube videos as mp3s as well.

@posh: yeah fair point

Generic comment indicating a high level of outrage towards something unimportant ad not a big deal.

Why don't you gamers donate your money to something worthwhile like charity huh? Instead of giving these guys 42,000 dollars more than they need, maybe that 42,000 dollars could have gone to something that'll make a real difference in the world. And don't even try to say "well Penny Arcade does Child's Play, and the more content Penny Arcade does, the better Child's Play does." Fuck that noise.

Shit, this post started off as a half joke, but now that I think about it, I'm honestly kinda miffed.

This could be said about literally everything we buy that isn't food so fuck your noise.

People can do what they want with their money but this is kinda ridiculousunbelievable ludicrous. They were podcasting before so they already have the equipment and they're asking for $10, which to me is basically saying " we don't really need the money but hell, our fans are going to give us a ton if we ask so ignoring our 2 conventions, multiple tv shows and merchandising, why the heck not?"

When you buy games, you're buying a product. There is an exchange. You can argue that this is the same thing. But honestly, when I see someone who has a large following asking for money, I can't help but think they are donating money simply because they like that person, not because they care about some one episode animation or theme song or USB flash drive. By having the goal at 10$, they pretty much are saying that they are gonna do this regardless of whether they get 10 bucks or 100,000 bucks. So why do they need that much excess cash? To make the podcast prettier? Sound more professional? The people that want this want to hear these people talk. They don't care if there's a fancy theme song or one episode animation to go along with it. They want a podcast, everything else is unnecessary window dressing.

I think up a scenario in my head of someone pretending they don't have money to donate to a worthwhile cause only to go ahead and throw cash at someone going "We don't really need money cause we're gonna do this podcast anyways, but feel free to give it to us regardless." Yeah, it kinda pisses me off.

Whenever I see a kickstarter by a high profile person, I can't help but think that people donate simply cause they like the person, not because they genuinely think the product is worth investing in.