Penny Arcade Kickstarter...?

Penny Arcade began a Kickstarter to remove ads from their site for a single year.

So this happened. Not really sure how to feel about this honestly. The rewards seem super unbalanced, like the $2000 5 year PAX pass is easily the best, and most tantalizing deal. The most disgusting thing, I feel, is that it seems like they aren't making it super clear that the front page ads stay until they hit $525k. Seems the slightest bit shady. Honestly, to me it seems like a fucking dumb premise that doesn't feel like it's "for the fans" at all.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/575109064/penny-arcade-sells-out

jesus christ really? for no ads? it's not like those ads are even that annoying

Why would you see ads in the first place? Who sees ads anymore?

Fuck this earth.

Haven't they always said that they only allow advertisements for games that they have played and actually think their community might be interested in? If anything I actually valued that process. So no, Penny Arcade, you do not get my money today.

@Animasta said:

jesus christ really? for no ads? it's not like those ads are even that annoying

No ads ... for a single year. Then they'll do it again.

Isn't there a adblock for ads?

What the actual fuck. That reminds me of... A Penny Arcade comic.
 

@drag said:

@Animasta said:

jesus christ really? for no ads? it's not like those ads are even that annoying

No ads ... for a single year. Then they'll do it again.

...

they trying to burn good will here or what?

It's the opposite of what Kickstarter is supposed to be for. You're not supporting a small, homegrown art project, or indie game, or some musician getting an album released or whatever, you're giving money to a site that is already incredibly successful just so they don't have to bother selling ads for a year. What bullshit. For real, fuck them. Sell memberships or something. You're asking if I'd send you some money for the privilege of me not turning on AdBlock. That's the extent of the benefit to me. There's no product at the end of it that doesn't already exist and isn't already making a ton of money. What the fuck. If they're trying to ruin crowd sourcing for everyone else, they're doing a good job. Really sad.

@Sweep said:

Haven't they always said that they only allow advertisements for games that they have played and actually think their community might be interested in? If anything I actually valued that process. So no, Penny Arcade, you do not get my money today.

Doesn't seem to be the case, Gabe just tweeted: "we have not been influenced by advertisers but it's difficult. taking money from a company and tearing into in a comic the next day sucks."

At the time I post this, every single poster in this thread has a medal under their name. Just putting that out there, you guys.

I would prefer to pay 50 bucks a year for Giant Bomb, Penny Arcade and Cracked, rather than borrow their time from advertisers and their corporate overlords. I like buying things I enjoy. I want Jeff Gerstmann responsible to his audience for his pay, not his overlord.

I've no need to donate myself, since I don't mind their ads, nor are any rewards I'd want in my price range. Still, it'll be interesting to see if this succeeds or not.

Rage and disgust over this seems a bit silly and unnecessary. If enough people agree that this is frivolous nonsense (and for the record, I think it's absolutely fine), then it won't get funded and nothing changes. Kickstarter and user demand at work!

I can't be bothered when it comes to getting up in arms about this move. 
Sadly that also means I won't be mocked for being a complete cunt in one of their webcomics.. NO FAME! :(

April fools haha..... (Checks calender) wait a minute, really? What the fuck penny arcade

@Brodehouse said:

At the time I post this, every single poster in this thread has a medal under their name. Just putting that out there, you guys. I would prefer to pay 50 bucks a year for Giant Bomb, Penny Arcade and Cracked, rather than borrow their time from advertisers and their corporate overlords. I like buying things I enjoy. I want Jeff Gerstmann responsible to his audience for his pay, not his overlord.

50 dollars got me hours of content on this site. Like multiple days worth.

50 dollars of penny arcade kickstarter gets you....

a digital version of a book and a certificate.

They aren't nearly in the same league.

Hm, I was expecting this to be funding for the Penny Arcade games; maybe then they'll be able to get a better developer to work with than Zeboyd =|

At the time I post this, every single poster in this thread has a medal under their name. Just putting that out there, you guys.

I would prefer to pay 50 bucks a year for Giant Bomb, Penny Arcade and Cracked, rather than borrow their time from advertisers and their corporate overlords. I like buying things I enjoy. I want Jeff Gerstmann responsible to his audience for his pay, not his overlord.

@BeachThunder said:

Hm, I was expecting this to be funding for the Penny Arcade games; maybe then they'll be able to get a better developer to work with than Zeboyd =|

How exactly is Zeboyd a bad developer? Their games seem pretty good for what they are.

I'm not sure why they didn't just go the paid subscriber route and offer premium content. Seems to work for Giant Bomb.

The $1000 t-shirt prize plus $240 shipping outside US makes Capcom's overpriced Collectors Editions look like stocktake prices.

Kickstarter is the worst for shit like this, and the influx of "Check us out on Kickstarter!!!!" tweets.

It makes sense to me. It's a little weird, but it makes sense to try and raise money to get rid of ads, and kickstarter makes sense.

@MattyFTM said:

It makes sense to me. It's a little weird, but it makes sense to try and raise money to get rid of ads, and kickstarter makes sense.

please tell me how getting rid of one ad for one year for 250k makes any sense at all

Never liked Penny Arcade so I don't care either way...

@Groundings: Then you don't understand the point of the rewards system! If it cost as much as a regular t-shirt, then they wouldn't be raising money, they would be selling t-shirts. This is just a reward for hitting a certain donation level.

For the record, I don't see any issues with this. It costs a lot of money to run a website, especially one the size of Penny Arcade. If there's a way that Penny Arcade could be supported by fans and not advertisers, I think that's great. I hope that this turns out well for them.

EDIT: @Animasta: Because $250k won't last more than a year, so after that they'll need to go back to traditional advertising, unless they can raise more money? Think of groups like NPR, etc. who all survive on yearly donations. Gabe has mentioned on twitter that they'd like to do something like a yearly donation system (perhaps much like yearly Giant Bomb memberships)

Those rewards are sketchy

@Rappelsiini said:

@BeachThunder said:

Hm, I was expecting this to be funding for the Penny Arcade games; maybe then they'll be able to get a better developer to work with than Zeboyd =|

How exactly is Zeboyd a bad developer? Their games seem pretty good for what they are.

I wouldn't consider them in any way good - sufficient maybe; Penny Arcade 3 seems like a big step down from 1 & 2. Anyway, it would be cool to see them team up with Obsidian for a Stick of Truth rendition - I doubt that would actually happen though, but it would be awesome.

Perhaps they could get Vlambeer to do something similar to (but much better than) Serious Sam: Random Encounter; at very least, Vlambeer can make pixel art that doesn't look like complete garbage.

This is some kind of elaborate joke right?

@PsEG said:

I've no need to donate myself, since I don't mind their ads, nor are any rewards I'd want in my price range. Still, it'll be interesting to see if this succeeds or not.

Rage and disgust over this seems a bit silly and unnecessary. If enough people agree that this is frivolous nonsense (and for the record, I think it's absolutely fine), then it won't get funded and nothing changes. Kickstarter and user demand at work!

I totally agree.

Man people do not like ads huh are gaming ads really that annoying? you don't have to click on them and most of the times (except for IGN) they aren't all that intrusive ... oh and Adblock.

@BeachThunder said:

@Rappelsiini said:

@BeachThunder said:

Hm, I was expecting this to be funding for the Penny Arcade games; maybe then they'll be able to get a better developer to work with than Zeboyd =|

How exactly is Zeboyd a bad developer? Their games seem pretty good for what they are.

I wouldn't consider them in any way good - sufficient maybe; Penny Arcade 3 seems like a big step down from 1 & 2. Anyway, it would be cool to see them team up with Obsidian for a Stick of Truth rendition - I doubt that would actually happen though, but it would be awesome.

Perhaps they could get Vlambeer to do something similar to (but much better than) Serious Sam: Random Encounter; at very least, Vlambeer can make pixel art that doesn't look like complete garbage.

I'd argue they did well what they were set out to do: Simple, old school inspired RPG. Also I prefer PAA 3's art style over Serious Sam's.

Looking at what Zeboyd has done before I'd guess Penny Arcade specifically chose them because they wanted to make pretty much an old school RPG. PA probably was also making all the big decisions about the game and was in charge of the (obviously small) budget. That's why I think it's a bit unfair to fault Zeboyd for the game. But hey opinions.

This is an experiment. If they can pay operating costs and wages for 14 employees Penny Arcade for a year with fan money instead of advertiser money then they can. If people don't want to support it they can't and everything stays the same. Why are people raging about this?

Nope.

@Sweep said:

Haven't they always said that they only allow advertisements for games that they have played and actually think their community might be interested in? If anything I actually valued that process. So no, Penny Arcade, you do not get my money today.

This. Despite the fact that Penny Arcade thinking about me during sex and naming my pet being very alluring, their ad vetting process was always something that informed customers just as much as their blog and comics because THEY controlled it.

This literally makes no fucking sense to me at all.

@Animasta: THEY WILL THINK ABOUT YOU DURING SEX...AND NAME YOUR PET...AND CHASE CHICKENS! Hell, I'd pay a dollar just to watch someone chase a stupid chicken! At the same time, I don't think the point of this Kickstarter is honestly worth it.

I know this is shitty to say, but I want to see this fail so people can see that even high profile people can see a lack of success on Kickstarter. Sorry, Gabe and Tycho. It's just how I feel.

@Animasta said:

@MattyFTM said:

It makes sense to me. It's a little weird, but it makes sense to try and raise money to get rid of ads, and kickstarter makes sense.

please tell me how getting rid of one ad for one year for 250k makes any sense at all

Because Penny Arcade is a giant ass website with huge costs.

This doesn't seem any more criminal than offering users a subscription service to remove ads, going to work for an enormous megacorporation, and yet still insisting that the subscription model is necessary.
 
Whatever. Adblock is free.

So, wait. Let me get this straight.

At any point in my life, I can say "No" or "Yes" to anything asked of me, right? That's how this "free will", "consumer's choice" thing works, right?

@Gaff said:

So, wait. Let me get this straight.

At any point in my life, I can say "No" or "Yes" to anything asked of me, right? That's how this "free will", "consumer's choice" thing works, right?

You should check out my cool new Kickstarter "Thought" an interactive multimedia encompassing experience. I don't have a demo yet but I only need $45,000.

"No" is a $60,000 stretch goal.

It's a fine model and not unreasonable to ask, many things on these crowd funding sites work like this.

However, PA advertising is a weird thing, their news posts are often ads, their comics are often ads, they often advertize for their own products like PAX, Video Game, Board Games, Card Games, etc...

Anyone who is annoyed about ads on internet will have likely already installed ad blocking software or use native versions from their browser.

Either way it'll be interesting to see, if they don't get funding it'll be PA's first big "failure" or if they do get funded and people think they have ownership of the site's content.

People are forgetting that they've done this before and succeeded.

mom i need your credit card to pay the authors of a shitty comic $500 so they will retweet me

I'm surprised that people are so mad over this. Penny Arcade are a tiny company who has the task of holding an enormous convention two times a year, putting out a web comic and article every week, hosting a bunch of videos, putting out an editorial article and other news items every day, and more. I imagine that with all that, they have operating costs that can't be entirely covered by sales of t-shirts and PAX passes, and they've had fans repeatedly tell them they want to support the company beyond these means. They say that they have not been influenced by advertisers and are letting people contribute to an ad-free version of the site if they want, but leaving all content open to all users even if they don't want to. I don't see how they're the big bad guys in this situation, what they're doing sounds pretty reasonable to me.

You may think the gaps between rewards are slightly off and that seems like a fair criticism, but again, if you donate or how much you donate is entirely voluntary, and I can see why they'd want to give those generous enough to contribute large amounts real bang for their buck.

I think Penny Arcade is a shitty site, so I'm not exactly going to be supporting this but I get why fans would want to.

I support things I like.

This isn't a "project", there is nothing to "kickstart". They're attempting to tweak an already-successful business model. It's weird and I don't get it.

@Gamer_152 said:

I'm surprised that people are so mad over this. Penny Arcade are a tiny company who has the task of holding an enormous convention two times a year, putting out a web comic and article every week, hosting a bunch of videos, putting out an editorial article and other news items every day, and more. I imagine that with all that, they have operating costs that can't be entirely covered by sales of t-shirts and PAX passes, and they've had fans repeatedly tell them they want to support the company beyond these means. They say that they have not been influenced by advertisers and are letting people contribute to an ad-free version of the site if they want, but leaving all content open to all users even if they don't want to. I don't see how they're the big bad guys in this situation, what they're doing sounds pretty reasonable to me.

You may think the gaps between rewards are slightly off and that seems like a fair criticism, but again, if you donate or how much you donate is entirely voluntary, and I can see why they'd want to give those generous enough to contribute large amounts real bang for their buck.

I don't think I can put it any better than that. Penny Arcade punches ridiculously high above their weight given their minuscule staff. They're all extremely talented, to be sure, but they need help to sustain the sort of quality material they produce. It makes perfect sense for them to want to cut out the advertiser middleman and instead work directly with their very large and loyal community.

I won't be donating, but geez. It's like some people just need something, anything to rage against. Chill out.

Sounds kinda crazy. Lets see if they pull this off.

Full circle, Penny Arcade.

Yeah, I really don't see the point of this either. They should probably just go the membership route if this is what they wanted to do.

The only people that complain about Ads (on sites that use them appropriately) are people who wouldn't pay to remove them. 
 
I'm generalizing, of course, but really the ads on penny arcade or most established legit sites are very unobtrusive. 
That being said I think this is an interesting experiment. While I don't know that it will succeed- not entirely sure if people are ready to do something like this (a lot of people still find it weird to pay money to a website) but the internet is kind of going in this direction so it has merit.  
 
The reasoning is a tad weird. Makes you wonder if maybe ads aren't doing enough or maybe they're just looking into a different model.