Penny Arcade starts a Kickstarter for no good reason

Brad Shepard

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

Just read the comments and the rewards and just about the whole thing and tell me how you feel.
 

Skipper zammo

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Oct 11, 2011
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Jealous.

This will probably work, I wish I was popular enough to be able to just ask for money and then get given it.
 

Keoul

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Well there's people complaining about ads so they're giving them an option to get rid of them via a kickstarter. Doesn't seem like a bad reason if enough people complained about the ads, which i bet there was plenty of seeing as people have already made topics regarding the influx of ads on the escapist -cough cough- captchas -cough cough-

EDIT: holy shit someone actually donated 9,999 dollars O.O
 

Sixcess

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Feb 27, 2010
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I found this rather telling

Is this indefinite / what happens after a year / are you going to ask again?

This is for a period of 1 year. From January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013. We will run the fundraiser again, around this time next year.
And if you read it closely, ALL of Penny Arcade ad-free will cost $999,999. Seriously - they are asking for a million freaking dollars. For a year. One year. That's insane.

I'm just wondering how deep the Kickstarter trough is. With so many people leaping onto this and chasing the 'nerd dollar' the bubble's got to burst.
 

Phasmal

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Jun 10, 2011
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*looks around to see if anyone else will say it*
No?
Okay.
Where are the death threats and the rape threats and the people tearing their hair out with rage?

OT- Do people not know what adblock is? And whyyyyyyyyy?
Still, if you're mad enough to throw money at stuff like that, who am I to judge.
 

Dandark

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-_-


This is just...........whaaaaa? Who would care enough to donate money to this? Just ignore the ads and if they are that big of a deal then simply use an adblocker, it's not hard.
I can only assume that people are giving them money because they like them rather than desiring the removal of ads enough to pay.
 

PortalThinker113

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The ratio between "amount of money donated" and "actual reward" is, quite frankly, ludicrously absurd.

Donate $300 and either Gabe or Tycho will decide to follow you on Twitter for a year? $500 to retweet ONE tweet? What a splendid idea! Or, I could back a project like that neat-looking new game console for a fraction of that price. Yeaaa...

I don't have any problem with the Penny Arcade Kickstarter conceptually- if people feel like this is worth the money, then go for it. But the current rewards tiers are just stupid. They might want to think about lowering them if they want to be taken more seriously.
 

Rednog

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Phasmal said:
*looks around to see if anyone else will say it*
No?
Okay.
Where are the death threats and the rape threats and the people tearing their hair out with rage?

OT- Do people not know what adblock is? And whyyyyyyyyy?
Still, if you're mad enough to throw money at stuff like that, who am I to judge.
To be honest I am kind of mad at them, just not in the raping mood right now.
I think it really is an abuse of kickstarter. Kickstarter is for what it's name implies, to kick start something, they aren't kick starting any project, it really is a bullshit cash grab, imo. And I think it really is a slap in the face to people who are legitimately/desperately trying to fund their project. A million dollars is just insane, and even then I'm skeptical it will even get that high, so penny-arcade won't go ad-free but since they put the "goal" at $250k they will essentially get to walk away with that much money all for just removing the leaderboard on the front page.

Edit: Also insulting that the rewards are absolute garbage unless you're breaking the bank. Teams putting up their games at a discounted release of 50% off before the game even launches and gouging their full price buyer pool all in the name of launching their product.
 

surg3n

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Ahh, so our attention isn't enough anymore, it's not enough to view the content and watch the ad's and buy the games - now the site is being held to ransom.

Why not a kitten, get a kitten and kick it until it's almost dead - then start a kickstarter, to kick-stop-kicking the kitten - $50,000 and I won't kick it again, $100,000 and I'll pet it and buy it some catnip, $250,000 and I'll let you kick it... I know I know!.

This is why I hate Kickstarter, and it's exactly why the bubble will eventually burst. It should be about KICK STARTING something. If someone has an idea for a game, or movie, or whatever that doesn't have enough interest to convince a publisher, but would be worthwhile if the publisher can be removed from the equation, then that's a kickstarter. What Penny Arcade are doing just reinforces my opinion of them, which I won't go into, because this place is most likely full of fans.
 

Queen Michael

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Jun 9, 2009
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Honestly? The only people who are giving money to this are people who want to and are hapyp with the rewards. THe only people whose money goes to this is people who want to give, so I don't see what the big deal is.
 

WanderingFool

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Ed130 said:
They want to remove the advertising from their site.

Sounds reasonable enough.
Thats what im thinking.

In General (nobody specific): Do I think its a decent use of Kickstarter? Maybe. Do I feel people should be bothered by this? Maybe. Do I think PA should take down their kickstarter because people will be bothered by this? FUCK NO! If you dont like what they are doing, than dont give them money. But you have no right to say they cant or shouldnt do this.

Captcha: heated debate

Hmm, seems fitting...
 

hazabaza1

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Nov 26, 2008
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Phasmal said:
*looks around to see if anyone else will say it*
No?
Okay.
Where are the death threats and the rape threats and the people tearing their hair out with rage?

OT- Do people not know what adblock is? And whyyyyyyyyy?
Still, if you're mad enough to throw money at stuff like that, who am I to judge.
Please keep the gender discussion to the threads about gender.

OT: So, a quick trip onto the Penny-Arcade website shows me a bunch of adverts... about Penny Arcade.
Lulwut?
This seems kind of pointless.
 

votemarvel

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hazabaza1 said:
So, a quick trip onto the Penny-Arcade website shows me a bunch of adverts... about Penny Arcade.
Lulwut?
This seems kind of pointless.
I turned off my ad-block plug-in and you're completely right. Every advert on Penny-Arcade is for Penny-Arcade products?

So they have a Kickstarter in order to cover the loss they may get from not advertising their own products?
 

ChildishLegacy

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Phasmal said:
*looks around to see if anyone else will say it*
No?
Okay.
Where are the death threats and the rape threats and the people tearing their hair out with rage?

OT- Do people not know what adblock is? And whyyyyyyyyy?
Still, if you're mad enough to throw money at stuff like that, who am I to judge.
Adblock stops the sites/videos/content that you enjoy getting money from you viewing it for free, if you want to support these people you really shouldn't use it, it keeps places like youtube and the escapist free to use.

OT: It doesn't seem that unreasonable to me, if people want to show their support by donating rather than having to view ads that's fine. The only thing I disagree with is them using kickstarter as a platform to do this, they should just set up a paypal donation or something, because kickstarter is made for kickstarting projects.
 

Phasmal

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Jun 10, 2011
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Midgeamoo said:
Phasmal said:
*looks around to see if anyone else will say it*
No?
Okay.
Where are the death threats and the rape threats and the people tearing their hair out with rage?

OT- Do people not know what adblock is? And whyyyyyyyyy?
Still, if you're mad enough to throw money at stuff like that, who am I to judge.
Adblock stops the sites/videos/content that you enjoy getting money from you viewing it for free, if you want to support these people you really shouldn't use it, it keeps places like youtube and the escapist free to use.
I dont use adblock, because my computer has a hissy fit if I try to do anything more intense than a game of solitaire.
I'm just saying if it pissed someone off so much they were willing to pay to get rid of it, adblock would be easier.
hazabaza1 said:
Please keep the gender discussion to the threads about gender.
I didn't say anything about gender, I was saying something about hypocrisy.
Not that I have a dog in this fight, I was just playing devils advocate.
 

Navvan

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Feb 3, 2011
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I love how someone has already purchased the $9,999 reward which is nuts. Although if I was a multimillionaire I suppose I'd do so as well.

Personally I won't fund it because I'm content with the guys and Penny Arcade going about as they currently are, and none of the rewards within my price range are worth it. However really is just a "donate to support Penny Arcade" fund which isn't exactly a new business model for websites to have.

surg3n said:
Ahh, so our attention isn't enough anymore, it's not enough to view the content and watch the ad's and buy the games - now the site is being held to ransom.
Except you know the whole "Nothing will change at all if we don't meet the goal" part that they explain. They are just exploring if there is a better source of revenue than ads for both them and their viewers.