Buy out penny arcade for a year, only one cool million dollars...

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strawman

strawman

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

Gabe and Tycho are giving us the opportunity to have them take leave of their advertisers and become a fully fan sponsored webcomic. They start removing ads at 1/4 million, and when they reach $999,999 they remove all ads, including those on the comic page.

The incentives are pretty nice at the higher levels, and they are hoping to be able to move the people that are currently marketing the comic to advertisers over into more creative roles, which only means more PA creations for us.

I'm a cheapskate, so I won't be participating, but I suspect some of you would want to know.

One of the more interesting teases is that they might have a stretch goal that convinces them to convert everything over to a creative commons license... Aside from xkcd I can't think of a single webcomic that is creative commons licensed.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with Charlie. The whole point of Kickstarter is to give someone the chance to do something that they ordinarily couldn't afford to do. PA is the most successful webcomic and has no need to ask for more money from their fans. Not to mention that those earlier tier bonuses are really not worth it. $15 for a goddamn certificate? No.
 
MindDetective

MindDetective

Charlie Don't Surf said:
This is stupid, PA are stupid, and I wish they would take this down since it completely is against Kickstarter's Rule 1
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Eh...that's debatable. They specify a time limit (1 year). It could be framed as a "no ads for a year" project. That said, I don't like it much either. They don't offer very much in the way of enticements. If it is funded, fine by me, but I kind of hope that it isn't because I think they can do better than that.
 
strawman

strawman

I disagree, though I do think it's a stretch. The project has a clear goal, which is to eliminate advertising on their site for one year. It will eventually be completed, at which point they'll do it again, or go back to using ads. They will be producing content once funded that they would not produce without a successful funding. They are providing rewards for those that support rm. it's not a charity or a cause. It's not a fund my life project. It's not one of the prohibited projects or rewards.

But, ultimately, kickstarter is in it for the money, and they'd be stupid to take this down. I suspect that if this is successful pa will do it themselves next year and cut out the third party.

I can't address your assertion that pa is stupid since that's a matter of taste and very subjective, but I suspect you're smugly happy to know that there are millions of people who disagree with you on that point.
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

Kickstarter said:
1. Funding for projects only. A project has a clear goal, like making an album, a book, or a work of art. A project will eventually be completed, and something will be produced by it. A project is not open-ended. Starting a business, for example, does not qualify as a project.
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There are several goals for this project.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

This isn't a creative project, though. Unless you count removing ads as creative.

The only thing about this is PA is asking for money from their legions of fans. And the sad thing is, they'll not only make their goal, but far exceed it. And for what? For PA to make more money. I don't see any other goal here aside from that. I don't see where this is going to improve PA's creative output or anything.

I supported Order of the Stick's Kickstarter because Rich was trying to put one of his books into print. As a result of it, though, he now has ALL of his books in print for the first time ever. Given the stress he goes through, that must be a great burden off his shoulders.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Yeah. Sorry, I misspoke with that. OotS' Kickstarter wasn't necessarily creative, either, I suppose.

But it's still a million (billion?) dollar company now asking for more money.
 
strawman

strawman

They're going to make new content, if funded, that they will not make otherwise. They are planning on moving some of their team from advertising into creative roles so new content will be made.

Doesn't that fulfill your requirements, or is there something else that's bothering you about it?

Note I'm using 'you' generally, since there are several people who appear to disagree with it....
 
strawman

strawman

On top of that, I suspect they are making more than a million dollars a year on advertising, which means they are actually asking for a pay cut so they can pursue more endeavors without being shackled to advertisers.

I'm not supporting them, but I don't understand the apparent dislike of this use of crowd funding. Does it go back to not liking artists who beg for their art?[DOUBLEPOST=1341952925][/DOUBLEPOST]
Charlie Don't Surf said:
Let me just pay $7,500 to be an intern, let me just reach down and do that, it'll be a good idea
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I initially thought that was... Unique as well, but as I thought about it, there is no school that, for $7,500, will give you three months of hands on training on how Khoo is successful.

We're I on a similar career path I would seriously consider it just as an educational/training opportunity.

Of course, you'd also be subjected to Scott Kurtz, but there's a downside to everything, isn't there?
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

My point of the dislike (swaying away from the "creative project" argument) is that they're already a vastly successful enterprise who could very likely afford to do what you mentioned above, regardless of the donations or not. That's what bothers me the most.

Also, I think they're asking WAY too much for digital copies of books. For that price, other Kickstarter projects have offered actual physical books.
 
SpecialKO

SpecialKO

The entire purpose of this project is to replace one revenue stream with the same revenue for less work so that they can set their people to do other things. That seems the definition of a "fund my life" project.

There's nothing actually coming out of this for the backers as a tangible project outside of "the joy of not having ads while you browse the site you already browse for free" and a couple tier rewards.

Much as I like PA, I think this really violates the spirit of KS, much as it might follow the letter by having milestone fundraising goals and tiered "rewards" (which also seem pretty lame).
 
MindDetective

MindDetective

Kickstarter is a relatively lawless frontier. People are going to push the boundaries there. The Kickstarter of old will not stay that way for long. People have sought funding for science projects and other crazy things. It won't be the indie art funding center for much longer, I suspect.
 
SpecialKO

SpecialKO

MindDetective said:
Kickstarter is a relatively lawless frontier. People are going to push the boundaries there. The Kickstarter of old will not stay that way for long. People have sought funding for science projects and other crazy things. It won't be the indie art funding center for much longer, I suspect.
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I suspect you're right, but this is less "pushing the boundaries" and more "going back to the good old days of putting up donation links on random websites".
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Penny-Arcade are doing an experiment, and asking if anyone would like to fund them for an ad-free PA for a year, they can do so.

If it doesn't fund, no one is out any money, nothing changes and people can read their free comics.

If it does fund, PA goes ad-free for a year, and people can still read their free comics.

I guess I just don't see the villainy here? They're not holding the comic ransom. They're trying something new as the source of their funding.

Though, I have to say that the ads have never bothered me. In fact, they're one of the few sites whose ads I regularly click, because it's usually games I'm interested in, and they're never pop-ups/sound producing/any other annoying type of ad.
 
Tress

Tress

I'm sensing a fear or jealousy to all this, as though a P-A kickstarter will siphon funds from other "more worthy" projects. I say let it go, and if people want it, it'll get funded. If not, then there's no harm done.
 
S

Soliloquy

I initially thought that was... Unique as well, but as I thought about it, there is no school that, for $7,500, will give you three months of hands on training on how Khoo is successful.
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From the Kickstarter:


Intern at Penny Arcade for a day! You'll be put to real work under the supervision of Khoo. (you will need to arrange travel)
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A day. One day. Of interning.
 
Frank

Frank

I took flak for disagreeing with getting fans to pay your printing bills for you to sell more books and I see some of the same folks balking at this. I see no difference. I will support neither.
 
Bumble the Boy Wonder

Bumble the Boy Wonder

While I think the idea is cool, not having any ads (kinda like Homestar Runner did back in the day), I feel like the incentives they're offering aren't ...really...

I dunno, I don't think I would want to donate a lower level (which is likely all I would be able to afford) because there's really no change in how I will enjoy PA. Also, I don't really get any "rewards" or whatever Kickstarter calls them
 
Adam

Adam

God I hope this wasn't Khoo's idea as it's a monumentally bad idea.

The irony of them bitching about people abusing Kickstarter in a comic from last year isn't lost on me.

 
strawman

strawman

Soliloquy said:
From the Kickstarter:




A day. One day. Of interning.
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I fail at reading. One thousand dollars an hour? I think they're treating this like an extension of the child's play charity dinner. I wonder if people will actually spend such huge amounts for so little reward...
 
Steve

Steve

"Update #1: $550k Stretchgoal
One of the things that excited us most about the idea of trying an ad-free model was the amount of time it would give us to actually make comics. Currently, we do all kinds of creative services projects that are part of the existing model, but in their absence, that's all time we can put to work for you. We have a ton of weird settings, and ideas for more, that are simply not possible with the schedule the current system imposes."

I hope they hit this goal. There's no denying their talent and most of their side projects have been pretty good. If they hit this goal you can damn sure bet they will put 100% in churning out content. If it were some other webcomic I might be skeptical thinking they're just trying to milk out a few buck but these guys have given back so much I don't doubt this is anything more then them wanting to get to a place to create without distractions. I don't regularly read PA but I respect the hell out of those guys.
 
Vrii

Vrii

stienman said:
I fail at reading. One thousand dollars an hour? I think they're treating this like an extension of the child's play charity dinner. I wonder if people will actually spend such huge amounts for so little reward...
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One of the two available is already gone.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

While it'd be nice for them to have more time for content... these rewards largely suck and/or are disproportionate to the money spent. That's kind of the problem with doing a Kickstarter that isn't for the purpose of creating something specifically, such as a new comic by them. It feels like the charity rewards, but those make sense since it's a charity.
 
blotsfan

blotsfan

Wait, on their theoretical ad free page, they have ads for their own store still. I know they don't get revenue for those ads but that seems kinda wrong.
 
Covar

Covar

Adam said:
God I hope this wasn't Khoo's idea as it's a monumentally bad idea.

The irony of them bitching about people abusing Kickstarter in a comic from last year isn't lost on me.

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Considering the first reward is the $1000 pledge from the comic, I think it's safe to bet that it's not lost on them either.

I signed up. I use ad block, but I like some of the things they mentioned if it gets fully funded, like full strips and blog posts in RSS (okay that's one of the biggest things for me).
 
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