Penny Arcade ends PATV and Penny Arcade Report.

[Fabricated]

http://www.penny-arcade.com/2013/12/06/changes

Pretty much a "who gives a shit" event, but them firing Ben Kuchera puts a smile in my heart.

[Samwise]

I actually liked their "reality TV" stuff; it was more entertaining than the strip itself IMO.  But they haven't done anything with that in a while, and the PAR didn't do much for me, so I agree, non-event.

I do owe PATV for introducing me to SU&SD, which I've just been watching on their site directly since not everything gets replicated over to PATV.

[sickrubik]

That post reads incredibly dumb.

"Hey, we want to focus on PA, so we won't do this other stuff.... instead, we're going to do this OTHER other stuff..."

[Morat20]

That post reads incredibly dumb.

"Hey, we want to focus on PA, so we won't do this other stuff.... instead, we're going to do this OTHER other stuff..."

I think they consider that stuff PA, more than the TV and stuff is.

In the end, it's a guy who likes drawing and a guy who likes telling stories. Honestly, I get the impression that while the strip and a lot of their day-to-day stuff remains games and internet shit and occasional bits of news, what they'd both like to be doing is graphical novels.

[sickrubik]

Albums? really? That's closer to PA than PATV?

Yeah, sorry, it's dumb.

[Paelos]

That post reads incredibly dumb.

"Hey, we want to focus on PA, so we won't do this other stuff.... instead, we're going to do this OTHER other stuff..."

I think they consider that stuff PA, more than the TV and stuff is.

In the end, it's a guy who likes drawing and a guy who likes telling stories. Honestly, I get the impression that while the strip and a lot of their day-to-day stuff remains games and internet shit and occasional bits of news, what they'd both like to be doing is graphical novels.

Here's the problem. It's very dangerous to get outside your wheelhouse if you built a business on something for the last 15 years. They may be bored and they may have made a lot of money, but if you're bored and you're done with what made you rich and famous, you quit and fade away to the French isles to fuck models and retire as best you can. You don't try to retool your business into something it's not.

[Wizgar]

PAR was nothing but a glorified blog Kuchera used to ride his personal hobby horses into the ground anyway. I'd occasionally click over and have a look after checking out the comic, and it seemed like it was just always the same Oculus Rift bullshit, Kotaku-lite gender issues clickbait, and plugs for random Kickstarters.

The PATV stuff was mostly dreck that I couldn't be arsed to click on, but I did sort of like Checkpoint. I won't exactly miss it, but I would have kept clicking on it if it had stayed. Sure it was just old news repeated by dorks who were trying too hard, but I found them sort of likeable.

All the new side-project bullshit Tycho posted about means fuck-all to me though. I go to PA looking for a mildly amusing comic about nerd shit; whenever I see that Lookouts crap I know it's time to tune out for a week. It's the nouveau equivalent of that cardboard tube samurai shit.

[Fordel]

Meh, they can do whatever they want. If I like it, I'll read it, if I don't I won't.

/shrug

[Pezzle]

You know, I never found PA amusing or informative enough to generate the fame it enjoys today.  The Pax thing is a total mystery to me.  All the current comics are trash and PAR was worse.    Or maybe we have come to accept less?

[Sir T]

I like the art style of the PA comics, but I could think of at least 5 other comics offhand that I would think of as more funny.

[Ironwood]

"We want to focus on pins."

Ok.

[Venkman]

Makes sense, and I take what he wrote at face value. They're very startup-y in how they approach everything from their decisions through how they comport themselves in public. They've brought on some great people who've parlayed their brand into other things. I personally love what PAX is doing, and hope it can keep itself gamer-focused. That wasn't from two guys creating comics though.

So if the two guys who are creating comics want to focus on doing that across the media types, good on them. It's al fine to grow and stuff.

But you sleep better when you focus on what you like doing than by going through the motions on all the shit other people say you should be doing.

[Tannhauser]

I still look at the comics, but no longer read the articles after all the water carrying they did for ME3's shit ending.  Actually enjoyed some of their podcasts before that, but the Bioware love was the straw.

Good for them, I guess, to focus on their comic....and pins...

[sickrubik]

and albums.

Seriously, shit like "albums" kind of throws all that rhetoric about focusing on the core thing out the window.

[Soulflame]

I'm not at all a fan of their attempts at work with continuity either.  Pretty much every run of not-Penny Arcade they've done has required extensive explanation outside of the comics, which to me is a failure of story telling.

I like the idea of Sand, or the Eyrewood, but their execution has pretty much led me to believe they cannot depict or tell the stories they have in their heads.

[Teleku]

and albums.

Seriously, shit like "albums" kind of throws all that rhetoric about focusing on the core thing out the window.

Dude, I think you need to reread the post.  You've said it twice now, but I cannot see anywhere were they said they are cutting stuff to go back to 'core' or what ever.  They said they've had a lot of shit they've wanted to do, and are now focusing on doing that instead of putting it off.  Which includes albums and pins and shit.  There is nothing inconsistent I can find in that post....

Now if what they do will be shit or not is a whole different question.

Unlike most here I still mostly enjoy the comic.  I also think their side stuff is very neat as an idea, but as pointed out, it seems to fall apart when they tell the story.  I really liked the beginning concept comics for automata and Sand.  They seem like good 'idea people', but they seriously need somebody to help them craft a story.

[Paelos]

I don't think they are the types of guys who can achieve similar success when they try something outside their wheelhouse.

[Teleku]

And what exactly do you think is the cause of your obsession with wheelhouses?

[Tannhauser]

He's a Cowboys fan, he's used to seeing wheels spinning in place. BOOM!  HEADSHOT!  *runs from thread*

[Lakov_Sanite]

Shoulda *dropped mic*

[Merusk]

and albums.

Seriously, shit like "albums" kind of throws all that rhetoric about focusing on the core thing out the window.

The core thing is a red herring as Teleku said.  They want to pare PA down to "the core" and move on to other things.

What they're really saying is;  "We want to have time to do the 'creative' bullshit that gets us so much fan wankery about how awesome we are, despite it being utter trash.  We believe the reason we haven't sold our kids books, graphics novels and other assorted side projects isn't because they're garbage, but because we haven't had the time to dedicate to REALLY selling them."

Which is probably partially true. They have the connections and our history is littered with tons of untalented people becoming rich & famous because of connections.  Folks with even moderate talent and the right connections will do ok if they work them.

[Rasix]

The Tithe, coming to a theater near you. 

/cat_yack_gif

[Lakov_Sanite]

They don't have bad ideas even with the tithe but the writing is such offensively pretentious hack.

[Velorath]

That post reads incredibly dumb.

"Hey, we want to focus on PA, so we won't do this other stuff.... instead, we're going to do this OTHER other stuff..."

I think they consider that stuff PA, more than the TV and stuff is.

In the end, it's a guy who likes drawing and a guy who likes telling stories. Honestly, I get the impression that while the strip and a lot of their day-to-day stuff remains games and internet shit and occasional bits of news, what they'd both like to be doing is graphical novels.

Here's the problem. It's very dangerous to get outside your wheelhouse if you built a business on something for the last 15 years. They may be bored and they may have made a lot of money, but if you're bored and you're done with what made you rich and famous, you quit and fade away to the French isles to fuck models and retire as best you can. You don't try to retool your business into something it's not.

Yes, and Felicia Day was wrong for choosing a career in acting instead of sticking with the Orchestra. We get it, if people have talent in one area they should never try doing anything else for a living even if it's something they're passionate about.

[Hoax]

This thread should really be more about bashing the shithead who ran / was the mouthpiece of Penny Arcade Report. I'm sure he'll have no problem getting a job with Kotaku.

[koro]

Ben Kuchera?

In my opinion, he wasn't terrible back when he was at Ars Technica, but there he had editorial oversight that didn't exist at PAR. I doubt he'll slum it at Kotaku though; it's much too low-class for a seasoned veteran  like himself.

He'll probably go to Polygon or something.


Though I imagine the Extra Credits guy's not terribly happy now, since I recall some bridges being burned over at Escapist when the show left there to go to PA.

[Fabricated]

Extra Credits is terrible, so all the better really.

[Paelos]

Yes, and Felicia Day was wrong for choosing a career in acting instead of sticking with the Orchestra. We get it, if people have talent in one area they should never try doing anything else for a living even if it's something they're passionate about.

I have no problem with a business person selling a business and starting something else with a moderate amount of seed money they earned if it makes them happy. I think it's stupid to try to retool your current business that is already successful into an arena that's not. I would feel like Coke was doing something dumb if they tried to launch a cookie business suddenly because the owners were tired of making beverages.

[Fordel]

Doesn't coke make cookies through some owned company? 

[Paelos]

Doesn't coke make cookies through some owned company? 

I believe it's Pepsi that does that.

[rk47]

So, more dickwolves?    nothing of value is lost or gained from this PA is hipster central.

[Merusk]

Though I imagine the Extra Credits guy's not terribly happy now, since I recall some bridges being burned over at Escapist when the show left there to go to PA.

Anyone who burns bridges in such a small, incestuous, self-aggrandizing industry as gaming - never mind game 'journalism' - deserves everything they get.

Rule #1 in any small industry is ever burn your bridges, no matter how shitty the job was. You never know when the guy who had to clean up after you will be the guy deciding if you have a job or not down the road.

[Velorath]

Yes, and Felicia Day was wrong for choosing a career in acting instead of sticking with the Orchestra. We get it, if people have talent in one area they should never try doing anything else for a living even if it's something they're passionate about.

I have no problem with a business person selling a business and starting something else with a moderate amount of seed money they earned if it makes them happy. I think it's stupid to try to retool your current business that is already successful into an arena that's not. I would feel like Coke was doing something dumb if they tried to launch a cookie business suddenly because the owners were tired of making beverages.

These guys have done pretty well making a living off of doing what they enjoy. As guys who at first just made webcomics and did some games commentary there was nothing to suggest that they could pull off organizing something like PAX let alone having it become as successful as it is today until they put in the effort and actually did it. By your logic, it was stupid of them to try. Writing and drawing a three panel comic strip is a completely different skillset and business than organizing large conventions and taking on something that was so time consuming and likely took a lot of resources seems like probably the biggest change that they've ever gone through in their business.

I don't see them stopping the comic anytime soon, and I would assume they've got a number of people helping them putting the various PAX'es together. If they want to shift resources from PATV and PAR and do more of the side-project stuff that they seem to be into these days, that's not a huge change in their business plan and I can't really blame them regardless. I'm not a huge fan of any of that stuff they've done, but with the amount of success they've had with PA and PAX I would say they've pretty much earned themselves the chance to go do whatever random shit they're excited to be working on. Whether or not any of it is good or ends up being a financial success, I'm pretty sure they aren't in any danger of going broke anytime soon.

[Wizgar]

This thread should really be more about bashing the shithead who ran / was the mouthpiece of Penny Arcade Report. I'm sure he'll have no problem getting a job with Kotaku.

I liked the part where the front page announcement of his getting shitcanned was buried under the usual comic newspost and under pictures of cock-shaped cookies.

[sickrubik]

Dude, I think you need to reread the post.  You've said it twice now, but I cannot see anywhere were they said they are cutting stuff to go back to 'core' or what ever.  They said they've had a lot of shit they've wanted to do, and are now focusing on doing that instead of putting it off.  Which includes albums and pins and shit.  There is nothing inconsistent I can find in that post....

Pins = merch. I could give a shit about merch. The point about shedding a lot of crap to focus on projects... that are still projects... just seems dumb and silly. Seems to be trading one diversion for another, specifically when talking about extraneous things like "Albums". Which sounds just as weird as PATV or Penny Arcade Report. To me, that's an inconsistency.