Penny-Arcade Kickstarter

[Ste]

Has anybody seen the kickstarter that Penny-Arcade started yesterday?

They are asking for funds and in return they will make the site ad free for a year. It currently works in stages, if they raise $250k then they will lose the main ad at the top of the main page, $525k and the whole of the main page will be ad free, $999k and the whole site will become ad free. There are a load of other promises/rewards(?) should they hit certain other funding goals but most of them are hidden at the minute. They've only revealed two of them so far.

They have said that if they don't have to worry about selling ads and making promotional comics for games and stuff then they can concentrate on more content for the site such as special series of comics and the like.

So what do people think about this? Personally I didn't think the PA ads were that intrusive anyway, especially seeing as they are hand picked to suit what they think the readers would like to buy, on the other hand I would like to see more content as I've been reading for about 10 years now. At the moment I've not backed them but who knows.

At the time of typing this they have raised over $134k in less than 24 hours and they have 30 odd days left. I'm pretty sure that this will destroy the current most backed kickstarter by a long shot.

Perhaps a viable option for other sites to follow?


Check out the Kickstarter page here

[Toffer]

Right, I'll admit to not knowing much about Penny-Arcade so this is in fact my first trip to their website.

Personally I don't see what the problem is. The Ads are pretty small anyway and hardly ruining my visit to the website. I appreciate that the removal of the ads and the funding would allow them to create more content, but surely that's the same for any website? I'm surprised people are actually funding this?

I'm not sure if the 'rewards' are supposed to come across as funny or douchey? Pledge $500 and these two guys will re-tweet your tweet. Well shit, I'll get my cheque book then! I know the advantages of having someone this popular re-tweet your shit, albeit once but for $500? Fuck that.

[mcdoodle42]

I think it's a bloody joke. I'm not against them doing it once, but they plan to do it every year! I love the site and I've read all the comics, but there is no way that I'd shell out for them to remove adds that I don't even see.

It's stupid, but whatever.

[Blucey]

Is a shame really. Kickstarter should, as the name suggests, be for kickstarting new projects that might not ordinarily get funding. Penny Arcade are established and haven't been funny for ages now anyway.

Is opening the door to all kinds of sketchy usage for Kickstarter.

[Ste]

I think it's a bloody joke. I'm not against them doing it once, but they plan to do it every year! I love the site and I've read all the comics, but there is no way that I'd shell out for them to remove adds that I don't even see.

It's stupid, but whatever.

I think its less about having no ads and more about being able to concentrate on producing content for the site and for their own benefit rather than spending a lot of their time producing artwork etc for commercial clients. For example the Dragon Age comics they did when that came out etc etc. I think that this is something that PA fans want to see and would be willing to pay for it seems. More of their other stuff like Autonoma and their other side projects would certainly be welcome.

[mcdoodle42]

That's fair enough I suppose. I still feel that it's pretty cheeky, and apparently against Kickstarters rules...

"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."

Surely this can only be described as open ended goals.

[Ste]

I dunno, they are promising to produce more content. That's an end goal right?

I'm conscious that I'm starting to sound like a fan boi here. I am a fan but I'm also just playing the devils advocate.

[Blucey]

They must be minted already as well. I dunno. This just seems like greedy cunts to me. That said, I'm coloured by the fact that their shitty XBLA game was 1600M$P when most XBLA games back then were 400-800.

[Ste]

Yeah I think they are loaded but it looks to me that they are replacing one revenue stream; ads and art design work with another; crowd sourced funding which then let's them concentrate on what PA originally was and thats the comics and they're own stuff/ideas i.e their games and shit.

The more I think about it the more I think its such a good idea. Not sure many other sites could make it a success though.

[mcdoodle42]

I wouldn't say that many other sites have the same fan base that PA has. The real problems that I have are A: It's a ton of money. I don't know how much revenue their ads make them a year, but they are asking for a fuckton of money, and B: they're going to do it every year. Every. Damn. Year. And that just feels like money grabbing.