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Penny Arcade's CGW Interview

Posted by Zonk on Tue Apr 18, 2006 12:18 PM
from the tycho-do-you-like-me-check-yes-or-no dept.
PC Games (Games) It's funny. Laugh.
1up is running an interview with the Penny Arcade guys, originally done for Computer Gaming World. They talk comics, the industry, Harlan Ellison, and (of course) games. From the article: "Jerry Holkins: My favorite quote comes from this one strip where I say 'Fetch it, and gaze upon your ruined world.' I'm not sure that anybody else really pays attention to that particular comic strip, but it's called 'They Hailed From Canadon,' and it's just this...it starts out in this weird, Penny Arcade way, but it has these spacefaring dogmen that for some reason really do it for me. I don't know why."
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[+] Penny Arcade Speaks at MIT 88 comments
An anonymous reader writes "Gabe and Tycho of Penny Arcade recently gave a talk at MIT. One attendee recorded the event and has made available a transcript of the talk, in which the guys talk about the comic and various related topics. The Penny Arcade crew always puts on a good show with their own brand of witty humor and disarming personalities and this is certainly no exception. If you have never seen them talk in person it may lose a little in the translation from speech to text, but still a funny read in any case."
[+] Tycho and Gabe Respond to Your Questions 221 comments
We passed on your questions to Tycho and Gabe of Penny Arcade a while back, and today we have their answers. Tycho primarily answered the questions with consultation from Gabe and discusses the PA comic creation process, their views on the industry, and the possibility of an animated Penny Arcade venture. As usual, they do so with wit and verve: "I am not an industry analyst, so I dont feel like I'm qualified to talk about ebb and flow of hojillion dollar industries. However, it is easy to imagine a universe where small developers don't huddle in blasted out wreckage, waiting to be vivisected by the the next wave of EA Scion-class sawbots." Read on to check out their responses.
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  • Hey, while we're on the subject of PA. Would someone please fix the PA Slashdot sidebar? Or is PAs feed screwed up?

  • Dear Penny Arcade (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Radres (776901) on Tuesday April 18 2006, @12:34PM (#15150874)
    Why are your forums always down, and why does it take until 2pm central time each day to get the image up for the comic?

    • Re:Dear Penny Arcade (Score:5, Funny)

      by Daravon (848487) on Tuesday April 18 2006, @12:57PM (#15151097)
      You could always write to them and request a refund.
    • Why are your forums always down, and why does it take until 2pm central time each day to get the image up for the comic?

      Because it is free, expect what you pay for.

    • Re:Dear Penny Arcade (Score:4, Informative)

      by Sentry21 (8183) on Tuesday April 18 2006, @04:02PM (#15152654) Journal
      My questions are relating to the website - Why is it so slow, why did you switch to Rails, who wrote your search function such that it is incapable of locating a comic even if you type in a word in the comic title, and so on.

      I want to know how much they paid for this terrible, worthless site redesign that they got, because if there's a market for shitty sites, I want to know what I should be charging.

      Don't get me wrong, I love the comic, but ever since the new design came around, it's been almost completely impossible to find any of the old content.

  • They Hailed from Canidon (Score:5, Informative)

    by XCorvis (517027) on Tuesday April 18 2006, @12:38PM (#15150907)
    It's actually "Canidon" and here's a link to the comic: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/05/21 [penny-arcade.com]
    • This is actually one of my favorite Penny Arcade comics of all time, I laughed so hard the first time I saw it. And it's exactly like Jerry says, something about this strip is just so funny and stylish in a distinctly Penny Arcade sort of way.

  • Another PA interview that didn't get much press... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tprime (673835) on Tuesday April 18 2006, @01:23PM (#15151323)
    Jive Magazine got an interview (and a custom magazine cover) with the PA guys a few months ago that I submitted but was rejected. Has some interesting stuff on the origin of their names. Check near a third of the way down when they explain how Mike became Gabrial after being called Deadly Peach....

    Here [jivemagazine.com]

  • No Ellison Schtick (Score:4, Interesting)

    by fm6 (162816) on Tuesday April 18 2006, @01:23PM (#15151324) Homepage Journal
    So we went to this thing, and I didn't know what to expect. And we watched him sit in on a couple panels, and knew immediately that he was exactly sort of like us, in that he was an a**hole. [laughs] It's just that we're assholes in the comic, and not in real life. He maintained that shtick even to his fans, which I thought was sort of weird. A lot of times people will come to meet us at a show, and ask me to flip them off or something, and it feels weird. I try to be nice to people when I meet them. But Harlan, that's not his gig. And I told Jerry, I said, "You know, we're going to have to be onstage with this guy here in a little bit." Because we were co-guests of honor, I guess, if you can have that. And just having watched him for a couple minutes, I knew that he would not like that. I knew that once we got onstage, he would try to do something to belittle us. Somehow he would just have to take the spotlight; that's just the kind of guy he was.
    If these guys had known anything about Ellison, they'd know his assholedom is not a schtick. Everything he says or does is a melodrama, with him as the long-suffering hero. That's why I find his work unreadable, even though he's basically a talented and imaginative writer. And it's why the SF community is full of people who avoid his company at any cost. It's amazing that he has any fans.
    • If these guys had known anything about Ellison, they'd know his assholedom is not a schtick. Everything he says or does is a melodrama, with him as the long-suffering hero.

      To paraphrase Clark's Law:
      "Any sufficiently advance melodrama is indistinguishable from assholedom."

      Actually, I really like his work (though I haven't read much of his from after the late 70s), but he is truly irritating in person, though I had a friend who really loved that about him. I guess its the lack of caring for social convention
    • Everything he says or does is a melodrama, with him as the long-suffering hero. That's why I find his work unreadable

      I've known a lot of writers, and you can't judge the writing by the person. Some of the greatest jerks are very good writers, many very nice people are terrible writers. But the very best writers are usually secure enough not to need to be assholes. Harlan is obviously terribly insecure, he's done a lot, but was capable of much more, and he knows it.

      • I've known a lot of writers, and you can't judge the writing by the person. Some of the greatest jerks are very good writers, many very nice people are terrible writers.
        Perfectly true, and not just for writers. And indeed, Ellison is basically a good writer. Unfortunately he abuses melodrama in his writing much as he does in real life. That spoils a lot of fiction that could have been very good.
    • I've met my share of SF writers (and some other writers in general). There were some good ones and some bad. For example, Robert Aspirin WAS (I stress was because its been a long time) a drunkard and a womanizer. He used his fame to get into women's pants as often as possible, and I find that horribly objectionable. Pat Elrod is a very sweet woman, but some people can't stand her which I don't understand. RL Stein seemed to be very nice and relaxed, but of course, I didn't really call him out on anythi
      • You cite one writer I don't care for, and two whose work I don't know. In any case, their work is all I really want to know about any writer. Let their private lives be private. I wouldn't care about HE's assholedness if it didn't taint everything he did: his editing, his TV ventures, and most especially his writing.

        One of my favorite SF writers is Robert Heinlein, who was arguably the greatest writer of the genre in his era, and who did a lot to define the conventions of modern SF. I never met the dude

        • wow! I couldn't have said it better myself. In fact, I used to be a big fan of Robert Aspirin's work, and now I just can't bring myself to read it.

          I'm also a huge fan of Heinlein. though I have a feeling I'd get along very well with him. from my readings of his I find I share alot of his philosophies. (scary though that is).

          Ira
      • Robert Aspirin WAS a drunkard and a womanizer. He used his fame to get into women's pants as often as possible

        Dude, you say that like it's a bad thing.

        Seriously, what's objectionable? If it's consensual, what's the big deal?

        After all, isn't that what fame and fortune are for?
    • It's always annoying when you learn that, just because somebody is talented it doesn't mean they're a good person. I've meet some talented people who are great (Gabe and Tycho are two of them), and I've meet some real dicks.

      The funny (sad?) thing is, Ellison "friends" think the same thing. I remember talking with one (who I will not name here, but (s)he's *very* close to Ellison) who said: "He's a bit of a dick."

  • Harlan is a lot like me (and many other geeks), in that we can often be opinionated, blunt assholes who insist their current view is the right one, and will defend it with passion and vigor. It isn't because we don't think we could be wrong, but because we rarely offer opinions without some serious thought behind them. This turns off a lot of "ordinary" folks (and even some of the geekier ones), who are so insecure about their own beliefs that they can't really wrap their head around someone else who is s

    • Re:A few words about Harlan... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Rallion (711805) on Tuesday April 18 2006, @02:24PM (#15151865) Journal
      Did you read what happened, though? Harlan started it, not them. Asking somebody if they even went to high school (with the obvious intent of implying that the other person is a moron) up on stage in front of a ton of people isn't exactly what I'd call 'nice.'
      • Asking someone why they aren't putting on their jester's cap isn't necessarily nice, either. Oh, they left that part out of the CGW article, but it's on their web page:

        http://www.penny-arcade.com/2005/09/26 [penny-arcade.com]
        So Tycho and I are up in front of the audience with Harlen, and Hank (the con organizer) presents us with some jester hats ("Fool's caps"). Tycho and I put ours on because we are polite, but Harlen - who is apparently too cool for school - refuses to wear his. I turn to him and say, "Don't you want your
        • Ahh, it turns out I didn't read Harlan's second entry. Here's his further elaboration of the events: MY SECOND, AND FINAL, WORDS ON THIS MATTER What the surly teenager posted on his website as having happened, did NOT, in fact, transpire in that way. Like Mr. Tycho's "gut feeling" or "assumption" or "telepathic intuition" or whatever it was, everything the surly teenager posted was HIS perception of an interchange that lasted for less than two minutes. His assumptions and interpretations are his own, an

        • Re:A few words about Harlan... (Score:4, Informative)

          by SirBruce (679714) on Tuesday April 18 2006, @05:41PM (#15153246) Homepage
          Damn formatting:

          MY SECOND, AND FINAL, WORDS ON THIS MATTER

          What the surly teenager posted on his website as having happened, did NOT, in fact, transpire in that way. Like Mr. Tycho's "gut feeling" or "assumption" or "telepathic intuition" or whatever it was, everything the surly teenager posted was HIS perception of an interchange that lasted for less than two minutes. His assumptions and interpretations are his own, and he's entitled to them. Weird and sad and skewed as they may be.

          But for him, for Mr. Tycho, and for all of you, I am telling you they are no more accurate than MY understanding of the matter. I don't expect the surly teenager to pause even a moment to consider that his interpretations are wonky, he's incapable, I suspect, of assuming responsibility for ANYTHING he does, like some mook standing in front of Judge Judy. And he certainly isn't going to cop to fronting someone who meant him no harm, not in front of his worshipful gamer-tots. But this is the bottom line:

          I did not know them, I had no negative feelings toward them, and I was neither rude nor discourteous to them.

          Never insulted them. Never wanted to insult them. Didn't do it consciously or reflexively. Just didn't do it. ALL insults and disparagement came from the surly teenager. Mr. Tycho shouldn't be defending his associate's bad behavior; after all, Mr. Tycho was standing right there beside me.

          My assertion is demonstrably more accurate than what the surly teenager posted to arouse his adolescent admirers. As verified by the CHAIRMAN OF THE FOOLSCAP CONVENTION, Hank Graham, who has stated very clearly THERE WAS NO JESTER'S HAT FOR ME. If that is so, then all that follows in the surly teenager's memoir is equally as skewed, equally as misinterpreted, and equally as unfair to me.

          We were in each other's company less than two minutes. We were all four--Gabe & Tycho, Hank Graham, myself--on the stage in a small room. They were making "gifts" to the Guests of Honor. The first was an orange peeler. I did the expected "take" and looked at this small plastic kitchen implement with mock humor and confusion. I then got a SECOND one, intended for Kathy Roche-Zujko (my ex-secretary, who now lives in Bellevue, with whom we hung during the weekend, and who had picked Susan and me up at Sea-Tac). It was a thankyou from the ConCommittee for her good offices. With TWO of these items, I continued to do the aversion shtick, edging backward toward the audience, past the surly teenager, with one of the orange peelers behind my back and, openly to the entire room, slipped it to someone in the audience. Everyone laughed.

          I then returned to my place next to the surly teenager, as Hank Graham placed jester's caps (signifying "foolscap") on Mr. Tycho and the surly teenager. Mr. Graham then handed me a lined yellow tablet in a plastic sleeve--foolscap, in the classic meaning of the word--and said, "Here's YOUR foolscap." I am a writer. Getting foolscap was appropriate. I am neither a clown nor an asshole, as so many of the PA adolescents who have no idea of my fifty-plus years' work perceive. It was fitting and proper that I should get a pad of ... well ... foolscap.

          The surly teenager then asked me, not very loudly, "Don't you want to wear your hat?"

          As there WAS NO HAT for me, I pretty much let slide the gibe.

          Well, two aspects of the moment that followed:

          1) Someone in the audience said something to ME, DIRECTLY, that I now understand as not having been heard or linked properly, by the surly teenager. I can't remember what it was, but it was a remark made my someone I knew, in a jocular vein, and I tossed over my shoulder the pro forma fuckyou or gofuckyerself or whatever it was. It was no more serious or rude a fuckyou than a Bart Simpson bite me or eat my shorts.

          But it wasn't addressed to the surly teenager, who had already made snotty remarks at me, not once, but twice.

          If the surly teenager misheard and thought he was EV
          • This comes down to a he-said, she-said sort of thing. Harlan is a known prick with a gigantic ego. This gives his side of the account...but really, this guy is wrapped in a fantasy world where he is the center. He perceives himself as victimized...totally innocent which you know is utter bs. His whole account is riddled with insults towards the PA guys and their audience. He can't understand that plenty of intelligent, articulate people read and enjoy those comics (and playing video games). He believe
            • The entire story seems to be one part description of events, 9 parts "I'm better than them". Any respect he may win by clearing up the events that happened is surely squandered by childish self-aggrandizing and meaningless putdowns.
    • did you graduate college?
      did you graduate high school?

      did you RTFA? haha
    • Many SF writers are opinionated. None have quite as nasty a reputation as Ellison. I don't know why you got along with him, but you're definitely in the minority. And many SF writers who were screwed over by his mishandling of Finally, Dangerous Visions (and worse, by his inability to admit that he was doing anything wrong) utterly loath him.

      Since SF is something I read, rather than write, I could forgive his immaturity — except that it leaks over into his fiction. He's spoiled many promising storie

    • who are so insecure about their own beliefs that they can't really wrap their head around someone else who is so secure in theirs

      I'd rather be around someone who admits they are wrong than someone who blindly believes in their own infalibility.

      Or rather... I perfer people who take this view "I believe myself to be correct now, but given extra information or changes in stuations I understand and accept I could be horribly wrong in the future."

      Being an ass and strongly believing yourself to be correct... does
    • "Harlan is a lot like me (and many other geeks), in that we can often be opinionated, blunt assholes who insist their current view is the right one, and will defend it with passion and vigor."

      And now you know why you don't get invited out to parties.

      I have a lot of "geek friends" and, while I can normally deal with this, I can tell you that you're not turning off "ordinary folks" because *their* insecure. You're just coming off as an asshole.

      It's fine to have beliefs but, right or wrong, you're going t

    • This turns off a lot of "ordinary" folks, who are so insecure about their own beliefs that they can't really wrap their head around someone else who is so secure in theirs.

      No, actually, it turns people off because you're an asshole. It has nothing to do with how secure other people are or aren't. But it does have a lot to do with how secure you are (but not in the way that you think).

      And those people don't like to be shown to be wrong, either; it just makes them hurt and hostile.

      So, because you;re shown t
  • "...it starts out in this weird, Penny Arcade way, but it has these spacefaring dogmen that for some reason really do it for me. I don't know why."
    Perhaps it is because you like to pee on the carpet.
    • Actually I thought that was hillarious. There's something about watching self-important fucks getting nuked on a public forum that brings a smile to my face.

      That's why slashdot is such a great read as well come to think of it...
      • It wasn't the Star Wars thing that made me pissed off, but they way these guys compared Harlan's "schtick" to their comics. They're insisting that Harlan's angry public persona is just an act, and criticize him for not confining his bitterness to his work. Fuck them.
        • Meh. He's a jackass, and he decided, in public, to try and get rough with two people who make their living by being smartasses. He got what he had coming.

          Personally, I can't stand him. If he was half as good as he thinks he is, that attitude would be one thing, but as it stands it's pretty sorry.
        • No, I think they're quite aware that Harlan's angry public persona is nothing of the sort - it's his personality, not a persona. Harlan is (or was, in his day) a great and innovative author and editor. He deserves all of the props he receives for his writing. His also a flamming ahole, and he deserves all of the abuse he gets for his arrogance and his complete lack of common decency. I can respect and revere his work while still holding him in utter contempt as a person.

    • Re:Disappointing (Score:5, Informative)

      by fallen1 (230220) on Tuesday April 18 2006, @02:23PM (#15151852) Homepage
      I don't usually air personal material on the 'net (well, not much) but I met Harlan Ellison at DragonCon [dragoncon.org] two years ago and he IS a big fucking prick. One of my best friends not only had lunch with that cocksucker but used her own personal car to drive Harlan and his friends to lunch (at Harlan's own request) and THEN, later that day, he treated her like total shit when all she asked for was a picture of Harlan [dragoncon.org] and his wife. Man, I'll be honest, if I had had a bat or other weapon of personal destruction I'd be in jail because I would have beat the shit out of that asshat. He treated my friend with THAT much disrespect, disdain, and total disregard for her as a human being. Harlan's wife on the other hand was super nice. She deserves an award for putting up with that little peckerwood all these years.
      • YES. He's a huge prick and an amazing asshole. It is NOT A SCHTICK and it does disrespect to Harlan and anyone to whom he was genuinely an amazing asshole to suggest that it is an act along the lines of Penny Arcade comics.
      • Harlan is a pisser, not a pissant. Huge difference.
        • no hes a raging asshole. he is well know to be a total dick to everyone and to feel his writing is superior to everything out there.

          There are many storys on the web of him berating announcers, hosts, guests, and even the fans in the audience. Why people look up to him I dont know. If he wasnt famous he would be that old guy who everyone stayed away from and died alone in their house and wouldnt be found for 3-4 months cause even their kids wouldnt want to talk to them.

        • And so subserviant too. I'm suprised he didn't bend over and wash their sandles while he was at it (religious reference, omg).

          Theres a line between being a friendly interviewer, and sucking up to the people your giving the interview to.

    • A big part of it is...just getting into it. You have to get to know the characters and the style, and you'll start to appreciate it. That's not really something that everybody can/wants to do, so, like anything, it's not for everybody.
    • I agree that many of their comics are unfunny - it's just when they get a good one in it's genius. "Dear lord, bless the fucking nub. Bless him right in his stupid face!"
    • I happen to find PA very funny (well, sometimes its just funny), but since I dont really care for forums (nor network tv, for that matter), Maybe im not the typical PA fan. But nobody that i've found follows the games industry as closely as I do. And they usually have interesting commentary. I'm not really interested in the PA fans who think chuck norris is a demigod.

    • Re:I don't get it (Score:5, Insightful)

      by PFI_Optix (936301) on Tuesday April 18 2006, @03:02PM (#15152185) Journal
      PA's humor is one of those things that carries quite a few prerequisites.

      You have to be a fairly avid and experienced gamer to catch even half the allusions they make. You have to like sarcastic and satirical humor, as well as be able to understand and appreciate more juvenile humor (like the frequency of the word "wang" in their strips for a while).

      There are a lot of PA strips that I don't laugh at, even when I see the humor. A few of them I just shrug my shoulders and move on to something more interesting. But they get out at least a couple a month that really make me laugh, and that's enough for me to spend a few minutes reading.
    • "PA is about as funny as any other comic strip one would find in their newspaper. They just happen to concentrate on games."

      Marmaduke:
      First panel- Kid: "Hey Marmaduke! I'm playing a video game!"
      Second panel- Marmaduke sits in front of TV.
      Third panel- Kid: "No fair! You beat my high score!"

      Family Circus:
      First- Boy: "I don't want to eat my corn flakes! I want to play video games!"
      Second- Dad: "Well, pretend it is a video game!"
      Third- Dad: "First one to finish their bowl ..." Whole Family: "Wins!"

      Yeah, PA's

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