A Penny Arcade strip you like and why

Dean · 2011-02-01T10:12:48.000Z

They hone their ping pong skills.

mrmolecule88 · 2011-02-01T16:02:20.000Z

The dickwolf controversy has reignited, apparently.

Go, and rape no more.

sinfony · 2011-02-01T16:07:55.000Z

Mike should probably try to interact with the public a wee bit less.

JoshV · 2011-02-01T16:26:46.000Z

The original comic was in poor taste, sure, and my guess is so is the corresponding T-shirt (I wouldn’t know never looked at its design), but the amount of controversy is utterly insane. Of course at this point, those two guys have enough fans and money to basically just ignore it – which is what they probably should do.

Kalle · 2011-02-01T16:30:08.000Z

The original comic wasn’t celebrating rape in any way and the people objecting to it were being ridiculous. But when they reacted by offering dickwolf merchandise… yeah, that was in extremely poor taste.

Jason_McCullough · 2011-02-01T17:16:11.000Z

Yet funny!

erikg88 · 2011-02-01T17:34:34.000Z

JoshV:

The original comic was in poor taste, sure, and my guess is so is the corresponding T-shirt (I wouldn’t know never looked at its design), but the amount of controversy is utterly insane. Of course at this point, those two guys have enough fans and money to basically just ignore it – which is what they probably should do.

I think Mike’s response makes more sense. Since they’ve got this phenomenon in PAX that’s meant to be a haven for gamers, they’ve got a responsibility to not close drop a portcullis in front of those who aren’t comfortable with the kind of sensibility that leads to a “dickwolf.”

The original comic wasn’t celebrating rape in any way

I was offended by the comic not because it celebrated rape, but because it made a joke of it, which makes it seem less serious. I imagine this is why most people were offended.

Mrenda · 2011-02-01T17:42:48.000Z

erikg88:

I was offended by the comic not because it celebrated rape, but because it made a joke of it, which makes it seem less serious. I imagine this is why most people were offended.

You must hate Mike Meyers. Making fun of eighties hair metal, sixties superspies and axe murderers. The holy triumvirate of Canadian comedy.

belgerog · 2011-02-01T17:42:53.000Z

I have to admit I wanted to buy the Dickwolves shirt. Some of the negative reactions I read around the Internet are insane, and the amount of self-righteousness is incensing. They just shouldn’t have responded to that initial blog post some time ago, I think this is was a non-issue from the beginning.

Jamie_Madigan · 2011-02-01T17:43:27.000Z

Mike’s whole “hey, if this offends even just a little you then send me your name and I’ll blacklist you from PAX for your own good” message came across as pretty assholish, though.

belgerog · 2011-02-01T17:48:38.000Z

Jamie Madigan:

Mike’s whole “hey, if this offends even just a little you then send me your name and I’ll blacklist you from PAX for your own good” message came across as pretty assholish, though.

To be fair he didn’t direct that to people who were offended, but specifically to people who claimed that they were conflicted about going to PAX. Whether or not he mishandled the situation earlier, by now I think he compromised as much as he could.

Relevant quote:

Gabe:

Now for some people removing the shirt isn’t enough. They don’t want to come to PAX or support PA because of the strip or because they think Tycho and I are perpetuating some kind of rape culture and that’s a different matter. First off it assumes a lot about us that simply isn’t true but more importantly it’s not something I can fix. I’ve gotten a couple messages from people saying they are “conflicted” about coming to PAX. My response to them is: don’t come. Just don’t do it. In fact give me your name and I’ll refund your money if you already bought a ticket. I’ll even put you on a list so that if, in a moment of weakness you try to by a ticket we can cancel the order.

src (scroll down)

Anders_Hallin · 2011-02-01T18:05:12.000Z

There was no reason to get upset with the first comic, and I haven’t seen many people criticizing it. Second comic was stupid and unnecessary, and the t-shirt did pretty much exactly what a few (incorrectly) criticized about the first comic.
Good move to remove it by Gabe.

rhinohelix · 2011-02-01T18:30:38.000Z

mrmolecule88:

The dickwolf controversy has reignited, apparently.

Go, and rape no more.

Yeah, that’s a real Who’s Who of the Internet there.

Day 1: Sally sees Johnny wearing a “Hamster Dance” T-shirt in Biology I. Thinks it promotes animal cruelty and posts a sourface .jpg on MySpace.

Day 3: Sally’s friend Judy sees this and agrees with her. Posts about it on her Friendster blog.

Day 7: A hot girl at another school, Jane, breaks the story wide open by posting her Facebook. 7 people like it. Says she wouldn’t go to dance with Johnny if asked. Huge blow.

Mordrak · 2011-02-01T18:47:44.000Z

JoshV:

I wouldn’t know never looked at its design…

It’s floating around. The design wasn’t explicit, but it just said something along the lines of “Dickwolves Survivors Guild” with some kind of phoenix ring with a wolf upside down and dead inside of it (very cartoonish).

That merchandise is not only in poor taste, but really does (or would have) trivialized rape by having a bunch of male gamers running around a convention with it on. So yeah, good on Mike for taking it down… but the attitude with which he did (and jokes on twitter or whatever) definitely suggest it’s not in good spirit.

Edit: Here it is.

garin · 2011-02-01T19:14:31.000Z

You seem to be a bit confused, Mordrak. This is Penny Arcade’s Dickwolves shirt:

The one you posted was created (and sold) by Courtney Stanton, to protest against Penny Arcade.

belgerog · 2011-02-01T19:16:55.000Z

Are you sure that’s the T-Shirt Modrak? I think it was this one:

Edit: Beaten by garin. Exact same image url no less.

Sebmojo · 2011-02-01T19:20:59.000Z

Option One: You say, pretty much verbatim and regardless of the situation’s specifics, “I am sorry. Upsetting you was not my intention. I clearly need to educate myself more about this issue. Thank you for telling me about this and raising my awareness. And again, I’m sorry.” Then, you go and do some research at the library or in some corners of the Internet you apparently haven’t spent time in before, and you educate your damn self. If you’re polite and catch them on a good day, you might even ask the person who originally informed you of your fuck-up for more resources to use in your self-education. Generally, though, you pry open your brain and dump in some new information about the world and the people in it who aren’t exactly like you, and you come out the other side a better person.

This sort of thing rubs me up the wrong way.

Sebmojo · 2011-02-01T19:23:49.000Z

Sebmojo:

This sort of thing rubs me up the wrong way.

But that tumblr link is full of Mike winding people up. Which is kind of his thing. So, eh, self created problem to an extent.

This is funny though:

BlueJackalope · 2011-02-01T19:35:48.000Z

Mordrak:

It’s floating around. The design wasn’t explicit, but it just said something along the lines of “Dickwolves Survivors Guild” with some kind of phoenix ring with a wolf upside down and dead inside of it (very cartoonish).

That merchandise is not only in poor taste, but really does (or would have) trivialized rape by having a bunch of male gamers running around a convention with it on. So yeah, good on Mike for taking it down… but the attitude with which he did (and jokes on twitter or whatever) definitely suggest it’s not in good spirit.

Edit: Here it is.

garin:

You seem to be a bit confused, Mordrak. This is Penny Arcade’s Dickwolves shirt:

The one you posted was created (and sold) by Courtney Stanton, to protest against Penny Arcade.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh snap!

Now Mordak needs a “Dickwolves Survivor’s Guild - Survivor” t-shirt!

Bahimiron · 2011-02-01T19:39:28.000Z

Mordrak:

Edit: Here it is.

You dumb. I mean, if you even bothered to read your own link you’d see that the design you’re linking to was created by the person writing that blog, Courtney Stanton. Money from the sales of the shirt were/are going to rape survivor charities.