This post reminds me of such first-page classics as:
But yeah, they’re still doing the real damage. Even if you think they wrote the comic after they realised their mistake, in isolation it’s as damning about EA as the Gerstmann comic was about GameSpot. And for anyone who just bookmarks Librator - Penny Arcade or subscribes to the comic RSS feed, that’s all they’re getting. Even I don’t read the news posts anymore.
While depending on the games those publishers make, and your “bad boy, I tell it like it is” rebel image to make your own money. Which is hilarious, really.
Or did I miss the cartoon where they take a principled stand, and refuse to review or discuss games by the big evil publishers? Is it “Armageddon Empires talk, 24/7” from now on?
I respect the PA guys a lot, but the comic does seem like it’s doing them damage. If they wanted to make the same point/joke that they did in the blog post (i.e., we made a foolish and embarrassing mistake) then the punchline of the strip should have been along those lines, not the “EA tried to bribe us and we’re sticking it to them” one. Maybe in Monday’s strip they’ll intercept a kidney transplant donation and decide to play catch with it.
They’ve always said that the blog entry and the comic must be taken together, but this really tests that assertion. They should start reprinting the comic-related post on the same page as the strip.
What the hell? My copy of Orcs and Elves didn’t come with any custom wand-shaped stylus. EA SCREWS THE CONSUMER YET AGAIN!!!
Oh, and yeah, that was a pretty big screw up on PA’s part. You would think that they would at least have an intern assigned to reading all the letters that come with the shit they receive to avoid stuff like this. I mean, this can’t be the first time someone’s donated a game or item to their charity. That said, they seem to be doing the right thing by coming out with it, and I’d assume that they will try to contact the winner of the cookie contest and buy him a Wii or something in exchange for returning the DS.
Yes the screwed up.
Yes they could have maybe explained it better… (maybe Monday’s comic)
Yes maybe they should expect a donation to the Charity from a Major company to arrive after the charity run is pretty much over. Oh wait. Ya know, if I was expecting something from a major game company, I might expect it at the beginning, or maybe receive it before the big dinner they do… or maybe before Christmas? But that would imply the big game company is really interested in giving to the charity they would do it at the beginning not at the end.
But then there is this nagging piece of my mind that Marketing got wind of the major gift (oooh a DS…) and decided that instead of sending it to them when they are talking about Valve, and Bungee and all their great gifts… Lets give it to them when it is over with and the season is done. When there is no news to talk about. That way they can talke about our gift a shit load. Nothing else to talk about right? A DS signed by Carmak might be talked about for a week or longer during the slow time of the year! Hell we want that kind of talk. So lets hold off and send it after Christmas so the guys can talk about us for a long time and how cool we are. Not during the normal time the Charity is being run because then we wold have to compete.
Now there is probably some other reason for the DS to come AFTER the chairty is pretty much at the end. Who knows the reason. But why in the hell does my sick twisted mind lean towards the above scenario?
Who knows. I would love to know why it arrived after the charity is pretty much over for the year.
Edit : My goal in life is to get so big that I run a charity that makes over a million bucks a year for hospitals and I screw up like they did. You know. I could live with myself with that kind of mistake. Granted I would be an idiot. But I would have done more for the world than I have done so far.
Barking dog. (well, if dogs barked “marketing! marketing!”)
There is absolutely nothing in the newspost to support the assertion that it arrived that late. My impression from reading the article was that it sat around for months untouched, then they got the idea to send it out as a prize for this contest, then they were like, well, we don’t need this packing box anymore so let’s throw it out, hey what’s this letter inside, ohhhhhh shit.
I read the part about they found the letter in the bottom of the box to mean that it was recent. Maybe they kept the box around until just recently. I figured they would of tossed the box and its whatever after liberating the game & DS. But maybe you are right.
It’s a Nintendo DS. A $125 videogame machine. Which they gave away for free to a contest winner. Instead of any one of the hundreds and hundreds of DSs that went to sick children as a result of their charity.
A little perspective would be nice.
Yeah, they’ve got karmic kkkapital, so what if they treat the work of some people at EA like trash because they had a headrush to shit on the company for the amusement of anyone who despises the company?
It’s only one DS offered up in an attempt by the largest (and proportionately evilest) gaming company to treat Gabe and Tycho like they’re fucking adults.
Given that this DS was signed by John Carmack, it’s quite possible that an appropriately rich/benevolent id fanboy would donate a handsome sum or so for it.
I think the point here is that a charitable gesture was misrepresented due to an ideological knee-jerk and the follow-up apology weakened by an need to maintain a cool and edgy attitude. Whilst this incident is certainly not the end of the world, a charity should treat donations respectfully regardless of their size or source.
Come back and start lecturing people about good karma after you’ve started paying for the games you play, okay, douchebag?
I agree with your last part, but their news post explains in detail exactly why they didn’t recognize it as a donation to charity.
As far as an “ideological knee-jerk” goes: the prevailing opinion here seems to be that “We fucked up bad. BAD.” is somehow not acceptable as an “apology” from the site, because not enough people will read it. (Still not clear on the logic there). So saying that the Penny Arcade guys are just in it for edgy street cred, and that the bulk of their readers have too much of an attention deficit disorder to read anything that doesn’t have pictures attached – apparently these are acceptable assumptions to make. But assuming that EA would be sending them promotional material instead of a charitable donation is somehow unforgivable.
The end result, as far as I can see: some contest-winning reader got a free DS, EA had their charitable contribution acknowledged on a website read by millions of easily-suggestible videogame fans, the creators of the site acknowledged their mistake and made a comic strip, and a bunch of sick kids also got DSs and other games. I’m not seeing who loses here. It sounds more like a lot of people really really eager to see the PA guys get knocked down a few pegs.
(And I guess I should make it clear my title’s not referring to ynhotna).
What in the world are you hoping to imply with this misspelling?
Pictured is my collection, and my games.
I rarely read PA - and on the occasions I do it’s normally just the comic and not the news article so my perspective may be a little skewed here - but I imagine that EA are not keen to see their charitable gesture represented by a comic that on a shallow read suggests the gift is actually a bribe for positive review scores. Hopefully they won’t be discouraged from further acts of miscellaneous benevolence.
I do trust that the PA guys will be more diligent in future, though.
Really, that’s what you got from the comic? It was just a jab at free merch in general. There’s that infamous Halo bag that various publications got for Halo3. Honestly, it’s no where near as “damning” as the Gerstman comic. Kotaku regularly posts bullshit stories about their swag or free penis shaped wii mote or whatever.
Let us all take a moment of silence for the damage done to a soulless corporate* entity: EA.
*Is that redundant?
Look at that TV and the setup. No wonder you hate games so much, you don’t get to play them right.
The setup? The stand? Whatever Christopher Lowell.
As for the TV, I’m waiting for you to put your old toys on Ebay so I can pay fifty dollars for an HD one.
Bingo. Cool and Edgy is what PA is all about; it’s their bread and butter. It’s why they appeal to a certain demographic and it allows them to keep printing money hats. The moment their commentary becomes sincere and honest will be the very same day the Ur’quan Masters at EA stop trying to take over the gaming universe. As an aside, I’m sure PA and EA both donate monies to various charities for the exact same reason. It makes them look good to the public, and it gives them various tax breaks; nothing really noble there.
Christ, worm why are you clenching your wiener so hard in that photo; you look like you’re gonna tear it off or sumthin’
Nice stonewashed jeans, McFly.