Who are the latest nerd-favorite creators rattling the Kickstarter donation cup? Why, Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade!
“Wait a minute,” you say, “the Penny Arcade guys seem like they’re doing pretty okay! They’ve got a whole little cottage industry of comics, books, web series, conventions and video games going!”
True, but the Penny Arcade guys aren’t seeking donations to fund any sort of specific project — instead their Kickstarter campaign aims to make their website ad free. If they reach $525,000 in donations they’ll take down all the ads on the front page, and if they reach $999,999 they’ll take down every ad on every page.
Aside from less ads, info is sketchy on what exactly fans will be getting in return for the sizeable pile of cash Penny Arcade’s asking for. A timeline has been posted with rewards promised at certain intervals, but so far what most of those rewards are going to be remains a mystery. The few rewards we do know about are somewhat underwhelming — $825,000 to revive an old podcast? They must really hate doing that podcast if they need almost a million bucks to drag the recording equipment back out of the closet.
There are also a few other tidbits of information that would be nice to have. Like, how much does Penny Arcade make from ads in the first place? Are Gabe and Tycho asking us to give them a raise with the $999,999 figure? Also, how often is that Kickstarter donation cup going to have to come back out?
I dunno, personally I have no issue with ads. If it weren’t for web ads I’d have to go and get a real job. I don’t run any sort of ad block — haven’t since I got high-speed Internet years ago and loading ads was no longer a hassle. That said, I realize plenty of people still hate ads, so what do you folks think? Another bold, innovative initiative from the Penny Arcade guys, or are they asking too much of their rabid fan base for too little in return?
via PC Gamer
face kicking via Penny Arcade