PC Gamer's opening "Letter to the Editor" has always been off-the-cuff and informal; the place where the editor mulls something out, whether it's Uwe Boll's latest disaster or the excessive number of WW II-themed games to hit the market. It was so when Rob Smith was editor, and if anything it's become more so under Greg Vederman, whose writing has always tended toward the self-effacing and jocular. It's the editor's opinion, not the magazine's, and you don't even have to read between the lines to get that from this letter; it's pretty much there in boldface.

What does the letter say that so many of you are up in arms about? Well, let's run it down, shall we?:

1. Greg Vederman finds a large number of Gabe and Tycho's scripts entertaining, and recognizes their talent.

2. Most of the people he knows in the industry worship the ground Gabe and Tycho walk on.

3. Including almost everyone at PC Gamer.

4. Vederman himself doesn't find every strip funny, for which he has earned the derision of all the folks mentioned in 2 and 3.

5. Oh, and the game, which the cover article is actually about, looks and sounds "really damn fun."

The last paragraph says, "...can you imagine what will happen if my worst fears are realized and the issue ends up selling poorly? That's right, I'll FINALLY have the ammunition I need to convince Josh that he's delusional! Wow, it'd almost be worth it."

Notably, y'all skipped past "my worst fears are realized" in favor of "it'd almost be worth it."

Which is a joke.

That so many of you seem to think Gabe and Tycho can't take a single half-joking detraction-from someone who admits their work has the admiration of the rest of his magazine-serves largely to prove the point Vederman makes about the cult-like fanaticism some feel towards PA.

If you insist on taking this seriously, I imagine you're quite shocked about Greg admitting to having sex with his friend's mother earlier in the letter, never mind the reports of PC Gamer cannibalizing one of their interns!

PC Gamer's editor-in-chief is hoping his own magazine sells poorly to make a shallow point? Are you familiar with Occam's Razor, guys?!

How badly did PC Gamer mistreat it's poor subject? So badly that I, who had never felt that much curiosity before, have read through the entirety of the Penny Arcade archive over the last three days. I'd glanced at it before, felt- gasp! Betrayal!- much like Vederman that it was only inermittently funny. I actually like it more than I did before, for having had my curiosity piqued by PC Gamer.

Engage thought processes, dammit. You're making me embarassed to share space with you.

(Somebody Else's) Thoughts on the whole Kerfuffle

I'm a PC wrote:

Thoughts on the whole Kerfuffle

Well put. Funny how everyone bemoans the gaming media as disingenuous and sellouts, but when a guy gives his honest opinion that doesn't jive with the norm, he gets strung up for it.

Some stuff i didn't bother reading

Like this, it just isn't worth wasting my time to read.

buzzvang wrote:

I'm a PC wrote:

Thoughts on the whole Kerfuffle

Well put. Funny how everyone bemoans the gaming media as disingenuous and sellouts, but when a guy gives his honest opinion that doesn't jive with the norm, he gets strung up for it.

Yes, that was an extremely well written post. Bravo for english majors.

PC Gamer's editor-in-chief is hoping his own magazine sells poorly to make a shallow point? Are you familiar with Occam's Razor, guys?!

This is a reply from Penny Arcade last week.

Quote:

So the latest PC gamer should be arriving on news stands any day now if it hasn't already. This particular issue has a very early look at our game, On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One. They actually sent one of their guys (Dan Stapleton) up to Canada to visit Hothead and get a first hand look at the game in development. Dan apparently liked what he saw because the resulting article is actually really positive.

On the other hand, the editor makes it clear in his column that he hates Penny Arcade, but not so much that he won't use us to sell his magazine.

Here is all the original unedited artwork for each of the covers. You can see I actually only drew four of them. They created a fifth by combining Gabe and Tycho. I assume they figured "why sell four copies of the same magazine to every PA fan when we can sell five!"