PC Gamer editor slams Penny Arcade in same issue as cover story

While doing my lunchtime web comic reading, I saw a pretty long rant on PvPOnline.com about the editor-in-chief of PC Gamer magazine saying some unfriendly things about Penny Arcade in his editorial. You can read the editorial here. Everyone's entitled their own opinion of course, but it seems odd as hell to me for an editor to make statements like that in the exact same magazine that's hyping the new Penny Arcade game with 5 collectable covers and a cover story.

I wonder if/how Penny Arcade themselves might respond to this. A Garfield style comic lampooning themselves in some fashion would be the likely direction.

All in all I'm not sure what to make of it. Was there some bad blood between either party? Is this just a drama play to score browser hits and attention? Do the Cavs have a chance in hell against the Spurs? Discuss!

Jeez, I guess the next article this hard-hitting journalist will write is how chocolate ice-cream sucks.

It's his opinion. Why does he think anyone would give a flying f*ck?

That said, Garfield does suck ass. And Get Fuzzy, while originally quite good, has drunk from the Garfield kool-aid, unfortunately.

This is a reply from Penny Arcade last week.

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!"

If you read closely, though, he's not really slamming the comic, but rather the fact that people seem to think that everything the PA guys produce is spun gold (Edit: but he is being a giant dick about it). Honestly, despite that fact that I sport one of their characters as my avatar, I have to agree -- some people are way too into it. That said, I do think it is far more understandable for people to be obsessed with PA than with Garfield. After all, they are pretty damn hilarious the vast majority of the time.

zeroKFE wrote:

If you read closely, though, he's not really slamming the comic, but rather the fact that people seem to think that everything the PA guys produce is spun gold (Edit: but he is being a giant dick about it). Honestly, despite that fact that I sport one of their characters as my avatar, I have to agree -- some people are way too into it. That said, I do think it is far more understandable for people to be obsessed with PA than with Garfield. After all, they are pretty damn hilarious the vast majority of the time.

Do you know any geeks or comic fans? How is Garlfield any different than Dilbert, Zits, or Get Fuzzy? They all have products that the fans of said product, like to buy. Add in an audience who like to collect things.

I posted about this a few times on the PVP "comments" section, kind of uselessly. The comment by this dude pretty much summed up my opinion on the matter:

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.

HERESY!

I'm a PC wrote:

(Somebody Else's) 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.

I'm with Dysplastic. Give the man a medal! (Dysplastic, i mean)

It's just that it isn't much of an opinion. "PA has rabid fans, I don't get it" One could say that about almost anything.

Meh. I don't subscribe to it, he can write whatever he wants if people keep buying it I guess.

I just like the word "Kerfuffle."

Yeah I am going to have to agree with the comments made by the dude Dysplastic quoted. The fanbois are blowing this way out of proportion and just proves Vedermans point.

Fanboys suck. They drag down the quality of the internet even more than marketing survey popups and porno you can't download.

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.

Funkenpants, you non-fanboy fanboys make me sick.

Personally, I agree with his opinion on Penny-Arcade. It's definitely not in my daily URL list because I don't find most of the comics all that funny. There's potential, but they all too often botch the timing (timing in a comic?) or the punchline. That said, I kind of find what Greg wrote to be in somewhat bad taste, considering their cover story.

Just want to reiterate that I myself didn't write that post, don't want to take credit where credit isn't due. My only ability is that of being able to identify one piece of intelligent writing in a 300+ post thread.

Personally, the only complaint I can make about all this was that I just thought the editor's letter was rather unprofessional. By making the Penny Arcade game a cover story, PC Gamer seems like they're trying to draw the PA fanboys into buying issues (several even due to the alternate "collectable" covers) but at the same time the editor's making a playful attempt at insulting that same demographic. It just struck me as an odd thing to do in the same issue... Okay, you guys can go back to fanboy discussion.

Dysplastic wrote:

Some stuff i didn't bother reading

YAY, Dysplastic! Dysplastic for president!

Just want to reiterate that I myself didn't write that post, don't want to take credit where credit isn't due. My only ability is that of being able to identify one piece of intelligent writing in a 300+ post thread.

Fixed my quote in the previous post.

Duoae wins the thread!

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

buzzvang wrote:

Duoae wins the thread! :)

You know what's funny? I didn't even realise that you were quoting him. I was looking up the thread for this "I'm a PC" guy you were quoting until his avatar hit me.

Edwin wrote:

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

My fault for not being able to sum up my arguments in short concise posts

Dysplastic wrote:
Edwin wrote:

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

My fault for not being able to sum up my arguments in short concise posts :(

Unless you wrote both articles, I'm not talking about you. The thread is fine, I was referring to the article linked in the thread.

souldaddy wrote:
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.

Yeah, but he wrote:

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?!

English major? Are you familiar with Strunk & White's Elements of Style?!

I'm sorry. I get picky. In related news, I think that in slipshod uses of "Occam's Razor" show up too often on the internet.

But yeah, this is a non-event. Thank God for the internet, or there would almost never be any news to fight and worry about!

Edwin wrote:

Unless you wrote both articles, I'm not talking about you. The thread is fine, I was referring to the article linked in the thread.

IMAGE(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1384/533635060_5953bae9d4.jpg)

As an aside, does everyone else remember when little Vede joined PCG? In retrospect, it's like a baby possum growing up to be even uglier.

I actually hold to malice against the guy. I laughed at his stuff for a long time, but I just cancelled my subscription the other day after some 10 years or so. Kind of weird.

Don't feel so bad for the poor PA guys who were being "used" to sell issues of PCG. PA is getting quite a bit of advertising out of the deal as well, so what do they care? You don't think ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY plasters a big photo of the movie du jour on the cover, while giving it a bag fat F grade inside? That's just the way the game is played.

and last time I checked,

ed·i·to·ri·al
–noun
1. an article in a newspaper or other periodical presenting the opinion of the publisher, editor, or editors.

(emphasis mine)

Of course it's just HIS opinion, just like these posts and the other fanboi related posts are those individuals' opinions. The only difference is that this guy has a magazine to post in.

Certis wrote:

This is a reply from Penny Arcade last week.

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!"

Two things..

Sounds like the PA guys have some more growing up to do..and I hope for their sakes their game is received and reviewed highly.

Greg vederman is a f*ckING MORON.

PC Gamer has been on the decline for years now, and I don't know who chose him as an Editor but to me that was the clear sign that no one at that magazine has any f*cking clue about anything.

This just cements my decision continue NOT buying the stupid magazine.

On one hand, I'll agree with PA because the message of the editorial really doesn't agree with the whole cover story + 5(!) different covers. I don't know, but I generally like consistency in a magazine; I thought that was the editor's job in the first place.

On the other, it is HIS editorial and opinion and the tone is light hearted, so I can see how people may be blowing this out of porpotion.

But really, the thing that jumps out at me is how childish the editorial is. I mean, really, he writes like a idiot, has he always done that?!

I can't disagree much with the point of the article, but it all seems a little... petty.

Doesn't really fit in with my idea of a proper "Letter from the Editor" (whatever that may be - they generally seem to be filler) but it's hardly worth the moral outrage it has apparently caused. The citizens of the Internet seem to enjoy controversy more than they should: if there isn't anything worth being outraged over, blowing things out of proportion is almost as enjoyable.

[Edit: Just read above post. He said it better than I.]