guys guys guys

Robert Khoo · April 2009

http://news.bigdownload.com/2009/04/15/big-ideas-can-penny-arcade-last/

WE ARE FUCKED

Abracadaniel · April 2009

hahaha

"how long can they keep it up"

Clint Eastwood · April 2009

Yeah, you guys are fucked

just throw in the towel

Ness445 · April 2009

There's new news on the blogoweb!

Penny Arcade - fucked?! Find out later!

oh God this picture sums up everything that is right in the world.

SporkAndrew · April 2009

How does it feel to be a marked man, Khoo.

YOUR TIME IS NIGH

Usagi · April 2009

blocked

Abracadaniel · April 2009

gonna mail khoo, gabe, and tycho some viagra

Druhim · April 2009

oh no, pack it all in he's figured you guys out

it's over

lostwords · April 2009

i kinda reads like the first 15 minutes of a vh1 behind the music show

Clint Eastwood · April 2009

But Robert, they don't even care what would happen to you if Mike and Jerry broke up OMG!

SporkAndrew · April 2009

Usagi wrote: »

blocked

blargh wrote:

The guys at Penny Arcade hardly need any introduction, but because I'm a completist, I'll just run the basics down here. The Penny Arcade webcomic launched in 1998 on the now-defunct loonygames.com website. Since then, the brand has become a wildly successful website, spawning its own charity (Child's Play), gaming expo (Penny Arcade Expo, or PAX), and video game series (On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness).

Perhaps the best example of how to succeed on the Internet, Gabe and Tycho (as their real-life counterparts Michael Krahulik and Jerry Holkins) have accomplished the amazing feat of growing from tiny personal project into respected, influential gamer mainstay. Yet no matter how big they seem, they manage to keep their indie credentials, somehow representing the Everyman (or Everygamer) with no conflict. This begs the question: How long can they keep it up?

The Penny Arcade business entity seems to solely consist of Gabe and Tycho (founders and creators), Robert Khoo (Director of Business Development), and Kiko VillaseÃ±or, Staff Graphic Designer. Though an exact figure has never been mentioned, revenue from the site and related merchandise sales is probably easily in the low six figures annually, if not higher. Loved nearly universally, the PA guys could probably get away with charging a monthly subscription to their site and no one would grumble. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch of the imagination to believe that game companies solicit their advice during game development, and it's been mentioned on their sporadically-appearing podcast that they get sent games to review. Despite their vast influence, they're still seen as just a couple of guys who do a regular webcomic.

So it seems that they have the perfect job. They get to say whatever they want through their comic (early dust-up with the American Greetings Corporation notwithstanding), play video games all day, rub shoulders with famous game, comics, and musical artists, and get paid to do it. They've had respectable success with their own video game, and put on PAX every year with plans to expand to Boston. They just keep getting bigger and bigger, and the sky's the limit. So, can it possibly last?

This sort of story tends to end badly, with the once-strong friendship degenerating into a squabbling, vindictive argument over who's more influential, and who needs the other less. Indeed, on many occasions the podcast has featured conversations between Jerry and Mike on that very topic, with Jerry mentioning that if Mike died, he'd just find a new artist and carry on. Mike, in his turn, has expressed more than once that he feels like he does all the work for the strip, going so far as to say that if he didn't initiate the creative process, it might never start. In interviews with outside press, the duo repeatedly make comments regarding their disdain for each other, and that they don't interact with each other outside of the time when they work together on the strip or on other projects. Now sure, it's probably all in good fun, but consider that they've been together now for over 10 years. Many successful partnerships have dissolved more quickly than that ...

It's true that either of them, on their own, could probably forge a successful solo career. Mike's artwork has evolved and improved over the years rather dramatically, to the point where he is capable of a wide range of thematic styles. His recent work for the Prince of Persia remake shows an amazing grasp of composition and color, and could very easily stand on its own as a commercially available illustrated children's book. In fact, his style, which he admits to being more than slightly influenced by favorite animated shows, could very easily survive the transition to televised cartoon format. His success is indisputable.

Jerry, on the other hand, might find it a little more difficult to make a living as a writer. Not from lack of quality, certainly -- his writing ability is unquestionably unique, his nearly purple prose engaging the reader to wade through the muscular grammar with nothing less than full attention. His is always an enjoyable read, and he shows a desire to challenge his audience with ideas and concepts outside of what is typically found in the average video game website. No, Jerry's problem will lie more in the understanding that despite the fact that there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of writers on the market, it's still an oversaturated field, with a relatively small number of authors able to make a comfortable living plying their craft. What would he do? He could try to write for a game company, but that's not lucrative enough to keep him and his family in the style in which he's undoubtedly become accustomed to living. He could attempt to write novels or comics, but the same problem applies. Jerry's future seems less certain.

Let's also consider the simple fact that everyone burns out eventually. It wouldn't be a surprise to entertain the idea that the PA guys keep trying new things out of a desire for novelty. Ten years is a long time in the video games industry, even when one is commenting on it from the outside. With very few lapses, Penny Arcade has been regularly updating the entire time. Three days a week is nothing to sneeze at, and many webcomics have fallen by the wayside under the pressure of even fewer updates.

So given their huge success and the fact that they've beaten the odds to achieve it, should we expect the pendulum to shift back in the other direction? Have the guys bucked the trend for too long, extended themselves too far? Or can we expect this tiny empire to reign for another decade? Can we imagine Gabe and Tycho as Elder Statesmen of the video games industry, hanging in there well into their declining years, as crotchety and garrulous as ever? Will their children take up the banner and usher in a new era of games journalism heretofore untold? Let me know what you think of the longevity and impact that Penny Arcade has had on us all by leaving a comment.

tl;dr Joystiq proves how irrelevant they are.

Druhim · April 2009

I'm surprised he didn't go for the golden oldy, claiming PA is all about dick jokes

DE?AD · April 2009

Well, it's been a pretty good run, guys.

vsove · April 2009

Mike and Jerry would break up.

And finally Khoo would emerge from the cocoon of PA, a beautiful giant butterfly.

Hunter · April 2009

If mom and dad get divorced, where will we live?

Abracadaniel · April 2009

khoo's gone already, piling office supplies into his car before they lock the office up

Ruckus · April 2009

The author also suggested that Mike and Jerry could charge us a monthly fee for the honor of reading their comics and we'd just take it like the little bitches we are.

I wouldn't put too much stock in this Akela Talamasca fellow.

Crashmo · April 2009

That was a dumb article.

Robert Khoo · April 2009

PACK IT UP FUCKERS FIND A NEW PLACE TO HANG OUT DURING THE 9 TO 5

slow · April 2009

Penny Arcade: Where Are They Now?

Jordyn · April 2009

I stopped reading the comic in 2006.

Dichotomy · April 2009

show's over, folks
pack up your shit and be out of here by 5

edit: damn your quick wit, Khoo!

Ness445 · April 2009

Spork you forgot the best part of the article.

the picture of Jerry and Khoo rocking the fuck out.

Karl · April 2009

Penny Arcade will end like a shakespearean tragedy. All murder and suicide.

Usagi · April 2009

thanks Spork!

vsove · April 2009

If Penny-Arcade falls apart, my dream is that a billionaire playboy will emerge from the shadows and purchase it. And then get us all zeppelins.

slow · April 2009

Smart Hero wrote: »

khoo's gone already, piling office supplies into his car before they lock the office up

"I can see which way the wind's blowing"

Starts dragging a filing cabinet into the hallway

Druhim · April 2009

well, time to migrate to Flying Stove

Centipede Damascus · April 2009

so are we starting the looting and burning now then?

Langly · April 2009

guys did you hear that gabe a tycho hate each other and are divas?

Abracadaniel · April 2009

so khoo

any word on the whole 'new Club PA' thing?

Clint Eastwood · April 2009

It's been a whole page, can we start with the puns now

SporkAndrew · April 2009

Ness445 wrote: »

Spork you forgot the best part of the article.

the picture of Jerry and Khoo rocking the fuck out.

Should've had this picture really

Me Too! · April 2009

Cloudman wrote: »

It's been a whole page, can we start with the puns now

I am the walrus khoo khoo cakhoo

slow · April 2009

So are we moving to the Tycho treehouse forum or the Gabe treehouse forum

Ruckus · April 2009

Robert Khoo wrote: »

PACK IT UP FUCKERS FIND A NEW PLACE TO HANG OUT DURING THE 9 TO 5

I'll just do what I always do when the PA forums crash, head over to FS and pretend I like the people there.

I do actually like the people there.

Abracadaniel · April 2009

BREAKING NEWS: GABE CAN'T EVEN HOLD A CONTROL RIGHT, GAME COMIC DUO BREAKS UP

KalTorak · April 2009

Admit it, Khoo; you're the Yoko Ono of PA.

I mean, you're both Asian. That's just the beginning.

Clint Eastwood · April 2009

way to go wiggin, you ruined it.

now puns aren't funny any more.

Richard M. Nixon · April 2009

this is basically the dumbest thing

Centipede Damascus · April 2009

I've actually never been to Flying Stove

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