I admit, I never bought either game. I was waiting for them all to be released and bundled, largely because I hate cliffhangers. Blame the HL2 Eps.
I suppose I can buy them all now...
don't bother... there are cliffhangers that will never be resolved. besides, any of us here do half our job we don't get half our pay, we get fired. teach these guys a lesson and don't pay them for a job not finished.
Technically these guys did about 95% of their job since the game was just a sideline (one which the market didn't support.)
I'm pretty disappointed here; I just bought and finished Ep 2 since it was $5 on steam so I'm all fresh in the portents for the third game. There's one thing about PA that I don't like, and it's that the follow through isn't always there, and it's definitely not guaranteed. Between this and Scott Kurtz reneging on his stuff you have two major webcomic properties that flake out.
What other case of lack of follow-through for PA has there been?
What other case of lack of follow-through for PA has there been?
The Penny Arcade store, until the past few years. Self hosted to Think Geek back to self hosted. Sporadic content updates for shirts and the like. Favorite comics in the store are circa store opening while new favorites have been detailed in the 11 1/2 year anniversary book. Certain things just aren't fully maintained.
And while I'm here...they really should have snapped up Penny-Packer; back before that was broken and ground to a halt from how popular it was, that was perhaps the best thing to happen to the comics archives since ever.
And while I'm here...they really should have snapped up Penny-Packer; back before that was broken and ground to a halt from how popular it was, that was perhaps the best thing to happen to the comics archives since ever.
I forget who it was who was talking about how the episodic model is a lot harder to make money on, since there's no initial influx of cash - and you can't prebuy DLC - committing to getting all 4 episodes.
In the end, I have to think it's because Episode 2 sold very poorly compared to Ep1 - either way, I'm very disappointed with this. I was rather fond of the games.
Chance on
'Chance, you are the best kind of whore.' -Henroid
Telltale games allow you to buy a complete season in advance...
Yep, they happen to be the only publisher/developer that I have ever preordered a game from; as I've seen them consistently deliver great games in the past. People might not have given a new company like Hothead the same level of trust. I doubt that I would have pre-ordered an entire season of four Precipice of Darkness episodes "unseen", but if I could have played the demo for episode one first I definitely would have.
But yeah, if it's a financial black hole, why continue it, I guess...
True, but if they could have convinced a lot of people to pre-order all the episodes, it might not have been a financial black hole in the first place. Though four episodes at $20 apiece would have been a hard sell all at once.
But seriously, would it have been so shameful to say up front 'guys if you don't start buying our first 2 episodes, there's not gonna be a 3rd' on the frontpage?
People might not have given a new company like Hothead the same level of trust.
Agreed, with the condition of Hothead being the only element in the equasion. However, they had a big ass name of Penny Arcade beside them. It should account for at least some additional level of trust, right?
I doubt that I would have pre-ordered an entire season of four Precipice of Darkness episodes "unseen", but if I could have played the demo for episode one first I definitely would have.
You could. At least for PC, when it was initially released. Remember? You could get the whole game and download it and play it demo style, and just unlock it with your key you got upon purchasing the product.
I never did that though, I went all-out and just bought it, having faith in the guys.
I [now] feel about 70% right in doing so. It's given me a great experience with hours and hours of entertainment and plenty of smiles.
However, the remaining 30% are deducted because of these recent disappointments. Story was awesome, Jerrys writing and Mikes art are always astounding and always hit in the right place and gave the right feel.
In essence, when I'm promised to get more, I really really expect more.
Er, I like some of Johnson's stuff, but he's not infallible either.
Yeah, that's true. I'm not a big fan of his drawings (except for the duck from experience points), but I love his podcasts. The comic contents tend to be pretty decent.
However, the remaining 30% are deducted because of these recent disappointments. Story was awesome, Jerrys writing and Mikes art are always astounding and always hit in the right place and gave the right feel.
In essence, when I'm promised to get more, I really really expect more.
I agree. I was getting wrapped up in the introduction of Dr. Blood and interested to see where they were going with the story after
killing off all the doctors including the mime and piss guy.
It's a real shame that we don't get to play out the rest of the story. Also, how would they upgrade the rake in the next games? Would it be the BFR-9000 or something?
But seriously, would it have been so shameful to say up front 'guys if you don't start buying our first 2 episodes, there's not gonna be a 3rd' on the frontpage?
Agreed.
This seems so obvious to me that I wouldn't expect anyone to say it. If you buy a game from any company you are funding its future projects.
Not directed at you two, but I'm seeing quite a few mentions of people buying the games for $5 who are angry at Hothead for the series cancellation. What did you expect? If everyone waited a couple years from release to buy the game at a clearance price I wouldn't have expected even a second episode. The problems here are consumer indifference and the assumption that PA and Hothead must be making money when they weren't. Stop acting like Mike and Jerry promised you a ride home from the airport and then never showed up.
I'm not saying it doesn't suck. I too am sad that the subsequent instalments are getting axed. But I'm not going to blame PA or Hothead because it's not like they haven't tried. If you want to see more projects from someone, support them. Or just throw a tantrum. Whatever.
But seriously, would it have been so shameful to say up front 'guys if you don't start buying our first 2 episodes, there's not gonna be a 3rd' on the frontpage?
Agreed.
This seems so obvious to me that I wouldn't expect anyone to say it. If you buy a game from any company you are funding its future projects.
Not directed at you two, but I'm seeing quite a few mentions of people buying the games for $5 who are angry at Hothead for the series cancellation. What did you expect? If everyone waited a couple years from release to buy the game at a clearance price I wouldn't have expected even a second episode. The problems here are consumer indifference and the assumption that PA and Hothead must be making money when they weren't. Stop acting like Mike and Jerry promised you a ride home from the airport and then never showed up.
I'm not saying it doesn't suck. I too am sad that the subsequent instalments are getting axed. But I'm not going to blame PA or Hothead because it's not like they haven't tried. If you want to see more projects from someone, support them. Or just throw a tantrum. Whatever.
The converse argument is, why should I buy something if I have no guarantee that it will ever be finished? Sure, I could have "supported" them by buying up front, but I had concerns from the outset that this would not see completion. Now, am I wrong for taking a long, if pessimistic view? This is the situation I wanted to avoid: getting invested in serial content that remains unfinished, thus I chose to wait for the inevitable conclusion and package deal, so I could sit down and enjoy the story from start to end.
This strikes me as the predominant flaw of episodic content. This is also the reason I don't watch much television until it's released on DVD, and waited to buy the LotR until I could get an Extended Edition Box Set. I am patient. I can wait. However, I HATE being cut off in the middle of a story.
What other case of lack of follow-through for PA has there been?
The Penny Arcade store, until the past few years. Self hosted to Think Geek back to self hosted. Sporadic content updates for shirts and the like. Favorite comics in the store are circa store opening while new favorites have been detailed in the 11 1/2 year anniversary book. Certain things just aren't fully maintained.
And while I'm here...they really should have snapped up Penny-Packer; back before that was broken and ground to a halt from how popular it was, that was perhaps the best thing to happen to the comics archives since ever.
Don't forget the complete non-starters like 16-Bit Childhood and that enigmatic teaser square of artwork they posted.
I love the comic. The guys are hilarious 90% of the time. But they need to learn to keep their fucking trap shut unless they can 100% deliver what they're promising us.
I understand why there won't be an Ep. 3, and that it's not really their fault this time. But it does bring up comparisons to their other failings. And stringing the fanbase along for 17 fucking months before telling us it's not gonna happen is goddamn unacceptable.
I understand why there won't be an Ep. 3, and that it's not really their fault this time. But it does bring up comparisons to their other failings. And stringing the fanbase along for 17 fucking months before telling us it's not gonna happen is goddamn unacceptable.
This sums up my thoughts really. It sucks and it's understandable - but I don't get why they couldn't have told us sooner, rather than getting us to wait til PAX-East and letting us think (indeed, one might even say 'leading us to believe') we might get good news and then dropping the bombshell.
That's the thing, it seems so clear that there is no reason to delay this kind of "announcement" so I'm assuming the PA guys were just as hopeful as us up to the last minute when they realized there was no way to salvage the series. I'm sure they tried to figure out solutions and are probably equally disappointed that there won't be more episodes (or maybe they're relieved, ha ha).
But seriously, would it have been so shameful to say up front 'guys if you don't start buying our first 2 episodes, there's not gonna be a 3rd' on the frontpage?
Agreed.
This seems so obvious to me that I wouldn't expect anyone to say it. If you buy a game from any company you are funding its future projects.
Not directed at you two, but I'm seeing quite a few mentions of people buying the games for $5 who are angry at Hothead for the series cancellation. What did you expect? If everyone waited a couple years from release to buy the game at a clearance price I wouldn't have expected even a second episode. The problems here are consumer indifference and the assumption that PA and Hothead must be making money when they weren't. Stop acting like Mike and Jerry promised you a ride home from the airport and then never showed up.
I'm not saying it doesn't suck. I too am sad that the subsequent instalments are getting axed. But I'm not going to blame PA or Hothead because it's not like they haven't tried. If you want to see more projects from someone, support them. Or just throw a tantrum. Whatever.
I'm one of the people who recently bought episode 2 for $5 and I feel completely justified in my choice. I bought episode 1 the day it came out. It was fun, but it wasn't worth the $1520. It was very short, repetitive and had a bug that made certain things (counter attacks, those fucking carnival minigames) damn near impossible to do on my system. When they announced episode 2 I decided to hold off until it was available for a fair price.
edit: I was wrong about the pricing. They still were priced too high though.
I think he's making it up. when I googled '16 bit childhood pa', his own post was the second answer. The first a child abuse thing.
So tell me then, why the fuck would I make it up? Clearly since you can't remember something that was announced, and then never delivered in the 10+ years that PA has been around, I must just be a fucking liar.
But seriously, would it have been so shameful to say up front 'guys if you don't start buying our first 2 episodes, there's not gonna be a 3rd' on the frontpage?
Agreed.
This seems so obvious to me that I wouldn't expect anyone to say it. If you buy a game from any company you are funding its future projects.
Not directed at you two, but I'm seeing quite a few mentions of people buying the games for $5 who are angry at Hothead for the series cancellation. What did you expect? If everyone waited a couple years from release to buy the game at a clearance price I wouldn't have expected even a second episode. The problems here are consumer indifference and the assumption that PA and Hothead must be making money when they weren't. Stop acting like Mike and Jerry promised you a ride home from the airport and then never showed up.
I'm not saying it doesn't suck. I too am sad that the subsequent instalments are getting axed. But I'm not going to blame PA or Hothead because it's not like they haven't tried. If you want to see more projects from someone, support them. Or just throw a tantrum. Whatever.
I'm one of the people who recently bought episode 2 for $5 and I feel completely justified in my choice. I bought episode 1 the day it came out. It was fun, but it wasn't worth the $15. It was very short, repetitive and had a bug that made certain things (counter attacks, those fucking carnival minigames) damn near impossible to do on my system. When they announced episode 2 was actually gonna cost more, I decided to hold off until it was available for a fair price.
It's like hothead said "well, only x number of hardcore fans bought the first game, so let's soak them for an extra $5 each instead of examining/fixing why the sales were low."
Call me crazy, but I was under the impression that episode 2 cost $5 less than episode one. And they cut episode one's price at the same time.
Communication is the major failure. Their statements about it have only been made when they were pressed, they made no announcement, they responded to a question and acted like they had been caught off guard, like they were hoping to never have to tell us the truth. Bogus. As someone who played through the first 2 episodes several times I might feel like they owe me more games but I logically can see the silliness of that expectation. But you can't dissuade me from feeling like the least they owed me was timely info that it wasn't going to continue and in a fashion that didn't require digging for me to find.
This sums up my thoughts really. It sucks and it's understandable - but I don't get why they couldn't have told us sooner, rather than getting us to wait til PAX-East and letting us think (indeed, one might even say 'leading us to believe') we might get good news and then dropping the bombshell.
'Oooohhh' indeed.
Yeah, I would say it's worse than that. I went to the LA signing @ Meltdown comics for the 11 1/2 Anniversary collection where someone asked when we would get news on Ep 3. Jerry enthusiastically replied "wait until PAX East" to cheers. I had such high hopes.
Knasty on
BAM
0
ASimPersonAnd they will tremble againat the sound of our silence!Registered Userregular
edited April 2010
Well, he did tweet the following yesterday:
# This is singularly horrible. I feel like we are flushing a goldfish down the toilet, and I am teaching you about death. about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck
# NOT SLASHFIC. about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck
# The form it will take will be very much like the newsposts: chunks of story on a regular basis, available free of charge. about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck
# I'm overjoyed to see that so many people liked the games. It is for you (or the idea of you) that I worked so hard. Me = heartbroken. about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck
# That heart-rending news came out at PAX, but I'm glad I mentioned it, because it must not be common knowledge. Ep3 & 4 will be stories. about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck
# Very excited today. Putting together the primary outline for the ongoing Precipice fiction I'll be posting on the site. about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck
# This is singularly horrible. I feel like we are flushing a goldfish down the toilet, and I am teaching you about death. about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck
# NOT SLASHFIC. about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck
# The form it will take will be very much like the newsposts: chunks of story on a regular basis, available free of charge. about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck
# I'm overjoyed to see that so many people liked the games. It is for you (or the idea of you) that I worked so hard. Me = heartbroken. about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck
# That heart-rending news came out at PAX, but I'm glad I mentioned it, because it must not be common knowledge. Ep3 & 4 will be stories. about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck
# Very excited today. Putting together the primary outline for the ongoing Precipice fiction I'll be posting on the site. about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck
I think they feel bad about it.
I both do and do not hope they feel bad about it. The only solace I hope they feel about it would be that it ultimately was a right decision.
I hope they feel bad about it (and I think they do) because I feel bad about it. They told us they were going to give us something, and then didn't, so we have every right to be disappointed.
I'm not going to go on a "I'll never read Penny Arcade again!" rant because I'm not a lunatic, but I am definitely disappointed in them.
Posts
Technically these guys did about 95% of their job since the game was just a sideline (one which the market didn't support.)
What other case of lack of follow-through for PA has there been?
ugh.
Crap. Well I can't be 200% peeved now. Reverting to 50% peeved.
The Penny Arcade store, until the past few years. Self hosted to Think Geek back to self hosted. Sporadic content updates for shirts and the like. Favorite comics in the store are circa store opening while new favorites have been detailed in the 11 1/2 year anniversary book. Certain things just aren't fully maintained.
And while I'm here...they really should have snapped up Penny-Packer; back before that was broken and ground to a halt from how popular it was, that was perhaps the best thing to happen to the comics archives since ever.
Yes, they should've!
In the end, I have to think it's because Episode 2 sold very poorly compared to Ep1 - either way, I'm very disappointed with this. I was rather fond of the games.
True, but if they could have convinced a lot of people to pre-order all the episodes, it might not have been a financial black hole in the first place. Though four episodes at $20 apiece would have been a hard sell all at once.
Agreed.
Precipice of Darkness 2008-2010
We hardly knew thee
why why ! why do the good die so fast!
we will miss you.
*moves on the next game that will gets killed*
You could. At least for PC, when it was initially released. Remember? You could get the whole game and download it and play it demo style, and just unlock it with your key you got upon purchasing the product.
I never did that though, I went all-out and just bought it, having faith in the guys.
I [now] feel about 70% right in doing so. It's given me a great experience with hours and hours of entertainment and plenty of smiles.
However, the remaining 30% are deducted because of these recent disappointments. Story was awesome, Jerrys writing and Mikes art are always astounding and always hit in the right place and gave the right feel.
In essence, when I'm promised to get more, I really really expect more.
Yeah, that's true. I'm not a big fan of his drawings (except for the duck from experience points), but I love his podcasts. The comic contents tend to be pretty decent.
I agree. I was getting wrapped up in the introduction of Dr. Blood and interested to see where they were going with the story after
This seems so obvious to me that I wouldn't expect anyone to say it. If you buy a game from any company you are funding its future projects.
Not directed at you two, but I'm seeing quite a few mentions of people buying the games for $5 who are angry at Hothead for the series cancellation. What did you expect? If everyone waited a couple years from release to buy the game at a clearance price I wouldn't have expected even a second episode. The problems here are consumer indifference and the assumption that PA and Hothead must be making money when they weren't. Stop acting like Mike and Jerry promised you a ride home from the airport and then never showed up.
I'm not saying it doesn't suck. I too am sad that the subsequent instalments are getting axed. But I'm not going to blame PA or Hothead because it's not like they haven't tried. If you want to see more projects from someone, support them. Or just throw a tantrum. Whatever.
The converse argument is, why should I buy something if I have no guarantee that it will ever be finished? Sure, I could have "supported" them by buying up front, but I had concerns from the outset that this would not see completion. Now, am I wrong for taking a long, if pessimistic view? This is the situation I wanted to avoid: getting invested in serial content that remains unfinished, thus I chose to wait for the inevitable conclusion and package deal, so I could sit down and enjoy the story from start to end.
This strikes me as the predominant flaw of episodic content. This is also the reason I don't watch much television until it's released on DVD, and waited to buy the LotR until I could get an Extended Edition Box Set. I am patient. I can wait. However, I HATE being cut off in the middle of a story.
Don't forget the complete non-starters like 16-Bit Childhood and that enigmatic teaser square of artwork they posted.
I love the comic. The guys are hilarious 90% of the time. But they need to learn to keep their fucking trap shut unless they can 100% deliver what they're promising us.
I understand why there won't be an Ep. 3, and that it's not really their fault this time. But it does bring up comparisons to their other failings. And stringing the fanbase along for 17 fucking months before telling us it's not gonna happen is goddamn unacceptable.
I think he's making it up. when I googled '16 bit childhood pa', his own post was the second answer. The first a child abuse thing.
This sums up my thoughts really. It sucks and it's understandable - but I don't get why they couldn't have told us sooner, rather than getting us to wait til PAX-East and letting us think (indeed, one might even say 'leading us to believe') we might get good news and then dropping the bombshell.
'Oooohhh' indeed.
Thoughts of a Part-Time Hobbyist - A Wargaming and RPG Blog
I'm one of the people who recently bought episode 2 for $5 and I feel completely justified in my choice. I bought episode 1 the day it came out. It was fun, but it wasn't worth the $1520. It was very short, repetitive and had a bug that made certain things (counter attacks, those fucking carnival minigames) damn near impossible to do on my system. When they announced episode 2 I decided to hold off until it was available for a fair price.
edit: I was wrong about the pricing. They still were priced too high though.
So tell me then, why the fuck would I make it up? Clearly since you can't remember something that was announced, and then never delivered in the 10+ years that PA has been around, I must just be a fucking liar.
Oh, wait...
Call me crazy, but I was under the impression that episode 2 cost $5 less than episode one. And they cut episode one's price at the same time.
Seems like you're right. OK, Ep 1 was $20, and Ep 2 was $15. See here:
http://xbox.joystiq.com/2008/10/27/penny-arcade-adventures-episode-two-this-wednesday-1200-points/
Yeah, I would say it's worse than that. I went to the LA signing @ Meltdown comics for the 11 1/2 Anniversary collection where someone asked when we would get news on Ep 3. Jerry enthusiastically replied "wait until PAX East" to cheers. I had such high hopes.
I think they feel bad about it.
In this aspect, your character
I both do and do not hope they feel bad about it. The only solace I hope they feel about it would be that it ultimately was a right decision.
I'm not going to go on a "I'll never read Penny Arcade again!" rant because I'm not a lunatic, but I am definitely disappointed in them.