
Resolutions - ja27
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2014/01/01/resolutions#
======
PhasmaFelis
I thought the dickwolves comic was funny. I can certainly see where some
people wouldn't. In my opinion, making the comic wasn't the problem. The
problem was when they took it upon themselves to tell rape victims that they
weren't allowed to be offended by rape jokes.

The classy thing to do, after the original comic blew up, would be to ignore
it. Let the internet storm blow over and get on with their lives and their
comics. A brief, tasteful apology could've worked as well. The absolute wrong
thing to do was to get all huffy and self-righteous. Don't start dishing it
out if you can't take it too. If your material can't stand on its own,
attacking your critics is never going to help.

I do hope that Mike's apology is sincere. I'd like to be able to respect PA
again. I'm not sure distancing themselves from PAX and Child's Play was the
very best decision--I'd have liked to see them clean up their acts enough that
they were no longer a black mark. Still, it's a step in the right direction.

~~~
pseudonym
Yeah, I don't think I know anyone who actually cares about the initial comic--
the complaint on it was very localized and small. It's the fact that he kept
whipping up more drama about it and continued espousing "poor me" viewpoint
about _rape survivors_ bullying him, on a near-yearly basis, that really drove
people away.

~~~
RyanZAG
To be honest, the number of feminists who would have actually bought any of
the penny arcade stuff is tiny, while the number of people who would enjoy the
controversy and buy a rude t-shirt because it annoys all these people is
probably very large. They actually said they were sorry they took down the
merchandise, probably because it made a huge amount of money.

So I think they didn't really drive many people away and likely got more
publicity, advert impressions and merchandise revenue by stirring the
controversy. So maybe they handled it just right if their goal at the time was
to make money and not make everyone happy? I'm guessing this 'apology' is
because the idea of 'boycott pax' has come up in large gaming media now and
they need to stop it quickly? Pretty sure we wouldn't be seeing this if there
was no boycott movement.

~~~
pseudonym
I think you're underestimating who's a "feminist" and who's not. It's not just
a small cluster of women who say "all men are bad"; it's (finally) gaining the
same sort of widespread acceptance that gay rights are. And there are quite a
few indie developers who were either rejecting invitations or being on the
fence about attending PAX even before this most recent "we regret taking the
shirts down" thing.

Also worth noting is this isn't the only situation where Krahulik has shown
off his ability to place his foot firmly in his mouth-- there's also things
like his peculiar stance on transgender people[1], which is why people have
such a hard time taking him at face value when he apologizes.

[1][http://thefullbrightcompany.com/2013/06/21/why-we-are-not-
sh...](http://thefullbrightcompany.com/2013/06/21/why-we-are-not-showing-gone-
home-at-pax/)

~~~
kankakodoku
Please don't compare gay rights to feminism. It's insulting to GLBT people.

It's hilarious that you bring up trans issues, given how poorly feminists have
treated that particular minority over the years. The existence of trans people
directly contradicts mainstream feminist ideology, therefore they are deemed
"problematic." And everyone in the tech community knows by now what feminists
do to people they consider problematic...

~~~
PhasmaFelis
> _Please don 't compare gay rights to feminism. It's insulting to GLBT
> people._

Bullshit, speaking as a queer man.

 _Some_ feminists, a minority, have treated trans people very poorly. Quite a
few gay and lesbian activists have done the same. Gay/lesbian activists have
denied the existence of bisexuals, transwomen have feuded with transmen,
African-American activists have treated feminists and GLBT activists poorly
and vice versa... Look, some people in every group are closed-minded assholes.
That doesn't give us an excuse to dismiss an entire group.

Equal rights and equal treatment for women, black folks, Hispanics, gay men,
lesbians, transfolks, and every other minority are all in the same boat
together. If someone thinks we're not, fuck 'em--and that goes for you just as
much as it goes for bigoted feminists.

~~~
kankakodoku
Feminism is fighting a war that was won long ago. Women already have equal
rights in modern countries. GLBT people are only just now starting to see
things progress. That's why it's not fair to GLBT people when feminists
appropriate our struggles--they're trying to retain an appearance of
legitimacy despite the fact that their movement is no longer relevant in
virtually every first world country (and let's face it, first world feminists
are too focused on criticizing any and every fictional female character to
care about the problems of third world women--except for when they need to
justify the continuing existence of feminism, after which they promptly go
back to their first world "problems" again).

------
pseudonym
I don't know if this necessarily matters to the HN crowd, but in case it does,
this[1] is why him coming out publicly with an apology for his behavior
overall is a thing.

Personally, I'd say it's a good first step provided he can actually follow
through with it, but I'm not holding my breath.

[1][http://debacle.tumblr.com/post/3041940865/the-pratfall-of-
pe...](http://debacle.tumblr.com/post/3041940865/the-pratfall-of-penny-arcade-
a-timeline)

~~~
wyager
That entire article is a prime example of idiots blowing things out of
proportion to generate internet drama.

------
donatj
The whole debacle is stupid. Someone online said something wrong. Move on.
Seriously.

~~~
pseudonym
This feels like the Hot Coffee thing again. The problem is not that he said
something wrong, the problem was that _he himself_ kept bringing it
up.[1][2][3]

[1][http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/8/13/](http://www.penny-
arcade.com/comic/2010/8/13/)

[2][http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/10/06/our-store-is-
back](http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/10/06/our-store-is-back)

[3][http://www.newstatesman.com/alex-hern/2013/09/penny-
arcade-r...](http://www.newstatesman.com/alex-hern/2013/09/penny-arcade-
reopens-dickwolves-controversy)

------
userbinator
Who thought it was going to be about screen resolutions before clicking?

~~~
ps4fanboy
HN is less and less about hacking and more about feelings, I am actively
looking for a more technical news site, this site is turning into Jezebel.

~~~
DanBC
Flag the submissions that don't belong here. Upvote the submissions that do
belong here. Post great submissions.

HN has always had this kind of content. You can ignore most of the "feelings"
by saying this is an example of how a company shouldn't apologise - and that's
important for HN because startups sometimes make mistakes thst have to be
apologised for.

