When the guys at Penny-Arcade announced that they were releasing a game based on their personas, there was a mix of excitement and trepidation across their fanbase. Penny-Arcade is an enterprise founded on dick jokes, video game humor, and, well, integrity. You get the feeling reading both the comic and their regular musings that they The Guys Who Will Play It Straight with you, the ones who are willing to look ridiculous or be proven wrong if it’s the right thing to do. This, combined with their self deprecating charm, has taken them from gaming schlubs to internet icons over the course of more than 8 years. The announcement that they would enter an arena that has been the source of years of scorn and comic material would put more than a few questions on the tip of any reasonable tongue.

And yet, for months, I’ve felt as though the situation is a tightrope they’ve walked gracefully. They don’t pimp the game on their page very often, save for when they’ve reached a substantive milestone, and they generally let the game speak for itself. I’ve defended them in private and on the nets, as I’ve felt that they’ve earned some leeway to try to make this thing that they care about without charges of sellout or hypocrite. Unfortunately, they’ve officially done quite a bit today to lose a lot of that respect from me.

Press coverage for the game swung back into gear last week, and Mike Krahulik (Gabe) decided to… chime in I guess? Or maybe just bristle? Or maybe just be kind of a dick.

I think the best place to go is Gametrailers as they simply post high quality video of the game being played. You can make your own decisions based on what you see. If you want more you can watch the 1up show where a narcoleptic Jedi will tell you that the game is “like not really like PA but also like totally like PA.” Maybe that’s helpful to someone? The Gamelife blog over at Wired also has a very complete write up of the game if you want more than just raw footage.

The “narcoleptic Jedi” in this case was 1UP’s Alice Liang for last Friday’s 1UP Show. You can see below what got his nuts in a twist. Actually, if you could tell me what offended him about this, I would like to be made to understand.

This kind of thinking has been growing more apparent at Penny-Arcade over the last year, and I guess I feel a little foolish for not picking up on it sooner. Krahulik has been increasingly critical of the game media establishment and their review practices, especially when they don’t agree with his opinions on games. While this is perfectly acceptable in general, as he’s a person, and he’s allowed his opinions, when you begin to get snarky and disagreeable with media coverage of your own game, you’re venturing into dangerous territory. Heaven forfend someone deviate from the mentally planned out opinions you hope to sow about your baby.

What’s more, it’s especially jarring after you castigate reviewers for their opinions on Assassin’s Creed, a game you fucking advertised for, a game you fucking created advertising for, and then take some kind of moral high ground as a site for Gamespot/C|Net’s firing of Jeff Gerstmann for taking a stand for being critical of a game. In fact, in the midst of these various elements and complete the lack of comment from Penny-Arcade about the recent revelations of blackballing of Ziff-Davis publications by several publishers due to contested game reviews (which is odd given the regular outrage Jerry and Mike manage to summon on a thrice-weekly basis), this seems especially inappropriate.
So, really, what’s the point of this rant? Essentially, Penny-Arcade is teetering on a complete loss of respect from me, and not because I disagree with their opinions. It’s because they’re edging more and more toward the very thing I’ve always taken for granted they’d never broach – un-ironic hypocrisy.

-Aegies