He’s from Spokane. Everyone here is a dick. 
Darkhold wrote:
That doesn’t explain how we go from a friendly feud on Friday:
To a bitter withdrawl on Saturday:
Doc Nickel wrote:
I’m reluctant to chalk up to conspiracy what could otherwise be explained by somebody just being a shithead, although it would explain the mystery of why exactly Tycho was being such a shithead.
Oooh, that reminds me, my fish needs a new bicycle.
I dunno, I got the impression it was fun. I like both strips, and I was amused by the potshots they were taking at each other (“I can see my house” … heh heh heh).
If the creators of one comic or the other has a serious beef with the other one … eh, no skin off my ass. As long as nobody disses Skull. Skull is awesome.
PvP cracks me up, I love the different gaming “stereotypes” they portray (especially Jade Fontaine, since I’m a female gamer grin)…PA is ok sometimes…mostly it just seems pretty mean-spirited.
PvP I bookmark, PA I look at if someone posts a link on one of my gaming message boards about something topical. shrug
On the other hand, Woody of GU comics (topical cartoons about MMORPGs) rocks too =D http://www.gucomics.com/
Huh, that’s funny, I haven’t seen PA do that for awhile. PVP did a strip that was centred around a fart joke on Saturday, and one about having too much cereal on Sunday. An earlier post revolved around the boss mishearing a conversation about pickles and interpreting it as sex. Yeah, PA has some swearing, and a few strips center around the word wang (Wang Clips come to mind) but it’s not like PVP should claim a mantle of sophistication. Also, in PA, whilst knowing the source material often makes a comic funnier, there are very few strips (maybe one in seven?) that aren’t funny at all if you haven’t read the items highlighted in the post. They’re also different kinds of comics. PVP makes me smile, or occaisionally chuckle. Penny Arcade makes me laugh my lungs out. Both have good qualities.
Penny-Arcade: Surreal, clever, full of non-sequiteurs, has better art than PVP, funny as hell, never runs out of topics.
PvP: Clever, appeals to almost everyone, has some good storylines, funny, down-to-earth but still has fantasy elements.
I like both strips, too, but IMO they’re both second-tier comics that can’t hold a candle to real humor, like Sluggy Freelance or Sinfest.
Oddly enough, based on the stuff they’ve written on their sites, I also find Scott, Tycho, and Gabe to be borderline assholes. Maybe that’s why they’re not as funny…
I agree 100% with the original PvP strip, although I do read both strips pretty regularly.
As for the feud, yes it sounds like a lot of people are being whoosed. This type of thing happens quite a bit between Something Awful and Fark, too. And of course, a lot of people take it seriously even though Lowtax and Drew couldn’t care less.
Never read Penny Arcade.
Read PvP faithfully. Scott owes me serious artwork after Comic-Con, too. I even have his home phone and cell numbers - top that!
Esprix
ElwoodCuse wrote:
Again, if that’s the case, then why does what is made out to be a friendly rivalry on Friday turn into bitter recriminations on Saturday? Why has the tone changed so rapidly if not because the mood has changed? The evidence from Tycho’s actual posts is that he has suddenly become unwilling to play any kind of friendly rivalry game.
Johnny Angel,
sigh Why do people keep having to explain this? PA is a crude ‘fuck you’ type of strip. Here’s a little story that might help you.
We have two geeks running booths at a sci fi show.
Geek #1: A little more socialized and straight laced
Geek #2: is an outkast and proud of it. Thinks the word pee is funny in and of itself
Geek #2: Hey we’re both running booths shouldn’t we be rivals?
Geek #1: Sounds fun…Hey you ever notice that your booth is full of obscure crap that you have to explain in order to make sense?
Geek #2: oh yeah? Well my booth sells a lot more tickets then yours I guess my Starman Ball bearings are better then your Wookie collection.
Geek#1: you only sell more b/c you keep your stuff in two separate rooms.
Geek#2: Well your booth smells like your momma’s pee! light punch on the arm
they both look out at the crowd that’s gathered chuckle and go check out the '03 model jabba the hutt
You have it in your head this is some sort of Ming the Merciless rant where he shakes his fist at PvP saying “I’ll get you next time Gadget”
Because they wanted to elicit precisely this sort of response from people like you. They’re fucking with their fanbase. The tone has changed because they realized its funnier if they’re red-faced and screaming.
Darkhold wrote:
You patronize me, and then continue to miss my point.
No, this has the character of one of Tycho’s hissy fits, like the time he shat on Scott McCloud and then later apologized for it. He has shown sober second thoughts about his attacks on Iliad and Daily Radar as well. He has proven to be a nice guy, a thoughtful guy. But every once in a while he flips the bitch switch, and feels sorry about it later.
Miller wrote:
I have said that the guys at Penny Arcade can be assholes. But do they really come across to you as those kinds of assholes? The kind who would intentionally mislead their readers? Does Kurtz, in his fair-minded rants, come across as the kind of guy who would conspire to help fuck with readers? Apparently, other dopers think so. I don’t buy it, and I think Tycho and Gabe would be saddened to think that people felt that way about them.
But there’s no resolving the issue until there’s more to go on except my impression of Tycho’s character versus yours. I’d be sorely disappointed if you were right. In any case, it is definitely not funnier this way.
I wasn’t intending to be patronizing it was supposed to be funny. You really are humor impaired aren’t you? That or very thin skinned. (you should have seen my original post it had about a dozen sci/fi references with a joking request to find them all. I imagine you’d really have lost it then)
But you’re right this issue is out of steam and there’s no need to turn it into a pissing contest.
(last post to this thread I swear and apologies to anyone that I may have offended.)
I’ll allow that you’re better acquainted with the personalities of the people behind Penny Arcade than I am. I don’t read it very often. However, in my limited experience, yes, they seem like precisely that sort of “asshole.” If, as you say, he has a reputation for flying off the handle like that, I could easily see him lampooning his own behavior. That first Penny Arcade cartoon you linked to shows they’re not shy about that sort of self-awarness.
Absolutely.
Saddened? What on Earth for? You think he’s happier when people think he’s a legitimate asshole, as opposed to people thinking he’s just pretending to be an asshole for the purposes of a gag?
So, you’d prefer it if Tycho were a hyper-sensitive prick with no sense of humor? 
You’re thinking this was a carefully-crafted conspiracy, where Kurtz and Holkins got together in an anonymous bar on neutral ground in order to foment this while thing.
Sorry. It was largely spontaneous. Kurtz drew a comic that- without naming names- was accurate enough that it was quite clear it was a reference to Penny Arcade. Scott surely knew there would be a bit of “OMG! Go read this!” by the PA syncophants, but also knew that would create a bit of traffic.
PA fired back with a strip in response- and named names- that really wasn’t a strip, but more of a subtle “fuck you” aimed at Kurtz. Scott surely saw a good thing when he saw it, and poked back with his second strip about cole asking for tips to increase traffic. Again spot-on, and again without naming names.
PA dropped the issue in the comic, but added a last jab in the newspost. And lets face it, Holkins et`al pander to the angsty gamer teen market, and a little foul-mouthing makes you look cool and expressive.
That’s it. No conspiracy, just a blow-counterblow in a two-hit fight, and because Tycho got a little pissy at the end, everybody’s taking it way too seriously.
Kurtz has long experience at the game- he poked fun (and drew controversy) with his parody of the indie comic scene with the “Graphamaximo” storyline, he poked fun (and drew controversy) with ‘furries’, he made fun (and drew controversy) of John “Crossing over” Edward, and so on.
Like I said earlier- the easiest thing in the world is to piss somebody off, and in the case of a comic or a talk-radio show, either good OR bad publicity always equals better traffic or ratings. The nonlistener/nonreader tunes in to see what the hubbub is about, the regular listener/reader checks back even more frequently to catch the latest updates.
Both Kurtz and the PA crew literally live off site traffic- the more traffic, the more they can charge advertisers. They don’t care if those viewers come in with virtual buckets of tar and feathers, or bearing gifts of praise and adulation. All that matters is the raw numbers.
See, while Scott Kurtz tackled and made fun of alot of issues, I never felt he was being a fucking asshole to his fanbase in general in his comic strips, whatever his little accompanying rants might have said.
Frankly, both PvP AND PA make fun of not only what their fanbase loves and hates, they BOTH make fun of their fanbase as well. However, at least in my opinion, Scott Kurtz with PvP has never actually been mean-spirited towards it’s fan base, while I can’t say the same for PA.
To me, PvP pokes fun at it’s readers with it’s stereotypes…Brent Sienna the rabid Mac user always trying to convert the PC gamer, Jade Fontaine, the lone woman gamer (up until Marcie’s appearance, which poked fun at teen gamer girls and the problems they have), Robbie and Jase the couch-residing, beer-swilling sports gamers, Cole Richards, the sole “voice of reason” Grown-Up-But-Not-Really of the whole bunch, Francis Ottoman the male teen gamer geek…Skull doesn’t fit in anywhere in the sterotypes, he just cracks me up.
PA just seems really fucking mean-spirited. I’m not saying it’s not funny sometimes…they have a good one once in a while.
I think what I’m trying to say is that while Scott Kurtz’ PvP Online comic in general gives off a kind of “Hehe, these characters are funny because they’re us” sensibility (even if that’s not necessarily always what he expresses in his accompanying rants), PA gives off the Arrogant Gamer attitude. The “l33t” attitude ALOT of gamers can’t fucking stand. “If I like it, it’s cool, but if I DON’T like it and you do, well…you’re a fucking moron and I don’t CARE if you’re my fan. You should be happy I let you read my fucking comic at all you brain-dead asshole.”
One’s more broad-based, the other is going for the Elitist Gamer genre. Neither’s wrong, but I personally prefer to read comics that foster a sense of “hehe, we may all be gaming geeks, but we’re gaming geeks together” attitude than the Elitist Gamer “I’m l33t and u SuxX0rs” attitude.
Sorry, Scott Kurtz would never intentionally dick around with his fan base. PERIOD.
Esprix
Really, Esprix? I think PA and PVP both enjoy stirring up controversy.
Why do you say that, Esprix? He’s certainly not above mocking them from time to time.