Kapol wrote:You see, the problem I see with this is that Penny Arcade isn't going away.
Oh, this is beyond dispute.
Of course it will. Entropy's very thorough.
OK, less snidely. Look, one of these days, yes, Penny Arcade will vanish. The question is when, and yes, it could be a lot faster than you think. Will it be? Probably not. For the moment, I don't see the chance for the whole house of cards to tumble. But to quote one school of philosophy, Penny Arcade "is only for now". The only question is how long 'now' is.
PA would still be the company who helped sick kids around the world while it was going on. There's no way around the fact that they've already benefited from Child's Play and will continue to do so no matter how well or poorly it does. So not giving money to Child's Play doesn't really hurt them in my opinion. It might make Mike rethink things. But given all that's happened, I doubt it.
I don't think anything at this point will make Mike rethink things. He's shown no interest in understanding the complaints against him, and I see no reason to believe he'll change anytime soon. But could it still send a message? Absolutely.
Imagine that LRR decided to announce that after this year, Desert Bus would continue, but the money would be redirected to other charities. (I don't believe they'll announce this, but I admit it was a little fantasy of mine today.) Would this resonate? Hell yes, it would. It would be a repudiation, and force them to acknowledge that words have consequences. Would it affect his future behaviour? Probably. He'd be watching his words more closely, that's for sure.
Would that be my ideal outcome? Of course not. I'd rather have the scales fall from Mike's eyes and get all the good of Penny Arcade (and it
is there, as I keep pointing out) with none of the bad. But if you, like me, now perceive the bad as outweighing the good, it's a better outcome than not.
I also keep to the point that there's no charity that does something quite like Child's Play that I know of. Frankly, I don't care if Child's Play gives gamers a better name or not. That's not why I like it as a charity. It's a small benefit, yes. But it isn't the goal in of itself. It's the concept of giving games to children who can really benefit from them that I get behind.
Fine, but that doesn't make other charities not worthwhile.
As for the fight being done, I disagree entirely. There are still plenty of people out there, in the media or otherwise, who think of or portray gaming in general as a negative thing. People who think that games make murderers out of children. Just because gaming has won one major victory doesn't mean that the reason that Child's Play was started isn't still out there. What Mike said about starting Child's Play is still true.
The fight continues, definitely. But I would certainly argue the fight is now mostly outside America. There's a greater fight for me here in Australia (home of the regular game ban!) than there is in the states, where you now have a firm constitutional protection on games. It's still bubbling up (there
was significant 'blame the game' going on with the most recent shooting I linked to earlier) but it's miles more measured than it used to be.
I stand by what I said: The fight now is more about bigotry than violence. And Mike is inflaming that, not helping it.
Continuing my news roundup, let's take a look at comments from the Strip Searchers.
Maki has
tweeted on the subject.
The comic is its own thing. I'm over the inappropriate response to the response. But the roaring crowd when it was brought up at PAX? Ugh. ... If that was you hooting in the front, stay the hell away from me.
Erika's
had a chained set of tweets.
Everything they did in response to their critics (aside from pulling the shirt) has made me feel sick to my stomach ... They are good people, but they fucked up in a way that hurt me personally. I believe they can learn better. ... It's not a black and white issue. I like so much of what they do and them personally, one thing doesn't erase that. ... My colossal fuck ups do not eclipse everything else good I've done and created and I extend that to them as well. ... Do whatever feels right for you. There's no Correct Answer.
And has
also tweeted about the apology.I appreciate Mike Krahulik's apology today ... I felt sick & scared when the audience cheered for Dickwolves at PAX
She approvingly linked to
Rachel Edidin's post on the subject and ends on a personal note with a
pair of
tweets:
Please trust that I have talked about this subject to death in real life and please respect that I don't want to do again online ... I'm just putting this up so people don't speculate how I feel about all this. My feelings are that it's complicated.
(On a personal note, of everyone, her reaction is the one which has me the closest to rethinking my position. Erika's a voice I trust here, and despite her close association with Penny Arcade, she has little to gain out of continuing to support. She could rebuke with little cost to herself. That she is not doing so speaks well of Mike.)
Lexxy
has blogged about it, and she links to
MC Frontalot's lengthy Google+ discussion of the events.
(And personal note again, flipside of Erika Moen here. Frontalot has a lot to lose by rebuking Mike, and his comments here, while very eloquent, do not move me considerably, and I think he's far too forgiving here.)
Nick Trujillo's
choosing to not engage. the discussion is important, but I don't think I have anything of value to add. So I'll just sit and learn
I think that's it so far.