Yeah, the whole story is pretty gross, and no matter how many times Krahulik says he's learning, he somehow manages to stick his foot further into his mouth.

Ugh, yes, Krahulik is just an awful human being from all I can tell. And I don't really care for Holkins much, since he tends to play yes-man and/or silent accomplice when Krahulik is on one of his hate-benders. I haven't gone to PA for quite awhile now because they're so awful; they're kind of representative of a lot of what I hate in the videogame industry.

And yes, a certain other website debacle does feel parallel, doesn't it?

yeah penny arcade is pretty gross these days

ben kuchera tended to have a lot of horrible opinions too

I've been following the PA Dickwolves thing for a while now, I can't remember the number of incidents where this crept up it's ugly maw, but one interview was with the Business manager who had regrets about not taking Krahulik to a PR Guy or talking to him about making certain comments as even if he answers in a candide fashion it can still blow up and make PA look bad. Which it does with a remarkable frequency, generally PA reacts to criticism by mocking whoever is making it about them. Which worked for Jack Thompson (because fuck 'em) but hey, if all you have is a hammer at the drawing board all those pieces of paper really do look like nails.

It always sucks when you find out people you admired are actually fucking douchecanons.

He actually wrote up an apology about this whole situation not too long ago, though it's a bit on the late side. I still feel a bit bothered by how poorly the entire situation was handled.

I just wanted to put this out there: http://www.penny-arcade.com/2014/01/01/resolutions

I dunno, the guy has done and said some really rude things, but I also recognize how EASY it is to end up having things you say and do blown way out of proportion and having to do cleanup for harmless jokes like "dickwolves", and that can really set a person on edge and make them more prone to saying and doing stuff that really marks them in a bad light. I'm not going to try to defend everything he's done but I can at least see how an otherwise good person could end up doing that stuff given all the pressure and stress he's under. Being square in the public's eye is one of the toughest places to be, and not everyone handles it well.

I don't think there's anything wrong with liking something that's made by someone who you don't like. I happen to think people are generally way more judgmental of popular people than they should be, anyway. I'm sure some of my favorite video games and movies of all time were at least partially due to the effort of people I would never want to be around. When I'm judging the art, I tend not to also judge the artist.

I never read Penny Arcade because it just wasn't funny. Good to know it's headed by an asshole too.

I thought the original dickwolves thing was ignorant at worst, but their response to it... Holy shit. Like with that "all girls have vaginas" thing, which shouldn't even have BEEN a thing, but he just had to go on Twitter and be an asshole for "comedic purposes."

Oh, and some extra icing on the whole thing? When he issued that apology recently, fucking SWARMS of fanboys came out of the woodwork to scream at him for becoming a faggoty brainwashed mangina.

Wow, yeah. I never really thought to compare the two, but yeah. The parallels are pretty stark. I almost wish they weren't, just because that means this is a thing that happens more than once, which makes my heart sad.

It gets a bit more insidious than the website business on which you'll see people in the position to blacklist you from studios and careers being on the side on PAX if you go as much as point out how fucked up the "This person who keeps making folk's lives a hell shouldn't be excused just because he got you a beer and a cushy position on a studio" mechanic, specially when even the Financial Times wrote an article on how fucked up Mike's actions were with people piling on the critics saying they got all their info entirely from Kotaku.
And then you look at Ben Kuchera's writing while under their wing, and see it being endorsed by figures that would otherwise crush it under a rock if the writer wasn't related to a certain major dork convention which does include comics.

People still give me the social shaming for electing to leave, because things of that nature were only alleged.
And I'm like "Yeah, that's part of it, but it's also completely endemic to the system, and I DON'T WANT TO BE A PART OF THAT SYSTEM. "
It's like, what the fuck is your head doing that far up your ass?

Haven't really heard of the dickwolves thing yet. The initial comic seemed rather innocuous and standard faire for them, was the controversy from How they handled reactions to it? I found a summary and it seems like the fans of the comic acted much, much worse than the creators on all fronts.

Yeah, I've been following that with every little thing that's been going on. He issued an apology and said he'd get better at that stuff, but yanno. I'll believe it when I see it.

I honestly hope that this is a wake up call for him. Like other influential geek fandom celebrities I could name, I really don't think he's beyond hope.

Krahulik's still an unreasonable asshole, what a shock. That non-poligy is just his style too. "I'm sorry you don't realize what I'm doing."

His whole attitude and way of dealing with things is rather pervasive in Seattle though. I know great people in Everett, Kent and Redmond but Seattle proper...ugh.

Oh yuck, talk about complete abuse of power.

Oh PA. You lost my readership, business and donations years ago with your "boys will be boys" shenanigans. Now your non- apology only reaffirms that I was right in removing myself from you. I mean really dude...how old are you and you're just getting a handle on empathy and compassion?

The ongoing PAX problem reminds me of FA too :/ It feels impossible to find a scene where the community authorities act like adults.

Wow. I had heard about the initial dickwolves thing. I had only seen a few responses to it and the original comic, so I thought it was just people getting angry over an awkward dumb comic. I didn't realize how much the creator(s) made the situation so much worse. Gross :/

All the shit around Penny Arcade makes me sad. I used to have so much respect for them for things like child's play and PAX, but ugh.

Ya know, I'm really glad you made a stand. You may not be the most enormous power broker in the scene, but you've stated loud and clear that you won't lend your great talents to promoting unethical people. From the heart of my bottom, I thank you for valuing your integrity over your short-term pageviews. You've set a bold and unapologetic example of standing up for what's right.

What you said made me happy, deep down where I'm squishy.

Oh, wait, I'm pretty much squishy on the outside, too...so, uh...deep down where I'm SUPER squishy, yeah.