About 14 years ago Tycho and I were roommates. We lived on Top Ramen and Kool-Aid. If we weren’t at our shitty jobs we were playing games. Then came Penny Arcade. We had some difficult years, made some pretty huge mistakes and very nearly gave up. It was at that point that you guys stepped up. We decided that before we threw in the towel we’d try one last thing. We asked you guys to support us with donations. We asked for a couple thousand dollars a month so we could pay rent, buy groceries and get games. You gave us ten thousand dollars in the first month. You supported us for a year through some very difficult times and I don’t think we can ever thank you all enough for that. What we can do is try and use the power you’ve given us to keep making things you’ll like and that make our community better.
We have a new UI element at the top of the page now. Our designers call it a “Brand Bar” and it gives quick navigation to our various endeavors. I’ve been looking at it a lot and I am so fucking proud. Penny Arcade, Child’s Play, PAX, The Trenches, and now the Penny Arcade Report. I tried for a while to think of the best way to communicate how great I think the PA Report is and how excited I am for its future. I think the best way to say it is that, I think the PA Report deserves to be up there alongside those other things we’ve built. It belongs right there between Penny Arcade and PAX. I honestly think it’s that good.
In short the PAR is what we want to see from games journalism. It does not update every twenty minutes. It is not just a source for press releases, and we are not interested in top ten lists. The PAR is focused on longer form journalism with in-depth research and interviews. To that end we have hired Ben Kuchera to deliver just that. Besides creating a bunch of original content Ben will also be curating a feature we call “The Cut”. The goal of the Cut is to recognize excellent gaming journalism on other sites as well. We won’t be pulling out all the choice bits and posting them on our site though. We want you to go visit this other site and read the content there. So we’re offering a link to the story and a quick note about why it’s worth your time. We hope to encourage the sort of journalism you’ll be seeing on the PA Report in other places as well.
The PAR launches today but it has been in the works for a long time. It is the result of an incredible amount of work by a lot of extremely talented people. First of all Ben Kuchera who has given the site its voice. Dabe Alan who has filled it with his incredible photographs. Our designers Erika and Kiko who have built something really beautiful, and our tech wizard Kenneth who made all of it work somehow. I like to think that Tycho and I have pretty good ideas but it’s the people around us that bring those ideas to life.
On days like today I like to think about where Penny Arcade started and how far we’ve come thanks to your support. We try extremely hard to be good stewards of the power you all have given us. I feel like the PAR is good example of that. I hope you agree.
-Gabe out
