Joystiq asks: should Penny Arcade be in the webcomic poll?
Since its inception just over a year ago, the Weekly Webcomic Wrapup has always had issues with Penny Arcade's inclusion. We have heard both sides of the argument, both for and against their use in the webcomic poll, and we always decide to keep them in the running -- 'tis but a silly poll, anyways.
However, we have talked with an unlikely proponent for possibly keeping comic out of the weekly poll: Gabe from Penny Arcade.On Tuesday, Gabe left a comment on our WWW post suggesting that they're not a webcomic as much as they are "game news and opinion site. Part of it is a news post and part of it is a comic strip." Speaking more on the subject with Joystiq, Gabe (also known as Mike Krahulik, shh) told us that "if you feel like people are voting for PA just because it's PA and that's not what you want then feel free to take us out of the equation."
We want to be able showcase as many game-related webomics as possible, big and small, and as long as that is accomplished then we don't care. However, after Gabe's response we decided to reopen the debate: is Penny Arcade hurting the smaller comics on the poll -- or, more importantly, is Penny Arcade even classified as a webcomic, seeing as their news posts / blog entries are equally as important? It's important to note that, despite PA's inclusion, it does not always finish in the top three for the weekly wrapups.
Gabe's response to Joystiq has been reprinted, with permission, after the break. Let us know how you feel on the subject.
As far as appearing in the Wrapup, it's your call but like I said before it's fine with us if you'd like to leave us out. Personally I feel like the comic strip and the news post are essentially one piece and shouldn't be separated. They really rely on each other and that's why I don't think of us ans just a web comic or just a blog. I'm not saying what we do is better. God knows there are plenty of people who complain about not understanding the strip without reading the post. Plenty of people think it's a pain in the ass. We've been fortunate that enough people do like it that we can do this for a living.
Also I don't want it to cause a problem with your voting system. If you feel like people are voting for PA just because it's PA and that's not what you want then feel free to take us out of the equation. If our spot can go to some other gaming comic that could use the attention then by all means do it. If you can showcase some strips each week that people may not have heard of and cut out a bunch of drama by removing us then it sounds like that's the right move.
It's great to see what people think of the comic and it's important to get that feedback. We've been doing this eight years though and we realised a long time ago that you can't please everyone. All you can do is make a comic that you think is funny and hope other people agree.
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