Penny Arcade's comic about rape

smurfsurfer · 2011-02-05T01:02:55+00:00

I thought it was a funny comic about only doing the minimum required to complete quests.

In other news the nanny nation has declared that no offensive jokes are to be made ever again. Except for the Irish. Drunken Irishman jokes are grandfathered in.

badaids · 2011-02-05T01:28:32+00:00

Could someone explain what everyone is talking about? What is the joke (apart from the minimum quest thing) and why does it anger people? It has a talking fucking animal thing.

abk0100 · 2011-02-05T00:55:22+00:00

The 'joke' is not the worst thing in the world, in my opinion. They're pointing out that playing quest-based games (save 5 villagers to win, etc) requires a degree of distance from reality. You're required to save the 5 villagers to win, and once that's done you move on to the next quest despite the fact that there are a whole bunch of villagers left to suffer whatever fate you were trying to save them from. In real life, that would be all kinds of messed up. I don't think it's a political jab, but I'd like to see your reasoning on that.

What I find problematic is their response to criticism. Instead of saying 'well that's a perspective we hadn't thought of before' they basically responded with 'LOL rapey rapey rape rape, rape survivors should just get over it!' Now there's a 'team rape' planning to go to PAX wearing pro-dickwolves shirts as if that's a crusade for free speech rather than just a bullying tactic to silence criticism.

Instead of getting to have a legitimate discussion about rape in humour and whether it is ever appropriate, PA effectively got everyone to stop talking and start shouting, and only stopped fanning the flames when things got a little too personal and big-shot people started backing away from PAX.

Additionally, Gabe endorsed taking things from an online discussion to real-life intimidation. PAX is supposed to be a place where geeks can feel at home, and I can't see how angry groups of 'team rape' supporters will accomplish that at all. Will anyone who has been repeatedly shown, by PA and their supporters, that merely talking about their experiences with sexual abuse are grounds for harassment, stalking, threats of violence and intimidation, will those people feel comfortable at PAX?

tl;dr the online shitstorm was barely ever about the comic itself, it was about Gabe and Tycho's reaction to criticism.

kloo2yoo · 2011-02-05T02:19:31+00:00

Enjoy this humunguous back and forth crapfest about the PA comic here. http://www.poe-news.com/forums/sp.php?pi=1002460461

Blaidd_Dwrg · 2011-02-05T03:30:14+00:00

What's worse than finding half a worm in your apple?

Rape.

Banake · 2025-12-03T08:29:07+00:00

It is weird seeing Penny Arcade in this sub.

thetrollking · 2011-02-05T00:40:17+00:00

Yeah this blew up a few months back. I saw feminists were all pissed off over it. I dunno, I thought it was just a weird comic but don't really know.

OT, but hey look at the counter I bet by tomorrow we will have over 20k readers. Nice.

Title	Penny Arcade's comic about rape
Author	kloo2yoo
Upvotes	1
Comments	21
Date	February 4, 2011 10:53 PM UTC (15 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/ffhfx/penny_arcades_comic_about_rape/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/penny-arcades-comic-about-rape.1043516 https://theredarchive.com/post/1043516

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