A Really Good Idea

This really good idea is not mine.

It isn't even particularly new.

But when I was presented with this idea I was struck by the incredible right-ness of it.

Penny Arcade is "crowd funding" their website. 

Instead of advertisers paying for Penny Arcade to make comics for fans, they are proposing that the fans themselves pay for Penny Arcade to make comics.  This seems brilliantly logical to me; consumers paying for a product.  It's so simple.  Instead of companies paying for a product that they bundle with pictures of their products and give to consumers for free?  When did that become the norm?

From Wikipedia

For those of you who don't know, Penny Arcade is at its heart a webcomic that comments on video games and the community who loves them.  (A warning for my relatives and any young readers, some of their comics are quite vulgar.)  Eleven years ago the site ran on donations for the period of almost two years.  Back then it was a much smaller operation, but their fans alone paid for the food, rent, and video games for two (three?) grown men.  Currently they are able to pay their employees and fund their various projects at least in part by selling advertising space on their website.  In a post by one of their creators, Mike Krahulik, writes: 

"PA has fourteen employees now, we put on two massive conventions every year, we run a worldwide charity, we produce our own video games and web show.  It's a major operation now and running it off of donations again seems impossible.  Or is it?"

From PA's Kickstarter Page

They have created a kickstarter* with the proposed goal of having a site free of advertising.  They actually wisely broke everything down into bite sized goals.

I think the part that excites me the most is the hint of more (great) content than they would be able to create if they worked without advertisers.  In one tweet @cwgabriel, again Mike Krahulik, said "I don't want to spoil some of the un-lockables but if we aren't making projects for advertisers we are free to make projects for you."  Being able to pay an artist to make art for me is a thrilling idea (and I do consider both the creators Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins to be artists).  I have delusions of being one of the great patrons of art a lá the renaissance despite my lousy $5 donation.  


I think as the gap between the art creators and the art consumers becomes smaller, the art will be better.  That is a bold claim, I know.  However, I feel strongly enough about it to back it up with a portion of my embarrassingly small paycheck.  I encourage you to do so too.  If not for this project, for some other artist you believe in.  


I'll step down off my soap box now.  


~Claire Out

*A website where people can post ideas and funding goals and take donations to execute said idea.