Penny Arcade Announces Scholarship

hapwned writes "Jerry 'Tycho Brahe' Holkins and Mike 'Jonathan Gabriel Gabe' Krahulik of Penny Arcade gave an interview to Shannon Drake of the Escapist about their charity Child's Play. In the piece, they reveal the first hint of their next endeavor: 'Talk of crazy ideas and the future brings us to their next enterprise, which is still hazy, but very exciting all the same. Right now, they're throwing around the idea of a Penny Arcade Scholarship, which should debut this year.'"

What do you get it for?

[denominateur]

I wonder what the scholarship requires in order to get it. Highscores? Maybe a very high CPL rating in either of Counterstrike Source or Quake III ?

scholarship name?

[BushCheney08]

I really hope it's called the JuiceFucker 2000 Scholarship.

Re:scholarship name?

[BushCheney08]

Doh! FRUIT, not juice. FRUIT! Obviously I'm totally ineligible for this particular scholarship...

Re:scholarship name?

[Anonymous Coward]

One has to ask, did you say juicefucker to insight the penny arcade hordes or was it a slip of the keyboard brought on by speedy typing? Fruit is awfully close to Juice on my keyboard, but that might just be from eating lunch at my desk.

not trying to start a flame war, just trying to funny in an AC kind of way.

Re:scholarship name?

[BushCheney08]

Yup. Hit the wrong key. Why'd they hafta put the 'fruit' key so close to the 'juice' key? Damn Microsoft, with their crappy pictokeyboard...

Re:scholarship name?

[SeekerDarksteel]

Heh, damnit, you better not get modded up for that too! :P

Re:scholarship name?

[ClamIAm]

I honestly hope that they include profanity in the title of the scholarship, just so it's reproduced all over transcripts. "So, I see you got an ... interesting scholarship as an undergraduate, sir.".

No but seriously, the requirements for the scholarship should basically be using a thesaurus as much as possible, and trying to work into conversation references of your wang and balls.

Seriously, what sort of scholarships?

[PIPBoy3000]

The obvious choice is some sort of gaming-related scholarship, fitting in with the theme of their site.

It might be interesting to instead give away a scholarship for study in any field, but only to those who are deemed "worthy". High gaming scores? Cancer survivors (working with the same Child's Play hospitals)? Other comic artists?

Re:Seriously, what sort of scholarships?

[Tanmi-Daiow]

I think they should give it to a CS (thats computer science, not counter-strike) student. This might help increase the number of CS students. I heard that this number was going down recently even though i plan to start next semester as a CS/Math student. I could always use more money for college.

Re:Seriously, what sort of scholarships?

[The-Trav-Man]

The number of CS students going down is a big plus

At least in Australia there are far too many CS students, most of whom don't really like computers but just want the big cash moneys.
We've got about a 60% graduate employment rate for CS (other engineering courses are up around 85%) and I found the uninterested students have reduced the quality of teaching that the universities offered and some of them actually get into the industry and create unspeakable chaos with their shoddy work.

That said, most p

Never ceases to amaze me

[darkmayo]

Not only do Jerry and Mike put out a great comic and have been doing it for years, but they have the childs play charity which every year since its inception has gotten bigger and bigger, as well as the PAX gaming expo they have been putting on has been growing larger and more impressive, but now a Scholarship... whats next the penny-arcade national health care program?

Of course these things wouldnt be possible without the fans of the comics and the gamers out there who rally to the causes that these to great men put forth. More attention needs to be given to these two guys and gamers like them.

Re:Never ceases to amaze me

[AtariEric]

what's next, the penny-arcade national health care program?

As long as the FruitFucker isn't doing the prostate exams...

Re:Requirements?

[wibs]

you're a troll, but whatever.

These guys are actively trying to make their world a better place. They didn't start out with a silver spoon, they got lucky and made it big. Lots of people would stop there. Instead they're doing a hell of a lot of work that nobody ever asked or expected them to do, simultaneously improving the image of gamers while actually making a HUGE difference in people's lives.

Quite frankly, I don't care if you think their comic is funny or not. If you don't think it is, that's fair. Jokes about their comic sucking are more than acceptable as well. But to take a story like this as your opportunity to attack them just shows what an incredibly classless individual you are.

Two guys are out there trying to do good things, and not in the Bill Gates suddenly discovering his image stinks kind of way, but because they can and they want to. Be grateful. I wouldn't think I'd have to explain that.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Requirements?

[Meagermanx]

"PA's charity is nothing to scoff at, yes, but the Moose Lodge in my town does about twice as much charitable work."
 
Wow. Your Moose Lodge raised over a million dollars for charity last Christmas? Impressive.

Continuing a Trend

[LilBlackDemon]

These two guys have repeatedly shown that they are more than respectable in circles outside of gaming. Although their comic is definitely one of the most offensive and obscene (and occasionally, funny) comics available, they still continue to donate to and organize charities.

The Child's Play charity (disclaimer: I have donated to this charity in the past, and will continue to do so) is a great idea, and is something surprisingly overlooked. In 2003-2004, I worked in a children's ward in a New York City hospital. The children were very well provided-for in terms of their treatment, but had nothing to do but sit around all day waiting to heal. You would be surprised how hard it is to get people to donate to a hospital for things other than medicine.

The two guys also (very controvertially) donated $10,000 over the summer in the name of Jack Thompson, Esq. Although the incident turned ugly (and Mr. Thompson explained his motivation in a recent interview), it is a good example of their interest in charities.

The Penny-Arcade haters may now mod me down.