Nothing like a bit of good news to end the year with a bang, eh? The Child's Play charity movement run by Penny Arcade has reportedly exceeded its projected million-dollar mark for this December. Details on this big news are available in the full article.

Kotaku has put up an autographed Xbox 360 Guitar Hero guitar from Penny Arcade Expo on Ebay. The proceeds of this auction will be donated to Child's Play, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of children with toys and games. The guitar was signed by various people including Tycho, Gabe, and the makers of Guitar Hero.

More details and information about this in the Full Article.

 

You can't talk about web comics without mentioning Tycho and Gabe's Penny Arcade Adventures. With their off-beat, tongue-in-cheek style of comedy about the video gaming industry, gamers will finally get to experience this unique brand of humor in Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness (I personally blame Tycho and Gabe for such a mouthful of a title for their game) developed by Hothead Games.

Suffice to say, the developers are having a lot of fun making the game, probably as much as players will have playing it. Don't take my word for it - in an interview with Joel DeYoung, the producer of Hothead, he gives the team at QJ.net the low-down on the upcoming game based, of course, on the Penny Arcade Adventures web comic. He talks about many interesting points regarding the game's mechanics, as well as the active involvement of the web comic's creators.

The game was originally unveiled during last year's Penny Arcade Expo. There's been no official release date set, however, you can expect it to come out by years end. Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is slated to come out on the PC, Mac, Linux, and Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade) platforms. Either way, fans everywhere will be waiting with baited breath for the game's release. Don't worry, though, we'll be sure to give you up-to-date reports on the game as we get them.

Check out the full interview right after the jump!

Earlier, Major Nelson announced some very good news from the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX). Guess what? Tycho and Gabe is set to  invade Xbox Live Arcade next year in a Penny Arcade video game, Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness.

That's quite a mouthful. PAAOtRSPoD... Anyway, we got a trailer of the game and it introduces the dynamic duo, at least to those who don't know them: Tycho Erasmus Brahe (the maddening egotist) and Jonathan Gabriel (the whimsical brawler). Lots of crazy stuff are crammed in the trailer, including a giant Fruit F*cker! FTW!

Anyway, we'll leave you to check out the video. Expect more on Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness when the goodies become available.

Penny Arcade's Jerry "Tycho" Holkins has finally responded to Jack Thompson's statements regarding the canned PAX debate in which the outspoken lawyer was supposed to participate.

Thompson declined to show up for the debate due to Penny Arcade not wanting him to say anything about it to the media. In a recent interview by video game news site 1UP, Tycho revealed that the whole debate was a last-minute addition to PAX.

"PAX is almost entirely laid out by now, schedule-wise, but we've got wiggle room here and there," said Tycho. "We thought we could put some of this wiggle room to use in the form of a debate panel."

The moderator for the debate was supposed to be the administrator of GamePolitics.com. No opponent had been decided on yet, but within twenty-four hours, the PAX team had already communicated with Thompson.

As for the reason why Penny Arcade didn't want Thompson talking about the debate, here's Tycho's explanation:

Before any other concern, it is our deep desire that no person be trampled to death at PAX. Given the human density of last year's show, it seemed as though a Jack Thompson panel would create some dicey situations from a safety perspective.

We asked that Jack not discuss the event for these reasons. When he began to do so, publicly, with all major gaming news organizations, we determined that even an explosive, exciting debate wasn't worth trying to work with him.

Tycho also took the opportunity to respond to Thompson's statements regarding the situation:

I think he is lumping us in with his other opponents, some of whom are almost certainly imaginary. I'm not aware of any machinations that are currently ongoing.

As for the sale of "adult materials," by which I assume he means games rated M by the ESRB, we currently think that the best bet is retail enforcement and parent education. As parents ourselves, his assertion is scurrilous and insulting.

Just recently, Penny Arcade's Mike Krahulik (a.k.a., Gabe) has written a scathing commentary in response to a story that was published by CNN. In his commentary, he expresses his dissatisfaction at the fact that, once again, a murder happens and it all gets blamed on the under-aged suspect's gaming habits, and not on other factors which may have shaped the individual into a killer.

For those who don't frequent CNN's site too often, the article in question discusses the recent rise of the number of incidents which involves homeless individuals being murdered by teenagers "for sport."

As a primary example of such an incident, CNN uses the story of the 49-year-old homeless man, Rex Baum, who was killed in 2004 after he was beaten to death by Nathan Moore, Luis Oyola, and Andrew Ihrcke. At the time of the incident, the killers were 15, 16, and 17 years old respectively. After Baum's body was discovered two days after he was killed, the police were able to track down the teens and question them about what they've done. According to police reports, the eldest answered that Baum apparently "reminded him of playing a violent video game."

That statement from Ihrcke may actually be enough to raise more than a few eyebrows within both the gaming and the legislative community. However, what caught Krahulik's attention was the fact that even though the original article continued to present more facts and examples, and also mentions several other theories on what may have been prompting minors to go on killing sprees, it is inevitable that many would stop reading at the point where video games are mentioned. As Krahulik laments:

These kids have given the media their angle and just like all the other cases where games are mentioned no one will ever look any further. No one will ask what their family life was like, what their parents were like, what the kid was like before all this happened. Games did it and that’s the end of the story ... I'm perfectly aware that the reality of the situation was somewhere between the two extremes. I know full well that violent games did not create this killer and I also know that his parents did not make him a murderer ... The sad truth is that the reality we're talking about here would probably never actually see the light of day. The media will tell the story they want to tell regardless and that story will be about violent games. The parents of these kids will be lucky to get two lines in an article about the crime. If they tell a reporter that their son hardly played games or that he was f***ed up long before they bought a Playstation do you really think that will make it into the final article? You'd never see that side of the story, not in a million years. [Bold format not in original text. - QJ]

However, all that has now changed, as the stepmother of one of the suspects (they did not mention which one) has bravely come out in the open to let everyone know the truth about these teens. Who would have known that the parent of a so-called "video game killer" can actually be a gamer herself? Who would have thought that she was a regular Penny Arcade reader? Who would have expected that she would choose to trust the folks of Penny Arcade with the truth instead of handing it over to the mainstream media?

We'll never be as eloquent as Tycho or Gabe, so click on the "Read" link below, read on, and brace yourselves for what a lot of people in politics would probably hate to hear.

  

Now this is just completely awesome on a lot of levels. Someone took the time and elbow grease to make handmade Guitar Hero II controllers, and these babies are going to be prizes for the Child's Play fund raiser happening this Friday.

Three handmade GH2 controllers are going to be given out as prizes for the Funde Razor, a fund-raising event for the benefit of Child's Play, the charity organization created by Penny Arcade's Gabe and Tycho. We're not sure how they're going to be given out, whether as a raffle or part of a Guitar Hero competition, but it's definitely something hardcore Guitar Hero gamers can use to become guitar superheroes.

We only wish there were specs to mod your own. Still, fitting a control scheme into an electric guitar is just full of unbeatable awesomeness.  The Funde Razor, now on its second year, will be set to rock everyone's socks off on December 6 at Brooklyn's Barcade, with the party starting at 8 p.m.

Games and booze to help make kids happy? Sounds like a good deal! Enjoy!