[Segmentation]

I'm reminded of the movie MoneyBall. Jonah Hill and Brad Pitt are employed with what outsiders would consider horrible jobs, but each stick with it because they enjoy it.

As an outsider you may think Penny Arcade's offer is bad, but someone, somewhere would love nothing more to work with the people behind that legendary comic and expo, no matter how rough it is.

Edit - I would also like to make an analogy with MMO guilds, particularly World of Warcraft. There are players who spend 4+ hours a night with their guild hardcore raiding (especially after the release of a content patch). These hardcore guilds have very strict enlistments. Unless you're as hardcore as them you're not in. An outsider would think they're insane, but there is no shortage of people applying to these guilds because they enjoy the experience of hardcore raiding. Some of these guilds have a very family-like bond toward each other, so you have to consider community/culture fit.

[9999]

I assume you're being sarcastic when you write legendary, right? Peanuts, Pogo, Calvin and Hobbes, Krazy Kat, Little Nemo... those are legendary comic strips. Penny Arcade is a comic strip focused on a narrow subculture (man children) within a subculture (video game fans) that largely consists of jokes on videogame news cycle topics. It's the sort of thing that will be entirely without value in 40 years.

That being said, I'm sure someone out there really does believe it's a legendary comic strip and will want to be a part of that.

[joel_perl_prog]

Brutal and incisive comment. Both in terms of the (non) value of the comic (I would extend this to every web comic I've personally ever seen), and in terms of its audience.

[wpietri]

> somewhere would love nothing more to work with the people behind that legendary comic

Yes, and exploiting somebody like that is wrong. They could hire them and treat them well, but because they're famous, they couldn't be fucking bothered.

This shitty behavior goes on all the time in fashion [1] and in the movie industry. I'm sad to hear it's coming to tech.

[1] e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil_Wears_Prada_%28novel%...

[samspot]

I don't think a hobby is comparable. They do the raiding thing because it is fun. They have only a social obligation to stay, and they can quit anytime that it doesn't fit into their life anymore.

[billforsternz]

Remember that as general manager, the Brad Pitt character would be making $Nx10^6 per annum. Didn't look like such a horrible job to me. My rough salary estimate is based on the fact that at the end of the movie he turns down the equivalent job at the Boston Red Sox for $12.5 million.

[jimzvz]

I feel like I have been living in a cave. I have never heard of Penny Arcade but people are referring to them as legendary. Visiting their site feels like going back to 2006. What am I missing?