A for-profit enterprise should feel free to ask for volunteers whenever they feel like it, and would-be volunteers should feel free to ignore them if it's a bad deal.
Why do you hate freedom? Think someone's going to steal your job? Are you one of those union members who freak out if someone is setting up at a convention center and plugs in their own laptop or moves their own chair? :P
(Now if they're fraudulent and misrepresent the volunteering, that's another matter.)
They are 'volunteers' in the sense they are not an event staff handled some company. Penny Arcade decided they wanted some event staff made up of people that were interested in making the event a success because they were also part of it.
That's a fine moral position to take. I don't agree, and haven't seen argument from you that would convince me. Volunteer work in exchange for admission tickets is a fine offer, and there are no shortage of people who agree. Some of those become Enforcers at the event.
Free work for a weekend seems quite different than systematic under compensation in your day-to-day job.
a for-profit enterprise should not be asking for volunteers for anything. that is a moral position i take.
second, the loss of dignity and monetary devaluation was referring to his day job. the one that he ostensibly makes a living from.