Penny Arcade takes to Kickstarter to go ad-free

Web comic entrepreneurs, convention throwers and charity organisers Penny Arcade have jumped into the Kickstarter pool with the goal of making its publication completely ad free.

The Kickstarter does not mean Penny Arcade is in trouble. "Honestly if this Kickstarter doesn't work nothing here will change," said Mike "Gabe" Krahulik on the official site.

"The reality is that we can continue working for advertisers but if we can, we'd rather work for you."

The first Kickstarter goal is to hit $250,000, at which point the leaderboard ad on the homepage will be removed. At $525,000 all ads on the homepage will vanish, and at $999,999 Penny Arcade promises it will go ad free for an entire year.

Penny Arcade explains on the Kickstarter page that being freed from advertisers would have a trickle down effect allowing the company to produce more content.

"Without the almighty "pageview" to consider, why not populate the RSS with full comics and posts? Why not enable and even encourage apps, first and third party, for people to read it however they damn well please?"

Those who currently sell adspace for the site will transition into content producers if this is successful. "We're going to shift them from 'sell ad space' jobs to 'make things' jobs. That's the company we intend to be. They were nervous at first, but now they can't stop thinking about what's next. It's all human bandwidth we can put toward the next surprise."

The reward tiers range from the humourous to the esoteric. For $1, Gabe will shout your name as he chases a duck, and you'll be listed as a supporter. For $15, Gabe will think about you during sex and mail a certificate of appreciation. For $300 Tycho will follow you on twitter for a year, while $5000 gets a night of gaming with Jerry "Tycho" Holkins and Mike, and $9999 offers lunch with the duo.

Incredulously, someone has sprung for the $9999 package, while two have donated five grand.

As of writing this $65,195 have been donated between 936 backers with 36 days to go until the deadline on 15th August.

For more information, check out this video of Jerry and Mike discovering how expensive it is to run a business.