Penny Arcade Accidentally Mails Off (And Recovers) Carmack DS

Damn.

We didn't even open the DS that Electronic Arts sent. If we had, we would have seen that it was being offered up an an auction for Child's Play. It was, in fact, a Nintendo DS signed by John Carmack. As I said, we didn't even open the thing. If you have been doing this for almost a decade, as we have, you develop a very comprehensive and far reaching cynicism that applies to anything that a company sends you. We arm ourselves in this way because we think it will make us deliver you a more robust assessment of the medium. Also, we are assholes. Professionally.

What I am trying to say is that we fucked up bad. Bad. We actually sent that DS away as a prize in Gabriel's revolting cookie contest this morning, and pawing through the entrails of the box we found an absolutely genuine letter of support for both the site and for the mission of the charity. There is a portion of the letter dedicated to his pride in the game's custom wand-shaped stylus, and if you take pride in custom wand-styluses what that says to me is that you are a huge nerd. This was not some vile and crass manipulator. He wasn't trying to fly me out to gay Paris. He used his position to secure something incredible for the charity, and believed that I would be literate enough to read the enclosed letter. He was wrong.

-- Penny Arcade -- Not That We Mind

What's even more fubar is that accompanying comic mocks EA for sending it in the first place. I make a humble promise to John Carmack that should he sign a DS and send it to me, I would not mail to anyone ... ever. Even for charity, actually. Probably wouldn't even open the thing, just bronze it and hang it on the wall with a small plaque explaining why I can now die happy.

Update:

We were able to fish the signed DS out of the UPS bin in advance of the pickup, so that tender collectible will go up in an eBay auction on Wednesday - acting as a coda to this year's Child's Play. It's been replaced by a common, absolutely ordinary Nintendo DS, which isn't as cool, but what do you do? Hopefully their naughty cookies will be a comfort to them in this dark time.