Afraid of Audio posted:

Hitlers Gay Secret posted:

So like I don't want to seem like I'm shitposting (especially with the last few pages) but I just tried to start reading this and I had to quit at the "racist gay elves" scene. Was that supposed to be funny? Along with the crippling depression of the main character I'm not really finding this entertaining. Does the story ever pick up or is just more and more poo poo like "I wont do this because it makes me feel sad".

Because I can just continue living my own life if I want to experience that.

Hitlers Gay Secret posted:

So like I don't want to seem like I'm shitposting (especially with the last few pages) but I just tried to start reading this and I had to quit at the "racist gay elves" scene. Was that supposed to be funny? Along with the crippling depression of the main character I'm not really finding this entertaining. Does the story ever pick up or is just more and more poo poo like "I wont do this because it makes me feel sad".

Because I can just continue living my own life if I want to experience that.

Parts Kit posted:

I am completely meh on the story but some of the scripting stuff Kazerad and those who helped him did in the dream sequence was pretty cool.

idonotlikepeas posted:

Prequel

Zoe posted:

Most of the depressing stuff was in the beginning of the comic, if you don't like fiction where things go wrong for the main character just skip to here, the dinner party is well worth reading through and IIRC everything's been pretty much uphill since then. And refusing to read the comic at all means you miss out entirely on meeting the Perfectly Normal Human Girl and the Daedric Prince of Nightmares and the entire 'Katia learns telekinesis' sequence, why would you deny yourself of this.

Zoe posted:

Yeah there was a point where things went bad for Katia and she responded by getting shitfaced drunk AGAIN where I had to ragequit the entire comic for awhile, but when I came back to it that turned out to be her lowest point and since then she's very, very slowly started getting a better grip on her life. And without spoiling things later there's this point where it's obvious she's turned a corner and it's such a relief knowing that no matter how bad things get, they'll never get that bad again.

Or maybe I'm just letting myself get too involved with some crappy fanfic about the lamest Elder Scrolls game, but even moreso than the crippling self loathing Katia deals with it's the drinking that got to me. I guess it just hits close to home because I've had a cousin who's had issues with alcoholism as long as I can remember and she's put the entire family through an unbelievable amount of poo poo over the years, to the point I have zero sympathy for her anymore even if it really is 'not her fault' and 'she can't help herself' and blah blah blah. For all the flak Kaz gets for the situations he's put Katia in, realistically having drunken sex with some random guy and kind of regretting the morning after is one of the least bad results that can come from getting black out drunk on a regular basis.


Weirdly enough I just read that part earlier today, and it's still amazing. My favorite sequence in the comic by far and I only hope we get more like it when Sigrid's dealt with and we get back on track of that part of the plot.

Doctor_Fruitbat posted:

It's not entirely obvious until you've read the whole thing, but there is a moment 50 pages in (around where Zoe linked to) where Katia turns a corner and the comic gets really enjoyable.

The first 50 pages are kind of mean-spirited in that they're just one crushing disappointment after another with humour indiscriminately sewn throughout and you certainly wouldn't be the first person to quit during that period. This is generally the time where the whole 'torture porn' accusation comes from.

50 pages in though, Katia vows to turn things around and you can see a distinct change in the way the comic treats her. She starts having a great many successes - getting on with things instead of endlessly screwing up, learning some great new skills, successfully navigating a dinner party with a scary countess and gaining enough self confidence that later on, when she hits another dark moment, her response is (after struggling with her feelings for a bit) to get that poo poo sorted.

The tone of the comic also changes to use humour and drama much more effectively - moments where Katia is just screwing about are pretty tame and easily laughed off, for both us and her, like trying to take on a pair of mudcrabs by hiding behind a rock and chucking apples at them. Bigger setbacks, like her nightmares, often drop the humour entirely and become these really neat, dark, dramatic moments, with some good animated and/or interactive segments with the occasional clever twist, like Katia's dream self hiding from a monster inside a drop-down box.

The most obvious example of this came recently, where a bad situation was treated with humour because Katia (for reasons I won't spoil) didn't realise the danger she was blindly walking through, then as she came to her senses and lost control of her emotions it became this grimly atmospheric nightmare that ramped up the drama nicely. Then it all got capped off in a really fun, emotionally satisfying and well made segment where she learns some new skills, has a confusing pep-talk from a ghost, gets her confidence back and goes to get. That. poo poo. SORTED. LIKE THIS:




If you aren't convinced by the dinner party, try this link on a PC that can run flash, do the interactive bits and read to the current update - it's pretty much the comic at its best and if that won't convince you then it really isn't for you!

quote:

See, this is the kind of thing I wanted to talk about in this thread originally. God it feels good to just enthuse about stuff.

Kazerad posted:

Thanks! And yeah, it was partially inspired by your comments. It was also partially inspired by Zenzirouj's request to learn more about what Katia is like while she's drunk.

And partially inspired by Dominic Deegan. I have just made all you guys like a character who raped the protagonist. Sometimes I do things just because bad authors tried them and failed. Time to update my achievements.
Semi-related, I like to imagine in this setting, giving someone a scroll of Summon Xivilai is interpreted as the equivalent of giving someone a vibrator in our world.

Motherfucker posted:

I like your bad comic could you please stop posting where I can see it so I can maintain the illusion of liking you?

Doctor_Fruitbat posted:

$2881 on the fundraiser; that's a pretty momumental amount of Lego. Can you get a delivery direct from a Lego store Kaz? It would save you having to sort this out yourself. Are there enough sick children for that much Lego? Can this actually be done before Xmas?

Kazerad posted:

I admit I'm pretty surprised that people still bring up that post . Like, it was a crack at Dominic Deegan made in relatively poor taste more than three years ago. I think the joke is less clear today, now that everyone has forgotten about that comic and the time it legitimately tried to play off a protagonist as being morally justified in violently raping someone.

I am sorry for the post, for what it's worth. Like, even if DD did this stuff legit and deserved a little mockery, it was probably not a topic I should have joked about in such a cavalier manner.

Hitlers Gay Secret posted:

So like I don't want to seem like I'm shitposting (especially with the last few pages) but I just tried to start reading this and I had to quit at the "racist gay elves" scene. Was that supposed to be funny? Along with the crippling depression of the main character I'm not really finding this entertaining. Does the story ever pick up or is just more and more poo poo like "I wont do this because it makes me feel sad".

Because I can just continue living my own life if I want to experience that.

YellerBill posted:

I enjoy reading prequel and want to talk about it with other people who also enjoy reading prequel but every time I try Audio & co are freaking out like that guy who had a vendetta against Pick in the webcomics thread and I don't want to have to read that.

corn in the bible posted:

You don’t see people talking about Daggerfall much, but it had a lot of interesting concepts that set it apart from the series’ later titles. The scale was enormous - the width of Cyrodiil in Oblivion is just a bit shorter than the distance between two of Daggerfall's 15,000 towns. Dungeons were not made to be navigable - they were confusing, winding messes where there was a good chance you would have to give up without ever finding the artifact/person you were looking for. On top of this, quests were timed - waiting around to heal or getting roped into a sidequest wasn't viable, since you were only given a certain number of days to complete a mission and a good number of those would be dedicated to sleep or travel. If you failed a quest, it would reduce your reputation with factions or make the main storyline unwinnable.

Daggerfall was a game from a different era. Its production values weren’t high: it was made by twenty people, around half of them credited as just “additional art” (which in my own credits is codeword for “drew one sprite”). It was released one year after its predecessor - for comparison, I’ve been working on my 2013 Seven Day Roguelike entry for longer than that. The game was also very punishing - unless you had looked at the 100-page manual and gotten a good grasp on its mechanics, you probably weren’t going to make it out of the starting dungeon. You’d get killed by a rat.

But that’s the thing: Daggerfall was made for a certain kind of person. It came from an era where games were made for gamers. Like a child whose family could only afford one toy for Christmas, there was an expectation that the people who bought games were going to care about them. They were going to explore them, learn their nuances, use their imagination and find depth where others couldn’t. Games were meant to release their content over weeks, not hours. I once saw an interview with an early adventure game developer where he explained that, in his era, adventure games weren’t something you plowed through in one sitting - they were something you’d have to put down for a while, and think about the puzzles as you went through your day. They weren’t for a casual audience - much like Ulysses is only read by literature aficionados who care enough to dissect its nuances, games were only played by gamers.

420 Gank Mid posted:

Oh man I just found the best post in the thread. Source your quotes please i'm dying.

e: remember when touching poop was bannable?

420 Gank Mid posted:

Oh man I just found the best post in the thread. Source your quotes please i'm dying.

WarpedNaba posted:

Lego with an s? Shameful.

Kazerad posted:

And thanks for the offer, but all I need in the near future is a Katia VA and I've had the same one for three years.

Hiveminded posted:

I read through this comic; I have no clue as to how I discovered it, though I suppose that doesn't matter. Not a fan of its furry elements, but whatever. The author is a flawed person, and I'm a hypocrite for saying that, but I think it's better than calling him creepy. The hate posts against him aren't really justifiable, but they were kind of funny.

Mostly, I've been thinking about the heavy-handed exploration of Catgirl's depression to connect with the audience. It was discussed a bit, earlier, and it was interesting. Any further thoughts on it?