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I hope Roy's sword is OK.
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Jun 16, 2017 23:39
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DoctorTristan posted:I think this might have been the writer liking the characters far more than any of the readers did. Yep.
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Jun 16, 2017 23:48
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I also think you'll be able to read the entire mutiny in less than 5 minutes when you have the collected book, so you wouldn't notice if you weren't waiting a week or more between updates.
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Jun 17, 2017 00:10
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Eifert Posting posted:I hope Roy's sword is OK. It shoots green magic, it's pretty cool
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Jun 17, 2017 00:20
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Phenotype posted:I also think you'll be able to read the entire mutiny in less than 5 minutes when you have the collected book, so you wouldn't notice if you weren't waiting a week or more between updates.
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Jun 17, 2017 00:39
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"It reads better all at once" is only half a defense for a serial medium. TV writers absolutely take into account whether their show is going to be aired once a week or dropped all at once on Netflix when planning a season, even if further down the line people can binge both. I think part of what might have rubbed people the wrong way about the airship/mutiny arc is that it looked like a setup for the Order losing the airship as a source of transport, complete with theories about who they might meet or how it could tie into other stories, so it kind of felt like we were just waiting for that to happen - and when it didn't happen, then the question becomes "well what was the point of all that?"
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Jun 17, 2017 04:48
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Dolash posted:"It reads better all at once" is only half a defense for a serial medium. TV writers absolutely take into account whether their show is going to be aired once a week or dropped all at once on Netflix when planning a season, even if further down the line people can binge both. The journey is more important than the destination
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Jun 17, 2017 13:12
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Rygar201 posted:The journey is more important than the destination
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Jun 17, 2017 13:41
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I'm just not seeing the overwhelming and exhausting levels of negativity about the airship plot in this thread that barely even gets posted in that others apparently are idk. I mean I don't really care for the current plot line and I guess some people don't either but so what? I mean if this were turning into this thread I suppose I'd understand...
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Jun 17, 2017 16:18
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Honestly, I think the whole thing would've been fine if the comics had been coming at their usual pace. For me, it's just that the arc got dragged out by the slow update speed.
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Jun 17, 2017 16:20
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I would have liked it more if Andi had been allowed to be anything other than utterly wrong, petty and incompetent and then put neatly in her place. That just doesn't make for a compelling antagonist, and yet at the same time the humor was falling flat so for me it didn't work on any level. Someone else brought it up not too long ago, but originally she had a believable motivation--a vampire had been let on board and now crewmembers were being killed--but it turned out instead of being 'NPC perspectives of the terrifying assholes that are PCs and the insane things they get up to' the entire thing was just about some petty and personal feelings she had towards Bandanna instead. Anyway, I had to laugh at Roy's reaction, and I'm fine with it being left ambiguous whether it was a a meta joke or just Roy being Roy toward an NPC. (Though if there were players involved this would've been an entirely believable reaction to the end of a multi-hour session the DM had spent rolling dice and talking to himself in funny voices...) Now it's just the matter of getting the party back together, which I've been assuming they'll do with a minimum of fuss to showcase how they've grown since the last time they got split up. Bandanna I'm assuming won't mind going back for Haley and the rest, which is almost too bad because I would have laughed if what happened next was her telling everyone to screw off and just dumping them somewhere when Roy is like 'well that's great I'm glad you resolved your whatever but I need you to turn this ship around now and go back to help me find my sword' Zoe fucked around with this message at 16:47 on Jun 17, 2017 |
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Jun 17, 2017 16:33
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Zoe posted:Now it's just the matter of getting the party back together, which I've been assuming they'll do with a minimum of fuss to showcase how they've grown since the last time they got split up. If I had to guess, I'd say this isn't going to happen. They're all in a rush to stop Duncan before poo poo happens, and Haley, V, and Belkar are high level PCs that can take care of themselves.
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Jun 17, 2017 16:59
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Yeah, my money is on the airship continuing on without the other half of the party. Haley certainly has a wand with Sending, and can coordinate with Roy. Roy will have to arrive at the dwarfs clan meeting or whatever defenseless, having to use wits and Elan to solve the problem instead of force. I would only be a little disappointed if this prediction turns out to be true because splitting the party to create tension has already been used in the story several times
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Jun 17, 2017 17:28
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A friend of mine really likes Bandanna. I ask why and she won't explain. To me she just seems like a kind of generic lieutenant type character, who's authoritative but also cares for the troops/crew and who Knows What's Best, but doesn't really have any other distinguishing characteristics. Like, it's obvious Rich wants to add her into the main cast, but she doesn't really fill a slot in the party dynamic, and isn't especially engaging as a stand alone character. So to me she just kind of feels "there". Andi on the other hand I really liked, and wouldn't mind seeing more of, if only to watch her leap from one horrible decision to the next. I kind of like that some NPC was just going "gently caress this you all are insane" then fleeing from the PC drama, leaving them in a horrible spot because they completely ignored the feelings of the people who didn't matter. Also I think that just because Bandana believes Andi's reason for doing all this is based on being annoyed with an 8 year old doesn't mean it's true. All the other crew members were willing to go along with this mutiny after all. They all through this was a stupid, dangerous, pointless risk and weren't satisfied with Bandanna's reasons for why they ought to continue either. For a while I thought that this whole mutiny arc was going to be how Bandanna got removed from the ship. Like, the NPCs would somehow eventually wind up at the dwarf gate or where ever they're going, then they'd just put the still tied up Bandanna off the ship and fly away to go be pirates again. Or maybe she'd just decide it was impossible to trust them ever again and leave of her own volition. She'd then join up with the OotS on a permanent basis.
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Jun 17, 2017 17:42
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If my completely made up system of Rich Comic Analysis is true this is all gonna be peachy in about three months.
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Jun 17, 2017 17:48
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reignofevil posted:If my completely made up system of Rich Comic Analysis is true this is all gonna be peachy in about three months. I dunno man, I feel like 4, maybe 6 comics isn't enough to fix whatever's going on here
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Jun 17, 2017 20:42
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I think it's just a perfect storm of the schedule slips and the NPC storyline not being that engaging (and seemingly having no long term repercussions, unless the next issue opens with Bandana hanging her crewmates for mutiny). I remember not being that interested in the bounty hunter storyline when Roy & Belkar were captured, but the pace made up for it (as we just came off a big end of book break). We should all just be happy that the free series we all enjoy is over its bad patch and seems like it is getting back on track.
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Jun 17, 2017 23:06
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lets have an entire twenty page arc about the demon roaches.
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Jun 17, 2017 23:33
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Motherfucker posted:lets have an entire twenty page arc about the demon roaches. I know you mean this ironically, but those characters are the heart and soul of the comic.
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Jun 17, 2017 23:35
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Ultimately the problem is that Rich wanted some inter-party drama but he'd written himself into a corner with the main cast. Roy died and learned humility. Elan confronted his dad and gre more confident and competent. Haley learned to overcome her trust issues and really love. Vaarsuvius learned about the value of teamwork and self-control. Even Belkar learned to fake character growth to ingratiate himself into the party. The only wild card, Durkula, has become the mid-boss of the book and isn't around to stir the pot. In short, it wouldn't make much sense for the PCs to suddenly be back at each other's throats again. Therefore to get the drama Rich had to turn to the crew of the Mechane to do it instead. Except that he hadn't really put in the early work to make us care about these new characters enough when they came apart and started taking shots at one another. Granted the glacial update speed hurts as well and this likely will read better in the book, but to my mind the big problem is that we don't know these characters well enough to care about their struggles, and it doesn't seem like it'd work to do the same plotline with the Order proper.
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Jun 17, 2017 23:51
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I think, again, you guys are blowing out of proportion how long this little detour has lasted because of the abnormally slow pace of the updates. You can talk about how it's the journey and not the destination, but the speed of the journey has been ridiculously slow that it's hard to judge what a "normal" pace would feel like. When you're not waiting literally weeks for each page, this is going to be a five minute subplot that sets up the return of Bandana later on as someone that we've seen can keep her head under pressure (or something), and the story will be better off for having spent five minutes giving us some real experience with the character.
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Jun 18, 2017 00:05
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So there's this phenomenon in comic books called "writing for the trade". That is, writing four to six issues so that it works best when read as a trade paperback, rather than as the monthly issues. It often leads to unsatisfying individual issues, regardless of how well it works when collected into a single unit months or years down the line. The problem with writing for the trade is that you're robbing Peter to pay Paul. A comic run that sells badly because it's poorly paced as a monthly comic gets canceled. Occasionally it gets canceled before the initial four to six issue run is completed in which case it'll never get that trade paperback version it was being written for. Other times it'll get the chop right after those first few issues in which case probably a trade will be made, but you've lost the opportunity to do more than just the one. So what's that gotta do with OotS? Well the business model is rather different, in that Rich has always said that the books are what he makes all his money selling and the free comic is just a way to get people to buy the books. Fair enough. And yes, some of the pacing issues are beyond Rich's control between his health issues and having to divert effort to Kickstarter rewards that are still ongoing. But riddle me this. How many book sales has Rich lost because people who used to read online have given up on the strip? How less enthusiastic, and thus less likely to pony up $30 to buy the next book, are the fans who remain? How much damage has been done to the OotS brand? And how much of it could have been prevented if the strips were better structured for the (more or less) weekly publishing schedule he's on, rather than just saying "oh, it'll read better in the book?" Because yeah, it probably will read better in the book, but how many fewer people WILL read it that way because the online version is suffering?
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Jun 18, 2017 08:16
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lol
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Jun 18, 2017 09:11
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Seriously Rich has been doing fine for over a decade; why would this be a problem now?
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Jun 18, 2017 09:22
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Raenir Salazar posted:Seriously Rich has been doing fine for over a decade; why would this be a problem now? but is he okay 
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Jun 18, 2017 11:39
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Raenir Salazar posted:Seriously Rich has been doing fine for over a decade; why would this be a problem now? I mean it seems a little questionable or at least unusual from a business standpoint for someone who depends on their webcomic to generate income to flat out tell the fans of said webcomic 'you are my lowest priority', but there's really no way to tell if/how that or anything else would effect sales in the long run. It's not really possible to judge reactions among the larger fanbase by looking at the more fanatical ones on the main forums. But everyone, Rich included, will be much happier once the Kickstarter stuff is finished, and there's nothing that can be done about that in the meantime but wait it out while hoping Rich is okay.
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Jun 18, 2017 12:17
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The most recent Kickstarter story is phenomenal and imo should buy Rich goodwill for a long, long time. It's 90 pages long and really well crafted, that's an impressive achievement.
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Jun 18, 2017 12:35
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I wouldn't know since Rich won't let me buy it 
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Jun 18, 2017 14:36
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Galvanik posted:I wouldn't know since Rich won't let me buy it same
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Jun 18, 2017 17:04
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lol if you didn't blindly contribute to one of the first kickstarters ever
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Jun 18, 2017 17:16
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jng2058 posted:So there's this phenomenon in comic books called "writing for the trade". That is, writing four to six issues so that it works best when read as a trade paperback, rather than as the monthly issues. It often leads to unsatisfying individual issues, regardless of how well it works when collected into a single unit months or years down the line. Lmao
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Jun 18, 2017 17:20
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Gwyneth Palpate posted:lol if you didn't blindly contribute to one of the first kickstarters ever Barkley 2 is going to be great, but I don't know what that has to do with OOTS.
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Jun 18, 2017 17:22
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Rygar201 posted:Lmao I can't speak for anyone else but I stopped reading OotS years ago during the desert arc with Elian's father because the updates were coming too slow. I started reading again January of this year and dropped it again for the same reason. That zeppelin is like Berserk's boat ride to the fairy realm, it's just never going to end. This isn't an attack on anyone, it's just a reflection of reality.
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Jun 18, 2017 17:37
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The Order of the Stick: He's doing fine but is he okay?
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Jun 18, 2017 23:26
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I gave to the oots kickstarter because I wanted to give Rich some money. Worked pretty well.
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Jun 19, 2017 00:04
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Schwarzwald posted:Barkley 2 is going to be great, but I don't know what that has to do with OOTS. man that was like a year later
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Jun 19, 2017 02:40
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Eifert Posting posted:I gave to the oots kickstarter because I wanted to give Rich some money. Worked pretty well. I was thinking the same. Kickstarter for me was a way to help out creators who's work I already enjoyed and maybe also get something cool for it. Even if it didn't work out, I wouldn't have regretted giving Rich money. I just wish he didn't end up creating so much extra work for himself. He still has so much to do to finish fulfilling this kickstarter.
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Jun 19, 2017 02:48
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OOTS was the third Kickstarter I contributed to.
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Jun 19, 2017 02:53
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Endless Mike posted:OOTS was the third Kickstarter I contributed to. OOTS was the first Kickstarter I contributed to and one of three I don't on some level regret.
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Jun 19, 2017 03:17
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Most of the ones I've contributed to have worked out, though I no longer contribute to video game ones.
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Jun 19, 2017 03:28
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