New Order of the Stick Strip Up

[Voss]

TriOmegaZero wrote:

Plots do not have to be earth-shaking.

No, but they do have to progress, and ideally they should at least be vaguely interesting. The story ground to a halt while he's taken months to spell out a very cliche spat about how an engineer doesn't like working for a younger boss, and holds a ridiculous grudge from high school.

There are any number of 80s movies and TV shows that do this story better, and I believe Michael J. Fox was in most of them.

That there is a spellbattle with frost giants going on somewhere due to the machinations of Hel seems entirely irrelevant (and forgotten).

[TriOmegaZero]

Voss wrote:

TriOmegaZero wrote:

Plots do not have to be earth-shaking.

No, but they do have to progress, and ideally they should at least be vaguely interesting.

I have found all of the Giant's plots to do both.

[BigNorseWolf]

Middle of a battle, really not the time for this.

SHOO needless NPCs.

[Kevin Mack]

Honestly most of the arc since the temple feels like it's being dragged out with way to much of characters running with idiot balls.

[PathlessBeth]

Voss wrote:

6 months in this pass and the arc has literally degenerated into a childhood spat involving the background characters. Thats... fantastic.

Way past time to get this side quest back on the rails, skip to thwarting the stupid plan to destroy the world and get back to the convoluted scheme that might not destroy the world. Or at least spend some amount of time with characters that might actually be involved in anything relevant at all.

Without the airship, this would have been months of bickering between the party's horses.

We entered this pass 17 strips ago. That's like, less than one chapter's worth.

Also, this is the main plot, not a "sidequest."

[Fromper]

I think people are just getting restless because he's putting out new pages so slowly. It may only be 17 strips, but it took 6 months.

[TriOmegaZero]

I read Megatokyo, so my sympathies are naturally skewed.

[PathlessBeth]

Fromper wrote:

I think people are just getting restless because he's putting out new pages so slowly. It may only be 17 strips, but it took 6 months.

Well, that's an inevitable conflict in any work of serialized fiction.

Pacing is a critical part of a good drama. But in a serial work, there are two mutually conflicting "paces":
1. The pace of the story for audience members who are reading the story in little pieces as it comes out.
2. The pace of the story for someone reading it all at once years later.

A story that feels exciting for people reading as it is released will feel rushed, clunky, or forced when you reread it in an archive binge. On the other hand, a perfectly paced graphic novel will seem to drag on endlessly if you are only reading a page a week. Authors either need to prioritize (1), prioritize (2), or find a balance between them.

This phenomenon isn't exclusive to webcomics. For example, the apparent quality of the pacing of a TV series will be very different for someone who streams four episodes a day from Amazon/Netflix/Hulu/Google Play than for someone who only watches one episode a week, with breaks over the summer. However, it is far more extreme for webcomics. The most recent completed OOTS book, Blood Runs in the Family, is 368 pages. Of those 368 pages, 320 were originally posted online (the rest being bonus material), released as 274 separate updates (some OOTS strips are more than one page--page counts are courtesy of Porthos. If you are just reading the online strips as they came out, then those 274 updates took more than four years. (Courtesy of the Discussion Thread Index: check the timestamps on the thread for 673, the beginning of book 5, and strip 946, the end of book 5.) But if you actually buy the book, either as a softcover from Ookoodook or a PDF from Gumroad, it won't take you four and a half years to read.

During the first 100 strips, the Giant focused primarily on making the strips entertaining to read as they came out. His main goal at the time was to increase traffic to his gaming site. Roughly the next 200 strips (the end of book one and all of book two) try to strike a balance between instant-gratification for those reading the strips as they came out and keeping the quality of the completed book decent. From book three onwards, the Giant has made making the completed books as good as possible his number one priority. He has made it very clear that he won't sacrifice the quality of the comic in archival format for the sake of making it better to read as the strips are released.

And for pretty much the entire time since book three started (back in 2006), there have been people in the forums whining about how the pace of the online comic is too slow. And the author stopped trying to appease those people, because doing so would necessarily come at the expense of the quality of the completed book. I can't say I blame him, since the only way he makes money of the comic is from book sales (there are no ads on the website, and the Giant has consistently refused to implement a "donations" system, instead telling anyone with an interest in financially supporting him to buy the books). He actually posted earlier this week that only about 4% of his readers actually buy the books, but those 4% are the only ones supporting him. Also, speaking as someone who regularly rereads webcomics, I'd much rather have a comic that is still enjoyable to reread years later than one that gives slightly more enjoyment on first release.

[Thomas Seitz]

All I know is that Engineer needs to take some humanities classes.

[TOZ]

Start racking up them distance learning credits!

[Thomas Seitz]

Toz,

Indeed.

[Evil Overlord]

Thomas Seitz wrote:

All I know is that Engineer needs to take some humanities classes.

I prefer the inhumanities classes myself.

[Zeugma]

<sarcasm>Thanks, 137ben!</sarcasm> Now I feel super old!

[Maneuvermoose]

Zeugma wrote:

<sarcasm>Thanks, 137ben!</sarcasm> Now I feel super old!

That just means your hearing and eye-sight are better than they were before.

[Thomas Seitz]

Evil,

You study what makes you the best, we get the Engineer to stop trying to be captain!

[Tacticslion]

TriOmegaZero wrote:

I read Megatokyo, so my sympathies are naturally skewed.

DAGGUMMIT, DUDE, I WAS OUT ONCE, ALREADY. I WAS OUT. DONE.

LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO.

ಠ_ಠ

[baron arem heshvaun]

Tacticslion wrote:

TriOmegaZero wrote:

I read Megatokyo, so my sympathies are naturally skewed.

DAGGUMMIT, DUDE, I WAS OUT ONCE, ALREADY. I WAS OUT. DONE.

LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO.

ಠ_ಠ

Please tell me it's something I don't have to read.

Please tell me it's something I don't have to read!

Please tell me it's something I don't have to read!

[Para Field Marshal Von Cheliax]

Evil Overlord wrote:

Thomas Seitz wrote:

All I know is that Engineer needs to take some humanities classes.

I prefer the inhumanities classes myself.

You always take my lines.

[baron arem heshvaun]

New comic Green Fire it's not just for Undead anymore

I smell a sidequest coming.

[KingOfAnything]

Well, that really cuts down on the need to think up witty comments.

[baron arem heshvaun]

Will Roy take up the ax?

[The Raven Black]

No more greenhilt then

Revenge of the dead Giant's head

Teeth will hurt like hell

And never ever let a NPC do a PC's job

[Thomas Seitz]

I'm with Raven, never let the hired help do a job that a PC clearly can do better.

Also I think Roy might need a little healing.

[Ventnor]

Thomas Seitz wrote:

I'm with Raven, never let the hired help do a job that a PC clearly can do better.

Also I think Roy might need a little healing.

Don't worry, Durkon can... oh...

[Tacticslion]

baron arem heshvaun wrote:

Tacticslion wrote:

TriOmegaZero wrote:

I read Megatokyo, so my sympathies are naturally skewed.

DAGGUMMIT, DUDE, I WAS OUT ONCE, ALREADY. I WAS OUT. DONE.

LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO.

ಠ_ಠ

Please tell me it's something I don't have to read.

Please tell me it's something I don't have to read!

Please tell me it's something I don't have to read!

(It's a link to the comic Megatokyo. Dang it.)

[Tacticslion]

baron arem heshvaun wrote:

New comic Green Fire it's not just for Undead anymore

I smell a sidequest coming.

I'm certain it'll all be juuuuuuuuust fine.

[A highly regarded expert]

What ever will happen next?

We'll have to wait a couple weeks, I guess.

[TOZ]

Tacticslion wrote:

DAGGUMMIT, DUDE, I WAS OUT ONCE, ALREADY. I WAS OUT. DONE.

LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO.

ಠ_ಠ

N.o...e.s.c.a.p.e...!

[JoelF847]

A clear sign of when your GM is actively out to get you: you're doing fine no matter what enemies and obstacles are in your path, so he takes your weapon away!

[Thomas Seitz]

Joel,

I think that was less GM control than NPC ignorance.

[Tacticslion]

Tacticslion wrote:

DAGGUMMIT, DUDE, I WAS OUT ONCE, ALREADY. I WAS OUT. DONE.

LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO.

ಠ_ಠ

TOZ wrote:

N.o...e.s.c.a.p.e...!

Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnooooooooooooooooooooooooooo~!

also, super bugging me, but I can't quite recall what you're quoting... feels like it should be right there... >.<

EDIT: DANG IT, it hit me, like, immediately after I hit "post" - it's that swamp in FFT. My memory these days... sigh.

[Imbicatus]

Does Roy still have the greatclub?

[Thomas Seitz]

Imbicatus,

I think that Thog broke that.

[baron arem heshvaun]

New Comic Frosty Feminism

[Thomas Seitz]

Go Frost Feminism!

[Zeugma]

Oh no! Don't split the party!

[The Raven Black]

Fighter seems on the way to being split too

[KingOfAnything]

#1069: Conditional Diagnosis

Vaarsuvius will probably be indifferent, but I think Belkar will be secretly proud!

[baron arem heshvaun]

Looks like a job for Condition Cards (TM)!

[Kileanna]

Some of the most recent OOTS strips are not as funny as they used to be, but I definitely found this last one funny!

When they make puns about game mechanics is when I find them funnier.

[The Raven Black]

I think we are seeing the first hint of the counter-mutiny here

[Tacticslion]

Kileanna wrote:

Some of the most recent OOTS strips are not as funny as they used to be, but I definitely found this last one funny!

When they make puns about game mechanics is when I find them funnier.

I don't always find them funny, but I consistently find them good, and the humor seems to be fairly solid for the most part - I find it humorous more often than not.

Either way, I like it!

[Kileanna]

Yes, the plot, even if it's humorous is also good. It started as something rather simple and based mostly on puns and the plot has developed to a more serious and complex one.
I like it too.
Anyway, my all time favorite is the «level up/level down» one xD

[Thomas Seitz]

All I know is I'm with Raven, we need to get a counter-mutiny going!

[PathlessBeth]

1070: half probably are

[Fromper]

LOL. Given whose ship they're on, Elan's probably right.

[Thomas Seitz]

Yeah some times we don't question how things happen. But I'm glad Elan was smart about healing the fighter FIRST!

[Drejk]

Thomas Seitz wrote:

Yeah some times we don't question how things happen. But I'm glad Elan was smart about healing the fighter FIRST!

Well, he learned the importance of healing the hard way...

[Thomas Seitz]

Drejk,

True.

[The Raven Black]

1 month with no new strip

I hope things are ok :-/