ABR Discussion thread XXXV - Rise of the Pervsharks!

[HalfTangible]

I completely forgot this was a thing. Time has taken it's toll on this forum. So how many of you are actually still alive?

I'm alive!... just not working very quickly. Partly because I'm actually trying to write novels now.

[Cuthalion]

I passed away the other day. Sorry.

[-skimmer-]

I completely forgot this was a thing. Time has taken it's toll on this forum. So how many of you are actually still alive?

I'm still regularly checking this thread for any activity, but sadly I don't think I'll be drawing anything anytime soon.

I know the feeling. I've lost "it", whatever "it" was. I just don't have the same passion for drawing Oots stuff (or anything) anymore. But I think I know why. Because most everything is better in my life now.

I used this place as an escape, as a place to get away from it all. I'm sure I'm not the only one here who was thankful to have you guys and this place as an escape from reality. You all, and this place, had a bigger influence on my life than you'll probably ever know.

I doubt most of us are here anymore, so I wont get this out to everyone I want to say it to. But for those of you still left around to read this I just want to say thanks. You guys helped me through a lot of bad times by creating and maintaining this refuge. I hope all of you are happy with your lives and getting on as well as I finally am.

It still upsets me that I'll never (knowingly) meet any of you in real life, because you guys are the best friends I've ever had.

Yeah, we had fun alright. I did enjoy being around you guys for this ride.

\/: I know right? Also, somebody remembers those few movie nights we had? Best memories.

[SinisterPenguin]

Just popping in cause Tiff's post made me hardcore nostalgic. I still check these threads every now and then but due to time constraints, etc. there's pretty much no way I'll be able to contribute again. I guess it doesn't matter cause this place is mostly dead anyway, but it was definitely awesome times while it lasted. I miss our weird IRC conversations...haha. Like Tiff said this place was seriously a pretty big part of my life back in the day. I love and miss all you guys.

[Green-Shirt Q]

Hey folks. The Q here. Some people joined after I left, but some of you may remember me from such plots as FFF, and the beginning of Endless Winter.

I may have left unceremoniously, but truthfully, I still lurk here every one in a while to see what's up. This place was a huge impact on my life for being the first place to tell stories, where I found my utter passion for narrative crafting and visual presentation.

While most of the people whom I've shared my time with here are gone themselves, I still do want to thank you all. Similar to Tiff, this place had a very deep emotional connection to me as a place where I could work with fellow artists with the simple goal of crafting a common story, and where I could post a few of my solo comics and ideas for the genuine enjoyment of others. This forum was an amazing place for artistic content to thrive.

I'll miss all the friendships I've started here, and sometimes I'll even look back on these days and remember the conversations I had and people who'd support me. I've even met a few of you in a much more personal situation, and in real life.

Well, I do feel sad to see the passion running out of this story I once assumed would never end. But if there is somebody else in infuse it with more passion, it's not me. I'm pursuing very ambitious projects and studying very hard to be a voice-actor and a writer. But above all, I will miss and never forget any of you.

[Lyinginbedmon]

Okay, I know this is definitely grave-digging, but I'm emotional enough to not care right now (sorry mods!)

I don't know how many people will see this, I don't know how many of those prompting it still even frequent these forums, but you might remember me as being a major part of the earliest stories we spun together. Approximately 7 years ago, I started writing and drawing Remember.

Today I am finishing it.

I want to thank everyone who sparked off what has been the longest project I've ever done, and which has contributed so much to my life in that time. I was a teenager with extremely shoddy artistic and writing abilities when I began, and now I'm a university graduate who can be justifiably proud of both.

Thank you to Threeshades, Kpenguin, Q, Salmon, Nameless, and anyone whose name has passed into the dimmer parts of my memory (there's a lot of you there, I'm sure). Your contribution to my life can scarcely be understated and you have my deepest thanks as I struggle to remain composed whilst writing this.

I've always remembered where I started with this comic, I will always remember the good times and the hard times I've had making it, and I promise I will always remember you crazy bunch of folks for starting me on a happier road in one of the darkest points in my life.

Thank you so much. If any of you are still around, shoot me a PM, I'd love to get back to talking to you all.

-Lying

[HalfTangible]

... *sigh* Yeah, me too.

I came into ABR really late in its lifecycle, and didn't really contribute much (and what i did wasn't very good) but I was glad for the time I had. Even got to play a DnD game for a while, and that was awesome... so... Skimmer, Q, Tiffanie Lirle, Keveak, Mask and everybody else, thank you for the fun and the ride. My PM box is open as well.

[Mad Mask]

I think I was twelve when I joined this? Woah.

I'll have something for you guys in a couple of weeks.

[Emperor Ing]

And i'm here too now, for old times' sake.

[Lyinginbedmon]

It's nice to know that we can still have a rallying cry.

[-skimmer-]

Also still lurking around. Can't shake the habit of checking this thread for updates every day.
I was a fan of both ABR and webcomics that spawned from it long before I even decided to join in myself and I still follow every single one of them. I actually remember learning to draw stick figues just so I could join and talk to you guys a bit
Anyway, thanks for all the awesome work you guys did over the years. It was fun.

[Forrestfire]

I think I was either 12 as well. Time sure has flown.

[HalfTangible]

It's nice to know that we can still have a rallying cry.

Not gonna lie: I'll be excited and surprised out if this does manage to rez.

I think I was either 12 as well. Time sure has flown.

I'd just gone into college, I think...

[Lyinginbedmon]

Not gonna lie: I'll be excited and surprised out if this does manage to rez.

I don't think most of us ever lost the enthusiasm, but we ran for so long that a lot of us started to have more pressing life concerns like work, school, etc. and the length of time between drawing occasions degraded our motivation.

Currently, I'm an unemployed university graduate, so I theoretically have the time again for the first point in ages

I'd be happy to just be talking to old pals on Skype though, I miss all you silly peeps.

[Emperor Ing]

My comic Just. Won't. Die!

[Forrestfire]

Well, was that Unexpected?

[Emperor Ing]

I rarely plan comics in advance. I've only recently just begun planning out storylines in advance so I know what i'm going, yet only knowing that i'm going to be doing at most 3 comics in advance. Somehow i've made nearly 800 comics doing this.

Good times

[Green-Shirt Q]

Logging in in the first time in... in.... gosh, I don't know how many months.

Just seeing this again, goddamn. I'm actually shedding a tear.

I already kinda said what I wanted to say in my last post all the way back in 2013, but I still miss you guys.

My PM box is likewise open if anybody wants to chat.

[Omicroncubed]

I left my comment for Remember in its rightful comment section.

But wow, it's been ages. I still lurk the boards and all, mainly for the WTWU and Murphy's Law but that's about it. My posting pretty much ended as the ABR threads disappeared. Now that Remember's ended and this thread popped up... Major nostalgia hit me hard, man.

My comic Just. Won't. Die!

Because people like it, myself included, even if I don't know what's going on with it. I know I don't show it, but I barely show my face around the forums anymore to begin with.

[Shoreward]

It's weird to see this thread suddenly pop up again. If you go back to the start, you'll go back in time three years. This thread was where the slowdown hit us the hardest.

I lost my old account, stopped posting at all for a while, and just started writing in my spare time. Honestly, I didn't post much here, but I basically always had the time. I just liked letting people work and only posting as a wingman every once in a while, which got harder and harder as we got fewer and fewer and slowed right down.

Also, I was pretty angry and bitter for a while during ABR's lifespan, but in my defense I was like, fifteen.

Had a lot of fun here with you guys over the years. A lot of arguments, too. I don't think I've ever found something as easy to just plop out a comic for without having to actually worry about my art quality (I still did, of course). I could just throw something out there for fun's sake and know someone would pick it up and roll with it. I've not seen any collaboration project quite like this since.

ABR, for all its quirks and flaws, for all its good and its bad, was something perfectly and utterly unique.

Spoiler: Stuff no one cares about

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I'd still be open to doing stuff, but I feel like we'd need a whole new thread if we ever did start things again. This one was unassailable to new people because of how outdated the start was compared to the art thread, which I think contributed to our lack of new members in the end days. Not to mention the thickness in the continuity of the main plots.

We just got too fractured and couldn't focus on anything, so instead of having one main plot to drive everyone into we kept making new splinter plots that just didn't get enough attention and had too narrow a premise, then died. (Personally I like the broader superhero genre because literally every other genre can exist within them, but I am dumb so you can probably disregard my opinions).

[Mina Kobold]

Wow, it has been a while.
I was 14 when I started posting here, and not exactly the best artist, writer, or really all that nice. I think a lot of that has changed at least a slight bit for the better (well, except that I am not a teenager any more. Time is a big meanie and made me older ), in huge part thanks to the people in ABR and the adventure it's been to be a part of it. Still remember so many silly things from over the years, from an army of Kobolds fighting an army of Beholders to pirate ghosts and giant birds. Hopefully I was less of a jerk than I remember, but my apologies regardless and my thanks to everybody for keeping ABR wonderful for as long as it lasted.


I theoretically have even less time for drawing than I used to (our teachers actually suggested that we bring sleeping bags with us for the upcoming semester, since it will apparently be THAT busy), but I have gotten better at managing time and certainly would be up for anything that gets started up again. Also would be up for just talking over Skype, even though I'm not sure how many people outside of the RPG games on Skype remember me.
Maybe we could create a Skype group for ABR? Those don't seem to ever get old to resurrect.

My PM box is also open, if anyone wants to talk to a silly Kobold again. ^_^'

Spoiler: Stuff no one cares about

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I'd still be open to doing stuff, but I feel like we'd need a whole new thread if we ever did start things again. This one was unassailable to new people because of how outdated the start was compared to the art thread, which I think contributed to our lack of new members in the end days. Not to mention the thickness in the continuity of the main plots.

We just got too fractured and couldn't focus on anything, so instead of having one main plot to drive everyone into we kept making new splinter plots that just didn't get enough attention and had too narrow a premise, then died. (Personally I like the broader superhero genre because literally every other genre can exist within them, but I am dumb so you can probably disregard my opinions).

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You are not dumb and those opinions are much too good to disregard!

Pretty much agree that we'd need a new thread and maybe to try to avoid splintering too much or relying too much on old continuity. Maybe the occasional recap page could work? Probably a silly idea, but it seems to work for long-running webcomics. ^_^'

I'd be open to stuff too, but I very much understand if people are too busy or just don't feel like it.

[Shoreward]

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You are not dumb and those opinions are much too good to disregard!

Pretty much agree that we'd need a new thread and maybe to try to avoid splintering too much or relying too much on old continuity. Maybe the occasional recap page could work? Probably a silly idea, but it seems to work for long-running webcomics. ^_^'

I'd be open to stuff too, but I very much understand if people are too busy or just don't feel like it.

You were not mean to my knowledge and I consistently remember you as one of the nicest people here. Like, seriously.

Spoiler: Not sure why I am still spoilering this

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That's actually a very good idea. I think if we started something new, the best way to avoid the whole "we can't summarise this story" thing would actually be to have a few people do occasional updates on what happened in the story while it was going on. That way the archive doesn't build up without a plot summary, because you'd build it slowly as you went. It'd probably be up to either helpful individuals or the player themselves to summarise what their characters are doing, or what's generally going on in the scene they are involved in with a few quick sentences.

Not sure how it would all be organised, but there'd probably be a way, even if it meant keeping a wikispace of some kind for it. We'd need more than one person doing it, or else if that person disappeared it'd just stop being updated.

[HalfTangible]

ABR, for all its quirks and flaws, for all its good and its bad, was something perfectly and utterly unique.

Agreed.

Spoiler: Stuff no one cares about

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I'd still be open to doing stuff, but I feel like we'd need a whole new thread if we ever did start things again. This one was unassailable to new people because of how outdated the start was compared to the art thread, which I think contributed to our lack of new members in the end days. Not to mention the thickness in the continuity of the main plots.

We just got too fractured and couldn't focus on anything, so instead of having one main plot to drive everyone into we kept making new splinter plots that just didn't get enough attention and had too narrow a premise, then died. (Personally I like the broader superhero genre because literally every other genre can exist within them, but I am dumb so you can probably disregard my opinions).

Spoiler

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I actually agree - the superhero genre is extremely flexible and could potentially fit every character type and genre we could want (and add on anything else that comes up too). Keep the Dnd-esque world, maybe, since OotS is one of the main reasons people come to this site initially? Just give it a superhero bent instead of a full on fantasy bent?

Creating a new thread and starting from scratch is definitely a possibility, and one I'd be thoroughly open towards. ABR really needs some new blood if it's going to go past that first thread.

Maybe we could create a Skype group for ABR? Those don't seem to ever get old to resurrect.

Potentially, yes.

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You are not dumb and those opinions are much too good to disregard!

Pretty much agree that we'd need a new thread and maybe to try to avoid splintering too much or relying too much on old continuity. Maybe the occasional recap page could work? Probably a silly idea, but it seems to work for long-running webcomics. ^_^'

I'd be open to stuff too, but I very much understand if people are too busy or just don't feel like it.

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A recap page at the halfway point and start point of each new thread, perhaps? String them together and you get a quick and easy reference guide to the story's major events.

Also, Dark's right on the wikia- I've learned over the course of my own collaboration projects that a wiki for these things helps greatly as a primer.

[Shoreward]

Agreed.

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I actually agree - the superhero genre is extremely flexible and could potentially fit every character type and genre we could want (and add on anything else that comes up too). Keep the Dnd-esque world, maybe, since OotS is one of the main reasons people come to this site initially? Just give it a superhero bent instead of a full on fantasy bent?

Creating a new thread and starting from scratch is definitely a possibility, and one I'd be thoroughly open towards. ABR really needs some new blood if it's going to go past that first thread.

Potentially, yes.

Spoiler

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A recap page at the halfway point and start point of each new thread, perhaps? String them together and you get a quick and easy reference guide to the story's major events.

Also, Dark's right on the wikia- I've learned over the course of my own collaboration projects that a wiki for these things helps greatly as a primer.

These spoilers are getting really weird now that most of the conversation is taking place in them.

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So here's how I think we could do it. We could have a rule that said whenever you posted a comic, you added a brief summary of what happened in it in a spoiler or something beneath the comic. Maybe every so often, people would comb the thread and group the summaries somewhere for book keeping purposes.

This would solve the lack of summary for the story AND make it so that the old threads could still be read even if some of the images were missing.

"Oh no, this page is missing! Whew, the summary says "Keveak turned invisible and followed Tiff's party." Well, now I know what happened in the comic that's no longer there and the rest of the story isn't confusing."

Quick and easy solution, as long as we started from the beginning with it. Thoughts?

[Omicroncubed]

Maybe we could create a Skype group for ABR? Those don't seem to ever get old to resurrect.

This sounds like fun. I would like to see this go somewhere.

[Green-Shirt Q]

This sounds like fun. I would like to see this go somewhere.

For anybody who feels like starting this, my Skype is nathanaelazevedo.

If you want to add me, don't forget to tell me who you are on this forum.

[HalfTangible]

These spoilers are getting really weird now that most of the conversation is taking place in them.

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So here's how I think we could do it. We could have a rule that said whenever you posted a comic, you added a brief summary of what happened in it in a spoiler or something beneath the comic. Maybe every so often, people would comb the thread and group the summaries somewhere for book keeping purposes.

This would solve the lack of summary for the story AND make it so that the old threads could still be read even if some of the images were missing.

"Oh no, this page is missing! Whew, the summary says "Keveak turned invisible and followed Tiff's party." Well, now I know what happened in the comic that's no longer there and the rest of the story isn't confusing."

Quick and easy solution, as long as we started from the beginning with it. Thoughts?

i suppose that could work =/ (also, dropping the spoilers) It might grow over-complex if we go on for too long, but we can slim it down if we actually make it that far.

[Mina Kobold]

i suppose that could work =/ (also, dropping the spoilers) It might grow over-complex if we go on for too long, but we can slim it down if we actually make it that far.

I think it would be possible to condensate the summaries if we get that far. Most of the plots we had in ABR had relatively simply plot threads and groups, generally having people be in specific groups seeking specific things or fighting for a specific side, I think. Most of the confusion seemed to stem from the fact that it was very difficult to tell what those things or sides were due to the plot developing over the course of many many threads, requiring knowledge of most of the backlog to understand why a flying salmon was fighting a Moon Elf and why there was a flying citadel involved.

At least, I think so, I might just be oversimplifying. ^_^'

But yeah, I think this approach could work.

[HalfTangible]

I think it would be possible to condensate the summaries if we get that far. Most of the plots we had in ABR had relatively simply plot threads and groups, generally having people be in specific groups seeking specific things or fighting for a specific side, I think. Most of the confusion seemed to stem from the fact that it was very difficult to tell what those things or sides were due to the plot developing over the course of many many threads, requiring knowledge of most of the backlog to understand why a flying salmon was fighting a Moon Elf and why there was a flying citadel involved.

At least, I think so, I might just be oversimplifying. ^_^'

But yeah, I think this approach could work.

I wasn't here for FFF, I'll take your word for it.

The big question I have is whether we'd get far enough for such summaries to even matter. There's apparently still some interest, but how motivated would we be? Bright's largely correct - the groups kept fracturing without any real focus at the end, between ABR Corps and Miridia and EW and even FFFR on occasion... but those different storylines began in large part because there already wasn't a lot of posting.

[Shoreward]

At the very least, having the short summaries below each comic would fix the troubles ABR has when it's archive binged - namely that tons of early comics are missing. How we'd compile those summaries afterwards would be another thing, but I'm certain that it'd be better to have too much than to have nothing, and we could probably have a weekly recap thing or something while things were still fresh.

The point is that most of the time, we've been unable to explain the plot to newcomers, and I think that would be much easier with some sort of updated resource to do so.

Ninja'd!

@HT, I think it's better to go on assuming we're going to keep going than not. If we have the systems in place to help us later, we'll only thank ourselves if/when we get that far.