ABR Discussion thread XXXV - Rise of the Pervsharks!

[Fay Graydon]

That guy looks sorta familiar. Can't quite put my finger on it though...

*GASP!* :O
It Lives!

I hope nobody's been wondering where I've been please god I hope they've been wondering where I've been I'm so insecure and lonely *sniff* but I have a bit of an annoncement to make.

Spoiler

Show

...provided that's what you're into.

[EDIT] Oh! This shouldn't be expected for a while. I just came up with a better idea for an animated series using the same techniques, which I'll probably try to do first.

Animation with paper cut outs?
Pffft that will never work.
May as well make it about four children and base it somewhere cold in america, even then it won't work

[Mina Kobold]

That guy looks sorta familiar. Can't quite put my finger on it though...

I agree, it seems similar. Perhaps it was some memorable character from long ago... Threeshades! That must be it!

Hiya, Keris! :3

On another note: Paper-cut animation sounds pretty neat, Q! Looking forward to see how it ends up.

[Keris]

*GASP!* :O
It Lives!

In a manner of speaking.

I agree, it seems similar. Perhaps it was some memorable character from long ago... Threeshades! That must be it!

Nah, Threeshades was blue-ish. Whoever the character was, they certainly weren't memorable.

[Mad Mask]

I would like to start making comics again, but alas, I have grown into a responsible adult, with a job and a family to provide for.

>.>

What we need is a way to attract new members, and a fresh start. Possibly a distilled, back-to-its-root reboot of an older successful plot?

<.<

Seriously now, how can we make ABR active and popular again? Or should we assume this will be a temporary hiatus, and wait for ABR to resurge in the indeterminate future?

[Silverraptor]

I would be willing to restart up FFF:r-r.

[HalfTangible]

I would like to start making comics again, but alas, I have grown into a responsible adult, with a job and a family to provide for.

>.>

What we need is a way to attract new members, and a fresh start. Possibly a distilled, back-to-its-root reboot of an older successful plot?

<.<

Seriously now, how can we make ABR active and popular again? Or should we assume this will be a temporary hiatus, and wait for ABR to resurge in the indeterminate future?

I'm willing to accept that this is temporary - if not we could simply move at a slower pace from now on.

[Green-Shirt Q]

Hate to say it, but ABR is close to dying. And this has been happening for quite a while, too. I think we can all agree on that.

We probably should have anticipated this. We should have had a plan to attract new members when our personal lives became too much for our comic making lives. A plan to attract new members to revive the franchise.

Now it seems too late, and things have progressed too much. Nobody's able to make a comic anymore.

I'm calling it. Unless somebody has some brilliant idea to attract a wild surge of new younger writers with loads of free time and ideas waiting to experiment, ABR as we know it will be dead forever. And even if we do attract the surge of new writers, ABR will never be the same again.

This may be overdramatic or it may be the truth we don't want to hear. Maybe I'm just simply wrong and everything will work out. But this fantastic world we've all created together? I think it's either going to evolve into something unrecognizable or vanish all together. That is my humble and honest prediction at this stage in the game.

[Lyinginbedmon]

Yes, you're being overdramatic.

Personally, I'd say ABR has already evolved drastically beyond what it originally was. Perhaps we should just sort of have it as an open source setting for various stories, like Remember is for the stories following Lying's backstory.

[HalfTangible]

I don't think I've ever said this about ABR but i've said it about other things:

This is a roleplay (sorta) and it will only die off when people accept that it's dead and don't do anything about it. ABR is a collaborative effort but none of the collaborators are specifically required, and since this is a PBP (sorta) with no deadlines we can take a long time to continue.

RL comes first, sure. But the only way this thing is going to die is if you decide it is.

[Omicroncubed]

"ABR has changed. It's no longer about random fights, giant armies and god modding (thank goodness for the last one). It's about plots, getting something 'meaningful' done and telling stories."

Sorry, I've had Metal Gear Solid on the mind ever since I got the HD collection.

As Lying said, ABR has changed a lot since the first days. If I'm being honest, the introduction of FI was where ABR started going downhill for me. Lurking these threads and seeing what ABR has become doesn't really make me want to come back either; too complicated. And to top it off, I haven't seen a random kill comic in ages now, kinda giving me the image that newcomers may not even know that one can do these.

If anything, I'd love to see ABR as what it was in the first two threads in 2007, just some random fights that don't really kill off any characters. It was simple, as no one really had to ask if their comic contradicted anything their opponent was doing. In my opinion, those were the highlights of ABR.

But those are just an ABR oldie's two cents.

[Darklord Bright]

Even the "Old days" had plots, though. The plots even started in thread 1, though they were usually very basic explanations as to why people were fighting.

We've also tried before to 'reboot' the older style ABR, and it burned out fairly fast. The problem is not plots - it never has been. Sure, some of the plots are very convoluted and in the case of things like FI require vast knowledge of years of ABR history to truly understand, most of which is missing... The thing is, that on its own isn't so bad. It's certainly not an insurmountable thing. Hundreds if not thousands of ongoing roleplays work this exact same way, the difference is that they are active and they typically encourage new blood in any way they can, helping them along. They'll have summaries of events and plots if they need to, to make hopping into established worlds that much easier.

Sadly, ABR doesn't really do that anymore. Everyone talks about how it's dying, but nobody posts. Nobody new has come in in a while because there's not really anything to see. Nobody's enthusiastic, so there's no reason to be enthusiastic, y'know?

The problem isn't the plots, it isn't that we need reboots, and it isn't that there aren't enough people - the problem is that everyone wants this place to be active but nobody makes it active. For a while I tried to post wherever I could, but without anyone to bounce off of there was no real point, and I've heard others I have talked to say the same. It's not something a person can do on their own.

Of course, everyone has busy lives, but if your life is so busy that you don't have time to pop a stick-figure comic in here even once in a week... well, maybe you're putting too much on your plate. Between a fancomic, several roleplays, and real life, I still manage to find the time to do what I like to do when I'm able. Heck, a comic in my non-stick figure style only takes an hour or so, depending on how much new material I need. The point is, we often talk about how ABR is getting into "DOOOOM!" stages, but everyone always has an excuse as to why they haven't posted yet. If we want ABR to not drop dead, we're going to have to focus our efforts. Set aside a time for it, try to work on just one plot rather than spreading ourselves across 3 or 4... heck, it doesn't even have to be FFF/FI.

We can't have people sitting around and wishing ABR will come back to life, we need to actually perform the CPR.

[Fay Graydon]

I would like to start making comics again, but alas, I have grown into a responsible adult, with a job and a family to provide for.

>.>

What we need is a way to attract new members, and a fresh start. Possibly a distilled, back-to-its-root reboot of an older successful plot?

<.<

Seriously now, how can we make ABR active and popular again? Or should we assume this will be a temporary hiatus, and wait for ABR to resurge in the indeterminate future?

Dot Dot Dot
*points at FI, FI:R, 3F:r and at the now sujested ABRBRAFIRR;R-r(Part2 the sequil)*
I dont think we need ANOTHER plot XD

[Tiffanie Lirle]

“We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.” - Frank Tidbolt

and wait for ABR to resurge in the indeterminate future?

Yeah, no. How would that work? The same exact people who would bring ABR back in the future are the ones posting right here, right now(ish). If we don't bring it back within the foreseeable future. Nobody will in the unforeseeable.

Sadly, ABR doesn't really do that anymore. Everyone talks about how it's dying, but nobody posts. Nobody new has come in in a while because there's not really anything to see. Nobody's enthusiastic, so there's no reason to be enthusiastic, y'know?

The problem isn't the plots, it isn't that we need reboots, and it isn't that there aren't enough people - the problem is that everyone wants this place to be active but nobody makes it active.

Preach it.

Seriously, if everyone found the motivation and time to post one comic thing every month or heck even every other month. Then we'd be back off to a great start.

[Green-Shirt Q]

You're right, Tiff and Darklord! Time to take action!

Tomorrow, or after I finished my daily homework tonight, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to post something. I don't know what, but it'll be something. And every week I shall at least make an attempt to post something. If we all post something random each week, it very well could be enough to save ABR!

[Fay Graydon]

You're right, Tiff and Darklord! Time to take action!

Tomorrow, or after I finished my daily homework tonight, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to post something. I don't know what, but it'll be something. And every week I shall at least make an attempt to post something. If we all post something random each week, it very well could be enough to save ABR!

i give it a month

[HalfTangible]

i give it a month

I got a feelin' i'm not gonna get along with you

[Green-Shirt Q]

i give it a month

I aint gonna let you bring me down!

But seriously, right now I'm not judging myself and I'm just going to make whatever pops up into my head. And it could be as short as one panel. I think making a one panel comic every week for ABR is a pretty reachable goal for me at least. If everyone else did it too I think we could save our beloved ABR.

[Keris]

Guys, Fay wouldn't be trying to bring anyone down. She's obviously saying that she's going to devote a month to making ABR stuff herself.

[Forrestfire]

Was browsing and saw that this is still going. Holy crap. But seriously, a five-year-long roleplay? Good lord.

Anyway, after reading the last few pages, I feel like I want to join back into ABR, but I also have zero time to spend on it. Classes are time-consuming... And the storyline incites severe archive panic.

Thinking that I'm in the same boat as many newcomers in that the sheer amount of information present is ridiculous and I don't have the time to sort through it.

[Darklord Bright]

What we need is someone willing to actually summarize the important events of the plots, since the images won't be around forever. Do you think that would help with that sort of problem, if there was a readily available text-summary somewhere?

[Lyinginbedmon]

I think there's nothing to be really lost from having a plot summary somewhere for people to get to grips with the important stuff, but beyond that maybe we should refocus back to random kills

[Darklord Bright]

I'm going through FFF trying to summarize, but it's difficult to know what's important, and I wasn't there during a lot of this to know who some people are. I'm trying as best I can, of course, but it would probably be better handled by someone who knows the universe better.

I don't really think refocusing to random kills is necessary. We tried that sort of thing once and it really didn't work - it's better to just do some random kills and stuff while still focusing on plots, since most of us who are here probably stuck around for the plots even if the random kills drew us here. That said, there's nothing wrong with doing more random kills, 'refocus' is probably just the wrong word.

[Forrestfire]

I think that a story summary would definitely help people trying to get into ABR. At least, it would help me...

Also, if you want to attract people, why not use those snazzy sig banners we had a few years ago?

[HalfTangible]

i can go add a text summary to Miridia's archive =/

[Darklord Bright]

Summary is proving difficult. Lots of small events take place.

Perhaps if I found a way to focus only on the large ones it'd be better, but I don't know what a lot of the large ones were.

Just goes to show, I took part in later FFF even though I had no idea what the plot was really about

Still, FI requires more knowledge of those events than FFF did, so a summary really needs to exist.

[Green-Shirt Q]

Well, I can't really say what events were important or not, but if it had anything to do with Q, chances are it wasn't.

Also, banners! That's a great idea, Forestfire! WHen I get to my "art computer" I'll re-put up my banner. Or make a new one. Haven't decided yet.

I also wasn't planning on focusing on random kills. More like random...anything. I think kills are good, but just about anything fun and ABR-y will work to attract new readers.

[Fay Graydon]

Guys, Fay wouldn't be trying to bring anyone down. She's obviously saying that she's going to devote a month to making ABR stuff herself.

Er yes totally what I was saying
*Re-rolls her Bluff check*

[Mina Kobold]

Perhaps it might be easier to make a summary of the current state of affairs and a roster of important characters, locations and mcguffins?

That way, a newcomer could easily see that the current groups consist of a continent-spanning empire with good public relations and rank-based power structure vs. a resistance made up of former world-savers. And if any old villain or weapon is reintroduced, it can easily be looked up in the roster.

As for random stuff, I just randomly kidnapped Tiffanie Lirle's avatar. Does that count? :3

[Tiffanie Lirle]

I love the way you draw and I hate you for being able to do it.

This will not stand. *shakes fist*

Edit - Drawing something that isn't oots styled is actually a nice change. I've had a tablet for a year now, but I've only used it maybe twice.

[Forrestfire]

I Oots-ified my current avatar, so I'll probably post a random kill or something later today.