What's the economic model?

[SauroGrenom]

I noticed in a few other threads that the authors have indicated they would like to make more of Erfworld (like a part 2 perhaps) into the future, but it depends on the "success" of the comic. Clearly by success, they mean that at some point they can quit their day jobs and do this for a living.

But I'm wondering, what's the economic model to get to that success? I know nothing about making a web comic successful, but OOTS clearly has gotten off the ground and Rich can make a living at it.

OOTS has lots of characters, and those characters have back story that's not in the web comic. Also Rich can make cool T-Shirts with lots of witty one liners and sell that stuff to anyone who's played DND or in some cases the one liners have mass appeal (like evilgasm). He can write comics about back story that's not published online and sell it as a book. He can repackage the online material as a book that reads like a story sprinkled with funny DND jokes.

Erfworld has a different sort of style (which I enjoy reading), but I'm not seeing how it works quite as well to sell stuff. Part of the appeal of the story is that there's a gamer who's stuck in a new game where he's trying to figure out the game system, and we as readers don't know the game system either. Most of the threads here are speculations about what's going on in the game system. We see lots of questions like what are Parson's stats, and what are the unit stats of various things, and what are the other arkentools. The appeal is that as we read this, we are going through the same thing Parson is. We're trying to figure out this world and decide what's the best thing to do. As the story is told, we'll get a greater understanding of the game world, and that much of the fun of reading the comic will start to fade. Kind of like how once you figure out how to beat Startropics the 1st time, it's not quite as much fun to do it the second time after you've figured it out.

Don't get me wrong, Erfworld has lots of story and character development as well. That's a compelling part of the story that I think will necessarily need to grow as the rules stuff gets revealed. And rereading a good story in print (if I bought the print book) is totally cool. I must say that the story is kind of thin on jokes, and that hurts the reread value some. I notice some references and things that tie into other bits of modern, pop, online, gamer community hooks. These things are kind of like easter eggs, searching for them is more fun that having them after you've found them. So I'm saying that if there were a book to buy, I'd buy it to support the artists. But rereading the comic wouldn't be as much fun as it is the first time around, simply because the "secrets" that we are now trying to figure out are all revealed on a second read and figuring them out is half the fun.

Also since Erfworld has really complex character personalities, they don't make many good one liners in the dialog that would look great on a T-Shirt. The quote by Wedinar "My Life for Jetstone!" is the only one that has dramatic flare and universal appeal that comes to mind right now. So some of the things that Rich sells to make money with OOTS may not carry over as well for Erfworld.

Anyway, I'm just musing here about how to make a web comic a success, and I had a few thoughts about comparing OOTS and Erfworld. I totally want to see Rob and Jamie make it. So I'm wondering what the people who read the forums would consider to be cool Erfworld related things to buy.

Personally I'd fork over cash for some of the following.

Some kind of Erfworld computer game, where I'm stuck in Parson's situation trying to figure out the rules and no help file or documentation is provided.

Some kind of Erfworld history or back story that gives me some information that allows the comic's events to sit in a larger context.

Some kind of Erfworld bestiary or other rules text that gives me some insight into the Erfworld mechanics that haven't been and won't be explained in the web comic.

Any other ideas?

[FredRalphFred]

I'm pleased to see that you, too, like the comic and are interested in giving Rob and Jamie incentive to continue it.

However, I think you might have missed this thread, where this topic is being discussed in great detail.

I think a lot of the ideas folks mention there are good -- particularly the dwagon plushies. Instant hit!