I didn't think it was funny, that might be because I have no experience with MMORPG, but given that I have enjoyed other MMORPG parodies, it might also be because it isn't my kind of humour, or perhaps because it hasn't had time to grow on me yet.
I went with "I will check it out from time to time". Given how many times I check to see if OotS has updated, I think it likely that I will have a look at Erfworld fairly regularly.
I think, for me, it might be too early to really judge. I like the artwork a lot but so far the plot and the characters haven't really "grabbed" me. One of the biggest reasons why I enjoy the OOTS is because of the characters. I've reached the point where I genuinely care about Haley, Elan, and Belkar like I do some of the characters from my favorite books and TV shows/movies. I've enjoyed the way these characters have evolved and I want to see them succeed and do well for themselves. So far Erfworld's characters just aren't "doing it" for me.
Wanda seems alright; she reminds me of Redcloak. She seems like a primary character, maybe even the protagonist, and I'm not so sure she'll hold interest for me if she doesn't develop beyond her role as a yes-man (which she really is, even if only grudgingly). I guess she also serves to redirect some of her lord's dumber ideas and strategies but I'm not sure this role is any more interesting.
The only character featured so far that I've got more than a vague interest in is the Arkenhammer. Not really sure if it counts, though, because it still hasn't really been identified as more than an inanimate object.
I have hopes for Sizemore, though, and Bogroll might prove to be the source of some humorous situations ("me love thog"-esque).
I'm going to keep reading and see how things go; see if I attach to any of the characters.
Well, just answer one question. Will it continue to be updated 6 pages at a time, or will it be only one page from now on. If it is only one page, I probably won't read it regularly and just get caught up about once a month. It seems that the story progresses slowly enough and there is not much of anything going on on some of the pages that just reading one page won't give you much most of the time. OOTS has little self contained stories and jokes on every page, but that is not the case with Erfworld, as far as I can see.
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Telling someone they have some kind of mental problem because they disagree with you is not a good argument.
Well, just answer one question. Will it continue to be updated 6 pages at a time, or will it be only one page from now on. If it is only one page, I probably won't read it regularly and just get caught up about once a month. It seems that the story progresses slowly enough and there is not much of anything going on on some of the pages that just reading one page won't give you much most of the time. OOTS has little self contained stories and jokes on every page, but that is not the case with Erfworld, as far as I can see.
It's going to be one page at a time from now on. It's true, they work much better in sequence than as individual strips. We're working on a complete narrative that's more dependent on sequence than punchlines. Still, we hope that there's enough in each page to keep people at least somewhat interested.
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Jamie Noguchi, artist and co-creator of Erfworld and evil monkey responsible for Angry Zen Master.
It's like the comic is trying to be funny. And it isn't doing it in a very relaxed fasion. I'm half expecting someone to walk in-panel with a bananna on his head, just because that's odd. I don't mean to sound arrogant or be a jerk or anything, but it really comes off to me like the strip is begging me to laugh.
My advice would be for the creators to just relax and enjoy. If this is what you are doing then it doesn't look like this is the style of comic that I would personally care for. No worries, according to the poll, plenty of other people are loving it.
I'm intrigued by the plot, and I think the art is interesting....
The humor and the childlike aesthetic.... I'm not sold on. I don't hate them, but I'm not entirely sure I like it. Gobwin, Croakamancer, Findamancer, and Dwagon in place of Goblin, Necromancer, Diviner, and Dragon is an interesting choice, but it's the kind of linguistic ploy that, if not handled carefully, can get a little tiresome. As for the humor... well, it's a bit of an adjustment. OotS is very broad and has a kind of... rubber-band feeling, for want of a better word. The humor tends to snap and turn on a single panel or line of dialogue. Erfworld's humor seems much more relaxed. Using three Elvises (three Kings... get it?) as your Creator Gods isn't really a laugh out loud, fall off your chair, spew the milk you were drinking out of your nose and onto your keyboard joke, but it's an absurdly amusing image, nevertheless.
So, in summary, I'm mostly in wait and see mode, right now.
I'm not too crazy about the words "gobwin", "dwagon", and "spidew", but I really get a kick out of "croakamancer", "findamancer", etc. I think that is one of the many things that adds a unique flavor to the setting.
I like it. I love humor that takes a little development and really like the kind of jokes that you have to ponder for a moment to truly appreciate. Puns are fun! The art style gives an interesting feel to the comic, as does the "childlike aesthetic". Coupled with a good story line and good writing, this could be a very good comic. I intend to continue reading it as long as new comics are made.
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Not really here. Just an illusion.
I'm with BiggusGeekus on this one. The humor is very Andy Kaufman-esque -- low-key and so subtle that it might be mistaken for simple snobbery, as in "I'm smarter than you 'cause I get it and you don't."
So far I'm not impressed, which is sad because I thoroughly like PartiallyClips. I figure I'll check back in a month to see if it's improved at all, but until it starts to find its stride, it isn't worth my time to read.
I'm not too crazy about the words "gobwin", "dwagon", and "spidew", but I really get a kick out of "croakamancer", "findamancer", etc. I think that is one of the many things that adds a unique flavor to the setting.
I'm with TinSoldier here. I hate little-kid speak--I don't much like it from children (no child of mine will ever say pasghetti more than once) and I can't STAND it from adults. The "croakamancer" etc variety of substitutions is pretty funny, though.
Overall? Meh. I thought some of the jokes were pretty amusing (I like the walnuts turning to pigeons) and that some of the characters had promise. I'm sort of ambivalent toward the art, but then I'm not much of a connoisseur of comic art (my main requirement is that it doesn't get in the way, and this doesn't). I'm sure I'll keep reading it on OOTS off-days, and I'd love to be pleasantly surprised with its ability to keep my attention.
By the way, the Updates banner over Erfworld is the same as the one over OOTS--updating Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays--any simple way to fix this?
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A polar bear is just a rectangular bear after a coordinate transform.
Looks like a great strip so far. I suspect I'll come back and read it in batches, rather than a strip at a time, since the pacing seems more 'graphic novel' than 'comic page'... that's *not* a criticism... I *like* an evolving unfolding plotline.
Nice job on the initial storyline! The biggest problem in fantasy storytelling is to managing the exposition necessary to introduce the world, and still introduce the plot and characters without spending waaay to much time on it (and coming away with too little of either). Comics have an advantage over novels on this one, since some of the exposition can be drawn, rahter than written, but it's still a knotty problem, and well handled here.
I ended up voting "I don't like it primarily because of the humor and/or dialogue" & "I don't like it primarily because the story/plot seems boring/confusing/bad". Which is weird, because I really enjoy PartiallyClips.
The art I mostly like, but it sometimes seems to be missing something that I can't quite put my finger on. Maybe that it can't quite seem to decide whether it wants to be more minimalist "comic" or lush "graphic novel"? I don't know.
After the 6-pages, I'm still not sure about my worst fear. Even though it may not be a punch-line-a-page, each installment needs to end on a natural break.
Consider Tramp's Wormy. Many of the installments weren't really stand-alone, but they still ended on a natural break--whether it was a cliffhanger, preliminary punch-line, or whatever. Of course, installments varied in length. (Something OOTS occasionally does as well.) But I digress.
When the breaks aren't natural, I find I lose interest quickly.
Need more input for a good decision. I figure you'll be getting a lot of comments that are based on how it's different from OotS, which is obviously to be expected. I like the words coined, but I don't know if it'll get stale or not.
I'm more interested in the story than in the gags. I must be one of those easily amused for I plan to read this regularly. In fact I was afraid it would be something similar to OOTS and I'm glad it's not. I love the dawgons and mancer thingies.
Overall, so far i like it. Especially the whole "every fifth or sixth nut i crack turns into a pigeon" thing. Just one question, are these the villains or is this one of those stories without good and evil, just different sides?"
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Church: "Thanks for the support Griff, way to be a team player"
Griff: "Hey I gotta think about myself here"
Church: "There's no 'I' in team Griff"
Griff: "Yeah, well there's no 'u' either, so I guess if I'm not on the team, and your not on the team, nobodies on the god damn team! The team sucks!"
-Red vs Blue episode 42
Especially the whole "every fifth or sixth nut i crack turns into a pigeon" thing.
I didn't understand that reference at all. I feel like a lot of the things that are meant to be referential jokes here (to some game or system I've never played) are *so* obscure that they'll be lost on a lot of the people who've never played this game/system/MMORPG. That's the danger of inside jokes -- if they're too far inside, then too few people will understand them enough to continue reading them. VGCats, Penny Arcade, OOTS -- these all seem very good at making their jokes general enough that anyone who's vaguely or passingly familiar with at least the genre or system can get them.
I voted "I will not continue reading it at all". I didn't find it funny and I'm not getting into the plot or the characters. Sorry if that sounds harsh; I'm a demanding reader because I have a lot to occupy my time, and I don't want to get into another webcomic if it doesn't look like repaying what I put into it.
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Proud to be a member of the Celia fan club!
"When the captain of the Titanic saw the iceberg coming, he didn't panic. He drowned." -- Paul Merton
I don't know, I wasn't crazy about it. It feels more like a print comic than a webcomic. I found the perspective on parts of it disorienting and physically hard to look at, which is a quick turn-off for me. The plotline right now is kind of wait-and-see for me. I don't really care about the characters yet. I think I'd like the child-speak better if it were more consistent - it seems kind of thrown-in as it stands now. Also, the croakamancer, predictamancer, etc, is awkward and seems to force overly-large dialogue balloons.
I'll keep reading while waiting for OotS updates, just to see how it evolves.
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"Don't worry, Ka'Sala, we'll hurt you...I mean, help you!"
I feel strongly enough about this to make an account in order to vote in the poll. I feel the art is fine.
I also feel that the babytalk is so annoying I never plan to read the comic again. The story seems like it could be fine and I don't really mind the Elvis stuff, but a poop joke in the first posting really says bad things to me.
In reality, I probably will try it again in a couple months, but babytalk will drive me away quite quickly.
I'll continue reading it - admittedly, mainly because it's here on the site already, because I'm stingy with my bookmarks - but I also like what I've seen so far. I was going to say what Lairek just did, that it reminds me somewhat of Kingdom of Loathing.
I would prefer to see more of the comic's storyline before giving an opinion. Artwork and names that aren't extremely good or bad are hard to judge without knowing the theme and tone of the rest of the setting. If it tries to be too serious, they will likely drag it down. On the other hand, if the series tries to do something based more on daily punchlines, the silliness of the names might get in the way of the real humor. Hopefully, it develops into something more like Goblins or Sluggy Freelance, with both a fairly serious plot and silliness which can erupt at any moment.
I think it's too early to make an assessment. Overall, it's interesting and given its 8:30 PM lineup next to the 8 PM hit show OOTS, I would expect to read it on a regular basis. It would have a harder time reaching audience as a standalone site, but the downside is that it receives criticisms by people who would have otherwise ignored it. On the whole, a reasonable bargain.
As far as "childspeak", I originally didn't quite understand what it was even referring to. I take worlds on their own terms. The hammer coloring was silly, but I have no pwablem with the words or amusing styles. (Dragon Half is one of my favorite animes, and this comic reminds me of it a bit.) I definitely don't want the artists to feel like they have to adapt to the whims of a vocal few. It seems like some people are expecting OOTS, and this is not OOTS nor is it trying to be.
I liked the first page quite a bit, so that probably helped. The gem story and its effects was a nice touch. And little bits like Elvis gods, slow motion action, and daemon table provide some nice rereadability.
As for point of view, I'm presuming Lady Firebaugh is at least one point. As for more, it's too early to see, but she's clearly a sympathetic character whose fortunes and misfortunes could result in much amusement. (In the way that stories with Redcloak are a pleasure to read.)
About "childspeak" I see it more in relation with the way this world "came to be", the characters themselves are not that childish. Of course I'm trying to guess what is really erfworld but it's too soon to put forward my guess.
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