#007: Special

[Skeleon]

Yeah, this is weird. I mean, I buy games that I don't play, but that's called a backlog. I intend to play them in a few years time, I swear! I wouldn't buy them if I wasn't interested, especially not just to fulfill the... societal expectation... for asocial... shut-ins... who have little to no contact... with society. Wait, what?

 

[SKBPinkie]

I don't get how people get such huge backlogs. More likely than not, you know you're gonna only play a game at a time. So why buy everything at once?

I usually keep a list of games that I'm interested in, and get them one at a time. Heck, I still haven't played MCC or Far Cry 4 or Forza Horizon 2, etc. The best part is that they're all now cheaper than when they were new, and in the case of some of them *cough*MCC*cough*, they actually work now.

But heck, I'm currently playing Monster Hunter 4U, so I have no idea when I'm actually gonna play the other games on my list. Maybe a few months later, considering my progress in MH4U.

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

I don't get how people get such huge backlogs. More likely than not, you know you're gonna only play a game at a time. So why buy everything at once?

I usually keep a list of games that I'm interested in, and get them one at a time. Heck, I still haven't played MCC or Far Cry 4 or Forza Horizon 2, etc. The best part is that they're all now cheaper than when they were new, and in the case of some of them *cough*MCC*cough*, they actually work now.

But heck, I'm currently playing Monster Hunter 4U, so I have no idea when I'm actually gonna play the other games on my list. Maybe a few months later, considering my progress in MH4U.

My backlog once reached +30 games. Why? Because games like LoL, Dota, CS:GO, Civ5, BoI and Payday exist. And when you can dump 1k hours into each of these games easily then "normal" games can rot for a while.
I still haven't opened my Bioshock 1 hardcopy yet. It's still in it's plastic. And once a game is standing around for such a long time my willingness to play them is kinda low^^

 

[Bad Jim]

I don't get how people get such huge backlogs. More likely than not, you know you're gonna only play a game at a time. So why buy everything at once?

I didn't go to my local video game store that often so I generally got anything interesting that I could afford when I did go. This was largely due to laziness, but I did miss out on a few games that I saw on the shelves but disappeared after I read their reviews and decided to buy them, so it was better to grab stuff while it was hot.

Then Steam came along, and started occasionally throwing seasonal sales with half their catalog 50% off or better. Once again, I bought anything interesting I could find while it was cheap. It is true that I probably would have been better off waiting until I actually wanted to play games then buying them at full price, but there was some logic in it.

 

[renegade7]

Also yes, "butterflies"

I feel like I should understand that, but I don't.

 

[Skatologist]

So wait, she buys and hoards lots of games, has her food and supplies delivered to her door, and she never leaves her house/apartment... Umm, where does Erin get her money from?

Also yes, "butterflies"

I am going to find out where you live and murder you.

I always[footnote]This is a filthy lie, I just know you're making this sh*t up as we go along[/footnote] assumed this incarnation of Erin was just born into money or something. Could explain her depression and seclusion. Not getting over the death of a close family member maybe?

Also yes, "butterflies"

I feel like I should understand that, but I don't.

Same.

So wait, she buys and hoards lots of games, has her food and supplies delivered to her door, and she never leaves her house/apartment... Umm, where does Erin get her money from?

Also yes, "butterflies"

I am going to find out where you live and murder you.

Aaaahhh yyeaaaah~ looks like Topaz is going places around here.

OT: .. But seriously with the way Erin is .. would be interesting to see how she developed or 'came' to start seeing imaginary friends.

Also she reminds me of a certain someone, in some alternative dimension ... one that almost became canon.

I'm not sure if that panel with the combination it was almost canon ruins my childhood or enhances it.

 

[koobismo]

To those who don't get the 'jars' reference it's to do with Howard Hughes who at one point kept his own urine in jars.

I... I just googled it.

I mean, why.

 

[Product Placement]

Spoiler: That image, though.

For anyone that doesn't know, that is a direct take from the last episode of St. Elsewhere [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elsewhere], where it turned out that the entire show had been a figment of Tommy Westphall's imagination, an autistic boy that happened to be the son of the main character (even the stuff that the grandma says is a direct quote from that ending).

But it doesn't end there. Since the show was so popular at its time, multiple crossovers were made where characters from other shows would appear at the show or vice versa. Multiple St. Elsewhere characters showed up on Cheers [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheers], for example. Because of that, you have to assume that all of these shows were also part of Tommy's imagination.

And it doesn't end there. A lot of these shows would end up doing their own crossovers with other shows, building up an ever increasing web of interconnected shows that link up to St. Elsewhere, which makes us believe that it's all part of the same universe and therefore all in Tommy's head.

It's actually a fun read and it gets kinda crazy how many popular shows end up connected to this conspiracy:
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2014/11/tommys-world-the-tv-legacy-of-st-elsewheres-tommy.html

Edit: And of course, someone made a map. [https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B28oPRYmK5pLQ3R4d1U2aEpYOTA/edit]

 

[Imp_Emissary]

To those who don't get the 'jars' reference it's to do with Howard Hughes who at one point kept his own urine in jars.

I... I just googled it.

I mean, why.

To shorten a very complex and interesting story about one of the most influential people ever in the U.S.?

Extreme OCD issues made worse after one or two solo plane crashes.
http://www.biography.com/people/howard-hughes-9346282

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Hughes

He was also what inspired the Fallout character Mr. House.

 

[koobismo]

To those who don't get the 'jars' reference it's to do with Howard Hughes who at one point kept his own urine in jars.

I... I just googled it.

I mean, why.

To shorten a very complex and interesting story about one of the most influential people ever in the U.S?

Extreme OCD issues made worse after one or two solo plane crashes.
http://www.biography.com/people/howard-hughes-9346282

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Hughes

He was also what inspired the Fallout character Mr. House.

Thanks, I guess I have another biography book to pick up then.

 

[IceForce]

So wait, she buys and hoards lots of games, has her food and supplies delivered to her door, and she never leaves her house/apartment... Umm, where does Erin get her money from?

Welfare, obviously.

Erin is clearly a dole bludger.

 

[Kopikatsu]

So wait, she buys and hoards lots of games, has her food and supplies delivered to her door, and she never leaves her house/apartment... Umm, where does Erin get her money from?

Also yes, "butterflies"

I know two people who are making bank on social security. Well, they aren't wealthy exactly, but they're making enough to support both themselves and a third person without a day of work.

Maybe being a druggie counts as being disabled now.

 

[Fappy]

Aside from speaking to an imaginary friend she doesn't seem that crazy in EDA. She's really just depressed as fuck as far as I can tell.

 

[DementedSheep]

I don't get how people get such huge backlogs. More likely than not, you know you're gonna only play a game at a time. So why buy everything at once?

I usually keep a list of games that I'm interested in, and get them one at a time. Heck, I still haven't played MCC or Far Cry 4 or Forza Horizon 2, etc. The best part is that they're all now cheaper than when they were new, and in the case of some of them *cough*MCC*cough*, they actually work now.

But heck, I'm currently playing Monster Hunter 4U, so I have no idea when I'm actually gonna play the other games on my list. Maybe a few months later, considering my progress in MH4U.

I don't buy a game, finish it and then buy another. I buy a bunch a games during major holiday sales then spend the next few months working through them because it's cheaper. The games I'm buying are usually older anyway so the price isn't going to drop again for a while. Sometimes I'll end up buying another game when I already have others to play because it's one I really want that has fallen into my price range or I feel like playing a particular genre and didn't buy any of those. My backlog isn't that long but I can see how it would happen. If I didn't keep track of it and didn't have self impose limits on how many games I will allow myself to buy and instead bought every game I was interested in I would end up with a very large backlog quite quickly this way. Some people fall into the the "well, it's less that $10 so I might as well give it a try" trap which adds up.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

No Erin, you're totally okay and not in a worrying mental state.

<.<

 

[Darth_Payn]

To those who don't get the 'jars' reference it's to do with Howard Hughes who at one point kept his own urine in jars.

Oh yea, that airplane guy. For some reason I thought it'd be for something more awful (awfuller?). And now we've killed the joke...

So how does she pee in game disc cases? The sheer mechanics of it are mind boggling!

No, you look like you're voldemort.
(Seriously, what's with the nose in the last panel?)

It's like Dilbert's mouth in that regard.

 

[Bad Jim]

So wait, she buys and hoards lots of games, has her food and supplies delivered to her door, and she never leaves her house/apartment... Umm, where does Erin get her money from?

Welfare, obviously.

Erin is clearly a dole bludger.

I dunno how it works in the US, but in the UK you have to leave your house at least every fortnight to sign on at the Jobcenter. And Erin has not left her house for a long time. Even if there isn't a requirement like that, there are surely programs of one sort or another that you have to attend.

The possibilities I can think of are:

1) Large inheritance/rich parents that pays for everything.
2) She's burning through her savings which will be gone in a couple of years but she is too far gone to sort herself out.
3) The oldest profession. Unlikely for the sort of person that never leaves her house though. Might end up doing it if she is pursuing option 2 though.
4) A job that lets her work from home. In theory she could be a videogame journalist, since playing games and writing reviews can both be done at home. In practice, I'm suspect that she would have to go to the office at least occasionally. Critical Miss Erin seems to do all her work there. Also, this Erin sucks at games, which would be unlikely if playing games was half her job. Maybe something else.

 

[PlasticTree]

This comic is.. nice. I think it's a real shame what the Escapist has changed into in the past couple of years (less thoughtful articles and more bland geek-culture-website). But this comic is.. nice. A welcome addition to the Escapist, and I like the fact that it falls into a different category than Critical Miss and most other gaming-related comics. Good job guys.

*fades into the shadows for a year or 2 again*

 

[Neferius]

So wait, she buys and hoards lots of games, has her food and supplies delivered to her door, and she never leaves her house/apartment... Umm, where does Erin get her money from?

"I have a better solution. You keep me on the payroll as an outside consultant and in exchange for my salary, my job will be never to tell people these things that I know. I don't even have to come into the office, I can do this job from home."

First rule of Hikikomori-CLUB is, there are no in-person meetings, EVER.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

So wait, she buys and hoards lots of games, has her food and supplies delivered to her door, and she never leaves her house/apartment... Umm, where does Erin get her money from?

Also yes, "butterflies"

Gawd can we put that "plot hole" to rest? IT ISN'T LITERAL! I "never leave the house" either, yet I hold down a job and buy groceries. This version of Erin is just a shut-in. If she doesn't need to leave the house, she doesn't.