#011: Tap Y To Ask Questions

[koobismo]

#011: Tap Y To Ask Questions

Get it while it lasts! This episode of "Game On, Hardcore" takes us back onto the land, where adventures await.

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[Guffe]

Last episode next week?
Not enough views?
That's a damn shame! I was really enoying this. Hope it works out for you and best of luck for the future!
Keep GamingOn!

 

[dangoball]

What? Awww...
Of the new content at Escapist this was definitely the most interesting and I was really quite curious as to how will it all play out.

 

[TheBigOne0305]

Damn, that sucks
I've been following your work since the early days of Marauder Shields and I'm looking forward to the game you are working on, but this comic was also very interesting. But I kind of understand the low numbers, this long form format doesn't really lend itself to sharing around and becoming viral like the typical "two guys on a couch making jokes about the game of the week" format that seems to dominate gaming related comics.

I just hope you don't let this setback demotivate you (too much). Your work (both the story telling/writing and the art) is great and I'm looking forward to whatever you'll do in the future

 

[List]

The art was good.

I really tried to like this... but either I'm as dense as a rock or the things i need to see to get interested in this are too deep for me to grasp.

 

[Cowabungaa]

The lady who's name I forgot is playing the pronoun game.

*ping*

But I'm sad to see this comic go. The art maybe wasn't the best (a bit wonky for a realistic style, just a bit), and clashed a little with what was going on maybe, but it was fun and unlike some other new comic I won't name you understood it was for a large part a visual medium. I liked the format, the a-typical framing, it really did click with me.

 

[QuadFish]

Not sure if this is helpful as feedback, but I barely noticed this was on the site since the thumbnail on the frontpage doesn't really identify it too well. The other webcomics usually put their name as part of the thumbnail so it's easier to tell but for all I knew this could have been a random Escapist article or podcast or something.

Then again it would be too depressing to blame low viewership entirely on a thumbnail so I doubt that's it. As you said, it's a complicated situation and there's a lot of little factors that probably contributed.

 

[StatusNil]

Damn, that's disappointing. I too was curious to see where this was going, seeing as you were the hero Mass Effect 3 needed... but didn't get. (I have to confess I didn't really follow Marauder Shields, it sort of hurt at the time.)

I will have to say, like a previous comment did, that somehow a new installment being released didn't really catch the eye as it should have on the front page. Several times it had been up for quite some time until I noticed it was a new one. Also, this may not have been the ideal distribution method for "slow-burn" work such as yours, unfortunately.

All the best going forward.

 

[JCAll]

I can't imagine what went wrong. New content is always a welcome sight to me. Maybe the build was too slow, I dunno. Well, I thought it was a good comic while it lasted. I'll just take the classic internet stance that everyone with a different opinion is wrong.

 

[Devieus]

That's quite a shame, but it's nice to be appreciated as niche. That said, the bigger let-downs I guess was the art, it's so cheesy, like someone took some photos and threw on an edge finding filter. Also, maybe the pages are a bit too long, but it's either that or an even more stunted narrative; then again, the benefit of shorter pages is that content can be released at higher frequency, keeping people more easily invested, because they don't have to recall last week to remember what happened.

tl;dr: frequency of pages too low.

 

[koobismo]

Last episode next week? Not enough views? That's a damn shame! I was really enoying this. Hope it works out for you and best of luck for the future! Keep GamingOn!

Yeah, unfortunately. The numbers didn't really climb as they were supposed to (har, har!) after the first three-four episodes, and they kept low all throughout the run - the interest was low despite positive feedback (which makes it hard to course-correct to reflect people's interest, because, hey, people say they like it, they just don't read it), and at some point the good folks at the Escapist had to concede that no miraculous climb-up will ever occur. I actually agree with the verdict here, as painful as that is - as much as I like the idea for the series myself, I can't pretend that we've amassed a sufficient enough audience to warrant someone spending money for it. Eh.

I will remain at the (much comfortable) position then, that we were the elite few - makes for great alcoholic toasts.

What? Awww... Of the new content at Escapist this was definitely the most interesting and I was really quite curious as to how will it all play out.

Thanks, Dangoball, much appreciated.

One of my primary goals - one I scribbled out on a hundred of page corners - was to "make it different", not just in terms of the story and concepts, but how it felt and how it compared to other webcomics throughout the net. Truth is, I'm not that wildly interested in how most (not all) webcomics go about their content, and hoped there would be more folks feeling the need to shed the sameness as much as I did.

In the end, I feel that it was, indeed, quite different, so a thumbs up for myself in that regard, pat on the back, spank on the buttocks. Whether that "different" translated into "interesting", and whether it was actually good is for other people to judge - looking back I can point out definite mistakes and storytelling crutches that would be better to avoid, but felt like something I must do at the time (i.e. one rush-job on exposition I laid out after the criticism of episodes 2 and 3 carrying not enough content, some of the dialogues being write-ins just before the publication, which made them feel worse than something that I would actually iterate on, etc.). All in all, I myself really like the result, despite considering it imperfect. Wish we had the chance to get better and climb towards my favorite bits, but, hey, reality.

Damn, that sucks I've been following your work since the early days of Marauder Shields and I'm looking forward to the game you are working on, but this comic was also very interesting. But I kind of understand the low numbers, this long form format doesn't really lend itself to sharing around and becoming viral like the typical "two guys on a couch making jokes about the game of the week" format that seems to dominate gaming related comics.

Thanks, man! The demotivation is indeed a factor, as I've been struggling with some Stuff That Shan't Be Named for a while, and it's pretty easy to slip into a... less-energetic place - but I'll try to keep it in a jar. There was a nice article about the number of independent projects that actually make it in the world of creativity (the percentage, of course, being miniscule), highlighting that loads of absolutely awesome stuff would never exist if their authors gave up after a failure, or a dozen. I might've not saved it for future reading, but I have kept that one deep in my memory.

Plus, there's always the option of using The Omega 13 when really desperate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fdcIwHKd_s

You're definitely right about the comic being in a pretty specific format, difficult to share over the interwebs. In fact, I'd go as far as to admit that most things I like are rarely shareable, and those that are, are often so for very subversive reasons. So, yeah, add that one to the count of possible factors.

I just hope you don't let this setback demotivate you (too much). Your work (both the story telling/writing and the art) is great and I'm looking forward to whatever you'll do in the future

Thank you. Not just 8 letters and a space, but an actual nod and smile at the screen here.

The art was good. I really tried to like this... but either I'm as dense as a rock or the things i need to see to get interested in this are too deep for me to grasp.

If not liking something is a sign of being dense as a rock, I'm probably the densest of boulders, as I often ignore or actively disapprove of many things considered quite awesome by people I know to be great judges of quality. Risking a public lynching, I will, for example, say that I am neither a big fan of Guardians of the Galaxy, nor Frozen.* There, now you can all carry me on your bayonets, you bastaaarrrr--- [dies]

(*- Quick ass-saving note: I recognize them as work of quality, I simply didn't enjoy either all that much, ending up at "meh, whatever, what was that Reddit noise all about?")

But, yeah, the point I'm making is that if at any point any creator decides that it's his audience's fault for not liking something of his, he is probably an ass. There are many aspects to consider, including that of author's capability and compatibility (a major thing for me, as I can come off as contrarian simply due to the selection of things I like or dislike), but in the end the question's whether enough people gave a crap to continue. I think there's absolutely nothing bad about disliking "Game On", is what I'm saying, nor is there about not finding it all that attractive, yo.

But I'm sad to see this comic go. The art maybe wasn't the best (a bit wonky for a realistic style, just a bit), and clashed a little with what was going on maybe, but it was fun and unlike some other new comic I won't name you understood it was for a large part a visual medium. I liked the format, the a-typical framing, it really did click with me.

Thanks, Cowabungaa. Thou shalt be toasted with this beer in my hand, right now. A solid gulp.

And, yeah, I do agree that the art might've been better at times, there's a big difference between the frames I actually took a bit of time on and the ones rushed out when the clock was running out - but I'm still pretty proud of the result, seeing how I'm an absolute amateur at this stuff. All in all, taught myself some new techniques over the run, got to conceptualize an older StarChild, made Ecco The Dolphin look scary, created a dragon with L.O.D. problems... A few things off my bucket list.

Not sure if this is helpful as feedback, but I barely noticed this was on the site since the thumbnail on the frontpage doesn't really identify it too well. The other webcomics usually put their name as part of the thumbnail so it's easier to tell but for all I knew this could have been a random Escapist article or podcast or something. Then again it would be too depressing to blame low viewership entirely on a thumbnail so I doubt that's it. As you said, it's a complicated situation and there's a lot of little factors that probably contributed.

Oh, sure, definitely helpful, dude. I agree that might've been an additional factor, albeit not a primary one - in fact, I was thinking about the ways to spice up the thumbnails and front-page presentation since episode 6, just haven't got to it... My train of thought was: "let's introduce all 4 protagonists and the dragon first, let Jenn slip into the armor from her hospital clothes and then put them all together on the coolest poster ever for everyone to see how cool they look in full gear." Jenn was supposed to strip a female Master Chief (with her little holographic nude dude - Corto - protesting vigorously) off her Mjolnir, by the way.

As for blaming it on a thumbnail being depressing... Nah, I'd take "it was all because of the thumbnail and episode titles" over my own fault any time, any place, any project.

Damn, that's disappointing. I too was curious to see where this was going, seeing as you were the hero Mass Effect 3 needed... but didn't get. (I have to confess I didn't really follow Marauder Shields, it sort of hurt at the time.)

I will have to say, like a previous comment did, that somehow a new installment being released didn't really catch the eye as it should have on the front page. Several times it had been up for quite some time until I noticed it was a new one. Also, this may not have been the ideal distribution method for "slow-burn" work such as yours, unfortunately.

All the best going forward.

Thanks, StatusNil. I'll still have the next episode to say goodbyes (and will remain lurking around here - as I always did - and commenting sparsely on topics of interest), so I'm not going there yet, but your observation definitely goes up to my post-mortem.

 

[Debber]

This is sad. I was really enjoying the comic. I was intrigued by the story and the art style was unique - reminded me of cel-shaded graphics in games. It was a bit slow-paced, but it's a shame people couldn't stick with it.

 

[COMaestro]

I was interested to see where this comic was going. Sorry to see it go. Though admittedly for the past two or three weeks it seems The Escapist has had some DNS issues so I couldn't get to the site at all without going through Google's cached mode and it just wasn't worth the effort for the most part to do so. It's only started working for me this week. I'm sure I wasn't the only person who couldn't access the site, which certainly couldn't have helped the comic viewing numbers...

Good luck with your future endeavors!

 

[CaitSeith]

I blame the Catalyst. It first killed the creators, then it killed Shepard, and now it killed "Game On, Hardcore". (jk)

In a serious note, I'm sad about this. I was really enjoying the comic. I hope that you have more success in the future.

 

[Kian2]

Sorry to hear it. I wanted to like the series, but really I've been reading it out of habit more than interest. My biggest problem, if you are looking for feedback at this point, is that I don't know the characters, don't know what's going on, and don't know why I should care.

I mean, it seemed like we were following this girl, trying to piece what is going on, and then suddenly there was a shift to a bunch of Sim people, and nothing happened there either. It feels like you are building too many things up without grounding the things you've already introduced. I can't even recall the name of the main character as I'm writing this. That's not a good sign.

 

[Meximagician]

A real shame the series is ending, just as our protagonist was getting answers, too!

It's rare that I get into anything with a slow burn... usually I prefer episodic content. I think the closest was Burn Notice, which used each episode to tell a self-contained story (to develop characters and ease in new viewers) and hints at a larger story (as a hook), only breaking that mold for a season finale.

Eh, whatcha goin' do? Better luck with the next project!

 

[Al_]

Bums. I was enjoying that, and loved the art

 

[stringtheory]

Aw, sorry to hear you go. If you do continue it on a separate site, give a head's up. I'd gladly keep reading this unique story.

 

[The_Darkness]

Wha? WHA?!

Ah, great, now I feel guilty for tuning out of this series for genuine *Real Life* reasons, and only recently bringing myself back up to date. This is honestly one of the more stylish webcomic worlds that I've come across in a long time, and I'll be very sorry to see it go. I was looking forward to the slow build of answers mixed with more questions... Dammit website statistics! *Shakes fist*

Well Koobs, you're a man to watch regardless, so I look forward to the final episode and (even if it maybe takes me a day or so to do so) you can bet that I'll be joining in the post-ep foruming. And I'm still tuning in for Marauder Shields

...

*Reads comment above*
*Discover that Koobs doesn't like Guardians of the Galaxy*

...

Okay, I take all the nice stuff I just said back, you're - I'm kidding Personally loved that movie but - eh, if you step back, it is a fairly standard chase-the-MacGuffin plot. Nothing that special about it besides "Marvel made a movie with a Raccoon and a Tree as main characters."

 

[Camaranth]

That's a damn shame. I was really enjoying this and looking forward to where it was going.
I really hope you get to continue this somewhere else.
Best of luck mate!