Critical Miss: The Board

[teknoarcanist]

Y'know, it's so easy to rip on the ESRB because they're the big mean ol' censor. But when Uncle Sam comes knocking and suggesting laws to control the industry, gamers fall all over themselves pointing out that we already have this fantastic regulatory body, and it does its job pretty damned admirably.

 

[AvsJoe]

Looks like it's back to business-as-usual. Good. I liked the Steam arc, but I'm glad it's overwith.

 

[Shroomhell]

All those "don't likes" in the last frame insult me, especially the long hair one.
Also this art style is awesome! I want to see it in an animation.

Why the hell are they called captchas?... AND they're called challenges!?

 

[Latinidiot]

Personally, I think the whole concept of "swear words" is just ridiculous. I mean, the only reason these words are considered "more offensive" then others is because WE'RE NOT ALLOWED TO SAY THEM. It's a paradox. Also, no one should ever say "F you!" Clearly if you aren't willing to swear, you don't have any strong feelings on the matter, and you probably didn't need to say anything in the first place.

What? Oh, right. Uh...Good comic. Actually, to honest, one of the few I've actually laughed at, so....One of the best, I suppose.

swear words are swear words because when you call someone a pusinfested dick, you're comparing him to, well, a pus infested dick. And as puritanical as we secretly are, a dick is a nasty thing, used for the ungodly act of sex! YUK!

The sex related ones are offensive out of tradition.

 

[Galad]

As much as I enjoyed the comic and I agree about making fun of the ESRB, and my tongue's pretty goddamn loose when I'm with the right friends..

.. dicktits? As fun as it sounds, I feel like I have to be 13 again to enjoy that sort of funny shit for more than half an hour at a time >.>

either way, I'm still laughing at the "dick joke factory" part, that was a pretty good one

 

[elvor0]

Funny, but personally I havent got too much beef with the ESRB, they're not biased, sure sometimes they can sound a little childish, but it's just there say "X is in game" for the type of parent who might object to their kids playing that sort of thing, which is fine. At least we have SOMETHING there to say "look, this game is a 17+, it is not for kids."

 

[Logie--bear]

I gosh darn loved it

 

[dancinginfernal]

I spot hidden Slowbro.

Captcha: maximal rruluth

 

[felixader]

I don't know if I can cope with all the severe language in this comic. I think it needs to be censored more. My poor, sensitive ears just couldn't take it.

You are reading with your ears?

 

[0megaZer0]

Something's different about the character design for Erin on this comic... I ca'nt quite put my finger on it; it may just be that her hair is longer and it's up, but I'm not sure...

I do'nt know, but whatever it is, she actually looks cute/attractive for the first time in this series to me (and I've been reading since the beginning)

anyone else notice this or am I going crazy? were the artists actually planning this or is it coincidence?

 

[ThaBenMan]

Oh man, I was convinced that that girl in the background was going to chop a finger off or something... anyway, funny comic.

 

[trialbyfireent]

Absolutely genius comic. The artistic quality is really improving too. Critical Miss has been my favorite webcomic pretty much since it started here, but it keeps finding ways to get better and better.

 

[nipsen]

I love the design and pose of the lady sipping out of the Unicorn cup. It's soooooo cute!

C: I find "the F-word" and or F**K (look how friendly those asterisks are!) and variants thereof kind of ridiculous. But that's just a pet peeve.

To be fair, using "the F-word" is considered vulgar. I prefer to reserve the use of the actual word for times when it is appropriate, such as great emotional stress or intense anger. Otherwise, the word loses all meaning. It's really already happening, if you just listen to casual conversation, and every third of fourth word is "fuck" said without cause, purposeless. Like Steven Fry, I don't agree that all people who use that word are not as intelligent, but I do believe that who use it all the time will destroy it's expressiveness. Maybe I'm just an old fogy fighting the natural evolution of language, but I don't like it.

..well, they could write something like: "swear-words are used often and promptly without emotional context". And you would know that the game has dialogue with swearing just for the sake of it. Even if.. I guess.. something like that would open up for how swearing might actually be "appropriate", and that's something inconceivable to the morality brigade, after all..

The thing about swearing in Bulletstorm, though.. they almost never use normal swearwords. Long reams of dialogue don't contain profanity at all. They're just said as if they do. And when they do swear, they're just putting in taboo-words for the sake of it.. like a foreigner who has learned English idioms from studying movies from the eighties. Or.. space-pirates who know swear-words from "Old Earth", or something. I mean, it's so obviously ironic that you can't possibly miss it. ..unless you're on the ESRB board, I guess..

 

[L4Y Duke]

Do you want to know the funny part?

I read the comic, and all I can think about is:
"Hang on, individual Skillpoints in Bulletstorm never score 10 or 150. A plain kill's 10, and the scores for the skill shots are 25, 50 & 100, or for new ones 125, 250 or 500."

 

[Seagoon]

help i'm stuck in a dick joke factory - 10pts

EPIC WIN!

 

[Humanfactor]

Robot unicorn on the mug and that's a T-Rex!!! WOO!

 

[duchaked]

now if only those skillshots were actually in Bulletstorm hahahaa

 

[TilMorrow]

So I see you've been playin- wait a minute! You can't get more than two skillshots on a single enemy!

Great comic keep the humourosity and amazingness of it running.

 

[Jaded Scribe]

Honestly, the amount of ridicule/ire directed at the ESRB's expanded ratings these days is rather confusing to me - as the point of the ESRB is to inform parents (including those who would rather not immerse themselves in bad language - yes, such people do exist) of the content of the game, and has no bearing on older, more responsible people's access to said game that I can see, it seems rather childish to poke fun at them for doing their job - a job that indirectly benefits the gaming public!

The ESRB expanded rating isn't meant for the hardcore gamer! Heck, it's not even meant for the casual gamer! It's meant for the parent trying to see if the content of the game fits within their particular standards for their children's access - similar, in all honesty, to a "family" review site for films. Yet it gets ridiculed up and down the Internet - and for what? For censoring coarse language? For making a list of all the possible "infractions" a parent might find in the game? Honestly...

^^This.

The ESRB is considered, even by many of its detractors, as the best ratings board out there. Do they make mistakes, sure. But look at the actual description of Bulletstorm, and it seemed pretty on the mark, yet didn't pass judgment on it. It laid out what you could expect from the game, then leaves it to the consumer to decide if that's what they want from a game.