OotS #499

[Deset Gled]

Well, I still don't like Rich has a bad habit of using the first frames of a new strip to backpedal on an old strip or try to "correct" fan interpretations.

I honestly think that one of the things that makes the comic so great. Instantaneous feedback from fans is something that really separates web comics from print comics, and the way that Rich has taken ahold of and run with it has really added strengthened the comic as a whole. The one where he contemplates using Miko as an undead monster is the best use of this I can think of (link unavailable because I'm lazy).

I think the sci-fi jab you're talking about is just a mild joke, though.

 

[dmccoy1693]

Did Belkar and Haley make it out alive? Will Roy ever find out where Haley shot Roy's body? Did Vaarsuvius and Durkon ever wake up for their respective naps? Did the Monster in the Darkness ever have another tea party with O-Chul? Did Kazumi Kato and Daigo No-Last-Name-Yet ever share their cup of whatever? Will the spirit of the Flumfs get smashed again as Roy falls to the material plane?

Find out Next Time on, .... THE ORDER OF THE STICK Dun dun duuuun. (Elan! Enough with that already!)

 

[Balgus]

Yeah, but #500 has to be a look at what's been going on while Roy's been dead.

Not exctly... he could just be raised and jump up like being shaken from a deep sleep.. and rush out the door to see... *lil help Rich*

And then the back story comes in.. for the next ten strips.

 

[LoneWolf23]

Well, I still don't like Rich has a bad habit of using the first frames of a new strip to backpedal on an old strip or try to "correct" fan interpretations. Especially in this case, where he is dead wrong. There is nothing "sci fi" about time flowing differently in different worlds. Unless, of course, you think old folktales and versions of arthurian myth are "sci fi". The fact that there are rules for it in 3E planar rules is another thing that makes his handling of the issue in those first panels rather insulting to his fanbase, actually.

The way the day's comic ends, though, is funny.

Yeah, that did bother me a bit.. "Time flowing differently in different realms" is as old a fantasy trope as dragons and elves.. If not older, even.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Called it!

Buwahahahahaaha!

As did I here.

Not that mine was that big a call.

P.S. Not helping, Mom!

Olaf the Stout

 

[TwinBahamut]

I honestly think that one of the things that makes the comic so great. Instantaneous feedback from fans is something that really separates web comics from print comics,

I agree with this part. The feedback is important, however...

and the way that Rich has taken ahold of and run with it has really added strengthened the comic as a whole.

I am going to disagree with you here. taking the feedback into account is important, but it is best to integrate that feedback into improving your storytelling ability and making sure that things come across better the next time around, not by disrupting the flow of the story by retconning and taking back or explaining scenes or jokes that didn't work well the first time around. At the very least, if you need to do that kind of thing, it is probably better saved for a forum post or a blog entry, rahter than the comic itself. As such, I think Rich is one of the worst webcomic authors I have seen at integrating feedback.

The one where he contemplates using Miko as an undead monster is the best use of this I can think of (link unavailable because I'm lazy).

That is one of the examples of where he made one of the worst mistakes regarding responding to fan ideas. That joke was bad, and pretty much did nothing but cheapen all of Miko's character development and final heroic sacrifice. I hated that one about as much as his backpedaling on the Belkar's Kobold salsa "joke".

I think the sci-fi jab you're talking about is just a mild joke, though.

Well, it is directly refering to a popular fan theory of what was going on, so I disgree.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Well, I still don't like Rich has a bad habit of using the first frames of a new strip to backpedal on an old strip or try to "correct" fan interpretations.

???

Just seemed like a fun comment to me, playing with one of the D&D tropes as always.

 

[jeffh]

Even in this plot, the Biblical references at the end surprised me. I don't know why, he references everything else...

 

[Deset Gled]

taking the feedback into account is important, but it is best to integrate that feedback into improving your storytelling ability and making sure that things come across better the next time around, not by disrupting the flow of the story by retconning and taking back or explaining scenes or jokes that didn't work well the first time around.

...

I hated that one about as much as his backpedaling on the Belkar's Kobold salsa "joke".

I would agree that backpedaling and such would be bad, but I've honestly never seen that in the comic. Rich's consistency has seemed pretty amazing to me (the baby brother being a good example, Haley's tatoo being another). I've only been following it since the late 300s, so maybe there's something I'm missing?

That is one of the examples of where he made one of the worst mistakes regarding responding to fan ideas. That joke was bad, and pretty much did nothing but cheapen all of Miko's character development and final heroic sacrifice.

To each his own. I saw it as a great ending to a character that was mildly annoying, and didn't think there was anything heroic about the sacrifice to cheapen.

 

[frankthedm]

That is one of the examples of where he made one of the worst mistakes regarding responding to fan ideas. That joke was bad, and pretty much did nothing but cheapen all of Miko's character development and final heroic sacrifice.

That was miko "screwing up", not a "heroic sacrifice". Now the forces of Law very well might consider miko sacrificing her Paladinhood to Destroy a Chaotic good ruler heroic. For to Lawful Neutal, the Chaotic Good are just as 'bad' as the Chaotic evil.

I hated that one about as much as his backpedaling on the Belkar's Kobold salsa "joke".

Yep, that "salsa" is defintly minced kobold. And I find that hilarious.