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Discussions regarding Pacing, Scheduling and Fanservice

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This picture, and especially the hover text / mouseover text, made me think of Dan and the lack of sketchbooks we've been seeing for months now.  Jennie is right, I think for just about any artist, sometimes it's good to just do a sketch, not a strip or even a panel.  I really miss seeing stuff like the collection of preliminary sketches for George.

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On 1/16/2017 at 6:40 AM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

In the meantime, I can only hope that Dan will chose a different reward system in the near future.  Personally, I would like to see more new commentary about old comics.  Looking into the artist's mind while he contemplates his old work is intriguing.

I know this is a late reply, but I recall Dan saying that he considers the new commentary thing fully payed for, and that he will get it done one day. So it wouldn't make sense as a reward anymore.

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I have grown tired of EGS and it's pacing. The reason is that there seems to be no resolution, no ending forthcoming to the comic. Old plot threads like Lord Tedd are left ignored while new ones are added. So the comic keeps on sprawling incessantly. Dan recently said that he even has plans for when the characters go to college. It keeps on going and going. And it is starting to wear out it's welcome. It may be just me, but I feel that a story requires an ending, some kind of resolution.

Another problem with pacing in EGS is the tendency to give us long bouts of boring exposition that just make my eyes glaze over. It may be good worldbuilding, but I doubt that is a good thing.  I agree with the great SF writer M. John Harrison: "Worldbuilding is dull".

Harrison in the blog post linked above also makes the great point that worldbuilding tends to rationalize fantastic worlds, stripping them of wonder and mystery: " This kind of worldbuilding actually undercuts the best and most exciting aspects of fantastic fiction, subordinating the uncontrolled, the intuitive & the authentically imaginative to the explicable; and replacing psychological, poetic & emotional logic with the rationality of the fake."

The magic system in EGS is a great example of what Harrison is saying. It is too rational, utilitarian and orderly to be truly magical. Spellbooks in EGS remind me of car manuals. Compare the magic in Le Guin's Earthsea books which has a mystical, almost spiritual element to it. The present story arc in EGS is about preventing magic changing to become far less easy to use. I can't help but wonder how more interesting the comic would become if that change was to happen.

I changed as a person and it seems as if I have outgrown EGS. Well, at least I have had fun with it over the years. It was fun spending time  with you guys here too, I'll hang around for a while, at least to see what your response to this will be.

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No complaints from me. I love worldbuilding to a fault. In fact, I'm having to write some of it out of a novel I'm trying to create.

I've viewed comic strips as something apart from your standard literature. They tell a story, yes, but they tell a continuous story. I'm not in it for the ending of the strip: maybe for the ending of a plotline, but not for the strip itself. No, I'm in it to see how the characters live their lives, given the circumstances that affect them. When a strip ends, like "Candi" did recently, the characters effectively die, and to me that's a sad thing.

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6 hours ago, Sweveham said:

Another problem with pacing in EGS is the tendency to give us long bouts of boring exposition that just make my eyes glaze over. It may be good worldbuilding, but I doubt that is a good thing.  I agree with the great SF writer M. John Harrison: "Worldbuilding is dull".

Meh.  I literally write rules for world building.  It's part and parcel of who I am.

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Dan's current poll at Patreon is public.  He wants the opinion of potential patrons as well as current patrons.
https://www.patreon.com/egscomics

Quote

On May 13, Dan Shive said:

I'm wondering if, instead of 100% pinups, there should be the potential to be pretty much anything. This would include pinups, so there would still be pinups, but there could also be things in the polls that wouldn't necessarily be considered pinups.

 

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8 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Dan's current poll at Patreon is public.  He wants the opinion of potential patrons as well as current patrons.
https://www.patreon.com/egscomics

 

Seems like a good majority is ok with Dan doing more than just pinups. Pinups are fine, but I imagine it starts getting tough to come up with something good for it, even with patron suggestions, one can only do soo many giant breast pinups.

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I know Dan doesn't read this forum, and I'm only one voice among many, but I'm saying this here anyway...

I'm currently regularly reading about 80 webcomics, and among them are maybe three I'd read for the graphic art. EGS is not one of those few. I'm here for the story and the characters. One of Dan's characters cosplaying as some other character will rarely interest me more than a blank page would. If his sketches and pinups don't reflect on his characters or story, then I'd actually prefer he not take the time to post them. (And I know how little of his time that should take.)

Feel free to disagree. It's largely a matter of taste, and people have different tastes.

 

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2 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

I know Dan doesn't read this forum, and I'm only one voice among many, but I'm saying this here anyway...

I'm currently regularly reading about 80 webcomics, and among them are maybe three I'd read for the graphic art. EGS is not one of those few. I'm here for the story and the characters. One of Dan's characters cosplaying as some other character will rarely interest me more than a blank page would. If his sketches and pinups don't reflect on his characters or story, then I'd actually prefer he not take the time to post them. (And I know how little of his time that should take.)

Feel free to disagree. It's largely a matter of taste, and people have different tastes.

 

Here's the thing, many webcomic authors/artists do what they do as a hobby, many do it for a living, many do it for a little extra cash to go with their regular jobs. Some people are like "If you enjoy these, feel free to donate whatever you like." Others are "If you want to support me, I'll try to so something extra as thanks" and then there's others that are like "Hey I also do this stuff as well if you're interested in subscribing.

Dan certainly fits in the "do this for a living" as well as the "if you want to support me, I'll try to do something extra" categories. I know of some webcomics that use sites like Slipshine for more adult content and I know a subscription to that is a bit pricey.

Dan's most certainly running this poll because he's seen a few people comment on the overuse of breast expansion related gimmicks and I think the switch from having patrons suggest "who, what, how" to separate "who would you like to see?", "what kind of transformations?" and "what kind of outfits?"  categories tried to add more variety, but it still seemed like certain people and certain transformations topped the charts. What Dan's looking at now seems to be a mix of the pinup options as well as stuff like the old sketchbook content. Who knows, maybe some of the non-pinupy stuff will get posted in the sketchbook section instead of the pinup tumblr.

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*Warning: Venting ahead (also possible minor spoilers for today's NP) *

Aarrgg! I wish Dan would hurry up with the conclusion to Goonmanji 2 already! That's the second strip in a row of non-essential exposition, further delaying the players' choices of forms (which I want to see) and the "rampage" (which I want to get over with so we can move on to a new story).

Don't get me wrong, these strips have provided us with some interesting information, and I'm sure it'll read fine in the archives, but waiting for the strips one at a time all these side-tracks are really getting on my nerves. If Dan doesn't pick up the pace soon, I may need to take a break from NP for a week or two...

grumble...

*Venting over, thank you for your time.*

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5 minutes ago, ChronosCat said:

*Warning: Venting ahead (also possible minor spoilers for today's NP) *

<snip>

5 minutes ago, ChronosCat said:

*Venting over, thank you for your time.*

What he said.

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1 hour ago, ChronosCat said:

*Warning: Venting ahead (also possible minor spoilers for today's NP) *

Aarrgg! I wish Dan would hurry up with the conclusion to Goonmanji 2 already! That's the second strip in a row of non-essential exposition, further delaying the players' choices of forms (which I want to see) and the "rampage" (which I want to get over with so we can move on to a new story).

Don't get me wrong, these strips have provided us with some interesting information, and I'm sure it'll read fine in the archives, but waiting for the strips one at a time all these side-tracks are really getting on my nerves. If Dan doesn't pick up the pace soon, I may need to take a break from NP for a week or two...

grumble...

*Venting over, thank you for your time.*

I'm pretty certain I saw people on Twitter or reddit or somewhere asking if forms would still have their effects outside of the game like this. This seems like something Ashley would ask as well so I'm not surprised that Dan would feel like addressing the question this way. So I don't see it as non-essential.

If anything, even if the question of forms and effects didn't come up, I would have expected Ashley to still question whether it was ok to go on a transformation rampage and we'd still get a sassy playful Rhoda reminding us of the power of non-canon, at least in this case we get to see part of what Ashley has in mind for her form as well.

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9 hours ago, Scotty said:

I'm pretty certain I saw people on Twitter or reddit or somewhere asking if forms would still have their effects outside of the game like this. This seems like something Ashley would ask as well so I'm not surprised that Dan would feel like addressing the question this way. So I don't see it as non-essential.

If anything, even if the question of forms and effects didn't come up, I would have expected Ashley to still question whether it was ok to go on a transformation rampage and we'd still get a sassy playful Rhoda reminding us of the power of non-canon, at least in this case we get to see part of what Ashley has in mind for her form as well.

Just because it's something many fans would like to see doesn't make it essential. Nor do we need to see every action of the characters - we could have skipped over them discussing the details and straight to the transformations taking place (or for that mater to them on the "Rampage" already transformed).

I'm not saying every non-essential element needs to be cut from a story (if that was the case most stories would only be a few sentences long). It's just that I've had enough of this story, and was hoping we'd get a "highlights reel" epilogue rather than a fully detailed final chapter.

6 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

Well, wasn't this Ashley choosing at least part of her form?

Probably (otherwise this strip was even more unnecessary than I thought) and I hope so (I do like the genie outfit) but again we don't need to see every last detail of their decision making process.

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Sometimes, when a story really slows down, I worry that the author (not just Dan) does not know where to go with the story.

How to connect where the story is to where the author wants to take it.

How to properly close out this plotline.

Or what the next plotline should be.

I realize in Soap Operas, this is often intentional.  But I didn't think this was G&S presented by P&G.

 

Edited by Pharaoh RutinTutin
Posted before I was finished writing

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1 hour ago, CritterKeeper said:

Personally, I find the decision-making process more interesting than the random, pointless "rampage" that will follow it.

I would be interested in the decision-making process if I wasn't so impatient for the story to end. As for the rampage, my only interest in it is seeing the "the end" message on the final page (or however Dan indicates that the story is over).

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1 hour ago, CritterKeeper said:

Personally, I find the decision-making process more interesting than the random, pointless "rampage" that will follow it.

I'm very interested in what Susan picks plus her reasons for doing so, with Ashley, Rhoda and Catalina it's pretty much a given that they'd be up for any of the forms. For Susan, there's been hints and internal thought processes for certain forms she likes, but is she going to go with something she's most comfortable with? Or because the group's going out to randomly transform people in public, will she pick something to fit that (like the Pony form) and outwardly be seen having fun while being able to blame the form for her behaviour?

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5 minutes ago, Scotty said:

will she (Susan) pick something to fit that (like the Pony form) and outwardly be seen having fun while being able to blame the form for her behaviour?

It's too bad the job of personal jester or buffoon no longer exists.

Susan would be the perfect kind of noblewoman to outwardly remain stoic at all times while letting her jester become overly excited, happy, or angry for her.

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19 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

That is what she has her fairy dolls for.

I didn't even think of the fairy dolls.

I was trying to imagine which character to cast in that role.  And not coming up with good ideas.

Maybe Catalina...

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