T w e n t y S i d e d
Shawn Gaston has abandoned his antique page on Livejournal and got himself a wiz-bang fancy new blog with go-fast strips. It runs on WordPress and everything!
This is the part where I would link our collaborative efforts, just to remind you who Shawn is in case you’re new or forgetful. But as many people repeatedly tell me, Chainmail Bikini has vanished. That was the webcomic Shawn and I worked on for a time.
But! There are plans to get CB back online. There have been for a while now. And by “plans” I mean emails along the lines of: “We should put CB up somewhere.” and “Yeah. Let’s do that”. …which is quickly followed by us not doing anything of the sort. All we need is to turn that intent into action. It’s on the to-do list.
Anyway, Shawn. New blog. Looks slick. Check it out.
Spec Ops: The Line
A videogame that judges its audience, criticizes its genre, and hates its premise. How did this thing get made?
Autoblography
The story of me. If you're looking for a picture of what it was like growing up in the seventies, then this is for you.
Diablo III Retrospective
We were so upset by the server problems and real money auction that we overlooked just how terrible everything else is.
The Gameplay is the Story
Some advice to game developers on how to stop ruining good stories with bad cutscenes.
The Dumbest Cutscene
This is it. This is the dumbest cutscene ever created for a AAA game. It's so bad it's simultaneously hilarious and painful. This is "The Room" of video game cutscenes.
Cool. I still use to link to Chainmail Bikini when I want people to know exactly why they should read webcomics…
Also, good, bookmarked (his page).
I was never around long enough to read Chainmail Bikini so getting it back online would be awesome.
When you say “bring CB back online”, do mean just that, dig out the old files and eternify them for an everlasting digital hearse, or are you, hypothetically and “we-totally-should”-ally, about epic-level true resurrection?
gyfrmabrd: The old files thing.
I don’t think either of us has the time for CB production. I know I’m pretty much redlining as it is.
“Redlining” made me think of the “flatlining” SFX from Gordon Freeman’s HEV suit.
That said, I give the pun in the title a 1.3 on the head-slamming-into-desk Richter scale.
Hey!
Actually, these vague plans should become a bit more concrete next month or so. My plan is to host CB in it’s original form on Shawntionary.com, with brand new commentary from Shamus and I talking about what went right and what went wrong, and hopefully with one new bonus CB strip as a thank you to the old fans and to put a nicer feel on the ending.
Gonna be honest, I want to encourage folks to move onto http://expressionengine.com and abandon WordPress.
EE is a LOT better than WordPress.
Quite frankly, that ending was a lot better than a lot of webcomics. Most of them just sort of fade away with a dozen plot points unfinished and maybe a ‘sorry RL got in the way’-esque news post if we’re lucky. Others either run forever(Penny Arcade, LICD), or are planned out enough to have a beginning, middle, and end and manage to reach it(not common at all). Shamus posting the authors notes so we at least get the middle and end even if we never reached them is far better than I’m used to.
I am currently reading 26 webcomics, and have 13 more in my dead folder(counting the broken CB link). Of those, 10 ended worse than you guys did. That’s pretty good numbers IMHO. If it weren’t for the 3-part note series, I’d be more annoyed about the delays and missed updates, but those were a great way of finishing that is as good as possible for everyone.
Edit: for the curious, Queen of Wands was one of the 2 better ones. The other I’d rather not mention on a ‘family’ site.
Expressionengine = FAIL. Price? FAIL. Plugins? FAIL. Modules? FAIL. Userbase? FAIL.
Did I mention Price? FAIL. I can’t believe you bothered.
Also: WordPress rocks.
OH CRAP!
I started my crappy blog ten days before Shawn started the Shawntionary, and Shawn has chosen the same theme I took.
That was enough to start this post, but then I realized that Shawn recently posted a lengthy post about his depression, which is something I was thinking about doing.
And my name rhymes with his. Don, Shawn.
OH CRAP. Jackson sort of rhymes with Gaston! (It helps if you say “Jackson” with a french accent — “JACK-sawn”.
I’m not even looking for parallels. They just keep jumping out at me. Unfortunately, I have to conclude that I am a pale shadow of Shawn, and not the other way around, because a) he has regular updates, and b) his background theme has texture.
This comment feels inane, but I don’t think I can help but post it now. I think I need to confirm to myself that I actually exist.
Don’t worry too much about the additional commentary stuff etc., not that I mind (quite the opposite) but I’m worried that it becomes the straw that breaks the camel’s back, i.e. the reason/excuse why CB never goes back online at all.
That would be bad.
Looking forward to seeing it.