The Gaming Den

Rob_Knotts at [unixtime wrote:1189703288[/unixtime]]Warning: be advised that picture searches on the internet for Pirotess may be NSFW.

I do indeed thank you for that advice.

Calibron at [unixtime wrote:1189577147[/unixtime]]
I challenge you to a duel, knave. But seriously, why do people like OOTS? Ignoring the purposefully bad art, the humor is mediocre, the story is boring and purposefully childish, the characters are *cough* two dimensional, and the action isn't exactly action-packed. In addition to that, none of these aspects are any better now than they were in the beginning, quite a number of years later. One of the interesting parts of webcomics is seeing the author grow as an artist over the years; it's another level of connection you don't get in many other forms of media.

Goblins is so much better on every level.

I guess you are looking for something different from a webcomic. Obviously nobody reads OOTS for art or sophisticated character development. Its a comic strip like Calvin and Hobbes or Bloom County but about about D&D. I want to sit down every month or two for an hour or so and snicker at usually on target jokes regarding my preferred medium of group entertainment that I have been playing since I learned to read. I would say I have at least smiled at 90% of the panels; and cracked up laughing enough times to keep on checking it even if the past few months haven't been as good as in the past (I won't put a number to it because i honestly check so sporatically that I have no clue where I would say it crested). He has managed to hold plot threads consistent over long months put in at least one joke that protrays D&D as it exists for 90% of the people you play it (even if you don't); if you don't get it, maybe you don't get the game.

Yes goblins is more like Marvel comic in art and story but it was obviously trying to be a one joke a page comic to start with but the style and the story don't allow for it and so its become more an adventure story; which is fine but it is not as funny on a consistent basis. If you check out goblins at every posting, as some fanboys do, then you don't get much for your time from a lot of the Goblin installments. If he had a monthly pdf to download that would be sweet. I hate sitting there and rifling through to find where I was, knowing full well i've got I'm gonna be scanning multiple pages that are not gonna have single sight gag for me to snicker at between pages loading is a bit of a bummer and it has kept me away from it for a couple of months. Goblins goesn't work as a sunday morning comicstrip; and it now wants to be a serious adventure story with a couple laughs here and there to keep old readers interested. I commend the artist and author but When I started it was funny and now its just D&D with a twist that we have all probably used ourselves at some time or another (the bad guys are not really bad; the good guys are not really good; earthshaking gender bender).

So really they were never really the same kind of comic (though the creater of Goblins in some ways originally wanted it to be; OOTS had friendly goblins way before Goblins came out) and so it was my bad to compare but when I followed the link for Drow tale to some low quality are page with drow talking like valley girls sure I can point to Goblins and say better and if I want pretty I can point to it over OOTS; but for funny still have to go with OOTS.

Also if someone's not seen it DM of the Ring has its moments too.
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?cat=14

Dark Elf hot chick eh? As a fantasy-anime freak I know of Pirotess. Quite well.
However...

http://www.zanainternational.freeserver ... [br]Arshes Nei of "Bastard!!" is better, even if she's half-elf (and for the record, half-elf in Bastard-setting means they have the better traits of both halves, not worse.) So my guess is that her 'mixed blood' accounts for her elf-like figure, and human voluptuousness

Anime chicks just look creepy to me.

That's appropriate, you look creepy in return. ^-^

-Crissa

Expose your picture to scrutiny like I have, and then you'll have the right to scrutnize my pics.

So you have 3 of the troll and 1 of you?

Count, quick question:

Is the person in your userpic hitting the bell... thing... whatever the crap that's supposed to be you?

No, that's Will Ferrel. It comes from a saturday night live skit.

Let's see if it's on youtube....

Ahh, here it is.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tt8bJdmUlSo

Count_Arioch_the_28th at [unixtime wrote:1189727588[/unixtime]]Expose your picture to scrutiny like I have, and then you'll have the right to scrutnize my pics.

Are those really pictures of you?
I first thought that the guy ringing the cow bell in your avatar was you, until I read your response.

sigma999 at [unixtime wrote:1189722016[/unixtime]]Dark Elf hot chick eh? As a fantasy-anime freak I know of Pirotess. Quite well.
However...

http://www.zanainternational.freeserver ... [br]Arshes Nei of "Bastard!!" is better, even if she's half-elf (and for the record, half-elf in Bastard-setting means they have the better traits of both halves, not worse.) So my guess is that her 'mixed blood' accounts for her elf-like figure, and human voluptuousness

Off topic: Know where I can find Volume 4 of "Bastard!!?" It's a bitch to find on Amazon and Ebay.

Captain_Bleach at [unixtime wrote:1189733647[/unixtime]]
Are those really pictures of you?
I first thought that the guy ringing the cow bell in your avatar was you, until I read your response.

Yeah, they'r really of me, although the second one is about a year old and the third one is about 3 or 4 years old.

Captain_Bleach at [unixtime wrote:1189733804[/unixtime]]

sigma999 at [unixtime wrote:1189722016[/unixtime]]Dark Elf hot chick eh? As a fantasy-anime freak I know of Pirotess. Quite well.
However...

http://www.zanainternational.freeserver ... [br]Arshes Nei of "Bastard!!" is better, even if she's half-elf (and for the record, half-elf in Bastard-setting means they have the better traits of both halves, not worse.) So my guess is that her 'mixed blood' accounts for her elf-like figure, and human voluptuousness

Off topic: Know where I can find Volume 4 of "Bastard!!?" It's a bitch to find on Amazon and Ebay.

edit

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I'm not downloading anything "for free." What's the catch?

The catch is you need to learn to use the internets.

Also use Rapidshit, Sendspace takes too long.

Cielingcat at [unixtime wrote:1189743441[/unixtime]]The catch is you need to learn to use the internets.

Nothing in life is free, and if it is, and its on the Internet, its probably infested with cookies and spyware.

I don't want to play junior moderator here, but the Great Fence Builder really, really hates links those kinds of links. (aaar mateys)

It would be a good idea to perhaps remove those links from your posts.

Lago_AM3P at [unixtime wrote:1189777777[/unixtime]]I don't want to play junior moderator here, but the Great Fence Builder really, really hates links those kinds of links. (aaar mateys)

It would be a good idea to perhaps remove those links from your posts.

Heck, my name is Captain Bleach, and even I am disgusted!

Yes. We are all ninjas here. None of those other kinds of people. *cough ahem*

Links removed.

[The Great Fence Builder Speaks]
Keep it that way.
[/TGFBS]

Captain_Bleach at [unixtime wrote:1189747074[/unixtime]]
Nothing in life is free, and if it is, and its on the Internet, its probably infested with cookies and spyware.

There is lots and lots of free stuff on the internet that has no financial strings attached whatsoever and no spyware or adware (there's nothing inherently wrong with cookies). Virtually all software from the free software movement for one and most open source software for another. And resources like wikipedia and wikicommons.

There are lots of safe places to dl copyrighted stuff online that are clean and free. It's just that doing so is illegal. Well sort of. There are conflicting court rulings on the matter. Posting it is definitely illegal though.

There's some stuff that's legal to download because it literally doesn't exist in a form you can buy. Abandonware, etc.

It's hard for them to sue for protection when they don't sell the stuff...

-Crissa

Or Japanese comics scanned, translated, and edited into non-Japanese language. Is that legal in your own countries?

The division between legal and illegal usually comes down to whether or not the creator is making profit, which is also a grey area at times.
With scanlations, someone did indeed purchase the book, and scan it, and without such a fan-driven nonprofit service most non-Japanese speakers would never read otherwise obscure comics.
There's no loss in profit since "that audience was never reached" but many arguments are held over the technicality of this statement.

I'm looking into the legality of scanlations but it's very sparse right now. I expect more on this as years go by, since the 'manga industry' is a fairly recent phenomenon.

But if fbmf decides it's risky to link to Mangahelpers for instance, there won't be any more mention by me on this subject, here.

Distributing scanlations without explicit permission from the authors is illegal under current US copyright law. They are derivative works. It's just that the authors are perfectly happy to let it slide since it increases the audience and fame of their works at no cost to them. But if that were to change, scanlation groups just like fansubbers would not have a leg to stand on.

Really the law has nothing to do with profit these days. By a strict literalist interpretation, listening to one song within a video clip on youtube counts as making a copy on your computer. As such you are liable for statutory damages up to $150,000 to the creator of that song. This is even though buying the song would have only cost you $1 on itunes. If the clip also has images from several different movies, you'd similarly be liable to each of the holders of the copyright of those movies up to the same amount. It's judged by 'infringement' not by the number or worth of the copies made.

This is obviously not what the intent of the law was when it was made, but it is the way it is used today. The problem is nobody really knows what really counts as 'fair use' in a world where virtually every action you make counts as making a copy.