See ya, Erfworld

[Dresslock]

I've been reading this comic for a good while and never really commented in the forums. I used to steadily tell my friends about this comic, I used to get really excited about the next update, and I used to try and guess what was about to happen. Now, I just casually click in to see if anything is ever going to happen. Yeah, I've never bought anything so my opinion doesn't matter as much I guess, but I was hyped about maybe collecting one day. I go to cons, I have shelves of rpg books, boxes of warhammer junk, but I don't see any reason to buy a comic that updates so infrequently.

I read goblins too, and yeah he misses updates (bi-weekly), but at least he lets people know what's going on.

Rob/Xin, love ya'lls work, I hope the pace picks up.

[arin]

I'm a firm believer that it would be wrong for me (or anyone) to accept money to run third-party advertisements on a page that cannot provide new content consistently. Since we all know that I'm not very good at putting out OOTS on a predictable schedule, putting ads on that page would represent me being paid for drawing in eyeballs while delivering nothing.

Did anyone else feel like Rich was subtly calling Rob out?

[moose o death]

I'm a firm believer that it would be wrong for me (or anyone) to accept money to run third-party advertisements on a page that cannot provide new content consistently. Since we all know that I'm not very good at putting out OOTS on a predictable schedule, putting ads on that page would represent me being paid for drawing in eyeballs while delivering nothing.

Did anyone else feel like Rich was subtly calling Rob out?

no i believe he's just pointing at the gargantuan elephant in the room that is his own update schedule. i was surprised when two of his updates occured in between two of these updates for a reason.

[Sixty]

Seems like something has happened. One of Rob's posts of the Facebook Erfworld page just an hour ago in response to someone asking what the ETA for Page 73 was, "Man I wish I knew. Couple days minimum. We're still in inks. Can't say what's going on on this end, but it hasn't been good and it hasn't been easy. Stay with us, please. We're working on a lasting solution."

Probably be a site news update soon talking about it unless it is something he legally he can't discuss.

[drachefly]

Maybe he got sued over a cameo… >.<

[Tensor]

One of Rob's posts of the Facebook Erfworld page..."Stay with us, please. We're working on a lasting solution."

He's been saying this for years. I'm not exaggerating. Years.

[BLANDCorporatio]

Probably be a site news update soon talking about it unless it is something he legally he can't discuss.

Maybe he got sued over a cameo… >.<

Ba-dum-TISH.

But nah seriously, I don't think it's any legal matter. Rather, it's a question of tact, and not wanting to put dirty laundry in public places. So not worth speculating upon.

Erfworld's got no legal troubles. Carry on citizens.

[gbprime]

Well to be honest, it's not worth getting excited over. It's a webcomic, and webcomics sometimes fall behind. This is why I buy the book at a convention (I bought book 1 from the booth at Origins) instead of subscribing online. But even if you're a paying Tool, dont all your tool fees convert straight to store credit? So you're effectively getting the book on an installment plan, which is nice.

And if you don't want to pay him every month, that's kind of your perogative. Updates slow down, revenue slows down. They know this, it's a forseeable consequence. No point in getting upset over it. Once the monthlies start dropping, they'll get the message loud and clear whether you rant about it or not.

[BLANDCorporatio]

And if you don't want to pay him every month, that's kind of your perogative. Updates slow down, revenue slows down. They know this, it's a forseeable consequence. No point in getting upset over it. Once the monthlies start dropping, they'll get the message loud and clear whether you rant about it or not.

Indeed. Several people have already gone that route, so it's not like you're the only one with the idea

[BLANDCorporatio]

The Erfworld Facebook page offers an update- apparently Rob is looking for inkers and colorists; and already candidates have stepped up.

So yeah, not ominous news at all. In fact if this thing goes through we may get regular updates. I presume Rob isn't going to toot that particular horn until everything settles in and the page production pipeline actually starts churning. We'll all see.

[Tensor]

The Erfworld Facebook page offers an update- apparently Rob is looking for inkers and colorists; and already candidates have stepped up.

So yeah, not ominous news at all. In fact if this thing goes through we may get regular updates. I presume Rob isn't going to toot that particular horn until everything settles in and the page production pipeline actually starts churning.

How will the problem of abandoned text updates and general inattentiveness to the site overall be helped with more illustrators?

We'll all see.

Oh yes, we will.

[gbprime]

How will the problem of abandoned text updates and general inattentiveness to the site overall be helped with more illustrators?

Boy, with fans like these, who needs critics?

[goodmorning]

I agree. While I'm quite unimpressed with the updates for Erfworld, we can always have hope that things will improve. If Rob is looking for colorists, then its possible that that has been one of the main delays for a long time now. Of course, that may not be the whole thing, and I agree that better colorists do not make text updates better or make him more forthcoming with information. However, he is trying to fix things, and that's really what counts.

Actually what counts is that Erfworld is phenomenal. There's a reason that we're so upset that it's not coming out fast enough and that is the quality of what he produces.

[effataigus]

The Erfworld Facebook page offers an update- apparently Rob is looking for inkers and colorists; and already candidates have stepped up.

Sweet, I had hoped that this was the problem. Illustrating for Erfworld seems like it would be a nearly full-time workload, and one with little pay. Changing artists again would be a bad thing for the comic, I think, but a colorist and an inker would probably not change the feel of book 2 too much, while freeing up tons of time for Xin. If it is going to be an essentially volunteer job, it might as well be spread out among a couple of people.

All of the regularly-updating full panel webcomics I read (err... both of them) have a separate colorist.

As Tensor points out, a new colorist won't solve the world's debt crisis or even all of Erfworld's problems, but improving the pace of updates would make the other problems seem less keen, and go a long way toward restoring the legitimacy of the subscriber based revenues model.

My main QQ is why does he put this stuff on Facebook and not on the webcomic's site?? Especially when there are plenty of legit reasons to not want to use Facebook... I'm guessing that people don't criticize as harshly over there since they can't hide behind anonymity and have a limited word count.

[DevilDan]

Maybe we can just have Erfworld and Dresden Codak on the same website, conserve and condense the reader frustration. Any other candidates?

[BLANDCorporatio]

Boy, with fans like these, who needs critics?

Hah, indeed.

I thought the benefits of an attempt at streamlined production were obvious.

[moose o death]

I thought the benefits of an attempt at streamlined production were obvious.

in theory they are, but there's just as many cases where they run just as poorly.

jack. uses an author who pencils, someone else generally inks to save time, if colouring is needed it's yet another person. it seeemed about two months of inks went missing in the post and completely shut down the webcomic for even longer. they were eventually found and posted, but at the cost of many readers. there was months of pages 3 a week that went missing. if rob is that far ahead of xin then inks and colours may work to speed things up.

the following comics are full colour and update at least once a week, written, inked, coloured, and lettered by ONE person
Oglaf 1-5 pages once a week. sunday generally. delays usually mean it's more than one page
locus 3 pages. 3 times a week. like clockwork at 1601 my time m.w.f
raven's dojo, 1-3 times a week, sporadic but well updated with individual page progress
Goblins, 1-2 times a week, with live feed to watch the magic happen

adding more people to the process sounds like an excellent way to speed things up but some of the best examples of consistent updates are from one human wonders. maybe rob should consider book 3 as an all text thing with various artists providing an illustration? that way he can ditch on the illustration if it's running late and add it later.

edit: oh wow with a post count like that it'd be a tragedy to ever post on this board again. so long and thanks for all the fish.

[Paladinian]

The Erfworld Facebook page offers an update- apparently Rob is looking for inkers and colorists; and already candidates have stepped up.

You know, I personally wouldn't have a problem if uncoloured or uninked strips were released, particularly if it meant strips came out in a reliable schedule. Girl Genius does it now and then when something falls behind, and I've never heard of anyone really minding. Stuff happens, most people understand. That they don't have to do it all the time, putting out three strips a week unfailingly as they do, week after week, continues to astound me.

Erfworld does not need to be a three strip a week comic. One strip a week would be quite fine, even if by necessity it often or even most of the time had to be initially released uncoloured. But what we've got here, right now, it just ain't working.

[drachefly]

Maybe we can just have Erfworld and Dresden Codak on the same website, conserve and condense the reader frustration. Any other candidates?

Well, actually, tons - those hobbyists I referred to above. Few that are a full-time job for their producers.

[kefkakrazy]

I really use Girl Genius as a comparison, mentally, and it's for that reason that I'm not SUPER upset. I know Girl Genius has a small team of people, so no one person is doing everything on one side (art/writing). Especially, the Foglios co-write and, I think, co-draw, with Cheyenne Wright doing the colors, where here it's Rob (with all his stuff going on) doing ALL the writing (in a fiddly, mechanical story like Erfworld where he damn well HAS to check everything he writes twice over), and Xin doing ALL the art work.

I can understand it if Erfworld can't match Girl Genius's 3-a-week pace with the smaller team. That's fine. But if they DO hire on an inker and/or colorist, as the facebook post claimed they were looking into, I'm not personally going to be satisfied unless that brings their performance up to one full page per week (with text updates in between as applicable). One comic page a week; I don't really feel as if that's too much to ask or to expect.

Erfworld is pretty awesome; Book 1 was one of my favorite pieces of reading in a long time. But Book 2 feels strung-out to a hilarious degree. Parson was entering the portal in March, for pete's sake.

I'll be glad to renew my subscription once they hit that 1-a-week mark. Got no problem with that. But as much as I understand that Rob and Xin have drama and such going on in their lives, Erfworld is not a product I'm comfortable supporting monetarily with the current update schedule.

(I will, gladly, however, continue my primary means of comic support: pimping this stuff out to as many friends as physically possible)