your jumpy and a whole humpy

that certainly was dlaakki alright

oh look

it’s THIS thread again

here we go; we’ve already got one butthurt Peach 00 (who seems to have no idea what the definition of “trolling” is) doing her thing. it’s only going to get worse from here.

guess we’ll be waiting with great anticipation for things to properly get going; in the meantime, two eternal truths from emkay-mlp and kahinuva:

It all depends on the quality. You can get really poorly drawn comics with little to no story at all and have sprite comics with deep and rich story with real backgrounds (that can also be photoshopped to create more exotic environments), lighting effects, shadows, highlights, reflections, glowing effects, etc. added to the sprites.
However, there are also very cheaply made sprite comics with no coherency whatsoever and hand-drawn comics that are beautifully detailed with intriguing plots and amazing use of techniques like perspective and crosshatching that just blow everyone away.

Saying one is better than another is stupid.

Aw man. Someone just had to go open up this can of worms again, didn’t they?

I’ve been here for too many of these to count, and while I’ve done a ton of arguments refuting and objecting and whatnot to it, basically, it really boils down to this: comics, by and large, are an extension of me. And by me I mean you. Or anyone else who makes one, really. It’s something that really goes into any sort of creative measure you do on here, at least, the ones you’re really invested in. And for me, that’s comics. My work not only belongs to me, but in a way, it sort of is me. And that sort of leads into this whole upside/downside of criticism thing that’s not really worth getting into now.

But back to my point. The last few debates I was here for didn’t really end too well, and it’s cool that this one seems to be going on swimmingly for the moment. But the reason this always goes down in flames (literally, in some cases) is because someone always brings up the fact that sprite comics don’t take any or a little amount of effort. It’s sort of a slap in the face, I guess, especially if you’re someone who sort of just does this sort of thing way after you’ve sort of lost interest in the BIONICLE story or parts of the site that you used to go to or whatever, but still make these things. It’s sort of a slap in the face because they’re you, and saying you don’t take any sort of effort is sort of like saying that that part of you isn’t worth all that much.

Okay, okay, maybe I’m sort of reading into this waaaaay too much. But after a long while here, I’ve sort of begun to get it. I’ve sort of gotten why a lot of people look down at the previously-known-as AIIIers, why we sort of have this bad rap around the place. It’s because this is what they see: whenever someone does something like this, a crowd of us will come bearing down. “Y u no liek sprites” and “we do a lot of work” all that goes around the place and then it sort of degenerates from there. And I can get why it would seem like we’re a fickle bunch, a subforum of people who can’t take criticism and start arguments over something that, objectively speaking, isn’t really worth flaming someone over.

But that’s what I’m getting down to. We put some good, hard work into those things. More than many people would think. And saying that it’s not really worth all that much sort of gets us (or maybe just me) kind of indignant. I know that to a lot of people it may not look that much, but there’s a lot in my series that I myself sort of use it to convey a lot of stuff about me, both consciously and subconsciously.

And it also doesn’t really help that it usually comes from people that either I haven’t see try it, or haven’t see trying at the same level that some of us do it at. Some I’ve seen haven’t even read a lot of the better series around. That doesn’t invalidate their opinions, of course; you don’t need to be a cook to know that a dish tastes bad. But when everything is generalized to the same level of quality, or even worse, to the same level of effort, that just really gets us (or again, maybe just me) kind of riled up about it.

When you get down to it, comics are really the same. They use the same concept. Juxtaposed pictorial images in deliberate sequence intended to convey information and/or produces an aesthetic response in the reader. Comics do not need to be segregated among the different styles that they use and have that segregation be used as a standard of quality. This attitude isn’t even just restricted to here; it’s done all the time in some “higher art” circles. Animated films and live action films. Video games and art forms in general. Heck, even comics and literature in general. It’s a debate that people a lot smarter than I have have gone over again and again, but honestly, I support the notion that all of them can be at the same level of art. Animated films can be on the same level of art that live action films are. Comics and graphic novels can be on the same level of art that traditional literature are. Video games can be at the same level of art that whatever else you want to compare it to can be. And sprite comics can be at the same level of art that hand drawn are.

Is every movie/video game/comic at the same level? Of course not. That’s pretty stupid to say. But the art forms themselves certainly can be up to that challenge. And I know a ton of sprite comics out there that could not even come close to what some hand drawn comics could do. But I’ve also seen some hand drawn comics that can’t even compare to what some sprite comics are/were doing. That’s why they are and always will be equal to me: because there’s always be good ones and bad ones. Comparing one example of one to the other is perfectly fine and in fact should be done, but as a whole? I don’t think that’s altogether a good standard of quality.

And it happens in other creative areas on here too. I’ve seen some writers look down on fanfiction. I’ve seen some pen and paper RPGers look down on TBRPGs. Heck, I’ve even seen some LEGO System MOCists look down on BIONICLE MOCs. Okay, so there’s some that are worse than others, and there may also may be some aspects that don’t take as much time for one as it would the other, but there’s still a lot of work that goes into these.

Oh god, this rant has probably reached bonesiii’s level, hasn’t it? I didn’t expect this to go on for this long. You’ve probably stopped reading at this point too, anyhow.

So I’ll just end sort of rehashing what I said the last time. Criticize my work. Criticize my series. Criticize the fact that I didn’t put all that much effort into making this funny, or making that effect look good, or that text readable. Criticize anything you dislike. Criticize it because you just don’t like sprites. Don’t diss off the work put into it (at least, the work you assumed was put into it) because it’s a sprite comic. I know there’s some/a lot you can make a good guess at (yes, I’ve seen them and yes, they probably didn’t have all that much work put into them at all), but keep in mind that the same isn’t true all the way across the board. And of course, there’s much more to making them than meets the eye.

And yes, sorry for all the pointless arguments and flame wars and all that stuff in the past that I and a ton of other people had a good hand in. Sure, it was an extension of us, blah blah blah, but when it really comes down to it, it shouldn’t be serious business.

Huh. I actually said that about this argument and meant it. A former staff member would be so proud.

(rumour has it that he is indeed)

…I’ve known about this monstrosity for a while, but I figured just linking to it wouldn’t do it justice. I didn’t want to do this. I really, really didn’t. But after that last post, we are now knee-deep in the writhing tendrils of TOA PIRAKA HAKANN 2.0’s body of work. There is no turning back.

CHAPTER 1 A HERO IS BORN

CLANK!!!!!
CLANK!!!!!
ZZZZZZZTZZZ!!!!!!
ZZZZZZZZZZZTZZZZ!!!!!!!
His hands were now complete.

This is pretty much the entire first chapter. Just a series of sound effects with lots of exclamation marks, followed by a single, short sentence explaining what part of the hero was just built. Over and over and over. I counted 14 CLANKs and 10 ZZZTZZs. I can practically imagine this guy frothing at the mouth and yelling CLANK ZZZT CLAAANK ZZZZZTTTZZ while violently mashing a keyboard. And this is only the beginning.

CHAPTER 2 WELCOME TO THE HERO FACTORY

Alpha 8 leader William Mercury Torch watched as the rookie started moving little by little.
“So, what is his name?” asked Alexander Slime Torch.
“His name is Richard Pierce Breaker .” answered Akiyama Makuro.

It would appear that all his names were taken from the hero creator thing on the HF website. You know, the one with the absolutely horrific naming scheme that doesn’t even match that of the actual HF characters? Yeah. That one.

“DO NOT PULL THE TRIGGER! DO NOT PULL THE……….” Jacob Shock King was suddenly interrupted by the sound of the gun’s blast before he could finish his sentence.
“Well he pulled it.” said Rick Iron Fist.

…Jacob Shock King

RICK

IRON

FIST

;_;

Once they were at Pierce’s hero pod which Pierce thought took forever the building was so large and had so many people in it he wondered why.
“Why were so many people in that building and why was the building so large?” Pierce thought to himself.

oh god my brain

CHAPTER 3 TRAINING

As he looked around he said to himself “This must be the virtual part and I do not think that I want to know what the training part is………..” He began to say but, he was suddenly interrupted by a tall person with a chain attached to his ax.
“Hello hero!!!!!!!!” said, the tall person with the chain ax.
“This must be the training part.” said, Pierce to himself.

……………

“Hello my name Garuntus what is your name?” Garuntus asked.

Garuntus.

GARUNTUS.

“My name is Richard Pierce Breaker and I am here to take you down!” said, Pierce as he charged at Garuntus.
“What a coincidence, I am here to do the exact same thing!” said, Garuntus as he charged at Pierce.

What a coincidence indeed. 

As soon as Pierce was on the ground Garuntus charged and swung his forward at Pierce the Garutus swung it backwards then forward and then backwards, Pierce quickly realized that he had an advantage.

I’m not entirely sure what I just read. I think this guy accidentally a bunch of words.

As soon as Pierce realized this he charge at Garutus when his weapon was stuck and shot a powerful blow at his chest, the impact destroyed Garuntus completely.

……………………………………………………………………

William Mercury Torch ran to Pierce and said, “Good work kid”
“Thank you but, it was all in a good days wor………….ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ” Pierce began to say but, he fell asleep before he could say it all.

…Apparently robot narcolepsy is a thing?

Okay, I’m splitting this into multiple parts so it doesn’t get ridiculously long, and also because if I don’t take a break from reading this my brain will probably commit suicide. =/