a simple question

[onefineday]

I despise message forums. Fill out this, and complete that, and verify this other thing. what rubbish. All so that I can ask a question that will, I am certain, be entirely ignored, or become the bullseye for bored teenagers to aim at.

The question is this; what are ex-gaming authors supposed to do in the wee hours of a drunken morning when inspiration has evaporated, the muse has died or is vapidly blabbering nonsense, and Burlew hasn't updated his comic roll?

it is distressing to me, as a member of the lamentable and wholly cursed human community that is the literary world, to come to this website and not find a new order of the stick comic. I love order of the stick. Many of my colleagues love order of the stick. My agent does not understand why I enjoy order of the stick comics, which simultaneously makes me hate him and love order of the stick that much more. All of us, and I include you Burlew in saying "all of us", labor away at the tedium and the mind numbing drudge of pouring our imaginations out through a pen or a keyboard or whatever medium seems convenient all for the sake of amusing the amassed populace for the span of time that it takes to peruse a novel, and for what? money? I think not. Anyone who has a talent for inspiring fascination through the mangle that is the english language is likely no millionaire. So why do it? Obviously because we can not do anything else worth noting. We rely on our strengths as I think do all men. Your strength Mr Burlew is Order of the Stick. Do the world a service and abandon all those weird little side projects and bizarre comics that no one of my age could possibly understand.

Also, before you ask, yes I purchase your work when it becomes available. I admire the unique satire and humor that only order of the stick may offer. And yes I know there is probably a button that could be depressed which would allow me to turn this forum post into an email that would go directly to Burlews computer, but quite frankly gentlemen, I am far too drunk to unriddle its location.

The world needs more order of the stick, and far fewer novels. It troubles me to the point that I would subject myself to this forum and all its embroilments to alleviate my distress when I come to this website and find no new work for days and days.

So, in summation, get off your butt and write some comics Burlew. Your public wants to know what happens next.

sincerely, respectfully, etc etc

Robert Salvatore

[Nebo_]

I really enjoyed reading that post, however impolite it was.

[Cuddly]

Best troll ever?

[KindaChang]

Best troll ever?

If this is a troll, it's weak.

[Cuddly]

Do you know who Robert Salvatore is?

[KindaChang]

Yes. I do. I stand by my statement that if this is a troll, it is weak.

[Jokes]

For an "author" he doesn't seem to know how to capitalise. It's "Order of the Stick" dammit. I don't care how drunk you are, if you can paragraph, you can capitalise.

And if you were half as respectful as you want us to believe, you would know why the Giant has a loose update schedule. We accept it, you should too.

Maybe lay of the sauce for a while.

[Cuddly]

Yes. I do. I stand by my statement that if this is a troll, it is weak.

Why?
Assuming it's not really Salvatore, he wasn't vitriolic enough to get an immediate ban, but he will certainly stir up enough attention to feed for quite awhile. Quite clever. The sniping at your beloved Burlew, also good. Calculated. Wonderfully calculated.


For an "author" he doesn't seem to know how to capitalise. It's "Order of the Stick" dammit. I don't care how drunk you are, if you can paragraph, you can capitalise.

Not true. Breaking things up into blocks isn't that hard to see when you're drunk. Capitilizing crap is harder to do, since it all gets lost in the mess of text.

[KindaChang]

It is weak because no one will believe it is actually Salvatore. A strong troll leaves no question to the veracity of the entire post, rolling a 20 for Bluff against a roll of 1 on a Sense Motive check, if you will.

This troll rolled about a 5.

[Jack Squat]

In addition, we include a few barred topics that are specific to these forums. These particular topics are barred as they have been found to be generally inflammatory and do not contribute anything useful to the forum as a whole.
Missed/Late Comics: Threads speculating on when a comic will be posted or why it may be late will be locked; this does not apply to official threads started by site staff providing notification of a late comic. This applies to both Order of the Stick and Erfworld.


reported.fillertext

[Illiterate Scribe]

Fail troll is fail.

Someone we know doing a troll for a day, d'y'thinks?

[RTGoodman]

And in case this isn't just a troll, but rather some poor misguided person who hasn't read the News page, here's Rich's info on the matter, conveniently found on the front page but reposted just so the OP can make sure to read it. It's not the entire thing, but it's the relevant parts.


Those of you who have been readers a long time know that I tend to go in cycles with the strip: a few weeks on time, followed by a few weeks where most of the comics are late (and some days are missed altogether). Oftentimes, I’ll make an announcement afterwards that I was sick. The thing is, I get sick a lot, and that’s not likely to change in the future. For more than two years, I’ve been experiencing a medical condition that often leaves me unable to work (or even sit at the computer) for 2-3 days at a time, and the symptoms tend to come and go in clumps. I’ll be fine for a few weeks, then have a few really bad weeks where I struggle to get any work done. This is part of the reason I never can manage to create a “buffer” of strips in advance: I spend all of my working time catching up on stuff I was supposed to finish while I was sick. (No, I’m not going to tell you exactly what is wrong with me; it’s nobody’s business. Suffice to say that it is nonfatal and my significant other takes good care of me.)

My job here at Giant in the Playground has been much more forgiving than my old Day Job in that it allows me a greater degree of freedom to work around my health problems. But over the years I’ve kept trying to grow the business bigger, take on more projects, keep more plates spinning in the air at the same time. And that’s really not a good idea. My symptoms have been getting progressively worse since the first of the year, with new and (frankly) scary ones developing alongside them. Therefore, as part of a deliberate effort to lighten the load on myself, we have made the decision to cut back on a number of aspects of my business that may impact you, the fan.

* The schedule for updating OOTS will return to “at random”. There will be three comics a week, most weeks, but the exact day and time those comics will appear will be random—or rather, will seem random. Basically, when I’m doing well, I will post comics, and when I am not, I won’t. If I fall behind by a comic, it will be made up at a later date. Honestly, this is sort of what I’ve been doing for weeks now, I’m just making it official. As of right now, the schedule is, “There is no schedule.” Getting the comic updated is a top priority, but getting it updated at a specific time is just too difficult for me, since I can’t predict when I will be sick. Removing the official schedule probably won’t affect the comic’s frequency much, but it will remove the additional stress when I’m unable to meet the three-times-a-week deadline (and removing stress is a good thing, according to my doctor). Plus, you guys will all know in advance not to expect the comic until it gets here, so you won’t waste time staying up late for an update that won’t arrive for two days. You might want to subscribe to our RSS feed in order to be alerted near-instantly when a new comic is posted.

[Icewalker]

For an "author" he doesn't seem to know how to capitalise. It's "Order of the Stick" dammit. I don't care how drunk you are, if you can paragraph, you can capitalise.

And if you were half as respectful as you want us to believe, you would know why the Giant has a loose update schedule. We accept it, you should too.

Maybe lay of the sauce for a while.

Actually, it isn't possible to really paragraph on these forums. You can't indent, because tab moves to the next object, which is the 'no icon' button in the post icons section. And the large numbers of spaces you would replace it with, are, I believe, automatically removed.

But yeah, as mentioned a little above, breaking a forum rule, and, reported.

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff of Moddingham: This is an Inappropriate Topic under the Forum Rules. Thread locked.