I don’t normally like to directly post video periodicals, but the latest episode of Zero Punctuation has struck a special cord with me. Rather than picking apart the usual video game of the week, Yahtzee has instead aimed his sharp tongue and wit toward gaming-themed webcomics. Being a fan of both video games and comics, how can I not sink my teeth into this?

Yahtzee paints a fairly accurate image of the standard “Mary Sue” template that most webcomic wanna-be’s derive from, lacking the imagination to create a premise outside glorifying their own ego through wacky hyjinks. Like most web-based media, there’s the double-edged sword in that anyone can create a webcomic…but that means anyone can make a webcomic. It’s more a detriment to the medium when the web is flooded by people who can, but arguably shouldn’t. It makes the task of sifting through the hacks and copycats all the more painful when searching for genuine talent.

While I’m cheering Yahtzee on, he then gets to the deathblow, singling out the recent poor storytelling choices recently made in Tim Buckley’s Ctrl+Alt+Del strip. Said story inturrupted the usual “video games are teh lol” antics with a sudden miscarriage, both literally in the strip as well as in its attempt to shift gears into deep, personal drama. Buckley’s received much due criticism for this move, not so much for trying to transform his mediocre Penny Arcade clone into a legitimate artistic expression, but by how poorly it was executed. Had he not been so abrupt, easing the readers into the tragedy, the webcomics community might have responded more with praise, rather than amplifying its regular ridicule of his work and devotees.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 at 9:32 am and is filed under Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.