You know, a lot of people mention the ghost Mike artwork as lacking the detail of Real Mike, and that may be so as Willis’s style shifted, but when I go back and look at earlier Mike, say around the time of “Mike and Men” I’m not at all sure I see that much difference. See for example https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/04-of-mike-and-men/followthrough/ .
it’s jsut that BrainMike is flats only, no shading. Mike’s always been fairly flat, it hink, he hasn’t had like, hair shinies like Amber has here, but he’s still got shadows on his corporeal, interacts-with-light-sources living body
I can see a difference even there. Not-Dead Mike has shading around his ears, the back of his head, and under his chin. Dead Mike has no shading at all aside from a thin line on his shirt, in a situation where the other character is shaded almost completely.
Needfuldoer
And that line’s only there to break his shoulder from the black background.
Fair enough, though I’m really talking about the speculation that Mike has less detail because Amber is slowly forgetting what he looked like. I’m not really a visually oriented person, but I’m not really seeing an accumulating loss of detail.
I doubt she’s got a huge audience, I’m just impressed that Amber’s able to get out and perform for any audience.
Wizard
Her interaction with the audience is highly mediated. That probably helps. Kind of like the way early SP Amber was only able to interact with customers from behind her desk.
Needfuldoer
It’s a lot easier to interact with people when they’re just words on a screen.
hastur
I’m probably close to Amber’s level of introversion and have pretty strong performance anxiety and some social anxiety, but I was able to DJ my own radio show as an undergrad, and do sports radio (play-by-play and commentary for games, and a call-in talk show) as a grad student. I think not having the audience be visible, and having no chance of feedback made it OK.
Amber: *Raging at 3 AM because she finished 8-4 three frames late*
Dina: *Squeezing the dino plushie’s arm over her ear as she’s trying to sleep* “This is a dorm of madness.”
I think I fucked up the tags, does this link work?
Rose Red
Yes.
And oh my goodness, I stopped reading Flaky Pastry a few years ago when there was a dry spell between updates and I lost my bookmarks. I’d completely forgotten it existed. And now I have archives to catch up on!
Clif
So if I got this right, each of us could go to https://www.topwebcomics.com/vote/ every 24 hours, and look at the little cartoon displayed and check the character name on the random cartoon to prove we’re human and click the vote button to move Dumbing of Age up the list.
It’s not really as much of a proof of being human as it used to be.
Rose Red
Pretty much.
I know that the one who was in the #1 slot when I looked last night, the author/artist is very good about updating the image that you see after voting every month, and reminding their readers about it and to vote. Aside from that one… well, there’s a lot more erotica-ish comics near the top of that list than I remember there being the previous time I looked.
Kamino Neko
I think ‘erotica-ish’ is an understatement. Lots of straight up porn (or ‘pron’ as at least two of the comics spell it)…most of it using the same 3d models, so I suspect from the same people, suggesting, assuming these are all ongoing (would assume them to have dropped to the bottom otherwise), they’re pretty lazy.
LiterallyJustSomeGuy
I think people can actually vote every three hours. Also, I think that website now has a way to buy votes from them.
Clif
Let’s try that again. https://www.topwebcomics.com/vote/26902 Curently DOA looks to be 96 votes behind Girl Genius. From 3 machines, I could provide 3 votes a day.
Clif
And down to a difference of 81, after the third vote, so someone is voting.
Thanks! By the way, she doesn’t look electrical here?
What exactly is a “Spark”?
Slartibeast Button, BIA
A “Spark” is a classic B-movie Mad Scientist, who rants and
chews the scenery as they create unspeakable monsters based on Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, so they can “SHOW THEM! SHOW THEM ALL!”
King Daniel
(And in the universe of Girl Genius, people born with The Spark rule the world. Or misrule it, as it may be.)
The Wellerman
Oh thanks!
And also, while we’re at it, what’s the term used for streamers who’s audiences only come for their girlfriend?
I tried to look it up on urban dictionary, with no success. ?
MUTE BUTTON AMBER. MUTE. And make it a toggle. This isn’t that hard. I get that as a speedrunner, push-to-talk isn’t an easy thing(though someone could probably set you up with a pedal scavenged from an amp or something), but you should not have anything audible from your room unless you explicitly want it to be.
Many years ago, I made a push-to-talk foot switch out of a Staples “easy button” and an old Playstation controller board, which connected to the PC through a RadioShack Playstation-to-USB adapter. It worked great, and was one less control to bind to the keyboard.
It should be even easier to build something now that USB device project boards like the Teensy exist.
Ghost Mike provides a pretty interesting story function: he’s a Mike created in Amber’s head, who hung out with the real Mike all the time, and everything he says to her is worst possible thing she can hear.
However. that worst thing that Amber never wants to hear, and never accepted when told by Danny, Ethan and her mom, is that she’s not a horrible, irredeemable scumbag. She’s okay if below average, she’s done good and bad things, she misses Mike despite everything, she should tell Ethan Mike’s last words that the both of them were his best friends, her dad lies all the time and he was lying when he declared Amber weak and worthless. Ghost Mike here is that relentless criticism Mike could dispense at the drop of a hat aimed at Amber’s biggest monster yet; her complete and utter inability to accept that her flaws and mistakes don’t ruin her.
Ghost Mike lays it out pretty clearly right here: he says the meanest, most correct thing possible.
He’s not just a Mike who made Amber feel like shit all the time to toughen her up, he’s a Mike that lives inside Amber’s brain more than the real Mike ever did, and I think the following strip implies that Amber understood Mike’s attempts at help, because she saw them in her dad and despised it. The real Mike, the one that lives in Amber’s head, tells Amber what she knows; Mike wouldn’t have regretted a damn thing dying to save her life.
Ghost Mike here is gonna drag Amber kicking and screaming into the truth; she’s okay, kinda below average, actually, and nothing is gonna be able to stop him.
Bah, since is audio only, or a small camera only, she can just pass it off as someone down the hall. Too far away to hear.
But now everyone knows she is Amazi-Girl.
Listen, there is a time and place for Batman to blow his cover… but it sure ain’t over Fortnight.
Assuming that she isn’t using a different anonymous online identity.
It’s not a secret in the sense that she’s still actively hiding it.
But most people will frankly not care, and assuming she’s not trading on the notoriety (hard to believe Amber would do so), there’s no reason to tell people.
I hope it’s audio only. I have the honest opinion that seeing the player’s face more often than not ruins the experience of the playthrough. I don’t need to see their reaction (unless it’s like a horror game and even then it’s made obnoxious by them playing up their reactions) Voice only streams are my shit!
ok and I will accept V-tubers…to an extent. And even then it’s a thin line between endearing and cringe for me.
So you can make an RPG fun…if you’re good at the RPG. But watching someone figure out a lengthy RPG for themselves can be a bit boring. That is unless the RPG is new to the viewer as well. Or if the person is just so naturally good at the game that they don’t have to do all the backtracking, being lost, grinding and other garbage that usually comes with an RPG. The quality of the RPG can also effect it. Like…it COULD be fun to watch someone stream pokemon if they don’t have to just grind levels to beat a gym leader. Maybe if they’re playing a Nuzlocke because it adds a bit of intensity to any counter because this could be the death of any of their pokemon.
Discussion (100) - “Streaming”
Ana Chronistic
Mike still Mike-ing even from beyond her head
Clif
You know, a lot of people mention the ghost Mike artwork as lacking the detail of Real Mike, and that may be so as Willis’s style shifted, but when I go back and look at earlier Mike, say around the time of “Mike and Men” I’m not at all sure I see that much difference. See for example https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/04-of-mike-and-men/followthrough/ .
carms
it’s jsut that BrainMike is flats only, no shading. Mike’s always been fairly flat, it hink, he hasn’t had like, hair shinies like Amber has here, but he’s still got shadows on his corporeal, interacts-with-light-sources living body
Decidedly Orthogonal
He /had/ shadows. Now he’s all shade.
Clif
+1
motorfirebox
I can see a difference even there. Not-Dead Mike has shading around his ears, the back of his head, and under his chin. Dead Mike has no shading at all aside from a thin line on his shirt, in a situation where the other character is shaded almost completely.
Needfuldoer
And that line’s only there to break his shoulder from the black background.
Clif
Fair enough, though I’m really talking about the speculation that Mike has less detail because Amber is slowly forgetting what he looked like. I’m not really a visually oriented person, but I’m not really seeing an accumulating loss of detail.
KiaStirling
There isn’t. Original ghost-Mike looks just like current ghost-Mike. No shading on either of them. Ghost-Mike hasn’t evolved (or devolved) visually as best I can tell. <a href="https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/02-to-remind-you-of-my-love/ruining/"(first appearance of Ghost-Mike)
KiaStirling
and I forgot my closing bracket. thanks me.
King Daniel
Your audience is beyond the fourth wall, Amber
Juanoku
And also we can see your hallucinations, so please continue
Sirksome
“Audience”..You know it’s like one person and that one person is Dina watching on her phone because Dina’s too good for Amber.
ThunderNight
Dina Gaming
newlland(Henryvolt)
I’m sure Amber is just pretty enough to get a 20 to 30 average person audience, which is already hard enough for newbie streamers.
Needfuldoer
She’s a lady laying retro video games, 20 viewers is probably the floor for her view count just by default.
Thag Simmons
Wait Amber started streaming? I’m actually impressed, that’s some major improvement.
DailyBrad
Wonder if that’d help some with her tuition.
Thag Simmons
I doubt she’s got a huge audience, I’m just impressed that Amber’s able to get out and perform for any audience.
Wizard
Her interaction with the audience is highly mediated. That probably helps. Kind of like the way early SP Amber was only able to interact with customers from behind her desk.
Needfuldoer
It’s a lot easier to interact with people when they’re just words on a screen.
hastur
I’m probably close to Amber’s level of introversion and have pretty strong performance anxiety and some social anxiety, but I was able to DJ my own radio show as an undergrad, and do sports radio (play-by-play and commentary for games, and a call-in talk show) as a grad student. I think not having the audience be visible, and having no chance of feedback made it OK.
Needfuldoer
As long as she doesn’t turn into Mike Matei…
Amber: *Raging at 3 AM because she finished 8-4 three frames late*
Dina: *Squeezing the dino plushie’s arm over her ear as she’s trying to sleep* “This is a dorm of madness.”
DailyBrad
The alt-text is reassuring. I’d hate to think Amber uses her onboard mic.
Deanatay
Although you could say her “onboard Mike” is a big part of the problem.
Decidedly Orthogonal
Bravo
BBCC
Wow, Willis, way to call out this fandom. XD
BBCC
Okay, grav roulette, let’s do this.
BBCC
Welp, two parter I suppose!
Sirksome
What? Don’t like Blowjob Cat?.. I hate that one too.
BBCC
I just want my gravitar to be a person. Nothing against blowjob cat.
Thag Simmons
Good self preservation instinct, don’t anger the cat.
Stephen Bierce
Because of overday’s “events” at topwebcomics.com, I wonder if we’re about to have the Dumbing of Age/Girl Genius Fandom War.
drs
?
AY
check Willis’s twitter!
Thag Simmons
The relevant twitter thread
Could also check the sidebar.
Thag Simmons
I think I fucked up the tags, does this link work?
Rose Red
Yes.
And oh my goodness, I stopped reading Flaky Pastry a few years ago when there was a dry spell between updates and I lost my bookmarks. I’d completely forgotten it existed. And now I have archives to catch up on!
Clif
So if I got this right, each of us could go to https://www.topwebcomics.com/vote/ every 24 hours, and look at the little cartoon displayed and check the character name on the random cartoon to prove we’re human and click the vote button to move Dumbing of Age up the list.
It’s not really as much of a proof of being human as it used to be.
Rose Red
Pretty much.
I know that the one who was in the #1 slot when I looked last night, the author/artist is very good about updating the image that you see after voting every month, and reminding their readers about it and to vote. Aside from that one… well, there’s a lot more erotica-ish comics near the top of that list than I remember there being the previous time I looked.
Kamino Neko
I think ‘erotica-ish’ is an understatement. Lots of straight up porn (or ‘pron’ as at least two of the comics spell it)…most of it using the same 3d models, so I suspect from the same people, suggesting, assuming these are all ongoing (would assume them to have dropped to the bottom otherwise), they’re pretty lazy.
LiterallyJustSomeGuy
I think people can actually vote every three hours. Also, I think that website now has a way to buy votes from them.
Clif
Let’s try that again. https://www.topwebcomics.com/vote/26902 Curently DOA looks to be 96 votes behind Girl Genius. From 3 machines, I could provide 3 votes a day.
Clif
And down to a difference of 81, after the third vote, so someone is voting.
Thag Simmons
I think you are wildly overestimating the number of people who care.
King Daniel
Dina canonically exists in Girl Genius, mind you.
As a Spark.
The Wellerman
Source?
Slartibeast Button, BIA
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20181031
The Wellerman
Thanks! By the way, she doesn’t look electrical here?
What exactly is a “Spark”?
Slartibeast Button, BIA
A “Spark” is a classic B-movie Mad Scientist, who rants and
chews the scenery as they create unspeakable monsters based on Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, so they can “SHOW THEM! SHOW THEM ALL!”
King Daniel
(And in the universe of Girl Genius, people born with The Spark rule the world. Or misrule it, as it may be.)
The Wellerman
Oh thanks!
And also, while we’re at it, what’s the term used for streamers who’s audiences only come for their girlfriend?
I tried to look it up on urban dictionary, with no success. ?
Clif
I believe the correct term is fortunate.
Rose by Any Other Name
@Wellerman
… phrasing.
Kyrik Michalowski
This is why I don’t talk to my hallucination, getting into an argument is bad enough but it is so much worse if done out loud.
I wonder how her audience will react/are reacting to this sudden revelation. Will it get her more viewers or less?
Bagge
Getting meta to dangerous levels there. It’s not like we start cheering any time Dina pop in or anything
Clif
We don’t? I thought it went without saying.
Viktoria
MUTE BUTTON AMBER. MUTE. And make it a toggle. This isn’t that hard. I get that as a speedrunner, push-to-talk isn’t an easy thing(though someone could probably set you up with a pedal scavenged from an amp or something), but you should not have anything audible from your room unless you explicitly want it to be.
Needfuldoer
Many years ago, I made a push-to-talk foot switch out of a Staples “easy button” and an old Playstation controller board, which connected to the PC through a RadioShack Playstation-to-USB adapter. It worked great, and was one less control to bind to the keyboard.
It should be even easier to build something now that USB device project boards like the Teensy exist.
RassilonTDavros
“They only pay attention when Dina’s head pops onscreen.”
…Does Amber’s audience consist entirely of Becky’s alt accounts?
C Harrison Fuller
Becky; “You fool, I have created FORTY alternative accounts!”
Spencer
Ghost Mike provides a pretty interesting story function: he’s a Mike created in Amber’s head, who hung out with the real Mike all the time, and everything he says to her is worst possible thing she can hear.
However. that worst thing that Amber never wants to hear, and never accepted when told by Danny, Ethan and her mom, is that she’s not a horrible, irredeemable scumbag. She’s okay if below average, she’s done good and bad things, she misses Mike despite everything, she should tell Ethan Mike’s last words that the both of them were his best friends, her dad lies all the time and he was lying when he declared Amber weak and worthless. Ghost Mike here is that relentless criticism Mike could dispense at the drop of a hat aimed at Amber’s biggest monster yet; her complete and utter inability to accept that her flaws and mistakes don’t ruin her.
Ghost Mike lays it out pretty clearly right here: he says the meanest, most correct thing possible.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/02-to-remind-you-of-my-love/badthings/
He’s not just a Mike who made Amber feel like shit all the time to toughen her up, he’s a Mike that lives inside Amber’s brain more than the real Mike ever did, and I think the following strip implies that Amber understood Mike’s attempts at help, because she saw them in her dad and despised it. The real Mike, the one that lives in Amber’s head, tells Amber what she knows; Mike wouldn’t have regretted a damn thing dying to save her life.
Ghost Mike here is gonna drag Amber kicking and screaming into the truth; she’s okay, kinda below average, actually, and nothing is gonna be able to stop him.
Thag Simmons
Amber did tell Ethan
Endplanets
Bah, since is audio only, or a small camera only, she can just pass it off as someone down the hall. Too far away to hear.
But now everyone knows she is Amazi-Girl.
Listen, there is a time and place for Batman to blow his cover… but it sure ain’t over Fortnight.
Assuming that she isn’t using a different anonymous online identity.
Thag Simmons
Is her being Amazi-Girl still a secret? She did kind of dramatically unmask herself in an extremely public space after a second car chase.
Thag Simmons
Just remember that yes it is, or at least it’s not common knowledge
Jamie
It’s not a secret in the sense that she’s still actively hiding it.
But most people will frankly not care, and assuming she’s not trading on the notoriety (hard to believe Amber would do so), there’s no reason to tell people.
Yotomoe
I hope it’s audio only. I have the honest opinion that seeing the player’s face more often than not ruins the experience of the playthrough. I don’t need to see their reaction (unless it’s like a horror game and even then it’s made obnoxious by them playing up their reactions) Voice only streams are my shit!
ok and I will accept V-tubers…to an extent. And even then it’s a thin line between endearing and cringe for me.
The Wellerman
Just curious, do some types of games work better for streaming than for others, in your opinion.
Like for instance, I can recall in SAO that Kirito once said, “there’s nothing more boring than watching somebody else play an RPG”.
Yotomoe
So you can make an RPG fun…if you’re good at the RPG. But watching someone figure out a lengthy RPG for themselves can be a bit boring. That is unless the RPG is new to the viewer as well. Or if the person is just so naturally good at the game that they don’t have to do all the backtracking, being lost, grinding and other garbage that usually comes with an RPG. The quality of the RPG can also effect it. Like…it COULD be fun to watch someone stream pokemon if they don’t have to just grind levels to beat a gym leader. Maybe if they’re playing a Nuzlocke because it adds a bit of intensity to any counter because this could be the death of any of their pokemon.
I say that to say, for once, Kirito is correct.