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Okay as a followup, if you do implement comics on the webcomic proper please don't do it like this site. I had that wall of text better formatted then a freakin raise application so that it wouldn't make your eyes bleed, and the bloody site just said "Whoa, woah, you wants to put some space between your paragraphs? You crazy. Me fix.". AND YET THIS IS STILL PREFERABLE TO A TINY CHATBOX.
So this is really in response to the authors complaints about lack of participation in the site... for me, it's site design. I like to comment on comics, and read other peoples comments, but I don't use nor want to use facebook so your "Forum" link is meaningless. I'd happily comment on a page by page basis, but there's no convenient way to comment.
Case in point, I don't even really know where to say this. The chatbox is awful because it constantly forces you to join someone elses conversation part way through, and its TINY. even if I wanted to read through a bunch of talk about nothing (and I don't, i'd rather a forum thread for individual page reactions or individual page comment nests so I can see the discussion thus-far for what I want to talk about) the chatbox is so tiny and the font so small that by the time I got through reading three comments the interest is lost.
As for your side projects, yeah the mercynaries thing lost me ages ago because I've missed too many of the comics, at this point it's like trying to get into wheel of time starting at book 4. It'd be a great read and you'd enjoy it, but you'd be cheating yourself by spoiling the first three books so you'd rather wait until the book store has 1-3 in stock, if that makes any sense? I really like your stories, but they're more like excellent books then excellent comics; the art definitely adds to it but I wanna read the whole thing, not just the one issue.
As for the games, flash games just aren't really my thing. When I game I'm either at home and wanting to play something bigger (The Last of Us being a recent example) or I'm out and about and only have a few minutes, at which point I go more for a mobile game (Angry birds!). There's just no real desire to play flash games, for me.
As for any other side projects... I used to read Ascension but I'm not even sure if you're the one who does that, and if you are you've abandoned it for ages so of course I'm not reading it now. I'm not really aware of any other side projects you have. I do watch your let's play's but I will openly admit to skipping around in them, yours are the only Let's Plays I ever watch but I only do it because it's the only real oppurtunity for author insight there is since you don't really have a blog, or a forum, or a comment system. You have a terrible chatbox that I hate with all of my hate. So I will frequently skip around for the jokes and such but I don't actually care about the game you're playing, if that makes any sense.
To be honest, yours is one of the VERY few webcomics I recommend as being both original and very good despite a reading list 200+ webcomics strong, but your side projects either don't have enough of your writing in them or require swallowing so much stuff I'm NOT interested in to get what little of your writing is in there that I just can't invest the time.
Also while I'm griping about the site design making seeing things inconvenient, honest I didn't even NOTICE this freakin' poll until I came and reread your news post later in the day. The white on white you've got going there makes it seem like a sig or something underneath your post, and forum reading/posting has trained me to automatically skip it mentally. That's a personal thing on me, but then if you're wanting community interaction it's the forum goers you'd want to hear from, and the odds that they even noticed that poll despite reading your news post aren't really as high as I'm sure you'd like.
Sorry that I effectively used nearly 4000 characters to bash your site design, but as someone who likes commenting, you complaining you don't have comments makes me feel like a doctor you've locked out of your house while you bleed to death inside; i'd love to help you, even more so now that I know you need help, but I'm gonna need a way inside, and that chatbox is the equivalent of making me climb three stories to get in through the sole unlocked window.
I care, but... not that much.
-Atros
I like the comic.
I think its interesting and quirky.
I've been following it for a long time now, about 6-7 years I think.
If I had one complaint/suggestion to make it better, it would have to be the art style.
Now when I say this, I'm not trying to be purposefully mean or intentionally insulting, I am merely trying to critique your work much like the teachers I worked with in college.
Your art style has stagnated, and while I do see improvement as years go by, the actual style itself hasnt really improved. The first suggestion I must stress is to really really sit down and learn the human anatomy. If you can find those figure drawing classes with a live model, I would suggest finding reference of real people and drawing them again and again.
Examine the human face and again, draw it again and again. Even if your comic isnt going for realism, the lessons you learn from drawing from life can improve your art 10 fold. I know for a fact that it helped me.
Yeah, I nearly missed the poll, as I tend to skim through the description. I honestly don't have a twitter or facebook, though I watch you on deviantart, and I believe on youtube as well.
I check back to the site, and regularly check Ascension, and vote for you. I was unaware you made games unless you are referring to glamordome and related events. I semi-regularly(once or twice every two weeks), post on the chatbox on the bottom of your page.
I suppose a majority of people would not post on your page, as they're 12/13 year olds, are too nervous to post, or don't speak English well, but can read it well enough(especially true for other romantic language speakers).
I just realized something. I bet a lot of people are going to be jerks about this and not vote in the poll, even after you said you wanted comments. Yeah, people. How long does it take to press a button?
For me, checking comics is something I do quickly. I usually have something else to do, so I don't have time to comment on these.
Also, I think the chatbox should be farther up. The thing about a chatbox is that it's about, y'know, conversations. If no one else is on, the one person who is won't say anything because there's no one to say anything to. Like the other guy that said this, a forum would be best.
The chatbox is too far down the page and is easily missed, plus it's small. You should get a normal forum, stick it where people can actually see it, and see what happens. That is the tried and true method of how to build a community, it typically works unless you feel the need to go with a forum that isn't something everyone knows and is familiar with, like phpbb or Invisionfree. It's easier for people to log in and post on forums than it is relying on them registering for some chatbox they may not know or trust.
Either move it up to a highly visible area of the page or get rid of it. It's obviously not working.
As for your YouTube series, I don't watch review shows, and from the stuff I've read when the reviews were still in your commentary below the comic, it sounded like I would disagree with you on most or never play the same games you play, so I've no incentive to watch it.
I did vote for Mercynaries once upon a time, but it's hard to hold interest because what we get is so small and random. I simply stopped keeping up because I don't know these characters, I don't know what's going on, why should I take the time out of my busy schedule to keep up with voting if all I'm going to get is a random page?
I also despise Twitter, and I only use Facebook sparingly to keep track of friends. I have like two groups liked on Facebook and that is the local news and Cheezburger.
I'm sorry Pip, and this is a personal gripe, but the comic just doesn't seem all that interesting anymore. You rely too much on games that are always hard to play to convey backstory when you should just tell it in the comics.
Don't try to tie your plot in with games that very few people play if you're not going to make an effort to supply those that do not play the games with the backstory in either text or in the comic itself.
It just seems like you're ignoring basic things that have worked for so many webcomics over the past decade. Forums are easy to sign up for and easier to use, you just have to find people you trust to moderate. They provide a place for fans to gather around at anytime from nearly any device, and can help build community bonds with areas for them to talk about other things. If you like someone, you're probably going to want to talk with them some more about other things than just a comic. The only real downsides are that you or a moderation team will have to patrol it to make sure it's staying a friendly, open community. And that if you appoint moderators, you have to trust them to do their jobs without bias or abuse.
Open a forum using forum layouts that people recognize and are familiar with.
The YouTube boat has largely sailed out to sea, the only real way to make a channel work anymore is to just keep reminding your viewers to like the videos you put out and then network with other similar, smaller channels until you have your own network of interconnected fans. Then you just have to hope you can get on with a large content network if you're looking to branch out to bigger games or try to get significant revenue coming in.
Mercynaries, you should either release the back issues for free or give voters more to go on than a random snippet of whatever current storyline is currently happening.
Those are the options that I see if you want larger community interaction.
"I didn't know you wanted comments" seems about right