MSPA or Gunnerkrigg?

[rpgdemon]

I've always been confused why more people don't pull an MSPA and just update whenever there's content, and instead choose to slowly dole it out over a MWF schedule. Which do you guys prefer, is my first question, and my second is why?

Like, I don't know why you would have a buffer except for your own needs, to keep people visiting the site consistently. If you're able to create a certain number of comics in a given period of time, it doesn't matter when you release them, the viewer will only get up to your speed of production.

Like, if you're spending time to build a buffer, mid-comic, I double don't understand it. It's not going to make things better for the reader in terms of wait time, since they have to wait extra long for the buffer, then to have the content trickle out.

Anyone want to weigh in on this? Which is better, updating whenever possible, like MSPA, or building a buffer then trickling it out like Gunnerkrigg?

[Krylo]

Buffer.

Getting three a week is infinitely better than getting 20 in a week and then not getting any for 2-3 months, and then getting 20 more.

[Mr.Bookworm]

Depends entirely on the creator and their schedule.

If you are fuckcrazy like Andrew Hussie and can chop out like three updates a day and prefer to just get it out there, that's fine.

On the other hand, most people seem to prefer building up a buffer, because that lets you do fun things like have free time without dropping the ball. Most webcomic creators spend a nonzero amount of time banging out a single update (barring those incorrigible asses that do sprite comics), and it is pretty much required that you have at least a little bit of a buffer so you can actually do other stuff besides work on your webcomic.

[BitVyper]

MSPA is a whole different beast, and it doesn't compare well with other webcomics. I'm not even comfortable calling Homestuck itself a comic. More like a...Freestyle Internet Serial. In any case, the amount of content Hussie produces is abso-friggin-lutely ridiculous. That, and the nature/style of the pages is the only reason it really works on an update-when-there's-content basis. Because excepting a few breaks, there is basically always content.

Producing a page for say, Gunnerkrigg, is a lot different from producing content for MSPA. Hell, speed is practically part of the art form itself with MSPA.

[greed]

Totally prefer consistency and quality over hit and miss splurges. To be fair you probably should have asked for my opinion re MSPA vs say Bad Machinery or Shortpacked. Gunnerkrigg is just a couple of tiers above it in raw quality so I'd probably prefer GC over MSPA if it updated once a week or if MSPA was actually constant.

[Fifthfiend]

I suspect in practice the buffer/schedule vs. no buffer/schedule option generally plays out less like Gunnerkrigg vs. MSPA and more like Gunnerkrigg vs. Dresden Codak or Order of the Stick or fucking VGCats or some shit.

[Nikose Tyris]

Lol VGCats. You need to update to have an actual update schedule.

[Betty Elms]

VGCats not updating is also VGCats not spilling an atrocious miscarriage of comedy all the fuck over my browser window, so I don't know how good a point of comparison it is when it comes to "which do I prefer."

[Bard The 5th LW]

Different comics in my opinion. MSPA updates are usually smaller and easier to make as well.

[Amake]

Depends on what works best for the author. One might need to keep to a regular update schedule to feel that the audience can depend on him (Tom Siddel) while one might need immediate audience reactions to his work to fuel his creative process (Andrew Hussie, at his peak). Whatever gets us the most and highest quality comics pages the author can manage works for me.

On the other hand I don't care about getting those comics as soon as possible or knowing I will get them on this or that day which I guess was the actual question.

[Loyal]

Regular updates are vastly preferable because, assuming the author holds to them, there's some degree of predictability in when I can expect the next one.

[A Zarkin' Frood]

I find myself not reading Gunnerkrigg because I only get a fraction of a coherent chapter each update. The cure: Waiting and buy the books some time (have all three so far, yay), The downside: No one ever shuts up about fucking Gunnerkrigg.

With MSPA I don't really have that problem, because the updates usually come faster, which I like. I do this release as it's done thing too with my own work. I see no reason to withhold anything.

Anyway, I don't mind either, but prefer the MSPA way. it doesn't make much of a difference because I pick my own pace anyway.

[DarkDrgon]

I always talk about how 8bt spoiled me on webcomics, from the time i started reading it up until the month before it ended there was a constant stream of entertainment. I'm a guy who loves habit, so being able to know when an update is coming is preferable to me (probably the only reason I check QC too)

[Fifthfiend]

(probably the only reason I check QC too)

I blocked it under my hosts file to break myself of this.

[tacticslion]

Despite the fact that I love diving into large comic binges, what I value most is consistency. That actually does let me feel that something is happening with the comic. When long periods of time pass without something happening, I stop checking because... why would I? As a human, I have a limited amount of time and focus, and if I stop checking on something for a while, I'll probably forget about it, and thus I'm unlikely to come back to it unless it's brought to my attention again somehow. This is a loss for that community and thus a loss of over all encouragement and "energy", thus a loss of motivation for the author.

Further, having a specific goal and/or schedule usually means that the author is more disciplined and thus more likely to continue that which I enjoy. Having a buffer is a form of fail-safe, kind of like ensuring that, if something serious happens, the comic continues, at least for a time, allowing the artist to get their stuff together and continue work. This also allows them to control the flow of their work, and that buffer can be as erratic as their time allows, but still their work continues on consistently and (thus it looks) professionally.

It is for these reasons that I strongly think that, over-all, a consistent schedule is superior to mass-spam-current-content, and a buffer is even better.

THAT SAID, different people are different. Not all people work that way. Some people have unusual and/or variable schedules. In these cases, the comics need to come out because the artist just won't work well in the normal fashion. In many ways, its just like learning and other creative styles: there's a methodology that functions reasonably well for most people and thus it's the over-all preferable method, but there are some very definite and powerful exceptions and those exceptions should not be restrained "just because that's the way it's done", because doing something for doing it "the way it's done" is very stupid.

[pochercoaster]

I prefer the kind of schedule that Gunnerkrigg uses. If you'd rather read it all in one go there's nothing stopping you from waiting every couple months to check it.

MSPA is kind of meant to be created in a hurry. Gunnerkrigg is hand drawn and more artistically inclined. Unless Tom Siddell quit his job I doubt he'd be able to produce a comparable amount of quality content.