< Piro >
" sorry about that..."
Wednesday - January 10, 2001
[Piro] - 00:11:00 - [link here]
Actually, I'm not sick today - this strip is the one that Dom went to great lengths to produce a few weeks ago around the holidays. By the time Dom got it to me, it was too late, so its just been sitting on my hard drive for weeks now. I am so mean to Dom. I think that's what makes him so grumpy. ^_^ I get a kick out of Dom's trackball stick-figures, so I figured this was a good point to drop this comic into the set. Frankly, I needed a day off to get back on track with Megatokyo. That happens when you get into a funk for a few days. :P
I hear from a lot of people that they like to read the rants almost as much as they like the comic. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but it does tell me that people like the little insight it gives into what makes Megatokyo click. And I guess I should be a little more careful about how much I rant about things. Over the past two days I have received over 280 emails regarding monday's rant. @_o Do you have any idea how hard it is to read that many emails in the course of a day or two? Lets just say I literally spent all of my available time monday just reading the emails.
First off, i'd like to say to everyone who emailed me, thank you. I should spend a good week replying to most of them - many were thoughtful, many short and to the point, but I read every one of them (actually, my brain started to get a little numb after a while, but that's not an unusual thing) I have no intention of changing the direction of Megatokyo, no matter how much crap i need to deal with. All it means is that I need to find the zones where I will have to be prepared to put up with crap. ^_^ I'll call it a 'creative defensive strategy' or some mumbojumbo like that. I'm a little on the stubborn side. :P
I suppose i feel more confident about the direction Largo and I are taking Megatokyo now, even if it may hurt our commercial viability. When you think about it though... who cares? Websites aren't exactly making good money these days (I could feel the pain in Tycho's ramblings last friday - makes my worries pretty insignificant), so we might as well enjoy the freedom of being a truly 'free' site that is really only done because Largo and I love doing the comic. I suppose there is a part of me that dreams about doing stuff like this all day, and about all the fucking incredible crap we could do if I only had the time. But reality is what it is - and y'know what? Reality is the grist that makes for good storytelling. If I did MT for a living, we might loose a bit of our edge.
So, that being said, we shall take advantage of this. What he hell. :) Besides, i get a kick out of getting in trouble. Just ask Seraphim. :P
I got a way-swell package from tsubasa yesterday. About 15 doujinshi CDs and 10 doujinshi booklets from the winter comike (as well as the Comike 59 catalogue data CD). Woo! The real gem in the package was the two-cd set of the works of I've called 'Verge - Girls Compilation'. 'I've' produced some of the music for Kanon and AIR and many other games, and this disk just kicks ass beyond belief.
Which brings me to another project I am working on. Largo's pal 'Nitedog' has set up a shoutcast server for us over on his networks where we will be setting up 'Megatokyo Radio' sometime in the near future. Music is such a strong part of what influences Largo and I, and I think that the potential damage inflicted by the two of us forming a few shows here and there could be very great indeed. As soon as we have a show together, i'll let you know.
Tsubasa and I spent a good part of the weekend dealing with names, places, locations, train routes, stores, etc - research that needed to be done in order to create a real sense of 'place' for Megatokyo, and to help prevent story snafus that might crop up later if I am not careful ^_^ We also finalized a few family name issues that needed dealing with, and worked on the FAQs. It's a lot of work, but i think it only benefits the story in the end.
Oh, and finally, I'd like to mention that Little Gamers, a damn funny little comic by this wacked european dude is no longer in danger of being shot in the head by his boss for sucking up bandwidth on the company servers. He's now sitting on the servers over at Gamespy, so getting your daily dose of rude little weeble-wobbles should no longer be hampered by bandwidth restrictions.