Zero Punctuation draws out the webcomic template

by Alexander Sliwinski { Jul 3rd 2008 at 2:00AM }

This week's Zero Punctuation takes a long, hard and ironic look at the glut of gaming webcomics. Yes, Yahtzee fully realizes the hypocrisy of his words, but that's not going to stop him from flinging poo and keeping those traffic numbers high. We imagine it getting weird when Yahtzee's piece about webcomics spawns more comics about the subject and proves everything he's saying in the first place.

The NSFW ZP review of webcomics can be found after the break.

Tags: escapist, escapist-magazine, webcomic, webcomics, yahtzee, yahtzee-croshaw, zero-punctuation, zeropunctuation

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

Louis Saucedo @ Jul 3rd 2008 2:08AM

I'm not really good at ... COMPREHENSION, as my doctors say. THOUGH! I am pretty sure he may be talking about Ctrl-Alt-Del, call it a hunch.

And I agree completely, fuck you Tim.

IGLAW @ Jul 3rd 2008 2:09AM

Delicious, delicious hypocrisy.

T @ Jul 3rd 2008 8:39AM

You can really only call it that when the person speaking doesn't call it out himself, as Yahtzee does here.

Bucket @ Jul 3rd 2008 10:36AM

My balls go in your mouth.

Ghede @ Jul 6th 2008 6:03AM

Noooo. You can still call him a hypocrite, but you have to call him a self-aware hypocrite.

Risky Safety @ Jul 3rd 2008 2:11AM

Ha, good for Tim Buckley that his forums are down right now, or he'd be banning people left and right.

Like when he had to do damage control after word got out that he showed his naked crotch to a minor on the internet.

B^U, you're terribad.

borland502 (SDF - Macross Ring) @ Jul 3rd 2008 6:34AM

Benito @ Jul 3rd 2008 8:49AM

Ahahaha, yes, those were the days.

ahsayuninew @ Jul 3rd 2008 2:19AM

Gold, as usual.

Me @ Jul 3rd 2008 2:27AM

Yahtzee has lost his funny comments in 3...2...1...

Jonah Falcon @ Jul 3rd 2008 2:37AM

Nah. He just made "food on airplanes is bad" joke. Not that I didn't laugh out loud at some parts...

ShankShank @ Jul 3rd 2008 2:29AM

The best part was someone posted this video in B^Uckleys forums and started a discussion about it. Tims reaction: "Everyone's entitled to their opinions" *locks thread*

Now that doesnt seem right...

Maybe Joystiq can do their part and stop putting the horribly unfunny CAD comics up for the webcomic wrapup.

InvadrZIM @ Jul 3rd 2008 3:00AM

heaven forbid he doesn't want pointless and unnecessary drama on his forums.

and yea they should take it off weekly web comic, becasue you know, you're opinion is the only one that matters, right?

as for the video its just annoying. he gets some recognition with funny game reviews and decides to use that togo in a completely irrelevant, unfunny direction to further his own personal agenda.

the escapist picked him up for his game reviews, not for his opinion on webcomics.

Fullmetal Salchemist @ Jul 3rd 2008 5:50AM

No, The Escapist picked him up because he increases the number of visitors to the site. Yahtzee brings the pagehits, and by extension, the advertising revenue. Game reviews are incidental.

CAD should be taken off the Weekly Roundup because it's an objectively bad comic. Walls of unfunny text, copypasta art, backgrounds taken directly from Google image search, and the same gorram B^U expression on every single one of his generic, identical characters. Oh, and lest we forget his god-awful abortion storyline, and grotesque justification for it: "I was dating a girl, but our relationship sucked. She had a miscarriage, but it was okay, we didn't want it anyway."

B^Uckley banned people from his forums and ultimately took the entire site down because he's a childish hack that can't handle any form of criticism.

Lijik @ Jul 3rd 2008 8:17AM

Can we stop using Copy and Pasting art as a reason to hate CAD? Everyone does it. Even Penny Arcade uses Copy and Paste. Starslip Crisis is pretty much nothing but Copy and Paste.

But theres a difference, those two strips I mentioned above hide it well. Buckley sucks enough to leave it right there in the open.

LeilaniLad @ Jul 3rd 2008 10:05AM

You can watch PA stream their drawing of each comic from scratch every week. No cut and paste...

Jonah Falcon @ Jul 3rd 2008 2:35AM

Ben's a bit late on this one. VG Cats said the same thing on April 1, and it only took 4 panels to say the same thing. :p

http://www.gamestooge.com/2008/04/01/vg-cats-tries-out-a-new-look/

Jonah Falcon @ Jul 3rd 2008 2:36AM

OOPS. Wrong link. This is the direct link. Sorry:

http://www.vgcats.com/cadaprilfools/

snarfoogle @ Jul 3rd 2008 9:34AM

Yahtzee already wrote a scathing text critique of CAD on March 23rd, which is available on fullyramblomatic.com for your reading pleasure.

Jonah Falcon @ Jul 3rd 2008 12:04PM

Did he make a video on March 23?

Jonah Falcon @ Jul 3rd 2008 12:07PM

Oops. He didn't make a POST on March 23. (laugh)

http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/archive/Mar24-28.htm

Levi @ Jul 3rd 2008 2:38AM

I must admit that Yahtzee's past few Zero Punctuations have been done pretty much by the numbers, but he hits this one outta the park. Gaming web comics are pretty shitty in general.

Burnt Meatloaf @ Jul 3rd 2008 5:57AM

Reviewers really shouldn't choose easy targets, and this is about as easy as it gets.

Then again, I used to have a regular web comic... about Australians, no less.

j.howlett @ Jul 3rd 2008 8:17AM

reviewers shouldn't pick easy targets? first i wouldn't call what he does a review, and B: easy targets are really good or really bad. also easy targets are highly visible.

Shaq-Fu @ Jul 3rd 2008 2:39AM

Maybe its because I don't have an emotional connection, but I find the latest Ctr-Alt-Del comics very mild. I mean, the story arc was OK and all, but the latest have been useless drivel and bad references to new games. After you kill a baby for the sake of art or to be "edgey" or different, you lose. Nothing can ever be seen as funny to me on that site because, in the back of my mind, I will always remember the whole miscarriage thing. I don't go to Penny Arcade because I expect a deep story, I go to get a few laughs. Same with the old CubeToons. Back to Yahtzee, the old dog has finally found his form. When you go back and pause it and read some of the things that flash before your eyes, you cant help but laugh.

Before I forget, WHERE ARE MY SUPRISE NINJA ATTACKS? I really enjoyed that, and the CYOA arc was nice. Go back to that and you might just have some hope and integrity left.

Josh @ Jul 3rd 2008 7:12AM

I personally thought that storyline was gutsy and personal. If you've been through that experience, what was said in those strips rang true. If it didn't, then it'd be exploitation.

Also, I'm surprised that even Yahtzee is too scared to take on Penny-Arcade, instead making fun of those who try to 'imitate' them. Grow a set buddy

T @ Jul 3rd 2008 8:39AM

@Josh: He rips PA a number of times. Including a shot at the "9-panels a week" format. The cliched "Blathering idiot rooming with tolerant straight man". The idea that the characters are avatars, and that despite their inane behavior are heroes.

Heck, pretty much the entire "formula" rant Yahtzee goes on is a rip at the conventions that PA follows.

kaneda @ Jul 3rd 2008 10:21AM

While Gabe may very well be considered a blathering idiot, "tolerant, straight man" misses the mark on both accounts for Tycho.

aristokrat @ Jul 3rd 2008 11:10AM

It's interesting that ZP's CAD-bashing came out the same day as B^Uckley began releasing his CADLite comics, which are actually much funnier than the real comic has been for a while (except for that sweet Bad Company knocking bullet one). The CADLite comics actually address everyone's main complaints: they have varied facial expression (for what they are), no wall of text, no story line. Maybe this way he can please everyone? Probably not, he's too popular to not get hated on...

Shagittarius @ Jul 3rd 2008 11:12AM

I agree I saw lots of digs at PA in this one as well. All well deserved.

Shmil @ Jul 3rd 2008 11:38AM

phew its a good thing that Buckley can come up with something as original as CADlite, thank god no one else has ever done that before.

gst @ Jul 4th 2008 12:43AM

I wouldn't really call a lot of his comments "digs," at PA for example. He's just pointing out blatant details.

The whole obnoxious guy paired with the straight man character, which PA admittedly deviates from through random acts of violence and insanity on the parts of both characters, could be called cliche or it could just be a recognizable staple of comedy. It is good setup for situational comedy but in no way does that framework define an entire comic (or movie, tv show, etc).
It seems that such a framework is just as ubiquitous in all forms of comedic media so I think saying there were rips at PA would have to necessarily imply that there were also rips at 50% of the comedic media in existence.

The miscarriage comment was definitely meant for CAD; the other stuff seemed far less targeted towards any individual source.

Jakka @ Jul 3rd 2008 2:58AM

Which comic was attacking Yahtzee as a comeback? I know that Duelling Analogs made one about him but it wasn't offensive or anything like that.

Josh @ Jul 3rd 2008 7:11AM

And even I will vote my comment down for replying to the wrong person.

Quaddw @ Jul 3rd 2008 3:13AM

Meh, CAD has never been that great mainly due to the lack of connection with the characters. This is in part due to it being copy and paste hell with body parts and faces. Maybe if he took the time to actually draw them it would be better :P

Risky Safety @ Jul 3rd 2008 3:16AM

Speaking of copy+pasting... look at this!

http://xs217.xs.to/xs217/07312/5Xj3_1184799633_CAD2.gif

Fullmetal Salchemist @ Jul 3rd 2008 5:53AM

Call on meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
on me
Call on meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
one me

Risky Safety @ Jul 3rd 2008 3:20AM

And also... this is pretty awesome in summing up the miscarriage about face.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?s=e735b9b8ea08e951c9da4b64e1479c8b&attachmentid=392174&stc=1&d=1213592839

snarfoogle @ Jul 3rd 2008 9:30AM

I loved Jill of the Jungle!

giantenemycrab @ Jul 3rd 2008 2:27PM

That link made me realize how strange and inappropriate that miscarriage comic was. Seriously, what's wrong with CAD? That's not even funny or edgy or anything, it's just poor taste.

PointyThings @ Jul 3rd 2008 3:29AM

God bless you Yahtzee.
I don't care how many different people do it, I will never get tired of sticking it to Tim Buckley. This is probably one of the best ZPs yet.

Kwipper @ Jul 3rd 2008 3:30AM

Okay. So here is what I took away from this.

Yahtzee, gamings biggest critic, hates the Ctrl+Alt+Del comic.

Ohhh shit! I can't wait to see Ctrl+Alt+Del's response to this. Will he ignore him, will he lash out, or will he run away, cry and pull his comic off the internet.

Only time will tell.

BPM [MKWii: 2578 3585 8392] @ Jul 3rd 2008 4:02PM

Well, it's known that B^Uckley HATES criticism. He's so full of himself, he'll try to silence anyone (on the Net) who says anything even remotely bad about him.

He watches the Wikipedia page on CAD, removing any form of criticism, waving a bunch of Wikipedia rules in people's faces like a madman with a sword.
Oh, and this is his userpage:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Thrindel

Anyone who "vandalizes" the CAD page, or says something negative on his talk page will find that their IP is banned from the CAD forums. Additionally, he deletes everything from his talk page (he must not be aware that you can look up the HISTORY OF REVISIONS).

And if you dare bring up anything bad about him on the CAD forums (i.e. the pedophilia thing), he won't try to defend/deny it, instead he'll just delete the post and ban you.

tl;dr version: B^Uckley's gonna make some sort of response to this video. I GUARANTEE IT.

Kwipper @ Jul 4th 2008 2:16PM

Uhhh.. so far from what you are telling me. He is acting like a logical human being. Have you ever heard the phrase "Don't feed the trolls" well that is exactly what he is doing. Instead of giving people fodder for them to ridicule him further, he's just deleting negative posts and moving on, as opposed to letting it fester and grow out of control.

BPM [MKWii: 2578 3585 8392] @ Jul 4th 2008 3:21PM

He's far from a logical human being. If you wanna know all the crazy stuff he's done, look here:
http://dramapatrol.blogspot.com/2007/07/profile-tim-buckley.html
(it's a bit long, but interesting)

One thing that write up didn't cover is how he went nuts over a fan (a FAN, someone who LIKES his work) made a CAD video for a HIGH SCHOOL PROJECT:
http://www.blanklabelcomics.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=1366

There's nothing logical or rational about Buckley. He lives in his own little bubble world, where he is God and can do no wrong.

Kwipper @ Jul 5th 2008 2:10AM

I'll be quite honest. Whatever drama is going on with Tim Buckley, I don't really care. It won't change my opinion of the comic. I still really love the comic, regardless of whatever drama might be going on.

BPM [MKWii: 2578 3585 8392] @ Jul 5th 2008 6:02PM

Didn't say you had had to change your opinion on CAD. Just that the original point was that B^Uckley will probably respond somehow to ZP.

Kevlar @ Jul 3rd 2008 3:34AM

Maybe it's just me, but I never really understood the hate on CAD.

Yeah, it's not the greatest comic. Its bland, unoriginal, rarely funny, and the art isn't all that great.

But Tim Buckley has fans that enjoy it. He's made money doing what he enjoys doing. He has his niche, with his fans, site and swag. If you don't like it, why waste your fingers and bandwidth posting how much he sucks? It's alright to criticize, but the amount of negativity that arises whenever his comic is mentioned is a little overboard.

Just pretend he doesn't exist. Ignore the fans posting about it. Ignore his entry in the Weekly Webcomic Wrapup. Let him do his thing, and be happy about it.

Oh, and Yahtzee is freaking hilarious as usual.

Lijik @ Jul 3rd 2008 8:22AM

I think you kind of answered your own question. Most people hate CAD not only because its the gaming equivalent of Marmaduke, but also because its the gaming equivalent of Marmaduke and inexplicably rather popular.

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