That can't be right. What about when they rode away on the carpet? No, wait. V was still elsewhere then.
[Webcomic] The Order of the Stick thread
- Thread starter Piotyr
- Start date
S
Soliloquy
The kobold's still around, so I'm just going to call it right now: That kobold is going to be the one who kills Belkar.
O
Overflight
"Better to find a family among people who are good than trying to find a sense of good among your family".
Good line. I know someone who might benefit from it.
Good line. I know someone who might benefit from it.
Elan is participating!
O
Overflight
If that dragon appears on Double Fine's Kickstarter page now, I will donate more to both causes.
A new comic: #838: Either Way, Really
Also, a new chart:
Added at: 14:04
Note from Rich:
Throughout this drive, I've tried hard to keep on target with tangible goals that I could realistically meet within the time frame, and you've blown them all away. With three days left, all I can say is: You win. You have defeated me. I surrender. So many of you have asked me to put up what I'm about to say that it would actually be more disrespectful to my fans to continue to refuse at this point. Here goes:
From now until the end of the pledge drive, all money raised (minus the cost of the shipping rewards pledged during that period and the related Kickstarter fees) will go into a new general operating fund for Giant in the Playground. What will I do with it? I don't know yet. I think I'll need to recover from the drive for a few days before I even consider it. Here are some possibilities, though:
Also, a new chart:
Added at: 14:04
Note from Rich:
Throughout this drive, I've tried hard to keep on target with tangible goals that I could realistically meet within the time frame, and you've blown them all away. With three days left, all I can say is: You win. You have defeated me. I surrender. So many of you have asked me to put up what I'm about to say that it would actually be more disrespectful to my fans to continue to refuse at this point. Here goes:
From now until the end of the pledge drive, all money raised (minus the cost of the shipping rewards pledged during that period and the related Kickstarter fees) will go into a new general operating fund for Giant in the Playground. What will I do with it? I don't know yet. I think I'll need to recover from the drive for a few days before I even consider it. Here are some possibilities, though:
- Paying for warehouse space for the increased stock levels.
- Paying for any surprise expenses associated with fulfilling these orders because I am bad at math.
- Funding the next new OOTS book, whenever that is (it is not now).
- Funding a new selection of screen-printed t-shirts for Ookoodook.
- Prototyping fees for potential OOTS products that couldn't be developed quickly enough for this pledge drive.
- Paying for secret projects that may or may not pan out but would be totally awesome if they did.
- Paying for the IT time needed to make long-overdue improvements to the Giant in the Playground website.
- Buying the most recent version of Adobe Illustrator.
- Buying a computer capable of running the most recent version of Adobe Illustrator (mine topped out two versions ago).
- Buying a Cintaq to speed up drawing time.
- Buying new crayons and Sharpie markers.
O
Overflight
He's already at $911k. And it keeps increasing with every refresh.
...my God, he's going to make it.
...my God, he's going to make it.
In short, it will fund whatever stuff I think up next to bring you more OOTS, better OOTS, and with any luck, faster OOTS in the coming years, and maybe even some non-OOTS stuff, too, if you'll indulge me. If any of those are things that interest you, then now is the time to pledge (or increase your pledge). Which is good timing, because I am about to blow this thing wide open.
See, this whole time, one of the major limiting factors on some of the "special" rewards is my time. How many things can I sign? How many drawings can I do? How many packages can I pack up in my living room rather than having the fine folks in Houston handle them? And so I've sharply limited those rewards, because to do otherwise would be to risk upsetting backers by taking too long to deliver. But then I had an idea. And then like 50 people emailed me the same idea, so I knew it was a good one. What if I included packages where the fact they weren't going to get them right away was spelled out upfront? If you remove the possibility of the backer being upset by late delivery, then time ceases to be a limiting factor.
With that in mind, I'm going to add a new type of package: the "Patience is a Virtue" package. When you see a new reward pop up with the word "Patience" in the title, it will mean that I will not be sending that package out until every other piece of work I have to do for this drive is done. All the other signed books are out the door, all the crayon drawings are finished, all the PDF stories written and distributed. When all that's done, I'll start working on the Patience packages. It might be May, it might be August, it might be October. It will be before December 31, 2012; beyond that, there are no promises. If you can't wait, then these packages are not for you. But it does mean that I'm free to add a lot more signed books and a lot more drawings.
Over the next three days, I am going to increase the number of special rewards available. For some, I'm just going to up the total of existing packages; for others, there will be new packages (like the Patience packages, and even some totally new ideas I've been saving). Every hour or two, from now until we finish, I am going to add more special rewards. In order to keep it as fair as possible, it will be around the clock with no warning. At any time that you refresh the screen, there could be cool new stuff added. Sleeping is for fans of OTHER comics.
See, this whole time, one of the major limiting factors on some of the "special" rewards is my time. How many things can I sign? How many drawings can I do? How many packages can I pack up in my living room rather than having the fine folks in Houston handle them? And so I've sharply limited those rewards, because to do otherwise would be to risk upsetting backers by taking too long to deliver. But then I had an idea. And then like 50 people emailed me the same idea, so I knew it was a good one. What if I included packages where the fact they weren't going to get them right away was spelled out upfront? If you remove the possibility of the backer being upset by late delivery, then time ceases to be a limiting factor.
With that in mind, I'm going to add a new type of package: the "Patience is a Virtue" package. When you see a new reward pop up with the word "Patience" in the title, it will mean that I will not be sending that package out until every other piece of work I have to do for this drive is done. All the other signed books are out the door, all the crayon drawings are finished, all the PDF stories written and distributed. When all that's done, I'll start working on the Patience packages. It might be May, it might be August, it might be October. It will be before December 31, 2012; beyond that, there are no promises. If you can't wait, then these packages are not for you. But it does mean that I'm free to add a lot more signed books and a lot more drawings.
Over the next three days, I am going to increase the number of special rewards available. For some, I'm just going to up the total of existing packages; for others, there will be new packages (like the Patience packages, and even some totally new ideas I've been saving). Every hour or two, from now until we finish, I am going to add more special rewards. In order to keep it as fair as possible, it will be around the clock with no warning. At any time that you refresh the screen, there could be cool new stuff added. Sleeping is for fans of OTHER comics.
Truly, I couldn't be happier for the guy. OotS is, hands down, one of the best webcomics out there. In fact, I would say it's better than Penny Arcade in terms of consistent, enjoyable reading. I'm bias, though, because I've never been a big fan of Penny Arcade. No disrespect meant to them in that statement.
But yeah, Rich has struggled for years upon years. The updates have been sparse sometimes, but they've always been of a high quality, both in storytelling and art. I recall that he has some kind of illness that pops up on a semi-regular basis, but I don't think I ever heard what it was. That was partly the reason for the sparse updates, I understand.
So with all that said, he originally asked for just shy of $60,000 to fund the release of one book. Now, he's nearly at cool million, all the books will now have full reprints for the first time ever, has gotten a lot of press for the comic, and has clearly been trying his damnedest to show an equal amount of support to the fans that have supported this.
This is the sort of thing that should be celebrated with extreme praise. Personally, I hope he gets that Cintaq, new computer, and upgrades to the website. He's shown a passion for this comic and his fans for years and it's finally, finally, finally paying off for him.
But yeah, Rich has struggled for years upon years. The updates have been sparse sometimes, but they've always been of a high quality, both in storytelling and art. I recall that he has some kind of illness that pops up on a semi-regular basis, but I don't think I ever heard what it was. That was partly the reason for the sparse updates, I understand.
So with all that said, he originally asked for just shy of $60,000 to fund the release of one book. Now, he's nearly at cool million, all the books will now have full reprints for the first time ever, has gotten a lot of press for the comic, and has clearly been trying his damnedest to show an equal amount of support to the fans that have supported this.
This is the sort of thing that should be celebrated with extreme praise. Personally, I hope he gets that Cintaq, new computer, and upgrades to the website. He's shown a passion for this comic and his fans for years and it's finally, finally, finally paying off for him.
North_Ranger
Staff member
Currently at $960,742... and rising. Including $16 from yours truly 
I, too, hope that he will clear the one-million limit. Would be... I was going to say "totally awesome", but considering how little he asked and how much he's gotten already, that would be a frickin' understatement.
I, too, hope that he will clear the one-million limit. Would be... I was going to say "totally awesome", but considering how little he asked and how much he's gotten already, that would be a frickin' understatement.
O
Overflight
ONE MILLION! 
Added at: 17:01
Just think: Rich managed to get half of Double Fine's amount with only a fifth of the backers.
Just over 21 hours to go, and the project has a decent shot at rolling a natural 20 (times the original funding amount):
Mystery Prize #8 was another week of OOTS every day. Not the following week, but a week during the year. For every 100k over $1M he gets, the number increases from 7 in a row by one.
Mystery Prize #8 was another week of OOTS every day. Not the following week, but a week during the year. For every 100k over $1M he gets, the number increases from 7 in a row by one.
Now that my student loans FINALLY arrived, I'm half-tempted to go all out and order the $222 package for all the books.
All right, I know what I'll do: see if my folks are willing to go half on it for my birthday.
What moving line? That line was always there...
Pledge drive...OVER.
Some words from Rich:
Hey, remember when I said I was saving some stuff to say when this ended? Turns out I'm mostly speechless. Well, speechless for me, which still means that I cram way too many word balloons onto the page.
Let's recap with some achievements:
(What, that Mystery Prize at $1,250,000? That was always there. I don't know what you're talking about. But you will have to wait a day or two before I tell you what it is.)
On the other hand, this also marks the beginning of a far longer process: that of making and fulfilling everything to which I've committed. It will take some time, I'm not going to lie to you. I will do my best to keep everyone updated on every step of the process. I won't be able to write daily posts all the time, but as each hurdle is cleared, this is where I'll tell you about it. Like I said in the last update, give me a few days before expecting anything; I need to recuperate a little. But then we'll start talking about shipping address surveys and delivery schedules and all that fun stuff.
This is going to be a big year for me, and for OOTS, and for GITP. And for you, I guess. You have a veritable shower of goodies waiting for you in your reward packages, and there will be some unknown number of new ideas and improvements to the website, the comic, and whatever else I can make better for everyone by throwing some of this money at. I hope you're as excited as I am to see what comes next.
Because if this drive has proven anything, it is that I am very, very bad at predicting the future.
--Rich Burlew
P.S. For reasons I don't understand, I can no longer see or make Comments on the project because it says I'm not a backer. Which is really upsetting, considering that's where the party's been this whole time. So if you want to make sure I can see what you're saying, comment on this update instead. (EDIT: Never mind, this fixed itself.)
P.P.S. You are still awesome.
Pledge drive...OVER.
Some words from Rich:
Hey, remember when I said I was saving some stuff to say when this ended? Turns out I'm mostly speechless. Well, speechless for me, which still means that I cram way too many word balloons onto the page.
Let's recap with some achievements:
- Second most funds pledged to a completed Kickstarter drive ever.
- The third Kickstarter project in history to reach one million dollars in pledges.
- The most funded creative work in Kickstarter history in any medium, ever.
- The most funded project by a single person (rather than a company), ever.
- 2127% funded from my initial goal of $57,750.
- 35 goals reached
- 28 updates made (including this one)
- 63 increasingly-byzantine reward packages
- 14,952 backers
- Over 25,000 books sold
- Over 16,000 comments made
- Uncounted broken F5 keys
- And I think we kinda broke a Kickstarter server at the end there
(What, that Mystery Prize at $1,250,000? That was always there. I don't know what you're talking about. But you will have to wait a day or two before I tell you what it is.)
On the other hand, this also marks the beginning of a far longer process: that of making and fulfilling everything to which I've committed. It will take some time, I'm not going to lie to you. I will do my best to keep everyone updated on every step of the process. I won't be able to write daily posts all the time, but as each hurdle is cleared, this is where I'll tell you about it. Like I said in the last update, give me a few days before expecting anything; I need to recuperate a little. But then we'll start talking about shipping address surveys and delivery schedules and all that fun stuff.
This is going to be a big year for me, and for OOTS, and for GITP. And for you, I guess. You have a veritable shower of goodies waiting for you in your reward packages, and there will be some unknown number of new ideas and improvements to the website, the comic, and whatever else I can make better for everyone by throwing some of this money at. I hope you're as excited as I am to see what comes next.
Because if this drive has proven anything, it is that I am very, very bad at predicting the future.
--Rich Burlew
P.S. For reasons I don't understand, I can no longer see or make Comments on the project because it says I'm not a backer. Which is really upsetting, considering that's where the party's been this whole time. So if you want to make sure I can see what you're saying, comment on this update instead. (EDIT: Never mind, this fixed itself.)
P.P.S. You are still awesome.
Wow... that's... uh... pretty dark. Don't drink the Kool-Aid folks.
Also, those look pretty recent. The scarabs would have devoured them long ago if this wasn't recent.
Also, those look pretty recent. The scarabs would have devoured them long ago if this wasn't recent.