For some reason (perhaps it’s because I’m posting cartoons again on a (shock! horror!) regular basis again, the page views and unique visitors count for DorkTower.com are going through the roof.
Which also means I’m getting a ton of e-mail from readers.
Some of whom seem to be…erm…very new to the strip. Or at least who are unsure as to where i’m coming from.
Take this Canadian letter in response to Wednesday’s strip:
Email: (name and e-mail withheld to protect the innocent)
Location: stratford ontario canada
Comments: “I snuck across the unguarded boarder for a better life, eh” ? (expletive deleted) you, hack.
Um…dude…joke. Non-sequitur. Inverse switch. See, that’s only what someone from CENTRAL America is supposed to…
Oh, forget it. Seriously. If you’re gonna miss the point that much, maybe the
US isn’t the only North American country in desperate need of an overhauled school system.
And the F-bomb? I thought Canadians were supposed to ne nice, anyway.
Or how about this reply to Monday’s cartoon?
Email: (name and e-mail withheld to protect the innocent)
Location: Cambridge, MA
Comments: Sigh.
I know you’re exagerating and going for the funny here, but speaking as someone who adores non-collectable miniatures games you’ve managed to seriously punch my buttons.
I’ve played some of the minatures games, predominantly Heroclix… and I’ve had far many more of my Heroclix figs break than my pewter figs that I’ve painted myself. When dropped, the worst that usually hapens to my metal figs is that the paint chips a bit, and only if I haven’t gotten around to varnishing them. Usually when a Heroclix fig is dropped, nothing happens either… but I’ve had several break off their bases or lose arms and such break off where the “plastic” is particularly narrow.
Secondly, Minatures gaming is not purely a gaming thing for me (or for most minatures gamers i know), it’s a hobby… we get a ton of pleasure out of assembling, converting, painting and then playing with our figures. They look very nice on the table. Some of the collectable figs look halfway decent from a disatance, but if you care about the aesthetics of the game you’re playing, it’s really no contest in my opinion. When I don’t really care about the aesthetics, I’ll break out something like Babylon 5 Wars, Star Fleet Battles or ASL.
Lastly, the reason *I* would never want to game with the dingus who plays collectible minis games in this strip is not that he plays minis games, but that he has no concern about destroying someone else’s hard work. He’s a jerk and I found the end of the strip not even remotely funny.
How straw-man obnoxious do I have to make the minis gamer, and how much do I – a dyed-in-the-wool minis gamer myself – have to teleggraph the line “Show me what’s so great about Collectible Miniatures Minis Gaming over REAL Miniatures Gaming” before you get the idea that this guy deserves what he has coming to him?
Anyway, that said, the vast, vast majority of the responses to the cartoons this week have been overwhelmingly positive.
I just thought these letters were amusing, in a “Penguins DON’T live where Polar Bears Live” kind of way…
And running the positive letters would be boring, anway.
EDIT: And a reply from our Canadian friend:
would it still be a joke if you replaced “canada” with some third world nation? would its still be funny if you used the N word instead of canadian?
I dont need to see your resume or the kudoes you have recieved… perhaps you need to send those links to uhh “compensate” for something? Hack.