Well, I'm not even sure if this topic has been made before.

But I'd like to discuss a growing...erm...plague that has been infecting webcomics as a whole.
Gaming webcomics.

Now don't get me wrong. I don't mind a few of them (Mainly Penny Arcade and RDC *I think he's only on deviantArt*)

But it's just getting to be too much. It's almost as if over half of the new comics out there are about/deal with video games mainly. Now, I could be guilty of this, since I did do one a while back. But I eventually quit and stuff. But it's just the point.

It seems like every person who takes a look at VGCats or any other related comic goes, "Hey, I could totally make a comic that's as good as or better than VGCats, and I know exactly what it'll be about...Videogames! Aw man, I bet almost nobody has a comic about that!"

This doesn't include comics that are in print, such as the Street Fighter series that UDON did, or anything like that. I'm talking webcomics mainly.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but how cool could a comic about video games be? Like really, there's only so much you can do.
1.) Have your characters (or the videogame characters) in one of the plots of a video game.
2.) Have video game characters in a setting of the real world.
3.) Reviews.

To my experience, that's all gamer comics are about.
So, go ahead and discuss.

I dunno if I'd call it a plague.

The way I look at it, is there are so many webcomics out there, why would you want to create something very similiar to a bunch of other webcomics?

It may be good, but it is such a flooded genre you may have a hard time getting noticed.

The comics you mentioned were some of the first to explore the genre, so they have built up such a following at this point they can just mail it in.

On a related note, I am working on a non sprite Super Mario story in the vain of The Dark Knight returns. Mario dissapears from the Mushroom kingdom and comes back as a complete old and grizzled badass 10 years later.

I always like a well done fanfic (the Udon stuff could be considered a professional fanfic:P)

Honestly, I didn't know there were a LOT. I've heard that there are, but I don't seem to come across many. I'm not a fan of the gag ones generally which accounts for a larger percentage I'd imagine.

But I just click away when I find one. I do however make a manga-ish comic so I think I'm part of another plague people seem to think their is too much of XD

At 1 time I thought about making a hand drawn MegaMan comic. It would have went through the canon story but I'd fill in the blanks as to how events occurred (including but not limited to whatever happened to Rockman between the original series and X)

But nah, they retcon too much anyway for me to keep up anywho...

zaymac
I dunno if I'd call it a plague.

...nor do i think it's a recent phenomenon.

A lot of folks like to read stuff with niche jokes and references that relate to their specific interests, especially if it's something that you have to be part of a certain subculture, community, or whatever to "get". I don't have any interest in gaming, so those kinds of comics are something that I don't pay attention to. They're just out there in the netherworld of the internet, along with pictures of cute kittens and videos of guys getting whacked in the nuts. Their existence doesn't bother me particularly.

zaymac
On a related note, I am working on a non sprite Super Mario story in the vain of The Dark Knight returns. Mario dissapears from the Mushroom kingdom and comes back as a complete old and grizzled badass 10 years later.

Actually, that sounds kind of awesome, sir.

I've been paying attention to the trend for some time, but even within the mold of gamer comics, there is a great mass of very similar and, quite frankly mainly unfunny, comics that are centered around two gamers and a couch.

The basic outline goes like this. You have a character that is a quirky, eccentric-type that is effectively the star of the show. This character, invariably, is based upon the writer and is generally an avatar for their wish fulfillment. There is also a straight man, someone who exists primarily for the eccentric to play off of, and who tends to play games on the sofa along with him. This character is occasionally based on the artist. Also, there is a girl. This girl is great at gaming, always, and always ends up falling for the eccentric author avatar for reasons that are never adequately explained. She is also a motherly figure most times and views the activities of that eccentric clod with a dismissive "boys will be boys" mentality. Finally, there is a thing, be it a plant or an animal or a toaster or a video game system or what have you, that ends up talking even though it has no business doing so in real life.

The storylines in these comics revolve around the eccentric and the straight man sitting on a couch talking about games, resulting in some joke of variable funnyness based on their conversation. Occasionally, the eccentric person builds or creates or buys something that causes a great deal of wacky mayhem.

Anyway, looking at all of this, I find myself fitting into the file of people who think they can do it better. And by better, I mean by deconstructing everything. First I would craft a world that mimics the typical scene. An eccentric, a straight man, a girl, a thing that shouldn't be a wisecracking sidekick but is, and so-forth. Then, as the strip goes on, even the characters start to catch on, and aren't particularly happy about it.

The thing that bothers me about video game comics is the references that you have to play a specific game to get. I'm just a casual gamer so I don't get a lot of them and when I do it usualy isn't funny. The only video game comic that is worth reading is ctrl+alt+delete, the jokes are more general, even if a particular game is mentioned you usually can get the joke and the rest of the time the joke isn't even about a video game but about the video gamer lifestyle.

lol!

How is this new?
Man, game comics have been a part of webcomic since the very beginning.

Some are cool, some are lame, like everything really.
It's a general interest thing and a lot of people spend all their time on games so many people can relate to the subject. Although the premise is pretty thin really and those that don't expand out of it tend to die.

-Game characters in a game world, or the real world: t
Thin, but there are some great comics that make it work well.

-Slice of life thing about two guys living together playing games all day:
Many lame ones. Many, many. Even most of the most popular ones. Playing games as a common interest between the two main characters is good at the start but goes from lame to plain pathetic and pitiable in the end if the comic goes on too long.
...Even when they expand, they still have that sad, dirty little secret core at their centre, tainting everything they'll ever do.
...but... some can break away, it has to be a fairly radical break though.

-Review comics:
If done well they work nicely! Game review comics and movie review comics are the main ones. They have a constant source of material so they can keep it fairly fresh seeming. -but when they turn into the slice of life crap it's a bad, bad sign.

It's fun to note that there are so few "gaming" comics that are actually about games as most of them are the internet persona of the author doing things he wish he could do in real life. Personally, I prefer the niche gaming comics which focus on a select product or company (like Nintendo Super Stars). I like seeing familiar characters rewritten as opposed to ORIGINAL CHAR PLZ DONT STEAL that are basically palette swaps of an existing property.

I've been thinking about making a two-panel daily gaming comic about roguelikes but a three-a-week comic is kicking my butt as is.

If its all about pwning n00bs I like it.