Captain Gamer: OOC

Captain Gamer: OOC is a hosted comic created by Captain Gamer.
== Specifics ==
Captain Gamer: OOC is currently conducted under the following components.
* The comic strip is created using three programs. Basic background and sprite placement is done in MS Paint, all special effects such as darkening or color swapping are done in MS Photo Editor, and all text is done using a combination of MS Word and the Print Screen Function.
* Eight (8) panels for normal comic strips, one (1) panel for certain random parodies, and any number of panels for special extended events such as fight scenes. (Strip #22 contained 20 panels and Strip #74 contained 12 panels)
* Five-pixel thick panels with two black lines on the outermost, two gray lines midmost, and one light gray line in the middle. Each panel contains a 256 x 224 area excluding 10 pixels in each corner for design purposes. An 11 x 6 area is hollowed out in the upper right corner of the final panel of a comic strip for the signature.
* Font is 7-point Digital Strip, a font from the website Blambot. Size varies for aside comments or exclamations. Text bubbles are used and created through Microsoft Word's circular "callout" tool.
* The sprite styles vary wildly, but the main style (used in the storyline arcs) is in the style of Street Fighter Alpha. This is accompanied by the similar sprite styles of Darkstalkers, Marvel vs. Capcom, and Capcom vs. SNK.
== History ==
Captain Gamer: OOC began on March 8, 2006 as a feature on Captain Gamer's website called The GamerHang. It was created alongside its sister project Captain Gamer: Digital Defender, which is a written story. Even though they debuted at the same time, Captain Gamer apparently dedicated more time and effort to the comic strip than the story, which he claims should have been the other way around.
The comic strip was first showcased in the forums of a website called Neko's House where Captain Gamer received moderate feedback.
After a suggestion to showcase his work elsewhere, Captain Gamer moved his focus into the Bob and George fancomics forum. For a few months Captain Gamer worked on his comic strip and received mostly positive feedback. On August 20, 2006 Captain Gamer: OOC was inducted as a fancomic and is still running today.
== The World of Captain Gamer ==
=== Background Information ===
The world of Captain Gamer: OOC is based off of his story “Digital Defender.”
The “real” world of a near future discovers a new technology called “Digital Reality.” With it trace elements in the atmosphere can be gathered and fit to any 3-D model. In other words, literally anything can be created from literally thin air.
To test out Digital Reality, video game heroes were created. Somehow the technology fell into evil hands and those hands created video game villains. Somewhere in-between, Captain Gamer appears and offers help to the heroes.
Captain Gamer (the author) estimates that Captain Gamer: OOC begins about two or three years after Digital Reality was first used to create video game characters. In this time video game characters dot the real world or reside in their own worlds which are all reachable through portals or space faring craft.
Since the characters were created, and not "taken from their world," technically, any adventures and conflicts depicted in their games programmed into their memory has not happened. Since every video game canon exists in the Captain Gamer universe as video games and not real events, this makes the Captain Gamer universe not in canon with any video game universe. Whether or not a character accepts or cares about this paradox differs.
=== The “Worlds” ===
Unlike most fictional worlds concerning video games, the world of Captain Gamer is not a multiverse. Since video game characters exist due to Digital Reality and not some sort of contrived dimensional travel, there are no indications of actual alternate universes that they can come from.
In strip #52 it is established that the different “worlds” are created just like the video game characters, through Digital Reality. Instead of being entire universes, the “worlds” are actually created planets with considerable distance away from Earth, which is also referred to by characters as "World Zero".
Characters from video games that take place in the modern world (such as Street Fighter) simply reside in World Zero.
=== Shifting Sprite Styles ===
Captain Gamer: OOC uses a wide variety of sprite styles when a sprite comic normally uses one. It appears that when the focus of the comic shifts to another world, so does the style of the comic strip. The “real world” AKA World Zero is in the sprite style of Street Fighter Alpha and similar sprite styles. Other worlds featuring other games are done in respective styles.
The styles for both Rating Time Shows and Pocket Breaks are both done in the style of SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millenium for Neo Geo Pocket Color. This may be for the sake of promoting the easygoing and lax atmosphere of both types of content, not to mention a detachment from the storyline.
== Characters ==
=== The "Gamers" ===
==== Captain Gamer ====
* Origin: Captain Gamer: Digital Defender
* Debut: Strip #1
* Also known as: Gamer, Captain, Cap.
* The titular protagonist of the comic strip. The quick description on the fansite refers to him as “...a video game-charged superhero...”
* Gamer is about 5 feet and 8 inches tall. His hair is dark brown and his eyes are hazel. He wears a cobalt t-shirt with the letters “CG” on them with a black long-sleeved shirt underneath. He wears black denim jeans and white shoes with three blue stripes on each. He is mostly seen wearing his silver visor which appears to be his trademark.
* Apparently Gamer is able to copy abilities using his visor, as indicated during strip #22 in which Mega Man and Nintendo character Kirby appear during the fight scene to comment on how they “taught him everything they knew” about power copying (even though Kirby only seemed interested in getting something to eat). This copying seems to be Gamer’s “power”. A few times Gamer’s visor has been lifted off his face purely for comical reasons.
* In strip #73, it was revealed that Gamer earns his powers through befriending characters. The "copying" he did with Sakura were actually "mind games."
* Gamer's two main weapons, as has appeared in the comic and established in "Digital Defender," are the Beam Sword and Super Scope, both Game Cards and from the Super Smash Bros. games.
* When Gamer uses attacks with Japanese names, his proclamation of the attack's name is in English.
* Starting in strip #48, Gamer stopped wearing the visor all the time .(mainly because Sakura keeps holding on to it)
* Unlike the typical super hero depicted in film, television, comic books, and even some video games, Captain Gamer comes off as an easygoing and wide-eyed personality, sometimes to the point of naiveté. For the most part, however, he seems to have his most basic priorities in check and knows when to be aloof and when to get serious.
* Not a lot is currently known about Gamer. It was revealed in strip #24 that he lives in an undisclosed location known only as the “GamerHang.” Where he comes from, if he has any family, and other such details have not been explored yet.
* Captain Gamer has a preference for playing as female characters in video games. According to strip #42, Gamer "developed a bias" for characters with agility over power, which in his experience tend to be females. Czar Gamer also makes a comment that Captain is "in love with every moderately attractive video game female."
* Oddly complimenting to his love of female characters, Gamer is weak to his own horomones, as has been invoked when he was kissed during the Kasugano Arc and lost the upper hand in a fight.
* Captain Gamer's catch phrase is "It's game time!" which also appears in the comic's description in the main fansite.
* In strip #92, Gamer's eyes glowed green and through his visor. This has been the only time it has happened. Since Gamer has used Game Cards before without glowing eyes, it only seems to happen when Gamer feels particularly heroic.
==== Czar Gamer ====
* Origin: Captain Gamer: Digital Defender
* Debut: Strip #32 (He was first seen obscurely in strip #17 during a flash back, but he makes his first real appearance into the canonical storyline in #32)
* Also known as: Czar.
* The darker and doppelganger-esque rival to Captain Gamer.
* Czar looks a lot like Captain but with some big differences. Czar’s over shirt is red instead of cobalt but still has the letters “CG” on them. Czar’s visor is black instead of silver and in addition Czar wears a brown trench coat. Czar’s shoes also only have one stripe on the front where Captain’s shoes have two additional stripes on the sides.
* When Czar uses a Game Card or just feels particularly villainous, he is prone to having his eyes glow and show through the visor in a menacing shape.
* Czar weilds a wrist blade similar to Captain's Beam Sword, except the blade is not a Game Card and is actually part of Czar's being. He is able to use Game Cards just like Captain, though obtaining them through "linking" is still in question for Czar. Another of his main weapons could be the Needler gun, but it has only appeared once and only in this comic.
* Czar is also able to access some sort of "interface" when he loses consciousness. From there he can redirect energy so that he can keep fighting. Even though this proves nothing for sure, it has solidified the theory that Czar is a digitally realized being.
* Czar assumes the mannerisms of the archetypical rival to a protagonist. He has a confident stride about him and treats Captain with an odd comradery that may or may not be false.
* Where there is little known about Captain, even less is known about Czar. Pretty much all that it known about him is that he is as much of a fan of gaming as Captain and seemingly holds a goal in “crushing” Captain. In strip #33 he describes how the public supposes he was created through Digital Reality by evil to be Captain’s rival. Since this is a reflection on public opinion, there is no concrete indication as to Czar’s origins.
* Czar generally enjoys playing as villains in video games if he can. If not, then any character who is "dark" in the general sense. An acception is noted in strip #42 when Captain hints that Czar's Final Fantasy XI character is a Mithra. Czar responds, with equally obscure rhetoric, that he wanted to be "magically efficient," but he would not be a Taru.
* Czar's phrase appears to be "Prepare for defeat!" as he has said it a few times and each time before a fight.
=== Captain's Crew ===
==== Sakura Kasugano ====
* Origin: Street Fighter Alpha 2
* Debut: Strip #13
* A Digitally Realized Japanese school girl and Street Fighter.
* Sakura uses an emulation of the same martial art style as Ryu and Ken. As part of it she is able to gather energy in the "hadouken" attacks that Ryu and Ken are known for.
* Sakura is obsessed with Street Fighting and tends to put everything in terms of Street Fighting. This is the only time when she is pleasant because any other time she tends to be firey and unagreeable.
* From the get-go, Sakura did not think much of Captain Gamer. She found him rather "dorky" and generally did not enjoy the thought of having to be around him. Over time, however, Gamer's tolerant and patient nature appeared to grow on her if not only a little. Now she is of a better nature. In fact, a little of that wide-eyed agreeability had rubbed off from Captain Gamer.
* In strip #50, Sakura blushes when admitting that she gets along with Gamer fine. There have been speculations as to the meaning, but Captain Gamer (the author) only asserts that it is possible that Sakura could just be enjoying his company that much.
* In strip #71, Sakura sees Gamer in peril and hugs him in some sort of emotional burst. Any speculation about romantic indications were firmly reinforced. Captain Gamer, the author, remains tight-lipped about any indications that may come from the display of affection.
* In strip #79, Sakura outright refuses to be considered normal. This may be a confirmation that Sakura will never be willing to be a normal girl, much against Kei's wishes.
==== Kirby ====
* Origin: Kirby's Dream Land
* Debut: Strip #51
* A Digitally Realized pink ball-shaped creature.
* Kirby has the ability to inhale powerfully and fill himself with air. He can use this to float. In addition he can suck in enemies or objects. There is a chance that something Kirby swallows will give him one of a selection of "powers."
* It has been theorized that the Captain Gamer version of Kirby is like the Smash Bros. version of Kirby who always has powers like the stone, the ninja throw, and final cutter with him all the time. Since all of Kirby's powers have come from eaten objects, this theory is just conjecture.
* Kirby takes on the persona of the archetypical small and cute creature. He merrily goes about his way doing his own thing, which most likely concerns eating. Underneath this lies a heroic precociousness. When a situation presents itself, Kirby will step up to help out.
* When Sakura couldn't stop talking about Street Fighting, Captain Gamer pulled out Kirby who was filled with water for some reason to douse her. From then on Kirby has been seen around Gamer or Sakura.
=== Czar's Crew ===
Unfortunately for him, Czar appears to only enjoy his own company and only requires his own company.
=== "NPCs" ===
The term "NPC" is an informal term for characters who appear in the canonical storyline but are not seen in the comic strip as often as the others.
==== Felicia ====
* Origin: Darkstalkers
* Debut: Strip #1
* A Digitally Realized feline woman who apparently has no home. She seems content just wandering around the city, though.
* Felicia is part human and part cat. This gives her strength and agility above normal people, as well as a mean set of claws.
* A whimsical and hyperactively cheerful being, Felicia seems to want to be friends with anybody she comes across. 
* Felicia has appeared in two canonical comic strips. Oddly enough they were the formal introductions for both Captain and Czar Gamer.
==== Kei Chisote ====
* Origin: Street Fighter Alpha 2
* Debut: Strip #13
* A Digitally Realized Japanese school girl and best friend to Sakura.
* Kei is not a fighter. In fact, the sole purpose of being created was to keep a watch on Sakura.
* Kei is a quiet, normal schoolgirl who enjoys her quiet, normal life. She is a little distressed when Sakura relishes in being a Street Fighter over being a girl.
* In the Kasugano Arc Kei found her courage and spoke up to Sakura about her rampant Street Fighting. Just in time, Captain Gamer arrives to help out. Kei eagerly leaves Captain Gamer in charge and Sakura without a choice.
==== Ninja Kitty ====
* Origin: Darkstalkers
* Debut: Strip #47
* A Digitally Realized cat girl. She is one of the kittens from Felicia's "Please Help Me" attack, but wearing a ninja hood and mask.
* Ninja Kitty has not exhibited any special powers, but she appears to be skilled at hiding and popping up where it may not be physically possible.
* Ninja Kitty is energetic and mischevious but generally just wanting to help out.
* Ninja Kitty has only appeared once so far and has been referred to by name. She spied on Sakura at Captain Gamer's request.
==== Ken Masters ====
* Origin: Street Fighter 2 
* Debut: Strip #55 
* A Digitally Realized martial artist. 
* Ken is programmed in the same martial art as his former training partner Ryu. He can skillfully engage in hand-to-hand combat as well as employ the "hadoken" energy ball attack. His trademark is his "shoryuken" dragon uppercut in which he uppercuts with an ignited fist. 
* Ken is authoratative, blunt, and as fierce a tacher as he is competitive. Despite all this, he is still relatively light of heart and approachable. 
* Ken runs a dojo that Sakura appears to frequent, probably warm-up training before she takes herself under Ryu's wing. he was given a formal introduction in The Kasugano Arc.
==== Mai Shiranui ====
* Origin: Fatal Fury
* Debut: Strip #67
* A Digitally Realized "Ninjitsu Beauty".
* Mai has had extensive ninjitsu training, or at least has been programmed to know as much. She exhibits proficiency with using a fan as a melee weapon as well as moving with stealth and striking hard enough to sting later. She is also able to throw those fans hard enough to cause damage and produce more from somewhere inside her clothing. Those fans can also catch fire for attacking purposes.
* So far, Mai has only exhibited a weary frustration that causes her to be intolerant and ill-tempered.
* When Mai was released from mind control, her real personality shown through. Her demeanor is mischeviously playful when engaged in combat, though behind it all is a genuinely concerned personality who works well with and for others.
* During The Kasugano Arc, Mai lead an army of ninjas that planned to kidnap the president, or some other nefarious act. A life of little to no appreciation drove her to crime. This is actually proven false when it is revealed she was under mind control. Apparently, none of the previous motives were true at all. When she got back up, she turned around and began to attack Czar to vent an irrational anger and to protection Captain Gamer.
== Content ==
Captain Gamer: OOC has a storyline, but a good number of strips are dedicated to filler content that seem to serve more as their own part of the comic strip instead of just filling space when there are is no storyline to tell for the day.
=== Random Parodies ===
Random parodies are one-shot comic strips featuring a character edited to have features of Captain Gamer that take an aspect of a game (such as storyline, play mechanics, game physics, etc.) and puts a twist in them leading to a punch after a long wind-up. Originally all of Captain Gamer: OOC was going to be random parodies. These were met with cold reception. When Captain Gamer (the author) tried for a multiple-strip random parody, it evolved into the first storyline arc and radically changed the outlook for the comic strip.
There has been some confusion as to the implications of the random parodies. According to Captain Gamer, (the author) the random parodies are not in canon with the rest of the comic strip. They are just for a quick laugh. The use of Captain Gamer edits could be taken one of many ways. Either the character is Captain Gamer, which allows for the character to take on a new persona without being untrue to the actual character, or the comic strip is Captain Gamer playing the game with the edit being the character who Gamer is playing as. Either way, it should just be known that the canonical Captain Gamer does not freely travel between worlds on a regular basis.
=== Rating Time Shows ===
Occasionally instead of a canonical strip or any other type of filler, the strip will feature an episode of “Captain Gamer’s Rating Time Show” in which Captain Gamer, represented in the popular Neo Geo Pocket Color style, will review a single video game. The first panel is always the same for each Rating Time Show. Gamer ends by giving the game a rating from 1 to 5 “Pac-Mans” (akin to “stars” used by film critics).
So far there have been two Rating Time Shows:
* Strip #26 (MegaMan Battle Network [4/5 Pac-Mans])
* Strip #30 (Sonic Riders [3/5 Pac-Mans])
=== Pocket Breaks ===
These breaks from the action consist of Captain Gamer and Czar Gamer standing out in some nondescript field having a discussion about gaming. These have ranged from talking about game systems to individual games. So far only Gamer and Czar have been featured in these segments.
=== Storyline Arcs ===
Most of the comic strip takes place in a canonical storyline. Even though the past events have bearing on future arcs, there is no one unifying theme throughout the storyline such as an ultimate evil to destroy or organization to foil. Events just happen and the universe of Captain Gamer continues to be fleshed out.
Unlike most comic strips that begin at the start of a story, Captain Gamer: OOC begins in an established world. Captain Gamer (the author) wishes to show the world as is and the Captain Gamer character from other perspectives other than the protagonist's own.
== The Story So Far ==
The storyline for Captain Gamer: OOC has developed as follows. The following does not include any random parodies, Rating Time Shows, or Pocket Breaks.
Recently, Captain Gamer (the author) added indicators in the names of comics, resulting in a majority of them prefixed with the current arc name.
These arcs are shown in chronological order and are explained in their entirety so there may be spoilers present.
=== The Kasugano Arc ===
An adventure in the Mushroom Kingdom gone wrong sends Captain Gamer flying through worlds back to World Zero where he meets up with Sakura. At the request of Kei, he becomes a mentor of sorts for Sakura to help her become less obsessed with Street Fighting.
Kei leaves Sakura in Gamer’s hands because she leaves for a vacation in China. Sakura does not trust Gamer and challenges him to a Street Fight for the right to help her out. Gamer uses his visor to copy Sakura’s moves and defeat her with them.
Sakura submits to letting Gamer help her with her Street Fighting obsession. His plan is to get her involved in video games to take the place of Street Fighting. While that works, he gets her to concentrate on schoolwork and other more feminine activities.
=== Intermission ===
At this point, the story breaks from the Kasugano Arc. This is indicated from the lack of any arc name before the comic title. Since Sakura is nowhere to be seen for most of it, and the story has nothing to do with her, it makes sense.
Captain Gamer’s rival in gaming, Czar Gamer, emerges from the shadows to challenge Captain to friendly competition. The game: Sonic Adventure 2 Battle!
The first round is the action stages. Captain chooses Amy Rose and Czar chooses Shadow the hedgehog. Captain uses Amy’s ability to attack with only 10 rings to keep Czar in a state of constant freeze and easily win. This leads to a short lecture on the ethics of the “play to win” mentality.”
The second round is the mech battling. Captain chooses Tails and Czar chooses Eggman. With thorough knowledge of how Eggman's vulcan cannon works, Czar easily wins, tying up the game for the treasure hunt.
The third and final round is the treasure hunt. Czar refuses to play as Rouge since he doesn't consider her "dark" and plays as Chaos instead. Captain, on the other hand, does play as Rouge for the same reason. This inspires a small dialogue on why Captain likes to play as female characters in games. Captain secures the first Emerald shard in a crate. Since none of them had collected rings, Czar takes the opportunity to knock Captain out for a short time. Czar uses the opportunity to get the second Emerald shard. The third Emerald shard laid out in the open. Captain used Rouge's "Drill Drive" attack to quick descend and get the shard just before Czar got to it.
Czar admits defeat and leaves the GamerHang, or at lease tries. He ends up getting lost and needing directions.
=== The Kasugano Arc Continued ===
The Kasugano Arc continues with Sakura not sticking to Gamer's program. Per this he starts spending time with her again. In the process they get to know a little more about each other.
Later Gamer tests Sakura's restraint with Street Fighting annecdotes. Sakura goes overboard, unfortunately. Gamer is forced to pull an object in the image of the video game character Kirby from somewhere and squirt Sakura with water. After Sakura recovers, it is revealed that the object Gamer used actually is Kirby.
At some point Sakura visits Ken Masters's dojo. There he tells Sakura about Gamer's past as a super hero. Sakura cannot believe him since the contents of Gamer's adventures are apparently very serious and disheartening, not like Gamer at all.
Gamer's carefree side and his serious side as told by Ken conflict tremendously and Sakura doesn't know what to believe. One day, Gamer gets a call on his visor. Suddenly all seriouslike, he is warned about an evil plan. Gamer tells Sakura he has to take care of it and she should go home. Kirby indicates he wants to follow and Sakura agrees. They both follow Gamer.
Gamer appears in a warehouse where the ninjas are. He shortly finds Sakura and Kirby having followed him... as well as his rival, Czar Gamer! Czar tells Gamer about what is going on, and even reveals the identity of the leader of the ninjas, Mai Shiranui of Fatal Fury and King of Fighters fame.
At this point, a ninja discovers Gamer hiding and triggers the beginning of a battle. Gamer battles back ninjas while Sakura keep trying to find Mai, but only encounters more ninjas, and lasers. Mai eventually comes to Gamer and they fight. After Mai delivers a harsh kick, Gamer gets a second wind after delivering a speech about true heroism. After dispatching more ninjas, Mai's kick comes back to bite him and he is quickly down. Sakura, moved by the earlier speech, makes it known that she respects Gamer's decision to be a hero, which causes a "link" to form between them. It gave Gamer Sakura's "unique data" and a third wind.
All seems well until Czar returns and holds Sakura hostage. He then reveals how he is, in fact, at the helm of the operation using an antiquity which is actually a beacon that can control ninjas. With Sakura's life in Czar's grasp, Captain has no choice but to throw the fight with the ninjas. Sakura takes matters into her own hands by using Kirby as a distraction to destroy the beacon, releasing control of Mai and causing the ninjas to disappear. Filled with a sense of spirit, Gamer and Sakura use a team Shinkuu Hadouken/Vacuum Surge Fist as a finishing blow to Czar.
As Sakura enjoys the victory, she claims her inability to be normal. Captain at first seems distraught at this, but then he pushes her aside and immediately is stabbed from behind in the shoulder by Czar! Czar claims that Sakura's disregard for the gravity of the situation made her attack weak. As soon as he makes for a fatal blow, Mai returns to pick up the fight! Furthermore, she actually shows signs of having the upper hand. Meanwhile Kirby returns and tries to use a Maxim Tomato to revive Captain to little effect. Czar uses a Game Card of his own, the "Orange Charge," which shifts the advantage over to him. Sakura joins Mai and together they provide ample challenge for Czar. The fight seems won when Mai traps Czar in a hold and Sakura leaps for a crushing blow, only to see that the blow had actually hit Mai! Distracted, Sakura does not see Czar come back again and cut her with his sword. Czar has no time to celebrate before Kirby comes from above in his stone form. Czar is knocked out, but reroutes his energy to allow himself to regain consciousness. From there Czar takes advantage of Kirby's inability to transform while in contact with a person to defeat Kirby.
No sooner does is seem like Czar is finally victorious is when Captain returns to the fight, holding up Czar with a Super Smash Bros. style Super Scope! Apparently Kirby's tomato worked, but only in waking Captain up. While Captain explains how he woke up, he charged his Super Scope and Czar moved away from point-blank range. Since Captain used a projectile weapon, Czar figured he ought to as well and produced his own weapon, the Needler from the Halo games.
== Praises and Criticisms of Captain Gamer: OOC ==
Captain Gamer: OOC has received mostly positive feedback since its induction as a fancomic. The most immediate praise came from the competent and dynamic skill used in creating the sprite comic. Where most sprite comic authors just paste sprites on a background and create text boxes, Captain Gamer: OOC goes a step further by modifying faces for expressions. Certain reactions are overacted by the characters. Dynamic use is made of zooming in, or increasing the size of the scene while keeping the panel the same size to make it appear as if a “camera” was “zooming in” on the scene. Other touches like changing of the background or eliminating the background altogether during dialogues give readers the sense that Captain Gamer: OOC has more care put into it than the typical obscure sprite comic.
Another aspect of the comic (and hurdle that Captain Gamer "ducked") was the persona of characters. When Captain Gamer uses a character in his comic strip, they arguably stay in character true to their original creation. While most sprite comic authors (except Bob and George) tend to rely on clichés or humorous stereotypes for characterization, Captain Gamer's faithful representations are arguable a breath of fresh air amongst the crowd of the odd and ill-fitting.
One commonly voiced approval comes from the self-insert and protagonist Captain Gamer. Sprite comics are infamous for self-inserts who are godmodders, perfect in any way. The Captain Gamer character, however, is arguably far from that description. Captain Gamer is not pretentious or short-fused or full of himself or dark like most self-inserts. Instead he is a child-like individual who seems interested only in helping others. His tendencies to act heroic make him look ridiculous in the end. Captain Gamer (the author) also makes no effort to have the character avoid humiliation. For instance in strip #37 Czar randomly punches Captain off a couch for stress release purposes. Instead of retaliating or avoiding the hit, Captain takes the hit and lies half off-panel. This type of humility is also rarely seen in sprite comics.
Not only Captain but Czar's personality has been noteworthy as well. Czar has been called a "genuinely competent villain." By that, he falls for none of the typical villain stereotypes and conducts his plots with utmost care and consideration. Any mess-ups he's had has been due to realistic miscalculation and not gross incompetence.
The criticisms of Captain Gamer: OOC are few but relevant. The most commonly voiced criticism about the comic strip is about Captain Gamer's minor edits. A lot of random parodies use varying sprite styles which means in order for the Captain Gamer character to appear, the author will have to create or edit a sprite in the appropriate style to keep from style mixing. These edits have not been met as warmly as could be, even though no fans have yet spoken out against these edits. Even Captain Gamer (the author) admits that some of his edits are not the best.
Captain Gamer (the author) has also had a fair amount of run-ins with the Japanese language, either through mistranslation or misrepresenting Japanese words in English letters. He has yet to be called out on it, but it has happened a fair amount of times and each time Bob and George forum members have stepped in to correct him. So far, these incidents have all been in good spirits, or at least not bad.
== Trivia ==
* Captain Gamer: OOC was orignally updated daily with no break except when the main site was experiencing trouble. This ended with October 27, 2006's update. After that, he updated every other day until November 4, 2006's update. Since then he has had hit-and-miss efforts at making every-other-day updates.
* The style of Captain Gamer: OOC has changed in the duration of the comic strip. It started out like most sprite comics by using text boxes and four-pixel-thick panels.
On strip #23, the comic featured round text bubbles and Britannica Bold font. On strip #24, the font changed to Eras Demi ITC. Starting strip #34, Eras Bold ITC was occasionally used for emphasis on certain words.
On strip #25, the panels changed. Instead of purely black lines the panels were now lined with five-panel-wide “pipes” that are gray in color. This is unorthodox since most sprite comic authors are content with separating their panels with black lines.
On strip #71, the text bubbles began to be generated through a combination or Microsoft Word's callout tool and the Print Screen function.
On strip #74, the text bubbles were thickened to 2 points, and the font was changed to a free Blambot font, Digital Strip.
* The “OOC” addition to the name stands for “Out of context.” This refers to the fact that the comic strip is in canon with the story “Digital Defender,” but the story deals with the main conflict surrounding Digital Reality. Captain Gamer: OOC deals with adventures that would not fit in the “Digital Defender” story and would be deemed irrelevant. Not only that, but the comic strip is also a gaming comic with commentary and reviews, geared toward direct application in the world of gaming. “Digital Defender” keeps to itself and only concentrates on being its own story.
* In strip #72, Gamer uses the Hadouken attack, but says it in English, "Surge Fist." Originally, the author used the mistranslated "Wave Motion Fist," but was quickly corrected by forumgoers.
* In strip #87, Sakura blushes when Mai trips and her head almost collides with Sakura's abdomen, and again in #89 when Mai traps Czar between her legs. Even though the reasons are feaseable, why Captain Gamer (the author) bothers to include these subtle touches is purely a stylistic method.
* There are various non-blatant game references sprinkled throughout the comic strip.
The character appearing in the final panel of strip #19 is the Mouser boss from Super Mario Bros. 2.
The imp that appears in strip #23 is an enemy from Chrono Trigger.
Captain Gamer's exclamation in strip #36 is a reference to the Zerg Rush tactic in Warcraft accompanied by a similar exclamation by Japanese players.
The game that Captain Gamer and Sakura are playing in strip #50 is supposed to be Super Smash Bros. Melee.
The fifth panel in strip #57 comes from the introduction of Bad Dudes, which is commonly quoted. In addition, the two character appearing in the final panel are Ristar and Rayman.
In strip #58, Gamer notices footsteps with a huge '!' appearing. The author claims it was supposed to be a reference to the Metal Gear games, but it seems to have gone over every fan's head.
Gamer says "Miss!" In strip #66, which is a reference to any role playing game that uses a mechanic that causes attacks to miss. It just so happens that "Miss" is a commonly used joke in the Bob and George forums Custom Comic Thread.
In strip #75, Gamer claims "I feel like cooking!" after the battle with the ninjas is allegedly finished. This is a "far cry reference" to Tales of Symphonia, in which it is possible to cook after an encounter.
The "antiquity" that Czar uses to control the ninjas and Mai in The Kasugano arc is actually a sprite of Sasuke from the Ganbare Goemon series recolored.
In strip #78, the title, "The Super Power of TEAMWORK!" is based off an infamous line from the game Sonic Heroes.
Czar's comment in strip #82 refers to the game "Super Princess Peach" in which Peach uses her emotions to bestow abilities.
Strip #88's "punch line" is a reference to any and every fighting game out there. "Round 2" Didn't restore any status, though.
Strip #89's title "Turnabout Czar" is a reference to the episode titles from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Category:Old Comics
Category:Captain Gamer: OOC