[WHAT IS +/-?]

[+/-] is a series of “Graphic Reviews” of games (with some shorts and other media on occasion), featuring the optimistic Eishi playing up the “pro” side of the subject and her co-host Dixie pointing out the flaws and making cheap shots at the material. I aim to point out what I think are the biggest perks as well as the most grating issues of the game, and let the reader decide who “wins.” Er, outside of the early strips where they’re actually keeping score.

[WTF IS A “GRAPHIC REVIEW?”]

Rather than just another “gaming humor” strip, I thought it would be interesting to use a webcomic as the medium for looking a bit deeper at a game than just pointing out something quirky, turning out a newspaper-size strip about it, then putting the extended impressions of the game in an accompanying blog post.

[WHAT IS YOUR UPDATE SCHEDULE?]

I don’t have a fixed one, but I try for bi-weekly updates, or at the least monthly. It may not seem like much but each review strips is actually about 4-6 letter size pages plastered together, so when you factor in The Day Job plus time to actually play the games on top of drawing out, inking and coloring the whole thing… Would be nice if I could do this sort of thing full time, though!

[WHY ARE THE EARLY STRIPS SO CRAPPY? WILL THEY BE REDONE?]

Well, considering the Mass Effect 3 strip makes a gag about the art shift, I intend to leave the early strips as is for posterity’s sake. The Sharpie comics were done kind of on the fly (a couple were done at the counter of my day job!)  They were sort of an experiment/challenge to see how well I could do them with no guide lines or do-overs. I may go back and “remaster” the first one for legibility’s sake down the line, though.

I like to think since starting this strip I’ve improved quite a lot! Seeing the improvement over time, especially in the coloring cheers me up when I look at the archives.

[CAN WE FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE CHARACTERS!?]

I’ve actually put together a pretty nice backstory for everyone, including how the girls met and wound up with their reviewing gig. I was kicking around doing it as a short print zine for a donation incentive, that way I can keep the site chiefly game-centric but still get the story out there. Then again, they may find their way up here anyway. Until then, uh… Dixie’s got mob ties.

[WHY SO MANY OLD OR WEIRD GAMES?]

It’s been kind of the “theme” my site (and tastes) have carried for a long time- one, being kind of a cheapskate and two, I like giving lesser known games a spotlight. I also usually prefer to play “big” titles after the initial buzz has died so I don’t get caught up in the hype. Which coincides nicely with being a cheapskate.