Erfworld - Update Controversy and Recurring Tardiness

Update Controversy and Recurring Tardiness

Shortly after the successful funding of the Erfworld "Year of the Dwagon" Kickstarter project in March 2012, author Rob Balder announced a hiatus on updates for the text-only prequel story, "Inner Peace (Through Superior Firepower)" until June 6, 2012, as well as the return of the Erfworld Book 2 comic updates on the same date. This announcement caused significant controversy among his fans, especially since Balder had indicated during the Kickstarter that any hiatus was unintentional, and that "Inner Peace" updates would be continuing shortly. After several days of back-and-forth among fans on the Erfworld forums, and among fans and Balder on the Erfworld Facebook page, all discussion regarding the issue of Erfworld updates was deleted from both places. These deletions were confirmed as policy by Balder shortly thereafter.

Starting with the return of comic updates on June 6, 2012, Erfworld updated regularly, with one comic page and one text update per week, for almost six months. Unfortunately, due to illness on the part of the artist, Xin Ye, there were only two comic page updates for the month of December 2012, along with five text updates by Balder, while January 2013 has also been sporadic. There have not been any formal announcements regarding a revised regular update schedule.

The current delays come as part of recurring tardiness issues for Erfworld, a problem which is not uncommon to webcomics. For example, Issue 2 of Book 2, "It's Raining Men," was announced for pre-order in October 2011, for release prior to Christmas 2011. As of May 13, 2012, Issue 2 of Book 2 still has not shipped, although a new "guarantee" date of June 6 appears to have been promised. Issue 1 of Book 2, "Meet the Jetstones," was announced for pre-order in May 2010, for release in September or October 2010. After numerous delays, "Meet the Jetstones" was finally shipped in May 2011. Book 1, "The Battle for Gobwin Knob," was announced for pre-order in November 2011, for "guaranteed" release by March 1, 2011. After numerous delays, "The Battle for Gobwin Knob" was finally shipped in May 2011, although due to apparent customer service representative issues for which Balder apologized, some customers still had not received their orders as of October 2011 and January 2012.