FINALLY, THE RETURN OF THE SPARKLE BRUSH, WE'VE WAITED SO LONG FOR ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO USE IT

So yeah, Nintendo is apparently forcing advertisements on youtube let's plays of their games. They get to stick an ad on the video and they get to keep the money. This is causing a bit of an uproar in the LP community I guess, but you know, I seriously don't get why. A lot of people depend on these LPs as their main source of income, and shit, why wouldn't Nintendo be knocking at your door if you are able to make enough money to LIVE ON just by playing their games for youtube? I can't see how anyone could get upset or offended by this. It's Nintendo's content. Just because you play it and say some words over it doesn't mean you now own that intellectual property and can make money off of it. Don't get me wrong, I love LPs. LOVE 'EM. But the people who live off these LPs are usually the ones I don't like because it's a job to them. The people I watch tend to be fans of video games who go into every little detail about why they love the game, and that's so much more interesting to me. I like to watch people who show off everything about the game and provide funny, intelligent commentary...but then, those people who show off everything about the game are why companies are looking to cut in. Because hell, I'd be pissed too if someone reuploaded Blaster Nation on another site, wrote all over it, and passed it off as creative content worthy of making money off of. 

That said, Leslie and I still totally want to play video games for you guys. Hasn't really happened yet because I'm currently working 60 hour weeks for god knows how long. But I don't think we'll be doing full-on LPs. Instead, we might try to come up with something that'll directly involve you guys, too. A Steam group might be in order. But that's later. See you Sunday!

Maybe not the big dramatic speech you guys were expecting, but I dunno, I think this is okay too. I like that you guys are trying to predict where the story is going. Seriously, it's really cool! But at the same time, I'm always a bit worried that I'm getting too predictable, or that if I don't do something that WASN'T predicted then you guys might not like it as much as what you had previously thought up. Trust me, I wanna be as unpredictable as possible without being completely contrarian. I just hope I don't disappoint in the process!

Anyways, I've been working some ridiculous hours and I wanna gossip about the latest Kitchen Nightmares debacle with Leslie and everyone else, so cuttin' this blog short. See you Friday!

Dan's really just upset that he keeps running into Dark Bead-spamming mages while Darkwraith invading in the Duke's Archives. The whole "Rinnie being an asshole" bit is just him taking out his frustrations.

So holy shit Leslie and I cannot contain our gargantuan hype-boners for the new Animal Crossing. We've been planning out EVERYTHING based on what we know. Originally, we were bummed out because only one of us gets to the mayor and we even thought about ponying up for a second 3DS just so we could both experience everything. But in the end, we decided to share the game and the town. Leslie's more concerned about making a super awesome house, while I've always been the guy who's super dedicated to making the most amazing town ever, so she relinquished the job of mayor to me. We're still gonna work together on making it awesome, though. Hell, we'll even try our hand at making some neat things that we can send any of you guys who might play Animal Crossing. Like shirts and furniture decorations, patterns n' shit. This game is going to consume us next month, so don't be suprised if every blog post thereafter is dedicated to Animal Crossing. Gonna get plenty of use out of the screencapping feature!

But that's all for now. Leslie's gonna go visit her parents today, so if you want to bug lil' ol' ME, you can abuse our Ask feature on the Blaster Nation tumblr! But until then, see you Wednesday~!

 Bluh, Leslie and I ate some bad food tonight and we ain't feelin' the best. This page was an absolute pain to do, but we still did it and I think it still came out pretty alright. But we're gonna go lie down and get some rest.

See you guys on Sunday!

 Remember how I said way back that I wanted to stream video games and shit for you guys? I THINK I remember saying that. 

 You might have noticed that the hobo has gotten a tiny bit of a redesign. Shorter hair, new clothes, less, uh...grotesque, I guess? I dunno, we never really liked how Theo came out in that one single page. He REALLY kind of stood out. I think with this new look, he looks like he actually belongs in the comic, he dresses more like an actual homeless person you can bump into in the street, and really seems more like he melds in with the rest of the cast. Which is good because we'll probably never see him again after this.

DUE TO POPULAR DEMAND, BLASTER NATION HAS BROUGHT BACK ITS MOST REQUESTED CHARACTER: THAT HOBO FROM CHAPTER 2

 Alright, so time for Brad's Super Interesting Video Game News. Played two awesome games since Wednesday. One of them was the newly released Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. Now, I didn't play Far Cry 3. Villain looked interesting, but I never gave it a chance. Thankfully, Blood Dragon is a standalone game, so I can continue to not give Far Cry 3 a chance. I mean, it looks fine enough, I'm just not that interested in it, and playing Blood Dragon kind of cements that. I love the open-world stuff and the options you have to take on missions, but the actual gunplay doesn't feel so hot to me. But then, I dunno, I'm kind of out of practice on PC FPS games, so I might just suck. Everything else is fan-fucking-tastic, though, seriously. The music is great, I love the neo-80s style, the humor is actually pretty great. I'm going to be really sad when neo-80s goes the way of steampunk, because fuck, I love it so much.

Second game I played was a little indie title called Papers Please, which has you play as an immigrant inspector controlling who is allowed to enter the fictional communist state of Arstotzka. Immigrants present their documents, and you pilfer through them for inconsistencies that might label them as spies, terrorists, or generally unfit for the current Arstotzka regimen. After you do your job for the day, you get a meagar salary which you spend entirely on keeping your family well-fed and/or warm, often having to sacrifice one of those options if you cannot afford both. It's a super interesting game that's still early on in development, but it's shaping up to be really damn cool. Really makes you feel like a poor guy just doing a morally questionable job in an awful part of the world. Definitely recommend trying it.

That's all for today though. Find out where the hell we're going with this on Sunday!

Oh man, Leslie did such a fantastic job on that last panel, jesus.

Look, I got nothin' for this update. I've been working, Leslie's been working, we've played some Monster Hunter and killed time with some Two Best Friends Play videos. We have pretty boring lives. Sometimes we work out, sometimes Leslie walks her chihuahua. A lot of our focus has actually been on Rock Cocks, since the next chapter coming up has a lot of ridiculous shit that needs to be thoroughly planned out before we just go charging in ass first. Still undecided on if we want to do some Blaster Nation one-shot comics after this chapter is over or if we're just going to skip right to the next chapter. 

But that's all for today. See you Friday! 

If only it were so easy for the rest of us

So, Leslie and I got Poker Night 2, even after I had previously expressed my doubts regarding the roster choice. But hey, it was five bucks, even a couple of poor saps like us could throw that away for what might be a good time. And y'know, it really has been. I'm fucking terrible at poker and lose all the time, but the experience isn't as unbearable as I thought it'd be. Claptrap is still quite clearly the weakest character in the group and Ash is a little TOO relient on the fact that he's, y'know, Ash (Boomsticks and Deadites, am I right? Guys?) but there's still some really great moments. I think maybe I'm just becoming a little TOO cynical when it comes to games, and now every little flaw I see, I just blow it up in my mind to the point where any new game is unplayable. So I think it was worth trying out, at least.

Still wish the animations were smoother and the conversations would repeat less, though.

In other news, Leslie's got a flat tire and I have some El Fudge cookies, so things are going great for one of us! We're also super thrilled with the sheer amount of comments the last page got. A lot of people are still divided, a few of you are actually getting really emotional about it, gaaawd it's so COOL. Any time something bums Leslie and I out, we just remind ourselves, "Yo, remember those comments we got?" And everything's brighter. For real, I hope you guys will like how this chapter ends!

But that's enough for now, I'mma let Leslie play some Poker Night. See you Wednesday! 

Well, that was easy.

I'm pretty sure I've gone over this before, but I really like giving each member of the Blaster Nation cast a family and background. I think the relationship each character has with their family is a pretty vital part in explaining just how each character grew up to be what they are. I'm also trying to make sure the dynamic between each character and their parents is unique enough from each other, so I hope I'm doing an okay job so far. Eventually, you'll see just about everyone's parents in BN. Hell, we might even do a chapter focusing exclusively on one of BN crew's parents. 

WE'RE DONE MOVING AND WE GOT PICTURES, GO SEE WHAT OUR NEW LIFE IS LIKE

We'll also be updating the site throughout the day, so watch out for that! 

I'mma cut this short since I still got some work to do, so see you later or on Wednesday, whichever you prefer!

Hey guys! Leslie and I are moving out into a brand new, super nice (in comparison to our old one) apartment! However, that means that all of our time is going to be spent on trying to make a suitable living space for ourselves with very little time to devote to comics. And even if we did have time, we wouldn’t have the internet to post them with. Seriously, I’m stealin’ wifi just to post these things on a shitty laptop. 

We’ll be back on Sunday though, with a new comic and hopefully some other goodies that we’re gonna surprise you with! But we seriously gotta boogie, so we’ll see you then!

- Brad

WELP

Oh my god, writing drill sergeant dialogue is the hardest fucking thing ever and I still don't think I got it quite right but jesus fuck, I have a whole new sense of appreciation for Full Metal Jacket

And yes, this will still all make sense in due time probably

So anyways, my wounds are healing up pretty nicely. Still got some baby scabs and shit, and my left hand doesn't work so good. Can't even turn a door without immense pain, but it'll go away eventually. Our new apartment is all nice and tidy, too. We just need to clean out the fridge and wait for our roommate to get his shit together and then we can MOVE ON OUT! SO excited for this new apartment, you have no idea. 

You've only got one day to discuss this page! Better do it fast, 'cause we'll see you on SUNDAY!

Don't worry, it'll all make sense in due time. 

So, yesterday was pretty interesting. I went on a walk with Leslie and her dog, tried to avoid an oncoming bee, and ended up swandiving into the concrete. Ended up really fucking up my hands, face, legs, and pride. Seriously, I have no idea how I totally messed up my everything just by tripping. I can type and play video games just fine, but god help me if I so much as try to lift up a pillow. AGONY. I should be fine in a couple days, but god damn am I sore and scuffed right now. 

In other news, our roommate's moving out, so Leslie and I are moving up! Like, literally, there's a one-room apartment cheaper than our current one right above our own. So we'll be moving over to the new apartment over the next week or so. We've been trying to get our own place for like, ever now, so this is pretty much our DREAM COME TRUE. Our roommate was a cool dude and all, but goddamn it's just going to be so great living together alone again. I'm hoping with the new apartment, I'll be able to set up the TV and consoles closer to the computers so Leslie and I can do LIVESTREAMS again! I've been wanting to get back into streaming shit for the longest time and I've always hyped it up to no avail. With my current job and our current roommate talking to his skype friends 24/7, it's super hard to do any recording shit, but that'll change with the NEW apartment~! Now we just need better recording hardware.

But that's it for today! See you guys on Friday! 

Man, it took eight hours to flat-color this page. Not because it was an especially difficult page to flat-color, but we found a youtube upload of the PAX "You Game Like a Girl: A Tale of Trolls and White-Knights" and oh my god it was so dumb that Leslie and I had to pause every two minutes and discuss how fucking stupid whatever it is we just heard was.

Like, seriously, I don't even know what we're complaining about anymore. Even in this panel, especially in this panel, they couldn't name a single derogatory example towards women beyond a few questionable scenes in the latest Tomb Raider game (which I agreed with, those scenes were so out of place. The whole damn reboot itself was unnecessary but I won't get into that). Instead, despite it being a panel on women in games like the name suggested, taking place at a gaming convention, they only brought up SEVERAL examples of sexism in COMICS. So, I mean, why didn't they just make the panel about sexism in comics? That would actually make sense and still be relevant. Why harp on video games because Mario still rescues a Princess when Greg Land can trace girls taking a dick, slap a superhero costume on them and call it a career? 

The problem with this panel as well as Tropes vs Women in Video Games is that they are still brining up plot devices and character designs from video games from games that are at least a decade old. I'm not sure if they've noticed, but the industry has taken significant strides in character designs and gender portrayals over the last several years. They constantly bring up shit like chainmail bikinis and stuff, but like, when's the last time you've seen any of those in a game? The Golden Axe reboot on 360, which bombed terribly?

Like, look, I know it's not perfect. I know gamers themselves are pretty shitty when it comes to interacting with girls, but that's not the industry's fault. That's terrible people in general. The games themselves are making it a point to be just as inclusive to women as they are to men, and it's pretty shitty to ignore all of that just because of some bad examples from the Super Nintendo era.

Edit: After some enlightening comments and a really amazing email detailing a list of very recent, terrible things that have gone on in this industry over the last two years, I realize that I was being just a a tad ignorant in my post. If you felt like I came off in my post saying "It's getting better guys, JEEZ, just shut up already", that was totally not my intention at all! I truly believe that the majority of the industry is taking strides to make things better for everyone, and I just don't want that to get washed away by the ones that make things worse. I'm not saying you shouldn't complain about these things, fuck no! I'm actually proud of our community because in situations like the Dead Island tit statue, we're able to come down on them like hellfire and stop things before it goes on for too long. I just think that the PAX Panel we mentioned was totally the wrong way to do it. It came off as unfocused and pointless because they instead focused more on the problems of cape comics instead of the problems of video games.  And because I was so frustrated at how pointless it seemed, I forgot about shit that's super terrible and important. Shit like Mojang security ignoring a girl being sexually harassed at their presentation. Shit like everything posted in this blog. Sexism is still a serious topic of discussion in this industry, and I just got a little upset because not only did the panel not bring up any of those issues, but it also ignored those that try their best to be inclusive. 

Thank you guys for sticking with us and I'll try not to sound too much like a shitlord in the future

So, interesting past couple of days. Leslie went fishing with her dad and caught two fish, and then my roommate gave himself a big dumb concussion and had to go get medical attention. Don't worry though, Leslie threw her fish back. 

God, I can't believe Easter's finally over. Now we have to wait until October before more o' that GOOD candy hits grocery store shelves.

Leslie's gotta go watch a little baby kid while her parents go do important business stuff. She's gonna be gone until Wednesday, so unfortunately, we're gonna have to skip that update. We'll be back on Friday with your usual Blaster Nation! Hell, maybe even a Rock Cocks or something too. Until then, come bother me onTumblr/Twitter/Facebook whatever because I'm going to be SO ALONE. 

See you on Friday!  

No Monster Hunter news today! Instead, we have CONVENTION news!