Here it is for the world to see!!!!

Watch more cool animation and creative cartoons at aniBoom

Hey out there you lovers of cartooning and the like! A work buddy of mine, Steve Sloan, has been doing some independent animation work over the last little while and its looking fantastic! If you like animation, you should check out his site: Upon Animation He’s a super talented animator and you can expect some big things from him!

So over the last little while I’ve been trying to get ahead on the comic strip and unfortunately that has meant letting some of my other hobbies fall to the wayside. One of the casualties of this schedule cleansing has unfortunately been my x-box time. Although I do try to make an effort to play when I can, the time that was available to it has been severely hampered. So this weekend I thought “I should play a couple of rounds of Call of Duty 4″ and was flabbergasted as to how my skills seemed to be AWOL. Now I suppose that being a gamer is like anything else, you need to practice if you want be good at it. But it’s a little unnerving as to how quickly I lost my feel for the game. But then I thought… is it really my skills that have taken a beating…. Or is it just that I’ve fallen behind? There seem to be a lot of people out there playing every day for multiple hours a day…. why is that? It’s the same game…. the same weapons.. what keeps them interested enough to jump on day in and day out and raise their skill level to such a level? Maybe it’s the fact that other people see it….

Gaming seems to have become more and more competitive over the years. There was a time, not so long ago (or at least that’s what I tell myself) when gaming was all about the fun. If someone was really good at a certain game it was easy to enjoy that WITH them. Coop play, taking turns on the same controller was the norm. Maybe it was because there were so few head to head games available to the fill that competitive space. Now-a-days it seems like most games are all about the personal achievements. More and more are focusing on the multiplayer platform. Maybe because people believe that the skill they display is more persistent when others can experience it first hand. And maybe they’re right.

Now I broke free of the shackles of World of Warcraft only a few months ago, but it was hard for me. And I think that had a lot to do with this exact issue. World of Warcraft is a great example of how gamers like to parade their skill around. High level armor sets are so desirable in that game because they show the world how much time and effort you’ve put into the game. It shows your level of dedication. I’m not sure if x-box really knew what they were tapping into when they instituted the “gamer score,” but it really is a powerful incentive. You know it’s funny, when I first got my x-box live gold up and kicking, I thought that I wouldn’t be the type to care about a silly number. But it really feels good to see that number grow as you play through different games. Now I’m still not one to go out of my way to “pad” my gamerscore…. I haven’t stooped so low as to go and rent Avatar or anything, but it still feels nice every time one of those little achievements pops up on the screen… especially when you get it for something you weren’t really trying for.

So competitive gaming seems like its here to stay. Like it or lump it, the multiplayer experience is the way of the future. If you’ve been fighting it up to now, you might as well give up and accept it. The single player game will soon be just a story you’re telling the grandkids around the fireplace….. They’ll smile and laugh at the old man describing antiquated simulated 3d environments and analogue controls… Bank on it!

Yeah so I just got up to read my daily webcomics, and I tweeted about this but I think it merits a blog post…. I had the weirdest dream ever last night…. I dreamed that I was in a hotel room, with my parents and my Grandparents on my Mom’s side…. which is kinda weird cause they live in India… It was one of those cheezy hotels, you know the ones that have floral print bedsheets AND wallpaper?  And in this hotel room I was on trial!!  Yes apparently it was acting as some kind of court of law… where I was being judged…. by…. my TV!  not my new TV…. that bastard ass 200lbs monstrosity that I have in the basement!  Okay so the TV was acting as a medium to transmit some kind of robo-cyber-judge guy……  And he ruled that I was to have my computer taken away!!!!  Yeah they were gonna confiscate it for something or other, which means I couldn’t do my strip!  Yeah weird eh?   The funniest part is that I woke up all upset about it….

Heh, that sure was a weird one.

Rawb

Hey guys,

Hope everyone had a great weekend, especially my Canadian readers who were enjoying a nice 3day weekend like myself.  I’ve been recieving a tremendous response of late to the strip and I wanted to give a shout out to everybody who’s sent me kind messages… It’s a lot of fun making the strip but it really makes it worthwhile when I find out other people are enjoying it to. 

So I’ve been trying to spend a little more time becoming an active member in the webcomics community.  It’s great that so many really talented artists and writers have been able to come together to help each other, promote their work and talk about some of the issues that present themselves to anyone who wants to try to make a living as an independent publisher.  Brad Guigar, Dave Kellett, Kris Staub and Scott Kurtz have to be given a special thanks for using their substantial soap box to really start bringing the community into the spotlight.  I’ve really been enjoying their “weekly” podcast on all things webcomics and I’ve found a great number of people in their forums that genuinely seem excited about the art form.  Speaking of which I have to give a big thanks to Save Hiatus for his kind words and the link he gave me in his blog…. Thanks a lot, I really appreciate the support!  Check out the site, they’ve got a great strip and a bunch of awesome stuff happening on the site like post-con giveaways!  www.savehiatus.com 

Anyway, I really feel like the comunity has been very welcoming and I’m excited to be here!

Rawb