Sometimes the universe chooses the path for you, ya know? And in this case, since the road less traveled is not necessarily the more difficult of the two (seeing as how there are growling, snarling monsters patrolling the other), how is a person to know which one would make “all the difference”? It’s a conundrum, to be sure, and perhaps one which jefbot will learn the answer to very shortly.

I’m sure jefbot wishes the “interface” experiment had gone better but it’s time to cut his losses and get out of there. As for where bot heads now is something that he’s surely pondering right about now, especially with Mu being unavailable for directions or advice.
–
Keeping this short so I can post this strip before it gets any later. Thanks for waiting!

His anger may have taken his actions over the top, but jefbot finally gets in an epic, dramatic hit without Musashi’s help! Let’s hope the danger has now passed and bot can shake off the rage and take time to tend to his unconscious friend…
–
And if you’re a gamer and haven’t voted in the New Next Gen BOTpoll yet, do so! The Playstation 4′s the big winner so far but the surprise for me is the Wii U coming in 2nd at the moment, either due to y’all being Nintendo fans or as a slap to the XBOX One. Either way, check it out here.

We’ve seen those glowing red eyes before but it’s been a while since jefbot’s lost control of his anger. Let’s hope, for the cyber-critter’s sake, that those crimson pupils don’t cloud bot’s “No kill” policy and he can regain balance before anyone (or anything) gets hurt!
–
GAMERbots! With E3 in full-swing, I’m sure many of you are as excited about the New Next Gen consoles as I am! Vote for your favorite(s) in a poll I cooked up by clicking here. I’m interested to see what you ladies and gents are hyped for at the moment. [New Next Gen poll.]

I went in pretty much hyped on the XBOX One, figuring Microsoft would have something crazy and awesome up its sleeve for E3, but after watching both the Microsoft and Sony presentations, I was fairly sold on Sony’s message for the PS4: that it’s a machine created for traditional gaming and gamers, rather than a big play for your living room filled with crazy restrictions and ownership paradigms never before seen in a home console. I rarely, if ever, loan my games out and don’t trade games in, so Microsoft’s restrictive policies regarding these things shouldn’t bother me, but they do, especially when the XBOX One requires an Internet connection at least once every 24 hours to play (again, this shouldn’t bother me since I always need a connection for JEFbot) and I won’t even get into the (mostly) “always on” Kinect, watching and listening to you, even when the console’s “off.” And then there’s the whole, “PS4′s a hundred dollars cheaper” thing. Now that I’m pinching pennies doing JEFbot as my full-time job, I have to think about these things, and $399 sounds so much better than $499 these days. I don’t even care that the $399 model of the PS4 doesn’t come with a Playstation Eye; I have one for the PS3 and almost never use it, and use the Kinect for the 360 even less. Sony’s support of Indie developers and allowing them to self-publish vs. Microsoft’s seeming neglect (and/or disdain) of them is also big for me, as I had some of my favorite experiences this generation playing Indie games (Fez, Super Meat Boy, Cave Story, Journey, Bastion, LIMBO, etc.) Also, I love me some JRPGs, and I’ll bet more of those will hit the PS4 vs the XBOX One in the future.

Those are some quick thoughts after processing the initial news out of E3. The new consoles aren’t coming out ’til the end of the year so things can change before then and I might come back around on the XBOX One (or XBone as the kids are now calling it) so my mind is still open to change as more info is released. I already have a Wii U and am semi-excited for some upcoming games (mostly Pikmin 3, LoZ: Wind Waker HD and the upcoming JRPG from the Xenogears peoples) which is why I didn’t talk about it much. My most-played console of the moment is the 3DS, though, and I’m way more excited for the upcoming games for that than pretty much anything: Pokémon X&Y, Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros., Dragon Quest VII, Shin Megami Tensei IV and more. I suppose this means the 3DS gets my first vote as far as excitement about upcoming games goes. And with that, here are my votes:

1) 3DS
2) PS4
3) XBOX One

Let me know what you think and kindly back up those thoughts in the comments!

Uh-oh. I doubt “Bzzrt!” is a good sound, especially when a mindlink tendril is being forcibly disconnected from a FutureTech interface. But I’m just speculating here.

And sorry for the late strip, BOTpeeps! Busy weekend and then busy day today trying to finish the strip while keeping current on all the Playstation 4, XBOX One and Apple news coming out today.
–
GAMERbots! Check out the new poll to vote on your favorite current or upcoming game consoles, here!

Let’s hope jefbot can keep up the defense while Mu continues to hack the alien-enhanced, mutated bird creature. Whether bot succeeds or not will be revealed in next Monday’s strip! See you then.
–
Have a great weekend!

Okay, when I said everything should be “smooth sailing” from here on out last time, I might’ve been a little off, but no one really believed that, right? Let’s just hope Musashi doesn’t have much more hacking to do ‘cuz that little mouse thing doesn’t look like it’s gonna wait for him to finish.
–
I posted some words and pics about the Phoenix Comicon on the jefBLOG while the memories were still fresh in my mind. Check it: PHXCC2013_Debrief.

I had a great time at this year’s Phoenix Comicon which is unsurprising, since I always have a great time at this con. But this being my third year, I felt I had finally reached a groove with the BOTreaders, convention and town, much like the groove I feel at the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle. I have regular readers at PHXCC now that I look forward to seeing every year, so even when things get slow, I know I can look forward to familiar BOTpeeps showing up and speeding things up again. The first couple of days of the con (a preview evening on Thursday and a full day on Friday) seemed a bit more sluggish than previous years but things were in full swing by the time the weekend hit. Here are a handful of highlights:

BOTpeeps
I had more BOTpeeps than ever this year coming by the BOTbooth to check out the new stuff, buy merch and/or to hang out and chat. Like I said above, these peeps made the days go by crazy fast and the weekend was over before I knew it. If I didn’t have the JEFbot readers supporting me at these conventions, the events would truly be an all-business affair, but familiar faces (and many new faces!) and enthusiastic readers coming by the BOTbooth to give kudos and support makes my day every time it happens. So, if you were at the show and came by: THANK YOU! You ladies and gents are the biggest reason I do these things.

Cosplayers
I SOOoOOo dig the cosplayers! They make conventions fun, exciting and weird, and I love all the creativity and craziness they display each and every day. There are so many of them that they actually become the norm, and one begins to feel a bit like a muggle dressing in “normal” clothes. Because of this, I like to say I’m cosplaying as jefbot, and since I pretty much wore my assortment of camo longshorts all weekend, I somewhat fit the bill. Doctor Who had to be the most cosplayed property all weekend as there were countless variations of Doctors, TARDISes and Daleks wandering about.

Babylon 5
PHXCC was celebrating the 20th anniversary of one of my favorite science fiction shows of all time: Babylon 5! Although I didn’t get to see any of the panels or meet any of the guests as I was tethered to my booth all weekend, I did hear stories of people meeting many of the cast members (sadly, Bruce Boxleitner couldn’t make it, but I heard he showed up via phone to at least one panel) and the creator of the show, J. Michael Straczynski, was there for panels and signings, too. Even with all the B5 celebrations going on, truth be told, the real star of the con seemed to be John Barrowman, who plays Captain Jack Harkness on Doctor Who, and was constantly being announced on the PA system extending his signing and photo ops. I know just his mention elicited literal squeals of excitement from (BOTbooth helper and friend) Tiana who got a picture with him, then a signature on that picture later on. I knew the guy was popular, but not that popular. Gods only know what would have happened had an actual Doctor shown up.

Musashi
I was extremely happy to hear how many readers have been loving the “Return of Musashi” storyline and Mu in general; I can’t tell you how many people asked when I was going to release t-shirts, plushes and other merch featuring the little guy. While I was already considering such things, this feedback really lit a fire under me to make these things happen! And speaking of our favorite hamster, check out this AMAZING pre-evolution Mu that my friend, BOTpeep, and yarnslinger extraordinaire, Shanna (you may have seen her in the comments), crocheted! She had sent me Mu a while back, during the time when he was missing from the strip and presumably on the alien ship, but sent me the Pride scarf accessory recently, and I had to have ‘em both on display during the convention. Now, can we all just let her know how much we want to see her create a POST-evo Mu!!? Would be awesome, just sayin’.

Friends
Special thank you to Tiana for getting to the con a day early to help me unload and set up the BOTbooth and for staying late on the final day to help me take down the booth and get the BOTmobile packed up again. She also helped out during the show and was just an all-around superstar and I hope she can make it to future shows as she’s a welcome fixture at the BOTbooth anytime.

That’s the debrief! It’s just been over a week since the convention closed and I’m already missing it. Especially my booth neighbors, Don (Skullastic) and Daniel & Andrew (Steamcrow), and my partners in mayhem Denis (ALT comic) and Ali (Destined Legends) who I went out eating, drinking and decompressing with nearly every night. Next convention isn’t ’til both the Anime Expo and San Diego Comic Con in July and I’m hoping to get some new items in the BOTshop before then, so expect those to be announced shortly. Hope to see you at a convention near you soon! (And if you have any suggestions for conventions near you, list ‘em in the comments.)

like that,
jeff

Okay, so now that Musashi has interfaced with the bird thing, it should be all smooth sailing from here, right?