Broken Saints Blog-a-Plenty

Posted By Brooke Burgess

Quickie here, cats…we’re just heading downtown to the saintly showing at the Pacific Cinemateque (if any of you can make it, we’re handing out tix until moments before the 5:30 screening – so come on down for some Chapter 20 trippiness!)…

The shot featured here is a teaser for the next ‘Broken Sellouts’ strip – the new creative sideline inspired by our pals at Penny Arcade (click the link on the right bar for our first outing – an homage to their kind review of the BS DVD). We sadly have to delay the next strip for a bit until our forums are relaunched, and Drew returns from his long-planned pilgrimage to England. He’ll be all over the place, so UK saints are encouraged to drop him a line (andrew at brokensaints.com – what else?) and raise a pint or three in the neighbourhood establishment. I say…word is bond!

Posted By Brooke Burgess

See the picture to the right? That’s me. That’s me looking unimpressed. That’s me looking unimpressed for a slew of reasons, not the least of which is our hacked forum. And where does the lion’s share of negative energy stem from? What’s the catalyst for the sudden wash of ‘ill’ in these parts? In what pocket did the tangled roots of discontent first suck soil, in my humble yet steel-trappish estimation?

THIS.

So, no more dancing. No more bullshit. No more passive acceptance. You want ‘games’? Let’s play one then. It’s simple. In the age of media manipulation, misconstrued statements, and downright maliciousness, this is a little something I like to call, with the deepest of affection:

RUMOR CONTROL

or

“Why people need to find true MEANING in their lives – now more than EVER.“

#1. I posted details about Nintendo’s upcoming gaming machine, and said post is unadulterated, absolute, God’s own, 100% FACT…or BULLSHIT.

****REACTION**** My writings on Nintendo’s next-gen entry were and ARE – as clearly prefaced in the post – my PERSONAL SPECULATION. What I DID share was the result of some intriguing detective work, which may or may not have folks nodding coming E3 in LA. How can I be any more clear? If I was in a position to know anything 100%, don’t you think the three little letters N-D-A would’ve entered into it?

#2. Not only have I followed up said post with numerous supporting/conflicting statements on the above thread’s COMMENTS page, but I’ve even started a completely NEW FORUM to discuss all things Nintendo.

*** REACTION *** The ONLY posts I made in the comments sections were of the BRIEF and adminstrative variety. Some cats thought it might be fun to use my ‘Admin’ handle to further the wacky speculation as ‘me‘, while a special little wingnut took the liberty (and had the outright gaul, considering our loss earlier this week) to indeed launch a FORUM in my name! Flattering? Certainly. Ballsy? I admit it, the guy’s got scrot’. But factual? Not a whiff, kiddies. Not even a Bushian brain cell’s worth. Unless it’s posted on the MAIN PAGE of brokensaints.com, or in one of our regular newsletters, you can safely pull the bullshit lever with great zeal.

#3. I was down at ShoWest, and had drinks, snorted coke, and banged hookers with Robert Rodriguez before he shared in post-coital comedown that 3D was the gaming wave of the future…and then proceeded to put the semen smeared prototype controller of the Revolution in my shaking, powdery hands.

*** REACTION *** I wasn’t anywhere near Vegas. Hate the place. Makes my soul bleed. I don’t touch coke. Not even the liquid variety. Makes my stomach bleed. And I don’t sleep with professionals. Shit, I feel guilty paying for a plumber, let alone a pussy. But I have spies, my friends. Journalists. Agents. Producers. And people say things. And then I factor them into my speculation equation. No more…and no less.

#4. The Broken Saints Forum was hacked this week, and countless personal, professional, and creatively platinum threads were forever destroyed. This is a direct result of the IGN link to my post, and the resulting explosion of interest.

*** REACTION *** I believe the fact that this slash and burn occurred during the PEAK of hit activity from IGN is more than ‘coincidental’. Now, I don’t blame Matt for spreading some shine our way…but I DO believe that some punk wanted to steal a heartbeat of ‘infamy’ by trashing our boards. Our whole community is in mourning right now, and we’ve received hundreds of supportive mails and offers of assistance, so we’ll somehow muddle through. But as you can tell by my expression in the shot above, I’m not exactly doing the Snoopy dance.

#5. I only posted this stupid Nintendo story to get more hits to my lame-ass site.

*** REACTION *** Brokensaints.com almost shut down mid-run of 2002 due to excess visits and ‘negative capital’ in our piggy bank. Since then, we’ve managed to scrape by on bandwidth bills with kind support from our fans through donations, benefit concerts, swag, soundtracks, and our award-winning DVD. We get around 2000 unique visitors a day all on our own, thank you very much – so do you think we COVET another 10K? Shit…maybe if 1% of you actually BOUGHT something, then sure. Come on in. Pull up a chair. Shank my Mom. Party time. Wayne’s World. But I KNEW going into this that it was more about stirring the Big N’s pot as a longtime fanboy myself. I want the truth about their Revolution plans just as badly as YOU do! I want them to RULE again!!! If anything, I had the tiniest of hopes that my theory might’ve forced Nintendo’s hand before the big show and strike terror into the hearts of the competition. And yes…I mused that a FEW of you might enjoy hanging out in our little corner of the WWW. Of course. But color me surprised – and more than a little hurt – by the actual results. To quote the boys, “Fucking savages in this town, man…”

#6. Broken Saints is in production as a title for Revolution, PS3, X-Box 360, PSP, DS, Gameboy Advance, Dreamcast, Sega Saturn, Virtual Boy, SNES, Genesis, Turbo Grafx 16, Neo-Geo, Sega Master System, Jaguar CD, Commodore 64, Vectrex, and most imporantly, the Phantom.

*** REACTION *** Do I want a BS game? Hells yeah. Is there an existing design for one? Hells yeah. Has it been pitched? Hells yeah. Is there an early demo or concept footage? Boy…that forum thread on DVD easter eggs sure was cool until it was mercilessly shot in the goddamn head, wasn’t it? Hells…yeah. 🙁

Stew on that over the weekend, brothers and sisters…hopefully it was Febreeze for your Halo-addled brains. I’m going outside for a while to admire God’s texture work and 3D modeling skills. Peace to all corners from our (previously) quiet one.

B

Posted By Brooke Burgess

Thanks again for all the heartwarming posts, mails, and messages of support the past few days. I know it was ‘only a forum’, but it honestly felt like a death to me…or at the very least a tragedy on the order of Alexandria. What really intensified the impact were the surprise returns by old friends and forum lurkers from the distant past – characters, community builders, and creative contributors we haven’t heard from in YEARS – dropping their virtual roses on the smoking husk of it all. I could see what was happening then, and even eyed my old black suit in the corner of the closet. We were having a full-fledged forum funeral, and I hadn’t even begun to grieve…

Posted By Brooke Burgess

…but I was with 20000 happy people, so it made things tolerable. And who was responsible for our merriment? Well, if you have advanced military image enhancement software (or an event calendar for the city of Vancouver), then you can probably surmise the cut of this blurry Irishman’s jib. In the wake of the forum disaster, I almost forgot that Kim had snagged some last-minute tix in a previously walled-off section. Turns out the seats were FRONT ROW bleachers at the back of the stage, with the band putting on a smashing show for ALL vantage points.

DOWNSIDE? Being in a weird ‘cone of anti-sound’, where speakers weren’t really designed to reach. Most of the lyrics ended up garbled, and we could occasionally make out some of the backstage techspeak happening in the pits below.

UPSIDE? We knew every song before they’d strike the first chord, as the Bone-man used one of THESE for cue reminders – shit, even the lyrics scrolled by in powerpoint! Now don’t be haters…he IS pushing 50, after all. 😉

In the end, I’m a thankful lad. Chocolate coated Christ and meaty Mother Mary…I’ve certainly had worse anti-depressants in my time…and at least they played my favourite tune before they hobbled into the night.

Posted By Brooke Burgess

I am so foolish

Twitching in this waking dream

with imagined pain

"Anger"

Originally uploaded by Broken Saints.

(Cries for vengeance aside – I’ve submitted the following to Slashdot and Boing Boing. Feel free to harass them too, and to spread the news even further in the hopes of preventing similar losses from happening to others…)

What is normally (and by most internet standards and measures) a cheerful and vibrant community of youthful anime/comic fans, junior political pundits, post-secondary pontificators, and all-ages spiritual soul-seekers was essentially napalmed earlier this morning by a malicious stranger who breached our vulnerable PHP bulletin board and wiped thousands upon thousands of posts from pseudo-yet-treasured existence.

FOUR years of passionate debate, communal sharing, engaging storytelling, beautiful artwork, moving poetry, emotional purging, and inspired ranting was snuffed to ash and vapor. I’m not sure why I want to share this with your audience – but I thought they might be moved by the loving and supportive reactions of our fans. And yes, I hope they might be angered by the actions of this arrogant punk who left our home in ruins.

I recommend to all of you community builders out there – patch your spidery cracks, shore up any sagging defenses, and keep your eyes and ears peeled for trouble of the cyber sort. Supposedly, this ‘group’ has brought down several major boards in the past month or so, and it feels like a storm may be brewing. Stay tuned…we’ll hopefully have a more secure ship up and running in the coming weeks. 🙁

hacked

Originally uploaded by Broken Saints.

I didn’t understand it when my cousin phoned from Germany at 8 my time this morning. I still wasn’t clear as I read through a raft of mail with our hardcores freaking out about the site being ‘hacked’. This isn’t Hollywood, kids. Our server’s secure, dammit – Simon Kirby’s on the job, and brokensaints.com is like a rock! So what were they talking about? But when I read the mails and started to glean that it was our PHP Forums that fell, the concern set in. That concern became outright shock upon actually opening the boards…and seeing thousands upon thousands of posts reduced to ash.

For now – PLEASE DO NOT POST IN THE FORUMS – the perpetrator clearly has admin access, and can snag your IP without much effort. We will keep you updated on restoration attempts or potential restructurings over the coming days. For now, please use the AVATAR CHAT or blog comment threads if you have to communicate en masse. And please…know how incredibly sorry we are if our negligence is at all responsible for the loss of so many beautiful expressions of thought and feeling. We’ll do whatever we can to make it right again…

Simpson House

Originally uploaded by Broken Saints.

Had a LONG day today working with Kirb’ on a spanky new HD trailer for our big launch at Future Shop in two weeks, so I deem myself worthy of laziness this evening with a short post that’s littered with links. Nothing too profound or profane to see here, folks…but the real-life Simpsons house ain’t the most normal thing a fella should see before he hits the pillow. 😛

Evil Sky

Originally uploaded by Broken Saints.

The sunlight struggles

To pierce the gathering clouds

We must do the same