Gearbox Community Badass is a new feature we’re trying out as a way to recognize members of the Gearbox Community for their creative efforts — be they cosplays, artwork, community events, guides, or any other means of letting their Gearbox flag fly! Each week, we’ll spotlight one of our awesome community members and the cool things they’re doing. Anyone is eligible to be a featured community badass, so being a member of the forums isn’t required (although it helps since this is where our badasses will be featured!) Additionally, every featured Badass will receive a “Legendary” forum badge, so it’ll be hard to enjoy your flair without a forum account, right?! Please note that while each week’s Community Badass will be selected by forum staff, nominations are welcome and will be taken into account. If you’d like to nominate someone to be a Gearbox Community Badass, just PM @JoeKGBX with your nomination!

How long have you been playing Borderlands?

I have been playing Borderlands since the day Borderlands 1 dropped. Created my forums account about 2 weeks after that give or take a couple of days. Saw the original trailer with DJ Champion – No Heaven song playing in it and had been hooked since.

What is it about Borderlands that has you hooked and coming back for more?

Well, probably the immersion of the whole game. At first Borderlands 1 had this feel, this, wastelandy “You’re just there to shoot people, take their guns, and shoot their friends with the guns you just looted.” feel. But then you just find out about this vault right? and you’re like “Sweet! PHAT LEWTZ!” but then you realize there’s more. So the story kind of finds you in a way, or it just feels like you accidentally stumbled across it. I loved that. Borderlands 2 you were just thrown into it like “Lol here’s this guy you love to hate and such, go kill him and stuff.” Which I thought was great and borderlands 2 had so much more content than borderlands 1 did, but I tend to lean towards Borderlands 1 more when it comes to overall feel. I also love first person shooters, so having elements of an RPG in an FPS…the…RPS if you will, was just icing on the cake for me.

The community is pretty cool too. It’s a nice one, doesn’t have that Family feel that it did back in 09-11 but it’s still a really nice community to be a part of. Gearbox has also taken very good care of the game, and it’s community, and me for that matter. So tip of the hat to you gents.

Who is your favorite playable character?

Oh hell, you’re going to make me choose. Sheesh I dunno. I guess i’ll have to say Brick. The original Melee Monster. Krieg and Maya are close seconds though, and yes Krieg and Maya are tied at 2 cause I love them both equally.

How long have you been streaming and creating Borderlands content now?

I have been making content on Youtube for Borderlands for about…damn, 5 years now. I started streaming it in 2012 though, but a bit after BL2 had launched. Fun fact, Borderlands 1 is the game I started doing Live Commentary on my Youtube channel with. I believe it was Arid Badlands 1 or Rust Commons 1. I forget.

You’ve also written some pretty great guides here on the forums, right?

Well, I have written some guides yes, but as far as being pretty great I dunno about that lol. But yes I wrote The Ultimate Guide to Brick I think in 2011. Might have been 2010, not sure. Then there was Spunky’s Guide to Nursing which was a pretty big success. Everyone hated the fact that I chose sustenance over Life Tap as well as the old “LOL Y U NO PICK THOUGHTLOCK U NOOB” comments which were always fun to read and respond to. And this brings us to the one…the only…Kittyzerker. Which, funnily enough, I was talking to @Derch about it. The conversation went something like “How can we troll the Salvador players and let them know that I don’t really like him?” to which Derch responded with “What if we gave him some kittens, and a legendary hoarder mod?”. So I made a thread asking what would go good with the kittens as I had something planned for them on the Sal forums, and @Sljm and @Chuck80 responded with a build and some ideas. I threw credits to @Kitty_Jo because of her name and we had been friends since the ol’ Bl1 days. The end result was absolutely fantastic and it ended up being a cult hit. So even if I try to make a troll, it just became good. Quite the odd case with that one anyhow.

And of course you have Krieg, which I didn’t make a guide or anything on him but I did make a lot of videos with him and I will wholeheartedly take responsibility for making him viable on OP8 as well as Melee Brick on Playthrough 2.5 (endgame). I was responsible for making the 2 melee characters absolute beasts end game. Something about punching and slicing peoples faces off just makes me happy I guess.

What are you most looking forward to seeing from Gearbox in the future?

Well I was in the Closed test for Battleborn and found my 3 main characters pretty quick, so I’m definitely looking forward to that. I suppose Borderlands 3 as well but to be quite honest, with over 2500 hours in Borderlands 1 (Had the retail disk before the steam version) and 1500 in Borderlands 2, and now with Tales From The Borderlands I have to finish, I’m pretty Borderlands’d out. But I still look forward to it!

Where can people go to check out the latest from you?

www.youtube.com/spunky117

https://twitter.com/Spunky117

www.twitch.tv/spunky117

Those are probably the best ways to keep up with me. I’ve slowed down A LOT with twitch though.