We pulled this episode directly from our livestream over on YouTube. Come check us out!
The following description was written by A.I.
Dive into a kaleidoscope of gaming and imagination as we celebrate our third anniversary, juggling ideas as bright as bioluminescence and as nostalgic as classic couch co-ops. We've got everything from the competitive fervor of eSports arenas to the community-driven wonder of Fortnite. Feel the rush of our multiplayer discussions, get your strategy fix with our resource management insights, and prepare for a blast of creativity with the potential of bioluminescence in warfare and teleportation. Our gaming stories span from battling Elden Ring bosses to reliving Pokémon's charm, proving that whether we're in the throes of battle or laughing at our quirky musings, there's never a dull moment.
This episode isn't just a walkthrough, it's an expedition across the evolving gaming landscape with our personal anecdotes as your compass. We reminisce about Halo's Forge mode, applaud Fortnite's freshness, and tip our controller to indie gems pushing boundaries. As we wax nostalgic about local multiplayer and reflect on the seismic shifts at Blizzard, we question brand loyalty and ponder whether a game can ride solely on its legacy. Join us as we share tales of gaming glory and the occasional defeat, all with the candidness and humor that comes from years of friendship and a shared passion for the endless worlds of gaming.
Wrap up your day with our whimsical take on the triumphs and challenges of streaming, from celebrating milestones to fanciful plans of financial independence through gaming. With no filter and plenty of laughs, we explore just how far brand loyalty can stretch in the gaming universe, debate the influence of content creators like Ninja on the rise of streaming platforms, and consider the ethics of monetization in games. So grab your headset, fire up your console, and let's take this gaming journey together—you might even pick up some pro tips along the way.
If you enjoy our episode's content, come check us out on twitter @KDratiopodcast, YouTube as The KD Ratio Podcast! or on Instagram KDratiopodcast
We pulled this episode directly from our livestream over on YouTube. Come check us out!
The following description was written by A.I.
Dive into a kaleidoscope of gaming and imagination as we celebrate our third anniversary, juggling ideas as bright as bioluminescence and as nostalgic as classic couch co-ops. We've got everything from the competitive fervor of eSports arenas to the community-driven wonder of Fortnite. Feel the rush of our multiplayer discussions, get your strategy fix with our resource management insights, and prepare for a blast of creativity with the potential of bioluminescence in warfare and teleportation. Our gaming stories span from battling Elden Ring bosses to reliving Pokémon's charm, proving that whether we're in the throes of battle or laughing at our quirky musings, there's never a dull moment.
This episode isn't just a walkthrough, it's an expedition across the evolving gaming landscape with our personal anecdotes as your compass. We reminisce about Halo's Forge mode, applaud Fortnite's freshness, and tip our controller to indie gems pushing boundaries. As we wax nostalgic about local multiplayer and reflect on the seismic shifts at Blizzard, we question brand loyalty and ponder whether a game can ride solely on its legacy. Join us as we share tales of gaming glory and the occasional defeat, all with the candidness and humor that comes from years of friendship and a shared passion for the endless worlds of gaming.
Wrap up your day with our whimsical take on the triumphs and challenges of streaming, from celebrating milestones to fanciful plans of financial independence through gaming. With no filter and plenty of laughs, we explore just how far brand loyalty can stretch in the gaming universe, debate the influence of content creators like Ninja on the rise of streaming platforms, and consider the ethics of monetization in games. So grab your headset, fire up your console, and let's take this gaming journey together—you might even pick up some pro tips along the way.
If you enjoy our episode's content, come check us out on twitter @KDratiopodcast, YouTube as The KD Ratio Podcast! or on Instagram KDratiopodcast
and we're live Beautiful. Hello, take us away, dylan.
Speaker 2:Hello, welcome to the Katie Ratio. How are you guys doing tonight? Great Rocking and rocking.
Speaker 3:I'm so good.
Speaker 2:I'm so glad that you asked. You're so really. Wow, yeah Well you know, right now this guy I am.
Speaker 3:He's a.
Speaker 2:I'm I need to turn my, you know how many years have we been doing this?
Speaker 1:But at least we know the audio works.
Speaker 3:Three.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we passed three years. I know, and that, nuts, I was talking to someone.
Speaker 3:We have so much.
Speaker 1:You've been doing that forever and I'm like yeah, it's like three years.
Speaker 3:We have so much to show for it too.
Speaker 1:I know Friendship.
Speaker 3:Friendship. I was going to say the same thing.
Speaker 1:Look at the good vibes out of him tonight.
Speaker 3:Let's see how long that lasts, look at my friendship bracelet. I'm pretty tired yeah.
Speaker 1:You don't have a friend. You look what are you going to. You should make it out of your own hair.
Speaker 3:You can't see that. I guess you could only see it if you're a true friend. You're just a friend.
Speaker 2:You don't believe in our friendship. You can't see the bracelet? I apparently not.
Speaker 1:No, we are 35 seconds into this and I am already getting double teamed. I love it All right my opening.
Speaker 3:I want that I want that out of context. Yeah, I'm getting double teamed. I love it Double teamed.
Speaker 2:Stop, I'm going to open up the podcast with something to get our brain juices blown.
Speaker 1:I need it. Today was a smooth brain day, so I need it.
Speaker 2:Do you think we could ever weaponize bioluminescence? Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3:Haven't we talked about this already? Have we talked about how stupid this was?
Speaker 1:Isn't this like a whole, like beam on the internet? No it absolutely is.
Speaker 2:It's a personal story for me and Kyle. We had a co-worker.
Speaker 3:This is a great this is such a good environment to bring up inside jokes.
Speaker 2:It is Absolutely, but I figured it would be interesting to discuss.
Speaker 3:Weaponizing luminescence.
Speaker 2:Bioluminescence.
Speaker 3:Bioluminescence Organic light.
Speaker 2:Yeah, do you think we could weaponize it?
Speaker 1:I need a little bit more than that. Do we have just an abundance?
Speaker 2:No, can we weaponize it, if you know?
Speaker 1:because you'll never get the input of energy. So this is like the thing.
Speaker 2:How would you?
Speaker 1:weaponize it. Let me set up my framework. Okay, anything that you have to grow and like, nurture will never produce, as like you'll never be able to extract out as much energy that went into it.
Speaker 2:Well, take all those factors out of it. How would you weaponize it?
Speaker 1:I'm saying like it would be Magnifying glasses?
Speaker 2:It wouldn't. I'm saying take those factors out.
Speaker 1:It's an active entropy, because any oh, this guy.
Speaker 2:Take those factors out, it's perfectly. It can be weaponized. How would you do it?
Speaker 1:Well, like the great Rihanna wants to shine bright like a diamond, and you would just shine very bright.
Speaker 2:You would, so you would like have.
Speaker 1:I would wear it to separate myself from the peasants.
Speaker 2:So weaponizing it though like in war I would weaponize my social status yeah.
Speaker 3:Make yourself glow Naturally.
Speaker 1:It's called a natural glow up in a battlefield setting, though that's not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you blind everybody. They can't see you blind by the light. You're that bright.
Speaker 1:He's that bright Absolutely because I have that much bioluminescence on me. Wow.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:What this is nutty.
Speaker 2:I don't agree with anything.
Speaker 1:I just said, just so we get very clear. It doesn't even make sense. This is crazy talk. This is absolutely bonkers.
Speaker 2:You know our careers. Would you be able to weaponize it? Well, one of my ways that I thought we you know when that question was brought up to me, is that, like, somehow we use it as like before or after the bong rip.
Speaker 1:It was during, during.
Speaker 2:No, you fire a weapon and you know the bullet lands and you have a certain bioluminescent round and it lights up the area Like a tracer round, but it already exists, but when it, when it hits, it, lights it up, so like a flare?
Speaker 1:Yeah, but like, like I said, like I said, but we're imagining that's an alive.
Speaker 2:We're imagining this, doesn't?
Speaker 1:exist so what?
Speaker 3:Why are we, why are we calling it bioluminescence?
Speaker 1:Because it's alive, right, I know.
Speaker 3:I'm thinking of, like, just call it luminescence, and then there's so much more you can do with light.
Speaker 2:Oh shit, yeah, absolutely. How would you weaponize luminescence?
Speaker 1:Lightspeed travel, turn yourself, atomize yourself into.
Speaker 3:There are no rules though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, if we're going crazy, let's get crazy Web like lightspeed, yeah Portals.
Speaker 2:I dig it Okay, wormholes Okay.
Speaker 1:Atomize yourself, recreate yourself at a at another point.
Speaker 3:I mean, you can concentrate any amount of light to just burn at incredible amounts of heat. So if like, it's an actual weapon.
Speaker 2:Just like a magnifying glass.
Speaker 3:I was watching this video the other day this guy that set up these magnifying glasses in just such a way that every day he can cut lasers through rocks with it, just like on his back porch, and it literally slices like boulders in half. It's crazy, wow, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm sure this is super interesting. Hey, it's got a brain juices flowing. You know Billy likes to.
Speaker 1:I think I might have lost some brain.
Speaker 3:He tried to rationalize. It's coming, I see it, it's dripping.
Speaker 1:No, remember, he's so bright. This question got me, so he's intelligent, bright man.
Speaker 2:Okay, Billy, what do we actually talking about?
Speaker 1:But the power world which is Pokemon.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's so much more than that. It's a, it's a cultural experience. Just kidding, this game. I would be remiss if we didn't talk about this game at all Because everybody's talking about it.
Speaker 3:It is.
Speaker 1:It's blown up and I didn't realize, like I was tracking it on steam. I just happened to be looking at like steam charts, looking at some of the all time you know most popular games, and this power came on Like I didn't even heard of this and it was like the second or second day it had launched and it was already like the third or fourth or fifth most concurrent player base at any given time. And then I checked the next day because I was like you know, I had heard some rumblings about it and I'm like what is this game? And it was the second most played concurrent game in steam's history, only behind PUBG, which is unfathomable because when you look at that list it's all heavy hitters.
Speaker 1:Cs go never hit this peak. Elder ring never hit this peak. Hogwarts Legacy never hit this peak. It's kind of weird to announce that one in there, but that Hogwarts Legacy peaked hard. But then I found out that this game is also on freaking game pass, which is even more bonkers to me because most people have game pass and so they're playing it on there. You have to pay $30 or something like that on steam to buy it.
Speaker 2:Isn't it beta or early access right now?
Speaker 3:I have everything is yeah. What is it Good?
Speaker 1:point. If it releases and it goes well, then it's, then it'll final release will come out soon. But if it doesn't, then they all, all the responsibility and accountability is off. Right If you call it a beta, but this game is just like exploded on the scene. There's been rumblings of you know, oh, people should sue, blah, blah, blah. But then I think it's just created like kind of a fun little sandbox for people to play in, build a little slave army, have some fun. It looks quirky.
Speaker 3:I mean, let's not. I mean I don't want to speculate on what Nintendo is going to do, but I feel like if they had a legitimate case, they would have already done it by now, just based on their history and gone after like way smaller and they went after the modders of Power World already, because somebody did a mod of like where you put Pokemon in the game. So they would go out and they already went after them and like fucked them up.
Speaker 2:And so I think, yeah, like I said, they would have already done it if they were going to, because they already did against the modders.
Speaker 3:I heard the developers. Maybe I was talking about you guys, maybe this was so, maybe it's. Maybe Apologize if it was you, but where they go? They were going bankrupt, like they had no money. They lost everything and then they released the game.
Speaker 2:I did not hear that no.
Speaker 3:Yeah, maybe I was talking, I don't know, it's like a super indie studio. But they they had no money, they like didn't feel like it was a product that was kind of, but they had no choice and they're like whatever they released it and then it became the biggest thing in the world and they're like, what's like? They were just as surprised as, like we are. It's crazy.
Speaker 2:Are you guys fans of like of arc? Because it's it's essentially like a. If you guys have ever heard of arc, it's like arc like it's a survival based game with base building and it's kind of sandbox. I don't think there's really even a story. It's just like have fun with the, with the systems we've built into the game.
Speaker 1:Those games don't, I don't have an objection of playing. I think that can be a lot of fun. Is this a co-op or multiplayer game?
Speaker 2:It's multiplayer. It is.
Speaker 1:So I think there's a lot of replayability and kind of fun that you can have like building different bases and stuff like that. But I mean, we've seen a bunch of these types of games before. I don't know if any of them really have any true lasting power. I mean, last year we saw Sons of the Forest, right Very similar Well, not similar, but like same kind of gameplay right Idea where you collect resources and you build stuff with those resources. And maybe this, maybe they had much more focus on like exploration and like dungeons and more closely associated with, like rust.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sons of the Forest and Sons of the Forest. Those are survival based. You can play it with your friends, but it's not a massive multiplayer game Like Rust Arc and Power World is like you can go on servers with a bunch of people.
Speaker 1:I see this game and I don't really it is baffling to me, like it's insane popularity. Now I understand it's more, much more popular like overseas than it is domestic and what I understand, like the Asian, like communities, are loving this game. It's not a game that I particularly play, but I can definitely respect the I mean it's not a game pass. I might check it out, just have some fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:See what you can do. I guess you can capture other humans in the game and get created Literally kind of wild there and even says like hey, this is a little inhumane, but you do, you, yeah. And so it looks like kind of like a to me like a flash in the pan, like some of that kind of is interesting for a month or two and then people move on and just like any game. But I think the ultimate sand like I think there's what I would call like perfect versions of these types of sandbox games out there already.
Speaker 1:Like things like Minecraft you know where you can kind of go and do similar style and I know obviously people are trying to tap into that market and this has a different design and graphics aesthetic, which people might. I personally think is better than like I don't like the kind of eight bit stylistic stuff of Minecraft, so, but it's not a game that I would find myself like I've got to grind everything in this. Who knows, maybe I get into it and I'm like, yeah, I need to have my own base.
Speaker 2:I am the main reason I'm happy for it is. I is, I hope.
Speaker 2:I hope it does have some type of staying power, because my dream is for it to to make Game Freak and Nintendo actually invest, like in innovating on Pokemon, like they're sitting on a gold mine and they do the bare minimum because they get away with it, because that's power world is like the first game since Poke since I mean Digimon was not on the same level but, like Pokemon, has been top king for a long time and power world is like threatening that crown.
Speaker 1:Do you? But? But do you really consider the two comparable, like I see, like to me the only things that that really shares, like you go and you collect them through, like their Pokeballs or like their power ball.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say they're comparable in that there's there's monsters that you capture Like. Think of another game that does that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess you're right where you like. You can then leverage them and and friend them and charm them, and then all of a sudden you know they're your ally called duty.
Speaker 3:Did that in war zone. Yeah, you can't, you don't remember that Quite daring.
Speaker 1:You don't remember that deal Pokemon element.
Speaker 3:What do you think I was doing the whole time when you guys were surviving?
Speaker 1:It's capturing Pokemon.
Speaker 2:But not the.
Speaker 1:Jarellis but D-Railas. But I want to bring this up later on. Have you seen what Fortnite's been doing lately? Have?
Speaker 3:you seen their?
Speaker 1:patches.
Speaker 3:No, they have like Lego Fortnite.
Speaker 1:Oh yes, yeah, it's great they have Guitar Hero built into it. No, it is in Fortnite. Yeah, we'll talk about it at the end of this.
Speaker 2:It is that game is insane, but anyway yeah, I just I hope that Nintendo and Game Freak kind of see this and and see the potential of like, how popular they could get Pokemon like, because I mean Pokemon has never been sold on Steam so we don't have any, any record to show, like you know, concurrent players like Steam, like with Power World. But I just hope they see it as more of an incentive to actually do something with the Pokemon franchise.
Speaker 3:Change the formula.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Because I mean, it's just really just Pokemon that they're, they don't like they look at Breath of the Wild. They're not afraid to innovate in other Nintendo properties. But Pokemon is, I mean, yes and no. They did venture into like with, like Arceus. They did venture into that, but it was like that game was not that good.
Speaker 2:It seemed. It seemed like a mobile game. Little effort was put into it.
Speaker 3:It was very graphically unimpressive, even for the Switch, and it felt like there was not much you, you year and we're back.
Speaker 1:I think, yeah, check it, make sure it's the right mic but yeah sounds good, we're back. We're audio is back. I dropped out just.
Speaker 3:I know. I was panicking, but we had someone in the chat that we got through that together so something cool gaming how we doing Elden Ring grind.
Speaker 1:Still going on, he's. He just beat Maliketh nice, fair Miss Zula crumbling so now, well, no, actually he beat Maliketh and then went and smacked up. What's his name? The? Which one the little guy, that's hella easy. The magic, the mage, what's his fucking name?
Speaker 3:Gideon.
Speaker 1:Gideon, sir off near, they all know I don't you think he listed the full dialogue for you smacked them up and I'm like that's exactly what I did, that's what you're supposed to do. I will. I was like I didn't tell, tell him, but if he, if he waits for that dialogue to finish an actual hard actually comes, becomes our fight. And then you have to enter into the boss, rena, and he's ready for you.
Speaker 3:He staggers so easily, though, so if you just get one hit on him, it's over yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 1:So now he's got the final he's doing no mimic right he has done, no, he's done no summons whatsoever no summons, so no tears whatsoever what did you? Know like a third person help nothing. The whole playthrough. It's actually been very impressive he hasn't leveled up once and he's only uses this. Now I think he's like level hundred forty, hundred fifty. But he, what is he doing? So he's, he struggled mightily with Maliketh. Maliketh kicks is that and what was interesting the part that gave him the biggest struggle, phase one really yeah.
Speaker 2:I know which I was like.
Speaker 1:I did not. I was to nothing through that huh he, it was like he hated it so much so I don't know. He's a simp hardest.
Speaker 3:Funny enough, the boss fight that literally was the one that I took the longest for me to be. It was Draconic Tree Sentinel, which the one that's guarding lendo. I was like level fifty eight.
Speaker 1:I always feel like that's an under level when I fought him and I was stubborn.
Speaker 3:I was like I'm not gonna go level, I'm just gonna beat him.
Speaker 3:And I beat the game at like level, though on my first play through I was a hundred percent using, you know, mimic yeah but I beat the game yeah, I beat the game on like like I think I was like 105 and now going back I'm like I probably should have like really not like I should have been doing other things, and like because the average person beats it between levels 130 to 175, I guess yeah, there's just so much side content that like the natural progression. I didn't even do any of like the real side quests until like my second play through, I didn't really pay attention anything. I was just killing bosses getting runes.
Speaker 3:Bok was dead. Like he meet before you met him before I even like met him. He was like I saw him like crying outside the cave with those you know those, whatever they are, and I was like that sucks, I didn't know that that was even a side quest like wow, there's quests in the felly Lou went all crazy. I didn't ever encourage her or anything.
Speaker 2:I started killing NPCs because they were being annoying you're like, I like that weapon, I want it so you know the, the guy that gives you the half the deck to smooth down the album album or I'm playing through Elden Ring again. Did you guys remember that his name is like Alboros, the album Norik, like I thought it was like Alfred or something. Oh, it's like Albus yeah, it's Albus.
Speaker 3:Yes, because it's like I always, every time we like Albus Dumbledore.
Speaker 2:Albus the album Norik.
Speaker 1:I'm like that's lazy little, lazy dude the naming in this game is such a mind fuck because it's just everything is so similar it's Georgia or Martin, but we've discussed Elden Ring at length yeah, I know, let's, let's go back, sucked into that again. I could easily. I keep seeing shit about like the DLC, but it's really just people bitching that the DLC is not out, so so activate the other topic we wanted to discover Mass Effect.
Speaker 3:Yeah, let's do Fortnite.
Speaker 1:Well, we can finish tonight today with Fortnite. But I guess we could jump into Fortnite now if we wanted to that game was crazy my brother in law came over and there's literal guitar hero built into this game.
Speaker 1:It actually works really great. There's there's an expert mode with five buttons on it. You the song playlist updates every single day. If you like the song, you can buy it.
Speaker 1:This game is like eight games in one and it's it's not even that big of a download and you contrast that with the current state of call of duty and it is like, when you compare just the two applications, just running them, it is absolutely disgusting. You update freaking call of duty and it requires a restart once you get into it and then maybe you another restart, depending on if you need to get in, and then you have, like it's like three games in one and it's just jammed with guns and attachments and to get this attachment you have to level this gun and then to unlock this gun you had to buy the battle pass and get it to level 50, so instead you might have to just purchase the gun outright. Like it is a cesspool of an operation at what they're doing a call of duty, it's disgusting you don't have 350 gigabytes, do one game on PC it's probably something like that.
Speaker 1:In terms of size, it's absolutely foul. You contrast that with what fortnight is current, it's current state. It's phenomenal. They have like an only up game mode in there. You got all these like custom playlists. You go to their home screen and home screen is just all these different modes that you can play and, like I said, guitar hero, like completely different games inside this, and it all launches effortlessly, effortlessly. The UI is customized by someone who's actually saying it makes sense, there's a design to it it reminds me of unbelievable.
Speaker 2:Did you, billy? Did you play much halo near young?
Speaker 1:did you count? Not really.
Speaker 2:I played a pretty good you play, for I didn't have Xbox for, yeah, I remember back in like good old days halo three and reach I used to play forage a lot and you'd find those maps where it's like they changed the whole game to where it wasn't. It wasn't you know, slayer, where you're just a death match. It was like you had to run up this ramp as stuff is falling down at you and you had to try and survive and get to the top, and so that's what it kind of reminds me. It's like the next evolution of that to where it's like you have all these different games some of it, most are most of them fan made, or would you?
Speaker 1:say I think there's a bunch that are fan made. I don't think they could guitar hero one. I don't know if you can get that crazy in terms of customization, but I what this game is really turned into is a market showcase of their game engine. Yeah, really, what is what it is? And I mean this game continues just to like, reinvent itself, reignite. People coming back in the no build mode really brought in a bunch of a huge audience like and the game runs clean. Man, it just feels clean and doesn't feel clunky and overburdened with bad shit. It just it just runs seamlessly clean and fortnight, man, it's so. It's such a what a trip was playing guitar hero in fortnight. What the fuck is this game like? Three years ago you would have been like, you know, you said, hey, this is what fortnight is. In three years they've been like well, and what did you play?
Speaker 2:the Lego thing. I saw the commercial for it, but I didn't.
Speaker 1:I didn't play it. I watched my brother in law play what is it?
Speaker 2:just like regular game.
Speaker 1:It's like Minecraft yeah, you build like I. I think that's what the Lego fortnight is. It might be another game mode, I'm not 100% sure. But it's literally like Minecraft. You go around, you mine for resources, you build your houses, you fuck up your friends house because it's haha for the walls, and then they quit the game forever like.
Speaker 1:That's literally what I was watching and it was like a really good. Like people are like no life in that game mode in fortnight well, unbelievable. And you look at each playlist has like a number of concurrent players and you'll, you'll look on there and it'll be like 55,000 people are playing this, 160,000 people are playing this, 25,000 people playing this, and you go like all the way to the right to some like random obscure fan made it's like 3000 players playing this, like there's a million people playing this game right now. This is incredible no.
Speaker 3:Did you think fortnight was gonna be as big as it was when they first launched it?
Speaker 2:no.
Speaker 1:I like sustained sustained.
Speaker 3:I mean, it's been first time I ever remember hearing about this was like seven years ago. I was literally at work and this guy was like thinking about downloading this new game called fortnight looks kind of fun. And I looked at it and I was like, yeah, it looks a little too cartoony for me and then I just didn't play it and I never would have guessed that this would be such a phenomenon. Like it's like seven years later.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have we seen a game? I obviously the world of work have comes to mind that has sustained success. But, like I'm talking like headlines, sustained success, energy around it, content creation, like people streaming it. World Warcraft is definitely that. The. What legal legends I would say is up there?
Speaker 3:Dota to CS go legal legends and Dota, though. Yes, it's huge, but it's still a lot more niche comparatively like in the gaming world. Yeah, obviously you're gonna know what those games are, but like your grandma knows what fortnight is compared to like Dota yeah, that's true, but, like my grandma would know, would have heard of World Warcraft yeah, I mean exactly that is such a cultural but like I mean we're talking like Mount Rushmore style games here, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Like I would argue, even though not always for the good reason, I would argue. Another one that has had a lot of staying power would be GTA 5 yep, yep.
Speaker 1:I would totally agree with that, with their, with their sort of role play. T on line update that they did yeah, gta online specifically not GTA 5.
Speaker 2:But you tell me so many people in playing the campaign over it's just crying.
Speaker 3:I played through that game once at launch and haven't touched it since the same. I was good, it was good it was just one of those ones that was like, not like, I'm not gonna go back and play this once a year, type of thing there's people who like role play as a truck driver on the online and like pull over and help people like change tires and shit like that.
Speaker 3:It is crazy how much people love to do that kind of like sim stuff, you know only time I would ever follow the rules playing a GTA game would be if I was bored bored as hell.
Speaker 1:I'm like I wonder if I can get all the way across the map with driving legally, driving, like a normal person instead of 110 miles an hour and then doing a 90 degree turn, yeah and then you have those people online where it's like all right if I hit this jump at 92.6 miles an hour and I turn upside down and then I'm gonna get the end of it across the map my guy's gonna stand on this pillar at the end of it like what the fuck is this crazy man? The? But I think fortnight is is approaching, like Mount Rushmore status in terms of like no cultural. It's already there, but I mean I think.
Speaker 1:I'm not. I think is the reason Twitch first exploded, because, like wrong, wrong ninja what do you mean? Ninja playing board made a plate for yeah, but, um, like the common man didn't know like twitches existence and I feel like since 2017 because of that, and then COVID, definitely, like twitch is is a pretty, like you could throw that word out and people like, oh yeah, I know what twitches, I don't remember the first time I got like drawn to twitch.
Speaker 3:I don't remember what it was. I want to say. Weirdly, it might have been someone playing chess on which? I mean, just was popping off just was popping off for a while there and I feel like that was the first steady twitch content I would watch.
Speaker 2:I never I never really went to twitch.
Speaker 1:I probably first. When did twitch come out? I was. I had it been on there like the first year 2011 2012 I remember like.
Speaker 3:I was not there in the beginning. I I would never say that I would follow anyone really on twitch, more or less I. For instance, there's this channel I like called blindwave the one of the dudes from that his names Eric.
Speaker 2:He played through the mass spec series in your livestream, so I catch his live streams on twitch when you were telling us about that, like that was he had never played it before, so you never play.
Speaker 3:I love watching, so like I like watching people experience things for the first time and hearing, and he had a lot of very similar takes to me and I like that he was intelligent enough to really grasp like everything and I'm gonna take us on a side tangent here please on on what Kyle just touched on right there.
Speaker 2:One of the reasons I don't really like watching streams is because if the person playing the game isn't competent, it annoys the heck out of me. Yeah, like.
Speaker 2:I especially get mad when they get mad at the game for their stupidity and it's and it's so obvious what, like I can see what they're supposed to do and they're like I don't know what to do. The game's not telling me what to do. This is stupid and it's like no, if you and like that's. I think that's the reason that I I still enjoy Mark Plyer myself is because he plays games I would never play, so I don't get frustrated if, if, like, he misses something because it's like I'm not gonna play that anyway, but if I can never watch him play mainline games because it frustrates me like he does, like good sorry he did a whole Dead Space playthrough.
Speaker 2:I can't watch it because I know I'm gonna be irritated by how he plays the game.
Speaker 1:I didn't watch like a certain item or like didn't go down a side path that you thought was really cool, or it just because of I know like I do it better that was how I felt, so.
Speaker 3:Mark a player he um, he has, he does own up to when he does, when he's does something really stupid like he. Once he finds out like he always owns up to it, he's like, oh my god, like I was an idiot. But I remember I watched him play through until dawn and that was hard to watch him play until dawn because he like like things that seem like they should be obvious. See, he would like you're like, well, let me hide over here, and then he'd be pissed off that his character would like die. And then I'm like, if you did just spent any amount of time knowing about so. For instance, there's this one part in the game in until dawn spoiler alert if you haven't played it.
Speaker 3:It's good game where one of the monsters is like trying to lure you away by mimicking the voice of another character and literally in that same mission, if you pick up a clue, it says they've been known to do this. These monsters will mimic the voice, and it mimics the voice of a character that you know is safe because, depending on how you played, you saved her. So it makes no logical sense that this person would be screaming down there. So you just have to put everything together to realize that, and him and like almost every other person I've seen play that game go. I gotta save them and they go in and then just get their head chopped off and I'm like it literally fucking gives you all of the clues and context. You need to know that that's a trap and everyone I've watched play that game always fucking falls for that and it annoys the hell out of me, just stuff like that see.
Speaker 2:So like does that bug you at all, billy, because I know you out of me and Kyle, you watch like full games, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:I I love watching streams because it's such easy content. Like I'll put it on. You know background noise but that doesn't bug you.
Speaker 1:You know, what bothers me is when the energy is inconsistent between the performer, because I look for it. I look at it as a form of entertainment and so like if there's like long bouts of periods, like where the person's just sitting there and like just playing through and like being dumb, yeah then I'm like all right, I'm out of here. But if it's like they're playing a character or like they're going about in a certain way, I do like to kind of look at the game through their lens and their perspective. I will admit that it does bother me when they are like blatantly blaming the game for their own mistakes, like in Elden Ring I see all the time people like blaming, you know, like the camera or shit like that.
Speaker 1:I'm like disrespecting that constantly that well, like there's actually a whole community of people, of souls, players that think like the hardest boss in the game is a camera and I don't struggle with the camera.
Speaker 1:So I play a mouse and keyboard. I never once like I got to a point where I was very comfortable with the camera. It's where if I ever got in a situation like I knew how it worked and obviously if I'm backed up against a wall it's going to smush me to my character like that's a, that's a me problem because I I've allowed myself to get pushed into that corner. So like I don't. Or like if you have like a pillar that you're rotating around, all of a sudden the camera gets smashed in because you're too close to the pillar. Like that's kind of an indicator to me that hey, I cannot dodge backwards here, or I mean I guess you could, but you're not going anywhere, yeah, right. So like I got very comfortable with it. That's never been a complaint of mine. Like the fucking camera also. Like it's hilarious to me when people are playing like fighting fire giant or something and they're trying to lock on and you're like stop you know, like you can't complain about the camera at that point.
Speaker 1:That is a huge open arena, but you're trying to lock on to a boss.
Speaker 2:That is massive, you don't need to get down he's you big enough, enough, he's not a monster. No, he's not, bro he's. We showed you one in a building.
Speaker 1:Okay, cronos is massive, cronos is a planet. Yeah, but like to me it. I like that stuff when they're just like unfair or like streamers do this all the time, and like Call of Duty games like how does he win that? I fucking with this, fucking 37 ping. That's how we win that. It's like 37 ping bro.
Speaker 1:I like I grew up on 200 yeah, you know like, like it's just the way the game go like. So it depends on the critiques and I do find myself more interested in the personalities that stream that are very insightful. So like I do like watch I used to watch a lot more of doctor disrespect, but it's much less now. But like I love when he because he used to be a game designer and he's actually has his own new studio and so like he's making an NFT game. I think they've really calmed down on that whole thing because like it was like we're making a game, it's stupid not to participate in that, and then they kind of all blew up and they're like all right, we're not, we're not really gonna push this anymore. I think that's the reason behind it.
Speaker 1:But regardless I digress he kind of he does have like these really interesting, like design elements that I never really considered and literally on his Mount Rushmore of top games of all time is Elden Ring and there would be moments in the game where he would talk about like he would get to this.
Speaker 1:I'll think about it like when you first get to Lendale, you beat the Draconic Tree Sentinel and you walk up the stairs and it frames, like he calls it, like a framing which is kind of it's. It is like a picture frame, but you, it frames out the whole castle, the dragon, the tree and stuff like that. And he just talked about how important that is to have in like game design and like how much he appreciated it and it kind of like it opened up this perspective of like oh, you're right, like that is kind of as they're designing, that, they're kind of thinking about that stuff, to kind of give you. It gives you a really good idea of like the scale of what you're about to experience, you know even though it might not be picked up as a gamer.
Speaker 1:So I typically like those, really like introspective, insightful people that play games. I also do not watch like general. I typically do not watch like generalists, people who like like Summit 1g. I don't really watch his content. I don't know if you guys know who that. I know he is, I just don't watch he kind of hops from like game to game to game to game to game just plays was popular yeah, and Markiplier, like I don't watch his content because he goes from game to game.
Speaker 1:Now they have like a very like rounded out like perspective of gaming. But what I like is those people who like grind one genre of games typically that's you yes, well, because I again this.
Speaker 1:It's like a form of entertainment in which there's an exchange right, I'm giving you my viewership, you what are you giving me?
Speaker 1:And that's how I'm kind of always thinking about these relationships. And so am I going to watch your content and learn something, or am I just going to have a laugh or two? That's okay, but I'll consume much less of it. But if I'm watching like the top, you know, 1% in a game trying to out compete, it's like, oh, you know, like one of the, there's a couple of call of duty streamers when I was really into warzone that you would watch and you pick up like nuances, like, oh, if you don't mantle over a window, it won't cancel your plating animation, so you should jump before you go into the window because then you can continue your and like that's a little quick trip, that trick that you can continue to play and still execute, you know, getting out of a building. So, like I, like I typically will watch people who are at like the pinnacle of that game if it's like a competitive game so you don't really ever have to deal with them not being competent yeah, exactly because, like and also, like I'm not watching.
Speaker 1:Okay, I can't wait to watch this dead space play through. Like, no, I'm not watching the fucking. You know what I mean. Like I watch, like competitive games like I can or I watch like challenge runs of shit, like Elden Ring, like no hit, you know that's probably only like maybe 20%, if that of the type of stuff I watch is is like the competitive, that kind of thing.
Speaker 3:Like I the exact opposite for me. I don't watch games for them to teach me how to play the game or teach me cool tricks and tricks, or I don't watch it because they're really good at it, like I don't really care about any of that. I care more about the like, the human aspect of it. So, like a competitive watching, competitive gaming is not something I really watch. I, if I'm watching someone game, it's because I want to see them experience.
Speaker 3:You know the story of cyberpunk for the first time I want to see, like that group, that reaction that they'll have to it. It's like I to this day, if I find someone that's playing Mass Effect for the first time, I usually get sucked into watching their whole play through. I don't know what it is, because I I love watching people experience something that I love and then it's like they hate it. Then I'm like okay and I just don't watch that, you know but like then you get mad at me.
Speaker 3:I don't get mad because everyone's a lot to have their own opinions, but then you lose me as a viewer because I don't agree with you you know like they can do what they want to do about anything, but that's so like that's funny. That's the exact opposite of what I'm looking for when I hit, like I don't need people to lecture me on game design or I know what I like yeah and I'm like so I just want to see how they react so like if I'm watching someone play Elden Ring in the same way that Dr, disrespect is like.
Speaker 3:This is really interesting. This is a framing shot. This is I would. Instead of hearing about that, I would rather just see someone go, oh my god. And then I'm like, yeah, that was a good moment.
Speaker 2:I got you.
Speaker 1:Dan'll ask how you guys feel about fighting games. I've never been in big into fighting games. I know both of you guys love them.
Speaker 2:I don't watch like. On the topic of streams, I don't watch any any fighting game streams. Like sometimes if there's a, if there's a big competition, competition, and somehow I find out about it, I might watch it. But that's like the extent is like I might watch Mortal Kombat because I did watch. Was it Evo? Yeah, I did watch either last year or two years ago. I watched the Evo like competition. That was cool.
Speaker 2:I did like that and I thought it was interesting because you that's kind of ties in yours, billy, if it's there at the top of their fucking game and they are and I look at them like Jesus Christ, yeah, like I can't even imagine pulling off those type of combos and the competitions in those fighting games are like legendary.
Speaker 1:I mean, those are like the original e-sports yeah, yeah where people would bring.
Speaker 3:There is so much intrigue and drama to competitors in that space too. Like it's, it's competitive and heated on a level that is not rivaled by a lot of other. I think the only one that comes close to be like maybe like the Dota community and like as far as like the intensity of it, but it's just like a different level, those fighting games like it's also translates really well to someone who maybe, like if I watched a fighting game like do you may not understand the mechanics, but I know who's winning yeah, it's almost like watching a real fight.
Speaker 3:Yes, just because you don't know exactly how they're winning the fight, but it's clear to see who's winning, you know. But like there's only one person that I probably go back to and watch repeatedly on fighting games because that's his niche, it's, he does nothing but fighting games. This guy, max million dude and he, he only plays fighting games, and randomly he does like Souls games too.
Speaker 1:I was gonna say. I think I've watched him on Elden Ring. He might have. I think I watch you cuz he does like a shitload of PvP. I think yeah, so his, his main thing is his fighting games.
Speaker 3:That's his channel, his fighting games. But, like he also said, like his favorite game of all time is Bloodborne. But, um, that being said, fighting games is like really how his channel exploded and he plays everything, so like if you wanted to see someone that's like at the top of their craft and he does the kind of stuff you like, where he'll talk about, like you know, tips and tricks and he has this whole like thing called rating, supers and stuff like how to achieve it and like getting good or whatever but he does mostly fighting games as max million dude.
Speaker 1:I'm pretty sure I see I've caught a few streams when Elden Ring first came out of him.
Speaker 3:He was one of the many. He great. He rated it his his like greatest game of that year, just like 90% of everybody did. It wasn't. Yeah, I think that you know it's weird. I want to touch back on. We talked about like kind of raging in gaming. I you guys have seen you've been a part of me raging in like in like warzone and like first person like it ruins my night when I'm not performing. No matter how hard I've like thought something was in the Souls game, I don't think I've ever raged in a Souls game well to me, that's for a very specific reason.
Speaker 2:I think most Souls games are good at this and it's being fair in that, like I've never in a Souls game felt like something like me dying was the games fault, it's very clear that I messed up on something and I just need to get better to win. And so I think, like in other games like warzone, you know, there's fucking camping there's camping, or there might be some glitch party there's why is the ground shooting at me under the map?
Speaker 2:under the map, the we had one time. We had the auto aim glitch. I think somebody shot us with that word. They were just like to do, to do, and so I think in my opinion that's why I was Souls games. I I mean I'll, I'll get like flustered, especially if it's hard, and I'm like, oh, shoot, but I won't ever get like To the point where I'm gonna break the controller.
Speaker 3:I don't think I've ever even thought about breaking any of my equipment. No matter how mad I've been, I would. That's just silly to me like why would you? Ever do that breaking you know yeah your equipment.
Speaker 3:But I can say for a fact that even if, like, we're playing, if we're playing warzone, even if, like, the team was just better than me, I would, it's hard for me to like Be cool and like vibe with that. But like in, like Elden Ring, for example, if I was starving on a boss, like, maybe, like you said, maybe I might be like, oh, come on, but like I've never once Been like actually upset at anything. Yeah, in this whole game.
Speaker 1:I think there is something to be said about, like the fairness. I think there's also, you know, single player. You're fighting AI, not, yeah, another person that can do cheesy. You know low effort strats like camping or Well, and you're gonna try it again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, warzone, those people you played against probably won't play against you.
Speaker 1:Might have been on a kill streak or you know like getting close to the final circle. Yeah, no, I think there's something. Yeah, there's something to be said there.
Speaker 3:There's just as hard a fall as there is a rise, though in a game like in battle royales, for sure, cuz on the flip side of that, I don't think there's ever been a boss in a souls game that I've beaten that has ever given me the high of like that first warzone win.
Speaker 1:You know? Yeah, like 50 people in the lobby.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I, that's ingrained in my gaming memory especially because the first time we ever got a warzone win because we're all together.
Speaker 2:And there's something to be said about, yeah, accomplishing goals, because it's like I know, when I beat because Securo was my, I played Bloodborne but I didn't. I never beat it. Um, securo was the first souls game that I beat and I know that I felt good when I beat like any true and then sword saint, but, like Kyle said, it wasn't. It wasn't on the same level as as warzone. I think that's to me, I think that's the the camaraderie aspect, because it's like when I beat get any true I was like, yeah, but it's like I'm alone you know, see it.
Speaker 1:So millennium ghost brings up an interesting point. Fighting games are fun to watch when both players are decently skilled, and I totally agree with this, and I actually think this is what bothers me. I feel like a lot about games today is that they try to Remove the ability to like for top players to really outperform bottom players, and I thought warzone 2 did this like so poorly as that they got rid of a lot of the movement mechanics and basically made all the top players closer to like the bottom players, and so when you watch like when I didn't, I refused to watch any Warzone 2 tournaments after the first few weeks because it was just you could see that, other than their aim being impeccable, they were sort of limited by what the game engine was allowing them to do right versus, you go.
Speaker 1:When you watch like a fighting game, you go oh, I can't do that. I, those are yeah like they know how to perfect combo like 60 different ways.
Speaker 3:Exactly. There's some streamers that also their their buttons are displayed on the screen and you see what they're doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah it's insane, like exactly so, like when that skill cap is high. Like I think apex legends does a phenomenal job of this because it's such a movement based game. You watch it, how you play, and you're like, okay, that's it. I'm feeling like that, I suck, you know. And then you watch it's Timmy or any of those other Legends out there and you're like, oh, that's where you can get to if you have 20,000 that's how you actually play the game right.
Speaker 3:Or if you did it for a living. Yeah, eight hours, right, you know.
Speaker 1:But like I feel like that's like in warzone 1 and like in the, in whatever warzone you're want to call this They've brought a lot of the movement stuff back. You can a once again see that skill gap and it makes it exciting to watch because you can have an appreciation for the talent of the players that you're watching. I think you see this in like League of Legends. League of Legends has a simple mechanic where basically you have to last hit the minions that are Coming at you and hordes, and if you last hit them, you get the gold. If they, if you don't last hit them, you hit them like in the middle, you don't get any gold. You have to get the last hit to get the money.
Speaker 1:And like there's I played it so long ago but there was like metrics like you should have a hundred minions farmed in the first ten minutes and a two hundred minions Farmed in the first 20 minutes. I think something like that. But as like a normie playing that game someone who just played it casually a Best I could get was like 50 or 40, like that would be a really great game.
Speaker 2:No, and ever make it to ranked.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I used to do a lot of ranked Um and it made it out of. But, like you know, it takes so much time just to get to max level to be able to play ranked, I'm ended up sell actually sold my account on For like a hundred bucks too. That's a crazy story, but along with some photos, but, you had like be surprised for the market for this. You want that slice and ice killer.
Speaker 1:I'm welcome, welcome, but like that was such an obvious indicator that they were just way better at the game than you and Like, with that to me, like that's that competitive edge that you're like, okay, you're watching this, you're giving them their viewership, but you're also learning that like, hey, you're really not this good at this game and this is where you can get to, if you like, really push yourself, and that's the kind of stuff that I like to see. Where it's like I can't do that, you know, and that's impressive, you know. So that's the stuff I like you know it.
Speaker 3:What game is very fun to watch At evo but in eSports is Smash Bros. Oh god, yeah, dude, smash Bros. Like there's such a separation between like pros and Joes. Yeah, in that community.
Speaker 1:It's insane and you question why they do certain things like they don't always just like. When we're in we play Smash Bros, we get knocked off the platform. We're spamming every button we can to get back. They'll wait till like the last second and know the exact pixel that they could fall to get right back.
Speaker 3:They'll know not only what jumps to do, but what's attacks like what's attacks to use against themselves, to blast them back onto the map and stuff and like if I combine this with this, I get 10 feet height. Yeah, juggling in that game is insane. Like, if you can pull it off, you can keep people in the air for like five minutes.
Speaker 1:It's like it's crazy.
Speaker 3:We just keep smacking them up and yeah, in fighting games they call that juggling, if you keep someone in the air.
Speaker 1:So like stunned per mist on yeah.
Speaker 3:So, like in in games like Smash Bros, like if you do it right, you can literally keep someone like Permanent that has that too, where you can moral combat has some pretty insane juggles. Street fighter Street fighter has some some some hard combos to pull off. You know, the only fighting game and it just launched, the only fighting game I never got super into is Tekken, but they just launched Tekken 8 and it's got pretty good reviews.
Speaker 2:I never got into street fighter. I got into Tekken yeah, I was younger, but not street fighter for some reason. Would be fighting game.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I Was mortal calm in the main thing, it's always it's street fighter mortal combat.
Speaker 3:Those are that and then all the other ones are like you know you're in third. Yeah, it's always gonna be between street fighter mortal combat. Mortal combat is soul calibers is good it's. It's different compared to other and they always have like the weirdest guest characters.
Speaker 2:I know Darth Vader Carol.
Speaker 1:Carol was in one of the soul caliber someone, literally just as we are talking about soul caliber. Anyone remember soul caliber? That's so funny.
Speaker 3:So Calibur.
Speaker 2:So Calibur and Tekken I put in the same category. It's like dark, like it's just a weird it's, it's weird.
Speaker 1:How does Tekken play? Is it like still traditional fighting style?
Speaker 2:so well mortal combat and street fighter are actually. They are different. Mortal combat, street fighter are 2d playing Fighting games, tekken and soul caliber are 3d. So the it's a ring rather than just this. That'd be a lot more interesting, and so I mean it. It's cool.
Speaker 3:It adds an element to it. We also lose a little bit of the straightforwardness of like the honest.
Speaker 2:Cuz, somebody can just fight her to the left thing, you know yeah.
Speaker 1:I feel like you, when you do it, when you make it 2d, you get much more of that vertical in terms of talent because you have to, you're like locked into that playstyle. Versus 3d you almost take like the number of variables, like Outside of, like human calculation well, because like in 2d you're gonna have a Quantifiable number of scenarios that you run into and you could almost you could get really good at being able to counter for every instant that happens there when you now translate that to a 3d environment.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know like you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:It's much more. It's much more of like an athletic reaction style of a game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like the 3d fighting games are arm have like a Higher barrier for entry. It's really in my opinion, it's easier for somebody to pick up Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter and play than to pick up tech in our Soul Calibur, because left right You're good, yeah and like, because I know, like I, I have this memory of picking up like Soul Calibur At a, at a party or something, and I haven't played in years and just trying to party and he's playing Soul Calibur in a Bedroom in the corner by myself.
Speaker 2:Leave me alone but like trying to run towards the other person Was like in line up an attack, it was just. It was like I Know I was drunk.
Speaker 1:I feel like that's how PvP and Souls games go, though to it, like that, that's a whole. I Wish they had better like servers, because there's some that like it could be so much more of a competitive experience Because you can't do PvP on like in like land. Can you on in Souls games you can't like do a land?
Speaker 3:No and you probably there's a problem on PC. There's probably a mod. Yeah, install.
Speaker 1:But like that would be really cool if you had like low latency, you know high-tech service that you could Actually have like a competitive, because I feel like that game with how many different weapon styles there are and weapon arts, so like I feel like that would be kind of a really cool experience.
Speaker 3:But yeah, one of the niche fighting games that I Got really into for a while was this game called Power Rangers Battle for the Grid and it's like you've talked about it's a Power Rangers fighting game, but it's actually designed Incredibly well and it's it's a lot of fun. And then they even had Quan Chi not Quan Chi, Chun Lee and Um Ryu from.
Speaker 3:Street Fighter from Street Fighter as Power Rangers. Like in that game was like DLC characters. Yeah, it's so random and it's it's kind of like you can tell it was like an indie game. It's not very graphically impressive or anything, but just like the mechanics of it is like really well done. What about?
Speaker 2:Marvel vs Capcom.
Speaker 1:I like Marvel vs Capcom 2 is one of the few that I actually played.
Speaker 3:Marvel vs Capcom. 2 is really good, 3 was okay and then they'd re-release 3 a lot the way that Capcom always kind of does Injustice. Those are.
Speaker 3:Those are really good and that's another realm, that's well, yeah, marvel's Capcom is is the same people to Street Fighter, so like they all have their own spin-off fighting games too, on top of their mainline games. What mortal combat for me, is always gonna be number one? Just because I Mortal Kombat has a special place in my heart. So I think his first fighting game I ever played was Mortal Kombat 2 and I remember like thinking, oh my god, this is so incredibly ripping spines out of people, and it was the. The technology they used was they used like projected sprites, so like it was all like they actually had to Do, like they hired actors actually do every single one of those moves.
Speaker 3:They could use in that real people spines yeah and then they will be the second, and then they they use that and they so like the it was. They looked way different than any other Fighting game at that time. It hit like Goro was like a claymation Character, like that's how they. They filmed all of his fight scenes in claymation because they couldn't obviously you can't get an actor that. Is giant with four harps.
Speaker 2:Did you ever play Dragon Ball Budokai? Yeah, I am so excited for the new one. They just released another trailer and the roster is huge, like Amount of playable characters. They, at the end of the trailer, they zoom out and it's like you. Only they only fill in some of them, but it's you. Look at, you're like Jesus.
Speaker 3:I think I used to play Dragon Ball Budokai. If it's the one I'm thinking of, I used to play with something cool, gaming a lot when we were younger. This game came out a long time ago, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we were, there was, there was. What's in there? Four of them, budokai Tenkaiichi.
Speaker 3:I think we played like one of the original ones. We used to play that for hours on end.
Speaker 2:I'll go to his house and Like it's like it's a 3d fighting game, yeah, with with you know, dragon Ball, characters can fly and they have, like their key, you know their special attacks. So it was like it's not like Soul Calibur or Tekken in the aspect of like you don't need to be up close, you can like fire your energy blast and then you go up close and you it is one of those games that, if I, if I memory serves, because it's been a long time since we played it is one of those games that you can just button your master way through, like yes, everything like it doesn't take a lot of skill.
Speaker 3:It just takes a lot of aggression to be able to win.
Speaker 2:But it was I just remember being really cool and that, like you could do, you could do a lot of stuff from the show, like you could have beam battles. So like we're, two beams hit each other and you're tapping the button to try and win over the other person as the beam goes back and forth Wow.
Speaker 3:We used to play I Mean Smash Bros was. I think everyone our age put a considerable amount of time in Smash Bros, oh yeah. I remember we did, we would do like a hundred life Things like challenges and we would just live like we would 100 live and we would take like five hours for us.
Speaker 1:Take it down.
Speaker 2:We yeah, so much do you guys remember, like with Smash Bros? I remember going to school and hearing rumors about these secret characters that you could get like me you too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, they don't make up it was like when Shadow the Colossus came out and there was like that secret ninth Colossus or whatever it was that Everyone looked for for years, and then the developers like we don't that's it. There is no secret.
Speaker 2:There is some. There is a secret in that game that I, to this day, I've never got. You have to collect. I had to look it up when I played the remake. You collect these things that allow you to Climb more and, like they aren't required, you can beat every boss without getting one of them, but if you get them all, it gives you just enough to climb up to the top of the start tower, and up there there's like there's a I think it's like a mask that gives you special powers and stuff, but you have to be able to climb what, and it's like I had no clue that even existed.
Speaker 1:Did you know Malekith has a shackle. Yes, I did not know Malekith had anything like that. It's like a Claw that you can wear, and I think you can parry with it or something.
Speaker 2:Well, no, it's an usable item.
Speaker 1:Oh, and you just consume it and yeah, and you don't take the degeneration.
Speaker 2:It's like If you don't consume it, you just use it.
Speaker 1:It's reusable, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's like I'm trying to think what else acts like it. It's something that you can just press it and use it.
Speaker 1:There's like the lantern that you can turn on and off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like the lantern, yeah, and so like you can just do it and it interrupts him, it like kind of stuns it.
Speaker 3:Oh, I did know about that. I've never used it, but I do so apparently that exists for him.
Speaker 1:And then there's like Moog has, a similar one. I thought all he had was the crack tear that you could slot into your physic and then when you consumed it he wouldn't be able to life steal a bunch or you wouldn't take insane damage on his life steal.
Speaker 3:So you're like joke, joke, joke, joke. Does he have more?
Speaker 2:He has also a shackle the same thing.
Speaker 1:You use it and it interrupts him. I've never used those, yeah.
Speaker 3:And it's like what? I'm not a bitch yeah.
Speaker 1:But like that's another example, Like I played the shit out of that game and never even knew that that existed.
Speaker 2:The only time I ever used, I think, malakas shackle is. I don't even know if this is still in the game, but there was a dungeon that if you used it in the dungeon it like glitched the game to open a door that you would usually have to, like, do this much harder route, so you could just do the shackle and it would make it open. Huh.
Speaker 1:That's kind of cool and so.
Speaker 2:I remember that's the only time I ever used it, because I was like I read it I was like, oh, I need to go try that. And then I did it and I was like, oh, wow, it works.
Speaker 1:I bet that's like the heroes grave dungeon, because that one's it was.
Speaker 2:I think it's literally.
Speaker 1:That's the one where you have to like the heroes great, but like the there the ghosts or whatever are riding those fucking death machines. No you have to fucking longbow one of them off in the exact spot, otherwise you fail the dungeon or whatever.
Speaker 2:The worst, that's only one way, I did not use the longbow.
Speaker 1:Would you end up doing?
Speaker 2:I don't know what I did, but I did not use longbow.
Speaker 1:You can you can hit him if you get him on the back. I think I hopped on top of that. That's what you can do to. You can write it, yeah.
Speaker 3:The only dungeon that was super annoying for me. I'm not even a dungeon, but yeah it's a dungeon. I hate the when you're doing the frenzied flame. Getting to the bottom of that stupid area is so annoying. I fall damage because I have no patience, so I don't take enough time to light up my drops and I'm constantly falling like fuck and I got to do it again.
Speaker 1:Dude. Well, because the jump mechanics in the game are so hard and you're like OK, do I run and jump.
Speaker 3:Do I just jump? Vastly improved over previous old games.
Speaker 2:And I would say there is the jump mechanics, them like jumping is OK, it's that the hitboxes on what you land on, and the. They built in a momentum system.
Speaker 3:Yes, if you, if you hit a corner, yeah, and then you bounce off of it and you're done.
Speaker 2:It's not like you just sit and land solid like only up. You know you have the mantle.
Speaker 1:I remember. Imagine if there's a mantle like to climb shit like they. Oh my god, that's elder, there's that meme for a while.
Speaker 3:Where is what's that ring that? It says it negates all fall damage, but it's just like worded so poorly.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:It really says will no longer it says where will no longer suffer fall damage, but like it's worded so poorly, what that means is you can go another five feet like any drop. That would normally hurt you but not kill you, doesn't hurt you anymore, but you'll still die to any other big drop. And then there was that. What's his name? Is it Tyler the creator? Where is this like? So that was a fucking lie. Yeah, yeah, that's with that ring because it says it. So that was a fucking lie.
Speaker 2:Kyle went to the, to the frenzy flame place he puts on the ring. He's like, yeah, got this First time I found this.
Speaker 3:I was like this is stupid, oh, holy shit. And I went and tested it out and I died and I was like I don't get it.
Speaker 1:I'm like it's so dumb. I think we were on discord at the time, you're like I just found a ring that negates all fall damage. I'm like there's no way it does.
Speaker 3:That. I was like. I was like I'm reading it.
Speaker 1:I know you're not like no, there's no fucking way that that exists.
Speaker 2:I immediately died and it was awesome. How did we get back to Elden Ring? I don't know. Billy brought us back, did I?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The shackle.
Speaker 3:We were talking about shadow of the glasses and finding out something that you never fit in. And then you're, like you know, Malakit. Elden ring and, by the way, elden Ring, I'm not going to lie A part of me back to like fighting games. I wish that there was like, because some of the best times growing up in my life was just like laying parties or just couch co-op games like Smash Bros. I just feel like games just aren't designed that way anymore. You know, like I just did that that's never in people's minds.
Speaker 2:Nintendo's the best at doing it. But even then it's not what it used to be because it's like I, you know, I remember how much fun it was to play couch co-op, like even and this makes me so sad about Halo Like they took it out of the game completely. It's not a feature, but me and my friend when we're growing up, we had so much fun playing Halo co-op. He was Arbiter, I was Master Chief, you know, and it was just, it was fun. And now it's like you need to be online, it's just.
Speaker 3:I remember Killzone had a couch co-op story mode, killzone 3, because your brother and I did it Simps 2.
Speaker 1:I played Killzone 2. You know I was thinking like are you even able to pirate games anymore? Like, do people pirate games anymore because of how many like require online authentication, like of. You know you have to have like a to play any Blizzard game or Activision game. You have to have a battle net, you know to play Blizzard in origin. All these games require some kind of like third party activation. Are you able to pirate? I don't know.
Speaker 2:I think, they've kind of worked their way around. You wouldn't download a car, billy, would you?
Speaker 1:If I could, I would.
Speaker 3:It's not a victimless crime. No, do you?
Speaker 2:remember those commercials, oh yeah, with the fucking like Lincoln Park going on in the background.
Speaker 1:I don't, I never really pirated anything really in my life.
Speaker 2:That's not true. That's not true at all. You told us.
Speaker 1:Never, really. What do you mean? I told you why you just used to break DVDs, that's not pirating I own the fucking DVD.
Speaker 3:You had a whole black market. Yeah, I used to host a server that yeah.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh, no, I've never really. I mean, for as long as I've been in the PC gaming world, I've never really pirated anything, and I don't even know if it works who hasn't watched a pirated movie at some point in their life. Yeah, I've definitely like streamed those just from like one, two, three movies or something.
Speaker 2:One thing I've ever like pirated in recent times was like a UFC fight.
Speaker 3:I was just, I'm literally just going to say it's not even like necessarily pirating, but like going to a stream, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't even know if I call that pirating Would do. Is it technically pirating?
Speaker 3:I don't well it's not the people that are streaming it. I guess could be considered pirating it. But like no, I don't know if you, if you're consuming it, if you're, if you're pirating it per se yeah, you know, because it's ridiculous. The prices aren't saying no for UFC fights paying like a hundred dollars per se.
Speaker 2:I mean it's.
Speaker 3:I haven't bought one in a while to be honest with you.
Speaker 2:But Even if you subscribe to like, like ESPN plus or whatever you, still got to pay for it, then it's like oh you need to pay to watch it.
Speaker 1:Do you think if they came out with like a pay per view, like game award show where they did announcements for trailers, you think like?
Speaker 2:they would get 10,000 people to pay 10 bucks to watch it. I don't think anybody would pay.
Speaker 1:I think there would be 10,000 dub asses that would buy that Absolutely. Because it's like watch the previews like early and then all of them will be released a week later.
Speaker 3:I guarantee you, I guarantee you there'd be at least 10,000 people. Wow, I would do it, I know yeah. I'm not saying that I would.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I would find a way to have somebody re upload it, you know and watch it that way. But no, I think about like where we are headed in the gaming industry and I feel like that it's going to be that kind of shit, man.
Speaker 2:Speaking of the gaming industry, I know you want to talk about Blizzard.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're at time, but I mean we could talk about Blizzard. So Blizzard announced a new chief, a new head, honcho because Bobby Kotick right. He was Bobby K.
Speaker 2:He left and he's people were happy.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, was he forced out, or do you sleep?
Speaker 1:Well, I mean $400 million. Is that a force out?
Speaker 2:No they give him gold parachute.
Speaker 3:We've all been there, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have a lot of thoughts on that, but that's. That's not for here or there.
Speaker 2:You're not going to bring out your analyst voice.
Speaker 1:Um, well so. So obviously Blizzard has had some shakeups. Well, activision Blizzard since the merger with Microsoft, and so they announced like 1900 people getting laid off and they canceled their new game. Thank you, millennial ghosts. They canceled the new survival game Um 1900 people got laid off and they've announced a new chief. I forget her name, but she's the. She was the director for Call of Duty, so I it's kind of funny that like Blizzard was at one point this like beloved studio and I think that went out the door years ago and it's still beloved because they have some incredible titles, but really they haven't done anything new since Overwatch.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean real estate like new.
Speaker 1:IPs, overwatch 2 doesn't really count. I mean hard stuff like Overwatch 2 is literally Overwatch 1 with a new number on it. They didn't do their single player mode, none of that, so they've really released like many DLC, it's just like ridiculous and so like they've been this super stagnant.
Speaker 1:So it's just, it's such a crazy move to me. I saw some mixed reviews online of like, oh, this will bring fresh breath of air, you know, whatever. So, on the surface, I look at where the Call of Duty franchise is and like the titles that Blizzard owns and it's. It's crazy to me that they have an Activision person serving over Blizzard now and now it's all under one umbrella. I'm sure we're going to get a rebranding of that whole group at some point. Obviously, you know, anytime you do like a merger, like they'll be shakeup, but the Call of Duty manager really like that was the best, that's the best you got, that's the best you got. And this person like didn't agree with a lot of stuff and they had great ideas and that's awesome. But like really the Call of Duty division like is that?
Speaker 1:is that a franchise that's in a really great state right now?
Speaker 3:Like the director of, Microsoft has the power to really just kind of do whatever they want to be successful. So you have to think there's some kind of reason beyond like what we're seeing and why someone was picked for what they were picked to do. But it does seem weird, like, like you said, of all the people that you can, that can spearhead this change.
Speaker 2:It's not what you know, it's who you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't know. Well, I don't know, I don't know if that's the case here.
Speaker 1:No, they know a lot of people you know, and it should not cost 15 bucks, you know, for a character's skin. I love that. That's hilarious, because how are they going to pay back for that trailer that they dropped? That's a 30 minute cliff. They have to pay that back. They need you to buy that skin. Dang, who would spend that kind of money in game? I'm sure there's people in the chat that have spent that.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 3:I have never spent more than a thousand dollars on cosmetics.
Speaker 1:I'm like the anti, like I'm like the anti microtransaction guy, but it is. It's funny to me that it's just kind of like obviously these companies make decisions based on profit motives and as it should. But, like the funny thing is is like I see so many gamers up in arms about, like this game. What's the Yakuza game?
Speaker 2:the infinite wealth, infinite wealth.
Speaker 1:Infinite wealth. What's a? Is it just called infinite wealth or what's the full Yakuza? It is Yakuza, yeah, have you? Have you seen this game that's been kind of popping off People are talking about like they're they're locking new game plus behind the deluxe edition and everybody's like up in arms and I'm like guys, it's real simple, don't buy it. Like literally if you want to affect change.
Speaker 3:You got to hurt them in the wallet.
Speaker 1:Literally, if if you buy it, then it they're going to keep pushing the envelope Like it's. It's. This is. This is not unique to gaming. This is any product ever. They're looking to monetize what they're selling.
Speaker 2:And if they come out, I mean Ubisoft. They tried to put NFTs in the ghost recon and and it didn't work, so there you go.
Speaker 1:They're not going to do that again. Had, they have made money on that, regardless of the reception they would have kept going 100% and I don't mind that because, like I think, I think that you know that I want these studios to be profitable, but so that we get more engineers and smart people into the space that can go and create new IPs and more fun Like.
Speaker 3:I want that we, as consumers, have more power than we give ourselves credit for, though we just need to stand and say no if there's something we don't like, and that's the hardest part is getting like enough people together to not buy that $15 cosmetic. Like pre-orders, including myself, I'm very guilty of buying cosmetics, let's get gotta have it by like.
Speaker 2:I. There's always a huge movement about don't pre-order games anymore and it's like, well, yes, I get it. I you're never going to get everybody to stop pre-order games.
Speaker 1:Well, and that's that's the thing too is like, as gamers, like these studios, they know once they build a brand, they have us by the balls because people want to simp so hard for that game, because it's like they're beloved, you know it's like, oh my God, I love that. Like they truly do. Like Diablo, Like think about, think about what else. Like what other entertainment do you really like fall in love with?
Speaker 1:Well, I did pre-order often but, like you don't, you watch a movie for two and a half hours and at best you might watch that movie again over the course of the next year. Two years, five times TV show, tv show, even less. So you might re-watch that TV show once, maybe twice, but like so it's not you look at Game of Thrones, you'll fall in love with it.
Speaker 2:During the whole thing, people were in love with it.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, but look at the spin-offs. So spin-offs have been kind of quiet.
Speaker 3:I do think that gaming is unique in the sense that there's not a lot of mediums like it's where they can develop such a intense following that we'll just consume it, no matter what. You know like there are fandoms that do that, but as far as, like you know, some studios like back to Diablo, I feel like Blizzard could have done whatever they want with it, 100% and it's still. They still would have made millions.
Speaker 1:So Millennial Ghost. Did you play Diablo Like? You said, oh Diablo, like. Did you ever play that? Cause I, I did, we all did, and we loved it.
Speaker 3:Well, I loved it to level 50. To level 50. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Ended the story and then no more.
Speaker 3:It's like we all loved it, but I'm not going to say how we felt on End Gamer.
Speaker 1:I think we all kind of felt similar.
Speaker 2:I just played it longer Before before we get too far from it. I did want to mention, like talking about game gamers and like they're you know, the subculture around the game, like even now, if you look at Suicide Squad, all the bad press it has, like everything that's pointing to it being like a dumpster fire. If you go in their subreddit there's still people that are adamantly defending it Like it's their, like they work for the company or, you know, like it's their son and it's like yeah.
Speaker 1:It's, it is a weird. It's like it's one of the few products I'm having a hard time even thinking of like anything other than gaming. Like there's a few social things that maybe makes sense, but like people fall in love with these products, these brands, these IPs, this universe. Like I don't. If I announced bullshitstudiocom was coming out with a mass effect, mass effect four and you had never heard of me and everything you saw about the game was total shit. But it was supported by Square Enix, is it? It was supported by that. You both are probably buying it just to try it out, even though if it looked like total shit maybe pre-Andromeda.
Speaker 1:Okay. So yeah, they get one shot at it, right.
Speaker 3:Every studio that I you get one shot.
Speaker 1:But like that's, that's the power of that brand, like that, what other thing do you consume, going into that I got one. You're probably going to be dog. Shit, you know Books. Okay, there you go.
Speaker 2:Harry Potter, percy Jackson you look at when they get adapted. The fans of those books are like defensive, you're defensive, and furious. This doesn't match exactly how it was in the book. You're a fuck, you know, and so I'd say books, but that there's a great.
Speaker 1:That's a great example too. But, it's like any kind of like, any form of entertainment that, like you, can get really deeply passionate about fan fiction.
Speaker 3:So, going back to Diablo, Millennial Ghost said he played it and then it made the same mistakes as Diablo three. I know you guys didn't have a lot of experience to Diablo three, but I will a hundred percent agree with the fact that I had the same feelings at launch. At launch, and I only ever played Diablo three at launch. Once I beat, the story got like the soft cap as far as leveling. I felt like end game didn't have enough for me to keep me invested and interested and it felt like I there's nothing fun about doing the same thing over and over again grinding. I know that's not necessarily what you believe. I know that you're okay with the grind and you'll you're very forgiving of the grind.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:But Diablo four did the same thing that Diablo three did in that sense, and it's weird that they would just do that again. But to the point we've been making, if people buy it, they don't care. Yeah, they're going to make money, they're going to do what they want to do.
Speaker 2:Fattest example of if people buy it, they don't care. You look at FIFA or Madden. Those games have lost so many features that old, old versions had all for their stupid microtransaction modes, and it's not going to get any better because people keep buying it. Okie Zoom, what is this not?
Speaker 1:affiliated with Pokemon company or Nintendo Blizzard doesn't learn from his previous mistakes. I Don't think they care to learn because it's just, it's a, they just print money.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 1:Well, wow came down from its pedestal of like, okay, it's still there because it has a huge community, but, like, I think one of the first strategic errors that wow made was the wow token, which is you can spend real money and translate that into money into the game, and that, I think, added a monetary value for everybody's time inside the game, which before that was like obscure and you really you couldn't really calculate.
Speaker 1:Once they made that, it was like oh, I can do this for 20 hours and grind out this gold and this gear, or I can spend, you know, go get a minimum wage job, you know, for two hours and, and you know, make it up the same. And that, to me, breaks the illusion between the immersion of a game and Now was, they think, their first mistake and they kind of and obviously it's been successful for them because they Refuse to remove from the game and then they come out classic where it doesn't really it's not in the game either, and you know so they've innovated around it a little bit, but you know that again, they're profit driven, which they should be, because they have the lights to keep on and they want to grow and expand and do new projects and stuff. Totally acceptable.
Speaker 3:But women to harass in their office, yeah so I looked up the Pokemon poke zoo. Yeah, what is it affiliated with? No, it's.
Speaker 2:It came out around, or it was kind of around same time power world and so this we endo took them out like you said the same time around power world.
Speaker 1:So like this week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Poke zoo, like you can go the websites up, but if you click on it it's down, like it says website no longer exists. Why would you name it poke zoo?
Speaker 3:like it's like it's pretty ballsy ballsy.
Speaker 2:So look at the company's website reveals it incredibly sketchy looking store with 20 pages of cards and bundles, many which are ostensibly sold out, ranging in price from zero dollars to what's your guess, top prices millions, no, no, no, I would say probably 350, 250 what's your guess?
Speaker 3:I was joking. I said millions, but what?
Speaker 2:what is it $39,990 for?
Speaker 1:One. Why not let people?
Speaker 2:will, and this is for a one of 13 in the world. Meta zoo cryptid nation first place cast or moth man trophy card.
Speaker 3:Wow, I have one of those. Should I sell it? I think she's.
Speaker 1:See, I don't mind. Like, if you're gonna let I, if I built a game I would have. I would build a game with, with the cash shop. Obviously that seems to be the model, but just try to leave it as cosmetics only. I actually don't know. I'm cocking on my ass. I don't know if I'd have a cash shop, but if I did have a cash shop, this is what I would do. I would have an item in there that is just so disgustingly priced so that if whales want to whale and show off, they can buy it, and what it would be would be this most the most dramatic, that was their logo.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's a bit much.
Speaker 3:So they just get sued to oblivion that looks like Gengar right there. Exactly that's what I mean. If Nintendo really wanted to come after power word, if they, if they had a case, they would have already done it hundred percent. Nintendo is so quick to handle that shit.
Speaker 1:Yep, so I Would. But I would put a. I would put it if I had a game. I would put like the whale of all whales, I would make it like 50 grand, you know, and just like it would be a running total, like if they ever spent $50,000 total in the game at any time. It would just, it would count, keep counting up, and then they would unlock this once they spent 50,000.
Speaker 2:Oh, there's would be a overhaul skin.
Speaker 1:It would be like it would literally turn them into a whale with like a gold chain and it would be the most obscene, ridiculous thing I'm thinking you would like, for some reason, get low playing.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It would be like the most ridiculous thing everybody would like. It would be like it would have a whole thing like a Thank you for supporting our studio, blah, blah, blah, but like it would be just obscene. And if you want it like that, you let your whales wail. If they wanted to show that off.
Speaker 2:I remember when I used to play afk arena, a lot they had suckered it. I did. It was fun, I enjoyed it and I reached the cap to where, like it's, it was fun up to the point where it's like you needed to spend money if you were actually gonna be able to play the game more, but they had a system built in and it was it's their VIP system more money, you spent Real dollars, the higher VIP level you get a better rewards better percentages, and it's like smart.
Speaker 3:They probably made a shit ton of money, or probably making sure. Yeah, I feel like.
Speaker 1:All you got to do is to develop a really great monetization machine and then market.
Speaker 3:Look at cookie clicker, get a couple of YouTube celeb advertisers.
Speaker 1:Google foods. Raid shuttle how he is aligned. Like I'll never understand Raid shadow ledger. Like you could be watching Shit. That's nothing. You like. You know this person's never touched a game in their life. You're like why are you telling me about rage Legends?
Speaker 2:what you could also rely on us, you know, to sponsor your game.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you heard it here first. We're ready to sponsor whatever you want us to bring it on. I don't care what it is, there's nothing. We won't man's game word to Smooth my boss extra wallets Ridge wallet Nord VPN.
Speaker 1:I would love to be sponsored by Ridge wall because I use their products and I love it.
Speaker 3:This is not sponsored, but it's free advertising. Ridge wall it's great.
Speaker 1:I love where it's so much, have a knockoff one right now. It's cheap, Looks sick but literally like it, but yours as a money clip it's a nice money clip it's this isn't real is that a money clip or is that a belt clip?
Speaker 3:It's a money clip, but why would you ever belt clip your wall the most?
Speaker 1:ridiculous thing ever, like the easiest like a pager, it beeps ridiculous thing ever, when it goes, says why can't developers just make good games first and then make microtransactions later? It's almost like. It's almost like the in-game stores get created first and then the game itself is an afterthought 100%, and I think that that's.
Speaker 1:I think that is you remember these games, whether you like it or not. Games these days are complex enough and they cost millions of dollars as a business looking to invest. We've seen it in movies, they've already done this. They start with how do we sell this? The same thing happens with YouTube. If you listen to mr Bees talk about how, when he makes a video, the first thing he thinks about Before he even comes is he comes up with the title, and then the thumbnail, and then the thumbnail and then the content is all Secondary. It's how do we market this where? What is our, what is our target audience? All that stuff, and so, whether you like it or not, like all forms of entertainment, have sort of built towards the Taysian monetization First.
Speaker 3:I mean, they are companies, they're for-profit, so they're gonna look at what makes them the most money.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they've seen how much money microchans actions making, like GTA online and they're like we want that, we want you make infinitely more money On a cosmetic.
Speaker 3:That's five dollars. Then you do on the game itself.
Speaker 2:You sell the game at a lot. Well, probably a loss like.
Speaker 1:Imagine if Elden Ring Imagine Elden Ring just had a deal like just an update, a patch, where they had an in-game store where you can add like you could choose. For Five bucks you could buy six different armors for torrent. It was they would generate literally ten million dollars in five hours in terms of revenue.
Speaker 2:So I don't think game pride.
Speaker 1:That's literally just pride. Now that studio from software. Their motives is there. They're much more into like the prestige and I think they're much more like about their self-image and so they don't really do those that practices.
Speaker 3:They would never do anything to tarnish themselves but like it's harnish.
Speaker 2:But, you're telling me, like Blizzard, if they came out with Elden Ring oh Side squad, that game, we can already tell it's coming out as like overmonitized, and you know what?
Speaker 3:I have talked. We've talked positively about Suicide squad in the past. We've been skeptical because of some things that we heard, but overall we've been kind of like well, looks fun. Yeah, after seeing what I've seen and like I'm not gonna buy it.
Speaker 2:No, cuz I don't want to support.
Speaker 3:I don't want to support that as a studio, you know, I don't want them to think they can get away with that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I mean especially it's. It's sad with suicide squad because they've made such Coming from such great games as the Arkham series and even though Kyle doesn't like Arkham Knight, I don't dislike it, but I just think it was not on the same level. They were. They're great games, like you, like the combat system totally Revolutionized fire, like well, just 3d, like third-person games in general.
Speaker 3:Yeah, fighting was changed forever after Arkham. Arkham asylum came out in the stealth section.
Speaker 2:So many games use that type of stealth, and so it's sad to see that this is what they did with it, and I mean I I'm fairly certain on what it's gonna come out like and like what the reception is gonna be.
Speaker 1:Well, eight hours of content, like what are we doing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, eight to ten. And then in that same review they said eight to ten and they said that's if you struggle on bosses. And that's if you do like some of the side bosses and stuff. So it could be you can't.
Speaker 3:I mean no game, no matter how good it is, can justify to me 60 to 70 dollars For a game. I can be in one sitting and if I really wanted to, top it off.
Speaker 2:How many years has it been since Arkham Knight like?
Speaker 3:15 2015, I think, is when it came out, so eight years, eight years for a game that's eight to ten hours. That's a like a hour a year.
Speaker 1:What do you think needs to happen? So like, obviously, I would you say it's fair to say we have more games coming out these years than like ever before. Oh yeah, okay, so I think it's a fair statement.
Speaker 2:I would say in the case of well 1997.
Speaker 3:There, what is it watered?
Speaker 1:down like the quality.
Speaker 2:Yes, and. I would also say there's a lot more studio, involvement or like. Publish or public like saying like, and who knows, it might be rocksteady, that's like we need to microtransaction. But we've seen examples in the past of publishers being like no, this game is gonna be like game as a service, and they're like Well, that's steady, have a parent company.
Speaker 3:Is it WB, wb?
Speaker 1:but here's the thing. Here's a problem with that millennial ghost. So for the people listening on the podcast, I hope that this year for indie developers more fun and passion-driven games instead of money grabs. Here's a problem with that. That works. Here's on the PC model because the distribution networks are vast. I Think there's a certain level of gatekeeping that occurs on consoles right Do you I think any games are big on consoles.
Speaker 3:Well though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because of the because of the, the platform that you just like go to the store and download games and stuff. Do you think they are like if you own a PlayStation 5 and you're you're 12, 15 years old, do you think there's a strong audience For like? Do you think like a lot of people are naturally finding themselves going to the store and like checking? Out indie games on on.
Speaker 3:I don't think that kids are naturally going to, even on PC, to look up indie games, so kids are gonna be sucked into whatever the big popular thing is, regardless of what platform grown. But I would say that indie games are becoming more and more successful and Reachable on even console now because of how, like I Think that studios and companies are starting to see the advantages of these, of these types of things. I know that on you know, even on the PlayStation store, like there's like a whole section for indie games and Like if all it takes is one person, one big YouTuber, to be like this game is fun for that kid to be, like I want to buy it and then they go play on you know, playstation or what have you. But to your point also, I think that that will always be more accessible on like PC, like indie games are always gonna be a little bit bigger on PC.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they are another platform but you guys bring up a good point though. Game pass, I think, has done a really good job of highlighting and showcasing Xbox in general.
Speaker 2:They, they have, like they. They have a special Program where they partner with in, like they go find any developer studios and kind of like, help them out, and so I think Xbox students great on that. I don't I've never heard of Sony doing anything like that and I don't know.
Speaker 1:That's the gatekeeping I'm talking about. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I think, that's.
Speaker 1:Maybe that's just Japanese studios Think of Nintendo. That's all you need to know about the culture in terms of business there. Right, it's like this is ours, we're gonna own it, we're gonna define it, which I respect, but it's also anti competitive, I guess.
Speaker 2:I don't know very different, but what's been your guys's favorite indie game recently. Recently that you can think of anyways.
Speaker 1:I never played it, but that halls of torment game looks hella fun. It's like a arpg came out around the time of Diablo 4 and and that one looked hella fun. I actually I should. I think I bought it. I've not played it. That one looks fun. Lethal company millennial ghost says never check that out.
Speaker 3:I always go to the go. I've only ever watched people play it. I've never played it myself, but lethal company looks pretty fun.
Speaker 1:Spelunky is what I always go back to like in terms of what I play. Oh gee, oh gee. That one.
Speaker 2:I always go back to Hall of Night, special place in my heart.
Speaker 1:Valheim. Valheim that was. I never played that, but I watched that and that looks like it's replaced by power. You know what I?
Speaker 3:I just played recently that I that I liked a lot and I it's one of those games that you really only play once Baldur's Gate 3. Yeah, baldur's Gate 3 is, it's such a After this success.
Speaker 1:What Drupal? A studio?
Speaker 3:because I never played the because I never played the DLC the outer wilds. That's like it's. I never played the. What is echoes the eye.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I just recently. Did that so good and that game is Unique in the way that it's. It's an indie game but also, like you, really only play through it once. Yeah like they, don't you just play once. They, you know they don't expect you to new game, plus it yeah. It's because once you play once, it kind of ruins it.
Speaker 2:Well, it's about the journey. It's yeah, the whole game is about your discovery. It's not. It's not something that you're supposed to replay.
Speaker 3:But that's probably the indie game that stands out in my head the most, because I, I won is I never? Played echoes of the eye until recently. What do you think of it? It's so good, but that game is, it's unique and it's special it turns into horror game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm like what the heck?
Speaker 1:It takes two without even be considered an indie game.
Speaker 3:I Don't know one game of the year, it's it, so it came out after. It is a smaller studio, but it came out after their success with a way out. A way out which kind of put them on the map. So I know we had this whole debate on what's an indie game and what isn't. But you know it's funny. Is Tori actually for Christmas? She got like these little. It takes two figures. Oh, that's sick and I got. I got what's his name hanging off my mirror. What's his name? I'm forgetting it.
Speaker 1:I don't remember. I even played it recently, but I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, did you play a way out.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 3:Did you win totally different style of game I have.
Speaker 1:I don't think we. I think we're on like the last mission. We never did got to the twist. I know I have not been able to get my wife to go back to play it.
Speaker 2:I'm so happy when I got. I went in blind.
Speaker 3:Cody Cody.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Cody, and oh god, what's her name? That's gonna bug.
Speaker 2:The chat's gonna tell us no it's not Cindy May.
Speaker 1:May M8. Why E right?
Speaker 3:And may why? Yeah, maybe thanks may be.
Speaker 1:I means.
Speaker 3:They may know we're waiting, but alright, way out.
Speaker 1:When I played it with my friend.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:I was. I got to the twist and I was so happy that I beat him. Yeah cuz he was like I grew up. He's the person I grew up playing video games with and I was like I am the superior gamer.
Speaker 1:Okay, little, well, teaser, huh.
Speaker 3:I. I Didn't play a way out until you told me about it actually At work, and I played it with Tori and I knew about the twist because I looked it up like within five minutes of playing I googled it. But, um, I Let her win because story-wise it made more sense. Who was who was she? She was the cop. I know that's controversial, but, um, there's a part of me I was a cop and I won I. So a lot of the consensus online is Like how could you do that to your brother, you know. But I'm like, at the end of the day, leo made his choice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's a criminal and he gave yeah, and he gave him a chance to stop.
Speaker 3:He gave him a chance and Leo kept coming and I played as Leo and so, like, story-wise, I was like, you know, I'm gonna let, I'm gonna let, I'm gonna let him win. But there's a few, there's few moments in gaming that kind of hit you emotionally and it's usually accompanied by a good soundtrack and I Love, like, how powerful that scene is when they hold each other's hand and then the one screen just fades to black. It's so well done, regardless who wins that fight. It's so good.
Speaker 1:Only up was fun recently. Yeah, that was fun in the game.
Speaker 3:That was fun, but like only for like a little bit.
Speaker 1:It got pretty boring pretty quick, you beat it and like that's it Right, you don't want to go back and try the. I played another game that was similar to like what's the game that you we were a way out doesn't you're talking about? Yeah it's called. This game's called we were here.
Speaker 2:Without. I've seen that one.
Speaker 1:Oh, you have that one is super fun. It's tough.
Speaker 2:You have like the radio? Yes, and you're you're.
Speaker 1:That's how you communicate with your co-op partner.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you're in the same room crossed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's a little. It's a little easier on this board, but literally like there's a part where you have to play chess and my wife had never played chess in her life and I had. I have never been my life.
Speaker 1:The only time it was just so. She had no idea what she was looking at and I like tried to build a grid system to like have her explain, because, like you have to move pieces to certain spots and oh, it took like fucking 35 minutes to move like four pieces into the right spot and I and it, the whole thing is like timed and like, oh my god, I was boiling. I was like you've never fucking played chess or you have no. Idea what that game is.
Speaker 3:I, so I love playing video games with my wife. That's like one of the things that we've bonded over since we've been together. But there have been times when, especially if it's a game that like I feel like I'm good at when I'm, like, it takes everything in me to not be like what the hell are you doing? And I actually she's actually called me out on I feel like I'm sorry. I love you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love the memes about. It takes to where it's like the. It's like the husband is like the. And then it's like Me trying to survive while my husband Play the division with her.
Speaker 1:It's really good for that. Yeah, I know all about the division.
Speaker 3:It's always better at me, honestly and games like that, because I just I've never gotten into him really, but she plays a lot of division and like games like overwatch, stuff like that or and she also likes, like you know, simulator games like like started by. Disney. I Love Stardew Valley, just for the sense that it was like the only game I could ever play where it's just like it's just chill.
Speaker 2:Good old chill fun you know, and it's so so much more fun playing with another person like cuz. I originally tried to get into it solo it sucks. I mean it doesn't suck, but.
Speaker 3:I was like sucks, it's the worst game, it's ass. Well, everything's more fun with friends. I feel like everything, not everything. I probably wouldn't want to play through mass effect with you guys.
Speaker 1:I'm not gonna lie to you. Bull shit. Imagine the end mission in two and we can each be a squad. Me, that would be fun.
Speaker 3:Yes, it would be but, also mass effect is very personal.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's a really weird Billy would be over there just skipping through all the main mission.
Speaker 3:I know side missions He'd skip all the epic cutscenes at the end that he'd be waiting on the norm, and he's Already soloed the bottom, while we're watching this cutscene.
Speaker 1:I've seen it once never heard Reaper's fucking dead.
Speaker 2:All right we're trying to convince him to do a loyalty mission he's like.
Speaker 3:that's why I think Baldur's gay with you guys. It'd be such a fun, unique experience.
Speaker 2:I'm ready, are you guys?
Speaker 1:because I hear a lot of this and not a lot of anything.
Speaker 2:Being the one. That's all. I am not game. I'll create a care when have I stopped anything?
Speaker 1:I just haven't driven the fucking car.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 3:I am playing after. Yes, you said you didn't want to play because you're too into Gilwars.
Speaker 1:I Said, I will create a character and if I can't always play with you, said, and I quote I would rather stab myself.
Speaker 2:I hate you, goodbye.
Speaker 3:Yes, I'm no longer your friend, dylan. And Kyle, kyle, and I thought it was weird. I thought you know that seems uncalled for, but you did it my life is uncalled. I live on the edge, baby if you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space. I found that on a keychain.
Speaker 1:That's so amazing.
Speaker 3:She had a keychain that said that I fucking love that. I love that line if you're not living on the edge.
Speaker 1:I am using that tomorrow at work. I am 100% using that tomorrow. Oh Dylan, where can people find this?
Speaker 2:they can find us on YouTube, instagram, spotify, any major large podcast listening platform major, a large major, large, immense, horrendous Lee big. Find us on all your horrendous platforms, yes, but yeah, come check us out every Tuesday at 7 pm Pacific time we go live we go live right now. Hopefully you're watching us. Hopefully you tuned in.
Speaker 1:Hey we. It's a good stream. It was double digits viewers. It's good. We had 11 viewers at one point, let's quit our jobs.
Speaker 2:All right, I'm ready to go full.
Speaker 1:I think that's the sign that we're breaking news that we're quitting our jobs via stream To our wives.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that sounds great Surprise. I haven't worked in months. He's the one that deposits into our account.
Speaker 1:I buy my friend. He's covering my friends off like living me. I'll pay for everything. I've been a weird as shit ever. Like pay off your friend. Like a full-time salary to like hang out with you.
Speaker 2:Your friend victory said absolutely not.
Speaker 1:Oh well, there you go. But if we get the 12 viewers, different story story, love the self deprecation and really helps us grow. Thanks guys for watching, was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:I love the chat being active and remember with a good KD you get the dub.
Speaker 1:That's right, baby.
Speaker 2:Bye guys.