Loading summary
Transcript306 lines
- [00:02]
A
This is a headgum podcast. Wow.
- [00:07]
B
Listeners, it is November, which means only one thing. Democracy is on the line. No, that's not what I'm here to talk about. I'm here to talk about the 10th annual High and Mighty Thanksgiving Eve Power Hour. Coming live and live Streamed on Wednesday, November 27th at 7:30pm you can watch it for up to a week and a half afterwards on live stream. You can buy tickets to go see it live at Dynasty Typewriter. You could just wait a day and listen to it for free. But I'd prefer if you didn't because your buddy Ol Gabrius needs that money to get him through the holidays. I need to get. I need to get Santa rescued. He's been kidnapped. Me, the Rock and Chris Evans are going down there in a CGI fucking bonanza. No, for real. The Power Hour. Get tickets@powerhour.gabrius.com. um, I'm positive Emma threw this in the show notes so that you could be hyped about it. Power hour, 10th annual. The last who knows? See you there. What's up, shitheads? Welcome back to another episode of High and Mighty. It's me, yeah boy. The number one book boy, Johnny G. From the south shore of Nassau county, Long Island. 6 foot 2, 312 pounds. What's going on? Is creatine really putting on that much weight on me? It's John Gabris. All you gotta do is trust me. Jackson, Maine from A Star Is Born. What the fuck are you still doing here? Abortion is healthcare. Okay with that, you can stick around. Also joining me in the High and mighty studios, spiritually, not physically, is my nearly silent co host, Arthur Gabris. The Boston terrier. The deceased Boston terrier. So he's no longer nearly silent, he's truly silent. He's crossed the rainbow bridge and he's still supporting me, licking all my podcast guests legs in heaven or whatever the fuck. What am I talking about? Also joining me in the High Mighty Studios. He's been on the POD before. He's a POD legend. He's a member of one of the six podcasts I listen to every week from the QAA podcast. It's Jake Rockatanski.
- [02:21]
A
Yo, what is up?
- [02:24]
B
Hell fucking yeah, dog.
- [02:25]
A
I didn't know that you had a ghost doggy with you.
- [02:28]
B
Yeah, the ghost dog is. It's. It is Forest Whitaker, so be wary.
- [02:33]
A
He does. He does have a katana blade. He does have a katana blade. And the film is better than you remember.
- [02:40]
B
Yes, I got to rewatch It. I got. I remember liking it. So I have, like, this, like, I don't know what the year is in my life, but I would say it's maybe when I was. I'll say, 26 arbitrarily. Any movie I saw before that, I saw from the mind of a child. After that, I saw as a grown up. So everything I liked back. Like, if I liked Ghost Dog when I was 21, I'm like, I'm going to love Ghost Dog now that I'm, like, grown up and have patience and appreciation and an attention span and stuff.
- [03:07]
A
Yeah, I feel like the challenge nowadays at movies is, like, trying to figure out how to flip that switch so that you can go back to child brain while watching it.
- [03:17]
B
Bro, this is, like, something I'm actually getting really good at is I can, like, lock into, like, oh, this movie is, like, four kids. All right? I'm a kid now, and I could just be like, hell, yeah.
- [03:32]
A
For me. For me, it's. It's a little bit on the movie. There has to be a scene in which it tickles something inside of me. And I'll give you a great example from. From a film that I'm sure everybody is surprised. I'm gonna bring up Ghostbusters Afterlife. This was the. The first sequel. This was the first sequel after the 2016 film that was more of a reboot. So this actually continued the story of our favorite guys from 1983 and 1989, I believe. Ghostbusters 2, still in the 80s, a lot of people forget that, you know, they think it's a 90s movie. But there's a scene in Afterlife, okay, where the kids, they finally. They get Egon's proton pack out of the basement, and they get it working. And I'm watching the movie the whole first 20 minutes. I'm like, oh, man. And I'm wrestling between the kid who loves Ghostbusters and the guy who's, like, worked in Hollywood forever and, like, writes screenplays and is, like, analyzing every piece. How would I do it? What would I have to. You know? And that's hard to turn off, but there's a scene where. Where they, like, walk into this warehouse, and they fired up the proton pack for the first time. And there's this, like, silhouette shot of, like, the two kids. And one's got the PKE meter out, and the other's got the proton pack. And all you really see is the lights from the back. And I was like, you know what? I'm fucking in, like, the firehouse door opening. Up like with this. Yeah. It's like you understand like what's cool about Busters. And you got the montage, you got the, like this, this sort of composition that to me like strikes a chord. And then from then on I'm like, you know, 11 years old, basically, like, totally in.
- [05:09]
B
I didn't hate that one. I like, I enjoyed that for a while and then got kind of tired of that territory. I'm like, I use Ghostbusters 2 as an example of when, when a sequel Ghostbusters 2, Wayne's World to the few times like sequels haven't. In comedies don't fall off so hard.
- [05:28]
A
Yeah, yeah.
- [05:29]
B
Two fucking rips.
- [05:31]
A
It does. It's way scarier than the first movie, which, like, I remember as a kid being real creeped out by Janos and, and some of the elements in that movie way more than say, like the Terror Dogs or Dozer, you know, in, in, in the original.
- [05:46]
B
Now, too sexy. The original too sexy. You know, like, SV Go is scary, but Sewell is a fucking smoke show. I want that demon to arrive and ruin my afternoon. In case you listen to only High and Mighty and not qaa, you would not be surprised at all that Jake somehow got Ghostbusters out. But this might be a record for how early.
- [06:08]
A
Yeah. Every chance. Every chance I could get. I really. Yeah. Well, we started talking about movies and maintaining that child, that childhood sort of like innocence while consuming content that is, you know, intended solely to suck the soul out of any joy you, you know, you have.
- [06:25]
B
Can you do that? Like, I could do that with like, modern action movies because I like them so much. If they're, if they're medium, I can kind of like shut my brain off and just be like, yeah. Oh, cool. He punched that guy so fucking yeah. Like, I can get there, but it ain't easy.
- [06:40]
A
Yeah. If the action is like, really well choreographed, you're like, oh, yeah, look fucking cool. Oh, like, oh, they did the, oh, they're trying to do like a third person camera. Oh, that's all right. That's cool. Like, yeah, I can totally get behind. Because we, we expect things to be such trash now. And I think that's that, that's a great segue into talking about video games. The main, the main reason that we're here, bro.
- [07:02]
B
The main reason that we were here, meaning on the planet Earth. Yes, yes. Now, I, I, I wouldn't call myself a gamer in like, the. I don't play enough and I'm not like, I don't, I'm not competitive in any way. But I've been playing video games. I think there was like a five year break or four year break in my early twenties in New York City when I just was like did until I got World of Warcraft. But I think from the age of like 10 until now, which is like 3. Over three decades. I'm 42 years old. I've been playing video games as like a large chunk of my time in my life. And I'm. I'm assuming you can relate to that.
- [07:44]
A
Like, yeah, totally. I mean, my dad was a gamer, he was very into simulators. And so we had. I can't remember what it was, if it was the, if it was an Apple II or a Commodore 64 that for some reason was kept in my bedroom. So as a little kid I have these memories of like, you know, trying to fall asleep, which I couldn't because, you know, I'm like a very, you know, overactive imagination kid anyways. And my dad would like creep in in the middle of the night and like boot up the computer and play like F18 hornet and stuff. And I would just, I had no idea like what was going on. And the gameplay wasn't particularly like interesting to me, but it was just like something to watch like instead of like, you know, dealing with my own mind instead.
- [08:26]
B
But that's pretty crazy too. Cause that's just like you're at the age where what your dad does is cool and he's playing video games at night. Like I didn't have, I don't have any older siblings. I didn't have any older kids in my life. We just got a Nintendo. And I'm almost positive it was because we were home alone so much as kids that my parents were like, if they're in the basement on the Nintendo, they're not outside getting molested.
- [08:51]
A
Yeah, that's true. We know that they're home, right?
- [08:54]
B
So I think when my, when my, we got the eight bit Nintendo, you know, the first Christmas that it was around, whatever that would be in the late 80s, early early 90s maybe, whatever, we got it. I remember just being like, this was a changing, a moment of change in my life where I was like, oh, this is. And I don't, I don't know what drew me to it. I know video games are like insanely popular, so it's kind of weird to like. But I, in preparation for this talk, I was trying to psychoanalyze myself and say, why do I like video games personally? And I do love story. I love movies, video Games are arguably movies that you can kind of lightly control. Um, but there's also something about like, you need to have a kind of certain part of your brain that's like, I just lost. I lost on this level 10 times. I'm going to play it an 11th. And I don't know what that ability is, but I weirdly have that. Yeah, I weirdly have like whatever you want to call that gumption, stick to it. Iveness.
- [10:00]
A
Oh, these are great words.
- [10:02]
B
Yeah, I have that like when it comes to video games. And I think I have that somewhat in real life where I'm like, how come I haven't given up on the entertainment industry yet? Like, it's because I'm like, no, I got this level this time. Now I know a little bit more. I read the fucking Game Informer. I'm coming at you now. Come for me, Kafka.
- [10:21]
A
I think that there is actually a strong correlation, and I've talked about this with my therapist, between the persistence that certain video games teach you and, and how it applies in the real, in the real world. Because like you, you know, I was hustling in Los Angeles basically since I was like 18 or 19 and you know, doing QAA was the first time anything I ever did like became my full time job. Like, you know, it was hundreds of misses, you know, things even like getting bought, like, oh my God, like, oh, this they're going to make like our show or like whatever, whatever it is. And then the department folding and shit, like falling through. Dude.
- [11:06]
B
So, so relatable. But you know, that you get another life, you know, like I have one more. I still have some, I still have some health left. I guess I can try this again.
- [11:17]
A
Yeah. And, and it's like I remember when I was talking about it with my therapist, I brought up Elden Ring as like a really good example, as really good example because like, you know, Elden Ring, at least for me, Elden Ring is a game where like when I do start to die a lot, like I do start to die a lot, I go like, suck. You suck at this. Like you can't. And it's this like negative selft talk, you know, that we develop over years and years and years, especially out in entertainment, especially when your peers are at different levels than you, whether it's in their career or their relationships or all this stuff. And it's, it's, you know, it's a rough hustle. Like I'm, I'm sure you would agree, but like, you know, so you get to this. You get to these points in, like, Elden Ring where I'd be like, you're never going to beat this. You fundamentally don't understand the game. Like, that's why. And then, you know, you'll, like, take a break, you'll wait a couple days, you'll go back, and then you'll be like, the boss. Let me.
- [12:14]
B
Let me interrupt you there. You'll take a break, you'll not play for a couple days, and you'll feel okay. I'm actually. I got to go play Elden Ring right now.
- [12:23]
A
Yes.
- [12:24]
B
Which is like. You're like, I hated this 48 hours ago. I literally was, like crying 48 hours ago. And now I'm sitting here going, fire the fucker up. I can't believe I'm.
- [12:32]
A
I could do this.
- [12:33]
B
This is not gonna beat me. Yeah. And it's funny. Cause then you, like the walk away from it all, then you kind of miss it, Then it kind of feels so again.
- [12:44]
A
And also just to add on to that, like, sometimes, like, you walk away. Like, sometimes you talk to a friend, somebody who's been through it before, who's beaten that boss. Maybe they've got, you know, maybe they got advice.
- [12:55]
B
Yeah. They're like, oh, well, what's your regen at?
- [12:58]
A
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
- [12:59]
B
I guess I should take a look at that. Yeah.
- [13:01]
A
They're like, are you. They're like, have you. How far have you leveled up your skidoo? Tree fragments? You're like, scanning tree fragments. Like, I remember vaguely reading about that, like, at the beginning, but that's. And they're like, oh, it's a huge part of it. You go, oh, my God. Now I go back with this kind of, like, with new knowledge and a new approach and new understanding. You know, maybe you've reached out for help. Maybe you've read advice from, like, strangers on the Internet. Right. And you're like, you know what? You know what? Like, I relate to what this person is going through. Like, I'm going to change my strategy. It's not all that different from the kind of thinking that you have to do to try to, you know, kind of move forward in life with the things that you want to do, or it doesn't necessarily ensure that those things happen. But like you said, it's sort of. It's that extra life that you get that gives you the opportunity to go back.
- [13:45]
B
Right. Because it's like, you can walk away from Elden Ring, shut it off, and like, arguably your life is no different if you never go back and Play the second half.
- [13:53]
A
Yeah, totally.
- [13:53]
B
But there's a part of you and, like, unpacking this with myself and, like, analyzing myself. I've noticed, like, I've always been into, like, solving things and beating things and, like, I know how this game is played. Like, oh, you can't beat, like, oh, I know the tic tac toe hack you're going for. Oh, when we're playing check, like, whatever game I want to. Like, there's a part of my. Like, I am not an efficient person. I'm a lazy person. But every time I get into something I enjoy. I enjoy finding the efficiencies and the. And the like. And the leaning out of, like, now when I go to the beach, like, I have a system for when I go to the beach, which is like the most stoner thing you could say at 40.
- [14:34]
A
No, no, no. I totally agree. Are you, like, me like, a very anxious person? Because, like, that's. That for me is what it is, is like creating these. Once you find something that works, you creating these kind of, like, routines so that, like, it's not quite as scary like, the next time.
- [14:48]
B
Yeah, it's. It's probably a massive dose of anxiety to me. I think an element of it is. It combats my laziness. If I can tell myself or I could believe. I'm like, well, this is the most efficient way to drive, park, go to the gym, blah, blah, blah. If you're gonna do it, at least you don't have to do it in, like, an annoying way. So, like, yes, I get myself to be able to. And then I feel like video games have taught me that. Video games have taught me, like, that losing doesn't really matter. Which I think has been maybe, maybe one of my biggest. Whenever I talk to, like, young people who want to enter Hollywood, I'm always like, look, I don't know. The system has changed so much. I have no idea anything. All I can tell you is I am only successful because I am still here. And I'm only still here by choice. I've never super popped off, but I'm on year 20 of fucking, you know, after college of trying to be in entertainment. And I'm. I'm not out of it. I'm not fully in it, but it feels. And I'm like, this is a victory to me. And it's like I'm on a grind. I'm grinding. I'm like, I'm gaining levels. Fuck. You know, I'm not beating the bosses as quickly as I thought, but it's like these skills that I got from games or this, this what draws me to games is that. And that's, and then adding into the element that we talked earlier. Art, movies, voice acting, interesting writing, world building. Like, I'm also a fantasy guy. Like I love fantasy novels.
- [16:17]
A
Me too.
- [16:18]
B
D and D and all that shit. So like games and D and D, you know, obviously if you like that, you may like video games too. And then I also have been like my other, my other, like why video games are maybe work for me. I'm like immune to screen. Like I'm immune to screens. Hurting my eyes. Yeah, dude.
- [16:37]
A
Oh, dude.
- [16:38]
B
I, maybe I trained my, I think we've tried trained our bodies. I'm like, my wife's like, aren't. Don't your eyes hurt from just. I'll like work at my computer for like seven hours, then get up and grab my Steam deck and just play video games in the living room while another TV is on. She's like, I'm like, babe, I think my eyes are so trained from just watching TV and video games for every minute I wasn't in school my whole life.
- [17:02]
A
I mean, yeah, I went to sleep, I went to sleep staring at a tiny F18 hornet made out of gray triangles. I'm like, you know, a 6 inch screen that was probably like, I don't know, like 8 to 10ft from my bed. So I, I, I, yeah, man, I could not relate more to every, to everything you just said. And we're, we're really on this on a parallel timeline because I'm, I turned 41 a couple months ago. So we've been out here doing the same shit at the same time. It's kind of crazy that we like never really met up before this.
- [17:36]
B
Yeah, I know. It's funny, like when I started listening to qaa, I'm like, I'm so into what you guys are talking about because that's where my brain is at. And then all of a sudden every time you talk, I'm like, oh, Jake and I have a lot in common. A lot. And then when the day I knew we had a lot in common is you mentioned my wife and you said like my wife and I. And I was like, oh, and he's not like a weirdo loner gamer guy. He's also married. So now I know I'm very. And he, we have a line. Yeah, we have passions and we have a lot of similar hobbies and similar things we like. But then also hearing, I'm like, okay, he's a Grown up as well, which.
- [18:14]
A
Was, oh man, just barely. I think that's my like big struggle right now as a, as a 41 year old guy is like to really like come into my own and do the, you know, make responsible decisions without feeling like I'm, you know, that 11 year old kid that's like, you know, playing Sega Genesis or whatever.
- [18:30]
B
Oh dude, you're, you're, you're just touched on like the most recent topic I'm going through in therapy is like learning that me making my own schedule or me making my own routine is not school or punishment or grounding.
- [18:44]
A
Oh my God. Yeah.
- [18:45]
B
Like my therapist is helping me like learn that saying, like getting up at 7:30 in the morning is not like, it's not because the principal is mad at you. It's because you have things you want to do that are both fun and productive for you. And it's like for me to understand because I rebel against my own ideas of like my own authority. I'm like, fuck you, man. I'm sleeping in.
- [19:06]
A
Yeah.
- [19:06]
B
It's like, wait, I'm only boning myself. I want to wake up early, I want to get stuff done. And now I'm like, fuck you, I'm sleeping in, bitch.
- [19:15]
A
And for me, it's so funny how the same event can like be interpreted by two totally different like. So like for me the thing is, it's like if I get up at 11, you know, it's like, no, you're not a piece of shit, dude. Like, you've worked very hard to like set the kind of schedule that's like comfortable for you. And if you start like working at 11, like you're not lazy. You're not like, you know, going to get passed by, you know, you're not a loser, like all of these things. And so yeah, we constantly have to fight against our own sort of bosses, right. You know, like our sort of final boss in our head. Right? Which is, which is like, yeah, I.
- [19:53]
B
Guess many, many bosses.
- [19:55]
A
Yeah, there are many, many bosses along the way.
- [19:57]
B
Our ego is the final boss. Yeah, yeah.
- [20:00]
A
Things people have said to me over the entire course of my main things people have said times that I really fucked up. Those are, those are the mini bosses. But then the final bosses. Yeah, the, the, the, the, the, the voice that's sort of developed over a long period of time that's kind of like, it's like this is what I think things should be like, you're like, no, no, like I'm cool with how things are right right now, now we.
- [20:26]
B
We'Ve touched on a few things here that I want to ask. How I have a hard time justifying spending time on video games. But then I do it and I feel better. And I don't know if it's like I feel better like I'm hitting the pipe and it made me feel better or it's like getting sunshine for my brain or something. I don't know exactly. But I've now had to be like, no, you just have to make time to game. Like part of your day is like, oh, you're like this hour and a half block. You should game. Oh yeah. After you're done with Jake, you have Spanish at 5. At 6:30, you game? Yeah, yeah.
- [21:07]
A
And then you're booting up, man. You're picking up sticks. You know what, dude? You know what I think it is? And, and like, I think it's like anything else. Some people are like, I like to read or some people are like, I like to do puzzles or some people I like to do this. Like, I think it's okay for it to be like, this is the thing. For me, what I think it is, personally, I think it's a. It's. For me personally, it's a. It's a combination of two things. It's one, getting to solve problem problems where there are no stakes, giving my brain. Giving my brain the room to problem solve or socialize within this area where there are no stakes. It's just, it's pure you. Like you said, you turn it off, you walk away from it. It doesn't really affect your life or. Doesn't really affect your life. Yeah. In any sort of major way. And then the second I think is, you know, there's. There's a little bit of like a power fantasy. Like you want to be able to do cool things in the game that you can't, you know, do in real life. For me, that's NBA 2K. You know, like play basketball way better than I could have ever and still suck. But like, you know, there's a little bit of that too, which I think is kind of the draw.
- [22:10]
B
Yeah. Fuck yeah. Of course, that makes, that makes a lot of sense. Wait, we were. You just mentioned something that I also wanted to ask you about. You said that doesn't. The game doesn't affect you too much in real life. Have you at. This is something that's happened to me at several points in my life. I've been so deep into a one specific game that it had affected me in a weird sensory way. Like For a while I would see column, the game, the game gear game columns when I closed my eyes at night.
- [22:37]
A
Yeah.
- [22:38]
B
Because I played it so much. And then in junior high, or maybe it was like 7th, 8th and 9th grade, I was playing so much Goldeneye and I would accidentally strafe in real life. Like, I would walk into 7, 11, walk, turn left, and then kind of like slide. Like, I would move my body in all eight.
- [22:58]
A
Like, wow, that's amazing, dude.
- [23:00]
B
I felt crazy. But I was like. And then you would like. I would like walk into a place and be like, camera. Like I would like, know. And it was all because I was just playing a singular game so much that it like affected neural pathways or something like that. Have you ever had anything like that?
- [23:15]
A
I mean. Yeah, like, the more I think about.
- [23:17]
B
It, like a more entry level one when you. When you're not playing a game and you're trying to. And you're realizing you were at living at a different pace than you're supposed to for like five hours. And then you're like in real life and your partner's like, why are you talking so fast? And you're like, I don't know. All right. I'm still like locked into the game speed and not real life speed.
- [23:36]
A
Yeah. Or loud. My volume is my. I tend to just. I tend to just like, just fucking power up big time. But yeah, I. As. As you were talking and as I was thinking about it, I want to like revise that statement about games sort of not staying with you once you turn it out. That's absolutely not true. And I think we should normalize being wrong about something, even if it was like seven minutes ago.
- [23:58]
B
No, but. But what you mean is that, like, it won't get you down. Like if it hurts your feet, like if you're like losing a bunch. Not always, but sometimes you could be. Really?
- [24:08]
A
I mean, I was just thinking about like, literally a couple weeks ago I was playing 2K and like most of the time I play with my brother and my best buddy from Chicago who like, we, We. We get on together when you have a squad and we're in a party so that nobody else can come in. You know what I mean? Because 2K, you could talk trash to other. To the people on the other team. To people, mostly people on your own team. And if you forget to disable the voice chat, like when you start every fucking time you log into it, like, you'll be playing a game and somebody will be like, yo, you're ass, bro. And you're like, what? What the fuck? Like, you forget that, that, that people. And literally a couple weeks ago at the end of the game, I played horribly. This guy just jumped on the chat and he was like, jake, you're ass, dude. You're ass. And I was like, whoa. I wasn't. I kind of like, wasn't prepared for it. And I was like, oh, man. I was like, who cares? I came. It was like the lamest comeback. I was like, dude, who. Who cares? I was like, I had a B plus. So what? He was like, B plus, dude, can't guard your man. He's like, you're. You're four for 12. He was like, dude, you are fucking ass. And I was like, oh. And then the game kind of like logged us out. And so he got, you know, cut off mid rant. And I got to say for like a couple days afterwards, I was like, really shook by it. I was like, oh, man. But it's just because I like went, you know, I got transported back to that magical time in junior high where like, you know, where you got picked in line for sports. Like, said everything about like, how your decks, like 72 hours were going to.
- [25:36]
B
Go and it's reason you're playing video games. And now you have to deal with it all over again. You're getting cut from your 2K team. You got. You like, you don't even pass tryouts for the video game team. It's the most humbling ever.
- [25:51]
A
My buddy Brian was like. He was like, dude, you just got to say, like, you, I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill your family. I'm like, well, I think you can get, like, kind of in trouble for that nowadays. Like, aren't they monitoring for threats? Like, couldn't they report? He was like, no, no, no. In that situation. He was just like, no, no, no. I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill your family. And I was like, I don't think I have that in me. I think I'm more inclined to be like, I'm really sorry, man. I suck so bad, dude. I'm actually eight years old, actually. Like, I. I've never played the game before. I'm so sorry again.
- [26:30]
B
Oof. The days are shorter, but your to do lists aren't okay. So you need to get through those busy days. And what better way than with factor because it's no prep, no mess, meals from breakfast to dinner and anything in between factor as easy, nutritious options to keep you fueled and feeling your best if you like routine or enjoy mixing things up, factor's got you covered. You know, they got little fun things you can add to your to your options. Like I got the keto cookies. They were really good. The pressed juices are a little treat. And do yourself a favor, don't let these short days and long nights slow you down. You know, take care of yourself and stay energized with America's number one ready to eat meal service. You get to choose from six menu preferences. Manage calories, maximize protein, avoid meat or well balanced, like whatever you want. I was doing the keto meals for a little while. Check this out. Factor is cheaper than takeout and dining out. Put the money you save towards holiday shopping or reaching your financial goals. They got guilt free comfort foods, homestyle chicken and gravy, loaded mashed potato pork chops. I actually have that one. I'm looking forward to trying that. Feel good vegan options like sweet potato and chickpea curry, Peruvian shrimp and red pepper collie grits. Dang, I want that one next. That sounds good. There's no sacrificing quality. For convenience, the menus offer ways to treat yourself. Premium proteins and seasonal sides like broccolini, leeks and asparagus, truffle butter, filet mignon, garlic herb roasted barramundi. Mouth watering. Come on. Do yourself a favor and stay on your a game. With all these quality ingredients and trust you could taste in every one of factors fresh, never frozen meals. So use your time more efficiently. Spend your time doing things you love since your days are short and you know, eat conveniently and healthy. So head to factor meals.com mighty50 and use code mighty50 to get 50% off your first box and 20% off your next month. That's code mighty50M I G H T Y50@factormeals.com mighty50F A C T O R M E A L S.com mighty50 to get 50% off YOUR first box plus 20% off your next month while your subscription is active. Is active. Oh man, I cannot believe I finally got this company to advertise in my podcast. I've been wearing chubby shorts for like over a decade now and I'm obsessed with them. I enjoy their the brand's personality, but I really like their shorts. And for my specific frame, a 62300 and change guy with thick thighs and a big belly and no butt. The shorts managed to work perfectly. I love the original stretch shorts. I love the 5.5 inch length. 4 inch is a little short for Me. But I think if you've got the gams, you know, if you've got it, flaunt it. So I wear their swim trunks over my Speedos at the beach. I wear their lounge shorts every day. The second I walk into my house, I take off. Whatever I'm wearing, I take off. Honestly, this is like, this is not what they want me to do in the ad. But I'll just tell you how obsessed I am with Chubbies. I wear the chubbies like, you know, khaki shorts or, you know, I forget what they're called. They're casual shorts. I wear their casual stretch out when I go to do a podcast or blah, blah, blah, you know, and then when I come home, I change out of them and I change into Chubby's lounge shorts, which are the softer sweatshirt materials. Super, super comfortable. Their lounge stuff is. Is particularly fun. Their patterns are wild and all over the place. And I, because I've been with them for like 10 years, I've got all kinds of different Chubby shorts that I'm absolutely in love with. I'm a big fan of their shirts and pullovers and hats and stuff too. But mostly I'm a diehard. If you see me wearing shorts, they are 95% of the time chubbies. And if you've seen me out in public, 95% of the time, I'm wearing shorts for a listen. For a limited time, Chubby's is giving our listeners 20% off your order with our exclusive code. Use code mighty@chubby shorts.com when it comes to true style and comfort in the form of men's shorts, can't do better than Chubbies. Get the original stretch in 4 inch, 5.5 and 7. I like 5.5 the best, personally. They are like the go to shirt. They have the original Friday shirts and those are pretty awesome. The classic. If you are a lined swim trunks guy, the Chubby's classic line swim collection. You cannot go wrong with that. They are very fun patterns. They have a little pocket that doesn't get filled with water or sand when you go into the surf. That's right. Surf tested with my Chubby shorts. Okay, Would you look at that, folks? For a limited time, our friends at Chubby's are giving our listeners 20% off with the promo code mighty at checkout@chubby shorts.com. that's 20% off your order with the promo code Mighty. Support our show and tell them we sent you. Don't just blend in with the crowd. Stand out with chubbies. NordVPN what a way to safely access your favorite streams and other content from home no matter where you go. Just switch your virtual location. Now here's something I didn't even think about with using a VPN specifically. Nord. You can find out like while shopping to see if the same product is cheaper in another region. Access foreign E stores, apps and online auctions for a wider selection of Items. That's nuts. NordVPN account protects up to 10 devices so there's no need for separate ones. 7100 plus servers in 118 countries. It's super fast. NordVPN is one of the fastest VPNs out there and it's easy to use connect with one click or enable auto connect for the classic zero click protection. Now that is pretty exciting. And you know what other reasons do you need a VPN for? You can access your favorite streams and other content from home no matter where you go. Access apps and websites from other countries, access to social media and stuff not available due to censorship depending where you are. So get your tushy on NordVPN so go to NordVPN.com mighty that's n o r d v p n dot com m I g h t y NordVPN.com mighty I don't play a lot of multiplayer games. My last real addicted to a multiplayer game was probably Starcraft 2. I was playing that a shit ton.
- [33:26]
A
But then playing on Mac or old PC like were you a PC family like an IBM or.
- [33:31]
B
I was a PC guy and I got like a gaming PC in college with like fucking and. But then I've been max since graduating and Mac and PS5 and. And now Steam dad for a while I was Xbox for a few years. Then I switched to a PS4. I took some long time off video games and then the Pandemic hit and I was like I bought a volcano vaporizer and a PS4 back to back and I was like this is what I'm doing with my life now.
- [33:59]
A
That was the best time for game the bet. It was the best time for pets and it was the best time for gaming. Everything else not so good man.
- [34:06]
B
It was like, you know. And my wife was working on Zoom at the time too. Before this was before she got laid off in the Pandemic. So she's like I got to be in the living room talking on. I'm like great. I'll just be back here fucking putting in hours. I'll beat Spider man and Spider Man 2. I'll beat last of us. And last of us too. Like I just. Because I switched to PlayStation then. So I just started. I only had all the PS on this.
- [34:28]
A
Yeah, I played all the scaloosies, which do look amazing. I really like my PS5 at first. You know, I'm more traditionally an Xbox guy. I grew up with Mac though. We were Sega. We were like Mac.
- [34:41]
B
We were. We were Nintendo and PC growing up.
- [34:44]
A
Yeah. And of course we all wanted the other. When I would go over to kids houses who had Nintendo, to me they were kings of the world. I was like, oh my God. And there's a gun that comes with it. And like I had one friend who had the Virtual Boy, which was that like crazy. It looked like a fucking like stinger missile. Yes, like shooter. But you looked inside and it was basically just like red lines. And you were like, I guess this is kind of 3D. Like the technology was. It was like, no, no, no. We assure you this is virtual reality.
- [35:14]
B
It's like you just look inside of goggles that burn your retinas and you're like, yeah. Oh yeah, that's cool. How much did your mom buy this for? Well, that's so funny because we were a Nintendo family. Like Sega to us was like what the older kids had. When we went to someone's house and they had Sega or Genesis, we were like, whoa, they're Sonic Altered Beast. Okay.
- [35:34]
A
Alter be so hard. Never made it past the second level.
- [35:37]
B
Of that game now, dude, brutal game.
- [35:39]
A
Brutal game.
- [35:40]
B
I love. You can talk to a gamer and be like, we were in Nintendo PC house. Yeah, we were Sega Mac.
- [35:46]
A
I remember. Oh my God, the Mac. And there was nothing for Mac. I was so jealous of my friends who had like Police Quest, Space Quest King. Like these, these like the Sierra Adventure games were like. To me that was holy shit. Like that's what I want to play. And we didn't have it on Mac. I mean really. It wasn't until LucasArts started bringing their adventure games out like Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, the Dig. That kind of stuff came to Mac and that was like really the first sort of adventure games we got. But we didn't get Police Quest. We didn't get like those awesome Sierra games.
- [36:19]
B
I love those. I played the fuck out of those, dude.
- [36:22]
A
They're the best.
- [36:23]
B
They were my bridge from like Nintendo to the Sierra Adventure games. The King's Quest, all that shit I would go play got into those and that lept me eventually with like, you know, 10, 15 year jump. But than to the Blizzard games like getting, getting Diablo and getting Warcraft and all those games like that was like my entree into PC gaming. And then I was, I was in fucking hard. I'm. I'm about to get into like the main reason I'm like, I'm. I want to start twitching so that I can like look my wife in the eye and say I have to go work and go play video games.
- [37:00]
A
Yeah, just go. Yeah, I mean I want that too. I think that's every, I think that's every person like you and me's dream, right Is to just be like what if I could sit down and just like guilt free play and, and, and yeah. And I've tried streaming a couple times. It's hard. It's like definitely its own sort of.
- [37:19]
B
Right. It's not exactly gaming, it's not exactly performing. It's some version in the middle and it's not. And it's a whole new skill set.
- [37:26]
A
Yeah, we should, we should stream together so that it's not like quite as, as scary. Time.
- [37:32]
B
Let's do it. I'll. I'm fucking in. I, I made a Twitch account a few months ago and I've been trying, I've been trying to get.
- [37:40]
A
I can take you into some like really funny like simulators. Like that's sort of like what I like on PC is, is like big multiplayer simulators. Like Day Z, I played the mod. I actually boot camped a Mac in like 2000. I got I don't know 14 or 15. I boot camped like an old Mac, put like a, of like pirated copy of Windows on it and then got pirated copies of Daisy and Arma and the Day Z mod just so that I could play Daisy somehow.
- [38:13]
B
Like I went awesome.
- [38:15]
A
I went D and I don't know anything about computer. Like I, I play games but I never like learned anything about like computers or programming or hacking or even modding stuff and like in, in a. In the course of like I think like a couple months after I watched a. It was a review by. Oh my God, why am I blanking on the name Zero Punctuation who did a review about Dayz and it sounded so cool to me that I was like I gotta figure out how to like get this now. And I don't have any money so like I gotta do it illegally.
- [38:43]
B
That's fucking awesome. That's so awesome. Yeah, I think I'm gonna like pay one of my nerdier friends to be like come over my house. I want a gaming PC. I want my work iMac, PlayStation 5 and a camera to twitch. Just take my credit card, buy whatever you want and I'll pay you X dollars on top of that. And please just set my shit up.
- [39:04]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah, get a setup. Because that's, that's kind of like my barrier to entry that I'm like, oh, I don't have anything nearly what I need to set up. Like, I remember the last time I, I tried to stream, I was trying to like, look at the chat on my phone that was like mounted and my screen wasn't big enough. Yeah, I need something. I need something ludicrous.
- [39:23]
B
Yes. Let's go. We've hit like speed. Yeah, yeah.
- [39:29]
A
I see the videos on TikTok of like these dads who have set up their basement, like gaming basements for their kids and like really themselves. And they have these kind of like neon like thunderstorm clouds that are like constantly like shooting, like, I don't know, like cyberpunk sort of like across. I'm like, oh, man, this is crazy. There's crazy that kids are getting this now.
- [39:49]
B
What's awesome now is that my nephews on a few of them, between me and my wife, we have a ton. But my nephews and nieces, some of them are hitting a certain age where they are into video games. And then I'll show up and they'll be like, wait, uncle. Like, I'm not a first person shooter guy. I don't love him, right? But I, I will play him if like I'm at. And so I'm like, yeah, yeah, I'll play Fortnite. They're like, wait, you know how to play Red Dead Redemption? I'm like, yeah, give me the controller, let me show you. Oh, yeah, you want me to beat this guy in Forza? I got you. Yeah.
- [40:17]
A
It's the fact that you knew, you know, video that you can spe speak the language. Like, because think of what we thought when we like met somebody who was 40, you know, 40 years old when we were like, you know, seven, eight, nine. I mean, those people might as well be like 60, you know, for all you know. So. So to be able to be like, oh, yeah, be like, oh, what, what's you guys got? PS5. Oh, sweet. Do I. And like, I'm just gonna invert, like the moment you go in and start like inverting controls and you're doing something like, oh, like you. You know what I'm talking about?
- [40:47]
B
Yeah. I'm like, is there a dash option? Is it L2 or L1? And they're like, like oh God, this old fuck knows talking about yeah. And it feels cool. And you know what, you said something there. We know the, the language of video games. I think that's a kind of a fun thing too is like once you have like a base knowledge of how to play games, you can kind of boot up anything and be like, oh, it might not be for me but I get like what the HUD or the interface or how to even like. But I forget that about other people. I'm like, yeah dude. Like a buddy of mine, my co host to Action Boys, he was like, yeah, my, my brother plays Xbox. So I got one. He's like, I'm just like overwhelmed just like looking at the screen and I'm like, oh right. Like I've been like developing along with 8bit Nintendo or the young gaming generation has been playing Nintendo Switch since they were five or whatever, iPad games or whatever. But like you forget if you just like cold sat someone down and like here's Baldur's Gate, they would be like, I'm gonna.
- [41:45]
A
Yeah. They're like y. All the stuff on the screen, it just the, the two stick movement, right. Like being able to move with one stick, like aim with the other is like, you know, it's a lot of people never bridge that gap unless you were a very specific generation. I think our generation that transitioned with video games, you know, guy, you know, people our age have seen video games really become, I mean, I guess, I don't know, like my dad's age too from, from. But, but we've had them our whole lives.
- [42:17]
B
I don't really, I feel like the way I.
- [42:19]
A
Without video games.
- [42:20]
B
Yeah, we've like developed along with them. Like when my brain was eight bit, I was playing Nintendo and as I got a little older I got oh, super Nintendo, I'm a teen now or whatever. You know.
- [42:31]
A
Then it's like, then it was like Nintendo 64 and it perfectly matched what I was interested at the same time. Like by the time Nintendo 64 came out I like, I was into snowboarding and extreme sports and sure enough, boom, there it was. 1080 Snowboarding Polygon Snowboarding game. That was the like I would go over to friends house who I didn't like, you know, friends who weren't, you.
- [42:53]
B
Know, top friends of friends, neighborhood kids. But they were the one who got Tony Hawk Pro Skater.
- [42:58]
A
But they were the ones that had that game that you were like oh, I got to get, I got to get over there. Even if it's just to Watch.
- [43:04]
B
Oh, dude, I cannot even. Like, I was. My nephew was fucking screaming that he wanted the controller and I was like, you don't even know what, man. Like, you. I would like, sit in a group of friends and just wait to play. And then someone would be like, way better at it than you. And you'd be like, nah, let Jake go again. Jake can have my turn. Because you. Because you start to, like, want to see someone succeed rather than even play. Which I guess is the appeal of Twitch in, like a weird way or a game.
- [43:31]
A
Yeah, true.
- [43:32]
B
Yeah.
- [43:33]
A
I think that if you're really good at video games and you're, you know, you have a generally agreeable personality, you'll probably do okay on Twitch, right?
- [43:43]
B
Yeah.
- [43:44]
A
If you're really good at the game, like, yeah, people want to see that as well. You know? People want to see that as well.
- [43:49]
B
I'm not really good at any modern games.
- [43:52]
A
Me neither. I'm not really good and I don't beat games.
- [43:54]
B
I've also never been really good at gaming, period. Like, which is kind of funny. Which. Which again shows you my indestructible ego of like, I've never really been good at anything. But that hasn't stopped me from just like always doing everything. I'm always like, yeah, I don't. I'm not that good at this, but it's an activity. I enjoy it. Yeah. Or like, I'm okay with not being the best at something, but if you had serviceable. There were times in my life where I had so many hours in a game that I was like. I was something special at it, where I was like, Tony hawk Pro Skater 2 is one of those games. WCW versus NWO on N64 GoldenEye. Of course, for everyone, like around our age, these were games that I put in so many hours that I was actually like, good at even Starcraft 2. And because that was at least competitive. Diablo is not exactly that World of Warcraft I sucked at, but I. That was like my first Foray into like, MMOs and I was like, oh, this. I played EverQuest too, but I didn't ever question stick like World of Warcraft did because the Blizzard world has always been so appealing to me.
- [44:59]
A
So they just make good. Yeah, they just made it all the, the like HUD elements, the clickiness of it, the golden, like, it's just. Yeah. Down to the character games.
- [45:08]
B
They're like Blizzard games, especially like the Warcraft. They sit in like this weird pocket of like, in between sophistication and like childish kind of imagery. And you know what I mean? Like, it's like, yeah, you're brutalizing Oryx, but they are like, who you want me kill, you know? And you're like, oh, this is kind of. And like that threaded a perfect needle for me as a kid who's never like really grown up. So I've. Blizzard games really attracted me. Those games have always had my heart. I'll play any one of them that comes out. Diablo 2 is probably a game I have some of the most hours in. In my life, but that's not something you could be good or bad at. That's like, kind of hard to determine if you're good or bad.
- [45:48]
A
It's like an ongoing campaign, right? Yeah, just, just like in, in dnd and yeah, you check in. You check in on it every now and again.
- [45:55]
B
Yeah. But the multi. I do play Diablo 4 with my two childhood video game best friends still on console. Diablo 4. And it's great on console.
- [46:06]
A
I was playing while I had. While I had Covid over like for a month straight, basically. And for some reason while I was sick, Diablo really hit like it really scratched this perfect itch where I didn't have to put too much thought into it, but it felt deep and engaging and like the combat's clicky and the loot system is rewarding.
- [46:24]
B
The loot system is a highlight. It's. It's rich storytelling and it is arguably button mashing. So like you can just kind of like no brain it a little, which is kind of fun. Love the diablo games. Diablo 4, well, that was fun jumping to console for that. I was like, there's no way this works for me. And I was so impressed.
- [46:44]
A
I never even played it on, on PC because it was so good on console. Right off the bat.
- [46:48]
B
I just had played D1, 2 and 3 and Winter's Throne all on console. So I was like, how am I going to. It's a click game. I'm clicking on the bad guys with my bow and arrow and then all of a sudden I'm like, oh shit, the console works. So when I didn't have a PC and really wanted to play Baldur's Gate 3 as a D D nerd, I was like, fuck it, I'll get it on PlayStation. I can't imagine playing a Dean like a role playing game like this on console. It fucking worked fine. I had a fucking BL. I put like 200 hours in that game. I fucking beat Baldur's Gate 3, dude.
- [47:20]
A
Damn, dude. I want to be like, I'm so Bad at. I. I mean, I. It's very rare that I beat a game, but I like. I like to dip my toes into everything. So, like, I got Baldur's Gate and was. And I never played the first two, but I. You know, this one was. Everybody was talking about it, and I'm. As soon as I got in, I was like, oh, I'm gonna play this shit out of this. I was like, I can walk up to a guy that's sitting, and it's like, do you want to push him? Do you want to give him this? Like, it had that kind of. It had that kind of, like, adventure game sort of level of interaction, and the graphics were amazing. And I was like. And I'm usually not an isometric guy, but you can zoom the camera down close enough that it almost feels like a third person, sort of like rpg. I was like, oh, this is good enough. I'm going to go so hard into this. And then, like, I don't know, like, three weeks later, something else came out that captured my attention. Like, I'm very bad at committing to a game and staying with it. Other. Unless it's something like 2K, where it's kind of. You can hop in at any time, play games if your friends are on over the course of. Of. Of the year, or it's something like an MMO where I could just kind of hop in every now and again when I get it and, you know, when I get into it and go on little runs here and there.
- [48:30]
B
Right. Yeah, I agree. I am kind of monogamous with video games. Like, I'm like, all right, this is what I'm playing on the console. This is what I'm playing on the deck. And I'm going to play it until I'm over it, till something comes out that's much better, or I beat it.
- [48:46]
A
My wife is the same way. She's like. She, like, when she opens a game, unless it sucks, like, she's there to complete it.
- [48:52]
B
Yeah. Is she 100% or. I'm not 100% or.
- [48:55]
A
Guy, on certain games, she's 100%. I mean, she just beat the latest Zelda, the latest Zelda game. And, like, was disappointed that there wasn't an element, like, on PlayStation that had all the trophies that was like, no, you have, like, 100%. She basically, like, got everything that she could. She was like, I think that I got everything that I could.
- [49:12]
B
That was crazy. Yeah, I'm not. I'm not 100% or on almost anything. I. I will say Baldur's Gate 3 is, is worth finishing or worth putting in more time just because the storytelling is fucking awesome too. And there's. You can like me and. Me and my best friend. We've. The guy. One of the guys I was talking about earlier, we both beat the game and we were talking to each other throughout and we only had about 60% overlap in what happened in our games. Really?
- [49:39]
A
That's crazy.
- [49:39]
B
Both of us have 40% variation. Like almost half of what I went through he didn't experience and vice versa. And it's just like so cool that way. Like it's. It might be one of the few games that I ever play. Like one of the few narrative games that I ever play again. Because now I'm like, ooh, I want to do it like as a thief and be a bad guy.
- [49:59]
A
And that actually, that actually means something like within with right game.
- [50:04]
B
Exactly. Yeah, exactly. It's not like now I want to do a season as the Yankees. It's not like that. Like, yeah, this does change the game and change your gameplay and change all your interactions because it, it's also like a true role playing game. You always have like four options to choose what to say and you're like, they do have stakes. It's so interesting. It's not like, I got it, I.
- [50:23]
A
Got to do that. It is multiplayer, right? You can play with, with friends.
- [50:27]
B
I don't know, I never did that. I'm sure you can, but I think you. I prefer campaigns alone because I also like to be on my own schedule with games. Especially now that my older, easily distracted, you know, sometimes I need to do stuff around the apartment and weed. All those combined for me. I like to be able to. Oops, I accidentally put my controller down for 25 minutes. But I, I have a. Yeah, exactly. That's.
- [50:52]
A
That's important nowadays is to be able to, to be able to pause lot. A lot of games. You can't do that anymore, right?
- [50:58]
B
Cause you're playing with other people and pausing his death. Or letting your team down.
- [51:02]
A
Yeah, letting your team down, which opens a whole new level of self esteem issues.
- [51:07]
B
You are ass, Jake.
- [51:08]
A
Yeah, exactly like, oh, I'm letting Mike. I'm letting the boys down.
- [51:13]
B
It's. It's so fucking real. Like I want. I remember I was in a World of Warcraft clan for a while and it would be like there would just be like an obvious like on the screen. It'd be like, all right guys, smoke break or whatever. And on the screen would be just like eight Avatars just standing there, like, doing nothing. Just kind of like, well, obviously everyone's just blasting fucking balls or whatever.
- [51:37]
A
Did you ever play Star Wars Galaxies?
- [51:41]
B
Yes, yes. But not enough. I haven't had, like, a Star wars game that I fucking went crazy for. Yeah, like, Star Wars Galaxies was pretty fun, dude.
- [51:51]
A
I can't remember being in that era. I wish I was, like, in that era of MMOs, of PC. It was just like. It was just out of the car. It was just out of the cards for me because I was like, I think a freshman or sophomore in college maybe when, like, when that came out. And my computer was absolutely. The fact that I had a computer. I was lucky enough. My parents, like, I think. I think they got me a Dell. I think I was like. I saw. I'd seen the commercials of Die.
- [52:16]
B
You're getting one.
- [52:17]
A
Yeah. And I think I like, begged for it and got it. But, like, it couldn't really play. It couldn't really play games or anything.
- [52:23]
B
That was me. Like, I spent all my lifeguarding money in the summer in between freshman and sophomore year to buy, like, Nvidia G4 6200.
- [52:35]
A
Oh, my God, you had such a good time.
- [52:37]
B
I had, like the. The transparent side to the tower with like a neon light inside. And, like, I had like. It was my. My roommates, who are all like, guido meatheads, were like, gabrius, your computer is so fucking loud. The fan was like.
- [52:53]
A
It was like, still so fucking loud. I'm like, kind of like, ashamed at how loud it is.
- [52:59]
B
Man. This is making me want to. Fucking PC gaming. Do you fuck with. I know you fuck with Steam.
- [53:06]
A
I.
- [53:06]
B
Steam has been like. Steam, arguably is what, like, brought me back into gaming hard because it made shopping for games easy. And then also as I've gotten older and have this appreciation for artistry and craft and like, and being like, well, a guy I like made a short film and then all sudden you're like, wow, someone made a dope little $8 game here. And I played. I put my 35 hours in it. Beat it. I'm like, congrats to them. Oh, this is. I'm. I'm figuring out this is the origin story of all this. I started playing browser games heavy in my early 20s when I had bad office jobs. When I was a pa, an ap, a temp covering browser.
- [53:54]
A
What kind of browser games?
- [53:55]
B
Addicting Games.com and Kongregate with a K, where these two, like, aggregators that I use like crazy. And I play tower defense games, survival games, like Balloons, like all these things that like just got me back into games. Because it's like, oh, this made like two hours while I'm at.
- [54:15]
A
You were, you were literally Tim, like with the egg game.
- [54:19]
B
And I think yes, yes, yes, exactly, exactly. But it was like that got me back and that, that kind of kept me in the idea of like these silly little games can really get attached to you, you know, doesn't have to be like a trip, like a fucking major publication game. Like it doesn't have to be like a fucking blockbuster. And I'm like, oh. So then when I got into Steam and I started finding all these weird pockets and then like with gaming friends all being grown ups, I'm like, oh, have you played Slay the Spire? Have you played Death Must Die? Have you played? And all sudden you're getting these games and you're like, oh. And, and then like the genres have opened up where now, you know what like Rogue lights and deck building and like they're like, oh, there are more types of games than shooters and all. And then it's like to me, Steam has been such a fun. It's like, it's like it was like getting. What's the word I'm looking for? Like getting Movie or Criterion or something.
- [55:14]
A
Yeah, totally, totally.
- [55:16]
B
Where it felt like a little bit more curated and it was like, I like this world. I would never find this handmade game. I would never find Cobalt Core for myself. But Now I have 80 hours put.
- [55:28]
A
Into it due to a contract Goblin Camp. I'm like, dude, I'm like, I feel the same way about Steam and like, I'm basically very deep in like the Early Access world. I love buying totally broken like concepts essentially at like 7 bucks or 15 bucks or whatever and like play and playing them and sometimes you boot them up and you're like, oh, this is like irreparably broken. Like I'm not going to boot this up. And sometimes you boot up something, you're like, oh, this is like fucking amazing. And like I've actually like kind of, I go deep like into discords and stuff and like I'm in there with the developers and the other people like trying to help shape gameplay or like offering to like make music if people need it or like that kind of stuff. Like I actually go deep into these like Early Access communities. Some of them that I think have a lot of potential and like have actually been, you know, made friends with the developers and like, you know, tried to champion their, their game in some way.
- [56:32]
B
Oh, that's awesome. Well, I should just take this opportunity to plug a friend who just. Yeah, a podcast producer, Josh Richmond. He's been a guest on this pod before. He just made his own deck building game and put it on steam called Doomsday. So I just want to shout that out. And I've been playing it and it is fun and it is like I am a card in the game. Like I was. That's a Kickstarter donator. But it is fucking fun. I'm like, and it's so cool that a friend did that. Yeah. And it must like it felt good to go like. Oh yeah. I really enjoy the jewel element of the game. That's like a fun add on that I see. And they're like. And be able to give feedback as like, like a, a connoisseur or like a guy who's got a lot of experience and what it's like, it's like popping in and tasting a piece of the taste.
- [57:23]
A
Yeah, you have good taste. And so that's like, that's kind of ever like once you get to our age, like and, and like creatively, like that's kind of like all there is, is like if you have good taste, you know, you, you, you kind of understand like what the, like where that, that stickiness is. Can you imagine like being, you know, we're talking about our, our childhood gamer selves. Like, like any of this would be possible is that you would have like friends who were like releasing their own video games and like you are like a character in it.
- [57:52]
B
I could not ever fucking.
- [57:54]
A
No way. We couldn't even imagine like multiplayer. Like that was something that was like, oh, crazy. Like what, like in people play online together or competitively. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know about that.
- [58:07]
B
Right, That's. And then all of a sudden you're like seventh grade dialing in to the fucking, you know, taking over your phone line to like maybe run around in Command and Conquer in like a choppy.
- [58:19]
A
Oh, I like Command. Command and Conquer was like there was like a, a demo on like a Mac magazine. This was how we would get demos is there were. There were this. There was like Mac magazines that would come with a disc and like they would have like a three or four demo like game demos on it. And that was, was, you know, that was basically as good as we got really, in terms of trying out new games.
- [58:43]
B
Oh, that's so cool.
- [58:45]
A
Yeah, we would make world or whatever it was called. There were a couple of them and like you would have to go to the rack and, like, look and see, like, oh, what demos. Like, come. This would be like, oh, they've got Myth, which is.
- [58:57]
B
I remember, remember Myth.
- [58:58]
A
It was like a real time there. It was. I remember it being one of the first, like, RTS sort of battle games that had polygons and like, sort of like Polygon Blood. That's what I was really into. I was like, whoa. It's like you can hack them into pieces.
- [59:12]
B
We played a lot of this shooting game called Rise of the Triad on.
- [59:16]
A
Oh, of course. Oh, yeah, I know.
- [59:17]
B
We called it Rot R O T T. And we played it local area network at my friend's. Here's the most Long island origin story ever. My friend Jimmy had a Smith machine, a weight bench in his basement, a pool table, and him and his dad both had computers that were linked via a local area network. So when his dad wasn't home, we could play rot against each other in his house, but from across the house. So we would go every day after school, lift weights, drink a protein shake, and then play rot until, like, whoever. His dad came home.
- [59:52]
A
Sounds incredible.
- [59:53]
B
I know. It's like, the best time. I. I need to do that now, including the exercise.
- [59:59]
A
But. But you've touched on. On something that has become like, a major philosophy. And who knows? I think. I think, you know, games are sort of like, wrapped up in this. Like, in a. In a weird way is like, I find that my greatest source of happiness, now currently at 41, is chasing the kind of pleasures that, like, would satisfy me at, like, 13 years old. Like, oh, fur. Like, like recreating those, like. But my. My wife and I went like a couple. I don't know, this is like, weeks ago. We had heard of that. Of this, like, pizza place that was nearby that was, like, really well, really well reviewed. It was like, new. And we're like, you know what? We're gonna go and try and like, they. It's not on any of the apps. So, like, we're like, you know what? We're gonna get in the. We're gonna call it in, we're gonna get in the car and, like, go pick it up. And like, it seems like such a simple thing, but the entire time we did it, we were, like, looking at each other being like, wow, is this great? Like, wow. We're out of the house, we're in the car, going to pick up a pizza, Just like old time, you know? And there was like. There was something. It was reminiscent of that area when things weren't as immediate, when things Weren't, you know, so online and stuff. And I think, I don't know, like, there's something about focusing on those kind of, like, desires. Being like, not like, my past birthday this year. My wife was like, what do you want? I was like, I want. Like, there's basically somebody is remaking this thing that when I was a kid was called a snake Boar. That's essentially like a skateboard that pivots the wheels pivot.
- [61:28]
B
I remember that.
- [61:29]
A
You never have to get off it. And I had one when I was like, 11 years old. And there's a company now that's making new ones. And I was like, that's what I want. And I got it. And it was fucking awesome. Just like when I was 13, I played with it straight for two weeks. I would go out into our little patio in the back and kind of warm around for a little bit until I got tired of it. I leaned it up against the side of the house, and now it's in the garage. Exactly what I would have done with it at 13 years old. It would have been like, the most amazing thing. And now when I open the garage to, like, go get Halloween decorations, whatever, I see that snake board leaning up against the wall. It makes me happy. I'm like, yeah, I've got one. Like, I've got one of those.
- [62:09]
B
That's so fucking cool. I. While you're talking about it, I'm just thinking, like, is that, like, part of the appeal of weed in a way, is like, it kind of puts me in, like, the child brain thing where I'm just like, oh, this is fun. I don't have anything wrong in my life right now.
- [62:26]
A
You know, I think the right strains, like, at least for me, like, the right. If I find the right sort of like, amount of whatever THC or cannabinoids or whatever it is that's in there, it's the best time ever. Sometimes the weed is too powerful, though, and I'll take one hit and be like, oh, man, I'm thinking a lot.
- [62:44]
B
Yeah, that's stressful. There is this, like. I mean, I think it's happening society wise, like, society wide as well. Like, I don't want to speak out of turn, but anecdotally, I do feel like a lot of my peers, even the ones with three kids, and not, like, just the childless ones, not just the rich ones, but also the poor ones. But I feel like a lot of people are, like, regressing has a negative connotation to it, but a lot of us are like, this made me happy when I was 14. Maybe it'll make. It might make me happy now and finding out it. Because I love nothing more. In the last few years, two hobbies that one I never had and video games is the other one. But like, I got into camping and like back into video games hard. And they're both two things that kind of like are infantilized a little. Like, you know, I mean, SoCal has a different vibe towards camping, but like, sure. Doing it now, I'm like, this is. This makes me feel great. I do feel 13. I'm like a little scared. I'm not. I've never went camping as a kid. I didn't have like a dad who was around to do shit like that. Yeah. Or a family who would want to drive me to Boy Scouts. So I was just kind of like, it's either sports or gaming at home. But now I'm doing all these things that like, I 13 year old Gabrius would have also loved. And I do think part of it is kind of like getting to an age where you're like, I did for a long time think I wasn't like deserving of some of these things. Like, I'm like, no, there it is. I have to like, wait till once I'm super successful and like own a home and have savings account, then I'm going to get into scuba diving, then I'm going to build my dream PC. Then. And then all of a sudden you're like, oh, I'm going to die. Like listeners of this pod, you're like.
- [64:30]
A
I'm going to die tomorrow.
- [64:31]
B
Yeah, listeners of this pod know this analogy. I bring it up all the time, but my dad had a huge bookshelf in his, in his office upstairs and he's like, johnny, I have no time to read, but when I retire, I got to read all these books on the beach. And then died before he retired. And I was like, oh, the guy might have liked a few of those books while he was alive. He had a wine rack of like quality wine he was saving for when he retired. And then he fucking died. And I'm like, oh, we should be careful just in case that shit. But also once you start doing the stuff that makes you happy, you're like, like, I can't believe I almost didn't let myself get a snake boy.
- [65:05]
A
Yeah. And what's dope about that, dude, is that like you doing it actually heals it for your dad too. It does. There's something that, there is something about like, sort of it's the best way to say this. There's something about like making your own rules about like what life looks like for you as an adult that, that, that detaches in a certain way from your, from your folks, that, that actually like kind of heals it for them as well. It's like, it's something about, something about just sort of working through that stuff is, is like it's like fifth dimensional or like fourth dimensional where time like does. Isn't really affected by. It sort of moves in and out of time. At least I find that to be very, very true. And that, and that making some of these decisions sort of heals it for like a time when you saw your parent like miss out or you saw them hesitate and choose what they thought was the thing that was the right thing to do as opposed to like what made them happy. And, and so, yeah, there's definitely something, I think that's, that's significant and, and meaningful about making that sort of discovery.
- [66:14]
B
Yeah. And there's probably something, you know, thinking about like time not existing and it's like, I don't think my dad would care what the exact action is that's making me happy. You know, maybe when I was a kid he would have said get the fuck off the computer. But now if he just sees like you just be honored to see your offspring being happy. Like, you're just like, oh, thank God they are happy and who cares if it's because they're playing video games or whatever, but, or thank God I gave him the life and he gave himself the kind of life that allows him to do this thing that brings him.
- [66:49]
A
Right, right, right, exactly. Hey, he's got time to, you know, pitter around on the keyboard. You know, that's, you know, I didn't have that kind of time or I didn't, I didn't think that I was deserving of it because there was a society that was like very much, very much telling men and women and everybody in general, like, what their life should look like and what was sort of proper like. I think that, you know, we are the beginning of, of, of the, the, you know, since generations that have sort of like, you know, try to like, loosen up a little bit, I guess. Right, right. Yeah, I think it's, it's hopefully for, for the best.
- [67:31]
B
Let's downshift into more of a mouth breathing dummy territory.
- [67:35]
A
Yes, I'd love to. Enough talk about our like, mental health.
- [67:38]
B
Yeah, well, take the video games from existential into reality. What, what games on Steam recently Have you been playing a lot of or in, in general? What are some of your, what are some of your all time faves on Steam? I guess what I'm looking for is personal Steam recommendations, but also what are you putting some time into now or recently so that listeners can just get on board and if we have any over.
- [68:01]
A
I mean unfortunately most of the games that like I got like super into on Steam recently have all since folded or they're, or they've like changed developers and they're working on stuff. I was really into this game for a while called True or Die, which was like an independently developed sort of like gang banging simulator that was all based on like, you know what it was like. You remember drug wars for the, for the calculator.
- [68:27]
B
Yeah.
- [68:28]
A
Okay.
- [68:29]
B
The first game I ever played, first video game ever played on TI83.
- [68:33]
A
Yeah, it's like that, but. It's like that but in Unreal 5. And so it was this city block, this essentially very detailed city block. So it's not like necessarily a massive open world like gta, but like a very like, like a neighborhood essentially. And there were, it was all based on like role play mechanics. So a lot of the interactions and stuff were, were people who were like, you know, playing, playing pretend. And there's different factions you had, you know, there were players that you could go against but then there were also kind of like npc, like roving rival gangs and there was like, you know, place where you could like buy illegal weapons. There was, you know, you could, if you saved up enough money, you could buy a door and like lock yourself in an apartment. That was one thing I really liked about it is that all of the, there was all of these buildings but they were all empty. But like when you got enough money you could essentially be like, okay, I'm going to buy this property and now only you can open that door so it's like live anywhere. But you didn't have to go through the kind of crafting mechanics which I don't get me wrong, I love of like putting the foundation down and then the walls and then all of that. It was just like these prefab houses that you could sort of move into and then you could buy furniture and place it. You could grow weed, you could, you know, cook, crack on, on the stove. Like yeah, you can make all of these drugs. And it was just like a very interesting sort of like simulate like a block simulator. And I found that really, really interesting. I know that the developer is working on something, something new. So who knows I don't think we've heard. Heard from the last of them, but that's fucking awesome.
- [70:10]
B
That sounds fun.
- [70:10]
A
But I would say the other one on Steam, like, that I probably have the most hours in is probably Day Z, which I don't even like play all that much anymore. Like, I'll have a friend or two that I'll kind of discover it and get into it and we'll play it for a little bit. But for my money, the, like, I love. I love zombie survival games. Like, that's just a very relaxing genre for me. So I'll play anything that's in that genre in the hopes that it's like, really good.
- [70:37]
B
So is this. I'm. I'm on steam right now. Arma2dayz mod? Is that what.
- [70:41]
A
Well, well, this. It started as the mod and there are some people who are mod purists who. Who think that the. That the standalone game, that's kind of the more mainstream one now. So if you just search Daisy, it'll come up. It's by Bohemia Interactive. And like, that's a. That's a game that. It was the first time I had ever played something that had like, true sort of like emergent gameplay, whereas the gameplay is sort of dictated by what your needs are as a player. So if your character is hungry, like, you have to go figure out how to find food. If your character is sick, you have to figure out how to find medicine. And all this while avoiding other players or engaging with them. And NPC zombies that can sort of sneak up on you at any minute and there's no. You get one life. So, like, that's it. If you die, you start over. It's Roguelite in. In that way.
- [71:33]
B
Oh, cool. I'll download that and give it a go.
- [71:36]
A
Yeah, I mean, it's incredibly like the. The. The inventory is like. I mean, you'll be doing Tet, you're doing Tetris with it and it's, you know, they've. They've updated it throughout the years to make it like, a little bit more user friendly. But it is a. It is a brutal. It is a brutal, sort of like janky, like, unique experience, I'll say. What about you? What have you been playing recently on Steam?
- [72:04]
B
I got really addicted to this game. Well, I got a Steam deck which has added my Steam hours a little bit.
- [72:12]
A
Like, those things are amazing.
- [72:13]
B
They're so fucking awesome, by the way. Absolute flight melters for anyone who has to travel for work. Dude, take 20 milligrams and then put headphones on and put ste. Get your steam deck out. You're landing.
- [72:27]
A
You're playing like Fallout New Vegas at like 60 frames per second. Like graph. Like that's where to me the Steam deck really shines. Is booting up old games and having them on the little screen with controls and it like runs beautifully.
- [72:42]
B
It's so fun. Obviously I love the game. It's kind of a classic at this point. Slay the Spire, which is like a card building game. It's such a fun one. But the game I'm. I put the most hours into and I may try to 100% it because I'm addicted to it, is. Is called. It's Deep Rock Dwarven Survivors. Hold on, I'm saying.
- [73:00]
A
Oh yeah, yeah. It's the sequel to Deep Rock Galactic, right?
- [73:03]
B
Oh yeah. That. That is what it is. It's Deep Rock.
- [73:06]
A
I know.
- [73:06]
B
I didn't know there was an original. Wait a minute.
- [73:08]
A
Yeah, Deep Rock Galactic was like, if memory serves, it was a four player kind of like dungeon crawler but. But with a heavy focus on mining.
- [73:21]
B
Yeah, Deep Rock Galactic survivors. Like it's like your dwarfs, you get guns, they get upgraded, you got to like get resources. And then when you defeat the boss, you jump in the driller and go down another level. And it. I'm like truly addicted to it. It's got like a light Vampire Survivors bullet hell kind of element to it which I'm always a fan of, of like upgrading all that shit. And then the other Steam dev game I love that isn't at all in my wheelhouse is Dave the Diver. Did you play this at all?
- [73:52]
A
You know what, I played a little bit of it. But like my good, my good friend was like swears by and was like dude, you don't understand. It's like this. First you think it's this kind of like cute little game about like fishing, but then it becomes like something more and more and more.
- [74:06]
B
He.
- [74:06]
A
He spoke very, very highly of Dave the Diver. I have it installed but I haven't like delved deep enough to. To really be able to speak on it.
- [74:16]
B
It's such a vibe game. It's. The music is so chill. You're just like swim around underwater and like collect fish. And then I didn't even know this about the game. I was enjoying it so much. I'm like oh, you're like this fat scuba diver which also I like for hyper specific reasons. But then it's like, it's really charming. And then all of a sudden you're like all right, you've collected enough fish. Time to go work your shift at the sushi restaurant. And I'm like, wait, what? And I didn't even know this was part of the game. And I hate these types. And next thing I know, I'm like, we need to upgrade our servers, man. We need to be able to get the fucking edamame cleaned up. Also, like, I. I got really into, like, the sushi restaurant element of it too, and it was. It made it a fucking riot. I highly recommend, Dave.
- [74:57]
A
The dialogue, the art direction and like the music and all of that, like, even from the small amount that I played is like, yeah, it makes those things just the way that they design the way that the food looks and everything. Like, it makes that style of genre of like, sort of like restaurant manager just seem so. Like, it makes you want to do it and want to be good at it.
- [75:18]
B
Oh, before we get out of here, I want to do one more quote unquote segment or I want to specifically crowdsource some information for us. Yes, you. You are way more informed than I am. But what I like to do every once in a while is go like, this is the kind of game I want to play. Does anyone know of anything that approximates it?
- [75:41]
A
Because that's like, yeah, yeah.
- [75:43]
B
This is like my favorite thing right now, a game I wish I could play. And I have played some versions of this, so I will take more recommendations. But an X Com type game, XCOM 2, I love that fucking game, but that takes place in like a fantasy realm. Arrows, swords, wizards, that kind of stuff. Songs of Conquest I think is the closest. Or Wildermyth is another one that's kind of close to it, but something like that. If anyone has recommendations for that, please. And also my favorite game of all time is maybe Heroes of might and Magic 3, which I played like hot seat style for like hours at every sleepover. Like, young people might not even know. Like, you used to just like, get up, leave the room, let your friend have the computer. And then he'd come out and go, my turn is done. And then the next guy would go in and you would have like a two. A two room sleepover party where everyone's watching a movie. Here it's like, gamers, it's your turn to go. Fucking. It's like, oh, we got a battle. I brought the centaurs. Let's go.
- [76:42]
A
Yeah, your satellite. Satellite gamer.
- [76:45]
B
Yeah. But I fucking love X Com and I love swords and sorcery and stuff. So if anyone has any recos that are combined those two or if anyone is sitting at home trying to design in a game for Steam and they're like, I just can't think of something. Maybe this is the answer here.
- [77:01]
A
Yeah. Maybe this is the beginning of our game studio, that we're the high and mighty game studios.
- [77:07]
B
Let's go. You're. I'll put you in fucking. You're on the board. You're in charge.
- [77:10]
A
Yeah. Hell yeah, dude.
- [77:11]
B
Let's go.
- [77:12]
A
I was trying to think. I was like. I was like, do I know any like. Like do I know anything that's like that? And I. I think you've stumbled on something quite unique. So something that's like RTS basically turn. Turn based combat that's at the sort of isometric view but in like a medieval setting.
- [77:30]
B
Right? Yeah. And it's like, oh cool. My wizard gained a level now like on this next battle, my wizard's a little more powerful and like.
- [77:36]
A
Yeah, like what if civilization for like added magic and the battles like you were more zoomed in. Not just like that sort of like general kind of.
- [77:47]
B
You just made me think that I. I haven't played Civ since Civ 5 and I only played it like a little. You're just. Were you a civ kid? I was a Civic.
- [77:55]
A
No, those. No, I. Because I did they like by the time like what I was playing on Mac essentially like was really like marathon. I mean marathon. We played like. I. We didn't get. We had Command and Conquer, we had Starcraft, but like nothing ran as good. You know, it didn't run as good on Mac or maybe we didn't have a powerful. So I never was able to like get into proper sieves, like country nation management stuff. Just like it never like hit for me and I hover over it in the store every now and again. I saw. I was like on sale recently and I was like, oh, maybe now's the time to like get in. Have you ever played Mountain Blade? Like the. Either the first one or the sequel. So like Mountain Blade is pretty cool. It's kind of like half of the game is. Well, I would say probably, yeah. Half of the game is kind of a strategic sort of like isometric view. You. You control an army that you build up from scratch, but it goes into third person and first person action when you're either in a city kind of walking around or you're in these massive, you know, hundred person battles or whatever.
- [79:04]
B
Oh, so.
- [79:05]
A
So half of it is kind of like you control one soldier in this gigantic army and you can send your armies out and, you know, you can do strategies and sort of like command and conquer, sort of like send them to do things and give them orders, but then you control like one guy that's also fighting. And then like in between those, there's this whole open world of just like this massive sort of like country. And there are, you know, Game of Thrones style, politics and dynamics to essentially, you know, questing across the land and either taking power or being a force for good. Up to you, I think.
- [79:42]
B
Oh, that sounds fucking cool.
- [79:44]
A
Yeah, it is cool.
- [79:45]
B
What about you? You're pretty well versed. Is there also, like, I wish more people made games like this. Like, do you have. Do you have a category or a.
- [79:53]
A
I mean, I, I have, I had, like, I. Nobody has made my dream zombie survival game and I'm hoping maybe Microsoft and Undead Labs do it with state of decay 3. But like, what I want is essentially like a Walking Dead simulator. So I want them to use cloud computing to make a map the size of the United States. Remember in that old racing game, the crew where they had like, you could race, you could race from Los Angeles to New York. It was like condensed but like there was this whole country. Like, I want, want that but for a zombie survival game. And the zombies can't be fast, they need to be slow. But there are many of them. Like, that's. I want that element because I think moving between hordes that are slow and getting caught off guard is way more relaxing and chill than like walking outside. And you hear like. And then this thing is like running towards.
- [80:45]
B
Right.
- [80:46]
A
I don't want.
- [80:46]
B
In this hypothetical game, you're like, oh, we found, we found a good house. We'll station here for a little bit forage out. We'll upgrade our weaponry or we'll do.
- [80:55]
A
A garden in the, the back. We'll build. Well, actually, we've got more friends joining, so we're actually going to take over this whole block and we're going to make a city. Like, that's what I want. I want to be able to find like a rusted out plane in Jersey. Spend, you know, 12 hours, like over the course of a couple days fixing it up, you know, take off and only to have it run out of fuel. Like, ha. You know, like over Montana or some shit.
- [81:19]
B
Yeah.
- [81:19]
A
And like crash Land. And now we've got a deal there. Like, that's the kind of zombie game that I want and I feel like the technology is available. There's a lot you have to figure out though. I think that, like, I want cars to be able. Easier to fix. Like, don't make your vehicle so hard to get that it's like, only, only end game. Like, let me be able to take over a car for a couple hours or two until it dies. Like, I think tweaking the mechanics of like, the loot. Like, the loot has to be right, the vehicle mechanics have to be right. Nobody has done that quite yet. And I would. Unless maybe listeners, they've got something that I don't know about, in which case.
- [81:56]
B
I'm also loving this. It's like, we have to get to Seattle, where we believe there's like a safety site. We're in Florida. We got across the whole country Northwest style. But, oh, we got distracted. We're in fucking, you know, Macon, Georgia for two weeks of game time while we rebuild. Oh, shit. We added two people to our party. One guy's a medic. Okay. He can like, stick around, you know.
- [82:16]
A
Like, and like, like you have to have a good, like a good response system. Because with day Z is like a 41 year old man. If I'm working for like, I don't know, two days playing with a buddy and one of us dies and we lose everything. Like, it's. It's tough. It's tough to be like, okay, well, what's the point of playing this? I think having some kind of mechanic, like, for example, like, what could work is like, let's say we're in Montana, we're. Or we crash landed and we're like trying to forage and set up a camp there, and I die, maybe I respawn near that camp. But as a brand new survivor who has come out of the woods and it's like, found the camp, like, get it so that you're not separated from your friends for too long, you know what I mean? Like, you got to make it a little bit easy, easy mode. And I think there's a sweet spot that has yet to be. Who knows? Maybe High and Mighty Games will be the one that drops it.
- [83:05]
B
Hell yeah. Who knows? Maybe. Who knows?
- [83:10]
A
You're like, you're making a lot of pressure for us to start this studio.
- [83:14]
B
Dude. I would like nothing more. Hey, George Clooney makes all his money off fucking tequila. Dude is an insanely successful actor. I'd be fine making all my money. We just, we do all freemium games and we were like, such pieces of shit. Yeah, we're just like stealing money from parents via their kids on iPads or whatever.
- [83:37]
A
Just like. Yeah, just like it's only microtransactions.
- [83:41]
B
You are just. Everyone is like becomes a shopkeeper somehow in our games.
- [83:46]
A
Yeah.
- [83:47]
B
Just takes full advantage. Oh man. Jake, this has been a fucking pleasure. We got to get together.
- [83:52]
A
Absolutely, man.
- [83:53]
B
I think let's talk a little bit more about figuring out how to twitch stream together too. That could be.
- [83:57]
A
Yeah.
- [83:57]
B
Seriously.
- [83:58]
A
I'm down. I'm really down. We. It would be fun. It would be fun to take on if to. To show each other to do a little bit of show and tell or show and play on.
- [84:06]
B
Yeah, that'd be fun. I'll bring you in. Yeah. Dude, that's like I don't know a.
- [84:10]
A
Ton about deck building games. I like that I'm an original magic player, you know, when it is physical cards. But like I haven't got into the sort of like digital deck. Like I heard. What's that called? Borrow Trauma or what? What's it called? Balo.
- [84:23]
B
It's like, like Baltaro or bala.
- [84:25]
A
Yeah.
- [84:26]
B
Palatro, something like that. I don't even know how to say it. I gave myself pins and needles on the toilet playing it on Speed Deck. I like got up and collapsed like Murtaugh and Lethal Weapon too. Yeah. I think for starters, try downloading Slay the Spire, which I think is like one of the most fun versions of card and like, you know, extremely well made. And I think they're gonna drop another one. Other games I really like lately have been. I love that game Hades and I know they're making a second Hades.
- [84:57]
A
Oh yeah, they're making a sequel.
- [84:59]
B
Yeah, those are all fun games.
- [85:00]
A
I've been playing New World. I've been playing two Amazon MMOs actually. I've been playing Throne and Liberty, which is free, and New World, which is a premium. And I like them both for different reasons. I'm really enjoying them. They're great on console. It's great to have MMOs that you can play from your couch.
- [85:15]
B
Oh, that's so fun. I'll take a look at that too.
- [85:18]
A
Oh, take a look. Yeah. One of them is like strategy combat, kind of like FF online. Like it's. It's like you auto attack, but then you could choose kind of when to throw specials. But what's cool is if you have one weapon equipped, you can throw specials from the other weapons. So if you've got your sword out, you can still be hitting them with your sword but then like use your wand to like do specials. It's really makes for a really cool dynamic sort of like combat and New world's. More like. I mean, it's not as good as Elden Ring combat wise, of course, but, like, it's that it's more action orientated, so, like, lock on each button, throws a different kind of attack, that sort of thing.
- [85:51]
B
When I. When I beat Baldur's Gate 3, I did purchase Elden Ring and said, all right, fuck. Even though I never really play souls games, Elden Ring more. And the art from Elden Ring just, like, hit my fantasy nerds so hard that I'm like, even if this game is insanely difficult, I got to get.
- [86:05]
A
I'll play. I'll play that. I'll play that with you. It's not my favorite game, but I do think it is the best video game. Cool.
- [86:11]
B
Cool. I think Baldur's Gate 3 might be the best video game I've played in a long time.
- [86:15]
A
Yeah.
- [86:16]
B
But Jake, let's tell the shithead listeners where. Where. Where else they can track you down for any of your shenanigans.
- [86:23]
A
I mean, just. I only want you to remember these. This last hour and some change where we've talked about weed, video games, movies, our own mental health journeys, what we did when we were 13. The other place that I'm. I'm at is cursed. It's the QAA podcast.
- [86:41]
B
I'm a huge fan. I've been listening for, like, several years at this point.
- [86:46]
A
Thank you.
- [86:47]
B
I'm. You know, it's massive to me. I get it's. It's funny. You and like, two. Two or three other podcasts that I'm obsessed with. I still don't know what day any of them come out, and I just, like, every morning refresh and go, oh, sick. A qaa. Time to take a break from the audiobook.
- [87:02]
A
Yeah, that's why. Yeah, we. I don't think we really have. We're trying to get back on a better schedule. You know, we've. There's been some internal discussions. We're trying to be better about our schedule, but that is kind of what's been happening the last. I don't know, last. I don't know, year and a half or so as they sort of come out when they're ready. Like, we. We run into this problem all the time where we'll do an episode on something and then like the next day or two days later, like, as something.
- [87:25]
B
Needs to be added or taken.
- [87:27]
A
Yeah, something needs to. And it's usually. And it's usually like, horrifying shit. Like. Oh, like. And this per. By the way, like, this person is now dead or like this person is in jail or like they've been sued. Like, there's always some horrific sort of conclusion that, like, wasn't sort of available, like when we recorded. So it is what it is. But yeah, let's listen to that show. It's, it's, it's. It's been amazing to work on it. It really has been the joy of my life to get to, you know, create. Create content and, and, you know, melt my brain, so to speak.
- [88:01]
B
Yeah. I'm so glad that we didn't have to talk about any trad cats or scary and British Parliament right winger, you know, like, we don't have, like, any of that to talk about, which is. Which is a real treat. I'm so glad you came on. I'm glad we got to chop it up.
- [88:15]
A
Breath of fresh air. Thank you so much for inviting me on. I. My, you know, one of my best buddies, my friend Justin, who's probably gonna listen to this episode, he, like, I lived with before I moved in with my wife. He and I lived together and he was responsible for sh. A lot of my content. Like, he introduced me to Chapo. He was a big. And still is a big fan of yours. And like, years ago was like, dude, you guys got to talk with Gabrius, man. Like, you guys are like, you guys have a lot in common and like, he does amazing stuff. So, like, I, I gotta shout him out as well. And I, I can't believe that we. We weren't like PAs together on some piece of project.
- [88:51]
B
I know.
- [88:52]
A
That's because I did my 2000 and.
- [88:53]
B
I did my 20s in New York. That's the problem.
- [88:56]
A
Oh, that's why.
- [88:57]
B
Yeah. Or else we would have definitely overlapped or you would have been. We would have definitely been on a herald team together. Big time.
- [89:04]
A
Big time.
- [89:06]
B
That's so fun. Also, listeners, if you're still on at this point, Jake has previously been on with the other QA host, Julian and two of the other qaos, Julian and Travis. So if you want to jump back and check that episode out, I don't think any of the things we're talking about in with creep and stuff have. I'm sure it's changed terrifyingly and enhanced and exponentially, which is a nightmare. And every day is. I learned too much news for my own good. But as for me shitheads, my other podcast is Action Boys. You know that and also 101 places to party before you die now. Oh, and download Josh. Josh is an upcoming guest as well, but download Josh's game. Doomsday listeners. It's a fun time. I was part of the beta testing and I'm looking to get get right back into it on Steam. And I think it's only a couple bucks too, so let it rip. Bye, shitheads.
- [90:09]
A
That was a hitgum podcast. In a part of the world where there are no rules. Holy.
- [90:18]
B
Holy. Guys, I'm so so. I definitely have not watched this since I rented it on VHS in 92. Strangers united by the threat of death. We got all the major players. Seagal vl. Vladimir Putin is a good man. Arnold, you're calm.
- [90:32]
A
Give it to me.
- [90:32]
B
I need you to cream pie me now. Stala.
- [90:35]
A
Loving this movie. It's got a lot of heart.
- [90:37]
B
You're mentally irregular. Now, somewhere, somehow. Body blow.
- [90:44]
A
Body blow, body.
- [90:45]
B
Someone's gonna pay. I would love for my wife to, like, see me rip a guy's throat out. But they didn't count on one thing. This movie's insane. That's how you know it's a good movie. You have to do almost all the work yourself to figure it out. Well, there's a fantasy component. There's some sword fighting. There's some lightning. There's a new cave in town. You wake up after a few years, and then you don't even know who you are anymore. We're gonna be making Terminators. We're gonna make a really great deal with the xenomorphs. I don't hate him, but I've been in a roommate. Yes, I understand. This is now the 20th ending of the movie. I am dark. I'm your dad. Action Boys.
- [91:28]
A
Boys will be boys.
- [91:32]
B
Subscribe here for bonus content and more free stuff from behind the paywall. To get new episodes, become a patron at Action Boys Biz. Do it.
- [91:43]
A
Do it.
- [91:44]
B
Come on, do it now.