June 19, 2025 • 39 mins
Welcome to Side Quest — the bonus series from Gamertagged Studios where we pause the guest interviews and tell our own story.
These episodes are raw, behind-the-scenes deep dives into the identity, chaos, and creativity behind the podcast itself.
In this first-ever installment, the full cast (Scarto46, Misha 2.0, Portabella, and Ryanocerus) comes together to share the origin story of Gamertagged — how it started, why it exists, and what it means to build a show about digital identity.
🎮 We unpack the early pandemic spark, the wild naming debates, the design choices behind anonymity and trust, and how the ReRoll segment became the soul of the format.
If you’ve been wondering who we are, why we care, or what kind of space we’re trying to build — this is your invitation inside the studio.
🎙️ Featuring: Scarto46, Misha 2.0, Portabella, Ryanocerus
🎧 Produced by: Gamertagged Studios
🌐 Explore more episodes, ReRoll cards & join the community: linktr.ee/gamertagged
Gamertagged is a podcast by Gamertagged Studios.
Digital identities. Real stories.
We explore the stories behind gamertags, usernames, and online personas—through interviews with gamers, creators, and the people behind the persona.
Want your own card? Share your story. Join the community.
Find everything here: linktr.ee/gamertagged
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ryanocerus (00:03):
It's time for SideQuest.
Scarto46 (00:25):
Hey everyone, welcome to SideQuest.
This is our off-the-pathsegment where we talk about the
behind-the-scenes chaos andideas and the soul of
Gamertagged.
And today we're telling our ownorigin story.
Why did we start this show tobegin with?
What is the point of this thing?
We're building so we're tryingto give everyone a look behind
(00:46):
the scenes, get to know us andwhat we do and who we are.
You know, we ask our gueststhat come on the show to talk
more about their digitalidentities, and that is exactly
what we intend to do is torepresent who we are behind
these identities ourselves.
So I'm your host, scarto46.
Misha 2.0 (01:00):
Misha 2.0 here.
Portabella (01:02):
Cordabella.
Ryanocerus (01:04):
Rianoceros, and that's the whole cast.
Scarto46 (01:08):
This is our Gamertag Studios cast, and today we're
just going to hang out and chatand talk about what the hell are
we doing here?
So why Gamertag?
Why did we choose that name?
(01:32):
And I think that's cool.
Someone in life gives you a name.
You get to choose your identityonline.
It is fascinating to me whypeople choose the names they do
and that these identities becomeintertwined with who we are as
people.
They become part of how peopleidentify us.
(01:52):
And what's also cool is you getthe opportunity to really
reinvent yourself.
There are no gender ororientation or you know, just
the common like what you looklike, um, that exist in the
day-to-day life, and so peoplehave an opportunity to really
build their own identity of whothey are and and build
(02:15):
communities around that or buildfriendships from that.
And that is fascinating.
That that is a world we live in.
It's a world we've all kind oflived in and grown up in, and
those are the stories we want totell, because we don't want to
create a situation where we'rereally, you know, tying like who
you are behind that identity,like who you are in real life,
(02:36):
because oftentimes they'reseparated purposefully.
Misha 2.0 (02:39):
We just wanted to tell stories about the identity
that you think you are and howpeople see you and the story
that you've created for yourself, because that's super freaking
cool yeah, I think we're gonnatake it back, maybe like a few
years back, if I had to kind ofpinpoint that moment where I
think you know you start to um,this idea starts to to kind of
(03:01):
come to life, or even just thethought of this potentially
being something super cool.
Um was really during COVID, whenthat's kind of what all we were
doing is gaming.
I think that for me it wasalways a fascination of seeing
whose name or tag, gamer tagpopped up and wondering and us
putting the story togetherourselves of who they were, who
(03:22):
we thought they were based on,their character and how they
played.
So I think that's kind of thelittle spark that kind of
launched things and then fromthere it kind of just simmered a
little bit, you know,consistently, I think, started
to grow and you're right, Ithink it was about being able to
create a community in a safespace.
Portabella (03:41):
Yeah, I think, like you're saying, having being
stuck at home during covet timesand having to sit and basically
sit with your own thoughts forthe most part, and totally begin
to wonder, well, where did thatcome from, why does that exist,
and that is so fascinating.
Ryanocerus (03:58):
I was just gonna say it's really interesting to
think about.
Uh, a gamertag can reflect ornot reflect your personality and
how you can have kind of.
You know, I think the twointerviews we've done so far
have been myself and Diluted,and I think we're both pretty
open books and pretty similaronline versus in person, but I
(04:22):
don't know if that's necessarilytrue of other people.
Scarto46 (04:25):
So I'm interested to dig into this and kind of see
you know where that line is foryour online persona versus how
you are in real life yeah, andgamertag is like go back right,
like they can tell a story or bean like yours, rhino, where it
is a a part of your identityfrom your childhood.
(04:46):
It could be some you know, safeharbor that you made for
yourself.
You know, for me I've beenmultiple different names, right,
but like in those times in mylife they have defined where I
was and the people who know meby those names might know me by
those names or stories aboutthose names, as a result of just
(05:07):
kind of who I was in that timeand as we kind of think about
this world where every humanbeing has had the experience of
I named myself this thing,whether that was cool or dumb or
you thought about getting ridof it and names are hard.
So like maybe not, but you'vehad that experience of I've
(05:28):
called myself by this name.
People who have never metbefore, I've never seen in real
life, know me by that name.
A good example of thisrhinoceros and I have never met
in real life but you'd be hardpressed to like not know that we
are really close.
We are really close but I'vealways known him as rhinoceros,
(05:48):
he's always known me as Scartoand, to be real, we both have
probably changed those names afew times.
Um, also, inside of our cast,we are a family and friends team
, um, so we created a a worldbecause we we as a family and
friends team, like want tounderstand what is this
environment, this you know thisspace and make a safe space for
(06:12):
other people to tell their story, right?
I think the other part aboutthis is we never envisioned this
thing to be like cool.
How do we go talk to creators?
Creators do a hard enough jobalready, trying to present
content on a daily basis acrossmultiple different channels.
Trust me, we've learned a lotabout that in the amount of time
we've been doing this.
We don't want to create a spacewhere you have to come show
(06:35):
your face again, right?
We want to create a space whereanyone can talk about their
digital identity and we canreflect that back in a way
that's memorable and true totheir form and doesn't ask them
to step outside of their comfortzones or, you know, tile this
together.
But their story can besomething that we talk about and
celebrate and people might beable to see themselves as part
(06:56):
of that story, and that's reallywhat we're trying to accomplish
here.
Misha 2.0 (07:01):
So do you think, based on just kind of what you
stated obviously this, I think,is is kind of where the um
conversation does naturallydrift with our guest but you,
scarto, do you find yourself youmentioned kind of being in
different times of your lifethrough the different names do
you feel that altered the wayyou played, that altered the way
that you lived everyday life?
Scarto46 (07:24):
That's a good question .
I think for me, like the personI was in my twenties or you
know, earlier than that probablydidn't you know had different
people had differentperspectives of me and the
decisions I made or the choicesI made, but they might also know
me by that name.
I'd say at times in my liferaid leading or learning about
(07:45):
leadership online and being partof big communities and having
to lead people who didn't getpaid to do a job to do a job,
and that I had to be, I had torepresent, like what we were
trying to accomplish and helppeople believe that we could do
(08:07):
some really impossible stuff asa group, and that was all based
on them calling me by a certainname.
So I think it just depends,right, like your name can mean
something.
Maybe this is the way to say ityour name means something to
you, but it can really meansomething to someone else online
(08:28):
.
Misha 2.0 (08:28):
Yeah, I think you're onto something there.
I do say that because I do seethat if you see someone and
they're a jerk online playing,just really not being a team
player, kind of all that goodstuff, right I would make that
assumption that man, this person, this person's probably a jerk
in real life too.
Like you know, what gives themthe ability to be able to think
(08:52):
they can be in this space andstill behave this way and be
totally different person in reallife?
Scarto46 (08:59):
I don't know, anonymity gives you the
authority to do that, right.
But you know, I think in a goodexample is in episode two we
talked to diluted spine.
One of the things diluted spinesaid was you know, that person
on the internet who has ananonymity and acts this way, um
might also be going through somestuff themselves and acting out
in this way on online.
That's cool, man.
(09:20):
Like I get it.
Um, that's not the communitywe're trying to build.
We're not trying to build acommunity where we're about, you
know, not supporting orbullying people for their name
or their choices or whatever, ortheir identity or their
orientation.
That's not what we're trying tobuild.
What we're trying to build is aspace to celebrate that
everyone is their own uniquesnowflake, whatever they are,
and that's cool, man.
(09:40):
Everyone can be their ownsnowflake and representation to
themselves, and everyone canchange and evolve and grow, and
that is dope, that is humanityand that's what we're trying to
celebrate.
Ryanocerus (09:51):
Well, I think we're, you know, along with the
anonymity thing, you know, we'regiving people who maybe, you
know, don't want to sharethemselves out or can't you know
, for a reason you know, alittle bit of a platform to kind
of just talk about themselves.
Every, you know, every you'reyour own favorite subject, um.
So I think we all like to talkabout ourselves to some extent.
Scarto46 (10:13):
So having that, you know, that kind of safe, safe
space that we're creating here,um, where you can just be
yourself, I think is reallyimportant supportabella, you
were trying to make a pointwhich is hey, we started this a
while back and we thought aboutthis a lot before we ever said,
hey, let's, let's do this thinglike we find I've been saying we
started this almost two yearsago now and there's plenty of
(10:36):
iterations of what gamer attackwas going to be.
Portabella (10:39):
The name has changed so many times, and so it's
interesting to see through allof our meetings and and note
note taking and really thinkingabout how to how to do this
right.
How much we've just learnedjust from doing two episodes
alone is crazy to me, of how howmuch we've learned, how much we
realized that it's it's more agame of just getting your feet
(11:01):
wet and seeing what works andseeing what doesn't.
Scarto46 (11:03):
Yeah, totally.
I think you have a list of,like, what were the possible
names we're going to call thisthing?
Um, we worked on that, likethere was, you know, probably
like five or six, and then I gotbusy with work, you got busy
with college, like things happen, right.
So, like, do you remember someof the dumb names?
We decided that we were goingto call this thing back then.
Portabella (11:24):
So I actually went through some of my old stuff and
I found my journal where Iwould jot notes down during our
meetings, but I couldn't findthe list of names.
I know we had one that was thebig contender before Gamer
Tagged and that was calledNamescast, but the other ones I
think I couldn't tell you unlessyou remember them, but they're
just as equally weird.
Scarto46 (11:45):
Perky, would you want to listen to?
Portabella (11:48):
the names cast.
I mean, I would I still thinkthe name is really cool, but I
also like gamer tagged as wellso, just so everyone knows,
she's the one who put that namein the hat.
Scarto46 (11:56):
Uh, I'm the one who overrided and we ended up
calling ourselves gamer taggedum, yeah, so everyone voted on
it last time I didn't.
Ryanocerus (12:04):
I didn't get to vote on this.
You, you don't get to vote.
You're the music guy, oh, okay.
Scarto46 (12:09):
I'll remember that.
Portabella (12:11):
I'll remember that.
Misha 2.0 (12:13):
And he's taking a note now.
Portabella (12:16):
Now he's going on strike two with Craig.
Oh no.
Scarto46 (12:20):
Just everyone who's listening in audio format
understands.
Craig is not a person.
Craig is a robot who islistening to this.
Discord call Craig could be aperson, for all I know, but when
we reference craig, we'retalking about the craig bot that
you can put in any discord.
We're not sponsored by craig.
Craig just stares at us and hiscreepy avatar and it's pretty
dope.
All right, so back on topic.
(12:40):
So I kind of want to talk about, like, our format and our
process.
Okay, there, there is intentionin what we built.
There's intention in the wholething.
One this podcast structure wedesigned it is in its intention
is to protect the anonymity ofour guests while also allowing
them a safe space to tell theirstory and to enable the audience
to see what the guests mightsee.
(13:02):
We're all human, right?
We the verbal conversation wehave is like 30% of our ability
to receive information.
You're not looking at us,you're not looking at the guest,
you don't see any of thosethings, and part of that is
intentional, right?
Like some people just don'twant to be on cam, some
streamers don't want to be oncam.
So we started thinking throughlike cool, how do we do this
(13:24):
format?
Our podcast structure breaksdown like this there's a three
act interview.
One where did the name comefrom?
Number two let's dig a littlebit more into what that name is
now and your gamertag and whatthat represents.
Number three where's it goingand who are you now, and your
evolution.
And then we finish the showwith a segment we call Reroll,
(13:45):
and we'll dig in this later.
We can always have theconversation about what reroll
is and how we use it, but thereality is we're not trying to.
So in reroll, what happens isyou're presented with a game and
that game is we take what we'velearned about you from the
interview.
You know key things about whoyou are, how you interact, how
(14:10):
you show up aesthetics, you'reinto worlds, you're into games,
you're into whatever and we useall of that to craft a
AI-generated picture of yourpersona, because what we don't
want to do is say, hey, let'stake a picture of you and put
that on the internet.
That's not what we're trying todo.
We're trying to represent allof the things that we've learned
(14:32):
about you in a, a visual thingthat other people can see.
So in this game, once we insertthe first set of things we've
we've documented during theinterview process, um, we share
that with the guest so they cansee it the exact prompt and then
we enter that into the re-rollmachine so it generates an image
(14:54):
From there.
The guest gets two re-rolls.
They can choose to changeanything about that picture that
they choose to.
Could be aesthetics, could behair color, could be whatever's
around them.
But the point here is we'retrying to help, not show the
person, but represent thedigital identity that they've
created.
Right, because, as humans, weall want to see that thing, we
(15:16):
want to envision that thing, wewant to help people feel seen in
this way, and it's really aboutusing technology to create a
mirror that shows the digitalidentity, and that's why we
designed this show.
We designed the show with theintention that we wanted to
create a safe space for peopleto tell their stories, of any
gender orientation, whatever.
(15:36):
We want to be creating anaccepting community where anyone
feels like they can come on andtell this, whether they're a
big time streamer, a contentcreator or just a person on the
internet.
And the way to do that is tocreate a flow that enables that
to happen, but a safe space thatprotects that person, and
that's what we've tried tocreate.
(15:56):
Is it perfect?
I'm sure it's not, but that'sthe intent behind it and that's
the format we've created to helptell these stories.
Portabella (16:04):
And I think what, what?
One of the most important thingsto us, I think, especially when
it comes to re-roll, is beingas honest about what it is and
why we're doing it.
And that aspect in the sense ofre-roll is, to put it very
basically, ai generating apicture of your character and us
doing that is not a way for usto necessarily replace anything.
(16:24):
It's more so a way to see how aunbiased party would view that
character, based on just random,based on interview, pretty much
.
That's why I think we we tryour best, especially with side
quests, which we'll get to whyside quest is a thing here in a
little bit but I think,especially with side quest, we
really want to be able to pushforward of like, we want we want
(16:45):
to be honest with our listenersand why we do, we make
decisions about those types ofthings, especially when, in our
digital world and age, that canbe a very polarizing topic.
So that is, I think, one of the, when it comes to re-roll
specifically, that is one of thehuge big things we want to take
away with it.
Misha 2.0 (17:04):
Well, I think also that I think, just you know.
I think what's really coolabout reroll and, mind you, we
are using AI to support thegeneration of those images is
that it's a snapshot of themoment of time based on the
prompts, that specific momentand what we've captured during
that time.
It's almost like an InstaPolaroid.
Almost right, I myself am anartist.
(17:26):
I could easily take thatcontent that we've captured
during that time.
It's almost like a Polaroid.
Almost right, I myself am anartist.
I could easily take thatcontent that we've gathered, but
I'd have my own preconceivednotions of who this person might
be, based on what I think it is.
So I think it's really coolthat we can submit this into a
process that gives us anunbiased representation of who
(17:47):
this person is from a digitalperspective.
Ryanocerus (17:50):
Yeah, and I mean reroll is giving them also the
opportunity to, I guess, seewhat their digital self looks
like or might look like, atleast according to AI.
And there's probably you knowsome of some streamers and other
people who you know might havea logo or something that they,
you know, have either designedor had someone design.
But I think for a lot of us,like we don't have.
(18:12):
Like, you know, I knew Iassumed mine would be a rhino,
but like I didn't have any otherideas about you know what that,
what, what else that would looklike.
So we're helping them to almostbuild their own myth and giving
them a bit of you know a colorbackstory to go with whatever it
(18:33):
is they're doing online.
And I know we're called gamertag, but I, I see this, you know
, moving beyond just you knowgamers and into, just you know,
online identities as a whole.
Scarto46 (18:45):
Yeah, 100%.
I totally agree with you.
I think you know, like you said, it's called Gamertag because
it's just an easy, it's areference point that, like we
culturally canonicallyunderstand, which is, you know,
a Gamertag is a name thatrepresents you know who.
You are right.
But I totally agree with you,ryan, where it's like there are
so many different types ofcontent creators or digital
(19:06):
creators or people, andeveryone's had this experience
and like all we're trying to doreally is represent that person
and the authenticity of thatstory in a way.
So we do reroll for thatpurpose.
It's like it's like Rhinocerossaid, which is it is about
helping people feel seen.
Like I think the coolest thingright is like the reaction that
(19:31):
happens during reroll.
Here's why I know that it'scool.
We played it at a family dinner.
Okay, my father-in-law is notin his 30s or 40s, but anyway.
So my father-in-law, we playedit with him and he was like, wow
, it's so cool to like all thethings I described, like I can
(19:52):
see myself and like that's theexperience we want to offer
everyone.
You come on this show.
We talk about your thing, talkabout your story.
We really want you to feel seen, not only in the story you tell
and in how we help you tellthat story.
We want you to feel seen notonly in the story you tell and
in how we help you tell thatstory.
We want you to feel seen at theend in that visual
representation of your digitalidentity, and that's what we're
(20:13):
really trying to accomplish.
Yeah, our format is is reallybuilt to help enable
storytelling for the guests, butalso everything we've thought
about in crafting this is aboutprotecting and honoring the
guest and their story.
And yeah, I don't know likewe're not going to come on here
and be like how many kids yougot, like that's not what we're
(20:34):
trying to do.
Misha 2.0 (20:36):
I have 25.
Scarto46 (20:39):
You have lied to me.
Misha 2.0 (20:42):
What's also cool to add is that, aside from just you
know, our hope and kind ofvision for this podcast is that,
as Ryan said I mean hedefinitely sees it going beyond
right.
So you are talking about, maybe, guests who have a digital
footprint or persona right thatthey connect with, but also just
building a community, right.
(21:03):
I think that that is definitelya place where, you know, we can
definitely bring like-mindedpeople together, and I think
that's something that I seewould love to see grow in the
future as we start to continueon this journey.
Scarto46 (21:15):
Yeah, we've been really intentional also in
thinking about how you know whatis gamertag, how does it feel,
how does it show up, and in ouraesthetics and in our sound and
in our editing and ourintentions about trying to make
sure we cut content that youknow might create challenges for
users and even in our process,Right.
So if you're a guest on the show, um, not only do you have like
(21:39):
a, you know, an onboardingprocess where we kind of walk
through what you're comfortabletalking about, um, what you're
into, um, you know differentparts of where you are.
Um, if you want to tell us, uh,online and and how you show up
or even like, what you're reallyexcited talking about, that's
all part of the pre-show.
Um, we also get into apost-show scenario where you
(22:02):
know we, we record the episodebut then, once we finished first
cut, you have time to go backand review it and give us
feedback and then, once wefinish that cut, you have the
ability to listen to it onceit's published, but private and
a private link and all thatexists with the intention of
(22:22):
giving you the ability to sayhey, man, I'm not comfortable
with the situation of giving youthe ability to say hey, man,
I'm not comfortable with asituation.
Um, because that's always beenour intent here is to like be
able to enable people to tellstories in a safe way and then
give as many opportunities foryou to give feedback and feel
like you're part of the teamtelling that story.
Portabella (22:41):
Um, that's always been our intent I think that is
also just in terms of whatSideQuest is about.
It's about being able todescribe these processes to you
and so, again, to make thatcommunity feel safe and open in
terms of here's what we're doing, here's how this works.
In broader terms, we're able toguide you and that type of
(23:04):
thing, and you're interactingwith us as much as we're
interacting with you.
It's a, it's a partnership in away.
Misha 2.0 (23:08):
And I think it's just leading with transparency so
that you don't, I guess, don'tfeel surprised by anything that
may come up, and always givingan opportunity to have a say in
spaces where things may feeluncomfortable or things that
they're not okay with.
But yeah, I think, as long aswe're being transparent up front
with the process and givingopportunities to review, I think
(23:29):
it definitely creates thatenvironment that we're looking
to build for our guest.
Scarto46 (23:34):
Yeah, and we want to find ways for you to like be
able to connect to us.
Like, at the end of the day,like I'm sure it'll take time
for you to unpack, like who weare, how we engage and stuff,
but, like you know, at the endof the day, like we're trying to
figure that out too.
So, like we're going to shiftinto, like I think Portobello
was trying to lead us in thisdirection, but what is SideQuest
?
Why the hell are we doing thisshow?
(23:57):
Do we need a place where wecould just be real and be honest
about, like, what we'relearning, what we're trying and
ultimately, like our goal hereis let's just talk about
different topics.
Like there's a lot of peoplepodcasting.
We talk about gaming.
If you're looking for us toread you, uh, the hot topics off
IGN news, you're in the wrongpodcast because that's not what
we're going to do here.
What we are going to talk aboutis like we're building and
(24:21):
trying to build a community, asyou've heard right, and hey, man
, what's working?
Um, what's working, what's not.
We want to hear from you, wewant to understand what we can
do better or do different, orhow we need to change our
approach or engage with us.
We have a Discord that anyonecan get into.
Hop in, give us feedback.
We have a lot of socials whereyou can find us.
(24:42):
We make a lot of posts on thosesocials, and we're trying a new
thing on those socials right now, which is to tell the narrative
of these avatars that we arethrough the visuals on those
socials.
So you'll start to see usstarting to change how we're
approaching socials inpresenting what is Gamertag
Studios and who are theseavatars right?
Who is Scarto46?
Who is Portabella?
(25:02):
Who is Rhinoceros?
Who is Portabella?
Who is Rhinoceros?
Who is Misha 2.0?
You'll see us start to do thatin a way, narratively in our,
because we also think it's allabout meeting our guests where
they are.
If we're asking our guests totell those stories, you should
also know who the hell we areand why we care.
And that's the whole point ofside quest.
We're going to go on side questevery once in a while.
(25:23):
We don't know yet, maybe it'stwice a month for now, maybe
it's once a month, we don't knowUm, but the goal is we want to
have a real place as a team, toshow you who we are, to engage
with you, um, to talk abouttopics that are really important
, um, or we think are reallyimportant, or to present new
concepts.
(25:44):
We're trying, um.
And yeah, you, you, if you havefeedback, give it to us,
because the only way we canimprove this show and kind of
iterate and grow is to hear fromyou and I recognize people say
that a lot.
Um, one thing you'll find aboutthis particular group of folks
who are trying to build gamertag studios is we super give a
(26:04):
shit about what you have to sayand we may not always take
everything and act on it, butwe're always listening to the
feedback and we appreciate thatstuff.
So that's the whole point ofside quest is to create a space
where we can like help enableour audience to understand who
we are and what we're doing.
Um, so yeah, that's what we'redoing here.
Wow, I said it's so good.
Ryanocerus (26:26):
No one has any other feedback I, I'm trying to think
of something else to say, and Ican't yeah I think you got it
so this is it's a wrapexposition on me.
See y'all next week.
Scarto46 (26:38):
Bye exposition on me.
Um, I'm the talkative one,which is probably why I'm the
host of the show I mean makesperfect sense.
But uh, before we ever got onthe show tonight, I was like hey
, we have to all talk aboutthings.
It can't sound like it's justme talking about things.
We fought about it, but youthought you thought about
(26:59):
talking.
No, no, we fought about all wefought and fought about.
And then I complained thatRhinoceros built some some cool
new music that's going to gowith this episode and I couldn't
hear it.
Ryanocerus (27:09):
And then I broke my sound and then I came back.
You're an old man.
Scarto46 (27:15):
I am an old man, I do know how technology works, but
the minute I tried to change myoutputs to hear the song that
you created, I could not hear mymic anymore.
Portabella (27:24):
That sounds like an old man who knows nobody's doing
it, just saying.
Misha 2.0 (27:27):
Sounds like an old man problem, says the one who
got like a 30 minute start toget her mic set up.
Scarto46 (27:33):
Yeah, that's right.
Don't forget who's training onyour mic and you're throwing
stones at a glass house overhere.
Misha 2.0 (27:37):
But guess who was ready and could hear everything
that was happening?
That?
Scarto46 (27:41):
was me.
Did you hear Ryan Osford'smusic?
Ryanocerus (27:43):
I did Fantastic, fantastic I loved it, thank you
and congratulations on yourmusic.
Scarto46 (27:52):
It's great anyway.
So, yeah, look, we're all,we're all, uh, we're all
figuring this stuff out, so we'dlove it if you'd figure it out
with us.
Uh, I guess that's what I'msaying.
I talk too much.
It's probably a thing goodquestion.
Misha 2.0 (28:04):
Let me just let's just do like some, some quick
rapid fire questions.
What would we say is thehardest moment so far in
building Gamertag?
I love how we're probably goingto have oh, we all spoke at
once.
I'm sure we're going to allhave our own opinions about this
.
Scarto46 (28:18):
Well, let's go rapid-fire answers then.
Portabella (28:21):
All right, portabella, trying to cut down
episodes and figure out whatneeds to stay and what doesn't,
because there are plenty of goodmoments.
Ryanocerus (28:33):
And there's plenty of moments where I'm like, okay,
this should not be in here.
Brian ostrich, what's been yourhardest moment?
Um, you know, the this is gonnasound weird, but like the
pressure of being that firstguest, like you know, oh yeah,
trying to you start off with abang and, you know, generate
view, listens, not views.
But, you know, just trying toget that content out there and
figuring out how do I share thiswithout giving away who I am.
(28:57):
But, uh, you know, do I, do Ipost this on socials, you know,
for people who know who I am andI I don't really care who
listens to it, but, like, if I'mtrying to keep, you know, those
two worlds kind of separate,you know, just making sure that
I'm helping launch this theright way.
Misha 2.0 (29:17):
Misha, what's been the hardest part for you, I
think?
Branding, like you know, Ithink what a lot of times you've
got this idea and you've gotthis concept of what things look
like and what they should feellike.
And then there's this addedpressure of it needs to be right
and it needs to feel right,because this is what people are
gonna recognize us by, not justtoday, but tomorrow and in the
(29:37):
future, and can it withstand thetest of time from a design
perspective, from a brandingperspective, coming up with
color palettes and everything inbetween and just making sure
that the voice that we put outthere and the brand that we put
out there is trulyrepresentative of who we want to
be in the community we want tobuild.
Scarto46 (29:57):
I think a lot of that was like how do we make socials
that don't look like clickbaitand how do we communicate in a
way that is valuable or startsto communicate like what we're
trying to do here?
I think that's what we're tryingto figure out now.
Right, I don't know.
For me, the hardest part wasdesigning a process and thinking
thoroughly about how to build aprocess for this podcast and
(30:20):
the format and the show.
Not that made it like different.
I think I thought about thatfor like three weeks, trying to
figure out how to do that andlike what are the to figure out
how to do that?
And like what are therepercussions and how do we
release and how do we, you know,manage the guest flow and how
do we give the guests theopportunity to say yes or no and
see all the content we'recreating and be respectful of
(30:41):
them?
But also like understand we'rerunning a, we're running an
operation here and we're tryingto build this thing and we we
also have to have, you know,some understanding of what that
means and how we approach it.
So I don't know.
Yeah, the processing wasdefinitely the hardest part for
me.
Portabella (30:56):
Yeah, okay.
So on the flip side of that,what would be your favorite
moment from building every?
Well, not even just building,but just the podcast in general?
Misha 2.0 (31:08):
Favorite moment that has made it all worth it.
Ryanocerus (31:11):
Vape foot, at least so far.
I mean two episodes in vapefoot.
It was one of the funniestthings.
I've ever been part of.
Misha 2.0 (31:21):
I just nearly lost it when I listened in.
I was just like are you serious?
Like who does that ApparentlyDelinquent Spine, does that?
Scarto46 (31:31):
I mean it's pretty cringe, but it was pretty
awesome.
You know I was it was.
Misha 2.0 (31:34):
I mean, you're definitely worth it.
I feel like that's definitely.
I feel like, you know, weshould kind of like write down
those moments and do like, youknow, end of year, do like a
recap of like top 10 moments.
Scarto46 (31:43):
Spotify wrapped yes, best of portobello what was your
favorite moment?
Portabella (31:51):
Honestly, my one was probably a more recent one,
Without giving too much away.
We had been recording kind ofin advance and we started
recording with our next guestupcoming and that interview was
just so good.
It was a and it was one, it wasone of the ones with.
(32:11):
Again, that's going too much.
I am co-hosting with this one,but getting to interact and and
pull that story out of a personand just hear to realize how
much of their life has beenaffected by just a tag that they
go by online, that was reallyinteresting, yeah I think that,
um, for me it was like watchingre-roll work and like it was
(32:35):
cool in episode one watching itwork with rhinoceros.
Scarto46 (32:38):
It was cool in episode two.
Or to watching it work withdiluted spine.
But in episode three, um, um,as portobello has alluded to, um
, to watch that like makesomeone feel like damn, that is
me, that's so cool.
And like represent their storyin like a visual way.
You know, like I don't know.
I mean, as Portabella said,like one, it was super cool
(33:01):
co-hosting with her.
Two, it was also reallyinteresting to like know that we
created a space where someonefelt they could tell their story
and also feel seen, that wasthe moment where I was like,
yeah, this thing is like a thing, super cool, he loves me.
He would tell me if he thoughtthis thing wasn't a thing, but
(33:25):
he loves me enough to be like Idon't know, man, I'll try some
stuff.
Ryanocerus (33:27):
Sure he loves me enough to be like I don't know,
man, I'll try some stuff.
Sure, I'm, I'm always game totry stuff and then pivot, if you
know, if, yeah, if it's notworking, or whatever.
Like I, I'm that person.
That man like food, like I wantto try the weird shit, like
yeah, like oh, man, I dead.
Like I've eaten kangaroo.
I mean, why would you eat akangaroo, dude, bro?
(33:49):
There was this burger place,this burger place.
It was a kangaroo burger, itwas called the wild game and I
always had weird, weird burgersand one time they had kangaroo
and you know what, the kangaroowas pretty damn good.
And I've, in my research ofthat, because I was like, well,
I you know, making sure I'm notlike you know, you know they're
not out there just murderingkangaroos for my enjoyment.
(34:09):
Kangaroos are like deer inAustralia, like they're just
everywhere.
People hit them with cars allthe time.
Scarto46 (34:17):
So you're saying you ate roadkill while you were
driving.
Ryanocerus (34:18):
I'm helping, I was being helpful and also I got to
eat delicious kangaroo.
Scarto46 (34:23):
I can't believe that you ate kangaroo.
All I can think about when I've, if I have someone Cam think
about when I've if I'vesomeone's animal.
Ryanocerus (34:28):
I've eaten camel.
That's crazy.
I want to try hippo.
Hippo's my, like my, would youeat?
Scarto46 (34:31):
horse.
Like if someone handed you ahorse burger are you like yeah,
I'm down for that.
Ryanocerus (34:34):
I haven't tried that , I would eat it oh, no way,
dude animals that are sacred tome.
I haven't tried it.
I haven't tried it.
I'd eat it, I don't know whereI go after that, that's yeah, I
don't know.
Misha 2.0 (34:47):
I think it's a wrap.
Scarto46 (34:49):
So we've been kind of talking about like reflections
and and like just kind of howwe've been going through this
process.
So some real talk.
We'd love your feedback.
We'd love to hear from you Ifyou think the show's dope.
We'd love to hear from you Ifyou think the show's not dope.
We want to know what you thinkis cool and moments where you
were like wow, that was, thatwas really cool and I feel, seen
(35:11):
by that moment, or I connectedthat moment.
Join our discord, man, it'ssuper free.
Oh, we're not trying to extortanything, we just want to hang
out.
Um, that's the best way to talkto us.
You can talk to any of usanytime.
Um, we're in the discord.
Um, you'll see some narrativesthat we're we're cooking up
about gamer tech studios andwe'll talk about that in an
(35:31):
upcoming side quest.
What is gamer tech studios?
What are we trying to buildhere?
Um, but you'll start to see avisual narrative of our, of our
digital personas engaging andinteracting within the world of
gamer tech studios, acrosssocial, starting this week.
Um, give us feedback.
If that sucks, tell us, but wedon't want to be like everyone
else.
Um, we're trying to do a unique, weird thing and we have no
(35:53):
idea if it's going to work.
Um, the only thing we'relooking for is some like-minded
weirdos to come hang out with us.
Um, yeah, um, your feedback,your support, like subscribing,
liking on our channels that'sall super helpful, but we're not
in this for, like, the thumbsups and the likes and stuff.
But we're not in this for thethumbs-ups and the likes and
stuff.
We're in this to be a differentspot on the internet where
(36:16):
everyone can be part of thisworld we're trying to build.
So just come hang out, man.
Ryanocerus (36:22):
But really give us the thumbs-up and the likes.
I live for those.
Portabella (36:28):
I mean, yeah, they wouldn't hurt they wouldn't't
hurt.
Scarto46 (36:33):
They would actually help a lot, but that is not what
we're trying to accomplish.
Purely so, if you want to knowmore about what we're doing here
, uh, you can check out our linktree, um, or go to
gamertagpodcastcom.
It'll tell you literallyeverything about what we're
doing.
You can see the, the rerollgallery, see the the gamer tag
trading card gallery.
Uh, something probably else tocover is when we, every reroll
(36:55):
we do, we immortalize thatepisode with a gamer tag trading
card, um that represents ourguests, um, so you'll see the
card gallery on there.
Check it out, um, really coolstories attached to those
pictures.
You can find everything outabout us from that website.
Or you can visit our Linktree,which is also off that website.
It's linktreecom, slashgamertagged that has links to
(37:17):
all of our socials, everywhereyou can find content we're
creating.
But, yeah, man, like we're justtrying to vibe in a place on
the internet and kind of build aspace that doesn't exist yet,
and we would love you to comealong on the journey with us
also stay tuned for episodethree of gamer tagged coming out
uh, in the next couple weeks.
(37:37):
It's a really cool one all right, well, uh, hey cast.
Portabella (37:39):
Closing thoughts uh, that we're just.
We're just people doing stuffbecause we think it's cool and
we haven't seen it anywhere else.
That's pretty much, I hope, isthe main takeaway here.
We're just doing stuff becauseit's cool.
Misha 2.0 (37:54):
Yeah, I think Portobello said it perfectly.
He's trying to build acommunity here.
There is no charted path inwhere we're going.
We're kind of learning alongthe process and hopefully, with
our big goal is to bring bestproduct to our viewers,
subscribers and just buildsomething that we're really
proud of.
Ryanocerus (38:14):
You know, I think we're all in some form or
another kind of searching for aplace to belong.
So come hang out with us.
Like everyone's welcome.
We'd love to have you join ourcommunity.
If you're interested in beingon the podcast, please fill out
the form.
But we're, you know, we're justtrying to just create that,
(38:34):
that space for you to be you,and that's it.
Scarto46 (38:38):
Hey, thanks for joining us for our first episode
of side quest.
You'll see these in the feedfrom time to time.
We'll have prompts in thediscord where you can give us
feedback on.
You know, our our next goal.
We're trying to hit with sidequests or ask, ask any questions
.
Um, yeah, um, we'd love yourfeedback.
But, yeah, thanks for being onthis journey with us.
Thanks for listening to thisshow tonight, as always, um,
(39:00):
super.
Appreciate you for your timeand giving us your time and
spending your time with us.
Um, and thanks to Misha 2.0.
Thanks to Ryanhinoceros andthanks, as always, to Portobello
.
We're here to hang out, so comehang out.
See you next time.
Misha 2.0 (39:16):
See you next time.
It's time for SideQuest.
Scarto46 (00:25):
Hey everyone, welcome to SideQuest.
This is our off-the-pathsegment where we talk about the
behind-the-scenes chaos andideas and the soul of
Gamertagged.
And today we're telling our ownorigin story.
Why did we start this show tobegin with?
What is the point of this thing?
We're building so we're tryingto give everyone a look behind
(00:46):
the scenes, get to know us andwhat we do and who we are.
You know, we ask our gueststhat come on the show to talk
more about their digitalidentities, and that is exactly
what we intend to do is torepresent who we are behind
these identities ourselves.
So I'm your host, scarto46.
Misha 2.0 (01:00):
Misha 2.0 here.
Portabella (01:02):
Cordabella.
Ryanocerus (01:04):
Rianoceros, and that's the whole cast.
Scarto46 (01:08):
This is our Gamertag Studios cast, and today we're
just going to hang out and chatand talk about what the hell are
we doing here?
So why Gamertag?
Why did we choose that name?
(01:32):
And I think that's cool.
Someone in life gives you a name.
You get to choose your identityonline.
It is fascinating to me whypeople choose the names they do
and that these identities becomeintertwined with who we are as
people.
They become part of how peopleidentify us.
(01:52):
And what's also cool is you getthe opportunity to really
reinvent yourself.
There are no gender ororientation or you know, just
the common like what you looklike, um, that exist in the
day-to-day life, and so peoplehave an opportunity to really
build their own identity of whothey are and and build
(02:15):
communities around that or buildfriendships from that.
And that is fascinating.
That that is a world we live in.
It's a world we've all kind oflived in and grown up in, and
those are the stories we want totell, because we don't want to
create a situation where we'rereally, you know, tying like who
you are behind that identity,like who you are in real life,
(02:36):
because oftentimes they'reseparated purposefully.
Misha 2.0 (02:39):
We just wanted to tell stories about the identity
that you think you are and howpeople see you and the story
that you've created for yourself, because that's super freaking
cool yeah, I think we're gonnatake it back, maybe like a few
years back, if I had to kind ofpinpoint that moment where I
think you know you start to um,this idea starts to to kind of
(03:01):
come to life, or even just thethought of this potentially
being something super cool.
Um was really during COVID, whenthat's kind of what all we were
doing is gaming.
I think that for me it wasalways a fascination of seeing
whose name or tag, gamer tagpopped up and wondering and us
putting the story togetherourselves of who they were, who
(03:22):
we thought they were based on,their character and how they
played.
So I think that's kind of thelittle spark that kind of
launched things and then fromthere it kind of just simmered a
little bit, you know,consistently, I think, started
to grow and you're right, Ithink it was about being able to
create a community in a safespace.
Portabella (03:41):
Yeah, I think, like you're saying, having being
stuck at home during covet timesand having to sit and basically
sit with your own thoughts forthe most part, and totally begin
to wonder, well, where did thatcome from, why does that exist,
and that is so fascinating.
Ryanocerus (03:58):
I was just gonna say it's really interesting to
think about.
Uh, a gamertag can reflect ornot reflect your personality and
how you can have kind of.
You know, I think the twointerviews we've done so far
have been myself and Diluted,and I think we're both pretty
open books and pretty similaronline versus in person, but I
(04:22):
don't know if that's necessarilytrue of other people.
Scarto46 (04:25):
So I'm interested to dig into this and kind of see
you know where that line is foryour online persona versus how
you are in real life yeah, andgamertag is like go back right,
like they can tell a story or bean like yours, rhino, where it
is a a part of your identityfrom your childhood.
(04:46):
It could be some you know, safeharbor that you made for
yourself.
You know, for me I've beenmultiple different names, right,
but like in those times in mylife they have defined where I
was and the people who know meby those names might know me by
those names or stories aboutthose names, as a result of just
(05:07):
kind of who I was in that timeand as we kind of think about
this world where every humanbeing has had the experience of
I named myself this thing,whether that was cool or dumb or
you thought about getting ridof it and names are hard.
So like maybe not, but you'vehad that experience of I've
(05:28):
called myself by this name.
People who have never metbefore, I've never seen in real
life, know me by that name.
A good example of thisrhinoceros and I have never met
in real life but you'd be hardpressed to like not know that we
are really close.
We are really close but I'vealways known him as rhinoceros,
(05:48):
he's always known me as Scartoand, to be real, we both have
probably changed those names afew times.
Um, also, inside of our cast,we are a family and friends team
, um, so we created a a worldbecause we we as a family and
friends team, like want tounderstand what is this
environment, this you know thisspace and make a safe space for
(06:12):
other people to tell their story, right?
I think the other part aboutthis is we never envisioned this
thing to be like cool.
How do we go talk to creators?
Creators do a hard enough jobalready, trying to present
content on a daily basis acrossmultiple different channels.
Trust me, we've learned a lotabout that in the amount of time
we've been doing this.
We don't want to create a spacewhere you have to come show
(06:35):
your face again, right?
We want to create a space whereanyone can talk about their
digital identity and we canreflect that back in a way
that's memorable and true totheir form and doesn't ask them
to step outside of their comfortzones or, you know, tile this
together.
But their story can besomething that we talk about and
celebrate and people might beable to see themselves as part
(06:56):
of that story, and that's reallywhat we're trying to accomplish
here.
Misha 2.0 (07:01):
So do you think, based on just kind of what you
stated obviously this, I think,is is kind of where the um
conversation does naturallydrift with our guest but you,
scarto, do you find yourself youmentioned kind of being in
different times of your lifethrough the different names do
you feel that altered the wayyou played, that altered the way
that you lived everyday life?
Scarto46 (07:24):
That's a good question .
I think for me, like the personI was in my twenties or you
know, earlier than that probablydidn't you know had different
people had differentperspectives of me and the
decisions I made or the choicesI made, but they might also know
me by that name.
I'd say at times in my liferaid leading or learning about
(07:45):
leadership online and being partof big communities and having
to lead people who didn't getpaid to do a job to do a job,
and that I had to be, I had torepresent, like what we were
trying to accomplish and helppeople believe that we could do
(08:07):
some really impossible stuff asa group, and that was all based
on them calling me by a certainname.
So I think it just depends,right, like your name can mean
something.
Maybe this is the way to say ityour name means something to
you, but it can really meansomething to someone else online
(08:28):
.
Misha 2.0 (08:28):
Yeah, I think you're onto something there.
I do say that because I do seethat if you see someone and
they're a jerk online playing,just really not being a team
player, kind of all that goodstuff, right I would make that
assumption that man, this person, this person's probably a jerk
in real life too.
Like you know, what gives themthe ability to be able to think
(08:52):
they can be in this space andstill behave this way and be
totally different person in reallife?
Scarto46 (08:59):
I don't know, anonymity gives you the
authority to do that, right.
But you know, I think in a goodexample is in episode two we
talked to diluted spine.
One of the things diluted spinesaid was you know, that person
on the internet who has ananonymity and acts this way, um
might also be going through somestuff themselves and acting out
in this way on online.
That's cool, man.
(09:20):
Like I get it.
Um, that's not the communitywe're trying to build.
We're not trying to build acommunity where we're about, you
know, not supporting orbullying people for their name
or their choices or whatever, ortheir identity or their
orientation.
That's not what we're trying tobuild.
What we're trying to build is aspace to celebrate that
everyone is their own uniquesnowflake, whatever they are,
and that's cool, man.
(09:40):
Everyone can be their ownsnowflake and representation to
themselves, and everyone canchange and evolve and grow, and
that is dope, that is humanityand that's what we're trying to
celebrate.
Ryanocerus (09:51):
Well, I think we're, you know, along with the
anonymity thing, you know, we'regiving people who maybe, you
know, don't want to sharethemselves out or can't you know
, for a reason you know, alittle bit of a platform to kind
of just talk about themselves.
Every, you know, every you'reyour own favorite subject, um.
So I think we all like to talkabout ourselves to some extent.
Scarto46 (10:13):
So having that, you know, that kind of safe, safe
space that we're creating here,um, where you can just be
yourself, I think is reallyimportant supportabella, you
were trying to make a pointwhich is hey, we started this a
while back and we thought aboutthis a lot before we ever said,
hey, let's, let's do this thinglike we find I've been saying we
started this almost two yearsago now and there's plenty of
(10:36):
iterations of what gamer attackwas going to be.
Portabella (10:39):
The name has changed so many times, and so it's
interesting to see through allof our meetings and and note
note taking and really thinkingabout how to how to do this
right.
How much we've just learnedjust from doing two episodes
alone is crazy to me, of how howmuch we've learned, how much we
realized that it's it's more agame of just getting your feet
(11:01):
wet and seeing what works andseeing what doesn't.
Scarto46 (11:03):
Yeah, totally.
I think you have a list of,like, what were the possible
names we're going to call thisthing?
Um, we worked on that, likethere was, you know, probably
like five or six, and then I gotbusy with work, you got busy
with college, like things happen, right.
So, like, do you remember someof the dumb names?
We decided that we were goingto call this thing back then.
Portabella (11:24):
So I actually went through some of my old stuff and
I found my journal where Iwould jot notes down during our
meetings, but I couldn't findthe list of names.
I know we had one that was thebig contender before Gamer
Tagged and that was calledNamescast, but the other ones I
think I couldn't tell you unlessyou remember them, but they're
just as equally weird.
Scarto46 (11:45):
Perky, would you want to listen to?
Portabella (11:48):
the names cast.
I mean, I would I still thinkthe name is really cool, but I
also like gamer tagged as wellso, just so everyone knows,
she's the one who put that namein the hat.
Scarto46 (11:56):
Uh, I'm the one who overrided and we ended up
calling ourselves gamer taggedum, yeah, so everyone voted on
it last time I didn't.
Ryanocerus (12:04):
I didn't get to vote on this.
You, you don't get to vote.
You're the music guy, oh, okay.
Scarto46 (12:09):
I'll remember that.
Portabella (12:11):
I'll remember that.
Misha 2.0 (12:13):
And he's taking a note now.
Portabella (12:16):
Now he's going on strike two with Craig.
Oh no.
Scarto46 (12:20):
Just everyone who's listening in audio format
understands.
Craig is not a person.
Craig is a robot who islistening to this.
Discord call Craig could be aperson, for all I know, but when
we reference craig, we'retalking about the craig bot that
you can put in any discord.
We're not sponsored by craig.
Craig just stares at us and hiscreepy avatar and it's pretty
dope.
All right, so back on topic.
(12:40):
So I kind of want to talk about, like, our format and our
process.
Okay, there, there is intentionin what we built.
There's intention in the wholething.
One this podcast structure wedesigned it is in its intention
is to protect the anonymity ofour guests while also allowing
them a safe space to tell theirstory and to enable the audience
to see what the guests mightsee.
(13:02):
We're all human, right?
We the verbal conversation wehave is like 30% of our ability
to receive information.
You're not looking at us,you're not looking at the guest,
you don't see any of thosethings, and part of that is
intentional, right?
Like some people just don'twant to be on cam, some
streamers don't want to be oncam.
So we started thinking throughlike cool, how do we do this
(13:24):
format?
Our podcast structure breaksdown like this there's a three
act interview.
One where did the name comefrom?
Number two let's dig a littlebit more into what that name is
now and your gamertag and whatthat represents.
Number three where's it goingand who are you now, and your
evolution.
And then we finish the showwith a segment we call Reroll,
(13:45):
and we'll dig in this later.
We can always have theconversation about what reroll
is and how we use it, but thereality is we're not trying to.
So in reroll, what happens isyou're presented with a game and
that game is we take what we'velearned about you from the
interview.
You know key things about whoyou are, how you interact, how
(14:10):
you show up aesthetics, you'reinto worlds, you're into games,
you're into whatever and we useall of that to craft a
AI-generated picture of yourpersona, because what we don't
want to do is say, hey, let'stake a picture of you and put
that on the internet.
That's not what we're trying todo.
We're trying to represent allof the things that we've learned
(14:32):
about you in a, a visual thingthat other people can see.
So in this game, once we insertthe first set of things we've
we've documented during theinterview process, um, we share
that with the guest so they cansee it the exact prompt and then
we enter that into the re-rollmachine so it generates an image
(14:54):
From there.
The guest gets two re-rolls.
They can choose to changeanything about that picture that
they choose to.
Could be aesthetics, could behair color, could be whatever's
around them.
But the point here is we'retrying to help, not show the
person, but represent thedigital identity that they've
created.
Right, because, as humans, weall want to see that thing, we
(15:16):
want to envision that thing, wewant to help people feel seen in
this way, and it's really aboutusing technology to create a
mirror that shows the digitalidentity, and that's why we
designed this show.
We designed the show with theintention that we wanted to
create a safe space for peopleto tell their stories, of any
gender orientation, whatever.
(15:36):
We want to be creating anaccepting community where anyone
feels like they can come on andtell this, whether they're a
big time streamer, a contentcreator or just a person on the
internet.
And the way to do that is tocreate a flow that enables that
to happen, but a safe space thatprotects that person, and
that's what we've tried tocreate.
(15:56):
Is it perfect?
I'm sure it's not, but that'sthe intent behind it and that's
the format we've created to helptell these stories.
Portabella (16:04):
And I think what, what?
One of the most important thingsto us, I think, especially when
it comes to re-roll, is beingas honest about what it is and
why we're doing it.
And that aspect in the sense ofre-roll is, to put it very
basically, ai generating apicture of your character and us
doing that is not a way for usto necessarily replace anything.
(16:24):
It's more so a way to see how aunbiased party would view that
character, based on just random,based on interview, pretty much
.
That's why I think we we tryour best, especially with side
quests, which we'll get to whyside quest is a thing here in a
little bit but I think,especially with side quest, we
really want to be able to pushforward of like, we want we want
(16:45):
to be honest with our listenersand why we do, we make
decisions about those types ofthings, especially when, in our
digital world and age, that canbe a very polarizing topic.
So that is, I think, one of the, when it comes to re-roll
specifically, that is one of thehuge big things we want to take
away with it.
Misha 2.0 (17:04):
Well, I think also that I think, just you know.
I think what's really coolabout reroll and, mind you, we
are using AI to support thegeneration of those images is
that it's a snapshot of themoment of time based on the
prompts, that specific momentand what we've captured during
that time.
It's almost like an InstaPolaroid.
Almost right, I myself am anartist.
(17:26):
I could easily take thatcontent that we've captured
during that time.
It's almost like a Polaroid.
Almost right, I myself am anartist.
I could easily take thatcontent that we've gathered, but
I'd have my own preconceivednotions of who this person might
be, based on what I think it is.
So I think it's really coolthat we can submit this into a
process that gives us anunbiased representation of who
(17:47):
this person is from a digitalperspective.
Ryanocerus (17:50):
Yeah, and I mean reroll is giving them also the
opportunity to, I guess, seewhat their digital self looks
like or might look like, atleast according to AI.
And there's probably you knowsome of some streamers and other
people who you know might havea logo or something that they,
you know, have either designedor had someone design.
But I think for a lot of us,like we don't have.
(18:12):
Like, you know, I knew Iassumed mine would be a rhino,
but like I didn't have any otherideas about you know what that,
what, what else that would looklike.
So we're helping them to almostbuild their own myth and giving
them a bit of you know a colorbackstory to go with whatever it
(18:33):
is they're doing online.
And I know we're called gamertag, but I, I see this, you know
, moving beyond just you knowgamers and into, just you know,
online identities as a whole.
Scarto46 (18:45):
Yeah, 100%.
I totally agree with you.
I think you know, like you said, it's called Gamertag because
it's just an easy, it's areference point that, like we
culturally canonicallyunderstand, which is, you know,
a Gamertag is a name thatrepresents you know who.
You are right.
But I totally agree with you,ryan, where it's like there are
so many different types ofcontent creators or digital
(19:06):
creators or people, andeveryone's had this experience
and like all we're trying to doreally is represent that person
and the authenticity of thatstory in a way.
So we do reroll for thatpurpose.
It's like it's like Rhinocerossaid, which is it is about
helping people feel seen.
Like I think the coolest thingright is like the reaction that
(19:31):
happens during reroll.
Here's why I know that it'scool.
We played it at a family dinner.
Okay, my father-in-law is notin his 30s or 40s, but anyway.
So my father-in-law, we playedit with him and he was like, wow
, it's so cool to like all thethings I described, like I can
(19:52):
see myself and like that's theexperience we want to offer
everyone.
You come on this show.
We talk about your thing, talkabout your story.
We really want you to feel seen, not only in the story you tell
and in how we help you tellthat story.
We want you to feel seen notonly in the story you tell and
in how we help you tell thatstory.
We want you to feel seen at theend in that visual
representation of your digitalidentity, and that's what we're
(20:13):
really trying to accomplish.
Yeah, our format is is reallybuilt to help enable
storytelling for the guests, butalso everything we've thought
about in crafting this is aboutprotecting and honoring the
guest and their story.
And yeah, I don't know likewe're not going to come on here
and be like how many kids yougot, like that's not what we're
(20:34):
trying to do.
Misha 2.0 (20:36):
I have 25.
Scarto46 (20:39):
You have lied to me.
Misha 2.0 (20:42):
What's also cool to add is that, aside from just you
know, our hope and kind ofvision for this podcast is that,
as Ryan said I mean hedefinitely sees it going beyond
right.
So you are talking about, maybe, guests who have a digital
footprint or persona right thatthey connect with, but also just
building a community, right.
(21:03):
I think that that is definitelya place where, you know, we can
definitely bring like-mindedpeople together, and I think
that's something that I seewould love to see grow in the
future as we start to continueon this journey.
Scarto46 (21:15):
Yeah, we've been really intentional also in
thinking about how you know whatis gamertag, how does it feel,
how does it show up, and in ouraesthetics and in our sound and
in our editing and ourintentions about trying to make
sure we cut content that youknow might create challenges for
users and even in our process,Right.
So if you're a guest on the show, um, not only do you have like
(21:39):
a, you know, an onboardingprocess where we kind of walk
through what you're comfortabletalking about, um, what you're
into, um, you know differentparts of where you are.
Um, if you want to tell us, uh,online and and how you show up
or even like, what you're reallyexcited talking about, that's
all part of the pre-show.
Um, we also get into apost-show scenario where you
(22:02):
know we, we record the episodebut then, once we finished first
cut, you have time to go backand review it and give us
feedback and then, once wefinish that cut, you have the
ability to listen to it onceit's published, but private and
a private link and all thatexists with the intention of
(22:22):
giving you the ability to sayhey, man, I'm not comfortable
with the situation of giving youthe ability to say hey, man,
I'm not comfortable with asituation.
Um, because that's always beenour intent here is to like be
able to enable people to tellstories in a safe way and then
give as many opportunities foryou to give feedback and feel
like you're part of the teamtelling that story.
Portabella (22:41):
Um, that's always been our intent I think that is
also just in terms of whatSideQuest is about.
It's about being able todescribe these processes to you
and so, again, to make thatcommunity feel safe and open in
terms of here's what we're doing, here's how this works.
In broader terms, we're able toguide you and that type of
(23:04):
thing, and you're interactingwith us as much as we're
interacting with you.
It's a, it's a partnership in away.
Misha 2.0 (23:08):
And I think it's just leading with transparency so
that you don't, I guess, don'tfeel surprised by anything that
may come up, and always givingan opportunity to have a say in
spaces where things may feeluncomfortable or things that
they're not okay with.
But yeah, I think, as long aswe're being transparent up front
with the process and givingopportunities to review, I think
(23:29):
it definitely creates thatenvironment that we're looking
to build for our guest.
Scarto46 (23:34):
Yeah, and we want to find ways for you to like be
able to connect to us.
Like, at the end of the day,like I'm sure it'll take time
for you to unpack, like who weare, how we engage and stuff,
but, like you know, at the endof the day, like we're trying to
figure that out too.
So, like we're going to shiftinto, like I think Portobello
was trying to lead us in thisdirection, but what is SideQuest
?
Why the hell are we doing thisshow?
(23:57):
Do we need a place where wecould just be real and be honest
about, like, what we'relearning, what we're trying and
ultimately, like our goal hereis let's just talk about
different topics.
Like there's a lot of peoplepodcasting.
We talk about gaming.
If you're looking for us toread you, uh, the hot topics off
IGN news, you're in the wrongpodcast because that's not what
we're going to do here.
What we are going to talk aboutis like we're building and
(24:21):
trying to build a community, asyou've heard right, and hey, man
, what's working?
Um, what's working, what's not.
We want to hear from you, wewant to understand what we can
do better or do different, orhow we need to change our
approach or engage with us.
We have a Discord that anyonecan get into.
Hop in, give us feedback.
We have a lot of socials whereyou can find us.
(24:42):
We make a lot of posts on thosesocials, and we're trying a new
thing on those socials right now, which is to tell the narrative
of these avatars that we arethrough the visuals on those
socials.
So you'll start to see usstarting to change how we're
approaching socials inpresenting what is Gamertag
Studios and who are theseavatars right?
Who is Scarto46?
Who is Portabella?
(25:02):
Who is Rhinoceros?
Who is Portabella?
Who is Rhinoceros?
Who is Misha 2.0?
You'll see us start to do thatin a way, narratively in our,
because we also think it's allabout meeting our guests where
they are.
If we're asking our guests totell those stories, you should
also know who the hell we areand why we care.
And that's the whole point ofside quest.
We're going to go on side questevery once in a while.
(25:23):
We don't know yet, maybe it'stwice a month for now, maybe
it's once a month, we don't knowUm, but the goal is we want to
have a real place as a team, toshow you who we are, to engage
with you, um, to talk abouttopics that are really important
, um, or we think are reallyimportant, or to present new
concepts.
(25:44):
We're trying, um.
And yeah, you, you, if you havefeedback, give it to us,
because the only way we canimprove this show and kind of
iterate and grow is to hear fromyou and I recognize people say
that a lot.
Um, one thing you'll find aboutthis particular group of folks
who are trying to build gamertag studios is we super give a
(26:04):
shit about what you have to sayand we may not always take
everything and act on it, butwe're always listening to the
feedback and we appreciate thatstuff.
So that's the whole point ofside quest is to create a space
where we can like help enableour audience to understand who
we are and what we're doing.
Um, so yeah, that's what we'redoing here.
Wow, I said it's so good.
Ryanocerus (26:26):
No one has any other feedback I, I'm trying to think
of something else to say, and Ican't yeah I think you got it
so this is it's a wrapexposition on me.
See y'all next week.
Scarto46 (26:38):
Bye exposition on me.
Um, I'm the talkative one,which is probably why I'm the
host of the show I mean makesperfect sense.
But uh, before we ever got onthe show tonight, I was like hey
, we have to all talk aboutthings.
It can't sound like it's justme talking about things.
We fought about it, but youthought you thought about
(26:59):
talking.
No, no, we fought about all wefought and fought about.
And then I complained thatRhinoceros built some some cool
new music that's going to gowith this episode and I couldn't
hear it.
Ryanocerus (27:09):
And then I broke my sound and then I came back.
You're an old man.
Scarto46 (27:15):
I am an old man, I do know how technology works, but
the minute I tried to change myoutputs to hear the song that
you created, I could not hear mymic anymore.
Portabella (27:24):
That sounds like an old man who knows nobody's doing
it, just saying.
Misha 2.0 (27:27):
Sounds like an old man problem, says the one who
got like a 30 minute start toget her mic set up.
Scarto46 (27:33):
Yeah, that's right.
Don't forget who's training onyour mic and you're throwing
stones at a glass house overhere.
Misha 2.0 (27:37):
But guess who was ready and could hear everything
that was happening?
That?
Scarto46 (27:41):
was me.
Did you hear Ryan Osford'smusic?
Ryanocerus (27:43):
I did Fantastic, fantastic I loved it, thank you
and congratulations on yourmusic.
Scarto46 (27:52):
It's great anyway.
So, yeah, look, we're all,we're all, uh, we're all
figuring this stuff out, so we'dlove it if you'd figure it out
with us.
Uh, I guess that's what I'msaying.
I talk too much.
It's probably a thing goodquestion.
Misha 2.0 (28:04):
Let me just let's just do like some, some quick
rapid fire questions.
What would we say is thehardest moment so far in
building Gamertag?
I love how we're probably goingto have oh, we all spoke at
once.
I'm sure we're going to allhave our own opinions about this
.
Scarto46 (28:18):
Well, let's go rapid-fire answers then.
Portabella (28:21):
All right, portabella, trying to cut down
episodes and figure out whatneeds to stay and what doesn't,
because there are plenty of goodmoments.
Ryanocerus (28:33):
And there's plenty of moments where I'm like, okay,
this should not be in here.
Brian ostrich, what's been yourhardest moment?
Um, you know, the this is gonnasound weird, but like the
pressure of being that firstguest, like you know, oh yeah,
trying to you start off with abang and, you know, generate
view, listens, not views.
But, you know, just trying toget that content out there and
figuring out how do I share thiswithout giving away who I am.
(28:57):
But, uh, you know, do I, do Ipost this on socials, you know,
for people who know who I am andI I don't really care who
listens to it, but, like, if I'mtrying to keep, you know, those
two worlds kind of separate,you know, just making sure that
I'm helping launch this theright way.
Misha 2.0 (29:17):
Misha, what's been the hardest part for you, I
think?
Branding, like you know, Ithink what a lot of times you've
got this idea and you've gotthis concept of what things look
like and what they should feellike.
And then there's this addedpressure of it needs to be right
and it needs to feel right,because this is what people are
gonna recognize us by, not justtoday, but tomorrow and in the
(29:37):
future, and can it withstand thetest of time from a design
perspective, from a brandingperspective, coming up with
color palettes and everything inbetween and just making sure
that the voice that we put outthere and the brand that we put
out there is trulyrepresentative of who we want to
be in the community we want tobuild.
Scarto46 (29:57):
I think a lot of that was like how do we make socials
that don't look like clickbaitand how do we communicate in a
way that is valuable or startsto communicate like what we're
trying to do here?
I think that's what we're tryingto figure out now.
Right, I don't know.
For me, the hardest part wasdesigning a process and thinking
thoroughly about how to build aprocess for this podcast and
(30:20):
the format and the show.
Not that made it like different.
I think I thought about thatfor like three weeks, trying to
figure out how to do that andlike what are the to figure out
how to do that?
And like what are therepercussions and how do we
release and how do we, you know,manage the guest flow and how
do we give the guests theopportunity to say yes or no and
see all the content we'recreating and be respectful of
(30:41):
them?
But also like understand we'rerunning a, we're running an
operation here and we're tryingto build this thing and we we
also have to have, you know,some understanding of what that
means and how we approach it.
So I don't know.
Yeah, the processing wasdefinitely the hardest part for
me.
Portabella (30:56):
Yeah, okay.
So on the flip side of that,what would be your favorite
moment from building every?
Well, not even just building,but just the podcast in general?
Misha 2.0 (31:08):
Favorite moment that has made it all worth it.
Ryanocerus (31:11):
Vape foot, at least so far.
I mean two episodes in vapefoot.
It was one of the funniestthings.
I've ever been part of.
Misha 2.0 (31:21):
I just nearly lost it when I listened in.
I was just like are you serious?
Like who does that ApparentlyDelinquent Spine, does that?
Scarto46 (31:31):
I mean it's pretty cringe, but it was pretty
awesome.
You know I was it was.
Misha 2.0 (31:34):
I mean, you're definitely worth it.
I feel like that's definitely.
I feel like, you know, weshould kind of like write down
those moments and do like, youknow, end of year, do like a
recap of like top 10 moments.
Scarto46 (31:43):
Spotify wrapped yes, best of portobello what was your
favorite moment?
Portabella (31:51):
Honestly, my one was probably a more recent one,
Without giving too much away.
We had been recording kind ofin advance and we started
recording with our next guestupcoming and that interview was
just so good.
It was a and it was one, it wasone of the ones with.
(32:11):
Again, that's going too much.
I am co-hosting with this one,but getting to interact and and
pull that story out of a personand just hear to realize how
much of their life has beenaffected by just a tag that they
go by online, that was reallyinteresting, yeah I think that,
um, for me it was like watchingre-roll work and like it was
(32:35):
cool in episode one watching itwork with rhinoceros.
Scarto46 (32:38):
It was cool in episode two.
Or to watching it work withdiluted spine.
But in episode three, um, um,as portobello has alluded to, um
, to watch that like makesomeone feel like damn, that is
me, that's so cool.
And like represent their storyin like a visual way.
You know, like I don't know.
I mean, as Portabella said,like one, it was super cool
(33:01):
co-hosting with her.
Two, it was also reallyinteresting to like know that we
created a space where someonefelt they could tell their story
and also feel seen, that wasthe moment where I was like,
yeah, this thing is like a thing, super cool, he loves me.
He would tell me if he thoughtthis thing wasn't a thing, but
(33:25):
he loves me enough to be like Idon't know, man, I'll try some
stuff.
Ryanocerus (33:27):
Sure he loves me enough to be like I don't know,
man, I'll try some stuff.
Sure, I'm, I'm always game totry stuff and then pivot, if you
know, if, yeah, if it's notworking, or whatever.
Like I, I'm that person.
That man like food, like I wantto try the weird shit, like
yeah, like oh, man, I dead.
Like I've eaten kangaroo.
I mean, why would you eat akangaroo, dude, bro?
(33:49):
There was this burger place,this burger place.
It was a kangaroo burger, itwas called the wild game and I
always had weird, weird burgersand one time they had kangaroo
and you know what, the kangaroowas pretty damn good.
And I've, in my research ofthat, because I was like, well,
I you know, making sure I'm notlike you know, you know they're
not out there just murderingkangaroos for my enjoyment.
(34:09):
Kangaroos are like deer inAustralia, like they're just
everywhere.
People hit them with cars allthe time.
Scarto46 (34:17):
So you're saying you ate roadkill while you were
driving.
Ryanocerus (34:18):
I'm helping, I was being helpful and also I got to
eat delicious kangaroo.
Scarto46 (34:23):
I can't believe that you ate kangaroo.
All I can think about when I've, if I have someone Cam think
about when I've if I'vesomeone's animal.
Ryanocerus (34:28):
I've eaten camel.
That's crazy.
I want to try hippo.
Hippo's my, like my, would youeat?
Scarto46 (34:31):
horse.
Like if someone handed you ahorse burger are you like yeah,
I'm down for that.
Ryanocerus (34:34):
I haven't tried that , I would eat it oh, no way,
dude animals that are sacred tome.
I haven't tried it.
I haven't tried it.
I'd eat it, I don't know whereI go after that, that's yeah, I
don't know.
Misha 2.0 (34:47):
I think it's a wrap.
Scarto46 (34:49):
So we've been kind of talking about like reflections
and and like just kind of howwe've been going through this
process.
So some real talk.
We'd love your feedback.
We'd love to hear from you Ifyou think the show's dope.
We'd love to hear from you Ifyou think the show's not dope.
We want to know what you thinkis cool and moments where you
were like wow, that was, thatwas really cool and I feel, seen
(35:11):
by that moment, or I connectedthat moment.
Join our discord, man, it'ssuper free.
Oh, we're not trying to extortanything, we just want to hang
out.
Um, that's the best way to talkto us.
You can talk to any of usanytime.
Um, we're in the discord.
Um, you'll see some narrativesthat we're we're cooking up
about gamer tech studios andwe'll talk about that in an
(35:31):
upcoming side quest.
What is gamer tech studios?
What are we trying to buildhere?
Um, but you'll start to see avisual narrative of our, of our
digital personas engaging andinteracting within the world of
gamer tech studios, acrosssocial, starting this week.
Um, give us feedback.
If that sucks, tell us, but wedon't want to be like everyone
else.
Um, we're trying to do a unique, weird thing and we have no
(35:53):
idea if it's going to work.
Um, the only thing we'relooking for is some like-minded
weirdos to come hang out with us.
Um, yeah, um, your feedback,your support, like subscribing,
liking on our channels that'sall super helpful, but we're not
in this for, like, the thumbsups and the likes and stuff.
But we're not in this for thethumbs-ups and the likes and
stuff.
We're in this to be a differentspot on the internet where
(36:16):
everyone can be part of thisworld we're trying to build.
So just come hang out, man.
Ryanocerus (36:22):
But really give us the thumbs-up and the likes.
I live for those.
Portabella (36:28):
I mean, yeah, they wouldn't hurt they wouldn't't
hurt.
Scarto46 (36:33):
They would actually help a lot, but that is not what
we're trying to accomplish.
Purely so, if you want to knowmore about what we're doing here
, uh, you can check out our linktree, um, or go to
gamertagpodcastcom.
It'll tell you literallyeverything about what we're
doing.
You can see the, the rerollgallery, see the the gamer tag
trading card gallery.
Uh, something probably else tocover is when we, every reroll
(36:55):
we do, we immortalize thatepisode with a gamer tag trading
card, um that represents ourguests, um, so you'll see the
card gallery on there.
Check it out, um, really coolstories attached to those
pictures.
You can find everything outabout us from that website.
Or you can visit our Linktree,which is also off that website.
It's linktreecom, slashgamertagged that has links to
(37:17):
all of our socials, everywhereyou can find content we're
creating.
But, yeah, man, like we're justtrying to vibe in a place on
the internet and kind of build aspace that doesn't exist yet,
and we would love you to comealong on the journey with us
also stay tuned for episodethree of gamer tagged coming out
uh, in the next couple weeks.
(37:37):
It's a really cool one all right, well, uh, hey cast.
Portabella (37:39):
Closing thoughts uh, that we're just.
We're just people doing stuffbecause we think it's cool and
we haven't seen it anywhere else.
That's pretty much, I hope, isthe main takeaway here.
We're just doing stuff becauseit's cool.
Misha 2.0 (37:54):
Yeah, I think Portobello said it perfectly.
He's trying to build acommunity here.
There is no charted path inwhere we're going.
We're kind of learning alongthe process and hopefully, with
our big goal is to bring bestproduct to our viewers,
subscribers and just buildsomething that we're really
proud of.
Ryanocerus (38:14):
You know, I think we're all in some form or
another kind of searching for aplace to belong.
So come hang out with us.
Like everyone's welcome.
We'd love to have you join ourcommunity.
If you're interested in beingon the podcast, please fill out
the form.
But we're, you know, we're justtrying to just create that,
(38:34):
that space for you to be you,and that's it.
Scarto46 (38:38):
Hey, thanks for joining us for our first episode
of side quest.
You'll see these in the feedfrom time to time.
We'll have prompts in thediscord where you can give us
feedback on.
You know, our our next goal.
We're trying to hit with sidequests or ask, ask any questions
.
Um, yeah, um, we'd love yourfeedback.
But, yeah, thanks for being onthis journey with us.
Thanks for listening to thisshow tonight, as always, um,
(39:00):
super.
Appreciate you for your timeand giving us your time and
spending your time with us.
Um, and thanks to Misha 2.0.
Thanks to Ryanhinoceros andthanks, as always, to Portobello
.
We're here to hang out, so comehang out.
See you next time.
Misha 2.0 (39:16):
See you next time.
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.