1122 - Sly Cooper: The Dissertation

Kevin and Justin talk about Kevin's Screen Play for Christmas, Jedi Fallen Order, Tomb Raider, Game Grinding, Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey, and Kingdom Hearts 3.

Episode Transcript

(00:05):
These important notes. Oh no iteslife, the mics are life. That's
a good drop by Maria. Helloand welcome to the gamber Land Podcast.

(00:27):
I'm your host, Justin Orsham withme as always is the one, the
only, the writer of post.It's the the Kevin Miller dot com.
Jump and press the circle button.Ken these important notes. Oh it's life.
The mics are life. That's asolid, A good drop. That's
a good drop. Both times youyou psyched me because you were making noise,
right, yeah, but my micwas open. Turned the mic off.

(00:49):
No, I turned the mics offand then I turned on went oh
oh you did? Oh got it? Got it. I didn't realize it
was mostly funny for the people whowere watching this on the action and not
so funny for the or listening now. It's funny forever. iPod. How
many people you think have an iPod? Oh? I have two, and
said, people just kidding, getI are person is one. I don't

(01:12):
think many people have them. They'retiny. I ran into somebody at a
party who still uses their iPod asan alarm clock, okay, and that
their children are twenty one and nineteennow all right, and it has on
it the kids bop songs that they'refrom when they bought the iPod. It

(01:33):
randomly shuffles through songs like it's justa cube. Yeah. I still have
on my phone it transfer. It'snow gone through two phones because from the
iPhone four to the six to nowmy eleven. It still has my Total
Baby app in which we tracked feedingsand diaper changes and all that stuff in
the app. Um and so it'lltell you when you log in how old

(01:53):
your baby is. It's like,and it'll tell you I'm way overdue for
a diaper change. Really Yeah,yeah, that's got a rash thousands of
days. Boy, we're in alot of trouble. Yeah, that's a
that's a blister butt waiting to happen. And I think after a while it
notifies social services should just it shouldthat's the call they show up. That's

(02:15):
the one you say that like,there are calls that social services don't show
up. It's not really for theshow. But that's your Dad podcast.
Not even that was too dark toeven talk about. That's at the news
station. There was like there wasa whole scuttle butt here in southern California
where there was a poor boy whowas basically being tortured. Oh my gosh.
Yeah, and the sheriffs were notifiedand they didn't do anything. So
you have this podcast, you havethe dad podcast sort of. Do you

(02:38):
have a conspiracy theory podcast or likelaunch one? That'd be great. We
can now let me find some Xfiles music. Oh yeah, yeah,
that is uncanny. So I wasgoing to spring this on you later,
but since we're talking about the topicof other podcasts. Last time we met,
I suggested you should take me toDisneyland for my birthday. I'd like

(03:00):
to resend that invitation. I havea new birthday request for it. As
you know, my birthday happens aroundChristmas. I was thinking for one of
our episodes in the month of December, we could do a reading of my
screenplay. Okay, great, whichis Santa Them, which I forgot the
name of in this moment. I'lldo some research on what it is.
But I thought, we need awoman to be like we hed a third

(03:22):
person probably in the room, sothat my qualities and great, So we
need to brainstorm that. So weneed to find a chick. Yes,
what if do you think we cancan Carmen fly in to play the one
that was That was Cat's suggestion aswell. Is she an actress? Um,
I don't know. You tell meif a regular lay person can spit

(03:43):
out this full disclosure, I'm likethree and a half shots in right now.
She'd have to be pretty drunk thento do it well well in that.
And let's not forget this gem sight. I mean, come on,
she's dialects. Is this an audition? Are you her agent? I thought
you just did houses. It's notimportant who represents her. What's important is

(04:04):
that you cast this woman because shea little something that I call a star
A sight. I thought you're goingto play a drop there, and I
noticed and then played. Um.So the screenplay is called Naughty. It's
about a little boy that is onthe Naughty List and he is taken by

(04:24):
Santa Claus to be rehabilitated, rehabilitatedat the North Pole. Yeah, no,
this is I haven't looked at thescript. And who knows how long
Sean Aston was originally attached too directedand like nine eight percent it's not a
joke. Yeah, it is nota joke. Ninety eight percent of all
scripts ever written go nowhere. Thisis one of them anymore. But it's

(04:47):
about to enjoy its life on theinternet. That's what I thought. I've
done stage readings. I thought,we have this venue, why not share
it with the rest of the world. Maybe we do a vote to see
if people really want it? Wouldthey actually listen to it? Do I
care? Do you care if theywould actually? Yeah, people would listen.
Yeah. The people that listen tothe show would like to hear that
it's long. I mean, it'sa feature length, so we'd have to,

(05:08):
like, you know, take breaksand play commercials and probably some Christmas
what if maybe we stream it live? And but that's what I mean is
like, what, like how longwould it take to read through? An
hour and a half? Yeah?About that? That's not too bad,
right, No, I don't thinkthat's too bad. Yeah. I don't
know why. But my solution wasto be that we break it up into
episodes. I thought that too,but I don't know if that helps anything.

(05:29):
Yeah, So I just do itand one and then I can direct
people to it. Hey, listento my screenplay. It's one's Is it
going to be just you and meplaying all the characters and a woman and
a woman? Yeah? Because Imean we could get more people up in
here, and how many people gettingfit in this little room. I don't
know how many people are in thecast? Oh a dozen okay, but
you know you could probably do itwith four or five okay, how many

(05:50):
mics though you only have three now, yeah, but people can move.
It's all right, well you haveto. I don't know. Whatever you
If this is what you want todo, let's do it. It sounds
great, it sounds Christmas eve.Yeah, it feels like the season.
So after Thanksgiving maybe, well we'llpick a day, figure out a time,
so we would not do it onyour birthday. That is not no,
no, no, no, that'sdumb that this is my birthday that

(06:13):
I want to do things on mybirthday, not work. This sounds like
work work. It's gonna be alot. Are we gonna need to pull
like production elements of like sound effects? I don't think so. I think
you just read it, just readit, and yeah, all right,
this is so Santa character in thisThere is oh yeah, there is Santa
all right. And I don't knowif you know this, but for the

(06:34):
last two years I have played Santa. Have you really on K I I
am six forty on Christmas eves.Have you really Yeah, you will give
us a little Santa taste. Thiswill be your audition. Hello, s
I do that. That's pretty good, easy because you're on the phone.
So you got that garbol sort Yeah, yeah, little little dude again,

(06:54):
lose my eyes and I want tosee the beard like this is my favorite
part of this. And I takethis way too seriously, fully aware of
you put a kid on your lapevery time I do, and and a
lot of people make fun of me. But but doesn't Daniel day Lewis.
That's who doesn't laugh at me.That's he's a method. He he does
is he he gives me like ahigh five with his left foot because he

(07:16):
also has a kid on his lap. Uh. You know, I'm too
in the zone to notice. God, I would be shocked right right if
he tried to copy what I do. I mean, it's that effective.
But I think it's the no,really, it's the fact that I don't
go ho ho ho when I laugh, I just do and I put a
little oh in there. Yeah Ilaugh, And that makes it it's real.

(07:40):
It's not just a cartoon. Ohyou're not going for the it's the
genuine laugh that has been characterized intoan O to a ho ho ho,
because that's how you write it,but people don't laugh, like oh ho
hoh yeah, how would you sayit again? Let's see if I can
write it. Oh yeah, it'slike h a U g h. Yeah,

(08:00):
that's how I would write that work. But that's not fun. Ho
will get us there? Yeah,get you there, get the ideas communicated.
Hey, I've got exciting news.Okay, good now the way've established
the future? The future is happening. And um, remember a while ago
when I said there were no gamesthat I'm excited about? Yeah that was
last time? What about? AndI listed several and the found one you

(08:22):
mention was was the cyberse Fallen.Yeah yeah, yeah, Order and Jedi
have purchased it. Why why haveyou changed your mind? Why don't you
tell me no? Because I rememberwhat's happening. You remember played the game.
I haven't played it yet. Idon't know why. I got a

(08:45):
good to glad that I remember yousaying that and going oh oh yeah,
then yeah that one like funny becauseI'm like I'm not excited about anything,
and you're the first one you mentioned. I was like, oh no,
yeah, that one you did Okay, I'll have to go back and listen
to the game tape. But youwere like, yeah, I guess,
well, of course I'm going toplay. Yeah, yeah, it was
a video game. Yeah, becauseI was worried that it was like VR

(09:07):
and it's not VR. No,so I can't remember how this happened,
But the boys were playing. It'sso funny. I've been very worried about
letting them play games too much becausenow they have TV's and PlayStations in their
room. Oh yeah, can't slamreminding myself that it was No, it
was not out of the ordinary forme to spend six to seven hours playing
video games on a Saturday. Buthow was your school work? Let's be

(09:28):
honest. I was always done becauseif it was not done, my father
would just come down on me,like there's no tomorrow. Would you classify
that as a whooping? Not awhooping. He never beat me over school
work. It was more of averbal That would be a verbal beat down,
Yeah, it was. It was. The thing was I could do

(09:48):
pretty much whatever I wanted if Ihad good grades. But if I slipped
up or was making mistakes, thenhe would micromanage me, and I don't
know why, but it was enough. It definitely. There were so many
things. It triggered your your senseof independence, yes, and the adolescence
of choose your own adventure. Likeyou know how you have those turning points
when a teen and maybe a preteenwhere it's like, oh man, this

(10:11):
doesn't seem good, but I guessI wouldn't do it anyway, right,
I'll go into the forest with ashotgun and a bucket of you. For
so many of those things I actuallychose very rarely. Did I choose poorly
because of the fear of my father, right right, So anyway, Uh,
it was weird. Jacob was justlike he said something. He asked

(10:33):
me if he could do something,and I go, what's going on?
And he goes he was so puzzic. I think I'm getting bored with these
games. You you let him smokethe pack? Yeah, so now he
doesn't want anymore. And I waslike, oh, sweet, sweet boy,
thank you so much. Yeah,so I'm learning his own limits.
It's like, oh, well,I go okay. And my solution was,

(10:54):
well, did you know I mustget him a new game? Oh
it's good? Yeah, no,yeah, yeah, so I said guttural
and um, I said, well, go outside, you know, like
I tell him you could ride theRecover. When you come back, I'll
have a surprise waiting. Well,I was thinking about it, and I'm

(11:15):
like, oh, I'm like Ikind of want this game. And I'm
like, well, they're gonna wantto play it. Yeah, and I
go, and then you have tobuy it three times. So I looked,
I go, well, i'll preorder it. Oh and so I
go online and guess what it wassorted for sale. Yeah. I was
gonna say when was this? Becauseit's out now. Yeah, So I
bought three of them. Knuckle Discyou are welcome, Disney. You are

(11:35):
welcome one hundred and ninety eight dollarsand forty two cents. My money is
ride up your nose. You spentone hundred and forty eight dollars ninety eight
correction, why fifty ninety nine each? This is I didn't realize it was
that level of a game. That'scrazy. Yeah. So I was gonna
buy it digitally because I thought itwould be funny if I bought it on

(11:56):
the app because yeah, yeah,and then it was just downloaded show up
on their PlayStations. What I washoping but then I was thinking about what
I learned about Madden. Yeah,where they're I want to play this,
play this. And then I spentone hundred and seventy some odd dollars buying
digital virgins of Madden, and nowthey don't play it. That was why
the thing he was playing Madden.Why don't you that's ironic. Why don't

(12:16):
you just buy one copy and leteverybody play it, and if and then
if it looks like it's becomes theshoop dajour, you buy more than one.
Because here's here's what I thought.I thought I could buy all three
of these. I will probably dependingon how this shakes out. Because things
are getting slow in my works,I have more time, so I'm like,
I could probably bang it out andfinish it and then I'll put it

(12:37):
up on eBay like I used togot it and then when they're done,
I'll do the same thing. Andthen I didn't want to deal with them
fighting over it kind of a thing, and so this was this is a
trial runs, a trial run.So far, I have not been unhappy
with my choice. The only thingthat I thought of is like, well,
I might as well have just gottentwo. But then that's what I
would think, and then I couldborrow it, because you're not gonna all

(13:00):
all three be playing it at thesame time. That's just not gonna happen.
So far, they've played it atthe exact same time. Jack got
like a five minute head start becausehe didn't wait for the update to download,
and Jacob was so frustrated he wasplaying Madden waiting for the update,
and Jack is like, oh mygod, it's so great. He's like

(13:20):
touchdown, schmutched now. So inthat sense, it was a lot of
fun. But it's so far.I think it's a great get tell us
about the game. What's the gameplay? Like, what's the story? Like?
It's very much I would say,no spoilers, No, I won't
spoil it, but it's so far. Here's the thing. I've literally basically
gone through what I would call thefirst scene, and the gameplay I think

(13:43):
is it's a little clunky, butit might be more mindful. Yeah,
the lightsaber fighting isn't like I reallythink that. In Arkham Knights, the
batman fighting, like how that allworks like even though it kind of carrys
grass into button smashing, but theanimation coincides with that button smashing. Well,
any game that can go, youwant to do it on hard,

(14:05):
disabled the tool tips and just playit based on where punches are being thrown,
right, I mean that's pretty baller, yeah, and and very cool.
They're like, yep, okay,here comes an elbow. I gotta
block up top, blockdown below.I mean, I last nine seconds and
I'm dead. But I really respectthe level of details in that you're saying.
It's not that kind of game.The animation isn't as fluid as I

(14:28):
would like, but there is likea cool kind of bullet time sure that
you'll do. Yeah, that Ilike. But I have a feeling that
that animation too is gonna get prettyold. Um. So I'm just so
it's not like but it's here's thething. I think what it is for
me. It might be it mightbe what you feel about Spider Man and

(14:48):
that I look at it. I'mlike, this is a cool game.
You know, it's gonna be fun, and I know I'm gonna like it.
Yeah, but it's not like it'snot perfect, which I think it's
being very sure sure, sure,but I mean have you ever played again
game where you're like that was perfect? Yeah? I think both. I
think the uncharted games I have reallylittle to complain about that all of the
uncharted games. All of the unchartedgames. I don't believe you. Let

(15:09):
me try again, all of theuncharted games, all of them. Okay,
I would say, all. Idon't have a like, there's nothing
in the games that made me go, oh geez, why am I like
I hate this? Yeah? Yeah, there's like the new tomb Raider.
This is another thing I was planningto talk to you about. Is that
now in with um in line withnapping? Is crafting? Oh that is?

(15:31):
But that is a core mechanic ofgaming. I know, but it's
so stupid to me. Why like, why do I need to craft arrows?
Okay? Why do you need thearrows in the game so I could
shoot them and and and swing onthings and stuff? So you actually require
them to play the game correct?And you have to craft? Yes,
And here's the thing. For years, you just picked up a thing of

(15:52):
arrows. I didn't have to finda way to collect, Like I didn't
have to go hunt a turkey toget three feathers to God's Redemption. I
know, but it's the same thing. But you can buy those in that
game too, Right, can't yougo to the store and buy arrows?
You think, you, yeah,you could just buy arrows, but yeah
you can't. You can't buy upgradedarrows. I've learned, like, oh

(16:14):
and upgraded arrows that help you killlike a bison or something to do that
in the game. You you're doingthat as a side quest anyway, right,
Like, there's nothing in the gamethat says you must do this.
They're like, welcome into the worlda little. This is the game within
the game. Yeah, I knowwhat you're getting at. No, I'm
just asking. I'm not. Thisis not a verbal trap. It's just
a verbal trap. Yeah, atoomb radermight No. In red I was

(16:37):
talking about Red Dead, that's thegame within the game, right, Yeah.
Yeah, But in tomb Rader,you're saying that this is a require
very more ammunition unless you go dothese things to find a way to do
I mean, granted, I madeit through the whole game without it,
but one could argue it would havebeen slightly more enjoyable if I didn't keep
running. Out of course, ofcourse it would be um And I wish
that there was a way that Icould, like if I go and I
decide I just want to buy something. I want to be like the real

(17:00):
world, like if I would havegrind away, like if I'm gonna use
a house analogy. If I decideto replumb my sink, ye, because
it'll save me a hundred bucks,then I'll do that. I'll go to
home deepau, I'll buy the fifteendollars worth of fittings. And I'll do
that if I decide to do it. But if I don't want to spend
the time replumbing my sink, regardlessof if I know how to do it,
and I just want to cut onehundred dollar check to a plumber to

(17:22):
have him bang it out in ahalf hour so that I can play more
of my new Star Wars game.I want to have that option that I'm
saying, all right, because ifyou have that, then to me,
everybody's happy. The guy who wantsto grind gets to feel like he's better
at living, because just like theguy who plumbs a sink is like,
yes, I am a man,but tell me this. To earn money

(17:42):
in the game, you have tokill enemies, right, Yeah, And
so wouldn't that be just a differentform of grinding. No, because that's
fun to me to you. Yeah, so in this analogy, you're the
baseline. I am not the baseline. I am the most important line.
I see, all right, targetdemographic. Well, you did spend nearly

(18:03):
two hundred dollars on the same gamethat on Why because it would save me
time? In my mind? That'strue, it did. Still, why
didn't you just buy two? It'sokay, it's not okay, okay,
uh no, I thought it wouldbe. Honestly, It's there's three layers
to this experiment. Yeah. Layerone is am I going to regret spending

(18:25):
that much money? Layer two isto find out does it make it easier?
Like is it? Is it worththat? And then layer three is
that I wonder if I'm transitioning intothis new area of fatherhood where we don't
bond by sitting around playing the samegame. We bond by playing the same
game in different rooms, all right, right, and going, you guys
should have a discord channel and thenyou you could just chat with each other

(18:48):
and your discord channel. Well,it's more fun to yell through the house
because but eventually I'm just saying,you do have a discord channels on the
internet. It's one that I knowhow to work that I don't need Ryan
pass. It's just become Ryan's passfor you. Yeah, you get past
the train, press up what I'mahead of you. I know That's why

(19:10):
I'm asking. I can't talk.I'm killing a rain Corps. What have
my head set on? Rain car? Rain Coats? Put it on.
It's called ten minutes later. Butso the game is gorgeous Star Wars game,
beautiful to look at. Uh,it's just like what you'd expect out
of a Star Wars game, whereit's like like there's the first bad guy

(19:34):
you see is like, oh,that's pretty cool. But it's like that
would never happen in a movie.This is only suitable for a Star Wars
video game universe. That was justmy opinion. But so far, I
love it. I like it's great. I like everything about it. It's
turn baser, it's combat based,it's all it's like action. It's action
Lebrator set in Star Wars. It'sit's Force unleashed. So as we oh,

(19:56):
that's a good time, that's agood um uh selling point for it.
So, but as we move intothe break this twenty minute segment,
I just want to what you weresaying about grinding to get the arrows.
Though, you know, I loveto design board games and other any games
made a couple in our time,and I often find myself coming up with

(20:19):
concepts for games and then going thatwould work, but I wouldn't want to
play it. And because I findthat there's such a to build a fun
game, you have to It's sucha contradiction of thought because to make it
fun you have to make rules,right, and rules by their nature don't
sound fun. But if you don'tcreate the boundaries around it, there is

(20:41):
no challenge to overcome game exactly,and that kind of tension between the two.
And so I feel like a lotof games will sometimes just make rules
to create challenges for you to gothrough without considering is this really fun?
To me? It feels like wedesperately need to find a way to get

(21:03):
more hours out of this, Likelike if you could if you spend sixty
bucks and you could fly through itin five to six hours, then they're
like, oh no, But ifI make you build every arrow that you
shoot, yeah, guess what thattroubles or triples the amount of time,
right, you have to play thisgame now? And I think for most
people who want to get immersed intothe world because they just want to be

(21:23):
in that world, I think thatthey enjoy it. But I remember reading
this, I think it was along time ago, like the second time
we started doing this show again,but that was that they were talking about
gamers that are dads and that there'sthis issue because these dads now, all
the dads now grew up with videogames, right and how now the challenge

(21:44):
is is that they're the games thatthey're making. They're not They're not a
game for a dad to play,Like a dad doesn't have time to get
fully invested in a like an RPGwhere like they don't want to. They
can't sit there and play for fourhours, Like a four hour long game
is going to take them three yearsto play, right, Or you choose
one, which is where I'm atwhere I'm like, great, those I'm

(22:04):
glad those games are around. Ichoose one RPG, right and I And
that's the other thing is that it'sfunny because I think I'm I think it's
just happening. Guys. I knowthat people listening to this what they call
his boomers joking, call you aboomer. I am a King's I'm the
silent generation. But I think thething that makes me a boomer is that,

(22:26):
like even on mass effect, likeI'm annoyed because I'm on this world.
Yeah, and at no point havethey taught me like how do I
need to upgrade my armor? Justgo to a research stations. The research
station you're just supposed to discover that. That's the fun of the game.
Oh, I want to go.I want to go to an armor shop
and I want to go. Listen, man, if you're I want to

(22:47):
hear Nick Nolte like voice with abig snouted alien you know, where he
looks like he's gotting on like this, but when you get to him,
he's gonna he's like listen, man, Yeah, you know I want that
guy to say it. If you'regonna go out there and you're gonna take
on the kit, yeah, inthat remnant, you're gonna need this chest,
armor, this helmet, and cangive it to you for fifty credits

(23:11):
or is there a side quest?I want to do the side quest.
I guess you could do a sidequestion. Yeah, side question me.
You go mind for some lithium onthe other side of the Casperian crater If
you want, can I make lithiumdarted arrows? First? Listen, man,
I want to craft those. Thisisn't red I just want to craft
up. It's best effect in Traumeda, the least interesting mass effect in so
far, and you're trying to makeit more interesting. Wow, that's a

(23:34):
low bar if crafting makes it moreinteresting. So let me take it back
to Red Dead then, so,so much of the game um in Red
Dead is traveling across the map.Now, I think that that makes it
um like. It's kind of soaksyou in the world and remind you that
we didn't used to have cars todrive around. If you lost your horse,
she had a walk somewhere, youcould be robbed while you're it's like,

(23:57):
but it's definitely grindy, yes,to move around. A lot of
Wow games do that. You knowback in the day, you know there
was no Now there are portals andstuff in a lot of games, and
even Red Dead has the ability tozip around, but even then it costs
you something um and somehow your horsemagically drives alongside you. Did you do
you find that to be grindy thelike? Because I can show up while

(24:19):
you're Oh, just the anticipation thatmaybe all somebody will be like, hey,
I need your help sucking the poisonout of this. I like that
that those things that those parts ofRed Dead I really enjoyed. And then
but to say, as soon asI need I could get a fast travel.
I love to fast like. That'swhat I do now in mass effect.
When I get on a new planet, I just go around and find
all the forward outpost stations and makethem so I could fast travel. When

(24:42):
I got into Lord of the Ringsthe Shadow of Mordor the first time,
I didn't know really what the gamewas about, so I just ran around
and unlocked all the way points.I was like that, Hey, I'm
master with this whole map. Yeah. And that's also what I would do
for Assassin's Creed game. Really,I would go to get all the because
then you have it, because thenif you need to go there, you

(25:03):
you've got it. You can doit. I can do it. And
if I want to run across andchump because I feel like it, great,
If I don't want to because Idon't have to, Maybe that's what
it is is that I just andthat's why I brought up the story that
I read is that I do feellike I just don't have the time to
do that. So when I haveto do that and I don't get to
enjoy the meat and potatoes of thegame as much, it's frustrated eating potatoes.
Did you play Horizon Zero don Yes, okay, you have to craft

(25:26):
actively in combat with that. Didyou find that grindy? I was at
a different point in my life,so no, Okay, yeah, I
think it wasn't that long. Iwas like four years I know, but
I but like, I wasn't thatwas had to be either at the time
and I was still doing stand upor if it was four years ago,
I was working radio. I putin a forty hour work barely and I
had the rest of my day.And you're like, let's craft some arrows,

(25:48):
brope steampunk Braunosaurus Rex. Spoilers.I haven't finished the game. Oh
sorry, Um, she's the onewho started it all, who is I
don't want to talk about it.Okay, wait a minute, spoilers,
All right, we'll be right backafter you find out what flavor is of

(26:12):
the week in the vaping world.Oh well, no, what they there's
a whole campaign about how they killpeople now with vappens. How out this
show? Okay, all right,vape it up. I'm gonna can pick
the shrug will never win. We'lllook at me coming back up again.
I gotta Tascos up down the soundfall with and I didn't need to know
how I'm to stand it. Youjust fit. Don't you know? What's

(27:08):
a good h It's a good Earwormssong? Yeah? Absolutely, this music
video is top notch. Yeah,I need to go back and watch that.
Sh It's good. But you reallygot to watch the Rocketman movie.
Okay, see you later, TheRocketman Movie about stories. Thank you gamer
Land Discord. We got we gotRocketman to watch. You know. I

(27:30):
love biopics. This is something I'velearned about myself in recent years. I
love them. I watched um uhnon bow Finger. What is It?
Eddie Murphy's new movie on Netflix cameout at the end of Out Time,
Dolomite that I watched it based onyour recommendation and really enjoyed it. Isn't

(27:52):
it phenomenal story? Yes, everythingabout it. It's so honest and so
raw and so very real and sucha great education of an era. At
the end there they mentioned like theinfluence that Dolomite has had on culture that
we're completely unaware of. It makesme realize just how much we've impacted culture
in the future that no one willremember Nope, because other people will come

(28:17):
around and bury us. Oh,I guess they wouldn't even be known then.
Yeah. I was gonna see whoyou think would play us. M
oh, I think could be peoplenow. I mean Eddie Murphy knew Dolomite
when he was a kid. Sowhat's Toford Grace. What's is that guy?
Yeah? He was in The SpiderMan, right, Yeah, he
played Venom. Yeah, that's whyI want to play me. Okay,
great, Yeah, I want JustinWarsham to play me. That'll get into

(28:41):
the way, like fourteen critics onRotten Tomatoes are gonna be like, it
didn't make sense because I didn't knowwho was Joshin or watch they're both Justine.
It's all Justin's Oh the other guywas supposed to be Kevin, but
it was Justin. And that's whyit was funny, is that Justin was
playing Kevin was playing just Well,we already have a Justin It's tofor Grace,

(29:03):
but no one is the Kevin Kevin. So you could be, could
be so during before the show,because we prepare. We probably have about
four hours of production meetings every weekfor each episode, and then a three
hour rehearsal. Yeah. And sothis one tonight we got onto the chat
and someone said that they were workingthey had written a paper on Sly Cooper

(29:27):
in college. Knowing nothing more thanthat, I said, we need to
interview you. So let's go liveto the discord. Now evidently this person's
name is Grample Gust, and Ihave pulled him into the podcast live calls.
Come on in, Grample Gust.Can we call you Grample or Gust
whatever you want us, no problem. Oh wow, you got a young

(29:48):
Jack Nicholson thing going on, andI dig it. It's like Jack Nicholson
and that guy who did you don'tknow Jack made a baby? Yeah?
Is that true? Is that whatgrample Gust means? Actually, it can
really mean whatever you want to.It's up to you. Beat. I'm
so stoked right now. I don'tknow, but I think we found a
stoner gamer. Happened? Is that? Do those ven diagrams overlap? Is

(30:12):
that even possible? There's very few, very few, Grandpa Gus, So
you wrote a paper on sly Cooper, what what grade, college level?
What was the class? Tell usmore? Okay, so I am going
to a college online called full SellUniversity. It's based for game design.

(30:34):
Oh you're making some video games?Yeah? Oh okay, so it was
relevant. It wasn't like you weretrying to horse shoe something into an English
paper. Yeah you say that,but lass and in the side class it's
it's called the functions of myth.So we're supposed to for this assignment.
In particular, we're given a setof hero archetypes, you know, like

(30:57):
um, like ancient archetyp types fromlike centuries ago that are still relevant today.
Yeah, and they said, pickany media piece that you want and
make an archetype. Make sure thatthere's a bunch of characters in there that
fit these archetypes. So, forinstance, one of the archetypes is the
hero. I'm like, okay,obviously sly Cooper and sorry, just declare

(31:18):
if this is like the hero's journey, um that it has like the threshold
and those those archetypes, those twelvearchetypes there the change lane is that right?
Yeah? Okay, somewhat to thatfor sure. So I just made
a whole paper. I took abunch of Sly Cooper characters and I fit
them into these archetypes, and Iexplained my reasoning why I have the paper
right here. Would you guys likeit? We want you to read it.

(31:41):
Read it? How long is it? Hey, guys? Seven words?
It's not too long. You cansend it to us. We can
read it. Yeah, I loveyou guys to read it. Actually because
I want you since I know youvoice Sly that that's accuracy. I find

(32:04):
I kind of had to stretch thetruth a little bit with some of these
characters. Oh, so I wantyou to see if you can um find
out, Oh dear, and whatisn't factor fiction? Seven hundred eighty characters.
It's going to be about a pageworth of worth of information. Going
characters are classic. All right,drop it into the discord. We'll check

(32:29):
it out. Uh. You know, it's fascinating. As you're doing that,
I'll ruminate. Uh, it's fascinatingthat that is what it sounds like.
An elective in a gaming university.It makes me wonder what kind of
depth and quality of games we're goingto have in the next five to ten
years. As as these gaming collegesbecome more and more well rounded and deeper.

(32:52):
That's just going to encourage the studentsto come in and want to bring
that knowledge into professional gameplay. Soit's not just any more of like,
you know, nerdy programming guys thatare like I think we can make a
story in here, But instead it'speople that have studied archetypes and story concepts,
structure, and then pour that intoan accelerated technology world. Like I

(33:15):
can only imagine your desire for agame like you were mentioning before that is
this perfect experience. I think we'regoing to see more and more of those
on the PSI fifty five. Yeah, just no snaps and no crafting arrows,
grandpa, unless there is a likean enriching reason for it. It's

(33:35):
a game about sleeping. And ifthere's a way that I can over like
I could just spend money, likeif I can acquire money through some means
of violence, Yeah, oh that'sgood. It's just more entertaining. See,
there always be button mashers like youout there that just want to blow
stuff up. Is that? Didyou just call me like the equivalent to
a knuckle dragger? Yep, yep? How about you resell that game on

(33:57):
eBay. I don't know. Itis the last last thing I can remember
that. You said, that's funny. I really want people to like that.
Listen to the show of be like, yeah, right, why does
he sell them? Yeah? Becauseyou should collect that on video games when
I do that? Have you sentthe script over? Have you sent it

(34:20):
over yet already? And just forgedout how to do that? Give me
just a second. No, takeyour time, speaking of collections sad news
in the Miller household. As youknow, I own every Skylander ever made.
Have I mentioned that My kids forsome reason found the dragon writers of
Burke show. No, it's arescue writers by how to Train Your Dragon.
There's like a preschool early Yes,this is what kids, and said

(34:44):
he wanted for Christmas. He is. He's just in love with Out of
Nowhere. They are both all aboutdragons. It's just it's usurped Minecraft,
Harry Potter or um plants versus zombies, nothing, Pokemon. Nothing. Did
teach my kids When he came over, he goes, if guys want,
I can teach you everything about dragonand it's like okay, buddy. So

(35:04):
so I was like, well,I can redirect this into something I like,
which is Skylanders, And I'm like, you know, Skylanders is based
on Spiro the Dragon. Every everyof the all ten elements have a dragon
in them. Let me show youwhen we kind of go through, and
they're into it. Oh, dragons, dragons, dragons, and then of
course they wanted to play, andI was like, suckers, got you,
So let's put them on. Puton all the characters and one of
the most rare dragons that I have, the Dark element dragon named night Blop

(35:29):
or something. Does it work?Put it on the console won't read it
at all, and I don't,and I think it's out of warranty.
I try to contact Activision, butthey're not really responsive to Skylander toy.
I don't even think there are anymorein existence. I look on eBay,
it's going for one hundred box.Even out of box. Some people are

(35:49):
trying to selling it for a hundredbucks. I like, so now I
just have a neat looking knicknack andit can never play alright on it.
It was it was a rare whenit came out. I worked hard to
get it when it came out.Well, you're more than welcome to look
through all the If you want totake a picture of it, well,
that'll be easier. Send it tome. I'll look through our collection.
Thank you sitting in a drawer.Then that your kids will never know.

(36:10):
They'll never know. It was acool character too, because he was like
a shadow, like a liquid blackshadow, inky thing that would kind of
jump around, and it is prettycool if you tire type dark element Skylander
dragon. Uh that should that shouldget you there. Don't hit play on

(36:30):
that YouTube blank because it will belike still, that's him on the on
the right there. What's his name? O Blackout? It was close with
ink blot. That does not lookfamiliar. I think we have this one,
no way. That's also a superrare. The white one looks familiar
unless I saw it at your housethat I have them all. This one,
I don't know if I knew that. I think I have this one,

(36:50):
but I don't know that we havethe Blackout. All right, So
we've got we've got our script.So in the meantime, I'm gonna make
a YouTube video saying that my characterbroke and everybody should buy it for me.
Okay, this is real short,we can read this. Okay,
we'll do it in paragraphs that granpalledGus, are you still there? I
am here? Yeah, all right, we're excited, lightly hitting his microphone.

(37:13):
He's a thoughtful guy. He knowshow to do this except for me.
Well, you're running about ten thousanddollars with the gear. Everybody can
come down. Okay, uh imagecitation. Oh that's all. Okay,
So these are this is less ofa paper, more of like you just
kind of answered, who are thesethings? Okay? So hero Sly Cooper
Sly two is seen primarily through thelens of the Cooper Gang or the Cougar

(37:37):
Gang, with Sly as the lead. Sly is depicted as a charismatic raccoon
that likes to steal things and generallycause mischief. However, Sly is an
honorable thief, only stealing from otherthieves. When a band of villains known
as the Claw Gang steal the remainsof Sly's robotic arc niche arch Nemesis from
a museum, Sly sets out ona dangerous quest to infiltrate the gang's leaders

(38:00):
hide out to steal the pieces back. Sly soon realizes the dangerous potential of
the pieces, and by the endof the game, he is willing to
put aside his own greedy nature,destroying the pieces and giving himself up so
that his companions can escape the police. My dad is Cooper. That all
sounds right, Yeah, this isthis is a Campbell's Yeah, this is

(38:22):
the archetypes from the Hero's Journey.All right, so there are twelve,
but you've only done a handful ofthem here, But I approve. Go
ahead, justin Do you want meto read Carmolita? Yeah? Do the
shadow. Carmelina is the most prevalentantagonist featured in the game, and she's
the literal polar opposite of Sly,as she's a cop and he's a robber.
Being the leader of a police force, it's Carmelita's mission to take down

(38:45):
any and all criminals, especially theCooper gang. Carmelita hunts Sly and is
gang down every step of the way, foiling Sly's attempts at completing his short
term goals on many occasions. Despitethis, Carmelita is inevitably outwitted every time,
which only strengthens her resolve. CarmelThis endless persistence, despite countless failed
to rest makes her a constant threatto slis mission. I think that's solid.

(39:08):
That's good, Joseph Campbell, that'sthe author. I've finally being able
to pull it out of my brain. All right, So that's the author
of the hero's journey. But youare the author of this paper. Moving
on to companions Bentley and Murray.Bentley and Murray are the brains and the
brawn of the Cooper Gang, respectively. They both serve as Slies unwavering companions.

(39:29):
Each provides their own unique abilities andperspectives to Sly's quest. Bentley helps
coordinate operations, often fearful and worriedabout the dangers of their mission, while
Murray provides his muscles, usually yellingevery word he says in a macho voice
while striking at least one pose persyllable. Despite their wildly different personalities,

(39:49):
the gang makes an unstoppable team.Without his companions, Sli's missions would be
impossible. It's a bit of anexaggeration to say it's a pose per sillable,
but I think that's hyperbole. Wewill allow. Um uh, guys,
what'sop by Maria? Yeah? Doyou hear that? That was like
five poses right there? But Ithink that stands up to both the world

(40:13):
and I think you've accurately described thecompanions in the archetypes. Moving on to
the trickster. Oh, while weget to the trickster. So Dmitri,
how do you say? Dmitri's cutfrom the same cloth as Sly being a
thief, Only Dmitri is a clawgang member who serves his own ends.
Dmitri was an aspiring artist who,after some harsh criticism about his work,

(40:35):
turned to forging identical copies of classicart pieces and selling them as his own.
Sliding his gang or at odds withDmitri from the start, but he
offers to help them, feigning regretfor his evil deeds. However, this
was all a ruse to trace thegang back to their hideout, where Dmitri
sabotages their plans. Those Sly eventuallyputs a stop to dmitri schemes. He

(40:55):
succeeds in disrupting the hero's journey.That doesn't sound right. I don't remember
that beat of Dimitri attempting to uhlure Sly in? Is that is that
a? Is that your your falsehood? That was a yes? Okay,
but no one knew, But noone knew. They didn't know the game,
So good on you for for describingthe trickster at the sacrifice of honesty.

(41:22):
Better to do that, a betterway to describe a trickster than include
a trick in the description. Ohwell done, precise thoughts. Let me
think if there's a if there's anotherexample of the trickster in the story in
Slight two, because we have Dimitri, we have the Jean Bischon, not
a trickster. Who is the other? Oh you know, Cateessa, you

(41:43):
might have been able to to pullthat apart into a trickster because she is
uh, she is a two facedblack widow character to the public, she's
a renowned psychologist, therapist and counselor. But in actuality she's gobbling up and
stroying people. So that could havegotten there, Rajon, Not really?

(42:04):
Who am I missing? Arpeggio?Is that all the members? Ye?
Are you really? Oh? That'sall the Bason and Arpeggio or the ones
left in the paper though, soLa Nila, But yeah, I think
out of all of them, Dmitrifeels the most trickster ish, So I
think you just dramatized it a bitto get past in the paper. Well
well done. Well done, Thankyou you shape shifter. That's me right,

(42:30):
Constable Nila. Niela is a quadrupleagent and I see why that makes
her? Oh I see shape shifterall right. Nila is a quadruple agent
and very prevalent shape shifter. Inthe beginning, she's established as Carmelita's right
hand lieutenant. Then halfway through thegame, she secretly helps Sly gather information
about various Claw Gang members. Thisis before she double crosses both parties and

(42:53):
reveals that she was a Claw Gangmember the whole time. Then she decides
to double clock across the Claw gameand she ends up stealing all the treasure.
Though eventually defeated, Niela existed tofulfill her own interests, going as
far as to manipulate and betray allparties involved. Archetypes. Yeah, now

(43:14):
that's that's spot on, well,well spotted as a shape shifter. And
this is a warrior imbalanced Jean bizaneansHe's a French Canadian bison from the nineteenth
century. Sean Bissan is an imbalancedwarrior through and through. Bissan is a
Claw Gang member and a fierce competitorthat likes to prove his superiority. He

(43:37):
challenges the Cooper Gang to a tournament, where, once beaten through illegitimate means,
he is unable to accept defeat,tampering with the results to make it
seem like he won. When thatdoesn't work, he has the gang thrown
into captivity. Bisan finds Bentley ashe's about to escape, and the two
have a duel. Despite Baisan's physicaland mental advantage, he underestimate it's bentley

(44:00):
small size and is again defeated.Bissan is strong willed yet overconfident, which
only leads to an inflated ego thatstands up. I don't know what the
imbalanced parenthetical you've put here? Whatis that in reference too? That is
a reference to how um they handlethere? I guess their mental states.

(44:22):
I can actually pull this up.I literally have this book sitting by my
bed side. I'm not exaggerating JOSEPHS. Campbell's The hero's journey is within have
I yes, Oh, okay,our life together. You've mentioned this many
many times. You're welcome. Idon't have this pulled up, but I
can say just to give you anidea. Basically, whenever they're imbalanced,

(44:44):
it means they use their their identityfor evil, I guess, or for
or like in the wrong way.Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah,
that does make sense. And thatand that seems accurate to Jean Bijan,
although I would seems a very balanceddisc he because the thing about Jean
Bashan that I always really appreciated wasthat he what Slic says in the character

(45:07):
intro is that in his own centuryhe'd be a hero, but in modern
times he is a villain because inhis time, conquering the frontier was a
necessary thing that needed to happen,and people celebrated that. Now we look
at it and go, that's deforestation, that's the destruction of animals. Exactly,

(45:29):
That's not that was literally the point. And they're like, you can't
go mowing down forests in the twentyfirst century. It's just going to be
bad for everybody's Yeah, exactly,all right. Ruler Arpeggio Arpeggio is an
imbalanced ruler. He's the leader ofthe Clog Gang and one of the game's
most main than one of the game'smain antagonists. It's revealed at the end

(45:52):
of the game that Arpeggio intentionally waitedfor the Clog gang to be defeated so
that he alone could control it,with hopes of eventually using the gang's influence
to take over Paris and eventually theworld. Arpeggio also seeks to use the
parts collected from the museum to makehimself physically immortal. Arpeggio is willing to

(46:14):
control everything with an iron fist ifit means getting his way, making him
truly imbalanced ruler again, so that'sthe imbalanced meaning that he uses his ruler
personality to do evil. So Igotta ask, what was your grade on
this paper? Perfect score? Welldone? I'd say well earned, well

(46:37):
arned. Yeah, I have abutton for that. Yeah, where it
is? I like this exercise ofusing the Joseph Campbell archetypes and applying them
to more games. I think youchose the right Sly game because Sly two
has the best characters in it.I think it has the it's so much
fun, the story makes a lotof sense, and those villains, it's

(46:59):
a well round did a well roundedgang of people to fight. So good,
good choice, good Anya, Thankyou, thank you, thank you.
Uh and when when did you howlong ago did you write this paper?
Two weeks ago? Oh? Mygosh, well done. So is
there a chance that your teacher couldhear us point out your lieing here and
reduce your grade? I'm afraid not. Yeah. I think that's uh,

(47:23):
that's that's very I think he's righton that. I give him one hundred
percent percent there too. Yeah allright, you've you've earned a shout out
anything? Yeah? Yeah, yes, am I right? Because I think
it speaks to Kevin's point about youknow, gaming uh being improved by people
getting a full, like collegiate leveleducation on stories and narratives, the like

(47:45):
full sale. My understanding was originallycreated as an audio production school, you
know led, and that eventually itlike said, oh maybe we'll do this
video game thing. Kids are wayinto games. Yeah, if I'm not
misunderstanding things, I think it's kindof taken over what they primarily do.
Am I wrong? Uh? Yes, ye wrong? Uh no, no,

(48:12):
no way around it? Balanced wrong? So how long has it been
a gaming school? Then? I'veonly ever seen it as a gaming school
whenever they're advertising. I've been inthe program for two years now, got
it. In fact, I didn'teven know about their other media stuff until

(48:35):
recently. But by far their mostpopular brand or what people go there for
is game design and game art andall sorts of stuff like that. When
you say go there, you meanlog in for right? Yeah? Did
you have a campus or is itall online based? Uh? There's a
campus that I live Yana and theylive in There's there's like no way.

(48:57):
Both of the times you mentioned thewords that you got clipped out? What
cities did these things happen? Oh? They live in Uh, they're based
in Florida and I live in Louisiana, So I don't have the luxury of
walking makes sense every day? Thatwould be hard. Yeah, awesome.
Well this has been very educational.You've earned a shout out. Is there

(49:19):
any page or anything people can followlearn more about your musings on video games
and Joseph Campbell or I don't know, pictures of your dog? Give us
your MySpace addresses. I have aYouTube channel, all right, grandple gust
and there's no videos on it yet, but I'm working on it. Can't
wait there, you can't wait.Thank you. Grapple Gust is spelled g

(49:40):
r a m p l e separateword gust like the wind. Well,
we expect good things out of you. We'll be keeping a keen eye on
you, young Skywalker. All right, thank you, Grandpa gust Bye bye,
thank you, bye bye. Whenwe come back, you want some
more tales from Yeah, I wouldlove some more tales from Terria. Road

(50:42):
Strides up A little different. Thatwas great, just a little little shake
it up? I like it wasit worth it? It scared me.
I'm not gonna lie with which part? And no, really, this guy
after two years, I literally jumped. I have to go back and your
your eyes were closed. You werefocused on breathing. I think because I
just looked at you and you wereliking this very exciting. Today is Tuesday,

(51:07):
November nineteenth, when we were recordingthis episode. Coincidentally, Ice Brued
Saga Chapter one released today Tuesday.Irud because it sounds like coffee, right.
I don't know why they haven't paidattention to that, because I said
the same thing to my wife oflike, oh, the new chapter is
called ice Brude. She's like,did you say ice Brud like coffee?

(51:28):
I was like, oh wait,why has no one done that? So
I put a meme. I thinkI said this before. I put a
meme on their page. No response, They not funny, not funny.
But no one said I've mentioned aquick way to lose your dung beetles.
In the chat rooms, I'm like, hey, guys, you want to
get a coffee, get some icebrup. No one says anything like can we
not acknowledge that they essentially called itattack of the crepes? Why? Why

(51:52):
is this nut? Okay? Whatever? I at any rate, I am
eager to wrap up this podcast andgo dive into the ice Brood saga.
But I took the time to login see the changes, read some of
the patch notes, and there's someexciting things patch notes, so every time
they change the game around, theyjust release a list of like here's what

(52:15):
we fixed. And sometimes a lotof times it's just a we found this
bug and we fixed it, orit's a lot of balancing stuff, like
we changed the way this mechanic ofa particular character works. Not all the
time, but I do find it'sgood to stay on top of it because
you because I play a lot ofdifferent I play all the races at different
times, all the professions at differenttimes. I like all the maps.

(52:36):
It's good to know what has changedwithin it. I'm probably not as good
at reading the patch notes as Ishould. But they're also not very long.
It's it, you know, takesa less time to read them than
it did that paper we just did. It was a good paper, and
the patch notes are good as well. Let's read them next thing. Okay.
So one of the exciting things ismy wife and I anticipated is that
there are new mastery points there nowthe Ice Brood Saga, so whole new

(53:00):
masterylines. We have been capped attwo hundred ninety five mastery points. Now
you can get up to wait forit. Oh boy, two hundred ninety
seven can you imagine? Yeah,that's now the highest number possible. Two
more mastery point Is that incredible?How much? How many arrows do you

(53:21):
have to craft to get two masterypoints? At least twelve? You know
what? My favorite part of allof that was, as my wife and
I anticipated, Yeah, yeah,I am fascinated that we're into it.
I know, yeah, yeah,we talked about it. We're like,
so the core game was red Masterypoll. Is this I just I want
to paint a pick? Yeah,yeah, painted. When you guys talk
about guild wars too, is itlike heading the pillow? So like we

(53:43):
would be shooting from the ceiling lookingat you with both of your arms folded
above the covers, going, soyou think it's probably gonna be mastery points.
Absolutely, that's how it goes.Yeah, yeah, or in the
car, tell me what I wantto hear. No, No, we
absolutely have Guild War's two pillow talk. That absolutely. We talk about it
in the car. We talk aboutit over dinner. That's right, honey,

(54:07):
I gotta log in to see whatprofession I am. No, it
is time for right, a littlebit about a little bit of boats there.
That's how missus she's in cosplay.Yeah. So the original game core

(54:38):
game is Red Heart of Thorne's.He takes place in the jungle, so
it's green than the Path of Firepurple. You would think it'd be orange,
but whatever, And it's hard totell the red and the purple points.
Sometimes you look at it like isthat a purple? So I spruit
Sago they got that one right.And they even changed the loading screen so

(54:59):
now when you load the client,it's it's different. It's been the same
for about three years, so noweverything about it is there. It's what
I feel happened. And they wetalked about this before where they announced,
a bunch of projects got canceled.I have a feeling that they were planning
an expansion about now and instead theyjust made it. They made it season
five, so rather than build awhole new thing that because everything about it

(55:22):
is like we're in a new world, they said, we're not doing any
more expansions. They said, we'renot doing any expansions right now, so
we don't know that might be happeninglater night. Just try This really feels
like a free expansion, so it'slike everybody wins. Uh, there's some
arena it right, yeah? Yeah, yeah, So little things that are
great that I actually said, yes, finally, my dung beetle. Now

(55:43):
when you first loaded up, itstarts at one hundred percent, so you
can immediately jet off instead of waitingfor the tank meter to fill up.
That's way too in world, butI was super excited when I read it.
So if you play Guildor's two,you can celebrate with me. But
the interesting thing is we talk aboutearlier. We talked about, you know,
the how to make a game funand make rules. So Guild Wars
is essentially one way to think aboutit as a board game that just gets

(56:07):
expansions added to it all the time, so there are all these extra pieces
on the board or pieces of boardon the game, and after a while
some of an atrophies. So likethe really the stuff that's been around for
seven years, people aren't visiting thosemaps as much anymore because there's new content
out and they found some ways todraw you back into those older maps with

(56:28):
some ways of grinding by doing theevents and getting resources. But now they
have two seasons worth of maps thatare just not going to be getting the
same attention as these new maps thatare coming out. So their solution is
now, instead of each of themaps having their own individual rewards for playing
on them, they go on acycle. So there are six maps on

(56:49):
each one and so every day it'llsay, if you visit this map from
season three, you'll get these rewards. If you visit the other maps from
season three, you're not going toget the daily rewards for doing them,
but that one. And then tocounterbalance it, the rewards are even better.
So before it used to be everymap had his own like you know
this, yeah exactly, but nowone map every day, that's right,

(57:13):
And they do that for both seasonthree and season four. That's so I
find that stuff of like, Ijust imagine the creative process of like,
Okay, we we've noticed an atrophyin the map attendance on these other maps.
That's to be expected. There's newcontent. How do we solve that?
Reggie? What ideas do you have? Well, we can give them
puney and let them play with that. Okay, you can go fill up
your desk and leave. Who elsehas an idea? This is a safe

(57:37):
space, says a safe space Anita. What do you think your desk?
So I go, oh lost justinWell, this is Kevin Miller. You
so much you could fill up yourdesk and leave it. I just imagine

(57:59):
I'm going rights for both people's desk. What are you doing, Reggie?
I have to fill up my desk. I have four computers and two file
A cabinets. Can I go home? No? I guess the expression is
empty out your desk and league anymore. You're fired. Fill up your

(58:23):
desk and league. Fill it upwith what tears? Figure it out?
That's your problem. So looking forwardto doing that. You're gonna be playing
Guilders this year. Wait, it'sgonna be very exciting. So in our
waning moments here. I believe Ihaven't said it on the show yet,

(58:43):
but I wanted to tell you aboutmy experiences playing Kingdom Hearts three. Yes,
in cases is a repeat. Youcan just skip over it anyway.
But I think I mentioned it before. I can't remember if I said it.
I feel like I have, butI'm gonna say it. If you
start to say it, i'll knowif you said. Okay, so I've
said that when I jumped into KingdomHearts three. I've never played any of
the Kingdom Hearts games and that,and everybody's like, good luck, You're

(59:05):
gonna be so lost, blah blahblah blah blah. Well, I'm here
to say they were right, butnot for the reasons that they thought they
were. So. The assumption wasthat I'd be lost in the story,
right, And yes, it's confusing. It's also watched like watching fan art,
like or fan fiction. It makesno sense. They really almost harm
the original properties with their shoehorning inof these other characters. I mean,

(59:30):
it's I think everybody knows that ifthey watch it, they're like, this
is painful, but it's so dorkyand dumb that you love it. And
ultimately you get to battle the giantSnowman from Frozen. So it's like and
you get you're on the scream floorof Monsters inc. Fighting monsters coming through
the door. Like it's cool stuff, so it's worth it, even though

(59:51):
you're like, what is the whatis the point of most of this?
So but that so that stuff wasn'tthe reason why I was lost. It's
the actual game mechanic of it.The game still looks like a PlayStation game
built in the nineties, so likeinformation screens are just a wall of text
page just like Chrissy and do this, but and this is this, and

(01:00:14):
I'm like, pass, goodbye.I'll figure it out as I go whatever,
Like how many games did this?Someone go? Hey, like you
said like, hey, you're gonnaneed this kind of acts for this,
and this kind of acts for this, and make sure you use this.
So I'm playing the game and Iget to this, to this level I
played it on the stream where I'mfighting against that giant Snowman from Frozen and

(01:00:37):
it is taking me forever and Ihave no I'm like, do I need
to buy some power ups? Ihaven't been doing much of that. I'm
not really clear why or how foodplays into this, I don't know,
and I muscle through it, andI was the point, like some of
the folks in our discord right now, we're at the stream very kindly encouraging

(01:00:59):
me because they're, like Matt said, I would have raged quit right there
like it was. It was brutaland it was difficult, and finally got
through. I was like, Okay, I need to figure out what I'm
missing, and I go to theloading screen and find out that there were
keys that I'm supposed to be collectingafter because of your blade. It's a
key blade. It's like the Sicklicansword that has a key on the end

(01:01:20):
of it. Every time you finisha world, you gain a new key
blade from that world. So youvisit toy story Land and then you get
the there's a snake in my bootkey blade and it looks like a giant
boot and there's a snake coming outof and that's you're you fight with that.
I didn't have that equipped, nornor did I know that I owned
it, and I merely needed togo to a loading screen and add I

(01:01:44):
can have up to four or somethingkey blades, So that was like,
oh, man, I'm really bummed. And then I realized that there's an
entire upgrading sub RPG element to it. So I was using the first blade
from the very first part of thegame with no power ups, trying to
push through this. This is theequivalent of writing a tricycle uphill. Or

(01:02:09):
to tell you a story from ourfrom our earlier days, we had a
buddy named Ariel. He was thisgiant Filipino guy with muscles the size of
your neck for arms. He washuge, and we were building flats for
our theater department and he couldn't getthe screws to go into the wood and
people are like hey. He's like, man, why is this so hard?
And they're like, come on,are you got to use some grease

(01:02:30):
on that? Put some elbow greaseon that. He's like well, so
he starts like row, just leaninginto it. Getting he starts sweating.
Everyone's like, what is wrong withyou? Oh, you have this screwdriver
in reverse he was drilling. Hewas drilling screws into wood with sheer force
from the spinning motion of a screwgrowing reverse. That's so strong that guy

(01:02:52):
was. That's what it was likefor me to play Kingdom Arts Threat so
mass effect. Yeah. One ofthe originals taught me that lesson where I
was like, I was playing,I'm playing, Everything's going great. I'm
like, this is fun. Andthen suddenly I just like a random like
ambush, not even a mission.Yeah, I can't get through like I'm
just I can instantly dying, andI'm like, what the hell? And

(01:03:14):
then I realize, oh, youhave to upgrade the weapons, right,
yeah, yeah, yeah yeah,And I like you could feel it because
the game there was no part wheremaybe you missed it in the wall of
texts, I guess I'm sure Idid, but there was no part in
this game that it told me,oh, har you need to upgrade your
weapons just so you know reading andnow you know h thank you, thank

(01:03:35):
you so sorry about your your KingdomHearts woes. And the game became four
hundred times more interesting when you figuredout what I did that. I was
like, oh, look at allthese powers I have. Now, Look
how easily I mopped through enemies.The game is fun again. I like
it. Yeah, I hit that. I got to figure out how to
upgrade because I hit a similar notas intense as that, but a similar

(01:03:58):
wall you want to make it evenmore difficult be streaming at the same time.
At least the people there like couldfeel your pain. Oh yeah,
very supportive, but extremely helpful.I imagine when you're railing against Kingdom Hearts,
like just the nerd rage that youwere creating unintentionally, people just throwing
their headset. It's like, well, if you played one, two,
three, you would know. Yeah, thankfully, I had more supportive people

(01:04:19):
watching good and they probably were sayingit under their breath. And it was
Cody or Matt or we don't knowthe same they're the same guy. That's
right. I've forgotten doubt. Youcan have such entertainment happen to your eyeholes.
If you go to twitch dot tvslash the Kevin Miller, that is
twitch dot tv slash the Kevin Miller, and you could watch this show happened
right now. I could be pointingout your face, or you could be

(01:04:41):
watching Kevin get frustrated at Kingdom Heartsand have an epiphany all at the same
time. All these are possible ifyou want to talk with other people that
are like minded gamers and share storiesand fun and uh, I don't know,
maybe hook up. I don't knowwhy I said back with with like
minded gamers. Yeah, in anon sexual, non threatening war, yes,

(01:05:03):
dot Lee slash gamer Land discord,uh and Ryan will get you your
password and all will be forgiven.And I also don't know why I said
that because up until now they standjudgment for not joining the discord. It's
a very valid point in a nonsexual, non threatening manner. Debatable on
behalf of the Kevin Miller dot comis justin worship saying okay bye by