September 11, 2025 • 59 mins
MarcusB814 and Dr. Gameology discuss how certain video games can profoundly impact players psychologically, creating lasting emotional impressions and sometimes even changing how we view the world.
• Hollow Knight: Silksong release briefly crashed Steam, sparking a discussion about "2D Dark Souls" games and gaming settings
• Marcus unpacks his journey with Expedition 33, initially skipping cutscenes but eventually becoming captivated by its stunning visuals and emotional storyline
• The hosts explore games that genuinely frightened them, including PT (Silent Hills demo) and Dead Space
• Doritos shares his new family D&D campaign, bringing tabletop RPG experiences to his household on Tuesday nights
• Discussion of raid completions in MMOs and the unique joy of accomplishing difficult gaming feats with friends
• Examination of how video game perseverance creates resilience in real life challenges
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Gaming Persona Podcast.
I'm MarcusB814.
I'm joined by my esteemed bestfriend, dr Gameology, and we're
here to talk about video gamesand sidebars.
Why?
Because that's what I do I'mhere for the sidebar, he's here
to drop psychology on you, andthis is our show right now.
(00:21):
Right now, did you guys heartoday that Steam was like
destroyed for 20 or 30 minutes?
No, so Hollow Knight Silksongwas released today and it
basically broke Steam.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Good for Steam, good for Steam, good for Hollow
Knight.
That's actually amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Yeah, well, it's just years in the making, I guess.
Have you guys ever playedHollow Knight?
No, the first one.
So, excuse me, I tried it andI'm going to try something new
today and see if my add willwork.
But anyway, so I tried.
(01:10):
I tried it once and it didn't.
It's a 2d, but, like I didn'trealize, it's basically like
dark souls kind of a game and Iwas getting obliterated wait,
wait.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
I need to understand.
How do you 2d dark souls?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
it's google it.
It's a size.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
It's like ori no, you're my podcast co-host,
marcus, you just tell me.
So it's part of the episode.
Come on, help me out.
So it's basically hades I neverplayed hades.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Hades.
I never played Hades, okay, no,it's.
It's like said, it's more likeOri.
It's a 2d, it's a Castlevaniagame.
Yeah, it's Castlevania Metroidstyle game.
Yeah, so it's.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
It's definitely it's a side scroller.
It's like Castlevania you gointo like rooms and their save
points, blah, blah, blah, butit's just like a Dark Souls.
I don't like the camera here.
I tried it.
I quit.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Oh, that's even worse , I know.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
I don't even understand what we're doing, but
right now Marcus is hitting hiseighth webcam position of the
podcast.
It's actually the secondsmartass, but that's we're doing
.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
But right now marcus is hitting his eighth webcam
position of the podcast.
It's actually the second smartass, but that's we're gonna.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Just you know I'm counting all the tilts left and
right as additional oh, allright, the motion sickness that
you're getting.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
That's why when in video games, you turn off the
motion blur and turn off thefilm grain I've never messed
with any of those options in mylife.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Is that a thing?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
yeah, dude yeah, turn off it next time you play
claire, shut off motion blur andshut off film grain, and you're
gonna be like, wow, this gameis unbelievable why would they
make default options that lowerthe quality of the game?
Cause there's weirdos out therethat think it makes it look
better, but I don't.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Well, maybe they think you're a weirdo and well,
we already know that.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, duh, they're in .
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Oh, in our own groups .
Speaker 1 (03:18):
I hope it doesn't fall.
Hold on.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Oh my gosh, you got Rani, ooh.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Oh, the hat comes off too.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
You guys, this is a great segue.
Hang on, Just like.
Let me grab something.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Huh, diggity, oh that's, we haven't become that
kind of podcast.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Yet, marcus, we never will.
We said yet we might, you neverknow, look at my box again.
No, giggity, look at my box.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
The door is open.
What?
A box it looks like it saysfarfanoogan something.
It came from somewhere far away, marcus.
What a box.
It looks like it saysFarfanoogan something.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
It came from somewhere far away, Marcus.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Oh, Funky Butlovin.
Did he say Funky Butlovin?
Speaker 3 (04:13):
No, somewhere far away.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, that's what you read.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
I'm not opening it because I have a content creator
goal that I've never gone after, but I finally have a thousand
followers on TikTok, and so I'mplanning to add vertical
streaming to what I do, orYouTube shorts to have my live
(04:37):
feed and TikTok.
I already have it set up in OBS, but I need a stream key for
TikTok and in order to get that,as far as the research I've
done, it seems like you need athousand followers.
I have a thousand followers,but I also need to stream for 25
minutes in TikTok studio beforeI can get a stream key.
(05:00):
That does not change everysingle time.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Oh, that's easy.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
It is because I love talking for 25 minutes at a time
.
So one of those three times I'mgoing to unbox my box, which is
a statue, a 30 inch statue or a30 centimeter statue, so one
foot right, one foot.
Statue of the monolith fromclear, obscure.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Expedition 33 which was what you found today yeah, I
found it well.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
so I got to the end of the game today and I'm not
going to spoil anything, but wegot a really cool view of the
monolith from where we were at.
It's just such a beautiful game, marcus, you've been playing
all week, right, okay?
Speaker 1 (05:51):
so now I see what it is.
I didn't know what it was.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Oh yeah, it's the tower that has the number
painted on it, and this statuehas the paintress in her
crouched position at the base inthe tunnel of the tower.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
She's in her crouched position in the box.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yes, okay, got it yes .
Speaker 1 (06:13):
All right, so maybe that's the parts that I missed,
as I was just space barringthrough the story to get through
the entrance area.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Yeah, through the story to get through the
entrance area, yeah, well, I'mglad you realize about an hour
into the game that it's worthpaying attention and it's
beautiful and heartbreaking andeverything that humanity is
existing so we can feel isbottled up in that game.
Life-changing stuff stuff wellthen, yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
What I'll say is yes, I, I don't know when did I
start playing it?
Last week, last week?
Yeah, last week after last week, after the podcast, I was
chatting with doritos and doc,like we usually do in the
Discord, which join the Dr, dr,dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr,
(07:08):
dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr,dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr,
dr, dr.
So I just pulled it up.
Doc got so excited and Istarted playing it and there was
a couple people in the Discordand I was I call it space
(07:33):
barring, but I was justforwarding the story, not really
listening, and I was about anhour and a half into the game,
about 85 minutes, so into thegame, and I stopped for the
night and I was talking to docthe next day.
I was like, man, I shouldprobably really start this over.
And he's like, yes, you should.
And I was like, okay, I'm goingto start it over.
(07:56):
But then I remembered thatthere's something called YouTube
and I decided that those twohours that I've already done, I
can't double that for game time,for my play, because I only get
a few hours a week to game.
So I was like you know what?
I'm going to go back and watchall the cut scenes the entrance
(08:19):
area, the opening area, cutscenes again and listen to, like
, the dialogue so that I cancontinue the journey of the game
.
And I did that and I startedplaying it.
And two days in a row I'm inand I fought all day yesterday
to get home and be able to playand I did.
(08:42):
I don't know how many hours Iplayed, I played for a while.
The game is incredible.
I really love the turn-basedcombat in this game because my
ADD, as you guys, if you eversee me on video, like I'm always
moving and my legs are alwaysshaking.
Legs are always shaking.
I can't sit still.
(09:05):
And the Dodge Perry actionsreally keep me engaged in the
game because it's like, eventhough it's not your turn to
attack, you better watch outbecause this guy's going to mess
you up, kind of a thing youknow.
And, as you guys saw I'm goingto use my own words I am a
graphical whore and this game itmay not be the most beautiful
(09:33):
game I've ever seen, but man, isit close.
And so I play on a 4K monitorat 120 hertz, on a 4k monitor at
120 Hertz.
And when I put the graphicsettings on Epic, I'm getting
like 58 to 60 frames and I waslike, oh no, it's time for a new
(09:55):
graphics card.
I can't play a game on ultra.
And I turned it down to highand it was much better.
I was getting like 80 frames.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
I was a little cried.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yes, yes, it did so.
Last night I was shopping fornew video cards and uh, yeah, so
I'm done.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
I gotta ask Doritos something really quick, Marcus,
because it directly ties intowhat you said.
Doritos, what is space-barring?
A game?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
That is where you so space-barring a game primarily
comes from those of us from thewho've played sotor for long
enough, where you will space barthrough a conversation, one
that you've seen or heard dozensof times.
So, in order to get through itfaster, you'll hit the space bar
.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Other games have similar mechanics yeah, we're
some like hold Q hit our escapeto skip.
You know what I mean.
On an Xbox controller greatestcontroller ever you hit start
and it'll kind of just skipthrough the cutscenes, but
(11:01):
that's what I did.
Anyway, once I started playingthe game, I can't get over how
beautiful the game is and Ithink the most messed up thing
about the game so far is thatall the dead people that came
before them are still there.
They're just like frozen intime, looks like they looked at
(11:24):
Medusa and they're like turnedto stone.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
That's fucked up, messes with my head big time.
It's like you're climbing MountEverest and you die on Mount
Everest.
They can't bring your body down, so it's just lives forever
frozen.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
There's only about 150, some odd people up there.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Oh rest in peace, all you crazy people.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Well, the other.
You know, one of my favoritegames ever.
That's definitely aninspiration to me and Claire
Obscure.
Expedition 33 is going to beone of these games.
Just time has to keep passing.
But Journey has thosetombstones.
From the very beginning of thegame you start seeing the stones
(12:11):
of people who gave up on theirjourney and did not go after the
mountain.
In Expedition 33, it's amonolith, not a mountain, but
you have the same symbolism and,just like the hero's journey is
echoes of the same story, overand over, with a new coat of
paint.
That coat of paint is the world, the characters, the central
(12:31):
conflict.
It has the same motion.
It has the three-act structurethat we're so used to in our
movies and other stories that weenjoy.
Video games do that andExpedition 33 is tapping into
such a primal story that, evenif you're playing it for the
first time, I swear some of whatyou're feeling, marcus, and
(12:54):
some of what I've been feelingthis year, is that I'm not
playing this game for the firsttime.
I'm playing something inside ofme that not only wants to be
awake but it wants to be what myentire day is about.
It's hope, it's overcomingdeath, it's overcoming loss and
being okay and it's trying tocreate a future that's better
(13:16):
for people behind me than it wasfor the people in front of me,
and those are really powerfuldreams for people to have, and
we relive those every single cutscene of this game in one way
or another yeah, the game reallymesses with my head and I think
(13:39):
that I'm getting I don't knowhow it always comes back to mass
effect, but it messes my withmy head the way mass effect
messed with my head and it andsince yesterday I've watched a
bunch of the 15 tips.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
I wish I knew about Claire before I played kind of
videos.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
You know the the before you get started watch
these tips things yes.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
And it actually has helped me a lot to understand
the game because, again, I'vekind of fast forwarded through
the whole like, hey, these arethe different things that you
can do in the game.
There's a couple of things thatI have no idea what I'm doing.
Like they say that once you,once you use an item, like your
(14:42):
picto things, for so many timesother players can use it.
I don't know how to equip thaton them.
You know what I mean.
There's certain things that Idon't know what to do.
But that brings us to our topicof today, and Doc brought it
into it.
But I'm going to ask you bothwhat games you played this week.
But just to kind of give ourlisteners something to think
(15:04):
about while we talk about thegames that we've played, the
topic of today is what gamemessed with your mind playing it
that impacted you in a positiveway or a negative way.
So, doritos, what have yougamed this week?
(15:25):
Week?
Speaker 2 (15:27):
well, likely.
I'm on holiday this week, soI've done a fair bit of gaming
that's right, you are you.
This, this lucky man has been onvacation and not going to work
all week and using some time offmuch needed off.
So I've been playing Surtur.
No great surprise there Beendabbling in Lotro Lord of the
(15:51):
Rings Online.
Wow, so, with New RepublicOutriders that they've got a
clan in there.
So I'm just kind of just what'sit like?
Beginning quests, that kind ofstuff?
Been starting to dabble inFinal Fantasy 14 doing a lot of
the opening fetch quests andlearn the skills and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Let's see hey, uh, just kidding, just to interject
your Final Fantasy 14.
The first thousand quests arefetch quests, oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
I know the last thousand are fetch quests also.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
So which ones aren't, though?
Alright, playing a couplemobile games just to accept to
the galaxy heroes online mobilegame and just a word puzzle game
, because it entertains me andmy family started D&D campaign
oh, how did I get to dm?
it went good for the so.
So first session.
(16:50):
So it's just the four of us andwe're just kind of it's.
It's entertaining and comical.
So it's everybody kind oflearning how do you do the role
play as your character, withyour alignment and this and that
, and the kids are cracking upand my wife's just rolling her
eyes and shaking her head who'smore into it your son, your
(17:12):
daughter or your wife?
it's all kind of.
Even right now there's there'skind of a we don't know what to
do.
So what does this really looklike?
Type of thing.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Sure, and so what nights are you going to play
that Tuesdays.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Tuesday nights.
Yeah.
So with, with, since wehomeschool, we've got a lot of
uh a couple out of homeactivities scheduled for uh
Tuesday evening.
So those will count kind of asa PE credit for the kids.
And so they'll come home andit'll be my turn to cook dinner
tonight and then we'll gameafter dinner, kind of do more of
(17:51):
a finger food snacky dinnernight and you know game for a
couple hours.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
That's so awesome.
How long do you guys go for?
Or how long did you guys gamefor?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
a couple hours.
That's so awesome.
How long do you guys go for?
How long did you guys go for?
First of all, about an hour anda half ish.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
That's a good amount yeah, not too long, not too
short, and correct us, correctme if I'm wrong.
You used pre-made charactersfor this.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Yeah, so we bought one of the starter campaign sets
.
It's called Dragons ofStormwreck Isle and that is one
of their.
It's got six pre-madecharacters are really good.
I've done did some similarthing like you did.
How do you do it?
What's it like this and that?
Because my daughter originallywanted to DM it, but she was
(18:35):
getting behind in school andkind of wanted we all kind of
wanted to play it, but nobodywas um able to dm.
So we decided let me go aheadand read up on it.
So it's good.
It it's a.
It's a good starter campaign tolearn.
How does it work?
How do you role play it?
What are your characters likethis and that, and so we're
(18:56):
we're learning and making fun ofeach other as we go along.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
It's great oh yeah, I'm reading about it.
Adventure for characters,levels one through three.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
So it's a yeah, it's the very beginning, yep
individual character quests.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Oh, this is awesome.
So it comes with a rule book,adventure booklet, character
sheets and dice everything thatyou would need.
Awesome, wow, that's prettycool man.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Wow, yeah, I mean that's awesome.
I really wish I would have hada younger introduction to any of
the tabletop RPG kind of games.
I think I mean I turned outokay, but I just have so much
fun with the concepts in thosegames, like just the idea of
(19:43):
what I do for my work and howyou can simulate that in games
by having things like persuasionand skill and perception and
you roll checks on those Right.
Right, you roll checks on thoseRight, right, like one of the
things I talk about in mystreams with choice-based games.
(20:04):
Now that I know how tabletopgames work, is you know in
correct me if I'm wrong.
I mean, I know, with slow tourI'd be right.
I think mass effect works thesame way.
If you make a certain dialoguechoice and you make all those
choices based on the guide,you're going to get the same
result as the next person whomakes all those same choices
(20:25):
using that guide.
But when you're playing Baldur'sGate 3, which is basically D&D
as a video game it is not.
Basically it is D&D as a videogame.
I can make the same choices asyou, doritos, except I might
roll a one on something or Imight fail a check.
Right, I said the thing Iwanted, but the person in the
(20:45):
game now gets to reject the ideabecause I wasn't persuasive
enough.
And that's what life is like.
And so there's something aboutD and D that simulates life in a
way that video games usuallyare just like.
Oh, you're the main character,let me bow to your will.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Well, it's scripted interactions and programmed
interactions versus freeformkind of chance-based decision
making.
Because I say chance-basedmainly because you have the dice
to help direct some of thedecision bases yeah, yeah, for
me.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
I had terrible luck.
Every time I roll the dice Iwas always a five or less.
My barbarian was not too strong, but you know, what's cool
about that too Is if you decide,you guys love it.
Once you finish this campaignI'm looking at like the next One
is called Tyranny of Dragonsand like that Is a little bit
(21:51):
more.
It's pre-scripted but it has.
You know, it's 1 to 15 levelcharacters, 19 different maps,
there's 31 monsters and you cando more with it.
Yeah, and if that becomes yourTuesday night routine, it's
endless hours of fun.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Right.
So we're just again trying totrying to dabble it with see
what it's like play through thiscampaign, have fun with it and
give us a way just to kind ofhang out with the kids and let
them just interact with us in agame night without necessarily
having to play a board game.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Yeah, oh, dreaded non-technology games.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Oh, we love board games.
We usually end up getting likeMonopoly or the ones that we
like.
That we got several years.
A couple years ago when we weredown in tallahassee it was
called trek.
It's one.
They've got a couple ofdifferent versions of that out
where it's a national parks alsoall the united states national
parks and you have to go aroundand collect certain tokens and
(22:57):
not test your knowledge aboutparks and stuff like that.
So we really like that one.
But they can.
That one's actually about a twohour game, so we could replace
them, but we've played a coupletimes.
We enjoy it, but this issomething that that everybody's
kind of would like someone toget involved with, so we're
going to give it a go I love it.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
That's such a great family game night and everybody
gets to be their own person and,at the end of the day, the fact
that you're in charge of it itmakes it even better well.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
So, yeah, I get to play dm and then, just because
we only have a few or few people, I'm actually playing one of
the regular characters too.
So it's, you got to change yourvoice to be in character.
That through everybody else off.
I started laughing.
It's like I can't breakcharacters.
It's just, oh, that's so cool,the whole nine yards.
So, but to answer your questionthat you asked, other than,
(23:50):
what have I gamed with this week?
Say, not say messed me up, butuh, kind of had me thinking or
or really kind of got to me.
Originally I'll probably haveto say coat the original kotor,
(24:11):
because I mean, it's not likeyou, there wasn't any
foreshadowing coming through.
But when you get to the end ofthat game and you get that
reveal, it's like wow, okay,that's not quite what we
expected, and all that kind ofstuff.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Oh yeah, kotor, definitely messed with your mind
.
It was yeah, go ahead.
Oh, I was just going to sayI'll never forget when that
happened.
All these years later, neverknew Revan was Revan, mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
You know.
But the real question is whichgender is Revan?
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Yes is the answer.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Mine was a male, my like four of my friends.
They were all female.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Mm-hmm, yeah, my like four of my friends that were
all female.
Yeah, you know, that's aninteresting thing too, because
knights of the republiceventually ties into the old
republic, where they had to makea choice.
They chose to make definitively.
Revan is a male character, andthen also the novelization.
Definitively he ends upmarrying bastilla and, you know,
definitively, ends up gettingstuck in that temple for a very
(25:32):
long time for a very long timeoh yeah, but darth revan is male
in official canon Darth.
Revan is male in official canon,right, but here's what I would
say about that.
Some of Star Wars' best storiesis not in official canon.
So if you enjoy a differentversion of that, then just
(25:52):
continue enjoying it.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
No, no, I'm not saying that.
We were talking about what'scanon, and I actually didn't
know, but they said that he'scanon because that led to
Satele-Shan being born.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
That's true.
Yeah, you know it's interestingwith these choice-based games.
When you do sequels, you haveto tiptoe around the agency of
every player that played theprevious one.
You know the Witcher deals withthis.
Mass Effect dealt with this Tosome extent.
The Old Republic just had tomake choices like this is the
(26:28):
way it's going to go.
This is what Darth Revan is forour story.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
That's so interesting .
The reason we don't deal withthis in everyday life is we
don't have time machines yet ha,that's awesome yeah it's coming
.
Yeah, totally, once we havethem.
Then you get stories like thatstephen king book.
That's all about going back intime and trying to figure out
(26:56):
the assassination of john fkennedy.
I don't remember what year wasthat, 1961 or something, 71, 61?
I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
I wasn't around, so no, you weren't around then.
So, doc, what have you beenplaying?
Speaker 3 (27:13):
I've played a lot for me, a lot of balder's gate 3.
I've made it into act 2.
I'm playing with all the modsthat remove the things from the
game that make me upset, so Ilike to think I'm playing it
with house rules, right.
Like I explained on a stream indetail for like 20 minutes what
(27:34):
it is that made me quit thisgame every single time and what
was it but?
they well, yeah, so I don't likehaving to choose only three
people to walk around with mycreated character.
I feel like when you walk intoa mob and they have like 15
(27:55):
enemies and you have four, it'sthe game punishing you for being
stupid.
But I feel like if I have sixfriends at camp just lounging
around in their underwear andall of them can throw fireballs
just like me, then why wouldn'tthey be walking around with me
(28:16):
so that we can destroy this moball together and have a good
time being murder hobos?
So larian added the mod managerto the console versions of the
game and that allows you withoutbreaking the game at all.
It just works so perfect likean extra options menu.
You download whatever mods youwant and it puts them into your,
(28:39):
injects them into your game,perfectly unlike on pc where you
have to start and restart thegame over and over until it
works and you didn't break it.
So it's like mods for dummiesand I really love that.
So every member of my party canbe in my party while we're
walking around the world.
Okay, I like that right, and Ihave the ability to roll a extra
(29:09):
dice that automatically 20s outmy role if something that
really kills my motivationhappens, but I've only used that
in two situations.
One was an instant deathsituation, so I rolled bad and I
knew from my previousplaythrough oh I haven't saved
(29:32):
in like two hours and I just gotwasted.
So I used inspiration and thenuse the cheat dice to make sure
that I didn't fail that instantdeath roll.
You know.
So like I have a lot of logicto like take away my blame for
for this, but I'm enjoying it,right, like it's a video game,
(29:54):
and I found a way to enjoy it.
And there's other things toowith the cheat ring where you
can just summon money into yourinventory.
And one of the things that Idid not like in the natural the
four times I tried to naturallyplay Baldur's Gate 3 is how
broke you are all the time andhow bad your outfits are the
(30:25):
time and how bad your outfitsare and I want to look like next
level glam while I'm destroyingall my enemies.
Like it's from it's from my mmobackground.
Like you just want to lookfantastic and I felt like the
clothing that you can actuallyafford to have early in that
game.
This makes you look likeRenaissance fair trash.
I don't want to look like Renfair trash.
(30:45):
I'm so right now but like I'vegotten the game to a place where
I'm enjoying every second of itand I think that's all that
matters.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Okay, so that's it Just just polish.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
Oh well, I've.
I've played my stream games.
I finished clear, obscureexposition 33 today for the
second time and I got the betterending, where people end up
where they're supposed to.
There's still lots of deepfeelings in that, but it's nice
that I got to see both endings.
And I've also played oh jeez,what else have I played?
(31:24):
Persona 3.
I'm still working on Persona 3.
But Expedition 33 got into aspot where I just had to keep
going like a snowball effect.
Also, how crazy is it that inthe three games I'm playing
there are a total of four threesexpedition 33, persona 3,
(31:47):
reload and balder's gate 3.
That's funny, isn't that wild?
that's actually kind of reallyfunny yeah, I think the universe
had a glitch and none of thisis real.
We're in the Matrix and I'mstuck with the number three,
when my rows are supposed to bezeros and ones yeah, yeah, it's
(32:11):
possible wow, all right.
So what?
What have you been playing,though?
Did like.
Is there anything besidesexpedition 33?
Speaker 1 (32:23):
I will, but I want you to answer this.
Okay, what game really messedwith you in a positive way or a
negative way?
Speaker 3 (32:33):
okay, this is good timing.
I'm gonna be going to halloweenhorror nights for my rip tour
on sunday.
I'm like I'm getting ready.
I'm getting ready for it.
I love it so much.
I don't have fear anymore.
I just love the psychology offiguring out where the scare
actors are and noticing how theydo their job.
(32:54):
It like completely removes andI hate it.
I love it.
So there was a demo on the PS3for a game that was going to be
called Silent Hills and the demowas titled PT Okay.
Demo was titled pt okay and itwas basically a first person
(33:21):
view of walking through a alooping, endless hallway in a
scary house and there was thistall robed nightgown woman, very
scary looking face like, in thedistance and there was a
bathroom with a fetus in thesink and it was just, it was
gross, it was scary, it wascreaky, it was terrifying, it
(33:42):
was evil.
The radio and the the likeanswering machine.
It was just meant to creep youout, like walking through a
haunted house, but it's virtualand there's a jump scare.
That happens if you walk up toa door but don't go through and
then turn around where the roguelady is in your face and
(34:03):
strangles you to death and yougo to the ground and fade to
black and then you wake up onthe floor of the bathroom and
you know, the first time thathappens, heaven opens and and
just says you're welcome, comehere now You're done, and and so
, like I'm not scared ofHalloween Horror Nights, now, I
(34:27):
love Silent Hills, I loveResident Evil games Sure,
bioshocks, my jam.
Resident evil games sure,bioshocks, my jam like I.
I I just look at games that arescary and it's like if I have
time I'm down, right, I love it.
But that moment of being in myliving room and like my whole
body spasming and dropping thecontroller and feeling like I
(34:49):
just died, and then of courseyou know how to trigger it.
So then you bring people overand they're like having pizza
and stuff and talking, we'rejust talking, and then you know
it's about to happen.
So, like, you make it happenand you don't tell them.
And then they're like and theylike like I swear like one
(35:10):
person like threw their plate ofpizza on the ground and ran to
the bathroom and slammed thedoor.
When it happened I was like I'mso sorry, I felt bad on that one
yeah yeah, but so that's a gamewhere it created ptsd for me
for for a very like.
I don't like first personhorror games very much unless,
(35:31):
like, if it's photorealistic,because that's that that can get
me like the jumps are real forme in that.
But like third person, I'm good.
Give me a gun, give me aflamethrower, give me a knife,
we're good sure.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
Well, to answer your question to me, what games have
I played other than Claire?
I did win some Battle Royalewith Ryan, rhino and I.
I've been waiting for JohnCena's guy to skin be available.
I bought him for me and Rhino,and so we were John Cena and we
(36:06):
won as a team of Minecraft.
We're working on a city.
So we did a blank slate andcurrently my job is cobblestone
road.
So you have, I'm taking out thefirst layer of grass and I'm
making cobblestone everywhereand then slowly putting lines in
the road and we're slowlybuilding this.
(36:27):
He calls it Roku world.
I don't know why, but that's.
He made the sign that says Rokuworld and that's what it is.
So we're slowly creating asustainable city, rural town,
I'm not sure, but it's reallyfun to play that game with him,
(36:50):
to watch a almostseven-year-old's mind create
things and like cause that game.
You just do whatever you want,like blank slate.
Dad, what are your?
What are you?
What's your job?
You tell me what my job is.
You make the roads.
Okay, how many roads?
He said a hundred.
I'm on it and it's going totake me a long time to make
(37:11):
these roads, but then I'llfinish, like the roads and he'll
start building a house and thenI'll have to add like a
sidewalk to the house and hegets so excited and he's like
Dad, now you got to make one forthe garage, blah, blah, blah
and he'll build the garage.
So Minecraft with him and I hasactually been a lot of fun, and
(37:31):
I'll play on my computer, andright outside my office door is
my PlayStation and the TV that'sdownstairs so he'll play there,
so we don't even need headsets,we can just scream back and
forth to each other, which isreally fun.
So a lot of Minecraft, a bunchof Fortnite and then Claire,
that's been mine at night.
(37:53):
I think I am burnt out on EldenRing.
I haven't had the desire toplay it since that day that I
went into this Potts dungeon Ithink I talked about it last
week and I played it for 45minutes straight and I died and
there's no save point except allthe way up at the top, and now
(38:16):
you gotta work your way all theway back down, which probably
won't take 45 minutes to getback down there, it'll probably
take 20.
But I'm like I don't reallywant to do that again.
So I think it's just time for abreak for Meldon Ring, which is
perfect because now I can playClaire.
And realizing how big claire isis when I finally got to the
(38:39):
open world and I zoomed way outand like it kept going and going
and going and then I kind ofscrolled all the way up and
scrolled all the way down.
I'm like I have to traversethis land by foot, like Like, oh
my God, this is going to becrazy.
But something happened to methis week when I was driving
home.
It's been in my mind a lotlately and I was driving and
(39:06):
where I'm working they're notmountains.
I mean, I guess you could labelthem a mountain, but they're
not really mountains.
But you're driving on thehighway and you see like the
mountaintops and it's likerolling mountains, and I took a
picture of it and posted in theDiscord and said you know, all I
can think about when I seethose mountains is I can explore
there from these open worldgames that I've been playing.
(39:28):
And now, every time I see aview, I'm like man, I could get
there if I wanted to, and that'swhat these open world games
have done to me.
But in typical Marcus factorfashion, yeah, that too.
I can't give you one answer onone game that messed me up.
There's two, it has to alwaysbe two.
(39:50):
So one that was scary, thattook me a year to beat because
literally the game scared me somuch was the original dead space
.
My friends, uh, made fun of mebecause the game scared the
living, ever living shit out ofme.
And I remember this one momentwhere you had to go outside and
(40:10):
flip a switch to vac, put vacuumback in the ship.
Isha Mora was the ship.
I can't remember the name ofthe ship.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
Anyway, yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
It is.
That game is in my head foreverand you went into zero G and
all you hear is Darth Vader andyou can't hear anything.
All of a sudden my screen isturning red and I turned around
and there's this necromorphthing like hitting me and I
(40:42):
can't move because I'm in zero Gand I'm like kind of jumping
and flying.
He killed me.
That has to be my biggest fearin the world is being stuck in
zero g after that game I have totell you psychologically how
you heal yourself from what wejust both described how you
(41:07):
ready?
Speaker 3 (41:07):
okay, whatever game you're playing, the first thing
you do when you see somethingbig, bad and scary is you take
your character and you take thatcontroller and you run straight
into that thing and make noeffort to fight it.
Okay, and what will usuallyhappen?
(41:29):
I did this in Resident Evil 7,which is a first-person game
it's the first time ResidentEvil had first-person and I was
scared at the beginning.
It was just a creep factor thatI was not ready for.
Actually, I did this byaccident.
But then I was reading researchon horror games and psychology
(41:50):
articles later in life and I waslike, oh my gosh, I did that in
Resident Evil.
And here's what I did.
I got so lost in the hallwaysthat I basically ran into Daddy
Baker who is walking around andhe can actually cut your leg off
and like you have to go crawlto a health potion, pick up your
(42:15):
severed leg and heal the healthe severance.
Like you pour the health potion, it like fuses your leg back to
the stump and that's like theworst ending to the opening of
the game.
Right, like, if that happens toyou, it means you have
completely failed the part whereyou're supposed to run away
from him.
If that happens to you, itmeans you have completely failed
(42:35):
the part where you're supposedto run away from him.
But because I did that none ofthe times running away from him,
the rest of the game felt scaryBecause I was like, oh, I've
seen the most gruesome, gory,devastating thing this game can
show me.
So now I can just play it likeit's a video game.
It's not a horror game anymore,it's just a game.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
It's not a horror game anymore, it's just a game,
yeah, well, either way, it tookme a year because I could
literally only play it once amonth because the game would
mess with me so much.
And that was just, andeventually I beat it and then it
was obviously less scary.
But the other game that messedwith me was Mass Effect 2.
(43:17):
There's a part of one of themissions it was one of the I
call it the point of no returnmission when once you do this,
there's no going back to do anyside quests.
You're not visiting any planets, you're in the end game.
Most games have it.
You know what I mean.
Elden Ring was, once you lightthe fire and start the burning
(43:42):
of the Erd tree Like that's thepoint of no Return you can't go
back to normal lands betweenafter that point and you and you
go to this mission and if yourcharacters die, that's it,
they're done.
They won't move on to masseffect three.
So you better save two files,because if you don't get what
(44:07):
you you don't, if you don't getthe decision or the outcome that
you want, you're losing yourcharacters.
And the first time I did it Ilost my favorite character
because I didn't make the rightdecision.
And when she died, I literallysat there with my hands on my
head going, oh my God, how did Ilose Tali?
(44:30):
Like, how did that happen?
Oh my God, I just killed myfavorite character and I stopped
, I reloaded and you know, and Ifixed it, but save scum.
I didn't care, like that wassomething that I could not give
(44:50):
up.
Yeah and she and uh, hey, man,I'll tell you what it uh, it was
definitely made me hurt on theinside, but most recently the,
(45:14):
the, the intro to Claire, wheneverybody turns to flower petals
oh my God, my heart was likemelting, like, oh my God, this
is real.
And then I don't know if thisis a spoiler or not, so if you
don't want to know anythingabout the story, then don't
(45:35):
listen to this next 30 seconds.
When they go and they're andthey say, oh my god, this is
expedition 81, I'm like, holyfuck, they've been coming here
all these for the last 50 yearsand every year somebody's dying.
How long did they live beforethat?
Speaker 3 (45:57):
because at 81, I'm pretty sure I ain't going on an
expedition expedition zero wasthe number 100, so they've been
doing it for 67 years, right?
But if their logic is, you goon your final year.
How effective could ExpeditionZero even possibly have been?
(46:19):
Because that's a bunch of99-year-olds.
So I think that Mael is ateenager and she goes early
because she doesn't want tocontinue living on the island of
Lumiere without her adoptivebrother, slash mentor Gustav,
(46:43):
who raised her.
Because you also don't getraised by your parents, because
your parents get gommaged out ofyour life, which is the dust
and rose petals where youevaporate dust and rose petals
where you evaporate, right.
So you have your parents onlyfor a little while in this
culture, especially when thenumber gets below 40, right?
Like, so what age were you?
(47:04):
Don't have to answer this, but,like, think about what age were
all of us when our parentsbecame 40?
What age were all of us whenour parents became 33?
Actually, I'm a paradox now,because I think I was born when
my parents were 32.
Ha, so I could still exist inthis game.
I just wouldn't have beenraised by them because they
(47:27):
would.
They would have been gommaged,like at some point.
I mean if, if I'm the adulthere, then I'm already gone.
We're all already gone.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
We're all over 33 no, well, over 33 yeah yeah, did
you guys know that we're olderthan google?
If you want to mess with yourkids, tell them you're older
than google and they're gonna belike you're old.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
I'm older than the internet, so yeah, I well.
Speaker 3 (47:56):
What year is the internet credited with being
birthed?
I'm older than the internetbeing in most homes for sure,
for shizzle, I mean.
I'm as old as the Legend ofZelda.
I'm older than Final Fantasy,how's that?
Speaker 1 (48:26):
Well, either way, I think that Games that mess with
your head in a let's.
Let's leave this with apositive note.
One game that I played thatleft me really happy and
positive Honestly note one gamethat I played that left me
really happy and positivehonestly was star wars, the old
republic.
When you finally cleared a raidboss.
Like the pure joy when you beata raid boss with your friends
(48:52):
after making them die for thelast four months is an
incredible feeling and that gamewill always hold me in a really
high regard because of howgreat I felt after those moments
we talking about Darth Revanagain?
Speaker 3 (49:10):
No, no, talking about Kephis.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
Nope, honestly what's a guy from Dread Palace?
No the goodest the, the, notthe Dread Council.
He was the uh nope Starik, no,no, he was like a general After
you, not after you.
Kill the monster where shetakes his toll in blood, not
(49:39):
Corruptor Zero.
Oh my god, draxus.
Gate Commander Draxus yes, whenwe beat that boss on hard mode.
Now we're a bunch of noobraiders who have never done
actual hard content and it tookmonths to beat that guy on hard
(50:01):
mode because we literally had noidea what we were doing.
That was maybe what it has tobe one of the top 10 moments in
my gaming life.
Speaker 3 (50:14):
Yeah, I really do miss progression rating and I
miss this is gonna sound reallyweird I miss how manageable Star
Wars the Old Republic was whenI was playing it.
You know like I love FinalFantasy 14 and there are things
(50:37):
I definitely love about bothgames, but one of the things
about XIV is it's so massive,like the first M, the massive
part.
I can't wrap my head aroundcaring about those deep goals
because I know there's so manyof them.
That makes my actual goal feelimpossible.
(50:59):
With the old republic, my goalwasn't impossible.
I just never ended up on a teamwhere the other seven people
were all equally dedicated andalso without ego and treated
each other right.
Yeah, and so like there wereteams where we treat each other
(51:19):
right but we didn't have thededication to playing well.
There were teams where we hadthe dedication to playing well
for five or six of the eightpeople, you know, but when
you're playing that level ofintense content, you really do
need all eight people to havethat synergy that, like no
matter what, we were going to betogether until we've got this.
(51:40):
That being said, you know someof my friends go into party
finder and play with completestrangers and get their
achievements that way.
I have no idea how they makethat work.
That would not fit into mylifestyle, though, cause I think
when you do that, you'recommitting yourself to like I'm
going to stay in this group forfive hours If that's what it
takes, and three pool rule.
(52:02):
Yeah, oh, what's, what's that?
Speaker 2 (52:04):
If, if, if, if, the if the group that you have
doesn't clear something withinthree pools, it's perfectly
acceptable to say, okay, I gotsay, okay, I gotta go.
I don't have time to keepprogging this whole time, even
on like savage content ornightmare content.
Speaker 3 (52:17):
That seems unreasonable to me.
Speaker 1 (52:19):
Like you're not gonna clear that content in three
I've watched some really goodraiders go into a nightmare raid
and just do it, no problem,once you know the dance, and if
you get eight people that knowthe dance, like there should be
(52:40):
no reason why.
Hey, what are you doing?
I'm doing this, okay, great,I'll do this, you'll do this,
and then everybody just makes ithappen.
Speaker 3 (52:48):
That's a chicken or the egg phenomenon, though,
because in this scenario, I'm aperson who wishes I was doing
this.
Therefore, I am not one ofthose eight people, meaning now
we need seven people to carry mylame behind through a fight
that I don't understand right,but if you work us all the time,
yeah, but it's differentdoritos.
Speaker 1 (53:07):
I knew you were going to say that, actually, so I was
already ready for that answerit was.
Speaker 3 (53:11):
I was loaded on that, yeah no, I knew he was.
Speaker 1 (53:15):
But the difference is is you're on a prog team with
me.
If you're putting in a puggroup that says looking for
seven to clear X boss, whenpeople come in and say, hey, I
can come, you can say how manytimes have you cleared this?
Oh, I've never cleared it.
Well, then you're not coming.
I'm looking for somebody toclear it with me, right, you can
(53:39):
be specific in what you'reasking for in a pug group.
If you're joining a group, youcould say, hey, I would love to
join you fight Darth Vader, butI've never done the Darth Vader
raid.
Speaker 3 (53:52):
What is a pug group?
Speaker 1 (53:55):
I don't know what the acronym stands for up group.
Speaker 3 (53:58):
Oh, pick up, picking up randos that you don't know.
Okay, awesome, thank you.
So we're just trying to beeducational here.
We're the gaming personaeducational yeah, so.
Speaker 1 (54:10):
So, doc, what game did you shut off?
And it left you overjoyed withhappiness.
Speaker 3 (54:19):
There are quite a few .
Journey changed my life becauseof what it is and the time when
I played it.
The Persona games that I'vefinished Persona, persona 5,
both have that.
And then there's achievementbased things, like any game that
(54:43):
I've cleared on the highestdifficulty, like that moment of
being, like I, I did everythingthere is in this game.
Usually there's a platinumtrophy connected with that, but,
like the force unleashed gameshad that for me.
Devil may cry 4 had that for me.
Bioshock and bioshock infinitehad that for me.
(55:05):
Sure.
So you know the last of us also.
You know just games where youknow, going all the way back,
the moment where you have 150Pokemon in your Pokedex and the
last wild Pokemon you need toget to 151 attacks you in the
(55:29):
grass and you're just like, ohmy gosh, I have enough Pokeballs
, I just have to make sure Idon't kill their health bar.
And then I catch it and thenyou get your little certificate
that says you completed thePokedex, and so I was able to do
that in Pokemon.
Yellow was the first one I everfinished the Pokedex, and so
(55:52):
Red, yellow and Silver are theonly ones where I ever
accomplished that.
And then you know, there's justso many Pokemon now I don't
know that I ever will get itagain.
But those completion momentswhere the difficult challenges
in the rearview mirror,defending my dissertation, you
(56:12):
know, like these things are notjust video game things, and I
think that that's one of themost important things I can say
on this episode is my love ofvideo games created the appetite
to believe in myself and goafter those things.
But I have done my best to havethat same drive elsewhere in my
(56:33):
life, to have that same driveelsewhere in my life.
You know, whether it's thewings of the architect and
defeating Brontes, or getting towrite book chapters or a book,
or go stand on stage at a fanconvention and talk about my
love of video games and what Ican do for all of us that have
that same love.
And that's what those videogames have done for me and what
(56:55):
I hope they do for everyoneright.
Speaker 1 (56:57):
What about you doritos?
Speaker 2 (57:03):
oh, I would have to say elden ring oh yeah,
finishing that was.
I mean, that was something thatwas out of my comfort zone, not
one of my my not what I wouldnormally do, but, man, it was
great to finish that.
Both Horizon games, forbiddenWest and.
Speaker 1 (57:21):
Zero Dawn.
Oh man, I forgot I watched youplay a bunch of that.
Yeah, that game was beautifultoo.
Speaker 2 (57:29):
So so doing that and the DLCs for those was very
satisfying.
It had a good conclusion, goodending, and then it thoroughly
enjoyed those.
Speaker 3 (57:41):
Hmm, I feel so bad for not mentioning Elden ring
right now.
Speaker 1 (57:45):
Hey, you know I I could have said it, but I'm just
thinking of pure happiness,like when I beat the Elden beast
, I did go crazy and all of that, and Melania and all that, but
man, there's nothing.
No dopamine hit that I've evergotten after progging Commander
(58:10):
Gatekeeper whatever his nameDraxus after six months on hard
mode and we finally beat it.
That feeling, I mean thatruined, I ruined video game
friendships with that boss,right Like that, was the point
where I realized not everybodycan do this and not often can
(58:35):
you get a group of people thatare going to stick together for
six months to beat a hard modeboss, not even the nightmare
mode boss, and honestly, thenightmare mode boss is easier
than the hard mode in my opinion.
Speaker 3 (58:49):
You know what you just described, though, about
groups breaking apart,friendships ending, groups
breaking apart, friendshipsending, and the challenge being
too much stress on arelationship.
That is why there aregravestones and failed
expeditions all across thepathways, everywhere.
(59:09):
It's because not everyonefinishes their journey, it's so
much easier to give up.
Not everyone finishes theirjourney, it's so much easier to
give up, but I think that, forme, video games taught me to
press, continue, reload andcontinue the journey.
Thank you,
Welcome to the Gaming Persona Podcast.
I'm MarcusB814.
I'm joined by my esteemed bestfriend, dr Gameology, and we're
here to talk about video gamesand sidebars.
Why?
Because that's what I do I'mhere for the sidebar, he's here
to drop psychology on you, andthis is our show right now.
(00:21):
Right now, did you guys heartoday that Steam was like
destroyed for 20 or 30 minutes?
No, so Hollow Knight Silksongwas released today and it
basically broke Steam.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Good for Steam, good for Steam, good for Hollow
Knight.
That's actually amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Yeah, well, it's just years in the making, I guess.
Have you guys ever playedHollow Knight?
No, the first one.
So, excuse me, I tried it andI'm going to try something new
today and see if my add willwork.
But anyway, so I tried.
(01:10):
I tried it once and it didn't.
It's a 2d, but, like I didn'trealize, it's basically like
dark souls kind of a game and Iwas getting obliterated wait,
wait.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
I need to understand.
How do you 2d dark souls?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
it's google it.
It's a size.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
It's like ori no, you're my podcast co-host,
marcus, you just tell me.
So it's part of the episode.
Come on, help me out.
So it's basically hades I neverplayed hades.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Hades.
I never played Hades, okay, no,it's.
It's like said, it's more likeOri.
It's a 2d, it's a Castlevaniagame.
Yeah, it's Castlevania Metroidstyle game.
Yeah, so it's.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
It's definitely it's a side scroller.
It's like Castlevania you gointo like rooms and their save
points, blah, blah, blah, butit's just like a Dark Souls.
I don't like the camera here.
I tried it.
I quit.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Oh, that's even worse , I know.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
I don't even understand what we're doing, but
right now Marcus is hitting hiseighth webcam position of the
podcast.
It's actually the secondsmartass, but that's we're doing
.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
But right now marcus is hitting his eighth webcam
position of the podcast.
It's actually the second smartass, but that's we're gonna.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Just you know I'm counting all the tilts left and
right as additional oh, allright, the motion sickness that
you're getting.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
That's why when in video games, you turn off the
motion blur and turn off thefilm grain I've never messed
with any of those options in mylife.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Is that a thing?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
yeah, dude yeah, turn off it next time you play
claire, shut off motion blur andshut off film grain, and you're
gonna be like, wow, this gameis unbelievable why would they
make default options that lowerthe quality of the game?
Cause there's weirdos out therethat think it makes it look
better, but I don't.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Well, maybe they think you're a weirdo and well,
we already know that.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, duh, they're in .
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Oh, in our own groups .
Speaker 1 (03:18):
I hope it doesn't fall.
Hold on.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Oh my gosh, you got Rani, ooh.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Oh, the hat comes off too.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
You guys, this is a great segue.
Hang on, Just like.
Let me grab something.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Huh, diggity, oh that's, we haven't become that
kind of podcast.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Yet, marcus, we never will.
We said yet we might, you neverknow, look at my box again.
No, giggity, look at my box.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
The door is open.
What?
A box it looks like it saysfarfanoogan something.
It came from somewhere far away, marcus.
What a box.
It looks like it saysFarfanoogan something.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
It came from somewhere far away, Marcus.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Oh, Funky Butlovin.
Did he say Funky Butlovin?
Speaker 3 (04:13):
No, somewhere far away.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, that's what you read.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
I'm not opening it because I have a content creator
goal that I've never gone after, but I finally have a thousand
followers on TikTok, and so I'mplanning to add vertical
streaming to what I do, orYouTube shorts to have my live
(04:37):
feed and TikTok.
I already have it set up in OBS, but I need a stream key for
TikTok and in order to get that,as far as the research I've
done, it seems like you need athousand followers.
I have a thousand followers,but I also need to stream for 25
minutes in TikTok studio beforeI can get a stream key.
(05:00):
That does not change everysingle time.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Oh, that's easy.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
It is because I love talking for 25 minutes at a time
.
So one of those three times I'mgoing to unbox my box, which is
a statue, a 30 inch statue or a30 centimeter statue, so one
foot right, one foot.
Statue of the monolith fromclear, obscure.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Expedition 33 which was what you found today yeah, I
found it well.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
so I got to the end of the game today and I'm not
going to spoil anything, but wegot a really cool view of the
monolith from where we were at.
It's just such a beautiful game, marcus, you've been playing
all week, right, okay?
Speaker 1 (05:51):
so now I see what it is.
I didn't know what it was.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Oh yeah, it's the tower that has the number
painted on it, and this statuehas the paintress in her
crouched position at the base inthe tunnel of the tower.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
She's in her crouched position in the box.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yes, okay, got it yes .
Speaker 1 (06:13):
All right, so maybe that's the parts that I missed,
as I was just space barringthrough the story to get through
the entrance area.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Yeah, through the story to get through the
entrance area, yeah, well, I'mglad you realize about an hour
into the game that it's worthpaying attention and it's
beautiful and heartbreaking andeverything that humanity is
existing so we can feel isbottled up in that game.
Life-changing stuff stuff wellthen, yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
What I'll say is yes, I, I don't know when did I
start playing it?
Last week, last week?
Yeah, last week after last week, after the podcast, I was
chatting with doritos and doc,like we usually do in the
Discord, which join the Dr, dr,dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr,
(07:08):
dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr,dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr,
dr, dr.
So I just pulled it up.
Doc got so excited and Istarted playing it and there was
a couple people in the Discordand I was I call it space
(07:33):
barring, but I was justforwarding the story, not really
listening, and I was about anhour and a half into the game,
about 85 minutes, so into thegame, and I stopped for the
night and I was talking to docthe next day.
I was like, man, I shouldprobably really start this over.
And he's like, yes, you should.
And I was like, okay, I'm goingto start it over.
(07:56):
But then I remembered thatthere's something called YouTube
and I decided that those twohours that I've already done, I
can't double that for game time,for my play, because I only get
a few hours a week to game.
So I was like you know what?
I'm going to go back and watchall the cut scenes the entrance
(08:19):
area, the opening area, cutscenes again and listen to, like
, the dialogue so that I cancontinue the journey of the game
.
And I did that and I startedplaying it.
And two days in a row I'm inand I fought all day yesterday
to get home and be able to playand I did.
(08:42):
I don't know how many hours Iplayed, I played for a while.
The game is incredible.
I really love the turn-basedcombat in this game because my
ADD, as you guys, if you eversee me on video, like I'm always
moving and my legs are alwaysshaking.
Legs are always shaking.
I can't sit still.
(09:05):
And the Dodge Perry actionsreally keep me engaged in the
game because it's like, eventhough it's not your turn to
attack, you better watch outbecause this guy's going to mess
you up, kind of a thing youknow.
And, as you guys saw I'm goingto use my own words I am a
graphical whore and this game itmay not be the most beautiful
(09:33):
game I've ever seen, but man, isit close.
And so I play on a 4K monitorat 120 hertz, on a 4k monitor at
120 Hertz.
And when I put the graphicsettings on Epic, I'm getting
like 58 to 60 frames and I waslike, oh no, it's time for a new
(09:55):
graphics card.
I can't play a game on ultra.
And I turned it down to highand it was much better.
I was getting like 80 frames.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
I was a little cried.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yes, yes, it did so.
Last night I was shopping fornew video cards and uh, yeah, so
I'm done.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
I gotta ask Doritos something really quick, Marcus,
because it directly ties intowhat you said.
Doritos, what is space-barring?
A game?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
That is where you so space-barring a game primarily
comes from those of us from thewho've played sotor for long
enough, where you will space barthrough a conversation, one
that you've seen or heard dozensof times.
So, in order to get through itfaster, you'll hit the space bar
.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Other games have similar mechanics yeah, we're
some like hold Q hit our escapeto skip.
You know what I mean.
On an Xbox controller greatestcontroller ever you hit start
and it'll kind of just skipthrough the cutscenes, but
(11:01):
that's what I did.
Anyway, once I started playingthe game, I can't get over how
beautiful the game is and Ithink the most messed up thing
about the game so far is thatall the dead people that came
before them are still there.
They're just like frozen intime, looks like they looked at
(11:24):
Medusa and they're like turnedto stone.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
That's fucked up, messes with my head big time.
It's like you're climbing MountEverest and you die on Mount
Everest.
They can't bring your body down, so it's just lives forever
frozen.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
There's only about 150, some odd people up there.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Oh rest in peace, all you crazy people.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Well, the other.
You know, one of my favoritegames ever.
That's definitely aninspiration to me and Claire
Obscure.
Expedition 33 is going to beone of these games.
Just time has to keep passing.
But Journey has thosetombstones.
From the very beginning of thegame you start seeing the stones
(12:11):
of people who gave up on theirjourney and did not go after the
mountain.
In Expedition 33, it's amonolith, not a mountain, but
you have the same symbolism and,just like the hero's journey is
echoes of the same story, overand over, with a new coat of
paint.
That coat of paint is the world, the characters, the central
(12:31):
conflict.
It has the same motion.
It has the three-act structurethat we're so used to in our
movies and other stories that weenjoy.
Video games do that andExpedition 33 is tapping into
such a primal story that, evenif you're playing it for the
first time, I swear some of whatyou're feeling, marcus, and
(12:54):
some of what I've been feelingthis year, is that I'm not
playing this game for the firsttime.
I'm playing something inside ofme that not only wants to be
awake but it wants to be what myentire day is about.
It's hope, it's overcomingdeath, it's overcoming loss and
being okay and it's trying tocreate a future that's better
(13:16):
for people behind me than it wasfor the people in front of me,
and those are really powerfuldreams for people to have, and
we relive those every single cutscene of this game in one way
or another yeah, the game reallymesses with my head and I think
(13:39):
that I'm getting I don't knowhow it always comes back to mass
effect, but it messes my withmy head the way mass effect
messed with my head and it andsince yesterday I've watched a
bunch of the 15 tips.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
I wish I knew about Claire before I played kind of
videos.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
You know the the before you get started watch
these tips things yes.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
And it actually has helped me a lot to understand
the game because, again, I'vekind of fast forwarded through
the whole like, hey, these arethe different things that you
can do in the game.
There's a couple of things thatI have no idea what I'm doing.
Like they say that once you,once you use an item, like your
(14:42):
picto things, for so many timesother players can use it.
I don't know how to equip thaton them.
You know what I mean.
There's certain things that Idon't know what to do.
But that brings us to our topicof today, and Doc brought it
into it.
But I'm going to ask you bothwhat games you played this week.
But just to kind of give ourlisteners something to think
(15:04):
about while we talk about thegames that we've played, the
topic of today is what gamemessed with your mind playing it
that impacted you in a positiveway or a negative way.
So, doritos, what have yougamed this week?
(15:25):
Week?
Speaker 2 (15:27):
well, likely.
I'm on holiday this week, soI've done a fair bit of gaming
that's right, you are you.
This, this lucky man has been onvacation and not going to work
all week and using some time offmuch needed off.
So I've been playing Surtur.
No great surprise there Beendabbling in Lotro Lord of the
(15:51):
Rings Online.
Wow, so, with New RepublicOutriders that they've got a
clan in there.
So I'm just kind of just what'sit like?
Beginning quests, that kind ofstuff?
Been starting to dabble inFinal Fantasy 14 doing a lot of
the opening fetch quests andlearn the skills and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Let's see hey, uh, just kidding, just to interject
your Final Fantasy 14.
The first thousand quests arefetch quests, oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
I know the last thousand are fetch quests also.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
So which ones aren't, though?
Alright, playing a couplemobile games just to accept to
the galaxy heroes online mobilegame and just a word puzzle game
, because it entertains me andmy family started D&D campaign
oh, how did I get to dm?
it went good for the so.
So first session.
(16:50):
So it's just the four of us andwe're just kind of it's.
It's entertaining and comical.
So it's everybody kind oflearning how do you do the role
play as your character, withyour alignment and this and that
, and the kids are cracking upand my wife's just rolling her
eyes and shaking her head who'smore into it your son, your
(17:12):
daughter or your wife?
it's all kind of.
Even right now there's there'skind of a we don't know what to
do.
So what does this really looklike?
Type of thing.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Sure, and so what nights are you going to play
that Tuesdays.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Tuesday nights.
Yeah.
So with, with, since wehomeschool, we've got a lot of
uh a couple out of homeactivities scheduled for uh
Tuesday evening.
So those will count kind of asa PE credit for the kids.
And so they'll come home andit'll be my turn to cook dinner
tonight and then we'll gameafter dinner, kind of do more of
(17:51):
a finger food snacky dinnernight and you know game for a
couple hours.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
That's so awesome.
How long do you guys go for?
Or how long did you guys gamefor?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
a couple hours.
That's so awesome.
How long do you guys go for?
How long did you guys go for?
First of all, about an hour anda half ish.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
That's a good amount yeah, not too long, not too
short, and correct us, correctme if I'm wrong.
You used pre-made charactersfor this.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Yeah, so we bought one of the starter campaign sets
.
It's called Dragons ofStormwreck Isle and that is one
of their.
It's got six pre-madecharacters are really good.
I've done did some similarthing like you did.
How do you do it?
What's it like this and that?
Because my daughter originallywanted to DM it, but she was
(18:35):
getting behind in school andkind of wanted we all kind of
wanted to play it, but nobodywas um able to dm.
So we decided let me go aheadand read up on it.
So it's good.
It it's a.
It's a good starter campaign tolearn.
How does it work?
How do you role play it?
What are your characters likethis and that, and so we're
(18:56):
we're learning and making fun ofeach other as we go along.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
It's great oh yeah, I'm reading about it.
Adventure for characters,levels one through three.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
So it's a yeah, it's the very beginning, yep
individual character quests.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Oh, this is awesome.
So it comes with a rule book,adventure booklet, character
sheets and dice everything thatyou would need.
Awesome, wow, that's prettycool man.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Wow, yeah, I mean that's awesome.
I really wish I would have hada younger introduction to any of
the tabletop RPG kind of games.
I think I mean I turned outokay, but I just have so much
fun with the concepts in thosegames, like just the idea of
(19:43):
what I do for my work and howyou can simulate that in games
by having things like persuasionand skill and perception and
you roll checks on those Right.
Right, you roll checks on thoseRight, right, like one of the
things I talk about in mystreams with choice-based games.
(20:04):
Now that I know how tabletopgames work, is you know in
correct me if I'm wrong.
I mean, I know, with slow tourI'd be right.
I think mass effect works thesame way.
If you make a certain dialoguechoice and you make all those
choices based on the guide,you're going to get the same
result as the next person whomakes all those same choices
(20:25):
using that guide.
But when you're playing Baldur'sGate 3, which is basically D&D
as a video game it is not.
Basically it is D&D as a videogame.
I can make the same choices asyou, doritos, except I might
roll a one on something or Imight fail a check.
Right, I said the thing Iwanted, but the person in the
(20:45):
game now gets to reject the ideabecause I wasn't persuasive
enough.
And that's what life is like.
And so there's something aboutD and D that simulates life in a
way that video games usuallyare just like.
Oh, you're the main character,let me bow to your will.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Well, it's scripted interactions and programmed
interactions versus freeformkind of chance-based decision
making.
Because I say chance-basedmainly because you have the dice
to help direct some of thedecision bases yeah, yeah, for
me.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
I had terrible luck.
Every time I roll the dice Iwas always a five or less.
My barbarian was not too strong, but you know, what's cool
about that too Is if you decide,you guys love it.
Once you finish this campaignI'm looking at like the next One
is called Tyranny of Dragonsand like that Is a little bit
(21:51):
more.
It's pre-scripted but it has.
You know, it's 1 to 15 levelcharacters, 19 different maps,
there's 31 monsters and you cando more with it.
Yeah, and if that becomes yourTuesday night routine, it's
endless hours of fun.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Right.
So we're just again trying totrying to dabble it with see
what it's like play through thiscampaign, have fun with it and
give us a way just to kind ofhang out with the kids and let
them just interact with us in agame night without necessarily
having to play a board game.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Yeah, oh, dreaded non-technology games.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Oh, we love board games.
We usually end up getting likeMonopoly or the ones that we
like.
That we got several years.
A couple years ago when we weredown in tallahassee it was
called trek.
It's one.
They've got a couple ofdifferent versions of that out
where it's a national parks alsoall the united states national
parks and you have to go aroundand collect certain tokens and
(22:57):
not test your knowledge aboutparks and stuff like that.
So we really like that one.
But they can.
That one's actually about a twohour game, so we could replace
them, but we've played a coupletimes.
We enjoy it, but this issomething that that everybody's
kind of would like someone toget involved with, so we're
going to give it a go I love it.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
That's such a great family game night and everybody
gets to be their own person and,at the end of the day, the fact
that you're in charge of it itmakes it even better well.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
So, yeah, I get to play dm and then, just because
we only have a few or few people, I'm actually playing one of
the regular characters too.
So it's, you got to change yourvoice to be in character.
That through everybody else off.
I started laughing.
It's like I can't breakcharacters.
It's just, oh, that's so cool,the whole nine yards.
So, but to answer your questionthat you asked, other than,
(23:50):
what have I gamed with this week?
Say, not say messed me up, butuh, kind of had me thinking or
or really kind of got to me.
Originally I'll probably haveto say coat the original kotor,
(24:11):
because I mean, it's not likeyou, there wasn't any
foreshadowing coming through.
But when you get to the end ofthat game and you get that
reveal, it's like wow, okay,that's not quite what we
expected, and all that kind ofstuff.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Oh yeah, kotor, definitely messed with your mind
.
It was yeah, go ahead.
Oh, I was just going to sayI'll never forget when that
happened.
All these years later, neverknew Revan was Revan, mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
You know.
But the real question is whichgender is Revan?
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Yes is the answer.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Mine was a male, my like four of my friends.
They were all female.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Mm-hmm, yeah, my like four of my friends that were
all female.
Yeah, you know, that's aninteresting thing too, because
knights of the republiceventually ties into the old
republic, where they had to makea choice.
They chose to make definitively.
Revan is a male character, andthen also the novelization.
Definitively he ends upmarrying bastilla and, you know,
definitively, ends up gettingstuck in that temple for a very
(25:32):
long time for a very long timeoh yeah, but darth revan is male
in official canon Darth.
Revan is male in official canon,right, but here's what I would
say about that.
Some of Star Wars' best storiesis not in official canon.
So if you enjoy a differentversion of that, then just
(25:52):
continue enjoying it.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
No, no, I'm not saying that.
We were talking about what'scanon, and I actually didn't
know, but they said that he'scanon because that led to
Satele-Shan being born.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
That's true.
Yeah, you know it's interestingwith these choice-based games.
When you do sequels, you haveto tiptoe around the agency of
every player that played theprevious one.
You know the Witcher deals withthis.
Mass Effect dealt with this Tosome extent.
The Old Republic just had tomake choices like this is the
(26:28):
way it's going to go.
This is what Darth Revan is forour story.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
That's so interesting .
The reason we don't deal withthis in everyday life is we
don't have time machines yet ha,that's awesome yeah it's coming
.
Yeah, totally, once we havethem.
Then you get stories like thatstephen king book.
That's all about going back intime and trying to figure out
(26:56):
the assassination of john fkennedy.
I don't remember what year wasthat, 1961 or something, 71, 61?
I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
I wasn't around, so no, you weren't around then.
So, doc, what have you beenplaying?
Speaker 3 (27:13):
I've played a lot for me, a lot of balder's gate 3.
I've made it into act 2.
I'm playing with all the modsthat remove the things from the
game that make me upset, so Ilike to think I'm playing it
with house rules, right.
Like I explained on a stream indetail for like 20 minutes what
(27:34):
it is that made me quit thisgame every single time and what
was it but?
they well, yeah, so I don't likehaving to choose only three
people to walk around with mycreated character.
I feel like when you walk intoa mob and they have like 15
(27:55):
enemies and you have four, it'sthe game punishing you for being
stupid.
But I feel like if I have sixfriends at camp just lounging
around in their underwear andall of them can throw fireballs
just like me, then why wouldn'tthey be walking around with me
(28:16):
so that we can destroy this moball together and have a good
time being murder hobos?
So larian added the mod managerto the console versions of the
game and that allows you withoutbreaking the game at all.
It just works so perfect likean extra options menu.
You download whatever mods youwant and it puts them into your,
(28:39):
injects them into your game,perfectly unlike on pc where you
have to start and restart thegame over and over until it
works and you didn't break it.
So it's like mods for dummiesand I really love that.
So every member of my party canbe in my party while we're
walking around the world.
Okay, I like that right, and Ihave the ability to roll a extra
(29:09):
dice that automatically 20s outmy role if something that
really kills my motivationhappens, but I've only used that
in two situations.
One was an instant deathsituation, so I rolled bad and I
knew from my previousplaythrough oh I haven't saved
(29:32):
in like two hours and I just gotwasted.
So I used inspiration and thenuse the cheat dice to make sure
that I didn't fail that instantdeath roll.
You know.
So like I have a lot of logicto like take away my blame for
for this, but I'm enjoying it,right, like it's a video game,
(29:54):
and I found a way to enjoy it.
And there's other things toowith the cheat ring where you
can just summon money into yourinventory.
And one of the things that Idid not like in the natural the
four times I tried to naturallyplay Baldur's Gate 3 is how
broke you are all the time andhow bad your outfits are the
(30:25):
time and how bad your outfitsare and I want to look like next
level glam while I'm destroyingall my enemies.
Like it's from it's from my mmobackground.
Like you just want to lookfantastic and I felt like the
clothing that you can actuallyafford to have early in that
game.
This makes you look likeRenaissance fair trash.
I don't want to look like Renfair trash.
(30:45):
I'm so right now but like I'vegotten the game to a place where
I'm enjoying every second of itand I think that's all that
matters.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Okay, so that's it Just just polish.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
Oh well, I've.
I've played my stream games.
I finished clear, obscureexposition 33 today for the
second time and I got the betterending, where people end up
where they're supposed to.
There's still lots of deepfeelings in that, but it's nice
that I got to see both endings.
And I've also played oh jeez,what else have I played?
(31:24):
Persona 3.
I'm still working on Persona 3.
But Expedition 33 got into aspot where I just had to keep
going like a snowball effect.
Also, how crazy is it that inthe three games I'm playing
there are a total of four threesexpedition 33, persona 3,
(31:47):
reload and balder's gate 3.
That's funny, isn't that wild?
that's actually kind of reallyfunny yeah, I think the universe
had a glitch and none of thisis real.
We're in the Matrix and I'mstuck with the number three,
when my rows are supposed to bezeros and ones yeah, yeah, it's
(32:11):
possible wow, all right.
So what?
What have you been playing,though?
Did like.
Is there anything besidesexpedition 33?
Speaker 1 (32:23):
I will, but I want you to answer this.
Okay, what game really messedwith you in a positive way or a
negative way?
Speaker 3 (32:33):
okay, this is good timing.
I'm gonna be going to halloweenhorror nights for my rip tour
on sunday.
I'm like I'm getting ready.
I'm getting ready for it.
I love it so much.
I don't have fear anymore.
I just love the psychology offiguring out where the scare
actors are and noticing how theydo their job.
(32:54):
It like completely removes andI hate it.
I love it.
So there was a demo on the PS3for a game that was going to be
called Silent Hills and the demowas titled PT Okay.
Demo was titled pt okay and itwas basically a first person
(33:21):
view of walking through a alooping, endless hallway in a
scary house and there was thistall robed nightgown woman, very
scary looking face like, in thedistance and there was a
bathroom with a fetus in thesink and it was just, it was
gross, it was scary, it wascreaky, it was terrifying, it
(33:42):
was evil.
The radio and the the likeanswering machine.
It was just meant to creep youout, like walking through a
haunted house, but it's virtualand there's a jump scare.
That happens if you walk up toa door but don't go through and
then turn around where the roguelady is in your face and
(34:03):
strangles you to death and yougo to the ground and fade to
black and then you wake up onthe floor of the bathroom and
you know, the first time thathappens, heaven opens and and
just says you're welcome, comehere now You're done, and and so
, like I'm not scared ofHalloween Horror Nights, now, I
(34:27):
love Silent Hills, I loveResident Evil games Sure,
bioshocks, my jam.
Resident evil games sure,bioshocks, my jam like I.
I I just look at games that arescary and it's like if I have
time I'm down, right, I love it.
But that moment of being in myliving room and like my whole
body spasming and dropping thecontroller and feeling like I
(34:49):
just died, and then of courseyou know how to trigger it.
So then you bring people overand they're like having pizza
and stuff and talking, we'rejust talking, and then you know
it's about to happen.
So, like, you make it happenand you don't tell them.
And then they're like and theylike like I swear like one
(35:10):
person like threw their plate ofpizza on the ground and ran to
the bathroom and slammed thedoor.
When it happened I was like I'mso sorry, I felt bad on that one
yeah yeah, but so that's a gamewhere it created ptsd for me
for for a very like.
I don't like first personhorror games very much unless,
(35:31):
like, if it's photorealistic,because that's that that can get
me like the jumps are real forme in that.
But like third person, I'm good.
Give me a gun, give me aflamethrower, give me a knife,
we're good sure.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
Well, to answer your question to me, what games have
I played other than Claire?
I did win some Battle Royalewith Ryan, rhino and I.
I've been waiting for JohnCena's guy to skin be available.
I bought him for me and Rhino,and so we were John Cena and we
(36:06):
won as a team of Minecraft.
We're working on a city.
So we did a blank slate andcurrently my job is cobblestone
road.
So you have, I'm taking out thefirst layer of grass and I'm
making cobblestone everywhereand then slowly putting lines in
the road and we're slowlybuilding this.
(36:27):
He calls it Roku world.
I don't know why, but that's.
He made the sign that says Rokuworld and that's what it is.
So we're slowly creating asustainable city, rural town,
I'm not sure, but it's reallyfun to play that game with him,
(36:50):
to watch a almostseven-year-old's mind create
things and like cause that game.
You just do whatever you want,like blank slate.
Dad, what are your?
What are you?
What's your job?
You tell me what my job is.
You make the roads.
Okay, how many roads?
He said a hundred.
I'm on it and it's going totake me a long time to make
(37:11):
these roads, but then I'llfinish, like the roads and he'll
start building a house and thenI'll have to add like a
sidewalk to the house and hegets so excited and he's like
Dad, now you got to make one forthe garage, blah, blah, blah
and he'll build the garage.
So Minecraft with him and I hasactually been a lot of fun, and
(37:31):
I'll play on my computer, andright outside my office door is
my PlayStation and the TV that'sdownstairs so he'll play there,
so we don't even need headsets,we can just scream back and
forth to each other, which isreally fun.
So a lot of Minecraft, a bunchof Fortnite and then Claire,
that's been mine at night.
(37:53):
I think I am burnt out on EldenRing.
I haven't had the desire toplay it since that day that I
went into this Potts dungeon Ithink I talked about it last
week and I played it for 45minutes straight and I died and
there's no save point except allthe way up at the top, and now
(38:16):
you gotta work your way all theway back down, which probably
won't take 45 minutes to getback down there, it'll probably
take 20.
But I'm like I don't reallywant to do that again.
So I think it's just time for abreak for Meldon Ring, which is
perfect because now I can playClaire.
And realizing how big claire isis when I finally got to the
(38:39):
open world and I zoomed way outand like it kept going and going
and going and then I kind ofscrolled all the way up and
scrolled all the way down.
I'm like I have to traversethis land by foot, like Like, oh
my God, this is going to becrazy.
But something happened to methis week when I was driving
home.
It's been in my mind a lotlately and I was driving and
(39:06):
where I'm working they're notmountains.
I mean, I guess you could labelthem a mountain, but they're
not really mountains.
But you're driving on thehighway and you see like the
mountaintops and it's likerolling mountains, and I took a
picture of it and posted in theDiscord and said you know, all I
can think about when I seethose mountains is I can explore
there from these open worldgames that I've been playing.
(39:28):
And now, every time I see aview, I'm like man, I could get
there if I wanted to, and that'swhat these open world games
have done to me.
But in typical Marcus factorfashion, yeah, that too.
I can't give you one answer onone game that messed me up.
There's two, it has to alwaysbe two.
(39:50):
So one that was scary, thattook me a year to beat because
literally the game scared me somuch was the original dead space
.
My friends, uh, made fun of mebecause the game scared the
living, ever living shit out ofme.
And I remember this one momentwhere you had to go outside and
(40:10):
flip a switch to vac, put vacuumback in the ship.
Isha Mora was the ship.
I can't remember the name ofthe ship.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
Anyway, yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
It is.
That game is in my head foreverand you went into zero G and
all you hear is Darth Vader andyou can't hear anything.
All of a sudden my screen isturning red and I turned around
and there's this necromorphthing like hitting me and I
(40:42):
can't move because I'm in zero Gand I'm like kind of jumping
and flying.
He killed me.
That has to be my biggest fearin the world is being stuck in
zero g after that game I have totell you psychologically how
you heal yourself from what wejust both described how you
(41:07):
ready?
Speaker 3 (41:07):
okay, whatever game you're playing, the first thing
you do when you see somethingbig, bad and scary is you take
your character and you take thatcontroller and you run straight
into that thing and make noeffort to fight it.
Okay, and what will usuallyhappen?
(41:29):
I did this in Resident Evil 7,which is a first-person game
it's the first time ResidentEvil had first-person and I was
scared at the beginning.
It was just a creep factor thatI was not ready for.
Actually, I did this byaccident.
But then I was reading researchon horror games and psychology
(41:50):
articles later in life and I waslike, oh my gosh, I did that in
Resident Evil.
And here's what I did.
I got so lost in the hallwaysthat I basically ran into Daddy
Baker who is walking around andhe can actually cut your leg off
and like you have to go crawlto a health potion, pick up your
(42:15):
severed leg and heal the healthe severance.
Like you pour the health potion, it like fuses your leg back to
the stump and that's like theworst ending to the opening of
the game.
Right, like, if that happens toyou, it means you have
completely failed the part whereyou're supposed to run away
from him.
If that happens to you, itmeans you have completely failed
(42:35):
the part where you're supposedto run away from him.
But because I did that none ofthe times running away from him,
the rest of the game felt scaryBecause I was like, oh, I've
seen the most gruesome, gory,devastating thing this game can
show me.
So now I can just play it likeit's a video game.
It's not a horror game anymore,it's just a game.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
It's not a horror game anymore, it's just a game,
yeah, well, either way, it tookme a year because I could
literally only play it once amonth because the game would
mess with me so much.
And that was just, andeventually I beat it and then it
was obviously less scary.
But the other game that messedwith me was Mass Effect 2.
(43:17):
There's a part of one of themissions it was one of the I
call it the point of no returnmission when once you do this,
there's no going back to do anyside quests.
You're not visiting any planets, you're in the end game.
Most games have it.
You know what I mean.
Elden Ring was, once you lightthe fire and start the burning
(43:42):
of the Erd tree Like that's thepoint of no Return you can't go
back to normal lands betweenafter that point and you and you
go to this mission and if yourcharacters die, that's it,
they're done.
They won't move on to masseffect three.
So you better save two files,because if you don't get what
(44:07):
you you don't, if you don't getthe decision or the outcome that
you want, you're losing yourcharacters.
And the first time I did it Ilost my favorite character
because I didn't make the rightdecision.
And when she died, I literallysat there with my hands on my
head going, oh my God, how did Ilose Tali?
(44:30):
Like, how did that happen?
Oh my God, I just killed myfavorite character and I stopped
, I reloaded and you know, and Ifixed it, but save scum.
I didn't care, like that wassomething that I could not give
(44:50):
up.
Yeah and she and uh, hey, man,I'll tell you what it uh, it was
definitely made me hurt on theinside, but most recently the,
(45:14):
the, the intro to Claire, wheneverybody turns to flower petals
oh my God, my heart was likemelting, like, oh my God, this
is real.
And then I don't know if thisis a spoiler or not, so if you
don't want to know anythingabout the story, then don't
(45:35):
listen to this next 30 seconds.
When they go and they're andthey say, oh my god, this is
expedition 81, I'm like, holyfuck, they've been coming here
all these for the last 50 yearsand every year somebody's dying.
How long did they live beforethat?
Speaker 3 (45:57):
because at 81, I'm pretty sure I ain't going on an
expedition expedition zero wasthe number 100, so they've been
doing it for 67 years, right?
But if their logic is, you goon your final year.
How effective could ExpeditionZero even possibly have been?
(46:19):
Because that's a bunch of99-year-olds.
So I think that Mael is ateenager and she goes early
because she doesn't want tocontinue living on the island of
Lumiere without her adoptivebrother, slash mentor Gustav,
(46:43):
who raised her.
Because you also don't getraised by your parents, because
your parents get gommaged out ofyour life, which is the dust
and rose petals where youevaporate dust and rose petals
where you evaporate, right.
So you have your parents onlyfor a little while in this
culture, especially when thenumber gets below 40, right?
Like, so what age were you?
(47:04):
Don't have to answer this, but,like, think about what age were
all of us when our parentsbecame 40?
What age were all of us whenour parents became 33?
Actually, I'm a paradox now,because I think I was born when
my parents were 32.
Ha, so I could still exist inthis game.
I just wouldn't have beenraised by them because they
(47:27):
would.
They would have been gommaged,like at some point.
I mean if, if I'm the adulthere, then I'm already gone.
We're all already gone.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
We're all over 33 no, well, over 33 yeah yeah, did
you guys know that we're olderthan google?
If you want to mess with yourkids, tell them you're older
than google and they're gonna belike you're old.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
I'm older than the internet, so yeah, I well.
Speaker 3 (47:56):
What year is the internet credited with being
birthed?
I'm older than the internetbeing in most homes for sure,
for shizzle, I mean.
I'm as old as the Legend ofZelda.
I'm older than Final Fantasy,how's that?
Speaker 1 (48:26):
Well, either way, I think that Games that mess with
your head in a let's.
Let's leave this with apositive note.
One game that I played thatleft me really happy and
positive Honestly note one gamethat I played that left me
really happy and positivehonestly was star wars, the old
republic.
When you finally cleared a raidboss.
Like the pure joy when you beata raid boss with your friends
(48:52):
after making them die for thelast four months is an
incredible feeling and that gamewill always hold me in a really
high regard because of howgreat I felt after those moments
we talking about Darth Revanagain?
Speaker 3 (49:10):
No, no, talking about Kephis.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
Nope, honestly what's a guy from Dread Palace?
No the goodest the, the, notthe Dread Council.
He was the uh nope Starik, no,no, he was like a general After
you, not after you.
Kill the monster where shetakes his toll in blood, not
(49:39):
Corruptor Zero.
Oh my god, draxus.
Gate Commander Draxus yes, whenwe beat that boss on hard mode.
Now we're a bunch of noobraiders who have never done
actual hard content and it tookmonths to beat that guy on hard
(50:01):
mode because we literally had noidea what we were doing.
That was maybe what it has tobe one of the top 10 moments in
my gaming life.
Speaker 3 (50:14):
Yeah, I really do miss progression rating and I
miss this is gonna sound reallyweird I miss how manageable Star
Wars the Old Republic was whenI was playing it.
You know like I love FinalFantasy 14 and there are things
(50:37):
I definitely love about bothgames, but one of the things
about XIV is it's so massive,like the first M, the massive
part.
I can't wrap my head aroundcaring about those deep goals
because I know there's so manyof them.
That makes my actual goal feelimpossible.
(50:59):
With the old republic, my goalwasn't impossible.
I just never ended up on a teamwhere the other seven people
were all equally dedicated andalso without ego and treated
each other right.
Yeah, and so like there wereteams where we treat each other
(51:19):
right but we didn't have thededication to playing well.
There were teams where we hadthe dedication to playing well
for five or six of the eightpeople, you know, but when
you're playing that level ofintense content, you really do
need all eight people to havethat synergy that, like no
matter what, we were going to betogether until we've got this.
(51:40):
That being said, you know someof my friends go into party
finder and play with completestrangers and get their
achievements that way.
I have no idea how they makethat work.
That would not fit into mylifestyle, though, cause I think
when you do that, you'recommitting yourself to like I'm
going to stay in this group forfive hours If that's what it
takes, and three pool rule.
(52:02):
Yeah, oh, what's, what's that?
Speaker 2 (52:04):
If, if, if, if, the if the group that you have
doesn't clear something withinthree pools, it's perfectly
acceptable to say, okay, I gotsay, okay, I gotta go.
I don't have time to keepprogging this whole time, even
on like savage content ornightmare content.
Speaker 3 (52:17):
That seems unreasonable to me.
Speaker 1 (52:19):
Like you're not gonna clear that content in three
I've watched some really goodraiders go into a nightmare raid
and just do it, no problem,once you know the dance, and if
you get eight people that knowthe dance, like there should be
(52:40):
no reason why.
Hey, what are you doing?
I'm doing this, okay, great,I'll do this, you'll do this,
and then everybody just makes ithappen.
Speaker 3 (52:48):
That's a chicken or the egg phenomenon, though,
because in this scenario, I'm aperson who wishes I was doing
this.
Therefore, I am not one ofthose eight people, meaning now
we need seven people to carry mylame behind through a fight
that I don't understand right,but if you work us all the time,
yeah, but it's differentdoritos.
Speaker 1 (53:07):
I knew you were going to say that, actually, so I was
already ready for that answerit was.
Speaker 3 (53:11):
I was loaded on that, yeah no, I knew he was.
Speaker 1 (53:15):
But the difference is is you're on a prog team with
me.
If you're putting in a puggroup that says looking for
seven to clear X boss, whenpeople come in and say, hey, I
can come, you can say how manytimes have you cleared this?
Oh, I've never cleared it.
Well, then you're not coming.
I'm looking for somebody toclear it with me, right, you can
(53:39):
be specific in what you'reasking for in a pug group.
If you're joining a group, youcould say, hey, I would love to
join you fight Darth Vader, butI've never done the Darth Vader
raid.
Speaker 3 (53:52):
What is a pug group?
Speaker 1 (53:55):
I don't know what the acronym stands for up group.
Speaker 3 (53:58):
Oh, pick up, picking up randos that you don't know.
Okay, awesome, thank you.
So we're just trying to beeducational here.
We're the gaming personaeducational yeah, so.
Speaker 1 (54:10):
So, doc, what game did you shut off?
And it left you overjoyed withhappiness.
Speaker 3 (54:19):
There are quite a few .
Journey changed my life becauseof what it is and the time when
I played it.
The Persona games that I'vefinished Persona, persona 5,
both have that.
And then there's achievementbased things, like any game that
(54:43):
I've cleared on the highestdifficulty, like that moment of
being, like I, I did everythingthere is in this game.
Usually there's a platinumtrophy connected with that, but,
like the force unleashed gameshad that for me.
Devil may cry 4 had that for me.
Bioshock and bioshock infinitehad that for me.
(55:05):
Sure.
So you know the last of us also.
You know just games where youknow, going all the way back,
the moment where you have 150Pokemon in your Pokedex and the
last wild Pokemon you need toget to 151 attacks you in the
(55:29):
grass and you're just like, ohmy gosh, I have enough Pokeballs
, I just have to make sure Idon't kill their health bar.
And then I catch it and thenyou get your little certificate
that says you completed thePokedex, and so I was able to do
that in Pokemon.
Yellow was the first one I everfinished the Pokedex, and so
(55:52):
Red, yellow and Silver are theonly ones where I ever
accomplished that.
And then you know, there's justso many Pokemon now I don't
know that I ever will get itagain.
But those completion momentswhere the difficult challenges
in the rearview mirror,defending my dissertation, you
(56:12):
know, like these things are notjust video game things, and I
think that that's one of themost important things I can say
on this episode is my love ofvideo games created the appetite
to believe in myself and goafter those things.
But I have done my best to havethat same drive elsewhere in my
(56:33):
life, to have that same driveelsewhere in my life.
You know, whether it's thewings of the architect and
defeating Brontes, or getting towrite book chapters or a book,
or go stand on stage at a fanconvention and talk about my
love of video games and what Ican do for all of us that have
that same love.
And that's what those videogames have done for me and what
(56:55):
I hope they do for everyoneright.
Speaker 1 (56:57):
What about you doritos?
Speaker 2 (57:03):
oh, I would have to say elden ring oh yeah,
finishing that was.
I mean, that was something thatwas out of my comfort zone, not
one of my my not what I wouldnormally do, but, man, it was
great to finish that.
Both Horizon games, forbiddenWest and.
Speaker 1 (57:21):
Zero Dawn.
Oh man, I forgot I watched youplay a bunch of that.
Yeah, that game was beautifultoo.
Speaker 2 (57:29):
So so doing that and the DLCs for those was very
satisfying.
It had a good conclusion, goodending, and then it thoroughly
enjoyed those.
Speaker 3 (57:41):
Hmm, I feel so bad for not mentioning Elden ring
right now.
Speaker 1 (57:45):
Hey, you know I I could have said it, but I'm just
thinking of pure happiness,like when I beat the Elden beast
, I did go crazy and all of that, and Melania and all that, but
man, there's nothing.
No dopamine hit that I've evergotten after progging Commander
(58:10):
Gatekeeper whatever his nameDraxus after six months on hard
mode and we finally beat it.
That feeling, I mean thatruined, I ruined video game
friendships with that boss,right Like that, was the point
where I realized not everybodycan do this and not often can
(58:35):
you get a group of people thatare going to stick together for
six months to beat a hard modeboss, not even the nightmare
mode boss, and honestly, thenightmare mode boss is easier
than the hard mode in my opinion.
Speaker 3 (58:49):
You know what you just described, though, about
groups breaking apart,friendships ending, groups
breaking apart, friendshipsending, and the challenge being
too much stress on arelationship.
That is why there aregravestones and failed
expeditions all across thepathways, everywhere.
(59:09):
It's because not everyonefinishes their journey, it's so
much easier to give up.
Not everyone finishes theirjourney, it's so much easier to
give up, but I think that, forme, video games taught me to
press, continue, reload andcontinue the journey.
Thank you,
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