July 17, 2025 • 59 mins
Three gaming enthusiasts dive deep into what makes certain games addiction machines while leaving others abandoned after mere hours of play. We explore the psychology behind our gaming habits and debate whether microtransactions should be considered legitimate game mechanics or just economic exploitation.
• Fortnite as a "shopping mall" rather than just a game - analyzing the psychology of V-Bucks stores and limited-time offers
• The power of a game's first few hours to hook players or lose their interest completely
• Why Claire Obscure Expedition 33's dark premise creates an almost existential gaming experience
• Mass Effect's slow-burn approach to storytelling and why it struggles to hook some players initially
• How gameplay style varies dramatically between rushed story progression versus thorough world exploration
• What each host considers their personal threshold for abandoning games (from 3 hours to 20+ hours)
• Discussion of whether microtransactions are legitimate game mechanics or purely economic systems
Join us next time as we possibly venture into World of Warcraft or Fortnite together to experience these games as a team!
If you would like to support the show and help us unlock additional possibilities for future episodes and projects, this can now be done through Patreon!
You can watch us play games LIVE and join our communities to get more connection from every episode:
- DrGameology on Twitch - Continue the Journey LIVE in 2025!!
- MarcusB814 on YouTube - BOOMBA
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Thanks for Listening, and Continue The Journey!
Mark as Played
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 Gamology, 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.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
What are you going to spend your V-Bucks on Marcus?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
So I thought about that and there's.
I'm not really a skin guy, butthere's a.
It's called like somethingcaliente, it's a red hot pepper.
I could see myself runningaround the world of Fortnite as
a red pepper or just wait forsomething really good.
(00:48):
My son got deadpool, but it'slike comic book, like cell shade
deadpool, like with the blackoutline, so it's.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
That's actually rad, but it's gone now yeah,
fortnight does a lot toencourage us to part with our
money in a time-sensitive way.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Yeah, it's gross, it's really frustrating.
Yeah, it's actually amazing,but that's the mechanics of that
game.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
That's not a game mechanic, that is financial
blackmail.
Marcus.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
It's definitely a mechanic of that game.
The reason why that game isfree is because they have the
mechanic of you going to thecash shop and buying V-Bucks.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
We just created a whole different topic, but we're
going to talk about this and wehave a tiebreaker with us.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Oh boy, I'll try no.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Try not Ooh Jey Uso.
What Did he sign that?
Look at this.
Ready for this.
Try not Ooh Jey Uso.
What's up?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Did he sign that like in front of you?
He was right there.
Wow, that's so great.
So, okay, Microtransactions arenot a game mechanic.
That is capitalism, Marcus.
It is outside of the realm ofthe skill of the player
(02:09):
interacting with the avatar onthe screen.
I agree with that it is justhow you look.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
But it is the mechanic of the people that
created the game.
They said they're going tocreate a mechanic to drive
people to purchase stuff.
Yes, it's a micro transaction.
Yes, it has nothing to do withme running through and gunning
somebody down and if I die Ihave to restart a map.
But they built that into thegame's mechanics to get you to
(02:35):
spend money.
But, it's not a game's mechanic.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
It's a real-life mechanic as part of the economy,
but it is not part of thegame-critical mechanics.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
But it is, it's advertising, it's consumerism,
it's the haves versus thehave-nots.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
So just pause.
We're going to pause Everybodyhere.
If you don't know who's talkingin the background, that's good
old Doritos.
He's joining us tonight andhe's here to team up with Doc
against me to shut all of mygood points down that are going
through my head.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I'm marcus.
I don't have friends.
You're gonna turn me into acyber bully, marcus, good I
thought that was the wayambulance, it's okay the way.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Ambulance, all right, but what I'm saying is it may
not be a game mechanic, but itis in.
They created that mechanic forpeople to purchase stuff Right,
fortnite is a shopping mall.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Is what you're saying .
Speaker 1 (03:34):
You know, I actually very much agree with you on that
.
You want me to tell you why.
Yeah, yeah, do it.
So my son has started playing.
Every day he starts to play thegame, he goes right to the
vbucks store to see what'savailable.
Now he doesn't have any vbucks,but he likes to peruse.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
But just like dad has vbucks shopping right.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
So he's window shopping.
So you're right.
So you go to the mall.
If you I don't know when lasttime you guys went to an actual
mall, but if you did go to amall, um, if you go to a mall,
you are trying to go to lids tobuy a hat.
I'll just use that as anexample.
(04:20):
You're gonna walk by, you'regonna go, uh, you're gonna walk
by a bunch of stores and youmight stop into that store
knowing you're gonna walk by.
You're gonna go, uh, you'regonna walk by a bunch of stores
and you might stop into thatstore knowing you're not gonna
buy anything, but you want awindow shop.
It's the same thing with thevbucks store, and then he'll
play some matches and then alittle while later he'll go back
and look at the same stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
It's crazy yeah, I remember a couple months ago
there was mortal combat stuff infortnight and then the very
next month it was star warsstuff and I thought at that
period of time I might startplaying fortnight.
So I bought john cena as aplayable character.
(05:00):
I did one match.
I died because I didn't realizethat there was fall damage in
that game and I jumped off acliff to save time and I saved a
bunch of time.
I made the match very short, uh, and then I never went back to
it.
Um, so I would, in theory, Iwould love to become more of a
part of fortnite.
I don't know how that wouldtranslate in terms of my
(05:23):
streamer style.
One of the cool things abouthaving you on the show doritos
is, you know, twitch screws upthe watch streaks all the time,
like there's people where I showup and my streak just
disappears, goes from 32 to one.
It's like I didn't missanything.
But I'm sure if twitch hadaccurate stream stre, you'd be
in like 125 for me, like you'realways there you become one of
(05:47):
my very best friends that I getto talk to when I go live, and I
really appreciate you for that.
So it's awesome to have you bea part of the show and talk with
us about game mechanics andwhatever else comes up tonight.
Indeed.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
I'm actually excited because he's going to bring a
different take to all of ourconversations.
Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I'm the correct perspective, and then you're the
Marcus perspective and thenDoritos will be the I support
Doc perspective.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I'll take it.
My perspective is right in myhead.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
That's the only place it needs to be right in.
That's fine.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Exactly that's like when you argue with yourself you
don't lose the argument.
So, but I'm going to bring youto Fortnite.
So I have played Call of DutyBattle Royal.
I've played, I've played abunch of Battle Royale games.
Right, I will say Fortnite hasto be the most fun.
And I don't know why I don't dothe building stuff, because
(06:54):
that is not for me.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
So you all do the no build.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Yeah, I do the no build.
And what I'm saying is thegameplay itself is fun.
You know and maybe it's becausethey haven't put me in lobbies
with people that are way betterthan me I don't win every time,
but sometimes you go againstsome good people.
But the mechanic, the mechanic,the base mechanics of the game,
(07:21):
which you jump out of thebattle bus, you land, you find
your weapons or your loot andyou go around, it's fun.
Even when I get smoked in thefirst five minutes or 30 seconds
, it's still fun.
And that's not even when I'mnot playing with my son when, on
(07:42):
the flip side, you jump intoCall of Duty Warzone.
It's not as fun.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Why not?
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I don't know the feel of it.
Maybe Maybe the look, maybelike Fortnite the cartoony kind
of look makes it more fun.
I don't know.
I don't have that answer.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I think Call of Duty is locked into one aesthetic.
Fortnight's aesthetic opensitself up to everything.
Right, like you can havedeadpool, you can have an ai
darth vader that you chat withyour headset and it talks back
to you.
You you can have WWE,superstars, characters from
(08:27):
other games, movies, cartoons,comics, anime it's all in there.
And sometimes it's very uniquethe way it's integrated into the
battle style of Fortnite.
Other times it's just a skinwith the same guns as everybody
else.
So I just think Fortnite hascaptured the zeitgeist of the
(08:48):
modern era of gaming.
It's when did that game comeout?
Like 2015, ish, 16, maybe I?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
don't know.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
It just feels like it is such a dominant force for
making people who don't knowwhat video games are Think that
they know what video games are,think that they know what video
games are like.
In my field psychology andmental health counseling, a lot
of people's entire opinion aboutwhat video games do to children
and adolescents is based on afew 30 second clips they saw and
(09:21):
some tantrums that they sawthat are connected to fortnight
like that's.
That's what they think videogames are.
So when I try to talk to themabout how beautiful and tragic
expedition 33 is, they're likewhat's that?
And then I can't explain it tothem because it is not like
fortnight and all their brainswill absorb is but how is that
(09:41):
like Fortnite?
So it's become the baseline forthings that I have no interest
in talking about usually.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Well, that's because you play different games.
Doritos, how old is your son?
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Oh geez, he's 12 now.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Does he play Fortnite ?
Speaker 3 (10:03):
He has and he enjoys it.
He thinks it's fun.
Right now he play fortnight.
He has and he enjoys it.
He thinks it's fun.
Right now he plays more umfarming games at the moment.
Farming simulator yeah, itstyles from theirs yeah yeah,
those have really taken off toobut but he's, he does that, he's
done, he does world of tanks,he does a couple of smaller uh
(10:24):
things he's found on Steam for acouple bucks here and there
that he enjoys doing, but hestill plays that genre of Battle
Royale games.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Hmm.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Okay, and Fortnite will be eight years old in two
weeks.
It came out July 25th 2017.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Wait, fortnite came out july 25th 2017.
Wait, fortnight's came out whenI became a professor.
I remember this.
It wasn't actually out when Istarted teaching people.
My career is as old asfortnight everybody.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
I think the other thing too is they have creator,
creator, created events likemodes and they make multiple
different kinds of modes so like, if you don't feel like just a
battle royale, you can dosomething else.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
You can do rock band stuff in there really.
Yeah, they have rhythm gamesinside fortnight I didn't know
that yep, they do.
Wow, they have a dj mode aswell and they have lego
fortnight inside that I do knowyep, um, there's so many
(11:43):
different things inside fortnitethat expand beyond just the
basic stuff, and maybe that'swhy it's lasted this long it's a
platform now.
It's not just one game with onestyle of match.
It's it's an environment forgamers to gather thousands and
thousands, millions every day.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
I wonder what.
I wish there was a steam chartfor fortnite, but it's not on
steam because yeah, that wouldlet me say crossing the streams,
marcus.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Oh man, no I know careful across the streams gets
dangerous what is that?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
who who owns tencent does fortnite right, like
eventually, if you get throughall the ownership of this and
that is that right daily loginbut when you look at the news
reports for games, consumerismfortnight has been number one
(12:46):
across all platforms, exceptlike the switch for so long.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Wow, yeah so players right now 1.2 million.
24 hour peak 1.5 millionall-time peak.
Seven months ago, 14 millionplayers.
That's a lot of people playingthe game seven months ago would
(13:13):
put us.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Put us back to what christmas yeah, wow, christmas
time that's crazy.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
It has to be one of the most played games, right?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Should I try to stream Fortnite and see what
happens?
You should.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
You could yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Steam Summer Sale is over.
Did you buy anything?
Good, I sure did.
What'd you get?
Mortal Kombat 1.
And I'd never.
I wanted to buy Nier Automataor whatever it's called.
Automata, automata, yeah, I wasgoing to buy that because it
was like $9 in like the oh no,$16.
(13:59):
But I never bought it before itwas.
So it's in my cart and I'mremoving it now.
Oh, so sad.
That's fine, but I did buyMortal Kombat 1, and that is one
mechanic of a game I wanted tochat with you guys about Doritos
.
Have you ever played MortalKombat?
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Back when it came out in the original arcade yes,
like Mortal Kombat 1, mortalKombat 2?
.
The original original.
The original original.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
All right.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
The original when it came out in the arcade.
You had to go actually put coinquarters in.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah, yeah.
That's where my origin story asa gamer is too, is.
Mortal Kombat 1 at Pizza Hut.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Yeah, so I remember it.
And then I remember when itcame out for the Sega Genesis
and the blood code isA-B-A-C-A-B-B because they would
not allow blood to be in itwhen you have a cab.
Have a cab, got it?
Yep, um, so I bought it when Iwas on vacation and it's
(15:03):
actually turned out to be reallygood.
Like I'm not into it for theonline gaming, I'm just doing it
for the story, because you do amatch and it's like a five
minute cut scene into anothermatch to another five minute cut
scene.
It's actually pretty awesomeand I'm playing it.
I don't know what I'm playingit on.
There's there's like thehardest and then there's
(15:26):
something called very easy, easyand then normal or medium, I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
I'm playing it on easy because I'm doing it for
the story there's nothing wrongwith that, I think one of the
stories in the new era of mortalcombat, which is nine up
through now.
Um, I was playing on thehighest difficulty and had to
tune it down on the very lastfight of the story.
(15:54):
They just made shao kahn, in myopinion, impossible.
Uh, and then, ever since then,I've just been doing easy mode,
because I I don't tend to gointo higher difficulties very
often anymore right, but it's.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
It's actually compelling because the story is
good and for me now with thesteam deck, I can play literally
five or ten minutes and shut itoff and feel good and then if I
have a free five minutes I cando another match.
Yeah, I'm breaking up the story, but they replay the cut scene
(16:31):
that you just were in beforewhen you start it back up.
So for me it's a.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
It's a great steam deck game yeah, I play it on the
steam deck also.
It's one of those games that Iown on both playstation and in
steam and it's solid as a steamdeck compatible fighting game
sure very good.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
I uh also, I sold my laptop what yep.
So, uh, how to look around, orwell, no, so I I bought the
steam deck.
I fell in love.
I don't need a laptop.
It's got a 40, 80 in it.
It's a beast.
And a friend of mine who Iwatch wrestling with, he's been
(17:17):
looking for a laptop and I waslike, hey, man, I'll give you a
great deal.
He's like how much?
And he went to alien where'swebsite and he's like dude, that
that's a $3,000 laptop.
And I said, yeah, he goes, I'llbuy it.
Perfect, yeah.
There, you go and the Steam Deckhas taken over for me, that I
(17:37):
don't need it and I don't haveto re-buy anything, because
everything that I have on Steamis on that.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
That's a good point.
Also, I bought you Claireireobscure expedition 33, so do you
want to get into that?
Let me talk about one purchasethat I made.
Besides that, first, and thenwe will get into that.
(18:03):
Okay, okay, great.
I have purchased the mostbeautiful in my hands controller
that has ever been created.
You bought a gold shadow.
No, the playstation dual shockedge it's right here.
See, it's got little functionbuttons right here to change
(18:25):
profiles as the little togglesfor controlling how deep you
push the r buttons.
So now, like I can shoot you sofast now and uh, you can
actually take off the shinyplate here and replace the
thumbsticks when they wear outor start having bad connection
with the controller, voila.
(18:46):
So instead of buying a new 80controller, you just buy one or
two new thumbsticks for 10 or 15bucks, so I never have to buy a
new playstation controller everagain, because this is my baby.
I was playing stellar bladeuntil like midnight last night,
(19:06):
just interesting.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Ah yeah, you mean booby blades.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
No, stellar Blade is an amazing game with parrying
and dodge mechanics and devilmay cry combo systems.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
With the dead or alive boob mechanics.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Listen, you got to make life fun, Marcus.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
I do and this is fun to me, I am.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Full-fledged jiggle mechanics all the way.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
There's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Didn't say, there was yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Not you.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Maybe I should play Stellar Blade as my next stream
game and see what happens to mychannel.
You know, on that topic,youtube gives me recommendations
trying to get me to come backand make a YouTube video.
Right, because they have theircreator suite and they're like
here's the next five videos wethink you should make, which is
a really cool feature thatthey've added.
Two of the next five videosthey want me to make are about
(20:07):
Tifa and Final Fantasy, and thenone of the other five is about
continuing to talk about AdaWong, or Ada Wong and Jill
Valentine in Resident Evil games, because apparently all the
things I talk and the two ofthem they want me to do about
Sora and Kingdom Hearts and thepower of friendship.
(20:27):
So there is some wholesomethings YouTube wants me to make
too.
I'm just saying they reallyjust want me to talk about more
video game girls, because that'swhat people are clicking on on
my channel.
Let me ask you a question.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
This is a real deep rooted question.
That is like discussed all overthe internet.
This is a real deep rootedquestion.
That is like discussed all overthe internet.
If you have a game that isexactly the same mechanics and
it's hard.
Just let me get through thisCause.
I'm trying to say it, right,but the, the protagonist is a
(21:03):
female, but one has a wonderfuloutfit on and looks like I don't
know.
It's hard for me to say it likeyou know, a stellar blade
female versus not.
Are you more likely to play agame that has the stellar blade
(21:28):
style, female or the other, ordoes it not matter to you?
Speaker 2 (21:35):
I think gameplay actually does matter here.
I, in a way, talk aboutsomething like this a few times
in my book, like this a fewtimes in my book, and the
example that I use is talkingabout the difference between
(21:56):
uncharted and tomb raider, ordevil may cry and bayonetta, or
metroid, super metroid andcastlevania, super Metroid and
Castlevania they are all threeof those are pairs of games that
are essentially the same game.
The only difference is theenvironment, aesthetic and the
(22:19):
protagonist and antagonist andtheir actual personifications as
characters.
Right, but Nathan Drake andLara Croft are doing the same
thing in their games.
Right, you try to play stealthuntil you suck and then you
shoot your way and punch yourway out of it Right Over and
(22:41):
over.
And I think that attractivenessof characters does factor into
people forming memories andbonds with the characters.
(23:02):
Antagonist is always going toshift people towards the
sexualized option, because thestory in that game and how true
that game is to itself and whatthe player feels like while
they're playing, like some gamesare designed in a way that is
just, you're manipulating me,but this is not that great of a
(23:25):
game.
Once I realized themanipulation isn't fun anymore,
okay, and then other times thehyper sexualized game may flat
out be the better video game too, and so that's a very hard
(23:46):
combination to avoid beinginterested in.
But I don't think anybody hereis arguing that Mortal Kombat is
the more important fightingfranchise than Dead or Alive
right.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Yeah, well.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
And then Street Fighter is probably number one,
right?
Speaker 1 (24:08):
I was just going to say, gonna say that right, so
that's where I, so that's whereuh, tech and no, I would say
tekken's number three.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
I would say street fighter and mortal combat are
number one and two tech and Ithink street fighter is
definitely the more technicalvideo game, and I think its
characters are usually lesssexualized than mortal kombats.
Did you see the new one?
Well, mortal kombat's gottenway more toned down since mortal
kombat xl.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Yeah, um, street fighters gotten a lot more
pushing the envelope, I thinkyeah, I guess I I'm glad you I'm
glad, I'm glad I asked thequestion, because that's the
stuff that makes me think about.
Like, I think about it becauseI it was on, I was watching a
(24:58):
youtube video and they weretalking about that and I'm like
you know what I gotta ask doc,but doritos, what is your
opinion on that?
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Well, fighting games are not my thing, but as far as
the hyper-sexualization of thecharacters and stuff, definitely
I would probably have to agreewith Doc on this one that Street
Fighter has gotten more.
(25:29):
I think that Mortal Kombat hita plateau, that they're
comfortable with, that theaudience that plays that series
has become accustomed with andis expecting to see, and nothing
(25:52):
more wild than that.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yeah, I'm looking at the Street Fighter VI lineup.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Oh, I haven't played Street Fighter VI yet.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Okay.
So I'm looking at the lineupand I would say street fighter 6
, I'm looking at it.
They're wearing more clothesthan probably mortal combat, but
things are just exaggerated youknow, they have the cartoony
it's like when the WWE wrestlersgo to Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Oh yeah, you know, we just had a PLE.
That was about that Right.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Yeah, it was a good one too.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
PLE Premium Live Event, in case you didn't know.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Thanks, doc for breaking that down for us.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Alright, I talk about things all the time that my
audience does not know.
Actually, that's one of thenumber one pieces of feedback
I've gotten recently is I needto actually invest my time in
making simpler pieces of contentfor that kind of audience
because, um, psychologyprofessionals, when they see
video games, they just seeflashing lights and they don't
(27:08):
know what they're actuallylooking at, like a firework
display or something.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
So very obscure.
Expedition 33, marcus.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
So on vacation, I started to play it.
I downloaded it on the SteamDeck and I started to play it.
I downloaded it on the SteamDeck and I started to play it.
If anybody knows me, I am agraphical whore.
I like pretty, I want my gamesat ultra Like.
It matters to me and the SteamDeck does a wonderful job
(27:45):
rendering the games.
Claire is just too good forthat system.
It's choppy and not choppy.
It's smooth, but you can seethe pixels.
You know what I mean.
It's almost too much for it andit matters.
So I played the.
I don't know the first hour anda half or two hours where
(28:06):
you're in that opening world.
That's teaching you that youcan dodge, you can par.
Know the first hour and a halfor two hours where you're like
in that opening world.
It's teaching you that you candodge, you can parry, you can do
the things.
And I got to the end and sawthe premise of this story and
I'm not spoiling it, but thepremise of this story is dark.
But, you had an existentialcrisis?
(28:26):
Well, yes, but like I was, wasI didn't know, so I knew nothing
about the game.
Any video I've watched on it'slike things to do before you do
this.
You know what I mean likebeginner's guide, but they don't
like and I don't click onanything that says unless it
says no spoilers.
I am not watching it becauseI'm adamant.
(28:46):
I don't want to know well, whathappened at the end of that
entrance area I was like are youfucking kidding me?
Speaker 2 (28:56):
like is this real?
Speaker 1 (28:58):
and like, and then watching the outcome of it and
like the city streets change, Iwas like, oh damn.
It was like how I felt when thereapers first showed up in um
mass effect.
I was like, oh damn, shit gotreal, real quick and I was.
(29:22):
I'm like man, I gotta play thisgame.
So I'm gonna play it on mycomputer and I'm starting it
this weekend on my computer.
I'm gonna start fresh.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
I'm gonna do that opening area again, because I
did it and find the mime oh mygod, marcus, you just stumbled
into probably the dumbest partof my twitch channel's history
it was was awesome, come on.
I restarted the game threetimes on the same stream.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Well, I'm restarting it because I feel like I don't
know if this, like the openingarea, is a linear path, or
should I be deviating.
You know what I mean, youshould be deviating.
Right and I know, have fun.
Well, I know it's not you, yeah, just have fun.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Well, okay, I did explore in.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
So Dorito's point I have to comment on this.
Dorito's point is that I didnot 100% Elden Ring because I
could have gave a shit, but Idid it.
Like Limgrieve, I definitely100% it.
The Weeping Peninsuladefinitely 100% it, everywhere
else can eat a bag of ding-dongs.
Because I did not.
I did the things I had to do.
(30:35):
I kind of ran around and I justmoved on Like as soon as I like
.
How about this?
I ADD'd, adhd'd Elden Ring.
When I got sick of an area Iwas just like ooh squirrel over
there and then half the time Ididn't go back.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
You probably never found deep root depths, did you?
Oh, I did kill Moak.
Oh, that's not deep root depths, though.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Which one's that one?
You haven't found it then huh,oh, is that the tree branches?
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Tree roots.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, tree roots, and you go all the way down.
There's a lot of ants yeah yeah, I found that and I died and
then I quit.
Yeah, anyways.
But my point is that, um, likethere's a hidden boss somewhere
where, like you fall through afloor I think it's in the
subterranean shunning groundsomewhere.
(31:29):
I have no idea where that thingis.
I did not kill that boss.
That's underneath the ground,like you fall through the floor
that game really is so massive,though.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
I've completed it five times and I know there are
bosses that I've still neverkilled.
Right, you have to activelylook for everything and have a
lot of free time in order to 100like I've platinum trophied the
game, I have not 100 at thegame okay, yeah, I'll get it
(32:04):
then.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Then I then I too, have platinum trophied it
because I've got all the Steamachievements taken care of.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Let's see, let's find out.
But anyway, back to Claire.
I feel like I did it wrong andI'm going to go back and I'm
going to start over because Iwant to explore, kind of like I
did in Lim limb grave, because Ihave a feeling there's going to
be something there that I wantlater.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
I finished the game and had exactly that same
feeling that I did it wrong.
Okay, so you know, I thinkDoritos is onto something with
the whole.
You should have just tried tohave fun the whole time instead
of being sucked into the storyand that's the only thing you
care about that period I swearperiod oh my gosh, I really am
(32:57):
excited whenever my my nextstream where I do choose
exhibition 33 to it with theedge controller.
I'm really curious how much Ihave to adjust, because the last
two streams of that game I havebeen really good at parrying so
(33:18):
my brain finally adjusted afterwhat game pass did to my brain
where harrying felt so good ongame pass.
And then there's, for whateverreason, on my regular PS5
controller there's more delay onpushing the button and I never
mentally adjusted to that.
(33:38):
So I'm really curious whathappens with the pro controller
it's gonna be good it's likehaving the right hockey skates I
love my hockey skates I knowyou do.
That's why I said it, bauer, atmy pro has co-hosts yeah, you
are, yeah, definitely okay.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
So, doritos, what have you been playing?
I'm saving Doc what he's beenplaying, because I can't wait
for this.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
What have I been playing?
Well, I started, actually afterthe previous attempt at this
podcast, I started Nier Automata.
Yeah, I went and got myself acheap, not a fancy one, but I do
have a cheap controller 25bucks, rechargeable, lasts about
eight hours, I don't care.
But I can actually play thegame with it now.
Because that was one thing,because with that game it
(34:34):
changes perspective from alimited open world to side
scroller, to top down.
So it depends on how you movethrough the environment, how the
controls adjust automatically.
Interesting, it's a fun game.
I'm having a blast with it.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
How many hours you in .
Speaker 3 (34:57):
Oh, I don't know, probably about eight or nine.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Let's see Did you get it on the Steam sale.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
No, I had it well before the Steam sale.
Okay, sorry, I'm 15 hours in.
That's a lot.
Yeah, not for me, because I'llsit there and explore and spend
an hour, hour and a half tryingto get somewhere.
I'm probably not supposed to go.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Well, no, just 15 hours is a significant time
investment in an adult workingprofessional's life.
That's all I was saying.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
Like yeah, you totally play a game 15 hours and
accomplish nothing.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
That's easy to do.
That's what MMO games are allabout.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
Yeah, I'm not going to talk about it.
And I'm still obviously playingSurtur.
I get my daily login and go dothings, and it's currently the
nightlife event now, so let thegambling begin.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Oh, the Gamble event.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
That's sweet, I hope.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
But those are the two games I'm playing right now.
I did put the list of games Iswooped up on the summer sale.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Oh, let's hear them.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
So we've got Ori and the Black Forest.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
That's a good game.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
We've got Arise, A Simple Story.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
I don't know what that is.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Gris, I actually got that one from my daughter.
That one looks like a reallycool game.
It's got an art style in thegame I think she'd like, so I
got that for her Gris.
You said Gris, yeah gris, yeahgris.
I put it in the in the um appschat um hollow knight swoop,
that one gerbil, the spaceprogram, uh, andromeda, it's a
(36:36):
mass effect of dromeda and atower defense game balloons td6
I'm looking at secret quite ahaul so many titles, so many
options.
I got a few games for my kidstoo, so I think you know we got
what like a dozen games forunder 100 wow yeah that's smart
(36:58):
purchasing you're much better atshopping than me.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
I just buy the biggest deluxe edition game it's
like oh, I'm done I'm done forthe month one game.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
So, uh, I did, and I just so I did start uh because I
wanted to test out thecontroller.
So I'm going to play a playthrough uh, mass effect,
legendary with another character.
So I started that uh over theholiday weekend oh, mass effect,
did you say yeah, well, I'vealready played through it once.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Oh, I know that that's so amazing, isn't it an
amazing game?
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Yeah, this is premeditated.
Let's go, Marcus.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
So you know, just so you guys know, I watched a video
and it was ranking the 10 bestgames ever made, or 15 best
games ever made, I think number12 was Mass Effect 2.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
Okay, in this, in this thing I didn't expect it.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
I like watching stuff like this because you may I
like hearing other people'sperspectives.
The pre-meditation version ofthis is I've been trying to get
doc to play mass effect forabout eight years and every time
he does it he it's some baloneyexcuse that he has to play
(38:15):
final fantasy 7 rebirth for the12th time on the hardest
difficulty because stream needsit well, what the stream needs
is the enthusiastic version ofme and and final fantasy 7
rebirthbirth on DynamicDifficulty was possibly the best
(38:37):
version of me that has everexisted and this week Doc played
Mass Effect.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
I did and I created Doc Shepard ok, because John is
not a name that has ever madeanybody excited about anything,
so I had to be Doc.
It's that little connectionthat makes me feel connected to
the character.
So I'm male Commander Shepardand I did play Mass Effect in
(39:14):
about 2015 on an Xbox 360, but Ionly made about 10 hours in and
then life happened.
I never came back, so I didhave some general memories about
what's the guy's name Saris orSaren or something Saren.
(39:34):
Yeah.
So I knew, going into thatscene, this is a bad dude, he's
gonna do a bad thing, right?
So dory opens up, he does a badthing.
You show up, oh, you did a badthing.
And then you, you finish thatmission, shoot some people, stop
something from blowing up, andthen you go back to, I guess,
headquarters or council capitalof the galaxy, and so that's
(39:57):
where I stopped it.
So I didn't get very far becauseI played for two hours.
But with the way I stream and Imean this, uh, this is
something I should.
I wish I would have figured outyears ago, but I really do
prioritize it now.
Chat is everything to me, right.
So the people showing up thatwant to talk about me every
(40:19):
single stream, if it's two hours, they will be so important that
I'm fine only advancing thegame 45 minutes, right, like
yeah.
So that that did happen withmass effect.
A lot of people were excited tosee me playing it.
Um, it was a really fun stream,so we're definitely going to
come back.
I went to expedition 33 thenext morning and somebody joked
(40:43):
that mass effect only survivedone stream uh, I did defend my
what it's clear.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Have you gone back since?
Speaker 2 (40:54):
well, I didn't stream today.
Um, I my work schedule, just Icould not fit a stream in today.
So we're talking about tuesdayI did mass effect.
Wednesday I did expedition.
No, okay, we're gonna come backsomeday.
I'm gonna finish persona 3someday.
I'm gonna finish mass effectsomeday.
I'm gonna stream near automatasomeday.
I'm gonna get my current bunnygirl to be level 100 as a
(41:18):
paladin.
Someday.
I will beat hard difficulty onfinal fantasy 7 rebirth.
We got the rest of my life,however long or short that is,
and like we just gotta keep ourperspective that it's okay for
me to wake up in the morning andplay something else.
There's also date everything,marcus.
I have not had anyconversations with any fun
(41:43):
devices in my house.
I talked to the coffee maker,right, I think we're friends.
I haven't found anything risqueyet, though the bed kind of
wants me, so that's a gooddevice to want you.
So the premise of dateeverything is that you are stuck
in your house after gettingfired and you get these glasses
that turn all of your housedevices to life and you date
(42:04):
them.
It's kind of fun, uh.
But so there's like four gamesright now that are all in that
one or two stream phase of mestarting them.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
But okay, let me ask you this what's your factors to
get you hooked?
Like what is?
Because?
Okay, so I feel like you're theI can.
I you're the true MMO playerwhere you can only play one game
, but you're not playing an MMOlike Final Fantasy XIV, but
besides that, you get intoClaire and it's like you have to
(42:43):
beat it.
And now I have to beat it againon the hardest difficulty.
But I loved it so much I got toplay it again for the third
time.
And then the same thing withFinal Fantasy VII Remake Rebirth
.
You know what I mean?
Elden Ring seven remake rebirth.
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (42:57):
elden ring seven times.
You know what I mean.
Yeah, um, okay.
So I loved for years star wars,the old republic.
I always will love the oldrepublic and knights of the old
republic.
Bioware made those.
There's a certain style to that, you know.
(43:20):
I realized also on that samevein of thought, the game that
got me essentially across thefinish line for Twitch Partner
was Dragon Age, the Veil Guardright, and I had a ton of fun
playing that game.
Right, and I had a ton of funplaying that game.
To answer the question, I'm nota generic sci-fi fan.
(43:44):
If it's about sci-fi versusfantasy, I always shift in the
fantasy direction.
Star Wars, star Wars works forme, perfect, perfectly, because
it has the force.
I'm not a star trek fan.
I'm not a stargate fan.
(44:05):
I liked balestar galactica.
When it came back in the early2000s I thought that was pretty
fun.
Um, but in general, if it'sjust spaceships and space, it's
very easy for me to maybe evenfall asleep.
No offense to the IP.
So Mass Effect, having itsaliens and its proper nouns and
(44:31):
its attempt attempted a counciland politics and dropping me in
the middle of that, if I keepplaying and I get a little bit
more context, I think I willreally get into it, but right
now it's like watching a one ofthe series of star trek, where I
don't even know who thecharacters are, and so if I
(44:54):
don't keep watching the nextfive or six episodes then I can
walk away from it because itdoesn't have the force.
Speaker 3 (45:03):
No, one has the Reapers, so it's okay.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
Well, I don't know what the Reapers are.
They haven't been introducedyet, so I don't understand why.
What Marcus said 10 minutes agoabout the Reapers showing up
and stuff getting real, I don'tknow what that means.
Keep playing.
Well, right, that's the wholething, you got to keep playing.
So the same thing, though, bythe way, is happening and has
happened repeatedly to me withPersona 3.
(45:27):
I have started Persona 3,different versions of it four
times in my life and I neverpush past the beginning, because
it's not persona five, it's notpersona four either, and so,
like, I feel like the things Ilike are here, but I'm not
feeling them, and so maybe Ishould just replay persona five.
(45:51):
Right, the things I like arehere, but I'm not feeling it.
Yet Maybe I should just playthe Knights of the Old Republic,
right?
Speaker 1 (46:00):
Well, so funny you say.
That is just to go back to whatI was talking about the top 15
games of all time.
Persona 5 Royale was number 7.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
It's so good.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
I remember you playing that.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
It's style and it's story.
It's characters's characters,right like characters and story
for me.
Pull me in and then I learn themechanics.
Speaker 1 (46:23):
So I agree with you 100, because I'm the same way
yeah, so I?
Speaker 2 (46:31):
what I'm saying about mass effect is I just need them
to give me the thing in thestory that will become my drug,
that I can become fixated with.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
And Mass Effect is a old-style RPG where you don't
get it right away.
It's almost like spoon-fed toyou.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
I did enjoy the approach to shooting, shooting
things like actually with thecontrol stick.
I remember the xbox version notbeing that way very much well,
they update.
Speaker 1 (47:07):
When they remaster did the legendary edition, they
updated all of it mass effectgot the most updating out of all
the three games Mass Effect 1.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
And that's the tough thing about that early PS2 to
PS3 transitional era is the jumpfrom a PS2 game or PC games
that came out in that era andthen jumping into PS3, which is
where Mass Effect 2 happened.
I played the demo of masseffect 2 because it was free on
the playstation network.
(47:40):
Such a good demo, I remember it.
I didn't buy the game, though,because I had not played mass
effect 1 back in 2010 and Iagree with you.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
I would say, the first three hours of the game
need to hook me or I'm out nomatter what.
And I think Elden Ring, theonly reason why I stuck with
Elden Ring is because everybodywas telling me I sucked and I
had to motivate myself to win.
What about you, doritos?
What's your motivation to stickto a game?
Speaker 3 (48:17):
what about you, doritos?
What's your motivation to stickto a game?
I story, for me, is one of thetop things.
Um, I like the charactercustomization, but that's not
the end, all be all.
If I don't get to customize mycharacter, I was like, okay, so
like near automata, you're stuckwith what you got and you, you
play the game.
It's it's.
How well does the story hook mein?
I kind of started judging gameson the ability to take you all
(48:45):
the way through the tutorialsthat you need to successfully
navigate through the game.
Some of them do good.
If you're playing mouse andkeyboard, okay, here's the WASD
controls.
And this right mouse click doesthis left mouse click does that
?
It's very simple.
Here's your key binds If you'reusing the controller.
(49:05):
Okay, here's, you know,triggers, do this?
Bumpers, do this?
Joysticks pushes.
So those are all the basicsjoysticks pushes.
So those are all the basics.
But then some games are yeah,here, good luck, go forth, don't
die.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
Night Reign.
Speaker 3 (49:23):
I have not played Night Reign, don't?
Speaker 2 (49:26):
We have a whole episode where Marcus refunded
the game live while we'rerecording it.
Speaker 3 (49:32):
It's all my things to do.
I'm listening to an audio bookright now.
I'll get caught up on thethings to do.
I'm listening to an audio bookright now.
I'll get caught up on the otherpodcast episodes.
I'm going to go out two back.
So that's what I'm also kind ofjudging things on now is how
well do games work you throughthe tutorials, learn the
mechanics All of them are thebasics, same game to game.
But how does that integrateinto the story?
(49:55):
Uh, some games.
Hey, you pick this thing up,deliver this.
You got a sprint, you got ajump, you got a duck, you got a
crawl, whatever it is gets youto learn those mechanics while
you're doing the openingsequences of a story, getting to
know some of the background,some of the, the world building,
then after that, how, how doesit just fit with the story
(50:18):
overall?
So those are the biggies for me.
Speaker 1 (50:25):
Okay, but when do you quit?
What is your like?
How long, generally speaking,how long are you going to give a
game before you're like, okay,this game's not for me?
Speaker 3 (50:40):
uh, usually about uh, 20 hours.
Oh, which seems like a, whichseems like a lot, but I do.
I mean, you know how I playgames.
I go into the opening area.
I don't go, oh, there's myquest marker, I'll go to it.
I go, oh, my quest marker isover there.
I'm going to go left insteadand walk around the map.
What else do I find where?
What are these other things?
Um, and then eventually, aboutyou know, five hours later, I'll
(51:03):
make my way back around to, oh,here's the, the opening, two
quests I'm supposed to do twohours ago sure ridos.
Speaker 2 (51:11):
You hang out in my chat all the time watching me
ruin games.
By not doing that.
I need you to hold meaccountable and say, doc,
explore, doc, explore, butthat's not what you enjoy,
that's what I enjoy, but Iruined my.
I ruined my favorite game of2025 for myself by just being
(51:32):
addicted to story.
And what?
What was it?
Marcus, you're supposed tofinish the game at 50 hours and
I beat it in 30.
Yeah, but like I'm complaininglike why are all these fights so
hard?
Speaker 3 (51:46):
And it's like cause.
Speaker 2 (51:48):
You're 20 levels under where you're supposed to
be for the final battle.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
You know, the last time we spoke about that, all
that time ago, it made me reallythink about Final Fantasy VIII
on the PlayStation 1.
I was so excited and I blazedthrough that game and I got to I
think disc two or disc three Ithink disc two or disc three and
(52:14):
I was so under leveled thatlike I couldn't even beat
anything because I just didn'tgrind.
I was like I'm just doing thestory and it got to a point
where it was.
Speaker 2 (52:27):
the game was like no, I also have never finished
final fantasy eight because theexact same thing happened to me.
I made it to the third disc.
I don't remember if that gamehad four discs.
Speaker 3 (52:40):
I can't remember the fourth disc is just the final
area.
Speaker 2 (52:43):
But yeah, Someday I'll have to finish that.
But I have a feeling that FinalFantasy IX is going to get a
remake remake soon.
A lot of people are morepassionate for 9 than 8 these
days well, uh four discs it wasfour discs.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
Okay, good memory.
Speaker 2 (53:07):
No, I googled it no, but I said it oh four discs oh I
just remember he's horrible.
It's okay, we are ganging up onmarcus and I like it.
That's my style of life um,also, I see that you sent me a
message, marcus.
Persona 5 the phantom x is agotcha game.
(53:29):
That's how they plan to makemoney.
What?
Speaker 1 (53:31):
What's a gotcha game?
Speaker 2 (53:33):
It's where you use mechanics to get characters to
buy packs or crystals to unlockadditional characters, weapons
or other in-game assets.
Speaker 3 (53:42):
Fortnite Excuse me.
Speaker 1 (53:44):
But that's a, you just said a mechanic.
Speaker 2 (53:48):
Yeah, but it's not a game mechanic, it's a shopping
mechanic, all right, so thinkGenshin Impact.
Yeah, um honkai star rail neverplayed that I got paid to play
it.
I gotta play it again thismonth too.
They're gonna sponsor me againthat's awesome.
Speaker 1 (54:11):
If, if you had a 20 hours to start a brand new game
today and it could be any gameyou want, what would it be?
And you can't have played ityet.
Speaker 2 (54:25):
Doritos you go first.
Speaker 3 (54:29):
Any game I want, man?
Okay, well, I'm going to haveto look at my Steam library.
All right, I can go first.
Go ahead, claire 33.
On what, man?
Okay, well, I'm gonna have tolook at my steam library because
I know they're all right, I cango first I go claire 33 oh,
that's easy.
Speaker 2 (54:41):
That's such a good game.
All right, I have an answer nowall right, what's your answer?
world of warcraft.
Wow, exactly, yes, wow, allright.
Wow, and why?
Because I've never put I.
I've played it for about 90minutes.
(55:02):
Um, it was one of the threemmos I tried out when I was
thinking what am I going to playafter swotor?
Final fantasy 14 is the one Ichose.
But I think, just like withFortnite and me being part of
the conversation about what itmeans to play video games the
way that I am, I think if I hadmy own hands-on experiences with
(55:23):
World of Warcraft, that wouldonly make my voice more
compelling.
So there's an, there's a thingoutside of the game that I want
that I believe those 20 hourscould help me with.
But I could have said Fortnitealso.
I've only done three matches inFortnite ever and if I sat down
and played that game for 20hours, I think that my logic and
(55:47):
reasoning about what that gameis for people would become more
informed and increasinglypersuasive.
Speaker 1 (55:57):
I don't think you would need 20 hours to get the
gist of the game.
Speaker 2 (56:05):
Oh for Fortnite, or WoW, fortnite Okay.
Speaker 1 (56:09):
You could play that.
That's a simple game.
Right, I would love to play WoWwith you.
I'm pretty sure I'm logging inright now to see or I'm going to
update it to see if I want toknow if we play WoW right.
(56:34):
I'm pretty sure the first 20levels are free.
Speaker 3 (56:40):
They still are.
I had an account for a whilelet it lapse and I went back and
looked at it earlier this yearprobably holidays January,
february, somewhere in there andstill the first 20 levels are
free.
Speaker 1 (57:04):
Because, Doc, we could play that after the
podcast.
Speaker 2 (57:05):
Even if it's for a half an hour, it probably takes
what two hours to download.
Speaker 1 (57:09):
I don't have it on my pc, oh I'm not saying right now
oh, I'm updating it now.
Why don't you download it?
And we'll start out togetherand we'll make a little story.
Speaker 2 (57:19):
I'm not downloading a game while I'm doing the
podcast.
That sounds like a terribleidea with our history of using
this app.
Speaker 1 (57:26):
You are so literal Like dude.
All I'm saying is download thegame Like it doesn't have to be
this moment like today.
All right, and Marcus, we canplay final fantasy 14 after the
podcast too yeah, but it'ssomething that you said you want
to play and if I play it I'lldo it too, and we'll do it
(57:48):
together and I'll only play iton podcast day and it'll just be
a little fun experiment to seewhat it's like.
I think I've I don't know how,I don't know how many hours,
just form a trio and findsomething we can play together
after the podcast fortnight.
Well, fortnight is a funthree-person game okay I'm not
(58:15):
wrong take your word for it.
Speaker 2 (58:16):
I didn't know you could group up and yeah, so you
can do.
Well, fortnite is a funthree-person game.
Speaker 1 (58:18):
Okay, I'm not wrong, I'll take your word for it.
I didn't know you could groupup.
Yeah, so you can do singles,duos, or it's triples.
Speaker 2 (58:24):
Oh, so like we'd actually be a team.
Speaker 1 (58:26):
Yeah, a team of three .
Speaker 2 (58:27):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (58:33):
Oh, that's neat, so all right.
So World of Warcraft is coming,fortnite is coming.
Doc is going to go back topersona 5 royale.
He's going to go back to claireobscure.
He's going to play finalfantasy 7, rebirth and remake
seven more times, and then maybehe still won't play mass effect
.
Continue the journey.
Ouch won't play Mass Effect.
(58:54):
Continue the journey.
Speaker 2 (58:56):
Out.
Welcome to the Gaming Persona Podcast.
I'm MarcusB814.
I'm joined by my esteemed bestfriend, dr Gamology, 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.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
What are you going to spend your V-Bucks on Marcus?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
So I thought about that and there's.
I'm not really a skin guy, butthere's a.
It's called like somethingcaliente, it's a red hot pepper.
I could see myself runningaround the world of Fortnite as
a red pepper or just wait forsomething really good.
(00:48):
My son got deadpool, but it'slike comic book, like cell shade
deadpool, like with the blackoutline, so it's.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
That's actually rad, but it's gone now yeah,
fortnight does a lot toencourage us to part with our
money in a time-sensitive way.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Yeah, it's gross, it's really frustrating.
Yeah, it's actually amazing,but that's the mechanics of that
game.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
That's not a game mechanic, that is financial
blackmail.
Marcus.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
It's definitely a mechanic of that game.
The reason why that game isfree is because they have the
mechanic of you going to thecash shop and buying V-Bucks.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
We just created a whole different topic, but we're
going to talk about this and wehave a tiebreaker with us.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Oh boy, I'll try no.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Try not Ooh Jey Uso.
What Did he sign that?
Look at this.
Ready for this.
Try not Ooh Jey Uso.
What's up?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Did he sign that like in front of you?
He was right there.
Wow, that's so great.
So, okay, Microtransactions arenot a game mechanic.
That is capitalism, Marcus.
It is outside of the realm ofthe skill of the player
(02:09):
interacting with the avatar onthe screen.
I agree with that it is justhow you look.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
But it is the mechanic of the people that
created the game.
They said they're going tocreate a mechanic to drive
people to purchase stuff.
Yes, it's a micro transaction.
Yes, it has nothing to do withme running through and gunning
somebody down and if I die Ihave to restart a map.
But they built that into thegame's mechanics to get you to
(02:35):
spend money.
But, it's not a game's mechanic.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
It's a real-life mechanic as part of the economy,
but it is not part of thegame-critical mechanics.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
But it is, it's advertising, it's consumerism,
it's the haves versus thehave-nots.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
So just pause.
We're going to pause Everybodyhere.
If you don't know who's talkingin the background, that's good
old Doritos.
He's joining us tonight andhe's here to team up with Doc
against me to shut all of mygood points down that are going
through my head.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I'm marcus.
I don't have friends.
You're gonna turn me into acyber bully, marcus, good I
thought that was the wayambulance, it's okay the way.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Ambulance, all right, but what I'm saying is it may
not be a game mechanic, but itis in.
They created that mechanic forpeople to purchase stuff Right,
fortnite is a shopping mall.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Is what you're saying .
Speaker 1 (03:34):
You know, I actually very much agree with you on that
.
You want me to tell you why.
Yeah, yeah, do it.
So my son has started playing.
Every day he starts to play thegame, he goes right to the
vbucks store to see what'savailable.
Now he doesn't have any vbucks,but he likes to peruse.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
But just like dad has vbucks shopping right.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
So he's window shopping.
So you're right.
So you go to the mall.
If you I don't know when lasttime you guys went to an actual
mall, but if you did go to amall, um, if you go to a mall,
you are trying to go to lids tobuy a hat.
I'll just use that as anexample.
(04:20):
You're gonna walk by, you'regonna go, uh, you're gonna walk
by a bunch of stores and youmight stop into that store
knowing you're gonna walk by.
You're gonna go, uh, you'regonna walk by a bunch of stores
and you might stop into thatstore knowing you're not gonna
buy anything, but you want awindow shop.
It's the same thing with thevbucks store, and then he'll
play some matches and then alittle while later he'll go back
and look at the same stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
It's crazy yeah, I remember a couple months ago
there was mortal combat stuff infortnight and then the very
next month it was star warsstuff and I thought at that
period of time I might startplaying fortnight.
So I bought john cena as aplayable character.
(05:00):
I did one match.
I died because I didn't realizethat there was fall damage in
that game and I jumped off acliff to save time and I saved a
bunch of time.
I made the match very short, uh, and then I never went back to
it.
Um, so I would, in theory, Iwould love to become more of a
part of fortnite.
I don't know how that wouldtranslate in terms of my
(05:23):
streamer style.
One of the cool things abouthaving you on the show doritos
is, you know, twitch screws upthe watch streaks all the time,
like there's people where I showup and my streak just
disappears, goes from 32 to one.
It's like I didn't missanything.
But I'm sure if twitch hadaccurate stream stre, you'd be
in like 125 for me, like you'realways there you become one of
(05:47):
my very best friends that I getto talk to when I go live, and I
really appreciate you for that.
So it's awesome to have you bea part of the show and talk with
us about game mechanics andwhatever else comes up tonight.
Indeed.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
I'm actually excited because he's going to bring a
different take to all of ourconversations.
Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I'm the correct perspective, and then you're the
Marcus perspective and thenDoritos will be the I support
Doc perspective.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I'll take it.
My perspective is right in myhead.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
That's the only place it needs to be right in.
That's fine.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Exactly that's like when you argue with yourself you
don't lose the argument.
So, but I'm going to bring youto Fortnite.
So I have played Call of DutyBattle Royal.
I've played, I've played abunch of Battle Royale games.
Right, I will say Fortnite hasto be the most fun.
And I don't know why I don't dothe building stuff, because
(06:54):
that is not for me.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
So you all do the no build.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Yeah, I do the no build.
And what I'm saying is thegameplay itself is fun.
You know and maybe it's becausethey haven't put me in lobbies
with people that are way betterthan me I don't win every time,
but sometimes you go againstsome good people.
But the mechanic, the mechanic,the base mechanics of the game,
(07:21):
which you jump out of thebattle bus, you land, you find
your weapons or your loot andyou go around, it's fun.
Even when I get smoked in thefirst five minutes or 30 seconds
, it's still fun.
And that's not even when I'mnot playing with my son when, on
(07:42):
the flip side, you jump intoCall of Duty Warzone.
It's not as fun.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Why not?
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I don't know the feel of it.
Maybe Maybe the look, maybelike Fortnite the cartoony kind
of look makes it more fun.
I don't know.
I don't have that answer.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I think Call of Duty is locked into one aesthetic.
Fortnight's aesthetic opensitself up to everything.
Right, like you can havedeadpool, you can have an ai
darth vader that you chat withyour headset and it talks back
to you.
You you can have WWE,superstars, characters from
(08:27):
other games, movies, cartoons,comics, anime it's all in there.
And sometimes it's very uniquethe way it's integrated into the
battle style of Fortnite.
Other times it's just a skinwith the same guns as everybody
else.
So I just think Fortnite hascaptured the zeitgeist of the
(08:48):
modern era of gaming.
It's when did that game comeout?
Like 2015, ish, 16, maybe I?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
don't know.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
It just feels like it is such a dominant force for
making people who don't knowwhat video games are Think that
they know what video games are,think that they know what video
games are like.
In my field psychology andmental health counseling, a lot
of people's entire opinion aboutwhat video games do to children
and adolescents is based on afew 30 second clips they saw and
(09:21):
some tantrums that they sawthat are connected to fortnight
like that's.
That's what they think videogames are.
So when I try to talk to themabout how beautiful and tragic
expedition 33 is, they're likewhat's that?
And then I can't explain it tothem because it is not like
fortnight and all their brainswill absorb is but how is that
(09:41):
like Fortnite?
So it's become the baseline forthings that I have no interest
in talking about usually.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Well, that's because you play different games.
Doritos, how old is your son?
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Oh geez, he's 12 now.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Does he play Fortnite ?
Speaker 3 (10:03):
He has and he enjoys it.
He thinks it's fun.
Right now he play fortnight.
He has and he enjoys it.
He thinks it's fun.
Right now he plays more umfarming games at the moment.
Farming simulator yeah, itstyles from theirs yeah yeah,
those have really taken off toobut but he's, he does that, he's
done, he does world of tanks,he does a couple of smaller uh
(10:24):
things he's found on Steam for acouple bucks here and there
that he enjoys doing, but hestill plays that genre of Battle
Royale games.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Hmm.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Okay, and Fortnite will be eight years old in two
weeks.
It came out July 25th 2017.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Wait, fortnite came out july 25th 2017.
Wait, fortnight's came out whenI became a professor.
I remember this.
It wasn't actually out when Istarted teaching people.
My career is as old asfortnight everybody.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
I think the other thing too is they have creator,
creator, created events likemodes and they make multiple
different kinds of modes so like, if you don't feel like just a
battle royale, you can dosomething else.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
You can do rock band stuff in there really.
Yeah, they have rhythm gamesinside fortnight I didn't know
that yep, they do.
Wow, they have a dj mode aswell and they have lego
fortnight inside that I do knowyep, um, there's so many
(11:43):
different things inside fortnitethat expand beyond just the
basic stuff, and maybe that'swhy it's lasted this long it's a
platform now.
It's not just one game with onestyle of match.
It's it's an environment forgamers to gather thousands and
thousands, millions every day.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
I wonder what.
I wish there was a steam chartfor fortnite, but it's not on
steam because yeah, that wouldlet me say crossing the streams,
marcus.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Oh man, no I know careful across the streams gets
dangerous what is that?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
who who owns tencent does fortnite right, like
eventually, if you get throughall the ownership of this and
that is that right daily loginbut when you look at the news
reports for games, consumerismfortnight has been number one
(12:46):
across all platforms, exceptlike the switch for so long.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Wow, yeah so players right now 1.2 million.
24 hour peak 1.5 millionall-time peak.
Seven months ago, 14 millionplayers.
That's a lot of people playingthe game seven months ago would
(13:13):
put us.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Put us back to what christmas yeah, wow, christmas
time that's crazy.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
It has to be one of the most played games, right?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Should I try to stream Fortnite and see what
happens?
You should.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
You could yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Steam Summer Sale is over.
Did you buy anything?
Good, I sure did.
What'd you get?
Mortal Kombat 1.
And I'd never.
I wanted to buy Nier Automataor whatever it's called.
Automata, automata, yeah, I wasgoing to buy that because it
was like $9 in like the oh no,$16.
(13:59):
But I never bought it before itwas.
So it's in my cart and I'mremoving it now.
Oh, so sad.
That's fine, but I did buyMortal Kombat 1, and that is one
mechanic of a game I wanted tochat with you guys about Doritos
.
Have you ever played MortalKombat?
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Back when it came out in the original arcade yes,
like Mortal Kombat 1, mortalKombat 2?
.
The original original.
The original original.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
All right.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
The original when it came out in the arcade.
You had to go actually put coinquarters in.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah, yeah.
That's where my origin story asa gamer is too, is.
Mortal Kombat 1 at Pizza Hut.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Yeah, so I remember it.
And then I remember when itcame out for the Sega Genesis
and the blood code isA-B-A-C-A-B-B because they would
not allow blood to be in itwhen you have a cab.
Have a cab, got it?
Yep, um, so I bought it when Iwas on vacation and it's
(15:03):
actually turned out to be reallygood.
Like I'm not into it for theonline gaming, I'm just doing it
for the story, because you do amatch and it's like a five
minute cut scene into anothermatch to another five minute cut
scene.
It's actually pretty awesomeand I'm playing it.
I don't know what I'm playingit on.
There's there's like thehardest and then there's
(15:26):
something called very easy, easyand then normal or medium, I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
I'm playing it on easy because I'm doing it for
the story there's nothing wrongwith that, I think one of the
stories in the new era of mortalcombat, which is nine up
through now.
Um, I was playing on thehighest difficulty and had to
tune it down on the very lastfight of the story.
(15:54):
They just made shao kahn, in myopinion, impossible.
Uh, and then, ever since then,I've just been doing easy mode,
because I I don't tend to gointo higher difficulties very
often anymore right, but it's.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
It's actually compelling because the story is
good and for me now with thesteam deck, I can play literally
five or ten minutes and shut itoff and feel good and then if I
have a free five minutes I cando another match.
Yeah, I'm breaking up the story, but they replay the cut scene
(16:31):
that you just were in beforewhen you start it back up.
So for me it's a.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
It's a great steam deck game yeah, I play it on the
steam deck also.
It's one of those games that Iown on both playstation and in
steam and it's solid as a steamdeck compatible fighting game
sure very good.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
I uh also, I sold my laptop what yep.
So, uh, how to look around, orwell, no, so I I bought the
steam deck.
I fell in love.
I don't need a laptop.
It's got a 40, 80 in it.
It's a beast.
And a friend of mine who Iwatch wrestling with, he's been
(17:17):
looking for a laptop and I waslike, hey, man, I'll give you a
great deal.
He's like how much?
And he went to alien where'swebsite and he's like dude, that
that's a $3,000 laptop.
And I said, yeah, he goes, I'llbuy it.
Perfect, yeah.
There, you go and the Steam Deckhas taken over for me, that I
(17:37):
don't need it and I don't haveto re-buy anything, because
everything that I have on Steamis on that.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
That's a good point.
Also, I bought you Claireireobscure expedition 33, so do you
want to get into that?
Let me talk about one purchasethat I made.
Besides that, first, and thenwe will get into that.
(18:03):
Okay, okay, great.
I have purchased the mostbeautiful in my hands controller
that has ever been created.
You bought a gold shadow.
No, the playstation dual shockedge it's right here.
See, it's got little functionbuttons right here to change
(18:25):
profiles as the little togglesfor controlling how deep you
push the r buttons.
So now, like I can shoot you sofast now and uh, you can
actually take off the shinyplate here and replace the
thumbsticks when they wear outor start having bad connection
with the controller, voila.
(18:46):
So instead of buying a new 80controller, you just buy one or
two new thumbsticks for 10 or 15bucks, so I never have to buy a
new playstation controller everagain, because this is my baby.
I was playing stellar bladeuntil like midnight last night,
(19:06):
just interesting.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Ah yeah, you mean booby blades.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
No, stellar Blade is an amazing game with parrying
and dodge mechanics and devilmay cry combo systems.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
With the dead or alive boob mechanics.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Listen, you got to make life fun, Marcus.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
I do and this is fun to me, I am.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Full-fledged jiggle mechanics all the way.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
There's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Didn't say, there was yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Not you.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Maybe I should play Stellar Blade as my next stream
game and see what happens to mychannel.
You know, on that topic,youtube gives me recommendations
trying to get me to come backand make a YouTube video.
Right, because they have theircreator suite and they're like
here's the next five videos wethink you should make, which is
a really cool feature thatthey've added.
Two of the next five videosthey want me to make are about
(20:07):
Tifa and Final Fantasy, and thenone of the other five is about
continuing to talk about AdaWong, or Ada Wong and Jill
Valentine in Resident Evil games, because apparently all the
things I talk and the two ofthem they want me to do about
Sora and Kingdom Hearts and thepower of friendship.
(20:27):
So there is some wholesomethings YouTube wants me to make
too.
I'm just saying they reallyjust want me to talk about more
video game girls, because that'swhat people are clicking on on
my channel.
Let me ask you a question.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
This is a real deep rooted question.
That is like discussed all overthe internet.
This is a real deep rootedquestion.
That is like discussed all overthe internet.
If you have a game that isexactly the same mechanics and
it's hard.
Just let me get through thisCause.
I'm trying to say it, right,but the, the protagonist is a
(21:03):
female, but one has a wonderfuloutfit on and looks like I don't
know.
It's hard for me to say it likeyou know, a stellar blade
female versus not.
Are you more likely to play agame that has the stellar blade
(21:28):
style, female or the other, ordoes it not matter to you?
Speaker 2 (21:35):
I think gameplay actually does matter here.
I, in a way, talk aboutsomething like this a few times
in my book, like this a fewtimes in my book, and the
example that I use is talkingabout the difference between
(21:56):
uncharted and tomb raider, ordevil may cry and bayonetta, or
metroid, super metroid andcastlevania, super Metroid and
Castlevania they are all threeof those are pairs of games that
are essentially the same game.
The only difference is theenvironment, aesthetic and the
(22:19):
protagonist and antagonist andtheir actual personifications as
characters.
Right, but Nathan Drake andLara Croft are doing the same
thing in their games.
Right, you try to play stealthuntil you suck and then you
shoot your way and punch yourway out of it Right Over and
(22:41):
over.
And I think that attractivenessof characters does factor into
people forming memories andbonds with the characters.
(23:02):
Antagonist is always going toshift people towards the
sexualized option, because thestory in that game and how true
that game is to itself and whatthe player feels like while
they're playing, like some gamesare designed in a way that is
just, you're manipulating me,but this is not that great of a
(23:25):
game.
Once I realized themanipulation isn't fun anymore,
okay, and then other times thehyper sexualized game may flat
out be the better video game too, and so that's a very hard
(23:46):
combination to avoid beinginterested in.
But I don't think anybody hereis arguing that Mortal Kombat is
the more important fightingfranchise than Dead or Alive
right.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Yeah, well.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
And then Street Fighter is probably number one,
right?
Speaker 1 (24:08):
I was just going to say, gonna say that right, so
that's where I, so that's whereuh, tech and no, I would say
tekken's number three.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
I would say street fighter and mortal combat are
number one and two tech and Ithink street fighter is
definitely the more technicalvideo game, and I think its
characters are usually lesssexualized than mortal kombats.
Did you see the new one?
Well, mortal kombat's gottenway more toned down since mortal
kombat xl.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Yeah, um, street fighters gotten a lot more
pushing the envelope, I thinkyeah, I guess I I'm glad you I'm
glad, I'm glad I asked thequestion, because that's the
stuff that makes me think about.
Like, I think about it becauseI it was on, I was watching a
(24:58):
youtube video and they weretalking about that and I'm like
you know what I gotta ask doc,but doritos, what is your
opinion on that?
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Well, fighting games are not my thing, but as far as
the hyper-sexualization of thecharacters and stuff, definitely
I would probably have to agreewith Doc on this one that Street
Fighter has gotten more.
(25:29):
I think that Mortal Kombat hita plateau, that they're
comfortable with, that theaudience that plays that series
has become accustomed with andis expecting to see, and nothing
(25:52):
more wild than that.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yeah, I'm looking at the Street Fighter VI lineup.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Oh, I haven't played Street Fighter VI yet.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Okay.
So I'm looking at the lineupand I would say street fighter 6
, I'm looking at it.
They're wearing more clothesthan probably mortal combat, but
things are just exaggerated youknow, they have the cartoony
it's like when the WWE wrestlersgo to Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Oh yeah, you know, we just had a PLE.
That was about that Right.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Yeah, it was a good one too.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
PLE Premium Live Event, in case you didn't know.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Thanks, doc for breaking that down for us.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Alright, I talk about things all the time that my
audience does not know.
Actually, that's one of thenumber one pieces of feedback
I've gotten recently is I needto actually invest my time in
making simpler pieces of contentfor that kind of audience
because, um, psychologyprofessionals, when they see
video games, they just seeflashing lights and they don't
(27:08):
know what they're actuallylooking at, like a firework
display or something.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
So very obscure.
Expedition 33, marcus.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
So on vacation, I started to play it.
I downloaded it on the SteamDeck and I started to play it.
I downloaded it on the SteamDeck and I started to play it.
If anybody knows me, I am agraphical whore.
I like pretty, I want my gamesat ultra Like.
It matters to me and the SteamDeck does a wonderful job
(27:45):
rendering the games.
Claire is just too good forthat system.
It's choppy and not choppy.
It's smooth, but you can seethe pixels.
You know what I mean.
It's almost too much for it andit matters.
So I played the.
I don't know the first hour anda half or two hours where
(28:06):
you're in that opening world.
That's teaching you that youcan dodge, you can par.
Know the first hour and a halfor two hours where you're like
in that opening world.
It's teaching you that you candodge, you can parry, you can do
the things.
And I got to the end and sawthe premise of this story and
I'm not spoiling it, but thepremise of this story is dark.
But, you had an existentialcrisis?
(28:26):
Well, yes, but like I was, wasI didn't know, so I knew nothing
about the game.
Any video I've watched on it'slike things to do before you do
this.
You know what I mean likebeginner's guide, but they don't
like and I don't click onanything that says unless it
says no spoilers.
I am not watching it becauseI'm adamant.
(28:46):
I don't want to know well, whathappened at the end of that
entrance area I was like are youfucking kidding me?
Speaker 2 (28:56):
like is this real?
Speaker 1 (28:58):
and like, and then watching the outcome of it and
like the city streets change, Iwas like, oh damn.
It was like how I felt when thereapers first showed up in um
mass effect.
I was like, oh damn, shit gotreal, real quick and I was.
(29:22):
I'm like man, I gotta play thisgame.
So I'm gonna play it on mycomputer and I'm starting it
this weekend on my computer.
I'm gonna start fresh.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
I'm gonna do that opening area again, because I
did it and find the mime oh mygod, marcus, you just stumbled
into probably the dumbest partof my twitch channel's history
it was was awesome, come on.
I restarted the game threetimes on the same stream.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Well, I'm restarting it because I feel like I don't
know if this, like the openingarea, is a linear path, or
should I be deviating.
You know what I mean, youshould be deviating.
Right and I know, have fun.
Well, I know it's not you, yeah, just have fun.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Well, okay, I did explore in.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
So Dorito's point I have to comment on this.
Dorito's point is that I didnot 100% Elden Ring because I
could have gave a shit, but Idid it.
Like Limgrieve, I definitely100% it.
The Weeping Peninsuladefinitely 100% it, everywhere
else can eat a bag of ding-dongs.
Because I did not.
I did the things I had to do.
(30:35):
I kind of ran around and I justmoved on Like as soon as I like
.
How about this?
I ADD'd, adhd'd Elden Ring.
When I got sick of an area Iwas just like ooh squirrel over
there and then half the time Ididn't go back.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
You probably never found deep root depths, did you?
Oh, I did kill Moak.
Oh, that's not deep root depths, though.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Which one's that one?
You haven't found it then huh,oh, is that the tree branches?
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Tree roots.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, tree roots, and you go all the way down.
There's a lot of ants yeah yeah, I found that and I died and
then I quit.
Yeah, anyways.
But my point is that, um, likethere's a hidden boss somewhere
where, like you fall through afloor I think it's in the
subterranean shunning groundsomewhere.
(31:29):
I have no idea where that thingis.
I did not kill that boss.
That's underneath the ground,like you fall through the floor
that game really is so massive,though.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
I've completed it five times and I know there are
bosses that I've still neverkilled.
Right, you have to activelylook for everything and have a
lot of free time in order to 100like I've platinum trophied the
game, I have not 100 at thegame okay, yeah, I'll get it
(32:04):
then.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Then I then I too, have platinum trophied it
because I've got all the Steamachievements taken care of.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Let's see, let's find out.
But anyway, back to Claire.
I feel like I did it wrong andI'm going to go back and I'm
going to start over because Iwant to explore, kind of like I
did in Lim limb grave, because Ihave a feeling there's going to
be something there that I wantlater.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
I finished the game and had exactly that same
feeling that I did it wrong.
Okay, so you know, I thinkDoritos is onto something with
the whole.
You should have just tried tohave fun the whole time instead
of being sucked into the storyand that's the only thing you
care about that period I swearperiod oh my gosh, I really am
(32:57):
excited whenever my my nextstream where I do choose
exhibition 33 to it with theedge controller.
I'm really curious how much Ihave to adjust, because the last
two streams of that game I havebeen really good at parrying so
(33:18):
my brain finally adjusted afterwhat game pass did to my brain
where harrying felt so good ongame pass.
And then there's, for whateverreason, on my regular PS5
controller there's more delay onpushing the button and I never
mentally adjusted to that.
(33:38):
So I'm really curious whathappens with the pro controller
it's gonna be good it's likehaving the right hockey skates I
love my hockey skates I knowyou do.
That's why I said it, bauer, atmy pro has co-hosts yeah, you
are, yeah, definitely okay.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
So, doritos, what have you been playing?
I'm saving Doc what he's beenplaying, because I can't wait
for this.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
What have I been playing?
Well, I started, actually afterthe previous attempt at this
podcast, I started Nier Automata.
Yeah, I went and got myself acheap, not a fancy one, but I do
have a cheap controller 25bucks, rechargeable, lasts about
eight hours, I don't care.
But I can actually play thegame with it now.
Because that was one thing,because with that game it
(34:34):
changes perspective from alimited open world to side
scroller, to top down.
So it depends on how you movethrough the environment, how the
controls adjust automatically.
Interesting, it's a fun game.
I'm having a blast with it.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
How many hours you in .
Speaker 3 (34:57):
Oh, I don't know, probably about eight or nine.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Let's see Did you get it on the Steam sale.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
No, I had it well before the Steam sale.
Okay, sorry, I'm 15 hours in.
That's a lot.
Yeah, not for me, because I'llsit there and explore and spend
an hour, hour and a half tryingto get somewhere.
I'm probably not supposed to go.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Well, no, just 15 hours is a significant time
investment in an adult workingprofessional's life.
That's all I was saying.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
Like yeah, you totally play a game 15 hours and
accomplish nothing.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
That's easy to do.
That's what MMO games are allabout.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
Yeah, I'm not going to talk about it.
And I'm still obviously playingSurtur.
I get my daily login and go dothings, and it's currently the
nightlife event now, so let thegambling begin.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Oh, the Gamble event.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
That's sweet, I hope.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
But those are the two games I'm playing right now.
I did put the list of games Iswooped up on the summer sale.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Oh, let's hear them.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
So we've got Ori and the Black Forest.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
That's a good game.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
We've got Arise, A Simple Story.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
I don't know what that is.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Gris, I actually got that one from my daughter.
That one looks like a reallycool game.
It's got an art style in thegame I think she'd like, so I
got that for her Gris.
You said Gris, yeah gris, yeahgris.
I put it in the in the um appschat um hollow knight swoop,
that one gerbil, the spaceprogram, uh, andromeda, it's a
(36:36):
mass effect of dromeda and atower defense game balloons td6
I'm looking at secret quite ahaul so many titles, so many
options.
I got a few games for my kidstoo, so I think you know we got
what like a dozen games forunder 100 wow yeah that's smart
(36:58):
purchasing you're much better atshopping than me.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
I just buy the biggest deluxe edition game it's
like oh, I'm done I'm done forthe month one game.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
So, uh, I did, and I just so I did start uh because I
wanted to test out thecontroller.
So I'm going to play a playthrough uh, mass effect,
legendary with another character.
So I started that uh over theholiday weekend oh, mass effect,
did you say yeah, well, I'vealready played through it once.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Oh, I know that that's so amazing, isn't it an
amazing game?
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Yeah, this is premeditated.
Let's go, Marcus.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
So you know, just so you guys know, I watched a video
and it was ranking the 10 bestgames ever made, or 15 best
games ever made, I think number12 was Mass Effect 2.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
Okay, in this, in this thing I didn't expect it.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
I like watching stuff like this because you may I
like hearing other people'sperspectives.
The pre-meditation version ofthis is I've been trying to get
doc to play mass effect forabout eight years and every time
he does it he it's some baloneyexcuse that he has to play
(38:15):
final fantasy 7 rebirth for the12th time on the hardest
difficulty because stream needsit well, what the stream needs
is the enthusiastic version ofme and and final fantasy 7
rebirthbirth on DynamicDifficulty was possibly the best
(38:37):
version of me that has everexisted and this week Doc played
Mass Effect.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
I did and I created Doc Shepard ok, because John is
not a name that has ever madeanybody excited about anything,
so I had to be Doc.
It's that little connectionthat makes me feel connected to
the character.
So I'm male Commander Shepardand I did play Mass Effect in
(39:14):
about 2015 on an Xbox 360, but Ionly made about 10 hours in and
then life happened.
I never came back, so I didhave some general memories about
what's the guy's name Saris orSaren or something Saren.
(39:34):
Yeah.
So I knew, going into thatscene, this is a bad dude, he's
gonna do a bad thing, right?
So dory opens up, he does a badthing.
You show up, oh, you did a badthing.
And then you, you finish thatmission, shoot some people, stop
something from blowing up, andthen you go back to, I guess,
headquarters or council capitalof the galaxy, and so that's
(39:57):
where I stopped it.
So I didn't get very far becauseI played for two hours.
But with the way I stream and Imean this, uh, this is
something I should.
I wish I would have figured outyears ago, but I really do
prioritize it now.
Chat is everything to me, right.
So the people showing up thatwant to talk about me every
(40:19):
single stream, if it's two hours, they will be so important that
I'm fine only advancing thegame 45 minutes, right, like
yeah.
So that that did happen withmass effect.
A lot of people were excited tosee me playing it.
Um, it was a really fun stream,so we're definitely going to
come back.
I went to expedition 33 thenext morning and somebody joked
(40:43):
that mass effect only survivedone stream uh, I did defend my
what it's clear.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Have you gone back since?
Speaker 2 (40:54):
well, I didn't stream today.
Um, I my work schedule, just Icould not fit a stream in today.
So we're talking about tuesdayI did mass effect.
Wednesday I did expedition.
No, okay, we're gonna come backsomeday.
I'm gonna finish persona 3someday.
I'm gonna finish mass effectsomeday.
I'm gonna stream near automatasomeday.
I'm gonna get my current bunnygirl to be level 100 as a
(41:18):
paladin.
Someday.
I will beat hard difficulty onfinal fantasy 7 rebirth.
We got the rest of my life,however long or short that is,
and like we just gotta keep ourperspective that it's okay for
me to wake up in the morning andplay something else.
There's also date everything,marcus.
I have not had anyconversations with any fun
(41:43):
devices in my house.
I talked to the coffee maker,right, I think we're friends.
I haven't found anything risqueyet, though the bed kind of
wants me, so that's a gooddevice to want you.
So the premise of dateeverything is that you are stuck
in your house after gettingfired and you get these glasses
that turn all of your housedevices to life and you date
(42:04):
them.
It's kind of fun, uh.
But so there's like four gamesright now that are all in that
one or two stream phase of mestarting them.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
But okay, let me ask you this what's your factors to
get you hooked?
Like what is?
Because?
Okay, so I feel like you're theI can.
I you're the true MMO playerwhere you can only play one game
, but you're not playing an MMOlike Final Fantasy XIV, but
besides that, you get intoClaire and it's like you have to
(42:43):
beat it.
And now I have to beat it againon the hardest difficulty.
But I loved it so much I got toplay it again for the third
time.
And then the same thing withFinal Fantasy VII Remake Rebirth
.
You know what I mean?
Elden Ring seven remake rebirth.
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (42:57):
elden ring seven times.
You know what I mean.
Yeah, um, okay.
So I loved for years star wars,the old republic.
I always will love the oldrepublic and knights of the old
republic.
Bioware made those.
There's a certain style to that, you know.
(43:20):
I realized also on that samevein of thought, the game that
got me essentially across thefinish line for Twitch Partner
was Dragon Age, the Veil Guardright, and I had a ton of fun
playing that game.
Right, and I had a ton of funplaying that game.
To answer the question, I'm nota generic sci-fi fan.
(43:44):
If it's about sci-fi versusfantasy, I always shift in the
fantasy direction.
Star Wars, star Wars works forme, perfect, perfectly, because
it has the force.
I'm not a star trek fan.
I'm not a stargate fan.
(44:05):
I liked balestar galactica.
When it came back in the early2000s I thought that was pretty
fun.
Um, but in general, if it'sjust spaceships and space, it's
very easy for me to maybe evenfall asleep.
No offense to the IP.
So Mass Effect, having itsaliens and its proper nouns and
(44:31):
its attempt attempted a counciland politics and dropping me in
the middle of that, if I keepplaying and I get a little bit
more context, I think I willreally get into it, but right
now it's like watching a one ofthe series of star trek, where I
don't even know who thecharacters are, and so if I
(44:54):
don't keep watching the nextfive or six episodes then I can
walk away from it because itdoesn't have the force.
Speaker 3 (45:03):
No, one has the Reapers, so it's okay.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
Well, I don't know what the Reapers are.
They haven't been introducedyet, so I don't understand why.
What Marcus said 10 minutes agoabout the Reapers showing up
and stuff getting real, I don'tknow what that means.
Keep playing.
Well, right, that's the wholething, you got to keep playing.
So the same thing, though, bythe way, is happening and has
happened repeatedly to me withPersona 3.
(45:27):
I have started Persona 3,different versions of it four
times in my life and I neverpush past the beginning, because
it's not persona five, it's notpersona four either, and so,
like, I feel like the things Ilike are here, but I'm not
feeling them, and so maybe Ishould just replay persona five.
(45:51):
Right, the things I like arehere, but I'm not feeling it.
Yet Maybe I should just playthe Knights of the Old Republic,
right?
Speaker 1 (46:00):
Well, so funny you say.
That is just to go back to whatI was talking about the top 15
games of all time.
Persona 5 Royale was number 7.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
It's so good.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
I remember you playing that.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
It's style and it's story.
It's characters's characters,right like characters and story
for me.
Pull me in and then I learn themechanics.
Speaker 1 (46:23):
So I agree with you 100, because I'm the same way
yeah, so I?
Speaker 2 (46:31):
what I'm saying about mass effect is I just need them
to give me the thing in thestory that will become my drug,
that I can become fixated with.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
And Mass Effect is a old-style RPG where you don't
get it right away.
It's almost like spoon-fed toyou.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
I did enjoy the approach to shooting, shooting
things like actually with thecontrol stick.
I remember the xbox version notbeing that way very much well,
they update.
Speaker 1 (47:07):
When they remaster did the legendary edition, they
updated all of it mass effectgot the most updating out of all
the three games Mass Effect 1.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
And that's the tough thing about that early PS2 to
PS3 transitional era is the jumpfrom a PS2 game or PC games
that came out in that era andthen jumping into PS3, which is
where Mass Effect 2 happened.
I played the demo of masseffect 2 because it was free on
the playstation network.
(47:40):
Such a good demo, I remember it.
I didn't buy the game, though,because I had not played mass
effect 1 back in 2010 and Iagree with you.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
I would say, the first three hours of the game
need to hook me or I'm out nomatter what.
And I think Elden Ring, theonly reason why I stuck with
Elden Ring is because everybodywas telling me I sucked and I
had to motivate myself to win.
What about you, doritos?
What's your motivation to stickto a game?
Speaker 3 (48:17):
what about you, doritos?
What's your motivation to stickto a game?
I story, for me, is one of thetop things.
Um, I like the charactercustomization, but that's not
the end, all be all.
If I don't get to customize mycharacter, I was like, okay, so
like near automata, you're stuckwith what you got and you, you
play the game.
It's it's.
How well does the story hook mein?
I kind of started judging gameson the ability to take you all
(48:45):
the way through the tutorialsthat you need to successfully
navigate through the game.
Some of them do good.
If you're playing mouse andkeyboard, okay, here's the WASD
controls.
And this right mouse click doesthis left mouse click does that
?
It's very simple.
Here's your key binds If you'reusing the controller.
(49:05):
Okay, here's, you know,triggers, do this?
Bumpers, do this?
Joysticks pushes.
So those are all the basicsjoysticks pushes.
So those are all the basics.
But then some games are yeah,here, good luck, go forth, don't
die.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
Night Reign.
Speaker 3 (49:23):
I have not played Night Reign, don't?
Speaker 2 (49:26):
We have a whole episode where Marcus refunded
the game live while we'rerecording it.
Speaker 3 (49:32):
It's all my things to do.
I'm listening to an audio bookright now.
I'll get caught up on thethings to do.
I'm listening to an audio bookright now.
I'll get caught up on the otherpodcast episodes.
I'm going to go out two back.
So that's what I'm also kind ofjudging things on now is how
well do games work you throughthe tutorials, learn the
mechanics All of them are thebasics, same game to game.
But how does that integrateinto the story?
(49:55):
Uh, some games.
Hey, you pick this thing up,deliver this.
You got a sprint, you got ajump, you got a duck, you got a
crawl, whatever it is gets youto learn those mechanics while
you're doing the openingsequences of a story, getting to
know some of the background,some of the, the world building,
then after that, how, how doesit just fit with the story
(50:18):
overall?
So those are the biggies for me.
Speaker 1 (50:25):
Okay, but when do you quit?
What is your like?
How long, generally speaking,how long are you going to give a
game before you're like, okay,this game's not for me?
Speaker 3 (50:40):
uh, usually about uh, 20 hours.
Oh, which seems like a, whichseems like a lot, but I do.
I mean, you know how I playgames.
I go into the opening area.
I don't go, oh, there's myquest marker, I'll go to it.
I go, oh, my quest marker isover there.
I'm going to go left insteadand walk around the map.
What else do I find where?
What are these other things?
Um, and then eventually, aboutyou know, five hours later, I'll
(51:03):
make my way back around to, oh,here's the, the opening, two
quests I'm supposed to do twohours ago sure ridos.
Speaker 2 (51:11):
You hang out in my chat all the time watching me
ruin games.
By not doing that.
I need you to hold meaccountable and say, doc,
explore, doc, explore, butthat's not what you enjoy,
that's what I enjoy, but Iruined my.
I ruined my favorite game of2025 for myself by just being
(51:32):
addicted to story.
And what?
What was it?
Marcus, you're supposed tofinish the game at 50 hours and
I beat it in 30.
Yeah, but like I'm complaininglike why are all these fights so
hard?
Speaker 3 (51:46):
And it's like cause.
Speaker 2 (51:48):
You're 20 levels under where you're supposed to
be for the final battle.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
You know, the last time we spoke about that, all
that time ago, it made me reallythink about Final Fantasy VIII
on the PlayStation 1.
I was so excited and I blazedthrough that game and I got to I
think disc two or disc three Ithink disc two or disc three and
(52:14):
I was so under leveled thatlike I couldn't even beat
anything because I just didn'tgrind.
I was like I'm just doing thestory and it got to a point
where it was.
Speaker 2 (52:27):
the game was like no, I also have never finished
final fantasy eight because theexact same thing happened to me.
I made it to the third disc.
I don't remember if that gamehad four discs.
Speaker 3 (52:40):
I can't remember the fourth disc is just the final
area.
Speaker 2 (52:43):
But yeah, Someday I'll have to finish that.
But I have a feeling that FinalFantasy IX is going to get a
remake remake soon.
A lot of people are morepassionate for 9 than 8 these
days well, uh four discs it wasfour discs.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
Okay, good memory.
Speaker 2 (53:07):
No, I googled it no, but I said it oh four discs oh I
just remember he's horrible.
It's okay, we are ganging up onmarcus and I like it.
That's my style of life um,also, I see that you sent me a
message, marcus.
Persona 5 the phantom x is agotcha game.
(53:29):
That's how they plan to makemoney.
What?
Speaker 1 (53:31):
What's a gotcha game?
Speaker 2 (53:33):
It's where you use mechanics to get characters to
buy packs or crystals to unlockadditional characters, weapons
or other in-game assets.
Speaker 3 (53:42):
Fortnite Excuse me.
Speaker 1 (53:44):
But that's a, you just said a mechanic.
Speaker 2 (53:48):
Yeah, but it's not a game mechanic, it's a shopping
mechanic, all right, so thinkGenshin Impact.
Yeah, um honkai star rail neverplayed that I got paid to play
it.
I gotta play it again thismonth too.
They're gonna sponsor me againthat's awesome.
Speaker 1 (54:11):
If, if you had a 20 hours to start a brand new game
today and it could be any gameyou want, what would it be?
And you can't have played ityet.
Speaker 2 (54:25):
Doritos you go first.
Speaker 3 (54:29):
Any game I want, man?
Okay, well, I'm going to haveto look at my Steam library.
All right, I can go first.
Go ahead, claire 33.
On what, man?
Okay, well, I'm gonna have tolook at my steam library because
I know they're all right, I cango first I go claire 33 oh,
that's easy.
Speaker 2 (54:41):
That's such a good game.
All right, I have an answer nowall right, what's your answer?
world of warcraft.
Wow, exactly, yes, wow, allright.
Wow, and why?
Because I've never put I.
I've played it for about 90minutes.
(55:02):
Um, it was one of the threemmos I tried out when I was
thinking what am I going to playafter swotor?
Final fantasy 14 is the one Ichose.
But I think, just like withFortnite and me being part of
the conversation about what itmeans to play video games the
way that I am, I think if I hadmy own hands-on experiences with
(55:23):
World of Warcraft, that wouldonly make my voice more
compelling.
So there's an, there's a thingoutside of the game that I want
that I believe those 20 hourscould help me with.
But I could have said Fortnitealso.
I've only done three matches inFortnite ever and if I sat down
and played that game for 20hours, I think that my logic and
(55:47):
reasoning about what that gameis for people would become more
informed and increasinglypersuasive.
Speaker 1 (55:57):
I don't think you would need 20 hours to get the
gist of the game.
Speaker 2 (56:05):
Oh for Fortnite, or WoW, fortnite Okay.
Speaker 1 (56:09):
You could play that.
That's a simple game.
Right, I would love to play WoWwith you.
I'm pretty sure I'm logging inright now to see or I'm going to
update it to see if I want toknow if we play WoW right.
(56:34):
I'm pretty sure the first 20levels are free.
Speaker 3 (56:40):
They still are.
I had an account for a whilelet it lapse and I went back and
looked at it earlier this yearprobably holidays January,
february, somewhere in there andstill the first 20 levels are
free.
Speaker 1 (57:04):
Because, Doc, we could play that after the
podcast.
Speaker 2 (57:05):
Even if it's for a half an hour, it probably takes
what two hours to download.
Speaker 1 (57:09):
I don't have it on my pc, oh I'm not saying right now
oh, I'm updating it now.
Why don't you download it?
And we'll start out togetherand we'll make a little story.
Speaker 2 (57:19):
I'm not downloading a game while I'm doing the
podcast.
That sounds like a terribleidea with our history of using
this app.
Speaker 1 (57:26):
You are so literal Like dude.
All I'm saying is download thegame Like it doesn't have to be
this moment like today.
All right, and Marcus, we canplay final fantasy 14 after the
podcast too yeah, but it'ssomething that you said you want
to play and if I play it I'lldo it too, and we'll do it
(57:48):
together and I'll only play iton podcast day and it'll just be
a little fun experiment to seewhat it's like.
I think I've I don't know how,I don't know how many hours,
just form a trio and findsomething we can play together
after the podcast fortnight.
Well, fortnight is a funthree-person game okay I'm not
(58:15):
wrong take your word for it.
Speaker 2 (58:16):
I didn't know you could group up and yeah, so you
can do.
Well, fortnite is a funthree-person game.
Speaker 1 (58:18):
Okay, I'm not wrong, I'll take your word for it.
I didn't know you could groupup.
Yeah, so you can do singles,duos, or it's triples.
Speaker 2 (58:24):
Oh, so like we'd actually be a team.
Speaker 1 (58:26):
Yeah, a team of three .
Speaker 2 (58:27):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (58:33):
Oh, that's neat, so all right.
So World of Warcraft is coming,fortnite is coming.
Doc is going to go back topersona 5 royale.
He's going to go back to claireobscure.
He's going to play finalfantasy 7, rebirth and remake
seven more times, and then maybehe still won't play mass effect
.
Continue the journey.
Ouch won't play Mass Effect.
(58:54):
Continue the journey.
Speaker 2 (58:56):
Out.
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New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!