October 7, 2025 • 56 mins
Confession time: we’ve all chased hype, only to crash into a loading screen of regret. Today we swap signed wrestling stories and Fortnite megazords for something more honest—how games light us up, let us down, and teach us to choose better. From the thrill of new skins and first Victory Royales to the slow leak of “just $20 more,” we unpack the real psychology behind cosmetics, identity, and why a locker screen can be the difference between logging in and logging off.
We dive into Mass Effect Andromeda’s uncanny gaps—sound clipping, stiff faces, empty ambiences—and the larger cycle of publisher pressure, unfinished launches, and broken expectations. Then the takes get spicier: Breath of the Wild’s durability fatigue, Silent Hill F’s repair-item anxiety, Destiny 2: Lightfall’s collector’s-edition heartbreak, and why some beloved franchises just don’t click. Not because we don’t appreciate ambition, but because friction needs purpose and time is the rarest resource we have.
There’s joy here, too. Expedition 33 surprises us with curiosity loops and the quiet pleasure of hunting down lost explorers. We trace the hero’s journey through Elden Ring, Persona 3, and more to show why certain arcs feel inevitable and still miraculous. We also get practical about streaming: juggling too many great games, choosing what fits a chat’s rhythm, and letting a session be complete even if the game isn’t. And yes, we go full nerd on PC upgrades—GPUs, CPUs, storage, and the simple builds that keep 4K dreams from stuttering.
If you crave a smart, playful tour through hype and heartbreak—with real talk about respect-for-time design, mindful streaming, and the tech that keeps it all running—hit play and hang out with us. Then tell us your most overhyped flop or the one game that still respects your time. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a gaming reset, and leave a quick review to help others find the show.
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!!
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Thanks for Listening, and Continue The Journey!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
Welcome to the Gaming Persona Podcast.
This is the show that exploreswho we become when we play
games.
Whether you're saving kingdoms,leading epic raids, or just
vibing in cozy indie worlds,join me, Dr.
Gameology, and my good friendMarcus as we search for all the
ways gaming and personal growthcollide.
Grab your controllers and let'scontinue the journey now.
SPEAKER_01 (00:25):
Alright, so since the last time I was here, I have
some things.
I have show and tell to startthe show.
SPEAKER_02 (00:33):
Oh right.
Just like in elementary school.
Awesome.
People on podcast and totallysee it.
It looks awesome.
That is Seth Freaking Rollinswith a flamethrower.
SPEAKER_01 (00:44):
Signed by him.
SPEAKER_02 (00:46):
Wow.
So did you actually walk up tohim and ask him to sign it?
SPEAKER_01 (00:51):
No.
SPEAKER_02 (00:52):
Oh.
Yeah, he's a heel right now, sohe wouldn't do that.
SPEAKER_01 (00:56):
But the real one.
SPEAKER_02 (01:01):
Oh wow.
John Cena sign that.
SPEAKER_01 (01:09):
Yep.
So uh Monday, September 5th, wewent to Monday Night Raw in my
hometown.
Monday, so in my hometown, I'min a small, small city west of
Boston.
And the last time WWE had a liveevent, like a televised event,
(01:31):
was 2005.
But okay.
But John Cena, John Cena went toSpringfield College, where I'm
from.
And uh he picked all thelocations that he wanted to go
to, so he made sure he went toSpringfield because he played
(01:52):
football.
Nice.
And that's where I got my JohnCena hat and the John Cena
signed poster cardboard cutout.
SPEAKER_02 (02:04):
So you're our John Cena mascot for the gaming
persona now.
SPEAKER_01 (02:08):
Yeah, sure.
But then again, you could be toobecause you were playing as
Peacemaker on Fortnite.
SPEAKER_02 (02:15):
I was.
I actually played as shirtlessJohn Cena during a match today
as well.
For the first time ever, Marcusand Doritos.
I was the first person to die ina Fortnite match.
It was so amazing.
Like I just couldn't find a gunand someone found me and I ran
(02:36):
around.
It was it was a valiant effort,but I I I swear like two days
ago I commented on stream orsomething like I've never gotten
last place in a fortnight match,so I jinxed myself, and so now I
have.
SPEAKER_01 (02:53):
Well, it it happens, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (02:56):
It does.
SPEAKER_01 (02:56):
And then the next time you could play you play,
you may get Victory Royale.
SPEAKER_02 (03:02):
I have gotten my first three Victory Royales
since the last episode.
I played duo with some people inmy Discord on several several
different occasions.
And DTamps, who is the one ofthe people in my channel, former
student of mine too, protege,but very good at Fortnite,
(03:24):
grouped up with me and totallycarried me to three wins out of
four matches.
Like we were dominant.
SPEAKER_01 (03:31):
Then you he must have been you must have been in
your lobbies.
Because I guarantee if he's goodand he was in his lobbies, you
guys wouldn't have won.
SPEAKER_02 (03:40):
I did decent when I was with him, though.
SPEAKER_01 (03:44):
Yeah, he carried the load.
SPEAKER_02 (03:47):
Yeah, I just shoot people.
That's the whole point.
SPEAKER_01 (03:51):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (03:53):
Yeah.
And I've also added a bunch ofcharacters to my locker because
I did buy the crew pass, becauseI really want the Green Ranger
and the White Ranger.
But I also added other packs ofcharacters just so that I can
switch it up every couplematches.
(04:14):
And I added Black Widow, Siri,and Jennifer from The Witcher.
And I added.
SPEAKER_01 (04:29):
Jeez, how many did you spend on skins?
SPEAKER_02 (04:34):
I don't know, probably like twenty dollars on
three different days orsomething.
SPEAKER_01 (04:40):
Damn.
SPEAKER_02 (04:41):
I just want to enjoy the game, and being these rando
no-name people with cargo shortsis not the same as being John
Cena with amazing jorts.
SPEAKER_01 (04:52):
Oh, I get it.
I get it.
SPEAKER_02 (04:54):
I my yeah, so I have John Cena and Peacemaker.
I bought Sabrina Carpenter'sespresso emote, so I can do that
now when I do somethingvictorious.
Oh my gosh, everybody! I got topilot the megazord this morning.
SPEAKER_01 (05:14):
Oh, my son just piloted that thing.
I walked in, I was like, dude,you're the megazword.
SPEAKER_02 (05:19):
Yeah, I killed the bug.
I got like 20 kills of the tinylittle people, and it was the
coolest thing.
Like, eight-year-old me was soalive this morning.
Go go Power Ranger.
The music plays, Zordon isthere, Rita's yelling, make my
monster grow.
(05:41):
It's so good.
Like, this game has awoken a joyin me that I don't think I felt
in like 20 years.
SPEAKER_01 (05:54):
All right.
But I did, I didn't missFortnite together.
SPEAKER_02 (05:58):
We do need to play Fortnite together, but I did
miss my chance to buy the PowerRangers.
So if I if I finish the seasonpass, I'll have the Green Ranger
and I'll have the White Ranger,but I won't have the five basic
ones.
SPEAKER_01 (06:13):
It's alright.
They'll come back.
SPEAKER_02 (06:16):
They will.
Okay.
Yeah.
That makes me feel better.
SPEAKER_01 (06:19):
Like every two to three months they pop back in.
Like this is the big launch ofthem.
You know what I mean?
And then they'll cycle.
Like I didn't.
So there was Cody Rhodes and TheUndertaker, Bianca Belair and
Becky Lynch, and I waited.
I was like, I'm waiting forCena.
And then Cena came back.
But he was only there for twodays, and I bought him, and then
he was gone again.
SPEAKER_02 (06:38):
So you could see him.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I I also bought Ninja Batman andNinja Harley Quinn.
SPEAKER_01 (06:48):
Hey, Doritos.
Doc spent like$180 on skins inFortnite.
SPEAKER_02 (06:53):
I did not.
I swear it's like$20 at a time,three different days.
unknown (06:59):
Woo.
SPEAKER_00 (07:02):
Of course it is.
SPEAKER_01 (07:04):
Yeah, of course.
SPEAKER_00 (07:05):
And that's how it starts.
SPEAKER_01 (07:06):
Yeah.
Well, I know, I don't know ifwe've ever talked about mobile
games.
Doritos, you play a mobile game,right?
I play a few couple, yeah.
So I started playing a mobilegame.
So I was watching wrestling athome, and it told me I could
(07:27):
play this game on my phone, andit's a card game, and I can get
AJ Lee for free if I download itusing this thing, this QR code.
So I downloaded it, and it hasbeen a fun time sink.
Like when you have like fiveminutes, you do it, and you're
(07:48):
just matching cards to goagainst people.
So like the money in the bank,it's like a five-level match,
and you go up in tiers, and youhave to pick the right card to
go against the people, and thenyou win money in the bank, you
gain XP.
It's a it's a stupid card game,but it's a lot of fun.
But they're like, Oh, buy thispack, you can get a super rare
(08:10):
super card and pay five bucks.
And I'm like, I'm not buyinganything, like I don't need to,
I'll just earn it.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, but they're like, Oh, getour battle pass, it's only$30.
I'm like, right?
Never but you know I totallywould get the battle pass.
(08:32):
But somebody does, right?
SPEAKER_00 (08:33):
And I'm thinking to myself, that's what and they
keep doing that, they keep doingit, they keep getting it.
SPEAKER_01 (08:38):
Yeah.
The moral of my story is I havefound like I never really played
a mobile game because I triedand it never got me.
But this has actually beensomething fun to where I log in
for five minutes, do somethingfun, and shut it off.
You know what I'm saying?
And at the same time, betweenthat and the Steam Deck, I have
(09:01):
been making time for videogames.
You know what I mean?
Well, that's yeah.
Like I'm going to bed at 11o'clock at night, I turn on the
Steam Deck to play Claire, and Ipass out while I'm playing it.
Like I'll wake up and it's on mylap, and I'm like, oh, I'm in
(09:22):
the middle of the world.
Hmm.
All right, how did I get here?
Yeah, how did I get here?
But I'm alive.
You know, and it's been reallygood for me.
Making yeah, I don't want to saymaking time, but like making
time and finding time to play avideo game that doesn't involve
(09:44):
my computer itself.
Because my time is super limitedright now.
That's really great.
How's Andromeda?
It's okay.
SPEAKER_00 (10:05):
I've never played it.
For a game that uh came out inwhat, 17?
SPEAKER_02 (10:11):
Yeah, 2017.
SPEAKER_00 (10:16):
It misses some of the the quality aspects.
The the sound they've got soundclipping, uh visual clipping,
some of the mo cap animationsshould be better, but they're
not, so it's it's not bad.
(10:36):
It's just I can definitely seewhere it it um got some less
than stellar reviews for for forsome of those smaller things, a
lot of it's it's more quality oflife things than it is anything
else.
SPEAKER_01 (10:52):
Well, the when it came out, I remember playing it
when it first came out,pre-ordered, bought the
collector's edition.
Like I was in, it was MassEffect, greatest series ever in
gaming, right?
It was just there.
And then I it was like, rememberthe old Japanese Godzilla movies
for the English dub where oh mygod, it's Godzilla, it's a Taken
(11:16):
Tokyo, and they're speaking inJapanese, but they're English
dubbing it, and it was justridiculous.
That's what Andromeda was whenit first released.
Yeah, still not much better.
Oh shit.
I thought they fixed it.
SPEAKER_02 (11:27):
They attempted.
Wait, why would it be so badwhen it's common for voice-acted
lines to be matched with movingmouths?
Like, in fact, Persona 3 Reloadis an anime style game, a remake
of a PS2 game, and they eventook the time to sync the voice
(11:48):
lines with the little mouths andthe cartoon mouths on the side
of the screen.
Do you want me to give you theone-word answer?
SPEAKER_01 (11:58):
EA Bioware.
SPEAKER_02 (12:00):
Bioware.
Oh man.
Yeah.
Cool.
SPEAKER_00 (12:04):
I think for you know, if for for being in 2017,
you don't expect that.
For being 2000?
2008?
You know, like when did uh MassEffect 1 come out?
When did uh three 2007 or 8,right?
SPEAKER_01 (12:24):
Yeah, yeah.
So I mean it's when was MassEffect 3?
SPEAKER_02 (12:29):
But 2013.
Um 13 or 14, maybe.
SPEAKER_01 (12:36):
Well, either way, I agree with you, Doritos.
SPEAKER_00 (12:39):
It shouldn't be that, you know what I mean?
Yeah, so I'm having to put thataside, and and there's some
several instances where you knowyou're walking through a city
and you're getting cantinasounds and conversations, and
you look around, there's not anot not even an NPC within 30
meters of you.
So you're like, what it's comeon, guys, really?
(13:02):
We we can we can do a little bitbetter than that.
SPEAKER_02 (13:06):
Interesting.
Also, I'm thinking about thetimeline of video games.
It seems like Andromeda came outaround the same time as God of
War, like the the first one inthe Norse series, so that's like
comparing quality, right?
You would think Andromeda wasmeant to be a triple A
(13:26):
experience, right?
It was meant to be, yeah.
It well fell short.
I wonder that I mean it soundslike it's not just short, like
it it they didn't even bring thechains out on the field to see
if it's a first down becauseit's very clearly not a first
down.
SPEAKER_00 (13:43):
Oh, yeah, no, they're they're they're short by
like you know three, four yards.
SPEAKER_02 (13:46):
Uh okay.
SPEAKER_00 (13:48):
So again, it's it's more I think that's the one they
they really tried to push themultiplayer aspect of it more
than Mass Effect 3.
So there's several missions inthere where you can do via
multiplayer to you know getresources and and and credits.
(14:11):
So I think that was their bigthing because they really wanted
to push uh the multiplayeraspect of it.
Being where it is now, it's uhokay.
Again, I'm playing through itbecause uh I want to finish the
series because that's the wholethere's that whole completionist
side of it of I want to finishthe series and get ready for
(14:33):
Mass Effect 4 whenever it comesout.
SPEAKER_01 (14:36):
So God of War for the PlayStation 4 the first
time, like the new one, came outApril of 2018.
Mass Effect Andromeda was March2017.
SPEAKER_00 (14:50):
Okay, so that's a year and a moment.
SPEAKER_01 (14:52):
It's still right there.
It's still right there.
SPEAKER_00 (14:55):
Yeah, the the it should still be comparable.
SPEAKER_01 (14:57):
Well, the graphics itself in Andromeda look good.
SPEAKER_00 (15:05):
Mass Effect they look as good as they did Mass
Effect 3.
Well, I think it was the sameengine.
Oh, yeah, it's the same engine.
So so again, it's you're you'reit's you're you're getting that,
but there's also a lot moreclipping between textures,
between textures and and otherstuff.
There there's just seems to be alittle bit more clipping than
(15:28):
there should be.
SPEAKER_01 (15:30):
This is that age-old question of is it the
developer's fault or is it thepublisher's fault?
And I say that because Iremember when the game was
coming out, Bioware said it'snot ready, and EA said ship it.
Because that's a common thing.
Right.
(15:50):
Who knows how many times it wasdelayed in development?
SPEAKER_00 (15:53):
You know, did they they did the same thing with
Anthem?
It wasn't ready, but they couldpush it out because it had to go
out.
SPEAKER_01 (16:01):
Yeah.
I play so maybe I'm a moron whenit comes to like gaming.
But when I when I played Anthem,it felt like you were in a dead
universe.
But the game itself played fine.
(16:23):
I didn't I didn't hate Anthem, Ithink it was boring, but the
gameplay itself was generic, butit was fun enough.
Okay.
You know, where I never playedit, so right.
Well, Andromeda, when I playedit, I I like graphics, I like
(16:46):
the way games look, and whenyou're playing a game and you're
the the lips are moving, butlike it's like seven seconds
behind, that I that's notplayable to me.
SPEAKER_00 (16:57):
That's not seven seconds now.
That that part has beenresolved, but it's still there
is some visual visual audiodesync.
Sure.
SPEAKER_01 (17:07):
Does that take away from the story for you?
SPEAKER_00 (17:12):
No, not from a story, but if I'm if I'm
listening, if I'm trying towatch a conversation to see, you
know, is a character is an NPCor or even one of the companion
characters, are they doing somesort of reaction to what you're
saying?
And they made everybody so plainand so vanilla that there is
virtually no reactions and it soyou can literally close your
(17:39):
eyes and and listen to theconversation and get everything
you want out of it.
SPEAKER_01 (17:47):
No, I agree.
Do you remember Aria from Massthe original Mass Effect series?
The Purple Lady?
Yeah.
When you were in the bar in MassEffect 2, Omega?
Omega, the music is going, andshe's like bobbing her head,
listening to the music, andshe's talking to you, and then
(18:08):
you give her an answer shedoesn't like, and like she does
the sharp, like almost like BenStiller, like the magnum pose.
What did you just say?
Kind of a look, and you're like,whoa, and you felt that.
So, what you're saying is youdon't get that in Andromeda?
Nope.
Oh.
SPEAKER_02 (18:26):
Like I said, well, that seems bad.
SPEAKER_00 (18:29):
That that that element's missing, so I'm like,
all right, I'm just gonna pushthrough the game so I can say,
yep, check the mark, check thebox.
I'm I'm I've completed this inthe life cycle of of Mass
Effect, but it was it'sdisappointing.
And I can see I can see why alot of people have said, you
(18:50):
know, it's been disappointingbecause it's not the quality you
expected out of Bioware whenthey came out when they already
had Mass Effect 2 and MassEffect 3 out there.
SPEAKER_01 (19:01):
It brings up a good question.
What's the most disappointinggame you've ever played?
That you were wait, let merephrase the question, sorry.
What's the most hyped game youwere?
Wait, what is the most excitedyou were for a game that
disappointed you the most?
SPEAKER_02 (19:25):
Oh my gosh.
I have an answer to thatquestion, and it might make some
people really upset.
Okay.
The Legend of Zelda, Breath ofthe Wild.
SPEAKER_01 (19:43):
I can understand that.
SPEAKER_02 (19:45):
I wanted to play that game so much, and it's so
much harder than Elden Ring, andI can't stand it.
Like, for no reason.
Like, I don't get the the fuzzy,happy dopamine feelings from
Breath of the Wild that I dofrom Elden Ring.
SPEAKER_01 (20:05):
Well, you know why?
It's because the fucking swordbreaks.
SPEAKER_02 (20:08):
That's right.
Oh my gosh.
I was playing Silent Hill F thismorning because that game just
came out, and within twopathways of picking up the pipe
for the first time, you pick upan item that is to repair your
melee weapon, and I was justlike, oh no, this game is all
(20:30):
about broken melee weapons, Ican't handle this.
So, for like just for argument'ssake, Silent Hill 2, you play as
James Sunderland, he's a grownman, he swings that pipe into so
many dead, creepy things' faces,and the pipe survives the entire
game.
(20:50):
And you're telling me this highschool girl picks up a pipe and
breaks it?
What?
What?
Like, is she way stronger thanJames, or is it something about
technique?
Like, there's a way to swing apipe into something's face that
will make it less likely tobreak.
SPEAKER_01 (21:06):
Can I give you the logical reason?
SPEAKER_02 (21:09):
Please, because I've been trying to figure this out
all day and I can't.
SPEAKER_01 (21:12):
It's just like Breath of the Wild, it's an
artificial difficulty that theydo to extend the length of the
game.
To add another layer ofcomplexity that is not needed.
Like I understand the Breath ofthe Wild, even though I don't
agree with it.
I understand it because you'reyou have you go out in the world
(21:32):
and you're all alone and youhave nothing.
And you know what I mean?
In real life, you hit uh whatare they called?
Hobgoblins?
No, hobo, hobo goblins.
I don't know what they'recalled.
Something like that, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (21:44):
Hobobo goblins.
SPEAKER_01 (21:45):
Yeah, whatever.
And you hit it with a sword ahundred times, that sword's
bound to break on one of them'shead.
You know what I mean?
So I sure understand it.
But in Silent Hill, it's just tocreate an artificial difficulty
and artificial scare tacticbecause you're fighting
something that's attacking inyour pipe breaks, and you're
like, ah yeah.
(22:07):
I don't play games that havethat problem.
SPEAKER_02 (22:10):
Well, I forced myself to finish Breath of the
Wild because I really wantedthat experience to be a part of
my book, and I did that, andTears of the Kingdom created
similar feelings for me, is Ireally sat down.
I put more than 10 hours intoit, and then I just stopped
(22:30):
because there's things about itI didn't like.
Oh my gosh, Elden Ring NightRain is the answer to this
question.
Hands down, Elden Ring NightRain is absolutely the answer to
this question.
I wanted to love that game somuch, but now that I love
Fortnite, maybe I would loveNight Rain more because I think
the reason I didn't like it isbecause it was it felt like it
(22:55):
was trying to be Fortnite in anElden Ring world, but maybe now
I'd be like, this is awesome.
I don't know.
Someone else answered thisquestion.
I've just given two answers.
Yeah, you can go so for me, itwas Genshin Impact.
SPEAKER_00 (23:13):
Interesting.
What's wrong with GenshinImpact, Doritos?
It didn't hook me.
It just it's not the kind ofgame that I enjoyed.
I played it a little bit, playedwith my kids a little bit.
They they enjoyed it for alittle while, but it again it
was just a game that my familydidn't sink their teeth into.
It's like, okay, it's nice, itlooks good, but it's not it's
(23:37):
not the kind of things thatwe've enjoyed.
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (23:41):
I have three.
The first, I was looking forwardto this game for so long.
I didn't pre-order anything, butlike I really wanted to play it.
It was my it was Hello Kittyonline, and I wanted to play it
so bad, and then it never cameout.
SPEAKER_02 (24:00):
Well, that's a whole other thing, because then I can
say my answer is the remake ofStar Wars Knights of the Old
Republic.
SPEAKER_01 (24:10):
Yeah, I think that's everybody's, but the real games
that I really I would say mynumber one most disappointing
game I ever played was Destiny2's Lightfall expansion.
I was at the height of myexcitement for that game.
I bought the collector'sedition.
The collector's edition is stillin a box, like I've never even
(24:32):
opened it.
And I was so excited to log in,play it day one.
I think I played it for 17 hoursstraight to beat the campaign on
day one for it to fall flat onits face, and I was just like,
and after that first night, Ireally didn't want to play it.
(24:57):
I was just like, but the otherone I would say is now I'm gonna
preference that I've neverreally played the Assassin's
Creed games, but I always I'mGreek, I'm Greek and French
Canadian, Greek mythology.
Like I get so excited to hearabout that mythology.
(25:22):
I love that world of like Zeusand Hades and Athena and Medusa
turning you to stone.
Like, I love that shit.
And Assassin's Creed was comingout with I forget what it was
called.
I think it was Assassin's CreedOdyssey.
Odyssey.
Yep, they did it the year beforethrough in Egypt, and I played
(25:42):
it at PAX East, and I was like,wow, this is pretty cool.
Uh, whatever, I'm not reallyinto Egypt, but then they
announced it for the Assassin'sCreed Odyssey, and they were
going to Athens essentially.
I bought the strategy guide, Ibought the collector's edition,
I sat down to play it.
I played it for three hours.
(26:03):
I was like, yeah, never turnedit on again.
Because it just didn't hook me.
I it just it just I don't knowif it was the quest system.
I don't know if was that yourfirst Assassin's Creed game in
the franchise?
SPEAKER_00 (26:19):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (26:19):
I never played any of them because I wasn't like
the original games, correct meif I'm wrong, like one, two, and
three, you were that likeassassin, and it was all about
sneaking, right?
To get kills and stuff, like itwasn't right.
That's not my style of game.
I can use a shooting, like afirst-person shooter as an
example.
Some people are snipers thatjust hide in the back and shoot,
(26:42):
some people are the assaultrifle guy that like tactically
move.
I'm the guy with a submachinethat gun that's running straight
ahead, praying and sprayingeverything.
So Assassin's Creed wasn't mystyle.
Just like this is gonna be aninsult to a lot of people.
I didn't like Metal Gear Solideither.
Like way back, you know what Imean?
Because like I'm not a tacticalguy.
(27:06):
I don't want yeah, no, I don'twant to be creep, shh, be very
quiet.
There's wabbits out there.
Yeah, exactly.
But that's not my style ofgaming.
SPEAKER_02 (27:21):
When I got my PS4, the first day I bought it.
I bought two games at Best Buy.
I bought three controllers,well, two extra controllers.
I bought Rayman Legends, I thinkLegends, that was very fun, but
I also bought Assassin's CreedBlack Flag.
(27:41):
That was my first everAssassin's Creed game, and I did
not come to enjoy it.
I never finished it.
I probably booted it up threetimes to try to figure it out,
and I just don't think it was agood first entry to Assassin's
Creed for somebody.
SPEAKER_01 (27:59):
Scarlet in in my Discord, that's his favorite
game, I'm pretty sure.
SPEAKER_02 (28:05):
Had they played Assassin's Creed 1, 2, and 3
before you played them all.
Yeah, so that's all I'm sayingis I think if I had the
experience of the previous gamesand then I played Black Flag, I
think it would have been fine.
And earlier this year, I hadexactly that same thing happen
with Monster Hunter.
(28:25):
I played the new one, it was myvery first one.
I gave it about three streams onTwitch, plus some time on my
couch in my living room to tryto find a way for me to love it
because there were people thatwere encouraging me to start
getting my thoughts organizedaround it.
Maybe we can do some work withit.
(28:46):
I can't.
It's just not fun to me.
And I can grow and I can changeand I can figure things out, but
there is a point where a gamejust isn't for a person.
And for me, Black Flag andMonster Hunter both hit that
kind of unfortunate conclusion.
SPEAKER_03 (29:09):
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01 (29:12):
Sure.
Yeah, it I think about thedisappointing games, right?
I think about disappointinggames, but then I think about
all the the games that are thatmake us so happy when you turn
them on.
You know what I mean?
(29:32):
And it's so it's like that weirdcontrast.
It's because you're I'm soexcited for said game, but now
I'm disappointed.
But then a game, ah, are yougonna get it?
Eh I'm gonna try it.
And then you're like, Wow, wheredid this come from?
SPEAKER_00 (29:52):
Yep.
SPEAKER_02 (29:55):
You know You know, I think that we need to interject
A little bit of Star WarsEpisode 8, The Last Jedi, into
this conversation.
Because it really made me think,I know, I know.
So I'm gonna be honest, I forgotthe name of the character.
(30:16):
I'm trying to look it up.
I'm trying to talk Rose, right?
Rose Tico says when she savesFinn's life that it's not about
destroying what we hate, it'sabout saving what we love.
So I feel like we're about totalk about games that actually
gave us those feelings and gaveus our joy for gaming, so that
(30:38):
we're not just talking aboutMass Effect Andromeda the entire
episode.
SPEAKER_01 (30:43):
But why not?
It just shows that you knowgames you look forward to.
It's I was looking so forward tothat game, and now Doritos is
playing it, and I've alwayswondered, did it get fixed?
And the answer is no.
So I would rather leave my MassEffect journey at Mass Effect 3
on a high note than playAndromeda and just get mad.
(31:09):
But I have found a new love invideo games.
I am completely and utterlyhooked on finding the dead
expedition people.
SPEAKER_02 (31:25):
Uh-huh.
Isn't that fun?
SPEAKER_01 (31:27):
I find them, and then you listen to their rant,
and you're like, alright, sothis guy's mad because of these
white these white enemies, andthey're terrible because they
dodge every attack, no matterwhat I throw at them.
And they but you hit them onceand they're dead, but you gotta
hit them.
And these guys clearly gotkilled by them, and it's
(31:48):
amazing.
I I like search the whole mapfor these things.
SPEAKER_02 (31:55):
My journey through Expedition 33 is currently at
picking up any collectibles thatI missed during my playthrough.
And I found an obstacle coursevery close to the beginning of
the game.
The beach where you have yeah,the beach.
I didn't do that because I wasjust following a guide to make
(32:15):
sure I find everything, and theydidn't feel like getting the
swimsuits for my characters wasimportant, which I think it
would have been so important.
So I yeah, it is costumes orlike what make video games worth
playing.
SPEAKER_01 (32:34):
Ooh, let me ask you a quick sidebar on this.
Okay, do you feel as if yourfirst playthrough you shouldn't
change costumes?
SPEAKER_02 (32:42):
No, you should change costumes immediately.
Okay, so you like to look at thecharacters the way the devs
defaulted them.
SPEAKER_01 (32:52):
Not me.
I'm asking your opinion on thatbecause I forget who told me.
I was talking to somebody andthey said your first play.
Oh, my friend James.
My friend James says you shouldnot change, you should play it
the way that the care the devsintended it to be, so you can
get the full experience of whatthey're wearing.
And I disagreed.
I was like, no way, dude.
(33:14):
Wanna a melee look melee lookslike she's like a French artist
to me, and I think it's awesome.
And I have um who's the the theone that uses the dark moon in
the sun?
CL.
Yeah, she's in like the gesturalclown costume in Expedition 33.
SPEAKER_02 (33:34):
There is an option to where you can have them wear
their default costumes in thecutscenes, no matter what
they're wearing in the party.
I like the goofiness.
Yeah, no, I think it's reallycool how you can customize
characters and bring out adifferent personality vibe in
them.
Did you so did you do theobstacle course?
(33:55):
I found the first one and I gotit done.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (33:58):
I haven't done it yet.
So I've gone to the beachbecause I was just finding land.
Yeah, it's right there on theleft.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So for me, I went in and I waslike, okay, there's I tried to
run across the first log and Ifell in the water like seven
times.
Like, okay, I'm not in themindset for this yet.
SPEAKER_02 (34:16):
It took me about 30 minutes to figure it out.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (34:20):
Yeah.
But I will say again that thatgame is shocking to me on how
familiar it is, but yet it's sodifferent.
But I feel like something big isabout to happen for me because
(34:40):
I'm about to get SK his likewater wheels, like his he's
gonna get his outboard motor,and I'll be able to traverse on
water.
And uh I feel like something bigis gonna happen when that
happens.
SPEAKER_02 (34:52):
When he said that, Doritos, I just felt like
Aerith's theme from FinalFantasy VII was like blowing out
of my heart.
Yeah, but Marcus, the reasonthat you feel like the game is
so familiar is because it isusing a little concept called
the hero's journey.
SPEAKER_01 (35:12):
What's that?
SPEAKER_02 (35:14):
It's I don't know, it's a book somewhere.
SPEAKER_01 (35:21):
Yeah, oh my god.
There is a book.
Oh, what was the name of thatbook again?
The gamer's journey.
That's it, Doritos.
Thank you for reminding me.
I totally forgot who wrote thatbook.
SPEAKER_00 (35:34):
I don't know.
I I think it was uh some guy bythe name of Daniel Kaufman or
something, or Dr.
Daniel Kaufman.
SPEAKER_02 (35:39):
Yeah, he did that.
But anyway, Expedition 33follows it amazingly.
It even has a three-actstructure to the story, which
really hits it on the nose whatthey're doing with with the
stages of the story.
So I didn't know that.
(36:01):
Oh, I'm sorry, Marcus.
There's actually four.
So now I don't really care.
There's actually five.
Hey, hey, acts there's 17stages.
SPEAKER_01 (36:10):
Hey, I it could there could be five, there could
be three.
It doesn't matter to me becausethat doesn't spoil anything.
Uh, you if you play a game,Elden Ring, I'm gonna use Elden
Ring, you know, when you get tocrumbling farm, farm, farm,
Missoula.
When you get there, you knowyou're in a lot of shit and it's
(36:32):
about to go down.
SPEAKER_02 (36:34):
Like that's Elden Ring follows a three-act
structure as well, by the way.
It does, yeah, it does.
Yeah, so once you get up ontothe Altus Plateau, that's the
beginning of act two, and thenonce you get into crumbling
Faramusoula, and then you getreturned to the Fallen Capital,
that's act three.
SPEAKER_01 (36:54):
Interesting.
Yeah, I didn't ever look at itlike that.
I just knew that when I hit thecrumbling and I looked, and the
whole sky is spinning, and I'mlike, it got real.
Yeah, I'm about to die a lot.
SPEAKER_02 (37:07):
So there's a chapter in the psychology of Elden Ring
that talks about how Elden Ringfollows the structure of the
hero's journey.
SPEAKER_00 (37:14):
Yeah, you brought who wrote that one, you?
SPEAKER_02 (37:17):
Dr.
Daniel Kaufman did.
SPEAKER_01 (37:19):
Did you know though?
Fun fact about that book, everysingle chapter explains to you
what Elden Ring is.
SPEAKER_02 (37:33):
Well, we didn't talk to each other.
I'm not the editor for that.
I just wrote my chapter in avacuum.
No, the vacuum was calledcrumbling Faramazoula.
So does it make like a Dyson orsomething?
SPEAKER_00 (37:51):
Because it's got the big vortex in the middle.
SPEAKER_02 (37:54):
Yeah.
That is such a good game.
I want to go back into EldenRing.
I miss it.
SPEAKER_01 (37:59):
So what I'm gonna say in my next words, I enjoyed
Elden Ring.
The the DLC, it's too much.
(38:19):
And it's so compacted, andthere's so much to it that like
you like it used to be youtravel.
I'm gonna use Limgrave.
You go north to south, you'restill in Limgrave for a long
time.
You're going into these littlepockets because the game is it's
like they packed so much intolittle spaces instead of giving
(38:42):
you like five zones, you have400 zones, but they're the size
of you know, smaller than theweeping peninsula.
And for me, it's I kind of lostinterest in it because they're
packing so much in it and theyturn the dial to a hundred on it
or two hundred because if thefirst game gets to level 100,
(39:06):
this game is definitely pushingit to level 200.
And what I mean by that is it'sit's extra for extra purposes.
And I understand for the EldenRing professionals, the it was
hard for them, and that's whatthey they catered to, and I get
that.
But I kind of the Shadow of theUr Tree, I lost.
(39:28):
I'll give an example.
I lost interest.
I did this dungeon, and therewere these pots that you would
ride down.
I spent 45 minutes in thisdungeon.
Now, granted, for a Elden RingPro, it'd probably be 25, but my
time is limited, and I spent 45minutes to get down to the
(39:50):
bottom.
I wasn't even near the boss'sroom, and I died, and there's no
save point at the bottom.
That game did not respect mytime.
And for me, I just was like, youknow what?
I'm not playing.
Like, I'm not gonna do thisdungeon, even though there's
something in there that I shouldget, because I don't have 45
(40:14):
minutes.
I might only have 45 minutes toplay a video game for the day.
And when I die and I don'tachieve anything, which is fine,
but the next time I play, if Ionly have 10 minutes, I'm not
playing Elden Ring because Idon't have enough time to do
that dungeon.
SPEAKER_02 (40:32):
You are completely allowed to feel that way, and I
have felt that way during gamesbefore as well.
To play Devil's Advocate for asecond, what if you just missed
a sight of Grace off in a littletiny room off the main path?
SPEAKER_01 (40:47):
I looked at a catacomb.
SPEAKER_02 (40:49):
Not actually 45 minutes, it's actually like 20.
SPEAKER_01 (40:53):
Right.
I looked online.
I after I died, I was like,where's a Grace?
And there is none.
SPEAKER_02 (40:59):
Is that area even critical to getting to the end
of the DLC?
SPEAKER_01 (41:04):
But I like to explore, right?
I love to explore it.
I find a place and I want to goin and do it because I I am not
a Doritos 100%er.
And and I'm using Doritosbecause Doritos and I have said
this a thousand times on theshow.
We played Elden Ring almost atthe same time.
But I enjoyed, I like I enjoyfinding what I find.
(41:30):
I I don't need to cover everynook and cranny and get every
item.
That's not me.
I like, oh, I stumble into this.
Okay, I'll do this.
But what I'm saying is in thebase game, it respected your
time a lot more than the DLC.
And what I mean by that isfront, it's not the difficulty.
(41:52):
I don't mind it being hardbecause I'm gonna die anyways.
Like fighting the god skin duowas the most unfair fight ever.
Like that's the dumbest fightever.
That was the devs going ha ha haha.
Or I didn't get to do it, orgoing into a dungeon and your
boss fight is two cruciblenights.
(42:12):
Who does that to somebody?
I didn't do that from software,exactly, but that is the entire
Shadow of the Earth Tree DLC.
SPEAKER_02 (42:24):
I think one of the things that I don't understand
about the DLC because I haven'tfinished it yet, is I completed
the base game because I wantedto be Elden Lord and I wanted to
see the different endings.
I don't actually have knowledgeabout why I want to beat the
DLC.
(42:44):
And I think that is why I havenot beaten the DLC.
SPEAKER_01 (42:48):
The way they drop the story content isn't like
like there is you're findingyour whole goal is to find
what's her name, America?
His his name, America, whatever.
You know what I mean?
That's the whole point, andyou're following that path to
whatever it is, but you get thestory as you play it.
(43:10):
Where Elden Ring's base game wasyou're tarnished, you're gonna
be Elden Lord, you're gonna bethe Emperor.
SPEAKER_02 (43:20):
That promise was something I needed to fulfill.
I don't know what I'm trying tofulfill in the DLC.
Not that so I guess I enjoy Idon't have the same exact
feeling you have towards theDLC, Marcus, and that's fine.
I I do also have a similarity inthat I just trailed off on
(43:42):
playing it because I got to apoint where I had some successes
on that stream.
I took down some bosses, I gotinto some new areas, and then I
just never made time to play itagain because I was playing
other games.
And actually, I'm at a weirdpart kind of segue into how
Twitch is going for me.
(44:04):
I have so many games that I'mjuggling when I go live now.
I have Persona 3 reload, I nowhave Silent Hill F.
I could go to Sky Children ofthe Light if I want to be cozy
and relaxed, can always go toFinal Fantasy XIV because I
haven't even finished this themain story content or the
(44:26):
current boss series on storydifficulty.
And and then what I have othergames too.
Yeah, I started Silksong.
That's not my type of game,though, and I can tell you right
now, I probably will not play itagain.
I wanted to try it.
I got some people who have cometo some of my streams before
(44:46):
that were very excited to be seeme covering it, and very
encouraging to me, even though Iwas dying a lot and not really
getting it.
But I don't know, like I justhave a lot of different
directions I can go now, andsometimes I wake up in the
morning and I have no idea whatdirection I'm gonna go with my
stream.
SPEAKER_01 (45:10):
Yeah, it's hard, man.
And that's how I that's why I'mnot playing multiplayer games
right now, except Fortnite.
Because I don't have the time toinvest in you know a game.
And for me, as a creator, you'relike the new hotness comes out,
and you want to capitalize on itbecause everybody's talking
(45:31):
about it, so you jump in SilentHill F, and I say you play it
until you're sick of it, andthen you just play the next
game.
You don't need to beat a game onstream for it to be a successful
stream video, whatever it maybe.
You know, and for me, like ifthere's a game that you love,
(45:52):
I'll say Claire, Claire, Claire,you love.
You wanted to play it beginningto end on stream, Final Fantasy,
rebirth, and remake and allthat, play that on stream,
great.
But these other games, I'm gonnacall them the fly by night
games, the Silent Hill Elf F.
If you play that two or fourgame hours on stream, that's
good.
Move on.
You got your money's worth outof the game and play it when
(46:14):
you're not streaming.
SPEAKER_02 (46:16):
That's not true.
Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna keepgoing with Silent Hill F though,
because I have go ahead.
I have love for Silent Hill.
SPEAKER_01 (46:24):
For me, I was just using Silent Hill as a
placeholder, right?
I don't mean actually that.
I'll use Mass Effect.
Play Mass Effect for three hoursor Elden Ring for three hours
and feel good.
Okay, that's what I playedtoday, but don't feel obligated
to come back.
Do you agree to that, Doritos?
SPEAKER_00 (46:41):
Right.
I mean, it in in you know,watching Doc have the fun on
streams of oh, I want to playthis today, see how it goes, and
you can see that you enjoycertain aspects of all the
games, but it doesn'tnecessarily bring a lot of the
mindfulness abilities becauseyou are very like to very much
(47:03):
interact with with the streamand the the JRPGs, things that
have strategic moments too,where you can analyze what's
going on and then haveconversations, you know, and
then if you're even in themiddle of a fight, somebody
(47:24):
throws a geek therapy cardredeem or a D20 topic in the
middle of a fight.
It's nothing to just go aheadand oh, let's go ahead and knock
this out real quick, unless youreally feel in the flow and it's
like, hold on, let's finish thisfight first, then we'll then
we'll do that.
SPEAKER_03 (47:41):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (47:41):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (47:42):
I owe my community a D20 topic because they I don't
remember who redeemed it, but itwas redeemed like at a point in
the stream where I knew there'snot a spot for me to do this.
So we'll we'll hit that onSunday.
It's fine.
It's all good here.
How are you doing?
Who is this?
SPEAKER_00 (48:02):
What's your operating number?
SPEAKER_01 (48:04):
Yeah, I guess so.
For me, I guess we're saying thesame thing.
But I can't emphasize enough foryou, Doc, that just play, don't
feel obligated to play somethingand beat it.
It took me a while to get thatacross my head.
If you feel like playing Shadowof the Earth Tree, play it.
(48:27):
And say, you know, I don't knowwhen the next time I'm gonna
play this game is, but it was afun stream.
Peace.
You know what I mean?
But when you get your next bigstory game, that's the one
you're gonna sink your teethinto, and the community is gonna
watch you play the whole thing.
SPEAKER_02 (48:42):
Yeah, I am also playing Baldur's Gate 3 off
stream.
I'm in act three, and I feellike some of the decisions I'm
getting faced with are reallyimportant.
Like I chose not to allow myselfto take the extra superpowered
(49:06):
tentacle thing because I don'twant I don't want to risk
turning into an Elithid, andthen like deal with the devil
kind of situation came up, and Iwas like, no, I'm not doing that
for you, you crazy.
So I'm trying to be vagueenough, but I'm still playing
with the expanded party mode, soall my people are running around
(49:27):
with me, and that makes thefights a lot they're just fun,
because I'm not gonna lose,because I have like eight people
in my party when I'm onlysupposed to have four.
But I'm having so much fun withit.
SPEAKER_03 (49:44):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (49:46):
Yeah.
So like seven games I'm jugglingright now in my very limited
time to play.
Hold on.
So what are you gonna do?
Well, I'm going to get to levela hundred in Fortnite, I'm going
(50:09):
to finish Baldur's Gate 3, I'mgoing to keep pushing through
Persona 3 reload, and I'm gonnacollect everything in Expedition
33.
And oh my gosh, we have not eventalked about some of the cool
things that I'm doing atKinebridge, but we're just gonna
(50:31):
have to let that trail offbecause basically we're turning
therapy into a video game, and Icannot believe how cool the
things I'm doing right now are.
SPEAKER_01 (50:47):
Interesting.
SPEAKER_02 (50:48):
Yeah, like one of the trainings I'm building is
seriously going to be thecoolest training experience of
any counseling thing I've evereven heard of.
SPEAKER_01 (51:03):
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (51:04):
So I'll have to talk about that more maybe in a month
or two.
SPEAKER_00 (51:09):
Ooh, a holiday episode.
SPEAKER_02 (51:11):
Yeah, yeah, it'll be around December when this is
ready for people to buy it.
SPEAKER_01 (51:20):
Well, I want you guys to know I'm ordering a new
video card tonight.
SPEAKER_00 (51:26):
Oh boy.
SPEAKER_01 (51:27):
Yeah.
It's time.
My computer, I play at 4K, I'vetalked about it a thousand
times.
I have a hundred and twentyhertz monitor for in 4K, and
Claire destroys my video card.
And it's time for an upgrade.
So I'm gonna sell my 3090 andbuying.
(51:48):
I don't think I'm gonna buy the5090 because it's too grand, and
I don't think that's responsiblefor the amount I'm playing video
games, so I think I'm gonna buya 5080.
SPEAKER_00 (52:03):
Okay.
You know, which is only what,1200?
SPEAKER_01 (52:06):
It's so it depends.
I believe it or not, I really Ican't get the founders edition.
If I could, I would buy thefounders, whatever it is.
But I really want a Zotec.
Zotac video card.
I when at Pax East, I talked tothem a long time ago and I asked
them what the difference was.
And I really fell in love withthe company, so I think I'm
(52:27):
gonna buy a Zotac.
I can get an ASIS too, but yeah,it's time for an upgrade.
Okay.
But if anybody listening wants a3090, hit me up.
SPEAKER_02 (52:39):
I also need to start thinking very seriously about
either getting a new computer orlearning how to build one.
Because my CPU is always maxing,and today I had a situation
where like two people followedme at the same approximate time
on my stream, and everything I'mlooking at on my three monitors
(53:02):
starts to crawl.
SPEAKER_01 (53:05):
Well, so Doc, your computer is old.
You've it's time for an upgrade.
I remember when you bought thatcomputer.
Yeah, it was probably 2019.
Yeah, it's time for a newcomputer.
Like it just start out fresh, doit, and then once you do that,
(53:29):
then you can start upgradingparts as you need it.
Because it's actually easy tochange parts.
The CPU and the motherboard'snot easy, but yeah.
Your computer's old, so buyingparts for your computer I don't
think is worth it at this point.
SPEAKER_02 (53:50):
Yeah, you're very much right.
SPEAKER_01 (53:53):
But yeah, you know, we could talk about that off
stream.
You know, you give me a budget,we'll find you a computer.
I wish you lived closer, I'dbuild it for you.
SPEAKER_02 (54:03):
Oh, that's so nice.
Well, I'll just start wanderingaround the wilderness looking
for computer parts, hoping theydon't break when I swing them at
enemies in Breath of the Wild.
SPEAKER_01 (54:13):
Doritos.
SPEAKER_00 (54:14):
He got PC part picker.
Picker.com.
Absolutely.
It's a great place to virtuallybuild your machine.
SPEAKER_01 (54:21):
It tells you what's compatible or not.
Back when I started building acomputer, and Dorito probably
built 10 computers before me,maybe 20.
But we had to like make sure theshit worked.
There was nothing to say, oh,this motherboard's not gonna
work with this.
SPEAKER_02 (54:38):
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01 (54:40):
Yep.
But it is time for a newcomputer, Doc.
SPEAKER_02 (54:45):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (54:45):
I would sell you my video card, but that's not your
problem.
SPEAKER_02 (54:49):
Nope.
My problem is just the main harddrive doesn't have enough space
for the amount of stuff Windowsis packing into it now.
SPEAKER_01 (54:59):
Wait, if it's a hard drive issue, I can walk you
through adding a hard drive toyour computer via Discord on
your phone.
It's easy.
Like when I tell you how easy itis to add a hard drive, that's
easy.
But it sounds to me like yourCPU is like overloaded.
SPEAKER_02 (55:19):
Yes, CPU's overloaded.
SPEAKER_01 (55:21):
You're gonna spend some money because you're buying
an I9 because of what you do.
SPEAKER_02 (55:26):
That's true.
SPEAKER_01 (55:27):
What's App Face for Dreads?
SPEAKER_00 (55:28):
Do not tell him to buy an AMD at all.
I'm saying do the homework.
Don't necessarily listen toMarcus.
SPEAKER_02 (55:35):
I'm not gonna buy an AMD.
I had a computer once with anAMD, and it made me so sad the
entire time I had it.
SPEAKER_01 (55:43):
Believe it or not, the new MD AMDs are pretty dope.
The thread rippers are sick.
I just can't do it.
SPEAKER_02 (55:51):
For everyone listening, I would just like you
to know that we have entered aterritory where I don't even
know what we're talking aboutanymore.
So it's okay.
We're here for you to talk aboutpsychology of games, and
sometimes we have to build oursystem and use websites and
realize how hard it was for theold people to put their
computers together, but we'reall playing video games, we're
(56:13):
all remembering to continue thejourney.
Welcome to the Gaming Persona Podcast.
This is the show that exploreswho we become when we play
games.
Whether you're saving kingdoms,leading epic raids, or just
vibing in cozy indie worlds,join me, Dr.
Gameology, and my good friendMarcus as we search for all the
ways gaming and personal growthcollide.
Grab your controllers and let'scontinue the journey now.
SPEAKER_01 (00:25):
Alright, so since the last time I was here, I have
some things.
I have show and tell to startthe show.
SPEAKER_02 (00:33):
Oh right.
Just like in elementary school.
Awesome.
People on podcast and totallysee it.
It looks awesome.
That is Seth Freaking Rollinswith a flamethrower.
SPEAKER_01 (00:44):
Signed by him.
SPEAKER_02 (00:46):
Wow.
So did you actually walk up tohim and ask him to sign it?
SPEAKER_01 (00:51):
No.
SPEAKER_02 (00:52):
Oh.
Yeah, he's a heel right now, sohe wouldn't do that.
SPEAKER_01 (00:56):
But the real one.
SPEAKER_02 (01:01):
Oh wow.
John Cena sign that.
SPEAKER_01 (01:09):
Yep.
So uh Monday, September 5th, wewent to Monday Night Raw in my
hometown.
Monday, so in my hometown, I'min a small, small city west of
Boston.
And the last time WWE had a liveevent, like a televised event,
(01:31):
was 2005.
But okay.
But John Cena, John Cena went toSpringfield College, where I'm
from.
And uh he picked all thelocations that he wanted to go
to, so he made sure he went toSpringfield because he played
(01:52):
football.
Nice.
And that's where I got my JohnCena hat and the John Cena
signed poster cardboard cutout.
SPEAKER_02 (02:04):
So you're our John Cena mascot for the gaming
persona now.
SPEAKER_01 (02:08):
Yeah, sure.
But then again, you could be toobecause you were playing as
Peacemaker on Fortnite.
SPEAKER_02 (02:15):
I was.
I actually played as shirtlessJohn Cena during a match today
as well.
For the first time ever, Marcusand Doritos.
I was the first person to die ina Fortnite match.
It was so amazing.
Like I just couldn't find a gunand someone found me and I ran
(02:36):
around.
It was it was a valiant effort,but I I I swear like two days
ago I commented on stream orsomething like I've never gotten
last place in a fortnight match,so I jinxed myself, and so now I
have.
SPEAKER_01 (02:53):
Well, it it happens, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (02:56):
It does.
SPEAKER_01 (02:56):
And then the next time you could play you play,
you may get Victory Royale.
SPEAKER_02 (03:02):
I have gotten my first three Victory Royales
since the last episode.
I played duo with some people inmy Discord on several several
different occasions.
And DTamps, who is the one ofthe people in my channel, former
student of mine too, protege,but very good at Fortnite,
(03:24):
grouped up with me and totallycarried me to three wins out of
four matches.
Like we were dominant.
SPEAKER_01 (03:31):
Then you he must have been you must have been in
your lobbies.
Because I guarantee if he's goodand he was in his lobbies, you
guys wouldn't have won.
SPEAKER_02 (03:40):
I did decent when I was with him, though.
SPEAKER_01 (03:44):
Yeah, he carried the load.
SPEAKER_02 (03:47):
Yeah, I just shoot people.
That's the whole point.
SPEAKER_01 (03:51):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (03:53):
Yeah.
And I've also added a bunch ofcharacters to my locker because
I did buy the crew pass, becauseI really want the Green Ranger
and the White Ranger.
But I also added other packs ofcharacters just so that I can
switch it up every couplematches.
(04:14):
And I added Black Widow, Siri,and Jennifer from The Witcher.
And I added.
SPEAKER_01 (04:29):
Jeez, how many did you spend on skins?
SPEAKER_02 (04:34):
I don't know, probably like twenty dollars on
three different days orsomething.
SPEAKER_01 (04:40):
Damn.
SPEAKER_02 (04:41):
I just want to enjoy the game, and being these rando
no-name people with cargo shortsis not the same as being John
Cena with amazing jorts.
SPEAKER_01 (04:52):
Oh, I get it.
I get it.
SPEAKER_02 (04:54):
I my yeah, so I have John Cena and Peacemaker.
I bought Sabrina Carpenter'sespresso emote, so I can do that
now when I do somethingvictorious.
Oh my gosh, everybody! I got topilot the megazord this morning.
SPEAKER_01 (05:14):
Oh, my son just piloted that thing.
I walked in, I was like, dude,you're the megazword.
SPEAKER_02 (05:19):
Yeah, I killed the bug.
I got like 20 kills of the tinylittle people, and it was the
coolest thing.
Like, eight-year-old me was soalive this morning.
Go go Power Ranger.
The music plays, Zordon isthere, Rita's yelling, make my
monster grow.
(05:41):
It's so good.
Like, this game has awoken a joyin me that I don't think I felt
in like 20 years.
SPEAKER_01 (05:54):
All right.
But I did, I didn't missFortnite together.
SPEAKER_02 (05:58):
We do need to play Fortnite together, but I did
miss my chance to buy the PowerRangers.
So if I if I finish the seasonpass, I'll have the Green Ranger
and I'll have the White Ranger,but I won't have the five basic
ones.
SPEAKER_01 (06:13):
It's alright.
They'll come back.
SPEAKER_02 (06:16):
They will.
Okay.
Yeah.
That makes me feel better.
SPEAKER_01 (06:19):
Like every two to three months they pop back in.
Like this is the big launch ofthem.
You know what I mean?
And then they'll cycle.
Like I didn't.
So there was Cody Rhodes and TheUndertaker, Bianca Belair and
Becky Lynch, and I waited.
I was like, I'm waiting forCena.
And then Cena came back.
But he was only there for twodays, and I bought him, and then
he was gone again.
SPEAKER_02 (06:38):
So you could see him.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I I also bought Ninja Batman andNinja Harley Quinn.
SPEAKER_01 (06:48):
Hey, Doritos.
Doc spent like$180 on skins inFortnite.
SPEAKER_02 (06:53):
I did not.
I swear it's like$20 at a time,three different days.
unknown (06:59):
Woo.
SPEAKER_00 (07:02):
Of course it is.
SPEAKER_01 (07:04):
Yeah, of course.
SPEAKER_00 (07:05):
And that's how it starts.
SPEAKER_01 (07:06):
Yeah.
Well, I know, I don't know ifwe've ever talked about mobile
games.
Doritos, you play a mobile game,right?
I play a few couple, yeah.
So I started playing a mobilegame.
So I was watching wrestling athome, and it told me I could
(07:27):
play this game on my phone, andit's a card game, and I can get
AJ Lee for free if I download itusing this thing, this QR code.
So I downloaded it, and it hasbeen a fun time sink.
Like when you have like fiveminutes, you do it, and you're
(07:48):
just matching cards to goagainst people.
So like the money in the bank,it's like a five-level match,
and you go up in tiers, and youhave to pick the right card to
go against the people, and thenyou win money in the bank, you
gain XP.
It's a it's a stupid card game,but it's a lot of fun.
But they're like, Oh, buy thispack, you can get a super rare
(08:10):
super card and pay five bucks.
And I'm like, I'm not buyinganything, like I don't need to,
I'll just earn it.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, but they're like, Oh, getour battle pass, it's only$30.
I'm like, right?
Never but you know I totallywould get the battle pass.
(08:32):
But somebody does, right?
SPEAKER_00 (08:33):
And I'm thinking to myself, that's what and they
keep doing that, they keep doingit, they keep getting it.
SPEAKER_01 (08:38):
Yeah.
The moral of my story is I havefound like I never really played
a mobile game because I triedand it never got me.
But this has actually beensomething fun to where I log in
for five minutes, do somethingfun, and shut it off.
You know what I'm saying?
And at the same time, betweenthat and the Steam Deck, I have
(09:01):
been making time for videogames.
You know what I mean?
Well, that's yeah.
Like I'm going to bed at 11o'clock at night, I turn on the
Steam Deck to play Claire, and Ipass out while I'm playing it.
Like I'll wake up and it's on mylap, and I'm like, oh, I'm in
(09:22):
the middle of the world.
Hmm.
All right, how did I get here?
Yeah, how did I get here?
But I'm alive.
You know, and it's been reallygood for me.
Making yeah, I don't want to saymaking time, but like making
time and finding time to play avideo game that doesn't involve
(09:44):
my computer itself.
Because my time is super limitedright now.
That's really great.
How's Andromeda?
It's okay.
SPEAKER_00 (10:05):
I've never played it.
For a game that uh came out inwhat, 17?
SPEAKER_02 (10:11):
Yeah, 2017.
SPEAKER_00 (10:16):
It misses some of the the quality aspects.
The the sound they've got soundclipping, uh visual clipping,
some of the mo cap animationsshould be better, but they're
not, so it's it's not bad.
(10:36):
It's just I can definitely seewhere it it um got some less
than stellar reviews for for forsome of those smaller things, a
lot of it's it's more quality oflife things than it is anything
else.
SPEAKER_01 (10:52):
Well, the when it came out, I remember playing it
when it first came out,pre-ordered, bought the
collector's edition.
Like I was in, it was MassEffect, greatest series ever in
gaming, right?
It was just there.
And then I it was like, rememberthe old Japanese Godzilla movies
for the English dub where oh mygod, it's Godzilla, it's a Taken
(11:16):
Tokyo, and they're speaking inJapanese, but they're English
dubbing it, and it was justridiculous.
That's what Andromeda was whenit first released.
Yeah, still not much better.
Oh shit.
I thought they fixed it.
SPEAKER_02 (11:27):
They attempted.
Wait, why would it be so badwhen it's common for voice-acted
lines to be matched with movingmouths?
Like, in fact, Persona 3 Reloadis an anime style game, a remake
of a PS2 game, and they eventook the time to sync the voice
(11:48):
lines with the little mouths andthe cartoon mouths on the side
of the screen.
Do you want me to give you theone-word answer?
SPEAKER_01 (11:58):
EA Bioware.
SPEAKER_02 (12:00):
Bioware.
Oh man.
Yeah.
Cool.
SPEAKER_00 (12:04):
I think for you know, if for for being in 2017,
you don't expect that.
For being 2000?
2008?
You know, like when did uh MassEffect 1 come out?
When did uh three 2007 or 8,right?
SPEAKER_01 (12:24):
Yeah, yeah.
So I mean it's when was MassEffect 3?
SPEAKER_02 (12:29):
But 2013.
Um 13 or 14, maybe.
SPEAKER_01 (12:36):
Well, either way, I agree with you, Doritos.
SPEAKER_00 (12:39):
It shouldn't be that, you know what I mean?
Yeah, so I'm having to put thataside, and and there's some
several instances where you knowyou're walking through a city
and you're getting cantinasounds and conversations, and
you look around, there's not anot not even an NPC within 30
meters of you.
So you're like, what it's comeon, guys, really?
(13:02):
We we can we can do a little bitbetter than that.
SPEAKER_02 (13:06):
Interesting.
Also, I'm thinking about thetimeline of video games.
It seems like Andromeda came outaround the same time as God of
War, like the the first one inthe Norse series, so that's like
comparing quality, right?
You would think Andromeda wasmeant to be a triple A
(13:26):
experience, right?
It was meant to be, yeah.
It well fell short.
I wonder that I mean it soundslike it's not just short, like
it it they didn't even bring thechains out on the field to see
if it's a first down becauseit's very clearly not a first
down.
SPEAKER_00 (13:43):
Oh, yeah, no, they're they're they're short by
like you know three, four yards.
SPEAKER_02 (13:46):
Uh okay.
SPEAKER_00 (13:48):
So again, it's it's more I think that's the one they
they really tried to push themultiplayer aspect of it more
than Mass Effect 3.
So there's several missions inthere where you can do via
multiplayer to you know getresources and and and credits.
(14:11):
So I think that was their bigthing because they really wanted
to push uh the multiplayeraspect of it.
Being where it is now, it's uhokay.
Again, I'm playing through itbecause uh I want to finish the
series because that's the wholethere's that whole completionist
side of it of I want to finishthe series and get ready for
(14:33):
Mass Effect 4 whenever it comesout.
SPEAKER_01 (14:36):
So God of War for the PlayStation 4 the first
time, like the new one, came outApril of 2018.
Mass Effect Andromeda was March2017.
SPEAKER_00 (14:50):
Okay, so that's a year and a moment.
SPEAKER_01 (14:52):
It's still right there.
It's still right there.
SPEAKER_00 (14:55):
Yeah, the the it should still be comparable.
SPEAKER_01 (14:57):
Well, the graphics itself in Andromeda look good.
SPEAKER_00 (15:05):
Mass Effect they look as good as they did Mass
Effect 3.
Well, I think it was the sameengine.
Oh, yeah, it's the same engine.
So so again, it's you're you'reit's you're you're getting that,
but there's also a lot moreclipping between textures,
between textures and and otherstuff.
There there's just seems to be alittle bit more clipping than
(15:28):
there should be.
SPEAKER_01 (15:30):
This is that age-old question of is it the
developer's fault or is it thepublisher's fault?
And I say that because Iremember when the game was
coming out, Bioware said it'snot ready, and EA said ship it.
Because that's a common thing.
Right.
(15:50):
Who knows how many times it wasdelayed in development?
SPEAKER_00 (15:53):
You know, did they they did the same thing with
Anthem?
It wasn't ready, but they couldpush it out because it had to go
out.
SPEAKER_01 (16:01):
Yeah.
I play so maybe I'm a moron whenit comes to like gaming.
But when I when I played Anthem,it felt like you were in a dead
universe.
But the game itself played fine.
(16:23):
I didn't I didn't hate Anthem, Ithink it was boring, but the
gameplay itself was generic, butit was fun enough.
Okay.
You know, where I never playedit, so right.
Well, Andromeda, when I playedit, I I like graphics, I like
(16:46):
the way games look, and whenyou're playing a game and you're
the the lips are moving, butlike it's like seven seconds
behind, that I that's notplayable to me.
SPEAKER_00 (16:57):
That's not seven seconds now.
That that part has beenresolved, but it's still there
is some visual visual audiodesync.
Sure.
SPEAKER_01 (17:07):
Does that take away from the story for you?
SPEAKER_00 (17:12):
No, not from a story, but if I'm if I'm
listening, if I'm trying towatch a conversation to see, you
know, is a character is an NPCor or even one of the companion
characters, are they doing somesort of reaction to what you're
saying?
And they made everybody so plainand so vanilla that there is
virtually no reactions and it soyou can literally close your
(17:39):
eyes and and listen to theconversation and get everything
you want out of it.
SPEAKER_01 (17:47):
No, I agree.
Do you remember Aria from Massthe original Mass Effect series?
The Purple Lady?
Yeah.
When you were in the bar in MassEffect 2, Omega?
Omega, the music is going, andshe's like bobbing her head,
listening to the music, andshe's talking to you, and then
(18:08):
you give her an answer shedoesn't like, and like she does
the sharp, like almost like BenStiller, like the magnum pose.
What did you just say?
Kind of a look, and you're like,whoa, and you felt that.
So, what you're saying is youdon't get that in Andromeda?
Nope.
Oh.
SPEAKER_02 (18:26):
Like I said, well, that seems bad.
SPEAKER_00 (18:29):
That that that element's missing, so I'm like,
all right, I'm just gonna pushthrough the game so I can say,
yep, check the mark, check thebox.
I'm I'm I've completed this inthe life cycle of of Mass
Effect, but it was it'sdisappointing.
And I can see I can see why alot of people have said, you
(18:50):
know, it's been disappointingbecause it's not the quality you
expected out of Bioware whenthey came out when they already
had Mass Effect 2 and MassEffect 3 out there.
SPEAKER_01 (19:01):
It brings up a good question.
What's the most disappointinggame you've ever played?
That you were wait, let merephrase the question, sorry.
What's the most hyped game youwere?
Wait, what is the most excitedyou were for a game that
disappointed you the most?
SPEAKER_02 (19:25):
Oh my gosh.
I have an answer to thatquestion, and it might make some
people really upset.
Okay.
The Legend of Zelda, Breath ofthe Wild.
SPEAKER_01 (19:43):
I can understand that.
SPEAKER_02 (19:45):
I wanted to play that game so much, and it's so
much harder than Elden Ring, andI can't stand it.
Like, for no reason.
Like, I don't get the the fuzzy,happy dopamine feelings from
Breath of the Wild that I dofrom Elden Ring.
SPEAKER_01 (20:05):
Well, you know why?
It's because the fucking swordbreaks.
SPEAKER_02 (20:08):
That's right.
Oh my gosh.
I was playing Silent Hill F thismorning because that game just
came out, and within twopathways of picking up the pipe
for the first time, you pick upan item that is to repair your
melee weapon, and I was justlike, oh no, this game is all
(20:30):
about broken melee weapons, Ican't handle this.
So, for like just for argument'ssake, Silent Hill 2, you play as
James Sunderland, he's a grownman, he swings that pipe into so
many dead, creepy things' faces,and the pipe survives the entire
game.
(20:50):
And you're telling me this highschool girl picks up a pipe and
breaks it?
What?
What?
Like, is she way stronger thanJames, or is it something about
technique?
Like, there's a way to swing apipe into something's face that
will make it less likely tobreak.
SPEAKER_01 (21:06):
Can I give you the logical reason?
SPEAKER_02 (21:09):
Please, because I've been trying to figure this out
all day and I can't.
SPEAKER_01 (21:12):
It's just like Breath of the Wild, it's an
artificial difficulty that theydo to extend the length of the
game.
To add another layer ofcomplexity that is not needed.
Like I understand the Breath ofthe Wild, even though I don't
agree with it.
I understand it because you'reyou have you go out in the world
(21:32):
and you're all alone and youhave nothing.
And you know what I mean?
In real life, you hit uh whatare they called?
Hobgoblins?
No, hobo, hobo goblins.
I don't know what they'recalled.
Something like that, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (21:44):
Hobobo goblins.
SPEAKER_01 (21:45):
Yeah, whatever.
And you hit it with a sword ahundred times, that sword's
bound to break on one of them'shead.
You know what I mean?
So I sure understand it.
But in Silent Hill, it's just tocreate an artificial difficulty
and artificial scare tacticbecause you're fighting
something that's attacking inyour pipe breaks, and you're
like, ah yeah.
(22:07):
I don't play games that havethat problem.
SPEAKER_02 (22:10):
Well, I forced myself to finish Breath of the
Wild because I really wantedthat experience to be a part of
my book, and I did that, andTears of the Kingdom created
similar feelings for me, is Ireally sat down.
I put more than 10 hours intoit, and then I just stopped
(22:30):
because there's things about itI didn't like.
Oh my gosh, Elden Ring NightRain is the answer to this
question.
Hands down, Elden Ring NightRain is absolutely the answer to
this question.
I wanted to love that game somuch, but now that I love
Fortnite, maybe I would loveNight Rain more because I think
the reason I didn't like it isbecause it was it felt like it
(22:55):
was trying to be Fortnite in anElden Ring world, but maybe now
I'd be like, this is awesome.
I don't know.
Someone else answered thisquestion.
I've just given two answers.
Yeah, you can go so for me, itwas Genshin Impact.
SPEAKER_00 (23:13):
Interesting.
What's wrong with GenshinImpact, Doritos?
It didn't hook me.
It just it's not the kind ofgame that I enjoyed.
I played it a little bit, playedwith my kids a little bit.
They they enjoyed it for alittle while, but it again it
was just a game that my familydidn't sink their teeth into.
It's like, okay, it's nice, itlooks good, but it's not it's
(23:37):
not the kind of things thatwe've enjoyed.
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (23:41):
I have three.
The first, I was looking forwardto this game for so long.
I didn't pre-order anything, butlike I really wanted to play it.
It was my it was Hello Kittyonline, and I wanted to play it
so bad, and then it never cameout.
SPEAKER_02 (24:00):
Well, that's a whole other thing, because then I can
say my answer is the remake ofStar Wars Knights of the Old
Republic.
SPEAKER_01 (24:10):
Yeah, I think that's everybody's, but the real games
that I really I would say mynumber one most disappointing
game I ever played was Destiny2's Lightfall expansion.
I was at the height of myexcitement for that game.
I bought the collector'sedition.
The collector's edition is stillin a box, like I've never even
(24:32):
opened it.
And I was so excited to log in,play it day one.
I think I played it for 17 hoursstraight to beat the campaign on
day one for it to fall flat onits face, and I was just like,
and after that first night, Ireally didn't want to play it.
(24:57):
I was just like, but the otherone I would say is now I'm gonna
preference that I've neverreally played the Assassin's
Creed games, but I always I'mGreek, I'm Greek and French
Canadian, Greek mythology.
Like I get so excited to hearabout that mythology.
(25:22):
I love that world of like Zeusand Hades and Athena and Medusa
turning you to stone.
Like, I love that shit.
And Assassin's Creed was comingout with I forget what it was
called.
I think it was Assassin's CreedOdyssey.
Odyssey.
Yep, they did it the year beforethrough in Egypt, and I played
(25:42):
it at PAX East, and I was like,wow, this is pretty cool.
Uh, whatever, I'm not reallyinto Egypt, but then they
announced it for the Assassin'sCreed Odyssey, and they were
going to Athens essentially.
I bought the strategy guide, Ibought the collector's edition,
I sat down to play it.
I played it for three hours.
(26:03):
I was like, yeah, never turnedit on again.
Because it just didn't hook me.
I it just it just I don't knowif it was the quest system.
I don't know if was that yourfirst Assassin's Creed game in
the franchise?
SPEAKER_00 (26:19):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (26:19):
I never played any of them because I wasn't like
the original games, correct meif I'm wrong, like one, two, and
three, you were that likeassassin, and it was all about
sneaking, right?
To get kills and stuff, like itwasn't right.
That's not my style of game.
I can use a shooting, like afirst-person shooter as an
example.
Some people are snipers thatjust hide in the back and shoot,
(26:42):
some people are the assaultrifle guy that like tactically
move.
I'm the guy with a submachinethat gun that's running straight
ahead, praying and sprayingeverything.
So Assassin's Creed wasn't mystyle.
Just like this is gonna be aninsult to a lot of people.
I didn't like Metal Gear Solideither.
Like way back, you know what Imean?
Because like I'm not a tacticalguy.
(27:06):
I don't want yeah, no, I don'twant to be creep, shh, be very
quiet.
There's wabbits out there.
Yeah, exactly.
But that's not my style ofgaming.
SPEAKER_02 (27:21):
When I got my PS4, the first day I bought it.
I bought two games at Best Buy.
I bought three controllers,well, two extra controllers.
I bought Rayman Legends, I thinkLegends, that was very fun, but
I also bought Assassin's CreedBlack Flag.
(27:41):
That was my first everAssassin's Creed game, and I did
not come to enjoy it.
I never finished it.
I probably booted it up threetimes to try to figure it out,
and I just don't think it was agood first entry to Assassin's
Creed for somebody.
SPEAKER_01 (27:59):
Scarlet in in my Discord, that's his favorite
game, I'm pretty sure.
SPEAKER_02 (28:05):
Had they played Assassin's Creed 1, 2, and 3
before you played them all.
Yeah, so that's all I'm sayingis I think if I had the
experience of the previous gamesand then I played Black Flag, I
think it would have been fine.
And earlier this year, I hadexactly that same thing happen
with Monster Hunter.
(28:25):
I played the new one, it was myvery first one.
I gave it about three streams onTwitch, plus some time on my
couch in my living room to tryto find a way for me to love it
because there were people thatwere encouraging me to start
getting my thoughts organizedaround it.
Maybe we can do some work withit.
(28:46):
I can't.
It's just not fun to me.
And I can grow and I can changeand I can figure things out, but
there is a point where a gamejust isn't for a person.
And for me, Black Flag andMonster Hunter both hit that
kind of unfortunate conclusion.
SPEAKER_03 (29:09):
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01 (29:12):
Sure.
Yeah, it I think about thedisappointing games, right?
I think about disappointinggames, but then I think about
all the the games that are thatmake us so happy when you turn
them on.
You know what I mean?
(29:32):
And it's so it's like that weirdcontrast.
It's because you're I'm soexcited for said game, but now
I'm disappointed.
But then a game, ah, are yougonna get it?
Eh I'm gonna try it.
And then you're like, Wow, wheredid this come from?
SPEAKER_00 (29:52):
Yep.
SPEAKER_02 (29:55):
You know You know, I think that we need to interject
A little bit of Star WarsEpisode 8, The Last Jedi, into
this conversation.
Because it really made me think,I know, I know.
So I'm gonna be honest, I forgotthe name of the character.
(30:16):
I'm trying to look it up.
I'm trying to talk Rose, right?
Rose Tico says when she savesFinn's life that it's not about
destroying what we hate, it'sabout saving what we love.
So I feel like we're about totalk about games that actually
gave us those feelings and gaveus our joy for gaming, so that
(30:38):
we're not just talking aboutMass Effect Andromeda the entire
episode.
SPEAKER_01 (30:43):
But why not?
It just shows that you knowgames you look forward to.
It's I was looking so forward tothat game, and now Doritos is
playing it, and I've alwayswondered, did it get fixed?
And the answer is no.
So I would rather leave my MassEffect journey at Mass Effect 3
on a high note than playAndromeda and just get mad.
(31:09):
But I have found a new love invideo games.
I am completely and utterlyhooked on finding the dead
expedition people.
SPEAKER_02 (31:25):
Uh-huh.
Isn't that fun?
SPEAKER_01 (31:27):
I find them, and then you listen to their rant,
and you're like, alright, sothis guy's mad because of these
white these white enemies, andthey're terrible because they
dodge every attack, no matterwhat I throw at them.
And they but you hit them onceand they're dead, but you gotta
hit them.
And these guys clearly gotkilled by them, and it's
(31:48):
amazing.
I I like search the whole mapfor these things.
SPEAKER_02 (31:55):
My journey through Expedition 33 is currently at
picking up any collectibles thatI missed during my playthrough.
And I found an obstacle coursevery close to the beginning of
the game.
The beach where you have yeah,the beach.
I didn't do that because I wasjust following a guide to make
(32:15):
sure I find everything, and theydidn't feel like getting the
swimsuits for my characters wasimportant, which I think it
would have been so important.
So I yeah, it is costumes orlike what make video games worth
playing.
SPEAKER_01 (32:34):
Ooh, let me ask you a quick sidebar on this.
Okay, do you feel as if yourfirst playthrough you shouldn't
change costumes?
SPEAKER_02 (32:42):
No, you should change costumes immediately.
Okay, so you like to look at thecharacters the way the devs
defaulted them.
SPEAKER_01 (32:52):
Not me.
I'm asking your opinion on thatbecause I forget who told me.
I was talking to somebody andthey said your first play.
Oh, my friend James.
My friend James says you shouldnot change, you should play it
the way that the care the devsintended it to be, so you can
get the full experience of whatthey're wearing.
And I disagreed.
I was like, no way, dude.
(33:14):
Wanna a melee look melee lookslike she's like a French artist
to me, and I think it's awesome.
And I have um who's the the theone that uses the dark moon in
the sun?
CL.
Yeah, she's in like the gesturalclown costume in Expedition 33.
SPEAKER_02 (33:34):
There is an option to where you can have them wear
their default costumes in thecutscenes, no matter what
they're wearing in the party.
I like the goofiness.
Yeah, no, I think it's reallycool how you can customize
characters and bring out adifferent personality vibe in
them.
Did you so did you do theobstacle course?
(33:55):
I found the first one and I gotit done.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (33:58):
I haven't done it yet.
So I've gone to the beachbecause I was just finding land.
Yeah, it's right there on theleft.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So for me, I went in and I waslike, okay, there's I tried to
run across the first log and Ifell in the water like seven
times.
Like, okay, I'm not in themindset for this yet.
SPEAKER_02 (34:16):
It took me about 30 minutes to figure it out.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (34:20):
Yeah.
But I will say again that thatgame is shocking to me on how
familiar it is, but yet it's sodifferent.
But I feel like something big isabout to happen for me because
(34:40):
I'm about to get SK his likewater wheels, like his he's
gonna get his outboard motor,and I'll be able to traverse on
water.
And uh I feel like something bigis gonna happen when that
happens.
SPEAKER_02 (34:52):
When he said that, Doritos, I just felt like
Aerith's theme from FinalFantasy VII was like blowing out
of my heart.
Yeah, but Marcus, the reasonthat you feel like the game is
so familiar is because it isusing a little concept called
the hero's journey.
SPEAKER_01 (35:12):
What's that?
SPEAKER_02 (35:14):
It's I don't know, it's a book somewhere.
SPEAKER_01 (35:21):
Yeah, oh my god.
There is a book.
Oh, what was the name of thatbook again?
The gamer's journey.
That's it, Doritos.
Thank you for reminding me.
I totally forgot who wrote thatbook.
SPEAKER_00 (35:34):
I don't know.
I I think it was uh some guy bythe name of Daniel Kaufman or
something, or Dr.
Daniel Kaufman.
SPEAKER_02 (35:39):
Yeah, he did that.
But anyway, Expedition 33follows it amazingly.
It even has a three-actstructure to the story, which
really hits it on the nose whatthey're doing with with the
stages of the story.
So I didn't know that.
(36:01):
Oh, I'm sorry, Marcus.
There's actually four.
So now I don't really care.
There's actually five.
Hey, hey, acts there's 17stages.
SPEAKER_01 (36:10):
Hey, I it could there could be five, there could
be three.
It doesn't matter to me becausethat doesn't spoil anything.
Uh, you if you play a game,Elden Ring, I'm gonna use Elden
Ring, you know, when you get tocrumbling farm, farm, farm,
Missoula.
When you get there, you knowyou're in a lot of shit and it's
(36:32):
about to go down.
SPEAKER_02 (36:34):
Like that's Elden Ring follows a three-act
structure as well, by the way.
It does, yeah, it does.
Yeah, so once you get up ontothe Altus Plateau, that's the
beginning of act two, and thenonce you get into crumbling
Faramusoula, and then you getreturned to the Fallen Capital,
that's act three.
SPEAKER_01 (36:54):
Interesting.
Yeah, I didn't ever look at itlike that.
I just knew that when I hit thecrumbling and I looked, and the
whole sky is spinning, and I'mlike, it got real.
Yeah, I'm about to die a lot.
SPEAKER_02 (37:07):
So there's a chapter in the psychology of Elden Ring
that talks about how Elden Ringfollows the structure of the
hero's journey.
SPEAKER_00 (37:14):
Yeah, you brought who wrote that one, you?
SPEAKER_02 (37:17):
Dr.
Daniel Kaufman did.
SPEAKER_01 (37:19):
Did you know though?
Fun fact about that book, everysingle chapter explains to you
what Elden Ring is.
SPEAKER_02 (37:33):
Well, we didn't talk to each other.
I'm not the editor for that.
I just wrote my chapter in avacuum.
No, the vacuum was calledcrumbling Faramazoula.
So does it make like a Dyson orsomething?
SPEAKER_00 (37:51):
Because it's got the big vortex in the middle.
SPEAKER_02 (37:54):
Yeah.
That is such a good game.
I want to go back into EldenRing.
I miss it.
SPEAKER_01 (37:59):
So what I'm gonna say in my next words, I enjoyed
Elden Ring.
The the DLC, it's too much.
(38:19):
And it's so compacted, andthere's so much to it that like
you like it used to be youtravel.
I'm gonna use Limgrave.
You go north to south, you'restill in Limgrave for a long
time.
You're going into these littlepockets because the game is it's
like they packed so much intolittle spaces instead of giving
(38:42):
you like five zones, you have400 zones, but they're the size
of you know, smaller than theweeping peninsula.
And for me, it's I kind of lostinterest in it because they're
packing so much in it and theyturn the dial to a hundred on it
or two hundred because if thefirst game gets to level 100,
(39:06):
this game is definitely pushingit to level 200.
And what I mean by that is it'sit's extra for extra purposes.
And I understand for the EldenRing professionals, the it was
hard for them, and that's whatthey they catered to, and I get
that.
But I kind of the Shadow of theUr Tree, I lost.
(39:28):
I'll give an example.
I lost interest.
I did this dungeon, and therewere these pots that you would
ride down.
I spent 45 minutes in thisdungeon.
Now, granted, for a Elden RingPro, it'd probably be 25, but my
time is limited, and I spent 45minutes to get down to the
(39:50):
bottom.
I wasn't even near the boss'sroom, and I died, and there's no
save point at the bottom.
That game did not respect mytime.
And for me, I just was like, youknow what?
I'm not playing.
Like, I'm not gonna do thisdungeon, even though there's
something in there that I shouldget, because I don't have 45
(40:14):
minutes.
I might only have 45 minutes toplay a video game for the day.
And when I die and I don'tachieve anything, which is fine,
but the next time I play, if Ionly have 10 minutes, I'm not
playing Elden Ring because Idon't have enough time to do
that dungeon.
SPEAKER_02 (40:32):
You are completely allowed to feel that way, and I
have felt that way during gamesbefore as well.
To play Devil's Advocate for asecond, what if you just missed
a sight of Grace off in a littletiny room off the main path?
SPEAKER_01 (40:47):
I looked at a catacomb.
SPEAKER_02 (40:49):
Not actually 45 minutes, it's actually like 20.
SPEAKER_01 (40:53):
Right.
I looked online.
I after I died, I was like,where's a Grace?
And there is none.
SPEAKER_02 (40:59):
Is that area even critical to getting to the end
of the DLC?
SPEAKER_01 (41:04):
But I like to explore, right?
I love to explore it.
I find a place and I want to goin and do it because I I am not
a Doritos 100%er.
And and I'm using Doritosbecause Doritos and I have said
this a thousand times on theshow.
We played Elden Ring almost atthe same time.
But I enjoyed, I like I enjoyfinding what I find.
(41:30):
I I don't need to cover everynook and cranny and get every
item.
That's not me.
I like, oh, I stumble into this.
Okay, I'll do this.
But what I'm saying is in thebase game, it respected your
time a lot more than the DLC.
And what I mean by that isfront, it's not the difficulty.
(41:52):
I don't mind it being hardbecause I'm gonna die anyways.
Like fighting the god skin duowas the most unfair fight ever.
Like that's the dumbest fightever.
That was the devs going ha ha haha.
Or I didn't get to do it, orgoing into a dungeon and your
boss fight is two cruciblenights.
(42:12):
Who does that to somebody?
I didn't do that from software,exactly, but that is the entire
Shadow of the Earth Tree DLC.
SPEAKER_02 (42:24):
I think one of the things that I don't understand
about the DLC because I haven'tfinished it yet, is I completed
the base game because I wantedto be Elden Lord and I wanted to
see the different endings.
I don't actually have knowledgeabout why I want to beat the
DLC.
(42:44):
And I think that is why I havenot beaten the DLC.
SPEAKER_01 (42:48):
The way they drop the story content isn't like
like there is you're findingyour whole goal is to find
what's her name, America?
His his name, America, whatever.
You know what I mean?
That's the whole point, andyou're following that path to
whatever it is, but you get thestory as you play it.
(43:10):
Where Elden Ring's base game wasyou're tarnished, you're gonna
be Elden Lord, you're gonna bethe Emperor.
SPEAKER_02 (43:20):
That promise was something I needed to fulfill.
I don't know what I'm trying tofulfill in the DLC.
Not that so I guess I enjoy Idon't have the same exact
feeling you have towards theDLC, Marcus, and that's fine.
I I do also have a similarity inthat I just trailed off on
(43:42):
playing it because I got to apoint where I had some successes
on that stream.
I took down some bosses, I gotinto some new areas, and then I
just never made time to play itagain because I was playing
other games.
And actually, I'm at a weirdpart kind of segue into how
Twitch is going for me.
(44:04):
I have so many games that I'mjuggling when I go live now.
I have Persona 3 reload, I nowhave Silent Hill F.
I could go to Sky Children ofthe Light if I want to be cozy
and relaxed, can always go toFinal Fantasy XIV because I
haven't even finished this themain story content or the
(44:26):
current boss series on storydifficulty.
And and then what I have othergames too.
Yeah, I started Silksong.
That's not my type of game,though, and I can tell you right
now, I probably will not play itagain.
I wanted to try it.
I got some people who have cometo some of my streams before
(44:46):
that were very excited to be seeme covering it, and very
encouraging to me, even though Iwas dying a lot and not really
getting it.
But I don't know, like I justhave a lot of different
directions I can go now, andsometimes I wake up in the
morning and I have no idea whatdirection I'm gonna go with my
stream.
SPEAKER_01 (45:10):
Yeah, it's hard, man.
And that's how I that's why I'mnot playing multiplayer games
right now, except Fortnite.
Because I don't have the time toinvest in you know a game.
And for me, as a creator, you'relike the new hotness comes out,
and you want to capitalize on itbecause everybody's talking
(45:31):
about it, so you jump in SilentHill F, and I say you play it
until you're sick of it, andthen you just play the next
game.
You don't need to beat a game onstream for it to be a successful
stream video, whatever it maybe.
You know, and for me, like ifthere's a game that you love,
(45:52):
I'll say Claire, Claire, Claire,you love.
You wanted to play it beginningto end on stream, Final Fantasy,
rebirth, and remake and allthat, play that on stream,
great.
But these other games, I'm gonnacall them the fly by night
games, the Silent Hill Elf F.
If you play that two or fourgame hours on stream, that's
good.
Move on.
You got your money's worth outof the game and play it when
(46:14):
you're not streaming.
SPEAKER_02 (46:16):
That's not true.
Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna keepgoing with Silent Hill F though,
because I have go ahead.
I have love for Silent Hill.
SPEAKER_01 (46:24):
For me, I was just using Silent Hill as a
placeholder, right?
I don't mean actually that.
I'll use Mass Effect.
Play Mass Effect for three hoursor Elden Ring for three hours
and feel good.
Okay, that's what I playedtoday, but don't feel obligated
to come back.
Do you agree to that, Doritos?
SPEAKER_00 (46:41):
Right.
I mean, it in in you know,watching Doc have the fun on
streams of oh, I want to playthis today, see how it goes, and
you can see that you enjoycertain aspects of all the
games, but it doesn'tnecessarily bring a lot of the
mindfulness abilities becauseyou are very like to very much
(47:03):
interact with with the streamand the the JRPGs, things that
have strategic moments too,where you can analyze what's
going on and then haveconversations, you know, and
then if you're even in themiddle of a fight, somebody
(47:24):
throws a geek therapy cardredeem or a D20 topic in the
middle of a fight.
It's nothing to just go aheadand oh, let's go ahead and knock
this out real quick, unless youreally feel in the flow and it's
like, hold on, let's finish thisfight first, then we'll then
we'll do that.
SPEAKER_03 (47:41):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (47:41):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (47:42):
I owe my community a D20 topic because they I don't
remember who redeemed it, but itwas redeemed like at a point in
the stream where I knew there'snot a spot for me to do this.
So we'll we'll hit that onSunday.
It's fine.
It's all good here.
How are you doing?
Who is this?
SPEAKER_00 (48:02):
What's your operating number?
SPEAKER_01 (48:04):
Yeah, I guess so.
For me, I guess we're saying thesame thing.
But I can't emphasize enough foryou, Doc, that just play, don't
feel obligated to play somethingand beat it.
It took me a while to get thatacross my head.
If you feel like playing Shadowof the Earth Tree, play it.
(48:27):
And say, you know, I don't knowwhen the next time I'm gonna
play this game is, but it was afun stream.
Peace.
You know what I mean?
But when you get your next bigstory game, that's the one
you're gonna sink your teethinto, and the community is gonna
watch you play the whole thing.
SPEAKER_02 (48:42):
Yeah, I am also playing Baldur's Gate 3 off
stream.
I'm in act three, and I feellike some of the decisions I'm
getting faced with are reallyimportant.
Like I chose not to allow myselfto take the extra superpowered
(49:06):
tentacle thing because I don'twant I don't want to risk
turning into an Elithid, andthen like deal with the devil
kind of situation came up, and Iwas like, no, I'm not doing that
for you, you crazy.
So I'm trying to be vagueenough, but I'm still playing
with the expanded party mode, soall my people are running around
(49:27):
with me, and that makes thefights a lot they're just fun,
because I'm not gonna lose,because I have like eight people
in my party when I'm onlysupposed to have four.
But I'm having so much fun withit.
SPEAKER_03 (49:44):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (49:46):
Yeah.
So like seven games I'm jugglingright now in my very limited
time to play.
Hold on.
So what are you gonna do?
Well, I'm going to get to levela hundred in Fortnite, I'm going
(50:09):
to finish Baldur's Gate 3, I'mgoing to keep pushing through
Persona 3 reload, and I'm gonnacollect everything in Expedition
33.
And oh my gosh, we have not eventalked about some of the cool
things that I'm doing atKinebridge, but we're just gonna
(50:31):
have to let that trail offbecause basically we're turning
therapy into a video game, and Icannot believe how cool the
things I'm doing right now are.
SPEAKER_01 (50:47):
Interesting.
SPEAKER_02 (50:48):
Yeah, like one of the trainings I'm building is
seriously going to be thecoolest training experience of
any counseling thing I've evereven heard of.
SPEAKER_01 (51:03):
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (51:04):
So I'll have to talk about that more maybe in a month
or two.
SPEAKER_00 (51:09):
Ooh, a holiday episode.
SPEAKER_02 (51:11):
Yeah, yeah, it'll be around December when this is
ready for people to buy it.
SPEAKER_01 (51:20):
Well, I want you guys to know I'm ordering a new
video card tonight.
SPEAKER_00 (51:26):
Oh boy.
SPEAKER_01 (51:27):
Yeah.
It's time.
My computer, I play at 4K, I'vetalked about it a thousand
times.
I have a hundred and twentyhertz monitor for in 4K, and
Claire destroys my video card.
And it's time for an upgrade.
So I'm gonna sell my 3090 andbuying.
(51:48):
I don't think I'm gonna buy the5090 because it's too grand, and
I don't think that's responsiblefor the amount I'm playing video
games, so I think I'm gonna buya 5080.
SPEAKER_00 (52:03):
Okay.
You know, which is only what,1200?
SPEAKER_01 (52:06):
It's so it depends.
I believe it or not, I really Ican't get the founders edition.
If I could, I would buy thefounders, whatever it is.
But I really want a Zotec.
Zotac video card.
I when at Pax East, I talked tothem a long time ago and I asked
them what the difference was.
And I really fell in love withthe company, so I think I'm
(52:27):
gonna buy a Zotac.
I can get an ASIS too, but yeah,it's time for an upgrade.
Okay.
But if anybody listening wants a3090, hit me up.
SPEAKER_02 (52:39):
I also need to start thinking very seriously about
either getting a new computer orlearning how to build one.
Because my CPU is always maxing,and today I had a situation
where like two people followedme at the same approximate time
on my stream, and everything I'mlooking at on my three monitors
(53:02):
starts to crawl.
SPEAKER_01 (53:05):
Well, so Doc, your computer is old.
You've it's time for an upgrade.
I remember when you bought thatcomputer.
Yeah, it was probably 2019.
Yeah, it's time for a newcomputer.
Like it just start out fresh, doit, and then once you do that,
(53:29):
then you can start upgradingparts as you need it.
Because it's actually easy tochange parts.
The CPU and the motherboard'snot easy, but yeah.
Your computer's old, so buyingparts for your computer I don't
think is worth it at this point.
SPEAKER_02 (53:50):
Yeah, you're very much right.
SPEAKER_01 (53:53):
But yeah, you know, we could talk about that off
stream.
You know, you give me a budget,we'll find you a computer.
I wish you lived closer, I'dbuild it for you.
SPEAKER_02 (54:03):
Oh, that's so nice.
Well, I'll just start wanderingaround the wilderness looking
for computer parts, hoping theydon't break when I swing them at
enemies in Breath of the Wild.
SPEAKER_01 (54:13):
Doritos.
SPEAKER_00 (54:14):
He got PC part picker.
Picker.com.
Absolutely.
It's a great place to virtuallybuild your machine.
SPEAKER_01 (54:21):
It tells you what's compatible or not.
Back when I started building acomputer, and Dorito probably
built 10 computers before me,maybe 20.
But we had to like make sure theshit worked.
There was nothing to say, oh,this motherboard's not gonna
work with this.
SPEAKER_02 (54:38):
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01 (54:40):
Yep.
But it is time for a newcomputer, Doc.
SPEAKER_02 (54:45):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (54:45):
I would sell you my video card, but that's not your
problem.
SPEAKER_02 (54:49):
Nope.
My problem is just the main harddrive doesn't have enough space
for the amount of stuff Windowsis packing into it now.
SPEAKER_01 (54:59):
Wait, if it's a hard drive issue, I can walk you
through adding a hard drive toyour computer via Discord on
your phone.
It's easy.
Like when I tell you how easy itis to add a hard drive, that's
easy.
But it sounds to me like yourCPU is like overloaded.
SPEAKER_02 (55:19):
Yes, CPU's overloaded.
SPEAKER_01 (55:21):
You're gonna spend some money because you're buying
an I9 because of what you do.
SPEAKER_02 (55:26):
That's true.
SPEAKER_01 (55:27):
What's App Face for Dreads?
SPEAKER_00 (55:28):
Do not tell him to buy an AMD at all.
I'm saying do the homework.
Don't necessarily listen toMarcus.
SPEAKER_02 (55:35):
I'm not gonna buy an AMD.
I had a computer once with anAMD, and it made me so sad the
entire time I had it.
SPEAKER_01 (55:43):
Believe it or not, the new MD AMDs are pretty dope.
The thread rippers are sick.
I just can't do it.
SPEAKER_02 (55:51):
For everyone listening, I would just like you
to know that we have entered aterritory where I don't even
know what we're talking aboutanymore.
So it's okay.
We're here for you to talk aboutpsychology of games, and
sometimes we have to build oursystem and use websites and
realize how hard it was for theold people to put their
computers together, but we'reall playing video games, we're
(56:13):
all remembering to continue thejourney.
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