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July 22, 2025 82 mins
We’re going absolutely bananas over Donkey Kong Bananza! We kick things off by gushing over Nintendo’s latest generational game and why we can't put it down. Valve has begun removing certain adult games from the Steam marketplace due to pressure from payment processors. We discuss how this sets a dangerous precedent for video game censorship and why it’s a slippery slope that players and creators alike should be watching closely. Ubisoft is back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons as Charlie Guillemot—yes, the CEO’s son—is appointed to lead their new Tencent-backed subsidiary. Generative AI continues its concerning rise in game development. Steam is reporting an 800% year-over-year increase in games disclosing GenAI usage. We also highlight the tragic irony of recently laid-off King developers who unknowingly trained the very tools that replaced them. In this week’s Post Office, what games do we wish we could delete from existence?
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
What is up? Everybody? Welcome to this week's episode of
the Intense Piss Podcast, one of your best Brad joined
by my co host Kerrie. We may or mayn't get
Micah coming in hot at some point, Well it depends.
I think he's sucking in traffic or otherwise detained no terrance.
This week, we've got bad news to talk about in

(00:36):
the games industry. I know that's a shock for everybody.
We don't usually have a lot of it, but we're
gonna start off at the top with I knew. Look, look,
look here, here's here's here's the thing. Here's the thing.
I I figured that Donkey Kong, you know, let me

(00:59):
do housekeeping first, don't forget join the discord, dncepixes dot com,
slash fans YouTube dot com, slash dens pixels. If you
prefer the podcast and audio format, subscribe to all the
TMPCDO shows. Just starch for TMP Studios and your favorite
podcast app of choice. You can find us Black of Block, Cinnamon,
The Apocalypse, and the Look Forward political podcast that If

(01:19):
you'd like to support the network with Zeal your favorite
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Premium and sign up for a premium membership for just
five dollars a month. Donkey Kong Bonanza.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
It's good.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
It's real good.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
It's real good.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
It's it's real, real good.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
I'm really glad this game came out during a period
of underemployment for me because it means I have had
a lot of time to play Donkey Let me let.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Me tell you something. I am gainfully employed and I
have been playing a lot of Donkey Kong. I can't
put this fucking game down. This is yeah it I
mean so so this is from the same studio that
did Super Mario Odysy, which you would know as soon
as you started playing Doc Yong Bonanza because like, aside

(02:19):
from like the gameplay being somewhat different, like everything else
is the same, Like the map is kind of similar,
and the kind of the way the game is structured
is very similar. You're collecting bananas instead of moons in
this one. So it's very clear who made it, and
I'm comfortable to still say.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
And then just just it does. It does have this
like whisper of influence from Breath of the Wild and
Tears of the Kingdom as well, which I actually think
is really cute the climbing well that and the and
the health, the health system and the fact that you
can get additional temporary additional health by like taking a

(03:03):
nap basically.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
So so I've I've played enough to know that that
I can say, like objectively, like if I'm looking at
things from a purely like academic standpoint, right, like I
think Mario Odyssey is still probably a better video game
capital G. But I don't know if it's as fun

(03:27):
as Donkey Kong Bonanza. Who knew that pummeling rocks anywhere
in the world that you are is just really fun
to do. And it's just like I said, the game
like the game. The best way I can describe the
game is it's it's perpetually in motion, Like I I

(03:51):
slow down very little in this game, Like I'm always moving, always,
you know, slapping the ground to do the little on
our thing to see if there's any you know, like
fossils or a banana in my general vicinity, and the
game encourages you, like like it it's it's a great
like what's over there game, Like as you're in these

(04:13):
little biomes, you can generally and the game even has
like you know, barrels that you can that you can
fire yourself out of, and that you just kind of
hang out and you can look at the world around
you for a few seconds to kind of see where
everything is. Mario, I think has a similar head like
the little of you find your deals that you could

(04:35):
capy onto. But yeah, like it's like you're just moving.
It feels really good. The the game doesn't like present
any unnecessary friction. I feel like as your moved, like
things just kind of work the way you'd expect them to.

(04:56):
Like you like, there's certain types of terrain that you
can't go through, but that's stuff that's like you know, metal,
and you know you.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Unfortunately cannot hunt your way through a solid metal wall.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
No, I can't do that, but pretty much everything else
is you know, doable. And it also kind of reminds
me of like Clear Obscure weirdly in that there are
definitely flaws in the game, Like, like, the game is
not perfect. It certainly has things that are the matter
with it, but the but the playing of the game

(05:29):
is so fun that I just don't care about any
of those flaws or they're just not as visible because
I'm just like, well, I'm just gonna go dig it,
like fucking punch into this rock so I can go
dig and find the secret chamber with this banana in
it that I'm gonna punch and you know, get a
skill point and level of disability so I can punch

(05:50):
dirt better. Now, like all that shit. It's I I
wash again. I'm shocked at how much I can't put
this game right now.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, it's very fun. Love all of the different Bonanza forms.
I think I have unlocked all of them at some point,
unless there's like a secret additional one, but I have
done all of the ones that were like shown in
the trailer, there's five. I've got all of those unlocked. Okay, yeah, no,

(06:23):
I'm I am. I am at a point where I
feel like there is about to be some shit, so
I'm looking forward to seeing exactly what that is. I've
managed to say spoiler free so far, which has been great. Yeah,
I mean, it's it's it's just it's very fun. I'm

(06:45):
generally not a huge proprietor of three D platformers, like
unless it's Sonic Adventure two, Like I don't really care
that much. But and like I'm I'm generally also like
I'm not the biggest Donkey Kong fan either, Like I

(07:07):
like the music, but like I was only ever able
to finish Donkey Kong Country one using like the safe
state feature on Switch Online. Like those games are hard.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
And.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
But this game it's like it it has a learning curve,
it has certain things where you know the game will
encourage you to figure it out. Though there is also
an assist mode which I haven't fucked with yet, but
that apparently is more of like a safety kind of
difficulty level. So but yeah, I mean it's it's extremely fun.

(07:46):
I love all the music in the game too, like
especially for the bonanza forms, like those are a lot
of fun. It's it's a very good mix of like
puzzle features and action and combat at and then just
like Unga Bunga, I'm gonna smash through all of this
rock and the game really does reward you just for

(08:11):
being fucking Unga bung A monkey brained, just smashing your
way through the environment.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
So yeah, that's that's the thing. Like, so like some
of the puzzles, like you have to interact with the
game and meet it on its terms. I feel bad
for some of the developers because I definitely have overcome
some of the puzzles, I think by the not intended
solution by just like pounding my way through a piece

(08:38):
of rock and stumbling into a chamber that I'm like, oh,
I was supposed to get in here in a very
specific manner. Now, I think we're like the puzzles kind
of shine is the little the ruin stages where like
like little the little they're kind of like the areas
in Mario where you go into like the super like
the little Bonus zone and it has multiple moons inside

(08:58):
of it. This says the same thing where they have
these little, you know, pocket areas that have like three
bananas that you can earn, and then they have like
combat challenges with single bananas as well, and those are
all really good. Uh and and again, so like the
really the only thing, there's only really two things that
I'm annoyed with in this game. The first one is

(09:18):
that the boss fights are kind of weak, and so
you get later on the boss fights get better so
far as the game has progressed. The problem is the
first like five or six bosses I feel like are
really easy. Yeah, don't put up a lot of resistance.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
I would say that like almost like the initial round
of boss fights that you get to are almost like
basically telling you, like, use these Bananza powers that you
just got in order to do this right, Like it's
it's kind of forcing you into using this Bananza power
in order to kind of teach you how to use

(09:57):
it correctly, which I kind of like it does make
the fights very easy.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
Well, I think I think once the boss battles really
start leaning and combining some of the mechanics, I think
that's where they get better. Like I just did, and
you probably did this, so you know what I'm talking about,
and I won't spoil anything for those that haven't gotten there.
Like I just did the finish the three stage boss
fight that happens across the level, and that was fun

(10:24):
because they kept layering stuff on, but it also didn't overstay.
It's welcome, like it didn't force.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
You to like, you know, it didn't force you to
revisit like every single area in order to do it.
It was like, yeah, that one, that one's really good. Yeah, No,
I'm I'm in agreeance. I think the boss fights overall
are like kind of like they're they're fine, but they're

(10:50):
over pretty quick and I think I also have to
keep in mind that like this is ultimately a game
that is very much aimed at younger players.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
Here's here's the funny thing though, too. You with the
exception of like the final bosses in the dk SEE games,
the boss fight also the weakest parts of those games
as well, you know what I mean. So there wasn't
there wasn't a lot of mechanical difficulty those but the
k Rule fights were always fun, right, So like that's.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
That's so, that's for sure. It's like cool, go jump
on this ostriche one hundred times, right, like.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
Like don't don't you know, don't get hit by the
coconuts that it's spinning.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeah, no, exactly, I would. I would certainly agree that
like in the long storied history of Donkey Kong as
like a game franchise, it's not like the boss fights
have ever been the stand besides k Rule himself, right, So,
but yeah, it's like they're there are definitely there are

(11:48):
some that I think are like really cool in once
You're because like you are very much I think.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
At like the I'm in sub layer one thousand right now, okay, stuff.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
So you're you're kind of in like this like halfway
point or maybe like a third of the way through
the game, because I think I'm like right, like I'm.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
I am, I'm a I'm a third of the way
through the game.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
That one thousand, yeah, because it feels.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
Like I'm like two thirds of the way through the game.
No really, holy shit, Yeah, okay, Wow, there's a lot more.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
I would say I am probably twice as far as
as you are at that point, but that like I
I know that, like there is still a significant amount
to go, like I I yeah, so yeah, in any case.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
I wasn't expecting there to be as much, but I
guess I guess there is so.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
And yeah, I know, I like posted this on Blue
Sky the other night. But basically, Donkey Kong Bonanza is
the Mario Odyssey team looking at what they did in
the finale of Mario Odyssey where you possess Bowser and
basically going, what if we did this but like made
it the whole fucking game. It is that. Yeah, it

(13:13):
was incredible choice ten out of ten. I mean this
this for me is very much like in the lead
for like my kind of game of the year. Right now.
I have just I have I have enjoyed the absolute
hell out of this.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
It's I mean, unless unless something comes along that really
just like comes out of left field and blows blows
us away, which could because for me, could slay this
fire too is supposed to come out later this year,
So what happens there?

Speaker 2 (13:46):
I mean, I got a new Pokemon game coming out
this m That's true.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
That's true. Yeah, it's gonna be it's gonna come down
between this and clareup Scarre, and it's gonna be really
difficult to pick. I think.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
I think a lot of people are kind of torn
between Bonanza and Clare.

Speaker 1 (14:00):
Different games, right, They're two very different and they're both
like amazing for very different ms, you know what I mean.
Like it's yeah, but it's like I said, there's just
so much fun, like the balance of you know, like
they just have figured out man, Like I don't understand

(14:21):
how there have been as many game developers that have
been working in the industry as long as a lot
of the folks at a lot of these Nintendo studios had.
But for some reason, the folks in Nintendo just like
have the right formula to figure out like the right
balance between like combat and puzzle and exploration and just

(14:41):
kind of like and and putting rest spots in like
the right areas and with and with this game especially
to like a lot of throwbacks to the old DKC games,
like just the fact that you know, barrels are as
present as they are, and they have some bonus stages
that are scifically nostalgia bait in the game, and I

(15:06):
don't know, man, like they just fucking they just fucking
get it hm. And it's yeah, it's it is going
to be one of the games of the switch to
you know generation for sure. Yeah, absolutely, even though it
came out a month after like we were like, we're
eating well just like we did with Breath of the
Wild and Mario Ottissey came out in the launcher year.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
No, absolutely so yeah, I'm I am again. I'm enjoying
the absolute hell out of this. It's been an interesting
swerve away from the stuff that I've been playing otherwise recently.
I did go back to Shinmagami ten say five Vengeance
to try and finish that off. I am at the

(15:49):
final boss, i am max level on my Najo Bino,
and I'm still getting my ass kicked, which means that
like I probably have to lower the difficulty in order
to actually finish it, which as a longtime SMT person,
I don't like doing, but I will do it in
order to actually finish the game. And on the SMT front,

(16:13):
I did purchase Rhydo Remastered. I thought that that game
was coming out mid July. It came out mid June,
and I just missed it. I just wasn't paying attention.
I got my month's mixed up. I thought it was
coming out July seven. Your Switch, no, because I'm not

(16:34):
playing it on Switch. The Switch version is just doing
like a virtual release, like a virtual game card. So
like even if you buy like the case, it's still
just like a download code, and I don't fuck with that,
especially not with the Shinmagami tense games, of which I
have an extensive physical collection of. So for me, I
got the PS five version, so I'll be playing it
on PS five probably the minute I finished Donkey Kong

(16:58):
is when I will head into shouldn't. I got my
Tense Land once again.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
So how are you playing it? Are you like trying
to collect everything in each area before moving on or no, like.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
I'm kind of doing like I feel like I'm doing
my due diligence.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
That's kind of what I'm doing.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
I'm not like obsessively trying to collect every banana, but
like you know, I'm I'm going out of my way.
Like if I see the kind of challenge areas in
the bonus stages and whatnot, like I will at least
attempt those. Some of those are so fucking stupid. Some
of the challenge some of the like battle challenges, especially

(17:40):
later on, get really fucking stupid where it's like I'll
try once or twice and I'll just be like, no,
I'm done, Like it's yeah, don't.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
I don't mind those because they're like puzzles within themselves
in some ways, like like I did the one where
you have the the three enemies that you can't actually
damage but you and use like your elephant power to
like just basically shake the floor out from underneath them
and sense Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
No, that one. I like that one. Yeah, yeah, that
one I thought was cool. But there's there's some that
are just like really stupid and really tricky, and I'm
just like nah, but like I will, I will at
least make an attempt to get the bananas out of
the challenge stages. But if it for me, if something
starts to veer into the point of being frustrating, that

(18:27):
I'm I'm done due in that challenge level because at
that point it's no longer fun and I'm here to
have fun. And otherwise the game's really fun. So if
it starts to interrupt the good fun vibes, that I'm
just not I'm just not fucking with it. But I
try to basically get everywhere within any given zone and
get what I can and dig through here and there

(18:49):
trying to find bananas and fossils and whatnot. But other
than that, it's just, you know, I'll go a little
out of my way here and there, but otherwise I'm
kind of sticking to the main path.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yeah, I'm doing the same thing, and I'm finding that
I'm getting about like two thirds of everything that's in
there at each level before kind of moving on, just
kind of exploring all the areas, but not like, you know,
going super deep. I will tell you the only the
only thing that I hate, the only like banana thing
that I hate that's pretty common every level is that

(19:20):
stupid mini game where you have to like find the
four like rocks that are hiding in the terrain somewhere,
like those are really annoying. Yeah, so, but other than that,
like that's that's the only one where it really pisses
me off. Everything else has been pretty chill and pretty fun.
And there's some cameos from other characters that you can

(19:40):
find that will uh that are also kind of a
recurring thing throughout the game. And you know, like you said,
the Bananza powers are really cool and they all they
all do their own they all have their an interesting
flavor and do different things. The Elephant definitely is the
best one I think of all them.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
Elephants up there. For me, I like elephant. I like.
I think Elephant and Ostrich are probably my two favorite.
Snake I think is kind of mid. I don't care
for the zebra, except for like in the cases where

(20:20):
they like make you use the zebra in order to
like actually access the next area. The one thing that
I will say that I wish they actually did a
better job of showing you is when you're in a bonanza, you.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
Can switch between the forms.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah, so yeah, I would. I would definitely make use
of that because I think ultimately like the Kong Bananza,
I think hits the hardest, so like I find myself
going back to the Kong bananza just to like really
wail on bosses in order to wrap those fights up

(20:55):
a little bit quicker. Not that they're especially long, as
we've said, but.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
Yeah, it's it's like I said, if you have a
switch To, it's it's a must. It's a must get
it's it's really good. And you know what, I appreciate
that they waited a month to release this because I
would have felt a little overwhelmed if it came out
alongside Mario Kart and kind of dabbling with Selda again.

(21:22):
Like so you know, they got a people chance to
get their switch To in their hands, and.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
It honestly makes a lot of sense.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
It does. It does. Ironically, it kind of hurts them
because if they had released this alongside the system, it
might be not that it's selling poorly, but it's not.
Apparently it's not selling to the level of like Mario Odyssey,
which is a little bit of a surprise.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
I mean, I think that's just by nature of the
fact that like, Mario is Mario right now.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
Mario also also so you have to consider that when
Mario did come out for the switch one, the console
bed on the market for eight months at that point. Probably, Yeah,
a little bit more saturation now.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
Odyssey was also that was a like a holiday release
that season, wasn't it close.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
To you come out of total?

Speaker 2 (22:08):
I want to holiday season adjacent basically, But that'll be
Pokemon Legend Za this year.

Speaker 1 (22:18):
So maybe Metroid maybe hopefully fingers Crossed will see I mean,
they keep saying it's going to come out in twenty
twenty five, so we'll see what happens.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
We'll see what happens. Yeah, Legend Za is due out
October sixteenth. I believe there's a Pokemon Presents happening later
this week as well. That's going to be focusing a
lot more on that game. So when that game comes out,
you will not see me for a few Look.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
I hope that it is better out of the gate
than Scarleton Violet or for sure, because like I know,
the performance issues kind of tag that one. So I
basically what I'm saying is I hope they developed this
new one with switch one in mind, so that when
it comes down and switched to it'll just play real
nice right on that platform. So yeah, that's that's that's

(23:06):
Decay Bananza a great, great game in a year. We're again.
We just continue despite all the peril of the industry
is in. We just continued to get banger games after
banger games. The last three years have been really good
as far as releases go in the game industry. Let's

(23:27):
move on and talk about some news. The news is
all kind of ship this week. Sorry about that. Blame
the game industry. So Steam has moved to remove specific
adult games from uh the Steam marketplace, and the reason

(23:47):
they did this was not because Valve wanted to do it,
but because their payment processors threatened to pull their service
if those games remained in the marketplace. They've actually updated.
Valve has their guidelines for steamworks and basically saying, you

(24:12):
know what you shouldn't publish on Steam are is content
that may violate rules and standards set forth by Steam's
payment processors and related card networks and banks or Internet
network providers, in particular certain kinds of adult only content. Now,
I'm not going to carry a torch for any of

(24:34):
the games that got removed, because obviously.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
I will because I think it's important to do so.

Speaker 1 (24:41):
Well, yeah I don't. I don't mean the specific games,
but like the the slippery slope that we now find
ourselves on where outside groups can apparently dictate what is
and is not on this third party platform is not
a place where you want to be. And the worst
part is, and it's not in this article that I

(25:03):
have linked for us, but I found out after the
fact the reason this happened is because.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
There's an Australian anti pornography group, Active Shout, that is
partnered with evangelicals in the United States to pressure PayPal,
to pressure MasterCard, Visa, all of these you know, all
of these payment processors. Because basically there is an open

(25:34):
letter from Collective Shout that is first of all, they
they call themselves a grassroots campaigning movement against the objectification
of women and sexualization of girls in media, advertising and
popular culture. But what they've done, basically, you know, they're

(25:56):
they're basically just an extreme right wing anti he They
call themselves anti pornography, but really what they are is
anti queer. So there's a lot of pressure because it
starts with this like, oh, well, we just don't want
this awful pornography and how dare we We cannot expose

(26:18):
our children to pornography like this? And then what it
turns into is labeling any type of queer or trans
narrative as adult and then they go after those. So
like it is, you know, it's it's a republican's wet dream.
But it means that games that are you know, completely

(26:44):
completely popular, you know, regular ass games are now being
censored by payment processors who have caved to this lobbyist
pressure from outside the country. So incredible, what is what
a world we live in?

Speaker 1 (26:59):
Indeed, and if and if you're saying, oh, well, they're
you know, they're just going after Steam. No, they're also
trying to lobby itch as itch dot io as well
to kind of have them also take down some of
these games they find more objectable. And again, like this
isn't I'll give them credit. It's a novel approach to

(27:19):
trying to you know, ram their agenda through in these departments,
like you like, because they I mean, I think they
know that going to Valve is not gonna sway them
and vow it's going to tell them to kiss off,
But going to a service that Valve is relying on
is an interesting way to go about it.

Speaker 2 (27:39):
So yeah, this, this collective shout has so far successfully
campaigned to prevent Tyle of the Creator from touring Australia.
Managed to pressure Target and Kmart in twenty fifteen to
stop selling Grand Theft Auto five in Australia, tried to

(27:59):
petition to ban Detroit Become Human from sale in Australia,
tried to ban Snoop Dogg and Eminem from Australia. Like
this is just literally it's like, you know, the collective
Shout co founder tweeted last week that people who are
upset about this are quote, porn sick, brain rotted pedo

(28:23):
gamer fetishists. So I should tell you everything you need
to know about the mindset that these kind of lunatics
are currently in. So yeah, it's and here's the thing.
It starts. It starts with video games and this and
again that this is a payment processor thing, right, So
it's not just going to affect video games. This is

(28:45):
the same kind of thing. This will affect films, This
will affect TV shows, This will affect anything that's on streaming.
This will affect uh, you know, artists who may do
any kind of adult content in any kind of way.
So yeah, it's uh, it's fucked, and uh I hope,
I hope these people go to hell because I'm so

(29:07):
sick of this shit. But uh yeah, hopefully hopefully Valve
reversus course on this.

Speaker 1 (29:15):
But I mean there's a couple interesting things they could do.
Some would take longer than others, Like so like one
thing they could do, and I would if the payment
providers would smart or smart, they could you know, potentially
see this coming down the pipe. If Valve starts like
having to you know, be able to dictate what is
it is and on the store based on their partners.

(29:36):
What if a Valve's certainly a big enough company that
they could probably capture and run payments by themselves if
they wanted to, Like they don't do it because it's
it's more convenient for them to pay you know, they're
six percent fee or whatever it is just to have
someone else do that for them, because there's a lot
of hurdles and red tape that come along with that,
for sure. But I mean if it becomes you know,

(29:59):
if they start really lobbying for like other stuff, like
you said, especially games that have a lot that you
know are queer coded or made by like queer creators
and stuff like that, and I don't think Valve would
be down for that necessarily, it'd be interesting to see
if they're like, all right, cool, like I enjoy not
getting any of all this sweet steam money that's coming
down the pipes. That's one thing they could do. The

(30:20):
other thing they could do. And and again like the
fact that uh I don't understand why, well, like I
guess this group doesn't give a shit, but like they
could also just be like all right cool, Like if
you guys get like, hey, Australia, if you're gonna be
overly restrictive about this shit, we're just not gonna have
steam be a service in Australia. M And that'll piss
a lot more people off than you know, the people

(30:42):
that are impacted by in the creators.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
Oh yeah, no, that's that's definitely one way to really
kind of shift the vibe against the lobbyist.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
Group like this because because Australia is big, it's a
big market, but it ain't by far the biggest one.
So so we'll see what happens here. Again, I really
hope we don't see this become more of a commonplace
tactic and that sort of thing.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
So oh it absolutely will it, Absolutely they'll try.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
But what I'm hoping is that these payment processors like
it's you know, it's again it's one thing for like
you have an easier time convincing them like, hey, this
is like some do you really want your brand associated
with this kind of this kind of content even though
you're not. No one's thinking of visa, MasterCard or payval

(31:32):
or stripe or anything like that when they're buying games
from Steve whatever. But that's an easier pich to make.
It's a harder pitch to make to be like, hey,
look at this game with LGBTQ content and it do
you want your brand to associate with that? And I
would imagine that most of them will be like, yeah, it's fine,
we don't care, like you know, yeah, queer people use
us services too, so so we'll have to keep an

(31:55):
eye out for that. But yeah, really shitty. And again, yeah,
we're not sex obsess people. We're just people that are
generally anti censorship and don't appreciate religious views that we
may not hold being shoved down our fucking throats. So
I love this story so much. So we talked a

(32:18):
little while ago about how Ubisoft has a new subsidiary
that is partially owned by ten Cent and after ten
Cent invested over a billion dollars into it earlier this year.
And this subsidiary is going to oversee Assassin's Creed, far
Cry and Rainbow six and act autonomously from main ubi Soft.

(32:41):
This was the Gemo's plan to make sure that they
could get outside investment coming into the company when they
really needed it, but without giving up control and making
sure that the Gemo brothers maintained control of ub Soft proper.
So the question has going to become, you know, well,
who's gonna run this subsidiary? Then, like the Gemos say,

(33:04):
it's gonna be run autonomously, and you know, they they
felt it really important to uh, you know, to keep
Ubisoft within their control. So who do they you know,
who's gonna run this new subsidiary. Don't you worry, folks,
because he's Gemo found the best chemo for the job
that he possibly could and announced that his son, Charlie

(33:26):
Gemo is the co CEO of this new company. Uh.
And it's gonna be and it's being run by Christoph
Christoph Durn who used to be the head of the
Montreal studio and not reported in this story but also
very funny, UH is a cousin to the Gemo brothers

(33:49):
as well, So they are really just keeping it all
in the family, which is deeply, deeply funny to me.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
Yeah, nothing, nothing that happens at Ubisoft comes as a
surprise to me anymore.

Speaker 1 (34:10):
Ever, if there was ever any if there was ever
any company who is going to engage in just like
the funniest nepotism, it would have to be you'd be soft.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
Yeah. It's like they're they're they're under multiple lawsuits there,
I mean not to mention like the sexual harassment lawsuit
that is still ongoing in France right now, I believe,
and then class actions and all all sorts of shit,
right and then meanwhile they're like, you know what we
need on top of all of this, just a lovely

(34:46):
little seasoning of nepotism. So yeah, why not? Why not?

Speaker 1 (34:51):
Why? I love the quote for Charlie Evo because he
was asked to comment concerns about the nepotism of him
being appointed ch and he says, quote, I'd like to
address this question directly if I may. I completely understand
where it comes from, and I want to be clear
about it. Yes, I'm E's son, but that's not something
that I hide from. But my appointment isn't only about

(35:12):
family ties. It's about what Ubisoft needs at this moment.
Now he does have he does have ten years of
game development history to his name. He did used to
head up the UBI Soft owned mobile studio Atlent before
he left and founded a web three and D firm

(35:36):
and then came back to Ubisoft earlier this year. And
I'm sure the reason that Christoph duran is being also
installed as co CEO is to give him a smoother
like to kind of head off concerns about like, hey,
this guy has no business being the CEO of a
major video game company, Like he doesn't have the experience,
he doesn't have the knowledge, he doesn't have the chops.

(35:58):
All he has is his dad's last name. So why
the fuck is he in this position? Oh well, Christophe here,
He's been in the industry for thirty five years. He
knows what he's doing. And I would imagine that Christoph
Durant is probably going to detach himself and float away
or go back to you Be Soft proper in a
different role within the next like two years, basically, just
just enough time to run cover and do it. Just

(36:21):
what an absolute fucking family, the Giva family as holy shit, unbelievable, unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (36:31):
Completely believable. Actually, I think you know again, nothing that
happens that Ubisoft surprises me anymore. It's just like, oh
more of this shit.

Speaker 1 (36:37):
From meybe, I mean getting he's give out credit. Like
the dude is a deaf. Like to be able to
fuck up you be soft as badly as he has
in the past ten years, and to still somehow be
running the company, like to not have the board of
directors run him out of town on a rail is
quite something. And even fending off of hostile takeover by

(37:03):
Vivendi if you guys remember several years yes time so
like so again like like like don't uh, don't say
anything negative about Gimo's business, uh like corporate boardroom jiu jitsu.
He certainly has that a lot.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
He has managed to hypnotize the rest of that board
for But when but when.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
It comes to you know, running a company not rife
with sexual harassment at upper management levels and you know
keeping you know, innovating and putting out you know, great
new ip in the past ten years and stuff like that,
That's that's what he's not good at but he is
good at keeping his job, so that's uh, he's got
that going for him at least. Uh Onto the topic

(37:51):
that UH carry and I really love jumping into. So
the first story on this Steam games closing their use
of generative AI are up eight hundred percent year over year,
and around twenty percent of all games released so far
in twenty twenty five have disclosed the fact that they

(38:14):
use generative AI, and that's, of course just.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
The games that have disclosed correct.

Speaker 1 (38:20):
Correct.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
As we discussed a couple of weeks ago, there were
situations such as the Altars where there was generative AI
used that was not initially disclosed. And I'm sure there
are many many studios who are being lazy sacks of
shit and having chat GPT write their narrative shit for
them instead of, I don't know, using their fucking brains

(38:45):
well not telling it.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
Yeah, So sixty percent of the generative AI that's been
acknowledged by these developers has been for virtual asset generations,
so characters, background art basically falling in there. And then
of course you also see the other forty made up
of audio generation, text generation, as Carrie just mentioned, marketing

(39:09):
and promotional assets and code generation, something that is also
more and more prevalent as as we go along. The
article also mentions that currently Steam does not make it
possible to filter its games that only those without AI
generating content can be viewed on the platform. However, if
you steam dB, which is a website that you can

(39:32):
go to, it does allow you to add that filter. Yeah,
and as we talked about last week, we don't have
to get too in the weeds on this, Like we're
only going to see this more and more as time
goes along. I just hope that developers continue to be
upfront with admitting that they're doing it. Don't be like

(39:54):
the alters and get caught with your hand caught in
the cookie jar. I think customers deserve to know whether
or not you do use it because they should be
able to make a personal decision aligned with their personal
values around the usages of these tools.

Speaker 2 (40:11):
So I just again, if if you are a regular
user of chat GPT, you are a moron. You are
either stupid or lazy or both. It's just like every
day I see something else about like what chat GPT
is fucking up? This time today it was chat GPT

(40:33):
and other large language models because again I must stress,
chat GPT is not artificial intelligence. Large language models are
not intelligence. They are simply regurgitating the next set of
words that, based on what it's been trained on, it
assumes are the most likely answer. Doesn't mean that it
is the answer. It cannot think for itself. But currently,

(40:56):
guess what chat GPT and other large language models are
advising women to ask for lower salaries than men. That
and then what else this week? You know, the big
thing right now is that chat GPT is feeding into
its users delusions and causing enormous mental health problems for

(41:19):
people who try to use it as a therapist. You know,
it's uh basically feeding into mania. I saw one uh
situation that called chat GPT catastrophically cooperative. Yeah, stop using

(41:40):
chat GPT, man. It is like it's not a search engine,
it's it's not a research tool. Like every time someone
says I asked chat GPT, my brain turns off. I
have stopped listening to you. I no longer value whatever
the fuck your opinion is, because to me, you are dumb.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
That we can't we can't get away from it because
like now, like you know, obviously, like if like most
people on the show, like if you google anything, like
the first thing you're you're fed is whatever, like whatever
AI bullshit Gemini, like yeah, like here's here's what we
think the correct answer is. And you know, sixty percent
of the time like right, yeah, it might be okay,

(42:20):
but the other forty percent it kind of sucks. I
was I once thought that, like when this first came
on the scene and you know, chat GPT first rolled
out and the things they could do, you know, it
looked pretty impressive, like you know, depending on its specific
use case and stuff like that, I was like, Oh,
the next frontier is here. And the more and more
I see the ship, the more and more I think like, oh,

(42:40):
this is just the this is just the new buzzword
and the new fad, and I can I can see
this kind of like fading away to some level of
obscurity in the next several years. Like but the sooner
the better as far as I'm concerned, Like, the sooner
we could get to again. You know.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
The biggest thing is that the big companies have not
yet really figured out how to monetize it, right, Like
there's there's no there's no actual profit generation in it,
and therefore within the next few years, as this technology
proves to be an enormous money sync with no actual

(43:17):
like economic payoff, that's that's when it's going to start
falling off by the wayside. But I mean, it's already
been proven that like even an untrained I can generally
kind of detect when something was made by AI versus
when it was made by like a human person. There
it's just like, well.

Speaker 1 (43:37):
And and what's and what's interesting is that I have like,
so I've read stories, and I've heard from people that
like so like for coding specifically like chat GPT can
do a decent job with assisting with coding. But then
my understanding is, like the people that know coding, much
much like you as a copy editor, can tell when

(43:59):
something is written with a with a large a large
language model, coders can also tell like when code was
written by a lot ANLLM as well. And the problem is,
and and I heard this on a on a podcast
or today, Like the problem you run into is that, like,
especially as younger people are coming up with these tools
at their disposal, and they're kind of going through you know,

(44:19):
their later like later primary education and then into secondary education,
like using these things is that they become somewhat of
a crutch and like you don't like so like for coders, right,
like if you use chat GPT to help you write code,
like that's all well and good, but then like you're
kind of plugging stuff in without understanding how it actually works,

(44:41):
which is only going to be detrimental to you as
time goes along. Like especially like when you're learning systems
and stuff like that, it's good, it's really important to
learn like why things work the way they do, and
how things integrate with each other and interface with each other,
because that way something goes sideways, like you know, you
know how to fix it, like you can identify the

(45:01):
root problem and kind of get done in there. And
that's one that's probably my biggest concern is that, like
I said, a lot of the younger generations that are
going to be coming up using this ship are just
going to be generally not as educated in the field.
They are going to.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
Lack critical thinking and problem solving skills. There has already
been studies that could have come out, including one from Microsoft.

Speaker 3 (45:24):
Rights of them all Right published a study that proved
that using AI too much actually reduces your critical thinking skills.

Speaker 2 (45:38):
It's it's essentially making people dumber, like demonstrably dumber, because
they don't know what to do when they can't just
put in a prompt to something that will just spit
out an answer, not even necessarily the right answer, right,
you know. But look, long term reliance on like LMS

(46:05):
and other AI tools are literally demonstrably in peer reviewed
studies causing diminished independent, critical thinking and problem solving skills.
So look, I have always prided myself on being a
well read, like educated, learned up to date with you know,

(46:32):
contemporary issues in the world kind of person. And that's
why I refuse to use these tools because, as you know,
I consider myself a subject matter expert in a number
of fields. So you know, if if I you know,
I do not trust something like chat GPT to provide

(46:55):
me and answer in one of these you know, fields
of study, because like I, I should know that answer myself,
and if I don't, I at least know how to
research what that answer should be.

Speaker 1 (47:10):
Well. And I'm so hyper I'm so hyper conscious to
myself when I have these discussions because like I feel
like that I come off as like a lutite and
and I'm definitely not that. Like it's really just like
you can't hit a shitter man, Like, like I like
I could see, I can see the output here. This
is why I don't like it. Like I understand the
you know, the the the theoretical positives that could come

(47:32):
from stuff like this, but until you until you can
really clean up the output and have it be hyper accurate,
and until you can address the environmental impacts that this
stuff has as well.

Speaker 2 (47:48):
Yeah, it's literally poisoning the entire city of Memphis, Tennessee
with the fucking carbon dioxide outputs from enormous data centers
for the same fucking chat GPD, and I quite frankly
don't think that that's worth it.

Speaker 1 (48:03):
Like yeah, but hey, look at look on the bright side.
At least, if we go through massive climate change and
you know, the polar ice caps start melting, at least
there'll be lots of extra water for uh, for all
these llms to use to power themselves that they could
train off of the drain off the ocean so that
we don't all drown to death in u in several decades.

(48:24):
And just kind of a follow up, you know story
with this, and you know, file this under the Tragic
Irony file anonymous sources inside of King, the developers of
Candy Crush and one of the companies impacted by the
swath of layoffs by Microsoft they helped. They they lost
a couple of hundred staff members. Basically, a lot of

(48:47):
the level designers that were let go as part of
these cuts had been spending months creating jenitor of AI
tools and training up those models with these tools that
will help build levels more quickly. And now those tools
are basically replacing these level designers that helped train them
up to you know, to obsolete them in a lot

(49:11):
of ways.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
Yep, it's uh not great. And look, I've I've already
said this within the last few weeks. I do not
think it is a coincidence that I and the other
writer at my last company got laid off shortly after
my company decided to invest large into AI tools. So, yeah,

(49:40):
the copywriting team at King is now completely removing people
because they have AI tools that those people were creating
and training. Yeah, of course, why would you Why would
you pay a trained individual when you can just have
a machine do it?

Speaker 1 (49:58):
Like Yeah, here, here's here a quote from Sahara Sadi,
who's the who's the head of King's AI group? Basically
in an interview that he gave just last June in
response to an article that King was using AI to
help play test Canny crist Saga's quote, Absolutely, we need designers.

(50:18):
We see this as a co pilot for designers. It's
an assistive tool. What the place testing tool provides is
insights about the gameplay before releasing it. And if you
anyone who believed that I have a bridge to sell
you in New York City that you can invest in,

(50:38):
so it fucking sucks, man. And again, we're just going
to continue to see these more and more, and you
know it's I don't know it. Like to your point, Carrie,
I think it's going to take a major financial hit
to some of these companies before they get the picture.

Speaker 2 (50:55):
I mean, yeah, it's it's going to have to be
multiple years of these tools not paying off in terms
of any kind of significant profit for people to finally realize, oh,
this is an enormous waste of time.

Speaker 1 (51:11):
Yes, So oh, let's move on to happier subjects as
we move into the dence Fixels Post office. If you're
not a member of our discord, you can join up
by going to dncepixels dot com slash fans joining the
other listeners of the podcast, and one of those parks
is you can ask us random questions in the dense

(51:31):
fixls post office that we will answer on the show
every week, starting with Johnny, who says, with Las Vegas
now adding Uno tables, should we be shot from fights
and death related incidences? Skyrocket also, would you gamble at
an Uno table?

Speaker 2 (51:46):
Okay? One? No, I would not gamble at an Uno table. Two.
I am very curious to see how they are actually
running the game, because I believe there's a significant statistic
out there where it's like two thirds of people who
play Uno do not actually follow the rules correctly.

Speaker 1 (52:09):
So I am it's the Monopoly. It's the Monopoly fiasco
as well. A lot most people don't play Monopoly correctly either.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
So I'm curious to see if they are actually training
the people running these tables on how to play Uno
by the book. Well, you do have to hold everyone
to the same rule, right.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
So here's the other problem too, is that so, like,
am I one of those people that like, if I'm
playing casino games that I will trick myself into thinking
that I'm smarter than the game itself with certain games, yes,
absolutely I am. I am arrogant enough to think that
I am smarter than the house, especially at Roulette, which
I will note I have a night lifetime positive winnings

(52:53):
in Roulette for the record, so I'm a pretty good
pretty good at betting Roulette.

Speaker 2 (52:59):
I've never been Vegas. I would really like to, and
not just because the Backstreet boys.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
Are there right now. Yes, But here's the problem with
un know is that UNO like so like with most
you know, Vegas games, like the odds are noble in
in most games, like like you you like, like the
odds are in front of you, like you can kind
of see what's going on. It's why I like Roulette
the best, by the way, because the odds are like
the most clear in Roulette just because like that's like

(53:27):
literally how you bet is odds determinative. It's impossible, like
like to know the odds and UNO unless you were
like in Uno Sabat that knows that deck backwards and
forwards and can count cards with the best of them.
But unlike poker, we're like you're limited to someone having
like a five card hand or like you know, a pocket,

(53:49):
you know, pocket two cards and having five on the
table so that you can get a good lay of
the land of the odds, like you know, like you
might have someone has like fucking fifteen cards in there.
D man, Like, how how's that gonna be? How's that
gonna fucking work? So no, I would not play casino,
you know, except for maybe as a lark for for fundsies.
But yeah, just just just just to do it for
the for the for the funny stuff. So yeah, that's

(54:13):
that's that's my thoughts on that. Uh G T. Simpson says,
what was the last you had to be their game
that you purchased that today you might regret? So what
I what I think they're saying here is the game
that like if if generations today played it there, like
what the fuck were you guys thinking? And you tell them, well, look,
you had to be there at the time. I I

(54:36):
have the ultimate example of this because I saw this
question earlier. I was thinking about it earlier. Today it's
Golden double O seven gold nine double seven is the
ultimate You had to be there.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
I think that's. Yeah, It's like I wouldn't say I
regret no, no, but but I will say like kind
of going back now, it's it's hard to play, right,
I guess in a similar fashion, like you know, maybe
like Skis of Arcadia was a game that I tried

(55:08):
to go back and plan even.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
I was just like, this is I've heard, I've heard
Sky's Arcadia is good.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
Arcadia is Skys of Arcadia is very good in a
lot of ways. But unfortunately it's also like an early
two thousands game in a lot of ways, and it's
it can be really yanky, and I really hope Sega
gives that like a complete like re now master remake treatment.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
Now, I it's my understanding that the GameCube version is
better than the Dreamcast version.

Speaker 2 (55:39):
I have been playing the game interesting, it is still
very yanky. I don't know, Like when I first thought
about this, I the first game that came to my
mind for like you had to be there in order
to really get the zeitgeist kind of moment was honestly Undertail.

(55:59):
I feel like an Undertail first came out, it was
like it was a great short RPG that like really
examined kind of like the players like interaction with like
an RPG world. Right, And now it's like the fandom
has turned Undertail into something else, and I think in

(56:26):
order to like truly enjoy Undertail in a vacuum almost
you kind of had to be there right when it
came out, coming up on ten years now. So it
was just like memes and like, the fandom is fucking insane,
and like, I genuinely like the fandom that surrounds Undertail,

(56:50):
and I think to a worse extent, Delta Rune makes
me not want to play the latest chapters of Delta
Rune like.

Speaker 1 (56:59):
Well, so, so two things on that. First of all,
Number one, it took me far longer than I care
to admit that delta room is an anagram undertail. That
I that I that I realized that that was the case.
So that's that's. Uh, that's thing number one. Thing number two,
I'm going to take it a step further than GoldenEye.

(57:20):
So so, with the exception of Mario sixty four, I
think you can make the which which I think legitimately
holds up today. I think that you can really take
the entirety of the N sixty four catalog and apply
that you had to be their label.

Speaker 2 (57:39):
I don't know, I think that's a little severe.

Speaker 1 (57:41):
I mean, there there. I cannot think of a single, one,
single console that is aged as poorly as the Nintendo
sixty four.

Speaker 2 (57:50):
Has the original PlayStation.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
No, absolutely not, absolutely no some of that. There are
so many timeless games on the original PS one. Yeah, yeah,
I I I think I and and you can't say
and some someone coming in from the Saturn, Well, the
Saturn was bad at the time, Like you can't.

Speaker 2 (58:12):
Like not talking about the Satder. Wasn't even talking about
the Satder.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
Right, So so I saw Latela said. With the exception
of Mario sixty four, which is still one of the
best three platforming games of all time even today, even
with the shitty camera, I think most of the n
sixty four library is really kind of like you had
to be there, because when I think of like the
the Hocky wrestling games, which haven't really held up spectacularly well,

(58:43):
and then they kind of did like a modern imagining
of what those games would be like with the a
w Fight Forever game, and that game fucking is not
great from a gameplay standpoint, People like, oh, like this
doesn't actually hold up as well as we thought it did.
That is a shame, uh that that happened that way.
So yeah, I'm and you know, anyone in the discord,

(59:04):
feel free to go in the episode's channel and tell
me other end sixty four games that I'm thinking of
that are timeless gems, because I am struggling to think
of of them, even like Mario Kart sixty four, a
beloved game at the time is like probably like the
fourth like like lower mid mid Mario Kart at this point,

(59:26):
like I struggle to you know, the only ones that
I would put below it are Mario Kart Tour just
because it's a mobile game, and the original Super Mario
Kart and maybe maybe Super Circuit. But other than that,
like that's that's kind of like every other Mario Kart
has has exceeded it for sure.

Speaker 2 (59:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:47):
Butcher Peat must be a newer listener, And I appreciate
you asking the question, but your peet saying, I know
this is a video game podcast, but do you any
of you have experience playing table top games like Cars, Models,
are r, et cetera. Butcher Peat, do we ever have
experienced playing tabletop games? Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
Yeah, I am.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
Playing, Yeah, I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:00:10):
That Rad's the board game, dude. I've been playing Dungeons
and Dragons basically since I was in high school. I
am thirty five now.

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
Yeah, Carrie wrote carry contributed to a book about tabletop
games in which she interviews me of about board games
I did. Yeah, I used to host a board game
podcast with my wife called Tabletop for two. I think
you can still find episodes of it out there in
the archive. It's a little older now at this point,

(01:00:39):
but fortunately board game content as evergreen. I used to
play Magic back in the day.

Speaker 2 (01:00:44):
I was really into Magic recently, yeah, and that Final
Fantasy set came out and I was like, I think
I want to learn how to play Magic. And I've
spent a lot of money on cards since then.

Speaker 1 (01:00:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
I'm currently running the Commander with some changes, and I'm
working on building a kef Gut Commander deck, which is
a Grisus deck. I don't know what that means. People
just keep saying the word Grisis at me, and I'm like,
I don't know. I just like kef Gut. Yeah, So
I play Magic. I will, Actually I have. So I've

(01:01:18):
been playing D and D weekly ever since moving out
to the West Coast at a local store. But I'm
starting a new job in a few weeks. If I'm
not going to be able to do that anymore, which
is kind of a bummer, but yeah, I love I
love D and D card games are fun. I used
to play the fuck out of the Pokemon trading card
game when I was like little because there was a

(01:01:39):
Wizards of the Coast store at my local mall, so
I would go three times a week to play Pokemon
and then models uh, I really like I really like gunpla.
I haven't built a proper gunplat in a minute, but
I did build a lot of the Bandai Pokemon sprew

(01:02:00):
kits and those were a lot of fun. Other card
games on the Gundam front, I actually picked up a
starter deck of the new Gundam card game, so I
haven't learned how to play it yet, but it was
only like a twenty dollars set, so I picked that
up too, so that was fun. So I'm looking forward
to learning how to play that as well. And I
want to really learn how to play the Digitmon card

(01:02:22):
game because apparently all of the Banday games kind of
like follow the same very similar rule set, so like
one Piece in Digimon and like the Gundam game, all
kind of play very similarly in terms of how they're
set up, which makes makes a lot of sense. Yeah,
and we both we both play.

Speaker 1 (01:02:40):
Yeah, I used to heap into Android Netrunner, which I
played competitively for a time. I'll like even though I
don't really so I do play some solo tabletop RPGs.
But I'm also a collector of TTRPG core books. I'm
one of those people that like to read those for

(01:03:01):
fun because I find the rule systems very interesting for
a lot of t t RG. So yeah, So if
you ever have any board game questions or tabletop game questions,
Butcher peat, you have an audience here. Unfortunately only with
half the podcast because Mike and Terrence do not really dabble.

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
They don't really get things currently for what it's worth,
my my boyfriend manages a hobby shop, so any any
questions about anything, uh, I could get an opinion from
him on. But I have also been during my period
of underemployment here basically doing some temp work at another

(01:03:44):
store in that system. So I've been slinging slinging magic
cards for the last few weeks, and man, people are
fucking insane about Pokemon.

Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
They are insane about the Pokemon cards these days. From
what I understand and look, I'll also tell you that
if you want the occasional board game take for me,
that's one of the many topics that I'll be probably
discussing in my weekly newsletter at Mind Swept Dot Club,
So definitely check that out as well. What a great question.

(01:04:19):
We move on to film wander, who asks me, is
Ferrari get a win? An F one and twenty twenty five?
Short answer, No, if it's not gonna be McLaren. It
seems like Mercedes is probably best suited for the Wins.
Maybe Ferrari gets one if things just kind of break
right for them one weekend, if they're on a track

(01:04:39):
that suits their car, but they seem they seem off
the plot so far this year, Twash says, what is
your biggest enemy that stops you? My biggest enemy is
YouTube slash instareels. They always stop and waste so much
time for me. This is so funny because I literally

(01:05:01):
I probably won't write about it this week because because
I'm too Donkey Kong Field right now. But like the like,
the main topic of my newsletter for next week is
probably gonna be around how steps that I've taken to
take my attention back from a lot of the things
that have in the past like distracted me and slowed

(01:05:22):
me down. But to answer this question, Uh, my biggest
enemy is probably like my my undiagnosed to ADHD, which
makes it very hard for me to like only do
one thing at a time or kind of encourages me
to play what I call like junk food games instead

(01:05:42):
of actually like working through games. My backalog that I
actually want to play a lot of times. For me,
that's probably it, I would say.

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
So for me, I have diagnosed ADD and yeah, it
manifests a lot as exact of dysfunction, which makes it
like I just have a very hard time starting projects sometimes.
And yeah, it's like I'll get distracted by little videos

(01:06:13):
or I'll just scroll through blue Sky instead of like
doing something I actually need to be working on. But yeah,
I mean ADD is what it is. I've been. You know,
I don't take any medication for it because it is
a pretty mild case. In my situation. I used to
have like an adderall prescription, and even at a really
really low dose, it would just give me like laser

(01:06:36):
focus for like eight hours. And I didn't really like
that either. It was like it was an over correction basically,
But yeah, that's that's probably it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:49):
So uh. Anthony asks what normal household or clothing items
do you splurge on? Socks, toothbrushes, pillows? Hm hm uh.
I'll give you one, and everyone out there should also
do the same. Sheets by the highest thread count that

(01:07:11):
you can afford. It's a third of your life, spend
the money. As as a comedian whose name I'm failing
to recall Daniel Tosh as a Daniel Tosh bit, it's
a third of your.

Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
Life's correct though, Yeah, I mean certainly certainly. Sheets And
alongside of that pillow is like a really good pillow.
Make a difference toothbrush, Like I I have a I
have a higher end.

Speaker 1 (01:07:42):
Not not that for me, I have a weird one.
So oh wait, this isn't a weird one. My my
weird one is gonna be Nike Will. Like I can't
use store bought Nike Will or store brand Niquill. It
has to be name brand Nike Will.

Speaker 2 (01:07:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:07:59):
The I don't know why I didn't think of this before.
My beard care products are expensive because I buy beard
brand stuff because I like it the best. But it's
a lot of money.

Speaker 2 (01:08:11):
Yeah, but like it's also your face is so I
think that's important.

Speaker 1 (01:08:15):
My face and hair. They their products do both.

Speaker 2 (01:08:18):
So I think, man, I should splurge a little bit
more on on certain things, but I choose not to. Yeah,
I think I tend to splurge a lot on cheese.

(01:08:44):
And I understand that this is probably not surprising given.

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
That I am a white One's probably like, like you said,
a lot of white things. It's probably the whitest thing
I've heard.

Speaker 2 (01:08:54):
It's brands up there. Yeah, No, I just that's that's
my little that's my little splurgee kind of thing. Is
I'll spend a little more on like really good cheeses.
That'll be like a little a little bit of honey
goat cheese with some crackers and yeah, I like that.

Speaker 1 (01:09:15):
There you go. Cam has a very interesting question says,
if you could delete one video game franchise from history,
what would you pick? Now?

Speaker 2 (01:09:26):
The Last of Us?

Speaker 1 (01:09:27):
Interesting A good choice, I was gonna say before Carrie
just jumped all over my ship. So I have a
lot of well documented franchises that I am antagonistic towards,
as longtime listeners of this podcast will know. However, I'm
going with the back to the future theory of time manipulation,

(01:09:51):
where like if you wipe out a game franchise, like
the influences from that game franchise and like the knock
on effects also have to disappear as well. So like,
like I can't just say, like, oh, I'll get rid
of Sonic the Hedgehog, because taking that plank out completely
changes like the nineties console competition between Nintendo and Seya,

(01:10:14):
like Sonic was a huge part of that. So like,
I'm not that selfish, and I'm also not selfish enough
to remove like the Kingdom Hearts franchise, even though I
really want to, because that franchise is probably responsible for
a lot of generations of gamers getting into video games
because of the because of the Disney the Disney part

(01:10:35):
of it. So I'm not rude enough to get rid
of Kingdom Hearts with this fact as well. So this
is a difficult question for me. Man, The Last of
Us is a really good fucking answer, though, I'll tell
you what because because like, even though like you want
to say, like like the Last of Us has been

(01:10:57):
hugely inspirational, I don't know that it has, Like I can't.

Speaker 2 (01:11:00):
No, it is it is far and away the most
self absorbed gaming franchised of the twenty first century. I
think the people, the creative leads on those games are
fucking obnoxious. I think it is. It is a deeply

(01:11:24):
self absorbed game for deeply self absorbed people, and I'm
sick of it. I'm sick of hearing about it. I'm
sick of all the fucking remakes of these games. I
get rid of it, whole thing. Just wipe it. I
would be happier and the gaming industry at large would
not be markedly different.

Speaker 1 (01:11:46):
I have a controversial one. I'm just thinking about this.
Last most is probably the best, the best option, however,
I think World of Warcraft, though it is a hugely

(01:12:07):
influential game, I think was the was the start of
the snowball rolling down the hill on some of the
worst aspects of gaming today, including like micro transactions and
infinite growth and things of that nature. And I'm pretty
sure games would have found their way there eventually anyway,

(01:12:33):
but I don't know if it would have happened as speedily. No.

Speaker 2 (01:12:37):
I think that like we would still have other better
MMOs after World of Warcraft, they just may have taken
another few years to come along. I think that's I
will not disagree. I think World of Warcraft is a
completely valid game to delete from.

Speaker 1 (01:13:00):
History, and not because I have anything against We're a
workout specifically, but like like I said, I think.

Speaker 2 (01:13:05):
It was the cultural.

Speaker 1 (01:13:06):
Yeah, it was. It was the catalyst for for a
lot of the worst things that we've seen over the
past twenty twenty years, including one could argue the slow
decline and in shiittification of Blizzard in a lot of extents,
as well as you know, chasing chasing that dragon as

(01:13:28):
as the phrase goes. So e Jack asked, have you
ever gotten into rom haacks and if so, what was
your favorite? Gone down the Pokemon rom haack rabbit hole,
and it is addicting, not as a not as a thing.
My favorite rom hacks are when you take classic sports
games like your Techmo Super Bowls or your NHL ninety

(01:13:50):
four's and update them with current day rosters.

Speaker 2 (01:13:53):
Yeah, yeah, I I doubt bold in some Pokemon rom hacks.
I'm gonna say, like ten years ago, let.

Speaker 1 (01:14:08):
Me ask you this question, and this is a one off,
so it's not like it's not really in the in
the spirit of the question, but do you consider Mother
Three's translation patch to be a rom hack or just.

Speaker 2 (01:14:18):
Like no, I consider that a fan translation because they
did not make noticeable any kind of noticeable change to
the gameplay. They just did a translation and localization of
it for an English speaking audience, though of course in
order to play it it is. It is functionally a
rom hack, but I do not consider it a rom hack.

(01:14:40):
The only Pokemon rom hack that I really fucked with
was Pokemon Crystal Clear, which is a few years old
now twenty seventeen. I think where it was like a
a rom haack of Crystal that kind of allowed you
to play it more as like an open world, nonlinear
exp which I didn't play that much of it. I

(01:15:03):
maybe got halfway through, but like I, it's an interesting concept.
I think there's a lot of very high quality Pokemon
rom hacks out there. I think there's also a lot
of very low quality Pokemon rock hats out there, but uh,
you know, uh it is. It is definitely, as e
Jax said, a rabbit hole.

Speaker 1 (01:15:23):
It can be yeah, if you, if you, if you
let it be, And it's funny because that's one of
those things that like, though I am pretty saddy about
that stuff like rom hacks is one of those things
that feels daunting when you first get into it, even
though it's as simple as just like, hey, like just
throw this file into into the into the bin for

(01:15:45):
this game and it works automatically. Like I'm just afraid
of like blowing that ship up so that that that
part's funny. Meanwhile, I'm sitting here like following you know,
twenty step tutorials and how to get your Microsoft piece
saved data onto Steam and like how to parts of
your PC that you probably shouldn't go but if you

(01:16:06):
if you know what you're doing, you're no problem. Finally,
she can't ask you guys have an oh this happens
in real life moment. I recently saw he occasionally and
he driving in a car with a Queen of Spades
window decal, which I think Mica Terence might be having
a laugh at if they were on the show this week. Honestly,

(01:16:31):
like I, even nine years on, I still get that
same feeling whenever I drive by a house flying a
Trump flag or a car with a Trump upper sticker,
Like I can't. It still baffles the mind that there
are still so many people so in invested in this

(01:16:56):
like weird cult of personality for a politician whose job
it is to serve you the people. I don't get it.
I don't get it at all. It's still like I said,
I do a political podcast, and again it still boggles
my mind. I will say one thing speaking of that,

(01:17:16):
that was really funny. So on the way up to
my sisters, my sister lives in Hanover, Pennsylvania, which is
in like south central PA. And up there it's you know,
very trumpy, unfortunately. And there's this one house that when
my wife, my wife drove up there by herself to
go visit a couple of weeks ago, and this family

(01:17:38):
had like a big Trump like Trump Vance like like
sign in their yard, like the big wooden sign with
like you know, like like the big one, right, And
when we drove by this past time, because we went
up there just a couple two weekends ago, they still
had the sign, but it was like hiding behind their sheds,

(01:17:58):
so like you can still see it, but it was
like not on the main road, and just like why
would you go to the side, like like like obviously
like you shave you're a shamed of having that, like
you think you think the tide's gonna turn at some point.
We're just like, oh cool, I can't wait to throw
this in the front yard, Like, just get rid of
the fucking thing. Man.

Speaker 2 (01:18:19):
I feel like so many of my oh this is
like a real thing that happens in real life kind
of moments have come during my various stints working in retail.
Literally just last week at the card shop, I watched
security officers just fucking tackle a dude in the parking
lot because he was trespassing at the Safeway. He was

(01:18:40):
given a trespassed order like weeks ago, and he's fucking
showing up and they tackled his ass and fucking cuffed
him too a mailbox. They waited for the cops to arrive.
But you know, Brad, you and I both worked at
Towson Town Center, and I feel like we saw our
fair share of of like, oh, like this is this

(01:19:02):
is happening, Huh, this is a real thing that happens
in real life. I can remember my first time thinking
that I was working at the tea Vana, which was
next to the food court. I was dusting off egregiously
expensive teapots that no one fucking needs, and I watched
the dude take out like a box cutter and like

(01:19:24):
slash another dude's arm and I was like, cool, oh
this is like this is this is this is real life.
And then that was a whole fucking thing. My only
thought was like, man, please don't come near my store.
I want to deal with that.

Speaker 1 (01:19:43):
Yeah, like I said that, that's a great point if
you ever want to like realize that, like the people
that you only read about sometimes like do indeed exist
or work in a public facing Yeah, food or Yeah,
that's that's a great that's a great callup. It's a

(01:20:04):
great collut. So thank you guys for all your questions.
A good a really good mix of the post office
this week, Like I love every post office, but this
week an especially high caliber of questions. I feel, I really,
I really enjoyed all this. So that's me it for
us again. Don't forget to follow us and subscribe wherever

(01:20:24):
you do. Those things carry you. Anything to plug. Before
we get out of here.

Speaker 2 (01:20:29):
I will be playing at Magwest in a few short weeks.
My Haites band, Premium Vintage, will be playing Saturday night
on the main stage and my band with my partner
Ian by Score, we will be playing a album release
party on Friday night. So lots of cool stuff coming out.

(01:20:53):
And the video game that I have been working on
music for releases an early access in just about a month,
so Toho Farming Mina Rico's Homestead Harvest It is available
to wish list on Steam and yeah, it's gonna be
that's gonna be a lot of fun. So that comes
out in early access on I believe August twenty first.

(01:21:19):
I might be off by a couple of days on that,
but hey, I got a lot of music coming out,
so please stay tuned.

Speaker 1 (01:21:26):
And again for me my weekly newslettermindswept dot Club. It's
free to sign up. All you need is to provide
an email address for me to mail it to. And
I've enjoyed what I've done so far. The subject of
last week's newsletter was why TRIPAA publishers should, but probably won't,
embrace early access as a tool in video games. So

(01:21:50):
definitely check that out. That's via for us. Thank you
all very much for watching, listening, and we'll see you
all the next time.

Speaker 2 (01:21:58):
So yeah,
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