SPEAKER_03 0:12

Hey all you cool cats out there. What's up? What's going on? It's me. The cat and dad. Hello.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

The cat dad himself?

SPEAKER_03 0:33

Cat dad himself.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

Alongside the other two cool cats. Cameron. Hello. Yo. Good afternoon. Good morning, whoever, wherever you are in the world. Hello.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

It's a good afternoon. Good morning. Good afternoon. Happy New Year. Merry Christmas. Wherever, whenever we're talking to you. Hi.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Happy festivist. Hold on. We can't start talking about Christmas yet. It's August. Oh me.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

We just got through Christmas in July or whatever they call it.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

You guys do the Christmas in July kind of thing? Absolutely not. I was like, uh no. Nah, bro. Um, I don't know. How are you talking today? I don't mean to bring up chat. Uh I I got it. Don't do it. Okay. I'm on it. Okay. I'm just trying to fix things. Just trying to make sure we're good. I know, I know, I know. I won't mention it again, though. Um which one was it? Which one was what?

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Who was notified? Because there's a couple of people in chat who let us know about audio. It's our moderator, uh Morgan. Uh that's what I figured.

SPEAKER_03 1:52

Actually, you're not even a moderator.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

I mean, hey, that's what we need, though. We need to know when there's audio issues and that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_03 2:00

It's just I don't think I don't keep the voice chat open when I'm starting because it just sounds, you know, the you know we talk about weird weird shit.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

I mean, we do do that, yeah. Doo do do. Moving on. Moving on. Doo doo.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

What's it called? Technical issues resolved type shit.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

Well, how is how was your guys' week? I mean, I guess I heard there was work-wise brother.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

It's the weekend. Thanks. Yo, it went from T G I F to T G I S to Dear God, I I'm dreading Sunday because there comes Monday type shit. That was our week.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

I totally feel you, man. I also had a long week. I had to go to urgent care for my back. Yeah. I uh I just yesterday, or no. Yeah, just yesterday morning. I go to basically pick up my cat and take her to actually sorry. It was Thursday morning, but anyway, whatever. I pick up my cat and I go to take her to her food bowl, which is right behind me. It's that right back there. And I go to like put her on it, and I like just bend over, like, like this is standing and like just that much just to like let her down. And I just feel something happen, and I'm like, that's not good. So I like walk away from it, like holding my back, like, what just happened? And nothing I was doing was helping. So, like, and I guess I'm getting to that age, right? Like, I'm I'm 35, so I'm probably gonna start feeling this like more regularly. But like uh, I think it was like right in the square of my back, and like nothing I was doing was helping. I was taking like iruprofen. I took like 800 milligrams of iroprofen. I took uh uh like I used to be. Yeah, like I did everything that I possibly could to like resolve this without having to go to the doctor, and eventually I ended up having to go to urgent care because it just wasn't going away. And uh they gave me a steroid shot in my butt. Yeah, I got my butt shot. I got my first bend over butt shot, which was funny.

SPEAKER_03 4:08

Uh no, that's probably not your first. The one that you remember. Yeah, you definitely got one when you were. That's a valid point.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

Yeah, that's the point. I don't remember any other butt penetrations in my life, though.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

So um yo, you gotta look that's a wild way to put that. I love the wild sentence. That was a wild sense.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

Well, yeah, I got penetrated. But yeah, so it was just they they know they they basically said I need to just a little health update for Cameron, I gotta work on my blood pressure. That's my big thing that I gotta work on going forward. They give me the steroid, and then I have a muscle relaxer that I have that I'm gonna be using for the next three days. But yeah, I'm hoping that's gonna get resolved soon. But I'm I'm doing okay. It's not like I'm in like constant pain or anything, but it's just whenever I like go at that one angle, it's just you know, so but that was that was the the last half of my week, or the second half of my week. Um, what's what's uh gaming looking for you like for you guys this week? I didn't I didn't really hang out with you much this week, Connor. I don't feel like what did you do this week in terms of gaming?

SPEAKER_03 5:16

I've been a hermit.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

Well, hermit guy.

SPEAKER_03 5:18

Uh to myself. I did I did one of those things where like I was like you know, I got off work and I kind of just sat there and stared at the computer for a minute. I was just like brother. So relatable. Yeah, I'm fine. I just it was like a reset.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

Just like a you just need to take a second. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:39

Um I went to the eye doctor to get new glasses. Uh these are not them.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Yeah, I imagine you probably had to order them in or something.

SPEAKER_03 5:49

Yeah, my prescription is uh slightly uh more than it needed, or you know, than my the ones I have now. Getting a little older. And then uh Yeah, so video game wise, I bought uh Splatoon Raiders. How is that? I've been seeing that. It's not bad. It's funny because I'm like, oh, I don't play my Switch 2 that often for you know, I play Mario Kart once in a while or whatever. But I like hooked it up to the big the big uh TV, whatever, instead of handheld. And I just like was lounging. It's alright. It's like a little uh dungeon raider.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Uh and you customize your I was wondering, the the ads make it look kinda like power old, honestly, in a little wa in a in a way. No. Okay. It's like run base.

SPEAKER_03 6:46

You just do like treasure hunting and then you build your base up. I'm telling you, though. Yes. It's like a roguelike almost.

SPEAKER_02 6:53

Yeah, the most recent ad, I think they like redesigned their ad or whatever, because I'm telling you, it looks the way that they've like made it seem, makes it look exactly like like heck, they show like unlocking parts of the map and it looks just like the power world map and shit. Oh and like running around and all that kind of stuff. So I don't know if they just kind of like tailored it and kind of make it seem that way, or what?

SPEAKER_01 7:14

I think what's it called? Once you get into base once you get into base building exploration and you have a 3D art style, a lot of these ads start to run and look similar. You have to really work hard to make to differentiate your shit.

SPEAKER_03 7:32

Yeah. I mean, it could be a whole thing where they're like, let's capitalize and make it look somewhat similar just to really hit it home with people like that. People who don't look into things about it.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

I'd hate to I'd hate to give Nintendo that much malice. Like, you know? That would be that that's a level of malice that, like, while believable for Nintendo, I don't believe Nintendo would what's it called, would want us to believe it's actually possible.

SPEAKER_04 8:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Because, oh, you like that game that we feel like ripped us off? Alright, cool. We're gonna make our own game that's completely different, but we're gonna hook we're gonna what's it called, switcheroo you, and it's like, come on now. That ain't it. Nintendo has better things to do.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

Reverse Beyblade.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Yeah. Nintendo has better things to do, like completely and utterly corner the handheld market. Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

I mean, but they're gonna do it. They should though. Like, I feel I mean, not that well, okay, maybe they shouldn't, but like I don't know. I feel like they're definitely Nintendo has gotten to the point where they're just being lazy in a lot of ways, and they're just resting on their laurels of all their different IPs that are like currently established, and but they don't care about like making them better and as high quality as they can. They just care about keeping the patents for as long as possible.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

And like, I feel like one pushback a lot of Nintendo fans are gonna give you is that recent Donkey Gong game.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

Is it good? Because I haven't played it, I have no idea about it.

SPEAKER_03 9:17

Is it good? Don't even get me started. I'm still going through that.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Nintendo wrong.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Like, I think Nintendo consistently works to like improve the formula of a lot of their big first party titles. Mario is consistently doing something new. Zelda has been the new Zelda, what's it called? Art style and approach is massively popular. Kirby games Kirby games always do well. It's just that certain things they don't really do well now. And it's like I don't even want to say that because like from what I understand, the new Metroid Prime game isn't necessarily the best they've seen, but I'm not gonna speak to that. I haven't played it. But like my particular interaction with them is seeing how much work they've put into like the other properties, and then looking specifically at like, and we're gonna say this every time we talk about Pokemon, and my thing is I don't even blame Nintendo. I blame the fact that Pokemon is in this weird, what's it called, weird place as the biggest friend like children's franchise on the planet that makes so much money on merchandise and everything that like we have to keep in mind that these games are in that weird ownership place because you have Game Freak, Nintendo, and Pokemon Company all have their what's it called, input and say on this. And as it stands, I feel like the games don't bring in as much money. I know for a fact the games don't bring in as much money.

SPEAKER_02 11:02

It's not like they're a live service or anything like that that br like racks in, or it's not like they have in-game stores that I'm aware of.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Like so, why are you going to develop what's it called? Why are you like just on a pure market, like an economic standpoint? Why are you going to invest more money and more resources into the games when every other what's a couple outlet and interaction with this franchise has eclipsed it in revenue?

SPEAKER_02 11:35

Yeah. I mean, that's I don't know. And like I I think mainly what I was talking about when I was, I guess, saying them like resting on their laurels is I was mainly thinking of Pokemon were like and primarily like Game Freak, because I feel like I don't remember the last time that I played a Pokemon game and I really had like a true and maybe it's just like maybe I'm just past that point in my life in terms of like a true wonderment of Pokemon experience. You know, I'm maybe I'm just too old for that now, but like I just don't it doesn't hit the same way that it used to. I don't feel like the designs for the Pokemon are as like interesting and unique, like all this kind of stuff, and I just I feel like they're just relying on the fact that it's a worldwide IP that's gonna make them money and they're just doing the same thing, kind of like Call of Duty, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

It's one of the it's a it's an interesting children's IP that refused to what's it called ever grow up with the generations that it what's it called? It decided to be like I am going to be here for a new generation of children rather than following the children that got us started as they grew older. And I'm not saying that is good or bad, because like let's keep in mind there is a j there is a certain need for that kind of product. Something that is like legitimately and generationally there to fill a gap to like Yeah, I don't see anything wrong with that. Yeah, yeah, it's Sesame Street. Isn't gonna age up with the kids, they wanna be there for the youngins. That's fine. I don't have a problem with that. The problem is what's it called? Sesame Street has grown and evolved. The Sesame Street we had growing up wouldn't have the Elmo beef with Rocco. It has grown and evolved. Yo the Elmo and Rocco beef? I feel that.

SPEAKER_02 13:33

I need background information right now.

SPEAKER_03 13:34

Yeah, I'll do some research later. But what in the world? Why are you the more of Sesame Street so derrained in your mind? Look at the deep floor.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

Elmo. See, the problem is looking it up. Here's the problem with Elmo. Let me get this started. Yo, yo, Elmo and Elmo. So, so look, Jesus Christ. I love the beef between Elmo and Rocco so much. I forgot about the character that introduced Rocco, and then it's a girl named Zoe, and she has a pet rock named Rocco. Everybody plays else plays along with Rocco. Elmo is so sick of everybody give like pretending that this rock is sentient and has feelings. Elmo is so sick of this shit. Like Elmo, like my favorite is Elmo wants to turn on the swing, but it's Rocco's turn. Yo, I never felt so seen in my life. Because you have to understand, like, we work in IT. I fix computers for people. Like, so it's just that uh there's something cathartic about Elmo having an existential beef with an inanimate object.

SPEAKER_03 14:59

Can I tell you exactly what I found about this beef, according to the Google AI? The Google ass. In what episode does Elmo get mad at Rocco? Elmo's iconic viral meltdown over Zoe's pet rock, Rocco, happens in season 35, episode 4077, which was aired in tw uh 2004. In the famous scene, Elmo reaches for his favorite oatmeal raisin cookie, only to be stopped by Zoe. Who insists that Rocco wants to eat it, causing Elmo to shout, Rocco doesn't even have a mouth. Rocco's just a rock.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

Oh god, excuse me. Oh my god, that's disgusting.

SPEAKER_03 15:53

Yeah, there's some actual beef going down that suspicion.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

You know, you know me you made me laugh when I fucking start coughing.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

That's how bad I just all I'm trying to say is like circling it back around, Sesame Street has grown and evolved with the storylines they present. Why hasn't why hasn't Pokemon why hasn't Pokemon do better, brother?

SPEAKER_02 16:18

Storylines. We need new writers.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

What Sesame Street isn't bringing in billions like you. That is a publicly funded, what's it called?

SPEAKER_04 16:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

That is borderline a publicly funded program. At least it was when we were growing up. I think it's owned by HBO now. But either way, come the fuck on.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

I just love that like I have this just like thought in my head of just like a face, like just a shot of Elmo, and it's just like looking right at his face, and he's just not saying anything. He's just staring at the rock, and there's just like a boiling pot sound, just like getting higher and higher, and he just fucking pops off. It's pretty funny.

SPEAKER_03 16:55

Um, I'm adding to the stream a picture of this fucking rock that he has a beef with. Oh, I can't even yo.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

And the rock has such a smug look. It has such a smug look. Yo, look, look, look, yo. It has the same smug look on its face like a computer that a computer does that won't just do what you're fucking telling it to do.

SPEAKER_03 17:28

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Hold on. Holy mother of God.

SPEAKER_02 17:31

Oh, you wanted to open Cortana when you were just trying to do anything else? Remember Cortana? Remember the age of Cortana when that shit was like all over the place? Yes. I just have to try a photo.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

That is the I feel like the lessons Microsoft learned from Cortana is the only reason we are not absolutely fucking choking on Copilot.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

Yeah. I mean, why would they move away from Cortana is my thing. Like in terms of the name, like do like use the Halo brand for good.

SPEAKER_03 18:05

That was gonna be part of our conversation today.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

Oh, really? Okay. Well, why don't we use that as a good little segue there? What do you got?

SPEAKER_01 18:11

I mean hit us with the Halo, brother.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

Yeah, hit it.

SPEAKER_03 18:15

Uh yeah, so Halo Rocco. I got Rocco up. Halo, the uh first Combat Evolve remake is out, and it is getting review bombed to oblivion.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

I feel like I heard uh um which is like hurting their brand even more at this point, honestly.

SPEAKER_03 18:40

Well Yeah. Here's the thing. Um they what happened was they added new shit already bad. Okay. Um they added guns that weren't even in the game from what I re what I read that were from the other games that are overpowered in the fucking campaign. So when you're playing a campaign, people are like, what are we doing here? Why is this in here? Um there's no multiplayer, like online multiplayer, which sure, okay, you can kind of get away with, but it's 2026.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

How can you get away with that in a Halo game? What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_03 19:24

Well, you can have local, which is fine.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

I mean, I feel like is Halo the combat involved bloddy blah. Does the There is a Halo version that they really used Halo the Master Chief collection does it?

SPEAKER_02 19:45

Yeah, it has all of them. That's what they should have released. They've done that.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

They've done the And that one still that one's online is still up, right?

SPEAKER_03 19:53

Yeah, that's fine. I actually played that last weekend.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Exactly why they didn't do what's it called? Right. Multiplayer on this one. They didn't want to split the split the community. Right.

SPEAKER_03 20:05

Um, but you could also play the campaign from the first one on that too. You can play all the campaigns.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

But if it's if it's the same ecosystem though, like if you're like I almost wonder if they could have like built it so that you could play multiplayer on that, and then also have the other game and then like somehow have like mixed servers because it's all Halo, right? And they're probably using the same engine at this point. No, no, no, that's the thing.

SPEAKER_03 20:31

No, they use Unreal on Unreal. That's what it is.

SPEAKER_02 20:36

Um Unreal 5. Oh, but they rebuild it from scratch. That seems so weird. All right.

SPEAKER_03 20:41

That's what I'm saying. They were trying to capitalize on nostalgia that like car need to be capitalized.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

People don't want to play the first game again, again. They just want you to make a good new one. Come the fuck on, guys.

SPEAKER_02 20:55

That's what I'm saying. Like, we gotta stop like going off of like, oh, this is the IP you know and love. Here it is again. Here's the first one, and like we made it for the 19th time, but and it's like, dude, just make something new and fresh and original and just make hire a couple writers, it's not that fucking complicated.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

You know what's funny? They've released so many remakes and remasters, and I can't remember, like, sure, I bought the Mega Man Battle Network remakes recently, but those games are like damn near 20 years old now. If you are me if you are doing a remake of something within the last, I'm going to say 10 years, I think people are sick of it.

SPEAKER_04 21:39

Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

People like stop.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

It's like making a remake of Last of Us 2.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

Like Yeah, it it's it's dumb. Like, people are getting away with the really the re releases of like Game Boy games and then 64 games, and they're getting re away with the remakes of games like Final Fantasy 7. Where it's a completely new, reimagined, and expanded product. That's chill. That's fine. But the fact that we keep doing these dime a dozen remakes, remasters, all this other fucking chill. And it's not even come up with a new idea. They have new ideas in there. They keep hiring new writers and developers. There's like new blood in these companies. They just won't let them fucking do anything.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

That's the thing, is like I feel like I I'm not exactly against like having remakes as a concept. Like in terms of, hey, hey, this game was made forever ago. You know, we could probably like remake it on better systems and like you know, just kind of put it back into a digital space so that you know it's kind of just like more relevant again. I'm I'm okay with that. But my issue is if that's all you're doing and you're just recycling that shit over and over and over again, and that's like your just that's your primary like source of like content like outflow, like what are we doing anymore? Because all we're doing is just paying for the same stuff over and over and over again every couple years for the next new console that or whatever that comes out. And I'm like, I already I mean, and it just kind of goes back into that like physical media thing where it's like, how many times do I have to buy the same product over and over and over again? You know?

SPEAKER_03 23:19

I think it's just like whoever's running these places are like, you know, it's a good idea to to rehash shit that doesn't need to be rehashed because people like the other rehash we did. So it's rehash to rehash, and it's just like this weird fucking loop they get in. Well, it's like you know, it has an original idea anymore.

SPEAKER_02 23:39

You know, like when you take a JPEG and you send it to somebody and it loses just like a little bit of something, and they send it to someone and it loses a little bit of something, and eventually 10 years down the line, you've got some dog shit fucking yeah, it's the exact same thing.

SPEAKER_03 23:52

It all comes down to Jelani's favorite thing in the whole entire world, these multi-billion dollar CEOs that are ruining everything. Because they have a final say in everything.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

Yep. What will sell the best? I don't I do not want a new idea that can maybe sell 10 million million copies. Remake that thing that sold a hundred million copies, and I guarantee you we we'll sell at least fifty million copies of it. That is the that is the thought process. I don't want to risk making less money. I wanna I wanna guarantee myself lots of money. It's unsustainable, thank God.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

Yeah. Um speaking of out-of-touch CEOs, uh the uh yeah, I got a little something here. We got the Xbox CEO recently listed out um this is Asha Sharma. Uh she recently listed out the priorities for their new their next fiscal year. So she had put out a tweet saying in fiscal year 26, uh over 200 million new players came to Xbox in our games, but our business did not outgrow or sorry, but our business did not grow with our audience. We need to close that gap by investing in what players value. That will take time, but we expect to return to growth by the end of fiscal year 27. So not like here's the thing. First off, that just reads like just like a bunch of corporate bullshit. And here's why is because she starts to next list off what their values are for like their priorities or whatever for the next year. And here's what they are core, content, creation, and connection. And she goes like a little bit in in like what each one was, but so like core, for example, is like strengthen our platform, lead by lead by console, right? Uh uh content, grow great games into global franchises. Creation, make Minecraft the world's creator platform, which I think they're just taking shots at Roblox there, honestly. They're they probably want to overtake Roblox at this point. Because I feel like Roblox has become like a huge like creation kind of space.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Uh honestly, I would trust Microsoft. Uh this is one of the few places where I'd be like, you know what? Microsoft has a little Microsoft has to be a little bit more responsible in how they deal with things than Roblox shows any what's it called willingness to be.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

Yeah, Roblox is like a fucking predatory ass space.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

This is one of those things where it's like we wanna it's like we wanna be the new creative space, we want to take over from Roblox. And I'm like, normally I'd want you to burn and die in hell, but please, dear God, this is the one thing I hope you succeed in.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

Right. Yeah, because I mean you gotta get those child workers out of Roblox because you got all these child children.

SPEAKER_03 26:57

Growing up, and that was like kind of normal for you in like the gaming world, like that was your like game.

SPEAKER_02 27:02

Get all that free labor.

SPEAKER_03 27:04

We we were like right before that hit. Like we were Minecraft early kids, which is fine. Yep, but like these Roblox kids, like a whole other level. Yeah, dude, it's scary, it's a scary practice. I watched the whole video on it. I can't remember who made it, but it was like a good like hour and a half YouTube video on it. You know what's on the bunch of money?

SPEAKER_01 27:26

Yo, did you guys no, no, I'm sorry. Complete sideshow distraction from editor Morgan. So check it out, check it out. Did you guys see the video with Schleppen Chris Hansen about what's it called? About Roblox? I saw the clip. I saw the clip.

SPEAKER_03 27:48

It looks like uh Dreamcon, right? Or whatever. He basically showed him how predatorial Roblox can be. He's like, yeah, we'll lock you in, we'll make you an account, and like had Chris Hansen to catch a predator guy play Roblox on the stage.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

That's so and it was like the the context is even better because it was a Roblox game based off of Omegle. You know, Omegle, what's it called, platform that got shut down because it enabled predatory, what's it called, behavior?

SPEAKER_03 28:25

Yeah, you can jerk off on it. Yes, you could.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

It's the first, what's it called?

SPEAKER_02 28:32

So just like uh that that Uno game on Xbox all those years ago. I won't even go with what I saw on that game. Dear God. But yeah, keep going.

SPEAKER_01 28:44

So Roblox has a game aping it like copying the idea. They jumped in, and the first thing, the first message they got is Snapchat question mark.

SPEAKER_02 28:59

Snapchat? Uh that's so cool. Oh, yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 29:02

I didn't see that. Yep. And then so they're talking about it on stage. This is happening on stage, projecting to the crowd, making the account, logging into the game, and opening it, and then on stage. On stage they get banned.

SPEAKER_02 29:19

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 29:21

Robox bla uh bans them midstream.

SPEAKER_02 29:25

That's wild.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

It's fucking crazy. Robux is weird, man. Like on Google search.

SPEAKER_03 29:33

I don't know a lot about it. Here's one right here. Join two friends as they play Would You Rather Boys vs. Girls Outfit Tower. What? What are we doing? What the fuck is this game?

SPEAKER_01 29:49

Like, there's multiple states that have what's it called? Lawsuits against Roblox for like enabling predatory behavior.

SPEAKER_02 29:58

Yeah, dude. Like it has its completely own like ecos like creation ecosystem. Like um uh Papa Meat, I believe, did an episode on it, like that kind of deep dives into like all the kind of crazy shit that I mean. Obviously, there's probably like a maybe more investigative kind of person out there that's gone into it, but yeah, it's just it's wild to see like one, it's designed this way so that they basically get free labor out of children, and then they do pretty much like I don't want to say nothing, because I I feel like they probably have made some changes in the last while, because like if if they banned them that quickly for saying Snapchat on screen, and I'm hoping that Roblox is doing that.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

No, they banned they no the what's it called the person, the person they connected with on Omegle as for their Snapchat.

SPEAKER_02 30:48

That's so funny. Okay, I was I was misunderstanding.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

Yeah, as for their Snapchat, and the point was like, look, this is a game, what's a this is a platform that is frequently like that is basically built on children. This is a platform made for children. The first message you get is asking for someone asking for the other user's personal Snapchat, and then their then their account who got the Snapchat request got banned because Roblox had someone internally actively watching the stream, and when that happened, they they shut it the fuck down.

SPEAKER_03 31:30

That's crazy. I doubt it's that that um what's it called?

SPEAKER_02 31:34

They're like, you're not getting in here to investigate us, no sir.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

Yeah, buddy. They actually like keep an eye on Slep. He has been banned so many times. So like once he was on stage, they probably did have someone keeping an eye on it. Yeah, because he's the cause of a lot of their problems.

SPEAKER_03 31:54

Yeah, they're like, oh shit, we gotta watch this guy.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

Yeah, it's specifically Slep and Chris Hansen, they were watching that one. I can guarantee you that. Oh, Chris Hansen, what a man.

SPEAKER_02 32:05

Well, go on going back to the the the Xbox uh announcement of like just like what they were prioritizing for the next year, though, like the the last one that they had, and the the first three were core content creation, and the last one that they did was connection. And their little blurb next to it is extend the world to the fans love. And when I was reading this, I literally have a note next to it that it's just like it's literally just a bunch of just like corporate fucking talking out of the side of your mouth, bullshit, talks people. Like it it's you're not saying anything and anything that you're saying here, except for maybe the Minecraft part where you're saying you want to make Minecraft like the world's creator platform. I understand what you're trying to say there. What the fuck do you mean connection? Extend the worlds that fans love. And like it what pisses me off is that your core values, all of them had to start with a C. Like, that's what that's why they're your values, is so you can get like a fun little C's. Like, really?

SPEAKER_00 33:02

Like, do you think we aren't the primary audience for these?

SPEAKER_03 33:07

No, I was gonna say I saw a comment on a Reddit thread about this, and this dude put this is a copy and paste from the CEO handbook. They all believe they can turn things around. So it really is like we aren't the audience for this.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

That that was a presentation for investors that was basically saying, Hey, what what's it called? I am more than happy to say the thing and do what you want, is basically that speech. That's the same speech they all give.

SPEAKER_02 33:40

Yeah, and like that I I get that they're not talking to the consumer there, but like the consumer is who they should be talking to. Yeah. Like at this point, you guys are so separated from from the consumer that you're just making all these decisions, you're talking to your investors about them, and you leave your customers completely out of the conversation. And it becomes it becomes this thing of like you are deciding what is important, not the customer, and you're losing money for it. That's why you're losing money year to year. And like the concept that you have to grow every single year is bullshit. That's not gonna fucking happen. And like the whole at the end of her tweet, she says, but we expect to return to growth by the end of like so you uh a year of this is what you think is gonna get you back to growth, really. Like it's just it seems just so out of touch from reality of like where we are. Like, you think in a year, by next year, we're gonna be in a situation where people can afford to spend more games, especially games on an Xbox, which is like the the third the third rate console going on right now. Like, no one's gonna be spending money on extra games right now. Nobody. Maybe Games Pass, because I feel like that kind of allows people to play some games that maybe they wouldn't already have access to for fairly cheap. But I don't see people going and buying a whole bunch of new Xboxes. I just don't see that happening.

SPEAKER_01 34:59

I don't think I think they're return I think return to profitability is return to profit return to profitability is an empty saying because that could be so many things. Both things that could benefit everybody involved in the system, including the gamers and users, or return to profitability means you know, game pass, game pass price shenanigans, yeah, what's it called? Layoffs, like return to profitability. You can do so many things, both good and fucking evil, yeah, to get back to profitability.

SPEAKER_02 35:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:48

That's that's all it is. Like, yeah, you said a lot of stuff, like I've gotten to the point now where when a CEO gets up and says something, my response is cool. I understand you're not talking to me, you're talking to your investors.

SPEAKER_04 36:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:09

So I am I'm less likely to listen to a gaming CEO, and I'm more likely to pay attention to the track record, the games that this publisher is putting out, what they're investing in, what they're doing. Yeah. Because that gives me a much better idea of what's going on. And for Xbox, I see them returning to profitability in what's it called? They're shedding extra weight. So whether that whether and I say that in the nicest way possible, because quote unquote shedding weight is firing people, closing down studios, and ruining lives. So they're shedding, there's quote unquote shedding extra weight, they're refocusing on bigger projects. So and what's it called? I feel like they're going there's going to be a much lesser push into hardware because hardware is not going to be a massive source of pros profitability right now.

SPEAKER_02 37:12

I mean, especially with the fact that you can't even like a lot of hardware you can't get right now, like especially memory. Like they they couldn't make a new console if they wanted to. I think they're working on the thing was called the Helix or something like that. Um, I'm I'm not super caught up on Xbox news, but like I'm even if they wanted to come out with a new console, I don't think they'd even be capable of doing so just because of this huge memory shortage going on right now.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

They're a subsidiary of they're a subsidiary of Xbox of Microsoft that can just put in a side order. Microsoft bottom line, it's just valid. The only person the only people who are going out of the only one of the two that I can see having enough hubris to put out another mainline console within the next two years is Sony.

SPEAKER_02 38:02

Yeah, I was yep, I agree with you.

SPEAKER_01 38:12

Because as they already said, hey, we're abandoning physical media. Alright, cool. People look at that as like a definitive, what's it called? A definitive anti-consumer movement just to take away your ownership of the game. But what that what that also does is lay the groundwork for the next PlayStation, the PlayStation 6, to be maybe a little bit more powerful, because like, sure, it'll be stronger, but it as you said, with the way memory is it, it can only be so much faster. And we're guaranteed not to have a CD drive because Sony already said they're abandoning physical media, so they cut that extra what's it called, cost off of developing the what's it called, hardware, and then you price it up. Oh, is that like Microsoft? Priced it up, baby.

SPEAKER_02 39:11

Well, I guess Microsoft, but also I guess Nintendo in a way, they have a unique opportunity right now where Sony is literally cutting its legs out from under them. Like it if yeah, if the new PlayStation 6 does get announced in the next year or so or whatever, like I I do not see myself buying it. Like just because if we're moving away from the physical space of the case, it's gonna be like a twelve, thirteen hundred dollar machine, maybe that too. And like Microsoft and Nintendo could take this moment and really, really push into the physical, like um consumer kind of I don't know what the the term is for that, but just like really, really push into that space of just like making sure that physical copies of things are sustained, that they're yours. And like I think they would buy so much just like consumer capital and like trust with consumers by saying, Hey, we're gonna allow you to keep the things that you buy. And like if they if they take the moment for what it is and like actually invest into the right things, then they might get some consumers back. They might get me back. I might get a c an Xbox or whatever their next console is gonna be if they did that, but I just don't see it happening. Like, for example, in the tweet that I referenced, she she says uh over 200 million new players came to Xbox and our games, but our business did not grow with our audience, and it almost feels like that's blaming the audience in a way.

SPEAKER_01 40:31

Like I and maybe I'm just reading that the wrong way, but it feels like a fancy way of saying getting more customers isn't going to get us more money. We need more money from each customer. That's exactly what that translates to.

SPEAKER_02 40:45

Yeah, and so like it feels like it's almost treating like customers like cattle, like you're seeing. Yeah, like that's all it is. Yeah, we're just we're a selling point, and that's all it is. They do not care about providing anything to us, it is all about what they can get for the investors and that kind of stuff, and so that's why I don't see them doing anything like that and like taking the moment and that kind of stuff. Because I mean literally I I can't look in any direction when it comes to gaming right now, uh like where it just isn't like absolute dog shit. I do not like I can't see any bright sides of what's going on in any of the news that's coming out, except for you know, obviously, you know, ex games that I'm excited for, you know, coming out in the next few months or whatever, but that's I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 41:28

Look bleak out here. You mentioned Nintendo. Can I take my turn on something I want to talk about real quick?

SPEAKER_02 41:34

Do your thing, man.

SPEAKER_01 41:36

Alright. Nintendo has no impetus to do anything. They it's specifically with hardware, because if you look around the field, they position themselves exactly where they need to be for up for them to start taking away physical media like they are, and we can't say anything because where else are you gonna go for handheld gaming, brother? Where else are you gonna go for the Nintendo? And the ROG Ally X at $1,000 has now become one of the better middle low end machines, bro.

SPEAKER_04 42:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:18

Like it's not it's like what's it called? The Steam Deck price has dropped about 80% since the the release. Well since they released the new prices. Fucking Acer has a new handheld that's rocking about like fit $1,300 to $2,000 on release. Um, there's uh Audio Neo handheld PC, what's it called? Gaming thing that lives for $5,000 plus like, and then you have the Switch 2 at $450. Yeah. You have no one Nintendo don't have to do shit but keep that pri they don't even have to not raise the price. At $500, they are still miles and away the best, what's it called, option you have for handheld gaming.

SPEAKER_02 43:07

Handheld, yeah. I guess at that point it just really d depends on what the li what their library selection is like because at that point you only have access to Nintendo games versus if you got like a rogue ally or whatever, you would have access to PC games.

SPEAKER_01 43:21

And that's another thing Nintendo's been getting better about. That's something we have to like stop and give them a little bit of flowers for. Like Nintendo of the past, when we were growing up, didn't give a fuck about indie games. Nintendo, up to like when they started doing internet shit and having their own eShop, didn't really give a fuck about indie games. Within the last five to ten years or so, maybe a little bit longer, they've been expanding their library. They have a lot of the biggest indie games on their library now. They have opened, they have opened the doors a little bit more, which is a direct decision, I feel like. Like by them to kind of push people away from handheld, specifically PC gaming. Because you're not like outside of the top end of these machines, you're not running like fucking Monster Hunter. You're not running fucking like a fully modded pal world world on it. You're not doing you're not doing Forza type shit on these. You're playing primarily like your indie games, your smaller games, your fun handheld games, and at that point, the power that these the extra power that these Windows handhelds give isn't really that much of a plus.

SPEAKER_04 44:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:41

Until you get to the higher end ones that can do the more expensive shit. Hit me, Connor.

SPEAKER_03 44:47

I was gonna say, like, you also have to think about the demographic of people who are gonna be ex like getting the switch to or like the accessibility of like a rock ally or a steam. Think about the type of people who are buying Steam 2s, right? It's gonna be or any Nintendo IP. That's more of a demographic of a younger generation, younger crowd. Not to sound like an old fucking geezer, but like you don't see a fucking 12-year-old rocking a Steam Deck at the dentist's office while he's waiting to get his fucking teeth cleaned. He's got the Switch 2 playing fucking Pokemon, playing whatever Mario he's playing, or playing fucking Stardew Valley or some shit. So you have a broader uh area of um age groups playing the Switch 2, so it would behoove you to have it at a cheaper, more accessible price because a little kid could scream his head off, and then you're like, well, you know, I could afford that for a hundred fifty dollar handheld, other than like I can't afford a twelve hundred dollar PC, twelve-year-old kid or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 45:59

So a twelve hundred dollar these are these have decided become to decidedly become luxury relaxation devices for like adults and not only just adults, but like specific I use the specific word luxury because I drive a Hyundai, but people looking for luxury drive Mercedes. Like it's a luxury device, and you know there's not much we can do, and it's only going to be driven further by the Ram crisis.

SPEAKER_02 46:34

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 46:37

Like there was a future, there was a potential future where these would have been like because you're not getting the same power of a p as a PC out of this, these things. No, there was a potential future where like if the components that made these things were stable in price, these would be great introductory devices to PC gaming.

SPEAKER_04 46:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:59

These would be like the six, seven hundred dollar items. You're not buying you're maybe buying an uh switch 2 for your like 10, 11, 12-year-old. But if you have a 15, 16, 17-year-old that's still into gaming like that, you have a responsible team, teen that you're like that you want to encourage, then you can get them one of these. But that is not what these are right now. These would be a great entry point. With thousand-dollar graphics card on the market, one of these at seven, eight hundred dollars would be a great place to get a young person into PC gaming. But now we're looking at a thousand to twelve hundred to like at the top and thousands of dollars, and these have just become luxury products for people like you and me to maybe save up for for ourselves for Christmas. And that's wild to say that as an adult. That ooh, that looks nice. I'll save up my what's it called, my leftover allowance for my paycheck to buy it for myself for Christ. Fuck out of here.

SPEAKER_02 48:04

Yeah. I mean, I even with like the Steam Deck, like I I got the Steam Deck, I I love it. It it has I don't play a lot of stuff directly from it. Like uh, I think I would say the only thing that I actively like actually play on the Steam Deck itself is probably Star Wars The Old Republic, but like everything other than that, I'll probably stream it like um from my PC because that's one of the like huge perks for the Steam Deck for me is that like it covers because not only does can I play like Steam stuff, I can also get like uh emu decky or whatever it's called, emu deck, and it's like all these emulators and stuff like that. So there's just like a it accomplishes a lot for me for the amount of like the price that I paid for it, which was I think like around $800. I got the like the OLED one. And so like but even that kind of falls into what I would call as like the the quote unquote like luxury kind of pricing point of just like you know, I had I literally had to like wait a couple paychecks and say like okay, I'm at the point where I feel comfortable buying this. I couldn't just like willy-nilly just buy it, like you were saying. And I'm not gonna like I'm not gonna like say like saving up for something is like a bad call, but it's definitely like in a world where my fiance and I both what I would say make a decent amount of money, it's kind of it's kind of crazy to think that we can't just like go and buy these things as we need them or whatever, because it's just like they're getting so overpriced to the point where they're just not even reachable for the just the regular person. Even like what I would say is like middle mid-class kind of thing. Like, yeah, it's just it's it everything right now I feel like is being designed specifically for the whales out there, and then just everybody else can kind of just like get the scraps or whatever. Like that's just what it's I don't know, it's just the entire industry.

SPEAKER_01 49:51

Barely scraps. Yeah. We can hopefully get what's it called, the leftovers, uh uh what's it called, a little bit later after the scalpers fall out. Because it's it's it's the whales, the scalpers, and then we have to wait a little while after that for stock to resupply or for the scalpers to for basically stock to resupply or the stop scalpers to stop making money off of it.

SPEAKER_03 50:21

I was saying we we make it part of the meal, but we're just looking the plate at this point. Like we get to look at it.

SPEAKER_02 50:26

We're like, ooh, that looks real good though. From the ground. Please, sir.

SPEAKER_04 50:32

Please, sir.

SPEAKER_01 50:32

And it's and it's getting that way with everything. Whether you're into like hardware, whether you're into whether you're into electronics, whether you're into fashion, whether you're a deep nerd like me, and you like tabletop games and fucking what's it called? Trading cards.

SPEAKER_04 50:49

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 50:49

You are literally licking the plate because every company is catering to the whales, and then after the whales, you got the scalpers.

SPEAKER_02 50:59

Yeah. Speaking of scalpers, did you guys hear that uh the Pow World trading card game released yesterday? It started. They're they're directly competing against the Pokemon trading card game now. And there are already, I think they by like early July, I think Pocket Power Pocket Pair had already sold like 3.5 million packs, and they're already getting scalped. Yeah, the like the Kativa and all that kind of stuff, like those like starter pals, like they're already being sold for like upwards of like four thousand dollars per the card. It's insane, bro. Yeah, I love that. But if Pokemon used a lot of card, bro, pop pocket pairs fucking coming for for their money. They're like 3.5 million packs by early July. It hadn't even come out by that point. That's insane.

SPEAKER_03 51:50

Above cards, man. Every fucking card now is like an insane group of people. Like, yeah, such a rush for these people that hey, hey, hey, watch your mouth. I'm not talking about you, magic boy. I'm talking about these people who are like specifically just in the game to like make a profit. Like, oh jeez, rip some packs. I'm like, and the MTG Finance, bro.

SPEAKER_01 52:18

Go like I have no patience for like scalpers, short-term, like I understand MTG finance to to a point. Uh, but I appreciate the people who are like, nah, I'm in it for the long game. Cause like the fucking what's his name? The Jake Paul's of the world are really getting on my last fucking nerve.

SPEAKER_02 52:44

It's like the big content creators who have nothing to do with the space suddenly getting involved in the space because they're rich and they want something for views and clicks. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:54

Like, if you can if like and that's not to say I am not cool with content creators bringing light to a space that they've interacted with of their own accord in the past. They just haven't made content on it because it's something they did for themselves. Like, I feel like that is a sp that is a place that I can't really say anything. Like, people like Papa Me and Moy's Critical when they do Magic the Gathering content. It's just like, okay, cool, you guys played this and enjoyed this world before. That's fine. And you're just expanding your content portfolio to include something you already cared about.

SPEAKER_02 53:35

Yeah. I yeah, I think there's a big difference between large content creators like Papa Me or whoever else who are like they care about that like space, and they they are just like you said, kind of like naturally bringing it as like a part of something like they're they're all like um they're already established web of content that they do, like they're just adding to that, versus someone like Jake or or his brother, I can't remember, I think it was Jake Paul, who like they basically hear about something that's popular, and they're so big in their own space that they bring all of the trouble that they have in their space to the artists. So like I feel like scalpers, for example, I'm not gonna say that they weren't like already a big deal around that time, but I feel like within the last few years in particular, Pokemon has become such a popular thing where it's almost like case opening and counter-strike, where like the like you get the really, really big names and suddenly everybody's watching and all that kind of stuff. And it becomes a thing of, oh, because these guys are staring at it and these guys are putting attention to it, I have to get and go in and scalp all this stuff because this is where the biggest names are looking at now. And I just feel like it cur it causes a damage to that space because now you all of a sudden have this element of people who are trying to fuck over the people in that space to get theirs. And it's I don't know, it just kind of leaves the people in that space, like Pokemon trading card game, for example, that was uh designed for kids. Yeah, kids can't go to the store anymore and get cards because you see people in stores fighting over grown-ass adults, ready to like throw punch a child to get uh what's it called, extra ETB or something.

SPEAKER_01 55:16

Yeah, I would. But yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:19

I'm not gonna fight someone. That's because I can't get 'em. I can't ever get 'em. If you go to the store anywhere around us, especially since we're in like a busy fucking area, literally every store that sells a Pokemon card, booster pack, starter pack, whatever the fuck you're trying to get, out. Always out. There's people waiting all the time. Check out the city.

SPEAKER_01 55:38

People will be waiting by waiting. We'll be waiting in line in front of the displays at targets, waiting for them to restock, type shit. Yeah, Dollar Tree.

SPEAKER_03 55:51

They wiped Dollar Tree out and whoever's that's fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_02 55:56

Check your local GoPuff app. We we just if you don't know what GoPuff is, and I'm not trying to advertise for them, you can reach out to me if you want GoPuff. But uh what they they're basically just an app uh where it's like kind of like convenience shopping that gets delivered to you. So it's uh like sort of like it's sort of like Instacart, but instead where like Instacart, like um, you know, they'll it's like they'll do a grocery order, you'll be there in a couple hours. This is more like I need something immediate on the go. It's called GoPuff because it's like it was originally intended for like people that needed like like smoking like things, like papers and that kind of stuff, like when they needed it. Um so basically you you know they have a whole selection of like I would say it's like more like convenience store stuff. Like if you're if you were gonna like do a quick trip to 7-Eleven, it's kind of stuff you would expect to be able to get there. So um for whatever reason, we were doing a GoPuff order yesterday, and Shay just happened to see that they have Pokemon cards on there, and we bought some and there was no problem, and we got a whole pack and we just like went through them and it was great. And I'm like, I cannot believe we're selling GoP like cards on GoPuff now. And I'm like, is that a way to get around scalpers on his phone? Like in a weird way, like just order it on your GoPuff app.

SPEAKER_01 57:08

Look, see, people people keep saying, I can't believe we're in a X place whether when it comes to these markets. And my response to that is always if you live in a weed legal state, you can affirm your ounce. The day you the fact that you can pay in four your fucking ounce is absolutely a fucking recession indicator. Yep. This is not getting a front from your dealer and then paying them double the next time. This is engaging with the American credit system to buy some weed. We are absolutely in a fucking recession. Fuck out of here.

SPEAKER_02 57:54

You can literally I think you can literally buy like weed gummies and shit like that on there.

SPEAKER_03 57:58

It's it's it's fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_02 58:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 58:03

I think the way since you were talking about ordering it on the app, from what I remember when I worked in the retail space, they you had I mean I worked in a different type of retail space, but for people to have like online orders, you always have like a separate inventory for that. So it is a way to get around scalpers or people who you know buy in like mass quantities because you always have to have that like back inventory of these items just because you have them listed on that app. Otherwise, you know, the how do you track it? You can't track what's in your store unless you're counting it like every hour or so.

SPEAKER_01 58:48

So they have like their own like set-aside Pokemon cars, probably somewhere that they just once every month or so, ever or once every month for a ja for a general count, and then maybe twice a month for a what's it called, for a low priority count. The only reason I say that is because when I worked at Best Buy in the warehouse, if you had the order from store thing, we just pulled from store stock.

SPEAKER_02 59:16

Right. Connor, are you talking about when you were working at the place that rhymes with swole dudes?

SPEAKER_03 59:23

I can say Whole Foods, I don't give a shit. Whole Foods, but it's different with that because it was produced, so it's like got a limited shelf life, anyways. So you had to take inventory every day, and there was always supposed to be um like an excess inventory in the back that was available for online orders or you know, apps or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 59:46

So I was just glad you're gonna do it.

SPEAKER_03 59:48

Because you can check it on Amazon, you can buy produce on Amazon from your Whole Foods and go pick it up.

SPEAKER_02 59:54

That's so it I mean it's cool.

SPEAKER_03 59:57

That's the only reason why Amazon bought Whole Foods is so they can because instead of building giant warehouses full of uh produce and and perishable items, they just bought they would have to make a whole entire different building, right? So they're like, why don't it pretty smart? Why don't we just buy stores that already have them? Yep and there's a good amount of them, and especially Whole Foods, which are in like gentrified areas and rich, snotty fucking people live around. You can make so much fucking money, and Amazon was like, boom, we're doing that. That's fucking smart as hell.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:34

I mean I wasn't Whole Foods does have some pretty snotty clientele.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:40

Look where they are, look where they're located, and look around you, and it's you're in a gentrified neighborhood uh 80% of the time, or you're in some fucking snooty ass area every time. I worked nine years at that place, so I fucking know what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:55

Two different Whole Foods on Tammy Amy Trail, baby. They're both fucking smarmy as fuck. Yeah, it's crazy, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:05

But the Boca one's fucking crazy. Yes, I hate that one. Boca Whole Foods is nuts. Insider fact, since I worked in the Florida region for so long, that Boca store, everyone fucking hated working there. Everybody.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:19

I don't doubt it. It's right across the street from FAU.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:24

Yeah, and it's right next to that high school, and it's in like a really like right off the highway.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:28

It's fucking it's right off the highway, right next to a high school and right across the street from FAU. It is literally constantly swamped. It's probably literally constantly swamped by fucking 15 to fucking 23-year-old fucking just that age group where if you're anywhere 30 and up, it's just like I understand that you guys are the future, you're growing up, you're learning social norms, and I starting to interact interact with the world as adults, but dear fucking cod, could you do it anywhere that I am not?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:05

Right. The um the only other store I think that people despise more than the Boca one is the one that was near uh Pompano because only because the like regional director for Florida lived near and he would shop in that store. So people were like, we gotta be on our fucking best behavior every time. Sorry. Whole foods tangent.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:30

You're fine.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:32

Alright. Let's let's mosey our way back though to gaming topics. Yeah. Let's mosey on back.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:40

Where we're I got a funny one for you.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:43

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:44

It'll be so are you guys aware of the game Paralives? No, actually I'm not. Okay, so it is a sim-like uh game. So you create a family, you know, work your jobs, all that shit. Um reviews there is a baby in the game that have a resemblance to Bobby Hill from King of the Hill.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:12

No way.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:13

And people and the developer is working on a fix.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:19

Like you like to make him even more Bobby Hill?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:21

No, I think less. Like if you like. I think I see him. I think I see him. It's so good. Uh Wow. Unintentional resemblance to the King of the Hills Bobby Hill. Yeah. Um baby, yeah. Many players notice that the babies in Paralyzed look uncanny with some joking that they resembled King of the Hill character Bobby Hill.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:47

Hell.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:49

And some people were kind of upset about it. He does.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:52

I'm very it's unfucking can. It's unfucking canny. I like how they called it the baby update. Like, I love that. I don't need I I don't understand why they felt the need to change it though.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:15

I mean, people were like, I don't want my baby to look fucking ugly.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:19

I think it looked perfect. He did he did look perfect.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:23

They uh the funny thing about these games, to get more into these games, I had a I had like I know people who like would like build families based off of like their work and like co-workers. So I'm pretty sure at some point I've been in the Sims like three or four times unintentionally, because someone has like created me as their family. Life X perfection, someone says. Exactly. It's kind of like copyrights.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:55

It's kind of reminds me of like we went to I can't remember what the name of the store was recently, but there's this um it's kind of like Hmart in a way. Uh if you don't know Hmart it is, it's like a Korean like grocery store. Um but there's a there's a Japanese kind of like cultural store in uh Atlanta. I can't remember what it was called. I'm trying to find it, but basically it's like um it's called Tisa Life. So T-I-S-O and then space life. And you go in there and it's all sorts of like we uh Jordan and Corsisa were uh visiting recently, and so we just decided we wanted to go over there and check it out. And it's cool. It's like you go in there and they have all sorts of just like Japanese memorabilia snacks, like they have a whole section of like Gundamask style like robot like models you can put together. It's great. But they also had this whole section that was like if you took a con like a conventionally like attractive uh like male uh character like archetype and they had several of them, and you take that. And then you take everything about them and shrink them into like baby format, and they're still wearing all the same clothes, earrings, all that kind of shit, and they're giving them like personalities too. Like it was just really weird. Because it's like they took this like concept, like kind of like a bad boy, right? They have like a bad boy thing. But then it's like it's a literal fucking baby. And so I'm like, what is the like what is the the target audience here for this? Like, I'm not trying to like get on a cultural difference or whatever. Like if someone knows about these and there's like a history of them, like please explain it to me. I'm more than happy to like have an open ear on it. I just when I was in there, I'm like, what the fuck? Why do we have like weird, like sexualized babies purchasable at a at a just a local mart? What is happening? Like, I don't know what this I can't even remember what like what the name of them were. There was T so life.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:59

I I feel like Beanie Babies was the start of something dark in our society that we should have never allowed.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:10

Collection of Q things, but yeah, but you're forgetting about cabbage patch kids too, which was like a weird cabbage patch kids were weird, and then they had a trading card game with the garbage pal kids, which was like a weird knockoff of them. And they had like weird people like collecting shit, and people like collecting cute shit. Why not, you know, spruce it up a bit and make it sexy? I don't know. Look, all I'm trying to say is that's my piece, baby's sexy.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:43

Chris Hansen.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:46

Do you just hear a knock in the back of Cameron's audio? FBI, open up. It was a joke.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:56

It was a joke, I promise. It was a joke, it was a joke.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:59

Um, but yeah, but it's like, I don't know, it's like Hawaii shit, you know. Like, I don't know, man. There's weird, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:07

I don't I'm on their website. I'm trying to find out.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:09

If it's not like harmful, sure. I don't think it's harmful.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:12

I don't I don't think it's anything like that. I just it was just very strange to be in because I don't know. I'm trying to see if I can find like a a reference image of it. They also have some really sick like Gundam esque. Um I don't know what the actual brand was, but uh it was it was some gunplaw type shit.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:30

There's a store I got a little different from what you're talking about, but it's called Ollie's, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:38

Ollie's, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:39

And the whole thing about Ollie's store is he has everything. Ollie is a man of the people. Yes. Unfortunately, Ollie's marketing campaign um creators are a little out of touch. And I will describe to you some of the things that are in the store. So the store you can buy like you know, like not expired food, but like partially almost, you know, at its end of life kind of sale um foods like candies and shit like that. And there's also like weird toys and books you can buy. There's also Persian rugs and whatnot you can buy here. It's a weird store. Now each section, each section has its own little like banner describing what's there. Um unfortunately, the banners are a little racist. Um when you go to Ollie's and you go to the Persian rug section, you have Ollie, who is an old white man dressed in a turban, looking like a genie. Not that racist, but kind of weird. Uh and then you have him in the Japanese section as a sumo man. No, but he's white. It's real weird. It's just a weird, weird store. I don't know why I it reminded me of that. Oh, I see.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:08

I see it.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:09

Yeah, yeah. It's a it's an interesting uh Google if you guys aren't from this area.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:15

No, he looks like Einstein. They're the little character looks like Einstein if he was you know mildly.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:22

Like if we go to the flyer, that's usually where you can get the like take photos.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:27

Reach our buyers.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:29

And they may have dumbed it down a bit. It's been a few years since I've been there, but definitely when I was at the store, I was like, hmm, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:37

It's a company with two people of color involved in it, as far as I can tell. Awesome. As much as yep. By the way, all the people in power are white dudes. Jesus Christ. Yeah, I believe that.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:59

Um my god, hold on. It gets worse.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:02

It gets worse, it gets worse. Okay, so I'm on the vendor inquiries page, and it's like, are you a vendor and you have something to sell? Contact our buyers and visit our and basically it shows like senior vice president, white guy, vice president, divisional merchandising, white guy, VP of blah blah blah, white guy. You keep scrolling, you keep scrolling, you keep scrolling. I was just like looking for anyone POC, right? And then I get to like the fifth line down and it says Ken Smith. Guess what he's in charge of?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:28

Please don't tell me it's gonna be some urban development type shit. Community outreach. You were close to life. God fucking damn it. I if every god fucking damn time. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:42

What kind of it was lawn and garden and patio. That's all like like come on. That's what I'm saying. Like, dude, come on.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:52

Motherfuckers. Oh my you know what? I don't I don't even know what I don't even know why I mm mmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:59

Not surprised though.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:00

I'm not surprised out a goddamn bit.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:03

I don't mean to put all these good cheap stuff off the list. Yo, Arcan Story.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:10

But here we are. Where's this located anyway? Where did they got these? We have some in um Boyon Beach. There's definitely one in uh uh Lake Worth, I think. Uh South Florida.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:27

Um just going on to my next thing here. Yeah, we got uh and you're aware of this, Connor, but Final Fantasy has uh they had their uh fan fest in July last month.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:42

Ooh, Final Fantasy Fan Fest is always fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:45

Yeah, I actually went to that. Um the the very first one that they had, I went to that. Um or at least the very first American one that they had. I was at the very uh when they was when they were announcing Heavensword, their their first expansion. I remember being there, it was in Las Vegas, and one of the coolest moments, just a kind of a little side trip for now. Um, one of the coolest moments, we were in the waiting line to get our um like the badges that you like get at the very beginning of the the festival. And so we're like waiting in line, and you know, it's just taking forever, it's just expected, there's thousands of people here. And at one point, Yoshi P, and if anybody who's listening doesn't know who Yoshi P is, he is the game director for Final Fantasy XIV. He is the one who af after the initial launch and failure of Final Fantasy XIV, he was the director who came in and saved it, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:34

And so he's the guy behind A Realm Reborn, the version of Final Fantasy XIV that you guys are all familiar with.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:43

Yep, and he was also the director for Final Fantasy XVI. He just he's their best director that Square Enix has right now. Um, and so he actually starts walking down this hallway, and like you you know, I didn't notice it at first, but like there's just like a huge like roar at the start of the like the the line, and everybody's starting to like see like what's going on, and suddenly you start hearing Yoshi P, Yoshi P. And there's like thousands of people just chanting this dude's name as he walks with his entourage down this fucking hallway, and everyone's like, like he was like it was like celebrity status, like it was like if Michael Jordan had been like walking down that hallway. It was fucking crazy. Um, but yeah, it was a great experience. But um, yeah, so they had their they had their fan festival this last month. Uh they they announced two major things. Um, one of them is kind of wrapped in the other, which is um they're doing their next expansion. Uh, we've known about this for a little while. It's called Evercold. Um, but with that, they did the first announcement of the new job or one of the new jobs I think that's coming. I'm not sure if it's the only one. And it's called Bastion. And it's gonna be a new main tank that's coming out. And the reason it's cool and why I'm excited about it is because it's unique. It is the first that I'm aware of class that is coming out that features dual wielding shields. Uh which I I can't think of a single other not not even just MMO, but I can't think of a single other game, except maybe I think there's like an Assassin's Creed out there that like does like dual wielding shields. Um but I can't think of another game out there really that like has that as like an archetype. And one of the cool things about it is that not only does it have two shields, but it has like cannons attached to the shields, and it like transforms between like shooting cannons from your shields in the front, but they also transform into the back, so you have like jet thruster punches and shit like that. It's it's fucking cool. If you have a check, like if you have a second, you should watch the trailer. It's only like about maybe 30 seconds to a minute long, and it just like shows off all this stuff. The the new job is called Bastion. Looks really, really cool. I'm really excited about it. Um, but we probably won't see that until that looks fucking sick. Yeah, it looks like it's it's really that looks fucking sick. People are already making like uh cosplays for it and stuff like that, because the OGP like showed it off because what he he likes to at each whenever they show off the new jobs, he likes to be the one cosplaying the new job. So they had like a whole cosplay set up for him and he showed up. Um but then like I've been seeing a whole bunch of cosplayers like making their own. I think there's um I forget what the cosplayer's name is. I think uh I follow I think it's like Little Jim, like J-E-M, something like that. And they already are like working on like uh like um like legs like portions for like the metal armor and stuff like that, and it just looks so high quality. It's so so cool. I'm really excited to like see what people do with it. But that's my like little final fantasy there.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:37

I gotta keep busting through all the expansion. I'm not gonna make it, obviously. Yeah, you gotta make them so you gotta keep going.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:45

I mean, we're we're making good progress. I mean, I feel like the thing is, I think that 2.0 was the longest slot because you literally have I don't know, like 50 hours worth of content of story that you have to get through. And each subsequent expansion after that is not quite that long because it only is about 10 levels worth of like story. So, like, yeah, it's still like a good amount of story, and like it takes a little while, and then you also have to deal with like the stuff that came out after the initial release until you get to the next expansion, but it's not nearly quite as long as like the original 2.0 slog was. Um, and then like once it gets going, it it just really keeps going.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:25

So yeah, I'm at a point where it's like I'm like, okay, some shit's going down. Yeah, it's kind of like this.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:32

Yeah, it's starting to get really cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:34

I mean, it's still like, you know, go talk to this person, and then now go back to where we talked to the other person, and then we'll go talk to this person. I'm like, okay, sure. And then I get to these like crazy battles, and I'm like, oh, all right, all right, that's pretty sad.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:46

That's that's that's basically the formula you'll have for the majority of the game. Yeah. They never really truly like step too far away from like the hey, go talk to this person and this next person. Like, it's it's very much fetched quests. They get rid of a lot, like a fair amount of them along the way, but you're still gonna be going and like traveling a lot throughout the game. But the things that you're doing alongside of that just gets cooler as you go. Oh. Uh do you guys have anything before I get into my next topic? If you do you have anything else you wanted to chat about? Any other topics?

SPEAKER_01 1:18:20

Did want to talk quickly about the whole AI art bullshit that we're seeing first with Kingdom Hearts and now with Games Workshop, where both of them are saying that they're doing reviews that they're doing reviews to look into the quote unquote human errors in the art pieces they got called out on. And at this point, like. I feel like we should just fess up to it.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:57

I mean, I feel like I feel like we need to see it. I feel like can we is it possible, Connor? Can you like bring it up or can you send it to the Connor so we can all look at it? I want to look at this what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:06

Let me copy image.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:09

I have my own thoughts on AI shit in general, the AI art, and I'm only gonna speak from a like a minute about it. There's a weird thing about like the boomers using it, right? On like Facebook. Whatever. It's kind of cute. It's nice that they figured that out. I hate that story like that. But wait, hold on. The dating apps around these days, they're girls, ladies in my uh age range using AI as their profile photos.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:50

No, no, I don't know how many of them are.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:54

I think that might be a universal both sides thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:57

Yeah, people are doing that. Which is fine. Like filters, I get whatever angles, remember angles, you know. But if you're using AI, this PSA for the ladies out there who are single and see beyond uh, you know, whatever app. I'm gonna swipe left, dog. I can't, I can't, I can't take you seriously. Yeah, I'm sorry. I can't serve it.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:22

It doesn't feel like a person at that point.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:23

It feels like it's trashy to me. It just seems trashy. It's a trashy move.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:29

Like you can't even like put the own your own effort into taking a photo of yourself and writing out your own like thing. Like you can't you can't the bare minimum.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:37

It's been years since I was involved in the what's it called online dating thing, but even back then you had a lot to deal with bots and shit. Like random just a we all know what a bot on a dating site looks like. Now the fact that we have AI mixed in, please, please do better to make yourself not look like the bots. We are all this s we are all already hyper vigilant to guts.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:07

Here's the thing though, is like I mean, it's not like I know like a terrible amount about like dating apps, but like I mean I I have my experience with them from previous times that I had attempted to use them a long time ago. But like the general kind of feel that I get is like the at the end of the day, the company, the app, whatever you're doing, you're using, does not actually want you to find your person. What they want you to do is to stay on the app for as long as humanly possible. And giving you actual connections with other people does not go towards that goal for them. And so I guarantee you they're probably pushing an algorithm that is designed to keep putting bots in your face, so you have to keep swiping left because they want you on the app to get as many ads in your face as long as possible.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:57

Well, I wouldn't say they're bots, they're actual people with like, you know, like, oh, I'm into dogs, so they'll like do like a fucking prompt where the dog there's like a dog and her all her hobbies around her or some shit. Right. Okay, that's trash. This is trash.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:14

Okay, so let's can we is it possible to pull up the actual image itself out because I want to zoom in on it because I actually I can look it up too. So which one? The Kingdom Hearts AI.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:28

Oh yes, I have that one. I put a I put a I put a link in the in the uh Oh okay, I see it. I see it.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:34

Thank you. I think I can.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:34

Well, yeah, so like everyone's like really honing in on like Donald here. Mm-hmm. Because he's got different number finger uh digits on his hands. And some of the clothing details are fucking weird as shit. Right, and there's like a weird explosion happening in the back here.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:53

It's like also, why are there four different Sora's Kingdom Hearts games, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:23:00

That's just Kingdom Hearts. There's like five or six different Soras, like just straight up.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:05

Like that's in Sora's like a person of a person, bro.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:11

I knew about Roxas.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:12

I mean, I never beat three, but I remember No, there's several of them.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:17

Sora and Roxas are just reincarnations are just repeated reincarnations of a bunch of people that look like either Sora or Roxas.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:29

Yeah, but there's a but the but the problem is here specifically, because I know that like what you mean, because they're like versions of Sora or Rox, whatever. But like here, very specifically, the outfits reference Sora. That that's the f the Sora from the first game, Sora from the second game, Sora from the third game. Yeah, right. Oh, not that oh, it's because it's a collection. Because it's a collection. Still seems weird. What is that building in the background there, too? What? Oh I don't know. Which one? The one on the left. I don't recognize that. With the TVs on it? Yeah, is that from Traverstown or something?

SPEAKER_01 1:24:07

No. Did you play Kingdom Hearts 2?

SPEAKER_02 1:24:12

I mean, I did. I played that one multiple times. I just I mean it's been years since I played it.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:16

Which is that the is it the from the one from the That's where do you remember the scenes where Riku was fighting Roxas?

SPEAKER_02 1:24:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so it's from the cutscene.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:27

That's where that happened. That's the world in which that happened. Is what's it called? You actually go there toward the end of the game? Yeah, in Kingdom Hearts 2, you go there towards the end of the game, and I think that's where you fight Roxas. You get there's a portal there, and then you pass out or something, and then you fight Roxas in your dreams, and that helps you unlock, I think, either Oblivion or Oath Keeper.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:55

Okay, I remember now. I got I gotta go back through those games. I need to. I never beat three, and here's why I never beat three. I had a friend who fucking ruined that shit for me. Sucks. I mean, I don't know if I mean I I I won't lie, I didn't like it.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:09

I never finished three either. It it was kind of garbage. It was garbage.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:13

When I played through the Toy Storyland one, Toy Story World, I fucking hated it.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:17

I just felt like by the time like I I don't feel like anything that I was doing on that different planets actually contributed to the story in any way, shape, or form. Right. That was my thing. Um but I felt like two is my favorite. Two is fucking by far. I loved two. The the everything that they did with the combat in that one, the fucking the name uh the nameless or the the nobodies, excuse me. Um, like all that whole concept, and just like by the time you're at the end game where you're like you have the different like forms and all the other stuff like that, dude. Oh my god, so much fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:51

It is consistently agreed that Kingdom Hearts 2 might be one of the best action RPGs ever made.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:59

Yeah, super, super good. I might go big go might go back through that. That's something the only gripe I had of that game, and I think this is kind of universal for everyone that played it, was the fucking four hour, the four-hour tutorial at the beginning of the game. Oh yeah. Which like I don't mind as much just because I know it required some build-up because it's just like there's a there's a big thing happening there. They needed to introduce you to who Roxas was, I understand, but it's just like there was just it took so long to get Sora back. And not only that, but like it also required you to have played the the Game Boy Advanced game that had come out. Yeah, to understand what the fuck was going on. Yeah, chain of memory. How do you make that jump? So I remember like because I hadn't well, okay. I think I had bought the Game Boy Advanced game, but I don't think I actually had um I never finished it. Yeah, I got like a few levels in, but like it it wasn't the same game because it was like the card, the card battle. That's the card one, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:26:57

Yep, that's the card battler.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:59

Yeah, and so I would like I was like, it's fun, but whatever. Like it wasn't my favorite game. So then I never finished that, and then I went into two, and I am just confused as all fuck. Like and at this point, like I'm also a kid. I mean, I'm you know, I've I'm a teenager probably at that point, but like still, you know, and you know, I'm just super confused. You know, VB V V from Final Fantasy uh 9 is showing up, and uh, you know, so it was a good intro, but it definitely just took a little too long to just really get going.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:30

Anyway, I remember playing Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, and I'm one of those weird kids that never really played Final Fantasy growing up, so I had no idea who the fuck anybody any of these people were. They must have been so confused. My like, I need you to understand the first time I ever met Cloud and Sephiroth were in Kingdom Hearts 1. That's so that's wild. That's a wild thing, dude.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:58

Fighting Sephiroth was.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:00

Probably a lot of it. Fighting Sephiroth was like that was like the ultimate challenge.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:05

Oh the god. Fighting Sephiroth and one and two. That fighting Sephiroth and one and two was the moment I realized my little sister might be better at these action RPGs than me.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:17

She ended up beating him. That was that was something I did. I don't know what it was. I was determined to beat Sephiroth in the second game. And uh my I had my brother like watching me and shit like that, and I ended up finally beating him after like hundreds of tries, just super worth it. I don't know if it was actually worth it or not, but it felt worth it. But yes, I agree. So what is going on with this AI image though? Like it's a it's a no, it's human error.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:43

It's human error.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:44

That's not even if it's look at the there's speculation that they might have used AI to uh like try to reposition the characters from another picture where they're closer together, and you can see the splits where they tried to split. And at that point, my response is or you could hire an artist to do the thing instead of trying to be like all everything every excuse for what this could be would have been nullified by putting a human hand on it.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:20

Well, not only that, but like like if you had a human hand like making it, but then at the like, where's the quality control? Do you have someone re reviewing it, making sure that it like matches everything that you're expecting? Like, especially a company like Disney, where they have to have some level of quality control in place for like all of their content that's going out and their their art materials. So how did this slip by the cracks? And then when you get to the point of posting it, how did someone not review it at that point and make sure everything is good there? Like, there are so it's not just human error in one place, it was human error if if it was human error, like in multiple points in multiple places down this chain.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:01

You're right, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:03

And that's I don't know, motherfuckers.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:06

It's like oh somebody messed up. I don't want somebody that low on the totem pole messed up. There's somebody and you guys always try try to throw somebody under the bus as the one person that messed up. It's like what's it called? Destiny did when they got caught stealing that artist tip for a marathon. Oh it's like, oh, this one guy fucked up. And my response is it's never that one guy. Yeah, it's almost never that one guy. There's a whole scapegoat. Scapegoat, yeah. There's several layers of people that all these decisions and everything run through. It's never just that one guy. You guys are just trying to throw it on one guy, so when you get rid of that one guy, we forget. And I'm so sick of you, like, even if they were involved, you shouldn't be pinning the an entire systemic fuck up on one person and then ruining their lives. Because those these people are being cannot come back to the industry in any meaningful way.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:09

Yeah, it's like it's and that's the frustrating thing, is like, because if there was just any level of accountability being taken, I would probably like be like, all right, whatever, it's not a huge deal. It's not the end of the world, like whatever. Like, yeah, they shouldn't have used AI, but like, whatever. Like, maybe now they'll learn and I can move on from this. But it that it's different when they refuse to take accountability, point the finger at someone within their own space, and then don't put any blame on the management that was in charge of it, uh, to getting to that point in the first place. So it's like it just seems like a crappy little cop-out just to save yourself a little bit of bad PR, but in the end, you're making worse PR for yourself because you're blaming your employees.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:47

Mm-hmm. Anyway, I don't think I'm so like at the end of the day, my response is always I'm not gonna blame some individual artist. I'm not gonna blame some individual middle manager. I'm going to blame the system that what's it called, that allowed this to happen. That caused. I'm not even going to say allowed, but caused it. Because nine times out of ten, that bottom level dev is feeling more crunched than is necessary. That middle manager has fucking what's it called? Has managers above him being pressed by the managers above them for no fucking reason. This is a these are issues that are caused by a system that no longer values the people at the end of it, us the consumers, or the people making it their workers.

unknown 1:32:41

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:42

Well, as long as the line goes up, that's all they really care about.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:45

It's the investors only. All of us between every every human being that exists between the investors and that line going up are a means to an end. We are not human beings, we do not have lives, we do not have families. We are numbers on a graph that indicate what's it called, greater returns on their bank accounts. And this points back, and I need everybody listening to this to understand that we are being treated like this for people who have no actual means of like substantially feeling the how much we are enriching them. Because past a certain level of wealth and opulence, you cannot experience anything more. Like, I need you to understand that like lifestyle between Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk is infinitesimal. Yeah, this whole rush to get more and more and more money is a game that's entirely psychological for these people. Past a certain point, it doesn't actually get you anything more. The difference between 500 billion and one trillion is literally just theoretical because there is no actual way to quantify this that on this planet.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:17

Gaming ain't for gamers anymore, that's for sure. It's just for their the investors. Mm-hmm. Alright. Last thing for me, and then maybe we get into the steamy steam reviews, perhaps? Ooh. I'm feeling steamy. Last thing I wanted to mention was uh within the last week, both Xbox and PlayStation had massive outages that were that lasted several hours long. Oh within days of each other. So and and you know, this didn't affect me because I think I must have just not been present when this was happening. We were working. But this goes back, and I don't want to just like harp on this over and over and over again, but like this kind of goes back to that physical edition kind of topic, where what were people able to do during these outages? Because I guarantee it wasn't playing games. Even if it was a single player game, there's I guarantee there was no way you actually played a fucking game because half the single player games out there, if not like a majority of them, require a game.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:26

Oh, online required. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:28

Yeah. And you so like even like Final Fantasy VIII, I recently started the Final Fantasy VIII like save, that requires you to have like an online check. And it's a fucking single player game. Like, or what are we doing at this point? Like, because not only not only are we not gonna have access to physical copies, right? But we're not gonna have even access to our digital content when we don't have the access to the internet. You you don't have fucking your power go or your internet goes out for a couple hours, you're fucked.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:54

You can't do anything.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:56

And so, like, it it just what are you gonna do, PlayStation? What are you gonna do, Xbox, when when the only thing that you can do is digital and all of that goes down? What are what is your consumer gonna do? That is a blackout. That is a blackout. I mean, I guess they don't. But they already made their money. It's also time people can't be like spending money on their online store, though.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:18

So it's like I remember um like back in high school days, maybe, maybe early college years, there was a big outage on PlayStation, like like a whole week almost. Yes, I remember this. Like it it affected me in a stupid way because I was trying to play um I think it was SOCOM 4 that just came out.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:43

I remember that.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:43

So I was trying to play online and I couldn't fucking play it. And you know, probably a couple, you know, probably a few other people had the same thought of me. It's like, man, I don't want to play this fucking game if I can't play it online. Yeah, it was just like I'm pretty sure after that there were some more SOCOMs. But it's like I remember they were like, Oh, we got hacked because our system uh they found a loophole, blah blah blah.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:06

And this is back when um that's another thing that we keep forgetting. You want me to own nothing and always be online when you have proven time and time and time again that your online services are not nearly secure enough for you to rely on them solely as an interactive point. Best Buy has made money, money, hand over fist, because what's it called? I I used to work in Best Buy. I used to work at Best Buy. I would see the physical game sales spike every time, what's it called, some news hit about PlayStation Online. Yep. Every time the news hit put about PlayStation Online, all of a sudden that dead ass gaming section in the back was popping again. Yeah. Like, fuck out of here. Your your systems are not your your systems are not nearly secure or robust enough to be trying to pull what you're doing, but alright, go off, King. Go off because I ain't going with you.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:16

I really see them just I see their like that GDP or whatever just going down. You know what, you know what though? You know what IP that I want to fucking see a resurgence of? Let's get Sokom back in the mix.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:30

Listen anything else. I can't even I can't even describe to you.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:35

You know how much different we were talking about at the top of what's it called? The podcast about remakes, rehashes. Yo, any of them from back in the day. I need somebody to mix it up with Call of Duty and Battlefield. And unfortunately, we need someone with a name. Because that's the only way we're gonna get anything now.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:56

I don't think this studio even exists anymore. I think zipper Zipper Interactive was the SOCOM guy. Someone has to own the license to SOCOM. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:05

Like, whether it's SOCOM, Medal of Honor, who like one of these names has to like somebody has to.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:15

Who owns a internet? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:17

It's only that would be a good chunk of the uh Call of Duty guys.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:20

It's only the uh Sony.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:23

Okay, they still have it. Well, they're just gonna sit on it.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:27

Yeah, probably.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:28

Who EA for Medal of Honor? EA is metal was Medal of Honor, yeah. Yeah. I don't know if they still have it. I feel like Medal of Honor.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:36

I feel like Medal of Honor has tried. They have tried and they have tried and they have tried. Well they tried to be like Call of Duty, that's the problem. Yeah, they tried too hard to be, and they didn't stick to their own. Yeah, we played sure we played. We did. Yeah, the most recent one.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:51

Because didn't that drop around metal metal of honor warfighter was like a Call of Duty clone. Yeah, everyone.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:02

I mean, we were all we've been all over shooters over the last you know, however many years. Like every single time a new shooter came out, like when SOCOM 4 came out, we were right fucking there, except for that online issue that was happening. Like, we were all over that shooter.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:12

SOCOM 4. We need SOCOM. More importantly, and this is a shout out to me and my neighbor uh that played it all the damn time. We need our time splitters back.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:24

Oh my god, time splitters back. Time splitters. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:28

The best first person game I've ever played. Had everything. Time splitters.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:34

Ugh. Ugh. The world building in those games, like you know how you could create your own fucking levels? Right. Dude, that was that was damn it. That's such a good idea. Who owned hold on Time Splitters? Who owned it?

SPEAKER_03 1:40:48

Time Splitters was um Free Radical Design. There's a guy who was remaking it. Yeah, Radical.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:56

Free Radical Design. It was published by um Ados Interactive, EA.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:03

There's a guy who's remaking it's called Time Splitters Rewind. And there's been like playable demos because I played it like a couple years ago. And he's basically just taking parts of the older games and throwing into like one massive deck.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:22

I remember being a kid, and these games were they had to have been inframatura, or if they weren't, they they had two. There are two. I as a child loved these fucking games for how adult they were because there was there was this character. I can't remember if it was the first it had to have been the first one. But it was like this like like female cop character. And whenever she would like show up on the screen, and this is just like stupid boy shit. Like I guarantee it's it's if it was like if it came out today, it would be like people would be all over it. But she would like literally like come onto the screen like she'd like do this like little dance and like feeling herself up. And I'm like, when I was a kid, I'm just like, hey. Don't come in. I was all about that shit. And there was like feature perfect where there was like the there was like the girl that had like the slut t-shirt.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:19

Time in they had every cool character. They had a duck that ran around with guns, they had a fucking sh sushi sh uh chef that would run around, little monkey.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:29

And it was also scary. I feel like when the actual time splitters themselves showed up, that was the scariest part of the game because every single time you finished a level, you had to like rush to the end of it because the time splitters were coming to get you.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:40

Yeah, you picked the crystal up and you had to like bring it back.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:43

Yeah. Man, I've I put countless hours into those games, dude. Anyway, Steamy Steam Review time? I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:57

Is it time? I believe so. I believe it's time for the Steamy Steam Review.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:16

I I feel like the intro gets more cringe every time.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:21

Here's the thing we gotta be we gotta be okay with being cringed as a society. We gotta get back to it. It's okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:28

We're three men in our mid-30s. Like at the end of the day, it is what it is.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:35

It's the natural progression of manhood.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:38

Yeah, I'm gonna go. Reading porn reviews. All right. Yeah. Alright, so I've picked a few this morning. Uh-huh. What's a good butt? Natural progression of manhood.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:49

Getting cringe and reading porn reviews. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:53

I mean, I could read actual porn reviews next time if you want. Nah. Porn comments are just as bad as weird men on Facebook commenting on women's posts. Hey girl, you're so beautiful, gorgeous. You don't know her. Um I picked a few today. There were actually surprisingly, hard to find some good ones today. But I persisted. The first one I'm gonna put up here is called No Socks RPG. Um This synopsis is fight groovy enemies and recruit a team of sexy, cute, and quirky monster girls to get your fits back. I almost thought it said tits.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:43

You gotta get your tits back, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:44

You gotta get your tits back. Um one of the first ones I got here. I'm really not sure. Socks reminds me of my wife. I play this game and then get distracted talking to and doing hot erp with my wife. The game is probably pretty good. But my wife is very distracting. Positive review because I love my wife. That's nice.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:11

My wife is very distracting in this sex game that I'm playing with her.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:17

Um This one's kind of a long one. I'm not gonna read it, but this gentleman, I'm just gonna read a snip a snippet. The breasts are two prominences located located on the upper ventral region of the torso when humans and other primates. Both sexes develop breasts from the same embryological tissues. The relative size and development of the breasts is a major secondary sex distinction between females and males. And it goes on and on and on. This man has WebMD'd a review of like literal uh review. Uh we also got the best Gunnar game there is peak art, peak scenes, peak sprites, peak combat, peak character designs, peak music. I especially like Miss Sox huge bzonkers. Couldn't hold it in for ten minutes playing it. My only complaint is that there is no Futa or Yuri. Personally, I love that they added achievements, trading cards, and a point shot for the game. And then I'm gonna do one more here. Earthbound with fat ass titties. With some fatties, bro. I mean actually one more. This game is an absolute hidden gem, dog. Not sure why you put the dog at the end.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:01

Come on, dog.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:02

Come on, dog.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:03

Damn, dude, I literally had one that was like, it ended up in my like recommended for some reason, because ever since I turned on the not safer, the not safer work search so I could see these, like it I can't find it though. I can't find the damn thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:19

Yeah, I'm gonna go.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:20

The next one up.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:21

Yeah, it's not. You're glad? I keep a second stream profile for this section, also. It doesn't matter. Do my own pressing here.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:30

I got the next one here is uh Starbreed. Um Starbreed is inspired by classic 3D rail shooters with a dating sim twist. Each ally you unlock comes with a passive and active ability to add to your kit. Bring them in your party to raise your affinity, and unlock age scenes with them. It's basically Star Fox with Hentai. That's pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:59

It's a fun combination.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:04

Um This was kind of humble. Okay, this is like a whole ass game. The first level is very much just like Chimeria from Star Fox, complete with boss and enemies. The first age scene goes well enough.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:24

I was there.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:26

Um this guy also wrote Star Fox 69.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:33

I'm here with that.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:34

I found the game that I was talking about.

unknown 1:48:36

Alright.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:37

We can go to it next. This is this is a short one. Uh I also have wait a minute. This is an ace combat eight.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:46

Wait a second. By the time I got like the seventh pair of boobs, I figured this must not be it. This is crazy. Yeah, interesting.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:00

I also have Sargon 64. The gameplay is actually pretty good. Also, sex and stuff. I don't know. Alright, what game you got?

SPEAKER_02 1:49:13

Uh the one that ended up on my recommended was Tennis Angels X. And here's here's the thing is that I didn't at first realize that this is a like full-on like sex game. I thought this was one of like the just kind of like Gunnar games kind of uh you know that like that uh third-person shooter game that's like a mobile game where it's got like all the the quote unquote like ladies that are like it's kind of like a gotcha pawn sort of like collect them all, but it's like ladies with different guns.

SPEAKER_01 1:49:48

And then you scroll through the screenshots.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:50

Yeah, it was like I've never played it, but like uh the from what I've seen of like what they show in the ads is like the the it's like a the the camera angle is from behind. The character, the female character who's like shooting, and so each time they shoot, you see all like the bouncy shit, and that you know. And so I thought it was kind of like this where because it's like a tennis game, and so I was like, Oh, okay, it must be like that kind of thing. So I'm like looking over it to see if it was like one of the good things to like review here. And then it like it goes from being just like, oh, it's showing like tennis, and the very next slide is like straight up just like penetration is happening. I'm like, whoa!

SPEAKER_03 1:50:24

Okay, so I did go through this one as well. I read the reviews. I think this condones some sort of like rape fantasy. Oh no. I'm not gonna read it anymore. Do it. Yeah, I see what you're saying.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:42

Yeah, I see, I see. Yeah. Okay, we don't have to get into this one. I am I didn't bring this because I play it. Oh, you're good. It was just if I recommend it. I will say this person said I haven't played Mario tennis in forever. I thought this would be fun like that, but I won't go any further. It was just funny. Okay, well, I just wasn't expecting it. I thought it was just one of those like, hey, here's here's some like boobs and you know eye candy stuff, and it just ended up being like actual full-on porn. I just was not ready for it. Because I don't I don't up until I think last recording, I didn't have that setting on. So I was just I'm not used to like just the full blown like steam showing me like people like actually having sexual situations. So I was like, Whoa, whoa. But what's going on here?

SPEAKER_03 1:51:33

I don't know what this is.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:35

What am I looking at? There's sex on my question Steam house bat.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:39

How did I end up on this side of TikTok feeling?

SPEAKER_03 1:51:43

Yeah, exactly. Uh well, yeah, gentlemen. Yeah, is that what we got? That's all I had.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:52

I'm quite happy with what we've spoken of today. Yeah, this is a fun one.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:57

It was kind of the organized chaos.

SPEAKER_01 1:52:00

I think I think this might be the first episode in like a while I haven't like clipped the fuck out of my mic.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:08

Hey.

SPEAKER_01 1:52:09

Yeah, we're at we're at certain energy levels this this weekend, so we're kind of just you know, we'll just let's be a to be a hundred percent honest with y'all before we head out. Me and Connor are here for y'all. We are not here for us today.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:26

Yeah, I'm just here so you can hear my voice at some point. Some new ideas and comments.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:34

Well, I appreciate y'all being here and hanging out today for sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:37

Of course, it's a good distraction for the weekend. Yeah. Um, everyone that's watching live, Morgan, sup. Um, whoever's getting nails done at Morgan's. Is she doing nails today? Yeah. All right. Shout out to who's getting her nails done. Um this has been the Cool Cats podcast. Um, you can find us on Spotify, Apple, all the podcasting places that normal people go to. Except for YouTube, but we're working on YouTube. We're gonna we do live stream on twitch.tv slash iTheCat. Got it right that time. Um every other Saturday. So if we're not here we're here this Saturday, we won't be here next Saturday, but we'll be here the following Saturday.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:28

Uh we will also be uh doing TikTok soon, so keep an eye out for that as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:33

TikTok tick! Yeah, you'll be able to get clips and shit from the show.

SPEAKER_03 1:53:39

Uh I do want a stream coming up, so maybe I'll get some spooky games to stream because those are always fun to stream. Um I got a few in my backlog. And then uh yeah. Catch us next time. Everybody, have a great day and a great week. Bye. We love you. Bye, Toodles.