93: When Are Collabs Getting TOO BIG?

Yeah, yeah, you know what time it is.

It's time for the geekenders podcast.

Mega Rand, Jesse, and Dodger.

What up?

Let's go.

Yo, it's the weekend.

Yeah, it's time to geek out.

Let it begin.

Go on, stream and shout.

It's Jesse and Dodger.

So give them a follow and see what the geek enders are all about.

Yo, it's the weekend.

Yeah, it's time to geek out.

Let it begin.

Go on, stream and shout.

It's Jesse and Dodger.

So give them a follow.

Number one geek podcast without a doubt.

Yo, another end of another long week.

Got a job and a kid, I know that you all beat.

So take a second, grab a drink, and vibe.

While we catch you up in just a matter of time on gaming, comics, whatever you're doing.

If you're nerdy like us, then you know you should tune in.

Thank you for sharing our world with us.

Now follow, subscribe, and turn to some.

Yo, it's the weekend.

Yeah, it's time to geek out.

Let it begin.

Go on, scream and shout.

It's Jesse and Dodger.

So give them a follow, number one, geek podcast.

Without a a doubt.

Hello, everybody, and welcome to Geekenders.

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.

So much beep, boop, boop, boop, beeps.

Was that an air horn or was that, what were you trying to do there?

I was trying to do an air horn, yeah.

How if you had to give me a rating for that air horn, what sort of score would I get?

You did more of like an R2D2 being shot kind of noise, but

yeah, yeah, you had the sadest shit I've ever heard.

Yeah, you weren't like,

you were like, beep, boop, beep, boop, beep, boop, which is kind of like, you know, wow, in my ears.

So I see.

Okay.

I understand.

How are you, buddy?

Good.

I'm jacked up.

I'm

jacked up.

Up.

Jesse implied implied on your pre-show that he's had lady drugs.

I don't know what that means.

So I guess we're going to find out.

All right.

Yeah, yeah.

So this is true.

I was at, so I was getting gas this morning, and I went inside the gas station, and I saw they had, you know, they got like drinks and energy drinks and all sorts of crap.

And I was like, man, I'm feeling kind of tired today.

I don't know.

I guess I'll get like an energy drink.

They have a whole row of energy drinks, but the cheapest one was the one that, at least here in LA, I'm not sure this has made it to the world,

but is everyone familiar with that Celsius?

Yeah, like the like, very like a heart attack drink,

yeah, yeah, like Gen Z lady, like, I'm gonna go do my day, you know, very branded.

I exclusively know like tech bros that drink it, okay.

Well, then, you know, that's a whole other issue, but but the thing, the thing that,

yeah, no, no, but there's also aloha, which is

this other one, right?

And so

whatever the vibe is, the guy was like, you got, those are the cheapest ones.

I was like, okay, plus they're like zero calories.

He's like, yeah, all right, I'm in.

Let's go.

And I was like, what one should I get?

And the guy looks at me and he goes, well, like, aloha,

that's going to be nice, but you want that Celsius.

I'm like, what?

He's like, you want that Celsius.

I'm like, okay.

Little did I know.

So I drank this thing coming over to the to the office and like two seconds flat.

Yeah.

And I look at it and it like labels itself as a pre-workout beverage.

Yeah.

So I was like,

well, this isn't my normal energy drink.

Y'all, I don't know what's in this.

I don't know what's going on.

But I drank it and now I'm like...

Now you're rattling.

I'm ready.

Yeah.

I am ready for this day.

Let's do something.

Meanwhile,

I was, I was,

I was talking about a loha.

I was like, well, so what's the law idea?

Like, why is that the same?

I'm like, oh no, dude, that's like even more sneaky.

Like, what do you mean?

So, what I'm saying is,

at least here in LA, ladies, you've been keeping secrets.

You've been keeping secrets.

I thought, like, in my mind, like, it's all about that, like, weird monster rock star, whatever life.

No, no, no.

No, no, no.

Red Bull ain't got nothing on.

This is like

pure.

I don't even know what.

I don't know what's going on.

I am

jacked right now.

So, yeah, because I don't think it existed before I moved.

I've had never heard of it before.

And then a couple of years ago, came to America, and the people we were hanging out with were like, oh, we got to get some Celsius.

We should get some Celsius.

And Sam and I had never heard of that before, tried it.

And they kept implying that it was

like

maybe good for you or like not.

There can't be anything good

No, and we looked at the label and I was like guys, this is not good for you No, are you dying?

I was just like I don't know what kind of Kool-Aid you've drank about this stuff, but

it's just an energy drink

Yeah, and it's weird because they're very clearly

marketing wise targeting women because the cans look completely different from the ones that are targeting men which are like bro do you want to get messed up those are the guy cans and these cans have like flowers and like like a half bikini lady on the thing who's like i'm at the beach today like that vibe that that way they're able in their marketing they're able to be like yeah it's like a light nice energy drink you know it's not like those really aggressive energy drinks False.

If you look at it, if you read the information on it, it literally says it's like a pre-workout drink, which is in.

So now my body's like, yo, you want want to go like, do something?

Like, I have to do a podcast, body.

Yeah, right.

But like, what if your body sit here for two hours?

So I am.

And the thing is, a smart person would have been like, well, I'll get coffee.

But I've never once said, you know, that gas station coffee that's been there for like eight hours, that's what I need.

So my mind, I was like, I'll just get an energy drink.

It's fine.

It's okay.

Yeah, no, I screwed up.

I screwed up.

Now you're going to be zigging and zagging.

Oh, yeah.

I'm zigging.

I'm zagging.

I might be zagging and zigging.

You don't even know.

Oh, my God.

Well, the podcast is young, as they say.

Yes.

Yeah.

That's what they say.

But podcasts.

Yeah.

Another thing that you said during pre-show is that I looked like a gangster, which made me laugh because I just want to point out.

My kid and I have matching hearts on our cheeks today that we made with eyeliner.

And then my sweatshirt says, momster,

because tis the season.

I stand by what I said.

I stand everything I said, I believe to be true.

Yeah.

A momster is just a gangster with kids.

It's meant to be monster,

but momster.

Oh, I didn't get that at all.

Because it's October.

So I

got out my October wear.

Momster.

I'm a monster.

You get it?

Yeah.

I do like that somehow.

Not a monster, but a monster.

Here's the problem.

Just replacing one letter with N or the B, it's still the same thing.

I never really thought about it because it has the like creepy letters, you know?

So I never thought that you could potentially be pretty creepy.

Momsters, you don't want to cross them.

And they're real compared to monsters, which are creatures of fiction.

Oh, my God.

god.

Well, there's a little monster in all of us.

Humans are the real monster.

There's a little mobster in all of us.

Humans are the real mobsters, too.

Whoa, yeah.

The Venn diagram's crazy here between monster and mobster and mobster.

We need like

a Venn diagram of just mobster, mobster, monster.

All humans.

yeah

yeah

yep yeah there's a little of them and all of us yeah yeah

it's a crazy venn diagram i need that to exist i need that venn diagram by the end of this show we must have that venn diagram

math and science nerds get on this yeah that would be a good

shirt.

I hesitate to say that, but it would be a good shirt.

I'd wear it.

I hesitate to say it because there's now been a super cut made of all the times that I've said they should put that on a shirt because I say it so often.

Yeah, but that's good because that means you got like you're merch minded.

You're not like,

yeah, because you know, you're thinking.

Oh, I'm not necessarily saying I should make that shirt.

I'm saying if that shirt existed, I would wear it.

Ah, okay.

So you're saying,

like we do on the show quite frequently, here's an idea.

That idea is free.

I'll never act on it.

Yeah, you can have it.

There's a free idea for somebody who is motivated.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah, yeah.

For someone out there who really wants to do a thing.

Yeah.

This is for you.

Yeah.

That's all you, baby.

Yeah.

You're welcome.

Is what I think Dodger's saying.

You're welcome.

Yep.

Jesse and I are a gold mine that no one is digging in.

So somebody's got to reap the reward.

You know what sucks about that?

Is that like

how I feel in general about life?

I'm just a gold mine over here, baby, and no one's digging.

And no one's digging.

I got so much gold in Zion.

So much gold in me.

If someone would just dig.

No one's digging.

oh yep

that's so good

yep

and again you can have that enjoy chat that's yours now

everybody say hi to sherlock

he's ancient he's so he's so old that he's

voice is

he just looked up like he was daring me to make a joke yeah what's what's Sherlock's old man voice?

Oh, gosh, what do you sound like?

Well, he is an LA cat and he's old.

So

he probably sounds like,

you know, those like

older dudes who have lived in LA their whole life that give like weird advice off the side of the road.

Uh-huh.

Do you not get advice from weird old men in LA?

I'm curious.

Is that exclusively a me thing?

What does that voice sound like?

You're an actor.

Give me a voice.

I can't.

Because

no, no, hold on.

Because

I can't.

I'm trying to think of a...

You know, when you get locked?

Oh, I know.

That's why I'm doing this.

Come on.

Oh, I'm aware.

I'm locked in this.

I'm locked in this.

Hello, it's me, Shoylock.

But that's not what a man who grew up.

I'm speaking Shoylock.

I speak Shoylock.

It's not what a man who's lived his whole life in LA would say.

But I'm locked there.

I'm locked there.

And I don't know how to sound like a Californian despite living there for 10 years.

You got to get back here.

You got to get back here so you can experience all that Southern California has to offer in the term of

I got to just

plop my butt at Muscle Beach and just wait and the inspiration will come.

Although, now that you say it, I kind of wish that we existed in a world where Sherlock's voice was like,

What do you mean, man?

Hey, dude, I'm just a cat, man.

Yeah, what are you talking about?

No, Sherlock is kind of like,

ah,

hello,

my name's Sherlock.

I'm named after a great detective.

Yeah,

I know every place in this home.

I've peed multiple places.

You'll never find it, mother.

That's what he sounds like, for sure.

Also calls you mother, but like in a weird way, in an uncomfortable way.

Like whatever you say, mother.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And like it's a little uncomfortable.

Yeah.

Is it like the equivalent of someone calling their significant other daddy?

Oh, yeah.

Kind of uncomfortable.

Daddy.

Yes.

I talk like this and I say, Daddy.

Daddy.

Yeah.

Don't listen to him.

You know, it's the emphasis on the other D.

Daddy.

What's that?

Daddy.

Daddy.

Yeah.

You had to hit it like that.

Yeah.

Oh.

I think if I was talking with you and you said that casually, I would short circuit wondering what you had said.

What was that word supposed to be?

But I don't know if I would have the self-confidence to ask us to back up so you can say it again i would just live in confusion oh i would notice

and then be like

do you not like it when i say what's wrong dadai

what do you mean what's wrong dadai yeah is there a problem dadai

See, it's fun to say.

It is a problem.

It is a whole...

It's fun.

It's the word equivalent of jumping on a trampoline yes that is true that i you're you're absolutely it really is yeah that's i can imagine i can picture

yeah

yep yep

my poor cat slander now i want to watch tv

yeah now i want to like expand upon because you know you can be like okay mama but there's also mama but then there's also mama mama

whatever you say mama Yeah.

So many, just yeah.

It's hard.

It's hard to words.

Words are great.

Words are great.

I was talking the other day about my dad and how my dad is very dyslexic.

Sorry.

You're what?

Your dada.

I was talking about my dad die

and how he's very, very dyslexic and

would do two things.

Number one, would just make up words all the time.

And number two,

would

write our

grocery list, but phonetically, or what he thought was phonetically, because he didn't know how to

spell the words.

So, all right, do you have an example?

Yeah, I think the one that sticks in my mind the most is my mom and I went to the grocery store and we were trying to like decipher the gross, the grocery list.

And my dad had written U-N-Y-I-U-N

onion.

Yeah.

It took me a second.

I was like, you and what?

My mom and I stared at it.

Yeah.

My mom and I stared at it.

We were like,

what is this?

But it's not that my dad couldn't read.

It's that he was dyslexic.

And so he would, in the moment, if he was like, I can't remember how to write this fucking word, he'd just sound it out and just

write it that way.

Yeah, I get it.

But I picked up.

the joy of making up words, as you've experienced.

And he and I would be those inseparable people at the dinner table who would be like, oh, well, you know, the second that a word is said out loud, it's a real word.

So.

Oh, like chat over here.

Like chat.

Like chat's like, every word's actually technically made up.

Yeah, every word's made up.

So all words are real.

Yeah, all words.

Yeah.

We did that a lot.

I mean, here's the thing.

It's not wrong.

It's not wrong.

But it also, it also is like,

yeah, but it takes a lot of people to say a word to make it a real word.

Like, you can be like, slurkis.

And people are like, what is that?

And, like, you know, slurkis.

Here was, people be like, what?

Here's my dad's argument is, and I,

I agree with this.

My dad's argument was, if while he's saying it, if he says a word in a sentence and you understand what he meant by it,

then who gives a shit?

Which I can't totally agree with.

I can't argue with it.

I can't argue with it because we exist in a world where somehow the phrase Delulu became a real word.

And we all know what that means.

Everyone understands what that means.

It's goofy as hell and stupid, but like everyone's like, no, I know what that is.

So, yeah, I guess you can kind of do whatever the hell you want.

It just about is it in the lexicon of people.

I definitely talked about this with Crendor, but I don't know if I must have because I was obsessed with this for like a week.

that fact that the word egg is made up

like the egg the eggs that we use Yeah used to be called something else and then Chaucer

was like oh no I'm gonna call it an egg in my damn book and everyone's like it's an egg now and so yeah you can do you can do whatever the hell you want these days but egg

was like that's Henry Chaucer brought that to the world did you find this out like a year ago I feel like you yeah I was was obsessed with it for like a full week.

I was like, Yeah, I think you ranted about this on a previous episode.

That's so funny.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so you can kind of do whatever the hell you want.

Are you like, do you enjoy finding out where words came from?

Are you like an entomology guy?

When I have like a fixation on a thing, what did I call him?

Henry Chaucer?

It's Jeffrey Chaucer.

No,

Jack Chaucer.

I don't know what I called him.

John Chaucer, his cousin, made it up.

And then stuck it into his cousin's book.

Yeah,

Phil M.

Chaucer.

Yeah, a streamer's tale.

That's what he wrote.

Henry Jones Jr.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

When I come across something that sends me down a rabbit hole, sure, yes.

I think it's neat.

But it's not like an everyday thing where I'm like, I need to know where that comes from.

Like, I'll get obsessed.

Whatever.

Sorry.

I said entomology instead of etymology.

Entomology.

today.

It's fine.

Yeah.

Are you into bugs?

No.

No, I'm not.

Bugs, not a fan.

None of them?

You don't like a singular bug?

No bug?

Ladybugs are chill.

I like those guys.

Oh, my God.

I hate ladybugs right now.

Well, that's because you live in a country where they, that's like reverse rules.

We're here, ladybugs are luck, but there, it's like they will kill you.

We're

tough.

British ladybugs.

Ladybirds, as they call them.

Ladybirds, right, right.

Ladybirds.

Yeah.

When we get to this time of year, they start invading houses.

So the corners of every room are just filled with ladybugs right now.

And I went to get in the car and a bunch of them were trying to get in the car through the window.

So the second that I opened the door, a bunch of them just fell into the car.

And I was like, God.

Yikes.

That is.

I don't like.

see all right proving my point there's no i don't know that i feel there's anything as a good bug

they're all annoying in their own particular way but uh

yeah i i don't know not a fan of bugs but i'm also not like a huge fan like words are cool i like words but i'm not gonna deep dive them i just have obsessions every once in a while that's probably some undiagnosed thing i should get looked at but yeah i just i'll hyper focus on

and then i'll be like all right well i've spent enough time with that.

Like, I'll hear one song and then I'll have to listen to that song 85 times in a row.

Or I will find a movie I love and I'll have to watch it like 50 times in a row.

It is weird to me that people don't get obsessed with songs that way.

Because the same for me.

If I've heard a song and I'm like, this is a bop, I will put it on repeat.

And it's weird.

That not everybody does that to me.

I think it's weird that I do it, but I can understand why others wouldn't i don't know like i just yeah but you hear the song to an extent that i'm a little embarrassed by it you know like i'm like oh no i played that too much i will put it on repeat until i kind of hate it

and then i'll never listen to it again right yeah

but then six years from now i'll put it on a playlist like or a mix of mine be like oh that song was great yeah

Yeah, because if I've heard a song and I really enjoy it, why wouldn't I want to just keep listening to that song?

And

yeah, I kind of get like

caught up in the hype of the like

good songs to me are ones that have like a buildup at the beginning, a chorus I can sing repeatedly that is easy to understand.

And then the ending, I am a big, I don't know what it is about me.

I don't know if it's like because I was in choir when I was young and I really enjoyed harmonies or things in the round or or like, you know, like

that kind of vibe where like the buildup at the end.

I love a good song.

Like

this is this is hyper dating

me as a person.

But like when I think of like oldies air quotes,

you know, I like, so

I've been, I have my record player.

And one of the one of the many interesting things about a record player is I don't buy vinyl unless every song on the album rocks.

It's pointless because you put it down.

What are you going to do?

Skip a track?

No.

Because yeah, you said that you want, you want albums or records where the entire thing is an experience that you enjoy.

Yeah, yeah, I want to like have an experience.

So there's no reason, you know, if I'm going to listen to one song, I'll just, it's digital and I'll be fine.

But if I'm going to, you know, clean the apartment or whatever, I'll put on like a vinyl song.

So, but here's the thing is with that, one of the things I realized is that the records I end up buying are ones like, you know, Boston, which is an oldie-butty-goody, but on this, you know, their first big self-titled thing, every song is ending in like, all right, here's a minute of like multiple guitars, harmonies, and I'm like, yeah, I'm in the moment.

That kind of thing that I absolutely love.

So anytime I hear a song where at the end, it's just like, let's kick it off instrumental.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm like oh this is fun and like another guitar comes in then another guitar and you're like we're doing a thing this is lovely that's how i feel and so it doesn't matter what the genre if it's something like okay this song is gonna take me on a ride then i'm here for it and then it gets me excited to listen to it again because i'm on that ride And then it gets me excited to listen to it again because I'm on that ride.

And I'm like, I never want to get off.

And then one day I'll wake up and be like, what else is out there?

I'll just never listen to it again.

It will be months before I even tackle that song again.

Yeah.

And I'll go back sometimes and be like, man, remember when I was really into that, like, angry girly pop?

I should go back and listen to those songs.

And I like test the waters to see,

am I back into this?

Do I want to listen to these songs again?

And sometimes I abandon ship immediately.

Like, no.

I will sometimes, my fixations will be like real hyper-specific.

Like, uh, I, for some reason, I don't know, like, um,

two nights ago was laying in bed, and I was like, all right, well, I got to find something to listen to.

Maybe I'll go to YouTube and I'll put on like rain noise or maybe a podcast or something.

But

I guess it was the night that the K-pop demon hunter girls were on Fallon, which I don't.

don't oh okay i can't be bothered with jimmy fallon however i was like oh interesting i wonder yeah sure click let's see what's going on here because it was

had like a bajillion views i was like all right let's see what this is i was like oh that was very enjoyable next thing you know i'm going down a rabbit hole watching random people on the internet react to their live performance I must have watched that one single song 35 times.

Golden?

And then I was like,

yes.

And I was like, oh, I got to go to bed.

This is insane.

And I woke up the next day, had no desire to continue that.

I like that one moment at night, I was like, I need to watch this 35 times.

And then the next morning was like, well, I'm cured of that.

So, all right, time to move on.

And no longer can't.

You really condensed that.

Honestly, I think it was because it was fascinating to watch

people just be very excited.

Yeah.

Like, I don't know the whole, I don't know any backstories of what's going on there, but everyone was just like, she earned this.

It's been 10 years and she fought so hard for it.

And I was like,

what do you mean?

What's going on?

So now I'm deep diving and I'm going down the rabbit hole.

I'm like, oh my God, what do you mean?

This is crazy.

Well, I guess I got to watch the video again.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sort of a heel turn, but next time that you're looking for something that might help you fall asleep.

Yes.

You should try.

There are people that do videos, and I can link you to some.

But there are people that do videos where they do like really elaborate nail art, but they don't talk.

So you just hear the like.

Oh, I need the talking.

I've discovered.

Oh, you need talking.

Okay.

I need that.

So when it's like someone just doing a thing and there's no voice,

I get bored.

You're supposed to be sleeping.

Look.

I'm aware.

I'm aware.

I will.

I still get a lot of things.

Maybe that's

an answer for you.

I will just get bored.

And the boredom is like, well, I can't sleep.

I'm so bored.

Like, I don't know.

I don't know what to tell you.

I have no answers for you.

Okay.

I will just lay there and be like, ugh, this is so boring.

And I understand the point is closed your eyes go to bed dummy, but I'm just like,

if they start.

tapping on the damn microphone, I'm going to get pissed.

Like, then I just, I don't know why.

I have no answers for you.

But yeah, I just, I need a voice.

Yeah.

I think the reason that the nail videos are really nice is because you get like a good variety of sounds.

Like there's clacky noises, but it's not all clacky noises.

There's like weird goop noises and stuff, you know, because they're dipping in a weird goop to make like shapes and things.

I can't, you know what?

There's a line.

when it comes to like the ASMR world.

Yeah.

And like, you know, go to, so someone talking someone who does like um

uh

what are those things called trigger words I know that sounds weird but you know like when they just I'm going to say the word basketball 50 times and you're like for some reason that

makes my brain be like yeah that's cool which is insane but the minute it gets to like um

some girl who's like, I'm going to make hand sounds or mouth sounds, they 100% just sound like porn to me.

It is straight up just like, I'm going to use this, this hand gel and say,

and I'm like,

people jerking it to this.

This is, this is.

I'm like, I don't believe this is for sleeping.

This is, this is, we are in dirty town.

I can't do, if it's supposed to be like ASMR content, I can't do talking because they lip smack so.

I'm accomplished it.

I have to have talking.

Otherwise, it just sounds dirty.

The smacky noises are so nasty

what do you mean by that like the microphones that they use are so sensitive that they hear they hear all the spittle yeah all the spittle and the smackies in the mouth i hate that though like when someone's talking into the microphone and they're like i'm gonna talk and they breathe it actually makes me feel good because i know that i can't breathe any you know like i'm not ever gonna hit the moment where i'm like hey everyone welcome to the podcast like i can't it makes me feel better because i for years i've always been like am i breathing too heavy in the microphone is that me making that noise like that kind of thing so it doesn't i feel fine i'm like oh no they're doing it so like whatever they have eight million views in this video so i'm fine but the minutes

and it pays their bills so yeah but the minute it gets to something where there's no talking but they're still moving their mouth and going like

or they're clacking nails or they're tapping the microphone or they're doing some weird weird noises.

Like, or they have, like, I got this gel at the market.

And they start, like, fingering the gel and making like a squishy note.

And I'm like,

this is, this is pornography.

Yeah.

I don't even like this.

I'm like, this is, I'd just go watch porn if that's what, like, this is, it feels weird.

Yeah, there's a line for me where I'm like, oh, no.

If you want to talk at me in like a really quiet voice, like read me a bedtime.

Oh, no.

That's what I think I need.

Is there a YouTube channel where it's just someone being like, tonight, we'll read read the story

of Little Boy Blue.

Oh my gosh, wait, you know what?

You should think I might need that.

I think, should I make that channel?

I want that,

but I only want to read choose your own adventure books.

Can I do that?

Yeah, is that a thing?

How would you decide what

choices to make?

Because the

moment.

I'd make it in the moment.

And then I would be like,

yes, I do want to challenge the ninja.

All right.

I'm dead now.

That is unfortunate.

Yeah, and then that'd be the end of the video.

And the next video, we'd be like, we return now to Curse of the Ninja.

Starting over from the beginning, let's see where we end up today.

I would love that.

I think that would do gangbusters, yeah.

Think you're.

There's a channel on Spotify that does exclusively like

kids' meditation stories.

So it'll be, you know, the beginning will be like, let's all take a deep breath.

Ah, you know, it'll do that whole thing.

And then it'll go, yes.

And now let's start our adventure.

And it's this really soothing voice that's, you know, just takes you through a story, basically.

Like, you're walking on the sand.

You feel the breeze in your hair.

You know, it's that sort of a thing.

There's, yeah, there's, there's like a, definitely a more adult version of that.

Not the way you're thinking, internet.

Not nasty adult.

Yeah, yeah.

If I was going to go nasty adult, trust me,

I would.

Okay.

I would.

Who's this alter ego that doesn't know how to put on glasses?

That's my horny self.

No, but I think it used to be the calm app.

Before they started to like paywall everything, there used to be a woman on there who would do like,

welcome to

the intercontinental train ride.

And you'd hear the tracks in the background, but she'd be like, this train is headed to adventure.

Come with me as we relax.

That got me every time.

I don't know who that lady is.

I love her.

That was my favorite thing in the world.

I was like, this is the best.

This train ride is the best.

And I'd put that on and I'd be like, oh, good night.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I love that.

How creepy do you think it would be to find out what her name was?

See if there's a way to reach out to her and be like, hi, I really miss listening to your weird training.

Extremely creepy.

Do you think that

you could record a personal thing for me?

Oh,

I know for a fact that you could find someone on YouTube.

Like, there are plenty of ASMR people who are like, I would gladly record you a personal.

You don't want that.

I just think.

You want her.

I just think it'd be creepy.

I don't know that I want her.

I don't know that I want her.

I was fine with what it was, but that was literally seven, eight years ago.

And I look back on it fondly, but momentum.

He declared his love.

Yeah, no,

I have a love for that, but I also right now, like last night, I listened to

some sort of rain sound.

And I don't know if it's because where I positioned my phone or the volume it was at.

I don't know, could have been the edible, I don't know, but what I'm saying is at some point it sounded like it was coming from my window and it just hit in the right way.

And it, you know, I live in LA, there's no rain here, so when I had a rain noise, it felt like nice.

Can I hear the really soothing sort of stuff that my kid listens to?

I hope it's like

death metal.

I hope it's like

never mind.

It's so quiet.

No wonder.

I get it.

It's trying to come through the blue dude.

Somewhere in the rest of the, somewhere in another room.

It just is black.

What the hell?

Hold on.

Hold on.

Hold on.

Oh, fuck off.

Okay.

Never mind.

I got nothing for you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was, she likes, she likes to listen to the audiobooks of Judy B.

Jones, which is hilarious to me because the, you know, audiobook actress, she's pretending to be a five-year-old girl.

So she's like, it's me, Juni B.

Jones.

And today I went to school.

You know, like,

it's like such,

I love

her.

I think she does an amazing job.

And I'm like, this is not soothing, man.

I don't know why this puts you to sleep.

I think everyone's soothing is different.

Everyone has their own idea of what soothes them.

I would question why

your kid has that vibe.

She also, she spent about two years exclusively listening to The Highway Rat every single night.

Never mind.

All right, it all checks out.

Yeah.

And then one day was like, I hate this and asked me to throw it away.

It was so extreme.

It was you.

It was you with the beat.

I was about to say, your child and I have a great deal in common.

Either

I would like to

believe that

this wee lass is

as intelligent as I am, but I feel like it's the reverse.

I feel like I have the mentality of a child.

And

that's fine, I guess.

Sure.

Yeah.

This is what years of I don't want to grow up of a Toys R Us kid have done.

True.

We were indoctrinated into refugee

by

Jeffrey Chaucer, the giraffe from

Toys R Us.

Yeah, that's his name.

Look it up.

Yep.

It's true.

He wrote a lot of

short stories about the various people who went to Toys R Us.

Can I do a little mini rant about the Highway Rat?

Of course you can.

Please.

Just a really short one.

Thanks.

The Highway Rat is a book that's by the same

Julia Donaldson who made the Gruffalo.

And The Highway Rat.

Of course, right.

Of course.

The Highway Rat is about a rat who's a highwayman, like a robber, and he stops all of the animals and takes all of their food.

And he's like, I love that.

What are we have here?

Oh, it looks like we got a fox with too much pennies to pinch like that.

Don't worry, I'm getting there.

So,

the story is basically, you know, him becoming too greedy and being easily tricked into fucking himself over, and everybody is happy that he's gone, right?

So, the audiobook is read by a lovely older lady who does like fun voices, but not too extreme, and it's very cute.

And I didn't throw it away actually because

I loved it.

So, So

they

made a movie.

Who do you think is the voice of the highway rat?

God, I hope it's Matt Berry.

It's not.

All right, hold on, hold on.

Who is someone from the United Kingdom that people want to make out with so bad?

Want to make out with so bad?

This is going to date me because I don't...

You mean like general population, or do you mean like the kids?

Because

general population.

General population.

And it's a guy.

Yeah.

Give me a type of voice.

Yeah, like give me one hint.

His natural accent is Scottish.

He's from Scotland.

David Tennant.

Yes.

So David Tennant is the voice of the highway rat.

You can't be in everything, David Tennant.

Okay, in the book, okay, in the book, everybody's like, this fucking rat, like, they hate this guy, right?

Um, and he gets fucked over, and everybody celebrates, and that's it.

That's the book, okay?

So,

in the movie,

not only is there a whole scene where this animal that he's robbing is like

swooning over him and i was like no also

there's like a whole scene at the end of the book

that's about him like oh god it's so weird

because what the other main character the other main character is his whole is his horse he somehow has a horse that a rat can ride

Of course.

Yeah.

And in the book, the horse, when

he becomes too greedy, the horse is like, fuck you, man.

In the movie, the horse goes to find him where he winds up and they have like a

nod through the window at each other because he's like started a new life and turned a new leaf and become a bitch.

It's the end of Nolan's Batman movies.

It is.

They don't actually talk to each other.

They just look.

Right.

They just acknowledge they exist and move on.

We didn't need that.

He was was a bitch we didn't need that

anyways amazing wait who voices the horse

i don't think the horse has a voice wait so horse emotes no voice it's just i mean that's a horse clearly rats can talk horses too far that's true horses can't talk no that would be ridiculous understood right right

wait so where's is the rat at an animal restaurant

no because remember he his whole thing was that he stole food from everybody and so at the end of at the end of the book he has wandered into a new town and started working at a cake shop so that he could eat the crumbs off an animal cake shop

yeah

so that he could eat the crumbs off the ground

whoa

whoa whoa if you were to say oh he works at a human cake shop and he eats the crumbs off the ground it'd be like okay sure but he works with other other animals.

This would be like, if you opened a cake shop.

I think God.

And you hired me and I showed up and was like, yeah, don't worry.

You can pay me in floor crumbs.

And I just started making cakes and they would just pick them off the ground.

Like, this is the best job I've ever had.

Like, that's crazy.

Yeah.

That you know what?

Maybe, you know, everyone was giving him a hard time, but maybe that guy's just like,

he was he just didn't have any like he really just needed food

like if anything that's a tale about you know how we should should provide for those who have less it's a it's a tale of community yeah

all he needed was floor crumbs and he was fine

he didn't even need all that much

That's crazy.

Anyway, that's the highway rat.

Shout out to the highway rat.

Shout out to the highway rat.

My kid loved it for so long that I had joked, except kind of not joked, about getting a rat tattooed on me in the highwayman clothes.

And I still might.

Speaking of David Tennant,

I finally sat down to watch the like the Thursday Murder Club, that Netflix movie that's like a bunch of delightful British elder actors.

Yes.

And also David Tennant's in it for some reason.

And, you know, like, here's the problem.

That movie has all these actors I love acting up a storm, doing great things.

It is barely a mystery.

It is not even.

Yeah, I'm like,

that's just,

it's like, it's, it's,

like, I, I wanted more.

What is it, a drama?

It's barely a mystery.

Yeah, it's about,

you know, a nursing home that has multiple levels of

like drama going on.

So it's this, it's like kind of in the countryside, British countryside.

And it used to be a convent.

I can't remember what it was.

But basically, there are three owners and the owners start dying.

And everyone's like, they're going to sell this place.

And then there's layers of mystery of why they would sell it.

And

the four main characters are trying to stop that from happening.

And And yeah, there's a mystery about a murder.

And it's,

I don't want to spoil it because everything will give away.

You know, it's one of those where it's like

there are little threads to pull.

But with that said, like, it didn't, you know, at the end of it, I was like, all right.

Like, I wish I had walked away, like, wow, because everyone in it was awesome.

It was very fun to watch them act because they're incredible actors.

But like, story-wise, I wanted more of either a twist or something shocking or,

yeah, I don't know.

I was like, all right.

Yeah, you were in it for the mystery and the good actors were icing.

Yes.

Yeah.

The mystery itself was barely a mystery because they were so good at solving it that like

every scene was them unclovering another.

It wasn't like, oh, what does that mean?

What does that mean?

They're like, I figured it out.

I'm like, oh, okay.

Like, all right then.

Yeah, I don't,

I guess because we were supposed to be in with them on the mystery and solving it, it wasn't like you're watching a, um,

like a Poirot or a Matlock or a, you know, a

Colombo or even the Knives Out franchise where like the detective clearly knows more than you and at the end is like, Here's the reveal.

And then you get the flashbacks of all the things you clearly missed.

This was more like,

no, no, no, we know we're actually ahead of the cops on this.

We're very smart.

And I was like, all right.

Yeah, it has the vibe of a very cozy British drama more than a movie.

I think my expectations going in were just wrong.

It's not bad.

It's just not what I would consider like a murder mystery.

And I expected it to be a murder mystery.

I think about this a lot.

how difficult it must be to write a mystery with the right pacing.

I remember reading about when the Sherlock BBC show with Benedict Cumberbatch came out and how the original originally the episodes weren't going to be as long as they were, I guess.

And so when the episode was shorter,

you as the audience didn't have quite so much time to like figure everything out.

And

it wound up working a bit better.

But because the episodes were so long,

you had that feeling that you have sometimes when you're playing video games when you're like, I think I know what happened already, but the characters aren't saying anything like they also know what happened.

And you're like, there's no fucking way I'm smarter than Mr.

Detective Man, right?

Like, there's just no way.

He has to also be coming to the same conclusion as me.

So get a move on, you know?

But like,

that's hard.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then the part of the fun of murder mystery things is the same reason why I enjoy mystery games or like puzzle solving games is like I vividly remember when Glass Onion came out and I watched it with my mom.

And there's a moment in that movie where a character switches glasses and it's in the background of a scene.

And I remember pausing it and being like, did you see that?

And she's like, what do you mean?

I was like, that something's going on in the background.

Do you see that?

She's like, what?

And I rewound it and was like, look at that character, switch the glasses.

That means something.

And it totally did come back in the end, but in a way that I did not expect.

And that's what I like, is I clearly saw, and they set up a thing that people like me who keep looking at stuff would notice.

But then at the end, when it was the reveal, I was like, oh, that's not what I thought the thing was.

That that was, I thought it was going to be something completely different.

And they did, they did the old switcheroo on me.

And I like that stuff.

Yes.

And so I very much, yeah, one of the big problems I had with the Sherlock series is that eventually it became like, so off the rails.

Like I think by the time they were they were on the island and it was like, ah yes,

here's a Moriarty like video.

I'm like, what is happening right now?

Yeah.

I was like, okay, all right, yeah, that show was out of control.

Yeah, you're right though.

If it, if it happens,

like if

I try to think of how to put this, if, if the detectives in the story are coming to conclusions too quickly, then you, the audience, don't have, or the reader or whatever, you don't have an inclination toward trying to figure it out because they're already figuring everything out.

Yeah.

So, how do you create a situation where you're trying to figure stuff out and the detective or the team or whatever are also trying to figure stuff out, but maybe they're just not saying everything out loud?

Or maybe they're coming like trying to, you know,

cover all of their bases and make sure that what they're assuming is correct you know like how the balance there is interesting

yeah i mean i think that's why crazy i get look i get that i always feel weird because i'm like

and uh yeah no my nose i just got an itchy nose also there's little hair right here so that's always a problem um

yeah i i i for some reason i like a mystery that

gives you enough tools to solve yourself if you want

but

the guy who is the detective is always clearly three steps ahead of you.

Yes,

I like watching someone who is the smartest person in the room be the smartest person in the room, smart, yes, yeah, and and hold stuff close to like, I mean, this is even the reason why I like movies like, um, oh, and the book Project Hail Mary, but like the movie The Martian.

I love it, it's literally an hour and a half, two hours of like the smartest guy on Mars being smart.

And it's like, yeah, no, I love this.

I enjoy this.

I want more of this.

Good times.

Yeah, it's just the thing.

I enjoy the brainy guy doing smart things.

And I'm like, yep, yep, yep, that's, that's good.

Oh, my God.

I like that.

I like that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Maybe, maybe for people like us who really love

puzzle games and things like that, maybe there's like a power fantasy element there

of like, sure.

Like, I enjoy watching characters like that because part of me is like, man,

I would, I would love to be able to make those connections that way, right?

I would, I would love to like see things in that way.

Yeah.

And I think, in a fun way, I like to imagine I do because I'm always like, I see through this.

I know what this is.

I know I don't, though.

Like, I'm clearly relying entirely on storytelling tropes, not actual detective science.

Yeah.

I'm like, oh, well, the author clearly intended for this.

Like, a great example is, um, um, so over on too old for this, I started, because people suggested I started watching the amazing digital circus, which is a extremely weird and bizarre show that absolutely is right up my alley.

And so I just started watching episode two and I had some like thoughts on things.

And I, on the social media, I got a few people being like, Jesse, no, what you're thinking is like.

But I know I'm right.

So a great example is I was like, why is this one character keep getting caught up in all these wild situations that no other character is getting caught up in?

And I was like, there's very clear reason for that.

It means something.

And everyone's like, oh, because she's the main character, dude.

I'm like, no, no, no.

The writer would have other people get caught up in it too.

And if it wasn't, you know, there'd be other characters there and we would see it through her eyes, but the other characters would be fine with what was going on.

But no, it's literally just her.

So I'm like, this clearly means something.

as like in the future we're going to get a reveal.

And that's, that's not like detective.

That's just like, I know how the writing process works, and they're laying breadcrumbs for a future thing.

Or, I'm like, this one character is acting very weird.

Uh, that seems super strange.

Clearly, that's going to mean something, and it will, because, and that's not like I figured it out.

It's like, I just have had to write so many things in my life that I'm like, no, I know, I know what this is.

Yeah, we're going down a path, and it's not, you know, it's like when

there was they did that thing with uh, uh,

like whatever the last, I don't know if it was games fest or one of the various big reveal shows where they had a game that was clearly dante's inferno right like the new dante's inferno game okay but um

you know it couldn't be dante's inferno because dante's inferno already exists as a game and so i was just like i don't know i guess it would have to be some like divine comedy and then it absolutely that was the name of it And everyone was like, oh, we call it.

I'm like, there was only two options, guys.

Like, just based on literature itself, it was either Dante's Inferno or the Divine Comedy.

That's it.

And it was it was the other one.

And it's not like I figured out the mystery.

He was like, no, I just read that once.

Right.

You know, it is nothing.

I'm not even, yeah, it's not like I'm a big brain.

It's like, no, I just have pattern recognition.

And yeah.

Yeah.

So that's and but I enjoy that tremendously.

I like being like, oh, I know what this is.

Where is this going?

What are we doing?

How does this work?

Because I also enjoy seeing the process of other creative types.

When I'm like, so, what did you decide to do with this information?

Yeah.

I remember after

the first season of Arcane came out,

and people were talking about,

you know, they were doing the thing that people always do when they get obsessed with a show where they're like, what does this mean?

Or what is this?

Or is there a reason that this is this color?

You know?

And someone who

has worked on lots of animated stuff was like, all I'll say is if

they took the time to animate it,

it's there for a reason.

You don't just take the time to animate something into a show for fun, like for no reason.

Like it's, there's a reason it's there.

Whether it's important or not, you can't say, but like, it's all been put there on purpose.

Right.

Yeah.

And I think about that now pretty much every time I watch an animated show.

Like somebody purposefully put that thing there, whether it was just like as an Easter egg for themselves or someone else, or you know, what there is a, there's always a reason that thing is there.

Um, yeah, yeah, I mean, that's why I loved Mr.

Robot because

watching it week to week, I could not tell you what was going to happen the next episode.

It was the, it's the only show I've ever seen where

episode to episode, I couldn't tell you if I'd, I was like, I don't know what is going to happen.

Like genuine, real ass

mystery where, where,

like, season one is pretty standalone and very, it's very, very good.

But, you know, I had figured out the big reveal in season one way in advance.

But the way they kind of twisted it at the end, I was like, that's pretty good writing.

Season two, from start to finish, y'all, I could.

I dare you, if you have never seen the show, go watch season one, watch the first episode of season two, and tell me where you think that will end.

Because it does not end where I was like, what the hell?

Brilliant.

Absolutely brilliant show.

But

yeah, I love that kind of stuff where it's so we're going to mess with you that you don't have a clue where you're going to end up at.

That's the kind of stuff I enjoy.

Like, I need you to break my brain in a show.

If it's like a mystery, because I don't want to even be able to guess it.

Right.

But that, well, that adds in a whole new potential issue, though, right?

Because you still have to earn that reveal.

The person who's watching still has to be like, holy fuck, because this and because, and because this, and oh my God, and this thing, right?

You have to be able to go backwards and be like, this was always the plan.

This was always going to happen.

If it feels like a shoehorned ending or like

it was never justified or it didn't make any sense with the information given throughout the show you just get mad you just get annoyed with it

and i think the brilliance of of mr robot was that the main character was

like

literally you and i were in on this together viewer

and what i'm showing you this is like we are we are in on this together but the fact that it's unreliable narrator stuff we're like are we though yeah Yeah.

Is what you're showing us real?

That kind of thing?

Love it.

I mean, I love that in games too, where the main character, you don't know if what you're seeing.

I mean,

even though people absolutely shit on Dead Space 3,

the moment where you and I were playing the same game,

experience different things.

I love that kind of stuff.

You're like, I'm seeing weird stuff.

And meanwhile, I'm being attacked by monsters.

And I'm like, what is real here?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Big fan.

One of my favorite kind of like narrative tropes of like, you can't trust your own eyes.

Good stuff.

I love it.

Speaking of games, did you play anything this week that you want to talk about that you want to dissect?

Yes.

Well, first off, really quickly,

even though this was a branded thing.

Yesterday I played some, it's been a while, but I love the game.

Kingdom two crowns.

Good stuff.

Here's all i'll say

it is their anniversary you can play it for free right now until the 13th so why wouldn't you it's a great game you can download it for free so i think that's i mean that's all i'll say about that and if you want to pay it's like four bucks but still fantastic game and it's free so like have fun this weekend play that game on freezies on steam i think it's on Xbox free as well until the 12th.

Nice.

But you got days.

You have the whole weekend.

So play it over the weekend.

For those of you who don't know, it is literally like a side-scrolling game where you have a kingdom and you build it up and you have to expand left and right.

And at the same time, these monsters called greed are coming to attack you from the left and right.

It's a style of game that's been around for a while, but this just happens to be like one of my favorite versions of it.

And it's a treat.

There's like a shogun version that's free.

There's a like a Greek version.

There's a Valhalla kind of version.

There's one that's like spooky monster version.

And then

if you download the game right now, because it's the anniversary, they have like a special mission where if you click it, everything's birthday themed.

And so you have to, yeah, when the when the monsters attack you, they have birthday hats on and like crazy outfits.

And in the main game, you have to build a bomb to shut the main gate.

But in this,

you have to build a giant cake.

And then you push it to the guys.

And the monsters are like, oh, and they take it with them.

And it's very cute.

And then your reward is you get custom hats that you can use anytime that you play.

Adorable.

And I was like, love it.

Great.

Good stuff.

It is a game we have definitely played before.

And yeah, I'll continue to play.

It's good.

It's a fun game and it's free.

So, yeah, I played that.

And I will always hype up the power of free games.

Get on that, you crazy kids.

Also,

I had

a lot more time.

So I I went back to the fame game, a game that I love, FMB game.

And I want to see additional endings.

I want to see additional things.

Okay.

I

don't know what the message of the game is because the game is essentially:

I'm a nobody.

I've come to Hollywood.

Everyone treats me like crap.

But the minute I become famous, every woman in my life is like, yo, how about that dick?

Every single one.

And

it really, to me, is like, you don't want any of these ladies.

This is, this is actually quite a bit of a girl.

These are red flags, actually.

Yes.

Yeah.

But those are the only options you have.

So it's like, well, okay.

And there are things in the game.

So I was like, all right, well, obviously there's the producer.

And there's like last time I was trying to romance the producer and the best friend.

I'm like, okay, well, this time I want to try and romance my co-star, who may in fact be a genuine crazy person.

And so I'm like, all right, sure, let's see where this goes.

Dukes.

Yeah.

I think, I think I don't.

Sometimes people be too crazy.

Like when you, everything I said, she would like lose her mind if it wasn't.

You're my love of my life and I will do anything for you.

If you were like, well, I don't know if we should do that.

She'd be like, you bitch.

Slap.

How dare?

I'm

what did I say?

Yeah, I don't know what's going on, but I'm not good at it.

When the game, so one of the things in the game at the end is you have to decide whether you want to stay in Hollywood, more importantly, how you want to do this final major scene, and then if that leads to you winning an award or saving the show.

Okay.

I got to let you know.

Trying to appease my co-star, not helpful in winning awards and/or saving the show.

And at the end,

at the end,

nope.

And at the end, when it was like, hey, pick someone that you want to be with to celebrate the night.

First off, the show's gone.

No one's celebrating.

And I'm like, well, I guess I'll go after the one woman that I was trying to pursue.

And my co-star is like, you ruined my life.

I'm like,

cool.

So

I guess I'll have to go back and try it again.

See what I can do.

Honestly, Honestly,

the real thing is

I got to go for the producer, right?

Yeah.

But the problem is the producer's storyline, as far as I can tell, is like, let's get out of here and go live in the country.

I'm like, well, that's not what I want to do.

She's like, we got to leave this crazy world behind.

And I'm like, right, sure.

No.

So, yeah.

It is genuinely a laugh riot.

I love the game.

I love it to death.

Clearly, you've talked about it, I think, three weeks in a row now.

I can't stop.

Like, it is.

I will sit there and be like, well, I got to know what happens.

It has the vibe of watching like a real housewives energy.

Okay.

Where I don't, I don't know that I would be like, y'all need to play this.

Y'all need to play.

It's not that.

It's like, no, I need answers.

Like, me personally,

I need answers.

There's one.

Dukes, there's one character.

She's always featured on who you can date as an option, but she's always grayed out.

And I don't, I've never met her once.

I think I met her one time at a restaurant and she was the waitress.

I was like, well, how on earth would I meet that girl again?

Never saw, I have never seen her again.

And that's, to me, I'm like, that's the greatest mystery of all.

Who is this girl?

She's got to have the best story.

Clearly.

She's a special unlock.

Yeah, and I don't want, I don't.

I'm this close to looking at my guide, but I don't want to look up a guide because I'm just like, well, I'll find it in my own time.

So I'm making choices I wouldn't normally make, which is why I ended up going after the woman who's clearly the most toxic person in the entire game.

And at the end was like, I hate you.

So

I'm like, well, I'll just make goofy choices I wouldn't make, seeing what happens.

I got no answers.

None.

And I'm enjoying it tremendously.

Like this, that's the problem.

I think I played through

Road to Empress so efficiently that there's, I have no desire to go back because I know I could only do worse.

Yeah, of course.

And it's and to be honest, because I read a review before I ever played Road to Empress.

One of the reviews was negative because they were like,

there aren't really alternate routes.

There's a million ways to die and then there's the one way to live.

Yeah.

Having died so many times, I can tell you that that's absolutely true.

So there's really no reason to go back unless you want to see all of the goofy ways that you could die.

So yeah, yeah, and I mean like

I kind of want to go see that stuff, but at the same time, I'm like, nope, they're making another one.

And when that's out, whenever I get to play that, I am ready to go.

But yeah, I don't have, I'm like, no, I'm fine.

And I think that's the thing with most FMV games or story-based or choice games where

the like when I was playing like any David Cage game is like that where I will try to optimally play the best way I can play like playing through Detroit, I crushed that game.

I'm so proud of how I played.

Even though I made mistakes, everyone survived at the end.

I got everyone alive too.

Yeah.

Yeah, I felt really satisfied with that.

And I was like, okay, I'm proud with how this ended up.

But I know there are other options, but I know that I won't be as happy if I go back and try doing something different.

Like, I know there's probably a better ending for a certain character or whatever, but I'm like, no, I'm all right.

I don't need to go back.

I've been talking so many times about going back and playing that game differently.

Because I do think that was a really interesting game

i mean like there's a there's a lot of ways that thing can end like you can be a complete there's one version of it where where was his name david whoever the the guy who is like the detective robot oh yes you can constantly kill him like every time he's in a scene you can kill that guy Which then he respawns as a new version of himself, which leads to a different ending.

And I was like, oh, that's super interesting.

That'd be Connor was his name.

That's that's right and i'm like yeah oh that'd be interesting to see what happens as you just keep killing him but you're still his partner still his partner like the dynamic there would be interesting but i also don't like i just don't care i'm like i got an ending that i'm happy with i don't know that i want to go back and do that again yet

yet when it comes to

I'm never gonna beat the allegations.

When it comes to just like attractive women flirting with me, I'm like, well, I have to see how this ends.

time.

Every time.

I'm like, well, I got to know what, I got to know how this ends for me.

Okay.

In fairness to you, though, also,

Detroit being human, I think is a much bigger time sink

than the fame game, potentially.

True.

I mean, like, but in general, if it was like,

here's another example.

Baldur's Gate 3.

My first playthrough was 117 hours long.

And I was like,

Romance Carlak, that ending was the best.

I loved every minute of it.

It was, I think I played the best version of that game that was possible.

Like, I've never, I was so pleased at the end.

Yet when I was done, I was like,

what happens if I romance Minthara?

What's going on with that?

What's going on with that nasty girl?

And then at the same time, I was like,

okay, but like, what if instead of making Shadowheart good, I keep her a nasty girl, but I like also am evil.

What happens there?

Because she doesn't want love, but she definitely wants to bang.

Like, can I make her my like queen of doing it?

What's going on here?

Like, that was going through my head.

And I was like, I'm risking another hundred hours.

I'm fine with that.

I need to know what happens.

And it gave me.

Yeah.

It was, it was literally because the game, she's like, I don't do love.

I'm a bad, I have dark hair, so I'm a bad girl.

I don't even do love.

Right.

And then when she gets white hair, she's like, I love you.

Right.

And so in my mind, I was like, what if I keep keep her with the dark hair and she still hates me or whatever?

But, like,

can we like do it for Shar?

Can we, like, you know, is that like some like crazy alter sex?

What's going on here?

And I wanted to know that I needed to know that information.

And I looked online, and no one had tried this at the time that I was like, Well, I gotta know.

So, I was like, Well, I gotta go back and do this.

That

I have no answer, like, I just, but here's the thing:

Mass Effect, for example.

Yeah, I'm like, nope, it's the blue girl for me.

I got no, I don't want anyone else.

And I had no desire to go back.

I had no desire to like do anything else.

And I have no idea why in that game, I didn't care.

But in another game, I'm like, well, I have to know.

For science, I need to know.

I don't know what's going on with me.

And it's not like a, here's, it's not even, like, a great example is fangame.

It's not even...

It's not like a sexy, there's, you know, there's nothing.

When there's like, like, hey, do you want to come over?

It fades to black and you just assume something happened.

I don't know.

And then she like wakes up in a totally different outfit, which, by the way, is hilarious.

It will never not be funny.

It's, it's like, wait a minute, did you change?

Did you change?

But I need, I just like need to know.

There's something in me.

It's like, what if I made this other choice?

What's that about?

What's going on?

But I don't know why from game to game to game to game, I am like, no, for that one, I don't care.

Yeah, who knows?

I've no, like,

in Witcher, for example, there's many different witches with which you can romance.

And

I was like, no, I'll just do it all.

I was like, no, I don't want to pick one.

I'll do all of them.

Yeah.

I don't know why in that choice, I said, oh, I'll do everyone.

Instead of, I'll pick one.

I was like, no.

Geralt would just, you know, dick his way through the mountains.

It's whatever.

I don't care.

Like, that's, I don't know why I thought that.

I have no answers for you.

I, my whims

are all over the place.

I'm, I'm, I'm, like, a very pan-esque puck figure when it comes to video games.

Right.

I have no answers.

I don't know why.

But

again,

it's not like, yeah, I'm going to watch.

I can't wait to watch this dirty scene that doesn't exist in FameGame.

I'm just like, Right.

There's something about FameGame, man.

That's okay.

I think because it's fast.

Yeah.

I think that must be it because I can skip through like,

yeah.

Yeah.

I don't know.

What did you play?

Oh, goodness.

I finally,

Goblin Cleanup is in early action.

I know you like it.

Yeah.

I did finally play that with a group.

So it was me, Summer, Manda, and Vanilli.

We all played together.

Currently, you can, there's only like one

sort of of body type of goblin that you can be, but they have some unlockable like alternate costumes and hats and things that you can get

as you play.

Everybody's badonk is gigantic.

Yeah.

Everyone,

everyone is really working.

Goblins.

Okay, great.

Yeah.

So for anybody who hasn't played it or seen it or whatever the concept of...

If anybody doesn't know about goblins, they have thick asses.

It's canonical.

For anybody who doesn't know about goblins, they have badonks.

Massive donkers.

Yeah.

But in this game, specifically.

It's called a megabyte.

In this game specifically, the concept is that

you are part of a team, the goblin cleanup team, and you are on the side of the game where there's a dungeon.

Heroes go through the dungeon, maybe die, maybe don't.

And someone has to come in and reset the dungeon before the next group of heroes comes through.

So that's your job in this game so you are cleaning up blood and body parts you are resetting traps you are just basically making it so the dungeon looks like no one's gone through it yet and then you leave

it's a very goofy game

it does need to cook a little bit it made summer very motion sick I guess because the way that the camera bobs and the way that the, because you always have a hand in front of you because you grab things.

So the way that the hand moves and the way that the camera moves are not the same, like they're offset.

That was the explanation, I think.

And so it's that's weird.

So the bobbing is, was very like.

Do you turn off the bobbing?

No, there's no setting for that yet.

So they should definitely add that.

That's unneeded in every game with a head bob.

You must have a button that lets you toggle it off.

Because sometimes it's fun and sometimes you're like, nope, no head bobs like this.

No head goes like this all the time.

That does not happen.

There is an FOV slider.

there are adjustments you can make but i think this

you just need more

so far it's very fun it's a really really cute game you know for a game where you feed body parts to a mimic it's a cute game yeah

vanilla and i literally the next day were like should we play that again and get the goals that we didn't get because it's one of those games where it's like Your primary goal is to clean everything up completely.

But there are also secondary goals like try to deal with this trap without dying or, you know, stuff like that.

We were like, should we go back and try to get those other goals done though?

You know,

yeah, if you played Viscera Cleanup, it's similar.

But with God, but with goblins.

With goblins.

Gold, with butt double.

Thick asses.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I honestly don't know how we got here to this world where goblins just have thick butts, but I'm happy we're here.

I'm excited for the hot goblin era.

Yeah.

yeah yeah hot goblin summer

hot goblin

hot goblin yeah hot goblin fall chill goblin winter

chill goblin winter i love it

yeah so uh played that what else played a bunch more clover pit did i talk about clover pit last week yes talked about clover pit yeah last week the the gamba game Yeah, yeah.

I made it to the point in that game where I don't, I got the credits, but I don't think I've beaten it.

It's one of those.

So after the credits, I did a thing and then it reset me back, but it looks like there's still something else that I can get, like a new thing that I can work towards.

So it's like, I don't think I've done, I don't think I've done everything.

I definitely haven't unlocked all of the trinkets because there's like 150 of those, but I don't think getting the credits the first time means that

you've done it all, like story-wise.

So uh i'm i'm pretty far along but i don't think done

what else did i play

um

i played repo

for the first time you played what repo for the first time did you play repo

i don't it's kind of it's kind of like lethal company except your little robots

no

okay what were you gonna say do you remember no i i i

just

one day

go look at when Dodger and I are not online, go look at our Twitch pages, and you can see what we've played recently.

And I must stress,

Dodger is

all over the place.

Horror games, Minecraft,

you know, puzzle games, all sorts of things.

And mine is like, what's that old man playing?

It's just like, oh, another puzzle game for grandpa?

Great.

Great.

You play what you like.

Yeah, it's just very funny because I went and I was like, I wonder what Dodge has been playing lately.

And I went to go look and see.

I'm literally here to tell you right now, though.

I know, but this was like a few days ago.

And you have that mind.

Like, hold on.

Yeah, I was about to go there right now, but I realized you're streaming.

But it's just very funny to me.

I was like, oh.

Okay, yeah, no, that seems like an average streamer.

And I was like, I wonder what's going on with me.

And at the time, I think it had been days since I'd streamed.

It was like, you did

Poirot and you played Final Fantasy and that was it.

And I was like,

cool.

All right.

Okay.

Great.

I mean, to be fair, I've been averaging like two streams a day for a while now.

So

it's a lot more, it's a lot more real estate time to be just doing whatever, you know?

Yeah,

I say this every once in a while.

I'll say it again.

This whole YouTube thing is for the birds.

Editing sucks.

I've been trying to edit.

Yeah, I agree.

I've been trying to edit these videos, and it's been taking me so long to do so.

And I'm just

the minute I'm done with this podcast, I'm going to start editing again.

That's the world I live in.

And honestly, not cool.

It's not fun.

I don't like it.

Damn.

What are you going to do about it, son?

Nothing.

Just do it and get it over with.

Nothing.

I'm just going to keep editing.

I'm gonna keep editing.

What am I gonna do?

The work never ends.

Yeah,

I got

the thing is, is it's not like I can hand it off to an editor, but the problem is, is I like, I

like to

make scary game squads the way I make scary game squads.

I don't like when other people edit them because they edit them differently than how I like to.

The problem is, it just takes time.

Yeah.

And I'm like,

okay,

cool.

So I'll just sit there.

And it isn't like, it's not like hard editing and hard cuts or whatever.

It's literally, I just need to make sure audio is correct, sounds a certain way, the video looks a certain way, the whole like process.

I just have a, I have a way I like it.

Yeah.

That's fair.

Everything, like VOD from YouTube or like any of the other stuff on the channel.

Is I got a whole editing people other people edit it and I'm fine.

I'm like, oh, I trust you.

But for some reason, when it comes to a let's play

i'm like no no no

i will edit it the way i want i want the sound to sound this way i want to be does not matter it's so unimportant but i just it's like this is the last bit of control i have all right okay let me have this yeah

they turn out good

so

they're fun

you know

The fact that like a great example is there'll be a moment where like one of the boys is like, pause really quick.

I got to go take take a fat dump.

And I'm like, okay.

And I can edit that out, and you'll never know.

You'll never know.

Or that I'm like,

you can deep fry it

at the moment that

turn everything grayscale and play like

off-tune soul music.

I don't think you understand.

It's a man saying this.

So it isn't like.

I don't understand how long a dumpy takes from a dude.

I think I do.

There'll be times where it's like 25 minutes of silence.

Yeah.

It's like we leave the room.

Everyone just gets up and leaves.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's a, it'll, you know, it happens.

And we're like, all right.

So I'm not going to keep that in.

Right.

But I have to do like creative cuts.

And I'm like, ooh, a ninja cut here, ninja cut here.

They'll never know fat poopies were being taken.

Yeah.

Never know.

Deep Fried Grayscale is another universe, chat.

Not this one.

Not this one.

Yes.

So I played Repo, which is a game that came out a while ago, but they just had an update.

It's one of those, it's one of those

four-person group games where you go out on a mission and come back and you have a goal, an amount of money that you're trying to get, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Again, very much like what you would expect out of like Lethal Company.

I never played it when it first came out because

I don't know.

At the time, I was like,

the graphics of this look like it might be a bit spookier than Lethal Company.

And

I don't do well with like actively scary stuff all the time.

So I just didn't seek out opportunities to play it really, to be honest.

But everybody said it was really fun.

So I finally played it the other night.

And it's

it much like with Lethal Company, I remember when that game first came out, we had a whole conversation on Geekenders about how they did a really good job with balancing the fact that when you're in the missions, it is a little bit tense, especially if you don't know what monsters are in there yet.

But it's also goofy, right?

You're like garbage disposal dudes, right?

Like, it's there's a goofy element here.

Repo is very goofy.

You are little weird robots, You have a bunch of different facial expressions you can make.

You can use VoIP or you can type, but if you type, it comes out like, hello, Jesse, I hate you, right?

Like it just comes out like so weird.

And it's the same thing.

You get dropped into a place.

You try to find the things that have value.

put them in your little cart and get out of there, right?

A lot of elements to it are identical.

You can buy things at a store to improve your runs.

If people die, you can bring them back at the end of the level, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

But yeah, it's cute.

It is a cute game.

It's another one of those ones that people have made a ton of mods for as well.

But I was

thinking about any of those.

Yeah.

Because I never played like the Abiotic.

Yeah, that's cool.

Have you?

Did you play Abiotic Factor?

I don't know.

Which one was that?

uh imagine an exact same premise you just said but instead of

going on these little hunts you're basically in a weird facility and there are portals to other worlds and those other each like other world is technically a level

you go there and you have to find these power cells and bring them back and it's interesting because like

One level is a weird silent hill looking thing.

And, you know, like each, everything's like kind of different, but you also have to survive in your base,

which is a facility that's shut down.

It's super fun, very interesting.

Yeah, it has the same

chat saying it's like Half-Life 1, but Survival Crafter.

I guess that's accurate.

Oh, okay.

But it's very cool.

I think, yeah, I would gladly play that with you.

It is a very fun game.

But also at the same time, they just updated Phasmophobia with a bunch of new stuff.

Did Did they?

Yeah, yeah.

That's a Ghost Hunting game, right?

That we played?

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.

They updated it with a bunch of new stuff, and they're also, I think they're going to keep updating it as they move towards.

I think a movie's coming out.

A Phasmophobia movie?

Yeah, yeah.

And so they'll probably have a map or something based on the movie at some point.

Yeah, there's, I mean, I'm all about the weird, spooky games.

As long as it's not, like, there was one,

what was the one everyone was playing where you would land on a planet or whatever, you would like come down, and you had to explore and then get back on your ship and escape?

What was that called?

Chad, help me out here.

It's the one that everyone was playing, and I absolutely, like, for a brief moment, was like, oh, I love this.

Is it Lethal Company?

Is that what you're talking about?

Lethal Company.

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

Yes.

Okay.

Was it?

I think it's Lethal Company, whatever it was.

You do go to planets in lethal company.

But the problem with that for me is eventually,

like, I think I can handle being on a chat or being on a stream with like four streamers.

But the minute we start pushing to six, seven, eight,

there's so much like.

I got to get my five minutes in of talking that people are talking over each other now.

There's so much going and i'm like

i can't so i just sit there and be quiet like there's i've been on tons of stream like um i've been on tons of streams where people will you know do all these different things when you play games like that and if you notice if you can find clips suddenly i'm just like the guy cooking or the guy staying at home or the guy like just doing one particular thing and I will just stop talking.

Like I shut down because everyone's trying to talk over each other because it's like,

and I was like, who has the energy to fight everybody for like a minute?

Yeah.

I will just stop and turn and just be like, I'm cooking.

And if you want food, I'm making food.

That's it.

I will absolutely just not,

I'll be like,

nah.

And so people will go on crazy missions and I'm sure their chat's eating it up and having a great time.

And literally, it's me for five hours cooking food.

Yeah.

Because I'm like, this is comfortable.

I don't want to deal with all that.

I hate that.

Yeah, I don't know why, but I just can't.

When there's too many people, I'm like, I'm not going to fight y'all for this.

I don't care that much.

Yeah.

I came here to have fun and everyone's like putting on their own one-man show, but all at the same time.

And I'm like,

dude.

I'll be over here.

Yes.

I mean, we both,

no shade to other, you know, content creators and stuff, but like, we've both been involved, I think, in so many projects where it's clear that everybody is trying to be the main character.

Yes.

It's exhausting.

It is.

Yeah.

So much.

And I just, yeah, I'm like, it's cool.

I mean, this is, that's why I really wanted to be part of when Among Us was like really popping off.

I really wanted to be part of that.

But I swear to God, every time I played, either someone would get genuinely angry or someone would be like, I'm the main character, so I have to live.

Right.

And I'm like,

this isn't, this isn't fun.

Like, I really wanted to, but someone, there's a lot of main character syndrome because again, when you're on your own stream, you are your own main character.

So like, I get it.

I, you don't have to, like, I get it.

Sure.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

But I feel like when you're in a group of people, there should be kind of like a, this is a group project now.

We all have to let other people shine.

And this is why when I do D ⁇ D sometimes, I will shut up for like an hour and a half.

Just and not because I'm like, I don't care.

It's because I realize that other people have things to say.

And this isn't my story right now.

This is their story.

Here's the thing.

Hot take.

I think

that more streamers should

do a theater thing

because

I think you

understand

the value in a side character more.

Yeah.

Yeah.

If you've, if you've done some theater, you realize like that there's more than just

the person who's thrown a big fit on stage.

There's other characters and they're all important and it's fun to be those characters, right?

Dude, I like, so the D ⁇ D thing that we're doing, right?

Yes.

It started with you and I as clearly the first episode, you and I are talking 90% of the time.

Yeah.

Like it is very clear that like we're setting up the plot.

But then when everyone else is introduced, I'm like, I'm clearly setting up the plot here.

So So

as time goes on, I'm like, oh no, this is this is like a story about these two characters and their families and like what's going on with them.

Cool.

I'm going to just back off a little bit.

And it's fun because now none of you know

because I don't ever speak my mind anymore.

None of you know whether I'm going to go totally crazy or if I'm lying to you.

Yeah.

I will constantly say a thing and you guys as a group will be like,

are you bullshitting us right now?

I'm like,

no, it's true.

That is true.

That is the dynamic currently.

And it's like,

and the thing is fun because I've only ever been honest, but like, my honesty is I am actively out for revenge and I don't need to talk about it.

When we get there, I will, I will hurt this person.

And that's all there is to it.

And the less I like, I don't need to talk about it.

And so the more you forget that that is absolutely my goal, it's so much fun because I'll just be like,

like, there's a while ago, we had a scene where there was a character who clearly had a line of, like, something to tell us that was important.

But because it was a shade or a reflection or something of a person that I was like, I'm going to kill this person,

poor Brett couldn't even start the scene.

I was like, I shoot her in the head.

Like, right away.

And everyone was like, why'd you do that?

I was like, no, she would just lie to us.

And I think I talked you all into into believing that was the case.

Like, no, she would just lie to us.

I was like,

yeah.

All right, moving on.

But then, and then after that, everyone was like, all right, I guess he was right.

And then I just went back to being quiet.

I was faded in the background.

And sometimes that's necessary for like,

as a group, whether, you know, you're talking about theater or D ⁇ D or whatever.

You have to understand that like, it's a, corrop like cooperative experience where you're in a cast and you're not the main character.

and sometimes when someone stands out as the main character you shut up like when i was when we're doing goblins it's very clear that tomato's character became the main character right and at that point it was like okay i know i am a goofy side character so i'm not gonna

stretch that and become a pain in the ass the entire time yeah once it became clear that my actions were causing problems because i was like i'm a goofy side character i was like okay i'm gonna limit the amount of problems i cause because we have to keep moving Right.

But I understand what my character is now.

I'm going to be the problem causer.

I'm going to ruin an experience for someone at some point.

Yeah.

But I'm going to wait for that to happen.

And then I'm going to jump in and be like, yo.

And yeah, you just have to be like observant.

And I think a lot of the time when you exist on a, this is my stream.

I'm the main person.

When you do stuff with other people, that doesn't go away.

And so you get.

five people talking over each other.

And I'm like, I can't follow you guys.

I have no idea what's going on.

on i don't i'm just gonna shut up and go to my corner yeah a common a common joke in theater right is bullshit bullshit my line bullshit bullshit my line but that's literally how sometimes these like streaming collaborations feel is like yeah everybody's just waiting for their turn to talk again

yeah um

It's

but it's important to listen.

It's important to listen to each other and ask questions.

Also,

when you listen, that's when like the good banter happens.

Yes.

Instead of people just saying lines at each other.

You know?

Yeah.

Yes.

Absolutely.

I completely agree.

But I think it's also that's a learned skill.

That's not something you just get.

You have to actively be engaged in listening conversations constantly.

Also, what is happening to you?

How did we get here?

Oh, it's because you were talking about the mods that make it so there's like 12 people in one of these games.

Yes.

Oh, I hate that.

But thematically, I mean, this is why I have an issue with all the Minecraft servers and things like that, because

idea-wise, sounds awesome.

It never doesn't sound cool to have like 40 streamers on one thing doing a thing together.

But, you know, even...

GTARP, that kind of stuff.

I just know that I'm going to get stuck in a thing where everyone's like, no, I'm the lead gang member or no, I'm the head cop.

And I'm like,

which makes me feel like I'd end up like October when I was watching him do GTARP.

He just worked at a restaurant and served food.

Yeah.

And I feel like that's what I would end up doing.

But in my mind, like, why on earth

would I spend time doing that when I could literally do anything else?

Like, I could play anything.

I don't need to do that.

When I was doing Neon Divide, the like VR LARP,

it was four hours long once a week.

And literally what I did was worked at the cafe.

So I would give people imaginary food.

And then once the cafe closed, I would run all over the map harvesting plants.

I like that.

Simple.

Makes sense.

Yeah.

It was fun.

Yeah.

And I'd run into people and sometimes they'd be screaming because someone just died.

And sometimes they'd be like, yeah, I'm going to head into the city and, you know, watch some strippers.

And I'd be like, great.

And that was mostly what I did.

Yeah.

I love a good RP when everyone's kind of invested in it as a thing.

But yeah, I, I, uh,

sometimes just too many people.

Like,

it's just too many people.

And so you can't get invested in anything.

So you're just kind of walking through the world, which again is no different from real life.

So why would I be a farmer in a video game when I don't even want to farm in real life?

Sure.

So, you know, because in a video game, you

can ignore the shitty stuff.

I don't know that I can.

I don't know that I have that.

Hey, Da.

There's a dog.

For audio listeners, there's another animal has entered my office.

The horse is here.

What kind of collar is that?

It's definitely not a shot caller.

We are so topical.

We are the topical podcast.

Don't worry.

In like three days, I'll show you.

Anyways,

yikes.

Did I play anything else?

I played a round of Devour.

If you ever played that, I played a round of Devour with Joe and Jinx.

What is Devour?

It's a, it's, it's a, it's, it's, it's

it's hungry, hungry hippos.

It's another?

What do you mean?

It's an it's another.

It's another.

It's cryptic as hell.

another it's another it's another game where it's like there's a few people in a lobby and you go do a mission and

Ada, what are you whining about and you and you

You know like have a certain thing that you just repeat until the level is done So in this one, there was like a demon haunting a hospital and we were in the hospital, and we had to do some bonkers shit.

We had to run around finding rats, electrocute the rats.

And once we had electrocuted 10 rats, then

the demon would go away.

Good night, everybody.

And the entire time that you're trying to find rats, the demon is walking around crying.

And if she sees you, she grabs you and she drags you to a different part of the house.

Now,

we got about five rats in when I said, you know what?

I think five is plenty.

I think maybe five rats was enough.

Because I think the tension of the game,

it is one of those games where, like, once you know who's in the house, who to avoid, and what they do, it's not scary anymore, right?

It's annoying.

Show me the cheek crap.

That's how those games work.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I was like, they need to pick up the pace, man, because

we're five rats in and I'm already sick of the game.

You were just

the amount of rats.

We're five

rats in.

We are five rats in.

Aren't we done?

That was how I felt.

That is,

I love that.

Like, how did you judge the time?

Well, it was five rats.

We were five rats in.

We were like five rats in, dude.

Three rats is more than enough rats, but we had to get five rats and nothing was happening.

We had to get ten rats

we were halfway through the rats and i was already sick of it that's too many that's too ten rats rats it's too many rats that's too many rats yeah and it's not like you

it's a whole process you have to grab some rotten food you have to place it near areas where you know rats are you have to wait until a rat

Shows up and eats the food.

You have to grab the rat.

You have to take it to the spot where you electrocute it.

When you electrocute it, the fuse busts and you you have to replace the fuse for the next rat.

That's too much.

That's too much.

It's too much.

It's too much.

Five.

While all this is going on, something's trying to get you the entire time.

And the whole time, there's a lady walking around going,

and I was like, girl.

That's, I think that's, yeah, that's an inherent like horror problem where

as you play a horror game.

I don't play a lot of them, so I would love your insight, actually.

Like, as you play a horror game, every time without fail, the process is you enter a thing you're not familiar with.

Uh-oh, there's something in here with you, but it's on the periphery.

Oh, it's coming to get you.

Is that a noise?

What's going on?

So you're scared.

You're like, oh, man.

Then it finally either chases you or shows up or whatever.

And you're like, whoa, that's scary.

Then it happens again and again

and again.

And event now you're like, well, I've seen it.

I've seen the model you're using.

It's barely scary.

That's kind of funny looking.

Can't wait to see that thing again.

So now you're like, all right, well, I know I have to avoid this thing.

So then the game says, all right, well, we know you know you have to avoid this thing.

So we're going to go out of our way to make you do 50 absolutely ludicrous chores that mean you have to now involve yourself in the, like you got to walk towards the monster.

You got to, like, while you're running around, solve all these different things.

And it happens to the point where you're just like, well, I don't.

cool like i'm i oh man was it outlast there was some game i was playing where i realized halfway through the the the puzzle was

there's a bunch of doors in a hallway and the monster walks up and down the hallway and you're supposed to literally go in and out the doors and sneak past okay it was simpler just to run past the monster take a little bit of damage and keep going okay yeah

Where you're like, I don't even give it.

I don't even care, man.

Come on, like, I'll outrun you, monster, whatever.

And you just ran down the hallway and closed the door.

That was, and I was like, that's not fun.

But also the idea of room to room to room to room to room hiding, that's also not fun.

Right.

And it's like, I was having fun up until this point, but now I know that the game is like, well, we're past you being scared.

So now the scare is you just don't want to die.

Because if you die, you get sent back to a checkpoint and you have to do a bunch of stuff over again.

And that is pretty scary.

And yeah, there's like a, I feel like there's a strong

time period.

period like a horror game should be no more than four hours i just if it's any more it starts to fall apart at the seams a great example like

alien isolation is an awesome game i agree but there's a middle point of that game where i'm like we could have not we didn't need this we didn't

we didn't need this

fat you know yeah we could have cut so much from that game and it could have been a perfect like it's good it's very good but it could have been a perfect alien horror game And instead, you got like a middle bit that I'm like, eh, like, I don't want to spoil it, obviously.

But the middle bit, I was like, okay, all right, this is whatever.

Yeah.

And that's, I mean,

I don't need a long horror game.

I want the horror game to get me, scare me, and end.

And I want to be like, what the hell?

That was crazy.

Rather than I figured it out.

And at the end, I just kind of was going through the motions trying to avoid this creature because it's just such a pain in the ass to die.

Yeah, I think the thing that frustrates me, aside from all the rats,

is,

yeah, you have this, you have, um, there's a gameplay loop inside of this exact level, right?

There's a thing that you just repeat over and over.

And I guess because they don't want you to get bored or feel like it's too easy,

every time you complete the loop,

it gets harder.

Yeah.

So the issue, 10 rats, Jesse.

The issue is

by the time you hit rat five, this bitch won't leave you alone.

How long are these levels gonna be?

Because

we were in there for so long and I had to be like, guys, I need you all to RP that I'm dead for real.

I'm leaving.

Like, I can't still be here.

I didn't think it was going to take this long.

And we're still on five rats, you know?

I can't do this anymore.

There's, there's, there's a moment where difficulty becomes

like unplayable and not in kind of that like dark souls-y way where you just have to learn the combo.

I'm talking about so a great example is dark tide

I don't know like a month ago had a mode in which explosive barrels were put everywhere on every map plus more enemies had flamethrowers and Bomb throwers and that kind of thing so basically the entire thing was you're playing special maps that now have

it's the old maps you know, but we've just put bombs everywhere.

It's everything can explode.

It's crazy.

Which in theory, you're like, oh, that could be fun and silly.

But in reality, it was you'd be running with your group at the start of a map, the very start.

Yeah.

And one of the levels starts where you land and you have to run around the outside of this giant building to get into the sewer system.

And so as you're running around the outside of the building, if you play on any actual difficulty mode, I'm trying to think, it's like whatever is above, like the ones above malice, whatever those are.

If you try to play on those, there's so many enemies enemies and so much going on.

And because they're all jacked up to like either be explosive, throw explosives, whatever, the ground is constantly on fire, so you're constantly taking damage.

More importantly, you're on the edge of cliffs.

So the amount of time something would explode and you'd go

and fly off the cliff and instantly die.

And now you're just sitting there.

All right, I guess I got to wait for people to save me.

The amount of time I just sat around.

Because not it, not because I blew some, but because a random person on my team made something explode and that explosion blew me off the edge.

And I'm like,

okay, guess I'll sit here and wait.

And now you're waiting for people to, the thing that happened more often than not is people just leave the game.

Right.

And I'm like, because, you know, it might take five, 10 minutes to save you.

So they're like, all right.

And they would just leave.

And so in theory, that's a really fun mode.

But if you're playing out a map where there's just cliffs to nothingness and you can instantly die, that's not fun.

Like getting blown up and getting knocked back and being like, I'm on fire, that can be fun.

You can do something with that.

But instantly dying every time, I was like, nah.

And it would, everyone would fall apart.

And you get in groups that were like, clearly, we're four badasses.

We have all the best gear.

We're going in.

We're doing the hardest mode possible.

Let's go.

And you would die in the first five minutes.

And everyone would be like,

yeah, absolutely did not enjoy that mode at all.

At all.

Drove me crazy.

Yeah.

And that's difficulty.

Sometimes you can screw it up like that.

For sure.

we've really, we've had a topic today that we've revisited throughout

of like

how to find the midpoint, how to find the sweet spot, you know?

There is a sweet spot, but I think it's, I think it's personal, though, right?

Like, I think our preferences are totally different from someone else.

I bet I could scroll back through chat and find someone to be like, Jesse's stupid.

That mode in Dark Tide was awesome.

Like, I guarantee you.

Surely not.

And I think that that's like, it's all preference, but I'm with you completely that there needs to be a like,

great example.

Yote,

I am enjoying tremendously, and it's because I put it on the easiest mode possible.

So when I fight, it makes me feel like I am the greatest samurai who ever lived in the history of video games.

Dudes will come up to me and I'll be like, shing, and they'll go, yo, they'll die.

And that looks awesome.

And I love that.

Yeah.

I, the idea of like

a fight, and then they're like, ow, you sliced my gut, but I'm still going to kill you.

I'm like, dude, I cut you in half.

What do you mean?

What do you mean you're still going to fight?

Don't know.

Or, you know, they're just like bullet spongy guys.

And I'm like, I don't want to, I don't want to shoot you 50 times.

I just don't care.

Dude, have you seen the have you seen the posts?

They feel like satire, and every time they're not, I get thrown for a loop.

Have you seen the posts where people are like

photoshopping giant boobs on the fake character.

Yes, yes, by the way.

And being like

a post-made for real gamers.

And it's just giant tits, like massive, comically large.

And I'm always like, this is a joke, right?

It's a joke, right?

And it's never a joke.

No.

No.

And I just,

like,

I just want to like touch them on the shoulder and be like, dude, you know, Pornhub exists, right?

Like, you don't,

like, it doesn't need to be in everything you do.

Like, that is, I feel like that's a problem.

Like, you, oh, yeah, it's, it's,

it makes no, I mean, like, character-wise, it would make no sense because this is, as a child, this is a character who saw everyone killed and now is out for revenge.

So, why would

this revenge-seeking now adult have spent a childhood like, I gotta look good for the fellas?

You know, like, that doesn't make any sense.

Like, character-wise, that makes no sense.

Like,

I don't understand.

Now, if you are gonna be like, well, this other game had like a sexy robot lady.

Well, yeah, it's a sexy robot lady.

Someone built her, probably, because they like sexy robot ladies.

That's a different beast.

It wasn't like the sexy robot was a young child at one time, and her whole sexy robot family was killed.

And now she's seeking sexy robot vengeance.

Like, that's not.

I don't want to play that game.

No, that's not this game.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I would gladly play sexy robot vengeance game, but

everything has a purpose in games and giant, massive fake boobs are not, it makes no sense at all.

At all.

And so, yeah, I just, sometimes I'm like, is this, are you joking?

Is this a race bait?

Yeah.

For me, seeing posts like that makes me appreciate more like how grounded the character looks, how how like real that character is, you know?

Because the way that they adjust the character to be like, if only they, I guess they didn't want money, because if they did, the main character would look like this.

And it has like, you know, the exact same face.

She has like

makeup.

Yes, every single

gigantic boobs with big cleavage.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It always makes me go

but that doesn't feel grounded and this character feels grounded like i'm invested in this i don't think some people want grounded i think they want like

someone to jerk it to and i'm like yo are you playing video games what are you doing what is it's as you said before you have options

so many options on the internet so many options dude i do not understand again

The game story is

six people killed my family.

I'm going to kill those six people.

There is nothing in that story that says like, but I'm going to do it with my tits out.

Like,

it doesn't make sense.

Why would that be there?

I don't understand.

I don't get it.

But,

hey, man, I guess people like what they like.

You know,

someone will make that mod just for you, dude.

Oh, literally, that was the post where he's like, I can't wait till it's out on PC.

That's what that post was because then they'll mod it to look like this.

And I was like, that's

crazy.

You'll have the experience you want one day.

Anywho, we got any news today?

Of course we have news.

My goodness.

Well, hey, shout out to Claire Obscure, Expedition 33.

They sold 5 million copies,

which as Square Enix would say was underperformance.

But it looks like

that's not the only news.

We're getting a whole new playable environment, new bosses, new costumes.

Some of the voice actors are brought back in to do new voice lines.

And I guess there's a localization thing up to 19 languages now.

So

I have no idea exactly what we're getting,

but

yeah, I'm excited.

I don't know if I'll throw my head against those bosses.

All the bosses at the end, those like special bosses can kiss my ass.

I was like, nah, I don't have time for this.

I'm not going to 100% this game.

I enjoyed the story.

I loved it, but some of the fights, I'm like,

nah, I'm good.

Nintendo is out here just being

as weird as Nintendo can be.

Okay.

Who's the series going with that?

Oh, this week they released a video that features a baby in its room playing, and then toys start moving on their own.

And everyone messaged me like, Jesse, have you seen this video?

Oh my God, what is this?

And again, it's just a like CGI baby, and then toys are moving.

And everyone's like, what the hell?

This is crazy.

Well,

on their app, they released a new version of the video.

And it revealed that the toys were not moving by themselves.

It was Pikmin.

And I guess if you know Pikmin lore, you know that humans cannot see Pikmin.

And that was the reveal that this is a potential Pikmin movie.

and so

very cute stuff.

That's cute.

It got everyone talking for a little bit there.

And yeah, you had to go to the app to see.

I don't know if they released,

I don't know if they released the actual real version on YouTube, but it was on the Nintendo app, which is a thing they're definitely keeping, get like, please use us.

Please come use us.

So

that's the thing.

Then

something that I think we've been saying in this podcast for the last 10 years that

the way the content creator space interacts with games is vastly different from most people around the world.

And when we talk about games and game releases, I think we often bring up like, hey, most people don't buy 50 games a year.

And now we have some market research thanks to this company, Circana, who just did a study that found that 60% of U.S.

gamers

buy two or fewer games a year.

According to the data, 18% of players in the U.S.

buy a new game about once every six months, 12% buy one about once a year, and 33% of players buy a new game less often than once a year, meaning that 63% of all players buy two or fewer games every year, which is a thing that we have said countless times.

That even though we're like, oh, I don't want to play a 65-hour game game or a 120-hour game that sucks, many people do.

Yeah.

Because it's potentially the one game that they're going to be buying that year.

Yeah.

They want to sink a lot of their life into.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so while I can be like, I want my four-hour horror game, many people will be like, no, if I'm going to buy a game, I want it to be 85 hours long.

Yeah.

I get it.

I completely understand.

Yeah, we are in a different space and that just backs it up.

But hey, don't don't worry.

If you want a real gaming experience,

GameDev, visionary founder of video game companies and/or single greatest video game mind in the world, Elon Musk, has promised

that his AI company will release an AI game by the end of 2026.

What, like developed by AI?

What does that mean?

I don't know.

Used AI to develop it

by the end of 2026.

The game, this is the information we do have.

The game will be released on the Hyperloop and fully automated self-driving while using the brain chip power technology.

That, or he was high on ketamine when he put that information out, and everyone got really excited about another thing he made up.

It sounds made up for Woodsworth.

It doesn't sound real.

I would wager that it will not exist.

I'm going to go on an limb and say he said that so people would invest more money in his companies rather than actually delivering it.

Look at this value I'm going to add to these things that I'm absolutely making.

Yeah, yeah.

Remember, remember how I'm making those things?

Guys, remember, remember?

Genius?

This stuff?

Tony Stark of our time.

Right off the dome.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, no, I would love to know.

Tony Stark of our time.

Tony Stark of our time.

I would love to know if that game's going to be AI.

Yeah.

Is it AI created?

Did the AI make it?

That's what I'm saying.

Or did you just use AI assets?

Because that sucks.

If you're using AI assets, boring.

But if you let an AI create a game, I would actually play that.

I would love to know what kind of game.

But I feel like...

Science, I'd have to know.

The third option is that it is a game where you playing it somehow uses AI to play it.

It's still not as fun.

I want a game.

I agree.

I'm just saying that's another option.

AI makes a game and we get to experience what an AI thinks a video game is.

I would,

that would just be an experiment in itself.

Yes, I agree.

Yeah.

It would be one of the darkest.

Like, if it was good,

we'd be done.

That's it.

I'd walk away and be like, you know what?

I give up.

We are all being replaced.

That's it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But fun, fun point of fact, it will never exist because

it's not real.

I promise you it's not a real thing.

And then

some game releases.

Battlefield 6 is out.

Hopefully, if you're into Battlefield, you enjoy it.

I don't know.

Little Nightmares 3 is a thing that exists.

However...

It is not the same dev team as Little Nightmares 1 and 2.

No.

They have created a whole other game that has a demo out today as well

which is fascinating so uh i don't know i mean i i i don't know what to play probably both we'll see what happens yeah

why not both

yeah why not both then little rocket lab a very cute game that i feel like dodger should play where you are both a little tiny farming girl but also you're doing like factorial things uh it's very cute and then a game that I did not even recognize as existing.

But now that I've seen it, I'm like, what the shit is this?

By Sweet Carol.

Take time to Google this one.

Yes.

Looks like I want to play it.

Disney made a horror game.

And I'm like, what the?

It literally looks like if Disney made a horror game.

And

I have to play it.

I have to check this thing out.

It looks wild.

I don't know if it's going to be good or bad or whatever, but I want to check it out.

There's another one

that isn't quite that style, but feels like the same vein that just put out a demo called Habromania that I really want to play as well.

That's another one I would say.

Check out the trailer.

And yeah, again, also, Kingdom Two Crowns is free this weekend.

So if you don't own it, go play it for free.

That's a solid, easy purchase.

If you have Steam, absolutely have fun playing a great game for free this weekend for their anniversary.

So

that's what's out, baby.

Yay!

Fantastic.

Look at us.

We did a show, and we didn't make fun of anybody.

Not once.

Not once.

We really kept it positive here on the pod.

Yep.

Yep.

We were very pod zetip.

Pod zetip.

I was trying to figure that joke out too, and then decided to abandon it.

Hey, man, what have you got going on on this week slash weekend?

Oh, well, I mean, yeah, no, I'm going to try and get for this weekend.

My whole full objective is to get this next giant block of Silent Hill F up on YouTube.

So hopefully you'll enjoy that.

And yeah,

then I'm going to try and stream.

But really, again,

I just need to finish this editing and get it done.

Cause it's just driving me crazy.

The idea that it's not done is eating away at my soul.

So So, literally, the minute I'm done here, I'm going to be like, all right, let's hit it.

So, yeah, that's what I'm doing.

You and I are going to maybe play some Absolum

tomorrow morning.

Together tomorrow.

Yeah.

So that'll be fun.

Yeah, I'm just trucking away on Silk Song.

Cobalman is done for the most part.

All of the

events are done.

But I believe next week is Next Fest.

So I'm playing another one over here already.

I know, it's crazy.

Ooh, but it's the October one, so it's gonna be a lot of scary games.

That's fun.

Yes, lots of spoopy stuff.

So,

yeah, excited for that.

That means also that our next Geek Enders is we're gonna have lots of fun stuff to talk about.

So many games.

So many games.

Wow.

Hey, man.

Thanks so much for watching, everybody.

So aggressive.

Hey, man.

Hey, listen up.

I appreciate you watching, Geek Enders.

Have a fantastic weekend and week.

If there are other geek enderses that you've missed, you can find all of them on youtube.com/slash jessecox.

We're also on all of the podcasty sites.

You can listen to us, you can watch us, whatever suits your fancy.

We'll be back next Friday again, talking about so many games.

Fingies crossed.

So many games.

So take care of yourselves.

And goodbye.

Bye.

Goodbye.

Yeah, yeah, you know what time it is.

It's time for the geek in this podcast.

Mega Rand, Jesse, and Dodger.

What up?

Let's go.

Yo, it's the weekend.

Yeah, it's time to geek out.

Let it begin.

Go on, stream and shout.

It's Jesse and Dodger.

So give them a follow and see what the geek in this are all about.

Yo, it's the weekend.

Yeah, it's time to geek out.

Let it begin.

Go on, stream and shout.

It's Jesse and Dodger.

So give them a follow, number one, geek podcast without a doubt.

Yo, another end of another long week.

Got a job and a kid, I know that you all beat.

So take a second, grab a drink, and vibe.

While we catch you up in just a matter of time on gaming, comics, whatever you're doing.

If you're nerdy like us, then you know you should tune in.

Thank you for sharing our world with us.

Now follow, subscribe, and turn this up.

Yo, it's the weekend.

Yeah, it's time to kick out.

Let it begin.

Go on, scream and shout.

It's Jesse and Dodger.

So give them a file.

A number one geek podcast without a doubt.

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