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S2 Ep150: FTL: Faster Than Light
82 Plays5 years ago
MINOR SPOILERS: Faster Than Light
Join Dave and Jake as they cover a long awaited episode...the critically acclaimed space ship rogue-like Faster Than Light!
Thoughts? Comments? Requests for new episodes? Feel free to email them in!
SoapstonePodcast@gmail.com
Like our podcast? Like our podcast! We'll post when new episodes are uploaded!
https://www.facebook.com/SoapstonePodcast/
Join Dave and Jake as they cover a long awaited episode...the critically acclaimed space ship rogue-like Faster Than Light!
Thoughts? Comments? Requests for new episodes? Feel free to email them in!
SoapstonePodcast@gmail.com
Like our podcast? Like our podcast! We'll post when new episodes are uploaded!
https://www.facebook.com/SoapstonePodcast/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to SoapZone
00:00:31
Speaker
How's it going, everyone? Welcome to another episode of SoapZone. My name is Jake. I'm joined by my co-host, as always, Dave. How's it going tonight, Dave? It's going pretty good. That's pretty good. I can, I can explain why. I can justify my brief, brief happiness. I apparently have off tomorrow. Oh. Which I did not know about until Monday. Somebody mentioned it in a meeting and like, hell yeah. Is it a holiday or something? I think it's good Friday or something. Hmm. Interesting.
00:01:01
Speaker
thank you Christianity for occasionally doing me a solid. Yeah, I didn't, uh, I'm like a hundred percent sure I don't have off. So I guess we're not observing. Yeah. I don't know. Cause like when I shift jobs, it's like, you know, like the standard holidays, but occasionally they're like, but also this one I'm like, thank you banking industry or wherever else. Yeah. I don't question it. I'm just like, hell yeah. Yeah.
00:01:30
Speaker
No, that's always
The Joy of Surprise Days Off
00:01:31
Speaker
nice. Surprise days off are, I mean, in theory, maybe like knowing well ahead of time is better because you can like, you know, schedule an extra day or something like that. Like make it a four day weekend or something. Oh yeah. I guess I can't do my trip to the Poconos now. Right. Yeah. As, as, as people do. Um, but on the other hand, when it's just like, you're only a few days out and it's like, Oh, by the way, you know, enjoy the long weekend and you're like, hold up what?
00:01:59
Speaker
Oh, yeah. That's nice. It's like Christmas. It's like having... Well, you definitely get off for Christmas. It's like... Veronica? Yeah. Yeah. Christmas for Veronica. Christmas for Veronica. And it is nice. It's just like having that weight lifted. It's like, tomorrow I have to do all these chores. And someone's like, no chores. You're like... It was like the snow day when you were a kid or something like that for Monday.
00:02:27
Speaker
And it's not like you're going to utilize the time wisely, just knowing that you don't have to do that thing anymore.
00:02:34
Speaker
It's kind of the, I assume other people feel this way sometimes too, but you wake up on Saturday and you're like, oh my gosh, it's freaking Saturday. Or even Friday night after you're done with obligations, you're like, the entire weekend is ahead of me and that feels good, knowing that that's ahead of you, feels good. And then you kind of get to Sunday and you're like, I've burned off some of those good feels, tomorrow feels less good.
00:03:03
Speaker
It's like, Sunday night is always my existential crisis. I'm like, what are you doing with your life? You don't socialize with anybody. You haven't done anything productive. Friday night, though, I immediately have the, I don't have to do anything. I can do whatever I want. And then I might go to the grocery store, like get some groceries. I'm like, I could buy anything in the store. I could make that. I could eat this. And it's just like the kid in the candy store, like, oh, all of the possibilities.
00:03:30
Speaker
And then I get the same things I always do, like bag salad, whatever amount of like two pounds of meat, pasta, and energy drink. With a voice break, yeah. That's mandatory. Pasta, pasta. Yeah. I'm also realizing on the description of like all of these nice Friday night activities that were really boring.
00:03:55
Speaker
It's, I guess, compared to any song that's about Friday. I would say the content's different. When I get home from the grocery store, I shoot heroin. Oh, OK. Good, good. All right. That's important. Still cool. We're keeping, we're continually earning that explicit content rating. It's at least once per episode together. This is fairly wholesome. Oh, there it went. There it goes. I want my kids to emulate. No, I don't. No, I don't like these guys.
00:04:25
Speaker
I hope kids don't listen to our podcast ever. No, no one does. Okay. What's funny is like, I love those jokes because the joke itself is entirely dependent upon being wrong to ever like land, right? Someone has to be listening to me right now and listening to you.
00:04:51
Speaker
Or else that's not hilarious at all. It's just sad. Well, yeah, it's like self-deprecating humor in a way. It's funny if it's like obviously a fake thing versus like, hey, are you doing OK? Right. There has to be a certain tonality with it where you're like, OK, they're fine.
00:05:10
Speaker
Right. It's funny because we expect that at least one person will have heard that joke. So then it's not depressing. Then it's good. Exactly. Yeah. Also speak.
Temptation of Daily Donuts
00:05:21
Speaker
Sorry. One other interjection. Another good thing is recently, like a friend came by, we went for a walk, had some dinner, shared some white claws, and they were nice enough to bring over some donuts as well.
00:05:34
Speaker
So they're close. I've been gaining weight. Unfortunately not. The claw themed evening. The claw Jesus. Who will stay and who will go? I stayed though. They left and I had like a donut a day though.
00:05:52
Speaker
And I have one donut left, but it is now becoming an uphill battle and my roly poly body is challenged. It's getting more difficult to get to the daily donut. That's the sign that the daily donuts have gone on too long.
00:06:08
Speaker
I shouldn't have put them on top of the fridge, rookie mistake. Oof, yeah. No, that is the problem. It's been a while since I had a donut. Pretty much any time I go to Wawa, I'm not looking at the full donuts, but I'm looking at the bag of minis, but those are a trap. Those are an absolute trap.
00:06:24
Speaker
Because I almost feel that the full donut is healthier for you because you can eat a donut and you're like, I just ate a donut. But if you have like a bag of minis, you're like, these are small donuts. I've only had like, what, three? Five? What's a serving size? 10? It's not 10. It's not 10 at all. Yeah, I would agree with that.
00:06:49
Speaker
But it's nice to have like, I just want
Humor in Streaming and Content Creation
00:06:51
Speaker
like a slight little nosh versus like going, biting a piece of the donut and putting it back to each their own. So the word nosh has always been interesting to me because it's like, it will one, I didn't know what it meant for a while, like going for a nosh. It sounds weird, right? And it also, it seems like a word that should mean a kiss. There's a word that's like close to that.
00:07:17
Speaker
That's like kiss. It's like nog or something like that. Snog. Snog. That's what it is. Snog somebody. It's still like pretty uncommon, but I get that, I guess. Yeah. Well, that's good. Which is also close to like pogs. So anyways, that's the trifecta of terms that are connected in my brain.
00:07:39
Speaker
So if you hear the term PogChamp for you, they're probably a good kisser. Also, I'm hungry. SnogChamp is such a good name for a reaction. We're going to have to commission that. I know some talented individuals who would gladly do this, who might actually be listening currently. That's who the joke was for earlier. But yeah.
00:08:07
Speaker
Anyways, anytime we talk about food, I ramble for a good bit. No, that's fair. I mean, Oh geez, it's been a while. I'm looking at the timer and like, Oh no, that's fine. It's a casual conversation. It's like third of the way through the episode. Um, no, that's not right. That's not how math works at all.
00:08:27
Speaker
I was going to just let it breeze by before people actually check the timestamp. When is our average
Gaming as Adults vs. Childhood
00:08:32
Speaker
episode? We'll pad out. We've got an intro before this, so we're probably at the 30 minute mark at this point. What are we talking about today? Today is a long anticipated episode, I would say. People have been trying to get us to record this one for a long time. FTL Faster Than Light is the full name.
00:08:52
Speaker
Yeah. I feel like that's like ATM machine in a way. I'll let it slide. Yeah. This is something that a friend got me, I think, five or six years ago and I just kept postponing playing it and postponing it. It was on your birthday. Your first birthday. Congratulations, David's parents. I've gotten them a gift. They'll know what to do with it later.
00:09:16
Speaker
This is a key. It can be used over a computer later in life. The program does not exist. The game does not exist. That'd be impressive.
00:09:26
Speaker
But yeah, the start is finally aligned. And I actually have to check it out. And I got to say, thank you for getting me that. I actually really did enjoy myself. I've always been a fan of roguelikes, space things in general. I just find it generally interesting. And probably spent at least 20 hours in this, even outside of just further records. Oh, good jeez. That's a lot of time.
00:09:51
Speaker
So shout out to, I will, I will give their first name AJ for buying this for me. Thanks, dude. Yeah. So this is for you. That's legit. Well, I mean, I don't have anything to say about it. So I think you covered most of it. Yeah. I'm just going to check our time here and the date. Oh, it's April the first. Oh, that's, that is unfortunate. That's oof.
00:10:18
Speaker
Well, still haven't played FTL. So, uh, fuck that. Fuck you. Let's talk about something else. Thank you kindly. Also go after yourself. Have a nice day. That's funny. Yeah, no, that's never going to happen. I've also been trying for years, but you know, that's life. I refuse on principle.
00:10:41
Speaker
You know what's funny though, is that the topic we subbed in for this is like not equivalently funny. So this is our topic episode, right? And we picked playing games as adults, which it kind of sounds sad, even off the get go, because the fact that it is a topic implies that there's some amount of adjustment or wrongness or social deviance assigned to that, I think.
00:11:07
Speaker
Well, I mean, it's it's definitely topic worthy. Like there's a definite shift of when we're talking about like retro games, it's a lot of nostalgia from like, hey, you remember back in the day we used to do this? Like those times are so highlighted because we like associated those fond memories with like playing games because that was our introduction into it. Everything was very bright and shiny and fun. Oh, yeah. And now we're like.
00:11:33
Speaker
man, fuck AAA. We've experienced enough things where we have expectations and we've been disappointed by things. So it's not like always watching stuff or going to games topic. Yeah, what's out in the thing?
00:11:49
Speaker
Yeah, not. And I mean, I never, I never like stayed out getting a game, but like I remember, and we've likely covered these on the retro episodes, but for newer listeners, like the first time that
00:12:04
Speaker
Like I had to basically bribe my parents to get an N64, but like make promises like I'm actually going to do my homework this time for real. I haven't done it up to that point. Right? So they were like, okay, well, if we don't have to like beat you with a stick to make you sometimes literally to make you do your homework, then you know, that's good.
00:12:25
Speaker
And we'll limit the time on the console. And we literally, I remember my brother and I had a bunk bed. And the console was in a box. We couldn't even hook it up until we were done with our homework the next day. And I just laid awake at night staring at it at that N64 of the box with a bunch of games like GoldenEye, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Mario Kart, all that stuff. It was a pretty good bundle pickup.
00:12:53
Speaker
And just laying awake at night and I'm like, this is what it means to be alive. And eventually I was like passed out, but, um, I think it's different. I would say it's different playing games. Less, I think.
00:13:12
Speaker
Well, thankfully, your game consoles are not in the same room you sleep in. I just stare at a point in the wall. It's a direct bead to where the PS4 is. Or like running a red light after getting Fallout 3. I had the lunchbox version of the game. And I was going back to community college after picking it up, spending most of my college income.
00:13:37
Speaker
and I was just like I had it in the seat next to me and I kept looking over at it like a freaking weirdo and then I like looked up and I was like oh I'm midway through a red light slammed on the brakes the people behind like everyone was aware that I was the insane person in the situation and so like the car behind me didn't actually pull all the way up I just backed up so
00:14:01
Speaker
And I mean, that was like teenage years, right? So I could drive, obviously. So it would have been at least 16. I mean, also in college, so probably a little bit older than 16. Right. Well, it was part of, it was like a jumpstart program thing. Because I was behind when I was in like homeschool for like a few years for everything except like science. And then it was part of a program where you could attend high school classes and college classes at the same time.
00:14:31
Speaker
I would have loved to have done that specifically like when I was in college, taking some elementary classes, just kind of like pad out some of those credits. Yeah. Just dunk it on these six-year-olds. It was nice for me because I was just like, I got to go from feeling really inadequate due to being behind in school, homeschooled to just like slightly ahead and the public like in college. I was like, yeah, it's fine. Good to know.
00:14:59
Speaker
So would you say it's safe to say that there's not the same amount of built up excitement about consoles or games or do you still feel some of that? I think that's fair to say. And I mean, it would be, I don't know, I guess it would be weird if someone was as enthusiastic now.
00:15:21
Speaker
about all games as we could pull as kids. I'm sure you have stories as well about really enjoying playing games as a kid, be that a social setting or a game that was just particularly impactful. And that's more rare, I think, as an adult.
00:15:45
Speaker
I think like I bought Disco Elysium like two months ago and I played it for the first time like yesterday. Yeah, it's it's weird how like you can actually have multiple things you haven't experienced with. It's like at a later point. I guess it's like getting books. I don't I'm not a reader. I don't know how to read. I don't know what these notes that you've typed on the right side are saying, but
00:16:12
Speaker
Like there's definitely a, I have it. I can experience it whenever I want. It just doesn't need to be right now. Whether like something's coming up or like sometimes I'll want to play a game, whether like it's a new release or like with people, but depending on obligations, like whether I'm recording or hanging out with somebody back when that happened, I'd be like, Oh, I'll just do that a different night. Hmm.
00:16:39
Speaker
But I will say, I do miss being in high school and talking with people at lunch or study hall.
Nostalgia for High School Gaming
00:16:47
Speaker
Tonight, we're all going to hop online, because that was the planning. That's how you did it. Yeah, exactly. Waiting for people to show up on AIM and be like, I'll host a lobby. And then everyone gets on gunbound. You're like, this is going to be so fucking good. And then you'd play for a couple hours. And that was the thing. You'd have a game or two until people burned out, and then you'd find something new. Right.
00:17:10
Speaker
And I think there's still some remnants of that in Discord, but not the same massive scale, or it seemed like the more consistent and aggressive scale. Now it's just like, are people online? You know, maybe we'll play Overwatch for a few hours at the end of the night, but it's much more...
00:17:29
Speaker
social focused, I think, then game focused. Like if no one was playing Overwatch, the same people would probably be online doing their own things, kind of talking, right? Which is, you know, fine. It's just, it's definitely a departure from like,
00:17:45
Speaker
When I was a kid, I had a friend who was mostly my friend because he had a SNES at the X-Men game, right? It's a classic thing of who's the one kid who has the cool thing? Oh, they have a pool? Oh, they have a game console? And you'd be like, oh, we're going to Timmy's house. Whether or not Timmy was an asshole or not, it's like Timmy would have friends.
00:18:09
Speaker
And now it's like a friend has a pool. That's a liability. They might want me to get in the pool. I like the social aspect of it though, because I don't constantly feel I need to play games. A lot of times in my free time, I'm not actively playing games. It's more likely that I'm watching something.
00:18:29
Speaker
Or if somebody's streaming a game, I love to like hop on and watch them because I get socialized, experience the game through their eyes. And if it's like somebody's playing something spoopy, I don't have to poop my pants. I can just be like, oh, I bet they're a little bit scared right now. Yeah.
00:18:47
Speaker
I think that's a fair take on it. You mentioned streaming. And there's a lot more, I don't want to say acceptance, but when I was younger and streaming kind of first started, I was like, why would I ever watch somebody stream when I could do it myself? Exactly, right? I don't want to be frustrated just seeing someone else
00:19:09
Speaker
be better than me or worse than me. These are both unacceptable conditions and I don't want to watch my own replays. So why am I watching this stream? But it very much, I think, for people that are striving for that social experience more than necessarily just playing games.
00:19:28
Speaker
streaming makes a lot of sense. So I can see the resurgence. I assume it's not just us that's kind of switched into this more social mindset. Yeah, I think in general, online has always been great for communities.
00:19:46
Speaker
Like even before streaming was a thing, there were subreddits, there were chat rooms, there's various other things where you just connect with people on a shared interest. Whereas this is more of a, an active shared interest where you get to kind of interact to some degree. Like the few times I've streamed, it's been more fun because yeah, I'm playing a game, but also I have like friends who are watching and like talking shit. Like I like that interaction. It's fun.
00:20:18
Speaker
Yeah, no, I have respect for people who are willing to host streams to actually foster that community or engage with everyone. I think Discord is kind of nice because you can do light streaming now. You're just like, I'm playing a game. We'll just do some other people want to check it out. Let's drop it, make it here, without opening it up to like,
00:20:42
Speaker
Um, just the thousands of thirsty people on Twitch. Um, maybe perhaps millions, you know, that's hard to say. I don't think that'd be a specific concern of mine, but yeah, I do. I do get what you're saying. Um, it's definitely a thing.
00:21:00
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's and we talked about like playing games socially with friends. One thing I've noticed to use segue to an adjacent topic, just like hop tracks, jump over the third rail and make it over to the fourth rail. I don't know how trains work.
00:21:18
Speaker
I guess, subways in this case.
Evolution of LAN Parties
00:21:23
Speaker
Land Party is a perfect example, I think, for me. Land Party is the embodiment of the topic of this episode. Land Party used to be very gaming focused, very drinking focused.
00:21:37
Speaker
very much like, let's just go, right? People were playing games constantly. There was like a lot of contention about like what games would be played. And now it's kind of like there's like some people kind of play in solo games and the people who are playing social games oftentimes break off into these like chats, right? Like people are just talking significantly more inland. It's an adult get together now instead of a bunch of teenagers playing games.
00:22:09
Speaker
I've always liked that aspect of it more, though. Again, I'm okay at some games. I'm better at some games than others. But it's never been like, I want to kick somebody's ass. And more like, I want to specifically kick one person's ass because they may be knocked down a peg. That's about it.
00:22:29
Speaker
You can just say my name. You can say my name, David. Fucking Jake and Rock. That's the pinnacle when Shane and I won the championship. That's the pinnacle of my life. It's all been. I remember. I don't remember who I was paired with.
00:22:44
Speaker
for that one year, but I remember, because it was land party, I was very drunk. It was lad. I actually said to your wife, like, hey, play for me for like 10 minutes. I'm just going to go talk to some people. She scored more points than I did. I don't think she had played before. And I'm like, goddamn, I'm bad at this.
00:23:04
Speaker
But like the memories always cherish more. So there was one of the summer lands. I think you and I talked outside for like two hours because people were out at the pool and people went inside and then we're just like chatting. I was probably going through some emotional shit knowing me. Oh, yeah. I actually know specifically what it was. But yeah, I remember the conversation. It was nice to just like talk person to person.
00:23:32
Speaker
And then like, I also did the same thing with Eric early in the afternoon, just like having heart to hearts. I like catching up with people and sharing those intimate moments versus like, I beat this person in this game. Like that's not it for me. Like the alcohol is a social lubricant and usually tastes good. And then now that I'm all lubed up, let me interact with people. We're here for the social interactions.
00:24:01
Speaker
Yeah, like I want to spend time with the people who I've missed more so than like games is kind of like a medium for that. Mm hmm. So do you think could get to hard hitting questions here? Oh, no. Now that you're lubed up. Do you think that if your current friend group, say like the comp sci majors from the anonymous university that most of us went to,
00:24:29
Speaker
That's the point where we introduce the not releasing personal identifiable information. Do you think that if none of them really played games that you would still play video games nearly as much as you do right now? Like you can expand that to like the podcast. If we didn't have the podcast, would you play games as much as we do? So I still think
00:24:57
Speaker
Yes, but I feel like it would take a different form. So like I still have my Dota group. I play games with, I would still do some single player stuff. I'd probably never touch Overwatch again. Right. They would just be Steam adult games.
00:25:14
Speaker
No one would be able to buy them with those Steam adult games. It's true. Yeah. They'd be undiscovered. I'm so convinced you're like the recipient of 50% of Steam adult game gifs entirely because of it. But yeah. I don't know when that started as a meme, but I have a surprising amount compared to anybody else who I know. So there's that.
00:25:42
Speaker
Yeah, I also don't think I'll really be playing Smash at all. Right. I don't really know anybody else who plays it or be like, hey, let's hop online and play some.
00:25:52
Speaker
I think that's fair. I think the answer would basically be the same for me. I would probably still be playing like simulation games and maybe some RTS. I never would have played Monster Hunter. I probably never. It was. It was fun. I enjoyed it. But like the primary motivation, at least to get in, was social, right? It's like, hey, we're doing this thing as a group.
00:26:17
Speaker
And also like playing with friends can make any experience significantly better. And if you run into like, so if I'm playing a single player game and I run into some bumps in the early game, then I stopped playing now, right? As an adult, I'm just like, as a kid, I probably couldn't tell that the game was bad and I'd be like, this is so great, but.
00:26:39
Speaker
Now I'm just like, oh, well, that's not particularly great. But like, you can play games with friends, and because you're having that social experience, you're willing to push through more crap in the game, right? Like, I know this because I got you to play like Magic Legends for at least an hour, maybe an hour and a half. You completely dropped. And I went back, going back on that, it was the right call to drop.
00:27:08
Speaker
Yeah, I knew that before. So again, just as a brief aside, Jake and I were talking about this, because we saw a thing. We're like, oh, it's free. It's interesting. It got talked about on a previous episode. It's like, OK, let's check it out. And then Jake said, oh, I'm launching the game. Like, oh, should I hop on with you? Should we check it out? And you're like, let me go through this first, and then I'll let you know. And then half an hour later, we're all on Discord. You're playing on your own.
00:27:35
Speaker
You say to me, yeah, I don't really think it's that good. I'm like, OK. And conversation moves on to something else. And then I think you said, oh, are you not hopping on? I'm playing Overwatch versus Magical Legend. I'm like, well, you just said it was shit a minute ago. And you're like, well, it's not like shit. It's just like. Right. But I ended up getting on for like half an hour to an hour.
00:27:58
Speaker
And then I think I ate dinner and went to do something else. And I had no intention of playing any more than that. And then Jake's like, they don't really let you do multiplayer. They have the other issues. They played for three more hours. But I was just like, mm-mm. I did. Mm-mm. Hard out. I put two days into it. And then I was like, OK, there's not a redemption arc to this.
00:28:20
Speaker
It's like an anime where it starts off and it's got some good premise. And you're like, I like some of these characters. I like the art style, whatever. Not really sure about this plot as it's developing. And then you watch the next episode and you're like, the plot's not actually gotten better. And I'm actually, I have some other concerns. And then you watch another one and you're like, all right, I'm just gonna check the subreddit real quick. And that's what I did. I checked the subreddit and people were like, I'm done with the game. I've completed all of the content and this is trash.
00:28:48
Speaker
I'm like all of these reasons seem sound so yeah, it's like With other examples like when we did outriders I know I like have some friends who are checking out now who are enjoying it awesome good for them but like when I checked out the demo as soon as I got like 10 minutes in I had that vibe of You're not going to enjoy this and then I was right
00:29:11
Speaker
But it was fun to like play with friends. He's like, we were just kind of dicking around, checking some stuff out. But I'm like, it's like bowling. Bowling's my perfect example of a group activity. Everyone fucking did in high school. I've always hated bowling. I will never like it. But you went with people because that was the group activity people were doing.
00:29:33
Speaker
So you buy some awkward shoes. You throw a ball. You sit and talk to somebody for 30 seconds. They're like, Dave, you're up. You're like, oh, god damn it. And you go to throw a ball again. And you're just like, why don't we just hang out at the park or something? Yeah, I know they're significant. Bullying really is the worst. Either you talk about something unrelated, which is the best case, or people will try to help you be better at bullying, and that's the worst case. It's like, I didn't want to be better at bullying.
00:30:03
Speaker
I wanted to leave bullying undefined on my character sheet, but if you're so intent on trying to push me up to decent beginner, then sure we can bond over this. It's still like a nice thing though. So like, I'm not a big FPS guy as much anymore.
00:30:20
Speaker
Like I would occasionally play stuff back in the day. It was mainly like Left 4 Dead 2 on somebody else's computer. But like the few times I've played CSGO, or like I've been doing some Apex Legends, Eric's been like super helpful every time of like giving like light suggestions, but like he just wants to have fun. And he'll give like pointers like, hey, here's something that we could do.
00:30:45
Speaker
better or if you're having trouble with this, maybe try this. And that's nice because it's, again, part of the community. It's him trying to welcome somebody into something he's familiar with and enjoys, which is awesome. In the same way, if I was trying to get somebody to play Dota,
00:31:03
Speaker
I would not try and like info dump on them. I'd be like, Hey, here's some things you want to try and do first time. And then like maybe answers to stuff as it goes up versus saying like, that's wrong. Fucking idiot. Right.
00:31:18
Speaker
I think Eric's a good balance between competitive and he tries his darnedest, but he also has a fun time. My sliding scale for fun is also attached to the slider for winning.
00:31:37
Speaker
Which is not healthy, and I don't remember. This is the reason I can't play Dota anymore, actually, because if I spend 30 minutes or 40 minutes or 90 minutes on a match with anti-maging techies and troll war, it was a good match though, man. We did win in the end. Well, that's why I like to techies with the group that I play with, because it's there are so many games we lose. Holy shit. Statistically, but then like
00:32:06
Speaker
Yeah, it's the odds that are against us. I mean, it's because you play a lot of games, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah. But a lot of times, we'll have just shitty picks. We're not going to win our lanes. Probably not going to win the late game, because again, we had shitty picks. But we're having a good time.
00:32:23
Speaker
And it's not always a good time, but nobody in there is so super salty. We're like, after one game, it's like, fucking them out. You're just like, think, oh, good. It's a GG, go next situation. Right. Yeah. So like we'll do a couple of games, win or lose. Like it's those people who I enjoy playing with and we're not always socializing outside of.
00:32:42
Speaker
dota sometimes it's like when we're in dota we're talking about dota maybe it's a quiet game i don't know but it's like a nice well to draw from yeah so like we'll usually do that at least once a week we'll get people together yeah that's what gaming is right now it's like
00:33:01
Speaker
That's the more specific question. If you didn't have your group of Dota friends, and if I had quit, and most of the other people had quit, I mean, because basically it's that group you're playing with right now, would you play Dota nearly as much as you do? If I didn't have friends to play with, no.
00:33:20
Speaker
There are very few games I want to play online where it's just like, no, I'll do solo and that'll be fun. Right. Because you're going to have either shitty teammates or playing against people or just being shitty. In general, like online communities are not great across the board. But if you're playing with friends, you can be like, that guy's an asshole. And you can do your own thing, right? Yeah. That's fair.
00:33:46
Speaker
I think I would agree. I would agree on that too. One thing I found is like the games that I still do play that are single player, I tend to not have nearly as much diversity. Like I play the social games. I play Overwatch and I probably wouldn't. I also wouldn't really play Overwatch. I don't play Overwatch solo.
Comfort in Solo Gaming
00:34:07
Speaker
But the games that I play solo are like comfort games. It's like a game I can just load up. It's Starcraft 2 co-op mode.
00:34:15
Speaker
There you go. There's the explanation. Like, cause I can just jump in, do a match. I like sup, GG, a done, you know, get like the APM practice. Not that I'm good, but it's still practice technically.
00:34:34
Speaker
And I'm comfortable with that. I do that more than playing a new game that's novel and exciting and maybe, you know, could expose me to new ideas or a new experience or something like that. As I grow up, I find myself doing that less. I go to more comfortable games. Yeah, it's definitely feels a little bit harder to branch out sometimes. I think part of my reason is some of the FOMO.
00:35:04
Speaker
Like in general, even before quarantine, I feel isolated as fuck. I am a very lonely person in general. And even in groups, sometimes that feels isolating for whatever reason. Thanks brain. Yeah.
00:35:23
Speaker
I'd rather stay close to the computer and connected to other goings on even if I'm not actively social versus going into the other room and playing a new game that I have for the PlayStation. Yeah.
00:35:38
Speaker
Which I don't know, it doesn't, like recently I've just been rewatching an anime that I've seen four times because like it's fun and familiar to me. There's a certain comfort in that. And again, I'm sure I would enjoy that new shiny thing, but it's not in my like, I'm not hard for it. You know what I'm saying? Right. Like it'll be there. Soft for it. Yeah. Yeah.
00:36:02
Speaker
No, I can understand that even when we were playing So like the last game I think a lot of us were really playing at the same time was like cyberpunk Q4 last year And it's a single-player game And it has all these issues
00:36:19
Speaker
But we were still all like the group that was playing, it was all playing at the same time. We were playing at the same time. People were like, we literally had a chat channel dedicated to it. So it was kind of like it hearkens back to that like cheat code, central sharing of ideas. You can like draw upon that a little bit and it became a social space around a single player game that I think
00:36:44
Speaker
significantly improved the the hype or the experience
00:36:50
Speaker
Regardless of whether the game was good, improve the experience of the game. If something was bad, we could share that it was bad. We all had a laugh about it. We're just like, this really does suck though, doesn't it? We've wasted 60 dollars. Or, you know, if something was good, it's like, oh, no, that's awesome. And or in theory, if anything good would have been posted. And I don't know, it's it's definitely true.
00:37:16
Speaker
That that social component really drives modern gaming, I think. Occasionally, so there's still like. If there were to be another FromSoft game at some point in the future, you can bet your tits like I'm going to play it solo and not talk to anybody.
00:37:40
Speaker
But in that interim in between, before I go to sleep and before I have to have responsibilities, I would be posting either to you or Ian or somebody else saying, hey, how far are you in this thing? Because I know it's also something that you would be checking out as well. And I want to share that joy and share some of that experience. Because maybe I'll say, hey, did you check this thing? And you're like, no, I didn't know it was a thing. Or maybe you'll talk about an item build. And I'm like, oh my god, that would be really cool.
00:38:11
Speaker
And there's just like the pinging of ideas or shared experience. Yeah. It's what makes us human if you think about it. It is the human experience. Yeah. Playing video games together. In the first day.
00:38:29
Speaker
No, I think that's accurate. I want to abuse a quote that I overshare from an Aesop rock song. We're all a bunch of weirdos on a quest to belong. Our songs are echolocation up in impregnable fog.
00:38:44
Speaker
So everyone's weird and doing their own shit, but everyone wants to connect with somebody in some capacity. So for me, it's through gaming. Anytime I've messaged somebody on a dating app and I see that they play games, I'm like, so what you been playing? PS, you're cute, but what you been playing? Did you get Demon's Souls? Did you get a PS5?
00:39:08
Speaker
as the one does, you know, on the PlayStation Network. I think that's accurate. And I think gaming can also break through, like,
00:39:25
Speaker
You mentioned at LAN party. There was a time we had like the heart to heart. Eric was there. He was there also for like a portion of our heart to heart. Heart to heart to heart, yeah. Yeah, three away with hearts. And the, you can't always have those experiences. Gaming provides like a backdrop that removes all obligations of like,
00:39:53
Speaker
uh active interaction is like the way i would put it so like if there's three people sitting in a channel and no one's saying anything and no one's doing anything past the point someone's gonna ask like what are we doing but if you're like playing a game and you're just kind of like talking about the game or not talking about the game or talking about anything else there's no pressure about like around all of that it's kind of like shuffling cards you know back and forth
00:40:20
Speaker
while doing this. It removes the entire necessity to talk. So you can't just talk about whatever. If there's something you're going through, something serious or dramatic or you got feelings,
Socializing Through Games
00:40:34
Speaker
you can choose to or choose not to engage with those when playing a game.
00:40:41
Speaker
more easily based off of the game. At Dota, you're always engaging. I'm always engaging with feelings and the feelings are about Dota, but I really like that space. I like, if I'm with a friend and we're playing a game, we could talk about whatever, you know.
00:41:00
Speaker
Yeah, there's basically stocks every time we play Smash. Yeah, that is actually the problem. I was thinking of this. It actually has a double meaning. That was clever on my part. That was good, yeah. I didn't mean to do that. Yeah, that was quality. I intended this to be like, all right, now, what's your hidden shame about continuing to play games as you arrive at or approach 30?
00:41:28
Speaker
All of the inappropriate games I have on Steam, some of which are hidden permanently. This ended up being far more wholesome thus far than I intended. Yeah, I don't know. The question is, what hidden shame do you have?
00:41:46
Speaker
I don't know. I guess, yeah, if we want to veer away from the wholesomeness for a second, we can take a roundabout and circle back. Have you experienced a game or discrimination from your parents, loved ones, or anyone like that who's just like, you still play games? What are you doing? Maybe at some point,
00:42:12
Speaker
Like maybe I dated somebody who wasn't as big into games. I don't think I ever felt ridiculed or they pointed it out though. Which kind of like, oh, that's their thing. And it's usually like early doors are upfront. Like this is something I enjoy doing. I was enjoying cooking and other shit. But yeah, I don't think I ever got any of that. Cause I feel like very early on I found
00:42:41
Speaker
my kind of people, whether in like high school, college. I'm like, you're a fucking nerd. Let's hang out. That's who I usually associate with. It's not like I have one friend who was a jock who just, they never got it, right? And also even people who are outside of the active gaming space still have a fucking appreciation.
00:43:08
Speaker
Like I've talked to older coworkers who they're not actively gamers, but they have one thing that they really like. Maybe it's Assassin's Creed, maybe it's FIFA, maybe it's Call of Duty. And like they get where the appreciation comes from.
00:43:29
Speaker
Yeah, I think like my answer to the same question as though presented as a question to myself. I should really ask you some of these questions instead of just like leaving and hanging. No, that's fine. Additionally, my thoughts on top of your thoughts, you know, like I've had
00:43:46
Speaker
To continue off of what you were saying, I would say, interactions with people who don't really play games at all. And I always have a bit of culture shock because I'm so immersed in our own friend group, in our Discord. And all of the acquaintances and friends and people that I hang out with day to day that's not in a very strict coworker
00:44:12
Speaker
way play games to some extent or like you mentioned can like empathize with an interest in games. But sometimes I run across somebody who's like oh look like that's literally that would be my go-to question if I wanted to like just get to know somebody hey like do you play any games you know like what do you play and then hope that they have any enthusiasm to give an answer to that.
00:44:36
Speaker
And I realized that if they don't actually at all have an answer to that, I'm just like, I don't know how to interface with you as a person, right? Like I've got like USB type A and your USB type C. This doesn't work.
00:44:52
Speaker
I'm also not trying to have sex with them to clarify that But it's it is definitely weird if you talk to somebody who you're like getting to know me It's like a new co-worker. It's ago. What'd you do this weekend? Oh, I went on a hike and you're like, oh nice Beyond that I don't know what the fuck you asked them. So you use your legs for that. What was the elevation of the trail?
00:45:14
Speaker
Yeah. Is it fairly wooded? I don't give a shit. Is it in nature? I'm sure it was pretty. I'm sure you got some exercise, but like, what do you ask beyond that? Whether it's humidity during your. If it's a game, you can say like, what was your favorite part? Again, I guess like, I guess we applied to the hike as well. But I feel like there's more deeper avenues you could explore with it instead of like, did you find a really round rock that would be good for skipping down at the bottom of the mountain? I don't know. Right. Exactly.
00:45:44
Speaker
Whereas I know that there's hiking podcasts out there where people could actually talk about this. I just can't interface with that at all. Because you're one of the questions you could ask is, what's your favorite part of the hike? And I was like, that doesn't sound like a natural question to me at all.
00:45:59
Speaker
Like the summit, I guess. The point where you stop for a neutral green bar. What do you mean? The part where I was momentarily not hiking was my favorite part of the hike. The time where I could breathe for like two minutes. That was good. I like that part. But yeah, it's.
00:46:21
Speaker
It's really like, I don't know. I suppose there are other interests. Like I have, I have some other interests, tabletop games, but that's again, nerd dumb. If you escape nerd dumb, that's when I just can't relate to people anyway. So.
00:46:37
Speaker
Like my parents, right? What am I going to talk to my parents about? Religion? I'd rather not. Politics? I'd rather not. Like, and like my mom played Korean online multiplayer game for like a decade as like an addiction. Sorry, mom. Is it maple story? It wasn't actually in this case, it was, but it was close enough. It was a conquer online is what it was called. It was like an ARPG sort of like.
00:47:07
Speaker
Diablo esque, but just like pumped full of microtransactions. And they're literally the company's scheme for development was released the game with reasonable microtransactions, build the player base, and then just like replace all of the blood of the game with microtransactions. Yeah.
00:47:29
Speaker
I don't know why I'm talking about that game. So maybe slightly better. I was like, Hey, mom, you should play a game sharing my hobbies. And she's like, I'm going to get addicted to a Korean game. Like that's not what I wanted to happen. Should have been gun bounce. Just saying. Yeah. Oh man. Do you think in the future, let's say 10 years down the line, you'll still be playing games?
Future of Gaming in Adulthood
00:47:54
Speaker
I can't imagine a future like where I'm not playing games. Let me rephrase the question. Will we still be podcasting 10 years? I don't know. Maybe.
00:48:03
Speaker
I was thinking like 10 months. You think we'll be podcasting in 10 weeks? I'm going to be running around naked outside in 10 months. I don't even know if we're going to. I don't even know if we'll be recording this episode in 10 minutes, let alone the podcast in 10 years. I think, you know, as long as no one's sent us death threats, we'll probably have good ground to keep recording. No, but actually the video game question, though.
00:48:33
Speaker
Oh, to still play games. Yeah, I answered. I answered. I don't see myself not playing games at some point in the future. I might try to weave in some responsibilities and
00:48:50
Speaker
I don't find myself obsessively playing games as much like I used to outside of like, here's a title like cyberpunk where it just like cracked through all of my like adulthood to like that childhood core, the caramel core of childhood. Um, and so I got like really excited about it and I woke up and I was like, I want to go play that game. I went to sleep and I'm like, why am I not playing that game?
00:49:19
Speaker
Addiction in short, but that's rare, right? I Don't think that that's going away entirely though like They're too much fun
00:49:35
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's still going to be like an evolving medium as time goes on. VR, which was still like holy shit when it came out, which was it was a piece of shit when it first came out. Can we agree on that? Yeah, it's improved a lot and it's fucking nuts. It's more than just we're born now. It's it's really good.
00:49:56
Speaker
There was, I feel like we talked about this once, but there's usually a thing, I swear I got this from the other Justin, where porn drives a lot of
00:50:07
Speaker
advancements in technology. I believe other Justin would have an entire Wikipedia article in this. We'll have to ask him about it. But I think a lot of the appeal for VR early on was like, how close can I see titties? And valid art. Instead of just holding the magazine right up against your eyes, which was the traditional way to do it.
00:50:35
Speaker
I got nothing off. My eyeballs are drawing out. Yeah, no, I would believe that. I would believe that. But yeah, like as it keeps advancing, like still there's going to be a lot of things that are shitty. Like any time we look at like what games are coming for a year, there's only like one or two that really like catch my interest or some of that childhood spark. And a lot of them will probably go by the wayside, but I'm still
00:51:04
Speaker
curious to have those experiences or to live through those stories because that's what it is for me. Like when I was early on in my teenage years trying to justify video games, either to my parents or people who were less keen, it's like a movie that you get to interact with. Imagine having like a deeply rich story that you got to take part in and influence. And it was shiny and fun as well.
00:51:35
Speaker
Yeah. And there were cheat codes for nudes. Like, you had your options. If you would solve this more, we can get the game banned in Australia. Thanks, GTA.
00:51:53
Speaker
And I don't have the patience to read books. Again, I can't read. Is that why you were letting me borrow comic books? Is that the main reason? Yeah. You know how people have books in their apartment for show? Mine are literally for show. I don't know what they say.
00:52:15
Speaker
I really like that this is entirely unrelated, but novelty books that aren't really meant to be read, but they're just the cover. This feels like a Chuck Tingle segue. Right. Chuck Tingle would actually be great. I don't have any of them. But one title I remember is how to lose friends and alienate people. That's a really good one. I think we have something from College Humor or whatever on the shelf that I've literally never looked inside the front cover on. There's technically pages there. That's all that matters.
00:52:47
Speaker
I just have different copies of the Bible that I've stolen from hotels. That's fair. Yeah. They actually, that's the point though, is they're trying to spread the good word through. I mean, one person steal all of their copies. I wonder next time I'm at a hotel, I might ask them like, why do people still do this? Yeah. I don't know actually. I mean, I do know, but then at the same time I don't know, you know,
00:53:16
Speaker
No. As somebody who has like a background with like logical things, that's a fucking fallacy. It kind of is and it isn't, you know, I guess like maybe it started because it's just like, hey, if someone's down on their luck, they're in a hotel.
00:53:34
Speaker
This could be their guiding light, but the people who leave those Bibles aren't considering the probability that someone who's down on their luck in a hotel is going to like see a book and be like, this thing, this thing right here. That's what I'm going to check out. They have VR for that. VR by bus. In every hotel room.
00:53:59
Speaker
Imagine attending like a VR church. I forgot the thing. Um, sermon service service, church service baptism. Oh, VR baptism would be intense. Have you ever wanted the sensation of drowning?
00:54:19
Speaker
All right, so the first step in getting ready for the VR baptism is filling your tub. Don't worry if your play space doesn't expand that far. We have extension cables. We've tangented a bit from the tilting games. No, I mean, we were kind of, I think we hit a lot of the core of this.
00:54:48
Speaker
I guess my main thoughts coming into this were there's sometimes been a time where I'm like, man, I wasted my weekend playing games when I could have been more productive. And in general, I want to hit those productivity points. But I also find that I'm relatively satisfied. And if I compare myself to, you mentioned TV, watching a movie or something like that, it was really common
00:55:17
Speaker
10 years ago, 15 years ago, what have you, that literally, I mean, like my family did it. Um, evenings were always spent like watching TV. Right. And we've just substituted that out for video games. And a large portion of that is within our friend groups. It's like,
00:55:41
Speaker
There's an entire generation behind us that would have killed to have a poker game night like three or four or five or six or seven nights a week.
00:55:51
Speaker
And our generation has that. We actually can have that level of interaction and friendship building. So even in a pandemic where we literally can't see each other besides when we have webcams on for podcast episodes, we have a lot more interaction than was ever possible at a more meaningful level, I think, in some cases too.
00:56:18
Speaker
I was speaking to my uncle recently and he was trying to get it used to getting used to working remotely, not being in the office, which he has been his whole life because that's how things have always been. So we felt kind of like isolated from people in the back of my head. I'm like, why are you guys just hop on Discord and play some. Yeah.
00:56:39
Speaker
Right. Exactly. Like it's free. You could find some free shit. Just do this thing. But I'm sure to him, it's comparatively very foreign. But like him and my aunt like have a lot of game systems and have played lots of games, but they're not, they don't do it actively. It's just like they're, they're dinks and they have that option. Right.
00:57:05
Speaker
Yeah, it is fucking awesome that we grew up in this generation where it's it's been an option, but it's also very much been the norm for at least us in like the more nerdy game space. Right. Which is that people are generation have had that option. Just don't embrace it. It's really like, I'm going to go outside today like, no.
00:57:27
Speaker
And I do think, and I honestly, I have skewed perspective, but I think that the nerd space is significantly more inclusive than it was in the past. Like you can be an art nerd, you can be like technically involved without like overlapping 100% with like, here's the video games, like we have friends that very like in our nerd space, like computer science literally,
00:57:55
Speaker
that don't play that many games. But we can still interact with them. And so the Venn diagram for how I'm not being exclusionary here, as long as you have some interest and it overlaps somehow with either games or technology, I could probably have a discussion with you about it. And I think that people are more technologically apt, and it's easier to join these spaces.
00:58:22
Speaker
But if you don't have anything to bring disabled, don't fucking talk to Jake, but the others. Yeah. Um, but now I mean, it's fine. You can still try. It just might not work out. Speaking of playing games as an adult, I want to kick your ass in the smash.
00:58:45
Speaker
That's fair. You know what, I was going to use this as a segue out, I was going to say. Speaking of trying, but not working out, thank you guys for listening to this episode of the soapstone. As always, you can send in your feedback, tell us that you're personally offended by our April Fool's jokes, or your own personal reviews and essays that we will not read.
00:59:07
Speaker
on FTL faster than light. Or you can publicly post those to Facebook for some reason at facebook.com slash soapstone podcast. And as always, we'll see you in the next one.