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S2 Ep167: RSS - July 2021
77 Plays4 years ago
Join Dave, Jake, and special guest Jennie as they try out a new open-ended guest format in this week's episode!
...also I realize this isn't going live in July but we're going to have to accept this and move on.
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/
...also I realize this isn't going live in July but we're going to have to accept this and move on.
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/
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Transcript
00:00:14
Speaker
you
Podcast Introduction and Banter
00:00:50
Speaker
How's it going, everyone? Welcome to another episode of Soapstone. My name is Jake. I'm joined by my co-host, as always, Dave. How's it going tonight, Dave? Uh, it's going okay. Cool. I'm just going to leave it on dead air for a bit. Oh, wait.
Humorous Pranks and Restaurant Talk
00:01:06
Speaker
Hello? Somebody else on the call? Hello? Hey, hey, is this the Taco Bell on 6th Avenue?
00:01:16
Speaker
Yes, we have only potato burritos, weirdly. Can we interest you in anything? You know, I want to say yes, but my mother raised me better than that. I'm going to have to leave. Thank you, sir. This is actually the Pizza Hut. It's not the Taco Bell. It is a combination pizza and Taco Bell. Oh, nice.
00:01:40
Speaker
If you went to a combination restaurant, would you feel obligated to get items from both? No. No. Case in point, Taco Bell, Long John Silver's. Those are two very different appetites. Also, hi, I'm doing well tonight. Thank you for asking. Oh, my God. Nobody asked Jenny how she's doing. How are you doing tonight, Jenny? Yeah, you know, survived a tornado watch, so I'm doing pretty well.
Apps, Notifications, and Satire
00:02:07
Speaker
Yeah, I keep getting notified of weather events in your area because I never changed my address in Alexa. So it's like, hey, this warning, I'm like, where? They're like, back where you don't live anymore. I'm like, oh, okay, cool. Thank God. We lived. You're welcome. Notifications are just like, pray for your friends.
00:02:30
Speaker
I would like if they actually somehow slipped religion in there. Hey, would you like to pray? Would you like Jeff Bezos to also put in a word with the Lord? Right. Would you like to donate a $1 prayer in your area? Click here now.
00:02:48
Speaker
It's definitely an app, right? There's zero percent chance. There's not televangelism apps that like just have like reminders, push notifications. Pray for this. Pray for that. Time to tithe. Did you tithe today? Do it now with PayPal. Sign up today by clicking this link. Your money back guaranteed.
00:03:10
Speaker
What's funny is like how ready I am to like shit on that. But if they relabel that to like, Hey, do you want to contribute to like a Goku spirit bomb? I'm like, Oh my God. Yes. Please. What's he, what's he using the spirit bomb on? These are the important questions. It's humanity. You can't ask him any questions. It's in the terms and conditions.
00:03:32
Speaker
That's not a bad deal. I think like chip into, to wipe out humanity. Just a couple of people. Right. Just, just these people who I have on my list. That's all. Got to be careful about people on the lists.
00:03:52
Speaker
I don't have a segue for that. I don't know what has gone off of that one.
Gaming Topics and Technical Setup
00:03:57
Speaker
But welcome, Jenny, back to Soapstone. It's been a while, I think. We went through some setup because I believe we've changed the format like a couple of times. Or we've adjusted some elements of recording since we last had you on.
00:04:14
Speaker
I think that's fair. I think it was Animal Crossing. When did Animal Crossing come out last year? It must have been last year. It was. It was the new hot thing for the pandemic. Oh yeah. That wasn't even Q4 last year. That was early, right? That was like Q2. That's kind of suspicious, but whatever. I won't question it. I don't want to be sued. Not today. Maybe tomorrow. You're just here so you don't get fined? I mean, I'm serious so I don't get fined.
00:04:43
Speaker
I could have sworn it was Pokemon. Oh yeah, we did have a Pokemon episode. That was generalized. It was for... Was it? Yeah. You weren't for that. Was I not here for at McCrossing? No, you were. You were here for both. Pokemon was just after. And McCrossing was us, us three, and Rachel. And then Pokemon was us three. Yeah.
00:05:10
Speaker
But anyways, we use different elements of Zincaster now for recording. So it took a little bit to set up, but we made it here. We've all got webcams, microphones ready to record a podcast. What game are we covering today, Dave?
00:05:27
Speaker
Uh, I got nothing. So we're trying not to like, uh, force game topics as actively, uh, for our sanity's sake, but we still like talking about games. So maybe we could go around and kind of talk about what we've been playing recently. Yeah. You do have to be careful about anything with the word active in it right now.
Podcast Ratings and Sponsorships
00:05:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:52
Speaker
We don't even listen to System of Down's inner vision. It's just too close. I have an unrelated question, but I thought I'd get this out of the way now. What is this podcast rated? Can I call games a hoe? Yes. Is that too much for the audience? I think Dave's incredibly vulgar. Yeah. I make up for Jake saying dang it once. And then I'm just like, fuck everybody. And appropriate comments here and there.
00:06:21
Speaker
I thought, I don't know. I don't know. Maybe guest episodes are sponsored a little differently by the generous corporations. We have not been getting residuals from Guinevere's canned bread recently. So I feel like that ship has sailed. That stuff is so good. Canned bread. Best thing since fake bread.
00:06:44
Speaker
It is baked in the can, right? It has to be. The chance of just eating. Otherwise, it would be like Pillsbury, would be like a can of dough. Yeah, I've actually... Have you guys seen the MRE guy on YouTube that eats rations?
00:07:02
Speaker
Oh, MREs. Yeah, those are disgusting. Well, like some of them look all right because some of the new ones look all right. But like the old things. Yeah. And anytime he comes across like bread, something he's like, all right, we can skip this. But bread does not keep, you know, compared to a lot of the other things. And it's absolutely true. You know, telling me something made of wheat and sugar isn't going to hold up. Not so much.
00:07:31
Speaker
Yeah. I will say though, I'm still under the mental disposition that if something has sugar in it, that it will keep longer. Oh, I'm like, Oh, that's a, that's some type of preservative. It'll be fine. I mean, honey, honey exists, right? Exactly. And that's literally just sugar. So, you know, speaking of honey, thanks to today's sponsor. Man, that would be a great one. Right.
00:07:57
Speaker
Do you like to get free deals on things you didn't even know that there were deals for? Here's this browser extension that will track all your personal data. Do you want to spend more money? We're really counting on Honey getting people things that they didn't expect. And by that, I mean them paying us for us mentioning them on the show. You're welcome, Honey. You get that one for free next time I expect a deal. Well, they're actually using the Soapstone podcast extension, so. What does that count mean?
00:08:27
Speaker
one free mention of whatever your service or business is. I was hoping you'd get me either a soap or a really nice rock, but I guess that works
Soapstone and Geology Discussion
00:08:37
Speaker
too. Or a soap stove. That is the thing. It is an actual thing. It's less exciting in real life though, I think. Yeah. Isn't it supposed to like... Isn't that part of like stone washing jeans? Yeah, it's something related to...
00:08:54
Speaker
clothes or pumice or something. That's not pumice, that's something else entirely, but. Pumice. Ooh, hummus. I can safely search for the, it's a type of, it's a type of rock, metamorphic rock, apparently. It's talc schist. So schist, if I recall, I think also talc has like a very high cleavage. Yes. Ooh. It's like kind of a rock.
00:09:23
Speaker
Going back to geology, right? It's like the one thing I remember from that class. I'm like, that's funny. Stories forever. Hey, girl. Nice cleavage. You're just passing by a mountain. Nice peaks. That's not a geological term at all. Uh-oh, she's got a landslide going on. Oh, no.
00:09:51
Speaker
But for anybody who's not, who didn't take geology because it's just like you took a different gen ed or whatever, uh, cleavage is just how easily like the rock can fragment apart. Right. I think we also actually that hard. You can kind of like peel pieces off with your hands. It's low hardness too.
00:10:15
Speaker
Like, I remember we had to evaluate, like the exam was like, go mineral by mineral, like rock by rock and be like, all right, what's the hardness? What's the cleavage? What's all of this? And then we tasted it. And then taste, yeah, the taste test. Because, well, rock salt was one of them. So that was the easiest one, by the way. If you tasted rock salt, it was really easy to differentiate it from quartz, which would be easy to confuse it with.
00:10:42
Speaker
Well, is it the same rock salt that's in the salt lamp that is sitting not too far from me that I've definitely licked at least place? Yeah, that's salty. I just wanted to compare. Yeah, the technical definition of cleavage is the tendency of a mineral to break along flat planar surfaces as determined by the structure of its crystal lattice. So it's like, how does it fracture? Yeah.
Sims 4 and Gaming Experiences
00:11:21
Speaker
Yeah. That's the first time I think we've, um, defined geological term on the, on, on substone. So it's pretty good. You welcome rocks. Uh, this is going to be a weird episode because we don't have a game to talk about, but we want to do experiment new formats, exciting places, new horizons, horizon zero done.
00:11:35
Speaker
What shape is your cleavage? Take the quiz today.
00:11:50
Speaker
coming to PC, new game. Let's go. I think we were gonna talk about what games we were playing and then I successfully derailed because all I've been playing is the Sims 4. That's right, that's right. And it's like, yeah, that's all I've got. I would struggle to talk an hour about the Sims 4, I think, but I mean, the Sims 3 obviously completely different story.
00:12:17
Speaker
I can't even talk that much about the Sims, but what have you been doing in Sims 4? So let me tell you, I have been using the get to work expansion and it's so nice. I can go be a scientist for a day and it's great. My Sim quit her job as an artist and went to science school. That's definitely a shift.
00:12:46
Speaker
It's easy to make a major career change in The Sims. I don't know if four is the same, but in three they had like aspirations. And then you got a bunch of points, like getting points by completing their goals allowed you to like buy things and their life would improve. And I think if you did like really well, you could literally just make them immortal in Sims 3. Yeah, it's basically the same in The Sims 4.
00:13:12
Speaker
I never use them. You never use the points. So you can get rewards to buy like, you don't have to sleep tonight, your hunger is full, but if you enable cheats and then you shift left click on the mailbox, you can click on alter needs and then fill needs. And I'm like, I'm just going to do that real quick.
00:13:36
Speaker
Oof, yeah. Yeah, the game basically does have cheat codes built in. In real life, those are just drugs. You know, like you don't have to sleep tonight. Some of you are really happy. I think that one's caffeine. It really is. Caffeine, crack, I don't know, whatever you're feeling. I feel like, conversely, I take drugs to fall asleep more often than try to stay up. I guess it depends on the drug.
00:14:06
Speaker
Certain drugs are probably better tailored to falling asleep than others. Yeah. Melatonin. Yeah. That's not a drug. It's a hormone. Serotonin. Serotonin's the hormone. Melatonin. You can take it in pill form. Melatonin's a hormone. We make melatonin in our bodies. Yeah. You can still get it as a drug though. You can get it in pills. Does it count as a drug then?
00:14:32
Speaker
I assume that it was. I think it is. But I don't know. I think if you can get something in pill form, it's a drug. So you can turn. So I played drug dealer simulator.
Simulator Games and Mechanics
00:14:43
Speaker
And I've made some weird stuff. Can you cut with melatonin? I don't think you can in that game, unfortunately. Only cut with all purpose flour.
00:14:53
Speaker
Well, I mean, literally flour is one of the things you could cut with. Or like salt or other terrible things. I think sugar was one, wasn't it? Sugar was very popular to cut with. I was going to say, I think the kids like that one in that game. It could be like those dipsticks where you just take sugar and put it in another form or color of sugar and then you just put your mouth down.
00:15:18
Speaker
Yeah, that's why I said repeat. That's that's the story. That's my story. I just wanted what was it called? You know, I meant like the pool fun dip. I was just eating fun dip officer.
00:15:36
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know if that you would... The police are so aggressive in that game, they would absolutely not believe any story you told them. But if you show them your blue tongue, what are they gonna say? Right. There's no illicit drug that gives a man a blue tongue. He's fine. Maybe that's like your cover. You just secretly have warheads to cover up. You're like, it was fun, dude. That's pretty good.
00:16:04
Speaker
Unlike the game, which actually isn't that good. I just played it a lot.
00:16:10
Speaker
Has that been your recent game, Jake? No, I haven't played it in a long while. So I like sim games. I like games where you can do management and making drugs counts as good as anything else in my books, so why not? But cocaine was broken. That was the issue with the game. It did really ruin the long-term economy. It's like real life. It's just too profitable.
00:16:39
Speaker
Past the point, I literally just couldn't store any more money. I had like warehouses and I was just throwing bags of money like in the corner. Like literally taking duffel bags, filling them with money and throwing them someplace because I just didn't have any room to store money anymore.
00:16:55
Speaker
Where's your stash house? House? The city is my stash house. That was one of the events that you could get raided and the police would like take whatever's in the place that they they raid. So I had like a drug manufacturing facility and then like in some other storage lot, I'd be throwing my bags of money. Unlike in real life where you just get arrested and it doesn't matter that you sort your money anywhere else.
00:17:27
Speaker
That's how they get you, though. Is this your money? You're like, no. So you wouldn't mind if we took it? And you're like, well, maybe.
00:17:37
Speaker
There's that exact interaction in Star Sector. If you're transporting illicit goods and you eject them before the local authorities talk to you, they'll be like, hey, we scanned you and we didn't find anything illicit in your cargo hold. But nearby, floating in space,
00:18:00
Speaker
We found this massive pack of drugs and we're taking it, which is you shouldn't have a problem with because it's not yours. And that's literally the interaction. Such a brilliant game.
00:18:13
Speaker
I do remember when we were playing Divinity, if we stole something from somebody, the first person they'd check is the person who stole it. So what you do is you pass the item to the next person in the party before they were talking. And then after, you just pass it to somebody else who they had already talked to. And they're like, well, I've talked to everybody once. Nobody has it. Just guess I never owned anything.
00:18:39
Speaker
The most hilarious part about that interaction is time pauses when one person's talking to the NPC. So they could literally just have field of vision on you guys making the handoff behind him. But he can't move because he's in conversation. He's trapped by the laws of the universe. It's kind of like real life when you end up in a situation where you have to talk to something. You're like, I really don't want to. But if I try to leave now, it's going to get real weird. So I'm glad a game finally capitalized on that game mechanic.
Social Situations and Childhood Adventures
00:19:10
Speaker
the real life game mechanic of I'm too awkward to leave the situation. Right. Like going to shop and somebody from my college school is like, hey, aren't you so and so? Hey, how have you been? You're like, hi. Have you ever been in an interaction, either of you, I guess, in an interaction where you tried to escape it by mimicking the behavior of a weeping angel from Doctor Who and you just get closer and closer to the exit whenever they're not looking at you?
00:19:41
Speaker
I mean, my answer is no. Cause I don't know. It would be like talking to me, but then like looking away. Right. That sounds like something that you end up doing when you're trying to say goodbye to a parent. Oh yeah. I gotta, I gotta go. This it's been 30 minutes. Mom, I gotta go.
00:20:04
Speaker
Yeah, it was always fun. But I remember from being a kid, the only thing, everything else was gone to time, is when you had a friend over, their mom would like come to pick them up. And it's like, hey, we're leaving. You're like, okay. So like, moms are talking, kids are like, see ya. And it goes on for a couple of minutes, the kids kind of like step away like,
00:20:25
Speaker
We're going to go back in the basement and play some games. And then it's like another half hour. And they're like, where are you? We're leaving. What would you believe? And it's like, that was a half an hour ago. And you kept talking. I don't know if that was just my experience or if that is universal. Is that track? No. That sounds about right. About 100% tracks.
00:20:46
Speaker
Yeah, particularly playing games with friends. It's just like, oh, isn't there like more like adult things you could talk like, have you guys discussed the weather or like that sermon that we were at? I thought Father Matthew had some really good points. Who said that? And scurries away.
00:21:10
Speaker
What sister Agatha was wearing? The frill on her socks. It was just little Hail Mary afterwards. What a whore. That's a very different kid. That's not what I would have said.
00:21:27
Speaker
I'm trying to think. I mean, I didn't grow up with frilly socks, obviously. Unfortunate. I'm very sorry. I mean, I, I kind of appreciate them from a distance because it's kind of cool, but I don't think it would suit me at any point. I don't think that was ever my style so much. Right. I like, I have no, I have no contribution to this. I also did not have frilly socks. I feel like as a guy, you kind of grew up with like generic clothing type stuff.
00:21:55
Speaker
Right. And the girls have a whole wide range of shit. I don't know if I have really socks on either. No, but it does. They don't exist. The closest I have are pizza socks, which are just patterned as though they were, they were pizza. Present day, I definitely have really socks as a child, though. I think my parents knew better. They're like, these are going to be destroyed instantly.
00:22:22
Speaker
You just were going to get like the bulk bag from Kmart, rest in peace Kmart. And some of them are going to be pink or green, but they're cheap. And you're going to ruin these in three weeks. Yeah. Here's your one dollar of cotton. Use it wisely.
00:22:42
Speaker
One of the great disappointments in life is that I got Argyle socks once and they were really, they were nice. I really liked them, but they just, they wear out and they start smelling weird, like so much faster than just standard Hain socks, like normal socks, like no problem. And for some reason.
00:23:03
Speaker
these nice, I really like the style. I had like various, very extravagant colors. I had like pink and black. I had all these cool stripes and things, but now I can wear them like literally once and I have to wash them immediately. So I don't think they're made out of cotton. Maybe that's it. That's the problem. What's the deal with sock materials?
00:23:26
Speaker
Which brings us to our next topic, sock materials. Alright, so wool socks are actually amazing because they're moisture wicking. So you can wear them all day and if your feet sweat, it's just like swoosh swoosh gone. It just pulls into your shoe.
00:23:46
Speaker
Hm. You can just pour out your socks later. I don't know if this is what we should use to sell our wool socks, like this particular line of reasoning. I mean, the socks are gonna be just fine. Now you gotta get moisture-waking shoes. We don't know where the moisture goes, but at that point, it's not our problem.
00:24:07
Speaker
They're wool socks and Crocs. 2021. Let's go. Hear me out and just combine the two. Wool Crocs. Easy peasy. There you go. Did they have holes in them?
00:24:21
Speaker
Yeah, pretty much. It's just a very holy sock. I'm imagining the socks on the outside of the croc, so it's not actually making contact with your body. So wait, the sock is fully intact, but the croc still has holes for breathing purposes. Yes, right. You have slightly improved breathability. The issue I have with wool socks is they're not comfortable enough for me to wear, but it could just be like the pair, the one pair that I had was really itchy.
00:24:51
Speaker
Maybe. I'm definitely in the winter just slap those boys on. Yo, they're a blessing in the winter and they're so good. And then if you have like any hard services, you can slide. True. Every time I would go into the kitchen to like throw something out, my trash cans at the far end, by far and I mean like.
00:25:11
Speaker
It's not where the wood starts from the carpet. It's like living room, kitchen. And then I try and get like a couple of running steps and then I slide and just throw something in the trash. What scares me is there's a window directly next to your carpet. So I'm not that fast. It just trips flails about wildly and drops two floors.
00:25:34
Speaker
Oh my God, what happened? You're not going to believe me. If you go fast enough, there's a pool. I saw people in a pool. I saw like their sun hats bobbing up and down and I'm like, that's pool. If you go fast enough, you can launch yourself into the pool. I will be like, dang, how'd you get here? He'd be like, cool socks, baby.
00:25:57
Speaker
Meanwhile, my wool socks are doing their best to wick all moisture. The pools are rapidly draining. Does it cause a whirlpool as it's like wicking around you? It could. I was imagining like a force blast where it just pushes all the water away. I like a Moses move. Oh, I like that.
00:26:26
Speaker
I like Jenny's idea though, because that really, we're building up the description, the lore, and eventually we'll get to the value in gold of the magic item that are wool socks of swimming. Literally just generating currents around your feet. I mean, that could be something you guys like throw into like a D&D campaign or something.
00:26:48
Speaker
That's true. It'd be a little weirder to put them in Cyberpunk, though. There's not even magic. There's no socks in Cyberpunk. Hold up. Can I re-flavor in Cyberpunk Red the tabletop role-playing game?
00:27:03
Speaker
We have a ban on it. It doesn't let me talk about it. You can't talk about it. You can get Heelys, Dave. Is that not good enough for you? I like how my brain immediately processed. I like, oh, you can get healed by your party members. And then I'm like, oh, even better. Heelys, the commonly banned shoe, you could get those in cyberpunk, but in your foot. But you re-flavor it as wool crops.
00:27:33
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know if that flavor makes much sense. You're just like, you're on asphalt and you're just sliding in your wall cracks. You're not going any faster, but dang, that's fashion. I assume you do get a movement speed bonus. Yeah.
00:27:53
Speaker
I'd be weird if he's like purely cosmetic. You just mentioned it in every encounter anyway. Like I moved there on my Heelys. We know. You get like a cool bonus. People are like, wow, that dude's really cool. Is it a reaction? I deactivate my Heelys. They're like, uh-huh, uh-huh. A real quick in response, I'm going to put my Heelys back on.
00:28:22
Speaker
I think if there was one point I would want to like fly out of your apartment and land in the pool, though, it would be the balcony, the back balcony. I've been thinking about this while we were off on Healy's because it would be like a younger, more adventurous version of me and a deep enough pool like climb on over and in would be sweet. Yeah. That's what, like eight foot drop, something like that.
00:28:45
Speaker
That's got to be like 10 feet, right? It's probably closer to 10 ish. It's about 10 feet. It's more than I would like it to be. Like I can be out on the balcony fine, but like I'll look over the edge and be like, I don't like mentally, I still have that kid mentality of, oh, maybe if I climbed over and like held on and dropped, it'd be fine. Boy, nah. I would do something to break something. I used to be more adventurous about heights.
00:29:15
Speaker
there was a little league field where I grew up and I would climb on top of the outhouses and just be like, I'm going to the castle now and then just jump, just not even try to like make it the shortest distance from roof to ground. I'd be like, let's creaking go and just eat myself off the roof and land in like tons of little rocks.
00:29:40
Speaker
So it would often do that thing where you land, you're like, oh, that really, it's just that wave of pain through your foot. Yeah, the initial impact that then like radiates up. You're like, that, that was something. It's like, dang, I wonder why I have arthritis. Couldn't be anything I did as a child.
00:30:03
Speaker
Meanwhile, the one person who's trying to take a shit is like, what's going on outside? Right. As an earthquake is. Well, it's not the port-a-potty out. What are they called? The dugout? Why am I calling it an outhouse?
00:30:17
Speaker
Oh, dugout. Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. Are they the same thing? I would not suggest taking a shit in dugout. No. A dugout is where baseball players go when they're getting ready to bat. Yeah, that's like where they have the bench and then there's like an overhang.
00:30:35
Speaker
Yeah. Why am I falling in an outhouse and why didn't no one question me? Well, it made sense. I thought I climbed on top of like a porta john and then like jumped off and I'm like, that's a decent enough jump to hurt your legs. Yeah. Yeah. It made sense. So we're changing it to duck out. I did not climb on porta potties for the record.
00:31:05
Speaker
Unfortunately. Wasted childhood.
Game Critiques and Hyping Caution
00:31:12
Speaker
Yeah. Never get that back. I was playing Death's Door recently. I did hear about this. What is that? It's an isometric hack and slash with some puzzle elements. Think of it like a Zelda type. I think it's cute. I like the style.
00:31:37
Speaker
but it doesn't have a lot of staying power right like i enjoyed it i think other people would enjoy it but it's not like uh you gotta check this out it's not like the other things i ran to you guys about like have you checked this out yet i think you'd really like it right two months later hey i think it's
00:31:58
Speaker
It's really important. I think we were talking about this recently because I'm trying to distance myself a little bit away from the idea that I'm the person that just hypes something up and then drops it immediately.
00:32:12
Speaker
And I think, like, in general, we've done a better job of that recently, which is like, I'm playing a game. I don't know if you'd like it yet. Like, let me play a little bit more. See if it sticks around because it's it's disappointing when something doesn't really doesn't really stick, doesn't land. Or you buy a game of your friends. Enjoy me, too. Oh, I now blame this person.
00:32:40
Speaker
Right. You set me down this path. That's why if you only play like one or two games, you're never disappointed. I'm always having a good time. Are you usually doing Sims 4, Overwatch? Yeah. I wanted to do Animal Crossing again, but every time I think about loading up that game,
00:33:05
Speaker
and how I want to terraform my island, I'm like, today's not the day for that. You've accumulated what we in the industry call tech debt. You don't want to go back and address it.
00:33:20
Speaker
It's, if I had a way to like get more new and shiny items or if I felt more creative, I definitely would want to go back. But I think I really just want to like visit people's islands to steal ideas and be like, Oh, I could do that. Cause I'm not going to spin it up on my own. I want it to be, I want terraforming and animal crossing to be what building is in the Sims.
00:33:48
Speaker
And now that I can truly confirm, I'm like, dang, terraforming is tedious. It's just like, I'm not mentally ready to deal with that.
00:34:00
Speaker
because it's like you go square by square. Or if you're unlucky, sometimes it's like a triangle by triangle. And it's a pain. This is actually kind of funny because I talked about this in our near replicant episode too. It's the same issue I have with gardening, is there's an animation for every single action taken.
00:34:25
Speaker
Or it's really repetitive to place like a block by block and like a Minecraft style game as opposed to like template the entire thing. And as I get older, I have less and less acceptance for just the time wasting animations that are just like,
00:34:46
Speaker
Somewhere in my brain, I'm like, this takes three times as long as it should for me to accomplish what I want to accomplish. I'm already spending resources on it. Don't waste my actual real-life time as well, right? Yeah, it's really...
00:35:05
Speaker
I don't know, almost like draining. Like, I'm a low-key person, as you guys know in general. I feel like you guys are also both pretty low-key. But it's like, sometimes I don't wanna like spin something up and go do a thing. But when I do go do a thing, like I'm playing some Dark Souls 2, just for shits and gigs. I don't like doing the tedious shit.
00:35:33
Speaker
As soon as I hit that point, I'm like, I don't have the patience to push through it. Depends on the game. Like I could play near for another 40 plus hours. Like I've gone through, I think I got the, like whatever the canon ending is, but I'm like, I could play it forever. It's fun. Yeah. I mean, would you go back and like do all of this side content too?
00:35:58
Speaker
Yeah, that's what I was doing. And then I was like, I'm going to take a break. And it's been two years. Yeah. Oops. That's that's like a JRPG for you, though. Yeah.
00:36:10
Speaker
I was actually, I brought this up to see if it would be a good term to coin, but like gaming inertia or the tendency to not do something if it requires an excess amount of effort. It's like, we've been talking about that a little bit, like recently, like play the same games, play Starcraft, play The Sims, play Overwatch, play Dota, you know? And it's because you don't have to
Familiar Games and New Experiences
00:36:38
Speaker
like break out of your pattern necessarily to pick something else up. Um, and it's a comfortable place to fall back into. Cause anything else is like, all right, I have to prepare myself to become very engaged with something different. I got to focus on it, learn new things. And it's like, man, it's nine o'clock at night. I'm kind of tired. I think I'll just play a little bit of the Sims tonight.
00:37:04
Speaker
Yeah, or if people are doing like social games, it's so much easier to latch on to, oh, I will derive my enjoyment and energy from the interaction with the other people versus the one specific game, then the game can be whatever.
00:37:19
Speaker
It's it's the reason that like when we're having it togethers or whatever like beneath Nexus as the game I always bring it's because the rules are really simple like to explain and You don't have that up like that initial buy-in
00:37:35
Speaker
And like amount of dedicated, all right, let's sit down. I'm going to explain how the game works. They'll bust out the book. Now it's like green symbols or actions, yellow symbols or reactions. Go. Like gray symbols or passes. All right, you can play the game. Draw a card.
00:37:54
Speaker
Having a low barrier to entry is absolutely essential, I think. And quick pickup time, too. Compare magic arena to some of the older forms of card games that have existed. And it's like, no, you just want to get in, queue into a match, pick a deck, go for it, right? Yeah.
00:38:17
Speaker
I've also been playing some Magic Arena just cause dailies. I've been playing with Stevie. Occasionally Gennaro. But I gotta work up my decks so that they'll be competitive. That's the struggle.
00:38:34
Speaker
It also feels like a weird balance at least with that where either like your deck is like shit and it doesn't really draw very well or synergize or you go with like a tryhard meta deck and you're like, my deck's really good. And then it's not fun to play against. So it just comes down to like, did I get a good draw or did I get a bad draw? Yeah.
00:38:57
Speaker
I definitely I'd rather be able to blame my teammates on something, you know. It's the DPS. It's always the DPS.
00:39:08
Speaker
You're playing magic, and you're just like, curse you, sideboard. Why do you have no good cards? Yeah, I definitely remember that. I don't really play collectible card games anymore. But when I played Hearthstone, it was like, I literally net deck this, and I copy this from online. Or I try to get creative at the expense of any remaining win rate percent that I had.
00:39:37
Speaker
That is how that goes. I did hear of a new game. I don't know. I think Dave heard of it. I saw it on Steam. I restarted and it's like, here's some new games. I don't know if you heard of it though, Jake. Have you heard of Mind Goblin?
00:39:53
Speaker
No, and I'm concerned. I'm just making sure. I'm trying to determine if this is a route that Ian would take if he found a new game on Steam and was going to recommend it today. Oh, no. I was thinking, I'm like, what would Ian do? And I'm like, oh, yeah, no. I like how we haven't publicly flogged him in an episode where he's been in. But whenever we bring it up, we're like, yeah, you know. So you haven't seen Mind Goblin?
00:40:22
Speaker
No, I'm going to hesitantly ask what it is. My God, are these nuts? Oh, no. Oh, my gosh. It's been queued up for a bit. Was that this was this was the culmination of asking what it's rated, wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Jeez. All right. Well, shorter episodes.
00:40:50
Speaker
I wrote it down. I wrote my own notes and notes. New game. When can I shoehorn this in? That was my, well, don't worry. I have one question. She did send me a picture of her notes as well so I can confirm. Good jeez.
00:41:14
Speaker
Oh, all right. So anyways, everyone out there wants to be a guest. We need to change our rotation a bit. Sorry, Dave. Sorry, I had to find out this way. Oh, no. Dave's in super guests, but... Yeah. That's all I do. I'm the guest.
00:41:37
Speaker
You can take my spot. I'll be in Cancun, which is my joke vacation spot if there wasn't a pandemic going on. Yeah. That's that's a segue. That's good enough when I talk about it. Well, I figured while I'm remote, I can still kind of like play some games with you guys on my Steam Deck. Wow. That's another segue, though. Which one was I going to know? Now, which one do we talk about? Let's talk about Steam Deck. This sounds like more fun.
00:42:06
Speaker
Is that just a switch? It looks like one. Hardware-wise, it's a lot better, but it is the same thing in form. I like some portable games. I like the Switch, but I don't use its portability. I have it docked here. We will play Smash after we record this.
00:42:29
Speaker
And then the one time I had some butt stuff going on, I had a procedure and I had to drink all the stuff to flush me out. That's what most people assume when they hear the term butt stuff. Okay. I was like, oh, that's a good thing that I asked you for. I wanted to clarify, it was like for something, not just like, this guy just poops a lot.
00:42:50
Speaker
I thought it was going a different direction. I thought it was sexual. I know. Switch. Some of the guys were over, you know. I know I asked about the rating of the podcast. I didn't think we'd take it this far. It's blood stuff. Stuff with my buds. We're just best friends doing the butt stuff.
00:43:11
Speaker
So there I was, super high, getting rammed by a couple of guys I knew. And I needed something to do with my hands. So I was playing on the Switch. But that portability is nice, or if you're going away somewhere, or you're in a car, or on a plane. That part of it, I feel, is nice.
00:43:31
Speaker
I don't really use the portability of it that often. Do you guys find, like, you use the Switch portably that much? Maybe for, like, Animal Crossing or something? That's only how I use
Gaming Preferences and Platforms
00:43:41
Speaker
it. Like, I will be on the beanbag next to where it's docked and the whole setup, and I will just sit on the beanbag and hold it in my face like, this is great, my hands are cramping. And I'm like, the battery's dead, I guess. I can't play anymore for now, instead of the fact that I could just project it onto the wall.
00:43:59
Speaker
It's actually hilarious. The pro controller is right there. Just on the smallest screen possible. Is that like Game Boy nostalgia for you? For like that instinct? Probably because I always I had to make Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance. So I'm like, oh, another portable. I'm going to hold this. Yeah, I mean, it's the projector.
00:44:27
Speaker
It's one of the better, I mean, I don't know. It's, I guess, technically a handheld as far as, as far as organ, ergonomics. Like I do really like the way the switch feels. So I guess props to valve for stealing outright. Um, like I almost never use it actually in the portable mode with the joy cons. The portability just comes into play for going to parties or something like, Oh yeah, I'll bring the switch.
00:44:55
Speaker
Um, cause it's way easier to bring like a little side bag, little messenger bag deal than, you know, all right, let's just let me disassemble the PlayStation three and like, all right, we'll put in this scaffolding. We'll generate a construction site, um, at your, at your place and we can set it up.
00:45:14
Speaker
I think I tried to play Animal Crossing when I was laying in bed because I'm like, it's a weekend. I'm going to play Animal Crossing in bed and it's going to be great. And then I fell asleep after 15 minutes and I learned that I can't do that. Meanwhile, your turnips are just turning to dust. Oh, did I buy turnips last time? Oh well. Sorry basement. Sorry economy.
00:45:37
Speaker
I got out of stonks early. It was like, I think we had like an active trade going with some people on Discord for like two months. And then I just, I think slowed down with Animal Crossing as a whole, but also didn't want the stress of like checking Discord messages through the workday of like, what are the prices at? Should I?
00:45:58
Speaker
I mean, I still check Discord during work, but for the prices specifically. I don't like that. I don't like when a game is like, this is the reason I've probably quit most of the MMOs I played, but when a game's like, here's your mandatory engagement.
00:46:15
Speaker
Or even if it's not mandatory, it sets it up in such a way that it feels like you're missing out if you don't engage with it. You talked about dailies, they're literally the same concept. But if you're having fun, and not feeling like you have to clear them every day, that's a different experience. The relying on other people for the stock market was a necessity for me because my prices were absolute trash.
00:46:40
Speaker
Would you like to buy for a hundred bells? I'm like, yeah, that sounds great. It's like, would you like to sell back for 10? And I'm like, excuse me. And then everyone else is like, yeah, you can sell back. It's kind of low this week. It's at like 450. And I'm like, what the heck? It's a seller's market. It's a seller's market. Yeah. Yeah. My friends let me become a Animal Crossing millionaire. And then I'm like, I've got all the money I need. Screw the stocks.
00:47:11
Speaker
Dosh, grab it while you can. Money, money, money. So where did we land on the Steam Deck as a whole? Do you guys have an interest in that at all? Or does it just seem like extra tech? I've got a Switch and I can play Pokemon and Animal Crossing. I can't think of a game I would want to play on Steam that is like, I don't know. I can't think of one I'd want to play handheld.
00:47:40
Speaker
I mean, there's a lot, but the issue is like, so when games are coming out for the Switch, they had like Hades, they had, I think they had Doom on there actually, they had like a bunch of things. And I was like, I could kind of see myself wanting to play these games in like a mobile setting, but since I never actually do anything in a mobile setting anyways, having my entire Steam library, like it would be a massive cost savings if you're,
00:48:06
Speaker
invested in Steam already, because you can play all those games mobile without buying them on Switch, right? But I'd just never play anything mobile. And that was honestly what kind of kept pulled me back from an impromptu pre-order, was like, this looks really cool. Like, I would love to have my Steam library in certain games, like, to be able to play mobile. And then my brain was like, you don't play games mobile. You never do that.
00:48:35
Speaker
When would you use this? And then the answer is basically never. You guys can play your VR games out in the wild. That's true. I want to play Beat Saber out in the wild. But we could do that. We could do that already without a Steam Deck. It's like if I really wanted to, because we could hook up the projector, the Steam Link, right? Yeah. If we really wanted to play
00:49:04
Speaker
Like in the other room, we could just do that, project it. And I'm like, I don't need a handheld for that. Cause it's like, I like the switch. I don't, I've got the games I like. I'm like, if I want to play a game I already have, I'll play it on my computer. It's like, I think I'm good.
00:49:25
Speaker
That's the overwhelming case I find myself in. But there's some exceptions. Sometimes I have to travel for work. And that might be a kind of situation where it's like, I could see myself bring in a handheld. And Steam Deck would be marginally better than a Switch. But I also have a ton of Switch games that I've not beaten. You could finally beat three houses. That's literally the one I was thinking of. Let me rephrase. You could finally play three houses.
00:49:56
Speaker
I got through the tutorial battle. That counts for something. That's more than some people in some other games. It's never going to happen. Don't worry. I don't even play that anymore. I don't even think Judge has the tutorial anymore, does it? Probably not. It's probably in the workshop. I legally cannot play the game if they don't have a tutorial. Man, doesn't that suck? Yeah.
00:50:26
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like even with the PlayStation 4, because I have it set up in another room, it's harder for me to move away from the computer. Yeah, because there's so much here. My games are here. If I want to interact with people, I can do that very easily.
00:50:43
Speaker
And on the PlayStation, it's like I'm in my own separate thing, which sometimes is nice. If let's say I want to go play Bloodborne again, I definitely want to be in like a nice solo context of like, I got to focus. Dim the shades and, you know, put on some Halloween background music. Right. Get your Sunny D out. I guess they use like files in Bloodborne, but still, yeah.
00:51:14
Speaker
Kind of doing a play bloodborne. It's good. I just, I saw, I think Jake was playing it and I always liked the aesthetic and I'm like, I want to be edgy. That's my main motivation. Like I want to, I want to look cool and be edgy. That's it. I'm like, it looks cool. I want to stab stuff.
00:51:38
Speaker
by far the most stylish of the Souls Point series. Also, from the things you told me, I'm like, dang, I want to experience it. Like, I know most of the spoilers because I like the aesthetic and the lore, so I've looked into it. So I'm like, nothing's going to be too much of a surprise, but I did the same thing for Nier and I had a good time. Now, definitely give it a shot.
00:52:05
Speaker
Yeah, anything in the Soulsborne space, I recommend outside of Dark Souls 2. The animations are wonky and I hate it. I was literally talking about Dark Souls 2, I mean, obviously, but I've been playing it also for the listeners. But I was talking to Jenny about it last night. I was just like,
00:52:26
Speaker
So Dark Souls 2 has gotten a bad rap and here's why. I just simply remember the phrase, um, I'm a Dark Souls 2 apologist. That's what I was literally about to say if you didn't title yourself. Um, I don't think it's honestly the worst thing in the world. I just, there are a lot of things I don't, I'm not crazy about, but that's really it. I think I've just had the least amount of experience with it.
00:52:55
Speaker
It's, I don't want to get into a full critique, but like the main things for the listeners, they're just like, but what are you guys talking about?
Dark Souls Series and Challenges
00:53:02
Speaker
The world's kind of like disconnected. It's really hard to keep track of locations because it's the most disconnected of their games. And there's, it's also like really long, like Dark Souls one and three.
00:53:18
Speaker
both had 19 bosses, including Optionals, like through the DLC. And Dark Souls 2 has 32 bosses, I think, which is like a lot. And it's not like here's more content, necessarily. It's more like there sure is a lot going on, right? Like there's just a lot.
00:53:44
Speaker
And so they didn't pack everything in like they did for Dark Souls 3, where it's just like, that's dumb, don't include it. And Dark Souls 2, they're like, it's done, throw it in. I didn't get very... Oh, sorry, go ahead. I was just gonna say, still a good game for build diversity though. I didn't get far in the first Dark Souls.
00:54:09
Speaker
I probably timed my first playthrough of it poorly, but I spent like two hours just stuck. I got to like the bone zone area. There was just like skeletons and I'm like, I don't know if I should be here. I kept going.
00:54:26
Speaker
And I'm like, it's getting like a little more spooky. There's like this bridge, I think. And I was like, let me just hop over this gap. And I just fell in and something just big, spooky, scary skeleton just killed me. And I'm like,
00:54:42
Speaker
It was really high level. I don't think I'm supposed to be here. I wonder if I can get my stuff back. And I died like five more times. And I'm like, I don't think I'm supposed to be here. So I went back up the, I think it was like an elevator thing. It's like a stone elevator shaft thing. I don't remember. It took me places. I went back up that and I'm like, all right, I'm back with this dude who's just sitting here. I'm going to try going this way. And I'm like,
00:55:12
Speaker
There's nothing here. I'm mentally mapping out like, yeah, it's Firelink Shrine. That's it. I can see it. And I'm like, this is a mess. I'm going to go take a nap. And I never played it again. And it's been five years. Yeah. These naps are really making you stop playing some games. It's a good nap.
00:55:34
Speaker
But I feel like Dark Souls 1 is like a hard barrier to entry because as much as I'll say good things about it for like game design, it's very clunky and hard to get into. Yeah. And you really have to like force your way through exploration and dying and succumbing to a lot of traps and stuff. Whereas if you like Dark Souls 3 is like this this way, roughly. You're like, OK. And it's pretty easy. Like this is the way forward.
00:56:04
Speaker
Dark Souls 3. And that was the same conclusion I came to. It was just like, if you're gonna start playing Dark Souls in particular, like you could start with Bloodborne, that's fine. But if you're gonna play like Dark Souls, start with 3. There's no reason to start with a different one, really. I don't remember why I started with one. I feel like something is... I think you own it. I do. That might be the only reason. I'm like, I don't know why I have it, but maybe I'll play it. And then I'm like, man, this... I know why you have it.
00:56:31
Speaker
You have it so that I could trade items between characters. That's why I bought it so that you could farm items.
00:56:39
Speaker
Well, I bought it so I could trade them. Yeah, that's right. And I'm like, man, maybe I'll join myself in jolly cooperation and trade items. I don't think I even ever did it. I was just like, it's on sale. Let's go for it. No, you definitely did. You did. I might have once. Because I was definitely talking to Jenny about it one time because I saw like you were on Dark Souls and Jenny was on Dark Souls. Then you were on Dark Souls. I'm like, hmm. So I was like, hey, what's going on?
00:57:06
Speaker
I would explain why it's like you have like more than four hours in Dark Souls and I'm like, that doesn't sound right. I think I quit after two hours. Yeah. I can't even remember what would have been worth trading. It would, it would have to be for Twinking and I can't. He means twinkling tight-knight guys, everybody. Don't worry about it though. Well, well Twinking is also a term for taking like a low level character and giving them high level stuff.
00:57:34
Speaker
Can we do a callback to the but son you're gay? Is that still relevant? I'm going to have to. I'll check with the sponsors on that one, David. I'll get back to you.
00:57:47
Speaker
Please, just so you see me on the email, thanks. Okay, yeah, no problem. I'll do that. Is this not a term? Uh-oh, I think they lied to you. They're like, hey, do you want to come over and twink? You're like, what's twinking? Okay, it is. Oh, thank God. All right. Someone just lied to you about what it was. Can I make a callback to butt stuff? Is that still relevant? No, absolutely.
00:58:12
Speaker
Okay. So apparently if I search for, if I misspell the word definition, there's only four results and they're not good. If I actually do have definition, then yes, it's an MMO term for taking like a low level character, investing resources in them, like high level gear. You're just like, here's the end game weapon and letting them go to town. Go to town, you see. Wow. Now that's my kind of tweaking.
00:58:43
Speaker
Dark Souls. I don't even know if the protection was in one, but I know it's in three. I believe I think it's in three. Maybe it wasn't one. Anyways, one of the games has protection where it's like you cannot get a plus X weapon if you don't like pick one up off the ground, if you don't already have a weapon infused that high. That was Dark Souls three. Because I remember complaining about this on the episode where you thought to me over multiple times. Yeah, I was trying to give you an upgraded Katana, I think.
00:59:10
Speaker
Yeah, but I just then didn't have a good weapon to use and I had to use a whip. Whoops. Dave's just like they are. I'm just like, but I didn't have a leveled up whip. So I went from going like, oh, this pretty decent level sharp katana that scaled off my decks to a whip. So you'd say it wasn't a cool whip. Mm hmm. So anyways, people want to reply for a guess.
00:59:40
Speaker
Yeah, I explicitly, I like inadvertently pulled the RuneScape scam. I was like, I'll trim your armor. And you're like, great, here's my armor. And you're like, can I get that back? And you're like, what are you talking about? Never said I'd give it back. Kind of freak harder. Man, this trimmed armor is really nice. Man, I don't know why you did something like that up. Thanks.
01:00:01
Speaker
You're a really swell guy. Man, this doesn't even weigh anything. Oh. Wait, this isn't anything. You've emperors do close the name. And that is armor in Dark Souls 2. So that's another plus for Dark Souls 2. You can get the invisible armor. That's like ethereal. That's a plus. That's a plus. I'm just saying. All right. All right.
Activision Blizzard Controversies
01:00:28
Speaker
Anyways, did you guys want to get into the thing that we keep avoiding talking about? No, taxes. I was going to say the the whole Activision stuff.
01:00:47
Speaker
I mean, we could, there's a lot of notes on it. So to go meta for a second, anything that I had posted here that we didn't end up using, I was just going to be like, and we'll cover it in talkcast next week's episode of substance. Um, and then we use like nothing steam deck, I guess. Um, I just, I figured that like while we have a female guest would probably have more degree of insight than just us guys.
01:01:17
Speaker
I mean, my general feeling is I'm disappointed, but in absolutely no way surprised. I'm just like, yeah, that sounds like high level corporate stuff to me, which sounds very doomer, but it's like, I feel like it would be silly to think that that doesn't happen. I mean, I would argue we're definitely in this now. Like I would argue that, um,
01:01:48
Speaker
It's not, it's specifically within like, well, not specifically within the gaming industry, but there's certain industries, movies, games, where like abuse like that is much more prevalent. Like I don't know if I would attribute that just to corporate in general and part of that's because I guess I work in a corporate job and I don't see it at all, but maybe I also just, you know, don't see it. I can't speak to that. I mean, I would think more like,
01:02:16
Speaker
What's the word? Like Amazon levels of corporate conglomerate. You just mean like so big that they. Yeah, too big to fail. Basically.
01:02:29
Speaker
I mean, maybe, but I guess part of the reason this really sucks is a lot of people want to take any time anything came up with Activision Blizzard, they're like, Activision is the reason that's bad. Old Blizzard would never have done this, but these allegations go back like 20 years. Yeah, and the old Blizzard did do that, though.
01:02:51
Speaker
That's the gut punch, I think, to the community. That's necessary, but... Yeah, I feel like a lot of the Blizzard community, at least from what I've seen over the years, are again, kind of Blizzard-pologists for...
01:03:06
Speaker
They liked the old stuff back in the day, as everyone does. Starcraft, Warcraft, maybe one or two other games that they've done. Diablo. But then when they do newer stuff that's not as good, they're like, well, they're still good because of these reasons. But you have to look at them as a whole.
01:03:24
Speaker
And like the actions that they've been doing that are like now coming to light, that's also part of who they are. And it's blanket shitty. Nobody's arguing that. But it's definitely not tied to Activision specifically. It's tied to those people and then the people who just turned a blind eye.
01:03:47
Speaker
Yeah, I had so many sub points on this, but when this initially came out, we were talking about it a little bit on Discord, and I was like, I'm slightly optimistic, but I think this is going to get more visibility than such abuses have in the past for other industries.
01:04:09
Speaker
or to publishers. And I think I'm becoming sort of correct there. There's been a massive outpouring. Some of the numbers I was looking at, there was over 1,500 employees signed a letter that condemned the leadership.
01:04:29
Speaker
a blizzard like that's a massive number of your own employees to do and it basically undermines any standing leadership could have ever taken to say that this is not an issue right when your very own employees and a thousand and a half of them plus are like there's an issue and it's your fault like or it's there's an issue and you guys aren't helping resolve it at least like
01:04:58
Speaker
That's a really big deal. Yeah. Was that the most recent number?
01:05:07
Speaker
That is probably not the most recent. That was like a few days old. So I suspect it's higher. A lot of people who came out from the woodworks, including the executives, they're like, hey, we're going to do better about all this, right? There's literally almost like a twist on this. Literally. Well, he came out and he's like, he had a much better statement.
01:05:31
Speaker
that was clearly actually written for him. Yeah. Right. Well, well underwent a lot of PR revision because Blizzard's initial statement was actually trash. Yeah. Like it was really bad. They're just like California politics. Am I right? I'm like, what are you talking about?
01:05:47
Speaker
Right. Yeah, it's if this is something that you end up looking into, look at the initial thing that was posted and then look at their initial response and then look at how things have changed as it went forward because like they did feel a need to modify their statements. Their first statement was like that shitty.
01:06:11
Speaker
Yeah, their first statement was denial of the issue and basically saying that they're being targeted by this like California institution and that the claims are exaggerated and everything since then has been like
01:06:26
Speaker
It's really awkward how the people on Twitter keep changing their profile pictures to the light blue color or using blue hearts and talking about stopping playing our games or participating in our events. And this includes a lot of our employees. How are we going to sell this? That's a big corporate problem. How do we make it convincing that maybe we care?
01:06:56
Speaker
How do we convince the public? I mean, step one, play the victim, regardless of what you're accused of. Step two, say we've taken things into consideration, we're actively working to do better, and then hope that nobody follows up because you haven't actually made any changes. The fact that no one follows up is key. No one follows up and it's like, dang, I guess we cut them good.
01:07:26
Speaker
It's definitely the case that they're going to join the positive turn movement as much as they can to escape from any actual consequences of what actually happened.
01:07:44
Speaker
Let's not talk about the fact that this stuff happened on my watch. I'm completely committed to being part of the positive change in this company to make sure it never happens again. That's the tone you're going to see from all the executives. And I mean, like, I can't fault them that particularly, right? Like, no one's going to come out and be like, I, the CEO of Blizzard,
01:08:09
Speaker
I did all this stuff, that was me. That allegation, that one was actually me. My bad guys. Yeah, right. It's spring break, am I right? No, no one's gonna actually take accountability that way.
01:08:21
Speaker
That's the thing, like for a lot of these things, I never see people taking accountability. It's just, I will do better in the future. I'm not going to apologize for anything because that would, you know, make me culpable or just say I was a part of the problem. There is some accountability there. It's just saying like, Hey, I want to be, like you said, part of like the positive changes. Mm-hmm.
01:08:46
Speaker
And yeah, I mean, if any positive, if good things come out of this, this is, this would be my potential roadmap for positivity. Actual change within Blizzard be just due to increased scrutiny, right? This is the reason that like coming forward,
01:09:01
Speaker
with allegations or things like Me Too, it increases visibility and it makes people cognizant of what's going on. And now if there's a late night drinking party or something like that at Blizzard and somebody is starting to say some sexist remarks or something like that,
Industry Accountability and Hope for Change
01:09:23
Speaker
if not leadership, co-workers are going to be more likely to jump on that, to just be like, hey, remember the news story that broke a couple months back? Don't be that. Don't be part of that. I think that's one positive outcome. The other possible positive outcome would be
01:09:44
Speaker
like potential change within the industry just because of how much visibility this is getting. Like there's literally events coordinators, Zoe, S-O-E, Zoe from Overwatch League. She's like one of the most popular presenters for it. Like has a like stand with the, um, the employees post. That's just like, guys aren't doing good enough. And that's the core message. So.
01:10:14
Speaker
there's a chance and I'm kind of a positive person. I think there's a chance that actual positive change could happen. Um, but I don't know if culpability is ever going to like really fall on the people that should. Um, yeah, it's in today's age, it's very hard to be truly optimistic. I feel, um,
01:10:41
Speaker
A lot of things suck. Sucks a whole fucking bunch. But I think the hope is like with visibility, there is like the possibility for change versus
01:11:00
Speaker
If you never heard about anything, you wouldn't expect like, oh, this needs to change. Yeah. It would just be a blanket like, do you think sexism is bad? And you'd say, yes, of course it's bad. Yeah. Why? Where's the sexism? But I don't know. I think it's obviously on Blizzard, but also for like people as a whole, like as a culture needs to be better about it. Flat out. Oh yeah.
01:11:29
Speaker
Cause like you see like small instances of things here and there. And then if it's never pointed out, that person thinks, Oh, this is fine. This is like normal behavior. And then maybe like the boundary gets pushed a little bit somewhere and somebody laughs at a joke and not saying you can't make inappropriate jokes. I love inappropriate jokes, but there's, there's definitely a point of like, that's not okay.
01:11:56
Speaker
There's a difference between punching up and punching down. Yeah. And I'm very short, so it's always punching up. Yeah, I would say it's definitely easier to put this all on the big heads of the corporation, and they should take responsibility. That's part of what being a leader is, is if things happen on your watch, you're culpable, right?
01:12:21
Speaker
not to quote an old president like the buck stops here right like basically that's part of being a leader but there's also the like collective culture and atmosphere I think is one of the things you're mentioning Dave and people don't like to think about it but as a whole like the individual human isn't usually that much more
01:12:47
Speaker
moral or better behaving than their peers and the people they interact with and it's much easier to go along with something and to justify it or Downplay it than it is to call it out particularly if you're like afraid for your job Or there's some way to like justify you're just like oh no I mean I know him and he would never really mean that he just has a really bad way of expressing himself
01:13:17
Speaker
And a lot of people are like, can't afford to lose my job, can't afford to be demoted. I'm not willing to make my workplace environment worse than it is. So they're like, I will grin and bear it. And if I can find a new job that pays as much or better, I'll take it. If it's in the same industry, if you're in the gaming industry, you're like, well, this is my dream job. Working for Blizzard isn't that great.
01:13:46
Speaker
But man, all my male coworkers kind of suck, but I really don't want to lose my job by bringing it up or make it worse. So it's like, what do you do? And potentially future jobs, right? Like it's almost like there's a history of women minorities. If they speak up for themselves, you're like, Oh, they're problematic. Well, yeah, because no one wants to be told, Hey, what you're doing is not good. They're like, of course it is. Like I'm not doing anything wrong.
01:14:15
Speaker
Why would you say I'm doing something wrong? And it's like, because you are. All right. Debbie Downer. All right. Parade Rayner. You're so sensitive, man. What are you, a liberal? What, did you go to college or something? It's like they're in California. It's not the craziest thing. They'd be a little more liberal. Um, yeah. So I don't know. Uh, hopefully, I mean,
01:14:43
Speaker
Awareness, right? That's that's one of the big takeaways we're talking about it, right? I mean, it's been talking about for decades, though. It's just unfortunately takes what happened before. It's like, oh, yeah, maybe we should care about this as like a public. But like people have been talking about like the industry and what happens for like decades.
01:15:07
Speaker
Like, it's not an unknown. It's just, it wasn't Blizzard. It wasn't Activision Blizzard. And the state didn't bring it forward.
01:15:18
Speaker
I mean, that's true of a lot of things though, right? Like until something hits personally, something you're personally invested in, it can be difficult to give it the weight it deserves or respect or even the attention, right? Like family member gets sick or, you know, this happens.
01:15:41
Speaker
I don't know. I guess, like I said, overall, I'm a little more positive, I think, because I think that this is the greatest potential for change that we've seen so far in the industry. And there's going to be a lot of people who come out of this are just like, we have all of these advocacy groups. And if you need to speak out,
01:16:03
Speaker
and your company tries to suppress your ability to speak out on this, we will nuke them because look what's happening to Activision Blizzard right now. And being empowering people to speak out is just one of the most positive outcomes I think you can have.
01:16:20
Speaker
as long as, you know, they can guarantee you're not going to be absolutely blacklisted from XYZ industries. Yeah, that's the thing. It is a lot harder to be vocal when it's going to directly impact your thing, even with me too specifically. I don't think anybody who's had something go public, I don't think that ends up in their favor. I don't think they say like, oh, I sexually assaulted like, oh,
01:16:46
Speaker
that sucks, what can we do for you? I think they go, that person's problematic. And they're like, Oh, we don't work with them. She's gonna say that I made sexual advances at her. Like, you know, they're just throwing it around type of thing. This person's brought up trouble. They're, they're a hassle. Yeah. And they have to deal with the fallout of bringing it forward. And it's like, sounds exhausting. I hope that they have a therapist.
01:17:11
Speaker
And like, just like with YouTube comments or anything that becomes public online, you're going to get harassment for stuff. Oh yeah. Even though you are literally the victim. Like it's insane. And I don't think anybody wants to go through that, but people are still being vocal anyway so that other people hopefully don't have to go through that. Right. TLDR, don't be a shit. TLDR, it's a mess. Nobody wins.
01:17:40
Speaker
for now. We'll see. That's true. Do you think we got the canned bread sponsorship back? Absolutely. We're not going to get any sponsors. I actually I've been talking to Activision Blizzard for a while. They're like, well, we'll keep putting on the next couple episodes as long as it stays clean. Oops.
01:18:02
Speaker
I was like a light hearted thing. Um, off the can bread. Do you guys like the pudding cups? I forget what the brand is. No. Craft. I don't craft makes them kind of make some of them. Johnson and Johnson. It's not right. I thought you liked the pudding though. I'm not a huge fan of pudding. Okay. I like yogurt. I like particularly like Trabani style Greek yogurt.
01:18:32
Speaker
But putting a little bit less, Jello's, Jello's the worst though. Putting, putting, I could eat Jello. No. Well, how about putting these nuts in your mouth? I knew it. I wanted to end on a bit of a lighthearted note after. I'm looking at what you sent me and yeah. Oh, I had, I had 30 different ways that we were going to get there, but um, yeah.
01:18:59
Speaker
Anyways, I'm tapping out of this podcast. So if anybody is interested in applying to be host alongside Dave in the podcast, you can send them those applications to soapstonepodcast at gmail.com. Or you can join the discussion on Facebook where we will discuss prospective applicants. Mostly Dave, I don't use Facebook for anything. And hopefully, I mean, best of luck, the best person win. And I look forward to listening to you, dear listener.
01:19:30
Speaker
as you host the next episode of soapstone podcast. And as always, we'll see you in the next one. Thanks for listening and have a good night. I didn't know if this was a series saying goodbye.