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Boss Battles and Cheat Codes: The Ethics of Gaming Assistance
64 Plays10 months ago
In this gripping episode of CodePlay Culture, we delve into the thrilling world of video gaming, focusing on the toughest bosses ever designed and the controversial topic of using cheat codes and guides.
Join us as we share our experiences and debates over the most challenging boss fights in gaming history, analyzing what makes them so formidable and memorable. We then pivot to a heated discussion about the ethics of gaming assistance: Is it acceptable to use cheat codes or guides? How do they impact the gaming experience and the sense of achievement?
Our conversation explores the cultural and personal implications of these choices, offering diverse perspectives from both purist and pragmatic viewpoints. Whether you're a hardcore gamer or just love the culture, this episode provides a fascinating insight into the dilemmas gamers face and how they navigate the complex balance between challenge and accessibility in video games.
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Transcript
Introduction to Gaming
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Codeplay Culture Podcast, where we discuss tech, gaming, health, and the world around us. Welcome back to another exciting, amazing episode of Codeplay Culture Podcast. I am Logan and co-host, Rui. Rui, what's up? What's going on? Not much. Not much. Just here, man. Just here living the dream.
00:00:23
Speaker
working away enjoying this awesome podcast. I'm glad to talk to you today. And we're going to talk about some cool stuff right up my alley. And that is video games, of course. It's like the best deferment from whatever you have to do during the day. Oh, yeah, it is. It is absolutely the best. So having a bad day and you just think of those games, man, just
00:00:47
Speaker
It's funny, yeah. It was like your topic suggestion. And I was like, okay, we can do open AI, DALI 3, chat GPT 4 turbo. That was announced a few days ago. And then you're like, how about games? And then you could see the cortisol dropped and the endorphins went up.
Final Fantasy 8 Strategies
00:01:09
Speaker
You know when you get excited? Man, yeah. So this is the
00:01:14
Speaker
like no cheat codes level of you grinded, you got it. You either got good or your character got good or a combination of the two. The one I just want to get to right away is Final Fantasy 8, one with Squall and the Gunblade.
00:01:38
Speaker
Yeah, I actually missed that Final Fantasy. I didn't get to play that one. I think a lot of people kind of missed or slept on it a bit compared to, you know, seven. But that doesn't even make sense because like coming off the seven, wouldn't it be more popular? But I think people got back into like I think nine was more popular.
00:01:58
Speaker
I'm like nine, nine and 10. Like I played 10. I went from like seven to 10. It's almost like nobody could compete with seven. And when 10 came out, it was graphically superior. So just made that jump. Yes. I love that. I bought a PlayStation 2.
00:02:15
Speaker
Like slim like for well, actually my parents got it from me for Christmas, you know, I'm not gonna brag like yeah I bought it, you know, I'm young enough to say So that It's like the last boss and don't worry everyone. There's not gonna be any spoilers this entire show We won't do anything like that. I just say the last boss of any Final Fantasy game is hard, right? Right undoubtedly, you know
00:02:43
Speaker
a lot of these bosses are like multi-part where like you beat it, you're like, yeah, I won. And then you fight them again, like a different form, third form. And then sometimes like in different, like there's like a fourth and you're like, Oh no. And sometimes it's gapped by like a cut scene of like 45 minutes. You're like, yeah, got it. You know, getting a popcorn, starting to head out, like just watching the cut scene. And then it's like, and then you get into the fourth one and you just die. You were like, and then the seed point is like, so I'm like, ah,
00:03:13
Speaker
But this one was one of the reasons that it was so tough is, and I remember, you know, chronically biting my shirt, like, you know, like as a nervous habit, like biting your nails and like walking and standing with the controller as the boss fight is going on. And it was mainly because
00:03:38
Speaker
My characters were like a level 100. And in Final Fantasy 8, the higher you get the level of your characters, the enemies level goes higher. They scale, eh? They scale. So it's actually better in Final Fantasy to not be at a high level when you're ending the game because it's going to be so frigging tough.
Nostalgia in Gaming
00:03:58
Speaker
It's so counter to everything you've
00:04:00
Speaker
Yeah. You've learned in RPGs, right? Now, I freaking realized that, I guess, either after I beat it or maybe during. And I'm like, well, I'm already whatever. Might as well just try. But yeah, that was one of the reasons it was just so freaking tough.
00:04:17
Speaker
And it's weird, the stat scaling is super weird. You draw your mana or magic from like mobs, right? You see some kind of lizard walking around and then you just like draw like magic from them, right? And then you can take that magic, let's say it's like water or like air and let's say you get a hundred, like a hundred balls of water, right? Then you can assign that to like an attribute on a character.
00:04:46
Speaker
So you would take 100, I think that's a max, and you assign it to Squall and you put it on his, I can't remember if it's weapons or you put it on attributes, but you put it on his strength, whatever it is. So if you're able to find like the most grotesque, incredible spell for all of your characters and just dump it on the stats, you'd crush all the bosses. But I wasn't able to find like those huge big, unless it was just by accident, right?
00:05:13
Speaker
What about you? You know that feeling when you're fighting a boss for such a long time? Like you said, you're into your second, third, fourth iteration. All you want to do at that moment is defeat that boss. It's all you care about. You just want to defeat it. You just want to get it over with. And then the moment it's done and ends, you just have that nostalgic feeling. You want to get back into it and start playing again, right? Yeah. You almost miss it.
00:05:39
Speaker
It's torturous to that point, but you do miss it after you're done with it, after you complete it. You have that feeling of longing. You want that to be immersed in that world again.
Game Streaming Services
00:05:51
Speaker
You almost hope that you didn't finish it. I mean, that's how I felt.
00:05:56
Speaker
And then you go back to those games and you're like, yeah, like seven years later, I'm going to replay it. And you're like, Oh God, these graphics are awesome. How did I, how did I even love this? Right? I mean, kind of cruel, but then, I mean, at the time it's like, we just been so spoiled, right? So when they do a true like graphical upgrade of a old one, like a, a remaster, not a remake, like that's like,
00:06:20
Speaker
Caviar to like our yeah, like it's so good. Yeah, like Nino Cooney when they did the remake sorry, not remake remaster on ps4. Yeah, that was amazing. Love that would be amazing. Yeah, and that was such a good game on ps3 the fourth. Sorry, this fourth. The second and first I noticed was on Xbox game pass the other day. I tried it out. You ever tried like you have an Xbox we just like straight Sony and end.
00:06:49
Speaker
I don't have an Xbox, but I had the PC pass. Okay, cool. Nice. It's kind of nice like a Netflix kind of service. It's not just like people think it's like, oh, I want the full blown, whatever. So you can still download it, right? Like you could like cloud stream like a Netflix, but then that's great for trying it. It's good for trying it. What happens when they remove it?
00:07:12
Speaker
Right. You lose access to the game. I had a game where they removed and I couldn't log back in or play the game. I assume that it'll that kind of sucks. Save your local save. So if you go and get the desk, right. I don't know about that. That's dude. There's no there's there's no way that like, you know, imagine you're like, and then they pull it and they're like, oh, all your game data is gone for that, too. Like, like, hey, look, I had every achieve. You can't do that. Right. Like.
00:07:40
Speaker
When you pay for like the cloud saves specifically on like PlayStation Plus, like I would hope because that would be like a, that would be a table flip boycott of like, can you imagine you get so that you put like 80 hours into a game and they're like, we're pulling it. Like why the developer didn't pay their fees or something? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's only there for a certain time period, right? They have their incoming and outgoing, you know, stack of games.
00:08:05
Speaker
I'm not a huge fan, man. I don't know about that. Post services. Yeah, I'm not either. You know what I realized? It's the same with Netflix. I must have just been drinking the Kool-Aid because
00:08:18
Speaker
You know how you go and it'll say Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision when you're watching Netflix, movie, whatever? I'm like, I had the exact same thing on 4K disc. I'm like, well, might as well use the disc, right? And it sounded and looked completely different. I'm like, I'm talking about, I got
00:08:38
Speaker
Um, and I think you got pretty reliable internet connection too. I have 1.5 gig in and out, meaning like fiber to the indirectly into the house, not to the node, not to the curb, right out to the nearest, whatever. And then 1.5 gig up and 1.5 gig down like gigabit ethernet for the X-Box connected to it. Um, so like.
00:09:05
Speaker
It just, so there's no like streaming issues, right? Um, I'm like, but it was way better. I'm like, you have to like running it locally so much better, you know? Yeah, it is. It is. Anybody will tell you, I mean, when it's coming across, across fiber, yes, it's fast, but you're not getting that highest bit rate you can get. I think that may be impossible right now. Yeah.
00:09:28
Speaker
And by the time it is one day possible, they're probably going to have some 20K thing that you can't.
Horror Game Experiences
00:09:35
Speaker
You got to whatever. It's like that offline mode in apps or whatever. You can just immediately update the UI on the client and then post it back to the server whenever you can. But when you're streaming it, you're reliant on
00:09:51
Speaker
Bandwidth and all those shit, right? Yeah, exactly. And the distribution of data between all your devices, all of that, you know, goes and comes into play, right? Yeah. And it degrades your, your, your bit rate. But going back to the games, I'll tell you what, man. Have you ever heard of a game called Silent Hill?
00:10:10
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's good. I like it. It's like, it's not that scary compared to like fatal frame and all this other stuff, but I feel like silent. It was a pretty good game. Extremely difficult. You mentioned fatal frame. You played that. Unfortunately, unfortunately, man. Yeah. Could you, did you get far in that? I finished it. That game gave you finished it alone. Yeah. Yeah. I was younger. I was young when that came out. That game gave me nightmares. Let me tell you,
00:10:39
Speaker
It was scary. Completely scary, man. It was pretty easy. It wasn't that difficult to finish. It's kind of like a telltale. I don't want to say a telltale game. I don't know. It's very story driven, but it's not difficult. Man, let me tell you, man, that scared the poop out of me for sure. And I played part two and I actually finished part two.
00:11:04
Speaker
They have a remaster of that coming out. I don't think I can play it now. Especially not at night. Like there are certain games where you know the kids want to sit with me and they're not like inappropriate and they're not like.
00:11:17
Speaker
They're not like those games at all. I'm trying to think of like one that we, we just don't play anything that could be a little scary when the sun is gone, right? The sun protects us from the shadows, you know, like, um, so middle of the daytime for silent Hill. Yeah. Silent Hill. It was good, man. It was a good game. Very atmospheric, very spooky and, and, uh, not so much craziness happening, right? It's not resident evil type of game.
00:11:46
Speaker
Yeah, it's a little more like calm that that as to the the fear or the the fear effect, right? Yeah, calmness. And yeah, when you're running around shooting stuff, there's no there's no room to be to feel fear. You know, you have a gun and just nonstop action. There's no way to be scared. But when you're quiet, things are quiet for hours and then you suddenly hear some kind of rustling in the leaves or something pops up. It's a lot more
00:12:13
Speaker
A lot more, you know, it has more effect. Yeah, like alien isolation. Or if you don't have like a gun or any weapon, then you're like Uber, what's it called when you're, you know, fragile or whatever the word is. Yeah, like Fatal Frame, right? All you have is a camera. Oh, it's a ghost. Okay. Yeah. I'm like, and then it just dies. I'm like, this is a great camera, right? And your friend's like dead. It's like, yup, you're fine.
00:12:42
Speaker
I mean, that's crazy, but no, it's a great game. Speaking of isolation, alien isolation. Do you remember when the PS camera came out for PS three, I believe? No, actually it was PS four. So alien isolation on PS four. If you have it, I believe it's a camera enabled game, meaning if it hears you move around in your house, the alien will hear you in game and come chase you. So you have to be super quiet with your tapping the buttons and moving around. Interesting.
00:13:12
Speaker
Yeah, man. Yeah, there's that reminds me of there is this game I saw on YouTube live stream or whatever you have to have a microphone. It's like a PC only game and it's like you just have to survive for one hour or something. Yeah, it's
Challenges and Personal Growth in Gaming
00:13:26
Speaker
it looks like it's using like unreal engine 5. It looks super real. Yeah, I think it's in VR too. And.
00:13:37
Speaker
You have to use a microphone so if it detects that you're making sound and stuff like that, I think you lose the game when you get scared.
00:13:47
Speaker
So like if you do a like, yeah, it basically says set your microphone within like this range and you move this like acceptable slider, like whenever, and then, but the game is like, when you're in it, you're in this like jungle, it looks like graphics are just like, there's no way that people would last an hour unless you were like,
00:14:10
Speaker
just really adapt to that kind of feeling, or just very reserved. Or drunk, right? Yeah. I mean, typically don't get scared when you're hitting the sauce. But you know what? Going back to the hardest games, so Silent Hill would be on my list for sure. And going back to old school games, Mega Man. I don't know if you played Mega Man. They were all built to torture. But yeah, Mega Man was a...
00:14:38
Speaker
Extremely difficult game. Speaking of no cheat codes, which is what this episode is called, I did use cheat codes in playing those games, especially in Ninja Gaiden and stuff. I use cheat codes. Cheat codes are awesome. Game Genie, or if you have it emulated, you can have an emulated Game Genie. Yeah, so I ended up finishing those games later on in life, right? Cool. Yeah, achievements, man.
00:15:09
Speaker
the hard games, right? There's something to be said about if it's too easy, like the game's not even worth it. You ever max out cheat codes and blast through it? You're like, this game is boring. Yeah. And Saints Row. Yeah.
00:15:27
Speaker
Yeah, it's like GTA. Yeah, it gets boring when everything's unlocked. All cars are unlocked. You get, you know, unlimited powers and it does. It does get very boring. So like we were when we're challenged, that's when like we evolve. And I mean, if you have like, I'm not sure the like on the hormone level for for women, but for men, I'm sure it's the same for any human, but
00:15:56
Speaker
testosterone makes things feel, makes effort feel good. Like when you want to put in effort, it feels good. So that was on like a Huberman podcast where we talked about that. So like when you're like, I really, really want to beat this thing and you can't get, and you just keep on throwing yourself at it. I'm like, then, then you will kind of evolve, right? If you don't have these hard situations, you can't get past those. So if you're like complacent,
00:16:24
Speaker
or you've kind of done evolving or you've like, whatever, you made a choice or you haven't. You're just like, I'm done. I'm just gonna play stuff that's fun. I'm not even gonna challenge myself. Like if you're in a growth mindset, you always gotta be kind of in constant pain, so to speak, or struggling to try to like evolve, right? Or you'll never get past where you are. So like, is there any game right now just looking with that in your mind, looking back that you,
00:16:54
Speaker
haven't got back to because it was just too friggin' hard. Yeah, yeah. So going back to those old games, I think those old games were not built with that idea in mind to make it difficult for the player to kind of evolve and get past these points, right? They were just made for people to play and that's it. There was no thought behind that, right? They were just made for people to consume, play,
00:17:21
Speaker
Um, they were just difficult and they mostly sucked, right? Um, newer games, of course, they take a lot into consideration as a whole psychology behind game development these days. Right. So I feel like demon souls and dark souls set the precedent for what it is to evolve in a difficult situation. Um, you know, in terms of video games, right? So for me, it was demon souls. That was the one that I picked up on the Xbox and I put it down and never touched again. I could not.
00:17:50
Speaker
Do you ever think about it after? Yeah, yeah. It's almost like a bully that like got your girl and then you just like 20 years later, it's at the high school reunion and you show up in like, you know, all decked out, whatever, some kind of Lamborghini, you know, gull wing doors and then she's yours or something. Like you ever think about going back and because on PS5,
00:18:18
Speaker
if you ever get one Demon's Souls remaster is like bliss like you don't have to go back to like the Xbox one but like that game it like
00:18:30
Speaker
That's like the reason I got a PS5 and I've been happy ever since. I was gonna get, obviously get it anyways, but. Oh man. You finished Demon's Souls? Oh yeah. I finished all of them, but my one that got away is Sekiro or Sekiro or whatever. It's that ninja kind of one. And the reason is there's no stats. It's like, you get like cool equipment upgrades, right? But like at the end of the day, if you're not,
00:19:00
Speaker
getting better yourself, you're just going to like, there's no, you know, okay, but put five in strength. Right. Yeah. So luckily demon souls, dark souls, Elden ring, bloodborne, they all have stat boosting level up kind of systems. Yeah. Yeah. Demon souls was, was rough, man. Yeah. Um, I think that was the first game of that type of, uh, that first genre, that first kind of, you know,
00:19:29
Speaker
What would you call that kind of genre? Soulsborne. What is it called? Soulsborne? They call it Soulsborne because it was Dark Souls, and then Demon Souls, then Dark Souls II, then Bloodborne, then Dark Souls III, then Elden Ring, then even the new Armored Core has a lot of the Soulsborne features. But the Armored Core, the one before all this,
00:19:57
Speaker
pop culture change in video game because of From Software. It wasn't like that. It was more like a mech warrior, right? Like, but way better third person, whatever, Japanese style instead of style, whatever. But yeah, Soul is born because it's Dark Souls. I think it was like the round, like they've been doing that for a bit, even the first person stuff, but Dark Souls is really like
00:20:21
Speaker
then born as in blood born, right? But they didn't really factor in this Sekiro name, but yeah, souls born games, a lot of actually didn't play blood born
00:20:33
Speaker
I have not tried that. What do you think? Is it any good? That, that was my first. Okay. Remember your first was like Xbox demon souls, right? Right. Getting, getting your butt kicked and you're like frick
Survival Game Mechanics
00:20:45
Speaker
like, Oh man. Like, so mine, I think we had talked about it in a bunch of episodes with, was bloodborne and like, I bought it, return it, bought it, return it, bought it, return. Oh yeah. Time I kept it and beat it and loved it. Right. Yeah.
00:20:57
Speaker
couldn't let it get away. Like it's almost like it haunted me. And I'm like, cause the gameplay was just so infectious and it just taught me like,
00:21:06
Speaker
that whole doom thing or that running gun where, yeah, I got like 10 bullets in the head, but I'm fine, right? I'm like, everyone's 50 cent, you know, offense 50 cent, but I mean, like, there wouldn't be half the people on the plan that would take that many bullets and, and not like immediately like slow down, right? And, or just get through it. Right. So it really teaches you that like,
00:21:30
Speaker
You got to be careful. This one swing from this enemy, it's going to put you on your back, right? Right. Have you tried any survival games? Are you into that? Yeah, survival or survival in general. Like you mean like Metal Gear Solid is or Resident Evil.
00:21:52
Speaker
I mean like the witness or I'm sorry, the forest or for example, you mean like you have like you got to eat, you got to cook, you got to. Yeah. No, because I wasn't really that into like Minecraft level of like building and then going and hunting. I'm like I always felt like I was a ticking time bomb for like surviving.
00:22:17
Speaker
like which is kind of unapproved. They need the Dark Souls level of reality check with those games in my opinion where like if
Gaming Preferences: PC vs Console
00:22:26
Speaker
I'm like 400 pounds, I can fast for like, I don't know, six months, right? You know, like that's like I want the actual biological
00:22:35
Speaker
identical version. That's a great idea, man. Put in your weight and your... Yeah. It's like a cheat code at the beginning. You're like, it's like you just hibernate. Yeah. Whatever, man. Yeah. One ton. One ton of Mera. Yeah, man. There's a lot of cool survival games. I like them, man. I think they're quite fun. I tried Ark Survival Evolved because that came with my PS4 Pro. Yeah.
00:23:03
Speaker
And that's the one that sucked. But there were some really good ones, man. There were some good ones. They're quite fun, man. And they're relaxing. They're not chaotic at all. They're quite relaxing. You can just sit there and play a survival game and waste away your evening in a relaxed mindset, with a relaxed mindset. You play those on, what's your
00:23:33
Speaker
balance a PC game to console game. PC is like 80%. Really? Console would be like 20. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So you're like what society or I don't know, pop culture society would consider a gamer because I was like some, you know, that whole stigma of like, Oh,
00:23:54
Speaker
You're a console
Co-op Gaming Experiences
00:23:55
Speaker
gamer. You're not a gamer kind of thing. I'm like, look, I'm not playing Candy Crush on my phone. Right. And then someone that plays Candy Crush on their phone, they're like, hey, he's like, I'm a gamer. I'm a gamer. Like, what's this guy saying? Unsubscribe from this podcast. Yeah. Yeah. No, I, I, I think anybody who plays games is, you know, technically a gamer and I would never, you know, discriminate against one, you know, medium over another. You know, if you play a game, you're a gamer in my, in my opinion.
00:24:23
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. Why we got to get all of that prejudice up in her, right? Like at the end of the day, like, you know, you can't say that that stuff was whatever, but yeah, that's how it starts, man. Just for the record though, PC's better.
00:24:36
Speaker
PCs, you're like, you're bold enough to be like, no, prejudice and then you're like PCs better mixed bag. When you get that like Halloween candy and it's like, there's a bunch of things in there that you don't know what they are. That's a mixed bag. Mixed bag of nuts. Yeah, man. PC PCs where it's at. But I tell you what, yeah, there are a couple of cool. Oh, you know what game is awesome? I've been playing.
Therapeutic Benefits of Gaming
00:25:03
Speaker
Oh, man. Let me tell you about this game. Yeah.
00:25:06
Speaker
It's called Helldivers. Oh, yes. Yeah. Yes. Awesome game, man. Have you been thinking about it as well because we got our asses handed to us? That was the first time I played Helldivers, was at your place.
00:25:24
Speaker
Man, that game, like I fell in love with that game. Such a good game. Yes, because of the friendly fire for me or how you could just die at an instant. And the thing is, it was very satisfying. I'm like, I'm like, when like Colt and I were playing it, he's like, and something fell on me. He's like, oh, no, my dad's dead. It's like, it's brutal. Like, it's like, I'll help you, dad. Like, it was like,
00:25:50
Speaker
It's so satisfying. How could they say that video games train elite soldiers when there's friendly fire turned off, right? I mean, Starship Troopers have that Dark Souls friendly fire. Yeah, of course. I mean, it just makes things way more real, just more fun. Yeah, good game, man. Good game. It was a good recommend.
00:26:16
Speaker
Yes. Once you get used to the controls, you know, like really dial it in. I was used to the controls before I played the game. That's twin stakes shooters. Yeah. Yeah. I am a gamer after all. Fair enough. Well, I'll catch up with you. And that's not a mustard joke or a condiment. It's a compliment.
Streaming Quality
00:26:34
Speaker
Yeah, man. I'm a big pun, you know, rapper and the joker. Yeah. So I sent an invite for
00:26:41
Speaker
Paulina for another episode. Miss her. It's good to be good to have her back on stuff with the state of the world that we're in and stuff. Um, Oh yeah. You're referring to mental health and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Because gaming is very mental health. Like once you like, you know, hit a game in the evening, you'll probably not hit a bottle in the evening kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. And all games are very, uh, very conducive to a sane, a sane mind. And, uh,
00:27:12
Speaker
know, well-being for sure. They do have a magical power effect. I don't know if that's the right word. A positive effect. Have you ever been up against a loss? My vocabulary is dwindling. The more I drink coffee, the more
00:27:30
Speaker
my, like the more brain fog I get for some strange reason. Yeah. So coffee, like I'm trying to like, again, get off of it. Um, but you, you gotta go to the new tropic route, but if you're going to have coffee, like if you're going to, you just have to put in like a healthy amount of MCT oil directly in the coffee. So it's like almost buttery. And then you take alpha GPC, right? Which is the, you know, Colleen.
00:27:58
Speaker
And there's other things. There's a whole like market of like, even Chris Williamson, he's like a really awesome YouTuber. On November 3rd, 2023, he announced this new energy drink and there's only caffeine in it, right? Like a little, like a small amount, right? But the rest of it, it's all new tropics, right? All actual vitamins of like
00:28:25
Speaker
expensive. He put actual doses of everything to make you more focused. The brain fog is brutal. Caffeine is not the one-stop shop for
00:28:39
Speaker
No, it's not. And I feel like water is, I just don't consume enough of it, but that, you know, because the brain likes to sit in water, right? Yeah. Yeah.
Gaming Achievements and Nostalgia
00:28:48
Speaker
It's a juicy sponge. It likes to squirt. Like the brain is like, it basically goes around and it's like a rainbow like sponge and it just squirts these different colors, right? It's like dopamine is like, you know, I don't know, blue and it squirts a little and you're like, yeah.
00:29:03
Speaker
or like skittles when you say that. Yeah, it's like it's like the imagine like a big oily like wet brain and you squeeze it and it's like taste the rainbow. So it's like just man, it's like 90s commercials. Yeah. Yeah, man. It's a vocabulary. It's like you got to work on it. And if you say the words twice, but it's tricky because you don't you also don't want to say words that are
00:29:34
Speaker
you're trying to sound smart, right? You want to say things that people from any walks of life could drop in, listen, and understand what someone would be talking about. Something about understanding is more important than using the vocab. Right. We're not going to use highfalutin words. Yeah.
00:29:59
Speaker
But anyways, yeah. Bosses. Okay. So bosses in general, have you ever like been up against a boss? And this is not a metaphor for work, right? We're talking about video games. If you've ever been up against a boss and you're like, and you're like, I'm going to sell this game. And then it's, you know what I mean? You're like, you're like, you're up against the boss and you're like going and you're like, you die so many times and you're like, you know what?
00:30:24
Speaker
I don't need this in my life. And he's just like, you know, like you ever like given up on a game because of the difficulty of the boss. I mean, the game could be relatively easy or medium, but the boss. Yeah. I'm trying to think of any really, really tough bosses. I can't off the top of my head. Like to me, the whole game is either extremely tough because I'm from getting to a boss. I don't care that that boss is going. I don't care how long it takes me. He's going to die. But.
00:30:52
Speaker
I need to get there. And if I get there, that means I'm enjoying the game. Um, unlike demon souls where I couldn't even get, you know, past, you know, into like the first four or five hours. I was, I knew that was, uh, that game was going to own me. Right. How about you? Any bosses that stand out trying to think.
00:31:12
Speaker
a lot of the last bosses for sure. You're like, okay, here it comes, right? And you know, it's going to be more difficult mid game bosses. I don't know. There's like these also in final fantasy games, there's these like hidden optional real last bosses, right? Like it's like, this is the real one. If you want the biggest challenge, but no, I can't think of any of just, just the last boss is going to haunt me.
00:31:41
Speaker
Yeah, you know, going back, yes, I do remember some last bosses, but they were not in a traditional kind of video game. It was World of Warcraft. And I got really hung up on the Lich King, which is a final boss in one of the expansions. And this took, I have to say, six hours to beat.
00:32:05
Speaker
You say World of Warcraft or Warcraft? World of Warcraft. Okay, so was that like a epic mob level of like, you need a team to take them down? Yeah, it was an online game, right? So it was a 40, 25 man raid, sort of 25 players. And it was a guild, was a guild run. So we took about six hours because of the amount of times we died.
00:32:30
Speaker
You know, one or two people die. You have to start the whole thing over and getting to that boss each time was a good 45 minutes. Maybe. I don't know. It was just insane. It was, it happened a long time ago when that expansion came out, but I ended up defeating him six hours later. It went into the night. We're talking like two, three in the morning. Raid started early and finally beat them. Got the achievement. Um,
00:32:55
Speaker
Just a bunch of gear. I think he drops a mount, but obviously I didn't get it because it's pretty rare. I don't think anybody got it. Yeah. Get the achievement, man. Achievement. Achievement unlocked. Yeah. You should have that in apps, right? Or in gaps. Game apps, graphical applications where you like you to just like cruising along.
00:33:20
Speaker
And you're like achievement unlocked, but then you can like use achievements to like buy stuff. That's a great idea. You keep pitching these good ideas. Yeah. Somebody's going to get rich off your idea, man. Maybe you shouldn't. Oh, hopefully they do. Cause when they do and they come back, they're like, Hey man, that was like a good one. Here's, here's a bone, you know, and they just slipped me like a $1 bill, but it's a $1 bill. That's like very old. So it's worth like made out of dollars.
00:33:44
Speaker
Yeah. It's like a gold bar and it hits me in the head. I'm like, what the hell? It's like, this is for your idea. Like I'm in a coma at that point. Dude, do you remember? Do you remember Mike Tyson's punch out? Yes. Where he's like, yeah, it's like punching up because it's like the perspective is like, yeah. What's this dude? Mikey or little, uh, Mac, little Mac, little Mac. Yeah.
00:34:11
Speaker
What a cool game, man. That's one of the games where it's hard, it's all pattern based. You get to the end, you face Mike Tyson, it's all pattern based. He's very difficult to beat, but it's all pattern and timing. If you do everything at that moment, at that time, he's done. It was such a good feeling.
00:34:32
Speaker
eating that game yesterday. I'm just kidding. If you like that, kind of finding the patterns and knowing the timing, that's exactly what pretty much every boss fight in every Soulsborne game is like. It'll take you a while to get to the boss, right? It's like going back to FF11.
00:34:53
Speaker
you're going to walk from Bastok to Quotham and it's going to take three hours. I'm like, what are you doing with your life? You could have done something a lot better with that time. Depending on your age and depending on what you're into, I'm like, I just can't believe so much. I love that game. Don't get me wrong, but I'm very conflicted with the time wasted versus
00:35:17
Speaker
The newer Final Fantasy 50, whatever the four, I think it's 14 online or team is like way more fast paced. Like, wow. Right. Yeah. And you get to places quick, the fast travel and all that stuff. But yeah, man, walking and you won't even make it.
00:35:35
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. As soon as you get egg road by some whatever, like mid level mob that takes five minutes to take down. And then you're, if you're not a warrior, if you're like a red mage, white man, toast, like you're,
00:35:50
Speaker
like white mage, even red mage, black mage, these are all fluffers for the tanks. You know what I mean? They call them like when you're adding buffs and you're like, this is essentially just like a fluffer. So if you get hit by like some kind of mob that has some kind of attack in the FF11, you're just toast. Oh yeah, for sure, man.
00:36:12
Speaker
And they don't leave you, right? Like you get aggro at the beginning of the zone until you leave that zone, it's chasing you, right? Yeah. And sometimes you'll basically get to that.
00:36:25
Speaker
like invisible wall for the next zone and you'll load into the next one and you knew you got hit. You knew you got hit right before and then you're in the next zone and you're like, and you die. Oh my God. So then you have to like talk to people and be like, can some white mage that's like level 60 come resurrect me?
Capitalism and Game Design
00:36:45
Speaker
Because I did because my home point is like Bastok and I'd have to walk six hours. I'm like, what is going on?
00:36:53
Speaker
And then there were people that didn't speak English and you had to use that, those canned messages, right? Those pre-made messages. Cause those would be translated into different languages. Maybe I knew that at the time, but that was fascinating. If you think about the pre-canned of like, for sure, a localizer and like, these are like pre-canned. That's pretty cool. But think about that. That's a great business business model, right? Like charge people. I don't know what they were charging at the time, 1199, 1299 a month.
00:37:18
Speaker
make the game hard as shit. And every time somebody kills you or you die, you de-level or you lose XP. So you can effectively go back to level one if you keep dying. So that's a great business model, right? Because it keeps the person paying and you're never safe at the top.
00:37:38
Speaker
Yeah. Right. There's so much more good that can be, I think there's so much more good that can be done with this world if you remove capitalism from it. Like Warren Buffett said, if you focus on the money, your business will never succeed. But if you focus on helping people, the product and what you love doing, there's no chance it will not succeed. I'm paraphrasing, but he basically said, don't focus on the money or your business won't succeed.
00:38:00
Speaker
That's easy to said than done, Mr. Sitting on a Scrooge McDonald pile. Well, it's the right attitude, right? You focus on the money, you lose sight of what's important in your business, unless your business is a bank. Even then, they focus on the customer, right? Yeah.
00:38:18
Speaker
You know, if your business is printing money, maybe yeah, you can focus on the money. Yeah. If there's no puns here or dad jokes underlying the printing money or money printing prints or, uh, a 3d printing company that prints 3d printers that print money, 3d, 3d hologram holodeck. But yeah, like don't focus on the money, the old games, like nineties games, NES.
00:38:46
Speaker
reminds me a lot, like how hard they were, right? They're all hard, like Sonic the Hedgehog, you know, it's Genesis, you're like, you know, get to level four, you die, you're back at level one, no save point, whatever. So skate parks are like that where you go to a lot of the old ones that were built of like, they have like basically like, you know, two quarter pipe, right? And it's like, you can imagine a pipe, right? And a quarter of that is just like a little, right?
00:39:13
Speaker
And they'll put vert on like a two foot. So like you have to go vertical on a two foot high quarter. But then if you look at the newer parks, they learn these lessons of like people couldn't actually do anything there. It wasn't really tailored to that type of a niche or whatever. Video games are a lot like that where
00:39:32
Speaker
Like you said, they didn't really know what they were doing or maybe they did. They're just like having fun, arguably whatever, ET in landfills or Ninja Gaiden where you just, it's so hard. And then when you look at, actually Ninja Gaiden's a bad example, it's still hard. It's harder than Dark Souls I find. I don't even know. I just die. I'm like, can't get past this first boss. I'm like,
00:39:54
Speaker
Yeah. So, you know, they learn these lessons over time and then the arcades really messed up or that's a pessimistic view. They change video games, right? They made it so that they need to make them harder to extract more cash from the user, right? So you can go up to the guy who's got that little clip on his hip with all the quarters and like, here you go, right? Pretty cool.
00:40:18
Speaker
And then that made its way into video games, where they want you to die so much. And then when it got out of the arcade,
00:40:28
Speaker
that point, games seem to become way easier. They just wanted to keep you entertained at that point. But again, a lot of this stuff is themed around capitalism of revenue generating. Can you just imagine the creativity of you and I, or anyone, just wake up every day and forget about the money. You just have to help people do what you want and really just love what you do. It's a completely different
00:40:55
Speaker
Mindset if you just put yourself there like and just imagine you can do like base your day off choices in that You know reality that will hopefully come one day, right? The question is what will come of it, right? Like yeah all the stuff we have now
00:41:11
Speaker
Let's say, you know, games, they're awesome. Makeaway capitalism. Will we still, will we still have awesome games or will people be complacent and just say, I don't have to do anything. So guess what? I'm not going to do anything. Yeah. Like Wally, like the, uh, overweight people being driven around with like protein shakes or milkshakes. I mean, we may, we may not have what we have. If you take that component away. Hmm.
00:41:36
Speaker
We may not be sacrificing a lot. The flip side could be that in a world of complacency, it just takes people that are really passionate to introduce some incredible games. They're like, you know what? I just love this. I made this for the world because there's going to be that, but there's going to be a lot of people that will be like, well, and that's
00:41:59
Speaker
could be coming, right? With all the AI chat, GPT, the robots walking around, you know, spanking your baby so you don't have to spank your baby. You know, bad example, like no one spanks anymore. Thank God. As a kid that was spanked, probably just like you were. That was never spanked. Oh, nice. That's why you're like, I was never actually spanked. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but you know, yeah, I get what you're saying though.
00:42:26
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I was never spanked, not by parents. But yeah, you're gonna go. I'm just kidding. Yeah, I'm not going to. I was
00:42:38
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. I was going to like meet you there. Let's just drop that one. Yeah. Cause it lets me go further and I'm like, man, you don't want to get punished. Yeah. Speaking of a joke, that's a bit punish or, you know, the ghost rider, uh, the guy, the skull with the flame. Yeah. Um,
00:43:03
Speaker
That's a Marvel character named Punisher too. I think he's just like a guy with guns. The Punisher, yeah. I think that was like a really brutal Marvel movie or something. Is it?
00:43:17
Speaker
Kids are into Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. right now, which is like a TV show on Disney Plus. I love that Disney Plus has Marvel, like loving Doctor Strange. It's like just so many special effects and very like inception Christopher Nolan level of, you know, directing and whatever.
00:43:39
Speaker
So the episode the other day, um, had ghost rider in it, you know, just some like nice Jack dude turned around like, Holy shoot. He's like a skull that's on fire. I'm like, all right, maybe I'll pass on that hothead. Right. But like, it was like pretty cool to see these little cameos. Yeah. Oh yeah. I have not watched any Marvel movies in like, um, a long time.
00:44:04
Speaker
probably like 10 years. So I have no idea. I have no idea where straight hit Dr. Strange first, like you'll love it. Like if you love sci-fi video games level of like, it ends like very portally, right? Yeah. Like jump into wormholes and like, yeah. I do like, I do like that. I mean, I did, but if I'm going to sit and do anything for two hours, I'm going to play.
00:44:32
Speaker
game. It's not going to be watching anything. I can't do that anymore,
Ergonomics in Gaming
00:44:36
Speaker
man. I have a hard time sitting there motionless. I'd rather rest that time in a game. I typically just weight lift while I watch or give my wrists a rest because if you're working all day on the computer and then you go play games,
00:44:54
Speaker
Like your wrist really never get a rest kind of thing, right? Right. Yeah, you're right. For sure. I don't, I don't. And that's why you pick up this rest as much as I should. And that's why you like, if you're working at the PC all day and your, your, your wrists are hurting, then you pick up controller, right? That's what the console is for, to fill that gap when you're, when you're working all day and you, you need some game time.
00:45:16
Speaker
Yeah. But I found like I have this thing down here. You can't see it, but it's like, you know, a keyboard tray. But it's like you clip it to the table and it lifts up and then goes and almost sits like very close to your like. Oh, I see those. Yeah. And I can really bring my like squeeze my traps, like bring my like. You know, shoulder blades all the way back, which is I feel like it's really helping because like that whole nerve
00:45:45
Speaker
you know, ulnar nerve tunnel syndrome or like any kind of wrist pain tingling from, if you're extended all day long like that, like the antagonist of that would be like up here, right? Or like completely antagonist, meaning the opposite typically.
00:46:01
Speaker
helps it. But dude, this stuff's like melt and butter. Like if you have like a permanent or like a semi-permanent problem you've been dealing with for years, don't expect it to change overnight. And by the time it's like fixed, you won't even like know, right? So like, you know, or sleeping positions or sleeping posture, like you change that, it's going to take like months to correct whatever
00:46:23
Speaker
you know, poor posture, posture in general, you've like thrown at yourself for years, right?
Multitasking and Game Streaming
00:46:29
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. But hopefully it gets better soon. I've already feel better. Um, but yeah, good mouse, good ergonomic setup, changing your area once in a while. It's definitely helpful. That's good. Do you play any PC games? Like, or do you play console games through your PC? Like, you know how they have remote play? No, I have never known.
00:46:52
Speaker
So if you have a PlayStation 4 controller or 5, you can hook it up via USB to your Windows
00:47:01
Speaker
10, 11, whatever, and then use the remote play option. It's pretty, like if it's on the local network, it's really fast. Like it's, you have to mute the TV, right? But if you're in, let's say, I'm not advocating for this. I'm just saying, and I've thought about it. I haven't done it. Maybe I've done it once a year ago, but if you're in like a really boring meeting, right? You can like split screen or whatever and just mute it and just like literally be playing PlayStation down there. Like as a break, let's say,
00:47:32
Speaker
In all fairness, it's not the messing around outlook that could be construed by a statement like that. It's more like, hey, working through my lunch here, like you booked this meeting. I'm a little bit behind on Demon's Souls here. I'm trying to crush this boss before I get to Quavum.
00:47:48
Speaker
But all right, so wrapping up these bosses, them super hard video games, any other highlights you wanna call out of like disgustingly ridiculousness without cheat codes?
Horror Game Perspectives
00:48:04
Speaker
Nope, all I wanna say is that the one, the one that took me out, the one that defeated me is Demon's Souls to this day, and perhaps I'll take your advice and beat that bully.
00:48:16
Speaker
Yes. You got to go back in there, man. Look how good you look. You know what I mean? That bully, you're going to crush, right? Yeah. For me, the one I'll also highlight is anything first person, like horror. If you can't turn around really quick because you got analog sticks or something,
00:48:37
Speaker
With surround sound, you hear them behind you and you start moving like a tank. I'm like, I'm going to turn around. It's so slow. That's terrifying. For me, anything horror survival has got to be third person, like Resident Evil or Gears of War.
Conclusion
00:48:57
Speaker
Hard things are good for you.
00:49:00
Speaker
That's not a blanket statement. I'm just basically saying that if you don't face these hard demon,
00:49:09
Speaker
souls, you know, you'll never be like a heavenly body or you'll never evolve to the point that you'll crush these things like, um, like we're here to evolve whether we like it or not. Right. Um, and we have options and you could just, you know, if you crush these super hard bosses, now I'm being preachy. So forgive me on that. I'm just trying to motivate people, but okay. If you choose to crush super hard things outside of your league or at the time they were,
00:49:40
Speaker
it will put you into such a, uh, it will evolve your character in real life that you'll start using those techniques of like what you learned there in the real world, right? You know, don't get used to easy stuff, but don't slam the hard bosses all day long. Like don't play shadow of the Colossus where it's all bosses, right? You know, like that's a little hard to take, but, um, yeah, no. Um, and, um,
00:50:07
Speaker
I tell you one thing, man, like adversity really introduces a man to himself. You want to know yourself? Yeah. You face adversity and you'll know yourself. Yep. That is wisdom.
00:50:20
Speaker
That is very true. So everyone out there, face adversity in the kindest way possible. So you can evolve your Pokemon from a Pichu to a Pikachu to a Raichu. So you can just send that bolt of lightning from Thor's God's grace, right, and crack a dawn. Whatever. Frigging, that's when the new tropics wearing off. But thanks, everyone, for tuning in to this week's episode of Codeplay Culture.
00:50:47
Speaker
releasing weekly episodes on health, mental, physical, health and wellness, video games, coding, cultural changes around all these things, and just how to improve your life from a neurological biohacking perspective and more. I'm your host, Logan, and co-host, Rui. See you guys later, and we'll see you next time.