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Unqualified Game Chat Ep. 96: Surviving PAX West Chaos & Revisiting the Golden Age of Gaming
58 Plays9 months ago
In Episode 96 of Unqualified Game Chat, hosts Azario Lopez and Spencer Legacy dive into their chaotic experiences at PAX West 2024, including flight mishaps, missed dinners, and the joys of meeting fans. The duo reminisces about the golden age of gaming, comparing classic consoles and games to today’s scene, while exploring the emotional highs and lows of creating content in the digital age. Join them for another round of unfiltered conversation, filled with nostalgia, humor, and deep industry insights.
Timestamps:
00:00 - Opening banter and the Final Fantasy XV debate
05:38 - Discussing Guardians of the Galaxy and gaming updates
09:07 - Spencer's journey through various living spaces and career transitions
10:43 - The challenges of content creation and the realities of Patreon
14:05 - Spencer’s PAX West travel disaster and missed Japanese dinner with Azario
21:12 - Gaming nostalgia: Dragon Quest, Budokai Tenkaichi, and more
28:25 - Modern gaming: the evolution of arena fighters like Budokai Tenkaichi
31:23 - Reflecting on how McDonald’s and gaming experiences have changed over the years
38:23 - Mental health struggles in the gaming industry
44:48 - Reconnecting with the gaming industry and the love-hate relationship
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Transcript
Reunion After a Rift
00:00:21
Speaker
Hello and welcome to episode 96 of unqualified game chat. I am your host as our Lopez. And with me today is no other than my brother definitely not fighting Spencer anymore. Oh yeah. Spencer, the legacy beef. It was, there is some beef there, but would you say we squashed it?
Impact of Google Update
00:00:47
Speaker
Like, you know, the expression we're going through the ship.
00:00:51
Speaker
I think
00:01:05
Speaker
for not what, eight months. We didn't talk to each other. Didn't talk to each other. We ran it. We bummed. We casually bumped into each other in Seattle on one afternoon. Yeah. We had a meet cute and we were like, Oh my God, it's been so long. We both, we both, uh, I, we're ironically are quick. I don't know. We both scheduled our meet and greets in the same coffee shop. Um,
00:01:29
Speaker
Paid, paid for by the city of Seattle and the coffee shop to host us. And I think, I think the entire community wanted us to get back together and they set up this whole, this whole thing. You had to be there. You had to be there. But the reality of it is, is that, uh, we just got busy. Um, the last year, last year around the time of the web, the, the,
00:01:59
Speaker
When we're doing like one episode a month, Google had put out this really like crazy update that sink a lot of traffic for websites. And that's why you saw a lot of like layoffs and you saw a lot of like.
00:02:15
Speaker
uh, website closures around that time because, um, of how Google was serving and still does today, organic content to people searching for a game. It needs to be, if you could get the right keywords in your article, you could, um, you could, uh, rank higher on Google, you know, or get on discover, you know, um, it, it affected us greatly.
00:02:45
Speaker
Um, at one point, oh man, it was like, there was like one point in January to January six, I think was our last, um, episode Spencer. But at one point there, I was like, you know, why am I doing this? Like it got that bad. Yeah. It was a, it was a big update that really, a lot of people got fucked and that's a real shame. Yeah. Cause it's still having, it's still having, like, uh, it's still having effects today.
00:03:13
Speaker
Basically, we did and then we did. Oh, fuck. We did a website update and it just fucking sucked. Oh, my God. It sucks, Spencer. I remember being very stressed then. It was a cool if you managed to catch what our website looked like from like January to
00:03:35
Speaker
We had the concord. We had the concord of websites with our website. Our redesign. Our redesign was three months old.
00:03:46
Speaker
That's longer than Concord. Yeah, I think the noisy pixel 2.0 survived longer than Concord. Yeah, that's pretty good. Probably should have almost arrived long enough to cover Concord. Yeah. It was a cool idea. We had this thought to make a video game archive kind of thing with coverage and stuff because we do cover a lot of games that not a lot of people cover and I think that it's important to preserve that because
00:04:12
Speaker
Once those things are unsearchable in the way that Google's algorithm is doing it, it's not going to serve you old content. So if you're going to look for old content, you have to be very specific to get it in terms of like setting your custom ranges and stuff like that. But not a lot of people do that unless they're
Career Changes and Challenges
00:04:27
Speaker
researching something. So I think it's important to like have a place at homes, like all of this writing and all of this, like these super weird indie Japanese games that maybe come out and no one ever really like
00:04:42
Speaker
10 people play them. Like I think, I think that that still deserves some type of coverage. Yeah. Yeah. Someone worked on it. It didn't work though. Website didn't work. Oh, so we launched a redesign in May and then, um, our April. Um, and it's been smooth sailing ever since it hasn't, but we've been managing it's better now.
00:05:11
Speaker
Unlike Concord. Did it get a comeback? Didn't get that second chance that it was looking for. Poor Concord. When I saw the trailer, I was like, I don't know if we need this, but I didn't want it to die immediately. I didn't know who it was. I thought it was Marvel's... I thought it was...
00:05:35
Speaker
Guardians of the Galaxy like side characters. It gave those vibes for sure. Yeah, like every character fell into a Guardians of the Galaxy Earth type. Yeah, it was weird. It was being developed seven years ago, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was coming out. So there you go. In those eight months, a lot of it has changed in your world as well. Yeah, I moved again as you can. I moved a lot in this podcast. There's like a whole, if you go through this whole podcast, you can see me like,
00:06:05
Speaker
In my sister's basement when I was briefly visiting, you can see me in a room upstairs here. You can probably see me in here before those. You can see me in my first other apartment, my second other apartment. You were in an apartment for like a month too. Yeah, that was the one from September to like February. That was the situation.
00:06:28
Speaker
And then the other apartment where I was in for a year and then now I'm here. So this is since July or so. So who knows by the time we do more episodes, you know, in a few, in a few months, catch a different, catch a couple of different, uh, looks at rooms from Canada. That is where I'll be. Yeah, no, it's been, uh,
00:06:55
Speaker
It's been a busy period, but it's good, you know? You're not at coming soon anymore. That's true, I'm not. I left my job there because I was trying to get out of online journalism for a little bit. I like doing it on the side, but with that update and even just
00:07:19
Speaker
the model as it goes for online journalism. It's tough. It's a, you gotta grind for it. And I was getting a little tired. I'm in the process and you can probably attest to this for our readers. I'm in the process of writing like kind of like my first letter to readers for next, uh, cause, um, next month in October is our six year anniversary insane. So I've, I've been like, um,
00:07:48
Speaker
going over like what it takes to do this. And you're not just a writer, you know, like they expect you to be an SEO specialist. They expect you to like be up on like
00:07:59
Speaker
of current tech and like, like so much is expected out of journalists nowadays that I do not understand how anyone gets anything done by checking all of these boxes that the, not, not even as a, as a writer it needs, but as like the company. So Ziff Davis sitting on the top of IGN, they, those, those people make the set the standards and it just goes down.
00:08:27
Speaker
So even if it's a really good piece, if it doesn't hit those keywords, if it's not, if it's not generating the, the amount of traffic, it just gets lost. Yeah. So I just don't like that. We just can't write. We just, we can't just be gamers. It's become a multi, much more complex thing where things are expected of you pretty much 24 seven writing online. And that was.
00:08:51
Speaker
That was stressing me out. So I left, um, I'm in between right now, but I'm, I'm getting buff. I'm getting mentally buff also. So.
00:09:01
Speaker
I'm going to be- It's important to work out your mind and your body. Yes. Yes, I play pick cross. I go, oh, interesting. Yes, yes, yes.
Content Monetization Struggles
00:09:12
Speaker
Now, I'm doing all right. This will be the room for a bit for some episodes, so get used to it, fellows, because this is the new gamer pad.
00:09:24
Speaker
And on that, we're also doing something a little new with this batch of unqualified game chat episodes. They will be going up a week early on Patreon. We've had a Patreon, okay? We had dreams for this Patreon.
00:09:47
Speaker
You know, uh, just like shout out to those people who, who manage their Patreon and like can, can do that. But I don't think that the noisy pixel like model was built with Patreon in mind. And, and I kind of shot myself in the foot on that because the idea is, is to like set up a Patreon and still do everything you're doing and then just do more, you know, it's like, Oh fuck, like we're doing everything we can. It's like, if you're making content online,
00:10:17
Speaker
And like, it's like, Oh, you have to rely on ads, which isn't reliable. So it's like, Oh, just use Patreon. But it's like, but Patreon comes with an explanation of more work beyond your work, which is true. That's crazy that like, the most considered to be stable online income from like being a personality or a writer or journal or whatever, or a YouTuber is doing like extra job on top of job to get the pay for a regular job. Like that's,
00:10:44
Speaker
That's a lot of work. That's tough. You got to be based around that, like organize your stuff around. Because someone has to do that work. Someone has to edit those videos. Someone has to record them. Someone has to do all that stuff. So it's a weird model for online people.
00:11:04
Speaker
So I guess what I could say is that we're trying to make this the Patreon thing. How much do you value us, guys? What would you pay for this interaction? Because you're always yapping in the live chat. We're so qualified. We're so qualified. Are you and Spencer mad at each other? Are you guys fighting? If you guys don't get the Patreon for these episodes, this background is going to change to a damn cardboard box.
00:11:32
Speaker
Did you be on the damn streets with a little laptop Chromebook that's doing this? Did you finally piss him off with your stupid jokes? With your stupid little bits? They're funny.
00:11:48
Speaker
If you go to our patron $3 a month, uh, it's, it's more of a, uh, donation type thing, but you will have access to this podcast a week early before it hits YouTube and, um, streaming services. The $500 tier gets you at two weeks early. So if you pick $500 a month, the noisy pixel, you get an episode two weeks before everyone else. I will say that patron comments will be read on.
00:12:16
Speaker
the show, not all of us, but if it's good, if it's good, if it's a question, we're not going to, yeah. If you know, if you, if you, if you just call Spencer high, all of you just over and over and over again, I'm only, yeah, we know we get it. Okay. You can chill. You think about, uh, look at how sharp it is. Sharp that is. But
00:12:44
Speaker
If it's a question or something, yes. Um, that, that's where you can talk directly at, at us. And, um, we will address questions on the show from, um, and we can't, we wouldn't be able to do that if you watched it on YouTube and whatever, because that would be late. Because by the time you watch that episode, we would have already had another episode up. Yeah. You're behind. You're behind. You were jealous. You'd be out of there. Yeah. Yeah. You're, um,
00:13:14
Speaker
You're old news. If anybody says, wait, this news is from last week, you didn't watch this episode. And that means you're not a real fan. You watched the grand return.
00:13:25
Speaker
And also you guys, if you can't just don't, don't worry about it. Like, you won't be, you'll just be missing out on the greatest, the greatest podcast. Uh, you're all full of shit when you're saying the word is unqualified. Yeah, wires. Yep. Just like all those people asking for, uh,
00:13:46
Speaker
but CL no surge or dot hack. No, I, I, sometimes you got to pay for it. You know what the problem? Okay. Uh, so the problem with dot hack, you hear this, you, we write about dot hack. Everyone's like, whoa, if, if there was so many dot hack fans, I'm pretty sure that the series would have sold better. Right. Like.
00:14:09
Speaker
My brother tried to get into it and he watched the show and then the show goes into the games and he looked up the games and they were like $400. And he was like, I guess that's the end of my Dothack journey. And then he never did anything else with Dothack again. And then they re-released the games, but they weren't those games. They were different three games. So it's like- They're the GU. Who the fuck can follow that? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. Hold on. This headset's running out of battery. One second. Oh, okay.
00:14:39
Speaker
You know, guys, this is probably going to get added out, but I just want to say all my friends are and we're so excited to be back on the damn podcast and having so much fun. I gave them a little message.
00:15:01
Speaker
He's back off, fellas. I'm taking off. No headset. No headset at all. Fuck it. We're doing it live. Holy moly. This is, this is. We're doing it live. East mode. Sickle mode, even. Oh, and I have to change all the goddamn, uh. It's okay. All right. Just get in touch with our Zoomer viewers. I'm going to check the Fortnite store. Hey guys, the day we're recording this, you can get. Oh, it's not going to let me while we're recording.
00:15:31
Speaker
Oh it's not going to let you change it? Yeah, damn it. I don't think he's going to be able to hear where this whole time it goes.
00:15:51
Speaker
Can you hear me now? Mr. Yes. Okay. Yes. I didn't get to keep in touch with our zoomer audience. I read a couple of Fortnite skins. You can buy it today. I appreciate it. I'll cut it. I'll cut it. I'll cut me out of it. But if this thing dies, it dies. I can't, I can't, uh, do the, uh, I can change the audio output.
00:16:19
Speaker
while we're recording it. I can't change even if I try. Oh wait, maybe I could pause. Hold on one second. Pause this. What's the point of the pause feature? Okay. We'll just see how long they last. Oh, we're talking about for this thing. We were saying that thought hack is dead forever. Yeah. So,
00:16:46
Speaker
We'll see. We're doing the test if you wanted it.
Unique Podcast Perspective
00:16:52
Speaker
But no, this is something I want to do. I think at this point I've been listening to a lot of different voices in the industry and I do think right now
00:17:00
Speaker
Spencer and I bring a particular flavor to this industry that it is desperately lacking. A bizarre bisexual flavor that no one else can manage. No one else, yeah. This weird tension where these two men from different sides of the globe are connecting through this medium. Through Japanese media.
00:17:29
Speaker
Hmm, I think that's damn beautiful highly contrasted lines of I'm like, no, no, these are shoulders. These are shoulders. These are shoulders I've been watching all the jiu-jitsu case
00:17:51
Speaker
This is what the people want. We're back. That's what the people want. That's what you guys asked for rubbing nipples. But I think, I think we do have a lot to say. And I think it's important that, um, we, we
Mental Health and Social Media
00:18:01
Speaker
go to events. We, we play a lot of games. Um, I've been listening to other podcasts and they all, they all just like fucking there's also a bummer summer, man. No one knows how to fucking have fun anymore. Yeah.
00:18:14
Speaker
Like, yeah, like I'll start streaming and people just start bumming me out. Like I'll tell you guys, I'll tell you, I stopped. I turned off Twitter. I turned on, I, I, I logged out and I have not logged back in. It's been, it's been one week. It's been one week. It's like an episode of Seinfeld where, um,
00:18:37
Speaker
where, uh, George doesn't, uh, masturbate. And then he like becomes like, yeah, he's the, what is it? He's the master of his domain. You guys last week, I had to did like 10 videos. I got back from Seattle for next day for, I was like cranking, I was like, can
00:19:03
Speaker
Oh, he was cranking. Oh, it was. Yeah. Oh, he was cranking his editing hog, if you will. Yeah. And mostly because Square Bandai and Nintendo set some crazy embargoes, but I think that's because they did stuff at Gamescom and they set these embargoes during Gamescom.
Seattle Convention Experiences
00:19:28
Speaker
And then they did some stuff at PAX, but
00:19:32
Speaker
Yeah. Pax was fun. Spencer and I did hang out. That was not a lie. Spencer and I did hang out at Pax. We saw each other multiple times in the press room. You had a pretty bad trip though. Did you want to say that? Did you want to tell that story? I'll talk about that. That was so bad. I was supposed to get to Pax on the Friday at noon, around noon or 1 PM. I woke up at 4 AM my time to go to the airport in Toronto.
00:20:01
Speaker
a little text message like eight minutes before I wake up and it says, your flight has been canceled. It's now at 3 40 PM your time. So I was like, Oh, so all of my Friday appointments are just dead. Cause I'm not going to get there until like eight, 9 PM Seattle time. So I didn't take into consideration. You had to email those people and tell them you're not going to make it. I was like, we'll, we'll email the couple. I emailed a couple and then I managed to reschedule a couple for
00:20:31
Speaker
the next day. So then we were like, okay, I get there, I get to the airport, I fly off. I almost missed my connecting flight, but I don't because they were late. And then I land and for some reason they keep us on the plane for like almost an hour where they're like, there's another plane parked in our
00:20:51
Speaker
thing and we, there's an empty one beside them, but we're not, we're asking permission to park there. And I was like, what is happening? Eventually they just brought a little like ramp portable ramp out and just walked us down the airport, like onto the tarmac. So then I missed dinner with Azario and everybody. Cause we were all going to go get Japanese food and they all had to go without me. Cause I wasn't in the country yet. We had a good time. It would have been, it would have been way better with Spencer. I'll say that.
00:21:19
Speaker
I looked at the menu two days beforehand. I was like, I'm going to get Takoyaki. I'm going to get Okonomiyaki. It's going to be amazing. And then I got Taco Bell when we got there, which was fun because you know what?
00:21:33
Speaker
You know, it's pretty good. It's a nice, it's a nice second. It's a little more salt. It's the salt. It's the salt. It's the flavor. It's the spice closer to like burritos and Canada tacos.
00:21:52
Speaker
We're a bunch of weird French people who cook gravy on fries. We don't know how to do that. I would say that the Taco Bell Mexican food is more Mexican than a Mexican restaurant in Seattle. Interesting. Yeah, I've been to a couple of Mexican restaurants. I will never go again. Except Taco Bell.
00:22:07
Speaker
Except for talk about I'll fuck I'll fuck with talk about And it tastes really good. So it's it's consistent. It's consistent Yeah, like that high school best friend that said that you guys will never grow up But he changed and you did you're still the same and you're still here. He has a house and you're yeah his two kids and uh, uh, a 401k video game statue well
00:22:36
Speaker
Who's really winning? Yeah, I just read three hours of webtoons. Oh, you have two kids fulfilling life and you have a job. Well, I just read all of Chainsaw Man for the fourth time. So who's winning? So then, yeah, so we talked all and then Saturday, hung out, had a great time. Sunday, woke up at 4 a.m. again to go. All right. Woke up at 3.30 because my Uber was at 4 and then I went to
00:23:07
Speaker
the airport and in Seattle, the Seattle airport, their systems were all down. So I couldn't figure out what gate I was going to and the lady there who I asked was really mean for no reason. You should have emailed the airline. You should have got some points. I have. I emailed them a week ago. They haven't responded yet.
00:23:27
Speaker
So I'm going to, I tweeted at American airlines. They didn't have, okay, guys, I'm not a fucking bougie vegetarian, but one time American airlines didn't have, uh, on an international flight didn't have, uh, vegetarian food and snacks and stuff, but nothing like actual. And, um, and they gave me, uh, like 50,000 miles. Wow. If they don't respond by like a week from when I said Tuesday, I'm going to tweet and be like, Hey,
00:23:56
Speaker
WestJet. I like it. Why did you do that? I missed half of the event. You've been having nightmares. You can't sleep. I've been waking up in a cold sweat every night. I miss her with the Zario. You don't know how big a deal her podcast is. It brings a $400,000 multi-game picture. I keep hearing that woman's voice going through my head.
00:24:18
Speaker
Stop talking to me. It doesn't look like it says Calgary. Is this my job? Am I supposed to be helping you? So rude. So that was really rude. That's a piss. You know what? Fuck Seattle because I went to a fucking sandwich place in Seattle and I was like, Oh shit, I need my receipts. So I turn around to get my receipt. Cause I had the, and he, they have those stupid little fucking things and they have to like,
00:24:42
Speaker
bring up the receipt and put in your number and get the receipt texted to you. And as I, as I turned around to ask him again, the guy says, I have a long line, dude. Fuck you. Congrats, you know, for having business. What the fuck, dude? Sorry, you're successful. That must be hard. Oh, I said, I said, I looked for the guy and I said, okay. Okay. And I walked away.
00:25:08
Speaker
I'm sorry he was so rude to you. That sucks. Oh, Seattle, man. It's Seattle. I like Seattle. I liked a lot of things about Seattle. There's a lot of zombies in Seattle, man. Those zombies were scary.
00:25:22
Speaker
There's like, it's scary to walk around Seattle. It's like kidding. It's not that different from where I live, so I'm used to it. It's scary to walk around the Bay Area. It's scary to walk around LA, too. It's scary to walk around any city, actually. We live in a scary, twisted, dark world, but that's okay. I hope everybody finds peace. Me too. It was really eloquent. I had to take a little train to my gate because it was so far away.
00:25:51
Speaker
And then I got on my plane and I was like, Oh, I'm going to miss my flight because they have to manually check everyone in because all the systems are down. I didn't miss my flight because it was canceled and I had a nine hour layover in Calgary. Um, so I waited there for nine hours. Please keep in mind, they never offered money for food or anything. So I just ate Pringles and water. Um, and then I got on my flight.
00:26:19
Speaker
to go back and it got delayed and switched gates. So I had to run across the airport. And then when I finally got home, it was supposed to be 5 PM my time and it was 2 AM my time. And my, my, I was like, dad, can you please pick me up? I know that it's 2 AM, but so my poor dad had to drive like an hour to pick me up at 2 AM. And, uh, we, uh, and I went home and went to sleep and I'm kind of recovered now. Do you didn't get, you didn't get any food or anything?
00:26:49
Speaker
Uh, no, no, like when you left, did you, did you have like a first meal, like something you were looking forward to with the whole trip was, I don't know. I guess the talk about like set the bar a little too high. Maybe like nothing in Canada can match that. Like, you know, but no, I, uh, it was good though. Um, the trip itself was good. Like being there and seeing everybody, the flying was bad.
00:27:18
Speaker
I am really hoping to get reimbursed there or else I'm going to raise a damn stink, but it was a great time. We hung out in the media room.
00:27:28
Speaker
We hung out at the Life is Strange party. We had a good time. We hugged a lot. It was nice. You had a good 24 hours there. I did. And it was a jam-packed 24 hours. I had a ton of appointments. I had a ton of hangout time.
Game Enthusiasm and Developer Insights
00:27:42
Speaker
I had a ton of meals and stuff. You got to play Dragon Quest 3. I did. And that made me very happy, because I love Dragon Quest. You got to play Romancing Saga. And Romancing Saga. Oh, how did you like Sparky?
00:27:57
Speaker
I love it. I played the Budokai Tenkaichi games for hundreds of hours when I was a kid and teenager. Who did you play as when you got to play? I did. I think I did three rounds. So I did like adult Gohan, Frieza, Mr. Satan, Videl, who else? Ultimate Gohan, Broly from Super Android 17.
00:28:27
Speaker
Who are the other two? I don't remember. I tried to do a whole lot of variety characters while also doing my favorites. My brain just immediately locked into 11-year-old Spencer and being like, oh, this is the controls. And I immediately, even the updated ones, I was like, OK, so you hold this and do this to charge. You hold this and press triangle to shoot. And Android 17 doesn't charge because it's an Android, blah, blah, blah. All this stuff immediately came from going back. And if that doesn't tell you how perfectly accurate as a sequel it is,
00:28:57
Speaker
It was just, it was so fun. There's so many, there's so many like combat nuances in that game that you can't fill when you're, when you're just previewing it. Like the, one of the developers was telling me that every character's punch is like different. Yeah. It's all tweaked differently to, to just be that character. Like, yeah. And like all the intros like in the fight are like manga panel, like references or like anime scene where it's like,
00:29:27
Speaker
perfectly in frame like sell with his like arm on his knee like shit like that we were just like wow this is this is uh someone who's read and watched dragon ball a lot of times i like everything about it i was like this is
00:29:40
Speaker
They knew the assignment. I think the only problem will be the Xenoverse fans discovering the Budokai fighting system for the first time. If they're coming from Xenoverse to straight to this. Oh, the Xenoverse is still going. Yeah, you could just walk your ass back to Xenoverse. That game has survived three presidents. It'll be able to keep going.
00:30:11
Speaker
Um, yeah, I would say it's, it's, there's like, there's like strategy and just like real like action arcade. Like it's, I don't know. It's, it's such a cool combat system. That's approachable. You can button mash sky. I, you know, I don't think you can because you got to know to charge. You got to be the triangle to like break guards. Yeah.
00:30:36
Speaker
Yeah, you can you won't get super far. Yeah, like, oh, I feel like Dragon Ball is because you're punching like crazy. And yeah, it's a surprisingly technical because I feel like people who didn't play the Budokai Tinkaiichi games might see and be like, oh, 3D arena fighter. But this is this is different. This is not one punch man, or like jujutsu Kaisen fighter. This is
00:30:59
Speaker
This was made, this is the reason they're all the arena fighters is because Budokai Tenkaichi rocked and pulled it off. This Naruto, I would say are the two games that really cemented that, but like, it's, it's so good. It's developing. Is this cyber connect? I believe so. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And it's, uh, whoo.
00:31:19
Speaker
I can't wait. Next month. Next month, baby. I saw some criticisms of the the character select menu screen. And every time I see it, every time I see it now, it is kind of boring. It is kind of boring. But yeah, I mean, that's as far as things that's pretty minor. And I'm pretty good. Yeah. Like it's like it does suck because you are. I you go back and see you see some like old like a PS2 like.
00:31:45
Speaker
Menu screens. But that also existed like DVDs. You go back to some of like 2010 DVDs, like they're just packed with shit. Like animated, like they have games on them. Yeah, yeah. Little games. You have behind the scenes. You don't get any of that shit anymore. You don't get any of that. That's like everything is less fun now. Like look at restaurants. That's a huge one where you're like McDonald's used to be like weird and like colorful. And now it's all just like clearly they just want you to use the app and pick up your suit and leave.
00:32:16
Speaker
Yeah, don't talk to me. Yeah, it's kind of rough to be a kid. There's like no play places or like like every restaurant is colorful and like kid themed in like the 90s and 2000s. And they're not anymore. And I feel so bad because
00:32:30
Speaker
kids don't have all these fun little places. When you're a kid, you're like, McDonald's. Yeah. It's like you're so excited for McDonald's now. You got to McDonald's. You'd be like, I'm so excited to go to the DMV, essentially. Yeah. It's just boring and plain. You're like, oh, it's elegant. I'm not going to McDonald's or fucking elegance. What are you talking to?
00:32:57
Speaker
Well, it's not to stay there anymore. I think the play place was like the way to get parents to, to want to go to McDonald's, but now McDonald's doesn't need that. It doesn't need the play place gimmick anymore because people go there anyway. That's how I played a Nintendo 64 in game. There was only one McDonald's in my town with the N64. The head.
00:33:21
Speaker
Pokemon XD, Tack and the Power of Juju, Mario Tennis, good times. Yeah, I think this one had Pokemon Stadium on it. Oh, yeah, the N64 ones. I remember the N64 Mario Tennis too and stuff like that. Yeah, stuff like that. Good times. Shit's not fun anymore. Shit's not fun anymore. I'm sorry, children who are watching this, hey, you shouldn't be watching this.
PAX Reflections
00:33:45
Speaker
This is not for children. It'd be, the world used to be cooler and I hope it's cooler again one day.
00:33:51
Speaker
I had a pretty good packs. I'm letting stuff out. I'm putting stuff out. Yeah. I had some pretty bad anxiety at the show for the first time, for the first time in like my life. I felt my imposter syndrome just let out like, I don't know, man. I got over the walls. Yeah. It's like, it's
00:34:20
Speaker
It's like you put so much of yourself into something and you want to be excited along with everyone else and then you still get treated as if you're a spectator. You still get treated. You could do everything you can do and yet people will still treat you like you just stumbled into this world. I don't know.
00:34:50
Speaker
When I don't think others deserve the recognition that they get, like I just see, I just see with what good teams do and it bums me out that they're not bigger. And just some, just some shit happened that I was like, like, um, like I was late to an interview. We have a camera crew. We have a camera. We're with Mark and we have a bunch of shit and, um,
00:35:17
Speaker
This interview was like half a mile away from the convention center. So we wrap up, we have to take down, do B roll and stuff after an interview. So Mark has to like still do 10 minutes of like walking around a booth or something. So we're, we're already 10 minutes late. Now we have to walk 10 minutes to this, um, interview. So we're about 25 minutes late to this, um, to this interview.
00:35:39
Speaker
Um, no, when you thought it wasn't, it wasn't like, cause you got to text me like, Oh, I thought it was. Yeah. So I had it on, I had it on my schedule for like four, but I guess it was at three and I was like, Oh, okay. Okay. That's, that's fine. That's fine. Um, you got to understand if you don't do this kind of thing, the events are so busy and hectic that like something like that could absolutely happen because you're, you're constantly going like,
00:36:05
Speaker
The media room exists because you have 30 minutes between where you're like, I need to drink water and sit for a minute. So this kind of thing completely understandably happens. Yeah. And it's sometimes hard to factor in time to walk from one area to the other because you don't know where they are in relation to each other. You don't have a layout of that while you're making these schedules. And you don't know if they're going to have a hotel room somewhere else anyway. So I get there and we're doing the interview and I asked the question,
00:36:34
Speaker
And I'm like, Oh, let me introduce myself first. And I shake their hands and then there's a PR person was like, Oh, you wouldn't, you would have known that if you were here on time. And that like,
00:36:47
Speaker
Like in my head. And this is what you get when I'm unqualified because I don't think other podcasts will likely talk about this kind of stuff. I wanted to fucking yell at that guy. Like I wanted to be like, dude, I'm fucking here doing free fucking content for you. I'm here.
00:37:07
Speaker
In debt, I am here sweating from running a half a mile to get to this room. I'm here with Mark from New York, with me from California. I'm here, dude, to fucking market your game for you, to share these developers that you, your PR person, had nothing to do with developing this game. I'm here for them.
00:37:31
Speaker
You got, yes, you invited me. Yes. You cleared noisy pixel to be on this list, whatever included, but I'm here for the developers. I'm not here for you, man. And like, but I didn't say that I held onto it. I asked my first question and then I just felt it like building up the imposter syndrome. What if he's right? What if I, what if I, what if I fucked up, you know, like what, like I was so like,
00:37:56
Speaker
I stopped, I couldn't answer the second question. I just said, guys, I think I'm having an anxiety attack. And I took a shot and I started talking about Noisy Pixel with the two people that were from the development team. And it was just to ground myself. And then I- It's hard to do.
00:38:17
Speaker
to get back on your feet. I was telling Zario, I had the same, when I got to Seattle and everything was shut down and the lady was like, I'm not helping you. And I was like, am I going to get home? And my pill bottle opened in my bags. They were everywhere. And I was like, this looks so sketchy. I'm just putting these pills in a bottle of my backpack in the airport. And I was like, monitored place on earth.
00:38:41
Speaker
But it's like, though these are wide and I'm just, I'm trying to fix them. Uh, I, so I had the same, but your brain's telling you that everyone's watching you right now. It's like, maybe no one is. You're like, fuck, everyone's making fun of me or everyone's fucking like wondering what I'm doing. And it's like the cameras are on me and your brain is just.
00:38:59
Speaker
your brain is just making everything so much worse. The way I describe it to people who don't know is like so when you're thinking stuff typically you have like a logic path where you're like this is true this is objectively true and you have one where it's like this is subjective this is like I can tell like that's not whatever but when you're having a panic attack they merge so like even like you can normally be like of course no one's looking at me everyone has their own things going but when they merge
00:39:23
Speaker
it slips into the logic path and you're like, everyone has to be looking, of course they are. Like this, this, this is your reality, like changes your perception. So it's, it's really hard to, uh, to separate those when you're freaking out. Cause you're just like, Oh man, this is so lame. Like I'm, I'm stuck. And it's no fun. I think it's great though, that we're in a time where Mark is a very manly man.
00:39:50
Speaker
I'll tell you, he's, he's, he's like, he's equivalent to like an Italian dad from the seventies or something. He has that presence. Um, but even he, when I was at my worst anxiety, even he was like, that sucks, man. But in a way that was like, he not, there was no pity. He wasn't, it was very supportive. And right away, like, I think, like that's the way to like,
00:40:20
Speaker
I don't want to be pitied when I'm in that situation. I don't want to, oh, let's sit down. Let's yell. Yeah. I want to ground myself again. It's something, it's the least, it's the least manliest thing ever though. And that's what I'm glad that we're over. That were a few years ago, I would have just held this in and not told the goddamn soul and just like, what's wrong is Aria. Nothing. I'm just like having like a weird day, but nothing's wrong.
00:40:48
Speaker
being able to identify it and address it and get through it is like, I'm just so happy that like Mark is supportive of it. Um, you are several people in this industry, um, that I talked to while I was at the event, very like, like we got on the level of conversation this, this time that is really going to fuel me till for like another year, you know, like I'm so motivated now that, um,
Industry Support and Networking
00:41:19
Speaker
You know, you just be surprised like the amount of support that you have when you think that maybe everyone is like out to get you or something. It's not like that. It's a good industry for that too. The games industry is very forward thinking in terms of that sort of thing too. So it's good too.
00:41:37
Speaker
I don't like to, I'm not, yeah, it's, it's a weird thing, but, um, if anyone ever experiences stuff like that, um, I'm sorry. And it sucks. And we all go through it, but, um, but good, good luck. It's, it's, we, I'm saying from experiences, no fun having bad brain, you know, it's an unpleasant experience. Yeah. And, uh, I've dealt with that a lot, especially lately, but, uh, you know, you just gotta try and keep at it.
00:42:08
Speaker
and use the techniques that you can learn that help you come back down. Also, we're in a room a lot. Anytime someone like a developer or someone that we cover starts giving us compliments like, hey, we don't know you. Thank you so much for coming. I just want to start crying. I can't take it. I'm like, no, shut up. You're the developer. I wouldn't be able to write anything if you didn't make anything.
00:42:38
Speaker
Yeah. It is very validating to be like, Oh, yeah. And I'll tell you, Japanese men are definitely, um, like, like Japanese, like 40 year old men are definitely the most, like, thank you so much. Like, they're very kind. And it's like, Oh, I haven't done anything. You're being very nice. Thank you. Yeah.
00:43:04
Speaker
You're, I don't deserve this. They'll give you like, I, yeah, they'll just like, they're, they're very like, hi. I want you to know how much they appreciate you. And you're like, this is too high. They follow through like other regions, um, that we've worked with. Like we covered Genshin when it was first announced and those guys still, those guys still fuck with us today, you know, and they do that because we covered them.
00:43:31
Speaker
And they could get as big as whatever. They're like, no, but these guys, they covered us when we were near members. Yep. And a lot, a lot of Western studios are not like that. I'll tell you what, because if you can get an IgN exclusive, you're not going to go to those little, little gate couch.com that gave you your first interview. You're not going to give it to them. I'll tell you that much. It's true. Now there's a lot of nice moments like that. Like I hadn't done an event in since pre-COVID. Yeah. It's been a while.
00:44:01
Speaker
So I was like, Oh, I'm assuming everyone like forgot at this point, like my PR people contacts probably forgot I existed. Cause that's a long time. No, everyone was like, Oh, Spencer has been so long. And I was like, Oh, you probably saw them at different places now too. Cause they shift different companies. You're like, Oh, I remember you when you worked at this place. It was so nice to see everyone. They were also nice. And I was like, Oh, I thought everyone would have forgot I existed. That's so nice. Thank you. Like I was like, Oh, overwhelmed with the kindness. So it's a, it was a very rejuvenating event.
00:44:30
Speaker
I agree. I agree. I came back. I had a good cry. And ever since then, it's been like, it's been old as Ario. It's been, I'm excited about covering video games again as Ario. I don't know. We have good, we have skills that I don't think
00:44:50
Speaker
I think gamers have to a certain extent, but tack on that we're good writers and hard workers. Um, and I think, I think we fit in perfectly to this industry and the industry needs us more, a lot more than we need it. And we keep going back out of love no matter how hard it gets. Yeah.
00:45:11
Speaker
Yeah, it's like a marriage. You just keep at it. You just keep at it unless there's bad circumstances. But I mean, like even when it's challenging, you know, you're like, I remember why I love you game industry, even through the hard times. So we're going to continue doing Unqualified.
Future Podcast Plans
00:45:29
Speaker
Remember a week early on Patreon. Please leave comments below the audio and video. And then every Thursday,
00:45:39
Speaker
Every Thursday, this will go up. And thank you. And thank you, Spencer, for taking the time to come back. Thank you. It's nice to be back. I'm excited. Clear the air. Clear the beef. Clear the beef. We're over on our battles, our roles, our quarrels, our quandaries. Yeah. And we're not going to fucking kneel Brennan in and talk about mental health every episode every year. We'll have fun. We just needed to get that, I think. Yeah.
00:46:09
Speaker
Opening up to you guys and being transparent with you, with where we are makes covering games a lot easier because you can read our energy. You could be like, Oh, like, no, let's give them a couple more days on this review because we know how hard they work or some, I don't know. We'll be back to goofs and gaffes right now. You need the real shit. You need the real shit. You need, you need, you need Spencer and Azario, Azario and Spencer cheap and real unqualified game chat. Thank you for, um,
00:46:38
Speaker
listening, watching, and see you next week. Bye everyone. Bye!