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The Fruit of the Loom conspiracy, James is a bad friend, & Microsoft beats the FTC - Add to Party 07.11.2023
4 Plays1 year ago
This week Andy's worldview is shattered, James is a bad friend to Charles, and Microsoft will get to acquire Activision
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Transcript
Introductions and Mandela Effect
00:00:14
Speaker
Welcome to Add to Party, a friendship simulator masquerading as a new show. I'm your host, James Hartwell, and I'm joined by Charles Yamat, and I'm joined by Andy Kane. Good evening.
00:00:27
Speaker
Good handy handy. I hear I hear I hear your worldview has been challenged. I do. It absolutely has just before it here. One second needed to open that just before let it rip.
00:00:44
Speaker
I get shakes if I take too long before I drink one of these. Shut up. This is the Irish spring beer. So this is going to have to get me through it, though. So I have been reliving, OK, the trauma of yesterday.
00:01:01
Speaker
Oh, Christ. So yesterday at work, I stumbled across an article that brought up something that literally challenged my worldview. Do you guys know the Fruit of the Loom logo? Yeah. I described to me the Fruit of the Loom logo.
00:01:24
Speaker
It's a cornucopia. James. Yeah. James, are you aware of this? What? Or do you just know the logo to have the cornucopia? It has. It had it. I mean, it's changed over time, but it had a cornucopia. James, James, there never was a cornucopia. Dun, dun, dun. James never seen bears all again. James, there never was a cornucopia. And I read this yesterday and I literally got
00:01:54
Speaker
Oh, I mean, yeah, it's just no, it's not a cornucopia. No, James, there's no cornucopia. Yeah, because there's no horn. Yes, there's no horn. Listen, I mean, it's still like here. Look, no, no, no, no. Wait, a bunch of fruit and that doesn't matter. That doesn't matter. James, that is not what is important. OK, to the cornucopia, the missing cornucopia. I. Hmm. Hmm. OK. Hmm.
00:02:22
Speaker
I'm aware of the Mandela Effect or whatever it's called. I'm aware of all the examples, the ones we laugh about, right? Beringstain Bears, Kazam versus Shazam. I don't know. What are the other ones? I don't know.
00:02:38
Speaker
But this one, I cannot believe because I remember when I was young, I didn't know what a cornucopia was. And I and I asked the question because of the Fruit of the Loom logo. I remember being in the commercials at the end. It would like go to white and it would show the logo. And I desperately searched the Internet and everybody has the same memory of not knowing what it was and then asking because of the Fruit of the Loom logo. And it never existed.
00:03:07
Speaker
I bet it's because of this one, which they used from 1978 2003. So you look at it, it has brown like a. Yeah, that there was something holding it up. Right. Yeah. Not what it is. Well, I understand that. But what I'm saying is because it's brown, that triggers thoughts of a cornucopia in you. I agree. It's cornucopia. But because that brown is there, it kind of triggers that idea in your head.
00:03:34
Speaker
No, listen, eight year old Andy didn't even know the idea, the shape, the image of a cornucopia until it was introduced after people danced around in fruit costumes. The cornucopia did not get in the world. You remember the commercials of men dancing around dressed as the different fruits? Charles.
00:03:56
Speaker
Yeah, I do. OK, all right. That's real. That's real. Maybe this is a Midwestern thing. I don't know. I did more research. OK, I did a deep dive and there is record of there was like a parody album made in like the 70s or early 80s of the Fruit of the Loom logo for the album. And it had the cornucopia and someone interviewed them.
00:04:19
Speaker
and said, when you made this album, why did you put the cornucopia? And he said, it was in the Fruit of the Loom logo. Why the hell would I add it anyways or either ways? And I was like, yes, of course. And then there was one guy interviewed who was the spokesperson for them for years in all their commercials. And they asked, was there a cornucopia? And he said, yes, there was a cornucopia. And he was involved in thousands of commercials. Everybody knows this cornucopia.
00:04:43
Speaker
Everybody learned what it was because of this logo. And it doesn't exist. It doesn't exist. They said it never existed.
Conspiracy Theories and Spoiler Boundaries
00:04:50
Speaker
And I do not understand. Like I have literally been sick to my stomach because now what is anything? What is this world? How can we have such a distinct and fundamental and changing? It literally shaped our understanding of what a cornucopia was.
00:05:08
Speaker
How do we all have this memory? I don't know. I don't know, Charles. Charles, let's let's run down the the issues facing the world today. Number one, racial injustice. Number two, climate change. Number three, a potentially a potential nuclear war. Number four, unchecked capitalism. Number number five, the list.
00:05:34
Speaker
No, no, number five. The fruit of a loom logo never had a made top five. Yeah. Yeah, buddy. It's that important, isn't it? Well, thank you for acknowledging it. But I don't I don't know. I literally don't know how this could exist. Andy, I just want to challenge you a little bit more. Please do. Please do. Cornucopia was something that got introduced to me in elementary school because of pilgrims because of the fruit of the loom logo. No, no.
00:06:05
Speaker
That's it. I'm giving drawing shit because the teacher didn't want to do anything. Yeah, like, you know, you fucking like you have to, you know, you do the drawings, you draw the cornucopia, do all that stuff. I don't think it's that big of a leap to think, hey, this got introduced to me in elementary school.
00:06:26
Speaker
And you just don't take, we, no one takes a look at the fruit alone loom logo, because it's a very small logo on, on tags. Yeah. And you just assume, yeah, a bunch of fruit bundled together. Cornucopia.
00:06:39
Speaker
Yeah, and and the logo pre 2003 had brown in it, which traditional cornucopia colors. So you kind of your brain just kind of extrapolated. I. Why does everybody have this memory? I remember. I mean, we don't. OK, how dare you?
00:07:00
Speaker
I mean, no, you said you said you asked me and I said, it's cornucopia. And then I looked at it and I went, oh, I wasn't there. All right. We all remember it. And isn't this just a little bit more disturbing than the Berenstein Bears? No. Berenstein Bears was was yet Berenstein Bears was
00:07:21
Speaker
Okay. Listen, everyone has their own Mandela effect moment. Um, Berenstein bears was mine. And I just went, man, I'm pretty dumb for not actually paying attention. You're not dumb. Okay. Cause I've been thinking about this a lot.
00:07:40
Speaker
All right. Have you developed a co-cab or something? Oh, no, no, I haven't. But this reminded me of a conversation I had earlier in the week, or no, last week on Friday. So I was talking at F and M. And somehow we got magic Friday night magic. Thank you. And I was talking with this guy.
00:07:58
Speaker
I've talked with him for a while. I know him to be a sane and level-headed person. And he increases. Well, I hope he's not. But we get to the topic of space and then he leans in and whispers. So do you think we actually made it to the moon?
00:08:20
Speaker
And I said, of course we did. Why would you ever think we didn't make it to the moon? He's like, I don't know. It just doesn't seem like we did. And then I like and then I started asking him questions and I was like, well, how do all of us remember us going to the moon? He's like, I don't know. Maybe we don't.
00:08:38
Speaker
And I was like, well, why would there be this conspiracy? What is there to gain from hiding it? And he's like, I don't know. Maybe we just maybe it's just not real. And it didn't make sense to me. OK, he didn't have good explanations, nor that how this person could actually believe that we didn't reach the moon. But then when my world was shook by the fruit of the loom logo, is the moon landing a Mandela effect? No.
00:09:04
Speaker
We went to the moon, asshole! Did we? Yes! Did we? No, Eddie, we will not become the Joe Rogan podcast. We went to the moon.
00:09:18
Speaker
several times. I'm 99% sure we did, but I'm 100% sure there was a cornucopia in that logo. What is anything anymore? Okay. Everything exists. Multiple dimensions. Everything. Everything has to exist. All of it. And I don't know. See, there we go. Fruit of the Loom logo right on the screen. Viewers at home. Look at that. Look at that cornucopia. That's what you remember.
00:09:41
Speaker
Isn't that what you remember, James? No, I'm looking at most of these and I'm like, these aren't the Fruit Loops one is the one that I didn't know. And I'm like, I never thought about that. Hmm. The fruit is spelled F O R F R O O T, which makes sense because legally, I bet they can't say Fruit Loops. Is it really spelled that? I don't know. Oh, no.
00:10:06
Speaker
I mean, again, a lot of this is just is just simple overlooking. Everyone's mind can eat can completely. Yeah. We have other problems. And you know what? I don't know. I don't know. All I'm saying. Did we go to the moon?
00:10:25
Speaker
I don't know. Andy, no, we're not doing this. We went to the moon. I asked him if he thought the earth was flat and he said no. So at least there's that. Andy, I just didn't understand how he could think that. Sorry, Charles, go ahead. Now, listen, we need to take some time here because, James, this is actually your intervention. What did I do?
00:10:48
Speaker
Oh, that James did? Yes. Oh, thank God. I'm not. Listen, I'm not crazy at all. Thank you. What did I do? In the name of our friendship, I now draw this line. What's that? If I'm playing a game actively, you're not allowed to talk to me about it.
00:11:05
Speaker
Oh, you're so mad because you're mad at the game, not at me. I'm not mad at the game, James. Could you? That's it. I told him one thing. I'm making a clear line. I told him one thing. Two things. What was the other thing I told you? He told me about the weapons. Well, spoilers. Yeah, I told you the weapon skin. Yeah. Yeah.
00:11:28
Speaker
That's a spoiler. What's the other thing? You told me a scene that happened 10 minutes before I got there. Let's see. No spoilers. We can be vague. Let's listen. No, no vague. No spoilers. Yeah. And I'm a spoiler baby. OK. I don't know. I remember being incredibly vague when I talked to you. The only thing I was saying, James, James, James, James, James. Yes, please. Just listen.
00:11:59
Speaker
None of it. You're bad at this. You're bad. You're not. As much as you've tried, there have been things that I have considered a spoiler and I did not appreciate it. And so this is me in my most even voice. Most even voice. We're just not doing that anymore. Listen, that's okay.
00:12:19
Speaker
You know what? Sometimes a vague suggestion to one is a spoiler to another. I was watching a thing that talked about even discussing, even theorizing, right? Even offering predictions of what someone might see turns your TV screen into a bingo card. And you're just waiting for those moments, waiting for those triggers, right? And stepping in front of your experience.
00:12:45
Speaker
And I think different people just want to experience things different ways, right? Some people look at it's not bad about the panther suggestion. James, it's OK. No, I'm curious. I'm curious which one it was. Listen, you can message outside of the podcast. Was it the panther? No vague suggestions. You just turned it into a bingo card. Now I got to look for a panther. You do, Andy. Oh, God. Was it the panther? No, Charles.
00:13:15
Speaker
I can hear the clacking away. Oh, he's going. He's going. He's going. Listen, you can share this in chat. We have to protect. All right. I don't remember the important telling you anything about that. You could just scroll up your messages. No, no, I'm not doing that, but.
00:13:34
Speaker
Tommy, just write to me which one it is. I did. I don't know what that is. When you're saying it, I don't have an, I don't know. You're being too vague. Oh, better at protecting.
00:13:51
Speaker
Oh, okay. That one's my bad. Yeah, that one was my bad because I thought you were at a point that you wasn't. So you know what? I'll take ownership of that one. I thought you were a certain point and I misrepresented the order of events. So yes, that is my fault. I am sorry.
00:14:08
Speaker
Yeah. Well, listen, like this is what I asked at the very top of this. Yeah. We're not, you are not talking to me about anything. Well, you, we can talk. You just have to tell me where you are. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm drawing the line. I'm saying the line right here. Don't talk to me about anything about the games until I'm done.
00:14:30
Speaker
That's no fair. That's no fun. You still get to have a conversation. Clear line. Clear line. The name of our friendship. No. James. James. I can't listen much like Jonah Hill. I won't, I won't, I won't have, I won't, I won't be co-tailed by
00:14:54
Speaker
the, you know, setting boundaries as if that's, if that's acceptable. You are not co-opting therapy speak. Okay. Listen, Charles is drawing a boundary. I think this is a listen. All right. You're still going to have those fun conversations just after the game. And that's okay. That's okay.
00:15:18
Speaker
James. What? Now you have threads. You can go talk about it on threads. That's true on threads. I was like threads. I was like, Oh, then I forgot about Twitter. I forgot about new Twitter.
00:15:36
Speaker
I think that's a nice compromise. James, we just have different ways we want to experience a story. That's okay. Yeah, I know. I might try. And that's okay. Listen, even your best isn't good. Yeah, and I acknowledge you tried, you know, and I admire that. Except for the weapons game, which I was like, actively, I was mad about it and I needed to talk to you.
00:15:59
Speaker
Right, and I did not appreciate it. Well, you know what? As a friend, take that one for the team. James, even a weapon skin. So do you consider a weapon skin a spoiler, James? This one, yes. But wouldn't any weapon skin, James? A subtle nod to an existing property? I don't know what this is. Let's not spoil it.
00:16:26
Speaker
But that could be a spoiler. OK. The thing I was watching movie trailers are spoilers, right? Movie trailers. I mean, that was like when we were we were watching the the trailers for 16 while we were talking about it. Charles and I were like, oh, those are weird spoilers. I wish we didn't see.
00:16:46
Speaker
I was like, man, it's you can't you can't go back and watch trailers while while while you're playing the game because. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's so much more so much more context that you like piece it together real easily if you go back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And like I was. And that's that's that's a learning lesson I'll take for the future. I'm sorry. But I was real mad about it. It's real bad.
00:17:18
Speaker
Anyway. Now let's talk about real news. Everyone here heard it. Covenant's made. Covenant's what? I didn't agree to anything. I just thought... James! You know what? Also true. Also true. I guess I'm just blocking James. Don't be a Jonah Hill, okay?
00:17:38
Speaker
Well, I'm accusing Charles of being Jonah Hill. Oh, no, this is not. No, no, this is not even close. OK. You can swim with all the boys you want, James.
Microsoft-Activision Merger Insights
00:17:49
Speaker
We're not turning this podcast into the toxic gossip train, but do look up Jonah Hill's weird boundaries for dating. Yeah, it's very weird. He's a weird guy. Very weird. Um.
00:18:02
Speaker
Well, let's talk about something successful, unlike Charles and I's friendship, which is on the rocks. That's that Microsoft beat the American government. That's right, small business has finally succeeded.
00:18:19
Speaker
That's right. Government can't keep the small business down. That's right. You know, take a ragtag Southern lawyer. OK, he's just a simple man and he's going to defend the every man. That's right. Microsoft and the FTC court battle ended today with a win for Microsoft. The ruling submitted today by Judge Corley said the following Microsoft's acquisition of Activision has been described as the largest in tech history. It deserves scrutiny.
00:18:49
Speaker
That scrutiny has paid off. Microsoft has committed in writing, in public, and in court to keep call of duty on PlayStation for 10 years on parody with Xbox. It made an agreement with the Nintendo to bring call of duty to Switch, and it entered several agreements to, for the first time, bring Activision's content to several cloud gaming services. This court's responsibility in this case is narrow. It is to decide if notwithstanding these current circumstances, the merger should be halted, perhaps even terminated, pending resolution of the SEC administrative action.
00:19:19
Speaker
reasons explained, the court finds the FTC has not shown a likelihood that it will prevail in its claim that this particular vertical merger in this specific industry may substantially lessen competition. To the contrary, the record evidence points that more consumer access to call of duty and other Activision content, the motion for a preliminary injunction is therefore denied in all caps. Basically saying, yeah, we don't think this is going to hurt competition. Like,
00:19:45
Speaker
And I think a lot of the thoughts about it more or less came around the fact is, A, the FTC put up just a bad argument, more or less focusing on how this acquisition would hurt Sony and not the customers, which is really who they, they are not there to represent Sony, they're there to represent the American consumer.
00:20:11
Speaker
And also basically saying like Microsoft's in third place. This is them trying to improve their brain. Like literally they are this act. This merger will create better competition because right now Microsoft is so far behind. They can't actively push Sony or Nintendo in competition. So this merger actually brings Microsoft up closer to them and therefore allows them
00:20:39
Speaker
to then make more competition, which is, again, better for the consumer. Which, you know, honestly, not the worst argument I've ever heard for this merger. But yeah, so now with the FTC and the EU's approval, this is basically a done deal. There's also, if you remember, the UK's CMA organization denied it.
00:21:01
Speaker
However, literally within hours of this ruling, the CMA said, well, maybe we'll have some agreements and we'll figure it out. Basically seeing the writing on the wall of like, oh, we can't be the whole that the closing date originally for this is July 18th. Oh, also the FTC can appeal by the end of this week. It seems unlikely that they will. But who knows? But
00:21:25
Speaker
Yeah, I would not be surprised if we hear agreement from the CMA later this week. And then next week, this is done. And Blizzard or an Activision Blizzard becomes acquired by Microsoft. Wow. Finally happened. How lazy of a port do you think that call of duty will be on the switch? I mean, it'll be cloud.
00:21:47
Speaker
Oh, I forgot that it does that like Kingdom Hearts 3 hearts, right? Yeah. But it wasn't good, right? No. No. But you have to remember, too, they like work on get war zone running on fucking iPads. So you know what I mean? Like they're there. They have they have lots of weird ways to get those games running on poor systems. OK. Yeah. Hmm.
00:22:15
Speaker
Hmm James your dream came true. Yeah Soon enough I had to pay for Diablo. Oh, okay. Well, all right, then I guess you didn't need this merger anymore. Yeah Someone also looked this up as well when Bethesda when the Bethesda deal was closed it was about
00:22:39
Speaker
three days before Bethesda back catalog item showed up on Game Pass. So I would not be surprised if you find a lot of Activision Blizzard back catalog stuff like old Call of Duties and all that crap just ends up on Game Pass pretty immediately once this deal closes down. Sure. That would be interesting. Hmm. Hmm.
00:23:05
Speaker
Well, I guess now they have more studios. They do. Maybe they'll bring hots back. Hots. Oh, Heroes of the Storm. Yeah, I forgot that existed. I think Blizzard did, too. Listen, it's a live service game.
00:23:21
Speaker
Was it was it confirmed it wasn't making money or not infinite? It wasn't enough. They wanted it to overtake League or Dota, which is such an incredible like let's let's take over one of the two top games in the world. Yeah. Oh, Blizzard. Oh, I don't know. I mean, I guess I'm am I surprised this happened? I don't know. I don't know. Do I care that it's done? Hmm.
00:23:51
Speaker
I don't know. Is this a good thing? Well, it'll... For all your thoughts, because I'm actually just stumped. Again, right? Like we said last week, it's not a good thing. Mergers aren't good. Just in general.
00:24:14
Speaker
Judge is correct, I think, based on the arguments that the FTC, really what I learned from the FTC is that they have hired literal people off the streets and told them to put on a suit and defend it for them. And then they paid somebody 20 bucks to view act as key witnesses. This is an awful, an awful showing by the FTC. One to the point where I think to myself, I could sue the FTC.
00:24:44
Speaker
Just do that. I can win cases. What are you going to do? Just say, hey, don't do that to us. Listen, you know what? If Suits has taught us anything, you don't need to pass the bar or go to college to be a lawyer. You just have to have an edetic memory. What does edetic mean?
00:25:05
Speaker
That's when you remember everything you say. Oh, that's terrible. I mean, remember talking with someone who had that and they said it was genuinely awful because you can't forget. You can't let the horrible things fade. And maybe that's why those. Oh, I guess that was suits. I don't know. I don't know if they played into that. I never watched suits. Don't they sing in it? Is that the music? No, they don't. Hmm. There's one lawyer show out there where they do. But well, too bad for FTC. Hmm.
00:25:34
Speaker
Why show where they sing? Are you talking about how you make feel? No, I think it was like someone who was like slipping into dementia or something, and then it would randomly turn into a musical. And there was an episode of scrubs where it turns into a musical. I think it had who's the the sister from Arrested Development? What's her name? Portia de Rossi. I think so. I think she was in it. Portia de Rossi.
00:26:05
Speaker
Lawyer show. Um, Allie McBeal. Well, this isn't helping me. Was she an Allie McBeal? Yes. Tyrants are on our end. Yeah, it's on my end. Don't worry about it. Listen, I live near police. I live near emergency services. Good for me, benefit recording. Aw, there's a live journal entry about Allie McBeal.
00:26:32
Speaker
Was that right? It was Ally McBeal? No, it wasn't Ally McBeal, but this is not important, but this is what's important to me. Maybe it's the Mandela Effect! Oh my god! Oh, here it goes. Andy, you brought up the Mandela Effect 20 times already. Don't you remember? You lie stone.
00:26:56
Speaker
Oh, I remember that. Yeah, I remember that. Oh, didn't make it up. OK, see, so I was right about other things. Yeah. Now, the interesting part about mergers is that they take fucking forever. Yeah, they do. Oh, sure. And a lot of people are going to get fired. Oh, yeah. Well, oh, that's a lot of redundancy. You don't need that many. But yeah, I don't know. It's it's an interesting time. I've been part of mergers before.
00:27:25
Speaker
And just thinking of like, yes, Bobby Kotick will be out. Then you have to restructure all the leadership from there. And then also what are all the teams doing? And likely they'll just keep it the same, right? So the question of when will this acquisition affect the quality of Blizzard's games or Activision Blizzard's games? I don't know. Could actually be like another two years.
00:27:53
Speaker
Oh, I would say almost more than that. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, a lot of talks been about lately about the scale of games and it's how like, five and six, yeah, five to seven years for development cycles for games now.
00:28:09
Speaker
Right below what I'm saying is like there's still stuff that's also live right now. Oh, right. Yeah, you're going to see you'll see faster development from changes from. But like that'll be the soonest. It's not going to be from a new game that will release over the next couple of years. But like the only like when do you see the effects of this? It's going to be a while other than the game pass in this of it all. I wonder if this is going to do anything to the Overwatch plans with
00:28:38
Speaker
charging for the PvE content that they aren't launching. So remember they scrapped the PvE campaign for Overwatch 2? Yes. They're going to release that out as like events or things like that, what they have, but you still have to pay $15 to get access to it.
00:29:03
Speaker
Oh, I'm not sure if it gets you access to all the events or it's like an odd event thing. Hmm. I have to imagine if you have game pass, they will be free. Oh, for sure. Yeah, like so that will, I think, lessen some of the sting of that, which will be nice. But yeah, I'm thinking just about like their life service games, right? Because, you know, they're inheriting called they're inheriting war zone, right, which is
00:29:33
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's it's not bigger than Fortnite, but it's damn near tied with it. And you're getting your then you're also getting Diablo four. You're getting Overwatch. You're getting World of Warcraft. How is how is Game Pass and World of Warcraft going to work? Oh.
00:29:53
Speaker
They're still getting that monthly subscription. I mean, yeah, but you know what? Hey, like, is there a tier where it's like get game pass plus your wow subscription at a reduced price? Oh, OK.
00:30:04
Speaker
Yeah, maybe. Yeah, like that's it. I'm curious, you know, what with their pricing structures, what will they do? Because ultimately, it seems like their goal is to just pull more and more people into Game Pass. So you do that by offering more value to Game Pass. And that's do that with your life service games that have separate channels. Right. And you kind of just pull it all together. And then they're going to start cranking up the price.
00:30:29
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, they already raised it like one dollar, I think. Oh, sure. Can you share? I'm trying to look for this for your numbers, because what's up? You think war zone is popular?
00:30:42
Speaker
Mm hmm. Call of Duty war zone like to near Fortnite numbers. Mm hmm. It is interesting. I know it's very similar. I actually want to know the numbers to it. I know. Yeah, the people tried it, but I didn't think people stayed. Oh, no, it's still wildly played. We don't run in those circles, Charles, but it's still it's up there. Listen, there are people playing war zone every night.
00:31:07
Speaker
Are you having a Sonder moment? Was it Sonder? Yes, it was Sonder. That's it. But this isn't Sonder. This is more disbelief in my statement. No, no, no, no. That's it. Listen, I think didn't the lawsuit without actually finding a reliable site to look at live player counts. I did go to Twitch, at least for viewership and they're kind of close. There's a fortnight at 70,000 viewers and call of duty at 46,000.
00:31:37
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's why I said Fortnite still far and away ahead, but strong number two, I would put war zone. And that's just in battle royale. Right. I mean, if you want to put in like CSGO and Dota and League and Valorant and all that shit, then it's a different calculation. But in just in terms of battle royale games, it goes Fortnite war zone. Yeah, a lot of people play it. Wasn't it that like a million people exclusively play Call of Duty?
00:32:06
Speaker
on PlayStation? Was that what was revealed? Well, it's that's yeah, that's it. But not exactly the same as talking about Warzone. Yeah. Call of Duty is called, you know, the all Call of Duty's. Yeah. Warzone is technically speaking free to play. Like you don't need to buy Call of Duty to play Warzone.
00:32:25
Speaker
Oh, OK. Yeah. Well, lots of people love it and you can enjoy it on your Switch soon. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. How soon? I bet. I bet that's not going to happen until the Switch 2. Oh, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know. I mean, hey, it we said it's going to happen. And, you know,
00:32:46
Speaker
It I think what's interesting is once this deal closes, what will be the reaction for other people? Because kind of right. It it does open the gates for other people to be like, all right, well, if you're going to allow this one, then what else are
Anticipation for Baldur's Gate 3
00:32:59
Speaker
you going? Then anything below this should be OK. Mm hmm. So who had other publishers and developers are going to get bought up? Still hold apples buying Ubisoft. Prove me right. No, actually, I will. I don't care.
00:33:14
Speaker
Well, I mean, if you think about it, right, that's it. It did positions. Apple is a third party publisher and their own internal game studio. So like they'll still release everything, but then they, it, I think it works for them as a sense. Also something about Ubisoft games and Apple just make some weird sort of sense. I don't know why. Um, yeah, well,
00:33:39
Speaker
Let's let's get out of this dry legal talk. Oh, take me out. Let's get wet. Yes. Let's talk about D and D games. Listen, our minds can wander anywhere. Apparently, I don't know. So we I think we I don't know if we said this in passing, but Ballers Gate three.
00:34:03
Speaker
The next game from Larian Studios, who released the divinity original sin to baller's gate. Three went into early access three years ago at this point, I think we'll be releasing on August 3rd. They moved it up from the end of August because they wanted to get the fuck away from Starfield. They're like, let's not go against Bethesda's biggest game.
00:34:29
Speaker
But because of that, now the media cycle for Baldur's Gate is now in full swing. And let me tell you something. Do you want to be a horny vampire and have sex with a shapeshifting druid? You can do that in this game. So, yeah, I didn't see all the horniness in this.
00:34:50
Speaker
But so is it just that? OK, how horny are we getting? And show them the show. I'm getting it. I'm getting it. I've always been three druid. That's it. And oh, this may always be three bare romance feels childish and pure. I'll get out of here.
00:35:09
Speaker
Yeah, what a prude. But listeners, we're going to be playing the video. You guys won't be able to hear it. So we'll have Andy also describe it to you as it goes on. Oh, I have to describe this. Oh, yeah. Andy, you have 20. Well, there is a person. Oh, not safe for stream. Is that the end? Did it cut to the end? I think so. Lame.
00:35:32
Speaker
Oh, I guess we can't show it. This is how raunchy it is. So someone is lying in a bed. OK, you know, no clothing because they're just enjoying their time. Oh, and a big old bear comes over, not like anthropo. Ew. What's going on? Oh, even the chipmunk doesn't understand. Yeah, there's a chipmunk watching and he drops his.
00:35:55
Speaker
He drops his nut shocked at what he sees. What is happening here is that you can romance one of your companions who is a druid and the druid shape shifts into a bear and they have some consensual bestiality.
00:36:11
Speaker
But it looks like an actual bear. Yeah, no, it's a bear. And then it had like sexy, hungry eyes. Yeah. Oh, that bear had that bear had fucked me up. That was very that was uncomfortable. I don't know if I would call any. I got to find the one that has the dialogue. No, no, it's the official stream still has it.
00:36:33
Speaker
Let me I'll link it to you right now. Yeah, because I watched it this morning because I was like, hold on. I know we're going to talk about this. I need to. Oh, my God. I'm a little bit unsettled. I see. Of course you would be. Oh, no. Is this how? Good old rights. OK. Do I just not believe in virtual bestiality? Here we go. Thank God for most replayed on the YouTube timeline.
00:37:00
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, you got you went to the official stream, too. Yeah. Yeah. So is there a room of people clapping for this? Yeah, there are. Because Andy, they had the room of people choose the dialogue options to get to that scene. Oh, OK. Yeah. So here's the druid guy before he transforms. Oh, and now there he goes. And now. Oh, now he's just naked. Yeah.
00:37:28
Speaker
He's not a bear. Yeah. Also, this is yeah, this is some man on man action, too. We love to see it aggressive. Yeah. And they're they're fucking swapping spit right now. I don't know, though. There's still careful camera angles. How progressive can this be? Don't worry. The mod scene will take care of that.
00:37:49
Speaker
That's a very good point. Unlock the camera. Oh, that Austin Powers block right there. OK, that's kind of funny. That's fine. Yeah. Oh, look at that ass. Oh, that is next generation. Holy moly. OK, this is horny. Yeah. Holy moly. They go all the way. Yeah. Wow. Baldur's Gate. Wait, now he's going to turn into a bear. Well, now he got excited.
00:38:19
Speaker
Oh, that's what happens. Oh, yes, I saw it. Yes, I saw it. He warned you before this whole thing. I was just like, I have an animal inside me and I worry about letting it out. So, you know, it comes into play. I do want to twitch, twitch, don't don't ban us. I did see his dog. It was there. Oh, it was on screen. Oh, I saw it. Oh, now he's back.
00:38:44
Speaker
It's when it's when he was turning into the bear, he was bent over. And yeah, there was there was a penis there. Oh, OK. Yeah. But yeah. And Andy, he's worried about that because it gets in the way of his relationships. But you can accept it. Yeah. And like it as it is. Is this in the beast kind of thing? No.
00:39:08
Speaker
This is just taking your lover as he is, Andy. That's fair. That's fair. And he has some interesting dialogue choices of, listen, it will be animalistic, rough, and huge. It'll be untamed, vigorous, and well-large. And then he responds, large is what I'm here for.
00:39:37
Speaker
Wait, are they really talking like that to each other? Yes! Oh, that's awesome. This has audio. We're just better at night. They know what they're doing. Oh, that's great. There he goes. Oh, he's turning into something. There he goes. What is he now? Oh, there it is. I saw it again. Oh, wow. There it was. Wow. So listen, Baldur's K3, it's not going to judge you. That's right.
00:40:04
Speaker
All right, this though, this, mm-mm. No, no, stop, stop, stop! Ew! Ah!
00:40:12
Speaker
You heard it here. Andy doesn't believe that gay bears. No, it is disgusting. These are consent. These are consenting adults, Andy. Yeah. One's a vampire. Hundreds of years old. Oh, my God. The way that bear looked at him. That's that's damning, damning, damning. So what else is Baldur Gay 3? Decide a BCality simulation.
00:40:39
Speaker
OK, the ballers gate three is a it's an asymmetric game that is it is based on the Dungeons and Dragons five E system. That is the current system for Dungeons and Dragons. They are saying that is probably the closest game design of ever of like tabletop rules to game.
00:41:04
Speaker
So if you're familiar with playing Dungeons and Dragons 5e, this will feel very normal. This is also like, you know, your standard fantasy story. Again, the early access is out. You can only play act one, but in act one, you end up on the ship and.
00:41:19
Speaker
with the Mind Flayers and then a whole bunch of fun things happen. It is a fun time. But this story is going to be branching. You're going to obviously be able to make a lot of choices, bestiality or not. Yeah. Also, they're encouraging re-speccing, which was a big deal in Divinity Original Sin 2, where it's like you had to choose your build and then if it wasn't good, go get fucked.
00:42:00
Speaker
Oh, here it is right here. They need to end their 174 hours more than a week of cut scenes. More dialogue than the entire Lord of Rains trilogy put together. For every choice, five conversation options might appear on the screen, but there might be as many 30 alternatives sitting away, each only being available as a part of the story entirely different to the one you're currently being told.
00:42:12
Speaker
I believe they also said that the game is somewhere in the neighborhood of 120 hours.
00:42:21
Speaker
I mean, you can bone a bear. So, you know, literally anything can happen. Yeah. All all rules out the window. But come on. Like when you have 174 hours at cut scenes, that all can't be good. Right. I mean, divinity, divinity original sin was real good.
00:42:43
Speaker
That's fair. I think the story of it was was was a good time. I think really the game play is kind of what got in the way of it, and especially like just how rigid the the character creation was. Yeah, I couldn't like. There's a divinity who was there was a rich, like rich amount of paths you could take in the game to the point that it was paralyzing me.
00:43:09
Speaker
Sure. And I'm sure if I mentally just put up some blocks of being like, ignore this, ignore this, ignore this, I could get through the game. I worry a little bit about Baldur's Gate for the same reason. Not that people won't find this fun. I'm sure people will find this fun. But the talk of how dense the world is, I was like, uh-oh. Would I find that overwhelming?
00:43:38
Speaker
It does it does allow it does allow for four player co-op. So, you know what, Charles? Maybe maybe we can play together and then we can push through. And then there are no spoilers. That's true. There will be no spoilers. Yeah, that's it. Oh, no. You don't want to play this by myself. I was just going to say for such a densely narrative game, I feel like that would be hard to play co-op, wouldn't it? As I recall, because you could you can do it in the early access version.
00:44:08
Speaker
I think there's kind of like a voting slash ruling system where if like enough people select one option, that's the option that gets picked or something like that. Or if it's like split, they'll flip a coin or something like that. Well, I'd say I also I played co-op with one of our other mutual friends. Yeah. For Divinity Two. Yeah. We all played together. Well, even before that. Yeah. But
00:44:36
Speaker
I don't, yeah, I don't recall. It's likely a roll off system, but no, no, I'm saying in Baldur's gate, they have it.
00:44:43
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Yeah, but I don't think it's necessarily the awkward part if from at the very least during divinity was just that it was it's still a turn-based game and you're doing your things and has whatever you do can have dramatic effects on the environment and can change your planning just like just like D&D.
00:45:07
Speaker
And it did make the game a little bit difficult to have fun at the moment during battles because you're kind of like, there's a little bit of a blocking step, you know, mechanism going on where you're like, okay, hold on. All right. Now I have to come up and figure this out. It wasn't like a smooth flow to the game. And.
00:45:28
Speaker
Hopefully, they've come up with a way to make that co-op part fun because we could all agree that the worst part of tabletop role-playing games is a combat for how it slows down everything. But yeah, I don't know.
00:45:45
Speaker
I'm willing to look. I know one of our friends that tried the Early Access and didn't necessarily fully love it, but he also didn't hate it outright. Yeah, I think we played it together.
00:45:59
Speaker
I think you can, it's still played a very much like divinity did in terms of the turn base, but granted, I don't think either of us have played it since it came out in early access, like three years ago at this point. So how much they've changed it, I can't really talk to. Um, but.
00:46:15
Speaker
I don't know. I I'm still interested in it, especially in a co-op experience, because I think it'll be easy. I think it'll be easier this time because it'll be more familiar of a system because we're all you know, especially if you play dungeons, if you played five, you're not going to be more surprised by the abilities people have. You'll have a better understanding of what people can do. Whereas in divinity, it was kind of like, oh, I didn't know you could do everything's kind of gets fucked.
00:46:43
Speaker
Um, so I don't know. I guess we'll have to see. Don't have to be much longer. Comes out August 3rd. That's interesting. I really didn't know it was this deep, right? And horny, but also like it's deep. It's, it's, it's deeply horny. You're not wrong. I've never seen that expression on a bear and that I don't, I, someone had to animate that. They thought that's okay. That's okay.
00:47:13
Speaker
But to me, this sounds like an even bigger nightmare. Having that many choices, it just makes it immediately not interesting to me.
Therapy Language in Social Contexts
00:47:21
Speaker
Bye!
00:47:22
Speaker
I think, though, the call-out of co-op, maybe that would make it interesting. Yeah. But I don't like watching cutscenes with other people. Like, I don't enjoy doing that. Yeah, I don't know if they're saying if cutscenes include the dialogue trees, because it's a little more interactive when you're doing the dialogue trees. OK. OK.
00:47:44
Speaker
I feel like it includes the dialogue tree cut cutscenes, but I agree. Yeah. Like anytime you have voice dialogue. Yeah, exactly. Right. I feel like you count that as just an in-game cutscene, right? Yeah.
00:47:58
Speaker
I mean, I guess. Yeah, it could be effective. But for me, in terms of like consuming story, I just do not enjoy doing that multiplayer. But maybe if we're just all goofing, you know, we're all having a laugh. Yeah. I mean, well, it's just, you know, where we can be like, yeah, no idea.
00:48:17
Speaker
You, who wants to seduce everyone when we play these games, I feel like this is tailor made for you. That's true. You got to flirt with everyone. Yeah, that's great. But no one's turning into a bear. No, thank you. But you know on that. That's his Jonah Hill boundary. I don't think that's oh, no, but that's like core to their person. Oh, is that problematic?
00:48:47
Speaker
No, you're not. You are allowed not to have. Listen, that's a big thing right now, though, in the manosphere, they call problematic things preferences. And then that unlocks a whole other conversation. Yes, co-opting. Yes, co-opting.
00:49:05
Speaker
Was it what you said earlier therapy language or something?
Diablo IV Season Mechanics and Monetization
00:49:09
Speaker
Yeah, it's like therapy language. Yeah, which I guess is like a new thing amongst. Yeah. Dirtbags, you little abusers. What toxic assholes, toxic assholes. Yeah, literally, literally. So be careful.
00:49:22
Speaker
And then I read a whole thing about how, like, therapy can be bad for people, like, with, like, psychopathic tendencies and stuff, because, like... Go to therapy. Stop it. I know. Thank you. Actually, yes. Like, it's the same thing. Like, just, yeah, just go anyways. The chances are so low. But it was very interesting to hear this edge case about it. Yes. But yeah, still go.
00:49:44
Speaker
I am looking forward to Baldur's Gate 3. But you know what will be coming before Baldur's Gate 3? That's the new season of, that's actually season one of Diablo 4. Well, this is your jam, James. Yeah. Is it as interesting now that you know how saucy video games can be? Like, how are we going to sex this up?
00:50:07
Speaker
You can't, unfortunately. Oh, man. So the first season will be named season of the malignant and seemingly they kept on their promise there. There is not going to be any pay to win mechanics to it. Only the only thing you're able to buy are cosmetics.
00:50:27
Speaker
However, this has started a very interesting conversation with people. Because Diablo 4 is, you know, a lot of people's first Diablo. And Andy, I don't know if you know this. I think what?
00:50:45
Speaker
When you roll a seasonal character in Diablo, OK, you start at level one. I know this, not about Diablo. I know you do that in that other one. Path of Exile. Thank you. Yeah. And a lot of people are like, what the fuck?
00:51:02
Speaker
I've been playing this game for 40 hours. I want to play as my character. I don't want to reroll a new character. And it's so interesting because rerolling seasonal characters is something so core to the Diablo formula.
00:51:18
Speaker
Oh, wait, really? Yeah, no, this I mean, yeah. Then who are who's mad? Why are they all the new people? All the new people are mad. Oh, I heard a new term for these people. They're called dad gamers. Have you heard this? It's all like the millennials with kids coming back into the game and they they just complain about how everybody wants to metagame and nobody enjoys games for what they are. It sounds like these like, you know, aging tryhards.
00:51:47
Speaker
have never, they don't know what's going on anymore, even in their own games. Get with it, grandpa. You re-roll a character. I think it's interesting. I've never really thought twice about it because that's the way it's always been in Diablo, where it's like it's a new season, you roll a new character.
00:52:04
Speaker
Um, I think for a lot of people, um, it's how you kind of explore new things. Uh, there are people, of course, who have like rolled every character and played every class at this point. Um, I haven't, I've only played sorcerer because I knew that I was going to reroll a different character for the season. Um,
00:52:23
Speaker
But yeah, it's it's it's it's it's so funny. You see, people are like, oh, I have this attachment to my character. And I was expecting this to be more of kind of like, you know, a destiny or something like that, where I go into a new season of content with my character, or like I say, a Final Fantasy 14, even more like an MMO, right?
00:52:41
Speaker
Um, and this is also kind of talks into the always online MMO aspects of Diablo four, right? Where you kind of want to keep with your character and continue that journey with them. And I don't necessarily think people are wrong for having that feeling.
00:52:57
Speaker
I've never thought about it twice because that's the way it's always been. I enjoy the seasonal thing because I think it keeps Diablo in general fresh for me because I get to play with new builds and explore new things because usually in these seasons
00:53:13
Speaker
there will they're going to be ways they twist the game in the season of the malignant there will be malignant hearts and malignant gear which will change the way certain abilities works there will also be introducing legendary gems that will have I think they will do what what do you call it set gear would do in previous diablos and give you kind of crazy buffs that change the way you play the game so
00:53:41
Speaker
You know, that's, that's always how I've kind of approached it. It's so interesting to see this new take from people to be like, no, no, no, I want to, I've been trained by all these other life service games at this point that I, I play as the single character and I move through the seasons or, you know, the content patches. It's, it does actually point out Diablo is weird. Like this is weird. No other game does this, but Diablo or in path of exile, but path of exile takes its cues from Diablo.
00:54:08
Speaker
I think what people are overlooking is yes, it is a well, first off, your old character doesn't get deleted. No, no, no, no, no. Yes, exactly. Right. So you want to play that character you progress so far with. Yes.
00:54:25
Speaker
I think what they're not fully understanding is that the experience of leveling up is also being factored into the season that you play in. If you started with your fully built-up character and you tried the season, you have less than X amount of hours for content. You have less time to play and enjoy that content. You'll hit the end.
00:54:53
Speaker
Like, that's really it. One of the parts of leveling up again is that it gives you more time with this new content. Like, it's part of the experience to level up in this season. So, yes, I agree. It is weird. It is not common that you restart progress. But this is how the game is designed.
00:55:19
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. They have said that. So the what they're calling the normal realm, like where we're currently playing the game, that's the eternal realm and where the seasonal characters will be is the seasonal realm. I don't think they will have rebirth for the first season. Rebirth is where you can take your character that you're currently playing on the eternal realm and basically turn them into a seasonal character and then restart at level one.
00:55:48
Speaker
all your gear will go into your stash. Like all your gear that you're currently wearing in the Eternal Realm will go into your stash and stay there. And usually at the end of the season, your characters all just go back into the Eternal Realm, your seasonal characters.
00:56:03
Speaker
So they kind of said like, oh, that that's not going to be in season one, but all the content, the new gear, there will be new gear, new bosses. I think the legendary gems will make also make their way into the eternal realm eventually, if not immediately. So people will still be able to enjoy it, but they're not going to get kind of like the the season of the malignant stuff, whereas, you know, where the world is kind of changed and they're experiencing the like the altered combat.
00:56:32
Speaker
So that's kind of the trade-off, as it were.
00:56:35
Speaker
And I don't know, I agree with you, Charles, it stretches the game out also because at a certain point, and I've hit this point right now, you're looking at percentage points for upgrades, where it's like my gear is at a point now in Diablo four, where it's like, I'm looking for like two or three set, like two or three specific affixes where it's like man, a reduction, cool, reduction, things like that. And I have to like sit there and go, eh, that's not, you know, this is a good piece of gear, but the percentages are off on it. So it's not that much of an upgrade.
00:57:04
Speaker
You know, so I'm really just churning through gear and not getting a lot of upgrades. When I go back to level one, everything's an upgrade again. It's so fun. Yeah, I'm not like I'm not I'm not having to sit there with like a fucking microscope and figure out how good is something is or isn't right. So that's why I think seasonal characters work so well for Diablo, because that that drip of new gear slows as you get higher and higher. Yeah. Going back makes it so much better.
00:57:32
Speaker
The the dead gamers have not realized what they're standing on. They've been running on. It's a treadmill. And you're not going. You're not really going anywhere. And, you know, so, yeah, do they have a point? Yes. Yeah. Are they underestimating the importance of starting over again? They have not realized yet.
00:58:00
Speaker
I have seen people turn around on it. Like, the more they sat with it, they're kind of like, okay, maybe. But I'm going to be very interested in the discussion of the first season and how it's received just based on this. Because it certainly seems like
00:58:19
Speaker
They've kept to their promises on monetization. The game is I think we can officially say that for right now that it's it's not predatory. You know, it's it's pretty reasonable. But yeah, I'm curious if the the opinions of the game will change as people go through the season, because I think that's that's what it's going to be. And, you know, seasons aren't for everyone, right? I didn't play every season of Diablo three. I popped in every couple.
00:58:49
Speaker
So. Yeah, I think they just need to try it. I remember when I first heard about having your character reset, it made no sense to me. All I thought was all that progress lost. And more so what was confusing me, like with I'm speaking in context of Path of Exile is you have to go through the whole story again. You don't have to do that in Diablo. Nope. They fix that in three and they're keeping that for.
00:59:14
Speaker
Oh, you do not have to go through the whole story because that just seems like such a grind. Yes, yes, it was. And that was one of the problems with the three at lunch.
00:59:24
Speaker
So yeah, if they even fix that, these dad gamers don't know what they even have. Yeah, you will basically kind of be given these. I don't know. I don't know how they're exactly going to do it for this first season. We'll find out in a week. But in Diablo three, basically you kind of move through the map and there was a quest giver who gave you five quests for that area. He did those quests.
00:59:46
Speaker
And then you got like a cache that had a bunch of shit in it. And then you went to the next area and do that. And you didn't basically, you can just kind of move around the map and do all these quests and level up that way, instead of having to go through the story. And those quests were random. You know, they weren't the same every time. Uh, yeah. Well.
01:00:05
Speaker
We will talk more about Diablo four in two weeks, not next week on another episode of add to party a friendship simulator masquerading as a new show. I've been your host James. We went to the fucking moon and I won't hear otherwise.
01:00:23
Speaker
And I've been joined by Charles. Oh, by the way, I did hit rank 100 last season in Marvel Snap. I forgot to tell you, buddy. I know you were all very worried. Clap, clap, clap, clap. Also, turns out it's actually easy to go back to hit 100 again after you've done it the first time, because when it resets, you're only reset 30 ranks. Oh.
01:00:45
Speaker
Yeah. So, oh, well, I guess I hit it again without trying. So now the accomplishment is lessened three times. Yamat and I've been joined. Andy fruit of the loom truther. Okay. This episode is going to be titled the secret truth of fruit of the loom.
01:01:07
Speaker
I'm telling you guys also put moon landing fake question. Well, it's not fake. The cornucopia is not fake. It just never existed. That's what I'm saying to the title to SEO is going to love this one. Have a good night, everyone. Have a good night.