Transcript
Speaker: From Chicago, New York, and West Virginia, Quest Quest, the adventure game podcast, presents the first annual Verbs
Speaker: List.
Speaker: Joining us today...
Speaker: it's that hey how's it going how's this your new character jess uh grace and you're not brought in okay no grace i've recently introduced a new morning dj style character that i'm calling the gooch Yeah. And i've I've really been trying to to to make it work. Like, yeah yeah, I feel like there's a lot. Like, I've been trying to rethink Quest Quest as a format called Benny and the Gooch. Uh-huh.
Speaker: And so far, Ben, I think, is open to the idea. sure you Are you turning? Have you become the Gooch? Or is it ah a Jekyll and Hyde situation where where Jess transforms into the Gooch and back and forth in the in the course of an episode? I think it's more like a Batman situation where I've always been the gooch and Jess is the mask.
Speaker: so The gooch. Perfect. this is funny this is This is getting a lot of play in 1994.
Speaker: but Well, that's our sweet spot. That's like a good year for this podcast. like Yeah, that's a great year. Early to mid-90s. Yeah, no, that's that's that's our bread and butter. All right, well, anyway, yeah, it's myself. My name is Ben.
Speaker: And yeah, we have a guest today for this. It's true. We have our good friend Grayson here with us. Grayson, how you? Co-streamer of...
Speaker: of of Ben just you ever feel like we're rivals of a sorts because you podcast with Ben and I stream with Ben and occasionally we we come on each other's programming And I feel like there's some tension.
Speaker: I do. I mean, I do feel like at some level I'm competing for Ben's attention. Ben, you don't have to respond to this. This is and Jess. you're out of this, Ben. And actually, if could just not listen because it's awkward.
Speaker: That's Ben flushing himself out of the chat. Perfect. um No, I do feel like I'm competing sometimes for Ben's attention. Like...
Speaker: We'll get in here recording he'll just be like, I wish Grayson was here. And I'm like, that really kind hurts. Like we're in the middle of the conversation. He never that about you the stream. really? really
Speaker: But no, Grayson, it's good to have you here, folks. You know Grayson if you've been listening to the podcast for a while. He's been a guest on a few occasions. He is our resident Jim Walls expert. Yeah, i think by process of elimination, I'm one of the people who knows the most about Jim Walls.
Speaker: It's true. He's also the creator. and he's He's been ah killing all the other people that know him. It's a high-level situation. he says process of elimination. Yeah.
Speaker: Yes. No, absolutely. Yeah, no. And he's also the creator of what I think is the best Codename Iceman prequel. Kid Name Iceboy. If you haven't played that, get out there and download. It's available on itch.io.
Speaker: Have we ever figured out is it itch or is it itch.io? Itch.io. Itch.io. It's itcho it'samy itch.io. itch.io. It's to me.
Speaker: It's you. Hail to the king, baby. yeah We're going to take your soundboard away. This is ah this is how you killed the last best Babylon 5 podcast. This is you. You you brought this. You uncorked this. this is oh no This is your fault.
Speaker: Yeah. so It's so hard to recork something. Yeah. Have you ever tried to recork? and That's not a phrase. No one's ever like, and then he put the cork back in. You just decork. You never recork. yeah Stone, please.
Speaker: There we go.
Speaker: yeah the mo You got wood, please? You got gold, please? ah Hold on. do you have the battle starts out? Wood, please. What's that from? That's it. states about viruss Age of Vampires 2, of course. Yeah, come on. I've never played Age of Empires really yeah there we go that's all I got wow i those are the three I got alright alright let's go around Jess how are you doing
Speaker: You know, Ben, I am doing terrific. I went out to a brand new restaurant this evening. Let's look up the menu. New to you or new to, like, actually, like? New to me. What's the name of this restaurant, please? Well, first of all, let me say.
Speaker: I didn't love my experience. It's called, so we won't name it. Let's not name this restaurant. Let's not dox the restaurant. Yeah, let's not dox the restaurant. But let me tell you what happened. It's a and Buster's. Yes. That's exactly. You know what?
Speaker: The world's biggest Pac-Man doesn't make up for the world's worst burger. um But no, I went to a restaurant. Let me tell you what they did to me. I ordered a What did they do to you? They did this to me. I ordered a meatloaf dinner.
Speaker: It's a place that has like home cooking. Like they're doing like a- Is this a Shoney's? No, it's like a nice, like they're trying to do like a- It's like nice Shoney. It's an upscale, like we're doing beloved home classics. Like we're trying to spruce them up a little bit. ah But I ordered a meatloaf and clearly after it came out of the oven,
Speaker: they put straight ketchup all over the top of it, cold out of a bottle, like a refrigerated bottle. It had not, the ketchup had not been baked with the meatloaf at all. Yeah, put the on the meatloaf. That's right. So now it's just like literally like a quarter inch of ketchup over a piece of meatloaf.
Speaker: Of like kind of cold. col Yeah, it's a very different... temperature like a noticeably like I took a bite up like is my whole meatloaf cold I'm like no merely the ketchup is so cold that's making the meatloaf uh disappointing so yeah it was like a good meatloaf so much but you know I love a meatloaf but also meatloaf is a thing where I don't know if I could ever bring myself to order meatloaf like what everyone raves about at this place it's like the thing
Speaker: And I think it's just people haven't had good meatloaf. Like quintessentially a thing that you make at home. Yeah. is this way Isn't that i like that that's ah that place at the mall? Do they have a good meatloaf sandwich? what's this Oh, my God. You have the big loafer. That's amazing. it's what i mean it's what it It would be a delicious meatloaf in and of itself. But you put that inside the lovely flaky biscuit pocket of the big loafer.
Speaker: I mean, it's amazing. This place, I wouldn't even consider eating a sandwich. Now, I assume that you went ah with other members of your family as opposed to just going alone. No, it was just a chess meatloaf night. I was just like, see you guys later. i want some meat. Patty wants some meatloaf. I need to eat meatloaf and reflect. Yeah. I just want to look at my phone and eat meatloaf. You two can have some, uh, fucking Kraft mac and cheese. yes Yes. Papa's going to the meatloaf.
Speaker: I've worked hard all day and I just want my meatloaf. Yeah. Uh, what, what did they, did they have a better time? What did they get? Well, Or did everybody, was it a round of meatloafs? My lovely wife attempted to order a ribba, which they were out of.
Speaker: And then she attempted to order a pork chop, which they were out of. And then she attempted to order empanadas, which they were also out of. And eventually just said with exasperation in her voice, what do you have? I'll just have a salad.
Speaker: um So it didn't go great for her. Was it also covered in cold ketchup, the salad? I didn't realize that was, it's like a gimmick restaurant. Like that's their thing. Like I should have known when there was like a dollop of cold ketchup in my diet Coke at the beginning. Like that that was just what they do there.
Speaker: um Yeah. And my daughter got mozzarella sticks, which were pre-sauced. They had the marinara on them already. Was it cold sauce or was the marinara hot?
Speaker: The marinara was hot. what the fuck i know that makes even less sense right because like marinara is acceptably cold this the things aren't going great mariner like especially because mozzarella sticks are going to be like molten hot so sometimes it's fine to have like a lukewarm or not like I like a hot marinara of course yeah um and yeah you know some say that Grayson has a hot marinara in New York but we talk about it all the time out here I'm hot marinara in here
Speaker: But, i yeah, you know, have like pre-Marinared. Sounds like everything's going wrong. It sounds like a restaurant where just everything went wrong.
Speaker: Yeah, though it was. And it was a real bummer. Like it was a day where it's like everyone was tired and worn out. And was like, it'd be really nice to go out to dinner. And the dinner didn't take. We'll have to go out to an additional dinner to try to correct it.
Speaker: gotta Yeah. Are you going to do a ah Friday night pizza? like that' Friday night pizza is pretty good. That's something, you know, that's just a kind of a classic.
Speaker: Let's treat ourselves. yeah That's a yeah crowd pleaser. Everyone's happy when you go to the the good pizza place on Friday. Oh, yeah. Papa John's.
Speaker: Look, not all of us live in a place with great New York style pizza or Chicago deep dish. Okay. i'm ah I'm sure there is a place with at least passable pizza.
Speaker: Yeah. But is it, is it as cheap? Cause here's the thing. you go to Papa John's or or pizza hut or Domino's, you can get a large pizza for like six bucks. Yeah. They just give those things. And then they'll be like, do you want another one for free?
Speaker: It's like, we'll just give you as many pizzas you want for six bucks. They're just trying to get rid of pizza. is there either There's got to be a good pizza place. There's a wonderful pizza place in Charleston give me called Pies and Pints.
Speaker: ah It's a little brew pub slash pizza place. It's the best pizza I think I've ever had. It's wonderful. um It's just a ah fabulous, fancy pizza option. Like you have, you know, like great gorgonzola pizzas and things like that.
Speaker: right. Well, uh, Grayson, how are you doing today? I'm doing, I'm doing just fine. Uh, you know, it's a, yeah, well, I don't know. Uh, Jess, you might, are you getting any of this nor'easter? We're talking about the weather. There's a big nor'easter coming in. And is, is you getting any of this, Jess? Is this touching into West Virginia at all? We're getting some cool weather. It's supposed to be 46 degrees. Which for those you listening in Europe, that's nearly negative 20 Celsius. ah I'm excited. It's jacket weather. i get to go out and enjoy a crisp, you know, you know, ah you know, Mr. Autumn man walk around the park.
Speaker: wearing a jacket is it is it quite yeah like what what temp what is it over there uh because of this nor'easter it's uh we've had it where we've we've dipped into the 50s a little bit oh which is lovely right that's ah a uh what a what a temperature so you're just walking around the park and autumn clothing like listening to paul simon music just like really embracing the new york bit off yeah you gotta gotta can't and that you better believe i've got a cup of coffee in my hand well Walking around in the fall and listening to Simon and Garfunkel, ah especially in an urban setting, ideally in New York.
Speaker: You're going to better than that. It's why it's why I pay $7,000 month for rent. you know And all those Spotify fees just so you can get access to the full Simon and Garfunkel catalog. That's right. I've given them a little extra just to make sure I get it
Speaker: I slip Mr. Spotify, you know, a crisp ah Jackson. But you do like you scribble on it. Please give this to the artists. Yeah, like I support artists. Let me be clear.
Speaker: Wow. That's great. Yeah. grace Don't let it be. Don't let it be said that I'm shortchanging Simon and Garfunkel. They need it. i want that them and dig one of them does I want them to have a dignified retirement. Both of them. I'm only giving my money to Garfunkel and Oates. I'm hoping they're going to make a big comeback.
Speaker: Yeah. That's the classic respecting musicians and women. Yeah. You know me. I didn't even think about that because it comes so naturally to me. Well, speaking of things that come naturally, Jess, what have you been playing? Nope.
Speaker: but don't I don't know. i'm Very natural. Sorry. yeah Sorry. All right. Now this so is all staying in. Okay, good. Good. All right. Jess. All right. Speaking of. I've been playing. No, shut up. Speaking of ah that, I didn't push the button in time. Jess, it's time for emails.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: We got an email from a friend who we haven't heard from in a little bit. Our buddy, Yop. Hi, Ben and Jess. And I'll just add right here.
Speaker: He didn't write this. I'll say it. Grayson. Perfect. We don't want you to feel left out, Grayson. mean, this email wasn't written to you, but you can be part of it.
Speaker: It's beautiful. Any email could be like this. Thank you, Yop.
Speaker: I just wanted to let you know I still enjoy your podcast very much and decided to write again. Thank you. Based on your Myst podcast, you completely changed my perception of Myst.
Speaker: Similar to your early thoughts of Myst, never really got into it or never cared for it. This is probably because of the negative coverage from magazines such as PC Gamer back in the day.
Speaker: Yeah. Same. But I gave it a try recently and enjoyed it very much. I played the masterpiece edition. Grayson, I believe that's what you were playing. You gave it try recently.
Speaker: Yep. Just stay close to the original, which was a great experience. With one or two puzzles, I needed some help, which is a shame as you were able to complete it without a walkthrough, allegedly. I appreciate that allegedly because I can't believe it either.
Speaker: Well, one thing that the new version, like, missed, what, like, 2022 or 23 or whatever, like, you can turn on captions for the music puzzle, which makes it much easier.
Speaker: Yeah, just wee bit. So if that was one that you had trouble with, well, there you go. Um...
Speaker: I did some research and I did find a Mist clone from 2018 that got good reviews. Querm. Q-U-E-R-N. I am not familiar with it. Currently I'm playing that game and it is a lot of fun. The puzzles are just right for me. The story is okay. Similar to Mist, you were dropped into unknown land with puzzles by some dude.
Speaker: And the 3D graphics are great. Highly recommended. I also tried Riven, but I feel lost without any nudges. All right. Well, Quern is mist-em-up. I don't think you can mistake it for anything else.
Speaker: I got it. Well, you know, there was such a like a period where we, like, you know, mist-em-up that was explicitly trying to be a mist-em-up.
Speaker: A lot of people would say, I'll mistap muck to it. but don't know what know I don't know what sentiment that was meant to express. Yeah, no, like chipmunk?
Speaker: I'll miss, I'll miss, tat, muck. No, still clue. don't know what you're expressing. ah yeah Okay. start So when I look at a mistemup, to that I say, I'll, I'll miss, tat,
Speaker: Muck. I think Ben is making sense. Ben, don't explain it. Listeners, write in with your best guess at what Ben is trying to express. QuestQuestPodcast.com. And if you think Ben is simply making a mistake and not making any sense, please. Oh, Miss. Tat.
Speaker: Muck. Every listener who gets it correct gets a prize. Every time Ben says it, it makes less sense to me. I'm adding this to my wish list. This looks neat. hey du it was it's one of those I opened it up as well. It's one of those adventure games that I've never heard It looks super misty. That looks cool and has, ah at least on Steam, it has a bunch of positive Steam reviews. And it's like, you know, it's a classic, you know, too many games problem. of like, oh, here's another...
Speaker: game to hopefully play someday. It looks great. I'm looking at one of the screenshots. We've got ah a page with a lot of written text and kind of of like a florid script, a little sketch on the bottom.
Speaker: We have what appears to observatory. I've got a grid with a bunch of numbers on it. Like, there you go. You know, ah yeah, this this is people that just looked at and and were just like, yeah, fuck it.
Speaker: just speaking 10 years old it's a full decade old oh it's 10 whole years old you know mist today as we record is 33 years old i knew this as well i saw that someone posted that i just knew that you knew that that's a holy it's a holy age yeah absolutely well speaking of holy ages Jess, what have you been playing?
Speaker: Wow. Thank you, Ben, for that great segue. I have been playing a game, and i don't know if you've heard of this. It's a 2023 game. Are you familiar with Bomb Rush Cyber Funk?
Speaker: I've never heard this. You also- You've never heard of Bomb Rush Cyberfunk? I know that. I know about Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. Oh, wow. Yeah. Grayson's in the loop here. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a spiritual successor to Jet Set Radio. Oh, yeah. Grayson played you this and he loved it.
Speaker: Yeah, no, no, I didn't. Oh, Grayson played this and he hated it. No, I didn't. Grayson played this and he has been used with the developers. Grayson played this and has unresolved feelings. I'd like to play it someday.
Speaker: i did play I did play Dench Attack, which is maybe what Ben's thinking about. a good game. Anyway, Jess, continue. No, but i mean, it's a jet set radio. I'm up. Cell shaded graphics.
Speaker: You're rollerblading around a big city while spraying graffiti and trying to take out like a techno authoritarian government, I think of some sort.
Speaker: It has a really fun like soundtrack. Has good movement. I mean, yeah, if you just want like jet set radio It's not bad place to start. it seems to have a fun storyline. think can this away since it all happens basically during the tutorial.
Speaker: You are a noted tagger who has been arrested and thrown in prison. You get broken out, but as you escape, you're decapitated and your head is replaced with a robot head.
Speaker: And the goal is to somehow recover your actual head and I assume have it sewn back onto your body. But now you're like a robot version of yourself that isn't exactly yourself.
Speaker: And also everyone as they talk is constantly doing like some sort of shuffly groove move while they talk to you just because it's just like Jet Set Radio. It's a fun game. I mean, it's it's a good little, you know, if you like grinding rails,
Speaker: Grayson, do you enjoy grinding rails? I love grinding rails. Yeah. I think all games should allow you to grind rails. I really enjoyed Dench Attack this year, which is that the train set radio game. Okay. You play as... you play as um it's really It's very much in the kind of like trick-based, combo-based lineage of Jet Set Radio and Tony Hawk, but you play as a person who rides around on a train in near-future apocalyptic Japan.
Speaker: it' But very much in this in the style of Jet Set Radio, that sort of stuff. um Very fun. I really enjoy this throwback to like, I mean, I've loved this weird revival of PlayStation one era graphics. I like a good throwback to the Dreamcast here. You know, I think I'm glad that our retro games have moved their aesthetic ahead by five or six years more recently. And we're starting to see that, you know, turn of the millennium, mid to late nineties sort of vibe coming through. Kind of out of the pixel art wilderness. That's right. Yeah, we were in the pixel art world for so long. It's fun to see like weird polygons and very simple cell shading at this point.
Speaker: Yeah, I agree. i've been I've been enjoying this like first and kind of second gen 3D throwback stuff ah lately. I've been really enjoying seeing seeing some of those.
Speaker: Yeah, i think especially like you see a lot of horror games these days that are adopting that PS1 era look. And I think that's weirdly effective in that those games have a certain creepiness that is a product of that aesthetic that's kind of fun to revisit. So yeah, no, I'm having fun with the with this one so far. I would recommend it if you enjoy that style of games. It's light, easy, get into. Yeah, it's good stuff. Grayson, what have you been playing?
Speaker: Well, Jess, I picked up a game called Nighthawks. Oh, I've been playing this one too. a Friend of the pod, Richard Cobbett. really thought you were going to do that as your wife what have you been playing? i thought you would, so I was going save it for you, Ben. No, no. Jess, I thought you you would be playing. I thought you'd been playing.
Speaker: Man, waiting for you. I've been trying to throw you curveballs on this lately. Like, I feel like all of my what have you been playing picks were too obvious or like dumb triple A games and stuff. and You'd always come in with like some sort of twin stick shooter that, you know, only had like nine downloads on Steam.
Speaker: yeah And I was like, i always felt like uncool. So I've been trying to pick better stuff. All right, anyway, Grayson, you were saying. ah You know, I believe ah written in large part by Richard Cobbett, who's been on the podcast before, and who I know is a
Speaker: least multiple cited Wikipedia reference. I know that because I've cited him on Wikipedia. uh as a old as a thank you for disclosing that by the way before you talk about yeah uh i have completely compromised in my relationship you're gonna you're gonna be like i love this game because i excited him this is what blaze richard carver let's go uh Also by published by Wadjet iGames, also ah a publisher of many great adventure games that I know you guys have talked about. We've streamed several of them. We've streamed a lot of them, actually.
Speaker: ah I'm not very far in. I don't have too much to say about it. Maybe an hour in, but I think it ah so far it it presents itself very well. It's got a very handsome sort of urban fantasy. Obviously, it's where is it's you know you're a vampire it wears the vampire thing on its sleeve it's in a set it's in a world where vampires are not there's no masquerade it's like vampires were out in the open so all that is just kind of the premise of the game but it it presents itself very well it has these very nice it's it's uh written in ink ink
Speaker: nothing is it Is it using the ink? It's in Godot. i think it's I think it's both. It's... it's it is it's it's You can pull ink into Godot. I thought it was written in blood.
Speaker: yeah No, it's written in chalk. Oh, no. Okay. But in any case, it uses that kind of 80-day style. like a lot of like very like pro like There's the pros, and then there are multiple choices. What is built in their scripting language?
Speaker: I believe it is, yeah. Yeah. So it's it's real, it's real if you if anybody has played one of those games before, it's real kind of fast moving. It's very dynamic despite being kind of a having the look of maybe a slower text adventure. you know You're just kind of clicking on options and really kind of breezing through all the all the writing in that way. So it says I think it's a strong first impression. I'm only a little bit in.
Speaker: I'm playing, I don't know how much the RPG elements tie into the game so much but my my care you know i chose to be like an aristocratic and a hottie vampire so it's there's a kind of role-playing element to it again now is that hottie or hottie uh that's a it's a great question this is one of those dialect regional questions uh hottie as in arrogant like real hot yeah like real hot yeah i like robert pattinson You know, kind of. He'd be, a he's, he's, yeah, he's a great vampire.
Speaker: He's weird and hot. Yeah. That's what you're looking for. That's what you're looking for in a vampire. Chris Hansen? Chris Hansen? He's, he's bigger than ever. But strong strong, you know, for for I just kind opened it up today. But, you know, strong first impressions. You know, it's a kind of it's kind of hot out of the gate.
Speaker: So I was playing as a scholar just because I was thinking like in a world of publish or perish, I don't have to worry about the latter if I'm a vampire.
Speaker: That's true. So, you know, ah so I've also been playing Nighthawk. See, I thought I was trying to to ah pull a little a little fast one on EGS and have all three of us.
Speaker: say that and i even maybe should talk about that before we went live well i wanted i wanted el i wanted the surprise which is the new i wanted the surprise on the radio i want the fun of the surprise well now it's not fun now i look like an asshole but i made a great i made a sound for it all three of us played it
Speaker: runs just a little too long Why don't we just start over? like cut Welcome to Quest Quest with Benny and the Gooch.
Speaker: I cleared most the scound board. That's all I got. um i've I've also been playing Nighthawks. And no, I won't talk to Jess about this. You're a backer. I was not a backer. I've not been waiting. I didn't realize. I didn't even know it was a game that has been in development for quite a while. But I picked it up fresh. Ben, you've been waiting for this.
Speaker: i Yeah, but it was it was one of those things like my general Kickstarter philosophy is... set and forget it. I do not generally read updates. I do not like I put the money in and then i totally forget about it. And then one day I get an email that says, Hey, this game that you backed a while ago is is out.
Speaker: And I'll go. Cool. yeah that I was a backer on this one too. And I'll admit I wasn't keeping it. Like I wasn't thinking about this one in terms of one that took a while to, to make it to market. I was just excited for when it got here. You just, you just send yourself, your you sent your future self a little present.
Speaker: Like honest, honestly, it's like when I buy tickets to a show that it is even, even, as close as three months away it's a surprise to me when the day like i'm like oh and i don't have to pay for it now this is just free it's like one the free show and it's just like you paid for it three months ago it cost a fair amount and i'm just like a free show you know i think of um i think of airplane tickets in the same way andm not even joking i'm like wow i get to fly all the way there for free you're kidding me but mean in three months every cell in your body's replaced itself you're not the same person that's right actually
Speaker: But yeah, I mean, yeah, no, for for this, like I backed, I was just like, well, I like Richard Cobbett. One day I might have him on my podcast that doesn't exist yet. that i have I don't even think I, other than occasionally tweeting back and forth with Jess, I don't even think we were really like, no, we weren't friends yet.
Speaker: yeah And also, I mean, it did allow you when you ask him to come on the podcast, say it's like, just so you know, I backed the game. So you kind owe me. Yeah. Yeah. um Well, quid pro quo. quo yeah Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. Quid pro quo.
Speaker: So I'm, I'm, uh, of the three of us, I've played the most I've played wow three hours. I have, uh, completed the first act and am a little bit into the second and I'm having a great time.
Speaker: Um, really enjoying it. I I'm enjoying like, uh, I, uh, I'm actually not particularly steeped in vampire stuff, such as you are, Jess. Like you were literally just playing bloodlines too. Might still be concerned by many to be the best of the bloodlines. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Um, ah I've, I haven't played that many vampire games. I haven't like just vampire fiction is just not, a thing I ever got into.
Speaker: but I do enjoy like ah this style of kind of light RPG, you know, light, like kind of choice game or like, like, like a visual, like it's not quite a visual novel. it has like RPG elements and you described it as similar to citizen sleeper, which I think is what I was building up to. Oh, yeah okay. Yeah.
Speaker: well i Like Citizen Sleeper. That's a really good point, Grayson. But yeah, I like Citizen Sleeper, which which like has kind of a similar feel to this.
Speaker: um I like... i You know, I didn't get too far, but I enjoyed ah Sunless Seas, which has kind of a similar a feeling to this and like some other games where it's like...
Speaker: it is It has this narrative and it's very text heavy, but it is also kind of a game where like kind of it's a you have kind of a like an economy.
Speaker: You have a budget of like ah vitality and time, which are things that you can spend. And you have ah like blood that always has to be replenished.
Speaker: And like, so that kind of limits the number of actions that you take each night. um And the the game is is very like, you know, Richard sure it is a person that wrote Several, several columns about obnoxious adventure games knows about how people feel about hard time limits.
Speaker: So it's fairly generous ah with the amount of time it gives you to the game even tells you like there's little NPC who pops up and is like, you know what? Don't worry about it. It's fine. You have a lot.
Speaker: this so there's there's a li guess when the when the game explains the time mechanic to you it's like but don't stress about this you have a lot of time it's like that guy from animal crossing that pops up if you try to like tweak your system clock or something to cheat and he said he's just like yeah study but he's mad he gets it he gets real angry at you yeah Yeah, I'm really enjoying it. I think, and and i think this is the intention of the game.
Speaker: Like, especially now that I'm entering the the second act as things are are changing a little bit, it has like a very nice kind of hangout feel, which is something, you know, we talk a lot about.
Speaker: podcast uh like you know it's uh it gives you a set of interesting and very different uh characters uh both companion characters that you can partner up with but also just kind of uh like characters that you'll check in with regularly um and you know it's it's nice to spend time with them it's an interesting and kind of cozy world too cozy is a funny word for it but it felt cozy to me i will say if it reminds me of any game i played relatively recently um speaking of friends of the pod
Speaker: the interaction with the NPCs gave me a little bit of Rosewater vibe. Oh, for sure. Yeah, i mean, and and that's that's intended absolutely as a compliment. You know, it's another game that has some really beautifully realized characters that just getting to check in on them and and you know go through a few dialogue options and just sort of see how they're progressing is so far. And again, I'm not as far along as you are, but one of the real strengths of the game so far.
Speaker: Yeah, and I mean, and that that is absolutely, and that's one of the, like, that's my favorite thing about Rosewater. Yeah, he absolutely. Is spending all all that that time with those characters. And as I understand, this game has sort of a, I'm not far enough along to fully appreciate it but it has sort of a vignette style of storytelling, right? Like you have lots of scenes. There are like kind of like little mini vignettes, like, ah you know,
Speaker: Not having gone too far into the second act, my understanding is that the first act is a little shorter than what comes later. That's like we're kind of setting up, but I don't know.
Speaker: um Ben, during your playtime, have you been able to grind any rails yet? Oh, yeah. Really? When does that start? Or do you have to have Is that like only certain backgrounds? You had to select Grindr as, you know, one of the things that was... Yeah, you can be Stoller, Aristocrat, Grindr. You know, those are the main kind of classes. Oh, that kind of Grindr. Yeah, because you'll be in like a situation and there will be like... There's several... Like you're surrounded by like several like...
Speaker: uh you know human supremacists that want to kill ah all vampires and like it's like do you fight do you try to uh like talk your way out of it or do you do like uh there's a rail right there do you just grind across it and just make ah a swift escape I'm going to grind every time. But the thing is, is that like, is that like an agility modifier? You don't even have that option.
Speaker: You might want to restart us. This sounds like we're, you got to re-roll. Yeah. Once again, i rolled scholar in real life and it was a mistake. I can't believe I doubled up and did it again here. You've probably been wondering why the game world is populated by the letters S-K-A-T-E everywhere.
Speaker: but this but so yeah, if you have the grinder path, you collect those for combos. Yeah, yeah. Like, oh, yeah. so it's like you I thought that was spelling steak. No. thought the whole time it was just like a bloody rare steak. Or the vampire steak would be the funnier Yeah, was going to say, you should probably keep away from steaks. Yeah.
Speaker: you were I thought you were you were so close to the real joke there, Jess, and then you just... was I was so close to the real joke. We're both like, all right, here he comes. The hilarious vampire steak joke. No! What if that was anti-comedy, though? What if I knew what I was doing?
Speaker: What if, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. Can we edit that to make it sound like my joke was more clever? thank you.
Speaker: All right. Well, enough of this shit. Let's get to the the purpose. the the The purpose here today. ah Very serious purpose. This is the first annual ah tournament of verbs where we've gone through an extensive process.
Speaker: We've gone through every single adventure game that's ever been made. And we have argued over this. From adventure all the way to Nighthawks, parentheses, 2026. Mm-hmm. Not the Edward Hopper painting.
Speaker: Yeah. ah And we've hand-selected 30 verbs, 30 of the best verbs.
Speaker: Yeah, we've already weeded out a bunch of bad stuff. All the all the bad verbs that you hate. Clunkers. those are Those are already in the trash heap.
Speaker: We already have a list unsorted 30 of the primest verbs. And the three of us are going to to rank these and we're going to create the ultimate list of adventure verbs.
Speaker: Now, Ben, and when you say verb, what are we talking about exactly? So if you are playing any adventure game, it is the action that ah your player character can take. Now, a lot of ah games these days, games these days, a lot of the lazy devs,
Speaker: i'd have With their scent trails and yellow paint. has Switched to more of a ah like a of a verb light interface where it's just like two clicks.
Speaker: But this is where we looked at like at the bottom of the screen in a scum game, all the words there. We looked at ah some ah other games. We looked at ah like Sierra game, i like the icon options.
Speaker: We also looked at like ah some unique and strange other ones. You'll you'll see as we go. And Grayson, if you could just define a verb grammatically.
Speaker: Uh, it's, it's the word. What does the thing in the sentence? That's exactly your right. Perfect. All right. So here we go. verb should we talk about the format format it's it's going to be a list we're ranking a list that's right it's it's either going to be each option will either be better or worse than what preceded it well the like and yeah we'll we'll we'll place it yeah oh wait or is that i didn't know that we were going to rank yeah it's going to be a list i thought it was just like one last man standing it's a bracket it's a it's it's a list it's not a bracket what's a single single bracket
Speaker: Okay, see, already this is a problem. i don't know. Ben, start us off. All right, so number one, and right now at number one, is talk.
Speaker: This is a solid verb. It's a great verb. Very good verb. This is this is like one of the the great verbs. I, you know, listen, if it wasn't for this verb, we wouldn't even have this podcast.
Speaker: You know? That's true. Ben raises a really good point. I feel like some of my favorite moments in adventure gaming history have been a product of the talk verb or talk icon.
Speaker: All right. haven't even see you've seen the other verbs yet. All right. I think this one's the winner. But number one, Ben, that one's locked in. Next one. Is this better or is this better or worse than talk?
Speaker: it is turn off Ooh, turn off. Now, where does this one originate? Uh, this, uh, was pulled. Uh, I went through maniac mansion. A lot of maniac mansion is in here. Maniac mansion has a lot of verbs to spare. Yeah. It's a verb. It's a verby game. Yeah. I mean, here's the problem. Like right away, it suggests probably that turn on is on this list as well.
Speaker: And we know that turn off is worse than turn on, right? Well, we're we're not discussing turn on. I'm just saying I'm i like discussing turn on. We're only talking about turn off. And turn off is no talk. Talk is going to be like up up close.
Speaker: Turn off is is is number two, right? Grayson, I think it's got I mean, it's got to be. It's no talk. It's no talk. It's no talk.
Speaker: All right. sos out Turn off. Sorry. Okay, here we go. Open. man Now, you know, I love opening things.
Speaker: I love it Doors. ah You know, it's ah my favorite case of a sandwich. Mm-hmm. let's Let's say right off the bat, uncontroversially, better than turn off. Oh, yeah. Is it better than is it better than talk is the question. no No. you Oh, man, though. Yeah, I mean.
Speaker: Strong real from Ben.
Speaker: I mean, talk is so good. No dialogue tree exists without talk. Yeah. But, you know, you'd never escape the first room without open.
Speaker: No, could just walk. It depends on the game. yeah where you like Yeah. Like, yeah. What are you talking about? Like a game that starts in a room with a door. Name one.
Speaker: i mean, Zork wouldn't go anywhere interesting. Adventure game in UFO. You're fearre changing. You could go somewhere in Zork without opening a door. That's true. I guess you climb through the window on that one, don't you? Well, you yeah. you One. And two, you could just wander around the woods for a bit.
Speaker: Okay. All right. Well, fine. Talk is the obvious. Open is number two. Open is number two. Fine. All right, here we go. Now this is a verb. you know There's a lot of people out here that would say this is not a verb. Yes. that In fact, without context, it makes no sense. You know, some people might say, Ben, you just went through the entire Maniac Mansion verb list and copied down everything. Now, Grayson, you're in the word business. That's true. I'm a copy editor professionally. Yeah, so you can confirm this is a verb. Yeah. Ben, why don't you lay it on us?
Speaker: New kid. The new kid is swapping between the the characters in Maniac Kitchen. Yeah, well, I'll say this for free.
Speaker: It's not a transitive verb. yeah you know, you don't new kid somebody, unless... Unless, I mean, how do you think I ended up with a daughter? That's right. All right, there you go. I've been kidded my wife. It's a different concept. That's the second dictionary definition. Okay, so if you new kidded your wife, then that's got to be better than turn off.
Speaker: Well, I've transitioned to that.
Speaker: That was then, this is now. um Yeah. Yeah. I will say this also new kid. I just feel like when I see new kid and ah in ah in a, in a verb list, I'm excited about that. When I see turn off in a verb list, I just, I say new kid is three.
Speaker: say new kids over turn off. Absolutely. newton i mean, new kid is also the core mechanic of maniac mansion, which makes it kind of fun, right? Like new kid.
Speaker: Okay. New kid. I don't want this kid anymore. I want a different kid. Hawk open new kid. Turn off. Okay. Next. All right. we go man We're doing great. now This is a good one.
Speaker: Okay. This is going to be a big challenge. I feel like this one might be making waves. Ladies and gentlemen, it's push. Push. Push. It's the cousin to pull. Remember, we're not talking about pulling. There's a real sturdy, muscular, reliable verb. You know, it's push.
Speaker: Like push is absolutely better than turn off. Yeah. No question. No question. Like like push is totally better than then ah turn off.
Speaker: let's say Let's just say it's better than new kid. let's not even have it's It's better than new kid. It's not better than open. All right. Well, that's what I was going to say. Because it's like you could push open a door. You could. Unless it's a pull door.
Speaker: ah um All right, well, that's fair. Ben, you asshole. Open works on either one. Ben, you got got as hard as anybody's ever been got. All right.
Speaker: are all right Um, so, okay. Are you saying, are you saying above open? Are you saying it's number two?
Speaker: Just talk, then push or push. Then talk I'm saying talk, open, push. talk I think i think open open. Yeah. You know what? Open is, is pretty good. Open is like anything could be inside that thing. You're opening. It's exciting.
Speaker: I'm going to push going to be three. i mean Yeah. Pushing is just like raw physicality. You know, we're doing a lot of this, you know, ah dealing with passageways and we're going to continue doing that with unlock.
Speaker: Now, unlock. Grayson. Yeah. What does unlock mean? Well, you know what lock means? lake and Scottish. course you know what lock means. ah Oh, you might know what lock means, but if you ever unlocked something, it means to lock it in reverse. So like, okay you put the key in you instead of in the lock?
Speaker: Jess, you're not helping things here. You're confusing the situation. and I say something that is interesting to me now that I'm i'm looking at this incredible list? Is that we have push and pull. We have open and close.
Speaker: but We only have unlock. There is not lock is not a verb. and it it isn't dreams There are adventure games where you where you do lock stuff.
Speaker: Like pop and lock. Like in general, like in in an adventure game. you're You're in the business generally of unlocking doors. Yeah.
Speaker: That's something that that you love to do. Like, you're not often locking doors. You you do, but not that often. Yeah, like the big Three Stooges finale. That's exactly what I was going to say. But was that a lock or a block?
Speaker: That's more of a block or a bar. That's a block, not lock. You borrow one. Does return to the Phantom? It doesn't have a lock verb, but you can lock things. Yeah.
Speaker: Interesting. So um i I think unlock needs special consideration because it's, it's, it's cousin lock is not on the list.
Speaker: It's also generally not on a verb list. I feel like when you do unlock something, it feels so good. Is unlocking inherently better than simply opening?
Speaker: like what's more satisfying to open a chest or to unlock a chest that presumably you will open immediately let me let me say this if you're playing a game if you're playing an adventure game i forget who said this but i like i remember reading someone once they like the reward of like playing an adventure game is like a bunch of new screens like v read someone say that somewhere uh And often a lock is, you know, not always like that's kind of the most clumsy implementation of it. Right. Like usually it's like maybe a a venomous snake ah or or some other thing.
Speaker: But like, you know, unlock like because anyone could open a door. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But it takes a special someone to unlock a door.
Speaker: I think we're i think we're we're talking around something we all agree on. I think this is, it's number one, talk. Number two, unlock. Then the rest. All right. there's no case that this is better than talk, correct?
Speaker: No, I don't think that's something. No, no, All right, unlock is two. Yeah. Wow. Now we're getting spicy. Oh, damn. This is a great one. This is one of the the great verbs.
Speaker: It's cast spell. This is we we pulled this from Quest for Glory. I'm going to say yeah I'm going to throw it out there. i would I would put this at number one right now. Whoa. There's one really great adventure game where you cast a lot more spells than you talk, which is zero. It's called Loom.
Speaker: That's a game with no, there's no talking in Loom. You don't you don't talk. I mean, you do not talk to anybody, right? Uh, you talk, you talk. yeah Casting the spells is more important.
Speaker: The thing that Loom doesn't have is it inventory. Yeah. Or inventory. Which is where you go to create items. So you, but you know, Grayson's a big fucking nerd. He loves magic. The gathering famously.
Speaker: I don't want, he's probably, he's coming into this with a lot of bias. Is there a spell tree? are you talking, in magic? No. I mean, like, i'm I'm saying, like, like, there's a dialogue tree in games. Talking is, you know. Talking opens up a world of possibilities.
Speaker: But then again, so does magic.
Speaker: I like, ah cat i like it I think it's in the upper upper half here. Yes. Is it better than open? Open, which is currently number three.
Speaker: Yes. of six. It's better than push. It's better than push. It's better than open. Okay. Because you can open with a spell. That's true. Specifically the open spell.
Speaker: Or knock. Mm-hmm. You're playing Dungeons and Dragons. Yeah. Who gives a shit about that garbage? um It's better than unlock or number two.
Speaker: Wow. But I don't think it's better than talk. I think Grayson and I might be at an impasse because Grayson thinks it's one. i think it's two What do you think, Jess? And you're the tiebreaker here.
Speaker: I've got it too. I'm going have to go with Ben on this one. I think. All right. No, don't disconnect Grayson. okay all right well put that gun away all right i'm done oh no he's holding a gun at the screen that that was an irish accent
Speaker: all right no i feel comfortable with cast spell it too i mean it casting spells is amazing all right here we go it oh no now see this is now where we're getting into the cousins kissing cousins yeah it's pole can i can i put out a maybe hot take because i don't know if i can articulate this pole seems way worse than push oh yeah no i agree much worse pushing is way better than pole naughty like maybe several rungs below it's way worse right yeah i don't know what i might say under turn off yeah so yeah we're in the bottom half seven we're in the bottom third right this is already way down
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I know they're turning something off. So here's here's the bottom three. Five is push. It's under push. Six is new kid. I think it's under new kid.
Speaker: It's under new kid. Seven is turn off.
Speaker: I say it's the bottom. the bottom i say it's the bottom. think it's the bottom too, gang. I'm perfectly, all i don't know why. What is our number eight? You said that and it's just, ugh, pull. Yeah, I didn't like the word. like It's like ashes in my mouth.
Speaker: I know. Here we go. a verb I think that has only been used maybe once in an adventure. It's fix. What game is this from? That's from special.
Speaker: Yeah. Not even all the kids in Maniac Mansion can use it. Right. Only a couple. Yeah. And you I think you only use it for like. The vacuum tube. hmm.
Speaker: I fix something that pulls. It would be great if there was a game where you played as like a boxing promoter. And this was one of your verbs, but i don't think there's an adventure game where you play as a boxing promoter that can fix fights.
Speaker: Not yet. Not yet. Listeners. If you're making this game. i This is in the lower half. Yeah. going to say it's but it's better than pull. It's worse than turn off.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. It's. sorry Why do I hate pull so much? the It pulls a stinker. Yeah. yeah All right. Fix is number eight. Pull is number nine. All right. Here we go. We will now be a third through once, once we have this one.
Speaker: And we'll recap where we're at after this one. Yeah. Yeah. For all of those. In case you haven't been taking notes. If you're just tuning in. Yes. If you just turned the channel, you know, you finished the Sunday night movie. If you did the skip ahead 30 seconds too many times just to get past all of our rambling at the beginning end of the episode and find yourself right here, we will recap the top 10.
Speaker: It's run from quest for glory. What do you, what do you, you What does this solve? Where do you run in Quest for Glory? You're running from a monster. Yeah, usually it's an escape thing. It also helps build. you It runs down your, I guess, stamina. But then she builds up your endurance.
Speaker: You want to pass time. Yeah. Running is... I think it's beneath push. Yeah. Oh, yeah. yeah it's it's It's not bad. It's not high, though.
Speaker: It's not high, but it's not low. I think run is better than new kid, which number six. I think it's beneath push at five and above new kid, which is six.
Speaker: Agreed. I might put one lower, but I'm willing to accept the majority here. Okay. So here is the list. um Hold on.
Speaker: hear ye Here is the current list. Here's 10. Number one, talk. Number two, cast spell. Number three, unlock. Number four, open.
Speaker: Number five, push. Number six, run. Number seven, new kid. Number eight, turn off. Number nine, fix. Number 10, pull. This is the stupidest podcast we've done. All right. really One reason I'm on this episode is it was my idea.
Speaker: Yeah, Grace is like, when are guys going to have a verb tier list? And we're like, well, the the smellers, the feller, get on our podcast. Okay, so this is this is a great verb.
Speaker: That is ah only in as far as I know, only in one game. Which is weird. Yeah. It's in the game Peppers Adventures in Time. It's the verb truth.
Speaker: what What did we we streamed this? what What did? I don't remember this at all. What did you use this for? So truth is only there for the benefit of the player. And what it is is because in Pepper's Adventures in Time, time is all screwy. Oh, that's right. There's a bunch of, you know, things from present day or or facts that are wrong. And you click this and it says, no, Ben Franklin wasn't a flower power hippie. Yeah. That would be an entirely different century. Like...
Speaker: It is both a way for them to put more historic context, but also for them to be like, look, like, yes, this is a historical, but there's a little thing that you could push that tells you how and why, you know?
Speaker: This one also really pushing the boundaries of a verb tier list, but this is the list we have. It's a great list. You don't go to war with the list you want.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. I do like the chutzpah of truth as a verb. I'm going to say it's in the top half. don't think it's top half. Oh, I would like, lean way up there. Yeah, I love Really? Okay. like i jes Give us a placement, Jess.
Speaker: Yeah. Like, I think if I were doing this, I would put it certainly above push, maybe above open I was thinking above push. I don't know if I can go over open.
Speaker: Grayson, where would it go on your rank? I think you guys would be trolling if you put it over open. i think that's ah that's That's nuts. I'll accept. I mean, I'll defer to you as host. Where would you want to put it?
Speaker: I would put it above new kid. So I guess not that far from you at the moment. All right. it's It's the new number five. Okay. Okay. Boy, don't you wish you had this when you were reading the news?
Speaker: ah ah Yes. Oh, this one I'm excited for. This one I'm... um'll i' All right, here we get already. From Space Quest, it is mouth slash tongue.
Speaker: Or taste. I don't know what we call this one. It should be taste. It should be taste. Taste. Or lick. Yeah, lick and taste. Yeah. So, yeah, the taste.
Speaker: Space Quest 4, there for some fun flavor text. I don't believe it's ever involved in actual puzzle. Literally flavor text. I think this one, to me, this one is squarely, it's the new number five, between open and truth.
Speaker: No way it gets above open in my opinion, but I think it's, I think it's a very fun. truth I think it's a very fun kind of like a dare I say iconic, iconic verb. It's a fun thing to put. Is this, this is your question?
Speaker: ah Because to me, this is like, here's, here's another thing about the truth verb in Pepper's adventures in time, which is that it plays like a fun little sound effect sometimes.
Speaker: That's true. oh Now, is taste is taste one of the, or the first, like in the bar, like really prominent, like kind of silly verbs in an adventure game. Cause it's yeah it's a, vices it's a button. Like it's a whole button. Yes. But it is also from the second a Sierra adventure game to have those icons. yeah So it's it's like, it's not that impressive a first and in like a text adventure with a text parser.
Speaker: There were already silly things. The intention of adding the like the taste and smell into Space Quest, and and correct me if I'm wrong here, Jess, is to kind of correct for some of the lost spontaneity.
Speaker: That's my understanding. Yeah, in a world where they can no longer write... endless silly retorts to any verb you might put in. I think that this was like, and taste and smell will give us lots of opportunities to write kind of gross descriptions and funny descriptions and things like that. Now, I don't want to spend too much time on this one because we'll probably be talking about this next week.
Speaker: Right? Like I imagine this is going to come up in next week's episode. What, Mouth? Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, we don't want to go too far, like, you know, talking about Space Quest 4. I haven't even played it yet.
Speaker: but Yeah, I mean, you're going love it. it's right You travel through time with Rippers. I like time travel. um Yeah, but no, I mean, where where do we... like this group. I put it with...
Speaker: uh the other gimmick verbs like new kid and turn off i think it's above new kid and i also consider run a gimmick verb i would put it above run personally i don't know if it's a push i wouldn't put it above push i would put it above run i agree with that let's put it above i good i think it's good i think that's the answer okay
Speaker: okay Oh my goodness. Now here. to hand on the list Move aside. Number one. We got a new, we got a new number one with a bullet. I, who is number one.
Speaker: You are number six. That's a joke. anyway, Grayson is watching the prisoner right now. Have you ever considered sometimes there's a little pause?
Speaker: He asks. Who is who's number one? And then number two says, you are? Number six. Six. You understand? Yeah. It's a little bit like he could also be number one.
Speaker: I like how occasionally though they switch it up and he says, who does number two work for? at Jess, we're going over our our allotment of Austin Powers references.
Speaker: You know how I feel about mean, what's your favorite, though? Not too much. Grayson, do you know? Not too much.
Speaker: I've been, I've had that sitting on the soundboard now for two for two weeks. You've shown such restraint, Ben. I'm proud of you. not too much Okay, so what is our next verb? And again, this one is clearly grammatically speaking a verb. All right, Jess, I want you to say this, but I want you to say it the way that it is that it should be said.
Speaker: Okay. Extreme close up. Is that how they say in Wayne's World? it's like, think it's more like, extreme close-up! Yeah, that they that's closer to it.
Speaker: Extreme close-up from Wayne's World. This is an, on the bar, there's a there's a graphic for it and everything, and I believe it is literally not used once. I think it might be used once.
Speaker: I don't know if it is, because we we talked about this. I think it was used exactly one time. I... Well, you know, you know, Grayson? Yeah. There's a way for us to find the answer to this.
Speaker: It's to replay Wayne's World. Time for us to play Wayne's World once again. Wayne's World, Wayne's World. Stream again. Anyway, extreme close up is either used one or zero times.
Speaker: somewhere between zero and one time i think it's zero in any case might have i really really love i fought for this and i i fought for the inclusion of this on this list i think it is absolutely dead last it was just let's not be ah not even gonna be ironic about it i think it's absolutely dead last it's it's such a such a throwaway nothing of a verb literally it doesn't do anything like when we say you don't need to use it it's not just that it's never relevant to solving puzzles It's that it just doesn't do anything. It doesn't serve any purpose other than it doesn't be.
Speaker: It doesn't give you a close up. Yeah. Right. yeah Like, I mean, it just never does anything. It's number 13. Wow. It's under, we, we found something beneath pole.
Speaker: Yeah. I'd rather pull something than never extreme close up something. Like to me, this can only be two places. I'm not ready to give this up. I know you've already updated the list, Ben. Extreme close up is either 13 or it's like three for me. There's no in between. Like either this is brilliant and how useless and stupid it is and deserves to be higher or it's just useless and stupid and belongs at 13. And I will concede that I'm okay with it being at 13, but there's a world where I'm putting this like way up the list.
Speaker: Bottom is a kind of honor in it itself. You know, it is. Maybe it says more about extreme close-up to have it at the bottom than have it a few notches from the top. You want to have a distinct bottom. We don't want just pull to be sitting down there. Here's the thing. We got to move on. First of all, fuck pull, though. I mean, I want to be pretty clear. Pull sucks more than extreme close-up.
Speaker: yeah Extreme close-up is the worst, to be clear. We can't dwell on this because our next one, though, is a big It's a big one? um it's a big one Yeah. All right. But I have a lot to say about this. The next one is use.
Speaker: And to be clear, this this is our, there's no, in there's this is the whole, there's no interact. There's no, this is the use verb. This this is use writ large. Yeah, this is the use verb on this list. I'm going to say something controversial and say bottom half.
Speaker: Oh, okay. um Jess, what do you think? I can expound a bit. I need to hear an argument from each other because I do not have an immediate reaction to you. I don't know where I want it. do you go ahead If you think about a lot of adventure games with a parser do not allow you to write use. You have to be more specific. If you're playing Crimson Diamond and you type in use key, it's going to be like, what do you mean? This is why Gabriel Knight has like four different use icons.
Speaker: Use is is too nonspecific. if If we're going through this big pile of verbs, all of which, or most of them are are specialized and interesting, use is like kind of like a bland nothing.
Speaker: Because it's just like, because you can use, you could use over almost like most of these, right? Like use. It's worse than turn off because use could also turn off. Yeah.
Speaker: It could turn on. it could turn off. It could push and pull. It could do anything. It is. yeah, For some, that might be, well, that's why it's the best. To me, that's why it's towards towards the bottom.
Speaker: Because I feel that it is it is undistinct. It's the the the plain bagel of ah verbs. Oh, love a plain bagel. I love plain bagel, too. You're not convincing me now, Ben. Yeah, well, listen. it's the All right, here we go. It's the egg with absolutely no seasoning.
Speaker: I didn't... Sounds pretty good too. I don't want to turn off day with... A really well prepared egg? Unflavored egg. It's got egg flavor in it.
Speaker: yeah That's right. Well, Jess, all right. i think i think but I think Ben has made a pretty persuasive yes opening statement. Jess, do you have a thought? You know, part of me was thinking originally. It's like, use is so ubiquitous and...
Speaker: is such a part of solving like half the puzzles in Sierra's icon games. You know, this is definitely more of a Sierra verb than a, I think a LucasArts verb, where usually they want something a little more specific than use.
Speaker: But then, dan really convinces me that use feels so generic that it's almost like a...
Speaker: verb that erases so many of these other more interesting verbs from needing to exist like you don't need fix if you have use you don't need turn on and turn off and push and pull use can fill the gap for all those but i think when it does so it's so much blander like a egg without seasoning or a bagel with no flavoring but I mean, bagels have bagel flavor. Yeah, they tastely they taste like bagels. What are you talking about? Yeah, that's good that's a crazy statement. ben you need good Maybe you don't have good bagels where you live.
Speaker: No, I don't. you yeah You're not going to own me by saying like, yo oh, in New York, we have ah better bagels than Chicago. I just pop into Panera Bread whenever I want one. No shit. They have ah they have better baguettes in Paris. you know well That's true. with man like ah Anyway, I'm going to say give us a play use I'm going to say use is better than New Kid. Oh.
Speaker: But that's as far as I'd go.
Speaker: New Kid at number nine, under which is underneath Run.
Speaker: I feel like it's got to be the, the, to me, it's the dividing line between the kind of quote unquote gimmick verbs and the, the real functional like workhorse verbs. So like at the, at right now I'd put it a above push, but like we go push use and then taste run, et cetera. That's where I'd put it. So you'd put push first.
Speaker: Yeah. And then use. i think use is kind of the intro to all the like real workhorse verbs, workhorse verbs. so So I'm saying push at number nine.
Speaker: Grayson is saying. Seven. Yeah. Seven. What do you say, Jess? You know, i think i would be comfortable playing it in at eight.
Speaker: I think I like taste a little better, but I think I like it better than run. I think I could do that. Okay. That's a pretty fair call. Use at eight. Okay. So use is ah ah the the the bread of the used sandwich is taste above and run below. all right.
Speaker: And we are going to recap after this next verb. If you've lost track, we're going to give it 15 again, just to make sure everyone knows where we're at. All right. Yes, this is when you put in. So explain.
Speaker: Okay, zipper. The zipper icon hails from the Leisure Suit Larry games. And zipper is an interesting all-purpose verb in the Leisure Suit Larry games. It can be used to remove Larry's clothes, to like unzip your own clothing.
Speaker: It can be used to attempt to seduce another character in the game. It can be used in some cases to urinate on things by unzipping your pants.
Speaker: Sort of whatever the lewd context that could involve a zipper or sexual act or urine at any point in a Leisure Suit Larry game. The zipper exists almost...
Speaker: like I mean, it's sort of a combination of your ability to undress, which is important in a Larry game, as well as your opportunity to have some crude jokes, much like the ah the taste icon that we mentioned before in Space Quest 4. So it's sort of filling a ah gap of having some actual applications in the game, but it's mostly there just to write some comedic responses. Now, no Jess, did you want to add this because you do you have a feeling that it should go high?
Speaker: Do you think where we're giving? I think it's interesting. um I think that I mean, it's a one of a kind. ah I mean, it appears in multiple Larry games, but I just wanted to kind of see how we felt about it I want this one on the list because.
Speaker: I don't know. i think it falls into the gimmick verb category, but is it better or worse than something? mean, is the inherently creepy nature of it, does it put it way down toward the bottom? Because oftentimes this is, you know, a preface to a very creepy behavior on Larry's part.
Speaker: I think it's beneath taste. I agree. Because it's important. This is the poor taste. Yeah, it's important. I'm going to say, I think it's, I think it's good. I think it's between new kid and turn off. Yeah, I think you're correct. yeahp I think that makes perfect. We were all aligned on that. Yeah. we yeah yeah Grayson, can you read a, hold on? I'll, I'll, I'll put this in.
Speaker: um all right zipper ah grayson can you read the list as it is now please yep from worst to best we have extreme close up at 15 pull fix turn off zipper new kid run use taste push truth open unlock cast spell and talk Now, we didn't we didn't talk about this. We are officially halfway through. We didn't talk about the stakes of this, which is that the the top five of these must be in every game. Well, we did talk about the stakes earlier, Ben. Yeah, but further... Oh, yeah. LAUGHTER
Speaker: ah but uh uh the the top five must be in every adventure game that comes out from the the release of this podcast forever these are the the top five from this which uh to reiterate or at this moment halfway through can change podcast spell unlock open and truth yeah all very i mean Must be in yeah every adventure game that comes out starting... and What day does this come out? this way It's starting on September 29th.
Speaker: 29th, September, 2026. Doesn't matter if it's in development already. It doesn't matter if it comes out that day. You have to go back and fix it. Yeah, that's right. And I mean, I think truth is going be tough for a lot of these games in development. You know what? it More than cast spell?
Speaker: Is truth going to stay at five? Yeah, that's the real question. it's the most precarious. You know, do think it's interesting. Talk was our very first option and so far remains unbeaten. It's a good one. it it Talk is. Yeah. All right.
Speaker: Here we one Give.
Speaker: I like give. It's fun. It's really useful. It's it is. It is specific. It's feel good. It is not. It's not receiving. Yeah, it's not in the you the kind of vague use. I think it's I think it's.
Speaker: Three. I'm saying right now. Three. It's cooperative. Talk, Caspell, give. I think it is. i think it's in the zone of push, either above or below. Above push. You think it's above push? You think give is worse than truth?
Speaker: Yeah. okay Okay. I mean, that's democracy for you.
Speaker: All right, give us number six. Okay. ah From Full Throttle, it's Kick. This one is pretty it's a pretty good. it' so nice This was a good one.
Speaker: I love how well it fits the setting it originates from. To the best of my knowledge, it's the only game that this is a standard verb for. But it's really perfect for Full Throttle.
Speaker: and I mean, yeah. Oh yeah. It is part of this world that Ben throttle would solve problems with kicking. And it uses the game uses it in a few, very fun, at least a few, a few fun moments we played. I mean, it's, it's, it's used more often than extreme closeup.
Speaker: It's yeah more than once. I mean, from the very first puzzle. Now do you, right well let's, I think a real germane point of comparison is push, which is just kicking with your hands. So A hand kick, as you sometimes call it. It's better than push.
Speaker: it's bad Oh, so much better. Is it better than give? No.
Speaker: No, I don't want to live in that world. I don't want to live in the world where kicking is better than giving. You know, that's a good point, Grayson. We need to be the change we want to see in the world. Yeah, no, absolutely. all right I agree with Grayson. We have a... think it's better than giving.
Speaker: Well, you're outvoted. Wow. But we're in the, I think we're all, we're, we're, it's that we're in the It's number seven. Yeah. Okay. Now this is a good one.
Speaker: This is a really good one. Actually. Sneak. o greatest for glory It is absolutely above run. was going to say this is this. Yeah. Like we we don't have to worry about the bottom half. I think. No, this is top half.
Speaker: All right. uh is it better than tasting yes yes is it better than pushing yes yes is it better than kicking yes is it better than giving yes yes is it better than truth yes yes yes is it better than open yes yes yes is it better than unlocking Yes. yeah Yes. Yes.
Speaker: Because you sneak before you unlock a lot of things. All right, here we go. Is it better than casting a spell? Yes. Yes. Yes. else Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. Easily. Easy. done No controversy about this one. All right. All right. Is it but okay better? Is sneaking better than talking?
Speaker: No. no it's close, but I got to say no. like It's so close. It's so close. you almost want to say yes, but it's not. Sneak is now the new number two.
Speaker: hu Oh man, that was so easy too. like they I mean, the way that the hero deedles around. Yeah, the deedling is a big part of this.
Speaker: All right. Number 19 coming in. Clothes. Close is obviously not as good as open. Opening is better. Oh, yeah, no, no, no. This is like, it's not as, here's the funny thing. no poll It's no pull. It's no pull. I was going to say, for some reason, I hate pull, but close, I don't have the same yeah problem with. Is it better or worse than turn off?
Speaker: It's better than turn off. It's close. I think it's a little bit better than turn off, but it's that's the ballpark for me. I think it's better than zipper. m i think it's better than new kid.
Speaker: I don't think it's as good as run. I agree. I think it's worse than new kid, but I'll accept. I'll accept the number 13. Yeah, it is close. Yeah, I think we're in this. in Not a strong disagreement there. we're Right now, this is going to our list will be a 20. So once again, we'll reiterate.
Speaker: After this walk to. Whoo. I mean, walking to. a ah all alright Click on that thing. Yeah.
Speaker: 2026 yeah case you're listening this years later and you're like wonder what it was recorded future anthropologists the year is 2026 we're just stupid uh here's the thing we all agree i think let me just speak for all three of us without checking first we all agree it's not as good as snake Correct. Yeah. Like not even ballpark sneak. But it's a good, I like walk toing.
Speaker: It's a good, it's like it's a good verb. It's better than running. It's yeah not as good as sneak. That's true. That's true true true ah yeah's a big window.
Speaker: i don't think it's as good as kicking. Hmm. I mean, kicking is just walking in place.
Speaker: Grayson, your thoughts on kicking are fascinating to me. I was going to say it's a little, I think it's, i mean, I think it's better than truth, but I think we're approaching where we kind of agree on this. No, I don't think it's as, anyway I don't think it's as good as giving.
Speaker: Okay. We've established that giving is, I think it's one better than kicking is better too. okay yeah I think it's better than pushing. I think it's eight. I think i agree with Ben. I think after kick, before push.
Speaker: All right. ah ah Jess, would you like to read the list? We are now at 20. Okay, we're going to start from the top. Number one, talk.
Speaker: Then sneak. Cast spell. Unlock. At number five, we have open. Number six, truth. Give. Kick.
Speaker: Walk to And at number 10, push. Number 11, taste. Use. Run. Close. 15 is new kid.
Speaker: Followed by zipper. Turn off. Fix. Pull. And at the very bottom it number 20, extreme close up. i'm ah I'm inventing a new steak.
Speaker: Oh, S-T-E-A-K or... A different spelling. um i I challenge. Well, the top five must be in every adventure game.
Speaker: I challenge. I challenge you. ah If you have the capability to make a game of any type. When we complete this list, can you make an adventure game with the bottom five verbs? Only the bottom five. oh that's Only the bottom five. Yeah. And let me tell you, want make it. Walking around is fine. Like without walk like if walk won't be down there.
Speaker: But yeah, this is a new thing. So the top five must be in it every adventure game except for those made in the shitty verbs adventure jam.
Speaker: ah which Which we are launching right after this episode of shitty verb adventure jam. zipper um if if it If it is as it is now, zipper, turn off, fix, pull, and stream. mean, honestly, we we well, I don't want to get ahead of ourselves. We but we have some that might.
Speaker: Oh yeah. know there There's one in here that is. yeah i will say out of this list though, like zipper turn off, pull an extreme closeup. I'll sound like a great basis for a leisure suit Larry fan game. Yeah, that's true. Actually. All right. Okay. Here we go. This is a nice bread and butter one. It's from space quest five. It's command.
Speaker: Ooh, I like command. It's evocative. Yes, it exists alongside talk. This is Roger's ability to issue commands as a captain to his crew. It's an additional icon alongside just the typical like, hey, I want to start a conversation with you. It's him using thats an authoritative voice. I feel like this is now kind of ah not unusual for adventure games to have kind of a suite of like three or four likes, like walk to talk, use, et cetera.
Speaker: and then you have like the one or two, like real game specific, but highly evocative verbs. Like this is what I did for Kid Named Ice Boy, which has the salute verb, but otherwise has...
Speaker: the normal sort of you know look talk etc right uh and i love that like i think yeah that that i mean this is such a part of what makes space quest 5 space quest 5 is the idea that roger isn't just narratively established as the captain of the scs eureka he has an entire verb dedicated to being in command yeah So not something we would kind of dismiss as a quote-unquote gimmick verb, you know? Yeah.
Speaker: i think it's um i think it's better it's no sleek I think it's better than... better than... Is it better than taste?
Speaker: Ben, you're being quiet. i feel like you have thoughts on this. I think it's beneath kick. I think it's nine.
Speaker: Because I'm thinking long and hard about this. And it's fun. It's fun to command, but it's a little specialized for me.
Speaker: I'd be okay with that. Is it better than walk? I'd put it below walk. Oh, okay. You'd put it i'm happy below walk too. i think I'd put right below walk. All right.
Speaker: Number 10 is now command. Nice. All right. And this is a big one. This is a huge one. Oh, yeah. This is going to change everything.
Speaker: Pick up. You might also know this take or get. No, can i Is it? presumptuous of me to say like should we just start should we just start at the top should we like be should we have the top is this better it's like should we just right away get to is pickup better than talk i think there's a conversation to be had there yeah like what let's not let's skip the other 20 like let's just go is it better than talk because i think it's better than sneak i think it's better than sneak i think it's better than one or two
Speaker: wow I think it's, i agree. i think it's, I think it's better than talk. I think it's better than talk. Okay. I'm leaning this way too. Grayson. Why do we think it's better than talk? I think it's, I think it's fun to pick stuff up. It's fun to get stuff in your inventory. It's, and it's it's the, the mother verb that leads to your gives and your unlocks and your cast spells. You have to pick up a scroll first. Um, yeah,
Speaker: I just think I would be so, it's just, un it's unfathomable to think about adventure games without picking stuff up. But you there are adventure games without talking. Yeah. so I think it's number one.
Speaker: I think it's number one too. I love talk. Like a dialogue tree is one of my favorite parts. I thought talk was there. It could have gone the whole way. Yeah. I thought i thought talk was going to to make the run. All right. but I'll say this. The next one could also take the throne.
Speaker: o All right. So I don't even know how to pronounce this. Adumbrate? Adumbrate? I'll look it up. Who put this on here? but I put this on here. This is so Adumbrate or whatever is from Labyrinth, the adventure game, the very early Lucasfilm adventure game.
Speaker: And I'm going to read this. This is from the Wikipedia. This is a quote from David Foxe. who who I guess worked on the game. um Douglas Adams, I'm going to put in brackets Adams. Douglas Adams, ah ah like brainstormed with them on the game a little bit, I guess.
Speaker: Douglas really liked the word adumbrate, meaning to prefigure indistinctly or foreshadow. So it ended up on the verb list. You had to adumbrate the elephant when you were stuck in a prison and an elephant would come in and break a hole in the wall, freeing them.
Speaker: definitely one of as Definitely one of those things that was far funnier in the brainstorming session than in the game. Yeah. Welcome to a Douglas Adams adventure game. I'm going to say I love Douglas Adams is riding, but I'm going to right away. I think this is worse than extreme close up.
Speaker: Whoa. It's low. i mean, yeah are you going disagree? You know what?
Speaker: You, uh, uh, uh, you definitely add them break at least once. We don't even know whether I think it's, I think it's. Yeah, but one up that you add I hate that you add them break once.
Speaker: that's You you i hate that idea of a puzzle. If it was like this baffling word on a verbalist. I don't think there's a saving. It is the point. This sounds like absolutely just it's, it's too clever by half by worth by many halves. It's yeah.
Speaker: possibly What you just read. a very self-satisfied joke. yeah I wish that the listeners could have seen the look of disgust on Grayson's face when Ben read that. i was shaking my head. I didn't even see that because I was reading it. like i was was very similar yeah I just did not care. i'll put We all love Douglas Adams.
Speaker: he He wasn't very good at writing ah at designing adventure games. No, no. It was so meta that it, like the idea that to break out a prison, you need to foreshadow the existence of an elephant breaking through. I hate it. I hate everything about that puzzle.
Speaker: Is it worse than extreme closeup though? Yeah. I mean, that's, that's my feeling. You guys have your own down there. it I mean, I want to tell you, it's no, it's no pull. Yeah. oh oh all right i think i hate extreme close-up more but it's close this is like pick up and talk yeah yeah i hate the puzzle that this one is i'm almost like at least extreme close-up is harmless whereas this one just hearing about that puzzle made me angry let's put it at the bottom i don't think we would argue
Speaker: God, all the Labyrinth fans are going to be up our asses. I think more people are going to be like, what, you didn't like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the game? ah a fairly beloved text adventure. Not particularly, no. Next.
Speaker: Reed.
Speaker: doesn't spark joy you know am i crazy are you uh uh are you marie kind of marie condo yeah are you ever like oh i get to read in this adventure no i just i'm playing games earlier yeah that's all sorts of reading you're reading with your regular eyes and that you know yeah as a verb a verb mean read is definitely the bottom half i think it's I think it's worse than New Kid. i think it's worse than Zipper. I think it's better than Turn Off.
Speaker: I don't disagree with that. I don't disagree with that either. i think the reason that's a... the new 19. An apt placement. All right, we'll do a read through. Our list will be at 25 after this.
Speaker: but do we want do we want to go through the... i mean, we're close. We want to just... No, no, we'll do it. Are you saying we we just run and then and then so there's a little bit of a mystery? And then like, yeah, let's just go to 30 and then recap. Let's just go to 30. Fine. You heard it. We're just going to do it live. All right.
Speaker: Smell. Worse than taste. Agreed. Okay. But how much worse? It might just be right under it. Yeah.
Speaker: Read then smell. Because, because I like, like taste use run. Yeah. I think it's better than use. I think it's worse than taste.
Speaker: I say it's, it's beneath taste. Okay. Yeah, I like that, too. I don't know why I know for a fact that it's worse than taste. i mean that That makes ah total sense to me.
Speaker: Yeah, I know. Yeah, i mean, i don't like I don't question it in any way. I know this at like a spiritual level. Oh, this one I like. All right. Five left.
Speaker: Recycle from Echo Quest one and two. Fabulous. It's no truth. When it comes to edutainment, yeah, I agree. It's no truth. It's no truth.
Speaker: This is a verb I would like to see kind of actually, well, I guess to get to my own joke, it's a verb I would like to see reused ah in newer adventure games.
Speaker: Uh, cause I think it's, it, it, it makes perfect sense. And you can't make eco quest and not have a recycle verb, especially if you're making a game in like a game called eco quest in 1991. Yeah, well, we still believed in recycling. I think it would be fun for somebody to bring it back and not even necessarily as like a as like an iron ironic sort of throwback. Like, I think it would be, there' there it's ah it's a fun word. You could do stuff with it.
Speaker: Well, Grayson, when you say that, I think than command. Is there a way to put it in the bottom five so someone is compelled to have to do that? We can't... We can't metagame our own list. Okay, yeah. We have to adhere to strict standards. I think it's better than command.
Speaker: I agree, actually. Yes. Not as good as walk two. Yeah, right. Yeah, right. that's That's absolutely accurate. Yeah, and I mean, I didn't realize how scientific this would be, yeah but I'm very confident in the reliability of this list. If we all agree with, especially especially if we all like agree so quickly on that, no one can correct that Like, that's just the correct placement yeah yeah there's no room for debate these next two are an interesting pair i'm very excited to tackle them so this one is what is now what is was in the early scum adventure games and it was before ah your mouse went over something and it just automatically said what it was this was essentially hot spot
Speaker: uh, detector. What is mouse over this? It says what it is. What is this? What it is. I like the straightforwardness of, I like the, the, the, like, if you just, what is, i think that's, it's fun to say that all the time.
Speaker: Like I'm confined with something I don't and understand. And i was like, what is, do you guys like it? I want to say, i think, let's not Let's not get you know crazy here. away yeah I have a fondness for it, but I think it's not you know it's not it's no recycle. I think, come on. No. ah Is it better or worse than a Zipper?
Speaker: Oh, you're on low. Okay. It's better than Zipper. Better than Zipper. Better than Zipper. Better than New Kid. ah It's better than clothes. yeah so much I'm going to say it's better than smell.
Speaker: Better than taste. Is it better than push? No. Okay. Yeah, I think you're correct. i agree. right
Speaker: so Okay. we're We've got just three left. Three left. And I know that our listeners are on the edge of their seats. This is another canonical one. Especially if they're game developers.
Speaker: Look. I mean, looks, and it's high, right? I have ah immediately have a very positive feeling toward love look. in Look is in the realm of, like, it is absolutely in the top 10 and probably in the top five. It's where so many fun descriptions live. It's where so many hints live for puzzles.
Speaker: it's It's just a great... It's where lore lives. It's where lore lives. yeah I thought he lived on ah the the the colony planet that was the crystalline entity. I knew this Star Trek joke was coming. I knew it. Oh, knew it yeah Grayson. lost in space memorabilia.
Speaker: oh you're so smart thing surrounded with all of your lost and inibilia I shouldn't get, you know, I should have waited for it to actually come out before thinking that though because I made the same mistake earlier with Jess and the stakes joke. Yeah.
Speaker: You know? right. All right. right. All right. Is it better than unlock? Yes. Okay. How funny is it that it's so much better than read? like Just like like, not even Miles ahead of it. Miles ahead of it.
Speaker: All right. All right. Is it better than cast spell? Yes. Yes. it better than sneak? Yes.
Speaker: Yes. Yes. It's not as good as talk. No, no, no, no. no no no no yeah The book stops see here. Yeah. Although a picture is worth a thousand words.
Speaker: That's true. And it's worth a thousand sneaks. Yeah. All right. We only have two left, but they're bangers.
Speaker: They really are. Burn on. right away it's better than turn off and it's better than zipper turn off yeah yeah because you you gotta to have turn on you gotta turn on before you zippers i think turn on benefits because turn turning stuff on so you know kind of necessitates that your world is full of fun gizmos and contraptions you know so uh i think i think it benefits for being kind of a fun verb You're excited to turn stuff on in the same way that you're excited to unlock doors.
Speaker: I'm certainly more excited to turn something on than recycle it. Yes. Wow. You're all the way up there. yeah I think so. I'm more excited. It's no kick.
Speaker: Is it?
Speaker: Like, okay. Okay. Do I like to turn on... More than give. I turn on things every day, both with my incredible personality and looks and also with my hands flipping switches.
Speaker: I think it's better than give. I think it's better than truth. I think it's worse than open.
Speaker: Yeah. I agree with that. Jess? I would go a little lower, but I can live with that. Like, I would... it's a pride It probably is a ahead of truth. Truth overrepresented. This is really funny how far ahead it is from turn off.
Speaker: really I mean, I feel like the negative, like, close is so much worse than open, obviously. And, you my mind, I can't explain this completely. Push...
Speaker: and pull operate on a similar mechanism. It's like push is the active thing and pull to me is, is the, the, the turnoff of a movement. Yeah. That's how, how appropriate that this is the one in the bottom.
Speaker: Now, Jess, you said you randomized these. Did you really, did you put this one on the bottom intentionally? No, I not. The final one also from quest for glory is rest. Yeah.
Speaker: This is a good one. This is a passive verb. i don't give a shit. I being passive. Passive aggressive. I feel like... I'm not passive aggressive. This feels more like an RPG activity to me. You know, like, does this even feel like... an ah I know it's obviously in Quest for Glory, but I don't know. I just feel like... It was sneak, you know? Yeah. It was cast spell.
Speaker: You sneak in a lot of adventure
Speaker: I, you know what? I don't think it's as good as recycle. No, I don't think it is. No. I don't think it's as good as command. No. I would rather push something.
Speaker: I'd rather what is something. Yeah. But not taste. I would rather rest than taste. Mm-hmm. I think I agree too. Somehow those are very close in my, well, I'm like, yeah, those are pretty close, but I'd rather rest. I think this is an incredible list. Looking at it, do we want to open it up like any small tweaks from here? Like, are we will? No, this is, this is it. We had such regrets about our LucasArts bracket. No, but not me.
Speaker: ah somewhere at him not me we So here we go. Oh, let's, let's, let's do the bottom and each get 10. Okay. so To do the bottom. I can start. I can start.
Speaker: And remember these first five are are now part of the bad adventure game or the bad verbs game. The, the, the, the adventure games can be great, but the verbs are bad.
Speaker: All right. They should be great. ah Number 30 going to one Adam bright extreme closeup. Pull. Fix.
Speaker: Turn off. Read. Zipper. New kid. Close. And 21, run. so good. all right.
Speaker: Jess, do you want... Yeah, I'll take it from here. Yeah, yeah. Number 20. Use. Smell. Taste. Rest. What is...
Speaker: Push we you at 15. The ultimate... the the the ultimate Neutral verb. Right. 14 command. Recycle.
Speaker: Walk to Kick is at number 11. All right. Now for the the final 10. Here we go.
Speaker: At number 10, we have give. Nine. It's beautiful, really. Is truth. Eight is turn on.
Speaker: Seven is open. Six is unlock. Five is cast spell. Four is sneak. Three is a look.
Speaker: Two is talk. And number one, the number one adventure game verb, pick up or get. That's a great list.
Speaker: actually feel very confident in how this shook out. Like, I stand by this. Unless our listeners don't like it, at which point I agree with them.
Speaker: I think the the only misgiving I think I have here is that the top, the the four and five are a little Quest for Glory heavy.
Speaker: Do we just like Quest for Glory too much? And I'm not going to adjust this to be clear. I mean, the reality is Quest for Glory is one of the very best series of adventure games ever created. i feel like having it overrepresented here,
Speaker: is not unreasonable. Yeah, I mean, this i was our top 10 also over-represents in the sense that there's only one game. It over-represents Penny's Adventures in Time. Peppers. Peppers' peppers Adventures in Time ah because we have Truth at number nine. I think Truth is... I'm not saying good or bad. we were in a better world, Truth would be number one. That's true. I'm not saying good or bad. I'm saying I think ah Peppers' Adventures in Time...
Speaker: is the most overrepresented here as it is one game and it's in our top 10 list. Recycle also pretty high as it should be. Yes. Yeah. i mean it's important.
Speaker: Yeah, this is so good. This is a perfect list there. I mean, again, if you are currently participating in the shitty verb game jam and you're working on your design documents, here's what you have to work with.
Speaker: You have turn off. Fix. oh Pull. Pull's the worst. hate pull. Extreme close-up. And Adembrite.
Speaker: And and we'll let you we'll let you walk around, but that's it. Yeah, that's all you have. And I want to see good games. I don't want like i don't want some sort of crummy. No bits. Don't do funny, fake, ironic. It's bad on purpose. don't want that.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I don't. Yeah, I mean, i think in 2026, like, like radical sincerity is what we're all about. i think I read a great Jesse Thorne column about this one. So, you know, ah I think that that's really where we should all be at. trying to Start a podcast beef with Jesse Thorne.
Speaker: I mean, not all of us are personal friends with him. Yeah, that's right. i mean, you're talking about my friend Jesse. Yeah, i mean, well, plus I'm. You leave him alone. Yeah. You know, Grayson and I know him quite well. As a fellow Jesse, i feel like he's my direct competition.
Speaker: That's true, actually. oh As a fellow podcasting Jesse who has interacted with the McElroys. Yes, and you too. That's right. Yeah, there a lot of ways there's no more direct competition than than Jesse Thorne.
Speaker: I'd like to be a thorn in his side.
Speaker: Well, it's perfect. We did it. i mean, listeners, don't imagine. No, no. um Everyone is just going to, if they're going to send us any emails, don't email us. They're going to say, and those those emails to quest quest podcast at gmail.com.
Speaker: They're going to say, great job. Yeah. Great job. And then in the body of that email, elaborate on the great job we did. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: No, and I mean, we couldn't have done this without you, Grayson. I think you understand verbs better than any of us. That is true, actually. And, you know, whenever you do your noun episode, give me a holler. I'll i'll be back.
Speaker: Oh, God.
Speaker: you know Cat hair, mustache. Yeah. Great noun. Terrific noun. Has anyone ever joked about that? I was about to c clown on you for that just being like, come on, man.
Speaker: low hanging fruit yeah like the one in a ram's face wikipedia page not the only one the the go puzzle and uh and none of the well they're all related to that that game none of them should have their own pages that's my opinion as a wikipedia editor and i've oh i did richard cobbett before oh only the only puzzles that should have wikipedia pages are particularly good jigsaw puzzles All right. Well, thank you so much. My tower bridge. Thank you so much.
Speaker: for joining us for Quest Quest, the adventure game podcast. Grayson, is there any sort of monthly newsletter to delight our our listeners? There is. up for you should go to I might as well explain the joke.com. That's I might as well explain the joke.com. It's a blog where I tell the history of jokes in American history.
Speaker: The most recent one was a ah kind of history of that kids playing the tuba I have to say I was very fun to research. That was a good one. i have to say my favorite of the, and a lot of these are, are, are quite good. And I, these are all like, and I, I can't emphasize enough. If, if you haven't checked this out, they're all very like intensely researched in a way that you wouldn't expect. Uh, yeah.
Speaker: My favorite one is the, the, the one you wrote about honk. If you're horny, I think that one was quite so exact as well. Yeah. Yeah. Because raise this blog and newsletter before Grayson gets a book deal on this. Yeah. Get it, get in on, let's say the second floor, because it's been out for a little bit now. It's i'm coming. Actually, my next one is coming out soon. It will be my one year anniversary. In fact, I'll give you a little sneak peek. It's about Lawrence Welk jokes.
Speaker: Oh, ah the the bubble. The bubbles. The bubbles. Yeah. i know Oh, I know. Oh, no, no, no. He also said wonderful, or wonderful. Yeah. He has a couple of, you know, he has, he has a very, he has a persona about him. Did you, did you listen to the Stan Freeberg parody of the Lawrence Bullock show doing this?
Speaker: I don't think I did. You should you give it a listen. It's pretty funny. I think I, I think I've run across that name, but haven't looked at it yet. The bubble machine. Yes. There's a, yeah. This is a more modern, more modern audiences. This is the, the SNL Denise character.
Speaker: ah She has kind of become her own character, but the premise of that sketch is she is on a Lawrence Welk show episode. All right. Well, yeah, check that out. And Jess, do you have any plugs?
Speaker: Nope. but but Well, your Soda Machine blog is popping again. Oh, yeah. No, i mean, no yeah, no pun intended. I am back working on my video game Soda Machine project. I've been doing a lot of cataloging of missing video game Soda Machines. My collection is now up over 3,500 individual Soda Machines across the entire history of video gaming, including some recent discoveries that pushed some of our earliest entries as far back as the nineteen seventy s
Speaker: that's really cool uh you can check out i have a podcast it's called quest quest i'm sorry topics do you cover on that uh verbs but we diagram sentences yeah ah But anyway, thank you so much. Thank you, Grayson, for taking time out of your your busy schedule for joining us. Thank you, Jess, for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us.
Speaker: ah and i And thank you to you, the listeners, for taking time out of your busy schedule to listen And Ben, I want to take a moment just to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule. Oh, thank you. I do have a busy schedule, and I'd like to thank you as well.
Speaker: i' very yeah and i'm just to go my busy schedule is calling so let's let's wrap this up yeah oh wait hold on i'm i'm getting a phone call ah yes oh sorry it's a meta muse um it's explaining to me that i have something coming up on my busy schedule yeah oh i'm sorry i'm gonna call what Bob Newhart, have an appointment tomorrow? all right, well, thank you so much. Rate and review, et cetera. ah
Speaker: And join us next week when we discuss Space Quest.
Speaker: So, Grayson, you know, in in your opinion, ah Space Quest 4 marked something of a departure for the series. Like the first three ah games had a like, ah you know, a typing text parser. It was, as they'd call like a version.
Speaker: uh, adventure. This was a game that moved it into a point in click two hundred and click 256, you know, sound card era. It was pulled into the future.
Speaker: but you know, there are many people, including its own designers who felt that, uh, it lost something, uh, when that happened. And I, I, Grayson, I know that that you're, you're quite outspoken on this.
Speaker: Uh, so Grayson, please expound. I would say that, ah you know, it's they just hadn't discovered the command verb yet.
