The Gaming Persona

The Struggles and Joys of Navigating Virtual Worlds

• Daniel Kaufmann Ph.D. | Dr. Gameology • Season 5 • Episode 10

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Dr. Gamology and Marcus explore the profound relationship between our gaming habits and our authentic selves, revealing how the way we approach virtual challenges mirrors our approach to life itself.

• Different gaming personalities: methodical completionists versus spontaneous explorers
• Elden Ring boss battles as metaphors for personal obstacles and growth
• Toxic behavior in MMO communities and why experienced players often lack empathy for newcomers
• The struggles of juggling multiple games at once and preserving continuity in storytelling
• Final Fantasy XIV's demanding cutscene culture versus immediately accessible Star Wars lore
• How Minecraft facilitates the same developmental benefits as traditional imaginative play
• Family gaming as a powerful bonding experience and way to nurture creativity
• The importance of treating new players with patience and understanding

Remember to be kind to newcomers in your gaming communities - they're on a journey too, and everyone deserves the chance to continue their adventure without toxicity.


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Thanks for Listening, and Continue The Journey!

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Gaming Persona Podcast. This is the show that explores who we become when we play games, whether you're saving kingdoms, leading epic raids or just vibing in cozy indie worlds. Join me, dr Gamology and my good friend Marcus as we search for all the ways gaming and personal growth collide. Grab your controllers and let's continue the journey Now.

Speaker 2:

Continue the journey now. There's nothing wrong with drinking beer just because you don't like it and you want an umbrella in your drink.

Speaker 1:

That's really where we're starting this. Why not?

Speaker 2:

It's okay. Okay, so you want me to back it up? When I first met you, you didn't even drink Like you wouldn't even have a drink, and now you're having a margarita with dinner.

Speaker 1:

Who are you? This is amazing. I just very much disagree with all of the life lessons that I was held up to by the type of people that held me up to them and who they think are great human beings, while ignoring the human being that I was. So there's no reward for being the way that I was, so I might as well just relax and enjoy my evening.

Speaker 2:

There's I always say there's. There's a difference between having a margarita at dinner or having two beers while I sit here and do the podcast, versus drinking five margaritas and then driving your car.

Speaker 1:

You know what I'm saying. Can you imagine that episode of the gaming person?

Speaker 2:

We should do one Dude we're, even if it's not that we should just do one.

Speaker 1:

You know, I think here's the thing I am about to become even more of a public figure than I've ever been, and I have to pay attention to what I'm putting out there. Marcus, I've ever been and I have to pay attention to what I'm putting out there.

Speaker 1:

Marcus, okay, yeah, I'm sorry, but that's just true. I'm wrapping my head around it because some of the things that I'm talking about I can't talk about right now, but they happened this week very exciting stuff for the Dr Gamology brand. But you could still like have a drink yeah, but I can't do five margaritas and record my podcast.

Speaker 2:

Why not? It's a podcast, as the podcast is not tied to your business persona.

Speaker 1:

It is, though, like I report on streaming and podcast stuff for one of my roles.

Speaker 2:

I do. Don't look at me like that. There could be a train wreck once in a while.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there is not a 100% guarantee that this content is making it into the episode.

Speaker 2:

I'm so disappointed why this is the real. You, like people want to hear the real you. When you're on a podcast, you don't have to be your persona, you just be who you are. It's when you're streaming you. When you're on a podcast, you don't have to be your persona, you just be who you are. It's when you're streaming you have whoever you are. But, like on a podcast, it's a free form to just flow and have conversation and, like you, take your journey through the podcast and where it takes you, I'm freeing you, breaking your chains, doc.

Speaker 1:

That's what this podcast is about. I was already thinking it and you said it. You got Sith code on me.

Speaker 2:

It's because you're like the Sith Lord. If there was an emperor in 2025, it would be Emperor Gameology.

Speaker 1:

That's pretty true. This whole thing started because of that silly myers-briggs type indicator chart that said the intj was the label, the mastermind and the star wars character for that is emperor palpatine after I had just created and chosen sith sorcerer as my old republic character.

Speaker 2:

You're right do you remember who they gave me as a character?

Speaker 1:

No, Do you want me to go pull it up?

Speaker 2:

No, no, no, I remember.

Speaker 1:

I don't remember the letters. Are you R2-D2?

Speaker 2:

Nope Princess Leia.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's nice, Marcus. I see it. I guess Somebody has to save us kids, Okay. Get this walking carpet out of my hallway.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, exactly that's who the leader of Death.

Speaker 1:

Star Troopers is.

Speaker 2:

Anyway, hey, I got a question for you. Yeah, who is the most hated enemy for you in elden ring?

Speaker 1:

oh my gosh, I haven't gone back to where I'm at, so it could be mesmer because that's my unfinished business right now, but if we're looking at, well, I'm talking about base game.

Speaker 2:

Base game, yeah, like any boss, it could be a mini boss, it could be like a regular enemy, like like that has the red bar, a red bar enemy yeah, I got it.

Speaker 1:

When you're approaching the end of the erd tree where you get to go in and fight the elden beast and finish the game, hopefully there is a boss that you fight. You go into the windy, shattered remains from the past. Oh my gosh, I am so sorry. It's been a long time. I can't remember his name, but he has a black sword that causes your health bar to shrink when he hits you with it, so like it takes your health and then it shortens your health bar too. I've never even heard of this guy. Yeah, I can look it up while we're talking passively and I'll just interject once I figure out who it is, okay, jamie.

Speaker 2:

Huh. So in one of the podcasts I listened to, his producer is Jamie, and anytime they start talking about something, jamie has already found it.

Speaker 1:

Can we get a producer for our show?

Speaker 2:

When you make it big and you can ask your 50 companies that are sponsoring you to pay for a producer. For us, that would be great Thanks.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that would be really nice. So in crumbling Ferrum Azula, which is this ancient place, you basically had teleported into the past what's the name I'm looking. So when you get to the end of that area, you have to fight maleketh the black blade. That is my nemesis. That fight, I was stuck on it to the point where I was wondering if I'm ever going to beat this game.

Speaker 2:

Oh, so yeah, they say this is like the hardest boss in the game, Really. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

They say that's the true test to see if. If you're ready to win, yeah right I agree too, because because the fights that are left after that, except for the last one, I felt like the elden beast and fighting, oh man, the god character.

Speaker 2:

I know who you're talking about I don't know, I don't know his name, I haven't met him, him, yet. Radagon of the golden water.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So that whole like final battle stuff, that's epic, it's the Supreme ordeal. I love hero's journey stuff and I was all about that. I got through that a lot faster than getting through Malik, yeah.

Speaker 2:

They say Malik is no joke.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but you know what? You can totally get stuck, depending on who you are and the way you play. You can get stuck on a boss that's not the hardest one, that's just that's what I remember being the biggest source of do I want to quit?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so for me, the hardest boss in the game bosses in the game for me or give me the most trouble they're not the hardest are the bell bearing hunters. Those mother truckers are siths or sith lords that mess me up every time I fight them you know what my kryptonite in elden ring is, marcus yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, cutscenes. So when you get to a boss that has a cutscene, I die instantly on that first pull. I don't know why it's something about. If I enter the room and the boss is just standing there and their health bar pops up and I can run to where I want to be and dodge that first hit, I'm good. But if we get the default standing spot at the end of a cut scene, the boss is gonna wreck me. I just will not dodge it, I will not survive. I don't know how to explain it, but I noticed very early on that bosses that have cut scenes are an instant death for me.

Speaker 2:

Okay, and I usually, the first time I fight a boss, I usually almost kill them and then I die and then it takes me a while to kill them.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but like in baseball, like you have batters that have their little rituals of swinging the bat outside of the box, touching different parts of their shoulder, adjusting their stuff, and if they do all of that they have their confidence in their swing. And if that gets disrupted? I haven't watched baseball a long time but I guess they've done a lot of stuff to help with the speed of the game.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so pitch clock.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it was a pitch clock, okay, I haven't watched since that got instituted. I'm a little behind on what it's like, but I'm sure people's rituals have adjusted to the amount of time in the pitch clock, right yeah, still, but it's.

Speaker 2:

it was needed because it was a dying breed, in my opinion, as a sport, because it's so long and unknown. You can watch a uh a at Bruins game and be done in two hours. You can watch a basketball game be done in two hours. You can watch a football game and know it's going to be three hours because of commercials, but you know how long it's going to be when, like, a baseball game could be two and a half hours or it could be five hours, and I'm not saying that's a problem, but it drags on. And I'm not saying that's a problem, but it drags on.

Speaker 1:

So I understand what you're saying with some of the bosses. Yeah, that's just the way it is. That's my own quirk. It's the way my brain works, or doesn't work my kryptonite right Like you. Just got to keep playing until you figure it out. Actually, my whole gaming week, marcus, has been about failure. So when we were talking earlier in the week, where are we going to cover? I just like I don't know. I've been trying to play Assassin's Creed. I'm terrible at it. I played Final Fantasy 14 this morning on my stream and had a really bad experience in that game too and that's one of my games, so I was shook. But some really awesome stuff happened later in the day that my stream can't ruin, so I got over it.

Speaker 2:

But during my stream I was just like so upset because I want to play I just honestly, I've committed, I've made my decision that I am going to beat elden ring like bloodline rules, marcus, yeah, I like I can't let it beat me, even though I want to, I get so mad and that's why I was playing.

Speaker 2:

I'm in, so I'm in the mountaintops of the giants, but my personality is not like you where you need to like a hundred percent an area, okay. So I am not like I am the ultimate in like squirrel where right kind of a guy. So I I was watching a video, sweet johnny cage, and I'm in the mountaintop, and he was said something about volcano manor. I was like man, I still haven't done volcano manor, so I beelined it down there. And then I my youtube always suggests something oh, things you missed in learning of the lakes. And I was like, oh, I need a little filler video, I'll watch it. And they were like, oh, in the southern part of the lake there's blah, blah, blah quest. And I was like I never did that.

Speaker 2:

Oh, and then I left volcano manner and did that. So I'm playing in three different areas all at once and it's just a scattered mess. And then I was trying, and then I saw another squirrel where it was like and then I saw another squirrel where it was like oh shit, I didn't kill all the bell bearing hunters. Oh, there's one in altus plateau is the last one. I gotta go do that now. So now I'm like you know what I mean, but that's. But now I'm like okay, do I go back now before I continue in the mountaintops and just go clear a bunch of shit and then just say, okay, now I'm going to the mountaintops and I'm going to do it.

Speaker 1:

It really is up to you. If you clear the final fights, marcus, you have a choice at that point to continue clearing things on the map that you've already discovered, or new game plus, and basically start over. And there are benefits to being Elden Lord and still going around the world clearing stuff, collecting weapons and things. You don't have to rush into a second playthrough at all, so you can do unfinished business as much as you want through it all so you can do unfinished business as much as you want.

Speaker 2:

I don't think I'm gonna do new game plus. I think I'm gonna start a brand new kit like what, after I beat it, I'm gonna be final fantasy 14 and what I mean. Like I'm gonna get through realm reborn, I'm reborn. Yep, I'm gonna do heaven's ward. I'm gonna do whatever the next ones are. Like I'm going to play the snot out of 14 because I want to, but right now, with a lot of time I have, I just need to focus on Elden Ring and only play it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, both of those games really are better experiences if you're just focusing on them.

Speaker 2:

So that's my plan is to be Elden Ring Like cause. Now I'm doing like you were playing it, how? Like you're watching videos and all you can think about is Elden Ring. That's kind of where I'm at now again. So I don't want to ruin that mojo and I'm just in it. And it was going to circle back to a question for you, but I'll get to it in a second and my scatterbrain elden ring is really good for it, because I can do a bunch of stuff and then I always remember to come back.

Speaker 2:

You know what I mean. Like I've done all of volcano manor. I just haven't walked through the boss's door. Like there was a part I was hanging out with doritos and he was watching me in discord play and I was in volcano manor and, believe it or not, he's in volcano manor and he starts chuckling to himself what's so funny? He goes nothing. And then I walk into the room and it's this big, white, fat boss guy and he's got a giant belly. Yeah, I forget what he's called. God skin duo, god skin duo, yeah or god skin something.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so this guy he's called Godskin.

Speaker 2:

Duo, godskin Duo, yeah. Or Godskin something, yeah. So this guy, he's a jerk face. But I didn't know I was walking into a boss fight and I got my butt whooped by that guy. Yeah, I got him to the second phase where he starts rolling. But note to self if you're just playing Elden Ring, hide behind the pillars. He can't roll through the pillars at you.

Speaker 1:

Can't roll through the pillars at you, can't roll through solid objects.

Speaker 2:

But I'm going to circle it back to you. Why is my brain so scattered in the game versus yours not?

Speaker 1:

Oh my goodness, marcus, I think, I think. I think that we would see that pattern in a lot of different activities. I really do. I think we would see it in the way we go about mowing a lawn. I think we would see it in the way we go about shopping in a grocery store. I think that we see it in the way that we play Elden Ring.

Speaker 1:

I think that for me, efficiency and being methodical are two very high priorities, and I don't like all the reasons why I think that's true for me, but I know that what I just said is true For you. I think that you dabble in spontaneity, and having fun and generally like seeing the positive is much more important to you than I want to feel like I'm in the positive. It's not like I want to not have that, but for you, you preserve that just the way you think about things and talk about things, and I'm always at risk of losing that, and so the way I go about things sucks the fun out of it so that I can be efficient. Or you want to maximize the amount of experience that you can gain you. You want to earn all the runes that you can.

Speaker 2:

These are highly prioritized things for me and you know it's really, you know it's really funny, huh is, I don't even care about runes, because I know that if I need runes I'll just go to the spot where you shoot the bird off the cliff and I can get as many runes as I need.

Speaker 1:

That works until you start needing 300,000 runes or more. Oh yeah, there's a point where you're leveling up and you're in the 600s to 713 level where you start needing millions of runes to rank up one more skill point. So you need to hunt bigger birds. Basically, you have to find places that yield a higher number of runes for you to ever get that next level up.

Speaker 2:

Oh, my God, I forgot to tell you the one more scatterbrain place I went yeah, so there's a. So the weapon I use is the moon veil. In my left hand I use the Uji Katana with frostbite on it. It's a cold thing, yeah, anyway. So I'm dual wielding, but I wanted to max out my moon veil and it uses somber smithing stones. So I went to where I don't know what his name is he's the lord of blood. I don't know what his name is, moog and I went through his whole dungeon to find that treasure chest that had that max level dragon skin. Uh, thingy thing, a somber thing, so yeah somber smithing stone.

Speaker 2:

So I got it. I was like, sweet hit. The grace came back and I was like, oh, you know what, I'll go give the boss a fight. I try. I walked into his fight, okay. First of all, I'm clearly not ready for that fight, or maybe I'm not leveled enough. I'm at like 140, I don't know. Whatever I am, it doesn, it doesn't matter. Skill, this is a skill issue. So I get him halfway or almost, and then he does this move where like he lights up the room red and I just die Circle around you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, the circle. Oh my gosh. The circle Marcus.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I literally, doc. I took the greatest controller ever, which is an xbox controller. I held it in my hand and I looked at it and I was like not today. And I put it down and I walked away. I have no idea what that guy did to me, but he did it you escaped from a bad gaming situation, marcus.

Speaker 1:

I talk about this in my presentations all the time where you were in it and you're just like no, not today, Like in Game of Thrones. What do we say to the Lord of Death? Not today, right? Oh man, that's so great. You just brought all of my worlds crashing together.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, doc, I learned with this game I have to walk away, because if I don't, I'll not play it yeah, you gotta preserve your sanity well, and I learned too that madness release you um, I can't die yes, go.

Speaker 2:

Well, you know, in lindell, the uh, what are the big trees called the ur tree? Yeah, okay, there was a putrid one somewhere where it dropped scarlet rot. It took me forever to beat that thing, I don't know why just did. Yeah, I find that the bigger bosses are easier for me to beat than the other bosses.

Speaker 1:

Other bosses. Ads are frequently harder than bosses in video games.

Speaker 2:

So, I was stuck in Lindell and I stopped playing it for months and then one day my buddy was over because he was neck deep in it Like first playthrough. He's like you, 100%, everything. What's the strongest build? He can have Two giant hammers strength build Like he's three shotting everything. You know what I mean, but anyway, my point is he's three shotting everything. You know what I mean, but anyway, my point is he's just turn it on and play it and I beat it first try.

Speaker 2:

I was like oh yeah, and instead of stressing myself out to the max, I can just put it down and walk away. But I have this like thing in the back of my head that keeps telling me final fantasy.

Speaker 1:

14 here feel yeah think, yes, yeah, you got to. Marcus, we should play after this podcast. Even if it's just one dungeon could be fun I don't know if I still have game time. I'll get you game time, marcus.

Speaker 2:

I'm not worried about that, I'm just saying Either way, it's just it defeats me. Yeah, and that brings me to the follow-up to all of this. I don't know how people can juggle more than one game at a time, or maybe two, because like, oh, I played a video game and leave. You know what I mean. Yes, you know what I'm saying, but I I know people that are playing like three giant story games all at the same time and it yeah, I don't know how they do it either.

Speaker 1:

I really struggle with that because by the time I come back to game a after going into game B, I don't remember how to play or the story, or I might remember the major characters but not so much the minor ones, and that's really hard when the story is one of the key points that matters.

Speaker 2:

That's almost like side quests in an MMO, right? Yeah, you know what I mean. If you're playing the main story and you're following the story and it's so good, and then you get veered off into 10 side quests. By the time you come back to the main story, you don't even know what's going on.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I saw a meme that was the Avengers end game, but it was using ideas from Final Fantasy 14. Okay, it had Scarlet Witch. When she's about to show down with Thanos, okay, and she's like she's going to kick Thanos' ass, right, because Thanos makes it through that moment, because other things interfere, and she's you took everything from me. But this is past Thanos, right, he hasn't done that yet. So he just looks at her and says I don't even know who you are. And that is me talking to any character in Final Fantasy 14, because I skipped too many cut scenes and I had no idea what was going on at a certain point. I mean, I, I knew the major players, but it did get to a point where I skipped too much. But it did get to a point where I skipped too much. There are so many 45 minute cut scenes in that game and it's hard at the time when I was streaming that for me to enjoy streaming it, because I wanted to play the game, not host PS4 graphics movie night I haven't gotten to those yet.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's tough, but I'm in a different mindset now.

Speaker 2:

But is it like text cutscenes or is it like real CGI cutscenes?

Speaker 1:

It's like gameplay cutscenes with voiceover and then some of them are gameplay cut scenes with text and for me, my personal opinion and the super diehard, lore driven Final Fantasy 14 players, if they listen to our show, we'll roll their eyes and lose faith in me when I say this, but I personally feel like, if the scene was not voiced by voice actors, square Enix is implicitly telling me what happens in this scene is less important. 100%, I agree with you 100%.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but when that scene that is not voiced is still 30 minutes of exposition and stuff to watch it, and I skipped it. What I'm risking is I now no longer have continuity with the story. So what I actually did during my most recent playthrough, marcus, is I have my good friend Ben solo, the Kylo Ren, and what I do now the Kylo Ren and what I do now.

Speaker 2:

The Kylo Ren.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yeah, if I tilt it this way, you can see I journal what is happening in the story in Final Fantasy XIV. Now I write down what I want to remember about the thing. It gives my brain something to do and it stops me from loathing. How long the scene is going on. It's OK, so this might be 18 minutes longer than I wanted it to be, but who's talking? What do they want me to do? How does this help me become a better warrior of light? It helps me remember which bosses are in which dungeons, which was a huge problem for me, because it's like I'm fighting these amazing looking monsters but I have no idea why is this glowing angel Griffin with snake arms in this temple? They told me they really did tell me why this temple is dangerous and I wasn't paying attention. And so now I'm just fighting a generic monster that actually isn't generic.

Speaker 1:

There's a mythos around these characters and why they are what they are, and I want to know what that is. Okay, yeah, like, why does Darth Vader have a red lightsaber? Because he's a Sith. That's the mark of being a bad guy, but if you skip all the scenes that tell you what a Sith is, it's just oh, he has a cooler looking weapon than a lot of the good guys. And then the more you skip, the dumber your understanding is of what's going on, and I don't want to see the game that way anymore. I really want to feel the whole game inside me the way I know, just by looking at an image. That's Endor, that's Hoth. This is Kashyyyk.

Speaker 2:

Wow, that's a commitment, man.

Speaker 1:

That's what I want Final Fantasy XIV and Eorzea to be for me. I realize that the reason SWTOR is so good for me is that Star Wars is in my DNA. I just understand it, no matter what I just saw. Maybe some of the other movies, like the Planets and Rogue One, are very forgettable compared to the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy Planets, but that's because I've only seen Rogue One like three or four times. It's not really Rogue One's fault, but Rogueli, the best Star Wars movie ever made.

Speaker 1:

I still have only seen it about four times, marcus, as opposed to the movies that were there in my childhood. Oh yeah, of course. I'm a college kid with a PS2 that plays DVDs and there's no streaming services yet. That plays DVDs and there's no streaming services yet. So I watched Star Wars while I was doing all my papers as a college student. Like every day I would watch a Star Wars movie, like I was absorbing the visual language of Star Wars in a way that I want to absorb the visual language of Final Fantasy and just instantly know what region I'm in. And since I'm playing A Realm Reborn for about the third time, I really am starting to have that for the early part of the game.

Speaker 2:

I know nothing of what's going on.

Speaker 1:

That's okay. You're the warrior of light.

Speaker 2:

You got to save the universe the thing about SWTOR and say what you want. It is the best MMO ever made. Because what, yeah, sorry.

Speaker 1:

I should not have interrupted you, my bad.

Speaker 2:

No, you're fine. It's the best MMO ever made. Because of how good the class stories are, forget about anything else. I've played a lot of MMOs. Nothing compares to that.

Speaker 1:

So level 1 to 50.

Speaker 2:

Yes, those stories are incredible. If you play MMOs and you haven't played, played it.

Speaker 1:

you're crazy to not play it can we tack on shadow of reven?

Speaker 2:

yeah, you could attack attack. Can we tack? On kofi and cot cot, cotet and cotfi yeah, that that story was incredible that I came. You might not like it it was a single player adventure, but as a right, but like the stories were incredible and the cut scenes were incredible and everything is voice acted, it's that game is hands down the best class story or story based mmo there is you know what?

Speaker 1:

know what? I want to juxtapose something that's been frustrating me all day from Final Fantasy and then talk about why Sotor is so special to me. Okay, I did a dungeon because I'm trying to get my relic weapon as a paladin.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

I want it to be a glowing, shiny, radiant sword with a glowy, shiny radiant shield. What color? I think it's gonna end up glowing white or yellow, if I had to guess.

Speaker 1:

I don't control it, it's just the relic weapon okay and in order to do that, I have to clear this level 50 dungeon using the sword and shield before they glow. It's called the Wanderer's Palace and it's from the original endgame, when it was just a Realm Reborn, level 50. Okay, so I'm the tank. That means that I need to hold the enemies, the healer needs to keep me alive, the DPS needs to kill down the enemies and as far as where we run and how fast we go through the dungeon, I feel like me being the one who queued in. As a tank. I'm the leader. But in final fantasy 14, there are some non-teamwork children that play that game Okay, 40 and 50 year old children and in their mind they got a hammer station, all this shit, right. What that means is like they just got to run through everything. Do it as fast as they can. Do their little neat things.

Speaker 2:

They want the tank.

Speaker 1:

They want the tank to just pull all the mobs on the way to every boss and just not die. And I told them I'm new at the beginning of the dungeon. I've never cleared wanderer's palace nobody cares as a tank.

Speaker 1:

Nobody cared. They left me and I died. So then I tried to catch up and pulled all the mobs, but the healer thought they're a DPS. So again I died and they like yelled at me for pulling all the mobs as the tank. I just told them after the second time that they blatantly ignored me and let me die. I can't do this right now because subtext I had a work meeting in 12 minutes so I bailed on the dungeon, left them. They probably didn't complete it.

Speaker 1:

I felt really hurt by that experience from these three strangers. Right, like, why did they treat me like? Like, why is it not okay for this to be my first time doing the dungeon? I get it. You're sick of wanderer's palace? You've been playing it for 14 years. I've never tanked it. I told you I've never tanked it right. So back to swotor.

Speaker 1:

In swotor, the mobs and the damage they do. You can't pull three mobs in very many dungeons, at least the way I remember star wars, the old republic being, you might be able to pull two. You might be able to sneak past one and not even fight it, which that's cool, because swotor had stealth. So there were a lot of different options for how to clear a dungeon, but the way I remember it being is you had to do one mob at a time because if you pull too many things your tank will get overwhelmed and the healers will not keep up and all four of you will die.

Speaker 1:

But Sotar also had master mode chapters that you could play for the highest difficulty, for something designed for you to beat alone, alone. And today I felt upset more that there is no way to do Wanderer's Palace solo at level 50. They haven't added it into the game yet. They're doing it like one or two of those old dungeons at a time. And I was just thinking, man, if this was Star Wars, the old Republic, I'd just be able to clear this alone.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but Final Fantasy 14 is a true MMO where you have to group up. They force you to group up. You can't power level in that game. You have to play the game, that game.

Speaker 1:

you have to play the game. If I got Paladin up to level 60, I actually would be able to complete Wanderer's Palace by unsinking the level. So the enemies would be 50, but I'd be able to run through at 60.

Speaker 1:

Oh but again, it's not intended for that, but I'm not level 60 yet and I don't want to be over leveled on my main class for the story. I really don't. I'm enjoying what I'm playing in the story. When it comes to the group content, I just felt really mistreated by the people who didn't have time to play with someone like me.

Speaker 2:

And. But that happens anywhere. It happens in star Wars, the Republic and it happens in all of the games. If you're, if you watch, if you're a new player in Star Wars, the Republic and you go into a flashpoint which is their dungeons and there's cut scenes with you actually watch the cut scenes, people will kick you out of the dungeon.

Speaker 1:

That doesn't mean it's not shitty. Just because a lot of people do it, it is shitty, right? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like why is there so much asshole in gaming fandom?

Speaker 2:

I think because in mmos people invest so much of their time and they do the same thing over and over and, over and over again for the xp or the reward or whatever it may be, for the carrot at the end of the dungeon, that anybody that slows them down, they don't care. Oh, I'm new to this, I don't care, we just need to beat this so I can get my thing. And I can do it five more times and if you watch the cut scenes I'm kicking you out.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it hurt me, like yeah, I. Luckily, though, I had other things in my life to do today that went really well. And let me remember who I am and I'm not actually a paladin, I'm me so that helped to cancel out the negative energy. But while I'm on Twitch and I have people saying hi to me and me for the first time and people hanging out with me that spend almost every Thursday with me, and after the last two streams of Assassin's Creed, where I felt already like a gaming failure very extreme language there, I know, but that's how I felt like I don't understand how to play Assassin's Creed yet All of my instincts are wrong and get me killed all so quick. I have to figure out something if I'm going to continue that game because I want to enjoy it. Same thing with Monster Hunter actually, like I want to enjoy it, I just haven't really figured out how to do it. All right.

Speaker 2:

Can I give you some Assassin's Creed advice? Sure, go play Odyssey, don't play the new one. Oh for real. Yeah, the new one's terrible.

Speaker 1:

You think so? Yeah, I like Japan though.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but I'm talking about the game itself. If you go and play Odyssey or Origins, if you want to go to Egypt and play Origins, you want to go to greek mythology, like that time.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, go to play odyssey, it you go play, I wish what about the third one, where you're in the revolutionary war, black flag, no that's four. Oh, I didn't ever play, I played origins I really feel like I would enjoy taking out british soldiers but okay, so go play that.

Speaker 2:

But I played odyssey because I'm greek and that's really intriguing to me. That game is incredible. The new one is not that like you'll if you play one of the older ones and you'll be like, wow, this is incredible, I can't stop playing it. That's interesting. You know what I mean. I say just give them a try and I bet you can. I bet some of them are free, if not five bucks.

Speaker 1:

I have several of them, many different ways to play them. I think I have some on steam. No, I have some of them on PlayStation plus.

Speaker 2:

Oh my God, speaking of steam, did you see steam as partnering with?

Speaker 1:

Microsoft, I did not, but, but tell me more so very soon, all steam games will be on the xbox oh yes, I did see that.

Speaker 2:

That's super exciting for people like you yes, because now I can take all my steam games and play on my xbox oh, so you can put them up on the tv.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's so cool.

Speaker 2:

I think that's such a cool feature like that. To be honest, I hope playstation does that too, because that will connect the bridge for them. Am I?

Speaker 1:

yeah, you know what I mean also cuts down on me having to double buy games.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that has to be the worst. I understand that now because I'm like okay, the next game, do I buy it on the pc or do I buy it on the playstation? Or it's hard, or we pay for game pass or do I pay but there's it on game pass. But I don't play on the xbox enough, but I get it on my, my computer yeah, and for me there's I have two different handhelds that I like a lot.

Speaker 1:

I have the playstation portal, which works if you have a strong wi-fi signal, but does not work if you do not, because the game is not actually on there. It's just a window to see what's on your ps5. And then there's a steam deck. The game is actually installed on the hard drive, but you can only play your games from Steam on that, and so if I want to play a game on my PlayStation, I do not get to play it on my Steam Deck, and so there's I have to choose every game I purchase. What is the way I'm going to play this the most number of hours?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, the way I'm gonna play this the most number of hours. Yeah, yeah and yeah it's. I'm trying to think what else. There was something else big that happened today.

Speaker 1:

Oh, do you know the company tencent yeah, don't they run like the biggest game in the world?

Speaker 2:

they just bought 25 of ubisoft rainbow six assassins creed oh shit, I just read it. It's huge. So they purchased and Ubisoft is creating a subsidiary business for all of their big far cry. And they just purchased 25% of the company Because Ubisoft is doing so bad. Wow, it's 1.24 billion, I think I I read.

Speaker 1:

I might be wrong on the numbers I mean, financially, tencent is one of the most powerful companies on the planet, I pretty sure. Yeah, dude, but what's their main game that causes all of this? All of them? Yeah, there's gotta be one game to rule them all what is 10 cents?

Speaker 2:

big honor of kings, also known as arena of valor. Internationally. A multiplayer online battle mobile game okay. Honor of kings, I'll revenue a million internationally. A multiplayer online battle mobile game Okay.

Speaker 1:

I'm not sure that's what it is.

Speaker 2:

Millions of US dollars. It's 1.86 billion dollars. Pubg mobile 1.1 billion dollars. Dungeon Fighter 800 million. Battle of the Golden Shovel 400 billion.

Speaker 1:

Wait, do they make League of legends?

Speaker 2:

I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, that's riot, riot okay, I really wish, I really wish I knew this.

Speaker 1:

All right games, so they have the mobile version.

Speaker 2:

You ready for this? In 2011, riot Games was acquired by Chinese conglomerate Tencent.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so it's League of Legends. That's it. Wow, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So if I was more active in eSports.

Speaker 1:

I would have known that instantly.

Speaker 2:

Epic. Epic Games is owned by Tencent as well. Yeah, Fortnite and stuff. Oh my God.

Speaker 1:

They are one of the most powerful companies. It's Fortnite, it's League of Legends, yeah, it's all the same company, have you ever played Fortnite Just? A little bit.

Speaker 2:

Like just a little bit.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, like the three tutorial matches and that's it All right. I've never played a match with other living human beings. Yeah, it wasn't for me but what if we played together and realized that it's secretly super fun to just do stupid stuff and get killed by john cena?

Speaker 2:

I was just gonna say if I did it I would have to get some of their like in cash shop so I could buy.

Speaker 1:

Yes like if I play fortnite, darth vader or anakin skywalker, it's over like I would play every day. When I played it, snoop dogg and eminem were available for purchase, and I like eminem oh yeah, I could be the banana guy.

Speaker 2:

That's who I I would be.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I just I didn't feel like. I didn't feel like. Playing as him in Fortnite was my dream.

Speaker 2:

Oh, do you? What editing video editing software do you use? Davinci?

Speaker 1:

Resolve. I have it Okay.

Speaker 2:

So my son, I put him on Minecraft on this computer. Okay, I opened up Streamlabs, I clicked record and I said Rhino, go, he goes, daddy, am I streaming? Sure are, pal, make sure you talk to your people. He's a mini me. So it took him about 10 minutes to get in the groove. So he's playing Minecraft, explaining to what he's doing and I'm like, oh my.

Speaker 1:

It's like imaginative play yeah.

Speaker 2:

So I'm going to take that video and I'm going to edit it down to something and I'm going to create him a YouTube channel. I'm not gonna tell him and I'm just once a week I'm gonna put him in front of the computer, click record and just watch him go so is it like with webcam, or just his voice webcam?

Speaker 2:

wow, okay, he's just like me, man, like he it took about 10 minutes for him to feel like comfortable, cause he was talking, I'm like talking to the microphone and I was just sitting next to him and I was just hanging out watching and he went to town. So you fast forward, it was probably like a 30 minute recording and about 10 minutes in he wouldn't stop talking. That's cool. And I'm like Holy cow, yeah, and I'm like, but do I do it? And I'm like man, I know, man, I know how it goes. All it takes that one person to find the kid and it all changes.

Speaker 1:

You're going to create a gaming sensation.

Speaker 2:

No, but how? Even if I make a YouTube channel and I make it private and like, just so like his family members can follow it, he'll think he's the coolest kid in the world yeah, yeah, why not?

Speaker 1:

it's like having home videos it's really true.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, like minecraft is so popular because it really does replace all the little toys that you and I probably remember from our childhood where we built stuff, and you know those resources are limited. You only have whatever blocks or thing, legos or whatever your parents can afford to buy you. It's very expensive as a hobby. In video games there's no limit, it's just your imagination. But the style of play is the same and it's such a shame that the adults and powers that be in the world today are so hung up on. Is this technology OK, instead of realizing play is play and it's a healthy part of natural, developmentally appropriate human growth. It is a natural part of restoring your emotional energy at the end of a tough day, and play can be for adults as well as children, all ages really. And just because it's on a screen, there's this automatic bias against it, because the people creating that bias had few things on screens during that same part of their their own life I play so much minecraft now.

Speaker 2:

It's crazy, oh really. I played all the time with him and it started off. We were always in a creative world and, like you would just create. And one day I was like you know what? I'm gonna create the world. I'm gonna put it in survival, but I'm gonna take out, I'm gonna make it peaceful, right or easy.

Speaker 2:

So like there's only like a couple mobs and they're not very aggressive. You know what I mean? We have to learn, because I didn't even know how to make a shovel. But now, like I'm the digger and he'll make me a shovel and then it'll break and then I'll he'll have to make me a pickaxe, and like we work together as a team and it's gotten to the point where we're doing it. And then I would switch it to normal where, like all of a sudden, there's enemies, but now he's got a sword and he's killing a zombie or whatever. They're creeper. And it's so cool to see the evolution of my kid playing Minecraft and he's so good at it. But yet, if it's sunny out, craft and he's so good at it, but yet if it's sunny out, we are outside playing hockey street hockey, rollerblading baseball like the, check him into the car?

Speaker 2:

yeah, exactly like my kid is super active.

Speaker 1:

But I'm kidding marcus, don't do that.

Speaker 2:

I don't want anyone to think I'm encouraging you all, right, so we have the cody rhodes belt and not the real one and the gunther belt and currently I'm the world heavyweight champion in the house and he's the undisputed champion in the house and we wrestle every single day. When I tell you, dude, when we're done, you should see the slap marks on my back. He literally beats the living shit out of me and, like, we have this, it's called the nugget. It's like a couch that you can make a fort out of.

Speaker 1:

Dude, I straight up powerbomb him on that thing and he loves it he's still small enough to like just go through the air and really enjoy that. Yeah, yeah, dude, he loves it.

Speaker 2:

It was the best. Yes, I mess him up, but dude, he, that kid, is strong as shit.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, he's gonna mess me up one day oh, that'll be great, although if he's smacking you, you might have messed up giving you the gunther belt.

Speaker 2:

Give him a chop, oh yeah oh no, I'll give him a chop, but I'll, like, I'll get it like. You know what I mean. But like, he punched me right in the face one day. I gave him a chop, boom in his arms, but like, but it was like, it still wasn't hard. You, you know what I mean. He goes, you chop like Gunther, but Jey Uso beating Gunther.

Speaker 1:

I really hope. I hope your kid is right. I'm going to be so upset if that is not how WrestleMania goes down.

Speaker 2:

Oh, it's not going down like that. Gunther is going to come out and he is going to beat the living shit out of Jey Uso in about 30 seconds and he's going to pin him. And Jey Uso in about 30 seconds and he's going to pin him. And Jey Uso is going to be a bloody mess sitting on the ground and he's going to stand up and go. I'm the real champion. I do not think they're putting that belt on him, on Jey Yep.

Speaker 1:

I don't like watching Gunther wrestle but he's such a good wrestler. Ah, he's good, like the way Bret Hart was good. Ah, it bothers me so much. It's not fun to watch, like I don't mind winning by submission Marcus, but there's nothing special about his headlock and it's such a cop out ending, ending every single time understandable.

Speaker 1:

I can see yeah the sharpshooter, I love it. The figure four whoa, I love it. Like the walls of jericho are so good, there's a way to have a. The ankle lock oh my gosh, I could watch people sell the ankle lock all day. The headlock, you know what. Even when John Cena is not even applying any pressure with the STFU, I still love watching that move happen, more than Gunther just locking this in and then they're choked out and unconscious in four seconds and the refs wave your hand and then it's over. The whole match was nothing if you were going to end it like that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

But I clearly am not passionate about this at all. I love it, yeah. So basically, what I'm asking everyone to do is have compassion for the noobs who want to learn Wanderer's Palace. Don't leave them to die and, if you do, don't snap a lame-ass headlock on them. You have to enjoy playing games with other people, or else you do not deserve to continue the journey. Thank you.

People on this episode

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Daniel Kaufmann

Host
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MarcusB814

Co-host