Parrying Life's Challenges: From Expedition 33 to Writing Books

Dr. Gamology and Marcus explore how gaming challenges parallel real-life growth, examining what our digital personas reveal about psychological development and personal identity.

• Comparing the difficulty of Expedition 33's perfect parry system to the challenge of writing and editing a book
• The psychology behind the "I've got this" moment in tough boss fights and how it relates to personal accomplishment
• Differences between story-driven games versus repetitive PvP experiences from a mental health perspective
• Research showing character customization as the top motivation across all gamer types
• The concept of "optimal distinctiveness" explaining why players invest heavily in cosmetic appearances
• How adult gamers balance gaming passion with work responsibilities and necessary sleep
• Why certain games are more likely to create problematic play patterns than others
• The time investment required to master difficult games and what this teaches us about persistence

Join us every week as we continue exploring the intersection of gaming and personal growth. Remember to follow Gaming Persona on your favorite podcast platform!

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Gaming Persona
• 10:42 Expedition 33 vs Writing a Book
• 16:07 Perfect Parries and Personal Growth
• 27:37 Story Games vs Repetitive Games
• 34:25 Microtransactions and Character Identity
• 45:25 Gaming Time Management and Life Balance

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

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: 0:24

Do you think?

Speaker 1: 0:27

Let me rephrase that I do all the time all day I get compensated for it. Hear feel, think, marcus.

Speaker 2: 0:36

I love that.

Speaker 1: 0:37

That's what Heidlin told me to do.

Speaker 2: 0:40

Oh my God, dude. So All right, sidebar instantly as we start. I need to upgrade because, like the wired headset is just like it's so 1999.

Speaker 1: 0:55

Right, but I get that wire when I haven't charged my headphones, though.

Speaker 2: 1:01

Right, but that's different.

Speaker 1: 1:02

Your headphones probably last 40 hours not not anymore, but maybe at the beginning oh, okay.

Speaker 2: 1:11

Well, either way, I just don't know how to do it. So the go xlr has an aux cable in for the headphones. I don't know how else, but it doesn't have a usb in there. So, like, do I need a different audio interface to like fucking have my microphone I mean my headset plugged in? I don't know if I can handle that.

Speaker 1: 1:37

First world problems, Marcus?

Speaker 2: 1:39

Oh, no, it definitely has first world problems, but that was not the question. I'm going to come back to the original question. No, it definitely has first world problems, but that was not the question. I'm going to come back to the original question. Do you think Expedition 33 is harder than writing a book? I've been waiting all week to ask you this question Not even close, because I saw the video of you doing like nine parries in a row and in a trophy popped up and you didn't even make credit of the trophy. I would have been excited about the trophy.

Speaker 1: 2:16

I did. The clip was 30 seconds. If you gave me an extra five seconds, I did actually go straight at the trophy too, Okay.

Speaker 2: 2:28

Yeah, extra five seconds. I did actually go straight at the trophy too. Okay, yeah, you know, it always boggles my mind that you wrote uh hundreds of pages of a book, but yet you can't clear the rock monster in uh claire edition.

Speaker 1: 2:40

33 well, you know that's the logic that I use to give mad props to Savage and Nightmare Raiders from the different MMOs I've played. So, of course, savage rating is Final Fantasy 14, nightmare rating is Star Wars, the Old Republic. And the way I look at it is like this I have never failed an academic course, marcus, ever, right like I've never even gotten a d or an f. Have you got a c? I did in a religion course during my master's program interesting yeah, they said I.

Speaker 1: 3:23

I didn't interpret. I don't want to talk about it. That does not belong. On the gaming persona. I got a C in a religion course. Wait, wait.

Speaker 2: 3:32

What? The fact that you got a C? It doesn't matter, the course, like forget about the course.

Speaker 1: 3:37

You got a C, C's get degrees.

Speaker 2: 3:40

Marcus, I was just going to tell you that.

Speaker 1: 3:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I think that it's really important that I got to see in a class that didn't matter to me, because it challenged me to still love myself and think I'm great, even though one grade was less than I think I deserved, but I did make the mistake I was accused of making. I just differ in the opinion of how much of an impact that should have had yeah, I understand that.

Speaker 1: 4:10

I completely get like if you had a microphone outside my door. When I'm playing expedition 33, especially the first half hour of my streams, and I'm missing my parries and dodges so bad I'm just taking hits to the face. I start yelling like I disagree game. I did dodge that, I did parry that. You're so full of it. You know the beginning of the day is always just trying to recalibrate your hand-eye coordination to react in time.

Speaker 2: 4:43

And that I'm so glad you said, because it's so true, I'm gonna go to, like you're talking about expedition 33, I'm gonna go back to elden ring because I feel like that's all I talk about. But so I got to the haylick tree you know that and like I kind of walked down the trees and now I'm like in this little area there's a lion and he killed me and anyway, moving on, my point is is when I take days off now I haven't played elden ring in probably like four days it's gonna take me one or two deaths to really Kind of like get that reaction time back. So I do understand what you're saying. Is that perfect Perry video that you posted? Yes, you did it, but how many hours or an hour or how many fights did you have to do to be able to like get that? You know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 5:44

How many fights did you have to do to be able to, like, get that? You know what I mean. Yeah, we got to ask some of the people in my chat or something. It was probably an hour, maybe 45 minutes to get to where I could tell the difference between all the sword combos that enemy had just from the movement of their right arm, and then get the rhythm in my head right, which I used to be a percussionist 20 years ago, right like you. Would think I'd pick up on that a lot quicker, but it's hard. It's just such an unforgiving game I read.

Speaker 2: 6:20

You just need the rhythm of the night.

Speaker 1: 6:23

I don't know what that means, marcus. I read that the game company Sandfall Interactive claims that you can win this game on the lowest difficulty without dodging or parrying anything. I don't believe that. I don't believe that at all, and I was talking about that on my stream today. Successful parries and dodges is how you build your ability points up. Every attack you do, except for a basic melee attack, costs ability points, and if you do not have ability points, you're stuck doing really lame attacks that don't move the needle at all towards victory, and I just can't wrap my head around how you can survive the enemies in this game when you're just taking all their hits straight to the middle of your face.

Speaker 2: 7:19

I would imagine if you're playing this on the easiest difficulty. Imagine if you're playing this on the easiest difficulty the enemies aren't doing soul crushing moves.

Speaker 1: 7:33

I am playing it on the easiest difficulty now. Yeah, I had to move it down, stuck for huge amounts of stream time on like one fight at a time and not making progress and not getting to experience the story. So I just decided to move it down and it does not feel like I'm playing a story campaign at all, compared to other games I wonder if there's a bug that's not actually turning it down, that's possible because like I bet if you started a new character on story mode, I bet I bet it is.

Speaker 2: 8:18

So let me give you my example of this. So trials of mana I played that game. I loved it. I had it on like normal and then I was doing it and I got to this fight and, like the mechanics, I felt like I was fighting kefis, an explosive conflict, the. The mechanics were insane and I'm playing on a tiny little switch screen and I'm like all right, I died like seven times. I'm like like this ain't fun. So I put it on easy, which is basically what you're telling me. You put yours on and it was drastically easier. The reason why is because when you die, you don't have to redo the fight. You can do continue 10, 9, 8, 7, 8, 7, 6, like the old arcade games, and you just start back up and the boss's health is already chewed up. So that's basically you can't lose. That was the difference persona has.

Speaker 1: 9:18

that is where you just revive the entire party full health. The fight just continues where it was, so you don't end up having to replay moments that you've already played. That's on story, right, yeah?

Speaker 2: 9:33

Yeah, but I guess my question is do you need to get good?

Speaker 1: 9:42

I'm doing my very best. I'm enjoying the game, though, and it because it doesn't feel like I'm playing an easy game. I don't, I'm not worrying about it, I'm having so much fun, it doesn't matter. I think someday I will probably beat it on the highest difficulty because I will want to, but man, the streams are just so much fun these days, marcus I know I catch them later.

Speaker 2: 10:10

Yeah, like when I'm sitting in my work truck eating my lunch and I'll pop on one of your old streams like the day of or the day before or whatever, and I'll just fast forward until like a part oh, let's go an hour in and then, oh, you're going crazy.

Speaker 2: 10:28

You know what I mean. You're showing emotion and that's something that I enjoy watching is the emotion in you because over the course of the last year and a half, yep, you've come out of your shell, like you were always like head popped out halfway out of your shell. You once in a while get the real you. And now I feel like on the stream, the real you is actually coming out and it's actually nice to see, and I think people see it too. And it's actually nice to see, and I think people see it too, because you can always tell when a streamer or a creator is not being real right In my opinion. And when you see that pure emotion come out of somebody, for me you're hooked. When you see you do that perfect parry live on stream and you're like, yeah, that makes somebody want to continue watching yeah I mean that moment.

Speaker 1: 11:34

We worked hard for it and then it happened, and also I've talked about the money I.

Speaker 1: 11:41

I've talked about this experience before with boss fights. There's always a moment in a tough boss fight where you know you've got it If you don't screw it up Right. And so that perfect Perry moment, that fight was taking a significant portion of my stream time. And when I say that you know Thursday mornings, my stream is two to. When I say that you know Thursday mornings, my stream is two to maybe two and a half hours long. That's all I have. So if I'm stuck on something for 25 minutes, marcus, that's a huge percentage of the entire morning activity. And that fight was one of those morning activities and I just their health bar was finally going. I was just like, oh my gosh, I'm eight parries away from ending this fight, and that had happened a few other times in the morning and I screwed it up on the fifth parry or the seventh, which is really demoralizing. Yeah, it happens.

Speaker 2: 12:48

I had the same situation with Radagon in the elden beast. You know same thing. I was there with the elden beast like he was like snip it, like I'm gonna call it 10 or 20 percent health, and I was like I got this is on him and he's done yes, like, like I know, I got it and then he swung his tail. Kamehameha yes, exactly, and I just did the oh, sad travel this is sad.

Speaker 1: 13:19

Wah, wah, wah, this is sad.

Speaker 2: 13:21

Wah, wah, wah, but you know it's. But those are the moments where I can understand, where people don't like hard games. Right, I'll use let's go Call of Duty, and this is I'm going to really make you think today. So you have a game like Call of Duty Warzone, where it's a battle royale. You're on an airplane, you jump off and you land. Now you got your gun, you're going to start kidding yourself up and the circle is closing and there's less and less people and, yes, it's hard, but you die and it's over. Now let's reload and go into another one, right?

Speaker 2: 14:04

there's no sense of worry, because when you die, you're starting over anyways, and if you win, you're starting over anyway right where, if you perfect parry this boss, you beat this boss and let's say, you get the chugga level six gear that you really need, or whatever, whatever your experience, you get because I haven't played the game, or myself I beat this boss. That means I get the sight of grace, that's the net there and I get to progress in the story. Or if you're on the final boss, you beat the boss. But those emotions aren't the same to me. You know, when you're playing that story-driven game, how do you feel about that?

Speaker 1: 14:49

the difference between story-driven games and just repetitive experience games. Often those are PvP games too. It's very different psychologically and, as a mental health counselor, one of the main ways that I see this is if you have a game that you can never beat because it's endless, it's just a cycle and you repeat the cycle endlessly. Those are the games that can take a lot of money from you, take a lot of time from you, that can create awkward or devastating social situations for you, and those are the games that can more easily send you into a psychologist's office and saying I have a problem with video games. It's not because the video games are evil at all and it's really important to understand why these games are different and how they affect us differently. But if you are doing that Call of Duty thing, do they have a season pass model like where you can get items or cosmetics for playing loads and loads of matches? Is that how they do it, marcus?

Speaker 2: 16:02

yeah, okay, well, you get. So, yeah, you'll earn cosmetics, but when you're in the game, you have to find the chests that have the better gun, right like fortnite. Yes, it's just like it. It's just like fortnite okay.

Speaker 1: 16:17

so those games. You right, there's no stakes for losing. As long as you're okay with getting blasted and being done, maybe doing spectator mode to see how the match ends, or whatever, there's no consequence. You just load up and do it again. Of that you can play this very repetitive cycle of game 16, 20 hours a day if you want to. You could argue that I could play Expedition 33 for 20 hours in one day as well, but that would not be a very repetitive experience at all and for me I don't binge games that way. So I end up feeling like I'm done at a certain point, turning it off and walking away.

Speaker 1: 17:08

When you have the repetitive replay multiplayer arena games, you may have social pressures that convince you to keep playing. You might have one friend group you start playing with. They all log out. The second friend group shows up. It's like, oh, I can join them too. Before you know it, you take a two-hour gaming session. Now it's five hours. That can have consequences. So you know, it's just a different style of play and both types of games can lead to consequences in terms of your time management and life structure if you're not careful. But I don't see as many people coming in for therapy because they play the Witcher or the Last of Us, as I have seen people coming into my office for help because they play Valorant and night and um.

Speaker 2: 17:59

you know other games like that yeah, and I can see that right, and for me I I call those games like sometimes you just want to play a game and do something quick and you can just easy fun. Yes, you go in. I play a couple matches. 25 minutes minutes later I'm done. I feel satisfied. Nick and I always called it the quick fix game right, oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 18:25

And where Elden Ring, I have like a three to three and a half hour max on that game Because you're tense, yeah you know, and even though you're having fun, I think in the beginning it was more stressful. I think now that I'm in the end, end end game, because I'm trying to find this lady millennia. But it's turning out to be a longer mission than anticipated.

Speaker 1: 18:56

Deep in the Howie tree.

Speaker 2: 18:59

Right mission than anticipated. Deep in the howie tree, right? So? And I just got off the tree branches and now I'm in this like little area, and then I think maybe I'm at her, I don't know, I don't know what's next. I'm not spoiling this, I just hope that it's not a long trek anyway, moving on, but I'm I'm less stressed out now about runes, because what do I care? I'm already a high enough level, right, I could care less about the runes. I'm already level 165, right. Do I want them? Sure, but if I die and I lose them, I'm not crying about it, because there's rune farms where I can always just get them back.

Speaker 1: 19:39

Oh, that's so healthy, Marcus.

Speaker 2: 19:41

Well, that's how I've gotten through this game. I've shut down the care. I think you watched me play it and I just said, nope, today's not the day Put it down. I'm not being stressed out because I don't want to shut it off for a month or six months because I'm stressed out about it.

Speaker 1: 20:00

Yeah, you'll find her. There's only so many places you can go.

Speaker 2: 20:06

Well, I don't really care For me. I've already beaten the game. I'm already Elden Lord, like. However long it takes me to get to her, what do I care? I've already beat the game. Yeah gonna, I'm going to do a new character I'm like I already started one on my uh, my playstation and I'm gonna do a pure strength build and go that way.

Speaker 1: 20:34

I want a big hammer that's insane, marcus, that you'd rather start a new character than do new game plus I don't want to do New Game, so hear me out.

Speaker 2: 20:43

I don't want to do New Game Plus, because I want to go into the DLC with this character. Oh, with your second character. No, my character I have now oh, you know what I mean I don't want to do New Game Plus and I want to get good before I go in there, because they say every boss in the DLC is harder than millennia.

Speaker 1: 21:06

Debatable, but they're not easy yeah.

Speaker 2: 21:09

And I, anyway, moving on, I now I'm going to bring this back to your book. Now I'm going to bring this back to your book. How can it be easier to write a book than fight a boss in Expedition 33?

Speaker 1: 21:32

Well, I said Expedition 33 is easier than writing a book, yeah, but how well you think about the number of people that have finished that game and the drive and focus and work ethic and willingness to write something and tear it apart and rebuild it and reframe it and make it work and then make it flow better, and then deleting it because it doesn't go the direction you needed it to go. And then like there there's moments, marcus, where I hated the gamer's journey and I was like I'm going to keep working on this every day but I wish I never started this. You know, kind of melodramatic Frodo, wish I never left the Shire, kind of nonsense. Those moments happened. They happened.

Speaker 1: 22:19

I had an editor get a chance to read it, not my main editor, that's Dr Tony Bean from Geek Therapeutics, but we had some outsourced editors that are more on the literary side, definitely not on the video game side, and the feedback I got on my book was brutal and I went through every single line of feedback and I changed everything that I could without losing the spirit of the chapters, because she was commenting on the writing, not the content. Right, and I was just like Tony. I cannot remove Final Fantasy X from the chapter about atonement with the father, because Tidus and Jekt in Final Fantasy X are a fantastic example in video games of a son who is upset about things in life because of the lack of a father figure and all of the chaos that that caused in his life. I can't remove that game and delete 1,200 words from this chapter and still have it be the chapter that's about atonement with the Father. There are going to be people that read this book and wonder why I didn't bring up Titus Inject. Okay, and I won that argument. Tony completely had my back there. We did not use the editor's feedback on that chapter and several other chapters with similar issues that I had.

Speaker 1: 24:06

I was just saying we have to stand up for the history of video games and not just the history of psychology and mythology and having those kinds of arguments. When you care so much, marcus, that's what's hard. Yep Right. The parallel to gaming is knowing that you're going to lose a boss fight 50 times tonight because your team's not there yet. But you need to do those 50 reps because in a month you might have what it takes to take out that raid boss, whether it's Darth Revan in the Temple of Sacrifice, whether it's Kephis in Explosive Conflict or for me, whether it's Leviathan or some boss in Pandemonium, the, you know.

Speaker 1: 24:59

The situation is you don't just win first, but you have to be willing to lose a lot in order to get where you want to be. And you can't lose from a stance of fear. You have to do it with an understanding of. It is important for me to feel this. It is important for me to feel this. Expedition 33 is just a video game. Right Like I can lose that boss fight. Come back tomorrow and my ego doesn't have to be scarred.

Speaker 2: 25:33

Sure. Just like how you described Elden.

Speaker 1: 25:37

Ring a few minutes ago. It doesn't have to be an ego damage.

Speaker 2: 25:39

No, and that's the difference, you know, and that's why I'm completely content with playing it at the speed I'm playing it yeah and enjoying it. You know it's uh absolutely. Oh man, that's awesome. Have you heard about this game called the first berserker Kazan?

Speaker 1: 26:00

Yeah, I have.

Speaker 2: 26:03

It looks almost like a Castlevania art style souls-like game the anime.

Speaker 1: 26:11

Yeah, I haven't watched it get played yet, but I have listened to some podcasts where they're talking about it and it definitely appeals to the same kind of streamers that I usually watch. So I think I would like it actually just based on who's playing it. But I don't have room for another game right now.

Speaker 2: 26:32

No, you don't. How many hours are you in 33?

Speaker 1: 26:36

I don't know, I really don't. I don't have a way to measure that off the top of my head, but I've been streaming five days a week for two weeks straight.

Speaker 2: 26:54

So that's 20 hours-ish.

Speaker 1: 26:57

Well, yeah, but I did 35 hours last week or this week so far. So, wow, no, that's all right. That's the whole month. That's the month total, isn't it 35.? Yeah, like on the dashboard where it shows you the 30 day to 28 day total yeah. Yeah, so I'm, I'm probably in like the 20 hour range.

Speaker 2: 27:19

Huh. I want out of three oh, oh man, I just blew up the screen a little bit and you're just a little bit bigger and I just wanna bam oh wait, give me a hug.

Speaker 1: 27:36

Yeah, oh, because you're bigger.

Speaker 2: 27:39

Um, yeah, you know, adjusting my game time schedule to my new job has been difficult. So how is your new job going? It's going great. I I have to wake up at 5 am every day, and I know you wake up at 5 am every day, but I do not. Okay, I'm a like 6 am kind of wake up guy guy, because I literally need I've narrowed it down to a science I need 20 minutes to get up, brush my teeth, grab my coffee, pack my lunch and walk out the door. It's like I can squeeze it in 15 minutes, but it's really 20. Right, like so if I have to leave my house by 6, 30 getting up at 6 is money. Like I get to sit at the table for a second and scarf down a cup of coffee before I leave.

Speaker 2: 28:36

You know what I mean yeah and waking up at 5 am has completely changed the game for me now you're understanding why I'm a morning streamer on twitch, don't you?

Speaker 2: 28:51

I hate it ah well, I, I, it's just, it's just me, you know it's. I can't tell you how many times I've started work at 5 am in my life over time, all that stuff. And that's not bad, because then, like a date the next day, I get to sleep in until six. It's just my natural body. My natural clock in my body says sleep till six. You know, really my natural body clock says sleep till eight in the morning.

Speaker 2: 29:20

But anyway, I was playing WWE 2K25, and it was like 9.30, and I really wanted to do one more match to unlock those points, to be able to unlock a character, because I would have. I think I needed like 60 more points and I was like, okay, it's 10 o'clock at night. I got to jump in the shower because I haven't showered from work yet and then I I I gotta go to bed because I gotta get up at 5 am. And you want to talk about, like the mental stress of like wanting to play a game. I feel like I'm in that medieval torture device where like one side's pulling me play more video games, the other one's like be responsible. You know what I mean and it's really hard the adjustment, but I played one more game I played one more match and then I left the um.

Speaker 2: 30:24

I left a note. My son can't really read like somebody read it to him in the morning, but I told him turn on the PlayStation, unlock a guy. He was so excited in the morning.

Speaker 1: 30:35

Oh, that's really nice, Marcus.

Speaker 2: 30:37

Yeah, but the adjustment has been hard. But I have been enjoying WWE a lot because I'm starting to understand like circle is the grab and then you hit R1 or R2 and it doesn't move. You know, I still haven't figured out how to throw them on the ropes yet, but that'll, that day will come.

Speaker 1: 30:57

Um, grapple and then circle is Irish whip.

Speaker 2: 31:01

Oh yeah, so circle, circle.

Speaker 1: 31:07

Yes.

Speaker 2: 31:08

Circles grab grab.

Speaker 1: 31:09

Yeah, circle is grab, then circle again is irish whip and you hold the left stick in the direction you want them to go, whether diagonal is to a turnbuckle, oh yeah, left.

Speaker 2: 31:18

Right up down is to the ropes, wow um, and they just unlocked, like the little DLC pack of characters, and so we bought the season pass. But I didn't get the mega boost one where you unlock all the characters. I just bought the season pass because I wasn't going to spend $60. Him and I like it. There's none of those wrestlers that I really like have to have, so it's a fun thing to unlock with him and you earn it. But they released four new characters the female Vasquez from NXT Motor City Machine Guns.

Speaker 1: 32:02

Stephanie Vakar.

Speaker 2: 32:03

Yes, stephanie, vakar, that's it.

Speaker 1: 32:05

And there's one more. Did they add Julia?

Speaker 2: 32:07

Maybe, maybe it is Julia the Motor City Machine Guns and Stephanie Vakir, but there's a secret celebrity, one that they're going to release soon. But what I was thinking about it is Is it Travis Scott? I really hope not, dude. It'll be game over for me at that point.

Speaker 1: 32:28

I think it needs to be, though, because you can't even recreate the WrestleMania nonsense without him being in the game.

Speaker 2: 32:35

That's true, travis Scott next, anyway, but what I was going to say is you want to talk about a moneymaker and I'm going to man. I've talked about so much already tonight Microtransactions. You know how much that pack of five characters costs if you don't have the season pass.

Speaker 1: 32:55

Do they do 20, 10 bucks, 10 okay, for it's like four packs, though total that are gonna come right well, no, so this is a mini pack.

Speaker 2: 33:06

This isn't even one of, like, the big ones. There's still five to come. I think there's a big one coming at the end of May and then it's for the rest of the year, whatever, but there's like four or five big ones. This is just a mini one and it comes with it, of course, but my point is is it's $10 for five characters.

Speaker 1: 33:26

And how many times that's $2 a character.

Speaker 2: 33:29

Right, but these are like. But do that times how many more of these they're going to do.

Speaker 1: 33:38

Well, you said five, so $50 more.

Speaker 2: 33:41

Well, no, those packs, I think, are going to be $20 each.

Speaker 1: 33:44

Right, okay.

Speaker 2: 33:46

You know $100.

Speaker 1: 33:47

Right it's, you know, right it's just wild to me. You know mortal combat, one which is the 12th mortal combat, just so everyone's not confused.

Speaker 2: 33:57

Wait, so I just I'm interjecting Mortal combat. One is the most recent.

Speaker 1: 34:01

Yes, okay, great Thanks. Yes, and um, it just got announced and launched today the Complete Edition for that, meaning they have canceled all plans for future DLC and the game is locked as is. You can buy the Complete Edition for $70, and it comes with all the DLC in it, which is like $160 of DLC. So it's the base game plus all the DLC in it, which is like $160 of DLC.

Speaker 2: 34:31

So it's the base game plus all the DLC. Oh yep, so definitive by one.

Speaker 1: 34:34

Definitive yes.

Speaker 2: 34:36

By Mortal Kombat 1. Definitive Edition Comes with Mortal Kombat 1, conan the Barbarian, cyrax, emrak, pharah, ghostface, homelander, janet Cage, chameleon, chaos, regions, expansion and more.

Speaker 1: 34:56

Oh, the Chaos Regions expansion is the story addition to the game, so, like there's more story you can play Right, yeah, it comes with everything. So mortal combat 1 is a complete product now and you can have the whole thing for 70 if you have not gotten looped into any of the microtransactions oh, I see it.

Speaker 2: 35:19

Okay. So it includes base game, the chaos region story expansion, combat pack 2, which has a bunch of players, or uh combatants. Combat pack one omni-man quan chi, blah, blah blah and uh cameo fighters as well.

Speaker 1: 35:38

Yeah, and then about are like you can't play them, but they're on the side and you can call them in to do interference right.

Speaker 2: 35:48

So you got tremor, chameleon, janet cage, movado farah, and then you have a bunch of uh, you got the jean-claude van dan skin for johnny cage are they're even doing skins? Yeah oh my god, 1250 dragon crystals. Don't know what that is, that's the microtransaction currency you got to spend your dollars to turn them into the crystals.

Speaker 2: 36:11

You get the Chaos Regions pre-order bonus gift, which that should have only been for whoever did that. It's a Wedding Scorpion. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Sub-Zero Empress Mileena and Ultimate MK3 New Sabot. Separate Kombat 2 character bundle not available. Oh you have. So now you can't buy that bundle separate. You have to buy this definitive edition. Yeah, how do you feel about that?

Speaker 1: 36:44

Well, I didn't enjoy the game enough to stick with it because it's so loaded up with give us more money kind of thirst traps. I don't mean thirst traps like sexy content or anything, just like the whole game is just dripping with give us more of your money, it's. It just made me feel unmotivated to play. You know, when you link all these cool costumes to playing an excessive amount to try to get it the free-to-play way or spending all this money to get it the paid transaction kind of way, those kinds of games lose me. I just. Those kinds of games lose me. I just I would rather play at the time, I, I, what was I even playing back then? It was either Final Fantasy 14 or Metaphor Re Fantasio, like there were just other things to play where I felt like, okay, I can log into this and the game's not going to beg me for another $20 every five seconds.

Speaker 2: 37:48

Right, it's Well. I don't know how much it costs, but I know in WWE I saw it today in the list of wrestlers you can be the prime bottle with whoever I show speed that's in it or whoever's in it, Right, and it says you can only get it by either unlocking it or purchasing it in the island. Yeah, I want to know how much that costs.

Speaker 1: 38:19

The island is another one of those things. As soon as I went to it I was like I'm done, like I I. I did do three different logins to try to do things in the island and then I just realized I'm not going to spend the amount of money to make my character into a character that I'm excited to play as it's like 30 for a pair of nikes yeah, that's the thing.

Speaker 1: 38:46

In the island the costs are kind of going in the direction of what the actual thing would cost in real life. Like I know, you're not gonna get a pair of nikes for three dollars. But these are not real nikes, they are shoes for your video game character that have the Nike logo on them.

Speaker 2: 39:07

That is going to disappear when WWE 2K26 comes out.

Speaker 1: 39:12

That's right.

Speaker 2: 39:13

These are not real world Unless they're going to transfer unless they transfer your island character.

Speaker 1: 39:20

WWE 2K26 is not going to be the first game to break that ground and do the right thing and do that Like. No, I mean, overwatch 2 took over over top of Overwatch 1. They're the same game, right? Overwatch 1 doesn't exist anymore and all your skins and stuff transferred with your player account, and that is the more ethical way of doing a sequel. Why sports games get away with doing completely brand new entries every year. I can't figure out why you could make a WWE MMO, essentially, and just do a roster update and if people disappear because they're not under contract anymore, well, guess what New people get brought in because they are under contract now. Right, like, just have WWE, the universe as the PS5 game, the universe as the ps5 game, and every year after wrestlemania, just do a massive roster update, update the belts, add the new matches, like it would not be hard right?

Speaker 2: 40:38

no, I, I don't disagree with you, right? Yeah, I don't disagree with that at all. I just the microtransactions are killing games, but it's still people buy them.

Speaker 1: 40:56

That's right. You know that's the number one thing. I was listening to a podcast when 2K25 for WWE first came out. They were begging their audience and this is a podcast that I think they revealed their numbers once. Like it's close to 100,000 people every episode. They're just begging them. Do not spend money in the island, because if you do that, there will not be a my Rise next game. Right, if you do that, you're going to tell them this is the only mode that matters and we'll get an even bigger island next time with so many more things to buy and the offline content will be trash. And I think they're right. There's something about and my research points this out too Marcus customizing your character's appearance is the number one motivation, no matter what personality or gamer type you have. It's just such a cool feeling to look fancy in front of other people.

Speaker 2: 42:12

You're not wrong, dude, you're not wrong.

Speaker 1: 42:17

Like the two MMOs that I've played, that you've played both communities say, glamour or costume designer is the real rating. Everything you do is about getting the weapon that glows, the right color, getting the outfit that makes you look the right amount of intimidating or the right amount of attractiveness right amount of attractiveness and that motivates hours and hours of gameplay and deliberate planning and action.

Speaker 2: 42:57

Yeah, it's, uh, it's. It's mind-boggling to me to see people spend money on it. If you earn it in the game because you played it, fine. But you just paid $70 for a game and now you're gonna go spend more money to unlock X.

Speaker 1: 43:17

Back when the Force Awakens came out and they added the vented lightsaber in the Old Republic, I did straight up buy that from the cartel market. I think it cost 60 dollars to do that with, to have the number of coins you needed. But I just really wanted to have a blue vented lightsaber. You know, have the vented so it looks like kylo ren, but put a blue crystal in it so it feels like it goes with my character and that was something I really wanted to do, so I bought it. So you know I'm not going to sit here and be negative like I don't understand why people do it. I think optimal distinctiveness, which is a research term, what it means is we want to be the maximum amount of unique compared to the uniqueness other characters have too.

Speaker 2: 44:15

Right.

Speaker 1: 44:17

That's the motivator for spending your dollars this way.

Speaker 2: 44:25

Okay, I'm thinking about that, but yet people still do it yeah, I mean for me too.

Speaker 1: 44:36

The look of your elden ring character in my mind is so clear to me like I see the hat, I see that you have no neck. I never see your face got like the kung lao vibe going. I just really like it. I watched you play about 10 minutes of dark souls 3 the other day and you didn't look like that. I was like, ah, I can't do it. You're not marcus um for real. Like my brain couldn't wrap my head around that. I'm watching the same friend play a very similar game, because your identity to me is wrapped up in that hat. Yes, I can't explain it. And and I'm wrapped up in my hats all the time in my fantasy games speaking of that, can I talk to you about dark souls 3 before?

Speaker 2: 45:24

we go let's do it so I decided that I was going to download it and I was going to play it. And when I did the, I didn't know what to expect. And it's an older game than elden ring, obviously, yeah, it's beautiful, whatever. But you know what's different is the role. The delay for you to roll the input on. It is wild. Like I can't beat the first boss. I mean I'll be able to right, but my point is that there's no other path right where elden ring. I can't beat this guy. Let's go over here for a little while. This game is like Nope, this is your roadblock, get good and it's not easy because it feels just that much different. Now people can say it's the closest thing to Elden Ring and I'm sure it is because it's the most recent compared, but it the delay in the roll makes your timing different and it's a whole other game to learn. Yeah, and I'm like I can't. I can't learn another game.

Speaker 1: 46:41

Elden Ring is so massive, why not just keep playing Elden Ring?

Speaker 2: 46:46

Well, I have to, because I gotta find Melina.

Speaker 1: 46:49

Melenia.

Speaker 2: 46:50

Melenia, whatever her name is, and that is going to be a shit show in itself. Continue the journey you.