The Gaming Persona

Triscuits and Destiny: Sampling Everything Games Can Be

• Daniel Kaufmann Ph.D. | Dr. Gameology • Season 5 • Episode 25

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Dr. Gamology, Doritos, and Marcus explore the psychological motivations behind gaming and how our digital personas reflect our real-world needs and desires.

• Why we play games: socialization, escapism, stress relief, and validation
• The concept of psychological flow and how it explains gaming enjoyment
• How content vaulting and free-to-play models frustrate longtime players
• Gaming as parents and finding ways to share the experience with children
• Changes in content creation styles across generations
• Building community through scheduled gaming nights
• Finding time to play as busy adults with responsibilities

Join our community night in Final Fantasy XIV! We welcome players of all levels - we'll match your level and do content that works for everyone. Sundays in the Dr. Gamology Discord.


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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:

Well, that's a shock there.

Speaker 3:

Continue the journey now. Well, that's a shock there.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know, what else is really funny is I'm on the Epic Game Store, which you said you'd never go to because you only wanted one launcher. Well, it's only because of Fortnite it automatically loads up, you still said I will only ever play anything that's on Steam. How many podcasts did you and Nick do that?

Speaker 1:

you said that 412 okay, oh I can admit it's not here and this is a different show, so, marcus thank goodness cheat on steam, all he wants well, it's not.

Speaker 3:

It's not about cheating on steam, it's. My son plays fortnite and the only place you can play fort that's not a PlayStation or an Xbox is on the Epic Game Store on a computer. So, anyway, so during the podcast I'm going to give you guys a little like backstage news, like during the show. I peruse through Steam and Epic just to see what free games are, what's what's out there, and while we're talking, because it kind of gives me something like might something might spark conversation, which this did so I always look and see oh, let's see what the free games are. So I'm scrolling through. I'm scrolling through. It says destiny 2 is free and it says the base game and what is involved in the base game and basically all it says is you can go to the lost city that's it.

Speaker 3:

It doesn't not all say it basically tells you all the dlcs you can buy, but that's it. It doesn't not all say it basically tells you all the DLCs you can buy, but that's it. It does not tell you what you're getting for free the base game.

Speaker 2:

But we still don't know what the base game is, Not the DLCs. Obviously it's the part of it.

Speaker 1:

that's free Right.

Speaker 3:

But I wish it would say hey, jump in and do the epic, which was actually terrible Lightfall expansion for free, you know what I mean. Like, but that's not the base game. That's an expansion, okay, but what's the base game? The base game actually was deleted, right.

Speaker 2:

So all you get is up through the new light, can't the initial new light stuff, and that's all you get.

Speaker 3:

So it's not free, it is free.

Speaker 2:

That part is free.

Speaker 3:

It's free to try.

Speaker 2:

No, you're not trying it, you're playing it.

Speaker 1:

You are saying that people who only play that part are not actually destiny players, and I don't like that.

Speaker 3:

Gatekeeping, marcus, no I'm not saying that at all. I just want to know what the what comes with this and and I'm searching here and it doesn't tell me. You can be a mcflurry, and a frosty.

Speaker 1:

I think that the part of destiny 2 that you get for free in the base game is like when you're walking through the aisle at target and the lady hands you a triscuit in a little plastic cup and it's like you gotta buy the box if you want to enjoy the triscuits. But this is just to let you know what it would taste like if you had a bunch of it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, pretty much yeah and yeah, and I played the snot out of this game and I loved this game and then you abandoned swotor to play destiny swotor.

Speaker 2:

Okay, but destiny is now swotor no, it's still destiny, it's just, you've moved on no, no, no swotor destiny is become no because, it's an mmo that stands for star wars.

Speaker 3:

The old republic, by the way man, it's gonna be a tough show for me this week.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, it's gonna be keep going, marcus. I love what you're doing. Keep going, so continue the journey yes, oh, it's over already no, I meant like actually continue the journey.

Speaker 3:

No, so what I'm saying is is destiny has become Star Wars, the old republic in the sense of content. So so for years and years they were releasing one expansion a year and destiny got to its culmination of the final shape, which was like the 10-year saga coming to an end like the big, big, big bad. That's been kind of like the puppet master doing all the things is here, you're gonna beat them, the game's over and I I beat the campaign for the final shape. I never did the bonus content or did the raid, because the way there's always a raid tied to the storyline and really, truly, if you have people to do the raid, that's where you get all like the real ending of the story and you find out more like lore stuff.

Speaker 3:

But when that when light fall happened, which was the expansion before the final shape, it was kind of terrible. I grinded the shit out of it and it was almost for nothing. And then bungie started going through all their bullshit and I kind of just got turned off by the game. And I've played the final shape because I pre-ordered it and I wanted to finish the saga, but when it was over I almost just closed the door to it. It was just like I don't care about the next story. I already finished the story and now I mean how?

Speaker 3:

How long ago was the final shape? Two years, two years ago, maybe, something like that? Yeah, so I should click on. I got it right here release 6, 4, 24. So a year ago, year to, or a month, year and two months ago that ended. And now they're coming out with new like grind, like grind, expansions, like just grind for gear, grind for gear, grind for gear, grind for power level, and there's no real content to it. And that's where my comment about it becoming swotors. That's kind of what swotor has done. You know, they keep the swotor keeps releasing new seasons that focus on old content and they raise the gear score, but they're not actually giving you any more story, so they're like keep playing the game disagree well, the next story isn't coming out until holiday of 2025 and then the next slated one after that is, I think they said, summer or fall of 26 okay

Speaker 1:

that's two pieces of content in under 365 days, marcus they haven't released any story content in a year well, when was the last time we played sort, or have you done all the new stuff yet?

Speaker 2:

well, I threw 7.7 I think I'm up to seven, no, you're not okay then, but my point is that destiny and swotor are on the same path they're on the same maintenance level for content coming out and updates and and that kind of stuff.

Speaker 3:

Yes, yeah, so we're, I'm saying the same thing, it's just coming out different. It was a long-winded version, yeah, and I'm. So. I'm back on the. Like I said I I peruse on these stores, look for free games and like, look at what's a deal, blah, blah, blah. And that destiny thing came up, and it was. I was thinking about it because the game is not free. Like you might be able to do your entry, like the I call it the tutorial, but after that there's so much content you have to buy. It's hundreds of dollars to buy in, to have all the content. Your friends are like, hey, we're gonna go do this dungeon. Oh, I don't have that. Well, just go get it.

Speaker 2:

Oh, it's 30 for that expansion oh yeah, that's how they're still trying to make money well, right, but what I guess for me?

Speaker 3:

but okay, I'm gonna go to swotor. When swotor comes out with their new content, they just tell you subscribe, basically pay 20 and you can have all the content. Up until today. Where they're like, hey, we're gonna bundle all of our content into one. Where destiny does not do that, it would be nice if they said hey, you're new, you can have all the content that we have available. Pay a hundred bucks and you get all of the content instead they don't.

Speaker 2:

All the non, all the non-vaulted content. There's no content I never got to play because it's vaulted and never will be released again. Right, that's a whole different story for a different time.

Speaker 1:

I have a terrible story about an EA game that I want to love.

Speaker 2:

Okay, what's the terrible story about the EA game you want to love?

Speaker 1:

Which game is it? Yeah, I played a Star Wars video game this week. Everybody, which one? Yeah, so I actually downloaded Star Wars Battlefront 2 on my PS5 two different times. Two, and yeah, both times. It would not let me log into the PlayStation Network Like no profile. And this is sad because I bought the elite trooper edition back at launch.

Speaker 1:

So I have the the two costumes that are impossible to have. One is for kylo ren, one is for rey, and they're from the last jedi, and I really like being able to choose costumes in video games. It's one of my big motivations. I like completing the costume list, so it really bothered me that I couldn't sign in, because that's the system I pre-ordered the game on. That's the one place where I have the costumes that are impossible to get. Would I use them? Probably not, but I have them and they're in the costume list and they're clickable. So then I downloaded it on my ps5 in the living room and same thing. So I was like this is not a glitch, something is wrong with my ea account. So then I was like, wait, I merged my ea account with my xbox game pass account, so let me download the game on ea play or whatever they call that app, because it's connected to.

Speaker 1:

Game Pass Right and so I downloaded it on my PC and I can play matches. I can connect online. I am Dr Gameology in there, but I did not pre-order the game on Xbox, so I do not have my costumes and also none of my classes are leveled up. None of my cards on their abilities are purple. And I did play a match and my big moment was I got to play as han solo and I shot emperor palpatine in the face and he died, and that was very fulfilling, canon breaking moment right after.

Speaker 1:

Right after that, darth maul and boba fett tag teamed me and it didn't feel good, but I killed emperor palpatine with on solo's plaster I shot first. Good, so so that was fun. I also downloaded a bunch of other games that like. I download Overwatch again Yesterday, I made sure I updated Dead by Daylight and I made sure Fortnite is on both of my PS5s, and I've been playing Persona 3 Reload as my stream game for about three streams straight. I'm really enjoying it. Now Like it's the time for me to finally do Persona 3, and I'm enjoying it.

Speaker 2:

But Yep, go ahead Just watching you play Persona 3, your facial expressions are still the same, are still the same, but they are as enthusiastic as they have been when you've played, been playing Exhibition 33. So you're enjoying it, you're having fun.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's so good, like I'm putting in the title that it's a completion run, so we're not doing high level, we're just doing whatever it takes to get as many achievements as possible on the way through the game, and that, like I don't have any shame about. Like I have a guide. I like generally know ahead of time what direction I'm going for certain things, so I can plan out when I'm in a dungeon like what level do I need to be before I leave, how much money do I need to have before I leave, and so that's like lowering the pressure, because it's actually lowering the pressure on playing the game and that's allowing me to focus more on the people. And, doritos, I know you were there when this happened, so I guess I'm just telling Marcus and our listeners, but something happened on my Twitch channel that has never happened before.

Speaker 2:

What was that? I gotta know.

Speaker 3:

Let everybody, let everybody know somebody bought a book on your thing because you're a world-renowned author I didn't bring that up and that's not the correct answer.

Speaker 2:

He wrote a book again.

Speaker 1:

Oh my freaking god, everybody no so I've had students come on before. I've had people in my treatment programs that are being supervised by me come on. I've had people from the podcast and people from conferences come on and they've been in the chat and been like, oh, this is what you do, this is interesting. But never have I ever had a person come in that said I saw you at a panel two years ago and I was one of the people that asked you a question. Ooh, I missed that part.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so I'll give a shout out to them because their username is freaking amazing Pavlov's Moo Cow. Oh, it's Moo Cow.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they saw me at Megacon two years my final fantasy 14 panel and said that they really enjoyed persona 3 and when they saw that's what I was playing, they decided to finally catch one of my streams and they were happy they were there and just another person in the community. That's been really active and really fun to get to meet this week and that's why I do it, like everybody that knows what Twitch is and wants to come see me. That's why I do it. It's because it's another place for me to be actively engaged in a new game, learn new things or an old game and show what I love about it, but get to directly talk with the people. That I think will benefit from my ideas that video games make us awesome and we should enjoy playing them.

Speaker 2:

We should. So with that. So on that kind of note when you play a game, do you do it more for a release of stress or a an endorphin kick, or do you do it more for a sense of escapism?

Speaker 1:

Um, no, I'm broken doritos oh, I'm broke already. This is gonna be no, no, no, like, oh, my gosh, like I'm gonna have to be on the couch and the world has to be my therapist right now for me to answer that question I don't. I don't play games for that kind of stuff, because I was kind of raised.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I was raised in a way that ruined fun, in the sense that, like, I have fun, but wanting to have fun is not bring, is not what brings me to an activity. I have to have a goal that feels like it matters to me, and that goal is not fun because that's not a good reason to do anything. And I know that I'm saying nonsense, because the psychology of video games is about experiencing fun and then reflecting on it and making that fun have an even more meaningful sense of experience. And I know that. I know that, but, knowing something, up here I'm pointing at my brain with all my pointer fingers two pointer fingers, well, and my middle fingers, see you flipping me off no no, yes, I was yeah, you are number one on both the left and the right side what was I saying I?

Speaker 1:

I talked to people about having fun, but my biggest moment of therapeutic growth will come when I truly believe that I'm allowed to have fun too.

Speaker 2:

Okay. Marcus what about for you? Why?

Speaker 3:

escapism or for the funsies. So there's two parts to this, because one does it like I can't say one without the other. So I would say the main reason why I play video games for socialization. Right, right, like I love being social, like there's nothing better than being in a raid group and being the one to wipe us all the time and cause pain to everybody around you, but it's, it's a social aspect I love. That's why I love streaming so much, or playing video games and discord and you, even if you're not watching me play video games, just hanging out with people while I'm playing games. It makes it more fun.

Speaker 3:

I think streaming is fun for that reason and that's why you know that's the main reason. But the other reason, as I get older, I play video games because I work 15 hour days, 12 hour days, nine hour days, some days eight hour days, and you know, and I run my kids everywhere, I do whatever I can to help my wife. I do all these things but you never it's going to sound really stupid all these things, but you never it's going to sound really stupid. You never hear hey, great job today. Or you never hear like you know you matter. And when I play Elden Ring as an example, cause I've been playing it. You know I am the guy. Yeah, I die a lot and yeah, I Twitch and like do it. But when I successful I'm like I fucking did that and I did it and it's I. I guess it's escapism. I go to that world to be appreciate, to be able to appreciate myself and be the main character okay, fair enough.

Speaker 2:

Fair enough, what about?

Speaker 2:

you so for me it's a little. Both depends on what's been going on for the day. A lot of times it's just for a short-term escape from the responsibilities. I mean being in my career. I am a corporate director level responsibilities without the title. So I'm having to interact with people, coach junior professionals, work hand in hand with you, know the hourly workforce and try to be as positive as I can as often as I can, because one thing I've seen throughout my professional career To be as positive as I can as often as I can, because One thing I've seen throughout my professional career Is a Do as I say, not as I do from a lot of leadership. So trying to be it, do it differently, do it more how I would like to be treated If I was in their position. So I do take that escape Because I'm tired of being the leader all the time. I want to be just the guy that mashes the glowy buttons and shoots things or burns things or whatever, if you match them well enough.

Speaker 3:

You're still the guy, doritos, and you are the guy 90 of the raid teams that I was a part of doritos was. He may not have been the leader, you were the leader I just happened to know, marcus, you're really bad when you're not the leader, like I.

Speaker 1:

I've told you this before on the podcast you have to be the leader. No, that's not true.

Speaker 2:

That's how I see you I have raid members that would disagree with that but I mean that with love, like that's why you play tank but, still I.

Speaker 3:

You know I wait, I'm gonna put this out there. You know why I put I switched the tank. Do you want me to tell you?

Speaker 1:

why? Because you fired the person that was ruining the chemistry of the group.

Speaker 3:

No. And he was a tank Because I didn't want to have to figure out the rotation for a DPS character Buttons are hard yeah, oh my gosh.

Speaker 2:

So I'm going to play another role that has buttons, and then they're going to take half of the buttons away and make you angry.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh, Can we talk about final fantasy 14? Really quick, sure what was that?

Speaker 2:

yeah, latest update.

Speaker 1:

What do tell, do tell they have removed the timer countdown on fire and ice alignment for black mage, so I no longer have to be smart to play black mage and the whoever, the game producer, is just released a letter.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yoshi p just came out with a letter and basically said hey, all of you modders that have been doing a great job and have created an awesome community of modding for the game to make it better, you're banned yeah, well, I don't mod the game, so I'm okay, yeah I just supposed to mod mmos people, that's called cheating, no that's you have to have mods in world of warcraft. Why?

Speaker 2:

because the game is so much better with them so again, you don't have to have them if you're but if you're gonna raid in world of warcraft you have to have mods.

Speaker 3:

There's certain ones, that's a requirement so is so like you're.

Speaker 1:

When you say mod, there is like a program that I used to run when I was savage raiding that measures your dps for your whole team star parse, so tour still has. Yeah, is that modding?

Speaker 2:

No, Technically yes.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, I told you that.

Speaker 2:

Because it's a representation of your damage or healing or a threat, Jen.

Speaker 3:

It is a version of modding. Yeah, because if you use like a measuring tool in Final Fantasy XIV and it's on your screen, you'll get banned.

Speaker 1:

Right, and also you can't talk about it in your VODs and stuff.

Speaker 2:

Oh, so it's Fight Club, mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:

But also, you really can't succeed at the boss fight without it either. That amount of feedback is the detail you actually need to have. He just glazed over what you said well, that's because calling something fight club is actually something that happens in my house like every day, so it didn't face me but I can see where Doritos is talking about his escape from being the leader from work and home, and I feel the same way.

Speaker 3:

And when you just play a game, you can kind of just disconnect and win or lose. It just feels good, exactly.

Speaker 1:

That disconnect is largely because you're able to experience psychological flow.

Speaker 3:

What's psychological flow?

Speaker 1:

It's a balance between skill and challenge.

Speaker 3:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so the flow state happens when you're in a perfect balance, but you actually feel anxiety or boredom based on if your skill is too high, challenge is too low or challenges too high, skill is too low. Sure, and this actually explains how anxiety and boredom work in real life. It's not a video game concept at all how anxiety and boredom work in real life. It's not a video game concept at all. And once you start to understand that, you can understand what draws you to video games better. But you can also understand how you navigate life if you have something like or approaching ADHD, or if you have an anxiety condition and things stress you out or make you panic.

Speaker 1:

Panic is just an extreme form of anxiety where you believe you have no ability to change or overcome the situation and you're stuck in it, right, so that's when people have panic attacks and I've had meltdowns and crying fits while I'm streaming in video games because the bosses are too hard, like when we were doing Terror from Beyond Nightmare the last thing that I ever attempted in SWTOR repeatedly before I dropped out of the game, like I just had for months and months this belief that the math inside that game at the nightmare level was unfair and it caused me to lose all sense of enjoyment in the game and I left because I couldn't experience flow, because all I felt was panic and despair. You're not allowed to win. I know that's dreadful.

Speaker 1:

Chris, but it made sense.

Speaker 3:

Yeah Well, thanks for explaining that, because I was curious. I'm low skill, high difficulty every day.

Speaker 1:

You are very difficult, Marcus.

Speaker 3:

I know. I was building a set of stairs at work and I got to a point where it turned the corner and I literally sat there for 20 minutes staring at it, talking to myself going how am I going to do this to make it right? And after about I don't know about 10 minutes, like the light bulb went off, ping. Oh, I know what I'm going to do and I just did it.

Speaker 1:

You're like the Fellowship of the Ring in Moria where Gandalf is, like I know I've been here before. Which direction do we go, yeah?

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, but you know it's hard because as I get older I'm finding it harder and harder to have time to play video games, and I think that's how so, because I'm so beat from work and like running with the kids. By the time literally 1030 at night comes, I'm toast and now my kids are going to bed later so I want to hang out with them and I'm finding it harder and harder to turn on my computer at 10 o'clock at night. And harder to turn on my computer at 10 o'clock at night because my alarm goes off at 520.

Speaker 1:

And man, when I'm tired I can't think you're implying you could think when you're not tired I think it all comes down when you're old and you're busy to actually putting stuff on the calendar, like all three of us have made a deliberate choice to talk about video games instead of play video games, and, true, that causes us to play games less than we actually would okay, so well.

Speaker 2:

So, so it causes you to do you play any mobile games, though? No, no, why not?

Speaker 1:

it doesn't just want my money and they're not good.

Speaker 2:

Okay, both very valid answers.

Speaker 3:

I just for me. I don't do it because I don't like staring at my phone, like I like talking on my phone, but I hate staring at my phone.

Speaker 1:

And that's a generational thing, because people younger than us do not like talking on their phone.

Speaker 2:

Well, there's a reason why they talk to their phone, not talking on their phone.

Speaker 3:

Right, there's a reason why mobile games make billions and billions and billions of dollars every year.

Speaker 1:

And why is that reason, Marcus?

Speaker 3:

Because it's easy and accessible and everybody has one of these in their hand and we're all terrible accountants with no patience, right, like spend 99 cents and you don't have to wait three minutes to try again.

Speaker 1:

Okay?

Speaker 3:

oh my god, speaking of no patience, okay, my son watches. Oh shit, some minecraft streamer guy. God damn it, preston.

Speaker 2:

No, I was, oh preston, yes, yes, I know I'm aware of preston, because jackson wants it too okay, great content creator, super wholesome, like I.

Speaker 3:

My son loves him. He doesn't swear, he's he I don't know, he's a better role model than you, marcus oh that one hurts the knife, the fork, just the gaming persona used to be exactly how you're describing this person and then we welcomed you into it.

Speaker 1:

Yes, now I drink margaritas and it's all gone to hell.

Speaker 3:

So but the thing is is when he, when he, my son watches his videos, every six to seven seconds the screen changes movement. It almost makes me sick because they're like the, the way the, like the way they edit it. It's every six to seven seconds it's a new, like a new frame, like he's going down this tunnel. In six seconds he's further down the tunnel and he's further, and then he's whipping and it's like I don't know if it's like an attention thing, but it fucking makes me sick. Not literally makes me sick, but I'm just like whoa dude, let's go play the real game because of the way they clip it yeah well, you'll do the adhd generation mar well, he's not the only one that creates content in that manner.

Speaker 2:

All of them do His buddy Unstoppable does kind of the same thing and actually, because my son watches, a lot of other content creators that do Minecraft and a couple other build crafting games, minecraft and a couple other build crafting games.

Speaker 3:

That is the current style of content creation for a lot of them. Well, it's an attention thing, oh yeah, it's something that does something to the kid's brain, where it they never get bored watching it. Oh no, they get bored. They just get bored watching it.

Speaker 1:

Oh no, they get bored. They just get bored in 1.7 seconds instead of 17 seconds, Right.

Speaker 3:

And, speaking of Minecraft, like the BuildCraft, I watched a guy once and it was like a 45-minute video and it was on like fast-forward. But the guy like started on a blank slate and he built this crazy city and it was just on super fast forward because in the in the comments it said it took him like six months to make that city, but he did it in 40 minutes so what is your?

Speaker 2:

is your son like getting tips and and and how to's out of it? Like no, he just watches it because he finds it interesting, okay, so so again, my son's a little, a little bit older than yours, so he's taking a lot of those tips and stuff and you know, he's making the cobblestone generators, he's making a lot of things that that he sees these guys doing, which is quite entertaining to to watch, because it was like I'll come home from work. Hey, dad, dad, I need to show you this. In minecraft, I built a thing like okay, let's see the thing, what thing did you build?

Speaker 2:

oh you know, where did you learn how to do that? And now, most time I've seen him watching the video, so I'm aware of where he's getting the content from, but it's quite interesting that just by watching and he's able to replicate a lot of it you know it's funny.

Speaker 3:

You say that it's true because my son, I got home and rhino's six going on seven in a month and he, he comes up and he wrote it down and he goes daddy, we need to go on my playstation right now. I said playstation. Why, what do we got to do? You got to right now. I said PlayStation. Why, what do we got to do? You got to do this. And he hands me this paper and it's in his writing. It says RTX, 100%. Daddy, what's RTX? I was like well, I can't do that on your PlayStation. Why, it's something that's in Daddy's computer. Can we do it on your computer? Sure dude. So I went downstairs, turned on the computer and I put it on and it took Minecraft from 8-bit to like real.

Speaker 3:

It was incredible and when he got into a world that had RTXtx enabled he went whoa and like the blocks. It was wild to see it and obviously I screen record him and half the time he doesn't even know I do and it makes such awesome content. But he, he was blown. So he got that from one of those guys Preston, unspeakable, something like that and he wrote it down himself and waited for me to get home to show him how to turn on RTX.

Speaker 1:

How does that feel Marcus.

Speaker 3:

I love seeing him excited for things. So we have the undisputed title in my house and the Intercontinental title. But he only lets me go against him for the Intercontinental title and it's basically every day the belt is up on the line and I won it. I won it yesterday and he does not take it well when I win and when I tell you, when we're on the trampoline I go no holes barred, like he gets straight up suplex city right like I don't like obviously I'm not hitting him, but I'm definitely like I power bomb him on the trampoline and he loves it. So like wrestling is just, it's a part of our day to day. And this inter, he won the intercontinental title tonight and Him saying what he said to me before bed is the same feeling I get when he is playing a game that he's super excited about and he says to me daddy, you want to know what's awesome? I said what's that? He goes, I'm the Intercontinental title. Good night.

Speaker 3:

I'm the Intercontinental champion and he's sleeping with it in his bed because he thinks I'm going to try to pin him while he's sleeping. Oh my gosh. And I told him I was going to, and he says you can't, I'm leaving. Oh my god. And I told him.

Speaker 3:

I was gonna and he says you can't, I'm the champion, I have to accept your match. I said I'll call adam pierce, but anyway it makes me happy to see him excited about things. You know, anytime somebody's excited about something you gotta just roll with it excited about something, you gotta just roll with it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you don't want to yuck on?

Speaker 3:

people's yum. That's the why wait? What did you just say, did you don't want to yuck on somebody's yum?

Speaker 1:

yeah, if someone says this is yum and you say no, it's yuck, you have created a disconnect for them that is going to be a part of your relationship for a long time. Moving forward.

Speaker 3:

Oh well, it happens I guess I don't know, but anyway. So did you guys see anything from Gamescom?

Speaker 2:

No, I missed the stuff this year. I missed the stuff this year.

Speaker 3:

So later on go look at. So there's like a monitor that, like the screen, like pops out. It's the wildest thing. What brand do you remember?

Speaker 2:

No, of course not.

Speaker 1:

What do you mean? The screen pops out.

Speaker 3:

I'm going to see if I can find a link to it but no, I've been incredibly disconnected from Gamescom, just busy with work.

Speaker 1:

How's that gone? Well, our treatment program is growing. We got a whole bunch of new funding and we're going to be able to help a lot of people in my home state of Florida. And just really excited. We have a team of people at KindBridge that are going to be answering the phones for people who have gambling issues, and we're also answering calls across the whole country too and connecting people with treatment with people in our whole KindBridge network. So it's growing really fast now. Lots of really cool projects. I have one update that I just can't give tonight, but when it happens I'm so excited to talk about it.

Speaker 3:

Oh man and nobody on the show knows, because it's ridiculous, but spoilers, spoilers do you guys find you enjoy gaming during the day or at night, or anytime makes you happy, anytime?

Speaker 1:

I don't play video games at night.

Speaker 3:

I play games at night. The only time I get to play games during the day is if I'm playing with Ryan in the days if I'm playing with Ryan.

Speaker 1:

Actually, I have to change what my answer is because we just started community night in the.

Speaker 1:

Dr Gamology ecosystem with Discord on Sunday night. So it's not a streaming thing, and streaming is the number one place where I get to play video games. This is not streamed. It's not about recording content. It's just everyone in the community that has a Final Fantasy XIV character and if you want to join us, you can make one. We'll match your level. We'll do content that matches what you're able to get into, and it's been so fun. We've done it for two weeks. I think this week we're going to actually, I'm going to be able to do it this week, but there is a week coming up where I'm going to be at Halloween Horror Night, so it could still happen. Just, I won't be the one running it. I hope it still happens without me, though, because that's the kind of I think the community can still exist, even if Just save us. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Or we could let Jenny have the baton and then she can give group lead to jessica. But it's been a lot of fun. We've done some alliance raids, we've done some normal raids, which are just the single boss encounters, and it's been so fun to play some of the old content where I wasn't a subscriber because it's new to me and some of these boss fights are really interesting and you don't get to play them anymore because everyone's just so focused on Dawn Trail stuff, the current expansion Well, that happens, yeah, it's just so sad because it's such an expansive game and then for all this great content to have no purpose anymore, it's sad.

Speaker 2:

Well, the way of the MMO expansion I was just going to say that Isn't that?

Speaker 3:

what isn't that? What mmos do is?

Speaker 1:

they come out with content, people grind it for however long, and then, when the content dries up, they either stop playing or they just do dailies well yes that's true, but star wars, the old republic, sealed republic, was my mmo for 10 years and it was my first one and it had 10 raids in it and those raids all had five bosses, ish, one of them had four, I think one of them had six, but like they had five. So you do those fights so much they just your talent at them becomes a part of who you are. And in final fantasy 14 there's so many bosses that I believe that feeling is not literally possible for me to have yeah, but for me, star wars the republic.

Speaker 3:

as my mmo, I didn't like I played it to raid, but really, truly, truly, the story content was incredible With eight guys.

Speaker 1:

We were there to Raid.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, after I beat all the stories.

Speaker 1:

Except for the trooper story, because that one's lame.

Speaker 3:

You know, don't pick on the trooper.

Speaker 1:

I just yucked your yum.

Speaker 2:

No, you yucked all over his yum.

Speaker 1:

Somebody's yum. Somebody loves the trooper story?

Speaker 2:

Oh, there are many people who love the trooper story.

Speaker 3:

Well, people love the trooper story because that guy wrote it.

Speaker 1:

They probably like Mass Effect.

Speaker 2:

Continue the journey Ha ha, ha, ha ha ha, that guy wrote it. They probably like Mass Effect. Continue the journey.

People on this episode

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Daniel Kaufmann

Host
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Doritos

Co-host
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MarcusB814

Co-host