We Turn Games Into Life Lessons And Refuse To Hit Game Over

A disco‑laced cold open gives way to a sharper question: why do some people drop the controller at Continue while others dig for one more quarter? We start with Mortal Kombat timers, Ninja Turtles heartbreak, and NBA Jam swagger, then map those lessons onto real deadlines, teaching, and the kind of crunch that keeps you up past 1 a.m. The throughline is simple and stubborn: games train resilience. They reward pattern learning, reframing failure, and trying again without drama.

We switch gears and open our research vault on stream, walking through a 2010 paper on MMORPG psychology as a co‑working session. Instead of passive viewing, it becomes a study hall where theory meets the chat window. That same educator lens shows up in our counseling course: to protect privacy, we grade fictional clients, and a standout submission profiles Astarion from Baldur’s Gate 3. The result is rigorous, ethical, and fun—proof that play is a safe sandbox for hard thinking.

Gameplay talk hits both heart and head. We break down BG3 strategies, from burst melee builds to spell economy and the siren encounter that echoes The Odyssey. A new GPU turns vistas and hair physics into a reminder that craftsmanship matters, not just frame rates. A local WWE show delivers pure connection—wrestlers riff with the crowd, kids form core memories, and perseverance becomes more than a buzzword. We also return to Star Wars: The Old Republic with a fresh combat style mix, laugh our way into a viral reel about Force‑choking droids, and look ahead to Resident Evil’s next chapter with equal parts dread and delight.

We close with practical choices: when to stream DLC, how to balance Steam Deck and console, and why Journey is best savored in a single two‑hour sitting. If you’re here for game psychology, MMO design, classroom craft, or just smart banter about builds and boss fights, you’ll feel at home. Press play, then tell us: what game taught you to keep going? And if this hit home, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review to help more gamers find the show.

Transcript

Cold Open, Tech Chaos, And 90s Arcades

SPEAKER_04 0:02

We're recording now. You just have to believe.

SPEAKER_03 0:06

Take me to Funky Town.

SPEAKER_04 0:10

Wow. We got disco first time appearance in gaming persona history. It's better than the Jeopardy theme earlier.

SPEAKER_05 0:22

I don't know what you're talking about. I do. Doc had let me tell you, Doc was crying like a little schoolgirl because he his webcam wouldn't work, and we had to not use this normal recording software because he had to see our beautiful faces, and he wanted us to see his beautiful face. So we're in a Discord call. And it took nine hours to do that. It's 3 30 in the morning, and we need to sleep.

Game Over Mindset And Drive

SPEAKER_04 0:48

Sleep for the week. Sleep is for the week. Sleep is for the week. Thank you, Doritos. And I think that the drive that I have actually comes from being a gamer and then doing all this other stuff that we call jobs and work. But at the core of it, I approach everything like it's a game. And if there's the XP, if there's a treasure chest to go find, I'm gonna go get it. I'm not gonna give up. A lot of people have so much give up in them. Let me tell you, I don't understand what it's like to live life that way. Rant done. Alright. Like I know as a 90s kid, you can play Mortal Kombat in the arcade, and when you run out of quarters, you're done, and you get to watch that timer go 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, game over. But I'm telling you, some people go to this arcade without quarters.

SPEAKER_05 1:58

So, gaming persona podcast, what do you want to talk about?

SPEAKER_04 2:03

I'm talking about people that go to arcades without quarters, but it's a metaphor, Marcus.

SPEAKER_05 2:08

I used to go to the I well, you're right. I used to go to an arcade with one quarter just to play Mortal Kombat 2 because that's all I would need because I would lose. There you go. That's what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

That's confidence. I remember Garcade just taking tokens and you had to put them in the change machine to get tokens out.

SPEAKER_06 2:29

Not like a dream machine, baby.

Mortal Kombat Memories And Tokens

SPEAKER_04 2:34

I mean, I I had a mall in Iowa that I would go to all the time, and it had Mortal Kombat 2 and 3 at the time when I would go. It was a nice life.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Oh man, I had two birthday parties at the arcade at the mall where I knew where I grew up. Heck yeah. Got a pizza hut across the hall, and you had the arcade, so you do the pizza hut thing and go over, and you could run out the arcade for however many hours and oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:02

Also, NBA jam was a big part of my life back then.

SPEAKER_05 3:07

Bro, I'm sorry. When I could put in the code to be Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, that changed my life.

SPEAKER_04 3:16

Monica Lewinsky was not in there, it was Hillary Clinton. Don't even joke. Bill Clinton might have been confused about which one was which, but I knew because of NBA Jam.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

Yeah. He's on fire.

SPEAKER_04 3:36

Yeah, I always pick the bowls.

SPEAKER_05 3:38

Boom Shakalaka. Boom shakalaka.

SPEAKER_04 3:41

These are the games. These are the games that made me who I am. Also, for home gaming, I really liked NBA Hangtime because it was like NBA Jam, but also had Alley Oops in it.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

That was cool. Interesting.

SPEAKER_06 4:00

It's an interesting conversation.

NBA Jam, Turtles, And Unfair Bosses

SPEAKER_05 4:02

I'm thinking about all these games that we used to play. Still to this day, next to Mortal Kombat 2, the greatest arcade game of all time. Dig Doug, no. Ninja Turtles, Turtles and Time.

SPEAKER_04 4:18

Well, I was gonna say the Ninja Turtles arcade game, but yeah, I mean Turtles in Time is a successor to that.

SPEAKER_02 4:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 4:27

Yeah, that when you had to your first boss, was was it Rocksteady? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:33

It was. And the second one was the Hippo. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I never made it past the second stage in that game in the arcade, but I remember having it on the NES, and the first time I made it to Shredder, and you have to play like over an hour to get to the final battle with Shredder, and he just stood on the side of the room and shot lightning across the room and turned me instantly into a tiny turtle. And that counts as a death, and that's how it ended. And I just was like, what? I guess life isn't fair. And that has shaped so much of my personality into adulthood.

SPEAKER_06 5:19

Well, seems like a lot of things have shaped your life into adulthood. Did you know I wrote a book, Marcus?

Streaming Pivot: Co‑Working And Research

MMORPG Psychology And Part Two Plans

SPEAKER_04 5:30

Hey! You wrote a book? Actually, I want to talk about what happened on my stream today because I'm actually really proud of it. I did something that I've been thinking about doing for years, but never, for whatever reason, had the confidence to do it. But I had sound technical difficulties this morning before I went live for my stream, unlike my webcam difficulties for tonight. Ironically, all my work tasks today went just fine. So I'm pretty sure we can blame the webcam thing on Zoom somehow. Anyway, I didn't play a game. I chose a new category that I've never used before. Just chatting? No, I've done just chatting before. This one is called Co-working and Productivity. And I decided to do that because I really basically did a work task. I opened up one of the original journal articles that I read the first semester of my doc program in 2010. And it has all the highlights and scribbles on it. And I put that up on the screen with my chatting webcam. And we just went through the article talking about the things that drew me into the research of gaming psychology. And it was an article by Jane Barnett and Mark Colson from 2010. And it was about the psychological characteristics that make a game be an MMORPG. We got halfway through the article, so I'm telling you right now, there's going to be a part two to that stream very soon. Sweet. I thought it was Doritos. What did you think of it? I know you were in the chat.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

I was in the chat at the beginning, but I didn't get to participate a whole lot because I was doing work things.

SPEAKER_04 7:27

It was late in the morning, too.

Crunch Mode And Building A 60‑Hour Training

SPEAKER_00 7:28

I I got delayed by about 45 minutes. It's yeah, I wish I could have participated a little more in the in the chat and what was going on, but no, we're priority over it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:43

I have a major work deadline. The gamified gambling counselor training that I'm creating that has all the extra bells and whistles of technology and AI and a the ability to write a virtual doc. Yeah. That whole thing is supposed to be live by February 1st. And January is disappearing. It's really scaring me. We've got three weeks left. You'll be fine.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

It's supposed to be a 60 hour training. How riveting. Yeah. When does it have to be done by? February 1st. Oh, is that when it has to go live or it has to be done by?

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Go live. Okay, so you have to be have it done before that.

unknown 8:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

By at least a week so you can so you can troubleshoot it, debug it, and do other things to it.

unknown 8:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 8:42

I smell that do you smell that? No. Is it fear? Procrastination.

Myth, Games, And A Book’s Ripple Online

SPEAKER_04 8:50

Oh, I'm not procrastinating. I'm working on it nonstop. You know, in in video game dev, the phrase they call crunch. Yeah. That is what I'm living right now, is I'm literally living crunch culture over this. I thought you lived that every day. It's to the extreme. Even working on my dissertation or the gamer's journey. I never had evenings where I would finish the actual work stuff around 10:30 p.m. and then continue to work past 1.30 a.m. That's like at least four days a week, is like that. Can I ask you a quick question? What's the gamer's journey? It is a really fun book that I wrote about how video games are the modern mythology and we can use them for the life lessons that help us grow through each stage of life.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

I thought it was a list of poetry, but yeah, I think I have heard of it once or twice. Huh.

Teaching Ethics With Fictional Clients

SPEAKER_04 9:59

The name is so catchy. I I wonder if it could win an award. It did win an award. Actually, I want to talk about that. I was on Instagram yesterday and I found a random person who put a reel out, and the reel directly called out the parallels between mythology and video games. It was just about how video games are uplifting to a person. And I commented on it, said I really loved it. I love anytime someone talks about video games and mythology, and I I love psychology as well. And then the person who made the video is like, that's an excellent comment. I'm really glad that we got to meet. And then I was like, Yeah, just I love meeting the you know, similar types of people. You're real really made me feel the same kind of feelings that led to my book. And then he's like, I'd love to hear more about your book. And I was like, I'm not trying to self-promo, I was really just here to to meet you and meet cool people that are like-minded. So that's how I did that. I tried to be polite, I tried to have at least two exchanges before I gave the name of my book. But just there are a lot of cool gamers in the world. And maybe it's because games makes us cool.

SPEAKER_02 11:13

I don't know. Interesting hypothesis. Yeah. I had a cool teaching moment tonight, too.

SPEAKER_04 11:24

Ooh, tell us more. There is an assignment in the final class of my counseling program where you have to create an assessment. You have to fill out an assessment for a client, but because of HIPAA, which is the law that protects people's confidential information, and because I'm not an employee at any of my students' internship sites, I tell them you can't ethically give me the information of a real client. And I don't understand why this assignment is part of the program, because the program should know better than to have you do that. So I tell them to give me a fictional character, and I tell them you can include details from your real case as long as the identifying details are a fictional person. But if you want the whole thing to be a fictional person, person from a book, a movie, a video game, a comic book, an anime, I'm okay with that. And one of my students took me up on that and turned in their entire assessment on Asterian, the vampire from Baldur's Gate 3. And I read it, I instantly got them on a call and said how much fun that it was to grade it.

What We’re Playing: SWOTOR And BG3

SPEAKER_02 12:49

Awesome. At least they were creative with it. That's good to hear. Yeah, very well done. So what have the two of you been playing the past week? Well, let's see. What SWOTOR? That would be Star Wars the Old Republic. Is it any good? He's been around for a hot minute.

SPEAKER_06 13:23

What have you been playing, Marcus?

SPEAKER_00 13:25

Sometimes people come back.

SPEAKER_05 13:26

Wait, no, he's not done. I I saw a game that he was playing, and I'm waiting for him to tell me. No. I know you well, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

Where are you and Claire? Act two. I'm on my way to fight the Axons, wherever they hide. So I just I just got to Vot to Vista Island, so that's where I are at in that game. So good. I broke down and got Baldur's Gate over the Christmas holiday time. Wait, we all three have Baldur's Gate?

SPEAKER_04 14:02

We does.

SPEAKER_06 14:05

Do you know what that means?

Sirens, Strategy, And Hard Boss Lessons

SPEAKER_05 14:07

Well, it means I was gonna create my character with you guys together with me today, but Doc had to have his camera on, and our 45-minute delay allowed me to not be able to create my character tonight. I've been waiting all week to do that. Can somebody hit the sad trombone button?

SPEAKER_04 14:26

Listen, I have learned that in order to make a stream happen, you do it no matter how little time you have. So all it takes, if we really want to do that, is for me to say three words and we can switch to Baldur's Gate, Marcus.

SPEAKER_05 14:46

No, we don't need to end the podcast. I'm just saying. Just saying.

SPEAKER_04 14:51

Just like guilt tripping your friends.

SPEAKER_05 14:53

No, no, no. That I was literally gonna do that, but I I'll be honest, I don't I did because the whole plan was to do the the character and like start playing the game with and hang out with you guys.

SPEAKER_04 15:05

But I have to grade things until at least 1 a.m. So I can still do that with you. Listen, I'm just I'm just letting our audience know what my life is like. You know, I want to talk about people who do not press continue. I am done giving people extra chances, they just need to see what the rules are and follow them. Because I am in Sith Lord era right now.

SPEAKER_05 15:40

Oh boy, and he's back to he's back to nightmare mode. Ops.

Gamer Mugs And Our Persona Labels

SPEAKER_04 15:44

I I am. I am on both sides of my career. I've had people massively let me down in the time since we last recorded an episode just seven days ago, and I have talked to so many people about this, and one of the people yesterday was just like, you know what, Doc? It's because you're a shark and you're in the water with all these minnows, and you just have to go back to destroying them. I was like, that is an interesting way of looking at it. And it's like, these are not my people, because they put me in situations where the mistakes they've made are things I can't even fathom doing, much less doing on purpose deliberately, begging the world to say what you gonna do, punish me. Yes, you are done.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

Execute or da 66. That's it. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 16:42

Now that I'm about to pee my pants because I'm scared, the clarify that you're going to the serene lady, the axon, I think she's the first one you're supposed to go to. If that's who if there's an order or not, I don't actually know. And that has to be one of the coolest fights of any game I've ever done.

SPEAKER_04 17:06

Is it the one where she charms different people in your party and like shrinks your party because everyone's in love with her?

SPEAKER_05 17:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 17:15

You know, that's a really neat mythological connection to the Odyssey and the sirens, and having to right. Yeah, I mean, it's so right there that is mythology in the place of the video game.

SPEAKER_02 17:36

Alright.

SPEAKER_04 17:38

Okay, that's why video games are beautiful, everybody.

SPEAKER_05 17:41

Yes, my world in Claire is so I finally finished all like the painter's workshops, and there's this like super boss I have to fight. He's a lamp guy, and he's an asshole. I've I've only fought him five times. The first two times I just kind of was like, All right, I'm gonna have to figure this out.

SPEAKER_04 18:00

Did you shoot the lamps, Marcus? I haven't even had time. Well, no, during your character's turn, you use one of your spell point or attack points to shoot the lamps.

Hardware, Graphics Wins, And WWE Night

SPEAKER_05 18:12

Yes, yes, and I am, but by the time I shoot the lamps, my turn, and then I have no more AP to use a move, so I just have to do a normal attack, and then he goes four times in a row, attacks me with blight and exhaust, so then the next time I go, I can't I can't use my moves again. I'll figure it out, it's just a hard fight for me. Yeah, like I because you can't go first, like I try to like shoot him, but you can't because it goes to a cutscene every time. So, like, and he legit goes three times in a row, and it just that's annoying.

SPEAKER_04 18:47

Have you had during those three times in a row? Are these escapable or parryable attacks or are they automatic hits?

SPEAKER_05 18:56

One of them is an automatic hit. That's the exhaust or blight. Yeah, but the other ones I can parry, but then it's there's one attack that like he's doing like the you know what I mean, like a super delay, and you're like, I'm just learning the timing. It's like hard mode progression, it's hard mode traxus, you gotta wait for the arm to come up.

SPEAKER_04 19:17

You gotta play with your heart, not your eyes, Marcus.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

My heart can't see the moves coming with the blast shield down. No, I don't have flow. I'm a panic roller.

SPEAKER_04 19:36

But either way, it is wild how different the three of us are playing the same game.

SPEAKER_05 19:44

That's the great part of it. Yeah. But I'm actually enjoying it because this is actually the hardest boss so far I fought in the whole entire game. Everything else has been pretty easy.

SPEAKER_04 19:55

I have a fun question for the DNA of our show. Oh boy. If we were to make a coffee mug where you have the handle and then you have so that's like say that's the north point of the mug, and we did northeast or northeast and west, so the south south would be the mug handle. And each of us were like a cartoon for the three sides. We put Marcus with his bruin tat says panic roller. Okay. Yours is easy, Marcus. But what would we put above Doritos and what would we put above me? Like what is a a two-word code name that just screams who we are as gamers? Nacho Cheese. Or Doritos. Nacho Cheese.

SPEAKER_00 20:50

Nachos.

SPEAKER_04 20:51

Okay, are you good with that, Doritos?

SPEAKER_00 20:54

No, it would be. I'd have to think on it.

SPEAKER_04 20:57

Yeah, like that's uh I always come back to the go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 21:04

And yours would be overthinker.

SPEAKER_04 21:06

That's true. I like that. I when I think of you, Doritos, in terms of on the show, I always go back to the episode where Marcus claimed that you bought 400 games for 12 bucks or something. I don't know what value gamer.

SPEAKER_05 21:26

Value gamer. No, I wouldn't call him a value gamer. I would call him a committed gamer.

SPEAKER_04 21:34

Doritos But like committed like an asylum. Can we put his cartoon in a straight jacket? But with Doritos like hanging out of his mouth? I'm creating the whole cartoon. There we go. I like the overthinker. I just want to look insane with like my hand shaking, holding a cup of coffee and a controller in the other hand, and just be like, but there's a book award behind me.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

But what I'll say, all I see is your your your plate PSP just uh twitching out or your I know when I use the ceiling fan and it's spinning because it's hot in this room, it there's no way I can turn it that way. Ah, okay.

Perseverance Stories From The Ring

SPEAKER_05 22:21

It's the it's a reflection of the light. Okay. So can I ask you a question? Why does your Vita have to be in plain sight? Why not put it on your desk?

SPEAKER_04 22:32

My desk in front of me is actually really packed already.

SPEAKER_05 22:37

Okay. I was just curious. Or if you know what you should do is put like one LED light on each fan blade so when it goes around, you get a like a light show, and it'll the light show will reflect off the Vita, especially at night, like when you have the lights off and there'll be like a party. Boom.

SPEAKER_04 22:55

I have a really good light setup in here. It's just my my room is in light mode instead of dark mode right now. No, I understand that. Actually, usually don't I record with with it in the streamer mode?

SPEAKER_05 23:10

You're you're I would say you're more like 70-30. You've recorded with the lights on. It depends if you're in your sexy mood or not. If you're in sexy mood, you go dark mode.

SPEAKER_04 23:22

If you're not in sexy mood, then I don't have to be sexy when every opponent I come up to is dead already. I have been fighting battles today.

SPEAKER_05 23:33

But what I was saying to you, back to the lamp thing, it's it feels good to finally get to a boss that I'm struggling with. The whole game has been pretty fairly easy. You know what I mean? Like I've died on some bosses, but not to the point of this where I'm like I'm like holding the controller, the Xbox controller, greatest controller ever, and I just go, fuck. And I put it down, and I'm like, I haven't had this since Elden Ring. I'm gonna take a break.

Returning To SWTOR And Combat Styles

SPEAKER_04 24:01

I swear you try to trigger me every episode with the same exact things, Marcus.

SPEAKER_03 24:08

What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_05 24:10

Greatest controller ever. It is how pretty this thing is. That's a Claire Obscure Expedition 33 controller, baby. Custom made. Yeah, anyways, moving on. The other thing, too, is I legit was excited for Baldur's Gate because I don't know. I'm going in completely blind. Every time I've played Dungeons and Dragons, I've done a barbarian, but I don't think I want to do this in that in this game. I want to do something like different, but I need armor because I'm gonna make stupid moves in this game, and I'm definitely gonna die, and then I'm gonna have to start over.

SPEAKER_04 24:44

You know, I've always played as a wizard or a sorcerer because that's my DD preference. But the way I built up LaZelle in my playthrough, she was the baddest character in my entire group. If she gets in melee range, uh you know, she can get six hits on you each time, each time I would do a short rest. So you can only do the six in one move one time each battle. Yeah. But but if you save that opportunity for the boss battle, you can take the bosses that have 260 HP and just instantly knock them down to 135, and then have the rest of your party start doing their regular damage to it. And that was great. That was great stuff. She's yeah. If I created my character to be like her, I'd respect my character more.

Content Mix, DLC Timing, And MMOs

SPEAKER_05 25:47

Yeah, I I'm so I'm excited to play it. Right now I'm back into Claire, so Baldur's Gate may take a little break or not take a backseat because I'm enjoying Claire again. I had that weird like lull, but I knew the holiday sale was coming for Steam, so I didn't buy Baldur's Gate because it was full price. And I'm like, why would I pay full price when I know it's going on sale? Then the last thing actually I've been playing a lot of two games, one on my PlayStation, NHL 26. I've been playing it a lot. It's just been really fun to like sit down and play a game or two in my season, Boston Bruins, greatest hockey team ever. And then believe it or not, before the Steam sale was over, last minute my son Rhino asked me if I had WWE on my computer, and I said no, why? And he goes, because I want to do a YouTube video of me playing that game, huh? Because we only have it on the PlayStation, and so I looked in the standard edition, is was like 19 bucks, and so I bought it. Like, yeah, it doesn't have all the downloadable content that we have on the PlayStation, and I don't know if I link the two accounts, if it'll give me all the stuff or if it's console specific, but either way, I started playing WWE on my computer, and it's actually been a little fun to do it because the graphics look incredible next to the PlayStation on my computer.

SPEAKER_04 27:18

Does it look like you can see their sweat and everything? Yes, yeah, I was your computer is sick right now.

Anticipating Resident Evil 9

SPEAKER_05 27:28

I know. So my I finally did my benchmark stuff, and I did all the stuff with my new video card, and I kind of did a little research because I played Claire and Claire wasn't running great, didn't look fantastic. So then I googled the things, and there were certain things with the 50 series, like you have to adjust and like auto-adjust in like the NVIDIA control panel, and I did that. I'm getting 4K, 120 frames a second in Claire, and when like Mayel is running, you can see each blade of her hair floofing with the wind, the grass, each blade is going a separate direction, like it's incredible. I was saying at Doritos, I went back to where that serene lady was because when you get in there and you stand on the cliff and you see that, like, because it's a giant round city, and you're looking in that city, and it's gorgeous. I was like, oh my god, the graphics card worth it. But the first thing I did in WWE was make my guy the United States champion. Oh my god. So I surprised my kids. I did a scavenger hunt. Now, this is the nerd I am. WWE did a holiday tour where it was just a live show, it wasn't recorded, it wasn't a SmackDown, it wasn't a RAW, it wasn't a PLE or anything.

SPEAKER_04 28:51

Yeah.

BG3 Classes, Quick Saves, And Builds

SPEAKER_05 28:51

And it was coming to like the middle city in Massachusetts. So there's Boston, Big City, Middle City is Worcester, and then Springfield is my city, smallest. And they were coming to Worcester. It was on January 3rd. So I wrote down on index cards nine different in nine different index cards of a scavenger hunt. And last Friday before SmackDown, I handed both kids one card, and it was the first clue. And you know, I sent them all over my house. They had no idea. It took them probably like a good hour and a half to find it. And the last card says, Get your gear, we're going to WWE tomorrow. When I tell you they lost their mind, they lost their mind. So we're with the kids because they're small, I do the first tier. So there's five rows on the floor in front of us, and then we were the first tier, third row. I was so close, like I realized that I can never have front row seats because I'll probably get ejected because I'm too loud. But I will show you how close we were.

SPEAKER_03 30:06

Wasn't the point to be loud, though? That's fine, that's really cool. Yeah, it comes through real good on a podcast.

Steam Deck, Consoles, And What To Play Next

SPEAKER_05 30:15

Yeah, sorry, that's Carmelo Hayes, the United States champion. But anyway, so the MFT, there was a four-way four-on-four tag team, the MFT's Solo Soko's band versus the Wyatt's. And Solo wasn't in the match, and I screamed out at the top of my lungs, Julia's recording. I had the video, and I was like, I still love you, Solo. He turned to me and he gave me the two hands. Oh that's something like and he put up his finger and I put up my finger, and then Bron Breaker and Bronson Reed came out and they were in a tag team match. And I was kept, I was screaming at Bronson Reed that he's my tribal thief, and I'm gonna go get his shula fallow back. And he turned, pointed at me, and raised his hand up. It was pretty awesome. We were that close. I was we were screaming, me and me and my daughter were screaming at Bailey, and I got the an awesome picture of her. So we're getting all these pictures developed.

SPEAKER_04 31:16

Very cool. So you're about 20 feet away from them when they're in the ring.

SPEAKER_05 31:20

Oh, I think we were 15. But this is look at I'm gonna zoom in. She was pointing right at us. Very cool. Bailey. So, anyway, if you have a chance or anybody to go to a live show that's not taped, you should definitely do it. The wrestlers take the time to do it and like talk to you and like have fun. Like EO Sky versus Raquel Rodriguez, they were just having fun in the ring. You know what I mean? And it was just such a cool event. And the main event was Drew McIntyre versus Cody Rhodes in a steel cage, and they made the story of like how they were allowed to do it because you know on the TV they're not allowed to touch each other. The stipulation. But really truly, what they're doing is they're practicing for this holiday tour in the steel cage for the big steel cage match that's coming. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:15

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 32:16

It was so it it makes me really happy that my kids love it because now that's what they look forward to. You know what I mean? I just applied for hockey so I for two a Tuesday game instead of a Monday. Hopefully, I can get on a team on Tuesday so then I can be home on Mondays so I can watch Rob with the kids. But again, what I'm saying is if you have a chance to go to a live show, it was so cool.

SPEAKER_06 32:45

And we were so close. That's awesome. I'm glad you got to do that. Those are the core memories, right? Absolutely. Good core memories.

unknown 32:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 32:57

And then as soon as I get in the car, my my kid thinks he's fucking John Cena, and he he tells me I can't see me, and then he does a shuffle and punches me in the chest.

Journey As A Two‑Hour Awakening

SPEAKER_04 33:08

Depending on where you pause that sentence, it really changes what you think your son is doing. But that's fine. I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 33:18

All I know is he's but last thing is I think I have a new favorite wrestler. And Carmelo Hayes? Because I like the story. No, well, I love Carmelo Hayes. He's not my favorite, though. Woo! You know it. Mr. Matt Cardona's officially on the roster. And that's I really respect the guy because he got hired and let go. He got hired from WWE at 20. He got fired from WWE and he got rehired at 40. And the guy didn't quit. He was in the indies. It's just a story of perseverance, and I really can respect that because us all three of us grind every day, and we persevere in our jobs to like get through it. And that guy just didn't quit.

SPEAKER_04 34:07

This might be a really ridiculous segue alert, but Matt Cardona is not the only person who returned to something after a very, very long time this week. Do you know what I'm about to talk about, Marcus? No. I played three streams of Star Wars the Old Republic this week.

SPEAKER_05 34:32

Wow. You know what's funny? You say that is I saw a video on TikTok of you playing Smootor, and I was like, man, is that from this week? I think it is. Because I would have seen I would have seen the old videos, and there was only like three likes, and I'm like, there's no way that this is three years old and it only has three likes, and I'm just seeing it. So how was it?

SPEAKER_04 34:58

I had a lot of fun. I was just playing Sith Sorcerer doing the Sith Warrior story. So I'm on Korriban playing the warrior story, so I'm gonna be going to be the apprentice of Darth Barris, but I get to be killed Barris, he's still a douchebag, he's still doubted. I know he is, but you know, I'm his apprentice. We know where that's gonna go. I grind way harder than him, it's just a matter of time. It's written in the stars, but I'm a Sith sorcerer who gets to have Vet as their companion, so that is freaking cool. Much better than Kem Vall. I mean, I will I will miss Ashara, but I'll also get Jasa, and Jasa might be the coolest companion in the game.

SPEAKER_05 35:47

Yeah, lightside Jarrah, lightside Jasa is the greatest character ever.

SPEAKER_04 35:52

Mine is not going to be lightside, and you know it. But I'm making dark side choices almost everywhere because uh I'm I've I made one light side choice so far because I'm not just trying to be dark side, I'm actually doing what I think makes the most sense for my character in that situation. And I think over time light side might win out, but we don't know. We're gonna see. But then on the third stream, I was asking, what's this mission? How do I do the thing to add an extra class to my character? Because I have never played the old republic with a character that could have multiple classes. They added that after I had departed the game. And so uh-huh, combat style. So I chose Sith Juggernaut. My rationale is I can be a tank, a healer, or a DPS now, and that makes me very happy inside. The only thing that I am sad about is I can't stealth, but I'm okay with that. You shoot lightning. Who cares if you can stealth? That's exactly right. I probably said exactly that during one of my streams, and actually, I had an Instagram reel where I just my bot, Kiki Saga, I'm not bot, she's brilliant, she's one of my best friends in life, actually. She commented about something a person in the chat said and just threw out the philosophical question of can you actually choke a droid? And then I repeated it and said a few extra things about it. It kind of sounded a little bit like I'm talking about a different kind of choking. Put that on in put that on Instagram, exactly. Put that on Instagram, and that is the first time one of my reels ever got within a sneeze of 20,000 views. It's like, come on, all the things I've done that have substance, all I had to do is imply that people get sexually active with a droid, and boom, Instagram is like, we got you, boo.

SPEAKER_01 37:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:58

I'm learning how to internet.

SPEAKER_05 38:01

Following up. Follow up on this is are you gonna keep playing?

SPEAKER_04 38:07

Yeah, I mean, I have a game, I have a like multi-game rotation of things that are important to my channel. Someday I'm gonna figure out how to fit in Expedition 33's DLC, or I'll do more of that off stream, but I'd prefer to do it with an audience and be able to talk with people about it. Some of those fights look terrible, and I think it could be fun to watch me struggle that hard.

SPEAKER_05 38:31

I actually thought about that for you. Like, what's the rush? Like, I look at it like this is what's the rush to play the DLC? If you're not playing it right now, there's no rush because you've already missed everybody streaming the DLC to like be that new hotness. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 38:50

One of my favorite streamers is doing like vanilla Simon right now. Like, there's all ranges of people in that game on Twitch right now, but I also have Persona 3 reload. I also have, in theory, Final Fantasy XIV, which I have not made it to the end of the released content there, and I have Sotor. MMO games really line up well with who I am because that's the genre that all my research is about.

SPEAKER_05 39:21

I do have a question. I thought I saw a video. Isn't the new Resident Evil game coming out soon?

SPEAKER_04 39:27

Yeah, the very last week of February.

SPEAKER_05 39:32

You're a big Resident Evil guy.

SPEAKER_04 39:34

Yeah, it's like my third most favorite franchise of any video game franchise.

SPEAKER_05 39:40

Yeah, I saw that it was coming out, and I thought of you. I'm like, oh man, he's gotta be excited for that one.

SPEAKER_04 39:47

I'm super excited. One of my favorite characters is Leon S. Kennedy, and he's the main character of Resident Evil 2 and 4, and he's one of the characters in six. For some reason. He wasn't in eight. Come on, Capcom. You were on the verge of greatness, you know, two four six eight. But actually, Leon is now in two four six nine. So we got that. But he's one of the two characters. There's a new character that also is the main for that game. I'm really excited because it's a return to the nuclear-bombed Raccoon City.

SPEAKER_05 40:26

And the and when you're playing the girl, it's like the old horror style gameplay. And when you're playing him, it's the action.

SPEAKER_04 40:35

Yeah, Leon is definitely an action hero because he's been through it, he's seen it all, he's not afraid. So it's gonna be fun. I believe Resident Evil 9 will be one of my favorite games. I believe it'll go into the back of my head as a game where next time I write a book, this is gonna be an important part of it. There's a list of some really good games that just were not a big part of the gamer's journey, and whenever I get around to the second book, when I'm not crunching to do this insane gambling counseling training, there's gonna be some really cool ideas that I can put on the page.

SPEAKER_02 41:17

Yeah. Okay, Doritos. Marcus.

SPEAKER_00 41:22

How far did you get in Baldur's Gate? Oh, I don't know. I'm wandering around the first area. I have to die it a handful of times and to go back to the save save previous save file. It didn't work.

SPEAKER_06 41:36

Yeah, I guess F5 is your friend.

SPEAKER_04 41:40

Or Alt F4, if it's really bad.

SPEAKER_05 41:44

No, F5 is the quick save.

SPEAKER_04 41:47

I know Alt F4 is shut the shit down.

SPEAKER_05 41:51

That's right. I just got my my new keyboard, which I'm a little disappointed on, but it has the F keys, so good there. What class did you pick?

SPEAKER_00 42:05

I went with a sorcerer this time. Nice! Because I didn't what is this? That's completely not that's completely not my jam. That's why. Why'd you do that? All right. To because I am a ranged bow and arrow person through and through, so a ranger to the end, but that's what I play all the time. My main install tour is a sniper. I always play um, you know, but I I super enjoyed the what the horizon series, so things that that have ranged DPS, I really like. So but it's non-match users, non-force users, so wanted something different.

SPEAKER_04 42:53

Okay, well, you're gonna get fireball level five Doritos.

SPEAKER_01 42:58

Fire, fire, fire, fire!

SPEAKER_04 43:01

Just don't blow your whole party up. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 43:06

Too often. There we go. That sounds better too often.

SPEAKER_04 43:09

We should create a multiplayer campaign and do this together.

SPEAKER_02 43:15

Sounds good to me. Is there crossplay though?

SPEAKER_04 43:24

Because I really I can barely run the game on my PC. I'd much prefer to just use the PS5 to join you. We can probably check after that. Do you have a PS5 Pro? No, just I have a PS original PS5 in my living room and a PS5 Slim in my office. Okay. Just curious. Yeah, I I I bought the PS5 Slim like the day after I set my new desk up in this office when I moved in. If I would have waited like five months, I could have just done the PS5 Pro, but after I bought the Slim, I was like, I'm not going to buy a pro.

unknown 44:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:10

I have to I have to build a computer. Again?

SPEAKER_06 44:16

For my kid.

SPEAKER_02 44:17

Oh.

SPEAKER_05 44:18

So I don't know. I have to decide if I want to sell the 3090 and take that money, stick it in an account, and wait for the Steam Machine to come out, and then just buy him a Steam Machine.

SPEAKER_04 44:30

That's a smart plan.

SPEAKER_05 44:34

Yeah. Because I I want to buy him a Steam Machine because then it launches in big picture mode. And big picture mode is actually it's like your PlayStation or your Xbox interface. It's actually pretty awesome. And then he can use all of my games.

SPEAKER_00 44:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 44:49

In the family, family sharing, I think, Doritos.

SPEAKER_00 44:53

Yeah. You you get to pick which games are actually shared. So if they're games with content that he doesn't need to be consuming at the moment, given his age and stuff, he can actually control which games actually are used in the family view.

SPEAKER_05 45:10

Alright, perfect. Well, yeah, so like that's the way I look at it. And then between me and you guys, then I don't have to buy anything that's not on Steam anymore. That's true. Move on, move on from the PlayStation and console, and then we're done.

SPEAKER_04 45:25

When I inevitably get a new gaming PC that can also do everything I need for YouTube creation, content creation, CEU stuff for work, that will shift me off of the portal back to the Steam Deck, and then I'll have Steam will be my number one again, like it used to be. So I'm looking forward to that. I love my Steam Deck. I do too. I just a lot of the games that I want to play run better on PS5, and it's kind of hard to play Baldur's Gate 3 on a Steam Deck to me. I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 46:11

Yeah, I don't think I could, just like I don't think I could play Final Fantasy X. There's a couple games that I got that I want to play.

SPEAKER_04 46:18

Final Fantasy X graphics should look fine on a Steam Deck.

SPEAKER_05 46:22

Yeah, but I don't want to like how close am I gonna have to get to like read all the text.

SPEAKER_04 46:26

It's a PS2 game.

SPEAKER_05 46:28

Well, it's an HD remaster.

SPEAKER_04 46:31

Of a PS2 game, it's still gonna look like a very pretty PS2 game. Yeah. It's amazing. It's an amazing story. I had such a big fight with my editor about Final Fantasy X. They wanted to cut a big thing I talked about in my book. It was like the biggest thing I had to say about Final Fantasy X. So that tells you how I feel about that game.

SPEAKER_02 46:58

Sure. Journey. Yeah, remember last time we said he had Journey? So good.

SPEAKER_05 47:11

Yeah, I remember I said I bought it, but I'm just downloading it. I wonder how that'll play on the Steam Deck.

SPEAKER_04 47:17

Oh, perfect. It I mean that game actually works just fine as an iPhone app, right? Like it's it's so easy to play and get a good experience with it.

SPEAKER_05 47:29

I don't even know what it is. I can't wait to walk into it and play it. I've only seen you float through the worlds a couple times. I don't know if it's a platformer, I don't know if it's a puzzle game, I don't know anything. I don't want to know. I just want to get into it and just do it.

SPEAKER_04 47:44

When you go to play, please just do it at a time where you have two hours and just try to do it. Really? Yeah. You gotta call me. Yes, you have to call me the moment you finish it. I need that emotion.

SPEAKER_05 48:04

Yeah, I will. And like, I don't even know. Is there like do you attack in the game? Like, I know nothing about the game. I've never watched a video, like, I've watched you play it, Doc, a couple times of just jumping and floating, but like I don't know anything else about it. It's gonna be an experience for me.

SPEAKER_04 48:20

It's a spiritual awakening, Marcus.

SPEAKER_05 48:23

Yeah, whatever it is, I'm gonna find out, but I'm gonna screen record it. I'm gonna screen record when I play that.

SPEAKER_04 48:30

Here's the thing if you play it all in one sitting, then there's actually something that you won't be able to do because you finished it, and that is you won't be able to continue the journey.