I Won Fortnite By Hiding Behind A Tree And I’m Never Playing Again

A victory lap over Royal Rumble picks sets the tone, but the conversation quickly widens into something more intimate and surprising: how we protect our creative energy, choose our next game, and use stories to stay connected to the people we love. We admit the editing backlog, talk about returning to streaming without turning it into a prison, and then reveal a big milestone—our gambling harm training is about to launch with major healthcare interest, starring an AI version of our host that can teach, clarify, and converse like a mentor inside the course.

From there we sprint through the week in games: cheat-menu shenanigans in Final Fantasy VII Remake, a PlayStation showcase stacked with remakes, and the cozy pull of the Steam Deck. But the real heartbeat is a phone call about Star Wars that becomes a bridge across memory loss. That single question—who is Luke’s mother—turns into a meditation on why A New Hope still lands and how myth helps families find each other when details fade. It shifts how we weigh our next play: Final Fantasy X for beauty, flow, and a story that lingers, or Elden Ring NG+ for mastery and momentum. We break down those choices with honest constraints—time, trophies, handheld comfort, and the kind of week we’re having.

Along the way, we unpack the hero’s journey and how games mirror it so well that they secretly coach us through disruption, challenge, and return. We trade New Game Plus philosophies, celebrate a hilariously perfect Fortnite win earned through patience instead of panic, and shout out Ready Player One for stitching gamer culture and pop nostalgia into a single, satisfying thread. If you’re balancing work, family, and a pile of games, you’ll find both practical tips and emotional oxygen here—permission to pause, reasons to press on, and a reminder that the right story at the right time can change everything.

If this resonated, tap follow, share it with a friend who loves games and myth, and leave a quick review—what should Marcus play next: Final Fantasy X or Elden Ring NG+?

Transcript

Royal Rumble Predictions And Reactions

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Either way, what's up, gentlemen? It's good to see you guys.

SPEAKER_03 0:04

It's good to be back. Yeah. You avoided my victory lap about the Royal Rumble last week, Marcus.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

What was what was the topic?

SPEAKER_03 0:16

How Liv Morgan and Roman Reigns won the Royal Rumble.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

You know, okay, so I never I don't know. I'd have I gotta listen to the episode, but I don't think I disc disregarded Liv winning because I thought she was a solid possibility. I didn't want her to. I wanted Tiffy to win. But the Roman Reigns victory is so terrible to me. Because we don't need another part-time champion. And if they let him, if the Anawahi family who's pulling the strings over Triple H gets their way, Roman Reigns is gonna win it, and then the world heavyweight title is gonna show up once every couple weeks.

SPEAKER_03 0:55

What's up? I don't think he needs I don't think he needs to beat CM Punk for it to be a great WrestleMania match. No, it wasn't really about what's happening in WWE. It was about my greatness being able to call both Royal Rumbles before they happened. Right. And unfortunately, I got super busy with work and I'm behind on editing episodes, so it's all gonna be post hoc at this point. But the evidence is there on my hard drive whenever I get around to letting people hear it.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Pretty much they're gonna hear it when WrestleMania is coming out.

SPEAKER_03 1:36

I might even, you know what? I might even edit an episode while I'm grading stuff after this recording. Because I can probably multitask that if it's an episode where there were no technical glitches. The things that take the longest are like when my microphone goes wrong or something.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Yeah, I get it. I understand that.

SPEAKER_03 1:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

That's sweet.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

I I returned to streaming this week a little bit. So that was nice. Because of work, I had to take a three-week break that I did not intentionally even take a one-week break. It's just I looked at when's the last time I went live, and I think it was January 17th. Well, it just happens. It does.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

It's not if you treat it like a business, it becomes a prison sentence. But if you treat it as a hobby, it's okay to stop streaming for a month because you have other shit to handle.

SPEAKER_03 2:49

Yeah, that's true. So maybe for me it's not a prison sentence, but it's court-ordered community service.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

I don't think it's court-ordered. I think you're just doing a good deed. You're like the guy that goes and helps out like the I'm gonna call it, I'm gonna butcher what it is, like the food kitchen, or is it like a food pantry? You know what I mean? That like hands out food at like holidays.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Every community calls it something different, but they're all the same concept.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

You're you're volunteering a community service.

Launching The Gambling Training And AI Doppelgänger

SPEAKER_03 3:22

Yeah, that's true. Actually, I just want to say that we're on the precipice of my content having an extra level that I didn't even understand what that level was this entire time because the gambling training's about to go live, and there are major healthcare organizations that are ready to buy it. Oh wow, and in that training, I'm a video game character. Like, I'm all over it. It and Kinebridge's goal is to position me as like the celebrity expert in the training.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Well, you are the celebrity.

SPEAKER_03 4:11

I yes, but I have to wrap my head around that because it's happening in real time.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Can can I ask a question? Is there a way that I can submit a request for a free copy so I can do it?

SPEAKER_03 4:25

I will have to run that by. See, here's the thing. Whether I leave this in the episode or not, if I were to say I want to promote the training on my podcast and say that I believe our weekly audience is at least 50% mental health professionals, and it would help if Marcus and Doritos had the ability to at least do module one or however much they want to do. I could probably get a code generated that's specifically for promotion relationships. It's very possible. I can't say yes or no live on the air with since I didn't prep my answer with anybody, but first of all, can I I'm not here? That's the logic.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

You should definitely not take this out of the episode because you didn't say anything out of the world, but you should 100% if you made this training for this company, you should definitely say, Can I have a couple keys? Because I'd like Marcus and Doritos to be able to do this training.

SPEAKER_03 5:26

Marcus, I own the LMS, I'm the one that makes the keys.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

I just gotta make sure that everyone's big us a key because I want to do this training, and I'm gonna be making fun of you the entire time through it.

Cheat Menus, PlayStation Showcase, And Remakes

SPEAKER_03 5:39

Oh my gosh, you guys, I had a full conversation with myself voice to voice today. Is that weird? Be it was so cool though, because I actually saved the transcript and I'm going to I I don't know what I'm gonna do. I guess I'm gonna open it on my computer. I'm gonna screenshot it, I'm gonna put it in our Discord. So it introduced itself as Dr. Kaufman and then said, I said, I'm Dr. Kaufman. Oh, coincidence, you're another Dr. Kaufman. I was like, actually, I'm the real human that you are based on to help train people in this training. And it didn't break. It said, Ah, I see. That's quite a meta experience, isn't it? It's truly an honor to embody your teaching philosophy and expertise for the students in this course. I'm glad to hear that you're happy with the guidance I'm providing. And then it like went on from there. And at the end of the conversation, it said, Listen, I said have a good day. And it said at the end, you two continue the journey. He knows. Isn't that crazy? Oh my gosh. Also, I asked a serious question about the training to see how it would handle questions about content because that's why this little activity is in there. Is so that anything that people have questions about, they can actually have a conversation with me, quotes in the air, and get an answer because this AI version of me knows everything that I've ever published online, basically. It's so cool. So, like, even if there's content that I didn't build activities around, this AI me can still teach it to the students. So that's what I did today. Is that all you did today? No, I've been working non-stop Doritos. I used the new cheat menu in Final Fantasy VII Remake to beat the final chapter on hard mode, but I didn't learn any of the fights. I just need my way through every fight just to get the trophy using the unlimited limit, break meter, and unlimited magic. So the goal is just get the trophies. Someday I probably will go back and do hard mode in that game, but hard mode in rebirth is a better experience than remake because you have so many more abilities in rebirth that you didn't have in remake. So rebirth is the second one for anyone who's not following. Also, there was a PlayStation event today, and I did not get to watch it, but one thing I did see for sure is we're getting a remake of the entire Greek God of War trilogy, and that is amazing.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

And isn't that funny? Because that is not the game that I came out with. It was like, oh my god, they're celebrating the 40th year of Castlevania with a brand new Castlevania side-scrolling game. And you're one of the Belmonts, the last Belmont.

SPEAKER_03 8:57

The last Belmont. So does that mean you don't get a PlayStation now? I have two. That's right, you do. I have two also.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

I have two I have two PlayStations, but I'm hoping I would imagine if it's a Konami game, it's gonna come out for the PC day one. That's my guess. Speaking of PlayStation and all that, I really I haven't played a video game on my computer in weeks. I've been playing on my Steam Deck like crazy.

SPEAKER_03 9:33

Yeah?

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Yeah. I really do love that thing.

Steam Deck Habits And Baldur’s Gate Progress

SPEAKER_03 9:41

I do too, but I have been playing on my portal a little bit in the evenings before I decide to switch from so that's like my transition is I work pretty late and then I choose to do my portal for about 30 to 45 minutes and then I try to sleep. And that's been my kind of reward for getting to the end of my day, the way I'm using it. Sure. What about you, Doritos?

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Where are you playing? Shuffling through Baldur's Gate and just still chipping my ESOTOR. Haven't really ventured into a whole lot of new content yet.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

How many hours are you in Baldur's Gate?

SPEAKER_00 10:24

Sixty-one in-game hours? Of course, now I'm a completionist and I'm off doing all kinds of entertaining side things. Get to a map and go around the outside of the map, find out where everything is, and Oh, I'm not supposed to be here yet. Huh. Okay. Go back and backtrack and Yeah. So trying to avoid story spoilers if I can. Yeah. So how far are you into the game? I just got to Moonrest. Oh, I just can't say I just got to Moonrise Tower. I am at Moonrise Tower. I have not started Moonrise Tower yet. Okay, so it's Act Two. Yeah, it's Act Two.

unknown 11:09

Act.

SPEAKER_03 11:10

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I don't know anything about it. We gotta start our campaign.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

We do.

SPEAKER_03 11:22

We can do session zero after this.

New Job Overnight And Frustration At “Stupidity”

SPEAKER_01 11:25

I went to man, a bunch of shit has happened to me in the last week. Give us a rundown. No, I will. Real, I'm gonna give you the cliff notes that Doc Doc's almost right that it's really hard for me not to be an alpha. And I quit-I am not almost right, Marcus. I nailed that profile. So I quit my job. And a friend of mine that owns his own business, I was talking to him on the phone. He said, What are you doing? I was like, I'll just drive home. He goes, from where? I'm like, I went to grab a coffee and he goes, Wait a minute, why aren't you working? I quit my job last week. He goes, What? So you're a free agent? I said, Yeah, he's come to work tomorrow. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

Didn't take long. But yeah. And now you're doing the same thing again? Yeah, carpentry. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Yeah. I make things pretty. But yeah. I didn't not have I had zero days off. I thought I was gonna get a little break. Nope. Try guess again. Isn't that a good thing though? Oh, it's great. It's great. Talent. Talent is needed everywhere you go.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Yeah, true.

SPEAKER_03 12:49

I saw an interesting Instagram reel that is the antithesis of that before we started recording, and now I have to tell the story of it. It was this guy saying, How come anger management is something that you force people to do, but not stupidity management? So I'm not allowed to be angry, but 90% of my anger is about other people being stupid, and it's completely okay for them to be stupid. Explain how that works. I was like, Yep, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

I think I've seen I have seen a similar one.

SPEAKER_03 13:22

Yeah. I think that explains Marcus's situation perfectly, actually. You think so? I don't think you ever lost your cool and became angry, but I think you got incredibly frustrated by frequent stupidity.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

Oh, every day.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

Yeah, it looks in the mirror, it's awful. Oh, snap.

SPEAKER_03 13:50

You just turned Marcus into a Canadian from South Park.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

Apparently, I did. Canadian.

SPEAKER_03 13:56

Yeah, in South Park, if you're Canadian, you have hinged mouths instead of articulated mouths like the Americans do. It's their quick way of indicating the character is Canadian.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Oh. Eh?

SPEAKER_03 14:09

Now I've had to explain it. It's not clever anymore.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

That's okay. Those people who know.

SPEAKER_03 14:17

People who know. Okay. The people who know. I know. Oh my gosh. I had an amazing moment on my stream. A new person came in, tried to challenge me, because just try to figure out who's this creator I just stumbled on, threw me a follow, but started questioning if I really knew about the psychology of gaming. And I had this really cool moment where I just went off on how people don't know what they know, but I know what they don't know. If they don't know, if they don't know it, they know it, but I know it, then they don't know it, and then I know what they don't know, they don't know. And that happened on the stream. And I swear to God, if you pay attention to double negatives and you follow what I just said, it makes perfect sense.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

Okay. Sounds good. With ya.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

I like ice cream.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

I've not had ice cream in forever.

SPEAKER_03 15:15

I haven't had ice cream in forever. Now I'm just hearing Black Pink and Selena Gomez in my head. Thank you, Doritos.

A Stream Challenge And Knowing What People Don’t Know

SPEAKER_01 15:25

I do like this. But really truly, I think PlayStation cooked with their state of play. There was a list, I saw the list on Twitter, but it was they're doing the Metal Gear Solid remakes, the God of War thing you were talking about, Castlevania. There's a bunch of new action RPGs, which I'm just calling them Souls likes. Because why not? But they absolutely demolished with their state of play.

SPEAKER_04 15:57

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

Good for them. And then what else? Oh, and my last bit of news is I'm getting in my car on Saturday morning at 2 a.m., which is still technically Friday night to me because normal people would be sleeping, and I'm driving to Florida. What are you doing in Florida?

SPEAKER_03 16:18

What do you think I'm doing in Florida? I think you're going to a wrestling event in Tampa.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Oh, I wish. I wish. So there is one. They announced something is coming to Tampa, and that's when I messaged you and was like, hey, how far is Tampa? Two hours. Yeah. So I could fly into Tampa. You could meet me at a hotel. We could go to said wrestling event in Tampa, spend the night in a hotel, and then I get on an airplane the next day and come home.

SPEAKER_03 16:52

Yeah, that could happen. What are you actually doing in Florida?

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Oh, fun. My daughter turned 10, and we were supposed to go in January for her birthday, but my dog was really sick, and there was no way to leave Maggie, so Maggie's doing a little bit better now, and we're going. So we're four of us are driving.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

At least your kids can do the road trips.

Florida Road Trip, Kids, And Screen Time

SPEAKER_01 17:18

Dude, they have no choice. You guys want to go, then we go. You know what I'm saying? I'm a it's gonna sound like a really dick-headed thing to say. But we did them when I was a kid. You guys want to go to Disney? I'm not spending$2,800 on flights to go because it's school vacation week. You guys want to go? Yeah, we're gonna drive in the car. Okay, dad. Let's go. But let's talk reality. It's 2026. If you give a kid an iPad and a Nintendo Switch in unlimited screen time, those kids are the happiest they've ever been in their life.

SPEAKER_03 17:55

That's true. I just had to read Air to the Empire crammed up in the back row of a van.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 18:02

What were you gonna say, Doritos? What was your version of that? No, I didn't really have a version of that.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Oh, okay. Just plug plug children into screens, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It just helps pass the time.

SPEAKER_03 18:18

I for sure had a road trip though, where I played my Game Boy Advance, and I remember working on the Lord of the Rings games on Game Boy Advance during a car trip. That was in the early 2000s, and I remember definitely uh my Game Boy Color playing Pokemon Red or Pokemon Yellow. So it's not like kids having unlimited screen time in the car is the panacea is a 2026 thing because we had that in 1998 also.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

Right.

SPEAKER_03 18:55

Vocab word of the night, everybody.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

So it is the drive is 18 hours and 30 minutes.

Star Wars Debate And Nostalgia

SPEAKER_03 19:07

Yeah, you can't even watch all nine Star Wars movies in that time. But there's only six Star Wars movies. Not this again. What do you mean? There's eleven. There's really only one. Wait. If you say there's really only one Star Wars movie, what is your answer to that? There's only six, I said. I thought you just said there's only one. Did you hear that, Doritos? No, I heard six. Six. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

Really truly, though, if I'm gonna play that game, I'll be really honest. If there's only one Star Wars movie, which one it is, is it's the original, A New Hope. Like that is the Star Wars. Like you're coming in a time in between it all, and you're starting the story of some moisture farmer that has no clue, and he gets brought into a larger world. Can you imagine being a moisture farmer and then all of a sudden having to realize your dad is Darth Vader? That's some messed up stuff.

SPEAKER_03 20:22

He doesn't realize that his dad is Darth Vader for at least four years after the last time he farms moisture.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

Yeah, just following some crazy old guy around the galaxy. Yeah, it's true. Yeah. 18 hour pages then has a crush on his sister, walks around with a carpet.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

Yeah. Crush on his sister. See, that is that's gold, Doritos. Thank you for that. That's gold.

SPEAKER_03 20:52

I just have a really hard time letting go of Revenge of the Sith, everybody. Like, really difficult.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

It's not if okay. You couldn't. If you sat somebody down and put Revenge on the Sith on, they've never watched Star Wars, they'd be like, what in the hell is all of this? A New Hope. You guys New Hope is a complete and total standalone movie. No extra anything needed. Yeah, but then you have to explain to them why does it start off at chapter four? That is just because of, but when it first came out in 1977, it just said Star Wars. Didn't say a new hope, episode four.

SPEAKER_03 21:39

But they did change it before they brought out Empire Strikes Back.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

So maybe that's because it was successful. If you watch the George Lucas like thingy thing, it basically he said that we didn't put it on there because we thought it was gonna flop.

SPEAKER_04 21:57

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Yeah, that's true. But so I you mentioned something a second ago about Heir to the Empire. I bought my mom that book for Christmas. Has she read it? She's halfway through. Oh, that's so cool. My mom loves Star Wars books.

A Mother’s Call, Memory, And Connection

SPEAKER_03 22:19

That's an interesting segue to the thing I'm trying to figure out how to say. This is a really personal story. It happened to me yesterday. So my parents are old.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

When you say old, are we like 80 plus old, 70 plus old, 65 plus old?

SPEAKER_03 22:37

No, they're in their 70s. Okay. But my mom had to retire from her career because of a series of brain tumors and the treatments for them and affecting her memory and maybe some emotional regulation and understanding like how to be socially successful in certain situations. And she called me yesterday, and we do not talk a whole awful lot. And I had about five minutes before my next work meeting, so I answered. And she was just thinking about me a lot. And I think she used Star Wars as an excuse to talk to me, which is really actually thoughtful. And she just said, Daniel, they spend so much time being like Luke, I'm your father, and making a big deal about Darth Vader being Luke's father, but who's his mother? I was like, Mom, Pad Miami Dala is Luke and Leia's mother, and that's what the whole prequel trilogy is about. She's like, But who's their mother? And I was like, you know, the character played by Natalie Portman. She's oh, I really like Natalie Portman. And what movies do you know her from? She's isn't she in Star Wars? So that's what brain illnesses do to people. And I had to just remind her, like, mom, when I was in high school and college, we saw all three of those prequel movies together. Do you remember doing that? And so I guess I wasn't paying very close attention back then. I was like, yeah, they're like my favorite movies, and her she is not a secret that she's their mom. And so we talked about that, and my work meeting happened, and I had to go.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

But yeah, Star Wars is just one of those stories that has awesome ability to bring generations together and create conversations, and I guess I'm seeing that's cool that she was able to still make that connection and think of you and give you that call because again, my mother also has dementia, and honestly, she I don't even think knows my name anymore. Um she I'm just her son, that is it. Yeah. So to be able to still have for her to still have that connection with you like that is really freaking cool.

SPEAKER_03 25:07

Yeah. I agree. I just there were just so many things happening in this episode tonight that I just started feeling like, is there a way to bring this story out? Because it's really been weighing on me, and I've been thinking a lot about it. And really the thing is that was an excuse to talk to me, and that felt really nice, actually.

Choosing The Next Game: FFX Or Elden Ring

SPEAKER_01 25:29

That is. I agree. I always say it's parents, like at the end of the day, however, you feel about your parents, and whatever that emotion is of like however you were raised and you have anger, regret, or anything like that. But at the end of the day, you were a little kid to them, and they still loved you unconditionally, and I can't imagine having my 10-year-old and my seven-year-old someday when they grow up not want to talk to me because they said that I'm an asshole, right? And life's too short, man. And I and all this stuff, that stuff has hit me because my mom now lives in Kansas City. And like my mom and I, my mom and I's relationships look like you're climbing the Rocky Mountains up and down, you know what I mean? But at the end of the day, man, you only have one mom. Good, bad, or indifferent. You only got one mom.

SPEAKER_03 26:37

And I never had a dad, so you know who else didn't have a dad? Anakin. Anakin Skywalker.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

Yeah. But I'm nothing like Anakin.

SPEAKER_03 26:56

I used to think I wasn't very much like Anakin, but we'll see.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

Okay. Opinion time. You guys ready for this? I need your opinion time. Always. Alright, so I think I'm really close to being done with that fill in the fantasy game. Like, I like when you look at the map, I visited almost everywhere, right? So I'm guessing to the end, maybe maybe it pulls a Castlevania Symphony Knight and goes upside down. Excuse me. And I need to. And something else happens. But I've almost explored the map. So I'm going to Florida. I'm bringing the Steam Deck. I'm probably gonna beat Filna. But I need the next game. So here's the options Final Fantasy X. Elden Ring. Start start new game plus because I'm not beating the DLC. I have no desire for that. And this is on the Steam Deck. I don't want to play Baldur's Gate because I've watched like the I've watched the Baldur's Gate footage. Like it's verified and it plays on it, but it plays terrible. Yes, I agree. Okay. So I or I play Street Fighter 6 on it. Those are my three choices. Or I play Pathfinder. It's like a game, it's like Baldur's Gate, but it's not.

SPEAKER_03 28:34

Yeah, because Pathfinder is like DD. Yes. Yeah. It's one that's not by Wizards of the Coast, but who makes Pathfinder?

SPEAKER_00 28:41

Can't remember now.

SPEAKER_03 28:42

I don't remember.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Anyway, same concept. Owl Cat games.

The Hero’s Journey And The Gamer’s Journey

SPEAKER_03 28:48

I think New Game Plus and Elden Ring is something you should give yourself a chance to enjoy and get a second Moon Veil katana finally and just live it up in the lands between. Then play Final Fantasy X. I was actually taking the trash out yesterday, realizing how close I am to the Platinum in Final Fantasy VII remake, and I thought about playing Final Fantasy X. If I had woken up early enough for my stream to end and have still time, I was gonna start 10 as an overtime bonus on my stream today. Yeah, it's so good. Like the story is top tier. I'm sure the gameplay is aged, but that's okay. Well, so early 2000s is a fun era.

SPEAKER_01 29:42

The remaster the HD remaster, they say it plays really good and it actually plays a lot like Claire. Like you're gonna get a lot of a lot of Claire is pulled from it. Like obviously, you're not dodging or no dodges or parries, obviously, but they say the game itself is very like the story and the flow of the game is very much like Claire.

SPEAKER_03 30:08

Yeah, there is a very the story beats flow very similarly, actually. You know why that is, Marcus. Why it's because of the hero's journey and how you have the ordinary world, and then some catastrophe happens that causes you to realize that the ordinary world is not safe, and someone needs to fight and put their whole life and being into saving it, and that someone just happens to be the character that you're controlling. And if you're gonna be about it, you better go do something about it. Or no, if you're gonna I don't know, I don't remember the phrase. Anyway, you just have to answer the call to adventure and become the hero that saves the world.

SPEAKER_01 30:57

But why does that happen? Like, why can't you just be a guy and not have to go through the whole circle?

SPEAKER_03 31:11

If you go back to ancient Greece, they had the Odyssey, which is just Odysseus's whole path from going to war and trying to figure out a way to get back home to his family. And also in Exodus, you have just regular baby floating down the Nile, raised as like royalty to the Pharaoh, but like murders someone has to flee, and then a burning bush tells him, You gotta go get my people. So these stories all have the beats of a person who was living a life, a tragic thing happens that challenges the structure of that safe and secure lifestyle, and then something else activates that says, Hey, go do something that is mind-blowing that will literally create purpose that everyone in the world recognizes you for. Okay, we've always told stories this way, it's not a video game thing, it's not even a book thing, it's like standing in the town square telling a story, oral tradition, it's writing things on scrolls. Yeah, like what Doritos was saying too, it's just storytelling. But at least 200 video games are like in the gamer's journey talking about this entire thing.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

What's the gamer's journey?

SPEAKER_03 32:57

It's my book that explains how video games have used the hero's journey and the monomyth as a storytelling tool to apply these major lessons from our favorite games into our own lives so we can level up and be the hero of our own stories in our life.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

It's really unfortunate because I don't usually buy books unless they win an award.

SPEAKER_03 33:20

Yeah, my book did win an award. So you can buy the book, Marcus. It's funny that we have this meme in every episode. It's awesome. But but that whole Final Fantasy X thing that just happened was really organic, and it is just a sign that video games actually are doing this. I just happen to be a person who started writing about it, and like now it's so easy to just throw it into conversation because it really is everywhere. All the games in this PlayStation showcase, I can find at least 10 of the 17 major stages of the hero's journey in all of these games, just guaranteed.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

Why do I pick the game that I pick? Because there's always so many options, right? It's like when I choke with my wife. This is not, I'm not picking yes, I am picking on her. Who am I kidding?

SPEAKER_03 34:13

You're so picky, but please tell the story.

SPEAKER_01 34:16

But she'll say to me, What do you want to do for dinner tonight? And I and I say, Oh, I could really go for lasagna. I don't want lasagna. Okay, why don't we do Mexican? I don't feel like Mexican. And then I just put up my arms and I'm like, you pick. Well, I don't know what I want. Whatever you pick, I'm gonna just go. But what I'm saying is it goes with the Marcus meme of our show. I'm staring at my Steam library and wanting to talk about Steam. And I look at all these games, some I've played, some I haven't, and I say to myself, what drives me to play this next game? And how do I get there?

SPEAKER_03 35:05

But when you were asking, and I brought up Elden Ring just purely for an experience perspective and the chance to get a new weapon, those are part of different player motivations, and it did not convince you. But what you said, I can tell you what let me finish, darn it. What you said about Final Fantasy X is that it looks amazing. That was the first thing you said, and it plays great. That's the second thing you said, and also I think somewhere in there you mentioned that it has an amazing story. Okay, so you're actually the way you naturally started pitching Final Fantasy X is like your wife knowing what she wanted, she just wanted to know if you were gonna say it. I told you Elden Ring, but you knew you wanted Final Fantasy X, and you had your motivation for why lined up. And I would even argue the order that you said things is showing your priority of what will make you fall in love with the game, you Marcus, the player. Yeah, looks amazing, plays great, has a nice story.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

Yeah, and to circle back to why I don't want to do new game plus because I don't want to be stuck in the beginning of the game because I'm gonna start it and I'm not gonna finish it.

SPEAKER_03 36:39

You will cut through the beginning of the game so much faster than you did the first time, and it's not because the game is gonna level up its difficulty because new game plus is like double the pain of the first one, but you are a much better player than you were at the start of the first playthrough, and that is so much more important than how difficult the damage multiplier is set to.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

I understand what you're saying, but what I mean is I look at the amount of time that I can play a video game, and I know that if I start new game plus, I'm gonna be in limb grave forever.

Horizon Bow Combat And Growing Aim Skills

SPEAKER_03 37:20

Yeah, and play Final Fantasy X. It might be like a 30 to 50 hour experience, depending on how many side quests you open yourself up to, but it's an amazing story, and you'll get to come on the episode and be like, dude, I got to this part, blah blah blah, and oh this character, and oh, they did what? And like oh he she what they became this, yeah. And I look forward to stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

Now, Doritos, do you have interest in doing a new game plus in a game?

SPEAKER_00 37:53

Yeah, I've done it in several games. Like what? Horizon series I've platinumed Zero Ton, which is completing the game on normal and then hard and then ultra hard. Okay because they have an achievement for each of those.

SPEAKER_01 38:14

Um it's not just mega hard, it's ultra.

SPEAKER_00 38:17

That's right. But it's not plus ultra, just ultra. Plus ultra.

SPEAKER_03 38:26

This is a wild conversation.

SPEAKER_01 38:28

No, but yeah, but seriously, it's hard because if you don't have the time to beat a game, starting new game plus is a bad idea. Like I would do c I feel like I could do New Game Plus and Claire right now and start the story over and be just fine because the game is awesome and like you don't really need to do all the extra shit, and I've done most of it, but I also have no desire to do their DLC.

The Perfect Fortnite Win And Win Rate

SPEAKER_03 39:03

Yeah, the DLC came out, and I did it my first stream after it came out, and it was nice, but it didn't convince me to come back, and there are several times with Claire Obscure Expedition 33 as much as I love the game where I just stopped and didn't come back for a while, and I can't explain that other than maybe extreme work stress looming in the background. But as far the new game plus question, yeah, it had to be because I couldn't stop. My first time through the game, I did not stop. Alright. Yeah, but the problem with that playthrough is I was level 35 characters in the final boss fight, and everything felt hard. So, as far as the new game plus question for me, I am all about new game pluses. Resident Evil 4 remake, if I want to platinum that, I'm gonna have to go through at least six times because there are trophies for all the difficulties, but there's also trophies that you can't earn on the same playthrough because there's a trophy for completing all the side quest contracts, but you have to talk to the merchant to turn those in. There's also a trophy for do not talk to the merchant the entire playthrough, so you can't get those on the same playthrough. Then there's one for win the whole game only using handgun and knife, so that's an insane thing that I'm probably gonna have to do that on the easiest difficulty. So there's another playthrough. I think achievements are the impetus for me going after New Game Plus. But if it's a game that I love the story and the characters, I will play it all the time. I don't have a feeling inside of me that activates this I've played this game before. I'm playing Final Fantasy VII Remake right now. My save file when I came back to do trophy cleanup for that, it said January 27th, 2024. And I came back to the game on January 25th, 2026.

SPEAKER_00 41:11

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 41:12

Yeah. But I'm loving it. I love the characters so much. It really is my favorite game of all time.

SPEAKER_01 41:26

Oh Claire. I wanna I want to do Claire's new game plus just so I can do Versos ending.

SPEAKER_03 41:38

Oh, you only have my L's ending in your mind.

SPEAKER_01 41:41

And I refuse like I watched on YouTube, but it isn't the same.

SPEAKER_03 41:45

And if I No, you gotta earn it.

SPEAKER_01 41:46

Yeah. And going back in a game, I'm trying to remember, I watched Doritos play a game, and it just I got engulfed. It was that Zero game. Horizon Zero Dawn. I would watch Doritos play that, and I was just like, it's bow combat, like bow and arrow, and I can't. That's not me. So I completely lived vicariously through Doritos playing that game. And there was one of those, like, all of a sudden out of nowhere, it was like a four-legged dog wolf, giant mech. What the hell is it called, Doritos? Remember? I'll think of it in a minute. So it jumped out of this tree, and he's Doritos in his thing is oh boy, that was it. And then he just shot it, and then as soon as he killed it, and he was like, Bless your heart. But I enjoy that because I'm never gonna play the game, but seeing that section made me really at that point. I was like, wow, I really want to play this game, but then I realized this game's not for me.

Ready Player One, Pop Culture, And Continuing The Journey

SPEAKER_03 42:49

You know, when I played the game on a stream to see if that's gonna be one of my next ones, it was at a point in time where I was not playing a lot of games where my aim mattered, and so I felt really uncomfortable streaming that. But now that I have been playing some Fortnite and I have been playing lots of Resident Evil, I feel like I could do a good job with Horizon Zero Dawn because my aim is getting better, and even though every game aims in a slightly different way, there's just a general skill with a controller that if you use it in a bunch of different games, you will get better coordination for it. Everyone, I gotta tell you what happened in Fortnite for me this week because it's insane. What happened? It's a new it's a new season, and I bought a skin like weeks ago, and I did a couple matches with it, but I didn't keep going. And the skin was Ariana Grande, okay? Because I just have a sweet spot for female pop stars. And I decided to do a match on Saturday just so I could get one more match out of Ariana Grande. And instead of running into every skirmish that I could hear, I decided I'm gonna play this like it's the Hunger Games. So I found a few guns and I found a rocket pack, and I just was zipping across the map, finding like little buildings to hide in, pointing my gun at the door, waiting for people to walk in, taking them out, and just being patient and being like, I don't want to fight. I was low energy in real life, and I just was like, I don't want adrenaline, I just want to do this match. I got down to the final two, and the map started shrinking, and then moving the safe zone across the map. I still had seven charges on my rocket pack, so I just started flying to the places that were safe in time and looking, but not like aggressively running around, just casually like finding a tree, like slowly panning to see if I can hear footsteps, see anything.

SPEAKER_02 45:10

And then victory royale popped. The other person could not stay in the safe part of the map, and I just won by default.

SPEAKER_03 45:19

And that's the only match, that's the only match I've done this season. So my record says win percentage 1,000, loss is zero, victories one. Yep. So I'm perfect. I'm greatest of all time at Fortnite right now. Done.

SPEAKER_00 45:39

Done.

SPEAKER_03 45:41

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 45:41

Great job. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:43

It's the best I will ever be on that record screen.

SPEAKER_00 45:48

Bow and exit stage lift.

SPEAKER_03 45:52

It makes me not want to do another match.

SPEAKER_01 45:55

I finished a book and it's pretty, I don't know how old it is. But man, was it good. Have you guys ever read the book Ready Player One? Yeah. Nope. It was really good.

SPEAKER_03 46:11

Yeah. And it's really cool the way that it has so much just gamer psychology and just pop culture stuff all over it. It's so cool.

SPEAKER_01 46:24

Yeah. The book was incredible. I'm in the second book now.

SPEAKER_03 46:29

Nice. Ready player two.

SPEAKER_01 46:33

But yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:34

I see what they did there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:38

Hey. What can I say when you're going in the gamer's journey in a circle and you're feeling the flow? It makes you want to continue the journey.