Online Friends Stay After The Credits Roll

Destiny 2 heading toward maintenance mode sounds like a simple business update until you feel what it really means: a shared world stops growing, and the friendships tied to that world suddenly feel fragile. We talk through that gut-punch moment, why “servers still online” isn’t the same as a living game, and how a shutdown date can trigger something that looks a lot like grief.

From there, we zoom out to the human side of live service games and online communities. We wrestle with the idea that you rarely know when you’ve had the last raid with your people, the last night of laughter, or the last time a familiar name shows up in your fireteam list. We also look at the ripple effects for Destiny-focused content creators, the developers who poured years into updates, and the financial realities that push studios to pivot, rebrand, or move on.

We keep it real and a little chaotic with what we’re playing now too: the surprisingly perfect humor and decision-driven design of Dispatch, a candid moment about playing mature content around family, and a thoughtful sidebar on Persona 3 Reload and why its imagery can be complicated for anyone working in mental health. We end by grounding it all in one message: enjoy the people and the moments while they’re still here.

If this conversation hits home, subscribe, share it with a friend you used to game with, and leave a review. What game gave you a community you’ll never forget?

Transcript

When Games Eventually Go Dark

SPEAKER_02 0:14

You ever think about the day that the game you met somebody finally shuts down? And I think about that a lot, and I never thought it would be this game I'm gonna mention in a second. I always thought it would be Swator. I always thought there's Swotor shutting down. No, well, they've been saying that since the day it launched.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Oh my gosh. That is the first time on this show that we've engaged that rumor, but all the other people are not not even close. Right. They're gonna they're gonna do Star Wars the Old Republic until Grogu dies at 900 years old and does not look as good.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

He does not Yeah, if if if RuneScape and what's that other one? EverQuest can still run 30 years later, Swotor can run as long as the developer's making money and they can keep producing it. But my point is is I always thought about that would be the first game that shuts down, and all of these awesome people I've met through the years, you two included, through that game, right? But it's not that game. And I have been really busy with work and baseball and softball. Like I haven't really been paying attention to the news.

The Destiny 2 Maintenance Mode News

SPEAKER_02 1:40

And I got a message today about Destiny 2. And on June 9th, 2026, they're ending the live service portion of the game. They're basically Go ahead. They're basically putting it in a state like Destiny 1 is, and you'll be able to just play it. But the live service portion of the game is essentially over, is the way I understood it.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

There'll be no more live updates. There's no gonna be no more continued content. This will be the last of the new quote unquote new content coming out for the game of any kind. It's gonna be going into maintenance mode. Um, I've watched a couple of content creators who solely do destiny give their two cents worth on this today, and they're I mean it's bittersweet. It's definitely bittersweet because I mean we had a quite a group going in in Destiny, but this is I wouldn't say it's an inevitability, but since the final shape concluded player base, I'm I'm I'd be keeping up with it, watching a couple different content creators give their two cents worth. And then what was it two weeks ago? Sony's financial announcement about the lack of production from the bungee acquisition has I and I have to believe that that has a part to play in all of this. We can't continue to support a an IP that can't continue to bring in.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

So yeah, and immediately when I read all this stuff, I kind of just stopped, and I think it's like no pun intended, but destiny. It was destiny that it happens on a podcast night because I literally when I read it, I literally pulled in my driveway today because I had to pick the kids up from school, and they got out of the car and I looked down at my phone as I unplugged it and was getting out, and it said destiny it essentially said maintenance mode for destiny, June 9th. And I literally sat there for probably three minutes in silence and flashed to so many people's digital faces that I have ingrained in my head, you know what I mean? From that game of people I've known Scarlet, Worgus, Free Ride, you know what I mean? Huh? Goldie, Goldie, duffed, you know, like the cr the crew, you know what I mean? And and then like my my my fire team, essentially Venom Cat, and like the it like literally flashed, like wow. It's it, you know, content creators are always focusing on doom and gloom, always, right? That's how you get your clicks on YouTube. Be negative and you get clicks, right? Like, that's what people want, is nobody wants the positivity. Maybe you'll want to hear the Debbie Downer version, but hearing hearing that a game that you love, even though you might have been angry at or you stopped playing and took a like I always I never say I quit a game, but I always say I'm taking a break from the game. But knowing like that game is essentially DOA or DOD.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

I again it it's not dead on arrival. I mean, it's been out for eight years, nine years.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

Well, yeah, I I mean, but the but you know, you think about all that, like the weekly videos that you watch of As to Cross or I Do or FaZe that like talks about the upcoming stuff in Destiny, even though I'm not playing it, but it's just part of my life. You know what I mean? Like those creators, and I'm not saying I won't watch their content when they talk about another game, sure. But those emotional connections link to this one game, and it's I'm gonna go back all the way to like Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. There were a couple friends I played with every single day, and then one day, like they move on from the game, or I move on, and you just never talk to these people again, and you think about that. And in Discord wasn't back then in the Xbox 360 days, right? So, like, there's a different way of connect. But what I'm saying is is when you finally hear that a game, even though you haven't played it in a while, is shutting down. Honestly, I was coming home and I just updated it because I'm like, well, I might as well play it for that those last few

What “Live Service” Really Means

SPEAKER_02 6:35

weeks of it actually being a live game because there's a lot of fun that I had in that game.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

See, it's still it's I don't know what when you say live game, help me understand. So a live in my mind, it's still gonna be a live game. They're not shutting this, they're not shutting the game servers down.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

It's a different vibe. You when you go across the threshold of no more new content of a game, it's no longer live, it's just on. Like the servers are on. They're not, there's no more new quests. When you get to the end of that story, that's it, right? Like there's not that's it. You're not there's nothing left to progress. I can go back to the beginning of whatever they vaulted the content and start a whole new campaign all over again and have another 800 hours of fun in it, but there's nothing new past that point. That's what I mean by the lives over. There's no more this week in destiny.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

You said crossing the threshold, Marcus. I'm so proud of you.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

I did that on purpose. I did that for you. That was it. Was that a page out of a book? Yeah, I I heard there's a book, but but who wrote that book? Wait, I heard that whoever wrote that book won an award.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Yeah, it's someone who never played Destiny 2.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

But but you know, but but you know what's funny, Doc, about that? You're sitting here in silence, and I can see your face, and you're hearing us talk about the emotion of this, and you have the feels because I guarantee there's some game that you have this feeling in.

Grief, Teams, And The Last Run

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Well, you know, I've been very open about what's going on in my life. In fact, I got an email from someone who's a listener who just wanted to say, like, how I handled the loss in my life last month with my dad passing, and how I just made it part of the show, but I turned it into that's the week where we talked about the stages of life and how gaming changes at different phases of our lifespan. And you know, when I'm talking about this stuff, some stuff is planned and some stuff just happens. And when something like that just happens and our audience still is like that made a big difference to me, and took the time to send the message to one of us so that we know, that makes a big difference to me, you know. And so the the theme here is still loss, it's a different kind of loss. But what I'm thinking about with my gears turning, listening to this, since I was not part of the Destiny 2 community. I'm thinking about the games I have played socially and in a team with other players, and some of the names you mentioned in Destiny are names that I've played other games with. And I've played other games with the both of you too. And just like in life, you don't get a nice little phone notification that says, like, you just had the last conversation with that person. I hope you enjoyed it. Good job. Continue the journey. But it you know, the last time you do a flashpoint or an operation with your seven closest SOTOR friends, it's not tagged as this is the final operation of Death Star Troopers. But at some point in our time playing the game, Marcus, we did run our final operation as Death Star Troopers. Sure did. And then and then a week happens, a month happens, a year happens, and you don't even remember which operation it was. You just know it's over. Unless you know I don't know what the last one was. Alright. You know, so I'm thinking about that. How you know games at least can tell you, you know, this is when live content stops, this is when maintenance mode starts, this is when servers shut down. And you can plan sentimental stuff around that. But in life, you really gotta enjoy things being active when they're active. And you know, for me, I've been so goal-oriented for so long that I'm realizing that I gotta start focusing on enjoying those things instead of just completing them because that's on the schedule today and then moving on to the next thing, and nothing ever really impacts, right? Like I'm all over the place listening to this, but I'm just I'm feeling the loss of my own teams over the years, and how a lot of those losses are my fault, because I decided I had other goals besides being on those teams.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

So in it, in it, but now add in the game, you know, essentially you finding out that it's the end.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

You know what I mean? I'm kind of based on this news and me not knowing anything, I'm kind of on Dorito's side that there's no more new content, but if the servers are still live, you could still go in there and run that stuff with your team.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

But it's a different feeling for me when you know that there's nothing new.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

It's like playing coming, there's nothing around the corner coming.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

It's what you get is what you get.

New Games To Fill The Gap

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Right. But at the same time, that game Marathon, which is an extraction shooter. I'm not a big fan of the PvP, the PvP portion of it, but they announced that they're going to be doing a full PVE. Now, that's something that I can get down with. Get Doritos to get it, get you to get it, and we go in and try to like win a really hard first-person shooter like extraction match against AI bots. I'm okay with that, right? Like, that would be fun to me because I'm not going against people who are just a million times better than me. I'm gonna get killed by the computer, which is a million times better than me. But but my point, my real point is hearing the end, and this might be the first end of a game that so many people have come to mind since I've read that and heard it. It's been it's been a roller coaster. And I

Dispatch Review And A Parenting Moment

SPEAKER_02 13:40

think the other side of that is I played Dispatch and I got completely uh I got completely sucked in. Like every moment that I could play, I played it and I beat the story. And I can actually say that I have finally found a game that is 100% through and through my humor. Like I found a I found a game that is dirty, raunchy, swears, like it's like working class nerds video game, right? Like out of control. It's you want to know where my brain is. Whoever made that game, that was like they took my brain and inserted it into that game.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

It's a really good game.

SPEAKER_02 14:29

It's a really good game. And the sweet part is there's so many decision trees, and I fucked up so many missions that like now I want to go back because I don't want to just be a junior dispatcher because I'm so bad at minute minute missions, you know what I mean? I think I made it to like assistant dispatcher, but now I want to be like the real junior woodchuck dispatcher, but and like learning how to manage the characters, and like it's really the decision trees, because in the end, like my the one thing that I wanted to happen at the end of the game didn't happen, and I was kind of disappointed about it because of what happens in the beginning of the game, and I was like, I need that, like this is my kind of humor, my kind of game. So my point is so I had the high emotions of that game because that game really does mess with your emotions up and down.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

What dispatch?

SPEAKER_02 15:30

Yeah, okay, you know what I mean? But then and then hearing this about this the the news about destiny, I was just like blown away. And note to anybody that's listening to this, that's a dad do not play dispatch and have the volume anywhere near your kids.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

Oh my god, I have a story about that. Keep in mind, my son is 17, so like it's not the end of the world, but I was playing that game with him on the couch watching the whole thing, like just talking about it. Got to episode four, which is that girl's sex dream about your main character guy, and I just got so embarrassed. I like hit the PlayStation center button, closed the game. Just like, I think I'm gonna have to play this a different time. He just looked at me like, okay, and walked away like I'm the weirdest guy ever. Whatever when I went and played it later that night on my portal, I was like seven seconds away from that scene being over and the chapter being normal. And I was just like, I should have just endured it and been like birds and the beast talk time. But I I didn't do that, so it's it is still such an amazing game. It's cartoon, TV show, you make the decisions for your main character, it changes the relationships of who's on the squad. And the story is you are a dispatcher like a 911 dispatcher, but you are sending out defunct supervillains that are legally enrolled in a program to make them serve as superheroes to clean up the crime in the city. And so you are like their rehab program that they're doing the service for the city instead of like going to prison for their supervillain crimes. And of course, there are other supervillains that are trying to actively destroy you and the city, and so it alternates between TV show decision making and then you having a map of the city and choosing which superheroes to send to which crimes, and then there's all kinds of odds and little mini-games that happen to decide whether they are successful at their missions or not. So you can like bomb your job and your city is in ruins, but the story keeps going. But the worse you do every TV episode, because it's in episode format, the worse you do, the harder it is to win the final battles. And if you don't win the final battles, the TV show still ends. Season one of the show still ends. You just get a really bad story, and that is such a cool way to experience a video game. So now if you haven't played it, you know what it is. And you can Doritos, have you played this game? Nope, I don't have it. Oh man, we gotta do a review show of dispatch. Actually, is that a thing that we would be interested in doing? Like, pick games, like one episode out of the month, we pick a game and we just review it. And then like the other ones can be like psychological topics. By the way, the psychological topics we've been doing are getting very good feedback sent my way from people. Yeah, so thank you, or both of you doing that. And Marcus, the reason we started actually doing those episodes is because you told me you wanted to do it that way. So, all kinds of fun. I'm sorry that you guys are losing the the vibe from destiny, though. That is a level of grief that nobody woke up this morning wanting to experience.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Handled Doritos is now proud owner of Dispatch.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

Oh, nice. This is what we do on the gaming persona. I buy Marcus Expedition 33, Marcus buys Doritos Expedition 33, Marcus by actually, Marcus is just the one that throws his money around.

SPEAKER_02 19:44

No, you are, but but like you okay, I feel about Dispatch, about how passionate you were about Claire, and granted, they're two different games, but if you like dispatch is my brain in a game and like my humor, and like it is the perfect fun game. The only advice I'm gonna give you because I'm a complete idiot, is go in the settings and turn off the timer in the hacking area.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Oh, I didn't do that, I just succeeded.

SPEAKER_02 20:22

Yeah, I failed a lot.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

Okay, well, Doritos, you can either take Marcus's advice or believe that you're closer to my level of intelligence than his. Oh my gosh, wait, Marcus, on that topic, you made an appearance. I am. You made a really cool appearance on my stream today.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

Was there a picture of me?

SPEAKER_01 20:46

No, no, there was no picture. But we had my chat for about five minutes discussing your terrible decisions in hat wear.

SPEAKER_02 20:56

Oh, that's alright.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

But they miss you. So I was playing Persona 3.

Persona 3 Reload And Mental Health

SPEAKER_01 21:04

And is that Royale? No, it's reload, persona 3 reload. This one is kind of problematic for me because I'm a mental health professional, and obviously, I have a stance that ending your life is not a good thing. And it's anime style stuff, and the way they unlock their superpowers in this game is they take a magical item that looks very much like a gun, but it's not a gun, but it's totally a gun, and they shoot the mental energy out of their brain, and then it becomes the persona behind them, and then that's how they use their psychological powers, their persona powers. And this was really controversial in the early 2000s. It made the game get a reputation for being very gritty and pushing the envelope, and then Persona 4, nothing like that to summon your powers. Son of 5 is like the most anime cool style video game of all time. It doesn't do stuff like this either. But they kept it in the remake, and for me, I just feel like I have to do a disclaimer every time I stream it. But story-wise, it's a good story. Characters are great. I just really have an issue with having having the the hero characters doing that every time I want to use a magic spell. Sure. Yeah. This is like the 27th time we've talked about it on the gaming persona. I just have a a fear that a mental health professional will check out my stream, see that, and then make a judgment about me that's like nowhere close to true.

SPEAKER_02 22:47

Yeah. But if I didn't mention somebody's name from the Destiny 2 community, I'm sorry that I but there's just people's heads. Oh my god, faces. It just you know that like even though it's in maintenance mode, there's like that mythical end. Because people now will people will move on.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

You can you can either take it one or two. I mean, you can be bittersweet, where you're you know, it's just a it's a thing that happens, everybody's gotta kind of come to terms with it, or you can be sad about it because I I really feel for the people that were the content creators that was their only game, and they're only their their primary source of income where they had so many followers, that's what they did. That's you know, now no fault of their own, they've got to change and find another means of income. That's another game that that that now they can rebuild that that follower base.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

Yeah, that right there is true too. Think about all the people that are affected by that with their careers.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

And then, you know, look at the folks at just the devs, too. You know, they put some of them that were still there, I'm sure, for eight, nine years, ten years working on this project. They now have to redirect their efforts, which is part of the industry, I get it, but still having to reinvent your self almost constantly, it's taxing mentally. I mean, you've got you gotta imagine they're they are mentally burnt out a lot of the time from what all they have to deal with. It's true.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

You know, listening to that and thinking about the difference between live service game getting their servers shut down and just being in maintenance mode, I was thinking about all the games that we can play that do not have live service servers, and how basically every story game that we play is in maintenance mode from the moment that we buy it and there's no more DLC coming. Right, you know, like if the servers are still up and I can go in and create a character and you can log into your account and drag me through stuff that's still brand new for me, the game still exists. You know, the they could be in maintenance mode for 15 years, for all we know, you know, right? Like oh you are absolutely correct. Bungie might be making Destiny 3 for Sony, and they're just getting ahead of it and saying, like, we're not competing with ourselves for an IP that we own now. It's always a possibility as well. Very much so. Like this could be a huge net positive for the community if we just give them three years to show us what it actually means.

SPEAKER_02 25:58

I I actually believe that they're making Destiny 3, but that's years and years and years away.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

I feel like Destiny 1 came out and then Destiny 2 came out pretty fast.

SPEAKER_02 26:15

Yeah, that was because they had it was such a success, and Activision was like, just make another game.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

Oh, yeah, but now Activision's got stuff locked behind that we don't have access to until that gets potentially corrected or negotiated through. Right. Which I find sad. You know, I I didn't I never play got to play a lot of that vaulted content, and and I think it would help give more context appreci appreciation for the the the lore as a whole.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

Yeah.

Industry Fallout For Creators And Devs

SPEAKER_01 27:00

I'm gonna share an unpopular opinion, but I feel like across the board, life was better in 2016 than it is right now. Like just the video game industry. Autobi POV. It's things are hard. Like, we are in hard mode. Like you could pick your difficulty in 2016. Everything is Dark Souls 3 now, right? Like, we're we're in Elden Ring territory and what it's like to find your entertainment, be an adult, make everything make ends meet.

SPEAKER_03 27:41

I don't want to grow up.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

Yeah. But you know, at least we have Expedition 33.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

We got a few things out there, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:54

Oh, we have a lot. It's I I guess it just, you know, and then there's haters who have hated Destiny since day one, so like they're jumping on the bandwagon of like, oh, it's trash, blah blah blah, and they can't even they're they're hearing what people are saying, but they're just in their mind, they're just like this game's trash. But like I said, there's people that like I've met through this game that are just and like hey, you can log in, you can go play it, it's not gonna change. There's still gonna be one more update. Last time I played this game was June 24th, 2024. Oh man.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

So, like, okay, I have two years to go. Right. I'm gonna say another thing here. If you do something for five years of your life and it ends, you can either be the kind of person who says the whole thing was trash and you resent that thing even though it's done. Or you can be the kind of person that acknowledges this was a good thing for me for a long time. Oh, I believe that I walked away from it for a reason, but I'm not going to rewrite the story and say that it was bad or abusive or I hated it the whole time. And I think that that's a hard thing for people to accept, whether it's a fictional thing or a relationship or the ending of a period of time in your life, like grad school, college, high school, your time at a job. Like you can leave a job that you've been at that provided for you and your family for a long time, leave for a reason, hate the place at the time when you left, but still step back and be like, this was a good thing for my story. Like, there were good things here.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Oh no, for sure. Yeah. Hey, I had a lot of fun. Don't get it wrong. You know, going into raids day one, and you're never gonna clear it, but like seeing how hard something could be, and then doing it.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

That attitude you won't.

SPEAKER_02 30:22

The game was near like it was yeah, but my point is, and then going in the next day, and it's not as hard, but there's there's but definitely been a lot.

SPEAKER_01 30:35

I want to go into raids in day one. That just sounds so fun. Right. You know what I did today though, that is like so not a day one raid? You ate a taco? No, no. I I did have a bento box all by myself because I'm the only one in my house right now, and had work and had dinner alone, had a bento box. It's kind of nice though to just eat what you want to eat and not have to balance everybody else's opinions of what dinner should be.

How Games Build Real Relationships

SPEAKER_01 31:13

But anyway, I'm working on a carousel for Instagram that is a series of images that explain how video games and Twitch communities build relationships for people. And so it's featuring a lot of my stuff from Final Fantasy XIV recently, and it's featuring player motivations and particularly the social ones. And I need pictures to go on like the edges or the the top banner for those pictures, and they I didn't have images handy of an alliance raid, which is the raids that have 24 people on your team. So there's lots of characters on the screen during those boss fights. So after all my meetings were done, I just signed into 14, Final Fantasy 14, I queued up for a random alliance raid, and I got to do one from the Stormblood expansion. It's called the Orbon Monastery. And I think this might be the first time I've ever done it without other people in my ear telling me how to do the fights. I only died one time in the six boss fights of that raid, which is an amazing memory that I have. I I have no idea how I pulled that off because I did not used to be good at those fights. But I got the pictures, you know. I I had a lot of fun just playing with a lot of random people and doing the fights. That's not day one, it's like day 1800 since since that raid came out. But, you know, I what you're talking about missing from destiny, you can get that in so many games, and when you do those activities with people, that friendship becomes deeper than friendship because there's a memory that feels so impactful. Like yes, doing it doing a day one raid to to me, if we need a real-world parallel, that feels to me like camping out on the concrete in Orlando at Star Wars Celebration to meet like Ryan Johnson and see John Williams play like The Imperial March, right? That's something that my family and and uh also you know Jenny and some other people I played Final Fantasy XIV with actually did, right? You have these memories that are moments locked in time, right? And like that one I just shared is obviously a real life scenario, but day one raids are like video game versions of that. You know, you remember who was there, you remember how many fights you cleared, you remember the complete feeling of being lost, you have no idea what is happening because there's no guides, there's no videos, it's just people trying to be as smart as they can figuring out how to clear it. And then by tomorrow, those videos exist, the guides exist, and it's a very different experience.

SPEAKER_02 34:35

It's true, it's just an emotional it's an emotional ride, right? You have so many friends who are tied you have so many friends that you're connected with this game and they've moved on and they've done other things, but you uh hear for me it's the emotion of hearing it that hey, the game that you I've played so much is you know going to maintenance mode. It's not dying, it's just going to maintenance mode.

SPEAKER_01 35:11

Yeah. I think the thing I hope everyone hears in this, whether you play games or you're following me and trying to learn about games for uh you know psychology and mental health reason, you gotta enjoy things. You have to appreciate the fact that this game gives a challenge that brings people together, and these other people want similar things or the exact same thing or something close as you do, and you're willing to use your mind and fine-tune your reflexes and learn a strategy and just be together, but you have to remember to enjoy it because none of these things are forever, right? You know, like world of warcraft might be forever, I don't know, but you know, like I Fortnite probably is forever. No, but no, you don't think so? Well, okay, so you did not object to when I said it for World of Warcraft.

SPEAKER_02 36:26

I think that World of Warcraft has been around for 22 years. If you think about people that let's say you played it in the beginning in 04, your entire adult life has been that game. Think about the outfits and the money, you know what I mean? Kind of like SmoTour, right? Smootor's been around what, 15 years? Yeah. Right? I didn't play it f I played it like I've always said for two weeks when it first launched, but then I disappeared, but I came back. And that holds 10 years of my life in it. Like I can't ever uninstall that game.

SPEAKER_00 37:20

Yeah. Right. You know what I mean? Like, but it's you know, but at some point in the future, it maybe it will it because a lot of it's gotta be financially driven. It's not just, oh gosh, sure. We're gonna shut it down because we don't like this anymore. No, it's there's there's the but you have to look behind the curtain, behind the reasons why. There's a financial decision behind this. That's right. Just with the way all these things go, you know, you look at TV series that people have loved that, you know, it's the season finale, series finale, is it? There's no more. That there's a financial reason. The the viewership, the interaction, the the the player base, it's not there for this anymore because new games are coming out. People want, they enjoy the comfort of long-term games, like you know, you've got what EverQuest, you've got Dozen Dragons Online, the Sword Tour, Warcraft. But if the parent companies sell, you know, the Sword Tor has changed hands over to Broadsword now. Oh, it's dead, it's dying. No, it's it hit a stable maintenance, not quite maintenance mode because they're still generating new content for it. But at some point, you know, Eric Musco may move on, Charles Boyd's going to move on, Jackie's gonna move on. These people that are are of the community engagement that helped work on these things are going to move on, and it's just part of how people have to deal with it and reconcile with it. So enjoy it while you have it.

SPEAKER_02 38:59

Oh no, for sure. No, I don't I don't disagree. It's just you guys, I I'm not beating the dead horse tonight. It's you know, it was just it was just like a like a quick jab to the face. Like Roy Jones, just boom, before I could even see the punch, I got hit, I bounced back, and I'm like, okay. Was it because it's unexpected or well it's just like it's not that it's unexpected, the game's been going downhill. Look at I hadn't played it since June 24th, 2024, right? The game has been slowly a sinking chip. That quarterly thing about the how much money like the comp Bungie itself is not worth at 700 and something million, you know. I mean, yeah, 796 million or whatever, 760 million. It it all makes sense why they're doing it. It's just for me, it's one of those things where you're like, wow, all those people that I've known through that game are connected to me through that game. Yeah, like that was a big part of your right with the first presence. Right. The first person I think about when I think of Star Wars, the old republic is not either one of you, it's Intasar. What the heck, Marcus? It's not it's never, I'm done. I'm I'm out. No, it but really truly, like when I think of Swotor, I think of Int. Like immediately. First person that pops in my mind, and maybe that's because you guys and I talk outside of the game and all of that, but like really I'm connected to int through that game.

SPEAKER_01 40:40

You know, this is the second time he's gotten mentioned on our show this month. Did you know that? No. Yeah, it was a couple episodes ago I was talking about. We should have him on the show. Probably should, and then we'll have to destroy him and take the moniker of who Marcus thinks about when we say Spottor. I mean, I thought I thought I did enough. I did a freaking dissertation on the thing, named myself after the game for like five years, and still Intasar beat me. That jerk. Marcus, by the way, Intasar says he misses you too for what it's worth.

SPEAKER_02 41:18

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 41:19

But all right, well, you tell Intasar that we're at war for crimes that he didn't even commit.

SPEAKER_02 41:28

He's guilty, but he doesn't even know what he's guilty for.

SPEAKER_01 41:31

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 41:32

But now I'm super excited for Doritos to play Dispatch.

SPEAKER_01 41:39

Me too. I think that will be a fun review to hear about next week.

SPEAKER_02 41:44

Yeah, and I I'm still playing that Dead Cells game, and I'm finding it really entertaining, like going through the different levels, and if you die, you gotta start over. And it's really a humbling experience. But I've gotten two full clears now, and it's pretty cool to see like when you like upgrade the things that are permanent, how those permanent upgrades affect your next run.

SPEAKER_01 42:23

That's neat.

SPEAKER_02 42:26

Yeah. Man, what an emotional day.

SPEAKER_01 42:32

Yeah. We're always destined to talk about this at some point, Marcus.

SPEAKER_02 42:39

Yeah, but you know what, Doc? It's a really good thing for me to be able to do this, what we're doing now, and like how how today was podcast day, and like all of this happened. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:56

That makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 42:57

You know, hey, well, you know when you turn on your computer and your background screen pops up? Uh-huh. My picture on that is still me and Doc with Darth Marr at the big first mission of Knights of the Fallen Empire. We're about to get offed, we're about to get offed by all the guys. It's just me and Doc in our chains. Yeah, nice. Before our chains were broken.

SPEAKER_01 43:22

Yeah. I love that entire story. That's just such a nice nostalgic period of time for

What We Play Now As Adults

SPEAKER_01 43:30

me.

SPEAKER_02 43:30

Did you guys see that new Casey, the new Casey Hudson Star Wars game, Fate of the Old Republic? Yeah, they did a trailer.

SPEAKER_00 43:39

One trailer game awards. Yeah, the game awards. That's the only thing I've seen of it.

SPEAKER_02 43:43

Yeah, they were talking about it, and they were saying that this is not a hundred-hour game. They want you to go in and play the story and be able to beat the game and feel good that you beat it, and then play it again a different way.

SPEAKER_01 43:56

Oh, like Resident Evil 9, you can beat the game in Under four hours and just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it. Do it on all the difficulties. Do it with different weapons. Yeah. Maybe. I love g I love games like that.

SPEAKER_02 44:17

Well, I I as I play games, I think now that I play less multiplayer games and I'm playing single player games, I'm enjoying the longevity of it. I kind of lost interest in metaphor. I think the the downtime in between all the missions doesn't appeal to me.

SPEAKER_01 44:51

Yeah. There's a lot of talking in that game. And the thing that made it so that I could endure it and enjoy what I was doing is I did a guide that was focused on maxing out all of the archetypes. Sure. And and that made it so in between the dungeons, I felt really compelled to do all the different side quests. Without a guide like that, I would have definitely drifted out of that game too.

SPEAKER_02 45:25

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 45:27

But the story's very good. And if I had played it before I wrote my book, there would be a different character in the archetype chart in the early chapters of my book. Because not every game does the ruler archetype in an amazing way when that's the one they're aiming for. But Metaphor Refantasio really nails that one in a way that's outstanding.

SPEAKER_02 45:56

Sure. Yeah. I just need a new game that I can play. And really truly, my gaming, I would say, is 99.8% on my Steam Deck.

SPEAKER_01 46:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:14

It's a good machine. And I need a different game to play. Somebody suggested get Diablo 4 because they said it play it's fun to play, and you don't have to like you can play a little bit and shut it off and feel good. I agree with that.

SPEAKER_01 46:34

I'm biased, but I would just say Final Fantasy 14.

SPEAKER_02 46:37

But that isn't a game you can pick up and put down.

SPEAKER_01 46:42

That's true. You do have to sign in to the stream.

SPEAKER_02 46:45

No, what I mean, yeah. No, what I mean is like what I liked about Dispatch is I could play it and pause it and put it on pause and pick it up, and it's easy to pick back up. Where like Final Fantasy XIV, like Elden Ring, has long missions and it's just a lot. Where even like metaphor, you can go visit a bunch of shops, talk to a bunch of people, and feel satisfied that hey, I got to play for 15 minutes and like be able to pause it and feel okay and pick it up after and be fine.

SPEAKER_01 47:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 47:18

You know what I mean? It's kind of why I'm in like this stuck position in Elden Ring. Because I have to beat this boss, and I know as soon as I log in, that's what I have to do. Yeah. And I've kind of hit that wall, but at the same time, I really want to play New Game Plus. But I also don't want to walk away from the DLC because I'm a good chunk through it, I think. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 47:48

For Elden Ring? Yeah. Yeah, that would be a tough choice. You at this point, you need to commit to finishing Shadow of the Urd Tree. But it's but but New Game Plus is a great experience, too.

SPEAKER_02 48:06

So the problem is, is I know that once I start New Game Plus and I'm back in Limbgrave, I'm like, I'd really like to go back to Shadow of the Urcher now.

SPEAKER_01 48:20

And I can't. Just kill Moog again and you know, do all the little things it takes. Just do it again. That's that's the whole point. Right.

SPEAKER_02 48:34

Yes, I agree with you.

SPEAKER_01 48:36

I'm just saying that for me, it's like now I want to play Elden Ring, like right now, but I have papers to grade. This is nonsense. I'm tired of being a workaholic. This sucks. Yeah.

Appreciate It While It’s Here

SPEAKER_01 48:53

So everybody, I'm gonna give you a call to action right now. If you enjoy my ideas and you like these little conversations, and there are people that have done activities like video games with you that you appreciate and enjoy, let them know. Enjoy the moments, play the games, let them matter to you. Do not let this become your work. Have little moments there just for you so you can enjoy your day. Enjoy life, being alive, whatever stage of life you're in, the game that you're playing. It's not forever, but enjoy it today, and always remember to continue the journey.