¶ Intro / Opening
Coming up on Gamers Week Podcast...
So next up from Nintendo life... random: Logan Paul made a table out of Gameboys and the internet isn't happy. Surprise. So YouTuber Logan Paul is a man who has his fingers in many pies.
I already don't like that sentence.
Phrasing.
I felt dirty saying it.
all right. Hello everyone, we are excited to welcome you to the very first episode of gamers week podcast. Like the name says, we analyze the best, the worst and the weirdest headlines of the past week in the video game industry. Welcome, everyone. I'll be your host for this evening and my name is blue. I am here with my two co hosts. I've got the one and only Donny G. And Ryan aka retro game brews. Hello.
Oh my god. I'm so excited. I've been looking forward to this for a while now. And finally back into the podcasting booth to talk to you all so super excited. And also super excited, Donnie MAN joining the podcast
Yeah
squeaking noises
You take the excitement that blue and Ryan have, and you need to double it, triple it, quadruple it, whatever. And that's my level of excitement for coming on this podcast.
I love it, man.
¶ Meet the hosts
All right. Well, we don't want to delay the main show too long. But we do know that there may be listeners out there who haven't heard us in previous things or been to our streams before. So let's take a moment to introduce ourselves with three questions will each answer three questions help you get to know us? Those questions are? How long? Have you been gaming? What three games are? What three games has describe you as a gamer? And what is something you love besides video games?
Donnie, do you want to go first?
Sure. So how long have I been gaming for as long as I can remember actually and around 1983 is about the longest that I can remember. I was five years old. And I didn't I don't think I've ever hit the arcades around five years old. But my father had an Atari 2600. And I grew up right around the time of the the
the Atari 2600. Then the Colico table tops that used to come out with a little miniature Donkey Kong, Pac Man Frogger, etc, etc. So I had a lot of time and experience on those little handhelds, but yeah, I've been gaming ever since.
Nice. And what about you, Ryan?
It's kind of a similar answer. First of all, I didn't know that these are going to be so incredibly personal.
The people want to know, okay?
so how long have I been gaming? Conceivably, since I can remember similar to Donnie's answer. I grew up in the LDS era. But I remember my first gaming experience was actually with an Atari 2600 over at my grandmother's house first game ever played was Keystone capers, which I don't think that one hooked me on gaming, but eventually woke up one Christmas morning and that beautiful Nintendo Entertainment Deluxe system was sitting there waiting for us and man, I have been into
video gaming ever since. And it's been a fantastic ride. Fantastic hobby. And you get a chance now to share with all you
my Atari at my grandmother's house you calling me old? Blue. What about you?
Well, this is kind of a anticlimactic plot twist. But I also first began gaming on an Atari 2600
Oh my god, let's all take our Centrum silver now.
Make sure we've got our AARP cards handy
pieces of the Triforce unite.
So we didn't own one. We I think my dad borrowed one from a friend. And it was in our house for a couple months. And I remember trying to play Cubert and I must have been three or four. And I remember doing my best but thinking that that game was impossible, and was not actually that sad when the friend eventually took the 2600 away. It was a few years before the neighbors across the street, got an NES and we're playing the Super mario-Duck Hunt packin game. And I went over there and
I was like I must have one. So that's where it began.
Did you end up getting one for the house?
We did end up getting one for the house. Eventually, I think my my parents realized if they ever wanted to see their children again, instead of us asking to be adopted by the neighbors, then they needed to get one.
Nice. So Donnie, what are your three games that best describe you as a gamer?
This is this is a very loaded question. Yeah, I mean, you, you say the wrong game here. And it immediately silos you into something that you don't want to be like, Oh, I'm forever known as the guy who likes Tiny Toon Adventures on NES or something like that. I
I do like Tiny Toon Adventures on NES.
It's not a bad game. For me, personally, I'd say the three that that define me are really Mortal Kombat. And no, no specific one in particular, except for Mortal Kombat four. I really hate that that version. But everything else Mortal Kombat as a whole that defines me. The second game would be shadow run, Shadow run, if you're not familiar with it. And this is what I think I feel like I have to be specific here shadow run for the Super
Nintendo. Because there are two versions, there's a shadow run for the Super Nintendo and the shadow run for the SEGA Genesis. There's also a shadow run for PC that came out a couple of years ago, which is still a great game. But I like RPGs that deal with that type of genre the the whole cyberpunk Blade Runner type genre, but I do like RPGs as well but in all honesty, I'm not really into the whole fantasy when it comes to like
Ryan's about to leave
I know
oh my god. Done.
Okay, well, thanks everyone. That was the shortest podcast ever.
And that's not to say that I don't like games like Secret of Mana, Illusion of Gaia, Final Fantasy etc etc because they...
Say Chrono Trigger
Choose your words wisely sir.
I've never played Chrono Trigger
Now he's really leaving
it's on the backlog. It's on the backlog to do I still have to get through Secret of Mana and illusion of Gaya and eventually beat Final Fantasy Three which I've never done. The third one is Night Trap because I love full motion video games
Wow. Bold choice.
I know I know. I'm gonna die on that sword all day every day. And that's what kind of started me into the whole full motion video. Genre of gaming.
I gotta say some of the most entertaining streams I've ever watched is you going through Night Trap so
Wow. Okay rye bread I don't know how you're gonna follow that up but go for it.
I don't either
yeah Controversy on the first episode
yeah mine are really lame now so the three dreams that best describe me as a gamer so one is StarCraft I spent so many hours in my leap not Well, I'd say it's a mid teens online playing Starcraft and it's actually a game that I still play up until this day. It's the first one it's classic in the gameplay element is great. And I love that these strategic piece to it. Similar to what you were saying Donnie about Mortal Kombat being a competitive game.
Starcraft is two and you get a chance to go online and play against other players battle that still exists. So if if you want to you can wait about two and a half hours to find somebody who wants to play with you. But nonetheless, it's I love the game it to me the music is great. The atmosphere is outstanding. And you know, it's it's somebody who transitioned from console gaming until like PC gaming at that time. That was
the perfect fit for me. Number two, is a game that I play pretty regularly nowadays, which is Splatoon. So Splatoon two is a game that I have gotten actually a lot of people into. We do a lot of game nights over on my Discord channel and future patron only gamers week discord channel game nights as well. Splatoon has got a really fun community to it too. And I love getting a chance to just go on and on line hop on Discord and chit chat with friends while you play. And I'm not too shabby at
it. So that's also something I think represents me.
Did you just say on the line?
On the line? Yes, because we established that we're really old right? So I have to say like an old person
on the interweb
and the third one is probably no surprise Crono trigger. I am a huge fan of JRPGs especially from that error of Super Nintendo, Nintendo and probably PlayStation. Obviously not on the 64 since there aren't really many of them on the 64 My first dig today for
settling folks there will be a lot of those.
Right? But that is that error of gaming when it comes to RPGs I think is spectacular because realistically when you look at it the the game itself didn't really have the technology to Make something immersive from a gameplay perspective. So it really leans on the story, which is why I love those games, they tell really thoughtful, compelling stories that leave you feeling as though you've just read a book that just you couldn't put
down. So I agree. That's where Chrono Trigger to me though is the top the tippy top, if you will, of that experience. And
do you remember the day that you said that? Or you said you would say Chrono Trigger was overrated if somebody gave you $6
Um, you know, because I like money.
$6 and that's that's what you can buy Ryan's integrity for
Canadian or American.
American clearly. You can pay me $6 And I will say that once and then I will just take your $6
$6 per slander that says going rate?
What about you?
So okay, my three games are Dr. Mario that was constantly on in my house when I was growing up my sisters and I had very lethal competitions, between all of us doing the head to head Dr. Mario rounds. For decades, we still do it when we get together. And the second
game is Mario Kart. cheating a little bit too little bit because I'm going to say the whole series instead of just one of the entries, because I love the moral double dash is my favorite if you want to talk about controversy, for some reason, that's like the black sheep of the whole series, but it's my favorite. And my third game is Hollow Knight. Which if you know me at all, then this is
old news for you. And if you decide you want to keep listening to the show, or or follow me on Twitter or whatever, just be warned that I'm going to talk about hollow Knight a lot. Sorry in advance.
Hollow Knight is not an old game,
no just a couple years old.
So that's that's kind of I wouldn't say shocking or anything like that. But it's it's interesting that a game that's only five years old is now deeply in ingrained in somebody's favorite, favorite library.
Yeah, it is just that good. It's Metroidvanias are one of my favorite genres. So it checks that box. It's incredibly well done. The world building is amazing. The music is like, among the best soundtracks to a game you've ever heard. And if you haven't played it, which Donnie I know you haven't.
I have it on Steam. I bought it, I installed it, it's ready to go. It's just It's waiting, it's time
You need to get your rear end gear and you need to play.
I will do that. I will do that within a week or so.
Okay. All right. Well, let's I'm gonna hold you to that. By the way. Let's move on to our final question. What is something you love besides video games, Donnie?
Well, there's a poetry and a glass of good scotch. And of course, my friend Baxter wait that's not right. I have many leather bound books. Rich mahogony. For me, I have several loves. But there are two that take up a lot of my time. Other than video games, and they are comic books and toys. Comic books I've loved ever since I was a kid, I have several long boxes full of them. And I'm currently trying to piece together the Amazing Spider Man
run of the two hundreds. So right now I think it's currently up to number 800 in the series. I'm trying to piece together all of the the ones in the 200 range. So from 200 all the way up to 299. Wow. The other one is our toys. Anybody ever came over to my house right now in my office, my gaming office. I do have several toys, you know here and there on my shelf or whatnot. But in my basement in my closet, I have tubs upon tubs upon tubs even more tubs and oh look even more tubs. Hey, look
over there. There's some more tubs of sealed mint on card. action figures and stuff.
Wow. So your house is full of toys and your kids aren't allowed to play with them.
That is 100% Correct. I ever come home and find that they have just dug in they've dug their heels in and I see packages strewn across the floor with action figures that they're playing with. I'm going to end up in a mental institution.
Hey, Donnie, guess what I did yesterday? I took the Mario Kart Hot Wheels that I got for Christmas and I opened the box. I didn't even open it nicely I tore it open
it decrease the value man. I will open a random toy every now and again. But but most of the time it's it's because I have a deep affiliation with toys from my childhood. Because my parents that's that's pretty much all they could afford were action figures for me for Christmas. And they would think that it's like, oh, it's a skimpy Christmas. We couldn't afford much. But when I wake up and I can open up six turtle's figures, that's a good Christmas.
Yeah. Open them up.
Right? Yeah, open them up, play with them and torch them with lighter and hairspray. Which I have done.
Okay, then. Ryan?
So, this is this not include pets, right? Because the second love of my life is, is my dog. So we're not including that correct?
The question is open to interpretation.
Well I'm not going to because I don't want to bore you with dark stories. So what I'm gonna go with is actually a passion that I started to develop a few years ago, when I first met my wife. I up until this point, thought that cooking really wasn't my thing. So as a kid, I tried to get into cooking and it didn't turn out so well. So I kind of told myself, Hey, this is not something you're good at. So stop trying. So I was a big fan of ramen noodles, and which are great in a pinch,
don't get me wrong. But when I met my wife, she was like, hey, you know, you have kind of an engineering mind where you know, you're familiar with logic. And that's, you know, step by step instructions, that kind of thing.
What logic, what is this logic you speak of. I haven't heard of it.
But nonetheless, she was like, you should try cooking again. And I was like, Alright, fine. And so rather than trying something easy, like, hey, let's do grilled cheese. I was like, I'm gonna make Massaman curry. So I went on to YouTube jumped full in, made like Thai Massaman curry, and it turned out really, really well. And ever since then, I have been full board jumped into this concept of cooking, and I really enjoy taking some time just to create new dishes. And that has become
a huge passion of mine. Which you know, makes me think to like when I was a kid, if I hadn't if I hadn't listened to that naysayer voice in my head, maybe I'd be on a cooking podcast, right?
When ratatouille when they were talking or where they were saying that anyone can cook they were specifically saying Not you.
Basically. Yes. Anyone can cook
except for Ryan that was in the you turn the subtitles on. It actually says that.
What about you?
Well, I like how you said that dogs didn't count. You weren't going to talk about your dog because that's totally what I'm going to talk about. But I love not just my dog even though she is the best girl in the whole world fight me. I love all dogs, all breeds all ages, huge passion of mine studying their their psychology and their
health and their behavior. And someday I hope to get a certification that allows me to work as a behaviorist that's years away, probably if it ever happens, but it is a dream of mine. So maybe someday I'll be on a dog podcast. How's that? Did we lose Ryan might have lost Ryan.
I am muted, so awesome. Okay. Wow, he just has nothing to say about that. He's like, ah, awkward. Let's move on. Okay, anyways, we're going to
¶ Very Important Poll
move on to our very first poll question. Ryan, do you want to take it from here? Sure. So every week on Monday we'll be posting our VIP stands for a very important poll. awww on Twitter. That's right. it needed the aww
what was that noise. All right. Very i mportant poll. Ah.
So if you'd like to participate, you can follow us on Twitter at gamers week PC. The first poll question that we asked here it was what is your most anticipated game of 2022. So our choices are were Starfield, which gathered 21.4% of the vote horizon forbidden West which got 24.1% of the vote, elven ring which got 29.5% of though and other which got 25%, which pretty much means that it was even across the board for the most part,
it was very close, but it did and how I expected it would end without entering.
I'm really looking forward to the other game.
It's a classic and you know what, it's gonna be there every week. We're always going to be talking about other.
I'm going to hold out for the other remaster.
So interesting about this first poll when way bigger than we expected over 800 votes, 100 comments. So actually, let's read some of those answers from the other category that we enjoyed. So our first one was from TesseractUnfold which said, Gran Turismo seven for now, there's a lot we don't know yet about what we'll be releasing this year. I'm hoping for PSVR2
exclamation point. Next one was Loko Lizard Man said a plague tale Requiem red heart emoji, oh, next up from spectrum bots 42 said Bayonetta three good choice. Next was marsupial gamer said Breath of the Wild 2 which was a very popular response.
We got yelled out a few times for not including that in the poll.
How dare you.
And finally from retrotastico Chocobo racing. I am waiting for this since they announced and canceled a new joke about racing for the 3ds. So all that put aside here. Mm hmm. Blue, what was your choice for our very, very important poll
for our first very important polling, it is very important. My choice was silk song, which of course, as you just heard, huge hollow knight fan thought I died and went to heaven when I heard they were going to make a sequel. Team Cherry said that the sequel was coming out in 2021. And then it didn't. And then we never heard anything ever again. So I have to believe that it's going to come out in 2022 it has to wishful thinking wishful
thinking. They do not want me to fly down to Australia and just like camp outside their studio and spend my days staring in the window, but I will do it.
Just slowly tapping on the glass
with Lionel Richie playing in the background. Hello.
Is it silk song you're looking? Donnie, what about you? Um,
there are a couple of games that I've been looking forward to. Since I saw the the the release trailers or whatnot. Three of them in particular the day before. Redfall and Gotham knights. The day before is a zombie post apocalypse. MMO RPG redfall. I can't remember if it's an RPG game, but it's got vampires. So that's pretty cool.
Is that That's the Vampire the Masquerade game? No, am I thinking of something else.
So that is that was my fourth that was the obscure one because Vampire the Masquerade was supposed to come out last year. But then they changed developers and now it's like, nobody really knows what's going on.
Okay, so that that will probably spell success. No problem. Exactly.
One of the last ones was Gotham knights. And that apparently is it's it's set like the Arkham Asylum Arkham Knight games, where Batman actually is dead. And now you're playing as either bad girl. Dick Grayson aka Nightwing and several others.
Wow, that sounds? I mean, I don't know. I'm not a Batman fan. But like, you could just kill Batman just like that.
Well, it's probably going to be some surprise spoiler at the end, where it's like, Hey, I'm not really dead. This is just a test yada yada yada. Who knows?
Okay. What about you? Ryan?
No surprise to anybody who is familiar with me, but Splatoon 3. So they just announced that it is indeed in fact coming out in 2022. And my guess is that it's coming out, it's probably summertime, which I'm really looking forward to it because by announcing Splatoon 3. Splatoon 2 stopped doing splatfest, which is like a weekend event that they do every once in a while. A lot of fun. So super looking forward to Splatoon 3 coming out. And then reinstating splatfest in
Splatoon 3. Now, what I would love to see is if they get rid of the introduction, a little video that you have to watch that tells you what all the things are. So if you're listening Nintendo, which I'm sure you are, please get rid of that because it's super annoying. I don't care. Give me the option to skip.
Does anybody like that. I don't know anybody who likes that.
I mean, I'm sure if you're nine years old, you're like oh, Perla Marina again? Hooray. But I'm not nine years old
Are you sure?
Hear that Nintendo forget the kids design Splatoon 3 around the whims of 30 and 40 Somethings.
And splatfest. Can we talk about that name for a second?
No. Especially when mayo is one of the colors.
No, moving on. All right, Donnie, you want to take the
¶ Patron shout-outs
next section? Let's move on quickly.
Oh, how quickly do you want to move on
quickly
Okay, so, you wouldn't think that a brand new podcast would already have patrons and frankly, no one is more surprised than we are. Here are the generous folks supporting
The Wizard of Zardoz, Kleyman71, GreatSaiyaman81, bntzillaguy, Crunchy Kong, ShrfSnax, Frank Grande, ProducerBTW, Ducks in Disguise, Games with Coffee, DavyPGH, Princess Kitty Mew Mew, Ryebreads #1 Fan, and Fruitcakes #1 Stan
I love that Ryan's trolls have followed him here.
All jokes never die. Apparently, they never die.
If you like what you hear today, and we really hope you do, please consider joining us on Patreon. Your support helps cover the cost of producing the show, as well as other cool stuff we'll be doing, like prizes and giveaways. Visit patreon.com/gamersweek, or follow the link in the show notes to learn more.
Yeah, when Ryan suggested we launched the Patreon early before the show, I was like, are you sure? Why on earth? Would anybody go on Patreon and give money to a podcast that doesn't even have any shows yet? They don't even know if they like it yet. Why would anybody support that? But clearly, I severely underestimated the generosity of this community that is as decided that that they're going to go ahead and take a chance on on a new show. And us and that's pretty cool.
Yeah, thank you guys so much for your support. We really appreciate it and we hope that we can provide you with the best podcast you ever heard.
absolutely. They love us and we love them.
Indeed. All right, let's move on to the reason why
¶ Tesla pulls plug on driver video games
everybody is really here the gaming headlines first up from
Tesla to pull plug on letting drivers play video games after federal investigation. Tesla reversed course Thursday and will no longer allow video games to be played on his car's touchscreens when they are in motion, vowing to an investigation of the feature by federal safety regulators. The documentation for the investigation disclosed Wednesday by the NHTSA said the feature known as passenger play has been available to drivers
since December 2020. The games appear on the large touchscreen in the center of the dashboard. While the name suggests it is intended to be played by passengers nothing prevented drivers from playing while the car is being driven. According to the documentation associated with the investigation. Tesla has been pushing the envelope and providing Driver Assist features that allow its cars to slow down, speed up and even change lanes without active participation from the driver.
The company cautions that drivers using such features known as autopilot and FSD for full self driving must stay alert and keep their hands on the wheel. But Tesla has been criticized for making it easier for drivers to not pay attention, as well as for a number of crashes involving cars in autopilot mode. The NHTSA is currently investigating Tesla for at least 11 accidents involving cars using its autopilot or other self driving features that collided with emergency vehicles when coming
up of an earlier crash. There was 11 accidents responsible for 17 injuries and one death according to the agency.
That was plural emergency vehicles. Not Just one. plural. Who thought This was a good idea.
Yeah, they don't say directly that the the passenger play was involved in those 11 accidents, just that it was the autopilot. So yeah, if something already doesn't work so well, let's just throw Video Games in, it's fine.
So I have a question for the two of you, would you ever let a vehicle drive f or you?
Ever, ever? I mean, maybe in 20 years when the technology is really solid. Currently, I don't really want to be in a Tesla that's gonna plow into the back of an emergency vehicle on the side of the freeway. So I'm gonna go nah,
I immediately think of Minority Report, in this case, not necessarily a bad thing. But we don't have the the infrastructure to put all of these vehicles on like these, these belts and haven't moved this way in that way or whatever. I don't want this. I like the fact of driving. I'm comfortable driving. The one thing I don't like is other people and their lack of knowledge on how the rules of the road work. And I'm getting a little bit amped up talking
about it. But when I have to deal with those people, yeah, you know, part of me would like to have just a regular self driving car that takes the other person out of the equation. But as far as like right now is concerned, I'm fine with just driving myself.
So I anybody who follows my Twitter knows that I am like full board in for self driving car.
Ryan's religion is technology and science.
So they've actually been testing this they've done I think it's like 15 million miles in Phoenix with self driving cars
were their emergency vehicles on the road.
Interestingly enough, I don't know. But they had something like 11 accidents of over 15 million miles and there were no fatalities and come to find out it was like 10 or all 11 were caused by other drivers or pedestrians. I guess one of them, like a bike just rammed into a car, you hit me. So it was like, I don't know, European
vacation. Right. But what self driving cars the interesting piece to it is that what they found is that the average person is really aware of the self driving piece for a matter of like four to five minutes, and then they kind of let their guard down and allow the car to do its own thing. I don't think Tesla's really intended to do that, though, right? The Tesla vehicle itself is not fully operational, when it comes to
driving. It's got an autopilot feature, but to my knowledge, that it's not the full intent of vehicle itself. But to your point blue. The interesting part about this is that the reason that they're investigating into it is that I think human beings have this natural tendency to not want to trust technology, especially taking over something that is as ubiquitous as driving. And it makes us a little bit scared. And then of course, the easiest scapegoat that they can come up with is
video games. A clearly video games needs to be the reason right. Now, the interesting part about that people who are driving their cars now that do not have autopilot, are checking their phones, they're doing their taxes, they're doing their makeup, on their way on their commute to work. So while I agree that it's maybe a good thing to necessarily take away
some of that temptation. I think that it's another example of where scapegoating happens because video games happen to be the easiest route that everybody can agree on real quick.
Well, I don't see any reason why they couldn't continue this whole passenger play thing for the back seat or whatever is going on. To be fair, this investigation was started by a Tesla owner who complained about the distracting nature of the screen when it was going so
Is this person a gamer?
I don't know about I might suggest not. But think the video games are just part of a larger problem a larger issue that Tesla has to answer about how much distraction in the car how much extras because you know, Tesla's are the ones that you do certain things and then the car will will like light up and open its doors and things in response to a piece of music like how much of all that extra stuff is too much right?
The control factor? Yeah.
¶ Logan Paul's GameBoy table
So next up from Nintendo life random Logan Paul made a table out of Game Boys and the internet isn't happy surprise. So YouTuber Logan Paul is a man who has his fingers in many pies.
I already don't like that sentence
phrasing
I felt dirty saying it. But his latest venture has riled up Nintendo fandom quite spectacularly. Paul took a selection of Gameboy Color consoles, some of which are quite collectible, and poured epoxy resin all over them to create a table which also lights up, which is super important.
And you can see the video that he posted on December 26 on Twitter at @LoganPaul, the reaction online has been pretty hostile with many people questioning and the wisdom of effectively destroying consoles, which could have provided a lifetime of entertainment. Other than other people are currently pointing out that there are other less destructive ways of celebrating your collection. It's worth pointing out that Paul could have used broken
consoles for this project. But he isn't confirming this as of yet. So
Begin rant
Indeed. I heard that he used the shell of the the Gameboy. So like the guts of it. Weren't there.
Is that better?
No it's not but okay, let me rephrase it slightly better. So he wasn't ruining the ability to play these things. But there were certain aspects. So for example, one of the Gameboys that was in there is one that I've wanted for a really long time. I already have the pokeymon like yellow and blue Gameboy Color, which I'm quite fond of actually did a trade to get it. I love the thing, right. But there was a gold one that was even rarer. And that was one of the shells that he put in
there. So instantly, I felt the veins on my neck start to pop. And I just I think for one, the the outrage is slightly justified. I would say for most folks, I mean, the idea that you're ruining something, potentially that has historical value, and that has entertainment value.
So how rare is this gold Gameboy.
It's not like it's ultra rare in the sense that you know, it's gonna cost you 1000s of dollars to get it but it is the rarer of the two. And I would say I've seen maybe two or three in the wild in my lifetime. Okay, so what are your thoughts on this? Do you guys think that it deserves The outrage that it's getting Do you think it's overblown? Do you think that Logan Paul is a terrible human being? What are your thoughts?
Well, yes to that one
Yeah, definitely. That's That's not a question. So, not that I agree with what he's done, but I will play just a little bit of devil's advocate. So I have Gameboys that I can't play anymore. They work perfectly. But as we've established, I am old, I can n o longer see them very Well, I know, these Game Boys, they sit on my shelf, and they look nice.
Maybe you just need the Gameboy light.
I had that thing that thing did not help. Like at all,
Blue is the only person that the handy Boy makes sense?
Hey, I got my pocket pre ordered. That's what I'm in for. But I play all my gameboy games currently with a Super GameBoy, which is an invention straight from God. So if these Game Boys are not going to be used, they're just going to sit on a shelf. How is this that much difference?
Well, you could sell those to somebody else, and they could actually get enjoyment out of them. That's going to be the universal argument there.
Yeah, kids aren't interested in Game Boys. I'm 99% sure that today's children don't care about Gameboys
ironically enough, that's the only thing that my nephew wants to play lately when it comes over my house as
well. He's in that 1%
Kid's rare. So the other part the other question, I go to this. So clearly, this is like a quote unquote, work of art. Right? He's creating a table out of this. But I've seen a lot of people who will take like any zapper and turn it into a light fixture, or somebody who will take apart controller and turn it into a shadow box. Like, I mean, granted, both of those are
accessories. But you know, I'm sure there's people who do that with, you know, fully functioning Gameboys or even, you know, like an NES.
Right. So how is this different?
Yeah, that's what I'm asking, Is this so much different? Or is it because it's Logan Paul doing it?
I'm leaning more towards the fact that it's Logan Paul. Because if you would have taken any self respective gamer, if they would have done this as a project, and let's just say they're like, oh, you know what, I love my Game Boys. I'm never going to get rid of them. But you know what, I don't play them as often. Oh, I'm going to go get this new analog pocket. So I really don't have use for all these old Game Boys. Let me just go ahead and make a project out
of it. And I think people would probably look at that and say, You know what, that's a fantastic idea. That's a unique idea. You're a gamer. I love it. It's probably because it's coming from this ass clown, Logan, Paul. And now we get this.
I think the other part of that too, is maybe because Logan Paul is probably not your average collector. He's not somebody who content. And by the way, if he does, I apologize, because it's not like I've focused on Logan Paul all the time. But I don't see Logan Paul as being part of like the retro gaming community.
The problem is, he's an outsider.
Right
Well, and that's I think part of it as well. And I get that I get that desire to say, Well, you probably just spend all the money that you make on YouTube to purchase these items. You don't truly appreciate them. And then by putting them in a table, so I get that argument. I really do. It's just I think we need to play a little bit of devil's advocate with ourselves to say, you know, where is this really coming from?
Are we upset for the right reason? Yeah, right. Right. Exactly. Exactly. So I guess like the the end of this is that I think maybe we just need to check ourselves before we wreck ourselves.
Word. So next up from the Washington Post, Riot Games
¶ Riot settles discrimination lawsuit
agrees to pay 100 million in settlement of class action gender discrimination lawsuit. The League of Legends publisher Riot Games announced Monday that it is settling a 2018 gender based discrimination class action suit with California state agencies and current and former women employees for $100 million dollars. The company will pay 80 million to members of the class action lawsuit and approximately 20 million towards plaintiffs legal fees. The Los Angeles lawsuit was filed in
November 2018. By now former employees Melanie McCracken, and Jesse Nigron. alleging gender discrimination as well as sexual harassment and misconduct at Riot Games. The suit was followed by to inquiries led by California state agencies. This is a great day for the women of Riot Games and for women at all video game and tech companies who deserve a workplace that is free of harassment and
discrimination. So the plaintiff's counsel, the employment and sexual harassment lawyer Jeannie Harrison, we appreciate riots, introspection and work since 2018, toward becoming a more diverse and inclusive company. In the settlement, Riot Games also agreed to certain workplace
policy reforms. These include greater transparency around pay scales for job applicants, not relying on prior salary history to set employees pay or assign job titles and the creation of a pipeline for current or former temp agency contractors to apply to work for Riot Games. The publisher will also implement a policy requiring the presence of a woman or member of an underrepresented community on employment selection panels.
You know there it's a day of reckoning right now the video game industry you look at this this suit that's gone down at Riot you look at what's happening over a Ubisoft or what's happening over at Activision Blizzard. If I was a triple A game studio, I think I'd be watching my back.
What makes people think that they can get away with with behavior like this?
Because they always have
Yeah, obviously they can. But I it kind of baffles me that this day and age, this behavior is still going on, like rampant and blatant in these companies.
Mm hmm. Seems like old habits kind of diehard in that regard.
Yeah, well, and to be fair, everyone knows this is not a video game specific problem. This is a problem all over the country and all over the world. So but it is nice to start seeing some accountability. Finally happening, there's been a lot of attention on crunch. And those sorts of practices and some of the stuff that goes on behind the scenes starting to come out. So it's nice to see that this kind of accountability is spreading to to other areas as well.
And I think that for the most part, what you're seeing here is that the accountability factor of creating an environment that's like a frat house,
yeah, bro culture, was that Amazon games? it was bro culture,
bro culture, right? It's finally coming to a fever pitch where it's not going to be acceptable moving forward. And that to me, is I know that it's terrible that this is what we have to go through in order to get there is that we have to call somebody out in the people have to experience these types of working environments. And it's terrible to have to go to work every single day and have to deal with feeling uncomfortable. I want to say it's surprising, but it's just
more disappointing to me. I'm glad that this is becoming public, that it's knowledge that it's out there. Hopefully that means that other companies will take will follow the example that if you do operate a business like this, that now is the time to change and to make some decisions to make your employees feel like human beings.
Absolutely. I know the company that I work for has zero tolerance actually less than zero tolerance for any type of activity such as this. And at the mere mention I mean, yeah, you'll you'll be able to defend yourself but if it comes to light that you're if you're accused and guilty of discrimination, you're gone.
Right. All right. Well, let's move on to our main topic
¶ Main Topic: The video game world is divided over NFTs
for the evening, Ryan.
From CNBC, cash grab or innovation the video game world is divided over NFTs, gamers are notoriously skeptical crowd in 2017. For example, Electronic Arts. Again, right, faced huge backlash over decision to let players pay to unlock certain characters in its Star Wars Battlefront 2 game. Traditionally, players are required to toil for several hours to access such content, and the outcry for it was so intense that EA eventually walked back its plans which critics described as pay to win
model. So when Ubisoft, the French video game publisher dropped a video this month showing off its foray into non fungible tokens. It's fair to say the reaction was a little predictable. The company debuted a platform called quartz which lets players own in-game items such as helmets in the form of NFT's digital assets designed to track ownership of unique items on the blockchain. The feature was added to Ubisoft Ghost Recon
breakpoint game. The move was met with widespread anger from gamers who slammed courts as a cash grab. Although YouTube has recently hidden dislikes on its videos users downloading software to get around the change were able to find that Ubisoft trailer for Quartz has been overwhelmingly disliked, with only 1600 likes and more than 40,000.
That's delicious.
Ubisoft spokesperson told CNBC. The NFT's available on courts are currently free. I'm not the company's not taking a cut of any secondary market sales. Ubisoft Quartz is an experiment the spokesperson said but Ubisoft isn't the only gaming company jumping on the NFT bandwagon. EA CEO Andrew Wilson says The phenomenon is an important part of the future of
our industry. Ukrainian developer GSC Game World wanted to integrate NFT's into its upcoming title stalker too, but has now scrapped those plans following pushback from fans. The Ubisoft debacle highlights division in the gaming world over non fungible tokens. Last month for instance, Microsoft Xbox chief Phil Spencer warned Some efforts to bring NFTs to video games feel exploitive.
There are definitely some aspects of NFTs that feel a little exploitive right now with some of these games, Geoff Keighley host of the Game Awards told CNBC on a call ahead of the video game industry's annual award ceremony, which recently took place. While Keighley says he likes the idea of game creators making revenue through royalties on NFT sales. The thing I hope doesn't happen is that games become a platform
just for commerce. Robbyt Yung CEO of Animoca brands said the business model in gaming has changed over the years. Gaming historically more premium, meaning you bought cartridges or DVDs or later Downloadables. You paid up front prices for games, he said, that has transitioned largely to an economic model around free to play. The idea is that it's free up front, but you have virtual assets inside the game that you require to enhance and improve your gameplay.
Yung says the NFT approach is innovative as it means gamers can now take ownership of digital properties they buy within a game, players can then take those assets outside of the game and exchange them elsewhere. He said the phenomenon reminds him of his childhood. If you bought cartridges for your games console and you wanted the new one but couldn't afford it, you would sell some of your old games at a secondhand shop Young said these days with digital content we've not had that
secondhand market. And so now blockchain is enabling that to happen again, where you can dispose of content that you're no longer interested in, or are not playing with anymore. Still, despite excitement from some over NFTs and their potential use in gaming. It's clear that not everyone is on board, while NFTs may one day have a place in video games right now. They're still in an embryonic stage According to George... good lord.
Just make it George Good lord. Yeah.
I apologize. George. Let me get a running started this one. Jijiashvili Principal Analyst at omdia rushing into offering NFTs without fully evaluating it could lead to serious reputational damage. George said.
That guy said
that guy said you guys have any better suggestions on that one? Okay, apologies. Apologies.
So I don't I'm not really on the up and up with NFTs I know kind of about them. But with the articles that we were just talking about what separates them from let's just say something like in Diablo 2 where you had items that you could take and go on the marketplace and sell those for for money.
Well, for a second, let's take a step back. So if you're in the "explain this to me like I'm five" crowd like I am, I am currently on the dummies.com website and I have pulled up their page NFTs for dummies and I will read you what I see here. A non fungible (which means unique or non replaceable) token is a unique digital code that represents some kind of digital item. It could be digital art or
music. For example, an NFT is secured and stored on a public blockchain, one token is not interchangeable for another and that token cannot be further divided. There are many different types of non fungible tokens and they can be created on well known blockchains like Bitcoin, or Ethereum. Use cases for NFTs abound and the creator economy has rapidly embraced this method of securing digital provenance. Some popular examples are digital art, sports, collectibles, music,
memes, and game assets. in game assets, such as digital land, skins and characters are a perfect match for NFTs, having the highest sales volume of any other segment under the umbrella of digital collectibles. Interesting. There you are,
I think in regards to video game collectibles, such as skins and whatnot, that's that makes sense. When it comes to a piece of artwork, or in the case of what you said earlier, the first tweet, how can you own that? How can you you, you say that you own the first tweet? And what can you do with that? Because somebody can easily take a screenshot of that and redistributed for and they won't get into any legal trouble. So in the sense of what do you own?
Yeah, there was there was that that thing going on on Twitter, and if you're not on Twitter, and don't know what I'm talking about, I apologize, but the big thing on Twitter recently has been those monkey NFT trading cards. Yep. And so people are bragging about having the the monkey NFT. But then somebody will just you know, download and save it to their device and then pop it up and suddenly they can use it too.
And it was this huge long joke for like a weekend of people just mocking these monkey NFT supposedly unique trading cards.
mock the monkey.
Nice, nice. So ideally though, if you're if you're talking about If your NFT is located on a blockchain, a blockchain, of course, is a network of computers that basically are a ledger for all information and transactions as a result of the shared collective knowledge of it. So if anything changes, it's got to update all the the computers that are on that server, for it to be a legitimate transaction.
So for example, if you try to steal somebody's, you know, NFT or Bitcoin or what have you, that can be traceable back to you. So there's part of that I don't know it since NFTs are so new to my knowledge, I don't know if you can be illegally brought up on charges for theft for utilizing someone else's NFT. I don't know. But the idea is that it's supposed to be secure in that sense, because it it's not just one source of information, it's 1000s.
Potentially. The interesting part about that, though, is that similarly to this where we're talking about NF T's being kind of like the buzzword of the moment, Blockchain was for a little while there too. There's a classic example that was brought up on a show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, where he had researched a iced tea company that added blockchain to their name and their their stock price rose like an extortionate amount of money as a result of having the word blockchain.
Welcome everyone to the Gamers Week Blockchain Podcast.
But that's the idea of the secureness, I think around NFTs. But again, I don't know if this is something that needs to be a part of gaming, you know, if you're getting items in, you know, in a gaming space, why do I need to have it unique to me? Is that something that provides me with an additional advantage? I mean, granted, I get a chance to sell it, but is that is that really the point of gaming is to speculate from items that you find in game?
Well, basically, from what I'm getting from this article is that the future of gaming is assets and reselling them, secondhand market.
What was it last year, some point there was, uh, at E3 I think last year in 2021 or 2020. Whenever it was that game Blankos or Blankos however you pronounce it. Blankos Block Party is basically a NFT game where you buy the little characters in the game, and you can collect them and resell them. And I asked people online, I was like, I don't I maybe it's just me being old, but I don't get why you would want to be
involved in this. And somebody came on and said, No, no, it's really cool because you buy the little character and is yours and nobody else has that character in the whole world, because it's yours, and you can keep it with you when you go. I'm like, Okay, I, I can understand that conceptually, the part that I always get stuck up on is like, you can take it with you out of the game, and use it elsewhere as like, how,
how do I do that? I don't understand how you could take that piece of what is essentially code and integrate it anywhere else
you can't put into another game and have a game that doesn't the word doesn't belong
right now. Unless Unless this eventually they they start making NFT games where it allows the input of those kinds of devices, but it's still it's, I mean, we're all old enough to know that formats change, right? We used to have cassette tapes, and then we went to CDs and now everything is digital, same with it used to be VHS tapes, and then it was DVDs and then it was blu rays. So again, maybe this is just me being old, I don't get it. I don't get how this is yours. I really don't
Neither do I though I've never been in the mindset of owning digital items. Because once the electricity goes off, it's gone.
Right or once then the world moves on to the next format. It's gone
you know, with with at least with the old retro stuff with cartridges, I can pop those into a gaming system now. I know a lot of people at home are probably saying well Donnie you can't if the electricity is gone. You can't play that either. You know you have a good point. So if you have a generator yada yada yada but in all honesty
when the EMPs hit, okay, you can't play then
Absolutely. If something is battery, it takes batteries like your Gameboy or your Sega Game Gear. I can pop that cartridge in and I've got batteries. I'm good to go. I have this physical cartridge that I can trade to somebody else, as opposed to oh, I have this game on Playstation Network or Xbox, the Xbox store and I don't really care for it anymore. Oh, guess what? I can't do anything with it. It's there forever. I can't resell it.
If there's a if there's a silver lining to all of this it would be what Robby Yung was talking about is the ability to take Take digital purchases that you're not interested in and then somehow get some sort of secondhand market value for them, which I think would be great for digital games. Because how many times have we bought a digital game? And played it for five minutes? And when I have buyers regret already? Yeah, not like you said, there's nothing you can do about it. So
And trying to get a refund for a digital game. Y
Yeah, good luck with that. So the ability to do that, I think would be really great.
You know what, though, I find this interesting this, this, this model of trying to create something which you can in turn into a monetary value that yada yada yada, it's kind of counterintuitive to where the gaming industry has been gone in or been going the past couple of years, I think they pointed it out in the article where everything is switching into, you know, pay for play with the free to play model is the like, the hidden thing behind it.
Which I also hate just another example of me being really old.
But if you think about that, the reason that they did that was because they did not want you going to secondhand store training in a game and getting something new or selling your game, right? Because that meant that that money wasn't going into their pocket. Absolutely. So do you think that outside of indie developers and a few big name, developers looking to cash in on something for a quick buck are going to long term adopt this style of gameplay?
A lot of them will do like Ubisoft did and run in and go, Hey, a trend, I want to make money off of it. And they'll try to do that. If they don't make money on it right away, then they'll give it up. Right. So it I think it kind of remains to be seen. You you would think like your logic is sound, you would think that especially the big developers would want no part of something that gives commercial power essentially to the buyer
and away from them. But I think their their love of the immediate upfront money will blind them to that.
It sounds like to me like they're more looking for people to engage in a game so that they can get that money. And then eventually, when this dies out, they've already got their money, right? Gotta love it.
No,you don't.
No, you don't
You don't have to.
Well, okay, let let's let's wrap up our main topic this way, if you're listening to the show, and you think we are wrong about NFTs or if we're just misunderstanding the whole thing, because again, we're very old. Go ahead and at us on Twitter at @GamersWeekPC, and tell us all about it. And let us know what we should really be thinking about NFTs because as of right now, we're not sold on them.
So I'm sure we're gonna hear an earful about them.
¶ Gaming History 101 with Prof. Ryebread: Super Noah's Ark 3D
Alright, let's move on to our next segment. And it is time for gaming history 101 with our very own Professor Ryebread.
Well, thank you, everyone for attending today's lesson. My name is Professor Ryebread. And if you haven't gotten the syllabus, please ask one of your TAs for a copy of the homework. We'll get to that in just a moment. My office hours are no times and human being would be able to attend. So don't bother trying to find me. Please pay attention as there will be a quiz which makes up 51% of your grade. So if you're trying to take on this lesson, just lets them know that this is a large
chunk of your grade. So sorry, I was trying to pick out the persona of a real university professor. So did that did that come across that way?
Oh, absolutely
You didn't sound dead inside enough.
I'll work on it. So gaming history 101. With professor Ryebread really started for for me personally, I have a love for the history of gaming and it's in it's truly fascinating to me kind of how we how far we've come in a few short decades, from a gaming perspective from Pong to what we're playing now. So what I wanted to do is cover stories that you know I personally love or that I want to know more about, or things that maybe I've never heard of.
So what I decided to do is create this segment and spend some time doing some research online. Now bear in mind, so because I'm doing that research online, please do not use this to write your next history textbook on gaming. so make sure you check Wikipedia instead. Much more reliable. Exactly, exactly. So, you know, will this be an... an every episode type of thing? I certainly hope so. I just don't
know yet. If you do have ideas that you would like to talk about as far as history or a story, feel free to message us at gamersweekpodcast@gmail.com. And we might feature your suggestion. So definitely take a look into that. So our first topic for today is going to be an obscure Super Nintendo game called Super 3D Noah's Ark. So Have either of you played this before?
No. I didn't even know this was a thing until a few years ago.
What about you Donnie?
Never played it.
Never played it. And you know what I was expecting that response. Like I said, fairly obscure game, I think that most people are vaguely aware of it, probably from online YouTubers, right? But the problem is as well is that copies are super expensive. They're like 160 bucks loose on price charting as of today, why? Well, and we'll kind of get into that a little bit towards the end here. But if you do want a physical one, there's repo copies that you know certain retro game shops
will sell. There's also a PC version that was released on DOS 95, which had better graphics and a rerelease in 2015 on Steam, so if you do want access to this game, whether or not you think it's going to be a good game or not, there's certainly opportunities for you out there. So the question that I Why do your first episode on Super Noah's Ark 3d has a lot to do with just the the cart itself some of the history behind it maybe some of the misconceptions as to what this game is all
about. But first, if you take a look at the cartridge itself, it's black, and it has this pin connector, sitting on the top of it similar to what like a Game Genie or a GameShark looks like. And the reason is, is because it's the only commercially released unofficial, Super Nintendo cart, and it needed another Super Nintendo cart to plug in the top of it in order to get past the lockout chip on the NES. Yes. Already, we're in
weird territory right. Now, the game itself actually plays a lot like Wolfenstein 3d.
And is there a reason for that?
So it was originally developed using a license acquired by id Software, which I'm sure many of you are familiar with. They made things like Wolfenstein 3d Doom and a myriad of other first person shooter games. So a big powerhouse in the FPS genre. Now, the most common story that I hear prior to doing research about this was that it gave Wisdom Tree which was the developer of Super 3d Noah's
Ark. The engine to Wolfenstein is kind of like a middle finger to Nintendo because they didn't appreciate how the game released for Wolfenstein 3d and doom on the Super Nintendo. But that's actually incorrect. So this religious game was originally intended to be a movie based game, as the founder was intrigued Dan Lawton was a huge fan of this movies. IP. What movie? That's what I'm going to ask is, do you have any guesses?
I do not. I'm assuming since this was a like a religious game. Maybe the 10 commandments or history of the world or something? I don't know.
Okay, okay. Blue. What's your guess? Ah, I'm gonna I'm gonna give you a clue here. I think the opposite of what you would expect from a religiously themed gaming company.
Uh predator?
Close Well, not really that close, but close enough. Okay. I would call a predator kind of action horror. He was a big fan of the movie Hellraiser.
Yeah, that's a complete 180.
So pinhead, that all that whole thing, but Dan actually purchased the rights to the movie and the game engine from iD for a whopping 50k So Bala, that stuff. So at the time, Wisdom Tree was actually called Color Dreams, or I think bunch games as well. There's a few different names for that particular company. And they were producing unofficial games for the NES. And actually you can probably recognize most of their stuff because it's usually that baby blue oddly shaped
cart. Donnie, do you have any? Any baby blue card collection?
I Think I do? To the collection!
He goes! well, for me, I had a copy of Taggin Dragon, which is an abomination. It is an absolutely awful game.
I can't readily see. I don't think I have the Bible adventures blue version.
Gotcha. Gotcha. So with Dan though, interestingly enough, he wanted to use Wolfenstein because he thought the violence fast paced action would be a great match for Hellraiser, which I don't disagree with.
I'm kind of mourning the fact we didn't get the
Right. Oh, no. And in fact, that's, that's one of my Hellraiser game. send offs here is I'm still waiting for that Hellraiser Super Nintendo game. The plan was to release it on the original Nintendo. But the technical limitations of the NES basically made it impossible unless they added RAM to the cart, and that would have jacked the price up to be prohibitively expensive. So, they're like, alright, let's shelve this idea
for a while. But eventually colors dreams turned into WisdomTree basically, they shifted all their game development to focus on Christian religious themed games. So as you can imagine Hellraiser probably not the best game
You could spin that. You can spin that though .I know. you could
So, therefore, they actually looked at and said, You know what, let's develop, utilizing that the properties that we currently have license for obviously, we pay money for this. So let's let's get the most out of it. So, super 3d Noah's Ark was born. Now the gameplay though, is what makes this I think the funniest overall. So for those who don't know, it's a first person
shooter. And the backstory of the game is that the biblical Great Flood flood is over, but there are still six days left before all the animals can be released. So as a result, the animals become restless inside the ark. So Noah's got to traverse the Ark itself and feed the animals with food to make them fall asleep. And yeah,
I have many questions
I'm sold.
Now in order to feed the animals, and remind you that this is a first person shooter, he does so with a slingshot as one does, and he shoots food at them. And it makes us like, doink noise when you do it. Yeah, so the interesting part, though, is that the animals will attack you in like most, you know, first person shooting enemies will. So your shots kind of have to be true in order to get them to fall into what I can only assume is like a diabetic coma. Right?
He's putting something in that food.
Now, the DOS version had better graphics. So like the textures look like they were legitimate, right? It wasn't just random wood that looked extremely pixelized they actually looked like you're inside of an arc. But they also included power ups and ammunitions. And special weapons, as well.
special foods,
right, and their own ammo for those weapons. Now, I've never played the DOS game. So I'm assuming they had a rocket launcher. And the the chainsaw from Doom and all that stuff. That's what I have to
Jane. Get me off this crazy arc.
So to kind of wrap things up about this game in particular, we've kind of covered the story behind it. Gameplay. How do you think the reception was for this game?
Probably not well,
who can imagine? I don't know, Doom clones were a thing. They're a big thing. There are a lot of crazy Doom clones. But I'm still gonna say this is not not one of the most revered ones, though, then again, the fact that the cart is so expensive. Now. Maybe I'm wrong.
No. And the reason it's so expensive is that it was the worst selling game for wisdom Tree of all time.
And that's saying something I imagine
Indeed But the interesting part is that a version was released on Steam, of course in 2015. And it has really positive reviews. So moral of the story is don't give up on your ideas. Because someday it might turn into a cult classic
That's funny.
All right But to wrap things up, I just wanted to say of course, thank you so much for attending today's lesson. As a reminder, if you do in fact, have stories that you want to hear, I would love to have, you know, you jump reach out to us and let us know what you would like to see as far as this segment is concerned. So if you do have those suggestions, again, email us at gamersweekpodcast@gmail.com.
How do I get extra credit?
No.
All right, well, thank you, Professor Ryebread. We are all very smart right now. So let's go ahead and wrap up this first episode of gamers week podcast and just an FYI for everyone listening, this episode is only the first of our big three episode launch party. So if you have enjoyed the show, there are two more episodes waiting for you right now. So go
ahead and listen. And if you didn't enjoy the show, well, there are still two more episodes rating ready to help you change your mind and decide that you love Gamers Week Podcast. But if you want to connect with Gamers Week, be sure to follow us on Twitter at @GamersWeekPC, you can also email us at gamersweekpodcast@gmail.com. Check us out on Twitch at Twitch./tv/gamersweekpodcast. And finally, support us on Patreon, if you would so desire and we would be quite grateful
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You know, hey, no. podcast is over. Okay,