Episode 194: Asshole Gamers 6 - Pounding Blue Butt

[00:00:11] Welcome to Gaming Together, A Cooperative Podcast. I'm your host Phillip and I'm here with my co-op partner, Nave. Each pod we play through a cooperative experience and relay to you, the listener, if this game is the criminal look of a co-op or something better off playing solo. Hey Nave, what's poppin'? Nothing. I'm getting over sickness. My microphone's really low. I don't know what the fuck's going on, man. Things are weird over here. I'm not feeling high. Maybe there's a gas leak. I don't know. Dude, there was standing water in my dishwasher and I noticed it. I was like, uh oh.

[00:00:41] But I was already doing the dishes. So I was like, eh, what's the worst that can happen? Like maybe the dishwasher floods or something like that. Like in the Sims? Yeah. Well, so I didn't think about it, but I was like, okay, whatever. And so I put my dishes in there and I started it. And as soon as it started like running its shit in there, this putrid smell washed over my entire kitchen. It was horrible, man. And at first I was like, this is horrible. My dishes are ruined. But now I looked in there and there's no standing water.

[00:01:10] So I was like, okay, well, I don't know what happened actually. I don't know if maybe like the sink is draining into the same drain as the dishwasher. Cause it's been like fucking three degrees here in Oklahoma city for like a couple of days. Right. I'm so I was sick for a reason because it would be like 40 degrees. Then it would be three degrees. Then it would be like 38. And then it would be negative two. Like, like right now it's like 70 degrees and it's nighttime.

[00:01:37] And there was ice and snow three days ago on the ground. And it is 70 degrees now. Like, I don't know what the fuck is going on. I was hysterically sick. And then I thought I got better and I drank and I got even sicker. So I was like, my body's immune system was down and I just let it. I just bulldozed through a killdozer style. Yeah. You probably shouldn't do that. You gotta, you gotta take it easy when you're already feeling off. You don't need to push yourself by partying.

[00:02:06] Yeah. I was like, man, I'm, I'm done. I'm finished with it. It's good. We're all good, baby. And then, uh, no, no, no. Well, let's let the listeners know we're doing this week. So we were going to be talking about Genshin impact, but that game has a significant period of time around like at least six hours or longer before you can even play co-op, which seems insane to me.

[00:02:35] Yeah. Imagine you're trying to get a new friend into a game and you're like, Hey, I really like this game because Genshin's popular with, you know, 65 million current players right now or whatever this month. You get in there and you're like, Hey, we can't play together till you solo grind the level 14. It is really weird. It's similar to, so whenever I started final fantasy 14, I was playing with somebody and we are the class. I think the class you pick chooses where you end up kind of like a world of Warcraft,

[00:03:01] half the race you pick chooses where you end up. So it's like for a long time, I, it was, it's the same thing. So maybe it's just an MMO thing, you know? Could be like, they do expect you to be like playing this game for a long time. Like, I don't know if like you've played it a little bit, like it's a pretty slow drip. Yeah. I've, I've only, I've only fucked around a little bit enough to be like, Oh man, this makes me want to play Zelda. And so I went and did that instead. That was way before we even started playing the game for the show.

[00:03:30] So yeah. All right. But so we're not going to be talking about that this week. Instead, we're going to be talking about some asshole gamers. But before we get there, let's just check in with what games we've been playing. Nave, what have you been playing? Well, so I already talked about how I was sick. I mean, I've been talking about it for weeks. Listeners tired of hearing it. I'm, I'm, I'm over it pretty much, but it directly impacted the amount of gaming I was able to do. I just had no tolerance for gaming. Uh, so I've gotten a little progress done in Tales of Symphonia, but we're going to be, I'm going to be talking about that next week.

[00:04:00] So I don't really want to spoil a whole lot here, but for the most part, I just want to berate this game for the backtracking because there's so much backtracking. You will get to, it'll be like, Hey man, we got to walk five minutes in the overworld to that place with random battles happening all the, all the way there. And then you get there, they're like, Oh, but we need the key that's in this place. And so now you turn around and go back. It's so annoying. Uh, but it's an older game, so I kind of forgive it.

[00:04:29] And, uh, it's very charming. Uh, I don't even know how many Tales games you've played. You've played at least Vesperia, right? No, I own a lot of them, but I just haven't played them. Yeah, that's the problem, isn't it? I just never got around to them yet. Symphonia is an old or old one. So, but I think it's like a beloved one. So it's really kind of cool. Like the story is like almost generic, but the game is old.

[00:04:57] So it's like, okay, so this was around during the, when this story was becoming the thing, right? Like, so it's not like it came out in 2025 and it has the story. Cause then you'd be like, Oh, this is a little dated, don't you think? But I don't know. It's got a surprising twist. It's really weird. Cause it's like, this game is very similar to Final Fantasy X and Tales, or not Tales, uh, Visions of Mana. Those two games have been predominantly in my head the whole time I'm playing this. Both games coming out after this game. And so I'm pretty sure.

[00:05:26] I mean, I'm not sure about Final Fantasy X actually. But, um, uh, they all have different interpretations of even like Final Fantasy VII to a degree. It's like these, this, these archetypes that you have in these fantasy JRPGs, like the healer girl who's super nice and sweet. And like the main character who's kind of dumb, but he's like determined and he's a good guy. And then you've got the stoic badass, like that's like older than everyone else. But he's experienced. The Cid. Yeah.

[00:05:55] The, the, uh, Oron, uh, who else? You know, it's just, you know what I mean? It's like. The Seth. Or is that his name? From Final Fantasy XIII? Sat? Zatch? I think it's Zatch. Zatch? Yeah. It's like S-A-Z-C-H. I don't know. Zass. How's that guy? Or something. Dude, the fucking. Isn't there something about that in Final Fantasy XIV? Like his Chocobo or something? I can't remember what I'm thinking now. The one that's always in his hair? Probably.

[00:06:24] I think there's a, there's a triple triad card for his, for his Chocobo. Maybe. That's cute. I might have just made that up. I don't know what I'm talking about. Tales of Symphonia is kind of, kind of cute though. And a little dark. It's up on my list. Yeah, you'll like it. I, I think, uh, I'm playing it in Japanese, but I don't, I don't think I can switch the, the words to Japanese. I don't think I'd want to anyways. I'm, I'm not that far yet.

[00:06:51] But, but, um, I think you would be able to, if you can do the Japanese console thing and like make it Japanese, I think that this would be very approachable because all of the, I am noticing like word, like I'm, I'm understanding sometimes what they're talking about. Like, and I, even with my small amount of Japanese, they're very simple. Like what they're talking about. You know what I mean? Almost always. Until they start talking about the fucking multiverse and shit. I'm like, I don't, I don't know what's going on anymore.

[00:07:20] And I started talking about reality. Then it's like, oh no, here we go. Yeah. Fuck that. That's it really though. For my games I've been playing, uh, I'm still playing the non-error games. Nine persons, nine doors, nine, um, whatever the other nine is. Nine years takes to beat. Nine hours. That's it. No, dude, I'm at like 14, 15 hours at this point. I think I'm right at the true ending though, because there's, you know, five or six endings.

[00:07:48] I've gotten like three of them at three of the bad endings, or there's like a neutral one that you get on your first run. And then, uh, the other two were just like bad endings. How meta. I know. It's like play again for the true ending. And I'm like, great, but you're able to fast forward where you need to go. And I actually kind of understand, like, you feel like a time traveler, like jumping different dimensions on the different paths.

[00:08:16] It's like, oh, I need to go on this path so I can get the, the, uh, the bookmark that has the four leaf clover. That way I can give it to Yatsuba later. Like it's, it's actually really cool. Kind of, you feel like time traveler ish, but I'm thinking I'm going to get the true ending. I'm not sure I'm going to go back for the other two bad endings, but I'm, I'm not sure if this is the good ending or not. I'm one of these endings slight spoiler, I guess, because like I'm playing the whole game in Japanese.

[00:08:42] So there is a lot of things I'm not understanding where they are talking about reality in different cells of themselves. And I'm like, I don't understand what this guy's trying to say. Or it's like, they all lost their memories and there's a drug involved. I don't know what the drug does, but the drug makes you forget maybe. And then they spend a lot of time talking about how they all kind of have like a connection to each other in the past and they're starting to uncover it.

[00:09:08] And then there was an Egyptian mummy named Alice, but she isn't a mummy because she's an actual person that has some chemical treatment that froze her alive so that she's still alive, but she's frozen. And I don't know how the ending works out at this point, but supposedly we keep finding evidence that maybe this ancient Egyptian mummy is on the Titanic replica with us killing people. Naturally.

[00:09:39] Yeah, but a game's good. And it's funny seeing all the other endings in as you like go to because like people you would not expect are like become villains type deal in this ending. And I'm like, oh, in this ending, I don't know, Yatsuba, like the little girl that's in your group or whatever, thinks that her brother was killed by two of the other crew members. And so she just, you know, stabs them in the back with a knife. Spoil spoilers for a bad ending, I guess. You know, like, oh, that's weird.

[00:10:08] Or you find out that Ichiban or whatever his name is, the number one guy with the one on his bangle. He, you know, it used to be a scientist, but he didn't have his memories, but then he gets his memory back and shit happens after that. That's like the normal ending. So I wouldn't want to expose that one. But. It's actually really cool. Like, I don't understand everything they're saying, but I'm just in pretty far, I think. And the puzzles are not too bad, but some of them are getting pretty extreme.

[00:10:38] Like in the in the in the core playthrough, they're not bad. But once you get off the main trail and you start doing like the bonus, I guess, like puzzles, they're getting weirdly hard. And I'm like the post game bosses. I'd like to look some stuff up just to explain like, oh, it's Morse code. OK. Dude, I'm speaking of looking shit up. In Tales of Symphonia, you can do things in specific parts of the game. You can do things in whatever order you want.

[00:11:07] And that affects how you progress. Like you would get certain items in different places if you go to spots first. Oh, that's interesting. It on paper. It is very interesting. In practice, when you get lost, every single help you. Yes. You go into the thing and every like the IGN fucking not the IGN, but like the the game facts boards. You're in there and everyone is just like, did you do this first or did you do this first?

[00:11:36] Did you fight these guys first? Because that's important. Are you on the hard route or are you on the medium route? And I'm like, why are there different routes in this game? I just put a route in this old RPG. I'm so tired of walking around the fucking overworld and not knowing which area to go to. And so and you can't open the map up. You can only make it bigger. So there's no way to like I'm like what? I'm like that area was by mountains, I think. And maybe there was a forest nearby. So I think it's that dot over there.

[00:12:07] Oh my God, it sucks. I went all the way to one side of the map because I knew there's a part, you know, in all JRPGs where you get on the boat and you go to the other continent. And so I was like, this is where the boat took me. So I should be able to go back that way. No. So I had to walk all the way around the whole map to get to where I wanted to go because I was silly. Me thought that I would be able to. Oh, my God. How silly. Yeah. That's like, um, like imagine playing Ocarina of Time.

[00:12:37] But you know, we have spent hundreds of hours in the game. So we know where everything is. But the map in Ocarina of Time is damn near useless. Yeah. The maps. I don't. I barely even like remember it's there. It's just like a it looks like an oil painting almost. So they just like pixelated and threw in the game and just put dots on it. And they're like, hey, here's the names of the locations. I don't know how you get there, though. Yeah, there's absolutely no. It doesn't function as a map at all.

[00:13:07] I mean, it's not bad. And then I'm like, someone's rolling coal out there. Can you hear that? Are they stuck in the ice? What the fuck just happened? I don't know what that is like. There's not even like a major road out there. So it's just like in the residential area. Someone's just doing burnouts. Hell yeah, brother. I was thinking about Dark Souls and its map and be like, it just doesn't have a map. Good luck finding your way. But everything's pretty streamlined.

[00:13:35] So if you walk in one direction, you'll figure it out. It's like, how do I get to that place? And you turn around and it's over there. And like, oh, yeah, I just got to go in that direction, I think. Yeah, just keep my left hand on the wall and I'll be fine. Speaking of left hand on the wall, this one wants me to put my left hand down my throat so I choke to death on my own body parts. Sonic Lost World. Have you played this one? No idea what this is. No.

[00:14:02] I tend to avoid Sonic games. But what's wrong with this one? I got this one for like 45 cents in a humble bundle. Good sign. Yeah, good sign. And it is real bad. Like for. OK, so they tried with this one. They tried to make it different. Do you remember those levels in like Super Mario Sunshine where you're just in space and there's like spinning blocks? Oh, yeah. Those levels suck. Yeah, that is this whole game. They're like, what if the whole game was just that?

[00:14:32] No. It's got a 63 on Metacritic. Hell yeah. That's pretty high. That's better than I thought. OK, I got to say the cut scenes are actually funny where it has like Tails and Sonic goofing off or whatever because they paint Sonic as like such a goddamn idiot that he's just ruining everything. That's the premise of the whole game is that like Eggman gets like a magic horn that he can control demons with.

[00:14:58] And Sonic breaks the horn and the demons get loose and they're just able to, you know, run rampage around. And he's like, oh, Sonic, you fucked everything up. Now we got to team up. And Tails gets kidnapped and it's a whole thing. Oh, this is the one where there's a line that Tails says in this world. All right. We good to go or what, Tails?

[00:15:29] I built a TV out of paper clips. Yeah. And reprogrammed a supercomputer using dishwashing detergent and a toothpick. I know. So look, fixing a propeller on a biplane, that's about as difficult as taking a nap. OK, I didn't need your whole life story. A simple good to go would have been cool. All right. One of the reviews is the one of the reviews that are funny.

[00:15:57] It says, uh, I've been dreaming about pounding that blue butt, Zaz, like quoted from Zaz. It says, me too, Zaz. There's that little punk. Fuck, I've been dreaming about pounding his sorry blue butt. Is that really in the game? Did that happen? I don't know. Well, I'm playing it in Japanese. Well, I started in English and then like two levels and I just switched to the Japanese. If I'm going to suffer, I might as well learn a little bit. Learn a little bit.

[00:16:25] But I'm not counting this as game time since like there's only dialogue in the cut scenes pretty much. I don't know. I can't remember the line, but it was something like I can make an ice cream maker out of two toothpicks and a pair like a piece of string or something like that. It was like a really dumb tails line. And I'm like, I actually like that. The whole $7 game. How much did you get for this? How much was this? Dude, it was like 45 cents or something like that.

[00:16:54] And I've almost beat it. But the game makes me so angry because the controls are terrible. For one, they added like a parkour system where if Sonic is running, he can like stick to walls and clamber and stuff like that. Think that'd be useful? It is fucking not. If anything, it is actively killing you. So it's like you only run when you hold down the right trigger so you can let up and just walk. But it's so slow and you have like no inertia for jumps.

[00:17:23] So it's like you have to like barely run and almost like tap the trigger just to get moving speed. The game is awful. I think it's a very bad game, but I'm going to finish it probably. It could be the worst Sonic game I've ever played, actually. And I've played a couple. Even worse than Colors? Is that a bad game? I think so. So Colors was the one before this one, and I don't think I played it. That was the one that came out on like Wii or something. Yeah, I don't know.

[00:17:54] I actively I cleanse my mind of all of this. Sonic Lost World was like Wii U and 3DS generation because there's a separate version of Lost World that was on the 3DS back when they would make like two versions of the same game. Like one for like Game Boy Advance and one for consoles. Like, oh, my God, I can play Spyro on my Game Boy Advance. Yeah, it's exactly the same. No, it's not. It's doogie. But yeah. So apparently the 3DS one's not bad in comparison.

[00:18:24] Like you get like an airship and you like fly around different islands in the sky. And you actually like explore maps and stuff. Whereas this one is just a straightforward. I don't know, like Super Mario World style. Just going point to point on a big map. Game back. Not excited. Not enthused. All right. But I did finish two games since we last talked. So S tier. Resident Evil Village. Or Resident Evil. Was that 8? 8.

[00:18:54] V-I-I. Well, I mean, you know, it's that one of the I's is in the L. You know. Game. Very good. Played it through in Japanese. No difficulties. In fact, I would say that you probably could play this game deaf. And without any subtitles on. And it would not make a difference. There is literally no point where you need to read anything in the game to progress. Did you play?

[00:19:22] Did you replay a little bit with the infinite ammo or anything? No, I haven't gotten back yet. There's also two expansions. That's like Rose. Like story. Story. And a. Some kind of other story mode. I think. I don't know which one. But they're just like two little DLCs. So I'm going to go back and play those. And I'll probably start the game again too. You should. Yeah, you should do it with some infinite ammo stuff.

[00:19:48] Don't do what I did because in my brain, the way that I thought it was going to work is that you would have to go get the weapon again. And so I was like, okay, well, I'm going to need the original shotgun because that's like the best weapon for a little while. So I infinited the, um, I've used all the points to like make the shotgun infinite ammo. And then I realized I have all the guns or at least some of them. Like you just have access to the guns with infinite ammo. And so it's like, oh, I fucked up.

[00:20:15] And so I had to do a whole nother playthrough with a shotgun infinite ammo just to do what I wanted to originally, which is play with the magnum. Um, but I mean, the game, it was worth a good play. I replay it's yes. It's like a fun little romp. I might actually replay it again. Like sometime this year, just for fun, because it sounds good. Maybe a little spooky Halloween adventure. It's not that scary, but you know, Sonic lost worlds probably scarier, dude.

[00:20:41] There's so many points where like my body loses control while I'm playing Sonic lost world. Like my character will just like freak out, run up a wall, do backflip and just fly off the cliff. Meanwhile, I'm like, I was just holding right in right. And running to the right. And I didn't mean to bump into the wall where he'd start parkouring like crazy. And my body was like, seize up. And I was like, almost like fall over like those fainting goats. Or like, I can't believe this happened. And of course you get only a limited number of lives.

[00:21:09] And so instead of going back to the checkpoint, if you just happen to be out of lives, it's like, just start the level over again. Meanwhile, I'm like, I am not a bad platformer. I've beaten super meat boy. I've beaten cluster truck. I've beaten, I don't know. What's the girl mountain game? Of Valhalla, cyberpunk. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:21:30] So like I've played platformers before that were probably more difficult than this one, but the controls are just so goddamn dookie that this is feels unplayable. Unplayable. Gonna get a good old D tier? Dude, this one is approaching E. I don't know if E's on my board, but it's getting there. The more I play. But the other thing is like some of the levels seem to have great ideas or themes to them. And I'm like, I see what they're going for here.

[00:22:00] This is really good on the creative department. Terrible on the gameplay department. And that almost makes it worse. Yeah. It's just that it encourages that disappointment. Yeah. Like the production value is there. This is a full fledged Sonic game. It's just unplayable. R.I.P. Sonic. Yeah. Maybe maybe when I finally play Frontiers, I'll be like, finally, a good Sonic.

[00:22:26] I bought Frontiers just because it has that Pierce the Veil song in it during a boss fight. And I was like, man, do I got to buy this game just to experience this? And then I never played it, but I own it. It's sitting there. Start it up. All right. The other game I played, though, is How Fish is Made, which is the game developed by the maker of Mouthwashing. Mouthwashing. Yeah. It was like his kind of art project before that. I don't know if it's one guy or a group of people.

[00:22:57] I think it's just one guy, yeah. Not to go into spoilers, but for How Fish is Made. But, Nave, you should really play it. It is so, like, it's such a novel gaming experience. That's the best part about it, because in the first minute of the game, you are a fish. Just a fish. Oh, it's free. Yeah, it's free. Flopping through an air vent.

[00:23:24] And I don't want to spoil any of this, but it's amazing what they do. The stupid video that plays, autoplays, is already spoiling stuff for me a little bit. So I'm going to pause that. Yeah. But How Fish is Made is a real good experience. I recommend it for everyone if you're of sound mind, I guess. Like, it might not be for people that are having big feelings. Oh, there's Curly! Yeah.

[00:23:51] Well, okay, so there is a part in the end which is actually a bridge into mouthwashing. They call it the expansion part. That's separate from how Fish is Made. You still play as the fish, but they, like, change it up. And you can tell, like, there's probably even more production value in the expansion than there is in the base game. And they, there's a small lead-in to mouthwashing on it.

[00:24:19] In the Steam write-up, it says, now featuring a Katamari-like DLC. Oh, okay, spoilers. Yes. That's the expansion. And I didn't want to blow that for you, is that you play Katamari Damacy in the expansion. Only you're a fish. And it's real gross. And it's exactly what you imagine. All right, well, it's installed. It took one millisecond.

[00:24:46] It looks like a, it looks like it might be too stressful for my PC, but I, maybe it won't be. Maybe there is some physics objects. Yeah, because the whole thing about, on mouthwashing, characters aren't even moving for the most part. Like, every time characters start physically moving on the screen, my gang goes, uh-oh. But, um, I don't know if you noticed in mouthwashing, but I don't think there's ever a moment where you see a character walking. Like, they're always, like, teleporting around.

[00:25:14] You see one where, um, what's his name? Piercy? The engineer. When he's coming after you whenever you're in the cockpit. Oh, right, yeah. Yeah, that's like the one time you see someone moving. That's right, yeah. And that's, it's jarring. It's jarring as fuck. It's supposed to be scary. Anyway. But, uh, yeah, Howlfish is made? A tier. Uh, I put it below Pico Park 2. Could be higher if, uh, I don't know, if it wasn't just, like, an art project. Because there's not much game.

[00:25:44] There is, like, you know, player interaction. But it's mostly a walking simulator. Uh, great vibes. Great vibes. Well, I mean, I love Scorn. So it's like, yeah, it's gross. And, uh, it's just such a novelty. Because how often do you get to play as a fishing event? Yeah, you're right. Actually. Despite all my rage. I'm such a rat in a cage. Or whatever that song goes.

[00:26:15] All right. Well, I haven't beaten anything in a while. I'm stuck. I'm stunlocked on JRPGs. Again. Oh, yeah. They'll slow you down. Well, what did you buy? Okay. Let's talk about this first. Uh, so I bought two games, um, on sale. There's this giant sale on Xbox. Did you see it? Uh, I did see there was something going on. Uh, it's a, uh, buy one, get two free. So you might want to go look into that, Philip.

[00:26:44] I do love trash games. There's a little like, well, this is the thing. Is that the only reason why I haven't bought. These aren't from that. I bought these like separately. But like the only reason why I didn't buy anything from this buy one, get two free thing. Is because I own most of the games that are there. So, you know what I mean? So it's like, oh. I, there are three games that catch my attention. But it's like, I don't know if I even want to spend $40 on all three of these games. You know what I mean? Yeah. One is a DLC. So I mean, it's like, I don't know.

[00:27:14] But, um, so the first game that I bought was Once Again, which is a visual novel that looks like it might be artistically creative, you know? Oh yeah, I see that. So it's got this like two, you know what it reminds me of? You remember Brain Age on the Nintendo DS? Yeah. You hold it like a book. You hold it like a book and play it like that. Is that the game that was like that? I can't remember. Yeah, that was like that.

[00:27:43] There were actually a couple visual novels too. There was like a detective series, I think, that was like that, where you held it as a book. Oh, uh, I think that's on Xbox now. I think I have that on my wish list. Whatever it is. Not Ace Ventura. The, what is it? Ace Detective. Ace Attorney. No, Ace Lawyer. Attorney. If I were you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's not that.

[00:28:13] But, um, once again, looks kind of cool. I don't know anything about it. So, I mean, I like visual novels. I like buying games and never playing them. Um, speaking of that, cards were dealt. I think this game was like three bucks. But it looks like you're, it's like a roguelike, I think. And you're collecting cards and you're, you're using the, it's kind of like, uh, what is that game? Neon White? Yeah. Neon White. Yeah. I played all the way through it. Me and JP actually beat it together. Oh yeah. That's right. It was the episode he was on.

[00:28:41] But, um, yeah, uh, cards will, cards will, cards will, we're dealt looks cool. I'll probably play it a little bit. Oh, I mean, I kind of lied about the games I'm playing, but there's nothing to update, but that vampire shooter game. What is it called? Oh, God damn it. I didn't write it down. It's vampire hunter. I think. Yeah. Sounds about right. Yeah. Vampire hunters. I play that every now and then. Like I just play like a round and die and be like, ah, fuck this. And then leave.

[00:29:11] Uh, but it's still, I still haven't done anything other than the first level with the first character. Cause I'm, I'm determined to win, which was my issue with Bellatro because I got stuck on Bellatro forever because I just wanted to use the first deck, even though it's not necessarily the easiest deck to use. It's usually just the simplest. Yeah. The easiest deck to use is the one that gives you like a bunch of extra money. Like all the time. I don't remember like the yellow deck. I think I can't remember. Card games are fun. Roguelites are fun.

[00:29:42] That's it. All right. That goes right into our new pod updates. We got a post, Nave. And you got, you found it on Apple podcast. We got a review. Dude. The thing about this review was I didn't even know it existed. It came, it was from a month ago. So it was around the time of our mouth watching episode, which is, I think our second longest episode ever. But, um, the, you know how I figured out about this? You know how I saw this? How?

[00:30:08] I was talking with our guest and he was like, we were talking about like different websites that help like that look at the statistics for your podcast and stuff. He was showing me a couple of things. And then I was talking about something about reviews, uh, at some point I was like, yeah, and people aren't really reviewing anything. He's like, yeah. And whenever I, it's the guy, uh, Josh from still loading. He was like, yeah, man, whenever I, uh, saw that one star review of yours, I was like, man, that guy's fucking harsh. And I was like, that's bullshit. And I'm like, what?

[00:30:38] Yeah. What review? What review? Gotta go look. And then I played it off. I was like, oh yeah, that guy sucks. I have no idea what you're talking about. Good playing it off. Uh, which we can read it. This is from BMW one, two, two. No B W M. Oh, B. Okay. Say with your chest. Dox this motherfucker. Go find it. Oh my God. It says really tried, but I'm just not a fan. Unprofessional lacking good structure.

[00:31:08] Way too much rambling slash droning in overall, just uninteresting. There needs to be a compelling reason to listen to someone. Talk for hours. And these guys do not have it. One star Apple podcast review from a month ago. America. Course it was an American. Yeah. Classic American. I agree. I also. Yeah, I don't. To be fair, I don't listen to my own show either.

[00:31:38] I would also rate it one star. So, uh, I'm with you, my brother. God damn. Uh, I was, that was one thing. Oh, that was what I was talking about. One of the reviews. Cause I was like, there are podcasts, you know, that have like a handful of views and it says five stars. I'm like that podcast isn't a five star. So I like that. We're not a five star reviewed podcast. Cause it just, it seems more real whenever it's like four point something. You know what I mean? It's like, this is getting closer to accurate. You know what I mean? Oh yeah.

[00:32:08] I would love a hundred more reviews just like this one. No, let's not chase it. But I, uh, I was like, it makes the statistics make more sense. I like when statistics are more reliable, right? Like I like looking at the data and trying to figure out what the hell's going on. So whenever your podcast is rated five stars, it's hard to be like, well, what can we improve? It's like that time when I went on Twitter and I was like, I listed out four things in a poll. I was like, what is the least important part of the show? And, or I was the opposite.

[00:32:38] I was like, what is the best part of the show? Just to see what would be picked the least. And then the video game review got like almost no votes. I was like, what? There you have it. We need to drop the review. But this is the problem is that when we don't have the game review in the title, those episodes don't do well. So it's like someone's lying here or maybe the algorithm is picking up Halo CE, which last episode did pretty good. I think it's because it was Halo.

[00:33:06] And so, like I said, I think the algorithm grabbed it, but yeah, easy clicks. I don't know how things work, honestly. So what I want to do to help this guy out, though, is to recommend a better podcast for him to go listen to if he doesn't like ours. Why doesn't he go check out a novel console? Friday Night Gamecast. Gaming and Collecting. Press me to cancel. Retro Rehab. The Superpod Saga. Elder Trolls. Basically any of our fellow brothers on the Superpod Network.

[00:33:35] Link down below. So yes, the Superpod Network. Are we the lowest rated review on the Superpod? I mean, are we the lowest rated show? I mean, not to check, but very possible. It is possible. Especially with this one, you know, weighing us down. Yeah, this this fucking bastard. All right. We don't get a lot of Apple reviews. All of our reviews are on Spotify generally. And on Spotify, it doesn't leave. You don't write a review on there. You just select a star.

[00:34:04] But you can leave comments on there. So, you know. Everything's different. Everyone's different. Thank you for the review, though. BWM122. We will take into consideration. Noted. Noted. Next up, another droning rambling section. Japanese Corner. Let's get into it. Nave, I've been feeling very confident with anime lately. I started Freyrin. I'm about five episodes in.

[00:34:33] And I'm like, hey, I'm understanding a lot of this. And then I was like, oh. Except when Freyrin is explaining magic to Furns. That is rough. She's like, you know, magic is the energy inside. And it can be exhausted with determination and will combined with... But then there's some stuff where she's like, did you read your magical history? And she's like, yeah, I'm reading it. And he's like, you didn't read it. You know, just like stuff like that. I'm like, oh, it's like... This is silly.

[00:35:02] There's a lot of silliness going on. But I'm to the episode where they just met with the red-haired warrior. I don't know his name. Stark. Stark. And he admits that he is actually a coward. Oh, it's so good. Oh, it's so good. Listener. Please watch Freyrin. It's so fucking good. Yeah. But I was feeling pretty motivated by that. And finally, I'm like, I'm going to go back and finish Takage-san.

[00:35:33] Because I only watched two seasons and then stopped on the third because it wasn't on Netflix. But now I'm going back and I'm watching it. And bro, I'm understanding like 90% of what they're saying at this point. Really? This has to be one of the easiest animes. If anybody's looking for a starting point, go watch Takage-san. It's literally just about two kids basically goofing off in class. Is it on Crunchyroll? Probably. I think it's pretty popular. Dude, I've been getting gotten by that.

[00:36:02] Because I was like, every now and then I'll be like, is Shin-chan on Crunchyroll? And I'll go look it up and it's not. I'm like, where the fuck would it else? Where else would it be? It's not here. It's teasing Master Takage-san, right? Yeah, teasing Master Takage-san or whatever. It's like Karako Jozu Takage-san. Oh god, is it going to be like that? Okay, how do you spell Takage or whatever? Tall Tree. Fuck. Yeah.

[00:36:31] Oh no, here it is. Yeah, cut. Oh god, it's Karakai Jozu no Takage-san. I don't know why I said oh god. That was actually really easy to read. Yeah, there you go. Oh, it's written right here. Yeah. Karakai. Okay, wow. Is that E really? Like I? Is that? That is weird looking in that font. Oh, that font. Yeah, well they do that sometimes where they'll connect the two sides of E.

[00:36:59] Dude, I was just fucking going on a rant with somebody. I was just talking. So speaking of free run, I was watching, I just literally today watched the first two episodes of free run with Hannah and then I started ranting about fucking Japanese for like 30, 40 minutes. But that was one of the things I was talking about. How like even on things like, so even on Duolingo, we talked about this like a fucking month ago. But like on Duolingo, on the phone, saw and key are disconnected, the bottom part of it.

[00:37:28] And then on the computer, they aren't disconnected. Even in the Hiragana book, it'll be like, this is how you do the stroke order. And then it looks different on the fucking, it's like, this is the stroke order. And then the fucking highlight that you're supposed to trace looks fucking different. Which by the way, this book looking pretty, getting pretty filled out. I was supposed to do this in 10 days, according to the title. Well, Hiragana's not bad. You could, you could do that in like a long weekend, like three days. I don't need this book anymore.

[00:37:57] I am just now filling it in because it's fun. Like, you know, so when I'm listening, when I'm editing the podcast, I am writing in this. Right. And sometimes I'm listening to like somebody stream, like I'll, I'll go to 1H1D or Intergalactic Pinecone who just fucking appeared randomly. Everyone go check out Intergalactic Pinecone stream. Fucking OG homie of the podcast. But, uh, yeah. So every time I'll just be sitting here listening to a stream or something and just writing Hiragana and it's super fun.

[00:38:27] Do you have a favorite Hiragana to write? Oh, to write? Oh, man. Yeah. What's your favorite one to write? E is real good. Uh, I really like Ka. Ka is a standard, you know? Yeah. Ka is nice. I like, uh, oh, the, just the generic, oh, it's so good. Cause look at, dude, I don't know if you can see this, but I am so good at writing O. God. It is so stupid. Yeah.

[00:38:54] Even one of, so sometimes I, when I fuck it up, I'll like draw on it just to, cause I'm bored. I'll write words. It's like, I'll critique myself. And then one of them on the O says, nice. I was like, this is, that's when I've really started to get confident. There's some that I hate, like, uh, for fucking soul. I hate soul. So is wrong. I hate, eh. I hate, I hate who? Fuck that. That, it doesn't even make sense. Cause it's all connected.

[00:39:25] Like, uh, like, hey, hey, hey, hey. Yeah. Hey is fun. I like, uh, nah. Nah is pretty. Hey, you want to go through English? Anything with a squiggle. Yeah. What's your favorite English letter? The favorite English letter to write? Oh man. M is pretty fun. G, I think. G is probably my favorite one. You know, I might be partial to, because I'm Phillip, but, uh, P is also a nice one. Capital or lowercase. It's the same. It's the same.

[00:39:55] Just look. Yeah, definitely. Definitely lowercase G though. Not capital G. Oh yeah. And no, you know what? Y, especially lowercase Y is really fun. I like Y, because you can make it pointy or you can make it curvy and like, you know, you can just change it up sometimes. You can customize it. Dude, I have to do my signature every day at work on like a bunch of different papers when I'm signing shit out.

[00:40:21] And I've started just, I don't know when this transition happened, but my signature or my initials has just become a star. Like, like the A, like just an A in, like a star, like in a squiggle kind of at the end. And I didn't realize it until I like, I mean, one day I did it and I just kind of stared at it. I was like, this is kind of cool looking. Like, I don't even know where this came from. It's just from me being lazy, not wanting to write letters. Anyway. Yeah.

[00:40:51] Letter talk. Anything else developed in a Japanese world? Are you ready to move on? I mean, we, if we're doing anime corner, I finished an anime called, hold on, let me see. Cause it's got a Japanese word at the beginning of it. Uh, I'm not going to read that, but, uh, so the show is called too many losing heroines. Have you heard of the show? So I have listened to gaming and collecting and they've talked about it on there, but I haven't seen it. Oh really? Yeah.

[00:41:17] Well, maybe I should, maybe I, well, I think I did say something in the, in the, uh, in the super pod network. And I don't know if I ever just followed it up. Cause sometimes I just, I just dropped something and then I, yeah, I, I post and ghost. So they probably were like, Oh, I want to talk about it with you. And then I just didn't say anything. But, uh, I mean, I don't know. I finished it and I don't know why I watched it. You know what I mean? It was cute and a little heartwarming, but it's like, I, I have dropped better anime than this.

[00:41:46] You know what I mean? And so I'm, so for some reason I just ended up watching the whole thing. It's only 12 episodes. So it's like just one season. Yeah. It's not a big deal. Uh, but, uh, I mean, it was kind of cute and funny in some moments, but now I'm, I'm back to watching space dandy, which I never finished. And dude, have you seen space dandy yet? No, you keep recommending it. I, I just got through a, the, I think it's the 18th episode where they're trying to find

[00:42:14] a giant fish and the whole episode is basically like a, uh, ancient Japanese like painting in that style. It's so fucking good, dude. Like it's incredible. Like I, I don't know why I keep putting the, the problem with space dandy is that I always want to rewatch it. Like, I mean, I, as soon as I start watching it, I'm like, I'll be like nine episodes in and I'm like, but I don't remember really what happened, what's happening.

[00:42:40] So I'll go back to the beginning, but space dandy, there's no continuity. So I don't know why I keep doing that going back to the beginning because like, there's nothing, there's no connective tissue between the episodes. Some episodes dandy dies. So it's like, that's great. You know? So, I mean, fuck. Uh, but space dandy is incredible, man. And I, I'm definitely finishing it. I'm very close to the end. So I'm definitely finishing it this time. You know, I almost feel like shows need to do that more often. Just have an episode.

[00:43:10] That's a, where they just die in the end and just come back the next week. They did that in a cowboy bebop. There's an episode where they just die. Yeah. I, it's, that's how I would recommend, I explain space dandy to people for the listener who doesn't know what that show is. It's basically cowboy bebop and Johnny Bravo had a baby. And that is what space dandy is. It's so fucking good. Um, way, way better than too many losing heroines. I think, I think the reason why I like too many losing heroines is because, uh, it's not

[00:43:40] about the guy. You know what I mean? Like the main character, it's about the three girls that are around him. And the three girls are like, they're losing, like it's in the title. So like they didn't win. They were unsuccessful. So it's kind of like a novel concept a little bit where it's like, these are the people who don't win in the anime, like who don't like get the guy that they want and shit like that. I don't know if people are going to even enjoy the listeners that we have. I don't know if they're going to enjoy this kind of show, but, but space dandy.

[00:44:09] Have you heard of this fucking show? Hold on. There's one that I want to watch pretty soon called brave, brave bang braver. And have you heard of this? No, never heard of it. I need you to look it up because the way that it was described to me is that it's, it's basically Gundam. It's like Gundam, but it's the Japanese version of like Americans. Like if they had the Gundams. If I just type in brave, it does come up as the, uh, the first thing. Mine's brave new world is my first thing.

[00:44:39] So yeah, there it is. Bang brave. So this looks fucking awesome. Like just with the, the, the giant Gundam dude with the sig, the, the sign behind him and shit. I hate the way the Gundam looks. Yeah, this looks fucking sick. I don't even know how, I think it was just like a clip that I saw and I was like, oh shit, I got a, that's almost how exclusively how I find anime, by the way. You know what I mean?

[00:45:09] Oh, through a clip. Yeah. Just a random clip on Twitter. But the, uh, the robot's name is Bravern and he's a talking super robot who arrives to defend her from death drives. Death drives. And he will only let Isami pilot him. You know what it sounds like? It sounds like Titanfall 2. Oh, get out of there. Oh, sure. Yeah. Is it funny? Dude, it's ridiculous. This is the most anime ass plot. This almost feels like Evangelion. Okay.

[00:45:39] So the robot, this is still the robot. He seems to know Isami and will only let him pilot him. It is later revealed that he is Louis who was reborn after his ghost merged with his Titan Strider and new power sending him back in time to the beginning of the death drive invasion to save the world. Oh, my God. So major spoilers, but, uh, it's Thomas. I'm not going to remember any of that.

[00:46:09] Probably. I don't think the plot matters a lot in this show. It's one of those. When you worry about the plot in the Godzilla movie. Be like, you know, it's about two guys in rubber suits fighting in a model city, right? Yeah, dude. It's fucking sick. Man. There's that. Speaking of Godzilla, there's this episode of Space Dandy where they... It's one of the episodes where he dies, but, uh, he's like, they're on this planet of these

[00:46:38] giant monsters, like this cascade of monsters, you know, like in a Star Wars where there's always a bigger fish. That's it. It's that. But it keeps happening over and over again where these giant mythical kaiju monsters keep spawning and fighting each other. And they're trying to escape. And like, I remember they get, they get like buried in rubble, I think. And they dig out until like their head is like the only thing out of the, out of the ground, right? Like they look like plants. And then a kaiju stomps on the ground and turns the ground into basically a wave.

[00:47:07] And as it goes up, it like shits them out of the ground. Like, like squeezes them out of the ground. And as the wave goes down, they just don't move. Like, it's just like they get peeled like a banana. It's so funny, dude. Oh man. I think it's like the third episode. We're just going to spoil anime. Yeah. Welcome to the anime corner. All right. Let's go run to our Patreon then. Here at Gaming Together, we work hard to provide excellent co-op content for you, the listener. If you have any means, please consider supporting us on Patreon, link in the description.

[00:47:37] Here's our supporters. Jose Martinez, BerserkerThis, Mr. Quang, Insane Cracker, and Nick at Night. Thank you for all your help, boys. All right. Let's take a quick break and then we can come back and help some assholes in need. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Music plays. Do you need a bathroom break or anything? Nah, fuck that. All right. And we're back. Nave, we are now going to go online and help some desperate assholes. They don't know if they're assholes or not.

[00:48:06] So we're going to help them by informing them that they are and possibly give them a little life advice to turn things around if they are. Do you have an asshole you would like to save? Let's... I'm just flicking through numbers. Let's do... 49. 49. Oh, yes. 49. It is locked. And it's Am I the Butt Face. Uh-oh. Do we have the fucking... The auto mod?

[00:48:36] No. It looks like we lost this one. Lost. Lost the time. It's probably better off. This one looked kind of depressing. Looking back on it. Okay. The listeners at home, the lied description was, uh... OP wants to drink and game, and his girlfriend is asking him to stop, and I have a warning for liver disease. I do not remember this one, but it probably was not good. Uh, let's do 65. That sounds like a good round number. Okay, dokey.

[00:49:05] I'm going to drink this Coca-Cola. All right, this is from ComfortableSkill, and it looks like a main account. Maybe? No. No. Hmm. Okay, a couple notes. No, he's only doing replies, and, uh... In the replies, the only information gained is that he has played all three routes in Undertale, and he's 45 years old. And possibly his son is 13.

[00:49:35] Let's see if this matters when we get into it. Okay, I didn't hear what you said, but, uh, I agree. Yeah. All right. Am I the asshole for making my son play the pacifist route in Undertale? Instead of the genocide route, which he wanted to play. Uh, this almost seems like, right off the bat, like, uh, would you kill baby Hitler or something? You know? Uh, okay.

[00:50:02] Recently, my son has gotten into video games, and particularly Undertale. He has the game on my PC, and I have played the game before. Four years ago, in fact. I've got a pro gamer. It is one of the best games I've ever played. So I was happy my son wanted to play it. My son usually does research on a game before he plays it, and this time was no different. He told me he was going to play the genocide route in the game, which is a route in which the player defeats every monster that they encounter in the game.

[00:50:29] The other true route is the pacifist route, in which the players spare every monster that they encounter in the game. There is also a neutral route where you mix and match. When my son told me he wanted to play the genocide route, I immediately told him I wouldn't allow it, and that he could either play the pacifist route or neutral route. To be honest, burp. I don't want any bad tendencies to awaken in my son.

[00:50:55] My son got upset at me for trying to control how he will play the game, and then told me he wouldn't play the game at all. My wife agrees with me, although I had to explain the situation many times since she doesn't like video games. Am I the asshole? I just can imagine that discussion with the wife. Trying to explain. The Charlie Day on the fucking board. Alright, so there's Flowery. He's right at the beginning of the game. And he's getting into it.

[00:51:25] Oh man. Alright, so first off, have you played Undertale? A little bit. I should play all of it, but I bounced off of it pretty early. Mostly because, the reason why is because I knew about this genocide and pacifist and yada yada, and so I was trying to pacifist it, and then I just didn't understand. I just didn't understand, you know what I mean? So, I should have just played the neutral or whatever.

[00:51:47] This fucking happened to me when I played Dishonored the first time, where I wanted to be a pacifist, and it's fucking a lot harder when you're not killing people. And actually, Dishonored's very fun when you're killing people. So, it's like, I really, it took me like a year to get back into Dishonored. Just to get over myself. Well, I've completed one run that was neutral, because I killed like the first, or probably like second enemy you encounter.

[00:52:13] And I felt bad about it, because they make a big deal bullying you about killing this guy. And then after that, I did pacifist the rest of the run. And I felt a little annoyed that, because I didn't know at the beginning, I kind of locked myself into that ending. Yeah, that's kind of annoying. But the game's good. It's super popular. You know, tons of great reviews or whatever.

[00:52:39] Anyways, dad, 45 years old, telling son, 13 years old, that he has to do the pacifist route in Undertale. If he plays it at all. Where are you getting the ages from? It's in his replies. Anyways. Oh, shit. Well, I trust you. I'm not scrolling through them. The OP is also saying that he has played all three routes himself. Oh, yes. So he knows.

[00:53:07] You know, this is interesting. So, back when I was playing games for, what's her name? Melissa. When I was streaming for her all the time. There were some games where there were, like, decisions to be made and stuff like that. And usually, in those kinds of games, I would, like, let her make the decisions. Like, you know, Telltale Games or whatever. So, specifically, what's in my mind is Tales from the Borderlands.

[00:53:34] And while doing that, because I'm like, you do the decisions. And if you take too long, like the timer's running out, then I'll just make the decision for you. But usually when big decisions are happening, there's, like, no time limit. And there is one spot in Tales of the Borderlands where you either trust Handsome Jack or you trust Fiora. And I made the – she wanted to trust Fiora. But I made the executive decision to trust Handsome Jack because I thought that that was a more entertaining storyline.

[00:54:04] Without – like, so she was like, do Fiora. And I was like, no, this is the only time I'm going to overwrite because Fiora's line sucks. Like, the Fiora part really sucks. And you're going to – because literally if you do the Fiora route, you lose an optional character that's going to be in your party. Like, you won't have them anymore. And so, you know what I mean? Like, so does that make me an asshole? She didn't, like, really put up a fight. She was like, oh, okay, whatever. But, like, when I'm reading this, I'm like, you know, I kind of did this myself. You know what I mean? Yeah, I didn't make it at all.

[00:54:34] I didn't make it like, you are going to do exactly, like, this thing. But I have this capability. You knew, though? Yes, I knew. See, the son says he did research. So he also kind of knows, probably. Oh, right, yeah. This is the one he wants to experience. He thinks he does know better. Like, you thought that you knew better in making that decision. Yeah, Melissa definitely didn't know about – she was just making decisions. Like, she's like, this is what I would do. And I'm like, uh, not this time.

[00:55:04] It's my game. Oh, dumb. But, yeah. When we were 13, we were playing, like, Saintro 1, though. Which probably develops way worse tendencies than Undertale. Yeah. It's weird, because if you're going to lock your kid off from stuff like this, it's going to make them want to do the things more. Yeah? It's going to drive them to play Hatred. Or, like, Postal or something.

[00:55:34] Yeah, Postal 3. Postal 2. Go piss on people. Yeah, so I think the dad needs to line up. Yeah. Uh, yeah, just let him play the fucking game. I don't know. I think this whole, like, I don't want him to get bad tendency, I think that's just a fucking cop-out. He just wants his kid to play the game that he thinks he should play. Like, I get it. I understand.

[00:56:02] Like, it's like you're going to do a suboptimal thing, and it's not going to be as good, like, fulfilling. But, I mean, let him do the thing. It's not your decision, honestly. Yeah. Well, just let him play it. Otherwise, you're just going to come off as, like, weirdly overbearing. He says, the OP says that he loves this game. And so he probably does think that, like, the pacifist route is the best route. Because he loves the characters so much.

[00:56:31] And I'm pretty sure you kill all the characters in the... Genocide, yeah. You kill the good people, you kill your friends. And the bad people, yeah. Whereas, like, if you do the pacifist route, you actually befriend everyone on your way. It's almost like... You pet the dog and his neck gets big. Yeah. Classic stuff like that. And honestly, I think the gameplay is more interesting on the pacifist side.

[00:56:57] Because it's like that bullet hell combined with, like, the conversation tree or whatever. Where you have to, like... I don't even know what the different choices were. It's like compliment. You know, this stupid stuff like that. But... So I think the dad is an asshole. And what he needs to do is lay off. Yeah. Or, like, have him play fucking Stardew Valley or something. Well, no, there's violence in that. What's a game that doesn't have any violence?

[00:57:27] Stardew Valley, but I don't kill anything. Dude, imagine the kids playing The Sims and the dad gets onto them for setting the Sim on fire. You know what I mean? Deleting the pool ladder. And then he gets grounded. Like, what a weird... That's a weird thing. Hey, when we were... You know, like, the original Xbox was out. I was playing Fable, you know, 1. And yeah, I went Evil Path or whatever. Like, this is what you do. Whenever you're a dumb little boy. Dude, that's hardcore. I couldn't do the Evil Path in Fable.

[00:57:58] What? I was good. I was kicking chickens, but I was doing the good dialogue and everything. Dude, I loved to steal things. As clunky as those mechanics were. I'm like, oh yeah, I'm gonna be evil and steal things. You're like, ooh. Fable sucks. Fable sucks. Not realistic at all. Have you seen the people... Literally, this is going on right now with Avowed. People are online.

[00:58:25] Like, the console warriors are making fun of Avowed because you can't, like, pickpocket or something. But they're like, in Starfield, you can pickpocket. Look at this. And I'm like, so now Starfield's good? Because you want to dump on Avowed, so now Starfield's good? Fucking hate this place. I hate it. Oh, there was another time like that where it's like, oh, we like this now? I think it was like when I was reading about everyone else's problems because I was doing research on Sonic Lost World.

[00:58:53] But so many people were talking up Sonic 06. And I'm like, Sonic 06 is good now? Dude, the revisionist history, man. I swear, dude. Like, people love revisioning history or whatever. Oh, my God. Did you see that fucking schizo thread that I posted in the Goop Troop on Twitter? I saw you posting internet culture and I was just like, I'm out of here. I don't know how fucking – I don't know if this is even important or if this gets in the podcast or not. But there's this rant.

[00:59:22] So Trump is like, oh, I'm going to fucking fire a bunch of people in the government or whatever, right? And so a random Twitter account that claims to be – hold on. Let me go look so I know exactly what's going on. So the Twitter account is polyfrag grenade and they claim to be a she, they, 19, plural, history major, yada, yada, yada, right? Kind of one of these people that you run into on Twitter every now and then.

[00:59:47] And they quoted this tweet of like the – it's like a news article or whatever. It's like, hey, layoffs are happening. And then they proceed for hours to start like speaking as if they're not a 19-year-old, right? So the tweet exactly says breaking, CIA reportedly planning its largest mass firing since 1977. And the tweet says, well, that's infuriating. I've been in this line of work for 18 years. Promotion seemed imminent too.

[01:00:13] At least – at the very least it looks like I no longer have to pretend to be your friend. I have never been a commie, had multiple personalities, or been trans. I'm 38 years old. And they go on to fucking tweet for hours like replying to a bunch of people like just randomly like this person is like – Honestly, I think America is in for a huge reckoning with all these federal layoffs. People are like – they're tweeting like not how they used to.

[01:00:40] So it's like either an account that got hacked or this person is just fucking with everyone or – you know what I'm saying? Yeah. And so I followed them because I'm like, oh, I want to see how this goes. And they haven't tweeted since yesterday. Their last tweet is, thank you all for the concern, but everything's okay. Love, Polly. That's their last tweet probably forever because of the bit. But I don't even remember why I brought that up. This is why that guy left the one-star review.

[01:01:12] I brought that up for some reason. I mean it's fun for a little time stamp, a little window in the time. That's honestly – seriously when I go back – I do listen to some of our old episodes sometimes. And that's my favorite part of the show is like just like randomly hearing one of our stories. And I'm like, oh, fuck, dude. I remember that. Like this is three years ago. That's crazy. Like this didn't seem to happen that long ago.

[01:01:36] Dude, if we're going to do a little bit here, like this is definitely more like – I'd almost argue that this show is less of a show and more of like a journal centered around gaming that we do once a week. Yeah. I enjoy the personal part the most, I think. The part where I just talk about the things I'm interested in because I'll listen and I'll be like, oh, fuck, dude. I remember how hyper fixated I was on something. I don't know.

[01:02:06] Anyway. Like the chess arc was great. I love chess arc. The chess arc? I'm still on the chess arc. I was literally practicing last night. I was drinking and this – the guy, Gotham Chess, he has a website called Chessly. And it's basically – he turned – it used to be like literal you pay for lessons, which I paid for like two of them, I think. I paid for like just opening – a generic openings course and then I paid for like E4 or whatever.

[01:02:32] But now he literally turned it into Duolingo for chess. For chess? That's really cool. It's interesting. It's really interesting. So, of course, my money is gone with the wind from the – because that shit that I paid for doesn't exist anymore, I don't think. But yeah, now there's like leaderboards and shit. It's really fucking cool. So, I was drunk in doing that and probably not retaining any information. I still get the chess shorts in my like YouTube algorithm or whatever.

[01:03:01] And I saw one the other day. It was like the most unheard of move in chess or whatever. And it was like – was like Matheson or whatever his name is? Hikaru? No. What's the big guy? Magnuson? Oh, Magnus Carlsen. Yeah, Magnuson. He was just on Joe Rogan. Isn't that weird? Convenient. Yeah, I listened to it for like 10 minutes and I was like, oh, okay. I remember why I don't listen to Joe Rogan anymore. They're not even really talking about chess.

[01:03:31] The first thing Joe Rogan is like, hey, man, is that anal beats thing real? I'm just like, goddammit, Joe. I'm so glad he brought that up though. What a good callback. Right away. And there was another comedian there, the Tony Hinchcliffe guy that did just kill Tony, which I don't know if you've ever watched Kill Tony, Phillip, but that is a hilarious podcast. Just the Shane Gillis one. Yeah. The Shane Gillis ones are the ones that I always watch. But so he was there. I don't know why. I guess he likes chess. And so the whole time he's like, so how did you know?

[01:04:00] Is it just like, and Magnus Carlsen is just sitting there straight faced. Like I'm a professional chess player. Like you're bringing up, you're bringing up a very serious moment in my history. Like, oh, fuck. No, but it was just like the super clickbait title, you know, and then it's like his opponent moved a piece, but it was clearly like a bad move.

[01:04:29] And he's like, oh, and then moved it back one piece because he moved to one step too far, like in the back line. And so it's like, instead of checking the, you know, his king or whatever, he just like put it in direct line with the enemy queen to just snipe it. And it's like, yeah. And he moved it back and the ref tried to step in and all the Magnuson was just like, hey, just let him play the move he was obviously trying to make. Yeah.

[01:04:57] I mean, it's so weird because he didn't even participate in the last like world championship or whatever. Anyway, I mean, it doesn't matter. You know what my algorithm is now on YouTube and Facebook and shit is I'm just watching cats and dogs get hurt. Like not seriously hurt. Like, you know, like a cat jumping for a table and just not making it. Dude, that's great. Just stupid shit. Like cat, like cat steps on a bowl and it's off the ledge. So he just falls down, which is great.

[01:05:25] Or, you know, another funny, another good like algorithm I had for a little while is like birds doing stupid shit. You know, like there's this bird that has this cup in its, in its claws and it just goes really last. Yeah. Birds are fucking funny. Birds are funny. Like there's this cat. There was this cat like sneaking up on it and the bird bird literally chases off goes fucker.

[01:05:52] Like, just called the cat a fucker. What the fuck? Anyway. That guy's an asshole. I think we, I think we decided, right? Let's do number 84. It's another dad one. I feel like we're on theme with that. Oh my God. I know. I hope this is real. Just based on that title. This is only one, one post burner. Yeah. Burner.

[01:06:22] How do you know? Because the burner is called throw, throw account daughter. Okay. Okay. Am I the asshole for pretending to be my daughter's friend because she's lonely? All right. The community has preemptively labeled him an asshole, but hold on. My daughter, 14 female does not have any friend and that's mostly due to her autism. She says that she does not understand people or what they mean when they speak.

[01:06:50] So she finds it very difficult to connect with others. She described this as quote feeling like playing a game of which rules she doesn't know. End quote. She had this problem once she became in middle school and everybody left her. What she does once she becomes home is either the internet or studying. All right. This feels like my Japanese translations. Like something's going on. Some text or not text of speech. What is it called?

[01:07:20] Autocorrect. I don't know. No, I was thinking of the translate, Google translate, whatever. All right. Next paragraph. And as a single father, she really doesn't like to tell me her issues or what's going on a lot. Well, we have a very good relationship, but I do know that she doesn't tell me everything. And I do know that she's very lonely and doesn't have any friend in real life and barely anyone online.

[01:07:50] And really nothing is working with her. She has a therapist and it's not enough. Quote, go out of your comfort zone and talk with people. End quote. And similar tips don't work no matter how hard I try to help. It just doesn't work. Next paragraph. There's been so many ands. I like that the very end, there's one last and and you skipped over it. Oh, did I? Yeah. Because there's just so many. Dude, it's so hard not to autocorrect when you read stuff.

[01:08:18] You know, like you're just like, that's not grammatical. You know, you just like go right past it. It's like the kid, like a child listing things off. Like and this and this and this. And that and that. So I had this idea of posing. Dude, I was just talking about this at the fucking Twitter account. Now that has to go in. That's so weird.

[01:08:44] OK, so I had this idea of posing as a 14 year old girl in a game she plays a lot for night to become her friend. This was going well for four months. Yes. Even if it involved taking some of my time when I come home from work to maintain this. And she was very happy with this until she figured it out herself days ago. And now she feels tricked and, quote, played with by me.

[01:09:13] And I think this is a huge privacy violation because she told me some stuff she would have never said to her dad. I don't think it's true because I'm her dad. So nothing is inappropriate for me. Hold on. We'll come back to that one. I made a visible scowl. For the listeners, you can't see me. I didn't like that sentence. OK, but still, she's still salty and pretty frustrated by what I did.

[01:09:42] So could I be the asshole? Am I the asshole? How old is this person? They said salty. That's that's a red flag, right? Like this is probably a kid making this up. No. I don't know. This is so weird. All right. So let's go on the premise that this is not made up. First of all. Philip, would you catfish your daughters? No. No. How do you think?

[01:10:12] Like, it seems so. My kid has like a shitload of friends on Xbox because like I actually do the thing where it's like I she has to like request through me to add someone. And so it's like I always go in and look at their profile. Yeah. Like she has a child account. So if she wants to add a friend, it sends a request to me. I can then look at the person's profile and see if I want to OK it or not. Dude, she has a shitload of friends.

[01:10:41] I what was the game you guys were that we played where you had to use your daughter's account? Or was it Jana that used your daughter's account? I think it was my daughter used Jana's account or something like that because it was like something was like triggering some kind of lock where she couldn't play it. I don't know what that was because the system is terrible, by the way. The parent account control thing. It is not. She's probably stuck with it forever, by the way.

[01:11:09] Isn't that like there's some accounts that just like always have the parental guidance on it? We had a huge issue with that with Apple, where it's like our, you know, 17 year old daughter. We basically wanted to like, you know, take hands off and let her act like a grown up at, you know, 17, because I thought that's pretty grown up. Right. Like this one, you know, you know, do whatever you want with your phone.

[01:11:32] But the amount of hoops you have to jump through to turn a child account into a non-child account is insane. You have to think it's probably because like there's a 40 year old people having kids and the kids are like outsmarting them. So now people have to outsmart the kids who have grown up with the fucking technology, you know, it's gotta be. It's like the way they do it is just, it's so implicit.

[01:11:57] And it's like, honestly, you, the, the account thing doesn't make sense either because you know how hard it is to make a new Xbox live account. Not, not hard. Two seconds. So it was like, I don't think she knows this. I don't think she listens to the show either. But if my 12 year old wanted to, she could get unlimited four nights and just make another account.

[01:12:23] That's, I, I'm just thinking about your, your 12 year old daughter making, leaving a one star review or something like this. Like I can't believe my dad kept this from me that I could have made a fortnight account. Fuck. Uh, what is, okay. So I don't think this is real. It's hard for me to even con. So they, so she became friends with his daughter on fortnight. So how did that happen? How do you meet up with a, with a random account on fortnight that you're trying to snipe?

[01:12:53] Right? Like, here's how I would do it. So he already knows her username. So all he has to do is wait till she gets out of a match or something. Or if she's in like a public lobby type thing, kind of join. And if they're playing on PC, it doesn't say how they're playing it. Like they're probably typing. So like, you know, just type the messages in and be like, Hey, I happen to also be a 14 year old girl.

[01:13:22] Hello, fellow kids. Yeah. The swag and all that. I'm about to crash out. Salty. Salty. God. It's 45 year old man. Pretending to be a 14 year old girl on fortnight. All right. So yeah, it could be done. I think. I just don't know. I mean, I guess you're right. Cause fortnight has all those like, uh, custom games and shit.

[01:13:49] So like you can just wait until she gets into one of those and then, uh, just join in on that. Cause I mean, you could do that on house thinking of halo infinite. Cause halo has those custom game lobbies. You just that's cause we would do that sometimes if we would just scatter and try to find a fun game. And they'd be like, all right, everyone come in. Join me. Join me. We got five slots. Yeah. This one's good. So I don't know.

[01:14:11] This just seems, uh, I don't, this is so uncomfortable almost because he's like, nothing's inappropriate. And he, she said things that she wouldn't say to me. And I'm like, yeah, all, there's a lot of shit that people don't want to tell their parents. All right. Well, do you want to go over that line where it's, uh, she told me stuff she would never said to her dad. I don't think it's true because I'm her dad. So nothing is inappropriate for me.

[01:14:41] Do you think there's anything appropriate you wouldn't tell your dad, which you look at that photo of you and your dad that I sent when you were like 14. I look so ugly. This was, is this before or after like we got into high school? Is this middle school? It's probably right around that range. I look horrible. Your dad is a giant. He's so much bigger than me. Uh, I, I was a scrawny person.

[01:15:11] I was a very scrawny person. I don't look good in uniforms. That's why I'm glad that rural postal workers don't need uniforms. I look like a goof ass. And so. Dude, every 14 year old boy looks like a goof ass. No, I guess you're right. You know what would have been crazy is during this, during this time, my dad was catfishing me on Halo 3 and trying to get me to spill the beans. If I'm smoking the devil's lettuce or something, you know what I mean?

[01:15:40] Being a 14 year old kid myself, I'd partake in the, in the marijuana. How about you? How about you? You ever, you ever smoke? So I think, uh, there are some things kids don't need to tell their parents. Yeah. Probably. In fact, there's some things I wish my kids wouldn't tell me. It's like those in those, like, uh, you ever watch the sovereign citizen YouTube videos? No, you always bring them up though. I do.

[01:16:09] But so one of the things that's funny is that it's like, they'll be like, I got the right to remain silent. And then they just proceed to incriminate themselves. Like a ton. They just never shut up. Just continuously talk and say the bad, say the, the bad ending things. But, um, anyway, yeah. The, this, this person's a little weird. I don't think this is real. This was a kid. A kid made this up. Okay. What if, okay.

[01:16:35] What if it, this is the kid, the 14 year old girl, like this is what her dad did. And she's trying to seek validation. Validate. Oh, like validation. Like the, the dad is the asshole. I don't know. I've done that before. I've made like Facebook posts and in my groups and just to get valid, just to be like, look, you see, like, I'm not crazy. This is fucking awful. So I think that's what a lot of am I the asshole is, but you're saying like the daughter did this. Yeah.

[01:17:04] And that's why like the, the, the grammar is so fucking terrible. I even mentioned in the middle how it says and a thousand times. It sounded like a kid. Like writing like, I don't know. They start a paragraph with and. Oh, um, but we're not here for this person's definitely an asshole. Fuck it. All right. Uh, yeah, I think you'd be an asshole if you actually did this. It doesn't matter if your kid's autistic.

[01:17:34] It doesn't matter if she has no friends. Uh, just ask to play with her as a dad at that point. Don't make up a fake person to pretend to be their friend. You know, that's funny because the end of that too many losing heroines show, uh, the whole like episode is about one of the girls faking a, a boyfriend, a long distance boyfriend. And that's like how they're coping with not getting their boyfriend.

[01:18:00] And so like the whole episode, they're like on a fake date with their friends and making this random person up. There's like this lot of random serendipitous things happening today. All right. It looks like we have time for at least one more. Uh, let me see. Let's do. How more sad? Uh, 46. I don't know. I'm not reading what they are. I'm just kind of like just scrolling until a number looks good. Okay.

[01:18:30] So this one is labeled not the asshole. So that's a good change of pace. Yeah. Yeah. A classic quail. And numbers. Let's see here. Burner account. They have one comment, which makes me mad. It's just a few words, but it makes me mad. It'll see if it becomes relevant. Am I the ass? Oh, wait. Who's reading this? It's your turn. Okay.

[01:18:58] Am I the asshole for refusing to play new video games with my husband? I, 33 female and husband, 34 male, have been playing the same video game for years. And it's been our routine. On occasions, he'll decide to try a new game. He would purchase the game for me to play too. This was fine in the beginning because all I want to do is play with him. And I start to develop enjoyment for these new games as well. However, it doesn't take long before he gets bored of it and returns to our old game.

[01:19:28] I get upset since I want to continue playing, but it's not fun anymore without him. So instead of repeating the pattern of having fun and then suddenly I play on my own, I explain to him that it would be best for me to stop playing any new games with him and just continue playing our old game since it's still fun for me to play on my own. Recently, there was a new game just released and he asked if I wanted to play. I kindly declined the offer and said I'm happy to continue playing the old game while waiting for him to get tired of a new game and come back.

[01:19:58] Before I knew it, he already purchased the game and accepted the gift on my email without me knowing. When I found out, we got an argument where I feel like my decisions opinions do not matter. He said he wanted to play new games with me regardless because he wants us to experience something new together. He likes spending that time with me. I explain that I do appreciate the meaning behind sharing something momentarily fun. However, I would prefer not to start anything new knowing that there is a ticking time bomb when he'll stop.

[01:20:26] He mentions that he'll still buy me the game regardless and it's up to me if I want to play it or not. I told him that he shouldn't since I would feel guilty for not playing. He continues saying that it's not his responsibility for me feeling guilty. That's on me. That comment made me incredibly upset and now he's disappointed. How do I explain how I feel in my husband whose mind can only comprehend logical thinking? Am I the asshole for refusing to play new video games with my husband?

[01:20:56] What do you mean only comprehend logical thinking? I think this whole thing was pretty logical, right? I know she seems pretty logical herself. Maybe she's saying that he doesn't understand the what's the other side? There's like pathos and logos or whatever. Logos and I don't know. I know the logos. Remus and Romus. This is how Shadow would get us. This is how you get me.

[01:21:25] You're like, buy Pico Park 2 or whatever. I'm like, I'm not buying that shit. And you're like, we're only going to play it once. Or I'll buy it for you. And I'm like, don't buy it for me. And I wouldn't have bought it. But it went on sale. So I was like, ah. I don't buy games that aren't on sale. I did threaten you with buying it. Which is better because I would have bought it on Xbox for you.

[01:21:54] And then it's better you play it on PC because then you could click on the screen. And then we learned. So it all worked out in the end. But you probably shouldn't threaten your wife with this. Like, one also, it's like, is that I wonder if they're playing on PC because it's like. Well, they are playing on PC because I know what the comment that he makes later on is. But it's like, if you could screen, if you could game share on your consoles, I mean, wouldn't that be like a little bit more lucrative?

[01:22:23] Well, money doesn't seem to be the issue here. Yeah, I mean, the whole thing is that like he's buying the other game and that makes her uncomfortable. Not uncomfortable, but it guilt trips her into playing it. But it's like, if you're game sharing, then you're never buying a second copy. You're just buying that one. Oh, yeah, true. You know, Steve actually kind of tracks that. Like, if you're like in a household with somebody, like if you're like sharing games or whatever.

[01:22:49] Like, it'll show like if how many like titles you have of a game. Or be like, oh, Fallout 3 game of the year edition. Like if me and you were family sharing and we both own the game, it'll be like a little two in the corner. Oh, shit. Like we can both play it at the same time since, you know, even though we're family sharing, only one person can play one title at a time. Like we couldn't both play Fallout New Vegas if I owned it and you didn't.

[01:23:16] So the game, the game, the new game that they're talking about is Power World. Yeah. Which is not great. Not great now. Yeah. Not too good. There are people who really play the shit out of this game still. Have you seen this? No, I haven't. Like people are still, it blows my mind because there's just so, there's just so, the world is endless for games that you could be playing. You know what I mean?

[01:23:47] In Power World is what you get stuck with. I mean, it's very interesting. I was wondering. Also, it says they play League of Legends. So League of Legends is the game they play. It's their old game. Yeah. And then Power World is the new game that he bought. Wasn't Power World on Game Pass right away? Yeah, it was. It was day release on Game Pass. Was it on PC Game Pass? Yes, because that's actually where I played it. I played cross-platform with you. Yeah. It's kind of weird that he bought it then. I mean, I get people buy things.

[01:24:16] I mean, people really fucking don't like the Xbox, like PC thing. I've come to learn. It seems like they're in the Steam, which is probably the move. Yeah. Anyway, I don't know. This is weird. I don't think the girl's the asshole. Like, I don't know in what world the girl would be the asshole. She's definitely not the asshole here. So now we're trying to identify, is the husband an asshole for buying an unwanted game for her and accepting it?

[01:24:45] I feel like he probably didn't really understand, like, the severity of the situation. You know what I mean? He probably was just like, eh, you know, you'll play it. Like, the way that I read it, it's like, if he was serious about, like, that's on you, I guess, if you feel guilty about not playing it, whatever. Like, it seems like he probably was brushing off what her feelings were, which, I mean, is still not great.

[01:25:10] But, like, if he was, like, deadly serious, like, you, this is your fault that you feel this. You know what I mean? Then obviously there's a fucking serious problem going on. I don't know if this is, like, a huge deal. It is kind of weird, the ultimatum, but I assume he just thinks that she's going to be like, oh, it's no big deal. Fuck it. I'll go play the game. Like, you know what I mean? You don't think he's manipulating her disrespectfully, trying to trick her into playing Power World?

[01:25:41] He is manipulating her a little bit, but, I mean, everyone manipulates everyone. So, I mean, it's kind of tough. This is, like, the severity of the manipulation. It's, like, a three on the scale. It's, like, he's manipulating her with, like, a guilt trip a little bit. But, I mean, it's about a video game. It's about playing a new game. And the whole, like, the, I'm thinking about the ceiling and the floor of the severity of the situation.

[01:26:09] And it's, like, the worst it could be is that she, it's, like, either she doesn't play and they're just annoyed with each other or she gives in. And, like, the floor is, like, they, you know, they talk about it. And he's just, like, okay, well, I guess I just won't play Power World with you. You know what I mean? It's, like, there's not a lot of stakes here. Yeah, true. But it's about the feelings, Nate. You're being too logical. Yeah, I'm trying to get into his brain, you know, with the comprehending logical thinking and whatnot. I don't know.

[01:26:39] Just talk. They just need to talk. Just be, like, hey, talk. Talk to him better. Like, whatever you're saying, not working. No, but he's not understanding. He already talked. Also, give some time. Give some space in between whatever is happening because you guys are both a little emotional right now. So weigh it out. And then next time the games come up, like, next time it's time to play video games together, bring it up again. Be like, hey, this is exactly what I feel.

[01:27:07] Like, I feel I don't like starting your games and then not playing them all the way through. I'm not one of the boys. That's a boys thing. Like, that's what the boys do to each other. We play Payday 3 once. I was about to say, like, all right, so what's the deal with, like, how long? You know, for a game. Like, we bought Pico Park and we played it twice. And it was, you know, $7. Yeah. We beat it, though. Yeah. And I think that's enough.

[01:27:38] To someone else, though, that might be not enough for a game or something. Yeah, it would be weird. It's like if she, if they played Pico Park 2 together and she wanted to complete the game multiple times. And I'm like, what the fuck is wrong with you? Like, it just depends on, the problem is that it's Power World. And so I can definitely see her point of view with Power World because that game doesn't really end. That you just keep building as much as you want, right?

[01:28:05] And so the, like, the percentage chance that you could get locked into a game like that is a lot higher than if it was It Takes Two. You know what I mean? Which is more infuriating. Like, if it takes, if you started It Takes Two and then just got, like, a third of the way through and then never played the rest of it. I can see how fuck infuriating that would be. So, I mean, I don't know. What's worse? I don't know. Getting hooked on Minecraft or...

[01:28:33] I think it's weird that they keep going back to League of Legends, which never ends. It's just you can always do another match. Yeah, League of Legends is the thing. But that's the thing is that she said that that game is fun for her without him. The problem is that she doesn't want to play the other games without him. Like, the reason why she goes and plays fucking Split Fiction is because he's there over there playing Split Fiction, right? But she likes League of Legends on her own. It's like how Janna plays team fight tactics, right? Yeah.

[01:29:03] Like, with or without him. It's like, this is the game. Like, I actually enjoy this one. So... She's gotten really good at this point. Like, I cannot compete with her. Even when you think, like, oh, it's kind of random or whatever. Like, it is not random. Like, there is quite a skill gap. It's like claw machines, you know? Like, you can get good at claw machines. Oh, my God. I've gotten that argument with her because she also claims to be very good at claw machines.

[01:29:32] And I'm like, yes, I do think you're probably above average. But there is randomization to it. And sit her down in Yakuza claw machines. Let's see how good she is. Those claw machines are actually very easy. No, they're very fucking easy. They're cool, though. Have you ever done those Japanese, like, UFO catchers where it's like you hold a button? And then you hit a button. So, it goes up. It's instead of having the analog stick or whatever. No, I don't think I've ever actually done one of those. I think I've seen them around, though.

[01:30:02] They're cool. There's a lot of different ways that you can do them. So, I got this, the fryer in. I mean, the fern statue. I don't know if you've even ever seen it. Yeah, you should. So, the listeners can't see it. But I got this from one of the claw machines. Like, what's-her-name won it. But instead of having a grabber, it was like a piston. And so, it went down and pushed on the box. And the box was suspended. Like, the machines will only have like a couple of things in it rather than a bunch of shit for the claw to grab.

[01:30:32] And so, some of them will only have one thing. Like, that one only had the fern, like, little statuette in a box. And so, I mean, it's pretty cool. But, um, this person's not an asshole. It's kind of weird. Definitely not. Uh, do you want to do one more or call it here? Uh, I mean, how much are these getting refreshed? I mean, we can do one more. I picked this one first. So, you pick the next one. All right. We'll do a simple looking one.

[01:31:02] Uh, choo-choo-choo. Wait, I changed my mind. Can we do number six? Yeah. See, I kept coming back to that one, too. I almost chose that one. I'm like, oh. Oh, it's long. Oh. But. But the name. The name. Leave me alone. It is a million accounts. Oh, my God. Oh, no. There's an update. There's an update. It's just very popular.

[01:31:31] There's a lot of updates. All right. We're getting into it. Well, this is going to be the meat this time. Yeah. Okay. This is from, oh, I read the last one. So, this one's you. So, this, yeah. There is an update to this. So, I mean, we can alternate here. This is, am I the asshole for leaving, for yelling at my mom that I hate Harry Potter and to let me live my own life? Because it's all caps. Nice. Oh, there's a lot of caps. There's a lot of caps.

[01:32:01] I'm going to get a noise complaint probably this time. As my title suggests. Oh, this is labeled not the asshole, by the way, from the community. As my title suggests, my mom is a huge Harry Potter nut. She and my dad actually met in a Harry Potter IRC. Like, disord, but for old people. In the early 2000s.

[01:32:25] Got married, had kids, and from day one decided to embarrass us for life by naming us after some Harry Potter and Star Wars characters. Okay. What do you think the names are? So, okay. I mean, Star Wars characters. The Star Wars one is probably Wedge, right? Nothing named Wedge. Porkins or whatever. What was that one's name? Palpatine. Yeah. I don't know. Biggs and Wedge. I work with an Anakin.

[01:32:55] We have an Anakin in our office. No way. Yeah. Seriously? Yeah. And there's also, I have a captain whose last name is Surge. Surge. That means at one point before he promoted, he was a Lieutenant Surge. So, that's pretty great. That's the drink, isn't it? No. Lieutenant Surge? No. I'm talking about Surge like in Pokemon. Have you seen this Surge drink? I think so. Oh, my God. It's from the 1990s.

[01:33:26] Do they not make these anymore? Dude. Oh, look at this. Google Surge drink. It looks like poison. It looks like poison. Man, it looks like something from, do you remember that show on Nickelodeon, All That? Yeah. I don't know why this is evoking that. I prefer, what is it, Volt? Is that still around? Volt?

[01:33:53] That sounds like something from, that sounds like a fake drink from Stalker 2. Oh, it's Volt as in like a vault to the ceiling or whatever. Vault? Oh, I typed in. There is a Volt drink as well. The closest drink to Surge. Is the top. He's in a picture of somebody placing Surge involved on a shelf next to each other. Okay. I don't know.

[01:34:23] Oh, look, Harry Potter. Like, probably Ron. What are the twins' names? Cecil and Conrad. Yeah. I don't remember. I don't remember either. I've emptied, I've long since emptied all of Harry Potter. Right? George and Fred. That sounds right. Yeah. Okay. I've read the books. Up to no good. I swear. I swear I'm up to no good. All right.

[01:34:52] So anyway, it's honestly been hell. I have a stupid name. And since we were little, my parents have forced stuff like Harry Potter, Star Wars, Marvel movies, et cetera, et cetera, down our throats. I'm not going to lie. I'd probably kill myself. I'd probably, that would be the end of me. I, oh man. And everything is about dragons and magic and blah, blah, blah. I'm so sick of it. Every birthday, every holiday, everything is just organized around fandom.

[01:35:22] So just like every Christmas, the days leading up to Christmas, we have, so just like every Christmas, the days leading up to Christmas, we have to sit down every night and watch Harry Potter movies. It's so fucking boring. I can usually get away with knitting or drawing on my iPad during this, but so they're knitting instead of that's less boring during this.

[01:35:48] But this is the year my mom was like, let's just have a technology and distraction free night. Every night. I arranged to go over to my friend Missy's house instead for like two nights. Missy's family is normal and likes things a normal amount. Yeah. My mom got really mad and started talking about how it's a family tradition that how I'm basically

[01:36:15] and how I'm basically rejecting her and went on a whole thing about how you wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Harry Potter. True. Actually, uh, I arranged to go over to my friend. Oh wait. I hear this. Yeah. Uh, I finally had it and just yelled, nobody cares that you were a big name in the Harry Potter fan club. I don't like Harry Potter. I don't like Star Wars. It randomly is not. It's cat boy.

[01:36:44] I hate Marvel movies. They're all so boring. Please just let me have my own interests. I couldn't help it. I started crying because I was just so frustrated because everything always has to be about Harry Potter this, Star Wars that, and now that we're all older, they started doing Game of Thrones. Everything is centered around some kind of movie or TV show or book series.

[01:37:13] Just once is. Once is? Once is? Once is? What is that thing that talks like that? Uh, once is, you know, what I'm talking about. Is it Jar Jar? Jar Jar Binks? I don't know. Me so, but dude, there's just once is. You know what I mean? This is gotta be fake. Yeah. Just once is. I want my family to band around something that doesn't have to do with media or these

[01:37:42] nerdy things. We live in Utah where we have like five national parks. And even though I ask every year for my birthday, I've never even been to the Arches. Well, my sister called me. Oh, this is the boy. Well, my sister called me saying that mom was angry and to just come home and stop with the theatrics. I told her that I'm sick of having all this old nerd stuff crammed down my throat.

[01:38:10] And just once, I want to have a normal time watching a normal Christmas movie and not have to pause for lightsaber battles. Am I the asshole? Hey, this is, I didn't even know you could bold it. Hey guys, I know you think you're cool and in on the joke, wink, wink when you DM me and ask me for my name, but I'm a teenage girl and that's not really how it's coming across. Please stop DMing me. I don't care. Would they're both girls?

[01:38:41] I guess so. I don't know. Anyway, for asterisks, for those of you telling me in DMs, IRC didn't do fandom. It was part of a live journal community. Someone in the community had a fan site. They all like it at chat room. I'm sure there's other stuff too. Who's dying into the fan club? Dude. I think the hardest thing. Who's in that fan club too? Who are your parents? Objection!

[01:39:07] In the early 2000s, new grounds didn't even exist. I don't know. My throat hurts. Dude, there was a part where I, I think the arches part, I clenched my teeth and they hurt. And now they hurt right now. I went a little too hard. This is probably real, but you know what's really weird about it?

[01:39:33] It's like, imagine like the kids growing up as nerds, you know, that are like fighting with their parents because they want to play video games and they want to like be into Star Wars. And now these are the kids doing the same thing to the kid who wants to play football or something. You know what I mean? Like the flip. Yeah. I'm trying to think like, this has to be a Star Wars name. She has to be Padme or something like that. Or Leia. It's two girls. So it's probably Padme and Leia. Oh wait, no. Star Wars and Harry Potter.

[01:40:02] So one of them's Hermione. I bet. One definitely has to be Hermione. Yeah. Hermione and Leia. I bet. That's the fuck. That would be the most fucking annoying reality to live in. So that's probably right. I don't know. What was it? Amidala would be pretty strong. Amidala. That sounds like a, what is the land down? Like that kind of list, like those musics. Yeah. Isn't there a song like Amidala something, something? I don't know. Maybe. All right.

[01:40:32] So just with that, I can see how this could be annoying. Let's go into the update and see if there's more information. Did they ever come home? Oh yeah. They probably, well, their name is Leave Me Alone. So maybe, maybe not. Next up. This update's pretty long. Yeah. Hi. Good start. Hit him with a stitch. Hi.

[01:40:58] So I ended up moving in with Missy's family for a few months. That's bold. We, that we were joking. We were, we didn't think. Okay. For a few months, because it was all too much. It was really nice. But I ended up moving back out because I did miss my family, if you can believe it. Yeah, I can believe you missed your family. Did we get an age check on this, on this person? Gotta be like 14. Yeah, we got a lot of teenagers today. Yeah.

[01:41:29] Missy's mom helped me figure out how to talk to my mom and dad. General Grievous and Voldemort. They changed their names. Wait, which one? Which one's the which? Because there's a mom in there. Mom's got to be General Grievous. What? No. It's a robot. Okay. It's a robot with asthma. All right.

[01:41:57] We sat down and we air everything out. It really seemed like they were finally ready to let me be my own person and back off. And also that thing about my family making memories that don't have to do with the fandom. They said all those things were so important to them that they wanted to share them. Yeah, it sounds about right. This is literally the stupid pacifist running overcoach or whatever. Yeah. The overcooked pacifist run.

[01:42:25] Yeah, where you don't throw any burritos away. Yeah, the vegetarian route where you don't cook any meat. You skip those. For my birthday, they took us all to the arches like I always wanted. On the road trip there, we listened to a fantasy young adult book that they all wanted to hear. I didn't want to, but they were doing a nice thing for me so I didn't complain. It wasn't bad, but I still don't like fantasy. But lots of you told me to just try with an open mind.

[01:42:55] And when you're driving through the desert, you kind of have to. There's a desert in Utah? Probably. It's close to Nevada, right? I don't know where Utah is. I think Utah and Nevada are touching at some degree. I don't know. What's funny is it's like lots of you told me to keep up. How long was this person in communication with randoms in the DM on the throwaway here? This was like a year later.

[01:43:21] Because the original post was three years ago and this one is from two years ago. Oh, holy shit. You're right. Yeah. Okay. There's a lot of people burning ass like, what the fuck's happening? When we got to the arches, I felt really emotional. Like when you have a really good day and you're waiting for the sun to set and everything to get dark again because that's what feels comfortable. But then I ate so much pizza. Whoa.

[01:43:51] My face smelled like cheese. And I felt a little better. Hold on. This is some fucking stuff. I love how it went from fucking Voldemort to Sonic the Hedgehog in like one sentence apart. There was a post. I don't remember which asshole it was, but there was one of them. Maybe it was the Over, not Overcooked or whatever, Undertale one.

[01:44:15] Somebody was talking about like, you know, I played Sonic the Hedgehog, but I still hunt for the golden rings or something crap like that. And someone's like, I remember I wanted to be just like Sonic and I even went out and I got a chili dog and I thought it was going to be great, but it was covered in chili. Damn. You know, I mean, like, I wonder how this person feels at the arches, you know, like they get there and the parents are just like, yep, there it is. There it is.

[01:44:43] It's as fucking stupid as I thought it was going to be. The kid is crying. It's like a normal, normal family thing. Okay, so she ate some pizza and felt a little better after mild sadness thinking about the sunset or something. That was a weird paragraph. There's a real melancholic sentence. You know, have you ever eaten something and then your face smelled like the thing you ate? I don't think so. That, what kind of like fucking cheese was it? Like maybe onions. The stinky kind. Onions are pretty strong.

[01:45:13] Yeah, stinky cheese. I've never had stinky cheese before. On the ride home, when it was just me and dad awake, said he was happy I had come and he hopes we can all get along better now that I don't feel so much anger towards them. Okay. There is a significant lack of all caps in this one. Yeah, there is. But as time went on, things all went back and now it's just how my family is.

[01:45:40] It's what my siblings are happy with and what my mom and dad like. And it's not my place to tell them not to be who they are. This sounds like a Yakuza sub story. Exactly. So I ended up making a big decision and the reason I wanted to pick now to write this update is that I'm going to college in Colorado. I received my early acceptance a few days ago and I feel like I can breathe again.

[01:46:07] Not just that, but I will be starting a new life with a new first name. My mom helped me choose and that has nothing to do with media at all. I will be able to branch out and be myself, but I'm still a car ride away from my nerdy parents for when I miss my mom's hugs and my dad's meatball subs and my brother's sweet chili dogs. Because I'm chili dogs. And that's all I really wanted. Okay, so she's like 19.

[01:46:34] Yeah, I was going to say before and I forgot to mention it, but when you're like this person is like 14 and I was like, I don't know if you could legally move out. When you're 14, I think the kids, the parents would just come get you. So I figured they were probably like at least 16 or 17. And then a year later, they're going to call it. Yeah, they're about to go to college. Okay. So is she an asshole for freaking out and running out of the house during Christmas? Dude, no.

[01:47:04] One of the comments says, best wishes Hermione Nebula Belichick Petter Potts Parker. That's pretty good. You do you, girl. Dude, I wish if she's changing her name, I wish she just put what the. I know. It's a gimmick. Ebony Darkness Dementia Ravenway. And I'm like. Holy shit.

[01:47:36] Oh, man. Yeah. You're not an asshole. If anything, this is a normal behavior of a 19 year old. Yeah, you've got you're going to all kids are going to break away from their parents and want to be the opposite. So I mean, that's just that's just kid shit. This was great. This one was great. I'm glad we did one more. So stupid. All right. That was a meaty boy. Yeah. A meaty meatball sub.

[01:48:07] And with that, Nave, what are we doing next week? I don't know. I'm kind of in a stupor now. That Tales from Vesperia, I think. Or no. Tales of Symphonia. Yeah. The GameCube one. The remaster. If I can beat it. Even if I don't beat it. Fuck it. At this point. I'm not sick anymore. I hope. Maybe I am. I don't know.

[01:48:39] Sweat it out, right? You got to sweat the fever. Oh. You need at least three fingers of whiskey to get it going. Start speaking like Jar Jar Binks. That's the time, you know, you got to put it down. All right. All right. Then the week I come back, we'll be doing Genshin Impact, hopefully. So get on there and start grinding. You can play that game in Japanese. That's how I'm playing it. It's fully voice acted. Yeah. Even the side characters have voices. I don't think I need. I mean, can you put.

[01:49:08] Can you change the words? I mean, like. But like the written part. I can't remember. Yeah. I have the written part in Japanese, too. Fuck. Yeah. I mean, I might do that because I do not care about what's going on. So that'd be some good practice. Yeah, you could. All right. And with that, thanks for joining us this week, co-partners. Maybe next time we can all name our kids Anakin, Jar Jar Binks, Skywalker together. Move out. Live with a normal family.

[01:49:37] You like things a normal. I do. I like things a normal amount. Do I like normal things? A normal amount?