Welcome Back And Recent Chaos

SPEAKER_05 0:10

Thank you and welcome back to another episode of the Carolina Gutaku Podcast. I am Afro and I am here with my co-hosts. Hey you guys. Welcome back. We wanted to get to you guys sooner, but we ran into some uh altercations.

SPEAKER_04 0:30

We ran into some altercations last week. So uh we just came and recorded this week, you know. Um when you sent that shit to me, I said, no way. She said, What is this? I said, can you record?

SPEAKER_03 0:50

Nah, uh I'm stuck on the couch.

SPEAKER_05 0:53

Yeah, that was funny. That was funny. Um, but yeah, welcome back, you guys. Um, yeah, I mean, you guys know how we start this off. What we've been up to lately, and we're kind of gonna wing this one uh a little bit. I got into some stuff over the past uh two weeks, and we could talk about it, see what we've

Meet And Greet Gone Sideways

SPEAKER_05 1:10

been up to. Um, so what have you been up to, Lexi?

SPEAKER_03 1:13

Uh I went to school what cute again last week and a lot of.

SPEAKER_05 1:16

Of course you did. Jesus.

SPEAKER_03 1:18

Anyways, um that was like it was a great show, but it was an ordeal. Um Atlanta. So, okay, all right. So I'll tell you the little story real quick. You guys love my little stories. I don't care if you do, if you don't, you're getting my little story. Um, anyways, so um I bought meet and greet tickets for School Boy Q, right? So I've already met him once, so I was like familiar how the process is supposed to be because it was at the exact same place that it was last time. So get there, they're like VIP. I'm like, yeah. And well, there's two, there were two different types of VIP. And so I had to meet and greet, and so they're just like the regular VIP you get to go in their early set and everything or whatever. So they put us in the wrong fucking line, right? And I'm like, I can hear him playing, doing his sound check and all this shit.

SPEAKER_05 2:18

And I'm like, Oh, it's before the show.

SPEAKER_03 2:20

Yes, it's way before the show.

SPEAKER_05 2:22

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:22

And I'm like, okay, this ain't right. This ain't right. Because why we why am I still standing in line when he's out there doing like his sound check and shit? So, all right, so it's like close to like seven o'clock, which was sort of be like door open.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:40

And I'm like, what the hell's going on? Anyways, so we see this lady up at the top, and I was like, yo, go ask her if this is even the right line or whatever. And no, it was not. She was it for y'all are in the wrong line. She's like, who put y'all in this line? So she takes us out of line, takes us outside, we get locked out, and then she has to get on her walkie-talkie and be like, yo, can you open the back door because we need to get back in or whatever? So she gets us back in, and then by the time she does all this, it's already too late. Like he's already doing other shit, right? And I'm like, ain't no fucking way, y'all. Ain't no fucking way. Because I paid for my meeting greeted. I want my meet and greet, right? It's not my fault that I was here on time and y'all put us in the wrong one. So um, got friends from New York, use them in these situations. I don't know what was said, but I know I got my meet and greet after he was done with his set. Like, so we finally didn't get the meet and greet.

unknown 3:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 3:45

Um that would have been a waste of the cost, then. If the cost was like crazy.

SPEAKER_03 3:50

Yeah, well, it wasn't that bad, but it was just like I won it and I paid for it, you know. And it wasn't it wasn't my fault. Like, if I was late, okay, cool, I got it. Whatever, I'm late, my fat, whatever. But like this point, I was like, on time, it's literally your facility's fault that like we got put in the wrong line.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Whatever.

SPEAKER_03 4:08

Anyways, it was a good show, good concert. He always puts on a good show. Um, other than that, I haven't been up to much. Um getting ready to go to New York next week.

SPEAKER_05 4:20

What's there?

SPEAKER_03 4:22

Uh babies are there. Okay. Babies are there.

SPEAKER_05 4:27

We'll talk about that later. Okay. Um, that's what's up. That's cool. That's cool. Um, what have I been up to?

Thanksgiving Prep Items To Buy Early

SPEAKER_05 4:34

I of course been working um getting ready for Thanksgiving because it's gonna be it's gonna be here faster than you think. Like, we're already in fucking October. Like we're all we're gonna be done the um first week of October this week. I mean, it's gonna come really fast. And two things, if there's anything, you know, I will ask this question now. What are the things when you are prepping for Thanksgiving that you need to get beforehand? I gotta answer for you. Let me fucking tell you. Cake flour, because that shit goes fast around where I am, don't know why, but motherfuckers love making cakes. Uh elbow macaroni, gotta get that shit, not that protein bullshit. Get regular elbow macaroni, right? And vanilla extract. Vanilla extract goes quick. But that cake flour though, it was one Thanksgiving. My sister wanted to make a cake, and we were going everywhere trying to find cake flour. None in the dollar store, none in Walmart, none in Food Line. I'm out of luck because I'm not driving 30 minutes to Durham.

SPEAKER_04 5:51

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_05 5:52

Yeah, that's crazy. So uh yeah, get your cake flour early, man. You're gonna need that. Anywho, what I was up to uh this past weekend, this is how this shit happened. I went

Durham Fighting Games And New Gear

SPEAKER_05 6:04

on ChatGPT and I was like, hey, what's going on in uh Durham this week? Oh, this weekend, and it brought up where I went to. I went to a video game tournament at uh in Durham. It was actually a lot of people. Um, definitely not like the con type of thing, had like four vendors there, but it was just all fighting, it was uh Japanese fighting games. That was it. So, like, but no, like no Tekken, shit like that. It was like Guilty Gear, it was uh Marvel Token, it was you know shit like that. Uh what is it? Uh Grand Blue or some shit like that, grand blue rising or something like that. But a lot of people, a lot of arcade sticks, a lot of good-looking arcade sticks. Um, it was just a really dope atmosphere, and I really fucked with it. It was nice. And it was only 50 bucks. Yeah, only 50 bucks. Um, drove into town, got my Volvo fixed over the past week, so I drove that motherfucker into town. I miss driving that car.

SPEAKER_03 7:06

Wait, which one?

SPEAKER_05 7:07

The newer Volvo.

SPEAKER_03 7:08

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 7:09

I miss driving that thing so bad. I'm so happy. I got it uh got my got it inspected, got new tags. Here in North Carolina, we're not doing like the stickers anymore or the paper registrations. You can get the paper, but everything's online now. Um, so knocked all that shit out in a day, and it was great. But when I was uh at this uh gaming tournament, I bought a mini hitbox. And the one thing about fighting games that I'm used to like the stick and the buttons, right? This is totally different. This is like your direction, and this is like your other direction, and these are like just like your regular, just like your regular punch and all that stuff, high, low, and everything. But this shit, I gotta, I I gotta practice more with this because this shit really fucks up my head hard. Like it really fucks up my head. Um, but it seems like it's it's more fluid to do like if you have to do like a high jump or something like that. This seems better to do it than using the regular lever because the lever you kind of have to get in a certain position in order to get that what you need. So this seems like a little bit better. Um, and it's customizable. But I liked it, it gives me something to look forward to next year. You know, I like fighting games, I do. So, you know, it's just something better um that I can look forward to, maybe get more practice in and stuff like that. And plus, I haven't been in downtown Durham in like a while. So while I was down there, went to the record store that I know that's down there, checked out some records. Oh my god. Okay, I know people are gonna be like, oh, well, they were always expensive. Look, I've been collector records since high school, right? When I tell you that records are so expensive now, and I'm not talking about like re I'm not talking about like re-issue shits. No, I'm talking about old shits, right? I the most that I have paid for a record was probably like 40 bucks, but it was brand new, still in uh that's not true. I have a Japanese version of a Quincy Jones record. Um, but and that was pretty expensive. And I have a Carol King um, no, not Carol King, a Janice Joplin uh record that was actually pretty expensive too.

SPEAKER_03 9:31

Um I got one recently. I got uh House of Balloons.

SPEAKER_05 9:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:38

And that was like 16 bucks.

SPEAKER_05 9:41

Yeah, it's it's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 9:43

It's crazy.

SPEAKER_05 9:43

Yeah, it's crazy. And then I can I can do a whole episode about records and record players and shit like that, and the quality of one. Like if you can't afford like a good one, like ways to make it so that you can still use like the cheap one in a certain way. Like, like I said, it's gonna be a random episode, y'all. So no topics, whatever. Um, in college, I had a audio technica record player, cheap shit, like flimsy shit, cheap needle, everything. I made I hooked my record player up to my laptop and used my laptop as basically a speaker for the record player. So the mic, so basically the mic on the laptop, it was like a phonograph almost. So the laptop became the speaker and echoed what it came what came off the vinyl through the computer speakers. So that's the way that was the way I was able to listen to my music. It was all through my laptop, and it was great, and it was actually really good quality. Um, and I'm just listening to records in my dorm room. And the thing is, I went to HBCU college. Dorm rooms are not like PWI dorm rooms, right? There is a bed. Jesus Christ. HBCU dorm rooms. Well, let me put it this this way it depends on if you go to a fancy HBCU, an expensive HBCU, or you go to a poor HBCU. I happen to go to a poor HBCU. So um out of all the North Carolina HBCUs, I went to a very poor one. Um but the way that the beds were set up in this HBCU, one bed, it's literally a room maybe about this big, and one bed was on this side, and the other bed was on this side. That's it. That's swear. And you got a uh each person had like a closet. That's it. That's it, right? So the freshman and sophomore dorms where I went to school, didn't have central air. Like they had central air, but it was like controlled from the bottom up. You couldn't control it in each room. So when it got hot in that bitch, it got hot. And then they would find you if you open up your fucking windows.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

So we just wanted to sweat.

SPEAKER_05 12:00

It was fucking stupid, and the windows could only open up like this much. This much. It's not until you got to the upperclassmen dorms, TOS, that you were you had AC in the rooms, you can control it, so you really didn't have to open your windows like that. But it anyway, that the way I listened to my records in college was doing it through my computer, you know. So that was always dope to me. So going downtown Durham and walking around, what I realized is that downtown Durham, they build, they build so much in it that it looks small. It looks so fucking tiny. I swear they're trying to make Durham into like a mini Charlotte. No, we don't need that shit. Durham was is man, like you were in a research triangle.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

What do you expect?

SPEAKER_05 12:49

Right. The research triangle is its own shit. Durham is its own trick. No, like right there. It's actually not right there. The research triangle is in the middle, it's it's the middle intersection of everything. Raleigh, Durham, like Kerry, Morrisville, all comes together in the one point. Research triangle, and that's all of those combined at this one point. That is the research triangle. That Durham Durham, they're trying to make Durham into like, especially downtown, into this small, like collapse shit on top of each other. And you want to talk about gentrification in Durham, and they're kicking all the fucking black people out quick.

SPEAKER_02 13:29

It's happening here.

SPEAKER_05 13:31

You see some of this everywhere. You see some of these fucking houses, right? You be like, old house, old house, new age house in this small ass space, and it and it doesn't go wide. It's not built wide, it's built back. Yeah. Up and back. It looks fucking stupid. It looks fucking stupid.

SPEAKER_03 13:49

It's happening here too. Everywhere you go. They got townhouses, houses for like half a million or more. They've already started the gentrification. It's it's anywhere that's like people are moving to, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 14:03

It's really so, so, so dumb. Um, but it was a cool thing to go to. This was kind of like my first, like, it's not a con. I haven't been to a con in a while, but um, it was just my first time kind of going out.

SPEAKER_03 14:18

You can go to TwitchCon with me, but you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_05 14:20

It's probably not doing TwitchCon. You know, DreamCon's coming up, right? Oh, is that is that soon?

SPEAKER_03 14:25

No, that's next year. Um's already happened this year.

SPEAKER_05 14:28

Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, people were talking about it and all that shit.

Convention Prices And How To Choose

SPEAKER_05 14:31

Um, y'all niggas had fun with that shit.

SPEAKER_03 14:34

Like the tickets got released. Wait, did you hear about like people being mad because blur con prices went up?

SPEAKER_05 14:39

Yeah. Yeah. Bro, bro, if if if look, I'm gonna say some shit and I don't give a fuck. If you can't afford to go to the fucking con, don't go. Don't go true. Don't go. If if here's the shits, if you're gonna complain about that, find cons that are in their first year. Find ones that are just started and go to those shits. You don't have to go to these popular joints, find ones that are local. Because if you're gonna complain about that and you're like, oh yeah, I'm gonna go to Dragon Con. Yeah, alright, have fun with that shit.

SPEAKER_03 15:07

Because Dragon Con is worse than that.

SPEAKER_05 15:09

You're gonna be paying a lot. Fuck you talking about you're gonna be you're gonna be paying a lot of fucking money to go to Dragon Con. Shit, even a MomoCon is still expensive, especially if you don't live in a city where the convention is.

SPEAKER_03 15:21

No, because you gotta get an Airbnb or a hotel.

SPEAKER_05 15:25

Yeah, or you crash on somebody's couch, right?

SPEAKER_03 15:27

You gotta get food, transportation, Atlanta is not cheap. Nope. Buy any churches and beans.

SPEAKER_05 15:33

Nope. Hell no. And and it's I'd I'd be look, if you can't afford to go to the convention, don't go. Don't go. Like it's just that simple. That these people like at a convention, they have to make money. That's the whole point. It's a fucking business. If you can take your happy go lucky ass to fucking Houston, Texas to go to DreamCon, what's blur con DC, right?

SPEAKER_03 15:57

I think so, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 15:58

Yeah. Man, get the fuck out of here, man. Find find smaller shits then. Find small shits. Like LoreCon happened here in Durham about uh two weeks ago. That shit was a hit. They definitely gonna do it again next year.

SPEAKER_03 16:13

Don't forget Villains Con.

SPEAKER_05 16:15

Huh?

SPEAKER_03 16:16

Don't forget VillainsCon.

SPEAKER_05 16:17

Oh yeah. It's it goes to the shits when they start the inception of it. Yeah, you'll get you'll get a nice cheap little ticket, but just know if the popularity goes up.

SPEAKER_03 16:27

The price is gonna go up. Right. You're gonna have to pay, like, what the fuck? That's why I didn't even face me. I'm just like, yeah, I already know like more popular con gets, the more pri like, the higher the price is gonna go. Like it's common sense.

SPEAKER_05 16:40

Do y'all niggas not know this shit? This is yeah, you're right. It's common sense. How do you not know this? If you know what, if I've if I can put a question out there to people, how much do you think a convention should be, depending on the location? Let's just put three locations. If you're in Texas, if you're in Maryland, if you're in North Carolina, and you know what? I should say California, right? I'm thinking in my head, those shits are gonna be expensive, especially if it's not the first fucking year, which we all understand is. I don't know why people are mad about this. I don't, I don't get it.

SPEAKER_03 17:16

I don't I don't get it either, because it's not like it went up astronomically. I think it was like maybe 20 or 30 bucks that it went up. But then again, like like that's my thing. Like, if you've been to like bigger cons, you know con prices are expensive. Like for TwitchCon this year, I think it was like I think I paid like over $200 for like a three-day ticket or whatever. And like MomoCon, I've paid quite either like I think $150 or so for like a four-day pass or whatever. I don't remember how much Dragon Con was when I went to DragonCon, but like prices like that, like especially those popular cons, like I would say your car gonna be paying like close to $200 or more, depending on which con you're going to.

SPEAKER_05 18:01

It's crazy to me that like I said, if if you can afford it, just plain and simple. Watch it through YouTube. I don't fucking know. You know what I'm like? There's a con that I want to go to like because I know that they have like board games and like they do TCGs. I want to go to a Gen Con one year. Oh, let's go. Yeah. Gen Con. I know it's gonna be fucking expensive, but I'm not gonna sit here and be on some shit. Oh my god. Look, I'll put it to you like this. If you complain about this, but you go to Dominican Republic every year, shut the fuck up. You complain about this, you go to Dominican Republic every year, shut the hell up. Shut up. Shut up. Jesus Christ. If that, if if if something that you want to do costs you a little bit more money and you already been and you had a good time, it's fine. Like, just don't do it. Shit. But my thing is with with DreamCon though, like, I don't think I would, I would, I would never go to a DreamCon. Just me personally. Nah. I would honestly DreamCon to me would be like walking into like a Costco and look.

SPEAKER_03 19:09

Only reason I would go is if one of my favorite artists is there. And and and they and it happened. Leon Thomas was there one year. Megan DeSalle was there like the year before that. And I'm just like, mmm. But then again, it's me going all the way out to Texas.

SPEAKER_05 19:26

And I'm just like that's the other thing. Like, I me personally, I'm a person that likes to. If I can drive to it, cool. That's awesome. If I can drive to it, awesome. You better fly. Yeah. I I'll drive. I'll drive anyway.

SPEAKER_02 19:38

Why would you drive? Just fly it.

SPEAKER_05 19:41

I have no problem fine. But it's the it's the adventure of driving. That's what I like. That's what I like. Um, so yeah, if you can't afford to go to the convention and you're complaining about that shit, don't go. It's just that simple. I I would love to know what people think conventions should cost. Because like I said, I don't think people understand how hard it is to actually start a con from the ground up to get people really interested in it and actually come out and actually be able to do it again the next year.

SPEAKER_03 20:11

A following year, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:12

Right. You know, you you do it at a convention center. You're not taking up the whole convention center, you're only taking up a little bit, you know.

SPEAKER_03 20:20

Depending on which one you're going to.

SPEAKER_05 20:22

I think MomoCon took up the whole convention center.

SPEAKER_03 20:25

Most of it, yes. Yeah. And then Dragon Con, when I when they span like three different buildings.

SPEAKER_05 20:30

Yeah. So it, I don't know. If you're just getting into this con shit, start local. Yeah. Start as local as you fucking can. Like, I'm in North Carolina. I know that Fairville has a convention. I know that Greenville has a convention. And I know that Greensboro has a convention. Not the biggest thing, but they got them. Check those shits out. You can you can go to an Animasement or a Raleigh Supercon. Oh, wait. No, that's not what it's called anymore, is it? No. GalaxyCon. You can go to a GalaxyCon and check those out too. Or do your research and find a smaller one. You know, shit. Go to a plant convention. I don't fucking know.

SPEAKER_02 21:08

A plant convention?

SPEAKER_05 21:10

Yeah, that's the thing. Yeah. That's dope. What do you mean? A plant convention? I would go to that. I want me some honestly. I do want to buy some of those elephant um elephant ear plants.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 21:20

Yeah, they come in different colors. I wouldn't mind getting some of those. Um, but yeah, anyway, that's what I've been up to. You know, went to Durham, did what I had to do, and everything like that.

How Far To Travel For Concerts

SPEAKER_05 21:30

Um, when it comes to you go to a lot more concerts than me, right? Of course. When it comes to like concerts, how far are you willing to go for a concert?

SPEAKER_03 21:44

I went all the way to New York for a concert before.

SPEAKER_05 21:46

Yeah. Would you go to the West? West Coast for a concert?

SPEAKER_03 21:50

Yeah, I will go to the West Coast for a concert. Um, like for me, I just happen to live in a good spot where like I live in two big hubs.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

Yeah, you're in a big hub.

SPEAKER_03 22:03

So like I don't like most like probably like 95 of the artists, 95%. The artists that I listen to will either put it on the show in one of these two hubs, right?

SPEAKER_00 22:14

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 22:15

And so um I don't really have to go that far out for a concert. Now, like because I travel and stuff, like if I'm in these cities and I'm going to like something, then yeah, I will travel and make it part of my trip or whatever. Like I did that one year for my birthday. I was in New York and Aceat Rocky happened to do Yams Day. So I just went to Yams Day and made it part of my trip. But um, I would definitely go to like Las Vegas or California for a concert if I knew there was nothing coming this way. So especially especially if it was the weekend.

SPEAKER_05 22:52

No shit.

SPEAKER_03 22:53

You are a job.

SPEAKER_05 22:55

No shit. Um for a concert. Like I told you, the last concert I went to was back in college. That was a long time ago. And it was fucking hiatus coyote.

SPEAKER_03 23:05

That was your last concert.

SPEAKER_05 23:07

That was my last concert, and it was great. It was it was in uh it was in downtown Raleigh. I forgot what the place was called. Fuck. It's near the Moore Square bus station. Fuck, I forgot what it's called. But I won the tickets through a website called Soul Bounce. And um, I just entered and I got the email saying, hey, you won these tickets. Honestly, I think they I won because I was probably the only person in Raleigh that was close.

unknown 23:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 23:32

But Hiatus Coyote, they just released their first album and they did damn near the whole album. It was a small little place, but it was great. Hiatus Coyote is probably one of my favorite groups, they're really good. Um, but the only other concert that I would want to see now, I would want to see Jamiriqua in concert, but that motherfucker doesn't come to America.

SPEAKER_03 23:56

It's like you want to do some traveling.

SPEAKER_05 23:58

Yeah, he only goes, he only travels through Europe. He does not come to America at all. Um I would also want to see Odyssey too. Odyssey I would can probably can probably see. I have seen Moo Moo Fresh. I've seen Moo Mu Fresh in uh in a concert too. She's another DC artist, but I would like to see Odyssey for sure, for sure. Like in a live performance, because Odyssey is a good artist. I just watched a video of his today and his albums were have been really good. I don't know. I would, I would that's that's probably about it. All the other people that I would want to see are dead, like they they die, you know? Stevie Wonder. Yeah, I would want to see Stevie Wonder, but probably not, just because I have a lot of Stevie Wonder vinyl. And I just I'd rather just I honestly, I'd rather just listen to that. That's just me. I'd rather just listen to that for sure. Um, but yeah, it it I don't know. I don't know. But I wanted to so I did have some topics, but I don't know. They're kind of shit.

SPEAKER_03 25:00

So they're not shit. Yeah, listen to him, you guys.

SPEAKER_05 25:04

So

Xbox Layoffs And Disc To Digital

SPEAKER_05 25:05

you know, Xbox is doing Xbox shit. Um they had 268 additional positions eliminated, Activision will develop the next Halo. Um, Bethesda has taken oversight of Obsidian, Playground Games and Turn 10 are combining, and Microsoft is having discussions about the potential closure of Ninja Theory. And also, this also follows a much larger Xbox reconstruction in July involving approximately 3,200 jobs. So Xbox has been emphasizing Game Pass, PC games, cloud gaming, and also you got something recently that you sent me. Um that might have been like last Thursday or some shit.

SPEAKER_03 26:02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:03

Yeah, you sent me something, and I said, What the fuck is this? I was like, is this on your shit?

SPEAKER_03 26:07

Yes, it was on my shit.

SPEAKER_05 26:09

What what did you uh what did you get?

SPEAKER_03 26:11

So I got the notification that now um, you know, a couple months ago we had talked about this and now it actually came into fruition. So now, yes, you can put your physical disc into your Xbox and get a digital copy of it for your library. Yep. They do recommend, however, that you do hang on to that disc just in case. But and it's not for everybody. Uh not all publishers have like on board with it. Um, right now, at this point, I think uh was it is it Square Enix that hasn't jumped on board with it or something of that sort. So any of those games you won't be able to, but yeah, they have uh dropped that finally.

SPEAKER_05 26:52

It that's I I I really didn't think they were gonna do it. I really didn't think they were gonna do it. I really didn't.

SPEAKER_03 26:58

I think they were like, okay, hey, PlayStation, y'all dropping the mark. You know what we're gonna do? We're gonna batter up and take this. So yeah, that they're saying, you know, your disc games, you know, if you want to put them on, put them on.

SPEAKER_05 27:13

So I was not expecting that. You sent it and I said, what in the fuck? Hey, did you try it or no?

SPEAKER_03 27:18

I have not. I don't turn my place. I don't turn my Xbox on that often. I need to for E E Day, but I haven't played it yet.

SPEAKER_05 27:26

Um that's another big thing that's not doing well either. Is it that game that Gears of War? No, I don't think that game is doing well at all. Um, I do think that that also brings up another question of this is gonna this is gonna sound weird, but I saw a video of a guy. He was in, I think like Japan, right? And this makes total sense. PS5, crazy shit in this store that he was in, right? Figurines, all this stuff, Nintendo Switch, tons of accessories, everything like that. He was like, Where is the Xbox? The Xbox had like a little slither of shit in this store, which makes sense because you're in fucking Japan. I don't think this is gonna sound crazy, and I could be wrong. Do people in other countries play or get Xboxes? Or is that only an American thing?

SPEAKER_03 28:23

It's not just an American thing, but I know in the Asian market, like Xboxes.

SPEAKER_05 28:30

Yeah, it's small. It's yeah, you get a you know what? I hate to say it like this because I had one of these. It's like the whole fucking iPod and Zoom shit. Literally. I love my Zoom, by the way. It was brown.

SPEAKER_03 28:44

There we go again. Shut up.

SPEAKER_05 28:45

It was brown.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

There we go. Shut up, woman. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_05 28:48

It was brown, it was brown, and it um it was just brown, it was nice. It was it was like a brick, but god damn it, that shit was good. Okay, anyway, I think that I'm not saying that Xbox is going away or anything like that, but I mean, we talked about this shit before. It's it's and like I said, we got a lot of uh I got a lot of shit for saying this, but you kind of just gotta just get the fucking PC. I I I really like just get the PC. I mean, this past week, um, Ubisoft had a sale going on through Steam, and I bought every Assassin's Creed game that I did not have already. I mean, every fucking one, and it was fucking great. Honestly, the ones that I didn't have, it cost up to like 90 bucks, and I bought the whole Splinter Cell collection too. I am so happy. I am so happy. It was like 90 bucks. I was like, oh. And most of them are compatible with the Steam Deck, which is actually really nice. Um, so that was that was cool. Love that. Um, but it just seems like going the route of, and I and I think that's what I'm not saying that Xbox is trying to push people in that direction, but it kind of seems like they're pushing people in that fucking direction, especially with this game pass shit, because you can access Game Pass on your PC.

SPEAKER_03 30:18

Let's talk about that, and I'm probably gonna get a lot of negative feedback because when I posted it at the time, I did, right? Good. So Xbox is changing their way they're doing cloud gaming, right?

Cloud Gaming Limits And Game Pass Future

SPEAKER_03 30:29

So starting in November, they're going to limit certain hours based on certain tiers of subscription that you have, right? Um, but not just that, you can also purchase additional cloud gaming hours if needed. I am one of those people that uses cloud gaming because I have a C. Yeah, right, it's convenient. And like I have a I play games on my PC, I play games on my my robe. So when I'm not in front of my, like, I'm never in front of my console ever. Like, and so now you're limiting the amount of hours that like I can use my cloud gaming for memberships I already paid for. And so people say, well, just don't use cloud gaming. If I don't use cloud gaming, then I can't play the games that I want to play. And that literally means I'm stuck sitting in front of my console. Where like, let's say I'm traveling, I still want to play some games. Like I use cloud gaming to play those games.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:26

Let's say I'm in my office and I want to play something at night. Like, let's say, like, I'm in here and I'm working, but I'm slow. Like, I want to play a game. Like, I can't go sit in front of my console because my office is in here where my work stuff is. Like, there's reasons why I use cloud gaming, and the fact that you're like taking that feature away or making me now have to pay more money for additional hours for a feature that I was already paying for and getting that included in with, it's kind of low as and I. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 31:58

Doesn't this make Steam look better?

SPEAKER_03 31:59

Oh, I mean, obviously I use Steam because like that that's like where 80% of my games are.

SPEAKER_05 32:05

Right. But I'm saying, but if the only thing that I mean, if uh if Xbox still does exclusives, that would be the only reason why you would do that, right?

SPEAKER_03 32:14

No, not necessarily. So, like, for instance, all right, they which they are did exclusives. E Day is not uh on PlayStation or anything. That's like the Xbox exclusive right now, which is which is weird, whatever. Okay, cool. Um, but let's just say, for instance, like I I want to play Red Dead, right, with a friend.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:33

I have a friend that plays, right? They play on Xbox. Well, I can't play my PC copy and play with them because they don't have crossplay for Red Dead circles.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 32:45

So I would literally have to hop on my Xbox, yeah, which means I would have to be in front of my Xbox to be able to play with them instead of me. Like, cause now I can do it. I can like cloud game to my Xbox and like play it and play with them without having to physically be on my Xbox. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 33:08

Um that's bad, man. That's bad. So do you think uh Microsoft is just becoming a Netflix for gaming?

SPEAKER_03 33:17

I think they're trying to change their like they're trying to change the model, right? Because obviously Game Pass in its current format, where before they made all the changes, was not sustainable, wasn't it wasn't profitable for them, right? So I guess now they're trying to now kind of balance it and not lose as many people because you remember when it came, when it they did the price changes, and ultimate was $30, and everybody was like, fuck, no, that's way too expensive to be paying for like a subscription for gaming. And so they dropped it down to $29.99 or whatever, and took away like some of the early games that we get, right? So whatever. So I I think right now they're trying to find that sweet spot of like how much can we take away and still keep people paying, right? Because if you take too much away, people are just not going to use the service at all, right? So I think it's kind of where they are just like, okay, what can we take away without having a big drop-in subscriber, but also be profitable at the same time. So yeah.

SPEAKER_05 34:26

I think this is this is tough for Xbox. I I don't think they know. I think they say that, oh yeah, we have this plan that we want to do, but in all reality, I don't think they know what the fuck they want to do. I really don't. I I think they're I think they're just like throwing shit out there, right?

Toxic Competition And The Rise Of Cozy

SPEAKER_05 34:45

I think that the the important stuff is getting games out to people that what the people want. Um not relying this goes for all consoles, because I saw something about this too, how some people are getting pissed off that a lot of these gaming publishers and stuff like that are listening to streamers more instead of the people that aren't streamers. And I get it, you know, they can say something to their following and just be like, Yeah, this game fucking sucks. And all their following are like, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike.

SPEAKER_04 35:22

They're like the little birds from Finding Memo, and they it's like repeat each other, and they're like, Yeah, that game fucking sucks. That game sucks. Like that.

SPEAKER_05 35:31

Oh like they just do all that shit, and that shit spreads like fucking wildfire, right? And the publishers are like, oh damn, this game fucking sucks, man. What are we gonna do? But there are people that constantly play this game. Like, I wish there was a way for, and there probably is already, but when I was thinking when I heard this, I was like, the people that play like Diablo, right? We we all know Diablo came out, it got bum rushed with tons of people, faded within like three months. But then you have the people that have been playing Diablo since the beginning, not just the beginning of the late the one that came out, but before they were playing Diablo 2 and just all of them, they were the ones booing when they wanted to make Diablo a mobile game. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 36:20

I was booing when they did that shit because it didn't make any fucking sense.

SPEAKER_05 36:24

That shit was stupid. But now you see streamers that see certain games and they're like, you know what? You know what will make this game better? You know what they say? You gotta make you gotta make it into a uh what kind of what type of game is like Fortnite?

SPEAKER_03 36:38

You know, battle royale?

SPEAKER_05 36:39

Yeah, you gotta add a board battle royale to this, man. This is what's gonna, you know, make it make it good. And I'm like, that that's it. That's it. That's what y'all want. That's what y'all want. And it and and oh shit. There's also something else too. When when it came to like when it comes to like fighting games, there are a lot of people that think fighting games right now are really fucking boring. Really fucking boring. And what people have said, the biggest thing about that is the reason why some people see them as boring is because it's because all the fighting games are like super competitive, they're so competitive that it's just not like even if you go online and you're in your house and you go online, it's not like uh friendly type fun type shit. These people are out for blood. Motherfuckers won't even let you get the fuck up, and then don't say anything the whole fucking match, and then at the end of the game, you fucking suck, and then leave. They don't want to play you again, right? They just whoop your ass maybe twice. You play them like twice, oh and they don't say anything the whole time, and then when they're about to go, like, oh man, you fucking suck. Like, what? It's it's so fucking competitive, and there's nothing wrong with competition, there isn't, but when you think about like Call of Duty, Call of Duty is just fucking competitive as fuck. I mean, every fucking version. But older ones were actually like really fucking fun to play, but now it's to the point where they're so fucking competitive that you're just like fuck a storyline for what? Let's just let's just give them the online shit.

SPEAKER_04 38:15

Let's just give them the online shit. That's what they want. Storyline. What? I don't need that.

SPEAKER_03 38:21

That is not true, actually. Remember that remember there was one that they did not have a campaign for, and everybody was in a big hurrah about it. So there's still some people that don't play it competitively. I don't play it competitively, I just play it for fun. But like, you are right, like there's some toxic people, but I mean you got toxic people in every game.

SPEAKER_05 38:41

Yeah, I know. I know, but it it's just the when I when it comes to the fighting shit, it's it's it's really cutthroat. Like it's cutthroat.

SPEAKER_03 38:53

I don't think it's as bad as League. So you play League and experience those lobbies. I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 38:58

And everything is just like for the money. Hey, we gonna get we're gonna get a comp going. We're gonna put some money into this. Not like friendly shit, or you go to a gaming convention and it's just motherfuckers like just having fun, like no money on it, nobody, this ain't fucking dominoes. Like, you know, we're just playing a friendly game and people are just hyping up what they see. But nah, man, we gotta put some stakes onto this shit. Like, I don't know. It's it's it's cutthroat within this gaming shit. And I can see why, like, an Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley and shit, or like just chill fucking games. What what kind of games are those called? What are they called? Like pleasant, um what are they called?

SPEAKER_03 39:40

Kind of cozy games?

SPEAKER_05 39:41

Yeah, like cozy games are like a really big thing to people now. It's like, oh man, this is nice. It's just you gotta step away from that shit sometimes. Like, god damn. I uh it's crazy to me. It is so crazy. Um also wanted to talk about I posted this on a TikTok.

Ads In Video Games Debate

SPEAKER_05 40:04

So the TikToks that I posted recently weren't like videos, they were just like yeah, and they actually got like a I was actually very surprised. But one of the big things was would you accept video games with ads in it?

SPEAKER_03 40:18

What did you get as comments? Because I saw it, but I didn't read the comments. What did we get?

SPEAKER_05 40:23

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 40:24

I'm just kind of curious.

SPEAKER_05 40:25

I'll tell you already now.

SPEAKER_03 40:26

Shit, yeah, because that would be like a hell no for me. Like, I am not.

SPEAKER_05 40:30

Some of these were actually really fucking funny.

SPEAKER_03 40:32

Um not like so we can't bring like the mobile gaming ads to like actual games.

SPEAKER_05 40:40

So on TikTok, I asked, would you accept ads in video games? What if games, what if games were cheaper or even free, but you had to deal with ads. Would you be okay? Would you be okay with that? Or should ads stay completely out of games? I got no. Why is this even a discussion? Somebody said that they've had ads injected into video games since 2008. For goods, for goods' sake, burnout was selling virtual billboards, and I think there were radio spots. If we start getting enough ads on top of ads, I might just say enough triple A games and just go indie. It it was a lot of people, of course, are saying no, they won't get cheaper, prices don't go down. Um, no, also ads already appear in video games. Final Fantasy XV was just a big ad for cup noodle ramen.

SPEAKER_03 41:40

Oh my god, those shits were everywhere. Like, that's no joke, they were everywhere in that game, okay.

SPEAKER_04 41:48

Nah, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 41:52

That's crazy, but yeah, I think I don't know, like, okay, like that's a little bit different. Like, you see it everywhere, cool. But when I think of an ad, I am thinking of like a YouTube ad. You cannot skip. Yeah, you got you can't you can't do nothing. Like, you're while your game is loaded up, you have this ad that's just playing, and you're sitting there and you're stuck right watching it. So, like, if we brought those kind of ads to gaming, yeah, that's a big fuck no for me.

SPEAKER_05 42:19

I think like what they were describing was like, I mean, Crazy Taxi back in the day used to have like, I think it was like Pepsi in it. If I was if I'm not mistaken, I think they had Pepsi in that game.

SPEAKER_03 42:30

But see, that's different, that's more like product placement. Like, hey, yeah, I'm gonna place my product here where people can see it.

SPEAKER_01 42:37

Right.

SPEAKER_03 42:37

Kind of as an ad. But like when I'm thinking of ad, like I said, like while your game is loading, here comes an ad while you know, just loading in the background.

SPEAKER_05 42:46

Like, yeah, like I wouldn't be surprised if like the new Grand Theft Auto has shit like that.

SPEAKER_01 42:50

Don't, don't, don't do that.

SPEAKER_05 42:52

Yeah, yeah.

GTA Talk Anime Return And Wrap Up

SPEAKER_05 42:53

And that comes out what the 19th of November? Yeah, so that's gonna be crazy. That's gonna be insane. I've been seeing fucking uh couples getting pissed off, mostly women, it's getting pissed off that they can have a relationship in the fucking game. And I'm like, It's a fucking game.

SPEAKER_02 43:10

Is it any different than like having a relationship in the MMOs?

SPEAKER_05 43:13

I mean, you know, it's yeah, it's a fucking what you you unless it's like a real fucking person, and you get like MMOs, if it's another person on the other side and you get married to this person in the game, you got a partner. I can see why they would get why they would get upset. I get that, but you know, this is come on. It's a fucking video game. Yeah, yeah, it's oh man. I don't know. I I do think the I do think that Grand Theft Auto uh game is gonna go crazy and everybody's gonna buy that.

SPEAKER_03 43:47

Yeah, I'm getting a day one, so yeah.

SPEAKER_05 43:50

Oh, you are? Damn, okay. So what um what version are you getting?

SPEAKER_03 43:55

I am going to get the Xbox version, but I'm probably not gonna get like the deluxe or anything, just the standard version. Like I love GTA, but like I'm not the biggest GTA fan. Like, I'll I know I'm gonna play it for a little bit, and then I'm probably gonna get bored with it, and it'll be like months, probably like a year before I touch it and play it again. It's just it's just gonna how it's gonna go.

SPEAKER_05 44:15

Gotcha. Okay. Um, and I guess one of the last things was uh I think I found well an anime that I enjoyed came back for another season.

SPEAKER_02 44:28

Um tell.

SPEAKER_05 44:30

It's black over. Whoa, hey, hey, don't do that. Um, it looks great. I'm ready for it. They're doing like weekly episodes. Oh, I'm excited. I'm excited to see what happens here. Jesus. Um, but yeah, so I will do this. You know, we kind of answered a lot of stuff. Like I said, some of these topics were kind of meh. Um, but you know, would you guys? I'm just asking these to the audience. So, nah. Would you guys want microtransactions? Well, that's already a thing, but would you want ads or ads or microtransactions? Which one would you prefer in the games? Um, honestly, I'll take microtransactions. Yeah, I think any fucker does.

SPEAKER_03 45:19

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:21

Um, would ads ruin gaming? Yeah. Cause it would make honestly, you know what? It's the reason why I have uh YouTube uh premium premium. Yeah. Finally, I've I've had it for like years now.

SPEAKER_03 45:37

I've had to have it before. No, I didn't. I've had it for like the longest.

SPEAKER_05 45:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:44

And like I don't like watching ads.

SPEAKER_05 45:47

Oh, I can I tell you something? Ever since I've had it, if I see an ad, I'm like, oh no. Oh no.

SPEAKER_03 45:55

Like, oh no, faster work. Yeah, I can't.

SPEAKER_05 45:58

Oh no, nah, that's an ad. I haven't seen that in a while. Um, but yeah. Um, I really don't have anything else to talk about. What about you?

SPEAKER_01 46:08

Nope.

SPEAKER_05 46:10

Well, uh, thank you guys for watching another episode. Thank you for joining us. And make sure you follow us on our socials. Um, and yeah, uh, see you guys next time.

SPEAKER_03 46:21

Vegas.