Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Monday Mini: Misogyny and Mobile Gaming

Transcript

Monday Mini: Misogyny and Mobile Gaming · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Smith and welcome Stephane. Never
0:07
Speaker 1: told your protection of iHeart Radio. Annie. I can't believe
0:20
Speaker 1: I have to do this, but here is a bit
0:24
Speaker 1: of a content warning for this episode of the Monday Minny,
0:28
Speaker 1: which we're talking about games and phone games. But yeah,
0:34
Speaker 1: content warning, y'all. There is brief mention of miscarriages, domestic violence,
0:39
Speaker 1: sexual situations, and then some like I can't believe we're here,
0:46
Speaker 1: but yes we are, and honestly because I am going
0:49
Speaker 1: to describe some of the situations that I am alluding to.
0:53
Speaker 1: So this is again I'm not going to go in
0:55
Speaker 1: depth like as in like I'm gonna give you pictures,
0:57
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna describe it so that you understand my
1:00
Speaker 1: confusion in this episode. I know, I'm I'm leading into
1:04
Speaker 1: this mysterious episode to to this higher degree of like
1:09
Speaker 1: what is happening? So hopefully I build it up so
1:11
Speaker 1: much that you're disappointed, because, to be honest, I'm disappointed
1:15
Speaker 1: in these add people. But as an introvert as you know, uh,
1:21
Speaker 1: and still trying to acknowledge there is things happening, as
1:25
Speaker 1: in the pandemic, as in COVID, as in so many
1:29
Speaker 1: other things that is happening in real life. I've been
1:32
Speaker 1: caught up in phone games because yes, I have been
1:34
Speaker 1: staying home for the most part. I do try to socialize,
1:37
Speaker 1: but the pandemic in the quarantine has put me in
1:41
Speaker 1: such a safe space of being alone in my house. Yeah,
1:45
Speaker 1: I have not tried to escape it at any point. Really, really, honestly,
1:50
Speaker 1: um and as most of you know already, I love
1:53
Speaker 1: these phone games. Phone games are the way of my escape.
1:58
Speaker 1: And we've been talking about it this for a minute.
2:01
Speaker 1: Whether it has been about misleading ads, which I'm like,
2:04
Speaker 1: what is happening with this mysterious grandma hiding her in
2:09
Speaker 1: the basement that no one knows about? And whether or
2:12
Speaker 1: not who who is exactly is writing these games again
2:16
Speaker 1: that have this sensual plot lines but obviously center around
2:21
Speaker 1: women as being the lead and caring about women. So
2:25
Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, it's just misleading, but I like it.
2:29
Speaker 1: And honestly, I've been noticing some disturbing ads for these games.
2:37
Speaker 1: And as in fact, when we talked about one of
2:40
Speaker 1: the Monday minis and we talked about the games that
2:43
Speaker 1: I've been caught up in, we had a writer email
2:45
Speaker 1: 's say, have you seen these ads. I've been really
2:48
Speaker 1: disturbed by these mistogynistic ads and I'm like, yes, what
2:51
Speaker 1: is happening. I don't get it either. And one of
2:54
Speaker 1: them was like Project Makeover. I believe it is the game.
2:57
Speaker 1: And when I first I had actually played this game.
2:59
Speaker 1: When I first saw it, just was like, can you
3:01
Speaker 1: do better? I was like, okay, coo, coo, cool, let
3:03
Speaker 1: me try these things. Okay, it's a baker trying to
3:07
Speaker 1: redesign ourselves and get her shop up and going I
3:10
Speaker 1: can do this. And it's a match three game. Cool,
3:13
Speaker 1: that's it. But as of recent as this writer has said,
3:17
Speaker 1: it shows her being cheated on and covered in mud
3:20
Speaker 1: and trying to get revenge on her husband. And that
3:23
Speaker 1: is never a plot line to any of these games,
3:26
Speaker 1: but it has gone two to three to ten steps further.
3:29
Speaker 1: Any Like, I think I sent you a screenshot right
3:34
Speaker 1: you did, so just a caveat for people. I find
3:39
Speaker 1: this so fascinating for multiple reasons. But as a as
3:43
Speaker 1: someone who plays a lot of video games, you, Samantha
3:46
Speaker 1: are my touchstone of what's happening in the mobile phone
3:51
Speaker 1: game world. And we had this listener right in. We
3:54
Speaker 1: read their message on a Monday, many about we're getting
3:58
Speaker 1: these as so many ads about and need to shave
4:00
Speaker 1: your legs or whatever, and it's a game, and I
4:04
Speaker 1: wanted to know more about it. You were already kind
4:07
Speaker 1: of familiar, but you dove deep for this episode. But yeah,
4:11
Speaker 1: you sent me these screenshots that were just strange and
4:16
Speaker 1: bizarre to me of like a woman who's emitting odor
4:20
Speaker 1: and and there's nothing that I can do dissolve it. Yeah,
4:25
Speaker 1: that means their life is ruined and they're a terrible
4:28
Speaker 1: trash person. I got they're a terrible trash person. That
4:33
Speaker 1: is the statement that it is. Yeah, Because honestly, let
4:38
Speaker 1: me start from the beginning. So I am very much
4:42
Speaker 1: into phone games. When it comes to phone games, Best Feends,
4:45
Speaker 1: which was a previous sponsor, which maybe a feature sponsor,
4:48
Speaker 1: is a good game. It's a mesh three game. You
4:51
Speaker 1: get to try to get all these uh points and
4:54
Speaker 1: try to go to the next level. I know a
4:56
Speaker 1: lot of I heart FAM does this because again they
4:59
Speaker 1: were a sponsor for us, so complete open book for that. Um.
5:04
Speaker 1: I enjoyed this game to the point that I try
5:06
Speaker 1: to compete with Ben and Lauren, and I realized, especially
5:09
Speaker 1: when it comes to Lauren, I could not keep up.
5:12
Speaker 1: I could not keep up. But it's fine. This is fun.
5:15
Speaker 1: And I absolutely said the little slugs and fiends that
5:18
Speaker 1: were the we're supposed to defeat, I think they're the
5:21
Speaker 1: good guys and I'm playing the bad guys. Which is
5:23
Speaker 1: a whole different conversation in itself. Oh my god, it
5:27
Speaker 1: sounds like I'm doing a plug. But I really enjoy
5:30
Speaker 1: a good phone game because I love being distracted a
5:33
Speaker 1: little bit when I'm watching TV or doing something. Because,
5:36
Speaker 1: as we previously spoke about, when it comes to movies,
5:39
Speaker 1: you need to tell me about the bad things. So
5:41
Speaker 1: if I'm half distracted, I need a multitask. It helps
5:45
Speaker 1: me focus as well. It's a weird thing I do.
5:48
Speaker 1: I do a very I have a very bizarre take
5:50
Speaker 1: on my attention span. I don't like console gaming. I
5:55
Speaker 1: can't figure out these buttons to save my life. I
5:57
Speaker 1: don't understand how to shoot, or to jump up or
6:00
Speaker 1: to run. And he knows we've played Mario Kart and
6:03
Speaker 1: I fall off the edge often. Often that's part of
6:07
Speaker 1: the game of me announcing how many times I've fallen
6:10
Speaker 1: off the track. So the phone games are easier for me.
6:14
Speaker 1: The puzzle games are easier for me, and I feel
6:17
Speaker 1: like it is in my hands. I can do it
6:19
Speaker 1: and move on. Oftentimes, with these games, especially if they're free,
6:23
Speaker 1: you have to watch ads to get bonus points, to
6:26
Speaker 1: get to the next step, to get to whatever. And
6:29
Speaker 1: that's fine. I'm fine by this, but the ads have
6:32
Speaker 1: been disturbing. And I will say two games that have
6:36
Speaker 1: been pushing boundaries recently. I don't know, maybe it's been happening,
6:39
Speaker 1: I just never noticed that it hasn't come to my
6:41
Speaker 1: feed have nothing to do with the actual game, which
6:44
Speaker 1: we talked about earlier, because they have actually been penalized
6:49
Speaker 1: by the industry for misleading ads. I think we've talked
6:54
Speaker 1: about this before. When it comes to our ads and sponsorships,
6:58
Speaker 1: we have to be pretty open and TikTok influencers have
7:01
Speaker 1: to be really open or they get fined large amounts
7:04
Speaker 1: of money. I guess maybe coming to gaming, you don't
7:09
Speaker 1: have that same level yet because technology is always exceeding
7:14
Speaker 1: the rules and the boundaries right and the actual restrictions.
7:19
Speaker 1: But um, some of the examples I want to talk
7:22
Speaker 1: about come from Solitaire Home Decor, and yeah, I'm going
7:25
Speaker 1: to call them out because that is. They have been
7:27
Speaker 1: probably the most disturbing of the actual ads, as well
7:32
Speaker 1: as Project Makeover, which we just mentioned previously. There are
7:37
Speaker 1: several others where they have very loosely clad women being
7:41
Speaker 1: need of rescue, like it's just it's just odd. I
7:44
Speaker 1: think that one of them is a zombie game, zombie
7:46
Speaker 1: survivor game where all the men are chubby and well
7:49
Speaker 1: dressed while the women are scantily clad being needing to
7:52
Speaker 1: be rescued. So I don't understand that. I do understand,
7:55
Speaker 1: but I wish you didn't. So here are some examples
7:58
Speaker 1: that I told you I was going to describe one
8:00
Speaker 1: of them, okay, and I sent this to you as
8:04
Speaker 1: a screenshot, aye, because I was like, what is happening?
8:08
Speaker 1: A couple is having sexy times? Okay, weird odd enough
8:11
Speaker 1: as it is. Um, he's rubbing on her above her clothes,
8:15
Speaker 1: and I say, rubbing on her and she peas on him,
8:20
Speaker 1: and you see this, and he smacks her and throws
8:24
Speaker 1: her out, which leads to her going to an abandoned
8:27
Speaker 1: shelter and you have to play solitaire to build up
8:30
Speaker 1: her home. Another one in which there I guess doing
8:37
Speaker 1: a sexy time. I'm trying to record these, y'all. I
8:40
Speaker 1: just figured out how to do a screenshot recording because
8:43
Speaker 1: I knew pictures, but I couldn't figure out how and
8:45
Speaker 1: I can't get it in time. But they're standing together
8:47
Speaker 1: in the bathroom and she peas on him, and I
8:51
Speaker 1: believe he pushes her out the door and then she
8:54
Speaker 1: has to do the same thing. Um. There's also the one,
9:00
Speaker 1: really I just saw today and I was like, what
9:03
Speaker 1: essentially was that she discovers he is cheating in her bathroom.
9:09
Speaker 1: So you see a woman straddling a man on the toilet.
9:12
Speaker 1: They're fully dressed. I guess thank God for that. I
9:15
Speaker 1: don't know. And so she plays Solitaire to do a
9:19
Speaker 1: rat infestation so it scares them both and then to
9:23
Speaker 1: have diarrhea. So you see her having diarrhea while she's
9:28
Speaker 1: sitting on him and poops everywhere, and it comes back
9:33
Speaker 1: to want more, more revenge, keep playing. Wow. Okay, so
9:40
Speaker 1: those are all like, what the hell is this game?
9:45
Speaker 1: Dinninet is really really disturbing. There's another one, and I
9:48
Speaker 1: don't know what game this one is, so I can't
9:50
Speaker 1: blame it on this one, in which there you see
9:53
Speaker 1: a couple a woman just had a baby that she's
9:55
Speaker 1: in the hospital in the bed, the father hells the
9:58
Speaker 1: baby while he showing it off to the parents. She
10:02
Speaker 1: drops a glass because she's thirsty and reaching for it,
10:05
Speaker 1: and he comes over and slaps her, saying, how dare
10:09
Speaker 1: you disturb us? So I was like, what the are
10:14
Speaker 1: you kidding me? Another one? And I haven't seen this one,
10:18
Speaker 1: but apparently this was like to the point that it
10:20
Speaker 1: got on Reddit. It got on a lot of message
10:22
Speaker 1: boards like what is this in which TikTok advertised for
10:25
Speaker 1: this same solitaire home design game where a woman who
10:30
Speaker 1: is pregnant comes and confronts the mistress. The mistress pushes
10:34
Speaker 1: her off the balcony, causing a miscarriage and instead of blood,
10:38
Speaker 1: you see like white liquid. So at least they I
10:42
Speaker 1: guess since her that, um, and that's the implication. So
10:47
Speaker 1: I'm like, are you kidding me? With these ads? Um?
10:53
Speaker 1: What is happening there? At this level to the point
11:09
Speaker 1: that they finally I think reached to take it off
11:11
Speaker 1: of TikTok and this is and I haven't seen any
11:13
Speaker 1: of the game ads for me, thank god, because I
11:15
Speaker 1: think I'd be disturbed. But it's when I play my
11:17
Speaker 1: games my phone has now where it's a specific section
11:22
Speaker 1: with all my games, and above it, as you're trying
11:25
Speaker 1: to find your games and look through what you have,
11:27
Speaker 1: there's an ad that plays above it, which is fine,
11:30
Speaker 1: you can ignore it, but it's so disturbing to see
11:35
Speaker 1: like domestic violence play out. You see so many situations.
11:38
Speaker 1: At one point they're in a hot air balloon Sarah's
11:41
Speaker 1: design to believe making out. You think it's a cute,
11:44
Speaker 1: little romantic moment. He pushed this her out to try
11:46
Speaker 1: to kill her of the horror balloon and she said vives.
11:49
Speaker 1: You're like great, I guess. But this level of advertising,
11:58
Speaker 1: which again none of these scenarios d eos happened, none
12:02
Speaker 1: of them within the games, but they create those that's
12:11
Speaker 1: quite strange. It's just so disturbing. And I made you
12:16
Speaker 1: watch because someone actually didn't get a screen grab recording
12:19
Speaker 1: and put it on Twitter, like what is happening with
12:21
Speaker 1: these games? Thank god, thank you to the person who
12:24
Speaker 1: did that, because I was like, I can't capture them
12:26
Speaker 1: in time, like I don't, you can't watch repeatedly to
12:31
Speaker 1: do the recording, which I don't want to. But it's
12:33
Speaker 1: just such a weird level of advertising strategy that I
12:37
Speaker 1: kind of figure out. I'm trying to figure out why
12:39
Speaker 1: why they are doing this. And again, the games like
12:42
Speaker 1: Project Makeover never did that until recently, and it may
12:46
Speaker 1: be try to pick up and I will say that
12:48
Speaker 1: ratings had gone down a star or half a star,
12:51
Speaker 1: I think, which may be telling. And several of the
12:54
Speaker 1: countries I've noticed it. So in the UK, the Advertising
12:58
Speaker 1: Standards Authority actually banned few ads like these due to
13:02
Speaker 1: the misleading and sexualizations of these ads. So that's I
13:08
Speaker 1: guess the good news. UM, But there's so many games
13:12
Speaker 1: that come out and do and so many ads like
13:14
Speaker 1: this that it's not being controlled or actually being monitored. UM.
13:20
Speaker 1: In the US, I haven't seen has done anything about this.
13:25
Speaker 1: I know that there was at least one game where
13:28
Speaker 1: it depicted a possible rape scenario. UM was banned from
13:33
Speaker 1: Google play app because there were so many people like
13:36
Speaker 1: what is happening? Because this has been actually directed to
13:40
Speaker 1: anyone and everyone. So as a teenager who often plays
13:43
Speaker 1: these phone games, again, playing games like the Best Fiends
13:47
Speaker 1: which was for all ages, and or a match game
13:50
Speaker 1: which is for all ages, I think I did one
13:52
Speaker 1: that was called like Toy, something like so you're supposed
13:55
Speaker 1: to do blocks and stuff and it's a cute little
13:57
Speaker 1: toy animation. That's it was. We're having these ads without
14:03
Speaker 1: being monitored, and one of the big conversations is what
14:07
Speaker 1: are the governments, what are the regulations and these Why
14:10
Speaker 1: are people paying attention? Um? Because it was pretty horrifying again,
14:14
Speaker 1: all these domestic violent situations. Many of these games start
14:18
Speaker 1: off with women being pregnant, being left and being told
14:20
Speaker 1: they're not worth anything and to do your by yourself.
14:24
Speaker 1: Several of the games have like orphan kids trying to
14:27
Speaker 1: make it out or they die. You're like, what is
14:30
Speaker 1: going on? And of course many of people like, why
14:35
Speaker 1: are you doing this? This does not seem like a
14:37
Speaker 1: smart brand for you? Especially I don't know this for sure.
14:43
Speaker 1: A majority of players are probably women and children, um,
14:48
Speaker 1: and I haven't seen those numbers yet, So why would
14:50
Speaker 1: you direct this at many of the people? I got
14:54
Speaker 1: the directive? So there's a trick what they do where
14:57
Speaker 1: the person playing, So you're not playing as a robot
15:00
Speaker 1: the random finger who does really badly to the point
15:03
Speaker 1: of like, surely the god is not that hard? This
15:06
Speaker 1: they've gotten me like this can't be that hard, and
15:09
Speaker 1: I've downloaded the two games and one game has stayed
15:12
Speaker 1: on put. I was like, okay, so they that stuff works.
15:16
Speaker 1: But the games that I have, like, oh, she did
15:19
Speaker 1: these things, so I left her. I will never click
15:22
Speaker 1: on those. I will never click on this. The merge
15:26
Speaker 1: game that I had we talked about where the Grandma,
15:29
Speaker 1: which um Kathy bakes actually did an add four like
15:32
Speaker 1: she signed on to do an AD to play the Grandma.
15:35
Speaker 1: I tried it. You spent too much money, it was
15:37
Speaker 1: too slow, but it had not They were one of
15:40
Speaker 1: the first ones to be accused of trying this trickery
15:44
Speaker 1: because the game had nothing to do with that, like
15:46
Speaker 1: there was no mysterious building. They had gotten such huge critiques,
15:50
Speaker 1: and that they added in side quests that were similar
15:54
Speaker 1: to the ads. I will say that, so I've seen
15:57
Speaker 1: that play, but none of those were as offensive to
15:59
Speaker 1: me as all of these sexist, really violent and over
16:04
Speaker 1: sexualized ads. How can Solitaire do any of this? Yeah,
16:13
Speaker 1: it's disturbing that that's what they would go with for
16:17
Speaker 1: the AD to draw you in. UM. It's disturbing a
16:22
Speaker 1: game like that could exist in the first place. UM,
16:27
Speaker 1: because there are horrific games in the concile world. That
16:30
Speaker 1: are they were designed by gamer Gate dudes who are
16:35
Speaker 1: super mad about gamer Gate, and it's all about raping
16:38
Speaker 1: women they don't like and those get taken down, um,
16:43
Speaker 1: which they should. But they didn't really advertise on that level.
16:50
Speaker 1: I don't know, like it's bad, it's all around bad.
16:52
Speaker 1: These games shouldn't exist, but I'm surprised that their advertising
16:55
Speaker 1: technique is on the same level. Yeah, like, oh, this
17:01
Speaker 1: will draw people, and that's disturbing. It's so disturbing that
17:06
Speaker 1: this again, So I will say, of course this has
17:11
Speaker 1: a lot to do with money. We know that has
17:12
Speaker 1: a lot to do with money. And the last two
17:14
Speaker 1: years and mobile gaming has increased by six Um, I'm
17:18
Speaker 1: sure the pandemic had a lot to do with it.
17:20
Speaker 1: And then it has three point three times more usage
17:24
Speaker 1: that people are more likely to play than those at
17:27
Speaker 1: home console games. So I get that this is a
17:30
Speaker 1: big money market if you can get it just right. However,
17:35
Speaker 1: the question is why do these types of ads when
17:38
Speaker 1: it's not even the type of game, So you're drawing
17:40
Speaker 1: in the wrong crowd. Maybe not, because maybe they're the
17:42
Speaker 1: ones that will pay the extra money to get more options,
17:46
Speaker 1: but at the same time, there's a conversation of like
17:49
Speaker 1: whether or not the person who are choosing these ads
17:53
Speaker 1: allow these games, allow these ads onto their games because
17:56
Speaker 1: their games that you're actually playing seems so much better
17:58
Speaker 1: than what is being advertised. UM, so you're more willing
18:01
Speaker 1: to stick with it. I don't know. There's this whole
18:03
Speaker 1: level of conversations like what is the point in this?
18:07
Speaker 1: Who who is profiting off of this? Um? I know,
18:11
Speaker 1: I don't know if we talked about it. Recently, there
18:13
Speaker 1: was an article coming out that a lot of podcast networks,
18:17
Speaker 1: including Hours, have been using games which you have to
18:21
Speaker 1: get rewards, So therefore you'll get a thirty second clip
18:23
Speaker 1: of an ad to get more access to something better
18:27
Speaker 1: to the game. Um, and they use podcast clips which
18:31
Speaker 1: counts us downloads, which is the whole trickery in itself
18:35
Speaker 1: that we haven't talked about. UM that that's this level
18:38
Speaker 1: of Okay, this is a whole marketing capitalistic ideal, but
18:43
Speaker 1: why use these tactics? And I can't figure it out.
18:47
Speaker 1: I can't figure it out. There's no real conversation other
18:50
Speaker 1: than this is bad. So maybe there's someone out there
18:53
Speaker 1: who can come on the slide and talk to us
18:55
Speaker 1: about this conversation of like, we're going to use these
18:58
Speaker 1: ad tactics in order to sell games. Again, I will
19:02
Speaker 1: never play solitary home design. I'm telling y'all, if this
19:06
Speaker 1: is offensive to you, don't play it because that is
19:09
Speaker 1: so disgusting. It is such a disgusting way of trying
19:12
Speaker 1: to implement anything. Why are you literally using women suffering
19:18
Speaker 1: to promote a game and just because it's animated cute
19:23
Speaker 1: doesn't make it better. Yeah, it's It feels kind of
19:30
Speaker 1: like you know, when people would use some nails on
19:33
Speaker 1: on YouTube, and they'd be like, always put a woman
19:35
Speaker 1: and her you know, in her bra or whatever on
19:38
Speaker 1: the thumb nail, even if that's on the video because
19:40
Speaker 1: it will attract you, or always use these tactics which
19:44
Speaker 1: usually do involve women in pain or women sexualized as
19:48
Speaker 1: people will click on that. More So, I do think
19:51
Speaker 1: it's a larger societal problem, um and I do think
19:57
Speaker 1: there are ways to hand ndal, maybe not these storylines
20:03
Speaker 1: with storylines of women's pain in games in a in
20:07
Speaker 1: a way that is useful, conductive. Two more conversation that
20:12
Speaker 1: is um needed. But if you're just using it as
20:16
Speaker 1: a way to get people to buy the game, and
20:18
Speaker 1: all it is is saying it's reinforcing all of this misogynistic, sexist,
20:23
Speaker 1: gross gamifying essentially sexism. Then that's that's a real problem,
20:31
Speaker 1: right and it is And I'm I want an answer honestly,
20:35
Speaker 1: because we get like it went from oh, this is
20:38
Speaker 1: funny to what is happening? Why how did we get
20:43
Speaker 1: here in this day and age for a damn game
20:47
Speaker 1: on Solitaire? Like it just it doesn't make sense in
20:53
Speaker 1: which the marketing people are like, this is completely normal,
20:56
Speaker 1: and okay, let's let's put an ad where we show
21:00
Speaker 1: of a pregnant woman in off of a balcony and
21:02
Speaker 1: see how many clicks we get, Like, are you kidding me? Sure,
21:06
Speaker 1: we're talking about it, but I'm also saying, don't get it,
21:09
Speaker 1: don't don't play Solidaire Home Design, don't do it because
21:13
Speaker 1: it is disgusting and I don't understand how that they
21:15
Speaker 1: think they're profiting um And I will say, even the
21:20
Speaker 1: tame ones that don't have all of that still involved
21:24
Speaker 1: women suffering. So a couple of the games that I've
21:28
Speaker 1: seen that I liked have either been women who are
21:31
Speaker 1: recently getting divorced or women who have left been left
21:35
Speaker 1: at the Altar, which is still kind of like, but
21:38
Speaker 1: why why do we need this? So the game that
21:42
Speaker 1: I really liked and I still play Lily's Garden, it
21:45
Speaker 1: starts off with that, and that is a scenario. They're
21:47
Speaker 1: not misleading you. At the very beginning, it shows her
21:51
Speaker 1: her ending her engagement because he cheated on her, and
21:54
Speaker 1: so she deciding to go and finding out that her
21:57
Speaker 1: aunt has loved her in whole estate. She has to
21:59
Speaker 1: put it together back again, um in order to keep
22:02
Speaker 1: it the type right, and you have to do a
22:05
Speaker 1: match three game great storyline to the point that I'm like, oh,
22:08
Speaker 1: I like this. There's a there's a queer couple that
22:10
Speaker 1: you don't know it's queer. They never say it out loud,
22:13
Speaker 1: which is a whole problem in itself, but it's cute
22:17
Speaker 1: and I like it. So I've played it okay, but
22:20
Speaker 1: I still don't get why we needed to start with
22:22
Speaker 1: Lily being really sad and they've actually gone beyond that
22:27
Speaker 1: story setting to her love interest in the story in
22:31
Speaker 1: the game two in the as cheating on her with
22:35
Speaker 1: the best friend who the best friend is insinuated as queer.
22:38
Speaker 1: So it's kind of like, why are you doing this?
22:42
Speaker 1: Lily's garden. You don't need to do this, but yeah,
22:59
Speaker 1: I found a few game Jigsaw Puzzle Villa, which I
23:02
Speaker 1: say us on screenshot because I was like, oh, here
23:05
Speaker 1: we go, because I've been digging into these games. I'm
23:08
Speaker 1: not even playing UM, which has a divorced woman who
23:12
Speaker 1: seems to be more middle aged. So that's nice to
23:14
Speaker 1: see because all of them have been very young. Uh
23:16
Speaker 1: So I'm like, okay, okay, who is a jigsaw puzzling
23:20
Speaker 1: champion of the United States, goes to an international competition,
23:25
Speaker 1: goes to a villa and helps renovate it by doing
23:28
Speaker 1: jigsaw puzzles. I actually did a sixty piece on that
23:32
Speaker 1: to get all these points. I really too. I'm not
23:35
Speaker 1: gonna I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying it. But you get
23:39
Speaker 1: to do this and you renovate the home and that's
23:41
Speaker 1: how you get the points. And the storyline is she
23:44
Speaker 1: goes to this woman who is a jigsaw puzzle champion
23:46
Speaker 1: I believe in Spain UM and they are having a
23:50
Speaker 1: big competition and while she says she's helping her renovate
23:53
Speaker 1: her home, and you're seeing love loss stories, love stories,
23:57
Speaker 1: and as it builds up, so I haven't gotten too
23:59
Speaker 1: far into this, but I love puzzles, Andy, you love buggles,
24:03
Speaker 1: so this was a nice rendition of that. But I
24:07
Speaker 1: still understand why we have to just start off with
24:08
Speaker 1: the story of her being divorced. Come on, she can
24:12
Speaker 1: just enjoy a trip. But I've discovered a few more
24:15
Speaker 1: since then June's journey, and I sent you this, which
24:19
Speaker 1: is where you have to find all. This has nothing
24:21
Speaker 1: to do with divorce. I will say that essentially, during
24:25
Speaker 1: the Prohibition era, June comes in because her sister and
24:29
Speaker 1: her brother in law are murdered and does this whole mystery,
24:33
Speaker 1: So you have to go in get this mystery. The
24:34
Speaker 1: graphics are pretty creat um. They don't care. Like people
24:38
Speaker 1: are being shot left and right, and I'm like, what's happening?
24:42
Speaker 1: A kid has been abandoned, they are traveling for art,
24:45
Speaker 1: these like it is a whole thing. You play with
24:48
Speaker 1: a team. I was made president after playing like for
24:51
Speaker 1: a month, and I was like, what is don't put
24:53
Speaker 1: me as president of this team. I had to rearrange
24:56
Speaker 1: and like, talking to my little playmates, I'm say this
24:59
Speaker 1: and that I have ever met them. I don't know
25:01
Speaker 1: them in person. I don't even know if they're real.
25:02
Speaker 1: I'm still wondering if their butts. Just trying to rearrange
25:05
Speaker 1: some things for this competition that you do, and you
25:08
Speaker 1: travel and you build up a whole island. It's a thing.
25:11
Speaker 1: It's a seasonal thing. I have a whole Halloween village.
25:14
Speaker 1: Halloween village, but I enjoy it. I haven't seen ads
25:18
Speaker 1: for other than can you find these items? That's it.
25:21
Speaker 1: It's pretty straightforward. I got into it. I'm really into
25:24
Speaker 1: it now. I'm like, yeah, let me play. These games
25:27
Speaker 1: has a little quest on the side where you just
25:29
Speaker 1: try to find different items. I will say I've realized
25:33
Speaker 1: I am not as smart as I thought I was,
25:35
Speaker 1: because they will put terms and like like words and that.
25:39
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't even know what this is? What
25:41
Speaker 1: is this? They're a little bit dated, so I'm like,
25:44
Speaker 1: I've had to yell out, do you know what this is?
25:46
Speaker 1: What is this? Because I didn't. I didn't know, but
25:50
Speaker 1: a good game would recommend. I have caught onto Love
25:55
Speaker 1: and Pies. This is kind of like that Merge game
25:59
Speaker 1: Merge Mansion that I mentioned before, in which you have
26:03
Speaker 1: to do it with pie. So she has a bakery
26:07
Speaker 1: that you have to get together. You come in. There's
26:10
Speaker 1: no divorce in this one. I haven't seen the ads.
26:13
Speaker 1: The only ad so that I've seen is this young
26:17
Speaker 1: woman gets her her Amelia Guess her mother's pie store bakery,
26:26
Speaker 1: in which a woman she finds an accidental hideout and
26:30
Speaker 1: she has to open up the mysterious hide out to
26:32
Speaker 1: see what's happening. That's one of the ads. Another ad
26:36
Speaker 1: is she sees her mother handing out pies with jewels
26:39
Speaker 1: in it, and so someone comes in brings a piece
26:41
Speaker 1: of art. She gets a pie with jewels, so she's like,
26:44
Speaker 1: what's happening, what's my mother doing? So that's the ads,
26:47
Speaker 1: but in the actual episode, so you open it up
26:50
Speaker 1: to her coming to the house with her daughter Kate,
26:53
Speaker 1: who is dressed like a dinosaur. Super cute graphics by
26:56
Speaker 1: the way, supercute art um and and he comes to
27:02
Speaker 1: the house that which is burned down and they're trying
27:04
Speaker 1: to figure out how it burned down, and there's a
27:05
Speaker 1: rumor that her mother did it, but her mother's disappeared,
27:08
Speaker 1: and she's like, what is happening. So she tries to
27:10
Speaker 1: build this up by doing the merch game and selling pies.
27:14
Speaker 1: Cute though and then like we are trying to figure
27:17
Speaker 1: it out, there is a queer relationship which I really enjoy.
27:22
Speaker 1: Her best friend, Yuka, I believe, is interested in a
27:25
Speaker 1: woman reporter who's trying to ruin her life. Is uh.
27:30
Speaker 1: There is a villain of a corporation trying to take
27:33
Speaker 1: the small shop down. It's the whole thing, and her
27:37
Speaker 1: uncle's spinn who's helping her. Oh, and then you get
27:41
Speaker 1: a dog and you get to name it, and guess
27:43
Speaker 1: what I name my dog? Yeah, I know you're so uh,
27:52
Speaker 1: it's super cute. I'm enjoying this game. Um. And then
27:56
Speaker 1: there's a couple of the I'm still doing choices that
27:58
Speaker 1: that one like game untild you about the story time.
28:00
Speaker 1: I'm still on it. I'm still playing it. Uh. Not
28:03
Speaker 1: as great as one previously, but I still feel like
28:06
Speaker 1: you know better than uh. Some Again, this is one
28:10
Speaker 1: of those games where it was a really sexist ADS,
28:12
Speaker 1: but it's not far off. At least it's not far off.
28:15
Speaker 1: I will say that, and I say really sexist, and
28:18
Speaker 1: that it just portrays a woman as of like she's
28:20
Speaker 1: just a sex me. But in the stories is a
28:22
Speaker 1: little deeper in which people will talk about that that's misleading.
28:26
Speaker 1: Why don't you say that that's even better for me?
28:29
Speaker 1: And then, of course wey Haven Chronicles, which you and
28:32
Speaker 1: I did the first two books, and I'm still waiting
28:35
Speaker 1: for my third one, Son of a Biscuit, still waiting.
28:39
Speaker 1: We're here, but there you go. Those are my reviews
28:41
Speaker 1: of some games. But also, someone tell me what's going
28:44
Speaker 1: on with these ads? Yeah? Yeah, and if you I mean,
28:48
Speaker 1: it's hard to describe unless you've actually seen a screenshot
28:51
Speaker 1: of the ads, but they're pretty shocking. So thank you
28:58
Speaker 1: Samantha for driving to the death of these I still
29:02
Speaker 1: want you to play the jigsal one though I do
29:04
Speaker 1: like a puzzle. We'll see, We'll see. Maybe I'll do
29:09
Speaker 1: a follow up and listeners. If you have any experience
29:12
Speaker 1: with any of these things, please write in and let
29:16
Speaker 1: us know our emails. Stephanie your mom Stuff at I
29:19
Speaker 1: hurt me dot com. You can find us on Twitter
29:21
Speaker 1: at mom Stuff podcast or Instagram and stuff I've Ever
29:23
Speaker 1: Told You. Thanks as always to our super producer Christine,
29:26
Speaker 1: thank you, and thanks to you for listening Stuff under
29:30
Speaker 1: Told the protection of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts for
29:32
Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, you can check out the Heart Radio app,
29:34
Speaker 1: Apple Podcast, wherever you listen to, your baby shows