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Monday Mini: What Are These Story Games? · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Steph.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I never told your prediction off I heart radio, and
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: welcome and y'all. It's been a long road, uh for me,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: specifically during this pandemic, and one of the things that
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: we've been doing, and I say we collectively because I
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: feel like most of you have been on a journey
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: with me and trying to find interesting hobbies for Samantha.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: I will say I have failed in several things, including
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: tarot cards and knitting, which I have been able to
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: knit a square, small square. That's that's still something. I
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: wouldn't say you failed. I would say they just didn't
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: take Maybe they weren't for you. I do like it.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: I want to pick it back up, but I just
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: got very distracted and I'm like, okay, next. Uh there's
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: some like, yeah, this is where I might have some
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: newer divergent tendencies that it's just a little different. This
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: is one of those moments. But on this road, I'm
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: still continuing with the help find Samantha some new hobbies track.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: I guess we can say um, because I've got questions.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: I've got lots of questions, and it has led me
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: to this Monday mini in which we are going to
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: explore you and I Annie. But before we start, I
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: need to ask because we're going to talk about the
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: world of phone games, which I've figured out and I
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: think you've talked about many times, and I've learned as
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: of now, like it's one of the largest portion of
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: gaming is through the phone. They're a billion dollar industry.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: We need to get out a good game. Someone help
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: us develop this minty game. We need to do this.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: We already have to choose your own adventure idea where
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: you per feminist and you just get screwed over completely,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: because that's how that goes. But yeah, so learning that
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: this has become a huge industry for me, that makes
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: me feel a little validated and that I'm not the
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: only one obsessed with playing phone games. However, and before
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: we go into there, what's happening in your gaming world?
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Oh my, Well, as you know, I recently beat the
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: last of us to bug in. I think this is
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: the tenth time. So I should get I should get something.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: We should a badge. Please get me a badge. That
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: would be fantastic, I love, because I'm already picturing the
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: ridiculous thing you're going to design and I love it.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: But I got this okay. I was playing with my
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: little brother who had never played it before, and I
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: feel like I could really make a career on the
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: last of us to play throughs one some but to
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: definitely so I beat that. Um More tears were had.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Now I'm in because you know, I was hesitant to
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: start a new game while I was in this play
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: through with my little brother because I didn't want my
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: control brain to get mixed up by playing another game
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: and pretty good at the way supposed to and I
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: don't want to lose that reputation. Um So now I'm like,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: I'm in a process of letting go. Am I gonna
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: let go and play a different game because I have
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: a lot of build up I want to play. There's
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: a bunch of Star Wars games I've never played that
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: I have. There's a Resident Evil game I've been trying
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: to play for a long time, so I think I'm
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: on a precipice. Who knows what I'll do. Um, Me
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: and my little brother are going to start. He hadn't
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: played the first one, so we're gonna go back and
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: play the first one so that that will be interesting
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: because the controls are just slightly different. And I don't
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: know if you saw it. There's a lot of news
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: and argument happening about the Last of Us. The first
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: one is releasing a remastered version, so I'm I'm hoping.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: I don't think it comes out soon, but if it did,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: that'd be good timing because then I have a reason
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: to play it a game from there. Perfect time, perfect timing.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Lots of Mario Party has been had, as you know, yes,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: and uh, lots of D and D Dungeons and Dragons
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: kind of taking a quick hiatus, but a lot of
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: you know, things have gone down in our campaign. Character
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: there were puppets. There were puppets, and they apparently needed
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: to express themselves through those puppets. A lot of deep
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: moments happened. Well, they are very handy for therapy, so
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: maybe a whole different level. You've just made your D
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: and D into a therapy session. Congratulations. It did kind
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: of feel like that, actually, but it was good in
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: like the best way. I love it. I love it.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: I still want to come around so I can do
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: a whole commentating like sports narrating for you guys. Oh,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: I think it'd be great. I think it would be fantastic.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: I'm ready. I'm ready. Let's bring me in, coach, bring
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: me in, as we say, maybe by other hobby, let's
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: try that was a hobby, just the entire that's my thing.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: That sounds about. That sounds about that would be right
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: up my alley, to be honest. Yeah, but yeah, So
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: you and I have been talking about a lot of
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: gaming stuff because I am a part of the Mario
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Party world, and we have discovered I am really bad
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: at control games and races. I'm bad, like there's no
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: denying it. I'm the one that constantly falls off at
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: things and takes an me forever. The light silly things
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: kind of like puzzle ish. I'm a little better at,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: but I would not say I thrive. Like there's a
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: game in the Mario Party where you're jumping on leaves
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: to go up. Never never won that, always last place,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: the little um when you go to the target to
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: go through all the bananas to get to the one center.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Never made first place in that. I can't stand those,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: the ones where you're like on a small path or
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: you fall off into the water. Never ever have I
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: made it. Well, you're better at me than that flipping steak,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: the flipping steak one. I'm okay, but you've beaten me.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: I'm the felt very upset about that. Getting the candy
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: out of the jar. I was okay, then you were
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: better than me that I was like, okay, I'm upset
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: about this as well. I have kicked y'all's ass on
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: the little tricycle race, just like I have one every
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: time on that. I will say that I don't know
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: if it's a small motion. I think they're good with that.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: I love for anyone who's never played Mario Party or
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: it's like very casual player and you're like, what are
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: we talking? There's so many mini games in this thing.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: But anyway, we have discovered I'm not great, Like I
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: really wish it was just the thing that I'm like,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: I don't like it. No, I'm just not good at it.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: So I don't like it because of that, But I
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: still participate. I still participate. Do I like yell at people? Yes?
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Doesn't make me angry that I lose all the time. Also, yes,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: but that's okay. That's okay because I have found my
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: love for the phone games, which you know we've talked about.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: I am a gamer by playing through these phone games,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: which is now one of the biggest forms of gaming.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Um that has outstripped many other types. As well as
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: the fact that yes, there's a multibillion dollar process. It
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: is grown leaps and bounds. Uh. There are thousands and
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: thousands of games out there that you can choose from,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: and some of them are problematic, as we've also discovered.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: But before we get into all of those issues, yeah,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: I confession time got sucked into a world of sort
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: of of just choose your own adventure story phone games
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: or narrative games, narrative mobile games, which I've just again
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: really kind of gotten into in the last week because
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: I was like, what is this. There's a variety of
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: stories and yes I actually ventured towards the spicy content
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: rhet row um, but there is like, uh, there are
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: stories on romance, adventure, so many other things that I'm like, Okay, cool,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: cool cool um. And of course, as a person who
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: now looks at everything with a bit of a feminist lens,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: thank you to our jobs, I noticed the language and
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: the characters of the game seem to be more from
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: a feminist lens or female gaze. In a lot of
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: this conversation. But I want to add a caveat to this.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: It has problems, Like everything else, slowly changing, society is changing,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: the conversations are constantly changing or reverting. You never know
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: the demands and inclusivity is still trailing behind with some
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: of these games, um with what many players have asked for.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: But there are games like Choices this is the name
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: of the game Choices Stories you Play, which was launched
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: in seems like they may be trying. And I'm going
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: to put that again, and with the caveat of like,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: I'm just now researching this and whoa, there's a fandom,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: and there is a fandom that I did not understand.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: I also want to lay y'all know. Yes, I was
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: playing another game that you have to watch ads in
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: order to get more lives or point or whatever advantage.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: And it was through this that I repeatedly, repeatedly saw
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: this ad and I was like, what is this? Okay,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: that's it. Let me download and just for three minutes.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Check wow, check out what is happening. They got an
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: they got you. I feel like this is how you
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: got on the last good the one that I went
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: into was Choices against Stories. You play um and it
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: is by the team Pixelbury, who apparently have been around
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: for a decade. They've been doing story ish type of things.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: I think they first had episodic games, uh called Surviving
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: High School and Cause of Death, and then they kind
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: of expanded into this which has games like High School Story, Hollywood,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: you know, all these additional stories in here um and
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: their mission because I needed to go to their site
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: to see what this is about is bringing meaningful and
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: positive game experiences to our millions of players around the world,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: and they do. They have tons of players, to the
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: fact they have Reddit boards dedicated to these these characters
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: and to these stories. Um, and I was like what
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: There even was an article and vice in which when
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: the author talks about how they had gone through a
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: pretty serious medical condition and while going through it, they
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: picked up they were already playing, I believe, but they
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: even they played even more so on this specific app
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: trying to be anything but what they were going through.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: So literally they were talking about how they used this
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: as an escape during this time and also trying to
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: like having this identity crisis of like using those characters
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: as a way to reflect on themselves, which is a
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: question because you haven't done it yet, correct, I have not,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: but when you were telling me about it, I was
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: very interested. So we're gonna talk about that. But that
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: you can you can name them after yourself, you can
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: name how who they are, and you can have this
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: character m c's or the main characters. But they shortened
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: it to m z's um to reflect them, so that
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: they could do this adventure as if it's them, and
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: it is the way they They write it as you
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: are doing this, and you are doing this, but you
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: you're not really cognizant that it's saying that way. You
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: just picture it as, yes, I am doing this, you
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: are correct. But and so I was very interested in like, okay,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: it has a fandom and it is grown um And
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: well I will say also about the ads. Of course
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: they were different than what I expected or what it
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: seemed to be advertising to me, but again still it
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: hooked me. It got me, you got you got me
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: okay um. And again, like I said, there was a
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: pretty big following. But with this original content, there was
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: a lot of issues that people were complained about, and
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: rightly so. So one of the things that I discovered
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: I was specifically reading about this one app because there's
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: so many others. There's so many. I think that chapters
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: is one of them. There's a thing where it's like,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: I'm not I've not played these, these are just the
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: ads I've seen since. Then's like me chat and apparently
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: you're supposed to be like chatting as if like a
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I think it's supposed to be. It's
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: supposed to mimic as if you're actually chatting with a
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: person from a website. I know that's what it shows. Again,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: the ads are always misleading to me. They always lie
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: a little bit, it seems whatever. Um But one of
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: the things that I found specifically with this gaming um
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: app is that there is a petition that happened in
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. I think that call out for quote radical
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: change because there are so many problems within YEPP and
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: so I'm going to read just a little bit of it.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: So again, some of these things that I'm mentioning are
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: the books or the stories in there, or that used
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: to be there. You canceled across the world what could
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: have been a series became a royal screw up. You
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: also canceled the Highst Monaco, whose name clearly indicated plans
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: for more books if it was successful. Even though it
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: was well received. You even you even screwed up the
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: elementalist by turning an adventure focused series into a Beckett
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: romance book for one single interest money. And now you
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: canceled night Bound after making its cover a romance nonsense,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: once again showing pure devotion to what seems to be
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: your new statement destroying yourself. What about And they talked
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: about all these other books, um, and they can't go
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: on again, he says, which, funnily enough, are all gender
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: locked books. So when they're talking about underlocked, it means
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: that you can only play one specific gender. So if
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: it's intended for a woman, you can only play a woman,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: you can't. You couldn't choose. At that point in time,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: that they on once again renouncing on your diversity, which
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: is something that they play into. So they the petition people,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: the people who have created this petition were absolutely correct.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: This is what something they seem to say they want
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: to do. It seemed nineteen, it wasn't happening, and that's
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: what you produced yourself to, uh knowing saying that they
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: are no longer about diversity, so they are asking please
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: change this, please make it better. So I thought that
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: was really interesting because I was like, well, they are serious.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: And as I was reading some of the reddit clips,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: and they were talking about the following problems, including, um,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: that it was gender locked, that the unit you had
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: no choice of what gender you could play. Um that
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: the love interests or the l ies were also gender
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: locked and therefore you had no choice. Uh if you
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: were in the LGBTQ community, that you couldn't do it.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: That there was only three races or ethnicities that were
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: being allowed and that was Hispanic, Black, and Caucasian in
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: the story. And then also another big thing and I
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: haven't seen a change to it is at all based
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: in the US and there is an international app So
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: several of these things were big conversations like why do
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: you have to have it this way? And another big
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: conversation again as we talked about with sexuality or sexual preference,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: and I think they have actually they did have some
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: options of being gay or lesbian, but that was it.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: It was very still like this and this and not that,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: and so it was very interesting to me to see
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: this conversation. So I had to venture out. I went
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: from one of my content to three others to try
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: to see how big of a change or difference or
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: had they changed that since that petition, which, by the way,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: they had two fifty people signed, so that's not a
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: huge number. But for an app, mobile app game, for
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: you to have a petition as well as have people signed,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: it seems pretty significant to me. I don't know, just
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: saying so. Some of the things that I was going
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: through with this is like, has it changed? Has Pixelberry
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: been listening to their people? And I'm picking on Pixelbery.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: I'm so sorry if you're a listener and you know
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Pixelberry or you've worked for Pixelbury or have a connection
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: to Pixelbury. It's mainly because that's what I'm using, and
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: this is what I wanted to see because I was
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: very curious did they change it? Did they change it?
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: And a little So that's the answer, kind of, you know,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: I think that's typically always the answer, right. So there
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: are many men and boys who are not happy with
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: the gender locked conversation, as well as a lot of
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: I guess female identifying folk who wanted to be able
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: to play a different gender because they liked the responses
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: and they wanted to have a different aspect or conversation
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: piece in this So whatever the reason exploring it, there
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: was a lot of different people. I like it this
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: way and I wanted to try, but they won't let me.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: But some games have allowed for people to choose specific genders.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: They do, but it's still buying an area all so that,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: I had not seen any non binary options in Pixelberry. Um. Again,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: the other apps may I don't know. So if there's
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: a better app, I'm sure its the partypically gonna let
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: us know. Many still feel it is not enough options,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: and I specifically I absolutely agree. UM. And then there's
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: also stories that let you play from either perspective. So
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: I've hit on two of the stories where you can
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: play either the main male or main female character, again
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: very binary, and then you go from that route and
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: see what happens in that route. There's one that's the
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: princess and a magician. I believe the man is a
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: magician by the way, UM, and it goes different routes
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: of that adventure. But they are very specific and you
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: can't rename them. I don't think a lot of them
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: you can. I don't think in this option you can.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: There's also options where you can actually choose who you are,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: your name, and then you can actually choose your love interest.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: The only other aroblem is I have seen someone say
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: that as an a sexual player, they could not have
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: an option that even if they wanted to flirt, which
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: we know a sexuality, it's very abroad in the spectrum,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: and it could mean I love to flirt, but I
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: don't want this sexual physical touch like that, which is understandable. Um,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: and that's kind of that conversations like they wanted to
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: be able to flirt, but flirt translated into touching, which
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: was like, that's not what we wanted as an a
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: sexual character, and there was no option not to do this,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: which is which is really like, yeah, that's really discouraging.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: I will say they did put in an Asian character,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: as previously they did not, And yes, every time I
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: played this has been an Asian character, So I guess
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: I am vicariously living through them. I didn't think about
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: that because they're never my name. I don't ever want
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: to say my name. It just feels too odd. And yeah, again,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: like I said, there's a lot of conversations about whether
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: or not it has progressed enough. The reason they caught
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: my attention is because going through the female gaze or
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: the feminist lens, there's a lot of a lot more
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: depth than I expected for like a gameplay, I guess,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: especially mobile gameplay. Not that the standards should be low,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: but you know, I still didn't know, but the fact
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: that they actually did a fairly good job and talking
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: about consent. So I did venture into one that's a
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: dom sub and I will tell y'all not my cup
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: of tea all the time. There are things that I'm like,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure how I feel about this. This makes
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: me a little uncomfortable. But the one thing I have
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: to say that throughout that each time there is role
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: play and I'm putting this in quotes because you know,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: I'm not really sure I'm talking about they make sure
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: consent is at the top of the conversation, as if
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: these two characters are working it out to make sure
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: they realize that they are able to consent with each other.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: So I found that really nice. I was like, oh,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: look at that, because we know that this culture in
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: real life are very very focused on consent um and
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: I think it pays respect. Again, I don't think it's
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: on point, as in, like I don't know how realistic
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: these things are. I don't. I have no real perspective,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: so I'm thinking that as a grain of salt. But
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: to see that they are talking about consent and any
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: of the steamy, spicy content, they are talking about consent,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: and I really appreciated that. I was like, okay, okay,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: because you know when we specifically you and I have
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: talked about this as a kid, when I was reading
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: through Romance, the sexy things were being taken and doing
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: doing this and being you know, saying no but meaning yes,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: that's not happening. And I was like, Okay, look at this.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: They are really changing that kind of conversation up. Maybe
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: maybe I've not read deeply into all of it. I
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: don't know, but a few pieces that I've seen they
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: have done a really good job of that. And all
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: of these characters they have started to formulate the characters well,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: I guess, and that some of these I was surprised
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: by the type of jobs that they were getting, or
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: the way they would speak, or how they would stand
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: up for themselves. Of course you choose these things, but
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: it was really interesting to see. I was like, yeah,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: I feel like this are this is the women writing
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: this yeah, or at least non binary folks who understand.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: And as I was researching it, because you can look
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: to see who wrote or created uh the different books,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: and they give you they give an interview about what
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: they're doing and how excited they are about the work.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: And one of them was Megan. I'm sorry, I don't
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: know you. Last name actually grew up in LinkedIn. Um.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: She did an amazing job with one of the ones
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: that I've read, and talking about how she wants to
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: expand it and how she loves these characters, and I'm like, wow,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: this is really interesting gaming. I love this. I love this. Yeah,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: I totally agree. We were talking about this before. If
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: consent is involved in the conversation like that, I assume
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: it was probably a woman or non binary city wrote it. Um.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: I've said before, I've seen this happen in fan fiction.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: But it's interesting too because I haven't ventured into this world.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: But I played games like this on consoles um and
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: I can't say whether or not I like one that
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: comes to mind. I love the game Oxen Tree. If
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: you are interested in this and want to explore more,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Oxen Free is a great one. The main character as
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: a woman um. And then I know mass effect is
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: a big one, but mass fact also had discussions like
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: this of like I have to be fim Shepherd male shepherd. Um,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: I will say I did fim shep and I went
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: down every romance possible. But that was where I was
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: just curious what would happen, Like I feel like you're
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: able to h experiment at a safe distance. Yeah, yeah,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: it's just kind of fun. I'm like, oh, what if
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: I go talk to this guy I was gonna happen?
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm very interested in try it out. And actually,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: as you were telling me about this, I remembered a
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: listener wrote us a while back and we wanted to
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: read part of Amanda's email. Amanda wrote, just have to
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: suggest the text based choose your own Adventure game the
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: way Haven chronicles Danny and Samantha. It's a planned seven
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: books series and is so good be gay by straight
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: or ace while having to deal with four ridiculously good
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: looking vampires of your chosen preference in a small town
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: while solving a mood Did I mention your choices matter
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: and vary the story through each play through and no
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: going backs's move? Um? Yeah, there's two books out so
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: far with the third in production, and has brought me
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: so much story that I couldn't help but think of
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: it as Sminty started venturing into fiction and horror. And yes,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: despite the romcom description, there are horror elements and even
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: mythological twists didn't well, you know, I am gay at
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: this point. As I am exploring this whole new world,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: I'm like, wait, what vampires? We know? I love Vampa. Yes, yes,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: so uh we Samantha and I are gonna I think
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: we're going to give it a go. I know this
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: is like late coming, but I did actually download it
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: right after the email, so I wanted to do it.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: And this has just been another kickstart and and then
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: we were planning on doing maybe a book club or
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: an episode on it, uh and discuss because I think
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: it's gonna be really interesting to compare ours. Yes, but Amanda, um,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: if you're listening, I hope you still are because I
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: know this was a little while, but it wasn't Halloween.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Amanda was suggesting it for like a Halloween type thing.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: We know when we come into fall as always Halloween
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: seas and we're coming and we love horror all ye around.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: But yeah, We would love if you could reach back
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: out and let us know where you are, your thoughts,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: your experiences, and we want to know your experience and
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: how they compared to ours as well. Yes, and any listeners,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: any listeners, we would love to hear from you. I
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: think this could be really fun. Yes, so look forward
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: to that one. And in the meantime, if you do
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: want to contact us about any of this stuff, um
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: I have any suggestions that'd be great. You can email
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: us at stuff id your mom stuff at I heart
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: media dot com. You can find us on Twitter at
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: mom Stuff podcast or an Instagram at stuff I've Never
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: Told You. Thanks it's always to our super producer Christina,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: which I feel like you should be a part of this, Christina,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: I think so. I think so, And thanks to you
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: for listening Stuff When Never told this protection of iHeart Radio.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: For more podcast in my Heart Radio, you can listen
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: to the I Heart Radio app Apple podcast wherever you
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.