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S1E127 - 127: Fun Money Ratio · The #Backlog Breakdown

• 0:43
  What would I like to do for fun?
• 0:45
  Make money.
• 0:49
  That's I was stupid. But I mean, the bits are usually stupid, so here we go. Hi, I'm your host, Josh for Today. And I have my co host, normal usual, but always a pleasure. Nate McKeever on the mics.
• 1:05
  Yeah, I take fun entirely too seriously.
• 1:11
  I like that. That is a great tagline.
• 1:14
  I wish people would give me money to take fun as seriously as I have fun.
• 1:20
  Instead, we pay our money to have fun. What does that make us? Well, we'll talk about that more later.
• 1:27
  It makes us chumps.
• 1:30
  Not if you take fun seriously. But we will get to that before we get to that, because that's what we're going to be talking about today. We have some forms to be observed. The first form is the most casual of all the forms, bro.
• 1:44
  It is.
• 1:45
  Have you been.
• 1:49
  Would you like to know how? It's been two weeks since I talked to you. Is that what you were after? Is that what you're after?
• 1:57
  Yeah, it's been a fortnight again.
• 2:05
  Test me. Test me, bro. Come at me. Come at me like a spider monkey. All right.
• 2:23
  How are you doing?
• 2:24
  Well, over the cofaffi through all of that, there was also towards the end of that, there was an RSV scare, which RSV is for grown adults is kind of no big deal, but for babies and the elderly is super. No bueno, but it seems like we kind of dodged that bullet. We're doing okay. There's some stuff going on. Megan's got some family stuff that kind of makes things a little rough, but she started work again this week. She went back today. Today was her first day back in a minute. And her sister is watching Be this week. And then my mom and one of my aunts is actually coming in next week to watch the boy. Wow. And I still have to get my leave sort of sorted out. It's not been bad. It's just there's sort of a lot. I also in the discord, I got mad at my door, one of our doors, the doorknob is not working properly and so some pieces have broken off in it. So it basically needed replaced. And the one thing I had to.
• 4:02
  Do, it wasn't doing.
• 4:04
  Yeah, the one thing, it didn't really do that. And so Megan got a replacement and I was trying to put that replacement in and it was giving me fits and it actually ended up breaking, at which point in time I broke it more because it broke you and it broke me. I broke it back. And then this is how bad that this is. Last night I just tried to swap out because all the doors in our house are the same, so I just, like, knocked it off its pins and I was like, I'm just going to grab a different door that has a working knob and I did that. And the spacing on the hinge hole things is off by half, like a quarter of an inch on this door compared to the other door.
• 5:07
  The door is the same, but the hinges are different.
• 5:09
  Well, the hinges are the same, but the placement of those hinges is off by like a quarter of an inch. And that could have just been from the house shifting. But I was unhappy, sweaty, achy, tired. It's going to be new rhythm. Like I said. Megan, she's going back to work, so we'll see. And like I said, the plan is for me to have take March off to stay home with a boy. But yeah, it's fine. It's not terrible. But I am tired and kind of stressed. How about you guys? How are you guys doing?
• 6:07
  Nice.
• 6:08
  Interesting.
• 6:09
  Yeah, we're doing good now. Samantha, it's funny, not funny that you went through your sickness, but after talking last week, Samantha started not feeling well and it just hung on for quite a while. So you do what you got to do, right? And it kind of shifted from one thing to another, if that makes sense. It wasn't like one constant sickness that was just a pain because it seems like, oh, okay, we're getting over it. It just hung on much longer than kind of any of us were expecting. But you get through it. It's just common sicknesses. It's nothing too crazy. No cofaffee, no ours, no, nothing like that. Yeah, it is what it is. Outside of that, not too much. Staying busy with everything that we're involved in. One thing that was pretty exciting. It came up pretty quick. I met with someone last week about baptism, and after we kind of walked through that, we talked about it before. This is something that I started doing, is talking people through what we believe about baptism. They wanted to get baptized. So I performed the baptism this past Sunday. First one I've done.
• 7:36
  I was going.
• 7:37
  To say I was getting my feet wet and hilarious. It didn't mean to use an unintentional pun, but yeah.
• 7:49
  I just want to take a beat for a minute. I'm glad that you're ashamed of that pun. It's pretty terrible.
• 7:57
  It's because it was unintended. When I intend my ponds, they're worse.
• 8:02
  They're even worse because you're doing it on purpose. No, but that's awesome. So congratulations. Congratulations. That person.
• 8:14
  Yes.
• 8:15
  I'm glad that the sign has been applied.
• 8:21
  That was exciting. A little nerve wracking because it just happened so fast. But that's how we see it in the scripture, too, is often it happens quickly. Like the eunuch said to Philip, there's water right here. Why don't we get baptized? That was kind of one of the highlights of my weekend. That's how I've been doing. Good. Rolling with the punches.
• 8:51
  Just rolling with the punches.
• 8:54
  Speaking of rolling on, I think it's time that we roll on to our next form to be observed, which would involve a few forms that I have. Welcome to the backlog report. We have tons of things to report on, like things that we have different pieces of media that we have engaged in, that we've consumed that have become part of us with that consummation. I don't know, this is getting weird. But anyways, Josh is making it weird. Yes, that's our new form, where Josh makes it weird. Patrons know how weird I can make things. They get another peek into the brain of Josh Broccolo and it gets weird sometimes. But that said, speaking of being weird and no, I don't have a segue here, but some of the things that I've been into that I've consumed over the past week, we can start off with just some books that we've read, one in particular. So I've been going back and forth whether or not to even mention this because I cannot recommend this book because of some big thing. And there's a whole story behind this, and I'll try and go through it very quickly. Is that the writer of this book? His name is Joshua Porter. He was the front man for a band that I really enjoyed for quite a while called Showbred. They're kind of an art rock punk.
• 10:24
  Yeah, I know Showbred. I've enjoyed a few of their albums.
• 10:28
  Okay. And I really like his take on things in general, like his outlook on the world. I really like that. And so I really enjoyed so he wrote this book that has just recently come out. He's a pastor now, and it's called Death to Deconstruction. So I really enjoy the way that he works or writes. Excuse me. I like the way that he forms certain arguments and the way that he expresses himself. I really enjoyed reading this book and the whole point of it, Death to Deconstruction is kind of this idea that is against deconstruction. He basically talks about how orthodoxy is the antidote to deconstruction. Basically. Like after going through his own time of deconstruction, he got a little weird.
• 11:24
  For a while, didn't he?
• 11:25
  So that's the thing. He was an open theist. I don't know if he still is. He may still be, I don't know. I can't tell. But his thing in this book is like orthodoxy is what he's saying. That he's come full circle from deconstructing his faith to recognizing the beauty of orthodoxy. Whether or not he believes that open theism is orthodox, like, falls within orthodoxy or doesn't, I can't tell. And there's nothing in this book that would lead me to believe him to be opentheist. However, there is a chapter, I think it's the third chapter in. So the first two chapters I'm like. I am loving this. This is great. I really enjoy the way that he writes, what he's saying. This is really good. The third chapter, he gets into basically a fiatcy. And his theodosy is that, well, God's not in control of everything. And so we don't blame him for evil. And I'm like, oh, you just stumble and fall.
• 12:33
  Because I understand the error, because.
• 12:43
  I don't know that could mean he is still Open Theist. But although open theism has a lot more like it has its ten that goes into a lot deeper. It affects everything, basically. And so it doesn't seem to from the rest of the book. However, I just got such a bad taste in my mouth from that of like, oh, that was like a total face plant. Because the other thing I noticed that he did is when he's explaining that he doesn't back it up with Scripture, he he talks about other people's, you know, he he pulls in different quotes, he pulls in other ideas, and obviously he makes a logical argument. But bro, open the Bible. In sovereignty, God's sovereignty is everywhere. And to make this idea of sovereignty a bad guy, and I get why he talks about his own experiences of how that has been abused.
• 13:44
  There's a couple of things in there, and I'm definitely I'm interested in checking out the book. Do it. I know that you don't in particular, like, this is not like a heavy recommend for you. Yeah, but death to deconstruction.
• 14:02
  Yes.
• 14:02
  Yes.
• 14:04
  I would love to hear your take on it because I really and he's a weird dude. I believe he's vegan. I could be wrong about that. From my understanding, I've never heard him, like, preach veganism. I believe he's also a pacifist while really enjoying horror movies. He's a very interesting dude, and I respect most of the things that he does, even though he's done some crazy things too.
• 14:38
  What I will say is I don't necessarily agree with the sort of the vegan or the vegetarian perspective, but there's a guy that I know that I have a ton of respect for who, in order to pursue kingdom living, is convictionally a vegetarian. He does not believe that we should be eating meat. I don't agree with him. But I also have a tremendous amount of respect and infection for this dude. So what I will say is that I think that you can get to those positions. Honestly, I don't think that they're viable, but I think you can get there. Honestly, veganism is weird. That could just be like I think it's sort of like an acquired taste. Man, vegan food just looks freaking gross anyways.
• 15:34
  I can stomach a salad, but every.
• 15:36
  Meal I'm just kidding.
• 15:39
  A lot of stereotype.
• 15:41
  Yes. And what I would say is, with deconstructionism, frankly, I think if you sort of take your faith apart, right, ask questions so that you can sort of get rid of all the junk and that's fine, we should all be doing that. I think the problem is there are a lot of people who they aren't deconstructing anything. They're just abandoning the faith and they're just calling it deconstruction.
• 16:13
  And that's one of the things he talks about in the book is that often deconstruction does not lead to anywhere in general. It is an anti Christianity. It's not positive because most of the people that you see it ends up in a very vague, spiritually kind of hopeful notion of pantheism or whatever. So, anyways, I'm glad you understand what I'm saying. I cannot in good conscience recommend this book but I'm excited for you to listen to it and then maybe we can talk about it further. Yeah, so that's kind of the book that I listened through in terms of what I've been watching. My wife and I did watch. I think it was the latest comedy special by Jim Gaffigan. And generally, I like Jim Gaffigan. He's really funny. I enjoy his stuff. He got a little raunchy with this one. I was surprised. Not, like, super over the top, but there were some things that I'm just like, oh, I guess he's changing a little bit in those terms. So wasn't super impressed with this last one. Although there were a handful of really funny jokes, like truly laugh out loud moments. But overall, it was kind of hit or miss. So the lastly games. You're here for the games, right? We're the backlog breakdown. We talk about video games. So what games have I been playing? Well, I played through. Scott Pilgrim versus the World. The complete edition. I was my gosh, why can't I think of his name? But the front man of the band of well, in Styles, scott Pilgrim. Yes, Styles. I played as his character. And the game starts off with no context. The game starts off and I was like, oh, this is kind of slow. Like, this isn't immediately fun.
• 18:16
  The first hour felt really rough. I haven't revisited it since that night where it crashed on me and do some Parker. But we played for like, an hour and a half and it was enjoyable. But, yeah.
• 18:32
  So what I quickly found out is that this game really is heavily inspired by River City Ransom. And so the way that it wants you to play is to beat people up and get money and then go buy stuff and upgrade your stats. So the levels that you get in the experience that you get and the levels that you grow only give you more abilities, more skills. It does not actually increase your speed or your attack or your defense. You do all that by purchasing those upgrades so knowing that you can farm and you can get upgrades and then the game becomes much more fast paced and it's a lot of fun. But it just starts off where, oh, you have low attack, you have low defense, and you're slow. So, like you said, not the best first impression. But once I understood how the game wants you to play, okay, then this is a good time. So I did enjoy my time with it. I did finish it with Styles. I went back and played a couple of level with Knives, Knives Chow. Again, if you're familiar with the source material, I really enjoyed the way that they pulled in stuff from the movie because I've never read the comics, but I know this game came after the movie and it pulled in from that stuff. So I appreciated that. Tons of references we talked about. It awesome music.
• 20:07
  I own both. And what I will say is that there are some deviations, but the movie is a fairly decent adaptation. It doesn't deviate too far. Well, the end is okay. All I'm going to say is there is a point where there's a pretty heavy deviation, but never mind. I reckon I take back the whole statement because there's a whole thing about the subspace highway.
• 20:47
  Okay.
• 20:47
  Anyway, never mind. I take it all back. I take it all back. I do think that Scott Pilgrim movie is a really fun adaptation of Brian O'Malley's source material.
• 21:04
  And there are things as I'm older that don't resonate as heavily as they did, but I enjoy it. So I enjoyed the game quite a bit and finished that one up, so got a negative point for that one. Now I can't remember. I should have just done my research and listen to the previous episode. I can't remember if I mentioned that I had finished A Vampire Survivors, but I actually rolled credit on that. Okay. It wasn't just beating the enemy. That was called ender. No, there's actually a final boss that gives you a credit role.
• 21:40
  Render or ender. For real? The Real.
• 21:43
  No, it's not related. Although the sprites are similar. It is not actually ender. Yes, it is.
• 21:50
  Do you defeat what you do for real? That's a spoiler.
• 21:59
  Okay, I'll.
• 22:01
  Leap that out and then.
• 22:04
  Finally started in on our backlog draft game, the book club game for this quarter, Majora's Mask, because it's on the Nintendo online Switch membership and it's a Nintendo 64 game and it definitely shows its age. And I will also say I was not necessarily in the mood to start this game. So what I've decided to do is I am following a guide. If you don't know anything about Majority's Mask. It is basically an open world game, a smaller world. It's not a huge open world, but you play through the same three days over and over and over and over again, and you use that time travel mechanic. So it's interesting what it's trying to pull off. I'm still early on, I'm still in the first temple, and it's gotten a lot better the more that I've played. But it has certainly aged. The controls are wonky. The camera is the hardest thing for me, but it's Nintendo 64. You can't really fault it for not having twin stick camera controls. So it's not what I wanted, but I'm starting to enjoy it more. But I am straight up following a guide because I didn't want to have to find all these little side stories that are going on. I'd rather experience all the game by having it tell me where to go.
• 23:39
  If you have an extended amount of time to go through and just sort of experience the game, like sort of natively whatever. It's a really interesting little exercise. But frankly, I do feel like especially nowadays, it's a game that you are best served by just using a guide.
• 24:02
  I'm planning on 100% that's what the guide goes through is to get all the heart pieces and all that stuff and see all the side stories and get all the masks and do all that stuff. Because I want to see those side stories. I just don't want to have to do the work of finding this person at this certain part of the day and then going back in time and figuring these things out. Like, no, I don't want to. Which is weird because I enjoy the exploration of Breath of the Wild, but Breath of the Wild is open world in that, like, hey, run out into this field and find whatever is going on out there on your way to your destination. It almost seems more clear. Whereas this one is so dude and.
• 24:45
  For completion, it's only like, how long to be only has it in at 31 and a half hours.
• 24:52
  Oh, wow. Okay.
• 24:55
  That is not a bad.
• 25:00
  Yeah, we'll see. I'm literally following a YouTube walk through. Oh, yeah. The main story is 25. Wow. Well, yeah, I mean by that, but 3D Zelda, they start to get up there, so oh, sorry. I'm looking at 3D. Wow, that's weird that the 3D version actually includes more hours, but anyways, so that's what I'm playing. Like I said, still in the first dungeon, not too far into it. But I have gotten, like four or five masks already because I'm following the guide. It's very helpful. I enjoy it. That's my report. That's what I have to report on.
• 25:36
  What about you? Well, sort of any things that I've been reading, man, they talk pretty not tonight. This is not bode well. Things that I've been reading, just some comics. I read The Batman Who Laughs, which so the Batman Who Laughs is like I forget with it like Dark Knight metal or something like that. There was this run where they were doing these different Batman variants, but they were kind of like bad and evil. I got you. Anyways, there's a whole story there that I'm not familiar with, but the Batman Who Laughs is basically it's Batman versus the Batman Who Laughs. And the Batman who laughs is basically if Batman became the Joker. So in the Batman Who Laughs reality, he ended up killing the Joker, and the Joker had this device implanted in his heart or whatever, and it released the Joker toxin, basically, so that when he died, the last thing would be like to corrupt Batman. He's Batman just completely unchanged from any restraint or morals, and he's just an absolute psychopath. It's a really interesting read, that's what I will say. But it's not anything heavy. I read some variant stuff. It's called DC mech.
• 27:25
  Okay.
• 27:25
  It's basically sort of an alternate universe thing.
• 27:29
  Batman?
• 27:30
  No. Or DC. Mech, rather. But it's basically like sort of like Pacific Rim meets the DC Universe, and so it's kind of dumb. But we also know that I like dumb things.
• 27:48
  It sounds like a lot of fun, though.
• 27:50
  It is. It's got kind of a cool style. But basically they're all fighting Apocalypse, or Dark Side and the armies of Apocalypse because that's the planet that Dark Side is from. No.
• 28:06
  Got you.
• 28:06
  Anyways, they're fighting Dark Side and his pair of demons, but the Parademons are huge and so they have these giant robot suits to fight them in. And Superman, he's still a solar battery, and he's probably like he's super strong and super fast and all that, but he's got this battle suit that amplifies his power.
• 28:29
  Anyway, dude, nice.
• 28:31
  He fights in a giant robot. They all fight in the giant robot. It's the Flash and Batman and Wonder Woman and Greenland. It's just giant robot.
• 28:41
  Yeah, nice.
• 28:44
  We just go, Yay. I read another sort of, like, Batman variant. It's called Dark Knights of Steel, where it's like sort of a medieval high fantasy take on it. That one was pretty interesting. I didn't get all the way through it. I was reading a lot of Batman stuff because I don't read a lot of comics, but I like some of the Batman runs and stuff. Anyways, also, there's this series, and this was the final volume. This is volume five, but it's called Once in Future. And that series has a really interesting premise why I've talked about it before. Okay, so the basic premise is that all the old stories are kind of true, but because people don't believe them, they don't have any hold on reality. But then there's people who start finding things out and it's kind of like weird, but it's just wild romp. And it plays heavily with Arthurian Legend and stuff like that. It actually sort of circles around the conflict between six different versions of Arthur and Campbell. But it's about a family who's basically their job is to sort of stand in the gap and protect the sort of the mundane world from this stuff, sort of making incursion. It's a really interesting series. I like it. But it's not going to be for everybody anyways. But yeah, I've just been reading a lot of comics lately. That's kind of where I'm at as far as watching anything. It's one piece. That's the only thing that I'm watching with any intentionality we're watching a bunch of sitcoms and just junk because that's where we're at. As far as games. I have dude, I booted up Chained Echoes and I was playing it on my backbone for like 45 minutes the other night and that's the first time I've touched it in a minute.
• 31:23
  Got you.
• 31:24
  But it's marvel. Snapping destiny two.
• 31:29
  Got you.
• 31:31
  I don't know, we're getting towards the end of so lightfall drops for Destiny Two in like a week and I really like to I have a little bit of seasonal content that I kind of want to get through, nothing major. Like there's a couple of things in the seasonal content that I want to do before the season ends, but then I also would like to beat the Witch Queen campaign before lightfall drops. Not saying that I'm going to get the lightfall right away, but the Witch Queen campaign, I'm already like two or 3 hours into it so we'll see. It's not supposed to be super long but yeah. And even if I don't, it's not the end of the world. Like I said, it's something I'd like to do.
• 32:27
  But how is your destiny to finish?
• 32:29
  It is my destiny. You could say it's for ordained. I don't feel weird about saying it that way anyways. It has certain implications. But I haven't beaten anything. I haven't made any progress in anything. I haven't picked up any of my drafted games yet to sort of rip through them. And in fact when the Metroid Prime remaster was shadow dropped, I didn't buy it that day but I did get it like a couple of years later I think.
• 33:05
  Nice.
• 33:06
  And I don't have to take any points for that because I already own it on Wii U. Now I just have a version that I can play. But yeah, so I'm still at have.
• 33:17
  You played through prime before?
• 33:19
  I never beat it.
• 33:21
  That's right, we've had this conversation. I'm sorry, you're right.
• 33:23
  Yeah. Just for the listeners, in case I've never rehashed this. If I didn't rehash it, I've never beaten prime. I got Metroid Prime back on GameCube and I had it before I got it shortly after it came out and I was playing through it and I got deployed to Iraq and I was probably within a few hours of finishing the game. I think I had just gotten a mild spoiler here for anybody who's listening to maybe skip ahead like 30 seconds a minute. I had just gotten the final suit upgrade, like the new armor or whatever, which is like towards the end of the game. So I was very close to the end of the game. But yeah, then I got deployed, I went to Iraq and then when I came home I was like, I have no idea what I'm doing and I did not want to start it back up again.
• 34:21
  Yeah, makes sense.
• 34:26
  My backlog score is still at positive three, no changes. I really would like to see those numbers go down. I got to drive those numbers down. I got to get those rookie numbers down. So we're talking about the backlog beat down, the transition. We just slide right into this. It's time to talk about things that we think you should check out. It's time for the plugs bit. And like I said, we're talking about the backlog beat down. The official app of the Backlog Beat Down is none other than the GG app. It's a letter box style app for your game collection. You can do custom list, you can rate review games, you can see what your friends are playing. If you like the app, you can support the developer, Charles. He's a friend of ours. We know him, we like him, we've had him on the show before. But if you're interested, if you like what he does there, you can support him for $5 a month or $50 a year. And you get access to early builds. You get more access to Charles. You're part of the Elite program, so you get a special role in his Discord. There's all sorts of perks and benefits. It's a great app. It's got a lot of really cool functionality and we think it's a pretty neat little thing. So there's that and other things that we like or think that you should throw money at. It's us. It's this podcast and basically sort of if you've done the rating and review on the podcaster of choice, if you've shared, if you've cared, you've sort of done all those things you've told your friends and you're looking for a way to sort of go a little bit above and beyond. We do have a patreon, right? And we would just really encourage you to just sort of look at it as a tip jar, but a tip jar with benefits. A tip jar with perks for each episode. There's early and uncut access in a video feed. There's also an exclusive patreon podcast called The Brohang. And we try to sort of we're going to try to sort of do some more just patron exclusive events from time to time. We just talked last episode about the Backlog draft, the patron draft that we're doing. So there's some stuff there. You get there's a special channel in the Discord. You have a little bit more access to us and we think we have fun with those guys and we're glad to sort of have them in there. And I just did want to take a minute. We haven't done this in a minute. I want to shout those guys out, all of them. And this isn't the official shout out, this is just sort of like, hey, we really appreciate their contributions, but we've got Micah Gear, Solid, our buddy Wes the Hench, and dad Paul the techno Funk boy. I think those guys were pretty much with us right from the get go, so they real ogs. And then we've had some other people hop on Trash Turkey. He's been with us for a while. Dorian, I don't know what I don't. Have a great nickname for him, but Dorian Radio. You know what? He's got that radio base. He's got that radio. He got that smooth NPR. I'm just going to start calling him Radio. I think that's a terrible name. Anyways, sorry, Dorian, but Dorian is pretty rad. He's been with us for a minute anyways. But we got Mccoslo, the judge. Eric Bryant, Big Chill, Porcho Spike, aka. The other Nate. And now these guys have all sort of been with us for a while. The Judge has been with us for a minute, but the other day and now we actually got a new patron. Did you know this? Did you see the it's our buddy Mark Erickson, aka, I've now dubbed him Mark the Merc. You are Mark the Merck. Where the other Mark is, because low. Anyways. But yeah, we wanted to sort of welcome Mark to our fold officially and in public and then just say, hey, we love these guys. We are so glad that they support us. And we just sort of say they're an important part of the show. We just kind of want to give them their flowers. We're very grateful for you guys encouragement, friendship, and your kind contributions to this endeavor.
• 39:36
  Yeah, definitely. Always love hanging out when we're talking our special channel on the discord or whatever it may be, episodes we've had.
• 39:47
  You, I think more people should join just so Paul has to be nice to them.
• 39:53
  Yeah, that list is growing.
• 39:55
  The list is growing.
• 39:56
  Is contractually obligated to be nice to you.
• 40:02
  That being said, speaking of Paul and our buddy Wes the Hench and dad, we alongside those two are probably members of the Playwell Network. We're all podcasters of various various scene, various shades and stripes. Wes has the henshadad podcast, but hence the moniker yes man, my words are failing me. This is not a problem I typically have. I am getting probably a little sleepy, so there's that. But I got Wes the Hench and dad with the Hench and dad podcast. Also retronym. So he's got those. You got Paul the techno funk boy. He has a ton of actual Play content. It's not an actual podcast, but he is on Dyson Drew, which is the only actual Play podcast that I listen to with consistency.
• 41:11
  Nice.
• 41:12
  Take your flowers there, Paul. And in addition, it's not a poem cast podcast, per se, or a poem podcast, per se, but I'll just sort of plug it in here real quick. I partnered up with Logan Sharp and we've started Snapchatter, and by the time you guys are listening to this, I would say maybe even three episodes might be out. It's a weekly podcast just sort of dedicated to talking about Snap, Marvel, Snap. We love that game. And we've been having fun. We've made a couple of episodes at this point in time already. It's been fun. And I think if you guys are at all interested in that game. Check it out. We're just getting started and I think we're going to hopefully you guys will like it. I like it. I like doing it. It's been fun.
• 42:17
  Yes, it is a good time. I don't even play the game, and I've listened to those episodes, so it's a good time. I enjoy it.
• 42:27
  That being said, here's a word from one of them.
• 42:32
  Hey, Grandpa, I just can't wait to play GTA Five online with my new PS Five. Can you buy it for me for my birthday?
• 42:38
  Well, you know, when I was your age, I had all the time in the world for video games, but no money to buy new ones. That's how I was able to beat the classics like The Legend of Zelda.
• 42:50
  That's great, Grandpa.
• 42:51
  Nowadays, I have all the money I need for games. In fact, they've never been easier and cheaper to buy. But, son, your grandpa amassed an entire library of games that he's never played.
• 43:01
  And now that I know, I just.
• 43:03
  Don'T have the time to play them all.
• 43:05
  Okay, Grandpa, I think my squad is getting together, so I've got it.
• 43:08
  That's why I listen to The Backlog Breakdown, a podcast about becoming a wise steward of your time while also enjoying video games. Whether it's detailing the strengths and pitfalls of specific games or encouraging you to take stock of your buying habits, the Backlog Breakdown helps me to get the most out of the games that I play.
• 43:27
  You know, Christmas is still a few months away, so just forget that I.
• 43:31
  You'Re also really good at being bad at brevity.
• 43:34
  Did you forget to take your meds this morning?
• 43:37
  And we're back. So tonight, Josh, we sort of were banned some stuff around, and we decided to take a few minutes tonight to talk about. And you brought up something that's a little timely, but the sort of money and the funny kind of ratio. I made those things rhyme, and I have no idea why. I'm losing my mind as we speak.
• 44:10
  I love it.
• 44:11
  But we were sort of talking about the money and fund kind of ratio and just like money, this is not a cheap hobby. In most cases, like, video games can be very expensive. And Sony has been charging $70, and Microsoft actually moved to $70 for a lot of their games. And a lot of these publishers have been moving towards a $70 price point for brand new games. And especially in a recession, it's like something had to give. Games have been, like, 60. I think they were kind of hoping to make a little bit more money, and at this point in time, they're just sort of actually back to where they were before, especially when eggs are like $12 a dozen or whatever. It's crazy, but I think the pressing issue here, the pressing example, is that Breath of the Wild, or Tears of the Kingdom, rather, has been announced and a price point has been announced and Nintendo is saying we're going to charge $70 for this. And there has been some consternation on the internet about why is Tears of the Kingdom $70? I know it's a huge surprise. People on the internet have opinions about things.
• 45:42
  Already going down a rabbit trail. I have seen on the internet people arguing that why is the Switch game $70? It's not even a current gen game. And I'm just like, switch is current. It doesn't have the power of the other systems, but it's literally like a brand new game. Games are coming up. This is the current generation. It's not previous gen. The tech is old, but that doesn't matter. It's still this generation anyways. It doesn't matter. That doesn't matter. What we're talking about is, is the idea of how much you pay for your games versus how much you get out of them. So we say that it's a money to fund ratio. Really fun is just kind of a catch all term at this point. We talk about all the time about the experience that we have with our video games. Sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's not really fun. There are those experiences. hellblades, send you a saga or send you a sacrifice. Excuse me, why can't I think of it? They're remastering it Silent Hill, two games where they're not really fun, but they're experiences. So, okay, putting that aside, what we're talking about today is having these experiences, but then kind of evaluating, is it worth the money that we're spending on it? But then yes, like you said, video games are not a cheap hobby. There are ways to do it cheaply if you just buy inexpensive games. If you only buy stuff that's on sale, there's ways around it. Facebook, Marketplace and Craigslist. If you were to get Xbox 360 or original Xbox collection nowadays, it would probably be pretty cheap for the games that you can play. But kind of the conversation at least where we can start off, especially with what we're talking about, the current events of the price hikes of some games going up. This is kind of the damn breaking with Nintendo jumping on because like you said, it has been this way for the PS Five and PlayStation Series X and stuff like that. With Nintendo jumping on board, it seems inevitable that a lot of developers, if it's not kind of that mid tier, are probably going to start charging 70. We already see that the Hogwarts legacy is moving to that as well for the Switch Edition. So with all that being said, how do we evaluate whether or not it's worth the money that we're paying? The games that we play, and we've talked about a number of times, maybe not so much here recently, but in the past we've talked about kind of quelling the Hype train. Hypetrain can be fun. It can be great to just go along for the ride but not being mastered by the new and shiny. But at the same time, there may be some of those experiences that we are really looking forward to, that we have budgeted for, evaluating. Again, is it going to be worth it? Because sometimes it's a stab in the dark. Sometimes the newest games aren't that great after the hype dies down, but other times it may be that. So case in point, something like Tears of the Kingdom. Even though it's $70, I'm highly tempted to get that soon after its release because I really enjoy Breath of the Wild. And this one looks great. Another case in point. Octopath traveler. Two. The stuff that I've heard about this game is that it improves on the first game in a number of different ways. And the first game is in my top ten games of all time. So it's going to be difficult for me to decide to put it off. Of course, I can look at my backlog also and play a bunch of games from that before I go into it. So kind of the idea is how do we evaluate the value of the experience that we are assuming that we're going to get from some of these games. So do you have any thoughts on what games do you pay for and pay a premium for and what games do you usually go cheaply? And what are some of the I guess instead of just specifics, what are some of the rules of thumb that you follow when you're building your collection, your backlog?
• 50:41
  And that's tough because even when I have rules, I don't always follow them. Yeah, what I would say, and I tried to, there's a lot of stuff that I don't buy nearly as much as I used to, which is surprising, especially since, like I picked up 20 plus games last year. I used to buy a lot more. But I think it is important to sort of have well, you brought up. So one thing I would say, identify the stuff that you're super keen on and you're super interested in. I'll tell you what, the Dead Space remake. I am spidey senses all the tingle on that one and I want to pick that up at some point in time and I probably will, definitely. That was like a day one for me. And I think the only thing that's actually sort of really paused even that is that I'm at plus three before I'm adding anything else to that pile. So the beat down is sort of doing what it's supposed to. It's pumping the brakes a little bit. But what I would say I've identified certain things and I think last year one of the big ones for me was like the Valkyrie Alysium. Now that game turned out to not be that well, it's not sort of like super critically received. It was kind of like it's mid lane.
• 52:41
  Yeah.
• 52:43
  But as soon as that thing was announced, I bought a digital and then a physical copy because, like, that's the sort of thing that I just I knew that I wanted to support. And it's disappointing that it didn't do well. But I think I guess the first pro tip is, like, have know the three or four games that are like hard locks, like the Day Ones and sort of fill in everything else around that. And I think this year is especially hard because there's a ton of like, last year was difficult in and of itself. I still want to get around the Elder ring, right?
• 53:36
  Xenoblade Three for me, man.
• 53:38
  Yeah. And there's a whole bunch of stuff that released last year that was pretty good. And then this year is even, like, it's looking to be even more loaded, I think. The other thing, though, too, is here I look at it, I have, like, the Day one where I'm like, no, I am super pumped about this property I'm in because there is going to be that stuff where it's like, even, like sight unseen for me, that space, I was holding out for that because it's a remake. If they pooped a bet on that one, I didn't want you know what I'm saying? I just didn't want it. Remakes make me nervous because it's like sometimes and from what I'm hearing that this is the gold standard as far as the remake, people are like, no, this is what a remake needs to be.
• 54:42
  When I hear it, compared to Resident Evil Two remake, I'm like, oh, shoot, okay.
• 54:47
  I've heard people say it's better than Resident Evil Two remake.
• 54:51
  And dead space nowadays is much original. Dead Space is much better than original. Resident Evil Two. Don't shoot me, sorry. Those are my opinions.
• 55:01
  Dead Space is the high watermark for survival horror, in my opinion. I love Resident Evil Four.
• 55:09
  Yeah, it's a different type of game. It's much more like Resident Evil Four than it would be, too. They're different types of games. But I'm just saying it holds up much better. It holds up really well. The remake had done really well. Yeah, it's piqued my interest.
• 55:25
  Yeah. I mean, you enjoy Dead Space, but you're not like I'm a bit of a I have some fixations there, I guess. Yeah, it's one of my favorite games. So there's that. But then I think, too, so you identify these are the Day ones, the primaries, these are the big hits. And then I wish list a lot of stuff on my PlayStation, on my switch or whatever that I'm, like, mildly interested in. And then when I get the email saying, like, hey, this thing that you wish list is listed on sale, there are a lot of games that I look at. It's all subjective. This is the problem. It's all subjective because there's going to be some people who are just like, I'm not paying $70 for a game. Yeah, and you're free to do that. And if you wait, usually games do come down. So there is that. But to me, I think it's just like, no, take the time to sort of think about it and think about what you think is a fair price for that game and then wait for that price.
• 56:52
  But I think that's a great rule of thumb because I would actually fall more into that camp of I typically never pick up games at full price. I have before. Well, I was going to say, I think the last one that I did was Animal Crossing on Switch, but that was because my wife wanted to check it out. Also, if you remember the craze, that was when that first came out during the pandemic. And you see it all over the place. And so when my wife showed some interest in it, I was like, oh yeah.
• 57:29
  I don't know why I made the bora bora, however you say his stupid name. But then I made him sound kind of like from New York. Your wife. I know. Sorry. This is going to be one of those episodes of people like no, Nate was breaking down on this one. You could just hear him.
• 57:52
  I get it. Breaking down. Yeah, that's podcast.
• 57:56
  Anyways, that was not intentional. Stop it.
• 58:01
  You're a dad now. It just happens unintentionally. You make these jokes all over the place. But no. And actually, this is probably a good segue into where I wanted to go with this, is that probably the last game that I picked up at full price was Shinmagami Tense Five because I purchased the super special edition at that. So not only was it full price, it was much more expensive than full price. Because the series has shown me like it has tested. I trusted the developers to put out a good experience. I was not disappointed. I think it's a fantastic game. Yes, you're always taking risk when you do something like that. But I am typically someone who doesn't purchase brand new games because like you said, you wait a little bit and it generally goes down. That's not always the case. Something like Tears of the Kingdom is probably going to take quite a while unless you do some hacks in order to lower that price digitally. There's a hack where you can do that, but I don't think the physical game is going to be knocked down till at least Black Friday at the earliest in my mind. Because Nintendo and because they know they can make tons, they'll sell copies.
• 59:23
  Can we take a minute, though, too, since we're on tiers of the kingdom? Some of the sort of fear surrounding the $70 decision so many times, ever since the price hike, sony first announced the price hike a couple of years ago or whatever, there's sort of been this almost like complaint with why are they charging more for these games?
• 59:55
  And.
• 59:57
  Listen, what I will say is if it's not worth it to you, that's fine, then you don't need to buy it day one.
• 1:00:07
  Yeah.
• 1:00:08
  What I would say, though, is I think there is something about the undervaluing of these properties and undervaluing the labor and the work that goes behind them. These are huge creative teams. Hundreds of people working especially with the AAA stuff, hundreds of people working on these for years at a time. There's a tremendous amount of money invested in sort of like turning these things up to eleven, like polishing and dev testing. And it's like that costs money. And I have to be honest, I kind of resent this sort of this angry knee jerk, like, I shouldn't have to pay $70 for all this work. And I'm like, well, dude, there's a lot of money put in this thing. And here's what a Bluray DVD is like. Bluray DVD is different for it.
• 1:01:14
  And again, sort of like bluray disk.
• 1:01:17
  Bluray Disk, I guess is like $20 maybe. And it's a two hour movie. And then sometimes you've got these games that are like 40 hours long and they're charging you $70. Well, if you take that, like $20 for like two and a half hours and you stretch that out, plus there's a lot more sort of involved in development and the cultivation of all that. I think 60, $70 is a reasonable ask for the general. Like even if you're getting 20 freaking hours out of this thing or 30 hours, it's a reasonable ask because it is a substantially deeper experience. And again, the price point is subjective. And I think as long as you understand that how you value it is going to be different than how I value it and how Josh values it and how anybody else values it. But I think the biggest thing is think about what the price point is for you.
• 1:02:25
  Yes, that's a great place. That is a great conclusion. Because I would say that the pushback and I'm of two minds of this. Okay. And again, as someone who typically doesn't buy new games, so it doesn't necessarily affect me that much, but on the one hand, I think, yes, you're getting some value out of most games, or some games that are over very quickly may not be worth their asking price. Okay. But that's always the case. There's always garbage that's put out and it's way overpriced. So that aside, I would say that the counterargument, though, is with these games, isn't it worth much more? Yes, but that's not taking into economies of scale. That video games, very good. Video games typically sell a lot more nowadays than they ever have, so they have much higher profit margins. If there are development teams that are banking everything on a single game. Well, sorry, that's not the consumer's fault that you took that risk. It's not on me. So I think it's a little you're not considering everything. If you're saying, well, they deserve 70 instead of 60. Okay? But if you're selling 20 million copies at 60, that's way better than 5 million at 70. So there's economies of scale in this as well in terms of what the development team or whoever publisher, whoever is actually creating this game and owns the rights to it are actually making at the end of the day. So I think that's kind of a counterargument to this. So in general, I don't like the bump of the $10. I don't because I don't like spending that much, typically. However, I think if there was any game to warrant that, it's The Legend of Zelda. If they did that for Breath of the Wild as much as again, I don't like that. Totally worth it. If there was ever a game that was worth that much, if they asked that for Eldon Ring, that probably would be worth it as well. These big expansive experiences, because it's not only the time investment, and this is actually another conversation that I think we can go to. Time investment is one thing, but even just the richness of that time investment as well, because you can play a 60 hours JRPG. And do the same thing for 40 hours. Sorry, I love Jrpgs. But sometimes they drag on. There are games, there's lots of Filler and that's a modern thing too. Even with open world games, there's a lot of Filler, whereas there are certain games that for me, Breath of the Wild did not feel like Filler. It felt expansive, adventurous, all these things. So I think they're doing it for Tears of the Kingdom as much as I don't like what they're doing. If there was ever a game that warranted it, yeah, it's fair and I think it's worth it.
• 1:05:59
  Again, I just come back to it. It's all subjective, but there have been shorter games that here's the thing, I think when it comes down to the time, sort of like the proposition of time investment or time enjoyed or whatever per dollar, I think that's a really bad metric. But you hit on something that I actually like. The richness of the world is like the richness of that experience and the richness of that story. My favorite game of all time is Shadow of the Colossus when that Remaster came out for PS Four, and I can't remember what the price point was, but I got like the fancy physical edition with the artwork and everything else and I think that was probably a little bit more than the standard fare. And I don't know, I'm pretty sure it was like $60 at least. And I probably paid a little bit more than that. And again, if somebody was like, hey, I'm not going to go hog wild, I'm not going to pay like $130 for that. But I think that that game, like, I gladly pay 75, $80. And this is sort of what I come down to and again, you have to quantify it like, be savvy, be shrewd. Also, don't be afraid to throw your money behind the things that you love. I think sometimes, too, we forget that especially the money up front is an indicator of, like, those sales actually communicate to the company. Like, hey, more of this thing. One of the reasons I look at Valkyrie elysium again, which by all accounts is not supposed to be any good. I do regret spending the money that.
• 1:08:09
  I spent on it.
• 1:08:10
  However, if that communicates to square enix do more of this, and I actually get like, a good Valkyrie profile game out of that. Like, that that's money well spent, in my opinion. So it just kind of like it is a bit of a crapshoot. I think, like, you have to sort of like, what am I looking for? Tears of the kingdom. I think it's for the amount of time that people are going. I know people who are still playing Breath of the Wild have hundreds of hours into that game. I did not whatever, I forget where I ended up on that, but it's like I played through it. I did the exploits and I rift through it and beat it. I had a good time with it. And even as somebody who's a little more lukewarm, I'm like, yeah, tears of the Kingdom is obviously, like, worth $70, especially with so it's just it's just tough because I think there are more if you're sort of looking at it and saying, I think when we were younger, right? When you and I were both younger, the price per hour thing was huge. And I think that's probably why we like Jrpgs. Because you could plop down 50, $60 on a JRPG and you'd be playing it for 150 hours sometimes. So that was important at that point in time. But I think as I've sort of gotten a little older and as I've matured, I think the way that I interact and even what I'm looking for is different. And I think the other thing, too, is you look at sort of all the models that are popping up now, like the subscription based sort of gameplay stuff, the free to play with the micro transactions and all the battle passes and all that other stuff. And I look at that and those add new questions. And I'm not trying to sound like, oh, multibillion dollar company needs my dollars, but in a way, they sort of do. And I guess I'm just like, don't undervalue the entertainment that you consume just because you want to be cheap. And I'm not talking to you specifically. I'm just saying, as a general rule, it's like, hey, if you're not willing to pay, you're not willing to pay it. But then also don't grouse about the prices. You don't have to be happy about them. But it's like there is that sort of exchange where manufacturer producer whatever says, hey, this is what we want to I don't know, I just kind of look at it and it's just such a hard topic. But I think there are easy traps to fall into and like saying, like, yeah, I'm going to buy this giant bloated mess of a game like Assassin's Creed and I'm going to pay $60 for it and I'm going to play it for 250 hours or whatever. I don't know. To me, that's not worth it. To me, Assassin's Creed is like a $20 pickup. There are metrics that I think it's easy to fall into the trap of using these as comparison points. Again, for everybody it's going to be different, but for me it is this question of like, how much enjoyment do I think I'm going to extract from this?
• 1:12:18
  Yeah, kind of the final thought that I had and even kind of what had first come to mind. What was so interesting to me as I was kicking around this idea is how much I've changed. Okay, since even we've started the podcast, things like the beat down that have helped keep my acquisitions in check, constantly being reminded, having my Excel sheet of all my games, constantly being reminded that I have all these other games to play. So all that can factor in here, the fact that I'm getting older and I recognize now I have less time to play and I have so much. I'm thinking in terms of time investment, not only money investment, as not can I play this game for 120 hours, but can I beat this game in twelve? My values have changed to the point where I am much more comfortable spending more money on the experiences that I really want and really enjoy, as opposed to accumulating a ton of really cheap games, if that makes sense.
• 1:13:46
  No, absolutely. You're embracing a quality over quantity sort of mindset, which is healthy here, I think, too. The other thing is and something you hit on is sort of like looking for the game that I can actually sit down and play through. And I think sometimes the game that respects my time sort of like gives me a good story. Sort of gets me in and out in around 15 to 20 ish hours. Sometimes that's worth the price of admission for me just because I know I'm not going to be right now, listen, right now I am deep in the destiny to loop, which that game is nothing but demands time. It's like, hey, play me.
• 1:14:37
  Your son does the same thing.
• 1:14:39
  Don't do anything else. You just play me. I'm enjoying that right now. Right. You know, however, like but the shorter, you know, tightly crafted story is just as valuable to me financially, even there like and again, like, I brought up Shadow of the Colossus and the point that I was trying to make there. The Shadow of the Colossus game is not super long. I. Don't know how long the Beat has it as, but it's not long. I think you could probably I think a speed run, you can beat that game in under 4 hours if you're ripping through it.
• 1:15:26
  Yeah, I would think it's like twelve or ten to twelve. Well, I could be wrong.
• 1:15:32
  I could just google it and we could actually find out.
• 1:15:36
  Oh, this is seven for main story. Okay. Yeah, that's shorter than I thought. For some reason it felt longer.
• 1:15:43
  Yeah, it's not a super heavy game, but I think it's dense and so yeah, like I said and again, it's that quality of experience and saying do I have time for this? And frankly I'm at a point in my life where I actually appreciate this sort of like the tighter design that sort of respects my time and lets me get in and out. I want to play the Stranding soon. I want to play like gospelma. But these are bulky games, they're big and they require substantial amounts of my time. That destiny. Two has already made a claim to give you an example too, like something that seems like maybe it's a little like low tech kind of deal, but like the chain decko's game, what I played so far, like I think I paid like 30 $40 for it or whatever. Like, dude, what I played so far, man, like that love letter to the Pixar Jrpgs. Like, man, yeah, I'd fling $60 at something like that. It's also the most critical piece of information or advice and I started out with this and I probably could have just ended with this. It's just think about its value to you don't sort of knee jerk reaction react to this stuff, but rather if you don't think a game is worth 60 $70, that's fine, but have the price point, I think too. The other thing is you don't need to play everything. There's tons of crap coming out. Yeah, you don't need to play at all.
• 1:17:46
  Yeah. And I think that's the thing that I've come to accept as I've gotten older too is there are games that I really want to play. The standouts again, like we mentioned, Elden Ring Xenoblade three triangle strategy was on there, but now that Octopath Two is coming out, that one's falling by the wayside. But these games, I mean, friggin chain echoes like you're talking about are these games that I really want to play. But I also recognize the place that games have in my life, the time that I'm able to spend with games and my massive backlog of games that I really want to get to that I already own, that I don't want to continue accumulating. So it kind of coalesces in all these things. But in terms of it's funny through this whole conversation we started off talking about this idea of a fun to money ratio. I think time also has to be thrown in there in that ratio somewhere. And then this big thing that we've kind of well, I was going to say that we danced around, but we haven't. We addressed it as well. Is this idea of quality. Because there are to be fair, there are things that long games can do that short games cannot. Character building in particular. That's one of the things that I love about Big Jrpgs. Is that they can really dig in. They cement these characters in your mind through their different interactions if the game.
• 1:19:12
  Is done well and you're sort of prolonged exposure to them as well.
• 1:19:17
  Right, exactly. So they become more memorable. I think of something like Final Fantasy Six where it has this huge cast, but most of the cast, a good 75% of the cast. I think the characterization has done really well because you get this time with all these different characters and you see even the little things that they do that speak so much to who those characters are. So things like that, that you can't have in a four hour experience. However, the flip side of that is a two hour experience like Edith Finch is dense. There's so much detail put into this two hour experience that makes you want to go back to it, but that also tells a really good story in 2 hours. So yes, there's a lot of things to consider. The idea of really it's value and how much you want to pay. It really determines on what you are valuing at the moment. And as I've gotten older, I'm leaning more towards this idea and actually in a bunch of different areas of my life. But video games happen to be one of those area is that I am going for quality over quantity, like you mentioned, really going for the things and being more intentional. And if I'm intentional, then being willing to spend more on less games, which pretty much ends up equaling out about the same amount of money that I'm spending. Instead of buying $610 games that are middling with maybe one good game spending that 60 or 70 in this case on a single great game. That's where I'm falling and that's where I see which again, is alien to me. Typically this is not the way, but that's how I got my backlog, was buying really cheap games that I may or may not ever get around to. Some games I do really want to play. But now as I'm getting older to continue, I really need a good reason to put it in the backlog if I want to pick up a new game. And so help me, Octopus Two and Tears of the Kingdom seem like they have some really good reasons. So we'll see.
• 1:21:40
  And I think that's like sort of the through line here. The common thread is that think about it. Think through it. Not just think about it, but think through it and ask the questions. Everybody's fun to money. Sort of like ratio or formula is going to be different. But hopefully throughout this conversation, maybe there's been some stuff in here that like, hey. Sort of gets you to ask some questions. Because at the end of the day, I think asking why we play and how we play is important. And especially in an economy where your dollars are not stretching as far, I think there's wisdom in trying to be.
• 1:22:42
  A little investing in the best things.
• 1:22:44
  Yeah, investing in the best things that's catchy. It's kind of like rolls off the tongue. It's like a little invest in the best, invest in the best. And again, like I said, that's more of a subjective sort of value measurement or value assessment.
• 1:23:05
  I'm curious to hear we've thrown out some of our ideas on how we determine the value of these games. But I'd be curious to hear what are your criteria for picking up new games and have you been intentional about it or have you just been riding the Hype train? Because I understand, I get it. Again, I have a huge backlog. Those are primarily picked up on sales, but still part of that has to do with the hype. But I would love to hear you listeners let me know how you determine that value. There's tons of ways you can get a hold of us. Our email address is a backlogbreakdown@gmail.com. Our Twitter handle is at Bbdowncast. We have an instagram comthebacklogbreakdown. Facebook group is the hashtag Backlog Book Club discord link where we like hanging out all the time. Link for that is in the show notes here. And then if you want to get personal, I generally go by Broccolo anywhere on the Internet and Nate goes by Nate underscore McKeever.
• 1:24:10
  Before we really sort of like Land is playing, we have a few forms that need to be observed on our way. Sort of out the door here. Any shoutouts?
• 1:24:22
  Yes, we do have some shout outs because our community I feel like we've got a nice I mean, we've always had a good community of people who are willing to talk, but man, it's gotten to the point where it's hard for me to keep up.
• 1:24:39
  Frustrating little overwhelming, which is not a bad problem to have.
• 1:24:43
  Right? Exactly. So one of the standouts for me, and this is just because of the special kind of nerd that I am a music nerd as well is that I was hanging out in the that's my Jam channel on discord. With a couple of other guys, particularly Portugal and Spike, because we were talking about some of my favorite bands, Coheed and Cambria. And we were talking about some of their favorite bands. Turns out we all like this this Praggy kind of rock, you know, progressive inspired music. And so that was so much fun to kick those around and then hear Spikes reactions as he's listening to some of these albums and then recommending other bands like Carnival and stuff like that. So that was really cool because generally we use that channel for more, like, video game music, but to kind of go down that route of, admittedly, like, more niche music, not just not just pop, it was cool. It was a lot of fun. So thank you guys for the good times and for the recommendations as well. I loved it.
• 1:25:50
  Yeah. For me, there was a conversation and I can't remember what channel or what thread it happened in, but there was a conversation about social media, and the primary sort of participants were KJVO, Spike and Mccoslo. And I waited into that for a little bit because that's kind of my wheelhouse. And we're just talking about value, and I think there were some interesting points brought up.
• 1:26:22
  Yeah.
• 1:26:27
  It was a fun little sort of conversation and I appreciated it. So moving right along here, we talk about personal challenges every once in a while. Full disclosure, having the COVID and everything else, zero. Journaling was done. Zero. Absolutely zero.
• 1:26:52
  Absolutely zero.
• 1:26:53
  None. Going forward, my next challenge is I'm serious. I just want to start freaking journaling again, man. So I want to get back on that train, but how about you, man?
• 1:27:09
  Yeah, see, I don't have the excuse of COVID Sure, I can make excuses. Oh, my wife was sick and so I had more stuff to do around the house. I could make excuses, but I did not do nearly as well as I want to. The problem is actually carving out specific time. If I really want this, if I really want to challenge myself to something that I need to take steps to do it and not just do it when I have free time, because then it never gets done, actually make it a priority in my life. And so I did hit a little bit of practicing the memorization. And again, these are verses that I'm really familiar with anyway, so I know it would be really simple if I just consistently put in a little bit of time throughout the week. So that said, I vaguely have the verses memorized, but I don't have it word for word and specifically in the order with the correct number, like everything down pat. I don't have it, like, 50% of the way there, I would say, which is not where I wanted to be because it's such a simple challenge. If I would just be consistent, then I could do it. Since you are continuing with that journal, I'm going to continue with this as well. Sorry that I failed you. Once again, if we're being honest, it.
• 1:28:51
  Won'T be the last time.
• 1:28:57
  You failed it. Right, exactly. I like that. Cool. Then we will continue on. But before we sign off for the evening, we do have one final question, and that is, what is your question? What is your question? Because you guys have questions for us, those hard hitting questions where you really peer into our soul, and we dive deep into the things that you guys want to know, the best questions that we get from our listeners. And this week, it comes from none other than the Porch down under. The upside down porch himself. I don't know. That was a little weird. Sorry about that, Nick. But Porcho asks us this is the favorite question over the past week, and it would it would have been much better if I actually had the question pulled up. Dang it.
• 1:29:58
  I got it.
• 1:29:59
  Okay.
• 1:30:01
  He posts this. He's like, okay, got a hypothetical. It's a tough one. First choice after every ten words, you make a very audible quacking sound. There's no way around it. Your brain just lets it right out of your mouth. Second choice if you find anything even slightly amusing, you outrageously laugh for 10 seconds. Like Titus in the famous scene from Final Fancy X. You're really messing with my vibe here, dude. And he included a reference here that I feel like might be useful.
• 1:30:40
  Also, it's TDis. Even understanding the context, it still makes me cringe.
• 1:31:02
  I'm assuming that the quacking has set in for you.
• 1:31:07
  It absolutely hasn't to be the quacking for me, because that weren't just too insufferable for me to continue laughing like that. At least if there's that weren't quacking, I could explain the quacking as some sort of a tick or something like that, but the laughing is just absolutely insufferable.
• 1:31:43
  You're the worst. I'm actually like, listen, there are lots of really stupid laughs out there, so why not just add one more to the mix without sounding like a complete degenerate and quacking?
• 1:31:59
  Anytime you find anything mildly amusing, I.
• 1:32:05
  Have a pretty now my laugh has sort of, like, really tuned down, but when I was younger, I had a really wild laugh.
• 1:32:15
  Nice.
• 1:32:16
  So, yeah, I'm like, just like, that weird. Like, if that was my laugh, where I just like, okay, I knew a guy who had, like, the.
• 1:32:38
  Goofy laugh.
• 1:32:39
  Yeah, kind of like the goofy.
• 1:32:45
  And.
• 1:32:45
  He was a great dude. And one time there are a bunch of us kind of picking on his laugh, and he called us not a very nice name and then laughed.
• 1:32:57
  Classic.
• 1:32:59
  Which made it so much better. But yeah, man, I'm going to go with a laugh, because if you're quacking, who knows? Maybe some ducks are not very nice to begin with, and so if you're ever around ducks, they might take it as a challenge. That's true. Then you got to deal with some angry ducks. I'm not west the Duck Whisperer.
• 1:33:30
  You make a compelling case, but still, I don't think I would have that very many friends. No one would want to be around me. If anytime I found anything mildly amusing, I already have trouble laughing at inappropriate times. Okay, if that was my laugh and it was that loud and obnoxious, I'm sorry, no one. And if that was the case for you too, I don't know how much longer this podcast would last, because, dude.
• 1:33:57
  Honestly, if only every 10 seconds, we would not be podcasting. Bro. I love you, man, but, like, not man, but no.
• 1:34:08
  What if I edited out and post every single question?
• 1:34:13
  That's fine, but we still have to get through the conversation.
• 1:34:16
  That's true.
• 1:34:17
  Speaking of getting through the conversation, I think it's time to land the plane, man.
• 1:34:23
  Good point.
• 1:34:24
  I'm really I'm starting to fight it, and I got to be up soon. Not like but I got to get to bed. It has been a night. And Josh, let's make, like TDis and.
• 1:34:41
  Vanish out of here.
• 1:34:43
  Fight sin and then vanish.
• 1:34:45
  Name again.
• 1:34:48
  All right, man. That being said, we have done the thing we set out to do. Whether it was done well or not is up to the listener. That it's. Another thing that they can have a subjective take on, practicing having cultivating subjective takes. But we've done our thing, and until next time, what should they do?
• 1:35:12
  Nice. Keep beating down your backlogs, and we'll keep breaking down the benefits.