Voxels

Hi, I'm Sadiq.
[00:02:08] Torn: And I'm Torn. I'm Torn, all right. So, it's been it's been a hot minute since we've been on this shit. Um and you know, it's not this episode, but soon, soon it's about to be the 10 years anniversary of of another podcast that we that we started a decade ago, Shades of Brown and we're going to be doing an an extravaganza of depression for it.
[00:21:40] Sadiq: Okay, that's that's one way to describe it.
[00:23:71] Torn: I I I I mean, what's a tech podcast in 2025? I mean, do you want to be an AI maximalist for for 20 minutes? We can I can do that.
[00:30:841] Sadiq: Oh no. I mean, I I I could not even try to do that. Like I feel like if I try to do that, my brain would like yeah, explode. So I think uh we should just
[00:41:741] Torn: be sad.
[00:42:361] Sadiq: Depression yeah, depression is the better option versus an maximalism.
[00:46:11] Torn: But here's the thing, all right? So, I look going through old episodes, right? I got all the local files. Um we we did a CMS change and one of these weekends, I'm going to go through and fix those old show notes because it the the WordPress to transistor migration did not keep the show notes in a nicely formatted uh way. Um so I we're going to I'm going to take the time to go ahead and fix that. But but here's the here's the thing. Why who who told me and you in 2013, 2015, 2016, right? that using the word herp derp was acceptable. I just threw up a little bit saying that out loud. Who who told us that was acceptable?
[01:23:611] Sadiq: I I I don't I don't I don't know who told us it was acceptable. It might have been just something we picked up from, I don't know, IRC or the various online forums that we were hanging around in as as teenagers. Uh it sounds like one of those things that we would have picked up online somewhere. Uh so yeah, let's leave that one in the uh distant past. um because that doesn't need to come back. Uh so,
[01:51:241] Torn: Yeah, yeah, you know sometimes people are like, let kids make mistakes online. I used to be like, what do you mean? Kids don't make me, oh, yeah, no, I get it now. I exactly what they're talking about now. Um, so that is our lasting legacy.
[02:05:41] Sadiq: Speaking of mistakes. Just like Jeff. Speaking of mistakes. Uh I look, uh it was summer game fest uh now it was like two I don't know, like a week and a half ago or whatever. Uh and I did not watch the main event because I I cannot stand uh watching Jeff Key talk. Uh so I I refused to watch that particular uh should show and it turns out it was more of a shit show than usual, which uh uh which is impressive. And so we're talking about one specific incident. There was uh a developer, the developer, I he's is he like the director of the game or the like the owner of the company or whatever. Uh I forget what his job title is, but whoever he is, like the head honcho of of the studio that's making uh first-person shooter called Splitgate 2. uh, is came up on stage uh on the summer games fest main event uh with Jeff Key. and he was wearing a hat uh that said uh you know, black hat, uh black baseball uh cap, uh make FPS great again. And uh turns out that is uh wrong fashion choice of all of all the things you could wear. Uh I think that one is probably uh banned. Um I I don't even know what to state of this. this is just like this is just uh and of of course, like the person like the the developer did like he didn't want to apologize for it. Like he he wasn't going to apologize. Uh so, you know, there's that. So what are your what are your thoughts on I mean, I'm not going to play Splitgate 2. I wasn't planning on playing Splitgate 2 anyway, but even if I was going to if I had plans to like try it out, well, uh I don't I don't really want to be doing that when the head of the company is like this. Uh so,
[04:12:658] Torn: So, I I have two thoughts. I'm going to start with a funny one and then we'll go on to the um to a more serious conversation. This man's Spotify wrapped, Drake's the number one artist.
[04:23:718] Sadiq: Okay.
[04:25:708] Torn: Yeah, yeah.
[04:27:148] Sadiq: However, like like FD Signifier said, people who in general like really ride for Drake, right? Not like you enjoy a few songs, but like really ride for Drake are losers. This guy is a loser. Um now, to maybe engage in this discourse even if I don't want to. Is the FPS genre cooked as as hopefully in the same way as saying herp derp was really cringe in 10 years from now, calling things cooked will also be really cringe in a decade from now.
[04:58:348] Sadiq: Cringed. I I mean, I don't, no, the FPS genre is kind of I feel like in a kind of stagnant era. I feel like it's it's it's like you have big games, like you still have Call of Duty, right? Call of Duty is still massive, right? Um you still have stuff like war zone, right? Uh you have the smaller games, you have the Battle Royale games, you have uh Apex Legends, right? You have uh Overwatch, Overwatch 2 and like it feels like we have some single player and well, we're going to talk about the only notable FPS single player game. Uh later. Uh that's dude.
[05:44:318] Torn: I'm going to interrupt you for a second to say that you just described many games that are quote-unquote first person with wildly different play styles, right? In order to to to to say a genre is cooked. I would actually say the Souls-like genre is stagnant because they all play the fucking same, right? Mortal Shell, whatever Souls-like game, right? They're basically all similar-ish. You have some that are a mix, right? Um it's not Slay the Spire, but I know there's like one that's like a card game style Souls style game that mixes together, which is really cool. But for the most part, in in the FPS genre, you have games that are sure, they're shooting, right? First-person shooting, but the mechanics are different. Overwatch does not play like Doom. Doom does not play like Call of Duty. Call of Duty does not play like Halo. And even then you have all the indie boomer shooters that have been coming out recently, right? That take that old style shooting game.
[06:32:168] Sadiq: I think there's like, uh, it feels like, okay, I'll I'll say like a certain kind of first person shooter is kind of like not really
[06:41:968] Torn: Multiplayer shooters are are stagnant. Like specifically multiplayer Destiny, Call of Duty style games, I would say there's not innovation in. But when you move more towards the the um indie indie games, the the single player ones, there's actually a lot going on there. And and here's the thing, all right? I feel like guys like this, they want 2008 Halo 3 to come back. I think that's what men like this are chasing. A lot of people online, right? when they talk about like, oh, don't you miss the good old days and Xbox Live, blah blah blah blah blah blah. It's like Halo 3 when you're 15 and it was acceptable to say slurs. Like I I I just feel like that's what they really want. And given um the political leaning of this man, I'm sure he'd love to say some things that he cannot say nowadays that he could back then.
[07:25:708] Sadiq: Yeah, there's like a certain, I mean, it's it's it's gotten to the point where like a lot of the people who are making these like games or whatever, now FPS games, like grew up playing Halo, right? Halo multiplayer and like Call of Duty 4 and and all that. So like there's a certain like nostalgia that's coming back into this genre. Like I mean the boomer shooter is probably like the most obvious example of like a kind of nostalgia. Uh but like in the higher budget space of first-person shooters like there's a certain nostalgia for that era of first-person shooter. Uh which I don't know, I don't know, it's like a kind of like a roasted into glasses thing. I don't like I don't think those games are that good or whatever, right? Like I'm not saying that Call of Duty 4 was bad. I'm just saying that I think people kind of like over overdo on the nostalgia of those games, right? Uh and I kind of want to like move away from that and like I kind of want to move away from hero shooters as well. Things like, you know, Marvel like uh Overwatch and and like Marvel Rivals or whatever. Like I feel like I just want like a single player campaign shooter with decent multiplayer. And like that doesn't really exist anymore, right? Like that used to be Halo and it doesn't exist anymore. Uh so that's that's kind of like that's the part of the FPS genre that's like kind of cooked. Uh because nobody's making those games anymore. Uh
[08:47:338] Torn: With Mr. Splitgate 2 actually, you're asking about what his um position was. Well, I mean, we know what his positions are, but what his actual position in the company is. He's a co-founder/CEO. So um that says a lot. You know, I'm trying not to be bitter, but I'm going to be bitter. There are some job titles that that tell you a lot about a person's personality more than you think it would. Co-founder, co-CEO, one of them. Chief innovation officer, another one. Chief creative officer, right? Right? Like that says a lot about what what you do at your job and more importantly, what you don't do at your job.
[09:21:408] Sadiq: I I feel like there's a lot of people working at the company's called uh 1047 games. Uh and I imagine there's a lot of people working at this company that are like extremely like fine they're like fine people and they're like looking at their CEO just go on stage and like take a massive L and it's like it's got to feel bad for like people who are like working at this company, working on this video game, right? Like you got to be like very demoralized by your CEO just going up on stage and being a massive jack. Like it's just like, can you imagine like being person like working at this company and you have like your CEO just like do this. Uh and instead of people talking about your video game being cool or whatever, it's like people talking about your CEO being a being a loser. So that's uh not not great. Uh so,
[10:09:12] Torn: Speaking about people being losers though, let's talk about the British.
[10:12:872] Sadiq: Okay. I'm kidding. Let me, you know, let me take a step back here. I I feel like it's been a thing to dunk on Europeans forever. I want to be extremely clear. All right. To the fine people of Europe, um Britain, I'm still including you as a part of the Europe general related place because only like 48% of you voted to exit Brexit because your politics are as fucked as ours over here in the states. Um what I'm talking about when I dunk on the British, I'm specifically dunking on the monarchy. And I will also dunk on the American monarchy at any time of day. Um and these are these two are actually connected for once because there's an an awesome game which I'm absolutely going to be checking out as soon as it drops, called reloaded. It's a game about reclaiming African artifacts from Western museums. Um and and if anyone's watching this during summer's Game Fest, you probably summer game fest, I guess. You likely were wondering, that's a some random white guy delivering the announcement. And basically the story here is that the US government would not issue them a visa. Um I'm not going to go too political on this because we can really have a whole discussion on on South African white genocide. I can't even say that shit seriously. But basically, um I think this is actually like a microcosm of Summer's Game Fest, right? Because you can't really have a discussion about summer game fest if you're talking about the um protest in LA right now, right? Like they just it would be ignorant of us to be like, oh, let's talk about cool video games and not, you know, recognize what's going on outside. Um and I think this is like a an intersection of that where a this development team obviously of color, um different backgrounds, right? different ethnicities who are coming together to make this game. And
[11:48:472] Sadiq: Yeah, so let's mention the name of the studio. They're a studio called Nyama Cop, uh based out of South Africa. Uh with with people from like people from various African countries, like Lesotho, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania. So it's like a very like very African uh team and making a very African video game, right? Like they're making a game about reclaiming stolen artifacts. so.
[12:16:342] Torn: Yeah, and the gameplay itself looks awesome. It looks like remember that old mobile game Canabolt?
[12:20:832] Sadiq: I don't, but I can I can sort of like
[12:23:442] Torn: Pull up a pull up a screenshot of it. You probably have seen you probably played it. It's like that it's like um side scrolling, right? But like speed and jumping is like the focus of the game. Like a lot of this gameplay seems like you're running really fast, going through obstacles, right? um platforming, all of that. It it looks awesome actually. It really does look cool. I love the visual design of it. And as as I've said before, I'm more than here for for rating a British museum. Um
[12:49:582] Sadiq: Yeah. Yeah, I I I I just think yeah, this game like caught, I think a lot of people saw this game just like it was kind of like a it's it stood out because of its premise, right? Like it was like explicitly making a point about like uh you know, reclaiming artifact African artifacts. Uh and like it was it was it was very clear like the developers in the video, uh and they were explicitly talking about this, like so it was like the politics of this game is like very upfront, like it's not trying to hide it. Uh so, yeah, that's cool. I'd like to see that. Uh I put it on my wish list, so I don't forget when it comes out. Uh I'll be picking I'll be checking it out. Uh we want to talk about I feel like obligatory uh fuck ice here. just want to just feel like we need to say that too.
[13:31:882] Sadiq: Yeah, fuck ice. Fuck ice forever. Uh yeah, no. uh uh abolish ice. Uh so there's there's there's our I mean we could go into that but there's like so much there. like I feel like I'm not qualified uh to go into it uh because
[13:47:332] Torn: I mean, we don't have to go into it, but I feel like it's actually you know what? I actually I genuinely believe that this is one of the few things that we don't need to have a new once discussion on because um militarizing a uh militarizing customs is is fascist. Like I think you could just say that with zero consequence because that's a that's a true fact.
[14:07:462] Sadiq: Yeah, anytime a a government deploys uh armed forces to subjugate uh protests that's uh that's a pretty telltale sign of uh fascism. So, yeah, uh
[14:20:252] Torn: But um speaking about quasi-fascist organizations, fandom.
[14:23:802] Sadiq: I don't know about that. I I don't I don't I don't know about that segue. Uh let's try that again.
[14:29:922] Torn: Speaking about quasi-fascist organizations, Valnet.
[14:33:572] Sadiq: Uh, probably. Uh I mean I don't know about that.
[14:36:582] Torn: It's a little more acceptable.
[14:37:772] Sadiq: Maybe, maybe. And like I don't know I don't really know much about Fandom as a company, uh really, like I know they like
[14:45:152] Torn: Also, I feel like because uh Valnet is litigious, so I feel like we have to say um allegedly, of course, this is all a work of fiction unless stated otherwise.
[14:52:432] Sadiq: So, we have we have like a couple of games media news stuff that uh games media stuff like events that happened since uh we last did an episode of voxels. Uh two things. First one is Giant Bomb goes independent. So Giant Bomb was owned by uh I mean, it was like it went through multiple owners. Like it was like I think it was originally independent and it got bought by CBS and then CBS sold it to uh Fandom, right? And then now the two of the two of the founders uh bought the bought the company back from fandom. So now it is back to being independent, uh which is cool. That is uh that is the good news. Uh good news for
[15:38:202] Torn: Also, I feel like I needed we should just point out who Fandom is because some people might not know who Fandom is, especially if you're on Fedy. Um Fandom, as I like to call it, the best way to test an ad blocker is a wiki service that also owns gaming media like GameSpot and other media outlets. And um Fandom has like you know sometimes you're like, I do this all the time. I I watch a new anime, right? And I'll be like, I want to, you know, I'm okay with some spoilers. So I'll search like a wiki for it and you always get a fandom, right? And the fandom is nothing but ads and like two pages of no actual useful information because no one's bothered to fill it out.
[16:11:472] Sadiq: Yeah, and and the thing is, uh unfortunately, I mean, there are some good fandom wikis and and and it's unfortunate because for example, this is sort of relevant to me specifically is memory Alpha, which is like the biggest Star Trek fan wiki is on Fandom. Like it's it's and Star and and memory Alpha is like really fucking good. Like it's really well maintained and like if you want to know anything about Star Trek, like you'd go to memory Alpha. Uh and it is on fandom. Like so every time I have to like look up something Star Trek related, like I'm on on on on a fandom site because because they have sort of so there's they're sort of like monopolized like the online fan wiki space basically. like that's that's the thing that and and obviously they serve ads on and that's how they make money, right? Like it's like page views and ads thing. So, yeah, it's it's and fandom is not a like company that anybody likes, I think. Um because they just kind of like like like they just kind of like sitting there eating this uh like like landlords over this wiki space. Uh so yeah, uh it's good that Giant Bomb is its own thing because I I think uh it's weird for Fandom to have acquired Giant Bomb because it doesn't really make sense. Right? Like I don't like I don't like I don't see how like I think that's probably why they like let it go because I think like Fandom as a company and Giant Bomb as like a like an entity and a brand or whatever, like doesn't really isn't really compatible, like it doesn't really slot in to what what Fandom's doing, like what Fandom does and how Fandom makes money, right? Like it doesn't really like I I don't see why Fandom even bought it in the first place. Uh but uh maybe it was just cheap. Maybe CBS wanted to get rid of it as well. so.
[18:02:132] Torn: centralization of media properties is is the end game, I feel like, right? Because in the past it was you you own more media properties, you can just have more websites to put ads on, right? Like you you buy Giant Bomb because with Giant Bomb pulls page views, right? And they throw a lot of ads on it or they have high YouTube numbers. So it's a media property, more advertising, right? So when you do brand deals with like um Xfinity or Shake raving or shake shaving, whatever the shit Hydro bought from like 10 years ago was and and and Game Awards after a game game one of them. Yeah, like they have bigger um wider audiences, right? that they can pitch the brands. So that's really why you buy it. Nowadays though, you also buy a lot of this because when Open AI comes through and you want us to make a deal with them, you can get more money because you own more properties that can be fed into random AI LL models.
[18:53:232] Sadiq: That's yeah, like it's like a it's like a volume thing, right? Like you're just you're just putting more volume of content into uh like the ads machine into the LLM thing. like it's like you're just hope you're just hoping that and the thing is, by the way, ad revenue has dropped off a cliff. I don't know if you know, I mean, you probably heard about this, but like ad revenue is down like for everybody. like every site that is like funded by ads, uh like anybody you ask anybody who runs a site that ads is like ad revenue is down. So the only way to make up for that is to just have more sites and more ads, right? So uh it is it is kind of a bad time to be in like the online publishing industry because it's uh it's looking uh kind of bleak. Uh so speaking of things that are like, you know, really bleak, uh Giant Bomb going independent was good was was one of the good news things. Uh but Polygon being um sold to Valnet, which is like this massive media corp that owns like Game Rant and a whole bunch of other sites. And it's doing the whole thing that, you know, we were talking about is like it's just buys a bunch of sites, right? And it's
[20:13:932] Torn: and lays off the staff. Like Polygon has four people, I think left working at it.
[20:18:212] Sadiq: Yeah, a lot of good uh reporters and like journalists and like, you know, people doing really, really good work, you know, people like Nicole Carpenter who got laid off, right? Um and Nicole Carpenter is like doing her own thing now. Uh like it's like they just buy sites and use the brand to drive traffic, right? Like that's the goal of Valnet is to just drive traffic to sites filled with filled with ads and that's how they make money. Um and it's not and then the thing is like they run these sites really poorly. They have a history of treating uh their staff uh really poorly, you know, all kinds of all kinds of stuff coming out of uh Valnet that's it's just Valnet is just like the end goal of end goal of these like big media corpse like to just have like content farms essentially. Like it's a content farm business, right? Like that's the business if you're if you're looking for like a name for it, it's like content farm. Like these are just content farms. Um and like to a certain extent, everybody plays the content farm game. It's like when Polygon was on like Vox media, like they were doing articles that like were like kind of like those listicles or whatever that like everybody does those, right? Like where you're like, this is just for traffic, right? You know, like where to watch X TV show and what time or whatever like, you know those kind of sort of like SEO bait uh articles. So like everybody does that, but like
[21:43:402] Torn: Yeah, they're like the two kind of articles. Like I think WordPress lets you do this now, right? You can publish content but not include it in the main news feed on a on a web page, right? You literally just publish it just for it to be picked up by Google.
[21:54:682] Sadiq: Yep. Yeah, it just it it just drives search traffic because that's how you get people on your site and you get traffic and you get ad revenue. So that's that's the a lot of it is is quote quote SEO driven. Uh so that's like I I just like I feel like I was never like a big Polygon reader. Uh honestly, I don't read much games media anymore. Uh I I read like reviews on rock paper shotgun and that's it. Like but I I I like it's sad to see like another like uh company or another good uh decent like games outlet be kind of like just taken apart for scraps. like it's just it just it's just a sign of the times where, you know, the money is like gone uh and it's like it's increasingly like these companies are like squeezing harder uh on the existing people like they're paying less, like they they're not going to give you full-time jobs, it's going to be contractors. Like it's it's just bad. Uh oh, we have a link about what is that?
[22:58:242] Torn: Yeah, I just put this in the I just put this in the show notes. um which you can always find at Vax.fm. So, basically, um I use polygon a lot for their guides actually. Do you know how I beat Breath of the Wild? It was those fucking shrine guides.
[23:12:442] Sadiq: Yeah, I you know it's guide. you know I actually forgot about this because I haven't played a game that I I used a guide in a while, but uh whenever I look up guides for stuff, like the polygon links are usually the best ones. Like, you know, I like using the polygon ones and it's not the polygon or IGN. Um right? IGN's guides content is also pretty good. Uh so, yeah, guides is big traffic uh for these sites as well. That's another
[23:38:702] Torn: Right. So I used a lot of of the guides from Polygon. And the reason I wanted to put that in there is because yes, there's a lot of good games writing, right? There there was a lot of good stuff and they also I mean every website does it, the version other websites like they'll do it too, right? They'll play the SEO game. Um but Polygon did have a lot of great guides and the a few of the guides writers started a new guy a new site called Big Friendly Guide or BK BFG, which I love as as an It's a great Yeah, great great. It's a great play on words there. But the idea though that they're trying to push is can you like can paid guides be a thing? Which I I don't know because let's let's let's ask each other the honest question. Would me or you pay for a video game guide? I'm unsure. To be honest of all the like media subscriptions I have, I don't know if I would.
[24:24:192] Sadiq: No, no, I I I I don't I at this is the thing, right? Like and the problem is is not just like, well, will we pay for it? It's just that the market for guides has been for so long is that you you search for a guide and it's like you go on IGN and you see it for free. Like that's the expectation. Nobody is want like the market is not like, oh, I'm going to pay like I don't know, like a few dollars a month for a service that gives me guides to the games I'm playing. Like that's not a thing that I think has existed ever or no, that's not true. guides is a thing that you buy, used to be a thing, but it's it hasn't been a thing for
[25:06:572] Torn: And here's the bigger issue too, right about like the guides businesses. Um like Google has AI mode, right? I just put in, how do I get the Master Sword in Tears of the Kingdom? Spoilers for Tears of the Kingdom, I guess. I will put a chapter marker here for spoilers. But it has the correct answer. and it's citing all the guide sites, right? So I guess I could link through to the guide site, but why do I need to do that? Um if it just tells me exactly how how to get the the guides. So that that like how is BFG one, I mean it could be paywalled, but then no one's going to read it unless people who know it exists. But two, it's just going to be scraped by an AI bot. So I don't I I don't I don't understand how you can have a look I I really wish they could make this work, but given the media life like how media is in 2025, I'm unsure.
[25:58:692] Sadiq: Yeah, yeah. I mean I hope yeah, the thing is a good like a good good uh like guide site is worth its weight, but it's like also at the same time like it's hard to make that like a thing that you can support like people doing the work like because writing guides is very hard work. Like it's it's not easy work. like it's it's a lot of growing work, you're playing games in a way where you have to like, you know, make sure you understand the games in a way that you'd be able to write the guide for it. Uh and it's like it's a different it's a different kind of work and it's hard work. Uh and it's kind of like thankless. Uh so it's like I I don't know man. It's it's it's bleak. it doesn't seem but I hope for the best for these for these like sites that are kind of like try to like big friendly guide trying to do like a nicer version of a guide site. like maybe maybe it's sustainable. I don't I don't I don't know. Uh it's it's it's hard to say.
[26:58:192] Torn: It's because too, I'm looking at their Twitch right now. or not their Twitch, sorry, their Patreon. and it's kind of the same thing Remap does, where it's like we make a podcast, we do some written articles, but then we also supplement it with a lot of streaming. and I I I I I feel like that's going to crash eventually. Like the whole I do um a podcast sometimes, I do a newsletter and I stream all the time and you can support that. How how many how many people can be supported from that in a in a sustainable way?
[27:25:522] Sadiq: Yeah, that's a yeah, that's that's a good question. It's like how many people have like and the thing is and it's it's not just like the ads revenue market is is down or like it's everything is down. Like the economy is in like people don't have money, people don't have jobs, people don't have income. Uh so like how much money is there to support these like independent publications, like, you know, Giant Bomb is going independent like Giant Bomb already and the thing is, Giant Bomb is a name that people already know this. They already have an existing name recognition and people are already supporters. like people have already been supporting.
[28:02:492] Torn: like Giant Bomb is so successful they don't have an about page on their website. I was unfamiliar with Giant Bomb and I I watched some of their stuff so I get I I got it eventually. It's personality-driven games content, but nothing on their website tells you what their mission is or what they are. And maybe it sounds cheesy, but I'm like, oh, I want to check out this Giant Bomb thing. I I'm so I was so lost when I was watch when I was checking out their their website. But and all serio the thing they were also hitting a wall against is what kind of content can you get if you don't have a big organization backing it, right? Because the idea of having a big news house like Polygon, the verge whatever is you have legal coverage to do investigative pieces. Remap is never going to do investigative pieces because they don't have the funds to have a legal fund in case someone comes at them. Ditto for a lot of these other smaller personality driven ones that are that are coming out. So that's the bigger issue where it's like Arca, right? I think me and you both pay for Arca. And the reason we pay for it is that they do a lot of in-depth investigative work that doesn't you can't sell ads against it, right? There's no personality driven, maybe maybe for a bathwall article, but you know, for like some of the other stuff, right? Like it's not something that you can like make personality driven and not be the thing that people pay for because that's not what you're looking for. I'm looking for like an investigation on why like this research paper about a new AI thing is bullshit, right? Like I don't what what what are you going to sell ads against that or like you can't fund that with Twitch streaming.
[29:25:992] Sadiq: It's yeah, like there's like it feels like people are trying to like it's like the people who are already successful here like Giant Bomb, like they they can kind of leverage that uh success that they already had and build that independent thing gone. Like same thing with like remap, you know, like remap coming from Waypoint and like Waypoint was started by people who were like already known in the industry and whatnot. Like it's like, how do you like people who are just people who are not big personalities? Like how like how many people know who the guides writers are, right? Like people don't people don't you don't get famous because writing video game guides, right? Like you're not like like it's not a personality like you you're it's not a personality driven content style, right? Like it's like it's like it's like very functional. Like you like how do you sell that? Like if you're trying to sell on personality, like how do you how do you do that, right? Like and that's the thing like trying to do streams, podcasts, people will listen to podcasts and streams because they they like somebody on the podcast or on the stream or whatever. like and that's like so the guide side like I don't, like no offense to anybody doing this because it's like I get it, like it's you got to you got to do like Twitch streams, podcasts, just like just to get your name out there, but like it's it's it's like slim pickings for audience capture, right? Like how do you get that audience? Like that initial audience to build on? Um yeah, and uh how many people are going to pay, you know? How many people are going to pay like I don't know, like five $5 a month, right? Like just just to draw out a number like how many people are going to be willing to pay $5 a month? but how many times are they going to how many sites are they willing to pay $5 a month for, right? Like it would increasingly people having less money to spend on stuff like this, right? So it's like
[31:11:42] Torn: especially too, honestly where here's this is something I've been noticing a lot recently. Um a lot of perks, right, for let's say remap is, you get the ad free podcast, you get all of that. But what a lot of these podcast are having to do now to get more people to to get involved in their podcasts, especially because how fragmented like on Blue Sky and all that stuff is nowadays is are having to upload clips to YouTube. And I genuinely think we now have like a lot of people who just interface with like remap or other outlets by clips of shows on YouTube and nothing else, right? Like I feel like that's something I've kind of been seeing some people talk about where it's the uh linking off platform, right? Jumping off platform in these centralized services is a lot harder than than it used to be back when like Twitter was the thing people use because Twitter was mostly like text and links, right? So now that you have like Tok being an uh a marketing avenue, uh whatever dumb stuff me is doing right, YouTube, all of that, it those platforms make it a lot harder for someone to jump off platform and go to a Patreon feed or or a dedicated RSS app or whatever, right? And so you you get even more lock in and you get stuck to whatever the ad rates that YouTube's paying for and and those sorts of things.
[35:15:378] Sadiq: Mhm. Yeah, like it's yeah, it's it's like you want to you want to be on those platforms as well because that's the only way your names can, you know, um like your you can you can get your like you you're just hoping like a clip or whatever goes viral and that leads people to your your like site or whatever, right? Like and that's like the game that's the game you're playing, but also at the same time people don't want to leave those sites. Like they don't want or rather the sites make it really difficult as you said to, you know, leave them. So, it's uh it's not a it's the game is not meant to be like the game is rigged. Uh it you it's against uh you know, uh sort of sustainable media companies. Uh so there's that.
[36:00:238] Torn: Make a website. That's that I think I think the way to sum this up is just please, please make a website. Domains are not expensive. Like WordPress, whatever, okay, you don't like all that, whatever, use ghost, use something, like just just make a, please make a website. Stop, stop putting, stop fucking putting the menu to your new restaurant as a photo on Facebook. That shit makes me angry. Just, just, just fucking put it on a website. I even if it's a PDF, I'll take a PDF. Just put it on the fucking website.
[36:27:378] Sadiq: Yeah, I'll just take a PDF. It's fine. It's fine. Yeah, just put it on the website, please. Um I yeah, please. Uh websites are, you know, still still cool, I promise. Um
[36:37:608] Torn: use an RSS app, use use reader feed in whatever use an RSS reader. Um I feel like we just have to keep repeating this when we talk about independent media. Um fuck Google news, um yeah, that I don't know what to say. This is turning into rant hour. Uh what else do we got? We got games we're playing actually speak about rant hours.
[36:55:548] Sadiq: So, uh there is a we're talking about first-person shooters earlier. Uh there's a new one that came out or a new single player first shooter which is like like a triple A triple uh like first shooter which is rare. Uh it's a rare event. Uh is Doom the Dark Ages. Uh and I haven't played this one yet and I'm curious how much of it have you have you finished it or like are you still like going through it? Like uh how is it?
[37:24:198] Torn: Oh, you're going to fucking laugh at me. Actually, let me pull this up. So yes, I was in the middle of Doom the Dark Ages and it went down for maintenance on GeForce now and it's been unplayable. Let me pull this up here. How long has it been unplayable? Dark Ages, Dark Ages, Dark Ages. I'm looking at GeForce now right now. Oh, it went back up today. I swear to god as of for the past week, it was down for maintenance. Because every time you'd open the game, you would get it, you get an old driver error and Nvidia said they had to take the game down to fix that error. So, I was halfway through the game. I was actually on chapter 12, 14.
[37:58:38] Sadiq: Oh, okay. So you have you're okay. So how halfway through the game is like enough to like I guess like have like uh more definitive thoughts about like how the game feels to play or whatever. So, how are you feeling about the Dark Ages? You I you played 2016 and eternal, right? Like I remember I think we remember we talked about
[38:16:308] Torn: Remember, just meme here. I I'm the one I'm the only person. no one else did this. I'm the only person to beat Doom 2016 on the Switch.
[38:23:438] Sadiq: Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Oh. I remember, yeah, yeah.
[38:28:448] Torn: And um yeah. Doom um what's it called? The Eternal, I beat that on drum roll, please, Stadia.
[38:38:118] Sadiq: Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah, that was on Stadia, right? Rest in peace. That was And once again, continuing my my trend of not playing Doom on hardware platforms you really should play them on. I am playing the Dark Ages on GeForce Now right now the 4080 tier as God intended. Um so honestly, the reason you can get away with this like all memes aside is the fact that it really, really it's the same thing with Destiny um and Bunge. Input latency is like the the top priority in in their games, which really is how every developer should be. I I don't know why people are not like hyper focused on input latency. It's like the same reason right that like scrolling on on this is like back a decade ago. Nowadays it's pretty much the same between Android and iOS, right? But like on older iPhones that didn't have great hardware, scrolling was just so much better because Apple focused so much more on input latency than Google used to. Nowadays it's about the same. It's like it's I don't I don't I don't think a lot of game developers recognize how much of an impact minimizing input latency has because a lot of their dev machines, right, are high refresh rate G-Sync monitors. So it kind of masks a lot of what you have versus playing it on, you know, like a TV with really with with like not great uh picture response rates and and that kind of stuff. But going on to Doom Dark Ages though. So Doom Dark Ages is the third entry in like the the new Doom like trilogy, right? And I appreciate that it in the past Doom games have switched up the mechanics each time. So it's not like Doom 2016 play like Doom Eternal. Doom Eternal was a lot more platformy and Doom 2016 or Doom Dark Ages, rather than like jumps and stuff being prioritized, it's it's heavy. It's a lot more this parrying. There's a shield. There it brings a kind of dance to first-person shooters that you normally only see in like Souls-like games of parries and I don't mean that a bad way because sometimes Souls like parrying makes people just run away. Um honestly, it it it gives you more options to tackle an encounter, right? So you have, you know, shotguns, machine guns, um like plasma rifles, different kinds of weapons, but because you also have a shield and a chainsaw, you can tackle a situation differently. You could go up and just throw your your sword at everyone, take out a few people and while they're stunned, lock them out, right? Or you could parry attacks and then just bash people with your chainsaw, or you could just do classic shotgun style running gun. And
[41:08:438] Sadiq: Yeah, so it's like a slower pace. Like, or not slower, maybe it's like more It is slower pace, but the the accessibility menu in this game is fantastic because there's a game speed option.
[41:19:628] Sadiq: You can lower the game from 50% to 200%. So, by default, is it slower than 20 then 2016 eternal? Yes-ish, but the game gives you the power to just bump up the speed. If if if it's too slow for you, you can bump up the speed of everything and make it go super crazy. if that's really how you want to how you want to live your life. So I respect the fact that they have that. They have a lot of great accessibility options in the game. So I've been having a lot of fun with it. I like how it is more um cinematic. I have not beaten it yet. I a lot of people are saying eternal is a better game, but there is no enemy as annoying as a Marauder in this game.
[41:54:108] Sadiq: Oh yeah, I I I was yeah, I we talked about this when we talked about eternal back years ago. Uh, Marauder is the worst enemy design. I've had to encounter in in a first-person shooter. uh and that I mean like that's one of the worst. like it's Marauder is legitimately like I feel like it really ruined eternal as a game for me. um because of it's the way that the enemy just kind of broke the flow of the game, right? Like it just kind of broke the way you normally play the game. So, anyways, like eternal was like I had some like other than the Marauder, I felt like the it was trying to do a lot like it was so much of it was just like ammo management and like switching between different enemies that have different weaknesses, right? trying to switch between a bunch of weapons. It felt a little bit overwhelmed, like it felt too much. like eternal was starting to do a lot of things. And also had that and also had to try to do first-person platforming, which never like nobody has done first-person platforming well. Like I'm I'm just going to say this like right now. I don't think there's a game that does for like like a first person shooter has done like first person platforming like well. like it never works. It never works well. Uh and Doom Eternal was a bunch of that. So, uh yeah, how
[43:15:938] Torn: I'm I'll probably try this sometime.
[43:17:808] Sadiq: I I feel like you would like the Dark Ages more. I feel like the Dark Ages is more because it really is run and gun and and you just I just can't I can't like describe in words without having you play it, how tanky you feel in a good way. So for example, let's say you actually jump from like one platform to another, right? Like you're jumping a story. When you hit the ground, you feel it in the vibration, everything shakes and it kills all enemies around you. Like that's how like weighty you are, right? where like a big jump is actually an attack because of just how tanky you are.
[43:47:338] Torn: So you feel more like Master Chief than than like like like you know, the Doom guy before in the previous games. Like you're more Yeah, if you'll you feel more like Doom guy in like Doom like the older Doom games, right? And not in a bad way, but it's just it it's chunky. It's I don't know how to describe it.
[44:04:418] Sadiq: Yeah, I I I I kind I kind understand, yeah. So like you it feels like your character has like a bit of weight to it. like it doesn't feel as floaty as like I guess like eternal did or like even Doom 2060 where you're moving around it felt kind of like you're kind of floating. like you feel like you're faster than your character your size should be. like you're moving around really fast in those games. Um yeah, so
[44:27:628] Torn: okay. I mean I I I I kind of want to check it out. I just haven't like been in the mood to play Doom, I guess, but uh at some point I want to I want to check that out. Uh speaking of oh man, this this game. Uh this is just going to make me sad again. Um we're talking about uh Assassin's Creed Shadows. And uh and I was looking forward to this one. like this is like the this game got delayed, you know, multiple times. Um and which is fine. like this it's not I like originally it was supposed to come out last year. uh but it did not. it got delayed to March of this year. Uh and I it's I was uh like cautiously optimistic that I might enjoy this because of the sort of setting of the game is like the samurai shit. I love samurai stuff. So, you know, I was like, all right, excited and it's set in set in set in Japan, uh which, you know, has been like a thing that I've wanted. I mean any a lot of Assassin's Creed fans have wanted a game uh AC game set in like feudal Japan with like ninjas or uh Samurai or whatever. So, you know, it's like a kind of a dream come true, but at the end of the day, like I got to say like this is the most by the numbers kind of like mid um it's not like there's not not interesting or good story telling or even like good character design. I think Yake is just like a really good character design. Like character design work is phenomenal. But like now is just like really boring. Like it's just like now is like straight up just just so boring as a character like her character plot arc is just just so boring. Um Yake's plot is like vastly more interesting. But like even then it's just like feels empty. Like the world doesn't feel as it's like beautiful to look at, but kind of feels at the end of the day like a another Ubisoft game which uh yeah, I mean I I'll give them some things like, you know, the combat is interesting because of the two different play styles. you can do stealth or you could be Yake, which is like you just swinging a hammer around basically. Uh I liked the two different ways of playing the game. I thought that was fun and interesting. Uh but other than that, I was just like it's kind of kind of like mid, just just kind of mid, unfortunately. I wrote a review of it if you want to like get more in depth with what my thoughts are because I did have thoughts on like kind of like the history of these games and like kind of like, you know, my interaction with these games and you know, I've been playing these games since like the first one and like all that. Uh and I and I still think if you want like a game in this style and with Samurai and whatever, just go play Ghost of Tsushima. It's like a much better game overall. Uh so that's that's my that's my take on Assassin's Creed Shadows. Uh and yours your opinion on this is even more funny to me. like like you just how many how many hours did you play of of of shadows?
[47:40:489] Torn: Oh, how do I check that? Can I
[47:42:919] Sadiq: Probably would be on like GeForce now or Ubisoft.
[47:47:339] Torn: You let me okay, assuming this Ubisoft login does not it's Ubisoft web properties, I don't I don't
[47:53:819] Sadiq: I mean I mean, did you get out of like the first tutorial did you get out of the tutorial section?
[47:59:179] Torn: I took out the first, you know, like you have the first ring of people you have to take out, right? to avenge your father's death. I took all of them out. So, I don't know how far that is in the game. I was like 10 hours, right? Did you yeah, did you get to play as Yake?
[48:12:359] Sadiq: I was right about to unlock Yake. I got to the part where you were um meeting up with Yake.
[48:16:769] Torn: Okay, that's one of the big problems with this game, right? Like you don't start like when you start the game, there's this whole tutorial section basically where the game introduces you to like one of the main characters, Nawe and like you don't get to play as Yake until like like 10 hours like 10 hours or so in. like you have to do a whole bunch of stuff without Yake before you get introduced to Yake. And like in the context of the story, it makes sense, but I just wish like they had to find a way to make it that so you could still like there's a way to play Yake before they before them and now meet because it
[48:53:149] Sadiq: But for people who play regular video games, like you can't do something 10 hours in. Like I understand story wise too why you couldn't play Yake, but I I'm giving the game a college try of like I should not have to put This is going to be so ironic. You're going to make fun of me in like when we switch to our next topic, but I should not have to put 20 hours into a game to get to the good part, you know what I mean? Yeah, this is funny. I yeah.
[49:16:479] Torn: So what basically what happened was, um I can't log into Ubisoft right now because I don't have my phone nearby to do the two factor authentication thing. Uh but so, I I got enough in. I cleared the full first assassination ring thing, whatever they're called. and I was like, this is kind of mid. Also, the PC version was buggy. Like FPS would like very wildly. Like I would get like 100 FPS in some places and then like 40 at others. Like I don't know if Ray tracing was bugged on it or something. It was really it's really weird. I think it might have been an Nvidia specific issue.
[49:46:589] Sadiq: I did not have that issue. Yeah, yeah, I did not have that issue, but were pretty stable for me uh most of the time. Um there were some places where there were definitely like I there's like some sort of frame time issues uh for sure, but like most of the time it was pretty spewed.
[50:05:409] Torn: All right, but still, so, um I was playing it and then I was like, I wonder how Valhalla runs. Valhalla right now on GeForce now 4080 tier is like a like a smooth 120 native 4K. So I just played 10 hours of a Holla again and had a great time.
[50:20:809] Sadiq: Yeah, I I I think the biggest sort of sentiment I came away from this is that Assassin's Creed as an RPG franchise which it is now, just doesn't hold up for me anymore because I've played a lot of other I've played other big AAA RPGs that are just better. like just better to play mechanically, better to play from a narrative perspective. like like I gave examples of like, you know, Bater Gate 3, but there's also like older examples like the Witcher 3 or like uh like Cyberpunk 2077, right? Like these games are doing the RPG stuff and they're doing the narrative stuff, they're doing the mechanics much much better than than like the open world RPG but there's also like the like a Dragon games for for for the like if you want like a more JRPG format, like that stuff is also really good. Like there's a lot of good RPGs if you like like video game RPGs, right? Like so this just comes away as like really mid, you know? Like it just comes away as like like not interesting, you know. Uh and like it's like it's just not enough for me anymore. like there was a time I would have enjoyed this because I would didn't I didn't play other RPGs. But now that I played other RPGs, um and I've enjoyed other RPGs and I know what I like in these games, like, you know, I'm not like Assassin's Creed just, you know, it just doesn't it just doesn't work anymore. I guess like that's the sad part of the review uh is that it's just kind of sad to like come to this point where you're like, I don't enjoy this thing anymore. Like it's it's not it's not for me anymore. Uh so there's that.
[51:56:569] Torn: I have a I have a potentially hot take, I think that I'm kind of workshopping right now. I feel like Assassin's Creed has sort of been it's been like it's it's like brain rot RPG and like hear me out. So, I feel like the way that Assassin's Creed has their stats numbers and all that stuff checked checked like set up where it's like a checklist style. It's like made by the same people who think that browsing like an Instagram or meta platform um analytics insight dashboard is a good use of your time.
[52:27:329] Sadiq: I I think I don't think that's actually a hot take. Like Ubisoft games like especially these like like their these uh RPGs like they make is like a very like it's very bland, right? Like it's not interesting, right? It's not doing cool things like in in the in the mechanics, like, you know, it's just like numbers. like it's just numbers go up.
[52:50:389] Torn: Yeah, it's RPGs for product managers.
[52:52:219] Sadiq: It's RPGs for product managers. Yeah, it's it's very like the formula has gone to a point where it's just like they have refined the formula to a certain extent, right? I don't mind the formula. Like sometimes I kind of want like, you know, the slop basically. like, you know, like you kind of want that that kind of reliable way of like a Ubisoft game where you know you can you can play the game a certain way and you can have some some fun, you know, with the combat or whatever, right? But like at a certain point you're like playing this game for like 80 hours or whatever, right? You're like, you're just like you get to the end and you're like, I don't feel satisfied. Like you know, like I don't I don't get any sense of narrative or other fulfillment, right? Like I'm just like I'm not like I'm not mastered the game really. Like I abused one weapon that's like overpowered and like I beat the whole game with it and now I'm just like kind of bored like what do I do, right? It's just like and I've not feel fulfilled by the story or the mechanics. That's just it just feels it's like, you know, we talk about like the McDonald's of video games, like, you know, this this is just like the Ubisoft games are just like the McDonald's of video games. like you you have a decent time but like it's very like, you know. Uh not not that interesting, it's kind of bland. Um so yeah.
[54:07:339] Torn: It's iconic.
[54:08:449] Sadiq: It's oh God, I forgot about. That's an old meme. Um yeah, that's an old meme. So, speaking of games that are uh I don't know how to transition out of this, but uh
[54:19:429] Torn: Iconic. Speaking about iconic. I mean, I guess it's iconic. That's true, you know, it's actually iconic.
[54:25:619] Sadiq: Uh you have been playing uh an RPG actually. You've been playing an MMO RPG. You've been playing uh Final Fantasy 14. Uh so how have you been getting along with FF 14?
[54:37:379] Torn: I have been playing the award-winning Final Fantasy 14. Did you know it had a free trial or has rather still does a free trial up until level 70. Um so one of my co-workers plays this game and got me into it. Um and so I was playing it for a while. and okay. Here's what got me, all right. And I did stop the thread on it because I feel like I was you're you're about to start having people report me for this, but there's player housing in Final Fantasy 14, right? And there's so many cock chairs. It's wild. There's so many cock chairs. So I was just like posting screenshots of cock chairs onto uh on onto Madon that I found in Final Fantasy 14. Um so this is a game actually, because it's it's an MMO. so I think everyone's familiar with MMO. You go one, two, three, four, five, six on your keyboard a lot of those times while going up down left, right, right? You move around and do one two three four five, one two three four five continuously over again. That is the gameplay style of the game. There's jobs, various classes you can learn all that stuff. Um this is like how Destiny was for us back in 2015, 2017. The thing you do while fucking around with people on Discord.
[55:42:749] Sadiq: Yeah, yeah. I mean it's it's I mean that's that's kind of that's the appeal of an MMO RPG or like an MMO, right? is that it's the social it's it's like it's the social thing. like you play play a game and like kind of fuck around. it's like a social space more than it is like a video like it's like a video game in the form of social space, right? So I yeah, it's like I get it. I mean that's kind of the reason I don't get along with MMO RPGs because I like playing RPGs solo uh which doesn't it's not as interesting to play FF 14, you know, by yourself uh because it's
[56:13:359] Torn: Right especially too because everyone in the Discord I was playing with is like, yeah, and I'm like, what's going on in the story right now? And they're like, oh don't worry, two expansions in it's when it gets good.
[56:22:929] Sadiq: Two expansions in. Yeah, yeah, that's another reason I haven't I tried to get into FF 14 but MMO RPGs are just
[56:30:459] Torn: Yeah, level 70 is apparently where it gets good, which is when the trial ends. Shocker. We're funny funny how those two things line up. Um but I
[56:39:849] Sadiq: so, do you like the story? Like is that interesting to you? Like I don't It's interesting enough.
[56:44:279] Torn: It's gotten me hooked enough. It's about crystals which I've played enough Final Fantasy games to be okay with. But here's the problem, right? The story is interesting. I people to play with, the gameplay is interesting enough and then it's 15 bucks a month. So like yes, pay for things, right? But game pass is only $12 a month and I already pay well I I buy GeForce now in six um in six month increments for like 100 bucks for the 4080 tier. So like my gameplay right now, like I'll buy some games here and there, but honestly it's GeForce now plus game pass, right? PC game pass is kind of like the way I play games just because financially on a month to month basis, it is cheaper than buying the games out right. Like if I bought Doom, I bought this right, it would be this this is cheaper.
[57:24:629] Sadiq: Yeah, you would be paying a lot more. Yeah, you'd be paying a lot more per game, right?
[57:28:659] Torn: So I don't know for everyone because people like to own their stuff right? That's just it just works for me. also I refuse to use windows. Like even though I you have a Pixel now, like I don't have any other Apple products. I'm not I will switch to Windows if I have to, but not because I want to. I would rather buy a Steam deck if I could play all the games on it versus switching to a PC. But um but but still, so it it's just like it's another sub on top of it and it's only fun when I'm playing with people. As soon as I start questing by myself, like I just throw on podcasts and I zone out and listen to podcast. and I have a game I can do that for free already and it's called Destiny 2. Like I can I could do that in Destiny if I want to, right? So like I'm just swapping out what my zone out and listen to podcast games with and this one comes with a sub and Destiny doesn't. So that's why I'm I I put it down for a little bit. I may check it back out in in you know, I may may give it another go to see if I can get hooked into it on its own. Um but but there are positives to it because that's any I feel like. I feel like what I just describe is also honestly Destiny 2. like that's Destiny for a lot of people.
[58:25:89] Sadiq: Yeah, I mean it's it's the MMO thing, right? Like it's like it's kind of more it's just it is just more fun to play with other people when you're doing social group activities, right? Like playing playing an MMO solo is not fun. Like the games are designed around social activity. So, yeah, that's kind of the one of the reasons I I don't I don't also I found like mechanically doesn't get interesting until very later, which is another
[58:48:299] Torn: But the thing is though, the the important thing is and I I really really want to give square um the flowers on this. The controller support in this game is fantastic. There's like it
[58:58:919] Sadiq: Yeah, because it's on consoles, right? So it's I hope I would hope that Yeah, it's on Xbox now and and PlayStation 5 and four.
[59:06:559] Torn: So the controller support in this is fantastic. The Mac version, I do want to give a shout out to the XIV 14 on Mac people because there is a um let me pull it up here. I'm going to put it in our show notes actually, XIV on Mac.
[59:19:129] Sadiq: like a wine, like a wine thing, like some sort of like emulation.
[59:23:429] Torn: So the native version is wine and XIV on Mac is basically like a crossover wrapper that has a lot of Apple Silicon specific stuff. Um and it actually runs really well on the um on the M4 Mac Mini. Like it was I can so and I don't blame the game for this. Um but because it's like a wine wrapper thing, you can't Windows size is tied to resolution. So my idea was to full screen, do 1080p right, lower the resolution and then just run with VRR enabled. You can't really do that because it's um it's basically just how wine works, but if I run it at 1080p window on my desktop, it's totally fine. I can get locked 60 um medium on M4 Mac Mini, which is actually pretty great. So I'm I'm really really happy with uh with the actual the Mac build of it. And also too, it it is playable on Xbox Cloud gaming. Um it's surprisingly not on GeForce now, only wow is the only MMO on GeForce now, but still, I'm it it there's more positives than not the game. It's just that I don't know if I want to pay 15 bucks a month for what Destiny 2 does for me.
[1:00:29:419] Sadiq: Yeah, it's it's $15 $15 a month is like that's like a serious subscription. Like it's like you you kind of have to commit to it. Like if you're not if you're not playing it, like it's kind of like a thing like you don't want to pay 15 bucks a month and not play the game, right? So
[1:00:44:819] Torn: So that's like our our voxels episode today. Uh it has been a while since we did our last one so it's it's it's we're kind of we're kind of rusty uh with with the whole podcasting thing, but I think we did a We're trying to get back into it.
[1:00:58:19] Sadiq: I think more content creation stuff, you know, get back into this. Um I I think I think everyone has probably felt this this year. Like I don't think it's related to me or you, but like has it just been hard finishing stuff? Like you know what I mean? like just finishing something just seems difficult and I think it's I think that's an everyone issue.
[1:01:17:419] Torn: Yeah, like I think just like the like my mental state to like it's just been difficult to like even start things or like just like finish things, you know, have motivation to start a like a creative project or write something or or do a podcast, like it's just like the motivation at an all-time low, right? Like just because, you know, various reasons, lot of things happening. Uh so yeah, it's just been kind of a difficult year so far. So but I'm hoping like you know at least in the summer that with the sun out a little bit, like, you know, my mood clears up a bit. Uh so that's uh that's hoping that, you know, we could do a little bit more voxels stuff uh because I do want to kind of do more
[1:01:58:919] Sadiq: Yeah, and for sure we are going to do uh 10 we we jokes aside, there will be in July, I don't know when we're going to record it sometime probably record it beforehand, but there will be uh 10-year anniversary Shades of Brown episode to just cap it off. Um I there will no be herp derps, but there will be Google Plus mentions.
[1:02:18:239] Torn: Yeah, we'll talk about Google Plus. We can reminisce and all that.
[1:02:22:209] Sadiq: We talk about libertarians.
[1:02:22:989] Torn: on Google Plus. We can talk about libertarians and Samsung nights. Were they really libertarians or fascists?
[1:02:28:909] Sadiq: Let's hold that. We'll hold that until then. We'll hold that thought from emotion. Um as always, uh show notes on vax.fm. Uh you can find me on theverse at Packetcat at forward. social, you can find my blog where I put like stuff like book reviews. Uh if you want to go if you like reading about books, uh go on null routed.space and put it in your RSS feed reader and all that. Um and where do people find you?
[1:03:01:669] Torn: So, um talking about things from a decade ago, I set up recently a link little link tree thing, but I'm using Gravatar as God intended. the the OG link service. So lowcarats.link has all of my sites. I have lowcarats.blog where I did have a blog series going on where I was talking I was doing daily reviews of um key anime episodes and I got to air, which is so bad. So here's the here's okay. I'm going to do I should post this somewhere that's not on a podcast that's not related to that blog post at all. But I started watching Air and right now there's an anime called Summer Pockets airing, right? They're both guy goes to island and has Cnad style anime experience, right? But Summer Pockets was released almost a decade after, decade, 15 years after Air, right, the visual novel. Summer Pockets is so much better. This Summer Pockets is a good show. So what I am doing is because I cannot keep watching it. It's actually going to kill me. Um Yeah, I was wondering what was happening with that. it's so bad. I'm actually going to do a blog post when Summer Pockets is finished airing. just doing a comparison between the both before I move on to Cnad. So I'm waiting until Summer Pockets finish airing. I'm going to do a big post going over the two and how Summer Pockets is a much better idea and you could honestly just skip air. um because I also really don't want to finish watching it. Like I will spoil it right now. I don't think you care if you podcast listeners if you want spoilers of this, um by all means skip ahead. But so Air is a guy goes to an island, meets a 16-year-old girl whose drunk mom lets him move in with her during the summer to take her to summer classes. and then it turns out that he's actually reincarnated as he was his warrior back in the like the 1600s when she was a ninja fighter. So they have a time thing where they go back to it, and then he reincarnates as a bird to watch her for the rest of his life in 12 episodes.
[1:04:53:509] Sadiq: Yeah, uh yeah. yeah. Yeah, man, anime is uh got a lot worse in in some ways, I'd say. That seems No, no, no, got a lot better because Summer Pockets is way better than air.
[1:05:04:959] Torn: Air is from 2006. Summer Pockets is from this year. So,
[1:05:08:929] Sadiq: I I mean, look, okay, anime is probably going bad. Okay, there's Okay, we're going to ran about anime for a minute.
[1:05:13:589] Torn: Yeah, yeah, I'll just talk about more generally. I I like the premise almost sounds like, oh, it's that's like kind of boring. like
[1:05:20:559] Sadiq: So I'm watching another show right now, okay? I'm watching another it's called cannot boy girl friendships survive. Um and basically it's about this girl who wants to be a model and this guy who does like handmade flower earrings things, right? He like uh preserves a flower, puts them in like ornaments, right? for like different jewelry and accessory he makes. and every adult in the show is shitty. Like so this week's episode, there was a contest where one some someone's trying to scout out the model girl that he's trying to get with to move to Tokyo and from their small town. and he's like, well, we'll have a contest. I'll make a if I blow you away with my piece, she gets to stay and she's like, sure. Already two people fighting over a woman's agency is already cringy enough as is, but in the episode, the guy's sister rats out to the talent scout saying that his pieces have been refunded in the past. So he loses the competition because of his older sister, like grown adults the kids are in high school. um rotting him out. It's like every adult in the show is shitty. And I'm sitting there like I'm as as someone who's pushing 30, unfortunately, I'm like, this is these are these are kids. What are you what are we doing here? Everyone is like all these adults are like 25 and up. like you all know better than to act like I just got so mad. I got so mad at that show. So you know what? fuck anime.
[1:06:33:659] Sadiq: Yeah, fuck anime. That's that's the voxels motto. uh this point is fuck anime. Um don't watch anime, read a book or whatever. I don't know. Um probably, I mean to do whatever you want, but uh probably avoid anime. Uh so that's voxels episode 14. Uh thank you for listening. I will we'll be back whenever we are back. There's no this is podcast is not on a schedule. as as as is pretty obvious. Uh so that whatever the next episode airs, we'll see you then. Uh so and bye.
[1:07:05:959] Torn: Bye.