How Do You Play a Party Game And Look Cool? with Bex Taylor-Klaus and Mischa Stanton
The number 11 is just 1 two times. Maybe it’s doing level 1 again as New Game+ or rolling a 2 on 2d6. Either it’s an incredibly rare outcome that the dice gods have blessed you with, or you’re returning to your roots with all the experience your life can give you. Either way, you’re in a good place, so you’re ready to receive advice from Eric, Bex Taylor-Klaus and Mischa Stanton!
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Credits
- Host, Producer, & Question Keeper: Eric Silver
- Editor & Mixer: Mischa Stanton
- Music by: Jeff Brice
- Multitude: multitude.productions
About Us
Games and Feelings is an advice podcast about being human and loving all types of games: video games, tabletop games, party games, laser tag, escape rooms, game streams, and anything else that we play for fun. Join Question Keeper Eric Silver and a revolving cast of guests as they answer your questions at the intersection of fun and humanity, since, you know, you gotta play games with other people. Whether you need a game recommendation, need to sort out a dispute at the table, or decide whether an activity is good for a date, we’re your instruction manual. New episodes drop every other Friday.
Transcript
Eric: Hello gamers! Welcome to Games and Feelings, an advice show about playing games, being human and dealing with the fact that those games involve other humans. I'm your host and question keeper Eric Silver. And if I was a D&D character, my D&D class would be fighter because I know what I'm about. I'm gonna have a cool electric warhammer and I do three attacks and I'm set.
Bex: Oh, I have so much respect for that because I feel very similar. [Eric laughs] Like, I like the paladin because it allows you to like fire off a little bit of magic, but like you're still like, your base is fighting, but I'm not sure I have enough like, blatant belief in something greater to be a paladin. So I'm gonna go the fighter track. And recently, I was gifted a gift for my birthday on Saturday. And it's a little warhammer that has three rechargeable chargers that can fire off. And that's the type of fighter I want to be.
Eric: That's very cool. Also, who are you in? What's your name?
Bex: Oh, my name is Bex Taylor-Klaus and I'm a menace to society.
Mischa: [Laughs] Perfect. Nailed it.
Eric: Misha, introduce yourself.
Mischa: I'm Misha Stanton. And if I were a D&D class, I would probably be some kind of warlock because I have a lot of powers but break very easily. [Bex laughs]
Eric: Sure. And you have deep relationship with eldritch gods
Mischa: I do. My eldritch god who lives in Canada.
Bex: [Laughs] “You don't know them. They live in Canada. They go to a different school.”
Mischa: They go to a different school! [Laughs]
Eric: “You wouldn't know this god, they didn't - they're out there. They definitely, it did happen. They went to a different summer camp.” Oh, thank you so much, Bex. It is so nice to have you here in the Games and Feelings dojo. I like having people who aren't known for like, doing games in their life just coming here and be like, “Yeah, I can just give advice about game - I like play games because I'm a human. Is that good? Is that good for you?”
Bex: Oh my god. It's so nice. It's so much more relatable than like, “I've been gaming for 27 years. And I'm 29 years old.” Like, I'm still learning, but I'm having fun. And that's what matters, right?
Eric: Absolutely. Or like people who are in like, video games media. It's like, “yeah, I started when I was 12. I snuck into an E3. No one knew I was there. I saw Halo when it was first released. And now I'm still working at IGN. I've been doing it for the rest of my life.” [Bex laughs] So I'm very happy you’re here.
Bex: I mean, good for you if that's what makes you happy, but I'm just here to play games.
Eric: Exactly. This is what I do to distract myself from everything else. And returning champion and listener to all episodes. Mischa Stanton. Mischa, am I doing better than I was before?
Mischa: You have come into your own Eric. You are now - you have evolved from your your first form, you digivolved into the outstanding podcast host that sits before us today.
Eric: Hell yeah
Mischa: Armor digivolved.
Bex: Armor digivolved!
Eric: [Laughs] I'm very worried that if I did evolve, I was like a bucket to start with. And now I'm a man. And I'm gonna be an anime girl with guns after this.
Bex: [Imitating Jason Segel’s ‘Man or Muppet’] Am I a man, or am I a bucket? [Eric laughs]
Mischa: And that's the thing about Pokemon versus Digimon, right? Because I mean, at least most of them, leaving behind your Metapod to Butterfree, Venonat to Venomoth, nonsense. Most of the evolutions kind of look like a semi natural progression. With Digivolving, it's like your a little pea pod, now you're a tiny dinosaur, now you're a giant wolf with guns on your back. Like who's to say?
Eric: Yeah.
Bex: I like Eric's anime girl transition the most. That's, that's my favorite.
Eric: I have a really low cut shirt. And also, I'm a Digimon. Don’t worry about me. [Bex laughs] All right, we have some wonderful questions to get to. But first we're going to do our first segment as we do every single episode, we're going to do games that are giving us feelings. This is where we recommend a game that is giving us feelings. Remember, it does not need to be a video game. It doesn't have to be a new game. It just needs to be something that we've been playing recently. That is giving you feelings whatever that feeling is, it can be rage. It could be happiness can be contentment, whatever it is. Do either of you have a game that's given you feelings?
Bex: Yes! I, I've been playing Fall Guys. And it's just giving me unmitigated joy. It's, It's my new favorite roguelike it's just - I like to fall down and this game rewards you almost for falling down!
Eric: How, did you start playing once it got free to play on Switch? Because that's why I'm playing it now. Because my PC was sick for a while so it wasn't able to play.
Bex: That's fair. No, I ended up downloading it when I first got my PlayStation in the beginning of pandemic so when I went back in when it became free on Switch so I could play with all my friends who had just downloaded I was like, Oh no, I have to redownload a new version. It was like I'm behind for the first time in my life. Okay - no, that's not true. It's not the first time in my life.
Eric: What, what does your Fall Guy bean look like, what's your, what's your outfit?
Bex: Okay, my Fall Guy bean has a pink face.
Eric: Sure.
Bex: It has a viking top half, and then it has the Aquaman bottom half. And then the skin is bandaids in red and blue.
Eric: [Laughs] God, this sure does make sense only on a video game podcast doesn't it? [Bex laughs] That's also what you're wearing right now. I really appreciate you cosplayed as your Fall Guys character
Bex: I’m so glad you clocked it.
Eric: Yeah, you look, you look great. Do you - This is my issue that I've been having with Fall Guys. And this because I've been following some streamers who like play it, quote unquote, professionally.
Bex: I've never won one. I've gotten to the like the final round several times, but I've still never won a bout.
Eric: Oh, no, I thought that they gave you like really crappy computer players like what they do on Fortnite, so that like, it makes it easier to win in the beginning.
Bex: Maybe I'm way too far past that now. Like I think maybe I've just gone too far past now. They're like, “well, you should be better at this by now. So…”
Eric: Do you ever feel like you're beating or beating up on like children who are playing? Because it's obviously free-to-play right? And it's much less like injecting as much IP as possible as Fortnite is? Do you ever feel like you're beating like a 12 year old? If you're playing like, I guess y'all are on the west coast. So like, if you're playing like a weird, like during the day on the West coast, are you beating a child who just got home from school and is down playing Fall Guys? [Laughs] Bex looks so upset.
Bex: I hadn't thought of that! Also, I'm not good enough to be like actively beating these children. And a lot of these players are like constantly grabbing me and trying to pull, so if those are the kids, I don't feel bad beating them.
Eric: Okay, good.
Mischa: So I don't play Fall Guys. But I do play Rocket League.
Bex: Yeah!
Eric: Oh, same.
Mischa: Similar kind of vibe
Bex: That gives me so much rage.
Mischa: Like, and the kids get so mad at you, if you're not as good as them. And I'm not. Like Rocket League. I play it because it's like fun little Mario Kart soccer. But like the kids are way better than me and like, I'm okay. But when I do something bad some of the kids get so mad at me.
Bex: Oh, yeah, I have a nephew who I play Rocket League with sometimes. And I don't know how many hours he spends on it. But it's got to be a lot. Because every time I play with him, I'm like, I can't play this game anymore. I shouldn't play this game anymore.
Eric: Yeah, it's, there's some things that I see on videos of Rocket League where it's like, it's like you're listening to an Olympian describe a ski trick, it’s like, “yeah, that I did like a 360 sowcow and then did a dunk master flex and then I pulled back and then I scored and you're a fucking noob. GG.” It's like I can't, there's, there's too much skill in Rocket League for being soccer with cars.
Bex: Truly! Truly. Two of my friends got really good at it. And I was just like, I refuse to do the practice rounds.
Mischa: Yeah.
Bex: I much prefer the rounds of pure chaos, where they have those boosters and everything. Like you get the spikes on the car or like - and I revel in that chaos. That's the Rocket League that I play.
Eric: That's my Rocket League!
Bex: That’s my Rocket League!
Eric: Oh, God, Mischa, what is demoing? And why is it bad form? Can you explain that to me?
Mischa: Yeah, so in Rocket League, if you collide with enough force, the person who is going less fast, will explode and will get like reset near the home, near their goal, I didn't know is bad form. I do that as a defensive procedure. Like if someone's about to go and score I demo them so they can't fucking score! It's a valid strategy. I didn't - Maybe that's why the kids don't like me. [Laughs]
Bex: I agree that it's a valid strategy. I just think that like there are some campers who like that is their only goal in the game -
Mischa: That is true.
Bex: - Which is demo as many people as possible.
Mischa: There's also like a post game, you know, like award, you can get, you know, where if you like scored the most goals or have the most assists or whatever. There's one for having the most demos in the game. And I think if you are doing enough that those system registers that you were doing a lot of them, then people probably get mad at you.
Bex: Yeah, like if it feels like you're going for that achievement, then that's bad form.
Eric: Yeah, I think it's like, it's one of those things that gamers have instilled in their brain, which is like, even if the game allows you to do something, you can still call it bad manners. You can still call it BM. If like you're losing.
Mischa: I actually - I kind of get it. I like, I understand. So, I'm a big Magic: the Gathering fan. When I come back on the show later, I'm going to talk about it more. So I'm just going to get it up front right now.
Eric: That’s fine. [Laughs]
Mischa: So in Magic: the Gathering, there are a lot of like control archetypes and ways to play. And there's some etiquette, about sportsmanship about not playing too much control archetype because there's a difference between two people playing the game as hard as they can, and one wins, and one person playing as hard as they can, which means the other person doesn't get to play. And when you demo someone in Rocket League, it does take like time to reset. And sometimes the action is on the other side of the field. So you have to like climb your way back from the opposite side of the field. So it lets people play less. And if you're being targeted by a constant demolisher - I had to think about what word was the correct word there.
Bex: Demolitionist
Mischa: Demolitionist! So if you're like a constant Demolitionist, then, like, you're not letting the other person play the game, which leads to salt.
Bex: I wholeheartedly agree. Like it's okay sometimes to play a game knowing that other people are going to have feelings, but it's not okay to play the game completely disregarding those other players feelings. If that makes sense.
Mischa: Yeah.
Eric: It's just a kid in Nebraska, who just got out of math class that needs to blow off some steam. It's fine. He's gonna say some slurs. [Bex yelps] What do you want him to do? He needs to get all of his slurs out. He had to go to math class today, Bex! He needs to say slurs!
Bex: Also, there are so many people who take time to like, type out, not just slurs, but also slurs. I, like I'm on a system that I can only click pre-recorded like language options. And one of them is like a, it's supposed to be an expletive. So it's just a string of punctuation. And like, just use that! You don't have to take the time to type out - why, Why would you? Why?
Mischa: Yeah, people who type things out in Rocket League, like on their Switch D pad? Like, are you kidding me? No thank you.
Bex: They're not gonna play the game for five minutes just to type one four letter word.
Mischa: You're so dedicated to insulting me.
Eric: It's so funny. You gotta get one of those old like GameCube controllers that has the full keyboard in the middle. Like, that's whatcha need. Hey, Mischa, do you have a game that's giving you feelings?
Mischa: I do! And I want to talk about it. Because Bex is here. The the games that it's giving me feelings this week is Dungeons and Dragons, specifically, the campaign that I run for Bex and our friends?
Eric: Yeah.
Mischa: I have been a little running myself ragged, working and getting ready to get married. Oh, God, next week. Two weeks? [Bex and Eric both cheer] And so this week, when we sat down to play Tarrytown, I kind of sat down and was like, “Hey, guys, I'm very tired. What are we doing today?” And I let the - I mean, we were sort of just coming off of like, one major story arc and sort of easing ourselves into the next one. So it really was just like, “can you just sit in the tavern and talk about what you know, so far?” And they did that for three hours. And like calling random you know, NPC cameos for me to just jump in and say something, but a lot of the time I didn't have to talk. And it gave me good caring feels that like my friends came to have a fun time with me even if that means I didn't have the time to like prepare a lavish four course meal of fun for them. Like that, you know, sometimes as a DM, you're, you get so caught up in like, “I have to plan this, I have to make sure I have to do this, I have to coordinate that.” Like you can forget that you also showed up to game night to play a game and have fun with your friends. And when your friends can be that safety net and catch you. It's really nice. And thanks, Bex.
Bex: My whole heart is exploding. I love you so much.
Mischa: I love you too!
Bex: And the highlight of every other week for me is that game, like is not just the game, but it's coming to play a game with this specific group of people in this specific beautiful space.
Mischa: Yeah, we started the game - What back in January?
Bex: I think so yeah.
Mischa: People were getting vaccines, people are coming out of pandemic a little bit. I have never been able to run a game that was consistently in-person all the time. And so we started this game. It's the two of us and four of our other friends in LA. And the vibes! Like, like don't get me wrong, zoom D&D. Also very fun. Roll 20, huge tool set that I could not have in life. But just the vibes when you're live playing D&D for funsies with friends can't be beat.
Bex: Absolutely immaculate. Just, it's - it's the best feeling.
Eric: Yeah, I'm so jealous. I miss playing D&D, or I miss playing tabletop RPGs in-person.
Mischa: Eric, come play a TTRPG at my wedding! [Bex gasps]
Eric: Sure! Yeah, If you want to, I'll be there.
Mischa: Yeah!
Eric: We can buy one of those super crunchy ones that like our GM lists that are just about like, feelings and scenes and stuff. That sounds wonderful.
Bex: I mean, there's just - maybe it's the actor in me, but there's very few things in the world that I like more than cooperative storytelling with friends.
Eric: Yeah, I think there's something - maybe I will make this my thing that's given me feelings. Recently, I've really been feeling like - and I'm not putting this on both of you because you both live in LA and ostensibly work in the entertainment industry. But I feel like there's a thing going around that like the only people who are allowed to play D&D are like lapsed improv people and famous actors. So it's like when you remember that people use this like, as an emotional tool, or as a societal tool, or like storytelling, and it's never going to be recorded ever, other than being able to tell each other those things like “ lol remember when we did that,” or just like an excuse for people to meet up with each other, I think it's something that we really kind of lose, when like, the only thing that people interact with is like D&D, or tabletop RPG media made for - like it's made for media. So I think it's really important, and I think it's great. And I wonder if like, the really crunchy, or the really silly, or the really emotional games are the ones we're supposed to get into. Instead of just like, “we're playing Dungeons and Dragons, we're gonna kill a dragon.” You know what I mean? And I think that that's inherently baked into the game, which is why people like doing it, because people like being epic. But I've been thinking about that a lot lately. And it's really wonderful to hear.
Bex: One of my favorite things about our game with Mischa is like, Mischa sat us down at the beginning and was like, “What do you guys want to play? Like, what story do you want to play in? What world do you want to exist in?” Like, instead of being like, “hey, there are 1700 pre-written adventures I could take you on.” Instead, Mischa was like, “Alright, what do you guys want, I will make it?”
Mischa: Well, and what's great is what came out too was like decidedly unepic, like what we landed on is basically it's a fairies domain in the fairy realm, but the fairy is like the mayor, Parks and Rec style. [Eric laughs] And so a lot of like, the warlock is a warlock of the mayor, which just means they work at City Hall. And so like a lot of what they deal with is a lot of like, mundane, bureaucratic stuff. [Laughs] Decidedly not epic at all. But it's very fun.
Bex: It's so fun. It's so fun. That's the magic of D&D, or TTRPG, is that you can make the mundane exceptional, easily.
Mischa: Yeah.
Eric: Absolutely. I think that there's also like, a real benefit to playing something like that, where you can just kind of figure out what you're gonna do next, you know, is like, there is a responsibility for you to tell a capital S ‘story’ when it's recorded.
Mischa: Yeah.
Eric: And you can just kind of like, “yeah, we're just gonna figure it out as it goes,” in a way that's like - I don't want to say irresponsible, but like, you know, even you can't, don't turn all of your games into work. You know what I mean?
Mischa: It’s not irresponsible, but like, aresponsible
Eric: Aresponsible, yeah.
Mischa: Like alleviating responsibility from everyone.
Eric: Right. Like, we're just gonna play some games that like, Mischa maybe planned like 30 minutes before, but for good reason.
Mischa: You know, one thing I do when I build games, and I have two games that I've been running for a long a while now.
Eric: Big fucking nerd!
Mischa: Yeah. Listen, if I could play Dungeons and Dragons, seven days a week and someone else could pay my bills, I fucking would.
Eric: Same, 100%.
Bex: Absolutely, me too. Mischa, we need a sugar mommy.
Mischa: [Sighs] I know. The two of us have to find somebody.
Bex: We have to find a sugar mommy, who can finance all our TTRPG games.
Mischa: [Baby voice] Mommy will you please sponsor our games? [Bex laughs]
Eric: No, Mischa, now I'm contractually obligated to make that my ringtone.
Bex: Yes!!! So I just want to say I am both a lapsed improver and a semi-famous actor. So I -
Eric: Exactly, I'm not trying to lay this in your feet, Bex, because you're - you have somehow managed to not do this recorded and are just doing it for funsies.
Mischa: Well, can we talk about that too, Bex, like you're also not the only like, semi famous actor in the game. Like we have a bunch of media creators in that game that specifically come there to not be recorded.
Bex: Exactly!
Eric: like we but it's like it's come all the way around. It's like,” Oh, I do this at home. And now I need to record it.” But now it's like, “well I have this so this is another job I can get. So I'm going to get that job.” And you're intentionally not doing that which I find really refreshing.
Bex: Yeah, I mean, I'm doing one TTRPG stream because I love the person who's putting it together. And if it were anyone else asking, I wouldn't do it.
Eric: Sure. That's pretty good for living in the City of Angels, baby!
Bex: Exactly. But that's also like it really, it manages to remain both something that can be done not just for you know, capitalistic gains, but also just for joy, just for, just for feelings! Just for feelings.
Eric: Yeah, you don't have to turn that into content. I say on the podcast I'm now doing as we're all recording together, but it's fine.
Bex: Woohoo!
Mischa: Heyoooo.
Eric: The mid-roll is later in the episode, we don’t have to touch on that. [Laughs] All right, do we let's answer some advice questions. Okay. I got a wonderful question. I saved this particular question because as we just discussed, Misha, you are the DM for Bex in a game that y'all run. So I wanted to get both the player and the DM/GM perspective on this one. This is from “Are we human, or are we train conductor.”
Mischa: [Laughs] Yeah, yeah.
Bex: I love that name!!
Eric: Bex, I will tell you if they don't have a fun and cheeky advice name, you are more than welcome to give them a fun and cheeky advice name. However, this person decided to, uh…
Mischa: Honestly this one, no notes. [Kiss sound]
Bex: Perfect, chef's kiss.
Eric: “What does railroading mean to you? I feel like I hear that term thrown around a lot. But it seems like that ranges from ‘no matter what I do my GM makes me do this,’ or ‘my GM is keeping me from doing stuff but all I want to do is seduce the dragon.’” When they're, when they're playing their games of D&D or Masks, they don't feel it. “But it seems like it happens all the time. Is this real or something that Dungeons and Dragons Reddit made up because they don't play a game with Matt Mercer?”
Bex: Okay, I had a moment, let - maybe I'll stop interrupting.
Mischa: No, Bex, we’re three dudes on a podcast, we can just interrupt each other. It's fine! [Laughs]
Eric: It’s fine! You’re allowed.
Bex: I had a moment where like, our DM was setting up a, a deadly encounter and a very hard encounter. And I had, as a druid, prepped ‘Pass Without a Trace.’
Eric: Sure, of course.
Bex: So our DM had to try to figure out a way to still get us where we needed to go for the story to be told, while simultaneously stealthing through a very deadly encounter. So like, that's a moment where I felt like railroading me was very helpful, because it was like, “Okay, fine. This guy has an eyepiece that can see through, it's the only way that you can - it's the only workaround for this spell he has, because I need you to talk to him.”
Eric: I want to, just to quickly clarify, I think railroading - and maybe we can use another term that is positive, but railroading is a derisive term meaning “you are stuck on tracks and you cannot do anything else.”
Bex: Oh I did have a DM like that. And it was, it was horrendous. I did not like that at all.
Eric: So like does this happen? What does it mean? And is it something that happens as much as other people are worried about? Or at least complain about on the internet about their games?
Mischa: See, you know what, I actually think this goes back to what we're talking about at the beginning. In the banter section, as I label it in my ProTools. [Eric laughs] Where like, it's about letting your fellow players play. It's, it's about playing against them and letting them use their moves and you have countermoves. It, to me, railroading is when the DM is telling the story such that the player's actions and choices do not affect the course of the story.
Bex: And it's, it's not fun to play that.
Mischa: Yeah, you may as well like just tell the DM like “why didn't you just write a book?” You know? “I'll like make a character sheet for you. And you can take the characters and write a book or whatever.” So I don't think that what the question asker has described happens as often as media would have you believe, because I think what ends up happening - and this happened to a buddy of mine, too. Like you do it once, and you either go “my players didn't like that I did that too much. I will learn how to not do that. In the future, I will learn how to tell more dynamic stories,” or you do it a bunch and your players stop playing with you.
Bex: That's what happened, that second one is, is what ended up happening with me, is I was like I don't know if I can keep playing this way with this person. And it was, it was a little sad for me because I was like, I like this person. I just don't love this play style. And it's not working for me. And I think there's, there is, as Mischa was saying, is there's, there's a pretty big difference between like, what I was just saying I misunderstood is sort of like guiding your players to a dynamic story. And absolutely railroading what your characters are doing and like lack of choices.
Eric: Yeah, that example you gave is really tough Bex because like the only thing your DM could figure out what to do, which is like it - also being put on the spot as well.
Bex: Right? Like my poor DM I was there to fuck up his shit.
Eric: Right, it’s like they were in a tough spot. However, the thing that they chose to do is like, “nuh-uh, they have a secret artifact that lets you not do that. So you can't.” So it's like, even with the best of intentions, you will still look like the kid on the playground that says “nuhuh, I have, I have super armor. So you can't do that.” And like you're just, it's really difficult. And you can see how people feel this way. But then they jumped to “I'm going to post about this on Reddit so we can dunk on this person immediately.” So the, it's really great you said that because this situation you described is so tricky.
Mischa: Yeah. I also think that's one thing you need to learn if you're going to level up your GMing, is when your players have powers given to them by the game, the answer to making like the story lively with those things is not to go - like this is a classic example. Say you want to have a dark room and half your party has dark vision. [Laughs] And then you just say, it's not enough to go like well, “this room has magical darkness so you can't see through it.” That's, that is like “I have superduper armor that that gets past the laser shield” or whatever, you know, playground thing you described. It's about giving them moments to use their powers. It's actually not about negating their powers. It's like, if you want to put in a geographic, you know, cross a bridge challenge, and your druid has air breathing or is a high enough level to turn into, you know, swimming creatures or whatever. Like it's not about just saying, “well, it's, it's too wide, it'll take you an hour and your wild shape will run out.” It's about like, “okay, you can swim there, but you get in there and the river’s really deep and there might be something at the bottom that you couldn't see without your fish eyes.”
Bex: And you lose Wild Shape!
Mischa: And you lose Wild Shape.
Bex: And there's also like, what if for the darkness challenge, what if one of the players has darkvision as a spell and can cast it on another player? That's another player getting rid of a spell slot, and that's like a camaraderie moment between the characters that can have a whole implication later on in the story.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. It’s like, you got to let them play the game. Mischa, the example you said was really great. Because it's like, “Why do you think there's a bridge bud? Because there's some shit in the water!”
Mischa: Yeah.
Eric: You think you can do that, but now you're playing into the world I've created, you idiots.
Mischa: It's about giving them showcase moments, like the power, you don't want to do stuff that's going to hide their powers. You don't want to negate their powers, you want to like the - it's the exact opposite, actually. And it's, it's somewhat unintuitive if you come at GMing from like a power gamer perspective, instead of a storyteller perspective, like the power gamer response is like, “well, I just Counterspell whatever you're doing,” but that's not actually the right answer, I think.
Eric: Right. The thing that really bothers me about this is when you're negating class stuff specifically for D&D, like “wow, I have a - Hey, I'm a rogue I have plus 12 to Sleight of Hand,” and it's like, “no, you don't.” It's like, that's the only thing I can do!
Bex: That's my whole thing!
Eric: Yeah, I'm good at stealing. Like, I know, it's, I'm bad at everything else. Let me do it. It's like, well, you can't make sleight of hand solve everything. But the things that sleight of hand solve, you're gonna let, they're gonna be good at it! Like you got to let them do it.
Bex: And again, like it fosters camaraderie between the player characters and like, you get a chance to like, figure out what your teammates are good at. And you guys can work together. And - I don't know, I always love like the RP moments in, like, in combat and in puzzles. Those are always somehow the most interesting to me.
Eric: 100% agree.
Mischa: And that brings it back sort of to what the question asker was asking about railroading. You know, taking that, like, we were just talking about, like crunchy game mechanics, but taking that and like abstracting it, when you're telling a story, I know you have something you want to happen, but like you're, you're at the table with me - from the DMs perspective. There's other people at the table, who are also there to tell their story. So like, it can't just be about what's going to happen. It's got to be about how they're going to make it happen. What about their characters is gonna shine in the process of getting there. You know, when I'm DMing, I like to say like, “Alright, here's where we're starting, here's about where I want to get to, a couple places we could get to, how are you going to get there?” And in that becomes everything.
Eric: Yeah.
Bex: There's, there's also the stipulation of when you have a party that's prone to taking detours - [Mischa and Eric laugh] or a party that like, is like, “oh, that thing over there that you put in the background, that's the string I want to follow.” That's when it can get both really difficult as a GM, but also, I assume, really fun. If you're into improv, it can be fun.
Eric: You gotta be, right? It's like, well -
Bex: At least a little.
Eric: I'm gonna say, [Silly voice] “No, I wrote this down on my notes. No, don't do that.”
Bex: “Oh, no, I didn't write this map.”
Mischa: And that's, I think, a piece of advice that's come up before, right? Is that like, until it happens in the game, it's not canon, even if you wrote it down in your notes until you say it to your players in the moment, it's not canon.
Eric: Yeah. I also know that I'm making a silly voice about this. So like, we're not saying like, hey, I really need y'all to do this for the story. And if you level with your players, they'll probably do it. So I don't want to be always be like, [Silly voice] “Oh, no, you have to do the thing I wrote in my novel,” like when there is, has to be a level of flexibility. And I think it works on both sides. I think that players assume they're going to come in and then they can do whatever they want. But like actions have consequences. But at the same time, you can't go in and be like “my notes are ironclad, and there's not going to be any variation on it at all,” because then people will figure it out and not have a good time.
Bex: Especially since - one thing that Dimension20 does, and I assume Critical Role also does, and all these other big things - they spend months on, on pre-gaming, they - and by pre-gaming, I mean prep, they spend months and months -
Mischa: [Laughs] They spent months slamming handles!
Eric: [Laughs] Slamming handles. They're playing beer pong -
Bex: They’re playing beer pong about their characters, they make it fun. No, but they're spending months and months going over notes together and world building together and learning everything so that like, in the moment, they don't have to be like, “do I know what this is?” And they get a lore dump in the moment. They get to help the DM with the lore dumps. So like if you're not going in as a professional company, having months and months of prep work, there are going to be things happening on the day that are like, “players don't know where the story is going the same way that these professional players may have insights.”
Eric: Yeah, to touch on the end of the reference to Matt Mercer here, is like, they're all there as actors, like they're being paid to do a job, it behooves no one for someone to be like, “Hey, I'm gonna go over to the, to this place over here, see you later, I'm going to split the party.” Like, that's not what everyone is there to do. But I wonder if like, because no one at your table that you're playing this at, no one has contracts, or we're not producing this for a video series, it's gonna get edited down to its best thing. People have these kind of messed up ideas of what games are supposed to be.
Bex: And it's okay to enjoy those games. You just can't expect your games to be like those games without the same prep.
Eric: Exactly. Right. Yeah, because they all talk to each other and it gets edited, and someone's making minis you know, and everyone's kind of, everyone is on the same page in a way you wouldn't want your game necessarily at home to be, because the only thing we're doing is to get surprised a little bit while, while we play this game together.
Mischa: A big piece of advice I have for - especially not like, games that are not shows, is from the Adventure World handbook, which is Powered by the Apocalypse high-fantasy setting. It, like one of the big tenants of the, the introduction of the book for GMs, it says “draw a map, but leave blanks.” That the map is very important to the location the game is going but like, you don't want to know what every building is before you start, because you want your players to be able to say like, “what if that building is, you know, like a new waffle cone place that just moved to town?” Or, like, “what if that building, like we forgot to put in a hospital like and now we need to do, well -”
Bex: Does Fairytown have a hospital?
Mischa: See, we'll have to put it in the map. We do have a map with blanks in Fairytown. You know, you want to be able to say like, “oh, I need a place to get different armor.” I'm like, Okay, well, there's an armor shop now. Yeah, you know, you don't want to know absolutely everything. You want to give a skeleton, a framework, and then fill in the bones with character motivations.
Bex: God, I love that visual.
Eric: Yeah, that's really fun about like, theoretically, this should be in a town, but I haven't written it down yet. So it's like, I need something. It's like, Yeah. I'm thinking about the game that we're playing on Join the Party right now. We're playing a Monster the Week game set in a summer camp
Bex: Sick!
Eric: It is a lot of fun. So it's like when we were doing the world building episodes. I'm like, “yeah, all the stuff that you do that we have at a summer camp is there, like cabins and like a nurse's office and a place where everyone eats food, blah, blah, blah.” And like that's not on the map, but it definitely exists. So then we could fill it in and give it some more details, which like, we didn't have to say, “oh, we need a place to eat.” But there was one but then we gave it some details like the chef mostly cooks only with waffle irons.
Mischa: Cast irons!
Eric: Cast iron waffle irons, yes.
Bex: Yesss!
Mischa: Yes, that's, that's the thing I've done even with like, very plot significant stuff. They - in Fairytown, they investigated some person and they were like, we need to, you know, he's a, like a black market merchant. And they were like, “Okay, we need, we're gonna go investigate his apartment.” And they went and I'm like, Okay, you find his list of clients. It's encoded, and they were like, “Okay, what does it say?” I was like, I'm not sure what it says, me personally, right now, remind me that I gave you the list. And later when the details come up, I will tell you.
Bex: Because we still have to crack the code.
Eric: I like that! See, because Mischa, you couldn't do that on a recorded game because then you'd like a doofus.
Mischa: That's the thing you can only do when you're not in a professional production.
Eric: Exactly.
Bex: But it's such a valid thing to do.
Eric: Yes, yes.
Bex: Like normalize this.
Mischa: Yeah, yeah.
[Segment Transition Music]
Eric: Hey, it's Eric. It's the midroll! And I got you some snacks. I got us all subway sandwiches. Yeah, we eatin’ fresh. Who got tuna, honey mustard, extra pickles, tomato, lettuce, olives? Oh, that's me. Nom nom nom nom.
I think you should be a part of the Patreon! At patreon.com/gamesandfeelings. I know this is a biweekly show. But if enough of you become patrons, it'll become a weekly show. And I'll know that you love me enough to listen to more content that I make. And you like hearing my voice because we have a whole other podcast called The DLC where Amanda and I answer games questions from other advice podcasts, all the way back from yore and they sure did not know anything about games, whether it's video games, people in the 2000s trying to figure out what video games are, or card games, or like, how to have a party without people feeling weird. No one really knew what they were doing, especially the people who were giving advice. I want to shout out our newest patron, Henry Debbik. And I also want to shout out our producer level patron Polly Burridge who can tell you the differences in rules between NBA Basketball, Olympics basketball, international basketball play, and slamball, which is basketball, but with trampolines put in the floor. It's really epic. I'll show it to you on YouTube later. Check us out patreon.com/gamesandfeelings.
If you liked this show you're gonna like the other shows that are part of the Multitude collective! I think you'd like Spirits. Spirits is a history and comedy podcast focused on everything folklore, mythology and the occult told through the lens of feminism, queerness and modern adulthood and sure does sound like a podcast. That is the most podcasty podcast I've ever heard. We are holding off the entire medium here. Every week, Julia and Amanda, check out a different story about mythology and folklore and drink about it while they do it. It's everything from the mythological origins of major franchises like Lord of the Rings and Wonder Woman to round ups of monsters from around the world. And sometimes they have awesome guests. Like this week, they talked to Mara Wilson! I know, Mara, really Mara Wilson, they talked and they hung out and they talked about ghost stories. It was wild. There are over 300 episodes of Spirits right now. They just did a refresh of their theme song which is banger and they just did a refresher of their art which is banging. You got to check them out now and listen to all 300 plus episodes, dive in at Spiritspodcast.com or search for Spirits wherever you get your podcasts.
We are sponsored this episode by First Encounter. First Encounter was born out of a 20 year long best friendship. Haney didn't play Chris's favorite game, Final Fantasy 7 for 20 years. So Chris, instead of like murdering him, asked him to experience for the first time and they recorded it as a show together. Each season is about the two friends coming together and playing a game that the other hasn't played before, one guides the other. And it's a real demonstration of how games bring friends together. You can find all first encounters socials and contact info at firstencounterpodcast.com. And they're all over all the podcast platforms you're gonna need.
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[Chiptune chirp]
Eric: I have another question from “I'm a Draaaagon, Draaaaagon.” She/her.
Bex: Draaaagon.
Eric: [Laughs] Listen, that's the name she decided to give. So I'm gonna give her respect.
Bex: Okay, but that's, that's a, that's a direct quote from something that I did in a podcast in a D&D show once. [Mischa laughs]
Eric: Oh, really?
Bex: She's a, she's, she's a dragonborn druid they got turned into a cat. And so whenever people are like, “you're a cat?” She's like, “I'm a dragon! Draaaaagon!”
Eric: That's very funny. [Laughs]
Bex: And then by the end of the show, she got turned into a dragon with a Wish spell from God. It was very fun.
Eric: Listen, I did not - I didn't know, this is kind of, this is kind of perfect.
Mischa: Okay, this is a bonus piece of advice for Games and Feelings. Don't be afraid of the wish spell. Give your players a wish spell. [Eric laughs] It's - but only one! Do it once. It's fun.
Bex: We don't like, especially if you give it to a group. We don't know what to do as a group. We're like, “oh, no, I - only one, oh wait, just one?”
Eric: Oh, no, give them a monkey's paw that only has one finger.
Bex: Yeah!
Mischa: Yeah, absolutely!
Eric: That's fun. That's fun as hell, I really love that. Okay, so here's the question. “Say I'm at a cute little party, and my crush, our new BFF, our new best friend or whatever this situation, is there. And someone's like let's play charades. Now I love charades. But also I don't want to make a fool out of myself and knowing me I will do exactly that at every possible moment.”
Bex: Ditto.
Eric: “So how does one play a fun party game but chill, or not chill, just like not a bumbling buffoon while still having fun. Please help. I may or may not have a party next week.”
Bex: Dear, dearest, dearest dragon. Dearest dragon. I am not the right person to help you with this. I will make a fool of myself at every given opportunity, especially a party, especially if I know I'm not going to see these people for a long time. [Laughs]
Eric: Two last point. I want to say, I'm so sorry, this is from a bunch of weeks ago. So hopefully you can help this at any party you go to do in the future. And the advice name I came up for them is “How to win at parties without really trying.”
Bex: Perfect.
Eric: Musicals! [Bex squeals with delight] Alright, so how, if you're playing charades or any sort of party game, how do you look cool?
Mischa: Uhh, fake it till you make it. Confidence is key. Be as much of a fool as you want, as long as you are really feeling it.
Bex: Own it. Yeah.
Mischa: The thing that is going to attract you to potential romantic partners is like being, knowing who you are and like the confidence to be yourself. And if yourself is very out there and silly at charades, then that's what it is. And if people want to play charades with you, they can do whatever but like - I also feel like charades. The whole point is to be as silly as possible, is that not the case?
Bex: Absolutely! Gotta go overboard and in hopes that anybody will know what's going on. I agree wholeheartedly. I think that the best way to win at parties is to have fun, and to be silly. And it's really hard, because it's hard to turn off that little part of your brain that goes, “Aahhh, what do people think?” But it's it's really delightful when it gets switched off.
Eric: Yeah, 100%.
Mischa: You know what, here's, I mean, this is perhaps not so helpful for this particular question asker, because it's a couple of weeks old. But one thing I might do is, instead of charades, I would suggest, I would suggest Celebrity. Now there's a lot of games called Celebrity out there. But the one that I learned at summer camp was you start out basically as like Taboo, where you're trying to describe the person and they have to say it. And then in round two, you only get two words to make the person say it. And then round three, you have to play charades, but it's the same pool of answers. But because you're referencing previous parts of the game, like you build inside jokes at that particular party that are game-relevant. And then you've made friends that get those inside jokes after the party.
Bex: I love that.
Eric: That's very good.
Bex: And that's another one that requires you to like lean into the silliness, because the more you lean into it, the more inside jokes get made.
Mischa: And actually mechanically relevant. The wackier you are, the more specific the inside jokes, the easier round two of the game is, actually.
Eric: The better you are at the game.
Mischa: Like you just say a really random specific phrase, but it was relevant in the first round. So people get it instantly.
Eric: Incredible. I'm trying to think, yeah, I mean, this is bad. I really hope that this is not the case. Because it's how I've been living my life the last 31 years. But commitment to the bit, I think it's really, it will definitely make you friends and attract people.
Bex: That's my favorite. It - people who commit to the bit and they own my heart forever.
Eric: Yeah. I wonder if the only thing that you shouldn't do is be competitive. There is always, if you have a little bit in there, it's fine if you want to win. And you can use that to your own advantage. You make a bond with a new friend or you, some, some lady thinks you're hot, because you won at charades, I guess, but like if you're a competitive person, you cannot find the line of where you stop being a fun person to be around.
Mischa: I think there you just remember always that like, yes, you're playing a game, but the game is the facilitation of a party.
Eric: Yeah.
Mischa: And at a party, you're not there to win. You are there to make friends
Eric: The opposite of The Real World or America's Next Top Model.
Mischa: Exactly. Exactly. A reverse Real World, a fake world, if you will.
Bex: All of these reality shows have, have got it twisted. We're not here to win. We're here to make friends.
Mischa: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. I'm also sorry that I said The Real World. It's the only one that doesn't have any sort of competition involved. But -
Bex: Oh my god, I love that, I didn’t even know!
Eric: [Laughs] But I don't know how you win, anyway.
Bex: I don’t know!
Eric: You're doing a Real World. You're not doing an Every Other Competition Show.
Bex: [Laughs] Amazing.
Eric: I'm trying to think, it's very funny that they said charades because it is very much the party game. You're just there to have, be silly.
Mischa: Yeah.
Eric: And like no one keeps score. But like who plays charades now? I think it's going to be something closer to Celebrity, or the Ellen DeGeneres version of heads up that's on your phone. Or like, Mario Party.
Bex: I played charades for a movie.
Eric: [Laughs] So someone thought that would be cool in a movie. And then they -
Bex: It was really fun! It was really fun. But it was also basically Celebrity because we were like, “Okay, we should do more rounds of this.”
Eric: For sure. I'm just wondering if like things become more gamey and less silly. From what I understand of games, we played a, you would play at a party? Like who just says we're gonna play charades? I feel like that's such like a, like a 1940s sort of thing.
Bex: Like there's some prep work for that. Like, that's the theme of a party these days, right?
Mischa: Like you have a PowerPoint party.
Bex: Oh, those are fun!
Eric: I'm - that's what I'm saying Mischa is like, there, there are things that are more competitions that we're more likely to do like, how, there is so much, someone wants to win the PowerPoint party.
Mischa: Yeah, you do want to have the best PowerPoint
Bex: You at least want to have the one that garner's the most laughs.
Eric: Right. But then, it'd be like, but then the social action becomes the competition. And then you're really starting to run into, “Oh, I gotta make sure that I don't take this too seriously.”
Mischa: You know, get ready, get ready for a hot take here on Games and Feelings.
Eric: Please.
Bex: Excellent.
Mischa: People who are really competitive are not fun to play games with. [Bex screams]
Eric: Shit. [Laughs]
Mischa: Everybody out there who's really, really competitive, get less good! [Bex and Eric laugh]
Eric: Care a little less!
Mischa: Yeah. It's not that important, it’s actually more important that you maintain the friendships in your life.
Bex: I'd say that take is, is like a comfortably warm bowl of soup. [Mischa laughs] I don't think it's that hot.
Eric: That has so - I don't know. I feel like that has some real Goldilocks situation. Some people think it's really hot. Some people think it's really cold. [Bex laughs] Mischa -
Bex: I think it's just right!
Eric: Yeah. For Bex it’s like, “Yeah, that's fine. I'm fine with that.”
Bex: Call me Goldilocks. I'm into it.
Eric: Mischa, I've been thinking about this so much lately. And I think I'm becoming less competitive as I realize I'm the person who puts the games together, whether I'm a GM or facilitating any of these things. Like I just want to play to like flesh the game out and play the game. Because it's so, especially after the global pandemic of 2020. I'm like, it's so nice to have people to play games with again. Like I don't even necessarily care about winning
Mischa: Anything I can do to keep you coming back to my house another time would be good.
Eric: Like, I'm not saying I don't want to win. Like if I'm playing Mario Kart, I definitely want to win. Is it going to decide my nights?
Bex: No!
Eric: No.
Mischa: Yeah, prioritizing fulfilling relationships and like social joy in your life over making numbies go up?
Bex: Mmhm.
Eric: I do like it when the numbies go off.
Mischa: Particularly when the numbies like, don't help you pay your rent, you know? I can't buy a real train ticket if I get 100 points in Ticket to Ride. Like that's not how it works.
Eric: Yeah.
Bex: Oh my gosh, Ticket to Ride. Ha, I can't play that game anymore. Because I've only ever played it with really competitive people. And it ruined that game for me. It made it hard to have fun on that game. Just because I love my family, they get very competitive. [Laughs]
Eric: No, it's fair. I'm really worried now like everything that it's just like, a chance for someone to amateur psychology me on TikTok, you know, it's like “competitive people only find, only are able to express themselves by winning to demonstrate that they have worth to themselves.” And like, that's what I feel like I have in my head more than anything else is like, “Oh, this is ugly, because I'm expressing my own deep seated toxicity.”
Bex: Well, I got exposure therapy really early on with, in terms of losing at video games. [Mischa laughs] So I maybe, like I don't know what happened. But I like losing now. It's funnier to me. [Eric laughs] Like, the weirdest way I can lose is the greatest challenge for me each game, especially in like Mario Kart, or Mario Party, or any of that, like, I know I'm gonna lose, I might as well make it spectacular.
Mischa: And then at the end of the game, you just go “Oh, I thought we're playing by Golf rules. Lowest score wins. My bad.”
Bex: Right!? [Laughs]
Eric: Maybe that's what attracts me to Mario Party so much more now, the sense of randomness is honestly the most important thing more so than any amount of gameplay. And I like that. That's good.
Mischa: One last thing? I think, not to - listen, I don't want to abandon my competitive people out there.
Eric: You are probably listening - If you are a competitive person, you are listening to the show right now. Yeah, we're not, live your life, please.
Bex: I still love you. I just may not play as many games with you.
Mischa: But I think that there's a way to attempt to win without seeming or performing trying to win.
Bex: Yes!
Mischa: You can quietly implement the superior strategy, all the while being like, “Hey, we're just here to have a good time.” Actually, if you hide your intention, you're more likely to win, because that's, that's like not making facial expressions when you get a good poker hand. You know what I mean? There's a way to try to win without seeming like you're trying to beat everyone.
Bex: I think that's, that's the real key here. Like there's nothing wrong with being competitive. There's just something wrong with making that the focal point of the night.
Mischa: Yeah, yeah, making sure again, making sure everyone gets to play.
Bex: Yeah.
Eric: It's hard to find the balance between like, “I want to play and I want to be here and I'm going to do my best.” And also, “it's not going to upset me and I'm ruining the night if I lose.” That's a really tough, it is a tough balance to play. Because I also hate the people who are like, “yeah, man, I'm just here to have fun.” I'm like, “Can we play the game? Let's all try our best and play the game.” Okay? So it’s hard.
Mischa: Get less good, Eric! Get less good.
Eric: I gotta get less good! I gotta get less good.
Bex: Did we break Eric? [Laughs]
Eric: It's my burden. I'm too good at games, so I need to take myself out of it and create the games.
Bex: Yeah, I don't have that problem! [All laugh]
Eric: Alright, we're gonna go to our final segment here, which is “stuff from the internet the Internet, net, net, net,” which is where we go on the internet and find something for us to discuss here on Games and Feelings. This segment is called “What I learned from the VideoGameAdvisor.” Have you been on the twitter.com? And seen the Twitter account VideoGameAdvisor?
Mischa: I have not.
Bex: I'm going to follow this right now.
Eric: It is wonderful. Basically, people take screenshots from video games they're playing that demonstrate good advice. And they're always really, really funny, and especially out of context for whatever game they're doing. So what we're going to do is we're going to look at a few of the screenshots that I've gathered from VideoGameAdvisor, and we're gonna find some situations where we can apply, like, reverse engineer the situation where this advice would come into, come into play. All right, are y'all ready?
Mischa: Yes.
Eric: Okay. This is from Until Dawn, which is a fun horror game, about eight friends trapped on a remote mountain retreat and things quickly turn sinister. Here's something from the tutorial. “Sometimes doing nothing is the right thing to do.”
Bex: It's like using the emoji reacts in a conversation between two other people that you're in the group chat with. [Mischa and Eric laugh]
Eric: Definitely, and you're like, “I'm not taking sides. Just go in, go in, both of you go in.
Bex: Emphasize, emphasize, question mark, emphasize.
Mischa: It's when you're on an email chain, and they're like, clearly having a lot of tension. And I'm way too low on the totem pole to contribute to that email chain.
Eric: Yeah, you're just like, “Yeah, fuckin’ get em!”
Mischa: Yeah [Laugh]
Eric: This can be spooky and scary in a horror situation you'd like to choose.
Bex: That happened in a game I played last night, where we were being sneaky and another group was fighting off in the distance. For us, doing nothing was the right thing to do. The other party might not have agreed. But for us, we survived.
Eric: [Laughs] There you go! That's good. I like that. Just let someone else step into horror and get attacked by the murderer.
Bex: I was like “we're - the whole premise is post apocalyptic. I feel like someone in this town should have a sense of preservation.”
Eric: 100%. All right, I got another one for you. This one's from Assassin's Creed. “After taming an animal, just stand near them to show how much you love them.”
Bex: All I can think of is how my dog tries to sit on me every time I sit down. [Eric laughs] It's like that in reverse.
Eric: That's good. That's a good one.
Mischa: Yeah, this is actually pretty good real life animal training advice. Like when you want to make friends with a cat, just like chill out in your room. And if they ask you to, for pets, or like sit, you know next to you on the couch, just let them.
Eric: Hell yeah.
Bex: That's, that's my main tactic, that works with me. Like you go do your own thing. And I'll be like, “hey, watcha - watcha doing?”
Eric: That’s great. I usually, when you send things into VGA, someone says what game this is, but I couldn't figure this out. So I looked up this piece of advice. And I found this post from r/Assassin'sCreed and I want to read it to you. This is from username - I’m just seeing this now - beefington, four years ago. [All laugh]
Bex: [British accent] Lord Beefington!
Eric: Lord Beefington! Ever since I saw the loading screen tip that says “to show your tamed animal how much you love them stand near them for a while. I've been trying to make it happen. The internet says I need to crouch next to them. But it still doesn't do the trick. The animals lie down after a while and the cats lick themselves but Cassandra just sits there motionless. Do I need to wait even longer, position myself more carefully?” And it's so funny knowing this is about a video game. But this can be like, “how do I pet cats? How do I do it?” [Bex laughs]
Mischa: I've also been playing Stray recently and I will say when you're playing as the cat, there is a prompt in Stray where you can just like any, almost any carpet you stand on, you can just stand there for as long as you want and scratch it. And it only becomes like, game relevant like maybe once. But you can do it on every carpet. And I do do it for like longer than I think I was going to before I saw the carpet in the game. [Laughs] Like I just stand there and it's fun.
Eric: That is fun.
Bex: I love that, I want to play Stray.
Eric: I more want to hear people play Stray. I feel like other people are having fun and then they get disappointed at some point. It feels like the most like good pitch for a game but didn't follow through on it. I watched a bunch of streams of it.
Mischa: It's very fun. I think we're not that far into it. But like, I mean, you know, I'm a sound designer. So like particularly the sound design of like, of all the cat recordings and like it's good. They really, they really made you feel like a cat.
Bex: Aaaaah, I'm gonna play this.
Eric: See, this is what I get for not playing it and just reading reviews, because the reviews are like, “Oh, it was cool being a cat after a while but then I stopped” and I'm like “your soul is a husk that you didn’t enjoy being playing as a cat forever.”
Mischa: You didn't like being a little cat with a robot backpack and you chose to go back to this life?!
Bex: Right! What is wrong with you?
Mischa: You like that better?
Eric: You could just go by barbarbarar, instead. Alright, I got one for you Mischa. This one's for you. This is from Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories on the Gameboy Advance.
Mischa: Ooooh! Yes!
Eric: 2004. This is Goofy. Goofy says this. “Promises never fade even if all of our memories do.”
Bex: Oh, that is so dark.
Eric: [Laughs] Can we, when can we apply this piece of advice?
Bex: Dementia!
Mischa: Yeah! [Eric laughs] Like seriously!
Eric: Garsh!
Mischa: The amount of absolutely like dark and morose shit that gets said in Kingdom Hearts by Goofy the dog man and Lord King Mickey. [Bex and Eric laugh]
Bex: Lord King Mickey!
Mischa: Mickey is the High King of the Disney Castle and also the primary wielder of the Keyblade from behind the Door to Darkness, I'm not joking.
Bex: Why does everybody else cosplay someone else holding that darn key?
Mischa: Because the main character of the game is Sora, but you don't care about him you just want to see Mickey in that cool dope leather robe fight with a keyblade that’s like longer than he is tall. [Bex laughs]
Eric: 100%, and Donald use magic and get mad at stuff.
Bex: Is Donald a sorcerer?
Mischa: Donald is the, the mage archetype. [Bex laughs] So he is, Goofy has a buckler and a shield. And that's his whole thing. He's like the head of the Royal Guard and Donald is like the court wizard in Disney Castle, the high fantasy Disney location.
Bex: Oh my god I want to play this, but I am afraid.
Eric: There's so much happening.
Mischa: Like I want to be there every step of the way while you play Kingdom Hearts but also I don't have 120 hours to spare. [Laughs]
Bex: Yeah, I will just start coming over to your house and playing Kingdom Hearts.
Mischa: Dope, I have it on my PS2!
Bex: Aaaaah!
Eric: Hell yes. Oh, wonderful. All right, I got one more piece of advice. This is from Battle K Road, which was a fighting game on the arcade in 1994. “Look at your pants. There's no way you can win with such pants.”
Bex: Jeans, jeans or slacks.
Mischa: That's every time I'm playing a Final Fantasy game. I always have to change my pants so I get plus three strength.
Eric: There you go! [Laughs] Bex, do you have any pants related advice about making sure you have the right pants?
Bex: More in like practical application like, less in video games, more than like - if you're street fighting you don't want tight jeans, you don't want suit slacks, you want like parachute pants. You want like PJ pants, sweatpants, something that gives, breathes, stretches. You want range of motion!
Eric: I just had a brain blast when you said that of like having a teen fighting game where like, and then some one of the teens is wearing like one of those Joe Boxer pajama pants -
Bex: Aaaaah!
Eric: - with like the smiley's and it's like “Devon wants to fight!” That's one of Devon's costumes.
Bex: I love that like Devon just has those boxers and like these big beefy mitts for fighting.
Mischa: Isn't that a thing that really happens in Bully? The video game Bully?
Bex: Probably!
Eric: Yeah, remember when Rockstar wasn't so interested in milking GTA V and made other shit?
Mischa: Bully might be their best game, actually.
Eric: Bully low-key might be their best game, 100%, I'm with it. That game, that game was absolutely wild, where you, you just cause a lot of like, GTA style mischief, but it's at a boarding school. So like, it's fine.
Bex: Whatt?!
Mischa: Yeah.
Bex: Yeah, I like that. I like mischief at boarding schools.
Eric: The main character isn't really that, a bully. He isn't really a bully. He's more just like a misunderstood character who you play as like your gamer avatar. So like, I think that he also gets like bullied. He's just kind of like a kid who has a bald head. You know what I mean? He has a shaved head and kind of has like a potato face. You know?
Mischa: Well, he got transferred into the academy for being a bully. And then like your primary weapons in the game are like a slingshot and stink bombs, you know, like classic bully stuff. That all real bullies really do.
Eric: I think you're dunking on like popular rich kids though, so it's fine.
Mischa: Yeah.
Bex: Oh, as long as we're dunking on popular rich kids, I'm fine with it.
Eric: Yeah. Like I'm sure you wedgie one nerd at some point, because you gotta, but, and it was also like a rockstar game from the PS2 era. So like, I'm not saying it's unproblematic. But I think that a bully does not, does not help it in the way that it wants to.
Bex: Maybe that just sets it right up for what it is.
Eric: Well, yeah. [Laughs] So please make sure to tweet at me. I'm @MishaStanton. [Bex laughs] Tell me that I'm wrong about the game Bully.
Mischa: Hey, hey, hey, don't fucking do that! [Bex and Eric laugh]
Bex: Tweet at me, @IBexWeBex.
Eric: [Laughs] Yes, tweet at Bex to tell on -
Bex: Tell me that I'm wrong. Tell me that everybody else is wrong.
Eric: This is a perfect transition to, hey, where should you tweet at you if they want to tell you that I’m wrong about Bully? Where, Where can people find you on the internet?
Bex: Specifically for telling Eric that he's wrong about Bully, you can find me @IBexWeBex on Twitter dot com.
Mischa: Yeah, you can find me at the twitter dot com @Mischaetc, M-I-S-C-H-A-E-T-C, and you can find all of them podcast things as I do at mischastanton.com.
Eric: All of them those podcasts.
Mischa: And yeah, if you want to at me about how wrong Eric is about that thing that we were making jokes about, it's @el_silvero, your name if you were a lucha libre wrestler.
Eric: That's me! Yes. That’s me, you can check me out - That's exactly right, Mischa. E-L underscore S-I-L-V-E-R-O. You can also just tweet at the show @GamesnFeelings, you know, it's n like Linens n’ Things because Twitter didn't want us to have fun. The best places to make questions is to go to our website gamesandfeelings.com/questions. I'm getting very ahead so I want you all to send questions in so I can get more back ahead and use new questions. Please send questions in. And you can support the show at patreon.com/gamesandfeelings, where you can hear the DLC where Amanda McLoughlin, my partner in life, love, and podcasting, and I answer all the games questions that are from advice questions of yore, and Dear Prudence gets a lot of stuff about MMORPGs incorrect. I’ll tell you that much. [Bex and Mischa laugh] And you can check out those links in the episode description. Thank you so much Bex and Misha. Like I said before you are so talented and the various things that you do and having you come on here and do advice is wonderful. So thank you so much for being a part of this.
Mischa: This was great!
Bex: Of course, thanks for having us.
Eric: And remember, the instruction manual doesn't have anything about feelings! Bye! Gwarsh!
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