Should I Have Two TVs in the Living Room for Gaming? with Jacob Geller and Amanda McLoughlin
At level eight, your proficiency bonus is +3, you’re up to 8 ki points, and you get an ability score improvement. I think you should put one point into Constitution and one point into Emotional Intelligence. But if you put all that into Dexterity, Jacob Geller, Amanda McLoughlin, and Question Keeper Eric are here to help.
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Credits
- Host, Producer, & Question Keeper: Eric Silver
- Editor & Mixer: Mischa Stanton
- Music by: Jeff Brice
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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, and welcome to games and - [Dog barks] Are you okay?
Jacob: [Laughing] My dog chose exactly that moment to bark. I'm so sorry.
Eric: No, your dog doesn't like being referred to as gamer which is fair, which is fair,
Jacob: A fair choice by her.
Eric: Absolutely. Welcome to Games and Feelings and advice show about playing games, being human, and dealing with the fact that those games involve - [Coughs, laughs] - involves other humans. I'm laughing at your dog being upset, that it', that they were called a gamer. [Laughs] I'm your host and question keeper Eric Silver. And the monopoly piece that represents me the best is the wheelbarrow. I'll just give a quick rundown of the monopoly pieces -
Amanda: Oh thank god, thank you.
Eric: - the battleship, the boot, the cannon, the horse and rider, the iron, the race car, the dog, the thimble, the top hat, and the wheelbarrow, if you want to know whether or not this game was made in the Depression Era. [Amanda and Jacob laugh]
Amanda: Hi, I'm Amanda McLoughlin. And the piece that I identify with is the iron, not because I was socialized to think housework is my responsibility. [Eric laughs] But because of the ‘Wages for Housework’ campaign, which is a seminal feminist movement about paying people for the housework they do around the home and is more relevant today than ever.
Jacob: Hi, my name is Jacob. And I was actually going to say the iron -
Amanda: No way!
Jacob: - for the reason of, “What's that thing doing here?” [Eric and Amanda laugh] Doesn't quite make sense. But I'll say the, I don't know, the horse and rider because I'll pick the most technically complex option available.
Amanda: That’s two organisms!
Jacob: That's right.
Eric: I like the one that requires the most amount of like really fine machinery to make the pewter machine, and it's both like making the horse and the rider, were they joined separately, were they not? I appreciate where you're coming from, Jacob.
Jacob: When I was a kid I had a Star Wars, I think, Episode Three edition of Monopoly, and it had a little General Grievous with like four arms. And so of course, that was the one you pick to just to have, you know, as any fifth grader knew, the coolest character in the Star Wars universe.
Eric: Because nothing says ‘cool’ like the Star Wars Episode Three Monopoly set. You need to stake out your claim!
Amanda: I was gonna say you selected the only game piece with six legs involved. [Jacob laughs] So I feel like I need to revise my answer. An iron only has one handle, horse and rider got six legs
Jacob:. That's good. They should get more dice.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Everyone watch out for Monopoly Two, where he put more game mechanics into Monopoly. I am so happy to have everyone here. Amanda, you're here in the studio. But Jacob Geller, I'm talking we're talking to you through the internet, a fan of all of the content and you make both the YouTube essays about various games and literature and all those things. And also you on MinMax, which you're there more often now. And that just makes me happier.
Jacob: That's true. I'm an official contributor, which is like one step down from cohort, but I still managed to finagle my way into, like more episodes than not, I'm doing one immediately after this podcast. So it's a big day for me.
Eric: Hell yeah. Well, thank you for joining Janet Garcia was on episode two. So I'm trying to catch them all. And I'm slowly moving forward. I feel like you're the Butterfree in this situation. And I'm more than very, very happy that you're here.
Jacob: I am happy to be here.
Eric: All right. Well, we're gonna start with our first segment, which is ‘Game Recommendations and Feelings.’ This show is not pegged to any sort of news piece or anything. I just want to know what kind of games you're playing and what feeling that kind of makes you feel as you're doing it. It can be a video game, it can be a board game, a card game, touch football with the lads, whatever fits. Does anyone have a game that they've been playing lately that's given them some feelings?
Amanda: I recently got an Analog Pocket, which is a, like a Kickstarted hardware project. I didn't know about it early enough to order it. My friend bought two with the intention of selling one and I bought the other one. And so that has enabled me to return to some of the games that I grew up playing on my Gameboy Color and my Gameboy SP, so I've been running through Pokemon Ruby recently, where like the wait times are so long between turns and it takes so long to walk places until you can get Fly, that it honestly feels like meditation. [Eric and Jacob laugh] And so that's what I feel when I'm playing, I'll listen to a podcast playing it on like a brilliant LCD screen like seeing way more colors and pixels than I ever did with the Gameboy SP and its own backlight, so I have really been enjoying that and feeling the like, “I'm, I'm so enlightened for you know waiting the five seconds it takes for the like Tackle animation to happen.” It honestly feels meditative. It's great.
Jacob: Did you have all your like old Gameboy cartridges? Or did this mean purchasing new Gameboy copies of these old games?
Amanda: Yeah, I did have them and I have a Gameboy SP that works great. But the graphics are just so much better on the Pocket and the battery lasts a lot longer.
Jacob: Ok.
Amanda: So a couple of my cartridges, the sort of like internal I had to get the battery changed in the cartridge for it to accept the same file, but all of them play, which is amazing.
Eric: I wanted to ask, because I've asked you this multiple times while you're playing and I still cannot remember, the Analog is like, you bought it, you, this Kickstarter made it and then you can play what games on it. And there's an SD card in it. Can you explain like what it is?
Amanda: Yeah, so you are able to play Gameboy Advance, SP, and Color like you know all generations of Gameboy games for -
Eric: Like putting it in the slot.
Amanda: Exactly, like a physical cartridge. And you can also insert a microSD card with whatever you want on it, certainly not piracy. Smile.
Eric: [Laughs] No, definitely not.
Amanda: And so I haven't even like tapped all of the potentiality of the hardware yet. I am just replaying my faves with, with way more graphics than I ever had at the first place.
Eric: Hell yeah. I feel like the first thing that everyone goes through in terms of hardware is the backlight. I feel like that's been burned in so many of our brains like, and I see like an emotional comic about it. Like, once every two days on my timeline. That's like,”I still remember being in the backseat of a car coming back from a long road trip. And I'm like trying to play my Gameboy in the light of the street lights going by” and like, that is very emotional. And you were listening to your Walkman as it was happening.
Amanda: Oh yeah.
Jacob: It's amazing how quickly we get nostalgic for things that are just worse. [Eric and Amanda laugh] Like it was like, “Oh, I loved this. It was less good.”
Amanda: Yeah, yeah.
Jacob: “I loved when I had to replace, you know, AA batteries in my controller every six hours. That was when things were good.”
Amanda: Truly. And I mean, the moment I turned the Analog Pocket on, I was like, Oh, this is so much better. Like, I had been such a vocal fan of the Gameboy SP in particular, because like it folded, that was fucking sick. I could fit it in my pocket. Like it was so amazing. And the backlight made it like you can play it in the minivan. Like you're saying Eric, at nighttime. And then the minute I fired on this new piece of hardware, I was like, oh, yeah, no, that makes total sense. Yeah, this is much better.
Eric: Alright, Jacob, you were very clear that you had something that you wanted to share, I’m very excited to hear it.
Jacob: So I, yeah, I have been playing a couple games that I both think fit into the genre of, “beat your head against a wall until the wall breaks.” Because one of those is Neon White, which you know, I am happy now that kind of everyone is talking about, which is a game much harder to describe than it is to actually play because it's a first-person parkour deckbuilder speed-running game that's also a visual novel. But like, really what it is, is just trying to do levels very, very quickly, and then talking to emo illustrations from you know, 2003 Hot Topic between those levels. And it's great, and I love it, and I have 100%-ed the game, I got every ace and found every gift, but there is still more to do in it. And I may still go back. My friend sent me - ace is the highest stated like trophy level that you can get for doing a level really quickly. But apparently, there is one above it that the game never references and [Eric laughs] I have never got and it's like I've been in like, you know, early days of the game, but like the top 300 completion times on a level. And I still haven't seen what this like, secret time completion thing is. So there is, there is much more to do in that game than simply 100%-ing every level.
Eric: Is that - do you know for a fact that something is there above an ace? Because that has true like -
Jacob: I have seen a screenshot. So maybe it’s doctored.
Amanda: Oh, ok.
Eric: Like, there's definitely a Mew under that truck, is how that's -
Jacob: Oh, yeah. And you can play as Toad in Super Smash Brothers Melee. [Eric laughs] Yeah, as long as 17 specific things.
Amanda: Oh, my God, what catnip though, the way you talk about it reminds me of how people talked about Hades, which is like “I 100% it and like this is the beginning.” That sounds, that sounds so kind of rewarding.
Jacob: Yeah, I mean, I just I love a game where you can instantly restart a level, you know, that levels take like less than a minute and you can press one button and you're just playing it from the beginning again, because it's just this kind of “just one more run” mentality is so strong when you can do that. And so yeah, I blitzed through it. But the other thing that I've been playing that I can talk about because I've been assured that this won't come out in the next week, is “Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course.”
Eric: Oh, yes!
Jacob: The big DLC that has been in production for like three years for that game, because turns out it takes a really, really long time to make authentic 20s animation into a video game.
Eric: Who would have thought, who would have thought that it would take a good time.
Jacob: Certainly not the developers who already made a full game of it.
Eric: [Laughs] And then made a cartoon of it as well.
Jacob: That's true. Gosh, yeah. And so I was lucky enough to get code for this ahead of time and have been playing that as well. And it's interesting, because it's like, Neon White is a game that's hard to master, but easy to kind of complete, like the levels do want to be beaten. And Cuphead is just cruel. Like, it's just so hard. It's so much harder than Neon White to just like, finish a level. And so it has been interesting going between these two things, because they're both games about mastering systems. But Neon White says “you did it, now get better” and Cuphead is like, “we are not going to let you do it until you could do it with your eyes closed.”
Eric: Right. Is it harder, as hard or less hard than Cuphead, the game? Which for those of you don't know, the one of notoriously one of the hardest games ever created, and it looks like a, like a, an old Looney Tunes cartoon?
Jacob: Yeah, I would say it's probably about the level of the third island on Cuphead, or whatever, it's, it's tough, because I think there are four or five new bosses. And there's also some other extra stuff. But they kind of run the gamut. Where some of them were pretty easy. And I was able to do them, you know, first or second try. But then the, the hardest of the hard ones are like way up there with kind of final Cuphead bosses. And so it's like, they condensed the whole game into just, you know, four of these things, which each have like five different sequences that you have to get used to. And they look completely different and have different attacks and all of that. So five bosses is kind of underselling how much new stuff there actually is, there.
Eric: Okay, that's good to know. Because any of the - and I know, this might be a little bit since it's come out, but like, they kept calling the bosses ‘supersized.’ And I didn't know what that meant. But that makes sense. It's like there's a lot of chunky stages within it.
Jacob: Yeah, I mean, it's like, you see so many instances where they could have made it easier on themselves. And they just did not, they could have drawn like a character that got new attacks. But instead for virtually every one of these, every new phase of the boss is a completely different rig. You know, it's like, it's a mobile like Western saloon that then turns into like a big cow with a shotgun, then turns into like something else. Like it's, they're completely different within the bosses themselves. So it's, you know, just, just kind of the spectacle of seeing what happens in these fights is kind of reason enough to be playing it.
Eric: Hell yeah.
Amanda: One of my favorite ways to participate in video game culture is watching speedruns, and playthroughs. And it is always so much fun to like, I need to make myself a supercut of like the first 90 seconds of Cuphead playthroughs and speedruns, because the commentators are always like, so guys is a little bit different. This is like really fucking hard, and you're gonna see them mess up because like, it's really hard. And it is, it is just such an entertaining change of pace, where normally a speed run is like the relaxing, you know, experience of watching mastery, and the Cuphead one is true, but the rate of failure is higher in a way that makes me so invested. It's like I'm watching a heist movie where I'm just like, hoping they're gonna make it through.
Jacob: I was, I was actually at a day of GDQ in, I don't know, 2018 or something. But one of the ones that I was like there live for was TheMexicanRunner doing Cuphead, who was like an incredibly entertaining kind of, He's like, he's doing the commentary as he plays. And it was like the hypest the crowd ever got was just seeing him blitz through those things.
Amanda: My pulse is running now imagining being in the room for something like that. Even on my couch I’m like, “Aaah! This is so intense!”
Jacob: It was really great. And one of those pre-COVID things that’s like, damn!
Amanda: I know.
Jacob: I miss being in a room with a bunch of other smelly gamers watching someone play a game really quickly.
Eric: [Laughs I wish I could breathe into each other's mouth while someone says something really funny on a very small TV in front of 1000s of people. [Amanda and Jacob laugh] Honestly, I'm stunned because I think that's the video Amanda's referencing is TheMexicanRunner. So we're just like, oh my god, you saw them live. That's incredible.
Jacob: Yeah, I mean, I'm sure I think he, you know, went on to break his record many times like since that run, but yeah, just seeing, seeing how the speedrun sausage is made was really cool.
Eric: That's awesome. I'm definitely gonna include the link to that particular run in the episode description. So y'all go check it out. I'm going to quickly do my recommendation. I feel like this is a public service, in that you might have heard this somewhere else or you might have not really understood what this is. Everyone should go buy Vampire Survivors. Whenever you are listening to this, whether it is when this episode comes out, whether it is at the end of 2022, whether it's in 2023, or in 2050, when the only things that exist in the world are cockroaches and RSS feeds, go buy Vampire Survivors, it's currently $3. And you will get so so so many hours out of it. I cannot explain what this is. Because even the description on Steam is “a gothic horror casual game with roguelike elements.” What - What the fuck does that mean? Who knows, basically, I'm telling you, you can play it with one hand, you can play it while you're doing something else. You can play it while you're working on something or you're listening to a podcast, or you're watching a video, it is delightfully entertaining. And it's $3! Go buy it, go buy it, you only need, you need a fine laptop, you can have a Linux, you can have a Steam Deck, you can have, I don't know like a Switch hooked up to a to a CRT, whatever you need. Just, just buy this thing. It's, it's really, really great,
Jacob: It is my game that I will like, play one round a day while on an exercise bike, which you can't see, but it's like right next to my camera here. And it's like yeah, I can, I can be using a controller with one hand and biking and I have currently 56 hours played of that game. [Amanda laughs]
Eric: That's incredible. That is absolutely incredible. Yes, it is, it is very much the game to play while you're doing something else. Also, like I know so little about this game is that I said it was on, on Switch. It's not on Switch, but it could be, right, like why isn't it?
Jacob: That's, that's what everyone's asking. I think it's just being updated so frequently that kind of being on PC is the only viable thing for it currently, but I assume once it hits 1.0 It will also go to these other consoles and it will subsequently take over the world.
Eric: 100%. I, we're recording this in June 2022. Truly whenever you're listening to it maybe Vampire Survivors is the only game that exists anymore. It's that and, when, whenever Breath of the Wild 2 is coming out, that's it. Those are the only two things. Buy Vampire Survivors. Literally only $3. All right, my feeling is I just got really into talking about Vampire Survivors. So I need to ratchet down. Does anyone want to answer some advice questions? We want to help some people?
Amanda: Yes, please.
Jacob: Sure.
Eric: Oh, can you check with your dog if it's okay to help some gamers, Jacob?
Jacob: She's, she's downstairs so she won't hear, just say the gamer word very quietly. [Amanda and Eric laugh]
Eric: All right. Let's help out “Gamer Lesbian,” here, she/her. And I still reserve the right to come up with like a silly, like an advice name like Sleepless in Seattle at the end. So if anyone has a good idea, please let me know at the end. If we can, we can figure out a name for them.
Amanda: Yeah, we're two thirds the way through Pride Month, my powers are manifesting. So like, I'll see if I can come up with something. [Eric and Jacob laugh]
Eric: All right. “Me and my wife, they/them, are moving in together and we are both - [Whispers] gamers. Is it okay to have two TVs in the living room? So we can game together? All caps, TOGETHER. Or shall we be forever separated? Because it's not socially acceptable to own two TVs in one room?” I'm gonna say and this is from “Two TVs, One Heart.”
Amanda: Perfect. No notes.
Eric: Listen, if anyone comes up with a better one, you will always have the ability to try to one up me. I'm fine with that.
Amanda: There's always ‘gaymer’ with a Y in the middle. You know, that's always an option.
Eric: [Laughs] Oh okay, yes.
Amanda: “Two Gaymers Unite,” something like that.
Eric: Alright, can you have two TVs in your living room? Are you just like telling people you're a gamer as soon as they come over for a dinner party?
Jacob: That's a great question. I mean, you know, I have friends who have gaming PCs right next to each other. I know people who have two TVs, in a kind of den in their, like, basement room. I think the one asterisk here is like, the living room is pretty public. You know, it's like, if you have, if you have people coming over, you're just going to have to be ready for the conversation where they were like, “Why do you have two TVs in here?” And maybe that's fine, but it is a conversation that is going to come up.
Eric: I like that because it's almost like you have a placard in your living room that says “in this house, we respect extra lives.” [Jacob laughs] “We put our quarters down because, we put our quarters down because that's being polite.” It's like yes, you're declaring that there's a reason why you have it there and someone's gonna ask you for sure.
Amanda: On the other hand, man, like what is adulthood and being a part of like this capitalist hell for, if not to make your home the thing you need, like I think this is such a great compromise, this feels like the answer to an advice question where you're like, “oh, how about two TVs” and then everyone’s mind is blown and the problem is solved. I love this, and you know it depends I think a lot over who you're going to have over, the living room is definitely like the, you know, parlor where you receive guests, to your point Jacob, and so you might not put like your more risque like prints that you bought at the art fair, you know, in your living room. You might reserve that for like, you know, a more private space or the, the bedroom, or the basement, or whatever. So if you're having like, you know, your families and in-laws over a lot or people, you don't know that, well, I get it. However, there are also things you can do, you can get like a cute little room divider and set it up in front of the other TV. There's all kinds of like cabinets, you can put it like in an armoire and close the door on one or both of the TVs, you can have like a plant or a screen or have it on an arm. So it can like swing back, you know, to like a corner or you know, behind a plant or something. Like there are, there are ways that you can do it. But also I give you full permission to have two TVs in the living room and be like, yeah, it rocks, like what?
Jacob: Yeah, what is, what is the point of having, having a space to live that you own or rent and like living with someone you love if you can't do absurd things that would be maybe unacceptable elsewhere?
Eric: [Laughs] From the example you said in the beginning, it's also like, “alright, well, this is the kitchen. And this is where we have our two sick cooling rigs with, where we play PC, we have our really sick graphics cards.” I'm trying to think of the best way to set the - if you're going to do this in a living room. How are you going to set this up?
Jacob: Yeah, the question is, like, are you, do they have like 2 Xboxes? Like are these because if you're just hooking them both to PCs, that seems fine. But yeah, if you start doubling everything, if you have double consoles, you know, for all of it, then that starts just getting big really fast.
Eric: Yeah, I, it's like, do you have, are you trying to play your Xbox and PlayStation at the same time? Are you trying to play like a Nintendo, a Switch? And one of those at the same time? Are you trying to play a retro game system at the same time? Because it's like, do you need two identical televisions next to each other? Because that feels like the weirdest setup, but it might be like the thing you need the most.
Amanda: Oh, interesting.
Eric: Because if you have like a small CRT, then it’s the armoir thing like you said.
Jacob: Right, you have the Smash Bros TV.
Amanda: Yeah, exactly! [Eric laughs]
Jacob: I had friends in college who had a Smash Bros. TV.
Amanda: I really like that.
Eric: Well, that's the one that has all the dents in it from throwing your controller. [Jacob and Amanda laugh]
Amanda: But I think that opens up some design possibilities too because you can have like a little nook with you know, an armchair, a low table, a smaller TV or like a monitor that you use for you know, one console, and then like the larger TV where y'all watch TV but also play, you know, Breath of the Wilds on your Switch. So I think both of those, there's some like possibilities there for not just having the identical mirrored setup where it's like you know, hers and theirs TVs, [Eric laughs] which I do encourage you by the way to like commission somebody on Etsy to have some kind of like adorable banner, or like matching controller stands like, go in. I respect your vibe so hard.
Jacob: Maybe you could do, I don't know what the the shape of the room is here, but like you could have a projector, so it only looks like there's one TV but then -
Eric: Oh yeah.
Amanda: That’s good.
Jacob: - surprise, you can switch on the projector and then you're both playing Mario Kart or whatever. Though that would - you only need one TV to play Mario Kart, it's a bad example. But yeah, if you could find some way to make it look like a stylistic choice somehow and not just, “here are my two Sony, you know, 4K TVs sitting next to each other.”
Eric: Hers and Theirs Sony 4k TVs, yes.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: I'm now falling in love with buying like woodwork off of Etsy that says, ‘Her TV’ and ‘Their TV,’ so maybe we need that now.
Amanda: Right? Yeah! Like two oars, where they, you know like, the oars can be engraved and they like depending on your, on your style in the home, or like to chickens - like you can, there are there are so many queer riffs on like heteronormative design staples that I just want to fully encourage y’all to go into. I think, too, that you should you know you should make the home that makes you feel most comfortable, and sometimes that is you don't want explain your choices to every person that stops by to like do repairs and then the plumber and electrician and the exterminator are like “oh two TVs, huh? Like do you watch football?” Like no, no sir. Or you can make it comfortable for exactly what you need it to be, and if you know, having alone time where you know someone's gaming rig is somewhere else and then they can come in and you know you guys can hang out on the couch and play something together. If, if private time and like having your own separate spaces is worthwhile to you, optimize for that. But if sitting side-by-side with your, you know, headphones on playing your games and not getting distracted by each other's peripherals is exciting. Like that is, that is amazing. I would love to visit someone's house that had that setup and I would talk about it for years.
Eric: I know so many stories of when like electricians or plumbers come over and they see your gaming setup and then they talk to you about like Gears of War 3 for like 30 minutes while they're fixing your electricity. Like honestly, there are more people who are out, there are more gamers like this out here and like maybe they'll there'll be nicer to you and you always need to have like a plumber friend who has actual skills instead of just creating content, like I don't know that could be a fun opportunity for everyone.
Jacob: I had a, an internet guy come fairly soon after I was lucky enough to get a PS5 at launch, and, and he saw it and immediately kind of zeroed in on it and was like “what are you playing on that thing?” And I was like, “Demon Souls? The PS3 game?” [Amanda and Eric laugh] I don't really have a good answer for you.
Eric: And then you have an hour long conversation about the supply chain and then you two are best friends!
Amanda: That's true!
Eric: And then you have a best friend for life. I also want to say just from the sports angle because games and feelings fully incorporates sports as a game, is like, man, Bill Simmons has like eight televisions and, so that he can put a different NBA games on there. If you're annoyed just say it's for sports. I mean, Amanda, you were saying that.
Jacob: Yeah. “Oh, one's for the stock market. One's for football”. [Eric laughs]
Amanda: “One for ESPN and one's for ESPN 2. The wife won’t let me have ESPN three. So you know, we got to make do with two!”
Eric: “I got to put Cheddar TV on so I know what the stocks are!”
Amanda: Okay, but it would be awesome to have two TVs on during like the Olympics or something right, like one for you know, the main coverage and one for the specialty thing like I maybe I mean, listen, stockbrokers have had, you know, eight monitors for decades. Maybe, maybe we should be leaning into that. I don't know.
Eric: I'm trying to think of the - what's the most obscure thing you could have on your second TV? That someone will be like, “Oh, wow, that's really smart. You're so wordly.”
Amanda: I just want to say the Snyder Cut and like, let you deal with that what you will. [Laughs]
Eric: Just have the Snyder Cut on -
Amanda: Just the Snyder Cut on a rotation, forever.
Eric: That's true. You have that, you're playing the same game but you tell when people come in you say that the other game is the Snyder Cut while it's in there.
Amanda: Uh-huh.
Jacob: You, you watch subs and dubs simultaneously. [Amanda laughs]
Eric: WOW!
Jacob: Just click play on both at the same time.
Eric: I like, I saw you have that. And I saw you like load it in like you were, like you were a revolutionary cannon man. Like stuff it in there. That was wonderful.
[Segment Transition Music]
Eric: Hey, it's Eric. I just picked up some snacks for Games and Feelings. I got a 34 ounce carton of flavor-blasted cheddar goldfish. It smiles back, and it's EXTREME. [Imitates Horn Blaring] Shout out to the newest members of the Games and Feelings Patreon, Andi Ratcliffe, Beth Carter, and Meredith, thank you for making the Patreon at patreon.com/gamesandfeelings, such a wonderful place to be. I hope you're all enjoying the DLC. We are getting extra ahead of it because you know, Amanda and I are getting married in October, which means obviously we get to be judgmental married people, which is wonderful. So we are uncovering the absolute deepest, darkest depths that advice columns can give us, and we are answering all of the appropriate games questions. As always shout out to our producer-level patron Polly Burridge, who only lies while playing Amongus and Werewolf, but never any other time in her life. If you want the DLC, if you want an exclusive portal to get your good questions in or you want to become a producer level patron join on up at patreon.com/gamesandfeelings. I think you should check out the other shows that are part of the Multitude collective. I think you'll really like Head Heart Gut. If you wish you had more Multitude shows to catch up on, good news, we make a weekly debate show featuring all of our hosts called Head Heart Gut. Every month, we take an iconic set of three items for pop culture, or the world we live in and pit them against each other. In the first three weeks, each of our contestants present their choice on the definitive survey of greatness, answering the same questions so we can compare who is the best. But on week four, each contestant participates in a formal debate with a judge. We've decided which is the best fruit, which is the best movie sequel, what's the best thing to do at a theme park and much, much more. There are years worth of arguments between Multitude hosts to uncover. Now, Head Heart Gut is exclusively for members of the MultiCrew, our membership program that supports everything we do here. But if you want a preview of the show, you can search for Head Heart Gut in your podcast app for the sample episodes where you can hear eight episodes for free. Again, all you have to do is search Head Heart Gut in your podcast player to find the Head Heart Gut sample episodes, and you can see what the MultiCrew has been loving for literal years. We are sponsored this week by Tavour. Tavour is our favorite place to find craft beer from all over the United States. Tavour does the searching for you, giving you easy access to a wide range of craft brews from across state lines. Download the Tavour app to get access to hard to find 100% independent craft beer, build your own custom box, or enroll in a beer subscription and they'll automatically send the highest rated beers that suit your taste for you. There's no minimum, there's no commitments, just get cool beer. Taste the extra care brewers put into every IPA, stout, and sour, explore tried and true classic beer styles and trendsetting hybrids from some of the country's best breweries. You are a VIP to the craft beer community, go to the app store and try Tavour now. That is T-A-V-O-U-R and use code ‘gamesandfeelings’ for 10% off your first order of $25 or more. Tavour - try new beer! And now back to the games.
[Chiptune Chirp]
Eric: Jacob, how much of a tabletop RPG person are you?
Jacob: Really almost not at all. I played board games with my family. And that is basically the extent of my physical, like cardboard gaming experience.
Eric: Okay, wonderful. I think this is good. Between all of our experience with tabletop RPGs, because I want to open up the thing that everyone loves the most, which is having other people adjudicate things that happened in their Dungeons and Dragons game and whether or not it was the right thing to do or not. And I feel like with your beginner experience, Amanda's intermediary experience, and me professionally running a Dungeons and Dragons game, I think we can pass some judgment on this. Because like, Amanda advice shows are just like, judging other people, right? Willingly.
Amanda: It’s reaching out to somebody else and being like, “hey, here's, here's my whole situation. pass judgment on me, please.” It's a delicious opportunity.
Eric: Alright, let's, let's talk about this question of “What should have happened at my Table.” This is from Wolf Kaminski, who is a level three Warlock, she/her. “I'm playing a mini Dungeon and Dragons campaign. The premise is that we are all pirates. And we're delivering a box across the sea that we cannot open. Naturally, I really want to open the box. So my question is one, if a DM tells you you cannot open a box, that, that means they want you to open the box right? Question 1.5, I don't think it's in character for my character, a cranky old man, to open the box - or is it? And two,” remember one, one and a half, two - “Will my DM be mad at me if I open the box, but actually like my DM has been putting a lot of effort into planning this and I am nervous about ruining their plans. I know it's the job of the DM to be prepared for multiple possible things happening, but I don't want to be an asshole.” All right, this is, [Imitating Brad Pitt in 1995’s Se7en] “Open the box! What's in the box!?”
Amanda: In Odessa.
Eric: [Laughs] All right, so let's break these down to the individual questions here. Let's start with one. If a DM tells you you can't open a box, does that mean that they want you to open the box?
Jacob: I mean, yeah, right? [Eric laughs] Even in something like, I was trying to think of something where the box is never opened, you know, but even in like Pulp Fiction, or whatever, like you see people open the box, you know, you might not get to see what's in there but like people - in Indiana Jones The Nazis open the box and like they pay the price but like it would be a boring movie if they didn't open the box. [Laughs] So I think fiction tells us you gotta.
Amanda: Sorry to be the person to reference Genesis, but like the - [Eric laughs] the founding trait of humanity is opening the box, is eating the apple, is saying the thing we're not supposed to do like that. That is humanity's fundamental trait is one, curiosity, and two, the self awareness that we're gonna die one day.
Jacob: Yeah, people don't write stories about the, the Pandora's that didn't open the box, they don't get fables told about them.
Amanda: Exactly.
Eric: [Laughs] I just love - Jacob, this is, I love having the various guests coming here because you're just like, “if you look at all of fiction, your fine.” [Amanda and Jacob laugh]
Amanda: It’s true!
Eric: “If you look at story structure, it's actually okay.” And I didn't even think about that.
Jacob: I mean, to be clear, the people who open the box do not turn out fine. But the stories where they open the box? Pretty good.
Amanda: Exactly. And I think your DM knows exactly what they're doing by saying like, this is such a delicious concept for a campaign in my opinion, because it's, it's that fundamental tension. It's “the one thing I can't do is the one thing I really fricking want to do.” And that is a great place to base a story off of but yes, your DM absolutely has a plan for what happens if you open the box.
Eric: For sure. I think this the sub question here before we go to, fully to question two, is it's not within Open The Box’s character to open the box. But should they do it anyway? Should they do it anyway? Because they the person want to open the box? Is that okay?
Jacob: That's an interesting question. And I, as someone who doesn't play a lot of tabletop RPGs, I'm very interested in y’all's take on this.
Amanda: I think if I were at that table, I would sidebar with all my fellow players and be like “folks, I am dying to open the box. I don't think my character would do it. How do you guys feel about it? Do you want to do it, would this piss you off? Would you be excited about it?” Like your unless there's a prohibition against kind of talking about the game when you're not at the game, which is not usual. I think it's totally fair to work with other players and say, you know, “who would be interested in this?” And then I think we can get into the step of like, do you bring it up with your DM beforehand? Like, how do you make it actually happen?
Eric: I just don't, I think, everyone, you're being very nice here, Amanda. And we can get into the second one of, is the DM going to be mad if you open the box. 100% the DM knows, because it's, it's exactly what Jacob said, a DM does two things at the same time. One, they're making a game but two, they're telling a story. And like whenever the box is opened, is the right time for the box to be opened. Whether it is a player doing it in the middle of the night, whether a mutiny happens and everyone opens the box, whether the box is fully delivered to the place that it goes. And then the person who is receiving the box at the end then opens, opens the box, like someone needs to open the box at some point. And whenever it happens, as long as you're doing it for fun story reasons. I think this is where we, we conflict here with ‘one and a half,’ right, is that unfortunately, your character probably would not open the box. That does not mean, as Amanda said, that you cannot cajole someone else OOC, out of character, to open the box.
Amanda: Yeah, or maybe you get mind controlled or there's like a catastrophic event or, you know, you roll a die privately and you're ferrying the box from one, you know, holding place to another and you trip, like you can work it in, in a way that honors the character of the story.
Jacob: I mean, I will also wonder, I don't want to claim to know their character better than they do. But it's like old men are always doing shit out of like arrogance that they shouldn’t. [Eric laughs.
Amanda: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jacob: You know, it's like the, the idea of like an old guy being like, “no one tells me what box I can and can't open” is like very believable to me.
Amanda: I'll open the box, just dare me! Like my grandpa definitely would have said that.
Jacob: Yeah. [Laughs]
Eric: I wonder and like, this is such a fun thing is that you can use opening the box as the consequence for so many things. Whether it's like, emotional, or you feel like your character has been disrespected, as we're saying, or you feel like your character needs to prove a point, you're just gonna go open the box, and then, “no one can tell me what to do. I'm gonna go open the box” after like, there was a fight or you're maybe there is a mutiny on board and you think that there's something in the box to help you fight the mutiny. Like, it is always - Chekhov's Gun is on the wall. And you can open the box whenever you're ready. As long as like you're - it's narratively satisfying, I think is fair. Like don't do it just cuz you, as a person want to do it, come up with like, any narrative excuse to do it. And then you can do it, or like, try to make sure it's a little it has a little bit of weight, right?
Jacob: Can I ask you all as, as seasoned tabletop players? What should be in the box? Like what you know, if you were DMing, this what would be in the box, knowing the little that we do about the game?
Amanda: I would put nothing in the box. And then I would have my players reckon with the existential sort of -
Jacob: Oooh.
Amanda: - weight of the fact that they've put so much time and attention and care and probably bloodshed into protecting it.
Eric: Because it's like a pirate challenge or something or it's like a pirate trick, like trying to pull one over -
Amanda: I think it’s like a test of honor or something like that.
Eric: That could be something like that.
Amanda: That's really how I would make it.
Eric: I think the inside is my first thing, there's like a black pearl or a cursed object inside. Whether it is an object or literally a curse, like a ghost inside of it. That comes out and then like, I wish I could get Pirates of the Caribbean out of my head but like, it's Davy Jones with like the octuplets face right? Like he's in the box or something equivalent to it, there's a kraken spirit inside, or they let loose like a witch of the sea? Who is trapped inside of the box.
Amanda: Homing beacon, like a siren call that draws all kinds of like you know creatures wanting to prove there might like there's there's so much you can do with that
Eric: The One Piece is in the box, of course.
Amanda: The piece! Finally.
Jacob: I think that's, that's more or less the plot of Return of the Obra Dinn, is there's just, it's like, they, they never name what it is but it's just like they picked up something bad and all manner of sea monsters come to get them.
Eric: I like that. Like there's a kraken baby in there and once the box is open, they, all Krakens can hear the cry of one of their hurt children and then it gets attacked. Yeah, like your idea, I definitely think - to just address question two - your DM knows what's going to happen next. Whenever someone opens the box, they're ready for what happens.
Amanda: I mean, here's the thing, y'all. I was surprised we're not hearing from the DM being like “I told my players in session one they have to guard a box that they can never open. It's been three years. Why are they opening the box?” [Eric and Jacob laugh] Please open it!
Eric: Yeah, I feel like DMs plan, or maybe like DMs now, especially with the proliferation of Dungeons and Dragons and actual play media that like players know what it's like to be a cheeky player, more often than not, like, “Oh, I'm gonna do a thing and then people are gonna put me on Tik Tok and then I'm gonna be a famous person,” you know what I mean? That's like the worst impulse. But the best impulses comes from there as like, oh, being a fun player means doing shenanigans. And I feel like DMs and GMs or whatever game you're playing prepare for that more than having well mannered players, because well mannered players never make history. [Eric and Amanda laugh]
Amanda: That’s another Etsy pillow you can make, I love that.
Eric: There you go. So that's, that's my feeling. I feel like I agree with what you're saying Amanda, is that like the DM has over prepared and is waiting for you to open the box as long as you don't do it just for funsies.
Amanda: I think just like a, you know, a PC death or something like that. It doesn't have to be bad if it, if it's weighty and if it has meaning in the, in the world.
Jacob: Yeah, open that box, baby.
Amanda: Tell us what it was.
Eric: Yes, please write in and tell us.
Amanda: This is the advice podcast thing that you have to introduce to the show, Eric, because you got to, you got to solicit follow up and then maybe like one time at a 10 the follow up email will come, but it'll be so sweet when it does.
Eric: Yes, please, everyone, please follow up with the questions that we've helped you in any episode.
Jacob: Yeah, tell us if you did the two TVs and how that’s going.
Amanda: Send us a photo, Two TVs One Heart.
Eric: I also - you said this a while ago Amanda just about like partitioning the the living room of having like, did you mean like a, like a clothes changing screen?
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: I just love using that. But for like LAN reasons, or for like no screen-cheating reasons. [Laughing] And it's a photo of like, taken from above, from one of your friends of you two playing Mario Kart on two separate TVs to keep each other from looking at each other screen. I really love that.
Jacob: Have you ever seen those pictures? I feel like, I mean, they're all kind of relics at this point. But of like Goldeneye, where people have like taped a cardboard thing to their TV. So like one person's under it, and one person is above it, so they can't screen-cheat.
Eric: That's, that's, that's the like having a home version of what we're talking about here. Yes 100%. It's a more civilized, more civilized tool for a more civilized age. All right, we got a quick one here. And I think Jacob you can help us out with this. This is about board games. This is from Nara, she/her/hers: “What is your stance on board game alliances? Does this add to the fun camaraderie? Or does it take away from the competition?” And this is from, “I didn't come here to make friends, I came here to win and play with my friends.” I think board game alliances, what we're talking about here are like, when you secretly make a deal with someone else when you're not playing a co-op game to defeat someone or just to, so both of you can win or one of you can win. Jacob, what is your stances on board game alliances?
Jacob: My immediate thought is that they are chill as long as they're, they're not based on things outside of the game. So like, I think it's cool if you start a board game, and then it's like, I don't know, you take a break for snacks. And you just go up to someone and whisper like, “Hey, do you want to do this.” I think it's not cool if like, you and your partner always team up, no matter if it's a co-op game or not. Or I'm like, the worst version of this is like, you're a kid who's like bullied and you're playing a board game. And like everyone decides, like, “we're just going to get that kid,” you know, like, like, I want the relationships to only exist in game and not have a bearing on kind of like outside relationships.
Amanda: That's a really good way to put it, there is something about a game that you need to be able to sort of shake off the consequences at the end of it. And using a game as like a small arena in which to play out, existing kind of social stratification, sucks. My first reaction was, there needs to be a house rule about this. And like you can tell that I'm the oldest of four kids and like a mediator by personality, when I say like, “either we're all doing it, or we're not doing it.” Like it, you know, I think I'm the kind of person and player who maybe the first time I'm surprised that somebody has an alliance and in Catan, you know, and like has traded behind my back or under the table is fun. But I think the fifth time I'd be like, “Okay, guys, come on.” Now, at least for me, I think it depends on the group and the rule. Where I don't know if I’d necessarily be comfortable being like, “Oh, guys, that wasn't fun for me.” If other people did it, and I didn't like it. I don't know. So it's, it's tough. And I think if everybody is approaching the game with the spirit of “I'm not here to make friends. I'm here to win.” And it's like no holds barred. You know, we're all gonna hug at the end of it and have our little ritual where we finished the game but like, we are going to play as hard as we possibly can. That sounds amazing. I just don't want it to be lopsided.
Eric: Yeah. The only time that I've seen this happen is when people have an alliance against me because I'm winning. [Laughs]
Jacob: Humblebrag.
Eric: I don't know how else to say it! Yeah, I'm really great at Catan, sorry, everybody. So I understand. I guess it's fun because people want to win but also take the sting out of someone else winning, so it might be fun. I don’t know, I feel like it's, it is like the relationships of everyone playing need to fit whether or not this is fun or not. Because again, I don't want anyone to play out some weird power dynamic they have with their friend group and express it through ‘Betrayal on the House of the Hill.’ Like, that's not the place to do it.
Jacob: I am a big fan of the YouTube channel, People Make Games with Chris Bratt and whatever, who, who often do very hard hitting investigative journalism, but also have a video called ‘The Game Prototype That Had To Be Banned By Its Own Studio’ that is essentially - [Amanda and Eric laugh] this where it's like, it was a very simple game of just everyone was kind of like a tank, and they had three shots and three health or whatever, but you could share ammo and health between each other. And like, as Chris tells it, it just kind of tore apart like the office, you know, workplace manner -
Amanda: Oh no. [Eric laughs]
Jacob: - where like, people were kind of so hurt at, you know, thinking they had an alliance and then being betrayed or whatever, that it was like, “This is too much we have to shut this down.” This is, this is unhealthy for everyone.
Amanda: I think like so many things like, you know, why the show exists, right? It's, it's, you know, you need to communicate about how everybody has fun. And that might sound a little counterintuitive. But you know, if you have a standing board game night like this, these are what house rules are for, where you tell someone the house rule, and it can differ from what's written on the page. But if people disagree, I think you got to default to rules as written. And I think it's important to say, you know, “listen, if the game does not explicitly, you know, ban or condone alliances, leave it off the table.” If there's mixed opinion.
Eric: I'm with it. And it's not just because I'm so great at games that everyone hates me.
Amanda: [Laughs] I’ve seen it happen, it’s true.
Eric: You see? Jacob, Jacob, I have a, I have a witness. And I'm not just bragging, I'm not.
Amanda: It's not just because we're almost married. That's not why I'm backing Eric up here.
Eric: That's fair. That's a good point. All right, friends, we have dispensed plenty of advice. I want to hit something that comes to us from the internet. This is our final segment, ‘Queries from the Internet, net, net, net, net…” So this is where I kind of dive into the various pockets of the internet of various games, and we try to figure out how to give some advice to some people who definitely need it. Sometimes it's from Quora, or the Yahoo! Answers archive, or it's just something that captures my fancy as we're battering around the intertubes. And this came onto my, my timeline recently, and I just - the question I have is, what is the point of this? Why are we doing this? A tweet showed up from XboxCollector, @XboUKV. “This one's extremely rare. This is the official Xbox Halo 2 promotional condom, as featured in the 343 eye video on YouTube. I only know of one other and collectors hands. This one is new in box.” And I can describe this to you. There is a packaging that has Halo 2, ‘coming out 10-11-2004,’ next to it is a packaged phylactery, and on the packaging of phylactery - no not phylactery…
Amanda: Prophylactic.
Eric: Prophylactic. Hilarious, no, one is for a lich. And one is for something else. Prophylactic on the condom. It's says “Halo 2 coming soon.”
Jacob: I'm looking at a picture of it right now. It is really quite something.
Amanda: I do appreciate that it has a prominent expiration date, which is a thing that enough people kind of, you know, care and look at. And it expires five years after the game comes out. So I mean, that's pretty good.
Eric: It’s official branded, on the other side of the packaging is like the Xbox branding with like, the crevasse of green that was the Xbox branding and says “it's good to play together,” which just makes me want to vomit all over my microphone.
Amanda: Yeah, this was like a 29 year old executive’s, you know, male executive’s idea.
Eric: Right. So here, here's my question. Other than the fact of like, “Haha, guys play games. Ha ha ha,” what's the, what was the plan here of this marketing? Like, can we get inside of their heads of why?
Jacob: It's like, where would they have been distributed from? You know, like in what situation would you obtain…? Because let me be clear, I think we should have more freely and accessible contraceptives. [Eric and Amanda laugh]
Amanda: I can’t argue with that!
Jacob: Like, if I'm just gonna take a stance, it's that condoms should be more accessible to more people. But yeah, it's like what happens? Do you buy like an Xbox Magazine and instead of a demo disc, there's like this?
Eric: That's so funny. Oh my god, it's in the back. I would rather have this than like a Crash Bandicoot 2 demo, to be honest. I, I'm also imagining like, again, the only other place I can imagine this being given out for free as like, it's a goodie bag or just give it out for free on the floor of a convention.
Amanda: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: But I immediately went to like my college dorm where like instead of just the random condoms that they were giving out, they're giving out Xbox branded Halo 2 condoms. But like, does that make me more, more want to use them? I don't? I don't think so. Master Chief is telling me to have a good time. I just don't understand it.
Amanda: So I think the boring actual answer, is that exactly what you're saying, Eric there, there was some kind of promotional event, conference thing where companies pay for the right to put their logo on things, right. And like the, the most visible stuff like the billboard, the lanyard, the step-and-repeat where people take photos before they're like at the red carpet, those are things that cost the most. And a lot of the time, you can sponsor stuff and like the less sexy it is, in a small ‘s,’ sexy kind of way, the cheaper it is. And so if you want to sponsor like the, you know, leaflet that gets given out on a given day when like a substitution happens in a panel, that's really cheap. Or if you, you know, want to sponsor… I'm trying to do another example, like the cocktail napkins at a reception, that'll be a lot cheaper than sponsoring the like, you know, photoshoot red carpet. And so probably someone had the idea to like, give out condoms, or put it in a gift bag or a swag bag. And this was like a thing that they could print.
Eric: Right.
Amanda: So I think that's probably why, is like, you know, it is actually a good marketing practice to make swag people want to use. That's why like USB drives were such a popular swag item in kind of the late 2000s. Because it's a thing that people will actually use as opposed to like, a flashlight, or you know, like a pencil, or a pen, which are easy to kind of, like get rid of and who cares. But it's like, sometimes I do need a small external battery that will power my iPhone for 20 more minutes. And like, that is the, you know, tube filter, VidCon merch item I still have from 2012. Because it's actually useful in my life - this is disposable, which does make me wonder - why?
Jacob: But I mean, the situation that you would use it in, would certainly be more memorable.
Amanda: That's true!
Jacob: Than, you know, using the external battery charger.
Amanda: You know what Jacob, maybe this is, maybe we're not thinking big enough, maybe this is like, this is like galaxy-brain association of experiences and sentiment with the Halo 2 brand, because they are just spreading awareness about Halo 2. But to your point, if it's an item that you really need in the moment, and the experience is positive, then at some part of your, of your brain associates that with Halo 2and Xbox.
Eric: But then you're, then you're gonna go out and buy Halo 2?
Amanda: I know.
Eric: We need to go through the steps! I mean, like if the end point is “go buy Halo 2,” I cannot think of how this is gonna get you there.
Jacob: I think - okay, here's what I think it's, the person who has the condoms is already buying Halo 2, but they're partner, maybe - [Eric laughs]
Amanda: That’s true.
Jacob: - just before the start, they're like, “hey, just a moment. What's the labeling on that condom?”
Amanda: Right!
Jacob: And then you'll get a chance to tell them about, “you know, Master Chief can dual wield now, and the battle, it's being brought to earth” like it’s big news.
Amanda: Afterward, “let’s pop on Halo 2! Let’s play it!”
Eric: They've been iterating on the twin stick FPS formula. And I think that they've really nailed it. And it's perfect. It's so…
Amanda: It's not even a social media sunt, this was 2004. If this was today, I'd be like, “Oh, they just want people to tweet about it.” But no.
Eric: Yeah. I also am not sure if this actually like went out into full distribution. Because it's so rare! Like the only other time that I've seen this, and there was a Kotaku article that reported on this a little while ago. There's the only other time they've seen this was in that video, the 343 i-video that went up in this, this E3, I think that it happened to that point. So I'm just like, did they give it out? And no one else used this? Or they used them and threw them out already? Like I don't? I feel like we're all trying to come up with the thing that makes the most sense. But there's the information we have in front of us are telling us that no one really thought this one through.
Jacob: I mean, yeah. And it is worth saying Halo 2 had incredibly weird marketing, including like, there was, there was like an ARG there was this thing called “I Love Bees,” that was like, a viral marketing thing. So I think, I mean, I really think the answer is that, like, Halo 2 had more money than any of us can possibly imagine.
Eric: Sure, yeah.
Jacob: You know, it's like the marketing budget for this game was like the GDP of a small country. [Amanda laughs] And so I think they were really just like, throwing everything at the wall. And it's like, some things really worked. And some, like the condoms, you know, maybe did not make as much of an impact as they thought.
Amanda: Yeah. Or it was a sample and before they, before they placed the order for 100,000 of them to be distributed at ComiCon, somebody said no, but somehow five or 10 samples were taken around the office.
Eric: Sure, that, yes, that totally makes sense. It's so funny. And this is a family show. So we're not going to say all the things that the Halo announcers would say in multiplayer.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Just think about what it could be.
Amanda: That’s this kind of interactive component of the show, Eric.
Eric: Oh, that's the ARG, that is whatever you think it is. [Amanda laughs] Oh my God.
Jacob: I believe that guy is on Cameo.
Eric: He is?!
Jacob: You can, you can like get him to say things for you because he has said, I mean, he might have also just said this because he's nice, but I believe he said like, “trans rights matter” or something like awesome.
Amanda: Aww, that’s wholesome!
Eric: That's incredible. All right, we have to end this podcast now because I need to go on Cameo immediately. So yeah, let's, let's end the podcast, but truly Jacob, Amanda, thank you so much for being here. What are y'all doing, do your plugs.
Jacob: So my name is Jacob Geller. I have a big YouTube channel that is also just called Jacob Geller, where I talk about video games and art and history and all sorts of different stuff. It's one of those good video essay channels. As of this, there will be a video on Resident Evil 4 VR up on the channel, and my struggles of loving that game and hating the fact that I have to play it on the Meta Quest 2.
Eric: Ah, christ, jesus.
Jacob: You know, look, life is, life is full of contradictions. [Eric laughs] But yeah, go, go check out that channel. And then I'm just @JacobGeller on Twitter and you can find me there as well.
Amanda: Amazing. I'm Amanda McLoughlin. I co-host a couple podcasts, Join the Party with Eric here and Spirits, which is a boozy dive into mythology, legends and folklore. And I'm @ShesSoMickey on social media.
Eric: Nice! And you can check me out @el_silvero, E-L underscore S-I-L-V-E-R-O, my name if I was a Lucha Libre wrestler with an underscore in the middle, on Twitter, and the show GamesNFeelings on Twitter. It's ‘n’ like Linens N Things because that's what Twitter wanted us to do. The best place to submit questions is go to our website, gamesandfeelings.com/questions and follow up to questions that you've done before you can, you can submit there as well. Actually, you know, I'm going to change the form and being as one of the things you can do is follow up. I'm actually going to go and change that on the Google Form right now. And you can support the show at patreon.com/gamesandfeelings and see the links in the episode description. Thank you so much to our advice givers, Jacob and Amanda. I am going to think about this Halo condom thing for a while after this, after I get my Cameo. And remember, the instruction manual doesn't have anything about feelings.
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