What Makes a Game Cozy? with Janet Garcia & Amanda Silberling
We have a lot of good games advice for you, but we really need to know where to get a hat that looks like a Bidoof perched on your head. We investigate with games critic Janet Garcia and tech reporter Amanda Silberling for the hard-hitting truth.
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Credits
- Host, Producer, & Question Keeper: Eric Silver
- Editor & Mixer: Mischa Stanton
- Theme Music Creator: 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: Welcome to Games and Feelings and advice show about playing games being human and dealing with the fact that those games involve other humans. I am your host and question keeper Eric Silver. And a TV show that needs to have a fighting game with its cast of characters is succession. It's Turbo Ultra arcade Duoling: A Fight for Daddy DX. That would be perfect. Just think about Cousin Greg has such a long reach. Wouldn't that be good? I'd likethat
Janet: Hi, I'm Janet Garcia and a TV show that needs to have a fighting game. Is How I Met Your Mother because it would be weird. You know, it's easy to just pick crazy powers. Let's try to think deep cuts right trivia level references in here. A big sitcom fan. Let's just put off in fact, make it like Smash Melee put all the sitcoms in there you know you got Frasier, you got How I Met Your Mother and you add more sitcoms as you go. The licensing is going to be complicated, but it's fine. We'll work through it.
Eric: Every single weird neighbor is here.
Janet: Yes.
Amanda: Hi, I'm Amanda Silberling. And I think that The Good Place should have a fighting game because I just feel like being a Janet main sounds awesome. Like what can't you do?
Eric: There are some really strong Power Stone vibes to that. Like all of a sudden like you're converting from your regular character into like a very terrifying monster version. Power Stone was a, was a fighting game on the Dreamcast that I was very obsessed with when I was eight. So very much like the conversion.
Amanda: It's kind of like Sheik in Smash. Where you turn from Janet into Disco Janet.
Eric: I like you know, you get like some amount of power ups and you can change from human form to demon form.
Amanda: Oh, yeah, of course. Or maybe it's like when you make Pikachu wear a party hat and you just have different outfits. I think every video game needs more outfits. That's my first top take to share here.
Janet: I agree.
Eric: I - sorry. I got stuck thinking about Kramer as like, an assist trophy just busting out of somewhere. Janet, you’ve gotten that stuck in my head.
Janet: There with the, what is that? The chicken place, like beam coming through?
Eric: Oh, yeah. [Laughs] I am so happy to have you both for the second episode of Games and Feelings. I feel like now that I have two people who spend a lot of time writing about games in tech that I'm like, No, we're a legitimate podcast that gives good advice about games. So I'm very happy to have both of you.
Janet: Yeah. But to be here. Yeah.
Amanda: I'm very happy to be here too.
Eric: Well, before we start helping people with their questions, you need to help me with the questions that I have. So we're gonna go to not frequently asked questions, you can't find this in the premier guide. I need to ask you because you're right in front of me. I'm going to start with you, Janet. You're a full times games person, you write, but you also do streams. You do the Min Max Podcast and all of the content associated with that you have tons of game stuff behind you, and it sounds like you still love games. When it is your full time job how do you still like it?
Janet: That's a great question. I think you end up liking it on a different level and in a different way. For me, I honestly got into this field because I wanted to kind of rekindle my love of gaming. I've been playing games since I was five years old. But you know, I've kind of had ebbs and flows throughout my life like any hobbyist would with any hobby. And for me, I sort of fell off like during like the Wii era, because I wasn't interested in the motion controls, a lot of things were like, felt very first person shootery, and I didn't really like first person and I didn't like shooters, so I kind of stepped back for a little while. And I got back into it because I love writing and I'm like, ‘what if I wrote about games? That could be like a fun, cool new way to form a relationship with games’ and ended up loving that and I think that sort of has rekindled my love of games or sort of had me revisit it. It just kind of gives me another angle. And another way to love the games that I play like then I've always you know, I think all of us grew up kind of talking with friends or family, like for me my brother was a big influence on like, I can talk to him about games. Honestly talking about games and writing about games is more fun to me than even playing them and that's more of a compliment to how fun it is to do the conversation and the criticism more so than an indictment on like how fun the games are. Like the games are fun on their own but like that rush of like you know pre release you have like a coworker that maybe like is also playing the game and you can text them and you really are so excited to talk about it and get to hear, you know, what the public thinks and that's just such a rush. So yeah, definitely changes your relationship with games but I think that's why I still love it. Like the idea of being able to, I think also highlight games that maybe don't get asked talked about. Like one of my favorite things ever. It's just like the other day someone on Twitter hit me up and they're like, Hey, I'm looking for like puzzle games on the switch. Like what do you got? And I'm like, oh, like let me look at like these really off the beaten path random sale things I impulsively bought that worked out like four of them did, eight of them didn't. And just having that process and gain to share that with people. Yeah, I don't know. There's so many things so still love about games. Is that for me? It's, it hasn't waned at all. It's just kind of changed
Eric: What is harder, trying to get like a family member or friend to play a game you recommend, or like arguing a game that's supposed to be on an end of the year list with your colleagues?
Janet: Definitely arguing a game because I don't frankly care too much about you know, people take my recommendations or not. A lot of times too, I'm very weary of it kind of sucks. When you recommend something to someone, it doesn't work out. Even if it's like a game that you think is great. I think everyone's looking, we're all looking for games to like and love, and you always want to enjoy what you play. So if someone doesn't want to play like What Remains of Edith Finch, because they don't really like want to do a walking sim, that's fine. I probably wouldn't recommend that if you don't, you know, like that genre.
Eric: Right.
Janet: So yeah, definitely the end of the year, let's just because even that, I don't know if that married to but like, there are certain games that you really want to feel like, you know, you're representing Well, or really wanting to like, have those lists maybe represent you as a group or you as a person. Definitely something I care more about, then you know what everyone else is playing for fun?
Eric: Absolutely. Amanda, I have two questions for you. I have one very thorny one and one very easy one. Would you like the easy one or the hard one first?
Amanda: Let's go for the hard one first, let's get right in there.
Eric: Alright. The hard one: why are game companies so horny for NFT's? I don't get it. How does it fit? How do, how does blockchain fit with game? That doesn't make any sense.
Amanda: [Sighs] So you sent me an article about how the head of Nintendo I believe,
Eric: Yes, Reggie Fils-Aimé, former head of Nintendo America wants to like monetize your Animal Crossing and use that for the blockchain. Ridiculous.
Amanda: Yeah. And I was just thinking about that. Because I guess from his perspective, basically, what's happening is, you've built this kick ass island, it has a kick ass theme, who knows. And then you want to share it with people and you want them to pay you to have access to your island. And then congrats, you can build it. And it's like, how on eBay, you can buy shiny pokemon from people but also you have no way of knowing if you're being scammed or not. And I guess that rich executives of companies think that people want to spend obscene amounts of money on things like this, but I don't think people do. And I also don't think that necessarily needs to happen on the blockchain. Like one of the reasons why people think that NFT's and video games would be interesting, because it's like, let's say that in one game, you get like, super cool, fancy sword, and you want to have super cool fancy sword in another game, then you could bring it with you. But you do have to have compatibility on both sides of the games for one. But you can already do things like this on like, think about Pokemon home. It's like, I have like a shiny from Pokemon GO and Pokemon Sword and Shield. Like I think there's ways to do this that don't rely on blockchain technology. And I'm very skeptical of getting ordinary people into using Blockchain technology because I think that a lot of the time, people don't totally understand the risks associated. One big news item from the past couple months was this game, Axie Infinity got hacked, and they lost about $650 million of crypto, which they did pay back to the users. It was like a play to earn game where as you play, you obtain a crypto, but they still like lost people money. And they did get reimbursed in part because they raised another round of venture funding to help them pay for it.
Eric: Doesn't make any sense. [Sighs]
Amanda: So I just think there's a lot of situations in which people want to use blockchain technology for things that don't need to have that kind of technology. And it is a kind of technology that some people think is very secure, but evidently it is getting hacked all the time.
Eric: Right. Absolutely. All right. Here's the easy question, because you explained blockchain to me. Who, who's your favorite Pokemon?
Amanda: Oh, Ralts.
Eric: Great. Good.
Amanda: Yeah, I mean, Ralts is my internet identity, which is why you call me Ralts, because I have the same first name as your partner in life, love and podcasting.
Eric: That's true. There are too many Amanda's so you are Ralts. Janet, same question. Who's your favorite Pokemon?
Janet: Shroomish. I had him for Alpha Sapphire, which is kind of like my re-entry point into the franchise and I just think Shroomish is a great little design, little mushroom guy. He's got some good abilities like I think spores one of them so yeah. I love Shroomish, which I didn't have Shroomish evolve for the longest time. I even tried to like battle like the legendary which Shroomish. Of course for which guy like one hit KO’d and stuff and I was like, All right, you're not gonna make it to that final picture with all the other Pokemon, cause I need to beat this game.
Eric: I respect that.
Amanda: Shout out to the final picture.
Janet: Yeah, it's rough. It's like oh, do I want to, do I want to get this done or do I want like a nice photo op? And usually I just want to get this done you know, I toss in like, that's the end game stuff they give you to make it super OP. I'm like, oh, stay on the end. You know, I'll crop it out, fix it in post.
Eric: Just add it? It's like no, I had seven Pokemon, Shroomish was just was hovering above my trainers head. That's a hack I found. I use my Game Genie. That's perfect. Thank you so much. My favorite Pokemon is Mamoswine, because you can bust on through with Mamoswine.
Amanda: Bust on through with Mamoswine.
Janet: You guys have some deep cuts for the favorite Pokemon.
Eric: That's true. I was thinking about Snorlax a lot. And I feel like I love Snorlax. But it's like my fourth favorite, because like, it was the first Pokemon to get in the way of you while playing the game, which like is now like a thing, right? Like, you know, all Pokemon games are a formula now. And now it's like, ‘Pokemon is in way you need to do things.’ But I mean like, when I was playing Red for the first time, I was like, What is this giant thing in front of me? That's incredible. What, I need a flute? What does that even mean? And I feel like that's, it might be like, for nostalgia sake about the gameplay, but like, there's so many Pokemon out there, you can find the one that you love the most. And I love the one with ice tusks. You know what I mean?
Amanda: I just really love like, Pokemon that are very powerful that you find in the wild in like the second round of the game that have really, really bad stats until you evolve them. So like in Generation One, I'm an Abra gal through and through.
Eric: Sure.
Amanda: Ralts kind of sucks until it learns confusion. But also Ralts is the feelings Pokemon and I have a lot of feelings.
Eric: [Laughs] That's fair, I, the connection to the actual like name of the Pokemon is always so so funny. And I appreciate you doing that extra level of, of research for that.
Amanda: Oh yeah.
Eric: But we have a lot of questions that people need advice on. Are you too ready to jump in?
Amanda: Let's do it.
Janet: Yes.
Eric: Hell yes. Okay. Let's talk about Wordle. Are we, both of you playing Wordle?
Janet: Yeah, religiously.
Eric: So this is actually perfect. Of course, you can always send in questions, we have a little link in the episode description that you just check. You can say your name, or you can say like a fun thing that people do for advice questions. But if you say your regular name or your anonymous, then I take it upon me to come up with your name. So this is from V-E-X-E-D: “I am a little bummed about what happened to Wordle. It was this beautiful thing free on the internet guy made it for his wife. And then once the New York Times bought it, I was way more concerned about how it changed and how the New York Times was doing stuff to it than actually playing. I know folks are still enjoying it. And I don't resent them, obviously. But I can't have any fun without thinking about the capitalism of games. And the fact that the New York Times gave this guy six figures to have his game to build up their crossword. Help me enjoy things again, please.”
Janet: I got some bad news for you. [Laughs] That's, that's the thing behind all the games. And I guess that is kind of off putting in its own way. Like I had this realization the other day where I was like on Tiktok. But, and I love that platform. As a consumer. I also post but like I like just scrolling. And then I started sorting all the things on these folders, all those different advice bits, music, you know, movies, make up to do, you know, life hacks of buy this thing on Amazon and then you know, it'll heal you or whatever, I'm, oh, yeah, it'll store all my knives. And then I realized all the things I'd saved were just different versions of buying stuff, you know, buying experiences, buying, like things to watch, buying art. And like, that's not all inherently necessarily bad. But I was like, Oh, wow, that's all about me buying stuff. And even when I make my work, which I feel like it's creative in itself, it's kind of like pumping up art. It's like, about people also buying stuff, or I'm telling you what I thought of the thing that I bought, even if I got it for free for work, you know. So I think, you know, lightly put it aside, like there's not really an escape either way, I think the Wordle story, ultimately, it was a guy that made something just for fun, and he made some money off of it, and people got to enjoy it. And I think that in itself is good, in a sense. And it's so free, you know, it's run through the New York Times, but like it doesn't change much of the game. I know at first they had all those like, really crazy words where they're like, New York Times doesn't know it's doing the Wordle’s for us normies down here, you know, give give me like boats, like, I can't be doing like abacus or whatever, save in the right amount of letters. But yeah, like, take your time away, and, you know, come back or don't there's a lot of different word games to play out there.
Amanda: So my professional advice is, when things are bad, just think, hey, at least it's not worse. [Eric laughs] Because I interviewed Josh Wartell, the creator of Wordle. And this was in the pre New York Times days. And since I write for TechCrunch, a publication that is very venture-capital focused at times, we did ask him, like, Hey, you must be getting tons of like phone calls and emails from venture capitalists who are like, ‘Hey, dude, we want to give you a lot of money and make Wordle bad or something.’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, I'm getting a lot of calls, but haven't really returned them like, I don't know, like, I'll probably check it out.’ And he did mention in that interview that Wordle was very inspired by The New York Times games section and how it's just like you play at once, you're done. It's a fun little thing. But yeah, I mean, imagine an alternate universe where like an Andreessen Horowitz bought Wordle.
Eric: Oh, God.
Amanda: We don't want that. What if Wordle became like, every word becomes an NFT. And then if you solve the Wordle, you get like a participation NFT. And then you can sell them later, that, that would be I mean, be grateful we're not there. That's my advice is just think about how it could be worse.
Eric: That's how I know you're a tech reporter. Because you've stared into like the dark maw of what tech could be if someone was unleashed. And you're like, honestly, the fact that it worked out is okay.
Amanda: My other Wordle of hot take is I think that if you have a first word that you use every day, you're doing it wrong, like have fun.
Janet: I agree.
Amanda: Use farts, like it's not that serious. It's a word guessing game. Nobody cares if you got it in two, or three or four or five. People do care if you got it in six, or not at all, because then you just fucked up, but just play the game. It's fun. Who cares? Farts.
Eric: Maybe it's something about Wordle specifically because I'm having a similar problem to this question asker, that because it's free, and then it's like money exchanged hands, and then it is owned by a larger media company. And now it's still free, but I feel like it's gonna go away. The thing I'm worried about is that it becomes like Uber, how like it was cheap before and now that we're hooked, now they can charge like six times as much. And like the New York Times, especially because it's attached to their game vertical and that now it's going to be put behind a paywall ASAP. Once people, the two year anniversary of Wordle has come by, like either the fact that it's in a company's hands is kind of like weirding me out and I can't enjoy it anymore.
Amanda: I do think that our patron saint Josh Wartell did say that it was important to him that if he sold the game that it wouldn't be put behind a paywall, but at the same time, it's like, do we trust the New York Times? I mean, we trust their reporting because they are fact checked and blah blah blah, but do we trust them as a business? Like they're already putting ads on Wordle for Spelling Bee, which is another one of the game. Thankfully, Spelling Bee isn't super, like the ads aren't very egregious. Like, you're not like watching a video and then clicking through, but I think we just got to enjoy Wordle while we can.
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Eric: Janet, I'm gonna like actual, video game side. Do you ever struggle against like, knowing that these companies are kinda like, massive entities? And does that ever spoil your fun, especially for you know, Nintendo, that makes its entire brand around being like, magical and perfect. And they're having just as many worker problems as the rest of the industry?
Janet: Yeah, I'm not really I mean, that sounds dark in itself. But they're, all of them are have problems, like every job has its problems. Not that that means we shouldn't be like, supporting workers and trying to make those workplaces better places to work. But you know, I'm very like pro unionization and all that. But at the end of the day, like if it's from a studio, like there's probably some drama in that studio, again, that doesn't mean that we should ignore it. But I think there is no, you know, the closet, there's no ethical consumption under capitalism thing. Like it's that, but you know, you pick and choose as well, I think, if there was ever a game where I wasn't comfortable, I wouldn't play it. And there are games where I'm like, You know what, like, that's probably why I'm not hitting up that next Harry Potter game. I'm like, I just don't want to have to add extra disclaimers on me playing it like I just don't think it's worth it. It's one game, there's a million Big Deal games, I'm guessing it's probably not going to transcend the world. And even if there is there's so many debatable great games of all time. Like I don't mind making that trade off. But that's not to say that that means Oh, like I've never played a game that's made by anybody that has horrible ideologies or bad business practices. But you pick and choose what you're comfortable with. And you try to, I think, acknowledge things as they go and put things in context. For the most part, it usually doesn't end up impeding my enjoyment, but it definitely can. It's just fairly uncommon.
Eric: That's fair. I think that when there's something very obvious you can be like, you know, I'm not going to do that. The Harry Potter thing, especially, JK Rowling, plus the fact that it's pretty much Jewish Blood Libel: The Game, 100% And especially the fact that Overwatch 2 is coming out soon, and you're making your choices about whether or not you want to engage with with Blizzard on that level. I think that's totally fair. It's easy to throw around “There's no ethical consumption under capitalism” but I think like more and more as the world becomes like a cyberpunk, I think that's fair. And then you got to pick your battles. You can't just be a perfect person all the time. But you know, if it's something that like gets to you, and you want to take a stand on about how I feel about Wordle I can't enjoy it. Then I'm like, “Eh I'm just gonna leave it” and hopefully you I'll play Heardle or OctoWordle or, or Mapple.
Janet: So many spin offs.
Amanda: Do you have a favorite spin off?
Eric: I don't play any of them. I was gonna ask you to, what’s your favorite spin off, please?
Janet: I've started playing Heardle .
Eric: What is, what do they, what do they say on Heardle like what are you hearing?
Amanda: It's like the first second of a song. And then sometimes it's Wonderwall and you're like, I know that. And then sometimes it's an obscure Red Hot Chili Pepper song. And you're like, What the fuck?
Eric: Oh, that's so cool. What, Are there any other good spin offs?
Amanda: I love Globele, like globe-le. you have a globe and you guess the country, and then it is a darker shade of red depending on how close you are to the country that it is. And I've actually learned a lot about geography because it's like, you look at a map, and there's no borders of like, where the countries are. And you're just like, Hmm, what's a country in Northern Africa? I guess I’ll guess Morocco. And like, I know where countries are that I used to not know where they are. And I'm like, hell yeah, I'm learning. I'm having fun. I love learning and having fun.
Eric: You're like a child it Miss Frizzle's class. “I love learning. And I love it when I go inside of one of my classmates and look at his lungs.”
Amanda: Oh, yeah, I did that all the time.
Eric: That's good. I might actually pick up one of those. Like, I assumed it was really just like, only word games, and it was repeated over and over again. But they really do seem to be pretty far away from the formula. So honestly, you're, you're enriching my life, and I can stop feeling bad about not playing the fun word game everyone loves. All right, I have another question about video games here. This is from “Cozy on the Coast”: I love cozy video games, Spiritfarer, Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley are my happy place. What are some cozy games I should try? And what exactly makes a game cozy? I want to start with that second question. First, what makes a game cozy? I also want to maybe we can extend this outside of video games. I wonder if there are also like party games or tabletop RPGs or other types of games that you would also classify as cozy.
Amanda: I think a cozy game is a game that you can play and kind of half be paying attention. Like I read like over 100 books in 2020 - humblebrag. But it was just because I logged like 400 hours on Animal Crossing. And all the time I was listening to audiobooks while playing Animal Crossing. And so I was just like reading like a book a day for a while. Also, you know, other stuff was going on in 2020. But I don't know even a game like Hades where I feel like you wouldn't classify it as cozy because you're killing stuff and you're trying to kill your dad. It's kind of dark at some points. I consider that a cozy game because you can listen to podcasts while playing it. And also because I mean, Meg’s in it.
Eric: That’s a good point.
Janet: It's not bad. For me, it's somewhat similar. I think I kind of lightly differentiate like, what you're describing Amanda of like podcast games, like games that you can zone out to. And then for me cozy, I guess the distinguishing factor is like a layer of like cuteness or light-hearted escapism through maybe the art style or through the mechanics. But I do think that cozy games can deal with like heavier stuff. So like Amanda, to your point with Hades. Like I think that's an interesting one to think of because, yeah, it has like maybe darker content, but it's also not like super brooding necessarily. You know, I think there's a lot of playfulness and like the art style and also I think the way it lets you interact with that world in terms of like the godmode and stuff. For me some cozy games I recommend, I guess like walking sims I put those in there. I'm thinking stuff like Chicory: A Colorful Tale. Like it's cute. You can paint like I think games that don't feel like they are pushing back on you too heavily. And I think, that’s why Hades is such a cool way to break up because it can push back. But if you don't want it to push back that hard, it doesn't have to. So Chicory is like that, I think Signs of the Sojourner is a bit of a cozy game, you're sort of like, again, that has some dark content of like your mom just passed away. And that's kind of what kicks off the story. But you're like traveling through these different towns and like shopping for wares and sort of like learning about the world. White Ocean Big Jacket is a game I totally adore. It's like a coming of age game where you're like camping and you're having like all these candid and somewhat like awkward conversations about you're asking like your older aunt about like sex and all these like heavier topics. And she's like, Oh, you're like, 14. So I don't know, like your mom's not here. But let me give this a try. And it's, I don't know, very like quaint and nice in that sense. There's um, a random one that I played on, Lieve Oma or something. I think it's in German for the title or something. And it's literally just a really short game where you're walking with your grandmother, like a little kid walking with your grandma, and you're picking up like acorns on the way and you're she's just talking to you and that's the whole game. So it's a short hike to like for cozy games. Again, walking around exploring, I guess something that feels you know, kind and gentle and somewhat peaceful. If there's some level of tranquility, I think it's a cozy game.
Eric: Janet, you really bury the lede on Lieve Oma, in you are walking around with your grandma but it is the most beautiful fall around you. As you are walking through. I'm just looking at the screenshots on its itch page. It is absolutely gorgeous. It's like Firewatch scaled like, a they made a demake of Firewatch or something. It's absolutely beautiful.
Janet: Yeah.
Eric: Here's a, here's a paragraph, “my grandmother is probably the most important person ever to me. As she provided me with the stability and care a child needed growing up, we all had or have people helping us become a responsible and caring person. And this short narrative game is an ode to these people.”
Janet: Yeah, it's just a nice thought.
Eric: That's absolutely incredible. And it's $3. And you can play it on Linux. What else do you need? That's all you need.
Amanda: I feel cozy just hearing about the game.
Eric: [Laughs] I - that's very interesting about what both of you said though, about like there being a heavy thing, kind of in the middle of these games, when I think about like cozy shows as well, I think about Over the Garden Wall, which is so creepy and spooky. IT has a very dark nugget in the middle. But like the, it's the mode, it's the thing we're doing is wonderful. Mischa, our editor, watches it every single fall. And because it means that much to them to, to continuously enjoy it. And I feel that way about some other shows, even if it's has like a dark nugget in the center. So it's kind of funny. It's like a Gobstopper like there's, there's darkness in the center and then layers and layers of beauty around it. That's what feels cozy to me.
Amanda: Not to get too heavy on the game's podcast, but I think that's because life is like that, where there's heavy things but like it's just kind of in the middle of other good things and but also sometimes you're just walking with your grandma and there's a banjo. You don't know what the conversation is going to be.
Eric: Amanda you get plus one to Constitution because you said the thing that they say on every single advice podcast, which is “life is like that.” [Amanda laughs] You uncovered a secret.
Amanda: Oh no!
Eric: You got a secret. You got to see a secret XP up.
Amanda: Nice. Um, yeah, I mean, something, something the friends you made along the way?
Eric: Absolutely.
Janet: Oh, yeah.
Amanda: Yes. Hell yeah.
Eric: I want to flip this on its head a little bit because I think that as you two explored video games, I wonder if being cozy is different for like party games or for tabletop RPGs. For that cozy means easy and I can have fun with my friends. And also not exploring dark feelings. Because you can very easily do that in tabletop RPGs, so you're choosing not to. So one is a game that I learned from my friends and we play all the time. It's called Quixx. It's like a dice game from Gamewright, and they make a lot of other different types of games. It's like this game that they found like in Eastern Europe, and they brought back and kind of like, shined up a little bit to make, to sell it like friendly game stores. It's really fun. It's very quick. And you can play with anyone you like, learn the rules, and like and watching it once you pick up the rules like that. So having like a game you can lean on, I would say, Uno, it's probably a cozy game or like, I used to play the game Casino, a card game called Casino with my grandma. And like it's just a game, you know, that's easy to pick up that you can always play with people that you want to have around you at all times. In terms of tabletop RPGs. So many of them have so many rules. So anytime you can find a good one pager is always perfect. I especially want to shout out Grant Howitt, who is the master of one page RPGs especially as they go around on Twitter. I know everyone knows Honey Heist, but I really want to shout out Goat Crashers, which is you play a goat crashing a fancy party. And all you have to do is like party on and roleplay that while like really intense stuff is happening at the same time. Really easy to pick up, you make the characters at the table. And like anyone knows how to play. Like anyone who wants to like get into Dungeons and Dragons or that kind of like role playing should look at Goat Crashers. It's free on, on Grant Howitt’s itch page and the link will be in the episode description.
Amanda: Speaking of like wanting an easy one pager as a cozy game, I have to give the unsolicited advice on this advice podcast, Boardgame Cafe, great place for like, second, third, fourth date. Not a good place for a first date. [Janet laughs] I did go on a first date at a board game cafe. And it was so stressful because it's like you're trying to make conversation with somebody that you're meeting for the first time. But you're also like, trying to understand the rules of this obscure indie game. And then you're also trying to be like, competitive in like a fun way, but not in an off putting way and like it's a lot of mental gymnastics, but did learn to play a card game called Coup, where the goal is to overthrow the government. And I think it is a good litmus test of who you're dating to be like, do you think the idea of overthrowing the government is fun? Yes or no?
Eric: [Laughs] I have a real big question about board game cafes, and let's throw all the COVID restrictions out the door. I know that we're never going to be able to do that because COVID is going to be around forever. But imagine that that wasn't the - That's not the thing that we're considering. Is it better in a boardgame cafe to have a person who teaches you games or don't have a person who teaches you games, because I'm wondering if that person is more invasive than anything else, especially if you're on a date. Like I can only like imagine someone is third wheeling your date because they have to teach you how to play Hokkaido for the first time, or that you have to play like Betrayal on the House of the Hill. And they have to tell you, you need four players for this stop playing this together. Like I wonder if there's something like very romantic or at least like introspective, you're there by yourself or you're there with just like with a friend, where you just kind of like ramble through a game as you like, pull it off the shelf.
Amanda: I think maybe somewhere in the middle, where you need some kind of like, nerdy fellow hanging out who, when you're looking at the games, they could be like, “oh, yeah, like I played that game recently, it was pretty good.” Because I find it very overwhelming. Like, oh, my, that was probably the most stressful part of the date was like picking the game, because you don't know if it's gonna be good or not. And like, I just kind of went for the games that looked like they had cool art. But I don't know. I mean, what if I was missing a great game, I would have appreciated some random nerdy person poking their head out being like, [Dopey voice] “have you tried this game?” And I'd be like, No.
Eric: [Laughs] I'm sorry that the all the board game, people sound like that. I hope that they don't sound like that. Janet, what do you think? What's your experience at board game cafes?
Janet: I haven't really been to one where in the traditional sense, like a buy local store has like a space where you can like, oh, rent out, or sometimes they have like events or something. Again, some, some of that's pre COVID. Some of that has reinstated. So I haven't done a board game cafe in that sense, I'd really want the option to like have a more guided experience. If I, if we decided we wanted it. My entry point into board games was with my boyfriend who's really good at reading through and like distilling the information because if it's a really like long rule set, I'm like, Look, I'm gonna like he was reading one the other day, we were trying to play like a new game. And he's like, you're not? Are you paying attention to this? And I'm like, I'll be honest, I'm not. But that's not because I don't care. It's because I could pretend to pay attention. I'm not gonna absorb anything. Like I need the casual version of the instructions. You know, I need the like, quick, pre-made tutorials, which I think is unique to board games where like video games, I mean, not every video game has an explicit tutorial, but with a board game, there's not really tutorialisation in the board game almost at all. Sometimes there's pictures of the tutorialisation like, they'll show you like, here's a scenario or something.
Eric: Sure.
Janet: But in that sense, it's kind of, I think, additionally hard to learn versus like video games where they like, bake that in and you're like, centered immediately, then they know what order challenges come into it versus like an a board game, something weird can happen. And they're like, Am I allowed to do this? I don't know. Let's check. It's a lot of going back and forth. But I've gotten better at figuring that stuff out. So like, I think he could walk us through it okay. I either need someone that's good at that. Or I need like a professional because generally for longer manuals, I can, I have not, I've yet to been able to, like, read and figure those out on my own comfortably and easily.
Amanda: Yeah, I agree.
Eric: I'm trying to think of how you could have a tutorial setup for you like in a video game style, like I'm thinking about the beginnings of like Civilization, or Crusader Kings, or even you know, when you were supposed to go down the proper path in Elden Ring, how it's like there's a there's like a thing that set up for you. It's like, we're gonna jump right in. Don't worry about the beginnings. We're just learning about the gameplay. And I wonder if like you walked into your game store and like there was a game already in progress. Like imagine you're playing Sorry, right? Like someone's trying to teach you Sorry. And there's already the pieces on the board and it's like the don't worry about how to start and how to get out of there. We're just being like, hey, here's how you play Sorry, roll the dice and then you move forward, and then like you get to access it in play. I would love like someone is setting up tutorials all in various parts of like a game store to for you to jump into a board game as it's like in the middle of it.
Amanda: Yeah, I do want to say while we're talking about childhood games, like Sorry, Eric, can we just shout out? Have you ever played Passover Chutes and Ladders?
Eric: No, I have not played Passover Chutes and Ladders, what is that?
Amanda: [Laughs] One it sounds like it is Chutes and Ladders but it's Passover themed and I think there was like, like a dayenu square and like I think the shoots are matzah. I had it growing up and I just I wish I still had it because that just feels like an amazing cultural relic keepsake to have.
Eric: That feels like someone's JCC like went under Parker Brothers nose and like made this just cuz and they thought it would only distribute like in the greater Philadelphia area and they didn't think anyone would bring it up that feels like someone is stealing some IP, 100%.
Amanda: Yeah, now that's a cozy game is Passover Chutes and Ladders.
Eric: Absolutely. You know that's reminding me of, is all of the Monopoly games like all the hell it's just the same game over and over again. And it's just like, you put whatever type of layer on top of it. I don't remember the last time we played Monopoly, because Monopoly fucking sucks. Stop playing Monopoly, everyone stop playing it. There's also like millennial monopoly, but like in the way that like boomers made it for millennials.
Janet: Like you just rent apartments?
Eric: Yeah, it's just like rent. Yeah, it's really don't, don't buy it go Google it. It's really, really nasty.
Amanda: I want a little metal avocado toast to move around the board.
Eric: That's actually the end, instead of Boardwalk, it's avocado toast because you can't buy a house.
Amanda: I had avocado toast for breakfast this morning. And I made it myself. And it was very cost effective.
Eric: And that's why you're not going to get a house when you grow up. Amanda, I'm so sorry.
Amanda: Damn it.
Eric: Honestly, I'm not sure. But like, you could say anything. And there's like a 50/50 chance it's in there. Right? Like whatever hacky joke you can think of. It's definitely in millennial monopoly.
Amanda: I mean, I hope there's not Passover monopoly because I can get into some bad stereotypes pretty quick.
Eric: [Laughs] Oh, god. Okay, let's go to our final section here on Games and Feelings. We're going to go to queries from the internet [Imitating echo] net, net, net, ne - that I have recovered deep within the bowels of the internet. I have went on to the archive of Yahoo Answers, and I have something for both of you to respond to. There's a question that we need to go back in time. We have to get into the time machine and help Xbox360Dude, 15 years ago. Can both of you help him?
Amanda:Yes. Should I put on my Bidoof hat?
Janet: That's such a good hat. Can you please explain to for like people listening? What what do we got going on here Amanda?
Amanda: This isn't good Podcast content, because it's not visual. If you could see me would see that I'm wearing a Bidoof hat, which symbolizes that I've gone back in time. Or it could just be because I had it on my desk and I wanted to put it on.
Janet: Where can I get that? Is that like a Pokemon official, is that like custom made?
Amanda: It was $20 on the Pokemon Center. I was getting it from my friend for their birthday. And then I was like, I want to get that for myself too. So I did.
Janet: I'm already going to Google to see if this is still in stock.
Eric: What I want to point out about this hat is that it's not like a hat. It's just like a Bidoof. Like it's just a Bidoof on your head.
Janet: I mean, anything is a hat if it's designed for your head. It is still there and it's $20. You know what I think I'm doing mean it's a car I can't think of anything.
Amanda: Wait, can you not to co opt Eric's podcast, but can you read some of the reviews? do that because like oh my gosh, so good. Like incredible part of it.
Janet: How about this? I'll pull up the reviews we'll do the question and now we are still in the podcast we do the question and then after the question, I'll read some of the reviews.
Eric: No, this is great. Now I know read the reviews ex Xbox 360 dude from 15 years ago can fucking wait it's fine.
Janet: He can still they can still wait. Okay, so I'm just gonna read them top down. I also love that this is like I like the UMass as a man because those who know know the only will shopping on here are grown adults for themselves. It's not like my kid really like it's always just like, I'm 47 and I love this camera at age 20 to 30 from goof to do prior to buying this hat I was zero I wasn't confident myself. I got fired from my job. Then my girlfriend left me I was living on the streets. Then Bidoof day arrived I saw the hat was for sale. I bought it with my remaining money after it I now have a better job a new girlfriend and we have a house. Thank you but due for changing my life there for your program on character Lux Ray Bidoof of course garba door and chars ARD also I've heard they can write anything there and I wouldn't fully know if it was a real book of mine or not. Those are all real confirmed Jana
Eric: before you move on from this one. I need to know about the five people who disliked this comment and what went wrong in their life for this to have happened
Amanda: exactly. My YouTube got rid of dislikes.
Janet: Ever since I got this hat I have ascended past the mortal realm and become a true gamer. Five, five Pikachu heads actually they're not stars. For some reason, I'm just jumping ahead to like some of the deeper cuts sila again 20 to 30 Why not join the holy worship of Bidoof we've got and they use like a little emo for the bullet points to very well done a comfy hat for your head the eternal love of our Lord and Savior HMS for days the comfort of knowing buddyphones smite you a better God that archy has spoilers against ascension into a higher plane of existence a lot of people are talking about this higher plane I don't know if that's produced specific or what and then the last one last one I'll read actually am 31 to 40 says beautiful his lovely soft a beautiful quality although it is tight fit if you have a larger head well that's good to know because actually my head is huge so it
Amanda: fits my head pretty well but my friend who I also gifted this to it did not fit their head very well. What's also sad is that I got them the Bidoof hat and a Krammer ramp because they love grandparent but they already had a camera so I got them a camera and they already had and up a doof hat
Janet: that didn't fit you know i This is a write off because I'll probably use it on my stream. So this is a work expense as far As the government knows, so there you go.
Eric: This is perfect. We're watching content being made right now. This is huge for us, Janet. This is our first exclusive
Janet: This is how it happens yeah, like new channel point redemption. Are you kidding? Like this is gonna like trump everything else that I have like I can't afford not to buy this at this point. How many subs do I need to make this up 10 Once you take out the TwitchCon we can do that we can do that pretty easily I think
Eric: absolutely. I mean I would love to pose if you could name it Games and Feelings your body fat but it's just up to you if what you're doing I don't want to go come between you and your in your new Bidoof and count and tell you what your nicknames should be.
Janet: It'll be like the origin story and the plug for this like find out how I this this show cost me $22 somewhere
Eric: that's very funny. I went all the way as far to the end as I could about the reviews. Honestly, this is a two so this is a new game that we're going to do for queries from the internet. So this is perfect. I just want to shout out Kyle am the title of the review is to do furry the review is Bidoof period and under favorite Pokemon character they said too many to choose from with two exclamation points. And Kyle the I'm sorry you only have three likes I'm gonna give you a like right now. So now go for
Janet: the very last like pull up on center COMM And I want to make on this episode, hopefully because it's taking too much time. I'm like gonna check out right. It's 99 Nine for this hat thing. It's pretty fair, fair price, I think for this hat. But then here's the kicker and this I just feel like it's evil because I'm sure they have a lot of stuff for 99 out on this website to qualify for free shipping. Add 0.01 dollars. Okay, one cent more. It's your car. And now I have to play the game. How much is shipping? Can I get an item that is equal to that amount of?
Amanda: Oh, I did the same thing when I bought mine. And then I just texted my friend who lives a block for me and also likes Pokemon and was like, Hey, do you want anything from the Pokemon Center? And then she bought some socks. So it all works out in the end. Okay,
Janet: that's the hack. That's I'm going to the Pokemon Center. Do you want anything?
Eric: I'm looking at. I think you can buy a greeting card but I think the cheapest thing is $10 still, so that doesn't help you.
Janet: What's a greeting card? $10
Eric: It's a really fancy greeting, Janet, I'm not poker on center. I can't tell you that
Janet: doesn't Game Freak have enough? You know, haven't they taken enough for me?
Amanda: Do you have a shrewish plushie because I did get a promotional email from the Pokemon Center yesterday about like spring Pokemon plushies and
Janet: that's the thing with the Pokemon Center like they have so much merch and so much of it is cool and I have a couple things from the Pokemon Center to the point where like I don't really show up to this website ever because like you're gonna see stuff you want. Like they constantly have new like skews coming in like they have they're promoting a freakin mint green alchemy like oh my god, that's so specific. Yes, I want it it's like such a alchemy such like a weird unsettling cute dollop of whipped cream to look at to like, I hate it. But I kind of love it. You know, like I want it anyway. But these are TBD on how I get the free shipping because I'm not paying for shipping.
Eric: This is the I mean like they want you to splurge and want you to get Pikachu kitchen ceramic, salt and pepper shaker set. That's what they
Amanda: got. Now I want that. What would your Botros do if you bought those?
Eric: We would use it and we would love it. We would do
Amanda: that. And I mean, well, maybe Janet has to order it. Like I don't know if you live in the same place. But this ship over to
Janet: that and then we're back to the same problem. It's fucked up for something out. There's got to be a solution here.
Eric: Honestly, I didn't know what this website was. I totally agree with you, Janet. I just kept seeing screenshots on Twitter of these little adorable poker monster stuffed animals. And I'm like, I need to figure out what this is. No one would link to anything in there. It took me like six months to find this website and actually start buying this stuff. I'm gonna do this really quickly because I'm very happy that we went on this Rob for with his producer hat. Thank you so much, Amanda. And I hope that your life is richer. Now Janet. This is quickly from Xbox 360. Dude is using a money cheat code on Elder Scrolls for Oblivion, cheating because all you're doing is getting money. Is that is that cheating?
Janet: It is but like, that doesn't matter. Because it's not like it's, you know, competitive in nature for what you're using it for. So like, yes, you're cheating, but like, that's fine. Now, the one caveat I put is it depends on the kind of cheat it is. I think if it's a cheat that exists within the game proper, like you didn't have to like, you know, do a workaround, then that's not cheating because it's built in stuff. Like I think the Konami code or finding like funky stuff like that. That's not cheating that's built into the game. Now if it's something like taking advantage of an exploit I don't think that's cheating. That's just like gaming the system. But also again, it is a matter if you're if you're having fun and you're not like messing with other players in some way or like being just ingenuous. Yeah, go enjoy your fake money that you may be bought with real money. I'm not sure how that works. But yeah, live it up. I would totally if I could drop $50 and like get it All these different like things in Animal Crossing are qualified totally. What am I already? I'd absolutely whatever it would be no question. So live your life live your best life 15 years ago?
Eric: Absolutely. This was like 2007. So I don't think this was pay to win yet. I wonder if there is like a cheat code that was built into this that you could do it in? I don't know, like a cheat code mode, you could put stuff into it like in the sense.
Amanda: I mean, I think you could go as far as arguing like, Is it cheating in Animal Crossing, to just kind of island hop to random islands from a random discord that you're in? And catalogue all of the items? Like did you ever go to any cataloging parties and Animal Crossing? Yeah, where people would get like tons of items and like super rare items, and they would just drop the little like the item. And then you would go to their island, and you would pick it up and drop it. And then it catalogs that you have had the item and then you can order it from your own little nook thing, whatever it's called. It's like, that's kind of cheating, because it's like, yeah, maybe you want to wait until these items organically appear in your store. But also, who cares? It's fun. I think if you're not hurting anybody, as Janet said, just like live your best life. But then again, I'm also torn about like, I think God Mode on Hades is a great feature that makes the game more accessible to people. But also like, come on, like you can do it like you have to suffer. But also do you have to suffer? Am I Am I being gaslight gatekeeper? Girlboss. About About Haiti's
Eric: fair, that's fair. I want to say that the for people who responded to Xbox 360 Dude, this was not going to surprise you. They all said it was cheating and the bad he should get good and actually play Elder Scrolls as it was.
Amanda: See, that's how I feel about people using godmode on Hades even though I do acknowledge actually it is a great feature and a really great way to make games accessible. But also come on get good. Well,
Eric: ex Xbox 360 Dude, if you're listening 15 years later, do whatever you want. Have fun with it, it's fine.
Amanda: Finally, he can play the game. I have been waiting for so long.
Eric: And if your internet works 15 years ago, you could go on to poke them on center and buy this Purdue fat. It's really great. Lots of people like
Amanda: yeah, and then people in 2007 will be like what's Bidoof
Eric: the thing that I one last thing about Bidoof I the thing that I like about it?
Janet: He's just a beaver Yes, I was like going to the thing
Eric: about Bidoof means that people in Pokemon acknowledge the existence of Pokemon memes and like go on tumblr and find that shit. And like I like that for as a business strategy, like using memes to dictate that people actually like the thing because like, yeah, produced as a fucking beaver who cares, but it's enough to end up in memes. And that's why we're going to put them in new Pokemon Snap. And I appreciate that. The folks in gamefreak have their ear to the ground.
Amanda: Yeah, they had Bidoof week in Pokemon Go were in the PvP on PokemonGo they had a version where you could only use the dupes. So we're just fighting against a team of produce, but then there were special Bidoof that you could only get at certain point that had different charged moves. So you had like a buddy that knows Shadow Ball, and then a producer that knows like Thunderbolt. I have a shiny Vudu from Pokemon Go humblebrag incredible.
Eric: All right. I think that we've reached the end of games and feelings here. I think we've dispensed plenty of advice. And if you're listening, I'm sure Bidoof doesn't the word Bidoof doesn't mean anything to you anymore. Amanda, Janet, please plug yourself Where can people find you? Whether or not you're wearing a blue fat?
Janet: You can find me across the Internet under the handle Gameonysus, that's Gameonysus. So I'm on Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok, Twitch, YouTube just pretty much everywhere. So check it out. You know, I do a bunch of stuff on the internet with KindofFunny, Minimax, now Lost in Cult as well. But I also have my own website, pentopixels. That's where I post like my reviews and my written content. So yeah, check out all those places.
Amanda: You can find me on Twitter at asilbwrites, on techcrunch.com where I write about digital culture. Sometimes that includes video games, and I would love it if you checked out my podcast. “Wow If True” It is a deep dive into weird internet culture things hosted by me a tech journalist, and Isabelle a terminally online attorney. And Eric's been on a couple episodes. So if you like him here, maybe you'll like him.
Eric: They're wonderful. You can follow me on Twitter at El_Silvero, El_Silvero, My name if I was a lucha libre wrestler, and you can follow the show at Games N Feelings, that's with an ‘n’ instead of and it's like Linens n Things or Toys R Us but with an N. The best place to submit questions is to go to our website gamesandfeelings.com/questions, and you can support the show so that I can buy my own Bidoof hat at patreon.com/gamesandfeelings. Those links are in the episode description. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much to real writers and covers of games and Tech. Janet and Amanda, thank you so much for giving your advice. And remember, the instruction manual doesn't have anything on feelings.