State of the Show Address and AMA - Summer 2024

[00:00:07] Hello and welcome to the Summer 2024 State of the Show Address and Ask Me Anything episode of A Gamer Looks At 40. Thanks so much for checking out this little side show. It gives me a little bit extra room to complete the Final Fantasy 6 episodes and I am really psyched.

[00:00:27] Work is well underway. Can't wait for that. On this episode, I'm going to be talking a bit about the next few months of the show, what you can expect. I have a little announcement over a casting call of sorts, so stay tuned for that.

[00:00:41] And then we're going to do an Ask Me Anything because why not? Thought it would be a fun way to kind of fill out an episode. I haven't done one of these in a while, so yeah, just wanted to throw that out there.

[00:00:53] So let's jump right into it. So next week, Final Fantasy 6 starts. The amount of episodes for this series for Final Fantasy 6 has been ever increasing. It started with me thinking about three or four.

[00:01:12] Once I did Final Fantasy 4 and saw the amount for that, I'm like, alright, it's not yet at least as many as Final Fantasy 4, probably a little more. So as it sits right now and this can change, there's going to be six episodes worth

[00:01:25] of material for Final Fantasy 6, which is nice and cohesive. Six episodes for Final Fantasy 6. There's some rhythm to that. I kind of like that. But that's just how it's going to work out. And I really think that I'm going to this is a really good.

[00:01:44] This is going to be a great encapsulation of Final Fantasy 6 and why people love this game so much. This is a very personal game for me. This was one of my formative video games and I'm trying to do it justice without overdoing it. I may be overdoing it.

[00:01:59] I don't know, but the way this show is structured, I feel like I have to put my all into Final Fantasy 6. This will easily be the longest of them. I can't imagine doing any more than six episodes in any other game.

[00:02:16] I'm sure X will probably have three or four and seven will probably have three or four. But as far as like the tentpole, this is kind of the game I want to capture. We're going to be talking about characters.

[00:02:28] We're going to be talking about recollections, big moments, all the stuff you've heard in other shows and some surprises as well that I'm not quite ready to reveal as of yet. And some things I'm still really working on. I'm working hard on getting certain people to this show.

[00:02:45] Even if it doesn't fall in line, there's some there's some big gets I want to get. So Final Fantasy 6 is going to be six episodes. It's a very personal game for me, and I hope that's conveyed. I hope that's not too much after Final Fantasy 6 is complete.

[00:03:01] We're going to have a couple of tales from the bargain bin just to break things up. I'm well aware a lot of my audience doesn't like Final Fantasy and hopefully they're not checking out. I do want to give people other reasons to come and check out the show.

[00:03:13] So Tales from the Bargain Bin is a great way to do that. And then we're going to do Final Fantasy 7. Now, I don't know how many episodes this is going to be just yet as I've just started interviewing, but I'm going to be taking a slightly

[00:03:27] different approach to Final Fantasy 7. Spoiler alert, I did not play seven when I was a kid. I never owned a PlayStation. I was an N64 kid. I bemoaned no RPGs on the N64 except for one or two. And I kind of just fell out of Final Fantasy.

[00:03:47] I missed out on that whole era, you know, seven, eight and nine basically. And so I don't have the personal connection to it. I'd like Final Fantasy 7, but it's not something I'm just in love with, connected with.

[00:04:02] So what I'd like to do is in addition to the standard recollections and moments and characters and kind of building this oral history, I want to spend at least one episode talking about how Final Fantasy 7 was the first Final Fantasy that became a sensation.

[00:04:21] I was there when this game was released and you couldn't escape it. It was everywhere. It was the system seller for the PlayStation one. It was the demo disc of demo discs. And I want to capture the vibe of what it was like

[00:04:40] in the world, but in the gaming world when Final Fantasy 7 was released. What was that hype? What was that energy? What was that release day fervor? So casting call, if you're listening to this episode,

[00:04:54] that means you like the show and you're listening to the off stuff, which is awesome. If you worked in the video game industry during that era of Final Fantasy one, if you were working in games, if you spent time waiting in line

[00:05:08] for a release, if you were doing journalism, if you were writing blogs, if you were around and can tell some stories of what it was like just waiting for Final Fantasy 7 to drop the the vibe, the history. I want to tell that story in one of these episodes.

[00:05:27] So please reach out to me. Twitter is my main place. DMs are always open. Just hit me up on a gamer looks at 40 for zero on Twitter. I'm going to be needing a lot more than that, obviously the standard recollections and characters and all that fun stuff.

[00:05:40] And a lot of the voices you've heard so far will be making another appearance. But I really want to get a sense for just what was the fervor? What was the energy of Final Fantasy 7 as an event?

[00:05:52] So if you can speak to that, I love to hear from you. Please let me know. DMs on Twitter are best or you can just email me at a gamer looks at 40 for zero at gmail.com. Very, very excited about this prospect.

[00:06:09] Julian from stage select has told me that a gamer looks at 40 is like this oral history, like it's it's preserving something. And in that vein, I want to preserve this piece of the Final Fantasy world because again, I remember distinctly, even though I was a big

[00:06:26] Nintendo fanboy, Final Fantasy 7 was an inescapable force. And it was the first game in the series that was that even six was still relatively niche. Seven became a cultural phenomenon and I love capturing cultural phenomenons. I find them absolutely fascinating.

[00:06:45] All right, it is now time for the Ask Me Anything. Thank you to everybody who submitted questions for this. This should be a lot of fun. I didn't do a lot of research on these questions. I figured I would just do them and just do them.

[00:06:58] So starting off from my discord, which is again, it looks at 40 discord. If you go to my bio on Twitter or go to the website, you can sign up for the discord as well. I try to be as active as I can on there.

[00:07:10] Some really good people sharing fun stuff. So be sure to pop onto the discord if you'd like to get deeper involved in the show. So Mike Alburton of Games My Mom Found asks, have you played or going to play atomic heart supposed to be inspired by Bioshock?

[00:07:28] I will eventually, Mike, I am just so deep into Final Fantasy World, but that is definitely on the list. Atomic Heart, it just seems like my kind of game. I mean, we did recently did an episode on Prey. I love a good immersive sim.

[00:07:42] I don't know what the reaction to it has been just yet, but I really haven't looked deeply into it, but that's definitely on the list. It's just yeah, if you say inspired by Bioshock, I'm probably going to play it.

[00:07:56] That's just you just you wormed your evil way into my heart. Philip from the discord asks, what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? And of course, of course, the answer to that, of course,

[00:08:09] is what has to be another question is the is the is a unhusked. Is it gripping? Is it gripping a coconut and gripping said coconut by the husk? I adore Monty Python. I I may I that's not a secret fan, but I love everything Monty Python.

[00:08:27] I was for a little while there in college, I was your annoying Monty Python fan friend who not only saw all the movies, but had also seen all the TV shows. I had all the TV shows on VHS tapes. And now, of course, they're all available on Netflix.

[00:08:42] I've watched them multiple times. I've watched the six DVD or Blu-ray documentary. I've read the oral history books. I actually had opening night tickets to Spam a lot when it was first came out and I don't know when it was in New York.

[00:08:59] And this is actually a turn sad. I forgot about this. I had opening night tickets for for Spam a lot. I got them like a year in advance. And whoever I was dating at the time, we got into a fight like right before I was supposed to go.

[00:09:16] And she was upset about something. And me in just a very bad moment of co-dependent sadness and depression said, fine, I won't go. And I didn't go. I actually gave the tickets to my best friend, Joey.

[00:09:31] And I think Joey and his wife, I think they might have been married at the time. They went to Spam a lot and they went to opening night. The entire cast was there. My dream to go and clap coconuts with Eric Idle and Michael Palin and John Cleese.

[00:09:49] I for some reason, I just was in this very sad, co-dependent place. And I just chose to make myself suffer by not going to make a significant other happy or think I was making her happy. It was a really very sad moment.

[00:10:06] I've yet to see Spam a lot. I don't know if I could even go if it came around. I mean, if it comes to Austin at some point, I'll probably go see it. But yeah, I had opening night tickets and decided,

[00:10:16] nah, I'm going to just wallow in a bad relationship instead. So kids, don't do that. Do don't don't do that. Don't be like your uncle Bill here. Don't don't be like grand pappy Bill and make that mistake. That's a poor, poor idea indeed.

[00:10:35] Yeah. And actually, and just for because I think this came up once before in some either message board or discord channel. My favorite might Python is Palin, Michael Palin. I love Michael Palin. He is my number one favorite. And I know that's an odd take.

[00:10:49] I know Eric Eidle or John Cleese, but Palin was the glue that binds that group together. And his comedy is, I don't know, something about the way he performed is is magical. I love everything he does. And I'm a big Michael Palin guy.

[00:11:06] I know it sounds kind of too cool for the room, but that's my so little money python talk. I didn't expect to go talking about money python. Cypher zero from the discord asks, are you a buy the thing and leave it in the original open open box?

[00:11:21] Or do you open it up, play with it, display it either action figures or video games? I am not a collector. I've said this a few times on this show and other places. I don't have collections. I've things I have that are neat.

[00:11:35] I don't have the room and I just don't have that bug to acquire things. But when I acquire, it depends on the thing. If it has a utility, I'm going to use it. If it doesn't have a utility, I'm not going to.

[00:11:50] If it's an action figure, I have a few little like there are these Bethesda action figures. I got it at a garage sale or one of these sales from a neighbor, actually. And it has a little fallout, chibi fallout for power armor guy

[00:12:03] has Elizabeth from dishonored and a oh, and they are a cacodemon from doom in it. It's like a little three figurine set. And I think cacodemon, whatever, monster demon. And I had them displayed in the box and like, I don't know.

[00:12:22] I want to put them on my desk. So I just made the decision. I took them out of the package, put them on my desk. They have since been half destroyed by my kids because they come in and play with them.

[00:12:31] I think the cacodemon is missing an ear. And I think Elizabeth is missing an arm. I don't care. But for me, I'd rather have the kids enjoy them and play with them. I so I guess to answer that question,

[00:12:41] I'd rather them just be enjoyed than be shelf candy. That's just me. I bought on the other side of that. Many years ago, I won a as a Japanese NES mini. I think it was from the Gamers Week crew.

[00:12:57] I forget when I think it might be from Gamers Week. They were given someone was giving someone a wet some of this. Someone was giving this away. I'd pretty sure it was Gamers Week. And I won it.

[00:13:05] I won the giveaway and I took it out of the box, opened it, played it once, realized I don't speak Japanese, put it back in and now it just sits on my desk at all times, just sitting there in the box complete.

[00:13:17] But I did take it out once to play with it, just to plug it in and see how it worked. It's a Japanese family computer, a Japanese Famicom. So I'm I do a little of both. And the things I get, I like to have utility for.

[00:13:31] So I guess I'm less shelf candy, more utility. The Let's Play Princess asks, what is an obscure game that you love and wish more people knew about? I have a couple. One of them more people know about now because it's on the it's in the NES

[00:13:49] Switch Online NSO collection. It's Journey to Cilius. I did a show on this or a Tales from the Bargainman really early in the podcast about Journey to Cilius. And it's a game that I absolutely love. It's not perfect. The soundtrack is absolutely incredible.

[00:14:07] It's one of my favorite NES soundtracks. And it's just one of those fun games that I really enjoy and got randomly as a kid from a well-meaning family member. And it's super fun. Another one I like is Captain Skyhawk. Not many people know about Captain Skyhawk again.

[00:14:24] I'm not that's not super duper obscure, but it's another one I really did. I played that in my cousin Kevin's house all the time. I never owned it. So it was really a treat to go there and play Captain Skyhawk. It's basically a plain shooter,

[00:14:37] but you have the ability to have kind of have altitude. And it's a really fun game, really cool visual style. Bill and Bradley, I think, released that one. The people behind Marble Madness released that one.

[00:14:50] And then one other game I'm going to say for the NES as well is Clash at Demonhead. That is a weird game that I think is actually really good and fun. I don't know. I must have a thing for floaty controls. It's just like a side scrolling.

[00:15:04] You're you're a dude trying to rescue a game person. I don't know, trying to rescue somebody, but it's got a really weird art style and it's just it's a weird also you take a lot of multiple paths as well to get to the end.

[00:15:17] The ending of Clash at Demonhead, you have to solve like a random puzzle and figure out like four random numbers or you lose. And there's no way of predicting them, which is super lame. I have never done it. The Clash at Demonhead would be another one.

[00:15:29] I borrowed that game a lot from a friend in elementary school, for sure. So those are my three journey to Silius, Clash at Demonhead and Captain Skyhawk all on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Distorted elimination asks,

[00:15:45] do I just play video games or have I dabbled in tabletop RPGs at all? I've never been a tabletop RPG. I've never played a single one and I wish I had a better answer for this.

[00:15:57] I I always feel like I would love to play like a D&D campaign. Like, I'd really like it because I love that idea of storytelling and getting involved into like a role play. But I've never done any real crunchy tabletop RPGs.

[00:16:12] The closest I ever got to one there is a place here in Austin called Vigilante Gastropub and Games. Is it still around? I think it might be. Maybe we'll see the website still active. That's cool. And yeah, I think it's still around.

[00:16:31] And it's basically a bar where they have these custom made gaming tables where you can go and play tabletop RPGs like risk and and they actually have the games there you can just use. And it's a really very cool place.

[00:16:46] I did an article on it for the Austin knot when they first opened. And it was my own one, the only articles I've ever done that got big on Reddit for some reason. And when I saw the little counters back in the day,

[00:16:58] they would show you how many likes you have on Facebook or how many retweets. The little banner on the website so don't exist anymore. I think all that information is now hidden. I saw Reddit was getting big and I'm like, oh, no. Oh, no, not Reddit.

[00:17:10] I don't want to I don't want to be big on Reddit. It's they're going to be mean. And sure enough, they were actually really nice. And they're like, oh, this is like a really cool place in Austin. And I think it's still there from everything I'm seeing.

[00:17:22] So yeah, it's definitely still there. So it's a it's a board game with a full service bar and restaurant where you can go with friends. They have these two really cool hidden rooms that seat 10 to 12 people. But they're behind a bookshelf.

[00:17:36] You have like move the bookshelf out of the way to go to this back secret area. A very cool place. Vigilante Gastropub in games in Austin, Texas. But I personally have never really been involved with with tabletop RPGs. But I'd like to at some point.

[00:17:51] And then finally, Kev from the Discord as the first one I did from the Discord, which Mega Man X game in the series is my favorite and which is your boss is your favorite from the whole series? All right, I'm really glad you asked this question, Kev,

[00:18:04] because I have been recording with games my mom found on the Mega Man X series for I've got to be a couple of years now. And I think I've been on all those episodes except for maybe X5. I can't remember.

[00:18:15] I think we've gone up to X6 at this point, which is not very good at all. So I actually have some recent memories of Mega Man X. Mega Man X is not only my favorite game in the entire series, it's my favorite game of all time.

[00:18:30] That that is my the asking what my favorite game of all time is. It's Mega Man X. I think it is an almost perfect blend of very simple storytelling and just feels beautiful in your hands. There's something just glorious about the way Mega Man X plays.

[00:18:47] That formula is perfected in X and I don't think it gets better. I think it gets a little worse by degrees as we move on to the X series. The bigger the sprites get, the more elaborate,

[00:18:59] the more systems you put on it, the more things you can put on Mega Man, the more secrets you can hide. I think it delutes the experience as it goes forward. I will say X4, though, is unbelievably good.

[00:19:13] And if I didn't have some nostalgia for Mega Man X, you can make a very strong argument that X4 is better. I can't do that with a good conscience. I love Mega Man X way too much to even say those words to sully its good name.

[00:19:28] So I can't I can't do it. I shan't do it. But you can make a very strong argument that X4 is the best in the series. It is phenomenal. I love Mega Man X2 is great. X3 is very good. I like it quite a bit.

[00:19:42] X5 is X6 is and I hear it doesn't get much better. So I have not played seven or eight yet. I'm waiting till the great Mike Alburton taps me on the virtual shoulder and says time to do X7 and I will comply

[00:19:58] because that's just how it rolls in my world with Mr. Mike Alburton. But yeah, Mega Man X is my favorite game of all time. It was super Metroid for the very for the longest time. But that last playthrough I think for games my mom found cemented it.

[00:20:12] I was like, oh no, I think I absolutely adore this. I can I could play that game every month. And it's cool actually seeing my son try to play it as well. He's it's one of those games he goes back to all the time

[00:20:22] as he gets older and older to try and get further and further in because it's a tricky game and that's a that's a challenging one. So it's been cool watching him play it as well. All right. Thank you to everyone on my discord for their questions.

[00:20:35] But I wanted a few more. I wanted this to be more than like a 20 minute episode, which is what it's looking like right now. So I went on to other discords of a couple of discords of my friends just to get some other comments and they pulled through.

[00:20:49] Thank you so much to. So we're going to start off with. So we're going to start off with the Gamers Week podcast discord very, very pleased. Thank you so much to everyone who chimed in a question to really fill out this episode.

[00:21:04] I know it's when I do these, it's a bit of a nothing ego shock. But it's you know, it's one of those things where I it's like, I didn't get any responses on Twitter. Well, he tries again. Still no responses on Twitter.

[00:21:17] But the but the important people got back to me. And that's what matters though. So thank you very much for those questions. We're going to start and I just looked at these now. So I'm literally reading these blind now.

[00:21:28] So I'm going to stumble through them probably a bit. So starting with emo esque from the Gamers Week podcast discord group, if you know, you're going to have a good amount of time to play games rare these days, I assume.

[00:21:40] What is your go to snack and beverage specifically for gaming sessions? So excellent question. I write, I like this is going to sounds very basic. I have a pretty basic snacker. I love cheez-its. Cheez-its are like my go to snack.

[00:21:58] And none of this like specialty cheez-it, Parmesan cheez-it, spicy hot cheez-it, toasted cheez-it, extra toasty, large cheez-it. No, no, no, no, just the standard original old school cheez-its. And every week, every couple of weeks, I treat myself and get a big old box

[00:22:17] of cheez-its, and that's kind of like my side, my side snack as I'm as I'm chewing and playing the games. They're not very crumbly. They're not very greasy. So I don't grease up the keyboard and make everything all goopy and full of gunk.

[00:22:30] You know, they're not exactly the cleanest chip in the world, but cheez-its are kind of like my go to. I can just snack on those for a while, especially if it's late at night. I feel the next morning like, OK, I guess I'm not eating another five hours.

[00:22:42] But yeah, the cheez-its are kind of like my Achilles heel. As far as beverage goes, yeah, I'm pretty boring when it comes to beverages. I do drink a decent amount of Dine Soda. I know I shouldn't, but I kind of do.

[00:22:55] If I'm feeling fancy, though, I do enjoy non-acoholic beer. I especially non-acoholic Guinness. Non-acoholic Guinness is really good, y'all. I would challenge most people to try a non-acoholic Guinness like do a side by side taste test.

[00:23:13] If you're doing it side by side, you probably could tell the difference. But without a side by side, like you would you could be duped. You would probably go, wow, that's actually pretty good. But something's weird. But for someone like me who doesn't drink anymore, it's great.

[00:23:26] And I and it's the mouth feel is perfect. They got the mouth feel right on. It pours the head properly. I have Guinness glasses that I pour them into side the proper glassware. It comes the head comes up perfect. A nice little inch and a half.

[00:23:41] Guinness was one of my Achilles heels when I was in my drinking days in my New York City bar hoppin' days. I actually know how to pour a proper pint of Guinness. I my goat, a lot of my go to bars in the Upper East side of Manhattan

[00:23:56] were Irish pubs helmed by Irish people. And I would be there very, very, very late for three, four in the morning, some nights, sometimes five. And when they close and the bartenders just want to hang out, they have no problem with you going behind the bar

[00:24:11] and just pouring yourself again. And so I was actually taught at like five o'clock in the morning in a New York City Irish pub how to pour a proper pint of Guinness. So I can actually do it.

[00:24:20] And I how many seconds it's got to sit to for the head to settle before you finish it off once it hits that little bezel. Yeah, I can go through the whole thing. That'd be kind of boring to do that. But I have poured a proper pint.

[00:24:33] So it's when you do it from the can properly in a in a in the non-alcoholic Guinness cans, it comes out pretty darn close to what it ought to be in a in a proper pour. So absolutely, that's my thing. So I'll say Cheez-Itz and non-alcoholic Guinness.

[00:24:49] Also, a shout out to athletic brewing, who does great non-alcoholic beer, a very good hazy IPA if you like that sort of thing. And a shout out to Speedway. It's Ailes Smith does a non-alcoholic version of their Speedway stout. It's phenomenal. It is really good.

[00:25:06] That and the shoots does a version of their Black Butte, which is another stout that really it doesn't have the mouthfeel and it doesn't have the body that you just can't get that with a non-alcoholic beer. But the flavor is spot on.

[00:25:18] And it's almost cold brew at that point when you don't have alcohol with the coffee notes and those chocolate notes, but very satisfying. And if you're if you're someone who doesn't drink and you want to try a non-alcoholic beer, there are good ones out there.

[00:25:34] All right, next up is Writers View co-host of the Gamer's Weep podcast. She writes, what's something unexpected you've learned from streaming with Mrs. Bill, which of course is Jamie. So in case you don't know, I have my wife and I have been going through Fallout New Vegas.

[00:25:51] She is playing it for the first time. She is a relatively new video game player in general. She doesn't play a lot of games. So she loved the Fallout series on Amazon. We both did like, hey, I want to play a fallout game.

[00:26:05] And I'm like, we're playing New Vegas because it's my one of my top five games of all time. And we're doing a run now. She's doing really great. Like she's actually having a really good time. We're having a lot of fun. Once or twice a week, we stream.

[00:26:17] And what's interesting about Jamie and what we've what I've learned about her, so to speak, or just unexpected, I've learned from streaming with Mrs. with his bill, I wasn't sure if she was going to be like chaotic evil

[00:26:31] and like just exercise her demons, or is she going to be like her normal self, which is just nice and try to help everybody. And I wasn't sure which way she was going to go. And so far, she's been nice helping everybody.

[00:26:42] But every once in a while, she picks a dialogue option that surprises me. I go, ooh, that was a snarky response. But I really like that because that's her role playing. She's actually starting to kind of role play as the character, which is really fun.

[00:26:56] And that's for me, the fun of Fallout New Vegas. I don't think it makes for a great stream, but it's a lot of fun for us to just sit there and go through the dialogue and watch it. And I think we've had a few people show up.

[00:27:07] It's a lot of fun. We try to stream every Thursday, every Tuesday at nine o'clock central as a schedule we try to keep. And then throughout the week, we just pop on and just do it with unannounced

[00:27:18] just so we can play the game, which is a good sign. But I think that's the one thing I've been surprised by. I thought I was 5050. I'm like, is she just going to like join the Legion and just become like evil, psychotic, just to kind of like

[00:27:31] get her frustrations out? Or is she just going to want to help everybody? And sure enough, she was to help everybody. And she thinks through her decisions, which not that doesn't surprise me. We were at a section of Fallout where you are in Helios one

[00:27:44] and you have a group of ghouls who are in a cult and they they they are looking to go to their great beyond and yet to decide whether or not to assist them in this this flawed mission.

[00:27:55] And she took like a couple of days to figure it out. She's weighing all the options like, I know it's kind of nonsense. But I really want to help them because they really seems to commit. It was really cool to watch her kind of go through that

[00:28:08] that that that that that kind of mental exercise. There's been cool seeing little bits of her personality come out as she begins to roleplay this character. So it's been really fun to watch because she's never played a game quite like this.

[00:28:21] The most she plays usually are, you know, old school platformers, you know, she likes portal, but she's never played a game quite like this. And to see her kind of disappearance in these characters has been really fun. So yeah, super fun.

[00:28:34] That's kind of what I've unexpected for sure. But we're still kind of early in that journey. Zach, huge thanks from the Gamers Week podcast asks, will you eventually need to rename the show A Gamer Looks at 50? Not to be a bummer.

[00:28:47] I highly doubt I'll be doing this when I'm 50. I know I really don't think I'm going to be a gamer looking at 50 because that would imply. When I'm like 47, 48, that's what I'm really looking at 50. Right. What I renamed the show A Gamer Looks at 50. I don't know.

[00:29:08] I but I but I say that now when I first started this show, I intended it to be a limited run episode. I was going to do these actually as an it was a year, an episode.

[00:29:20] And I think it was going to do a monthly and I was going to know and I was going to do it weekly. I was going to do it weekly or bi-weekly. And I was going to do like one episode was nineteen ninety

[00:29:29] nineteen eighty four, nineteen eighty five, nineteen eighty six. And as I started doing interviews, I realized very quickly, people don't think of games in terms of years. They think of it in terms of personal seasons. And that's why I pivoted to this model, which

[00:29:44] which basically is now extended out to almost three years at this point. And no time stopping. I will say there are a couple of series before I end this show that I really, really want to do.

[00:29:56] And I don't I don't want to leave this piece of work incomplete. So there's a few things I want to do. But after like the next couple of ideas I have, I'll make a decision to see if I want to keep going.

[00:30:08] It's one of those things where it just takes a lot of time. And I don't know. I don't know. So I will say if I if I do get to 50, I'll have to make a genuine decision if I want to rename it. A gamer looks at 50.

[00:30:22] I just doesn't have the ring of those. The gamer looks at 40. So I don't I don't know. We'll see. We shall see. Now you got me thinking, Zach, about my future, my future. You got me thinking about what's going to happen in my immediate future.

[00:30:36] So thanks for that. Sir Coffee of House Blend, also known as the one and only great games with coffee has two questions. Firstly, first you let that down. Sorry. First, first you wait. First one is you wake up one morning to find yourself transformed

[00:30:55] into a character from a Final Fantasy game. What character would I wake up as and why? OK, so this implies that I have the ability to choose the character I wake up as and I'm assuming I am in my regular life.

[00:31:09] I'm just going to build one day and build the next day. I'm somebody else. The first thing that came to my mind and I don't know why. I don't know. I'll have a good why for this would be Aron.

[00:31:23] I don't know because Aron is from Final Fantasy X because he has so bad ass and so cool. No, I am. That just sounds really, really cool. The gravelly voice, I think it'd be really fun. And just to be like this wise weathered sage, which I feel

[00:31:42] like as I'm getting older is the trope I'm falling into, which is great. I fully embrace it is I don't know why. My my first thought was Aron because Aron is just so cool and awesome and has a giant sword and always has a jug with him

[00:31:57] for some reason and lots of belts because, you know, tomorrow. But it's it's just that was my first thought. I'm going to stick with that first thought just because that would be just really awesome. Full head of hair, you know, like cool sunglasses.

[00:32:11] Like there's nothing uncool about Aron like there really isn't. Although I don't think one of his arms work, so maybe that would be a little limiting, but that might get me out of yard work as well. So that could be a net bonus.

[00:32:25] I mean, let's be honest, if I only have one arm, I'm not going to be pushing around the lawnmower too much. However, if I'm Aron, I probably could. So that's that's that's that's a thing to consider. If I had to pick a second one,

[00:32:40] a character from Final Fantasy. Um, I'm going to stick with Aron. I'm just going to stick with that one. I can't think of another one because that just sounds so damn cool. And now that you're this character, what will my day be like?

[00:32:53] Well, I'll tell you, sir, sir, coffee of House Blend. My day would probably be very similar to what it is now. I would be much more intimidating. So I would instead of meekly dropping my daughter off to daycare,

[00:33:09] I would saunter in there with authority and be and say, go child and be amazing. I'll say something really profound. I'll always have something profound to say. People always look up because I'd have a stature, right? I think that my day would be would be spent

[00:33:27] just just just walking and wandering. I would be wandering just passing on sage advice to people who don't even ask for it. Just be that annoying person. By the way, wouldn't you like to know something important? I don't know. I think that's what my day would be.

[00:33:42] I that's that's that's the only thing of other than that, I think pretty standard. I mean, you know, it's not going to get me out of doing Zoom meetings. It's not going to get me out of down in, you know, the end yard work, probably.

[00:33:55] I would definitely, yeah, I don't think it'd be much, much different in my every day. I was everything would have more imports. Everything would have more gravitas to it. You know, everything would just be bigger and beefier. We're lack of a better term.

[00:34:12] Awesome. And then finally, Teri Baca asks, what is the most interesting thing you've learned or come across about Final Fantasy in your current massive undertaking? I like this is a great question, Teri. And I kind of thought about this a little bit.

[00:34:27] And I think I was asked this by somebody else on another guessing spot. I did what interesting thing I've learned about this. The most interesting thing I've learned about Final Fantasy is how much of a community there is and how communal of an experience

[00:34:42] these single player games are. Again, we haven't even gotten to Final Fantasy 11 and 14. We will get there at some point. Who knows this year? Maybe I don't know when at this point, but at some point we'll get there.

[00:34:53] But what's been really interesting to me is how many stories of people saying they played it with friends or they played it with a brother or a sister or a caretaker? Because whenever I think of the original six Final Fantasies, I think single player experiences.

[00:35:11] I think you could play six to player. But other than that, they were solo things. And for me, they were very solo. I by brother played them and I'd watch him play sometimes because he was much younger than I am. And I would give him pointers.

[00:35:23] But it was a me experience, which made it very intimate for me. But so many of my guests have stories of playing Final Fantasy games with friends and that blew me away. I never thought community would be such a big part of these early episodes.

[00:35:40] I knew it would be for the later episodes, again, especially 14 and 11. Those are going to be all about community. And I can't wait to do those episodes because I can't wait to tell those stories of people who have found love online and found friendships and community.

[00:35:56] I I love hearing stories of people who have intense fandoms and healthy fandoms, right? I've said this a number of times on different things. I love fans and I really love fandoms until fandoms become become obsessions. And that's when it crosses over.

[00:36:14] So when you get to the point of a fandom that's gotten toxic or gotten gross, I get away from the macro fandom and go to the micro fan because again, at the core of a fandom is a personal connection.

[00:36:28] And I find those stories fascinating, which is why I do the show in the first place. Right. So to answer that question, I didn't expect the most I thought I'd get for these early episodes was, yeah, I talked about it with friends

[00:36:41] on the playground and we kind of talked about where to farm, farm bad guys because that's what I did or where to farm experience. There's a lot of stories of people again, just doing this in community with other people.

[00:36:52] And I think that's so cool and a testament to what a cool game and what an amazing series Final Fantasy is and continues to be. So yeah, but yeah, I love I get I love fans and I love fandoms because personal connection to art makes art worth it.

[00:37:11] That's why art exists. And if you don't believe our video games or art or want to have that debate, that's fine. But at the very least, a video game has artistic elements. And so even the worst game you can think of has artistic elements inherent in it.

[00:37:27] And those artistic elements should be eliciting emotional responses. And when games can do that and create community and create relationships and create friendships and foster those things, I think that's what separates us separates gaming or that's what matures gaming to because

[00:37:45] that happens through movies that happens through music. But gaming is such a such a still a very new medium. We don't get a lot of stories of that. And those are the stories I like telling on the show because those

[00:37:58] connective tissue kind of things is what I think elevates games to the same level artistically as movies and TV and music and art and sculpture and everything else. So I kind of went on a tangent there. I apologize. Big answer for a small question.

[00:38:14] But thank you, Terry Baca, for that question. And then finally, I asked on the Games My Mom Found forum and I got one answer, which is fine. Once again, one question, but this actually is going to round out

[00:38:28] the episode nicely and it comes from the one and only Kenneth Sanity, a gentleman I have recorded with a ton at this point. And if I can I've said before on Games My Mom Found I think Ken and I would be fast friends.

[00:38:44] We're like friends separated by geography. I think we would be like we would be really pretty good friends and fast friends if we were like at work, like I met him at work. We'd be like really good work friends, like hang out after work friends.

[00:38:57] I've had friends like that at work and I think it just Kenneth is that kind of person. He's really into movies. He's very knowledgeable about it. I like to think I'm knowledgeable as well. And I love movies. So we have like that connection and games, of course.

[00:39:13] And I think we would just be fast friends. And I love his sense of humor and how he performs on the show. And it's always fun to record with Ken on Games My Mom Found. So he asks, and if you know Kenneth Sanity, you can do his voice.

[00:39:27] I'm not going to do a Kenneth Sanity impersonation. That's I just don't do impersonations anymore. Society as a whole is not in a great place. And it seems and this is the question. So the question is this society as a whole is not in a great place.

[00:39:41] And it seems like it's getting worse with every passing day. Do you believe that the downfall of licensed video games based on movie properties could be partially to blame? Before you scoff, remember, we used to have proper Jurassic Park games,

[00:39:55] Batman movie games, even home improvement games and things were a bit brighter. Kenneth, I read that this afternoon I've given this some thought more than I think I gave the other questions and thought because I believe that art is a reflection of the society

[00:40:15] or the state of the society from which it's made. So I'd like to think that art can influence society, but most of the time art is a reflection of society. So I think the fact that we don't have really good licensed games anymore.

[00:40:31] We don't have those amazing Batman games. And to be fair, we'd still do we have our Spider-Man games and the Ark of Asylum games. But the fact that we don't have. Russia, let me just say this, the nature of those games

[00:40:47] is reflective of the nature of the society that we live in now, which means we can't have a simple Batman movie game where Batman runs to the right, punches things and throws batterings and dirks like we can't have that because life is no longer

[00:41:02] that simple and even if it was simpler back in the late 80s, early 90s, it our lives have become more complicated in our lives are more complicated. It's just what has happened over time. So we can't have like a simple Jurassic Park game

[00:41:19] where you just go around and shoot dinosaurs or you can't just go around to collect dino eggs, you can't go around even home improvement. You can't hunt dinosaurs with Tim the toolman tailor. You can't do that. We can't have that silliness because that silliness is not

[00:41:36] reflective in the society that we live in. The best games that we can have can be fun, but they have to be complicated because it's reflecting the society we live in this kind of very confusing, weird, overly complex world that we currently exist in.

[00:41:54] I played the one, the Spider-Man games on the PS4. It was the first Spider-Man game that the new one, not Miles Morales, but the one before that. And I bounced off after about an hour and change and not because it was a bad game, I was enjoying it.

[00:42:07] It was just I fell old. It was like too many buttons and too many combos and too many things this game wants me to remember and do. I just I'll get back to it eventually. It was fun. It was neat. Web slinging was fun.

[00:42:21] It was all dry game, but it was too much. And I feel like these days I'm gravitating more towards simpler experiences because I want to recapture when times are simpler. And it's not a nostalgic thing. It's more of a mental break thing than anything else.

[00:42:40] And as a very quick side note, I do a show that is literally nostalgia.exe like I could probably instead of a gamer looks at 50, I could just rename the show nostalgia.exe and it would be just as fine of a title.

[00:42:54] I am not a terribly nostalgic person at my heart. I'm actually not. I don't think back to the days of high school and I don't I like thinking forward. I like anticipating what's coming. I like staying as present as I possibly can.

[00:43:10] And I don't think back a ton, which is amazing for someone who does a show that's steeped in nostalgia. But my hope is because I do believe nostalgia can be a very dangerous drug. My hope is that this show is more about stories

[00:43:24] and stories will always be more impactful than nostalgia because nostalgia is looked at through a certain lens where stories are just stories. They are reflections or they are tales of things that happened and what and the and the reactions of the people they happen to.

[00:43:43] So that's why I hope this show tends more to the story side of things in nostalgia, but I'm not very nostalgic person. So for me, yeah, I think that's kind of where I would land on it.

[00:43:54] I don't think that licensed video games are a part of the part of the problem. I think it's a reflection of just the complexity that we live in. And I'm sure that was a joke question worthy of a joke answer.

[00:44:08] And I actually gave you a real answer to close out this episode of a game where looks at 40 and this AMA. I guess I left it on a downer, I guess. Cool things are happening all. You know what? Here you are.

[00:44:20] Here is here's the here's the light at the end of the tunnel. Cool things are happening all the time. It's just a lot harder to find them. So my encouragement for everybody listening, if you've gone this far,

[00:44:31] you enjoy the show and I appreciate the fact that you hung in this long. Let's take some time like for the rest of the summer to actively seek out cool stuff that's happening because it is. But since it doesn't sell well and it doesn't drive clicks

[00:44:48] and it doesn't look good on a Twitter feed, it's harder to find. But it's out there. And we just have to take intentional steps to make that happen. And I think it'll be good for everybody's mental health and everyone's sense of self and sense of hopeful,

[00:45:03] a little more optimism in what always looks like a land of bleak and despair. We got to look for those micro moments of cool things happening all around us. I honestly do believe that cool things happen on a daily basis,

[00:45:20] but they get swallowed up by the constant doom scrolling that we live in day to day. So hey, let's get our mining hats on. Let's just get our chisels out and start working away for positive because the world is not going to give it to you.

[00:45:36] We have to look for it. So and hopefully this show, then that's why I do a show that that you that has things you can't argue with. It's not a review show. It's not a new show. It's those things you can have arguments about.

[00:45:50] This show is designed to be inarguable. I cannot argue with somebody on how they felt about Final Fantasy 4 when they were seven years old. I don't argue with that. That is an expression that is a time capsule of the way things are.

[00:46:04] So hopefully this show provides a bit of that, provides a bit of that positivity. That's my it is a goal of mine. And thank you for being a part of it. And thank you for all the questions.

[00:46:14] This is a lot of fun and went longer than I expected. So if you haven't done so already, Twitter is where you can find me. A gamer looks at 40.com four zero has everything, all of my everything. Thank you to my patrons.

[00:46:27] I did not shout you out this time around. I apologize. I will definitely show you out next week when we start our journey through Final Fantasy 6. It's going to be massive. And if you're a fan and if you know fans,

[00:46:39] please spread the word on this Final Fantasy series. I try to look at it objectively, but I think as I'm kind of looking at it and listening to it, I think there's something cool happening here. And what I believe I and my guests are creating,

[00:46:54] because this is all my guests. I just put the stuff together and curate it. These are my guest stories. But my guests are sharing and will be sharing. There's some really amazing things out there. There's some really cool stories upcoming.

[00:47:07] And I can't wait to see where it goes next. So thank you so much for listening to this edition of a Gamer Looks at 40. I'm going to rest my vocal cords. I usually don't talk this much on my show.

[00:47:17] And until next time, let's just keep finding those awesome, happy, feel good moments. They're out there. Let's just try to find them. Have a good one, y'all.