Well, Hi, it's me Kurt and this is Lucy and you're watching the show.

Can Lucy got your coverage?

Where we dive into news, challenges, video games, all that jazz byeway of a mysterious letter where Lucy and I on the spot have to figure it out and talk about it.

Yeah, so we know what we're talking about, we just don't know which order we're going to be talking about it in.

And some of these have been provided by you at home.

So if you have a letter you would like to email us, send it over to Gotcha covered at GameSpot dot com.

I'm feeling good today and I'm feeling generous, so you can open the first letter.

Thank you, I shall okay.

Valve released a new patch for counter Strike two that let's plays trade multiple lower tier cosmetics for some of the rarest, most expensive ones.

This move took one point seven billion dollars out of the creed out of the Counterstrike skins resale market.

Man, you're screwed.

I know how many you have?

You got retirements in there?

Yeah?

What's your favoriteknife skin?

Glittery one, the Glittery one.

I know I have not played a single second account of Strike.

I've sold maybe two things on the Steam marketplace.

Related to the country, related to.

Something else like cosmetics, and then yeah, I don't know, it's it's just stressful.

It's like eBay.

To look cool.

Yeah in your game, I don't know.

Yeah, one point seven billion, I am got number.

What is the dumbest game related purchase you've ever made?

Oh?

Well, what did you sell on your Steam marketplace?

Was that a dumb related purchase?

A cosmetic for pubg?

Oh wow?

Wow?

How much yourself for ten dollars?

How much you buy for what?

Was it?

A glittery knife?

It's like a pair of pants or cod.

Uh?

This is this is like I you know, we had I don't know, it was dumb.

I didn't understand the market.

And now I've lost everything, and now you've lost your house to pumpg skins?

What is the like?

So like the dumbest thing I bought in a game.

Just game related, game related?

I haven't purchased many things.

Like you live a very minimal life, even.

Even a digitally minimal life, where I like that.

I like things as they are, as they're presented.

That being said, I mean I have I think the only thing I've ever purchased purchased purchased in a game?

Is a bird?

No, a monkey and See if Thieves?

Yeah, I bought a monkey Pets Pets, Yeah yeah, I got a pet.

And it was like for a game that you know, I did play a lot and I was like, this is worth it.

And we spent a lot of hours because I named the pet after the people I played with.

Well, actually no, that's it's actually weirder than that.

I named them after the siblings of people I played with.

It's a lot weirder.

So I would like hold hold said animal up to person and be like, this is your brother, give him a kiss, and then I would throw them off the boat because you could do that.

It's not what.

Context by, Yeah for context.

Rob Henleary used to work with us.

I play games with him.

He has a brother Jack, Well you said it an always have a monkey name Jack and see if thieves.

Whether or not their brother knows that, I don't know.

I don't think he's watching.

Its great, What about you, Lucy?

Game related purchase.

I think I've been sucked into buying I know I've been sucked into buying collectors editions that maybe have not been worth it.

Fall Out four looking at you, that sad little bag, the dumbest thing.

Dumbest I'm listening.

I'm ready.

So back in the day, there was a company that used to make these custom cases for Xbox three sixties and there was a Commander Shepherd one for Mass Effect three and it was Shepherd's body armor.

But it was three D not it wasn't female ship.

It was just like it was like the chest piece of arm muscles.

Yes, I know, we said, wouldn't trying not to do this, but John, like, I would love it if you could find this you so you could basically put armor on your Xbox.

So it had like a torso you just have a chest and you couldn't have it lying down flat.

You had to have the muscles.

For what it's worth.

I used to always say, people just love putting muscles on stuff, Like have you did you ever have those batpacks that were like Batman backpack but it was just Batman's musclely torso like phone me muscle.

I'm not joking.

I used to be like, if you want to make it cool for a kid, just put muscles on it.

You want a potty train of kid, get a toilet with muscles with muscles on it.

You want those shoes put some biceps on the side of them.

And you did that with your Xbox.

You're sixty.

You want your Xbox sixty be cool?

Is it really wasn't cool?

And it did overheat.

Because it was so damn lot.

Yeah, it was so brutal.

Yeah.

I wouldn't say that's dumb.

I would say that's pretty It's pretty cool.

Okay, all right, ready, yeah yeah, show me Shepherd's Wow Wow, now expected than I remembered.

Why did you buy that?

Right?

Okay?

I don't think you understand.

That's why I've got the Garras body below, Okay, which I actually do have.

Anyway, back in you know, twenty twelve, late twenty eleven, early twenty twelve, when Mass Effect three were waiting for Mass Factory to come out.

Oh wait, was this before the game came out?

I don't remember.

It was around then.

Okay, you're waiting for it eighteen years ago I was.

I just could not wait for Mass Factory.

I needed to know how that story was going to end.

I needed to know who was going to die, if I was going to save the galaxy, you know, like it was all consuming and this was when I first started to have disposable income, although I did not have disposable income, but you had an illusion of it.

I had a debit card and a Yes, this was the dream.

And this was one of those dumb things that you could just put on your Xbox and constantly be reminded of.

I never played Mail Ship either.

I think I played like two times, played Mass Effect a lot.

Anyway, I don't know what happened to this case.

I want to ask.

You need to find it.

You need to get it back.

I could be at my mom.

You need to wear it.

I mean, I don't know.

I think it's just one of those weird peripheral type things that you don't really get anymore.

We need to bring it back.

We need to start putting muscles on things again.

Xbox put Xbox, you need some good press.

You want to turn the ship's Xbox put muscles on your consoles again.

You want to know how to right the wrongs this This is a PC, but it's I got an E in the middle and an S on the end.

Can I read this?

Uh?

The bullet points from this person that's going out a little long, but sure, there's a review you from Big Red Barrel.

Oh my god, I used to not wait did I write this because I used to write for them?

Uh?

No, it's someone named Dan Dan who just as Dan Dan James, let's see.

Uh hold on now, just as Dan.

I don't know piks Dan?

Uh?

The positives exceptionally well made?

Is that true?

It was actually very well made, yet.

Notably improves the durability of your console.

What are you doing with it?

Drunk?

Kicking it?

I mean stop, stop Shepherds, shep specks, speckers anyways, communs unlikely to appeal to everyone?

What is nothing does?

Yeah?

Sorry Dan, that's just a uh.

And finally installing it led to noise generator by the DVD drive becoming significantly louder.

Good good, Absolutely no reason to have this at all, Xbox that you want to.

Use every day and if you're appreciate fine art.

There was also a p S three version apparently, God, how much worse does that look?

We gotta move on.

Now that the count Strike Skins resale market has cooled off.

Cool, let's play what's more expensive post patch?

I really hope that the last one is the Shepherd chest case.

That's pretty cool.

That's pretty cool.

All right, what's more expensive?

I this is gonna really have no concept of how much costs on that story you post patch.

Okay, the M four a four howl skin, which is it looks like a like a it looks like a fiery wolf on it.

Yeah, I've seen that shirt at Walmart.

Yeah.

Or what a single American spends on groceries in a year.

In a year, well, it's these days in this economy.

This is gonna this is gonna be rough if I were, okay, a single American.

And that's also subjective as to where they are in the country.

Yes, so I have no idea where Spenser pulled these numbers from.

Okay, so I'm gonna I'm gonna have to do an average amount.

Do they meal prep do they have a COSTC membership?

I have a very cheap meal plan.

Oh shit, not right now, but I'm interested make.

All your own meals.

Yeah, and eat vegetables and don't buy meat.

Anyways, there's your plan.

So on average, let's just say I spend I don't know what other Americans do.

I spend like on average, let's just say one hundred dollars a week.

Yeah, but that's for two people.

Yeah, so let's say I'm a single American, I spend fifty dollars a week.

You have a trade Joe's nearby.

I do have a trade jos in walking distance.

Times that by four times five is twenty two thousand.

No, Jesus two hundre hundred, two hundred times twelve twenty four hundred.

Yeap, I don't think that's that is.

A sick looking skin for two thousand, four hundred dollars.

I think it's post patch, though it's probably less.

I'm going to say more I based on the math I just did.

I'm also going to say more.

Okay, do you guys want to take a stab at the number thirty eight hundred.

Twenty twenty eight hundred?

I mean massively off on single person groceries which came in at six thousand, but that skin went for eight point four thousand post patch in theory.

In theory, I'm still right.

You are still right.

Holy Nikes, that's in say so you would pay eight thousand, four hundred dollars for Oh I didn't say that would the fire.

I didn't say I would, but I could see somebody would appeal.

What do you think that person's wearing when they buy it.

That on a ship.

The gun or the design the design, but it's the three wolves.

Yeah, okay, cool?

And the CS logo in the middle is the moon all right?

Next?

Oh, the awp gungiest skin that gungeer Gunger, which is a blue.

It's got kind of a Nordic.

Fel like.

It looks very or like a kind of Irish Celtic or twenty sixteen.

I'm going to say I'm going to get I don't know why I keep trying to I'm going to say that Honda Civic is like seventeen thousand dollars, So I have.

No concept of how much cause costs because I can't.

Cars are surprisingly It doesn't gonna sound really stupid, but like I've learned that car because I haven't had a car, yeah six years.

But I realize is that these cars are more affordable than I thought they would be.

So that's the thing.

Oh, are these like a special brand of cars?

The nticification of everything, not a twenty sixteen Honda Civic.

Also, are we doing used or new?

I think this one was used based.

Okay, so we're gonna do a used Are you ready?

We're gonna do a used twenty.

I'm sorry for the listeners who I'm trying to figure this out.

Someone's listening to this in a Honda Civic right now.

Twenty sixteen, Honda Civic.

You got it in twenty sixteen, which was almost ten years ago.

I'm going to assume you might have.

Thirty five thousand miles on o'clock way more.

I would probably say like sixty to eighty thousand, maybe sixty thousand miles.

And I'm assuming you maybe bought it.

I don't know anything about these cars.

I'm assuming you maybe bought it for like six seventeen thousand, which would probably make that car like eight grand.

Now I think the car is more expensive.

I think that's skin.

So my thing is right, not having played CS.

If you have skins like this, does it not make you stick out more?

Which feels like it would be detrimental to your gameplay.

But in kind of Shrike, you're always looking through cracks, You're always looking through crems.

It's all about the line of sight in a small little space.

And it's a sniper rifle, so that from a distance, I'm going to say the gun and I'm going to say it's ten K.

Show me the answer.

What thirteen thousand dollars for the gun at twelve thousand four.

I was a little off in the car, but not as much as I thought I was going to be bro damn skippy.

All right, Okay, next one the AWP Dragon law Skin, which is another sniper rifle with a dragon on it.

But the dragon has like quite a keltish tail.

It means like they combined the last they combined together.

Yeah, the first two, and then it's a wait, wait, this weird diamond print that's on the scope of the.

John Did you pick it?

Because that diamond print looks like Caesarino from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

I Spencer picked all these, but I agree it does.

It looks like characters and Jojos again, these look like Walmart.

Well, this board ape n f T who's wearing a kind of Russian hat, got an angry expression on his face and is wearing rainbow suspenders.

I feel like the NFT market is dead, so I feel as.

Far as you know, I think this is how much it sold for.

Okay, so in that case, I'm going to those hideous.

I have no concept of how much these things sold for.

I'm not.

I'm not gonna guess, but I will say I'm going to vote the board ape my.

One of my favorite tweets of all time.

I missed twisters sometimes not all the time.

One of my favorite tweets of all time was when someone was he either like locked himself out or he got screwed over in a deal selling an ape, and he said, I will log off.

What was it like, I will be offline and spend time with my remaining apes.

I just thought, Okay, Galadriel.

I'm actually wrong.

You can buy it for this amount right now?

That ape people still buy those, apparently, John like you right clicked and copied it and pasted it in this para presentation.

Does that mean you theft it an ape?

About say ape?

Yeah, I feel like I'm gonna be wrong, but I'm going to say ape.

And I have no idea how much.

I'm not even gonna guess the cost, but for fun, I'll say, I'll say eighteen thousand, ten thousand.

I'm conservative with it.

I'm going up in price from all these twenty six thousand for the ape.

Well, we're at eleven point seven thousand for the gun.

Dude, I hate this that was it?

Yeah, what's a game?

Well?

That was it?

That was like a game before I move on?

What would you rather if you had to no money was not an option and you just had to be like board ape or dragon guarding on a strike.

I mean yeah, I feel I feel like not even for the flip market, but it's like if I had to choose, Like, hey, kid, you want, choose what you want?

What are we going to do with an ape?

Sell it?

I guess, But yeah, what do you do with those?

Anyways?

I think it's time for another letter to Netflix is developing an animated Crash Bandicoot series.

Keep going, Google, Google?

Is that what he does?

Okay?

Should they make crash talk?

If he must, who would you cast for his voice?

Are they gonna make it?

Like?

Like anyways?

Like he Charles, he needs the gig, put him in there, let's go.

Are they going to where man is from?

Australia?

I'm gonna assume so they're terrifying looking creatures.

I mean, am I thinking of Tasmanian devils?

I think they're both chose what we both know?

Kangaroo's terrifying.

He was a buddy in Crush Australian.

Yeah, I guess it's like have you ever seen I don't like, have you ever seen the Donkey Kong animated c g I animated show?

Because they gave Donkey Kong a voice and he was was like, hey dudes, let's go like it was like it was totally not like my brain as a kid when I see like Donkey Kong, I don't imagine like whoa let's have from the sure.

I didn't see the movie, so I don't know what the seth Rogan.

Well, I assume it just sounds like if crash Band V So they want him to be a little edgy.

I assume a pooci.

Character PlayStation and ten does, and ten don't.

Who would be a good voice for crash Man because se on the younger side of things.

The thing is is that the between the Mario movie and the Multiple Sonic the Hedgehogs, they've got very good voice casts.

Andy Samberg, that's a really good one.

That feels like an earnest answer from you.

Yeah, I don't have that.

I don't have any of that.

I don't have an earnest bone.

I don't have an earnest answer for this in in me.

That is a good ernest answer, because I watch Hotel Transylvania with my nieces and he was very goodn't it.

Mike Myers, Yeah, that's it.

But he has to be doing the either the Shrek.

Voice or the Glove Guru.

No god, I forgot about that baby or the or the old the Austin Powers voice.

About Colin Firth?

Weird?

Who's he again?

Colin Firth?

He's Oh, he's mister Darcy.

Who is I'm having a moment.

Are you okay?

Who's Colin Firth?

I know Colin Pride, Prege, Pride and Prage, but the BBC and Firth from like Kick Ass, No Kingsman Colin, Yeah, that's the one.

Sorry, just think of other Colin Firth is okay my book, but he doesn't have the young vote Mark Hamill, but only in his Yeah, yes, okay.

Are you excited for this or who cares?

Where is Crash five?

First off?

Is it going to be an animere?

Anime?

No?

More Netflix animes?

Like animated series?

But like I'm talking about like anime?

What do you mean by anime Japanese?

Yeah?

No, I don't think that.

I think they will do more.

Anime Netflix?

Yeah, which all of them.

What do you mean what do you mean doesn't define may cry?

No, isn't that's made by that's not made in Japan.

But isn't like anime style ani inspired?

Anime inspired?

Yes, but I would argue it's just animation.

I don't know, like would you here we go Castlevania one?

Yeah, anime?

Or is it just inspired by like seventies, you know, like semantics?

Yeah, we are, okay, Well is it going to be drawn?

Is it?

I think d I think the Crash show will be three D animation, maybe in the line in the way.

Did you watch the really cute.

Pokemon thing that they did, Yeah, that's actually sick.

That one's good.

Yeah, I like that.

I think I think it'd be three D animation like that, something very brightley colored.

Ten minute chunks.

Oh, you know, all of my friends have kids and I didn't realize that.

But like a lot of their TV shows, such as you know, the Mata series, the Cars spin off stuff that's all ten minutes long.

That's good, Yeah, Blue either all ten minutes And so if you're talking about little chunk, little chunks of crash stories, I think that works.

And there are some really iconic levels they could go to like the Gray Wall, some of the underwater stuff.

The I really like Crash one, two three very formative games for me.

I think it could be very fun.

I just I would love I think the question who would be Crash?

I think the more interesting question is who be cool enough to play?

Like?

What'd you call him?

Neo Cortex?

Yeah, I always got that deliciously, deliciously evil.

Voice Gary Oldman.

Yeah, will learn it.

Will Arnett actually would actually be probably very good.

Mary f kill Crash GaX, Earthrom Jim.

I would marry Earthroom Jim.

He seems like a ramp.

He seems like I could rely on him right, voice by Homer voice by Homer Simpson.

Guy, he's he's got muscles.

Uh.

I would f GaX.

He seems like a he seems like a fun one night stand.

He's suave.

He's he's gonna roll up in his with the sunglasses and be like, hey, but I never want to see him again after that night.

Well, he slid his way slick under the rock in which he came.

From, and then you had to kill Crash.

He's needed see.

I'd marry Crash shag Gex kill Owim Gym.

But that's because I have no experience with never played it.

The PS two dents twenty five years old, soknas you and your director, Matt Piscatella.

Hello.

Matt shared online the console's twenty best selling.

Games, Grand Theft, Auto three, Grant two Minutes the Club.

How many of the best selling PS two games can you name?

Starting you tell us?

Now?

Okay, Grand three, Grand Theft of My City correct, Tony Hawk's pro Skater.

Great?

Sorry were you saying Tony Hawk Proscare three?

Confirming all three?

Grand Theft Okay, Tony Hawks, Tony Hooks Underground.

A thug No, neither one, probably another.

Kingdom Hawks two.

FIFA two thousand and eight, a FIFA game, w w E Nope, Jack and Dexter two what Metal Gear Solid three?

No two yeah, Prince.

Persia, Sounds of Time nope, President Evil fo No, Oh my.

God, this is really hard.

Well, the we got the obvious ones.

I feel like other Rockstar games have to be in there.

That's Grand Trismo.

Four yep.

Not Bully Bully No, No, the sims herbs Nope, sims well, SI to the sims busting out.

Any of the sims?

No?

My god?

Uh?

Why like they feel like this should not be as difficult as it is.

What can There'spiro nope, or Crash nope.

Shut of the classes nope, kill Zone nope?

What the hell will we playing?

Are there lots of Madden?

There's a couple Maddens Okay, Madden twenty mls, Madden, hold On, hold On Madden two thousand and three, Yes, okay, mad In two thousand and four, Yes, okay, mad In two thousand and six, Yes, mad In two thousand and seven, Yes, and eight No, okay, just danse No, those two We're done.

Okay, we got That was tough.

So they were all Maddens and GTA games.

Top twenty of all time guitar Okay, ones.

In red are the ones you guys got?

Okay?

Wow, thank yous shit?

I said two.

God of War.

I would like to point out that you skipped two thousand and five when you were naming them.

I did wonder about that you did, so you didn't get really even two thousand and three, four six.

I do have a remarkable talent of guessing every number, but the one I'm supposed.

To guitar hero, God of War.

I mean, I think Medal of Honor.

For audio listeners.

Let's go down, Okay, So, top twenty best selling PS two years of all time, Grand Theft, Auto San Andreas, Vice City three, Guitar Hero three, Legends of Rock, Grand Turismo three, Acepec, Madden NFL two thousand and five, which I just completely completely skipped over, Guitar Hero Too, Madden NFL two thousand and four, Kingdom Haunts, Madden two thousand and six, and Madden two thousand and seven, jam Pack Series, PlayStation two, Madden two thousand and three, Need for Speed, Underground, Star Wars, Battlefront two, Midnight Club three, Dub Edition Final ten, Grand Trismo four, Got War and Medal of on a Frontline.

And that is ordered from number one to number twenty.

Yeah.

Man, I mean this is like honestly kind of like a a sobering list in the way that like my perception of what I consumed and played on a PS two is so far removed from this, because it's like to see the amount of like sports games I did not.

I did not do Guitar Hero LAS two.

I did all my Guitar Hero and rock band time was on three sixty, and so I just don't associate, which is stupid, because that's where those games started.

Just like I don't associate Guitar Hero with PS two, I say it with the next generation.

I also played so much Dance Ance Revolution, I.

Played so much Metal Front two.

Well, kicking myself, this is a weird list.

It's a really weirdess.

Honestly, Kingdom Hearts being so high up there top ten is a little weird for me.

But then, I mean, I can understand why.

It's a Disney meets Final Fantasy to the biggest properties.

And that was some time peak Final Fantasy like ten era, like that was the it was the ship.

Kind of disappointed that I didn't even think of Final Fantasy ten.

They got Final Fantasy ten two for got six.

Oh yeah, yeah, now we're talking.

Well, chucks, well we got what nine?

We got eight?

We would have had nine if you'd remembered.

Okay, all right, well I'm pretty.

Sure he would have had another one if I said Kingdom Hans one became asked, who's the best?

I'm a little shook.

All right, let's calm down with another letter.

Viewer mail.

Did you know that you could also send us a letter by sending it to you?

Got you covid at games what dot Com.

Yeah, and you should if you're listening.

We really appreciate it.

All are welcome.

All voices and things and mentions and opinions and questions are here for our our eyes and is and he is.

Okay, this is a long ish one.

What was the first game or any piece of media that made you go, okay, this isn't just a game.

This is art.

For me, it happened when I was like I'm gonna do in their voice for me, it happened when I was like fourteen to fifteen, around twenty twelve, twenty thirteen, the Last of Us in the movie Skyfall, where like the first time I felt like this kind of media is of the whole different level appreciation, not just the usual cool game of fun movie.

Did's Squawkabilly?

Right?

This?

It's me Squawkabilly from Squad No big fan of everything that you guys do.

Thank you so much.

Greetings from Columbia.

And I'm a Tao Gil, thank you, Mitail, Thank you very much.

I hope you that's what you exactly what you sound like.

So what was the first piece of media that made you go okay, this isn't just a game, This is art.

Is it cliche to say something like bioshop?

I meant least you didn't say Journey.

Yeah that's true.

I mean that there's anything wrong with that, No, but it is cliche.

So like she had, you were playing BioShock like two thousand and nine, two to seven, No, not that early, a couple of years after.

I mean I didn't get my three six twenty ten, so early twenty ten.

Yeah, I was playing by a Shock, and I was like, I just.

I don't think i'd experience I had not played system Shock or anything like.

At that point.

So your context was My context was PS two licensed games and Tony Hawk.

Yeah, you used to play Missed, but you didn't have that epiphany Missed Like this is no because Missed.

For me was more like my dad union, my dad hanging out, So playing BioShock by myself, and you know, that was how I learned about iron Rand and objectivism and all that kind of stuff.

And so I think for me, maybe there and also just I think that art, like the art deco in particular, was something that I don't ever really seen in buildings, not really seen in gaming at the time.

Yeah, maybe maybe I think that's a very I think that was like from what I I hear a lot of people say that.

I think it's like totally appropriate because that is one of the first games that was like to a broader audience on console that wasn't as niche as somebody on PC playing something like System Shock or something of that nature.

I think that's a totally totally.

That's the thing going back in time and thinking of your first one.

That's where my timelines get all muddied up.

But then you know, there are other games if you think of something like Immortality, which I think is a really incredible piece of art, but that's obviously way more recent.

But I think you bring but I think it's one of those things again where it's like, oh, this is something I've never seen.

And Roger again another really new one where it is I think games are art in general, but I think that is a piece of art that transcends agreed and Roger, Yeah, I think is one of the most important games of this year, like easily, and I think it tells the story only it can I tell it tells the story in such a way that it's so impactful because of the way it Mary's narrative and game played in Giamo.

So there's a recent one for you and there's an old one for my.

I so like, it's tough because it's like I don't know.

I know my answer, but I don't know if I was able to articulate that I was viewing say it the said things like art until later when I was like, oh this this is the best way to describe my feelings.

And it's honestly Grim Fandango.

Like when I played Grim Fandango when I was eight years old, it was a mind cracking, open opening moment because I had played.

I was a huge gamer as a kid anyways, so I had played a lot of different kind of games.

I was privileged enough to also have consoles and PC yep, so I was playing both sides of of of the both sides of the tricks.

Well, I know, but I had played other It's not like Grim Fandango was my first adventure game, because I had played other event point click adventure games before that just so happen to be also Lucas Art's full Throttle data tonical sort of stuff.

But Grim Fandango was the first time where like it kind of made me, even as a young person, was like this.

I've never experienced anything like this.

I'm like engaging in something in a way that is making me think about other games differently, which I think is like an important factor of Like when you've experienced something new and fresh and is different and art, you start to view things through different lenses and perspectives, like context changes when you see good art, and then you start to see all other art and you're like, whoa, wait a second.

That was for me and Laura Line the Laser Eyes.

I think Laura Line the Laser Eyes is an artistic masterpiece, like similar to you like immortality.

I think Mortality broke my brain too, But Lauraai is a recent example of something where I was like, this is a thing that is doing something that cannot be done in any other medium.

Nope, pad game, Nope, pad game.

That is challenging the way in which I view other games, And I feel like that's good art when it's like you're suddenly challenged in like how you view something else.

So Grim Fandango is different me, Like that was a game that was like you can have you can play a game that has writing as good as other mediums, as good as old cinema, that has a world that is so outrageously designed, and so you want to talk about art deco.

Grim Fandango and some of those buildings right here, well they're in San.

Francisco, and I would also to the art part.

It's one of the first I think it's like the earliest game I could pinpoint where it made me, even as like a young person, like an eight nine year old person, was like, I want to know, I want to know the names of the people who did who did who did this?

And the next thing I know, Peter Chan, concept artist for Grim Fandango, is like one of my artistic heroes because of that game.

I was like, every single shot in that game art.

So, yeah, there you go.

Question, do you have another letter?

We should have another letter.

It's time for beef of the week.

Oh here we go or Norwegian Huken's biff where we get on our soapbox, say what's grinding our gears?

And whatever other metaphors you can think for complain this week.

Kurt's got something to say about concurrent play accounts.

Kurt Hi quick Bourpen.

I'm just you know, it's just just sitting here.

I've had too much beef this week.

And you're a vegetarian and tessctaring.

Yeah, and here I am burping away from all the beef of consumed.

Okay, so this is kind of my god.

All right, So this is this is a thing that I want to I'm like in the midst of trying to articulate my feelings, Like I have a feeling, like a thing where it's like something doesn't sit right in my brain and I like get aggravated and then I have to spend time articulating that thing.

But the thing I want to talk about is concurrent players and how we as a community.

I want to I want to talk about all of us as gamers.

We're all in trouble.

All we're all in trouble.

We're all in the was it was the Norwegian beef week us beefs ukin's ukin.

Sorry, yeah, sorry Norwegians.

And so this is the thing I want to talk about.

There is the there is such a blurry gray the thing.

Okay, hold, let me back up.

Games and art.

This is a conversation.

We were just having the previous letter.

But uh, games as a medium have always existed in a very bizarre place because they teeter technology.

They also teeter in the in like a post sort of like capitalistic media worlds, where like in the eighties is when Hollywood's turned into commercializing movies.

So it's like at the turn of the nineteen eighties, basically because of Star Wars, I would if there's anything I would blame in Star Wars, movies started becoming vessels to basically make toys and launch box and t shirts and all this stuff.

That's why you still have people to this day obsessed with Back to the Future and Ghostbusters and all this crap.

It all started in the eighties anyways.

Yeah, so I want to give that context because video games started to come to rise really commercially and publicly in the eighties with arcades and all that jazz.

And but like there's this weird teeter where it's like games have always kind of struggled to be seen as art yep, because they're often seen as a plaything, as I think the past time.

But then that's foolish because it is a medium that involves lots of artistic, artistic prowess and thinking and storytelling.

However, and our current state of things community and our current state of the community, I would say in gaming I have another analogy I'm trying to work on that we that video games as an industry is back in the arcade era, where games are focused more on trying to get you to play as long as possible aka pump quarters in.

But because money is no longer that much like a way in which you engage with games, the games are just being designed to keep you there to play ball.

At Economy Vampire Survivors Bollatro.

Was it this week, Nodella said, Uh, the Xboxes, any gaming companies competitors, not other games.

It's it is TikTok, which he's getting a lot of shit for that.

But I actually.

Like in most cases when you're waiting for like a load screen, or like when your game is started, we'll scroll open your phones, scroll time.

Anyways, I think that's all important contexts because I think the base I'm trying to say is the way in which, like we as people see games is different and twisted and multifaceted.

Because some people will play games for story, some people will play games for a friend a friendly hangout.

Some people play it to have their brain engaged on their own, And because of that, I also the thing games in their nature are competitive.

If you're not competing with other people, you're competing with the game and sometimes yourself in a high score.

I'm so sorry about the soapbox.

I'm getting there.

No, this is why we have you can spiff anyways.

With that in mind, I feel like we have created the because games are in their nature complicated, multifacet and go in any different directions, but also competitive.

The people who play games are naturally competitive, and how they view their games and how successful those games and how successful those games are.

The console wars I know so well recently now that console wars I guess don't matter because we don't have Xbox exclusives anymore and PlayStation is on PC only Nintendo.

Really, I what is a way to compare yourself against others?

Player count?

Steam?

That's the thing Steam, Steam.

That's a very important point.

So a lot of this kind of bubbled up in my rage recently when I think it was this week or last week or something, when it was like Keeper Double Finds most recent game didn't break two hundred concurrent players on Steam, a game that was released also on Xbox and Xbox Game Pass.

But even remove those statistics aside, I don't trying seeing people have like a reaction or even say like why that was an important enough thing to mention that this new game, this Keeper, this Gamekeeper doesn't have it.

Yes, it's like see it didn't it No one's playing it.

There's a lot of variables that can go into one.

The game is like I beat that game in three hours and fifty minutes.

Some people play it for but ultimately it's like four or five hours.

And to like even on that level where it's like you're judging a game that most people will be playing for a few hours and that's how the game is meant to be seen.

And the likelihood of getting more than two hundred people at the exact same time playing that game for just a couple of hours, the game that ends that they will not return to is just an ASA ninth thing to just be like this, look at that.

But it also brings up the other thing where it's like why is this a rating for a game like Keeper that is ultimately.

Getting nines across the bowl, nines.

Across the board an interactive piece of art, and like that is the thing that like makes my blood boil and I want to try and figure out a better way, This is why I'm doing this right now, to try and articulate and hopefully encourage others to just think about your reactions when you see said thing, when you decide, when you feel some sort of like gleeful hope that said game you don't like or don't care about doesn't have x amount of players on it.

To think about the game that thing is, the people who are playing it, and what you enjoy, and just enjoy what you enjoy, and also like learn to appreciate things as they are pieces of art or just a thing you like to play with your friends.

Anyways, that's my beef of the word is that very like, I really appreciate it.

It was great.

Thanks.

Hopefully, have a think, have a think a lot to chew on.

Yeah, chew on that beef.

I'm tired of burping through this.

Let's have another letter viewer, male man.

People watch our show, people submit questions.

They want to know what you think.

Allen, okay, and remember if you're listening, if you're watching and you want to ask.

Us something, you can gotcha covered again, and you should gotcha covered at games dot com.

I'm so grateful to everyone who watches us and sons and things.

Really truly, you're you.

You are giving us time for the time we give you.

Anyways, Hey, first of all, love the work you guys do, please keep it up.

As a person in his early forties who has been playing games pretty much all his life, I feel that the industry had already peaked in the HPS two era in terms of pushing genuine creativity and taking risks.

If we take indie development out of the equation, which has its own pitfalls and is a topic for another day, what we have now is corporations putting together an entertainment product for maximum profits.

My question is, hypothetically, what would it take for big corporations to go back to how things were?

What is the bubble that needs to break to make room as many midside studios like Midway, Pandemic, Acclaim, and Visceral, to name a few, to come back into existence and put out risky and create a projects regularly.

And is there even the slightest possibility of this happening.

Sorry about the rant, but I'm really curious to hear your take.

Thanks is Shock.

I don't know.

I'm so sorry if I say that wrong.

Shock you Shock, Thank you for Shock.

This is a very thoughtful thing that I think about a lot, and I feel like is becoming a theme of this episode of the Moment.

I'm gonna let you take this at first, but I will.

We want to take for big corporations to go back to how things were.

They won't.

They won't.

Corporations as they currently exist will not go back to those glory days because unfortunately, we live in a capitalist society where line must go up.

They have seen the success of certain things like Fortnite, you know, Fortnite, Call of Juicy Battlefield.

It's been too dwarfed, it's been.

The massive successes of certain titles have encouraged all of the all the vcs, all the money people, all the investment people, to chase those trends.

Which is why to your point about things not being as inventive as they used to be, if you take the indie space away, is because people are pumping more money in but hoping to maximize their profit in the way they see to do that is to chase trends, which is dangerous and we can see.

Especially especially in the development cycle, where a trend will die.

Well, they've been die in the span of time in which a game doesn't even see a day, and.

So for games to be to be better, to look better, to be photo realistic, you pump in a lot of money, you pump in a lot of time.

Games now take five years to make.

Roughly, they're expensive, they are huge, and those margins are getting narrower and narrower.

And that's even before you put state of the world how expensive everything is the console console insole basis, those gaming has always been an expensive hobby.

However, the market was also not as saturated back then, so if you want it to be that mid sized developer publisher, it'd be easier and cheaper for you to make those games and you would see a much bigger profit.

However, now not only are you batting against your game has to be the next Call of Judio.

Your game has to be the next Fortnight.

You are batting against so many other people.

I was on Steam DV the other day looking at how many games are released on Steam, and if you go back to two thousand and six or whatever, it's like a few hundred.

Obviously, because that's the first time Steam came out.

If you look at last year, you look at this year, this year, we are close to sixteen thousand games on Steam alone at this point in the year.

Last year, I think it was about eighteen thousand.

That is a ridiculous number of games.

So the market is more saturated.

Everything is more expensive.

If you want to, I don't know, go back to the way things were, you won't.

I mean, that's the thing is that the world itself will not.

But you, as a consumer can vote with your wallet.

Thank you.

I think this is what I was going to start.

You can vote with your wallet, and you can look for those mid size developers, publishers, smaller teams who have the unique ideas and support and support them.

So that is why we do have in the midst of and you Battlefield, a new Call of Guty like Springfield coming to Fortnite.

We do have games that have on that smaller level that have burst through and become huge successes.

So you're Blatchos, your Blue Princes, Bullpit, I mean obviously yeah, covered by Devolver.

But at the same time, Devolver's not PlayStation.

So the world's not going to change, but you can change how you interact with the world.

Can control you, You can control your life.

It is the I think the hardest pill for a lot of consumers or people like you and me who like who were like were able to grow up in an age in which you would get a few games a year, and like you would also have a steady flow of games from the same developer or publisher, so you'd have like O GTA a year at one point three, Vice City, San Andreas, and then Rockstar kept going with like The Bully or The Boy, the Bully, Bully, The Warriors, Manhunt.

These are like all in system releases, and we don't have that anymore.

The thing is, I think the thing that like we as consumers need to acknowledge and like swallow the pill, is that like we we no longer we can't have these corporations curate for us, like we have to take the responsibility to curate what we're consuming, why we're consuming it, and like where you're putting, where you're voting with your wallet.

So no, I don't think it's going to go back.

However, I think things are cyclical, and I do think if we can't compare this, uh if like if maybe this hasn't happened in the games industry yet, because the Games of the Tree has been the biggest it has ever been.

We could at least look at other industries where this has happened.

One thing I like to think about is the music industry.

Seventies, Disco was at its peak, and rock music had become just as big and as commercialized in its own way.

And it wasn't until like the late seventies early eighties hardcore punk movement that happened that like disrupted everything, and the disrupted yes, and in many ways, the indie scene was that thing that happened in the Xbox arcade.

But now it's like we're at a different fold where it's like there's just too much out there and it's like our responsibility to be able to like cure it for ourselves and actually, like it's important for us to actually like put our money where our mouth is and dabble in experiments and things.

So anyways, there needs to be a disruptor, but there also needs a bubble that's gonna pop.

And unfortunately, like I'm very empathetic to the developers who've been in this industry as long as the industry has existed, and this is the worst it's and this is the worst has been and it's like, you know, you have people who are who started in this industry in the early nineties, and they started with a small crew of crew people and they made something like Doom and then you see and like speaking of Vermero, like he started his own studio, and he even in the like the one of the most important game developers of the modern age, who created one of the most important view games ever made, he is struggling.

His games can't even come out.

Anyways, I'm right there with you.

We're both right there with you.

I do think I'm going to say something controversial.

I do think it's important to acknowledge that, like we do live in probably like the absolute most incredible time to be somebody who just enjoys games.

It's just we have to rewire how we consume games, where we consume games, and how we get those games curated to us.

Because, for what it's worth.

An algorithmic driven existence sucks.

Yes, it is not good for you.

It is not good for how you consume content.

Because I've played some incredible games this year, but they're all different sizes of different walks of life at different pride points, price points, and that's just it.

Anyways, thank you for our very engaging thoughtful sort of question that has got us both why dive in deep?

Thank you for listening to another episode up curtain, Lucie, gotcha covered.

We really appreciate it sure.

In fact, we appreciate it so much when people send in stuff, because then we know you're listening, you're watching, you care, you want to hear what we think.

We don't even want to hear what each other thinks.

Seriously, I just know you now, I know.

But if you have something that you want to tell us, email it over to Gotcha covid at GameSpot dot com.

And if you're listening to this, we do also have a video component to it.

It's most of the same stuff.

However, you might just miss the chance to see us play a game like I'll be there yet, And by playing it, I mean watching Lucy get motion sick and twenty minutes flat.

Looking at the ground a lot.

Yep, but it's okay, everyone spoilers.

I did not throw up, but you did tell me a vomit story.

I really truly did.

Cool.

Anyways, we really appreciate you being here.

I really appreciate you listening.

Thank you so much.

We'll be back again next SAT.

Today right here, on your podcast platforms, on YouTube, dot com, slash game Spot.

Thank you accompany, dam and ste