Navigating the Technological Labyrinth of Next-Gen Gaming

Welcome to another episode of The Gamerheads Podcast! This week, our friend Adam from Respawn Aim Fire Podcast joins us to raid the treasure trove of technological marvels that have shaped our digital playgrounds.

We're not just talking games, but a revolution that could redefine the mundane into the extraordinary. Imagine tabletop classics like D&D coming alive in AR. The realm of gaming subscription services may be a labyrinth to navigate, but we mapping out strategies to traverse this ecosystem.

 As we close this chapter, ponder the impact of gaming's advances beyond pixels and polygons, considering the burgeoning Metaverse and the frontiers of media integration. With every anecdote and insight, our roundtable with Adam reveals that technology is not just reshaping gaming—it's questing to redefine our experiences of the world.

Follow Respawn Aim Fire on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RespawnAimFire

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Discover how Magic Mind, our favorite energy drink, can fuel your energy levels. You can get it at magicmind.com/gamerheadss and use promo code Gamerheadss.

Chapters

• 0:00 Gaming Technology Innovations and Discussions
• 3:53 Innovations in Gaming Technology
• 16:18 The Role of AI in Gaming
• 21:20 Reviving NCAA Football and AI Advancements
• 27:09 Emerging Technologies in Gaming
• 39:13 Future of Gaming
• 44:08 Impact of Gaming Technology on Industries
• 54:32 Future of Gaming and Media Integration
• 1:04:38 The Impact of Ray Tracing

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This episode of Gamer Heads is brought to you by Magic Mind, the healthy energy drink that will help you take your creativity to a new level. Hi, I'm Celia Schilling from Yacht Club Games. Hey, this is James from Mega Cat Studios. Hey, this is Matt aka Stormageddon from Reignite Screen Snark and the Fun and Games Podcast. This is Stephanie from the Boss Rush Podcast and the Boss Rush Network. Hey, this is Mark and Kion from Bonta Affold. Hey, this is Sebastian with the PronerdReportcom and the Single Player Experience Podcast. Hi, this is Chris, mike and Garrett from Daylight Basement Studio. Hey, this is BaronJ67 from Level One Gaming. Hey, this is Todd Mitchell from Code Right Play Salutations. This is Mike Carroll from Stroll Art. Hey, this is Jeff Moonen from Fun and Games Podcast. Hey, this is Patrick from the Backlog Odyssey. Hey, this is Rune from Runic Codes. Hi, this is Andrew from Spallata Birds. Hi, everyone. Jill Grote, here from the Indie Informer. Hey, this is Brimstone, and you're listening to Roger Reichardt on the Gamer Heads Podcast. And you're listening to Roger Reichardt on the Gamer Heads Podcast. And welcome to another episode of the Gamer Heads Podcast. My name is Roger.

Speaker 1: 1:12

This week I have a very special guest, a good friend of mine. I have Adam from Respawn Aim Fire Podcast and we'll be talking about gaming technology innovations. But before we get into that, adam, first of all, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for having me. It's just like the show floor at PAX East. I'm going to run into you a hundred times in a row and just keep on walking. That's what we're doing here tonight.

Speaker 1: 1:38

I know it was funny. Like we saw each other like I don't know like 10 times in a matter of like 10 minutes. It felt like it was like hey, there you are again, it's you. It's very fun. Uh, and you I mean you got to like what was really funny is we were both heading in the same direction for a game I'm not gonna mention, but it was a game that we were gonna play. And uh, and I was like, hey, I'll, why don't you just come along with me and play during my time to play with the game? And then that didn't work out for me. And then I'm texting him like, um, actually that time didn't work out for me, I guess I'm not playing in. That said game can cancel basically everyone's appointments. And then was like we'll sneak you in for another appointment and then cancel those appointments. So I was like I'm just gonna walk over there, we'll see what's going on. Oh, that was so funny. Did you get to play said game? Yeah, it's fine, yeah, okay, yeah, sorry, uh.

Speaker 1: 2:30

Well, before we, before we get into our topic, adam, tell us about yourself and tell us about your podcast. Oh yeah, I'm adam. I'm into all things gaming and dnd and just being a cool guy. That's my number one thing, uh. But I am on the respawning fire podcast, uh, also youtube channel. It is a weekly show where we do a little bit of news but then a lot of segments like game show kind of stuff like that. And then we do have a dedicated game show every month where we just trade up play like jeopardy and stuff like that, as well as reviews, um backlog reviews, new game reviews, all that kind of stuff. You can respawn aim fire podcast and YouTube. You can check it all out there. Nice, I have a couple questions before I get into topics.

Speaker 1: 3:11

So how did you get into gaming and how did you get into podcasting? Like, what made you decide that this is what you want to do? Oh man, so gaming. So I had systems before, but I didn't care about gaming until Pokemon came out Like before. But I didn't care about gaming until pokemon came out, like when I was because you know, I was a kid and pokemon came out it was the coolest thing ever. So I was like, oh, I actually want to play that video game. Um, so pokemon yellow was the first game that I cared about ever, but like I had like an nes and stuff like that, I just never played them. I don't care. Grandpa, thank you for the gift. Obviously I'm gonna be thankful because I'm not a bad child. I did, did not care. Yeah, pokemon was the one that made me care. And then after that I basically didn't stop. It was like I bought an N64 with my own money, bought an original Xbox with my own money. I just like kept going after that and had a good time.

Speaker 1: 3:53

As far as podcasting, too long, you ever look up and you're like man, I've been podcasting for a decade almost, it feels Not just on Respawn by Fire, just in general, because I started it when everyone was like I'm going to start a podcast. We all say that now, but there was really a time, like eight years ago, when everyone's like just buy a microphone, do a podcast, it would be great. So I've been doing it that long. But as far as a gaming podcast, maybe it's been three years, maybe four, I don't know Lost track of time what striking time, what was?

Speaker 1: 4:30

Was there other podcasts you're on? Oh, I'm not going to mention it because it doesn't exist, but I had an original like we're just gonna chat with the buds, like we're gonna guy talk podcast, because there's never been any of those before, um and then. But that was the very first one. That was like eight years ago, uh. And then I did have a dnd podcast which is I'll miss it rolls, which has a full two seasons. Like that was really cool to do.

Speaker 1: 4:43

And then most popular thing I ever did was a wrestling podcast where we broke down braun smackdown every week and it was by far the most successful thing I've ever done. We only did it for like a year really. It was. I was. The numbers were crazy and like who cares? But apparently some people were downloading it. Wow, that's awesome. That's awesome. Uh, it's funny. We should do at some point. So I'm sure there is, but like a venn diagram of wrestling fans and video game fans, because I'm sure they just like are almost well, it's just a circle completely. It's just one circle due to play fantasy football, like wrestling, and play video games. Just a big old ball, that's all it is. Oh well, I'm so glad glad that we met at PAX I mean, we actually talked before PAX but I'm glad that we were able to meet at PAX and I'm glad that you were able to join me today.

Speaker 1: 5:33

So thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule and talking about a topic. I pitched a bunch of ideas to you and the idea that we decided to talk about is the innovation in gaming and just have some topics or some questions that we to talk about is, uh, the innovation in gaming and just have some topics or some questions that we can talk about. Um, adam, I know you do as well. Um, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna start with one here and then, you know, we'll just kind of go back and forth and just, you know, this is gonna be just totally like free-for-all kind of chat type thing.

Speaker 1: 6:01

So, um, but the first thing that I want to talk about in regards to, like, gaming technology innovations, I want to know, adam, what do you think are the most almost said insignificant? What do you think the most insignificant? But what do you think the most significant recent innovations in gaming technology have been? Oh see, here's the question. I mean we'll get to it, but it's like as far as in gaming or as far as technology all around, uh, you know, yeah, I say I would say both. I would say both like the most significant one. I would say the most significant one that's like reached its full potential, because there's a lot of like ideas and things that are in its infancy or that are like midlife, but still fine, thank the lord and thank Bill Gates or whoever made it up SSDs, nvme, whatever drives, because I remember going into the Xbox Series and the PS5.

Speaker 1: 6:52

Everyone was like, what are they going to do different? Everyone was talking about SSDs and all these fast things. People were like does it really matter? What's quick resume? Who's going to care? And I swear, trying to go back and play anything not on ssd feels like I'm in stone age, like I need it to load in half a second. I need to be able to turn it off, unplug it, throw it in the bathtub, dry it off and plug it back into my game launches right away. Still, like I can never go back. I think that is like thank you because I it feels weird without it now. So I think that's like the one that really stuck.

Speaker 1: 7:23

I agree with that because it's weird, because, like you're right, because when, when that was brought up, I was like, oh, cares about quick resume, like, okay, that's cool, but but then we start playing you're like, oh, this is actually very cool. Um, and and it is also kind of a funny point as well, because they, you know, they preface it as like lower loading times and and such. But when you play like the old, like cartridge games, you're like there wasn't that many loading times in those games to begin with. Like it's kind of a, I mean, but that's just shows like how far advanced we've gotten with our, you know, with our graphics and technology, obviously in such, but but you're right, going back and playing games, that that, that is, there are long loading times and you don't have the quick resume, it's not very much like, yeah, it's kind of sucks. So that is a really big uh innovation, I think in that is that is current, that has seen its full potential. Yeah, especially if you try to like play an older, you know last gen game on current gen system, where it's like I gotta walk through the hallway and like shimmy through the thing, it's like obviously they're hiding a load, a load time here. That's like we can just get rid of those completely. And also, you know, with the speed, you know that's how you can get better fidelity, like you can have more things coming through the pipeline and make things look better, and that that leads to a lot of. I just think it's great. Let's keep it up. Yeah, yeah, agreed. Um, which is an interesting point, because I I agree with that point.

Speaker 1: 8:56

I am beginning to wonder, though, from a like hardware standpoint, like how much more we have in regards to innovation, looking forward to right, because, like, you always hear, like, oh, the next console is going to be the, the, the true, awesome console. Um, we're already hearing it with, like playstation, which is so weird to me that playstation 5 is like oh, yeah, this console's uh already dead and we're moving on to the next one. Get a pro please, yeah, yeah, but it's, it's weird, right, because I'm like how much of the hardware? At what point are we going to be? At a point where the hardware is just where it needs, where it can't expand any further than what it currently is? Um, and this is where I think like we're going to see things like cloud gaming moving into that, and really we have seen Microsoft lean into that. We have seen disasters as well, like Google Stadia. That's one of them, yeah, but I do think cloud gaming might be. That one, for me, is probably one of the ones that I would. It's not quite its full potential, I mean, it's not even close to its full potential, but I think we're getting closer to it being more realized. Um, that's a fun one too. That's going because I've I've used a timer here, uh, here there, because like like a game I don't always have installed, like once, once I'll jump into madden, because I don't really play madden.

Speaker 1: 10:26

I'll play it, you know, when football season's happening and then when it's done, I don't care. But you know, amazon, twitch, twitch prime, is like here's free packs for stuff all the time, right, and I'll be like, well, I don't want to download 80 gigabytes worth of madden just to claim this ultimate team pack, but click on the cloud button and I'm in the full game. Everything's there in like 10, 15 seconds. I'm like this is kind of nice. So I can imagine when, like 5g is like really a thing, you know again, it's possible now, but give it time. And like could you imagine just like, especially with all these handheld devices that are like cloud-based, can you imagine just like, sit down with your phone or like a dedicated device and it's just like streaming 4k game in like 10 seconds? That sounds great, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 11:08

And the thing I like about the the concept behind cloud gaming is it really like lowers. Well, this is the ideal world, right? This is what I would like it to see. I would like it to see the entry to gaming to be taken away with cloud gaming, right, because, like the entry to buying expensive hardware to be able to play cloud gaming, like I would like to see that removed so that people can start playing games. Like have you know, again, game pass on tvs, right, like, you're gonna buy a tv, have game pass built into it? Boy, now you have access to a whole library of games that you don't have to buy another system to be able to play those games. Like. That, to me, I think, is the most exciting thing about, uh, cloud gaming. It's just taking away that barrier for for people to be able to play games.

Speaker 1: 11:56

Yeah, there was a commercial, um, I think it was for google chrome, just like a normal chromebook. So can you imagine, like, all right, I'm a teenage and I just don't have a lot of money for a $2,000 gaming PC. But I think the idea was that they were using streaming on Google Chrome and putting it in a fake dummy case to make it like, oh, look at this crazy PC. And people are like, oh, this is great, this is awesome. And then they open the case. Know, it's kind of chromebook I would love to be able to go out, especially as a kid, being like all right, I got 200 bucks I saved up over the summer. I bought this device. That is like good enough as a device that also allows me to stream games really high quality, and now I can play anything and everything and I don't have to have enormous amounts of cash to be able to do it. We'll get lower that barrier to entry. I think. Better for everybody overall.

Speaker 1: 12:43

Yeah, I, and I think that's where the idea behind Google stadia was there, or stadia, however you pronounce it like was there right, it just wasn't executed well and I don't think they have the desire for that either, like when they first announced it. I believe, like the I don't know was the CEO or even the vision head. I'm not quite sure I said I I don't know if it was the CEO or even the vision head, I'm not quite sure. It said I don't play games, but here's Google Stadia. I'm like what? No, that's not cool. But it was a cool concept. Like you got streaming games. You didn't have to have like awesome hardware, right, you could play the games on Chromecast and you know it was awesome and it was coming out with new games and I don't know if you remember this.

Speaker 1: 13:30

But when, um, oh, that cyberpunk game came out, it was running terribly on consoles and google stadia was like works well here, like I had a. I have a friend who had a stadia podcast, so he was obviously very invested in Stadia and he was like I am playing Cyberpunk, no Problem. I did also have a different friend. So when Baldur's Gate 3 came out in early access, he didn't have a very new PC to be able to run it super well. So he got it on Stadia and was able to play the early access on his old PC through Google Stadia and he was like no, it was great, it felt wonderful Again. It great, it felt wonderful again. It's just like google.

Speaker 1: 14:02

How invested are they in that technology? Obviously not very much, as they closed down after two years, but the idea that someone started that step and now you have people who are more committed to it like I don't know anyone who uses it, but the fact that amazon luna is still around is a good thing. That they haven't candy yeah, obviously microsoft seems pretty invested in doing that. You know, playstation also has it with some of their uh, the catalog is over cloud streaming and stuff. So the people who are into gaming, I'm glad that they're staying with it, because I think it can be a really cool thing, yeah, yeah, the one thing I will say the caveat with with cloud gaming and I think this is probably the biggest complaint is that the you know the internet speeds and internet at all right.

Speaker 1: 14:43

It's just not where it needs to be, infrastructure wise, uh, and it blows my mind that there are caps on internet usage for people in certain states, like that's weird, that is crazy. And it's weird. Like, aren't it normally some of the bigger? I guess it's a big city, there's a lot of people, there's a lot of users. Like, for me, I have gigabit up and down, unlimited, but it's also just because I live in a big enough city that gets it, but not too big where they would put a cap on it. You know, I'm in that perfect middle ground. But I can imagine like living on like a major city on the coast and they're like yeah, you can have 500 up, 20, or you can have like 500 down, 20 up, and then you can only use like 20 gigs a month. It's like that what is this? What is going on here? Yeah, they've got to get the nation has to get better about that for this stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, uh, do you have any? I have a.

Speaker 1: 15:38

I have a couple other thoughts around that, but do you have any other thoughts around, like some of the recent innovations that you feel like are the most significant? I mean, again, I do have a list of things, of gaming technology stuff, so we can loop around to it. But if you want to move on to another question but I will get through this whole list at some point okay, all right, all right, um, so another question that I have that I like to cover is how has, how have these technologies changed the way that we've played games? Um, so I'll start with you well, how has technology changed the way that you've played games? I want to say the biggest one in all of this would have to be ai. Right, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 16:18

And the thing about I understand that ai just becomes a dirty word where, like, if you want someone to be mad, you just say the word AI, which obviously, like AI artists like when it steals from people. Obviously it's bad when it's stealing people's voices and doing stuff. Obviously that stuff is bad, but, like, the idea of AI and machine learning has been in video games forever and just so being able to, I'm nowadays I used to be mostly console, but at this point I think I'm like 75% PC nowadays. Just because I like I don't know, I just like it and being able to have the NVIDIA graphics card and basically having this graphics card, say, hey, we're going to use machine learning, ai I'm sampling whatever you want to say about it to fake your game. So, even though your machine shouldn't be able to handle this, we're going to fake your game. So, even though your machine shouldn't be able to handle this, we're going to fake that again.

Speaker 1: 17:07

I don't know, I'm not a wizard, but basically this card uses ai and machine learning to make your video game run better and look better without you having to get new parts inside of your machine. And that is every time I have played the game, just like, turn it on, turn it on and it looks 100 times better. I'm like this is great, love it. That's crazy. Yeah, I mean that's, that's so. So I agree, like AI is usually a dirty word, right, but but things like that where I think using it for technological problem solving basically right, to allow basically your tech to be able to operate efficiently efficiently, I think is like, makes a lot of sense to me. Um, I think also like, for me, I agree, ai, I think, is probably the biggest thing that's coming up on a horizon as well. That is going to be the biggest game changer, I think.

Speaker 1: 18:00

I think when we talk about like hardware, I don't know how much more we can do with hardware, but from an AI standpoint, I think there's a lot that can happen. One of the things I think with AI that I've seen and again the things that I think are where it becomes like a dirty word is stealing art. Obviously, that's not cool, unfortunately. We've seen a lot of that. Also, we've seen AI used for writing dialogue for people it's like okay, now you're taking jobs away from, from those folks that are, you know, that are writers, right, like that's ridiculous.

Speaker 1: 18:36

Um, but I do think ai could be used as thought partners, right, like, for instance, hey, I have this problem, I don't know how to solve this, how you know, help me brainstorm ways that I can get around this issue. And even for, like, indie developers, to allow them to use it to like proof their code, right To go through and just make sure their code is running properly and making sure there's no bugs, like I think that's. And the other thing I'll say, I think that also opens the door for folks that are not great at coding but may have great ideas for games. Ai, like there's technology that can help you write like code, like right, you can just say, hey, I'm trying to do this, help me write the code that can do that, and it will help you write that C-sharp code that you can put into unity and allow you to like actually build up your, your, what you're looking to build out, right, like those to me, I think, can help with, uh, the gaming industry. But again, it feels like it's the lack of of creativity on the people that are like pushing it, like we could use it to write scripts, okay, okay, what, that's why you came up, but we could use it to steal art, I mean to create art, okay, okay, what, really like this lack of creativity on the part of using ai, like that is like the easiest thing to do with ai, like, stop doing the easy stuff and actually use it for for creativity, right, yeah, it's like I don't need it to write my name on the paper, I need it for to do the calculus question, you know? Or I mean, yeah, using the idea of a calculator helping me do math instead of writing exactly, uh, exactly.

Speaker 1: 20:14

But there's also the other thing I'm talking about like in-game stuff, obviously, like the idea so I brought it up before we talked about but like nemesis system and I know you've talked about it recently, um, on a past episode but the idea of like okay, to create an interesting, dynamic thing for the player. It's like I did a thing in the game. I want the game to take that information and change it around and make it seem more fresh and interesting and unique to me, right? Could you imagine like this game wouldn't do exactly, but like if you're playing like a souls game, right, and it's like, oh man, I'm having a tough time with this boss, or I like absolutely wiped this boss the one time. And then maybe that boss is like oh, I remember that, Like you really like to do that jump attack. So I'm just going to put my block up, not in a way where it's just reading your inputs and obviously You're like, oh wow, this dude remembers I like to jump on top of him with the sword. I got to try to change it up once in a while because he'll defend that. Like that idea of here's an even dumber one I had. This is my favorite idea of all time, right? Also, I think them system is great, where he comes back and he's like yeah, you killed me with bees last time. I got bees all over me. I hate it. That is so. That was so fun in those.

Speaker 1: 21:20

So they're bringing back this year NCAA football 25 or college football 25. It's finally coming back. It's been 11 years, yeah, yeah. And again they're not saying this is a game, but this is a thing where, like, I would please use AI to figure out this for me. I would love if it was like okay, I'm starting at as a college coach here and then like my offensive coordinator leaves and goes to another school and like we have a rivalry and we go back and forth and you know I've beat him a couple times, he beat me a couple times.

Speaker 1: 21:44

I remember the plays that he likes to do and then like we meet in the national championship, like seven years down the road. That's like some corny, like sports, dad, movie stuff. But I would love if the game, if a video game, did that to me. Like yo bro, I remember you, you were on my staff a long time ago and that would be like so immersive and so cool. Yeah, and again, that's not a thing that you could necessarily like write in a story mode. You just like let the game figure that out as the player plays it.

Speaker 1: 22:11

So I'm like, let's do that stuff, that's fun, yeah, yeah, well, and that's I think that was the other thing that was gonna bring up like I think that's a really good point, like the immersiveness of ai right, because it can create that feeling that you have this connection to another coach in that example right, where you have this, this, you know, competitive like aspect with them and like, yeah, they learn from you. And then you're like, oh crap, oh man, how did they, how did they? Oh crap, they figured out that play like and like. How many times I mean, I played ncaa for football and there's a lot of times I'm just like I'm gonna keep running the same play because you're not smart enough to stop it. Like right, like, think about, like, how they can start learning from how you do things. Like I think that would be brilliant. Yeah, coaches study tape in real life. They're like this is what they like to do in this situation. So, exactly, imagine, like a very you know, like, oh, his stats are super good and intelligent, so like he can study your tape. So you've got to change stuff up like that would be so fun. And that's just, that's a game where you throw a ball around, and that would be make it 100 times better. Yes, I think.

Speaker 1: 23:13

I think also ai could help with the uh accessibility as well. Like on the flip side, where, like, as a player, if you're struggling with something, it's like okay, you don't, you're not obviously getting what's what's supposed to be happening here, so we'll help you out right, and like either provide tips or guides or be like hey, like you're struggling beating this boss, do you, do you want to do, you want us to provide like this is the 10th time you died with this right and you keep doing the same thing over and over again. Can we provide you some ideas of like how you might be able to beat this? Like? You know, you know, and it's again, doesn't have to be utilized, but it's an option maybe for players to be like. Oh yeah, please help me, because you're starting to learn how, like, I play this game and it could even adapt to like how you want to play a game too. Right, like, maybe you do want it to be even more difficult or maybe you want it to be easy. It's like, okay, we can adapt to that. We can adapt and change how you want to play this game. Like, again, that's where I think AI can be used intelligently and creatively versus the whole. Yeah, hey, I need somebody to write a script. Okay, that's like again, lack of creativity on on the you know execs part that think, think that's how ai should be implemented. Yeah, let it upscale my image to be a fake 4k and then, like, let the coach remember that he hates me because you know I fired him.

Speaker 1: 24:38

Don't use it for like here's an ad of a lady drinking a beer with seven fingers. It's like we don't need that, just do the cool stuff with it instead. I actually saw that the other day. It was like yeah, did you? It was like a derby, because the kazaki derby just happened recently. It was a derby ad for some beer company. It was like this is clearly not a real lady drinking a beer. And it was like why did you? Whatever, every weird beer company, yeah, but again, it's lack of a lack of creativity, right.

Speaker 1: 25:04

To be like, oh, let's use ai for that. Um, and I and I I I'm gonna bring this up here and I mean, you know it's, it's the things I'm seeing people use ai for is like, hey, we're building this game and we're using like, we have this person that can pump out art so fast and like, can'm, like, can they, though? Like, aren't they Like? Is that what Like? And that comes into question. Right, like, what is what is? I guess the question is like what? Who owns that at some point? Right and like. That's the part that I, you know, I can't.

Speaker 1: 25:37

I can't believe companies are like leaning into the art part of things because of the fact that there are class action lawsuits out there of artists saying, hey, people are using my name as prompts and creating art based on my name. Uh, that's not cool, uh. And then there's weird things that people are like, hey, I use these five prompts, now that's, I own that. I own that art. I own the stolen art. It, it's mine now. Yeah, exactly. So again, it's weird to think that people are leaning into that from an AI perspective. But again, that's the easy aspect of AI. I just want the orc to remember. I killed him with bees. That's what I need. That's all.

Speaker 1: 26:19

I love the idea of having a coach. Remember that I beat them 49 to to nothing and then, really holding a grudge against me for the next 10 years, let me tell you, make me an executive. Yay, I'll make all the good decisions. Um, the other thing that I was gonna mention to you, uh, besides ai, is ar and vr. Yeah, because I think that those are big things. Do you play much VR at all? I have played VR. I'm not super big into it. I have friends who are like. I have a friend, chad from Responding Fire, owns a Vision Pro. Like there are people who are. Chad is he spends all his money on all the dumb things. I love him, but that man just like dispenses money on stupid the dumb things. I love him, but that man just like dispenses money on stupid stuff. Um, so I've been around the technology.

Speaker 1: 27:09

Obviously I like the idea of our my, my son, had a vr headset at one point. It is a thing that obviously is here to stay because it, I remember a couple years ago it was like they're gonna try to bring it back. I'm like is this gonna work out? Is this gonna be a gimmick? And it's like. It seems like it's worked out as a gimmick so far, but I like that it stayed around and I, you know you're obviously about to talk about it, but I really like the idea of like ar being a thing going forward. That would be my biggest hope. I don't even know gaming wise, but just like in real life I mean, yeah, I think I think for me, like vr has been really cool, like uh. So I have a quest too and uh, mike, one of the other guys that's on our podcast, got a quest three and we played uh, walk about, walk about mini golf and he's just like. I cannot believe how. First of all, how cool this feels and how realistic it feels Like you're playing real mini golf. And the other fun thing is it's like we're there next to each other just playing mini golf with each other.

Speaker 1: 28:08

You know, like that's really cool in what AR is doing is allowing, like you to have like they're talking about doing this with D&D games, like having an actual tabletop game where you can play tabletop in AR with your friends so you can actually play D&D virtually with each other. That's such a cool concept and such a cool thing. And AR and now also hand tracking, has come such a long way. Hand tracking, I think, is such a cool concept with VR and AR. Um, and if anybody's listening, they should play rogue ascent. This is really really good and it plays with. I mean, really this is the only way you should be playing.

Speaker 1: 28:53

That game is with, uh, with hand motion controls. It's so good, it's so simple. It's just you know, this is your, this is your gun with your you know for those that are obviously listening to the podcast it's just your. You know index finger and your thumb and it works so well. Uh, and it all started from a game jam that the guy was like can I do that? Can that work? Oh yeah, sure it can. Hey, when's if I made a game off this whole thing? Um.

Speaker 1: 29:19

But yeah, tech like vr and ar technology, um, it's weird because I see like obviously quest is doing a lot with it, right, but, um, but it's weird to see playstation, like lean into it and then like no, no, actually we're no, no, we're flirting with it again and we're not, no, we don't care about it. It's weird because, from everything I've heard, again, like chad buys all of that stuff and he's super into it and like, by all accounts, psvr2 is like as a piece of tech is really really good, like it's got the haptics and like it feels amazing and great. But then playstation was like here's a game for it, we don't care anymore, compared to meta was like it's wireless, you don't anything else, you can just play it and we're going to support it. So like, yeah, it's that weird thing where, like if you want the really really good experience, like that company isn't supporting it, but if you want the cheaper option, there's like a lot of cool stuff here, but it's also not like quadruple A OLED screens kind of a thing. So, yeah, yeah, there's an interesting medium there, but again, everyone who's into it. I've done it.

Speaker 1: 30:21

I did like Star Wars, vr and stuff like this is cool. This is fun. I like this, yeah, but I'm I'm happy that they've stuck. It's been enough years, what's like, clearly they're sticking with. A couple of people are sticking with it enough, where it'll probably stay around for a little while. Like, I hope that you know meta. I mean, it seems like they're leaning into it. But, yeah, it is weird because, like playstation, the vr2 really is.

Speaker 1: 30:47

I got to play it at pax west because one of the games there was on the on the quest, on the playstation vr2. It was really good, it was awesome, like, if, like, the graphics were great, um, and the only thing I would say is, like, again, I'm just so used to playing on the quest that having a wired headset felt weird. Um, because I just wanted to walk around and I'm like, oh yeah, I can't sit down please. Yeah, exactly, and I ended up ended up accidentally, not hard, but punching one of the people because, like, they're standing next to me. That's. Oh, my god, I'm so sorry, um.

Speaker 1: 31:28

So do you have any any other thoughts around how these technologies are changing the way you play games at all? No, I think we had some pretty good ones there. Again, I still have this half this list to go, so don't worry. Uh, so another question that I have here is which of these technologies has the potential to be a game changer in the next five years? Um, so I'll start with you, adam. What? What do you think? Is the the one that has the biggest potential to be the game changer in the next five? Okay, this is kind of perfect, kind of the biggest potential to be the game changer the next five? Okay, this is kind of perfect.

Speaker 1: 32:04

Kind of piggy tails, not piggy tails, I don't know what things. Uh, I was gonna say dovetail and pig something in the same time, and I've well, it's a thing now I'm gonna use it. I think it was a thing I heard on podcast beyond 17 years ago and for some reason, it's still in my brain. Um, no, there's been a handheld gaming resurgence and I think it's only getting stronger as we go along. So, like, obviously, nintendo has been doing their thing, where they were like a constantly on a handheld and then they combined with the switch and it was a smash hit, obviously good, so they stuck with it, but the fact that, like steam was like again, a company known for like once in a while trying a physical thing and not supporting it. Um, they were like, hey, we're just gonna make a handheld pc and like, by all accounts, like everyone who has a steam deck loves steam deck only, period, no one's ever complained about it, yeah. But then you've also got your rogue allies, you got your lenovo goes again some of the cloud, uh, cloud option. They have cloud options on those devices.

Speaker 1: 32:54

But it seems like people are like okay, the switch is a thing and people clearly want to have a full console handheld, even if there's some you know well, it's not full, for you know there are people are okay with that as long as it's portable. And then steam's like yeah, sure, let's try that too. And then it's oh, no, obviously this is working because two people have done it now. Um, so I think, going forward again, we already know they talked, nintendo's already said we're going to talk about switch successor next. So like, obviously it's going to be another handheld console hybrid thing, right? So that's at least another seven or eight years of this and I think steam's going to stick with it and I think other companies are going to try and jump on that bandwagon and I think a lot of people dig it obviously. So I think that is an interesting thing to bring back for me, thing to bring back for me.

Speaker 1: 33:42

I tried I'm really thinking about getting a steam deck oled. That's the one I'm like. If I'm gonna get one, that'd probably be the one if I did it. But because there was a time when it didn't seem like it was going to be a thing anymore, right, because you have, I mean, even the play date, like even that's very niche. But it's like, yeah, yeah, those people who are into her into it. But again, it was the thing where, like um, you know, like the 3ds came out, 3d, the ds, very, very successful people like the 3ds, a little less so still did fine, you know, overall. But it's like, okay, what are doesn't seem to be working out the best, maybe as much as nintendo, what's it? What are they going to do? They pivoted the switch, I don't know. It feels like it seems like it's going to stay around.

Speaker 1: 34:17

Also, I think everyone's worried about mobile phones, obviously, because, like, everybody owns a mobile phone, like they'll just game there, and I think it's been proven that people don't want to play quote-unquote real games on their phone as much as they want, like a dedicated device. So I think that's that's your mistake for next five years, for sure, yeah, yeah, no, I agree, I think, I think. I think, with the cloud-based gaming, I think that just opens the door for more handheld as well. Right, like we already see. Well, I mean, the rumors are that xbox wants to get into that to allow for more handheld.

Speaker 1: 34:51

I mean, playstation again has flirted with this idea. Right, like, uh, I, I have a vita, I love the vita, I think the vita is awesome, uh, and you know. But now, of course, they're well, I don't even remember what it's called, but whatever, the, the portal where you could stream on it. Basically, you can stream to the one of their controllers. It's basically the way that they set up, but it's cool, yeah, it is cool, uh, so I would like to see more of that and, again, hopefully that brings down the cost of gaming, right, if they're able to stream uh like that, I think.

Speaker 1: 35:26

I think also with uh, with cloud gaming, I think we're going to see more of this. I think we're going to see more subscription-based uh services like ubisoft, plus game pass in video, things like that. Yeah, and I think you know, and a lot of people don't like this idea, right, but I don't know. I mean, I, it took a long time for people to get used to netflix a really long time for that and uh, and now nobody complains like, well, I don't own any of those movies. Like nobody complains about that at all.

Speaker 1: 36:04

It's a service that you pay, like twelve dollars a month, I think. I think the people complain is like now we're moving back to cable, like this whole thing of like we were doing before, right, like paying, yeah, exactly, um, but the idea that you know you can play a couple games here and there and I don't have to spend full price. It may be $17 a month and I can play your full library of games for $17 a month, that's pretty awesome, actually. You got to think about it, though. Your general audiences are absolutely fine with that, people who are enthusiasts and are like so the reason Limited Run exists is for enthusiast weirdos who are like I've got to have a physical and like that's cool and I'm glad that those companies exist. But your general audience so I used to work at GameStop, right, a long time Everyone who likes video games is like I'll work at GameStop. That'll be great. Anyways, that was the thing, because I was there for the PS4 Xbox One launch and the amount of, of course, night one.

Speaker 1: 37:02

All your enthusiasts, everyone's there super excited After that first night. Everyone who comes in there I'm going to say 80% of the customers who come in are just like a mom buying a gift for their kid. Like my kid wants the new thing to play for a night with his friends. Like your general audience of people who are just like I don't care, I just want to do the thing as cheap as possible. That's what most of your audience is. So I think subscription service for games is going to be just fine.

Speaker 1: 37:26

Again, if you're an enthusiast and you want to spend for a physical thing that will exist for certain games, I think your general audience is absolutely fine with it's a subscription service on a cloud thing. Whatever how I can play this my make my kids shut up and play the game as cheap as possible. People are going to be happy to do in bigger numbers than you would ever expect Because, again, your enthusiast is a very small number compared to your general audience. So I think general audiences are going to be super into the idea of pay a little bit, a bit a month, a month. It doesn't. Even I don't see it come out, it doesn't matter to me, and that's the way that games are going to go forward. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting. I mean that's how I played skull and bones.

Speaker 1: 38:04

I didn't, I didn't pay for that game. I paid 17 for for ubisoft. I'm like, and I can cancel anytime. I'm like, yeah, I don't know if this is for me, and that's the thing with these subscription services. You could cancel it until the next game comes out. Buy the subscription again for 17, play it a month, cancel it before the month ends. And it was a while back.

Speaker 1: 38:27

But do you remember when Ubisoft, when they were coming out with I don't remember what game it was, but they were basically saying how they're pushing their subscription service? And everybody was like there was a bunch of people that were flipping out about it, saying this is ridiculous and I can't believe you're doing this, and like, really, the, the the person that was I can't remember his name, but he was the one that was kind of behind the whole subscription services he basically recommended listen, get the 17 a month service, play the game when it comes out, cancel it when the month ends and then when the next game comes out, do it again. There's no problem. Like, no, nobody's gonna stop you from doing that. Yeah, because the people who speaking to are the people who would be upset. But again, so many people get subscriptions, forget they have them. Well, yeah, that's exactly, and it's like they'll take that money.

Speaker 1: 39:13

Or again, if you only want to, if you give us, you know, as a company, if you, let's say, you do the ubisoft plus for three months out of the year, it's like, oh, I want to play prince of persia, I've eaten a month, I'm done. Well, I want to play avatar, for some reason, get it for a month and play it. Right, you giving them that 17, 17, 17, so basically 60 bucks in a year, they'll rather take that compared to you giving them zero dollars because you're just don't want to buy the game, you're waiting for a sale. Yes, yeah, exactly yeah, and you're right. You're absolutely right about the 17 a month, like the I.

Speaker 1: 39:46

That happens to me all the time. I buy something, oh, it's 12 a month, that seems cheap, and then I forget. I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm still paying for that subscription, and then it's for me it's too much of a hassle to cancel it. I'm just like, well, I'll just, uh, what's 12 a month? I guess I'll just, you know, just keep going with this subscription. The problem is like, when you have like eight of these and you're like, oh, I probably should cancel one of these are stacking. That's what I do with all my streaming. Yeah, they just all stack up, right, like all my streaming services.

Speaker 1: 40:11

My wife is like getting to the point where it's like we have all these streaming services, but we don't watch all this stuff, and I'm like, yeah, but, but she's doing the same. She's suggesting we do the same thing, which I don't disagree with her. Why don't we just cancel HBO, for instance, and just pick up Apple and watch all our shows for Apple for a month? Cancel that, go back to Max for a month, watch that? It's just the hassle. I just think you're right, though it is a thing that a lot of people are used to.

Speaker 1: 40:37

I don't know where we started on this, so I think it's. I don't know how. Where we started on this Was. We're talking about handheld, but I think subscription services is still a part of like what's going to happen in the future, though, and I think, yeah, and again, for the people who really care and want their statues and want your paper and all that stuff, there will be someone there to give it to you if you really want it that bad, but I think they're happy with it and, however, the easiest way for you to give them money as well. So I think that's that's not going away. Why would you? There's no reason to yeah, yeah, agreed, um, I think the other, the other thing I mean, we already talked about this, but but I think the biggest potential game changer in the next five years is, again, ai.

Speaker 1: 41:24

Just opening the doors for people to and this is really focusing on indie devs, right, but allowing people to do things that they haven't been able to do before. Like, if you're a solo developer and you don't know, maybe you don't have a QA team, right. Can you use AI to test your code? Absolutely. Can you use ai for a thought partner around how to market your game? Absolutely. Can you use it for a thought partner to figure out a problem that you're stuck on? Absolutely. Can you use it to help you write code? Yeah, like to me. I think that that's where the power of AI can really be beneficial.

Speaker 1: 42:04

Besides the things that we talked about how to incorporate it in a game, but from a standpoint of indie developers or people that are trying to get into this industry, but they feel like the barrier around just the knowledge I just don't have the knowledge of coding or how to test code or even where to start, like I feel like ai can be a good thought partner around those things. Yeah, just like a perfect example of like so velatro came out earlier this year. I mean, you reviewed that on responding fire. If that it's soul developer, I don't know what their talent is or whatever, but if at some point they were like, okay, I need help with a problem and I'll put it in ai. And if that game was made with ai that just didn't steal any art or anything that a creative person made, it was like oh, I just need help with I'm being very stupid level three, I need help tighten up level three. Remember that old thing we used to say make the the jumping better over on there. And if they did that and bellator still came out to be bellator, who cared?

Speaker 1: 43:04

It's a solo developer making a really good, awesome card, roguelike. I don't, yeah, as long as no one's being stolen from and no jobs. It's a solo developer, so you're not stealing jobs from the one person who works there. I don't see, personally, how that would be a problem, right? If it's just like, help me with this problem that I don't have the expertise to do, right, that's just me, though. Agreed. No, I agree, and again I mean yes, I understand there's a lot of ethical issues around AI, but it can be used in a lot of really good ways too to open doors, also not going anywhere, so you got to get used to it. Yeah, well, that's the other thing, right, like and, and I think that's a really good point, because it isn't going to go anywhere.

Speaker 1: 43:46

So the question then becomes how do you use ethically and how do you navigate these waters ethically to make sure that you're not? I mean, unfortunately, we just see a lot of examples of people using it not ethically. Unethically is the word I was looking for. As long as it's helping, not stealing, I think it's fine, yeah, but unethically is the word. As long as it's helping, not stealing, I think it's fine, yeah, but um, those were, oh, no, actually.

Speaker 1: 44:08

I have one more question. Unless you had something else, you want to talk about the potential game changers in technology. Your last question, then I'll run through these. Yeah, um. So my last question is how have these advances in gaming technology influences other? Have influenced other industries as well? Oh, this is a good place to put this one. This one is a big one that a lot of companies wanted to do. I think they're still pushing for it. I think it's stupid. I think the only place it's been done right is in gaming.

Speaker 1: 44:35

And, of course, I'm talking about Metaverse right, the idea of like and it's weird because it was always around. We're like oh, it's like a digital, like a virtual place where you go and chat with your friends, maybe like a chat room or you know whatever. Whatever they think the metaverse is like. Obviously, a lot of companies are like metaverse, this, metaverse, that but the idea that like fortnite, minecraft and roblox are just very specific, you know, because I have a 13 year old kid right and like him and his friends just play those three games specifically and they just hang out in those games and they're like I got a silly skin, or there's a lot of user-created content where it's like we were friends, we're gonna get in this thing. That's like a boxing ring with the super saiyan knockoff, legally descript dragon ball characters or whatever, and they'll just go out and hang out with these kids and that's what they do all day and like that is what companies have thought the metaverse was going to be.

Speaker 1: 45:26

Um, and I feel like in those games it feels organic and it works right. Again, specifically, fortnite, roblox, minecraft are the games where you go with your friends and you create stuff and you have fun in a big group with your friends. I feel like that is the one place. That's where because every other time that they try to do it, it's like this is bad and corny and like the worst thing I've ever seen in my life. Yeah, except for like VR chat. That's fun, there's funny stuff in VR chat, but outside of that, I'm like, yeah, these three video games are the only ones who've ever done it right in my opinion, so I'm like good for you for doing that. Everyone else, learn lessons for them, or maybe stop trying one of the two. Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, and it's interesting because the not only did they do it, they did it well as well.

Speaker 1: 46:06

You know, like in and made it safe, like, and maybe I'm wrong, but if you like, it's a safer environment. At least there's safeguards that can make it safe. Right, I will tell you, there are times where I jump into VR games and the things that kids are saying in VR. Like kids are saying in VR, I'm like, oh my word, I can't believe you're saying these things and there's no like barrier, there's nothing to like stop that behavior from happening, and that's really weird to me. Like I don't know if it's because it's VR that people think that they can be more like. Don't know, I don't understand. I don't understand why that is, but it maybe it's just because there is a lack of barrier or lack of like not barrier, but a lack of like guide or guidelines to like help navigate that.

Speaker 1: 46:55

But I don't know if you ever experienced that, but I'm just like, oh my god, I can't believe some of the things. I mean, I've been in a call duty chat room, so, uh, that's true, that's a good point, that's a. I don't know if you ever experienced that, but I'm just like, oh my God, I can't believe some of the things that are being said. I mean, I've been in a call duty chat room, so, that's true, that's a good point, that's a good point, but? But I mean, like Fortnite you know rocket league too Like I feel like there are ways that you can turn that stuff off so you don't have to see that Right, and just like, okay, I'm going to to deal with that.

Speaker 1: 47:18

So safeguards is the word I was looking for before. Yeah, um, but yeah, I think I think for me, like the biggest one for me is um is just vr. Like to me, I, I, I am it amazes me how people are using vr for, uh, teaching technical skill, like like heart, like how to do certain like procedures, like whether it be like something with cars or like putting together, like you know, dismantling an engine or putting something together or surgeries on people, like to practice surgery, like that's crazy to me. I think that's fascinating stuff. Yeah, there's some difficult ones, and especially because we definitely even the age where, like you, can legitimately learn how to do anything on youtube it is wild how much you could.

Speaker 1: 48:05

But I would love the idea of like okay, let me throw on my glass again. This is some point in the future, throw my glasses. Oh man, I gotta, I gotta change the spark plug, but I don't know anything about cars and it's like, all right, type in your vr thing. It's like 2023 honda civic spark plug change. And then it's like okay, open the hood, does this look the same? Cool, you go here. You go here, you pull that, you switch that. There it is. Pull it out, get a new one in. Like that would be amazing and would be helpful for everybody. Yeah, not quite VR, because it's not VR, but I mean it could be used in VR too.

Speaker 1: 48:42

I've seen companies use it for not VR, but like simulations. Like how to get into truck drivers, for instance, how to get into very difficult situations like oh this, like this area, this bay, this docking bay, is really hard to get to. So we're going to build this whole scenario for you to be able to maneuver in there, so that way you get accustomed to it. So it's not like the first time you're there, like, oh my God, what is this? Or just even navigating through some of the, you know, difficult areas in downtown driving, right, because it's not easy, like, but it's just fascinating to me to think that that's a possibility. Or even putting them in, like, think about that. Like even putting people into situations and seeing how they might react. Like putting young drivers into a very difficult situation in a safe environment, like, oh, the roads are slippery and there's somebody crossing the road. What are you gonna do? Right, like? Or old drivers, they need it, yeah, yeah, yeah, that too right, exactly exactly, but what a fascinating thing.

Speaker 1: 49:35

And the other thing with VR, like I know they gamified this, but like, working out like is so, like. So I have started using Supernatural on VR and I love it and I work out every day because of VR and it amazes me. I expected the demographic to be much younger than me it's actually about my age or older that actually use it for working out and I think that's fascinating. Yeah, you have to gamify that stuff because that's the only way to make it fun. Like for me, even as a kid, like I loved playing football, so I was running, I was doing all this stuff because I loved playing football. So, like I was running, I was doing all this stuff, but it's because I was playing a game. If it was just like hey, adam, go run.

Speaker 1: 50:16

Even as a super athletic kid, I'm like I don't want to. I don't want to just run. I hated, I hated doing sprints, period. But I'm like you, gamify it, make it engaging and interesting. I'm like, yeah, same thing, you know, beat Saber or Supernatural, any of that stuff. It's like, oh, you're doing a game, but it's really just making your body move and burn calories. As long as you gamify it and make it fun and engaging, it works.

Speaker 1: 50:42

Yeah, speaking of which, I mean I think that's the other thing is like just the idea of gaming in general, gamifying things, learning like gamifying learning has, like, I know a lot of people don't like to think about that or like lean into that because it's like oh, that's not traditionally how learning happens. Well then, you need to think about differently how learning happens, because you do see increased engagement when you start using gamification in learning, whether it be kids or even adults. Like gamification is something that helps engagement and helps them attach the concepts much quicker than the traditional just talking at somebody and expecting them to understand what you're doing. All right, yeah, you are what you're talking. Never see the stories of like, oh, there's this, you know, this guy made it to the nba, or this dude opened up his company and made a million dollars in the first year. You never see them like coming back to their middle school teacher that inspired them. And it's like the dude just said, open up page 31 and tell me, give me a report. At the end of the day, it's always like the teacher who was like memorable and fun and engaging and made learning. They still get, still learn things. It's just they enjoyed it and they remember that person for that. So I don't, I think it does work.

Speaker 1: 51:53

Yeah, yeah, I agreed, agreed. Do you have anything else on that topic? Oh, I don't know, I just have the rest of my list. You want me to just throw them, or do you got another time? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I, that's, that's the one, that one. Yeah, did that one? Uh-huh, I'm just, I'm just putting okay, so some more these again. The whole topic.

Speaker 1: 52:17

The idea was like technology, gaming, technology, innovation, stuff like that. There's only one company I know who does it super well and they just announced recently their second game. Uh, but camera tracking I'm thinking specifically before your eyes, right? Yeah, the fact that there's an entire game built around a camera looking at your eyes and noticing you blinking, that's it, and they made an entire. And then their new one is it's like good night universe or it's something with like you're a baby in the universe. Yes, yes, I forget the name of it, but I think that was supposed to attract your face is using camera during your face.

Speaker 1: 52:50

Yes, so the fact that someone's like, okay, everyone, especially in 2020, things shut down. Everyone went home. Everyone has a webcam. Everybody and their mom has a webcam or a camera phone. Let's make a game around the idea of something that's just simply watching you blink. That is such a cool idea, and why do people?

Speaker 1: 53:10

I'm sure maybe someone has thought of an idea similar to that, but more people need to do that because before your eyes. Obviously very cool game. Let's do more stuff like that. But someone has to be like what's a weird thing I can do with the webcam and made a really cool game off of it. Like shout out to that. It's crazy like that. Yeah, have you played that game? No, I have. I, I need to. It was on sale on steam for like two bucks. Like it's also on Netflix Gaming. So if you have Netflix on your phone, apparently that's a fine way to play it as well. That's right. That's right. Speaking of Netflix, though, I don't know if it's really a gaming technology.

Speaker 1: 53:43

Maybe there are more companies getting into gaming than ever and I'm wondering if that's a good thing or a bad thing. So we sort of talked to you about how, like stadia, like started cloud, but then they didn't stick with it. But, like I wrote specifically down that, like, netflix and Amazon have gotten into gaming, right, yeah, companies that are not manufacturers of a piece of hardware that you put a disc in, but that are still heavily like I think Amazon is very heavily involved in gaming, like having their own games. You know Twitch, obviously, that whole thing, luna, yeah, another thing. And then, like I said, netflix. Literally they have a lot of games on their server. They don't advertise it for as often as I think they should. They have a lot of amazing, really really good games, a lot of story-based games, a lot of really good stuff. They publish games like, uh, oxen free 2 was a netflix published game and it's wild for that.

Speaker 1: 54:32

Again, it's just a company trying to make more money but, like, again, it's a. It's a scary time because everyone gets laid off for doing anything but more investment in companies that wouldn't traditionally invest. I think, if they keep with, it could be cool, because you just get more opportunities for for games and teams that wouldn't get able to do it before, because again, in the land landscape where it's hard to get funding and it's hard to get things without being worried about where your job is. If more mega you don't want to say, if you can take more money from mega corporations, the better. I suppose they've got a lot of it, so if you can take it and make your dream project, I guess that's good. Yeah, I think that's interesting too, like, because the other thing that and I wonder if netflix is ever going to go this route well, they kind of do already um, but the crossover between the media, between gaming and then you know, movies and tv shows, right, um, like, I know that they have a lot of game based shows that are netflix originals that are on on netflix.

Speaker 1: 55:34

Um, but I don't know if you ever played this game it was defiance. Oh, yeah, defiance. Yeah, I remember this defiance. Yeah, do you remember the premise behind that game? The premise was awesome. What happens in the tv show affects the game. What happens the game affects the tv show. It didn't work because it was a sci-fi original. It did not work very well. Yeah, it did not work, but the premise was really awesome. Like, it was such a great idea.

Speaker 1: 55:58

Um, and somebody like netflix coming in like and again, I think this is the hard part, right, because you have to make sure like there's respect across both sides but like having having writers that be able to write content for both tv shows and for the games and having impact in both of those types of things would be so cool. It would be such a immersive experience for people that are just enjoy watching the show and maybe getting tied into the game, or people that play the game and saying, hey, like what, I kind of want to watch the show now and see like what's going on in the show. Right, like there's there's. Whether or not they ever tap into that, I don't know, but it feels like there's opportunity there. I mean, we've seen it.

Speaker 1: 56:38

Fallout came out. People were super into the show, yeah, that's true. And now they're buying it. Right, they're buying games that came out here. The game was like we saw a 10,792 increase on fallout 4 last week. I wonder why it's like, yeah, yeah, I wonder why the tv show liked it.

Speaker 1: 56:54

Here's a, here's a million dollar idea for you, though phil spencer maybe could use some good pr lately. I don't know why, just throwing that out there. I like phil, but uh, some things are happening in that company. People are upset about rightfully, so, yeah, this is perfect idea. You could do this as a. So remember, maybe 2021 somewhere in there?

Speaker 1: 57:11

What was that quiz app that everyone was super into that? They would do quizzes like twice a day and you would be in the oh yeah and had like the host and he's like, hey, we're here for the quiz thing, and it was like live. Yeah, I don't remember either. It was like you would win real money if you like got to the end of it, right, yeah, xbox 360, an arcade game called one versus 100 and it was a live quiz show game where you would play the video game would be either the one or the 100 and it was a quiz show and it's like this one person against the whole the mob and then at the end you would win like ten dollars xbox live credit or something like that if you won the whole thing.

Speaker 1: 57:50

But think about that netflix having a show, because netflix has been doing a lot more live stuff now, like they've got um boxing matches. They have the roast a ton. There's a lot of stuff that's like live wwe yeah, they're getting wwe next year. Um, I bring back one versus 100, like legitimately. Like have a tv show, you have it on certain nights or whatever live because people like quizzes, and then you can play on your phone as part of the mob, and then you can have a person in studio being the one one versus 100.

Speaker 1: 58:17

Again, netflix, make me ceo, give me some money. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, no kidding. Yeah, I mean that's the thing. Like it seems like again, right, like it seems like a, and maybe they are tapping into this, but it seems like a lack of imagination of like doing it like this seems like a no-brainer, like why wouldn't you do something like this, right? Like maybe it's lack of imagination? Uh, maybe it's the fact that maybe executives should be stop cutting people that have ideas and and are the ones that are actually carrying the company. I don't know, I'll give it to you for $10,000. You can take that idea. I'm using your old IP to pitch a show to Netflix. I won't cost you anything. Just what you want to hear, right? No, I think that would be a good idea. And again, that's the whole more companies getting into it.

Speaker 1: 59:08

But anyways, three more things. Yeah, yeah, I've loved how, this last generation, we've gotten more into accessibility options, right. So between, obviously, games doing it, being like okay, just like the whole thing. It's wild. You listen to a lot of gaming podcasts and you're like kind of like in the world or whatever. Isn't it weird how many people are colorblind in the gaming journalism space? I would have no idea. But it's like a lot of the big names like oh yeah, I'm colorblind. It's like how are? Why is half the gaming journalists colorblind? It's crazy. But again, those kind of options. But there's a lot of things like another crab's treasure which is a souls like game. There's a lot of things you're like, hey, just to make the game easier or just tailor it to you. They're like we know, this is a difficult game, cool like that.

Speaker 1: 59:52

But then, going further than that, with the xbox and playstation having um, accessible specific controllers I kind of can't remember the name of it, I'm forgetting, but it had, like the xbox one had the two pads and had like the attachments and stuff, and the playstation one was like a circle with like the buttons and you could do that and it's. These are specifically for, like people who are not able to hold a controller like a normal stock controller. Here's accessibility options for you to customize and do whatever you need to do to help you out. So it's like oh, here's a product to help everybody. And again, you would have not gotten that in the original Xbox, the N64. You were never getting any of that stuff. You would get a Mad Catz controller, which felt worse. Worse is what you would get, but it was cheaper, but it was cheaper. It was cheaper for a reason, um, but now they're like here's an option for, like you know, I don't have great motor skills with my left hand. Well, take this and you can still play games and you can still enjoy the hobby just like everybody else. And again, that is not a thing that happened five, ten years.

Speaker 1: 1:00:50

Yeah, yeah, uh, well, I think, I think I mean there's a lot of people in the industry that have, uh, pioneered that and and been the voice of that. Thank god for that. Um, I also think that, because gaming has become more prevalent in our, in our society and in our culture, right, I feel like that has helped uh, quite a bit, uh, realm. So, yeah, no, I agree, I 100% like it. That's awesome. Yeah, glad you brought that up. All right, I've got two more. These are cool, actually. No, I have three more Haptics and HD Rumble.

Speaker 1: 1:01:26

I know PlayStation's like, oh, we've got these haptics. You can feel the raindrops punching you right in the gut whenever you do whatever, and the raindrops punching you right in the gut whenever you do whatever. And then, yeah, nintendo's, like you can feel the ice cubes or whatever nonsense they did. Yeah, oh, yeah, the one, two switch as silly as the marketing and stuff for it, it is cool. I do like having that super precise rumble. It's just like a fun little thing. Like, yeah, it's weird, and so like, for me, the triggers on the plate. I turn off personally, because I don't like having resistance and triggers. I think that feels awful. Yeah, but I do love playing spider-man and like, when he's walking outside and there's rain, like feeling the raindrops, like, yeah, that's or I guess that was returnal, more than that is pretty cool. Uh, super cool, like that's awesome again.

Speaker 1: 1:02:09

Um, switch, it depends on what the game is, but there's a lot of stuff it's like, oh, I can feel it like moving around. Cool stuff, like let's keep that technology going forever. Yeah, yeah, but it's funny. Can I just say that real quick? Uh, it was funny because my wife was playing. I don't remember what game it was. She was playing something with me and it was on the switch and she's like why is the controller rumbling so bad, oh my god. And I was like, well, yeah, I mean that's, that's, but it was. It was like a weird situation. I was like they like leaned into it too hard and it just felt really awkward and they turned all those motors to max immediately. Yeah, exactly, it's too good, but I like that, let's keep that up. Yeah, sure. And then we have Cross platform play. Oh yeah, I was. Oh my gosh, yeah, thank God. Oh yeah, I will. Oh my gosh, yeah, thank god, that epic made a game that was so massive.

Speaker 1: 1:02:58

They bullied everybody into doing crossplay. They're like yo, if you want the most popular game in the universe on your platform, you gotta let us do this. And they literally forced everyone's like what? The safety of the kids? Aka, I want to keep as much money in my pocket as possible. I don't want to share any revenue with anybody else. They're like too bad, you're gonna do it. And they literally forced it and thank, it's so good, it's so great. Yeah, like it's a win-win for gamers. Like you don't have a loss there. Yeah, and we live in a time when no one thought it was gonna happen.

Speaker 1: 1:03:26

It's like where are you playing this game at? I bought on playstation. Well, I have an xbox. I guess we'll never play this video game together because I'm not gonna buy it again. Yeah, yeah, it's funny because, like that's the first thing I'll do now is is this game have cross-play compatibility? If it doesn't, I probably won't buy it.

Speaker 1: 1:03:42

If it's a multiplayer game, especially now, I'm good, yeah, no, yeah, yeah, like it's fun. Like even faith harm uh, that just came out. What last year, late last year, cross-play compatible. I'm like that's awesome. That's so cool. Yeah, I mean, given shots at Xbox, given some shots at Sony, they obviously reversed what they were doing Helldivers 2. Helldivers2 being one of the biggest successes of the year. And again, a lot of the players I would probably say majority of the players for that video game are on PC and that's because they were like, okay, we're going to. We're not gonna put it everywhere, but we're going to put it multiple places because the multiplayer game, people enjoy it. And it's like whenever they tried to do weird things that Sony wanted to do to mess with people flipped out and they rightfully reversed it. And I'm like that's because this game is crossplay that successful. Yeah, I agree, I think so. Yeah, uh.

Speaker 1: 1:04:38

And my last one and this one I want to ask you the first time you ever saw it and how it makes you feel this actually might be the biggest innovation of all time. When you see it, you like really get it, but when you just hear about it, maybe not. When's the first time you ever saw ray tracing? Ray tracing, I don't know, it might have been spider-man, maybe ps5, like the remaster of yeah, yeah, the remastered stuff with the glass and everything. Yeah, yeah, all the cars being it was pretty awesome, yeah, it's. So. Let me tell you, ray tracing might be the best thing that's actually happened this generation.

Speaker 1: 1:05:13

I remember the early videos of like here's minecraft with ray tracing, and people didn't really understand what ray tracing was yet. But it's like that's not minecraft, that's a, that's a real video game that looks blocky for some weird reason. But just so, I have a basic explanation, because there's a difference between ray tracing and real and real-time reflections or whatever, which is sometimes games will be just like oh, it's ray tracing, it's just reflections. Yeah, ray tracing technology, simulation uh, simulates the interaction of light with virtual objects. Real-time ray tracing is going to be the trend next year's. I got I copied and pasted this from a website explaining what ray tracing is. It's going to be the trend next year as it offers realistic reflections, shadows and global illumination, elevating the overall visual fidelity and creating more lifelike game worlds.

Speaker 1: 1:05:55

It legitimately just makes things look better, and it's weird whenever you don't. When you go back to a game that obviously had old school lighting, where it's like, oh, this light source here and then this weird shadow, and then you play and it's like, oh man, that looks awful. That looks awful. Why did I like that? Why did I think that Splinter Cell 1 looked good? Awful, that was awful. Why did I like that? Why did I think that splinter cell one looked good? Um, love, splinter cell one doesn't look good though.

Speaker 1: 1:06:16

Uh, but for me, the first one I ever did it was was for control. I got my pc and I was like all right, I'll try control, yeah, and the options on it. They had so many ray tracing options, but one of the coolest things I did was when you're in the office. At the very beginning I turned them all on and it's like they have so many levels. So you can only see it again when you turn the camera a certain way and see the reflections of the light where you would see because, like at the very beginning of the game, like ati's like, uh, mopping the floor or whatever, and if you look at the right angle you can see the skid marks of the mop where it had moved across the floor, but only if you're looking at it at an angle.

Speaker 1: 1:06:53

You go into the office and it's like you look at a picture on the on the wall, like in a glass frame, and if you turn it and look where a light source is behind it, like you know, whenever, like a glare and like you can't see what's on the glass, there's a glare in this video game. Yeah, if there's a light coming through a window, it gets diffused through the window before it gets to your character. So literally a light in the other side of the office looks different when you're in the office compared to when you're outside the office. I'm like this is wild, it's amazing and that was just like yeah, I don't ever want to play anything without ray tracing because it just doesn't feel as good and I wonder if that technology has helped other people. Like, I wonder if animators for, like you know Pixar, Disney, you know DreamWorks, whoever I wonder if they're able to use that technology and stuff. Because you look at animated movies nowadays, again, they've always looked really cool, but like watching Toy Story 1 to Toy Story 4, you're like man y'all figure, this is how to get. I have no idea if that ray tracing helps or if that's even inspiration or whatever. Yeah, but the the graphical fidelity that I've seen with games with like ray tracing turned up to a thousand is insane and that's what I'm most most happy about. Yeah, no, it's interesting.

Speaker 1: 1:08:04

It's interesting, you said about the toy story things, because the animators in the later I think it was like three or four, I'm not sure which one it was, maybe it was four. Uh, you know there's a whole new set of animators, right? Uh, because the technology has advanced so much they actually had to dumb down the technology so it didn't look so different than the original. But the thing that they said was it was impressive to go through what those animators did for toy story or one, and the technology they had and what they did and how they made the things work the way they made it work with like lack of the technology that they had. We had like a server farm in 1999 to make woody look vinyl and like like it literally took a thousand computers a week to make woody look shiny.

Speaker 1: 1:08:48

Yeah, and it's like, yeah, it's wild that they get that back then. Yeah, yeah, well, in in. So I mean from a technical standpoint, right, like lighting is really expensive in regards to like the cost of a, like the processing lighting is very, very expensive, right. So like baking lighting in and stuff like that is like what a lot of people do. But the technology, and like I think it's a go back to AI, right, the technology and then implementing it with AI and like using it to think through like what's the best cost effective way. So that's like so that the processing power doesn't just chug here, like I think is like where we're going to see things go, and that's that's where I think it's not so much the hardware but how to use that hardware more efficiently. Right, absolutely, just think about like look at horror games that have that use ray tracing and just like looking into a shadow and it being like actually pitch black, like there's actually no light here. Yeah, it's scary, it's so scary, it's so scary. It's so scary, so good.

Speaker 1: 1:09:55

Anything else you want to talk about, adam, before? I mean, I'll want you to plug your podcast, but any other technology, only you can see this because this is audio. But these are my notes about what I want to do. Nice, I got thermal, nice, but no, that is all my notes about technology. There's a lot of cool stuff out there. Guys Enjoy it. There's a lot of cool stuff. Well, before we head out, how can people find you and follow you on social media and plug your podcast? Yeah, so me personally. I'm at Adam Gumby on Twitter. If you want to come check it out, tweet about stuff all the time Good stuff, you'll enjoy it. It's very fun. But then, as for the show, it's Responding Fire. It's on podcast and YouTube. Youtubecom slash at Responding Fire. It's also Patreon. You can get those game show things for like a buck. I don't normally plug it, but Patreoncom slash Responding Fire Spend a dollar to just like get us to come and do so.

Speaker 1: 1:10:46

We recorded a Rafferty quote, unquote, live from Boston. Yeah, so that was up early for a month over for over there. But like playing a quiz game in person was super, super fun and also I'm not gonna say too much, but massachusetts, um, weed products and edibles are legal, so I didn't, you know. The funny thing is I didn't know that. I found out when I got there. I know I did too. I did too because it's really well. It's like, do you? I was there with my wife, right, and I said, do you? Do you smell that? Yeah, it's probably just you know somebody. And then also because, like, I have really bad hip pain, um, so I use a lot of like cbd products. So we walked in. I'm like, oh no, you actually sell the shit here. This is amazing. Sign me up. So I'm just saying, if you want to watch somebody, do trivia, maybe under the influence of seven edible gummies in a single night.

Speaker 1: 1:11:48

Check out Respawn on Fire. Look for that Rafferty episode. Oh, that's awesome. Uh, adam, it was really fun having you on the podcast. Thank you so much for for joining me and, uh, and I hope, I hope you come back. I hope that. Uh, yeah, I want you to come back. This is really. This is thanks for having me a ton of fun. Man, I was like we, we've been needed to do stuff for a while, so it's good to get it down and recorded. But yeah, I'm down for for anything, anything goofy, I'm here for it. Listeners, give. Uh, give adam's podcast a follow. I'll put links in the show notes. Uh, go, give them a five-star review as well. Uh, and listen to the podcast. Umers, also give us a review as well. We want to hear what you have to say about the show. With that, everyone stay safe and game on and we'll talk to you next week. Bye.