Gaming as an adult. How do you balance gaming as an adult? | Ep 103

We chat with The Koalition senior editor Adam Vale and friend Courtney about finding time to game as an adult and as a parent. We reminisce about our past memories and how everyone can balance their hobbies while not losing focus on the important things.

Transcript

When we are children, it feels we have nothing but time. We can socialize, game, watch tv, eat, sleep, and still feel like we can do more. Of course, the things we want to do the most aren’t at times, productive. Still, we do a lot with the time we have, and it feels infinite. No worries of juggling work, bills, pets, chores, shopping, repairing things…add kids and a relationship to the mix and we have even less time.

Understand this is not a jab at the youngin’s in this generation nor is it an old man rant. This is simply a 38-year-old looking back at once was with some friends who have children and find it difficult to game sometimes. Even though I have no kids, I find that time isn’t what it use to be. Even when gaming is such an important part of my life.

Therefore, I wanted to get perspective from other adults who love gaming and find it difficult to do so. Why is it difficult? Of course, everyone is different, so these discussions we had on todays podcast are just a few examples of why its hard to be a gamer as an adult.

All right guys. Welcome to Gamer Guardians Podcast. I’m your host, Danny Martinez. Today we got two special guests that we’re gonna go over A very, very special topic today. I got the senior editor of the coalition. Um, he is a man of very, very cool podcast. Uh, I am Negan podcast, which he hosts, and a panelist for Throwdown, which is another gaming news podcast as.

Um, Tony Palacco and he has been what writer for about 15 years now. This Adam Bale. Oh yeah. . Hey. How you doing? How you doing? Yeah, it’s been a long time. Yeah, it’s been a long time. And, uh, Courtney. Courtney, welcome to the show as well. How you doing? Can you tell us a little about yourself? Uh, hi, my name’s Courtney.

I go by court. Um, I’ve been playing video games since I was probably three and I play all sorts of genres. I go everything from Destiny two to Final Fantasy 14. Wow. Diablo, gta, , you name it. I’ve probably tried it . So definitely lots of online games. Uh, yeah. Yeah. Cool. Cool. So today we are gonna talk about gaming as an adult, and specifically for you two guys, our special guests, it’s because you guys are parents, and I wanted to get a perspective on not just being an adult, but also, uh, parenting and how that kind of affects you guys when it comes to your gaming life.

How you guys fit into, how you guys fit gaming into your life. Uh, how does it conflict with everything and things like that. Um, so I don’t have any kids, but I, I find myself frustrated at times from finding time for gaming. I, I have school, I have work, I socialize. Um, I have the podcasts. I have the coalition as well.

And of course, there’s other things that pop up in your life during your a day. So I, I can’t imagine how all that can get in a way on top of providing for children, raising them, nurturing them, uh, spending quality time, making sure that they, that you have given them your full attention whenever it’s needed.

Adam, I, I’d known you for about 15, 20 years now. Uh, somewhere in between. So gaming’s always been a part of your life from what I remember. And you, you, you’re the one actually who got me into TC Gaming when I was a teenager. Um, how did it feel when you had your first child? Like what went through your mind?

Just in general about like how life changed? When it came Easy back then and, and, and still continue as a hardcore gamer. I thought it was all over. Uh, that was it. Uh, as we know with, uh, other Danny, he came over and I was like, look, I reproduced, I have a child. Um, now we got this new Xbox that came out.

What are we gonna do? And I, I have a picture still. We packed up almost every 360 game I have, except my exclusive ones and the big, uh, collectors editions. And we brought it to GameStop . I was like, I chucked them all in and I, I got ripped off like everybody else. And I was like, well, what am I gonna do? I, I’m just gonna go digital.

I’m only gonna play a few. I’m not really gonna have the time. To play anymore. And, uh, that’s pretty much it. I, I really thought that, uh, it was going to slow down, but it really comes down to just a juggling and a balancing act of things. But definitely when at the first, uh, with a newborn, it is challenging cuz it’s a newborn, it’s a baby.

Uh, she was waking up in another night. All hours is feeding and diaper of change and all kinds of stuff and noise. Uh, that’s when I really started focusing on, uh, headsets. You know, before I just remember I had that surround sound when in Harlem, remember I had the, I had that, I didn’t give a shit, but the, those days were all gone.

I, and now I had to just rely on the headset, but then not too loud, just in case, uh, I heard her crying and that was the balancing I did with my wife. So that way she can get some sleep. It was, it was a whole thing, but. I won’t go too far ahead, but just to say at that point mm-hmm. , I really thought it was over.

I really thought I, I had some friends that had kids and, and game, and I was like, oh, what game are you playing? They were like, just shaking their heads for those that just, I, they, I was like, damn. They were like, oh, I got this new phone game though. I was like, no, no, no, thanks. I’m not, I’m not that life yet.

I can’t, I can’t do that. He was like, no, you like Candy Cro? No, I don’t. Like you just saw mobile gaming as the future, so I . . Yeah, because I mean, that’s, this is the thing when I, when I, I’m not a closet gamer, like I, when I met my wife, uh, I told her, you know, it’s like, you know, she came over and she saw this stuff and I was like, look, this is something I like to do.

This is a hobby. This and this man. It’s like, are you okay with it? She’s like, well, it’s better than drugs and porn and stuff. So she was like, yeah, I’m, I’m okay with it. And she had an older brother who she watched who did. So it wasn’t foreign to her to come over and to see somebody with a bookshelf of stuff and some consults under the tv.

You know, it’s a, and, and I, I didn’t ignore her, you know? I was like, all right, well when you’re not here, this is what I’m doing and that’s it. But, uh, I did tell her that I, I do do a lot of the gaming at night and I told her that way early on. So if, like, have you ever spent the night and stuff like that?

If, uh, like my buddies, cause we’re all different time zones and people have moved stuff that’s, it’s our social time to just get together and catch up and shoot the ship and, uh, see, see, I understood that and uh, that’s it till this day, that’s carried on. But that was my, my early days of thinking. What that yeah, that, that that reminds me of like, when, when me and Danny are growing up, cuz I’ve known, obviously I’ve known Danny, uh, a hell of a lot longer.

Danny is, um, you know, Adam’s, Adam’s cousin and, and Danny’s a part of the show as well. And I’ve known him for about 20, 25 years ish. And. When we started to get older and we got in our relationships, he got married first. Uh, he moved to Florida and I was like, all right, that’s over. Our friendship is over

I’m never gonna see him again. But I, I think as an adult you kind of just try to make it work. And, and now we have like what I would call a mandate, because I have to only meet up with him pretty much on Thursdays. We’ll meet up like, uh, like around 6:00 PM ish. And then we will just game the entire time.

And if we have a show planned, then we’ll record a show and then go right back into gaming. So it’s like you have to coordinate with all these people. We’re living in different time zones and different, uh, states and shit. Just to, just to kind of have that time. Oh yeah. Yep. Yeah, I’ve ran into that. I’ve got a lot of the guys I play with are all military.

Oh yeah. I’m trying to coordinate around that schedule. , I’m like, yeah, that’s rough. It’s, yeah. You, I was telling her about you that you served there six years. Yes. And that was an issue too, cuz being in Japan, uh, I was what, 13 ish hours ahead? So I had, I remember the game that me and Danny were play.

Mm-hmm. . Cause that was, this was before Destiny had come out. Um, I, uh, we, we played Diablo, played Diablo three. So we had to like, coordinate getting online and like playing together and, and, and like just figure out some way to chat or whatnot. Um, court, how about you? Like, so you said you were, how, how, how, how was the struggle with coordinating with your friends?

Um, the struggle was, well, when my little one was little, they were all aware that, Hey, I’ll come play with you guys, but if he needs something, he is top priority. Even now to this day, they’re all aware cuz my child is actually autistic as well. So they’re like, oh, okay, so if he needs something, yeah, they’re like, if he needs something, you’re going to step away.

They’re all also aware that these are guys I’ve been playing with for 10, 15 years. So they’re all aware. They’re like, it’s gonna be loud. There might be times you don’t hear me. Like we just had to coordinate of, hey, when somebody news comes into the group, they’re like, Hey, if she steps away, it’s nothing any of you guys did.

She’s gotta go take care of the kid. They all know, Hey, dinner is at this time, game time is from this time. And they’re all to the point now where he’s older, they’re like, oh, can we play a game with him as well? We’ll teach him how to play Minecraft, or we’ll teach him to play Roblox, or they’re trying to bring him in as well so that he’s part of the group to play as well.

It’s actually been pretty nice. That’s good. Yeah. Um, so how many kids do you have now? Just one. Just the one. And Adam, you I have two. I have, uh, Olivia, she’s 11 in my six years old is six. Yeah, that’s it. So, um, for Courtney, actually, have you ever had a, an issue with that, like, ideology of just like, you know, Have you just stayed at home, kinda like being a housewife or something, taking care of your, your, your child or have you have to also juggle working as well?

I work as well. work as well. I worked a lot maybe or anything. A lot when he was young. Yeah. How so how did that, how did that, uh, how did you balance all of that trying to get into your, your gaming as well? Cuz clearly you had to also juggle your friends, uh, different time zones and stuff as well. Yeah, uh, it ended up, what it ended up doing is I’d say, all right, so I’m going to be on at x time.

Unfortunately, if you’re not on it is what it is. I’ve gotta make this work. On weekends, we made a little bit more of an exception of, all right, so Nick’s gonna be on it this time. Mike’s gonna be on it this time, this time, this time, and this time. I’ll be like, what is the middle ground that we can all find, that we can all agree that we can at least get an hour in.

We’re not running a raid tonight with. 16 different time zones going on here, but , we would all just sit down and say, everybody got to learn everybody’s schedule and say, all right, we may not all be able to play together, but this person can play with this person tonight and then we can maybe try to get together next week as a better time.

See what happens. Cuz you know, with military schedules especially, they change at the drop of a dime. My, uh, boyfriend is currently working 12 , so he’s working 12. He’s 12. 12 hours. Yeah. So we Oh yeah. Struggling to make that work, . But it is what it is. You learn, you adjust. Yeah. Yeah. I think that’s the biggest thing is, is, and that, that’s what I wanted people to understand the most is that, you know, just because you become an adult, and especially one with, with children, all your hobbies don’t disappear.

You just kind of have to adjust, uh, accordingly. Like you, you’re not gonna spend freaking 12 hours gaming like we used to back in the day. Um, you know, it’s gonna, it’s gonna be sporadic, like one hour here, two hours here, 30 minutes there, and hopefully we get lucky and get a full day. Yeah. Um, have, have any of you guys tried getting your kids or your significant others into gaming to kind of help understand, like, Adam, you said like you wanted her to understand like your passion for gaming, but did it help also for your kids?

Did you try to get your kids into it? And, and has it helped at all to kind of like get your time in as well? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I definitely got both of my kids in there. They’re, they’re already all in. So, uh, my daughter, she plays, uh, a lot of games. She’s into her own set of stuff though, like Minecraft and, uh, roadblocks and what was it, there was something else that she likes playing the Mario games.

Her, my, my son just recently finished, uh, Mario Odyssey and co-op. He like playing that one. She loves racing games, so if you see in the corner of that, I got the Racing Wheels, she likes using that. She’s big into like, need for speed type of racing and doing that. Uh, so it definitely, it, it worked out. It worked out fortunately that they like now to have all the arcade machines around the house.

So it’s always present. It’s, it’s, it’s in their face, you know? And even when their friends come over, they’re kind of curious, like, why is there a pinball machine here? What, what’s going on? You know? But, uh, yeah. But it’s funny, my wife though is the opposite. Um, she accepts all of this, but she doesn’t part, did she not get into it?

Or, or, so that’s, that’s, no, no, no, no. Like she, I remember when I met her, she said, well, she had roommates and she said, well, we, like, we do play one game. Like, oh, what do you play like, uh, rock band? And she was like, oh, we played W Band and I played at drums. And I said, oh, and I went into the closet. I had a drum set.

No surprise. So I said, here you go. So we put that, and I grabbed the guitar, and I think that was the only and last game we ever played together. And we were, and that was when we were dating in like 2009. Uh, but, uh, that’s it. She’s never really got into it. Uh, now she gets more into it only because if she’s, if my son’s playing a Lego game or something and gets stuck in a puzzle, then she’ll look up on her phone or she’ll grab the controller and try to help him out and stuff like that.

Uh, but, uh, she doesn’t really, that’s not her thing, but the kids, they, the kids are all in and, uh, and I’m glad, I’m glad because then that’s something I can share with them. Just like, like my obsession with wrestling. You know, my daughter got into it for a while and then she phased out that my son, he really got into it.

So, uh, it helps, it helps with just to build that, that interest and that connection, cuz uh, I mean, we know as they get older, cuz we went through it, we change and our interests may not align with the parents anymore. And I’m just hoping that some of these, which have stuck with me since I was a child. I, my uncle Danny’s, um, dad got me into wrestling when he used to babysit me.

He was like, all, what are we gonna do? He said, well, we’re gonna watch wrestling, sit down. I’m like, alright. And next, you know, I’m still to this day watching it and he stopped, which I find ironic. But, um, and then, uh, we gave me, same thing. I, you know, I remember 1984 I had a commodore, cause my dad worked in wholesale electronics and so he brought over this, this thing and plugged into the tv and he also brought over a printer, which is weird.

I’m like, what, what does that do? He’s like, well, you type words with this. It is horrible. But I had a Commodore, but it was the, the 1984 when the Nintendo came out, that was a big deal and I wound up getting mad and a TV and I was like, this is a, a 13 inch from my room. I was like, this is amazing. This is a future.

So, uh, to see that, and it sticks with me till this day and I’m hoping that this carries on with my kids. And, and even today I was talking to my daughter about something like that. It’s like, I hope these are things that you remember when I get, uh, Alzheimer’s or dementia or something that you can remember these fond memories, cuz I know I will forget and, uh, and just keep this and pass this on, you know, and I all this, all this glory has be left to you.

She’s like, yay, . You know, it’s like whatever, you know, actually, you know. But, uh, that’s it. It’s, it’s all about getting them into it and you know, court has her own story. Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna ask the Courtney, what about you? All right, so, uh, we got Matt into Minecraft when he was about nine months old actually, when he could pick up and hold that controller.

He was playing Minecraft still, but we had be official because when he hit preschool he was already reading Harry Potter. because I turned, I wouldn’t read him the instructions anymore. I got to a point where I said, all right, if you wanna play this, you’re gonna have to learn. What does that block do? He eventually learned how to turn on audio narrator that told him which block was what, but he used it as a way to learn to read.

Um, he then, when he got a little bit older, about two or three he roadblocks, that’s great. And he was learning how to read the instructions of what does this level do? How do I play it? Minecraft, he started to do the math of, okay, I need eight blocks by eight blocks to build this. Or, Hey, I can make another portal if I do this by this.

So that’s how, and right now, currently he’s sitting playing Roblox with the dog clicker. Okay, my bad. He’s playing cookie clicker

He, we’ve always had, he’s probably had a tablet since he was little, and we went from educational games to slowly just migrated to Minecraft. Now he likes. He likes his Minecraft, he likes his Roblox. He actually does try to play Destiny. Oh, nice. Must be the first time I’ve walked away to make dinner, and I come back up and he’s in the middle of a gambit game.

Oh, like, but that’s probably not the best for you. He goes, no, no, I’m okay. I pick up Mo, I take the bank. I go, all right. And I’ll sit there and watch him and he just plays. He goes, would you play with me? I’m like, bud, we don’t have a way for two of us to play right now. He goes, okay, well, we’ll take turns.

You can play and then I’ll play. So for me, oh, that’s awesome. Then, uh, hey, even, uh, my boyfriend, who also plays Destiny, he goes, Hey, we could play it together as a group, as a family, as a way to bond so I could get to know him a little bit. So, hey, we can take him into a small gambit game. Or hey, we can go run strikes, or Hey, I can go play Minecraft with him.

I’m like, that is a you thing. I’m not involved in that. Good luck. I can see what he does in Minecraft. , it seems like freaking Minecraft and, and Roblox is like that entry point into, into gaming for the kids now. It is. Well, Minecraft is, I don’t know if, if in math’s school, but in my kids’ school they have that in like Yeah, they do for math too.

Something like in their computer lab or something. Yeah, they, yeah, they get to, yeah, because I remember when my daughter started getting into it, we, she wasn’t even playing it in the house. She’s like, oh, I have this group. We built this world and this whole thing, you know, I want to know if I could put it on the PC here.

I’m like, what are you, where are you playing this? And she was like, in school. She was like, we do this in school. So I’m like, oh, because there is, there are learning aspects from it. You know, you certain materials that you need to craft certain things. That’s the materials you would need in the real world.

So I guess that’s how it’s worked. I mean, back when we were kids, we had the Oregon Trail Math Blaster and Hot. Don’t Stand, we’re in the World. Is Carmen San Diego? Yeah. Math Blaster. You know, . There we go. And she’s lost. Now she has a cell phone. Now we can track her, you know, but you couldn’t do that back then.

So Yeah, they have like an educational version of Minecraft that they play in school. Uh, I forget what I, yeah, yeah. Really. There’s also like, uh, it teaches you how to do Redstone repeaters and stuff like that in there. It teaches you all right, you need, how many blocks do you need if you need to make a 64 square foot house?

Like, it makes you do the math out yourself to try to figure it out. Oh, look at that. Creating contractors. Yeah. Yeah. See, I, I love that now cuz I don’t, I don’t know about those things. Again, don’t have kids. So it’s like, I don’t know that gaming is actually getting so ingrained into society now that they’re introducing it in schools cuz they see that value for it now.

So it’s like, You don’t even have to like influence the kids anymore in gaming in order to like be interested in what you’re interested for. Like it seems like the system’s already doing it for them. For you. Yeah. They also use like a reading, they a lot of like their reading and math programs, they make ’em into games.

So like, oh, you can put, you can see your whole classmate says a leaderboard and you wanna see who’s on the top of the leaderboard and, but if you win this, you’ll get a little prize. Like they make it into a whole game. Like it’s a whole program that they use. It acts like a video game. Mm-hmm. definitely.

Cool. And it’s just a different time. We just didn’t have these, these things when growing up. So we’re grown up around now remember our age people that they’re teachers now. So then they grew up with it and then they’re like, oh, well this is something that I’ve been playing in. This is how I can integrate it into, I remember when, um, Obama was president and they asked him one time, we’re like, what are you doing in your free time?

And he’s like, oh, I play basketball and I play NBA two K. I’m like, oh, that’s the first one I’ve heard a president talk about playing video games. I was like, wow, that’s a big deal. Is that gonna be a thing? And then now we got, you know, Papa Murphy and I, you know, he was there before. They were just, you know, kicking rocks.

So, so it went back in time. But yeah, but it, it, I’m just seeing that we’re growing up and then people in our generation are in roles of melding the minds of children and so they’re implementing that, which is great cuz then you don’t have to worry about that, that stigmatism of where we had, when you talk to certain people, it’s like, oh, what are you doing?

You freak, oh, I, yeah, I got that a lot. High school. It was a waste of time. It was a waste of time. Of course we all did. Yeah, exactly. It’s like, what, what’s wrong with you? But now it’s such the normal, almost like. A superhero movie. Like, uh, that’s always my running joke with everybody. It’s like, it’s, I went, had a pom pilot.

They were like with the, the, you know, texting. They’re like, what’s wrong with you? Why would you do, no one’s gonna wanna text mm-hmm. when you can call somebody. And then that became a big thing, you know? Uh, same thing with video games and all that, but, uh, I, I mean, wrestling is still taboo though. You tell somebody you like wrestling, they still, still to speak.

Right. For one day, , well, that’s it. They, they forget about Game of Thrones to them. I was like, I don’t remember last time I saw a real dragon. But, uh, I know that you rush home to watch that every Sunday. Yeah. You know, I was like, there was this one guy at work all the time and they, God, Sunday I was, oh, what’d you do?

I watched this. You know, it’s fake, right? I was like, yeah, your dragons, it’s a safe guy that probably plays d d in his spare time. Yeah. But, Oh, yes, yes. That’s different. But that’s different. But that’s different. Come on corny. That’s different. So, uh, that’s what I’m saying. It’s like, oh man, these people, everybody putting gatekeeping and putting their own little things.

It’s like there’s always somebody that hates on something else. Because remember for a long time, if he’d said, you like superheroes or comic, that was another one that gave, kicked in the nuts. You know? It was like, whoa. You know? But now everybody’s a comic fan. Everybody, everybody flocks to the movie Cecil.

Everybody’s a comic fan. Everybody loves. So even the, the characters that no one cared about, Dr. Strange Ironman, you know, uh, what’s Captain Alex getting up there, Sam Oh, oh, to Guardians is the ultimate one, because I know for a long time, yeah, nobody knew who the hell Guardians were. Like, what is it that, oh, they’re just making up stuff now.

I’m like, no, this was a comic that nobody bought. But he, man Gun did such an amazing job selling that on, on the big screen, that it just sucked everybody in. I, I guess, I guess, I mean, our generation now with you guys, with the kids, you’re raising them to be, it’s like nerd, nerd isn’t a derogatory word anymore, so it’s like, now we use that as like a, a badge of honor.

So it’s like you kind of raising them in, in that nerdy way that we all were back then. And now it’s like a good, a good thing. Superheroes, comics, wrestling, video games, freaking fantasy. Uh, D and d Go ahead. Court. Yeah. You can actually make varsity now in high school for playing video games. What? Yeah, like they have, they have teams now varsity, they have eSports teams in high, A lot of the high schools now.

Oh, they have eSport, they have jv and. You can get your jacket for it. Wow, that’s awesome. Insane. Well, I mean now you could actually make it a job and be rich from playing game. Remember that was the whole thing. You’re wasting your time. 14 million jetted. And now you can show em on like on Twitch or something like that.

It’s like, I got 20,000 people watching me. I got four sponsors. I make more than you making a year and 30 minutes now leave. I’m doing Apex , you know? And that’s it. And it’ll work. It’s amazing. It’s a different time because that was the whole joke, right? It’s like, oh, you’re sitting there wasting your time.

The real world is outside. No, the real world now is in the box. This is it, this is, this is it. I mean, there’s people that can just, if they know how to put it together and then spend the time, cuz it’s a lot of time and they focus on streaming and doing that, and they engage on audience, they can make a killing and never have to go outside.

So, so to, to bring it back to the whole parenting and gaming stuff. Do you, so I I, I mean I’m sure you guys agree with this, but so you think it’s easier now being a parent in, in this generation because of those opportunities and like gaming isn’t such so much of a stigma anymore? Yeah, I would say so.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because they, they don’t have to hear what we heard, like, uh, going into a classroom and everybody talking about what they did weekend and you say you played the game, whatever. And then everybody making the little snarky remarks mm-hmm. because they’re all doing it. Whether they’re doing it on a console pc, most of them are doing it on phones.

Cause all these kids are running around with phones now doing this. But, uh, it’s not, it’s not one of those like eyerolling type of statements to say, oh, well no, he’s a gamer. Oh, okay. All right. Well, Yeah. It’s like, alright, well what are you playing? Oh, I don’t play that. Okay. Alright, well I’ll play. So yeah, it’s definitely, it’s definitely gotten easier, which is great.

It’s, it is one less thing to worry about and gives them something to interact with their friends. So if Matt and I were to move, he could still say, Hey, I wanna play with one of the, his friends is Diana. He goes, oh, I can still play with Diana if I wanted to. Yeah. Or I could still play with Riker or whoever.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. . Yeah, I think, I think, yeah, gaming would definitely bring us together in that sense. Cuz, cuz you know, you don’t have the opportunity to hang out and actually go and do things physically, but gaming’s still there to kind of still keep those, those ties. All right. A aside, aside from the social aspect of it, like you guys trying to hold onto like your friends and, and, and, and playing with them online and stuff on different time zones, different dates or whatnot, like, do you guys set any.

Gaming time for yourself, just by yourself to kind of like, get away from the world? Or like, is that more difficult now, um, being parents, do you get, like, how, how do you, like, how do you cope with it? Do you get like two nights, two two hours of sleep every night so that way you can fit your gaming in? Or do you set yourself like a specific day in order for you to do it or something?

I give, give myself the kids kiddo’s. Bedtime is about 7, 7 30. I give myself from seven 30 to 11 to play, to de-stress, to, you know, unwind. Granted, usually that’s in a discord call with five other people playing all different games. But everybody’s just sitting together just, all right, we’re gonna still have that aspect of together, but this is our time.

Play whatever you want. If we wanna play together, we can. Yeah, that makes sense actually. Yeah. I, I think I should do that more often too. I don’t do that enough. It’s always, for me, it’s always like, oh, we gotta play the same game. Cuz that’s the way, uh, we, we, we will bond or whatever. But I, I don’t, I don’t do that enough.

What about you, Adam? Uh, it’s, well, yeah, I, the, the kids usually go to sleep around eight 30, close to nine around there. But then that’s when I’ll go into this box here and then, uh, it’s all, it’s a set schedule cuz I have so many friends that moved to different ears. I have a few guys that will just get together on Mondays to play gears, you know, and we just do, just do the, the hoard mode and gears four and that’s just our thing and we shoot the shit.

And then I have, uh, another buddy of mine and we do things on Friday and Saturday nights because of his work schedule and, and what’s going on with him. And then I have another group of friends, uh, that do stuff throughout the week, as you know, with the down and stuff and on different platforms. So I don’t, my free time of playing is just pretty much working with everyone else’s schedule.

And then trying to juggle that. But if no one else is around, I jump into the division and I run around the streets by myself. Uh, and, uh, that’s it. Shooting pitches and collecting stuff. And, uh, it’s funny, I’ll put on Spotify in the back room, uh, in the background in the game, and I’ll put on headset in the game, my character running my headset.

It’s as if my guy’s listening to what I’m listening to. And, uh, that’s it. Just collecting collectibles and, and completing side stuff. And then the cool thing, what I love, and the same thing Destiny does this as well, is that it’s jumping and jump out. So it, it’s great that I, I could be doing that and then it’s like another agent is online and it’s another buddy of mine who, you know, moved to Rochester or something jumps up, Hey, what’s up?

I was like, oh, okay. And then he just fast traveled somewhere on that, you know? And I was like, all right, let’s play a little bit. And it’s, it’s one of those great things. The one downfall is, it’s not like destiny, it’s, it doesn’t support cross play, which I wish it did cuz then my PlayStation buddies, I would probably join you with that.

Yeah. But uh, they can’t. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz that, that’s would be fun. So, but yeah, just answer the question again. It’s just that is my free time. It’s just hanging out with everybody because you don’t I moved. Everybody moved. We’re all in different places. You’re in different places. Like, I always remember when you came back from, uh, Japan and we all met at the beer garden and it was like shortly after you, but I don’t remember, but it was, it was in Queens.

And then you’re like, oh, so what’s going on? I was like, oh, well he’s moving and then I’m gonna be moving. And it’s like, and you like, I just got back and it’s like, and nobody’s gonna be here. And it’s like, I was like, yeah. It’s, it’s one of those things and it, uh, but it happens. It’s life. That’s right.

That’s. And we all go in different directions. But thanks to gaming and, and especially with the internet, and we can, and like what court said about this chord where you don’t have to all be in the same game and you can talk and, and, and just hang out. You can just hang out. Almost imagine it being in like a gaming cafe.

Uh, and you’re playing, you know? Wow. And somebody behind you is playing like a quest or something, you know? It’s like everybody’s playing something different, but Yeah, exactly. But you’re all in the same location and it’s like, all right, so, so, so you guys still get, do you guys think you still get enough sleep trying to fit that stuff in and still taking care of your kids?

Ah, I still get about six and a half, seven hours, so yeah, I’m good. . Yeah. Not too bad. Yeah, I know, I know. All right, so I’m gonna, I’m gonna scroll to the side, . Oh my God,

that is it. So when I get, when I get home from work and once before dinner, when I’m setting things up, so usually that’s when the kids are, my son will play something and my daughter will go on her phone, will play something, and then I lay there and I take my nap, and then I go and we’ll have dinner and we’ll spend time together and stuff.

And then when they go to sleep, then I come right back here, and then I see what’s on the agenda for the rest of the night. And then that usually doesn’t end until around one. And then I’ll go to sleep and then I’ll wake up at seven. And then for, for the audio listeners, a Adam move moved out the way to show his, he has a couch in his man cave there Where?

Where he . Yeah, . Yeah. I have a couch and I have a little surge protector on the top there, so I even have an extra power switch. So, uh, I can use my steam deck. So in case of battery sign and I just plug in while I’m laying there and do that whole thing. But, uh, yeah, that is, uh, that’s the part. And then because you know, like mentioned with the coalition, do a lot of game review, so then I have to put time in for that.

So there’s certain things that, uh, let’s say guys wanna play a certain game and if it’s not a co-op game, and that’s why I love if I get coach of like, oh yeah, you know, the the best was when we played, when, um, when, uh, ion for extract. Six there, four players, they’re like, here, four codes. Perfect. Now let’s all jump in and we can play and figure out if we like this game or not.

You. Or right now I’m doing the dead space and it’s, it’s awesome, but it’s by myself. And then it’s like I’m trying to adjust the time slot. I’ll try to jump in, play some, and then I still have other people that, you know, want to hang out and do their thing. And, and, and it’s, it’s, that’s the other thing.

It’s also not just about me, it’s about them. Their, this is their escape as well to get together with the guys and to talk and hang out. So it’s like you’ve, that’s when I pull the court situation where we’re all playing a different game, but we’re in a chat talking. So I was like, all right, listen, I gotta keep playing this, but what do you, um, I buddy, he’s playing Evil West.

He loves Evil West, trying to beat that game. So he’s playing that. And then I’ll keep playing this one, but we’re still in the chat and we’re talking. You know, shoot this shit, man. This is the new, uh, virtual community world. Yeah. What we end up doing is opening the discord. One person will open it and say, all right, whoever gets on gets on

Yeah. And then you just end up, yeah. If you noticed, it’s like that, that trickle down. It’s just like, oh, you see one person in the, in the chat or the in the mic chat and then the next person joins and the next person joins in. Just kind of just whatever. One of the coolest features, and I don’t think it’s on pc, I don’t think, I definitely know it’s on, on Xbox, but it’s on PlayStation five.

One of the coolest features I love this feature is when you’re in a group chat and let’s say we’re all playing something different and uh, let’s say we were all there and in court, Stewart something crazy. She’s in a rage. She made it to the last one. Like, what the hell? We can just click on view and we can jump in and see what she.

So we could all partake in that. That is awesome. Yeah. That is amazing. That is an amazing feature. And they never advertise that feature. They never advertise Also that you, they have remote play or share plays that they call it. So like it’s say we’re doing the same thing. Let’s say she was having some trouble, then she can give control to you while we’re still watching and then you can play the rest of that part.

It it, that is such a cool feature. Both of those pieces, part of the group element and, and it’s just, they never advertise that. But it, it’s awesome and I wish all platforms had that cause that would be great. It’s like, oh, to experience interest where we’re all just talking about, oh, guess what I just did.

Well, let me see what you just said and then Oh wow. Oh yeah, yeah. You just did that. You know, this is great to see. Yeah, I, I used it myself. Uh, when me and Daniel play, I think it was out writers and we were trying to, we were trying to like min-max our characters and, and, and trying to figure some stuff out.

So he would just jump on my game. Take my controller in a sense, and, and then he would like fuck around with my character and his build and stuff just to like, to fix it up. Cuz I didn’t understand it as much as he did cuz he’s, he’s more into like those intricate details on Min maxing. So, so he was helping me with that stuff.

And then afterwards we just blew by all the endgame content. I beat that one now I, I, I didn’t pull me in though. Once it was done, I, it was the same for us. We got to the game content and it was just like, uh, that’s it. I think we’re done. And the d c wasn’t really impressive, so we kind of just left it.

Yeah, I don’t, we all talked about picking it up and I think Nick picked it up. He played it and then, then immediately uninstalled it. Nobody else bought it because everybody’s like, mm, yeah, I don’t think so. We’re gonna go back to Destiny. We’ll deal with that.

Uh, and with that shared feature, I did something with my brother. We played Lair. Yeah. LA Noir. And so we would take turns with, uh, doing a mission. So then I’ll give him control and then I’ll just watch and see him play a part and then we switch. And then I think I did that with another game with, it was a mad Max, so the agreement was I would go and do all the shooting, but as soon as it was, it came time for the driving, he would take control and then he would do the driving.

So making a single player into a multi-player. That’s cool. So cool. Feature somebody dropping the ball again. They’re too busy. Just gonna say that. The deal to focus on, the focus on your own product. It’s like, yo, why don’t you advertise? They’re sweating right now. Oh my lord. That. To see, when I saw that Y Jim Ryan in Brussels trying to fight the EU that are about to say yes, I’m like, his job has to be on the line.

J Sony Japan probably said, if you don’t do this job fire, why you, me of Vince McMahon right there,

they’re fired. He’s losing your job. But this is outta control, outta control. For a game that whenever they release their numbers, call of Duty is not the big one for them. They got Spider-Man, they got got Award at the last of us with the show and all that. It’s God award, just killing it at the game Awards, all stuff, call of Duty, then win crap at that thing.

But still, they’re like help and on making sure that, that, uh, Microsoft doesn’t get this. And they’re like, oh, they’re not gonna let us play. Well, they offered you a 10. Not enough. Not cut off. You know, it’s Like what? For what? And if I were, if I were them, I’d, I’d, I’d take that 10 year deal and, and, and, and in that span of time, try to come up with your own Call of Duty killer in a sense.

And, you know, to compete well. Well, they, they went and spent the billion dollars buying the game. You guys love Destiny. Yeah. They owned Destiny. You know, it’s like, what? But, but even, but even so, like, they, they bought Bunge, but they, they’re still distributing, they’re still planning on distributing the game in, in other consoles too.

Like, they, they didn’t, they didn’t pull the Microsoft? No, no, no, no. I’m playing it on, on Xbox. But that’s the thing. Microsoft Minecraft is still on PlayStation. Uh, fallout 76 is still long. PlayStation, and those are live games, and those are still playable. You know, it’s so, it’s still gonna be there and they need to make this money back.

If they get, if this acquisition goes through, this is like close to 60 billion, they can’t find all this money in their account. Yeah. So, I mean, they need to make this money back, so it makes sense. That’s why they said, Hey, we’re gonna put this on Switch. We’re gonna keep the PC one going. We’re gonna keep the mobile one going.

They need to recoup all this. They can’t play gatekeeper and say, all right, just everybody just start buying our stuff. It’s, it’s not gonna work. Nothing works that way. Now with a big title like that, that’s, that’s put mm-hmm. leaving money on the table. So I, I don’t know where, why they think it would happen.

The only thing I could think of, and then I don’t wanna get too sidetracked, it’s just there’s one thing that they have that Sony has when it comes to Call of Duty is it’s exclusive content deals when it comes to operators and certain skin packs and stuff like that, that will, that, that stuff never goes to pc, that never goes to Xbox.

That’s always exclusive to PlayStation. Every iteration comes out, that’s what they get. And that’s a deal that they have with Activision. So they would lose that deal, but I, it would still be parody among all of ’em, and there’ll still be cross-platform play because the more people playing, the better it is.

Mm-hmm. So I, I don’t, and it is a shame that that’s all they’re about. What about Diablo? What about, you know, Tony Hawk, what about all the other games that Activision owns? There’s plenty of other games. But, uh, they, they want to just focus on this. But, uh, yeah. And that today is Adam’s rants. . That’s my rant.

That’s my rant. Yeah. I’m, I’m just helping. Yeah, I get it. They’re bothering me. Cause the, the, the whole news that the EU wants to go ahead with it, like, oh yeah, alright, well cool with that. And then now the FTCs gonna sue them because they have no jurisdiction to tells the European Union what they can do, but they can sue them and say, wait, wait.

Reason why is, cuz we’re suing Mark. We are in a court case. If you approve it, you make us look bad. Yeah. So you can’t do that . It’s crazy. So, all right. So back with, um, the topic of being an adult cause, and that’s funny too actually, since you’re talking about that stuff. Isn’t that even just about games anymore for the adults?

It’s, it’s really also about like the industry itself and the business and like the business side of things. Like those aspects of things are kind of like interesting for at least, at least I could speak for myself and Adam like. We kind of like that aspect. It’s not just about the games. Do you kind of feel that way?

Court or is it like really your focus is just the games? Uh, a little bit of both. If you guys can think way back in the day before your children, um, just as an adult with like other responsibilities, did you find, did you find it difficult to game? Like what, what, what was it like balancing just your priorities, your, your, your single priorities, uh, with what you just wanted to enjoy?

I worked game, slept for three hours. , repeat. That’s my high Was that was your time? Yeah. I mean even when I was in high school, cuz I am a decent bit younger probably than you guys. Mm-hmm. . Um, even when I was in high school though, like I can still remember playing online Yugi with a friend of mine before our SATs and we both look at the clock and we’re like, Oh, we have to be up in two hours for that test.

He goes, yeah, I’m gonna go study. I’m like, yeah, I’m gonna go to bed. I’ll see you in three hours when we get up there. , this just, just the, the, the, the 30 minute cram for SATs. Pretty much, yeah. Neither one of us did super hot, but you know, it’s fine. , I, I, I didn’t, I I was very bad with school. Like, it wasn’t until I got out the military is when I started taking school more seriously.

And, and I’m just, I’m finally finishing my last semester of school, uh, this, this, this coming. Um, so the summer I’ll be done and. But back then it was just like, and and Adam knows, cause we both lived New York, we’re both New Yorkers. Like New York can keep you pretty busy. Like there’s a lot of shit, uh, you can do.

There’s a lot of places you can hang out. It’s, it’s crazy expensive. So you gotta bust your ass to try to like, keep up with the rent and bills and, and everything else and, and, and juggling your five roommates in order to make rent. But um, yeah, it was hard for me. I remember one point, you had like three jobs.

I remember calling you and you was like, um, I was like, oh, you free up. No, no. I’m, I’m running around to my other job at T-Mobile. What was this phone? And then I was like, oh, where you going? What were you earlier? Oh, I did this data center thing. I was doing that. And then I got a paper route. I’m like, what?

You had, like, I feel like you always had a bunch. And remember that running joke was how many jobs I had. I think I definitely did. And, and if, if I didn’t have two or three jobs at a time, I, well, I, I would have about two or three jobs at a time, but I would. Have different jobs every single time I spoke to you.

So like, I would have like a job at T-Mobile and, and all of a sudden I’m working for like a different phone company and then all of a sudden I’m doing, uh, uh, uh, uh, another retail job or whatever it may be like. Yeah, it’s, it was so funny. You would, it was like, yeah, I’m working this and you just sell me on all thing.

Yeah, we do this and do that. I was like, all right. Then the next week I . That’s gone. So now I’m working at this . I’m like, you loved it there. You were just praising these people. I’ll tell you though, it has not changed. I, I, I, I managed to obviously just stick to just one job at a time, but, um, I, I still have a habit of jumping around cuz as, as being a bartender for almost 10 years.

Um, Although my profession has always stayed the same, I have jumped from bar to bar from when I stayed in New York and then we moved to Georgia and, and I was still moved from bar to bar for a while and now like I’m working for this one company. I was a bartender there, but now I, now I’m just working at a warehouse.

I’ve got my own desk. I’m working for their inventory for the entire company. So it’s like my bartending days are over. I’m in a cushy job right now. I’m okay . But did you confuse people? Did ever someone go into a bar and be like, wait, I thought I was in geo something. Why you I behind the wrong bar?

No, I mean, like, let’s say if I, if, I don’t know, let’s say Courtney had a bar and court’s bar and I went in there and I see you as a bartender, and then next week I go to Bob’s bar and I see. It’s like, were they confused? Did anybody ever recognize you from another bar and was like, what is going on? Is it the same owners are

Are you double dipping and work in different spots that like No, that has never happened actually, I, I think, I think New York, I think New York is still fairly big enough, especially with, you know how there’s a bar in every freaking corner, especially in Manhattan. So, so like, you don’t run into as many people as you think you, you would.

So it hasn’t happened, but that’s funny. Alright. Right. , that was the one. Yeah, that’s how I’m walk in. I was like, what the hell? You got a twin? Oh, I see. Now I gotta bring all, I gotta bring this, I gotta bring, because this, it’s just triggered for me. So I don’t know if you ever met many, many years ago when I used to date a girl named Susie.

No, I don’t remember. I don’t know. So she was an identical twin. She an identical twin. So we were out on Broadway, uh, in the village. And for those who don’t know, it’s a strip, like a strip mall. There’s a bunch of stores. So we were at a news stand and we were buying some gum or something, and there was a show called New York Undercover, and it was like a Spanish cop and a black cop, forgot the black cop’s name, but he was there also at the news stand.

But we didn’t recognize him. But until he tapped Suzy on the show and he is like, what are you doing here? And she’s like, what? And I’m like, wait, wait, wait. First I’m shocked. I’m like, I recognize him from a TV show, but why is he talking to Susie? He’s, and he was serious. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

What are you doing here? Why are you here? And now we’re freed. And he said, I, and he lifts up a bag and it said like there was a, um, a money exchange or something like that. I wanna say it was wrong. He said, I was just in this store, , you just sold me this. You were the cashier and you are here at this when, and then she starts laughing.

That’s my sister. My sister, he’s, he was like, Shaq said, what is a chance that I go to a store just like, and can see the twin? And I see the twin, the twin at a newsstand on the same block. And I was like, that is very, that there is really no chance that that would happen. And, and I’m sure in his life, this is a story he tells people and he probably don’t believe.

You know, and it was true because we did not visit the sister, but she did. We just so happened. Did she not like, just fail to mention that like, oh, oh, my sister works on this block, or like, or something? We didn’t No, she didn’t. No, she told us sister well to you. Oh, no. My sister works there, but she didn’t tell.

Oh, I knew, I knew the sister. I didn’t know she worked there that day. You know what I mean? We weren’t going in there, whatever. But it was just so weird that this person, and this is, I would be this actor, but, and he freaked out and I was like, yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever bumped into twins, you know, that in different locations on the same day.

I’ve never, so I’ll always remember that, and I’m sure that’s something. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I only remember bumping into one person ever my entire time living in New York, like born and raised New York, and I’ve only ran into one person that I knew in the middle of a train. Just we were on the same car, and that was it.

That’s, I’ve never had any other experie. You never bumped into a friend, are you? I bumped into you in Harlem, remember? On uh, one 25th and I was like, what are you doing here? And you said, oh, I’m going to the recruiting station. I’m Jordan in the military. I don’t remember that. Don’t remember that. Oh my, yeah.

Recruiting station in East Harlem. What were you doing here? And I was like, Yeah, because I was like, well that was one of my sites I worked, it was at 55 West. I was there and I was working, covering that building. And then I see you, you know, for the, at the time I was a field tech, so I, I was going there and then I see you.

I know, like this. Are you gonna do that? Do both paper out, like how you’re, so you’re gonna do both, but yeah. I remember when I bumped into you there, I’m like, wow, this is a random place to, to bump into you in, it was early in the morning too. Cause that was getting, uh, there was a, a chicken and bagel waffle place for breakfast.

That was the weirdest thing to have. But that was a famous spot for chicken and waffles. And then yeah, you were, you were there and you were saying, yeah, you gotta meet with my recruiter. Remember military? So I guess that’s another, it must a second time. Yeah. Well, to go back to that question, like for you, did you, did you find yourself trying to, like, just as an adult, no kids, like did you, did you have trouble with that balance of trying to game?

Did you, did you, were you like a workaholic at all? Because I mean, I remember you were fairly easy to, to, to, to like get ahold of, to hang out with and stuff. I, I don’t think like you were like that hardcore with just working. Yeah, yeah. No, no. Cuz I, I’m trying to think cuz I had a lot of jobs. It all depended on a different time.

Uh, at one point when I worked at Games Up, I also worked at web, so hall at night. So it was like during the day I was there and then at night I was at the club and then they were like walking distance, so it wasn’t a big deal. And then I go home and sleep. Then I worked on a boat. Remember I did that for a while.

So that was the only time, I guess it was tough to, to game, but all the other times after. No, especially when, then during my time in, in Harlem, it wasn’t that bad cuz then I worked in the city. I was in the city and then I’d just get home and I had free time earlier and I could just sit there and play some games.

And, uh, didn’t really have any juggling issues with that cuz I didn’t have, uh, minds. It was like a nine to five. Yeah. Majority. When I worked for the city, I was, I I think it’s harder when you work for a job that the shift is always changing. Yeah. Because then it’s like, now, now you have to figure out, when I was like, oh, I used to play every Tuesday.

Now I can’t, I only work Tuesdays. So now I ain’t gotta do it on Wednesdays and try to do that. But, uh, I, the only person I remember I would work around the schedule was with Danny because at the time he was the assistant manager of Blockbuster. Mm-hmm. . I don’t remember when that was the place. And his schedule would change.

So then he would tell me, it’s like, oh listen, listen, we’re gonna play this game. We’re gonna, or we’re gonna go and hang out and do something. And, uh, it was basically going around his schedule, but because my schedule was so fixed, I didn’t have to worry too much about that. Like, even now, it’s like I haven’t fixed Monday through Friday.

So that helps out then trying to figure things. Yeah. Me, me and Corey, I don’t know, like, have you ever like done those type of jobs, like retail or, or the restaurant in the street? Like those, those schedules are so unstable. Like me, me and Danny, his cousin, like we, we pretty much worked retail, majority of our like twenties.

And then, um, it, it made things difficult to kind of like hang out and stuff because like he would work on a Wednesday, but I’ll be off and then we had to like coordinate all these things. Um, yeah, I worked at Blockbuster too with, with him. That was interesting. Yeah. Well, I got him a job. I, I, um, I started, oh shit.

My second job ever in life was, uh, blockbuster. And I started off as just a regular rep. And I think maybe like four to six months later I got promoted to manager. And then Danny told me, Hey, I’m looking for a job. Can you hook me up? So I put in a good word, and I got him working with me. And then he got transferred to another store, the one downtown on 50 59th Street.

And that’s when he got promoted. That, that’s right. You worked on, that’s right. You worked on the one that was closest the way you Yeah. Yeah. I forgot that. A long time. That close, that closed way before, um, yeah. Buck Buster even went bankrupt. I also miss Blockbuster. No, I, I’ve. I like that experience going in there word on Fridays for being good at school.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I like that. I felt special. They would make me feel special because, no, this is why. This is why, because you could go in and remember there was a new releases and coming soon. On the board. So then I would see something, whether a movie or a game coming soon, and it was like, oh, would you like to put that on your list and we’ll call you when it comes in?

I’m like, yeah, , put that on my list, you know? And, uh, I didn’t even have a cell phone. This was a landline and I had an answering machine. And then come home for a new message, , Hey, this is Jimmy from Blockbuster. You know, it’s like, oh, diehard three is like, ooh. You know, it’s like I win, I win in life. Look at this.

You wanna know the reason why I, I even applied the blockbuster. So I, I was working my first job, I was working my first job at McDonald’s. The one, just one block away from that blockbuster. And me and Danny will go to that Blockbuster. Great. It was actually their flag. I believe it was their flagship, uh, location in Manhattan.

It was always open. I remember going there like two in the morning. I work the nations and was always there.

See somebody goes a blockbuster, then they go out doing,

ran past them, the McDonald’s hat, . They’re like, are you a twin? I got my movie now I want burgers. And you’re here. Uh, so. You still got your blockbuster bag? I still wearing blue. Just one McDonald’s hat on. Um, no, but I, I, so I used to, so like right after work or whenever I got my paycheck or something, me and Danny would go to Blockbuster and we’ll always try to rent the la the latest games.

And I started to become friends with one of the reps over, uh, actually I think he was already a manager at the time. Um, but uh, I started, uh, becoming friends with one of the staff members there and I was just like, yo, what, what is it like working here? You get to play all these games, you get to rent these games or what?

And he’s like, yeah, we get five free rentals every week and that includes games. And I’m like, I wanna work here. So I applied next week, I got hired and I was just like, I’m only gonna use my rentals for video games. And that’s pretty much majority of what I did is like, every week I got to play any of the games that we got in shipment before we even put on the shelves.

I got to rent them out, keep ’em for like a week, play ’em, like I, I got to play Halo. I think it was Halo two. Before it came out, I always, the one, I think it was a PS three, I remember Danny Sa saying he had to go to your place to play the PS three. You had the new metal gear, metal gear Four maybe. Was that it was that it, it was like full of cut scenes that were really long.

I just, that was the last game I had ever, uh, went to the, there’s, so the, the, the flagship GameStop in New York is, uh, is in, uh, um, um, Harold Square. Yeah. Yes. Harold Square in 34th Street, the 24 1. So I went there for the midnight opening for the, for the game. And I stayed there in line waiting for it. And then I told Danny about it.

And yet me and Danny spent literally all day, we beat the game in a day. Because we literally stayed there all day just playing it. In fact, before it Cause that, that’s a funny one. Courtney, have you ever stayed on a line for a midnight lunch for what game did for one of the call of duties, one of the god of Wars?

Uh, destiny actually. Destiny? Yeah. What? D one? D one. I was there for the, when it crashed shortly after midnight for everybody. Of course, I found the receipt from my pre-order. You know how when you order them from GameStop and you got the little yellow sticker saying, okay, this is, this is your number.

Yeah. I found that picture of that receipt the other day. I go, you haven’t been playing since beta. And I’d like, here’s the receipt from me pre-ordering it and me at the midnight release.

Nice. I I have two. I did a bunch of them, but I had two funny ones. Well, damn now three funny ones. One I did for the UFC game on 86th Street, and now it’s very random because this is when I was living in Harlem and, uh, the U Ffc first game was coming out from uh, T hq. And uh, I was just on the website and GameStop said, oh, we’re doing a midnight launch for this game.

I’m like, why? Why this? Like, is there gonna be a demand for this? And there was one, I was on the hundred and first street and there was a GameStop on 86 and I looked and then that they like, yeah, they’re gonna be open. And I was like, but I gotta go to work. Am I really gonna go to a midnight launch for this game?

Fuck it, let’s do it. And I went and sure enough, there was a line of people and that was, uh, weird cuz people walking around. I was like, oh, what game is it? Like AFC Game . What? I say, why, why is people here for this? Um, the another funny one was with my wife. When we were just dating at the time and I was going to go to a midnight launch for Halo, um, I think this was.

Uh, four. I don’t, yeah, it’s definitely not three. It must have been, uh, four or cuz it was after reach and all them. But anyway, I already knew that I was going to this thing and she called me up and said, Hey, what’s up? Just talking. I said, yeah, well, I gotta, I’m gotta get ready to go. She’s like, you’re going sleep?

Said No, I gotta go to this. She’s like, you’re going out now. It’s late, you know, where are you going? She’s think I’m going to a bar. And the whole thing. I was like, well, I’m gonna, this midnight, what’s a midnight launch? I was like, well, they’re doing this thing. She’s like, I wanna go. Then she didn’t live that far from me, so I’m like, uh, if you want, it’s not gonna be that much fun.

So enough, she, she comes with me and then it starts raining. So they let everybody into the store because it was raining and, uh, she, and we’re just standing there and she was like, what’s so special about? I was like, there’s nothing special about this. Uh, you, you just wanted to come. I didn’t invite you.

It wasn’t like a, a get together. But uh, and then the last one was, it was a fifa You and fifa. Yeah. And this was also back in the story, me and fifa. And they said they were doing a midnight launch and I’m a soccer for these midnight launches cuz they, sometimes you get stuff, you get like a shirt or you get other things, whatever.

So I said, you know what, I’ll do this. Let’s go to the FIFA one. And I did get a shirt and some other stuff. But what was cool is that they moved all the carts out of the way. Right. And, uh, if people are listening, if they are from New York, then this is the one that was on Steinway and it’s, it’s pretty big.

It’s long. And they moved all the carts outta the way and they put cones and we actually paid, played indoor soccer waiting. Yeah. And we had some games and they gave some little prizes and stuff. And I was like, this is pretty cool. So instead of just standing around, we’re actually playing something. And then, uh, we did the launch and I think I got two copies.

I got one for the Vita and then I got one for, uh, my Xbox. So, and, but yeah, those, I’ve been to a bunch, but those are the, the most Memor now not connected. I don’t know if you ever met Jamal. He was my best man at my wedding to do. He has a fun one where he went to a grant theft photo for launch, uh, midnight launch.

And they were driving around the city and, uh, rockstar was with their van and they would just like throwing like merch at people online. So they threw a bunch of merch, he got some shirts and stuff like that. But the fun thing is that it, when he went in, he was really, cuz at the time he worked late hours, so he was always at the back of this line.

So by the time he finally made in, he was like one of the last people. And if you remember they had, uh, they would do these big box displays for games back in the day and they had like this big box display of the game. And it had this whole like, plexiglass case. It was a cool looking stand. Mm-hmm. like, they tried to make it look special and he said, what are you guys gonna do with this stand?

And he said, well, we’re gonna junk it. The game is out. I mean, it takes up a lot of real estate. You know, they, they paid to put this up and they don’t pay to take it back. So we just, we throw it out. He said, I’ll take it. And said, all right. So he took this huge stand. So I remember going to his apartment and said This huge stand on the side of plexi Glass.

And he put some other figurines there, toys in it. He said, yeah, they gave it to me. It was for the grant theft photo launching, and then they were gonna chuck it. So I was like, so there you go. That was fun. Midnight launches those days. Yeah, those, they’re still midnight shows, are they? Yeah, they had one for when it came out.

I was supposed to go, they had one for Pokemon as well. Oh man. See, I think that’s what happens because we, we buy digital games now. We don’t see that shit. Uh, yeah, the child wanted to go to it and I’m like, mm, that’s, that’s cool’s like six hours past your bedtime buddy. No. . Aw. Yeah, that’s too See, and, and, and that, well, there’s a trade off because I do, I really do love the convenience of digital dump.

I love the fact that they’re all in one place. I love if I did a pre-order and then when it hits 12, I, like, I had such a busy week and all I had to do was sit on a console. Now I got dead space waiting for me, and I’m gonna play it right after this show. Yeah, that’s it. See, and it’s gonna be happy and you’re gonna be happy.

And it’s like, this is great. You didn’t have to get up, you didn’t have to drive somewhere. You didn’t have to have somebody tell you they didn’t have it in stock. And to check the website, you said, I checked the website, they said the website’s wrong. We’re sorry we, we have shrink. People steal. They’re like, oh man, now you’re driving around.

Yeah. Don’t have to deal with any of that digital. And, and it’s always there. God forbid something happens in your house and everything burns to the ground. All your games are still there. You get another console, they’re all there. I was, I was talking with my buddy, my, my buddy Yes. Asked me, Hey you, do you play Monster Hunter?

I was like, yeah. I mean, I got Rise for the Nintendo Switch, but I couldn’t get into it. But I was really heavy on Monster Hunter World for my PlayStation. And then, and then, and then he was just like, yo, do you still have Monster Hunter World we could play? And I was just like, well, I could free download it.

And we, I just that easy and then I could just replay it again. So court, do you prefer physical or, or, or digital. Um, all right. Backs, there’s gonna be backstory on this one. So Matthew, when he was little love disks, he would like to chew on them or scratch them or throw them. So, um, I do all digital. I like also being able to say, Hey, I don’t wanna play this anymore.

Uninstall it and then instead of five months down the road and somebody goes, Hey, do you have GTA five? I don’t have to go re my copy of it. I can just say, yeah, here, lemme redownload it. It’ll be ready in 20 minutes. Cuz I have one gig internet. Yep. Oh nice. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. Yeah. You’s see. And that’s the beauty of it.

It’s that we do have that option that we can just redownload it and uninstall it and not have to worry about finding this. Cuz I loved having the disc. But then Danny again, back to them, he would take ’em all out and he would move ’em around and close ’em up and then I’d go to grab up there and it’s a wrong thing.

You had such a library of like just boxes and boxes of, of Yeah. Yeah. Boxes of cage. And he would always miss it. I was like, why didn’t you put his, don’t give a shit. I just put it up. You opened up Assassin Diablo and then you opened up half time. Dude was the most my mom did. He didn’t care about any of this.

Yeah. All the time. This guy, man. I mean, he would lose stuff. I remember. What was he? He bought a. The the, not the what’s the Nintendo three Ds before the 3d. What was that called? Was it the light or what? Somehow? No, no. Two Ds came after 3d. Dsi? No, it was was something dsi. He bought a dsi more him. He bought the dsi.

He bought a Mario game within like 24 hours. He lost the game. It’s like he lost it. I don’t know. It’s small. Whatever. He lost it. And that was the thing when the switch came out and I had to switch and I knew the kids dying switch. I’m like, that’s why I went all digital for, I put a one, I got a one, one TV card in there and I’m like, this is it.

Because those little things, they will lose them. They will lose them. And look, I even got, so I got these little cases. Oh, court cases look like Nintendo. You sent me a link to those. See it. Yeah. Right. They look like, yeah, it’s awesome. And I got this so that way if I put them somewhere, I could still find ’em.

Cause there are some that I do have in physical form. But no, everything is digital because kids will lose them, especially if they’re small and. No, I, I, I, yes, I see the value of having physical, but then also then this is overlayed and people know now that these games don’t work out the box. So even if you say, you know, I got the physical version, I was like, yeah.

And it’s also broken on that disc. You’re gonna need a day one patch, and so you’re gonna have to still connect online to play it. It won’t let you play. And also it’s not playing off the disc. That’s what I was gonna say. You’re still getting the digital version, you just have the physical disc in your hand.

Now I’m like, yeah, I’m not doing that. Yeah, you just have, yeah, it’s just a key. It’s just a key. So if people are collectors, your collectors just for the box art? Yeah, that’s it. You, you, you want the show? Like I do have, I don’t know if you consume Oh, at the top. I do have two shrines for my two favorite franchises.

I have one for the division. I have those in, uh, the steel bookcases. And then I have with, uh, gears of War and I have statues with them and stuff. Yep. Low. So that’s, that I get. But we’re a digital age. People can’t bitch and people like, oh, well you have Spotify. You seem to like that. You know, you have Netflix, Disney plus you, you seem to like that.

The, the, it’s, it’s just convenience. I mean, with my steam deck. Fantastic. The fact that I just logged in to Steam and all my games were there and I was like, this is great. And I can just load ’em up and play them on the go. It’s, it’s, it’s a beautiful thing. And remember we grew up in a time where that was not option.

You know, we had, I remember back in the day, freaking music CDs. I had to carry like a whole library in my book bag while, while we had a fucking CD that would skip all the time. Oh yeah, exactly. Always skipping. I mean, I remember I bought the, it was a JVC Mojo, I think you remember that. People can Google that one.

It was a mojo and it was a disc player. It was one of the first that actually supported MP3 files on a disc. So I still had to get the MB three s, burn it onto a disc. Yeah. And then it can play. Remember that, you know? Yeah. And that was. Yeah, until we wound up getting iPods and all that stuff, and that was amazing.

What, I don’t have to have a skip, uh, CD skipping. I don’t have to have a tape cassette with me. I have all this music. This is awesome. And now we have it for games. And it’s always, it’s definitely a good time for us, especially as parents where kids are not good with anything physical. You know, they mess up books, they mess up clothes, they mess up toys, they mess up anything that they can touch.

They can put their grubby, sticky hands all over and then they can mike you so many times, I, so I bought, I didn’t buy the pro controllers for the switch for the kids, but I bought these third party ones that are like rugged with rubber and whole thing. And the one thing I looked for and the comments was, how does it work with kids?

Because, you know, kids drop things, they throw it, they didn’t do the whole thing. And that’s with the comments. Everybody’s like, this is great for my kids. They, they’re always fighting, they’re throwing them around, they don’t care. And they’re very durable. And I love them for that because the last thing I want, and they were cheap.

They’re like 20, 30 bucks to spend 60, $70 worth for a pro controller. And then to have ’em drop it and next thing you know, the, the left stick has drift, you know? And I’m like, great. Ah, now I gotta work on this. Uh, Matt used to play a lot of Xbox and uh, he would constantly, when he got mad, we had to teach him not to throw controllers when he was young, and he would constantly mm-hmm.

break them. So he wasn’t allowed to have Xbox for egg controllers anymore. He got, uh, the Amazon $20 specials that, and I had four of them on backup. So when one of them broke, I didn’t have to worry about next one. My, oh, my, my, my kids, my, my, they throw that when they play Mario cart. If my son, he, he is an angry gamer.

This dude, I mean, if he was live streaming, he’d probably make booo. He put together, he’s, and. Yeah, we put ’em together, we could be rich. We just watch some money roll in. Everybody watching these kids play because he’ll flip out if they’re playing a racing game. And my, my daughter pats him and she’ll like rubbing in his face.

He’s like, oh, you too slow. And he is like, ah, he takes, he just chucks it at her, you know, and hit her and they check. There was one time they were playing and she was laughing and he put the control, he made up and he just smacked her . I was like, I don’t believe this. And then she’s hitting him and they’re fist fighting.

I’m like, this is, is nuts. Typical, typical secret. They rage out. But yeah, that’s, yeah, exactly. But that, the whole point is you don’t buy them the, the nice stuff that they can, you buy them the cheap, that’s it. Breaks breaks. Yeah. I’m, I’m picturing court just like, just like watching one of the controllers be broken and then you just go and then just open a drawer, next one out.

Ye and that’s, or he would lose, we had to actually take away the wireless controllers from him too, because he would hide them. So that’s the reason why I have currently four Ps five controllers because Matt likes to hide them. So I’m just like, I can’t find it. I’m just gonna go buy a new one. And then they just randomly reappear the next day.

So he got to the, the wired ones, the afterglow wired ones. Cause he loved it when he, cuz this was when he was probably like one or two and really fascinated with shiny objects. And he would sit, just sit there and stare at the controller and watch the colors change with the game for hours on end. We’d be like, where’s Matt playing Xbox?

And just watch him. He’s just staring. All right guys, so, so as we wind down with the show, I wanted to have this final question for hopefully you guys could give some advice about anyone who is expecting a kid or, or maybe planning on having kids. Uh, what would you, what advice would you give them? Like for, for, for those who are still gamers and like what to expect, what they should maybe do to kind of help out with the fitting in that gaming time?

Uh, Courtney. That’s actually a really good question. And then it kind of boils down to, like I said, uh, I went before Matt was born, I let them know, Hey, you know, I have a little one on the way. Things are gonna be rough. I might be inconsistent. I haven’t forgotten about, you guys do not start having abandonment issues.

Some of them did. Um, but things might be loud. I might have to step away. I couldn’t do raid cause I’m big into destiny. Raid. I always have been. Yes. I’m like, I don’t have time now to dedicate three hours to a raid because once he wakes up I need to stop. You know, go make, take care of him, get him resituated, this, that and the other.

You have to take time for yourself. If you don’t bad things generally happen. You start to go a little crazy. That’s probably the best word. But, you know, good friends will understand, Hey, I’ve got a kid with you. I have a friend of mine who has six of them. Raids with him can be interesting. That’s what he’ll just disappear randomly for an hour, hour and a half

And we’re just like, oh, where’d he go? And we’re like, ah, nah. He’s just like, just afk from the raid or something. Yeah. He’ll say, yeah, I gotta go deal with the kids. They’ll be back and everybody just knows that your cute to go cook dinner, go get your snack. We run to Walmart real fast. We see him fall asleep.

That’s always a worst. I had a buddy fall asleep first cause we hear him snoring. We’re running and we Yep. Was like, and And some games you can’t progress. The whole team has to get to the next point. It doesn’t just bump them up. I’m like, we have to quit. Yeah. We ran into that. We were trying to recently run King’s Fall.

You know when you go from, oh, where did we get it? We were at Sisters and we’re like, everybody needs to participate. This is a D Ps check. Yeah. He goes, oh well I have to keep getting away from the kids. I go. All right, we’re done. We’re cutting the raid. Well, he goes, well, you guys wanted to finish it. I go, the kids are more important than us finishing this raid, this raid.

We have till Tuesday to fix it, to finish it. We’ve already cleared it. And that’s just kind of what I look at it like. I’m like, yeah, I don’t get upset when there’s somebody else that has kids. I’m like, you just have to understand that you may not get that raid done in one day. It might be a multiple day situation, or the game might be a multiple day.

I, I hate. Are you okay over there? Adam ? Yeah. I hate, no, I’m just saying you got me. Cause you’re talking about raids and it just brings up bad memories because in the division we have six to nine hour raids and it’s up to eight people. Yeah, they’re not, they’re not three. I wish they were hours. But here’s the thing.

Three hours are still long. We, we could knock out. Wait. Yeah, that’s a good raid. Team. You could knock out King’s for about an hour and a half. It’s a, it’s mine’s hour. I have to do a raid is a full work hour. A full work schedule for somebody to on the division. But here’s the thing, and this is the issue, like you said, we’re timing.

But if someone drops, we try to say if someone drops, it’s over. So if we already put in two and a half hours and someone said, yo, I gotta go. I’m like, we just wasted time because we can’t do it. We need everybody. You need a full group. All these raids are designed that way. I was playing a mini raid just with a buddy of mine.

Yes. Last night actually. And there’s waves and waves of high level enemies coming and one person has to carry a canister, which pretty much just gives him a pistol on the other hand. And he has to get from point A to point B. He needs a lot of cover. There’s only two of us, some other guy that we had dropped out.

We can’t do it. We can’t do it. And we just wasted all this time playing this far. We’re like, that’s it. It’s over for us. So no checkpoints. I hate, this is why I hate raids. No, see, even Destiny has that though. You can stop for the day and then you can go back to it the next day. See now the different RAID team.

But , no, no, no. Yeah. No, we have to start over. Checkpoint’s horrible. Within the game while we’re playing. But yeah, no, if it’s over, then that’s it. We gotta start over. Yeah. It is hard and I, man, they had a word for the longest time. You could only do what Klan members. That’s like cartoon trade. Couldn’t do randos.

That was even harder. Yeah, it’s forcing your buddies like Jump on. Jump on. And is that pressure Sometimes some of them come naked and like, yeah. And then we’re like, all right, fuck all. So let’s just do like some Randalls. Oh, we can’t, it’s only blocks. It’s only for clans because they had a Klan leaderboard on in division two.

It’s a Klan leaderboard and, and that’s what they were going for. But you’re forcing people and then not everybody has that time. Yeah. So then what do we do? We would see Randall stand there. I would send him a problem, yoyo, join up the clamp here. Just go, I don’t want to cla. It’s just leave play together.

This is Cause then he’s the other way. Well, here’s exactly, because here’s the thing. If you want the high end loop you get as a clan, but if you do Randall’s, cause eventually they did open it where you can add Randall’s. No, absolutely. But if you do that, you don’t get the high end. Mm-hmm. You’re just running it for funsies and it’s like, who wants to do a raid six hour for Fonzi?

No, you want to get something out of this? It’s a bullshit that, so just when you said raid, raid that memory deep. That sounds awful though. Like I, I never understood. Yeah. I don’t like it. I, I, I, I was pretty, I was pretty deep into, um, um, um, division one when it first came out. Uh, and then we played a little bit, but it was me and Danny played, played for a good, a good, a good portion of it up until the end game content.

And like those raids were rough. But like after part two is what I kind of like, I just lost the interest for that. Now. Now I feel like I just dodged the bullets. You with you telling me all that. Yeah. All that stuff. Those raids sound horrible. Yeah, that’s pointless. They, they were horrible. Horrible. It sounds like.

Wow. I just, so now. I, I don’t know what they were going, what they were thinking when they did that shit, but, uh, I know, I, I, so, um, so court, would I be accurate in saying what, what your advice was? Is that, uh, uh, make sure you set your boundaries, like, and expectations whenever you have like a kid coming or if you plan on having kids, like saying like, look, I need to drop what I’m doing in order to take care of my child.

But at the same time you’re saying, just make sure you also have time for yourself e Exactly. Yeah, because I’ve ran into situations, um, where I’m like, right now he’s wants to, he’s at an age now where I, he just does his own thing until he needs something. Yeah. And that’s just kind of, I mean, video games to help with that because that’s how he, he plays Roblox during the day when he is not at school all day, unfortunately.

But, you know, it’s fine. That’s how he plays with his friends from. But in that, like right now, after I’m done here, a friend of mine that’s out in Washington wants to play Destiny. He goes, I haven’t seen Yon in a while. Would you play? And I’m like, yeah. He goes, I know that’s your time. He goes, my kids are all grown up

But he goes, I understand if you need to step away from to go take care of Matt. He goes, no biggie. He goes, I’ll just sit in orbit and vibe for a little bit and then when you come back we’ll pick back up. He goes, it is no big deal to me that we have to stop. But those boundaries are important of, Hey, you’re not gonna get mad at me for having to leave the raid because this, but if I’m doing high end content, like I attempted King’s Fault day one, which was a horrible mistake.

I was at that rate for 15 and a half hours. trying to wait. You mean for when? When it came outta D one, D two. Oh for D two, I had a group that wouldn’t listen for dps and we got stuck at um, Third encounter after Totem. The war, war, war priest. Yeah. We got stuck at war, priest and I that the next raid I did with that group, they’re like, well, you’re just gatekeeping.

You don’t know how to do this raid. I go, okay, that’s cool. You do diviv, I’ll do dps. They go, you just out dps? The whole team combined. I go, oh, but remember I don’t know how to do this. Yeah, yeah. I haven’t played with that group. They’re not, they don’t play with me anymore. They said, I got too cocky. Man, that’s a great band name.

War. War. That’s awesome. Yeah. Woo. . Which funny, cause it looks like if you were to see, if you look up like maybe screenshots of war, it looks like he’s on a stage, like a, like a heavy metal rock band stage with like a big black orb on the top. Made that sense. But , I love it. I love it. If I ever have to make another character in the game, you know, sometime get up to light and I’ll run you through.

We’ll that you can vibe to war. He actually like fantastic. Can I rename my Destiny character? Can I rename my destiny? Yeah, you can. Based on some of the names I’ve recently seen, I think they’re still allowing it. Yeah. Yeah. There’s some crazy names. That is fantastic. Um, so Adam, what about you? Any advice you want to give for like future parents, expecting parents, things of that sort?

Uh, it’s a balancing act. It’s not over. We get this asked all the time on throw down cuz uh, the show comes on late. And so a lot of parents, they’re jumping on. They, they are int gaming, they’re always ask this question like, how do you juggle it? How are we doing this? It’s a, it’s a fixed schedule and also with your significant other, not just with the kids, but make sure you are not, uh, just abandoning the other obligations.

So like, my wife does majority of cooking, but I make sure to clean and do the dishes and all that stuff. Give the kids their bath and all that. So that way those things are done. And, uh, I don’t feel as bad and, and doesn’t look bad. I mean, when I say I’m disappearing in the room for a few hours. So it’s just a balance.

Make sure once, uh, you do have a child in the world, that you’re, all the child’s needs are met and your, your significant others needs are met. Everything’s fine. Now, that’s your time. And if you’re lucky, then maybe you can set that to always be your time. So at nighttime, uh, I mean there, there’s some people I know that they cannot, that their significant other says when they go to sleep, they have to go to sleep.

That, that doesn’t fly with me. That never has flown me. Even when I was at my dating days, I do not go by that rule. I said, don’t, don’t tell me I have to go to sleep when you are sleepy. That’s, that doesn’t work. You set you at bedtime. Yeah. So, um, Yeah, exactly. Sent mek. It’s like, no, no, no, no, no, no. That, that’s not how this works.

If as long as I can still get up in the morning and fulfill my real world obligations, don’t come at me now day that I, I’m missing all the alarm and I’m slacking and my job, then there’s, that’s different then, then we could have the intervention, you know, something’s wrong, but, uh, I’ve been doing this for so long and my friend Mr.

Coffee is always with me. I drink coffee until at least one. Why are you coffee that late morning ? I’m still drinking coffee because my body, the tolerance is so high for it that, that I, I can keep drinking and then I can still, right after drinking a full cup, lay down and go. So I can’t really say anything.

I’m looking at my shake right now. I use Red Bull Coffee. Doesn’t do it for me. Yeah. Yeah. Safe coffee doesn’t do it for you. Everybody’s got their own poison that keeps ’em, but this is it. And, and I, my, my free time and majority of people that I know that are parents and then it’s at night because that’s, you know, kids Yeah.

They go to sleep. Exactly. So it’s like this is your time. There’s some people that like to use that time to watch through an adult content shows. You know where the last bus ? No, not look at you, Courtney. Laughing.

Yeah, well that call also, oh, that’s us. Yeah, that’s something else. One time my kid walked in, saw me watching them, was like, what’s this? It looks like a cartoon. . You can’t watch this. You know, I had another time. I’m with the headset. I’m playing Call of Duty, and then I just play and I don’t know, you know, when you feel like something’s behind you.

And then I see this little person, he’s just standing as I’m shooting people in the no no’s, no Russian, no Russian, uh, section or something. . I just, yeah, yeah. I don’t, yeah, I just don’t want, Matt did that with, I don’t, I’m seeing this stuff because, oh, you walked in and set up the foot of the bed. I was playing in bed.

He was playing in his room and he walks in, he, I go, you shouldn’t be watching this. He goes, no, no, it’s fine. They’re fake. They’re not real. It’s fine. Continue . Oh yeah, he, he understands that Well, that’s, no, no, no. My kids say the same. They understand it, but then they still have nightmares. They still, they’ll see it in their dreams.

The, you know, it’s like, I was like, that’s why I don’t bother with them. Like, my daughter wants to watch some certain movies. And I was like, no, you, you can’t because you’re still scared to come upstairs at night. Did, did was telling me, uh, he thought High on Life was a kids game, like a kids game shooter.

Yeah. He didn’t keep up with things as much as like we do, but like, he’ll still pretty much play anything. And the only reason why or how he found out that it was in a very adult game was because I streamed the entirety of the, uh, the, the, the story. And I put it on my YouTube page. And he watched bits and pieces of it, and he’s like, yo, they curse a lot.

Thank God I didn’t have my kids watch this while I was playing it. Yeah, it’s not a kids’ game. It even says on the bus. Yeah, it’s a mature game. I mean, it’s a rating, so Yeah. I don’t know if we’ll get, well, maybe Will. No, because the whole, you know, he’s gone, but they’ve already said that not only did it cut ties, but they’re, they’re re casting the voices, so We’ll, we’ll still have it back.

That’s gonna go well. Yeah, but the, but the, it’s the humor. No, that’s not true either. Uh, from, from what, from what I’ve heard so far, yes. He’s, he was a part of it. He contributed to it. But, um, Dan Harmon, uh, contributed a lot to it as well. And because they still have Dan Harmon, that that humor will still be there.

You might see some differences, but for the most part, it’s not gonna change that much. All right, so this is the Connors to Roseanne. Maybe. We’ll see, we’ll see how that goes. Remember that, that’s what happened there. So, and, and that, that show continued on. I think it’s still running. I think the Connors are still running.

Yeah. And then they thought it wasn’t gonna work. I mean, Roseanne was a big part of that and, but hopefully we’ll see. We’ll see if it works out. Cause it, it was a big chunk. I know for like the 17 time what happened? That’s a hunting joke now that usually what? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, geez. Uhhuh . Sorry. So, so for Adam, you, you just say just, just keep a balance.

Make sure you get your shit done first as an adult before you get into your gaming. Yes. Keep the balance. Prioritize gaming with your buddies is not the priority. Nope. Don’t say that. It is. Keep that toward the bottom. Make sure the kid, the wife, the fam, the job that supports your habits, that’s all taken care of.

Then you can start throwing every your, your free time and stuff to it. But, uh, because I think that’s the only issue that some people will have. And that’s not just with gaming, it’s with everything. I mean, there, there’s a great, uh, documentary on Netflix was a monster camp. Uh, if you’ve ever seen this one monster camp, and it’s about wild players.

And the life that Wow. Is a grind. What’s happened to them? Some good, some bad. Yeah. There’s some people they talk to that have lost their families altogether cuz of their addiction. A wow. Then there’s others that have found relationships or friendships, you know, jobs. It, it goes into a little bit of everything.

It’s called Monster Camp. Mm-hmm. And it’s, it’s, but the sad ones are, there’s one dude in particular, his wife lefted him with the kids and everything and he says, yeah cuz he kept playing. Wow. And then he’s like, I don’t wanna stop now, but for what? I already lost my family. The only family I technically have is my, my group that I play Wow.

With. So now I’m even more invested. Then you make it even more difficult in the future if you wanna find another family in the, in, you know, later on let’s, oh, he sounds like he gave up on that. I’ve had some friends that have done that too because they tried to, they tried to get me into, wow. They’re like, well, you play 14 and you tank in 14.

Come to Wow, we need a four, we need a wow tank. I’m like, I’ll try it. I make no promises. I get into that, I’m like, I’m gonna be real honest. This looks like more of a grind than what I have time for. Uh, I’m gonna go back to 14 where it’s straightforward and I can hop in and out as much as I want. Somebody goes, you have 400 hours in that game so far.

I go, I don’t wanna talk about that. Okay,

Yeah. Danny did that to me too. He, he installed it on my computer. He’s like, no, no. We’re gonna play times. Like, why would you do this ? I’m like, I’m not. I, I played a little and I already had a kid. I just want to, I still, my, my daughter was just two years old at the time and stuff, and I jumped in. I played a little bit.

I was like, ah, this isn’t for me. Like you said, the grindy, all right, we gotta go here. We gotta kill these things and we get some points and we have to build up our level to fight this creature. Oh, the next creature’s level 20. We’re only 15 now we gotta grind to get to 20. I, I can’t, I can’t. But that’s what pissed me off when I, when Assassins Creek came back, love Assassin Creek games, and I’m playing Origin and remember this, after they took those multi-year breaks, I’m like, oh, I can’t wait.

And I’m playing. They see the little numbers and stuff like, all right, you add some RP elements. And I killed the boss and went to another one and says, oh, level 13. I was like, level six or seven, so what am I supposed to do? Oh, you’re supposed to grind. I’m like, no, I never went back to that shit. I don’t wanna do the grind.

It, it aha pissed me off. And the thing is, I that it’s all dependent on what the game is, cuz like there is some serious grind when it comes to the division and you seem to be into that game. I don’t, but I don’t have to have that level. I can just get to the boss and fight them. It did. It doesn’t tell me that’s, you have to be this level to fight.

Mm-hmm. , it’ll, yeah. It doesn’t gimme cat. It’ll tell me that they’re high level. I can still take my chances and grind it out. It’s a fight. It’s not, with those games, you can’t even do it. It’s like, no, no, no. You have to be this level to go further. You know? I don’t, I don’t like that. I, I like to know that I can just take my chances and go in there, or I’ll pick up a certain high weapon and this and that and do it.

I, I, yeah, I don’t like that. I have to spend hours and hours doing side missions just to continue the main mission. You know, with the division, you can just do all the missions. You don’t have to do any of the side. You can just do boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. All right, thanks for playing. You know, go do something else.

It’s not like Destiny where you’re flying, but in time if you wanna do those high end or high end raid. Yeah. Yeah. And, and they do have caps too. Like they, they have, so strikes are like, you could, you can see in, in a sense they’re like missions or mini missions, and then you got knife holes, which are like the harder versions of it.

But then you have grand master knife holes, which are like, they, they’re supposed to be above your level cap. What is to make it like the hardest of hard. So there’s a 16, I think 20. Yeah, it’s 16 to what I’m looking at it. Yeah. 1620 is, is what you have to be for Grandma, master and level cap right now is what, 1600 I think.

Oh, 1690. I, something like that. Skipped off the season. So I’m only at 1680 . Yeah. Well, me, me and Danny were the Grand Master, but Mike, there, there are unfortunately level caps for, for, for Destiny you have to get to in order to play that endgame concert. I think there’s some for, um, Kings Fall too, like Endgame Kings fall, like the Harder Kings fall.

I, I think it’s 1600 isn’t. Yes. 1600. See, well that’s so, all right. So in division, the endgame stuff, you have to have reached level 30 and in some cases you have to finish the story. But then, um, in division two, they had an expansion Woo Lords New York, and they will give you, if you bought that expansion, you automatically got a Level 30 character if you didn’t have one already.

Mm-hmm. . So that was nice if for those, I had buddies that just wanted to play that experience cuz they didn’t care about DC and I was like, oh, great, then you don’t even have to do any grinding, just click on this button. It gives you a level 30 character and must be nice. So, uh, cries and, well, I, um, I would definitely, for myself give the same advice that pretty much Adam was saying, um, because this, it, this takes me back to like the, the, the, the time where I started dating my wife first.

Um, it, one of the first things that I did pretty much say to her was like, gaming is a huge part of my life. Um, it’s important part, and I don’t, if you don’t agree with this part of my life, I don’t think it would work out. So I, I just laid it out there pretty much in the beginning and she was always fine with it.

She’s not that much of a gamer. She’ll play some things every now and then, but for the most part it’s just me. Um, you play that, uh, it takes two, right? Yeah. We played, we played this takes two together. Um, and she did that for me just because we were, I was doing the review, but like, she prefers like, she, she even tried Destiny for a little bit, but because she’s not very much of a seasoned gamer, she has that trouble, you know, moving to joysticks at the same time.

Yeah, yeah. Type of deal. Hand. Hi Courtney. Yeah. I tell people all the time you, there’s a lot of hand-eye coordination that you develop. Yeah. Um, but, uh, What I, one of the things I did tell her after I told her that was that I, I still get my things done. Like I, I cook myself, I clean myself, I do my own laundry.

I iron, I sew, I do everything I need to do, uh, as, as, as a, as a regular human being. Make sure all my chores are done. My ba my bills are always pill, uh, paid. Um, so, uh, so if gaming was ever a problem, I would hope you’d let me know, but just know, I know how to put the game down. So I think that’s one of those things as an adult that you need to learn how to do is when to put the game down and do what you have to do first before you can jump back on.

That’s one of the things we’ve been struggling, Nick and I, uh, cuz he’s a big league player, unfortunately, you know, and he goes, you just have to tell me when it’s time for me to stop . He goes, he goes, there’s a lot of distance between you and I right now, so if you wanna play, what did we recently play?

Remnant was our last game we played. Oh, I love game. We had a really good time with it. A little disappointed with how short it was, but it’s fine. And he goes, I’ll stop playing league to go play, but you need to gimme time to myself after to go play my thing and go take care of the things I need to do.

Cuz the space is still important between the two people. for sure. Um, well I guess that’s it. That’s it for, for, for the show and the episode. Um, Courtney, I don’t know if you do any, um, social media that you’d like anybody to follow or any plugs or anything that you’d like to do at all? No. No, not really. I haven’t really gotten into it.

I’ve been told I should, I just haven’t, I’d probably be good at a Destiny channel. Yeah. Do some streaming on Destiny or something. Yeah. People would love listening to me age about other people and raid. I’m sure I’ve had, uh, some interesting recent raids of you don’t know how to play. All right, cool. But you can’t do it, Courtney.

You can’t do it. You’re a female. They’ll say you’re cheating. Yeah. They can’t, they can’t respect are you’re a good player. Yeah, they can’t seem, I don’t know why people do this, but I see it all the time. So much time. Well the girl can’t lead the raid. The girl cannot out DPS you. So if she’s leading the raid, oh my, she doesn’t know the mechanic.

She has over almost a thousand hours in the game of guarantee. She knows the mechanics. . Uh, Adam, what about you? Anything to plug in? Uh, yeah, just plug everything over at the coalition. Thanks for all the sport there. Uh, plug of course the coalition to YouTube, our new coalition gaming channel. Yeah. Which we are getting off the ground doing that whole thing.

Uh, I am Negan, that’s for everything Walking Dead. That’s come back April for the, the last season of Fear of the Walking Dead. Well that’s over, but Fear, the Walking Dead is ending. And then we have Dead City. In fact, I think Dead City comes out before fear, if I remember right. But it’s definitely in April.

But yeah, that’s on iTune, Spotify and all that stuff. And of course throw down over on Twitch. So, uh, that’s it. That’s, it’s a lot of stuff. And, uh, just keep gaming and be happy. Life is short. Enjoy it. Yeah. Yeah, I’ll definitely leave the links to, to, to all of it. Uh, throw down I am Negan Coalition, coalition, gaming, all that stuff, uh, so people can have access to it.

You can also check out, uh, gamer guardians.net. Uh, I’ll have all the links on there as well. So it’s connected to everything. Along with, uh, the game reviews that I do for the coalition. You could do all the podcasts, um, uh, through there as well. I got the YouTube channel, got all audio podcasts, links on there, my Twitter, my YouTube, all that good stuff.

So, but thank you guys. Thank you so much for joining and giving us this advice and this perception into the adult world of gaming, and we’ll see you next episode. Peace.

So, we laughed and scoffed at a few things. Even vented about the problems we’ve had. I know though many of us wouldn’t regret the lives we lead and where it will lead. Our aspirations, dreams, lives they raise, relationships we developed and how serious they’ve gotten.

 I don’t think any of that should stop. I think we should still better ourselves socially, physically, mentally, creatively. The point is to just remember gaming can be hard to do as an adult but it’s something we enjoy and should be allowed to enjoy when we can get it. Doesn’t mean it should get in the way of more important things.

It also doesn’t mean gaming is a waste of time. It just shows that if something is important to you, you will find the time to do it. Enjoy it and appreciate it. The less time we have the more we should appreciate and enjoy it. Some things are obligations. Other things are optional. That balance gets harder, but none of it becomes less important.