Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #859: Replies with Rachel #6

Episode Date: August 13, 2021

From time to time, I sit down and answer reader questions with my eldest daughter Rachel.

I'm not pulling in my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for the Drive to Work Coronavirus Edition. Okay, so while I'm at home, I've been doing a lot of interviews, but my daughter Rachel is at home for the summer, back from school. And as we did last summer, way back when, when Rachel was in high school, I used to drive her to her high school, and so she'd be on some of my podcasts. And we started doing a thing called Replies with Rachel, where I did a mailbag column because then she could read the questions while I was driving. And anyway, so this is up to number six. So, Rachel, welcome. Hello. So it's Replies with Rachel 6.

So here's what happened. I asked people for questions on my Twitter. They sent them in, and they're questions for both me and Rachel. Rachel gets to pick the... I printed them out, but Rachel will pick the questions and then she and I will answer them. It's that simple. Okay. So the first question comes from

at CCG History that asks, Rachel and Mark, other than Matches at Gathering, what is your favorite card game? Oh, that's very interesting. I'm trying to remember. I feel like we've played so many. We have.

What are some staple favorites? Like Sushi Go is a lot of fun. Yeah, I was literally thinking that. Go Nuts for Donuts I know we enjoy quite a bit. That's just very similar to Go Nuts. I mean, it's a donut version of Sushi Go. They're very similar games. It's enjoyable. Sushi Go and Go Nuts for Donuts are very, very similar games.

I mean, this is a very open-ended question because there's a lot of different card games out there. Yeah. For example, like, I have a lot of fondness from college. My roommate and I played Cribbage for years on end. Yeah. And I enjoy Cribbage, and my wife and I... In fact, I made a game called Mood Swing, which is a card game that my wife and i in fact i made a game called mood swing

which is a card game that my wife and i i used to play all the time and um i have you know there are a lot of different games we we have a friday on friday nights we have rosewater game night and so we play a lot of party games not all of them are card games but we play some card games yeah they're also just ones i like to play with just a standard deck of cards, like spoons or garbage or solitaire. Ones you could just play out of that 52-card deck. So those are always really fun games to play. Codenames is a great game if you count that as a card game. Apples to Apples is fun if you count that as a card game.

I think that's the main question, is what counts as a card game? What counts and what doesn't count? Does the game involve cards or it's only cards? Oh, one of my all-time favorites. There's a game called Set that's a pattern recognition. It's a card game, I guess, because it's on cards. It's a pattern recognition game, which is a really different kind of game. I've always loved it.

Anyway, timeline. There's infinite fun card games. Okay. The next question comes from AtWolfV. So it's two questions, one for you and then one for me so for you it's what was the biggest missed opportunity in the dnd set the biggest missed opportunity uh i mean i i don't know i mean the one the one the one that as a player when i used to play dnd that like i if you had said to me what's the thing you most wanted to see in the set that we didn't end up making,

it would be Bigby's hand. In fact, back in the day when I played, it used to be called Bigby's Crushing Fist, I believe. But you, I was a wizard, and you got to make this giant fist, and whatever your hand did, that hand did. Anyway, it was a spell that I had a lot of fun with, and I

mean, not that there's way more popular spells, but it was a spell that I really enjoyed, so the fact that there's fine. I mean, not that there's way more popular spells, but it just, uh, it was a spell that I really enjoyed. So the fact that there's no, I mean, that's the one I missed was big. So, um, okay.

And then the question for me is what's been the biggest change in your routine since your father works at home more? Um, I feel like nothing too much. I think the two biggest things are just having to remember to be quiet, especially during the sort of later half of the afternoon around like three, four, five o'clock ish when all of us are home from work things or school things or whatever has been interesting. And also the fact that we can make dinner and there's just no travel time that we have to factor for for the fact that you have to not only get off of work, but then drive home. The fact that you can just end work and just be out right away, then we can have, like, dinner out easier.

So that's also really nice. Yeah, one of my running jokes is, we have, like, a den, like a little library. I work in the library. And then whenever I walk out at the end of the day, I go, I'm home. So. Yeah, I think those two things.

Otherwise than that, it's been very similar as it was before. Also, Rachel, I mean, Rachel's been off to college. So, I mean. Yeah. I mean, the summer she's back. So, obviously, you're interacting during the summer. Yeah.

But those are the two biggest ones I can see. Okay. From at ABWD Gaming. So, for both of us, did we stick with our initial majors? So, start off with you. Okay. I went to communication school.

When I went into the communication school, I knew I wanted to do communications. I knew I wanted to do writing. So, I mean, I didn't really deviate. I mean, I guess I didn't pick my major until a little in, but I mean, all that really happened was time to pick my major. I'm like, can I pick the thing I want? And they said, sure. And I said, okay,

I want to write. And so, I didn't know. I went into college knowing I pick the thing I want? And they said, sure. And I said, okay, I want to write. And so, so I didn't know. I went into college knowing what I wanted and pretty much stuck to it. So how about you, Rach? Yeah, well, I mean, I am a theater major,

mostly an interest in directing, a little bit in playwriting. And I've pretty much mostly stuck with that. Like, I've gone into other avenues of looking into, like,

advertising, for example, because I love writing and being creative. But I haven't really changed my major at all. So I've pretty much stuck with that. And it's more about I think, getting certain skills for my tool belts, rather than I think having a certain named major just because jobs and things keep changing all the time. And perhaps there's a job in the future that is perfect for me that hasn't been invented yet so yeah we will wait and see the thing i always i always i search this to my kids is literally the job i do when i went to school there was not you couldn't study it it wasn't a field of like you know it there was no way in the world i could actually take a class in what i do now so who knows what the future has to

hold so um right get a good skill set learn skills will apply no matter what the jobs are in the future so get good skills okay next question okay next question is from at montoya 23 how does the future of match of the gathering and dnd look as they relate to crossover events both amongst each other and other gaming properties um what was the complex question um do you want to handle this one rage okay the crossover event sounds fun just like from an outsider's perspective like i really do love when things combine together especially things that make sense thematically so even though i don't fully understand the scope of it all, just standing from the background, just knowing what I know about Magic the Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons,

it does sound, like, very fun to put together. Yes, I mean, for the longest time, we didn't want to cross the streams, was how we put it. You know, Wizards had two big fantasy products, and maybe we should keep them apart so people don't get them confused. Follow the Ghostbusters rule. Don't cross the streams.

Right, don't cross the streams. So anyway, we first, D&D went first. They actually made some magic-related stuff, and then we finally made a D&D set. I think once we do it and we've done it, like, one of the things is once you do something once, it just makes it easier to do it the next time. So, I mean, you know, Adventures in Forgotten Realms is doing well, so I'm optimistic we'll have other opportunities in the future. And like I said, you know, Adventures in Forgotten Realms is doing well, so I'm optimistic

we'll have other opportunities in the future. And like I said, they're both Wizards products, so that makes it a lot easier. But I'm optimistic. I mean, we have to see how this product does,

but I am optimistic. Okay. Our next question comes from at Charlie Lapin, I believe that's how you pronounce it, L-A-P-I-N,

who asks, which show are you most excited to go see in person? Okay, this is for you. Which show am I most excited to see in person? Yeah, it's been kind of tough not seeing theater shows in the pandemic. I've seen a few, especially ones that my school has done online through lots of live streams and putting the videos on YouTube and stuff. In terms of Broadway, which is sort of coming back, I feel bad for Six, which is this musical about the Six Flies with King Henry VIII.

It was in previews and was going to open, but then they got shut down before they could open up. So I'm very excited for them to come back, finally get their moment in the spotlight. I think that as a show, I'd be very excited to see if I got a chance to go to New York because I know the whole show. I've listened to the soundtrack

and I've seen YouTube videos of it. But it's just such a fun, like, rock concert-esque experience. I feel like you just gotta be there in person to really feel it all. So I feel like that's a show I'd be very excited to see

if I got the chance to go to New York again. Yeah, actually, in 2020, Rachel and I were the only two members of our family to travel. In January, we went to New York, and we actually saw Beetlejuice, which was really good. That was the recommendation. I feel bad, because Beetlejuice got pushed out for Music Man, because the pandemic happened

before Beetlejuice was up. Then their last moments of the show was just right before the pandemic happened. So I feel bad, because I don't know if they knew that it was going to be over so soon, you know? So, but yeah, I mean, I feel like Six is something I'm very excited for and there's definitely some new up and coming stuff. I heard they're making a Devil Wears Prada musical that's happening sometime in 2022.

And the movie is very interesting. I think that'll also be very exciting to see, you know, once theater opens up again to see how they pull it off. I think Elton John's doing the music. Oh, yeah. That sounds cool. It's very, very intriguing.

Okay. So from at the, sorry, at the Coraco, who asked, how has college been? College for me has been going pretty good. I'm very excited for senior year. I get to start doing more shows. I'm on more committees um i'm very excited to take the classes that i'm taking uh and start looking for jobs which is definitely very scary but also very exciting and i'm glad i have the help of so many advisors and teachers

and people who are there to help me out so yeah we're going very very well okay from at mt grug which is like g r u g um asked what was your dad's worst and best pun to date that you remember oh what what was my best and worst pun i don't know do you do you remember a pun you've ever made i've made a lot of puns so that's i know i feel like i feel like it's a general overall vibe than it is like one that's been burned into my brain forever. Yeah.

I'm just trying to remember like a pun you've made that I just remember like any pun at all. Like something that just stood out. Like, I don't know. Yeah, there's a... I'm trying to remember the story. Sarah and I...

Sorry, this is not a Rachel story, but we were in like a Costco and Sarah says, for some reason, Sarah goes, let's have a pun off. Let's see who can make more puns. And it was just funny

because obviously I'm a little more adept at it than Sarah. And like, she was trying really hard, but like, I just kept one upping her. And then finally she's like, why did I do this? So. Yeah. It's not like i want to remember like in particular but there definitely has been a lot of like fun moments for things especially like in games that we play and stuff one that i remember

so much was it was we were trying to have like a crossover between two different things um and i think it was you had to name like a film and I think the two categories were the location had to be at a wedding or a funeral and the problem was an ethical dilemma and we both just shouted four weddings and a funeral

at the same time. I mean also I've never seen the movie I would just assume that a movie called four weddings and a funeral has to take place at a wedding or a funeral

and have some kind of ethical dilemma. It actually took place at four weddings and one funeral. And one funeral. Was there an ethical dilemma in the movie? I have to say. I don't know.

I just assumed. A lot of dilemmas probably are ethical. Well, most movies have some ethical dilemmas. Okay. What's the next question? Okay, the next question is from at SRpad, who asks, is it frustrating that the most popular format is now an eternal format, which essentially reintroduces a lot

of the issues that were solved by creating Standard. Okay, so obviously the most popular sanction, or not sanction, but the most popular format is Commander right now. That's an eternal format. It is frustrating. Here's the biggest problem, which is when the format that the most people play

is eternal, what that means is it's defined by all the mistakes you've made. You know, like so many of what defines sort of what's viable are like color pie breaks from the past that like I either wasn't able to

catch or wasn't able to stop or I got voted on, you know, and so just seeing like defining or cards that we just made a mistake and made too powerful, like, so much of what Eternal formats are driven by are not things we meant to do, but things we sort of didn't mean to do.

And while there's a lot of joy of seeing everything on display, like, one of the nice things about Standard is that magic can change and adapt. And so we can learn from our lessons and we can iterate.

And so like one of the things is I feel like we are so much better at making magic now than we were 20 years ago, but yet the cars from 20 years ago carry the same weight in eternal format. It's cars we make now. And so, yeah, and they know, I mean, other than banning, they never leave the format. it's cards we make now and so yeah and they never, I mean other than banning they never leave the format so like if I did

something I didn't want to do or even worse sometimes I didn't want to do it and I was outvoted and it got done having to like forever live with that like it never goes away it can be very frustrating. I mean the thing I do love about Commander is it is nice to see a casual format take off as it has.

It's fun to have this large... I like the fact that more people are embracing this is fun and enjoyable and I hang with my friends. And not that magic can't be competitive. Not that that's not an aspect of magic. And I love that that's there and people who want to enjoy it. I went to the Pro Tour for eight years. I do enjoy the competitive side of things, but it's also fun to see the casual side.

But could we have a casual format that's not all my mistakes and mistakes of R&D in the past on display? That would be nice, but probably not going to happen. Okay, next question. From at cubeapril asks, my girlfriend absolutely hates bananas and therefore my two kids take great joy in offering them to her constantly. Do you do the same with your dad? I don't know if we offer bananas, but we will bring it up at various points.

There are bananas in the house, which is a sign that I love my family. a sign that, uh, I, I, I love my family. Uh, but, uh, no, my, my family does not sort of, uh, everyone knows not to offer me a banana. So I, I, I'm not offered bananas. No, the funniest thing I remember, it wasn't bananas. It was coffee. And this is something that like, I felt bad about, but I had a drink that I got from somewhere and I offer some to you because it was called like extreme chocolate or something. And then as you sipped it, I realized it had coffee in it. And it wasn't until you sipped it i was like oh it has coffee in it i'm so sorry just like the face you made trying to like swallow this because you were also like i think like driving or something at the same time like i offered you a sip of my drink and like at the

same moment you sipped it i was like oh no it has coffee in it and just you trying to drive while sipping this like coffee drink i just felt so bad in the moment so it wasn't bananas but i just felt really bad about that for a while in general my family's nice to me so yes it was not intentional malicious harm okay um from at chooms underscore have you and and Rachel found new hobbies or old, new versions of old hobbies during the pandemic? Well, I have. Do you want me to go first? Sure.

You can go first. Okay. So one of the things that normally in December, one of the things about work is it's hard for me to take a lot of time off just because I lead so many teams, but I've kind of got it set up that I can take off a bunch of weeks in December. So my big vacation time usually is December where I take a bunch of weeks off in a row. And it's tradition that we'll break out a table and we'll do jigsaw puzzles. So normally I did jigsaw puzzles, like in December I would do jigsaw puzzles, but I

didn't do them the rest of the year. I just did them when I was on my big break. But when the pandemic happened and we had nowhere to go, I decided to, like, let's do some jigsaw puzzles. And now it's just become a... I do jigsaw all the time now.

So I just... The table's in our family room and I'm constantly doing a jigsaw puzzle. Well, the puzzles used to be like a holiday thing. Like, it was kind of reserved for the holidays.

Yeah. And now it's just kind of become like a year-round thing. Yeah, so I now do jigsaw puzzles all the time now. In fact, i just did a magic one for those that follow me on twitter uh my i'd given it to my dad i don't know many many years ago it was from japan in 1997 and it was a whole bunch of like alpha cards anyway my dad had found it when he moved and he gave it back to me and then i did it and so i posted it it. It was a fun puzzle. Yeah. And I think for the whole family,

but one that's kind of a consistent one is just going out to eat somewhere. And by going out, I mean like ordering the food and either picking it up or having it delivered to us. But we seem to do that every week. That's kind of been like a pandemic thing that's happened. And we just kind of continued that. And it's nice, you know,

because especially because, you know, supporting the economy with like local businesses and stuff, like we always see like, you know, what's around town and what are nice you know because especially because you know supporting the economy with like local businesses and stuff like we always see like you know what's around town and what are you know smaller places that we want to support so i feel like that's been a really right nice thing to do when the pandemic started the the what we started was every wednesday we do take out from a local place and every saturday we do pizza from a local place although pizza's been here forever that was that's not a new pandemic thing. Pre-pandemic, we used to just get it from the grocery store and make it ourselves.

And post-pandemic, we've been going out to pizza places specifically to support all the pizza places. But so twice a week, we go out to the community and we're just trying to support stuff. One of my favorite pizzas is Pizza Hut, which is a little longer of a hike than any of our other pizzas. But I love the Pizza Hut pizza.

It's very delicious. There's actually a bunch of... We live in Issaquah, and there's a bunch of... Issaquah has some very good local pizza places. Although our favorite one is called Delfino's, which is in University Village, which is a ways away, but it has Chicago-style pizza.

Deep dish pizza. Okay, the next question from at K-U-H-K. I'm going to try to pronounce that, so I'm dispelling it. Is your dad a Seymour, a Hamilton, or an Usnavi? This is very funny to me. So for those of you who do not know musical theater, Seymour is the main character of Little Shop of Horrors. Hamilton is the main character of Hamilton.

His name is Alexander Hamilton. And Usnavi is the main character of hamilton his name is alexander hamilton and it's not the main character from in the heights so i feel like you have uh traits of these various characters in you from seymour someone who is definitely kind a little bit anxious i think it's where i get that from to a combination of both of them um from hamilton obviously just all of like the writing power just so much writing that happens. And with Usnavi, definitely a lot of, like, confidence in what he's doing. I feel like both of you have both of those traits aligned with you. I think out of all of these, probably Seymour. I mean, not to know, like, your little musicals, it's like Little Shop of Horrors.

But I feel like Seymour, I definitely see a lot in you in terms of just, like, vibe. Kind of the aesthetic. Although Seymour wears a little more, lot in you in terms of just like vibe, kind of the aesthetic. Although Seymour wears a little more like buttoned up shirts than flannels. But I definitely feel like this is someone who, you know, cares a lot about the people around him. Someone who is kind. And even though he does not end up making the best decisions in his musical, I feel like his intentions are good. Which is not to say that that you make bad decisions. But I feel like you definitely have that

combination of just caring for everyone and doing your best to make sure that everyone is happy all the time. I feel like that's something that Seymour has a lot of in him. But odd plants are not my hobby. Odd plants are not your hobby. Do you feel like you identify with Seymour, Hamilton, or Usnavi more?

No, I mean, there's aspects. Yeah. I don't know how much you know. I mean, obviously, Seymour you know a lot about. Hamilton, you've seen Hamilton, and we just saw it in the Heights movie.

I know all three. I know all three shows. I've seen all three shows. I mean, Little Shepard is my favorite show for those that don't know that. So, I don't know. I see components of each.

See, I mean, there's definitely a lot of writing overlap with Hamilton, but Hamilton is kind of like a narcissist, and that's sort of his downfall. And you're very good at writing, but I definitely don't think you're a narcissist and all in your head about it.

I think that's sort of the Seymour part of you that ties it back, where it's kind of like, you have all this writing power, but you definitely have a lot of humility to you. Because if you were a Hamilton kind of a person, I don't know if I could handle that all the time. You have the good parts of Hamilton, not the bad parts of Hamilton. Okay, next question.

Okay, the next question. Okay, so from at VM Campos. So two questions, one for you, which is any thoughts on missing San Diego Comic Con? Okay, so the last two years it's been online. I did videos for both, so I was able to participate.

And I miss it. I mean, I miss leaving my house, for starters. But more so than that, San Diego Comic-Con is one of my favorite things. I don't actually travel that much anymore. It's one of the few trips I make every year. And I've been doing it for a long time. that much anymore. It's one of the few trips I make every year. And I've been doing it for a long time. And even before

this last run, back when I lived in LA, I used to go there a bunch as well. So I have a lot of fond memories of standing at Comic-Con. And I do miss it. I'm excited. I hope fingers crossed that in 2022 we actually can have a live Comic-Con. And I will be there talking

magic. So, okay. Okay. And then the question for me is what's been a way you've coped with the pandemic um i feel like the pandemic has been overall pretty okay i mean the hardest thing for me is like obviously studying theater it's hard to do theater not in person but it's definitely interesting that we've learned to sort of adapt with the online format because it definitely has this over overlap between you know what counts as theater and what counts as film because we've already discussed that a lot even before the pandemic happened so it's really nice to actually put that into practice um a way i've coped with the pandemic um i feel like when i was i'm thinking to myself more when

i was at my dorm um because i had three roommates when we first started out myself and three other people because we all share like an apartment style dorm. And two of them moved out for various reasons. So the other one that I had was my friend, who I've known for a year or two previous to that. And so a lot of times what we did was just watching like very bad movies. Our favorite genre is like early 2000s teen movies. It's like The Click, The Bratz movies, like anything that a 12 year old girl would have obsessed over in the in like the early 2000s is something that we just found hilarious for both like nostalgia reasons and just having fun reasons. And I think we're going to start expanding our list more of like bad movies to go back to.

Like I've just been reminded of Gnomeo and Juliet, the Romeo and Juliet version starring gnomes. And I brought this up to her and I think we're going to plan to watch it at some point because it's a memory that is buried so deep in me that I need to figure it out again. So watching bad movies has been a very fun way of just, you know, handling the pandemic.

It's just, it's a nice way to handle everything that's been happening. Okay. From at Carl Jones 259, would you, if able, under current design philosophies, rewrite the color pie from scratch? Well, two things would i rewrite it no uh in the sense that there's so much inertia for what's going on but okay let me ask the more interesting question what would i do let's imagine that i for whatever reason it needs

to be redone um i i think i would have a really fun time if like someone said to me you have to start magic all over you know magic's gonna we're gonna stop everything that you know and we're gonna create magic anew I would have a lot of fun sort of like taking all the knowledge we have from all the stuff we've done

and recrafting magic and sort of adapting stuff and I think with the color pie, there are different things I... I mean, I haven't done this exercise, so this is more me just roughly thinking, but there definitely are things, like now knowing what I know

and watching it, you know, there's some things that have been set up that I might change around a little bit. Like, for example, tutoring being centered in black is weird. That was just like somebody, Richard made a card in alpha and somehow that became the centering of tutoring.

But no, I wouldn't change it now just because of inertia. But I mean, if I had to redo it, there's some fun things. It would be a very interesting exercise to say, okay, and some stuff would definitely stay, you know, there's stuff that's so core and so fun versions of what

magic is. Like, I don't think red's losing direct damage or anything, but I would take some of the more secondary things and really talk about is that the right place for them. I might also do some structural things about who destroys what and make some more concrete things.

The other thing I might do also is I'm becoming more to believe, and some of this will get adapted, that it's okay to have more colors do things. Obviously, all the colors can't do it because you want separation. But the idea of having more colors be tertiary in something where in certain circumstances they get it, especially like keyword mechanics, I'm becoming a little more open to that.

But anyway, yes, it would be a fun experiment. I wouldn't actually do it just because I don't think we should. I think magic is in a good place. But it is a fun thought experiment. I mean, we've definitely talked about it before. How come you brought up purple or something like that? Well, purple is the sixth color. Oh, okay.

I would not add a sixth color. The honorary color. Well, when you have a game with five colors, people keep asking, well, how about the sixth color? But if I was going to redo Magic, I would not add a sixth color. Five is the right number of colors.

Okay. From at Barakas, I believe I pronounced that correctly, in what ways have you inspired each other both personally and in professional slash studently um so i um for me i guess um i've definitely been inspired a lot i mean for very concrete things especially like writing i feel like you definitely help me a lot like even now like i will definitely like draft emails and be like i should call my dad about this and i've been doing

a little bit better of you know putting things together dad about this and I've been doing a little bit better of you know putting things together and I feel like I've been doing very well and with like essays and articles and things that I've written in college so I feel definitely very confident in that and in terms of just like uh like personality wise you know all of like the details you know somewhat of uh I guess I guess not like perfectionist, but I feel like sometimes just having the anxiety of worrying that you're forgetting something just causes you to like, worry about everything, which is both good and bad, like, especially depending on if you have like group projects and stuff, you know, learning who delegates what responsibilities, but it's

especially good for if I have a solo project by myself, I feel like you've taught me definitely how to take the reins on that and sort of break everything down into its pieces and look at it as a whole, as like a big picture thing and then be able to go into each component of it and figure out the details from there. The thing that sort of inspired me from you is one of the things I really appreciate about you is that

you really lean into your passions and that you're very no-hold barred. It's like, if I want to do this, I'm going to do this. And I definitely have thought a lot about sometimes where I'm like, you know, I'll straddle things a little bit. I'm like, oh, no, I should lean in a little more.

And so I definitely that's something that I admire in you and it's inspired me to sort of when i think about doing things like in some level like um it's funny like we talked about the puzzle earlier like at some point like i i like doing this why don't i just do it like why is it a once a year thing i like doing it i could do it all year long no one says no one says it has to be once a year so yeah i feel like that's something. I always like saying everything is a social construct.

The way that we think about things. I remember someone once said, they were talking about breakfast foods, and I said anything's a breakfast food, you eat it in the morning. And they just got very upset with me. They were like, what do you mean by that? I'm like, well, breakfast is a morning

food. If I decide to eat mac and cheese at 7 a.m., are you to tell me that's not a breakfast food? And they just got so upset with me labeling anything as a breakfast food based on the time of day. And same thing we're talking about, I think, like Thanksgiving foods. This is like different people. And they were talking about like, oh, in my family, we do these Thanksgiving foods and these Thanksgiving foods. And I'm like, well, anything can be a Thanksgiving food as you just serve it on Thanksgiving. And they also were like, what? I think just really kind of throwing all of your rules out the window and thinking about things in terms of like, you know, is this something that has to be or we just chose it to be this way?

And that's just what it is. Like, I think that's always a fun thing to play around with is like, you know. I think we can start a new thing to play around with is like you know i think we started a new meme just breaking constructs is it yeah no because because what we did i i was reminded of this because i just did at my camp thing like a carnival thing and throughout the day we gave out like you know fake money but we did like throughout the week for like good behavior but the funny thing was by the time we got to the carnival the kids would spend money on things. And I would just end up just giving them more money because I was just like, oh, the kids are just having fun. You know, no, no kid like abused the system. No kid was like spending all their money right away and coming back to me for more money. Like they were all

pretty decent with that. So I felt good about giving them more money as time went. But it was kind of funny because I was like, they earned it all for good behavior because they all, you know, were able to listen about the whole week and follow the directions but at the end of the day i was just holding a stack of money i was just like the jeff bezos of this carnival like i was just holding so much money in my hands and i was just like i could just give all of these children like hundreds of dollars each if i wanted to it's fake money that we printed so yeah so i similar camp experience so i i uh many years ago when i was a camp counselor um we did finger painting with pudding i had little kids

like six year olds or whatever and the kids had a great time and then i remember someone was coming back to me and they're like yeah these don't look really good and i'm like that's that's not the point the kids are finger painting with pudding, not because the art that results from it is... Somebody said it doesn't look good. I'm like, excuse me. First of all, it's a six-year-old, so I'm not sure what art project... But I'm like, it isn't really about the quality of the end result.

The kids had a blast finger-painting with pudding. It was fun for them. And it was very fun. I always think back to that in the sense of people sometimes and this is a great game design thing actually is why are you doing something why are you playing this game why are like

you know and that people sometimes get really caught up in something that has nothing really to do with it or something right some external thing

that they're said to care about but like that doesn't matter like it's you know at the core it's about this I've definitely learned in camp I'm like you know figure out what core, it's about this. I've definitely learned in camp.

I'm like, you know, figure out what fights are worth fighting because kids will get upset about many things. And sometimes it's like, okay, you'll be upset about this thing and you will be sad about this thing. And in the grand scheme of things, like, it doesn't matter. You know, that's always the hard thing is like, you know, we understand consequences and the passage of time. So telling kids to, you know, drink water, put on sunscreen when they're not thirsty or whatever it's like look i know you're gonna get sunburned later on so put on some sunscreen now you don't understand this but

you're gonna regret it and it's the same thing in terms of just like fights like some kid would be like i didn't get the color lollipop that i wanted and i'm like in the grand scheme of the whole universe it's not going to matter like obviously it obviously it does to this child. But it's like, are we going to pick this fight or are we going to, like, focus on something else? Like, there's a lot of things that children get upset about. And it's like, which ones are the ones to, like, be concerned about and which ones are the ones that are like, okay. Like, let's just, you know, calm the kid down and, like, move on. Because that happens so many times. And just, we have to wrap up because I see we're getting to my desk here.

Just to tie this all back into game design, one of the things that's really interesting is, right, picking your battles, what matters. Like a lot of times, for example, making magic is a collaborative effort, right? And so you have to sort of pick and choose, like, where does it matter and where does it not matter? Where is this going to lead to something that's important

and where is it insignificant? You know, like somebody else to lead to something that's important and where is it insignificant? Somebody else might be doing something that's important that they want to do and so that's a good life lesson of sort of understanding of picking when it matters and when it doesn't matter. But that's also strange especially also with working with other people because it's definitely, especially when you're working with someone else

there are things that they will care about that I'm like oh, I don't see this as big so you can fight this thing or there are other things where it's like I think this is, oh, I don't see this as big, so you can fight this thing. Or there are other things where it's like, I think this is an important thing that you do not think is important to you, but I think it's important. So it's also interesting seeing, like, the distinctions between, like, what fights were each willing to pick. Yeah, no, no, that's always interesting.

Which is also another conversation to get into. Do you have a final question? A final question? Oh, I'm just, like, getting all these questions. A final question. Dun-dun- just like in all these questions a final question i feel there's always so much pressure to end with like a really like big question it doesn't have to i mean just be it could be a fine it doesn't have to be a good question okay um last question will be from at jolo 99 have you or rachel ever played dungeons and dragons and has

there ever been any interest in a rosewater adventuring campaign um no i have never played i the one experience which i remember is like the first experience kind of interacting with this game was we went on like a field trip somewhere for like a summer camp and it was like a mall because we were gonna go see like men in black like three or something i don't know and we were allowed to like wander around the mall with like you know groups and my group was a bunch of people who really enjoyed like games so we went to like a game store and i was like oh this is fun i'm gonna like peruse around but they came across dungeons and dragons which i wasn't really familiar with at the time and they're like oh we want to sit here and do this and i'm like how long is this

gonna take they're like oh it could be like a few hours and i'm like guys we have to go see men in black i don't have time to like sit down and play this and all of them literally the entire group except for me was unanimous in staying there like we'd rather miss the movie and stay here to play this game and me i just didn't understand that so i was like i'm gonna go to the movie so i went to the movie and then i came back and they're still there and i was like well i'm like i watched a whole men in black three and you're still here like it was just mind-boggling to me how long this could take because all my experiences with games have usually been within, like, a set time.

You know, like, even, like, the longer games when you think of, you know, like, oh, Monopoly could take forever. Like, usually it's been, like, a set, like, time limit. It's never been that long for me. That was the first time I ever been like, whoa, a movie could last this long. The thing about a role-playing game,

you're unfamiliar with having not played them, is the way a role-playing game is, it fits the time. So the way a role-playing is is it fits the time so the way role-playing is we're going to play for three hours or four hours and then you play as much as you play till you're done because it's an ongoing story right so like when i was in college or not college post-college when i was in la um my my friends and i we every sunday we got together and like every other sunday we D&D, which my roommate Chris ran. And then every other Sunday I ran a Gamma World campaign. But we would do that.

And like, right, it was an end number of hours. And that's how long it took because it's an ongoing story that you play next time. Now I've not played, I will say, I don't want to name names, but there are R&D members I know that run campaigns with their kids. So I do know of that happening. Yeah. In terms of like a whole family campaign, no. I've seen the way that we play family board games, and I feel like there are certain areas. I feel like that's the thing about our families. Different people have different strength and weakness areas. Some of us are good at word things. Some of us are not. Some of us are willing to stand up and do physical actions. Some of us are not. And I feel like, especially with the very long thing like D&D,

I feel like there were certain people that would like certain things and certain people that would not like certain things. So to get the whole family to join would definitely be, like, an effort to put together. Yeah, I mean, like I said, my family, we lean a little more toward party games. That's kind of when we do gaming. Quick games. Usually we play, like, two games every week.

Right. Usually we'll play, like, every week. Right. Usually we'll play like a game night. We'll play an hour to two hours. And right. It's usually two games. Okay, Rachel. So I see my desk. So I've made it to work. So any last thoughts before we sign off for the day? Yeah. Thank you guys

so much for sending in all these questions. I'm very excited to finish up the summer and return back for senior year of college in Chicago. So yeah. Thank you guys so much for sending in all these questions. I'm very excited to finish up the summer and return back for senior year of college in Chicago. So, yeah, thank you guys so much. Okay, guys. So, since I'm at my desk, we all know what that means. It means the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking

magic, it's time for me to be making magic. So, Rachel, thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me. And I'll see all you next time. Bye-bye.