NZXT PODCAST - #059 - Jeff

Episode Date: September 19, 2020

This week on the podcast, we are joined by NZXT’s Director of Business Development: Jeff! Jeff and the crew discuss beards, getting buff, and barbeque! Follow Jeff on Twitter: twitter.com/RoyleBuffDaddy Listen live to the NZXT 💜 CLUB CAST on our Discord server at discord.gg/nzxt every Thursday at 10AM PT and submit your questions to [e-mail]! Thanks to cooltech#6597 for the artwork!

Hello, everybody, and welcome to episode 59 of the N60 Clubcast, the official podcast of the N60 community. I realize I don't have my outline set up as I was messing with my audio. So listen to the podcast wherever you can. We record this live every single Thursday at 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Times is off top of my head. We record it live in the official N60 Discord server and is available to stream on demand on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, Spotify, and SoundCloud. So don't be like me. Don't come unprepared. Make sure that you're everything pulled up.

You need to. My name is Dennis. And with me, as always, is Ivan. I'm always prepared, too. Yeah, I just got new hardware and software. So, like, I'm not used to, like, the flow of everything. Right. We've only been doing this for over a year, Dennis.

One day you'll remember. But I have new stuff. So this is different. It's different, right? I have a, I have a, a, pretty much whole new audio setup essentially. So if you guys know anything about production, it takes you maybe about,

I'm just going to throw a random number here, about 10 times of producing with the same equipment and same software for you to actually get it dialed in and you kind of know it from heart, like the whole muscle memory. So that's my excuse this week. The other weeks, I don't know what that is. Today's special guest on the podcast

is NXT's business development director, Jeff. Hi, Jeff. Hello. How's it going? Having a good day so far. Are you excited? Are you, are you ready? You ready to go?

You know, I am. I'm excited. I'm nervous. I'm ready to talk to everybody and, you know, answer any questions. So if you're nervous, there's a little bit of advice that can offer you. Number one is just pretend like everyone's in their underwear, right? And you're good to go. They're the ones who embarrassed, not you.

They're the ones who are in the unapported situation. you're good to go. I just don't want to let anybody down. I was going to say something kind of mean and funny, but I'm going not. Yeah, that's such a good setup. I know. I'm glad the expectations are low, though.

Thank you for that. Yeah, we have none. Yeah, exactly. I mean, you heard this podcast. Yeah. And then I would say that my second piece of advice is just pretend like it's three friends, chilling in the coffee shop pre-COVID times,

and we're just having a little conversation and just hanging out. And that's it. And then... Sounds good. Yeah, exactly. With everyone. Pretend like Dennis and I are your friends.

Yeah. So, Jeff, what is it you do at NZXT? Well, so we just actually formed the business development group. about two weeks ago now. So that's when I came on full time to start that up. And we're basically trying to support all the different business units within NZHT with whatever they need, mostly related to third-party relationships,

be it software, hardware, you know, in the industry, out of the industry, whatever it is that we need. And so right now, because we are a new team, I'm introducing myself to everybody and what it is that we're planning to do and figuring out all our goals and things. But, you know, I did this role before at Razor about three years ago now. I guess it's been. So, you know, nothing new for me there.

Just a new company for it. Nice. So what goes into like business development? Because I have a like a small idea. And part of the idea is sometimes you talk to someone and we end up with a really cool looking case. But I'm sure there's more than that, right? Yeah, for sure. You know, a good chunk of it is just relationship building and networking.

So, you know, from an internal perspective, I just need to know all the different teams and who's doing what on each team looking for opportunities to bring in a partner to support them. So that means, you know, knowing what products are coming, know what marketing plans to do, knowing what community plans to do. And then working with all the different companies that I've networked with over the years and, you know, see if any of them are interested in doing it. Sometimes, you know, off the top of your head, a great fit. other times just get a little bit of guidance in terms of what the teams want and then I can seek out and find those if we don't already have those established relationships. So a good chunk of the time I'm just either thinking about who to connect with or connecting with somebody.

The rest of the time is reading boring legal agreements. Right. What kind of... What kind of... Before you continue, Dennis, I wanted to mention that before Jeff, I wanted to mention that before Jeff did that, he was actually the man behind all the craft stuff that we were doing. So he's the one that like kicked that off and, you know, secured those partnerships with those different companies and allowed us to make officially licensed gaming cases.

Yeah, that's why I originally started with NZXT was as a contractor working on craft and forming that program. It's been, you know, I guess just about three years now that we were doing all that. We put out six official craft. We've got a seventh one coming. I know we haven't announced it yet, but stay tuned for that one. And yeah, it's been a lot of fun working with companies like PubG and Bethesda and of course Blizzard and UDSoft more recently. So it's been a lot of fun times. We've had a good chance to explore the different games that we put those cracked out. And I wish we do a lot more, but, you know, sometimes there's physical limitations to how much work we can do. So we're doing what we can. And we've got, I guess, the next four craft planned out. So we've got

the exciting stuff coming. I wasn't where we had four of them ready to go. I mean, we have one ready to go. Yeah. Yeah, we plan it out. Obviously, it takes some time to get them done. Right. It's not a full new product. You know, it does have a lead time to how long it takes to design it so I actually physically create it and then get it ready for presentation and release to market. So when I say I have the next four planned out, I should say I have, you know, a few of them on the go and a few that are, you know, in early stages. All right. Yeah, like I'm always surprised whenever I hear that like we're working on like this case or that case or something. I'm like, oh, like that's actually a really smart partnership.

Like, why do we do this before? Yeah, you know, it's interesting just how it all came about. I had actually, as I mentioned, I was at Razor previously, and we worked with NGXT to create the Razor PC case. And it went really well, and that's when I got to know Johnny. And, you know, when I ended up deciding to leave Razor, and I was on my time off, Johnny kept calling me and bugging me, asking me to introduce them to different companies,

and then realized he wanted to meet on full time to kind of go further with it once he had a little taste of what was possible. And yeah, I think it's something he wanted to do. It's just a matter of timing. And so, yeah, when I came in, we identified who we wanted to work with. And a lot of the choices so far have stemmed from staff inside NZT and what we each play and like. So it kind of goes into the design of it. And hopefully that's the case going forward as well.

Nice, nice. All right. So kind of pulling you back a little bit, What does your daily work routine look like? My daily work routine. Right now, it's obviously with the work from home. Everything is video conference after video conference. And then sitting down and because it's a new team and when I'm trying to define some new programs,

spending a lot of time just scoping those out, trying to figure out what our goal is and how to get us there. So myself and Wesley is on my team now as well. So we're going to be doing that for a little bit. And then essentially finding all the partners and starting to branch out. So it's, yeah, a lot of emails, a lot of conference calls. And then just writing things out and trying to figure out the best way to get there. And as a partisan morning routine, very important question, coffee or tea? I'd have to go with tea.

I actually, I'm like the worst person in the tech industry because I don't drink coffee. the closest thing I do is I'll have like a frappuccino every now and then but because I don't drink a lot it tends to hit you pretty hard and yeah I go off the hook a little bit have you met Mike from from this from paid paid uh I forget what it's called that but Mike Newton we we had him on the podcast a little bit ago he's like super big in the tea I don't know if you had a chance to listen to that podcast or if you had a chance to speak to him but this man knows the most about tea that I ever, that I, I was not aware someone could know that much about tea.

I was just saying that. Yeah, I don't have a lot of knowledge of tea. Green tea is what I normally like to drink. And then every now and then I'll have like just a Lipton tea bag with some orange or lemon or something. I'm pretty basic. Okay, okay. Fair enough. Fair enough.

How can you have been at NZXT? Well, like I said, it's been about three years as a contractor and most recently full time for, I guess, let's see, 17 days now. Oh, really? Oh, man. I thought you were like a full of employee. No, I did contract for three years, just focused on the craft stuff. And then September 1st was when we formed the business development team and I was asked to come in and build that out. That's actually really awesome. That's great. It's really cool. I've no idea. I learned something new every day. I guess I must annoy people enough throughout the day that y'all thought I was full-time.

I will say this. I did notice a huge uptick in your Slack usership lately, so I'm assuming that's why it was. That could be. I was splitting my time before with some other contracts that I had at the time. But when I got the offer for full-time at NZXE, I couldn't say no. Yeah, it's like, man, this guy's really here to stay, huh? He's on that slack like 24-7 now. You're stuck with me now. Oh, well. Okay, so you mentioned that previously you were at Razor, correct? Yeah, that's correct.

Okay. How did you get into doing business development and like the whole kind of like set of the business? All right. What is the phrase? Sit down and listen. So I go back, I actually started back in the late 90s working for ATI graphics. obviously you got bought out by AMD later on but started out there doing developer relations right out of school and it was a lot of fun. When I did that, excuse me, when I did that interview, they basically asked me if I would mind playing video games.

So I started out just testing all the pre-release games back before the Fire Pro. I see that in there. I actually started with the Rage Pro on the graphic side there. So all these cards that you're posting now are definitely ones I've seen in the past and part of. But I was there through the acquisition with AMD and moved into account management. And that's kind of developer relations and business development are related, but developer relations being a little bit more pointed straight for the software side. After 15 years at AT&AMD, I ended up moving over to Razor,

and that's where I officially started in business development. I was there for four years and created that team and built that team up. Did the licensing program there for a while as well as part of that. And then, yeah, I took about four months off, I guess, after I left Razor and traveled around the country and then couldn't stay away. And that's when Johnny commissioned me to come back in and start doing the licensing and then into business development now. So my schooling actually was for computer science. That's what I took there. So I don't really have necessarily like an MBA or a traditional business background that way.

But I did take a lot of business courses because it was interesting. And yeah, it's basically just been something I fell into in terms of over the course of time realizing what I actually like to do. Okay, so I had to ask you a very important question. How much do you miss those old like ATI-Radion like art stuff on the? Oh my gosh. It was so much fun. You know, back then I remember just kind of seeing all the different stuff leading into it. And I don't know if it even shows up on the internet because it certainly predates it back in that time frame.

But at ATI, when I first started, they actually had an ad campaign with the CEO at the time, which was K.Y. Ho. And I don't know if you remember it, but Bo Jackson had a whole series of ads called Bo Nose. So ATI thought it would be funny to do Ho Nose. And seeing your CEO dressed up in different sporting outfits and poses, that kind of set the tone, I guess. And then when we got into these, you know, the All In Wonder I see up there and whatnot. A lot of those designs just seems so radical to go from, you know, being this silly, goofy Canadian company to all of a sudden we actually had people that could give us graphic design that wasn't so silly.

So now they look silly because it's obviously like 15, 20 years ago, but at the time they look great. To be honest, I mean, I think they still look really dope. Like, I think it'd be great if there's like some kind of like throwback series where like ATI just put like the weirdest art on these boxes and just sold them like that. Yeah, that was like the era where it was like even NXT was guilty of this back then

where it was like all about who could be the most hardcore gamer out there. Absolutely. NZXT's tagline was crafted gaming armor. I remember that. Gameing. Like all, every case had like had a poster with it

it was like a medieval like warrior standing like in fire and stuff. Everything was like extreme to the max. Yeah. Extreme to the max. Yeah. It's funny because like I feel like we're kind of making like almost like a like a full circle

because there's been a lot more of these manufacturers making these like weird like weebu cute pink GPUs. Like here's a really good screenshot of Steve from Gimers Nexus with this. I forget the branding of this one. Oh my. Yeah. But there's there's been a. There's been a couple of them.

I think there's a, I see there's a wifu, like 30 series card. I'm going to hear a lot of typing right now. This microphone is not meant for the stuff, but I'm trying to find it. Someone linked it the other day in the hardware channel. There we go, yeah.

Yes, N-RX-580. Thank you. I like how it's a random newbie new in the story. Knowledge on the internet is amazing. There's another one, too, that has like a wifu on it, but I don't know if I, I don't know which one I hate more.

the really weird cringy art or the anime art on the boxes, but at least like the cards look different, right? And it look kind of cool. I think it's awesome. Yeah, well, it's a lot of it is just about personalization too, right? And, you know, that's kind of part of what we were trying to do with craft. It's just allow some customization, some personalizations, show off what you love. You know, and I think we have more things planned to kind of help with that too.

But that's just a trend, right? Everybody wants to have their own, I guess, personality and likes and desires. to show through in their computer that they're sitting beside for, I mean, if you're like I have been in the past, you know, eight to ten hours playing games and, you know, realize you spend more time playing your games and you do your job. It's, you know, it's a lot of time to spend there. Well, for sure. Jeff, what's your, what's your favorite thing about the business development department? I guess I would say like business development slash like licensing slash working with like other companies part.

Honestly, it's when it actually gets to market. You know, there's a lot of stuff that is fun. I mean, obviously, in the past, anyways, there was a lot of travel involved. So I got to see a lot of interesting places around the world, meeting all the different developers and studios. It's always been a lot of fun. But, you know, you work on so many things, and it's almost like spaghetti where you throw it against the wall

and see what sticks in some cases. So when we actually get an agreement in place and then bring it to market, You know, my favorite time is when I see things like a craft project get released and the response to it, you know. So like Rainbow Six, Kraft Six, when we actually launched that and it sold out so quickly, that was pretty much a highlight of the year, you know, it felt great to be able to bring something like that to the fans and know that I wasn't just out in left field thinking this was something that I liked and maybe others might like. It kind of reinforces that we're making some right decisions. How long does it take for something like a Rainbow Six craft case to like come out? Like from from when you first think this might be a thing you want to do to when, you know,

actually like is released and people are able to purchase it like what's the timeline on that? Well, I mean, from the initial ideas, you know, which ones we might want to seek out, you know, it normally takes a few months just to, you know, have the conversations and find it a partner and make sure that they understand what we're trying to do. takes a few months for design normally, working with different people inside NZT and with a partner again, and then another few months to actually get the production ready. So, I mean, on average, probably about nine months.

You know, some have gone a little bit longer, some have been a little bit quicker, but some of it even depends on market, you know, and we have certain targets when we want to try to put things out. Obviously, if it's a new game, we'd have to try and make sure that it doesn't come out before that or if it's got a special day attached to that game or an update to the game. Like with Rainbow Six, we try to make sure that we got it out in time for,

or right around the time anyways. I think it was season five. I think it was that they launched. So, you know, we worked with Ubisoft to kind of come up with that timing. And the product itself, in the case of Rainbow Six, actually took probably about a year to develop. We actually tried a lot of really fun stuff. It was kind of one of the first ones that we really got creative with since Nuka Cola, where we actually did some pretty interesting stuff there.

But we branched out into the pucks and then we added in the charm and stuff. It was a lot of different little projects attached to the big project. So it takes a little bit longer in those cases. Can you share some of the ideas that were like thrown around for the Rima Six case that just didn't make it through? Or is that like too secret? No, I mean, it's pretty specific, I think, to that. And there are things that we're still exploring to try and see if we can make cost effective. That's generally the biggest issue as to why we have to cut something out is it just becomes too crazy.

We like to do things and make them premium. But in the case of Rainbow Six, one of the ideas that we had was actually on the glass side where the arm is. We actually had a fully functional arm that protruded. Yeah, it was pretty intense. It pretty much would have doubled the price of the intense. entire project though. Mechanical engineering, when they're not given bounds to cost, they tend to come up with some elaborate solutions that work exactly as it described, but not necessarily something that is feasible to ship it out. So that was a lot of fun doing that.

And then, you know, big downer when we, of course, found out that the cost on it was just, you know, prohibitively high. But, you know, everything we do and all the different designs, we're constantly looking to see, you know, what can we do to modify it? add extra value in. And so we're having a lot of fun with that stuff. You know, the LED panel on the front that you see on the Rainbow 6 one, and we used it as well on that. Let's see, the World Warcraft cases had it, and the Overwatch case also had it.

You know, that's something that was that we had to do specially for these. Obviously, the NXT logo is a little bit more subtle than what we did on the Rainbow 6 and the World Warcraft. So, you know, it's a special make for craft pretty much. I don't know whether other product managers are going to want to use it or not, but I certainly am going to keep using it as much as possible. No, that's really cool. Like there's definitely this like line, right? And I think like adding like a functioning arm to the side of the case is really cool.

But then they kind of like crosses the line to being like almost like kind of goofy, right? And like maybe it's not functional to having like a setup. That sounds awesome. Yeah. Well, the other kind of thing that we thought about it as we were looking at it and thought It's really cool. How often are you going to actually raise and lower it? You know, it was fully functional.

It would go up, down. It would come out. Every day. It was pretty wild. But, you know, I generally don't mess with that on my computer. It sits there and it looks pretty for me. So we thought for the cool factor, it was just a little bit too much. That's awesome.

I actually, I never even thought that that would be a thing that someone would be, hey, just throw a rotating arm on the side of a case, see what happens. Yeah, it's one of the fun parts of the doing the licenses is I tend to throw out some pretty wacky ideas sometimes. And normally the rest of the team reels it in and makes it so it's actually a, you know, releasable idea. So, you know, the team that's behind it, the designers, both the graphic designers, industrial designers, and, of course, the engineers, they're all amazing. They can pretty much do whatever I ask them to do. But then we have the great team of program managers that keep us on track so that we don't get too far out of whack and take too long to release them and things like that. So it's a team effort.

But yeah, they deal with all of my wild ideas. And we actually have a little internal phrase that I've used for a number of years now that I call Jeff Art. And it normally involves me Frankenstining together an image off of, you know, internet or previously designed products. and it looks really bad because I used Microsoft Paint to create them, and then I give that to the designers, and the designers come back with something that actually looks like something somebody might buy rather than the Homer Simpson vehicle off of the show. Can you dig up some of that Jeff Hart?

I really want to see what it looks like. I'll share it internally perhaps. I don't know if the general public is ready for that. All right, no worries. No worries. Sounds awesome. What's your least favorite thing about working in biz dev? Reading all the legal mumbo-jumbo.

You know, it's amazing how much goes into any of the contracts that we do. You know, and that spans across not just licensing, but any of the partnerships. There's just a lot of stuff in there. Lawyers have a field day with it. You know, you start reading them and you understand why they go to school for so long to understand all the things. And, you know, you start realizing at some point that you actually understand enough of it to get by. And while I would never want to create a contract, I can certainly read through them. But it's just boring stuff.

So that's about the only thing that I don't like. Otherwise, you know, I love it all. I love chatting with people, throwing around ideas, you know, getting things down that actually are going to help move us forward as an industry, particularly at NGXT as well as a company. Cool, cool. Okay. What is your favorite NXT product ever?

Well, I mean, I'll have to exclude the craft cases. because I have every single one of them upstairs in my game room. But, you know, I think the Cracken Z-63 cooler is probably the one that stands out the most to me. I love everything we can do with that, you know, being able to load on the animations. And, you know, that was actually the one downside of that was it got rid of a bunch of my ideas for licenses because I was planning to do licensing on that particular location. But no need if we've got an actual animated image that can be put on there. Okay, what is your least favorite NZC product?

My least favorite? Gosh, honestly, I wouldn't even be able to give you a least favorite. I've seen some of the old case designs that are definitely ones I wouldn't want now, but I don't really have a lot of experience that I wouldn't say they're my least favorite. I'm trying to think if there's anything that would jump out. But I think, no, I think most of the stuff I like, at one point I didn't like the idea of the internal USB hub but you know now we've got a lot of use case for it you know it was something I just didn't understand at the time it was surprisingly a very very handy

device like I'll I'll see people will on our Instagram we use it almost as like a product showcase right to kind of show up like just all the cool stuff that we have and then you know we thought like a funny like a funny thing on it and every time we tweet about about it or we do a Facebook post about it or we do like an Instagram or a story. There's a million people who are like, yo, I have this thing. I love it. It's great. It's the best thing ever. Like, I don't have enough headers in my in my motherboard because there's like one or two and any like 50 of them for all the things that I'm hooking up to it. And it's really surprising how useful and how much love. Like such a simple device. It's really

just designed to expand something in your computer I can have. Like it's not like a nice looking case. It's not like a puck, you know, which is like designed to be really functional. it's like now it's just a little hub and people like really like it yeah oh no for sure i mean like you said at first i didn't really you know it's not a very particularly attractive part and it just it seemed to be very simple and i didn't really understand it but uh you know after you're starting at nzc like i said i've built six different systems actually i guess technically seven because i put together the h1 for my work system as well but uh yeah when i started doing that i started quickly realizing with the RGV lights and with the coolers and the smart power supplies and, you know,

all the different displays, suddenly, like you say, I'm out of motherboard headers for USB ports. So it definitely comes in handy and it's something that I shouldn't have written off initially, for sure. It's definitely the most underrated product we have. For sure, totally underrated. It really is, yeah. What's funny or what's crazy is that like there's, there's like no other product like that in the market. Yeah.

weird. Yeah, I actually had a friend of mine who hit me up about it at one point while he was building his system and he kind of sent it to me and I said, really, you want that? Can't you find anything else out there? And he said, well, no, nobody else is really making this stuff. It does exactly what he needs. And, you know, he figured it was a something that he asked me about. And like I said, initially, I was looking down on it, but I told him how useful it would actually be. So it's nice to see the use case there and it sounds like there's a lot more out there. Um, yeah, for sure. Uh, let me see here. Sorry, I's got a, it's got a DM. So I was getting DMs in the middle of podcast. Um, yeah, I think, I think I saw there's like one

or two more manufacturers making them, but I think we've been making that hub for so long that people just like know just to grab ours. And, um, yeah, it's, it's really weird. It's like, it's like, uh, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, hard to find, um, like fan hubs or like the USB hub. Like, I I don't know why more people don't make them because like the last two times I had to build something, I was like, I don't have enough headers. And I feel like that's the case for a lot of people. And I'm not buying like a $300, you know, motherboard that has like those extra headers included as like, you know, one of the features. Yeah, no, it's it's really weird. It's really, really weird.

Okay. I think the other difference that we have as well, even if, you know, I think a lot of the others that are out there selling stuff, you know, and that kind of type of product anyways, there's probably not a lot of support behind it. And I mean, we have such a great support team that if you ever needed help with it, you know, I think that's a big factor there as well in terms of why the confidence would be there. Shout out to the support team. Yeah, support team is definitely like the backbone. They handle so much. I can't even, yeah. I hope you guys are doing great, by the way, support team during the 30 series launch.

My thoughts and prayers are going to you. All right. Jeff, so I have a question for you, and it's a two-parter. So first one is, what non-Craft thing would you like to see NZXT make? Anything at all? Ah, gosh, anything outside of craft? Are you talking new product introductions? Are you talking anything?

Anything. Anything. You know, probably, gosh, probably monitor for me. With all these systems that I've been building, I need more monitors all the time. and I think that would be something that would be pretty awesome to see come out. I too want to see any product announcements. I can use my 30% discount. Just putting that out there.

This is not a product announcement of any sort. This is just Jeff's desire. Don't worry, guys. He's already been briefed. He's not allowed to talk about anything brand new. Okay? He's not supposed to announce our new line of slides. All right.

So, you know, keep your, your Nikes and your Adidas slides because they're not going anywhere anytime soon. Okay. Yes, I'm trying. So follow up to that question is. Sorry. So a follow-up question of this is, what is your dream craft design or like collaboration that you know we will never make, but you will love to see happen? Oh, my goodness. That's a fantastic question.

I don't know that there's anything we wouldn't make, to be honest, in terms of that. like the, what we're trying to do is we bring what we all love to, to the space. So, you know, as long as it's something that we'd love, uh,

for me, you know, I think there's a number of different games that I would love to see and that I'm going to pursue. But, uh, gosh, I'm trying to think.

I don't know. I'll have to think on that one. Give me, give me a few minutes to, to think on that one. But, uh, yeah,

I think there's, there's definitely a lot out there and the sky's the limit, you know, and between what we have in terms of our ideas, and what we see coming in from all the different fan channels and social channels. And, you know, it's been great to kind of get those ideas. But, you know, I think we've been doing gaming. I think we'd love to do things outside of gaming.

You know, so, obviously, anime, music, sports, things like that are all areas that make a lot of sense. What's your NXT craft sports case look like? What's that collab? You know, probably team-based. I think for me, right now, so I'm living in the Dallas area. So, you know, it'd be fun to start looking at some of the teams that are around here. Now, of course, that's pretty much all revolving around the star. You've got the Dallas stars and the Dallas Cowboys that big star there.

But, you know, I think NFL teams are a great space to look at in terms of pro sports teams. Obviously, they're starting to play up again, which we weren't sure if that was even going to be a season. But, yeah, I think those would probably work out well. my Canadian roots, of course, want me to do hockey. So I'd love to get in with the NHL and do some stuff with them, too. NXT Raiders case. Thoughts? Thoughts, guys?

There it is. I'd rocked that. Yeah, there's definitely some things that, like, I know I would personally love to see, but I know what, like, never happen because, like, the market isn't there or, like, it's just, like, it just doesn't make, like, financial or even, like, from a, you know, is this thing big enough sense, you know? but there's definitely some like really good indie games that I think would be awesome to have as like a small,

small scale craft thing. Yeah. Well, on that front, I mean, you know, there's a lot of indie games out there that I think are really fantastic. But like you said, sometimes the community is not there to support it. So, you know, we have to work out those models.

But, you know, I think there is, we're still trying to find solutions for everything. I think is the way I can put it. You know, it's, that's one of the fun parts of the job. is when I'm told I can't do something and trying to find a way to make it happen.

You know, I think a lot of people would have told us that we couldn't sell craft cases that, you know, nobody would want them. And we've obviously seen that not to be the case. You know, people seem to be loving it. We're loving celebrating the different communities. So, you know, I don't think there's a limit. If people want something, I'm going to try to get it there. I was going to share something real quick that one of our community members said in shot. Alan said that a Raiders craft case would just look like an old age.

TIGPU box. It may not be wrong with that. That's really good. Okay. And the final question for me is, do you have any special shoutouts for anybody in the company who you think deserves some love and recognition? Anybody at all? Oh, absolutely.

There's a ton that I would love to call out. Go through. One of the people that says been instrumental in helping the craft program just keep us on track is Irma. She's been in the program management there. and she's the one who keeps me on track, tells me all the things I need to do and don't do. And then in the design department,

I've worked very closely with Shin, who's kind of been our head ID person for a long time, and Gus, who works with him now as well. That's probably who I spend the most time with when it comes to the craft side of things. Otherwise, you know, marketing, you've got a great marketing team that is growing. You know, I can't forget the community team, of course.

You know, Ivan and Dennis, you guys are great, along with your teammates. So I can keep going on. There's, you know, it's one of the beautiful parts about my job is getting to interact with pretty much everybody in the company. You know, for the last three years, I've pretty much been working with Johnny directly on the craft stuff. You know, he's been hands on involved with that as well. So, you know, him enabling me has been fantastic. And, you know, congratulations to him.

You just had his child, I guess, a couple weeks ago now. Yeah. No one knew. Just all of a sudden we get an email. Hey, by the way, Johnny had a kid. Like, oh, snap. Yeah, and I think Jim did as well, correct? Yeah, yeah, too.

Create a team. A couple of new fathers inside NZT. You got to go with pregnant people in there, too. I haven't seen that. I'm working remotely. I don't know who all's pregnant, and he's expecting. So that's been something that I only see the emails, like Dennis mentioned. You just get that.

I love the fact that Johnny named his baby Ivan. You know, it was really surprising. Like, I didn't think he would do it, but, you know, I mean, I guess you got to do it, right? Just got to name the baby Ivan. I mean. I guess that's a shout out, I guess. Yeah. All right.

Ivan, you're up. It's your turn. All right, Jeff. My first question for you is, are you really a buff daddy? Oh gosh, you found that that gamer tag, yeah. So that was a gamer tag I used back in, gosh, a long time ago, Unreal Tournament. It was when I think I started using that one. So that's back early 2000s when I was actually much younger and in shape.

So I think I was buffed daddy for a while. Now I'm more of a, I guess, a dad body instead of a buff daddy. How both are you? at the time i mean i was i was definitely pushing well past my weight limit now you know i'm just happy if i can pick up a tool uh so i wouldn't say i'm super buff anymore unfortunately although i'm trying trying to get myself in shape again i think in the last it's just over a year i've lost about 30 pounds uh so i brought myself back down into a reasonable level but still not there yet. Oh, wow, 30 pounds is a lot. Yeah. I went on a cruise last year with a bunch of friends,

and it was the first time I had been on a cruise, and of course I got the unlimited drinking and dining package, and I took advantage of that at every opportunity. I didn't know that you could gain that much weight in a short period of time. I think it was 14 pounds I put on in the seven-day cruise, so yeah. So I needed to. That's pretty ridiculous. That's ridiculous. 15 pounds in seven days. You both have... I enjoy just about everything from every restaurant,

every buffet on every floor at every time of day. Oh gosh, there's a shave picture. Yeah, speaking of a shape picture, my next question for you is, what is up with the beard, man? You have like the longest beard I've ever seen on a human being.

Gosh, where are you getting all these? You usually stocking my Instagram or Facebook or something, goodness. I guess it was just over two years ago now. That was when I started growing the beard. There was kind of turned into a joke and I just played with it. So I was actually when I was working with another company on a contract, we were at a team retreat. And we had been talking about a certain product that I was trying to sell for them.

And the joke came up. They said, well, he's not going to shave until he gets its first sale. And so I said, okay, I'll do that. And I just kind of ran with it. And so every time we'd have team meetings, they see the beard getting longer and longer. And everybody was asking if I was okay, if I was not having any success selling things.

So it just kind of grew into the joke from that. And that went on for two years. And of course, that led to where you see the shaving from earlier this year, which was part of the Gamer's Outreach charity. Yeah. Your beard is ridiculously long. It was like, I remember the last time I saw you in the office, it was like down on your belly button, man.

It was, it was, yeah, it was starting to get in the way, to be honest. It was funny because I wasn't yet used to it. And so, you know, working on the Jeep, I'd be leaning over and it would catch on something when I'd lean back or moving things around the house. And, of course, being here in Texas, you know, barbecue is a big thing. And the number of times I dipped my beard in the barbecue sauce just got to be too much. yeah like we definitely have the longest beard i've ever seen it's so funny this is like some kind of traumatic syndrome i've got going on now seeing how long that beard was

it's awesome i love it um it definitely looks a lot better than dennis's beard which is really patchy and full of holes so do you know next question is do you have any tips for Dennis on cream here. Oh my goodness. You know, it's, I think it comes down to the prayers

and the vitamins like Hulk used to say, right? It's, uh, you kind of have to hope for the best. Uh, use all the creams and oils and bombs. I mean, I bought into everything and had a lot of friends giving me tips,

uh, you know, and it just kind of seemed to work out. Uh, it was, I think maybe I was fortunate. I don't know. Good genes.

Maybe that's all it is. I don't know. My, I think all of my uncles on my dad's side are all, able to grow a pretty solid beard. So I think I inherited it through that. Next question for you is, are you still a Razor fanboy?

Am I still a Razor fan boy? I'm a fan of the people that work at Razor and the products that we put out for sure. The reason I'm asked is because I went to the Razor headquarters a couple years ago when they moved into their new location in Irvine, I think it is. fine. Yep. And as I was walking in there, there was like a couple of cars outside and I actually took a picture of one of them. I see where they're going. I think this might have been your car.

Let me share a picture with everyone. I'm not sure. I took this picture like five years ago, not exaggerating. Is that your car? That is? So it's not my car. It's my Jeep. First and foremost. I call it a Jeep. It's not a car. Yeah. Yeah, that is. That's my baby. Gosh, I'm much younger looking baby at that point. But yeah, it's still running. I actually mentioned working on it just recently. I just did a trip before I started full-time

where I drove out to Crater Lake in Oregon and back through Colorado and drove it up to Black Bear Pass and engineer pass. And, you know, it's a 2012. So it's nine years old now because I bought it brand new in 2011 factory order it. and I've been doing all the mods to it.

And, you know, it hasn't lived a blessed life. It's got about 143,000 miles on it. It's literally been up to the end of the road in northern Canada and Alaska and down to the mile zero in Florida Keys and west coast, east coast, up mountains, down mountains, through rivers. It's actually in that, yeah, so that image was definitely before I rolled it over. I now have a big dent across the hood from here in Texas when I went off-roading. And I didn't realize that I was on my side.

It was actually a pretty smooth tip over. But thankfully, there was a tree there to prevent me from going too far. So, yeah, now I just have a dent across the head to remind me of that. How much money have you invested into off-roading? It's definitely reached into the six-figure mark. I don't have to. Yeah. Yeah.

So, I mean, even looking at this. image of the Jeep. I mean, I've got a whole new set of tires and actually two sets of tires since then, new wheels. Yeah, the color has changed a bit. I don't have the razor low going on anymore. So a lot of the black has been pulled off and then the doors are still black. I still do have those tube doors. But all the underside has been changed out. Looking at that, I don't have my coil over system on your long arms or any of that. So it's definitely changed. Do you drive like a maniac on the street? I wouldn't say I drive like a maniac on the street off the road maybe a little bit.

But I was actually just talking about this. So because of this last trip that I drove out to Crigger Lake and back through Colorado, it ran into some issues just because of its age. So I've been working on fixing that. But it got me thinking I need to get a new vehicle to be my daily driver and just make this my off-roading rig and that's it. And I was talking to my mom about it two days ago, I guess it was. And I made the comment about it.

She said, you know, you should get a little two-seat roadster car. You know, you'd probably have fun with a little convertible. And I said, you know, I'd probably get about two blocks and then smash it into a curb somewhere because I definitely picked up the bad habit of not caring about curbs anymore. So if anything, I think that's probably the worst defense that I have is pulling into parking lots. And actually, I don't know. I'd have to scroll back up and see if that picture was one of them. But at Razor in the parking lot, there wasn't a lot of things to pull up onto,

but there was a couple of little parking stops, I guess, that I used to pull up onto. So they were maybe six inches off the ground. But everybody knew that that's how I had to park. So I guess the answer is, yes. You do drive like a main house. If that's your definition, then yes, yes. Next question for you is, it's not really a question, but I want to ask you to rate your barbecue. Right now, rate my barbecue or rate Texas barbecue?

Your barbecue? My barbecue. You know, I'm still an amateur. I've actually had some pretty good success. A lot of insight from fellow Texans here. And I consider myself a Texan now, even though I'm Canadian by birth. But this is home for me now. So yeah, I kind of take pride in it.

I had a brisket that I made. Gosh, when was that now? It goes back a bit, I guess, probably June. think when I made that brisket, maybe July. And man, oh man, did it turn out so well. It was just over 15 pounds. It was cooked a little bit quicker than I was hoping. So I definitely, my temps were a little bit high, but man, did it turn out well. And it was thankfully, I had my roommate invited her brother and his girlfriend over to help us try and eat through because 15 pounds for two people is a little bit too much. How did you smoke it? So I've got an offset smoker here, a pretty old one from New Bromfels

that basically what was I using for that when I was using Mesquite, I think is what I did with that one. No, sorry, Hickory. I used Hickory for that one. So, you know, I spent, gosh, I got it on there. I want to say about eight in the morning. I think it was. Got up early and got everything prepped. It was about eight.

I threw it on. And it came off probably about nine at night. It was late, but it should have been closer to, you know, or should have been a much longer cook anyways. It should be like, what, 16 hours is it? Yeah, well, so it depends on the tents that you're running, of course. But I think a lot of people, you know, they try to aim for about one and a half to two hours per pound in some cases. I wasn't willing to really that long. So I definitely was trying to keep my tents a little bit higher.

But I was hoping to get it on for, yeah, close to about 16 hours. Yeah, I'm into smoking meat too. And smoking brisket is kind of hard because it's so long. Yeah. Well, that was my first time actually doing a brisket. I've done ribs and wings and chickens and, you know, various other things. But, but yeah, that was my first time doing a full brisket. And I think I maybe bit off a little bit more than I should have.

But, you know, it lasted for like two weeks. I think it fed us for. So it was pretty good. What's your favorite barbecue? Ah, gosh. You know, so I definitely think I go back to brisket. Normally when I go and hit up the local pit barbecue here, there's a place called Heart 8 that I've been advocating for for ages. And my normal order there is going in and getting a half pound of brisket, a half pound of jalapeno sausage, and a couple of chicken poppers.

That's kind of my go-to. You ever been to Franklin's barbecue? So I haven't been to Franklin's. I've had Franklins. Thankfully, I had somebody who said they were willing to go stand in line for, I think they were in line for about three hours, and I brought it over to us for lunch. And that was, gosh, I can't remember which conference that was for. That was, it was down in Austin. It might have been GDC online or something like that that was down there.

I can't even remember which one. But, yeah, we were having a meeting, and they said they would go and wait in line and get us some franklins. And so we did that. But actually, one that me and my friends, I think, are going to try to go to you at some point soon. And some people may have heard of this one just recently on Netflix is Snow's Barbecue. So there's a show Master Chef Barbecue that's out right now on Netflix. And the first episode is for Snow's Barbecue, which is in a tiny little town between Austin and College Station. And I think they're only open on Saturday.

But it looked like absolutely amazing. The story behind is fantastic. Titsy the Pitmaster is someone apparently everybody falls in love with. So, you know, I think we're going to make a weekend trip down there and try to wait around and see if we get lucky enough to get some. That's awesome. Do you have any barbecue tips for guys like me? You know, it's just dedication.

You know, make sure you have a good temperature monitor. So I've got a wireless Thermo Pro that, you know, put one down at great level just so that you actually know what the temperature is there because the biggest thing that people forget is with the temperature gauge at the top of your smoker, it's going to be. hotter up there. So you want to make sure that you've got the great level. And I think that's where I messed up when I was doing my brisket. And part of the problem is there is this is an inherited smoker. And it's got some issues. I need to get a plate welded on because I can't control the

airflow well enough. So as soon as I get a big wind, it flares up and it gives me a little bit too much. But yeah, low and slow, you got to fight the urge to throw more wood on and get like the actual smoke going through. The smoke that you want is kind of a almost like a light blue clear color. So those are kind of the things you have to watch for. And I'm still learning myself. I don't know if you can ever quite master barbecue. You know, there's always different changing conditions. So get a log book and just keep track of it. Yeah, that's a good idea. Actually, I should probably start writing it down. I've been, I've only been barbecuing myself for like five years. But like, like you said, it's, it's, like, I don't think I'll ever be, like, a master at it, but it's, I'm

definitely getting better. Yeah. But it's not easy. One of the tips that a friend of mine here gave me was, basically, he's got both a stick burner and an electric. And so what he actually does is he'll use the stick burner for, you know, the first three hours to really infuse the smoke flavor with it. And then he'll transfer it over to his electric so that it maintains the temperature exactly where he wants it and lets it run overnight. So, you know, yeah, that's a great way to kind of look at it. So that way you can do your smoking, you know, 9 o'clock till midnight or something like that. Throw it in at midnight. And then, you know, next day for lunch or, you know, however long you need to go for the continued cook, it's perfect. You don't have to maintain it nearly as much. And you're going to get exactly what you want. So nice. I didn't think about that. Once the corona time is over and you could visit. But a head of quarters, I'll barbecue for you. I'm definitely going for that.

I'll show you what a real barbecue tastes like. Fight, fight, fight. Huh? I said fight, fight, fight. I just love telling people that live in Texas that their barbecue sucks because they get all defensive. My sister lives in Nashville and I always tell her that, you know, like, Nashville sucks. and she gets really mad. It's kind of funny. Yes, yeah.

My last question for you, Jeff, before we get into the community questions, it's probably the best one. I saved it for last, and that's, why do you hate Californians? Why do I hate Californians? I don't hate Californians. I work with a lot of them. I got to think of the politically correct answer. No, actually, I lived in California for four years when I was working with race. So I spent two years in North County, San Diego, and then two years in Orange County.

And I'll tell you, living in North County, San Diego was awesome. I actually had a place right by the beach. Everybody's super friendly there, you know, laid back, chill vibe. When I got up to Orange County, I was a little bit further inland. And I think, you know, in California, you really want to be close to the ocean. You know, so I think I felt like the further I got away from the ocean that perhaps the less cordial. They were.

They were looking at other things. But every time I went out there and was at the ocean, you know, in the beach areas, everybody was always happy. So, yeah, I definitely wouldn't say I hate Californians.

That was a joke, but yeah, the reason I asked that a lot of people from California right now are actually moving to Texas. And have even heard people say it's like the California invasion or something like that? Yeah. You know, yeah, definitely from a Texas perspective, you know, there's always been a joke about not wanting California just to come out here. And I think with that, actually, it's interesting because I saw it recently where there was actually a, I guess, a meme or whatever, where it was, you know, Texans welcoming Californians with a map.

And it was all the cities of Texas overlaid onto the state of Oklahoma. And that was something I thought was pretty funny to see that. But yeah, you definitely hear a lot of chatter about how many Californians have moved to Texas. Yeah, a lot of people. I've been to Texas once. It's a little too hot for me. It can get warm. You know, we're actually, I think we're in the cool period now, I think, safely.

So now we're only getting up to the high 80s, just staying below 90 at this point. So fingers crossed it stays that way. But, yeah, through the summer months, it can get pretty unbearable. So, you know, driving the Jeep is actually kind of fun. one because you obviously can take the doors and top and stuff off, but there's a kind of two periods in Texas where you can do that for most people anyways. Some people do it almost year round, but you know, in kind of the springtime frame where it's actually bearable weather and then it gets too hot, you have to put everything back on so you can use your air conditioning again.

And then now we're getting to the point where I can start taking those off again and driving around, you know, with the doors and top off. So you get, I guess, two summers in Texas and then you get just hell. Crazy. All right. Well, thank you for answering all my dumb questions. Now it's time to answer probably some dumber ones from the community. Bring them on. Okay. So, reminder, folks, we do have an email that you can send questions to if you can't listen live. And that email is Clubcast at nz60.com. C-L-U-B-C-E-C-E-S-T-C-E-W got one this week. And this one is actually kind of not at all a question we can answer,

but I'm going to ask it anyway because it took the effort. I got a question that's more personal to me, but because I use a Chromebook, which I got, but through Linux, I got to some game engines. I've been experimenting with this year pretty much good. I want to ask, when do you think my Chromebooks is going to die on me because of all the stuff I'm doing, it is not meant to handle? Oh, my.

Thoughts. I, you know, I actually looked at Chromebook for a while, but not for gaming. I thought they were pretty interesting for travel. So, gosh, I don't know. I kind of walked away from it when I realized that I wouldn't be able to play all the games on it that I wanted to. So I don't really have any good feedback there, but, you know, Chromebook is just like Google. It's probably not going to go anywhere.

It's just going to stick around and be there all the time. I'm going to say that your Chromebook is cursed because he threw Linux on it. And it is going to die in exactly 30 days from this podcast. A minus 30. Ivan, what's your estimate? I gave it 30 days. All right. There we go.

Okay. First question from the chat. Will you be partnering with kitchen appliances to make N60 appliances? That's a biz-deaf question. All right. Is this a question rooted from the Razor toaster? Possibly. I have to wonder that.

That was something when I was at Razor, and I got to make the prototypes for the Razor Toaster a number of years back. And, you know, it was something I never thought I would do, was creating a small appliance while in the video games industry. But it was actually a lot of fun. And I think now, I think actually Min just mentioned a couple of weeks ago that he may start up an appliance division. So I do have some experience in the space.

It could be fun. You know, I think if there's ideas there, if you guys want to let us know what kind of appliance, you'd like, then, you know, maybe we'll consider it. I got one. So, so I want a, not a toaster, but a good toaster oven, right? Toster oven. Yeah, that's, that's really good for, like, those, those, like, de jrano pizzas.

Because they never quite fit perfectly. And, like, the one that I have really sucks, right? So this is a chance to solve a problem, right? Design thinking is I want a toaster oven that could perfectly fit a de jrano pizza. And also gives me a proper indication of how hot it is in that day. thing because it never tells me the accurate like heat inside of it. So I don't know if it's ever cooking properly. You know, that's a, that's a legitimate problem that I think a lot of people face. So, you know, we'll have to look more into that. What is the proper toaster oven for

gamer snacks? What is the proper toaster oven for gamer snacks? Well, if we had an NZHT one, I would say that for sure. You know, I don't even have a toaster oven right now, to be honest. I got an air fryer. Bro, we didn't get one of those. I heard this was so good. You know, it's yeah, for sure. I like it just because it's quick and easy.

I don't have to worry about it. I can throw whatever in there and walk away and then just come back down and food's ready. I get to eat all the stuff I never thought I could eat because of deep frying. So remove the deep fryer and suddenly it's considered much healthier. Supposed. Lose that's a story and I'm sticking to it. Follow up question is, if you

made an N6C kitchen appliance, can you sync it with Cam? Of course. Of course. We wouldn't dream of releasing something that wouldn't integrate with Cam. All right. Next question. Do you dip Oreos in milk or do you dip milk in Oreos? For me, it's definitely the Oreo and the milk.

Yeah. All right. Evan, do you even eat Oreos? I don't know if you're- Yeah, I actually buy Oreos from my daughter. and I hide them from my wife because she doesn't want me to feed them to her. But I buy her the double-stuffed Oreos,

and I always sneak one for myself. There you go. I actually dip with a spoon. I use a spoon. So I get the max amount of like milk in the cookie, and then I just eat it up almost like cereal. I was actually the inspiration for the Oreo cereal, by the way. Yeah, there was a big cereal debate internally recently.

So I feel like that's an extension of that. Definitely. Yeah, I think it was what like, like, do you do the milk before the cereal or the cereal before the milk, right? Yeah. Obviously, the answer is you put cereal first in the milk. Correct. Yeah, that's all it goes. Drogan wants to know, what is your favorite meal to have? My favorite meal to have? Yes, sir.

Gosh. I honestly, I love making like a mac and cheese. I kind of grew up on it, so it's my comfort food. So I love making that, but, you know, barbecue is kind of a staple in my diet. It's, you know, ever since moving to Texas, it's just you have to have it. There's so many good options. So, yeah, a good barbecue or mac and cheese probably. Mine's a really good spaghetti with meatballs.

I can't see know to that. Ivan? I'm a big spaghetti and meatballs guy, too, actually. it's probably one of my top foods but I don't know why but I do I'm not the same way I like I love spaghetti meatballs but I'm also a big barbecue guy

I don't know I like anything pretty much yeah I will eat anything that's put in front of me pretty much which is probably why I gained 15 pounds on my cruise last year yeah I like I got on a diet like right when the quarantine started and I got

pretty lean the first three months, but then the last three months I've been picking out. I got to go back to the yeah. The phases of COVID have really changed it. I think at the beginning there it was a bit of a joke about putting on the COVID-19, you know, and people were getting a lot of weight. I was certainly no exception to that at the beginning of the year, but, you know, once I got a hold of that, and actually, I guess last month pretty much in like late July and in August, I actually really got into eating salads, which just seemed weird, and I hate to admit it because people in Texas just don't believe in salad. All right, podcast over.

Yeah, that's a bizarre. I think I'm over it now, though, so, you know, I'm free and clear of that weird desire. Oh, so, like, you get up a salad with, like, beef in it, right? Like, remember when Ivan and I used to go to domestic, which is like a barbecue spot down by the office, he would grab a salad, there would be, like, little bits of beef in it now? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I think all the ones I've had something. We're not in Texas, man. You can't be in Texas and eat a salad. Come on.

Yeah. That's why you have to do it in your own home. You don't go out. You're going to hide the salad. You can do that in California, but not in Texas. Little habit of maybe I brought back from California. Maybe I was missing California. Everyone misses California secretly. I think secretly everybody wants to be here. Yeah, Californians believe that. Actually, you don't want to be here. All right. A question from fellow Texan. Alan, have any staff members requested you look into an intellectual property to pursue for a craft case?

And what was the cringiest request? Oh, has anybody asked me to do a craft case that I cringed at? Yeah. Is that the basic just? Oh, my goodness. Don't use any names. Don't call anybody else. No, no, definitely not.

I mean, that's one of the things I do love is, you know, everybody lets me know which ones they're looking at. You know, I think initially I would probably. say, you know, when people were asking about, and then you guys are going to kill me on this one because I know everybody's into it, but anime was one that I kind of went, oh, and it was more because I was afraid of doing disservice to it. Can you pronounce that again? Yeah, it was, you know, I love anime, the more I look into it now, but I've never really been a big, you know, big into that world.

I guess definitely a lot cooler. A lot of people have made some good suggestions to me to actually watch. watch some and get into it more. My roommate being one of them too. So yeah, it's kind of grown on me, I would say, but I don't think I knew enough about it. I was just afraid to do a disservice. So not really a cringe and like, oh God, that's stupid idea, but more so because I just didn't want to screw it up. All right, all right. Good to know. So what you're saying is that anime is cringe and we'll never make it happen. That's what I heard. That's not what I'm saying. I definitely I wouldn't say that.

No, for sure. Ethan wants to know, should I upgrade to a 3070 or stay at 2060 super? Oh, 3070 for sure. Yeah, 37. If you're going to upgrade, right, if you have the money for it and you're, you know, there really, okay, so there's the thing. There really isn't a reason to be 100% honest, right? Like my 2070 is perfectly fine.

But if you got the money and you want an upgrade, I mean, 37 is like that sweet spot, right? Yeah. Yeah, for me, I'm definitely going to be upgrading this generation. Most of mine right now are running, I get 1080s, 1080TIs, stuff like that. So definitely time to upgrade and get on the latest and greatest. But they've been working for most of the stuff I've been playing. So I haven't really too much about it. Yeah, like for me, like, I have a very simple, very simple set of, like, expectations

when it comes to, like, my graphics performance. And it's, can I run it at, can I run this game? game at 1080p, can I max it out, can I get 144 Hertz? If I meet all those criteria, then I'm happy. If not, then I'm a little happy. There's some game now that I'm playing that I get like 110, 120, and I'm like, hmm, those extra 20 frames are missing. Yeah, you know, it's actually, it's funny because as I mentioned, starting out at ETI, seeing all the frame rate wars over the years and

being part of that. And of course, then the battle of frame rate versus graphics fidelity, you know, And as a graphics company, you wanted to see everybody running it in their full glory, but you get out to actual competitive gaming, and they were running it pretty much on the lowest settings possible just to get the highest frame rates. So it's nice now with all the cards that we have, even a couple generations old for most of them. Like you say, they still run everything great. You know, it's hard to find a reason unless you're really into the competitive side of things

and, you know, really need that extra frame rate. But I was actually just reading a little bit more about the Nvidia reflex technology, just this week. And that sounds pretty interesting. So, you know, there might be something more there that allows people to actually get the same high frame rates, but getting a little bit less lag and latency in all their inputs. So I have to keep it on that one. Yeah, I'm always like a little wary of like these like extra technologies that are supposed to help latency

because I feel like a lot of them always have like a side effect to it, right? Because it's not like raw, raw frames coming in. It's always like something little extra going in. Like I know like monitors will have like some like post processing features that like they'll they'll advise you to turn off if you're gaming because you'll feel like a 0.5 millisecond of lag and like oh god I can't move anymore. Yeah for sure. And you know, again, that's you know, over the years seeing all those different promises of, you know, being able to run a full frame rate with everything turned up and, you know, all the different like frame smoothing capabilities and buffering capabilities. Yeah. There's always a sacrifice.

You know, there always is. And it's not just in graphics and everything else. I mean, I remember dealing with network cards back in the day. I think it was like Killer was the first one I particularly remember that had their own wind sock that you had to use. And it seemed great for games, but it messed up just about everything else you wanted to do on your system. So it's kind of, you know, early experimental phases and stuff like that.

So I'm always a little bit leery. So, you know, I said the reflex looks interesting. I haven't got experience with it. So I'm definitely going to keep an eye on it and see if it's actually going to do what it claims. I know, same here. I'm pretty excited for my 2070 as soon as that drops. I'm going to be one of the people to grab one day one.

And honestly, I kind of want to get the founders' editions. They look really really cool. But I think since you have a little bit more lead time, we might have some more, what do you say, some cooler looking third parties solutions. Oh, for sure. You know, that's always the fun part, I think, is seeing what some of the others do with it

and their own cooling solutions. and, you know, I think we've got what, ours is the G12, right? So, you know, maybe we'll have some other options that people can make them look even cooler to fit into their NXT cases. Shameless plug. For sure, for sure. Niles wants to know, are we ever going to be able to play our games

on the side of our cases? It's like a screen? You know, I saw a case, gosh, well, I've seen a bunch of different land parties, particularly like QuakeCon. I saw a lot of people that had, you know, the display on the side of their case. and in different locations that we're interesting to see.

But, you know, there's, I would love to put an OLED screen on the side of our case. And I think I've been bugging Johnny about that for quite some time now to let me just have fun with it. But I don't know, it's a little, it's a unique question. I think it'd be a lot of fun for at least some games. But yeah, a lot of considerations from a product standpoint. I'm sure that I haven't yet bought to bring you the coolest looking case from the side. from the side. Exactly, exactly.

You know, it would give me so many more options when it comes to craft. Yeah, a deal wants to know, will NST ever have an IPO? Maybe, right? I can see that happening. I mean, maybe. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, anything's possible, right?

You know, I was actually, when I was with Razor, we were still a private company, but they know to go an IPO. I think, gosh, I think about, what a year after I left maybe not quite a year yeah I guess there's about six months after I left I think when they finally went IPO so you know anything's possible please tell me you had some shares before you left or something I do I do uh you know and it was kind of interesting because just leave you like oh dang it but stay like six months longer I'd be rich yeah no it was uh I was fortunate you know we had some good times while I was there at razor and uh yeah

definitely he was happy that I got. I'm actually, I think I still hold all the ones that I've got. I haven't actually sold any of those. So I haven't looked at the stock to see what it's worth at this point. But I'm sure, you know, it'll maybe pay for a part or two on the Jeep. I wonder how much the gamer gum has, like, increase that stock price. The gamer gum. I mean, how can you go wrong?

Chew Focus win, right? Chew Focus win, folks. Yes, exactly. Chew, too, shoot. chew, chew, shoot. Niles wants to know, how about instead of a nitro giveaway, you guys just give away barbecue?

Okay. I'm going down. You have to pay for your own airfare, though. Yeah, it might be kind of hard to get it, to get it out there, right? Shipping not included. I don't know.

We have to figure it out, but I think that'd be pretty awesome. It'd be a little bit cold, so you'd have to have your heating instructions. You don't want to ruin it. You know, don't throw in the microwave even ruin it. How ever send it for those services where they send you like a bunch of meat all at once?

You know what I'm talking about? I do. I haven't actually signed up to any of those. They always catch my attention. I always thought it's funny because I used to see those in the magazines when I was flying somewhere. But your box. They're advertising, you know, and all those things. I'm like, I'm on a plane and you're showing me this amazing looking meat and I'm about to get a bag of peanuts.

You know, of course I want to get it. Targeted advertising works. It's called butcher box. And I think they literally send you like the whole cow or something. So custom box, nine to 14 pounds, 497 per meal, $1.49 a month. Build your own box by choosing from over 20 different cuts of beef, pork, and chicken, 20% more meat than our curated boxes. Whole control over the cuts and meat to receive. I wonder if there's just like the all beef box.

It's like, take one. Can you get every pork? Omaha sticks is, I see Ellen mentioned that one. That's one I've seen before. Oh, yeah. I forgot Omaha sticks is a thing. Yeah. I wonder who decided that was a good idea.

I was like, hey, what do we just send people meat through the mail? Sign up. You know? I've ordered it and it's not that bad because they freeze it. And when you freeze something, it could last a couple days being shipped. So you can ship like a good size piece of meat across the country and it'll last a couple days. Yeah, for sure. It's not that bad, you know.

Yeah. Well, actually, you know, I just, as the Allen just shared the cruise market from Lockhart here. And, you know, it actually makes me realize that, like, if you have a pretty good shipping container, you could actually, as soon as you pull it off your barbecue, you could throw it in there to rest. And if you do an overnight shipping, it'll be resting overnight. It'll still probably be warm by the time it gets to its destination. So we might be able to make this happen. I feel like there's a business opportunity here to be had.

From great to table. In about five years, they'd be like, do you guys ever think that Royal Beef Company will have an IPO? Oh, gosh, that would be awesome. I don't know that I'm quite at that level, though.

Follow him at Buff Daddy Barbecue. What about like grill or gum, right? It's like gum that you chew while you're grilling, so you have like the maximum amount of like... Griller gum. I definitely think that, you know, people are consuming stuff while they're barbecuing, but I think it's more liquid than go. BQ, that's good.

I like that. That's good. It's good I meant. Buff BQ, you're welcome to a million-dollar idea. Buff BQ. I'm developing that bittness. There it is. You are, you know, maybe when I get a position open, I'll be able to attract you over to

the biz dev team. I can definitely hope with coming up with stupid names for sure. We can always use that I still want to hear the name of that Mantua too that you haven't told me yet, Ivan. Me and Shane are going to unveil that name when we retire from NZXT

and start a room. Fair enough. Death Ridge wants to know N6T making modems soon like Aces or Async routers? Maybe. Oh. I don't know what the

room is for like improvement on routers other than like look and design and stuff And I know we don't do things just for looks, right? There's always like a reason why we do something. So there had to be a really good case for us to make like a modem slash router that would like enhance, I guess enhanced gaming. Right. And it's like a gaming mode on your router. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, there's definitely, you know, it's, I've watched a few different texts come into to that over the years. I mean, I think Mesh being the most recent that's made a bit of a difference in terms of your house coverage and stuff. I've actually, right now I'm running a, the Razor silo, their router. And it's actually been pretty fantastic. I've been pretty happy with that. So, you know, there might be something there. They saw an opportunity.

I had talked with like Lynxys and Netgear. I've talked with those companies before. They're all interested in it. But I think they're a little bit further ahead than we are in terms of general network capabilities. So, yeah, we should consider it. But like you say, we got to figure out what is. that we can do to really make it that much better experience. You don't need a router, just tether off your phone.

It's fine. I have done that in dire situations. I actually tether up on Nintendo DS Lite. That's how I do it. Oh, the N2DS just got discontinued yesterday. Yeah, yeah. I saw that. That's crazy.

It's actually funny because, like, Nintendo will discontinue things super late. You know, like, oh, yeah, they're still making those. Like, okay. Yeah, whatever. It's been, they're still making those. Yeah, what did it say? 75 million? Yeah.

I'm going to look it up right now. Let's see. Alan wants to know, is Tetris a puzzle game or a puzzle sim? Tetris, I mean, that's a puzzle game, I think. I'd have to hear the argument for being a puzzle sim. I don't even know what a puzzle sim would be defined as. Yeah, I think I haven't used to clear for that question. One way, Indycccccc can improve the router instead of Ethernet coming out,

make fiber and make a PC fiber network card. Hey, end-to-end fiber would be pretty badass. That'd be super dope, yeah. I'd be done for that. Simulation, the creation of a puzzle. Okay, I guess maybe, right? Oh, simulating the creation of a puzzle. Because like, aesthetically, in the process of playing Tetris,

you might create an extra puzzle for yourself, right? You might, like, screw up and then like, oh, no, I got to solve this puzzle that I just ruined. Yeah, actually, I think I played a, what I played, I downloaded off-street, I think there was a, I thought it was a puzzle game, just, you know, basically be able to put together a puzzle like you would normally do, but just doing it virtually. And when I got it down, they actually had a setting in there where you could create your own puzzle. And it wasn't really much more than just uploading an image.

And it would kind of randomize all the connections and stuff. But it didn't really hold my attention for too long. All right. I can't remember the last time I played a puzzle game other than like Tetris 99 was. I've been in the team back in the olden days in the before time. I don't think a podcast like a puzzle. You're always trying to look for stuff. It's true.

Yeah. I mean, I'm always moving with the setup trying to make it better. But I think this is probably the simplest setup that we've had other than like what we had in the office, right? That's basically what I'm trying to mirror here with with software. So for people who don't know, I'm currently using a Elgado Wave 3 with the wavelength software.

So that's why the podcast is coming out just through live at the very least, just through one source on the Discord as opposed to having three people. So this definitely makes it a little bit easier. So if there's any issues with the quality, you know why. It's changed everything up again. Trying to keep it simple, you know, trying to keep it simple. All right. Other than that, so that's the last question.

Don't forget, if you're not listening live, you can submit questions to our email. That's Clubcast at nzxxt.com. C-L-U-B-C-A-S-T at N-X-T.com. If you want it phonetically, DME, and I'll tell you what it is. Okay, so Community Roundup. Congratulations to Alan, actually, fellow Texan for their setup and winning a purple N-Z-Z-T shirt for their setup of the week. Congratulations to be announced for the wallpaper setup.

for the wallpaper contest, we'll announce that shortly. And only other news is I would say is that we're getting closer and closer to shipping out those purple T-shirts that people are winning for these contests. So, yeah, just hold tight. We'll get those out soon. Reships for club stuff is happening little by little,

so we're slowly getting those out. I guess I'm slowly getting those out. shout-outs to Anna and Vivian for yeming me when I screw up on the on the shipments I haven't changed the shipping so thank you to them for letting me know when I need to fix things so I can fix them and make sure you guys get your

your hoodies, your lanyards, your poochies, your stickers and your shirt, say shorts, shirts, and your postcards, that too. And I think other than that, it's really pretty much shit. Do you have any cool announcements, Ivan? The only announcement I want to make is I guess regarding the RTX stuff, which just launched on our website today. Unfortunately, the first batch of cards sold out pretty fast, but we're adding more throughout the day and weeks coming up. So if you want to get your hands on one of those cards, just keep refreshing the website and sign up for the newsletter too.

We'll email people once cards become available. Yeah. I don't know if you can say how quickly we sold out, but it was way faster than that. anticipated and I think I think you might have thrown on like a second batch or something because you have a different card up there now but yeah if you guys are looking to get those the 30 series or I guess the 3080s right now as of the this recording this is a September 17 the 3080s will be coming in and out as people pick them up and we get more in and then you know 3090 we will follow soon and 30 30 70 TB TBD I guess because we don't know right like I'm never going to get anything yet it's that

haven't even launched yet. So yeah. So, really... All right. Okay. So with that, guys, thank you very much for joining us, Jeff. Yeah, thank you for having me on.

No problem. Thank you to everyone who tuned in. Remember to tune in next week at 10 a.m. Pacific Center time of the official NZC Discord server and follow at NZXC on all relevant and irrelevant social media. And don't forget to listen to previous episodes

on Apple Podcast. podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud. And also, if you wouldn't mind, please leave us a positive review if you like what you hear and even if you don't. Thanks, guys, and we'll see you next time. Bye. I was wondering if you could play that song again. Hmm, which one, man? The one that goes Be-boop-poo-pop-poo-pop-poo-pob-poo-pob-poo-ppoo-pppoo-pppoo-ppbob-p.