NZXT PODCAST - #094 - Gordon Bellamy

Episode Date: June 27, 2021

This week on the podcast, the crew are joined by: Gordon Bellamy! Gordon and the crew discuss: the game industry, VR, and birthdays. Follow Gordon on Twitter at twitter.com/GordonBellamy 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]!

You all ready for this? Yep. Bam, bam, bam, bum, but I'm sorry. I thought we were doing the song. I thought we were doing the song. Are you ready for the space jam? So I'm ready. All right.

All right. Here we go. Woo. Get ready. Oh, and welcome everyone to episode 94 of the N60 Clubcast, the official podcast of the NXXC community. This podcast is reported live every Thursday at 10m, Pacific Center. The official NXC Discord server, and is available to. stream on demand on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud, as well as anywhere

you find your favorite podcast. So step on up and witness the, who's got it for me? Witness the what? What are witnessing, folks? The party. There you go, yeah, witness the party. My name is Dennis. And with me as always is Ivan.

Hey, Dennis, good morning. Good morning. Joining us today, I'm sorry? No, I was going to say, and I'm glad that you, uh, I'm glad that you, uh, You answered my question on the outline there about drawing blanks. There was no question there. You just said the what? I said the what?

I'll figure it out when we get to the show. And then I realized I didn't figure it out at all. So I just left it open for community and audience and co-hosts participation. So I think it worked out pretty well. Very seamless, especially when we don't have to talk about it at all. Also joining us today is the bagel queen herself, Talley. Oh my God. That's the best nickname. I think I would like to request my business cards, say Bagel Queen and nothing else. That actually would be amazing. That'd be awesome.

That is going to be, that's it. It's my new life goal. Bagel Queen, business card. Done. People are asking in the chat already where they can get a freaking Montreal bagel. Well, if the one is sponsored post by any means, I order all of mine on Goldbelly because Goldbelly has St. Vieter Beagle. which are Montreal bagels and I order them to my door. I'll do an order approximately once every month and a half. So yes, buy your Montreal bagels. And if anyone gets Montreal bagels, please do not prepare them without coming to me for specific instructions on how to do it right. You hear, folks, it's now rule in the server.

We're going to have B at it as a rule on the Discord. If you don't ask Talley how to get your bagels going, then we're going to ban you. Montreal Bagels. Montreal bagel specifically, yeah. With other bagels. Exactly. All right. Today's special guest is industry veteran, soccer pro, super pleasant person, amazing individual,

freshest dresser in the world, Gordon Bellamy. Oh, my God. Thank you for having me. Glad to be here. How's it going? It's great. And I can't go another second without shouting out, Jeff Royal. Hey, Jeff, birthday twin, MCXT.

I made it. That's it. That's it. That's it. You are now officially famous. This is like the threshold. As soon as you step your feet or your virtual feet onto the podcast, you're now officially a famous person. So congratulations. Thank you.

Glad of you. And because I'm that guy and you're sort of getting to know me, I'm actually researching Montreal bagels now because I'm curious. They're basically like regular bagels, but without a whole. Oh, listen. Instead of cream cheese, they use sour cream. Do not listen to the shenanigans. That's not true. Okay.

I will fill you in. I feel like we talk about it so much. But I will fill you in after the podcast and tell you why they are magical. Okay. And by the way, file under all free promo. I am also an endorse of Goldbelly, which if you do have some excess, I guess cash that you want to devote to a food experience, gold belly. recommended. So it is gold belly.

I've actually never heard of it. What? Yeah, I've never heard of gold belly. It is. I don't even know. Gordon described it. How do you describe the menu? It's those regional flavor.

So suppose you wanted key lime pie from Florida, or you wanted Chicago pizza from Chicago or Montreal bagels from Montreal. This site has aggregated, like, the local flavors from different places, and you sort of get them all and one website, Gold Belly. Gold belly, but you're my very expensive. Dennis is going to order some in and out from California. Exactly. Some Kansas City barbecue, all the things.

Yes. Okay, that's cool. So it's like an aggregate, like, website for stuff that you want, right? That's actually really cool. That's actually really cool. I wonder if my favorite Chicago Deep Dish place is here. Is that Jordianos or whatever? Ghanes, that's the best.

Oh, there it is. Jordan. I don't know. They have their own, their own game, but maybe it wouldn't surprise me. But I feel like Chicago Pizza is so meta that it's all over. Yeah, no, yeah, for sure. But there are, like, some places in, like, certain areas that don't do it very well, right? Like, there's, like, three places here.

I know that they do it. I don't know any one of them is, like, worthy of me actually driving out there and grabbing some Zah, you know. Yeah. Fair. No, Gordiana's a great choice. Also, though, definitely available online. For sure. And I'm hungry.

I don't know if I am allowed to eat pizza at, like, 11 a.m., but I'm going to have to break a rule today. Wait, hold on. What do you mean allowed? There is nothing better for, I think, personally, breakfast pizza, cold breakfast pizza. Yeah, 100%. I don't like pizza cold. I can't do it cold. Because if you get a good pizza that has like super milty cheese and it's cold, it's just like a block.

It's just like a blob of hard, hard cheese. I can't do it. I had to throw it in a toaster oven. I need it warm and toasty and like crispy. I like a crisp of my pizza, just saying. I will take the extra time to throw in the toaster oven. Okay. We respect your feelings.

Your pizza is valid, but we want everyone at home to know. You could have pizza however you want. Okay? That is true. Whatever, whatever is right for you. That is true. All right. So, Gordon, you've, one of the things I mentioned in your intro

is that you are a industry veteran, and you have in fact been a part of the gaming industry for, for what I was reading about 19 years now. Oh, my God. Close your right. Oh, by closer to 30, it feels like. I came out in the 90s. I know, no, time flies.

Yeah, no, I've been in, I mean, I've been in games all my life in a way. I think everyone out there is probably a gamer of some kind. And so you know, in your own way, what games mean to you. I mean, if you're here at the NZXT podcast, probably mean a lot. And games have always just meant the world to me. And actually, you know, been worlds to me, which have been just meaningful part of my, of the person that I am.

And now, of course, being able to share those worlds like on the internet is just, you know, just everything, right? The world is literally your playground. You can meet and make, you know, friends and frenemies all across the world, you know, just around games, around, I do a lot of VR chat, around VR chat,

around just shared experiences. Actually, so you mentioned making friends online, and I'm really curious. Do you guys have any people that you met online who are like a good online friend found through gaming? You've never met in person because I've got to slew people. Like since I started like hanging out online, there's like four, five, six, seven, eight people who I've, I talked to at least once a week for, I think, this is a little. So shout out to my homie Pedro, right? He's from, well, he used to be from New York. I think now he's in like Tennessee or something.

And I've known him since 2007. Never met him in person. Not once. Yes. I'm keeping it out. So I'm super excited. I'll shout out online as well. So Adam Fartum, we've been friends since Xbox.

And we met, God, playing NCAA. And it was a really good match. And we started to chat and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And we have not met since, yeah, I'm going to say like 13, we're friends like on Facebook and all the media and all things, talk all the time. But we're actually going to meet this coming year, like one year from now almost at WrestleMania. Like we finally decided that's the thing to do. So like after, yeah, after. Yeah, we, God, yes, friends since I'm looking right now at our friendship on Facebook because it's been a minute.

Yeah, January 2007. So yeah, we're going to meet in 2022, which will be 15 years in person at WrestleMania in Dallas. And I'm super excited. I mean, it's great. I mean, I know him, so it's whatever, but like, I'm excited to like bring it all together. But yeah, totally through gaming and like love of gaming. Absolutely. I think, I mean, I'm sure everyone has people they've met through gaming nowadays, who they haven't yet connected with.

But they just play online, right? Right? Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. Of course. I'm sure that happens. Well, this past year, like anyone you met playing games. That's true. Yeah, that's true. Right. In 2020, 2021, you probably haven't met yet. Right? Right?

Although I'm going to say, I'm going to be super honest in that on my years playing Viva Penaena, I did not meet a lot of people playing Viva Penaata. So I feel a little bit, like, lonely. So if there are other Viva Penaena players who want to, you know, come together, form a group. I'm in. I need some buddies. Yeah. I actually have coworkers that have been met in real life, you know, like Talley.

Oh, yeah. Like, I've only met Tally through like Slack and Discord, basically. I might have met her in real life before I just, I have a very forgettable face so she doesn't remember me. But yeah, I think the pandemic kind of changed the way. we worked around here. There's like tons of people that now I work with that I've never met in real life. It's really interesting. I don't even know what that first meetup's going to be like. I feel it's going to be really awkward. We're going to see Talley and be like, what? You're you're six foot five? What? I'm so confused. I'm going to like, what's going to

happen is that we're all going to meet and you're all going to walk right by me and not even register that I'm there and then be like, oh, is that? that is that tolly it's it's happening now that's it's it's what's gonna happen that's my bet that's what you actually about just one more story because um like online gaming god with xbox especially back then um was one of the first like queer communities i joined um online we we started a gang in saints row of LGBT people yeah so we were big gay gang and we were yeah as if you remember st srow St. Rowe still lives on, but like back then, it was a big deal. It was sort of like the, it was like the alt to GTA back then.

Yeah, yeah. And yeah, we formed a queer, a queer gang. And we'd get together and, you know, as you would do in St. Roe, like, just have the best time, you know, taking chains and doing what it took. And it was a really good moment. So I'm like a friend Jackson, if you're out there watching, I mean, we're friends now. He moved actually moved to San Diego, but like, yeah, we became friends, like just running missions in Saints Row.

But like I said, like today, that's got to be normal. Like super, I mean, besides Pokemon Go, right? The odds of you meeting someone in real life, the first time you play a game, are probably pretty low. Yeah. It's really funny that you mention, like, nowadays because it's so true, like, we really couldn't go anywhere.

So, like, we had to make friends online, right? There's just pretty much no option without, like, you're really going to do it without that. do you think well not do you but did you ever think that gaming would be as big as it is now I mean like 19 years is a long time yeah so no but it didn't need to be

I think for me like games are still a very like personal experience and it really is about the relationships that I make and the the game experiences that I have it isn't so much like a like a clout thing like you know today there's lots of like validation like how many likes did you get and stuff right where how popular something you do is is something

that's perceptible right like it wasn't like in my head if a kid when I grew up and I like the Dallas Cowboys wasn't like oh I like Dallas Cowboys and then how many likes does that get that didn't exist if that makes sense so the idea of games needing to be more popular was it especially relevant to me? I totally get that. And the way that it would be relevant today, like, oh, you like games, there's no likes, why you like in games?

But like, I think it's great that games are a way that people are connecting and finding that they have more in common than they have a part. I mean, I think it's, I mean, you know, I'll get sort of super political for a second and go like, I think it's great that there's like e-sports franchises in different cities around the world, because it humanizes them for people in a way that learning about them in school through like about wars and about conquest does not right and so like i love like you know yeah like overwatch league and called league all of that like the regional franchise and you go oh hangsiao that's a place where my players come from like super cool and meaningful and i think that games uniquely are doing that

Music is doing that somewhat as well, but I think games especially because you play games with people all over versus even music that you tend to watch at concerts or share sort of locally still are just a unique medium. So I think once again, I think young people will grow up with different reasons and connections to care for each other. that hopefully will have people treating each other better and kinder, right? And less regionally, especially, watch right now. Everyone got separated by the pandemic, right? So everyone had to sort of go back to wherever you've got to be, right?

And hopefully get vaccinated and hopefully survive and thrive, right? But the world's gonna come back together, hopefully. And what it does, you know, once again, young people have a chance to just sort of be kind, to each other. And I think the games they share is going to be like a common way that people connect. 100%. Um, so, and that's, that's a new, that's a new generation thing. Like, old people be like, what are you mean, but what about the war, the great war? You know, or what about my sports team that

beat your sports team? But young people are going to be like, no, we play whatever together. My sports team, but your sports team. Yeah, like, I can't be bad. They're in my clash of clans clan. I can't be. We can't be. mad about it. We're super close. So, or like, so I do VR chat, right? Once again, like, VR chat is this community where people come together from like all over 24-7 and, you know, it's not nationalistic or any of that stuff. People are, you know, people are expressing themselves in all ways, like in authentic ways, without some of the biases that are, you know, sort of driven by economics. Okay, politics off, but that's, games are awesome, games are awesome, but also meaningful.

We use this to segue maybe a little bit, because I feel like it's a good segue, which, p.S, I love that word because it's spelled so funny, and I enjoy it immensely, but I happen to know that someone who is sitting in this podcast might also know of some kind of e-sports kind of content creating teams made up of different kind of players and people that maybe he'd like to talk about, specifically content creator specifically like what we talked about yesterday. Gordon, I'm giving a segue into let's talk about that. Oh, you see? Oh, oh.

Like, I'm opening doors for you to talk about your stuff. Oh, okay. So he's watching his face on camera and he's like thinking really hard. It's like, is he talking? She's talking about me? I am pretty sure. Yeah, I know. I know where's Tally going with is like, who's in the crowd?

It's awesome. I can't wait to hear about this. So when Tally is talking about. I'm also a professor at USC. And at USC, we have a collegiate stream team, SC Live. It's got 97 members. It is fantastically diverse and broad across ethnicities, expressions, identities, socioeconomic, all the things. The most famous ones for people who like fame, Eric from DreamSMP,

helped to get started and now is up over a million folks and now MMA leaves on the rise and Pirates Sully. They're a thing. But for them, it's so interesting that they are normalizing this behavior, right, of being on camera all the time, right? And engaging as content for people for like long periods of time. Right. So just imagine, I think, That's how I think of it. It's like being on FaceTime a lot, but to the public. And they're just super used to it and growing in new ways to navigate self-esteem, mental health, privacy, gameplay.

Right. Gameplay is watched, right? Because more people are watching people play games than playing. Sort of like this podcast is a better, right? More of you are watching or listening. to this podcast, then are people talking, right? Well, games are the same way where now a big measure of games, which I teach at USC, isn't just in the play experience.

It's the discourse, dare I say discord, around games and how they're experienced and how they're shared. And of course, now how they monetize, right? Because now young people can make money not necessarily for being proficient at games, but being proficient at engaging with the audience, right? Where I or you or anyone will pay them to entertain us by playing a game. Whether they win, lose, or draw is not actually relevant, right? It's just if we're entertained and if we feel part of the community,

then there's all sorts of ways that we can monitor, we can give them money, give the community money, give our friends, you know, gift them, uh, subscriptions, all sorts of ways, right? where value is being generated by the play of games. And that that's normal. And that'll always be, I think it's going to be as big as television or film or any other sort of entertainment media for the generation coming up, because you can get what you want now, you know,

and you can actually engage with it, like be a part of the show now, right? And that's, they didn't really have, back in the day, you could call into a radio show or something or a podcast and maybe they say your name, but now you can pay five bucks. It's going to say whatever you want in the show. It's so interesting. The empowerment of audience. Back to your question, like, yeah, we, so games used to be just game development. Games are of course now, you know, engineering, design, marketing, all facets. Streaming used to be e-sports, but now streaming. is community, some of which is e-sports,

but a lot of it is just, you know, people sharing their truths, right? Sharing their lives together. And yeah, we have a fantastic community plug again, SC Live. Yeah, doing it. Doing it. Doing it right. Twitch, YouTube, all of it, TikTok, all of it.

All of it. Well, maybe we can share, we'll drop. Drop some links to the chat. Drop some links to the chat. Yeah. Awesome. No, yeah, totally follow them. I imagine there's young people listening, right?

So yeah, they are you. They are your peers. Support them. That'd be cool. They'd all love it. And there's 97 channels. So there's probably something you'd like. I would like to just say officially, in addition to the title of Bagel Queen,

I also am aiming for Momager because I'm thinking that my kid should definitely be a content creator. and I can just manage his career. So that is, unbeknownst to him, his career path, so that I can retire and just, you know, helicopter mom him for the rest of his life. That's my plan. Well, I have some great news for you, helicopter mom mature.

There are now academic scholarships for content creators. So for example, M.M.A. Lee, who is in this link, if you put it in the chat, is just one academic scholarship to go to school, right to attend university and create content. So that is the new thing. By the time your child emerges,

they could be varsity in high school, then be a scholarship winner. And then that means, you know what that means? More bagels for you. In, we are in. All I need is that all I want is my own bagel oven at my house. If we can get to that point of success, then I have,

I have done all I need to do in life. I have achieved the personal greatness, and then I can just, it's all about everyone else from that point on. And you're ready to be mind-blown. Do you know what the content creators love more than a free pair of Nikes? Is it bagels? Nope. It's NZXT equipment.

Oh, okay. I guess that's better. Just telling you that what's interesting about, and there's sort of meta because we're on this podcast, right? But the way that you fuel creators is aspirational, right? that's part of the reason you do it. And so now there's a whole generation of young people for whom what you're doing, right, and large scale with big creators is aspirational in the same way that if you think about

when you went to school and the soccer players or basketball players wanted Nike's and Adidas, right, to sort of affirm that they were of a certain quality, right? It was super cool if they were matchy match. That same thing now is happening with content creators where XXT, other companies as well. well, right? There's a whole ecosystem, but are leading a charge, right, of a new generation of like identity expression. I mean, everyone can't see Ivan, but I've got a background, which I look at with envy because they made a computer in a custom computer, right, much the same way that you'd make custom sneakers. And if you can imagine sneaker heads, which makes sense now, 20 years ago,

there's no such things as a sneaker head, but now, duh, right? Same thing I think around computers and equipment, headsets, all of it is emerging from people who are under 25. 100%. 100% true. Okay, so do we want to spend some time talking about your other baby in addition to the USC, which is GGP? Oh, sure. We talk about gay game professionals, holler. So gay game professionals is a nonprofit focused on education, employment, expertise, and entrepreneurship and how do we provide access and really like, you know, equity and equity is sort of fancy word. But what it means to me is how do we sort of move the furniture out of the way?

Like everyone is unique. Okay. And usually coming into some situation, you've got to do some mental or socioeconomic, some gymnastics, right, in order to engage, you know, with the mainstream. and to progress. And so what we want is for everyone to feel and know that they're default, as they are, right? As they are, that they are default, and then they get to go and be as good as they are, and whatever matters to them, period.

Right? And so GDP does everything from scholarships, which we touched on. We do professional development content. So for those of you looking for jobs, we're going to be on. front page of Twitch. In fact, tomorrow and Saturday with Jam City, right, talking about all facets of the game industry, like all facets of it. And also having some fun. We're going to be playing some Apex Legends and playing with Cloud 9 and God, we're doing stuff with Gen G tonight. And, oh, and a VR party. VR party tonight. Yeah, it can be powered by your NZXT computer.

Yes. So we're doing a party in VR chat tonight. Yeah. with live music. What is, like, what are your professional thoughts or everybody's thoughts on VR in this, in this group, are we all like into the Oculus? We all playing all the time. Who works out with Beat Saber or what's that other super, no, workout game that everyone's playing that I actually have. I'm so sorry, I'm terrible. We fit, ring fit? No, ring fit. No, she is not super hot. What's it called? I know you're talking.

The slow one where you shoot, the shooting game. But I would say this, once again, like, like Talley, like, and this is opinion, okay? Much of the same way that games used to be isolated, like used to go to the arcade or whatever or play in your room. Like, VR has become social. And that's really the future of things. It's going to be engaging with people because, like, one of the great things that VR does so effectively is it disrupts bias. because you can bring any expression, any expression, whether you be an authentic version of yourself or a aspirational one or a fantasy, whatever, go where you want to go,

to an engagement. And I just think that the people talk about empathy, but I think perspective, right? People get to legitimately experience different perspectives. And I think out of that comes respect. Like first comes curiosity, right? And then discovery, whether that be self-discovery, but then respect for differences and really getting at who people are, not just, I guess, what they are. Because, yeah, a lot of the biases which are hard-coded into our cultures are don't exist. You can't use those social cues in VR.

You just got to treat people as they're treating you. And so anyway, I think that that's going to be, that's going to be a huge and meaningful unifier, which is different than AR, when I think it's going to give people more information, which is great. Like that's almost like more information. I think VR will give people more truth. And so I think, I don't know, I'm sorry, soapbox on. No. I'm pro what VR can be.

And I just hope that people reduce the friction to getting into. I think it's still relatively challenging to get into the experiences. I still think it's relatively, it's challenging for some people to get used to having a headset on if you did not grow up with one. 100%. I, that is my one biggest current issue with VR is the headset, only because I am admittedly a control freak. So not having a sense of what's going on around me makes me real, real nervous. I don't think there's a single time. I've been using my VR that I haven't convinced myself someone was breaking into my house and I was about to be murdered and I just didn't hear them coming because I was so in the zone. The supernatural zone. That's the game I was talking about the workout game game. Supernatural. But I definitely like that is my the struggle that I have to overcome is that sort of lack of sense of what is going on in the real physical world around me and not in the VR world. It wigs me out a little bit. But I admittedly also like a lot of control on my space over my space.

space. So, you know, that might happen. But here's what I want to hear from you, Ivan, and Dennis, and you Gordon is what is everyone's favorite VR game? If you're going to play a VR game, what's the one? So I have a hot take here, actually. I'm actually not a fan of VR because there are no games in VR that I actually want to play. Whoa. But I do think that VR is definitely the future. And but I think what is the point. But I think what is the present is AR because there's a lot of things right now going on with like artificial reality that we don't even like blink an eye at and it's a part of a world like for example like Pokemon Go, you know, games like that like we don't even think twice about that and it's so like it's the weirdest thing if you really think about it's like we're putting these like virtual characters in our world that are walking around with us and it's normal, you know. And to me that's a lot more interesting than putting on some goggles and like chopping

up watermelons or whatever popular games out there. But I'm hoping that in the future there are better games for VR because I think it has like a lot more potential than AR personally. I just for me, I just haven't found that game that makes me like want to pick up my Oculus and like want to play yet. Oh my God, this is great. Let's talk about game through. Let's do some schooling.

So what we're experiencing, gosh, we're talking a little bit of aesthetics of fun. Ivan, your feelings are valid, right? You're not finding these types of fun whether it be like learning or competition, collaboration, you know, the things that have meaning to you. However, and I think this is one of the challenges of VR is that so everyone knows what Bartle types are. Everyone, okay, let's do some learn. So Bartle types, so Richard Bartle, professor, university access, divide us to the four main categories for multi-user dungeons. There are explorers, right? there are killers, like people love acting on other people, right?

You know, like, you know, people who low kick and street fighter, you know, right? There's achievers, right? People want to be like the very best and socializers. And part of VR's challenge is that the economy is sort of out of balance. So for a socializer like me, I love it. Like I can go in there. What do you mean, Ivan? It'll be the best time.

You're everyone's going to get to meet you, right? But Ivan's like, I can't win. right? I can't find some challenges that are meaningful to me. I can't explore it in ways that are meaningful me. I can't find the fun that I want to have. Gordon, I don't want to meet all your friends. I want to I want to chop some watermelon or whatever it is you want to do. Right. That's meaningful to you. And VR has not, is not yet providing challenges where people of these different types are actually able to play together. Like usually if you're doing Beat Sabre, you're like, it's, It's just you and the beat and get your high score, and it's very deep, deep, deep into that well. And there isn't like that social element where I can't sit there and stand next to you and like, be like, you're doing the best,

you know, hype in the chat for tally, right? You know, and explore a person isn't like right next to you going, like, I found a new song for you. Oh, this is cool. And so if you think about like great like, for those you play like MMRPGs like Warcraft, right? All these elements come together, like of socializing and achieving and exploring and killing, right? Together in these cohesive communities that grow with great sort of passion.

Funny micro thing, Pokemon Go, cool thing. So Pokemon Go, everyone played, right? Everyone? Okay, of course. So that had achievers, obviously, right? That had explorers, obviously. It had socializers, right? Come meet me.

the park at three. We're going to go on a Pokey Run or whatever, right? What was interesting to me was the killers actually weren't playing the game. The killers were the people who were on the internet going like, you know you could fall in a hole. You know, you can be caught trespassing. You know, I hear, you know, this is going to be banned somewhere. This is going to be the worst thing ever, right? And they tried to sort of act on other people in Pokemon Go, but couldn't really do it effectively and got bored. And then Pokemon Go face challenges. Yeah, I'm not going to lie, I didn't get into, oh, my, I feel like I shouldn't say this, so I'm sorry, but like I did not, I only briefly got into Pokemon Go and then I, it did not capture me, but I will say, I mean, I can see why people loved it. I can see so many elements about the experience more than just, even more than the game themselves, the game itself, right? It was about the experience and getting out there and collecting things where people, We're collectors. I don't think I'm a collector. But just like I live in a suburb where there's nothing. So for me, Pokemon Go, I was like, I'm way too lazy to really partake in this the way I need to. Because I have to go far to find anything. So I appreciate it.

I can appreciate what it did for the industry, but I just, I am not the target market. Also super interesting in this time. You think about a game which is about wandering freely through neighborhoods. None of that. Right? To go to locations. It seems a bit of an inacritism, right, in this moment. If I said, hey, Ivan, Dave Dennis, I just wander out.

No, just touch everything. It's a game. Yeah. Right? It seems like, really? That's a thing. But, you know, we'll see as though as the earth heals. As the heels, yeah.

Hopefully that'll be a metric of success that people feel safe, right? Because what's going to see, now being the killer, like, anything could happen if you went there, right? But like, like, it'll be as you can see. how these behaviors reemerge, right? And people find fun like that. It's true. Now, quickly going back to Beat Saber,

I want to say that as someone, that type of game is actually why I really love VR, because some of my favorite games, when not a cooking game, are definitely like the frequency, amplitudes, those types of music and rhythm games. So VR for me has been this like,

how amazing that I can really go deep into that music experience and shut the world out. Like those are the moments where I can kind of turn off my like fear of not knowing what's happening in the house around me is when I go so deep into the music. So one of the things I really like about VR is seeing how people have taken these experiences that were only on your TV and brought them into VR. I think that's the stuff I like to see is when a VR game really like takes you to that other place.

Almost you can forget whatever stress and anxiety you have that. is the win. So, A, I think Ivan just neat. We need to find Ivan the right game. We had to figure out what it is and we're going to find the perfect Ivan game like my bagel-making game that needs to happen. We will find what is Ivan's game and I feel like we could maybe sway him. But Dennis, I want to hear what your favorite game is. And then Gordon, I want to actually hear what your favorite. If you are going to be playing APR. Sure, sure. What's the top choice? It's actually funny because I have a VR headset And the barrier that keeps me from playing that thing is just how long it takes a set up and then it's space

Right? Yeah, so I have like a Gen 1 Oculus Rift that I actually got from Andy actually bought it off of Andy So thank you Andy for the good deal But yeah, like I I played super hot for the first time on that thing and I think that was really really cool because Like as I got really into it and I like kind of turned like that part of my brain off to like was thinking this is VR it's not real I was like ducking and diving and I'm like

get down low on the ground trying to dodge those bullets and it was really really cool like when you really get into it you feel like you're like John Wichers you know you're picking up a gun up in the air and you're throwing at this dude's face and you're chucking this like thing in some other guy it was really really cool so I would say my my favorite game probably has to be

super hot in VR but just like Ivan though kind of a hot take I don't like VR that much either to be honest. You brought up another thing about VR that's kind of annoying to me is there is like a really high barrier of entry to not only set it up but even like, you know, have a computer that can run it. You know, and someone like me who is a known Luddite around here and like just too lazy to have a crazy computer.

That's like another thing too that kind of irks me a little bit about it. Like I wish it was easier for people to get into like AR is just like everyone has AR in their pocket, you know, and like VR, you need not only like the goggles and all that stuff, you need an actual, like, beefy PC to run it. So it's not just the games for me. It's also like you need a lot of equipment to use it. But you don't anymore. Not with you quest, right? Like the whole thing, now it's just a headset and it's yours. But I think, like, I haven't reached a super relative point. Everyone's already got a phone. It's already here. I don't need to go nowhere. I don't go anywhere. I got it. That said. So I, my God, I got double hot takes. Now that I

think about it. So hot take digression, number one. So among us and fall guys. Okay. So so interesting their popularity, but then if you think about it, I think about it, they are the super high fantasy. They are exactly what you could not do during the pandemic. Like pure investigation. You think about fall guys as physical experience, right? It was literally a simulation of something. It was the opposite of what you could do, right? Like running, collide and race and bah together. Same thing, same thing, right, with Among Us, like this intrigue of us together having these deep interpersonal interactions on a ship, the exact opposite of what people were being allowed to do, right, in the world. Like that these games became like peak, like fantasy, escapism, science fiction.

Interesting to me. Back to the VR. Yes. It's become not just a socializer thing, but a socioeconomic thing, and you're right, to get in, right, and have access to the equipment and you identify the space and also, frankly, the time, right? And Talley mentioned the trust, right? The trust.

Like so those we'll talk about minority lives. So when you're a minority, I'll speak on behalf of every minority on Earth, then you have a series of things that you navigate for your safety all the time as you walk the world. You're used to it. Like you're like, of course it's, of course it's not say, let me go through my checklist in order to create safety everywhere I go, period. So when someone says, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm going to take all of those cues away and put you in a headset and say, go. There's a number of things, which is not about embarrassment or being lost or do I look funny, it is like you're taking away some of my primary defenses, which I use to navigate the

earth all the time. I imagine it's also true for parents, right? Like parents at some level have their senses, you know, have like almost an extra sense of like, you know, hmm, they're not making noise. Let me go check what's going on, right? Or that sounds like an oven going on. That sounds like a pilot light, right? Let me go ahead and peek in on that. that VR, you've got to let all that go and accept the world that you're in as the world. And that's not a natural, that's not a natural thing to do. There are no other, you know, there's not a lot of habits like that. Like it's the same, it'd be like driving with headphones on or whatever.

It's just not a natural thing. But that's it. So if you say, I love VR chat. VR chat, I'm going to be an evangelist. It has games inside it. So it's like a whole world and then inside the world, once you do let go and you're there. Oh, and also you don't let go. You can play desktop mode.

That's what I love. You can play it as you want on your desktop. Now you might go, I don't have a desktop, but everyone's got a desktop because NZXT has the best prices, right? But the way being, like, you can play desktop mode and still like, you know, be more like a game, right? And I guess to me, I accept that everyone can play video games. they ought to be mobile. Once again, the sort of team I've been, they ought to be on your phone.

But like if you could play VR chat on your phone, then I'd be like, game over. Game over, perfect game. You can go in as far as you want or play it on your phone. Game over. Now, I'm going to just check really quickly because I do want to make one statement

that as much as Gordon is talking about all this social stuff, I don't think he's ever added me as a friend on Oculus. So I just want everyone to do that. My heart is broken. It's live on the N50 podcast that I am not part of the cool. Of course, I'm saying that now. I better check real quick to make sure that I can back.

I'm going to pre-pologize and say your feelings are valid. However, all that means is what room we have for growth tally. Like, you know, we thought we were here, right? But now we can be like here because now we can not only be as close we are in this world, but in all worlds. Basically, basically, we're going to go full Spiderverse together, Talley. That's what I, that's all I can think now, that we are weird. If we can bring even a tenth of this into virtual spaces, then boom.

Like, what? It's true. What? I just did it. I sent their friend request. So let's just, what happens? We will work back to all the podcast listeners and let you know if Gordon and I have indeed gone to the next level, which is the VR level, or if we did not.

Okay, wait, are we engaging? Are there podcast questions? What are the people want? We're here in service to the community. Okay, this community service. And I feel as though, as much I do, I do love talking to y'all, but it's about them. What's going on? What's going on? I can't read it. I have a real quick question for both for both, for both Gordon and Talley. It's a very serious question. So please, like, you know, take some time to consider. Do you think the Oculus servers can handle your guys' friendship? Is it powerful enough? Is this another powered by NCXT question?

I didn't know that y'all were in that vertical. Yes, I have faith in the Ociverse. I would love actually in my mind, in my, in my, I want to articulate it to my fantasy in my You know how that point, like when you get to the to the real time in like a Netflix movie and it goes bunk, bunk, bunk, bunk, bunk, and you can't go forward anymore, I would hope that our relationship would push the servers to that point. And they'd like, this is all we got. This is all we had. This is all we had budgeted for 2021. We need more servers now that you are connected here. And like, if we were part of that growth, that actually would be my, that'd be my friendship goals. Okay, there we go. Everyone heard it. Here, new goal, 2021 goals. Yes.

We're calling you, we're calling out Oculus by Facebook. We're saying, you know, the earth is healing. And by that, I mean, Talley and Gordon are going to be together in VR. So budget up. So to answer your question, Gordon, we do have community questions. But before we get into those, I do have some questions of my own. I want to ask you. Okay.

So my first question for you is, I heard that. you broke into the gaming industry by just cold calling people. I did. So I'm just curious, like, what the heck did you say when you called? Oh, and who did you call? Sure, sure. So I called the people in the credits for a game called NHL Hockey, which EA sports game.

Like at the Burk of the sports. Yeah, I called everyone in the credits. Oh, my God. That's funny. Dial by name. And I got hung up on repeatedly because I was, you know, hi, I'm Gordon. Hi, I'm an engineer from Harvard.

Hi, I really love your game. And I'm just calling people at work like you. It'd be like calling you, Ivan, at your desk, Talley. Well, I guess at your home now. I'm like, hi, Talley, it's me, right? I love NXT computers. And fortunately, what happened for me was a bit of luck. I called a guy named Jim Simmons,

and there was another guy named Jim Simmons who was in the credits for NHL Hockey. This Jim Simmons did not know about the enthusiastic young person calling everyone up and down the hallways of the hockey team. He was actually another building and he took my call and he believed me. He believed my passion. Like he believed it. I guess he believed in a way that I'd be here today.

You know what I mean? That I'd be here like a lifetime later. And so he said, hey, I can't promise you anything, but I can get you an interview for an entry level position in test and QA, but you've got to get out to California and, you know, make it on time. in and do it. And so yeah, Seed up with my spring break to San Mateo with my backpack, all in, right? Like all in. I think everyone knows if you've ever made an all in call in your life, all in. And that's why I'm here, right? Someone, you know, took the time to lift me up, frankly,

right? It's not like my, let's drink of my resume or whatever, any of that flexi Wikipedia stuff. No one gave me a shot, right? And it's so great now that we're the adults in the room, right? When we're able to afford opportunities to folks who simply need a shot, right, to be their best selves. That's, you know, one of the greatest privileges we have. So anyway, that's how I, that is how I got in and I end up, you know, being an EA sports, being a lead designer Madden, blah, like, you know, I took advantage. I capitalized on the opportunity because I'm about that life.

But, um, the greatest part, I mean, I look back in and out, it looks, it looks like science. sideways at my career, it's the people you're able to help, you know, be their best self. Like, that's the, that is the, clearly the payoff. And I love games. Like, I love games in a deep, deep way. But impacting people's lives, is no comparison. Yeah. Right. You know, giving people that freedom, you know, to be. And that's what what we do. Like, that's where it's about that, we're about that life, right? Folks just need a shot, you know? That's a, that's a, Awesome story. Nice question for you is you mentioned WrestleMania earlier.

Yes. I went. Oh, no, I'm going to SummerSlam. For those of you who are wrestling fans at home, you know WrestleMania happened in April. I'm going to SummerSlam August 21st, Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, yes. And I see sitting right behind you is a wrestling plush doll. Yes. So who is, who is your, who is your all-time favorite wrestler?

Oh, that is a good one. Why is it the rock? And why is it? Well, I'm correct. So my favorite, so, I mean, let me get in my truths here. Huh. Oh. My answer is, I think it's clear.

I think growing up, I think Rowdy Roddy Piper was a misunderstood genius. Okay? Just a misunderstood genius. Like the, as a superstar, and it's one of the first, the crossover in the movies, so you can experience Rottie Piper and other meetings. Brian Piper in other media. He was just so good. Like his character, like he was able to take.

So the stories of wrestling, the, the superstars just evoke emotions for people. Like that's why it matters, right? These protagonist, antagonist stories. And his antagonist persona was so good. I just remember as a kid, it just evoked. such strong feelings like that. Like if I think of that, you that, oh, no, he didn't. That was Rowdy, Roddy Piper, right?

You remember he had this, well, you maybe don't remember. We had like his own show inside the show and guess would come with the show. And you know it was not going to go well for them. Like, you know, before it was all over, Routy Roddy, Roddy, be like, not gonna set over and going, ah, so good. Here's a fun fact actually about, about him. He's actually Canadian. Awesome.

Yeah, fantastic. Fantastic. Fantastic. Today, I'm loving, I'm actually loving Ray and Dominic Mysterio. I think that their story, like, the gender, two generations, it's a little hero academia. Like, I'm super into it. Like, Ray's just giving us all.

Ray's got the moves. Ray's still busted out the six, what, nah. Like, it's still awesome. But he's also affording Dominic. It's like, you just trying to sort of find their identity. Like, they can't just like, take the mask. and, you know, do it. Like, I mean, Domit's been around since, like,

the match where they like, remember they had the custody match of Tom, and he's grown up in the, in the, in the life. And now it's trying to be, you know, trying to be something. Um, those are my favorites now. Like, if I see them going and I know they, you know, had a rough run with Roman Reigns, but that's okay. That's okay. Life has some rough moments.

Um, yeah, I, I find that the, the stories and I was going to WrestleMania with 25,000 my favorite friends twice in April was was a progressive take on the pandemic. And, um, but it was definitely Americana like, right? Because having been isolated for like 18 months, like jumping back into like America and what I love about America, right? Like people have different backgrounds coming together. I'm from different backgrounds, right? I want to be celebrated, you know, valued. well, that was America for sure, right?

Like all together into it. And I think that wrestling, the WWs, you know, and sports are playing a unique role, right? In ways that people are like aggressively getting together, you know, going forward. And we all have stories, right? Like everyone has stories. Everyone has stuff they care about.

So, yeah. So, yeah, anyway, I'm going SummerSlam. I'm super excited. It's going to be fun. and just, yeah, in a stadium, football stadium. It's going to be great. Can't wait. Can't wait.

The correct answer was Ultimate Warrior, by the way. Oh, interesting, gotcha. Not Macho Man Randy Savage. Okay, so Ultimate Warrior and Macho Man Randy Savage. So for me as a kid, they sort of were conflated as a character to me. Like, only as an adult can I go like, oh, that was Ultimate Warrior. That's Macho Man, Rang.

I know they're different, like, Step Bruce Slim Jim, right? I know they're different people, but as a child, They kind of were, you have anything like that where characters were sort of conflated, even though they're different. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Um, okay. What else? What else? I mean, what else do you have? So the next question for Gordon here is do you still play soccer?

Oh, I played dodge ball and I'm waiting to make a comeback. It's going to be interesting to do you. Yeah, soccer like games where people can like, like, foul you intentionally. I, I, that day is passed for me because I know, I'm, from my mindset where like a foul was a possible solution to a problem. Like, oh, I could foul them. Like that's, let me go ahead and solve it that way. Yeah, I'm not about that life anymore. Does that happen a lot?

Does that happen a lot? To save a goal at this point in my life, I'm just not having it. Dodgeball, however, I played our team. Oh my gosh, claw in order with Andrew Ketcham. Andrew, if you're out there, the best dodgeball player in the world, MVP of the world finals. One of the best experiences of my life was playing. with the best dodgeball player in the world.

I and I know oh not when they're on your team. It's amazing because the ball like makes noise when it's flying away from you. Like if you're ever known someone throws a baseball really fat like really fast, like it's a whole different thing, right? Where you're just really like, I'm on this team. There's no way. It's all good. I've never I've never felt more safe than on a dodge ball court with him because if they throw to me,

I'm pretty good at catching. I literally like, thank you for this ball. I'm going to hand it to Andrew. Oh, my God. Makes you happy just thinking about it. So, yeah, no, I play. So I love to watch soccer. So L-A-FC, Man United, I follow.

I'll play football manager all night long. I love football manager. Yeah, I play all night long, all night long, right? I haven't running running down the background. But the point being that, like, um, yes, besides my, my Manchester United, who's in like the year 2028 right now in my game, um, I'll go watch matches for sure and support people in their things. But, like, yeah, no more tripsies.

Dodgeball's where it's at for me right now as an adult sport. I am really good at catching the ball, too, with my face, which is why I do not play dog ball because- But it's okay. You're not out in Dodge Ball. Headshot, you're not out. You're back in the game. So that's actually you're saving the team.

You're sacrificing. This is about the pain and the bruising that I am not interested in. Fair. Those scare me immensely. So, okay. Your fear is valid. However, for those of you at home who are on the fence about it, there's actually no sting dodge ball where you play with a ball that's a little more of a nerfy softer ball, not the hard playground ball, which is legitimately dangerous. That's actually called Montreal Dodge Ball.

But by the way, Gordon, that that was a trick question because it's not called soccer, it's called football. Oh, cool. You actually, you know, and I accept that failure. Actually, Ivan, I'm going to hit you with the reverse, Uno, right? It actually used to be called soccer first. The English, when they brought football over to the U.S., called it soccer, and then somewhere down the line they decided they didn't want to call that anymore, and they swapped it over to football.

So by the time that we have been calling it soccer for however many years, that is decided we're just going to change it and just call it football, and we stuck with soccer. So that's the original name, Ivan. Come at me, Google it. Wow. That was the alpha counter. Well, the association football.

That's deep. That's deep cuts. Deep cuts, association football. Bravo. So Ivan's, like, screen go white. He's got to open up that Google real quick. I got to confirm this stuff. He's BS and he doesn't know way.

Yeah, I'm going to Google that later. I was watching a video on, like, etymology or something of, like, words. And then someone's talking about soccer. And I was like, that's actually really interesting. Take that. Yes. That is interesting. Okay.

Okay. One last question before we get to the community ones. Okay. Okay. So you're a teacher. I am. Can you teach us something interesting about video games? I thought I already did, but we'll do it.

You have already, but you have one more things. I already bookmark that. Bartle type. You book by Bartle types? OK. And OK, oh, I'll talk about my four pillars. This is great. We sort of touched on it.

But I think this is really relevant. That in games, right, in order to be successful today, anything about any game you like, it's no longer just about the design. It used to be the day, like, oh, the design just The play of this game is what makes a great game. And maybe I'll get a nine from Game Informer and I'll be happy, right? But now, there's four. So to me, the design is super important, the interaction.

The monetization is super important, like fundamentally important to a game. How it monetizes is as important as the design of the game. The third one, which we, of course, are doing now, is discourse. Like the discussion of the game in Reddit, in Xbox Live in the NZXT podcast, right? On your Instagram is as important as designed the game. Games come rise and fall long before anyone's pressed a button based on the discourse around the game.

Very true. And then the last one is player customization of experience. So as you know, bringing it back to the NZXT computer background that you have, right? People's agency to express themselves in a game is as important. important today because young people get what they want when they want. It's fantastic. So to them, it is normal that I would get to pick who, how, why, where, when, what I am,

configure my buttons, configure the difficulties, configure everything I want the way I want before I press a button. If you take this away from me, it's probably your game's fault. Why didn't you try harder to make this game? accommodate my feelings of agency. And if you think of a good example like Fortnite, right, where the game loop is essentially customize myself, kill, dance, right? Customize myself again, kill someone,

who custom dance, right? As a very powerful, meaningful loop that didn't used to exist, right? People used to button through that stuff. I want to play. No more. People love a good configuration. People love streaming themselves creating a character for a game they're going to play.

They haven't even played the game. They sit there, pooh, boop, boop, boop, right? People spend lots of money configuring their computers, right? It's not like they're like, oh, you know, they love it. It's a natural thing. Can you do that sound in the fact of the quick? Which one? The configuring of a computer.

That's how it works. That's what it probably sounds like at the NZXT factory. when you're getting your bill or with the BLD, the build parts that you can order someday, right? Like, that's what it sounds like when they put them in the bag. I would like to take that sound effect and make it like my ringtone for Gordon whenever, ever calls me now. Amazing. His configurator. So I welcome up.

Community questions. Sure. Super quick, though, before we do those. Okay. Is the Pridecast. So I would love Gordon. And if you have like some, like, I know there's a ton of stuff going on. We've talked about it with GGP.

Sure. You're the USC streamer. So do you want to go shout out to any of these activities? Okay. Sure, sure, sure. I'll plug them really quickly. So to tonight, oh, we're doing a podcast. Sorry, we're doing a stream with Gen G today on Gen G's Twitch.

That'll be Mason Powell's debut. You're not going to want to miss that. That's quality content. So that's going to be this evening at 5 p.m. on Gen G's Twitch. Then we're having our party, which is going to be in VR chat. And you just go now. You can go what's called like Pride 2021. It's like an open world now.

It's like a world. You can go in right now if you want to experience the world. Super fun. Tomorrow we're going to be on front page of Twitch and gay gaming pros. And that starts at noon. And I know they're out there telling me I get this right. And then on Saturday, we're going to be on the front page of Twitch again. And I believe that starts at one.

I hope I got that right. I think I did. Maybe noon. It's early afternoon. Come through. Come through, follow or subscribe. Game Gaming Pros. And if you can put that in the chat, that'd be great. Put GamePro's Twitch in the chat.

And then Sunday, we're doing a power hour fundraiser with Eric. So all y'all who love that Minecraft, love that DreamMess, I'm P. Eric's going to be streaming live and Twitch is going to match every dollar he raises for an hour, I believe at 5 p.m. No, 4 p.m., 4 p.m. Or maybe starts at 4. Just come by. Come by at 4. Stay for the air. It's life of content. Don't worry about the money. Just enjoy yourselves. But what unifies all of these events is everyone getting to be default, right? Like that's what we're celebrating that everyone in there, uniqueness on or off the rainbow is super welcome. Alli is super welcome. As WQIA plus super welcome to be and to treat each other well in all of these

settings. That's for us what pride is about, that everyone's uniqueness is valuable and additive, you know, and celebrating that. That's the plug. There's the plug. And also, wait, wait, one plug. Thank you, NZXT. Oh.

For having this is great. Hey, let's go, everybody. All right. Give me any questions. Okay, A Gummies wants to know. What does having the role as a video game executive mean to you? Oh, got it. It's like Spider-Man, like great power comes great responsibility.

What it means is that I have access to more information earlier. And sometimes I get to be a voice of influence. in what happens and how people experience games, period. And so being an executive means that I get to realize my values, right? And reconcile that with economic game, right? With economics, with values, right? I get to infuse my values into the outcomes as what a positive outcome is for business decisions

or academic decisions or whatever. So that's what it means to me. That's great. That's a really awesome answer. Tipa wants to know, I noticed that you did engineering college, but then moved on and did game development. How was that path? Oh, God. Well, it's different today because, like, young people today can make games in Unity or Unreal and do all sorts of amazing things.

For me, real talk, I had to sort of leave behind some of that skill, that skill tree. It's like if you're playing an RPG and you develop a skill tree and you got to sort of jump to a different class, I jumped to a different class and got to design and production and so forth. What I took with me is a healthy respect for engineers because all games need engineers. And so that respect comes from a place that I am one of them. We are one. So I guess I feel that I'm not only a great ally to our technical craft. I'm actually part of the family. And so I think that has that has sort of helped me in my career and in my life, having respect for what other people bring to the table, even if it's not my role. Oh, that's great. Yeah, when I was working Black Desert, our engineers were like

the superstars, because they made sure the servers ran, right? They made sure that, you know, our forums weren't exploding, that our website. worked you know worked and like they're they really are like the backbone to like everything that you do in gaming because without like a good engineering crew nothing runs nothing works and i know these dudes would be like working from like 12 a m to like six in the morning applying a patch and then sometimes it wouldn't work and they have to restart the service and do it all over again it was it was it was a job that i greatly appreciated and that like people don't really talk about as much sure i have one more thing i say about being a

video game executive one of things which is interesting is that it humanizes um our craft. So and I'll just think, I mean, NZT to take a literal example. Like when I think of NZXT and I do, I love my computer, but when I think of NXT, I actually think of y'all, right? I think of the people. So I think of Ivan and Danes, right? And Talley and Jeff Royal, double shout out, Jeff Royal, birthday twin, right? Like that's what I think of and that perspective informs my life. So if imagine something I grew up with games and I've always loved games, But when I was a little kid, the games were about the games. Like I didn't know Milton or Bradley, right?

You know, I didn't know, I don't know, Mr. Mattel. And so I was really about the games in their entirety. But now as an adult in the industry, I think of it as much about the people, right? And even people who navigate, we work at different companies at different times in our lives. Like I think of it in terms of the people, and that's a big part of what games are to me versus just the, the equipment or the sales figures of a particular title or you know or I don't know the in-game experience and that's a big difference yeah I love it okay next question so we had a question from Jeff actually hey Jeff I don't think I got pinned but it

was from yes from from our Jeff NZXT underscore Jeff the bearded one yeah and his question is what's your favorite day and why is it November 9th oh yes my favorite day is November night because it is our birthday. It is a holy day. And I'm convincing I can do this on the podcast, convincing Jeff to come to Florida, because Jeff loves drop. You can bring your Jeep, Jeff, to Florida for us to celebrate our birthday together could be the most fun thing ever. And I do mean the weekend after your off-roading trip. Yes, please come to Florida, our birthday, best times ever, post-pandemic. Let's live. But yeah, November night's the best day. It's so cool. I had a different experience. I'll just share a mirror one,

which is a, so there's another guy whose name is Gordon Bellamy, okay? And ego off. I have a Google alert for myself just to see what's up, but in my Google alert, his wedding registry showed up because he's getting married, Gordon Bellamy. And so I got to get him a gift for his wedding and I was just super into it because it's like, oh my gosh, from Gordon to Gordon. That's how I feel about our November 9th day, Jeff. It's going to be the best. There is, I just want to hang with you. Let's go. Does this other Gordon know about you or did he just like receive like a random gift? Yeah, yeah. I mean, how of course we know about each other. We're literally Gordon Bellamy's.

We get mail. We get right. Right. Things happen when you have a very specific name that are, you know, it just happens. Yes. We're Facebook friends. You're out there, Gordon. Congrats again on your wedding. Aw, this is so wholesome. That's very cute. It's like a real, real wholesome question. I like it. Jeff provided a question that let us down a good path. So kudos to him. Congratulations, Jeff. They did it again. Decaffeinated tea wants to know, how long it

it would take you to realize that you wanted to work in gaming as a job? Oh, as a job. That's interesting. Actually, he actually specified that he wanted to learn how he wanted to. His question was, how long did it take you to realize you wanted to be a teacher? Is that what it was? Oh, that's what it was? Okay.

Yeah, that's very different. Yeah, because the person you says that has a job. I didn't, I didn't know I wanted to be a teacher. I think, um, I found purpose in helping people get from point A to point B who don't know how. And I would do that, whether I'd be a dodgeball captain or a biz dev person or whatever my role was. The opportunity or privilege to be a professor came relatively late in life, right? Um, and it's just, I mean, there's a bit of kismet that USC is in L.A. you know, where I'm at, at a time when I was looking to find a meaningful way to help our next generation of creators.

Let me answer your question more literally. I've had the chance to work globally. And one of the things I synthesized was that it is much more competitive now to get your game discovered and played than it was back in olden times. like Sega cartridges or whatever, PlayStation games, where there are very few games, okay? There's a lot of games. And so people need a lot of help to make unique experiences. They need a lot of help distributing them.

They need a lot of help now with their public persona to support them, right? That didn't exist in the 90s or the aughts or whatever. And so that is a problem that I love helping with, right? is how do you not only just have a cool game idea, but how do you get it made, get it distributed, and then how do you sustain it? Now that games are kind of a service, right? It's not just how much does it sell.

It's like, how do you keep that engagement going? Like, that's a new craft. I'm just super into helping people with that challenge, and teaching is one way that you can contribute to that. So, yeah, it's just, it's, that's how I knew. And then I sort of, the same way I took action, back when I started to do a cold call. I had a lunch with Tracy Fullerton,

who's the founder of the USC games program, and we just talked for real, like a cold, no different than that NHL hockey call, really. Right? I said, this is what I'm passionate about. Let's go. And fortunately, she believed me, just like Jim Simmons,

and now I'm a professor of the practice. I'm going to jump in really quick because I feel like Gordon needs to know what's happening right now on the server, which is, A new phrase has been coined. We are calling it Big Gordon Energy or BGE, because everyone is very interested in bottling your energy.

So I just want you to know that we might be taking this to social. It might become a thing. I think there could be a thing. Like, I think everybody needs some BGE, Big Gordon energy to get us. It's like better than caffeine, I think. Forget coffee. I just need in the morning some BGE. So I just want you to know that you have inspired that going on in Discord right now.

And so that's awesome. I hope they're using it to lift each other up. Like that's cool. If they're using it to be kind and lift each other up, then I'm super into it. And it was born here at NZXT and it's like hashtag NZXT, VGE. I'll go with that. Whatever it needs to be like, like, yeah, that's awesome. Good.

Everyone would be awesome to each other. It's like it's hard out here. Like people are going through still like a lot like publicly personally. intimately and sometimes you just don't know how much meaning it can have to someone else to just be kind like a little extra bonus kindness can really mean a lot to the person on the other side of it um so yeah into it yeah awesome okay doing it i'm gonna do it myself that's awesome we're gonna make it happen bg okay bg got it into it that's funny that should be like a segment on the podcast it's like every week we just have a clip of of gordon with his uh with his with his high

and fresh BGE. I'm ready for it. Just some kind words. It'd be like an Andy Rooney segment. Remember 60 minutes, but it just would be about kindness and being awesome with each other, into it. Super down. Lordy wants to know, would you trade one million bagels for $10,000?

Would I trade one million? Wait, I could have one million bagels? Yes. Okay, no. Or trade. I was a trick question. He says trade. I would take the $10,000.

Here's why. I don't have a reasonable plan for distributing one million bagels. Right. And so because I just know myself and know my truth, like I'd go, giving me that many bagels would be too many bagels because I couldn't even throw a big bagel part. I get all you can bagel party. Like it if you gave me $10,000, I could throw a complete bagel fest. Give everyone all the kind. Heck, I could order them in from Montreal. I could order them from Montreal and have literally bagels for everyone that I could distribute in a reasonable manner and have a positive bagel experience. because I'm not sure everyone wants a yester bagel or a last week bagel, right, which is what they'd be getting from me if you gave me one million bagels, right? Like, I'd be like trying to find like on Reddit the bagel barbell economy, like, you know, barring, right?

What can I get? I'll give you 27,000 bagels. The bagel economy. You got to pick them up, right? Oh, can we, can we set a new crypto called bagel bagel coin? Bagel coin. I think he will be done for that. Super, super clear to me.

I'll, I will take the freedom of the $10,000 and I will buy everyone gets bagels. All good. Okay. That's interesting. I quite enjoy. Delivered. I feel like we should all be using things like yester bagel. That might be one of my other, along with BG and E.

Not BGNI. Oh my God. Sounds like our. Power company. BGE and Yester bagel are my two favorite takeaways right now. Okay. I'm still like absorbing all that right now. It's just a lot.

I'm sorry. That was another, that was a trick question. I apologize. I'm going to stick with conviction to my wanting to $10,000. I think it might have been a trick question, but we turned into a real question. Yeah,

one million bagels. So jokes on you, buddy. Okay, cool. I mean, there are a lot of questions that go, like there's a lot of clarifying you would need with a statement like that. For example, do we have to make the one million? bagels because I'm not making a million bagels to trade for that 10k.

So parameters, I think, around this is important. Okay. Matters. So we need those things before we can really answer that question because if someone said you have to make the million bagels for that 10K, you might be like, uh, that's situation. All right. All right.

I have a weird, weird flex crowd question. Does anyone play like psychonauts? Anyone like a psychonauts family and stuff? Did back in the day? Back of the day. Okay. because my next call after this podcast is over is with Tim Schaefer, and I will take a question from this group,

and I will ask him, then I'll put the answer back in the chat because I'm full service that way. That's what community is about giving back, right? I'm literally like 1130. I'll be like, oh, and this is a question I got to ask you, whatever it may be. So someone out there was like a hardcore. I always wanted to know, I don't know, not my problem.

What is everyone's favorite Tim Schaefer game? Who's got opinions on that? I know what my is that. Is that before everyone's time? Is that of a time? I don't want to be out of tune. I think that's not Fortnite. That's not Fortnite. That's not Call of Duty, right? They might be like

the time passes. That's true. It's true. I think he is kind of before a lot of these kids' times. Yeah. See? Fair. Never mind. Onward. His last game was Broken Age and before that brutal legend, which I don't think people would remember brutal legend. I still

have a brutal legend statue, a collectible statue that someone a lot of people do. I feel There's like a lot of those like like like uh, roaming around like in the in the wild like sure well no interesting thing about public person so Tim I would argue was one of the biggest personalities of his generation like sort of the of the sort of the alt Cliffy B era okay like the end of last no right creator leaders you know I'm talking about yeah right but but in the streaming era the

personalities that are the biggest in games are these are content creators yep for the most part. And so there's actually been a displacement of interest. So I bet people, you know, know who Pockemain is. They know who Tim the Tappment, you know what I mean? They know when they have strong feelings in a way that people used to have strong feelings about lead designers in that of that time. It's an interesting sort of changing of the guard, which I'd say tying back to what I was trying to teach is because the discourse around games is as important as the design and play. Do you think we can change that? Like, do you think we can go back to that spot? No. No. No. No, no, no, because I think that they're such, okay, never say never, right? Because you would say like LeBron James will never exist, right? Never say never, right? There'll always be someone who is who moves things forward in some meaningful way, who is like just an authentic voice, but also can click, clack on that keyboard in a meaningful way. Like that, of course they'll exist. They'll be, they're probably growing up right now. The heck, they're probably working on a game.

while listening to the NCXT podcast, right? Like they're, you know, yeah, though the young multi-faceted paladin, right? Or wait for it because everyone knows the paladin is, right? Yes. I'm gonna coin a phrase in this podcast, live. It's a polyden. A polyden has more than two traits that they combine together to make something meaningful. That's just hit me right now.

It's just like that. Yes. They're like, they're not just a night and magic. They are doing multiple things together. to attack problems. Right. I'm not even sure how it's spelled yet. I think it's one L.

Two D's. I think, I think. I'm going to put the text. But you hurry it, just in case you're here, you heard it here on the M-D-X-T podcast. This word was invented. Live, live. You see it?

What did you see it? You can't un-see it. I like this. I feel like we have established a lot. Like there is a new language coming out of this podcast. There are some words that we are going to all-star going to all start using now, they are going to be industry wide. It's, it's happening. It's happening in real time and everyone who's listening is hearing it. Into it. I mean, it does such a great crowd,

too. Like, God, look at those faces. It's awesome. Hi, everyone. That's so cool. I see you. What other question? Do we have any other questions from the community? I believe that might actually be it. Let me double check. Oh my gosh, BGE E. Lordy. I love it. See, it's already happening. Hey, Lordy. It's so good. Lordy, I want you know that you're seen. You're seeing. Oh, I wrote boosting, by the way. I see everyone like, what they called? What are those booster diamonds called, Talley?

What's the lore? They're like your, yeah, they have little diamond. They have the purple diamonds. It means they're discord boosting your server, I believe. Yeah, I mean, they're, oh, I don't, wow, way to put me on the spot. I don't even know if there's a specific name. You know what? Pretend that we never ask any question.

These would be called homies. Answer. Booster diamonds. We call them homies on the server. Oh, nice. Are they? Okay, whatever. Homies.

Homies, I want you know. your scene. Did you get those shoutouts? You got to validate, right? Like pride fantasy and Lando and moosh. Oh, moosh. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.

I know you for the Twitter. Hey. It's the moosh. You know the moosh? The big moosh. Yeah. I don't know Big Moosh. Yeah, he's, uh, you know.

He worked with us. Oh, I just know the Big Moosh because Big Moosh was super kind to me. So I just say, hey, Big Moosh. Shout out. Thank you for being here. That's awesome. I know him because he's a Montreal bagel target. Oh, okay.

Nice. I feel like this whole Montreal bagel thing at some point. I'm just going to have to send Montreal bagels to everyone so everyone can try. Or just have a bag like everyone come hang out. I'm going to order Montreal bagels and you can all just eat bagels at my house. So everyone comes to San Francisco and I will provide the bagels. That will be my contribution to your crowd. Can I shout out the wordplay by the way?

Because I just want like Catatouille and Corruption to be seen because I love both these names and I'm just into it. I'm just going to say my feelings are valid. These are very cool names. We got good names. This is a good, this is a pretty good squad, I think. Anoni, Anoni is best Fox. Nice. Best Fox. I can't see, how do I make this full screen?

I want to see all the things. Some of the things are cut off. I might be missing out on some of the great wordplay because the names are cut off. No, they're, I just can't see them. Oh, the Randallel. Oh, okay, I'm sorry, the Randallorian. Hi, you're seeing.

Okay, the Randallorian. And because, okay, so I thought I invented this, but I used to call, we used to call people who were like strangers, Randolph-Calrissian. Like, oh, look, it's Randoliancaurician. So when I see the Randolian, I see a next generation of similar feelings and wordplay that I appreciate. You're all.

The Randolian may be what I take from this, because I'll be out in the world like, oh, whatever, Randolarian. That's amazing. That's my, that is, okay, definitely on the metal stand of handles. For sure. That I'm seeing right now. Is that I'm part of the dictionary? Randolorian?

Oh, yeah, facts. Oh, that's lore. That's lore. Randolorian is lore. And yeah, my favorite icons are Anoni and I love the animals. Oh, I love Burt. Because Burt. And then my favorite.

And then my third, oh, well, May's face, of course, that's a great one. Mase face. But I got to say, oh, wait, look at all of these. Is it okay that I pick favorites? Is it okay? I mean, go for it. Once again, everyone's back.

But I've got favorites. So Anoni, the cavitated. Wait, oh, it's a tough one. Oh, so many good icons. There's a lot. Oh, pending. Okay, pending. Okay, I got to do pending.

I want to shout out Jeff for having that default Discord profile picture. I mean, what a G. Wait, wait, I'm going to shout out Jeff for having that rainbow of inclusion. Thank you, Jeff. Allies, welcome. Appreciate it. There you go. That's what I'm talking about.

What is this kind of shenanigans? We were... Birthday twins. Oh, my God. Serving some drop... Oh, now they're getting better. They're serving me like Rocky... Rocky Ford, Drago.

Davey Boy comes in late heat. This is late. This is hardcore. This is pretty hardcore going on here. I feel like maybe we're going to section of the podcast is like best in entertainment, icons, whatever it is. Have you seen decaffeinated birth though?

I mean, it's... Okay. I've realized that some animate, And maybe that should be a different category because it's not really fair to go head to head with like decapade Bert or land who is. Who is land all? I don't know who that is. Is that a celebrity in Land Dolores? I don't know who that is. Not too sure to be honest.

I don't sure. I mean, if we're shutting people out, I want to shout out Min because Min's always in the chat. He's always listening to the podcast. He's a homie. Men, I think you know what, men, you're valid. However, I feel if you're. he, if men went to an animated profile, this could be a real look. I'm just my opinion.

My opinion is valid. I'm saying, man, it's great shot. But he went to an animated one and then you're giving that look. I mean, that's, that, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's chef's kiss content right there. Yeah, he knows what's up. Can I just throw out, can I have a, I have a question for everyone. Sure.

Is it now common practice and I'm just like, bold and not cool anymore, that you have to say chefs kiss while you do the chef's kiss. I was having this hot debate with my sister. Yes, because she is chef's kiss. She says, and I'm like, you shouldn't have to say the words. You just do. Saying chef's kiss is chef's kiss. Why do you have to say? I don't understand. Okay. Let's let's let's read. Let's roll back. So let's pride on it. You don't have to do anything. However, to deliver the entirety of audio, visual communication, right? You, ah, do you need to clap physically because you're clapping? No, you could be emotionally appreciative of the performance and in your heart be clapping.

But if you actually choose to clap, more people will enjoy what you're doing more. I think it's a choice. I think it's a freedom thing. But you don't have to clap. No one needs to grab your wrist and make you clap. If you're not feeling it, then you're not feeling it. That's valid. Okay, okay. I mean, I feel like that all makes sense. I like that it is like arguably more inclusive because more people because more people can participate. So I will embrace the saying chef's kiss with the chef's kiss.

Okay. Like, I'm bringing me a lot of, we've all grown on this podcast. We've all grown together. I feel better. I feel like I got some BG and E now. Not BG&E? I can't do this.

It's over. I think you're trying to put like sponsorship. I feel like that's a sponsor thing. You're like being sponsored by, presented by BG and E. It sounds good. BGE. I've got some BGE today. It's going to be real hard.

Sorry, everyone, real, real hard. But if you see me throwing the hand in there, just yell at me. I'm okay with it. Okay. All right. Let's go move on to Community Roundup. We got some quick community news. First one, everyone should know this already, but if they don't, you can read Gordon's

interview on the N60 blog. Check it out, please. Check out the... That's soon PM, by the way. Yeah, soon TM. Okay, so never mind that. We have any website that we're still figuring out how to use. It's been such a...

Stand by. It's been an endeavor, for sure. Also, on the N60 blog, find out what pride means to community members, Ramee, Money, Nicole on the N60 blog. So they helped us with writing some words about what pride means of them, how they celebrate pride, and stuff like that.

It's really, really great. I'm glad that we're able to highlight our community members, you know, especially during pride, right? There's no reason why we shouldn't. lastly in community updates we are almost at our goal for the so almost at our extended goal because we extended it because we hit it the first time on our pride fundraiser we are 14,000 1446 dollars and 69 cents very nice out of 15,000 so we're almost there we're so close to that second donation goal so if you can't contribute totally cool tell your

tell your mom, tell your dad, tell your uncle, tell your Gordon to help us get all the way to the end, hit that finish line. We got one week left. You can also support without your money if you just want to retweet our pinpost on Twitter. Spread the word. That'd be awesome, too. Exactly, exactly. And announcements, so, I mean, Lance is, but before we go ahead and, like, end this out here, follow Gordon on all social medias everywhere. Gordon, where you at?

Okay, you could follow me. My Twitter is Gordon Bellamy, so G-O-R-D-O-N-B-E-E-L-L-A-M-Y. and my Insta is Cyber C-Y-B-E-R C-Y-O-O-P-E-R, C-O-O-P-E-R, C-O-O-P-E-R, named after my first two dogs, Cyber and Cooper, who I love. That's really cute.

I like that. Wow. That's awesome. And then learn more about G-G-G-G-G-G-G-Gay-Gaming. Gay-Gaming, bro. Oh, I should plug it. So, um, so Twitch-T-V-T-V-V-V-Gay-Gaming-Pros.

And that's also our website, gay gaming-pros. dot org. So G-A-Y, G-A-M-I-N-G. It's a dot-o-o-S. It's real. Pros. And not or, yeah.

Stop running. It's, it's super legit because of that. Dot-org. You only get a dot-org if you're a legitimate organization who is awesome and does cool things. Sure. And everybody's welcome.

They're valid. Allies. They're valid. And, yeah. And, of course, we have a Discord as well. It's probably the lowest thing. I've got to learn to plug the Discord. But, uh, hold on.

Discord. for dodgy g slash gay gaming pros. I dropped all the links in the... Oh, perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Everyone's look. And then, yeah, once again, yeah, come, you know what? Come party tonight.

Desktop mode. You don't need a VR headset. You come desktop mode. 8 o'clock Pacific. Your chat's right? It's in VR chat. 4 a.m. London time. I think, I think we have a N6T wifu

VR chat skin. Do you remember who has Ivan? Yeah, what's that? Do you remember who made that? I don't remember who made it, but it would be fantastic. It might have been fantastic. I don't know if he's still here. He might be taking a break.

Yeah, we do have Akira. Yeah, Akari, actually, Ivan. Oh, yeah, sorry. How dare you? Mr. Fantastic 3D guy, I think tag him. He might hold the keys to the VR NXXT wifu keys, so go ahead and bug him and he'll let you know. Gordon, any parting words? No, I just got to say thank you.

Thank you. Everyone who showed up and hung out. Just, you know, make friends and be kind to each other, right? That's the thing. You found each other here. So say hi and be kind and stuff. And, yeah, hopefully just, you know, see you more either tonight or over on Twitch or back here on the podcast.

And yeah, I got to jump too. So, yeah, same. Yeah, I got to go. But thank you, everybody who made time. It's super cool. You know, when you put yourself out there and people may make time, it means a lot. So I appreciate all of you making time. Thanks, Gordon.

Thank you, Gordon. Thank you, man. Okay, we'll do. All right. Bye. Bye. All right, folks. And with that,

thank you for joining us, Gordon. Thank you to everybody who tuned in. Remember to tune in next week at 10am Pacific Center time, the official N-Z-C Discord server, and follow at N-Z-T on all relevant and irrelevant social media. And don't forget to send an email to clubcast at N-Z-C-com. That is C-L-B-C-A-S-T-E-E-S-T, at nzexc.com if you want to ask us a question off the air and don't forget to listen to

previous episodes on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud. And with that, folks, thank you very much. We love you. Have a great day. Have a great week. Have a great pride. Bye.