NZXT PODCAST - #114 - Mallory Loar

Episode Date: November 18, 2021

This week we're joined by Discord's Senior Brand Manager Mallory Loar! We discuss Animal Crossing, branding your company, and being a plant parent. Follow Mallory at twitter.com/MalloryLoar Tune in live every Thursday at 10AM PT on twitch.tv/NZXT and send your questions to: [e-mail]

Man, I'm going to be late for work. This is actually is not giving me, it's not filling with happiness. So, because we're just going to go back to the basics. Can you do that one more time? What? Love to hear it. Best way to start.

Best way to start. If we can start the show like that, every single time, that will be, that will be the best. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 114, the NZXT podcast, the official podcast of the NXT community. This podcast was recorded live every Thursday at 10 a year and Pacific Senate of time. The official N60 Twitch is available to stream on demand on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud. So sit back, everyone, relax, and imagine a place called the N60 podcast.

My name is Dennis and with me. As always is Ivan. How do you do, baby boo? Chilling. I'm tired. My brain is melted from two days of straight meetings. Yeah, I think yesterday we said that. It felt like we did like two podcast episodes, like back to back or something.

It felt like 20 podcast episodes back to back. But I will say that, you know, seeing Talley and Jeff and Jess and Josh and Jordan and Ivan and Amanda and Andy and Anna and who else is there, Joe and I forget who else. I'm probably forgetting a name. that definitely re-invigorated me. It made me feel good to see everybody. So it was very nice. Joe, Joe who, exactly, Joe who? Joe, Joe who?

So special show today, we have, we have, you can't hear me? Oh, hold up. Is it breaking? People tell me that they can't hear me. Hello, test, one, two, test, test. Nice to meet you. Not Pope yet. It might be Discord. Hold up.

Discord. Hold up. Let me know. Okay. So they can hear me. Okay. How about this? Better? The guests can't hear me. They're telling me that, that, uh, that I cannot be heard. Quick second. Live production folks. This is totally cool. How about that? How about this? Okay, even better. We'll just, we'll just, we'll just do this. Bam. How about that? How's that sound? Look at that. Look at me go. I'm a god. I'm back. I'm back. Production production, production God. Anyway, you know, I'm going to go. We've only done this. This is what episode number 114. And one day we'll get it right.

Yeah. Talley, the show should be live. I can see the feed. So we're good to go. Everyone's like, is it working as good? I'm like, as I can see it. I'm sure everybody can see it. So Talley, Tally say something. She's not saying anything. I don't think. Tally. can't hear. No, Tully, you're on mute. Tully, unmute yourself. Talley. I like how you see her typing, but not saying anything.

She's like, yeah. So like we didn't even know. Go back into OBS and unmute yourself into OBS Ninja. And unmute. No, she doesn't do anything in OBS Ninja. All she's got to do is just talk in Discord. Okay, just kidding. and don't listen to me.

Yeah, don't, don't listen to me. I have no idea what I'm talking about. Just don't listen to me. Okay, Talley, say something. Say a word, like really loud. Yell into the microphone. I see you chewing your time. I'm going to tell her to log off, Discord, and rejoin.

Okay, so here's the thing, right? Here's the thing. I don't see her talking, though. I see Talley just staring at the microphone and making faces, but not actually, like, opening up and you're going. I know. I, you have to say something, Polly. Something tells me this is a very elaborate troll.

Can you hear me now? Yes. I was like, well, who's everyone talking to? You're talking to you. She wasn't even saying. I agree with Popart. Pops in the chatty is saying that you're probably trolling us and I totally understand. Probably.

So what happened? What I missed? So in lieu of that happening, right? In lieu of that happening, let's start over. Now I'm kidding. No, I was going to. Okay, go for it. Do your dance.

Do your thing. We're just chilling. Who doesn't like this song? Oh, my God. All right. I'm already done with this show. All right, guys, thanks for listening. Follow on Discord or wherever we're somewhere.

Follow us a NeoPets. Follow the NZXT podcast NeoPets account. We got all the hot dogs. I'd never play Neopets. NST has a Neopets account? We should. That's pretty cool. We do now.

We just launched. This minute, this minute. Yeah, so special guests. Special guests. First off, Talley is returning. Our glorious boss said, I'm going to be on the show. And we're like, okay, we can't say no. So Tally's here.

Everyone say how to Tally. Yay. Tally's here. Hi. And super deep. We finally got to meet her in person. Yeah, we did. Yeah.

Not as short as Ivan made me believe. Because Ivan's like, imagine Talley is like three feet tall. And I'm like, there's no way Talley is that short. I told Dennis that you were, you were a female Danny DeVito. Like the same height. That's hilarious. Yeah. I am, I, I feel like there is a social study that we should do somehow about how we perceive

people's height, but I hope I lived up to the hype. You did. I would say, I would say everybody's heights were about what I expected. Pretty much. Why is it that like every time you meet someone in person that you like have been working with or talking with for some time? Height is always the thing that people talk about. They're like, oh my God, you're so much shorter than I thought. You're so much taller than I thought.

It's always a height thing. Every single time. It's like the first thing that people bring up for some reason. True, true. I don't know why, but it is true. It is true. I feel like there is some, again, social thing that we associate height with something. I don't know.

It's funny because after we left the meeting, there was a couple of us and we talked about if everyone was as tall as we expect. That is exactly my point. Why? Why is that a hot topic? I don't know. Stay strong, short kings. Stay strong.

So other special special guests who's been just chilling here with us and dancing and all kinds of stuff is the one-only senior manager of brand at Discord, Mallory, Laura. Hi. Hi, everybody. Hello. Hello. I'm excited to be here. Are you excited? Honestly, the highlight of my week because I've also been in meetings all week. Hey, let's go.

So this is, I'm excited to be here. So thank you. Yeah, we're excited to have you. I mean, we've known you for a long time. I think when I first started working at NZXT's, when you started working at Discord, NXT and Discord, we've been buddies since forever. So, yeah, it's awesome to have you on here. Looking forward to chatting with you.

We have a buddies forever. Me too. Yeah. And of course, Tully used to work at Discord. Tully used to be my boss. Tully is actually one of the people that brought me to Discord. Oh, my God. Great, great circle of people here.

Yeah. I had to win Mallory over. I actually, on her, like, interviews, I picked her up at the airport. It was like, yeah. Wow. Yep. She had the dine and wine? So we met at Pax, and we wanted, I worked at Steel Series before I

worked at Discord, which is like a gaming peripheral company. And I told Tully that I was going to visit San Francisco to see friends. And she was like, I'll pick you up at the airport. You can come see the Discord office. It'll be great. And she picked me up. And as we're driving to the Discord office and Burlingame, she's like, we want you to come work here. So just as a just as a stuff. Wow. And that's kind of how it all started. But yes, it's all thanks to Tully. And then we were like fast friends from there though. We found out we had the same car. We like, Mallory has been since adopted into my family.

I would argue they like her more than me. She is like one of them. She is, it's been like from there. It was all uphill, I would say. But I did win her over and it was a hard sell. Hard sell in the car. That's awesome. I think my interview, Ivan was just like, cool, we grew up in the same town.

You want to work here? I'm like, oh, yeah, sure. I found out that was easy. I went to the same high school and I was like, oh man, you're hired. You get me. Oh, that's crazy. You understand what I'm trying to do here. So for those who don't know, Mallory, who are you?

What do you do? Who am I? Who am I? What do I do? Okay, well, I've been at Discord for about five and a half years now, which is nuts. When I started, it was very small and Discord. has grown quite rapidly over the last few years, which has been really exciting. And I'm currently the senior brain manager at Discord, so I help lead a lot of our community

and our content marketing efforts. So that ranges from anything you might see on our Twitter, Instagram, TikTok accounts, our blog, to our videos, all the way to our amazing community programs that we support are sort of the things that I touch have worked a lot on like our rebrand, are repositioning to expand outside of games in 2019 or 2020. Now I don't remember time. And then worked with Tali over the years on a bunch of different things, whether that's like events, parties, game nights, community shenanigans, like just honestly, I've been able to kind of touch a lot of different parts of Discord in my sort of few years here.

Outside of that, I definitely love to play games. have a background of games. And outside of that, I love plants. I like being outdoors. I like surfing. I like to stay. I like my dog who's barking upstairs right now. I can hear her.

She's probably just excited. Yeah, we can hear her too. It's totally cool. It's just an extra guest, right, for the show. That's fine. I messed up with you. How did you get your start in the gaming industry? How did I get my start?

So back when Tumblr was cool, I don't know if anybody is familiar with Tumblr, but when I was in college, and it's already about 10 years ago, holy cow, I'm getting older, I ran a gaming blog on Tumblr called Insanely Gaming. And I guess I had sort of a hard time connecting with a lot of people in IRL that enjoyed sort of the same games that I did. So I loved playing Bioshock. I was playing Fall in Vegas at the time, which I really enjoyed. And I decided to make a blog so that I can sort of share my love of games with the world. And from there, my blog sort of grew. And that was sort of what gave me access to interning at Steel Series. I was able to go to E3 for the first time, which was really excited.

I was able to make a lot of connections from there. and then of course Steel Series is of course also brought me to Discord so so yeah it's all thanks to Tumblr and actually if we take it a step back even further I would say that it's all thanks to

Neopats Let's go Let's talk about that Because because I wouldn't have made my blog I wouldn't have made my blog without playing Neopets I would sit in the forums

and I realized that so many people were using Tumblr and that's kind of how I got started there. And I don't know. And I learned a lot of HTML and CSS, which helped me sort of, you know, create my blog on Tumblr. So it's all connected. But actually, at the end of the day,

it all goes back to Neopets. That's how I got started. Now, can I just... Before we go into Neopetts, before we go into anything else, I think that an important Mallory moment to share as we're talking about the life of Mallory is tell us about Paxi,

what was it two years ago when Animal Crossing was about to come out and what and Mallory became even more famous than she already is, which is already pretty famous, but she went next to all. not, but thank you. Tell us all. Well, I've always, I've always loved Animal Crossing. I feel like that's kind of obvious. I have a lot of strong childhood memories around playing Animal Crossing. And when they announced New Horizons, well, I actually found out the Discord office with my coworkers. And I had a lot of strong emotions. I was screaming. I was crying. And then I guess the whole rest of the Discord office kind of got spooked because they thought like an intruder was coming into the building, which don't do that. Don't ever scream very loudly in an office.

It will scare people, so don't do that. But from there, when Animal Crossing was at Pax East in 2020, 2020, no, it's 2020, actually. It was right before COVID stuff started. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the Discord booth was right next to the Animal Crossing booth. I was really excited, of course, to see it. And one of my coworkers, Tori, actually filmed my reaction.

But as we were sort of going down the escalators, if you've ever been to Pax East, you go down and you, like, see the entire show floor, the show floor, which is awesome. I just started crying because it was, I was like my childhood dreams coming to life. And I was just filled with, I think, a lot of emotion and happiness. So I started crying. And then I thought, you know, this is a really wholesome moment. Why not post this? And then I guess, you know, for some reason people thought it was really wholesome and cute. Including Nintendo.

So funny thing. Oh, yes, including Nintendo. Including Nintendo. Yes. Yes. So we actually got it pulled up right here. The tree is so cute. Yeah, I'm shaking.

Literally tears. Just stream tears. They know. There you. I had the same reaction when I saw the super mega baseball booth tennis. Oh really? Wow.

Everyone has that game. Everybody has that game that like just makes them really emotional because there's so much you know memories and nostalgia behind it. So but yeah. And then Nintendo was like, hey, why don't you come film a video with us? We'll give you all these things. I was like, okay.

I'm like, all right. If my tears, you know, are inspire you to do this then. I'm down to be a part of it. So it was honestly my favorite packs I've ever experienced. That was awesome. That's great. Achievement unlocked. Being in a Nintendo video.

That's awesome. And all you got to do is cry, right? That's it. Tears. Do you think that inspired more people just to like walk up to booth and you just start crying? It's like, oh my God, I love Far Cry so much. And just like tearing up. Oh, do you want to be the next far cry game?

And like their games and their their names are the credits or something the next time. if you could be any animal crossing character who would it be and why wow that's a really good question my like my mind right now says tom nook because why not sort of just take everybody's money but that's probably not actually who i'd want to be i think i'd like to be isabel um isabel isabel is just cute she's the OG you know she's running the running the show um you know and that's that's where I want to be so I I choose as a bell um not bad not bad where do you stand the correct answer was Tom nook but we'll accept it I was I was saying either either or either so I have to ask what's your what's your what side do you take on on the Tom nook being evil or not evil camp because I'm very much on

he's not that bad of a dude. People just want to give him a bad rap. What do you think about that? Totally evil. How's evil? Really? I don't know if he's evil. I don't think he's evil.

Okay. He's evil because he kind of like manipulates the way you, you have to like live a little bit, you know? That's fair. I mean, his prices are a little outrageous. I would, I would, I'll say that, you know. Does he charge a lot? Yes. But where else are you going to get?

an interest-free loan with unlimited time to pay off. Right. And he gives you everything before you even pay for it. You don't have to pay a penny and your house already has like an extra room in it. And then that's it. And then you just take your time. But then you're in debt to him for like the rest of your life. Right.

But that's a choice. Controversial opinion. That's the choice you make. I am not an Animal Crossing fan. All right. All right. All right. Bye.

Bye. See you. Thanks for having us here. It was like to meet you. I'm just kidding. Although I play other games, which I feel like Viva Penaata is my favorite, so I feel like there is some similarity, but something about Viva Penaata.

And I have been playing, which I feel like, Malory you might like, is this new game called Let's Build a Zoo. I love Zoothoon. It's by, you know, I'm sure many people out there know him, but Mike Rose, his team, a team he works with, and he is definitely a friend of Discord. word and I've been playing that game obsessively so you might want to check that out a little indie game check it out on steam everyone oh hell yeah for mike rose but um and team no more robots

so i've been but the game is kind of awesome i've not played it but my partner has been and they'll tell me things like yeah so i just sold this like elephant to the black market i'm like what i'm like what game is this and then we and then like here i have like an incinerator so like you know Like when people are buying food, they can like see the animals being like, you know, like disposed of. I'm like, what, what game is this? What game is playing? That was tough. The incinerator is tough.

But clearly I need to have a discussion with them about this black market. Because I've chosen the good, the path of good. And I can't do the black market. Animal Crossing is a black market as well where people are like buying and selling villagers. Oh, yeah. A dark way. It's a pretty dark way. I don't, I don't partake in.

that. I don't, I do not, I don't partake in that. Although I will say, if you are on my island and you are just ugly, like I will find a way to kick you out. So, um, that's, you know, and I know a lot of people feel the same way, but I won't, um, participate in the black market of Animal Crossing. I refuse. I found the bit the weirdest part of Animal Crossing. It's like, aren't she supposed to be like super wholesome and nice and like, oh, I don't like the pants you're wearing. Get off my island. I'm going to smack you with the net for a hundred, you know, hours until you leave. I'm just a circus and it's wholesome, but if you like dig a little deeper, you're going to find out that. There's like a deep, seedy, like scary underworld of Animal Crossing. My favorite thing is wacky people with that net. Yeah, it's the best. Literally. All right. Next, next animal crossing question for you.

What fruit is the best? Oh. What fruit is the best? Yes. And why is it peaches? Uh, I was listening to. I'm about to say peaches because it looks like a little cute butt. So.

Correct. That's a correct. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. I got great. Although that's the connection you made too. It's like, I wonder.

I wonder why. Okay, never mind. It's because of butts, right? It's all about the butts. It's all because of the butts. Yeah. So. So I want to roll it back just a little bit and just kind of ask you for, for, and you kind of went into

it a little bit about like a brand manager, that seems like a title that's very kind of like, it could be anything, right? Like anything could be attached to brands. So like when you, when say you're, you meet someone on the bus and like, oh, what do you do? Oh, I'm a brand manager at Discord. And they go, great, awesome. What the heck's a brand manager? How would you explain to them?

Yeah. Honestly, I think that I think that's a really good question. And I would say that brand at Discord is something that's a bit fairly new. and I mean overall like Discord has sort of its own personality, a voice and tone. We sort of have a set of brand values that we embody throughout our product, right, throughout the way that we do external marketing. And it's sort of my goal and my role to sort of, you know, bring that messaging, bring that sort of brand narrative voice and tone to all of the channels that my team support.

So I would say that it's kind of like that, which I know is probably still not a clear-cut answer for lots of folks. But yeah, like there's a, you know, like if you follow our Twitter account, any of our social accounts, if you follow our blog or any of our community programs, you'll notice that there are consistent touch points between all of those channels, that the voice and tone is sort of very playful and relatable. and that sort of our personality carries through consistently across a lot of our channels. So, you know, I kind of make sure that those touchpoints are consistent across our channels and make sure that we like stay true to who we are as a brand is definitely something that I champion as well. So hopefully that kind of helps. What's the most challenging thing about that?

Because that seems like a really hard job. The most challenging thing about it is the fact that, look, like, Discord has evolved and has grown quite a bit, especially over the pandemic. They're, you know, when we originally first built Discord, it was for gamers. And so we've done a lot of work to expand outside of games because we realized that a lot of people were, you know, outside of just gamers, we're using Discord to sort of find belonging and sort of connect. and we wanted to make sure that we were also sort of, you know, catering to all different types of people that were using the platform, right? And so with that means that we sort of have to take a step back and, you know, take a look at a brand and how we portray ourselves and, you know, evolve it, right? Which is hard.

I think it's hard to sort of go through the process of changing and evolving a brand, especially one that people like adore and love so much, right? So it's like, how do you strike the balance of, like, you know, changing and evolving according to, the platform and to the people that use it. In addition to like staying true to you know, what you've built since day one that people sort of really enjoy. So it's it's a give and it's a balancing act. So I would say that is like the most the most challenging part, right? And of course so many people internally have lots of opinions on what that should look like, right? So yes, definitely a balancing act. That's definitely and one of the most challenging parts for sure. You're so right too about like Discord having evolved so much and Rick really fast.

You know like it used to be like you know I have a Discord hoodie and when I wear it when I wear it like before like every once in a while like a gamer would be like oh cool like Discord you know that's I love that app. Yeah cool that's a cool app join the ntXT server you know like shameless stuff But now, like, so many people when I'm wearing that hoodie, like, draw, like, they ask me questions about it. Like, the other day, I was at the grocery store and the cashier, you know, it's like a woman in her 50s. She's like, oh, Discord.

I use that app to, to chat with my kids. They love it. Like, wow. Like, it's, I would never think, like, you know, a 50-year-old woman. Yeah. Like, a cashier would know discord. And, you know, she totally knew it. And, yeah, my mom.

my sisters and mother-in-law and my sister-in-law is like they're all on Discord too now. It's kind of weird. Yeah. Not just for gamers. No, not at all. I'm in a lot of different types of servers. One of my favorite ones that I recently joined is like a house plant community that's dedicated to like identifying and helping sort of provide care for specific houseplants. They even have like a plant identification bot where you can like take a photo and then the bot will actually identify the type of plant that it is. That would have never happened five years ago. Like, I would never be in a server like that at this point.

I think that the bigger question here that needs to be asked is, Mallory, how many houseplants do you have? I have a lot. So I just moved recently, so I don't have any plants in my background, but I have like between 60 to 70 indoor house plants. I think I enjoyed plants before the pandemic, okay, but then the pandemic happened, and it kind of got like a little out of hand. So I like to live in a jungle if I can. So you're like Animal Crossing in real life. Is that what you're saying?

Yes. Yes. What is your favorite? Look, wait. Oh, my favorite plant. I love Monsteros. I love fiddlestos. I love cactus type plants. I love succulents. yes so we're on screens all day people you know so we need some like greenery around us you know sure i am desperately googling of the names of all these plants so i know what they look like you know what the heck are you talking about just doing the server it's doing the house plant identifying server and you can see all the plants that's a crazy bot idea too like just take a picture it tells you that's so weird now there there are some really awesome some some some some awesome bots at And I really like that we're going to talk about this because particularly with the brand.

Like I know that Discord, like when I first heard of it was like just just for gaming, right? People used it for gaming, right? But that wasn't true because a lot of people used it for a lot of different things. Like I know one of the first times I used Discord in like a real way, like outside of gaming was it's still kind of gaming related. But this was when I forget the name of the game. I think it's called Ingress, the game that was made by the dudes who made Pokemon Go Atlantic. So I would use that as a tool to meet up with people in real life so we can go, like, do mobile phone AR game things. So even though we still use it for gaming, it was it was a good vehicle for us to meet up and like chat and like figure out where we're at and then like coordinate to do things outside of that.

I mean, I use it, you know, when I'm watching soccer games to see like all all the smack talk, right, or baseball games or football games, whatever. There's like so many discords dedicated to that stuff. during the last boxing match. I was literally in a Discord watching the boxing match, right? And then watching the Discord and it was just hilarious to see just the conversation happened

and that's something that I really value is going to see that like real time conversation over events happening through Discord. It's super cool. I would like someone to invent a bot that identifies cheese so you can just take a picture of the cheese and it'll tell you.

That's a good one. What kind of... Is it blue cheese? Is it? Good cheese. Is it gross cheese or good cheese? No, I need to know the exact type of blue cheese. Is it a stilton blue cheese? Yes. Is it like, what are what kind of blue cheese are we talking about? You know? 100%. So I need to detail.

100%. That would be, I just want to go scan a, scan the grocery store and have it pluck out the cheeses I like. That would be dreamy. Even better. You should just start a new server. Even better until the age of the cheese, right? A cheese server. Who would join my cheese server? It would just be me in there talking about like waiting for people to talk about cheese. That's what would happen. Just have NZXT tweeted out. Everyone will join. There we go.

Easy, easy, easy, peasy. Connect over your love of cheese, Tully. What if you're going to take the age of the cheese too, right? Just like how old it is and where it came from, you know? Sure. All the cheese details. Now, second topic I will bring up that I feel like Ivan, you and Dennis will appreciate. Mm-hmm.

There was a point. I'm bringing this background to past conversations. We, I did bring Montreal bagels to Discord. and we did a bunch of... Wow. Rude. It's true. I was kind of disappointed that you didn't bring us any Montreal.

I know. I feel a little bad about that. I really wanted some too. Wow. But I did do that. A little was a lie. Listen, bagels are real.

They're delicious. Wait a minute. I don't remember having a Montreal bagel. It must have not been that good. You were there. Toasted them in the low coaster. Maybe. At the back kitchen.

And I want to. Oh, you did bring them in. They were frozen. right? They're frozen. So I had to freshen them up for everyone. Frozen bagels. Nothing better than a frozen bagel from Montreal.

You don't eat it frozen. Just right out the freezer fresh, right? Just going to brush off the frost a little bit and take a big old bite. So I've never, I've never had a Montreal bagel, but Mallory, since you actually saw one in real life, is it true that they're better? They're just like regular bagels, but they don't have holes? Pretty much. That's what I imagine, too. They're like a little bit thinner too, right?

I'm sending every, and they have a hole. You know what? Everyone's getting bagels for Christmas. That's it. To everyone. I've been waiting for these bagels. You keep teasing them and they never come. So I don't know.

Talley literally makes a bagel reference at least once a day. And we have yet to see this. That in a Canadian reference or Golden Girls reference or something like that every day. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Mallory. I just want to hear about Tali, actually.

Can I just say, I want to start a controversial topic right now. Okay, so everyone pronounces Mario as in Mario. We'll start with your shud be. Super Mario bros. Yeah. Tully on the other hand says Mario and it's triggering. It's so triggering. Super Mario.

Mario. Anyway, so how do you guys say? Is it Mario or Mario? Listen. You Americans just don't know how to say his name properly. That's what it is. We Canadians pronounce it the right way. Super Mario.

It's a me. Mario. See? Yeah, that doesn't... That is not Mario. You say it. The way it's supposed to be said. So I'm actually Mexican, so I don't say it that way.

I say Mario. Mario. Well, that's probably that's the correct. That's the real correct version. Mine is a step down and the Tully's is even further down that. This is like hot topic now in the chat because I feel like Mario is that. Yes, that's the right way to say it. Mario.

Listen, everyone, just come along to my side. Mar E.O. I say it right. I say it right. Dear Nintendo, just back me up. The other, the other hot topic is how do you pronounce Tali's name? Is it Tali or Tally? Because I always say Tally.

That's another good question. I say Tally. Yeah. I say Talley. Tally. It's going to have the really like harsh A to it, right? Tally. I spell it, tail.

It's true. So does my phone. Actually, my phone, I don't know if you can hear this, but Max changed my name. Max, who is my kid, for anyone who doesn't know. Never heard of them. Changed my phone. Should I see if you can hear what it is? Let's do it. I'm ready for it. I actually saw it. It's very, very weeby. Hello, hey Siri. Go ahead. The wrong series coming up. Forget it. I'll say I'll picture. You can see it.

I don't know what just happened right now, but I feel like I went through like a tunnel. My brain just like, my brain just broke. My computer is reactivated instead of my phone. That's great. That's changed my name and my phone to be stinky butthead tolly. So whenever my name comes up, it says stinky butthead tolly. That's awesome.

Can you show us your phone lock screen? I saw it yesterday and I was like, why is that her lock screen? Because of a character on it? That's something I noticed too from our meetings. Oh my God. All the lock screens? Does anyone, wait, wait. Does anyone know who this is?

It's from Jojo. Is that a Jojo reference, Tully? It's a Jojo reference. Yeah, but do you know who the character is? I can't see it up top. Yeah. It was Dio, right? Do you do?

He's awful. He kills a dog. He's the worst. Okay, hold up. Ivan, what's your lock screen at? Now got to know. Lock screen track. Let's go.

What is it? Mine is not as exciting. Is your Winnie? Actually, it is exciting. That's adorable. That was very cute That was very cute I shouldn't say that about my lock screen

It's actually adorable Let's see it This is Nick my husband And my dog Winnie and after a surf He came out We were at Ocean Beach here in San Francisco

When he gave him a nice little kiss Okay can we A secondary thing Can we see who has the most Messages in their inbox Okay Tully you're gonna win this You're going to win this every time.

Delete your app. Just delete your app. Start all over. Seeing the amount of emails or notification Tully has gives me this like wave of anxiety every single time. It's obnoxious. There's my text message notification. That's disgusting. How do you do that?

I have zero. Yeah, I'm an inbox zero kind of guy. Yeah. Right here. I was zero out. You know, it's funny. What the heck? Jeez.

How do you live like that? Just delete the app and delete your email address and start all over again. It takes five minutes. You were saying that that gives you anxiety. Like for the last two days, I sat next to Talley for the last two days. And I saw how many tabs she had open. Oh, my God, dude. I'm not exaggerating.

She has so many tabs that, like, they were, you couldn't even tell what the tabs were. Like they were like tiny Just like the whole The whole top of her laptop is just tabs Yep I'm just like how do you even work that way Like you can't even tell the heck you I have I have lots of tabs

But they're all organized So you can organize your tabs on Chrome So they're organized by like team By like email all of it So I still have a lot Yeah and I'm surprised your computer still works Tully I'm surprised it hasn't like shut down Yeah right

Like hasn't exploded yet To reset everything It's like, nope, no, we're not doing anything anymore and it's bad scenes. So yeah, you should post a screenshot of your tabs Discord later. It's honestly like the, it's too much. I don't know how she does. I don't know. Mallory has been to my house so she can tell you that this is not just an issue I have on my computer.

I like have quality streamers that have been up for like three years. I started painting my wall and finished halfway through. So it literally just has inappropriate letters on the wall. It's like a scene. For years. For years, they've been sitting there. The letters, what is it? H and FU.

FU. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, FU. And just, like, white paint on this green wall because Tully was testing out the colors. Yeah. And then it just never gets painted. It's just chaos.

It's so triggering. It is chaos, yeah. You to, like, to appreciate me if to be comfortable with chaos that is what I tell people that sounds like an Andy type beat exactly

also hi Andy I know he's in the chest so Mallory the other thing I will throw out is we were we had so the NZXT marketing team just had our first all team get together so we all met up and we were talking about

it was really cool we were talking about all kinds of stuff including Dylan Francis And Mallory and I, through our first event party together was the TwitchCon Dylan Francis Discord party in San Diego the first time. I was there. You don't remember me. You don't remember me. I was there.

I was dancing with you, Tally. You don't remember me, but I was there. Tully, do you remember when you put out invites for like, we don't know if anyone's going to show up? Then there's like a line around the entire city block. it's like I'm not going to lie my favorite part of that of those events was the like

hanging out with the people as they were coming in and just seeing how excited everyone is and we have lots of videos of people dancing and everyone was so happy it was like the best party I have to say we threw some Discord had they still do some great parties not going to get at parties in this COVID time right now but

I remember the first Discord party was at the first TwitchCon. That's true. I also remember that TwitchCon, Mallory, she actually spoke on a panel that I watched. And I was very impressed by her. And this is when she worked at Steel Series, not even Discord. I remember being very impressed with her. I was like, man, this is like, because I was just starting to work at NZXC. And her talking about community really gave me a lot of good ideas.

So yeah, and that party in that party. You still remember that panel. Yeah, that's amazing. That's why I was like, when you started working at Discord, I was like, oh, cool. Like, you know, someone's going to turn this Discord community like head over heels. Yeah, you did.

But I remember that party was interesting too, because that was, because that was like we actually went to that TwitchCon because we wanted to meet Discord. Like Discord had just launched. and Johnny, our founder, he's like, hey, man, we should go to this new event called TwitchCon. It's the very first TwitchCon. This company that is brand new, I'm really interested in it. We should go meet these guys.

And we went up to TwitchCon, and I literally just tweeted at Discord. Like, hey, man, we're in ZXT and we're here. Like, can we meet you? And they said, yeah, they actually replied. And they said, we're at this booth. So we go to the booth And the booth was Without exaggerating

Like the crappiest booth I've ever seen in my life It was just like a fold-up table With pins And I was like really Johnny This is the cool company You were talking about That was before my time

That was when Talley was Tully was running that Yeah Well it was interesting Because I hadn't officially joined Discord yet At that point So I just helped them

With some of that event stuff But I was just a contractor So that was That was sort of like my first experience meeting them. And that's when we met Aeros. And Aeros invited us to the party. And then we go to this Twitchcom party. And I was, and I was, so in my mind, I was thinking like this party was going to look like the booth.

You know, like it was just going to be like, it's just, you know, lame party. And it ended up being like the craziest party I've ever been to. It was Dead Mouse. And the line was like out the door. and, you know, Discord logos everywhere. And I kind of feel like after that party, like every gamer in the world knew who the hell Discord was because of that party. It was like super crazy party.

And yeah, every Discord party I've been to has been like that. It's been really fun. So that's like something that I kind of want to ask, like how at one point did you personally realize, and I guess this is both Vitale and Mallory that like Discord had like made it. like Discord was like the new place because I remember when Discord first launched I was still using like Ventrillo right and that's really me and all my friends hung out and I was like listen I'm tired of paying for the stupid server this is move over Discord it's free and then we just stuck there forever and then like slowly and surely like everybody started joining in but like I don't

know if you guys can like identify it for yourself when you realized okay we have something here it's huge it's time to go all in on this thing that is a good question that is a good question I mean I think for me, even that first pack south we went to. And I don't know if anyone here was there, but we were sort of back in like the land area, which was in a different room there. And it was,

we just had a lot of people coming out and hanging out with us. And I don't know if that was the moment when I realized that this was like, we had arrived, but I definitely realized then that we had something. special. Yeah, we see Craig Looney's hanging out here in the chat with us, who is sort of OG and worked with us too. And yeah, Craig was hanging out with us the whole time and then came to work

with us at Discord. And now is over a big. So super awesome. But we just had people hanging out at the booth, like just hanging out with us. And it was so sort of IRL representative of what we were trying to do on Discord. And it resonated with so many people. And we gave away ice cream and we at treats and people were literally dancing at the booth and playing games and it was so clear how much people love just coming together. And so I think for me, that first event, I was like, oh, this is pretty cool. Like this, people are really into it. And then we brought on Mallory, my opinion, Mallory, you jump into and share, but like Mallory just took that when it came to community and made it extra, extra, and like really took it to the next level and made it amazing.

So I think it was so clear early on how special it was. And then having a really special team leveling it up made it even more incredible. Yeah. When we went to our first games com event, nobody had no, we nobody knew who Discord was. Like nobody wanted to come by our booth. There were like team speak fans that would actually like sit in front of the Discord booth and they'd have like their clappers and they'd be cheering, you know, about TeamSpeak. It was really odd. But like nobody wanted to hang out at the Discord booth because nobody in Germany was even really, I shouldn't say nobody, but there weren't quite a few people using Discord at the time.

And I remember returning to Gamescom, I think two years later. And it was like the exact opposite experience. Like people were all about Discord. We had community members there that like, to Tali's point, like just wanted to consistently hang out with us. Like they genuinely loved like the people behind the company. They also like love the brand and the product. And so, you know, like people cheer. and people waiting in these long lines to experience our booth.

And it was surreal because we were just there two years before and nobody really wanted to give us sort of the time of day. So that was like when I really realized, I'm like, oh my goodness, not only like have we really sort of grown with like in the US and Canada, but like now Discord is growing internationally as well. To sort of see that flip, I think, is really interesting. So, yeah, that's just one example. I think out of those, there's a lot.

So, but yeah. That's awesome. How do you capitalize on that? Like knowing that like people are starting to look and like use your platform. Like I know that like, you know, you can just sit back and just let it happen, right? Like organically. But like and I'm not asking for like any industry trade tickets or anything, right? But like what would you say something that you guys did that kind of helped accelerate that or help like kind of, you know, take advantage?

the fact that people now were using Discord and like, you know, and like, how does that tie into the branding? Yeah, I think, and I think Tully would agree with this, just giving love and engaging with their community members and those users that like, you know, were being core to Discord and really growing that sort of user base, like has been, like, I remember when I joined Discord, they asked me to work on a program called Hype Squad. I actually joined to work on our partner program on the community side, but at the time Hype Squad was this sort of. of like grassroots program that we wanted to build. And there was nobody in the program.

And I'm like, I don't want, I don't know if I want to build this superfan program. I want to like work with influencers and creators. But Hype Squad actually like has a really, a really sort of soft spot in my heart because that is a program that we grew from like zero to millions of people within a few years. And those millions of people comprise of like the sort of most core. super fans that Discord has. And so it's all about sort of engaging with them, rewarding, rewarding them, you know, creating special events and sort of moments with them.

And that like was sort of the focus of my first few years of Discord is like, how do we make this awesome group of people feel really special? Shout out to the House of Brilliance. Brillance peeps where you're at. House of Brilliant. House of Brilliant. But, uh, and that program has evolved to change so much over the last few years. but, you know, that's definitely, I would say, like, one of our secrets, for sure.

Was that inspiration for the club, Ivan, when you first started it? Kind of, actually. I actually talked to Mallory before we launched the club. Oh, yeah, really? Yeah. And, yeah, like, the whole idea with the club was to reward our super fans, you know, do something fun with them. You know, not to rip off the Hypscott idea, but it was just like, you know, how do we turn this server into more like a, not a rewards program, but just like more like a fun place for people to, you know, do something else besides, you know, buy NXT stuff, basically. Right.

And then, yeah, that was like the beginning of the club was, was that. It's awesome. Sorry. I used to say you had more than that. I was like, uh-huh, uh-huh. You know what? I'm still thinking about people clapping on. I know, yeah, with the little clappers.

That's a, I remember I used to have it. I was like a kid or something. All right. So, Mallory, what's your day-to-day like? Oh, I don't hear it. Beats speak. It's because you have really good. No, they're like the little foamy clapper things.

Oh, those things. Oh, no, no, the bulletin. No, actually. The thunder sticks? Yes, yes, yes. Oh. The thunder sticks, right? The thunder sticks.

Yeah. Yes. That's exactly what they were. You actually have given up with Zela's. That would have been great. I don't be guys remember that stuff during the World Cup in Brazil. Like you would watch the show and you just hear like it's like incessant buzzing the entire time. It was the best thing ever.

Okay. So Mallory, what's your day to day like? You wake up in the morning, right? You do all your stuff. You step into the clinical office, right? Maybe it's virtual now. What's the first thing you do? Oh, man.

What's the first thing? thing that I do. First thing you do. I have my whole morning routine. First thing that I do is I like to usually create some sort of space my morning to like note down all the things that I have to do for the day because, and I know we talked about this a little bit earlier, but my day is filled with meetings. Lots and lots of meetings, whether that be like anywhere from six to nine a day. I have to like mentally prepare myself for all the meetings that I have to lead, right? And sort of be prepped for that. And then like the rest of my day consists of things like meeting with the community team, perhaps meeting with the content side, sort of, you know, getting prepared for things that we maybe have to specifically launch. You know, lots of one-on-ones between the community and the content teams. There's around 14 or so of people. Shout out to the folks here in the chat from the community content teams at Discord. But lots and lots of one-on-ones.

And my goodness. And then the only day of the week where like I really have. the space to like be heads down and get work done is actually today. We call them no meeting Thursdays. It's a great idea. You should do that here. Yeah. Honestly, like it really helps to just like have the mental space to be able to focus on

whatever it is that you sort of need to be working on. You know, so yeah. And honestly, I really miss, I miss the office so much. And we talked a little bit about this before the podcast starts. but I like desperately miss being with people and just, you know, engaging with folks like in other departments too. I think working remotely makes it sort of really difficult even on Discord to connect. The Discord office is really cool.

It's like a fun place to be. Yeah. It's super open. There's lots of natural light, lots of great space, you know, to like work on a couch, work wherever. because I personally, I'm in a desk right now, but even at home, like, I work everywhere, like in the dining room table, a chair, the couch, my desk. I'm the same way too.

Yeah. I'm the same way at all. Like, I can't. I just can't do it. So, but yes, I guess like, I know that's like a really boring answer, but most of my days do comprise of like lots of meetings. Do you think that like this whole meeting culture kind of? like blew up with the pandemic.

Because I honestly don't remember being in this many meetings either. It's just like, every time someone wants to ask me a question, it's like, let me book time when I have its calendar and like chat to chat within for 30 minutes. Bro, just email me about it. I'm busy. Or just, you know, like Slack. No, we use Slack either. I like mention someone on Slack and I get a response like two hours later.

Well, sorry, the moment's past. It's no longer a funny idea. Now we know why Italian never responds to us, Dennis. Because she has 50,000. notifications under failure. Can't tell the important. Don't send emails. You have a big

question here, Mallory, from muffins who'd like to know what your favorite credit card number is? 1,234, 5, 6778, 9012. 3. 3.

That is my debit card number. So nice, awesome. I just bought a thousand years of Nitro. Thank you. I agree with Ivan. Like I remember when we first started working from home. I was like, you know, I was doing my schedule open. Then I realized people started stealing my lunches and scheduling meetings during them.

Oh, that's the worst. Yeah. So then I literally schedule my lunch. I schedule my lunch now. It's on the calendar every day. Even if I don't take that lunch and I do something else and I work, at least it's like time that people can't take away for me, whether it's to walk my dog or. or whatever.

It's, it's, it's, yeah, it's, and it's also because, you know, everybody's so spread out now, right? Like, we used to be, everyone's in the office, right, from nine to five or whatever. So we all have lunges at the same time. I hope it breaks at the same time, so and so forth. But now that, you know, we have people from all over the place. So, like, oh, well, over here, it's like six o'clock. So, you know, sorry, I'm off now.

Yeah, it's, it's really, it's really, it's really different. It's, it's definitely odd. And it was, it was really weird to be in that office for two days straight. even though we were like in meetings the whole time it was like oh you know we have people here and I can like look over this person like you know something happened or you know I don't Talia said something weird and I just look over and we can like

give each of this look and we're like yeah right and then we're just going to keep up you know going to the meeting it was nice to have that like that never happened yeah right yeah right Tully get out of here but uh I mean if you don't create space

in your calendar it it becomes it just like becomes unreasonable. And we kind of live at work now, right? To be honest with you. And so it's all about creating boundaries. Like that's honestly like a hard lesson that I'm sure a lot of us have had to learn. But I've had to absolutely learn that during the pandemic.

Scheduling lunches, scheduling workouts, like blocking off time on my calendar that people cannot book meetings on so that I can focus on whatever it is I need to focus on. And if I don't do that, like people will schedule stuff on my calendars. And before you know, you've got like 12 meetings. you're like, what the hell? Like, how did this get to the... And it's interesting, because in the early days of Discord, we had this, like...

And Eros was a big, like, sort of supporter of this, I guess. But we had this, like, no meeting-type culture where we, like, I looked back on my meetings in 2016 and I had, like, six meetings a month or something like that. So it was a lot different, you know? And I think even before the pandemic, my calendar wasn't as crazy. So...

But, I mean, the company's grown since then, you know? So like it's just, it's necessary to have more meetings now that was when there was 30 people at the company, right? Yeah, for sure. We lived in a room together then. I mean, back in the day, right, sat in a room. So you didn't, your like life was one big meeting, I think. And then, except with Mallory, because actually when Mallory started at Discord, she lived not in the Bay Area. And so she was totally remote then.

So I feel like Mallory and I spent a lot of time sitting on video calls. Base time. FaceTime because I hope Discord didn't have video yet. Discord didn't have video. And fun fact, for lots of folks, when I started at Discord and Tully as well, we used Slack. We didn't even use Discord yet. There are a lot of features that we felt that we need to build, like, Search, for example, that just, you know, didn't make sense for us to use Discord to communicate quite yet.

So FaceTime and Slack. FaceTime and Slack. FaceTime. FaceTime. I can imagine getting like a FaceTime. I'm like, oh, and there's just Talley's face on the FaceTime. Okay. I'd be freaking out.

It's horrifying. It's true. Horrifying experience. With all these changes, Mallory, like, what's your favorite thing now about working there besides the meetings? It's my favorite thing. Yeah. Honestly, the people. The people is my favorite part of the job.

Working with the teams and I want to talk about all of them is by far the best part of my day. That and like I still have a really soft spot in my heart. I cannot say that for some fucking reason. Soft spot in my heart for the community. So I would say that like between the awesome people that work at Discord and the community, that's like by far my favorite thing. about working at Discord. And what advice would you get to someone who wants to work with Discord?

Or work at Discord? Yeah, great question. I would say a few things. I would say, one, express your sort of connection to Discord's mission. Ask a lot of questions. Be curious. Yes, you are being interviewed, but you are also free to interview the folks that you'll be working quite about. know you'll be working quite a bit with and you know be authentic be yourself right um and i would also say that many folks that we've hired at discord have also been a part of our community in a lot of

different ways whether that's like a part of our moderation program our community programs i don't know if michael herrera is here but i remember we hired him and he was a part of um hype squad and part of our our moderation crew and that server and now he's been working at discord for like you know four plus years now. So, yeah, that would be my advice. That's awesome. We ourselves, like, we ourselves, we've hired Discord mods at NZXT, which is really cool to me.

We definitely have. Yeah. The community will always guide you, Dennis. Always. I don't know you're telling me like I don't know. I help with some of those hires, you know. Hey, guys, guys, you could use this person. They're really great.

Last Discord question before we get into some other stuff. What do you think is the most unique thing about the Discord brand? Oh my goodness. I would say the most unique thing would be the fact that, you know, I would say we're really playful as a brand. You know, we're not afraid to sort of have fun. We're not afraid to be, you know, silly. We're not afraid to shit post and be sort of,

human rather than sort of a soulless corporate brand. And that is what I sort of, I hope that like continues to say, stay true for Discord, something that we sort of keep at the heart of the brand. Because that's what I think a lot of our users sort of connect with, is that part of our personality. So, yeah, that and like Wampus, people love Wampus. You know, we might be launching a video in the next few weeks of,

Wumpus doing something pretty much. I can't say it, but it's pretty fun. Can't wait. Yeah, you know, people got to love for some of our discord characters. And Wompas is the star of the show. Speaking of videos, what's Danny DeVito like in real life? I was not on set for that video. What?

He should have been. For the shot of that commercial. But apparently he's like, just as goofy in person. When I saw that, I was like so jealous. I was like, man, that's cracking it. Danny DeVito's my hero. He's awesome.

So cool. Yes. And that suggestion, because like the community was like a really big part of the creation of that video. And when we were sort of in the process of casting for that, for that ad, we had our community members sort of chime in on some of the actors that we chose. And they love Danny DeVito. because they felt that like going back to what I mentioned earlier about our brand personality,

but they felt that like he really sort of embodies a lot of the great parts of the Discord brand, which is why, you know, he played a prominent role. I actually shared that video with our marketing team the other day. We were sharing like our favorite brand campaigns, and I shared that video. And what I loved about that video is like the story behind it, like how it was made with the community. Like it's not like Discord just made a funny video with Danny and Devito. That's only part of it. You know, it's a, they went to the community and the community told them, you know, like, here's what you should have in this video.

Here's what it should be. And to me, that's awesome. Like I told Dennis, the community will always guide you. Right, Mallory? Always. Always. For better or for worse. Why are you telling me, it sounds like I don't know.

I've been in for like two and a half years now. All right. So what is your. funniest Talley story of all time. Be honest. Oh, my God. I honestly, this is really hard when I was thinking about this question because I'm not funny.

There's so many moments. That's hilarious. You're hilarious. I don't have like a singular story to share, but like the one thing that is pretty funny about Tully and also a reason why we're friends is like our relationship around food. We love food. love to eat, like cheese was already brought up, but like any time we would go to an event,

Tully and I just obnoxiously order everything on the menu. Like every appetizer, every entree, and everyone around us becomes immediately overwhelmed. Like I've actually had co-workers walk out because they're just so overwhelmed by the amount of food that Tully and I order. And I don't know why we don't, we never learn Tali. Like we go out all the time and we order all this food and then we can't finish it. We have to take it back, but we never learned. But Talia is, yeah, we're both with that. I can confirm she is, she orders an exorbitant amount of food because here at the

office, in his last few days. Oh my God, yeah. She was in charge of ordering the food and like the entire like conference table was just covered in food and then it was funny. There's like four people. There's like four people. I like 50 starbursts. You had so many starbursts.

She asked me to order whatever I want. So I ordered an asai bowl, because that's literally like a meal, you know, lunch. And then she looked at him and she's like, is that all you're going to eat? Mallory, you would have been horrible. I guarantee you, Ivan, if Mallory was there, she would have had the same reaction. We're like literally this whole menu and he gets this tiny asai bowl. There was a point where Mallory and I literally were like, to join the community team, you have to be able to eat.

I think we broke Craig at the beginning. I think his first packs outing with us, we were like, you need to eat everything that's on the stable. I think he was traumatized. I think he was traumatized. I think he was traumatized. I mean, that happened a lot, Tully. And like, Tori, I remember when we were like in Germany,

we just ordered all this food. And she's like, I have to go. Like, I need to take a walk because I'm just overwhelmed. So, anyways, I don't know if that's a funny story. But we had a lot of those moments. Especially at events when we're going out every single night, you know. It's funny because I can relate. I experienced it firsthand.

I'm a feeder. It's like totally my love language is food and gifts. Like generally my love language. No notice. It's funny too because the second day. So that was the first day I ordered the SIEP bowl. The second day I ordered a bison burger and some tater tots. and I couldn't eat my food when everyone else was eating because I was presenting at the time.

And like the second I finished presenting, she looks at me. She's like, eat that. You want to say, relax. Wow. She was forcing. She literally took the burger and forced it in his mouth. It was like triggering me that all his food was getting cold. I couldn't take it.

I can't watch this happen. It is. I was like, I'll get to it. I'll get to it. It's funny because I'm like literally. the same way too. Like, I will just wait and delay eating until everything I have to do is done. Like, there have been moments for like food is being served. Like, oh, let me clean this or quick. Let me just tie you this up real quick. I mean, and yelled that like, the food's here. Go eat it.

I'm like, I got stuff to do. I can't. I can't. I will throw in some of my favorite funny Mallory stories are probably less me and Mallory and more Mallory interacting with various family members, including teaching my dad how to use. the emoji. Not the emoji. It was like the memo, whatever they were, right? She was teaching my dad how to make his own. And emojis. Yeah.

Or bit moji maybe. Something like that. Like teaching him how to use that. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen. It was a total like clash of. He was so confused. And then dad would like, my dad would proudly send Mallory.

Wait. What about that one time I showed up to your house and your dad was there? and we were wearing the same exact outfit. Same outfit. Where is that photo? We need to find that. I can find it. That was not on purpose.

Like, we just had this outfit. Sometimes, like, you know, I guess I dress up as a, I don't know. I had the same fashion sense as an older man, so I don't know what that's about. I'm a little Canadian, man. So my dad, I will share this story. Oh, here we go. Look at there we go. Yeah, we have the same outfit.

That's ridiculous. What? Oh my gosh. That's funny. I'm then like the other half of this. I'm doing a shout out because a few weeks ago, like a month ago, my mom came into town and Mallory came to surprise her too. We scared my mom at the movie theater, which was also very entertaining.

Mom is watching now, Mallory, so say hi. Mom who has adopted both of us. We're not, she didn't adopt me. She had me adopted Mallory, but Mallory comes in and surprised my mom, and it was super funny because she was masked, and my mom had no idea who was sitting with us, so it was good times. I was like, hi, Susan. She's like, I'm like, can I sit here?

And she's like, I guess. Like, and she just like all, like, flustered. And I'm like, it's me. It's me. Hello. Totally weird. Yeah. Empty theater. And Mallory comes in and sits right next to. to my mom and she was like, this is very strange that there's no one here.

We went to go watch a bunch of Golden Girl episodes. On the big screen. Really? On the big screen. On the big screen. Yep. Are you a Golden Girls fan? Who are you asking?

Tully is? I wouldn't be a, I wouldn't consider myself to be a fan, but I do like the show quite a bit. She tolerates a fatality. I don't have like all this merch and sweater and swag about like, she's got Golden Girls everything. thing. I'm not on that level. Golden Girl socks. If Talley

was a Golden Girl, which one would she be? That is dangerous question. Oh, my God. Okay, wait. Okay, wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm waiting for it, wait for it. She's looking for it. Just say Blanche.

No, no, not Blanche. Not Blanche. No. I'm forgetting her name. The oldest woman. Sophia? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sophia. Sorry. Thank you.

Thank you. I think in real life, wasn't she the youngest? Yeah. Is that weird? Mallory and I are actually going to go see a Golden Girls drag show in a few weeks. That sounds fun. I don't know. It's our annual outing.

Golden Girls. Golden Girls is the best. If you don't watch it, everyone should. Just for the record, it's quite funny. Very relevant. to this day. It was a very progressive. Can you sing the theme song, Talley?

I could, but I don't want to hurt anyone. But I will say, I thank you for all being a friend. I travel down the road and back again, and my heart is true. You're a pal and confidant. There you go. I just know that first line goes, thank you for being a friend, right? Yeah. Thank you for being a friend.

Beautiful, bum, bum, bum, ball, ball. Beautiful. Magical. Yes. Magical. Besides watching, Golden Girls, Mallory, what types of video games do you like to play? Oh, I've been playing a lot of ooblets lately.

I don't know if anybody knows what ooblets is, but it's this awesome cross between Stardue Valley, Pokemon, and Animal Crossing. I'm obsessed. It's an indie game that I believe is still in production, and it's been out for a little bit, but it's adorable. And the way that you battle between your ooblets, which are these little creatures, is you do dance battles. And they're very cute, and I love them.

So playing that, I was playing Neopets the other day, because I don't know. Thank you. I think my username on there is like Stephen Universe fan 57 or something. So if you want to... I love that cartoon. I love Stephen Universe. And then, of course, Animal Crossing.

I've been playing a little bit of the new update, but honestly, I've been playing a little bit more Ublitz. And then from time to time, I will play some Fallout New Vegas for like the 10th or 15th time. I'm obsessed with that game. But anyway, yes. I feel like there's like a big like shift. You got the Animal Crossing, the Neopats, and then Fall Out New Vegas. She's a gamer, man.

I know. It's really odd. It's like it's, yeah. There's something interesting about like experiencing life in a post-apocalyptic world. And I don't know. I love the sort of freedom of the game. You can really be whoever you want. You can kill whoever you want you can.

But I'm the type of RPG player where I just like to put all of my skill points into charisma. And I just like to talk my way out of everything. Like every little thing. If I don't have to kill someone, I won't do it. So I guess like the way that I play some of the more wholesome games is also maybe some of the ways I also. maybe some of the ways I also play some of like the darker games like fall at New Vegas like I like to be um what's the chart not chaotic neutral maybe but yes I like to yeah I knew you were not kill as many people as possible and you were a big fallout fan so I remember when we came out

with our first fallout case I sent you this thing remember that I have it it's in my garage I have I have it um I actually I have the the fallout case and it's amazing So, yes. Yeah, because I remember you had like a bunch of fallout stuff on your desk. And I made a mental note. Yes. I was like, we have to get her this case. That's how you do it, right?

My favorite bobblehead. Yeah. You make those mental notes. So you haven't built that computer yet, but do you play on PC? I have not built that computer, which I probably should. I used to play a lot more PC games. And these days, I really just stick to like my Xbox. one, my Nintendo Switch.

Not that I'm not, I'd love to play PC games. I just haven't, I don't know, played it. I did, I built my first computer actually, I think of 2014 or so. And I know Chan was here earlier, Chan Tang Tang, but Chan Tang, the homie. He actually helped me build my first

PC. And he was like, my first internet friend helped me build my first computer to, like, stream and play games. I should drop my my specs in the chat. You should go over to Talley's house and help her build hers. Max is going to build it.

That is a max project. But Mallory, you should come help back when I build it. That'd be really cute. We have a VR ready CPU. I love that. I feel like you have to film that because I already know

something funny is going to happen with Max. For 100%. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. You have to film that for sure. Max and Mallory are like have all the same taste and everything too.

So when we all hang out, they have way more to talk about than I have to talk about. That's because he likes all the best shows, like Stephen Universe. Yeah, they talk about the same thing. I'm kidding me. I have to go get a stick up my nose. I am going to get a COVID test.

Yay. So have a good time. Hope it's negative. It's going to be negative. This is just so I can travel because I'm going to go to Canada. So if anyone needs anything from Canada, I got you. Coffee crisps, smarties.

I just hope it's negative because I was sitting next to you for the last two days. I'm pretty sure we hug at least four or five times, so please. It was positive, let me know. Let's hope that it all, yeah, okay. Okay.

Thank you, Ty. Hi, Tully. Hi, Tully. Thank you. Hi, Tully. Look at that. Now we got the three. Now we can have fun, guys.

No, we can talk about it. Oh, wait. She's still here. Oh, no. She's still here. Oh, no. Oh, okay. She's gone for it.

There you are. Are we safe? Yeah. So, real quick, you mentioned Chan Tang, and it's funny because I've actually known Chan for like the longest time. I think I've known him since like 2000 and like six or seven because we used to be in the same World Warcraft Guild way back in the day. that's crazy i had no idea and i was his healer yeah and uh and i went to my first blizzcom because of him he's like hey i have an extra pass because i got a press pass you want to come with me i'm like

sure and that's when i found out that this man cannot drink you can not hold his liquor at all yeah no he gets the asian flush hardcore he's just done yes yes i'm sad i don't even think he's here right now which makes me sad but i know i wish you was aware i met him through tumbler um he's everywhere Like everyone knows him. It's weird. Yeah. I met him through Tumblr. He was managing a few sort of gaming related blogs. Yeah. Like legitimately was the first person I ever met from like the internet in real person, like real life. And then we went to E3 together. We actually worked at Steel Series together.

Oh, okay. And then of course he helped me build my PC. So anyways, yeah. Yeah, he's like the sweetest dude for like no reason. It's really weird. He's like way too nice. it's almost scary, you know. Ivan, do we have any community questions for, for Mallory? He doesn't ask Mallory? We had a couple.

Everyone has any more. They can drop them now. But Keelis wants to know the literally the thing you just talked about. It was like what game you're playing right now. But they also. Loublitz. Yeah. Oh, Jocet.

is asking a very important question here. They want to know, will the Discord merch store be up anytime soon? What's that PR answer? Maybe. I'm waiting for that PR answer. I love it. Yeah.

That is a correct answer. It's always maybe. But people ask you the same thing all the time on social. Like, when are you guys going to do this? And it's like, we don't know. Maybe. Soon, soon, soon, soon. Very, actually, very soon.

Very soon. Very, very soon. It's always soon. Maybe TM, right? Yeah, exactly. Soon TM. It's always soon. TM.

11 people ask us on the podcast. Like, hey, when's this new case coming out? Like, first off, we never said anything. Second of all, it's the podcast. We're just here BS and like, if you want to know, it's going to be on all the other social media platforms we officially announced stuff and have for the past like five years. Spider-116 wants to know why won't you get a PC and play the games you play on Xbox? you can even connect any controller. Oh, that's a great question.

I honestly think it's just because I'm lazy. That's a great answer. That's a great answer. I'm not lazy, but I just, I'm not lazy, but I just, I don't know. It takes time to get a computer up running, yeah. I have plenty of, I have everything to like actually put together a proper setup. I've moved a little, I've moved actually quite a bit in the last, like, this is, the second place I've moved to during the pandemic.

So, and I just moved here like two weeks. No, like four days ago. Like I just moved to this new place. So, yeah, actually, and here's the other answer to is the fact that like we're sitting in front of screens all day. And especially in the beginning of the pandemic, like I definitely played a lot of Animal Crossing, but like now I try my best to like, and whatever, you could play on your switch or your Xbox and it's still screen.

but for some reason, like because I'm on a computer all day, like my brain doesn't want to like be on like playing PC games then for like X amount of hours afterwards. Totally get that. 100% get that. And I think that will change. I think that will change. But yeah. And just like try and get outside or do something else because I can't.

I feel like, I feel like Mallory is my spirit animal because I'm the same way. And Dennis makes fun of me because I like to play video games on Google Stadia. And I work at a computer company, and I'm literally too lazy to build a new computer. Like, my computer at home sucks. It's, like, super old, and I'm just too lazy to build it. And I'd rather play video games on my couch with my data controller because everything you just said. Like, the last thing I want to do after sitting down on the computer all day is sit down at the computer and play video games now. Yeah.

Being on the couch is just relaxing. Somewhat different environment and is relaxing. right? Yeah. So, yeah. Gizir Shue wants to know. Which Stephen Universe character do you like the most and why? Oh, here we go.

Good question. Hold on. I have to stand up because I got to get my favorite. Here we go. It's coming. My favorite is Garnet. She's my favorite gem in Stephen Universe. She's just like herself.

She's, I don't know. I'm super kind to Stephen as he like figures out all of his his gem powers and is like the best leader, I think, out of all the gems. Pearl's great. She's, Pearl's great. So is amethyst, but like, I don't know, Garnet's dope. So I pick Garnet. All right. That's a good one.

Last question for Mallory. Before we, before we go and wrap this up here. So it's actually a good question. All right. Candy Elmo wants to know what was your favorite project that you were a part of? That's a good one. And why is it this podcast? Why is it this podcast?

Well. No, seriously, what's your favorite thing you ever worked on at this board? That's a good question. I think, well, look, I have a soft spot in my heart. I need to stop using that. I've said that three times now. I really enjoyed working on building and scaling a lot of our community programs. That's been super fun and a great learning experience for me.

But I would have to say that one of my favorite projects was repositioning Discord. We started that work late 2019. And the reason why I say that is because I definitely learned a lot, but I had to sort of put my bias and my personal opinions aside, which is really hard to do. When you invest all of your sort of emotional energy and passions into, building, you know, a brand or building anything that, you know, you're called to do in your job, you sort of create this emotional attachment to it. And then it's hard to like, like when things do

need to change up, it's hard to sort of be honest with yourself. And that was like the first project where I had to like put aside my opinions and really listen to what the community had to say, listen to what our users had challenges with when I came to the Discord brand and be a objective. And I think that, you know, I learned a lot. I was able to sort of put my personal emotions aside and help sort of evolve and reshape our brand to be a little bit more than just for game. So I would say that like that was my my favorite project. I know we did a rebrand then earlier this year, but I learned a lot from that. And I also got to like build our brand values. I was able to do that with like the company and leadership.

and the teams, and I consider that to be really important because that is sort of the foundation, that lays the foundation to really sort of define who we are as a brand. So I would say that was my favorite project. I mean, like all the parties and the events and the programs and all of our social content that I've been able to also help, you know, support and participate in have also been really great to work on. But, yeah. That's a great answer.

Because, you know, putting your bias aside is very, like you said, it's very hard. Super hard. It's super hard. Yeah. But I mean, like, you know, what you've done at Discord is very impressive, you know, and like, I, like, not to sound cheesy, but I do admire the work you've done because, you know, I do similar work. And it's just like watching what you did at Discord, it's inspiring. It's awesome. Keep crushing it.

Appreciate it. Appreciate y'all. And then this podcast, this podcast actually. Let's go. Let's go. All right. Party time. Let's do it.

This podcast is the best project. All right. So we got to wrap it up here. Mallory, do you have a hard out or can you hang for a second while we do our outro stuff? Okay, cool, cool. Or actually, Mallory, do you have any questions for us? Oh, yeah. That's a good one, actually.

You have a question for the guys been NSXC social? Well, what's your favorite part about this podcast? And then I actually would love to know your favorite games. I don't know what your favorite games are. My favorite part is when the podcast ends. So you can go into meetings. Exactly. So I go backing out my meetings.

No, to be honest, my favorite part is just having people like you on and like listening to your story and like listen like what you're all about, what you like. what you don't like what your work entails because to me that's super interesting like the the i'm like a suit trooper nerd a huge super nerd i'm like stuttering too um and when i'm like playing the game that i don't need to like be listening i will immediately throw on like a video essay so i'm like a video essay documentary like i just want to learn about all kinds of stuff doesn't matter what it is um so listening to other people like uh i know we had uh pete hines from bethesta um on and it was just cool just to talk to him and be like this is the guy He knows all this stuff.

Like, tell me all the things you know. Like, I want to absorb all this information. So for me, that's the coolest part about the podcast. But it's also second best and probably or maybe just right up there is, you know, spending time with my poppy because me and I even know get to hang out a lot because we're always really busy working on stuff. So, you know, we get to just sit and chat and just, you know, do whatever on the show. You know, no one bugs us while we're doing this.

And my favorite part is ragging on Dennis when he messes up. Every single week. No, for real, my favorite part is, like, for me, like, being on this podcast, and we've done this, what, 100, this episode 114. 114 episodes every single week, except for a couple weeks. Yeah. Like, for me, the best thing is, like, this is, like, my, really, like, the only time I really get to interact with the community like this. And I feel like this is how, like, I used to, like, interact with them back in the day when, like, you know, I was just literally on Discord all day chatting with people. with people and I can't do that anymore. So this is like my time. Me neither. Yeah. It's sad. It's sad, right?

Yeah. It is. It is. This is like really like my only time I really get to just hang out with the community and, you know, mess around with them and get questions and just talk to them, you know. And I love that. And yeah, I also love hanging out with Dennis even though we're in meetings all day. Like this is like the time where we don't have to just talk about like, you know, product launch, social media schedule or UTM links or you know like asset creation looking at OKRs and things like that

yeah man this copy's a little fun and play some play some beastie boys or whatever and just hang out for a couple hours and just party rock as far as video games I forgot about that part I'm like addicted to this game

called super mega baseball like I just can't stop playing that game I'm hooked but I also recently bought I bought a peppa pig on my what I'm gonna yeah I just got it on my Google stadia and I'm teaching my my three-year-old daughter how to play video games with that and she's actually doing it like she has a she holds a controller she moves her thumbs and everything and she loves

peppa pig so for her it's just like she feels like she's in the show it's awesome uh yeah but a pig is amazing uh didn't someone do like a like a comparison Unlike Pippa Pig and found out that she's like 50 feet tall or something like that. It's like, I don't know, there's like some mass someone worked out. It's like, you know, oh, if you look at this, she's actually like five feet taller or like six feet taller or something like that. If you guys get a chance. Always comes back to height every time. You got actually look at the.

Exactly. You guys get a chance look up the PEPA pig. My friend PEPA pig game reviews. Like they're getting review bombed, but like with nothing but positive reviews. Wait, what? Right. People are writing like all this. People are literally writing like the.

most hilarious reviews ever I've ever seen for a video game what uh is it just on switch or is it on other platforms it's on PC switch Xbox stadia everywhere yeah it's my friend Peppa Pig steam I'm gonna say this for later a second look at the reviews for for myself game-wise I I split my time between a couple things because I I'm gonna say first and foremost I was a big gamer gaming has always been something in my life It's just been something that's like, help me just like escape, right, from like everything else. So I still in my time between mobile gotcha games where I'm rolling for wifus and trying my best not to spend any money. That's number one, right?

Of course. All of course. All that stuff like engine and so and so forth. Right. So there's that. And then there's, you know, games on PC. Like right now I'm still super addicted to Hunt Showdown because I still think it's one of the best shooters out there. Okay.

Anybody says, Hunt Showdown's lit. And the third is I got an Oculus Quest 2 or Meta Quest 2 recently. and I've been super plugged into the Metaverse. I'm just, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to leave this. Metaverse is here. I'm ready to leave this meatbag and I just want to live in the Matrix. Like I'm ready to go.

Just hook me up to a tube so I don't die and that's it. That's all I need. Oh my God. Yeah, I'm ready for it. I'm ready for it. Yeah, I'm actually trying to join the Alpha tests for this VR MMO, which looks super, super cool. So like, I'm, I'm ready to go. All right.

That's it. Any of the questions you got for us, Mallory? I know we're the most interesting people in the world. Thanks again, Mallory. All are. Thank you, Mallory. Appreciate you so much. Thank you for having me.

This was fun. I had a lot of fun today, so thank you. And shout out to the NZXT community. Gang, gang, let's go. Gang, gang. All right, so we got a couple of announcements here. But before it do that, I'm going to throw this on. So we can jam a little bit where we're talking about this.

Number one, first and foremost, the thing you guys have all been waiting for, everyone has been asking about for years and years and years and years and years, then ask us why is the H510 flow is now available on nzc.com. So if you want to get your sick H510 airflow on, it's here for you, just for you, because you asked. So keep on asking for stuff. I'm kind of sad. We can't make fun of airflow memes. I know, right?

We've been like, we've been like ragging on air. Airflow is like a thing forever and now like, oh, now we make one. Second is the foundation PC. So this is actually pretty cool. So we launched the foundation PC today. And what the foundation PC is, it is a APU powered computer, aka you don't need a video card in this thing to play games. So I think like the Steam Deck, right?

The Steam Deck is using the same type of technology, the same type of chip where the CPU and the GPU are kind of slapped in the one thing, right? And they're both equally super, super, super good. So check it out. There are reviews coming, right? I have in the reviews coming. You know, just look at general reviews for APU. I know J-C Sans has done one and our Linus has done one.

They're awesome. They're super cool. It's a game changer. And, you know, everyone's been asking for a computer under $1,000 in our store. There we go, it's $7.99. U.S.D. I don't know what is another, because I don't know how to convert it in my brain.

So there's that. And it's also impossible to buy a graphics card nowadays. Yeah, that too. Yeah. You can get the foundation. get the foundation and then by the future by a graphics card it becomes available. Yeah, it's actually funny because people been asking us to sell a computer without a graphics card forever. I'm like, well, it won't do anything if you don't have a graphics card and like you happen to go chip that doesn't have like a GP on it or something.

Yeah, it's great. So we kind of like, you know, kind of technically, I want you kill two birds of one stone, which is a really terrible analogy. Now I think about it killing birds of stones. Third of all is we have our Skyrim 10th anniversary custom PC giveaway still going on. So check that out. Get a free PC from us. Do all the gleam stuff, you know? Click the buttons. Y'all been here before.

You know what it's about. There we go. Feed two birds of the one scone. That's how we do it. Feeding birds and scones. I love it. And then fourthly is our legendary. legendary Luke giveaway with the one, the only courage, JD.

They're courageous if you're out there saying, you know, say hi in the chat. We're giving away a computer. We're giving away, not a computer. We're giving away $2,500 in N60 store credit. So you can buy the computer of your dreams and some courage merch and some game fuel. So game fuel is like, yo, you want some, you want some cans? Heck yeah. So there you know.

Someone tweeted the other day like NSXT's been doing a lot of giveaways lately and they're making airflow airflow cases like are you okay i'm like actually no we're not like i'm not used to this like i i spent five years of my life telling people i will never give them a free computer and all of a sudden like every other day it's like you get a pc and you get a pc yeah enjoy why you can because i'm going to change my mind yeah we also we're also running giveaways uh similar to the the legendary loot one in other regions with different influencers as well so those are unique to those so the legendary Louit giveaway is just for U.S. and Canada, right Evan? Or it's just U.S.? No, so our giveaway on our socials is global.

They're my number wrong. Don't listen to me. I don't know anything. NZXT doc on social. I just mean. And NZXT NL and NZXT AUS. So in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, and Australia, follow those NZXT social accounts and good to go. Get some free stuff. Last but not least This is just one for us, right? We finally hit, I don't say finally, but we hit 100,000 followers on TikTok.

Hey. And we're celebrating that with the giveaway. Ivan, do you have the video pulled up or do you want to pull it up for you? You can pull it up, please. I'm pulling it up. All right. So our internal intern, Mike, is doing the giveaway,

and we're going to let you guys listen down on this. So thank you guys for 100K on TikTok. So I was supposed to do a giveaway to celebrate. Hold up. I kind of forgot to submit the budget. So I have to do a giveaway with no money. Oh, wrong thing here. So if you guys want to follow and leave a comment,

I'll give away. I'll give away to stick. And now I'll announce the winner in like a couple days. So yeah. Thanks for 100K. Oh, yeah. Thanks, I need to keep my job. Hey, guys.

Yeah, so they're giving away a stick. Hey, guys. We're giving away a stick. So. We gave away a rock, actually, one time. Oh, you did. A million followers on our Discord Twitter account. People loved that shit.

People loved Iraq. So sometimes, you know, if your budget's low and you got to, like, major with a leaf Yeah, so definitely enter A stick could work. A stick could work. Yeah. What I might do though is I might put that stick inside of a computer

and just on someone a computer. See what happens. So I'll just jangle around. So yeah. Win yourself a free stick. 100,000 on TikTok. We're doing it, folks. We're getting big. We're out here.

We're coming for you, Charlie DeMilio. We're going to be the top top tick, top tick tocker in the world. Are you a TikTok, Mallor? I am. But I don't make, I don't, I just don't post a lot, but I am on TikTok. I think at Mallory Lora is my tag. I watch a lot of TikTok.

It's a problem. We share a lot of TikToks around here. Follow at Mallory Lour on Twitter and Instagram as well. And then DM her. And then DM. No, don't DM her. I will probably not respond. Which is bad to say.

I'm sorry. I know that's terrible. No, it's the same one with us, too. I'm just terrible answering my message. Yeah, I had someone like DM me the day. They're like, hey, like, this thing's out of stock. I'm like, okay, cool. Like, I can't help with that, dude.

I'm sorry. Because it's a customer service. So it's their job. Ooh, a plant giveaway. I like that. It's a good idea. Do that. All right.

That's it. That's the show, folks. Melo, do you have any announcements? Do you have anything you want to plug? You want to, like, tell us to go do or to check out? Just follow NZT, enter in all the giveaways. Follow Discord if you'd like to. No, you have to follow Discord. If you don't follow Discord, you're not a gamer.

There you go. That's what we say. Buy a plant. Tell everyone to buy a plant. Buy a plant. Buy a plant. Buy a plant. You know, breathe in some clean air. You know, it'll help. There we go. All right, folks. Thank you again for joining us. Mallory. Really appreciate you. Thank you, guys.

Any time? Later, everybody. You're always welcome to hop on. Thank you to everybody who tuned in. Remember to tune in next week. As you know, tune in in two weeks because we're actually off next week because they're off for the holidays.

We're actually, this is the first time we're actually taking the holiday off. So, but not really because, you know, social media. So see you guys in two weeks on December 2nd, 10 a.m. Pacific Center time on the official N60 Twitch and follow at NZ60 and Discord are all relevant and irrelevant social media.

So hit us up on Neopets. And if you want to ask this question off the air, you can send an email to podcast, at nzxte.com. That again is, you know, that little icon that has like a million, a million notifications on it. Click on that one.

Send an email to a podcast, P-O-D-C-A-S-T-T-com. And don't forget to listen to previous episodes in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, Spotify, and SoundCloud. And Tumblr. And Tumblr. We're building a NeoPetSpot that plugs into Discord.

Google Plus. Google. Wave is a thing too. Yep. Leave us, you know, five stars on Angie's list. You know, make sure you give us a right swipe on Tinder. You know, please don't forget to, you know, give us a good Yelp. You know, five stars, please.

First five people to check it on Yelp gets 5% off their first order of noodles. You know, just make sure that you're hitting us up on, you know, rotten tomatoes. It gives a, you know, 100% of Rotten Tomatoes. We could really use that. You know, we worked a lot on this film. It's very important. Add us on Peppa Pig. Yeah.

Add us on Peppa Pig. You know, see us in the Peppa Pig Middiverse. Add us on Oculus. Yeah. And with that guys, thank you very much. See you next time. We love you. Bye.

Bye. If you all are still listening, don't leave. We're going to give someone a raid. Stick around. Throw some purple hearts in the chat when we do that. We'll back in a minute.