NZXT PODCAST - #119 - Denis Baquedano

Episode Date: January 14, 2022

This week, Denis has a special announcement and we reminisce about the last two years at NZXT. Tune in live every Thursday at 10AM PT on twitch.tv/NZXT and send your questions to: [e-mail]

up. I actually screwed it up again. People can hear you, Ivan. Oh, that's good. Yeah, that's fine. That's how it works, right? Forget everything I said then. I would say, and, you know, it really wouldn't be an NZXT podcast if there wasn't one little thing wrong with the audio. See what? Let's run it back. Let's run it back. Let's run it back. You're ready for this? Here we go. Just pretend nothing to pretend this is the first take. No one will know. Hi, everybody. Hello and welcome episode 119 to the NZ60 podcast, the official podcast of the NXC community. This podcast is recorded live every Thursday, 10-8% of time.

The official NICT Twitch is available to stream on-amana Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, Spotify, and Spotify and StonCloud. My name is Dennis, and as always is Ivan. How it do, baby, boo? Super good. What's that? Smooth. Speed around that. For the people in Twitch chat who are wondering why we're not verified or even affiliated,

it's because we constantly mess up when we record podcasts. Yeah. I called Twitch and I was like, hey Twitch, can we get verified? And they're like, yeah, no problem. Just don't screw up a podcast. And then, you know, we're like, you know, it's too hard of an ask. That's too much. I'm not doing that.

You expect me not to screw up? All right. So I just pretend that original conversation never happened. Ivan, how are you doing today? I'm doing great, Dennis. Thank you for asking. I'm a little torn with this podcast because, you know, as the live listeners know, there is a special announcement coming from you shortly.

And part of that special announcement also involves our other special guests here, Mike Kim, the Forever and Former Internment of NZXT. Colonel intern, get it right. Yes. Mike will be joining the social media team. Finally, we had him on originally as an intern in 2019 where he excelled in every category, except for maybe coming with the banger. Griff did that, but we won't say who Griff is or what Griff did,

but Griff came out with, for whatever reason, his brand of humor really resonated with the children in our community. I was going to say, I'm pretty sure half the community is like 12 years old because that's the kind of stuff that they like, you post something serious. So like, okay, you post something really stupid and it's just like clicks and likes and retweets all around. So thanks kiddos. We appreciate you and we love you. Yes. Yeah, so I'm going to join the team. We're really excited for that. You know, he's going to inject some fun, some fun insights into the community. If like Mike has an eye for certain things, even if he doesn't know it.

I would say the infamous instance of this is when he showed us a picture of his life. laptop. His phone pointed at his laptop screen saying, hey, guys, did you know that penguins have knees? And like, that's hilarious. That is a, that's a tweet. It's like, oh, hold on, hold let me just take a, you know, a proper screenshot. I'm like, no, no, no, no. We're just going to take this photo that you sent us and we put it up on Twitter. And I did very, very well. And I think that kind of, I think that was like probably the first lesson that Michael learned in like Twitter social media training. Like, you know, that high effort stuff doesn't always win, right? Sometimes is just the low effort, goofree, you know,

hooting and hollering. I'm trying to think of other other ways to see. Shenanigans that just go, they just go slapping on the, on the internet for whatever reason. Yeah, that was my most popular, I think it was like one of my most popular tweets and it literally took a second to do because I was just like, oh, Penguin's have these and it just forever became my thing. Yep.

By the way, rip headphone users because Mike's volume is like, you know, I just did it. I adjusted it. So anyways, Dennis, what's, well, first of all, welcome Mike to the team. Welcome Mike to the team. So looking forward to, sir. Looking forward to working with you. But yeah, what's the second part of your announcement, Dennis? So the important part, the second part of the will be back, will be cast be back.

Probably at some point, Be able to be on. So the important, thank you for distracting me, by the way, Captain Shees. I love that you're part of the NXT community, also on the Discord and stuff like that. So the news is, as of this Friday, I will be leaving NZXT. I will no longer be working at NZXT. I made a couple of tweets that the bosses weren't happy with. they said that they did not properly reflect the brand and I'm out now I'm moving on to yeah more than a couple say you know bar you're getting a little bit too sussy on the timeline

we got to let you go no I'm moving on for different different opportunities different opportunities I'm going to be joining Bandai Namco as a community manager for the Gundam brand so big giant robots that's that's that's where we're going well yeah We as in me, the royal we. And in honor of this being Dennis' last podcast, I will be interviewing him today. And I have a list of questions here that Dennis has not looked at. You know what the heck?

He's the guy that's been interviewing people on here for 118 episodes. Last one, I'll give him a break, finally. Can we talk about that for a second? 119 episodes, dude. Yeah. We got this far in. What's crazy is this whole podcast, it started as an experiment with the interns. Yeah.

Partly, you know, partly because we wanted to keep the interns busy. So we had Mike and Griff, and we were like, you know, we let's start a podcast. And I think Mike and Griff were like on the first three or four episodes. And originally the goal was just to, you know, give the interns a project, something fun to do. Maybe learn something. And then the other part was, let's just see how many episodes we can do. And here we are, man, 119 deep. It's a long time, man.

It has, I know. I remember you kept citing that one statistic is like, most podcasts, I'll make it past six episodes. I'm like, well, look at here, mother. 118, suck it. Yep, that's how we do. That's how we do it. We don't quit. We're not quiters around here.

So I guess without further ado, I'm just going to start jumping to these questions, Dennis. I have 20 questions for you. Okay, hold that, hold up. Before that, do we want a music bed? Do you want something for the background? Yeah. It's going to add a little bit. Okay.

What should I throw in Ivan? What do you think? You tell me. You have any, uh, any, uh, poop sock remixes? Um, I don't have any poop sock remixes, unfortunately. Um, and see, what, what could we pro? You know what? Let's just do this.

We'll do some lo-fi beats to study too. There we go. There's actually two. This is going to make me fall asleep. Hold up. Let me get a Here you. Okay, okay. I got it. I'm just gonna throw some instrumentals Okay, don't worry. It's just just just the instrumental. You're good

Alright, so I kind of have to rearrange my questions a little bit because you kind of spilled the beans already, but uh, well, you asked me for my thing The first question. I guess is, you know where are you gonna be working Dennis? Starting starting next week starting next week Bandai Namco on the Gundam team. Mobile suit, Gundam, gunplaw, anime, video games, all things Gundam.

I will be working in and around, touching it at certain instances. So I may, this may be my last episode as a host, as an employee, but who knows? Who knows?

Maybe something cool will happen. We'll figure I'd ready to get you back. It's going to be expensive. You kind of already alluded to, you know, what your new job is, but what exactly is your job title going to be? What are you going to be doing there? What's your, like, main responsibility going to be over there? So I can't say that yet because that is confidential information. But in the conversations I've had pre-interview and during the interview and post-interview,

I plan to be doing some pretty big things there. As you guys know, I have a, what I would say, an eye for social. So keep an eye out for some social stuff and keeping an eye out for content. Because that's something that I know that I honestly Excel app, but that I do also, again, I have an eye for that I am very keen on the social and the content aspect of community. But yeah, what exactly I'll be doing there? It kind of remains to be seen.

but they're revealing too much about like what's going on where I'm going you know it's just you know just things things are growing and they're getting bigger and that's why I'm being brought on so the correct answer was the Gundam podcast yes the Gundam podcast I don't know if I could keep in the podcast to be honest with you oh all right so how long have you worked at NSXT Dennis I've been at NSXT for two I think a little over two and a half years now actually but 2.60.7 I was actually thinking about that the other day about your time at nzxte and i realized the majority of your time here has been during the pandemic yeah yeah i joined in may of 2019 we did the pop-up which is super cool we actually have

a photo of it actually here i'll pull up right now it's on the realize how uh close you uh join nzxt when i join so right before you yeah yeah yeah so this is right after pretty much right after i I join on the careers page there's Mike there's Ivan and me at the n60 pop-up so we're the we're the faces of the of careers yeah I don't think that's a good idea but yeah by the way if you look closely on the other picture the group picture with everyone in the warehouse there and I'm photoshop me and shin are photoshopped in the left are you really top left corner you want to zoom in I'm gonna get me just I can't want me do that we're literally photoshopped in there I don't see you You see you're gonna take a half the shit?

Oh yeah, oh yeah, you guys if you do look photoshopped in here in the corner super zoomed in wait what? Let me just yeah you're like angles and you're lighting are like way off Yeah, it looks like cardboard cutouts me and shin don't like taking pictures I know she's a very shy man yeah credibly shy. You've been here two and a half years yes what originally interested you about working at NCXT. So to be 100% honest, I needed the job because I knew was leaving my last one. But I also like wanted to make sure that whoever I joined because, you know, I did have like a good like amount of time in between that whoever I joined with someone that like I had some passion for. Like I was I was really over. I was really tired of like,

I'm trying to be so distracting me. I was really kind of tired of working for companies that I just did not enjoy working for or whose products I did not have passion for, you know, could do anything like that. Like at my previous job, the passion I had wasn't for the product itself, but it was for the community around the product. That was kind of where I put the majority of my effort and is kind of making sure that that community was taken care of. So I wanted to do the same thing here. And like one of the first things that like, the like, like, I asked Ivan when I, when I was interviewing, was, was, you know, like, how do you guys handle your social? Because it was a whole community, but I've been really talked a lot about social. And I was like, you know, I pretty much told him straight point blank.

I can't talk right now. The copies has hit me. Is, you know, if you guys do your social and like a very, very marketing eway where we're just posting deals and stuff, I pretty much say like I don't want to join. Like, like, you know, I have to know that whatever we're doing here is like actually social media and not just billboards all day. Right. And he's like, no, that's a good question.

That's a good question. Yeah. But, you know, like, I always saw, I always saw the NZ. is like a big innovator in like the gaming space, you know, just with cases like the, you know, S340 and the H440 and stuff like that, you know, how we put the LCD in the crack in, you know, like I want to say it's like like a game changer, but people definitely like stuff like that. You know, like they definitely like what we're doing, you know, cable management bar, PSU shroud, you know, we still we have always been kind of like leaders in that aspect of the industry.

So, you know, that's why I wanted to join to kind of be a part of all that excitingness. Plus the social is hilarious. So, you know. And do you remember your job interview? Yeah. So I had a job interview. I had three. You had one.

Was it you or was it Jared first? I think it was me. Yeah. So it was Ivan first and we just talked about social stuff. And one of the things he brought up is like, so is he hearing your resume that you went to Magnolia High School? Like, yeah. So, oh, cool, because I went to Magnolia High School. I don't think you had the high school.

I think you had the city. Oh, the city? Okay, the city. Oh, Anaheim, like, we're about it. I grew up in Anaheim. Oh, right, right, right, yeah. And then, yeah, we just started talking. Turns out we went to the same high school.

Yeah. So, yeah, like, and that was right when the interview started. Very certain-dipitous. Kind of clicked right away. We were just kind of like on the same way. Oh, cool, like, grew up in the same town and went to the same high school. So we, like, right away, I knew, like, I guess the type of person, Dennis was. Like, this guy's always.

my level I can I can just around with them and yeah the interview was pretty fun I remember I do remember you at like or I do remember us talking about like how how we approach social media here and things like that and yeah like right away I got just I don't know I felt like you you got the vibe you know that we're kind of do with social and it was kind of like a no brainer to be honest yeah like in offering you the job because at the time I don't know if this record still holds true, but at the time, it was like the most applied to job in the history of NCXT was that position.

But it's not because, I don't think because we're getting like a bunch of like quality candidates or anything like that. It was because I think on Twitter, I kind of made like a meme, you know, like people, come take my job or something like that. Yeah. And people were literally just sending a memes as a resume, like, not even, like, writing a cover letter or anything. So that alone, you know, you kind of sit up from the crowd because you took it seriously, which was cool.

Well, do you remember what other questions people ask you in the interview? I mean, like, you asked me your list of, like, questions that you always ask everybody was like, you know, what's a problem that you can solve for me? or like like a like a what you know what did you what did you uh what did you uh was it like like if you looked at our social like what would you change about it things like that which it's funny because i use that same kind of like thinking to apply for my current position like when they were asked me if i had any questions i'm like yes i actually have a large list of questions and i'm like you know so first they asked me like what it would do there and i'm like oh yeah i have like a list of 20 things like things that i would change like right now if

I had the power to and they're like okay and apparently that was like what like brought me over the edge you know like like yeah so you asked me that um I think I honestly can't really remember um I think you asked me how high my socks were yeah I did give you a sock check yeah they gave me sock check check basically you ask someone to roll up their pants and you see how high their socks are yeah if they're not at the kneecap like it's you know They're not down, basically. I want to see, let's a gentleman look for a sock check, but I want to get in trouble. I don't know what I'm going to play and what they're going to say.

Mike, Mike, can we get a sock check on you right now? Soch check Mike. We'll have socks. Let me see. Let us show us, please. I don't have socks. You have to show us. Oh, my God.

For free, Ivan, for free? Come on, dude. That's for the premium. That's for the premium after show that people don't know. That's illegal. feet let's go Shats going nuts for the socks yeah so enjoy Mike he'll be he'll be showing feet on the on the timeline

two million followers yeah I see I also so then I had a conversation with Jared who was our old old old VP of marketing or whatever his title was at the time and we just thought we we talked about black desert for like an hour pretty much yeah that was the other thing too is like that was

his favorite video game ever and you had you just so happen to work at that like on that game too it was it was a it's a great game for him because he's super rich and that game like definitely benefits if you have a but ton of money you know just throw it the game um and then i had a meeting with what would have been the partnerships and PR team at that time which was west emily and andy and i forget all about that conversation but i remember that west asked me he's like all right he's like is smash a fighting game because i guess west is like you know he's a very knowledge He's, Wes is an old head, right? It's like, he knows a lot of like the old head, like, people and like just the gaming

industry in general. And I was thinking, is this a true question? Are they like smashers, right? And they like, love smash. I'm like, you know what? I'm just going to be honest. I'm like, no, it's not a fighting game. And then he starts, he does that West Laffer.

He goes, and then he looks at Andy. And then he goes, what? It's true. And then I remember Amel. asked me because I guess she knew Alex Valle from Level Up, Level Up Live, which is a fighting game like production tournament, a production company that I used to work with, she's legit asked me, like, if I call Alex Vaya today, he's going to say good things or bad things. I'm like, I'm pretty sure I'll say good things. She's like, okay, cool, yeah, because he did. I'm like,

all right. So, yeah. And that's how is it not a fighting game? We can debate that later. hit me up on my Twitter. It's because Kirby's isn't. Yeah, exactly. Any game with Kirby ain't no finding game to me. Next question for you, Dennis. In two and a half years you've been here, what was the funnest thing you worked on at NZXT?

The funnest thing I worked on at NZXT? I'm trying to think. So many fun things that we did here. So enjoyable. Honestly, the podcast is probably the funnest thing that we've done slash continue to do here. It's like one of the projects that I was able to put together when I kind of first ish started that we just kind of kept slowly improving on right. Like started as an audio only podcast that was only in our Discord for the Discord community

and then we decided they wanted to expand it and add a video to it. And we were planning on doing that right before the pandemic ended like, we were planning like the room layout and where we're going to put cameras and how like, you know, it's going to be produced. you know this room i'm in right here this was going to be the yeah yep yep that room right there yeah yeah and then uh and then that didn't happen then then i actually kind of figured it would actually probably be easier to do like a video podcast um at home right uh because because you know all the equipment is all dependent on only people stuff right and especially like audio right like i have a

I have an Elgata Wave 3, specifically for the software, and that enables me to do a lot of stuff. And I've always enjoyed doing production, right? Like, the homie, no apple pie for you in the chat, who's a good friend of mine. He's a big e-sports boy, fellow finding game player. I can tell you that, like, you know, that I love working production, right? I love producing stuff. And then... Yeah, that was one of the selling points, too, and offered.

me the job for the role was the production thing because I even though we didn't talk about it in the interview like I knew I always wanted to do

like a podcast or a stream or some sort of like show that was just like regular programming and needed someone that like knew how to do that stuff

and like and I know like the podcast kind of started as an experiment but yeah I'm glad that you know we stuck with it and um you kept improving it because now it's now it's bigger and better than ever dennis thanks to you yeah boy

i mean where else are you going to get amazing production like this yes okay all right next our first podcast was the uh the office room and it was super echoey and everything and oh gosh yeah we had like yeah i think the first three or four were just like in constant conference rooms. All right, in the two and a half years, you've been here, Dennis. What was the hardest thing you worked on at NZXT? I have a good answer for that, but real quick, Mike, I want to make sure you're grabbing questions or someone grabbing questions from the chat.

No one? Oh, wait, anyone? Yeah, I have to do that. Just throw them in the Trello. I would say the, the hardest thing I ever worked on, honestly, was, God, well, I'm a, I'm I have one in mind, but I'm wondering if actually isn't the hardest one. I think it was the Gammers at Home campaign that I, that I created during the beginning of the pandemic. So we ran a campaign.

There was a community campaign called Gamers at Home where basically it was all through Instagram. We asked people questions, you know, like, who's your quarantine companion? Right. It's like, you know, back when we're still using the term quarantine for everything. and people show photos of like their cats and their dogs, right? Their friends, their family. And we had a bunch of other questions that we kind of tied in for that. I think that's when we also did the, did we do the, what's it called the filter on that one as well?

Yeah, we did. We had the Pucci filter. Yeah. Yeah. So that's probably the hardest thing I'm done because it required a lot of teams to work on that. It was creative. We needed to get like a bunch of other people to like participate and like, and like, you know, do stuff as well on that. And I'm not explaining it very well.

But it was it was a multi-departmental, what's like the correct business phrase for it, right? A lot of moving pieces, basically. A lot of moving pieces. A lot of different teams need to be consulted and, you know, maybe to bring people on to do different things. So that was part of the hardest thing I think that we've done just because not. Not only was it a lot of, you know, like you're saying, a lot of moving pieces, but it's one of the first things we've done that was that at that scale from home, right? Everyone was at home, you know, so I wasn't just able to walk up to the creative office,

be like, hey, they're gin, you know, what's the process on these, all these assets, buddy, right? I had to like DM them and then schedule all these 50 million meetings. Yeah, so that'll be the part of the hardest thing. All right. What are you most? proud of about your two and a half years here at NZC? I would say the X Miramira Juneteenth.

So last year I was in charge of doing Juneteenth, coming up of what we're going to do to celebrate Juneteenth. And part of that was like a donation, right? I believe we had a donation set up with a charity. And the other one was getting ex Miramara on the podcast. and also to take over our socials for a day. And I'm proud of that because, you know, I've always been like happy that we, you know,

started doing more like social initiatives and stuff, right, to kind of support the various communities that, that NSIC supports, you know, like we started with pride. And then, you know, we, you know, well, actually, that's a lie. We started with BLM, right? When that first hit, we're like, like, like, we got to do something, right? So, you know, we put out like a, you know, like a supporting message and then,

We did Pride stuff, you know, and then we did Juneteen for a few years now and we're just kind of slowly, you know, getting better at that. The mental health awareness stuff is the thing that we did as well. That was the big old campaign that we that we worked on. So I would say, you know, as one thing that I had like sole ownership of, it would be the XMira stuff. And I learned a lot from that. I learned not just, you know, you know, like how to reach out to the influencer, but also reach out, you know, how to work with their management and how to work with our lease. legal and they're legal and our legal and they're legal again and our legal again. But back and forth, you know, that goes on with that.

And then just, you know, and then just getting the thing done, you know, like Juneteenth fell, I think on like a Saturday or something, right? So, you know, I was working on a Saturday, you know, and then we even were able to snag mirror for another podcast after the fact, which I think was really, really cool. So, you know, I, you know, personally, you know, I'm a, you know, super, super lefty, liberal, whatever, whatever you want to call it, right? I do be punching Nazis all day. You know,

this is what I do in my off time. But it's just great to be able to support the various communities, right? Because I feel like, you know, as a brown man, right, I think it's important, right, to support each other, you know. And I hope that, you know, after my departure, you know, that you all continue to do that and, you know, to keep waving that flag, no matter what color it may be, you know, and support everyone in the N60 community.

Yeah, that was a, that's a good thing to be. you're proud of because you know I'm also proud that we started doing stuff like that as well it was it was it was like it was really hard honestly for for me to like actually want to do that stuff because for a long time my whole philosophy was I'm just going to close my eyes and like ignore it I'm not gonna I'm not going to try to ruffle any feathers here because I know if we say something in support of one group another group's going to be upset but yeah like when all these like like protests are they happening and you know working in social media and then like you open up social media every day trying to do your job which you know your job is to have fun with people and

communicate with them and whatnot yeah those relationships and then that becomes impossible when the world is literally on fire yeah and people in your community you know people that support your your your business your your friends and whatnot yeah they're the one suffering from it and um yeah that's awesome. You're proud of that because I'm proud of that too. Yeah. We will continue that, I promise. Yeah, no, for sure.

And like I remember, I remember, like, I was even pushing like really early on to do more that kind of stuff, you know, because I wholeheartedly believe that if you have a platform, especially as like a company, right, if you have a platform, you should use it to speak, right? Because I am firmly in the belief that silence is compliance, right? That if you don't say anything, you're just supporting the status quo. And if the status quo sucks, then you're completely. in that, right? I know people might have opinions about that, you know, putting on the, you know, my own opinions on my own Twitter thing there, but, you know, I think, you know, that we should, right? We say that we love gamers, right? And we, you know, that includes loving every single gamer in the world. And some other gamers need extra love than others at different times, right, when it's important, right? When it's necessary or even when it's not, right? And I think that we should know that that that's very, very important. So I'm glad that we were able to do that. But I also remember it's I'm right right before the BLM stuff right I told them I'm super cool with this I'm

super down just remember once you open that box right once you open that door there's no going back right once we start saying stuff we have to be about it we have to keep doing you have to keep pushing for it whether it's internally externally even in the way that we interact with our creators the way that we interact with other people in social you know like it's you know just you know kind of you know a little peek behind the the the curtain here you know it's not a surprise you know like some some of the people who who do retweet are people who are people who are people of color right or people who are from the LGBTQIA ia plus community right because you're like

even just a simple like or retweet you know just given like a little bit of visibility like helps a ton right so ha ha you get bent out of uh one other thing too actually i i didn't talk about this the one the one other cool thing that i that i'm kind of proud of and it's something that i didn't even know what's coming to me is the the gamers outreach little crystal thing that they gave us for supporting gamers outreach and i think that one's really cool because they're they're a great charity and they do cool stuff and Zach is a beast anything for the kids anything for the kids speaking of charity you actually have a question uh hold on hold on mike wait for the keep save for the community question i know i don't get through 20 questions for you

Damn it, Mike, you're ruining the show. First, first episode and it's already... Dennis, can you start it over, please? Yeah, hold up. Let me... I'm just kidding, Mike. All right, in the two and a half years, you've been here, Dennis. I'm starting the show.

Oh, all right. Hey, everybody, welcome to the NXC Puck. What did you do, baby, Lou? What's it? All right, two and a half years you've been here. Yes. What do you wish you could have done differently and or better at NZT?

100% is content. Content, content, content. We have a huge lack, in my opinion, right? Huge lack of content on our socials. I think TikTok taught us a lot of lessons, right? Which was that we are desperately in need of more people, right? So now that I'm gone, we're kind of back to square one, right? Or I'm going to be gone where we're back to square one, that we need people for content,

especially for like video content. That's the stuff that is the most difficult to produce, right? I would say, I would say that a video is much more time consuming than a podcast. For the sole reason that once you turn, well, a video podcast or a stream, the reason why is because once you turn it on and you got your stuff set, you're good to go. You sit there and you do it, right? With a video, right? You're like, especially like for, so for example, we did that, we did that TikTok video. a video where we like went through the process of ordering computer and building and shipping

and all that stuff and you know like well it finally rides at your house that video took what two hours to record right different shots and then another three four hours to probably edit like total time right so my thought it was like two days or so because we work on it once yeah and we do like a voiceover and everything yeah yeah and then send it out be like, oh, we need to fix this part and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So that takes a lot of time, right?

And especially when it's just me and Ivan, right? You know, since like I started here, I started taking more and more control of the socials, as it's pretty obvious, right? And, you know, I've been more of the, you know, the like big brain back end stuff for the most part unless he's up in the mornings, right? Drinking his coffee, responding to people. So, like, you know, doing videos like that takes time, right? like that that ad we did for the I remember what sale it was right but we had a bit of sale and I did a video on TikTok for it and that was maybe about an hour of shooting plus and then like another hour of editing and the video is like 30 seconds long right that TikTok video that we did with like the warehouse stuff was like three minutes tops long right is it's like it's like two something right for multiple days worth of work right I mean

Meanwhile, a video of Mike making a recess pieces meme goes viral with... It wasn't even a meme. He literally just posted... It was a meme. I just replied. Yeah, he's replied. He posted his stupid camera, this stupid monitor and that got stupid numbers. It's just like, why is this how it...

Why is the internet work this way? All right. All right. All right, what are you going to miss most about working at NZ? T, Dennis. Honestly, I'm going to miss you, Poppy. Because you've taught me pretty much everything I know and a little bit more, right? I feel like I already came in with like a good amount of knowledge, but I feel like you really like refined that, right? A thousand times folded knee-ponnese steel, right? Kind of in the idea, you kept beating certain ideas in my head

and there's definitely things like I'm not going to forget. Like, for example, you don't use the same word twice in a tweet, right? Like if you can avoid it, right? Just like small little things like that that like you wouldn't think when putting a tweet right or even or even like you know you know the the best way to get engagement is to make people mad which is 100% true right because I'll give me the secrets then is yeah because all engagement is engagement right whether it's I don't like this tweet or you know you should delete this tweet that is the that is an engagement right so technically you know if you want to you want to you know be big be big just be a butt more than I told you was like just get people mad and let and

Andy deal with the PR crisis. He's the guy in charge of PR. Don't worry about it, man. Yeah. All right. That's actually a good answer because it's a great segue into my next question, which is all about me. Oh, okay.

What was the best thing about working with me, Dennis? Your very relaxed attitude and how we support each other. So, for example, like, if I, you know, it's like, yesterday I need to tick my dog out to go get neutered, right? Because, you know, he's a, he's a big. big boy and he's getting the things he doesn't need to get to anymore. So you need to do our part to stay and neuter our pets. And he's like, shit, no worries.

I got it. Or like just during certain days, like I need to go do something or something came up. You'd be very, very supportive of that. And you know, like, and also vice versa, right? You take a day off and you know, I'll just take care of whatever you have to take care of and hop in meetings. And, you know, just how you don't ever really, I'm getting mad. This is going to show you just like the trauma. have from like other jobs right like you never got mad at me right because like that's it literally

things like happens at jobs right where like people get mad at you for some dumb reason um but just how you understand that like you know that like okay they screwed up but they're never going to do this again right because now they learned their lesson right where at other places i've been at you do like a screw up and then okay well you're out of here right because how dare you be human and like have a mistake or like you fully understand that like you know when you make a mistake, how you learn it or how you learn for that mistake is going to dictate how long you're going to be around, right? And I feel like I've learned for most of my mistakes, you know? Yeah. And the way I look at it too. If you're not making mistakes, if you're not

making mistakes on a consistent basis, you're not, you're not like trying hard enough. No matter what it is. Like, yeah, like in our case with social media, you know, you're always just that, you know, like every, like, you know, not struggling. It's just going through the motions, you know, and not, not messing up and figuring out how to get better than, you're not really learning, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. All right.

So next question is, what was the worst thing about working with me, Dennis? Which do I pick? That you're very picky. I'll say that. You're very, very picky about things. I'm not picky. I just know what I. I want, Dennis.

Yeah, exactly. Or, or, like, you're very insistent on, like, ideas like, boggle my mind. Like, for example, you kept suggesting for, like, a month. We should do the podcast on Twitter spaces. I'm like, Ivan, no one's going to listen to this thing on, on, I was about the curse. No one's, I'm going to, I'm going to do that. Like, Ivan, no one's going to fucking listen to this stupid podcast on goddamn Twitter spaces. Like, like, who uses that thing?

Dude, every time I look at Twitter spaces, it's all NFT shit. It's like, it's like all NFT bros. Yo, let's talk about selling these monkeys on this Twitter spaces, dude. Yeah. Or just like, you know, or like how you'd be like, I just want to see if it works. I'm like, Ivan, I can tell you it's not going to work. I just want to see. I'm like, fine, let me do it.

And there's a work. It's like, okay, cool. Now I saw. I'm like, he's wasting the time. Did you talk to my wife before this question? Because she said the same thing. What? I know.

Yeah. Yeah, no, you are. You definitely are. You're not the first person to tell me I'm picky. Like, my wife tells me all the time, my sisters, my parents. Literally everyone I know tells me that. But I always tell my response is always I'm not picky. I just know what I want, you know.

And if I am picky, well, you should feel honored because I pick you, right? It's a good thing. I like to spin it. Well, I guess next question you kind of already talked about a little bit, but I'm curious, Dennis, did I actually teach you anything while we worked at NZXT? Because one of my goals as your boss, your superior as your mentor was to actually teach you something while you worked there so did you learn anything yeah i learned everything pretty much oh yeah you know like i said that like

that pretty much everything i learned is is uh from you because like i had a notion right i did do some social work before but like the stuff that i learned here is definitely going to carry me to being successful at other places because i look at other accounts from other brands, specifically brand Twitter, right? So just talking about brand Twitter. It's very different running a brand Twitter and is running your own personal brand, right? Yep. The things that I learned helps me see the mistakes that other brands are making, especially on the cringe level, right? There's like, there's the cringe and we know it and then there's cringe, but we don't know it. And that's where it's really bad, right? As long as you're

all in on the joke, it's all cool, right? And I think that's going to help me in my next endeavor and forever and ever amen. I promise this is the last question about myself. I'm chilling. I'm chilling. All right. What is the best and worst advice I have ever given you while working at in ZXT? I don't remember.

Too honest. Is this so much? It's our question. I think the correct answer is to wear high socks. I was literally about to say like, you know, I was literally no lie about to say to wear high socks. But I was say just like to probably like always be prepared, right? Always spell everything out for everybody because people have a tendency to like not understand things.

That makes sense, right? Like whatever it is, if you're proposing something or you're talking to something, you're trying to explain something to someone, like do your best example. explain as much as you can and to write everything down so you don't forget. Yes. I notice you never write anything down. So I'm going to say again, write everything down, Dennis, please. Don't forget. It's not me.

It's my ADHD, the prevents you from doing it. So I lied. I actually have one more question about myself. Okay. All right. What advice, Dennis, would you give me as your parting words of wisdom here? Um, I don't know, dude. Eat more hot chitos.

I have no idea. To be honest. Like, from, from like, from like, hmm, maybe I would say let people do their jobs. In a sense of like, like, for example, I know you like take on a lot from me sometimes. And I'm like, dude, I was just about to do that. You know, like, don't worry about it. I got it. have trust poppy have trust that i'll get they'll do it like like the the the only time like i don't

get things done will be like i forgot to do the gleam this morning right but i could have easily done it this morning but you did it for me right it's like no like i'll do it right it might be a little bit late but you know i'll i'll do it and i'll you know and i'll do the the the uh you know the uh you know the podcast title and i'll change the nightbot command and stuff like that you know um but i know it's it's like coming from place of like oh you know like i'm here i'm just going to do it, right? But like, you know, instead of doing that, you could do anything else and do that stuff, right, and not do my stuff, because no matter what, I always get it done. I like that advice. So do less. Yeah. Yeah, like literally do less. You're doing too much. Do less.

All right. Next question is, what advice would you give Mike as your parting words of wisdom here, knowing that he's going to, you know, be. I got a lot for Mike. Step into your shoes here. So number one is, don't. think so much. When we're, when we're doing our like spitballing and stuff for what we're going to post, even if it's for like, like something serious, think less. Just do. Think less. I feel like you overthink some of your memes too much, right? I feel like you overthink some things too much. And I would say, remember where the NZXT lane is in terms of the social content, right? Like, like where the demographics, our community lie.

And, you know, there's something wrong with like, with like expanding that demographic, right? Yeah, I agree with with disappointment 69, more penguin knees. But like, you know, like start from, you know, start in that lane. And, you know, maybe you take a couple of sites streets here and there. But remember to kind of keep that like anchored into where we are, right? For example, you just made Mike think too hard about this now. Yeah, it's like, oh, God. What's the lane?

It makes sense. Because like I can't use like a TikTok meme and put on Twitter because 90% or definitely not on Facebook. Yes, people don't get it. Yeah, they won't get it. Yeah, they won't get it. I guarantee you if I tweeted out material girl, no one will get it on Twitter. You know what? And also I would say my last piece of advice for for for Micropoli be.

God. Why? It's so guttable. That's why I get paid the big bucks, folks. That's why I get paid the big bucks. All right. What advice would you give to people who want to work in social media such as yourself, Dennis? Yes.

This one is really, really easy. If you want to work in social media, don't go to school. It's a pointless piece of time. I'm kidding. If you want to be successful in social media for a brand account, right? Specifically, again, this is for branded corporate Twitter, right? understand that it can't all be fun in memes right sometimes you got to tweet shit you don't want to tweet like we're having a sale right i i highly dislike the sale tweets for obvious reasons

are not fun right um and much to your surprise i don't like giving away stuff either it helps but i don't like giving away stuff either um i would say be you know if you're gonna if you want to run and here's the thing too right It's hard because this type of thinking has to come from like the top, right? Like your CEOs, your marketing VPs, your marketing directors, your marketing managers, whatever, whatever, I had to recognize this stuff, which is, you know, social media is like in the name. It's social, right? You have to be interacting with the people.

You have to be real with them, right? Like if you're, you know, hashtag fake brand account, people will figure that out really, really quickly. And no one will care. Look at, you know, just look at our competitors. Look at how they tweet versus how we tweet, how they interact, versus how we interact, how often they interact, versus how often we interact. You know, see, that's where our success lies, right?

We may not have a bunch of followers, right? We may have just cracked like one million, like a few months ago. But I can tell you that a lot of those users are very highly engaged, right? And the numbers show it. You know, we have a very, very high rate of engagement with our social media. And also, yeah, we'll be Pete said in chat.

Don't work in social media. It sucks. Yeah, you know, that's that's what I would do. You know, it's, and like, that's, that's a hard part, right?

It's like getting, getting the bosses to understand. That's how social works, right? Like, you look at really successful brand accounts, like even on TikTok, right? Like, Diolingo is going nuts right now, right? Everyone's talking about Doolingo

or like how Wendy's, you know, shook stuff up. And now, you know, everyone's quirky Twitter, right? All of a sudden, you know, it just takes one, one like big account to kind of just kind of go nuts on it right or even like the son of the hedgehog twitter right like same thing like they're they're like constantly making fun to themselves right

because they're like in on the joke right they understand that their community is about that stuff right so you know i mean obviously if we're working for like a window pain manufacturer there isn't much i don't know i guess you can have some fun with that you know broken windows anyone i don't know i got to answer tweets for days all right last last question for you dennis before Mike starts asking the community questions here. You have any parting words you'd like to give the community before you head out? No, y'all suck. I'm kidding.

Eat my shorts. I would say the N60 community is honestly like awesome and they're hilarious and they get it, right? even if other people don't understand, right? There are those out there who like, wow, you guys can't be serious for a minute. It's like, no, we can't be serious for a minute. And I feel like the real NXT community, the fans understand, right? That, you know, just talking about hard specs all day is boring, right?

And just talking about, you know, components is boring, you know. That the internet's supposed to be fun, right? It's supposed to be a place to like relax and enjoy yourself. and enjoy the company of others, free from all the crap of the world, right? And, you know, if you ever saw a tweet from us and thought it was funny, or maybe it made your day a little bit better,

or, you know, you like that we said thanks for tweeting out, you know, like your build and, you know, gave you like a little purple heart or something, you know, I would say, you know, you're welcome and, you know, do something nice for somebody, else. And yeah, you know, thanks, thanks for all the likes, comments, and retweets, because you made me look really, really good out there. Thanks for making me look good, everybody. Appreciate that. Because I, because I, because I, Dennis, for answering the questions, man.

Yeah. I, I definitely pulled up tweets during my interviews when I was, like, looking around. I'm like, I did this. They're like, okay. Dang. And then, and then like, I did this. So I'm like, yeah, that's nice. That's a, that's a good tweet. I kind of threw a little bit of shade because during one of the interviews, he's like, oh, yeah, you know, that's, you know, that's really good. I'm because, you know, we did something similar with this post. And I'm like, you know, I had to hype him up because like, yeah, you know, like, this is a good tweet.

Because, you know, if you look at all your other tweets, there's like very little engagement, and this one has a very high engagement. It's like, what do you think it's going to do for your brand, right? I think my dog just farted. It's not feel like. Mike. Sorry, my bad. Mike's far and shown feet.

Your first official co-host appearance on the podcast, and your first official duty here is to ask these community questions that are on Trello. So ask away. Gotcha. So let's see. For the first one, if I may ask, how long has it been known that you are stopping at NZXT? We only heard about it today. Can you reveal that? So I had been shopping around for a few months now.

And Evans known this, right? Like I told him, I was looking around and see just what I can figure, you know, like what I can see out there, what my worth was in the industry at this current point in time. And, you know, I found a place that gave me a really nice offer. And I think I had officially known that I would probably be leaving maybe about a month ago once I started getting something really, really interesting offers. and then, you know, I put in my customary two weeks when I knew it was like official, official. That was weird during the holidays because people were like off and not responding to emails.

I'm like, hey, they get the job? Like, I don't know. It hasn't been gone for a week. Like, did you ghost me? So, yeah, I hope that answers the question. The second one. I know you said you're excited for you. Hold on, hold on, Mike.

Before you ask the questions, let us know who's asking them. Give him a little shout out. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Ask Austin 6 asks. I know you said you were excited for your new job. However, what will you miss most about NZXT? And I'll ask the other ones after.

What will you miss most? I think we're going to answer that. But I would say that, like, my other answer would be just the overall, like, team, especially, like, the marketing team. I feel like everyone is pretty awesome. You know, we had an on-site meeting last year. Was it last year, Evan? It was last year, right? November, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. It was in November where we all met his team. team and dude like the the the dynamic between like talking to people only like on the internet versus talking to them in person is so different not that I want to go back to the office because I mean you know I like being at home and you know just being at home with no socks on you know working and whatnot right just like Mike you know um but uh yeah you know the the the overall team at ncxte is like very very passionate right like everyone loves being there and they all believe and what, you know, and what the mission for NZXT is, which is, you know, to kind of improve our products,

improve the lives and gamers, you know, through innovative thinking and, you know, design thinking. I forget how Johnny says it every time during the town hall. But, you know what I'm saying, everyone in ZXT is, like, honestly awesome. Like, again, think of a single person who, like, you know, I would, like, say that I don't think they don't care, you know. You know, I just, yeah, everyone's great, you know. Shoutouts to the marketing team, you know. Y'all know who you are.

You out there. Put your hands up. And the second part is, what are you most looking forward to the new job? So much, dude. Honestly, I want to cool Gundam jacket. Like, this is the first time I'm thinking of. Like, I was in a dope, like, Bandai Namco jacket with, like, a robot on it. That'd be super sick.

The slacks the main area. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, Evan. That won't be cringy at all. No, that won't be cringy at all. To be honest, you can make nerd gear look cool. Like, for example, I'll give you an example right now.

You can. You can. Yeah, this is a. But it's only cool because it's also, I mean, that's cool. That's cool. But, yeah. I don't know. I've been to Franken sons and seen some questionable outfits.

Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, like, you know, like, I'm not going to wear like a Zelda onesy that has like, you know, like the, the cross in the front. Right. But there's definitely gear out there. there. That's like, you know, that's like a, it's geared towards like the streetwear enthusiasts or whatever that look a lot cooler. I think I think nerd apparel is starting to become less nerdy and actually starting to like show like personality with it. Like a lot of like the Kotsky hats and everything are been huge.

A lot of attack on Titan stuff. Yeah, I mean like a see if like a some. I'm trying to find one person in particular. I'll show in a second when I can find it. Next question. For the next question, Aston Rieges, I think, asked, what was the best experience,

speaking of Gamer's Outreach, best experience helping out a charity. Gamer's Outreach for- That's where I really interrupted my idea the first time. Gamers Outreach, to be honest. I think they do a really awesome mission. they like understand gaming.

A lot of charities that we have worked with in the past have like gaming arms, but I don't feel like they really understand like the power that gaming has. Like for myself, right? Like, you know, and this is like no secret. I have like severe ADHD. Like you can ask Ivanborough. I'll just like phase off like no reason for like five hours, right? And like gaming for me is like always been an escape because there's like a lot of frustration

and anxiety and like depression that comes with like, you know, what did I do today? oh yeah i was supposed to get this stuff done but like i got stuck you know staring out of a window or you know like i was googling gophers because these pot to my brain oh i i want to i don't know what the heck you know the lifespan of a gopher or something right like you just get these weird like mental tangents where you just do something completely unrelated um so for me like gaming has always been something that like i can like intensely focus on like has helped me like for sure like mental health wise right like if i was ever having a bad day you know would disconnect i would play a game you know would chill with the online homies or just, you know, play by myself.

And I feel like gamers outreach is definitely, you know, go over school with three to five years. Thank you. Now I know. I got to look at the rest of it. What is their societal structure, right? Yeah, so like gamers outreach, you know, one, they help kids, right? So you can't hate working with kids, right? Like if you don't like working with kids, like, what's your problem, right?

Their children, they're innocent, right? They never did anything to anybody for the most part. and you know they they they they understand you know the the benefits that game you can have just as an escape you know so i've always like working them their their team is really great they're super passionate um is it is it zach wiggle Zach Wigel yeah that dude makes me jealous because he's like my same age and he has his whole charity that he's working right behind I'm like i i do tweets right um you know but you know everyone there is like super awesome but uh you know they I'd love that they recognize this by sending us this little, you know, this little statue thingy, you know, and I was like, yeah, you know, we do do stuff. You know, we have donated a bunch of money. We have worked just like getting a bunch of influencers and stuff to like, you know, do stuff with us. So I think it's always, you know, it's always, yeah, they're always been great. By the way, this is it also, this is that I was talking about, Mike, with like the, the, the, like, anime fits. I'll hold up by broke on me real quick. Uh, there you go. Yeah. We got this, we got this sick anime.

fit right well like that is that like the i think i think i forgot which uh team was it team liquid or cloud nine or something like that like an esports i think it was um yeah something like yeah something like liquid did Naruto right is that yeah i think so i think that's what it was and he really really like a bunch of stuff so that looks yeah that looks yeah that looks good like i would wear that yeah yeah you know stylish yeah exactly yeah there are there are some really dope anime fits right like like if you just wearing like uh like a picture of like an anime like on a shirt like i wouldn't wear that right i mean i'm more part to you right like i'll never judge someone for like you know wearing what they like right but like i i i like to kind of mix in the like you know

the like anime or whatever or like the webiness you know which is again like why i like the shirt it's like misfits slash you know jinjito is like an amazing artist he does really crazy like uh spooky stuff yeah it's a good a aesthetic there we go NBA no baller and also set yeah it has be tasteful it can't just be young boy better all in the thing uh this genesis asks what was your new favorite tidbit you learned while doing social say that again what was your new favorite tidbit you learned while doing social like what thing that you like loved about doing social oh it's bsing the people on the internet dude It's great.

A lot of people get mad that we're like joking around. Like, okay, for example, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to, like, show this guy's stuff because I don't really care. I mean, if you're going to reply to a tweet, then, you know, like, get ready for people to see it. Where was it? We tweeted this little dumb thing last night. Do we delete it? Where to go? Okay.

So we retweeted this, which is, you know, the cat, right? What if we kissed, you know, and held the hands? I thought it was funny. right and then the guy responds and he's saying i'm not i'm not sure if he was mad or not right but i think it's hilarious right this is the kind of vibe you want nzcd be associated with i'm like that's why we tweeted it bro like we wouldn't want to even tweet it right but you know just as being able to respond to people in like a real way being able to support folks you know i think that's probably something that i'm i'm going to greatly miss uh after i skedaddle if laugh ain't fun

then it ain't life exactly my six memoir x see oh nba no baller does ask are you guys the only two social media managers there well currently it's two and then i'll be leaving there'll be one and then it'll be back to two so yes yes you're also have um like it's right now it's then it's and i on the main accounts but then um we also have like regional accounts with different teams as well we don't we don't handle like the tweets in different languages and things like that yeah there's hold We have many different regions now. We have so many, like, different people working on it,

many backgrounds and everything. So when people think it's just the intern doing it, it ain't like that anymore. There's a lot of eyes behind social media now. Yeah, I've said this multiple times. If you're saying social media intern, bro, you do not know. Like, I would never allow an intern to have this full rain over social posts whatever they want.

Like, when Mike was, when Mike was interning for us, you know, we made sure that, like, we knew he was posting before he posted it, right? Like, it was all greenlit, stuff like that. Like, if you give, like, a literal newcomer, just full range of your social, that is, like, that's what you end up with, like, you know, screwing up the at, which I've done even as a non-intern, right? So imagine what an intern would do with, like, very little experience. That's the idea of an internship, right? You're supposed to learn on the job, so.

Yeah. All right. Goober Psycho. I'm actually curious about this question as well. Is there anything at NSXD that you're looking forward to leaving behind? Yeah, Ivan. No, I'm kidding. Looking forward to leaving behind.

Honestly, and this is going to sound really messed up, but some of the hardware dude bros out there, right? There's a very special person on the internet who, and I mean, this is for any community, right? So it's not just, you know, it's not just specific NCXT. So maybe it's just the industry in general, right? Just gaming or whatever in general. But there's like that very special person who,

You post a build. Yo, I'm on your computer. It's great. Bro, what the hell is that RAM? Oh, my God. Yo, your radiator is wrong. And it's like, no, it's perfectly fine. Like, trust me, like, I build computers all day.

Like, I know about computers. Like, it's perfectly fine, right? There's that person who has to, like, who, who has to make it about themselves. Right. It's like, no, no, no, me, me, me, me, me, me. This is not good. It's not good. And then, like, when someone goes, let him enjoy.

And then, like, right after like, well, you know, I'm just, I'm just trying to help. Like, no one ask. Who? Who? I'm looking for who asked. Wasn't me. You get the same people about saying the same thing about Gundam. Oh, yeah.

Of course, did, of course. You know, oh, you should have painted this way. The gun is the gun radiators installed back. The gun radiators installed lips like down. Yeah. So, I mean, that's something going to miss, you know. But, I mean, that also comes with social, you know, and like, luckily we have the, have had, whatever, the ability to kind of, you know, come in and correct them.

it would need to be, you know, like, I was saying one of my, one of the times where I felt like I was actually like doing something. And even though it wasn't that big, it was there was a person who was in our community who was a follower of us, who was tweeting at us during pride, I believe. And they were getting harassed people in the comments for being trans. And I'm like, no, fuck these dudes. And I started talking shit, right? And I blocked them. And I, you know, respond to say, hey, like, this isn't cool. You know, like, if you don't support all gamers, we don't want you in our community, have fun being blocked. And, you know, I, you know, I saw some response to that.

And people were, you know, happy that we did that. And it really, it wasn't about, you know, like showing people that we did it, right? It was, it was just more like showing that particular person. Like, hey, like, we see you. We support you, right? Like, we're not going to allow this to happen on our platform, right? Because we do have control over who can and cannot see our tweet. So if you feel like you're not someone, you know, who, you know, who supports what we support,

then you can go take a hike, right? And like the same thing happened like, you know, when we did Pride last, last year on, on Instagram, right? Like what we lost like seven, eight, 10,000 followers or over the course of that month or something like that. It was a lot, isn't it? Sorry, I was muted. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. We lost 50,000 followers during Pride Month because we changed our logo. Yeah. And it was, it was funny. You know, it was funny. And like, I remember I remember having like long conversations about this. And I told him, you know, I said that. where we're still new to this space.

We're still new to the pride stuff, still new to the Juneteen stuff. You know, there's going to be people who don't agree with it, right? And that's fine, right? They don't have to agree with it. Right. I said, the problem kind of falls or the fault lies with us because we've been so quiet for so long that we've allowed people in our community, right, to just, you know, associate themselves with us and the brand in whatever way.

And like, you know, not really care what we're about, right? Well, now that we are about something, you are in. support of things and we are seeing what our ideals are they don't like that right and over time they're going to see they were doing more and more of the stuff and then just going to leave right um you know the whole idea of like you know uh you know what's that for that super phrase uh go woke go broke or something uh uh is ed drilling something iven you guys heard that just a little bit it's a little bit yeah there's there's tons of uh tons of construction going on at the office now i'm i'm actually surprised that i haven't heard more of it

But yeah, what I think I told you right? Like I came in here like two weeks ago. Yeah. And I couldn't do the podcast, remember? I think it was with Andy. Andy's the week. Yeah. Was it that day?

I couldn't get in the podcast room basically. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Closed up. And I had like with that, like, I didn't even know they were going to be in it. They painted the ceiling in here all black. Yeah. And in doing so, like they, there was like paint dust all over everything. So that's kind of why my background,

different. I had to clean my whole little. I know why I just ate something right now. It's a dumb idea. Yeah, so people are asking like, why don't it fall off such a small thing? If it ain't hurting, if it ain't hurting to someone, then it's all good. And that's pretty much what it is, right? It's like, you know, there's this phrase, it's like

a go woke, go broke, right? Which is like super not true because, you know, there's been a lot of evidence to suggest separately, right, that if you actually state what you're about and they are tend to be more progressive ideas because why would you advocate for anything else, right? In my opinion, that people tend to want to buy from me more, right? Like there's a lot of data, especially in like the millennial and like in like a Gen Z space that,

that people want to know who they're supporting and what they're supporting, right? You know, like there are certain companies and brands I won't buy from because of who they donate to or who they support or like what they, you know, what they choose to ignore. you know, you can't avoid all of it, unfortunately, right? It's just, you know, the nature of life and capitalism, right? But I decided to boycott REI because of that sweater. Mike's wearing today. But yeah, you know, so, you know, yeah, we lost a bunch of people, which is fine, right? They can go kick rocks and go somewhere else.

Yeah, you know, and, you know, I told Ivan that over time as we do more and more of these things, people will recognize who we are and who we support and they'll want to support us because of that because they want to support people who are supporting them and their friends and people in their community you know so yeah yeah if they uh if they want to unfollow us because we decide to support you know like LGBTQIA plus and stuff like that go ahead leave yeah i don't we don't really want you at the community y'all can suck it y'all can legit suck it and hit that unfollow yeah this is that block i i do not care.

You know what's funny though about, sorry about the drilling. No, that's fine. It's not, it's not that bad. You know what's funny about that is, well, it's funny to me at least. Like, people get mad when we support things like pride and black, Black Lives Matter, things like that. Latinx, you know, people, people get really mad. Like, you'd be surprised.

Yeah, it's super mad. How many messages we get people like threatening us and like people get mad. But to date, I think the thing that has made people the most mad has been when we made fun of anime. So I think that caused way more people to get mad at us for some reason, which I thought was kind of funny. It goes to show how the internet works, right? People were literally submitting customer service tickets, complain about what we said about anime. It was just a joke, you know, but yeah. It's interesting.

Yep. Oh, do you want a key? Yeah. I think the next questions are not specific to Dennis, but you can go ahead and ask them all quick before you wrap it up. Yeah. Okay. So, Kolov asked, how do you guys pronounce NZXT? NZT.

Oh, NZXT. Okay, gotcha. Yeah. Does everyone at NZXT learn how to build a PC from Tee? No, actually. not anymore. I think not everyone just because there's so many people that work here now. But at one point, yeah, everyone's first day they had to like, you basically got the office tour and then you walked to your desk and they were like, and here's a computer you have to build.

Did you have to build your computer, Dennis? So was it? Did you have to build your computer on the first day? Yes, I did. Yeah. I didn't have half the parts. And you did too, right, Mike? Yeah. Yeah, all the interns built the computers. The other three didn't really know how to. I learned, I knew how to build one. I just never physically, like, did it. So then, yeah, but then after that, it was really easy. I remember, I remember that training session.

That was fun. Yeah, you basically helped us out literally the entire time. I basically built, I basically built five computers for interns. Yeah. Yeah. I think it would have been better to get people the build kits, right? I think that would have made more sense. You know, like, not thinking back, right?

Because, like, you just give someone a computer. hey build it like how the hell are they going to figure anything out right like you just drop a bunch of like a bunch of stuff on their desk okay okay it is amazing the actual like the actual like diagrams and like it's literally like a legal set and it's so good on how to do it i know for sure like the people that are involved with anything tied to product directly are still building their PCs like um we just got we got a couple new graphic designers and i was talking to them and they were showing me their new PCs that they built because, you know, they're creating graphic designs for computers, so they kind of have to get hands on with

them. But I'm sure they, like the accountants, you know, they're not really building computers because they're all working remote now. But back in the day, even the accountants, I remember how to build their own PC, which is interesting. Yeah, it was, it was fun. It's something to do But I think when I built mine, I've never built with a cooler, with a liquid cooler before. Because the last time I built my computer, they didn't really exist. Like I was using a hyper 212, I think. And like, honestly, that thing is a workhorse. Like if you just need basic cooling, just like side conversation here, if you just need basic cooling, dude, the hyper 212 was still obese.

Like that thing kicks out. That's probably like the best air cooler ever invented, to be honest. Yeah. Yeah Next question, Mike All right Murderhound asks What is the idea

Behind the designs And anything interesting On the horizon Huh? No, nothing interesting NCXT is done Making interesting things Once that this leaves

We all leave Boring things from now on I guess the The simple answer Of what is the idea Behind the designs At NST is that

But our products are, the intention behind all Nd-C products is to make building and using a computer as simple as we can. That's why we take a really long time to make products and like, you know, using cases of an example, like every time we come with a new case, there's always features on there that are supposed to make building in it easier. So whether that's like, free routed cable routing channels or like a redesign cable management bar or maybe a PSU shroud that, you know, covers a certain thing, you know, little things like that that just make things easier.

That's the, that's basically the philosophy behind the designs. Yep. As far as like what's on the horizon, lots of stuff. NZXXXE's always working on new things. We are a business and our business is making computer parts. So, you know, I'm sure we'll be in computer parts this year. That's the plan. Going along with design, a gruntled ask, I saw a Phantom 410 case.

Love the look of it. Will the Phantom case designs come back? I can't say for sure, but my guess is going to be no because we probably will never make another plastic case ever again. And the Phantom cases, as much as I love them for their unique aesthetic, especially at the time, you know, when no one was really making cases like that. The huge downside of those cases is that in order to get those cool like angular panels, you have to make them out of plastic. And, you know, we do like to make our products out of steel now because it's much more high quality, last longer. Like anyone that has a phantom case, the number one complaint is that like it's yellow, you know.

Like about a white case and it's called phantom, why is it yellow? Because plastic yellows unfortunately. And, you know, you keep your computer. case by a window it's going to yellow a lot faster. Yeah. So I don't think we'll make like a Phantom case again, at least how we used to make him, you know, which is out of plastic and whatnot. But I guess if you figure out how to make some funky metal shapes, we probably, we might

consider it, I guess. Prince underscore 01A asks when NZXT will add the I-9-12th generation on its page. when we have available I feel like we get this question every week but I'll answer it again or the correct answer Ivan is listening to previous episodes the NZD podcast

to find answers to all these questions regarding product It's a common question so we should definitely just you know explain again I guess to people who can know the answer but you know right now there is a huge

supply chain issue also chip shortage going on for a couple of reasons, primarily the pandemic and the other being, a lot of people are getting rich off of, you know, like meme coins. So it's just really hard to get parts. And because of that, like, you know, the parts on not just our website, but I'm sure like any company that's out there making computers, you know, it's very hard to secure certain parts. So one day you might have

a certain CPU the next day you might have another and you might want to get a certain CPU and you just can't get it yet just because it's like stuck on a boat somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean or whatever. Yeah. So I guess the answer is like hopefully soon we want to have the latest

and greatest hardware on our website it just fluctuates kind of like daily depending on what we can get. Yeah. If you guys want to see some of the stuff go ahead and take a look at uh the ports by santa monica just look it up on like on google see like one of the latest news things you'll see physical carrier ships at the beach like you'll see them how many people ask ask customer service that question every day mike oh god literally

every day i'll get like you know five to ten tickets about like hey one are these things coming back what's this gp coming back one under cases coming back we're like dude we have no idea like the port if you i like we were at the beat for the cleanup that a couple uh like a month or two ago you can see like dozens a dozen of physical carrier ships oh yeah yeah yeah yeah hargo carrier ships like you could see them like this is not like it's not done in like week it should have told me i would have made you swim out and grab my PS5 i'm not gonna lie if someone really really wanted to they could probably swine out to those carriers like that's how i'm sure someone but you probably get shot on site.

Oh, yeah, of course. I mean, like, those things are security up the wazoo. Actually, you know what? They probably don't. This is true or not. This is just if the FBI is listening, you know, I'm not going to tell you some of this. But apparently, I think three out of 10 containers are checked. So, like, because there's just so many containers.

So it's a huge way for people to smuggle stuff into countries, apparently. So they say, I don't know if it's true or not. I just know we use those containers to ship computer parts, but apparently a lot of those containers are not checked for some reason, which I feel like they should. I mean, have you seen when the news happened when, like, I forgot how many containers or how many GPS were stolen, but there's a whole container of like three-thout,

the 3080s and 90s that were just stolen and then they were selling him as a lot on eBay with free shipping yeah I hope they offer free shipping if they're stolen they're barely dollars with free shipping I was like oh boy that's a pretty nice that's a pretty nice yeah 30070,000 with a hundred dollars now no shipping no no shipping piece yeah yeah yeah one one last one yeah yeah one more question before we get out of here um osiris 99 and with as fast as and as long as the H1 case sold out, do you think NZXA will continue and update that line? Yeah, like I said, a couple of questions ago.

We're always working on something. Always trying to. Trying to improve everything. So, like, no matter what we make, you know, like if it's a puck or a case or cooler, we're always trying to. And I see we, it's not like literally like me, Dennis and Mike. It's our design team.

You know, like their whole job is to spend a lot of time researching and developing not just new products, but improvements on our existing products to make sure that they're constantly getting better. And if you look at our, you know, because you asked about our H1 case, if you look at our case lineup over the years, you can see the evolution of how they just became better as time went on. So I wouldn't be surprised if the H1 as well as other cases followed suit and kept getting better as well. I got the cracking. I mean, it was always black crack and everyone asked for a white one and then eventually re-released them. Now they're asking for white cables.

Y'all just never stop asking for stuff. I can never be happy with what you got. We give you what you want and you just keep on asking and asking. That's why I'm leaving because y'all don't stop. I thought it was hilarious because when we announced the white. Crackin, like, one of the top comments was like, and when are you going to make white cables for them? Like, man, really? Really?

Now you're going to complain about that. I know. Well, that was our last question, Dennis. You may do your, actually, you should have Mike do this last announcement, I guess. Yeah, Mike should do the last announcement. I don't know what it is. I haven't looked at the thing yet. Mike probably is not even not looking at it right now.

He's definitely not, dude. Social announcement? Yeah. Or is it the outro? You should do the outro. Or you do the announcement and then do the outro and then we'll play taps. Dennis, taps will play us out. Here, only grab.

You only pull up taps. Here, I'll play the real taps. I'll play the happy song. I'll play some real taps. Hold up. Give me a second. Well, let me. I'll go ahead and do the announcements.

So for the final announcement, since Dennis is leaving, if you guys want to follow Dennis and see where he goes on his next adventure. A post, oh, perfect, you posted a link. There is his Twitter. You'll find all his memes and future things he's going to be working on there. We're going to miss you so much, Dennis. It's going to be sad without you. I'm sad that I couldn't be able to work fully, fully with you, but it was fun while I was lasted. Yeah, I'm excited to see some more Gundam memes.

Thanks. Do you want me do the social announcement and then outro? Yeah, you should, you should do the outro, get you used to possibly hosting the show. Or do you want to do the outro as your final goodbye? No, I don't give a. I think it's time for Mike to. We pass on the reins, yeah. To usher in an new era of reading scripts.

All right, for the thing. We are live on Twitch to chat about all the exciting news. No, we're not. No, we're not. No, we're not. What is it? Are you even listening to what you're reading, Mike? You just said we're live on Twitch talking about CES.

There's a social announcement. I asked you like, you know, you read that? No, no, no. So the social announcement, this is, this is funny. So the social announcement is the, is, God damn, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm like blanking so hard. The social announcement is what we post on social media tell people that we're talking about that.

Oh, man. Do I read this? You can if you want. I won't help, though. All right. So thank you to everyone who tuned in. Remember to catch the show next week at 10am PST on the official NZXT Twitch and follow NZXT on social media and send an email to podcast at NZXT.

you guys or at zexe.com if you guys want to you know ask some questions uh don't forget to listen to previous episodes on apple podcast google podcast spotify and soundcloud also please leave us a positive review if you like to heat if you like what you hear and if you don't just leave a good review oh that was great mike thank you're hired you know we're going to say goodbye dennis everyone please give him uh some love in the chats so we will miss you so much dennis we will miss you Dennis and I just want to say thank you for not just doing great work man but for making everyday fun for me I really enjoyed working with you and I wish you the best of luck in your new endeavor I I know you will succeed because I believe in you so good work man over there and thank you for everything

thank you very much poppy I feel like this music is the most appropriate for us to play right before before I go yeah you also want to say you know again thank you to Ivan for being being a great boss and an even better friend and, you know, always supporting me and whatever I want to do and, you know, supporting where you can to help make the job better and do bigger and better things on social, you know. Keep up the good work, you know, bump up those numbers, right? I want to see fat Discord numbers by the end of the year. Mike, good luck, you know?

Learn as much as you can as quickly as you can because you got some pretty tiny shoes to fill, you know, in my size seven pretty tiny couches my size seven and a house bro yeah you know just keeping you right

have fun right all that stuff and don't think too hard think less but also think a lot there we go

think a lot but don't think hard yeah and like like Mike said if you all want to follow up on what I'm doing yeah just I'm on Twitter I select my main platform

I'm going to do other things as well. I got my own little Discord community that I tried to cultivate with a bunch of like-money to foods, you know, who just meme all day and super Libby and whatnot. And stream every now and then, right? So, you know, maybe I'll tweet that one these days. I don't know. Pretty much it, guys.

Thanks for everything. Keep your stocks, bye, Dennis. And stay tuned for the raid. We're going to be rating somebody. Stay tuned, stay tuned. Bye.