The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 11.5 Pete Davidson Mocks Vet, Diablo Immortal Outrage Is Next Level, & Caravan Updates...

Episode Date: November 5, 2018

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Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you're having a fantastic Monday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show and a quick note before we get started We haven't done this in an incredibly long time, but yesterday on Sunday We posted an extra bonus news video if you haven't seen it yet I highly recommend watching it after today's show it'll be in the outro card or you can click the link down below But with that said let's just jump into it and the first thing we're gonna talk about today is wow We had Pete Davidson in the news Although it wasn't related to Ariana Grande although there was some of that in the news because Ariana Grande released a song called Thank U, Next, which addressed exes. And on the other side of this, you had Pete Davidson addressing the breakup on SNL where he said,

you know, it's really no one's business. She's a great person. Moving on. And I saw people talking about that. I hadn't watched SNL and I was like, okay, well, I guess there was no news from anything that Pete Davidson did. But oh man, was I wrong because earlier in that same same segment Pete Davidson was doing a shtick where he was making fun of the way politicians look and during that he took aim at Dan Crenshaw. You may be surprised to hear he's a congressional candidate from Texas and not a hitman in a porno movie. I'm sorry, I know he lost his eye in war or whatever. And following this there was a massive amount of anger online.

Many people saying Davidson was disgusting for doing this. Many calling for him to be fired. Many demanding an apology. People like Jason Stanford arguing that this isn't just about political correctness. Davidson's SNL co-star Kenan Thompson also got thrown into this situation because he was on NBC's Today Show trying to do press for the Grinch. He ends up being asked about this situation and I think he navigates it pretty well. Did the joke cross the line? It seems it.

Yeah, it definitely seems it. I mean, my father's a veteran, you know, Vietnam, and I personally would never necessarily go there. But it's tough when you're fishing for jokes. Like, that's how stand-ups feel. Like, there's no real filters out there in the world when they're trying to go for a great joke or whatever and you know we try to respect that but at the same time when you miss the mark you're offending people so you have to kind of like really be a little more aware in my opinion you know what I'm saying. Now also an interesting note

with this story is that one of the people that is not out there calling for apologies from Davidson or SNL is actually Dan Crenshaw himself. And we learned that because he posted this video. I want us to get away from this culture where we demand apologies every time someone misspeaks. I think that would be very healthy for our nation to go in that direction. You know, we don't need to be, we don't need to be outwardly outraged. I don't need to demand apologies from them. They can do whatever they want. They're feeling the heat from around the country right now, and that's fine. But I would like him and Saturday Night Live to recognize something, which is that veterans across the country probably don't feel as though their wounds

they received in battle should be the subject of a bad punchline for a bad joke. And here's the real atrocity of all this. It wasn't even funny, right? It was not original. It was not funny. It was just mean-spirited. He also later expanded on that idea of not demanding an apology and also calling for a donation while on CNN.

I think what him and maybe the producers at SNL should do is pool their money together. Let's throw a figure out there, a million dollars. And we will donate that to a series of veterans nonprofits that helps veterans. And ultimately where I land on this, it's actually very close to Kenan Thompson's statement. Well, I would personally not make that same joke.

I understand that comedians are constantly fishing and a lot of their comedy stems from finding the line, crossing the line, some completely obliterating the line. And no matter your intent, whether something was mean-spirited or not, you don't get to control how people receive it. And so I think the way Kenan Thompson talked about this, I think he addressed it perfectly.

But I think the final note that I wanna end on here, because I don't have any negative feelings for people that are genuinely offended by this, or people defending the comedian in this. The only people I really have a problem with in this situation are people who are picking and choosing, on what side a person is on if they are outraged or not. The same people who are so aggressively outraged towards Davidson here, if we went back would we find that they were also very aggressively angry when Donald Trump mocked

John McCain? Specifically regarding his service and the fact that he was taken as a prisoner. He's a war hero. Five and a half years in a POW campO.W. camp. He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured, okay? And if you were outraged at both, great. If you defended both, great. But the fact that you would hold Pete Davidson to a higher standard than a man that was running for and then became and is president, it's fucking bananas

and you would be one of the biggest hypocrites in the world. You've got people out there only defending veterans when it suits them. That's where I'm gonna leave that one. Then let's talk about the situation around BlizzCon and Diablo Immortal. And this is a video game story, but also not a video game story. I think the larger story here is an entertainment company and the fans that follow them. Right in that relationship that is there, and it can be the greatest thing, and it can also turn incredibly toxic.

And to start things off, if you're unfamiliar, Blizzard Entertainment, the makers of some massively successful franchises. Diablo, Starcraft, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Overwatch. And they also have an event called BlizzCon, where thousands of die-hard Blizzard fans go every year to celebrate the company, the games they produce. Also the events known for hosting the largest tournaments across multiple large esports, notably the Overwatch World Cup and WCS Global Finals for Starcraft 2. In addition to that, it's also the place that Blizzard fans have come to expect very large announcements about upcoming updates, projects, new games. And for many fans, the announcements made at BlizzCon

this year were pretty lackluster. The highlight it seemed for a lot of people this year was the remastering of Warcraft 3, which is a game that was released back in 2002. However, the reason we're talking about this today does not relate to the highlights, but rather the polar opposite, the lowlights that led to a digital tomato tossing.

And all of that revolved around the announcement of a game called Diablo Immortal. And before people fully realized what this game was, there was a lot of hype around it. It was even announced by Wyatt Chang, a developer at Blizzard who's well regarded for saving Diablo 3 and making it a viable game. However, people were quickly disappointed

when it was revealed that the game was a mobile experience. Right next to me is a recording of the Twitch chat the second Chang announced that our mobile devices keep us closer than ever to our friends family and loved ones and that response continued Trending during the entire immortal reveal even during cinematic and gameplay trailers It ended up evolving or devolving depending on your outlook into just people posting F Also, if you're unfamiliar with that reference the F doesn't stand for fun. This seems so fun guys It's a meme from another game called Call of Duty Advanced Warfare,

where you press F to pay respects. Essentially, they're saying this franchise or game is dead. Also, I wanna note, I can't really express how lame I feel trying to explain a meme. But also, it wasn't just the Twitch chat that was disappointed and underwhelmed. I mean, we saw BlizzCon attendees visibly upset. And attendees made no secret of their reaction.

There's this moment during a developer Q&A where one fan asks if the game would be playable on PC and this happens. This, the current plan is to be on mobile both Android and iOS. We don't have any plans at the moment to do PC. Do you guys not have phones? Yeah, you guys all have phones. Everyone's got a phone. You can play on your tablet too.

And if you're even remotely familiar with the internet, you would not be surprised that in.17 seconds, Do You Guys Not Have Phones was memed into oblivion. You also had many people comparing it to EA's tone-deaf response in regards to their outrageous loot box scheme back with Star Wars Battlefront. I'm not saying they're one-to-one but that there is a disconnect with their fan base that said there was some cheering from the crowd although It was elicited from this question. This was wondering is this an out-of-season April Fool's joke Now if you're outside of the gaming community or outside of this fan base you might be wondering well, what's the big deal? It's just a mobile game. Well for many Diablo fans, that was exactly the problem.

At large, they were hoping for an announcement regarding Diablo 4. And it seems that Blizzard realized that there would be some negative reaction, probably not to this level. And the reason I say that is before BlizzCon, it appeared they were trying to lower expectations writing in a blog post.

BlizzCon 2018 is almost here, and we've seen a lot of rumors flying around about our plans for Diablo at the show. These are very exciting times. We currently have multiple teams working on different Diablo projects, and we can't wait to tell you all about them when the time is right."

And adding, while we won't be ready to announce all of our projects, we do intend to share some Diablo-related news with you at the show. Also, in addition to Diablo Immortal not being the game that a lot of fans wanted, there were also many fans thinking this game took away resources from a possible Diablo 4.

But once again, that's despite the fact that the blog post said that there were multiple teams working on multiple Diablo projects. And this is, that's despite the fact that the blog post said that there were multiple teams working on multiple Diablo projects. And this is something Alan Adam, an executive producer at Blizzard, hit on when talking to Kotaku, saying there are actually two distinct teams. That's something we try to communicate. I know our community here, there's a concern that we are focused on this instead of that. The truth is that we have multiple Diablo teams working on multiple unannounced Diablo projects even after announcing Immortal. Also saying we know our audience here is passionately PC and console focused and saying, we've also seen this before.

We saw a similar response when we announced that we were bringing Diablo to console. And we saw a similar response to the announcement of Hearthstone. And to that, I would say this is a little bit different. I mean, Hearthstone is a different genre. It's a card game. And when you talk about bringing Diablo to console,

obviously part of the anger around that is gonna be, you know, this is just gonna be a simplified version, but I mean, mobile, you have to provide the most simplified experience. So for fans, it's going this is just gonna be a simplified version, but I mean, mobile, you have to provide the most simplified experience. So for fans, it's going to be seen as an even more extreme, especially when you think of the audience. I mean, think of it from this standpoint. Blizzard for many years almost exclusively made PC games,

and BlizzCon attendees are made vastly of those players, and it's only been recently that Blizzard's really branched down to making console versions of their titles. And so in many of these fans' eyes, the only thing that would be more extreme than moving something that they love, right? A franchise they're all in on and you're like, it'll be exclusively on the Zoom.

Right, no one's ever looked to the internet and was like, oh yeah, people love change there. But unfortunately for Blizzard, that wasn't where the backlash and criticism ended. There've been people claiming that Diablo Immortal is just a reskinned version of another game. There's this Chinese company called NetEase who already have a Diablo clone on the mobile market.

They're also working on Diablo Immortal with Blizzard. So essentially, some people saying that Diablo Immortal is a clone of a clone. But to give you an idea of why people are saying that, the footage that you're seeing every time that there is a cut, I'm switching from one game to the other. Also here is a side-by-side comparison.

Right, and so it looks like the control scheme and the UI are almost exactly the same. Now on that note, Adam tried to reassure fans that it wasn't just reskinned, that the UI is just common in Asia and is the best available. Saying that it's purpose-built from the ground up. on that note, Adam tried to reassure fans that it wasn't just reskin, that the UI is just common in Asia and is the best available, saying that it's purpose-built from the ground up, saying that in the East,

that control method is becoming ubiquitous, saying it's very natural, it's great. We also saw Cheng telling IGN, "'We've been working with NetEase Games "'from the beginning as a partnership "'to create everything in Diablo Immortal. "'We have artists on our side, "'they have artists on their side,

"'and we work together as a team as a partnership "'to create everything about Diablo Immortal,' adding the environments, the characters, the skills, the story. But those responses don't really seem to be reassuring fans. For example, one of the highest upvoted comments from the Diablo subreddit says,

"'Blizzard' used to cancel games like Ghost and Titan for not meeting Blizzard quality. Now they are outsourcing and reskinning games. I'm not sad, just disappointed and angry." In addition to this, there have also been claims of Blizzard's been heavy handed in their response to the criticism. We've seen people online saying that Blizzard's unlisting and re-uploading their trailers and using them as links to hide the number of dislikes the original video got.

However, looking into it, it doesn't look like that's exactly the case. What we did find was Blizzard has the same video uploaded multiple times for different markets, some have differing ratings for the EU versus the US. Also, some videos are linked to their Blizzard game launcher, so it depends on where you access the video. You also have others claiming that Blizzard's able to manipulate the dislikes on a single video giving screenshots of the same video with more views and fewer dislikes. But on that note I would say it's actually more likely caused by YouTube itself. In recent years they've revamped efforts to make dislikes reflect actual viewers, not bots or people with multiple accounts. So there is a possibility that they may actually be purging them automatically. There are also claims that they've been deleting comments that are too critical of them.

But on that note what I would say is just in general and no offense to YouTube because I know they try really well, but the YouTube commenting system is pretty garbage. Like things that were top comments on a video will just go away. And in fact on the cinematic trailer page, a great example is this from a user by the name of RedPillShark. Top comment, 11,000 likes. 14 times I have been deleted, so I say again. But if you scroll down, it doesn't look like his comments actually got deleted. Here's another one where he says 12 times, 11 times, 10 times, 9 times. You'll also notice that some that have more likes are actually further down than higher up. Once again, that's me saying it's incredibly hard as a third party to say yes that got deleted and I'm providing here a notable example of someone

that said that something was repeatedly being deleted, but it wasn't. Also another part and angle with this story has been the reaction to the reaction from Blizzard's announcement. We've seen people shocked at the reaction from fans saying that they're being assholes or that it's embarrassing. Criticisms like this one from Jason Schreier writing, this isn't savagery, it's fucking obnoxious embarrassing behavior. I get why people are mad, I really do, but you can be critical without being an asshole to people who spend their lives trying to entertain you. We also saw Paul Tassie write, And you have articles like this one popping up from Mashable calling these gamers entitled. And so with this story, that's where I want to pass the question off to you. Given the totality of this situation, although in certain areas it is somewhat surface level,

how do you feel about the public response to all of this and also then for fans specifically of Blizzard, BlizzCon, any of the games? What was your reaction to the announcement or the news that there are multiple teams working on multiple projects? Could it have been done better? Any and all thoughts you have on this situation? I'd love to hear. And the last thing we're gonna talk about today are stories involving the caravan of people moving towards the US border. And there are two things I'm going to talk about here, the controversy around ads as well as what is actually happening at the border and then also very far away from it. So first up, let's talk about those ads that talked about the caravan. So first up, during Sunday night football NBC aired an ad paid for by Trump's reelection campaign which connected Luis Bracamontes, a man who was convicted of shooting two cops in 2014, I mean just a real monster, a piece of garbage, to the caravan, sending the message

stop the caravan sending the message stop the caravan vote Republican as you might have noticed that ad is pretty similar to a video tweeted out by the president last week one that he Captioned it is outrageous what the Democrats are doing to our country vote Republican now says Democrats let him into the country Democrats Let him stay also before moving forward I think it's just important people are aware of the facts of the situation the guy at the center of this video this Monster at the center of this video is someone that was deported under Bill Clinton. He was deported multiple times, but his final re-entry appears to be when George W. Bush was president. And so you're talking about a situation that spanned Democrat and Republican administrations.

Yet Trump, who is a Republican and has a Republican Congress, blames the Democrats. Those are the facts of the situation, and I say that also as someone that thinks that we do need immigration reform. And what's actually kind of funny is on Sunday, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel even addressed that this was a systemic problem. But was his presence in the United States the Democrats' fault? What's better than a well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue?

A well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well-marbled ribeye you ordered without even leaving the kiddie pool. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Yes, that's true. deliver. It's a systemic failure and there's only one person right now talking about fixing it. It's a systemic failure. That's my point. It's a systemic failure. Democrats and Republicans, that's the failure, but he blamed it all on Democrats. So how can you expect Democrats? Who's the party saying, let's fix it, Jake? Democrats aren't coming to the table on anything.

Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House. They have sat on their hands having the largest temper tantrum for two years, and they should be fixing the immigration problem. Democrats, the minority party, should be fixing the immigration problem? You control the White House, the House, and the Senate. They should be working with the president. The White House, the House, and the Senate. We do not have a filibuster-proof Senate.

We only have 51 senators. It's not the Senate. You couldn't get legislation through the House. But with all of that said, back to the main part, that ad that played on Sunday, NBC ended up pulling it, saying in a statement, After further review, we recognize the insensitive nature of the ad and have decided to cease airing it across our properties as soon as possible. We also saw Donald Trump Jr. tweeting out the ad, calling out CNN for not airing it, to which CNN PR responded with, CNN has made it abundantly clear in its editorial coverage that this ad is racist, and adding, when presented with an opportunity to be paid to take a version of this ad, we declined. Those are the facts. Additionally, today we saw Fox News saying they will no longer run this ad. So there was that part of it, and then of course, well, what else are we seeing? Well, the first of three caravans moving through Mexico is still more than 700 miles away from the U.S. border and southern Mexico. Right now, current estimates say 4,000 migrants are moving through Veracruz State in Mexico.

Reportedly, this is with the hope to regroup in Mexico City in the coming days. Also, we've seen Mexico's Interior Ministry saying 2,793 migrants have requested refugee status in Mexico in the last few weeks, and about 50 have asked for assistance to return home. Also, when we last talked about the caravan, it was because the military was gonna be sending

over 5,000 troops to the border as part of Operation Faithful Patriot, with the president even saying the number could be much higher. As far as the caravan is concerned our military is out. We have about 5,008 will go up to anywhere between 10 and 15 thousand military personnel on top of Border Patrol, ICE, and everybody else at the border. We've seen critics saying that the move to deploy troops was a political stunt.

However, Defense Secretary James Mattis said last week, The support that we provide to the Secretary for Homeland Security is practical support based on the request from the Commissioner of Customs and Border Police. Adding, we don't do stunts in this department. Although, reportedly, according to a Pentagon risk assessment, they found that the caravan did not pose a threat to the United States. And, according to reports, this movement of soldiers could cost around $200 million. But, that isn't the only part here. Along with the military presence, we're now seeing reports that civilians and militia members are heading to the border. Minutemen Project National Political Director Howie Morgan saying, We believe our nation is under attack by foreigners who refuse to accept the rule of law on how to become a citizen in the United States. Adding, instead of following the rules,

they are using our nation's laws as a shortcut to get in front of the line. Also last week, the Minutemen Project posted a statement on their website saying, Your presence is needed everywhere along the 2,000 mile border from San Diego, California to Brownsville, Texas at any time for the next 90 days.'" And according to Shannon McGaughly, the president of the Texas Minutemen, his group has a hundred members on their way to the Rio Grande with more likely coming. McGaughly's saying, "'My phone's been ringing nonstop for the last seven days. We got other militias and husbands and wives, people coming from Oregon, Indiana. We've even got two from Canada.'" And when asked whether his group will be armed, McAuley laughed and said, quote, this is Texas, man. McAuley also saying that any suspicious activity would be reported to officials and they would listen to instructions from border security

agents and military personnel. Also, these militia move-ins are on the military's radar, according to a report presented last week. The report reportedly saying, estimated 200 unregulated armed militia members currently operating along the southwest border. Reported incidents of unregulated militias stealing National Guard equipment during deployments. They operate under the guise of citizen patrols supporting CBP, Customs and Border Protection, primarily between POEs, points of entry. We've also seen locals along the Rio Grande with property near the border not supporting these outside militias.

You have people like Michael Vickers who leads the Texas Border Volunteers, a group that does not identify as a militia but patrols the border for people trying to get around checkpoints, saying about the incoming militias, they are a bunch of guys with a big mouth and no substance to them. You had a woman by the name of Lucy Cruz saying I will not let militia on my land. There's civilians stepping into a situation where the Border Patrol is supposed to be in control and make decisions. They could damage property or harm workers, adding I would guess they would be trigger happy. However, you also have people like Steven J. T. O'Cleber. He's the owner of the state's largest ranch and he said, once they get on U.S. soil, they need to be stopped and detained. "'We don't have enough border patrol,

"'ice and highway patrol to handle them. "'If we get 2,000 or 3,000 people, "'we will need the militia.'" But with all of that said, that is where we are with this now. And ultimately where I land on this, one, like I said, I do think that we need immigration reform. But it's also hard for me to look at

what Trump has been doing here as anything other than fear mongering. Like just looking at the misleading, blame-heavy ads that just villainized the entire group, essentially equating them to one of the largest monsters. But also the second thought I have is Trump, I think has been very effective as far as focusing on immigration and fear mongering in this capacity.

Immigration is one of the things Republicans care the most about. They're hoping to get more Republicans out there to vote. The truth of the matter is fear and anger are great motivators to get people to go out to vote. And it's really hard to argue about Trump's effectiveness here, because even if he misleads with these ads, all of a sudden everyone's talking about these ads and how they're misleading. So there's more time spent on that, rather than focusing on things that Democrats definitely want to hit on,

and that's things like healthcare, right? The fear and anger around, among other things, losing pre-existing condition coverage. But ultimately, as far as whether it was effective or not, we're gonna have to wait to see tomorrow. Tomorrow, of course, is the midterm. Right now the polling suggests that it's likely the Democrats will take over the House while the Senate will maintain a Republican advantage and actually maybe even grow by a seat.

Although I will say the majority out there are skeptical of polls after what happened in 2016. And so that's why I think this year, whether you're the Democrats with the House, the Republicans with the Senate, I don't think anyone's taking anything for granted and I think the smart move is to vote. And that's where I'm going to end today's show. And remember, if Republicans with the Senate, I don't think anyone's taking anything for granted and I think the smart move is to vote. And that's where we're going to end today's show.

And remember, if you like this video, you like what I try and do on this channel with the news, hit that like button. If you're new here, hit that subscribe button. Also, if you missed either of the last two videos, I highly recommend you check them out. One is about the midterms, which of course are coming up tomorrow,

and the other is about what we just witnessed in Brazil and what we might see in the future. But with all of that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco, you've just been filled in, I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.