Triple Click - Happy Birthday, Triple Click!

Episode Date: April 22, 2021

It's the one-year anniversary of Triple Click - happy birthday, Triple Click! Jason, Maddy, and Kirk update the Triple Click Picks with some special new games and then take some time to reminisce on the past year and what this show has meant to them. Thank you all for supporting the show!One More Thing:Kirk: SubnauticaMaddy: Emily Is Away 1-3Jason: StarCraft IILinks:Kirk’s 2018 article about video games and guns: https://kotaku.com/real-guns-virtual-guns-and-me-1824159338Our Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/tripleclickpodSupport Triple Click: http://maximumfun.org/joinJoin the Triple Click Discord: http://discord.gg/tripleclickpodTriple Click Ethics Policy: https://maximumfun.org/triple-click-ethics-policy/ Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/jointripleclick 🚀  SUPPORT TRIPLE CLICK:Join Maximum Fun | Buy TC Merch💬 JOIN THE TRIPLE CLICK DISCORD🎮 Triple Click Ethics Policy📱 SOCIALS | @tripleclickpodInstagram | YouTube | TikTok | Twitch

Age is nothing but a number, except we're gamers, so we care very, very deeply about numbers. Welcome to Triple Click, where we bring the games to you. This week, we celebrate one year of Triple Click by updating our list of Triple Click picks and reminiscing about the past year. It's been a lot, but also, this show happened in it. That was cool. I'm Maddie Myers. I'm Jason Shrier, and I'm Kirk Hamilton, and hello. Hello. Hello to both of you.

Here. We sure are. It's been a year of shows. I'm excited. I'm already saying that. I know we're not supposed to say that until we get to our topic, but I'm already excited. We've been doing this for a year. It's been a year, though.

Happy anniversary, guys. A year of Triple Click. A year. I got you both chocolates. Oh my gosh. Thank you. And flowers and roses. No, no.

Oh, thanks. Mine didn't arrive. Looking forward to it. And a rose emoticon, like an emoji. Is this like one of those old, like, e cards that we would get in the early 2000s where you click it and a little gift plays and the card opens up and it says one year. Thanks, buddy. And it's like a picture of.

Or it's like one of those gifts with all of our heads like talking. Our mouths move and we're all like, we've been on maximum fun for a full year. And we love it. Speaking of which, we have been on Max Fun as a podcast for a full year. That is technically what we are celebrating today. And if you don't know what that is, it is our podcast network. And it's wonderful. And you should become a Max Fun member.

And if you do become a member, you can get bonus episodes from us once a month. And you should go to maximum fund.org slash join to do that. Also, in a couple weeks, we are going to have the Max FundDrive, which is this super awesome, cool event where if you want to bump up your membership level, you can get some really cool rewards. And as part of MaxFund Drive on May 4th, we are going to do a Twitch live stream of our regular episode recording. So that's at 6.30 p.m. Eastern time. And it'll be on our Twitch channel, the triple-click Twitch channel. And we will hang out with you and talk to you. And you'll get

to see our faces while we record an episode of the show. It'll be great. Yeah, it's going to be so fun. You can get a sense of how many mistakes we make that I ended up. And they'll all be edited out for the regular app that comes out on Thursday. That'll be a totally different show. It'll be like two episodes. Right. So if you want to make the comparison, you've got to be there for the live. episode. You can hear the pre-bing episode of Triplocles. Yeah, it'll just be like wrong facts constantly, like all the stuff that Kirk has to edit out. It's going to be wild. It'll be amazing. Well, it turns out the three of us actually spend most of the episode just screaming at each other, like getting up to fight and Kirkland has to cut them off. Arguing and screaming incorrect facts at one other.

That's pretty much our whole process. None of us have ever played Final Fantasy Six and none of us names of the characters and we just scream at each other. I actually don't own any video game systems. No, I mean, editing wizardry, Kirk, you really make it seem like. Yeah, yeah. It's amazing what you can do with a computer these days. Finally, the truth will come out, and it's terrifying. So you should probably become a Max Fund member while you still believe in us on any level.

Anyway, happy one-year anniversary to you two. Happy anniversary. How should we celebrate? Kirk, let us know. Yeah, so it's been a year. It's been a year. It seemed like a long year and a short year at the same time. Flat circle, what is time, et cetera, all the things that we all say to one another at this point because of our weirdly compressed and descended view of the passage of time.

So we've been doing this for a year. Thanks, of course, to everyone who has listened to us. What a year it's been, man, what a year to launch a new show. Yeah. Well, and in some way, gosh, gosh. So we're going to talk. This is going to be an interesting episode. We're going to relax the format a little bit.

We're just going to talk about this past year and how it's been for the three of us. us since it's been one year of Triple Click, but it's also been, as you mentioned, as everyone knows, a hell of a year in so many different ways. And, you know, obviously continues to be pretty crazy times in all of our lives and in the society in which we live as well. But this last year, it's just been really interesting. And I think actually Triple Click has been an interesting through point, at least for me and I think for the two of you as well, like a through line for that wild year. So I think that looking at this year and the year of the show and video games and everything will be kind of cool. So that's what we're going to do. But

But first, we're going to do something else. Because it's been a year at Triple Click, we are going to update the Triple Click Picks for the very first time. So last August, we released an episode that some of you have probably heard, most of you probably heard, some of you maybe didn't. And it was Triple Click Picks, Volume 1. And what we did was we picked 10 games that were the games that we think rule, basically. The three of us kind of wholeheartedly endorse these 10 games. And we talk about them a lot. We reference them a lot on the show as well.

So if you're really like our taster, you know, one of our taser think that we're kind of, you know, on your wavelength when it comes to video games and listen to the show a lot, you should play these 10 games. And then you'll kind of have more of a sense of our frame of reference. So we are now going to do our first update because the plan is we're going to just periodically update this list, add new games, take old games off. And I think there's been enough new games now that we can make a few swaps. So we're going to talk about that first. And then we'll talk about 2020 and into 2021 in the first year of Triple Click. So let's start with the existing list. So I'm going to read.

No, I've already been talking. Maddie, why don't you read the existing list? What is the list of the current Triple Click picks? These are in no particular order, I believe. I think that was what we landed on so that we could all emotionally handle having to make a list of 10 games. Yes, they're in no order. No order. The first game is Disco Elysium.

Second one is Return of the Obra Dinn. Third is Hollow Night. Fourth is Outer Wilds. Five is Destiny 2. Sixth game is Bloodborn. Seventh is Breath of the Wild. Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild. To clarify.

Eighth is Divinity Original Sin 2. The ninth game is Hitman 2. And the 10th game is Assassin's Creed Odyssey. All right. I read this list and I could not believe that Hades wasn't on it because I have no perception of time anymore. I just thought it was already on there. I'm not saying we should add it, but I also am saying we should add it.

That's my opening gamut. Well, the list came out before Hades was out. I know. I know. But it just, in my head, I feel like we've talked about Hades so much on the show at this point that I just felt like it must already be on there. And when I wasn't remembering the list, I was like, okay, what's on there? Oh, you know, probably Destiny 2, Breath of the Wild.

Hades is on there. I just invented that it was there. So, yeah, I think Hades is a really good pick. Before we talk Hades, because Hades is going to have to bump something off. There is no equivalent. I think there are a couple of swaps we can talk about that are pretty easy. And back in the days of the Kautaku days where we all worked together and editing the best list for Katoi, which I was always in charge of, sort of a similar process.

And there were always times where there was just like a really clear cut swap. Those are always the easiest ones to dispense with first. So my vote is that we do that. One that I think is just very easy. And of course these will be tentative because it could be that we wind up bumping these games off entirely. But I think that Hitman 3 for Hitman 2 is a no-brainer because Hitman 3 contains Hitman 2. And it's like the culmination of the whole thing. So that just seems very easy.

I agree. Okay, cool. That was an easy one. Yeah, I think that's only easy swap here. Right. So the next one is a little like. less easy. I would propose it as a swap, but I'm not totally sure where we're going to wind up on it, because I don't even know how I feel. And that's Assassin's Creed Valhalla, which came out last

fall. Maybe subbing in for Assassin's Creed Odyssey or maybe not. Jason, what do you think? Yeah, well, I was thinking, I was maybe thinking that we sub Hades in for Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Because they're both Greek gods and so forth. Yeah, replace one Greek game with another. But I'm looking at this list, and I think the other weakness is Destiny 2. And I think we should first decide what to do with Destiny 2. Because this is a game that, while it feels kind of integral to the entire split screen in the past.

Splitschristian, which is a shocking. But none of us have played it for months. I haven't played it really in at least a year. Even I haven't played it for months. And also, I was one of the only ones playing it for, right. the bulk of 2020. And it's hard for me to really recommend a game that I don't keep up with anymore and can't see myself picking up again really ever, unless something totally drastic changed in it. So my proposal actually is going to, so Hitman 3 for Him and 2.

Yes, easy, easy move. My proposal is going to be Hades for Destiny 2. Let's start off with there. Okay. And then we can get into Assessence's Creed. But you sidesteped the other question, though. Well, because the Assassin's Creed, I want to determine first if we're going to keep Odyssey. in the first place.

There are some contingencies here, so we want to do this one first. That makes sense. So Hades for Destiny 2. What do you guys think? Maddie, what do you think? I feel conflicted because I know that the next argument

is whether or not Valhalla should replace Odyssey, and I don't know if I agree with that. Well, maybe we could get rid of both of them and replace them both as something else. Potentially, yes. I don't hate getting rid of Destiny 2 in general. I'll say that at least.

I think your argument is sound, and its standing is very weak. And I agree Hades should be there. I don't feel like those two games have anything to do with one another. But I do agree with you that like getting rid of Destiny or at least giving it a sort of honorable mention, emeritus status, whoever we want to refer to this in the future is that at one time, Destiny 2 is on the list and now it is enshrined in the Triple ClickPix Hall of Fame forever more. It's a Hall of Fame.

But also Hades is getting added. I guess that's fine. That's fine. I'm approving of it. Yeah. I like the idea of there just any game that was on this list is a good game. Like if you made it on to the triple click picks at any point, because at some point a lot of big games will have come on and then being taken off.

Like they're all good games, Brent. So Destiny 2, what I like is what you said, Jason, is you're like, I can never see myself playing it again barring some huge change because that makes me think, what would it take for me to start? Probably like a Twitch stream of the three of us playing it again. I don't know. I can see that. Oh, but for me to like really start playing Destiny 2.

again? Like, what would it take? Like, what would that game? Because I have so little interest at this point. Maybe Destiny 3, maybe a new, a totally new race, a totally new, like, class. Something totally new. I don't know. Even then, even Destiny 3, I'm like, I'm kind of just done. So I, in other words, agree that I think it's in a weak spot on the list. I like having one service game on it. And I like paying tribute to the fact that this game was like a huge thing for me and you, Jay. And then also a really fun thing, Maddie, as you picked it up after we both kind of stopped. And it's been there for a lot of our sort of time working together. But none of us play it. And it's not just that we don't play it.

It's like, I don't even know if the version that exists right now is good or not. It's like impossible to tell. So we're kind of telling people to play a game that none of us plays. And because it's a live game that changes, it isn't like, you know, I'm not actively playing Breath of the Wild. I mean, I'm kind of actively playing Breath of the Wild. We all are. We're all playing it right now. as we do this show.

No, I'm playing Disco Elysium 2. I am not actively playing Return of the Oberiden, but I know that the version of Return of the Overton that it's only place now is the same. It's funny you say that, though, because that was the game I was thinking I would propose that we replace Hades with was Oprah Dinn, actually,

because it's an indie narrative game. And so in my head, I was kind of like, well, to keep the spirit of the list intact, I'm not even saying they're that similar. They're kind of not similar, but there isn't another game that's similar to Hades on this list. I just thought that since Oprah Din was an older game and we don't refer to it that much anymore.

I mean, it's good, but it's older. Yeah. I thought it was weak for that reason. But I can also see the argument for Destiny 2. None of us are currently playing it. Well, so the reason we don't refer to Oberlin is because it's one of those games that is just like a very special 10 hours, but then there's something to really talk about afterwards. And I think a lot of merit in something like that, like a game that'll stick with you forever,

but like you don't necessarily be needing to like talking about the new updates or whatever. like how it's changing these days. And in fact, I would argue that Obridin is still like such a special experience for people who come into it blind. Like my wife played it recently and like it blew her mind. So, yeah, I think Obridon is a keep, at least in my book. And I think Destiny 2, I think we all kind of agree that Destiny 2 should go. And it feels like Hades is an obvious win for the list and something, again, we are all obsessed

with. I think then that it sounds like we're all three on board with that swap. and then we can look at the Odyssey thing and let's keep that pretty much happening so Hades is going to take Destiny 2's spot and now let's look at AC Odyssey and talk about Valhalla and then the other two kind of wild card games

that are out there that I think are worth considering from last August till now is Demon Souls remake and Dark Souls both of which you know Maddie you've been playing a lot of Dark Souls One of which I added I thought about adding it as well and then I was like well but Demon Souls is actually recent

and I know Jason and I both play that and I really loved it. And I haven't played it left, but I haven't played it yet, but it's, like, guaranteed that I'll enjoy it. So there's a strong argument for it being on the list. Yeah. You might like it more than Dark Souls also. I know. I think there's a strong argument for Demon Souls because it's so pretty and so accessible

and, like, so, such a perfect game to, like, play now. Right. As a Dark Souls, which is great, but, like, hasn't aged well in some ways. And I also think one nice thing about Demon Souls is that it's, like, it's a little more forgiving than Dark Souls. It's much harder to totally screw yourself over because you have this like one base of operations and like a frame of reference for like, okay, these are all places that I can go and like I can just come back anytime and like you're not going to get screwed because you get cursed

and lost half your health in the middle of the depths. It's like maybe you fell in the frog. Just like for example, you wouldn't stop playing the game at that point and never return to it again. Just as a for instance. As in for instance. Yeah. So I think Demon Souls is a strong, strong contender. Okay, I think that I agree with that. So that's a good initial point is that I think Demon Souls is a stronger contender than Dark Souls. Are you cool with that, Maddie?

Okay, cool. Are we saying it would replace Bloodborn, though? So here's the, that's the next question. No, no, no, no, no. That's the thing. Interesting. Okay. Yeah. So here's the thing. I like BloodBorn better as a game than Demon Souls by a lot, even though Demon Souls is in some ways, like a more welcoming game, like you mentioned, Jason. I do think that it's a lot easier than Dark Souls has been for me, for sure, and

then Bloodbourne, definitely. It's just like it was the first one, or it was like kind of the, you know, I know there's Kingsfield and whatever, but it was like kind of the first one. And when you play it, you can really tell you, like, oh, a lot of these bosses are just kind of not that hard. And that's nice, I think, for people coming into it, even though it's certainly a challenging game.

And the exploration is actually kind of more hard in some ways. I like that those parts of Souls games more actually than the boss fights. So it's a really great one where like the world is so cool and the levels are so cool. But the bosses are generally like, oh, okay, I figure it out and you kind of beat them. But the story's like fine and stuff, but blood-borne story and world and that whole spell that that game cast is on a whole other level. And like for me, that's just so special that if it were between those two, it's no question for me. I don't even think there's a question there.

I think this game could definitely support two from games. I don't think it's an either or thing. In fact, so my proposal would be forgetting the two Assassin's Creed games we'll save, we'll wait for the next Assassin's Creed. We just put Demon Souls in that 10th slot instead of Odyssey. So I don't hate that.

I don't either, even though I haven't beaten either of those games, but I'm so into Dark Souls now that I feel like having two games on the list makes a kind of spiritual sense according to what we're talking about now. You know what I mean? It reflects the current. That's a good point.

The current era of triple click and things the three of us are talking about a lot. No, it's true. Is a part of how the list operates. Yeah, and like the way that we talk about Assassin's Creed right now, as much as I like Valhalla, I've been coming back to it at times and being like, I'm going to take a big chunk out of this. Man, it's just so big. And like a lot of the context for talking about Assassin's Creed on this show is like these games are so big and kind of exhausting. Like Valhalla has a lot of cool stuff going on, cool story stuff and whatever. But, I mean, Demon Souls I was like friggin' obsessed with.

loves. So that is a good point. Demon Soles is a great length, by the way. It's a really good game. It's like a next-gen game. It's like a true next-gen game in a way that very few games are. That's unexpected. This is interesting. I know. I wasn't expecting any Assassin's Creed game to get knocked off. All right, great. So congratulations to Hades,

Hitman 3, and the Demon Souls remake for making it onto the triple-click picks volume 2 list. That'll be in the show notes. And we'll be back probably in like six months or so with another update for this and it'll keep evolving. as we go. And, you know, congratulations also to Destiny 2 and Hitman 2 and Assassin's Creed Odyssey. You made the first version, you know. And now you're, now you're garbage and your bad games and

everybody's right. You're right. I take back when I said they're all three bad games now and no one should play them. Yeah. That's just how it is. They're done. They're done. We'll never be discussed on this show again. Okay. So now, it's 2021. It's been a year of Triple click. We've been making this show for a year together, which is just been an interesting thing because We made a show before, but this is a very different process. It's an independent thing that we all own and just do for our own reasons, which is a surprisingly different experience, I think, than what we were doing before, doing it for a job.

Maddie, I know you had mentioned that you had some thoughts about that. So I'm interested in what you think about how this year has been. Yeah, all good. It would be funny if this was the moment when I was like, so I'm quitting now. I hate this. No, just kidding. No, it rules. And I think this is the part that's perhaps a little more invisible to the listener is the difference between doing this show on the clock as part of our jobs at Kotaku, which, you know, is very fun. It's awesome. It ruled to get to do that. And doing it as an actual part-time thing outside of our day jobs, outside of our other jobs. Who knows what Kirk Hamilton's doing with his days? How would one even describe that? Who can say?

He just plays saxophone and eats burritos. Yeah, that's his full-time job regularly. And then me and Jason are doing whatever. that we do. But this is a very intentional shift for the three of us to be like, we are going to continue doing the show with the three of us, even though each of us has left Kataku in staggered ways, but we're going to continue doing the show. And then also reimagine what we want the show to be now that it's ours. And that's a really special thing. And it's also just been cool to get to do it for a year and to get to approach the show in that type of way and week to week plan it and think about what we want to do. It's not to say anybody at Kataku is telling us what to do per se,

but I do think there's a different vibe to having it be totally independent from from Polygon or Bloomberg or, you know, saxophone.com, which Kirk runs. Yeah. Congrats, by the way, I'm getting that off the ground. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's incredible. You got that URL. There's just a different vibe to it that I think rules and is just, I don't know,

it's made the year very cool for me. Yeah, it feels very different when you have ownership over a thing. media professionals. We all know how awful it can be to like see, to realize that this thing you've put your heart into for years and years is actually owned by some chuds who are from private equity and can do whatever they want with it. And so for us to be like, hey, we're making this thing that we like put our time into every week and a lot of time and a lot of resources into every week. But it's ours. That is just so cool and really awesome to be able to do. And yeah, it's cool. It's been fun.

There's a funny subtle thing, I think, related to what you were talking about, Maddie, where when you're part of a big organization, like a big media organization, you kind of just, you cover things because you just think you have to a lot of the time, I think. It's something I've noticed with Triple Click is that we don't, there are just games we don't talk about. Like, there are things that come out, and there isn't just a sense of like, well, someone's got to get on that. We really need to cover this. It just doesn't matter because the point of the show isn't to be this comprehensive guide to all things happening in video games. It's just to sit down for an hour each week and talk about whatever we think is interesting. And then to pick weekly topics that we all want to talk about kind of more than anything else. Like there's very rarely a sense of obligation of like, well, we all really need to play, you know,

whatever new game is coming out. So all right, I'm going to have to carve out time to play this thing. And I sort of hate it. Yeah. Or we all have assignments at work and we're all working together. And we're like, well, the three of us each have our assignments. We're already doing at work. So I guess we'll talk about those on the show. It's like there's some of that. certainly been weeks I've come in and been like I'm working on playing this game for Polygon,

whatever. So we're going to talk about it. But it's much more, I mean, we're all playing. Yeah, certain games, we shall not name them. I played for Polygon.com. But we're all playing Final Fantasy 6 right now. Like we're all, maybe we would have done that for split screen, maybe not, who can say. But it is, it is fun to have multiple episodes devoted to a game that it's not in the news right now. It's just something that we're playing together and we're talking about together because that's how we chose to set up our show, and that's neat. Yeah, there's a, when I left Kataku, it was before the two of you, and then I'm doing music shit and like not any other video game stuff.

And so for a while, it was like the Kataku show was still happening in that context, and then I was just this guy who was coming in to talk. And then when we started doing our own thing, it shifted the energy a little bit. And there's such a, like being, not doing any other video game stuff. and then the only reason I really play games in that kind of worky way that you start doing when you're writing about games. Like, okay, I'm playing this. I've got my sort of critical antenna up. I'm thinking about things that I can play.

Like at this point, I'm not on Twitter. I'm not like making YouTube videos. So like I'm not really capturing video of games very much anymore. And I'll catch myself doing it. Like I'll record a thing that was really cool. And then I'll think I literally have nothing I can do with this. Like I'm not going to tweet a gift of it or a video of it. it. I'm not, you know, going to make a

Kotaku post out of it, certainly. Welcome to being a normal person, Kirk. Yeah, it's funny. It's like, and it's so it's almost that, but it isn't because I still have this show, which is actually like a great amount of video game, like, requirement in my life, because it doesn't have to be much.

Like, if I'm busy a weekend or something which happens or I just don't play games for a little while, it's fine. Like, there's plenty of stuff we can still talk about on the show. And I don't have that kind of job obligation of like, well, if I'm not playing the new thing and coming up with opinions about it. Like, well, what am I even doing?

Like, what are they paying me for? You know, I'm not on the hook in that way. Yeah, I feel like part of it for me is that I do so much more editing now and like big picture stuff, which I really love doing, as you both know, because sometimes you've worked with me when I've done it. And I don't have that many occasions at work to review games or write about games or opine about games, although I try to carve out the time, of course, when I can. But this show is like a weekly time when I get to just put my critic hat back on again and

also do it in a fun way with two other smart people, which I don't know, it's very complimentary. But it's also true that when I was thinking about leaving Kataku way back in the day, which happened at least for me around the time of the Deadspin walkout, I was like, I want to try to do something else? I did have a moment of being like, do I want to keep doing video games anymore? And one of the thoughts I had when we were talking about doing a show with the three of us after Kotaku. I was like, well, maybe that should be my only thing. Maybe I should just do the podcast and then do other stuff.

Kirk Hamilton style. Like Kirk Hamilton, yeah. Yes, that's what they call it. I'm really glad that I haven't done that because I feel like part of 2020 for me has been falling back in love with games, not that I ever fell out of love, but also trying genres I wouldn't have necessarily tried. And some of that is actually to the credit of the two of you. I mean, we joke around about Destiny 2 and Dark Souls all the time, but it is true

that I don't think I would have tried those games. if it weren't for you too. And I've enjoyed them a whole bunch. And it's just funny that I'm playing them not at the same time as you. But I do think there is something cool about having an outlet that is not my full-time job, but is about the joy of video games and sharing something and restimulating my brain as opposed to just being locked into the news cycle that Polygon does so well. You know what I mean?

Like it's a different form of stimulation and thinking about games that also rules. Yeah. So when we started this show, I remember when we were talking about it, we were talking about some of our goals, we were talking about what we wanted. We were talking about this for a long time. I remember because all of us knew that like even, like, we all knew, like, we're not going to be a Kotaku forever. And we all love podcasting together. So we're going to do something new down the road. And we were saying, like, we don't know when it'll be, but like we want to keep podcasting the three of us together no matter what. And I remember when we were deciding, like, what is this new thing we're going to build. We had a few goals. One was to be listener supported. And, and we want to keep podcasting. And, And thank you to all of you listeners and thanks to the listeners who like have made it viable for us to keep doing this, which is awesome. Oh, yeah. The amount of support we've gotten has just been mind-boggling. But also we had what I think two, two goals that at least stuck in my mind. One was to be like a podcast for everyone and not just like the Kotaka readers and hardcore gaming enthusiasts. And like people who are out there who are just like adults who don't have a lot of spare time to play.

play games, maybe play an hour of a game a day and like don't follow up on all the news. Like we wanted to be a podcast that appeals to that. And I think we've been able to do that. I've heard some feedback from folks who are like, yeah, that's, that's me. And I love the show. And the second thing is I really wanted this to be a show that like felt kind of timeless. And it was a type of show where you could go back and listen through the backlog anytime. And that kind of plays into what you were talking about where like I don't feel like this show

needs to be talking about the news every week as much as like back in the day when we started. Some people were kind of like, where's the news section? But that's very much not what we wanted to do because we want this to be a show that doesn't require you to keep up with all the news and know everything that's going on and have to be listening to that. And we want this to be a show that in five years, you can go back and listen every episode of Triple Gluck and just have a great time doing it. And I really like that. I think we've accomplished those goals. We need to come up with some new goals now. I don't know. Yeah, maybe we do. I think accomplished. our set goals when we set the show out are that's a pretty good thing to have done now we just keep making the same show that we're happy with.

Maddie, I really like, I think between the two things that you both just said, there's kind of like a cool thing that has been nice for me this past year. And it's having a place to just share in really liking video games. Yeah. Which isn't always what I get out of video game media or like it wasn't what I was getting out of working at Kotaku. And it's a thing that I've just come to over the last year. few years of there's a big difference between playing video games and thinking about them and liking them and like talking with people about them and following video game news. And somehow the two things are like always really linked. And I think it's just because news is like exciting.

And there's always there's kind of conflict and there's new stuff happening and you can debate with people about it. It's news. Yeah. So it inspires people to want to talk. And so then it's natural that there's a lot of discussion around it. And then it can start to feel as though that is the primary discussion happening around video games, even though when I hang out with my tabletop gaming group, which is, I think a good example of the kind of people you're talking about, Jason, like some of them like video games, some of them don't have as much time. A couple of them have kids, a couple don't. It's like they're kind of grown up people with an X amount of time for recreation each week. And they're not, they don't really care about news. It's very rare that I'm like, hey, like,

I guess the GameStop thing. Like, there's like times where like that wasn't. There's some news that's transcendent. When I think of gaming news, I should say, to be clear, I'm thinking about, like, the churn that's, like, a daily stuff that you see on Resetta or whatever, which is definitely, I mean, I read that stuff. I'm interested in that stuff, but, like, that's not the type of thing that, like, most of our listeners would care about. Right, where there's just, I've really been more aware of the difference between talking

about that kind of thing, and then just, like, getting together and talking about video games. Yeah, yeah. You know, and it can be all these different topics. It doesn't just have to be like, we all played a game and what did we think of it? Like, there are so many different ways to talk about video games. But it has been nice to kind of just carve out what feels like a little niche. And I shouldn't mention that a really cool thing from this last year has been the triple-click Discord Discord Discord. This is going to sound corny.

But like we just sort of... Yeah, we're leading into it. Embring. It's been a year. We get to be corny. We're allowed. So we launched this Discord server and all these people joined. And they're still there.

And it's like moderated by members. of the Discord and it basically runs itself. It's a totally just like a listener community that we occasionally, I'll just pop in and be like, I need to talk to someone about Monster Hunter. You know, and like, that's really fun. If you go to the sports channel, you'll see me posting pretty much. Right, that's where Jason is.

But it's cool because the vibe there, there are news channels and people talk about the news, but there's a lot of just, like everyone there is playing Souls games. And there's every time I'll log in, it'll just be, someone's like, hey, I just picked up Holland. And I, you know, I'm trying to get into it and get past,

this thing in the early levels, like, what should I do? And then there's people kind of helping out. And it feels much more of that just the feeling that I had when I talked about video games with my friends when I was a kid, which was never about what, you know, studio acquisitions or even game announcements or whatever. It was just like, oh man, like we're playing this thing. Look at this thing. Like, how does this thing work?

Or I'm trying to get good at this thing. And I enjoy that we're, I think, questing after that energy and feel like we're finding it. We are. And I think just the fact that it happened this year, I mean, extremely obvious statement, but a lot of people started playing video games again this year because of the circumstances of all of our lives. And that is just true. And over the course of this show, if someone were to listen to it, I feel like you could chart like my girlfriend's interest in games like increasing. And I feel like I've seen that in her life, which has been really fun for me. But it's also like, you know, her getting the switch and then like now

she's playing it in the other room. Like it's just, it's been cool to see that in a micro level of my own life. And then also see it in stuff like the triple click discord and like, people who read Polygon or whatever, various ways that I interact with readers and listeners with the show where people are like, I'm only now getting back into games. What should I do? What should I play? And having a show where we all already try to cultivate a vibe of being like, yeah, we're already doing this, but also like it's fine if this is the first time you've ever played any video game and we're not going to judge you for it and we're still excited to talk to you about Hades or whatever it is. I'm very proud to be a part of something that cultivates that

energy as opposed to what you don't already own every console like this is your first time getting a console and it's a switch whatever like i it's all the energy that the it's the way that games media was when i started in games media and it's changed and i feel like we are a part of that even if it's a small part we're still part of that and i think that rules also agree yeah it's also been cool to have this constant during the pandemic and i'm sure i we've heard heard from a lot of listeners who are like, thank you for like helping us get through the pandemic. Like every Thursday we listen to you. Like, uh, uh, we appreciate like, like it's, it's so much cool. It's so cool to have this thing, this consistent thing. But it's also the same for us, like the

three of us, at least for me. Yeah. Every single Tuesday at 6pm, which is when we record. Um, it's like, oh, man, cool. This is like my, my, uh, it's like a constant. It's like in loss when Desmond has this constant. It's like a constant every single way. Oh, where you're penny. Where it's like I get to hang out with Kirk and Maddie. it's six every week and it's cool because it's it's it's fun to have these conversations and to record them but it's also cool to have just like a built-in excuse to like get on Skype with you to and shoot the shit for a while which I enjoy to get to get a little sappy here I have very much enjoyed having that be part of my life for the best year yeah it's been a funny thing I feel the same way

and it's nice that it's like a work commitment kind of one of my only recurring weekly commitments but it's every time I do it, I'm always like, oh, that was just sort of fun. Well, besides maintaining saxophone.com, which you have to. Well, yeah, which is a huge work commitment. Kind of a lot of work. It's a very popular website. You'd be shocked to hear. But, you know, like, making strong songs or whatever is much more like, okay, I need to set

time. And it's like a big project. Each one takes a lot of work. And it's, that's very fun. And I look forward to doing it. But there are times where I'm like, okay, I got to work all afternoon on this thing. This show never feels that way.

Like, it's always like, okay, well, I have this set time. And then you get to hang out and talk to people because there's like an exchange of energy that happens when you're talking to other people. That's just a different thing. And it's been interesting how podcasts have sort of shifted over the course of the pandemic. We both, I think you both still read Hot Pod, the Nicholas Quas newsletter all about all about podcasts. Kirk is obsessed with Hot Pod. Have we talked about this on the show? I love Hot Pod. It's because it's called Hot Pod. It's just like. It's good. It's a little long. I never read it at all. There's a ton in there. But if you're very into podcasting,

and he talked at the beginning a lot. There was so much discussion. in the podcast industry about like, you know, are people going to listen to podcasts when so many fewer people are commuting? And a lot of the times when people listen to podcasts, like, is going to go away. And I haven't had to commute for a while because I work from home, so I wasn't totally sure how it would work. And it's turned out, like, people still listen. And I think it's, you find time to listen to something that you want to listen to. And I feel the same way that some people say they feel about, typical, like about other podcasts, like, where I'm like, oh, I'm so glad this exists. Like, it just feels like I'm hanging out with these

people and I get to just have this consistent dynamic that is sort of passive. I can just chill out and listen to it and it's really nice. And I think that that is nice in a way that a lot of other things actually weren't throughout the pandemic. Like there isn't anything else that fills that gap for me anyways. And it's been cool to sort of be both making something like that and then also, of course, listening to other shows and just sort of watching as everybody evolves their relationship with like listening to people. I'm like obviously very into listening. But I think that it's cool to do everything I do now

is like making podcasts or making things people listen to. And like audio only spaces are very interesting to me. And it's cool to see them become, you know, more popular and more varied and people trying all this new stuff. Like that is very interesting. Never really thought about you as an audio only person. But now that's right. That is who you are.

I think about it with strong songs because like a lot of people are like, why don't you make a YouTube channel? Because there are music YouTubers who are super successful and great. Like they do great work. And you can show things visually, but I really like making people listen. And it's the same here. It's like there's just something about it's just your mind's eye and you just are hearing the voices. Even if you're not doing music and explaining stuff, like the way we make a show,

you're just listening to people talk, but you don't see them. And I think there's like a great power there of like hearing people and imagining what they look like just through the tone of their voice. because we can communicate so much the tones of our voices. Speaking of which, don't miss us on Twitch in two weeks on May 4th. Yeah, yeah. Don't miss a completely different type of episode where you can see us. See our weird monitor washed out faces. Yeah, exactly.

We can see our rooms that we record in. Kurtz looks way cooler than ours. I don't know about that. We all have our own sorts of mess. But yeah, that'll be cool too. I mean, I'm not opposed to occasionally doing video things. But I think, I don't know, building a little audio space has been very cool and it's been just sort of a reliable and calming thing throughout a year that just when I think about all the things that happened this year. Yeah.

Not reliable and not calming. No. Like, describe most of it. Yeah. It's striking how the exact, like the show itself, I was just going, looking back through all the episodes. And it's just kind of like, yeah, this game, that thing, this topic. Like, it's very, it's very, like, low key and steady in a way where I'm like, oh, man, this was, you know. know, three days after this apocalyptic event or like that massive scandal or like that huge

protest and that outrage over this horrible thing. And you're like, it's, it is kind of nice to just see this, this consistent thing. Which I think was for us too, even in the moment. We were like, well, we have the benefit of knowing that this will continue. I know it was a comfort to me throughout the year to be like, well, I'm going to talk about Hades with my friends. And it's going to be an hour and it's going to be great. And then the rest of the of the week will keep being bad. Right. At least there will be this thing.

And yeah, man, I'm so grateful. I was like, someone asked me the other day, stop me if I've said this on the show before, maybe I said it just to YouTube. You probably have. We all repeat ourselves. We all repeat ourselves constantly. I was on midmax the other day and they were, and Ben Hanson, his great interviewer, was like,

what is surprised you most about Triple Click and I was like, that how quickly it took for us to get all of our split screen listeners. I think I said this last week on the show. But yeah, it's been awesome to just like see. the support from all of you guys out there listening and seeing how many people support us. Not just financially. Financially is great. Don't get me wrong. But also, even just listening to the show and sharing it with friends and talking about it online has just been really awesome to see. And so we all appreciate all of you. We do. So happy birthday.

Happy birthday. Here's to triple click and to many, many more birthdays after this one. Thank you all so much. If you've been there since the start, we really appreciate you. And yeah, here's to many more. All right, let's take a break, and then we'll be back with one more thing. We are the host of My Brother, My Brother, My Brother, and me, and now nearly 10 years into our podcast, the secret can be revealed. All the clues are in place, and the world's greatest treasure hunt can now begin.

Embedded in each episode of My Brother, My Brother, and Me is a microc clue that will lead you to 14 precious gemstones all around this big, beautiful, blue world of ours. So start combing through the episodes. Let's say starting at episode 101 on. Yeah, the early episodes are pretty problematic, so there's no clues in those episodes. No, no, not at all. The better ones, the good ones, clues a hooy.

Listen to every episode repeatedly in sequence. Laugh if you must, but mainly get all the great clues. My brother and my brother me, it's an advice show, kind of, but a treasure hunt mainly. Anywhere you find podcasts or treasure maps. My brother and my brother and me, the hunt is on. Max Fun Drive 2021 is coming. It'll be May 3rd to May 14th. To get in the spirit, we ask folks like you to let us know what maximum fun and our shows mean to them.

You know, the Maximum Fun Network is really important to me because it is not just a collection of podcasts, but it is a lifestyle and a value system. The podcasts frequently and deftly float between meaningful and irreverent, in one moment drawing attention to social issues, and in another making dick jokes about Klingons. It shouldn't work, but it does. And I have to believe it's because Max Funn's podcasts are, at their core, thoughtful and kind and human, during a time that has often felt cold and isolated. So keep being great and doing what you do. Max Fun Drive will be May 3rd to May 14th, 2021, and you won't want to miss it.

Brilliant Eps, Drive Exclusive Gifts, and maybe some surprises. Want to directly support the hosts of the show we just jumped into? Come back May 3rd for Max Fun Drive. And we are back for one more thing. We've got three video games to talk about. Wow. Spoilers. Pretty wild stuff on this video game podcast.

Yeah, you're really giving it away. What if people really wanted to hear about a movie or a show or a book? They were only going to listen to the end of the end. They're like, I'm done. Just to see if we talk about this other forms of media. Sick of those things. Well, the good news is that they're all old games. That's true.

That is true. Maddie, why don't you go first? What's your one more thing? Mine is actually not an old game, Jason. Emily as Away 3 came out last Friday, and I played all three. Well, you put one through three. So those are old games. Yes, I did because I played three video games this past weekend, and each of them is a couple hours long.

Emily's Away 3 is actually three hours long. It's a beefier game. So these video games, they're indie games, they are set in. Okay. So the first two are set. set in AOL Instant Messenger entirely. Like you are typing into a chat window. And in the first game, you're typing to your unrequited crush, Emily.

And I guess I won't give away whether the crush becomes requited or not. But, you know, depending on what you do, it's heartbreaking or not. And it's basically a text adventure, but it takes place in an aim window. And the second game is the same way, except there's two girls, Emily and Evelyn. and you can sort of dating sim style decide which of them you want to pursue. It becomes impossible to pursue them both. There's this incredible sequence where it's timed messages and both of them are on the outs with their boyfriend or whatever guy is in their life and you have to decide which of them

you want to console and they're like, are you there? And like a timer is ticking down. And if you don't respond fast enough, the other one is like, wow, screw you. I guess you don't really care about me. And it, like, gives you the exact same energy of having an actual AOL. It's a conversation that's going wrong. That's amazing. That really is amazing.

And then the third one is the most ambitious of all three of them. And I would say each of the games. It's on Facebook. It's on Facebook. It's on Facebook circa 2008. No, it's for real on Facebook. And it's like an entire Facebook interface. Again, circa 2008.

And your Facebook messaging, your crush, but also she has her own profile. Well, there's two crushes. again, it's still Emily and Evelyn. And then there's like other guys you know and like they have their own dramas and like they'll maybe pursue the girl you're interested in and you have to like look at people's wallposts and be like, oh my gosh, these people are flirting. And it's so freaking stressful. I guess I recommend these games. But like I got like actively stressed out playing Emily as a way through at various points. Yeah, I feel like real life, romantic life is I guess it's more meant for people like us who are like in healthy stable relationships.

Yes and no. I mean, I'm not sure who it's for. Like, it's so realistic. So, so another thing I thought about while I was playing this was that although the game sort of lets you put in your own information, it is sort of written from the voice of a stereotypical straight guy. And there's like a few reasons why that is. Like the other characters basically assume that you aren't interested in any of the men you know, but that you are interested in any of the girls. And like, just the way that you talk. I mean, it has me. thinking a lot about like communication styles and like sometimes the character will say things that I'm like, I would never say this, but it's the only options here. So I guess I'll say this. And I'm,

I'm going to try to find the time this week to write about that for Polygon. We'll see if I succeed or not. Hopefully. But that part of it has been fascinating. And so I recommend it from that vantage point, just because it really got me thinking about how people communicate and how you can be misconstrued when you're like, you know, quickly, quickly typing something in social media and so forth. And it did make me feel really stressed out, which I think is precisely what it's supposed to do. But it also just reminded me of all the fights on social media that I've had with like paramours or friends. And I was just like, I don't know if I needed to go back to this place mentally. Like this is a very effective game. Like, yes, you know, texting your crush feels game like and you can win or lose in a sense. But that's a weird

way to think about people. But that's kind of the point the game is making though. And like that's, that's the lesson that you learn is that like sometimes you can't say the right thing and that's I think an interesting and cool message but it's also just so freaking stressful so I don't know it was it was an interesting experience and people can check it out if they want they're on steam and itchio Emily is away is what nice is called love an operating system game it's always fun to play a game that takes place in an operating system yeah all right I'm going to go next I'm playing a game that I'm really into that I'm surprised I haven't played yet well I guess I just didn't have time whatever that's less.

interesting than the game itself. The game is a game called Subnautica, which I'm guessing a lot of people have probably at least heard of than I knew of. It's made by Unknown Worlds Entertainment, which is an indie team, pretty small team of developers, led by Charlie Cleveland. And it's a game about going underwater on an alien planet and exploring, and also about crafting stuff for underwater habitat and submarine, but mostly about exploring. And the last time it came on my radar was when we were all raving about Outer Wilds, a game that, among other things, is a triple click pick, an incredible, incredible game that's also about exploration. And people said, you know a game that really has a lot of Outer Wild's energy is Subnotica. And I thought to myself at the time,

oh, does it? I always thought that it was like No Man Sky or Minecraft, like just kind of an underwater version of No Man Sky. It isn't, actually. So I'd say, I have a specific thing about this game that I'm going to talk about this week. I've played a lot of it. I've been really into it. And I'm going to play a lot more and I'll probably talk about it in later weeks. But just to anybody who has thought about playing it but hasn't, you know, just has that level of awareness of what it is, I think that it is actually very important that people know that Subnotica is a handcrafted game. It's not procedurally generated. And it tells a specific story. It's a long game. You explore and you craft and you build your stuff. But over the course of it, you go deeper and deeper. You learn

more about this alien world. You have crash landed on this alien world. You're like the kind of the sole survivor of this huge ship. there's all this like we're all building and environmental storytelling, both some of it is just like you'll find escape pods with stuff about Altera Corp that the corporation you work for. There's a lot of kind of sci-fi capitalism stuff. You know, we own your body and all of that. But there's also the story of this planet that you've landed on.

And it's both a sort of the narrative of other people who've come to visit it and alien intelligence that's there. And then like the ecological story of the planet itself, which is a big part of it. It's like these different biomes that you explore that all interlink with one another. And you learn about the different life that are there and like the sea life and the flora and the fauna and the way this planet has evolved. And it's so cool. Like all of that. Just the feeling of exploring it is cool.

And it sounds amazing. It's amazing. It's really a hell of an achievement. For some reason I thought it was a horror game. Maybe I was thinking of Soma. So, well, that's the thing I'm going to talk about. Well, it is. There's ghosts underwater.

There's no ghosts, but it is intensely. scary depending on how you feel about the deep sea. And for me, actually, I've learned, I've known this for a while. I have like a really low-key phobia. I don't know if I'd say it's a phobia, but like a fear of dark water and of things looming out of the dark water. For me, it's actually very specific. There are like subredits about this and I've read it.

The fear of the ocean is kind of the broad one, but it's kind of specific for me. It's actually like being on the surface of the water up next to a huge structure. or vessel that is like looming above me in maybe the night time and then going down below me into the water as well and I'm just in the water next to it like that's a very um anxiety inducing stressful thing for me yeah I mean it sounds scary but how often is that happening every day in subnotica it happens constantly like the game is like so it's actually it's been a kind of really interesting process playing this game where I'm like god like over and over and over again you have to just you're going down into a big pit

And it's just dark and you just have to go down and then slowly like these shapes will loom up at you and it'll maybe be a huge wreck that you have to explore. That kind of thing. Like it just makes me feel a little like when I'm playing it. But then because it's not really like a monster game, it's not a horror game, I'm learning to relax. So it's kind of been a really great process of like working through this thing. And it's not like a debilitating phobia or anything. It's just I feel this. Right.

But it's just like some light exposure therapy for you. Exactly. What a therapist might tell you to do is play this video. Exactly. And there are like big, creepy, friggin' fish and, like, crabs. And there are these huge things called Reaper Leviathans that will kill you if they get you. And they're huge and they are scary and they roar. And, like, the first time.

It sounds like the one section of Outer Wilds also. So, yes, the Outer Wilds thing is very much the feeling of, like, getting out of the ship and then you're running out of oxygen and you're floating around. And especially in Outer Wilds when you're in the, whatever it's called, the, like, like area where the huge fish are. Like that is extremely subnotica, like very, very similar. Though the thing is in subnotica, it's not like, it's more gaming in a lot of ways than outer wilds because you're doing all this crafting and there's all these materials you're collecting.

So there's all these like scaffolded subsystems of crafting. That's actually like it's pretty arcane. Like it gets kind of micromanagy. But there's never like a section, or at least I haven't gotten to a section where you have to like go through a gauntlet of like fish that are trying to kill you. It's never like that. It's just like you find a new. and there's kind of a big mother effer up there and it's like you kind of just got to keep your

distance but it's fine it's not like hunting you or anything and you don't have to fight it it's just that some of the fauna or some of the yeah fauna are deadly or like kind of dangerous and big and you just keep your distance but they're it's like it's an indie game like it's not like super high deaf and the monsters have all this AI and they're chasing you like they're kind of just up there and then they get aggrate if you get near them so once you i get my head around that it actually makes it even easier for me to just like sort of relax you like it's like it's going to be fine, man. Like, you just, just go right past them. Like, it's not, it's not a big deal. And it's more about the just sights and the sounds freak me out a little. But it's been good. It's been a nice,

like you said, Maddie, exposure therapy. It's a really wonderful game. Can I, can I ask you a question, Kirk? Yes, yes. Go ahead. So I think I'm wondering, and I'm sure a lot of people are wondering, there's a sequel that I think is in early access slated to come out for real at the end of May. So do you think, like, people should just wait and play that? Is like, do you know, do you have any sense of, like, I don't know, and I haven't played it. I would say play this one and then play that one. I mean, this one's great. And I don't know that a below zero it's called is like a huge leap or change.

I think just play this one. It's finished. And the other one's still in early access. So that would be my advice. But again, I haven't played. I want to. One last thought is just that Ralea McLeod, who we used to work with, like, Atacu, tweeted out this article that I wrote, this big thing.

I spent a really long time on. It was this big, like, reported thing about guns and me. And, like, my relationship with guns, this is in the wake of the most recent mass shooting. which I can just leave generic because there will probably be another one by the time this is published. But it was just about life growing up in a world surrounded by guns and guns in media and then writing about video games. And anyways, there's a section in there where I talk about Synodica, which I hadn't played, but Charlie Cleveland had said, like, in this kind of really eloquent way, like, I didn't want to have any guns in this game. There aren't any guns because, like, I don't have like a whole thing.

Well, he didn't make a big thing out of it. He was just like, I don't want to make another game with a gun in it. And it always stuck with me. It was like a cool way that he put it. And it's really nice to be playing the game now. And as much as I would love to have like a huge like BFG to blow away these huge monsters, it's actually really nice that I don't because then it like sets the parameters of the game. It's like just go around them, man.

And it is fine. They're not going to hunt me down. I don't have to get in any fights. So anyways, it's a nice game for dealing with phobia sort of way and also just a very cool game. And maybe a nice game for rethinking an environmentalist position where not having a gun is good and just letting nature have its horrific things that you avoid and respect, and you don't need to shoot a gun at them. I like that, too. Yeah, not heavy-handed about it.

It's just kind of there in the way the game works. So it's a wonderful game. I'm really loving it. I'm sure I'll talk about it more as I play more if I can really muster it my courage to go to this deep zone. Jason, your one more thing. Let us have it. My one more thing is StarCraft 2. Long time listeners of the show know that this is a game that I have loved for a very long time.

I've been on a big kick recently. I've been playing a bunch of StarCraft 2, a bunch of multiplayer, a bunch of single player. Worked my way up through the 1v1 ranks to get back up to the Diamond League, which is where... Oh my gosh. It's just... Yeah, I'm pretty good. I wouldn't say I'm, like, great at StarCraft or anything. You're good.

I play it against you. You're better than the average bear. Pretty good. But I want to say that, like, if you haven't played StarCraft or if you've been curious about it or like you picked it up years ago and you, like, thought maybe you'd return one day. Um, it is awesome. It holds up super well. The campaign stuff is really cool. I wouldn't say the story is like the best story ever, but like there's some creativity and a lot of the level design and the campaign stuff. Um, it's free to play now. So like anyone can download it and jump into like, I think the whole first campaign is totally free and also the multiplayer. And so that's what's cool about the multiplayer is that like even though Blizzard has basically abandoned this game and it's said like we're not making new stuff for it anymore. And that whole team is gone. And they just are like updating the servers and that's it. There's a giant community of players. And when I lock in and I play 1v1, it takes me less than 30 seconds to find a match.

It's like quicker than active games often, often take to like find a multiplayer game. It's much quicker than like destiny, for example, which is awesome. And it's like, it's such a good game. It's such a cerebral, like, exciting game. And it's so much fun to both play and watch. I've also been watching some of the GSL matches, which is StarCraft, e-sports and there's these two casters, announcers, Tasteless and Artosis who are both amazing and have been doing all these amazing matches. And it's just so much fun to just get into

because like you can wake up in the morning. Back when I, in the day, I think I've talked about this a little bit. Back in 2010 when it first came out, I was a freelancer and I would start off every single morning by like playing a match of Starcraft before breakfast. Just get you wake, just you like, wake up in the morning. It's such a rush. It's so good because it's like you're playing and it's like you can play a match in like 10, 15 minutes. Sometimes it'll be longer, but usually around 10 minutes. And it's just such a good jolt of like, oh, man, like such a rush when you win. And it's such a, it's a rush even when you lose because you're like, oh, man, I could have done that better. I could have done that better. And you feel like you're constantly learning and making progress.

And man, if you commit to a game, I don't know, I've never been like a huge e-sports person or anything like that. But like the one game that I played competitively and got really into is Stargraft. And I feel like most people can. And I feel like it's good for your brain. And it's just like, like, good for your instincts. And I felt like it was a really healthy part of my day to be, like, playing StarCraft regularly. So, um, I think I'll probably stick with it for a while. Just like keep jumping into one v one. I go in these kicks where like I'll play it on and off like every once in a while. I'll stop playing for a bunch of time and then jump back into it one day. But, um, yeah, I forgot how much I love it and like how good a game it is even to this day. So

highly recommended, StarCraft, too. Go check it out. It's free. Everyone should go download it. Yeah, I should go. I never feel it. I never feel it. I never feel it. I'm finish some of the stories. You really should. And like the multiple are so much fun. And then there's this other mode called co-op commander where like you play with another person and you're playing. You and I should play enemy AI stuff. And then you can also play 2V2 like against other players.

There's there's a ton of options. And that's and there's also a whole custom campaign thing where like it's everyone creates custom modes and you can or custom maps and you can like do all sorts of crazy things. It's really a robust game and they're now three, four campaigns in it. Oh, the other thing is there's this campaign called Nova covert ops. which is like you play as a ghost and it's essentially StarCraft Ghost as a StarCraft 2 campaign. Also really cool. Yeah, a lot of good stuff in StarCraft. It makes me want to kind of stop playing Subnotica and play StarCraft.

Well, that's funny because I want to play Somnodica. Well, you should. That's good. That's good. There's room for both. All right. Well, that is, that's it. That's it for our one year anniversary show.

Happy anniversary. Yay. Happy birthday to us. Thanks everybody for listening. And we'll see all of you in a week. Yeah. Bye. Triple Click is produced by Jason Schreier, Maddie Myers, and me, Kirk Hamilton.

I edit and mix the show and also wrote our theme music. Our show art is by Tom DJ. Some of the games and products we talked about on this episode may have been sent to us for free for review consideration. You can find a link to our ethics policy in the show notes. Triple Click is a proud member of the Maximum Fun podcast network, and if you like our show, we hope you'll consider supporting us

by becoming a member at maximumfun.org slash join. Find us on Twitter at triple click pod. send email the triple click at maximum fun.org and find a link to our Discord in the show notes. Thanks for listening. See you next time. Maximum fun.org. Comedy and culture.

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