Triple Click - What's The Deal With: The Game Awards?

Episode Date: December 9, 2021

It's the most trailer-filled time of the year, when Santa Keighley slides down our internet-chimneys to hastily deliver some awards in between ads for upcoming games. Jason, Maddy, and Kirk go over the history of The Game Awards, discuss the controversies surrounding this year's event, and of course, gripe about the games they wish had gotten more nominations. Or any at all.Because Wildermyth didn't get a single nomination.I KNOW RIGHTOne More Thing:Kirk: UnpackingMaddy: Halo InfiniteJason: Three Identical Strangers Support 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

And the winner of the award for Best Video Game Podcasts goes to the Bessies. Welcome to Triple Click where we bring the games to you. Today we are talking about the Game Awards, the annual celebration of all things, video games. Let's talk about the nominees and some of the controversies. I'm Jason Shrier. I'm Kirk Hamilton. And I'm Maddie Myers. Hello, we are back for another episode.

We are We are We are Yep We are We are We are recording this a little bit early Because I'm about to go to LA

So we're really back It's like almost a full week early We just did a double header Now we're back at it again All sorts of things could happen Between when we record this And when when it goes live This is the first time we've recorded

Three episodes in a single week It's a triple triple click For us three It's impressive Oh, wait, it's a triple week for triple click. That's true. And Kirk is like everywhere. He's on the besties.

I know. It's a quadruple Kirk week. It's true. I've been on a lot of podcasts. Podcasting all over the place. See, I'm taking the month off from Strong Song, so I'm just like energized for podcasting. I have all this podcast energy to stir around. He's just talking into the mirror every day.

Just talking at my dog and at Emily. If you out there want to keep Kirk's energy up and make it so he can feed himself to keep to like, he needs a lot of calories. to keep that energy going. So you can help support the show. You can help support Triple Lake, which is an entirely listener-supported podcast. We don't have any ads. We just have members like you. Fine folks out there.

If you become a member, a Max Fun member, you can support the show. The minimum, all you have to pay is $5 a month. And in exchange for that $5 a month, you get a bonus episode from us every single month, in addition to a feed full of other shows bonus episodes. But from us, you're getting it monthly. That's pretty cool. think. Our most recent bonus episode, which just went up, is about Battles Royale. It's about, we all watch the movie Battle Royale, and we talk about the genre as a whole. We talk about.

Squid game, Dang and Rampa, we just kind of dissect it. Fortnite. We spoil Fortnite. We do. We spoil the story of Fortnite. That was a fun on. We had a couple of fun bonus episodes recently. I'm going to say, I really liked that Battle Real episode. That was a lot of fun. So if you want to check all that stuff out, and help support the show, help make triple click happen. You can go to maximum fun.org slash join. But even if you can't or don't want to, we still love you and thank you for being here and listening to our show.

You out there, triple clicks audience wins the game award for best audience. Best podcast audience. I think that they would really win that. We don't have the authority to give them a game award for that. We can give them some type of triple click award. The triple clickies. The clickies. The clickies.

Yes, the clickies. I think, and our Discord wins the award for Best Community, the Triple Click Discord, which you can go to. Congratulations. They would really be strong contenders for that award. Yes, absolutely. Maybe I'll even pop into the Discord while at the Game Awards show. Maybe I'll send you guys some facts. Yeah, because you, the reason we're recording this so early is because Jason will physically be at the Game Awards this coming week.

I will. I will. On Monday, I'm flying out to Los Angeles. That's what we're talking about today, by the way. I didn't say that up front. But yeah, today we're doing a what's the deal with the Game Awards because it's a big show. A lot of people are talking about it this week and we want to talk about it.

Yeah, on Monday I fly out to L.A. I'm doing a bunch of stuff, doing some reporting, talking to some meeting up with some folks. And on Thursday... Are you going to rush the stage during the game awards and like do anything crazy? Like, should we keep an eye out for you while we're watching it? Or like, maybe you'll be in the audience.

What kind of mask are you going to be wearing? Maybe you'll see me in the audience. be holding a street code inside. Yeah. I'll be hanging out with our former colleague, Tina Amini. We'll be sitting there and cracking up and making jokes the whole time. So that'll be fun. But yeah, I'll be at the Game Awards.

Looking forward to it. The show itself is like who needs to be there. You can just watch it on Twitch. But afterwards there's always like a big hangout at like a hotel bar nearby, which is pretty cool. So looking forward to that and just seeing people like, this is my first time traveling for real in two years. And that's nuts. Yeah, that's exciting. So yeah, very much looking forward to it.

But anyway, let's talk about the show, right? So the Game Awards. This is like... Gaming's biggest night, red carpet, all the greatest designers creating outfits for Todd Howard. It's a show that wants to be the Oscars of video games, that's for sure.

And it has an interesting history. We won't get into it too much, but the short version is there used to be this thing called the Spike Video Game Awards that a guy called Jeff Keely would put together and run, and that's kind of one of the ways in which he became famous. He became the Jeff Keely that many game fans know today.

The Spike VGAs were active, the Spike Game Awards were actually super heavily criticized because they did a lot of like Spike TV things. I remember I wrote a blog post in like 2011 then went viral about it, but a lot of people have just criticized them. For teabagging and like doing all sorts of ridiculous. They had a, they had a, I say that it's not a joke.

In 2011 they had this skit where like if you spoke for too long on stage, a guy dressed up as a Call of Duty character would come out and tee bag you on stage. Right. And you wrote a post. about how cool that was. I did. I was like, this is amazing.

Greatest thing ever. Why doesn't why don't the Oscars do this? Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. And now the Oscars do do that because of you. Since then, Keeley has gone off on his own, started the show on his own, the Game Awards, and it's become the big thing every single year. And the reason that it gets so much attention is not because of the awards, which I don't

think a ton of people are super invested in, but because of the game announcements. And unlike the Oscars or really any other award show, this show includes trailers and new reveals for upcoming video games. So it's more of like a marketing event than it is an award show or like it's a half, half marketing event, half award show. And then what's really bizarre is there's also like live music from random bands that Keeley likes and like celebrities just talking about stuff and whatnot. It's kind of this weird chimera of like just entertainment, like parts of entertainment. that I guess Jeff Keeley is really into. It's a lot of just his personal passions.

So like his favorite bands show up. I think Weezer was on there one year. Imagine Dragons is coming this year. Kuley's really into music. So this is why they're just random bands appearing on stage of the Game Awards. And so yeah, so this year we're going to see a bunch of game announcements,

and that's what people are most excited about. And it's why I have to watch it for work. I mean, you know, we're going to write up the award winners, but it's also similar to preparing for a press conference or E3 or what have you, we prepare like a news slate for the Game Awards, which if you're covering the Oscars, and I've covered the Oscars before for other publications, you are only covering the awards. You can pre-write a lot of that coverage.

But for the Game Awards, you can't do any of that. You have to pre-write the announcements that you think are going to be made. And often, Jeff Keely is pretty secretive about who will and won't appear in the show. So it's like a real news event that you actually have to watch the whole darn thing to find out what games are going to be announced. Yeah, you got to assign your team of reporters and have people getting on that stuff. Have their screenshot fingers ready on the mouse clicking away. So yeah, I've always been of two minds of that.

On one hand, it's not like this is ever going to have the prestige of the Oscars because it's a marketing event. On the other hand, who cares about the prestige of the Oscars? It's fun to have a marketing event where you're seeing new games. It is super fun to watch new games get announced. as tasteless and strange and puerile it might all feel to be like this is we're getting really excited about marketing um it's just it's something that is objectively excited the three of us uh are all going to be excited when the new uh star wars game gets announced at the game award or whatever else happens at the game i mean let's let's take it easy

we hate star wars now and we won't talk about it and no it's just you know maybe i mean it's like, I get it. I get it. It's, it's hard because it's like, yes, there is always a part of me that's kind of excited. But then there's this weird thing that happens during the Game Award stream where usually it's interrupted by actual commercials, which are also for video games. And like from the reporting side, you'll be like, you know, poised over your keyboard. Like, wait, is this just, oh, no, this is just a call of TV advertisement. This isn't an actual, like, advertisement for a completely new game that we've never seen before in our lives. Those are the advertisements that are part the show. This is a current advertisement for a current video game. But yeah, you are basically

getting excited to watch advertisements. And then when they're announcing the awards, they usually go really quickly, like more so than other awards shows do. And they don't necessarily have people make speeches in the same way. They like really pump them out. Like best indie is probably going to be like 0.2 seconds of the show. Like we're going to talk about the nominees a little bit on our show. And we might spend more time on that than the actual game. awards end up spending because they will be rocketing by so they can like announce the expansion for you know youbysoft's mobile whatever i mean they're they're going to be going well you got to fit in the imagine dragons concert if you're going to if you're going to do a game

awards it's a weird event for that reason it's it's unusual it's not quite like anything else yeah so i've i don't know maybe i'm unusual or maybe there i represent some sliver of the viewership out there, but I find the Game Awards not very pleasant to watch just as a viewing experience. Sort of similar to E3 press conferences, I do think it's really fun to watch in the Discord, you know, with other people. You wouldn't have to be in the Triple Click Discord. You could just be in a chat with your friends. Like, it's fun if you're kind of riffing with people. But as a viewing experience, it's pretty unpleasant most of the time because of what you describe. Not just because I'm watching ads and there's that feeling of sort of being marketed to, but just

the sort of tenor and frequency of advertisements, the volume, the speed of editing. It's just not a pleasant audiovisual experience. And I actually do care about the awards because I do think this is the closest thing we have to the Oscars. And I think that the awards themselves, the categories, the nominations are just as sort of idiosyncratic and weird and fun to argue about and kind of nonsensical and frustrating in the same way as the Grammys or the Oscars. Or the Oscars. or the other big award shows, and that that's actually really fun. I think that this show could probably be a little more of that, and it would still get the ratings that it gets.

But I also, part of me thinks that maybe the game awards, just how video games are always ahead of the curve when it comes to the various industries. We're talking about the film industry, the music industry. The video game industry is very advanced. It's always kind of doing things that the other industries might do in five or ten years, and that by turning the biggest award show of the year into a marketing event for future media,

it's just doing a thing that we will eventually see more and more of at those other shows. So I don't really know. Like, I don't love that part of it, but I could see this actually being the future of all awards shows eventually. Well, that would make you more want to watch more. Well, yeah. And I also think the other thing that the Game Awards do

is what you just inadvertently mentioned, Kirk, which has emphasized the live aspect of it and the fact that watching it with your friends in Discord or on Twitter, if you've got friends who are into games, your whole timeline is people making fun of every single person in a fun way, usually, sometimes a slightly mean way, but we're all doing it together way.

And also there will be a live feed, like a Twitch feed and so on. Like there's the live commentary part of it is something that the Oscars is just too classy to ever even. You can't even imagine that being true. But gamers, like, that is a part of, I'm going to say the phrase gaming. culture. I don't. There's no way around it. That's how that sentence ends. But it is. The live aspect of it all and making snarky comments is part of experiencing a video game event. People definitely live tweet the

Oscars. Oh, well, yes. That's a whole thing. Right. But there is not the Oscars on Twitch TV and that experience is not a part of how the Oscars is marketed. It probably will be in like two years though. You know what I mean? Like that part of it, I agree with you. The Oscars will be debuting the next whatever trailer, you know, Martin Scorsese, and also they will be on Twitch, you know. Maddie, not just isn't on Twitch. Also, there's like a fan vote component. Imagine if the Oscars had like a fan. Well, that's a little closer to the MTV VGAs and the MTV Video Music Awards, where there are a lot of fan votes. Or like the Teen Choice Awards. Okay, sure, but that's why those awards don't have the class, the prestige of the Oscars. I think that with the

game awards, it's kind of like, it's got, it's that lingering, just sense of entitlement or It's like they want gamers to feel like completely coddled to. It's like at E3 when the execist Phil Spencer stands up on stage and it's like, we do it all for you. The gamer, like fans are the most important part of our lives. Like that's what this is all about. And they play those clip shows of a bunch of, you know, diverse sets of gamers talking about how their feelings about Master T for the reason

why they do everything day to day. It's why they get up in the morning. And then you watch it and you're like, ah, yes, video games are good for me. and I feel great. That's how these events are packaged regardless. Yeah, there's multiple reasons for doing viewers' choice awards. I mean, also it just gets people involved and it gets the nominees out sharing the thing and trying to get votes. Like, there are a lot of just sort of practical reasons for doing that in addition to making

the audience feel catered to, but that is also part of it, definitely at the Game Awards. But it also results in some very weird winners and nominees, which I think we're about to get to, because the Game Awards kind of has it both ways, where it has publications, including Polygon we did submit a ballot I don't think either of you were part of any initiative to submit a ballot triple click did not submit a ballot I've never, maybe when I was at Kataku

one or two years I contributed yeah I can't remember if Kataku did a ballot then when you were there but Kirk by the way just to just to respond to I'll let you finish it a second Maddie but it's not a viewer's choice award the way it works is winners are determined by 90% the voting jury and 10%

public fan voting so winners so fans can vote on every award There is also a specific award, though, Jason. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no, no. I know, but I'm saying fans can vote on every single award. But speaking broadly, the same logic applies where it's good to have fan votes involved because that encourages people to talk about the awards.

I just want to make it clear what's happening here. Yes, yes, absolutely. And the other piece of it, the other percentage that Jason mentioned is video game publications. And there are publications that you've probably heard of, like Polygon, because I mention it all the time. It's the one I work for. But then there are also tons and tons of other publications that really run the gamut from like really tiny blogs to much bigger publications. And I personally don't know how these publications are chosen. I've never known how they do or don't get into that list.

Yeah. It feels a little like being on metacritic. It's a little odd. And the results of it is that you have a lot of votes from like these much smaller fan blogs that as far as I know are weighted. just as heavily as the votes from your IGNs and your katakus and your polygons. And that's also just a thing that makes the end result kind of weird. And you end up with lists of games that are diverse in a certain kind of way where it's like, really? That made it? And I don't always know how we end up where we are. And it definitely makes for fun categories to argue about on Twitter.

And pretty much no matter who wins, people are bad about it. But hey, that's just like the Oscars. so maybe the TGA's is doing something right. I don't know. I don't know. It's all for arguments sake, right? That's why awards exist. Yeah, I think a lot of the outlets you haven't heard of are the international ones. You could be right.

You could be right. Places in India, Greece, Malaysia, Peru, Philippines, which is pretty cool. It's pretty cool that there's that kind of diversity on this thing. But yeah, let's get into a little bit. So, first of all, Kirk, are you going to watch it? I know it's not an exciting to do any experience for you, but are you actually going to watch it? It's a kind of overly exciting viewing experience, right? Yeah, I'll probably watch.

I'll watch and hang out in the Discord, I think. I think I enjoy that experience, and it's sort of fun seeing who I win. But I might not watch the whole thing, you know. I might turn it on for a bit. Also like the Oscars. Yeah, but you don't want to miss the moment when Breath of the Wild 2 pops up, and it's like the amazing next trailer. So that moment I can miss because that'll just watch the next day on a gaming blind.

Yeah, but it's not as fun. I think, okay, so here's where I reveal my true colors. I've talked about this before on the podcast when we talk about E3 and stuff, but here's where I reveal my true colors as like a sucker and a gamer, a gamer. A fan boy. This is the biggest like capital G gamer part of me, but I love the moment when it's like, you're totally surprised by something and it's like the Zelda music starts to play and the theater goes dark and everyone is just going crazy.

Like one of my most memorable ever like moments covering this into. was in 2013 when Kirk you and I were sitting together in the Sony theater and they announced Final Fantasy 15 and like they changed the verses 13 into a 15 and I was just like ah He was he was he did. He did make that sound I did. I did make that sound He became a little Muppet of himself and he was like I looked over and he says Muppet next to me I didn't I didn't applaud or anything I don't applaud during these things as a reporter but I did not an applauding Muppet just a little excited It's better to just scream. Yeah, exactly. But I do think you mess out on those moments.

And I think that's what the GameWords is really trying to capture, like that feeling of FOMO where if you're not there. And I saw people asking on Twitter the other day, like, why don't these game publishers just release their things on their own schedule? And it's because, well, A, like, you have all the eyeballs tuned to this. So you're going to get a lot more attention on your thing, no matter what it is than you would otherwise. But B, and I think this is pretty important, there is something special about the feeling of like live watching something.

It's why like you don't record the Super Bowl and watch it a few hours later. It's like there's something special about watching. Some people do that. Apparently Kirk does it every year. It's not the same. Yeah, Kirk, I know you're a big football junkie and every day you record it.

So he can watch it three hours later and ignore the internet. Well, Kirk needs to analyze the offensive line play and figure out what the quarterback did wrong. But anyway, I do get excited about that. So like I would not be happy. if I, like, missed a Breath of the Wild 2 trailer and I had to catch it the next day or something. But that's me personally.

Yeah, I'm more okay with that. Yeah. I think I would still watch it live with friends, even if I didn't have to watch it for work. And I have had years where I didn't have to work it, very few. But I remember them so fondly because I'm like, that was the year I watched it with my friends. And we, like, made fun of it and laughed and, like, had drinks together, whatever. That's a much more fun way to watch any awards show. But I'm out there.

making sure Polygun.com as every piece of news you all need. So yeah, that's me. That's why I'll be doing it. We appreciate your sacrifice, Maddie. So let's talk about a thing that happened with Jeff Keely this week that must be addressed. So Jeff Keely, I mean, you mentioned before Maddie

that he was a journalist and he's definitely done some journalistic work, but he's kind of because he's so tied to all these game companies for getting them to reveal their stuff on his show and because he actually helps them with the marketing, he kind of occupies this kind of unique space in the industry in that he is responsible for promoting games to people, which is interesting because it puts them into a position where he has to be super positive and friendly to all the game publishers,

whereas most journalists, if you're doing journalism, you're going to piss off these companies you cover. Speaking from personal experience. Sometimes. Yeah, from time to time, at least. Once in a while. But no, I mean, if you do journalism, you're going to piss people off if you're, if you're properly reporting on any industry. And Jeff doesn't really do that.

But there was one instance a few years ago where he like called out Konami because they had they had mistreated his BFF, Hideo Koshima. And that was a whole thing. And so this year, he certainly made waves when there was a Washington Post story that was picked up by Kotaku. and I think the Kataku blog really just like went viral. It was originally a Washington Boast story. Yeah. That essentially like he was like, I'm carefully considering like we wouldn't want to like do anything. Like essentially just use some mealy mouth language to talk about what was happening in Activision Blizzard because they asked him about that.

And obviously Activision, we don't need to rehash that here, but has been dealing with lots of allegations involving sexual misconduct and harassment. So a lot of people called him the fuck out. it was really, really intense. Trending on Twitter, like a lot of people were going after him, especially because, like, it was just, like, a couple hours after that when it started coming out of that Activision

and, like, laid off a bunch of QA testers. And, like, there's new Activision, just shit show stuff every day. Eventually, all of the outcry, and a lot of people called him out for being a hypocrite that he called out Konami, but wouldn't call out Activision. And you can kind of see that

because Konami is not in a strong position. The game's interesting you don't have to worry about, like burning bridges with Konami. Well, Cami doesn't like have somebody on the Game Awards board. You know, it's a very different level. That's true. And Activision Blizzard does. And Konami is just so much smaller than Activision.

Well, Konami doesn't have AAA games. They don't have games that could be announced at the Game Wars. That's the thing, right? Like, so it's an easy target, whereas Activision is not. And so at the end of all this, Jeff Geely let us put out a bunch of tweets on Friday night, being like Activision will not be part of the game awards other than the nominees. and he was like, let me read this. There's a game awards as a time of celebration.

There's no place for abuse, harassment, or predatory practices in any companies or any community. Kind of a vague statement. People were happy that he did that, that he called out Activision specifically. I have mixed feelings about all of this. There are certainly Ubisoft games on stage. There are certainly like things from.

And there's a Ubisoft. Eveskimo is on the board as well. He's on the board. Merrill from Riot Games is on the board. There's all kinds of people on this board. Yeah. And these are just the companies we know about. Like every single company, it's only a matter of time before we find out more horrible stories about more companies.

The only difference between Activision and EA is that Activision's shit got exposed this year. Like that's the only difference. This is an industry systemic problem. So something about it doesn't sit well with me. But yeah, I'm curious to hear what you guys thought of this whole gruffel. No, I'm with you. I also looked at that list of board members and I was like, well, first of all, this is just every single major company in the industry and also a lot of these companies we know allegations

about and they're pretty credible allegations that are either currently being disputed internally or like people have actually stepped down at Ubisoft and acknowledged that the allegations were true. So it's not even a secret anymore at some of these companies. And also the games industry has been not only male dominated but just dealing in extremely sexist advertising campaigns since the 90s, that's been part of how it operated for so long, and it's only now being undone. It's just, it's- Including on the Game Awards show that was the predecessor to this. Core way, yeah, I mean, I was looking at some of the old Spike TV pages before we recorded

this, and it's like, yeah, the history of the Game Awards isn't great. Like, what, this is, it's rotten from the inside, and it's only in the past five years, I'm not even to say the past 10, that companies have started unpacking some of that and changing things. And these much, much bigger companies are going to have a way harder time doing it because they're so big and they're dinosaurs and they're run by dinosaurs. So my expectations are pretty low. But because my expectations are so low, I'm also like kind of skeptical about the utility of callout campaigns like this on Twitter where I'm like a lot, I'm seeing a lot of people being like, get rid of this Activision board member. And I'm like,

what are you going to do? Get rid of all the board members in every single advertisement at the Awards because that's what you would have to do if you actually said you cared about these types of issues and no gamer wants that because they actually still do want to see even an advertisement for a Blizzard or Activision Game at the Game Awards. They kind of do still want to see that. So it's like, how are you going to mediate that problem? Yeah, I mean, it's more you have to get rid of it all if you follow that line of thinking through to its logical conclusion. You can say that you care about these problems and still involve those games in your industry celebration award, right?

There is a way, there is a middle ground. There's a way to do this. I don't envy Jeff Keely having to find that middle ground because he's in a very difficult position here, and I think that is true. He also has a unique opportunity to just talk about it some. I think it's interesting that there's a comparison. This is something I've just been really ambiently following

and I'm kind of catching up on, but I do remember when he called out Konami over the Kujima stuff. And he had a way in there. And I think that the comparison, it's not a one-to-one comparison between what's happening now and what's happening then for a number of reasons. And I think it is,

it's important to look at what really happened then, which was going into the show, nobody was calling for him to speak about this at the show. If I recall correctly, Konami barred Kojima from coming to the show at all. And he kind of had an in as a result, or he had an opportunity to talk about it

because it was like, well, this thing happened that actually affects this show, that we're putting on right now. And he could get up and sort of talk about it in a way that felt like relevant to the night, which is a slightly different thing. Like, that's a kind of a, you know, he had a way in compared to just getting up and being like, this person did something bad or this person on our board is associated with a company where there is bad behavior, which he could also do. And I'd love to see him do something like that at the awards, but it is just like a, it's like a trickier thing to thread when it raises the specter of the

endless spiraling like, okay, well, you're talking about actually, Division, but what about Ubisoft? You're talking about Ubisoft. What about UbiSo? What about Riot Games? Okay, well, you talked about those three, but what about this and this and this? And soon it's like no, no ethical industry award shows under capitalism, right? Like, it's just an impossible thing when he's like, well, really, I'm just trying to put on this award show, guys. Like, I can't just spend this whole time talking about that. It's also different when you're before, when it's like before a show and you're being asked to tweet about a thing and the show hasn't even happened yet. So I'm curious if anything will happen on the actual night of the show,

because that's when he is at his most powerful, that's when he has the most eyeballs on him, and that's when his actions will arguably be the most impactful compared with a tweet saying, I don't stand for harassment and abuse, etc., before the show. So some of this remains to be written, but I would love to see him say something else, do something more.

You know, he has a real platform and an opportunity. Yeah, that would be interesting to see. I am guessing, I feel like I know exactly what's going to happen. He's going to start the show and he's going to include a mention of like, we've all seen what's been happening in the industry like we see here at the game where it's specific but against abuse yeah yeah or even if he says like a lot of rough times in the games industry it'll be exactly like what happened when people talked about gamer gate in like that obfuscating tone in like 2014 when they're all like we've all seen what's happening we really we really condemn

harassment or even maybe he might even mention the name activation he might be like we've all seen what happens what's happened with activation we condemn her harassment and abuse in the industry and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And, you know, I mean, while that is not as much as he could do, that is establishing a norm that's a good norm to establish, right? I mean, just to sort of, to say it. Like, it's not a bad thing to get up there and say that. I would not complain about that.

Yeah, it is better than nothing. And I actually would be kind of surprised if he even did that. I think that's going to happen. I feel like he knows that there aren't a lot of, one of the other things about the Activision thing is that it's kind of an easy win right now because everybody on every single side of every single issue is like all out to get Activision right even like the CEOs of Sony and Microsoft are willing to weigh in. There's nobody out there being like you know Bobby Kodick made some good points seems like a really decent guy. He makes a lot of money and we love money. No one's saying that even if there's no downside. There's no downside to criticizing Activision right now except then you lose your potential to like reveal the new call of duty map or whatever. Which Jeff may have. I mean, he doesn't spell that out in the Washington Post quote. Well, that's what he said in his statement on Twitter,

that there won't be any Activision presence in the award show other than nominees, which I think is... Correct. And we don't know if maybe there was something he was considering showing. Right, maybe he was. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, could be, could be. And I would be very curious about that. Anyway, that's Activision stuff.

Hey, let's talk about the nominations a little bit. I highlighted some for us to look at it. I don't want to read every single one, but I think each of us should just talk a little bit about, like, what stands out to us among all of these. And I'll go first with one that really stood out to me, which is 12 minutes getting a nominee for Best Indy. Clearly, Jason was not on the nominating committee for this game

as the one of us who's played it. Dude, that's like one of the worst games I played this year. I'm baffled by this. I don't know anyone who liked it. The best indies are 12 minutes, death store, inscription, Keena Bridge of Spiris, and Loop Hero. Those are four solid nominees. knees and then 12 minutes, right? And the fact that like they left out like the forbidden city,

which was amazing and like some, or forbidden, forgotten city, sorry, forgotten city, which was amazing and some other just incredibly cool indie games this year like unpacked or like other stuff that like flew under the radar in favor of 12 minutes. God, 12 minutes was so bad. Anyway, what stands out for you guys? It's mainly weird to me because I'm like, who voted for this? Were there just a bunch of people who stealth were like, I actually really love 12 minutes? It got good reviews. There are a lot of people who like 12 minutes.

That is a thing. It's not universally hated. Okay. I guess I stand corrected. This is a real green book situation for me and I just got to be like, okay, I don't understand it. Players didn't like it as much as critics did. But then again, I mean, cyberpunk has like got amazing, got like nines and tens from. And in fact, cyberpunk also.

Speaking of which, yeah, it's in the next category. role-playing game, Cyberpunk 2077 is in this list. And it is again alongside four nominees that I would have expected to be in this list, which are Monster on a Rise, Scarlet Nexus, Shin-Magami Tensei-5, and Tales of a Rise, all of which I've heard great things about. So, who knows? Bizarre. Yeah, what else stands out to you guys?

Kirk, you have a list of snubs. I know you prepared. I have a list of snubs. First of all, the fact that Wildermith isn't on here at all and is not on the best role-playing nominee list is completely buck wild. Or best indie. Right. I think it should have been best RPG,

best narrative, and best indie, all three of those. That game's incredible. And also, like, it's the game with the most role-playing of all of these role-playing games.

I mean, to be fair, cyberpunk 2077 does have role-playing in it, which I would say compared to Monster Hunter Rise or Tales of R-Rice. I mean, those games aren't really role-playing games in that sense. Monster Hunter Rides should have just been Best Action Game.

Like, what in the world? Their best action adventure. That's not a role-playing game. So there's some, sort of, you know, categorization dispeas that I would have. My other snubs are Jane Perry, the star of Returnal, absolutely should have been nominated

for best performance. I think she gave one of the best performances of the year. I really was, I was struck by the music list. It's kind of been a down year, I think, for video game music. There hasn't been, there's been plenty of good stuff, and I'm sure there are some games I haven't played role-playing games,

etc. Actually, I'm playing unpacking, which is going to be one more thing. That game has really nice music. That could have been nominated. It has really good audio design. I lobbied for it to be among Polygon's best audio design because it has so much folly work in terms of like when you're putting away each item. It has so much differentiated folly work. It's so great.

And the music is also lovely. The sound of a box being like folded up and the music is nice. And Chickory had great music. Fantagian. Fantasion came out this year. Fantasion has an Uimatsu soundtrack. That's incredible. Yeah, you were telling me about that.

So right, there's some games I haven't played like that one. Gather the Artful Escape has cool music, but Cyberpunk's music is okay, Death Loops music didn't knock me out. Guardians of the Galaxy is such a weird nominee. I'm sorry, I'm listening to the nominees, but that's licensed music, and that is included in the description of the

category is like its best score and music. Ahas take on me? Yeah, pretty good song. Shouldn't we be giving it an award in 2021? Yes, I love that song. Like, okay, yeah, you know who wrote some good songs? Blondie, you guys heard of her? She wrote

some great stuff. At Benatar, you heard of this? Like, what are we doing? What are we doing? Really, really great, great stuff there. I mean, Guardians, it has some ambient music too, doesn't it? It does. And I don't really like the ambient music. It's fine. It's fine, but it doesn't knock me out. The thing is that this

nominee, this nomination list is missing. I'm in then Neer Replicant, which I didn't play. I'm sure it has good music just because Neer Automata, certainly did. Of course. But the two games that are missing from this are two of my favorite soundtracks. door, David Fenn's music and Death Store is incredible, I think. And Peter McConnell's music wasn't nominated for Psychonauts too, which is banana nut bars to me because that's the best soundtrack

of the year. Amazing. Oh, that is nuts because it won, it was nominated for like everything else. It's a bunch of stuff, which is great. Very deserving. That's one of the, if, it's very cool to see. Didn't expect Psychonauts 2 to be nominated for so much. And I loved that game. So I was actually pleasantly surprised to see that in there. So I think that that oversight for music is very strange to me because also he just really deserves awards and recognition. He's like such an industry veteran and like a legend and yeah, Peter McConnell. So

he wins the award from Kirk anyways. And the other two, sorry, just really quick are that I think overboard and unpacking both could have been in Best Narrative and the Best Narrative is just like a little bit of a weird one, even though it seems like it takes two is like the game that the three of us missed. Best narrative. Can we talk about Best

narrative? I can't believe, yeah, best narrative is Death Loop. It takes two. Life is Strange, True Colors, Guardians of the Galaxy, Psychonauts too. The fact, like, I love Death Loop, but Best Narrative? What? No. That doesn't make any sense. I would have given Death Loop best performances for both of the lead actors.

Not Best Narrative. No, it's a little funny, right? It's just, it's funny that there are, like, best narrative could be expanded to mean a lot more than it is meaning here. When you have a game like Wildermith, for example, that's doing things with narrative that other games don't do. You know, and I do think that this was a game that Disco Elysia maybe won for. Like, I feel like I'd like to see more games, like narrative design to be considered a little bit more. And I don't think that's too egg-headed to kind of want to see that in the best narrative category. I don't either.

I think it's like it's almost like you need a narrative innovation category for stuff like overboard in Wildermith. And then you need something like best writing for what I'm imagining they want to give it to Psychonauts 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy. Deathloop for. Yeah, like best one-liners, best jokes that people liked, you know? Like that's why people want to put those games in this list. Best screenplay, yeah, best play. So I have a couple funny things I want to talk about on this list. So first let me read a couple of categories.

Best game direction. Death loop, it takes to, Returnal, Psychonauts 2, Ratchet and Clank Grift Apart. And then Game of the Year. Death Loop, it takes to Metroid Dread, Psychonauts 2, Ratchet and Clank Grift Apart, and Resident Evil Village. Best game direction. First of all, that is the silliest concept because nobody has any idea what it means.

Second of all, that is so offensive to the director of Metroid Dred and Resident Evil Village that they were nominated for Game of the Year, but not best game direction. They didn't have the best directors, just the game of the year. Like, again, as you say, like, what is a game director? Okay, I don't know if a lot of people know this or realize this, but here's a fun little tidbit

that will make this even more hilarious, you guys. Psychonuts 2, the game director on that game left in the middle of production, like two years before it shipped. That game, if you look at the credits of that game, it doesn't have a director because what happened was Zach McClendon left in 2019. Tim Schaefer, who's the head of Doublevine, took over as project lead, but did not get a director's credit. So if you look at the credits of Psycho Nuts 2, there's no director. How did this game win, get nominated for best game direction when there's no directing? I think so if we want to find the root of this problem, it's one step farther back, and that's that all of these categories make sense, at least insofar as you can kind of figure out what they're going for.

Even things that I think in the past sort of joked about, like best action game and best action adventure game. Or best role-playing game with which you took a lot of issue in the category. That makes more sense than direction. No, no, no, I know. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying even those kinds of things like action game, action-dvention game. I can look at it and basically get what they're going for with those. but with best game direction, that's the one category where I look at it and I'm like,

I do not actually really understand what this is an award for. They just want to be the Oscars. That is all of the sense. Yeah, exactly. It's just trying to be the Oscars. But they can't. You can't. But in this case, it just doesn't work. There's no allegorical.

It just makes sense. What they should do. Well, so, okay, so game direction, yeah, it just makes sense. I guess what they're trying to do is like this game feels like it as the most artistic, like, cohesive artistic vision. That's what they're trying to say, I guess. But then it makes no sense that, like, Metroid Dred wouldn't be on it.

Like, did that not feel? And also that death loop is on there when I feel like that was one of the flaws of that game, you know? No of that. It's kind of all over the place. Yeah, I can see that too. And then it takes two is probably only on there because the director is like a character, like a colorful character. And I wonder if they all, everyone just assumed that Tim Schaefer was the director of Psychonauts too.

And they're like, oh, Tim Schaefer, like, best game direction. Tim Schaefer, of course. I want to vote for Tim Schaefer. That's interesting. Do you think the Joseph Ferris effect led to It Takes 2 being voted into so many categories. It's not that people play it takes 2. They just wanted to vote for Joseph Farris. But I mean, I've heard good things about it.

It's a divisive game. Our friends of the besties did not care for it. It is very divisive. I know people who hate it and I work with them and they review the game in Polygon. So I want to talk about, okay, I want to talk about one more category and then I want us all to do a game of the year. thoughts and predictions. So one more category is most anticipated game. So, okay, so I'm going to read you the nominees for most anticipated game. Eldon Ring, God of War sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, The Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild sequel. Wait a minute. I'm actually reading from the 2020

nominees. Okay, hold on. Let me go to 2021. Okay. Eldon Ring, God of War sequel. Horizon Forbidden West, sequel to Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wilde. That's pretty funny. So it should have been most anticipated delay last year. Not only is it funny for that reason.

It's also the funniest thing that there's an awards category for best marketing of... I mean, there isn't at all when you consider this award show that this is an award show and a marketing event. Of course that's what they have an award for.

That's what's so funny about it. It's just like it's trying to have its cake and eating it too, right? It is successfully having its cake and eating it too, I think. It is. There's two cakes. Jeff has two cakes. There's just two cakes, right?

And they're both delicious. One's for eating. Mr. I'm so excited for the announcements, Jason Schreier. No, but that's what, no, I think it has a massive, massive win when it comes to the marketing side of it. And it does not have the prestige. It did not have its cake and eat it. It has a smaller cake, maybe.

Like it is not considered, like I think if you ask your average game developer, they will say this is a joke, as opposed to if you ask your average movie maker where they might say, oh, yeah, I kind of hate the. Oscars, but like, got to admit, it's the most important thing. Like, I don't think Big E Wars have the... And it matters to your career. I don't know. The Game Awards seem like they kind of matter.

Yeah, I think the GDC Awards matter a lot more to game developers, because that's voted on by, like, their own peers. And they just, I think that's something they care about more. Yeah, but isn't that kind of like winning it can versus or con versus winning an Oscar? Maybe, but those are both prestigious, and I just don't think there's much prestige to the game awards. And I think that categories like this are the reason why. I just think it's really good at the marketing side, but it doesn't have the prestige.

Anyway, let's do Game of the Year real quick, and then we'll take a break. Game of the Year nominations, once again, are Death Loop, It Takes 2, Metroid Dread, Psychonauts 2, Ratchett and Clank Rift Apart, Resident Evil Village. So let's each go one by one and say, what we think's going to win, and then what should have won. Kirk, you go first. This is a year where I'd actually be fine with a lot of these winning. I think that, you know, I kind of feel like Death Loop is going to win. I guess I could see it being Metroid Dred, but for whatever reason,

it feels like Death Loop is going to win. I would love to see Psychonauts to win this, but I'll be happy with Death Loop winning because I love that game too, and Metroid Dread, all three of those. The other ones are a little more, oh, I didn't play it takes two, but Ratchet and Clank and Resident Evil are both a little like,

they were good, but I've kind of forgotten them a little bit, like they don't feel quite as exciting to me. So Death Loop, I guess, is my prediction. I don't disagree. I could see Death Loop winning. I'd be a little disappointed because I'd rather see Metroid Dreder Psychonauts to win, I will say, I do not think Metro Dred will win.

I would love to see that, but I just don't think it's the kind of game that wins this award show. I feel like I've seen enough game awards in my lifetime to make that claim about the kinds of games people vote on for Game of the Year. I get what you're saying, yeah. So you think, wait, Kirk, what did you think should win, whether it's one of these or, like, another game entirely? I think Death Loop will win, and either that or Metroid or Psychonauts should win, those

three. Is there any of that's not nominated that you think should have won? Oh, I mean, like, so many. Wildermint. Returnal, Wildermith. Hitman 3. Yeah, Hitman 3. Monster Hunter. Hi. This is the name of the best games the year. Death Store. People might have forgotten that Hitman 3 actually came out this year. Yeah, there's a lot of good frigging games this year. Inscription. Shit, that could be nominated for Game of the Year. That game rules. And Maddie, you think Death Loop's going to win, but you feel like Metroid Dred should win. I would love to see Metroid Dred win. It is my personal game of the year. and I don't think that's any secret to anyone in the universe. What a surprise?

Yeah, I don't think it will win. But I am no longer brokenhearted over game awards choices. After last year, when Last of Us part two won, and I just was like, wow, this feels like crash versus Brokeback Mountain to me. I feel bad. I don't like this. Personally, that was just my personal being in that game versus Hades. I felt very unhappy. No, this year it's stronger.

Yeah, I would say it's more neutral. It's more neutral. There isn't a nominee that's the inevitable nominee. Yeah, there isn't a clear winner this year. That's what's interesting. Like a god of war or Red Dead Redemption too. Right, right. Whereas last year it was so exciting that Hades was even nominated.

So it felt different to see Hades lose. Oh yeah. Last year, right, it was because we were all rooting for Hades because Hades really deserved it. Right. Well, it should have won. Yeah, this is a tough one. I'm like going back and forth on whether I think it's going to be death loop

are psychonauts that wins. But ultimately, I think it's going to be death loop just based on like the critical reception we saw. And like, again, the kinds of games that win. Yeah, it's like it's an action shooter. It just feels like awards bait. Am I right guys? It's really,

it's funny that that's video game awards bait though. Yeah. But yeah, but I feel like Metroid and Psychonauts are such strong, such strong candidates. I mean, I don't know. I feel like my favorite game of the year is the great ace attorney, but there's no way that would ever win. Yeah, I mean, that's not even.

in here, yeah. But I get what you're saying. It's too bad. That's just not the kind of game that even makes headway in this type list. Which is fine. That's not what I would expect from an award show. It's my niche taste to be reflected on the show. I just would like to see a little bit more sense.

The most fun is being like, well, actually the best game was a inscription. If you played it or it's a little bit more unusual. What's crazy to me when even like the big first party hits like don't get nominated. So like best RPG and we have to take a break a second, but just one little snub

that I'm pissed off about. Best. Everg. Like, cyberpunk, cyberpunk getting nominated for that when Bravely Default 2, which is an incredible RPG that Nintendo published. It's not like a niche thing. That didn't get nominated. All right. I think it's cute

that you don't think Bravely DeValt is a niche thing. We can move on, but I just think that's... And so... Okay, we have... I know. Okay, I know what you're saying. Natty, why do you have to do that? I know. I know, but it's just, it's not... We're talking about different It's not game awards bait.

I'll just leave it there. It's not game awards bait. And cyberpunk is. You know what I'm saying? No, no, no, no. But we're not talking about, well, we're talking about just best RPG. Like, Shin-McAmi Tensei 5 is way more niche than bravely default, too. It is.

I would imagine cyber, like, imagine cyberpunk being nominated after its reception. Like, that's crazy, isn't it? I don't know if you've heard, but it has mostly positive reviews on Steam now, Jason. It does. They're fixing it. They're fixing it. They're fixing it. They can put in me saying that any day for the next two years.

of our lives. Let's take a break and then we'll be back with more game awards. I mean one more thing. Well, Manolo, we have a show to promote. It's called Dr. Game Show. It's a family-friendly podcast where listeners submit games and we play

them with callers from around the world. Oh, sounds good. New episodes happen every other Wednesday on maximum fun.org. It's a fast and loose oasis of absurd innocence and naivete.

Are you writing a poem? No, and just saying things from my memory. And it's a nice break from reality. Is that a real lie to say that? I don't know. It sounds bad. It comes with a 100% happiness guarantee. It does not. Come for the games and stay for the chaos.

A man goes to the doctor and says that he's depressed and that life seems cruel. The doctor says, ah, the treatment is simple. The great clown, pagms. Paliachi is in town tonight. Go and see him and you will surely feel better. The man bursts into tears and says, But doctor, I am Pagliacci. Ah, okay, says the doctor.

In which case, try listening to the Beef and Dairy Network podcast. The Beef and Dairy Network podcast is a multi-award winning comedy podcast, and you can find it at maximum fun.org or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, we are back for one more thing. My one more thing is another gripe about the other. Jeff Keely. Why did he wear his hair like that? Maddie, what's your one more thing?

Well, my one more thing is Halo Infinite. I have had an advanced code for Halo Infinite, the campaign, for a week now, and also the multiplayer dropped and it's free. So I've been playing that too. Yeah, Kirk put in put in a bunch of boys in a bathroom. the Gregorian chant in the background of this. Okay, so I have to kind of eat my hat, eat my master chief helmet on this game

because I'm loving it, folks. And I never, I never would have thought I'd be saying that because I'm one of those people who played Halo 4, 343 Industries, didn't think they had it. Didn't think it was any good, thought it was really weird. Cortana dies at the end of that game. And then in Halo 5, she like goes evil, didn't even play that one, heard it was really weird and bad.

And I was like, all right, I guess it's over, you know, Bungy's not making these anymore. Halo's just going to be bad. And then Halo Infinite had put out that trailer and it was terrible looking. And I just felt sorry for everybody at the game studio. And I was like, they're never going to pull it together now. But hey, Master Chief, the comeback kid, this game is so fucking fun, you guys. Oh, that's awesome.

Oh, man. I'm so glad to hear that. Okay. I think if it had come out last November, it would be as, as, as, Oh, it would be terrible. And I think the extra time probably really benefited them, and it'll be interesting to hear why. So the big thing that this game has,

that will probably be controversial, but then people will try it and then they'll love it, is that Master Chief has a grappling hook now. And it changes everything. And it fucking rules. I was about to jokingly be like, Master Chief has a grappling hook, but then that was actually the thing.

That's actually what it is. That's actually what it is. So, like, you can grapple hook a dude, like in his shoulder. and you go right to him. And then you just bop him on the head, little bunny foo-foo style, and he's fucking dead. And then you, like, energy sword

another guy really quickly. And then you're, like, stealing people's guns. And it, like, totally changes up combat and everything feels so fluid and awesome. And you can grapple-hook certain surfaces like Sammas Aaron style, which is very fun. There's, like, a little more platforming involved in some of the levels now,

because you've got to, like, scale certain areas. And you can use that to your advantage if you want to, depending on how you play. and it's so awesome. And in Big Team Battle, which is one of the multiplayer modes, the grappling hook is like one of the things that you can find around the level and use in multiplayer, which is awesome. And you can also find that really huge hammer,

which is like very Super Smash Brothers S. And truly makes Big Team Battle just the funnest thing ever. And I don't know, Halo's cool again. And it rules so much to play. Oh, man. That makes me so happy to you. Kind of a funny game. Like, it's not Guardians of the Galaxy level quips at all, but it's like a little bit funny.

And I thought that was an interesting choice. Like, I don't know. The writing just has a little bit of sparkle to it. Sometimes it's just really corny, and it's just like an alien yelling at you, and it's, it's Halo, and like, who cares? I don't really care about the banished. And sometimes you'll walk by a Marine who says, the banished took everything from me, and you're like, how many times have I played a video game with that line in it? A thousand.

Who cares? then there's just like a little bit of sarcasm from the chief in this game. And it's, so far I'd say it's just the right amount. I'm like a few hours into the campaign and I think it's only eight hours. So I feel confident saying that it's going to, it's going to stay that way. And I've heard from my colleagues who beat in the game and they love it. And they were all like pushing it up on their game of the year list for end of your voting and saying like we got to get this in there, folks. So like, I feel pretty confident saying it's really, really fun. And just, I don't know, it's Halo guys it's halo and it's so satisfying that's great so first of all yeah i'm very happy

to hear that um i've got a big story that should be out by now about the development of this game and talk we talked to joe steyton and stuff like that and i think it's really i mean i'm very happy that it all came together because like the the various iterations they've been through on this game it just felt destined to be um another anthem and i heard an anecdote from people over there while I was talking to them. I did a lot of this reporting last year when the delay happened and before that and stuff when I heard it was going through development hell. And so people, when I did that big story about anthem a couple of years ago, it's kind of like the or video game story because I got like 10 emails for people being like, hey, my game's like this too. Fit my game in here and

it's the same story. Halo Infinite was one of them. And people who were working on the game like talked about it. And there was this anecdote going around that like, or this mantra going around that's like, hey, you can do, you go through this and either you have an anthem. or you have a god of war at the end of it. And I'm glad that they made a good game. They got something really good out of it. Yeah, I wish it didn't have to be that way on the road to it, though. That's kind of the bittersweet aspect of it all.

Yeah, well, you make these AAA games, and they're all just a nightmare. And you got nightmare tools and lack of direction and just, yeah, it's a brutal process making these things. Yeah, but then there's a grappling hook at the end. But then there's a grappling hook. So originally, their original idea was like, Breath of the Wild. That's all they were talking about was Breath of the Wild. Halo Breath of the Wild. And so they wanted to do a bunch of different powers that you would get.

And they talked about that for a while. They do have some other powers you can get. I don't know how many there are, but I just picked up the second one, which is like you can reveal invisible guys around you. And there's like a specific boss. You have to use it against and I beat him. And I was so annoyed I had to unequip my grappling hook in order to equip the stupid power to use like see invisible boss.

because I was like, I just want to grapple like everything. So I don't know. I might unlock some more powers, but it's hard to imagine something better than the grappling hook, TBAH. So we'll see how the rest of the game goes for me. But I'm feeling good. Feeling good about it. Kirk, what's your one more thing? My one more thing just very briefly is unpacking, which Maddie already talked about a few episodes back.

And I played largely due to her recommendation. And I've been seeing people talk about this game. And I just wanted to say it's wonderful. It is a sooth core game. And I looked around and I didn't see anyone using Soothorce. So I'm going to say that I made up the name for a genre. You invented it. And I started using it at work and I'm making people use it now.

So it's you. It's all you. And I'm crediting you. It's a useful term. Cheers. Yes. I do really like it. I played it actually while I was traveling over Thanksgiving just on my laptop.

And it's really nice, a really nice game. And it does have a really creative narrative. I think there's just something to the narratives that can be told by the objects we leave lying around, which is something we saw and gone home in the scene. again in so many games and then an operating system games where you're looking through people's computers like that is a really cool method for storytelling and they're doing a very good job of it with this game I haven't finished yet but I'm going to because it's lovely so that's unpacking it's a good game I recommend it it's a nice change of pace a breath of fresh air very good yeah it's great

cool um so my one more thing is I watched a movie a documentary this week called three identical strangers have you guys heard of this or watched it okay so it's about three strangers is named Kirk Hamilton, Maddie Myers, and Jason, from now. Come together to make a video game podcast. So I'll give like a little bit of it because I almost don't want to spoil it.

It's really, really good. It's documentary. It's on Hulu. Worth watching. So let me give me the premise. So it starts off with this guy and he's selling this story. And he's like, all right, I was in college

and I go to this college and people start recognizing me. And then I get to the storm room and someone's like, you're Eddie, aren't you? And he's like, no, I'm not Eddie. and he finds, he goes on this, this hunt to find Eddie and he tracks down Eddie and they look at each other and they're identical. Turns out they're identical twins. This is a documentary?

That we're both, yes. That we're both adopted and separated at birth. Someone does, a reporter does a newspaper story about these two people and someone else finds the newspaper and is like, holy shit, this is me. Like, I'm the third of these. These guys look like me. Turns out they're triplets. The story gets even crazier from there. How are you get crazier?

Because it turns out, so they all meet up, they become instant, like, connections, like, they all fall in love with each other immediately. Like, they have this brotherly relationship. They wind up doing a TV tour and, like, going on talk shows and stuff. This is in the 80s. So that's why you don't remember or haven't heard of it. Well, they lived on a water base called Outer Heaven. And that was where one of them is solid, one of them is liquid. Well, yeah.

One of them is solid, one of them is liquid, and one of them is gas. wait, solidus. Solidus, right. Solid, liquid, and solidus. Yeah, gaseous snake. There was never a gaseous snake. There was never a gas. Anyway, and then it turns out, and then things get a little dark,

because it turns out they were separated for, like, kind of nefarious purposes. And I'll just leave it at that because I don't want to spoil too much of the documentary. But as I mean, you guys are already hooked. Like, it's really good. It's a really great story. And it's really done, it's done incredibly well. twin stories are just so fascinating I'm actually playing a show with identical twins

next week and their life just fascinates me the idea of having another person that you are so close with that looks exactly like you I can't even fathom it it's such a such a true and they're a musical group that's so cool yeah they sing together the shook twins they're great well okay so it's so funny how often you see that where like these twins have this talent and in the NBA

they're like four sets of twins that are like playing together like the Morris twins the Lopez twins Like there are multiple twins, the plumbly twins. And so the fact that like the nature versus nurture thing and the fact that twins are so uncanny, these are like themes that the documentary explores in some really interesting ways. So highly recommend it. Go check it out. Three identical strangers.

And on that note, I am off to Los Angeles to go see the Game Awards. Yeah, I have fun at the show. Hopefully see some cool surprises. I'll be looking for you. Every time they do an audience react, I'll be like, what does Jason think about this? Yeah, I'm probably going to be. They probably, I feel like they stick the media in the way back, but who knows? All right.

And I'll be wearing a mask, I'm sure. Anyway, I will see you guys when I'm back. I'll let you know how it is. And yeah, let's all hang out and tweet jokes and make jokes in the Discord. Yeah, sounds good. All right. See you all then. And we'll make another show next week.

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 Maximumfund.org.

Find us on Twitter at Triple ClickPod. Send email the triple click at Maximumfund.org and find a link to our Discord in the show notes. Thanks for listening. See you next time. Maximumfund.org. Comedy and culture. Artist-owned. Audience-supported.