Video Gamers Podcast - Best Video Game Character to Have a Beer With - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: December 13, 2021

Gaming hosts Paul and Josh special gaming guest host Michael are coming together for one of our best tournaments yet. This week we draft the best video game character to have a beer with. From a night to remember to a great gaming character to talk to, we draft the best of the best… in the best video game podcast out there! Thanks to our LEGENDARY supporters: Waynerman, TFolls, AceofShame, Jake, RangerMiller, and Ad  Download the Wisdom App and join us here: https://joinwisdom.audio/multiplayerpod on Dec 16th for a live chat with us! Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/multiplayerpodcast Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/multiplayerpod/ Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/MultiplayerPod Subscribe to us on YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCU12YOMnAQwqFZEdfXv9c3Q Visit us on the web: multiplayerpodcast.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before we jump into today's episode, we want to tell you guys a little bit about how you can help support what we do here. We are a podcast that is run independently by two dads, and the reason that we are able to continue delivering podcasts is because of listeners who decide to help fund the show. We like to think that we fill a niche here of family-friendly, casual gaming content. So if you appreciate what we do, please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts or through Patreon at MultiplayerSquad.com. Even if it's just $5 for a month or two, it definitely adds up and helps keep the podcast running. To make it worth your while, you do get a couple of awesome perks. You will get two additional Quick Take episodes every week, ad-free episodes, and you'll

also get access to the episodes a day early. Thank you so much to everyone who already subscribes to the show, although I guess you won't be hearing this since you have the ad-free version, but enough is enough. Let's go ahead and jump into today's episode. hello everybody welcome to the multiplayer gaming podcast each week we release two family-friendly episodes about gaming please rate our podcast five stars and leave us a review if you'd like to help support what we do here on the show, you can always subscribe inside Apple Podcasts, or you can also be a Patreon supporter by visiting MultiplayerSquad.com. Today, we are very excited to have a bonus round episode for you guys. We are normally a two-man operation here, but today we do have a returning guest, so we do need some introductions. I am your host, Paul, and I remember when I had my first beer. And joining me, he just got done making a deal with his prison guard to kick back

with a couple of frosty cold ones after roofing the prison, and in that moment, he became a free man. It's Josh. That's such a good intro for me. I would totally roofie a prison, try to bribe the guards, and then just kick back. I feel like that's the most accurate introduction you've ever done. You're going to do his taxes later. Yes, exactly. Got to get your Shawshank on. And then our second guest, he's a Hawaiian organ donor with a fake ID that he's going to use to buy his beer. He wasn't sure what name to put on the ID. It was either going to be Muhammad or his real name.

It's Michael the butler. Hey, it's me. Welcome in me. I didn't know what to say. Thank you so much, guys. Man, I'm so excited to be back. This was the most fun I've ever had in my entire life last time and hey i get to do it again so thanks for having me guys appreciate you it is good to have you back man yeah we are very excited it's always fun to bring

in a third person i know how much we all love the format of this bonus round type where we get to pick a topic we're going to have a draft where we all get to select certain uh in this case characters that fit our theme and then we will put them into a bracket march madness style narrow it down see who's going to come out as the winner and before we jump into that episode we do have a little bit of housekeeping to get to first of all we do have some new patreon supporters that we need to thank we've got a total of three to talk about very very special occasion here but we do have two new rare supporters we have midnight 343 and we also have gary moon and uh gary i know you're not on discord with us but that's totally fine you just get a thank you with your real name.

And so they are both Rare supporters. And last time, we did speak a little bit about Wainerman, but he has upgraded his account up to Legendary. Yes, Wainerman has upgraded. We had to bring that up. We had to let the people know he's upgraded to Legendary, which means he gets to pick a game that Josh and I have to play. And we have been informed what that game is. I'm actually really excited for this game, too. Can you spoil it? Or no, not yet. No, we can't spoil it. No, no. I don't know why. We just we kind of went with that and we've never changed it. It all started with

Jake. So Jake was our first Legendary and he did not want he was just trolling and messing with people in our discord and then he said no one could find out until the episode and that started a new tradition so every legendary supporter has kept it under wraps until the release so we we're just gonna leave it in the hands of wainer man he can let us know whenever he wants to give the announcement. Yep. But no, seriously, thank you to everybody. I got to chat with Midnight343 the other day, which was cool. Super cool guy.

Wainerman's been super active in the Discord. He cracks me up. He's on Team Pancake, which I love. And then Gary Moon, come join us on Discord, man. It's free. The link is in the episode description. But man, the support for the podcast has been insane lately. It is amazing.

Yeah. And we do need to recruit more people to Team Sanity to stand up to Team Pancake. So come join us on Discord. We need some more waffle representation in our server. Who wants Sanity when you have pancakes? Come on. We accept all kinds. All right. more waffle representation in our server who wants sanity when you have pancakes come on we accept all kinds all right and then josh you've got a couple of community reviews to read for us i do the reviews not only have the the supporters of the show been rolling in but the reviews have been rolling in we are up to like 270 reviews now we're getting close to 300 so i'm going to officially declare this the push

for 300 reviews at this point because that's a pretty big milestone man uh and so it's exciting to see these coming in but uh all right i'm just gonna get to cracking because we've i know we've got a lot to talk about this first one comes in from donnie d62189. And it is titled Love Your Guys Show. Hey guys, I never really got into podcasts before, but I recently had to listen to a show for a work event. Afterwards, I decided to see what else was out there and looked up gaming channels. And I'm so glad I came across your channel. I'm currently going to school to become a video game designer. Shout out to Full Sail University. Such an amazing school. You guys have helped me out in life. I'm currently working on a

school project where we have to pitch a fake video game idea to a company with a video that we put together. In my video, we have to talk about the different game mechanics that would be in the game. Well, yesterday I listened to your podcast, Top 5 Xbox 360 Games, and one of the most revolutionary mechanics was mentioned, the Gears of War taking cover mechanic. I was, OMG, I so need to have that in my game. I was just listening to your channel because of my love and passion for gaming, and you guys have already made an impact. I hope someday down the line i'll have the honor to be on an iconic team that makes such an amazing game so amazing that you guys even mention it on your show how awesome would that be

keep up the amazing work guys see y'all on the virtual battlefield oh what a nice review i did anytime somebody writes in and like it's just tells us kind of how the they enjoy the podcast or how it fits into their lives really just hits me in the feels man that's awesome very cool that makes me really happy i almost went to full sail university actually back uh back when i was going to college i was going to go for the film school uh and ironically enough had i had i uh done that i would have never met my wife. So it's really interesting the way life takes you in weird directions. Because then you did not go there. Yeah.

Right? But I really wanted to. All right. This next one. Oh, buckle in, guys. Paul said I wouldn't do it, and I'm doing it, buddy. Oh, boy. So this is the review, and I love it, man.

All right. This one comes in from Throbbing PP. It is titled 69 out of 10. Nice. It says, so I started listening about a week ago from now, and I caught up on episodes yesterday. I did the math, and I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be impossible. That's how addicted I am to this show great job guys keep it up this is real life thank you thank you throbbing uh we'll we'll just call you that for now but we we appreciate the

review and yes it is certainly mathematically impossible because how many episodes have we done now josh like 270 years or no 270 i don don't know. A lot. A lot. I lost count. Little more than one day's worth. But thank you for catching up. Thank you for the support, everybody. Not just those who left the reviews, but all of our Patreon supporters, everyone who is currently subscribed and Apple podcasts as well.

And we do have one. Do you have any more reviews, Josh? Or was it just two? And I did look it up because i hate not knowing the answer we with our bonus episodes for the supporters of the show we have 291 episodes wow wow that really that number grows very quickly i swear we just had 150 not long ago um yes and so we do have one last announcement. So if you are currently a subscriber in Apple Podcasts, there is going to be a little bit of a rate change starting on January 1st.

You guys will get hit with a notification if you are currently a subscriber. But basically, long story short, the subscription that we had set up was at a cost of $3 a month. And now that some of those numbers are in, we kind of had to evaluate the future of Apple subscriptions. How do we want to use it? So it is going to be changing in price up to $4.99 a month, which will match exactly what it costs on Patreon. Basically, this will just kind of bring those two forms of support into alignment. They will come along with the same price, the same perks. And so even though we hate to have a little bit of a price hike there, it will jump up to $5 a month starting at the beginning

of January. So anything you want to add on top of that, Josh? Just... I mean, it means the world to us when people support the show. The podcast will always be free, but it's... Honestly, it wouldn't be possible. We wouldn't still be here doing this if it wasn't for people that helped support the show. So we are very, very grateful for that. You and I had a very long discussion about this. We do not want to seem like we are just trying to get more money from people because that is not it at all. But it's like you said, when this Apple subscription service came out, we didn't really understand how it was going to work. How many people would jump on that? We've always had the Patreon and we've pushed people towards that,

but we get that sometimes it's a little bit easier for people to just subscribe through Apple. And we wanted to make that accessible. The downside is, is that in all honesty, Apple takes a very large chunk of the money. And so we were seeing that it really wasn't making a lot of sense at that $3 mark. And we thought, you know what? People that subscribe on Patreon pay $5. It makes a lot of sense for people that get the exact same perks to pay the same amount as Patreon. Now that said, if you don't have a preference,

subscribe on Patreon. You get the Discord perks that go along with it. We get a bigger chunk of the actual money that goes into that. And so if you don't have a preference, that is probably the preferred method. If it's easier for you, then by all means, we are thankful for the support, no matter where you provide it. You can always do what I do, which is both. Because I wanted to throw more money and get the Discord perks, but I listened to everything on Apple, and so I'm like, eh, bloop, bloop, whatever.

I was excited to support the show, and I've been doing it for a while, so that's one of those things. Yes, shout out to Epic supporter Michael the Butler. Right? That's right. Here alive, thank you. you all right so that's all that we have by way of housekeeping let's go ahead and jump into this week's draft oh yeah all right so michael since you are the guest you know josh and i don't mind helping brainstorm but we always like running

the ideas by you, allowing it to be something that everyone is comfortable with. Why don't you tell the people what we ended up landing on as today's theme for the draft? Well, it's the greatest theme ever because it's a frosty, frosty beverage. Well, in some countries, there are some people like Dad of the Year Win winner Reinhardt who might drink it warm, but it's the video game character that you would most like to have a beer with. And I guess you could say it's a very fun, creative topic, and it's very relaxing as well. So it's a good way to go. I love this topic, man. I love it. It's so open to interpretation, number one. I can tell you right now, guys that I might want

to sit down and have a beer with are maybe vastly different than guys that like Paul would want to sit down and have a beer with or Michael would want to sit down and have a beer with. So I think this is going to be phenomenal. We did have an episode where it was celebrities that you want to game with and stuff like that. That's the fun of these, is that we get to pick characters and kind of brainstorm and think about people in different aspects. And I love that. I was trying to brainstorm when I was coming with my people, like, what's the environment am I in?

Am I at a pub? Am I playing pool? Am I at my house on my couch? And I kind of actually started putting myself in the environment of some of these video game characters, which of course took some people right off the list. I'm not going to be playing poker, having beers in any zombie apocalypse. So there's a few that just came right off the list that maybe I put in if I was just going to have some poker at my house or have a beer, you know, but it was interesting, creative, like you said. Yeah, that's kind of exactly what I was going to ask is, you know, what makes for a good video game character to share a beer with? Are you looking for someone who's well accomplished, someone you can learn from, someone you can have a laugh with? Like, what was kind of your thought process about that, Josh?

Oh, I want somebody that's fun. Yeah. Yeah, somebody that's fun, somebody that's fun. Yeah. Yeah. Somebody that's fun. Somebody that's going to make me laugh. I did not, for the most part, go with somebody that's going to teach me a whole lot or be wise. Someone who's going to inspire you. I'm in this for... If we're having beers together, I'm in this for a good time, man. I want to party, and I want to just laugh the night away. Awesome. So for our draft, if this is the first time you've heard one of these, the format is that we're going to be doing a draft snake style in round one. Josh gets the number one overall pick, then Michael, then me, then it gets reversed in round two. It'll go me,

Michael, Josh, and we will go back and forth until we have all selected four characters. When we make our selection, you know, we don't normally talk a whole lot, but we'll throw out a little bit maybe about why we picked that character. We can also open it up and talk a little bit about that game. You know, whatever we think we want to talk about in the moment. Have fun with it. Yeah, exactly. You know, loose, have fun with it. You know, we're sharing a beer with someone. It's supposed to be fun. All right. So round one, pick one. Josh, you get the first overall pick. How did you feel about time? Yeah. Yeah. Were you glad to get the number one pick for this draft? At first I wasn't because when we came up with the theme, I did not have anybody that jumped to mind instantly. And that always worries

you when you have the first pick. You really want somebody to just instantly come to mind and be like, oh, this is just going to knock it out of the park. And I didn't get that right away because there's... I mean, let's be honest. We're pulling from every video game character ever made. Yeah. You know? Now, obviously, there's some I don't want to have a beer with. So that does remove some of them. But then when I started thinking about it I don't want to have a beer with, so that does remove some of them. But then when I started thinking about it, for me, there was a clear number one. And so I am grateful that I do have the number one pick.

I can't wait to hear this because I have no idea who it is. Michael, do you see a clear number one pick in this draft? Well, it's weird because I have a clear number one based on episodes that I've listened to before that I think that he might be picking. But I don't want to say it because this person might be on my list. And so it's like, you know. There is some strategy involved. We do not tip our hands when it comes to these tracks. And I'll tell you later if it's not picked or if it's picked later what I think it is.

In fact, I can write it down right now. I trust you. Sure. Yeah, there you go. All right, well, are we getting this started? Yeah, hit us with it, Josh. What's the number one pick? Before I announce the pick,

I would just like to preface it with a scenario. Back in the day, we did Most Memorable Gaming Moments. Yes. We had an episode on that. And you picked one of the best moments in gaming. And that is the night of debauchery. This is it. Yep. From Red Dead Redemption 2, where they just have one of the most fun nights in the world. And it is Arthur Morgan. I'm going with Arthur Morgan. The look on Butler's face right now, he thought it was somebody else.

Well, there was another moment brought up in that episode, I think. I know. And I was like, that's it. I know who you're talking about. I kind of hate you a little bit right now. Arthur Morgan. Dude, if I'm going to sit down and have a beer with somebody, number one, they better know how to have a good time. They better know how to tell stories.

I want somebody that's cool, that's chill, that maybe has a little bit of a rebellious side, because that fits with me. Arthur Morgan's going to look at me and be like, hey, have you seen Lenny? Let's go find Lenny. And I'm going to be like, yeah, let's go, Arthur. Come on. I'm going to be dancing in the Congo line. I'm going to be stumbling around screaming Lenny and singing in the saloon and all that stuff, man. So when I think of a guy and I think, man, who do I want to sit down and have a beer with? Arthur Morgan. So are you going to get into the slap fight? I mean, yes. I feel like everything's on the table yeah at this point i think the only thing about arthur morgan is you're not going to be able to share one beer

to get past that prickly exterior you're gonna have to share at least a couple and then things might go off the rails it's a little bit more high risk high reward with arthur morgan i i view that as high reward, high reward, Paul. Oh, goodness. All right, Arthur Morgan with the number one overall pick. All right, Michael, you're up with the second pick. I am both so happy and so upset that you picked him because it really throws my strategy off a little bit. He was not my pick,

but I do have reasons in my head why I'm happy you picked it because I'll save that for later when we're battling because undoubtedly I'll be battling against Arthur Morgan. I'm just wondering if I can figure out if this pick would actually battle Arthur Morgan or not and if I need to pivot to someone else because I've got a good battle for him, but I won't use it.

So I'll tell you what, I came into this knowing I had one of two people that I wanted to get, not knowing which one I would get. I think I'm just going to pivot now and just say Scorpion from Mortal Kombat. No, that's not my pick, actually. That'd be a terrible person to have a beer with. I was really curious as to why. No, no, no, no, no.

Maybe Sub-Zero at least could keep your beer cold for you. But could you imagine sitting down with Scorpion for a beer? Like the guy doesn't say anything, but okay, I'm going to, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it right now. And I'm going to pick the other Red Dead Redemption character,

John Marsden, who, which was my number one overall. And the reason being is because I feel like I could sit down with John Marsden and have a beer and just chill out and just listen to stories about all kinds of stuff, fishing, the days of the old West, anything that was happening. And it's funny because it's kind of a cheat because I was at a con a couple of months ago in Dallas and I actually met the actor who plays John Marsden, Rob Weithoff. And it's so weird

when you meet someone in real life who speaks exactly like the character. And the guy was such a chill guy. And he sounded exactly like John Marston. Now, it's funny because the booth next to him was also Roger Clark, who plays Arthur Morgan. Sounds nothing like Arthur Morgan in real life. The guy is so straight-laced, completely different from what you would think on that. But I think Arthur Morgan would be a lot of fun and then also kind of the number one reason is because I have played poker as I played poker as John Marsden and I've

been terrible so I feel like if we sit down and play poker I'd have a chance to win if we're having a beer and playing poker because he's terrible at poker when I'm playing him so there you go I can't wait to go up against him because I've got some really good ammunition for that. Because I did think about John Marston. But I'll save it. I'll save it for later.

Now I'm really worried my second place, my other one is going to be taken. But Paul, it's double hit here. I cannot believe that the first two characters were from Red Dead Redemption. I would have never guessed because I think they're great picks. I did not have either of them on my list. But then again, maybe I'm just a little bit more of a wild card for this episode. I don't know.

But with my number one overall pick, or not overall, but the number three pick in round one, I'm going to go with Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. She's my number two. That was my other one that I was really... She's my number two. That was the one that i

wanted so bad yeah yeah so you know lara croft incredibly smart you know we're gonna get to hear all the great archaeology stories i mean she's literally seen like real magic several times within the tomb raider universe she has a lovely And let's be real, if we get in trouble, she's going to be able to improvise weapons with anything around her. So if we're at a pool bar, she's going to be able to take a pool cue, maybe a string from a drink strainer. She's going to fashion a bow. I think she would be great to hang out with. She might be easy on the eyes too. Doesn't hurt. I don't know how my wife would feel about me going out to have a beer with Lara Croft, but that's going to be my

first pick. It's a great pick. I hate to boost your pick, but that was number two on my list, legitimately. That was actually my number one. And I thought about it and I'm like, I need to take Lara Croft here. And I knew it because earlier you mentioned, I don't know if it was before the pod when we were talking or just in the beginning of the pod you mentioned Tomb Raider and I'm like he's thinking Lara Croft I need to pick that and then I was just like wouldn't it be great if I just picked John Morrison my other number one here between the two and I am crushed right now because it throws off everything and I'm now I'm just looking at a bunch of guys I love that Michael's tilting already I'm so mad it's round one and he's already just scrambling know who a number two is gonna be I'm just looking at a bunch of guys. I love that Michael's tilting already. I'm so mad. It's round one and he's already just scrambling.

I don't even know who a number two is going to be. I'm out of here. Oh, man. Well, you get one more pick before you better know because, Paul, you get another pick. Yeah, I get to go back to back here. All right. So to pair with Lara Croft for my second pick, I think most of the ones on my list are going to be available coming back to me.

Okay. I am going to use the exact same argument that Josh did when he was talking about Arthur Morgan, except it's multiplied by a factor of 10 because I'm going with Trevor Phillips from GTA 5. Paul.

Paul. Butler. Paul. You did not. Butler's gone. He exited stage left. It's just, I did not think anybody would pick him. I didn't either. Because I thought you'd think he's too off the cuff. Dude, I'm going to have stories for life if I go hang out one night with Trevor.

Now, is someone someone gonna get kidnapped and tortured probably is trevor going to end up in his underwear probably i i pulled up a video of the best scenes of trevor from gta 5 guys it was a 24 minute video wow and this this was the this was the first comment left under the video i think this kind of speaks for itself you know trevor needs an entire gta game by himself best character ever made extremely funny psychotic everything trevor made gta 5 90 of what it is his missions are the best ones and the most extreme the randomness of his acts and the shaky camera effects, it's just too hilarious. He will make you feel alive. That's what I think hanging out with

Trevor would do. It's going to be great. You are guaranteed a good time. Now, I'm not saying that that might not turn into a nightmare at some point, but you are going to have stories to tell from prison for quite some time i've never been arrested josh and there's there's a time time for everything so you know if i get arrested with trevor so be it oh that's a great pick i did he's on my list and i legit thought i could pick him up in the third round because neither one of you would think to take that guy. Yeah. I legitimately thought that I was going to take number two Lara Croft.

John Marston was going to fall to me at round two. And then round three, I was going to snatch Trevor and win it all. And now I feel like I'm just going to start digging and picking things from way down my list that I really want because I'm losing this draft at this point. I'm already, man. I love it. All right, so we locked in Trevor Phillips. All right, Michael, started out with John Marston.

What are you taking with your second pick? Man, it's so funny because I'm looking at all of these names that I have written down, and there's a few obscure ones and a few that are well-known, and I feel like y'all are going to have to pick some obscure ones pretty soon. So I might want to go with one of those and leave some well-knowns for later. But, you know, there was a game that I played.

It's such a short game. It's like six hours long. And I played it actually a couple months ago. And there was a character who you only knew by voice in this game. And she really just made you think and she made your heart just conflicted and that was delilah from firewatch yes great pick and i yeah and i just i walked away from that game just like oh my goodness like what an incredible experience from someone you

only talk to on a radio like and she like she got your emotions she's so good at talking yeah she was so good at talking the voice actress was incredible for playing this faceless person and i i don't know voice actress's name i probably should have looked it up to give her credit but um but you know there's uh you know i won't give too much a bit away about the game but there's all these conspiracy things that might be happening. And she kind of helps you feed into them. But then she helps calm you down afterwards. And it's literally whatever she's telling you how to feel, you start going that direction because you just you believe in her.

And you're like, I don't know. Am I kind of. Oh, well, she says it's OK. So maybe we should do this because I trust her. And it's like you're just talking to her on a walkie talkie the whole time. But she is sarcastic. She is funny and she's very smart. And I think like, you're just talking to her on a walkie-talkie the whole time. But she is sarcastic. She is funny. And she's very smart.

And I think sitting down with her would be an adventure. I'm with you 100%. By the way, the actual actress's name is Sissy Jones. That's right. She does a phenomenal job in that game. So, Paul, have you ever played Firewatch?

Nope. I was just going to say, I'm sure it's a good pick. You should play Firewatch. Oh, man man you really i did it as one of our quick takes episodes and i'm telling everybody right now you can pick up firewatch for five bucks it's some of the best five dollars you'll ever spend so if you're not if you've not played that game you really really should no the reason that's a great pick the

reason i picked up firewatch was because y'all did the forbidden city one time or the forgotten city um yeah and i i played that game all in one day. I think it was like a seven and a half, eight hour game because I did all three endings. And right afterwards, I was Googling other games like that. Like story-driven, adventure-esque type games. And everyone was saying Firewatch. And I played it.

And then right after that, I think I heard the quick take on it. And I was so thrilled because I was yelling with you in the car, Josh. I'll pick it up. If it's only five bucks, I'll definitely do it. It's so worth it. And I was so thrilled because I was yelling with you in the car, Josh. So yeah, I'll pick it up. If it's only five bucks, I'll definitely do it. Michael said it's like a six hour game. This is not a heavy investment, but man, that six hours sticks with you for a long time. Absolutely. All right. Well, I'm sure Delilah was a good pick, Michael. I'll take your guys' word for it. All right, Josh, you get your back-to-back picks here. You had to wait a while after taking Arthur. Well, I get back-to-backs. Oh, I was going to say I was going to make a pick and then say, I think this other guy will fall to me, but I get to pick them both. Yeah. So this is great. Okay. So my second pick is a guy that is an everyday man. This is a guy

that you could go hang out with and people would say like, don't I recognize that guy? He looks like a normal guy, except he wears glasses and he carries a crowbar. He's also a scientist. So he's super smart. This guy has saved the entire world. So he's a hero. He'll help you with your physics homework. Yep. He'll help you with your physics homework. He's humble. He's a guy that you don't have to feel like you're going to have the paparazzi following you everywhere. And that's a man by the name of Gordon Freeman. He's a great listener. He really is. What kind of stories would this guy be able to tell, number one?

It's just, if I was going to say, hey, a guy that I actually feel like I could sit down with and talk to for just hours and hours and hours, and I think he would be just like your best friend, the guy that you could relate to in a lot of different ways, that's him. He's going to be able to tell me how he saved the world he can explain space-time and all that stuff because he's super smart but Gordon Freeman from the Half-Life series I think would be a phenomenal guy to chill with have a brewski or two

I feel like we'd be best friends after that I was close on him on my list and I didn't play enough Half-Life, and I didn't feel comfortable taking that, because I'm like, I don't know enough about him, but what I remember from that is exactly what you said. Just like, he'd be my friend, and I'd just kind of learn from him and hang out.

He'd be cool. We'd be friends. I feel like he's the most approachable video game character that's out there. What are you talking about, dude? Duke Nukem exists. I mean, that's out there what are you talking about dude duke nukem exists i mean that's true yeah now there are younger listeners that are gonna say who's gordon freeman i like i've heard of half-life but the trust me i know you're out there and

you understand this pick to my uh my slightly older gamers out there. He's such a great character. The only downside is he has never spoken in the Half-Life games, so we don't know what he sounds like. Yeah. He sounds amazing, Paul. He's got a voice of an angel, I'm sure. We just learn all kinds of things from his facial expressions. That's right.

That's right. Exactly. And he's got facial hair, you know? So I can relate there. I like that. And maybe he'll bring the gravity gun and you can give it a whirl. Oh, man.

I don't even need to wait on the bartender. Yeah. You can just grab it. Oh, I need another drink? Just... Yes. Exactly. All right, guys.

I gotta... That was my one, hey, this is a guy that I could, you know, I can get into deep conversation with, right? That can tell me some stories. This next guy is just right up my alley because I really just want to go back to having a good time. I want to sit down with this guy.

I want to have him get into a bar fight. I want to have him start telling everybody in the bar off threaten to blow up the place tell groot you know that it's time to to just have some fun i'm gonna chill with rocket from the guardians of the galaxy video game that just came out see because he i know i was gonna ask earlier i ask. Because I was like, can we do characters that originate in other mediums of entertainment? Like, can we pick someone? It's got to be a video game. But I've been talking about how I've been playing Guardians of the Galaxy, which is a great video game, by the way.

Drastically underrated and under, like, sold to people right now. But I'm telling everybody right now, that game's amazing. But man, Rocket is one of my favorite characters i feel like me and him are just gonna go tearing across the galaxy we're gonna have a bounty put on us right away i get the two for one that groot never leaves rocket side and groot's super cool you know and i feel like rocket's kind of like my spirit animal no i'm not as angry as Rocket. I don't get mad, but he can get mad for us. And you get to pick a comic book character for your video game character. Well, he is in a video game.

But yeah, I would have such a blast with him. He's so off the cuff. He just wants to have a good time, just like I do. I think it would be an amazing time. And I get to go in space and travel to different planets and stuff. All right, Michael, coming back to you. What are you taking with your next pick? I like that you endorsed that game, though, because I've been thinking about playing it. And I was like, you know, there's not a lot of games that come out that actually, like, based on movie or comic character. Well, comic characters are different, but movies,

you know, based on a movie character. And you're like, ah, it's okay. It's just they're not typically great. There's a few out there. And so it's good that you have fun with that. The characters are better than the movie. Yeah. Yes, I'm putting it out there.

The characters in the video game, the interactions are actually better than the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. And that's saying a lot. And you get to spend more time with them in a video game too so i feel like you know and also you might i don't know if it's a game where you can actually influence their decisions or anything like that where you get different dialogue based on what you're doing but you get more interaction with them so um sticking to the uh to the idea of let's just party down right you know i feel like i feel like i've got a couple of these on this list here but if you're gonna party, and you truly want to party down, you've got to party down with a dwarf. Oh.

He's on my list. There's a couple. This one's not the one on your list. It's kind of funny, because I know which one's on your list, and you can tell me not, but you're going to pick the more popular. I'm picking the less popular of the dwarfs. Also a Blizzard property, actually, because I'm picking Bran Bronzebeard. Because that guy has been around for everything.

Bran Bronzebeard. Yeah, World of Warcraft, Warcraft. Just wait a little longer. I'll get this thing open for you. You know him from Hearthstone, Josh. Yeah, he's in Hearthstone. He's in everything but uh but it's funny because i was like i gotta pick a dwarf because dwarfs are just known for their just beer consumption and obviously it would be a very short night if i was drinking dwarven ale with him but i feel like just sitting down with you know that scottish

type accent going around to the bars and having a good time it'd be just really fun and uh and also you know maybe i get a little crazy and try to drink them out of the table and have a good time. It'd be just really fun. Also, maybe I get a little crazy and try to drink them out of the table and then die after my second beer. Oh, that's a bad decision. Yeah, but I feel like Bran's been in every Warcraft property really since the beginning of time, so I feel like I kind of grew up with him.

It's like my older brother dwarf, just fun, good time, party down dwarf, and he'd be a lot of fun so there you go it's my pick it's a great pick i thought for sure you were gonna go with torbjorn he's on my list yeah yeah good good good pick i just know brand more he's he's like old friends of mine i grew up with him since before i could drink is it the league of explorers explorer league something like that yeah it is something like that because he's always

he's always in that like archaeology type phase of it which is what i like too because you know i was i was going to school for anthropology before you know for the last time i was on here before i actually went into business school um and so i always liked that kind of stuff which is why i wanted laura croft so bad or laura croft because it's like i want that archaeologist and so he kind of hits both he's a party down type guy. He knows a lot of old stuff, just not old stuff of this earth. It's a Azeroth. So, you know.

I feel like any dwarf that you could go have a beer with would be a lot of fun. Yeah, I agree. But yes, but I also feel like they're going to encourage you to try to keep up and then you're going to die. I'm going to die. Yeah, it's nice knowing you guys.

It's been fun guesting on the podcast. It is my favorite podcast to listen to. So that's good. But I won't be listening anymore because I'm dead after next saturday yeah we have a day have 9-1-1 dialed right hand over the send button yeah i do play can i heal myself all right well before we finish up the draft here we want to take a short break to hear from one of our sponsors josh all right so we have This is really cool. I know we're very excited about this. So we want to tell everybody about the Wisdom app. And so what

this app is, is it's a way to hang out with mentors and people that you would want to actually talk to and spend some time with, which we think is very, very cool. It's almost unlimited in what it does. But we are actually going to set up a wisdom talk so that the listeners of this show can come hang out with us. Even if they don't have Discord, you can download this app. You can come hang out with Paul and I. We're going to chat for a little while. You can ask us about podcasting. You can ask us about gaming. You can ask us literally anything you want. This is almost like kind of hanging out around like a fire when you're camping and everybody just talking and chatting together. So I'm very, very excited about this because I think it's going to be really, really cool. So here's how you're going

to participate if you would care to join us. You're going to download the Wisdom app. On this episode, you're going to see a link in the description that will point you to the talk that we are going to schedule. It will be December 16th at 5 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, which is 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. So mark it on your calendars, reserve the time, come hang out with us, and we're just going to have a good time, man. I'm really looking forward to this. We're always looking for ways to engage with our listeners. We've really been touting Discord for that because it's an amazing community. But I think this is going to be a really accessible way for everybody that listens to this show to come join us, hang out for a little bit, ask questions, and just kind of chill together.

And I'm really excited about it. Yeah, I think it'll be a great way to connect with our listeners. So we can't wait. One last time, Josh, what's the date and time? December 16th, which is a Thursday at 5 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. That's 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time for you East Coasters. Yep, we'll see you guys there. All right, so continuing with our draft here,

we have a couple last picks. I think we're up to me now with my final two picks in the draft. I am going to take the narrator from the Stanley Parable as someone to go out and have a beer with. Oh, okay. that's actually a really man i like the out of the out of the box thinking on that one but that guy is hilarious i thought that pick was a little outside the box but a really interesting pick because i don't even need the narrator to be there physically he's just just going to be there to talk to me. He's just going to narrate your drinking?

Yes, he's going to narrate. But now I have the choice to either troll him or do whatever he says. And then Paul ordered a Coors Light. Bartender, can I have a Guinness, please? And then I'm going to get to hear all the passive-aggressive comments that the narrator comes back with. I think it's a really funny idea of going out and getting a drink, having the narrator inside my head with me. I have narrator inside my head all the time. I think that's terrifying.

I like that. I think it'd be terrifying to go out and have drinks and have someone narrating everything you're doing. And then start talking to you all the time. It'll be an existential crisis. You have two or three drinks and you're walking. Don't go into the ladies' room. You did that last week. Don't do it again.

Like, oh, no, I did. Oh, man. Don't do it. Go the other way. Oh, yeah. I thought that was a funny pick. And then with my very last pick to round out my team, I'm going to go with Jackie Wells from Cyberpunk 2077. Good choice, man. I tried to go with some Cyberpunk. I thought about Johnny Silverhand,

and then I'm like, I don't know that I... Yes, but no. But man, Jackie Wells wells that's a good pick well it's my favorite part of the whole game when you get to see the montage of v and jackie just living it up going out to clubs dancing you know jackie is just like the perfect friend and the perfect partner like he's truly kind he always has your back he's incredibly loyal and we know that he likes to get down at the bars. I think he would be really fun to hang out with. So yeah, Jackie Wells will be the last pick on my team. I know he's not going to win, but I feel like it's a really good value pick

at the end of the draft. In the last round, that's a phenomenal value. Yeah, yeah, it is. For my last pick, I'm sitting here looking at like, do I go value? Where do I go with this? I'm looking at my board. I'm not winning. Um, so do I just pick something that, that I think would just be truly just someone I'd want to sit down and have a beer with? Or do I go with something absolutely insane? Um, I've got so many on the list here and

I, I just think that, uh, yeah, I'm just going to keep talking about Jackie Wells while I try to figure out what I actually want to do here. I'm totally kidding. He's stalling. No, it is. And I'll bring up a couple honorable mentions later on if we have time for that. But I really think someone that I really wanted off this list – oh, would that be fun too? No, someone I really wanted off this list is just like, Josh, you picked your listener or your chill guy with gordon freeman um i just i always thought that just like you know who'd be fun to just throw some darts with and just hang out with and we wouldn't be getting into any trouble but i think he'd be a good friend

of mine that's joe miller from uh oh the last of us yeah i just i think that it's just you know it's just like he's just you know any any era of like the younger older in in his timeline you know it's just like he's just you know any any era of like the younger older in in his timeline you know as you play through the games like i just think that he's just he's really chill i feel like he'd be good at darts he just seems like a darts guy and be like you know i can throw some darts with that guy he'd be cool he's not really gonna make fun of me he's not gonna push me too hard he's just gonna be a fun guy to chill and hang out with uh he actually reminds me a lot of some of my friends so i just like you know with joel Miller at the end, round out my draft that I just, Lara Croft, man, it just got me. But that's my draft, and that's how I'm rounding it out.

You messed up everything, Paul. I messed up so bad with picking John Marston, and you threw me off so early because you're like Arthur Morgan. And I'm like, yes, I knew I didn't want Arthur because that prickly exterior. I'm like, I want John Marston. I'm walking away with him. And I'm like, nah, Lara Croft's going to fall to me. They're not going to think of her.

Very next pick. I hope you can go back in time, buddy. I feel like Joel, honestly, he's not going to win any awards. He's not going to jump out. But he would be one of those people that would be amazing to just go and sit down with and have a beer and hang out with. He is that guy that could be your good friend on a daily basis and a good time to just hang out with. He's one of those guys that if you ever were a regular at a place, you're regular to this Mexican cantina. You get the same margarita every time you go in there. You go in

there every Saturday and, oh, look, Joel's here again. Joel, what's going on, man? Hey, pull up a stool. And you just sit down every single time and just sit next to Joel and just talk to him. That's Joel. It's a good pick. He's a great character. Great dad. I remember he got drafted back in our Best Dads draft, so he's made a couple appearances.

Yeah. All right, Josh, you get to round out your team. One last pick. All right, last pick, but I'm going to throw out a couple honorable mentions real quick since I don't have to worry about giving away or tipping my hand. Good call. I did think about Claptrap. I love Claptrap. I know that people think Claptrap's annoying, but personally, Claptrap cracks me up, man. I feel like my stomach would hurt by the end of the night. And he's a robot. He can't drink. He's not running up a tab.

So there's a bonus there. I thought about Wheatley from Portal 2 because his sense of humor just jives with me amazingly. And I think he's very easy to talk to. I think he'd be just chatting everybody up at the pub. I think that'd be a ton of fun. But he might get murderous towards me a little bit too. And I'm not sure I want that either. So you kind of got to watch out for him. And I don't want to go drinking with a buddy I got to worry about. So that said, I'm going to

pick a guy that I might actually have to worry about, but is going to be just a phenomenally good time. And that's Handsome Jack. That's a great last pick. The last pick of the draft. That's a good one. Number one, super charismatic. This guy is going to just have everybody just in the palm of his hand. He's going to be telling amazing stories. He's going to be off the cuff. We might get arrested. Maybe we rob a bank. Maybe we just sit and talk and make fun of everybody. Maybe we people watch and just drop make fun of everybody. Maybe we people watch and just drop these hilarious one-liners about everybody that's sitting around us. But I feel like I want to have a good time. And I feel like I would have a very good time

with Handsome Jack. I might get arrested. I mean, okay, I fully understand that. Maybe he gets mad at me and tries to kill me. I fully understand that, too. But you know what? You only live one life, and you've got to have fun doing it. So I feel like he would guarantee a really good time for the night. I'm glad that we were able to have a couple of villains here in our list. They're not all just good guys, but they are definitely interesting characters. Yeah, villains know how to have a good time, man. You made me think of a villain a few minutes ago when you thought of the narrator,

and then you just brought up a robot. And I was like, do I pick Gladys here for my last pick? I thought about that, too. It's just like, do I do that? And I'm like, I just can't defend it enough. It would just be a ridiculous pick for the sake of being ridiculous. And then it's funny, I'll roll a couple honorable mentions if you don't mind real fast. Yeah, absolutely.

I did have Geralt of Rivia on here, and that's who I thought you were going to pick earlier, because you talked about that one night. I was thinking of that one night when you do the vampire quest, and you have to get just blitzed, and you're roaming around as Geralt in Witcher 3. And then also Kratos. But I feel like if I was to pick Kratos, it'd be a lot of fun, and we'd tell a lot of tales, but I would also somehow end up dead. Yeah. I just feel like he'd grunt a lot. He'd be a great listener.

Yeah. Like if you really needed a guy to just unload your troubles onto, I feel like Kratos would be that guy. Yeah. But I don't know that he would do more than just sit there and grunt and kind of just look at you. Yeah. I thought about Dom from Gears of War,

but that guy's story is just so tragic. It was like, what a great guy. But then Marcus would always be around just yelling at him because he'd be like, whoa, Maria, I love you. You're dead. And Dom would just, or Marcus would just be like, quit messing around, let's go. I had Coltrane on my list.

Nice. Yes, he was literally on my list. But then I was like, that's not gonna win me anything although i think he'd be a lot of fun what about you paul do you have any honorable mentions you guys mentioned almost all of my honorable mentions the only things that i had on top of that nathan drake from the uncharted games i think he would be fun to hang out with i did have handsome jack and glados also on my list i was gonna say you can put glados into the potato and you can carry her with you to go get the drinks just like in portal um the only other one i had

on my list was the bloody baron i kind of felt like despite wow he also has a sad story and cry tragic he has a tragic background but i feel like when he's in a good mood, I just can't help but think hanging out with a super rich baron, I feel like you're going to get good food. You're going to be laughing. You're going to have a good time as long as he doesn't fall into the depressing stories about botchlings and wives missing and daughters missing. Yeah. As long as we avoid all that, I think it'll be a good time. You know, I thought about him briefly, and I was like, I just can't do that. It's funny you mentioned Nathan Drake, because I almost picked him later on, and I feel like he's just a lesser version of Lara Croft.

Like, it's like the same thing, just not quite as cool. And that's gonna really piss off some people that I said that. I told Michael before we started the show that he would be a high up pick, just not quite as cool and that's gonna really piss off some people that i said i told i told michael before we started the show that he would be a high up pick because i think he'd be a lot of fun but i've never played those games so it'd be a hundred percent pander pick for me and then when we got to the rounds where we have to argue i would have no defense whatsoever yes it's one of the reasons i knew not to take a dragon age character because michael has not played them yeah i knew not to take an uncharted character because Michael has not played them. I knew not to take an Uncharted character

because you guys haven't played them. So, yeah. Alright, so let's recap our teams here. Josh is coming in strong with Arthur Morgan, Gordon Freeman, Rocket, and Handsome Jack. That is an interesting team. I love it.

I'm gonna have such a good time, guys. You can skip me. No, no, no. My pivot is still so hard, but I've got good characters, too. I've got some good ones. You do have some good ones. I feel like you've got some underrated ones, like having Bran Bronzebeard.

All right, so Michael's got John Marston, Delilah, Bran Bronzebeard, and Joel Miller. Okay, now, Delilah, you were saying you only hear her. Is she like an AI or something? No, she's a person, but you only talk to her through a walkie-talkie, so you never actually see her character. I wish you wouldn't spoil that, too. I messed up there when I said that, because it is kind of a spoiler. No, they talk about

that in the game. Okay. That's not a spoiler at this point. So, if you have a beer with Delilah, is she sitting on the other side and you're talking to her with a walkie-talkie? No. So actually, it's kind of funny because maybe I should say this for my argument. I'll just say it now. But actually, there's a chance that maybe later on down the road, you meet up with her in Colorado Springs and you get that beer. And that's why she's such a great pick. Because at the end of the game, you haven't met her and you're always talking about, let's get together,

let's have a drink, let's get together for that beer in Colorado Springs. There is one night though when she does have tequila on the other end of the radio that's pretty hilarious. Yes.

But it's more of like you would meet up with her later on down the road because you're, she's just, to give a preface real fast, she's in another watchtower. You're in a fire watchtower,

she's in another one, you're miles apart so you never see her because you're just talking to each other on the radio, doing your jobs. Gotcha. All right. And then my team is coming in with Lara Croft, Trevor Phillips, the narrator, and Jackie Wells. All right. So now that we are already 50 minutes into this episode, we should probably start with our bracket here. So round one, match one, we have Arthur Morgan versus Joel Miller.

That's a good combo. That's just really tough now that I think about it. It's not tough. It's just a good combo. Because Joel's awesome. Joel is awesome. He really is. I feel like Joel's the guy that would take care of you if you maybe had a few too many

and were not feeling real well. I feel like Joel would be the guy that would look out for you. Make sure you got home safe. Even put you to bed. Make sure that you're good to go before he left. But let's be honest. Who are you going gonna have a much better time with and that's arthur morgan hands down i mean it's funny because you mentioned joel

and it's like i got a booboo on my head joel's gonna take care of me he's gonna get me home but arthur's gonna be a party animal you're in the old west i i want to make arguments for joel but i i really think that arthur moves on for sure. And for the sake of time on this episode, everyone else does too. Let's move on. Yeah, Arthur, I think, is the winner. All right, round one, match two. John Marston versus Jackie Wells.

Ooh, just John Marston. Ooh, I don't know. Jackie's a good dude, man. Jackie's kind of only known for partying. He's kind of like Michelangelo in the cyberpunk world. I, oh man. I mean, I hate to do this to Butler, but number one, I need to remove Arthur Morgan's competition in the Red Dead Universe, number one.

And so this is strictly a way for me as judge to ask that. And then let's be honest, Jackie Wells is not only a very good friend who will look out for you and is just, I mean, really, you know, is very close and tight with you in friendship. But that dude knows how to have a good time. He knows how to let loose. He's down to clown. I got to give it to Jackie. I know that's an upset for a late round pick versus an early round, but that was a really good dark horse pick, Paul. It is a ridiculous dark horse pick. Just to defend John Marston, I mean, he's been around the block a little bit. He's got a lot of tails. He's been all over the world, the country.

I realize I'm pandering to someone who's not changing his mind, so I can probably stop talking here. But I will say this. The reason I was going to slander the John Marston pick is because his whole family got killed. Oh, right. But that's the thing. He stays up, though. He stays up on that. But how depressed is this guy going to be?

You're going to be into your second beer, and he's going to start getting sad and crying on you. And then I just got to like, it's okay, John. It wasn't your fault, man. I know Dutch Vanderlind and those guys. They're jerks, man. It's not your fault. And then now I just have to console this guy all night. That's not a good time.

So have you played the first one? John dies before them. Doesn't John die before his family? John dies to protect his family. Are we talking about John dies in the end? John dies at the end of Red Dead Redemption 1, but his family dies first. Because he's a widower in Red Dead Redemption 1.

But he's got a high resolve. That's right, right? Am I getting my lore right there? It's been like a decade since I played that. It gets a little confusing. And it's been a long time since I've played Red Dead Redemption 1. But he's still a high resolve. That's right, right? Am I getting my lore right there? I don't know. It's been like a decade since I played that. It gets a little confusing. And it's been a long time since I've played Red Dead 1. But he's still a happy guy. My memory is that John dies buying them time to escape. And then you play as John's son at the end of the game when he goes to get revenge for those who killed John.

Wait, but I thought his family died. No, his family was already dead, I thought. Oh, you're right. He sacrifices himself so that they can get away yeah all right anyway i'm picking i'm picking jackie wells since i'm the judge of this round get that other red dead character out of my man i feel like i feel like arthur versus joel and john versus Jackie, Josh is just going to pick the party animals. I mean, it's a little truer. As much as I love Jackie Wells, I will go with John Marston.

I want to see a Red Dead off. Paul! As a joke, I almost drafted Uncle with my number one pick, so that way the first round would all be Red Dead characters. Oh, man. Ironically, you might be able to make an argument uncle would be a better person to get a beer with than either arthur or john but let's let's let's let john marston pass i i think that's fair jackie he passed all right jack jackie dies too early in in cyberpunk alert, but he's not around all that long.

All right, so round one, match three, Lara Croft versus Handsome Jack. I can't argue this. I would rather have a beer with Lara Croft, too. It's fine. Yeah, are you going to pass up your one opportunity to you know go out on a date with laura i don't think you say no sorry sorry handsome jack i know you're handsome but you're she'll make a great stepmom to my kids you know i i think honestly i think that uh i think i i've definitely gotta go laura regardless because uh well know, she was my number one pick that I didn't take.

And so there's obviously reasons why I'm like, yeah, it's Lara Croft. All right. Round one, match four. Trevor Phillips versus Bran Bronzebeard. Talk about sentences I never thought I would speak out loud. What an insane matchup. Trevor versus Bran. Oh, oh my goodness good versus evil i feel like they're both party animals i feel like one of them is going to be a little safer

than the other i think we all know who it's the archaeologist it's the dwarf but i feel like you've got a pretty equal chance of dying between each one of them because i was gonna say death is pretty much assured either way here. Right. Yeah. Would you rather die from alcohol poisoning or going on an epic adventure with Trevor? I was going to say, I'm going to pick Trevor on this one because I am probably going to die, but I'm going to have a lot of fun right beforehand. Oh, my goodness.

I think I'd go with Trevor. Bran seems like a cool guy, but I don't want to die from alcohol poisoning. I don't think you have to die just because he's a dwarf that that's going to kill you. You're going to learn a lot of stuff from him. He's going to drink a lot. I feel like Bran's always been an understanding guy because he's always like... I feel like one of the negatives about Bran is that it seems like you're always waiting

for him in those games. You're going to be like, Bran, it's time to go, man. He's going to be like, hold on, one more. I've just got to stay for one more minute. You're like, Bran, no, we've got to go, dude. The's going to be like, hold on one more. I've just got to stay for one more minute. And you're like, Bran, no, we got to go, dude. The bus is here. Our lift is outside. All right, we're leaving you here.

Good night. I don't remember what the instance was, but yes, there's definitely one for sure where Bran has a staff in the ground and he's summoning monsters and you just have to wait and fight for forever. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Round one, match five. Delilah versus Rocket. monsters and you just have to wait the robot fight for forever yeah yeah all right round one match five delilah versus rocket delilah hands down they're both what josh rocket is such a good time josh you know you're going with delilah on this one i'm not i'm not rocket was my underdog pick man that guy you guys have seen guardians of the galaxy that guy's so much

fun to be around yes he can get a little angsty you know i i get that he gets mad sometimes you know what but who doesn't but you've got you've got groot chilling with you like how cool would that be you're gonna he's gonna take you across the galaxy you're gonna go to nowhere and you're gonna party it up like it's the you know at the heart of the galaxy. You're going to go to nowhere and you're going to party it up. Like it's the, you know, at the heart of the galaxy, man, you know,

they've got credits. He can protect you. If things go, go sour rocket to me is an absolute blast to go have a drink with. Why is Josh still convincing every time? I'm like, he's kind of right. I'm like,

no, no, hold on Delilah. That's my pick. Delilah is a great conversation. She's going to be. Yeah. You know,

I feel like I could, I feel like I could tell Delilah, a great conversation list. Yeah. You know she's going to play some great pool. I feel like I could tell Delilah all of my troubles and my worries in life, and she's going to listen, and she's a great listener. And I feel like I could have that really deep conversation with her. But I want to go have a good time, man. I'm going out for beers. I don't want to just pick up the phone and say, hey, Delilah, I need somebody to talk to. And she'll be like, oh, okay, Josh, yeah, just yeah just hit me up what's the matter paul let me ask you let me ask you paul uh would you like to die from every one of the characters that are picked here

would you like to go out with someone who's sarcastic witty smart she's awesome like girl does not she's not afraid to get her blue jeans dirty like you know you know, jeans, t-shirt, no makeup type. Kind of like my wife, actually. It's kind of funny. Like, just like, she's going to be awesome. And you're not going to die. And every character on this list so far, you're probably going to die. So I think we should throw in a little Delilah.

And I'm just going to pander to you. I do have a question for Paul before he makes a decision. Paul, have you ever seen Guardians of the Galaxy? I have. Have you ever played Firewatch? I have not. Oh, so you know one of these picks. So here's the thing.

If I go out with Rocket, is he just going to give me crazy quests like, go get that guy's fake leg? Because I need it. I mean, he might. But then you're going to laugh really, really hard. You know? Gro you're going to laugh really, really hard. You know?

I mean, Groot's going to be laughing, dude. He's going to be like, I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot. Okay. So here's the thing. Rocket, I feel like there's a good chance he's going to ignore me. And he's going to be building or tinkering with something.

He's your drinking buddy. He's sarcastic. He's not going to ignore you? Am I going to win this one? He's going to troll me. He's not going to be building or tinkering with something. He's a drinking buddy. He's sarcastic. Am I going to win this one? He's going to troll me. He's not going to. Okay. He might make you go get some guy's prosthetic eye.

Okay. That's funny. You like pranks, Paul. I do. I'm also a sucker for a good romance, which it sounds like with Delilah, you're going to get. You might. She's not really a romantic guy. But she might be.

Let's not spoil that. That's a great part of the story. We can't talk about Firewatch anymore. That's a great part of that story, actually. I'm going to go with Delilah. Am I the first person on a show that has ever gotten Paul to pick from a game that he's never

played before? I feel like it's super rare that there's ever a selection I don't want. I'm not going to lie. I'm a little triggered right now because Rocket would be such a good time. You get to chill with one of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Oh, you're going to win with Arthur Morgan on everything anyways. Yeah. The winner is going to go against Arthur Morgan anyway.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter. Delilah's not making it past the next round, but John Marston probably will. Huh? All right. And then we have our last matchup in round one, Gordon Freeman versus the narrator. Wow. Okay. One guy that exists and saved the entire world, or a guy that is only in your head and is narrating every decision you make?

The irony of this is the fact is that one never stops talking, and one doesn't talk at all. Which would you rather have? Well, I'm going to go with Gordon Freeman on this one, since he's a real person. Okay, so here's my one argument against Gordon. Is he too smart?

Is he going to be out of touch? He's an everyman! He could be out of touch, Josh. I don't know if he's going to just start talking to me about relativity, which I find very fascinating, but I feel like he might lose me, and I don't know if he has the best social skills. Dude, he is an everyman. He is not just like some megamind guy where he can't talk like a normal person. I mean, he can't talk because he doesn't. But I'm just saying, it's not like this

guy can't carry on a normal conversation. Hold on. Paul's argument just now was talking about someone having no social skills versus the other choice of voice in your head yes yes which would inhibit your social skills after pondering his options michael selected the narrator paul is questioning his decision on picking the narrator so i here's Here's the thing is I... Oh, you're going to hate me, Josh. Dude, there's no way. There is no way. The creativity behind that pick really put me aghast. And I just, I think it's hilarious. And Josh is going to win anyway.

So Paul, the narrator is the one I'm selecting to move on. Yes. I love Gordon. Okay, I just want to clarify. You're out. You're drinking a beer by yourself and you're talking to a guy in your head. That's a good point. Hold on. It'd be a memorable experience. You can do that at home!

I can't reverse my pick. That's a regular Friday night. I was going to say, what's different than any other day? It's a regular Friday night. You should get up and get some food. It's been a while since you've had a water. All right, I guess I'll get up and get a water.

All right. Well, Butler made his pick, so I guess. I know. Right after you said that, I'm like. I'm going to hold that against you, Butler. I know. That's all right. I honestly did not think the narrator had a chance of making it out of the first round.

I am so pleased. I can't believe it. Paul is wondering how this possibly happened and now regrets his decision to pick the narrator. It's just such a creative choice. I was like, that really just made me like, man,

good, good. And I had to reward that. So this is, we've had a lot of drafts, Josh, where this happens. If you draft first overall,

you've got that one heavyweight, and everyone else gets eliminated. Oh, does that happen? It's true. Yeah, it's happened a couple times. Well, it's just that when you have the number one pick, you better hit it really good. That pick will probably make it to the end,

but then because you don't pick for so long, the rest of your picks are kind of mid-tier, and it's difficult to put those up against somebody else's mid-first or mid-second round pick. Or the back-to-back that comes at the turn on the first round, where you're like, I don't got to pick between my top two because I got them both.

Right, exactly. Yeah, going one and then six is quite a long wait with only three people. I didn't realize that all yours were knocked out, Josh. I'm sorry. No, not all of them. That wouldn't have affected my... I know you got the one, but...

Here comes the Witcher 3. Yeah, exactly. Alright, so round two, we've now eliminated it down to six. We've got Arthur Morgan, John Marston, Lara Croft, Delilah, Trevor Phillips, and the narrator. Wow, one of us still has all three picks in

those six. Keep that in mind, Michael. All right. So round two, match one, we have Arthur Morgan versus Delilah. Okay. This is an easy one. And as cool as Delilah would be to talk to, there's really no

contest here. I don't know, Josh. Oh my goodness. I like here's here's the thing i felt to just leave now i feel like in this instance it would be um it wouldn't be good sportsmanship if if paul were to just pick delilah again having never played the game when we all know arthur's actually the pick so just go ahead and put up. Now, now, but let this be a testimonial to how great that game is. Paul,

if you'd played it, you might actually be conflicted a little bit here. Probably not enough to get rid of Arthur Morgan, but Delilah's incredible. The game's incredible. Yeah. And I would rather have a beer with Arthur Morgan. I would say,

I would say so, but yeah. Yeah. I was going to say, you might argue if it's one beer only maybe delilah's okay actually that might change that that might we did not specify you know if it's a few beers yes arthur unquestionably the winner although i will say i can't wait to play fire watch you guys have really sold me on it i'm gonna buy it very good i yeah i feel like it's a game that is right up your alley paul, and you would really, really enjoy.

Nice. All right. Round two, match two. We've got the Rockstar face-off here. We've got John Marston versus Trevor Phillips. Okay, so a couple things about John Marston real fast that you may not know, because I was Googling things that I could use for John Marston to be his... You know, he joined a gang at age 12.

Guy that joins a gang at age 12, he's going to have a lot of stories. He's going to have a lot of things, like a lot of old days, things he saw. He may have seen things that you've never heard of before. And he's going to tell you about those things. He also is a very, very bad artist, apparently. And he also fought in the Mexican Revolution.

That's a historical event. You could ask him what actually happened. It's like having a Lara Croft who's actually been there in real life. That's all I got, guys. I feel like a guy that joins a gang when he's 12 makes bad decisions. Well, but then he made good decisions. Unlike Trevor, who makes really good decisions. I'm staying silent on the decision-making part.

I don't know. I don't know if that matters. That's funny, too, because he ultimately makes the best decision, because what's the best thing you can do, really, is sacrifice yourself for someone else. He sacrifices himself for his family, so you know. Very noble. So, you know,

very noble, right? Not the quality I want for somebody that I'm going to go have a beer with. So here, yeah, here's the thing. John Marston would be a better friend. I don't deny that at all.

Better friend, but come on to go out and get a drink with someone. No chance. You're picking John over Trevor Phillips. Trevor Phillips is, he's as unique of an opportunity than anyone else I can think of. Like Trevor, you are unquestionably remembering that night

for the rest of your life. That's all I have. Even if it goes bad, in hindsight, you're gonna laugh. It's gonna be great. Well, because that night is gonna be the rest of your life. You know, the old saying says, the old saying says, you know, build a man of fire, keep him warm for the night, set a man on fire, keep him warm for the rest of his life.

Exactly. Come on. I can think of worse ways to go than getting into shenanigans. Let me ask you something, Paul. Yeah. into shenanigans. Let me ask you something, Paul. Do I enjoy a touch of chaos in life? Of course you do.

I'm going with Trevor, baby! I'm sorry. I get it. It's a dangerous night. You're rolling the dice, but Trevor is going to give me a very, very memorable night out. You have to the dice, but Trevor is going to give me a very, very memorable night out. You have to go with Trevor here. Yeah, I mean, with John, I

agree. I think John could wind up being a great friend, but I'm looking for this just memorable night out to tell everybody about for the next 30 years. No, I agree. And the fact that I had to look up more reasons to make John Marston win because I ran out of reasons.

Because he's kind of plain. He's kind of just your average, plain kind of guy. Joining a gang at age 12, but he's plain. We all made it back. Yeah, exactly. But Trevor, I feel like you're going to, like you said, what made me really

think about it was when you're like, you're gonna remember that night for the rest of your life and that's 100 true because it's gonna be wild yeah now now that we've locked in trevor um as fun as we really do think it would be to hang out with trevor i think the over under is 20 seconds before you say i immediately regret my decision of hanging out with Trevor. The second the shirt comes off or he spills beer on himself and then just starts sucking it out of his t-shirt or something,

that's when I'm going to be like, I might have made a poor choice. It's one of those things that is great in theory, but if you were literally there with a murdering sadist you might you might start to worry just no i'm gonna look over at josh and be like josh why did you bring me to hang out with this guy we gotta go dude i'd just be like i thought he was gonna be fun man but i didn't know

i didn't know he would murder four people i know right sorry uh Alright, and then round two, matchup three, last one of the round, we have Lara Croft versus the narrator. Remember how you were touting how much fun that narrator would be, Paul? Yes. I stand by it,

but come on, it's Lara Croft. You gotta take her out. There's a part of me that wants to take the narrator into the final round just so I win this whole thing handily. But Lara Croft is the correct answer for the integrity of this draft and this podcast. That's who I would vote for. I mean, Lara Croft, once again, I'll say she was my number one. I don't know if I mentioned that or not earlier when I was tilting real hard, but Lara Croft moves on. Did you pick her at number two?

Because you had the second pick, didn't you? I know. And I just, oh, man. Oh, wait. And you didn't take her? I picked a real boring guy who fought in the Mexican Revolution and then had no more positive things to say about why you'd have a beer with him. Bold strategy, Cotton. Right?

All right. So we are now in the finals whenever we have a three-person draft this is what happens we now have a group of three so it's not exactly a straight up uh face off but we are left with arthur morgan trevor phillips and laura croft so we are just going to match them all up against each other and see who wins the most rounds so So let's first think about Arthur Morgan versus Trevor Phillips. All right. I don't genuinely want to die. And so I do think I might wind up in the county jail for until morning. You know, that's reasonable. Yeah. But I don't want to, and I don't want to be accomplished to murder. So my pick is Arthur Morgan, simply for the fact that I think you're going to have equally good, raucous times without the danger of being a murderer or going to jail for the rest of your life. Yeah, real talk here.

It's going to be Arthur Morgan. I think Arthur is such a great person to go out on the town with as long as he's in the right mindset and as long as you don't get in his way. I think I would be a good wingman to Arthur. I'm not going to try to steal the show from him. I'm going to sit back. I'm going to let him take the reins.

He'll start the conga line, and I'll join with him after. I think Arthur is a great pick. There's no way I can honestly pick Trevor, as hilarious as that might be. I think Arthur is a great pick. There's no way I can honestly pick Trevor as hilarious as that might be. I think 100%. The thing about Arthur is that they're both risky, right? They're both dangerous. They're both a little bit maverick. But I feel like when the going gets rough, Arthur's going to be like, oh, shoot, let's get out of here or we're going to shoot back. But somehow we're going to get away. Somehow it's going to work out because it always does. Probably because every time you die, you just get to reset, keep going.

But I feel like with Trevor, that's not going to happen and it's not going to be a good night. And I'm going to be either dead or locked up forever or regretting the fact that I'm missing appendages somehow. There's a real chance you might wake up in a bathtub of ice and missing some vital organs. Missing a kidney Trevor sold it to somebody. Yeah. It was a hundred percent Trevor's fault. From the rest of the night.

I'm going to say there's actually like a 50, 50 chance that that happens. I was going to say, that's not just a small chance. All right. So we'll, we'll, we'll give that one to Arthur.

What about Arthur Morgan versus Lara Croft? Lara Croft. It's Lara. Yeah. It's Lara. Yeah. It's Lara. A hundred percent. Um, and it's funny just in so many ways,

just like you, like you said earlier, I forget which one of you said it. She's seen so much. You're going to learn so much from her. She's, she's been around and she's also got that adventure, but she's fun.

She's a little sarcastic sometimes, but she's really brilliant. And, and also you're sitting down next to Lara Croft having a beer. It's really cool. Yeah, totally agree. I think it's got to be Lara. We'll give her the win in that matchup. This is the final that I did not want though, because this is going to be really tough, man. So last matchup here, we have Trevor Phillips versus Lara

Croft. No. What? No. Last matchup would be Arthur Morgan versus Lara Croft. Yeah, so it's Lara. Lara won because Arthur beat... It's like Rock Paper Scissors. Arthur beat Trevor and Lara beat Arthur.

Therefore, Lara wins. When did we do Lara versus Arthur? That's literally the round that we're doing right now. We just did it and you said Laura. You just said it. No, no, no, no, no, no. You said Trevor versus Laura. No, he said Arthur.

No, no, Arthur versus Laura. We can go back. I was going to say, I'm pretty sure. But that's fine. I could have heard it wrong. We can go back. I was like, wait a minute. I've been.

It's not locked in. Go ahead. Make your argument for Arthur. Over Laura? Over Laura. Wouldn't we need to make this argument? Yeah. Yeah. This is the round we locked in. Go ahead. Make your argument for Arthur. Over Laura? Over Laura. Wouldn't we need to make this argument? Yeah. Yeah.

This is the round we're in. Okay. I was going to say. Okay. Yes. This is the championship. Which would you rather go home with, Josh? No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

All right. You're not pulling that little tricksy on me. Uh-uh. Uh-uh. I will say this, guys. I'm going to pull... I'm going to appeal to your heartstrings. Because one of these people, you only have a limited time with to have some beers with.

They may not have long on this world, and you really want to get to know them. You want to have a good time with them. Sure. You want to have them tell you all of their stories and their dreams and their hopes and all of that stuff. The other one, you could go have a beer with anytime. Josh, let me ask you a question. Do you want someone coughing blood all over you while you're having a beer? Yeah.

Okay, okay. Do you want to see someone with yellow bloodshot eyes that are going to scare you and give you nightmares? So, I mean, people get old paul are you saying that old people don't deserve to go out and have a beer i'm saying uh someone riddled with tuberculosis might not be the best date that's not a nice thing i also feel like the beer around the turn of the 20th century was probably terrible. And so if we're drinking in their environment, I might drink a whiskey instead, but the rules say it's got to be beer. So maybe that, I don't know. I don't know about that. Maybe it's not.

Maybe it was actually, maybe beer nowadays is more watered down and not as good because they took their time to be craftsmen back then. And it wasn't just about mass producing everything. It would be more organic beer. Yeah. is more watered down and not as good because they took their time to be craftsmen back then. And it wasn't just about mass producing everything. It would be more organic beer. Yeah, exactly. Way better for you. Less chemicals, too. All right. So here's the thing.

Josh is voting for Arthur. I am voting for Laura. Michael, you're going to be the tiebreaker. Oh, man. But I just... I made Josh self-set earlier earlier i know there's one right answer and it's laura croft oh is that your answer it is my answer i i gotta say man so here's the thing is that when it when i pick my answer it's like who would i want to have a beer with man i was

an archaeologist i was anthropologist in school and i just want to learn what she learned and talk about antiquities and also i don know, she was my first choice. And I thought about Arthur. He didn't even make my list of 12 that I had here because he's prickly and he's just not – like, sure, you have that one night of debauchery and awesomeness in the game, but then other than that, he's really kind of a grumpy person. I don't know.

He's polite. He's always saying, ma'am, as he's walking through town and stuff. He's a good guy. He is, but he's a man of few words. He's a two-word guy. He's like a two-word guy, ma'am as he's walking through town and stuff like he's a good guy yeah he is but he's like he's a man of few words he's a two-word guy he's like a two-word guy ma'am that's all i'll say this lara is probably the right answer here and i don't dispute that what i will say is that i think that you will have a better more fun time as arthur with like with arthur as your drinking buddy than you would with lar. I think Lara's got some stories to tell. I think she's going to be plenty fun to hang out with. But I think

you're going to have more stories to tell later on if you went out with Arthur. Maybe that's not what I want, though. If you told your friends, guess who I hung out with last night? Oh, man. You're going to get the bigger reaction from lara that's the test yeah that's a really good point yeah and if you're going out with lara it would also be the if you're on the lara you're probably dressed like james bond so let's be honest but yes i can just see me coming to you guys and saying i had a chance to either go have a beer with arthur

morgan or laura croft and you guys are all going to be like so you went Laura right right and then I could just imagine me being like no and then you guys are like you're an idiot yeah oh man all right so we got another draft and tournament here in the books Laura Croft is the number one person that we would want to share a beer with in the gaming world and uh i think this was a fun one i i was a little i was a little apprehensive about this one i didn't know how fun it would be it ended up being a lot more fun than i thought uh and and i also won so i i have no complaints oh yeah absolutely so uh no i think i think this one is one though where you know the listeners can probably say that there's thousands of different characters we didn't think of. It's not like the other one where it's a battle of the consular, a battle of the best type of this game.

It's like there's thousands of people out there for anyone to say, I want to go have a beer with. And so I think that the list we came up with is pretty robust and very dynamic. There's a lot of different things in it, especially because people like Trevor are there. But this was a lot of fun. I'm glad y'all invited me back. Thanks again. I had a great time. And it's always great. It's always great hanging out with you guys. It's so good to have you, Butler. It really does just make it so much fun to be able to do these tournament drafts, man. Your video game knowledge is top notch, which helps a lot. It's such a good time. I'm a little bitter that I lost,

but I can't argue against picking Lara Croft either. Well, at least you made it to the finals, Josh. I did. Michael did not make it to the finals. No, and true story, 100% of the times that I've been on this show, I've lost. So maybe I'm just your punching bag

if you bring me around for that. Let's keep bringing him back, Paul. Trick or trick, he'll lose. Wink, wink. Oh, box them out, Josh. Box them out. I can't believe, though, if I would have picked Lara Croft over John Marston, like I had intended to at the beginning. But then that Arthur Morgan got me.

I'm like, yeah, I want to see John Marston in there. And I think he's going to get taken. But I think Lara's going to follow me. Never tilt in a draft. I'm never tilting again. That's the lesson. That's what I learned. Oh, man. One last comment. I got to say the Tomb Raider games,

I feel like they're a little underrated. They are so good. They're a blast. They're always fun. They really are. There's not a bad Tomb Raider game out there. No, they're all great. All right. Well, thank you, Michael, for joining us. Such a blast having you again. We'll definitely have you again in the future. Josh and I love doing these tournaments. This will not be the last one by any stretch. Thank you, everyone, for listening. As a reminder, please leave us a review.

Rate our podcast five stars. Come check us out on Discord. There's a link in the episode description, along with the link to the talk that we'll do on Wisdom. And also, you can support what we do through Apple subscriptions or at MultiplayerSquad.com which will take you to our Patreon page. And then we will be back with a

This Week in Gaming episode on Thursday and then we will jump into our holiday schedule where we will take off two weeks but we will release some of our favorite episodes over the last year. So, yeah. I think that's it. And just in case for the Wisdom app, because I really do want to be able to hang out with the last year. So yeah, I think that's it. And just in case for the wisdom app,

cause I really do want to be able to hang out with the listeners for a little bit. You may need to look up our username, which is going to be multiplayer pod. Ah, good to know. Yeah. Yep.

Multiplayer pod. You can find us on there and we'll see you guys for that wisdom talk. And we'll see you on Thursday for this week in gaming. So fun. All right. You guys want to go have a beer? I think, I think that's the one thing we missed starting out this thing was like, we all should have had a beer.

I didn't even think about it until just now. Sadly, no beers. We really let the listeners down. I don't actually like beer, for the record. I don't either. I do. Who do you want to share a glass of white wine with? Give me a gnarly Oregonian hop IPA all day long.

Oh, there you go. I don't know what that means. All right. We'll see you, everybody. See you, guys.