Video Gamers Podcast - The Ultimate Bad Takes Episode! - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: March 30, 2026

Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan and Ace are throwing down their ultimate bad takes in this chaotic episode, where nothing is safe from their hottest and objectively WORST gaming opinions. From outrageous claims to poor judgement, the guys lean all the way in. Are their takes secretly genius, or completely unhinged when it comes to video games? Tune in as they clash over the wildest ideas, challenge each other’s logic. If you love bold opinions and wild discussions about video games, this is one gaming episode you don’t want to miss!   Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps and NorwegianGreaser, and Dettmarp   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: HypnoticPyro, PeopleWonder, Bobby S.   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/videogamerspod⁠ Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/h2cHKAvSmu Follow us on Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/⁠  Follow us on X:⁠ https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod⁠  Subscribe to us on YouTube:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1⁠    Visit us on the web:⁠https://videogamerspod.com/⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, fellow gamers, and welcome to the Video Gamers podcast. Everyone has bad gaming takes, right? Well, everyone but ourselves, surely. Okay, that's a lie. Well, on today's episode, we're turning the tables on ourselves and confessing our worst gaming takes. Yes, they're bad. Yes, they'll probably make you mad because they're stupid. But, hey, sometimes you just need to come clean to the world.

Before we get to the rage inducing, some introductions are in order. I am your host, Josh, and joining me, his takes are arguably the worst on the show, and that's no bull. It's Ryan. This episode is perfect for me. I am locked and loaded, baby. Ryan and I, like, Ace and I are trying to, like, come up with bad takes where I'm like, man, is this bad enough?

Like, I don't know. Is this a bad take? Because I feel like this is a good take. Ryan writes and he's like, I got my list, guys. What do we need? Like 20, 25? And I'm like, this is like four each, man.

I'm done. Bam, you want more? I got backups. I got plenty more. What do you mean? Oh. Yeah, we're going to get to him. But first, joining us,

his first round of takes were so mild. We couldn't even call them bad. So we set them back to the drawing board And well, just remember to go easy on them people It's Ace I actively got scolded for not going hard enough Your takes sucked Ace I was reading through your takes

And I'm like this is like This is like somebody writing poetry About like an issue in the gaming world And I'm like this isn't a bad take Ace What is this? The shade of green I was trying to come up with conversations We hadn't had before

No, these are your bad takes, Ace, and if you can't name them, and that's the thing is I had to name a couple for you. Whereas like, Ace, here's a couple of bad takes. I know you guys. We know the bad takes for Ace, for sure. And then Ace is like, all right, well, I guess I'll redo him then. And then lo and behold, the two bad takes that we pointed out, Aces got on his list all of a sudden. You know, it's funny because, listen, everybody has takes in the gaming world. Whether if you're a gamer at all, you think a certain way about some games, you've got your strong opinions about something else.

But when you look in the mirror, that's when it gets difficult. That like legitimately, because listen, I'm putting the call to action right now because this is the point of this episode. We want you to leave a comment on this episode with what your bad gaming take is. Now, that's not things that upset you. That's not things you think are wrong with the gaming world. these are takes that you personally have that you think are bad according to most people. And so that's the point of this episode. We are confessing our bad takes.

This is a safe place. There will be no anger. No. There will be no rage. We're in the trust tree. Yes, we're in the trust tree, the circle of trust. All right? Like from Meet the Falkers.

Okay. What? Family show. Family show. Dude. Yeah. Okay. Meet the Falkers is hilarious.

It's so good. That is a fantastic comedy. I would say there is a difference between a hot take and a bad take. Yes, exactly. These are not hot takes. These are objectively wrong takes.

Is objectively wrong. That's exactly right. We can believe things that you can also admit are probably wrong in the eyes of most people. And that is the point of this episode. Like Ace eats pineapple or blueberries on pizza. Like that's objectively all horrible horrible. Everything come back to my diet.

I mean, it's like a black hole, ace. It just sucks in everything else in the universe, man. You know, it's just like, it's like, all right. At least you have a one liter bottle of soda today instead of a two liter bottle. We're making progress, Ryan. We're down a leader. Oh, man. We also had a great pre-show where we made a slew of a series, a slew of ACE.

is Ace Mom Jokes. If you ever want to see what happens to this show when it really goes off the rails, the pre-show is what you are looking for. The pre-show is available for anybody that supports this podcast on Patreon. And just trust me, it's worth every bit of that five bucks to just be a part of that. All right. So these are our worst gaming takes, guys. These are the takes that we know, probably most people don't agree with, that we can look at ourselves and go, hey, if I'm being. being honest, this is probably a bad take.

I'm going to start us off just to get the ball rolling because I wouldn't do this to you guys without, you know, just leading, leading the charge. I know this is going to upset people. People that have been listening to the show for a while are going to be like, yep, yep, Josh, that is absolutely one of your bad takes. And my bad take is that cozy games and SIM games are insanely overrated and boring. and I don't understand why anybody would want to work like when they're playing their video games.

They all are just chores and I don't get why people would want to just do chores in a video game. I don't quite 100% agree on the cozy part, but sim games, I 100% agree. I hate Sim games so much. Like, I know that like my wife is literally playing Pokemon Pocopia right this moment. She's chilling on like four hours of Pocopia right now.

Dude, and it's like cozy games, she loves them. She loves them. And it's like, and I get it. And she's building her little village with her Pokemon and it's pretty. And she shows me. And I'm like, baby, that's beautiful. Like, look at that. Like, that's creative.

It's pretty. That's the best line you said. And then like, but my brain just goes like, I would die. I would die if I had to do this. Oh, yeah. And I'm going to throw this bad take in with this. one to prove to people that I know that this is a bad take, but I've said this time and time again that I think Star Do Valley is the most like overrated game in existence because it's a cozy

game and a sim game with like the dating people and the relationships and all that. It's the, it's the worst of both worlds and people love it. And I don't understand why. Man, I hope you enjoy getting docs after this episode. We need to find him and kill him. him. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry people. But look, I know. I'm saying I know this is a bad take. But like at the same time, I think I'd rather die than have to play these games. I say that's a fair take. We're not starting out strong because that's a fair take. Yeah, I don't think that's that bad. I think that's an opinionated. Do you know the amount of people that love cozy games and simulator games? Like, oh, yeah, no, you're definitely like in the minority. Yeah, yeah. But there are people who agree with you. you. Listen, if there's anything about this show, you don't want to agree with us on these things, man.

Okay? This is not the time to be like, yeah, you guys right. You know? No. No. All right, Ryan. Well, if we're starting off so mild, then why don't you up the ante a little bit on this then? Spice us up. What's one of your bad gaming takes, Ryan?

Well, as I'm a professional in this world, I know I know what a bad gaming take is Starting out strong I'm going to start off real strong right here And I am going to say That turn-based combat Is so unbelievably boring

No, your quick time events Don't spice it up No your No, no, no the strategy Oh, it's strategy though, it's strategy It does not make up for for lame gameplay this to me

it's just it's it's it's 1990s tech and they're trying to continue it on to like get that nostalgia I know that a million people love it I know that people

enjoy this style but for me I just don't get it I don't get it this includes like encounter based combat and tactical like tactics

yeah yeah yeah like all stupid it's not Ryan just furiously smashing the buttons on his control no then he is not. No, no, no, no, no. That's stupid. No, no, no. Sitting there and just like,

your character just like bouncing up and down as you wait to like make your choice, it's so stupid. It's the dumbest like premise for like a game set up. The cats are singing the game's theme, Ryan. All right. Yes, exactly. Can I ask you a question, Ryan? Sure. You used to fight in MMA. Yes. Was there ever a second or two where you're just sitting there not throwing punches? for a second or two. Yeah. So that's you waiting to make your move. That was.

Okay. Oh, look. You dropped his hands. That was real time. So you are guilty of it in real life, Ryan. That was real time analysis to set up, to set up movement. You don't do that. You could sit there and not touch your,

no, you could not touch your controller for 30 seconds to a minute. And it wouldn't matter at all. They're just being nice, Ryan. They're just being nice to you. This takes sucks, Ryan. No, you can say whatever you. That's right. Bad takes.

Yeah, it's bad takes. That's what we're doing. It's dumb. I hate this take. Your quick time events, don't save it. You're, no, your defense that,

oh, it's strategy. If anyone doesn't like it, it's strategy. Oh, you just don't like strategy. Oh, you're stupid. All of that,

that doesn't save it. No, it's stupid. No, if I want strategy, I'll go play chess. I'll go play a game that's strategy game. If I'm playing video games, chess a turd-based combat game yes no that's because that's what you're playing like it's chess

like that's what you're there for but wait so you're okay with chess but you're not okay because because i'm i'm there for a video game of like a combat game i'm not there to like experience uh a world do you like poker ryan do i what do you like poker yeah you like i love poker i absolutely love poker do you don't you don't go out of turn do you in poker you wait your turn right uh i've i've been known to maybe go of a turn sometimes. Shame on you. Boy,

I don't know what you're making. And so often. Maybe sometimes. I'm not bad. I'm not a slow roller and I don't, I don't go out of turn too often, but I sometimes have gone out of turn. But I get where you're going.

I understand what you're saying. And that's why it's a bad take. I get it and I understand why people, uh, feel the way they feel. I hate this take. I know. I know you hate this take.

But it's just, it's dumb. And it's great. Because I, I, you know what? As much as I hate it, I appreciate that you have different, you have different

It's just boring to me I would rather I would rather my tactical decisions be made in the moment when I see a sword coming at my face I'd like to roll out of the way

instead of just eat it oh I lost 40 health points now I need to attack you know and then do it that way I like in the moment if only the game told you to parry it I feel like that doesn't I heard my L say that

quite a few times you parried wow you parried yeah good job Like, but it's, yeah. All right. All right. Look, we all know Ryan's take.

We all know this is a terrible take. That's what we're here for. Bad takes, baby. That's a bad take. All right. All right, Ace. What's your bad take? Well,

beat that, after those overly mild takes, because I believe there are people who enjoy cozy games and there are people or who don't enjoy cozy games to the same extent you don't, Josh. And there are definitely people who don't enjoy turn-based games to the extent Ryan doesn't. I don't think there's anyone on my side with this. one. I think realism is the worst style for any game. I think it's boring and it's basic and making everything look like our world is unimaginative and not cool. That is a bad take. Yeah. Yeah. How'd you like

Resident Evil? Ace, you liked Requiem, right? Yeah. I don't know where any, do you see any zombies that look like that? I've never seen a zombie before. The realism in that game was top notch. I've never seen a zombie. I've never seen a zombie. What are you on about? I don't know. I, this one's tough because I, I mean, it's weird. Who was it that we interviewed? Was it a yacht club, I think? Yacht club games. We were talking about graphics and they said, hey, you know what?

You can only make something so real before you just can't make it look any more real. Yeah, I think it might have been them. And it's like the, so when you get into video games and you get into the art style of games, there's a reason that they use a lot of the art styles instead of going with realism. That's what they said 20 years ago. We can't get any more real. They couldn't make it look real 20 years ago, though. Okay.

Now we can't really much make it look real. But we all know now what the issue is with making things look too real is you enter the uncanny valley and then everyone's uncomfortable. There's a point. But then you get games like, I mean, we've all seen the cyberpunk mods where it looks like real life. Like if it was, if I wasn't looking down at Jackie Wells's motorcycle in that game and going, okay, I know that motorcycle. Like I would think that is real life. I just prefer a unique art style, something that can't be copied and pasted into every kind of genre. I mean, not every game would work with realism.

So that's an interesting one. It is a bad take. Oh, yeah. No, I 100% know it's a bad take. It's like what? I feel like 99% of AAA games are realism. Oh, yeah. To a degree, yeah.

Good graphics. Three. High tech. I know. Kiss. Well, just to, I'll tell you what, guys. So since it's my turn next, since we're on this topic and it fits into this so well, I'm going to counter Aces Bad Take with my own bad take.

And that is that good graphics are super important to the success of a game. I like how I have the opposite of this on my list. I know you are. I know you are. And I'm because people that have been listening to the show, I am a self-admitted graphics snob. If your game looks like it's a, you know, a four-bit, pixel game and makes my eyes bleed, there is a very good chance that I am instantly not interested in your game. Now, there is some gorgeous pixel art out there. I have come a long way.

It used to be that I just said blanketly like I hate pixel art. Well, now I've seen some really good pixel art, but bad graphics will ruin a game in my mind. And again, this is a bad take. I'm not saying this is fact, okay? But let me just give you, guys, and for anybody that's arguing this take right now in their mind. Okay. God of War. Red Dead Redemption 2. Cyberpunk. Eldon Ring. Like, you know, any of the, Witcher 3, take any

of the greatest games ever made and then try to have those be pixel-based 8-bit graphics, and you will not. You would never get the same response to those games as you would based on the fact that they are just insanely visually pleasing games. Okay, but God of War did

make a pixel-based game. Yeah, and it sucked. Nobody liked it. He said it. He said it alive on it. That's a perfect example. Nobody liked Sons of Sparta. You know?

Like, they might have liked it for the first, like, two hours. And then they went, guys, this game kind of sucks, man. But that's my point. Because I know that people are reeling right now saying like, hey, dude, like, there's plenty of really great games that are not great graphics. And they're going to name a bunch of them. And I'm not saying that they're not great games. What I'm saying is they would be better games if the good.

graphics were better. And you take the greatest games of all time, and they all share the fact that they are just visually, like, mind-blowingly good and beautiful. And you can't argue that fact. It doesn't mean that a game can't be good if it has bad graphics, because Lord knows, we've played plenty of great games that aren't very graphically inclined. But if they had good graphics, they'd be even better. And that's my point.

I almost don't want to say anything just because I have a point later. I need points for. but have them graphics on Slay the Spire, bud. They're better in Slay the Spire too. The thing is, here's the deal. But you know what would make Slay the Spire even better? It would be better. It blew my mind, man.

It would make no difference because the game plays the same. You got Sardu Valley that sold more than 40 million copies. You got, you know, Minecraft. It looks terrible. That's hundreds of millions. Oh, people. Additionally, terrible cube games. like so yeah graphics people been trying to make Minecraft look good I know

do not how many mods are out there trying to make there there's a lot of shaders and mod packs and I mean even with Bethesda games like the mods instantly come out like everybody wants it to look better and like you always what's one of the major complaints with Starfield when Starfield came out yeah they're still using their old engine with the creepy animated faces and stuff I like that though I you like it. Oh, you would. I know. I want to. It feels like weird little puppets. I don't want to take too much heat on this. So the sooner we move to you, the more the focus comes off of me. Oh, it'll be, it'll be, it'll be back. Don't worry. Yeah. I am going to say that toxic game lobbies

are awesome. Oh, you would. Think Black Ops 2010, like a lot of slurs, a lot of horrible words. a lot of things that you can't say on air. Like that, that to me just felt like gaming. This is the world I grew up in. This is like the generation I grew up in. And to me, I think it's, I think it's awesome.

I, obviously, it's horrible that these people say these things. Yes. But, but trolling them and playing with these people and messing with them and beating them when they're that agro is my favorite thing in the world. So I miss the super toxic lobbies Because you could just troll people so hard And I know it's for the better now

But like, but like, but I, I wish I had that world still Of the super toxic lobbies. Beating the tar out of a toxic team. Like, while they're just being the absolute worst. Even if it's like your own teammate who's actively throwing or something And you still win, you're like, huh? Yeah. Dude, I, there, there, I don't know her name because I don't watch a lot of streams, but it's like they're, I've seen these reels of this girl.

She's cracked out on like, oh yeah. In the multiplayer lobbies. And she talks over voice chat. And so of course you get the idiots that are like, oh, there's a girl in here. And they're saying all these really, really dumb things. And then she wipes the floor with them, dude. Wipes the floor with them. And their response to that is the best. And so Ryan being the like the troll that loves to troll trolls. like I get it so much. Like I actually understand like those are terrible. Nobody's saying that those lobbies and what the things people say aren't terrible. But it was a time in gaming where you got to stomp the guy that was talking all the trash in voice chat.

And there was nothing, nothing like just killing that guy over and over and then teabagging him and watching him just rage like nobody has ever rage before in voice chat. Call you all these horrible names. and then he wasn't getting banned so people will continuously do it so every time you got those people you'd always get that reaction which was so awesome because like i played so much sticks and stones and when you used the hatchet you'd reset them and i would just run around i didn't care if i won i would just reset everybody and and they would get so mad and they would call me everything under the book and it made it made it was like years of pleasure for sure i loved it also this is a terrible It is an awful thing to say, oh, so I want more toxicity in my video games.

Yeah, I know, I know. It's so bad, but it's definitely something that I miss because it was like taking them down. But it was also like, yeah, it's not, it's not good. It's not good overall for sure. To be fair to Ryan, I am more toxic than Ryan is in. Oh, Overwatchwatch, Josh. Oh, no, no, no, no. Overse Josh is my favorite Josh.

Overwatch, Josh is crazy. Look at how he's, look at how he's getting rid of it real quick. All right, Ace, give us yours, and then we'll take a quick break out. All right, just because it's within theme, and I was going to skip to this one now. I think graphics speak nothing of a game's true quality and value. You do not have to have a loser take. What a massive take ever, Ace. Of course graphics matter.

No, that don't matter at all. Some of the highest selling games of all time have completely basic graphics or unique art styles that look nothing like AAA titles. Ace, name a game of the year in the last five years. didn't have incredible graphics. Probably Ballard's Gate 3, I guess. It doesn't have that great of graphics. The graphics are great at Baldersgate 3. They're not that good.

What? Are you crazy? They're pretty basic. The amount of detail that they have in like that isometric. To be fair. To be fair. My computer might not be able to run at the highest graphical stage. That's true. I also put it on PlayStation.

He's a guy that's a 32-bit guys, okay? So we have- And I might have had it on my external hard drive. Oh, we didn't even get into that. I was saving that for the indie pre-show, Ace. I was going to wait for that one. Yeah, we'll get to that later. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, that's graphics. I mean, it's, like I said earlier, it doesn't make a good game, but also like, why? Why not? Why not make good graphics? Like, why would you not? Why would you spend money on good graphics, like really expensive graphics?

Unreal Engine, isn't it free? Not. People weren't using Unreal that much. free-ish. Like you can... It's definitely not free. It costs money. You can use it to like make a decent

quality game. Okay, but if you put your funding into the actual gameplay, the story, your character design, things like that, that's way more important than making it look like every other game on the market. I don't know, man. A good looking game is pretty sweet. Yeah, exactly.

Aisus takes dumb. My take was great. Yeah, I think you're both. Even though they were exact opposite takes on this one. They can't both be dumb. They're literally the opposite. They're the opposite. One has to be correct.

You're both stupid. That's my final verdict. That's my bad take. We're going to take a quick break. We're going to take a quick break so you guys can catch your breath out there and just enjoy this moment of Zen where we're not telling you stupid things. And we'll be right back to tell you more stupid things right after this. All right.

We're back. I would just like to issue an apology to the one person out there who comments about me yelling on the episodes all the time. It will happen again and I'm sorry. Deal with it. Thankfully, nobody has ever accused me of yelling or getting animated on this show. So that's, you know, I'm just, I'm glad that you take all the heat for that. Yeah, I'll take the heat for it just because I know I'm loud, but you're definitely in there. What?

Don't try to pull me in on your bad takes. I just want to play the game. All right, let's see here. All right, I'm going to really heat it up in the second half. I know this is a bad take, and I can't help it, guys. And I know that there's going to be people that are going to be like, Josh, I'm a little disappointed in you on this one. I, as a gamer, don't care about game controversies.

I just want to play a good game. So all of this garbage with Subnotica, too, guess what I'm going to be playing. I'm going to be playing Subnaica too. All the garbage that went down was Zom Studios with Disco Elysium. And I know I'm aware of the bad things that went down and how crappy that studio treated their people. But you know what I'm also looking forward to? Zero parades for dead spies.

Zero paradise. This guy ate my selfie before. I was waiting for you to say it just so I could say the opposite. cities. I'm excited for zero parades. Like, honestly, and you know why? Because I don't care. Like, it sucks. I care about people. I think it's bad. But when I see a good video game, my reptilian brain goes, ooh, me want good video game. Me play good video game. I think there has to be a balance of how bad.

Like, if someone got hurt or something happened to someone and it was like a big deal, that maybe if it was just financial i don't care about your finances i don't yeah i mean you know obviously there are there are outliers you know we have we have and on this show we even like there's certain games that we don't talk about a whole lot because of the high on life the history of like somebody did something very very bad you know to somebody else and then so that person got in trouble or the studio got in trouble or something like that i am more talking about drama amongst studios and controversy and things like that. So, you know, and I know, listen, listen, if I respect everybody's principles out there, you know,

but when it comes to games, and again, this is a bad take people. I get it. But when it comes to games, if there's a game that looks awesome and I'm like, bro, I want to play that game. I don't care. Give me it. I don't care. I don't care. Like, I mean, we like, dude, somebody made a comment because we were talking about zero parades. And they were like, I can't believe you'd even think about playing this game. Do you know what the studio did? And I just, my response in my head was, yeah, I don't care. I think the game looks good. And I want to play the game.

Yeah. It's fair. It's a bad, bad tag, brother. You're like in Westlow. You can die on that hill. Doesn't look like anything to me. These are bad takes, people. These are the things we understand.

I'm not trying to defend it. I'm just saying, this is a bad take I have. Must have been the wind. Ryan, here, quick. Quick, Ryan, you take the heat. Me? Hot potato. Yeah, quick.

Hot, hot potato. So, oh my gosh, I have so many that would get me pretty roasted, honestly. It can't be worse than what Josh did to himself. I gave a pretty spicy one right there. So this one, I think video game collabs and skins are just money grabs for neckbeards. and crazy people that just want to buy stuff. I think they're so stupid. I think all the skins and all the collabs are the stupidest thing ever.

If you play a game, play the game, you don't need to have all these other crossovers. I don't need, you know, Sigourney Weaver in my Fortnite. I don't need this and that. You know, it's all the stuff is crazy. I think it's dumb. I think it's stupid. And it's just a way to make money off of people who can't help themselves proceed.

I think you're dumb and stupid. I got great skins in Overwatch and Fortnite and they're all things I love. Why would I not want things I care about already in something I care about currently? That's fine. Think of the corpos, Ryan. You know, the suits that need the extra money from people that buy all the cosmetics. Think of those guys. They do a very good job

I'm making them buy them. Their third Lamborghini, right? I know, right? You know what? I'm buying the next Overwatch collab in full now just because of you. I don't even care if I like it or not.

Oh, like you needed us to push you towards that. Like he wasn't going to, like every time they release a new one. I'm buying the near automata collab right now. Like every time Marvel's doesn't have another one. They have never done a collab with anyone. Look who's going in now.

Look at this new skin. I said skins too. Oh, okay. I gave this up. My daughter, you know, she, it's a new age thing, man. It's these Gen Zers for sure. I'm talking to you. Yeah, I'm talking to you, listeners.

You. Yeah. I'm with Ryan on this one. So this is a bad take for both of us. I'm just going to leach onto your bad take. You old man. You old men. I think cosmetics and games are stupid.

Like, I just want to play the game. I don't care what I look like. I get why people like them. I've had this discussion with my daughter a hundred times. And I'm actually going to show her this clip, Brian so that the next time we play Overwatch together, she's going to just troll you. No heels for you. Yeah, exactly.

That's fine. I'm used to it. It's not for me. I get it. But I also don't understand spending real world money on like pixels in a game that you've already paid for kind of thing. I didn't pay for it though. It's free to play.

But your shelves, it wasn't when I bought Overwatch. Your shelves, like you've got like real life stuff right there. So like that I respect and actually is really cool in my mind. but like in-game skins and cosmetics, I'm just kind of like, I don't get it. So I'm with Ryan on that one. So Ace is like, like, how dare I feel attacked right now?

This is every listener listening to this episode. Hey, you wanted something. Everybody. You wanted something spicy. You wanted something spicy after Josh. I think more people will actually agree with you than you realize. But I also want to say like, I sent you guys a list of like the possible

Overwatch collabs that be coming this year. And I was like, I'm going to be broke. I'm so excited. And nobody said anything about. this so I did say I was interested to see what the Eldon Ring collab would look like yeah that would be interesting it looks stupid because it doesn't matter the only thing I don't get here's the here's the craziest part at least in rivals you get to see your skin in overwatch it's first person the only part of the skin you see is like your gun you can

you know it's your buying the skin for everybody else yeah you can even think about that skins. You can emote. You can see yourself when you emoted. All right. All right. All right. It's yours like,

I love skins and collabs and games. You know why? Here comes my hot take. I think extraction shooters are the lamest genre we've gotten in ages when it comes to gaming. Oh. Tell me you can't play a first person shooter without telling me you can't play a first person shooter.

Or a third person shooter. Or a third person shooter. Yeah. Or a third person. Either way. No. No, no, no. We have deprogressed backwards from where we were with gaming, where if you picked up loot, you got to keep the loot.

Now it's like, oh, you died, you lost everything. Start over from World One Mario style. It's BS. Oh, heaven forbid. It's challenging. It's not challenging. Oh, my goodness. You could be the best in the lobby.

Some jack-hay is going to shoot you in the back when you try to extract. Don't get shot in the back. That's... Oh, don't get shot. shot in the back by the guy crouching in the dark. You got the goods. Rats gonna rat. Like rats are gonna rat for sure. Like, no, this is dumb.

This is a dumb. This is a bad take. It's not. It is a bad take. It is an bad take. No, this is a bad take. I'm taking it back. It's not a bad take anymore.

It's an actual factual take. It's a bad take because the reason you don't like it is because it's hard. It's not. It's not easy. Losing all your stuff sucks. No, go play your, cozy game. Go play your cozy game. This is fun men.

At least when I play a rogue like, when I lose all my stuff, I get permanent progression to push me forward. Again, you want you want your handheld the whole way through? We'll put some little markers along the ledges too. I want to feel like I'm actually progressing in the game.

Yeah. No, this is, no, this is, this is ridiculous. This is, I want, I want everything and I don't want to give up anything. If I spend the time, I want to have it all. Like, no, no, you lose it. You lose it. No. No. Yeah. No. It's bad. I think more people are going to agree with Ace on this one. That's fine. Like, I think the majority of gamers don't like extraction shooters, but if you do like it, if you have to be like, it's like perma death mode in a game.

You lose everything. And listen, I get it. I get it. But you, you have to like that you have to like your heart pounding and that like, I hate this game. Yes. I don't want. to die. Hey, hey, what happens when you die in real life? I don't know. I haven't done it yet. Do you get to respawn with your gear? I haven't done it yet. How would I lose? You lose all your stuff. Like, what do you mean? You tell them you've died already? Did not successfully extract. Run complete. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. We hit a lot of those run completes. Oh, my goodness, man. I do think The majority of people will agree with Ace, but if you like that high stakes, high tension,

like you have to hate yourself just a little bit to really appreciate like extraction shooters. Like this is like rust. Like at the same time, like, you have to have like a little teeny bit of like, I don't like something about myself to put myself through this. You know what I mean? I want to feel something. To be able to be like, yes, I love this. Hurt me more, please.

And then it's like, okay, well, we will. And there's no getting around it until you finally go like, this keeps. stupid. I'm on installing. All right. I'll tell you what, let's do one more round here, boys, and then we'll wrap this up. If anybody's still listening to us, they're either very patient or they're like, I found my people. I found my people. All right.

This is going to hurt people, but this is a bad take. I get it. Watching streamers doesn't make any sense to me at all. if I have the time to watch a game, I would rather be playing the game. And so I don't understand this mindset at all. And we stream. Like, we stream together a lot.

And we love our chat. Our numbers. We love our job. But like, I don't get it. I don't get it. I don't know why. Like, why would you rather watch the game than play the game? So that's my bad take, man.

This has been an argument that's been going on on X for like three weeks now. Really? I've not seen this argument. As soon as I get in this algo, it's going to be bad. Oh, it's bad, dude. It's real bad because it's people saying, you know, people who haven't played Resident Evil 9 shouldn't have an opinion on where the franchise goes. Like what Resident Evil is because you're not a real Resident Evil fan because you're just not

playing the games. And that got a lot of people heated. That got things started in a real bad way. And to an extent, I agree that watching people play. games doesn't make sense unless you just enjoy the personality of the person playing the game. Like people watch us for us most time, not just the game. But also I think there's exceptions of games are expensive, man. Not everyone could afford the newest game.

And some people just want to see it. Or they have, you know, disabilities where they can't play it. I think there are exceptions to it. Yeah, I mean, there's always outliers to me. I just, this is a trend that I just don't get, you know. And we are, we are very much by nature, content creators. You know what I mean? So this is not, I'm not trying. I am not. Absolutely not trying to like slam content creators or anything like that. But this like this desire to like I want to

watch people play this game. I just don't it doesn't resonate in me because maybe time is limited. And it's like if I have the time for this, I would rather be playing the game and interacting with it versus watching somebody else. It's also part of my brain goes like, well, that's not what I would have done. I would have gone left instead of right. And then that kind of bothers me because it's like, why did, and then like in my head I'm just getting mad at this person that's playing the game. That's why I can't do Balders Gate 3 multiplayer because I was like, I wanted to make this decision.

I'm the same way. I tried playing it with Matt and I noped out after like the second session because I'm like, I don't think this is good for us, man. You know, like that's not what I would have done here. We're not going to be able to work together anymore. Yeah. So I, you know, I understand like my kids are always watching YouTube videos of people playing games and stuff.

It's a new age thing. And they're like, oh, it's some guy doing this. And I'm like, wouldn't you rather just play it? But they just like, no, because he's doing something cool I wouldn't have thought about, you know, or something like that. And it's like, I just don't get it though. But I'm old. That's my defense.

Have you never like, like what? You can't attack me because I'm old. I'm frail, please. You've never watched anyone play a game? Like just. No. I've seen reels. Like, I've seen reels of like pros doing crazy stuff.

And I'm like, wow, that guy's really good. that's the guy that must have killed me last night marathon, you know, but it's like, but no, I've never, I mean, like 60 seconds, maybe two minutes at most where it's like a snippet of something, but I've never like, for just enjoyment or relaxation, tuned into a streamer and like watch somebody play games. The most I've ever watched was Ace was you, do an R-E-9. Like, I put it on and like, that's the most I've ever watched of somebody, you know, streaming the game. I'll pop into stuff here and there

but the same thing is like my son is always on that like he's always watching somebody play something or do something like that so yeah it's I think it's a it's a younger age it's a generational thing because I grew up watching YouTubers do like you know let's plays and things like that so it's a very it's a thing I'm very used to

I don't do it anymore because I got my own money and I can buy games but that's better Ryan what's your next one? Oh gosh man I got too many good ones to like not get a lot of good ones too i know you shared this one with me as well so you i'm just going to call you out to say that you had the same bad take on the watching streamers thing right yeah yeah oh i had that one for sure yeah yeah i i for sure yeah i for sure on that one um i'm gonna say that i will say to an extent uh player counts do kind of matter oh i don't like you ryan yeah i know you wouldn't like me i don't like you i i i

think this might be your worst take ever if if nobody's playing the game it kind of it kind of matters you know if nobody's playing it like the player count kind of matters you can't sit there and project it and be like whoa look at this look at this look at it you know as as it goes on but it does it's systematically like it matters how many people are playing your game so i think player accounts do matter to an extent Let me ask you a question, Ryan. Yep. You're a game dev.

Okay. You want your game on Steam. 10 bucks. Okay. Right? I buy your game. Let's say that 100,000 people buy your game at $10 a pop. Okay?

You're super excited. And now let's say that two days later, nobody's playing your game. Are you upset? Yeah. But you made the money. You made a ton of money. Well, minus the 30% cut from Steve. But they bought it and they obviously didn't like it if they're still not playing it.

Well, but they didn't return it. They just bought it. Nobody's playing your game three days later. They didn't matter. They're not playing. They're not playing the game. Yeah, but they bought it. You made your money.

If I made a game, I want people playing the game. That's why player count matters. Do player counts matter as much the one like a single player game as they would on a multiplayer? Because I feel like on a multiplayer, it's far more important to have a high player count versus a single player game, which is a wyat upon that. I would say it's much more advantageous for the game for the player count. to be higher on a on a multiplayer than a single player, but player counts matter overall. Like, however many people are buying and playing your game,

if they're playing it, that means it's good. That means it's, it's got longevity. And if they're continuing to play it, that means it's a good game. And so when it dips off and it, you know, to an extent, like, it doesn't matter, but like, there has to be some sort of level where how do you grade this with how many people are playing this game?

that I created. And I think sales and reviews is what matters for a single player game. I don't think player count matters one bit. If you've sold the game and somebody bought it and they left you a good review, then if they wanted to play it two minutes or 200 hours, it doesn't matter at that point. You know, I'll say, I will say this. I get what you're saying. This is like, I have a pet peeve with the player count thing.

You don't say. Because people want to abuse it. Because people want to abuse it and they want to abuse it in the argument that people are rooting. for failure. So I there is a fine line and so I understand what you're saying in your context and because you are not using that player count in context to say oh hey I'm rooting

for this failure of this game. Let me post a player count to try to prove my point. So yes I'm sure to developers and especially for multiplayer games, player count absolutely does matter. Like you as much as I would like to say it doesn't like the facts are it absolutely matters. The more people that are

playing your game, the more interaction that you're going to have, the more chance that people are going to buy some in-game purchase or something like that. I don't like it when people want to use player accounts as like a dis or here's why you shouldn't play this game because look, it's dying, right? And then that's dumb because it's like,

why are you trying to gate keep games from people that might want to play them? And then I think there's only negative that can come about with like, because here's the other problem. Like, there absolutely are people that were posting player accounts for Marathon or or Highguard from when it was 3 a.m. in the morning.

You know what I mean? And then like you're creating this false narrative at that point, which is exactly what the internet does. So I do agree with you that they actually do matter in the right mindset. And when you're looking at data for something, I don't think that gamers should be pointing to player counts when you're trying to like make a point about why a game is dead and nobody should buy this game. This game's garbage. But when a game's great, like the player count is is totally acceptable. Like that's the thing is like when it when it's like, look it on me. people are on this game. Look how many people are playing

it right now. That's when they think League of Legends is great, Ryan? No. See, I don't either. I hate League of Legends, but do you know how many do you know the concurrent player count of League of Legends? It's a lot. It's a lot. Exactly. So like player count doesn't mean a good

game and it doesn't mean a bad game either in my opinion. So, all right, Ace. That's all up to reviews. Bring this home with your last one. All right. I mold this one over a while. I'm trying to pick which one I want to do. I'm just going to go straight into the fire. Indy games are far better for our gaming world than AAA releases will ever be. Hmm.

I think indie games have a far better impact and they are more affordable for more people. And if you look back at last year, you would consider 2025 as one of the possibly best years in gaming in a long time. What was that made of mostly? Indy games. Indie releases, exactly.

That was so hard for justice. It was hard for him. to admit it, but it was so hard for him to say. You know, I don't, listen, indie games have come a long, long way, like a really long way. Here's my problem, Ace. I'm just going to name, I'm going to read you off the top, my top five games of all time. God of War, Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 277, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Eldon Ring. And then we get to Expedition 33.

Look at Indy game. Yeah. So it's like, I love indies. Like there's a reason that we have an indie focused episode each and every week on this podcast because we love our indie doves. I just, oh, man, like, it's hard. When you get that AAA title that just absolutely crushes it, it becomes like a game of all time to me. And it's not often that we, it feels like. But we'll get it. again, they've lost it for a little bit. No, they haven't lost anything. No, they haven't lost anything. This is, this is the stupid, this is, this is so dumb, because this is not, there's, they haven't lost anything. I love it. We're on each other. Oh, no, this is bull crap. No, they haven't lost anything. No, no, no, no, this is ridiculous because, uh, like, this is like, uh, uh, lost it. No, this is like college, college sports trying to go against, like, professional sports.

It's like, whoa, hold on. No, hold on. No. Hold on. Like, look at the, like, the, the, the, the energy. And, and you, you have to come up with all these other different reasons why it's so good, other than just, like, the base reason why a game is good. Like, if a game is good, its game is good. AAA game, they, they make them for a reason. They make them the way they make them.

And most of the time, they're pretty dang spot on and they're pretty solid. Indies, the hit mark is a lot less. Man, it is a lot less. You don't hear about the Indies that fail. You hear about the AAA titles that fail. Exactly. Exactly. So it's a bad take, Ace.

You got a horrible take. I don't want to admit that that's the best bad take ever. But I love me some AAA titles, but I also love me some indie titles. I mean, just thinking back to last year alone. Better than AAA. You're calling in one year. One year! That's, I mean,

one year of 40. It is the most recent year. It is the most recent year to look back on. And I mean, this year we've got. And I mean, this year we've got Slay the Spire. We've got replaced come in. We've got, I mean, it could be.

Zero parades. Esoteric eb did crazy numbers. Yeah, that's doing fantastic. So maybe. I don't know. You guys are stupider than I thought. Reanimal. We've got Reanimal.

And yeah, reanimal is real good. Dang it. Yeah. Not so bad after all, huh? All right, well, listen, it's time to end this episode, everybody. We don't like it when Ace is right. He's not right. That's a bad take.

That's a bad take. Thank you for joining us. Listen, don't hate us. These are all meant to be taken with a little bit of humor, everybody. You know, there's a reason we did this episode. Let us know. Again, it's safe in the comments, okay? But if we can do it, you can do it.

We want to know what your bad gaming take is. Don't come in with anything soft, okay? Like, that's not a bad take at that point. But let us know what your bad gaming takes are in the comments. Don't forget to follow the podcast. Hit that plus button, that follow button so you get our shows the day that they release and you don't fall behind. Nobody wants a backlog.

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Peace out.