Video Gamers Podcast - Why We Love Gaming – Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: May 25, 2026

Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan, and Ace are getting personal as they dive into why they love gaming and why it has become such an important part of their lives. From unforgettable memories and lifelong friendships to epic adventures and the joy of discovering new worlds, we share what keeps us coming back to gaming year after year. If you’ve ever wondered why video games mean so much to so many people, this episode is for you. Join us for a heartfelt conversation about the power of gaming, the impact of video games, and why this hobby is so much more than just entertainment on the Video Gamers Podcast!   Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps and NorwegianGreaser, Dettmarp and Night Wizard63   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. Why do you love video games? Is it the incredible stories told? Is it the fantastic lands and larger-than-life characters? Is it escaping into an incredible fantasy world for a few hours? Or the shared experiences with friends? For everyone, it might be something a little different, and yet we all love them for many of the same reasons.

today's episode, we're diving into the magic of gaming and why it resonates with so many people. But first, some introductions are in order. I am your host, Josh, and joining me, he loves gaming, but he also loves bowling, and motorcycles, and ice hockey, and MMA, and golf, and smoking meats, and paintball, and, and, uh, You get the idea. It's Ryan. I want to say that that's like the most accurate intro you've ever done for me. I could have kept going.

That was, yeah, you absolutely could have kept going. Because I was at Bowling League this morning and then I've, I'm smoking a Chuck roast right now. So like there's a lot going on. I have a lot of hobbies and there's a lot of things I like to do. But video games is up there near the top. I'll tell you that much right now. Yeah. Yeah, it's a good thing you do a gaming podcast right.

Right. All right. So it works to do that. And I might have promised this, you know, there was a little bit of this next intro where for a second I felt a little guilty about this intro. But then, you know, he kind of asked for this in the pre-show too. So. And joining us. He loves gaming too.

And anime. And Little Caesars. Oh, no. And Krispy Kree. Oh, no. And Dunds. Dunkin' Donuts and Bojangles Chicken and bagel bites and Mountain Dew and, well, you get the point to. It's ace.

Hell hath no fury like a host scorned. Sometimes I just go like, the power is mine. The power is mine. And then I'm like, oh, oh, you want to troll me offline? Well, guess what? It's coming out of the intros, boys. But is he wrong? Is he wrong?

No, he's not wrong. Is he wrong? I think I pretty much had all of that stuff within like the last week or two. It's still in his digestive system right now. Hey, tell us what you had in between, because we do record our episodes kind of back to back. And we took a little just two minute break in between recordings. Ace, what did you have during your break that we had? I might have had a bomb pop.

You know? What, did you really? Dude, no way. Did you really? Okay, hold on. A whole bomb pop. Dude, that's a whole... Oh, wait, wait.

And then Ace tried to explain to me what a bomb pop was. I didn't know if you know what a bomb pop is. And I was there when they invented the bomb pop. You can't tell me what a bomb pop is. And that's why you'll have matching graves. I was like, dude, I was ordering bomb pops from the ice cream man when I was four years old, Ace.

Josh was there at the origination of that bomb pop. You were there when they made the recipe. Yeah, I was there when they put a gumball in it, man. You know? When the colors changed. Oh my gosh. That's so funny. So I can't.

I'm still, I'm still blown away that Ace ate a bomb pop in between. I got up and ate a bomb pop. A bomb pop would put me in a like a sugar coma for sure. I also had like two cookies. Whoa. Ace is, Ace has like,

okay. The Ace is going to need to get like some medical procedure done and they're going to go to draw blood. they're going to be like, sir, you just have syrup. There's just syrup in your name. It's going to harden in the IV. Ace is bizarreo Wilford Brimley, for sure. Yeah.

He's like the bizarre world, Wilford Brimley. Like, he's just, diabetes, never heard of her. Yeah. I've got a jar. He's heard the term blood sugar and thought that, like, that was a command. That's the goal, man. That's the goal, blood sugar. Yeah, no, I have a jar of Oreos on my dinner table, and there are bomb pop

flavored Oreos. so I had a pump pop and two pomp pop op orions? Yeah, they're weird. What are we doing, people? What are we doing here? Just because you can make something doesn't mean you should. No, what a time to be alive, man. Yeah, yeah.

The things we can do with science. Right. The things we can do with science. Fit cancer. No, no, no, no big deal. That's to be pompop orio. Yeah. Oh, goodness, man.

Dude, at work, the, the, we were talking about cookies at work one time. And so we were arguing over whether chewy Chooey Chips Ahoey were better than the original Chips Ahoey, right? This is an argument that's been had before. Yep, yep, yeah. And so then they figured out that if you sandwich a regular crunchy chips a hoy with two of the chewy chips a hoi that it's just perfection at that point. So then people were just going around eating these Chips Ahoi like sandwiches. And I'm like, this is really just an excuse for you to eat three cookies at once, you know? And they were like, yeah.

And I was like, oh my gosh. Like, I don't know. Everybody dies at some point, right? I guess why not. Everybody dies. All right. Everybody dies. We've gotten off the rails already, but welcome in everybody to the video gamers podcast.

Guys, this is going to be a fun episode, man, because we, you know, we have, we have met a lot of awesome people through this podcast, dude. We have a community of over 1,300 gamers. It's very active. There's people from all over the world in our Discord servers. So shout out to all of our European friends. And, you know, we've got people from Asia, Australia. I mean, all over the globes that we get to talk to and interact with. And it's one of these things where no matter where you live, no matter who you are, if you love playing video games, we all share that same passion for games.

But everybody likes games for slightly different reasons at the same time. And that to me is like the really interesting part of gaming is like, you know, everybody knows I'm not a cozy game. gamer. My wife is a cozy gamer. Like, we could not be more opposite in our gaming takes. And yet, we're both gamers, man. And that to me is the part that I absolutely love about gaming is it doesn't matter the kind of games you like. If you enjoy the hobby or the passion of gaming, that's what unites us all. That's why we do this podcast. You know what I mean? That's why we have the community that we have and we thought it would just be really fun to just talk the passion of gaming for a little bit. So that's what this episode is, people. We're going to be talking about

what resonates with us, why we love gaming, the types of games that we enjoy, why we like those kind of games. You know, we are three very different gamers, even in this little group of people. And yet somehow we, you know, we get along and we can, we can pick on each other. We find games that we have common ground with, but then we definitely separate and go kind of play our own games from time to time as well. So this should be a really fun episode for people. And we want to hear from you as well. You can join our Discord server. You can leave us a comment on this episode, but we want to know what about gaming resonates with everybody out there as well. So Ryan, as the guy that doesn't have as much time for gaming lately as maybe Ace and I do,

what like give it give us something you love about gaming man what is it that keeps you going back to it what is it that got you to be such a nerd and join a gaming podcast of all things uh gosh for me and then this kind of holds true with like just even even us last night is uh playing with friends and this this ties back into like kind of OG gaming with couch co-op and stuff like that but the ability to play a game with your buddies, your companions, your friends, like whether you're sitting next to them or they're a million miles away, and you can sit and have an amazing time and react to what you did and what you experienced. And you all had that same, you know, kind of like trial and tribulations.

And you went through that match. and it went well or it went really, really bad, you know? Like, you guys all experience that together. And so gaming in a world, like, as one and being able to be together and play together is something that is one of the biggest things that I absolutely love about just gaming as a whole, is being able to be with friends and companions that I know or I don't know. And I can make friends instantly or not, you know, We learned this on a Rust server with all of our people that joined up.

Like we can make friends or we can't. Like our enemies. Like, like, like, like, exactly. So like,

there's, there's so much you can do within the gaming world where it's just, it's, it's another, it's another universe, man. And there's nothing like it. And the ability to do that with people that you've never,

ever met once in your life, but you can kind of genuinely feel that they're friends. or even family, like, that's, that's, there's something to that. So, uh, the ability to play with friends and, and play across the universe, you know, is, is one of my big, big time things. Yeah, for sure, dude. Having those shared experiences with people, even it's like people you've never met physically, like you have connection with them. And, you know, when you're losing, you're still having fun because you have people who are with yours like, yeah, we're struggling, but we're struggling together. Yeah.

Dude, I, you know, it's funny too because with the dawn of the internet, you know, I'm older. So it was like I was around when the internet came into being. And, you know, I remember playing Pong on my dad's TRS-D computer and I could play against my brother. And I remember thinking that was like the coolest thing. And then we got an Atari, you know, and then it was like, wait a minute, we can play some games together because there's two player games and we each had a joystick. And then it was like, oh my gosh, like this is incredible. And then he'd get mad if I won. then we'd get in fights and stuff like that, like brothers do. But then, you know, but then we have the dawn of consoles and land parties and then multiplayer games. And, you know, like you said, Ryan, we were all playing Overwatch last night.

We had six people playing, which was an absolute blast. Yep. Like, for me, the camaraderie of gaming is one of my favorite things. You know, we, we, this podcast literally started off as the multiplayer gaming podcast. Like, so those that are the OGs, remember way, way back in the day, we started. We started as a multiplayer gaming podcast because that was our focus was the fun that you can have with other people playing games. And that shared experience to me is unlike anything else. Like, you know, I equated to like, you know, you guys remember being in the movie theater and watching like end game when all of the guys come through the portals, right?

Like any movie, right, where it's like when the crowd reacts and everybody is like, or they start just cheering. That feeling of being united in this awesome moment is infectious to everybody. And yet we get that all the time with gaming. You know what I mean? Where it's like Remnant 2, one of my favorite games because it's a co-op game. I talk about Outwriters all the time playing that with Paul and Andy because, again, it was a co-op game where it was, you know, we beat some boss by the skin of our teeth or, you know, we beat a team in Overwatch last night or, you know, any of these things, right? whether it's competition or co-op, that ability to play with other people

or against other people is absolutely what draws me into gaming. It is one of my favorite aspects of gaming. It is why I love co-op games so much. And it just is, it is to me the thing that resonates almost more than anything else. And we have always said, like, a game can be amazing, but if you have the option to play with somebody else,

it's even more amazing. You know what I mean? And that's like that's one of those things where it's just like, dude, I freaking love it. That to me is what draws me to gaming so much is that ability to share it with other people. Having like an audience there when you're popping off

or when you're doing really bad is really funny. Like last night. Oh, yeah, dude. Like you said, we were playing Overwatch and I boop this ERISA off of the ledge. Oh, right? I'm so glad I got it. to witness that, you know what I mean?

We were all just dying laughing because we did not think that was going to happen. I push her and she just goes over the barrier for no reason. I turn left and I'm looking at you guys and then she looked like Wiley Coyote and just went and then just dropped. And I was like, oh my God. You're like, I just pooped her off. I just booped her off. It was, yeah, it's the ability to play with each other.

And like I recently, I just drove by an old, uh, Cyber Cafe, Internet Cafe that I used to play at, Cyberzone, it's out of business. And it's like, it broke my heart because I'm like, man, like being able to sit with all your friends and just play games together, you know, like, it was, it was, there was something different. So, man, just the camaraderie of doing that, like, yeah, you can go play football, but playing football by yourself is kind of boring, you know, like, like, whatever it may be. Like, that's obviously not the best example, but, you know, anything you can do.

It's always better with friends. And gaming is an amazing example of what is better with friends. There's marriages that's created by gaming. There's relationships. There's all these kinds of things. So, yeah, that's the number one for me. The other thing, too, is we all have memories of those, like, you know, being in high school, playing golden eye or whatever game. You know, however old you were when you were at this certain stage in life and you were playing these games with these friends.

I was really big into EverQuest. I'm sure people that played World of Warcraft can remember their World of Warcraft buddies. And these are people that you may have never met in real life. But I still to this day, and it has been a minute since I played EverQuest. But it's like I still remember some of those people that I played with all the time. You know, like run for it be. Like I remember the character name like Anya, Colin, you know, Slee Stack.

Like some of these people that were just part of my guild or part of my server that like I spent like, I spent time with these people, dude. And it's like, I don't know who the heck these people are. You know, I don't know what they do in the real life. And it doesn't matter because it's like, it's that shared experience that we had in the game world and the memories that we had. That's the part that we remember and we take away and, you know, that sort of stuff. So I'm with you, Ryan. The camaraderie in gaming is absolutely one of the things that I love about it.

Ace, what about you, man? What's something that just absolutely draws you into gaming over and over? I think it's the escapeism. Being able to sort of immerse yourself into a well-crafted world or a well-written character and just kind of lose yourself in that. We've a pretty stressful world every now and then that we live in. It's just nice to be able to put your headphones on, sit down at your desk or on your couch or wherever you are, and just immerse yourself in a completely different world

with completely different problems than yours that can be solved by hitting things with a sword most of the time, right? That's right. It feels better. Something about escapism, man. It just hits. Dude, that's all my, so escapeism for me, I think, is also, I'm going to say everything, like the number one thing I love about it.

Yeah, right. Everyone's the number one. That's number one. You know, I, this is a weird thing for me because I get, if you have a tough life, you know, or you work a really stressful job or maybe you don't have the best, you know, marriage or something like that, right? Like I get like the I need something to escape to like I love my life dude like I'm very thankful for it. But yet at the same time like that escapeism for me is something that I crave like I don't want to say all the time.

But like I've always loved reading right. But like I read fantasy novels and sci-fi novels because I like that idea of these alternate worlds existing. You know and this high fantasy and magic and dragons and stuff like that. And then it's like, I love video games because it lets me just tune out the world for a while. Right. And it's like, we call it escapism, which sometimes like makes it sound like you're trying to escape from something bad. But that's not always the case, right? So it's like, you know, I don't think it's always.

Exactly. It's that immersion into something else for me. Escapeism is the right term, but I just want to kind of make it clear that it's like, you know, not everybody is trying to escape a bad situation. kind of thing. It is just this, I want to get immersed into something else. And I freaking love the escapism part of gaming, dude. You know, playing a game, Eldon Ring and just living in that world for a while, even if it's not the best world. Like, Elder Ring's not a pleasant place. You know, but just that, like, being able to sit down and just immerse yourself in this world for a little while is incredible, dude. You know, I mean, name any of the top games, you know, Red Dead

Redemption too. Feeling like I'm a cowboy living in the 1800s. Yeah. Riding my horse across the plains is amazing to me. You know, and so that escapism is absolutely incredible to be able to do. And Ryan, I know like for you with, you know, how much you work and stuff like that, it's like, dude, sometimes just sitting down and being able to just tune all of that out and then just be able to like, I call it relaxing because it's like that is the, that's my way of relaxing. Oh, yeah.

I mean, a more recent example I think Ryan would agree with is Karen. Karen was one of those games. Oh. Dersing yourself in and just even though it wasn't a great environment to be in, you're just like, this is so good. Like, I just want to be here right now. And with people that know me, like, know that I probably may or may not have looked up climbing equipment after that.

You're looking out of climbing. You're sending us links. signed up to a climbing gym. He's like, guys, you guys want to go climbing? I got a guest pass. Guys want to go? Let's go. I don't know how you played that game, saw her fall that many times.

They were still like, yeah, I want to do this. It wouldn't be me, obviously. Dude, I could do it. I'm not going to fall. I actually like going to, like, the rock climbing gym. I've probably been a dozen times in my life. Oh, it's a blast. Rock climbing's hard.

It's hard, dude. It's rough on them on your fingertips. Oh, yeah. It's tough. All right, I'll tell you what. Speaking of escapism, we're going to take a quick break, and then we're going to come right back and talk about some more of why we love gaming.

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Wayfair, every style, every home. All right, we're back. Guys, I know not everybody is like this. in fact you probably shouldn't be like me in a lot of ways but one of the things that I love about gaming is freaking competition boys I don't look look I don't know what it is about me that makes me want to make everything a competition

I don't know what it is dude it's just a personality trait but like if I can turn something into a competition like ace planking for two minutes guess what we're going to do we're going to put it we're going to make it a competition competition. You know what I mean? Like, and that competitive nature in games is something that absolutely time and time and time again draws me into them. Because like, look, I love a good story game, dude. You know, give me an amazing story and I'm in, right? And that ties into the part of escapism that I love. But bro, give me the chance to just wreck somebody else in a game.

And I will jump on it every single time. It doesn't mean I'm always going to win because like I'm not that great. I'm not saying like I'm that good of a gamer, but there is absolutely something that drives me to want to be better when I find a game that I like and when you give me a game that involves competition like Rocket League for instance. Like dude, my two most played games in the world are Rocket League and Overwatch, both are which are competitive games. And like that competitive nature, that ability to go up against another human in a hobby that I love just

draws me in over and over and over again. It's also the source of frustration a lot of times for me. So like, I love joking that I get aggravated at Overwatch. Overwatch Josh is a different breed. But that's why? Because I'm competitive, dude. And it's like, look,

I don't want to lose because somebody else was going AFK or wanted to throw a match or just didn't even understand like, you know what I mean? Like I always say it's okay to be bad. It's not okay to be stupid, right? Like it's, and that's literally like Ryan's laughing. Dang it, I should have said that out loud.

I shouldn't have given that away. I just realized that. But that might be something that I say a lot of times is listen, it's okay if you're bad at a game. Just don't be stupid at a game. But I mean that in relation to like the competitive side of things, right? Like, you know, come on, man. If you're playing Rocket League, like no to.

rotate, you know what I mean? Like, that's a basic game thing. If you're playing Overwatch, like, the healer should be healing. I was going to say, Ryan, you should be doing a ton of damage. You missed it, but there was an honor just before you joined that was in our group that just had like a thousand healing. And Josh was like, you should heal if you're on support. And she just kept going, yeah. Yeah.

But like, see, that's my, that's my competitive side. Right? Because it's like, I'm here to win. She did not care. Like, winning feels good to me. She's like, I know a lot of people. like playing games because it's fun, right? And it's like, yes, but you know what's fun is winning. Winning is fun. I think I really like winning these games. And so for me, like, that's fun.

Let me just pull up our match history from last night. Oh, don't do that. Don't do it. Nobody wants to see that. And I know, listen, I know for a lot of people, Nexivis, shout out to Nexivis, long time listener. Nexivis shares my competitive nature. And I know like he will jump into a game. And it's like, bro, I have to be good at this game. And he's hard for you. And he will lock in. He will lock in until he's good. And that nature and that ability to be competitive is something about gaming that I know a lot of people resonate with. And I know puts off a lot of people. Like my wife would never, never. Like, dude, if I was like, okay, baby, look, you're going to go up against this person. She'd be like, nope, I'm out.

I don't want to have to do that. You know, and it's like, I get it. But for me, give me that competition. Yeah, you're much more confident. You can't laugh at me, dude. I'm totally competitive too, but like you, you're at different level, man. You're, you are the next level for sure. I don't know why.

Ryan likes to run into the enemy team with no backup. Yeah. That's true. I'm here for a good time, man. I can take them all. I like to think that Ryan's just really like a mega optimist, and he's like, I bet I could take all five of these guys by myself. I can one three five. Is that one.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's what it is for sure. Yeah. I'll just use my old that they won't get away from, surely. Oh, man. All right, Ryan, what about you? What's something else that draws you in, man?

Gosh. So as we learned very early in my tenure here with this podcast, I am maybe sold by cinematics, atmosphere, music. Redfall got me way, way back in the day. But one of the biggest things for games with me is the music and the atmosphere. I am immediately sold by something that makes me feel something draws me in. Music is such a big thing to the world, but like within gaming, when it ties into the cinematics and the atmosphere of these worlds where you have this crazy situation that

otherwise you would never experience and it's something new to you. having something that is so unique, but it's drawn in and it's tied in with amazing, amazing music and like, just all of it when it goes together, that's what really hits for me, and that's what makes me want to play games. Is, you know,

we covered it in our intro series, you know, that we did. So the atmosphere and the music of gaming is one that's a big time. Is it safe to say like just the art of gaming? because like, I guess, yeah, that would be a good, that would be a good call. Like the art that would encompass kind of everything that encapsulates a game, like, and what it, what it means to people and what it is. You're like, when you say music, the first thing that came to my mind was Assassin's Creed, hearing the ETSO's family tune for the very first time.

Oh, yeah. That's a good one, dude. ...to the world of Assassin's Creed where it's like, oh, oh, this is cool. It's one of those... It's so cool. Yeah, it's like anything like that that just draws you into the world where you're not thinking about anything else but what you're doing. And that's rare, especially in this day and age where we're so drawn to everything else that's going on. We have every million different, you know, notifications and everything going on to have something that can just sink you in and you're able to just play it.

And it draws you into that only thing. like that's that's something different and so I love I love when when a game has the music and the audio that you know in the atmosphere that that kind of brings you into it and that's that kind of envelops you I think you would agree with this one Josh but like the banjo and outer wilds when you're just oh yeah dude oh I hear that in my sleep you just hear that all the time yeah it's so iconic and it just brings you into the world of outer wilds well and and that's why I was asking of if it's the art for this because, you know, there are many a time where we watch a trailer and we're blown away by something, you know what I mean? And it's like, for me, I look at game developers as artists a lot of times. And this is one reason that we love indie so much, right? Is because, you know, hey, I love me, my pretty graphics and the awesome music and stuff, too. But, like, you know, Eternal Life of Goldman.

I'll use that as an example, right? You know, we've all played a jillion platformers in our day. but the Eternal Life of Goldman, that art style and the music and the whimsy in that game stands out to me hands down. Right? Like hands down. Such a good one. Yeah. Right.

And it's like, you know, whether you want some futuristic sci-fi game that just knocks your socks off with how cool it makes space and these spaceships look or something like that, that ability to create art for people and how they envision these, the look and the style of their game and how it goes with like the music, right? like the score and things like that to become this total package. That's why I said, is it more like the art of the game to where a game presents itself and you know right away like, oh, look at this. Look at the way this game looks or look at the way this game sounds. And that to me is a huge draw because it is an art form in my opinion at that point. You know, think of Halo.

Not only that. Right. Yeah. Like, dude, like you're, you go in and you're just like, like, well, like a monks in a video game. like the monk like singing and you're, but, but it works.

It works. It works, dude. And like that's what, that's what it is. It's like whatever, whatever makes you feel something. And then like the,

the games that do really, really do. Man, you were talking about indies. I was thinking about Mugenics. Mugenics is the only game that looks and sounds like Mugenics. Yeah,

that's fair. Like, it's weird. And it, you may not like that style, but it is super unique. And that is credit to, to him.

You know what I mean? Yeah. developer on that one. I mean, we see games like Scorn and some of these really, really weird ones. We're getting some of these horror, these Eldridge horror type games and stuff too. Ace, we were talking about Ultros as a game that you think that I should play at some point. And it's like, I've never played Ultros in my life, but I knew exactly the game you were talking about because of the art style in that game and that's memorable and it stands out. And then to think about the creativeness that goes behind that is really impressive to me.

And I'm with you, Ryan. It's something that I absolutely love about gaming is that we get so many different takes and that visual and audio style from developers, man. It's incredible. Ace, what's something for you, man? You got something else that draws you in? It piggybacks a little bit off of what Ryan said, but variety. I love variety in gaming.

There's so many genres. There's something for the casual. There's something for the competitive. there's something for someone who's never touched a video game in their life, there's a game out there for them. And that's something I just love. I love that there's so many indies that I could recommend to people based off like one game they've played. Like somebody would be like, hey, I've only played dredge, here's this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this.

Like, yeah. It's amazing that there's that much variety in video gaming that we can just share experiences that are similar because it's never going to be quite the same, but it might just be what you're looking for. Dude, the crazy part to me is, you know, we all have the genres that we love, but there are a lot of people that have not experienced a lot of genres. Right. I'm going to use you as an example here before you joined the podcast, you didn't play any rogue-like games. No roguelikes. You know what I mean?

And then we got you into rogue likes, and now you're like, bro, I love me. These are pretty sweet. I kind of like it. Yeah, exactly. Pretty good. And it's like, I, you know, famously, you know, people picked me to play dokey-doki-doki literature. Club and it was supposed to be a troll, right? I don't play these kind of games, dude.

But like, I wound up freaking loving that game. You know, like, I love the experience on that, you know, and it's like the fact that there are such a wide variety of experiences out there, you know, sometimes you'll learn what you don't like. Like, I'm not a cozy gamer, but you know what? There's probably a cozy game out there that I actually would enjoy if I played it at, like, the right time and it was the right kind of cozy game for me. So I'm with you, Ace.

that ability to go, what am I in the mood for? Right? Like, do I want, do I want sweaty, fast, competitive shooter? Do I want deep, like, you know, emotional story? Do I want just pure gameplay, you know, rogue-like type thing? You know, do I want puzzles? Do I feel like using my brain and figuring things out? Like, there's puzzle games. The amount of genres that exist in gaming are absolutely one of the things that I love about it. And the crazy part is, guys, people are keep inventing genres. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. We didn't have Battle Royals 10 years ago. You know what I mean?

Now, Battle Royals are kind of dying now, but guess what didn't exist a decade ago? Something else to come out. Like, yeah, the ability to go play you can go play Polkotopia and then you can go play Arc Raiders. Like, depending on what you want, like, you're going to

get, you know, whatever you want. Like, it's, it is the, the variability between everything you're able to pick through is awesome within games. Yeah. Spoil for choice. I'll make this brief, but for me, story, I love.

And this, you know, a lot of these tie in together, right? Like story is part of the escapism as part of the, you know, camaraderie if you're sharing that story with friends in a playthrough or something like that. But I love movies. Movies, I love them. You know, I'll sit down and watch movies a couple times a week, you know, depending on how busy life and stuff like that, there is no movie in the world

that compares to the immersion of a video game to me, though. Being a part of that story is unlike anything, like no movie, and I'm not saying that there's not some phenomenal movies out there, right? But it's like,

but that ability to get immersed and have a say in what happens in that story and to be an active participant in that story versus just a watcher makes all the difference in the world to me. Like when you take games with an incredible story like Red Dead 2, God of War, CyberP, I mean, if you go look at my top 10 and you're going to see how much I love a good story-based game. As much as I like sweaty competition and shooters and that kind of stuff,

my top 10 games, my top five really are all incredible story-based games that I can, they're unforgettable to me. And to be able to be a part of that story and not just watch it unfold is what sets it apart. for me, and it's why gaming is my number one hobby in the world, because it's like, you don't get that anywhere else. And you can get pieces of it, like I said, a great movie is phenomenal,

but a great game that has a story is better than the best movie in my opinion. Oh, you have, I mean, how many Harry Potter's do you have, like, there's like eight movies or whatever, but playing Hogwarts legacy. Yes. And being in the forbidden forest

yep, surpasses all of the movies. Like, and as much as I, I am the, I watch Harry Potter movies probably twice a week, three times a week. It's a go-to-bed movie for me. But, uh, but like being able to just fly through the world, uh, travel through, uh, you know, the Forbidden Forest or go through, uh, you know, anything else. Like it's, there's nothing like it. And yeah, it's, it's something different for sure.

Well, every attempt they have made to capture Resident Evil onto a film has failed because nothing feels like being leaving. beyond in Raccoon City. Dude, nothing has that feeling. Yeah. Yeah, you can't get that vibe anymore. Yeah. Yeah.

It's like Outlast. It would not be scary as a movie. Oh, dude. Yeah. Horror games, horror games are on a different level, man, when you're in it and you're like the one that's running for your life, dude. Yeah.

I don't want to see Outlast trials as a movie. No, not at all. So, all, listen, we're running the one time. Is there anything else about you guys want to bring up something you love about it or think is worth mentioning? I got one. So hype before releases. Oh yeah.

Like game hype like this one for me. Yeah. Like coming up to launch day is it's such a cool thing. Especially like for us, we have an amazing Discord. 1,300 plus people, blah, blah, blah. Shield for the Discord. But you should join if you have it. But anyways, when a really good game is coming out,

you can see all of our members start to really chatter starts kind of building. up and it starts going and then and then when it gets closer and closer it's getting more and more and so the hype before release is is my number uh well not my number one but like i i just i love it so much not you too i have a million number ones but like the hype before the release is it's so good getting getting excited um anticipation like the fomo of of wanting to get in wanting to see what other people are reacting for it, like how they respond to it. All of those things are big time for me within like the gaming world. I love it.

I love to see new things come out and people get excited for them. And so the hype of a game coming out is is up there for me. Thank you. Bro. Double clicking that icon on your desktop for the first time, dude. Yeah. When you got a brand new game that you're so excited for, that little click and then waiting for that splash.

screen to pop up. Loading shaders. There's no feeling like that, dude. Yeah. I think for me, it's getting better at a game. Like, actively seeing your progression. Your progression, you're like personal progression. Because when I started in Overwatch, I was terrible.

Absolutely awful at the Overwatch. I can do it. No. No, I was the worst. All right? I can look back and see my stats and see they were not good. Now I think I keep up pretty good. But seeing your own personal progression and seeing you get better.

at a game you're playing with friends or by yourself, it just feels good. It's a great aspect of gaming that you can get better. It's, dude, that challenge, that overcoming a challenge drives me like nothing else, dude,

this is one reason, like I love Eldon Ring so much, right? Is that like that boss fight that you have to fight like 20, 30 times, beating Molinaa, it, like, that's like unlike any other feeling. You know what I mean?

Beating the game. Beating Bloodborne, beating Liza Pee. Like all those just felt so good to overcome the bosses, because it's a real challenge against, you. Yep. And I love that. I mean, you guys know I say I love progression in games all the time, but that feeling of progressing in something and getting better and learning it and that kind of stuff just absolutely draws me in. Last one for me, I'm just saying just the joy, dude.

You know, like I games, games make me laugh, dude. They crack us up. We have moments together where we are all just dying and falling out kind of thing. The socialization brings me joy, you know, being in a voice channel with with a bunch of people and talking together and, and, you know, commenting and hyping people up and talking trash, you know, even your kids. Oh, yeah. You're getting to play with your kids. Yeah.

Getting to play with my kids. You know what I mean? That celebration talking about like beating a tough boss, that fist pump moment of joy where you're just like, heck yeah, freaking, yeah, got you, man. Got you, you know? Like that's just like that endorphin rush just feels so good, dude. Like you said, Ryan, getting super hyped about a game and then having it be awesome. You know, we won't talk about the ones that are disappointing because that's,

the opposite feeling of joy. But yeah, dude, like, there's so much of that that goes into gaming that just brings me happiness and those, that laughter and that joy is, it's just, like I said, there's nothing else like it, man. So, all right, listen, that is going to do it for this episode, everybody. We want to know what you love about gaming. What is it about gaming that resonates with you? Why is it your favorite hobby? You're listening to a gaming podcast right now. So obviously you are just as passionate about it as we are.

And we want to know what it is that keeps you coming back time and time again and why you love this hobby so much. Leave us a comment on this episode. Join our Discord server. If you're not already in it, let's talk about it. Because, man, this is something that we all just share this love of and we're passionate about. And we love hearing from other people why you are passionate about it as well. So join our Discord. Let's chat about it.

Leave us a comment. let us know what keeps you coming back time and time again. That's going to do it for this episode, everybody. Until next time, happy gaming. See ya. Peace out.