[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One of the things that struck me as I'm playing is like how much I'm learning. Obviously you have a huge passion for history. What's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What's important to you to get across? Is it that you are imparting knowledge? Is it about being accurate? Is it about, you know, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sharing knowledge in a way that's easy to understand for a bunch of people who might not necessarily, uh, learn about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, when you hear the writing and if someone's angry or they're agitated, it's a good thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Touches, and uhm, one of the things I really enjoy as well is like the meals, because I assume they would also be a huge part of someone's day, you're meeting someone, and so where did that come up to become such a core part of the game as well?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's still malleable enough that you can, I feel like I've definitely left my own imprint on Android as I'm playing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A sad realization I had the other day. Uhm, I was gonna ask, uhm, because I don't, I don't feel like I see a lot of depiction of religion in games and obviously, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The brothers and, um, the Abbot and the nuns are, play such a huge, a huge part. And like you said, they kind of dictate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The times of the day in the game, uhm, what was your approach to including religion?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Looking back over your career, you've obviously, you've worked on so many of these like kind of huge sprawling games and you've taken on the role of like narrative and narrative director in a lot of those.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where do you, what do you keep getting the ideas from? Does it come from the world or is it just things you've read? Uhm, how do you keep, you know, making these huge, huge games, all these characters?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But also imparting knowledge, you know, obviously you stream, YouTube channel, is that also gonna continue to be an important part of what you do?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, Kejima has a podcast. You could have a podcast series. Ralph listens. Have you been, you still listen?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All right, we're all back now. I can't wait to watch that one back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I'll bet. Uh, alright, let's go through, uh, the major game releases, uh, for the past two weeks. Who wants to take it?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm excited, ooh, excuse me for the hiccup, I'm excited for that one because it's like the H.H. Holmes inspired one with like the, all that shit going on, so I'm stoked for that one. Uhm, thank you, Jake.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so I'm okay to wait on that one. Actually, you know how I was saying I haven't played Plague Tale?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kinda glad I held back on that one, so maybe some of it will be something similar.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jake, you and I, and actually Rob, you've played a little bit too, we've been playing Pentament, which-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Things that are impacting the characters within the world, but I think what really makes it special is that Andreas, uh, is, uh, who is the artist who you play as.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's very much in like this turning point part of his life where he is on this adventure to kind of find out who he is to become the master of his craft, which is uhm...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, he's working in the scriptorium in this abbey and, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He doesn't want to go home because he doesn't want to settle down. He doesn't want to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Grow up essentially, so he's kind of in that state of Arrested Development and then gets stuck right in the middle of this big, at least in Act 1, this murder mystery. And so...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's the thing that I really like is that the mystery itself is compelling. The world is incredibly compelling and like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's this weird little Venn diagram of things that I'm interested in, so I studied German and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The killer or whoever is leaving notes in German and so I am not-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Deliberately going, hitting, hitting A on the D on the, on my controller because I'm like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, I think that's the past version of this verb, I will get that, you know, and it's like, I...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bizarre interest in the church, I really enjoy mysteries and, uh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a part in Act Two, and this is not really a spoiler, but you can say


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you know, give him a little bit more backstory and so I of course said that he went to England and he went to London and that's kind of then pep it in so you kind of get this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Character who's learning about himself and you have an impact and a hand in that and I really enjoy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The different acts as well have so many different things and like, things happen to that town, in that town.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That are just so interesting and I can't wait for you guys to get to certain points because I was texting Jake Decker about it, uh, Jake 2, and I was like, did you know you could do this? And he was like, no? There is some bits where I have


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Shamed the church. I am, ehm, like, I was, I was doing some bits where I was like, oh, the abbot is not going to like this. And you know, when, to Josh's point when we were talking to him, he was like, when you are making decisions in a game that you are actually anguished over and that will stick with you, I think that's really something special.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let alone the fact that this was a big passion project and it is as unique as it is and I'm super stoked and I hope more people play it. It's a great gig.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, a lot about what you don't say, and so I've been com- I've been getting really good at that, but I think as well there are some points.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, Josh even mentioned that like this guy is like super abusive to his wife and his kids and like you're at dinner with them and you can decide how to handle that and I kind of-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I think moments like that, like the character moments are just so well done that even though you just think it's, oh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm doing this meal to pass the time, to move the time within the game forward, but then you kind of get these moments that you might have otherwise just completely missed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. Uhm, Gerard, I think we talked, we talked about Sonic. Do you have any other lingering Sonic?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've never heard of it. Any relation to the comic or no?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright Ralph, round us out, what have you been playing?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I've got, I've got it downloaded, but I haven't had a chance to start it yet. And like I said, I've said so many times, my interest in Marvel is waning, but that gameplay stuff does sound like it could get me at least interested in Midnight Suns, at least interested in half of Midnight Suns.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay. Alright, that's what we've been playing over the last two weeks, but what were we playing all those years ago? Sorry, that was...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're cheesy. I like it. Thanks! Well, uh, so Gerard, I'll pass this over, uh, tell us about this Fortnite in games.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and for me, 8 years ago on November 18th.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Last time, you know, we talked about Dragon Age Origins was 13 years ago. It's been 8 years since Dragon Age Inquisition.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I gotta see, I gotta see that Dread Wolf. I need to know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I got to go to Bioware for that one. Did you? I did and I almost wet myself. I was so excited. That's not good. No, but I held it in. It was fine.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, well that was this week's episode of, uh, the Friends Per Second podcast. Thank you all so much for joining us. If you are listening on podcast services, please leave us a rating and a review. It really helps us out. We appreciate you. Uh, or if you're watching on Ralph's channel, leave us a comment. You know, why not?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thank you for sticking with us. Uhm, I hope you enjoyed this episode. I'm Lucy James. You can find me


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe at Lucy James games, I'm Lucy James games on most things, but you know, depending on which social platforms collapse over the next month or so, we'll see.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nigeria is not big on accepting, even right now, people are struggling to accept the gay people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How did it affect you? How did it stigmatize you?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So there's this video I saw online yesterday. Whoopi Goldberg was saying that we don't have to be friends with our kids. I don't know if anybody else saw it. You don't have to be friends with your kids until they're mature.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, when they're young, you need to keep that. You need to pay rent. You need to pay rent and leave friendship aside because friendship will make them get too comfortable and they will take you for granted. What do you think sir?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, talking about, ehm, ranking people and, you know. There was this time I heard that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So what, what, uhm, advice would you give your 20 year old self?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, please, I wanted to say something, but I mean we deviated. We were talking about family and children living like, I mean, she said if you want to be a doctor. So, myself and my mom were saying something this morning. We have a neighbor that is an only son.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the father has like a huge business.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you were the father, what, what would you do?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Were both of you everywhere together? Were you going to events as couples? Because I saw a particular picture of her signing something and you were sitting beside her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But you know when, uh, I saw, sorry, I saw the, um, post as well, when you guys, um, separated, she puts, um, the post of both of you up and she announced it, that you guys are no longer together.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wait, sorry, sorry. And she said, she made a statement that says something about, uhm, I'm sorry for the people I offended because of this guy. Forgive me, but now I've learnt my lesson. What was that about? It can't be just, uhm, trying for a child.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Yoruba movie industry, right, there's this generalization that Yoruba people can't speak proper English, which obviously you are, you're obviously a good example that that's a lie. But do you think they make as much money as the people in the other hood, either Kaliwood or Nollywood?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it equalizes. That one I think is equal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, uh, this is, uh, technically our, oh boy, we didn't write episode six. It is episode six and it is, uh, the week of August the 23rd ish when we're recording this. This is a fortnightly podcast and every other week podcast.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where we talk about all the stuff. I'm Jake Baldino from the internet. I'm joined by skill up from the internet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Lucy James from all over the internet and Gerard aka the completionist from all over the internet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This week we've been pretty, uh, busy. We have an interview with, uh, Lawrence Yang from...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Valve, specifically, uh, one of the folks behind the Steam Deck and that was a pretty cool conversation. We have that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We gotta cram a lot of stuff into this one, so uh, you guys wanna just kick it off?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Has made some big acquisitions, uh, but go ahead and acquisition wars have.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But they've also, uh, gobbled up a couple of other smaller things. They have another thing specifically that they didn't state what it is, but it's fairly...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, Middle Earth Enterprises, which holds the film, video game,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Board game, merchandising, theme park, and stage production rights to JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Embracer said it plans to explore...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, I also didn't, it wasn't listed here, but they also bought limited run games, the homies. Um, so it's a lot. I think the big question is just Ralph.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Standard, not, not mind-blowing. I think it's just a sheer amount of things that they did at once. Uh, you know, there's also a arcade company involved. Uh, they got an accessories company, I believe too. So it's just another.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Big move towards gaming, even though they're already focused in gaming, uh, I'm just curious to see...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, being on, on, you know, seeing so many angles of the game industry and, and, and, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It essentially was like one of the big ones back when Pepsi and Coca Cola were coming up back when it was like an elixir.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, like when it was like, ah, drink this for your health. It has cocaine and cough syrup in it and it'll heal all your ailments. You know, like all that snake oil stuff. Uh, it just didn't blow up like Coca Cola did and stuff, but it had a lot of influence. And interestingly enough, there's a scary man on the can pointing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the scary man was a big deal and he actually, uh, served as inspiration for the Uncle Sam, like, I want you poster. That's a spin on this guy on this disgusting flat Dr. Pepper I'm drinking. Oh my god! I really like weird soda stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's called Moxie, uh, and uh, yeaah. It is flat Dr. Pepper with a hint of Christmas spice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, amongst this Embracer group news, development is switching for the Knights of the Old Republic remake to Saber Interactive, which was previously rumored. You know, we talked about, uh, Aspire and development issues. Uh, so now that's a thing also that kind of got lost in the dust for some people with this news, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, let's also chat Gamescom. Gamescom opening night live. The big presentation went down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] August 23rd, and it brought a lot of updates on existing games that we already know about, uh, you know, some new looks and a couple of new game reveals. I think the biggest thing off the bat was, unfortunately, leaked earlier, uh, the week before.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dead Island 2 still exists, it is returning, and it's releasing in 2023.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I very much found myself being like, huh, who really, who really needs this game now? We have, we have dying light and all these other like fantastic things. Uh, and I even admitted in a video, I was like, I never really thought the first.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dead Island, was that great? And I actually got a lot of pushback and what I realized is that like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, nobody's really referencing who do you voodoo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's it. Just welcome to the boomer cast. The other big highlight, uh, for, for games come opening night live and then I'll open the floor to you guys, stuff that interested you, uh, was lives, lies of P. This is coming in 2023 and I've been shouting from the heavens about this game ever since like we got the first little drops of it just because of like the,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The weird high guy elevator pitch where it's like, what if dark souls dark and gritty Pinocchio, but also in like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, like France maybe? And uh, and here we got an extended trailer with a bit more gameplay and cutscenes and stuff and it is very much a, you know, Souls inspired type game. Another one of them. But, uh, just


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It seems incredibly cool with the sense of style. We have the cool over the top character animations, attack animations. It seems like there's actually like a tangible story to it, but the boss designs are out of this world. There's one at the end of the trailer that is just so weird and unlike anything that I've seen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was just so happy, like I'm glad I was looking forward, like it just kind of like reinvigorated my excitement for it. Uhm, I'm kind of at this point like really starting to get over games inspired by


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If it's not, because they've been working on it for a long time. I am really curious about this weird dual art style thing because we had gotten like murmurs of that a couple of weeks back and uh, it was kind of like, what? Like what is, what is that? And then like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where it's like they are going for some sort of like new wave, like you know, games as a service, endlessly play, oh we made it for the community type thing, but then they also want to make a single player narrative, real ass video game. I just don't know what, like how that works.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's pretty straight forward. It does look a lot like the regular DualSense. It'll have all the same features. It's a little thicker and, uh, it's going to have swappable, uh, like tops of the joysticks. The joysticks themselves you're going to be able to remove. There's tabs on the lower part of the controller.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, it's gonna have, you know, mappable control schemes that are like you can hot swap between them because it's saved on the controller's memory. Uh, you know, pretty standard stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I'm just curious to see if it does really have kind of like that premium finish. Like I like when it just feels like a nicer controller. And I just, I would love to hear more about the battery life. That's the big thing. We don't have a date or a price for this yet, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tell me, give me a little bit more battery life and I would be happy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, from what I got from it, it was kind of just like, we fast forwarded the lore and then hell got set loose and now it's cool. So I'm good for that. Even though it's just like a cinematic trailer, like I really, really liked the designs a lot. I really liked them using.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The voice of Glenn Danzig. Uhm, I just, I don't, like, I didn't play a lot of the first one. Did the first one go this crazy at all? Like, I know there were, like, big,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Christ allegory, weird angels and demons thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, unfortunately like when I saw that, that like killed, I was like, oh another one? Cause like the hype cinematic was like, really?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really cool. The only thing though is that, uh, I think Funcom is behind it, and Funcom did do Conan Exiles, which


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know. It had some interesting things to it. I had to play a lot for game ranks. I don't know. Like at least they've made survival open world things before.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They draw, I know you had a bunch of big, I say you, you people. I, I know you had a bunch of, uh, Destiny news this week also, and during this opening night live thing, we got a Destiny 2 Nightfall


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I, I felt better after that. I know it's just like a trailer. It's marketing. Like it's supposed to get me excited. Uh, but I just saw some things like, you know, new villains. Um, it seems like you're going to fight.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like even if, even if it doesn't go like that creative weird route, he definitely is a man who has a lot to say. I have been kind of slowly going through the book he most recently published, which is just a collection of all the things he's written.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] ...articles for like GQ, Famitsu, anywhere over the years, just like random essays he's written, so like he's definitely got a lot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To talk about, uh, surprisingly not a lot about video games, more just about everything else. And I'm into that. I like the way his brain works.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so I, uh, you know, uh, Kojima-san, if you want to, if you want to promote the new podcast, come on the pod, come on down. We'll give you the spotlight. You know, just do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just really want them on. Okay. Let's, let's move on. Unfortunately, we can't talk about everything from games come opening night live, but games come still going on as of the time of recording this podcast. So there's a bunch of stuff rolling out. Shout out to any of you who are there having fun, hoping you're having a nice time. Maybe you're listening to this on the tiny bees.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's a ringing endorsement for Gamescom if I've ever heard. Maybe I'll, maybe I'll go next time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think I'm good for now. At least I'm good. But, uh, let's start talking to our friend Lawrence Yang from Valve. We got a really good interview with him, like I said. So, uh, let's roll to that. All right. Hello.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think that with the like reading the like, I feel like you guys were probably, uh, reading the writing on the wall with chipsets evolving and you know, being able to do it. But was there ever a conversation about it being a streaming device that someone come in the room and say, what if we streamed it instead?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The versatility of the thing is really like why I think a lot of us here have kind of fell in love with it. Was there ever, uh, conversations about other, like, you know, did you kick other things around? I mean, there's other devices out there. There's the switch there. There is streaming devices. Did you guys ever look at those or make hard turns from those deliberately or?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, you want to embrace what Valve has already set up, which is years and years of support, all kinds of things going, just, just to like branch off for a second. What's your favorite thing that you've played on it, on the device?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Information and on screen and that's accessible and you're also dealing with hardcore customers and more accessible customers. So it's like, you can't just make, you know, four games on a screen and their tiles and that's it. There there's so much more going on. So what were the big challenges with wrangling all that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and just managing all that info and at a glance and making it look nice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So yeaah, thanks again to Lawrence for that. Very good interview. I definitely hope he comes back so we can just ask him more questions about Steam Deck 2 or whatever. But uh, let's talk about...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The game releases of this week. So, uh, of the last week or so, rather. So first- The last Fortnite. The bi- last Fortnite, yes. I gotta get used to that. Uh, Rollerdrome.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Close to the top of my game of the year list, specifically because it is the type of game that, like, I would want to make. If somebody was like, here, you're an idea guy, those exist, make this video game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Totally throw all of those things. It is an arena based.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Single player shooter, but it is, uh, uh, aggressive inline, Tony Hawk's pro skater, uh, jet set radio mixed with third person shooting of something like Max Payne or even John Woo Stranglehold, which is an incredible game. And it actually feels a lot like that. And that made me really happy, but it's got this really cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Flat art style, a little bit of like an 80s synth vibe. It's got some like running man influences and it just plays really well. It's very, uhm, easy to pick up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I am obsessed with it. I'm still playing it. It's a great Steam deck game, but then I double dipped and I'm playing it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the couch at home on my console, I like it that much. It's, you know, it's not a full price game. I highly recommend it. If any of those things I threw out there sound interesting to you, like those types of games it takes influence from, but Ralph, I know you are pretty much as head over heels as me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you're like, okay, how compelling can this really be? How glued are you really going to be? And it still manages to do so just because you are constantly managing every single thing in the map, gunning for you like hard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ooh, I could be better there. I could have done that. Why didn't I do that? And then it's like after playing another 10 hours, after I made it one video, I was like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, you know, simple because like it's like a lot of that language is there, right? Like before I got through all the tutorials, I had, and I'm not bragging or anything. I'm just like, it's like they know what they're making. I was able to just do things and I was like, oh yeah, of course. Like I did a wall ride.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just, cause I, that's what I do. That's in my gamer brain. And I was like, cool, perfect, done. There's a lot of that. And from the way the levels are designed to how the tricks work. And it feels...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. I think Roller Drone 2, what, what, to go back to Tony Hawk, what this game does kind of better is that it emphasize, because it's a arena-based shooter,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, violence and killing it encourages the aggressive play because you're doing tricks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But yeaah, I think, uh, it, it was, you know, if you look for it, it's kinda cool. It's nothing crazy, but I think it felt like it had some things to say, and they kept it subtle. Uh, I am excited for the way it ends, and where a sequel could end up, just in terms of, uh, gameplay environment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well Kirby ate food, I thought he only ate the innocent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, another release this week is Cursed 2 Golf. Uh, Lucy, you've been playing this. What is this?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right. Another release this week is Midnight Fight Express, which I dove into. Uh, it's another one I've been kind of playing on Steam Deck. Not to just make it an entire Steam Deck episode.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but I'm only about halfway through it, but it's very cool. It's not as, uhm, intense or twitchy as I thought it would be from the trailers, but it's still really fun. When you say twitchy...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, like the controls, like I thought it was essentially like a hotline Miami, where it's not really, it's more of an Arkham brawler, like an Arkham, you know, like that type of, you know, counter type thing, uh, top down, uh, with very short levels, which is very cool. They're like short bursts of just great.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is pretty cool, uh, weapon, uh, like actual guns are used pretty sparingly for the, for a good portion of it. Uh, and when you do get them, you only have whatever amount of ammo is in that gun and you drop it. Uh, so that's quick and effective, but most of the time you're kicking garbage cans at dudes or like throwing things at them and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It starts off really simple and a little bit of a turn off, but the progression is really good. There's a lot of skills and stuff to unlock and, and they actually are totally different things for you to execute while you're playing. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It, it, it slowly builds it into a much stronger combat experience, almost like Batman Arkham, where really at first you have your, your cape, your dodge, and your counter, uh, but then later on, you're also adding like, you know, pulling a guy in with your grappling hook or batter, battering another guy. Uh, this game does build.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In a similar way with combat movesets that so far is working for me. Ralph, you played this?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, for me, I think I'm just sticking with it because again, playing it portably, the fact that I can just like go through a quick level real quick. It's really going to work for me, but yeah, I'm pretty much with you guys on that. Now, Gerard, you've been playing two older games this week.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] JirardQuest64, you've been playing that, uh, you made a video on it too, but I don't even, what is it? Oh man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's funny, as soon as you explained what it was, like the kind of like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] RPG for Nintendo 64. I was like, oh, that one. Like I have vague memories of like other friends playing it and immediately.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The way I want to do this is go around, I want to go around the room first and say what your favorite Saints Row game is. So for me personally, mine is probably a tie between Saints Row 2 and Saints Row 4. Ralph, what about you?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There are two different camps of Saints Row people. There are people who really like the wacky zany of the later ones. And there are a lot of people who are still just like, no, it's supposed to be about gangs like Grand Theft Auto. And like, that's, yeah, totally. There are two different camps and I feel like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This one tried to make the game for both sets of groups and I think ultimately it kind of came up not making anything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They all have like their own little like, it gets into it a little more, like they all have their own like backgrounds and ethnicities and like little interesting hooks, but like it just kind of throws them out there just to have them and it doesn't do anything interesting. And then when you're all together or you're doing a mission with them or even like the more loyalty type missions, it's like, it's just like, I don't


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't care, ugh, like some of the jokes go on for so long, and just like you can't, you can't really be, be


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I didn't like that. I didn't like that one. It's, it's such a shame cause it's like they got with Saints Row 2, they got the confidence and then the confidence just kept building to the point of Saints Row 4 where you're the president and it's just full confidence doing whatever it wants. Even if the humor doesn't really land with you, it was still like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and then this one just feels like the complete opposite. And then from the gameplay standpoint, like I won't ever say that like all the games are like these compelling gameplay experiences, but this one just feels like weird and floaty and bouncy and like lonely and empty at the same time. I like the city that they designed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they have good licensed tracks. They have like a decent amount of licensed tracks that like I would, I had to like dig to find on the radio cause it would never put on a good radio station that played a good song. I'd have to go and find them. And then I'd go, oh nice. Cool. Why isn't this anywhere else?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It really, for me, it severely affected the driving. None of the vehicles had any oomph to it. Correct. What so ever. Correct. Like when you crash, oh god. Sometimes you crash and you don't hear anything. Or you jump and you land and you don't hear anything. Little things like that. Significant.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, so that was probably the biggest, uh, the biggest, you know, blockbuster game we're talking about this week. Uh, just disappointing. I just want to say that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Doing the, like, like Ralph, what you said, like, this, this stuff, like, it's, it sucks to make these, but I, I like, I truly really believe that, like, it's better to talk constructively about a game you don't like, instead of just going trash.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hate it. Garbage. There's so much more that can be said and there's so much more you can talk about like what we do here and what we're trying to do in our videos. Because like by talking about and fleshing out what you don't like about a game, I actually think it helps strengthen your understanding of what you do want from a game and what you do appreciate in games that do things right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, my soapbox. Now I guess let's, let's, let's move on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We gotta wrap things up soon, but uh, we do have time for one quick fun Q&A question. Uh, you can send us questions to our email. It's contact at friends per second. So we're gonna take a random question from Rob W who writes in and says, non-game related question, but


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What was each of your first celebrity crushes growing up? He says his was Hilary Duff. Bet that's a name you haven't heard in a while. Gerard, can we start with you?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just talking to my heartstrings, really. I guess I'll go next. Apparently I'm fucking Borat because my first crush is Pamela Anderson.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I thought you were going to say him specifically as Doctor Saw. I was going to say in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Great question. Yeah, thank you Rob for that question. And again, like I said, contact at friendspersecond.com if you want to ask us weird things like that. Uh, let's move on over to, uh, this Fortnite in games. Is that what we're calling it? That's this. It's technically this week.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, Gerard hit us with some game anniversaries.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a show. It's a full ass show. You've been working on for a while. Uhm, you are very good at explaining what it is. Uh, I don't, I don't want to, I don't want to butcher it, but essentially it is you as Kratos in a office workplace comedy. Am I, am I explaining that right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well thank you. And thank you to all of you for listening, watching.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, wherever you are, uh, maybe with, on your commute to work or your, you know, trip to the funeral parlor, whatever it is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is not an invitation to write mean things in the next one, but hey, thank you guys for that. Thank you for all your support with this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm Jake, you can find me on the internet at Jake Baldino. Ralph?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We will see you guys in a fortnight. Thank you very much for being here. This has been Friends Per Second. Tie your shoes and go to bed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and I think when I got asked to join this podcast, uh, there wasn't a second of hesitation. I said yes right away. Uh, cause I'm, I've secretly been a fan of all of your guys' work.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You guys don't know our work and know our personalities. It's gonna take time to get used to us, obviously. So we just ask that you give us a look. Trust me. Give us a shot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tech companies that never belonged to E3 but-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To get in the E3, you had to scan your business license, you had to have your passport, it was a, it was a tech, uh, a tough time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It got leaked anyways. Uh, but I think by the time that E3 went away, we experienced that thing of,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's no longer industry folks, for the people who are actually in the industry, it's now a publicly attendable event. And it congested lines, it made it unbearable, the prices of food and drinks in the arena would go up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and then if you're a creator walking around, you're missing appointments because you don't want to disappoint fans and say hello. You want to make sure you say hi to everyone. And so for me, I was ready to just be like, I think 2019 E3 was my last one unless I was getting paid to do some type of company activation. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For me, this was the perfect event to kind of get back into it. The event itself just going in person. Uhm, I am 8Bit, John Gibson and his team are brilliant. And, uh, the, the fact they teamed up with Jeff to host the event was just so fun. And I think my, my favorite thing that I, that I think you hit the nail, that you hit the nail on with the head and the nail was that,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I miss not only playing the games at these booths, but


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it was just so fun to see the, the passion light up in their eyes. It hits you different than when you're like, Hey, there's a line for Final Fantasy 14 online. Go wait for 45 minutes and then play a demo for 10.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, so to be clear, the first day, I wasn't there the first day, but the first day I heard was way busier than the second day. The second day, it felt like a party. There was no one there. It was a lot more relaxed. Walk up. And so, uh, I had, I unfortunately had no appointments. I had one appointment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then the rest never showed up or went to spam. And so I luckily knew a majority of the PR folks at every station and was able to weasel my way in, but a lot of people didn't show up to their appointments on day two.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Full disclosure, I'm a massive Sonic fan. I have completed all of them. I know them intimately very well. Uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I loved it. I thought it was so fun. I will say it is founded in the boost mechanics and it is a bit clunky.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Was worried. I was like, I'm not, everything looks a little rough. It's not, it doesn't feel smooth. It doesn't connect very well, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, as you start unlocking power-ups and it starts changing the gameplay and Sonic unlocks new moves and new combat skills, I was starting to get my groove on and then that's when my demo ended. I only got like 15 minutes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then I remembered, oh yeaah, Sonic Generations, Sonic Forces, they have a certain style of gameplay. So when I came back for my second demo, I knew how to play the game. And Amin was like, okay, I'mma do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Treat this like I'm streaming or speedrunning where when I fight an enemy, I was like, okay, it's like Dark Souls. I have to do combat and dodge and weave and immediately I was succeeding every step of the way and I suddenly downloaded how to play and I was like, this is gonna be great. It's gonna be fun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The third one was I want to see everything. I want to make sure I exhaust the demo time and see every single thing. I got several chaos emeralds, which the demo people were like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and I, I did every single, um, quick puzzle that was around. So there's a lot of rails and, and homing attack puzzles you have to figure out. And I was able to do all of them. I got all of the Amy Heart resource memories and all of the, the defensive ones too. So, yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everything you said though is valid. The overworld did not look great.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but I think, I think there's like a, in my opinion, there's a couple of things to take away. Uhm, I wish they showed this demo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have a feeling that because of the film and because of Sonic Mania and now Sonic Origins, they're going to, and they learned with Sonic Team Racing. Sonic Team Racing was not ready for launch. They delayed it six months and it got eights and nines across the board. I think, and now with Aaron Weber, who used to run the Sonic Twitter, he's now in Japan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And also, to the world at the time, before it got delayed a couple months later, their belief was, the game's coming out in six months, right? That's generally what E3 does is, if there's a playable demo most of the time, and there's a release date within six to nine months, this game is not coming out in six to nine months. It can't.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, the thing that really blew me away was the fact that for the first time in a long while, EX moves and moves that normally would cost meter no longer cost meter. So, you know, in most cases, in Street Fighter games, you could do a Hadoken or Shoryuken or Tatsu.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if you do two buttons, um, you do like a stronger version of it and it would drain your super meter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The biggest change for this is in Street Fighter 6, you have your, you have a separate meter at the very top that, that's, that is there the whole time, and it's consistently filling back up as you're using it. And, uh, the fact that you can now do EX moves into Super, it's just gonna change how the professional game goes. And, uh, and the fact that they have like the, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I forget what they're called, there's like a, there's a, there's a parry move that, like there's a bunch of mechanics that are all based around


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Drive, Harry. Drive, Harry, uhm, EX moves. Drive, Impact. Drive, Impact, and, uh, at the end of the day, it all screams style, which is what Street Fighter V really lacked. It didn't have...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That the, the, the, the style that even Street Fighter IV had, even when you did a super in Street Fighter IV, there's that moment where it does the zoom in as you're about to hit him and Zankief's eyes or Blanka's eyes are always like, oh no! And it was always like, well this is gonna feel good to connect. You didn't get that same vibe in Street Fighter V and in Street Fighter VI, it's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everything, the color splashes, the character select stuff, even the commentary, I didn't mind, they have these pro player commentaries.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's, it's pretty rad. Uhm, and I, I think, you know how good a game is because Maximillian Dude was in both days, played no other game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I think it's going to be great. Uh, I, I can't, I know that the roster already leaked online weeks before, which is kind of a bummer, but, um, I'm really curious just, and obviously we didn't see it, but,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's important, I, I agree with that so much, Tan, that it's important that everyone at home needs to take away that like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Get developers, let people, let the experts have their cake and eat it too, and let people who are intimidated by it also be able to join in on the fun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're like building a character for yourself. Because you're lonely? Yea, because you're lonely and your character is like a carcass of a crow almost.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so the whole point of the game is you go around this town and you solve these little puzzles and you get currency to then dress your avatar which is this undead bird.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, that one's so fun. You play as a little frog and you jump around, but the only way you actually progress through the area is you jump in the shadows of things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So like if an old woman's like slowly walking by, you have to jump in her shadow, and that's how you progress to the next side of the stage. This is a really fun arching.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, I, I, I really, I loved BPM. I gotta know how it's different, because you said it was very different.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's got 8 player local and online. It's pretty simple. Good for kids. Good for kids. Yeaah, I think it's being published by Bandai Namco.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In conjunction with Warner Brothers and LEGO. Uhm, it was fun. You know, Andrew and Renee and I played it together and it was, uh...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was a fun time. I was surprised with how much fun I had. I thought it was going to be a lot less fun. Right. Combat is very easy. Just press one button to jump, one button to shoot, and there's a dash.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We didn't even get to see Price. Can I ask you a question? Yeah. You play all the Call of Duty's? Yep. Do the stories have substance to them?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They, whenever I play those games, I'm like, I don't know, I don't know anything about it. It just feels like I'm playing the same game over and over and over again. And I don't know if it's just my ignorance or I just don't know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's FIFA, right? I'm part of the problem. It's that 60 dollar a year commitment for people, one time a year. I'm so happy for everyone at home who gets to experience it, but every time I play it, I'm just like, I want there to be something for me, but I think I'm just more of like the borderlands, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I interviewed, uhm, I interviewed him, uh, the, the, the director, uhm, they have a lot of money. Oh, okay. It's almost 40 million dollars worth of investment. Woah. From him?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know what the game looked like. I didn't see any trailers, so I had to just make generic questions. Uhm, but if you go watch the interview on the XPlay channel, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, the thing that I got from him and the team is that like, they really got treated poorly at Blizzard. They're, they really are passionate about RTSs. A lot of the team that they brought with them to Stormgate from, you know, to Frostran Studios.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are people who dreamed of working on Starcraft and they got to finally do it and then it came out the way that it did. So, and they're really focused on community driven content. So it feels like they're really taking their time with this and they really want to make sure they're getting it right. And they're paying attention to their discord and their subreddits. And so I think it's going to be fun, especially if you like RTSs.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so that's the fact, it's so weird to see that because, and then when they obviously talked about The Last of Us Part 1 Remake, they made both, uh, the main characters look more like the two of them, so it's kinda like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, I'd give it like a B- just because...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Most of the games that were featured were not for me, but they definitely piqued my interest way more than I expected to. Um, especially things like Street Fighter VI, um, especially, uh, Callisto Protocol, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What was the game? American, American Arcadia? Yeah. Yeah. That game was like, I mean, he thought of like, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, uh, frickin' Weird Al Yankovitch Beverly Hills Billy music video. Oh, wow, yeah. Yeah, like the animation style. Yeah. Creepy, uncomfortable, creepy vibe. Yeah, yeah. It was really exciting, yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's fine. I, I, at that point, it was a waste of time because I already had like, it was more than like halfway over and I was like, I'll just go home.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, when the trailer started, I kept thinking, like, this girl's talking too much throughout it. Like, obviously, like, the character was like- A real Aloy moment? Yeaah, it was very much like, I just wanna see, where are we going? And then, like, once the gameplay started, I was like, oh, okay, like, this is- I think, Ralph, you and I talked about it when we first hung out a couple days ago, which is like, I hate when demos, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Purposely take their time to pan the camera to show you the atmosphere as opposed to like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just play the game. Cause like, I'm gonna go back and watch the trailer anyways and see it. And it definitely had the thing of like, whoa.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just wanted to see it in motion. So once we got past the initial spark, I started to enjoy it a lot more.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, you said something, Lucy, that I didn't even think about, and it's kinda like marketing for the game. Yeah. I think like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you think about Deathloop, what a stylized game, right? Arcane with Dishonored and Dishonored 2, same thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This, I didn't really know what the style was. Cause when I saw it, I was like, oh, it's zombie land tonally mixed with arcane and vampires. Uhm, but when you saw the vampires, they're very aggressive and very in your face. Uhm, but also like the voice acting and the characters were very much like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I didn't know if, if the voice acting and the art style and like what they were trying to do were like necessarily matching to what they were trying to tell me. Cause in the Redfall font was very much like Stranger Things and like 1980s horror and I just, I didn't know where, whereas with Deathloop


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now that I think about it more, I think that's where Redfall started to kind of fall apart for me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, that means that we just get mad at Microsoft when Silksong gets delayed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I played it religiously for the first year that I was making content and I had to stop because I was losing myself. It makes you a bad person. It really does. Everything made me mad. Food tasted awful. I like, it just genuinely made me go, I need to go to rehab or just cut it out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's, I feel like that's the, that's the surname it ever says.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel like the unfortunate truth though is that Activision Blizzard still has a lot of stink on them and considering what we saw a couple months ago with the, was it the alpha or the beta for Overwatch 2, the, the, the, like the short,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It captures the spirit again of the first one. Uhm, I just don't know how they're gonna do it, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No. Oh man, the Blizzard Arena. What a, my buddy was one of the tech directors over there and just knowing the money and resources that went into that thing, incredibly impressive. But man, oh man, it's like, it's like you were in a futuristic home and if you press something, an alarm went off.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, it looked like a combination of, like, uh, uh, what are those games called? Misao games? Misao? Yeah, Little Dynasty Warriors. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What's going on? What's going on? I was hoping it was an RTS.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Totally. Felt nothing game, uh, out of, out of the Minecraft legacy so far. Uh, and, uh, but I, this one I felt like didn't really showcase much of the actual gameplay. It was just a montage of characters and all that stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's both. I feel excited that we're getting more Diablo at the same time, especially since I've put so much time into Immortal currently. I'm also like, oh, it's just


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's the same classes. It's the... Yeah, necromancer being the final one. Yeah, like of course necromancers are always cool, right? You know, but like druid, elemental sorcerer...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Marbarian, like, this was, it just feels like we're, we're not really reaching deep for new classes that define what the future of Diablo could be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I like the fact that there's so much to do. I like the fact that there's a lot of, uhm, spontaneous moments that just kind of unfold in the world. Uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it just sounds like they're trying to make sure that people are going to play this game for the next 15 years. And I don't know if it's a bad thing or a good thing, but it just seems like they're really focusing in on keywords, right? Like thousands of, or a hundred. 150 dungeons. 150 dungeons. World events. World events. Like they're really, they really want people to,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Especially, I mean, at least for starting class, right? I think that was the thing, the class alignment, the fact that they were like, this is the last new class in the game, and it's like, well,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's new class cause it's new for the new game, but like Diablo 2, Diablo 3 got the Necromancer, like it- Devil Immortal. Devil Immortal, right? So like, same song again, it's like saying like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Luigi is in the game, right? We know, we know. I think my biggest hesitation about Diablo 4, and a lot of it comes because I've been playing so much Immortal, is I, and I know the shit show that was the auction house, and the weird


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Diablo 2 online purchasing websites that exist. I just want Blizzard to just remove as much real world money making devices out of Diablo 4. Just let people play it and it requires a fair amount of dismantling what makes Diablo great and that's the thing that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think the art style is really interesting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was almost like I just didn't understand what the gameplay was. I didn't understand the loop or the mechanics. I just was like, wow, moving pictures.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Especially for Persona 4. Because I feel like uh, Persona 5, obviously Persona 5 is like the hit, right? Everyone's always talking about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have zero feelings about the game. No strong feelings, one way audio. You're not a Bethesda guy are you? No, no, no. Uhm, I, I loved Fallout 3. That was like my favorite Bethesda game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just, I think there was a while ago where I just, and we talked about this on the way here in the car, is that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The community makes the games better than they actually are and they still do really well and everyone loves them but I think I just reached that point where I was like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, I, I'm happy for everyone to enjoy Starfield.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know what it is. And so now that I finally saw what it is and, uh, I still feel nothing. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's such a stupid comment, because a wyvern is just a type of dragon, and that only really came about a few hundred years ago as well. But yea, the general idea is, oh, only two legs, that means it's a wyvern. Generally speaking, yea, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, I think it, I think it kind of like originated in like the 17, 1800s, but as being a designation, because it's like used in heraldry, not so much they have any real folklore, but they're just a type of dragon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you actually see a lot of mythology about dragons being very similar to birds of prey as well, because it's like very much rooted in the human idea of being terrified of snakes and birds of prey and things like that. So, you know, it's very adaptable.


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[Assistant] Yeah, and a lot of their, like, being intelligent comes from just being so powerful that they can kind of subjugate anyone who rivals them as well. You know, so it's, when they say, you know, for them power equals truth and their fights are just massive debates, we're using the voice, it's like,


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[Assistant] Imagine trying to say they're wrong about anything. It'd be like arguing with you.


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[Assistant] Well, the thing about Akavir as well is obviously there's a lot of lore, which we'll talk about in a second, about their involvement on Akavir. But one of the main reasons you say, oh, they come from Akavir is because Akavir means dragon land. But if they're such, you know, like, ever-present creatures,


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[Assistant] You could kind of just co- you could just get there, see, you know, see a dragon and be like, oh, this is dragon land. It doesn't necessarily mean they come from there.


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[Assistant] Basically became a dragon. And it's very hard to date the stuff that goes on in Akavir as well. So you can't, we can't really say, you know, does this predate the stuff that was going on in Atmora or did it come afterwards, you know?


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[Assistant] I'm down for that. Yeah, cause you feel like the dragons would kinda just stomp on Isgramor and his companions if they started to get a bit too carried away with their power.


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[Assistant] It kind of explains their intelligence as well, cause it says they literally, like when they absorb the souls, they claim their knowledge and their life essence.


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[Assistant] So, you know, if, if they're really intelligent, you can have a very powerful dragon who, you know, power equals truth. They consume another soul. They become more intelligent by absorbing all of their, you know, memories or whatever else. And that's how they become such a powerful, intelligent race.


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[Assistant] I kinda see him as like almost like the middle point.


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[Assistant] You know, cause it's kind of like, it's very similar to, you know, Satokal and the Ouroboros, like in Christian folklore, they adopted the Ouroboros to be a dragon that's chewing its own tail. Or, you know, you've got Nidhogg in Norse mythology who chews at the roots of the world tree or whatever. So, you know, Oriell is like, because of the elves,


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[Assistant] You know, the elf seed men is kind of like the downfall into mortality and into permanent death. So it's kind of the, the evolution from the elven aspect of Akatosh to the very human aspect of it. And then you get that, you know, kind of birth and destruction cycle.


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[Assistant] And it's cool because we just talked about the fact that when dragons eat other dragon souls, they kind of absorb life essence and knowledge. So it's like when the Kalpick cycle starts again, there's kind of like imprints of, of memories of the past as well that linger. So it's kind of like how the dragons absorb.


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[Assistant] The life essence of the previous, you know, the dragon they've just defeated, which in the case of Akatosh is itself.


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[Assistant] I mean, and the idea that, you know, like the dragons were specifically there to kind of mess with men. It's like that could potentially make sense for a while, but then you've now got a storyline that goes back to the second era of the dragons.


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[Assistant] Active in elsewhere, and then it's like, oh wait, are the Khajiit derivative of the elves, or are they their own beast race? It's kind of like, you know, with every new story that comes out.


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[Assistant] So many years of things that kind of get put in, put in a new light that you can't really, yeah. So we're basically, we're all insane for even trying to comprehend it.


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[Assistant] Well I feel like they're gonna be dealt with in Skyrim for some time, but it seems like despite everything that's been going on, what's happening in Akavir seems to just be like, we don't care what's going on in Tamriel, like our own stuff's happening over here.


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[Assistant] Over here. Uhm, and so I think that's gonna go ahead as normal, even with, you know, all of the stuff going on in Skyrim. And I still think that, you know, eventually they're gonna come over.


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[Assistant] Yeah, well, I guess, yeah, I was just about to say, like, we could have potentially answered it with the discussion we were having in that the more powerful ones are the ones who happen to be the most intelligent and maybe these, these ones who aren't, don't seem too intelligent are just the scrubs who never win fights and never absorb other dragon souls. Yeah, it could be.


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[Assistant] Oh no, I was just gonna say, I feel like it could even, you could make a stronger claim that it's got something to do with Akatosh more so than, than Kynareth, but they just, you know, obviously the Nors love Kyn.


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[Assistant] While we're on this topic, one thing I absolutely love is in Old Norse mythology, there's the story of Sigurd slaying the dragon Fafnir. And after he kills him, Odin comes to him and says to drink Fafnir's blood. And when he does, he's given the ability to understand the language of the birds.


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[Assistant] Which, you know, it's semi-related, but it seems like a cool inspiration for the idea.


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[Assistant] It makes sense when you consider the fact that humans in Atmora had, you know, their kings and they seemed relatively prosperous. It's not like they were, you know, constantly at existential risk of being destroyed by the dragons. That definitely seems like something that kind of evolved more as you came over to Skyrim.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, like, you wonder, did they just have no interest in...


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[Assistant] I feel like they really could have done it. I mean, like, you know, for example, when you actually look at the few dragons who were active outside of Skyrim, you know, one of them being Nefala Largus, who was involved in, um,


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[Assistant] The, like, Straus Machia, the civil war that was going on there. There was like a naval battle with the force of the Red Guards. I can't remember if it's the Crowns or the Forbears now. Uhm, I get those two mixed up a lot. The Crowns. Crowns, right. Uhm, yeaah, against the Imperial fleet. And Nephalel Argus just comes along and absolutely messes up the, uh, the Crowns. And it's like,


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[Assistant] They really, they really could have done a lot more, so the idea that there was a time restraint makes a lot of sense that, or they just didn't particularly feel the need to spread across the entirety of Tamriel.


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[Assistant] And while you're getting that up, just like looking at things like the Dragon Tail Mountains as well, you could just say it, but it makes sense that they'd kind of like, you know, be active in these regions.


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[Assistant] And I mean, rather than them getting kicked out by the cliff racers, you know, it's like, yeah, like perhaps they just didn't have time or, you know, the resources to expand enough before they, you know, were dealing with stuff on the home front.


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[Assistant] I think they'll leave it, um, like, open-ended, so there's always the chance they can call on him again if they ever want him in the narrative.


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[Assistant] You could also kinda say that it's more of a description of Alduin rather than all the dragons, you know, cause Alduin is innately gonna be very greedy, you know, he wants to consume the world, uhm, and you can imagine that a lot of dragons are just following their leader rather than all inherently wanting to dominate and destroy everything.


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[Assistant] What is up ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Fudge Muppet. My name is Scott. I'm here with Michael and Drew as always. And today we are talking all about the Argonians. So we're going to go let Michael, the master of Argonians, the lover of them all, take the reins and we'll start off with some


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is an Argonian, some of their biology, let's hear about them, let's go.


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[Assistant] Yeah, well like the Hyster, like, absolutely fundamental in pretty much all aspects of Argonian


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[Assistant] Society, they're like society, they're culture, they're religion, and they're very biology. It, uh, determines everything, like there have been, you know, these are from some older law sources, but


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[Assistant] It's a little bit more nuanced and complicated than this, but uhm, the idea is that when the hatchlings lick the sap, that stimulates certain...


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[Assistant] Argonians, like you'll see Argonians in Skyrim, for example, looking more like Raptor-like or the fish-like ones in, um, Oblivion or something like that. But really they could fit into different sort of tribes of Argonia. Cause if you look in the Elder Scrolls online, we used to only hear about them, but there's the Naga Kur tribe, which are.


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[Assistant] Like, cause the naga in the books are described to be like between 7 and 8 feet tall and these ones aren't so they're like a more average sized ones. They're big scaly boys.


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[Assistant] But the Nagakura, they're small sort of like, uhm, what are they called, like, they're kind of like pufferfish, like, addery sort of faces, and they're just an interesting, uhm, group there, and they're not actually, uhm, I don't know, there was like a warrior culture or something about how they like to make their, uhm,


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[Assistant] Weapons and armor and stuff out of bone and skin of deceased and so on, and they're not seen too, uhm, kindly by the rest of the Argonians. But overall, there's a lot of stuff with the Hist interaction in determining


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[Assistant] Their, their appearances and their biology, like there's even, we'll get to the ancient stuff later on, but there's used to be these ziggurat kind of big


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[Assistant] Uh, group or tribes of Argonians or little mini societies of Argonians associated to those particular histories might have different biological implications and that's what forms like the Naga looking ones or the XYZ all of the rest of them.


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[Assistant] Funny thing is actually, when they're Lusty Argon, I'm pretty sure Lusty Argonian Maid is written in, uhm, Morrowind first. So, cause it's written by Crassius Curio. But uhm,


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[Assistant] That's back, Argonians in that game are just like, sort of like lizards, like really lizards, like they don't have breasts or anything, they're just kind of like raptor-like walking like lizards, which when you see it through that lens, like. It's even, it's even weirder. Yeah, Crassus is a freak. Yeah.


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[Assistant] Well, it's interesting if you, if you think about the Hist in a very literal sense as their god be, being a creator, cause you know how often like you, well, at least, you know, in Elder Scrolls, the races of men, but in a lot of other mythologies, real world mythologies,


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[Assistant] Basically uplifted and, and you know, and like you said before, gave them their souls and made them into these sentient Argonians that we have today. So it's kind of, uh, it's just a sort of interesting way that like history.


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[Assistant] Literally created them, so that idea of like a connection to the HIST, like a sort of...


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[Assistant] It's inherent, you know what I mean? In the same way that you'd think like, you know, sure is inherently connected to men or something like that.


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[Assistant] It's the same as how you can look at a dog and kind of tell what it's feeling versus looking at a lizard or a crocodile. You don't know what's going on in its head because it doesn't animate the same.


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[Assistant] And that really like kind of blends into the idea, or at least which I like in the headcanon or so on, that Argonians are just


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[Assistant] Basically, vessels for the Hist to vicariously live through because the Hist, you know, they're, they're a different form, they're bound as trees and that they've, you know, got other things going on, but they use the Argonians and that, you know, mind connection to, to live through them and sort of, you know.


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[Assistant] Um, exercise their will or protect them.


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[Assistant] Yeah, well in running with a theme of like strangeness towards, uhm, you know, from the view of other people in Tamriel, uhm, we also know that the Argonians


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[Assistant] Sort of, they have a completely different conception of gender and they are even able to change their sex more fluidly, like through, uhm, these hist ceremonies and licking of the sap and stuff like that.


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[Assistant] Um, so they could be, you know, male early on or female later on and they find, um, there, what was I saying?


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[Assistant] Yeah, so they consider them life phases is another phrase for what they call it, which is interesting. So, you know, imagine you go and you meet an Argonian and you're, you know, it's like, okay, you can identify them as a, as a male and you're like, Oh, you know, he's like, Hey, my name's this yada yada. You're talking so on, but then later they come back.


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[Assistant] And there's this sort of female Argonia that's, you know, vaguely, you aren't like, maybe they look vaguely similar, like a...


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[Assistant] Like a brother and sister would or something, but then they act as if they know you or someone. They do know you and it would just be such a strange experience for


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[Assistant] You know, nords and all of these people, so on that have far more binary look at things.


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[Assistant] Yeah, but like fundamentally like their, so their biology is just so.


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[Assistant] Yeah, but even, even fear of the future can be seen as this real, oh sorry, not fear of the future, uhm, obsession with the future can be seen as this like, really need to change, whereas like, the present is really about enjoying the, the, the now.


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[Assistant] It'd be such a, uh, it'd be such a whack experience to, to be an Argonian and then...


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[Assistant] If you somehow, if that kind of turned out to be the truth and you are just part of this big hive mind, you're like nothing but an ant. But I feel like they've made them sort of culturally accept it now based upon their like, you know, it's convenient that, that's, you know, uhm, elements of change and stuff are accepted.


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[Assistant] But uhm, I don't know, it'd be a bit of a like, cruel like, awakening to realize that you're just this, you know,


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[Assistant] Yes. Though unclear whether meant literally or not.


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[Assistant] But if you think of like flying fish or how fins and gills could give a winged appearance, like, do you remember Spider-Man? Have you seen some of the old Spider-Man suits where it's like the web, there's the webbing that like connects between? But it does help.


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[Assistant] I would think it's more like, like a flying fish, quite literally, like propelling them in the water and so on kind of thing. You know, like sort of jumping out, like that's how I see it. Cause I think like it kinda...


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[Assistant] Yeah, yeah, but it's, it's, but it's, it's within the realm of how like, oh, dinosaurs are speculated to have rel, you know, bird-like features or, or, you know, connect to reptiles.


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[Assistant] Yeah, but not those. I, I just think that I, I, this is just a personal take, but I think Argonians are far more interesting when they, when they get in on the, the lizard, um, amphibious sort of fish-like kind of things. I think it makes them more


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[Assistant] I'm not sure, but I'm sure it happens like over a slower period of time just to sort of explain how like you would have, for example, otherwise you would have


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[Assistant] Any given tribe would just have so much genetic variation kind of thing, like based on like, Oh, this one has wings. This one is this. Cause they see this and they're like, Oh, I'm going to be born with this. But we don't have that. Instead we have clusters of there's the Naga or the part true, which are toad like ones or XYZ. And so there's these different groups that have sort of.


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[Assistant] In particular, like the HIST itself isn't one big, so it's almost like lots and lots of little hive minds. Like the Argonians are connected to the HIST, but kind of like which HIST?


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[Assistant] I mean, that's like, it really like shows how just absolutely essential the hist are, but to, to, that you can, it's almost just like this sort of protoform thing, any hatchling, like it doesn't really seem to kind of, if you were to think about it in scientific terms, like carry genetic code itself, it seems it's taken and then the hist


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[Assistant] Sap determines where it's going genetically, you know what I mean?


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[Assistant] They, uhm, insist that the, they, they, well, I might be getting this right, I don't know, but they don't have, uhm, burials. They like to leave the Argonians in the wild of Black Marsh to be reabsorbed by Black Marsh. Essentially that goes into the soil and then you can see like the hist, you know, absorbing the decomposed.


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[Assistant] You know, traces of them, but basically it's this sort of like, uh, you know, it fits in theme with all of the reincarnation sort of elements before, but sort of similar to how like the hatchling going back, the egg going back into the ground or so on. It's sort of like that.


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[Assistant] You could kind of speculate maybe that it's kind of like, if you think about all those decomposing Argonians, and if you go with the idea that the Hyst tree there, in the Hyst trees in Black Marsh sort of reabsorb their soul or essence through the, through the soil in the same way that a tree is nourished by soil, uhm, you could maybe sort of speculate that


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[Assistant] The bog blights, because I'm pretty sure isn't a bogs that there is very slow soil transference, like it seems to stay there or very, not a lot of water movement. So basically-


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[Assistant] Anyway, I'm pretty sure it's something like that, but regardless, but the idea is that then the souls kind of get trapped because they can't, the soil, you know, the water's not moving the earth and soil further somewhere that's accessible by the Hiss kind of, you know what I mean? So it kind of gets trapped and then maybe it's like,


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[Assistant] Right. Like it's maybe, so like as a protector kind of thing.


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[Assistant] Cause the way it's sorta like, I mean, sounds to me, if the Bogglites are coming up and getting back in and everything, I sort of feel like it might be, uhm, they might sing that song and so on, but it's almost like a...


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[Assistant] Maybe the purpose there is protection of something, like basically it's, it's cutting them, to me it seems like cutting them off from the hist and then their soul comes back as a blo- uh, bog. What was it called again?


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[Assistant] Um, chill, just like just existing kind of thing. Like there is pleasure in just existing. So, cause if you think about it, like.


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[Assistant] Ambition is always future oriented focused. You're not getting ambitious about your past.


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[Assistant] You're always like, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be this actor or I'm gonna be, you know, a warrior or I'm gonna do this, this, this, this, but it's always future focused. But if they're very, if their culture is sort of really.


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[Assistant] They've been very present and not ambitious really. There's been little bits and pieces.


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[Assistant] So of course you're going to have like the descent, like, like some people will, you know, have traditions that are on either side of the spectrum.


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[Assistant] As a whole, like they're just all of these like brain dead hippies that just live in the moment. That's not what I was going to get the idea. But, but there would be variation and obviously because they have like, you know, extra versus this tribe and they, they, you know, they have their own conflicts. They, they're like, uh, not human, but you know, human in that sense of like they have,


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[Assistant] Like they value the present moment. So that moment when I'm tending to the history or I'm playing with my child or something like that versus


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[Assistant] So for example, if you, if you're an Argonian and you go venturing off to some other land, your present experiences are there, but I feel like the sort of, it's not going to be like the, I'm going to, well, it can be, but you know, like the...


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[Assistant] Yeah, it's a different sort of, uh, motivation behind the exploration or, or those kinds of ambitions.


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[Assistant] They all also are, and this is the thing that you gotta keep in mind, is they are still individuals. Like we meet plenty of Argonians who have their own individual sort of, you know, desires. Most of them though, are outside of, uhm, black market.


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[Assistant] Yeah, and Black Marsh itself, like, there's lots of things in there, but, but even though they had, they had like a, I guess we can kinda start moving onto this anyway, about the, the pre-Duskfall, so like, uh,


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[Assistant] Duskfall, for those who don't know, is basically the name given to this period or big calamity and downfall of a previous gr-


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[Assistant] Not greater necessarily, depends on your point of view, but Argonian civilization, a more permanent Argonian civilization. So what they call like Zandmiers, which basically look like our real world, like ziggurats or something or, but they're based off sort of like Mesoamerican sort of Mayan Aztec kind of.


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[Assistant] But they're these, uhm, big permanent pyramids basically. Uhm, stone pyramids that


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[Assistant] And we can sort of talk about their culture a bit, but the old Argonian culture, Scythus has always been an important part of Argonian culture, but the way they viewed him was different in those ancient, ancient times because


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[Assistant] They saw Scythus as this sort of, you know, because Scythus is sort of a embodiment of chaos, of change and stuff like that. And change inherently can, you know, death is change or destruction is change. Uhm, so they saw him as this


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[Assistant] So they built these pyramids and they tried to make build all of this, these structures that are permanent and they tried to, you know, use blood sacrifices and all of this kind of stuff to appease Sithus so that he didn't destroy or like change their civilization because they liked their


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, permanence and later on this, uh, this changes in their view of sithis then becomes a more welcoming one where they welcome the change and the present moment stuff like that.


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[Assistant] Pre, uhm, pre-Duskfall Civilization, uhm, too, while we're, uhm,


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[Assistant] Just there. It has some interesting implications because


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[Assistant] I think you guys would agree with kind of roughly, there's two sort of theories about, uh,


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[Assistant] Tamriel, rather that, that once it was this big one continent and this was called, uhm, Aldmeris and it got, you know, the sundering of Aldmeris and then it became like what Tamriel is today.


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[Assistant] Um, but then there's also the ideas where they, you know, some people either got, some of these elves got lost and then they came back. So sort of like Topol and so on, but then some might've stayed there. Like maybe the Dwemer were already there or, or the Snow Elves were already there.


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[Assistant] But then there's also a more like, I guess I'd call like a more like naturalistic sort of point of view that sort of looks at, uh,


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[Assistant] Elder Scrolls' lore is less mythological and a bit more, um, uh, like a natural process of migrations and evolutions and that kind of thing. So it's kind of, uh, in, in the Before Ages of Elves and Men video, it talked about, like, what Tamriel might have looked like before Elves and Men, and that's going off the idea that the elves


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, the Argonians into that larger picture because, uh, there's evidence to suggest to them that those, that big Zandmer, let's call it just Zandmer society or pre-Duskfall society, the big ancient Argonian civilization, uhm, did have like quite a vast trade network.


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[Assistant] Uhm, what's interesting is there's a, there's a,


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[Assistant] That indicates to me that the Argonians were there prior to elves for the reason that, uhm,


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[Assistant] I mean, well they were definitely there before the Kyma, because the Kyma would have just started enslaving them, uhm, like they did. But being able to expand so far into Morrowind and get these resources and


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[Assistant] Some people, it depends where you think the Dwemer are, like whether the Dwemer were there at that time or whether they weren't.


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[Assistant] It's also to like, you know how you were kind of saying with the birds too. It's like, cause that's another one of the races that were definitely there before Topol and so on.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and if you think of Cyrodiil as a jungle, jungles I feel would be more hospitable to Argonian kind, perhaps, you know, their trade networks and stuff expanded to those bird people or other potential inhabitants of, of southern Tamriel.


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[Assistant] The northern part, the desert was created at some point.


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[Assistant] So if you imagine that this Zandmer society is really ancient, like before that, you could kind of, maybe elsewhere was more similar to Valenwood and Jungle Cyrodiil and all of it was this kind of hot, ancient, it makes you kind of think of Jurassic Park kind of like ancient, hot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Earth, but like that in their civilization could have spread far further. Maybe they were.


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[Assistant] I, it depends if the Khajiit were there or not first, but there, but, uh, there's also other, you know, like there's the Lil Milith.


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[Assistant] Lilmothit. Lilmoth is the place. Lilmothit is the people. Lilmothit.


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[Assistant] But yeaah, there's just some interesting implications that this advanced society might have been more far spread or at least connected to. Versus to the Black Marsh that we see today which is very isolated. They only have a few Argonians go out to other places but it doesn't, you know.


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[Assistant] Um, yeah, I think that, well, that's what I proposed in that video is that it was, um, around, well, around, it could have been around the time Topol sort of first saw them, but then it was kind of happening, like collapsing just because by the time the Chima, um,


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[Assistant] So this is in the Morethic era, the Khmer go to, to Rezdane. Uh, it's been said in law that the, that, um, the Khmer were enslaving Argonians at that point. And I, and I feel like they weren't, wouldn't have been able to do that as easily. If it could be a slow collapse, but if, if they weren't like these sort of different tribes and, and you know what I mean? Easy picking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would put it like, pretty early on I think, I think like, you know, it's definitely in the Merethic Era, this duskfall thing, I think, I think it is completed, it's post duskfall in the Merethic Era at some point. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hmm. It's, yeaah. Some interesting implications too, because it, because with the Merethic era, we roughly know there's 2,500 years of time there, which is a long time. You know, that's nearly


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, well, no, actually it is more than half the entire recorded history. Cause I think that's like 4,500 years or something around there. Um, of all the first to fourth eras. So it's a long, long, long period of time. Like a civilization could easily like rise and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can't remember something, but the idea that there's these 12 worlds of creation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and these 12 worlds of creation can be interpreted as 12 previous kalpas. And the current kalpa, as all kalpas sorta are, is an amalgamation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of all of the previous things, like things get left over. So like Umaril with his divine father from another world river and a previous kalpa kind of thing. Or the idea, there's some ideas around there with red guards and so on, but that's another time. But then it's, you know, the hist being from another kalpa and existing into the future, into now is uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is a, is a possibility as well. It's not a literal, like, canon lore interpretation kind of thing, but it's an interesting, um, uh, implication. So it's a sort of like when,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When did the Hist get here? Or, or like, and then start up society and like, well, evolve these Hellstrom Ancestor Lizards and sort of...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Co-coz, you know, if the Zandmeer Society is, is so far ago, long ago in the Morethic Era, like, the evolution of these lizards has gotta happen before that at some time, like, did that happen really quick maybe in the Morethic Era, or did that actually happen through this big crazy long period in the Dawn Era?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But didn't he, it wasn't his, uh, his vision or whatever, Megalim's vision or something, he experienced all of the life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah. Cause like I said, we don't need to have any like, you know, real world evolution precedence in the Elder Scrolls. No, especially not where the histories are involved.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Absolutely. But I, I, I guess, I guess from, uh, uh, do you, uh, any more points about the Zandmer culture or speculation? They're kind of like Scythus worshipping Aztecs, like even the idea that they do the big like blood sacrifices, um, on the thing are like Aztec.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What do you guys think about, uhm, I was just thinking about how that the HIST might not be able to exert as much


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Influence over, so, so what I'm trying to say, so we know the elves came from the Aedra, their idea is so on, but the general gist is that all of these spirits


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That helped the Elnife and so on that helped in the creation of, of Mundus and so on. They, uh, pretty much just saw the Elnife, um, they lost their power and then they kind of had to result.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Resort to, sorry, uh, procreation. And then they sort of, so then you've got lots and lots of, of people. And then those people all have souls and so on. So in ways you can say those souls are derivative of, of, of a larger power, sort of like as below, as above, so below kind of thing, like a.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, but the idea is so for the HIST,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know how they gave the souls to the Argonians, but gave from what? Is it actually a derivative of the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then you might have a sort of, maybe they avoid it in part with this sort of reincarnation thing like in, in Black Marsh, but


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it kind of like, it, it's dividing their power too much, but then the divisions can then sort of have their own will and go their own way. You know, in a, in a more meaningful, um, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of Black Marsh, like this is a very physical interpretation or so on, but you know how they go, like, oh, I'm far from Black Marsh. I don't have a connection to the HIST or I have a weak connection. Either way, it's sort of like, well, maybe your soul might not be able to get back to the HIST because the HIST are still quite a, a physically bound entity, it seems.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Try and venture so far from the hist and like, let's go on these big wars out there. Cause if you go on a war and you have this big like, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and you all go and die in this world and maybe you can't get back to the HIST. And maybe that's why, that, I think it was, what was it called?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I forgot who actually set ahead with the Argonian invasion, but it was sort of like a rise of a faction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, that sort of faction might actually be a little bit more of a bugger the HIST, I'm doing it my way, let's get revenge kind of thing. But, but the HIST don't advise that kind of thing and they want them all to come back a Black Marsh and stay there because they risk losing parts of their soul off in other lands.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it's outside of their capability, like if a few Argonians get nabbed here or there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I, I think there is gotta be a bit of a thing to hiss, I don't know how active the telepathy kind of absorption kind of thing is, because otherwise the Argonians are the most overpowered race of all, like they would just know everything that's going on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I still think that's why they don't do the large scale invasions or anything like that, or big amounts of Argonians leaving, cause they would perhaps threaten losing those souls. And the reasons I say it's like, you know, a lot of their own mythology about, about the idea of having to bury them in the soil so they can be reabsorbed by the Hist and all of those kinds of things. And this real lack, they have, there's such a focus.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that's what I was saying is that it's predicated on the idea that the Hist giving the Argonian soul is a derivative of their own power, so they have to give up some of their own power to give a soul to these lizards and so on in the same way that the Aedra gave up power to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let's also, just to put the Hiss power in perspective, their world, it was something that their world was destroyed.