WEBVTT - TechStuff Gets Cozy With SMNTY 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:12.360 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:15.000 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:18.280 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:25.720 Tech are you? Yes? Our cavalcade of special guests continues today. 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:29.880 My dear friend and next door neighbor back when we 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:33.279 were working at Pont City Market, Annie and her co 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:37.160 host Samantha from Stuff Mom Never Told You are here. 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:38.960 Welcome to the show. 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:42.599 Thank you so much for having us. This is very exciting. 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:45.800 Yeah. I love that we finally get to work together. 0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:48.360 It's been years since we've been in the same network, 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:51.519 and now I get to officially work with you. Amazing. 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:52.200 I'm so excited. 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:55.520 I'm excited too. Like I've seen Samantha, we've met in 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:57.760 person a couple of times, but we have never had 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:00.560 a chance to work on a show together. Will I 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:03.720 was listening to stuff Mom Never Told You recently with 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:06.080 I think it was Joey who was on talking about 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:08.600 dating in New York, and it made me laugh so 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:14.760 hard because Joey's younger than my marriage is. I'm in 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:17.520 my twenty eighth year of being married and so listening 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:21.120 to like the trials and tribulations of dating in the 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:23.959 modern age. I was sitting there thinking about back before 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:27.240 I was married and what dating was like. And the 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:31.560 funny thing is I met my partner online, but it 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:35.440 was in a telnet chat room, which anyone out there 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:37.600 who knows what a tellnet chat room is welcome to 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:38.960 being old. 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:42.560 That's amazing. 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:44.280 I really kind of want that story now. 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:46.240 Oh well, tell you why you have me on your show, 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:48.240 and I'll tell you all about it, Okay, because here's 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:51.240 the thing, I got no tech stuffs left to talk 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:54.200 about this kind of stuff. I'm out on January tenth. 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:59.000 January tenth, I am gone. And just so, just so 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:01.040 y'all know, I mean, I don't think you even are 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:03.160 aware of who the new hosts are, but certainly my 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:05.880 listeners aren't because I haven't told them yet. That's going 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:12.920 to be a New year reveal, So it does. Have 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:17.280 you not done the email? Oh no, you're starting off 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:24.360 with a Chad GBT savior or demon demon? No you 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:29.000 know it already. Uh No, Today you brought forth a 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:32.600 topic that I was so excited by because, as it 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:35.920 you discovered once our notes started to fill out, it 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:39.840 turns out I'm a big fan of this particular genre 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:44.000 of video games. You wanted to talk about cozy games? 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:47.799 Yes, yes, indeed, And I think this is gonna be 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:50.400 really fun because I think we're all coming at this 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:54.440 from different experiences, so we're really excited to talk about it. 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:56.480 One of the reasons we wanted to talk about it 0:02:56.520 --> 0:03:00.560 is one because Samantha's had like an amazing cozy journey. 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:04.320 But to as you kind of alluded to with chat GPT, 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:07.120 we were trying to think of a tech topic that 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:09.880 wasn't going to be very depressing, and it was a 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:13.440 little difficult because right now is a high stress time 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:16.880 a lot of us maybe are looking for some relief, 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:19.040 especially as the year comes to a quotes, So we 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:22.080 thought cozy gaming, that's that's a good topic. 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:27.720 Much better than let's talk about Elon Musk. So I appreciate. 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:29.640 It, right. I mean, we definitely went in to talk 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:31.440 about we could talk about deep fakes, Oh no, that's 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:33.720 really sad. We could talk about you know, all those 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:37.640 other AI ventures. But coming back to cozy games, which 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:39.360 is something that I have found joy in in the 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:42.640 last few years and really have had Annie and even 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:46.400 our super producer Christina navigate me through this world because 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:50.560 gaming is not something that I would typically would say 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:53.160 is something that I do up until recently, and the 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:57.080 cozy gaming world really has made it so much more welcoming, 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:00.680 I think, especially for people for us and loss people 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:03.000 who are jumping into gaming. 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:06.760 World absolutely and even old fogies like me like I 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:10.360 reach a certain point where my hand eye coordination isn't 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:12.440 what it used to be. I don't have the twitch 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:15.040 skills of the young ands out there. I was raised 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:18.320 on games like the pac Man's you know, and the 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:22.160 Gala is not so much the call of duties. And 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:26.200 also I never really like competition. I always preferred collaborative 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:29.440 and cooperative games. Even with board games, I much prefer 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:33.400 that style. So cozy games speaks to me because I 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:40.200 like an environment that fosters joy and wants all the 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:44.599 participants to experience that joy, not joy that one person 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:47.760 feels at the expense of everybody else. Not that there's 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:50.800 anything necessarily wrong with that kind of gaming, it just 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:51.800 doesn't appeal. 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:55.440 To me right, And I know all the gamers in 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:58.680 my life enjoy cozy games, whereas people who like cozy 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:02.200 games the same isn't true about non cozy games, so 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:04.680 I feel like they're very welcoming to people, and I 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:07.880 guess that brings us to the question, just to start off, 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:11.400 what is cozy gaming. I know you've talked about it before, 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:13.920 but we like to have a good solid definition here, 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:17.320 and people disagree. People like to disagree about what exactly 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:20.080 it is. But they're often described as something that's somewhat 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:25.080 mindless but still involved. They usually don't have violence or 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:27.520 competition in the same way non cozy games have them. 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:31.119 Players can't really lose or feel guilty about letting someone 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:34.839 down like in a multiplayer game. They usually have soothing 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:38.440 in pretty graphics and music, fairly simple task and controls. 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:41.680 They're inclusive and safe for all. They're low stress and 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:44.720 sort of a vibe, sort of a feeling, and after 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:48.000 you play them, you generally feel calm and happy. 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:52.800 Yeah, there's some overlap with the genre of casual games, 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:56.039 but I feel like the term casual games is almost 0:05:56.120 --> 0:06:00.400 like a kind of like it's like shade right, people 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:07.159 quote unquote real gamers will dismiss something that falls into 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:11.880 casual games. And certainly there are bad casual games out there. 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:14.520 There are bad games in every genre. It would be 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:18.520 disingenuous to say every game that falls into the cozy 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:22.640 or casual bucket is great, but the same is true 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:25.480 for any other genre as well. And I think the 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:28.600 quote unquote true gamers, well, there's a lot of air 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:31.440 quotes I'm doing, which is weird for an audio podcast, 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:34.240 but I think that they would paint all of them 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:38.080 with the same brush, and I think that's unfortunate, it's reductive, 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:41.560 it's not surprising for at least certain segments of the 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:45.120 gaming culture. We'll get into more of that later as well, 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:48.680 but yeah, I think there's certainly a real place for this, 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:53.440 particularly in a world where people are trying to find 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:59.240 ways to reduce anxiety, to be able to take their 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:03.000 mind off things that might be troubling them while not 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:08.200 engaging in an activity that is just inherently harmful to themselves. 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:10.520 And I think it's interesting because when we have these 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:14.000 conversations about gaming in general, the biggest money maker out 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:16.840 there and people really want to discredit it, is mobile gaming. 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:19.440 And that was one of the big conversations we had 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:22.400 when we talked about cozy gaming and what they want 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:25.560 to qualify as true gaming. And again, you kind of 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:28.560 talked about this with the real gamers quote unquote, but 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:31.320 the level of competition that's there. But when you look 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:35.600 at what is making a dent in capitalism, which you 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:38.320 know that counts for more for anything else, right, it 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:41.120 is mobile gaming. It is the number one money maker 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:43.520 for that gaming industry. So it's interesting when we have 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:46.840 this conversation and the amount of women and marginalized people 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:51.520 who actually have access to something that is easily there 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:54.160 and really great to take your mind off things. Is 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:57.040 playing five minutes of what used to be snake y'all 0:07:57.080 --> 0:07:59.160 remember that game? Oh yeah, you know, like those types 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:01.720 of games that have come back a little bit, and 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:04.800 it helped with dementia and help with like everyday warplay. 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:07.400 It's actually a really great way to go. But people 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:09.880 want to dismiss it so quickly because they don't want 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:11.040 to say this is true gaming. 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:13.880 Yeah, and yet these are the games that often can 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:18.120 go viral across all demographics. Like I wouldn't necessarily say 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:21.360 that wordle falls into the category of cozy game, but 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:25.160 certainly a casual game. And I don't know if you 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:28.560 guys remember this, and I apologize for guys. I don't 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:31.760 know if you folks have remembered this, but about four 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:34.520 years ago, there was this little bug that was going 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:37.400 around and like a lot of us were like stuck 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:40.080 at home, and then it seemed like this game called 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:44.160 Wordle brought everybody together in a way. And back then 0:08:44.320 --> 0:08:47.040 before it was x X was this thing called Twitter, 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:50.240 which wasn't terrible. I mean it was bad, but it 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:54.360 wasn't as bad. And I just remember, like so many 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:57.400 of my friends would their Twitter status would just be 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:00.680 their Wordle score for the day, Like for the first 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:02.679 like three weeks, I was like, I don't know what 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:04.240 the hell these boxes mean. 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:08.360 I had that moment a lot, and I will say, 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:10.680 you know what, for those out there, this was a 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:13.880 pickup line. One dude, you's a chill group of us 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:18.280 talking about Wordle. So it opens up so much when 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:19.559 you talk about these mobile games. 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:21.600 Yeah, yeah, it's a great unifier. 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:24.280 It does. And that's kind of going back to what 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:28.600 you've said about preferring those kind of cooperative, collaborative games. 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:31.640 A lot of these are really fun because when the 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:35.440 pandemic happened, we were looking for both stress relief but 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:39.200 also some companionship, some way to connect to other people, 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:41.920 and these games were great for that. Yeah, you go 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:44.880 on Twitter and see someone's wordle score and you're like, oh, Like, 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:47.280 it was just a really fun way when we couldn't 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:51.920 hang out in person necessarily and share these experiences. And 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:53.760 I think that is a big part of cozy games 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:57.160 as well. I am kind of shy, so I usually 0:09:57.200 --> 0:09:59.120 played cozy games by myself, but it is a big 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:02.640 part for some people that you can connect with other 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:04.200 people online in this way. 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:07.200 Well, And even though I'm an extrovert, I am like you. 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:10.439 I often for most of my cozy gaming I'm playing 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:15.120 the single player version of that. I mean, I love collaboration, 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:17.679 but there's so few games out there that I connect 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:20.240 with that are also collaborative and I feel like I'm 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:23.080 welcomed into that community. Sometimes you get into a game 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:25.560 pretty late, and it's like if you're the first new 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:27.600 friend in an established group of friends that have been 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:30.440 established for like ten years, and they're all joking and 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:33.400 using references that the rest of the group knows and 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:35.760 you do not, and you're like, well, this is a mistake. 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:38.760 I should probably go somewhere else. And that's kind of 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:40.600 how I feel for some of these online communities, and 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:43.120 it's no shade on them either. They're having fun with 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.160 their established communities. It's just sometimes it can be hard 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:49.480 to make an inroad. But the games themselves, the things 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:53.720 that make a cozy game cozy, that welcoming sense of joy, 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:57.199 that's something that I certainly could use more of in 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:00.240 my life, and I love that we have. I have 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:04.080 lots of different examples that we'll talk about, and you know, 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:07.280 not that much crossover, although there is one game on 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:12.439 Annie's list that I have to a billion percent back up. 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:15.240 But it's also the game that you can't talk about 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:17.600 because to really enjoy it, you need to go in 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:22.959 knowing nothing about it. Gone Home is the game. Oh yes, 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:27.199 so good, but you can't. Don't don't look anything up, 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:31.120 don't read about it, just play it because I cried 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:35.200 at that game. That one made me cry. But yeah, 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:37.000 I want to. I want to chat about some of 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:39.160 the examples we have here, Like you you have some 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:42.080 of the popular examples with Animal Crossing. I mean that 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:45.640 one went crazy popular in the pandemic. It came out 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:48.959 just as the pandemic was creating lockdown, and like it 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:52.120 was like it became a pop culture moment in circles 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:53.400 that I follow at any rate. 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:56.920 Oh yes, oh yes, it came out at like the 0:11:57.000 --> 0:11:58.880 right time. And I think this is actually a great 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:02.880 segue into talking about how we all got into cozy games, 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:05.760 because I remember when that came out. Animal Crossing New 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:07.760 Horizons is one of the big examples people give for 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:12.280 cozy games. The other one is Starty Valley. But I 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:14.080 kind of going back to your original point, I didn't 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:16.120 start playing Animal Crossing until two years later, and it 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:18.079 was because Samantha was like, you got to try these 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:18.760 cozy games. 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:23.640 So I was trying to use her for fruit. 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:26.440 Oh of course, yeah. I mean those turnips aren't going 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:27.520 to grow themselves, right. 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:31.440 Samantha was using me, But she's been my real like 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:34.440 open door into this world. So I thought we could 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:36.800 all talk about how our experiences and how we got 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:38.440 into it, starting with you, Samantha. 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:40.960 Yes, I have to put a big caveat on the 0:12:41.040 --> 0:12:45.000 games that I play. I am not really good with 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:47.360 my hand eye coordination, as you were talking about, it's 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:49.960 not great. I am that one person that when we 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:54.880 play Mario Kart that I continuously fall off the track 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:59.360 like that is my ra And you're gonna know about 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:01.920 it because I'm like I'm off, I fell again, I'm 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:05.360 off again, and I'm always last place. So for me, 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:08.520 trying to just stay on track is my thing, and 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:11.560 that's that's kind of the theme through everything. So with 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:15.000 animal Crossing, even though is I love the fishing part, 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:18.440 I love the collecting and swimming. I just did it recently. 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:21.800 The new thing right now with the Christmas being around, 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:25.760 which we just had an episode about holiday themed animal crossing, 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:29.160 you can build a snowman. I was like, oh wow, okay, 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:32.000 I want to do this. I have dropped every every 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:35.480 snowball off the edge of something or crashed it into 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:37.200 a house, and I'm very upset about this. 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:37.920 I want you to know. 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:42.280 But like I'd love the trying to find the peoples 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:44.320 to come to my island. It does feel like I'm 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:47.000 starting a bit of a cult, and then also just 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:50.160 keeping a campground, like like that's my whole experience is 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:52.719 to collect all the fish, collect all the fossils, which 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:55.360 I've done y'all, but I haven't gotten all the art pieces. 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:56.200 I have. 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:00.520 Any made sure to brag to me about that island. 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:02.520 It's kind of sad because it still again looks like 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:04.960 a campground. But I'm like that's what I want. I 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:07.960 want to be a retreat into the campground, not. 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:11.400 Like not like, hey, let's turn this into a bustling metropolis. 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:15.680 Is it Animal Crossing where the snowman will criticize you 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:18.920 if you don't get the balls just right? Yes? No, yeah? 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:19.240 Yes? 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:21.520 Is it trying to give me like, oh, it'll be 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:22.720 like you tried your best? 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:25.520 Yeah, the judgment so like if the head is too 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:28.280 small or too large in relation to the body, and 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:30.440 the Snowman's like, what are you even doing? 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:31.880 See? 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:34.480 Yeah, now now I'm even more upset. And I even't 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:36.000 even done it. I haven't even I can't even get 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:37.280 it together to make one. 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:40.800 So I haven't played Animal Crossing. One are the YouTube 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:44.400 video channels I watch outside Xbox did a whole thing 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:47.120 about it. When I saw that, it made me laugh 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:50.400 so hard. They're talking about how you know certain games 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:53.520 that that neg you when you when you when you 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:56.000 when you mess up a basic thing in the game. 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:59.640 But like, legitimately this is challenging to dude, get it, 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:02.640 just because it's hard to judge in the game when 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:07.000 you're at that level. But overall, Animal Crossing certainly checks 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:11.480 all those cozy boxes so you got into that. That 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:13.920 was kind of your your journey into cozy gaming. 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:16.400 One of the things that happened is my partner is 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:18.880 a gamer and loves to play games, and he's been 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:22.440 trying to get me into gaming in general. So Overcooked 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:26.760 was his beginning with me. Huge mistake. Again, I'm not 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:30.240 competitive yelling at me about cooking something just right, yea 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:33.960 all over the place. We did not fight, I will 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:37.600 give you that. So our relationship is strong. I've determined that. 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:40.840 But he then like I said, let's try Animal Crossing. 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:43.040 I think you'll like this, and it did the trying 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:47.280 to find the again, like finding the biggest fish that's 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:50.440 worth the most amount of money. Let's do this getting 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:52.560 the singer to come onto our island. I love it. 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:54.440 I don't know if you know, Like you said, you 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:56.400 haven't played this, Jonathan. 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:59.400 I haven't, but I've I listened to a lot of 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:02.160 shows of people who have played it, so I feel 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:06.400 kind of like I've semi experienced elements of the game 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:08.400 just through osmosis. 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:11.120 I think you should try it. I would be interested 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:14.080 to see what kind of village island you create. Like 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:16.680 I have a good friend who's made his entire island goth, 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:20.320 but like chic Goth, I don't understand how that happened. 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:25.000 He has displays everywhere and Annie, well, Annie, you need 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:28.960 to talk about your island obviously, Okay. 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:32.440 So basically what happened was Samantha went. 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:36.520 Any story that starts with basically what happened. 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:40.360 Basically, Samantha went from like, I'm not a gamer to 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:43.920 hear all these games you need to play, and she 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:46.400 was like, we're going to do an episode. It's research based, 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:48.640 so you need to go play these cozy games. And 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:50.560 she gave me all these recommendations. One of them was 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:54.560 Animal Crossing. And the funny thing about me is that 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:58.080 I'm a completionist. I want those achievements. So I knew 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:00.560 That's why I didn't start playing Animal Crossing, because I 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:03.160 knew it never ends really, so I was like, I'm 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:05.000 just going to be trapped in some hellscape where I'm 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:07.320 checking the mail, like I don't want this, but she 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:10.320 convinced me to do it, and I of course made 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:13.080 mine very Star Wars semed. It's got a Star song, 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:16.679 it's got a Star Wars flag. Everybody says Star Wars slogans. 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:20.600 But because I'm such a completionist. I completed that damn 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:22.119 museum and I quit. 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:26.959 I'm done this and no further. 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:31.720 Yeah. But it's just really funny because I know I'd 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:35.480 like have the exact opposite experience with cozy games, where 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:37.959 I'm like, no, I'll play my like horror game a 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:41.000 million times and it's great, But a cozy game, I'm 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:43.040 so stressed because I where's the end? 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:47.200 Yeah, I hear you. Yeah, there's certain ones where you 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:51.000 can theoretically reach the end of the content, but even 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:55.119 those occasionally will get massive updates and it'll you know, 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:57.439 it's it's like the Mafia. Just when you thought you 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:00.040 were out that you get pulled right back in. And 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:03.640 So I have a whole bunch of games that are 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:05.560 listed on this section, but I'm just going to talk 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:08.280 about one and maybe mention the others when we chat 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:11.720 about some of our favorites. But Starduck Valley is the 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:14.520 game they got me into cozy games. Now. Stardu Valley 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:17.560 has some elements to it that also include, like if 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:20.320 you're going into the minds, there's combat and stuff, but 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:24.000 that's not the prime focus of the game. That's one element. 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:27.800 Most of it is about setting up a farm and 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:31.280 creating relationships with all the villagers that live in the 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:35.760 little town, and maybe even finding yourself a match. There 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:40.359 are certain members of the town who are romancible. You can, 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:44.520 if you're a jerk, get into a committed relationship and 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:47.800 then ruin it by flirting with somebody else. It's it's 0:18:47.880 --> 0:18:51.880 such fun. Concerned Ape is the name of the guy 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:54.560 or the handle of the guy who created it. He's 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:57.080 got another game that's that's been in development for years 0:18:57.119 --> 0:19:01.160 now that I am highly anticipated, called Haunted Chocolate. Cannot 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:03.280 wait to see that. It sounds like it's going to 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:06.040 have a lot of sort of shared DNA the Stardoo 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:09.479 Valley but yeah, Stardio Valley. I literally have more than 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:13.120 one hundred hours of game time in that game because 0:19:13.560 --> 0:19:17.240 I would start over and try different things, like well, 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:19.520 what if I start a relationship with this village or 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:23.840 instead of that one? What happens? Can I fix him? 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:27.560 The answer to that last question is no. Just like 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:29.879 in real life, like I had never done any video 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:32.440 game modding. I've been playing games since I was a kid, 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:35.560 and I'm fifty. So when I say when I was 0:19:35.560 --> 0:19:37.240 a kid, I was playing games like River Raid, which 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:41.119 by the way, developed by a woman, Carol Shaw, phenomenal 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:44.159 game that was on the Atari twenty six hundred. But 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:45.919 I've been playing games since I was a kid. It 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:49.080 was the cozy games I started playing really with Starduo Valley. 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:51.080 I got to the point where I was modding it, 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:56.439 which added new villagers and new areas to explore, and 0:19:56.960 --> 0:20:00.399 just recently this past year, Concerned Ape released a huge 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:02.760 update to the game to make it one point six. 0:20:02.920 --> 0:20:05.440 So even in a game like that where at first 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:07.240 it feels like there's a beginning, middle, and end, and 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:09.359 then you can continue past the end, but the story's 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:12.480 pretty much over, it's never a guarantee because some of 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:15.320 those cozy developers just figure out, hey, I want to 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:17.639 add a little more to that world I created, and 0:20:17.680 --> 0:20:19.800 next thing you know, you're right back in it. And 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:21.959 it's crazy too, because of course, the sale in the 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:24.159 case of Stardu Valley has already been made. It's not 0:20:24.200 --> 0:20:26.200 one of those games where it's like a subscription based 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:29.000 thing where you've you know, you're paying every month to 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:32.680 play this game. You purchased it already. Concerned Ape has 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:36.960 no obligation to keep developing this title, and yet he 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:39.960 continues to do it, So U a true hero, I would, 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:42.080 I would say, but yeah, that was the game that 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:46.040 pulled me into it, and since then there are countless 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:49.959 games I would argue fall into the cozy category that 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:53.240 I have, I have explored and I can't wait to 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:57.280 talk more about coziness. But my producer is holding up 0:20:57.800 --> 0:21:01.040 a knife and pointing it at me, so I think 0:21:01.080 --> 0:21:02.800 we need to take a quick ad break or else 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:12.680 things are going to get an awful lot less cozy. 0:21:14.080 --> 0:21:16.520