0:08

Welcome to Codex District Video Games.

0:11

My name is Tyler Austin. And

0:13

I'm Mike Coletta. And this week,

0:15

Mike's going to take us through a

0:17

little bit of video game slang. Video

0:19

game slang. Okay, so this is something

0:21

I wanted to cover for a long

0:23

time, right? And we're in a pickle

0:25

today, Tyler. We're in kind of a pickle,

0:28

okay? Because I wanted to talk about

0:30

where video game slang comes from. And

0:32

what I don't know if happening is

0:34

I went down a rabbit hole, that

0:36

is... Not exciting to say, I

0:39

don't think it's good good

0:41

content. It's very it's very

0:43

scholarly. Did you know that

0:45

language and video games has

0:48

become like a topic of like

0:50

college academia? Oh, I mean,

0:52

I didn't know that, but I

0:54

believe it. Yeah, so this is kind of,

0:56

I didn't tell Tyler's before the podcast.

0:59

I was trying to explain to him

1:01

what's going on, but this is what

1:03

I'm trying to get at is, when

1:05

I was in college, I took a

1:07

video game, a rhetoric of video games

1:09

class, right, to talk about like culture,

1:11

things, videos, I mentioned this before,

1:13

leat speak, as it's called, has been

1:16

like the subject of many a college

1:18

paper, because it is a language that

1:20

we've watched. become a language over

1:23

the course of like time and

1:25

it very documented right it's on

1:27

the internet it's everywhere yeah yeah

1:29

it's like a meta language or like

1:32

dialect that you really only

1:34

see on the internet exactly

1:36

and it's and it's become this

1:38

like all encompassing thing of

1:40

internet culture okay it's not

1:42

just video games the problem

1:44

is I looked and found different

1:46

like I have two main like

1:48

websites I use for articles for

1:50

this like for sources and they

1:52

contradict each other constantly

1:55

and yeah and that's what so but

1:57

I still wanted to talk about it because

1:59

I think it's important. So what we're

2:01

going to do is we're going to

2:03

go through certain terms today, certain different

2:05

pieces of terms and slang. So we're

2:07

not just talking about like poning and

2:09

stuff like that. We're also going to

2:11

talk about where HP and man I

2:13

come from. Like I just thought that

2:15

would be kind of interesting too. So

2:18

I wanted to do this episode. I'm

2:20

excited about this episode. I'm just want

2:22

to let our listeners know. This is

2:24

the tip of the iceberg very much.

2:26

on YouTube. You know the iceberg videos

2:28

where everyone's like, they love that stuff

2:30

on YouTube. On on YouTube, they love

2:32

that. We'd be covering the tipping top

2:34

of the iceberg above the water. That's

2:36

what we're doing today. Because it's such

2:38

a big topic. And I actually found

2:40

a 47 page paper on this, a

2:42

PDF. And I was starting to read

2:45

it. And then I'm like. I don't

2:47

think this is going to make a

2:49

good podcast to be honest. I'm just

2:51

going to cover the terms that we

2:53

all know and love and kind of

2:55

go over the little bit of history

2:57

of that and then maybe in the

2:59

future we come back and people are

3:01

really interested in it. But I did

3:03

want to cover it because that list

3:05

of episode ideas quite long and I

3:07

want to start tackling that list. So

3:10

that's what the goal was today. So

3:12

video game is slang and I'm going

3:14

to start in a very nice place

3:16

that we all know and well. Love.

3:18

Noob the term noob tell me about

3:20

the work as well know what it

3:22

means Yeah, noob is like you're new

3:24

you're new at this video game It

3:26

used to be I would say a

3:28

derogatory term, but it's kind of become

3:30

like a I'm a new please help

3:32

me kind of term Yeah, I feel

3:34

like it sort of almost depends on

3:37

like the tone of voice you use

3:39

right? Yeah, you use it if you

3:41

if you say it in a in

3:43

a derisive way then it's an insult

3:45

Exactly. You don't feel bad about being

3:47

new to a game. You're just saying,

3:49

I'm a noob. Like when I was

3:51

playing Wow with you and I was

3:53

trying to tank in that dungeon and

3:55

I didn't know what I was doing

3:57

and I got kicked out because I

3:59

was a new, that was mean. But

4:01

then when I was like, I'm a

4:04

newb, please help me, people help me.

4:06

Yeah. So I think that. The difference

4:08

is if you're actually new, like if

4:10

you're using the term at face value,

4:12

a new, somebody who is new to

4:14

the game, fine, then there's no insult

4:16

there, obviously. It's when you are telling

4:18

somebody who is maybe not new to

4:20

the game, that they are playing as

4:22

if they are new to the game,

4:24

that's when it becomes insulting, right? Yeah,

4:26

that's what it becomes really mean. But

4:28

I like that, I like that. So,

4:31

that, so by the way, this is

4:33

a definition that I found that I

4:35

found, up front. I'm going off script

4:37

here. So the first source I found

4:39

wasn't even a real article. It's just

4:41

a Game Facts board post from 2016

4:43

called the top 10 origins of popular

4:45

gaming slang. It's by a user. White

4:47

pointer is the name of them. I'm

4:49

guessing it's like a pointer is a

4:51

type of dog. Right. So yeah, or

4:53

like, you know, Windows has a yeah,

4:55

White Point through the little like. Yeah,

4:58

so that's their name. I don't really

5:00

the real name. And then the second

5:02

story I'm using is a games radar

5:04

article written by Zach Bedka that was

5:06

published in December 2nd 2013 called Law

5:08

Newb. Do you even know where video

5:10

game terms come from? Which is very

5:12

internet clickbady, but it worked. I found

5:14

it. So there you go. So there

5:16

you go. So this term. has two

5:18

different sources. Both are military based. So

5:20

apparently in the British military, the term

5:22

newby was short for new boy, like

5:25

you're a new boy in the military

5:27

and it became newby, and then that

5:29

got turned into new. Now newby was

5:31

also used in Vietnam. So there's like

5:33

two different places, but I'm pretty sure.

5:35

The British military term was from like

5:37

the 1800s. So that's the early terminology,

5:39

but that's where Nube comes from. Got

5:41

you. Now how it's spelled where it's

5:43

like N00B as far as the elite

5:45

speak origins of it, no idea. We're

5:47

never going to know where that came

5:50

from. We can't track that down.

5:52

Alternate spelling that also

5:54

really yeah, so

5:56

but the term itself

5:58

is from the

6:00

military There's a lot

6:02

of these terms

6:04

that are taken from

6:06

the military actually. We

6:09

got a couple military terms We got one biblical

6:11

term which was very I had no idea that

6:13

would be get biblical with it today So it's

6:15

kind of to get to get to there. Yeah,

6:17

let's get biblical But yeah, so the origin is

6:19

not video games but I would say that I

6:21

think I the game this is most associated with

6:23

like where I heard it first was Counter -strike when

6:25

I would played counter -strike as a kid and

6:27

being called a noob was very common there or MMORPGs

6:31

ever yeah world of

6:33

Warcraft that kind of stuff like runescape getting

6:35

called a noob and runescape You know, yeah

6:37

anywhere you're playing with other people because yeah Like

6:39

I mean, I obviously nobody's gonna call you

6:41

a noob in a single -player game But I

6:43

call myself a noob every time I play Skyrim

6:45

every time I pick it up. Yeah,

6:47

that's what you name your character Yeah, the noob.

6:49

I also love when people name

6:51

themselves like the noob slayer or something

6:53

like that Yeah, like I'm gonna

6:55

get all these new guys. Okay X

6:57

X underscore noob slayer X X

6:59

Yeah, so here's the next term. We're

7:01

gonna go into is cheese. I love

7:03

the term cheese Oh me too because

7:05

I love I love a good cheese

7:07

strategy I love a good stinky cheese

7:10

for a boss in a video game

7:12

We know the term cheese very well

7:14

because we did it a lot in

7:16

Destiny 1 and 2 That was where

7:18

we primarily cheese my favorite cheese the

7:20

atheon cheese where you could like slowly

7:22

kick him off the platform And he

7:24

just falls to his death and you

7:26

win the fight. That was my favorite

7:28

one Yeah, so I guess defining cheese

7:30

in in this context is like using

7:32

a specific strategy I

7:35

in like a single player or in a

7:37

PvE version like the Destiny thing you're talking

7:39

about is like using a strategy that the

7:41

developers clearly Did not intend in a way

7:43

that makes this fight makes a fight like

7:45

trivially easy, right? A fight that's supposed to

7:47

be very very difficult Maybe you just throw

7:49

grenades before you before the boss fight starts

7:51

and you eventually knock The boss

7:53

off the platform and they die and then you

7:56

don't even have to fight the boss That's an

7:58

example of cheese. There's also like the competitive

8:00

version of cheese where it's like you're using

8:02

a strategy that like really isn't a very

8:04

good strategy but if you can catch somebody

8:06

off guard with it you can probably win

8:09

like if they're ready for it you will

8:11

probably lose but if they're not ready for it

8:13

then you might be able to get them. Yeah

8:15

I think about League of Legends a lot

8:17

too that makes total sense. I think about

8:19

League of Legends a lot because there are

8:21

certain things you can do in League of

8:23

Legends where it's a cheese up to a

8:25

certain ranking. And then all those people know

8:28

about that and it's not going to work

8:30

anymore. And then it's a bad strategy because

8:32

it's very easy to counter if you know

8:34

how to counter it. Exactly. Yeah, and that's

8:36

what I think about. But I think the

8:38

origins of it actually come from a video

8:41

game that said cheese. Oh, it's kind of

8:43

cool. So 1994, the fighting game, primal

8:45

rage. This is like dinosaurs fighting each

8:47

other or like big monsters. When everyone

8:50

used like King Kong. but didn't say

8:52

King Kong yet you're trying to like

8:54

get around that like kind of like

8:56

rampage you know that kind of thing.

8:59

So that was what the game was

9:01

and in the game if you spammed

9:03

a certain move or a certain combo

9:05

too much the game would stop you

9:07

from using it like you couldn't do

9:10

it a piece of cheese would flash

9:12

on the top of the screen and

9:14

then it would say no more cheese

9:16

at the top. So that's where that's

9:18

where they claim it came it came

9:20

from. in the Game Facts article, I

9:22

read, or Game Facts board post, I

9:24

read, there wasn't a definition for

9:27

cheese in the game's radar article, so I

9:29

feel like we have to go with this,

9:31

but I do think cheese has kind of

9:33

become a thing, and you mentioned something else

9:36

about what you thought it was, which I

9:38

think you should bring up and tell people.

9:40

Yeah, well, and I suspect, and this

9:42

is based off of no research, you

9:45

did all the research for this one,

9:47

I haven't done anything this weekend, so

9:49

this is based purely off of, what

9:51

I suspect and somebody can tell me

9:53

if I'm wrong. I think it probably

9:55

comes from before primal rage and I

9:57

think that a cheese strategy is named.

9:59

So, because when someone is doing it,

10:01

they know what they're doing and they

10:04

are smiling the whole time because they

10:06

know they're being super, super, super annoying.

10:08

And so I can imagine in a

10:10

game like Primal Rage or games that

10:12

came before it, fighting games that came

10:14

before it, fighting games that came before

10:16

it, or games that came before it,

10:18

fighting games that came before it, fighting

10:20

games that came before it, they're just

10:22

smiling while they do it, they're cheeses

10:24

in it, they're cheeses in me. Look

10:26

at this guy cheesing, right? That's it.

10:28

He knows what he's doing. And see,

10:31

I like that definition too. I think

10:33

both apply in this case. I think

10:35

it's fine. I feel like too, the

10:37

definitions change of a lot of these,

10:39

like over time, you know, like we

10:41

said new became like, it was like

10:43

a insult, and now it's like very

10:45

much a thing that people say like,

10:47

I'm a new, can you show me

10:49

and they do that? That has different

10:51

definitions depending on what game you're playing.

10:53

Yeah, so I'm going to go off

10:55

of because I don't know anything about

10:58

this term and I was like genuinely

11:00

curious about it. I'm going off of

11:02

the term from real-time strategy where proxy

11:04

because proxy in like non-video game terms

11:06

is like this is a substitute, right?

11:08

This is a proxy for this one,

11:10

right? In real-time strategy they would use

11:12

proxies to like... Bill the building way

11:14

away from their base to do like

11:16

a secret attack So like you have

11:18

a proxy it means you have a

11:20

secret barrack somewhere that creates units so

11:23

you can attack this other place Or

11:25

if you're trying to hide something from

11:27

your opponent to sure you have proxies

11:29

around the map to like it's like

11:31

dupes and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah,

11:33

that are like almost deception. Yeah, yeah,

11:35

yeah, and that could be a cheese,

11:37

a form of cheese. It is. It

11:39

is related to cheese, I would say.

11:41

I didn't even mean to put those

11:43

next to each other, but you're 100%

11:45

right. They're related to each other. So

11:47

that's a really quick version of proxy.

11:50

I would say the origins of this

11:52

are Star Craft and... any time you

11:54

get really competitive RTS scenes, which I

11:56

feel like Starcraft, we could argue, is

11:58

the most competitive real-time strategy game out

12:00

there, as far as like, e-sports go.

12:02

So that's where it most likely came

12:04

from. But I think there's other terms

12:06

of proxy to. Yeah, you know, here,

12:08

it used in a game like League

12:10

of Legends or other games. Usually it

12:12

means like, it really depends on the

12:14

game, but usually it means like doing

12:17

something in a different way than normal.

12:19

but sometimes the people will say proxy

12:21

and you're like that doesn't even that

12:23

word doesn't even make sense here but

12:25

we all call it proxying so I

12:27

guess it's fine yeah or it's like

12:29

we kind of know what you mean

12:31

when you say it in the middle

12:33

of a fight like yeah exactly yeah

12:35

so all right the next term good

12:37

old-fashioned tea bagging okay we got to

12:39

talk about it so Seebagging is where

12:41

you crouch up and down over a

12:44

dead player and usually a first-person shooter

12:46

game It has its origins in halo

12:48

so much so that bungee even has

12:50

their own term for it which is

12:52

celebratory crouching I think its origins are

12:54

way before halo. That's like quake stuff.

12:56

Oh yeah, that's going way back because

12:58

the article I read said the reason

13:00

they said halo was because that was

13:02

the first time first-person shooters were really

13:04

popular on console. So like that's where

13:06

it became like it became like popular

13:08

in a well-known term, but I would

13:11

completely agree with you in saying that

13:13

we're talking unreal tournament, we're talking quake,

13:15

like people were too long before that.

13:17

It goes long before that. It goes

13:19

long before that. Any game or competitive

13:21

game where you can crouch is just

13:23

crouching over the enemy. It's classic. Still

13:25

makes me mad too when people do

13:27

it to me. I hold a grudge.

13:29

I don't. I don't because I know

13:31

that's that's what they want when they

13:33

do that. That's what they want. And

13:35

then you do it back to them

13:38

though? You can't be honest, Tyler. You

13:40

can't, oh wow, good Tyler here. I

13:42

do it back to them. I'm a

13:44

terrible person. Yeah, it depends. It depends

13:46

on how I'm feeling in the match,

13:48

I guess. It's kind of funny though,

13:50

because when someone is t-bagging you the

13:52

whole match, if you kill them and

13:54

then do it back then you know

13:56

you've got them really got them really

13:58

got to do it. Yeah. Yeah. I'm

14:00

really mad at that moment. Okay, that's

14:02

the funny part. Okay. Also, they

14:05

say a popularity of this term

14:07

came from Red versus Blue, which

14:09

is if we are ever going to

14:11

cover like a show on this podcast,

14:14

Red versus Blue would be a good

14:16

one. Yeah, Machinima in general would be

14:18

a cool cover. So that's again,

14:20

take one off a list, add one on

14:22

to the list, this whole episode.

14:25

All right, the next term is

14:27

Smurf, Smurfinging. different definitions

14:29

for smurfing two different origins

14:31

of smurfing. Okay. So the first is

14:33

from the game facts article board post. I

14:36

keep saying article. It's a board post.

14:38

It is not any sort of research

14:40

official thing other than this person that

14:42

posted it. But I feel like they

14:44

did a good job. So I'm going

14:46

to give them their credit. It's all

14:49

we got. You know. Yeah. And it's

14:51

also probably better than Wikipedia. So this

14:53

is a direct quote from the game

14:55

facts board post. The exact beginnings of

14:57

the usage of this term were somewhat

14:59

difficult to track down, but most sources,

15:01

notably reports from groups, Alt. Games. Starcraft

15:03

and Alt. Games. Warcraft, seemed to

15:05

agree it started during Warcraft

15:08

2. one of the earliest games to

15:10

actually have an online ranking feature.

15:12

It points to a couple of

15:14

players in particular that went by

15:16

the names schlongor and warp who

15:19

created new accounts named Papa Smurf

15:21

and Smurfett respectively to play against

15:23

low ranking players end quote. So

15:25

that's kind of cool. We have

15:27

like an actual definitive two

15:30

people that did this. Now were they the

15:32

first to do it? It's kind of hard

15:34

to say. Yeah, the concept of creating a

15:36

new account to... to be matched with different

15:38

people in a game that's matched by

15:41

skill like that probably goes way back.

15:43

I mean, you could probably go back

15:45

into chess tournaments of people who signed

15:47

up under a different name so that

15:49

they would get to play against new

15:51

people like way before video games. That

15:54

would be smurfing, although we wouldn't call

15:56

it smurfing because they didn't name their,

15:58

unless they're themselves, Papa Smur. I doubt, but in

16:00

a chess tournament in like the 70s a guy named Papa Smurf.

16:02

I love that. That's cool. That would be pretty funny. That would, I'd

16:04

do that if I were to time travel back in time. I would

16:06

get really good at chess and then I would smurf in chess by

16:08

calling myself Papa Smurf. You're doing it and the whole time you're

16:11

like if the bid is legit, you must commit. That's what I would do.

16:13

There's all these things people talk about what they would do if they would

16:15

do if they would do if they would do if they would do if

16:17

they would do if they would do if they went back in, if they

16:19

went back in, if they went back in, if they went back in, if

16:21

they went back in, if they went back in, if they went back in,

16:23

if they went back in, back in, back in, back in, back in, back

16:25

in, back in, back in, back in, back in, back in, back in, back

16:27

in, You know what's funny is I often

16:29

get like thinking about like why didn't

16:31

I bit by Bitcoin when I was

16:33

in college and I was like oh

16:36

yeah I had no money in college

16:38

I forget about that part. So the

16:40

other version of Smurfing I found is

16:42

from the games radar article and it

16:44

says Smurfing is a term used in

16:47

banking actually. It is used to describe

16:49

a large money holder opening up an

16:51

account and slipping small increments of money

16:53

into it. The money amounts are small enough

16:55

to slip past certain constraints that large

16:58

money transactions have to abide by and

17:00

therefore can be deposited secretly to conceal

17:02

the ultimate purpose for which the money

17:04

will be used. That's a direct money

17:06

transactions have to abide by and therefore

17:08

can be deposited secretly to conceal

17:11

the ultimate purpose for which the money will

17:13

be used. That's the direct quote from the

17:15

United States. Struct in a way to not

17:17

trip. money, things like that, that's not

17:19

legal. It's not legal. It's not

17:21

legal. So Smurfing is illegal, both

17:23

in video games and IRL and

17:25

banking. Yeah, I would love to

17:27

hear the origins of the banking

17:29

version of that because I wonder

17:31

if it almost comes from like

17:33

the video game term, right, of like,

17:36

oh, this guy's smurfing pretending to

17:38

be something he's not. Mm-hmm. Well,

17:40

that's going to be on our

17:43

next podcast, Rollidex, History of Banking.

17:45

Yeah, that's good. That's good. All

17:47

right. I got Tyler with that one.

17:50

That's good. Yeah. Yeah. We're keeping that

17:52

one right? Yeah, we're going to get

17:54

it. Roll index someone someone

17:56

clip that. Okay. So the next

17:59

one is. The game facts

18:01

article says it's from the

18:03

1980s hacker scene, but it's

18:05

pretty clear where this comes

18:08

from. It's pretty clear where

18:10

this comes from. That goes

18:12

into like the lead speak

18:14

stuff where things are misspelled

18:17

on purpose specifically typos. And

18:19

the game facts article says

18:21

it's from the 1980s hacker

18:23

scene, but it's pretty hard

18:26

to say like. where this is

18:28

from, like, I wouldn't surprise me if

18:30

they were using it in the night,

18:32

like the idea that I now pawn

18:34

the server or own the server. Yeah,

18:36

if I have full control over the

18:38

server, I own the server now. Yeah, so

18:40

that kind of idea is from it.

18:43

Again, I think of ideas from it.

18:45

Again, I think we could do a

18:47

whole episode on Leatspeak, but I also

18:49

don't think that would be very

18:51

exciting. Unless maybe we could get

18:54

like some sort of guest. Yeah, for

18:56

sure. Because otherwise it's a lot

18:58

of... academic paperwork that I didn't want

19:00

to read this week. Sorry, podcast. Okay, Mike,

19:02

I'm about that. Let's do a whole academic

19:05

paperwork podcast. You know, do a little, do

19:07

a little, do a little, got some footnotes

19:09

going on. Okay, yeah. So now we're going

19:11

to get into our final two terms, which

19:13

are not really any at all slang related,

19:15

but they are related to just like video

19:17

game terms that we see in a lot

19:19

of video games. So the first one we're

19:22

going to do is HP, hit points, hit

19:24

points or health points or health points or

19:26

health points, and the origins of this, So

19:28

Dave Arneson who is elicited as a

19:30

co-creator of D&D was adapting a

19:33

different medieval war game called Chain

19:35

Mail to a fantasy setting and

19:37

that would eventually become Dungeons

19:39

and Dragons. And the interesting thing about

19:41

this is this was a jump in

19:44

tabletop gaming history where we're moving

19:46

from like large armies where it's

19:48

like war hammer style where you're

19:50

like working your army versus another

19:52

army to individual. Heroes, character,

19:55

strategic, more tactical. Exactly, and

19:57

also more storytelling-based, and see.

19:59

that the player would get attached to,

20:01

right? And in those war games, the early

20:03

ones, I mean, I could be speaking

20:06

at a turn here, but I feel they

20:08

were kind of ruthless. Like, if you got

20:10

a bad role, you're just dead. Like, you

20:12

send your armies in, they die, you don't

20:15

care beyond the fact that you're losing now,

20:17

and that sucks. Exactly. So what Arneston

20:19

did is, he understood that players

20:22

wanted their characters to survive

20:24

multiple roles, right? So he

20:26

created this hit points would be

20:28

incrementally decreased. And since many early

20:30

video games were based on Dungeons

20:33

and Dragons, like we're talking about

20:35

our muds, those kind of like

20:37

multi-user dungeons, like that kind of-

20:40

You know, your Dragon Age, three of

20:42

the old guards? Yeah, your text-based games,

20:44

even like going way back, like we're

20:46

looking at HP, and so that just

20:48

kind of became the standard that we

20:50

all know and love. And again, like

20:52

we want to do a D&D's influence

20:54

on video games at some point, but

20:57

the topic is so- incredibly daunting

20:59

to me that we might have to take

21:01

it in shifts. So just keep that

21:03

in mind, but this was a little, little

21:06

preview, a little preview for you.

21:08

Okay. So the final term we're

21:10

talking about today is manna, as

21:12

in magic, like, you know, resources,

21:14

your manna. I have no manna

21:17

freak from that. And this is

21:19

actually a biblical term. So that's

21:21

what we're talking about. This is

21:23

from the games radar article. Betka

21:25

says, quote, mana's origins date. all the

21:27

way back to biblical days. Then

21:30

it was called manna and that's

21:32

spelled M-A-N-N-A and was consumed a

21:34

mana or mana and consumed by

21:36

Israelites on their quest to find

21:39

the holy land. So literally manna

21:41

was always understood as a replenishing

21:43

of the soul and body. How

21:45

then did it get from the Bible

21:47

to video games? Best guesses are

21:50

through the fantasy writer Larry Niven

21:52

who in 1969 used the word

21:54

manna and that's with one end as

21:56

we know it. today in his popular short

21:58

story not long before the the end. This

22:00

story inspired novels and tabletop board games,

22:03

even to the extent that Terry Prachit

22:05

adopted the term in his own disc

22:07

world series, from tabletops to video games,

22:10

Manna has had the same movement as

22:12

HP, end quote. I just thought that

22:14

was really interesting. I had

22:16

no idea. That's where Mauna or Manna came

22:19

from. Yeah. It's a like I guess

22:21

it comes probably from the need to

22:23

sort of gate your your usage of

22:25

magic spells behind something like what's going

22:27

to keep you from just spamming your

22:29

most strongest spells all the time cheesing

22:31

if you will. You need some sort of

22:33

resource and then it's like okay well what

22:35

do we call this resource? Where does the

22:38

magic come from? comes from your soul I

22:40

guess and yeah I guess that makes sense. You

22:42

don't want to do spell slots?

22:44

I only have so many spell

22:46

slots left. Spell slots. Yeah, I

22:48

don't, I still don't understand spell

22:50

slots. I mean, okay, do you

22:52

want me to break it down

22:54

to you? Do you want to do

22:56

that? Do you want to do it

22:58

on the podcast? Yes. Okay, so you

23:01

have in Dungeons and Dragons and we're

23:03

going to go off 5E 2014.

23:05

I haven't read the new players

23:07

handbook. Just everyone. You have a certain

23:10

number of spell slots for each level

23:12

spell you have. So you might have

23:14

three first level spell slots. That means

23:16

you can cast three first level spells

23:18

before you can no longer cast those

23:21

spells. You have like one second

23:23

level spell slot. So you can

23:25

only cast one second level spell

23:27

slot. So you can only cast

23:29

one second level spell. There are ways

23:31

to cast your spells at a higher level.

23:33

So they do more. And you have to read

23:35

the book to see what that does. But

23:37

that's. the essence of spell slots. I think,

23:39

because I've heard, I actually have a friend

23:42

who plays D&D using an alternative system

23:44

that's more like manna, like spell points. Yeah, I

23:46

say that sounds like a better way to do

23:48

it of like just make your higher level spells

23:50

cost more and yeah, and you have like a

23:53

pool of spell points and you can kind of

23:55

divide it up any way you want. I think

23:57

it's just a personal preference. I've always gone off

23:59

slots. But also I completely like,

24:01

I mean, I don't know about other people

24:04

out there, I completely ignore components.

24:06

I don't focus on resources or components

24:08

in my D&D games. I don't

24:10

care if you have a silver piece

24:12

for whatever for this spell. I don't I

24:14

don't care. I'm not going to make it

24:17

keep track of it. Again, it's like D&D

24:19

is interesting because I like

24:21

the the idea that like different groups

24:23

of different things based on like. what

24:25

they want to focus on as

24:28

far as like, and I'm going

24:30

to use the term realism here

24:32

very broadly in this game about

24:35

magic and dragons. But like, yeah,

24:37

like, you know, because some people

24:39

track like rations, right? And I'm

24:42

like, I'm like, I'm not going

24:44

to, unless we're in a place

24:46

that's actually rations, right? And I'm

24:49

like, I'm not going to, unless

24:51

we're in a place that's actually

24:53

dangerous, it's actually, we did a

24:56

different thing that was easier and

24:58

better. And you know what, that's a

25:00

nice thing about Dungeons and Dragons,

25:02

or playing games with your friends

25:04

is, we're just here to have

25:07

fun. Exactly. If the way we're doing it

25:09

is not fun, we do it a different

25:11

way. Who cares? I think so too. If

25:13

you know what, if you are a person

25:15

listening to this podcast and you play

25:17

D&D or you DM D&D, let

25:19

me know. Do you use components

25:22

for your spells? Do you track

25:24

that stuff? real play podcasts, you know,

25:26

where people like critical role and that

25:28

kind of stuff, adventure zone, and they

25:30

never talk about it. So I'm like, maybe

25:32

they're just skipping that part or they're just

25:35

doing it in the back, editing, you know,

25:37

the magic of editing. We don't know what's

25:39

going on really. So yeah, I'm just always

25:41

curious what people do. Yeah, and maybe it depends

25:43

on if if the Dungeon Master sees himself as

25:46

the. the adversary to the players or if they're

25:48

helping the players to have fun on their journey

25:50

that probably makes a difference too like what do

25:52

they want to make it hard on purpose because

25:54

that's what they think their job is or or

25:56

what I don't know I'm sure different dams have different

25:58

styles I've never been in. Yeah, man, one

26:00

of the hardest things, we're going on

26:02

tang, did you have the tangent button

26:04

ready? Do you have it ready? Uh,

26:06

oh, you always got it ready. When

26:08

I was running my cursus rod campaign,

26:10

like the hardest thing to me, welcome

26:13

to D&D Hour with my control, by

26:15

the way. The hardest thing for me

26:17

was trying to make it scary. Because

26:19

as much as I wanted it to

26:21

be like a scary horror story, also

26:23

so much of it became like. Leslie

26:26

Nielsen and Dracula dead and loving it just

26:28

like really silly like at one point I

26:30

had him like pop out of the coffin

26:32

clap disappear and then his like lady vampires

26:35

came and attacked the party I'm like you

26:37

know what it's only so much we can

26:39

do about making it really genuinely scary you

26:42

know it's like comedy up and down up

26:44

and down but yeah anyway that's

26:46

just something interesting we should talk

26:48

about Dungeons Dragons as obviously I

26:50

like talking about it, but okay. Ballersgate

26:52

Dark Alliance is way too expensive on

26:55

steam. This is me getting upset about

26:57

it, looking directly on the camera, because

26:59

it costs like $20, and I'm like,

27:01

this game is over 20 years old.

27:04

Why are you looking straight into into

27:06

Gabe Newell's eyes? I'm looking at you.

27:08

Please make this game cheaper, Gabe, even

27:10

though it's not your game at all. You

27:12

have zero control over it. Tell them to put

27:14

it on sale. Okay, but that's all I got

27:16

it. an interesting one I thought and something I

27:18

did want to cover and talk about. If you're

27:20

interested in this kind of thing, let us know.

27:22

Tell us what other words you'd like to hear because I

27:24

could see this being something maybe we slip into other episodes. We

27:26

were just like, yeah, okay, we talked about the subject and at

27:28

the end we're like, and we got a word that we want

27:30

to talk about. Oh, that would be a fun segment to do.

27:33

There's a couple that are really dark. Like I took a couple

27:35

out of here because they were like, like, like, like, like, like,

27:37

like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like,

27:39

like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like,

27:41

like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like,

27:43

like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like Maybe

27:45

we can get to that. That's a good idea to

27:47

make it a segment at the end. I like

27:49

that. Yeah, a little video game boat cab. Doesn't

27:51

have to happen every episode, but it could be

27:53

fun. Yeah, kind of like 20 questions. I

27:55

like that. Or the blind ranking we do. That's fun.

27:57

Oh, yeah. Okay. So what you've been playing this.

28:00

week, Tyler, this week, I've been playing,

28:02

let's see. I finished, maybe I

28:04

said this last time I finished Mario

28:06

and Luigi. Did I say that

28:08

already? You did say that, but that's important to

28:10

mention again, because you should be proud of yourself.

28:12

I did finish it. I'm very proud of myself.

28:14

Um, I haven't spent a lot of time this

28:16

week playing very many video games because I live

28:18

in Los Angeles and everything's on fire. That's true.

28:20

So I'm recorded. Yeah. I'm good, uh, just for

28:22

anybody who's wondering, I'm, I'm good. We're packed ready

28:24

to go, but we're, we can't even see the

28:26

smoke from our house anymore. We used to see

28:29

a lot of fire, but now we can't even

28:31

see the smoke. So that's good. It's good. Um,

28:33

and, uh, but I did start

28:35

last night playing metaphor refantasia. I

28:37

put about an hour and a

28:39

half into it. Um, how

28:41

is it? It's so far so good. I mean,

28:44

it's a, it's very, feels very persona -like. So

28:46

you can't even really, the game doesn't even really

28:48

start till probably 10 hours in, I bet. Um,

28:50

is there a medieval high school? Is

28:53

there like, no, it's not a, as far as I know, it's

28:55

not a high school, but it is medieval. Is there

28:57

a Hogwarts situation going on? No,

29:01

no, I thought there were children. Are they

29:03

not children still? Are they adults now? They, they

29:05

are not children. They're, they are

29:07

young adults. Um, it's, it's

29:09

very, it's a little bit more. Well, I'm only,

29:11

I'm not that far in. So I don't

29:13

even have a full party yet. Um, but of

29:15

course you, it's got all the tropes. I

29:17

got a, a crotchety crusty old guy. We got

29:19

the young hotshot. We got the main character who

29:21

is flawless. Uh,

29:24

that kind of stuff. Um, I bet in the end you

29:27

fight a God. Oh yeah, you

29:29

are for, for sure. Taking down a

29:31

God by the end of this

29:33

game. Absolutely. Um, it's, it's, uh, it

29:35

feels a little heavy -handed in some

29:37

of its themes. Uh, the terrible,

29:39

horrifying monsters are just called humans. Um,

29:43

so you're not, you, you look like a human in this

29:45

game, but you are not playing as a human. Um,

29:47

and some of the characters

29:49

have like horns or like there's,

29:51

they're kind of anthropomorphic, uh, animal

29:53

things that are mostly human like,

29:56

uh, but humans, humans, sorry, humans in

29:58

the real world sense, humans in game

30:00

are grotesque, awful looking creatures

30:02

who are there. I'm sure they're

30:04

saying something deeper there, but it's

30:06

pretty heavy handed at this point.

30:08

You're like, oh, the humans are

30:10

the monsters. Got it. Yeah, the

30:13

monsters all along. Yeah, so that's

30:15

that's kind of it. And I've

30:17

been watching my partner play a

30:19

lot of Hogwarts legacy. Ooh, cast and

30:21

spells. I've known rooms. Yep, it looks really,

30:23

really fun. Been having some hardware issues with

30:25

the PC we're using, which is kind of

30:28

a bummer, but, uh, great. Might have to

30:30

send a graphics card back. We'll see.

30:32

Ah, I see. Cool, dual warranty. Well, I've

30:34

been playing Indiana Jones more. Oh, I did

30:36

put a little bit of time into that

30:38

too. Yeah, I left

30:41

the Vatican, I went

30:43

to Giza, which is

30:46

spelled G-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-I-E-E-E-I-E-I-E-I-I-E-I-E-I-I-E-I-I-E-I-I-E-I-E-E-E-E-E-I-E-E-E-E-E-I- And I had to

30:48

Google, because I thought Giza was GIA,

30:50

but I think it's alternate spellings, based

30:52

on a British spelling. I think. Oh, okay.

30:54

So it's interesting. Learning things. I love the

30:56

game, though. I'm just kind of like wandering

30:59

around, and I just kind of run into

31:01

stuff, and it just like, it does feel

31:03

like you're discovering. It just feels

31:06

good. Yeah. I'm really digging it. I played

31:08

that. I kind of haven't played any

31:10

metal gear solid five since last week. Oh

31:12

yeah, we got to get back on that

31:14

train. The game's so long though. I

31:16

feel like I'm making you sit with

31:18

me through a long, long, long, long

31:21

movie by making you watch we play

31:23

it. I've been watching you play all

31:25

the other metal gears. That's true. I

31:27

won't be offended if you play without

31:29

me because I know five by itself

31:31

is probably as long as the rest

31:33

of the series put together. Yeah, yeah,

31:35

it is. I do dig it though.

31:37

I like it a lot. They'll be

31:39

like, oh, the Nazis will be like,

31:41

oh, we lost him. Let's go back to

31:44

doing what we're doing. Yeah, everybody got to

31:46

regular alert. Everything's fine. Yeah, let's be gone.

31:48

We haven't seen him in 30 seconds. He's

31:50

gone. It was all a dream. It's fine.

31:52

So it was pretty fun though. I'm enjoying

31:54

myself. And then I'm probably going to play

31:57

that probably to play some more Zelda

31:59

again, like. I haven't even been playing a lot

32:01

of games. I've been like just burned at night. Do

32:03

you ever get that feeling where you just get done?

32:05

And you're just like, I gotta just like chill out

32:07

and watch YouTube and like let my brain decompress. So

32:09

that's kind of where I've been in. Books too, like

32:11

a real nerd. Oh, yeah. Well, next week, well, next

32:13

week, we got, we got an interview next week. That's

32:16

true. And I did read that book. Yeah, I'm excited.

32:18

I'm in the middle of that book. I'm in the

32:20

middle of that book. I'm in the middle of that

32:22

book. I'm in the middle of that book. I'm in

32:24

the middle of that book. I'm in the middle of

32:26

that book. I'm in the middle of that book. I'm

32:28

in the middle of that book. I'm in the middle

32:30

of that book. I'm in the middle of that book.

32:32

I'm in the middle of that book. I'm in the

32:34

middle of that book. I on the docket for next

32:36

episode. But for now, if you want to email us

32:38

about anything we talked about today, you can do Codex

32:41

History podcast@gmail.com. You can go to Codex podcast.net. That's our

32:43

website where we got everything on there. And then you

32:45

could join our discord from there as well. You could

32:47

send us a contact form email. You could look at

32:49

our trello boards to see what we're playing. But with

32:51

that up to date. Oh, I do. Yeah, move metaphor

32:53

over. Make sure everyone knows. I was going to have

32:55

you say goodbye to everyone, but I'm going to wait

32:57

on it until you move metaphor over. I did it.

32:59

We moved it over. Now it's in the playing category.

33:01

Nice. Awesome. Okay. Are you ready to say goodbye to

33:03

everybody? Yeah. Goodbye everybody.