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Episode 119 - Tony Tackles Total Talking

Eclectic Gamers Podcast·podcast_episode·49m 59s·analyzed·Jul 12, 2020
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.029

TL;DR

Solo host Tony covers JJP personnel news, copyright strike concerns, and video game industry shifts.

Summary

Tony hosts solo on Eclectic Gamers discussing pinball news including Jim Patla appointment as COO at Jersey Jack Pinball and widespread Rick and Morty copyright strikes affecting streamers. The episode pivots to lengthy video game discussion covering next-gen console pricing ($69.99), streaming subscription services, and allegations of sexual misconduct at Ubisoft leading to executive resignations.

Key Claims

  • Jim Patla brings over 50 years of industry experience to Jersey Jack Pinball as new COO, with history at Bally and Williams Electronics

    high confidence · Jersey Jack Pinball press release announcement discussed directly

  • Multiple streamers including Deadflip received copyright strikes from Warner Brothers on Rick and Morty gameplay content

    high confidence · Deadflip confirmed strike; Spooky Pinball posted Facebook warning about strikes on owned content

  • Three copyright strikes in a three-month period on YouTube results in permanent channel shutdown

    high confidence · Host states as YouTube policy fact

  • NBA 2K21 announced at $69.99 for next-gen consoles vs $59.99 for current-gen, with no free upgrade

    high confidence · 2K Sports announcement discussed as industry pricing signal

  • Video game production typically costs $10,000 per person per month, resulting in $10-15 million budgets for AAA titles

    medium confidence · Host cites 2017 article estimate

  • Licensed pinball themes (Star Wars, Guardians, Willy Wonka) drive significantly higher sales than non-licensed themes

    medium confidence · Host opinion based on market observation

Notable Quotes

  • “We have even had videos we own full rights to and permissions for removed as well. We are not sure why this is happening, but please be aware and be cautious.”

    Spooky Pinball (Facebook post, cited by host) @ N/A — Indicates even legitimate content owners are being caught in copyright strike automation

  • “I honestly don't have a good answer here. I don't know how you could really play and stream these games without showing the back boxes.”

    Tony (host) @ N/A — Highlights the fundamental conflict between streaming pinball and copyright protection of LCD content

  • “I think that the whole world of literature is something that has been kind of bypassed at this point, especially with LCD screens becoming so prevalent and the need for such large licenses.”

    Tony (host) @ N/A — Observation about licensing constraints limiting non-blockbuster IP on modern pinball

  • “I think that's the kind of thing that we're going to see more of are these smaller titles... these are the titles that I'm spending more of my time on.”

    Tony (host) @ N/A — Reflects broader gaming trend toward indie games over AAA titles

  • “We as the consumer are not the only consumers out there. And us as the subsection of fans are not the only people playing.”

    Tony (host) @ N/A — Meta-commentary on niche enthusiast vs. mainstream consumer dynamics in both gaming and pinball

Entities

Jim PatlapersonJersey Jack PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyDeadflippersonWarner BrotherscompanyRick and Mortygame2K SportscompanyWilliams Electronicscompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Video game industry relying on annual franchise releases (Call of Duty, Madden, FIFA) with high price points ($69.99) and significant loot box monetization

    high · Host discussion of yearly sports game releases at premium pricing; notes $5,000+ in loot box spending potential per game

  • ?

    community_signal: Enthusiast consumers (non-licensed pinball preference, hardcore players) are not the primary revenue drivers; mainstream consumers drive majority of sales

    medium · Host reflection: 'we as the consumer are not the only consumers out there... We may be the more hardcore, but we are not where all of the real money is coming from'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Rick and Morty pinball experiencing widespread copyright strikes from Warner Brothers affecting streamers and content creators, including official Spooky content

    high · Spooky Pinball Facebook warning; Deadflip confirmed copyright strike from Warner Brothers on reveal video; multiple streamers reporting removals

  • ?

    licensing_signal: LCD screens showing licensed movie/TV clips creating copyright vulnerability for streamers; content showing backbox footage at risk of strikes

    high · Host discusses licensed material on LCD screens as source of copyright strikes; notes difficulty streaming games without showing backbox content

  • $

    market_signal: Licensed pinball themes (Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, Willy Wonka) drive substantially higher sales than non-licensed themes

    medium · Host opinion: 'You need a Star Wars, a Guardians of the Galaxy, a Willy Wonka. Those are the kind of machines you need to really get the big sales.'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.150

0:00
This episode of the Eclectic Gamers podcast is brought to you by the Roanoke Pinball Museum in Roanoke, Virginia. The Roanoke Pinball Museum is an interactive museum dedicated to the science and history of pinball. Their mission is to cultivate curiosity in science, art, and history through pinball while preserving and honoring its role in American culture. The museum is open every day except Monday and houses over 65 machines with models ranging from 1932 to 2018. Sadly, no Ceylon models have survived. Grown up among his head, by your command.
0:58
In the past, Dennis has flown solo a few times when I had issues and was unable to arrive, and this is my first go at it. So to all of you who have not already turned off the podcast because Dennis isn't here, thank you, and I hope you enjoy it. Just quick bits of news on me. I'm off furlough. I did lots of yard work during my furlough. Unfortunately, I got into some poison sumac, and it has not been a pleasant set of time. While I am healing from that, I ended up having to get into a fair amount of medication from the doctor because it got so bad and infected. In addition to all of that joy, my computer died. So for those of you who know me and my gaming being primarily computer-based and obviously recording the podcast being computer-based, that is a problem. I had replaced my computer My new computer is very much faster than my old one And I've been playing lots of video games because of it Primarily satisfactory Which I've talked about in the past And with this new system actually able to handle it I might return to doing some video game streaming If people are interested in that With those bits of news out of the way I think we'll go ahead and just slide straight into the news today Obviously with it just being me It will probably be a shorter episode So in pinball news There has been a press release Sent out by Jersey Jack Pinball They've announced Jim Patla As Chief Operating Officer He brings over 50 years of industry experience To the Elk Grove Village Illinois based pinball company As Chief Operating Officer Mr. Patla will oversee business operations And ensure the effective operational and financial procedures are in place. For those of you who are not familiar with him, Jim Patla has worked in pinball for years. He started in the 60s working for Bally. After Bally was purchased by Williams Electronics, he was promoted to Director of Product Development at Williams, and he remained in that position until Williams left pinball in 1999. So there's a fairly large amount of experience in the pinball industry joining the team there. So congratulations to Jim and to Jersey Jack Pinball. Going on from that, we're going to go into the biggest chunk that I want to talk about in Pinball today, which is the Rick and Morty copyright strikes. There have been a rash of copyright strikes and takedowns around Rick and Morty gameplay as of late. Spooky posted on their Facebook page a warning that streamers and video content creators were getting reports that your content is being removed by robots, humans, not sure, but it is not Spooky Pinball LLC doing this. We have even had videos we own full rights to and permissions for removed as well. We are not sure why this is happening, but please be aware and be cautious. Deadflip Pinball has confirmed that he received a copyright strike from Warner Brothers on his Rick and Morty Pinball reveal video on YouTube.
Bally
company
Dr. Disrespectperson
Twitchcompany
Ubisoftcompany
Sergey Hasketperson
Yanis Malatperson
Cecilia Cornetteperson
Maxime Ballandperson
Tommy Francoisperson
Dennisperson
Tonyperson
Roanoke Pinball Museumorganization
  • $

    market_signal: Video game next-gen pricing increase from $59.99 to $69.99 for NBA 2K21; potential shift in industry pricing standard

    high · 2K Sports announcement; host predicts $70 becoming new AAA game launch price; discussion of cost inflation and production budget increases

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Jim Patla appointed as COO at Jersey Jack Pinball, bringing 50+ years industry experience from Bally and Williams

    high · Jersey Jack Pinball press release announcement; host confirms Patla's history at Bally (1960s) and Williams (Director of Product Development until 1999)

  • ?

    technology_signal: Streaming community vulnerability to automated and manual copyright strikes affecting livelihoods; YouTube policy of three strikes = channel shutdown

    high · Host discusses impact of copyright strikes on content creators relying on YouTube income; notes difference between automated algorithmic strikes and human-filed takedowns

    • 4:03
    Now, these kind of content strikes are not uncommon in the video game streaming community and in the YouTube community. the questions that come behind are these the kind of automated strikes that happen when the computer algorithms decide that you're doing something that has caused an issue or is it one of the human filed bigger more important strikes if you receive the big human file takedowns or you receive three copyright strikes in a three month period on YouTube they will shut your channel down and everything that you've had on it is gone And for people who are streaming a lot or relying on YouTube for some or even all of their income, that can be a devastating loss to lose your entire channel over copyright strikes. And I think especially for the pinball streaming community, given how often streams are from locations such as bars or restaurants and how often streams are in less controlled conditions, we have to worry about these kind of strikes that will come in. We spoke on a recent episode about the strikes on Twitch, the DMCA strikes that have been happening due to large amounts of music strikes, primarily. Strikes because people, streamers had music going on in the background from like Spotify or wherever, and they would trigger the strikes and they would get videos pulled down. I've heard stories of musicians giving copyright strikes on songs that they wrote and performed themselves, streams being taken down because they were live streaming while walking outside down a street past a restaurant with music from outside speakers at the restaurant. So this is something that is kind of growing and becoming a more common issue, especially to streamers and content creators, and it's something that we need to keep an eye on. I would recommend for those content creators to avoid having background music playing. I know for a lot of people it's something that they just have naturally. They always have music going in the background. But it is a very common source of strikes, especially even when it has nothing to do with what you're actively doing. Just the fact of the music being in the background can be an issue. I would also recommend depending upon the game you're playing you might have to have serious considerations if you want to have an actual stream of the monitor the LCD on a lot of these newer games show actual clips from licensed material movies and such and that's a possible source for these copyright strikes I honestly don't have a good answer here I don't know how you could really play and stream these games without showing the back boxes I don't know how you could really stream and play these games Without having the sound and the music that makes up so much of the game be part of it But these are all things that as a creator You're going to have to make your own decisions on And whether it's going to be the question is it worth the chance of losing your content or possibly the entirety of your channel to stream a certain game and if this is something that turns out to be common with only certain license holders so if it becomes something that is very prevalent with Rick and Morty but something that is not prevalent with another title like Willy Wonka or Turtles or whatever then is it worth your risk to actually stream Rick and Morty?
    8:07
    This is not a good answer. This is a situation that on the video game side of things, people have been dealing with for a while now, but the situation is different because for the most part, the licensees are held by the gaming companies.
    8:25
    So if you're playing Call of Duty, then the people you would have to worry about copyright striking you are the makers of Call of Duty. And they have found, at least on their end of things, in the video game end of things, that it is better to let people stream the games because it tends to push sales of games. Because if popular streamers are playing and enjoying the game, more people will purchase the game due to having seen it streamed. So for them, on the video game side of it, it's very much a marketing decision to allow those streams to remain up and to allow that kind of content to remain up.
    9:08
    I don't think it really works that way on the pinball side. We talked last episode with Travis about pinball marketing, and the very fact of the beast is pinball is hard to market. It's expensive. and I don't really know that people streaming pinball is going to be getting the kind of boost to sales that would be seen from the people streaming video games. Like Travis said, there are better ways for them to do reveals than what we have been seeing and I think those would be a good way to go.
    9:52
    But I don't know how many people have made a pinball decision based upon actually watching somebody play a pinball machine.
    9:59
    I'm just not positive that that is where we are due to the cost of pinball and the availability of pinball. The other thing to consider is, are these strikes true strikes?
    10:13
    There are a lot of what you'd call copyright trolls out there, third-party companies that grab and will put out strikes on behalf of other groups. Some of them are valid. Some of them are not valid. It's part of this modern interconnected world that we have going, and it's something that we're going to have to feel our way through.
    10:40
    In my personal opinion, as I've said, I feel that playing a game and streaming the gameplay should be considered fair use, but it doesn't necessarily fall that way. I think we're going to be hearing a lot more about this, not just in pinball, but overall as times go forward. I know with the recent lockdowns, there have been a lot more people streaming games online, and there have been a lot more DCMA hits online, especially on Twitch because of it. it's kind of getting a more well known it's becoming less niche and more in the general consciousness so it's being more widespread hmm I just really think this is going to be a tough run for streamers in general I would say though keep an eye open remember if you get a copyright strike it's not something you should ignore because it can cause you It can cause you your channel. You need to either pull it or counter it and keep a track on it and hope for the best. For all those streamers out there and those content creators out there, that's all we can really do. Moving on, this is going less into the news and just more into the pinball thoughts that have been in my head for a while. We talked multiple times about dream themes and games that we think could make for fun or would be a good license but might not necessarily sell well enough or be popular enough to ever be worthwhile making I know we talked about Dennis has spoken on occasion about you know an Overwatch pinball machine I've talked about all sorts of stuff from the 90s and the 80s. And thinking along those lines, I have had a realization that even in that theme, we've still been locking ourselves into a more recent vintage than we necessarily have to. something with a how would I want to put it a more vintage feel I think could prove to be a lot of fun specifically I was thinking about authors the other day and some of the especially older novels that I've read and something along the lines of H.G. Wells' Time Machine or War of the Worlds The Invisible Man Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea all are titles that are well known to everybody but in the right hands with modern technology and the art that we've seen on pinball machines lately I think would be something that could be done in a more interesting way. I just don't know that any of them would sell well enough. Taking the kind of art we've seen on machines for the last 5, 10 years and combining that with a setting as inherently interesting as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea could make for a table that is both beautiful and a game that is interesting and fun to play. There have been so many variety of adaptations of the story over the years.
    14:47
    There's been anime adaptations and movie adaptations and comic book adaptations. there's all sorts of places that we could pull clips and bits or I don't want to say clips because that gets back to our copyright strike problem but ideas and hooks from that I think could make for a beautiful machine if not one that is something that would be actually sellable. I think that the whole world of literature is something that has been kind of bypassed at this point, especially with LCD screens becoming so prevalent and the need for such large licenses, really, to get a machine to sell. You need a Star Wars, a Guardians of the Galaxy, a Willy Wonka. Those are the kind of machines you need to really get the big sales. The smaller machines, the non-licensed themes as much as us as pinball players want them just don't really sell. They don't have the same draw as those licensed machines do. So looking at a more literary basis to take ideas for a pinball machine from, besides those as a start. Just like with movies, there are always going to be some books, some literature that is going to be too much. It's going to be too serious. It's going to be too deep. It's going to be too large to really be encompassed in a meaningful way in a pinball machine. I don't recall ever seeing or playing Shawshank Redemption, the pinball machine, and I don't think we'll be seeing War and Peace, the pinball machine, or North and South, the pinball machine. There are just certain things that I think would be too much, but there's a kind of what I would consider a sweet spot of smaller, lighter fiction. Personally, I have a bias towards sci-fi and fantasy, so that's why I think of things like Wells and Vern I've mentioned multiple times in the past that I would be interested in a pinball machine based around The Martian by Andy Weir I think both the book was amazing and the movie was very enjoyable I think the kind of problem solving issues that were in that story could make for some interesting modes in a game.
    17:38
    I think that there's been some other, especially in the realm of sci-fi, stories that I've read lately. Case in point, there is a novel series by Dennis E. Taylor called the Bobiverse series that starts with We Are Legion, We Are Bob, And it is a very fun and interesting, to me, series of stories centered on a sentient starship as it explores the universe. I'm going to leave it there. I think it would be an interesting way to background to use for a setting that once again gives you lots of options for modes lots of options for story progression but like all of these I don't think that there's a big enough draw for it to ever actually happen but for something with someone wanting to do a one-off it's entirely possible and I know we've already gotten, we've already spoken about War of the Worlds but I do think that my favorite version of the War of the Worlds is the original set in the late 1800s version and I think that could create an enjoyable machine. Any of these kind of smaller, more niche literary outings I think could make for some interesting times. And I was just wondering, drop me on Facebook or send us a message, what other type of literary stories you think would make for good take on, or a good pinball machine, something that would be outside the norm, but have a bit more story behind it than the general kind of non-licensed themes that we see anymore. just some thoughts that have been kicking around in my head. I think we're going to go ahead and segue over to video games, which, as no surprise to anybody, is a much larger segment, seeing as the video game segment is the segment I typically do most of the assembly for. So we're going to go ahead and head over there now.
    20:12
    As we move into video game news, we still have no prices on the next generation consoles. but we have gotten a first look at what could be the new norm for next-generation game prices. 2K Sports, makers of NBA 2K21, have announced that it will be $69.99 on next-generation consoles, while the version released on current-generation consoles will be $59.99. they will not be offering a free next gen upgrade unlike many other publishers who have games coming out during the generation change and in fact the only way the game is available in a format playable on both current next generation systems is to buy the 99 99 mamba forever edition the special kobe ryan edition of nba 2k21 uh other than that is this the new norm that's going to be the big question game prices have been static for the big AAA games at $60 for 15 years now and in the time that has passed games have only gotten more expensive to produce and games have only gotten bigger and bigger budgets so is the $60 price point with no increase for inflation no increase for the cost of doing business something that the AAA manufacturers can maintain. In an article from, I believe it was 2017 that I read, the general estimation for the production of a game is to consider it to cost $10,000 per person working on the game per month, which means for some of these very high-end AAA games, you could be looking at budgets in the $10 to $15 million range or even higher. And even for some smaller games, you could be looking for budgets in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. So is the $60 price point, much like with pinball, the $0.25 and then $0.50 price point of pinball plays, something that can remain or is it something that's going to have to go up? I think it's going to have to go up. I would not be surprised to see $70 be the new norm. And in addition to that, I think the big question is going to be, with the increasing popularity of subscription services, such as Xbox's Game Pass, how many people are going to continue to buy games at a $70 price point?
    22:53
    Or are they going to just use a subscription service to get the games they want and play them, and when they're done with them, play other games, and then not directly own a physical copy of the game, not directly own a digital copy of the game. They just have the game that they have from the Game Pass.
    23:15
    I think it's an interesting question. This is one of those changes that are happening that is farther ranging than just video games. I know personally I don't purchase a movie anymore unless it comes with a free digital copy. And, honestly, I buy more movies purely digital at this point than I do physical movies. Same way with games. I buy most of my games digitally. I rarely buy games in physical media unless I receive them as gifts.
    23:49
    And even I buy 100% of my books, and I read a lot, but I get them all digital. I read everything on my Kindle. series that are really huge, have a really big impact, are really important to me, are my favorites. In those cases, I will go out later after having already bought and purchased and read them. It's not uncommon for me to go out and buy the hardback versions to put in my personal collection, but I can't tell you the last time I bought a paperback book. It's just not something that is part of my collection anymore. It's not something I do anymore. I'd just rather read them in a more contained form where I can carry it with me. And I understand that there are a lot of people who cling to the physical, and I do too. In a way, I do. I just only do it for those things that are most important to me, the books that are most important to me, the movies that are most important to me, movies that I really want to be sure I have. I buy a physical copy especially if it comes with a digital copy But even then a lot of times those physical copies don get opened beyond getting the codes to fire up the digital copy and then they go into my storage bin And I think with the announcement that there is going to be digital-only versions of the next generation systems, like PlayStation's got their digital-only version, and I'm pretty sure if I remember right, Xbox is doing the same thing, where they don't even have drives. They are just relying 100% on digital content. I think this is something that will cause some pretty good-sized changes to the industry as is.
    25:36
    But when there is no physical side of things, can they still charge $70 for the price? And the answer is, well, yeah, of course they will. Now, this is the issue that was run into with e-books that you could buy the hardback for $27 when it was brand new released, or you could buy the digital version for $27 when it was released. It's only been in more recent years where those prices have come down. And even then, the digital versions of new releases tend to be higher. They tend to be, you know, $14 or $15. This is one of those, yeah, we're all about the sticky points of this episode and all the stuff as the world is changing and as we see the differences that our technology is making. I think that's one of the things that makes pinball such an interesting throwback is because while there are digital machines and you can play on your computer, it's not the same. and most people still would prefer to play a physical machine to the point where there are actual normal pinball machine size machines that are 100% digital.
    26:59
    Your VirtuaPens and the like. And I think as we go forward, we're going to see more of the physical media, the DVDs the hard copy video games dropping out and I don't think the price changes are going to be they're not going to become as cheap as people would like to think they are but I know most people and this is part of the problem with buying a triple A game at release is if it's $60 or what it looks like it's probably going to move to $70 at release knowing that some of those games will go on sale within a month to be $20 off, what's the point of even buying it then? Is it that big of a deal? Is that $20 enough to make you wait that extra time before you purchase said game? I know for some people it is. Some people, they don't buy anything that's not on sale. Some people don't buy anything unless it is at the just absolute cheapest, cheapest they can get it. I've got a whole bunch of games that I've bought off Steam for next to nothing, some of which I've played maybe 10 minutes of, some of which I've never even installed.
    28:21
    So is that any better than paying $70 for a game that I might play a whole bunch of hours of now and next year or I'm done with it? Or paying $5 for a game that I don't ever, ever actually end up playing? Interesting times. but I think when it all shakes out when we start seeing the pure next gen games not the crossover games I think that $70 being the launch price is not going to be a surprise it seems like I don't know if it's going to be enough I know the last estimates I saw for 2019 was that video games was a $150 billion industry last year approximately but I don't know. It's really hard to tell with the way you look at Blizzard who posted record profits a few years ago and then laid off a huge portion of their company. You look at all of the other internal issues when they're talking about the deadlines, games keep getting pushed back, how much more that costs to get the games pushed back. You start looking and hearing about people having nervous breakdowns working on a game because they're in the crunch, people working 20 hours a day and sleeping four hours underneath their desk and then going back to work on the game because they're trying to hit that magical release date that is what is the all-important, all-being of video games at this point. I think that there's going to be a lot of changes coming to that kind of thing, and if part of it is increasing the cost of games and possibly loosening some of these release windows that are so tight. Look at some of the really highly expected games.
    30:14
    Cyberpunk 2077 has been pushed back. Last of Us 2 was pushed back multiple times. I just saw that the New World MMO from Amazon has been pushed back for a second time. it's becoming the norm for games to get pushed back and with the pushbacks including increasing costs I just don't think it's sustainable for them to continue at the price point they're at. But will it be sustainable for them to have most people ship over to the subscription style gameplay? Do they make enough money off of that for the big companies to survive?
    30:56
    When I look at a lot of the games that I've played, especially lately, most of my games are coming from smaller developers, not the big major developers. I think the last couple major games I've played were Jedi Outcast, which was an EA game, not Outcast, Jedi Fallen Order, which was, you know, an EA game, or I've played, obviously, Overwatch, which is a Blizzard game, Borderlands 3 from Gearbox, but the truth of the matter is, while those are games I've played, they're not the games I've played the most time on. I've spent 20 hours playing Borderlands 3 since April, and I have spent 42 hours playing Satisfactory since last week. Hardspace Shipbreaker, a little indie game that is coming out from Blackbird Interactive, founded by former members of Relic Entertainment EA Canada, is a game that I've put 21 hours in in the last several weeks. So already more than I put into Borderlands. And it's literally a game where you float around in space and cut up junk spaceships and salvage them for parts. But it's fun and enjoyable. I think that's the kind of thing that we're going to see more of are these smaller titles. Or at the very least, these are the titles that I'm spending more of my time on. I can't remember the last time I played a Call of Duty game I can't remember the last time I played a Battlefield game I tend to be aiming at these smaller groups anymore And part of it is cost And part of it is just that they're playing Or creating niche games in a kind of niche way That hit more directly at my interest level Just like Harebrained Studios who were the ones who kickstarted and put out the Battletech game that I did streaming of a while back. And I've got 320 hours in that game. And it's because of the pure interest in the game and the lore in the background and the setting of that game. So I think that's going to be the question, is there enough interest in these games, especially the EA and 2K games. They yearly release the sports games and the Call of Duties where there's a new one every year. Are there enough people playing them? Is there enough interest that people are going to be willing to spend $70 a year every single year to get the new one? And honestly, I think the answer is yes. I think part of the problem is because coming at it like I do, as the type of gamer I am, I look at it differently. I can't imagine spending $70 on a basketball video game or a football video game or something like that because the gameplay doesn't interest me. But it's hard to remember that, especially in the console market, gamers such as myself are not the norm. And it's just like in pinball. In pinball, we're always talking about, hey, we want non-licensed themes. We want this and we want that. But that we have to remember that we as the consumer are not the only consumers out there. And us as the subsection of fans are not the only people playing. And in a lot of situations, we're not even the majority of the people playing. We may be the more hardcore, but we are not where all of the real money is coming from. More people buy. Call of Duty, Flavor of the Year, and Madden, whatever it is. and Game Day, whatever, because those are the games that people want. They can sell a new FIFA every year that is $70 with $5,000 in loot box content that you can purchase, and people will buy it, and people will spend the money, and people will play it because that is their type of thing. And I think part of our issues are realizing that those consumers are a lot of what drives what content is actually created because there's more of them and they're spending more money. So while the games that I necessarily enjoy tend to be smaller, tend to be cheaper, and tend to have a certain bent, they are niche and they are always going to be niche. And it's going to be the same way going forward. I don't think that's a situation that's going to change any.
    35:57
    Now, moving on. Just a quick follow-up to something we talked about last time. There was the big news of Dr. Disrespect being permanently banned from Twitch. And the update is that no one knows why he was banned, apparently not even him. The ban still sets, the ban still exists, there's rumors galore across the internet. But Twitch, as is their policy, hasn't said why. They just say the same general things they say when they ban anything. but from the reports coming out even he hasn't been told why he was banned it just happened so that's kind of interesting to me that it is being so well put in the background considering the sheer amount of money involved and the sheer amount of size of the deal he had recently signed with twitch as we move into the last bit of video game news i want to talk about today i want to start with a warning. A lot of this news is going to be hard to hear for a lot of people.
    37:02
    The video gaming community has been heavily shaken with allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct lately, even more than we have seen at other times in the past, and we're going to be talking about that. And I just want you to know ahead of time what is coming. There are going to you links to many of the articles that I sourced this information from in the links going forward And here we go We going to start with Ubisoft There have been weeks of allegations of misconduct at Ubisoft at all levels And after an internal, uh, investigations, they have decided to make major changes at extremely high executive levels. I warn you now, I am going to slaughter all of these names because there is no way I can pronounce any of them. Sergey Hasket has resigned as Chief Creative Officer. Yanis Malat is out as the head of Ubisoft Canada Studios. Cecilia Cornette, head of Global Human Resources, has stepped down. Vice President Maxime Balland has resigned. Vice President Tommy Francois has been placed on disciplinary leave. All due to allegations that have come out over the course of the last several weeks. There are reports from inside of the company that complaints have been made to HR and to executives over the course of several years. And those complaints are disregarded and ignored. And it hasn't been until everything started becoming more public that Ubisoft started looking at itself internally. And suddenly this is the kind of shakeup that has fallen. The executive team has taken a major change.
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    It remains to be seen if this will change how things operate within Ubisoft, what changes this will have overall to Ubisoft's core brand and to their working environment. I know this all opened with major changes at Ubisoft's editorial levels before moving on to these other large changes. So it's definitely going to be something going forward.
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    And this was not the only thing that we came out of with this type of allegation. Evo Online, the online version of the physical Evo tournament that was canceled due to COVID, has been canceled as well. There has been a series of sexual abuse allegations coming out about its CEO, Joey Skuler, and several organizations have pulled out of the event. Capcom pulled out, NetherRealm pulled out, Bandai Namco among them. Several high-profile competitors and commentators also withdrew from being part of the event. the Evo board has released Joey from the portion of the CEO and installed Tony Cannon as the interim CEO. At the same time, they announced the cancellation and that they are refunding tickets and donating all remaining funds to Project Hope.
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    Kuehler himself issued an apology on Twitter with a tweet that has since been deleted, but the tweet that he put out was I'm sorry, I never meant to hurt anyone. I was young and reckless and did things I'm not proud of. I have been growing and maturing over the past 20 years. That doesn't excuse anything. All I have been trying to do is become a better person. I said that tweet has since been deleted, but that was it as recorded in some of the articles that I'd seen. This is a bad look. Evo was already, not just Evo, The whole fighting game community has always had issues with being considered, while it is one of the larger and more diverse video game related communities, it also has always had major issues when it comes to differences of sex and being very much a good old boy, bro code type area. and this was only the beginning of what has come out into that fighting game community as of late. Over the course of the last two weeks, there has been more than 50 victims coming forward with allegations of rape, sexual assault, prey on minors, and grooming of underage players in the Smash Bros. community. the Smash Brothers community unlike some of the other big esports communities League of Legends Overwatch and others like them does not have a large overall governing body it is more tightly knit small local groups running local tournaments with some regional play and a few larger get togethers including things such as Evo and larger worldwide tournaments, but most of it is on the smaller local level, and there tend to be smaller, more contained groups. And because of Smash's demographic target, that includes lots of younger players, 13, 14, 15, some even younger, in playing with 18 plus players. You also have no overall without that lack of an overall governing body you can't enforce bans on certain people throughout the groupings because there's no one solid group to track it so if somebody is caught having an issue then they can just move on to another part of the community and they're still there they can still continue to prey on their targets whoever they be I'm not going to go deeply into all of these allegations, especially these in the smash community simply because it's not a community. I'm part of, I don't know who any of these people are and all the information I have on it is from the articles I've read and from the information that is coming out. Uh, I will include links, uh, so that you can research farther into yourself. but one of the things that really gets me on this one is the smash community seems so familiar because it is so similar to the pinball community that we are part of most of the pinball tournaments are smaller run locally there's no large overarching group that controls everything I mean, yeah, we have things like the IFPA, but that's not the same as something like League of Legends or Overwatch, which has a large, serious, controlling body. And the kind of things that have been coming out, the grooming of younger players, the taking advantage of them, quite frankly, all communities are going to have predators in them. People who are in the community for whatever reason, but they have toxic personalities. they have to those people who are trying to find targets, be they targets for sexual abuse, for harassment, people who just because they dislike the way somebody acts or talks or is will attack them. And that is one of those things that we as a community, because that's what we are in this day and age is a community held together online through our conversations, through our posting, through our podcasts that we listen to and take part in, through our streaming. We create a community and we create knowledge and ties to people that we might never have met otherwise. but at the same time we need to watch for these predators that join our community we need to watch for these people that are taking advantage in pinball the people who try and sell somebody a non-working game that's worth like eight hundred dollars for three thousand dollars or the people who drive away new players because they pull the whole get good type stuff and because they attack them because of their race or their sex or because of even more horrible reasons. These are things that we as a community need to watch for. These are things that we as a community need to be vigilant for. These predators use the community as camouflage To hide them, to let them do what they believe is right What they want to do And to protect them when somebody calls them out on it Especially if an issue is coming from In the case of Evo The creator of Evo The CEO, one of the large, well-known groups Head of the thing Was part of it And there were people who came out and protested that this could not be real when it first came out. There were people, even when he admitted issues, that still protected him and said that it was something that couldn't possibly be real. And that's the situation we're going to run into. And as a community, it's a situation that I think we need to band together with. We need to watch for. we need to watch for each other and we need to protect each other it's only by keeping an eye on those most likely to be taken advantage of that we can try and stop this kind of thing from happening and are we going to fail? Yes there's always going to be something that happens but I think it's vitally important for us to do our very best to make sure that it's less common and to try and be more on the lookout for this kind of thing. These are the kind of things that are happening all over. We've seen them in video games. We've seen them in pinball. We just need to work together and we need to protect each other. That's part of being the community. That's part of bringing new people in. That's part of keeping the people in and that's part of growing our community.
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    And for those people who don't want to change, for those people who don't want to accept new people with new thoughts and new ideas, then bye. We don't need you here. I think on that note, I'm going to go ahead and call an end to this solo episode of the Eclectic Gamers Podcast. As always, you can reach us by email at eclecticgamerspodcast at gmail.com. We're available on Facebook at facebook.com slash eclecticgamerspodcast. We're available on Twitch, Twitter, and Instagram as Eclectic underscore Gamers, though Twitch is about the only place you really see us. The others are rarely utilized, and that's completely my fault and nothing to do with Dennis. If you want to get a hold of us, if you have any thoughts, if you thought it would be a good literary title to become a pinball theme, thoughts on the ongoing issues in the community between everything, feel free to reach out and talk to us we'll see you in a couple weeks it'll probably be both of us until then, take care of each other