Here is the link to the video Mike mentions from a channel called Kurzgesagt: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nNt2n7Clv9PaiWQ.htmlfeature=shared

The correct answer is that Social Media is ruining Society as a whole.

I love how the conclusion of the podcast is that free will isn't gifted and instead attained through self-reflection and by becoming able to see the walls and webs that make up society. Very JRPG lmao.

Always respected your opinions on the remake project, because it was your thoughts on the project. You never attack anyone personally and that's refreshing in the social media world. I really enjoy the remake series, but I would never send hate to anyone who didn't. Much love guys

What makes Mike's reference to Twilight so ironic is that Robert Pattinson is a huge FF7 fan 😂

Making people pick between finishing the Xenosaga games and MGS 2 & 3 is a WILD poll

This channel is criminally underrated. I may not agree with all of your points but its great insight nonetheless.

This discussion particularly reminds me of my experience with Xenoblade 2. To me it was a very emotional and thoughtful experience about the nature of self, society, and survival. Another Monolithsoft masterpiece. All over social media I saw almost exclusively people referring to the game as “waifublade” and pitching it as hentai. I can’t tell people I like the game now without them thinking that the story is why I say I like the game, but what I reeeeaally mean is that I have a pyra body pillow. To be clear I do not and never will have a pyra body pillow

Hey guys, just wanted to say I've really enjoyed the podcast for the last 4 weeks. It's reminiscent of the old Resonant Arc podcasts, discussing an interesting topic every week. I'd love to see you continue this occasionally in the future. Keep up the good work!

Having been a guest on a few of those podcasts Mike is referencing and also talking extensively on my own podcast about FF7R.. I can empathize where Mike is coming from, and it is part of the reason I got so burnt out. You spend a large portion of your week making something for free, and people just attack you for not agreeing with them, no matter how polite you are. These are personal attacks, rather than constructive dialogue. For some reason, people correlated me giving my opinion as "not allowing them to enjoy the game", which was never the intention. Additionally, it always felt strange to me, that the expectation was that I could not share my opinion on a property I loved because someone might disagree. I LOVE reading and listening to analysis of films, games, literature which have a different take than me. I've watched hour long videos on why Quantum of Solace is a great movie, despite me thinking otherwise. I've read analysis many times by Roger Ebert, in regards to the Lord of the Rings films, and his distaste for them... because I find it interesting. I will never understand the need others have for people not to share their opinion if they disagree. For that reason, I also try very hard to understand where people I disagree with are coming from, and if we don't see eye-to-eye, to be okay with that. It isn't that big of a deal.

As someone that loves mgs. Im to the point that the conversation over xenosaga would be more interesting. Hopefully that do em almost back to back.

RA is on a meta gaming side quest rn. MGS2 is all about how social media is dangerous for society as a whole

This podcast explores absolutely everything that is so fundamental about how media discourse has been shaped over the past 2 decades. Social media has polarized discourses on just about any topic, and in the realm of audiovisual art, there is the added structure of hype culture that has become ingrained in these platforms. To be more precise, there is this tendency since the 2010s of creating these borderline cults of positivity around the time of a work's release that persecutes any kind of reasonable critique on things, further pushing those who don't agree about said cult to become more intense in their response. It's a pendulum effect that harms social fabric in these communities, while being extremely positive for these corporations. Why? Because engagement drives visibility. And with the cult of positivity, you have a system that has an organized promotion of media that scores better than they truly deserve (normatively speaking) by fans as well the journalistic establishment that gets that boost as well for their reviews and hype on both ends. It's a self-fulfilling system that has made films and games become even more treated as products to consume and tribalize around, ready to consume next product and seek validation of current narratives. It is truly toxic for art and the people who care for it.

Bro social media is ruining life. I remember when I was a kid getting excited for new games was so difficult & different and honestly more enjoyable. Seeing screenshots in magazines really made your imagination go wild. Now it's trailer after trailer and ad after ad basically giving the whole game away. I just ignore everything about a game I'm looking forward to now. I find it to make the experience more enjoyable.

I remember we had a big (non-toxic) disagreement about Remake at the time and I realized a couple of years ago that we didn't disagree. We just weren't having the same conversation lol.

I’m so glad you guys had this discussion. These types of conversations need to be had more often.

These last 2 podcasts got me thinking about how I consume media. For the past year, I have avoided reviews/opinions online before I play a game cuz I realized that those types of videos can create higher/lower expectations and affect my own opinion and enjoyment of a game. I noticed especially with the modern final fantasy games.

This is why I love you guys. I clicked on this video hoping to get an interesting and engaging podcast talking mostly about video games and social media, and yet you two dove WAY deeper than I could have imagined on this topic. You two are amazing

Casen, the Hindu/Buddhist swastika symbol is still used commonly in Asia. It might be a dead symbol in the west, but certainly not in the east!

I don't want to beat a dead horse regarding the FF7 topic because I feel like at this point people just want to avoid it on this channel and move on to things everyone is on the same page with. But because it was brought up regardless and I had some thoughts about it a couple weeks. I thought I would share atleast this personal insight. There was this clip uploaded by Maximilian Dood on 'super fans' a while back. It's a short video of about 10 minutes but it perfectly explains how different perspectives can be on something based on time investment. I think this in a way boils down to why people look at the FF7 Remake project in different ways. As someone else said in the comments, I think people aren't even disagreeing. But everyone is just having a different conversation. People approach it from a different point and just don't understand one another. This takes it back to the 'super fan' video of Maximilian. I think what is going on here (and pardon me for kind of inserting any assumptions into it but I do have some knowledge on how Mike engages with games) is that people like Mike kind of have played the OG annually for over a decade or two. Now I personally don't do this with games, I collect them and in my mind one day I would like to revisit them here and there when I have more time. But I just don't manage to make any game walkthrough an annual thing. Usually I just get distracted by real life or newer games or entertainment in general. But I really do get the appeal and would love to be able to do that if time allowed. For me personally however I can strongly relate because where I don't do this annual tradition thing with games. I very much do so with series, anime and movies. They are in a way my background noise when I work indoors. I have anime I watch at specific points in the year etc. Things like DBZ for example. I rewatch that yearly and have done so for about one and a half decade now if not longer. And what happens when you do this is you start to hyperfocus on the small details. You start to see meaning in things that weren't there before or even there at all. And in general you just start looking at the thing with very different eyes. But most important of all. You get extremely attached to the characters and story beats. To the point where they almost feel like real life friends or family. Not in a conscious way ofcourse, but subconsciously you find comfort in their personas and stories. So I'm just trying to imagine if a remake project was announced for DBZ and it would have this top tier animation with all the fights and stuff. But they would change parts of the story for whatever reason. And honestly I think I would react the same as allot of skeptics regarding things like FF7 Remake etc. It was always a point of confusion for me why people hated remakes, especially if they turned out counter to expectations if the individual. To me it made absolutely no sense. The original is always there right? So why not take a chance and see if it can be better or newer. However when I view it through this annual tradition lens with my own personal experience with DBZ. I think I get it. Because the changes you see happening there would almost feel like the events of the original are retconned. Like they didn't exist. And you just lived a quarter of a lifetime annually revisiting that tale. Getting attached to these characters and this exact story. How could you not feel fear and apprehension that there's this thing out that that suggest it's all just a malleable piece of fiction? I get it ofcourse. Allot of people at the moment of the initial feeling of distaste have since started to find intellectual reasoning why they don't like it. Things like the theming or quality or just general dislike of the gameplay genre all come up. But I think its fundamentally just that intense attachment to the story and characters and seeing any change be inflicted upon it. It quite literally is an attack on someones history with that story. This is probably also why I am okay with this game. Because while I did play the OG back in the 90s and I replayed it I think vaguely once a few years later. And then again around Remakes launch in 2020. Seeing some playthroughs here and there. It just never was that big of a part of my life say how DBZ has been. That doesn't make me less of a fan or a newbie regarding FF7 because I still remember all the big moments and characters. I still get emotional when I see this world and hear the music. It's as much something precious to me as any other fan. But I'm not a super fan, it's not an annual thing for me. And so I can handle these changes better for it. For me it's more fun to play this story again but through the lens of modern AAA graphics and gameplay. Having it in my collection alongside other modern titles despite it being a decades old game. Seeing these locations and characters brought to life again. But I'm not attached to it like someone would be who always submersed himself within it regulary. But I absolutely have many other things in life I revisit yearly and I am pretty much the same with if I have to be honest. So I think what someone else said in the comments is true. We're not having the same conversation here. People that like it aren't these dumb shallow people that just don't get the OG, lets not kid ourselves here. And people who are against the new games aren't mentally deranged people who can't handle change. It's just that both groups approach the same thing from a different angle. One group is there for the adventure and reliving it. And the other group has made the OG game, story and characters their home. I think with mutual understanding seeing it on this fundamental level. Maybe the toxicity regarding this project could finally die out and people just shake hands and tell eachother they get it. And to a degree they appreciate the other persons motivations. Even if it isn't how they themselves choose to life or be.

This episode was quite possiby the most important conversation of 2024. Thank you.

Something I find helpful is to make myself sit back after finishing a comment and take time to think about whether I actually want to post it. It's not uncommon for me to decide that it was enough for me to write it out, and express my feelings that way without having to share them with the world - and probably escalate the issue. It also gives me the chance to proofread and copy-edit my argument to make it more effective - or to realise that my argument isn't as convincing as I'd like it to be, and maybe I need to think more about whatever it is before exposing myself in public. Of course, the whole thing does rely on my having the awareness and self-control to take that pause, particularly when I have a strong emotional response to whatever I'm responding to, and there are times I probably should have taken that pause but didn't, but, overall, it helps more than it hurts.

I really hate how these days the exact day a game comes out, the final boss is already on KZfaq. So many aspects of modern technology have taken away the fun of gaming.

The thumbnail says it all. Resonant Arc is now a social media platform.

This has become my favorite KZfaq channel. I enjoy looking forward to all of your discussions and analysis with each video

Can’t get enough of these conversations and episodes.

Conversation like this is what makes me continue coming back yo this channel. I always know I'm going to expand on my world view listening to Mike and Casen. Sidenote, the thumbnail is amazing. Mike looks fittingly curmudgeoned and the resonant arc logo blends in with the other icons. Keep up the good work, gentlemen.

Respect to you guys, no one should be hounded for their opinion

Loved this video. I could actually go for one of the last few weeks video formats for like every second video. Found these to be really fresh in between the usual play along podcasts. What you discussed in this video is really interesting as I discussed so much of it in my videos and comments sections for the channel I started in the last month. Pleasantly surprisingly the vast majority of comments have been positive in regards to me just focusing on the Original FF7 in my lore/discussion.

Loads of wisdom from Mike. Thanks for sharing this and articulating everything so clearly

Long comment ahead. Apologies in advance. I can 100% say I don't enjoy playing video games as much as I did before I truly engaged with social media. Up until 2014, I just had a Facebook account. Still do! Just don't use it much... But it was my discovery of Twitter that changed things up. I feel like, to a certain degree, the ability to *share* one's own experiences became dominant over simply... playing the game. Of course, the integration of social media into consoles, what with the share button and all, contributed to this. I look back to like, 2008, playing Final Fantasy XII, playing Tales of the Abyss, playing Persona 3 and 4 (I had JUST gotten a PS2 and was playing major catch-up)... I focused squarely on my enjoyment of those games. As the years went by, social media insidiously made its way into my life. This is something I came to realize in retrospect only, I was preoccupied with how "shareable" an game experience was with other people on Twitter. How many likes would this clip get? Would this funny photo be shared around? Etc etc... This extended to other platforms, tiktok, instagram, etc... Now, this isn't to say I flat-out didn't enjoy games anymore, but I feel like it was to a lesser extent due to wanting to share my experiences with others. I was raised in a third-world country back in the 90s. The internet hadn't quite made it to its current prevalence yet. I had *some* friends in school with whom I would converse about games and stuff, but it was something... small. I think I dove into social media as a sort of reaction to this. Suddenly I had found a whole world of people who shared in my interests, my hobby. Of course I wanted to interact more with them, to share with them and to consume what they shared... But this has become too much. Over the years I have felt overwhelmed by discourse after discourse, and stupid take after stupid take, and drama after drama over X or Y game or Z developer. It has, in all honestly, become repulsive to me, because this constant bombardment of other's thoughts on my feed actively gets in the way of *MY* enjoyment of certain games. Nowadays I'm down to Twitter, Facebook, and KZfaq. FB I don't use very much. My KZfaq channel's just an archive of random clips I'd like to keep for myself. Twitter I still use, but I have aggressively curated the kinds of things I see on it. That said, I do want to step away from it at some point. It's a bit hard with certain games, such as with FFXIV, games that are inherently sustained by having a sense of community, but with, say, single-player games, yeah... Can definitely step away for that. Apologies for the long comment.

Thank you Mike and Casen for all these years! Your content means alot to me.

Nice sequel to last week’s discussion.

Love seeing these spinoff episodes. Also quitting Facebook was one of the most cathartic things I've done.

I don't want to personally hurt anyone who enjoys the cynical corporate exploitation of our meaningful cultural landmarks and works of art such as Final Fantasy 7, but I would like them to be educated in the particulars of writing, environment art, direction, music, and other key areas of craft so that they can perceive the appalling degradation taking place, and as a result be less easily manipulated by massive marketing engines and brand hysteria into voluntarily abetting the slow spiritual death of humanity at the hands of ruthless stockholders and charlatans. I view them as unfortunate, unwitting victims of this evil and grotesque process just as much as the original art is.

I am very much looking forward to the Planescape Torment podcasts because this will be the first time that I can play along with the Podcast. I've never played before and think it will be such a wonderful experience to get involved with the discussion from a fresh perspective. Great work guys!

This might be my favorite podcast you guys have done. Has given me a lot to chew on while at work today. Hope to see more stuff like you have been doing the last few weeks pop up from time to time! I have greatly enjoyed the last couple of podcasts. Keep up the good work!

Just want to say that I have really enjoyed the last 2 podcasts from you guys. I struggle to keep up with the in depth analysis of games unless it is one I have already played, but I have thought these last few weeks have been some awesome discussion.

This was a really insightful discussion -- thank you for having it!

@22:15 Nier: "Yes! You and I are friends now!" :D

I used to get into ostensibly pointless backs and forths for years, arguing fervently over video games and anime. It's only been the last few years where I've been able to (mostly) let that go, definitely felt you on that talking point. I haven't played Planescape Torment yet, however I have finished Disco Elysium which was directly inspired by it, and it is without any sense hyperbole, one of the greatest written games I have ever played. I *highly* suggest you give that game a shot aswell.

This feels like the most important video on the internet. I've also been feeling the tribalism and my bubble poked and prodded out, and it feels like what are we even arguing anymore. I watched the video you referenced and it's kinda crazy how it flipped the script - I never even thought of social sorting and how my mind leans toward like minded people naturally and the 'public square', and how big it's gotten. It feels hard to connect with people now because differing opinions are no longer welcome or are taken as something they're not. Social media is kinda unrecognizable to me now v.s idk the early 2000s. I really do love how you see the full picture of things, and you've decided to protect your peace. I feel the same. It's not worth the time, and energy, to fight strangers on an opinion on a game that really doesn't matter. Healthy debate, discussion is cool, of course but some people take it too far and I'm like nah. Not worth it. Also sad to hear you got bullied offline because of your takes on FF7R. Heaven forbid differing opinions - that in the grand scheme of things don't matter. Anyways, excellent deep dive, as is tradition.

Good stuff, social media, internet, online shopping can be very toxic and mind consuming. I stay away from the phone as much as possible. Internet really have changed gaming. Going back to the SNES and gameboy is so refreshing! Like FF2 on PSP on the vita, its a good game to replace mindless scrolling on phone! Stay healthy!

Thank you so much for saying out loud these things I've been thinking about for so long.

I am loving these types of videos from you guys

This is something I noticed years ago too. It's been on my mind forever and it's really interesting to see you notice the same thing. There's a very religious level of dedication that people have towards fandoms that I never saw before. Like you said sports teams, video games, console wars, etc. The people who are fans of these seemingly trivial past times have evolved into something resembling religious campaigns. It's made me think that maybe humanity just has an inherent desire to form religious structures. Another issue is that younger zoomers are very disconnected from reality, they do most of their socialization online now and that style of communication has a limit on the density of information you're getting from the other party. As in information such as body language, facial expressions, shared experience, location, etc are absent, thus the information your sense get when socializing is less "dense". It's just text, sound and image. That makes it very easy to write off people online as "real humans" and treat them worse because on a subconscious/sensory level your brain doesn't feel like it's actually engaging with a person.

I hope you guys continue to weave episodes like this between podcast series! Really enjoy hearing the two of you express your thoughts on a range of subjects. Fractured internet: Are either of you familiar with the Cyberpunk RPG setting? In it, the internet was fractured around the year 2020. Only local nets can exist ever since then, with interesting implications. Rapture's resilience: I love your point about how something that you cannot account for when building a system is bound to come up eventually. That's a key tenet in Resilience Theory in ecology. There's always going to be another stressor on the system that you can't plan for, so you need to be adaptive rather than rigid. Andrew Ryan practiced more of an engineering conception of resilience in trying to account for every stressor, which has its place in simple systems but not in complex adaptive systems like human societies or ecosystems. Experiencing emotion but not letting it control every decision: I love it when someone distinguishes being Stoic from being stoic. We have emotions. You can't always control them (if ever). What you can control is how you respond to those emotions! Took me a long time to be able to put that into practice, but it has been essential to leading a healthier, less angry life.

Planescape: Torment you say? All you need to do now is KotOR 2, ICO, and Celeste and you will have officially podcasted my entire top 10. You guys are freakin' awesome.

There was a post on the FF Reddit about Remake and how it allows the developers to give more depth to the characters and their relationships. It got derailed and people were going crazy in their comments and ripping into each other over who Aerith likes better, Zack or cloud. I scrolled down and it went and on and on, with numerous links to previous games, dialogue quotes, quotes from developers from years ago etc with such vitriol and personal insults as neither side was giving in. It was utterly bizarre and I had to wonder at how old these guys were and why they were wasting their time. The mods had clearly given up long ago. This channel is a breath of fresh air. I remember the discussion on the translation of Unicorn Overload and you guys were so mature and didn’t insult anyone involved . You treated the complaints with respect just looked at the translations and gave your opinions with justifications even though you disagreed with most of the complaints. It was an interesting discussion. Unfortunately, one of the most liked comments which had a good point couldn’t resist insulting people who disagreed with them. KZfaq comments almost always suck.

I have that need to respond when something frustrates as your saying. But recently i have been trying to not comment or respond to things that make me annoyed or angry online. It’s hard but i think im making progress

Love the video game podcasts, but also really appreciate discussions like this.

One of your best so far!

I’m loving these discussion videos lately 😍

Mike and Casen…wow…really amazing video you guys! I love this topic and the conversation you guys had. Mike, thank you for being so honest about your struggles. We are all human and are susceptible to give into natural emotions and instincts that were instilled in us long before we had any say. Tribalism and social sorting being perfect examples you brought up. I too am trying to recognize these types of things in myself. I think the awareness of how susceptible we can be to natural human emotions and behaviors can be really helpful tool. Awareness can help us step back and recognize our patterns that don’t always serve us in a positive way. Thank you again for making this excellent video! I’m going to be thinking about this for a while!

I'm glad I learned at a young age to just not care about opposing opinions much (mostly about games, movies, etc as I always though that was really up to taste), nor did I care enough to engage on putting my own and try to defend it. Shipping fandoms are certainly worse then they were decades ago.

Even when I don't agree with you guys about something, like I absolutely loved FF7 Remake, I would never argue or try and fight with you about it. You gain insight by listening to people who have different points of view and it can lead to some good positive discussion about why we feel the way we do. Keep doing what you guys do best, deep and meaningful conversations that everyone tunes in to listen to about games and media we love.

Great discussion (again)! That said, I'm really looking forward to your PS:T series. I finished it for the first time about half a year ago (even though I played about half-way through back in 1999) and it's such a timeless piece of art. Can't wait for your impressions. :)

I love these discussions. Love to see you guys branching your content again and I look forward to more of it. I think it’s important to not engage in social media too much, especially if there is discourse that is affecting you negatively. I used to be on Twitter every day and my mental health has been significantly better since I decided to uninstall it and take a long break, possibly forever lol.

I have a rather large social media following on a different platform and I cannot express to you how much this conversation applies to that platform. The difference between the subject matter there and video games is that there's far fewer real world consequences to video game arguments and far fewew bad actors with malicious intent in the gaming community.

Spot on as usual. I've long since distanced myself from these discussions on the internet because frankly, the people are not engaging in it with the outlook of being willing to change their minds etc I could be learning something or playing a game rather than doing these sorts of arguments. I actually have spoiled myself already on Rebirth and came to the conclusion that while the ending was as bad as I knew it was going to be ever since finishing Remake a lot of the game was better than I thought it would be so I will play it. This came from the outlook of completely giving up on it so it was easier to reason through it by giving myself time to see it with spoilers and I generally am looking forward to playing the rest of the game now.

Speaking of Social media, algorithm, and grouping people who think alike, Here's a Nietzsche's quote to ponder. "The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently"

Ya know, maybe if the FF7 remake hadn't sucked so hard for Mike, he and Casen would never have stumbled upon the brilliant discussion that took place here. A topic and discussion that could potentially heal humanity from the negative thoughts generated by social media and the auto-tribalism we engage in without realizing it. Perhaps Mike was meant to hate FF7 remake, and that is an encouraging thought.

The reimagined Battlestar Galactica (00's) remains my favourite series ever and I knew not a single solitary thing about it before someone suggested it to me, I got to make my own mind up about the series, its ending and the events leading up to the ending in 2009. It was like being young again and getting to play FFVII-X for the first time. It deeply impacted me. Red Dead Redemption 1, I hadn't followed it either.

It looks like Mike and I both watched Kurzgesagt's video on social media 😅 Edit: oh, I just saw the linked video, that's hilarious! To add something to this conversation: I believe people still don't value digital things, and that extends to debates online. It's very easy to dehumanize or "other" a person when you think of them as just words on a screen. It also makes it very hard to explain the importance of kindness online against that prevailing mentality.

Social media is new, and as such we don't really know what it will look like long-term. All new inventions of communication are disruptive, and people remain generally immature and evil throughout. The most important thing I would add to what Mike and Casen said is that the internet is doing a lot of good: Amazon gives you products you want for much less money than you might spend otherwise, and KZfaq is giving Mike and Casen a chance to spend their time talking about JRPGs and enrich everyone's lives through that.

I know this wasn't your intention with the podcast but this has actually made me excited for Rebirth again. I loved Remake when it came out but I played it back to back with FF7 (my first playthrough). That didn't give me enough time to really think deeply about the themes of FF7 and how Remake might contradict them, I was purely focused on the superficial elements which Remake nailed. In the four years since I've done a lot of research into the original, including your many podcasts, and it lead me to not only appreciate the game more but also become quite jaded towards Remake. I more or less talked myself out of liking Remake and being excited for Rebirth because I felt like it was a betrayal to the original, its fans and the philosophies of Sakaguchi that I'd since come to respect so much. After listening to this podcast though I've realised there's really no need to get so black and white about it. I can go enjoy Rebirth for its superficial elements like the graphics and the combat while recognising that the thematic messaging won't resonate with me, and that's totally okay. There's no need to get angry about it one way or the other or pick a side.

This was a great podcast! Loved this. I hope Xenosaga 2 and 3 wins. The Xenogears and Xenosaga deep dives are what brought me to this channel and totally changed the way I looked at those games.

Glad to hear you enjoyed the Unicorn Overlord demo, Mike. Speaking of social media, I caught a glimpse of that thread on Twitter complaining about it's translation earlier this week and I just laughed. Y'know, if you guys took another week to prep for Planescape I wouldn't be surprised if next topic would've been about translations in games.

There is no question in my mind FF7 remake is some kinda of way for SE to have their cake and eat it to: Monetise the nostalgia of FF7 fans as well making it cool enough and new enough for non FF7 fans to also drool over it. In many ways, they succeeded as the social media views on it is overwhelmingly positive but if you dislike the remake project or dont particularly want to engage with it, everyone just tells me "oh you just like the old games too much, you don't like change..." and so many judgments come out because I'm not worshiping the ground Yoshinori Kitase walks on for blessing us with the remake project. Its honestly very tiring and i'd just rather not say anything anymore - Social media is modern group think - contrary opinions be damned and you will be squashed out.

Cason talking about the Lord of the Rings game reminds me of before Hogwarts Legacy came out, there was one camp who found it preposterous to have an upcoming Harry Potter game without Qudditch and another camp who didn't find it necessary at all

I just saw a reddit post of someone having a meltdown over people disagreeing with their interpretation of a Baldurs Gate 3 character. Very timely video lol

Yes, yes it is infact the internet has ruined gaming in general.

You guys are awesome and I truly do love hearing your sincere thoughts on social media. I agree completely and coming from being a kid of the 90s ...the world did seem like a better place without the Internet. Keep up the great work guys...been watching and listening for years! 😀👍🏻

I largely agree with you about Remake, Mike

Really great discussion, I’ve been on a similar journey. I remember watching your video on Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition back in 2019, and being really annoyed with how you guys addressed the more anime art style and how you felt it was losing what it was. For me, who didn’t even play the original on Wii, it looked incredible, and I vehemently opposed essentially every point you guys were making. I come from a background where shonen anime was a core part of my childhood and adolescence, my friend groups and everything in between, so I felt the need to defend it. Flash forward to today, Xenoblade Chronicles is my favorite jrpg franchise, mostly because of 2 and 3, games I know you guys aren’t really fond of and in the case of 3, probably never played. I see all sorts of opinions and discourse online surrounding these games, and it does take a concerted effort to resist the temptation to respond in a hostile way to people that want to trash the games because of how much value I have placed in those experiences. Once you realize that you can just let people feel what they feel about anything, that you can leave it alone, and refuse to engage with them, it becomes that much more freeing. If we’re going to get anywhere close to some sort of understanding during this tumultuous period of omnipresent online communication, we have to start with resisting these old hard wired human responses and think about just what is really going on with each of us.

I believe if not all, then most online algorithms prioritize attention because all the clicks, ads, and subscriptions give corporations money. It's unhealthy how manipulative social media is by promoting reactionary content, and by extension sparking debates OVER discussions. In addition, I also think people use social media irresponsibly and simply can't disengage. I remember having a class in middle school talk about internet etiquette, and how to conduct yourself online. While I'm not saint, the way I act online is how I act irl, and I want to treat people like they're people behind a screen, but I guess people don't care about being genuine online. While I appreciate how far we've come I miss the mid 2000s when not everyone had a screen in the face, and social media is infantile and was built around the SOCIAL rather than the MEDIA. I'm not some balding boomer, I'm a zoomer, and I remember hearing stories of people making friends and relationships when I was little. Now I mostly see cult-like, tribalistic behavior, and insecurities on full display with people doubling down on the behavior just because they hide behind a screen. But what's worse is that it is mixed in with the trolls, and cyberbullies now. Even the "good" people online can be passive aggressive. This is only getting worse as everyone is getting more connected to the internet each year. TLDR: Social media promotes MEDIA/DEBATES over SOCIAL/DISCUSSIONS and is ruining more than just gaming.

Easy and objective answer: YES!

I love you guys and your take on issues and games. Our love of games has been the thing that brought us together. I think we also need to have this kind of discussion on civil discourse because we are starting to get out of hand with it. I’ll probably never play FF7: Remake because I’ll never own a PS5. But I appreciate and applaud Square-Enix for trying to do a long game series like this. What is happening here is what Xenogears and XenoSaga were attempting to do decades earlier. We will have to see if this catches on. We are now at a point where episodic content is taking off and could inspire new ideas and take games to new areas that we could not before.

I started watching your content back in the Dark Pixel days, simply because you were the first person speaking about JRPGs in a way that _precisely_ reflected my own feelings. It started with some Chrono Cross videos, specifically on its UI. I'm a UI designer, so it made sense to click on the video from someone I had never heard of before. A bizarre intersection of my interests and career. I wasn't looking for JRPG content, I never related to any of it. So I was shocked, to be honest. FF, CT and CC are so... personal to me, I guess? I would just say, "Ah well, it's my own thing I like in my own way. And that's totally fine!" Then I saw your content, and it was like looking into a mirror. Your analyses of FFVX, XVI, and VIIR were equally reflective. So while your reputation may have taken a hit for your opinions on FFVIIR, you're still resonating with people like me. What's the use of a reputation, if it's based on a deep misunderstanding who you are? I'm glad you've maintained the soul of your perspectives.

Thank you for this video! I wanted to ask which is your video (that you mention at the beginning) where you talk about FFVII:Remake? The one you said caused controversy etc.

this is the good shit. Great reflections PD. I understand your view of FF7 remake because I feel similar. However, I like to play them to understand how the evolution happened and grasp how the creators (some of them worked on the OG game) have evolved with the game.

Just wanted to add, Your FF7R podcast was beautiful. You and Patrick Hollerman was the only ones I could agree with when it came to FF7R. It felt this channel was the only place of sanity in this insane world.

15:50 Reminds of a line from the movie Phantom of the Paradise - ''An assassination live on television coast to coast? That's entertainment!''

“Is social media ruining-“ “Yes.” “You didn’t let me finish.” “The answer is still yes.”

I have grown to loathe almost every online community for anything. Its just hive mind after hive mind of people finding every little minor detail to complain about. Its exhausting to engage with. Comment sections are filled with people who came to a topic, any topic it doesn't matter, just to complain about that topic. No one goes to forums for things they like to praise it, they go to things they don't like to complain about it because complaining is the new favorite global passtime. Bitching about things is how most people online choose to go about their day and those people suck. When social media first started it was fun. You talked, exchanged ideas, bantered but it never got stupid, and the people who did troll were just eye rolled and ignored for the most part. Now the trolls and hive minds are the majority and the normal people are bailing because its not worth dealing with constant asshole behavior. If you want to truly enjoy gaming, movies, or entertainment in general, stop going online. Just enjoy things as they come out without needing the opinions of reviewers or the online communities. Most of them are too jaded to enjoy things anyways because of their own over saturation of the hobby. Newsflash to the people who complain that all modern games suck: EVERYTHING starts to suck and get boring when you only do that one thing all the time. Try taking a 3 month break from all gaming and when you come back to it, everything is fun again and you will complain less which leads to bothering less people overall. You're welcome. lol

That really sucks that yall lost viewers and stuff cause you expressed your strong feelings about the remake.

I'm really excited for planescape next week! This has been one of the first games I hadn't played before it was covered here, and I've really enjoyed the setting. There's other things I haven't enjoyed as much, but overall I'm having a good time and I'm gonna finish it

I dont do social media for videogames at all, i just watch youtube and i find it really enjoyable. Tons of great retrospectives and insightful stuff like this channel. For the arts i find youtube and insta the best. Its just people sharing their hobbies. Twitter and tiktok seem to be more geared for arguments and i find that all boring. Ppl should consider curating their timelines and theyll be way happier.

Everyone trying to make Mike play FF7R, let him be. And it does, the newest thing is probably Sweet Baby Inc. in this regard.

Hey guys, I just want to tell you that I disagree with your take about 7R in many ways, and I agree in a lot of ways, but that hasn't made me dislike your podcast. On the contrary, it made me respect you more, because you have brought people that like it (as well as 16) and listen to what they have to say. I love that. I really hate just hearing people praise something. I like the challenge, and what different smart people have to say about it. Thanks again for what you do, I've learned a lot.

Great content, I feel this is really related with stuff Robert Sapolsky talks about.

True..I used to dwell on every media I consume. But now I just avoid any discussion about them and just enjoy them when it comes. Like what we have on the 90s just wait for announcements and avoid any hype about them to have the majesty of playing them when I finally have them. Social media often ruins things for us now.

i am 100% not getting into the toxicity i keep my opinions to myself

1) Don't apologize for your Remake analysis. That was a fantastic video and really helped me sort out my thoughts on the game because I was so baffled by it. 2) I love these side episodes you've been doing lately. You should consider using episodes like this as bumpers between games. 3) I think the biggest issue is actually smartphones. The fact that there is practically no resistance between you and social media makes it so easy to engage with it. If you still had to go over to your PC to go yell at people on social media it may not happen quite as much.

Wow really liked this discussion, I feel it has influenced me and how I will conduct myself online. Its a topic much larger than videogames, in politics its urgent that people start coming from a place of empathy. Btw I'm portuguese, so very far away "tribe" and probably some different values. Anyway thanks!

At 48:15 you mentioned the legend Landon, later called Landon Brown. Whenever you mention him, can you insert a clip where you show what he said in a previous video, and add nostalgic editing when you do?

I have to admit that I have seen no arguments erupting on social media about FF7 Rebirth and I usually have the misfortune to run into a lot of it. Maybe it was because I did a lot of blocking when FFXVI came out and I attracted a lot of nonsense for saying it was very light on the actual RPG elements. It all seems surprising positive to be honest. What I tend to do on Twitter (yes, I still call it that) is make sure I have 'Following' selected rather than 'For You' which might as well be called 'Things That Will Annoy You'. Even better you can make a List and then use that as your default link and then you'll only see accounts you are following.

You all are dabbling with the french philosopher Jean Baudrillard's ideas in his book Simulacra and Simulation. But yes, there is very little of our daily experience that is truly authentic, and the more we accept that... The less likely we'll quibble over things that were probably baked into us at an earlier stage in our life, rather than a legitimate belief that we've meticulously challenged.

Gaming, music, movies, everything. It actually ruins my enjoyment of stuff. Could just be me, but I'll give you an example when it comes to wrestling. I love wrestling. Used to excitedly look up discourse and news about it. But the tribalism and bad faith arguing made me not engage anymore. Job done? For the most part yeah. However, what's been burrowed into my brain is recognising what is going to provoke the talking points that is going to drive the click bait stuff, and I can't unsee it. I know which people are going to say what, how they'll say it, who they'll be saying for, and how much anger it'll stir up. Performative outrage over stuff that does not matter. Same goes for movies and games. It's exhausting. And saddening.

really hope Xenosaga wins.