Hello. Welcome to Daily(ish) for, Tuesday, 12/19/2017 in the final days, the final throws of 2017. And, I don't know what the weather is outside here. What's the weather in in Austin, Dave?
Speaker 2:Miserable. It out here, Chris. Thanks, for bringing me on the show. It is misty wintery mix, I believe, is kinda what we're getting into. But it's also 60 degrees, so it's a hot wintery mix.
Speaker 1:Hot wintery mix. It's a minus 12. Feels like minus 18 Celsius here, so I don't know. I forget how that goes to the f's, but it's cold anyways. So
Speaker 2:double it and add 32. That's The metric conversion.
Speaker 1:Okay. I'll keep that in mind. We are, I brought some my my friend Dave, who's also a client on to the podcast today, to talk about a little game that, we are both, not addicted to but just have a good time playing on the computers and Xboxes and stuff, called Overwatch. And, so we're gonna do that for the episode and, hopefully, it's of enjoyment to you even if you don't partake in the Overwatch experiment. We, yeah.
Speaker 1:We're we're also streaming this live on the old Twitch channel or Good Stuff Twitch channel. Twitch.@tv/goodstuff_fm. I'm gonna liberally use, audio from Dave because I edit his podcast, Shop Talk Show, a lot. And so I hear a lot of Dave's voice, but I don't get to actually talk to him and have him answer me back. I mean, I talk to him on the when I'm editing, but he doesn't answer back usually.
Speaker 2:But I think I think you have enough clips to procedurally generate a show without me, and I'm looking forward to that day. Tons of idea. I got tens of books. Binder's full of books.
Speaker 1:Yeah. There's a whole screen I'm looking at of, Dave. The problem is when I named the files for the media, like, it's just a folder, they all say Dave dash and then starting of something, but I have no idea what they actually say. So here's Dave thick.
Speaker 2:Very thick stack.
Speaker 1:So there you go. Yep. Yep. And, one more here we'll go to before we get into the the important parts. Dave dash fart, I'm sure it's
Speaker 2:Oh, I could fart out a book in a month or, you know, a couple weekends, you know. Get some Red Bull.
Speaker 1:So there you
Speaker 2:That's my general approach to book writing.
Speaker 1:And on
Speaker 2:the You could you could honestly, that's 80% of the shop talk is me talking about a book I I have never written. So there you go. That's a lot of words.
Speaker 1:Even got a guest appearance but from Chris Coy or mister Chris Coy. So, I think between the, yeah, between the two of you, I could probably sub if you guys were both out for a week or whatever. We could probably put together some sort of I don't know how you you do that in machine learning or something, I guess. You feed it
Speaker 2:in the computer and
Speaker 1:it spits out a podcast. That's what we're
Speaker 2:It's like a DJ thing. Like you me yeah. You just put together a show with these audio clips. A two minute show.
Speaker 1:So, in in brief, I guess, maybe we'll see here in brief. But, like, Overwatch is a game where it's at its core, it's just like a runaround, shoot each other, kill them first before they kill you game that's been around since doom days or whatever, except, obviously, it's multiplayer with the internet connections and everybody sitting at home in their basement running around killing each other. And what I don't know for you, but for me Overwatch, I hadn't played a lot of those kind of games in a while, but Overwatch drew me back into that style of game on initially on the Xbox and then I bought it on the PC as well. But it drew me in because it's I think it's like it's cartoony. It's not like graphic violence, which I don't have a problem playing those kind of games, but it is just like, less heavy I guess because of that.
Speaker 1:And, and the gameplay is surprisingly fun and varied enough between each character that it feels like each game is new and different and the mix of people that are in the game, the characters that themselves whether they're whoever you're playing against, but the characters themselves are different enough to keep it interesting. But what's like, what what for you drew you into Overwatch?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, Overwatch, yeah, six v six, shoot them up. It for me, it was it's kinda what you said. I actually had some friends, my friend Jan and Zach. They both were playing the game, and I was like, well, shoot.
Speaker 2:I'm building a PC, so we're gonna play this game together and started playing it once I built my PC. And I I just I liked it. I I was playing a lot of Titanfall and Titanfall two at the time, or it does kinda my game of choice, which I still really like. But I when I cracked open Overwatch for the first time and I was just running, was like, oh, these people, like, run as fast as, like, I do. Like, you know, like, the like, the motion felt right.
Speaker 2:And I think what, what I like about the game, you know, especially compared to, like, Titanfall or Call of Duties or all that stuff, is is that that kind of cartooniness. I I think, you know, it it's it's a bunch of superheroes shooting each other. It's not like army dudes being army mans and super tough macho mans. It's it's, like, kind of these superheroes with super abilities that kind of counter each other, and and that's what I really liked. And later, you know, picked up another, guy from Twitter, named Juan.
Speaker 2:And so it's me, Yan Yan, Juan, and Dave, and we all get together. And Zach but Zach's kinda actually cycled out. He kinda had a break up with Overwatch moment, which is totally, totally fine. But I but I play with Yan Juan and me, and we kinda shoot around. And and you've joined us too, Chris.
Speaker 1:But Yeah.
Speaker 2:But but, like, most nights, it's just like we find each other and we're just, okay. Let's let's shoot teenagers. No. Not literally, but just on the Internet. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Which that's where it brings up a point to that. For me, I was playing the game in the Xbox, and I don't have, a little headset or whatever on Xbox. So I didn't hear anything that was going on. I didn't know how mad people were at me for not knowing that Junkrat should be doing a whatever it's called role versus the other characters doing a different kind of role. And so then I when I switched to the PC and then, yeah, you invited me to play, and then you were actually the so I guess you're the gateway to the evil side of the Internet for me within Overwatch.
Speaker 2:Dear, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry. You're the reason I had to get headphones anyways because yeah. Which it's fun. Like, the voice chat is fun and it's a great way to, like, be able to play with someone you know. But then you do get paired up with randoms, and particularly in either, like, competitive gameplay, but even at various levels, can turn the voice chat on and, and sort of hear some of that.
Speaker 1:Which is why that's why I wanted to talk with someone like you who's a little further ahead along in the game, knows some of the stuff. And, and I should mention actually, I forgot to mention at top of the show that right now for Christmas anyways or holidays, they've got Overwatch on for like 50% off. So on the various platforms I think. So you can, pick it up for pretty cheap. And then there's no monthly subscription or anything like that other than I guess on Xbox you pay for Xbox Live, but it's only multiplayer so you kind of have to have an internet connection obviously to play it.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, you can pick it up on the cheap right now if you want and join, the game there. But, yeah. So it's it was hearing I guess what other people were shouting at me in various ways that made me think I need to sort of level up here or else I'm gonna be very embarrassed playing against some of these 16 year olds. I have no problem getting killed by a 16 year old Overwatch player who's amazing and spends every day of his life playing it. Just when they're shouting at me and making me feel bad in my 40 year old body, while I'm just trying to get a little bit of a break from building websites and taking care of my kids, that's where I wanna have at least be able to shout back at them maybe.
Speaker 2:I have shouted back, and I've I've gone full dad on these people before. It's pretty awesome. I just I ripped into a kid. I was just like, you need to take a nap. You sound effing three year old right now.
Speaker 2:It wasn't healthy. And
Speaker 1:Yeah. Overwatch. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But, no, it's, you know, it's interesting. When you play a game online, and there's a lot on the Internet you can read and stuff about toxicity in in this idea that in the video games is actually awesome. Like, there's a whole jargon that goes with it, like, being salty is when you're you know, and that's in sports and stuff too, but it's just basically you're like, you're you're just mad. You're just angry at everything. So, like, people are like, get salty, and then they get toxic, which is like they're blaming their own team, they're kinda, like, cussing and throwing.
Speaker 2:And throwing is this thing, like, you're playing, but you're not. You're, like, not even trying to play. You know, there's other things you can do, like, griefing, like, you get, like, the game, you can, like, set up a teleporter. So people are like, oh, sweet teleporter. I'm gonna run through it.
Speaker 2:And the teleporter just leads to, like, a cliff, and you just so you just basically, like, actively, like, ruin your team, or, like, you're you're kind of like, I don't know, there's bad teamwork, like, somebody picks a character, you know, and this is a lot of accusation accusatory stuff, but you, like, pick a character and then it's bad for the game and and you never like, it's bad for the there's I'm getting so deep here because I have so many thoughts. But it's bad for the team comp, and this is kind of a thing that Overwatch if you ever play it, you jump in, you have to learn is team comps, and that's basically, like, how you know, you have six players six versus six. Like, how do these six players beat these six players? And at the first start is, you know, most shoot them ups are like a game of skill. Like, I'm just gonna set my sights and and shoot this person better, but the, Overwatch is is that.
Speaker 2:But but the first part of Overwatch is almost like a chess game. It's like, do the the characters I on my team, the the six superheroes, beat these six superheroes, or do they match them? Can we change things up in counter? And once you have that figured out, then and hopefully, the other team doesn't change. But once you have that figured out, then you then it's a game of skill.
Speaker 2:Like, can I shoot better than they can shoot? And maybe you have, like, you know, a god player that's just could kill everything, like, one, you know, is a super shooter or something like that. But most people aren't or the game doesn't let you be. But but I think, like, once you kind of learn how to make teams and build teams, like, that's kind of the first part of Overwatch that you don't understand when you get into it because you're just like, oh, shooter. I know how to play shooters.
Speaker 2:I just hit the forward button and the gun button, and I just, you know, play until I die. You know? And that's not how it really works. Like like, when you get into the comp element, the competitive element, you you really it's like, you know, does if one person on your team isn't holding their weight or isn't playing their role, and that's another, like, Overwatch ism that comes up. But, like, if one person isn't playing their role, you really don't get, like you don't I I don't know.
Speaker 2:You you, like, you're at an unfair advantage. It's almost better if they didn't weren't in there, you know, because, like, it's that sounds terrible, but it's like, you know, like, there's this thing in Overwatch of this ultimate the ultimate economy, basically, is what it's called. And if if I shoot you a 100 times and you block all those shots, you know, and then you get or you take hits, but then you get healed, I have fed your ultimate. And so next time you and I fight, Chris, you're gonna be super beefed up and just, you know, use your ultimate ability, which is some, like, magical power that you have. Or or in the case of Junkrat, our favorite hero, it's this tire wheel that drives around and explodes.
Speaker 2:It's like a a mobile IED. And, yeah, it's just it's like so that you're gonna kill me the next time because you have this, like, super ability because I wasn't you know? Anyway but all that said, like, it's it's a very interesting game. Like like, on the first like, it's a nice shoot them up, and it's almost like a RPG. You know?
Speaker 2:Like, you your players, like, build up these ultimate abilities, these powers, and then they can use these spells, basically. And, I like that I like that more than I I, you know, I I played other shooters, and it ends up being about the loadout. You know? It ends up being like, oh, you can use the the shotgun, but you have a laser sight on the shotgun, and the shotgun has these bullets. And then it's like, I don't I'm a 37 year old man.
Speaker 2:I don't have time to, like, like, micromanage my gun. I do micromanaging for work all day, so I don't need to, like, a whole compute a video game that is micromanaging. I have enough of that. What I like about Overwatch is it's like I choose one of the 25 characters, which is a lot, but 25 presets and or that I that I enjoy. And, and then there's only three or four buttons.
Speaker 2:It's like drive around, the e key, the shift key, and the q key, and that's all I need to know to play the game and maybe two mouse buttons. But, like, you know, I'm just I can it's it's like five buttons. All I need to know, done.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Well, I I know the ultimate thing is actually one of the things that I I know it's probably somewhere in a manual somewhere, obviously, or wherever, but, like, the you get sort of charged up like you were saying, and the the result of that or how you get charged up is based on your how long you've been alive and how much damage you've sustained or what?
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's like damage given, and then, like like, damage given, but then there's also, like well, I guess the example I gave was bad. Like, if you took damage and then you, like, and then your healer healed you, like, that's actually you aren't well, you're gonna be alive longer, so your ult's gonna be a lot higher. You know? But but the healer's ult, because they just filled you up, is gonna go up.
Speaker 2:And then next time you fight and the healer has, like, a superpower, like resurrect or or, you know, like, I'm trying to think anyway, like, healing abilities. Like, now, like, your team whole team is at a disadvantage because one guy was just trying to be a hero and not working together. You kinda like, the most ideal situation in Overwatch is you jump onto the point or or crawl in, and you kill everybody at once. It's not this, like, we're gonna take them out one at a time and be really methodical. It's like jumping carnage win.
Speaker 2:You know? And
Speaker 1:the the point being what? I've heard that shout out.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Get on the point. And I'm like, I I think I know what I'm doing there, but what what is that?
Speaker 2:Okay. Yeah. So yeah. I didn't realize there's so much jargon here. So
Speaker 1:That's what I'm getting. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Ask me. Yeah. So, so in Overwatch so there's three or four different maps. Right? There's a a a two capture point map, which is kind of like if you think of it kind of like, your team has to go get a mat get a control point, which is, like, with a red ring.
Speaker 2:It's got a red ring around it. You have to go get it from the enemy. That and you go to that point, and then you have to go get another one. So that's like there's levels like Anubis, Hanamura, the Horizon Lunar Colony. These are all two CP maps.
Speaker 2:The other one are assault maps, which I think if I'm it's like basically king of the hill. Like like, there's one point in the middle, and it's usually equidistant from two spawn points, and you have to go to the middle and fight and and control. Like and that's maybe just called control. I don't know. I'm blanking on the actual names.
Speaker 2:There's escort, which is like you, like, walk out and there's a little car there out in front of you, and this is like El Dorado, and you have to walk the car to a few checkpoints. And on those maps, the car is the point because if you leave the point, you lose. Like, it it stops moving. So somebody has to be on the point, to make it move. And if an enemy gets there, it can it's contested and it stops moving.
Speaker 2:So then you're then the goal is to get the enemies off of the thing off the point.
Speaker 1:Which that's a what in terms of, I'll just interrupt you. The, Overwatch sort of, like, mechanics that's different than a lot of other games. Maybe it's it's in other games too. I just haven't played a lot of them. At least intrigued me about I played capture the flag video games, and I've played, you know, variations, that the sort of moving escort mission is really cool and fun and, like but it does take you like, you have to realize what actually is happening because the the normally in those games, those things don't move.
Speaker 1:Like, you're not the car isn't actually gonna fall along on the track or whatever. It's just gonna sit there. And so, yeah, it was just like realizing that, oh, actually, we're gonna collectively push this thing along almost and, and guard it as it goes or whatever from enemy attack and things like that. And and the longer you have it, the further you get it through each checkpoints, the more points your team has and the round you can hopefully win that round or whatever. So, yeah, that was one of the things that kind of intrigued me and attracted me to Overwatch as well along along the way.
Speaker 1:So I forgot I think I interrupted you on
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Last or No.
Speaker 2:I think the last one is is a hybrid map, which is basically you go and you have to, like, capture the vehicle, and then you escort the vehicle. So it's like, you have to, like, go beat everybody, get the point, and then you escort the point. That would be like Numbani is kind of the classic version of that. So Right. I can't even, like, imagine.
Speaker 2:I like, I know I know the levels oh, I guess, in Eichenbald would be the other one. So and that's usually in those escort ones, in the hybrid ones, you have to you actually go through, you you get the first one, and then there's two checkpoints. So there's, like, a middle point, and then there's an endpoint. So it's pretty cool. And that's I think that's what's the variety there.
Speaker 2:Even though you're playing the same maps, like, the same 10 maps, like, over and over and over and over, like, you're playing it against different characters. You're playing it against different different teams with different players too, and and there's just enough variety that it makes it kind of interesting. And and then there's also you know, I'm like, more terms, but there's also different game modes. There's like an arcade, which is basically like a they just you know, Overwatch has, like, different kinds of, like, modes you can play in. Like, mayhem is like, you know, everyone has, like, 200% speed and 500% damage and stuff like that or whatever.
Speaker 2:And then there's, like, mystery heroes, which is like you jump in and you don't know what hero you pick a hero, but you're not that hero ever. You're just, like, randomly assigned. There's a they added a new, death match feature, which I think people were asking for just because it's not it's fun to play with people, but it's not always fun to play with people, especially if you're really tired of it. So sometimes you just wanna go and murder, and that's what the deathmatch is. It's just basically like like a, like, eight player deathmatch.
Speaker 2:So sort of like Quake or something like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah. More your traditional shoot them up game or whatever, but gives you that. Yeah. Without having to worry about the where where you're calling team comp or whatever where it's like how you make up your team affects how well you might your team might do and stuff. You don't have to worry about any of that.
Speaker 1:And it's kinda nice because you just either get killed a lot because you don't know what you're doing, but at least you get to run around as the character that it doesn't matter what what,
Speaker 2:you're supposed to
Speaker 1:be doing. So, Kyle, my my buddy here at Guest Stuff wanted to ask as asked me and asked you collectively, you, what what a good character is to choose for folks coming over from other traditional first person shooters like Unreal Tournament or Battlefield, deathmatch, capture the flag kind of games, And how long does one stick with it before knowing it's a bad fit? They have from time to time, Overwatch has, has, play free weekends and, so you can
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Try it out, which is a great way obviously to try something like this out. I have a hard time thinking you'll be that disappointed with the game if you like first person shooters, but I know for Kyle he had tried it and just like I think that that idea of like your analysis paralysis, type of feeling of like
Speaker 2:Analysis, browse?
Speaker 1:Whichever whatever way you want. Which character do I pick? Which one do I go with? How do I know what I'm and I feel like an idiot because I'm failing everybody in my team and then letting them all down whether I can hear them showing up here or not, I can just sense it. So for him, it was the training mission and about two minutes in that he's decided it wasn't for him.
Speaker 1:But what, any any advice for the noobs real noobs of Overwatch?
Speaker 2:Yeah. I mean, so you'd show up and you're picking your characters and there's like a row of 24 characters or 26 maybe now, 25 or six. And it is it can be overwhelming for sure. I think, like, they break them up. Overwatch, Blizzard breaks it up into four different categories.
Speaker 2:There's or sorry. There's attack, defense, tank, and support, or offense, defense, tank, and support. And the way you can think of it about that is from left to right, it's like you go from a a more attack role to a more help role, if that makes sense, from left to right. And and for me, it like, you know, if you're coming from a a shooter, like, realm, like, from Battlefield or whatever, probably wanna be in that attack role. Like like, you want to be kinda more offense.
Speaker 2:That's what you're pretty much used to. Soldier 76 is, like, the classic Yeah.
Speaker 1:I see.
Speaker 2:Sort of FPS player. But if, you know, you played those games and you are always sniper, there's Widowmaker is kinda the choice there. But if you like I don't know. If you're feeling more experimental, there's there's classic characters like Tracer, who is basically a speedster. It's the Flash meets meets guns, basically, the Flash with guns.
Speaker 2:So you can basically just, like, zip, like, go real fast, zip in, shoot people, zip out, and just be like, what? I was never there. I just you saw a blur, and you got killed by a blur. So and maybe Tracer's role is less actually, like, doing murders, but it's like going in and just being annoying. Like and that's the thing too is you just pick a character and then over time, figure out what that character is good at.
Speaker 2:And there's, like, all there's all these, like you know, there's a bunch of YouTubes, like, for each character, like, how to play this character at this level of play. And, you know, I I think, like, you should definitely, like, learn watch YouTubes and learn how to do it. I like the defense players. This is like Bastion is is one that a lot of people play. He's basically like a a Gatling gun on legs, and so he walks around, parks, turns into a Gatling gun, and just murder most people down.
Speaker 2:This is a pretty good character, especially in the beginning because, like, you just sit on the point or on the cart and just shoot people. And, hopefully, you're behind a shield, and that's the next level kinda getting into helping people. The tanks are kind of like bullet sponges. They just basically, like, stand there, take damage, or they have a shield or whatever. They're just like beefcakes that just, like, get hit, and you just let you know, you kind of absorb hits for your team or or not too many because you'll fall over and die.
Speaker 2:But, like, you basically just kinda, like, look threatening and get in people's way. And that's kinda the and then all these smaller characters, squishies, we call them, all the squishies just go around and do murders. And in that sorry. In that defense, I forgot to mention our favorite Junkrat Junkrat is a, basically a grenade launcher. If you if I don't know.
Speaker 2:I played a lot of GoldenEye 64 in college a long long time ago, and I loved rocket launchers. You know? That was, like, my thing. Yeah. Grenade launchers, I think there's even a grenade launcher.
Speaker 2:But, like so I just love this character, and he has, like, mines and blows things up. So pretty easy accessible character to get into. There's Torbjorn. He sets up turrets. That's again on the defense.
Speaker 2:Okay. So in the tanks, there's, like, five tanks choose from. Reinhardt is basically your classic tank. He has a gigantic shield. He just stands there and, like, takes damage, and then he has a hammer.
Speaker 2:So when squishies come up to you, you just swing the hammer and take them out one shot. Yeah. Then there's support. Yeah. Support is the last one, and these are people who heal you or, like, kind of patch you up or or whatever.
Speaker 2:And there's quite a few different supports, and they all kinda do different things. But Mercy is the classic support. She has a little staff that just you point it at people and hit the click button, and and she heals you up. And the other button murder or powers you up prowess people up, and that's, you know and then there's Lucio. He's like a fast speedster on roller blades, and he can, like, climb walls and stuff.
Speaker 2:And he has a cannon, like a sound cannon that boops people. So he can actually heal or speed people up. And most of these healers kinda have this dynamic. They can, like, either heal and do something or whatever. So
Speaker 1:Which gets into where it's confusing, like, for your first time playing and you're you grab, like, Mercy or or Lucio even and you're like, I'm shooting. Why? What's not why is nobody dying? I'm shooting right at them and actually what you're doing is trying to heal the other team, which luckily you can't do. But, that's where the that issue comes in.
Speaker 1:And I think, like you said, the the attack character is your traditional like Soldier seventy six is in the, offensive characters is the easiest one to wrap your head around in the, what are they called again? The tank no. The support. No. I always can mix up all the terminology when I'm trying to, chat with somebody on on whatever and, like, I throw out the wrong word right away just like I just did.
Speaker 1:But, not the tanks, not the supports, but the chess piece.
Speaker 2:The off the offense.
Speaker 1:Offense and then oh, defense. That's what I'm trying think of. That's the opposite offense. Right? The, the Widowmaker, like you said, I think is probably a great character to start with if you're used to sniping and stuff because it's there's again, it's a simple mechanic.
Speaker 1:There's advanced stuff she can do, but it's just like shoot, zoom in and shoot, and move around and stay at a distance kind of thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. And she has a grappling hook and, like, that's for traversing. So, like, that's kind of the other part is like, you're like and they do a pretty good job balancing players. It's like you have a gun and it shoots, and then you have, like but really good shooters aren't gonna have really great movement.
Speaker 2:Like like, they're gonna kind of move kinda slow, and then they don't go across the map that fast. So it's it's just a cool balance, and you really gotta, like, just kinda get in there and try people out and just see what looks interesting to you. I mean, I I think, like, if you play matches, just, you know, jump, pick a character, it doesn't matter. And then but try to, like, observe what the other characters are doing, you know, like and it'll be kinda interesting, and just try to memorize what all their powers are.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That's right. The mystery heroes one is fun because everybody each time you restart a new match or game or whatever, the everybody's just assigned a random person, you don't get to pick your favorite guy. Nobody's getting to pick their favorite character. And I feel like anyways, there's like a bit of a get out of jail free card in in terms of a pass on.
Speaker 1:If you could get some character that no like, even the best whatever soldier 76 player in the world is probably terrible at Bastion or one of the other characters. And so in Mystery Heroes, it kind of just scrambles it all up and nobody gets to just play as their favorite and you're all kind of like learning something new each time potentially. On the computer, I know it's I think it's f one, and I know there's a key on the Xbox and I'm sure PlayStation as well where you can hit that key and you can just it'll give you a quick summary of what their special abilities are or their abilities are, what key is is to actually hit it, and, and then you can sort of find out pretty quickly. And nobody is really like as much as it feels like they're watching, if you're not in the competitive ladder play, nobody's really watching you that closely when you're if you just like paused and looking at the screen, hitting your buttons, trying to figure something out. And there's no huge penalty either to losing a match or two.
Speaker 1:Like, it's not like you lose your the characters themselves don't level up, I guess, in in terms of that sense
Speaker 2:of humor. Yeah. Yeah. It's not like like Destiny or or something where you're, like, you're investing all this time into a character. Had a friend asking me about that this week.
Speaker 2:He's like, I don't know if I have time to, like, invest a bunch. And I'm like, dude, you don't. You just you can change mid game and if you want. Like, you're it's not like you're committed to this thing, you know, or or, like, you you didn't, like, configure this guy perfectly and then it doesn't work out. It's like, just switch whenever you want.
Speaker 2:Like, you could throw yourself off a cliff and get a new character. Mean, that's how they do it in the pros actually. They're just like, uh-oh, it's not working out. Bye. So
Speaker 1:And, like, what you said about, say, Lucio with his boop gun, right, for the there's all sorts of fun interesting plays and ways to use the characters like that you don't really realize at first, but then you you do play with somebody who's maybe, you know, a level or 10 up above you and all of sudden you see them do something, you're like, oh, wow. Gotta remember to do that because like, Roadhog is one of the tank characters that has like a chain that he throws out and then pulls people in towards him or towards a, you know, like a kill zone basically. Right? And and people use that in creative ways to like grapple someone across a, you know, a chasm or whatever and pull them off and then they you die. But he's the only character that can do something like that and so it's not like everybody can just run around and grab people and throw them off.
Speaker 1:You have to know how to use the character to do some of those special moves like that and it kind of gives you a real like buzz of satisfaction, I guess, or video game buzz anyways when you do that that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. There's, like, learning your character and, like, getting like, few moments with Junkrat or whatever, you know. He he's a great character, But it was like, oh, he doesn't have to, like, be close to stuff, like, because he like, his damage actually goes pretty far. So, like and he's safer back there.
Speaker 2:But when I do go up into people's faces and, like, I can just cause carnage and, like, I realized, like, his role is just to make you unhappy like, just to disrupt people, take somebody out, like, cause massive damage. Like, he's he's just like a I don't know, like an anarchy agent, you know. And so, like, once I realized that, I was like, oh, this is I'm actually having a lot more fun here because I know what this character is good at, you know. And we I was playing the other night, and we actually figured out a strategy between us. I don't think it's like a a pro strategy or anything like that, but but, my, friend Jan was playing Symmetra.
Speaker 2:He Symmetra sets up these laser turrets. Really, it's basically like you walk through it and you get zapped and slowed down and you're stuck until you kill the turret. Really annoying, but, like, when I was playing Orisa, which is like a a oh, she's a minotaur, like, with a cannon. Sure. But I was playing Marisa, and and Marissa's really vulnerable when, like, somebody like Tracer or some speedster or some, you know, kind of character gets behind her and just because she moves slow.
Speaker 2:She's a big minotaur, you know, but so she gets just, like, just just murdered if somebody gets behind her, basically, and she can't react to that very well. But we are like, oh, dude. If you set enough traps behind me, like, and I'm in kind of a tight space, then, like, I can act like, those people will come in to think they're, like, clear to attack me and then just get zapped and then focus on the thing that's zapping them, and I can turn around and kill them. And so, like, we figured out, like, oh, like, we have, like, a little bit of a strategy, that we can do. So so the first step is, like, figuring out your character and then figuring out how your character and other characters can complement each other.
Speaker 2:And the most obvious one is, like, the ultimate, like, combination, like a double ultimate. Like, you you you earn these ultimates every, I don't know, ninety seconds or something like that, you know. You can expect to see, like, you know, three, or I don't know, two a match or something like let's say that's like the basic. And hopefully more, but like two a match. And so, like, if you save your ultimate for, like, when Zarya is kind of this big tank Russian tank lady, but she can throw a graviton gravitron these words are stupid.
Speaker 2:Anyway, she can throw, like, a gravity ball, suck people in, and then if Junkrat throws his little, tire bomb or Hanzo throws these dragons or, you know, Tracer has a pulse bomb thing. Like, if you time those together, you can, like, wipe out the team, like, then you have, like, a free open, like, base basic or, like, base, and then you just cap it, you win, and then you're just playing a little bit of defense to keep little stragglers on or off the point, you know, like so that's just it. That's it. Like, if you can, like, time those together, once you work like, you figure out how to play your characters, and then you figure out how to play with other people. And that's kind of what Ultimate's all about or sorry, Overwatch is all about, is just learning how to play with other people.
Speaker 2:And, yeah, I hope it I don't know. It takes a while to get to that point to, like, before you realize, oh, this is, like, not just me shooting and being the baddest mofo, you know, on the microphone because
Speaker 1:The, even in that mode, like, if you're if you're using voice chat or even texting or whatever in the game, the just like nobody knows really. There's a bit of a like a an indicator how long you've played the game for in terms of your your gamer score or whatever they call it inside Overwatch. I forget what it is, but like your rank. But even within that, you can just be like, oh, I'm just trying out Roadhog for the first time or whatever. Like, it's just just needed a new character and nobody knows that you haven't you've actually played Roadhog for fifty hours, but you're just really awful.
Speaker 1:And so there's there's a bit of anonymity that way and each time you join a new game, you're generally matched up with different characters. If you want to be, you can hit leave the game before it goes to the next, matchmaking, auto matchmaking thing and you'll get paired up with a completely different random group of people. So, yeah, that's where it's, I don't know. I'm not like trying to be an Overwatch apologist or promotional team here, but the it feels like a the a great mix of like deep strategy if you want it to be there and also just, play for twenty minutes on a Friday night before bed because you just wanna, like, in Dave speak, murder a bunch of 16 year olds literally.
Speaker 2:Not literally. Maybe not murder. Maybe just yell at teenagers. I like to yell. Just yell at teenagers.
Speaker 2:Yeah. No. It's it's a great game. I like I I again, I think, like, just find a game you like. Like my friend Zach, he he he was kinda like, you know, the payoff here is not great because the way Overwatch Overwatch is 25, 30,000,000 people play this game.
Speaker 2:So they match you up against people. Right? And, like, the in Blizzard's mind, an ideal match is, like, a fifty fifty win rate. You know? And, like, you win 50 matches, and you lose 50 matches.
Speaker 2:You know? And and for some people, this and this is how I feel sometimes too. It's like this albatross feel, like you're you're not progressing in the game because you're, like, just dying. You know? And that's a fair criticism.
Speaker 2:Like, you're never getting better because there's probably always somebody better. And then, like, in Blizzard's like, uh-oh. I used my algorithm to, like, make your life worse and, like, intentionally. And so, like
Speaker 1:It's Facebook all over.
Speaker 2:Like, yeah. So, like, I I understand the albatross, like, argument, and I I agree with that. But I also like, if it's about, like, learning to play as a team, I think that's cool. But but even then, it's like the algorithm's against you. It's always against you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think the best advice there in there is the, you know, check out the YouTube videos, learn how to play at one character really well, and and you'll have a lot of fun. Like, sample them all at the beginning and and try and then pick one or two to sort of specialize in for a while. And then you'll be sort of off to the races in terms of figuring out how to play that one character. Because you can there's nothing wrong with continually like I see people all the time whenever I join a game, you're you're you're pick the character screen comes up and someone grabs a character right away because that's all that's the only person they play and even like a really good player will just keep doing that over and over because that's the only one they know how to play. And, and sometimes it's like annoying if you're constantly matched up with that one person, they're junk rat and you wanna be junk rat or whatever.
Speaker 1:But there's nothing wrong with doing that in in the games where you just like, I'm gonna try one character and really get good at them. So, before I let you go, the
Speaker 2:Try to do that in quick play, not in comp. That's usually
Speaker 1:Comp being like
Speaker 2:thing to do.
Speaker 1:Competitive ladder play.
Speaker 2:Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And and but, yeah, like, experiment with players. There's AI matches. Like, you go to training mode and play AI, and that's a great way too. Like, you actually join a team of humans, but, like, just go fight AI and just, like that way, like, you just see if, like, you know, you you actually understand the mechanics of a character. You can you know?
Speaker 2:And then I will say this, like, it's not I'm not an an advertisement or anything, but the, Overwatch League just started, overwatchleague.com, and it's basically the global Overwatch tournament, Major League Gaming, like, put on by Blizzard. They actually bought Major League Gaming to, like like, make it official official just because they have buckets, treasure chest full of cash. But the this is also a great great way to, like, see pros play it at a high level, and and, like, there's commentary to explain it and and stuff like that. So I I've really enjoyed it. I really like it.
Speaker 2:I pick up stuff every time I, like, watch a game, and it's gonna start, like, January 10, I think, is when it restarts. So, like, get in it. Get learn learn. There's Canadians that play, Chris, so you probably enjoy it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Team Canada was in the Overwatch World Cup finals or whatever it's called. Think it lost to the Koreans, but
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1:So
Speaker 2:Yep. Well, that's yeah. There's like there's games happening all the time. There's YouTube things. It's it's like an online sport just so Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Which exactly just like any other sport, if you wanna get good at it, you watch the pros, then you sort of practice and try to emulate the pros and then yeah. Hopefully, we can all get money, get paid playing video games someday is the dream. Right? One day.
Speaker 1:One day. Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna throw a bunch of terms at you, just so that people can be like at least level up their chat ability when they're playing Overwatch and some 16 year old is shouting at them. So you said team comp already, that's your team composition, the various characters to use.
Speaker 1:So someone's shouting you saying, use this character because whatever, that's sort of what they're referring to. What's, DPS is another term I heard thrown about.
Speaker 2:Damage per second. That means your player, like, is is built to do damage. And in in some teams, there's another term I'm gonna throw is a two two two, okay, which is you on your team, you have two healers, two tanks, and two DPS. So if you have if you're, like, going into a queue, and this is kind of the base most basic team composition, like like, that's kind of the default where you wanna start and, like like, mix and match until you you feel something better. But you have two healers, two tanks, and then two DPS, which would could be any character at this point.
Speaker 2:But, like, even if they're not, like, an official DPS, like, they're occupying that role, apparently, they're a DPS. You know? So you kinda have to, like, break out of the four categories and use these kind of roles. And so if you're in building a team and you see, like, two two tanks get picked and two other characters get like, two non healers get picked, you should probably choose a healer. So Right.
Speaker 1:And it'll actually the team makeup thing will warn you, like, there's no healers or too many whatevers. Right? And so you kinda get a guide anyway.
Speaker 2:That's actually a pretty good like rule of thumb. Like it's like no healers, no hey guys, no healers. You need the healer.
Speaker 1:Right. I think we covered, yeah, tank support etcetera. A boop we covered.
Speaker 2:Boop is that you push somebody off a map with a concussive force.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Like, Lucio has a boop. D. Va can boop, with when she runs into people, and, Feyre can boop with her concussion blast.
Speaker 1:And it's okay. For me, boop just makes me giggle. So if it makes you giggle every time someone says boop, then by all means. Cool down.
Speaker 2:Cool down. If you use an ability like one of your special keys, your ultimate or your e key or your shift key, which is just kind of your secondary abilities, they there's a cool down, and usually it's in the six second neighborhood, but it can be up to, like, twenty seconds. But it's basically the the power has to build back up before you can use it again. Right. So and and learning how to pay attention to that and time that with your characters so you can consistently throw those, and, that's really helpful.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And I will say if you're playing as Junkrat and you shoot off the tire, his his ultimate, and you end up driving off the cliff or you blow it up and don't actually hit anybody, there's no shame in that. It happens to the best of us. So many times for some of us.
Speaker 2:Lot lots of people do this.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Just don't do it when you're playing with, Dave and Juan. Choke point.
Speaker 2:That's where so where the map, you're driving like, if you're, like, walking through it, it gets narrow. And and if you could think of it like a like I don't know. Like, the the waist on a dress or something like that. Like, it's it's basically things get narrow, so that means the enemy can focus their fire, and you have to, like, walk through this small, like, point in the map. And usually, those are, like, bridges or gates or something like that.
Speaker 2:You you have to, like, enter through a smaller point. And there are ways usually around the choke, but usually it's like one way. It's there's usually like a a the choke, the big kind of door gate that you have to go through, and then like an auxiliary way through. But, yeah, like, it's it's difficult. So Yeah.
Speaker 2:Most difficult part of the map.
Speaker 1:And, maining as a character, m a I n I n g as a character? What is that? Yeah.
Speaker 2:Main is is your like, who you're best at, what character you play the most. And for me, it's Junkrat. But, you know, and there's there's a difference between maining and one tricking. One tricking means you can only play one character. You're not good at any other characters,
Speaker 1:more
Speaker 2:or less.
Speaker 1:It's Sometimes it's thrown around in a derogatory way, like, you're maining it only as I guess, which then it means more like one tricking, I guess. But Halo Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like like Hanzo main is a kind of Overwatch joke. Hanzo is a great character, but also a lot of bad Hanzos out there. So, a lot of bad Hanzo mains. Anyway, go ahead.
Speaker 1:Was there like a that mean that means, like, Hanzo is a certain type of character and people play his role poorly. Right? Like, sort of from a distance shooting arrows in Yeah. Battleground instead of trying to go right up front to the front lines or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That you just you'll experience it. You have to experience it.
Speaker 1:Because that's the one that actually forget who I think I was playing as, who's the guy with the double gun thing death guy? What can I think of his name right
Speaker 2:now? Reaper.
Speaker 1:Reaper. Was playing as Reaper in a in a map, and I was like, thought I was doing good. And then all of like three guys are like, the funny part of Overwatch voice chat is when they like talk about you as if you're not actually listening even though they can very easily see that you are listening and they're like, Reaper is just awful and like Reaper is not doing whatever and Reaper why you should just stop playing Reaper and like stuff like that when you're like, I'm right here guys. I can hear you. Just like Yeah.
Speaker 1:Report those
Speaker 2:turds. Report report bad teamwork. That's unnecessary. That's the toxic behavior of Overwatch. And and I think any game has that, but it sucks.
Speaker 2:So
Speaker 1:what about, payload?
Speaker 2:Payload is the the point or the the cart. Like, that's, like, the thing you're on those escort and hybrid maps, those things you're kind of, like, moving along. So that's the payload.
Speaker 1:Gotcha. Someone's banging on my door here. Just one second. That's not part of Overwatch. Alright.
Speaker 1:Delivery.
Speaker 2:Christmas.
Speaker 1:Payload, the point we covered, ultimate we covered, squishy you covered, nerfed.
Speaker 2:Nerfed? Okay. So there are two things that can happen to characters. When Blizzard makes a patch and updates the game, a lot of times they'll either nerf or buff. These are all opposites.
Speaker 2:Nerf or buff a character. Nerf is when the the like, just I guess the abilities go down, and a buff is when the abilities go up, whether that's like damage or healing or, you know, like, anything really.
Speaker 1:And is there a term in game too where like you get if you get nerfed or not really?
Speaker 2:You could that'd just be like you just got deaded or whatever, but but like D. Va's like, big call is nerf this, but it's just her being a dumb gamer.
Speaker 1:So And push would be, like, push when you're, like, going for the win or something?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. So push is, like like usually, it's like push the cart or push the payload, and that's like you just get to it and make it move. You know? There can also be, like, a just a whatever army strategy wise.
Speaker 2:Like, let's push from the left or something and, like, all go in at once, like, and make the push. So there's there's kind of two terms, push, like, poke and push. Poke is when you kind of, like, are at one of those choke points, and you kinda, like, send somebody around to, like, draw fire and just kind of antagonize them. Like, Junkrat's a good poker. Like, just kinda get in there and boom boom boom.
Speaker 2:Like, see see if you can get a kill or something like that. And then if you get a kill, then you all push. Like like, that's kind of the strategy. Like, you just you get a key kill or a key, like, like
Speaker 1:Knock off one of their characters.
Speaker 2:There's A kill? Yeah. Yeah. A key. There's a word we use all the time, but, like, a frag.
Speaker 2:I don't know. You just get like a key a key kill and and you just like go forward. There's a term I'm forgetting, but
Speaker 1:It'll come to you after we stop. I'm sure. The, so scouting you kind of alluded to kill cam is the I can I think I can handle this one where it's basically at the end of the when you get killed, when you get nerfed, when you get, key killed, whatever happens to you, you, basically, it shows you a replay of your death from the person who killed you's vantage point? Right?
Speaker 2:Yeah. The kill feed. Yeah. It's just never fun to see. But what's nice there is if you can see if that player earned an ultimate or has an ultimate and you can tell your team, hey, they have an ultimate.
Speaker 1:Right. Because it shows you their screen, their, you know, whatever, all their stats or whatever from their viewpoint exactly. And so you can, very easily see that. And, yeah, I hadn't thought of actually looking for that. I was just always the other side of it is you can also look and see how you died so that you can know maybe how not to die next time if they caught you in a certain way or whatever.
Speaker 1:So
Speaker 2:Yeah. And you can disable that if you don't care. A lot of people don't care, but I I, like yeah. I use it for exactly what you said, like, just making, like, making sure I don't do that mistake again or I see where I was vulnerable and and but, you know, sometimes it's just like somebody nose got me from, like, a million miles away, like, and it's just like, well, I couldn't have fixed that. So
Speaker 1:And then, the one thing about joining a game I had written down was the skirmish mode, which is basically the kind of confusing at least at first is like, you pick your character or you're you're trying to match up. It says you're going to skirmish mode. So you're like, okay, I'm joining the game. I got my character, join the game and start running around killing people and all of a sudden people just start vanishing and then eventually you vanish and, it's kind of like the rapture maybe or whatever but like you basically kind of that's just like a holding tank almost if you've played PUBG or other games where you're kind of like all waiting for the real game to start. It's a good place to practice random stuff, do stupid things.
Speaker 1:Some characters some people don't actually shoot each other in the game, they just kind of meet in the middle and do their various character animations to make each other laugh.
Speaker 2:That's ridiculous. You always win the skirmish. Always win the skirmish. Make make get the most kills. That's the most important thing.
Speaker 2:I I practice characters. I'll like, every time a new character is introduced, I go into skirmish mode, and I make sure like, I learn how to, like, use characters Doomfist, you know, Moira's a new one. But I also do a lot of Widowmaker because I'm not a sniper. I'm bad at sniping, but I've learned how to snipe in in these skirmishes. And I've actually pulled her out, like, in comp games just to, like, get a couple key kills.
Speaker 2:You know? And and I'm not good at her, and I know that. But because I know I'm not a sniper at heart, but it's but it's like, you can learn characters, like, if over enough time. And then some people disable it because you can get placed if you disable skirmish, you can get placed in matches faster. So that's something to consider too.
Speaker 1:Oh, really?
Speaker 2:That's what they say.
Speaker 1:Not officially, but unofficially kind of.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I like the practice. I just I like a little bit of just gratuitous murdering before it gets serious.
Speaker 1:For the more refined murdering. It's like your appetizer before the meal.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. But that's a good place to try dumb stuff. Junker at you, it's like, can I jump over this building with my mines? Let's try, you know, like Right.
Speaker 2:How far can I jump? Stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Which I was gonna say before, there's no, player damage. You can't kill your own team at all. So you you can feel free to throw mines, throw bombs, throw weapons, whatever at in the general direction of your team and you're not gonna hurt them and so which is kind of a nice Shoot.
Speaker 2:Mechanic. Shoot through your team if you can. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And finally, g g in the chat. Sometimes you'll see you'll end the game and you'll say g g and a whole bunch of people
Speaker 2:Good game.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So Good game. There's text chat and there's voice chat and, text chat is the easiest way just to I think on the keyboard on the computer anyways, hit hit the enter key and you're into chat and you can type something and then hit enter again and you're done. Right? I think I got it Alright.
Speaker 1:I don't if there's any other any other words of Overwatch wisdom for the folks out in Daily's
Speaker 2:There's probably a a ton, but meta is one too. Meta is like all the characters that are popular right now. Like, in like, the the, like of the 24 characters, which, like, eight or so are meta, like, which are, like, the pros pick these characters and stuff like that. And so there's actually websites that track this stuff too. There's one that's called Omnic Omnic Meta, and it's like a basically, like, a full on, like, tracker.
Speaker 2:So yeah. So yeah. And there's the podcast associated with it called Omnic Lab Podcast, which I listen to, and they have a Discord, which is another, like, chat app, you could join the Discord and meet cool people, chill people who like to, level up their skills. So
Speaker 1:Nice. Yeah. The one bit of, Overwatch funnies that I found this week, I think I was looking for a certain character and then realized, like, all the what also draws me and drew me into the game is the great voice acting, of all the characters that like, and some of it's overused and some of it's hammy and cheesy, but, the the there's a whole series of YouTube videos of the voice actors themselves playing as themselves, their character that they voice and then meeting up, you know, online obviously they're playing and so their people, they're in voice chat and they're like, oh, wow, you sound exactly like a road hog or whatever. And and, you know, eventually, the players realize that actually is the the guy or the girl.
Speaker 2:Is the voice actor playing. Yeah. Yeah. Those are awesome.
Speaker 1:Bit of fun.
Speaker 2:They mess with Definitely. Check it out. There's a whole world. Like, when you get into it, there's a whole world. It's fun.
Speaker 2:It's nerdy. Enjoy it.
Speaker 1:And, I don't know how you you don't whatever. Just just follow Dave on, the Twitters if you're curious and davatron five thousand, but mostly Yep. Usually mostly web stuff.
Speaker 2:So I'd mostly do web stuff. Getting into game do games, you know, politics, of course, because that's dominating American culture right now. And, yeah. So that's kinda me in a nutshell. So
Speaker 1:And then, if you're into the web stuff, definitely listen to shoptalkshow.com is the podcast that Dave does with mister Chris Coyer.
Speaker 2:Chris edits. Makes us sound good. Thank you, Chris.
Speaker 1:Anything else that you wanna throw to the billions of listeners?
Speaker 2:No. I'm good. Thank you so much, and, you can follow me. Hit me up. Try on Twitter.
Speaker 2:I'll give you my disc or my Blizzard ID. We can fight each other, or try to match up. So that would be let's do that. So Alright.
Speaker 1:Just since we're on, oh, I'm gonna I'll I'll end the test, but, you can follow me on Twitter. I'm Mike Chris on Twitter, and, be sure to check out the Good Stuff Twitch page, twitch.tv/goodstuff_fm. We're turning up to 50 followers for this year, and, it means some sort of affiliate thing with Twitch, I guess. They have sort of like these they've gamified the whole their whole system, which isn't surprising since it's a gaming streaming platform. But, you can follow us there.
Speaker 1:We're at 48 right now. So if if you're so inclined, you can hit hit us up and get us push us over that thing. But if you've got more important things to do with your time, by all means, there's plenty of better causes to support on the Internet than our Guess little
Speaker 2:what? Guess what? What? 49.
Speaker 1:Oh, nice. Boom. I don't have any of that fancy Twitch overlays, but I'll leave you with Dave asking you to support us here.
Speaker 2:Thanks for subscribing in the chat. Be sure to sub hit the Patreon. Thanks, chat. Alright. Chris, I'm live streaming this today.
Speaker 2:Thanks for the subs. Alright, Patreon. Give them an emoji in the chat chat. Okay, chat.