In this edition of Gameological In Stereo, Kotaku’s Evan Narcisse returns for some further breakdown of Sony’s PlayStation 4 “unveiling,” now that we’ve had time to catch our breath from the internationally earth-shattering global event heard ’round the world. After that, Gameological In Stereo mainstay Ellie Gibson teaches me a few Britishisms as we debate the merits of Tomb Raider. I reviewed Lara Croft’s latest adventure for Gameological, and you can read Ellie’s review over at Eurogamer.
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I was also hoping to have another podcast mainstay, Bonney Teti, on this edition of the show, but she’s been under the weather lately, and I didn’t want the other segments to get too musty before I finally posted them on the site. Nobody likes a musty podcast. In any case, I’m sure she’ll be back next time, and I hope you’ll all wish her well.
Don’t worry, John, I had no idea kayfabe was a thing either. Apparently, neither does disqus, because it’s being underlined as a misspelled word.
I have no idea how I DID know what kayfabe was, and am now slightly embarrassed that I knew something about professional wrestling. Maybe I watch it in my sleep?
Also, if anyone wants to catch me on XBox live, my handle is “BallznAss24-7”
I only know it through that greatest of internet timesinks, TVTropes.org.
I only know the word because of that Los Campesinos! song “All Your Kayfabe Friends,” which made total sense on the context of that band.
Supercharged PS4! Chrome wheeled, fuel injected and stepping out over the line!
Polymer! Polymer! Polymer!
Hu-Ohhhhh! Baby this generation rips the bones from you back,
it’s a deathtrap, it’s a suicide rap!
We gotta buy one while we’re young,
cuz tramps like us,
baby we were born for PS-FUUUUUUN!
What have you done to the Boss?
It’s got a PC CPU, a 440W PSU, it’s got PC graphics chips, PC connectors, PC hard drives. It’s a model made before catalytic converters so it’ll run good on regular gas. What do you say, is it the new Playstation or what?
Get well soon, Bonney Teti!
Thank you so much! I’ve never had a back injury before but I never want one again. I am embarrassed to admit that I was doing some “power knitting” and caused a back spasm. The emergency room personnel thought that was hilarious. However, the drugs have induced some very scary dreams that might make fantastic video games so maybe I’ll start a whole new career!
Hi friends,
I just want to respectfully raise concern about a little exchange early in the podcast that rubbed me the wrong way:
John: “You don’t remember BallsAndAss247? That’s Morton from down the street and he delivers on that promise, let me tell you.”
Evan: “I don’t want to know how you know that.”
What’s the joke here? I don’t think this is a virulently homophobic remark, but sometimes these little quips can sting too. I’m not questioning your political allegiances (I know Evan has recently been posting about LGBT issues over at Kotaku), but I just want to know more about the sentiment behind the remark. I’m a big fan of the work that both of you do.
I can only speak to how I heard it myself, but I assumed John meant that Morton from down the street signs on to Xbox Live and talks about testicles and rear ends all day, every day. I took it more as a comment about the Xbox Live community at large and their perceived lack of maturity or filter. That’s just my read, though.
Hi Samantha,
As Gameological’s resident gay rights activist (to the point that I shoehorn it into completely unrelated topics), I will say that I, personally, didn’t read any homophobic subtext in that comment. But this might have more to do with being with familiar of both Evan Narcisse’s stance on gay issues and John Teti’s personality in general (I don’t know his stance on gay issues explicitly, but I would be surprised to learn that he was homophobic).
If it ought to be said out loud—and what harm could that do—I’m certainly an impassioned supporter of gay rights, and I believe that sexuality is more fluid and diverse than present-day society generally makes it out to be.
Wait, you’re the resident gay rights activist? I thought it was Effigy_Power. I’m always the last to find out about the gossip. (Starts updating Gameological org chart).
Yeah, well…she’s been here longer than I, so I suppose she has stake in it. I’ll just have to declare colonial war on her!
She’s sitting on a mountain of Keyboard Genius studs, though. How am I to wage war against someone with that level of resources?
@PaganPoet:disqus This thread’s main discussion was resolved in a respectful, thoughtful manner, so I now feel I need to balance it out by saying FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!
@PaganPoet:disqus: Easy: theft.
GAMEOLOGICAL SOCIETY WAS GREAT BEFORE ALL THE GAY RIGHTS ACTIVISTS STARTED SHOWING UP AND INJECTING THEIR GAY-NESS INTO MY DISCUSSIONS OF VIDEO GAMES!
Gay rights activists: Ruining shit for everyone else since June 28, 1969.
Well, it was a throwaway remark, but since you asked nicely, here is literally everything I can tell you about the sentiment behind this exchange.
Evan made fun of the troglodytic usernames you often see on Xbox Live by inventing an online handle representative of the lowbrow intolerance with which the service has become associated.
I was delighted by the image that his particular pretend username conjured in my head—the proprietor of a local emporium (or service?) that promises a steady supply of balls and asses on a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week basis—so I posited that not only do we both know this person (since Evan claimed to have forgotten the real-world representative who had chosen this puerile Xbox Live tag) but also that in fact, this person (“Mort,” so named because “Mort” is a funny name to say out loud) is considered an upstanding businessman in the field of ball and ass supply—one who follows through on his marketing claims.
Evan suggested that it might be untoward for a married man to imply on a public broadcast that he had verified “Mort’s” claims since such verification would require, at minimum, a nonstop 168-hour session of exposure to both balls and ass. (The particular nature of the exposure is left to the imagination, as the impossibility of a 24/7 balls-and-ass purveyor is part of the joke at this point.) Evan’s remark implied that even among liberal-minded, sex-positive company such as ourselves, the discussion of such an intense, prolonged, and sketchy sexual encounter stretched the bounds of polite conversation on a video game podcast. “Too much information,” in the parlance of our times.
The tongue-in-cheek recrimination was, in part, an invitation for me to extend the joke and heighten Evan’s faux-discomfort by describing exactly how I had verified “Mort’s” claims—a classic instance of the straight man (Evan) setting up the buffoon (me). However, while Gameological In Stereo is a podcast for adults, I prefer not to work too “blue,” and any further investigation of fictional Mort’s ball/ass offerings threatened to stray from facetious, isn’t-this-stupid “too much information” into actual, you-guys-are-getting-carried-away “too much information.” Thus I chose to let the myth of Mort rest and to move the conversation along.
Mild comedy resulted.
Thanks, John (and Derrick and PaganPoet) for your thoughtful responses. I hope you can understand my mild alarm without thinking that I’m just playing a self-righteous game of “gotcha!”
My spidey senses were initially tingling because I sometimes hear exchanges on video game podcasts that follow the following format:
Person 1: Makes some sort of joking, homoerotic reference.
Person 2: Expresses discomfort (often feigned, but it’s hard to tell).
Exchanges like this sometimes happen unthinkingly between well-meaning people who are politically on board with LGBTQ issues. In other words, they would never knowingly make an overtly homophobic comment but it’s hard for them to shake the kneejerk response in the unguarded context of some friendly jibbing.
I was aware of your political temperament, so I wasn’t ready to jump to conclusions about the exchange. Hence the question.
After reading your description of Morton the “balls-and-ass-purveyor” (there was a layer of absurdity here that I was not cued into), it’s clearer to me that what was happening between you and Evan was not quite what I just described.
I certainly didn’t think you were playing “gotcha”—on account of you were not being a jerk—and you gave me another opportunity to be silly, so everybody wins. I hope you’ll continue to comment on the site under less contentious circumstances!
Something something something Evan’s playing “straight man” something something something straight/gay something oh god I haven’t even listened to this podcast and I’m posting here when I need to finish another chapter oh christ please write my thesis for me.
No. Writing your thesis yourself builds character.
FINISH YOUR THESIS
@HobbesMkii:disqus I wasn’t asking you, I was asking Christ!
Wanna trade theses? I’m sure it will end well.
Mine’s technically “written,” in that all the parts it needs exist, but it is still far from “finished.”
@paraclete_pizza:disqus Sure! Mine’s on the interactions between grapheme-colour synaesthesia and learning. What’s yours?
Oh my god. That is awesome. I’m surprised I didn’t think to do that, except it would have been co-opting the life experiences of a synaesthete (?) friend of mine who sees certain motions and bodily positions as colors and uses color sequences to learn martial arts (if I recall his description of it correctly).
@The_Asinus:disqus Yup, synaesthete/synesthete is the correct word.
There’s a recent article talking about “swimming style synaesthesia”, where someone has colours for the various swim strokes.
These people are nuts, is what I’m trying to say.
I think that we’ve got to be able to make sex jokes, because sometimes they can be pretty great.
In the case of Mort’s balls and ass, it could be about their relationship with Mort, the quality of his balls and ass, John’s research into the ball and ass available, which could be constantly being a customer of Mort or perhaps surveys of his customers, and so on. It’s just a sex joke, always a good time.
You’ve got to poach Evan from Kotaku; it’s always great when he shows up.
Elle Gibson is a national treasure. I’m not quite sure of what country but none the less.
I agree, and I think Eurogamer is actually one of the better games sites out there, especially considering its size.
And I’m pretty sure she’s English.
I’d hate to see the end of console gaming for exactly the reasons Evan talks about. I got away from PC gaming because I got tired of having to replace hardware and tinker (it’s just not as much fun for me) when I got new games. These days, I just want to put in the disc and have it work, and consoles deliver that, unless it’s Fallout.
I gotta tell you, this is an incredibly insightful, brilliantly entertaining, hilarious podcast. Keep up the good work. After listening to the latest episode, I immediately went through a few of the latter ones and just couldn’t get enough. Your mother is an absolute gem. I laughed my butt off. I cannot wait for the next installment. Cheers. P.S. I am an American.
Can’t wait for the next episode! Would love it if the podcast was bimonthly or even more frequent.