Quit playing games altogether or quit playing a specific one that they were previously playing a lot?
Quit playing all together. I feel like youâve had episodes were you all talk about quitting specific games.
I canât imagine that someone out there played video games and then just stops playing any at all. They might change which kinds of games they play, how many, how often, etc. But going from playing some to playing none ever is very strange. Even me who watches much less TV than I used to, I still watch more than zero TV. To just completely abstain from an entire medium of art is very strange.
As someone who has a toddler, its very very, possible to enter this state with a baby. There were solid months where I didnât watch a single movie whether at home or in theaters because I could not carve out a 90 min to 2 hour block of free time without the baby in the room to watch something uninterrupted. I believe that I essentially saw zero films the first year of my sons life an only broke the streak shortly after his 1 year birthday getting to see Villeneuveâs Dune in theaters.
But itâs not that you gave up it entirely. You were simply prevented.
If I get injured in a way that prevents me from biking, that doesnât mean Iâve quit biking.
1 Like
Just addressing it met this criteria.
I do agree that probably walking away FOREVER would be tough to nail down for games because its like do you play a mobile puzzle game or boardgame app thats a video game technically?
It did meet that criteria, but what in life doesnât? Anyone could be prevented or deterred from doing a thing at any time by the circumstances of the universe. Thatâs not a show topic.
We could talk about the change of media consumption habits as people age and their life circumstances change, assuming nothing unfortunate or unusual happens. But thatâs going to be different for everybody. Iâve spent plenty of time talking about how I canât play grindy random encounter JRPGs anymore because I donât have time or patience for that. But I know several people who actually play them more nowadays. Theyâre out there playing newer Final Fantasy games several times over and even making time for FFVII remake.
Given the absence of any shared experience or general principle, the topic becomes purely autobiographical. Not a huge fan of that.
We do really need a Tuesday show idea for tonight, though, so I am very open to other ideas right now 
Tuesday Ideas from the top of my head:
Does the âgolden age of gamingâ shift between generations?
At what point should you emulate older titles?
Single Player boardgames
Dice and various Dice accessories
Best Controllers to play games with
Unusual Periferials for consoles
Game Genie/ Game Shark
Gaming on Linux, what they need to do for you to consider it
Memory Cards / Saving Game data on other discs
Your experiences in attempting to make games (RPG maker, Unity, prototyping board games, etc)
Organizing physical games
1 Like
This could work. Definitely something that has become a bigger deal recently.
1 Like
Itâs one thing to declare an absolute that someone will never ever do a thing in any way ever again as a criteria for quitting, and another to just say someone has effectively stopped, or even intentionally âquitâ, and no longer engages in even casual or rare participation in an activity, and no longer thinks about it as something they âdoâ. Itâs something they âdidâ in the past.
An example close to me is paintball. Itâs a sport that many people âquitâ over time either through a slow decline or an intentional âquittingâ event. Theyâll play it a lot when young, and then they stop as life gets in the way. Sometimes the story is âoh I still have a Tippmann from when I played in high school that I havenât touched since 2002. But Iâm kind of done with it I guess.â and sometimes the story is âOh I quit a while back. Got a kid, was getting frustrated at events and it was expensive! Decided to quit and sell all my gear. It just wasnât fun anymore.â And then lastly I occasionally hear âoh man yeah I love paintball! Iâve got dozens of paintball guns! Oh I havenât been, wow, in about 15 years now. But I still have all my equipment and I plan to go to a game anytime now!â
In my mind all 3 have essentially quit the sport. Whether deliberately, intentionally, or subconsciously. Like if you havenât been to a game in 2-3 years, thatâs still within the window of just âbeing busyâ probably. But if itâs been 10+ years, or you made a conscious move to sell your stuff, thatâs basically quitting. Even if you end up going to one or two games as part of some big group activity (such as a corporate event or wedding party), I wouldnât even consider that 'getting back into it" if you donât keep going. (And, that doesnât preclude them ever starting again! Some will quit and then 10 years later find their way back. That doesnât mean they never quit. They did quit! They just became a participant a second time.)
For video games I can easily think of many examples of people I know who for a time played games somewhat regularly as a kid/young adult, then at some point games were no longer something they did and either soft quit through disinterest: never buying any new stuff and letting their old collection lapse into the attic never to be used again; or at some point they got older and got the idea that âgaming was for kidsâ and sold all their consoles and games saying they were done with that era in life. Sure they might occasionally end up being given a PS5 controller and told to âcheck these graphics out!â or might throw in a quarter to play a round of Space Invader at an arcade, maybe even partake in a round of Goldeneye multiplayer at a party where someone busts out the classics. But IMO that doesnât mean theyâre back into gaming. They still quit active participation over 10 years ago.
Now I also agree that itâs such a personal, case by case situation as to the whys; that itâs probably hard to maybe make an interesting podcast about it. But itâs also not such an uncommon or strange thing with notable trending reasons that it couldnât be.
4 Likes
Video game music
Maybe for Thursdays without a topic handy, have one of you discuss a topic you know much more on and you think the other would genuinely enjoy learning about.
2 Likes
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 
2 Likes
Starship Troopers
Total Recall
Robocop
Fictional ads.
1 Like
So not The FIX Protocol 
2 Likes
As someone who works with the FIX protocol I would enjoy it, but I also feel like FIX is a protocol in name only since just about every counterparty uses customfields in wacky ways.
Has anyone noticed how freedom of speech has become an issue talked about only on the political right? I remember in early Geeknights Rym defending free speech a lot. Has proclivity of lies changed how we think about free speech, or is it that advocating for it make it sound like a dog whistle for abhorrent people these days? Can the left reclaim free speech discussions so the right canât simply claim it and run off with it?
Donât be confused. The people on the right are using a different definition of free speech than everyone else in order to push their agenda. They donât actually believe in free speech in good faith.
Please refer to XKCD 1357
When people on the left talk about defending free speech, this is what they mean. They mean that the actual government shouldnât restrict or punish anyone just for speech, religion, assembly, etc. For example, public libraries shouldnât be removing copies of LGBT literature. Black lives matter protests shouldnât be violently suppressed by the police. If right wing people legitimately believed in real free speech, they would be up in arms when these things happen. Instead, they support these actions, because they donât actually believe in free speech.
I can assure you, if I saw the police arrest someone for merely printing and distributing a white supremacist leaflet, and not doing anything else, I would be mad about that. The thing is, that isnât happening. What is happening is that private platforms are banning people from distributing that kind of content, which is fine. Whatâs also happening is white supremacists are getting arrested for planning and/or executing acts of domestic terrorism, and thatâs exactly what is supposed to happen.
When right wing people are banned from private platforms for their vile messaging, thatâs not a free speech issue. Thatâs a free market issue. Private companies use their freedom to decide who can publish what using the service that is their property. Right wing people claim to be in favor of the free market, but here we see them change their mind as soon as the invisible hand of capitalism moves against them.
This all makes perfect sense once you realize that people on the right have only one principle, which is their own self interest. They believe that they should be able to do what they want to do, and nobody can tell them what to do. They also believe that they should be able to tell other people what to do. Thatâs it. They have no other belief beyond that. Everything they say is simply bad faith nonsense in service of that self-interest. This is why you canât argue with it, just ban it and ignore it.
The key however, is to understand it, so as to not be swayed by it. Correct your understanding of what free speech actually means.
5 Likes
You should read this long article by Emily Bazelon. It goes over the history of free speech in the US, how the internet is changing things, and how Europe does things differently. Itâs very detailed and informative:
2 Likes