Babe, What Do You Know About?

Video Games

October 25, 2022 Sam and Tayla Season 1 Episode 5
Babe, What Do You Know About?
Video Games
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Show Notes Transcript

In this episode, Tayla asks Sam about his childhood and relationship with video games, how to attain balance and make video games a positive activity, and discuss the booming industry and ramifications for current and future gamers. 

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Tayla (00:11):

Welcome to the babe. What do you know about podcast?

Sam (00:14):

Where your hosts husband and wife duo, Sam

Tayla (00:17):

And Tayla

Sam (00:17):

Air their grievances publicly. For your entertainment.

Tayla (00:24):

You're just gonna hold up your legs.

Sam (00:25):

Actually, I have the best joke in the world for

Tayla (00:27):

You. Okay.

Sam (00:28):

I heard this the other day. Why did the chicken cross the

Tayla (00:32):

Road? Oh my gosh. Why?

Sam (00:35):

To go see the idiot.

Tayla (00:38):

Is that the joke?

Sam (00:40):

Do you get it?

Tayla (00:42):

No.

Sam (00:42):

Okay. I'll try another one. Knock knock.

Tayla (00:46):

Who's there?

Sam (00:48):

The chicken. Oh my

Tayla (00:49):

Gosh. I could hear you wheezing into the <laugh>.

Sam (00:57):

Okay.

Tayla (00:58):

Alright. Enough of that. Did you start recording enough of that? I did.

Sam (01:01):

Okay. Include the chicken joke. I want that.

Tayla (01:05):

I'll bleep the whole thing out. <laugh> just kidding. <laugh> enough of that onto business. I, I'm gonna give you, I want to kind of try change how I've been doing things. So I wanna talk to you about the topic a little bit on in terms of some stats and interesting things and then kinda go from there. Okay. Give

Sam (01:28):

Me, giving me a bit of background to these things. So not just like, Hey, what do you know about the earth?

Tayla (01:33):

The earth, Yeah. Okay. Exactly. So here we go. Ready? Pause me any time if you want. I

Sam (01:40):

Will. Okay.

Tayla (01:42):

So the gaming industry, as in video gaming industry is worth about 300 billion. What was that surprising to you? No, 300 billion

Sam (01:54):

Had I researched this

Tayla (01:56):

Just for fun? Yeah. Oh, okay. Approximately 3 billion people worldwide play video games and there were in 2021 there were 14.1 million mobile game do downloads in just the first quarter. So the first three months of last

Sam (02:16):

Year, Is that US or World Stats? What's that? World

Tayla (02:19):

Stats <affirmative>, but just, that's just mobile game downloads. Okay. That's crazy to me. And then people between 18 and 34 years old comprise about 40% of gamers globally, which sounds about right to me. So in America, kind of going more towards the US population, 76% of Americans under 18 play video games and 67% of all adults in the US play. This one was kind of a fun statistic cuz I just picture a grandpa in my head. But 7% of people over the age of 65 years old play video games. That is surprising to me actually. But Very cool. And then the average age of the US player is 31 years old. So your age but younger <laugh>. Okay. 70 <laugh>. 74%. Okay. This one is interesting cuz I feel like this is different from previous generations. So 74% of parents in the US play video games with their children weekly.

Sam (03:24):

Wow. That's some good parenting.

Tayla (03:26):

Yeah.

Sam (03:28):

<laugh>. Good one. What

Tayla (03:29):

Else? I just like, that's so different from how my parents were. Right? <affirmative> and I guess that's something we'll talk about. Okay. 60% of Americans play video games every day.

Sam (03:38):

Whoa. That's a lot.

Tayla (03:39):

It is a lot. Millennials tend to play more PC games, which sounds about right. And then Gen Z and Jen Alpha are more active with mobile game and console playing.

Sam (03:48):

What the hell's a gene Alpha?

Tayla (03:50):

I think it's like after gen. There's

Sam (03:54):

Another Jen.

Tayla (03:55):

I know, I know it is the first time, but yeah, I think so. Wow. You should Google it sometime. But now onto kind of some not so happy statistics. So 11 to 12% of boys and six to 7% of girls are addicted to video games. But only 4% of children have extreme game addicts are extreme game addicts and they spend 50 hours per week playing games. So I would say it's not the majority of children that are addicted, even though I feel like maybe a lot of parents would use that word. But it, that's a lot of kids still. This was a funny one. So 200 divorce cases have been reported to be due to a fortnight addiction specifically. That is the reason for the

Sam (04:45):

Divorce must be a good game.

Tayla (04:47):

Is it? I've never played it. I've never played it either. Doesn't look that good, but I know it's a thing. So while there are many drawbacks to gaming, well excessive gaming like computer vision syndrome, migraines, carpal tunnel syndrome, back aches, obesity, hygiene issues, sleep related issues, depression, aggression and anxiety. There are also benefits like problem solving skills, collaborative skills, improved vision, improved hand eye coordination, increased gray brain matter, which is what I don't want, what's the right verb? Does things like memory <laugh> the verb I picked,

Sam (05:26):

I take it you don't play a lot of video games.

Tayla (05:29):

Okay, well no, I'm just not a neuroscientist apparently. Okay. No, no, no. And improve concentration. And 70% of parents say that video games have a positive influence on their child's lives. That's great. Yeah. So that's quite a lot. One of the more interesting recent news cases or news stories that I read was that last year in 2021, China forbade children under 18 year old, under 18 years old from playing video games for more than three hours a week.

Sam (05:58):

They forbode it,

Tayla (05:59):

They forb it, they forbid it

Sam (06:03):

Forboded

Tayla (06:04):

It was forbidden. <laugh> <affirmative>. And so that, that's a pretty stringent social intervention I feel like. But they said it was needed to pull the plug on a growing addiction to what was once described as spiritual opium. So with all this being said, it's clear that video games are a huge part of society, the economy, everyday life, literally everyday life. And has a lot of controversy around benefits and overuse, especially in children and marriages. I personally have had multiple conversations with multiple friends about how frustrated they are that their husbands are prioritizing video gaming over time with them or time with their children or other responsibilities. So with all this being said babe, what do you know about video gaming and it's effect on children and marriage?

Sam (06:59):

<laugh>. Wow.

Tayla (07:00):

Okay. You jumped the gun

Sam (07:03):

Was a lot to digest.

Tayla (07:05):

Yes. But interesting. Hopefully.

Sam (07:07):

Yeah. No, super interesting. Alright, so where to even start with all this?

Tayla (07:13):

Well, I have a question prepared to start you

Sam (07:16):

Then prepare. A

Tayla (07:17):

Way start. Let's start at the very beginning. What was your relationship like with video games as a kid yourself?

Sam (07:23):

As a kid myself.

Tayla (07:24):

Cause I feel like one of the first generation of child video gamers is that mm-hmm. <affirmative>

Sam (07:30):

Accurate. Sure. Well

Tayla (07:32):

At least like that in the video games that look more like today's video games

Sam (07:35):

Maybe. I mean, Sure. So our was born in 1984. So when I was nine or 10 ish, I'm trying to remember the exact year ish around this timeframe, right? Nine 10 in South Africa. I got for a birthday present I got a Nintendo, a super Nintendo, like an original Nintendo exec actually. But it wasn't actually a Nintendo. So South Africa still at the time didn't have a lot of international trade because of apartheids. It had been like, you can't get American stuff or Japanese stuff. So we had

Tayla (08:21):

Fight racism with

Sam (08:22):

<laugh>, with trade, with

Tayla (08:24):

Video games, no lack of video, video games,

Sam (08:26):

<laugh>. So I had one of those knockoffs and I didn't know it was a knockoff until later. I was like, Hey, remember this thing They, So

Tayla (08:33):

Who gave it to you?

Sam (08:34):

Oh, it was a birthday present

Tayla (08:36):

From your parents? Yeah, my parents.

Sam (08:37):

Yeah.

Tayla (08:38):

Okay. Way to make a plan.

Sam (08:39):

Yeah.

Tayla (08:42):

Well good for them for making a plant considering they couldn't get an Nintendo. They got something.

Sam (08:47):

They got something. So yeah, I got that super early on. So we play just a lot of games that were Mario and these little Olympic game things. And

Tayla (09:00):

A lot of, he was just doing finger motions. Are those the real finger motions? Well

Sam (09:04):

Yeah, cuz you only had two buttons on this side and then you had the full up down there front on the other. So

Tayla (09:11):

That what you were just doing wasn't just a random finger motion. Literally your muscles are remembering. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That's cool.

Sam (09:20):

And it was fun. It was a fun time to play, but it's hard to remember the exact rules around it. But I do remember there being rules around video games only certain times of the week for a certain period of time. Only after homework was done, et cetera, chores done.

Tayla (09:35):

So your parents did parent your video gaming?

Sam (09:37):

Absolutely. Yeah. 100%. So I didn't play a lot in comparison to how much video games it's played today. But I felt pretty, I could just play whenever I wanted, felt like it, but I know that it wasn't thinking back. And then also around this time period, arcades were a thing.

Tayla (09:59):

Oh yeah.

Sam (10:00):

And we lived just down the road from a corner store cafe. I don't know how you describe it in South Africa, just at the time they had a lot of these, we call it a tea room,

Tayla (10:11):

<laugh>. Okay.

Sam (10:12):

You just like a little tiny, tiny, tiny supermarkets. Yeah, tiny one.

Tayla (10:17):

Anyways, they have 'em in Europe

Sam (10:18):

Too. Oh, okay. For our Europe listeners. Okay.

Tayla (10:21):

<laugh>, the voice <laugh>.

Sam (10:24):

So they set up a couple arcades in this place, in the little

Tayla (10:30):

Super, in the little

Sam (10:31):

Cute. And so we'd go up to play arcades and it would take a 20 cent coin

Tayla (10:37):

South, the African 20 cents. So

Sam (10:39):

That's back in the day. And it was fun. We played, there was games like Twin Cobra, golden acts, stuff like that. And I played with my brothers. I was like, they were old and cool. So I just fallen them up and we'd play all CAD games. My grandmother thought it was of the devil was <laugh>

Tayla (10:58):

Amazing. <laugh>.

Sam (11:00):

She was very much against it. And to my parents' credit, they still supported us doing that. Cuz

Tayla (11:07):

The arcades specific or video games?

Sam (11:10):

All of the above.

Tayla (11:11):

She just didn't like any of it.

Sam (11:12):

Your credit? No, no. My grandma was the arcades

Tayla (11:14):

Because Okay, so that was of the devil. Yes.

Sam (11:16):

Oh, I didn't think she would say the phrase of the devil, but

Tayla (11:19):

That was her

Sam (11:20):

Attitude. That was her attitude. But yeah, so I remember asking my dad about it. Why were you so open up to me playing video games so much, blah, blah, blah, blah. And us, he said, what I realized was if you guys could focus on one thing for that long, it was a really good tool because I could then transfer that to something else. Like, hey, you know, could do two hours of this video game. That means that, hey, when you have a homework assignment or you have a project or you have something to do, it was a good thing for you to learn that you could actually focus on something for that long. So yeah, that was his reasoning behind it.

Tayla (11:59):

Your dad's always so intentional. Got

Sam (12:01):

A lot of wisdom. So that's how it all started. I can go down, I could talk about this for hours, just about my different video game, ex experiences, but yeah, I mean it started off well like that.

Tayla (12:13):

Well, tell me one of your favorite memories from childhood specifically.

Sam (12:17):

So the next system I got was a Sega Mega Drive two. Oh, well I have to go back even more. So my dad also got Commodore's 60 fours, which if any of you know what those are, I

Tayla (12:31):

Don't even know what that

Sam (12:32):

Is. Yeah, it's one of the first PCs basically. And Ooh yeah, that could play games. And it was on floppy discs and some of them were on multiple floppy discs cuz they're

Tayla (12:42):

Too big

Sam (12:43):

Of a game. Yeah. So we even had that on top of, and I had one in my room and my brothers had one in their room. And obviously the games aren't connected, but they'd play that game, be like, Oh, I wanna play that same game. But you couldn't because you had all the floppy disc. So anyway, so going back to my favorite part of the, that's what I was saying, I could talk about this for hours, but one of my favorite memories is about arcades. And I got really good at this game called Tein and it's like a arcade fighter fighting game. And back in the days when you go to the arcades, you put in some money in, you play the game, you play against the computer and you're trying to go up. Oh, right now I'm doing the

Tayla (13:24):

Actions. Just know that this entire podcast episode, Sams gonna be playing the video game in his head.

Sam (13:29):

So my left hand right now is got the joystick I'm doing on the motion, my right hand's doing the

Tayla (13:34):

Buttons.

Sam (13:35):

All the buttons. Okay. Anyway, so playing Techon and my brothers loved to take me to the arcade cause I was really good at this game and they'd have me jump in. This is

Tayla (13:43):

Your older

Sam (13:43):

Brothers? Older brothers. So I always wanted to impress him. I just wanted to fit in and they'd have me go play against these, what seemed to me at the time, Adult men. I must have been <laugh> before I was even a teenager. So I'm tiny. I'm like 11 maybe. I don't

Tayla (13:57):

Know. You're a very skinny kid, too

Sam (13:59):

Tiny. Anyways, but I'd go up there and I'd put in my money and it'd interrupt their game and force us to fight. And then I'd beat them and then I'd just get Challenger Off The Challenger. Off the Challenger. So I just got to play a whole bunch of video games and then just beat these old guys. It was great. Yeah,

Tayla (14:17):

Guys had a little hustle going

Sam (14:19):

<laugh>. Yeah, I mean we still have, me and my brothers still love video games. It's still a big part of our life. So

Tayla (14:25):

Yeah, That's cute. That's a cute memory. I have a lot of memories too. And it was mostly a tag along, but me and my siblings, we went to visit my grandma for Christmas in New Zealand one year. And I believe it was her that she gave Gigi a PS one, a PlayStation one. Whoa. For Christmas obviously it was like that big deal, our gift. But it's really my brother's gift <affirmative>. But I did get a couple of cool games that you won't be that interested in. But I got, we were Barbie equestrian, horseback Riding Racing and I think that's the only one that was my game. But I would play Crash Bandicoot. I wasn't that good at Crash Bandicoot, but I was much better at crash team racing. So the racing game of it. And Spiro, I liked to watch a lot. That's the game.

Sam (15:24):

The Spiro the Dragon. The

Tayla (15:25):

Dragon, yeah. And any other games I played with Sims, but so before my aunt and uncle immigrated to the United States, cuz they immigrated way before we did, they had a period of time between selling their house months, between selling their house and then leaving the country. And so they lived for a while with my uncle and aunt in Durban. And then they live with us for three months. And it was them, my aunt and uncle and their four children at the time. They had a fifth after they moved, but three boys and then a three year old girl. And so obviously we put my two brothers, older brothers with these three cousins who didn't have a PlayStation. So they were, and literally every Saturday morning there was just tournaments and we'd watch each other play. Obviously I'd never really got to play, but they were so into it that I was just happy to be involved and yell about things. The one thing I hated though is if they got to one point in the game where they kept dying and I just had to keep watching the same 20, the same small portion 20 times. But I have some good memories of cousin time with video games.

Sam (16:40):

For me. I'm definitely a social gamer still.

Tayla (16:42):

That's a hundred percent true. And I'm gonna make you speak about that later on. Okay.

Sam (16:47):

I'll put it

Tayla (16:48):

In it. But that's true. That's true. Yeah. So you've been a video gamer from when you were really, really small. I wanna know if you've ever had an unhealthy relationship with video games that you would deem this was not healthy, it wasn't good.

Sam (17:08):

Yeah.

Tayla (17:11):

Oh no,

Sam (17:13):

So, so me and Conryd who is my best friend since little, we played video games since forever Together. Together. And we still play video games together. In fact, the only time I played video games is pretty much worth cond still. So <laugh>, trying to remember the year, I think it was like 2006 end of 2006, maybe 2007. No, somewhere around there. Anyways, World of Warcraft had just come out fairly recently, <affirmative>. And we were like, Hey, yeah, let's get into this. And so we got into World of Warcraft, which is at the time was this groundbreaking kind of idea of a what would call O R P G. Basically a massive multiplayer online role playing game. I think I said that right?

Tayla (18:00):

Yep.

Sam (18:01):

<laugh>. Anyways, so there's just, we just got sucked into the world and the game is so demanding on your time if you wanna level up and get items. And we went through basically months of playing just me and him, what we would call grinding and

Tayla (18:20):

Well would <laugh>

Sam (18:26):

A gaming

Tayla (18:27):

Term, grinding.

Sam (18:29):

So me and con

Tayla (18:30):

From

Sam (18:30):

Months on the end and lost track of time anyways. Oh

Tayla (18:34):

My

Sam (18:34):

Gosh. Anyways. Yeah,

Tayla (18:43):

Continue. Sorry, continue.

Sam (18:47):

Anyways, we realized three months later that we, we've lost track of the entire summer or fall, whatever season it was. Don't even remember

Tayla (18:57):

You lost. It

Sam (18:57):

Just gone. We're like, what happened? We've just been playing this game the whole time.

Tayla (19:01):

Oh my

Sam (19:02):

Word <laugh>. And so it was the first time we've ever done this and we never had to really do it since. But we just said, Hey, I don't think we can play this game. And we swore off World of Warcraft.

Tayla (19:14):

Well good for you for recognizing it. <laugh>. I wouldn't say early cuz apparently you lost a whole season of your life. <laugh>, were you guys married?

Sam (19:23):

No. Single. Single. And that's actually part of the reason is that

Tayla (19:26):

You remain single.

Sam (19:27):

Yeah, well yeah, cuz we like, I haven't seen another human being. I haven't gone on a date and so we're like, I wanna go see some girls. That's pretty much what did it. So

Tayla (19:39):

The power of attraction.

Sam (19:41):

Sure.

Tayla (19:42):

Wow. Okay. Is would you say that's the only period where you feel like you've had in a healthy relationship or?

Sam (19:51):

Yeah, I would say so. I feel like I do a pretty good job trying to manage to make sure that I'm not using video games as a way to escape any sort of issues or problems or things I'm dealing with.

Tayla (20:03):

So that brings me to my next thing. So I do have a lot of friends that complain about their husband's gaming habits and consumption. And some of it is because there's kind of two main complaints is one, on the one side they're saying that they do it way too often and too much that it's just taking too much of their time. And the other that it's more that they're prioritizing the time to do video games over them or other things. And in my opinion, you have an excellent relationship with video games. A very balanced, it's never been an issue for us, I don't think. So was that intentional? How did I, Did you find that balance?

Sam (20:52):

I think so. I've got a couple things going for me. One, I'm a social gamer. So I think just naturally if I can't just go play video game by myself, so for me I end up getting bored. So it super reliant on making sure that I'm playing with other people. So I think for one, that sets up one barrier of me not playing too much. And then the second I find that I've never wanna be addicted to anything in general. So whatever it is, I hate the idea of being beholden to something else. So if I start to feel that tug or pull in anything, so in this case video games, I just have that, I'm not gonna do this, I'm just gonna wait until I no longer have that desire to go do it. So that's one, Those are the things that it's very intentional to not play too many video games. So it

Tayla (21:47):

Is, it's just, it's intentional.

Sam (21:48):

It is intentional. But to speak to those complaints, I mean, yeah I can't know the ins and outs of everyone else's relationships, but I would have to have what?

Tayla (22:00):

<laugh>, Yeah, that's what I was expecting. I was expecting for you to give true, groundbreaking marriage advice for these specific friends.

Sam (22:08):

Obviously there's definitely a line where it's like a guy's playing too many video games. There has to be obviously, and there's obviously definitely gotta be people that are not prioritizing their family and playing video games. But one thing I would just almost feel empathy or sympathy for is that's when I can't sit and really watch TV too much. I really struggle with it cuz maybe it's ADHD or I always need to be a bit more interactive with entertainment to whatever I'm doing.

Tayla (22:35):

Which is why you're on your phone when I make you watch TV.

Sam (22:39):

<laugh>. Yeah, so I'm reading, I'm on Reddit and I'm reading new stories. I'm reading threads about interesting things. So when I think about that though is maybe those wives, their form of entertainment is reading books or maybe it's watching TV and for them it's okay to spend hours doing that. But if a guy goes and plays the same amount of time on video games, maybe that's seen as a negative thing in a negative connotation when actually it's maybe what he's doing is more healthy than just sitting and watching tv.

Tayla (23:12):

Okay, yeah, I think that's a valid point. That part of the problem may be a perspective issue

Sam (23:19):

Because maybe a lot of people that aren't into video games just see it be like, Oh wow, that's a waste of time. Oh my gosh, why is he spending so much time doing that thing when he could be hanging out with me watching tv.

Tayla (23:32):

So there's like a moat in my eye and a beam or a moat in your eye and a beam in mind kind of issue maybe. Is that, Yeah,

Sam (23:38):

So again, I can't speak to everyone else's marriage, so I don't really know the details. So you can't really be like, oh no, that's not an issue. Not

Tayla (23:44):

Really a problem.

Sam (23:45):

But maybe cuz it could be. I just wish that just the connotation around video games can be seen as a lazy thing and as a waste of time versus so many other things that people do regularly that are just as you know. Yeah. Unproductive.

Tayla (24:01):

No, no, I think that is valid. I think one thing that I have noticed or thought about that could so something, something that <laugh> something I really like that you do or that we do is that we make a plan together for our evening not well in advance. The kids are asleep and we're kind of like, what do you feel? What do doing? Do you wanna spend time together? Do you want some space? What kind of day has it been? And we come up with a plan of what we're gonna do together, whether it's we are doing it together or we each are gonna do these different things. And I think that's really nice because it isn't just like you informing me that you're gonna go off and do whatever you're gonna do or I'm just informing you. Does that make sense? Yeah. So when you do play video games, it's very much, I don't feel like annoyed because I was prioritized just because I was consulted in the evening. Does that make sense? Yeah,

Sam (25:04):

For sure. So times and seasons. Times and seasons for things. So right now we've got two young children and so it's hard for me to find time to video game just in general For sure. The first moment we have to where we're not responsible for someone else is like eight o'clock and then it's only really a two hour window, three hours at best before we were exhausted doing and until there's max wakes up or

Tayla (25:30):

I was gonna say that, that's the other thing is we have a little baby that's only four months old that is still in our room where you kind of game and that does affect things. I bet that you can't, you don't have your space even.

Sam (25:44):

Yeah, no, true. And then the second thing, I had another point but I'll remember it later.

Tayla (25:51):

No, sorry. So I guess what advice would you give for someone who is feeling this tension? Maybe the gamer side, right? Because I can only speak to the opposite side, but in a relationship where someone is the gamer and they're noticing that it's causing tension in the marriage or in the family for whatever reason, what is maybe advice that you would give to alleviate that tension? Cuz they can only, and each person can only control themselves from the gaming side. <affirmative>, what advice

Sam (26:29):

Would you give? Honestly, every relationship is in a different situation, but I think the overall general advice I'd give is you guys what works, at least for me is planning. So on a Sunday we're like, hey, let's plan out the week, put in video games there and be like, Hey, I wanna play video games every night from seven to 10, whatever it is. And then it's there, it's planned out, you've spoken about it, you've been able to discuss it and it just doesn't feel like it's a default setting. Okay, well had dinner, right? I'll see you when we go to bed. Yeah, maybe the one thing you want to avoid is that it just becomes a habit that you just kind of fall into.

Tayla (27:05):

Yeah, I think you touched on something as well that I think is a good thing in general to do, which is to have a stopping point kind of planned in your head when you start something in the first place. I could even do better with that, just even on my phone is just like, hey, at this point it's too much time so I wanna for sure be done by this point at the latest. And I think that can help you just not get sucked into a different world or a different game or this level or whatever. So that, I don't know, you become something that is acted upon by the game.

Sam (27:44):

I always used to use this phrase that's a future sand problem. So what I mean by that is that I used to play video games until early hours of the morning when I didn't have any responsibilities because I'd be like, well I'll be tired in the morning. Well, but now I'm thinking like, oh, in the morning I'm gonna have to be up early, I'm gonna have to deal with kids, I'm gonna have to do this. There's no ways I can play video games until late. Cuz then tomorrow future Sam cannot deal with this problem.

Tayla (28:10):

Not really. Yeah, no. And that's the thing is there have been a couple times where you have decided future Sam can, but because you've a little more balanced, it's not as huge of a deal I think.

Sam (28:21):

Yeah, no, absolutely. And the other thing that I do is I also try to time video games to when you're going out. So if you're like, Oh hey, I'm gonna go out to go grab dinner or whatever, or go to the family activity or something, I try plan for video games during those times. So it's not a conflict in terms of the use of Tom.

Tayla (28:44):

Yeah, we would be separated anyway. Yeah, I and I've noticed that and it means a lot <affirmative>, it makes big difference. So kind of changing gears, I'm curious what you think about, cuz I feel like the same old kind of song that parents sing, at least our generation of parents was worried about how graphic video games might be, whether it's violence or sex. What are your thoughts on graphic video games?

Sam (29:10):

I think the same as movies, the age appropriate games and movies, all entertainment. I think there is just different sorts of exposure that you want kids to have only at certain ages as they're able to develop and can process and manage it. Even now with Ella only being two, I'm making sure that I don't have, which I accidentally did. I had not

Tayla (29:36):

Realizing confession

Sam (29:37):

Time. Yeah, confession time. I think it was some morning I like, it wasn't like Jurassic Park but I was, it was like Godzilla Godzilla was on in the background, didn't even realize it. And Ella had nightmares in her nap

Tayla (29:51):

That day. I dunno if you remember that. Yeah, I do. That was a long, she was really young.

Sam (29:55):

She was super young. So then I was like, oh geez, she's really paying attention to everything around her. So even though that Godzilla is not graphic or anything, but yeah, no, just age appropriate.

Tayla (30:05):

Yeah I find that at least a lot of the video games that are rated M for mature, I find that most teenagers are still playing though it's very common for teenagers to be playing and rated games, at least from what I'm seeing or hearing from my younger siblings and stuff. So maybe that's the question is how do you think you're gonna parent our kids with video games?

Sam (30:29):

Well what's so great is because I grew up playing video games and my exposure to them is still pretty open. I can go and watch videos on the game, I can go watch reviews on the game, I could play the game myself and then make a determination whether it's age appropriate at that point.

Tayla (30:45):

Yeah, I think that's a huge deal is if you can even just play the game yourself. Cuz that's something my parents, they didn't have the skills or the desire <affirmative>, they had to just take my brother's word for it. That is trying to convince them to allow him to play. And of course, what do you think you'll do if one of our kids starts to have an unhealthy amount or habit of playing video games? Because you're a new generation of parent that has experienced maybe that yourself, it's not just this theoretical thing. How do you think you'll deal with it?

Sam (31:22):

I honestly can say, I don't know. I have no clue how I'm out, how I actually deal with it. I know that the principle of what I hope to accomplish is to do what my dad did when we were younger at basically talk about the positives of video games and show how it applies to bigger, a bigger part of your whole life story. And it's not just living in that video game and think of healthy alternatives things that are just as interesting as video games. Cause they are things that are just as cool and as fun and hit your dopamine levels video games do.

Tayla (32:01):

Yeah, I think video games I used to mean had my parents, I was socialized to be like, they're not good. Even though I enjoyed them to an extent thinking about the kinds of kids there are out there, it's nice that there is something that they can be good at that may not be there just maybe wasn't a space for them maybe back in the day. I have one specific memory of my middle brother Connor and he is still super into video games but always was always super into it. And I remember one Saturday he had been playing the whole morning. He would get up early on a Saturday to go and play before my parents got up. Cuz then, I don't know, I think in his mind it didn't count towards his time for the day because they didn't know <laugh>. But it had been quite a bit of time and my mom said, Conor, you need to stop playing video games and it's time to go outside, go play outside.

(33:03):

And to her surprise, he didn't really complain. He was just like, Ugh, fine. And so she went about her chores and stuff and did whatever and it had been an hour or so and she decided to go check on him outside and as she's going to the door, there's a cable that is plugged in and going through the window to the outside and he was sitting on a computer playing outside and he just found this loophole in her warning that he's like, I'm outside, I'm playing outside, I'm playing my video games outside. But he is, he ended up being in dance and he likes sports and plays sports. But I've heard that there are high school teams for video games. Is that something you know about

Sam (33:53):

<affirmative>? So there's high school teams, there's college teams. So serious. Yeah. So when you talked about that multi-billion dollar industry, that's part of it. So it's a bigger industry than the nfl. It's bigger than a lot of these traditional media platforms that other people are used to dictating what's cool and what's popular. It's one of the biggest industries that exists in the entire world run now. So if you're good at video games or if you're good at broadcasting or if you're good at video game design, if you're good at so many things that are around the entertainment, there's a career for you. So in fact,

Tayla (34:33):

Which is insane that so people can make money doing it,

Sam (34:36):

It's not insane to me. Well it's normal to me. And let me tell you no

Tayla (34:39):

From back, Right? Wait from little, my parents were like, is a waste of

Sam (34:42):

Time. My grandmother knew that it would literally be the reason why I was successful in music, the gaming industry is that she was fall. So she would be rolling in her grave right now. She

Tayla (34:55):

Would be,

Sam (34:55):

But no, that's the whole reason the music was successful is that it got in the hands of people that were playing Minecraft at first. So, oh, that's what blew it up is all these Minecraft videos on YouTube were using our music and all of a sudden it just blew up in that community and gaming was blowing up. So yeah, no, I can owe my whole music career to the gaming industry.

Tayla (35:16):

Interesting. So <affirmative> not just the gaming industry that is booming, but it's all these attachments like musicians, <affirmative> or streamers,

Sam (35:25):

Twitch streamers YouTube. Yeah, the whole thing.

Tayla (35:28):

I remember my best friend in high school, he was super into video games, that's pretty much all he did as well, <laugh>. But when he told me about this platform called Twitch where people just watch other people play video games, I was like, that is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. But it's huge, right?

Sam (35:50):

It is. It's huge. People make millions and millions and millions of dollars streaming. Tayla's just looking at me with wide eyes

Tayla (35:58):

Right now and people, and this is cuz quite a few of these streamers people make, they become millionaires by playing video games and filming it.

Sam (36:10):

Yeah, absolutely. So we actually would stream on Twitch ourselves doing DJ live streams. So we are kind of attached to that whole gaming industry. So right before they put on all the different other genres, we kind of got special permission to DJ livestream on Twitch and that was one of our biggest sources of income was on Twitch.

Tayla (36:31):

So you got an accept. So this is when it was just for streaming video games? Yeah. That's cool. That's kind a cool thing.

Sam (36:37):

But I mean obviously now they've got every genre back to the justin.tv days. So it used to be called justin.tv in the user stream, basically every genre. Then the video game portion of it blew up. So they created, they just had their own platform for it called Twitch, and then they basically made Justin TV two point.

Tayla (36:56):

Cool. Man, that's so interesting. And I do find that a lot of little kids, a favorite thing for little kids to do is specifically to go and watch YouTube videos. Mm-hmm. Not just Twitch, but YouTube videos of streamers.

Sam (37:12):

So they, they'll play a video game, they're recorded, they've got their faces on it or just voiceover. They're playing the game, they're entertaining while playing the game. And it's kind of in a sense

Tayla (37:24):

Coaching,

Sam (37:25):

So how you really liked to play softball and basketball. There's a lot of people that like to play softball, basketball, soccer, football in elementary school and middle school and high school, sometimes college. But what do most people do when they're adults? They're watching people play sports professionally. So that's kind of the same thing, but there's also not just the professional leagues that are entertaining to watch, there's also just the people that are funny and entertaining that play the video.

Tayla (37:56):

Add one is not normal basketball. Exactly.

Sam (37:59):

Just an end one where it's entertaining basketball that you're watching. Kind of the same thing.

Tayla (38:05):

So interesting. I feel like you introduced me to more this side. We had just been married and my little brother, I think he was probably 12 at the time, and you mentioned he didn't really watch YouTube videos or watch gamers or anything, but a lot of his friends did. And I feel like, I remember he was hanging out with little friends and you have this one specific friend that is a very big Minecrafting streamer, <affirmative>, and you kind of mentioned their name. And this kid that we don't know out of nowhere is just like so and so <laugh>, like this is celebrities to these

Sam (38:45):

Kids. Yeah, no, it was kind of crazy. So back in 2012, I think I went to my first Mind con, which is, it's a convention just for Wow

Tayla (38:56):

Minecraft.

Sam (38:57):

Oh my gosh. And we hadn't seen any of this yet. You've seen the YouTube videos, lots of views, et cetera as you go to mine Con. And it's like these teenage boys and girls that are these YouTube celebrities and they were literally walking through the convention to go to the next panel or to do a presentation or just walking through to see the exhibits. And literally it was hundreds and hundreds of kids lined around the whole convention center just following these celebrities around geez and blue. We were like, what is going on? Where are we? What's happening? And then all of a sudden there's Mark, were low, the Hulk, he's there with his daughter. And it was just this whole crazy thing opened up to us back in 10 years ago and it blew our minds in. And then obviously we got used to it and now it's just normal.

Tayla (39:49):

It's so normal.

Sam (39:50):

But yeah, no, it's massive.

Tayla (39:53):

So interesting. And that's a good point that video gaming is no longer, maybe it never was, but it's no longer just a waste of time. As you say, there's a way to monetize being good at this specific skill. Yeah,

Sam (40:12):

I mean, me and my brothers even joked about it. You're like, You know what? We just missed that craze because I think it was like 2010, 2011, we were playing the cola duty games and we were good. We were so good. I mean we were playing against guys and we were just, and quality and just changed to knives or smoke bombs or something. And we'd beat these guys that are all kid handle all their guns. And we even had a funny guy, we had a had a whole client,

Tayla (40:40):

We had

Sam (40:40):

The whole thing. It was so cool. And then that we just stopped playing. The guys got distracted with life and stuff and then you two blew up. We were like, Oh guys,

Tayla (40:53):

What could have

Sam (40:53):

Been? What could have been? Yeah.

Tayla (40:55):

That's amazing. So I just wanna hear, to start wrapping up, I guess I want to hear maybe some of more of your favorite memories with video games. Maybe not just as a child, but maybe what benefit has video games brought to your life, even as an adult?

Sam (41:18):

So one of my favorite things about video games is that me and Conryd were able to continue our friendship even though we've lived in different places around the world. So at times when I was living in Hawaii and he was here in Utah, we could still play games, even

Tayla (41:34):

Live

Sam (41:34):

Together. Live together. And so it almost felt like we got to still hang out and still a big part of each other's lives, even though we were so far apart. So that to me has been awesome. And the same thing with my brothers.

Tayla (41:46):

Yeah, it's not like you would sit on a phone call for two hours, right?

Sam (41:50):

Yeah. So we really like to be active in doing something together and you're problem solving, you're being competitive, a lot of fun. And it's a good platform for having conversations, not just about the game, but just keeping in touch with each other's lives and it's a good bonding moment. So I think video games are an absolute force for good in the world. And I just think just anything else, you've gotta manage it appropriately and not, don't become addicted to the good rewards that you're getting from it. Life is a little bit more than that.

Tayla (42:29):

Yeah, I think really it is just looking for balance where you're, you're just maximizing the good that you're getting from something and minimizing the drawbacks or maybe negative consequences of it. And you don't wanna have missed portions of your child's life or even just pushed off responsibility onto your partner. But at the same time, I think there's ways to really enjoy that. And maybe that can be a bonding thing as kids get

Sam (42:58):

Older. Well, I would love us to play more videos together. We got the intent to switch just for that reason so that we could play some more video games. And I don't think we get to use it. I think it's been two years since played.

Tayla (43:10):

It has. And I'll tell you partially why is because you're a PC gamer. <laugh>, a big reason is that's your kind of video game. <affirmative> usually, right? Your console of choice is not a console is

Sam (43:24):

It? No, you can say

Tayla (43:25):

Platform, your platform of choice. And then I think I, That's mean what we had a baby two years ago. So

Sam (43:32):

Why I would say that's probably the main reason, just the free time just went out the window. But as more free time comes, I think we should play more video games. And back

Tayla (43:42):

To Diablo

Sam (43:42):

Three and we should stream on Twitch.

Tayla (43:45):

We should monetize how bad I am at the game. <laugh>. Actually, I'm pretty good at Diablo three.

Sam (43:51):

Yeah,

Tayla (43:51):

We started playing that

Sam (43:52):

Actually. Yeah, you were pretty good at

Tayla (43:54):

It. I mean, it's an easy game. That's probably why I was good at it, huh? No,

Sam (43:57):

No. It's

Tayla (43:58):

A hard game. So nice. So nice. <laugh>. Do you have games that when our kids start getting older, what are the first games you might introduce them to?

Sam (44:09):

I have, honestly I haven't even thought about this at all. No,

Tayla (44:12):

I know. So

Sam (44:15):

Okay. So I think the first thing is to get them whatever the Nintendo kind of stuff is. Probably that. So if the switch is still relevant, we know when she's read. I mean, Ella just doesn't like TV in general, so it's gonna be hard enough. Maybe she'll like video games. I

Tayla (44:31):

Don't know. Yeah, our four month old little boy though. Oh, he loves the screen. He

Sam (44:35):

Loves it. So maybe he will be scary. However, Ella is really obsessed with the racing rig in the That's true. Yeah. So I think if I hook that up,

Tayla (44:45):

Vr.

Sam (44:46):

Yeah, well I don't know, I won't put her in the vr, but I think I'll just put it on the screens. I think she would do that for sure.

Tayla (44:52):

A real racing game. Yeah, that's true. She's a little bit of a dead devil when it comes to cars and

Sam (44:56):

Stuff and she loves sitting in it and she just loves moving around. So I think hooking up the screen to it, she'll

Tayla (45:00):

Love it. Yeah, that'd be way fun. We should

Sam (45:02):

Do that. So that'll be the first one. Okay,

Tayla (45:04):

Awesome. Maybe the, I'm trying to think how to end it, but maybe you can how would you explain, cuz I think your parents are maybe more chill about having had four boys than mine. How would you explain if they have issues with you having our kids, their grandkids, play video games, How are you gonna explain to them why you think it's a good idea or why it's fine with

Sam (45:30):

Us? Oh man. Basically I would send 'em this podcast. I feel like we've covered so many. I feel like really moderate, well-rounded ideas around what's a good paradigm for video games. I'll also say if they've got really good reflexes that they could be making us millions of dollars. So we'll just get them up on YouTube and yeah, Train 'em, make us a bunch of money. We're

Tayla (45:56):

Just planning for our retirement. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, thanks for chatting about video games.

Sam (46:03):

Yeah, it's a lot of fun. And again, I'm gonna get you to play Diablo three you again. That was a lot of fun. Let's just

Tayla (46:08):

Go do it right now. Okay.

Sam (46:09):

It. All right. Thank you for listening to

Tayla (46:17):

Babe. What do you know about,

Sam (46:20):

If you'd like to hear more from us, please remember to rate, subscribe, and review.