- I don't know how you feel about holding a noob's hand.
- Not good.
You know what this would be equivalent to?
Doing comedy with an open-micer.
(Brian laughing)
- Hey, I'm Brian Simpson.
I'm a stand-up comedian.
Grandma didn't give a fuck how long you was playing
Mario Brothers, how far you got, how difficult it was.
Get your ass up here. (audience laughing)
And my favorite thing is gaming.
(energetic music)
Today, I'll be talking with some experts
to understand the psychology of gaming,
and I'll hang with my friend and fellow comedian,
Erik Griffin, and we're gonna play Warzone together.
(bullets popping) The hit registry
is off here! - Oh, it it?
(Erik laughing) - Yeah!
(energetic music) (bullets popping)
My next guest is hilarious, Twitch personality,
streamer, mean queen, and G4 host.
Please welcome Ovilee May. (air whooshing)
So Ovilee, how did you get into gaming?
- I was spoiled.
My first game ever was Ocarina of Time
on the 64. - Whoa!
- But you know, being a small child,
I didn't realize that there was anything
past Kokiri Forest, so I didn't actually finish
Ocarina of Time until, I think, third grade.
- Wow, okay, all right. - So the longest game
I every played. (laughs)
- My first game was a game called Dig Dug.
(hands clapping) - Dig Dug!
- Dig Dug, and then Tecmo Bowl.
Why do you think gaming's popularity has exploded
and gone mainstream over the past few years?
- Oh, let's just talk about the past year.
When the pandemic started, Animal Crossing: New Horizons
came out, which was, like, this cute little Nintendo game
for the Switch, where you're a human living
with a bunch of villagers, and everyone that I knew,
even people who weren't into gaming, ran out,
picked up a Switch, got into Animal Crossing,
and then through Animal Crossing,
it was like their gateway to more games.
They picked up Super Mario Odyssey.
They picked up Breath of the Wild.
They picked up all of these new Switch games
that they never would've even picked up
or tried before had they not have picked up
this cute little village, animal village sim
and been confined to their own house.
So gaming is exploding because more people
are being exposed to it.
It's being, like, I guess normalized.
- A year ago, I was at The Comedy Store,
and I was in the back watching the Overwatch
league championships. - Stop!
- And people were giving me shit about it,
like, "Hey, what are you doing watching people
play video games?"
And I'm, like, "This 15-year-old kid
is as much better than you at this game
as LeBron James is better than you at basketball."
It is that big of a gap. It's amazing!
If there was something that you could snap your fingers
and just change about the gaming world, what would it be?
- I'd really like to find a way to make games
more accessible to people who can't afford
a $2,000 gaming rig or maybe still can't get
their hands on a PlayStation or a new Xbox
that's come out or because of scalpers and all that stuff.
Let's make sure that more people can play games.
- There's always Stadia.
(both laughing)
All right. - Hey, look
how beautiful this map is, especially
when you think back to, you know,
how games used to be.
I never woulda thought.
- You get to destroy kids in high def, man.
(Erik laughing)
- [Ovilee] Coming up, Brian Simpson and Erik Griffin.
- Comedy coming to us.
- [Ovilee] Are going to team up.
- Yeah! - And see
who they can take out in Warzone.
- Brian with zero score, zero kills, zero damage.
Okay, it's gonna be that kinda game.
(bullet firing)
- She got the golden radio voice.
Well, I'm not any good at this game,
but there is a professor out there
that thinks gaming can be used for good.
Let's talk to Jamie real quick.
Thanks for taking this time here, professor.
- (laughs) Thanks.
- Is there a common psychology amongst gamers?
- There are common things that people come to video games
looking for: stress release, community, competition,
their expression, that sorta stuff.
You can build a pretty succinct list
of the things that games do for us,
and the people who gravitate towards games
are ones that like to use them to satisfy
those sort of psychological itches.
- But why does gaming sometimes bring out
the worst in people?
- The two effects that I like to think of
is like the You Can't See Me and the I Can't See Me.
So when you're anonymous, that's the You Can't See Me part.
So I'm hiding behind a screen name.
The interaction that you and I are gonna have
is only gonna last maybe a few minutes.
You know, it's not permanent.
It's not gonna have any repercussions.
- It's like a heckler in the back of a dark auditorium.
- Yeah, once's the show's over, like,
you're probably never gonna see each other again,
and there are differences in people
that would make some of these things
more or less effective, and you know,
in the book, I talk about people with different
learning orientations, like people with a growth mindset
look at failure and setback as opportunities
to learn and improve, and then people with more of
like a fixed mindset say, "Well, if I'm failing
at something, that means that I'm not good at it,
and I should try something else."
- Isn't there a third kinda person,
a person that's not good at something
and thinks they're great at it already?
- Yeah, sure, yeah, Dunning-Kruger effect
or something like that, where people
are so bad at something, they don't realize
what they don't realize.
- Could I apply your theories to stand-up comedy somehow?
Comedy, I mean, show business in general,
but comedy specifically.
There aren't enough hard achievements along the way,
so even though you're progressing at your skill
in your career, it's very nebulous.
It's sorta like running in a dark room where you can't see,
and you don't even know if you're going
in the right direction, but you know you have to go
full speed just in case you are.
- That kinda goes back to that idea of growth mindsets
versus fixed mindsets.
If you get up there and bomb, do you just say,
like, "Man, I am not cut out for this,
and I'm gonna go back to whatever I was doing before this."?
You want more people who have a growth, you know,
orientation and say, like, "Okay, I totally blew that.
That was a bomb, but I can learn from it,
and I can take that as an opportunity
to develop and get better."
- I appreciate that.
You've given me new language to express how I feel
because I used to just think the reason I kept doing it
is because I was an addict. - Okay.
- I was addicted to the attention.
I was addicted to the satisfaction
of, like, finally getting the joke to work,
but now I know I have a growth mindset, Mom!
- (chuckles) It can be two things.
There's no rule that says it couldn't be both.
- Oh, okay. (laughs) (Jamie laughing)
- Kill comms is my favorite thing.
- What does that mean?
- When you kill somebody, for a second, their mic turns on.
- (laughs) I like that.
- You get called a lot of terrible things.
- And some slavery words.
- Apparently, gay people must really be good at the game
(Brian laughing) because you just get
called that a lot.
- Coming up. - You didn't pick up any guns?
- There wasn't any. - Oh, my God.
- Erik Griffin is going to attempt to teach Brian Simpson
how to open his dang parachute in Warzone.
(bullet splattering) - Oh, what the fuck?
- My back is already hurting
from carrying you. (Brian laughing)
- Coming up, Erik Griffin carries Brian Simpson on his back.
- Where's my mom?
- [Ovilee] We'll see how far he can drag his lifeless corpse
(logo crashing) in Warzone.
- Let's talk about somebody that you wouldn't assume
is a typical gamer, but she is definitely
better than you at the games you play:
Professor Constance Steinkuehler.
(air whooshing) Do you have children?
- Yes. - Are there any games
that you play with them?
- Oh, yes, I mean, yeah, they grew up gaming with us, yeah.
- That's so cool.
- My youngest and I would play everything
from, like, Plants Versus Zombies, the console version
that's like a a first-person shooter,
and then he got good enough where we
were playing Diablo together.
He's really good.
- Oh, my God!
- But yeah, Diablo on Hardcore is one
of the most beautiful games ever.
- I love the psychology of it 'cause it's one
of those things where, like, it reinforces,
like, Mom has my back. - Yes.
- We can work through this problem
together, and it. - Yes!
- A lotta those hard things about parenting
don't have to be said.
They're just showed, right?
It's oh, man, oh, I'm jealous.
Is there a specific way you've thought of
that we can strike that balance
between the freedom online of self-expression
but also protecting people from harassment
and the negative side of it?
- I don't think there's one solution.
I tend to think more like levers and dials.
If you wanna accomplish stuff socially,
you usually take multi-prong approach,
and I think there is a lot we could do,
a lot that's super-obvious.
Take something like an e-sports match.
You know, if you look at the platforms
that are streaming it, if you look at the game companies,
they tell you they can't do anything
about what players are doing in games
that's hate speech, that's harassment,
but now, look at, like, an adjacency,
something like basketball or football, right.
If that kinda language, or there was some mass
sort of chants happening that were hate speech
and were not appropriate, they would shut it down.
They would not allow that kinda thing to happen
because they're not dumb.
They know that they're gonna lose their audience.
They know it's gonna come back on them,
and game companies slink around,
saying they can't do anything, but there's lots of stuff
they could do right now, and they're gonna need to.
They're gonna have to self-regulate,
or they're going to end up regulated.
I can tell you that just from my work in policy.
- I have an idea.
I think Nintendo, I mean, they sort of halfway stumbled
onto one of the possible solutions, and I remember I played,
I used to play Super Smash Brothers.
- Yes, good game. - Online, and they had a thing
where, like, if you kept being reported for quitting,
you didn't know this, but you would get put
on a quitter's server, so all the quitters
would only be playing with the quitters,
and you had to stop quitting before you
could join everybody else, so I feel like if you're
constantly being reported for harassment,
the game company doesn't have to lose money.
Just put you on a server with people that want that,
you know what I mean? - Yeah, self-segregate, yeah.
- Yeah, I don't think it's difficult to implement that,
or match you up with people that are, like,
"I don't wanna hear all that nonsense."
- Yeah. (air whooshing)
- All right, enough bullshit. Let's get into playing.
- Just jump right out. (air whooshing)
- Guys, where are we dropping?
- So I'm gonna mark a spot on the map,
and then we'll go to that.
- [Brian] Got you.
(bullets firing) - Oh, we're getting shot at.
Be ready. - All right, let's see
how Brian and Erik deal with the enemy team.
Are they gonna be able to use teamwork
to come out on top, or are they both going down
within five minutes of being in the game?
- I don't like your tone. - Oh, my God!
(alarm buzzing) - All right, Brian
is going to the gulag.
Brian, do you know how the gulag works?
- Yeah, I gotta kill this motherfucker.
- So if you win this one-on-one fight,
you get to come back. (bullets firing)
- Oh! - Oh, and it doesn't
look like Brian's coming back.
- Oh, brother, here we go. (alarm buzzing)
Can I win this gulag?
- Come on, Erik.
- Checks around the corner, throws out a grenade.
Will he find anything? It doesn't look like it.
Runs into the smoke, peeks around the corner.
He found his target.
Will he be able to take him down?
Let's add a couple shots, and he is
the gulag winner! - Yeah, let's get him!
(computer beeping)
- Now, I gotta get money to buy you back.
(Brian laughing)
Like a stepdad, gotta spend my good money on you,
only 'cause I love your momma. - Like, the only reason
I'm bailing you outta jail is to make your momma happy.
- Right, a new safety zone has been identified.
Oh, with a snipe!
- (laughs) And you coming back.
- Erik taking down a target who was standing
completely still at the time, but still, a kill is a kill.
- Why you gotta take away from my kill?
(parachute flapping)
- There we go.
Brian learned how to use the parachute,
and both of his legs remain intact.
- Yes! (Erik laughing)
Oh! - Oh, I see him. I see him.
- Erik's locked on. (bullets rattling)
Firefight begins, shots fired, taking him down.
Damage, hit markers being thrown everywhere.
And down goes the enemy. - Yes!
Let's go after these guys now.
- All right, now, with that UAV, they're gonna be able
to see all of the enemies pop up as pings on their mini-map
as we see Brian start a shoot-out with someone.
Oh, Brian is knocked down.
Another couple hits taking to him.
He needs to get behind cover,
but that's not gonna be fast enough.
Brian is out of the game, and for sure this time,
and down goes Erik, oh no! (Erik groaning)
- This other guy, I didn't see the other guy.
- Hey, dude, you know what, now, now, I'm obsessed.
Give me one week, I'm gonna be fucking
beast mode at this game. - Okay, I'll give you a week
'cause I play every day, so let's do it,
but anyway, this has been great.
I gots to go. Brian, congratulations.
We gonna be playing more often,
and I can't wait to see your special.
- All right, man, appreciate you.
- And a pleasure meeting you.
- You as well. Great gameplay.
It was super-nice working with you all again.
Brian, super-nice meeting you.
- Nice talking to you, Ovilee.
I appreciate your time.
Let's do it again.
- Oh, yeah, man. (air whooshing)
- All right, well, that's it.
This has been an episode of Netflix is a Joke Radio's
"My Favorite Thing," and I've been your host,
Brian Simpson, and I've been talking
about my love of gaming.
I wanna thank my guests, Erik Griffin,
Ovilee May, Jamie Madigan, and Constance Steinkuehler,
and don't forget that you can see me
on the new season of "The Standups,"
streaming now on Netflix.
(upbeat jazz music)
(relaxed music)