Jamie 0:00

Wait, is that like a Furby over there? Like a cow Furby?

Ally 0:03

Oh, pee pee? You wanna see pee pee?

Rebecca 0:07

I feel like this is how online gaming starts

0:12

i'm Jamie. And I'm Rebecca. Welcome to The Burnout Collective

Jamie 0:20

What the fuck? I'm so confused by this

Ally 0:23

Two could get pee-pee

Jamie 0:25

Okay, obviously this is gonna be the start of the episode.

Ally 0:28

It's got haunting eyes.

Jamie 0:31

Yeah

Ally 0:31

so I aim it at people sitting on the couch and you kinda catch a glance of him and go, "Ah." You'll have to look up Pee, that's his actual name, and

Jamie 0:42

is, why does it look familiar?

Rebecca 0:44

not going to Google stuffed pee pee

Ally 0:46

It's

Rebecca 0:47

I'm just

Ally 0:48

if you just look P-E-E-P-Y, it's by Item Label. it's a collectible, artwork toy, not meant for children. It's just a haunting collection of designer toys

Jamie 1:03

How did you come across it? was this a gift? Were you...

Ally 1:06

the, my little one I got because somebody else had got

Jamie 1:10

more than one?

Ally 1:11

Yeah, there's a tiny version, the original version. This is the giant version. A friend of mine had got one, and I was like, "Oh, I need this." And there's a cute little video you can find, that introduces Peepee, and it comes with a little song. It's like, "Peepee, I love you," and it's real haunting as well.

Jamie 1:28

Oh. All right, well we have our first guest of season two today, everybody.

Ally 1:34

Hello

Jamie 1:35

Ms. Allison Prescott, Allie, AKA Tango, which makes her more comfortable

Ally 1:42

Tango is the gamer handle, which I've had for very many years. many years

Rebecca 1:48

Jamie, do you remember what your first username was on

Jamie 1:50

Yes. my first m- username was on AOL. It was like, just like chat, not gaming. and it was Jade11

Ally 1:58

It's always like

Jamie 1:58

because

Ally 1:59

or Sky,

Jamie 2:00

yeah. I w- not Dragoness. Oh, I just realized I have to kick cats out we'll see.

Rebecca 2:07

no, we don't wanna ruin the seriousness and quality of this fucking episode with cats

Jamie 2:12

Well, of

Ally 2:12

You're fucking it up, Jamie

Jamie 2:14

No, I liked Jade and, like, I think I was also like, you know, green. Green's like my birthstone, which is emerald, but Emerald was too long, I guess. It didn't sound as cool as Jade.

Ally 2:26

Much cooler.

Jamie 2:27

yeah

Ally 2:28

Much more middle school

Jamie 2:29

I don't even know, like

Rebecca 2:30

pic- Pixy Stix with two Xs in

Ally 2:34

double X

Jamie 2:36

emo bitch.

Rebecca 2:37

I thought it was so original and I was

Jamie 2:39

sticks.

Ally 2:40

Have that email address like

Rebecca 2:42

these Yeah.

Jamie 2:43

Oh my God yeah, so I actually, I went to, Midwest Gaming Classic. I had to remember. MGC. when was that? April?

Ally 2:53

the end of April in Milwaukee, which is a great gaming convention for all kinds of

Jamie 3:00

my first time.

Ally 3:01

Tabletop, card games, arcade games, pinball, retro consoles, remakes, indie stuff, lots of

Jamie 3:11

Rubik's Cube contest. I'm so mad I missed that. I wanted to watch some of the Rubik's Cube, players

Ally 3:18

some of the Tetris co- competition.

Jamie 3:22

I saw some of that

Ally 3:23

That was wild. I didn't know they had a Rubik's Cube competition

Jamie 3:26

Yeah, I knew they did 'cause I think I had seen it on the website and I, passed by it. I think it was just in, the main hall in, the first floor, like, where merch and stuff was, I think. but no, I went there, ended up meeting Ally, who was like a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend. Anyway, but like we just hit it off because I just thought she was cool and, she was talking about competitive gaming and I was like, "Oh, that'd be kinda cool. you wanna come on a podcast that has six listeners that,

Rebecca 3:52

How did you meet though? did you just bump into each other? Were

Ally 3:55

Mu-mutual friends, I think. we bump-- We were first at that cafe or what-whatever that, collection of eateries, a food hall.

Jamie 4:08

Yeah

Ally 4:09

Manik, I think, knows who the guy I was along with, Silvers, and

Jamie 4:16

I n- I know Silver's, by name, but, like, not well, and so I was like, "Oh, I know you."

Ally 4:22

And so the first time I met Jamie, she was manhandling an absolutely deep dish, was it Detroit-style pizza?

Jamie 4:31

pizza man? Oh my

Ally 4:33

I think I have a picture of you holding it

Jamie 4:36

Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was very strange. We exchanged numbers quickly and then we're, like, taking pictures of each other.

Ally 4:44

Wanted to commemorate that moment. I

Jamie 4:46

Yeah. It was

Ally 4:48

one of you looking angry at Cable

Jamie 4:50

Oh, yeah. J- it wasn't even, looking angry, it's just, me screaming at somebody,

Ally 4:54

Regular amount of screaming

Jamie 4:57

But we were f- yeah, we just felt, it was the same vibe. We're like, "I feel like we have the same vibe." no, it was good.

Rebecca 5:04

Yeah, you were like, "I met someone in Milwaukee and I want her on the podcast." And I went, "What?" I just, I've met a stranger, so I was like, "Are you... Okay.

Jamie 5:12

It was just like a, it was like a kindred spirit thing.

Rebecca 5:15

Between yesterday and today, I see why

Jamie 5:17

um

Rebecca 5:18

get into the background, like Ally's background of just like how, like what competitive gaming actually is, how long she's been into it, how she got into it.

Ally 5:26

I'll

Rebecca 5:26

early AOL

Ally 5:27

that I am not a, I'm not a streamer. I'm not a competitive gamer now. I was a competitive gamer in, the early 2000s. Definitely not an authority, a voice of authority on this by any means. But I am a woman who was in competitive gaming.

Jamie 5:48

Yeah.

Ally 5:49

So I started playing online games... I started playing games in general, when I was, like, five, 'cause my, I, we had talked about this. My brother is older than I am, and so he got all the fun gaming systems,

Jamie 6:04

What was the first system you

Ally 6:06

Nintendo Entertainment System, NES. And we played Duck Hunt and Mario and Zelda, The Legend of Zelda, those classics. and I had no idea how to play The Legend of Zelda because I couldn't read, and I was determined to play this game. I'm like, "I have to learn how to read to play this game."

Jamie 6:28

And that's h- and that's how sh- she's, literate today, ladies and gentlemen

Ally 6:32

Video games help me learn to read

Jamie 6:35

She's "Duck hunt."

Ally 6:36

and then online gaming came around and he was playing Counter-Strike and Team Fortress, which is now Team Fortress Classic, and that was 1999. So I was about 14 when I started stealing my brother's account and playing Team Fortress Classic

Jamie 6:53

Nice

Ally 6:54

And back then, there was, like, talking in game, and I'm sure I did a lot of talking and people just ignore me. I probably sounded like a squeaker, which they call kids in games 'cause they sound like squeakers. Oh my God but there was gatekeeping, but not quite the same as it la- later in games

Jamie 7:14

Mm-hmm.

Ally 7:15

people will Try to it as a defense mechanism essentially. "Oh, we're so much better." it's an attempt to control who has access or who's, like, a real gamer,

Jamie 7:27

Yeah.

Ally 7:28

players or, you don't have the skill or you don't have the lore knowledge, you don't have the hardware or you're, yeah, you're not the right sex, gender, race But later on I moved on to Team Fortress 2, which all of these games didn't really have a even, female characters in them. And going forward, even Team Fortress 2 didn't have it, even though they were more cartoony. They had, this World War I cartoony aspect, but they were all male characters. and that's how I got roped into competitive gaming on Team Fortress 2. But I found a very lovely community, and I think that's what Everybody kinda needs to get into competitive gaming is a-- 'cause if you're just out there playing with randos or random players, the harassment is livid. So I found a great community of gamers, and I was playing all the time, thousands of hours into "Team Fortress 2." And of course, I was the healer, 'cause girls are healers. Which is funny because in "Team Fortress Classic" the healer class was not good. Nobody played the healer in "Team Fortress Classic" because the m- the mechanism wasn't there. They hadn't figured out how do you heal someone without essentially being, like, on top of them, like touching them. and now there's, the beam mechanic that they're used all the time to connect you to another player to heal them. "Team Fortress Classic," you were running out and immediately dying because you were trying to hump somebody who needed health, and so nobody ever played a healer.

Jamie 9:04

You're like, "I'm trying to save you."

Ally 9:06

untz, untz, oh, I died.

Jamie 9:10

Yeah

Ally 9:11

so back then the gatekeeping was on engineer, which was a defense class, and you, built a little turret, and you just kinda sat back by the intel or the obj- objective, and you just fixed your turret, and you didn't have to aim. And they're like: Yeah, yeah, you go, you go, you go be the engineer. You do that

Jamie 9:30

So you would, you would wanna play like the medic and you would come in as like a medic and then people were like, "No."

Ally 9:36

'Cause you needed to aim

Jamie 9:37

Oh.

Ally 9:38

And there-- and the-- nobody actually played a medic anyways in Team Fortress Classic. It just wasn't,

Jamie 9:44

But really needed?

Ally 9:45

it wasn't good enough. But then Team Fortress 2 came out, and medic became the most important class in that game because the medic is the only one with a special ability or an ultimate ability,

Jamie 10:02

so it was just like really sought after, to

Ally 10:04

edge. You had to have a medic, and sometimes you would have two, depending on, the game mode. But in competitive gaming, you could only have one medic and one demo and, two of any other class

Jamie 10:15

Okay

Ally 10:16

So if your medic died, you were totally screwed.

Jamie 10:21

Right

Ally 10:21

So you become the entire narrator of what's happening. You're telling your team, "Here's where we're going. Here's w- who's coming at us. here's how close I am to this ultimate." so you become the talker. I was the talker. I was talking constantly for the team

Rebecca 10:42

so the irony here is that girls are gatekept into getting into these games, and then there's the healer role, which is usually female, but the irony is you're the most important player on the

Ally 10:54

On the team. Like most... isn't that ironic?

Jamie 10:58

is it ironic or is it just...

Ally 11:00

Is it hold karma?

Jamie 11:02

we've been trying to say forever, you guys, is that we are the most important

Ally 11:07

You've always been the most important it's a really great way to actually learn a game is to be the medic because you're just following other players and learning the map and seeing where enemies are gonna come from. Wonderful way to learn how to play a team-based game.

Jamie 11:22

I think that's a good way to like, like get, like honestly, like get good, like at the game too. Just

Ally 11:27

bruh.

Jamie 11:29

get good

Rebecca 11:29

when you joined a team, was it safe because it was, sorry, a community of people you already knew? Or Did you have to quote, "prove yourself" to these people first to,

Ally 11:38

If it wasn't in a server that I already knew and I was already established in, then definitely. You definitely had to prove yourself. and, you get on mic and they're like, "Oh my God, it's a girl." and then the inappropriate comments come

Rebecca 11:54

it's almost like they're playing to enjoy it, but you're playing and you have to pass a invisible test first before you even get to enjoy it

Ally 12:01

Yeah, you have to validate yourself

Jamie 12:06

That's literally just being a fucking woman. I'm sorry,

Ally 12:09

It is

Jamie 12:10

Just period in life. Yeah

Ally 12:13

And I'm not-- there's toxic gaming behavior against all genders, but women definitely get a little focus on there, and we, we-- God, we get it everywhere. We get harassment on the street, for God's sake. But once you, you know, start to prove yourself and then you're like, "Oh, okay, got some skill." it does take a while, and yeah, it, it can be really disheartening to hear people, harass and, be toxic Whether you're a woman or not. I've heard something like 16 to 20% of gamers that play will get so much harassment that they just won't play that game anymore

Jamie 13:02

Yeah

Ally 13:03

they'll just leave that kind of

Jamie 13:05

And it starts with, like I know we talked about not, as a woman in gaming, like not wanting to talk, not wanting to get on the mic and say anything a lot of times. Or, in the beginning especially when we were gaming and, younger and just experiencing that just that toxic culture.

Ally 13:20

Yeah. The, and the elitism in general, so you won't even, talk or you'll disguise yourself as a man. Tango's a pretty, genderless name. It wasn't like I was J- Jade

Jamie 13:37

I'm Allie"

Ally 13:39

Yeah.

Jamie 13:40

wait. Are you making fun of Jade? Hang on.

Ally 13:42

am

Rebecca 13:43

And it's interesting because, on that playing field, basically other othering as far as like race or sexuality, as long as you're a guy, right, on the games, you're pretty much banded together, you're as one. So it's literally the subclass of this entire group of people is just the women

Ally 14:04

Yeah, and it's sho- in the beginning there wasn't a lot of women playing online. when I went to Indianapolis to play with my competitive team, there was two out of 200, 250 men in an-- it was an aircraft hangar that's, on a s- state fairground. It was in a state fair-- An aircraft hangar in a state fairground, and they decked it out with some tables and, landlines

Rebecca 14:33

Can you tell me about the competition? I mean, I obviously know it's a competition, but is this just like a city by city? Are they national tournaments? Is it for money? do you guys get like your name on somewhere? What's the point of going to these?

Ally 14:47

Yeah, the, it was, usually a national v- it starts like state and then it goes to national. And

Rebecca 14:54

Are they sponsored by the game companies?

Ally 14:57

No. They can take on sponsors outside of it. so there were some sponsors like Monster Energy drink and, local sponsors that made computers or computer parts. I remember that. Other companies that would just jump on board And they would sponsor teams to go into, esports. So esports put it on. Esports was the whole company. It was like, "Oh, we should have servers where we should have people compete in these games."

Jamie 15:27

Mm-hmm

Ally 15:29

So you had to pur- way back then, like 2007, 2008, you had to purchase, an esports account. And then you could access their servers. you'd get paired up and be like, "Oh, it's your team versus this team at this time," and you'd go and play. so you didn't-- I didn't know any of the, my teammates. I, all I would hear their voice. I had never seen their faces. I played with them for a couple years, and then I finally got to see them when I went to this, event in Indianapolis. And then I got to see them, and they were wearing their, pro jerseys with their sponsorship on them and... But I was just their backup. I was their backup medic.

Rebecca 16:05

So like to the point of having your own official outfits, are these, do you get clout for that? what, I guess my question is like why do people go to

Ally 16:13

do get money. You would get money through esports by winning, and then you could keep going on and I don't think we got very far. it would like, we might get five or 10 bucks back to pay for our esports membership But,

Rebecca 16:27

you like doing it, sounds

Ally 16:28

was essentially just a flex, "Hey, we're a pro team. Look at how good we are. Look at how many games we could win." And I think later on, really good teams would go on to the nationals, perhaps international Never got that far. I didn't get a jersey, but I did-- the medic, their main medic did give me a T-shirt, and he was wearing the same T-shirt, and he gave me one. His was blue and mine was pink, and it had, the medic symbol and, one of the weapons or something on it.

Jamie 16:57

That's really nice

Ally 16:58

and I had never seen him before. I was like, "Oh, it's nice to see you, Pearl, finally. I get to meet you in person."

Jamie 17:05

Yeah

Rebecca 17:06

One of the things you mentioned is that, the competitive aspect was fun for a while, but then you started to not actually, enjoy. Can you talk about that? Because obviously games are for fun, but like when you're doing it to see how good you are because everyone is watching

Ally 17:23

and it

Jamie 17:23

perhaps it burnt you out a little bit

Ally 17:25

sport. Yes, it could have burnt me out a little bit It was like a daily practice. It was like, "Whoa, yep, we have comp practice, every day at 7:30, and we're gonna practice this map. We're gonna go through this strategy," and it becomes work. it's not fun, shoot 'em up with your friends gaming anymore. It's, making call-outs and flexing your strats, figuring out how to counter the other team. getting burnt out on playing the game. I found out later, much later, that for me, I would get burnt out after Four or five competitive games in a row if it was com- comp, not just casual. and then my performance would start to drop. and I'm like, "Nope," "That's it. I'm just gonna play these four or five, and then I'm gonna go play something else, place-- or play casually."

Rebecca 18:21

Was it Hello Kitty Adventure Island?

Ally 18:23

do remember that game

Jamie 18:25

they have a new one now on Switch. Yeah.

Ally 18:27

Yeah, they gotta get with the time

Rebecca 18:29

cute

Jamie 18:29

and Steam, actually, and Steam. And who knows what else? It might be on Xbox, I don't know

Rebecca 18:34

No, I love Hello Kitty

Ally 18:36

You do, you, are you playing it right now? H- how many levels you got, huh, bro?

Rebecca 18:40

n- that...

Ally 18:40

did you play the old one? Yeah, you don't know unless you played the old game. you're not a real

Rebecca 18:45

Listen, I found all the mystery jewels, okay? I found all of Hello Kitty's mystery jewels and her lucky hair bow, so

Ally 18:51

Whoa, whoa, whoa. All right. All right

Jamie 18:54

hair bow? The one where you have to find

Rebecca 18:56

Have not.

Jamie 18:56

cave? I'm just kidding. I didn't

Rebecca 18:59

You are, but there, I think there is a golden ear bottle

Jamie 19:00

I'm sure there is

Rebecca 19:02

but for real though, what did you play? what were your kind of I just like zone out or games that you actually enjoy playing when you needed a break?

Ally 19:09

I'd have to think back on it. I played a lot of like Final Fantasy RPG style games.

Jamie 19:17

Sure.

Ally 19:17

those were nice.

Jamie 19:19

in that. Yeah

Ally 19:20

gosh, yeah, like world-building games. Prince of Persia I still collect, Super Nintendo games, Yoshi's Island, which is a great game, great chill game to play for everyone. Go find it. Play it Chrono Trigger, just like even the old Super Mario for SNES. It's just really fun

Rebecca 19:42

With all the sexism in, I keep wanting to say industry, but like I guess the community, in the gaming community. I... So Jamie introduced me to the world of Twitch streamers, and so I have now seen multiple women in not a lot of clothes playing games, right? Just live

Jamie 20:01

Yeah, that's what I introduced her to. Was like, "Hey, check out these hot chicks playing games."

Rebecca 20:06

But they're fucking amazing. So it's like they are 100% visually being the stereotypes that I think everyone either wants them to be or assumes they are, but then they're actually kicking the living shit out of the guys they're playing with. So these guys who see these women, right? And they're still shit talking. it's like the absolute gall

Ally 20:28

It is, and it's all about that anonymity. If people can't find who you are, you can say whatever you want on the internet. but I think it's wonderful that women are taking back that power. "Oh yeah, I'm, I am a sexy female gamer, wearing a crop top and oh, 360 no-scope, bitch."

Jamie 20:49

Yeah. I'm also like, yeah, I'm also fucking like headshotting you like every second, so

Ally 20:54

whoops. oh, I'm, oh, I'm sorry. Oh, nope, I'm not sorry."

Jamie 20:58

I would get bully like that and I would be like, "Oh, did I just murder you

Ally 21:01

Yeah.

Jamie 21:02

sorry. I'm so

Ally 21:03

too much fun. I gotta say, I understand why there's toxic gamers out there 'cause it's kinda fun. but you don't have to go, so hard

Jamie 21:15

Yeah

Ally 21:16

vein is throbbing out of your head or you're thinking about it too much, you're dwelling on it for multiple days and it's hurting your mental health

Jamie 21:25

I think that's what it was for me is, finding, my group of people. I definitely have different groups that I play different games with, but, finding my main group of, gamer friends that, like me, we just don't take ourselves too seriously, we are literally there to play games and have fun and, obviously we're not competitive gamers.

Ally 21:42

But everybody's been in that friend group, everybody's been in that friend group where there's that one guy who's "Jerry, just, you've really fucked it up. oh my God, I can't believe you did that. You, you just messed that whole thing up," and they just tear down somebody

Jamie 21:57

Yeah. And then like we're just in the corner like, ha, look, this looks like a butthole.

Ally 22:01

Look at those asteroids sometimes I'll play with those angry gamers because I don't have a lot of stress in my life and they--

Jamie 22:08

You're like, "I just, I need a little bit of

Ally 22:10

a little drama." I need the anger from someone else to come out. I'm sure some psychologists say it's like my father or something

Jamie 22:18

Jesus

Ally 22:19

I play with, gamers that I know, and oftentimes I'm in Discord so I'm not hearing, like a proximity chat of some tox- toxic,

Jamie 22:31

just talking to, your people.

Ally 22:32

some toxic troll coming up being like, "Oh, you're femoid." Or, "What's your bra size?"

Jamie 22:39

Yeah.

Ally 22:39

But you do encounter that, like often, especially because women don't have a real obvious age to our voices. maybe what, our vocabulary kind of gives us away, but a lot of people mistake me for much younger. They're like, "Hey, baby. You single? You got a boyfriend?"

Jamie 22:58

They're like squeaky. They're like, "Hey, baby." You're like, "No, absolutely not."

Ally 23:01

no. Sorry. Could probably be

Jamie 23:04

I'm gonna fuck, I'm gonna fuck your dad." Yeah, shut up

Ally 23:07

Could probably be your mom

Rebecca 23:09

As far as like your in real life personal life, do you have two separate lives? Like the during the day you and the gaming you, have you like tried to explain to your friends who don't game what you do

Ally 23:21

yes and no. I, when I was going to gaming conventions, I was introducing myself as Tango, and then anybody that called me Tango, I knew that I had met them through some kind of gaming outlet.

Jamie 23:34

Mm-hmm.

Ally 23:35

Uh, but I think more people call me Tango in real life than Ali, which is surprising. I even have somebody whose child is calling me Auntie Tango. Auntie Tango

Jamie 23:44

Love it

Ally 23:45

so yeah, I did... it's tough to be like, "Oh yeah, I'm a gamer," or, "Yeah, I'm doing this competitive game thing," and they're like, "Oh, that's nice. Mm-hmm." And then just leave it alone

Jamie 23:57

I'm just thinking, back to the Auntie Tango thing. thank God, your gamer tag is, a tango and not, Cuckqueen69. Auntie Cuckqueen69.

Ally 24:03

No. Auntie Cat Queen Oh, she heard her own child, refer to her 'cause she got on like Minecraft with her, him, and he was talking to her and said, her hot name is like Hot Dog Booty Call or something like that in, in the game. And he's "Hot Dog, come over here." And she's "You can't call me that. Call me Mom.

Jamie 24:23

I can't do that.

Ally 24:24

cannot call me

Jamie 24:25

Absolutely not

Ally 24:26

Dog."

Rebecca 24:27

You might not be playing with a lot of randos now, and you just may be playing with only people you know, so this might not happen very much or apply to you more now. But do you feel like going through what you went through and getting established in this gaming community, do you feel like you have, an obligation towards new female players or maybe even younger players just in general who are also vulnerable?

Ally 24:48

Yeah, definitely. If I'm-- I'll play Overwatch now, and so I went from Team Fortress class or Team Fortress Classic, Team Fortress 2 to Overwatch, and the ratio for gamers has really evened out. It's definitely more of a 50/50. so if a female gamer gets on the voice and starts saying something and a male, identifying voice comes on and starts harassing them, I'll definitely come to their defense,

Jamie 25:18

Yeah.

Ally 25:19

which you don't h- you don't see a lot from other male gamers. if somebody's harassing me, everybody else can hear, and they're not coming

Jamie 25:26

Nobody says

Ally 25:27

me. Yeah, nobody says anything. You are all liable for this.

Jamie 25:32

Yeah.

Ally 25:33

You all should say something

Jamie 25:35

I feel the same way. I like, I'm always surprised when that happens, but I do the same thing. If like I hear a woman come on or like even someone who sounds like a lot younger, I'll try to I'll usually try to, I think, befriend them a little bit. But yeah, like you said, especially if somebody's harassing them, like then it turn- then it's okay, I am now on their side and we're ganging up on you. You know what I mean? I will gang up on them and then I will bully them back,

Ally 25:59

Which it probably isn't the answer, but it always happens. You always become the toxic troll against them

Jamie 26:06

Yeah

Rebecca 26:07

This excludes every seven-year-old we play Party Animals with, so all of them

Ally 26:12

it's becoming, I think overall younger generations are becoming more emotionally aware, so the toxicity is getting less, especially in the younger generations. I hear

Jamie 26:25

But it also depends on how, who their fucking parents are, you know what I mean? Like

Ally 26:30

Yes. And they'll be listening to their parents gaming and, "What the fuck? Fucking asshole." This fucking cunt. Yes

Rebecca 26:39

I like it when Jamie makes him cry though. That is my favorite

Jamie 26:42

I don't think I've ever made anyone cry.

Rebecca 26:44

Or when she reports them like it's just some 11-year-old saying some slur and Jamie's just like, "Report."

Ally 26:50

Reported.

Jamie 26:51

And I, and like I write my little paragraph because I want them to take it seriously, and I'm like da, da, da, da, da, da

Ally 26:56

Yeah. Say goodbye to your account. You have been reported for this racial slur

Jamie 27:01

That's what I was gonna say in like Party Animals, like me and my friend Marina and like Rebecca when she played with us a lot, like we would like report people and they do the thing where they come back and say, "Hey, like this person was issued a penalty based on your report," or whatever. And so we would get that and we would be like, "Ah," "Yes, this is so great." and they also... They actually added just recently, I just saw this 'cause we haven't been playing a lot, but I played the other day with some friends, and they added a, like a void player. So I think it avoids you going up

Ally 27:35

Oh, a

Jamie 27:35

that player for three matches or something.

Ally 27:38

Yeah, they are really relying on the game producers and even, the, game makers to moderate.

Jamie 27:49

Yeah.

Ally 27:50

so moderation has become very good Yeah, the toxicity has gone down perhaps because of that, which is good. I'm glad that the moderation is there. You can report people in game, you can report people on your console, you can report people on Steam

Jamie 28:05

You can find them on Facebook and ruin their life.

Ally 28:08

Yeah, you can swat them. Yeah, whatever you're into. I'm smart people. Stop being a toxic troll. I know you're out there. I know you're

Jamie 28:15

Yeah. I think that's part of why, there was this game, we used to play a lot. I know they have, different versions. They have, like... I don't know what it's called, but, different, like, prop games where it's

Ally 28:25

like the prop in the game and hiding

Jamie 28:27

yeah. So there was this one called Prop Night that we played a lot. It was basically like Dead by Daylight except you could be things, is how we put it. And that's just... we didn't even like Dead by Daylight, but, that's what made the game for us, is, that aspect of, you could be a tiny hot dog, and just be jumping around and hiding and whatever. And I would do, hardcore valley girl voice and just be like, "Oh my God." Like, the killer would be chasing me, and I'd be like, "Oh my God," "stop following me. You're so obsessed with me. Fucking stop." And, it just pissed men off so much, especially Russian men, and they would be like, "Shut up, you are just dishwasher." And I was like, "Okay, guy." But it was

Ally 29:05

Gets back in kitchen

Jamie 29:07

Yeah.

Rebecca 29:08

I would watch Jamie play. Like I didn't play the games, but like she was so good at it

Jamie 29:12

it's not even just in games, just in like re- like you should see our text threads. Like we just go off and bullshit crazy stuff and yeah. But that's what you get

Rebecca 29:20

It's so funny

Jamie 29:21

find, your good friend group

Rebecca 29:23

But everyone's very patient. so when I played with them, they were, like Marina took the time to walk me through like, "Here are the, here's how to use the thing, and here's where you need to go," and so they were very patient, and

Ally 29:34

I'm shocked at how many, like, new party games there are. and for real casual and just making friends, and Prop Hunt is a good one.

Jamie 29:44

We also played a ton of, like, Phasmophobia and, that was something that, people would... Like, we played it since the beginning and, I think, that used to be my top, hours in all of my Steam games because I played that so much. But we would just play it because it was, for us, it was a good... We knew the game so well, but it was also so janky, and that's what we liked about it, 'cause your character would, bend backwards and look

Ally 30:06

Yeah, it clipped through the wall

Jamie 30:08

yeah. And so that...

Ally 30:10

through the walls

Jamie 30:11

Yeah. And that's why we liked it, 'cause we could just, joke around and, laugh, but then we'd also just, like, chit-chat and just, like, catch up and, whatever. And we'd invite people to play with us and, sometimes people are like, "No, you, like, you guys are really good, you know. Like, you know what you're doing. I've never played this," and, like Rebecca, and we were just like, "No, we're not the type of people who are gonna, get our panties in a twist if someone comes to play a game for the first time and doesn't know what they're doing. we think that's

Ally 30:36

And that's part of the learning curve. I played-- Now that I'm playing "Sea of Thieves," I introduced someone to play the game and, we were just sailing around having fun doing that, and then he brought in a friend. and he started, nitpicking everything his friend was doing. "Oh, you can't do this. Oh, you have to do that." And I'm like, "Just let him learn it for himself," Oh, no, you-- He accidentally, you accidentally eat worms, and then you find out you vomit, or, It, the game is hilarious, in a lot of aspects, somebody c- coming and trying to hold your hand through it ruins it, that experience.

Jamie 31:12

For sure.

Ally 31:13

you can give them some tips here and there, but you don't, yeah, you don't have

Jamie 31:16

Yeah. Or if like they ask too. if somebody like wants me to kind of hold their hand through a game

Ally 31:18

Yes

Jamie 31:20

they're new to, like of course I'm going to, Like

Ally 31:23

Yeah. How, what do I do with this? they pick up something, what does this do?

Jamie 31:27

Yeah. But there's also like the, there is like a fine line because like I'm just gonna call it mansplaining 'cause that's usually, it's

Ally 31:34

It usually is.

Jamie 31:35

But yeah,

Ally 31:36

Oh God, I was in an all-female, pinball group for a while, which was super fun. It was called Bells and Chimes,

Jamie 31:44

Cute

Ally 31:45

little jerseys and things. Whoever organized it was a competitive pinball player. But every so often, somebody, some bro would walk up to her while she's playing and try to mansplain the pinball game that she was playing and owning, and being like, "Oh, you have to hit this and this and this." And sh- I'm like, "Really?" she's whooping everybody's ass at this, and you're gonna walk up and mansplain pinball?

Jamie 32:12

You know how you know how like Twitch streamers will have no back seating? So "Don't back seat my game." "This is my first play through," whatever. I feel like that's just, again, what it's like being a woman. I feel like our entire life, like people are just trying to backseat us

Ally 32:27

"Oh, you're just a girl. You don't know how to play this. There's too many buttons for your tiny brain."

Jamie 32:33

Yeah, just literally saying, "Oh, that's a woman," walking up and explaining p- pinball and, what you should be doing, and it's no

Ally 32:41

Yeah, or the harassment thing is so weird too. It's like me getting on and being like, "How big is your dick? ha. Like, how much money you have in the bank?"

Jamie 32:49

I do make, I do like to make tiny j- dick jokes if they

Ally 32:52

Ah, yeah.

Jamie 32:52

Then I'll be like, yeah. I'll be like, I'll be like, "I have a clit and my dick's bigger than yours." come on. But

Ally 32:59

I gotta get on the insult train.

Rebecca 33:01

Do you just play the same stuff over and over again? Or are you looking for... Oh, cozy games. I was gonna ask, do you play cozy games at all, and what are your favorites?

Ally 33:07

That was like going back to the Super Nintendo games. A lot of those old games I'll play. oh, what else have I played? yeah, a lot of RPGs. Sometimes I'll play new RPGs. those are considered more cozy for me. I don't have the Hello Kitty Island version.

Rebecca 33:26

Hello Kitty Adventure Island

Ally 33:28

sorry

Jamie 33:30

Hey. Hey, don't knock Hello Kitty.

Ally 33:31

noob for the Hello Kitty Adventure but, like I'll play a lot of old school games. Castlevania, Earthworm Jim. That game is really hard now. You go back to that game and you're like, "My thumbs are dumb. I can't play this."

Jamie 33:44

We were talking about this earlier and I was gonna bring this up, but we were talking about gatekeeping, and it's so funny, I was even gonna bring this up yesterday when we were talking. I had just gone to visit, a really good friend of Rebecca and me, and, we went to a concert, and our friend Alyssa, she got so mad because there was this guy and he was wearing another band shirt. It was like a Rilo Kiley shirt. And I was like, "Oh my God, I love Rilo Kiley." And so I was, like, complimenting his shirt. And, immediately he said, "Prove it

Ally 34:15

Oh.

Jamie 34:16

And

Ally 34:16

you lifted up your shirt and you had a big tattoo of him on your tit.

Jamie 34:20

Yeah. boob says Ri- Rilo, the other says Kylie. but in the moment, like I was just getting the vibe that this guy was like trying to be friendly and not a dick, and so like I didn't even really take it that way. But then like later she was like, "That fucking guy." She was like... And we were talking about growing up, and so not just with video games, but it was the same with music. like people do that to this- it's "Oh, what's your favorite song? What's your favorite album?

Ally 34:45

Yeah.

Jamie 34:45

Oh, do you know the lyrics?" Or,

Ally 34:47

the latest album? Did you hear their first, album? Do you have the LP?

Jamie 34:52

Yeah, do you know all the lore? Do you know all the lore of the band? But that's what this reminded me of,

Ally 34:58

it's just people trying to invalidate you essentially because you're not a real fan. like by just being a casual, fan, that doesn't make you a real fan.

Jamie 35:09

Yeah

Ally 35:10

and, it's just a form of elitism. but, there's sometimes it's o- I f- maybe it's sometimes it's okay to have a little gatekeeping to say, "Okay, I'm gonna make a call out, like a looking for group post where I want everybody to be adults, and I want you to be at like this certain level, at, in this certain game. I want you to know how to do this." fine. Like you're trying to achieve something in the game, little bit of gatekeeping, fine, and you don't wanna be, teaching somebody how to play it

Jamie 35:43

It's like even just in like World of Warcraft and, games like that where they're doing like massive raids or something, and maybe they have a guild and they have everybody in the guild coming, but they still are short some people and, like they do something, it's called, like pickup groups. And, a lot of times it would be like, "Okay, but we have to see your gear," right? We have to see what kind of gear you have. We have to see, obviously, like you have to be a certain level, because like you don't wanna just get like a rando who like, in some cases bought their character. I don't know.

Ally 36:13

Yep

Jamie 36:14

doesn't know what they're doing. because like they could fuck it up for everyone, So I get that.

Ally 36:19

Yeah, so there's a little, compatibility and moderation for that kind of, setup. But, trying to, prove your integrity or something or latch onto some kind of elitism like, "Oh, I've been playing this for, X amount of time, and that makes me better." It's no, there's always someone better. There's always gonna be somebody better out there who's gonna kick your ass. And that's-- if you've never played "Sea

Jamie 36:46

And you're like, "I hope I'm there for

Ally 36:48

oh God, I hope I'm there to watch them get their ass kicked. But "Sea of Thieves" is-- It should be called toxic trolling on the seas. That's exactly

Jamie 36:57

can't be worse than League of Legends. League of Legends was the fucking worst

Ally 37:02

has proximity chat, so anybody near you can hear you or talk to you if you're not in a Discord or some other talking group.

Jamie 37:13

They wouldn't dare do that in league. They won't add

Ally 37:15

wouldn't that be horrific? Imagine, like how-- I can't, I don't remember how many people are on each team on League. Is it six people or five people on each team? And just everyone just shouting at each other. You fucking bitch. Get back here,

Jamie 37:32

Yeah. No

Ally 37:35

you fucking bitch." Yeah, so that's what that's like in the "Sea of Thieves," but usually it's only you versus another crew. and they're plenty toxic all by themselves. but

Jamie 37:42

why I find it funny when people are like, "We have toxic people in, games like Party Animals." I'm like, "What? Why? What are you doing?" this is literally a game, like, honestly for kids, I think, I do think it's really fun. I like playing it, don't get me wrong. But it's a game you literally just play to have fun. And of course, I guess of course you wanna win or whatever, but, ugh

Ally 38:05

And you're-- if you're that toxic gamer, you're trying to live rent-free in their head, so you're messing up their game perhaps. Maybe that's your objective. Um,

Jamie 38:15

"You're, you're a duck wearing, like, a detective outfit. please don't. Please, stop yelling, 'Easy, easy, easy,'

Ally 38:23

Oh, GG easy. Easy. Oh, you can't. You're no good. You don't got the skill. Can't cut it. GG

Jamie 38:32

You're so bad at the game. the game is Party Animals.

Ally 38:35

Yeah, what?

Jamie 38:36

what do you mean?

Ally 38:37

you're so bad at life

Jamie 38:39

Also, I just wanna point out that, Allie, dude, you have, like, all sorts of wildlife going on out there.

Ally 38:43

Can you see this?

Jamie 38:45

Yeah, I keep seeing a squirrel go by. There was, like, a fucking pigeon or some shit.

Ally 38:50

I was like trying to point 'cause there was a squirrel literally

Jamie 38:52

saw you pointing at the

Ally 38:53

window. He was like pressed up against the window, and then it made me think of that episode of You Were Like, "Squirrel!

Rebecca 38:58

Are you guys

Ally 38:59

Squirrel!"

Rebecca 39:00

Are

Jamie 39:00

oh yeah The episode, the episode where Rebecca talks about her most embarrassing moment of yelling

Ally 39:06

it at work? It was you were at, on a Zoom call? You're like, "Squirrel!"

Rebecca 39:09

Yeah.

Jamie 39:09

I'm just like, I would think it was funny. if I were there, I would be like, "Oh, Rebecca

Ally 39:13

I would've busted out laughing on that Zoom call if you yelled squirrel

Rebecca 39:18

Yeah

Ally 39:20

I know you guys talk about burnout and executive dysfunction and things like that, so I was trying to get that, just kinda sneak that in there with... Yeah, there's only so many competitive games I can play in a row, and then I'm like, "Nope, this is it. I can tell I'm stinking." But now I'm pl- yeah, I stopped playing competitive Overwatch. If you're out there, stop playing competitive Overwatch. The whole system is rigged.

Rebecca 39:41

Women being mean to other women was the other thing we wanted to ask about

Ally 39:44

like I do it sometimes, it's just because I would be mean to them whether they were a woman or not, and just mad at them for not being good at the game. Please get good.

Jamie 39:57

I think it's like I'm sorry. It's, it's, it's, it's what, Rebecca's daughter Emily would say, but I think it's these like pygmies

Rebecca 40:05

Pick me

Jamie 40:06

that would just s- kind of side with the, side with the men, you know, like in gaming. So like maybe it's like a couple, like it's just like

Ally 40:14

Or a friend's

Jamie 40:15

Yeah.

Rebecca 40:16

Yeah

Jamie 40:17

it would just be like, I don't know, like this guy and his girlfriend are playing a game and he's "Oh, what the fuck are

Rebecca 40:21

never played, right guys? Yeah, she's never played before. I know

Ally 40:25

I love this, this character voice for you

Jamie 40:27

Me too

Ally 40:29

I'm so much better than her, right? Ugh. Oh my God.

Jamie 40:32

God, Rebecca, you would be such a good,

Ally 40:34

Such a good troll.

Rebecca 40:35

do you like, mine or hers? Do you like my

Ally 40:38

My, yeah, my character outfit is so much better. I paid $10

Jamie 40:41

even get the golden bow. She didn't even get the golden Hello Kitty bow, like what?

Ally 40:45

it. Like I have the competitive gold weapon. see how good I am? Guys, I love this voice

Rebecca 40:50

Yeah.

Ally 40:51

there some toxicity between women definitely. But more often than not, I would say women just don't talk. that time when I-- we were down to the last match and it was in competitive and nobody had spoken a whole word, and I got onto the mic saying, "Okay, we're-- all we have to do is distract the team so our Reaper can get behind them and do his ultimate, and then we focus all of our attention on Reaper and keeping him alive." And then two women come and chime in and they're like, "Oh yeah, that, that makes a lot of sense. That's great." and they were just probably terrified to say anything, just like I was to say anything the whole match, even if it was something constructive or useful "Oh, somebody's getting behind us. Oh, like our tank is dead." if you're gonna say something useful, then you'll get jumped on with harassment by, that bro, that toxic bro out there. "Oh, it's a girl online." yeah, 50% of your gaming like group that you're in right now Is women now.

Jamie 41:52

It is. I was looking up some stats and it's like in like 2006, I think it was more like, what, like 35/65. So like 35% women in like gaming. and now it's closer... It's something closer to f- 50/50, but I think like women are still like, I don't know, 45, 48, I don't know. Something

Ally 42:12

A little bit less, especially in a male-dominated like first-person shooters and

Jamie 42:17

I think this is kinda oh, I don't even know exactly. I think it's just gamers in general, so yeah, it might be different if it's if it's competitive, if it's like an online game. But

Ally 42:28

Yeah. I think I was shocked to see, I think it was Overwatch. It was either Korea or Japan, and they had a female on their team, on, in the competitive esports team. And I was like, "Whoa.

Jamie 42:43

see that. You never see that.

Ally 42:44

God."

Jamie 42:46

This is, this has just been delightful

Ally 42:48

Win a bunch of gift cards and... Oh, look, there he is again. Squirrel! Squirrel!

Jamie 42:51

Oh.

Ally 42:52

Damn it

Jamie 42:53

Both of us at the same time, "Squirrel." He was. He's, looking in there. Do you, feed the squirrels or something?

Ally 42:58

There's just one who comes to see me and I'll feed him. And I can actually

Jamie 43:01

Oh, you do feed

Ally 43:02

like peanuts by hand.

Jamie 43:04

Oh, shit, dude

Ally 43:05

some bird seed out there right now, so he's coming to look in on me like, "Hey, this isn't good enough. Where are my peanuts?"

Jamie 43:12

Cinderella,

Rebecca 43:13

you ever considered live streaming?

Ally 43:15

I have, I'm probably a little too self-conscious perhaps. I have,

Jamie 43:21

That's one of the first things I said to her was like, "Oh, do you stream?" And she was like, "No." And I was like, "Why?" I just, I think you would be great. I'd watch you.

Ally 43:28

Oh, yeah. All right. I'll get on that

Jamie 43:32

You got me and Rebecca, like what more do you need?

Ally 43:33

Yeah, you can watch me own people in the Sea of Thieves. Man, we just crushed them yesterday. We were having such a good time.

Jamie 43:40

Nice

Ally 43:41

But we only got second place. We got second place like three times. We kept trying to play the PVP mode that's out, and we,

Jamie 43:47

Yeah

Ally 43:48

would just own up to people, but by the time, we had destroyed everybody else, we were repairing, and then somebody, the last person would, come and sneak up and finish us off

Jamie 43:58

The Cheaters

Ally 44:00

They, the strat there is just be a pussy until you can get a good shot on somebody who's already down on their luck. which isn't honorable, but it does work.

Jamie 44:11

You're like, "We've done it."

Rebecca 44:13

Genuinely, thank you for joining us. Do you have a social media where you want people to find you, or do you wanna share your work website or

Ally 44:21

you can find me @squashwaffle. That's usually all my social medias. If you're gonna hit me up on Xbox, I think I'm SoggyTango. Soggy,

Jamie 44:30

Soggy Tango.

Ally 44:32

yeah, which actually works really well in the "Sea of Thieves" as Captain Soggy

Jamie 44:36

Ooh.

Ally 44:38

Mostly falling off the ship Thank you so much for having me

Jamie 44:41

Yeah

Ally 44:42

"The Burnout Collective." I hope I haven't burned you out too badly

Rebecca 44:46

as someone who doesn't play like you guys do, it's really fascinating to hear and, learn about everything that goes on behind the scenes. So genuinely, thank you

Jamie 44:54

And I don't even play it like she does. we definitely play, different games, but, yeah. No, this was awesome. thank you for doing this even though, you just met me and I was like, "You wanna come on a podcast?" You're like, "Okay.

Ally 45:05

okay.

Jamie 45:06

Sure."

Ally 45:08

Yeah. And so yeah, I don't play competitive gaming anymore. but it was fun while it lasted, and definitely go out, find your people, find a good group, and, have fun with them and stop listening to the trolls

Jamie 45:20

And remember, even if you're a woman, you too can have a big peepee

Rebecca 45:24

Okay, bye

Ally 45:26

Bye.