Join us this week as we discuss comic conventions and answer some of your questions.

William Sikkens, Bill Snodgrass, Gretchen Winkler

Welcome to

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User Friendly 2.0 with host Bill Sikkens,

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Technology architect.

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And this is User Friendly 2.0

I am your host Bill Sikkens

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Welcome Gretchen.

Bill to this week's show.

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Hello there. Hello.

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So we're going to be doing something

a little different this week I am out.

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As you're listening to this doing jet

suit training.

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And I will tell everybody

about how that goes when when I get back.

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But in line with that, we're going to be

recording a little bit ahead.

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And one of the things

we thought we would talk about

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is this weekend, as you're listening to

this actually is the Rose city Comic-Con.

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And this is an event

that we go to every year in Portland.

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It's a great event,

one that we have a lot of fun at, and

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it's going to be interesting to see

what's new

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and exciting this year,

and we will be covering that.

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But being that we've been doing this show

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to a lot of conventions over the years,

it might be kind of just talk about this

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a little bit, what's new,

what's old and that type of thing.

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And I think what I'd like to do

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is open this with last week

we talked a little bit, Bill,

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about your taking on the challenges

of being a professional Dungeon

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master game master

and some of what's going on with that.

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And you were talking about that.

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There's a convention

where you can actually pay and go, and

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the whole thing is just about gaming, and

there's obviously a cost for doing that.

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Tell us a little bit about that.

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Well, I mean, there's a lot of

gaming conventions nowadays.

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Like there's Rage

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con here in Reno, but, you know,

we were talking about Green Dragon Fest,

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which is based in a wonderful 40 acre,

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fantasy themed resort.

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Yeah.

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You showed the pictures to us.

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That was kind of cool.

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You're going to have to describe this.

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It's like.

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Yeah.

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The Shire.

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That's cool.

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So this is don't.

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And you just, you pay your entrance fee

and you just game for days, right?

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Yeah. It's like a three day event.

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And you set up so that you can, kind of

rank which DM you'd like to play under.

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And whatever game they're fronting,

you use what you run under. And,

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I know

tickets are pricey for this one, but,

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people do it, so.

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No, I mean, that seems like something

that certainly could be a lot of fun and

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events like this.

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I know this would obviously

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be different at different conventions,

but it's not all just

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Wizards of the coast, right?

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I mean, they do have other systems

and things.

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Oh, yeah. Coleco. Lou.

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Shadow. Dark. Dagger. Heart?

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Yeah.

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Shadowrun.

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I mean, there's

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a lot of different cyberpunk games,

so maybe I'll have to check into

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something like that

because, you know. Yeah.

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So I would think if, if you're paying

somebody like, a lot of money

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to play games, these,

these game masters must be amazing.

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So do they have like a vetting process

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or do they just let anybody

come off the street and do it.

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Oh I'm sure there's a vetting process,

especially for DragonCon.

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I know there's a vetting process for Rage

Con two,

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to see if you know what you're doing.

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General, it's a different process.

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Is this a vetting process for the players

or for the Dungeon Master?

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The Dungeon Masters? Okay.

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So yeah.

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So and, you know, and that's a question

that comes up every so often is

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if you have somebody like,

we're doing a game here every week,

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and some of our players are brand

new to tabletop role playing.

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So, you know,

there's been a bit of a learning curve.

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They're doing really well, but

it would seem like people are going to be

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concerned, you know,

if they've never done this before.

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Is it okay to go to something like that

or should they try to get involved in

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some other way?

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I would say make sure you want to,

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because it's like the cost

is going to be your biggest thing.

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Maybe a local scenario,

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a local game, online

game on rule 20 or foundry or something,

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or even pay for a one shot on

start playing games.

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So pay thing.

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That's where I work now, right

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along with here with the radio show.

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But, get to know that it's something

you want to be doing

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before you go to a convention like that,

because again,

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you're looking at some cons

or going to be 40 bucks for a day.

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Some cons, like Green Dragon Fest,

I believe was running

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like 200 bucks a day, right? Wow.

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So there's a definitely a difference

in the, you know, in the pocket book on

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those type of things. Now,

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the group you're working with just

just playing games.

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What was that again? I'm sorry. Bill.

Start playing games.

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Start playing games. Yes.

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Okay, so, that seems like

that'd be pretty straightforward.

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You sign up, you,

you know, do what you're doing.

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But something like rule 20 in foundry.

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Now, my experience with those platforms

has been kind of

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you're hosting a game for your friends.

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So there's a way to go on there

and just find a game.

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Oh, I know for sure there is. On rule 20.

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There is a looking for group

or looking for game scenario.

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That's how I found the group

that I'm with currently.

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On my personal games. Right.

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Was just random chance

that one of them posted a game

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and I was like, yeah, I'm interested,

and this is my character.

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And they were like, okay, come join me.

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Some of the stores run things like this.

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Or either it was like a club or a store.

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In we went to a,

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I think it was a, you know,

you know, a vegetable fest.

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I can't think of what that's called.

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Armor's market.

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Farmer's markets are vegetable,

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vegetable fest.

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You know,

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I struggle for those words

until I get the description.

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Getting a lot of images

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that would have been kind of interesting

to see, but veggie fast.

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Invite your vegetarian friends.

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Go vegan. Okay. Yeah.

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And then then all the meat people show up

and they have a battle.

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This sounds like LARPing.

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You know, this should be this could be

a very different version of it.

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All right, so the farmer's market.

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So we ran into some people who had like a,

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a pavilion or a tent,

and they were a gamers group.

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So I guess you can find

groups like this and play in person.

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Yes. I a snafu con

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and Belle FC, which are two conventions

I go to every year.

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They have game rooms

where you can go and just play a game,

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either okay, depending

what the DMs are running or whatever.

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Usually D and D or Pathfinder.

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Okay.

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So so

okay then this this whole LARPing thing

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in the game thing brought up a question.

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LARPs are people who put costumes on

and go running around.

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Do they have a dungeon master

that tells them what to do?

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Oh, to my understanding,

I have never myself,

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but I have seen enough stuff about it

that there is usually a master game

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storyteller

that is like telling the overall thing.

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And then there's smaller Dungeon Master's

or game masters that follow around groups

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as they do their things and do their

little battles or their little quests.

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So do they roll dice when they play,

or do you know?

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I don't know, but I don't think they do.

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Oh, okay.

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That's an interesting question.

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Something for anybody that doesn't know

LARPing is live action role playing,

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and it's

basically a version of role playing

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where usually you get into a costume

for your character and that type of thing.

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And a lot of people really get into that,

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and I could see where

that would be a lot of fun.

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But yeah, I, you know, be curious

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to find out how that actually works

because I don't know.

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Yeah.

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Because it's like, well, wouldn't

everybody want to win, you know. And

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yeah, I mean,

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so it's like,

how does it not turn into a real battle

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with people beating on each other with

sticks and swords and stuff, you know.

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Well, that's more like SCA,

but you know, who's to say it doesn't,

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right. No.

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But you know, the whole cosplay thing,

it really is a lot of fun.

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And we're talking about the top

that Rose city is this weekend.

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And we've all done this type of thing.

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And Gretchen, you have and Jeremy,

of course, kind of made

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a lot of the costumes that we used.

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And let's talk about that a little bit.

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Oh, it was a lot of fun.

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It started out with, I would have to say,

my love for Halloween.

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I liked Halloween,

and it was fun to get into a costume

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and go running around the neighborhood,

you know, getting people to give you

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candy.

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And, you know, that was fun,

but you only got to do it once a year.

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And so when I met Jeremy, it was like,

hey, there's a Star Trek convention.

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We can wear a costume. Oh,

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I get to

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wear a costume on a day

other than Halloween.

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Okay. That's fun. So.

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So I think it kind of started

with the old, Star Trek conventions.

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What were what was that brand name?

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Wow. Creation.

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Creation? Yeah.

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And supposedly you actually saw Jeremy

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and I go up on the stage

in our Star Trek costume.

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Yes, I did,

that was a year before we met, but.

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Yeah. Yeah. That's funny.

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This was back when all the stuff in Star

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Trek was still science fiction. And.

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Oh, yes, that's true.

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Everything's life has changed a lot.

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Oh no question.

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And then we got into other things.

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We got we were also in fencing,

Olympic style fencing,

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my husband and I,

and that was a lot of fun.

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And this woman shows up at our

our fencing practice and says,

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I want to put on a fair

and I'm hoping you guys will show up.

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Oh, okay.

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Well, I guess we could do demos. So.

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So she talked these Olympic

style fencers to wear,

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strange costumes.

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And trust me,

those were not great costumes.

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They were not historically accurate to

go off and and show people basic fencing.

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And that's how we sort of got into

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doing more

and more of the detailed costumes.

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Jeremy and I did a lot of research.

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I have a huge library of books

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of the different time

periods and the histories,

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and then when we kind of

got burned out on the ran

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fair stuff, because there was all

lots of strange politics that wasn't fun.

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And so we were like, well,

what do we do now?

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And kind of goes back to Jeremy's

love of comic books.

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And he brought me to a he brought me

to the Emerald City Comic-Con.

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Oh, she's like 20 or so years ago.

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And there was just the room that we went

to, pretty much only had comic books

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and some artists,

and he wanted to get the signature

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of one of his favorite artists

or comic book creators.

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I don't remember which.

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And so then we just started

thinking about, hey, that would be fun to

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do, dress up like characters from things

like Star Wars and stuff like that.

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And we talked you into it

by making you a Wookie costume.

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Yeah, like you twist my arm.

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Wasn't that hard to talk me into it,

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but yeah, it was the

the one thing I like about the Comic Con.

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I enjoyed doing the Renaissance

Renaissance Faire stuff, but you are

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locked into very specific things,

and there's a lot more room for expression

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with the comic book

and Comic-Con type costumes.

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I mean, you know,

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looking at some of the things

people come up with,

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they've got full on microcontrollers

in them and everything

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for lighting and movement

and all this stuff and oh yeah,

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yeah, if you're totally into technology,

you could.

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There was a guy who had a really nice Iron

Man costume,

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and I'm not talking about Richard

that showed up with the jet suit.

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I'm talking about just a guy in a costume.

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But it looks.

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I remember that. Yeah, it was really good.

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Yeah. And

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I remember motorized and it went up

and it was like talking to Tony Stark.

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He even looked like Tony Stark.

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I mean, it was really something.

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Yeah, that was great.

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And there was another guy, guy or gal,

I don't remember.

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They were dressed as Groot

and this was down in California

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and they had taken, I think, twisted

paper, twisted brown paper

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to make the wood grain of Groot.

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And I thought that was an amazing costume.

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What a creative,

clever idea to come up with.

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So yeah,

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and I know I could handle that line.

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Well, I think it's been taken by.

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What is it?

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Is it Vin Diesel or who who does that?

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I am Groot,

I, I don't know who does it, but it's,

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I know

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anybody has been following

a build of a power armor from fallout.

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It's going to be really nice

when they finally get that one rolling.

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Wow. Yeah. There's so much, so much to do.

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You know, I, I ask about this because

I need to do I want to do a new cosplay.

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I don't know what yet though.

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And I've been thinking

about some different things and,

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we, you know, because right now I,

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I have gotten myself

to be a little bit healthier

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and have lost a lot of weight

in recent years.

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But the problem that that's created, not

that it's a bad thing, but it has created

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a situation where none of my costumes

fit anymore properly.

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You need to bring me the Wookie suit

so I can make and shrink it.

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Yeah. In fact, that might happen tomorrow.

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But the the thing of it is,

with all of that is it

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would be kind of fun to do something new.

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And I have a lot more access

to electronics,

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and I even have a little C and C machine

now and the 3D printer and stuff.

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So it might be kind of fun

to try to do something different.

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First of all, would give me a reason

to learn how all this equipment works,

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which would be a good thing, but also,

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would be kind of fun to see, you know,

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where we could actually go

with all of that.

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And I don't know, you know,

I don't know what I want to do yet, but,

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it would be kind of fun

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to figure out something that was different

than what we've done in the past.

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Yeah. Maybe you should go as Mr. Freeze.

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Well, that might be an option.

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Could definitely do that.

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I need to get a glass bowl for my head.

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The the.

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Yeah, that

I think would be the toughest part.

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The dome.

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You know, the things that you

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warm to plastic

probably wouldn't be too hard.

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Yeah. Really?

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There's this whole idea informed.

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That's how you have to do it.

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I mean, you know,

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but you need a fan or something

to keep you from getting all sweaty.

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Having to breathe would be something

I'd want to work into this.

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Either that or get my cybernetics

to a point where I don't have to breathe.

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I'm open to either one of

those solutions. So you know.

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But see, that's all of the

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fun, I think of doing cosplay and building

costumes.

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Okay, we just talked about the helmet.

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Okay, you're going to get sweaty and hot,

or you might not even be able

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to breathe it all in there

after ten minutes.

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So you need some kind of ventilation.

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Yeah.

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This is

this is like good creative thinking.

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And I, I kind of think that we should be

encouraging our kids

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to think this way, solving problems,

coming up with creative ideas

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that they really want to do

and seeing if they can make it happen.

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You know, let's do that anymore.

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You have AI, just let it think for you.

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It's not going

to build the costume for you.

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It might tell you how,

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I don't know, but

you're going to have to do it yourself.

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Yeah.

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And you know, I say that sarcastically

because I know this is

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something that comes up a lot,

and certainly for some design help.

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But yeah, it's

something you would have to think through

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and do on your own

and figure out what you want to do.

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And, and,

you know, figure out some other things.

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One of the other issues

you could have with a mr.

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freeze type

costume is the helmet would fog up.

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I could see what I was talking about.

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Yeah, yeah,

that was what I was getting at.

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Not just the air,

but it's going to fog up.

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But if you put a fan in front

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of your mouth and a fan on the back,

it'll keep the airflow going.

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Yeah. And that would be a solution.

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You know, it's just,

and you sometimes have to get creative.

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I know in my, my first suit or my Wookie

suit, which is a fur suit, it,

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has a situation where it is very,

very hot.

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And, I found this stuff where you have

ice packs that goes in this vest,

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that goes under your suit,

and that actually helps.

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It's not perfect, makes it tolerable.

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Yeah.

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But you also have to realize that

if you were a professional costumer,

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you would have never have used female clay

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to create the structure of the head,

right, like I did.

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And so he has like so for our listeners,

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his mask is really heavy because I,

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I had to have

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like the shape of

a, like a skeleton to put the, the clay

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and build up the, the Wookie base

so that it would look like a Wookie.

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And so I didn't know about all of the foam

and some of the other amazing tools

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that are available to cause players

and people that go to these

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comic con,

you know, comic book conventions, right?

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Yeah.

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And that's,

you know, it's an interesting point.

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It kind of touched on this earlier

about Comic-Con and this type of thing.

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When you went and saw the artist

with Jeremy and the comic books.

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But there's a lot going

on, and it's not just comic books.

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I mean, I've been to conventions that are

comic cons that don't have comic books,

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so you run into a huge variety

of different things to cosplay,

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which is obviously a part that we enjoy.

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So that's a focus we have.

But there's other things.

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I've even found some of the retro video

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game carts and stuff like that

at Comic-Con.

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You know, for systems

I like that go back into the 80s.

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So you have that whole area of things

and, and, and the artists are amazing.

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You see stuff that you would not see

anywhere else in a positive way,

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where there are some people

that are just the amount of creativity

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they have is absolutely amazing

and not alone worth seeing, you know,

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I know hopefully they'll be back

at Rose city again this year.

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People that have old, old arcade games,

you know, the early stuff.

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Remember that from things

that they actually brought in.

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I think it was a 25 inch console

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television

that must have been made in the late 60s,

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early 70s, I think might have been vacuum

tubes and managed to get it working

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or running an old Nintendo on it,

you know.

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So that's something you see

at these type of events.

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Panels are another thing with topics that

just go all over the all over the board,

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you know, it's amazing. It really is.

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There have been a couple of times

we've been asked to do panels.

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Yeah.

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I'm not really sure

whether somebody would want to sit

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half an hour

listening to us yammer about whatever.

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There's been a lot of requests for it.

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The only reason we haven't done

it is because one of the things is,

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is that the comic Con component of it,

and it's something you got to think about

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with anything you do in life

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is something we've always done,

mainly because we enjoy it.

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We cover it for the show, and

it definitely is a work component of that.

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But when you start having stuff scheduled

and those type of things, it

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definitely changes the feeling

of what it is that you're doing, you know?

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And Bill, I think

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you're going to probably experience

that getting into paid,

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doing that, there's

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probably going to be a difference,

I would think, between that

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and when you just do a do a game

for your friends, you know.

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Oh yeah.

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No, it's it's

definitely a professionalism step up.

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I mean I, I throw the best in

I can for my friends, but

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people who are paying

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I'm not suggesting otherwise,

but I'm just saying

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that there is a difference

between those two things.

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And, and it would be the same thing

with this kind of stuff.

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And I'm not saying

that we're never going to do a panel.

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We will eventually, probably. But,

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you know,

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that's a big part of why

we actually haven't to this point.

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Yeah.

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When when it came to the costumes,

people had often asked Jeremy and I,

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why don't you guys make costumes

and sell them?

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Because it wouldn't be fun anymore.

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Yeah, yeah.

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You know, that's what we

we wanted to maintain the joy

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of making the costumes,

and it was more enjoyable to help

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somebody build their own costumes

than get paid to build it for them.

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Yeah, yeah.

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And not saying it's a bad thing to do it,

but it definitely changes

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what you're dealing with to.

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And the other thing too,

it's like I get asked this to on the retro

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electronics, can I pay you to change

all the capacitors on my board?

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Or, you know, something

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that's a request that comes in

all the time, but stuff like that.

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And I usually so far I've always said no.

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And it's for two reasons.

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Number one, when I do stuff like that,

I do it because I like to do it.

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And number two, I don't want to risk

damaging somebody else's stuff.

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You know,

they're expecting a professional outcome,

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which would be the case.

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But there's so many variants

on these type of things and electronics

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being one of them.

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But I, Gretchen,

and maybe you can speak to this,

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I would think costumes

would have the same kind of idea.

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Oh yeah. If you screw up a

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the minute

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you're labeling yourself

as a professional,

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that that zipper better be laying perfect.

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That same better be perfect.

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And, yeah.

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And then they're going

to get all picky. And,

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I don't know if I can use that word

on on the radio.

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We know what you mean. Yeah.

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Extra grumpy about things not

being perfect because they're paying you.

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Right.

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And and I've actually found that

when people

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made their own costume,

they appreciated it more.

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It's just when I lent somebody

a costume of mine to where

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I would find it laying on the floor,

on the ground, in the tent.

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And I was mad because it was like,

why didn't you throw

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my costume on the floor like that?

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Yes, I know it.

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You know it.

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Yeah.

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It's like now and some of us find out

that they're totally inept.

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I mean, when I first got into this,

you had me make my shirt.

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Yeah, but, you know,

it stayed together about an hour.

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Yeah,

but it had a very authentic look to it.

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Looked like you'd been in battle.

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Yeah, I think I was in battle

making that thing, but anyway.

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And I figured out

that sewing is not something that I have

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DNA for, but others do.

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But the thing of it is, is that it

was, you know, it was interesting.

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I'm glad I did it.

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I did appreciate having the experience

to see what that process was like,

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and to learn

that I would never be doing it again. So.

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No, but it's you know, it's interesting

to see where all this goes.

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So it's it's a lot of fun.

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I want to start

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seeing some comic cons again

the last few years,

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just since Covid and life

and some of the changes have been going

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on, we've been primarily doing stuff

locally.

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I'd like to get

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maybe see some of the stuff

that's going on in a little wider birth.

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I also wouldn't mind getting

to some of the other conventions, like

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I have never, never actually personally

attended a role playing convention.

469

And, you know,

so I think that would be something

470

that would be really kind of cool

to see how that actually plays out

471

and jump into some games and see what,

you know, what the life of that is.

472

So let us know about your conventions.

User friendly dot show.

473

Have you gone to these?

474

What do you think? Do you like them?

Do you dislike them? Let us know.

475

This is user friendly 2.0.

We'll be back after the break.

476

He's from the future.

477

He's got a really big computer

478

and he uses it uses it every day.

479

And he uses it.

480

Uses it in every way.

481

What to use it for?

482

You know, I'm not that show

because he's just he's just walking back.

483

This is user friendly 2.0.

Send us your questions.

484

Send us your comments.

485

That user friendly dot show it is your one

stop for letting us know what you think,

486

what you'd like to have us cover,

and the ability to play back old episodes.

487

One note on

this is we've been having some issues

488

that if you go to your smart speaker

489

and ask to play user friendly,

you might get the wrong one.

490

So make sure it's user friendly 2.0

the real one, and be sure you get it.

491

You can go to our website user friendly

dot show.

492

All right.

493

Well, as we talked about in the beginning,

today is the day that we answer

494

your questions.

495

So I guess we need some questions.

496

What is crowdfunding.

497

All right.

498

So if this sounds familiar

because you listen to our previous

499

Q&A, it is this is the next question

we actually talked about there.

500

But we've had a lot

of additional questions coming in on this.

501

And I think it's because of

some of the things that are going on.

502

And the answer to the question

of what is crowdfunding is basically

503

these are platforms,

and there are different ones

504

of varying degrees of suitability

to where you can have

505

something like a project, or you're trying

to raise money for an event, or even

506

some people are trying to raise money

for their next vacation.

507

These different type of things

go out there and you can put up a project,

508

and you hope that people

will support your project.

509

So in the ones that are dealing with

manufacturing some new kind of product

510

or service

or that type of thing, these ones are

511

interesting because most of the time

they work out pretty well,

512

but we can all tell stories,

which we will in a minute

513

here of sometimes where they don't.

514

So when you put up money

for a given reward, it's important to know

515

that is not guaranteed

by doing the stock market.

516

Yeah.

517

Kind of. I guess that would be

an interesting comparison

518

because you could lose your money.

Yeah, yeah.

519

Well what happens a lot of the times is

I have this great project,

520

things like I'm going to make a movie

or I'm going to make a triple

521

A video game for $50,000,

that kind of stuff.

522

So when looking at these things,

you want to check it out

523

to make sure that you don't get scammed.

524

And there's been a lot of times

where has gone out.

525

They've raised money

and then they don't provide the award.

526

Now, fortunately,

this is not the majority.

527

Most of the crowdfunding stuff

on reputable platforms funds into

528

independent developers

and things like that that wouldn't

529

otherwise

be able to get their product to market.

530

And I've seen some really cool things

with that.

531

But that's basically what this is.

532

And what crowdfunding is.

533

Is there a

534

difference between crowdfunding sites?

535

The short answer is yes.

536

And a big, big yes on that.

537

So the biggest one probably is

Kickstarter.

538

It's the oldest one that is operating

that's considered reputable.

539

And they're a site that actually,

as far as these things go, is pretty good.

540

It's still possible

to not get what you're supposed to get,

541

but they do disclose right on top of it

if you're not guaranteed anything.

542

And the other thing they do is tend to

543

watch for scams and take them down

and are pretty good about that.

544

I think the next one would begin to go go,

which is a little less in that context.

545

They do watch for scams

and take them down,

546

but they have a unique thing

547

called flex funding

that does not exist on Kickstarter.

548

So basically on most platforms

you set a goal.

549

I want to raise $50,000

for doing whatever project.

550

If you raise the money, you get it.

551

If you don't raise the money,

you don't get it

552

because you wouldn't have been funded.

553

So what flex funding is,

is whatever amount of money

554

they happen to raise, they still get it

whether or not they hit their goal.

555

And you could see where

that could be problematic,

556

because if you don't have enough

to do your project, well, you know,

557

so you want to watch for that.

558

Then there's a number of other sites

out there, some good, some not so good.

559

And I've even seen ones where a company

has decided that they want to raise money

560

for something they're not allowed, for

whatever reason, on the bigger platform.

561

So they create their own

crowdsourcing site that looks like it.

562

But you want to check those out,

563

because if that's the only project on that

site, that's probably a red flag.

564

Yeah, I think

565

Kickstarter and Backer kit

are the two that I really appreciate.

566

Yeah.

567

What was the second one factor, kid?

568

Okay,

that's not what I've used, but yeah okay.

569

Yeah.

570

And you can get a list of these

571

and ratings like anything else

just by searching for them.

572

But check it out and do a little bit of

research and do research on the project.

573

So one of the other things you can

look at to is

574

is the person that's got the project up.

575

Have they ever successfully

had a funding project?

576

Have they backed anything else?

577

Check out social media,

look at if a website is provided.

578

Is all of the images on their

AI generated?

579

That's a red flag.

580

You know, you want to just make sure

that it feels like they're actually trying

581

to accomplish something

and not just walk away with your money.

582

How to

stop chat for ruining how you think.

583

Yeah, so we talked about this

a little bit earlier.

584

Yeah,

we talked a little bit about this segment.

585

And that's not formed as a question.

586

So that wouldn't have worked on jeopardy.

587

But you know

588

deep diving is like we said before,

you got to think of it like a tool.

589

And like anything else, you

590

trust it

to the extent of what it's supposed to do.

591

But you are the person in charge.

592

You drive the project,

you ask it for what you want it to do,

593

but you don't ask it to do it for you.

594

And these are two different things.

595

And like we were talking about

596

in the first segment, this is something

that's becoming a problem because AI

597

is something

that it's the first real technology

598

that's gone mainstream

that can actually do enough

599

to work and replace

your need to think about things.

600

And we told some of the stories in the

first segment on what we've run into this.

601

But just, you know, to kind of

602

sum it up again, because we get

a lot of questions on this is

603

ask AI what you want to do.

604

It's an amazing tool.

605

See what answers

it gives you. Check the answers.

606

Make sure the information is correct.

607

They do hallucinate sometimes, and don't

608

expect it to be able to do your project

for you and have it be successful.

609

And as far as things like artwork

generation, that type of stuff goes.

610

I use it to generate a picture of my role

playing character.

611

I have no problem with that.

612

I do not use it to generate something

I'm going to publish.

613

For one thing, having human designers

614

do that,

you're going to get a better product,

615

you're going to be able to work with it

better.

616

And the other part of it

is, is it's not fake, you know?

617

All right.

618

I have an old arcade game called gyrus.

619

Should I fix it?

620

There is no video

or turn it into a multi game machine

621

okay.

622

So in my opinion

623

if you convert that to anything else,

the arcade God's will come and smite you

624

is one of the best in my opinion

625

and most beautiful early arcade games.

626

It uses chiptune.

627

It's been considered one of the best ones

for the music that goes along with it.

628

I would love to find a gyrus myself,

or a little bit difficult to come up with.

629

And this type of a cabinet

you would want to fix.

630

So 10,000ft answer to this is basically

there are some games out there

631

that are not collectible

and you know, they break down,

632

you convert them into something else,

633

and you can put a Raspberry

Pi or something like that in it

634

and be able to run ROMs

and have it be a lot of different games,

635

and there are appropriate times

to use something like that,

636

but you would want to check out

what the original game is

637

and also what's wrong with it if there's

no video and it's playing headless

638

so you can hear the audio

and everything else seems to be working,

639

that means your game board is good

640

and there's something wrong

with the monitor in this type of a game.

641

And I don't like to do this

unless I have to, but

642

a lot of the crease are dying on us now,

and this is a very common problem to have.

643

So maybe look at going ahead

and replacing that part of it

644

with something modern,

like a LCD LED screen.

645

You can get these for a couple

hundred bucks and they drop right in

646

and makes the cabinet lighter

and that type of a thing.

647

But the other thing to consider is

if you really do want to keep it

648

original, is do at least diagnose

what's wrong with it.

649

Because really, even with CRT,

650

as long as the tube

and the flyback are still good,

651

you can probably repair it and have it

still work as the way it originally was.

652

So it's just depending on the condition

and what you're dealing with at the time.

653

But this is one where you would

drastically limit the value of what it is

654

if you were to convert it.

655

It's like the same thing

with a lot of the original classics.

656

Let's say you got a Wizard of War,

and if you converted that,

657

you probably need to not do anything

with video games ever again.

658

In my opinion,

659

that's an extremely valuable one.

660

Again,

that is worth a lot more as the game

661

than what it is

is if you were to try to convert it over.

662

Now, this is a callback to a news article

663

we had before you talked about X-Box

laying off thousands of employees.

664

Is Xbox being phased out?

665

Yeah. Good question.

666

We've had a lot of different

variations of this that have come in.

667

This kind of summing it all up.

668

Is X-Box in trouble or, you know,

is it going down?

669

Is Microsoft going to drop the project?

670

All of these type of things, they are

definitely changing what they're doing.

671

But in my opinion,

672

from everything I've seen on this,

I don't think it's a bad thing.

673

They're consolidating some stuff.

674

Back in the last ten years, they bought

a lot of independent game studios

675

and tried to make them work together,

which is not something

676

that's easy to do without changing

the concept of how the studio worked.

677

And if you try to do that,

then why buy the studio?

678

Just set up what you want

under your own umbrella.

679

Blizzard Activision is one of the bigger

ones that was purchased by Microsoft.

680

There are a number of other ones out there

that they are starting to spin off

681

back in the independent studios again,

because this hasn't worked very well

682

or shut them down or whatever

the case may be.

683

But in the case of Microsoft,

it seems like they are selling that IP

684

and not just trashing it,

which is, in my opinion, a good thing.

685

But at the end of the day,

I think what's going to happen

686

here is we're seeing the consoles and

regular computers now getting to a point

687

where they are pretty much equivalent

in what they can do.

688

Game consoles are unique in the standpoint

that you develop software

689

specifically for them.

You know it runs on that platform.

690

You don't have to worry about

making it compatible with other things.

691

So there are still advantages

in that area.

692

But on the flip side of it, you now

have your computers plugged into HDMI.

693

They can do the same video output,

that kind of thing.

694

But the second part of it

695

that I think still makes consoles

relevant is also the price

696

to get a good gaming machine.

697

It's going to cost you a bill.

698

Correct me if I'm wrong on this.

699

At least $3,000 more and 1500

700

because you know your video card alone,

if for a good one, could be that much.

701

Yeah,

702

and your video game consoles are you know,

they've gotten more expensive roughly.

703

I don't know what, around about $500 now,

give or take, depending on what it is.

704

Projections have them going up to 1000

for the next gen.

705

But I've seen that.

706

Yeah, yeah.

707

Who knows.

708

So that even starts

to put it closer to a full computer.

709

But there still is a bit of a difference.

710

And I think there's also something

to be said that you turn the console on,

711

it does what it's supposed to do,

712

and you don't have the problems

that can be associated

713

with running a PC and trying to get it,

you know, to work with different things.

714

So our console is still relevant? Yes.

715

If something happens

that we will be talking about in depth

716

at a later time, like Sony really did

do away with all of their physical media

717

now built this. Okay.

718

So for anybody that hasn't heard,

there was an announcement

719

made in the news by Sony

that they're going to doing physical media

720

of any kind by 2028, that would mean

721

that the next generation of PlayStation

would not have a media drive.

722

Right now. You have that choice.

You wouldn't have it anymore.

723

But, Bill, you said

there's been a lot of pushback on that.

724

I think, yes,

a lot of people were boycotting

725

and dropping their PlayStation plus ships.

726

And so Sony's walking back a little bit.

727

But I don't know.

728

It's it's

a complicated thing about physical media.

729

I think we have another question later

on about that.

730

Yeah, yeah,

we'll get into that in some more depth.

731

But and I've done a 180 on my belief

in that too.

732

So anyway,

but I don't think Xbox is going away.

733

I think what they're doing is actually

going to make it more streamlined.

734

I think we're going to see focusing them

able to focus on specific games

735

and make them better,

instead of being all over the place,

736

and let the independent studios

also produce for the platform

737

and focus on what they're good at.

738

So I do see this kind of down the road

probably being a good thing.

739

All right.

740

Is Ukraine really using video

games to train drone operators?

741

Yeah.

742

So we did a

743

we did a story on this recently

and we've had a lot of questions come in.

744

And the question answer to

that is basically yes.

745

Now there's two different things

going on here.

746

There is software that's being used

to actually train the drone operators.

747

And then there's a game

you can get from steam

748

called the Ukraine Flight Drone

Simulator, about 30 bucks.

749

And you can learn how to fly a drone

and what it's like to do it

750

with real video footage

and some other things.

751

I would imagine that some of the more

752

clandestine things that they use

are taken out of the software.

753

At least I sure hope it is,

754

because you can imagine the enemy

is probably going to play this game to.

755

Oh yeah, so far, Russia hasn't

been able to fly drones pretty well.

756

So, you know, hopefully

they won't learn too well from this.

757

But anyway,

758

you know, if I was Ukraine,

I'd put a few things in the simulator

759

that if you flew a real drone that way

it would create bad things happening.

760

So, you know, hopefully

that's where that went with that.

761

But in any event,

that's just an opinion of mine.

762

The game itself, I've tried

it is really good.

763

It is a lot of fun. It's very realistic.

764

You know, along the lines

of like Call of Duty and things,

765

because there's actual video

from real drone missions in it,

766

and the way that it operates

is basically the same way.

767

I'm going to see if I can interface

the controller for my drone

768

into the computer over Bluetooth,

because then I'd have the actual controls.

769

I don't know if that's going to work.

770

I will let you know if it does,

771

but I do recommend the game

if you're into this kind of thing.

772

It's actually a lot of fun.

773

Well, don't they run a lot of like,

774

simulators for things like,

aircraft pilots now? And.

775

Oh, yeah, my eldest stepson

did it for his driving tests or something.

776

Hopefully he didn't

learn on pole position, but anyway.

777

No, the.

778

No simulators because of the fact

779

that virtual reality

and even computers are like real reality.

780

Now to a point, flight

sims have been out there.

781

I mean, you can get Microsoft

Flight Simulator for your Atari 130 XY.

782

That's nothing new.

783

And these things

have been used all over the place.

784

The military even uses some of the, like,

Call of Duty type games

785

for training their soldiers.

786

So the idea that this is a new idea.

787

No, but I have not seen another drone

simulator.

788

I think it is a first for that.

789

Is it possible to turn off

790

the monitor that is sending information

to my vehicles manufacturer?

791

Yeah, again, a lot of questions

came in from this story,

792

which was a few weeks back,

maybe a few months back now.

793

But so the kind of starting point of this,

794

if you're not aware of it,

is pretty much all.

795

I'm not going to say all because there's

probably a holdout somewhere.

796

But pretty much all new vehicles

have something called telematics

797

or a variation of that.

798

And basically what that is, is

there's a cellular module in the car

799

somewhere that's sending information

back to the manufacturer

800

on how you drive, where you go,

all of these different type of things.

801

That information in turn, by

a lot of manufacturers is being resold

802

to third parties.

803

And this has created some controversy

and some problems.

804

As you can imagine, one of the big ones

is, is when your insurance goes up.

805

Well, I haven't had an accident.

806

I haven't had any kind of tickets.

807

Yeah,

but the information your car told us on

808

how you were driving

makes us think you're a higher risk.

809

And that's exactly

what's going to hurt your car into a narc.

810

It turns it into an arc.

811

And the other part of it, too, is

if the manufacturer is selling

812

my information, I should be paid for that

or have the opportunity to opt out.

813

You don't.

814

You? You know,

815

there's no way to go into the software

and turn it off.

816

And I frankly, in my opinion,

even if that was a thing, I don't think

817

I trust it.

818

So well,

I would also question some of these these

819

telematics.

820

Is that what you were calling them?

821

The thing is, is

what if you are driving in an area

822

where you have to be aggressive

to protect yourself and your car,

823

and since they're not there,

they're not going to understand

824

maybe an acceleration, a d acceleration

825

that was quick or, or,

or a shift left or right.

826

They don't know what's going on.

827

So they're making assumptions

that might be unfair.

828

And that's a very big thing.

829

Just a real quick

aside on that for our commercial vehicles

830

we have progressive insurance

and we use snapshot.

831

It gives you quite a bit of a discount,

but it's the same idea.

832

It monitors how you drive.

833

Now the big difference here is

this is optional.

834

I can pay more money

and not use snapshots.

835

So it does make a difference.

836

But yeah, if you have a say

where you're hard braking

837

because the guy in front of

you came to a dead stop, well, yeah.

838

Heartbreaking.

839

Something that would

create an issue with this.

840

But if you didn't do it would have gone

into the back of the car.

841

Yeah.

842

There are times where now I will say

progressive also has built into the system

843

a certain amount of these things

that they consider to be real world.

844

It's going to happen

and it doesn't count against you.

845

Now, if you did it a lot,

then you might start to have a problem.

846

So there is a kind of a variant for that.

847

But in answer to this question and again

this show is for entertainment

848

purposes only.

849

I am not recommending you do this, but

you can go online and find instructions

850

on how to physically disconnect the box

from your car in most cases.

851

But if you damage your vehicle

and it can cause warranty problems

852

and that kind of stuff,

853

that is an issue now on vehicles like four

and a few others, it's very easy.

854

It's just a matter of disconnecting

a few wires and you can go online.

855

Toyota as an example,

has made this more difficult,

856

but if you disconnect the box,

it also takes out this.

857

I think it's the right front speaker

and the window on the right front door.

858

So you would have to know

how to put a bypass circuit.

859

Now there's instructions on

how to do that on line two.

860

What about the Teslas?

861

Does the car just die?

862

I am not going to comment on that

because I think if you tried to bypass.

863

Yeah, I'm not.

864

I have a funny feeling

that Tesla police would show up

865

while you're starting to do that

and you're messing with the computer.

866

This is now, you know,

I don't know, but, yeah, I, I,

867

I have not seen a way to do that

on a Tesla.

868

And, Gretchen, I think you're right.

I don't think it would run.

869

Yeah.

870

Just die.

871

Oh. Okay.

872

Here's our next question.

873

What is happening with physical media?

874

Yeah.

875

So we started to talk about this

when we were talking about X-Box

876

a little bit, and we're going to deep dive

into this further.

877

So again, we started to comment

on the idea that Sony had come up

878

with a statement that they're going

879

And Bill, like you said earlier,

880

there's been such a pushback

that they may not do that now.

881

But the thing of it is with this

882

is I like digital content

883

because I can use it anywhere I go,

so I don't have to bring the CD with me.

884

I don't, you know, that kind of a thing.

885

If I'm watching a movie,

I can switch the televisions it's on.

886

But where I have really changed

my opinion on

887

this is because of the fact

that in recent years, number one,

888

a lot of the platforms that were writing

this have gone away.

889

And what you paid for, you no longer have

access to think Redbox as a, for example.

890

And there are other.

891

The second part of

it too is with modern equipment,

892

you can get a physical copy of something,

893

rip it or copy it off, or whatever

the case may be.

894

I am not speaking to the legality on that,

but I'm just speaking

895

to the technical possibility of it.

896

But on a central server,

I use a Plex server that runs on a device

897

I have here, and I can still have

the best of both worlds.

898

But the thing of it

is, is the physical disc or cartridge

899

or whatever it is, is something

that you can hold in your hand.

900

You can resell it if you want to.

901

You can hang it from your rearview mirror

or in your car if you want to.

902

The point of it is that something physical

that you have that is,

903

I don't know,

quantifiable digital content.

904

And again comment

905

if there's our are exceptions to this

I haven't been able to find any.

906

And Bill you might be able to talk about

this a little bit more than I can.

907

But my understanding is once you download

digital content, you can't resell it.

908

Is that accurate?

909

Right? Okay.

910

So you buy a game

911

if you get it on physical media,

which by the way,

912

it costs about the same amount

as digital content.

913

Now to I've noticed that.

914

And you play it and you don't like it

or you're bored with it.

915

You can throw it on eBay, whatever.

916

Take it to GameStop or whatever

you want to do with it.

917

But the digital one that costs the same

amount you can't do anything with.

918

And Bill, again,

maybe you can speak to this.

919

What happens if your console breaks down?

920

Are you able to sign in to the account

and redownload it, or is it

921

even locked out from that

922

in the game?

923

In gaming systems, yes, you can usually

redownload it because it's countdown.

924

Okay, but if I wanted to take my game

to your house and play it, I couldn't.

925

I mean, if

926

if you signed in your account,

I believe you can.

927

Okay.

928

And would that be a challenge on a or

or the consoles designed to do that?

929

PlayStation is

I don't know about the others.

930

No. But even so,

you're still locked into it.

931

And it is definitely,

932

I don't know,

I like having the physical discs.

933

They take up space and all the rest of it.

But I agree with you.

934

I, I have DVDs and CDs

and I don't want to make them go away.

935

And I've made a USB drive that I put

in the car with the songs I like.

936

And I also subscribe to Amazon Music,

so I do stream it.

937

It's not that I'm

against digital platforms,

938

but it is becoming something

where it gives, it takes away

939

your control of things that you're paying

for, and to me, that's a problem.

940

I think it depends on

the media is CDs and music and movies.

941

I think physical media is very important

942

because these streaming services and stuff

will just take it away and it's gone.

943

Right.

944

In those medias, though,

945

you are allowed to make digital copies.

946

If I'm not mistaken, by American law.

947

Yeah, right.

948

Other countries into the law.

949

But I think you are right from a

layman's perspective, you have some right.

950

Under the Millennium

Digital Copyright Act, make a backup copy.

951

Essentially. Correct.

952

Video games I have a different opinion on

953

because the.

954

Registrations and stuff like,

955

basically,

even if you have a physical copy,

956

they could take away your ability

to upgrade it or update it.

957

And you're an actual rights,

your digital rights media

958

or DRM.

959

It's a it has happened

where there are physical discs

960

of a game that you cannot play

because they've just taken away for it.

961

Right. So it doesn't matter.

962

It doesn't matter

that you have a physical copy of it.

963

And, you know, I think

I think the lady's changed for that.

964

But yeah,

I think the point to speak to on that too

965

is if you have a online game, eventually

the servers are going to go away.

966

It's not an if it's a win. Yeah.

967

And then it will disable the game.

968

But I know James, who does the vault

had purchased the game to review.

969

It was terrible, but we couldn't resell it

because it was a digital game, you know?

970

And in that case, having the disc

would have been a good thing.

971

But a lot of software,

you have the situation.

972

This has always been the thing

where you activate it

973

and you might not be able to activate it

again, that kind of thing.

974

And you know all of that.

975

So like you say, Bill,

digital rights management plays into it.

976

And the other thing of it is, is

I've noticed a lot of games where you do

977

get the disc,

978

all the disc does is create an entry point

to download the software online anyway.

979

Yeah. You know, so,

980

which is another

whole topic and another whole story.

981

We should dive into that

one of these days. So anyway.

982

All right.

983

Well, we're out of time for our questions,

believe it or not.

984

So I will leave you with this user

friendly dot show.

985

Like we said at the top

is the place to send in your questions.

986

We'd love to get them.

987

We love to answer them

because this is a big part of how

988

we do our programing, and we love to see

what you like us to cover.

989

Let us know what we should dig into more

and let us know!

990

You know what

you're not too worried about.

991

So until next week, this is User Friendly

2.0, keeping you safe on the cutting edge.

992

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993

Copyright 2013 to 2026

994

by User Friendly Media Group incorporated.

995

All rights reserved.

996

The content is the opinion

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997

and does not necessarily

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998

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999

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