AggroCast Resurrected: Episode One

Transcription

It’s alive…

It’s alive…

It’s alive…

It’s alive…

It’s alive…!

AggroCats RESURRECTED!!!

Ray Bruels: Welcome to the Aggrocast! This is Ray Bruels and sitting across from me is David Hades Becker and we’re going to talk today about the resurrection of Aggrocast and a momentous occasion. This is the 15th anniversary for David.

David Hades Becker: It is definitely 15 years I’ve been working on the site and went from just a basic writer all the way up to chief editor and owner of the whole company now.

RB: And out of that 15 year experience, what would you say is kind of your crowning achievement?

DHB: Oof… I don’t know if I can name just one crowning achievement. There’s been so many. I mean, pretty much any time I get invited out to go do like a specific press event or like a very exclusive thing, that always seems like the next crowning achievement. So it just keeps going. Like, if I had to go with one more recent, flying helicopters over Las Vegas for a mobile game company.

RB: I have to say that I was quite jealous of that. The pictures you showed us were amazing. So how about we dig into what Aggrocast was?

DHB: Well, Aggrocast originally, and it’s been almost 13 years now since the last one aired, it started out as a small little, I believe it was called Total Meltdown before on Pwned.com. And it was done by Mike Camacho and a couple of the other guys that were working for the site. It was just a way to rapid fire some of the news out there, quick updates. And that was even before we had the actual written news articles or even the YouTube and video stuff we did. And then that progressed into where Brian Bentley, Binh Nguyen, and Corey Dockendorf took over. And they did kind of like a Last Week Tonight kind of thing where it was, they would just go over everything we just went, I saw for that week or a couple of weeks, depending on what was going on and just recap what we didn’t cover on the site.

RB: So there’s a lot of content.

DHB: There is, yes. I believe we got up to 79 (102) episodes before all the other talent had to go off and do their own thing and progress to do their own stuff.

RB: So what encouraged you to move forward on bringing this back?

DHB: Well, I’ve always been trying to get an easier way to get the content out to people. I also know attention spans are a lot shorter. People don’t have the time to read things. I joke about it quite often in my articles that people probably just skip over my writing right to the trailer or whatever, a little video tidbit or whatever. I figured this would be an easier way for people to digest the information and get those news. And also, we can put out, I guess, give people our actual excitement of stuff we’ve gone and seen and done as media, press and all that stuff.

RB: AggroGamer.com, it has been primarily focused on video games and new releases. But I know that you’ve got a vision for what you want to see AggroGamer head towards in the future. Could you tell us about that?

DHB: Yeah. So to reiterate what you just said, originally, yes, we were focused primarily only on video games. And that was one of the calls way back when I was a writer. They didn’t want to touch anything else. And I’ve always been a proponent of what about all things gaming or even like anything that’s interactive? Because video games is just interactive media. Same thing like tabletop games, escape rooms, all that kind of stuff is just experiences. And I’ve kind of always wanted to move into that, not to mention some of the pop culture stuff that seeps in as well, because you have people who build dynamic experiences. Based on certain IPs. And most of those don’t even touch any of the gaming sphere, like even tabletop board games or anything like that. But they dive in and use some of these to give people those kind of real life video game or board game experiences. So it’s kind of like branching out and covering all of that at the same time. Which I know it sounds like a massive undertaking, but.

RB: And part of it’s when podcasts or even with websites, you have to find your niche. And it seems like a lot, but I would also imagine that as you progress forward on this, that you’re gonna drill down in certain places when you find that juicy bit.

DHB: Oh yeah, I mean, I do it all the time when I find the juicy bits, specifically for video games. That’s always been my passion since I was a young child. I will always drill down, and most of it’s even on just like game theory and general design as well, and how to push the genres forward and the industry forward. But then there’s also, I have all the other hobbies of tabletop and board games as well. So finding those little niches, like I have a feeling come this June, as soon as the Marvel Zombies board game comes out, I’m probably gonna dive into that and cover every little thing on that.

RB: Yeah, we both kicked into that because it was just amazing.

DHB: Yes.

RB: And I remember us when we went to SDCC this last year, we got to see some of the models and holy smokes, they were awesome.

DHB: Yeah, not only the models just for that one, but all the other branches that came off of their successful Kickstarter for Marvel Zombies. The boys, they had He-Man, they had like all these different versions that were not part of the Marvel set, but it was like, you could see how they were building upon a lot, and not just gonna build on top of the, I think it was the basic game of Zombicide.

RB: Yeah. Yeah, so that it I completely agree that we’re gonna have we’re gonna probably have to do some coverage and we talked about possibly doing that as well with doing some playtests of board games and and even some tabletop games because I know that… Hi, I’m tabletop-RPG-Correspondent, I know that I want to get into doing some playtests and really dive into that material and I know we’ve got a couple of friends that are interested in helping us along the way with that as well. So, Tabletop, RPGs, the traditional video game coverage, board games, LARP…

DHB: We’ve had a few LARPs on there before. I think I’ve covered some of the Dystopia Rising. Julia has covered… I’m gonna butcher the name… I think it’s like black bear something (Black Shield Productions) that happens where they do one weekend a month type LARP. It’s a fantasy thing. We’ve been trying to cover some of that as well because those kind of build into these interactive experiences that, you know, I guess the love of video games always just seem to branch out into.

RB: That’s great. So, what do you what do you see going forward for the rest of 2023 in terms of aggro gamer? I know you were looking at E3. Is the next is that your next outing?

DHB: E3 is… currently yes, it should be the next. Well, it should be the next big outing that I have planned. There’s always little things that get mixed in here and there. Then after that obviously SDCC and then I’m trying to get in to do more of the immersive experiences for like the Halloween time. So like Horror Nights, Not Scary Farm, all that kind of stuff to kind of work our way into looking into like how they built them, not just the haunts, but any of the other stuff that’s going on. Like I know there’s the new IT Escape Room that they’re building down here. That’s not gonna be just an escape room, but a whole experience that you can go into around the IP.

RB: Being in Las Vegas, there’s a ton of escape rooms. And then there was the talk of the Universal Halloween Nights year round attraction that they were opening up.

DHB: Correct, yeah.

RB: So that’s over by area 15.

DHB: Area 15, where they also have the Meow Wolf Omega Mart. Which is a whole interactive experience. And I know people that have gone in there, they think it’s just an art exhibit, but there’s like for an extra $2, you get this entire immersive video game thing, which is what caught me the first time as I walked in and I was able to start hacking computer screens and all that stuff. And there was just something built on top of it that most people miss out on.

RB: That’s awesome. So it sounds like really fun stuff ahead for AggroGamer. And then of course the Aggrocast with covering a lot of topics. And how are those topics gonna generally be picked? Are you just gonna kind of pull from a hat or?

DHB: As far as the Aggrocast goes, it’s probably gonna be some of the stuff that’s kind of in the, not really, I don’t wanna use the word zeitgeist, but the things that seem more important to the gamers. Like I know you did an article based on the new OGL for D&D. So things like that, so we can actually discuss and bring that kind of topics back in. As well as other things that are getting hyped up or shady things that are going on. Which is gonna date this podcast. Literally today they announced the release date for Starfield, but then they’re gonna do a massive reveal for it the day before E3 starts. So it feels like the PR and marketing team are trying to give a middle finger to the E3 event. Which is weird. It’s topics like that that I wanna kind of find and cover as well.

RB: Well, and I think that there are gonna be some topics that are almost timeless, because you and I have discussed even like the Hogwarts legacy and some of the stuff about that, how there’s a lot of publicity and negative attention because of J.K. Rowling and some of her comments in regards to turf and that sort of thing.

DHB: Yeah, there’s that one and then Atomic Heart. Which just recently came out, made by a Russian company and it’s kind of promoting capitalism, even though it came out of a Ukrainian developer. So there’s a whole lot of controversy around that and even though people wanna support them, it’s kind of a similar thing. They wanna support the developers, but they don’t wanna support the war that’s going on, stuff like that. So those topics are always gonna keep coming up.

RB: Okay, so we’ve talked about the fact that this is your 15th year anniversary, that you are the head editor for Aggrogamer.com and you are quite prolific. You’ve kind of been a one-man show for a while, just pumping out content.

DHB: Yes, it’s… been mostly me for quite a while. I know you’ve added in there, Julia’s added in there, Jana has added in there every now and then. We kind of have a good collaboration where I want to keep content flowing, but I also don’t want to like force everybody to sit there and churn out content, because I know we all have our own lives as well. And I can keep everything rolling as well as I can and just take what everybody wants to give every now and then.

RB: Well, and for you, it seems like this has truly been a passion project. You spoke about video games in your childhood, and it just seems like that’s been kind of a mainstay for you throughout your adult life. So this is kind of an evolution of that time as a child playing video games.

DHB: Yeah, exactly. I remember when I was a kid, I was always thinking like, oh, I could write in Nintendo Power or Game Informer or whatever the little magazines were at the time, and this is kind of my way of fulfilling that childhood dream. As well as I get to sit around and tell people I play video games for a living. So that’s kind of the fun side of it all.

RB: And with AggroGamer, you don’t take sponsorships? I know that you’ve got a very hard line in regards to some of that. You wanna explain that?

DHB: Yeah, so more or less, we don’t take sponsorships unless it’s something we truly can get behind. For a while, we were doing Loot Crate, and then when that company kind of started to tank a little bit, we cut our sponsorship there. Same thing with Paradox Games and a couple of the other things they were promoting. Which we only cut our sponsorship because it was originally for Bloodlines 2, and that game has been postponed indefinitely. And it’s all the other stuff. People will write to us and say, “hey, we wanna put a sponsored content, or we wanna do some promotion where it’s,” we’re trying to hide the fact we’re marketing and using your kind of credibility, and I hate that, and that’s kind of… why I’ve kept going on with AggroGamer as well. Is I hate all of the marketing bullshit that gets wrapped into things, and it oversells a game to somebody when it’s just utter crap. I hated that when I was a kid, where I’d spend all of my money, like, you know, I think at the time, like 40, 50 bucks, to buy this one game, and then be stuck with it because I couldn’t sell them at the time. I hated that, and I kind of want to help promote that, even though it’s easier to sell off games and trade back and all that stuff now. I still don’t want people to waste their time and money, or even get in thinking they’re going to get a 60-hour game, and be like, oh yeah, you can beat this in two hours. So I’d rather keep our credibility and not feel like, oh, we’re only covering this because we’re paid to do so.

RB: Well, and sticking to your guns, as you have over the years, has caught some flack as well.

DHB: Yes, multiple times. Like, there was a few developers, I’m not going to name names. They blacklisted me at a time when they were blacklisting everybody, so you can Google that on your own. And it was mainly because I was very, very open and honest about all of my reviews and all of my opinions on things. While everybody else was giving 10 out of 10s, 9 out of 10s. There was one game I gave a 4 out of 10 on, if I have to put a number on it, I hate doing numbers as well. But that developer refused to do anything with us. Until the pandemic hit. And then when they found out our numbers were actually better than some of the other ones because people were actually able to take the time and not just buy the game and leave it on the shelf, we were actually sending better reviews out than some of these other major companies or major outlets. So they actually reached out to us and swapped that around. So it’s kind of, because we stuck to our guns, stuck to our, you know, our merit and all that stuff, I feel like we’re coming full circle on that.

RB: That’s great. Well, and you see a lot of outlets, but I don’t want to say any names, but you’ll see them review a game. In the text, they’ll trash the game, but then they’ll still give it like eight out of 10 stars or seven out of 10 stars. And it’s like, well, wait a minute, this score does not reflect what I just read review-wise of this game.

DHB: That is exactly why I do what I do, because… It all harkens back to, and I’ve mentioned it to you before, but Dead Space was always one of my favorite games way back when. It was back when we were still doing review scores. I gave a 10 out of 10, but then when in my written part, there was, I had issues with it. I was like, “how is this a perfect game?” if I’m having issues? But then I’d watch as like some of the other outlets that I also won’t name would do the same thing. It’s like 10 out of 10, five stars or whatever. And then half their article is on. Know this is why this game sucks and this is why you should avoid this or this you know this needs to be fixed I’m like “well, then how is it a perfect game?” It’s all because they always want to get their numbers or their tag on the back of the box or in the accolades video or whatever because now that’s kind of self-promotion from the game back and forth, when all you’re doing is feeding a lie to people. And it’s also why, which fun little quirk on my reviews, I actually do put scores in there, but they’re so nonsensical. And they’re all like, it’s all to prove that I’ve actually played the game. Like it’ll be, I have given this, five chimichangas out of 32 or out of, on the chimichanga scale. So I don’t even name how many chimichangas or whatever. But it’s just to go, yeah, I went in there, there’s a huge thing about chimichangas here, or what was it, I think in Far Cry, I listed off, I gave it like 630 medallions or something like that. And that’s based on the in-game currency or something like, it was little things like that to kind of like poke fun at the same thing, but also not give any kind of solid score because if you read the article, you’ll know whether or not you should be playing it, spending your money and all that.

RB: And it’s kind of an Easter Egg by using a term from the game.

DHB: Yeah, exactly.

RB: Nice.

DHB: Yeah, because it was, I think Midnight Suns is the other one where I did it. Where I think I named out one of the in-game currencies about friendship. And I was like, I had to make a joke about all the friendship because that was one of the things I harped on so much in the actual hated part of my review.

RB: And so, yeah, I know that I am really looking forward to joining you on this endeavor. I’ve had a couple of opportunities now. I’ve written some things, not nearly as prolific as you are.

DHB: Well, I’ve been doing it for a while. You’re just cutting your teeth and getting going, but you’ve also done some interviews and all that stuff as well, so.

RB: Yeah, I did interviews at GenghisCon. Which we’re going to be doing some coverage on that. My background is kind of a freelance writer having written for RPGs, and that’s why doing the tabletop RPGs reviews is great because I’ve got a wealth of knowledge. I’ve been playing tabletop games for 40 years, as loath as I am to admit that, because it shows my age. But, I have lived and breathed in the tabletop space. And so I really always look for innovation and I’m glad that I’m able to team up with you. We can do these immersive experiences, like the escape rooms, the conventions, meeting folks, and getting to meet thought leaders in the various industries who are trying to change gaming and people’s experiences for the better. My partner works in VR and other marketing aspects, and so we’re always keeping an eye towards that as well.

DHB: And then that’s what I was going to mention is the whole immersive experience, it’s always evolving and changing because you have the AR, the VR, all that stuff building on top of some of this stuff. Not just in the video game space, but there’s also for the tabletop and LARPs, all that kind of stuff. So it’s kind of, I don’t want to say we’re becoming a tech thing, but you could see how certain things are evolving and trying to stay on top of all that.

RB: Yeah, it’s moving in that direction. I started LARPing back in ’94. Then of course, when I lived in Colorado, I owned and ran Dystopia Rising Colorado for a number of years with my partner. But I know you’ve got a large LARP pedigree as well.

DHB: Well, I started back in ’99 doing Vampire, and then I was just bouncing around from certain ones from here to there. I’ve played in your Dystopia Rising, I’ve done the Alliance, Refuge, but most of it’s been Vampire and in some of the major organizations and some troop games and all that stuff.

RB: Yeah, well, yeah. Because there was a lot of organizations back in the day for the World of Darkness products. And even like going to Grand Masquerade in New Orleans, where you got to see a lot of those groups come together was really exciting times.

DHB: Well, that and also seeing when they would go above and beyond, to get back to the original point of the immersive experience. When they would build those like Vampire nightclubs. So it’s not only where you go in there throwing rock, paper, scissors, and reading off of a sheet, you could actually physically go to some of these locations they have built to add that extra level. And even though we’re still ways off from like Holodecks, it felt like you were going into that kind of sensation. And it just felt like it would add to those kinds of experiences.

RB: Yeah, well, and then wrapping back around to the fact that the technology is moving in that direction to really augment those experiences. At some point, we’ll have to talk about the Disney Star Wars experience that they’ve got going on in Florida. And then even just the evolution of the escape rooms and some of the stuff that we’ve seen there. And I’ve got a haunt pedigree, having come out of Colorado, having worked in haunted houses, built haunted houses, as well as having a mask shop with my buddy, Dan Henry out in Colorado. I’ve got a lot of that that we can bring to the table too as we evaluate these things for that immersive experience. And I look forward to seeing how technology plays into these new experiences. I think we’re gonna even touch on some of that with Super Nintendo World.

DHB: Yeah, that is one of the things I was gonna bring up for another one of our podcasts. We have that and it’s all about getting that extra experience out there. It’s to get you further engrossed in the IPs, as well as kind of building upon your escape from reality. Because, I mean, at the end of the day, it’s kind of what all that is. You can leave all of your horrible stuff here, go do all these other things, and pretend to be somebody else in a video game or in a tabletop. Or put yourself in a dungeon where you feel like you have to escape in an hour. Those kind of things so that you can come back out and kind of appreciate life afterwards.

RB: Well, yeah, because it definitely gets you out of your skin.

DHB: Yeah!

RB: And then gives you an opportunity to share that experience with others. Even if you don’t know them, you suddenly make fast friends.

DHB: Yes!

RB: And so the other benefit of being based in Las Vegas is that we have LA four hours away. And there are so many experiences out there because of all the theatrical and the Hollywood folk, that there’s a bunch of LARPs and escape rooms and other experiences. Like one that we’re probably not gonna do much coverage on, but we’ll talk about it, I’m sure, is the Stranger Things.

DHB: Yeah, the Stranger Things one.

RB: Yeah, because we went out there just for fun. And that was a really great immersive experience that had some of the integration of technology plus the escape room element. And I think we all were really excited by what we saw, especially at the end of it when you walked in and there was kind of the food court and all of those elements from the show.

DHB: Yeah!

RB: That kind of just sucked you into the show. And gave you the chance to play in that environment.

DHB: Yeah, that hour long escape that you need from reality to reset and all that stuff. And not to mention, have the entertainment. So that you have those stories, you have those experiences to build upon later on.

RB: So we’ve covered a fair bit of this. We’ve talked about who you are, who I am. Are there any games for 2023, on the horizon, that you’re looking forward to seeing?

DHB: Ooh, that’s a loaded question because there is a ton of games coming up. I can’t name just one off the top of my head.

RB: That’s fair.

DHB: I’m ready to throw all of them out.

RB: I know I’m really excited to see what they’re doing with the new Diablo game. After the launch of that cell phone game.

DHB: Yeah, Immortal or whatever it is.

RB: Yeah, I am really looking forward to seeing what they do with the new Diablo game because I have been a Diablo fanatic forever. And so, and I refused to play that cell phone game.

DHB: Good call, good call.

RB: Well, and part of that’s because of one of the things that I’ve gotten passionate about, working with you, and starting to learn and research and for articles and things. Is the gamification and the gambling aspect that a lot of these mobile games have. But I’m sure we’ll talk about that.

DHB: That’s a whole other podcast in itself.

RB: That’s a whole podcast to itself. And then maybe we can drag in Frank Hartgrave; somebody that we’ve been working with on some game reviews and who also has really been immersed in that experience of the mobile gaming and gambling addiction aspect. But yeah, so it sounds like there’s a lot of future for Aggrocast and for AggroGamer.

DHB: That is definitely the hope. I mean, like I said, the industry is constantly evolving. I’m excited to do this. You’re excited to do this. And I’m pretty sure we can find a way to keep the ball constantly rolling.

RB: And are you ever looking for new writers and new voices?

DHB: I’m always looking for new writers and new voices to come and add on. I’ve been approached by a few people and they’ve fallen through the, not fallen through the cracks on my end, but they’ve given like one thing here or there and then they just kind of moved on. Or yeah, I have people who ask and then they think it’s gonna be a way harder job after I’m like, “yeah, can you do this?” And it’s like, I need 500 words and they have issues giving out 500 words. I’m like, “well, obviously you can’t cut it here then.”

RB: Yeah, and no chat GPT here, buddy.

DHB: Yeah, exactly.

RB: This is all using your own words.

DHB: You can read the passion behind it if you’re an actual gamer and not feeding it through an algorithm.

RB: Well, and even I’m sure at some point we’ll talk about AI art.

DHB: Easily. AI art, AI, chat GPT, a lot of stuff, like all that stuff because that’s gonna be coming soon as well.

RB: In the future, yeah. Suddenly Skynet, dogs and cats living together,

Both: Mass hysteria!

RB: Great, so what do we have to look forward to in terms of future podcasts?

DHB: We were invited out to go check out Super Nintendo World for their grand opening media day and all that stuff. So we’ll probably be talking a lot about that. We went out and did GenghisCon 45. Covered some of the games out there, you did a few interviews. So we’ll have that to go on. Obviously, probably E3, we’re gonna do one probably almost every day just because of how much information comes out of that. As long as other companies don’t try to screw them over as “some other publisher that will not be named” has done so. Obviously, Comic-Con and all that stuff. We’ll probably get some of the other people in as well, like Julia has been probably will be coming in and talking about things. I know she’s very passionate on the art side of stuff as well as the comic books.

RB: Well, I think it would be great because of the LARP that she runs once a year.

DHB: Correct.

RB: We could actually dig into some of her experiences.

DHB: Especially, since her reception at her wedding this year is going to be at the LARP she runs.

RB: That is amazing.

DHB: Yes, so I’m excited to see how that goes down.

RB: Yeah, I can’t wait to see the pictures.

DHB: Right?!

RB: That’s gonna just be incredible. That’s great. And anything towards the end of the year?

DHB: Towards the end of the year, maybe we can mix in some of the extra reviews as well as the, if we can get into some of the haunted experiences as well. I know usually around November/December is usually when video games and all the other games, they try to hit the mass market for Christmas. So maybe doing some podcasts where we’re like, we’re just talking about these games that we’ve played or these, be it board games, tabletop, video games. So we can get the information out there faster. Because I call it Review Season on the back end where sometimes you just get flooded with things and you gotta pick and choose if you’re gonna write about it. So maybe we can mix some of that stuff in as well.

RB: Yeah, well, and then we have our pilgrimage out to Universal for Horror Nights.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: And I really wanna dig into that because I love Horror Nights. And I always look forward to seeing what new haunts they put up for that event.

DHB: And I’ve heard a few rumors on some big ones coming out specifically because of this year.

RB: Oh, that’s gonna be great. All right, this has been the Aggrocast.

DHB: The RESURRECTED Aggrocast.

RB: The resurrected. No sponsorships, no money under the table.

DHB: Unless you guys wanna completely fund us by like $10 million, I won’t turn that down.

RB: Oh, all right, so we at least have a budgetary.

DHB: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

RB: But David, thank you for this amazing experience.

DHB: And thank you, Ray.

RB: The opportunity to really see something that you’re passionate about grow and build as we go through 2023 and into 2024.

Thank you for listening to the Aggrocast resurrected, the official podcast of AggroGamer. For more gaming news and reviews, please check us out at aggrogamer.com. If you enjoyed today’s content, follow and subscribe to get notifications of our next episodes.