Defining Duke, Episode 221: The Thread
Added 2025-03-24 16:31:37 +0000 UTCHey, all! It's time to submit your questions, comments, concerns, thoughts, and ideas for Episode 221 of Defining Duke.
Great ways to get your write-up used: Be pithy, be topical, and be insightful. Walls-of-text, posts littered with poor grammar and punctuation, etc., are promptly (though respectfully) ignored.
As this is an Xbox podcast, be sure your submission makes sense within that realm. You have until Wednesday, March 26th at 3 PM ET to make your submission.
Comments
Hello throat coaters of lore, March is nearly over and I’m here to do a Health is wealth check in. In January, I wrote in discussing what types of quarterly health is wealth goals we could have. My quarterly goal what is to increase my average running speed from 4.5 miles an hour to five. Unfortunately, I did not meet that goal. But what I got in return was losing another half inch off my waist. I’ll take that as a win. What about both of you? I believe Cog’s goal was eating healthier. And Matty’s was to be more active? Have a “cog is gonna look great as sailor moon with the Glizzy king” type of day
AstroParrotKing
2025-03-25 12:06:23 +0000 UTCHow is it that games journalists have no conception of the best selling games and direct console narratives around review scores? NCAA Football 2k25 is a great game and the top-selling videogame last year. Somehow we have to throatgoat 3rd Person epic Narratives as the lifeblood of IP. I play indies and sports games on Xbox and it blows my mind how the consensus of vidya podcasts is "we have Spooderman, we win". Everyone just says "oh kids just play Fortnite". I find almost every AAA game boring in it's mechanics and UI. How do games journalists not see that there is a huge contingent of people that hate PC gaming setup but want those games on a console and handheld?
Andrew
2025-03-25 10:57:31 +0000 UTCFirst time writer for your show, long time subscriber of LSM. I don’t have an Xbox but wanted to say; I really enjoy listening to you guys, and you two have great chemistry. I saw the recent screenshot of a Steam tab on Xbox. Whilst it’s purely a theory, i have to admit, as a hardcore PlayStation fan and owner since PS1, if Steam came Xbox, I’d buy one instantly. The prospect of owning and gaming on a PC has always been tempting - indeed i have a Steam Deck and love it - but I work all day at my desk and do not want to game at it. A powerful PC console would be the dream final piece in the cog. 😉 I’m keen to hear your opinions on this and whether it’s a realistic prospect? Or would Steam want to get to the prize first, and make their own powerful console? Matt — from the beautiful county of North Yorkshire, England
Matt
2025-03-25 08:33:43 +0000 UTCHello Gentlemen. In the last episode, you discussed the relative values of Ubisoft vs. their IPs. As you probably know, personnel are one of the most significant costs of any corporate enterprise. As you may (or may not) know, Canadian and European employees are accustomed to a certain level of corporate-supported benefits. Healthcare, vacation, maternal/paternal leave packages that would be home runs in the US are intentional walks in Canada and Europe, especially France. This would be an unusually high expense for a US-based company and (¿perhaps?) hard to justify. Have a “Matty just mentioned inching forward while playing with his JRPG heroines and no one said ‘PAUSE’” kind of day.
Suede Cookies
2025-03-25 07:15:12 +0000 UTCMy fellow Dukes! While I would be thrilled to have an all-in-one console that can play everything from any launcher, I fail to see how this would be beneficial for Xbox after the initial purchase. Online discussions to me are missing the key ingredient: how does this make revenue for Xbox? And I am even bullish on thought that Epic would be more suited on this console before Steam given how far behind they are on PC. They would be more willing to bend the knee to Xbox and split revenue than Steam. I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Keep up the great work!
DextrousJOE
2025-03-25 06:05:17 +0000 UTCHey Dukes! The current state of Call of Duty has probably been the lowest point of the whole series. After a decent launch with Black Ops 6, the quality of the game has diminished significantly, partly due to the lackluster content and questionable quality-of-life mechanics being implemented (e.g., bad anti-cheat system, the seeming increase in the use of AI tools, and a stricter SBMM). Issues like these have been ongoing since the last few releases, and yet, every yearly release from the franchise ends up being the best-selling game of that year. Is Call of Duty just too big to fail? None of the criticism they receive from players, creators, or critics seems to have any impact whatsoever on Activision's bottom line and every day they continue to add more ways to extract money from the fans. Call me crazy, but even sports games seem more susceptible to failure than COD. Have a good one and greetings from Puerto Rico!
Pedro Bonilla
2025-03-25 03:55:44 +0000 UTCHey Dukes, As I am sure y'all are more than aware of, the release cadence of new games has become impossible to keep up with and I am unfortunately starting to feel like it is affecting my enjoyment of games as a whole. Gaming has always been my favorite hobby and I don't intend to stop, however I am just having a ton of trouble lately getting "hooked" into a game. It always just feels like im unintentionally rushing through to get to the next shiny new game that I think will scratch the itch. Even looking at the past week, we have AC Shadows, Khazan, Xenoblade Chronicles X, and Atomfall, it feels like too much of a good thing. I know that nobody is forcing me to do this, but that FOMO is real and I have a hard time not being able to stay up-to-date with the newest game conversations in the same way that I used to. I have quite frankly started to miss the times when there were a few big releases a year, and those would be THE games in the zeitgest for awhile. Anyways, I don't really have a specific question related to this, but it seems to be a topic of conversation on the show as of late so figured it would be a good potential discussion point to jump off of and to hear more about any similar experiences y'all may have working through something like this. Thanks for all you do, have a "And now Indy is coming to Playstation in April too, make it stop!" kind of day
Grower And Shower
2025-03-25 00:16:38 +0000 UTCSup Dukes, while a future where Xbox sneaks its way into PlayStation games is exciting(this coming from PlayStation gamer) I think people are getting carried away. A world where 10's of millions of Xbox users are circumventing giving Sony 100% of their money on a PS platform vs 70% by purchasing games on an Xbox windows PC via Steam would certainly catch the eye of Sony and its accountants and prompt a response from them. Yes more sales of the games are great but Sony would risk losing people entrenched in their ecosystem who buy other digital games and goods which generate 30% revenue for them. It's important to remember that for Sony the Console is still a vital part of their business much like Nintendo, whereas Xbox is unshackling itself from that dichotomy to make more money on more platforms. Nintendo and Sony aren't in a position to not keep themselves surrounded by large moats of console users and thus this dream of Xbox users playing PlayStation games via Steam I think is a pipe dream. Thanks for the great show as always and hopefully were due for another Sacred x Duke Soon!
Orb Ponderer
2025-03-24 23:49:25 +0000 UTCGlad to see things are going well for you. And yeah I think it’s best to kind of faze out of multiplayer games as you get older. It’s just not worthwhile to spend your time that way when you could be doing so much more. Keep it up bro 👍
Jaxson Burch
2025-03-24 22:46:42 +0000 UTCHey Dukes, I’ve always gravitated toward story-driven, cinematic single-player games—stuff like Red Dead Redemption, Uncharted, The Last of Us, and Cyberpunk 2077. Naturally, Fallout always intrigued me. The post-apocalyptic setting mixed with retro-futurism is such a cool concept, and the fact that it’s a massive, single-player RPG should make it a perfect fit for me. But every time I’ve tried getting into the games, they’ve never fully clicked. As much as I wanted to get immersed, I struggled to emotionally connect with the characters or get truly invested in the story. The gameplay was solid, the worlds were huge, but something always felt a bit detached. But then I watched the Fallout TV show—and it finally clicked. For the first time, I felt that deep engagement I’d been looking for. The tone, the characters, the pacing—it all came together. Honestly, in my opinion, it’s the best Fallout story to date. So here’s my question: do you think Bethesda should take cues from studios like Rockstar or CD Projekt Red when it comes to storytelling and character work? Should Fallout 5 aim to deliver a tighter, more emotionally engaging narrative that leans more into cinematic presentation, or would that compromise what makes Fallout unique? Thanks for everything—love the show and the thoughtful discussions you guys bring every week.
Jaxson Burch
2025-03-24 22:43:42 +0000 UTCDukes did you hear about that Forza Motorsports update? It's been since FM4 since Fujimi Kadio has been apart of the game. It's easily one of the most requested additions from old games to be included. The 10 mile mountain pass of Japan is getting released in May for the 20th anniversary of Forza. With June right around the bend, does this leave the door open for Horizon to send one up the inside, and capitalize off the momentum of the announcement at the June showcase? Its gotta be the best way to tie these two together. I can't wait to do my best Takumi from Initial D(anime) impression. Have a (sings the chorus to "See You Again" by Charlie Puth) kinda day. (Hit them high notes Cog)
J Boogie327
2025-03-24 21:34:05 +0000 UTCHello Duke Dog Matty and Duke Ellington Cogsworth! So friend of the show Jez seems to have stepped in it a little by implying Sony might try to block their games from running on an Xbox that is running Steam. His reasoning was that Sony does this with G-Force now. As tech guy Cog can probably help elaborate there is a huge difference between not allowing a 3rd party app access to something versus trying to make it so certain hardware can not natively play games. In simple terms: If the next Xbox is just a custom PC that can download and play PC games natively from any storefront Sony has no real way of blocking that short of making sure their games don't run on windows or won't run on certain CPU/GPU's. Not that it's impossible but the amount of extra work they'd have to go through to sabotage their own games without causing issues across varies PC builds wouldn't be worth it for them. Feel free to elaborate on and exacerbate the topic! Have a, damn it the PC master race won again! Kind of day!
J Reid
2025-03-24 20:44:05 +0000 UTCWhat's up Dukes! The time has finally come for the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct (aka the best day of my life). What do you guys predict will show up there, both Xbox and non-Xbox related. Are there any personal dreams or wishes you're hoping for? Will Cog feel like the creepy uncle at the park when Animal Crossing shows up? Thanks for all you Dukes do!
TheUnchartedWolf
2025-03-24 20:39:04 +0000 UTCWhat it do, Defining Dookies? I just wanted to give you some props. You guys are the reason I bought a Series X about a year ago. Even though I logged way more hours than Matty did on the console last year, I still don’t regret my purchase! Hahaaa jkjk Thanks, and have a- Matty and Cog convinced me to purchase this dying console, kind of day. PS: Matty- keep the throat coated up and drop that game soon. And Cog- what did I tell you about staying out of the playground, bro?
Mike the Person
2025-03-24 19:55:26 +0000 UTCHello, Not a gaming relates question, but just want to know what, if any, movies you've seen recently. I know Cog goes to the theater every so often to visit friends and Matty was working on filling the movie gap in his life. I think movies are a great break from games with minimal commitment and stories that more often than not, surpase those in games.
Derrek Beeck
2025-03-24 18:41:38 +0000 UTCHey Duke Dudes, What Xbox games will be announced at the Switch 2 reveal next week? Have a "someone mixed green in my red" kind of day!
Nevets
2025-03-24 18:32:19 +0000 UTCHey Dukes, Curious about something regarding XBox's direction around "play anywhere." My apologies if this question has been answered in the past. I was playing Indy last night in my bed on the Cloud service and had one of the best experiences with it, even though I play natively on my PC. I started thinking, if they are going multi-platform on many devices, are developers going to have to adjust games to be able to play natively on things like the Switch 2 or Playstation (which they are doing currently with some games) or, is this going to be a cloud app that is on multiple platforms? If it's a native direction, will there be pricing tiers depending on the platform you are on for gamepass? Thanks for all your insights and I really appreciate you guys. -Nick
Nick Vincent
2025-03-24 17:13:39 +0000 UTCGreetings Dukes, I wanted to provide an update. Eight months ago, on Episode 184, I wrote in about adjusting to life after having finished college for my master's degree. I shared my concerns about balancing my gaming habits with less free time and more responsibilities. Well, I can tell you now—it was not a smooth eight months. Matty suggested treating gaming as a reward system. I tried that approach initially, but it turned out to be harder than I expected—mainly because of how deeply invested I was in multiple live-service games. In my original write-in, I only briefly mentioned this because I didn’t want to sound like an addict, but the truth was I’d stay up late grinding battle passes in Overwatch 2 or League of Legends. I’d try to complete every seasonal event in World of Warcraft, Destiny 2, and other games. It became unsustainable, and eventually, I started questioning whether I was even having fun. Half of my gaming sessions had turned into logging in just to do dailies. Cog mentioned making more of an effort to grab dinner or make plans with friends that get me outside the house. I knew I was making some unhealthy choices when I noticed that I was choosing to grind out some dailies instead of accepting offers to hangout with friends or family. Long story short, what worked for me was quitting multiplayer games altogether—except for keeping Marvel Rivals installed for occasional weekend nights with friends on Discord. The other key change was organizing my day so I could end it with single-player games like Matty suggested. My routine now looks like this: go to work, head to the gym, come home to take care of dinner and the dog, and then sit down for a single-player game for a few hours. The best part? There’s no FOMO hanging over me—no battle pass to grind or seasonal rewards to chase. I can turn off the game knowing it’ll still be there waiting for me the next night. And on the weekends I can make plans or go out with friends without having to worry that I am missing some in-game reward because the single-player game will be right where I left it. Thanks for the advice when I first wrote in—my gaming habits have improved significantly! Health is wealth, indeed.
Jose
2025-03-24 17:00:41 +0000 UTCHey Dukes. I've been wanting to share some health is wealth information for any member that's struggling with weight loss. One of my passions is fitness and I've managed to transform my body after multiple failed attempts. Let me give you the Holy Bible of weight loss, as there is so much misleading information out there in the wild. I'll try to be as brief as possible. 1. Calorie deficit is a must. Focus on the "calories in" part, as tracking your "calories out" is extremely difficult and almost never accurate. If your watch tells you you've burned 300 calories, you most likely didn't. And please remember to take it slowly, because we all want to lose fat, not weight. Which means more than 500 calories per day in a deficit will eat away at your muscle. 2. Walking/moving is king. Prioritise walking as much as you possibly can. For overweight people especially, running is a nightmare. It destroys your joints, recovery is awful and you feel like dying mostly. Ease up to it. Find your form of cardio you like most and stick to it. 3. Lifting weights is immensely helpful. You can't overestimate the value of adding muscle. Just know it's an extrmely slow process that takes years, so don't think you're doing something wrong if you don't gain muscle immediately. 4. Do NOT, I repeat DO NOT force yourself into something you can't sustain for the rest of your life. It was my number one mistake that in the long term set me back the most. I can eat only chicken broccoli for 1 month and yes i lose weight fast. But eventually, even the strongest willed can't sustain that, and you thrust your face into donuts for a week and you're now in an even worse position than when you started the diet in the first place. 5. Ease into it. Take baby steps and grow into your best version. It doesn't happen overnight. If right now you average 500 steps a day, don't strive for 10k tomorrow. Go for 1000 steps. Then in a week, try 1500. And this rule applies to your nutrition, your cardio, and your weight lifting. And as a final thought, being fit feels absolutely blissful, and it's something we all should strive for, as long our health allows us to. When you feel confident in your body, your mind follows. Your mental health will be improved in ways you could not imagine. I know, because I've been on both sides. From extremely overweight, to visible abs with pretty decent muscle overall. A body I never thought I could have. And this is not a brag, it's just to let you know that with patience, and knowledge, you can too. Much love brothers and sisters of LSM!
Petre Cismigiu
2025-03-24 16:57:33 +0000 UTCHello Duke Brothers Would you rather be gay or British for a day?
Colin using a cat as a living fleshlight
2025-03-24 16:39:21 +0000 UTCDuke Boys, My fellow Dukes, the editor at Xbox let an image leak out containing a Microsoft UI mock up showing a filter for Steam. The Verge reports this could have just been to show a users full library within the App and not an indication of full Steam integration. However, as the Dukes know, the rumors of Steam have been swirling, and this is a another breadcrumb on the path to Steam on a console. Colin always asks why Steam would do this? I think that's a valid question. Their philosophy is one of openness, but what is the value from a business standpoint? Unless their cut stays the same, which means Microsoft doesn't get anything, I don't see why Steam would do this? If they wouldn't get a cut, why would Microsoft do this? I mean from a consumer perspective, it's obviously a benefit and I'd be signing up so quick for whatever the next console is, but a third question comes to mind, would Playstation allow Xbox players to play their games through Steam? I mean they are pretty petty Ponies after all. Dukes, there are obviously a lot of unknown variables at okay here, but what is going on? Help me sort all this out? Have a I bought a Tesla because I was told it's great for the environment but now I'm a bad guy kind of day.
Mr. Scott If You're Nasty
2025-03-24 16:37:37 +0000 UTCHey guys, Do either of you plan on checking out the first berserker khazan? I’m so excited to play the full release after playing the closed beta and open demo. Fightincowboy said it’s a perfect mix of nioh and sekiro. This sounds like it’d be right up Matty’s alley. Thanks for all you do.
The Snacksquatch
2025-03-24 16:36:28 +0000 UTCHey Dukes! I'm really looking forward to hearing you guys talk more about the Xbox Stream rumor. One thing that's always bothered me is how Microsoft makes Xbox owners pay more for the console Game Pass, while PC users get a nice discount. I mean, shouldn't Xbox users be considered the top tier clientele with preference pricing since we already bought in? Do you think this new Xbox setup will finally level the playing field with PC Game Pass prices?
Nico Fargione
2025-03-24 16:35:04 +0000 UTCHi Dukes, Hope this finds you guys doing well. Not to get too heavy, but the past few months have been really hard for my family personally. So, I've been diving into old nostalgic games that I remember fondly from my childhood as a way to kind of relive those comfortable feelings of childlike wonder and security once again. I recently beat Kingdom Hearts 2 on my steam deck, and Matty talking about FFX-2 recently reminded me of how much I loved X and X-2 growing up, so I'm diving back into X now. I even bought a used copy of Pokemon Y for 3ds, which might be next, from a local used game shop! Normally I would play the next big thing, like AC Shadows, but these old games have been fun comfort foods as I get my head back on straight personally. Things have been getting better, and I've been enjoying the walk down memory lane. What are some of the "comfort games" you guys play when you want to be reminded of the comfort of youth? KOTOR, Fallout, Shinobi, etc? Love you guys and your vibes and your work, you guys are awesome and I love listening to you guys talk about happy and healthy things (as a quick aside, and I don't want to understate this, but the gym has helped immensely here too. Lifting heavy things really makes me feel better mentally recently, and I also have lost 17 pounds over this time, which has helped my mental game too! Not to be corny, but health really is wealth). Thanks again for your time and have a great day! Best, Drew D
Drew D
2025-03-24 16:34:51 +0000 UTC
