Please Let Us Fix Your Video Game Name

Wondering what makes some video game titles good and some bad? Just bring in Triple Click Consulting — we've got you covered. This week, the gang goes through a whole bunch of names and discusses what makes them work and what doesn't, from Balatro to EA Sports FC.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:04Kirk Hamilton?

  What's in a name? That which we call a third-person extraction shooter by any other name would have headshots and loot as sweet. Welcome to Triple Click, where we bring the names to you. This week, we're finally doing it. We're doing an entire episode all about video game names and what qualities make for a good or a less good video game title. Let's get into it.

• 0:30Kirk Hamilton?

  I'm Kirk Hamilton.

• 0:31Speaker 01

  I'm Maddy Myers.

• 0:33Jason Schreier?

  And I'm Jason Shire. Hello.

• 0:35Speaker 01

  Hello.

• 0:35Jason Schreier?

  Hey.

• 0:36Speaker 01

  Hello.

• 0:36Jason Schreier?

  Hello, my friends.

• 0:37Kirk Hamilton?

  Hello.

• 0:38Jason Schreier?

  Welcome back to another episode.

• 0:40Speaker 01

  We're doing it again.

• 0:41Kirk Hamilton?

  Yes.

• 0:41Speaker 01

  We've decided to keep doing it.

• 0:43Jason Schreier?

  We have. Every week, we get together and we're like, time to vote.

• 0:46Speaker 01

  Should we keep doing this?

• 0:47Jason Schreier?

  On whether we should keep the podcast going.

• 0:49Speaker 01

  That's why three of us.

• 0:50Jason Schreier?

  And Maddie says no every week, like Kirk and I, I've voted.

• 0:52Speaker 01

  And I keep getting outvoted.

• 0:53Kirk Hamilton?

  Why three is a good number? Because you can have votes and have a clear winner.

• 0:58Speaker 01

  No, I would be voting yes. We're voting unanimously.

• 1:02Kirk Hamilton?

  One of the reasons that Jason and I keep voting yes is that we love making the show for you all and we love that we make it entirely with your support. Triple Click is a listener-supported show. We are a member of the wonderful Maximum Fun Podcast Network. And yeah, we just make this show with salaries paid by all of you.

• 1:23Jason Schreier?

  You guys get salaries?

• 1:25Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah.

• 1:25Speaker 01

  In a way, it's a salary, I guess. Some of you haven't been paying it, is really what Kirk's getting at. Some of you have been getting our work for free.

• 1:35Kirk Hamilton?

  But those of you who haven't, we really appreciate you. Maximumfun.org/join, that's the website to go to, to join the network and become a member, start supporting Triple Click, and also get access to a ton of bonus episodes that we have recorded. We put out one every month and have been doing so since we started making this show in 2020, almost five years ago. Kind of crazy to think about.

• 1:59Jason Schreier?

  Wow.

• 1:59Kirk Hamilton?

  That's a lot of bonus episodes. And you'll get a recent one that we just put up on Metaphor Refentazio that just went up a couple of days ago. And it was a really fun conversation about a game that provokes really fun conversations. So yeah, maximumfun.org/join, become a member, support Triple Click, and thank you so much to everyone who does support us. All right, so today. It is time.

• 2:25Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 2:26Kirk Hamilton?

  After many, many teases, after us saying, you know, we should really do an episode about that over and over and over again, we have finally decided to put our expertise where our mouths are, I guess we do that every week, and talk about video game names, video game titles. We are going to do a breakdown and a discussion of good and bad video game names, and hopefully get to the bottom of what makes a good video game name, and also maybe what makes a video game name not work so well. Are you both excited?

• 2:59Speaker 01

  I'm very excited. It's a little overhyped, if anything. I mean, are we up for it? You know, can we handle it? Can we handle the mission briefing? I don't know.

• 3:09Jason Schreier?

  I feel like we shouldn't be giving away our secrets for free. I feel like we should be starting a consultancy group and charging a lot of money for this.

• 3:16Speaker 01

  Well, this is kind of like, this is kind of like, what do you call it? A backdoor pilot, if you will. Like, this is gonna be maybe a separate project on top of Triple Click that we're launching.

• 3:27Kirk Hamilton?

  I think we will know by the end of this whether that business endeavor would succeed or fail, because it could well be that our advice is terrible.

• 3:34Speaker 01

  We don't know. People will tell us what they think.

• 3:37Jason Schreier?

  I guess we'll find out.

• 3:38Kirk Hamilton?

  I guess we'll find out. So, we're gonna be talking about, I don't know, just a bunch of video game names, mostly recent ones from the last year, and also some upcoming games, which are fun to talk about since the games aren't out yet, and we just kind of have a name to go on with some of them. So, there's a lot to get into there. I've kind of got some rules and some qualities that I think are interesting. The one most important rule to establish up top is that for everything that we're gonna say about what makes a game name good or a game name bad, the most important rule is that if the game is really good, or catches on for whatever reason, usually because it's really good, it can break every single rule that we're about to lay out. It can have the worst, weirdest name ever and still be successful.

• 4:22Speaker 01

  As some of these examples prove.

• 4:23Kirk Hamilton?

  That's just how it works. Yeah. Sometimes you call a game Fortnite.

• 4:28Speaker 01

  Missed spell.

• 4:29Kirk Hamilton?

  It becomes the most popular game in the world.

• 4:32Kirk Hamilton?

  I'd say, you know, I guess like another couple of things to keep in mind are that sequels kind of don't follow the same rules as original like, like first games in a series. So those, you can't really like say, oh, well, this name doesn't make sense because if it's a sequel to a successful game, people already know that it's a successful game. And similarly, a lot of localized games, like games especially from East Asia, tend to have names that are pretty weird and like, don't follow, they don't do what I would call like, good naming hygiene. But at the same time, you know, you'll, you'll have, you'll have a game called Triangle Strategy that, you know, is like pretty beloved. Or Various Daylight, and a lot of people will play it. So I think, I think, and I, this is a starting, this is a sketch.

• 5:16Kirk Hamilton?

  So this is just what we're starting with, and it might change by the end of this episode, or it might change after people talk about this episode or whatever. But for now, I kind of feel like a good name should be at least two of the following things. Memorable, punchy, understandable, or enticing. So at least two of those things. So first, there's memorable, like, it should be memorable. It should be able to become iconic. It should be something that you remember versus being, you know, forgettable, something that just kind of slips out of your mind. Punchy versus floppy was the word I went with. Like, it should, it should have like a good rhythm to it. It should be fun to say, it should be punchy, and not kind of like, long or overly, you

• 5:58Kirk Hamilton?

  know, complex, or kind of trip up your tongue, or sort of too many of the wrong syllables next to one another, and that's floppy. It should be understandable or representative. Like, you should see it and you should know what kind of game this is gonna be. Or maybe it's even representative of the game itself, of like, what you do in the game. Like, it's easy to understand when you see it, versus it's this abstract term, it's confusing, you know, you don't actually know what that means. And then the last one is enticing versus off-putting, which is the most-

• 6:25Speaker 01

  The most big-picture, possible way to put it.

• 6:28Kirk Hamilton?

  Like-

• 6:28Speaker 01

  It should be good, rather than bad.

• 6:31Kirk Hamilton?

  Well, no, I think it can be mysterious, and it should kind of entice you to learn more. Like, you should hear it and be like, oh, huh, what's that about? Rather than hearing it and thinking like, oh, that's like- This weird, complex nonsense, or like, that's some made up crap that I don't care about. Or like, or that's like, kind of like ugly words, or words that aren't fun to say, or just make me think that it's not for me, and it's kind of off putting. Obviously, the most subjective of the four, though this whole thing is subjective. All right, so let's just talk through some games. Let's start with a really interesting name, Balatro slash Bellatro. What do y'all think?

• 7:03Jason Schreier?

  I had some friends over the other day, and one of them, a normie friend, was playing Bellatro on his phone, and I was like, wow, it has penetrated the normie sphere. I think Bellatro is a fantastic name, and like, I think that the fact that the creator LocalFunk resisted the urge to name it something like Crazy Poker.

• 7:24Speaker 01

  Wacky Joker time.

• 7:26Jason Schreier?

  I think Bellatro, it's like, totally confusing and abstract, so it violates one of your, kind of, your paradigms for this.

• 7:34Kirk Hamilton?

  So remember now, I want to say, the rule is that you have to do two of these. Not that you can't violate any of them.

• 7:40Speaker 01

  And the other rule is, we don't know anything, and we might be wrong.

• 7:44Jason Schreier?

  It's extremely memorable, it's extremely punchy, and I think it's got those two things going for it in a way that makes it stand out. When you hear it, you don't forget it. If you look up the name, it's like, it's got enough of a connection. Like, Bellatro means what, jester in Italian, right? So it's got enough of a connection.

• 8:02Kirk Hamilton?

  Right, it's representative in a cool way, and it is enticing, where it's this mysterious word that does have a meaning, and then you wind up kind of seeing a headline on Polygon or whatever, being like, here's what Balatro means, you know, like, where that word comes from. And you're like, ooh, it's all a little bit enticing as well.

• 8:17Speaker 01

  And fun to say.

• 8:18Kirk Hamilton?

  Despite the fact that it's a little confusing when you first see it, it does, it is definitely a really strong name.

• 8:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's great.

• 8:26Jason Schreier?

  I think a little bit of confusion at first isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially if it's punchy and fun to say. Because then it'll get stuck in your head a little bit more than something that is like, kind of, more esoteric, but also, and also not as fun to say. Then it kind of squirms out of your brain a little bit more.

• 8:45Kirk Hamilton?

  I think we'll see, I think we'll see if we come up with some examples.

• 8:48Jason Schreier?

  Well, let me give you, like, just from, from last year. Um, just to kind of jump ahead a little bit, a thousand X resist. That's a one where it's like, um, off putting and also not very fun to say. And so not punchy at all. And therefore, when you kind of see that or hear that, it doesn't really kind of get stuck in your brain the way a Bellatro might, and you're just kind of, you have to see it a few times before you start remembering it as a name. A thousand X resist, like it doesn't make any sense.

• 9:17Speaker 01

  Well, yeah, and also is it, is it a thousand times resist? Is it a thousand cross resist? We, we've even talked about that quandary on this very show. And Kirk usually pronounces it a thousand times resist, which based on what the themes of the game are, as I know them, actually sounds a lot closer to what it should be and is a cooler name to say. But I don't know a great way to indicate that to the person reading it because that X can be the multiplication symbol, but it's not always. So you gotta think of another way to do that, I think.

• 9:51Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, I think pronunciation is kind of an issue. It's interesting that Bellatro, Balatro doesn't have that issue. In fact, like people arguing over how to pronounce it is like a win win for the, you know, for local fun. Cause it gets just something more that people talk about. But yeah, with a thousand times resist, I agree that it is, uh, it's pretty abstract. It's a little floppy because it's kind of hard to say. And I, I do think it's memorable. Like I think a thousand times resist as an idea is like pretty grabby. So it's kind of got that going for it. And of course it is a fantastic game and that carried it a long way. Like I, I do think a lot of people played it and checked it out. But I, yeah, it does kind of seem like they, there could have been a, a stronger name.

• 10:32Jason Schreier?

  I think the fact that it's written out one zero zero X resist. If it was even called a thousand times resist and times was spelled out, it might be a little bit clearer.

• 10:43Speaker 01

  As long as that is, I actually think it would have helped.

• 10:46Kirk Hamilton?

  I could see that.

• 10:46Jason Schreier?

  Yeah. And also the lack of a comma in one thousand, um, is also a little off putting if you're used to.

• 10:54Speaker 01

  Really funny thing to highlight.

• 10:55Jason Schreier?

  The way that numbers are written.

• 10:56Kirk Hamilton?

  I know, but picturing that name, one thousand times resist, that's a kind of a sick name.

• 11:01Speaker 01

  That actually kind of rules.

• 11:03Kirk Hamilton?

  So here's another one. Let's keep going. Let's look at Animal Well, because I'm curious what the two of you think.

• 11:07Speaker 01

  I like it.

• 11:08Kirk Hamilton?

  Of Animal Well.

• 11:09Jason Schreier?

  Perfect name.

• 11:09Kirk Hamilton?

  I think that's a really interesting name, yeah.

• 11:11Speaker 01

  I like it. I think it's enticing, according to you, Kirk, because it's mysterious. What's in the well? Animals. Why? What? And wells aren't a place you want an animal to be in.

• 11:21Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah. I think that's a really interesting thing about this name is that Animal and Well are actually both very common or prosaic words. Like, it's not like, you know, Quest of the Dark Sphere. It doesn't have like that typical drama. It's like Animal Well. But first off, it is totally representative. Like, the minute you see an image of the game, it's usually some like underground kangaroo or something. You're like, oh, an animal in a well. And also, yeah, they're two words that are very enticing and mysterious and really capture the vibe of the game. It is also like punchy. It's easy enough to say. Like, it's not as like snicky, snicky, boom, boom as some names. Animal Well is a little round, I guess, but like, but it's fine. And it's very memorable. It's an unusual name. It really matches with the game itself, I think.

• 12:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, agreed.

• 12:08Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, I think it's, you can't get much better than Animal Well. Taking two words, I think one of the reasons that so many names fail is that they take words that are just like so common in game titles, like secrets and quests. And you have a bunch of them written down here.

• 12:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:25Jason Schreier?

  Epic and eternal and rising.

• 12:26Speaker 01

  This list is incredible.

• 12:27Kirk Hamilton?

  Eternal, darkness, cosmic, protocol.

• 12:30Speaker 01

  Writing this is upsetting.

• 12:31Jason Schreier?

  Here, you have two common words that would never be placed together and you would never see them in this context. Despite the fact that they're very common, you would never see either of them in a video game title and you'd never see them mashed together. So that itself is like such a home run for a title. When you have two words that just kind of like have never been placed together, have this great feel, this great mouth feel when they're put together, or intriguing when they're put together, it just works perfectly. The peanut butter and jelly of titles.

• 12:59Kirk Hamilton?

  Right. It's cool that Animal and Well would be so much more exciting together than like Secret Protocol.

• 13:04Jason Schreier?

  Right, exactly.

• 13:06Kirk Hamilton?

  Completely forgettable.

• 13:07Jason Schreier?

  Yeah.

• 13:07Kirk Hamilton?

  Even though those are two exciting words in theory, that's kind of like the context. Of video games, I guess, that those words have been so overused.

• 13:13Jason Schreier?

  Yes. One other thing is that when you take a place and then add something a little unexpected, like when you take a place word and then something unexpected to it, like, I don't know, Chainsaw Mansion, like it automatically makes it like elevates things like if you were to take and like a well that's full of animals and a mansion that's full of chainsaws, a, I don't know, a palace that is full of spiders, spider palace, like anything that's like a place and something unexpected, I think is like a really winning combination for names.

• 13:46Kirk Hamilton?

  That's true. Surprising, there might be a way to fit that into this, into these different qualities of a game, like something surprising that surprises you. Yeah. Versus predictable. It's like, it's a little similar to like memorable versus forgettable. But anyways, yes, surprising is, is good. Let's look at another one that's a little less successful, I think, and that's actually one of the, one of the name changes. I've got a big list of name changes, like series that change names. And I think those are always interesting to look at. A lot of times when games change names, they change for the better. They become, they become something punchier and more memorable, where their kind of working title or whatever was less, was less strong. But in this case, we're going to talk about Dragon Age The Veil Guard a little bit.

• 14:29Kirk Hamilton?

  I think that this name was a step down. This is something we have said, you know, many times on the show. I feel like this is one of the very first games, like game names that we started critiquing on the show, I think at our live, at our live episode in LA. But anyways, yeah, this went from Dragon Age Dread Wolf to Dragon Age The Veil Guard. And it's not like a really obvious downgrade. Like, you know, they're both kind of abstract concepts, Dread Wolf, The Veil Guard. But I do think Dread Wolf had a couple of things going for it. One being that we knew what the Dread Wolf was, if you were a Dragon Age fan, like the Dread Wolf was Soulless. And he, like, we learned that about him. And so it was this exciting thing for anyone who'd

• 15:11Kirk Hamilton?

  finished Inquisition, that you're going to now get a game that centers on this character that we know. Where The Veil Guard was something entirely new, we didn't know that. Feels a little like that was a change. Made to draw in new players. And then also, the Veil Guard is just not as punchy as Dread Wolf. Like Dread Wolf is freaking cool. It's just like a cooler pair of words than the Veil Guard, which is like a little off putting, a little abstract.

• 15:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, and all one word, Veil Guard.

• 15:38Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, Veil Guard. I mean, that, like, we've harped on that enough. Like, that putting a "the" in there is such a horrible mistake that I don't know how, why they would possibly do that. But even if it was just called Dragon Age Veil Guard, Veil Guard is such a kind of weak word. Like, if you play Dragon Age, you know what the veil is. And so you understand the concept of like, oh, okay, they have to protect the veil. That makes sense, but like Veil Guard is not something that you really want to say. It doesn't, doesn't feel good coming off the tongue in the same way that Dread Wolf does. Dread Wolf is like such a stronger word. And also just implies, like, like the Dread Wolf part of it, it evokes horror, it evokes kind of an enemy. It evokes something you want to destroy.

• 16:21Jason Schreier?

  Whereas Veil Guard, you're like, okay, like, what do I care about the veil? Why do I need to guard it? Like, does that matter? Like, is that really that cool? I don't know. It's, it's, it's very weak. It's a big downgrade, I would say.

• 16:33Kirk Hamilton?

  The change toward punchiness is big. There are two game change, name changes, I guess, that I want to mention related to that. One is Demon's Souls to Dark Souls. Granted, like, not actually in the same universe, but I would, I would say that the change from Demon's Souls to Dark Souls is one of the great name changes, like name evolutions in video games.

• 16:55Jason Schreier?

  Is that a name change? Isn't that a sequel to like a?

• 16:58Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, but it's like, they basically went from Demon's Souls, which was a one-off, to Dark Souls, which became, you know, the heart of what FromSoft was doing. And while granted, yes, there, it's like, not exactly like they changed the name, the series sort of switched. And then they just made another one and called it something else and then stuck with that name from then on. And Dark Souls is just much punchier than Demon's Souls. They're so similar. It's just one word, dark, is a lot easier to say than demons. And so it's, it's just an improvement. And the other one is the game Stellar Blade from last year, which was originally called Project Eve, and I always thought that was such a bad name, where Stellar Blade is like a pretty cool name for a game. So those are two changes recently that I think they kind of moved in the right direction,

• 17:42Kirk Hamilton?

  like away from more generic, kind of floppy words and towards something punchier and more memorable.

• 17:49Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, putting Blade in a title, I think is always a bad idea, but Stellar is a good.

• 17:53Kirk Hamilton?

  Blade should go in this generic list.

• 17:55Speaker 01

  Stellar at least is surprising, but Blade.

• 17:57Jason Schreier?

  Stellar Blade is, it's a good, it works because Stellar is like, you think of, I don't know, you think of something that's spectacular, you think of grades that are stellar. And the fact that it's a blade, I think adds a little bit of imagery to it. And it also, it sounds good, Stellar Blade, sounds good, it's fun to say, that all works. But it definitely docks some points for having Blade in there, because that's so generic and meaningless and overused.

• 18:23Kirk Hamilton?

  And it's kind of, it's also representative because that's like a sword fighting slash them up game. I'm actually not sure if the word Stellar Blade, or I played some of that game, but not enough to know if the Stellar Blade is like a thing that you unlock in that game. I kind of don't think it is, which is sort of funny.

• 18:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think it's more just a vibes-based title, which I'm fine with. Like many, many great titles are purely vibes-based. But if that's the case, then it should be fun to say and memorable and all the other, or at least a couple of the categories that we've already been laying out that so far I'm enjoying and thinking are pretty accurate.

• 18:54Kirk Hamilton?

  So another name that I think is a real sensational name from last year is Tactical Breach Wizards. I think this one actually like runs the table. I think that it's memorable and iconic, like Tactical Breach Wizards is incredibly memorable. It's punchy, Tactical Breach Wizards is a kick-ass thing to say. It's understandable and representative, like that's what the game is about. It perfectly captures the game and it is enticing because the minute you hear it, you start laughing. It's like surprising, you think, wait, what in the world is that going to be? So I think that's, I think that's a slam dunk name.

• 19:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, I like this one, too. I feel like of all the indie games that I remember people telling me to play, this was the one that with the name that I've remembered and that may or may not have contributed to me playing it instead of, say, A Thousand Times Resist, which I still haven't actually started. Like, this name stuck in my head in just an anecdotal way. I remembered the title and was like, oh, yeah, that one. I should check that out.

• 19:49Jason Schreier?

  I think the contrast of tactical breach and wizards.

• 19:53Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 19:53Jason Schreier?

  It's interesting because like tactical and breach are both kind of common words in titles that conjure military and Tom Clancy.

• 20:03Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, of course.

• 20:04Speaker 01

  Perfect, yes.

• 20:04Jason Schreier?

  And stuff. And alone, you look at the first year words and you're like, oh, I don't want to play that. But then you see wizards.

• 20:10Kirk Hamilton?

  Tactical Breach Squadron would be like any other game on Steam.

• 20:13Jason Schreier?

  Would be the worst name ever. But then you see wizards and you're like, oh, whoa, this is surprising. This is unexpected. It's a good kind of contrast, which obviously is the whole theme of the game, too. So it works. The only critique I would have is that it's a little bit long. And ideally, you want your game to be a little bit quicker, to say. But I think it's fine. It's not, that's not a huge deal.

• 20:35Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, because like, and comedy is kind of pacing. Like, it needs to be long enough that the When the Wizards arrives, you had time to like, get ready to be surprised.

• 20:44Jason Schreier?

  Sure. But in, in the sense that if you want a game to like, go viral, if you want your game to really sell millions of copies, generally shorter is better. Not The End of the World, if it's a little bit long. But I think generally, if you want to be able to, I always imagine, when I think of like, is this game good, is this game title good or not? I always imagine kids trying to explain it to one another on the playground or like saying, hey, have you played Bellatro? Hey, have you played Fortnite? It's hard to imagine quite as much kids being like, oh, you got to check out Tactical Breach Wizards just because it's such a mouthful. Again, not the, not the biggest deal in the world, but I would say that's the one thing that is going against it.

• 21:24Kirk Hamilton?

  So for a shorter name, that I'm actually curious what the two of you think. How about Nine Souls? What do you think of that name? Jason, this was on your list, your top 10 list, so maybe you go first.

• 21:33Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, well, important to note here that it's S-O-L-S, not S-O-U-L-S, which I think is more striking and better than it would be if it was Nine Souls, S-O-U-L-S. Cause a certain other series has the market on souls, S-O-L-S-O-U-L-S.

• 21:53Kirk Hamilton?

  So I guess in your playground example, if a kid is telling another kid about it on the playground, they're just gonna say, have you played Nine Souls?

• 21:59Jason Schreier?

  Yes.

• 22:00Kirk Hamilton?

  I'm assuming that any kid hearing that would assume that it was spelled S-O-U-L-S. Not necessarily a bad thing.

• 22:04Jason Schreier?

  Well, I mean, kids aren't the best at spelling, so you never know.

• 22:09Jason Schreier?

  You should see, you should see the way my five-year-old spells certain words. But still, um, yes, I think it's a good name. I think it's intriguing enough.

• 22:21Jason Schreier?

  It's also, it's one of those games that I believe was made in China. So it's one of those games that is like a local, like an East Asian title, like you mentioned earlier. Yeah, I like it. It's punchy. It's intriguing. It's a little bit generic, but I don't know. I do, I like numbers in titles that are in intriguing ways. Like I think certain numbers like seven and nine just have a lot of punch to them and have a lot of appeal to them. And I think it works in this case. Yeah, I like it.

• 22:58Speaker 01

  Plus, the souls part does imply that it might be inspired by a souls game, which is good or bad, but like the game's got some of those elements in it. And that, having that word in there, for better or worse, kind of tells you something. You've got souls in your mind, if you're familiar with souls games. And that can be a good thing.

• 23:16Kirk Hamilton?

  I'm not sure how I feel about it. Like I, like thinking about a title like Hollow Knight, which is a similar type of game and a similar type of title. Hollow Knight is more evocative to me. Like I kind of understand at least what that means, like what a knight is, what it might mean for the knight to be hollow, that this is a game that involves adventuring and combat. Nine Souls is maybe just a little too abstract for me, even though it's not, it's punchy. Like it's easy enough to say, it's not bad.

• 23:41Jason Schreier?

  So it's, since it's S-O-L-S, if you know that soul means sun, then it has a little bit more like an interesting power there.

• 23:50Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah. You know, to throw one in there from a few years back, what do the two of you think of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice? I've been tuned on this one for a while. It's like both a good name and a bad name at the same time.

• 24:01Jason Schreier?

  So sometimes the subtitles are interesting because when you have a game, if a game has a strong beginning part, then you can kind of ignore the rest. And in Sekiro's case, everyone just ignores the rest and just calls it Sekiro. And that, I think, is a strong name. I mean, obviously, it's a Japanese word and people, like in English, you wouldn't understand what it means, but it's easy to say, unlike some other, a certain Sweet Coden series that is a little bit harder to parse. Sekiro is easy to say, it's memorable, it's punchy. The Shadows Die Twice, I mean, I just ignore that part. But if you're counting that, obviously, that's terrible and clunky and awful.

• 24:39Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah. It's like when they were announcing it, I kind of get it, since there is a mechanic in that game where you die and then you come back. And it like, it implies, it tells you something, right? Shadows Die Twice, like that this is a game where you will be dying, like that this is a fighting action game. And I get that, even though the game so quickly launched to like icon status because it's such an amazing game and because it's a FromSoft game, that like, no one needed that anymore. It strikes me as kind of like a publisher marketing decision that I understand in principle, even if, yeah, the game basically just dropped the subtitle completely.

• 25:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's a cool subtitle, though. I remember thinking that even at the time and being intrigued by it. So I guess I am the audience who was marketing it.

• 25:21Kirk Hamilton?

  No, it's a little enticing.

• 25:22Speaker 01

  Is that in that first moment, I was like, Shadows Die Twice is cool. It sounds like a metal band. It's got the right vibe.

• 25:30Kirk Hamilton?

  Right.

• 25:30Speaker 01

  It just has a cool factor.

• 25:32Kirk Hamilton?

  It's enticing, it's a little mysterious. It's not like Shadow, you know, Shadows Rising or something.

• 25:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. Eternal shadows, dark shadows.

• 25:40Kirk Hamilton?

  Shadows Die Twice is a little cooler.

• 25:42Jason Schreier?

  It feels more like a movie slogan. Like, you can imagine a poster that is like, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

• 25:50Speaker 01

  That would be better. Like the, like the Prepare to Die slogan, for example. It should have been maybe more of a that type of sloganeering situation.

• 25:59Kirk Hamilton?

  A tagline, rather than... And a subtitle.

• 26:01Jason Schreier?

  But again, I mean, I think that like you can get away with having a crummy subtitle if your first part is strong enough that like everyone can talk. We just talked, my one more thing last week was this really cool game called The Puzzlemaker: Seba's Odyssey, which is an atrocious name, mostly because of that first part, like The Puzzlemaker: Seba's Odyssey. If it was just called Seba's Odyssey, still not the greatest name, but that's a lot stronger. And so you can kind of, you can almost ignore the first part and just call it Seba's Odyssey, which helps a little bit. And I think in general, when you have these kind of weird, clunky subtitles, if, if the first part is strong enough that you can just use that, then you can, you can kind of ignore what's after the colon.

• 26:42Kirk Hamilton?

  Right. I'm looking at some other 2024 names on this list. For example, a game that really earns its subtitle is Duck Detective: The Secret Salami.

• 26:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's a, that's a perfect title, actually.

• 26:53Kirk Hamilton?

  Pretty great name.

• 26:54Jason Schreier?

  Fantastic name, first of all. Second of all, I think that subtitles, if you are planning, if you have like a trilogy planned, and so you want the subtitle to be like reflecting the next thing, like Middle Earth: Shadow of Mortar, Middle Earth: Shadow of War, like that, that sort of thing, those are terrible names too. But even, even like if you're, if you're thinking in terms of like, uh, this is gonna have a subtitle because we are planning multiple games in the series. And in the Duck Detective case, I think in addition to it being a really funny and, and great name, they also were planning like it's gonna be Duck Detective: Colon Something Else Next After That. And

• 27:32Kirk Hamilton?

  Right.

• 27:32Jason Schreier?

  That is when it's more excusable.

• 27:34Kirk Hamilton?

  You're establishing a franchise.

• 27:36Speaker 01

  Right. And it kind of lays like a riff on like a Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew style, like

• 27:40Jason Schreier?

  Yeah.

• 27:40Speaker 01

  old timey mystery where it's like the the and the, the thing.

• 27:44Kirk Hamilton?

  Right, right.

• 27:45Speaker 01

  Which takes me to also Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, extremely long title, but it works because it's, it's an Indiana Jones framework. You understand exactly what you're getting into. It's essentially like another Indiana Jones story. It's, it's great. It works.

• 27:58Kirk Hamilton?

  And I think, I, I, and I think that an established brand like Indiana Jones or Star Wars, like you, you basically automatically get at least one point of these four things because you have like, it is memorable. It is Already iconic, like Indiana Jones and Star Wars are iconic titles like those. We just know what those things are. So the minute you have that in there, you've already got one. You just need to not screw it up. Like you need to have just something punchy or something, you know, understandable.

• 28:24Speaker 01

  Yeah. And Great Circle isn't mind blowing.

• 28:27Kirk Hamilton?

  Not the strongest. Agree.

• 28:29Speaker 01

  It's fine.

• 28:30Kirk Hamilton?

  They could have done better. It's definitely no Temple of Doom.

• 28:34Speaker 01

  True.

• 28:35Kirk Hamilton?

  Which for, for all that movie's problems is a fantastic.

• 28:38Speaker 01

  Great title though.

• 28:39Jason Schreier?

  Yeah. Last Crusade. Yeah.

• 28:42Speaker 01

  Raiders of the Lost Ark, all stronger titles than Great Circle, unfortunately.

• 28:46Kirk Hamilton?

  Well, and Raiders is an interesting one. I know we're not talking about movies, but it is interesting that Raiders is just called Raiders of the Lost Ark.

• 28:53Speaker 01

  But in marketing, they changed it. Yeah.

• 28:56Kirk Hamilton?

  Yes. And then I believe later was marketed as Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

• 29:00Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 29:00Kirk Hamilton?

  Actually maybe a little, a little floppier. Raiders of the Lost Ark. Yeah. It's a good name for a movie.

• 29:05Speaker 01

  Yeah. It's got some punch to it.

• 29:06Kirk Hamilton?

  We're not doing movies. Um, let's keep going. I think there are some indie games that came out last year, like Indica and Selico and Arco. I have these all next to one another.

• 29:16Jason Schreier?

  God.

• 29:17Kirk Hamilton?

  That all kind of suffer from.

• 29:18Speaker 01

  God really doesn't do them get any favors putting them all next to each other like that.

• 29:22Jason Schreier?

  Yeah. Saying them all.

• 29:24Kirk Hamilton?

  They're all like a little challenging for different reasons. The Arco is a really cool game. It's this like real time or like semi hybrid turn based strategy game set in like Latin America. It's really rad. I played a little bit of it, but I think the name just doesn't do it any favors because Arco, it sounds like a gas station. Like it really is. It's like an abstract thing. It's short enough, but.

• 29:48Jason Schreier?

  All three of these sound like gas stations. Selico.

• 29:51Speaker 01

  For Indica, which is a weed street.

• 29:52Jason Schreier?

  The Indica and fill up.

• 29:55Kirk Hamilton?

  I think Indica is just, sounds like, like Indica versus Sativa. Like Indica just sounds like something that you would hear from a weed dealer.

• 30:01Speaker 01

  But the other two end in Co, which sounds like company, which is what's making you think of the gas station, I would expect. And then the case of Selico, that at least makes sense in world, but for Arco.

• 30:11Kirk Hamilton?

  Well, Arco literally is a gas station.

• 30:15Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah.

• 30:15Speaker 01

  Oh, no.

• 30:16Kirk Hamilton?

  Like, that is a company, the name of a line of gas stations.

• 30:18Speaker 01

  I thought we were just making jokes about, like, Sitgo and Texaco here, but sure.

• 30:23Jason Schreier?

  It's interesting that Bellatro works so well, but none of these do. I wonder why that is. I think it's like, there's something about Bellatro and the kind of Italian of it that makes it just sound so much better than any of these. Indica, Celico, Arco, those all sound like they just, like, took 10% hits on the stock market when.

• 30:45Kirk Hamilton?

  That's a really good comparison, and it's, that's like, I feel like there's something very important there in the difference between Bellatro and Celico. Because, like, Celico is a fantastic game.

• 30:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, we're not talking about the games here.

• 30:57Kirk Hamilton?

  The name is a little not memorable, but the game is really cool, and it's actually very successful. People love it and talk about it all the time. But like, why, it is, I guess, I guess that it must be something to what you're saying, that, like, balla is just a more interesting collection of words than cella. Jesus, that feels, like, very thin.

• 31:13Speaker 01

  Well, I think there is something to it, though.

• 31:14Jason Schreier?

  No, I think it's just, it's, it's, it's the syllables. It's the way it's, it comes off your tongue.

• 31:21Kirk Hamilton?

  Bellatro.

• 31:22Jason Schreier?

  Bellatro. It's so much more fun to say than Celico.

• 31:24Kirk Hamilton?

  Celico. So it's a punchiness question.

• 31:26Jason Schreier?

  Like Celico, it feels like your, your mouth is kind of like, like, heading in the wrong direction. It feels like a downer. It's like that c. It's just so ugly. Celico. Oh, yeah, like, Celico is poisoning the water around our house. Like, oh, God.

• 31:41Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, Celico, I guess.

• 31:43Jason Schreier?

  New York v. Celico in the, the case of the century.

• 31:47Kirk Hamilton?

  New York v. Celico does sound like some Matt Stewart litigation.

• 31:50Jason Schreier?

  Those fucking guys at Celico are trying to take away our community center. Yeah, it's just like, it sounds so gross. Like, Indica, you're right, does have that kind of, like, weed vibe. And Arco, I don't know, Arco reminds, it feels like a Roman building or something. Like, it just feels like, like, or. I don't know. None of these are just like, like really stand out in a way Bellatro does.

• 32:13Kirk Hamilton?

  Well, I'm like, I'm picturing like, I don't know, if Indica had had a subtitle like The Nun and the Devil or something, you know, like it's a really cool game with a very evocative story and setting. And maybe that's dumbing it down, or maybe that doesn't work, but just something that's a little less arty could have worked.

• 32:29Jason Schreier?

  I mean, they should have called it The Nun and the Devil.

• 32:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's pretty cool, actually.

• 32:33Kirk Hamilton?

  Man, I had Kill Night down, which is a game I never even played, but there's a, there's a good game name for you. Kill Night. What's that game? It's a game about a night that kills people.

• 32:45Speaker 01

  You know what?

• 32:45Kirk Hamilton?

  It's a good one.

• 32:46Speaker 01

  Sometimes it's just that simple.

• 32:48Kirk Hamilton?

  Or Little Kitty Big City is another one.

• 32:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's another great one. I mean, having the title rhyme, if you're trying to be cute with it, I think is also effective, which that game is inherently trying to be cute with it. It's an adorable game.

• 33:00Kirk Hamilton?

  One name here that makes me think of another sort of sub rule is the game NEVA, which looked like a lovely game, but I think you should always try to avoid naming your game something that can be used in negative reviews against you. So calling your game NEVA, if someone's like, "You should never play this," I just think you should never call it that. Or you should also, like conversely, you should never call your game like "The Masterpiece," because then every reviewer will be like, "Well, it's far from a masterpiece."

• 33:32Kirk Hamilton?

  It's just bait. It's just bait for reviewers.

• 33:35Jason Schreier?

  I mean, NEVA is also a terrible name. It's just so soft and dull and boring and doesn't say anything about the game. I think if you're gonna like, okay, Bellatro, it doesn't signal anything about the game. Like, I could tell someone to go play Bellatro and they would like, be like, "What the fuck is that? Like, that doesn't mean anything to me." As opposed to, I don't know, Duck Detective, which hits all the boxes, which is like, perfect. But like, if you're gonna go that way, it just needs to not be a downer. It needs to sound good. It needs to feel good to say. It needs to feel good on your tongue. And like, NEVA, it just like, I don't know, it feels like some like-

• 34:09Speaker 01

  Sounds like a soap.

• 34:10Jason Schreier?

  Yeah.

• 34:11Kirk Hamilton?

  It has kind of a body wash energy.

• 34:13Speaker 01

  It has a very soft, gentle energy to me that's soap-like, and that can be great for a soap.

• 34:19Jason Schreier?

  Oh, soap. I thought you meant soap opera.

• 34:20Speaker 01

  Oh, sure.

• 34:23Jason Schreier?

  Sounds like that, too.

• 34:23Kirk Hamilton?

  No, I really, it sounds like a skincare product.

• 34:25Jason Schreier?

  It does sound like a soap. It sounds like, yes, like, I just got NEVA for men and my hair has never looked so good. It's, it does, it just doesn't, whenever a game title sounds like a product that you could just like be buying from Procter and Gamble, then it probably doesn't.

• 34:42Kirk Hamilton?

  Last 2024 name that I want to shout out is Lorelei and the Laser Eyes. Speaking of long names that are pretty sweet, I think that's a pretty sweet.

• 34:49Speaker 01

  Good, actually. Worth it. Worth it in the end.

• 34:52Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, that's strong.

• 34:54Speaker 01

  It's a journey.

• 34:55Jason Schreier?

  Laser Eyes, it's a lot to say, but it's unique.

• 35:00Speaker 01

  It rhymes. It's another rhyme.

• 35:02Kirk Hamilton?

  I think it scores so many points in the like memorable, iconic.

• 35:05Jason Schreier?

  Memorable, I think, based on your categories, which are good categories, I think memorable might be the most important. And like Lorelei and the Laser Eyes gets stuck in your head pretty easily and you remember it. And memorable is the most important because you want someone to remember it as soon as they hear it and think, okay, I want to buy that. I want to play that. And Indica, Selico, Arco, Never, none of those are memorable at all. Even something that is clunky as hell like Unicorn Overlord is so memorable. And I think that is the most important thing. If you're going to give a title to a game, like put all other rules aside if it is memorable. If you can tell someone it and 30 minutes later with no prompting, they will remember that title, then that is probably going to be a win for you, even if it's bad in other ways.

• 35:49Kirk Hamilton?

  So I was looking through some of the notable flops of 2024, and I think there's, there are some name lessons in there too. Concord, for example, is not a particularly memorable name that I still don't really know what it's referring to.

• 36:03Speaker 01

  Another pronunciation riddle too. I called it Concord for a long while and thought it was supposed to be like a synonym. Well, actually, I thought it was maybe like a synonym with like C O N Q.

• 36:13Kirk Hamilton?

  Oh, Concord.

• 36:14Speaker 01

  That, that version, you know what I mean? Or a homonym, whatever that word is.

• 36:17Jason Schreier?

  Clearly you guys did not grow up in New York going to the Catskills Jewish Hotel, the Concord, which was a fixture.

• 36:26Speaker 01

  Which is the obvious inspiration.

• 36:28Jason Schreier?

  A fixture of the Borscht Belt for many years. I spent many, many a holiday at the Concord in New York.

• 36:35Kirk Hamilton?

  It's funny, you know, because Concord is a pretty good word. We have reached a Concord or even like the Concord private jet. I feel like, wasn't that like the, one of the first like luxury jets?

• 36:44Jason Schreier?

  That was the fastest jet in the world. Yeah. But it was a disaster. It was like an infamous disaster.

• 36:49Speaker 01

  Was it?

• 36:51Kirk Hamilton?

  It was a cool, it's a cool word, but it doesn't quite work. Another one is Foam Stars, which is very representative of what the game is. Like, there's no reason exactly that Foam, well, why is it that Foam Stars doesn't work and Splatoon does?

• 37:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:05Kirk Hamilton?

  Two very similar games.

• 37:06Speaker 01

  And why is it that you can watch the trailer for Foam Stars, or perhaps even just hear the word Foam Stars and know that it reminds you of Splatoon? And yet Splatoon is a great name.

• 37:15Kirk Hamilton?

  I think it's because Foam just isn't cool. Foam is like, kind of wimpy.

• 37:19Speaker 01

  It's soft.

• 37:20Kirk Hamilton?

  Floats around and isn't, it's soft. It doesn't do much.

• 37:22Speaker 01

  Doesn't splat, the way that the paint does in Splatoon.

• 37:26Kirk Hamilton?

  Splatoon combined with splatting, like, and it has a big splat, like Nickelodeon graphics. So you're like, Splatoon, that looks fun. Foam Stars, it's like, we're the stars of foam. Yeah, okay. It's actually maybe obvious why I said it's kind of a name now that we talk about. Let's keep going. What, Multiverses? No, I don't think that name, that name has never really worked for me. It's a little too abstract.

• 37:48Speaker 01

  It's a little too cute, too. It's like multiverse, but you're versing off.

• 37:53Kirk Hamilton?

  Right.

• 37:55Jason Schreier?

  I don't know. That's not horribly offensive to me.

• 37:57Kirk Hamilton?

  Right. It just doesn't convey, like, Tony Soprano beating the shit out of Scrappy Doo with, with a hoagie.

• 38:04Jason Schreier?

  God, I wish, I wish Tony Soprano was in it.

• 38:06Speaker 01

  I wouldn't say it's as bad as X-Defiant and Dustborne, which you also have on here, and which just give me douche chills.

• 38:13Kirk Hamilton?

  Both kind of forgettable. Especially X-Defiant. X-Defiant is like-

• 38:17Jason Schreier?

  X-Defiant might be the worst.

• 38:19Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, anything where you're doing that kind of extreme games, like, combination with X and stuff, it just feels like-

• 38:25Speaker 01

  It feels like it's a relic of another era.

• 38:28Kirk Hamilton?

  I would describe X-Defiant as a fairly sweaty-

• 38:30Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 38:31Kirk Hamilton?

  -name. Like, you can see the perspiration.

• 38:33Speaker 01

  You're not only defiant, you're putting an X in front of it. And what does that tell you about how defiant you are?

• 38:39Kirk Hamilton?

  And also, Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is an interesting one, because, like, they've established a franchise with Hellblade. Senua's Sacrifice was the first one.

• 38:50Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 38:50Kirk Hamilton?

  And then they flipped it, so suddenly it's as though the series is Senua's something, but then it's not Senua's Sacrifice 2, it's Senua's Saga.

• 39:00Speaker 01

  It's so confusing.

• 39:01Kirk Hamilton?

  It's a, it's a real hash. They, they kind of made a hash out of that one.

• 39:04Speaker 01

  I don't know why it's not Hellblade 2 Senua's Saga.

• 39:06Jason Schreier?

  What a disaster.

• 39:07Speaker 01

  Why not have, just, just have it be that?

• 39:09Jason Schreier?

  Or just Hellblade 2.

• 39:10Kirk Hamilton?

  Because Hellblade is cool. Like, we were talking about Stellar Blade, like, Hellblade, they're kind of very similar names.

• 39:15Jason Schreier?

  I assume they're trying to position to do a new game that is Senua Saga: Kola, something else and get away from the Hellblade branding? That's the only possible explanation for doing the flip.

• 39:26Kirk Hamilton?

  Right, because like Hellblade is, I guess it is a little bit discordant with like those games. Like the games do have like fighting and are very intense, but they're much more like these serious like survival psychological thrillers. They're not really like Hellblade, which makes you think of like Devil May Cry or whatever. Where Stellar Blade actually is like, you know, a character action game with a sword and doing acrobatics and fighting huge robots. Yeah, okay. Yeah, that's true. Hellblade doesn't actually really like match with that series anymore.

• 39:55Jason Schreier?

  Okay, before we keep going, I just want to read out with no commentary some Hall of Fame or inexperience. You guys ready? Octopath Traveler, bravely defaults, various day life, Kingdom Hearts 3.58/2 days, infinite undiscovery, triangle strategy.

• 40:15Speaker 01

  And you read those because they're all good.

• 40:17Kirk Hamilton?

  Great examples of the incredible localization loophole.

• 40:20Jason Schreier?

  That's just a sampling. That's just a sampling of the Square Enix experience. So leave them hanging there.

• 40:28Kirk Hamilton?

  So let's wrap up by looking at some upcoming games. I put a big list here. We could just kind of pick and choose. One worth mentioning is a game that I think looks awesome but has a totally flummoxing name, which is Claire Obscure Expedition 33.

• 40:42Speaker 01

  I'm so upset by this one.

• 40:44Kirk Hamilton?

  That is like breaking every single rule, man, even though when I-

• 40:47Jason Schreier?

  Claire Obscure calling Expedition 33.

• 40:49Kirk Hamilton?

  Where you're like, I don't know what Claire Obscure is. I don't know why I should care about Expedition 33. Expedition 33 is like one of those genericized words where I'm like, okay, there was an expedition. I go on expeditions in games all the time. And yet I have, I can't wait to play this game, like having seen footage of it. It's this like sick looking like turn-based RPG. Oh, man, it looks really dope. It just, it might be one of those ones that, that follows the original rule of if your game rocks, you can call it whatever you want and it'll still do well. But I guess we'll see.

• 41:18Jason Schreier?

  I think if you got rid of the Claire Obscure nonsense in that and just called it Expedition 33. Kirk, you said you don't like that. I like that.

• 41:26Speaker 01

  I think it helps a lot.

• 41:27Jason Schreier?

  Thirty three Expedition thirty three. It's specific enough that it makes me think, oh, interesting. I wonder if this is like a time travel story and it's like the same expedition keeps happening over and over again, and they have to repeat it. I wonder if there was like a lot, if it's like Apollo thirteen where it was like a lost expedition. That to me is intriguing. I like Expedition thirty three on its own.

• 41:45Kirk Hamilton?

  I certainly agree that Expedition thirty three is a significant improvement over Claire Obscure Expedition thirty three. The Claire Obscure adds very little.

• 41:53Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, that's, that's a big loss.

• 41:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, but if you, if you have to, to call it Claire Obscure, even that's better. Like, get, get rid of one of them. I'm begging you. That's all I ask.

• 42:03Jason Schreier?

  Can we talk about, there's a game coming up called Like a Dragon Cola Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, which even putting that absurd like cocktail of a name aside, the fact that like, I know the Like a Dragon.

• 42:17Kirk Hamilton?

  This is an amazing name.

• 42:19Speaker 01

  I mean, the Yakuza games have gone fully off the map with their names.

• 42:23Jason Schreier?

  The Like a Dragon series is popular, so like that aside, the fact that they've switched from Yakuza, which is a fantastic title and, and series and had all this branding power, switch from that to Like a Dragon might be the biggest like shooting yourself in the foot in history. And these games appear to be successful regardless, so maybe it doesn't matter that much. But like going, what a downgrade. God, that's like just as maybe worse than Dread Wolf to veil, to the veil guard.

• 42:52Kirk Hamilton?

  I think the thing with these games is that they're, it's both, if the game is good enough, it'll just be successful despite the name and also the like East Asian localized game exception where it's like, yeah, it's a weird name, just like whatever, you know, various day life or Kingdom Hearts three, five, eight slash two days. And like, yeah, it's an unusual name, but also I think Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is hilarious.

• 43:14Speaker 01

  It is.

• 43:14Kirk Hamilton?

  As a subtitle and amazing. Like, I actually kind of love that.

• 43:18Jason Schreier?

  Sure, I'm gonna go to the store and be like, one copy of Like a Dragon Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii.

• 43:23Kirk Hamilton?

  Don't you kind of want to do that?

• 43:24Speaker 01

  And you know what? The quote is gonna know exactly what you're talking about because they're gonna remember this title. It is so unwieldy that it kind of becomes memorable, like circles back around. Can we talk about yet another? Colon game, Intergalactic, The Heretic Prophet, another one that has become an obsession of mine. Just fun. It's fun to say for the wrong reasons.

• 43:44Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, I mean, I think this also feels to me like they want Intergalactic to be this big series franchise thing.

• 43:52Speaker 01

  Right.

• 43:52Jason Schreier?

  And this is just like one entry. So Intergalactic, colon, The Heretic Prophet, and this story-

• 43:57Kirk Hamilton?

  When you picture Uncharted, right? Intergalactic is a lot like Uncharted as a, as a name. And, and that started with Uncharted, Drake's Fortune.

• 44:06Jason Schreier?

  Right. And so, so maybe they want you to call this particular game The Heretic Prophet, which isn't like the best name. Like, it's tough to say-

• 44:14Speaker 01

  Hard to say.

• 44:15Jason Schreier?

  Bad mouth feel.

• 44:16Speaker 01

  Doesn't stay in your brain.

• 44:17Jason Schreier?

  Not super memorable, but I mean, I understand where they're going, where they're, what they're trying to get at with the Intergalactic at the top of it.

• 44:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, maybe if it was just called that.

• 44:27Jason Schreier?

  But it's bad. This is bad. Don't get me wrong. This is really bad.

• 44:29Speaker 01

  Or if they just called it Heretic or Just Prophet. It's like, these are some cool words. Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. I just, I don't know. There's something about it that just feels-

• 44:39Jason Schreier?

  Heretic Prophet.

• 44:40Speaker 01

  Like, it's too much. It's too much.

• 44:42Kirk Hamilton?

  I think The Heretic Prophet is, is trying too hard. Like, like a heretic who's actually a prophet. It's like, it's got a lot going on and it's just a little, it's another one that's a little sweaty, a little bit sweaty for me. And I see what they're going for. Again, though, this is like the same studio that called a game The Last of Us, which is like one of the great video game titles. Like, an amazing title. So like, they've got it in them.

• 45:04Speaker 01

  They can certainly do it.

• 45:05Kirk Hamilton?

  And, and a lot of the Uncharted, you know, Among Thieves, or, uh, what's the, A Thief's End, like, their subtitles for Uncharted games are great. This one's a little sweaty for me, too. Agree. And, um, oh, one other that I want to shout out, uh, that comes to mind for me at least, is Split Fiction. The, the new one from the makers of Away Out and It Takes Two. I feel like they've been steadily improving their name game. I think Away Out is a little bit generic. I really like that game, but title's a little bit generic, even if it is what the game is about. I think It Takes Two is, is clever. Like, it's, it's nappy and clever. It kind of captures the vibe of that game. And Split Fiction is, I think, a great name.

• 45:41Speaker 01

  I agree.

• 45:42Kirk Hamilton?

  Granted, it's similar to split screen. Like, it has that same kind of like- Punchy, snappy energy that I at least really like in titles. But Split Fiction, I think, very, very strong. And then especially knowing what that game is about, that it's about like writers who get trapped inside their two fictional worlds.

• 45:57Speaker 01

  And it has split screens too?

• 45:59Kirk Hamilton?

  A split between sci fi and, yeah, it's like a really a hell of a name. So I find that one very impressive.

• 46:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, I like it.

• 46:05Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, it's okay. I mean, it's, it's tough to say like the it's like the it, the it's followed by the ict is, makes it tough on the mouth.

• 46:16Kirk Hamilton?

  I think it's great.

• 46:18Jason Schreier?

  But yeah, I mean, I like it. I just, it's, the mouth feel isn't great, I would say.

• 46:23Kirk Hamilton?

  I would say, I'm looking at Split Gate. Split Gate? I even had a hard time saying it right there. Split Gate is not as good as Split Fiction. It's funny, like these little rhythmic things, like Split Gate is a little like.

• 46:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's like it stops too soon or something.

• 46:36Kirk Hamilton?

  Gate is okay and Split is good, but like Split Gate is a little hard, whereas Split Fiction has a much, a much nicer flow to it when you say it. Also Demon's School, that's a cool name.

• 46:48Speaker 01

  I think that's good. It follows Jason's rule.

• 46:50Jason Schreier?

  That plays into my rule from earlier.

• 46:51Speaker 01

  Spider, Spider Mansion or whatever.

• 46:53Kirk Hamilton?

  Oh, you're right.

• 46:54Jason Schreier?

  If you have a place and you fill it with something. Yeah, the Spider Mansion rule. You take a place and you fill it with something unexpected and that is like an immediate winner of a name.

• 47:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, Demon's School.

• 47:04Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, yeah. Looking at a few more of these. Frag Punk, it's all right.

• 47:10Jason Schreier?

  There are too many other games with punk at the end.

• 47:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. You don't want, you don't want to remind everybody of every other game in your genre. And then you automatically feel like you're the same as all those other games.

• 47:21Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, it's the kind of name that at least is punchy and kind of memorable enough that if that game is sensational and becomes a big phenomenon, I could see it. Like everyone just being really into Frag Punk for a while, I suppose. I could see it happening, but I agree that it's a little, yeah.

• 47:36Jason Schreier?

  Names are funny like that in that if something becomes ubiquitous enough, it can just kind of stick with you even when it's bad.

• 47:42Speaker 01

  Like the word podcast.

• 47:43Jason Schreier?

  Fortnite is maybe one of those.

• 47:45Kirk Hamilton?

  Podcast is a good one.

• 47:47Speaker 01

  Terrible.

• 47:48Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, that's true.

• 47:49Speaker 01

  And we're stuck with it. Jason, did you want to talk about the Sports FC game?

• 47:54Kirk Hamilton?

  Oh, yeah.

• 47:54Speaker 01

  I don't know what your thought was, but I didn't want you to not have your chance.

• 47:57Jason Schreier?

  I do. So a couple of years ago, EA kind of parted ways with FIFA, the soccer licensing group. And they said, hey, we don't want to pay you anymore. We're just going to do our games under like different, our own branding. And they switched it to possibly the worst title of them all, calling it EA Sports FC. And so now if you want a new soccer game from soccer or from EA, you have to go and buy EA. You have to go up to GameStop and say, I would like a new copy of EA Sports FC, please. Which is like, my goodness, what a cell phone. And then so EA put out preliminary results last week on their earnings that were just like a debacle. And there have been, their stock has been down something like 20%.

• 48:42Jason Schreier?

  In part because the most recent EA Sports FC didn't do well compared to the previous game. And that happened because, or one of the big reasons that happened was because when they did the name switch, they put in a huge marketing budget to kind of telling the world that they had switched the names. And so they had a very high marketing budget for the 23 game. And then that marketing budget went down for the 24 game because the 23 game was successful. They felt like, okay, and people get it. They know the new brand. It's, it doesn't need to happen anymore. And so they reduced the marketing budget. And as a result, the comp was really bad and the game didn't sell as well and didn't bring in as much revenue. So, uh, but I still think that like, marketing budgets can't save an awful name.

• 49:26Jason Schreier?

  And EA Sports FC is still an awful name.

• 49:28Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, man. I mean, just knowing that there are people who only play FIFA and who call it FIFA, and that that's, video games to them is just FIFA. And that suddenly, what are they going to say? I can't really picture the guy who only plays FIFA being like, oh, I'm going to go play some EA Sports FC. It's like, what are they, they probably are just like, I'm going to play FIFA.

• 49:47Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, or like, I'm going to go play that soccer game or play that football game.

• 49:50Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah.

• 49:51Jason Schreier?

  That's probably what they're saying. The new EA football game, the new EA soccer game. So, yeah, it's, it's, that's like a real bad cell phone. Cause I feel like there are a lot of ways you can say, okay, we're moving away from FIFA. We're going to call it something else. There are a lot of, lot of ways that you could go that would be a lot more interesting and stronger than EA Sports FC.

• 50:11Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, it's like a two, it's like two letters on either side. It's like a kind of incomprehensible sandwich.

• 50:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's part of what's bad about it. EA is on one side, FC is on the other side. And then in the middle, you have sports, which tells you everything you need to know. It's like, if you look at the title, it's like, I don't know what this is. Like, just straight up, I don't know what's happening. There's letters and there's the word sports. And then there's gonna be a number at the end.

• 50:33Jason Schreier?

  Compare that to Madden, which is just iconic.

• 50:36Speaker 01

  Well, yeah.

• 50:37Jason Schreier?

  Who would have thought that one guy's name would just make for this, like, perfect name for a series?

• 50:41Kirk Hamilton?

  Well, and it goes to show that, like, you know, if the, whatever, whoever owns Madden, I suppose the Madden estate ever was like, you can't use it anymore. Like, if they were the same as FIFA, if they basically, like, broke their partnership with EA, they would be in a similar pickle, where, like, they are relying on an outside brand to brand their very, very well-known franchise. So I suppose it's like, it's a vulnerability anytime you have to partner with another brand and then use their brand to power up your own product. Well, have we got any, any other, any other ones you guys want to get to? I feel like we'll probably come back to this subject from time to time.

• 51:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, this was fun.

• 51:15Kirk Hamilton?

  Maybe review the games of the year each year and how the names are going. But this was a lot of fun. But yeah, I don't know, any of these other ones jumping out at you, anything we haven't mentioned?

• 51:22Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, I mean, I think, I think we should start a consultancy and charge people a lot of money to come give us their names and we'll tell them if it's good and we'll, we'll make it better for them. We will give you good names.

• 51:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, we're here to help.

• 51:36Jason Schreier?

  It's like, okay, so there's a game coming out this, this week, and I know some of the people involved, they seem like good people. I met a few of them, and I haven't really played much of the game yet, and it is called Eternal Strands. And that name is just so bad. It is so offensive.

• 51:55Speaker 01

  Generic is what it is.

• 51:55Jason Schreier?

  It is so generic. It is like two words that are just like, like, are awful together. But Eternal Strands, God, like, strands in a name is just so bad in the first place. Eternal should just never be in anything, ever. It's just so generic and like-

• 52:12Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, Eternal should be banned.

• 52:13Speaker 01

  Or infinite?

• 52:14Jason Schreier?

  Yeah, infinite, like, and any of those, it just makes me think of, like, the, the most generic, like, fantasy book cover. And it's just like Eternal Strands, and you open it up and there are 40 proper nouns, and it's just indecipherable. And god, there are so many ways that a name can go. And if you're gonna go with Eternal Strands, you're just kinda shooting yourself in the foot.

• 52:33Kirk Hamilton?

  It's also funny, because Kojima invented the strand-type game. And so if you put strands in the title, it's gonna imply to people that it's a strand-type game. And as far as I know, Eternal Strands is not a strand-type game.

• 52:44Jason Schreier?

  That is true.

• 52:45Kirk Hamilton?

  And that's also confusing.

• 52:47Jason Schreier?

  Death stranding is in its category of its own.

• 52:50Kirk Hamilton?

  That's true. It breaks every rule and yet makes it work.

• 52:54Speaker 01

  Well, it kinda does. It's such a weird set of words. It kinda does follow the weird set of words rule that we've decided upon.

• 53:01Kirk Hamilton?

  That we've invented here. We'll refine these rules, and I'm sure that we will apply them to game names in the future. And yeah, if we open that consultancy, I guess the first thing we'll have to do is name it. So that'll be a-

• 53:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, that'll be high-pressure.

• 53:13Kirk Hamilton?

  A really terrible, floppy, confusing name for it.

• 53:17Kirk Hamilton?

  Then we can tell people that we won't do that for their game.

• 53:21Jason Schreier?

  I got it, guys. Name Mansion.

• 53:27Kirk Hamilton?

  All right, let's take a break, and we'll be back for one more thing.

• 53:34Speaker 03

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• 53:35Speaker 04

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• 53:36Speaker 05

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• 53:37Speaker 03

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• 53:38Speaker 04

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• 53:45Speaker 03

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• 53:52Speaker 05

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• 53:56Speaker 04

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• 54:14Speaker 04

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• 54:16Speaker 04

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• 55:02Kirk Hamilton?

  And we are back for one more thing. Maddie, why don't you go first?

• 55:06Speaker 01

  Sure. So this week I watched all of Silo, season two, which is a television show on Apple TV Plus, but I really enjoyed. And that we, we actually did a Beans Cast together about season one.

• 55:19Jason Schreier?

  Talk about bad names. There's Apple TV and Apple TV Plus.

• 55:23Speaker 01

  I actually think Silo is pretty good for what it's worth.

• 55:25Kirk Hamilton?

  Silo is good.

• 55:26Jason Schreier?

  Oh, yeah. No, it's Apple TV and Apple TV Plus being two different products that have nothing to do with one another. Anyway, sorry to interrupt you there.

• 55:34Kirk Hamilton?

  We're all name filled forever now.

• 55:35Speaker 01

  We are name filled. It's fine. But Silo season two, really enjoyed it. Kirk and I were talking about it before the show and you, you pointed out that the middle is, is really slow, but I kind of didn't notice that because I just saved up all the episodes and watched them all in a whack. I guess I'm saying this advice way too late for anyone else to take advantage of it, or rather you're inherently taking advantage of it if you're watching the show now. But I think that's the best way to go about it. It does slow down a bit in the middle. Really, really love this show. It has Common playing a weird evil guy. It has Tim Robbins playing a different evil guy. They're both amazing at it. And Rebecca Ferguson is like the enigmatic heroine who is, I think, stronger this season. I

• 56:18Speaker 01

  know, Jason, I remember you saying that you felt like she wasn't emoting very much, but she's got a lot of high stress situations she has to get through this season. And like dialogue free, high stress, video game traversal type scenarios that I really enjoyed watching her get through.

• 56:33Kirk Hamilton?

  A lot of solo acting, just watching her solve problems by looking at things and you have to follow her. Train of thought.

• 56:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, I like that kind of thing. Very, very cool. Oh, and Steve Zahn is on this season and he plays a new character that I was obsessed with. So just great performances all around. Wonderful science fiction show about people who live in a silo underground in a post apocalyptic world. And what more do you need to know? There's twists, there's turns, but they're not that complicated and you'll be able to follow along just fine. It doesn't, I think what shocks me about the show is just how wonderful I find the performances to be. I don't know that the plot is ever really blowing my mind. That's fine with me, though. I enjoy it every time. So if you've never gotten around to it, I really recommend it. It's one of my, my Apple favorites. And now I just have to wait until Severance season two is over. Because that's how I watch these shows. Just wait until they're over. And then I'm

• 57:24Speaker 01

  gonna watch them all. So yeah, Silo, really good show.

• 57:26Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, I liked the season overall. In the end, I, there was a part in the middle where I was definitely kind of struggling, just because Emily and I watched it week to week.

• 57:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, that seems tough.

• 57:35Kirk Hamilton?

  And there, there are points in it where it's like so many of those kind of dystopian tropes of the people in power not telling everyone what's going on. And, you know, the controlled like misinformation. And, and there, there are points where you're like, wait, why don't they all just like, sit down and talk? And like, then it just would be fine. Which can feel a little bit frustrating, even though like, obviously there are wheels within wheels. And there's a lot going on with the silos. But then, once it starts carrying you away, and you just get into the, the, the plot and the logistics of the silo, which are always very fun. And there's a lot more of in season two of like, well, we need to get to floor 33, because at 33, that's like where the farm is. And we can get food. But like, if we can like, block up two more floors from there. And there's a lot of like, fainting between

• 58:15Speaker 01

  Tactics.

• 58:16Kirk Hamilton?

  The resistance and the, the, you know, authoritarian leaders. And a lot of cool stuff there. And I enjoyed all of that. And yeah, in the end, I thought the last couple of episodes were very strong.

• 58:25Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. Ends really strong. Which helps.

• 58:28Kirk Hamilton?

  Looking forward to season three, for sure. All right, I'll go next. I just wanted to recommend an essay that I read from 2021 that's actually in part about Jason's second book, Press Reset. And it's a really great piece called "All Work and No Play," written by Sam Adlerbell for Descent Magazine back in 2021. So Sam, some listeners might know, along with Matthew Sitman, hosts the podcast Know Your Enemy, which is an extremely brainy politics and history podcast. It's kind of about understanding the American right, going all the way back to like William F. Buckley and the times before my understanding of American politics. And Sam and Matt are

• 59:11Kirk Hamilton?

  fantastic co-hosts, and I've loved their show for a while. And I wound up emailing with Sam, and he mentioned that he listens to TripleClick, which is another reason for us to feel very intimidated about some of the people who listen to our show, because there are some very, very smart people out there, apparently, who listen to TripleClick. But Sam likes video games and pointed me to this piece that he wrote that was a kind of a response and further thoughts to Jason's second book. It is a fantastic piece of writing, and I really just want to recommend it to anyone out there who wants to read just some very intelligent writing about video games and labor and the way that video games interface with and reflect the nature of work in America, which is kind of the theme of the piece.

• 59:52Kirk Hamilton?

  It's a pretty long piece. It starts focusing on Jason's book and talking about the, this is Press Reset, which is largely about the fallout and labor conditions in the video game industry. And then it kind of pulls this pivot after about a third and starts to talk about video games themselves. The pivot is very fascinating. It's basically hinging on an idea that I've, I've had myself and have talked about many times in reviews, that most video games, like all art, really reflect something about the way that they were made. You know, the society, the culture, and the, the people that made them are reflected in the finished work itself. So then he gets into how video games are designed and the ways that video games really simulate work. And he's citing all kinds of great writers

• 1:00:36Kirk Hamilton?

  and people who will be familiar to, I think, a lot of readers. From, you know, Tom Bissell to Frank Lance and Sarah Jaffe and Cecilia D'Anastasio turns up at one point, some of her reporting and actually David Graeber and Bullshit Jobs makes an appearance, too. So it's kind of like it crosses a whole lot of various interests that listeners of this show, I think, will kind of clock as they read it. And really, I just think it's like a wonderfully written, a very provocative, at times almost revolutionary piece that I really recommend reading. Like, I just loved it. I've read it twice. I thought it was so good. And I'm just, it's really cool to see someone like Sam writing about video games so thoughtfully. So that's my recommendation, a piece called All Work and

• 1:01:17Kirk Hamilton?

  No Play that we'll link in the show notes by Sam Adler Bell, written for Dissent. And yeah, Jason, your last, what's your one more thing?

• 1:01:25Jason Schreier?

  My one more thing is a book by Stephen King called You Like It Darker. This is his most recent book. And it's a compilation of short stories, although that might be a misnomer, because it's actually a group of short stories and then one novella in the middle of it that is like 120 pages long. And so I went into it, yeah, I went into it expecting just short stories. And there's one that is not a short story. And that also happens to be the best one. And it's awesome. It's like getting a little mini bonus Stephen King book in the middle. So this book, it's funny, despite the title and the tagline is like, oh, you like it darker, huh? So do I. Here's a bunch of like, super dark

• 1:02:10Jason Schreier?

  stories. None of them are all really that dark. Like, they're all just kind of Stephen King stories. Like, some of them are disturbing and there's obviously horror all over the place. But it's not like some of them are going to make you like, start questioning your like, emotions or something like that. It's not like they're-

• 1:02:27Kirk Hamilton?

  Is there a point in any of the stories where someone looks at someone else and says, oh, so you like it darker?

• 1:02:31Jason Schreier?

  No, there is not. The quote is from, the title is from the afterword. That's Stephen King pens. But there are a lot of good, there's a lot of good stuff in there, as you might expect. It opens with this great story about like, this, this super talented, prolific-

• 1:02:50Jason Schreier?

  Writer at the end of his life and the secrets, secrets behind his talents as a writer. And that one is, is, is great and unsettling.

• 1:03:00Kirk Hamilton?

  Sounds like classic Steve.

• 1:03:01Jason Schreier?

  There's a lot of good stuff in there. There's stuff about aliens and supernatural stuff, all sorts of cool stuff. But the, the best part is this story, this novella, and it's called Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream. And the premise is that this guy named Danny has a dream that just is haunting him that cannot, he cannot stop thinking about. And it's about a dead body and he winds up trying to track down like where the specific place where he sees this dead body in the dream. And he goes and finds the place and he finds a dead body. And then he, uh, uh, seeing the body and like feeling bad because he's like a good dude and he's like empathetic. And he sees this dead woman and he's like, oh my God. He, um, kind of clumsily makes an anonymous tip to the police to be like, there's a dead body here.

• 1:03:46Jason Schreier?

  Like he wants it to be rescued. There's a dog trying to gnaw at the, the body's like feet. And like, he doesn't want the dog to, to get it. And so he like buys a burner phone and does it in a clumsy way. And he's like caught on the security camera. And of course the police get this tip and they track him down and they think he's the one who killed her. And the story unfolds from there. And he's like, this guy who had this dream, saw this vision and then tries to explain to the police that actually he saw it in a dream. And they're like, how did you know that dead woman was there? Wait a minute.

• 1:04:15Kirk Hamilton?

  This is kind of like a dead zone riff. Like it's a little dead zony.

• 1:04:19Jason Schreier?

  So that story is really good and probably the highlight of the book. And the fact that you're buying the short story book, which I was a little hesitant to get it at first even because I was like, I don't know. I want a full on Stephen King book. I don't want to just short stories, but he sneaks a novella in there and it's great. And it's worth getting just for that novella. Plus you get a bunch of cool stories surrounding it. So, uh, as always with Stephen King, uh, enjoyed it quite a bit and, and highly recommend it. I actually, uh, uh, have been thinking, Kirk, I think you'll appreciate this. I never read the, uh, Dark Tower books and I have The Gunslinger like sitting at my desk here. And, uh, I think I'm going to try to find some time to start it.

• 1:05:04Jason Schreier?

  I have a bunch of other books to get through, but gonna try to sneak this up in the queue.

• 1:05:09Kirk Hamilton?

  Nice. The, um, the, our buddies over at Just King Things just finished The Dark Tower. They did all the, the three recent ones on their, on their show. And it made me want to reread the whole thing because they were very up on the final three books. Um, I'd say Song of Susanna is still is the one with the most nonsense going on, but they really had this, a really fascinating take on it that was partly informed by the fact that they've read every single Stephen King book up until the end of The Dark Tower. And because The Dark Tower-

• 1:05:38Speaker 01

  In publication order, as they say.

• 1:05:39Kirk Hamilton?

  And, yes, that's the, the method. And because The Dark Tower is such a meta textual book that like encompasses everything he's ever written, if you've done that, it's actually a very rewarding and interesting book. And now that I, I haven't read every one of his books, but I've read a lot more than when I first read The Dark Tower. And I've listened to like basically every episode of, um, of Just King Things, since it's my, it has to be my favorite podcast forever because there's a T-shirt that says that it's my favorite podcast. So anyways, I'm much more familiar now with his work and I, I want to reread it too. So, uh, well, let me know when you read it. Maybe I'll read it along with you. We can do a little text message book club or something.

• 1:06:15Jason Schreier?

  That would be fun.

• 1:06:15Kirk Hamilton?

  Matt, if you want to join in, you'd be welcome.

• 1:06:17Speaker 01

  I've never read it. Yeah, I've never read it. Maybe we should do a gunslinger bonus episode. Beans Cast.

• 1:06:22Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, that could be fun.

• 1:06:23Jason Schreier?

  Oh, there we go. Okay.

• 1:06:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, it could be fun.

• 1:06:25Jason Schreier?

  Good stuff.

• 1:06:26Kirk Hamilton?

  All right.

• 1:06:26Jason Schreier?

  Good, good bonus planning, planning meeting on this show.

• 1:06:30Kirk Hamilton?

  We'll come back to that. That would be good. It'd be a little intimidating trying to make a podcast about Stephen King after listening to the masters do it for so many years.

• 1:06:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, I know. Would we have to have Michael Letts and Cameron Consulman on? Who's to say?

• 1:06:40Kirk Hamilton?

  So, yeah, maybe we should just have, have, have Michael and Cameron come on.

• 1:06:45Speaker 01

  And they'd just be like, why are we here? We already did a whole episode about this book. We don't want to talk about it anymore.

• 1:06:49Kirk Hamilton?

  No, maybe we pretend to have them on, but we actually just play excerpts from their episodes and make it sound like we're talking to them.

• 1:06:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, normal, normal suggestion and normal idea.

• 1:06:59Kirk Hamilton?

  Just normal podcasting stuff. All right. Well, this has been a very enjoyable episode.

• 1:07:04Jason Schreier?

  Just King Things, great name.

• 1:07:06Speaker 01

  Yes, it is. It is a great name.

• 1:07:08Kirk Hamilton?

  Yeah, it is a great name.

• 1:07:08Jason Schreier?

  You know what else is a great name? Triple Click.

• 1:07:10Speaker 01

  I agree. We really thought about it.

• 1:07:13Jason Schreier?

  We did.

• 1:07:14Kirk Hamilton?

  Uh, we, we did spend some time thinking of it and I'm, I'm still pretty happy with it.

• 1:07:18Jason Schreier?

  We spent a lot of time brainstorming this thing.

• 1:07:20Kirk Hamilton?

  Takes a lot of work to come up with a good name. Can't just throw out the first thing you think of.

• 1:07:23Jason Schreier?

  It does.

• 1:07:24Kirk Hamilton?

  Uh, as we learned in talking about these names today. So yeah, this was a lot of fun. Let's, uh, say goodbye for now and we will see all of you next week.

• 1:07:33Jason Schreier?

  See you next week.

• 1:07:34Speaker 01

  Bye.

• 1:07:38Kirk Hamilton?

  Triple Click is produced by Jason Schreier, Maddy Myers, and me, Kirk Hamilton. I edit and mix the show and also wrote our theme music. Our show art is by Tom DJ. Some of the games and products we talked about on this episode may have been sent to us for free for review consideration. You can find a link to our ethics policy in the show notes. Triple Click is a proud member of the Maximum Fun Podcast Network, and if you like our show, we hope you'll consider supporting us by becoming a member at maximumfun.org/join. Find us on Twitter at TripleClickPod, send email to [email protected], and find a link to our Discord in the show notes. Thanks for listening. See you next time.

• 1:08:36Speaker 06

  Maximum Fun. A worker-owned network. Of artist-owned shows. Supported. Directly. By you.