The Game Room Where It Happens: Fortnite (Series Finale)

We look back on Fortnite’s rise from 2017 obsession to cultural platform, and we explain why our “Game Room Where It Happens” series ends on this chapter. The conversation explores wins, burnout, evolving tastes, and how streaming has changed our approach to play.

• Early days of Battle Royale and learning to build
• The thrill of first wins and nightly squad runs
• Crossovers that reshaped the game’s identity
• Why Fortnite still lasts through constant change
• Battle passes, value in free-to-play, and fatigue
• Shifting to PC, roguelikes, and stream-friendly games
• When challenges became chores and fun dipped
• Favorite past episodes and community memories


Interested in watching us play games? Follow us on Twitch! Want to hear more about how we got into gaming? Listen to the interview we did with Your Friendly Neighborhood Gamers!

🔻You can find all important links for the podcast over at https://linktr.ee/waitforitpodcast🔺

🔻BACKGROUND MUSIC PROVIDED BY:
Prod. Riddiman: optimistic
🔺

Chapters

• 0:00 Series Finale Setup
• 0:36 Why Fortnite For The Last Show
• 1:20 Discovering Battle Royale In 2017
• 3:36 Early Wins And Learning To Build
• 6:23 Crossovers And Pop Culture Power
• 7:25 Why Fortnite Still Endures
• 10:48 Battle Passes And Monetization
• 14:05 Why We Drifted From Fortnite
• 18:12 Stats, Wins, And Playtime Confessions
• 22:12 Changing Tastes And PC Gaming
• 24:23 Roguelikes, Streaming, And Time
• 28:18 Consoles Gathering Dust
• 31:30 Future Multiplayer And Big Releases
• 34:05 Ending The Series And What’s Next
• 39:06 Favorite Episodes And Memories

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:12

This is the Wait For It Podcast.

SPEAKER_01: 0:16

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Wait For It Podcast. I am your co-host Philip Rera, aka Phil the Filipino.

SPEAKER_02: 0:21

And I'm your other co-host, Mr. Eric Almighty. And you know there was a running joke on the podcast where, for this particular series, if we ever talked about Fortnite and we did a Fortnite dedicated episode, well, that would be the end of the series. Uh well, you know what? On the five-year anniversary of the game room where it happens, it's only fitting that we talk about Fortnite as our series finale for this particular series. The game room where it happens, this is the last episode, and it's a big one, Phil. It's the game that pretty much controlled our lives for feels like a decade.

SPEAKER_01: 0:58

Yeah, we're taking the game room out to pasture and shooting it, and then we're we're we're we're building, we're overbuilding and cranking 90s, and we're gonna we're gonna double pump the game room where it happens right in the back of its skull here this evening, and we'll talk about why that is happening. But yeah, Fortnite Man, uh, a game we started playing in 2017. It was when I was still living in Dallas, and uh Eric and I had kind of like gotten away from multiplayer gaming. Um, and then I moved and then we found Titanfall 2, which we've done an episode on, and then there was a game that was making rounds called Player Unknowns Battlegrounds. It was a new type of game mode called Battle Royale, and we were like, well, that looks fun, but we don't have gaming PCs because we were, you know, just console dorks at the time, and we didn't have anything to play. Well, Epic Games uh then came out with a a little game uh using the same exact uh what's it called? Uh like the same, whatever, the same rig that that played player unknown was battlegrounds, and they just threw it out to the world to see what would happen. And it was our opportunity to jump into the battle royal realm and the rest, as they say, cliche lee is history, uh, when it came to Fortnite. So, yeah, we're gonna talk about a little bit of the impact this had as far as our gaming and then now why and also more so like what why we're going away from this series and why it's being retired. So, yeah, very excited to discuss Fortnite here this evening, Eric, and uh put a nice little bow on what has been a really good run for this series. So I'm very excited. If you are brand new to the podcast and you want to hear us talk more about gaming, sorry. Uh go go to the Lick Tree link uh that will uh in the show notes, we'll tell you all about that in a little bit, and uh we appreciate you for checking us out. But yeah, Fortnite Eric uh released back in 2017 in early access, and it is still going strong today. Is it as strong as it when it was at its peak? Not necessarily, but um, if you don't know what Fortnite is, you've probably been living under a rock. Um, it is honestly not really definable in 2025 Eric because it's so many different things. It is a battle royale mode, it has Lego, it's got festival, it's got a driving mode still, or racing mode for some reason that's not very fun. It's a lot of things. So, starting back in 2017, Eric, you I don't know how much you knew about player unknowns, but you did know that I was like, hey, there's a game coming out, it's called Fortnite, let's download it and try it. And it essentially took us away from Titanfall 2, which is like near the end of its life cycle. But we were looking for something new to play in 2017. What what do you remember fondly about those early days of Fortnite?

SPEAKER_02: 3:40

So I think the fact that a Battle Royale game is just like so common now, it just really dilutes the fact of how like unknown that genre really was in gaming at that time. Maybe not the first of its kind, definitely not the first of its kind, but Fortnite took that model and made it fun, made it look really good. The one thing I can kind of remember, Phil, is that the game itself looked different, it looked good, and it had an aesthetic to it, it had high quality to it, so the gameplay wasn't anything too hard to pick up, it was nice to look at, and when you get that victory royale, you feel really good, and it wasn't always easy to get, especially in the early back in my day, uh in the early days of Fortnite. So those are a lot of the things that I remember the most. It came off of a few years of absence from playing something like a Call of Duty Zombies, where I had a similar type of feeling, that feeling of getting to a really late stage round or really accomplishing something big. I hadn't had that feeling in a multiplayer game in some time since I was playing Black Ops with a bunch of buddies, and it wasn't surprising that once I started getting that same high, like hype or high off of the game, like I stuck with it for quite a bit of time, and it just gave us something, it just gave us an excuse to play something together, which I think was what you're alluding to with our history.

SPEAKER_01: 5:18

Yeah, because you know, what once I moved, we were like looking for for stuff to do, and like I said, for a while it was Titanfall 2, and then uh, you know, that that that game ran its course. So I think we were playing with your brother at the time and not Stefan. We were playing with the other brother, Chris, and we were uh, you know, like you said, it was just I think just solo and squad. So we were always playing with like a random, and I still remember getting our first win because we kept getting so close and and and we just couldn't make it happen, but then we you know finally figured out, and then the evolution of learning how to build, like I we're gonna sat we're gonna very much be unks here in this episode because back in our day, when there was no zero build, you either figured it out or you perished, you know, like it was just a refreshing thing. Uh and also when building was still fun and it wasn't you it was base building, it wasn't I'm gonna, you know, overbuild and build all these ramps and edits and all that shit, like all the the disaster that it is now. I jumped into build mode the other day just to see how it went. It was an absolute disaster, so like that ran away from that immediately. Um, I actually am on the Fortnite page right now, and there are 26,000 more people playing Zero Build, so a lot of people still feel the same way. But yeah, it was definitely like it was totally different, man. It was a like you said, it was fresh, it was a new concept, and well, not new in terms of like pop culture, but bringing it to the gaming space for those of those of the people that could not play Player Unknowns Battlegrounds. Um, you know, and then there was a whole thing as far as like uh lawsuits and all that kind of shit, we're not gonna talk about. But um remember those early days, like when we were like, man, it'd be really cool to get Attack on Titan in this. What if Thanos was in the game? What if all this shit was in the game? We were like, yeah, well, unfortunately that'll never happen. And look at it now, it is this powerhouse in pop culture, and people try to like people shit on Fortnite, and and understandably so because they they think it's a kiddie aesthetic that you know, I and I get it, you know, right now the Simpson season is going on right now. And people, and and I understand that, but like at its core, if Fortnite is is is this staple in terms of like gaming and pop culture now, no matter what you think. No matter what, it it's going to be here to stay. So, what do you think has lent itself to its longevity, even again if it's not at its peak anymore, Eric? What do you think has has led it to still be around to this day? It is not a dead game. I'm here to tell you people that that that think that it's not dead by any means, it's still going very, very strong.

SPEAKER_02: 7:40

I I think the the thing that stood out to me the most was the fact that this game continued to evolve and it wasn't afraid to do that. Now, has it gotten stagnant at points? Yes. Uh, did we want a new map for the longest time? Yes, yes, yes, uh, we did, but it did a lot of interesting stuff. Like again, there weren't a lot of games with battle passes until this. Battle Royale, the genre got defined by this game. There were a ton of additional things that it was doing. It got LEGO Fortnite, it got Rocket Racing, it got Fortnite Festival, it got Fortnite Ballistic, which was like uh your Counter-Strike or Valorant equivalent, right? Like, this game continues to do really interesting stuff, and that's not even to mention the creative modes. Like, we only explored the sandbox in a certain way, and but like the amount of things that this game did from what it was when it first started as Save the World is crazy, and the game just continues to adapt. I think that's why it stayed pretty relevant over the years, and it's gotten different fan bases because of that. Like, I think that is extremely hard to do and to stay relevant for this long. I can see it lasting a full decade, you know. It's getting close to that decade mark since Battle Royale came out. At least, I definitely think it can do that. How long? I don't think it's a forever thing, how long will be interesting. It'll be an interesting thing to pay attention to, to notice, and to really record into the history books. But for now, I definitely think it still has the momentum because it doesn't refuse to adapt.

SPEAKER_01: 9:28

Right. I I think the difference between this and something like a like you mentioned, a Call of Duty is people are coming to Fortnite for a specific vibe and a specific type of game. And while Call of Duty has tried to Fortnite itself, like that's not what the community wants. Fortnite, again, like you said, it's not afraid to innovate. And if shit doesn't work out, they're like, okay, well, you know, we'll leave the mode here. If somebody wants to play it, it's fine. The only thing they've really abandoned, you know what I think of, is the the meme where somebody is holding up the kid above water, and then like there's something like dead and sink that's that's save the world because save the world was their thing. That's how this game started out. I think IGN and like Game Informer was previewing this game back in like 2015 as far as Save the World, and that that's the mode that uh, you know, if you were a fan of that, sorry, it's that is definitely dead in the water. It is all focused on everything else, so yeah, they're not afraid to try new things, they're not afraid to like when they put Phanos in the game and like the Infinity Gauntlet, that like blew our minds that something like that could happen, right? And then for years we joked about it, like man, the ODM gear would be would fucking slap in Fortnite, and we got it. And it's still to this day the best traversal item that's ever been in the game. It was so good, it's it worked exactly like it. Man, I wish I could get my hero academia skins in this, and it and it happened. So, yeah, the fact that like all of these pop culture things are are ready to um to like line up with and and work with them. Like, I'm just looking at the page right now, like K-pop demon hunters is on the front page, Squid Game, The Walking Dead, Ninja Turtles. Uh obviously they own Fall Guys and Rocket Race um and Rocket League. Um, so like all those things were just such easy inclusions, and now they have the the Fort Nightmares thing is a big deal every year. So, um and there's and like and the Simpsons itself, like having its own season and its own island is is a big deal. So yeah, I honestly, Eric, I I don't see this train stopping anytime soon. Could player counts go down more, of course, but I don't think that just because of the way that, like you said, they are open to innovating, I could see this sticking around for a very long time. And it's not a a yearly release. There's no Fortnite 1, Fortnite 2, Fortnite Black Ops, Fortnite, you know, uh Vanguard and all that shit. Like they can just keep going, it's free to play. And you mentioned something important, like, did the battle pass model like we're we're in that's a shitty thing. That is something that they have brought into gaming that's not good and it's here to stay. I have been known to maybe buy a battle pass or two when it comes to a game. So that that method, unfortunately, being introduced is something that it will unfortunately be a stain on gaming, but not for epic games, it's gonna be a great thing in terms of their wallets.

SPEAKER_02: 12:08

Well, maybe, but I I think that's an interesting conversation because I don't know that I feel that way if the game is free to play. Like having a battle pass on a paid game, that's true.

SPEAKER_01: 12:19

Yeah, you have to pay$70 for Call of Duty and a million hundred dollars for Battlefield. You're so wrong.

SPEAKER_02: 12:24

Even playing uh, what did we play? Because it was on Game Pass, Rematch as a recent example, had I think a battle pass element, right? And like that game is it costs money typically. Like, if it's got on Game Pass, I'm still paying some type of money for it. If you have to pay for the game, I don't think you should be allowed to do that. There's also a lot of different ways you can earn V-Bucks and all these different things with the battle pass. So, like, I think Fortnite has always done it best, but it is definitely something that I think could be viewed as a stain, but also again, I think it gives a lot of those free-to-play titles and the free-to-play model a real fighting chance out there where it didn't really have that before, and again, it doesn't fall underneath some of those dead games that don't have a high player count. Like some of these games that are free to play with a battle pass, you know, they can make that revenue. Fortnite did it better than anyone, but they can make that revenue off the battle pass and those aesthetics. The game I would probably say very much teetered the line for me was like Helldivers. Helldivers is like a$40 game, which was a discount, which was a discount for how good that game was. However, having to pay$10 or however much it was for each little pack that would get released, at a certain point, you're like, okay, well, how much am I about to spend on this game now? It should just be free to play at that point. And that's kind of where I think the stain comes into play is again those paid games that are doing a little bit too much.

SPEAKER_01: 13:56

Yeah, very, very good point. How many of those Call of Duty battle passes did I buy? And never come I don't think I ever completed one Call of Duty battle pass, but I was like, ooh, that level 100's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02: 14:07

And and one of the reasons I stopped playing Call of Duty because I didn't want a prestige and then second prestige and then third prestige, like and then there the challenge is like sometimes they're just chores, and that's where I think, Phil, and I don't know if this is a good transition point, but like, why did we stop playing Fortnite? We had such a good time with it. It's easy today to pick up. We played this a month or two ago, I think, and I picked it up like it was nothing. Yeah, some of the guns have changed, some of the map has changed, some of the traversal has changed, but for the most part, like when they introduced vehicles, uh quick quick adaptation, like you know what I mean. Like you just go into it, you learn it. They had planes at one point that didn't break the system, right? So, why did we stop playing it? And Phil, what comes what it comes down to for me is there were things like the challenges that I weren't finding fun. I was finding myself going into these battle royale games trying to do too much when at the end of the day, your goal should just be about being the last man or team standing. And Fortnite started to add a lot of these elements that really took it away from me. We had a buddy that would refuse to do the challenges, right, Boogie?

SPEAKER_01: 15:22

He just never got those challenges done. He just I don't know why he didn't get the the full um uh the the full payout for that battle pass. I don't know what was uh what was his issue, man. So uh yeah, so and that's the same thing with me. Like I had Fortnite crew for a little bit, and depending on what's going on in the season, it will uh I'll I'll pick it back up. I will tell you something that pissed me off recently is that I had Fortnite Crew uh because I wanted to get the Megazord skin and the uh the White Ranger and the Green Ranger, and then during the season, because I no longer had Fortnite crew, they took the battle pass away, even though I had already unlocked battle pass stuff, and I had to restart fucking Fortnite crew to get the battle pass again, which is so irritating. So they're not, you know, they're not exempt from any of this this kind of stuff, but um, yeah, as far as as that goes, and then I still play with like my sister and and Jordan and we we still hop on. Uh, but yeah, as far as like just a game play loop, is for like that is one of those things where we started fighting other we got gaming PCs, right? We got gaming PCs, and we'll talk about that here in just a moment. How our tastes have changed, and that's why this episode is is starting to go is gonna go away because you know it's just a lot more difficult to to plan around that. But we we got gaming PCs, um, we we started searching out for more narrative-driven games, like we wanted to get those under our belt as well, so it just became to a point where it because we were, I think, probably from like 2020 heavy during the pandemic for sure, especially when Jordan started playing with us. Probably until like 2022, we played almost every single night. I would say probably at least four out of the seven days during the week, bare minimum, with a combination of Boogie, um, Jordan, and then maybe some we would rotate some new people in and out um because of the battle royale, but also because we were doing some of those creative modes and and stuff like that. And it just got to the point where like again that gameplay loop just does get a little boring. And uh, you know, when you're when once we uh weren't as celebratory after like a battle royale, we're like, hmm, maybe we should like try other things because there was a time where like it was the biggest thing. We would go on runs and and win every single like win every game we played during that night, and like that was a rush, which is honestly kind of crazy because I'm I'm in the Fortnite subreddit, and like some people never win. And I felt bad because I was like, we win all the time.

SPEAKER_02: 17:43

Like, listen, not not not to pat ourselves on the bat. We do win a lot when we get on, we do expect at least one dub that night.

SPEAKER_01: 17:52

Bare minimum one win.

SPEAKER_02: 17:54

Like every time we get on, not like, oh, I think we're gonna do a kid.

SPEAKER_01: 17:59

Hold on a second. Uh that's crazy. You should not have access to that. It's a fortnight, it's a stat track, it's a website. I didn't make it. If it's not, if it's available, why would I not use the tool? Okay, let's see. Phil the Filipino. Let's pull it up here. Last day updated uh four months ago. Oh, I can update to premium. Upgrade to premium, Eric. Hold on.

SPEAKER_02: 18:19

No, don't do that.

SPEAKER_01: 18:21

No, no, no, no. Okay, here is my all-time stat. You should pull this up, Eric. Go to FortnightTracker.com. I want to see what yours is. So I have, I'll just go over my KD is 1.83, so that's pretty good. Uh, I have overall um 13,531 kills. That's gonna be the top 12% uh in all of Fortnite. And I just found this out. I am approaching a thousand wins. I have 994 wins and an 11.8% win percentage. So let's see what yours is, Eric, because you have a little bit of a lesser sample size because over the last year you understand.

SPEAKER_02: 18:57

Yeah, it's definitely a lesser sample size. How much is your playtime? Hey, we should not uh I don't wanna No I my number is big, so I know your number is it's four digits, no? It's gotta be. It's gotta be over a thousand hours. Just say it. I've already called you out on it, just say it.

SPEAKER_01: 19:17

So thanks so much for joining us, you guys. Uh please go. You can just look it up. I have 1,146 hours and 49 minutes.

SPEAKER_02: 19:27

Yeah, that's what I thought. Um that's crazy.

SPEAKER_01: 19:33

I don't like that you made me do that.

SPEAKER_02: 19:35

Yeah, I have played 663. So I just said I played this game like a lot, you know? Um my win percentage is 11.2. And does that say top 6%?

SPEAKER_01: 19:54

Yeah, I'm in the top 6% too.

SPEAKER_02: 19:56

That's crazy. All right, wins people don't win, man.

SPEAKER_01: 19:59

I'm in the top 1.5% for wins.

SPEAKER_02: 20:02

Oh, for wins? Yeah, no, I'm uh uh 4.9 with 594. Uh KD is 1.07. Now that's the bottom 17.

SPEAKER_01: 20:10

That's not good. That's not good.

SPEAKER_02: 20:12

No, that's not good.

SPEAKER_01: 20:13

How many total matches have you played?

SPEAKER_02: 20:16

How many total matches? Uh where does it say that?

SPEAKER_01: 20:21

It should be over to the side. Um total under um it's a little graph. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 20:27

Total matches is five five thousand two hundred and eighty-seven.

SPEAKER_01: 20:32

Is yours in the tens? No, no, no, no. 8,407.

SPEAKER_02: 20:36

Yeah. Yeah, this is interesting. Uh, this information is just like highly accessible. Yeah, I told you. Pretty crazy.

SPEAKER_01: 20:43

I have what do you have the most wins of? Squads or duos? I assume it's squads, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 20:48

Uh that is a great question. Uh for wins?

SPEAKER_01: 20:51

Yeah, wins.

SPEAKER_02: 20:52

Yeah, squads.

SPEAKER_01: 20:53

Yeah, I have 673. I'm in the top 0.1%.

SPEAKER_02: 20:57

So am I.

SPEAKER_01: 20:58

How many do you have? How many do you have?

SPEAKER_02: 21:00

500 or two.

SPEAKER_01: 21:01

Yeah, yeah. I only have 30. I have 30 solo wins, which is still in the top 1.8%.

SPEAKER_02: 21:07

Fail.

SPEAKER_01: 21:08

I don't play a lot of solos, though. So.

SPEAKER_02: 21:12

Maybe we should upgrade to premium.

SPEAKER_01: 21:14

Okay, yeah, what could possibly be behind this paywall, right? Alright, nuts. Let's play Fortnite tonight. That is cancel your uh re-reschedule the stream for Fortnite. So um but we played a lot of Fortnite, uh, is what I'm trying to say. Uh coming up on a thousand wins, that'll be cool. I'll try and stream it. Maybe I'll try and schedule it with a stream to get my 1,000 win on stream. That'd be funny. But yeah, we just um, you know, uh especially you, you started being a little bit more experimental with your gaming. I'm very much more picky. Um, so that's why we started transitioning into uh, you know, just other games, other experiences, like where you'll be more of an open mind. Like, I will I will go in and I will hate another crap's treasure. You know, I'll hate something. We'll both hate what was the zombie game that was no good that everybody loves on PlayStation. Uh Death, not Death Stranding, uh Days Gone. Oh, Days Gone. You know, like we'll go in and and and hate that. And it's just so then it's a lot more time to commit than watching a movie, than watching a TV show. Well, specifically a movie, you know, it takes it takes a lot of time. So um just kind of talk about Eric because you you're the one, like I said, who's been definitely a lot more experimental, but you have also found your genre. Like you you have already, like I think these types of games you already enjoy, but now that you have your gaming PC, like you have found your bread and butter, which is what you love to feature over on your on your personal stream.

SPEAKER_02: 22:43

Yeah, and I mean though you guys know if you've been following my journey, uh just kind of playing more games uh in the past two years, but especially this year, I've been playing a lot more roguelike games, and it really kind of kicked off, Phil. I mean, in April of this year, we played Slay the Spire for the first time, and you know, leading up to April, I was playing it, so starting the year, and that's like one of my favorite games, like maybe ever. I love Slay the Spire like a lot. That led me to Ballatro, also one of my favorite games I've probably played. It's very addicting, and there's a ton of them. And I just bought a Steam Deck so I could play more roguelikes because they're so fun to get into. There, there's sometimes lore behind them, but there's these expansive worlds, and they just have these different paths that you could take, and you continuously are building upon each run. Like, I really enjoy the stop and start nature of that versus some of the narrative-driven, you know, games that we'll play. And you know, when we look at the the past couple years, like we did uh an episode of LA Noir. I replayed that, it was cool, it was fun, but I didn't finish the replay because I couldn't imagine spending that much time in it. Claire Obscure, fun game, great game, very long, very, very long. I enjoyed the Wolf Among Us, that was episodic at least, and it didn't require too much time. But then you had like a guardians of the galaxy, which I wanted to beat and play so I could give my opinion, but I don't really think I fairly enjoyed that game as much as you did, right? Kind of looking back on it. So when we look at all of these games and we're talking about a lot of these episodes, I worry that moving forward, we're gonna run into episodes like Ghost of Tsushima, a game that I really enjoyed, but I didn't get to finish it by the time we recorded it. And Phil, kind of staying on topic with that. Here are some of the games that we just kind of listed off as like, Oh, maybe one of us will play it and that the other has, and we'll do this episode Red Dead, Bioshock, uh, you know, at least maybe all the Bioshocks in general. Those were two big ones Cyberpunk, another one listed here. Like, there are games like that that we're really interested in. You you would never play Skyrim, right? So there are certain games that like we just wouldn't touch of each other's, or we wouldn't have the time to, and it just ultimately started to spiral into we're not gonna dedicate the time to play the games that we've played. And now the games that we are playing are significantly different because while you enjoy to slay the spire, you know, we're not really playing the same games. And I brought this up to Phil and he got very touchy about it. I said he's very picky when it comes to his games. I'll pretty much play anything. Phil will not, Phil will not Phil will look at a game and immediately be like, don't ever send that to me again. Uh and uh I know that for a fact because Jordan has sent several where you've said exactly that.

SPEAKER_01: 25:46

What do you mean, games that are never gonna come out that she said does that we wish list and we'll never ever get to play? I I have been spurned by Kingmaker, uh what's the game that I drafted? Oh, Kingmakers. I have games gave up on the league, man. I have games on this list that are that that have you know coming soon release dates that I know I'm never gonna get to play. So that's just how it is with some of these games, and it's part of being a uh you know, part of the PC master race. So I'm I I've just learned to um accept that at this point. So um, yeah, but you know, it doesn't mean uh again that we don't still find games to play together because again, we'll still play, we'll jump into it the whatever the latest friend slop game is. Uh RV there yet didn't hit for us, unfortunately, but like we have more hits than misses when it comes to those games. When uh Peak, Repo, those have been a lot of fun. Um, you know, a couple more that come to mind, and more that are gonna keep coming out here. Like, um, I know the people that made Peak have a new game. Like, I would love to try it out. Um, you know, there are games that Eric and I want to play together. Like, I have um what's the game? Absalom, right, Eric, that you bought. Like, I plan on buying that um on the next sale, like when it comes on Steam. So, like, we'll be able to play that together. So um we just we moved away, we just moved away from like like and you again specifically, every once in a while I will get that itch to play a Call of Duty or something like that, and I'll find whatever's on Game Pass at the time or whatever is already available. Not gonna spend$70 on fucking Call of Duty in 2025 and beyond. It's not gonna happen. We jump into battle the you know, the battlefield, battle royale, which was fun. It was fine. You know, we had a good time, we jump into that. If anything, whenever we get that that itch to be to play something competitive, we just play Marvel Rivals with Andrew, and we can play that once, we get our fix, we jump off, and then we play again. Uh, we're actually probably coming up on our scheduled time with Andrew here in the next couple weeks, so we should probably text him. So they also are so about to release Gambit, and he's a support character, and I kind of really want to play as Gambit as a support character. So um, yeah, so we just do that, and um, you know, and I I think that's a good place for us as far as uh as far as that. You also have have found those games to be more streamable, whereas like um the games that I want to play, I I learned that story-driven games are not something I want to do on stream uh because I want to just immerse myself. Like I started playing Ghost of Yote the other day, and I I know I'm gonna just sit there for hours and do everything that I possibly can. So um, yeah, we've just started to find those games that are um where we want to protect uh and uh protect the experiences and then finding the games that we want to share with you guys, and that's just kind of like where we're at right now.

SPEAKER_02: 28:23

And I think the streaming part of it as well has made it difficult because Phil, you're not playing any story-driven games. So, again, if I'm not doing that often, I will play some like again. I played The Wolf Among Us on stream. That was a good one. Had I bought dispatch, that would have been another great game, right? Some of these like narrative games, some of these like episodic ones too, like that telltale style, really lend themselves. But like I and and no knock to anyone that does this, but like I couldn't imagine playing cyberpunk or red dead for the first time or multiple times on stream. I don't know that I would really get a kick out of that. I would instead play like an alien isolation and like pull that up every October and play a little bit more every year of it. You know what I mean? Like it's a little bit more pick up and uh you know, stop and start, which again brings me back to that roguelike brain that I've created over the past year specifically. But it's that's why I like that genre so much. It's because I don't feel like it's such an overcommitment. And there are just so many times I played the Elder Scrolls Oblivion remake, and I just waned off of that because I was like, there's so much to do and so much to get done, I'm not gonna dedicate that much time into this particular game. Now I say that as someone who did that for Skyrim and for the next Elder Scrolls, probably will do. So when you see me streaming the new Elder Scrolls or the new GTA, I guess fuck whatever I'm saying right now. But for now, that's how I feel.

SPEAKER_01: 29:52

That that's good, that's a good point. Because I do think we'll jump back into the multiplayer space for GTA 6 if it ever comes out, if it's real. Who knows? Knows me. We're approaching is that game real status with GTS?

SPEAKER_02: 30:03

We are.

SPEAKER_01: 30:04

We are. So I do think we will jump into that. Now, because I I will play that on a PlayStation. Do you plan on getting that on PC or will you get it on your console?

SPEAKER_02: 30:13

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01: 30:14

I feel like by November next year you'll have a capture card.

SPEAKER_02: 30:18

Probably.

SPEAKER_01: 30:19

Yeah, because I want to I'm I'm not gonna play that with mouse and keyboard. I'm going to play it with a PlayStation controller.

SPEAKER_02: 30:24

But I mean you could play it with controller on PC.

SPEAKER_01: 30:27

I'm gonna play it on my brand new Steambox that comes out in 2026.

SPEAKER_02: 30:32

Yeah, no, I don't know. It's uh it's it's tough, man. That's the other thing, right? So kind of talking about why this series is ending, like my my PlayStation is staring me right in the fucking face collecting dust. Like it it is the last game that I played consistently on this was Astrobot, and that was it.

SPEAKER_01: 30:51

Yeah, I really haven't played any games. We'll dust it off to play, you'll dust it off to when we do Rocket League again once a month, you know. We get the itch for Rocket League. Um, and that's something easy to keep on there.

SPEAKER_02: 31:00

The random time we play Fortnite when we play Marvel Rivals, that type of stuff. Do you I wish I played it more, but I just I just don't want to turn it on. I've got more here, and now I've got my Steam Deck, so I have less of a reason to be in front of it.

SPEAKER_01: 31:11

So you mentioned these like narrative-driven games that you don't want to necessarily do on stream because this series is ending. Will you ever play Red Dead 2 on your because and if you do, will you play it on PC? Will you play it? Will you go back to the console? Because when it comes to those like narrative games, I I I you know, I my comfort zone is still playing it with a PlayStation controller, and I think um that is the best way to do it. But you know, that you know how do you how are you feeling now? Again, you're gonna you're gonna have your Steam Deck. Are you gonna play a Cyberpunk or a a Red Dead or like one of those narrative-driven games on on PC or on your Steam Deck?

SPEAKER_02: 31:45

Probably not on my Steam Deck. Again, I really bought the Steam Deck with the intention I literally have like almost double-digit amount of roguelike games that I've been I've like played a little bit of or I've played some of, you know, and even games like a Megabonk that I wish I played just casually more often. They're games like that that I want to play more. So, no, like my Steam Deck specifically for me are those quick start and stop games. Like, if I want to play a 15-minute run of something, and whether or not I have the time to continue, I can you know stop and start, I will do that. I don't want to immerse myself into a single player game like that. PC though is possible, like I do have it on my wish list for Red Dead Redemption 2, and I do think at some point I will it does, it's on sale now.

SPEAKER_01: 32:34

I own it.

SPEAKER_02: 32:36

20 bucks right now. Um, I do think at some point I will play it. Uh, it's just again, you know, I'm gonna probably play Baldur's Gate 3 on this before I play a Red Dead. Red Dead still has a chance to be on my PlayStation for that reason. Like again, a Baldur's Gate I had on my PlayStation. I wasn't really having as much fun as I thought I would on PC. I can see the opposite happening for Red Dead, so I think it's still possible, but I'm not ruling out the uh the stit, you know, the Steam purchase of a Red Dead Redemption 2.

SPEAKER_01: 33:07

Yeah. Obviously, I bought it to uh, you know, because I wanted to mod the game, um specifically Cyberpunk. Um, and then they had a random update in 2025 and just destroyed a day's worth of work. So I went back to the console to finish the game finally. So that'll be something that uh maybe we discuss in the future. But um, yeah, Eric, you know, we are going to there's a lot of plans. There is uh what is tentatively gonna happen is that we will likely just move what did I miss into this space, and then we will have a uh a new bonus episode that Eric and I are throwing around. So if you're curious about that, join our Patreon, which we'll tell you about a little bit more uh later. But yeah, Eric, I mean Fortnite again, I still jump into it quite a bit, probably at least once a week, bare minimum. Um, you know, it's also nice because you know, when my sister does leave and her um and my brother-in-law, you know, they'll be across the country. This is something we can again jump in and you don't really have to think about it. You just play the game, if you know, and then and then you hop off, and uh, you know, it will stay in my rotation probably for a while. But the fact that it's still kicking, I think is a testament to their um in their innovation. And you know, as long as there are franchises to partner with, this is you know, the the limit for Fortnite is endless, and I I don't see it going away. I I could easily see it, like I said, lasting another five years into 2030.

SPEAKER_02: 34:32

Yeah, I think that's definitely a good call. I think you know, maybe when we if we ever want to do this series again, we'll do the first episode as Fortnite.

SPEAKER_01: 34:43

We'll bring it back as Fortnite, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 34:45

We'll bring it back, but um, yeah, I mean, gaming-wise, we'll be talking about that on that what did I miss episode still. That bonus episode might include some gaming elements. We're not quite done talking about gaming, and that's why also us doing stuff on Twitch is kind of scratching that itch for us doing some streaming and getting to play. So we're we're we're we're doing that. We're still doing that here, but for this particular series, uh, this is the final curtain and the last call for the game room where it happens.

SPEAKER_01: 35:16

Yeah, well, um, I don't think we can play it because it will get demod or taken down, but uh Q I Will Remember You by Sierra McLaughlin as we as we take again the game room out back and double pump it in the back of the head or once uh no scope it, whatever, whatever you you choose, your weapon of choice. But uh it's been a fun series again. Five years is a very long time, and um we'll still be talking about gaming, and you know, we'll probably you know reserve some of those Twitch streams for reviews. We did a Last of Us review once upon a time. Uh we will, if you've been watching us for a while, you know we always do a Christmas special with some of our favorite podcasters and content creators. Be in the lookout for an announcement about that when it comes to Twitch. So if you still want to hear us when it comes to gaming um topics, definitely follow us over on Twitch, both on uh the Wait Forward page and Eric's personal page. And there's still gonna be a lot of gaming content when it comes to the Wait Forward podcast. We uh, you know, we just found it um that it'd be best to end this series here. But uh, Eric, anything else we need to mention before wrapping up? Any other news as far as, you know, like I said, you are we already mentioned a lot of the gaming stuff, but uh anything else you want to mention before we get out of here and say goodbye?

SPEAKER_02: 36:25

No, I think it's been a uh it's been a wonderful journey. Uh again, if you guys were wondering, this came out November of 2020, uh, is when we did the first game room episode, and that was talking about the end of an era uh when we were getting ready to talk about the release of the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 36:49

I forgot it's called the Series X and not just the S, because that's what we have. Exactly. Do you have any episodes here that stand out to you? Uh I think one a fun one was Left 4 Dead 2 versus Black Back for Blood. How much did you pay for Back for Blood, by the way, Eric? Do you recall?

SPEAKER_02: 37:02

Yeah, no, I don't. Um I don't quite remember that. No, um okay no, no, yeah, it's just not it's not crossing my mind. But you know, before that, we also did like up high down low. That was a lot of fun in the gaming.

SPEAKER_01: 37:18

Tierades and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02: 37:20

Tierades and hot takes. You know, we had a couple other series, so this was one of our first like real staples. It also had that Hamilton reference uh that I always love. Yeah, and you know, we're definitely gonna try to keep uh that in mind for whatever might be coming in the future. But yeah, I mean it's hard not to pick some more recent ones. Again, I was really happy with the Slay the Spire episode and the way that that turned out for us. Uh, we also, you know, we played uh EA Sports College Football 25. That was a great time, especially just considering everything. Hell Divers 2, we were well into that game, like when it came out, which was really nice. But uh, you know, if I gotta if I gotta only pick one, I mean, you know, the God of War episodes were always really great because we really enjoyed that particular franchise, and that was a big one, you know. 2022, where we had that first episode come out, and we had played it leading into Ragnarok, like that was a really good stretch of games. We had that Sifu, a way out. There was a lot of good stuff around that time where I think you know, we were kind of peaking with this series.

SPEAKER_01: 38:27

Yeah, and then there are also some episodes that we did with other guests where we would we would uh split up, like you did a Dead Space episode with friendly neighborhood gamers, I did an Animal Crossing Disney Dreamlight Valley episode with Emily from Game of Groans. Um, you know, so stuff like that was also fun because they were again games that we just did not play. Um, Hogwarts Legacy was a lot of fun. We brought Jordan on to talk about that. Like, talk about a game where it is, you know, those three or like the the horse that is um like the horse is it's drawn really well, and then the very one is drawn like really poorly. Hogwarts Legacy was like uh you know, visuals, gameplay, and then story was ass. Like it was so bad, uh, but it was so much fun to play. Like, I I I definitely would play the next one. So games like Dead Island 2, remember we played through that with Jordan and Boogie. So um looking back at games like the darkness and prototype, stuff like that. So a lot of good stuff here. Um, but uh again, there'll be no no shortage of gaming content over on Twitch. So uh we'll um we'll continue the spirit of the game room where it happens over there. But thank you so much for joining us. Whether it was your first it's your first game room episode or you've been here since the very beginning, we appreciate it. There is still, like we mentioned, a lot of game room episodes that you can watch over in in our library. So make sure you click the link, uh, the link tree link in the show notes of this in every single episode. You can find all of our social medias there. Keep up with us over on Instagram, TikTok, our growing Discord community, the aforementioned Twitch channel, both mine and Eric's personal account, and head on over to your podcast player of choice and give us five stars. It is one of the best ways that you can support the show. We very much appreciate you uh for those of you that have done that already. And if you'd like to follow both me and Eric on our personal pages as well, Eric updates his stuff in terms of his Twitch streams a lot, then I will have some very, very exciting updates very soon about some of my voice acting and voiceover uh journey uh here. So um, if you're well listening to this episode, it's after InfinityCon. So maybe we met you there. Thank you so much. And uh we'll have more shows. We're just a couple months away from Big City Anime Festival. Cannot wait to see you guys in Ocala for that show. But if you want some more for the Way4 Podcast, if you like a little behind-the-scenes content as well as getting these episodes early, Eric will let you know how you can do that before wrapping us up.

SPEAKER_02: 40:42

Yeah, so if you wanted to know that this series was ending well in advance, well, you we we would have known that if you were a patron of the show, like Briar, T3 Kato, Vintage Macaroni, Corey from the World of My Burrito, Nick Casbaro, the author of the Vidalarium series, and Botter from the Short Box Podcast. And we appreciate them being a part of our community that's ongoing and growing at Patreon. Now, you can get early access behind the scenes looks at episodes like this one for your membership to Patreon. You can support us there monthly, or if you can't do that, that's all right. All the free stuff that Phil has mentioned, you can do that. It only takes a moment of your time, and we are equally grateful for that. But this is our final goodbye for the Wait for It podcast on the game room where it happens. We still release new episodes every Wednesday. I'm Mr. Eric Almighty, that is my co host Phil the Filipino, and we'll see you on the next one. All you have to do is wait for it.

SPEAKER_00: 41:52

This is the Wait For It Podcast.