Full transcript
0:00Whether it's on PCs or gaming consoles,
0:03handhelds, reading fantasy novels, or
0:05even tabletop RPGs, we all need more
0:07slow burn in our life. Life already has
0:10enough rushing that you deserve to slow
0:12down with the hobbies that you actually
0:14enjoy. So, today I'm going to show you
0:16some of the cool ways that I enjoy a
0:18good slow burn through various nerdy
0:21hobbies. So, welcome back to the
0:23channel. Hope you're having a great day.
0:24Let's get into it.
0:26>> [music]
0:32[music]
0:36>> Starting with my first slow burn
0:38activity, it's going to be MMOs. And
0:40yes, some people love them. Some people
0:42hate them.
0:44Um they may not be for everyone, but
0:45they've certainly been a great addition
0:47into my rotation of ways to enjoy the
0:50long haul, the long journey. I have been
0:53playing a crap ton of World of Warcraft
0:55Classic for the very first time. I'm
0:57probably four months deep. I'm running a
1:00paladin. He's human. His name is
1:01Lunacia. He's got this whole backstory.
1:04It's been amazing. I love the fetch
1:06quests. I thought they'd be something
1:08that turns me off after a while, but
1:10honestly, there's something fun about
1:12just hunting and gathering pelts and
1:14bringing them back and unlocking new
1:16loot and experience. [music]
1:18And one thing really cool about uh WoW
1:20Classic that I I didn't expect to enjoy
1:22the most was simply discovering places
1:26in the game. Like discovering actually
1:28gives you XP. Which is fun. It makes it
1:31feel like it's worthwhile to go see
1:33what's beyond that hill over there. And
1:35that's been a really fun activity for
1:37me. The cool thing about WoW is that it
1:39offers you a variety of um
1:41a play style. So, let's say after work
1:44you're tired, you don't want to do any
1:45heavy combat. Cool, then just go
1:47exploring, go talk to NPCs, go do some
1:50easier quest.
1:52But if you're looking to get sweaty,
1:53then they have some really cool moments.
1:55Um moments that if you play hardcore for
1:57instance, it it can get really tense.
1:59Like do you really want to go run up on
2:01this mob knowing that you could
2:03accidentally pull too many and then it's
2:05a it's a wipe, which which absolutely
2:07sucks. And it did happen to me on
2:08hardcore.
2:09And you absolutely [music] are
2:10painstakingly sad uh when you lose your
2:12character. I think MMOs are a great way
2:15to slow burn because while you can rush
2:18your way
2:20or min-max your way to uh further
2:22content,
2:23I found enjoyment in just
2:26playing blind. Just going through the
2:28story, going through the game at a
2:31natural pace. And I find that MMOs they
2:34fit into my week. Usually it's it's
2:37first thing in the morning, so maybe I'm
2:39enjoying a cup of coffee for instance,
2:41and I'm I'm I'm waking up at 5:00 a.m.
2:43getting ready to go to the gym. I got
2:45like 45 minutes to go [music] play um
2:47some WoW. That's that's one instance in
2:49which I'll I'll do that. Another
2:51instance might be um once or twice a
2:53week in the evening once the family goes
2:55to sleep, uh maybe running some some
2:58content. That's that's how that fits
2:59into my life. Again, I'm not blasting
3:01through it every single day.
3:03I have accepted that it may take me a
3:05year to get to level 60. I think I'm
3:07currently like a level
3:1010 or 11. And that's fine. I'm just
3:12enjoying the game. And I think that
3:14there's so much pressure in the gaming
3:16industry now to just rush rush rush get
3:18to the end, move on to next next game.
3:20You miss out on some really cool
3:23enjoyment. And so that that'd be the
3:24first thing on my list is just enjoying
3:26some MMOs
3:28slowly and blindly. Just play it blind
3:31and uh see what happens. Let's see what
3:32adventures unfold for your character.
3:34And that really leads me to uh the
3:36second activity that I've really enjoyed
3:38in a slow burn capacity. It's like MMOs,
3:42but usually it's more story driven, and
3:44that's going to be long-form RPGs. And
3:46there's a ton of them. I've really been
3:48enjoying Persona games, right? If you
3:51really take your time, do all [music]
3:53the bonus dungeons at the end, really
3:55grind out for the monsters that you want
3:57to collect, do all the side quest, you
4:00could legitimately spend like 200 plus
4:02hours on a single game. I did that with
4:06Persona 4 Golden
4:08uh later last year and absolutely loved
4:11it. I played it on the Vita. That whole
4:13journey was just absolutely incredible.
4:15It was my first Persona game ever. Went
4:17in blind, had no idea uh what the
4:20Persona genre was. I just know that so
4:22many [music] people talked so highly
4:24about the game. So, I finally gave it a
4:26try after like a decade of it of it
4:28being out and I loved it. It's like uh
4:30if you haven't played Persona before,
4:32it's like a dark
4:34anime Pokémon mix in a blender. Um and
4:39and it's it's it's awesome. There's a
4:40lot of story consequences that you can
4:42unlock and affect the story. Multiple
4:45endings. Uh some that will make you cry,
4:47some that will make you absolutely
4:48regret what you've chosen. And uh if you
4:51go in blind, that's that's a great
4:53experience. I find that with games like
4:55Persona,
4:56it's best to just accept the fact that
4:58you are going to be playing that game
4:59for months. It could be 6 months
5:01depending on your schedule and what your
5:03real-world responsibilities are. And
5:05that's just part of the slow burn. I I
5:07think that if you can enjoy a game like
5:09Persona and just accept [music] that
5:11this is going to take a long time to
5:13beat, I don't need to rush through it.
5:15I'm just going to enjoy the side
5:16content. I'm just going to enjoy
5:18actually reading. That's another thing.
5:20So many people just uh it's actually a
5:22joke uh in my friend group. They just
5:24spam A, right? Just skip cutscene. They
5:27want to get to the combat. Um
5:28that is such a sad reality. Some people
5:31actually play games like that. You need
5:33to slow down and actually enjoy reading
5:35because it's going to help set up the
5:36scene.
5:37Um and I I would really encourage you as
5:40my audience to to really embrace slowing
5:42down and enjoy some long-form RPGs. Now,
5:45if you're not into Persona, there's
5:46another really great long-form one. I've
5:49been working through Xenoblade
5:50Chronicles. I think it originally came
5:52out on the Wii. I think it was ported to
5:55the 3DS, maybe, but it's on the Switch
5:57for sure. And that game will also take
6:00you hundreds of hours.
6:03And there's actually I think there's
6:04four
6:05available on the Switch. There's
6:07Xenoblade, Xenoblade Chronicles 2,
6:09there's like a golden 2.5-ish,
6:12then there's 3, and then there's the
6:14latest Xenoblade
6:16game that came out. I can't think of the
6:17title. [music]
6:18There's a lot of Xenoblade games, and
6:20each one are hundreds of hours of
6:21content. That's another great long-form
6:23RPG. I like playing them mobilely
6:26because generally
6:27I don't have a lot of time to sit down
6:29in front of a console these days.
6:32You know, like especially with just you
6:33know, having a family. [music]
6:34That that that's harder to do. So, I
6:36really enjoy my longer-form RPGs
6:40to be mobile if possible.
6:42Because like I said, most of my most of
6:44my PC time is is pretty is pretty
6:48limited, and I like to spend those with
6:49MMOs. So, anyway, highly recommend you
6:52find one long-form RPG that you just
6:54sink your teeth into and just enjoy the
6:57freaking ride. A very quick interruption
6:59into today's video is from our sponsor.
7:01This might be the most unique sponsored
7:03item I've ever gotten. This thing is
7:05called the O Station, man, and it is is
7:08wild. And I feel like this is a good
7:09video to actually introduce this since
7:11we're talking about slow burn and and
7:13kind of slowing down life. This thing is
7:16really awesome. It is a I'm going to
7:18make this in layman's term.
7:20This basically can recharge all of your
7:22batteries, and it auto sorts everything
7:24for you. And there's all these little
7:26compartments that it kind of auto
7:27filters dead batteries from. Anyway,
7:30they sent this to me, and this is really
7:32cool because if you've got handhelds or
7:34TV TV remotes that use batteries, other
7:36devices in your house that use
7:37batteries, this thing is awesome. It
7:40will auto charge your batteries for you.
7:43It'll auto-sort them and it doesn't even
7:44matter which way you put it in, it'll
7:45automatically charge no matter which way
7:47it's facing and then it will
7:49automatically pull out dead batteries,
7:51which is amazing. It comes with a ton of
7:54AAA and AA.
7:56And it's really cool. It uses USB-C to
7:58charge. You can just put this on your
8:00desk if you want or somewhere else in
8:02your home and whenever you need new
8:04batteries, you reach in here, pull them
8:05out, put the dead ones back in and it
8:07starts charging. You will literally
8:08always have batteries accessible to you
8:11and this thing is really It just also
8:13just looks really freaking slick, too.
8:14Look at that. Look how nice this thing
8:16looks. It's like a little computer,
8:18[music]
8:19um which aesthetically looks very, very
8:20nice. Um I'm going to be keeping mine on
8:23my shelving unit over here um just to
8:25have batteries on hand. So, anyway,
8:27thank you so much to O Station for
8:30sending this to me and I love the
8:31mission that you guys are doing. It's
8:33It's kind of captures just the slow
8:35retro vibe of of needing of actually
8:38needing batteries in our present age,
8:40which is kind of cool. Um so, anyway,
8:42thanks guys for sending it to me. Means
8:44a lot. I'll include links below if you
8:46want to check it out and uh yeah, let's
8:48go back to the main video. Okay, this
8:49next one might be my most favorite topic
8:51to talk about in this season of life.
8:53I'm going to totally nerd out on this,
8:55guys.
8:56Uh it's Dungeons and Dragons. Hold on. I
8:58know I haven't really spoken a ton about
9:00that on this channel. That's a
9:01completely different audience. Don't let
9:03that alienate you, okay? So, [music] um
9:05basically, what I've done over the last
9:07few months is I have really wanted to
9:10play D&D and I had this story that I
9:12really wanted to tell with a group of
9:15players. But, I know that finding a
9:17group of players uh can be a huge
9:19challenge. So,
9:21I knew that I needed to make my own game
9:24system that allowed new players to jump
9:27in um and kind of capture that that
9:30newer play that new player audience. So,
9:33I spent several months
9:34um on weekends just making my own game
9:37mechanics um and I wrote 373 pages
9:42of what I consider book one in this
9:44amazing epic story that I'm going to
9:46take a group through. Now I've had a lot
9:49of fun writing the story. I broken up
9:51into six chapters which will probably
9:53take between six to eight gaming
9:55sessions
9:56>> [music]
9:56>> and I actually did find a group. I went
9:58on Facebook and I posted here for like a
10:01local group and I actually have five
10:03players. We're about to start our third
10:05week right now. We play on Sundays
10:07[music]
10:07for about 3 hours and it has been a
10:10freaking blast. I've simplified the
10:12mechanics greatly. I made my own
10:14classes, my own races, each have their
10:17own racial abilities, class abilities.
10:20They have starting loot that they bring
10:22into this epic epic tale and
10:25they're in for a ride. They are in for a
10:27ride. I have I have planted so many
10:29hooks for them, so many
10:31unique items for them to find and a
10:34devastating story that they are about to
10:37walk into.
10:39Right now that they've they've done the
10:41session zero so all the players meet
10:43each other around [music] a campfire
10:45and they fought this this this huge
10:47monster in the woods and now they've
10:49kind of had this bonding moment and now
10:51they're going to be traversing through
10:52the woods to go to this town because
10:54this town called Brimbleton
10:56>> [music]
10:56>> has put out a plea for for adventurers
10:58to come help slay ogres that have
11:01overtaken
11:02the local mines. So the players are now
11:05traversing to
11:07go slay these ogres in these mines but
11:09what they don't realize is that
11:11the
11:12little elf that's traveling with the
11:14party actually has this unique gift to
11:16summon. I'm totally nerding out here.
11:18He has this
11:19this little elf traveling with the party
11:21has the ability to do some crazy summons
11:23and anyway he's like this chosen dark
11:25prince and the story's going to take
11:26this crazy turn where the players have
11:29the ability to either rescue or alienate
11:32this elf and and each of these choices
11:35have grave grave consequences. So
11:37anyway, I have written over like like I
11:39said 370 pages of content that offer
11:42forks in the road and unique monsters
11:46are going to fight. Anyway, all that to
11:47say is
11:49the slow burn for me as a DM is writing
11:51[music]
11:52and preparing the gaming session.
11:54You know,
11:55re-retelling what's happened week after
11:57week to make sure I'm I'm following the
11:59hooks the players are laying out for me
12:01to respond to and then also preparing
12:02the story and adjusting [music] it as
12:04the players navigate. That's been really
12:06fun and a really great slow burn
12:07activity, but also just playing it,
12:09right? I think playing with other people
12:12through this story that I know it could
12:13take could take months to finish and
12:17that's been a really freaking fun
12:18activity. And actually, I think half of
12:20the group that's playing with me
12:21currently
12:23completely new players. They've [music]
12:24never played D&D. And so like I said, I
12:27wrote my own game mechanics. It's called
12:28Prima Via which basically translates to
12:32first paths. It's like your first path
12:33into playing a tabletop RPG and it has
12:37been [music] absolutely fun. Oh, and one
12:38thing I do for my players is in between
12:40sessions,
12:41I will do like a text thread where
12:44[music] they're able to roleplay
12:46scenarios which usually involve
12:48traversing between towns or locations.
12:50So like right now we got a group thread
12:52where they they are traveling a few days
12:55between the starting location and the
12:57town and there's different scenarios
12:59that I'll plan for them and so they they
13:02get that content not only during our
13:04main sessions, but then they get to
13:06respond to the thrill of adventure all
13:08week long in between the actual
13:10sessions. So it's like a text
13:13roleplaying game for them and they've
13:15just been absolutely loving it. And
13:17yeah, so that that's been my favorite
13:19slow burn activity right now, but the
13:21last one and I've been really freaking
13:24enjoying this guys, it's reading fantasy
13:26novels.
13:27>> [music]
13:27>> I'll admit to you in my adult life when
13:29I got out of
13:31um academia, after I left college, I
13:34would read like uh leadership books or I
13:37would read books on um you know, things
13:39that would help me in the corporate
13:40life. But I I wasn't reading enjoyable
13:44stories until a friend at work actually
13:47gifted me Red Rising and said, "Dude,
13:49you have [music] to read this book."
13:51And I let it sit on my shelf for like
13:53months.
13:54And then I had a slow weekend. The
13:56family was was out doing stuff, so I
13:58just cracked it open. Next thing I know,
14:00I'm like halfway through the book. And
14:02it [music] was
14:03and is such an incredible freaking
14:05journey. I think reading is so
14:07underrated. I think if you're a gamer,
14:09if you like D&D or tabletops, if you
14:12like MMOs, you've got to find um a
14:15juxtapose activity that helps you unwind
14:18when you don't have the strength or
14:19energy to sit down in front of a screen
14:21or or gather a
14:23a bunch of other people to play D&D with
14:25or or tabletop with.
14:27That activity for me
14:29has been reading [music]
14:30and I I've crushed the freaking Red
14:32Rising series.
14:34Loved it. I'm currently doing a Dungeon
14:36Crawler Carl. I do about one or two
14:39chapters every day
14:40um or or throughout [music] the week
14:42just just to enjoy the story and man, I
14:44can tell you what,
14:46having all of these different activities
14:48together and using them in different
14:50different capacities, you know,
14:52depending on how I'm feeling in a
14:53particular day has been [music] so
14:56rewarding and and I feel so much more
14:58refreshed than coming home and assuming
15:02that gaming is going to be the activity
15:04I unwind with and then end up scrolling
15:06through the freaking Steam store [music]
15:08for an hour and then just feeling like,
15:10man, I I feel stressed and I don't feel
15:13like I've I've unwinded. And that's why
15:15having a variety of activities that are
15:17all slow burn intentionally helps me
15:20unwind tremendously. And reading has
15:22just been one of those things that has
15:24just [music] been absolutely freaking
15:25amazing. Like I said, Red Rising series,
15:27highly recommend it. Going through DCC
15:29right now, love it. Um and I and I I
15:32love it. I I I did not think I was going
15:34to enjoy reading fantasy novels as an
15:37adult as much as I actually do. And I I
15:40really implore my audience to give it a
15:42shot. If you want something a bit
15:44lighter and easier to get into, I think
15:47Dungeon Crawler Carl is like it has that
15:49[music] comedy and it's it's an easy
15:52read to get through. If you're looking
15:53for drama and maybe to cry,
15:56um try Red Rising. And uh and actually
15:59on my shelf right here, I've got Malice,
16:01which is on my backlog. And then my wife
16:03is reading um A Court of Thorns and
16:05Roses.
16:06>> [laughter]
16:06>> I don't I don't know if I want to read
16:07that one. But anyway, um these are the
16:09activities that I highly freaking
16:11recommend.
16:12Um and I would love to know what you
16:13guys do to unwind in a slow burn,
16:15specifically slow burn activity. Let me
16:18know in the comments below. Thanks,
16:20nerds, for watching. I really appreciate
16:21it. I love your your support. Comments
16:24means a lot to me. Check out my other
16:25videos and I will see you all in the
16:27next one, nerds. Bye. Oh, and tell
16:28Grandma I said hi. Tell her tell her I
16:30said what's up. Okay. Bye.