Dean Takahashi is the best videogame journalist ever. In terms of quality, quantity, and reach, nobody can touch him. He has been covering the games beat for decades, writing for prestigious outlets like The Wall Street Journal, San Jose Mercury News, Red Herring, and VentureBeat.
Within the business, he’s considered the gold standard. At this point in his career, other journalists should serenade him with “Simply the Best” or “Nobody Does It Better” whenever he walks into a room.
Dean Takahashi is someone that I’ve admired since the day I met him. I half-jokingly call him “my childhood hero,” but I truly hold him in the highest esteem. Like I said in the intro, he’s the best.
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and ReedPop announced that the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) has been cancelled for 2023. Carefully worded quotes from both parties have some people asking, “Is E3 dead?” With that in mind, The BeeRPad hosts Marcus Beer and Raymond Padilla discuss the show in this very special E3-centric episode.
Surprised by the cancellation of E3 2023, the boys discuss:
Hellbent Games Founder and CEO Chris Mair is one of my favorite people to hang out with on the road. We have so many common interests and our conversations can go in all sorts of directions. Obviously we’re both videogame nerds, but we also share a love for pro-wrestling, hair metal, and guitar. The last bit made him the perfect person to kick off my four-part “Guitar Heroes” series.
In the conversation about, Chris Mair and I talk about all things guitar. It was especially cool to hear about how studying jazz guitar has helped his career as a game designer and the head of a game studio. Other guitar topics covered include:
Award winning author John Foster (Leech, Rooster) dropped by to chat about Saturday Night Live with me. Before we got into the meat of the conversation, John spoke a bit about his latest book and what’s coming next. Also among the appetizers is a little rant on how much I hate when people say, “SNL isn’t funny anymore.” It’s such a lazy and thoughtless thing to say. It’s something I’ve been hearing from stupid people since high school and I hate it. So. Much.
With four cast members leaving (Kate McKinnon, Pete Davidson, Aidy Bryant, and Kyle Mooney), I fully expect some morons to say, “Saturday Night Live isn’t funny anymore,” throughout next season. The thing is, SNL is always funny. Sure, it has peaks and valleys like anything else, but writing, producing, and performing a live sketch comedy show is extraordinarily difficult. And for the most part, everyone involved with the show pulls it off.
Beyond that, SNL is always the funniest when you’ve invested the most time into it. For most people that’s usually in their teens or 20s. There are elements of emotional investment and nostalgia when people remember when SNL was best to them. Saying, “SNL isn’t funny anymore,” is inaccurate at best and flat-out dumb at worst. It may not be as funny to you as it was in the past, but humor evolves and mainstream tastes change.
At the end of the day, SNL is always funny.
Anyway, getting back to my wonderful conversation with John Foster, we spoke about:
Former Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) editor Ray Carsillo and I hit it off the second we met. We’re both East Coasters, named Ray, pro-wrestling fans, NY Yankees fans, comics nerds, and videogame nerds. How could we not get along?!?
One of Ray Carsillo’s more recent projects is the Geeks Who Like Sports podcast. It’s a very cool show that mixes sports and videogame fandom. Ray is a very smart and opinionated guy, so it’s great hearing his takes. His co-host, Lee Elias, is also a loud East Cost dude, so things can boisterously entertaining on Geeks Who Like Sports.
With so many nerdy hobbies in common, it was great catching up with Ray Carsillo. Some of the things we spoke about in the video above include:
John Keefer served as GameSpy.com’s managing editor while I worked there. He was an excellent boss that became an excellent friend. Last year, he had a major health scare, but has recovered nicely (except for the COVID-19 hiccup just before we streamed this chat). I haven’t spoken with John in a few years and it was fantastic catching up with him using the power of Grayskull the Internet.
Some of the things that John Keefer and I discussed in the video above include:
Longtime videogame PR professional and former GameTrailers TV host Marcus Beer is one of the most passionate football fans that I know. This made him the perfect person to talk about Championship Sunday 2022. The 2021/2022 Premier League season was absolutely thrilling, with so many spots left until few weeks of the season and the winner of the season coming down to the last day!
Some of the Championship Sunday 2022 tidbits Marcus Beer and I spoke about include:
For nerds of a certain age, Big Trouble in Little China is one of the most important movies of all time. This John Carpenter cult classic did not do well in theaters but became hugely influential after heavy cable rotation and changing sensibilities. Jose “Fubar” Sanchez dropped by to talk about why this movie is beloved by geeks all over the world.
Some of the aspects of Big Trouble in Little China that Jose and I discuss include:
My excellent colleague and friend Paul Semel dropped by to share his thoughts on Moon Knight on Disney Plus and Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Although we both enjoy many of the same nerd things, our tastes also vary. With that in mind, I didn’t expect him to enjoy Moon Knight as much as I did. Although he said it was his least-favorite Marvel series on Disney Plus, he enjoyed it more than I expected him to.
Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was received similarly. Paul Semel also enjoyed, but not as much as I did. He tends to be more cynical about entertainment in general and doesn’t enjoy secondary comics characters as much as I do. For example, I thoroughly enjoyed the Starbrand and Nightmask comics, while Paul could not care less about characters at that…level, for lack of a better word.
It was excellent catching up with my friend, pro-wrestler, and greatest man that ever lived, Austin Aries. He’s one of those guys that makes you go, “Damn. We’ve known each other way longer than I thought!” One of my goals with RPadTV 3000 is to introduce you guys and gals to some cool people and I absolutely did that with this conversation. I love that the podcast had very little to do with pro-wrestling and gave you some insight into the man behind the gimmick.
Some of the topics Austin Aries and I chatted about in RPadTV 3000 episode 10 included:
