Lore'd to Death
Join me, your host, as I dig deep into the lore of your favourite games, movies, and more to find answers to the questions that you didn't know you had!
If you have any suggestions, want to be a guest, or just want to say hello, send me a message at loredtodeath@gmail.com or @LoredtoDeath on social media.
Lore'd to Death
2024 Q&A / Holiday Break Week
With the end of the year coming up, we're taking a well-needed break to answer the questions that you all had! We talk about everything from my favourite games, my go-to pizza toppings, and the plans for 2025.
Thank you to everyone who tuned in to the podcast this year. I appreciate every single one of you, and I can't wait to bring you more content next year. Have a safe and happy holiday season and new year!
If you have an idea for an episode, or just want to say hello, please send it over to loredtodeath@gmail.com or at one of the social media links below!
Podcast & Social Media Links:
linktr.ee/loredtodeath
Hey there. Welcome to the Lore’d to death podcast, a deep dive into the lore of your favorite games, movies, shows, and more. My name is Brett, and today we're not doing any of that. But we're actually recording a Q&A. I have asked the lovely listeners of this podcast to submit any questions that they have had for the show, and as is tradition for the end of the year, I'm just doing a break week episode, so I don't have to write. I don't have to do anything. And I can just kind of give you guys updates on what's happening and answer any questions that you might have. I was pleasantly surprised this year because I got like 8 or 9 questions and that doesn't sound like a lot, but last year I only had like 1 or 2. So the fact that we have any of this year is really great. We've experienced a lot of growth this year and I'm very happy about that. And you might notice if you're watching on YouTube, there is also we'll see if this makes it into the episode video attached to this I'm going to try recording video. We'll see how this goes. This is not going to be the standard because I cannot be bothered. I just wanted to try something new for this episode, and if it's feasible in the future, then I don't know. Maybe we'll consider it, but for now, do not have the energy and I do not want to take the effort. And before we get started, I just want to ask that you rate this podcast five stars wherever you are listening to it or like and subscribe if you're on YouTube. The only way that I know that you're enjoying the content that I'm making is if you let me know. So rate the show, leave a comment, or send an email to Lord to death at gmail.com. To suggest an episode or. So rate the show, leave a comment or send an email to loredtodeath@gmail.com To suggest an episode or just say hey! So with all that out of the way, let's get on with the episode. This is just going to be a Q&A straight Q&A. I did save a good question for last, because that's something that I actually wanted to talk about today. So stick around to the end to get to the content that I actually wanted to talk about today. But until that point, let's just start top down. The rest of these are in no particular order. I just grab them the first that they came in. So they might be a little disjointed. The first question is, what are your favorite games per console that you've played? And this is a really great question. And I'm going to preface I am just listing the consoles that I have personally owned, not necessarily ones that I've played. So you'll notice that I'm missing some, like the PlayStation one. I never actually owned that console, so I don't feel as informed to say what my favorite game was. But we're going to go through everything that I've owned, and this really put into perspective how many consoles I've owned and how many games I've played. And maybe I need to find a hobby. So we'll start off with the Sega Genesis, and I have VectorMan and Sonic the Hedgehog, the OG VectorMan is just a really cool platformer that I've never heard anybody talk about before, and it's probably not actually a great game, but I remember it very fondly, and I played it for hours and hours and hours on end. Then we have the NES, and I'm going to have to say Super Mario 3. For the Snes, it's either Legend of Zelda Link to the past or Super Mario World, and I do have like two for each console. I tried to pick one favorite, but I just can't for a lot of these. If you ask me per year I could pick a favorite, but per console we're talking about like a six year lifespan here. It's really hard to pick one favorite from that time. For the N64, I have the 007 GoldenEye and Super Mario 64 just like everyone else. PS2 it has to be Okami or Resident Evil four. Two just incredible. Still some of my favorite games to this day. Gamecube. I'm going to say Legend of Zelda Wind Waker or Twilight Princess and Metroid Prime. Though, to be fair, there are a lot of games for Gamecube that I really loved and still love to this day, and I don't feel like it's fair to pick any favorites from the Gamecube, but those are going to be my three. For the original Xbox, we're going to go with Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, which is my favorite game of all time. And then fable, because fable was amazing. We'll throw Halo Combat Evolved as an honorable mention, but honestly, KOTOR and Fable take the cake every day. Xbox 360. We're going to go with Halo Reach, Alan Wake and Fallout New Vegas. cannot pick between the three of those. If I had to drop one, it would be Alan Wake. But Halo reach, Alan wake, fallout new Vegas, easy. The PlayStation three was the first console that I personally owned. It wasn't like the family's game console. It was something that I personally owned. And so there are a lot of games here that I love for nostalgia sake, but I understand that they aren't all necessarily amazing games, but my two picks are Metal Gear Solid 4 and BioShock. For the OG, Wii we’re going to go with Super Paper Mario. I love that game so much. Wii U. We're going to say Yoshi's Wooly World and Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn. Two really diametrically opposing games, but I love them both. PlayStation four top of the top has to be Bloodborne, and it's not even a question. but honorable mentions to two goats of the gaming world, The Last of Us and God of War. Then we have the Xbox One. I'm going to say Dead Rising four, and that's because that's the only game I ever played on the Xbox One. Back in college, when Dead Rising four came out, I was a huge fan of the Dead Rising series, and I literally bought an Xbox with my college money. With a copy of Dead Rising four, I played it in about a week and then I sold the Xbox. I maybe lost like $50 in the exchange. Which was, you know, the price of Dead Rising. But I never owned an Xbox One past that. I never played any other games on Xbox One, I don't think. Not that I can remember. So that one was a really funny one where I just, I don't have any other games that I could have played on it, so Dead Rising four has to be it, even though it was a very mid-game. Nintendo Switch this is going to be controversial for a lot of reasons, but I'm going to say Legend of Zelda Breath of the wild and I know I can hear my friend Dennis screaming at me just saying, why not Tears of the Kingdom? Because it's a strict upgrade and I agree, but I don't, because a lot of the mechanics that were introduced in Tears of the Kingdom I feel just aren't Zelda like the whole building vehicles and doing stuff like that warping through ceilings. It just didn't feel like Zelda to me. And I'm not saying that I don't like the game. I loved Tears of the Kingdom all I played it, but I just prefer breath of the wild because it just feels more like a Zelda game to me. And even then, I think it's still the least Zelda game that Legend of Zelda has in the series. But again, not saying that I don't like it. I love breath of the wild. I do love tears in the Kingdom, but I like breath of the wild better. For PlayStation five, it has to be Elden Ring. There's not even like a second or third. I could say like God of War Ragnarok or The Last of Us 2 or plenty of other games that have come out on the PlayStation five. But Elden Ring takes the cake for all of them, and I don't even feel bad about not mentioning any other games, because Elden Ring is that good. And then I'm going to put PC, even though it's not a console. But for PC, my top three games are going to be Baldur's Gate three, Titanfall two, and civilization seven. And then I thought about this later. Actually, I had finished this list. I had moved on from this question, and then I realized that there are handhelds as well, that I owned. So it was pretty much just the Game Boys and the DS’ But I'm going to lump all of the Nintendo DS’ into one. So it'll be the DS, the 3DS, the 2D, whatever. I'm lumping it all into one because I cannot remember what game was for, what, but for the OG Game Boy, I did own one. We're going to say Doctor Mario. I played that game way too much when I was a kid. For the Game Boy Color this one. Things get a little weird, but we're going to say Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It was like the best Final Fantasy game skinned does Harry Potter so good. And then a game called Magi Nation which I've never heard anyone else talk about. It was basically Yu-Gi-Oh! But it was really cool. I love that game so much. I had such a cool vibe and Donkey Kong Country. For the Game Boy Advanced, I'm going to say Urbz Sims in the city. I played that game way too much, so I have to give it props. Even though it was just a weird game in general. But Urbz Sims in the city and Pokemon Emerald Pokemon Emerald is my favorite Pokemon game, as you'll notice from it being the only Pokemon game in any of these lists. and then for the Nintendo DS, 3DS, 2Ds whatever. It just has to be Fire Emblem Birthright or Conquest. I played both of them. I love them so much. I think that they're some of the best that Fire Emblem has to offer, and that might also be a controversial opinion. I don't really know. I don't keep up with that fandom, but Birthright and Conquest, I love those games. So thank you for the question. That took a long time to answer, and I apologize, but there's no way to answer that question shortly. For the next question we have. Have you considered covering Dead Space lore? I feel like it's very cosmic horror adjacent and would fit the vibe of the channel overall, and I agree it would fit the channel overall, and I honestly have not thought about it. I love the first two games I actually played Dead Space two before I played Dead Space one, but I never played Dead Space three, so I feel like I'm missing out on something there. Although some people have told me they're not. But maybe I'll play the third one, maybe I'll get to it. I would actually really love to do that. So. Dead space it could come in the future. We'll see. All right, next one we have. Oh my God. Hi. Do you have a fandom or series you're particularly interested in covering in the future? Also, what are your go to pizza toppings? So the first one is going to be a boring answer. But the answer is kind of no. There's not one thing that I'm looking forward to covering in particular, over the last two years, I've covered basically everything that I want to cover, so nothing comes to mind at the moment. Maybe I'll think of something later, but. Someone suggested that I look into the lore of the game Prey and I'm actually looking forward to doing that. I love the most recent prey game, and I don't know if they were talking about like, Prey one and two from way back when that, you know, the its predecessor kind of stole the name from it's not the same game, but I assume they're talking about the most recent one. And I think that would be really great to get into. So maybe that's my answer. But it's not really like a fandom or series really. That's just one game. But I guess that's what I'm looking forward to. As for pizza toppings, pepperoni, tomato, green peppers this is a combo that I've never seen anyone else order in my life, but something about having actual tomato slices on top of pizza adds like a crunchiness. And, freshness to it. Almost. And you've got savory with pepperoni. You've got kind of sweet with green peppers. I feel like it's a really well rounded mix on pizza. That is my go to. If I'm ordering pizza, it will always be pepperoni, green pepper, tomato. Tomato is a must. If you're missing any of the other toppings. Tomato is a must. It's a winning combo, trust me. Order it for yourself. Tell me I'm wrong. All right. Next up we have. Dear Brett, I have two questions for the upcoming Q&A. episode. One what was the first game you played? And two, if you could change one thing about one game, what would it be and why? My first game was Minecraft, and I would add multiplayer to Half-Life two because I feel like it would be better with friends. Thanks for your time. Half-Life multiplayer sounds good to me. Also reading that Minecraft was someone's first game play, it makes me feel really old and my answer is going to show how old I am. So it's hard to say. And I thought about this one for quite some time. It's really hard to say what my first game was, but the first one I really remember playing was the first Legend of Zelda on the NES. I didn't actually play through and beat it until much later in my life, but that's the first one that I remember latching onto. I guess. And then the first one that I played and beat was probably one of the earlier Pokemon games. If I had to guess, it was probably Pokemon Blue because that's the one that I had at the time. I had like blue crystal red, but I think I played blue the most. So first game that I played and beat probably Pokemon Blue. First game I ever picked up ever was the first legend of Zelda. And then if I could change anything about one game, I would add a few thousand more people on the Titanfall two so I can just play that game whenever I want to. Titanfall two is my favorite shooter. I think I've mentioned it before. And I would give anything to have that game be back in its peak with a lot of players playing it, because currently if I tried to hop on right now, it's about 741 my time am I would not find a game, but if I hop on anywhere after 5 p.m., I'll probably find a game within a few minutes. And then once I find the game, I'll just play with those same players until I stop. But I would just add more people to Titanfall two because I miss that game. At its peak. And I would bring back the old game modes, because currently there's only attrition, and I wish that there was more. I miss the. Just pilot versus pilot. I miss the capture the flag the king of I miss all of them. I miss all of those game modes. And I guess a runner up, if I could add proper co-op into any of the Dark Souls games. And by proper co-op, I mean. that I can find a friend online, invite them into my game, and just have them there with me to play through the entire game rather than summoning in phantoms and dealing with all that nonsense. if I can add co-op to any of the Dark Souls games, I would in a heartbeat. I guess that's a runner up. All right, next one we have. Hey, man. First, your podcast is actually too awesome. Thank you very much. And second, I'm trying to get into a new video game, and I'm wondering what your favorite and least favorite games are. Thanks, man. Have a great day. I'm sure I've said it on this podcast before, and I actually think I just said it earlier, but my favorite game of all time is Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. If you did not play it when it first came out, and you're not used to original Xbox, PS1 or PS2 era games, it might be harder to get into because it is dated. I will admit that. I'll admit it's dated, but I have a very strong nostalgia for that game, and I love it so much. I play through it almost once a year. Sometimes I've played through it more, but Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, it's always really cheap. Winter sale is about to happen. It'll be on for like three bucks. I would pick it up. If you haven't played it. And if you don't want to spend your money on it because you don't know if you'll want to play it, I will buy it for you. I'll buy it for you. When it's on sale. Just send me an email. My least favorite game is probably Eragon for the original Xbox, and that's because of how much of a letdown it was. I loved the Eragon books growing up, and the movie was a disappointment. And then the game was just a worse version of the movie. So I was really hyped for that game when I was younger and it didn't live up to anyone's expectation. I don't think so. Garbage. And I'm going to piss off a lot of people by saying this, but runner up to least favorite game is probably Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. I think that game is garbage. I don't think that there is anything redeemable about it, except for the fact that it was one of the first titles for the N64, and it revolutionized 3D gaming as we know it. I'll give it that. It has a very good historical significance, but objectively looking at it, it's not a good game. And that's my opinion. If you want someone who shares my opinion, go look up Egoraptor on YouTube. and find his whole spiel about Ocarina of Time, because I feel the exact same way. When I first saw that video, I was like, there's finally someone in the world who agrees with me and that's it. I'm going to make a lot of people upset with that. But that is my opinion. worthy mentions are Disco Elysium, Hollow Knight, and Hades. Those are three really great games. They're all kind of different. They're all kind of 2D. Oh, I guess Disco Elysium isn't, but it's painterly, so it feels kind of 2D. Three Amazing Games. If you're having trouble getting into games or finding new games, I think you'll find something within these three. So those are three that I've really loved over the last few years. And then we have my friends at the Overthinking Games podcast with the question, has research for the podcast ever changed your views on a game like you had one opinion of a game, then researched and it changed your view of it? And the answer to this I actually had to think about it. I went through my entire episode list and I thought, are there any of these games that I didn't like or ones that actually my opinion changed on it? And there are two answers actually. So the first is Half-Life and this is another controversial take. When I first played Half-Life way back in the day, the first one, I didn't care for it. I didn't really understand what was happening. The story and everything isn't very straightforward and in your face. And I think when I was younger, that's what I needed. It's a lot of just kind of like, figure it out yourself and the story moves from there. And then Half-Life two, I remember when it came out or shortly after it came out, I tried playing it and I had a friend who was really into it at the time, and I just could not figure out why. I didn't love it and I just never really went back to the series. It sat in my Steam library for God knows how long. but now I actually this year I played through Half-Life through Black Mesa. I only played Black Mesa. I tried playing the OG Half-Life and I just couldn't deal with it. It was super janky, but I heard that Black Mesa is pretty good for a Fanmade remake, so I played Black Mesa. I'm currently about halfway through Half-Life two. And I just beat this week. As of recording this Half-Life Alyx. So I got a VR headset earlier this year I played Half-Life Alyx. Other than nauseating, I thought it was an amazing experience. It was one of the best, actually, the best VR experience that I've had so far. And that actually, honestly, doing the episodes on the combine, Black Mesa, and even Aperture Science, who mentions Black Mesa quite a bit. Reading about them made me realize that there is lore in these games. There is a big story because that was my big problem, is that I feel like I wasn't being presented with a story directly, and I still kind of agree with that. I think that a lot of the lore in the Half-Life games is interpretation of the things that are happening around you. And of course, the events of the game. But nothing's really explicitly stated to you, I don't feel. There's a lot of inference that has to happen, and that just wasn't the game I was looking for at the time. But having done the research for the Half-Life games, I actually love them now. I think that they're great and I kind of regret sleeping on them for so long. And it wasn't intentionally. Again, I tried, I tried playing them. I just couldn't get into them. But. Half-Life. Definitely researching those games made me love those games. And then the second one honorable mention is Dead Island. I played Dead Island back in the day. When it first came out, I thought it was fine. I never finished it. I played a bit of it. I don't know how long, and then I just kind of fell off. I don't know why, but I never really thought about the series past that. So I never played any of the sequels. But then someone asked me to do an episode on dead island, and I researched it, and I actually thought it was amazing. I thought it was very fascinating. I thought the story was really good. So I actually planned to. This next year, I want to go back to the Dead Island series and replay them at least the first one. We'll go to the second one as well. And I'm actually really looking forward to getting into it after reading the lore and after doing an episode on it. I think it's I just think it sounds neat and I'd really like to give it a try. So thank you for the amazing question. It was a really good question. I remember when this popped up as a notification on my phone. I was like, oh dang, I never thought about that. And it it was a thinker. I had to go through every single one of my episodes and try to find an answer. But yeah, it turns out there are two answers. So Half-Life and Dead Island. And then we have another really long winded question, and this is one that I get often. It's, I think the question I've been asked the most, whether it's on Reddit or whether it's via email or anything else, but can you discuss your research and planning process? How do you pick a topic, what the research entails and writing your script, etc.? So this is a really great question as well, because it's something that I feel like if you listen to podcasts, you probably don't understand how much work goes into them. And it's different for something like, I don't know, Theo Vaughn's show where he's just kind of talking to people, or my show where I have to research everything. I have to write a script because there's so much that's going on and I have to be accurate, or I feel like I have to be so not every podcast is going to be the same as mine, and I understand that. I put a lot more work into mine than probably most other people do. I feel like most podcasts are just conversational podcasts, and you don't really need to put a ton of work into those, I'm not trying to put these people down who run the conversational podcast, but anyone I know who does a podcast that's research driven knows that it's a lot of work. So everything starts with a list that I have on my phone, and this is a list of all these suggestions that I get from viewers. And anything that I think of that I want to write about. So when I want to start writing, I take a look at the list and I see if anything jumps out at me. I used to go chronologically, but there are just some topics that I don't really want to write about for one reason or another, and I'll leave those and come back to them later. I do intend on following up on everything on that list. There's just some things that. And this brings me to my next point, which is pre-research. Before I start writing, I do a quick look into how much information there is on that topic. Usually I can get an idea for it in a few minutes, and then I decide from there whether or not I'm going to go ahead with the episode or shelf it for later, because maybe there's not enough content to write a full episode about. Because I don't want to write a five minute episode on something. It's just not really the content that I want to put out, and I feel like it's a disservice for someone to wait two weeks for an episode to get a five minute long episode, but for those ones, I'll try to find a way to fit those into something else. Like Chauntea, of the goddesses in the Dungeons and Dragons universes. I got a suggestion to do Chauntea’s lore, and I looked at it and I thought, there's not much here. Like I can't really do a ton with this. So I tried to fit them into another episode and I managed to right away slot them into the next episode that I was writing, which was about Selune and Shar. And that worked perfectly. And that's what I try to do for smaller topics, is I try to find a way that I can fit them in with something else, because, again, not that I'm trying to hit some sort of arbitrary number, but I do want to target around a half hour at the very least for episodes and an hour at the most. So sometimes I'll look at things and there's just not enough information. Sometimes there's too much information and the too much information. If it's something where I know I'm going to have to write 10,000 words and try to get it recorded and edited on time, and I don't have the time. Sometimes that's the case. I procrastinate a lot, and so I'll have to come back to those later. So long story short, I look at a list on my phone. I see what I want to talk about. Once something grabs me, I'll latch onto it and I'll start writing. So then I'll go into full research mode. And this usually consists of scouring the wiki for sources. And then I'll read those sources, or at least skim over them to make sure that there's enough information there. Cross-check it with the wiki. Make sure that there's nothing funky there. Because sometimes you get a lot of really abbreviated information on the wikis, and it's not really great just to use wikis for a full episode. And it's just like my high school teachers told me when I was writing essays is that I can't use Wikipedia as a source for anything, and I try not to do that now, because I know it's all community driven, and the best information you're going to get is from the source material. So and then from there, oftentimes I'll have questions while I'm writing, and I'll try to do a quick internet search to see if anyone else has had those same questions. And oftentimes I'll come across a Reddit thread or, you know, something on Quora. Any one of those forum type websites, someone will be asking the same question as me. Usually there are people down in the comments who are far more knowledgeable about the subject, who are there to give answers, and I'll just take those answers and try to cite that one possible. But otherwise it's just writing the script from there. So it's really going to the wiki, making sure that there's information there, checking all of the sources. And I do check all of the sources. It is exhausting, especially for D&D stuff, when you have everything from, you know, first edition to fifth edition in 2024. Now, where there's so many retcons in the material, it gets exhausting. But I'm sure that you guys know this show is 99% scripted. Except for this episode. I don't have a script. Well, I have I have some notes here, but this one is unscripted, and even most of the jokes that I make are scripted beforehand. I write a lot of the jokes that I have in there and you know, but I have to because otherwise I'll just ramble and there are some situations where I'll think of something while I'm recording the episode, or I'll make a connection that I didn't while I was writing it, and I'll adlib that. But again, that's like 1% of every episode that happens like once or twice every episode. Otherwise, everything is scripted to a tee. Basically. And that's because I write in my own voice. I write the same way that I would talk. So when I'm reading my script, it just feels like talking. It's just reminding me of what I have to say. So it's just a comfortable way of keeping myself on track and on topic. My show is very, very scripted. And actually that was the first, Complaint that I ever got about my podcast is that everything sounds way too scripted and I have genuinely taken that in. And I would love if that guy were still watching. I know he's not, but. I try not to sound so scripted. I try to speak naturally, and that's a big part of speaking in my own voice. Anyways, I'm getting way off topic and that's because I don't have a script. So this is what happens when I don't have a script. I ramble, so other than that, there's a lot of back and forth between source materials and trying to make sense of a script and trying to make sure that certain ideas are grouped together and it takes a lot of time, especially again when writing about D&D, when there's so many different sources so it's pretty tedious, honestly, it's very tedious and the big thing that I make sure of while I'm writing is that I'm not just ripping off the wiki. I don't want to just copy and paste things from the wiki, because that's not that's not it. That's not what I want to do. I feel like that's disingenuous to the source material, and not saying that the wikis are inaccurate, and most of the time they're pretty accurate. But. I'm not trying to rip off someone else's work. Someone else had to write all of that. And, I want to do my own version of it. So I prefer to go directly to the source if at all possible. And most of the time I'm able to. But. I think I mentioned this on the first break week episode that I ever did, and that's that. Again, this stuff takes a long time. And to give you an idea of how long it takes for an hour long episode, I. I've done the math several times on these longer episodes and for shorter episodes, but for an hour long episode, I probably spend anywhere from 10 to 15 plus hours compiling all the information, researching, writing a script. And I know that I've taken longer than 15 hours in instances with the Mind Flayer episode, which was the biggest episode that I've done to date, and it's not even close. It's not the longest episode that I've done, but it was the most research intensive episode that I've ever had to do. So that probably honestly took somewhere around 20 hours to write out, and I actually had to stop writing that script to write something shorter so I could finish the script the next week. Like, that's how big that script was. and so when I record the raw recording, the raw audio file is about one and a half to two times as long as the episode is going to be. And that's because I take a lot of pauses. I have to redo lines all the time. I'm not perfect, and so when I edit it down, it's about, you know, one and a half to two times shorter. and then when I'm editing, that takes about twice as long as the episode is going to be with taking out bad takes and editing out silence, just editing in general, making sure everything lines up, adding chapter notes, making notes for shorts in the future. So for an hour long episode, I'm spending an average of about 12 hours doing research for one episode and then two hours recording and two hours editing. And that's not even including taking the time to make shorts or any of that stuff. So just from farm to table, I'm spending somewhere around 16 hours per episode, which since I come out every other week, that's about eight hours a week that I spend on my podcast, which doesn't sound like a lot, but that's an extra workday, right? Thankfully, I split it up over the couple weeks. I do a couple hours in the morning here and there before work, but it's a huge time sink and that's what I would love to get monetized, because if I could just like recoup some of that cost, that would be excellent. But, it's not the case. So. I hope that answers that question. I know that was really long winded, and I apologize for how long that went, but that's that's my process. That's how it works. And then editing is its own thing. I could do an entire video on just how I edit my podcast. So. And then the last question and the one that I actually wanted to talk about anyways, so thank you very much for the question. What's the plan for next year? Any sneak peeks into what we can expect? And I've done a lot of thinking about this over the last year, over the last few months, even the last couple months, I've really thought about what I'm doing next year, and I'm not sure that I have much of an interesting answer, because this year, in terms of content and engagement and getting people listening to the podcast, we've done so much better than the previous year, and if we follow that trend into next year, it could be really great. Like we could see some explosive growth, but. I really like what I've done this year. And so I want to try to do more of what I've done this year, next year. And that just means doing more D&D content or Baldur's Gate three content, doing more content that people want to hear. Right? It's trying to attract people who haven't found the podcast into listening to the podcast, while also servicing the fans. So it's a delicate line to walk. Yeah. But I'm still going to do things other than D&D. That's not going to stop. I'm never going to be a one topic kind of show, but I am going to lean into that stuff just like I did this year, because it was really great for the channel. I've also had a couple conversations about getting involved in a network. Nothing serious as of now. But I've also had conversations with some other podcasters, people who you haven't heard, people who you have heard. And I want to have these people back on again, and I want to go on their shows. There's also the topic, and this is what I really wanted to talk about at the end of the episode. Today was. Do I go from a semi weekly podcast to a monthly podcast? And the only reason that comes up is because sometimes, again, writing for 16 hours for an episode. Plus, like sometimes it's more than that. Doing all of that work for one episode, it does get exhausting. Again, it's an extra work day, and every week essentially, and I've almost reached the point of burnout a couple times, and I don't want to get there. I don't want to feel burnt out. So I've considered going monthly instead of semi weekly. I don't really love the idea because I know that personally, if I'm listening to a podcast and they come out with an episode monthly, I kind of forget about them by the third week that they haven't posted anything unless it's something that I really, really love. But for the most part, I just kind of forget about that. And when it comes up again, I'm like, oh yeah, I will listen to that later. And I've dropped off of quite a few podcasts because the content isn't enough for me to want to wait a month for the content, which seems very selfish. That's very selfish, I understand that, but as someone who's ingesting content, that's how I feel. So I don't know if I want to go that direction for this show. I'm not really sure. I really want to know what you guys think. I know it would be better for myself. I'd be able to push out better content every month, but that means half as many episodes. That means instead of 24 episodes in a calendar year or more, whatever it is, you'd be getting 12 and. That's the thing, right? You'd be getting much less content, but might be getting better content. And then I would feel a little better because this is just a hobby, and sinking that much time into it can be very exhausting. There are pros and cons to both. And realistically, if I do go to a monthly show, I would still want to put out more episodes and I would work on. I would do one lower episode per month and then try to do one guest show or one more freestyle episode per month. So you're still getting something, but it's not going to be the typical content. And the purpose of that would be so that I can network more and go on other people's shows more. I can have people on my show more, and we can do episodes like the ones that have done with DJ, where we talk about persona and it's just freestyle. We have some notes or, you know, with Seth from Overthinking Games, where we talked about Elden Ring for two episodes, it would be more of that content along with the lore content. so what do you guys think? Genuinely, I really want to know if people would love that. Hate that. If you hate it, like, please, like by all means let me know. Because I kind of hate it too. But it's a change. That might be good. It might be bad. Who knows? So that's really what I wanted to talk about today, is the idea of going from semi weekly to monthly. I don't know, I guess we'll see what the new year brings. And that's really it. That's all the questions that I had for today. Thank you so much for everyone who submitted a question. I really appreciate every question, every single one. No matter how asinine you think it might be. I really love hearing from each and every one of you every single time. No one is a burden when they're reaching out to me. Even. There's several people who reach out in emails constantly, and I love hearing from you every single time. There's never a time where I look at a fan email and I'm upset or I'm annoyed, or I think, like, stop messaging me. Never. That's never been the case. I always love hearing from you guys. I will always love hearing from you guys. So keep sending in the questions and I'll either answer them on their own channel or I'll save them for another Q&A episode. But this has been today's episode. It's been a little different, but I need a break at the end of the year. I do, and that's all I can really say about that. So you can find us online at Lore’d to Death on your favorite social media apps Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. We're also on YouTube, so if you head over there, hit subscribe, like, comment, all that good stuff. I would really appreciate it. And if you have any questions or suggestions for topics or you just want to say hi, send me a message wherever you can find me or at loredtodeath@gmail.com. If you're using the Spotify app, there is a comment section on the app, and if you're on YouTube, there's obviously the comments, So I would love to hear from you. I don't really have anything witty to say at the end of today's episode other than Happy Holidays. Whatever you celebrate, wherever you celebrate it, whoever you celebrate it with, enjoy yourself. Have a safe, happy holiday season. I hope that you got a week off work. If you're working and I hope that it's paid. I hope that your company is not just stiffing you on a week's worth of pay. When the company shuts down. Be safe. Have a happy holidays. Have a happy New Year. We'll be back with this right again right at the start of the new year. So. I look forward to coming back. I look forward to hearing from you guys. And thank you so much again for watching. It's been a great two years of the podcast. And actually, as I'm recording today, the day that I'm recording is actually the official two year anniversary of this podcast. So it's very special to me, something that I didn't think I would be doing for very long. Something I figured I'll get a few episodes out of. I'll learn how to edit audio. I'll learn how to edit my own voice, and we'll go from there. And it's turned into something great. It's turned into something that I really want to do. And I'm very grateful for the people who make it happen. It started with just my friends and family listening, and now we've got hundreds of people all over the place listening. So may not be much to some people, but it's a lot for me, and I appreciate every single person who listens to this. Whether you listen to it every week that it comes out, or whether you wait and listen to them all in one go. I appreciate everyone who listens and thank you, I, I could I realize that I'm stuck in a loop. I could just keep talking forever. So I'm going to stop talking. I'm going to just I'm just going to go. I'll, I'll lock you to that in the next one. So, yeah.