#2043 - Francis Foster & Konstantin Kisin

Joe Rogan (0:06)

Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.

Konstantin Kisin (0:16)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Francis Foster (0:17)

You can hear things in front of you.

You get a sense of where they are. That's one of the, god damn, those things are addictive.

Konstantin Kisin (0:24)

Yeah, man, I'm a gamer.

SPEAKER_4 (0:25)

They are so addictive.

Konstantin Kisin (0:27)

Yeah.

Francis Foster (0:31)

It's so immersive now.

Konstantin Kisin (0:32)

Are you into video games?

Francis Foster (0:33)

Oh my god, I have a real problem. I can't play them.

I literally can't play them. I can play pool, right? Because pool, I'm addicted to that.

But pool to me is like a mind exercise. It's like a concentration exercise, as much as it is a game. It's all about everything has to move together in perfect synchronicity. When I'm playing video games, I'm just absorbed in this adrenaline-fueled chaos of graphics and sounds and explosions.

SPEAKER_4 (1:02)

It's just way too good. That's the problem.

Francis Foster (1:05)

You don't want to do anything else. You just want to fucking go crazy and play video games all day.

Konstantin Kisin (1:08)

There's this game I play, Escape from Tarkov, that I just shouldn't be allowed to play it.

It's not good for my family, man. It's just like 10 hours a day. And before you know it, the whole day is gone.

SPEAKER_4 (1:20)

You know The Loose Sleep?

SPEAKER_5 (1:22)

Wolfenstein 3D, that was the game where it just, that felt kind of like, the first time I saw Wolfenstein 3D, which probably shows how old I am now.

Francis Foster (1:32)

That's the original id Software title. That's like the first one they did, right?

Konstantin Kisin (1:35)

You quit at the right time, man.

That's what it looked like. So many hours of my childhood were spent on that.

Francis Foster (1:46)

So I started off with Quake 1

Quake 1 on a computer. I was just playing the game itself. Because I used a Mac, and so then they put out, how was the car, gentlemen?

Konstantin Kisin (1:58)

Thank you, brother.

Francis Foster (1:58)

We're like gentlemen here.

SPEAKER_5 (2:01)

Nice one.

Francis Foster (2:02)

Enjoying some company.

But that was just, you just play the game. And then I found out about online playing. I was like, oh no. Oh no.

SPEAKER_4 (2:13)

What a life suck that is.

Konstantin Kisin (2:15)

Do you let your kids play?

Francis Foster (2:17)

They play games. Yeah, but fortunately, one's really into roadblocks.

SPEAKER_5 (2:23)

What's roadblocks?

Francis Foster (2:24)

Roadblocks, R-O-B-O-L or B-L-O-X. I think that's what it is, right?

It's just like they have these little worlds they create, and they run around with their friends in there. It seems like fun. You just have to limit the amount of time they do it. And you have to explain to them, like don't just let them figure out it's addictive. Explain to them that it's addictive.

Explain to them that there's things that you're going to want to get really good at that won't help you.

SPEAKER_5 (2:53)

Yes. It's a great way of looking at it.

Francis Foster (2:55)

Because I had a friend, and he was one of the guys who was one of the managers of the comic store. Super awesome guy. And he was hooked on EverQuest. You know that game? Remember that game? Remember that game, Jamie? Massive online multiplayer game, you're a wizard, you're casting spells and shit, that kind of thing.

And one day, I'll never forget, we were all standing around in the comedy store bar and he was pale, pale like paper. Like he hadn't been out of the house in days. Like his eyes were sunk into his head. He goes, I am so good at making money in the game and so bad at doing it in real life.

I was like, okay, you've put all your energy into getting really good at something that doesn't do you any good.

Unless you're going to be a professional, which they do have. That's a hard thing to say to a kid. Don't play video games if then you find out how much video game players are making.

Konstantin Kisin (3:54)

Right, it's like don't start a podcast.

Francis Foster (3:58)

Right, are we dinosaurs?

They're so good. I'm not talking shit about games.

Konstantin Kisin (4:03)

But you've got to control it is what you're saying.

Francis Foster (4:05)

They're too good. Your life is boring as fuck compared to those games.

There's no way. There's no way it's as exciting as playing Quake 3 Arena online with a 30 inch monitor and you're sitting right in front of it and you've got fucking headphones on, explosions and lightning guns. It's amazing.