Couching the Capes With Anthony

Arrggh! A Video Game Podcast from The Waffling Taylors

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This episode sees Anthony of the Capes on the Couch podcast join us. We talk about his show (which you should definitely listen to), ‘previously on’ mode, RPGs and forgetting what to do, the recent TMNT releases, reaching level 99 too soon, airborne controllers, and profanity generators.

Here's a sample of the full show notes - make sure to click through and check them out.

Content Warning

We talk with Anthony about his podcast (which deals with exploring the mental health aspect of comic book characters), and as such need to bring up mental health points. We can't say whether anything in the episode will offend, but what we will ask is that you listen responsibly.

But also that you look after yourself and, if you can, someone else too. Please consider getting help if you need it.

Show Notes

Anthony of the Capes on the Couch podcast joined us, and we wanted to take a few moments to discuss both his podcast and mental health. Mental health is something which is important to both Jay and Squidge, and they take it very seriously.

If you need help, please go get it. There's no shame or stigma attached to it.

Anthony describes the show as:

Capes on the Couch is a podcast that my best friend, my brother, and I have been co-hosting now for four and half years. He is a board certified psychiatrist, and I am a comic book aficionado. And each episode, we take a look at a particular character, a group of characters, or sometimes a theme; and we examine their mental health issues, any concerns that they have, what's going on in their life that might cause them strife or distress... and what would the treatment of the real-world analogue look like
...
We do it to destigmatize a lot of the discussions around mental health, because there's this big bugaboo about if you're feeling sick then you go to the doctor; if your leg is broken then you go to the doctor; but if you're feeling depressed or you're hearing voices in your head, or if you are going through something in your life and you go to see a therapist, "oh we don't talk about that. Shh. Don't tell anybody about that." And it's just as valid and necessary.
- Anthony

Which, you'll agree, is an amazing setup for a podcast. And a very, _very_ important topic to discuss. And it's such an important point that Jay and Squidge wanted to explore it for a big enough portion of the episode.

Along the way, Jay talked about the wonderfully creepy world of deep fakes. He brings up a fantastic video by Corridor Crew where they took all of the appearances of their lawyer on their podcast, fed them into Descrypt - to build up a machine learning model of his voice - then used GPT3 to write a script for a speech, and had Descrypt create the audio for the speech. Effectively, they had a set of machine learning tools generate a full speech, and delivery it to the rest of the company.

It's wonderfully dystopian.

And the reason that Jay brought this up because, looking at his podchaser profile Squidge has edited almost two weeks of continual content with Jay's voice in it.

NO NEED TO WORRY JAY, I HAVE ALREADY DEEP FAKED YOUR VOICE
MWA
HA
HA
HA!
- Russel

Recent Games

After almost 40 minutes of discussion on comic books, superheroes, and mental health

If you need help, please go get it. There's no shame or stigma attached to it

Anthony brought us back on topic, and with the Recent Games segment.

The Recent Games segment will not be new to listeners, but in case you're new to the show here's how it goes: we go round the table and discuss one or more game that we've been playing recently, and whether we think it's worth the listeners checking it out. We continue to do this until we've run out of games to discuss.

And this episode was no different.

Anthony's Recent Games

• Super Mario Odyssey
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge
• Asphalt 9: Legends

And when discussing Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, both Anthony and Jay talked about a "Parent mode" or "Previously on... mode"

where it just gives you like a 60 seconds of, "here's getting you back up to speed; here are the characters, the story, and how they're all interacting; here's your current objective, where you're going, and where you came from."
- Jay

Sponsor Message

Hello adventurers. Do you enjoy stories about monsters and magic? Welcome to Autumn Falls, a cozy small town in the Pacific Northwest. There's mysteries to uncover, but first let's check in with our heroes.

Hugo Rashaad

Fighting monsters isn't the safest thing. I'm Hugo Rashaad.

Agent Whitaker

Can I get verbal confirmation that none of you will say anything about what you saw today? Agent Lonnie Whitaker reporting in from the Eastey Agency.

Raven Eugenia

it's really weird, and bizarre, and a whole lot of feeling stuff that I did not want to get into it. So I kind of booked it out of there. I'm Raven Eugenia.

Damien Edgecrest

I just wanted to be friends because that's what everyone else was doing? My name is Damien Edgecrest.

Felicity Starnbrook

Clearly talking to the tree is not a normal thing that people can do. I'm Felicity Starnbrook.

If you'd like to join our heroes as we play Monster of the Week, then check out The Storyteller Squad, available wherever you listen to podcasts.

Let's have an adventure.

Squidge's Recent Games

• The Outer Worlds
• SD Gundam Battle Alliance

Jay's Recent Games

• PowerWash Simulator
• Vampire Survivor
• Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

Full Show Notes

Make sure to check out the full show notes for more discussion on the points we raise, some extra meta-analysis, and some links to related things.

Have you listened to Capes on the Couch? Which was your favourite episode? Is TMNT Shredder's Revenge REALLY that good? (pro tip: yes, yes it is) Would you like a "Previously On..." mode for long running games? Have any of your games gone airborne? And why do you think to the story about Squidge's player character in ESPN NFL 2K5?

Let us know on Discord, Twitter, Facebook, or try our brand new contact page.

Links

Here are some links to some of the things we discussed in this episode:

• Join our Discord server and be part of future episodes
• Our Facebook page<...