Video Gamers Podcast
Corporate Kombat: We Built a Business Using Only Video Game Characters | Gaming Podcast
Mon, 12 May 2025
Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan, and John take a break from boss fights to build... a company? That’s right — this week, the squad drafts a full business team using only video game characters. Who gets the CEO seat? Who's stuck doing the heavy lifting? Which video game staff will reign supreme?!? Your weekly hit of gaming debates, deep dives, and video game nonsense—only on the Video Gamers Podcast. Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, and Gaius Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/ Follow us on X: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1 Visit us on the web: https://videogamerspod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What game characters will be chosen for the business team?
Hello, fellow gamers, and welcome to the Video Gamers Podcast. It's time to dust off those resumes, don your khakis and polo shirts, and review the company manual, because today we're competing head-to-head to draft the best team of video game characters to start a company. But first, some introductions are in order. I am your host, Josh.
And joining me, he is the CEO of his own company, but he's not quite sure what an accountant and a manager do. It's Ryan.
All I know is my boss is a jerk. Yes. She's got a lot of rules, man.
Oh, Sarah doesn't listen to this, does she? No, not anymore.
Okay, good.
Sorry. You know I love you, Sarah. Gosh, no. And joining us, he may love Disney, Nintendo, and other mega corporations, but at least he doesn't love Ubisoft. It's John.
I have to tell you guys, I feel so supremely confident in this episode. You know who else felt confident?
Ace on the indie episode.
Or, hey, our buddy DK Matt on the wrestling episode. How many people have thought, this is my wheelhouse.
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Chapter 2: Who gets the CEO position in the video game character draft?
Yeah. Good job guys.
And so, I mean, listen, we love you gents, but a huge thank you to hypnotic pyro and Panzer Faust Ali for signing up for legendary status. Yeah. And, and listen, a deal is a deal. The perks remain. We, we said long ago that if you signed up legendary, you got to hijack a host and make one of us play a game of your choosing.
And, you know, just because we're dumb and we didn't realize that there were spots open, we are men of our words. We're going to honor that. And, you know, we'll find out soon enough what game they're going to pick for who to play. But we are going to have some hijack-a-hosts coming up, too. So...
Will Ryan get picked for the sixth straight time? Okay. Find out. Well, number one, I hope so.
And maybe I have been doing some covert operations to try to get you to have no collusion.
What are you doing?
I'm just saying you got to give the people what they want, man. Yeah. So, listen, thank you to everybody for supporting this show. If you are a supporter of the show, we wouldn't be here without you. If you would like to support this show, there's a link in the episode description. It's an easy tap of that link. And before you know it, you can be a supporter as well. And, you know, beep.
bringing the best gaming podcast in the world to more people so thank you all of you for that guys you guys ready to get into this draft yeah i'm stoked let's do it so we randomize this using our all sentient ai uh to just randomize this draft order uh because this does come into play man sometimes there is a pick where you were like i absolutely there is a a like
An obvious winning pick here at the first choice. So the draft order is going to go Ryan, me, and then John. And to keep things fair, we do it in a snake draft. So it will then go John, me, and then Ryan. Rinse and repeat until we have filled all of these positions. Let's go, boys. Let's do it.
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Chapter 3: How do the hosts select their team members?
Let's do it. Okay, so one more reminder. You have to fill a CEO spot, an accountant spot, a manager spot, and then two workers spots. I'm curious to see where Ryan's going to start on this one. Ryan, take it away, buddy.
Well, I think a lot of people would think when you're building something, you got to start at the top. I'm going to go right for the head of the company with the CEO. I want somebody who is coldly efficient, hyper-intelligent, and always in control. I'm going with GLaDOS from Portal for my CEO.
That's a good pick. I have GLaDOS on my list, but I did not pick her to run the company. She's too selfish man she's only gonna care about glados and glados only your company's gonna be making minimum wage while the ceo's buying lamborghinis and ferraris and and and you know so it'll be laying off 200 people yeah nintendo or microsoft
glados to lead the company now she is she is really smart and as we know from portal she is also very dedicated uh stubborn a little lethal a little crazy Not rational, though. You know, she's a good speaker, though, too, man. That voice, dude. Like, just dictating.
I love it. Iconic, man. Oh, my gosh.
Yeah. All right. GLaDOS for Ryan to start this off as the CEO, man. All right. Heck yeah. Okay. CEO GLaDOS there. All right. It's my turn. Now, I am torn here, guys. I have two guys that I am like, man. Like these are both like really good options for a CEO, but I think, I think one of them. All right. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to guys. All right.
Listen, I may not be a huge fan of this game. All right. This game is not my style of game, but it, but my wife loved this game. And if there's one name that I have heard people talk about their business acumen, their ability to pick up and go to an Island and, and start a shop and have employees and know how to make money and run this business. I'm taking Tom Newton.
boys from animal crossing one of the best business leaders in any game ever you love them you hate them but this man thing raccoon tanuki i think is actually the term for it absolutely knows how to run a business and that's who i want heading up my company
That's an excellent pick. That's an excellent pick. Nook was going to be my accountant, so that was the first snipe off the board already. Not no more.
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Chapter 4: What roles do Tom Nook and GLaDOS play in the company?
He knew how to capitalize on that, man. Where a lot of businesses were going out of business, Tom Nook's just swimming in the cash.
Oh, man.
I was hoping I sniped that. John started nodding, and I was like, please tell me that with my first pick.
I think I'm pretty safe. I think I'm pretty safe with my CEO and my accountant. I'm a little worried about my GM, but my workers I'm most worried about.
Oh, I'm not worried about my workers. I don't think you guys are going to think the way I'm thinking when it comes to the workers. So, John, it is your pick, buddy. What do you got?
Well, so as the most experienced businessman on this call, unlike Ryan, who wants to start building a building from the top, which makes no sense at all, I'm going to start with the foundation and start with the critical people who are actually performing. They don't matter. Yeah.
Ryan drafted GLaDOS to run a company. This company is the shadiest, most seedy company ever, man.
To be fair, GLaDOS was for sure somebody I considered in a leadership role for this company.
She was on my list.
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Chapter 5: Which character is selected as the manager?
You don't want people in those positions who are going to be like competing for your own leadership. So my pick for my first worker is link. Yeah.
He's quiet too, man. You know, you might get a complaint or two about like, Hey guys, that weird dude's making noises again. And it's kind of distracting to people, but you don't ever have to worry about him. Like, you know, just gabbing up a storm and taking away from productivity and stuff. Plus, he's a pretty good cook, man. He's a good cook?
Yep, exactly. He's entertaining. He can snowboard. He can't answer the phones, though.
If the phone starts ringing, he's like, I don't want him answering the phone. I hate you. I hate you. Hey, Link, how are those TPS reports coming? Huh?
Huh? Just nod or shake your head, buddy. That's what I want.
All right, so John taking Link as a worker, the first worker off the board. And, John, it's right back to you, buddy. You actually get another pick now.
And my second one, I'm so happy it happened in this order because these are the ones I'm worried about. Although it sounds like you guys didn't shoot these, at least Link. My second worker is another person who is happy to be in a supporting role. He's diligent. He is somebody who carries a lot of insecurity, but he also perseveres through that insecurity. He goes when things get tough.
He's somebody who's often underestimated, but always reliable. And that is my buddy Luigi. Luigi Mario.
As a worker, huh?
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Chapter 6: How does the team debate their character choices?
I mean, let's be honest. Luigi's also the better worker. Mario gets distracted. He doesn't know what castle the princess is in in the first place.
He's got a crush on way too many princesses, too.
Oh, yeah, he's going to be risen up all the other people at the company. Luigi's like, look, man, I'm a good worker. I might have my eye on somebody, but he's not going to get distracted nearly as much. All right, so John's starting off with Link and Luigi as his workers. Now, this is where I was a little worried, but you didn't take this.
And the other spot that I was worried about was accountant. And hearing Ryan say he thought about Tom Nook for the accountant makes me go, I better lock in this accountant role while I can, because this one was hard. Now, an accountant has to be smart. They have to be organized. They have to be good with numbers. I mean, they really need... I mean, some people would say a lot of computing power...
good at calculations thinking on their feet uh you know i'm taking cortana boys as my accountant i mean i don't have to worry about taxes i don't have to worry about numbers cortana's got all that taken care of dude that's you sniped me again back to back i swear right i did ryan
It was swapped. Cortana was going to be my accountant.
Yeah.
Oh my gosh, dude. What the heck? Now I'm like scrambling.
I'm like, oh no. Cortana was my accountant too, but I knew somebody was going to take her, so I pivoted.
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Chapter 7: What makes a good worker in this video game company?
I hate this game. Oh, man. You know what, though? I was actually happy to have moved on from her. I think she's a little too sentimental to be a good accountant.
She's like the most supreme AI in the universe, man.
What are you talking about? She is, but I think she also changes her approach based on... She has a fondness for Master Chief, and I think that... She doesn't make the most objective decisions because of that. Like, again, yes, supreme AI, but she's got a bit too much personality to be a really good...
All I need is her to crunch numbers and keep the IRS off my back.
When she gets a little too close to some workers, you're going to have to call HR. That's what you're going to have to worry about.
It's an excellent choice. And one of my biggest game crushes of all time, too.
I didn't want to say there might be other reasons, too. This is strictly professional, boys. She can hang out in my office. She doesn't need a lot of space. All right, Ryan. Well, now that you have been double sniped, you do get back-to-back picks. Now, is this where the tilting and the scrambling starts?
A little bit, but I got a good one here lined up. So I'm going to do my manager next since you just stole my accountant and I'm scrambling. I'm going to get somebody who is, like, a natural skilled leader, very, uh, strong, determined, you know, good decision-making skills. I am going with commander shepherd. Good one.
Okay. You, you took my next pick, right?
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Chapter 8: What are the final team compositions for each host?
One, one snipe deserves another. You, that was absolutely going to be my next pick man. If he was their commander shepherd, she's the Who else would you want managing all these people? This man can bring the universe together and to fight the Reapers. It's like, this dude knows how to manage people.
Yeah, he'll get them in line. It's a good choice.
That is a good choice. Darn it, Ryan. I was hoping you'd kind of scramble a little bit there.
I am. That one wasn't scrambling. I'm scrambling for the rest. Yeah. So the next one I'm going to go with is a worker. You want somebody that, you know, I'm not like John. I just don't want slave people that are dumb and can't talk. So I want someone who's intelligent and just willing to just do anything to get the job done. I'm going with Mr. Gordon Freeman from Half-Life.
As a worker?
As a worker.
Oh, poor Gordon got demoted, man. Yeah.
Wow.
That poor guy's really falling.
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