Season 3 of Open Dojo is officially LIVE. Santo, Miles, and Lani are back from DreamCon Houston (barbecue, hoops, and one very cursed rental car) and they get into all of it: why these companies are weaponizing our childhood with microtransactions, Call of Duty Black Ops nostalgia, the World Cup and the never ending Messi GOAT debate, the state of rap, and the Blue Lock agenda that refuses to die.

Heads up: we lined up a full Video Games x Anime crossover ranking and only got part of the way into it, so treat this as the kickoff. The rest is coming next episode.

Catch everything we do here: https://linktr.ee/blacksenseisociety

SPOILER WARNING: current arc Blue Lock and One Piece talk starts around 03:00:00. If you are not caught up, skip straight to the outro.

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro: Season 3 premiere, DreamCon Houston and Texas barbecue
08:03 DreamCon basketball recap (the VSS runs, Ty vs the crew)
12:34 Favorite DreamCon moments
15:02 Road trip chaos (lost keys, flat tire, the rental saga)
53:19 Starstruck or not: meeting people in person
54:00 World Cup breakdown (England, Argentina, Kai locks in)
01:02:00 Is Messi really the GOAT?
01:45:19 Call of Duty Black Ops and the nostalgia trap
01:52:34 Companies weaponizing our childhood (microtransactions)
01:53:50 Pokemon XD, Nintendo, and paying for nostalgia again
01:59:23 Digital ownership: Sony, Crunchyroll, and losing your library
02:02:31 Battle passes everywhere (Olive Garden, PrizePicks)
02:07:42 Blind ranking video game franchises
02:16:27 The state of rap: is hip hop dying?
02:39:49 Chris Brown: why isn't he bigger?
02:53:53 Usher vs Chris Brown and concert culture
03:00:04 The Kai apology form: Blue Lock agenda (spoilers)
03:05:41 Outro and shout outs

KEYWORDS
Open Dojo, Black Sensei Society, Alive Podcast Network, anime podcast, video games x anime, Call of Duty Black Ops, gaming microtransactions, gaming nostalgia, Pokemon XD Gale of Darkness, Nintendo Switch 2, digital ownership, battle pass culture, World Cup, Messi GOAT debate, Blue Lock, One Piece, DreamCon Houston, state of hip hop, Chris Brown, power scaling debate

Open Dojo is part of the Black Sensei Society universe on the Alive Podcast Network. Hosted by Santo with Miles and Lani, featuring Kai and Trent.