March 6, 2025 • 40 mins
An inspiring journey awaits as we explore the profound impact of gaming and streaming on personal growth with Dr. Gamology. He shares his exhilarating experience of appearing on the Twitch homepage and how it elevated his streaming career.
- Dr. Gamology recounts his featured day on Twitch and its implications
- Exploring the interplay between gaming, mental health, and personal development
- The psychology of performance under pressure and managing viewer expectations
- Insights on returning to challenging games like Elden Ring after a hiatus
- Emphasizing connections within the gaming community and shared experiences
- Reflections on personal growth and navigating challenges as a streamer
If you would like to support the show and help us unlock additional possibilities for future episodes and projects, this can now be done through Patreon!
You can watch us play games LIVE and join our communities to get more connection from every episode:
- DrGameology on Twitch - Continue the Journey LIVE in 2025!!
- MarcusB814 on YouTube - BOOMBA
Subscribe on YouTube for more content on the Psychology of Gaming or Follow on Twitch to catch the Live Streams!
For more info, check out DrGameology.com!
More Links Here!
Thanks for Listening, and Continue The Journey!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Gaming Persona podcast.
This is the show that exploreswho we become when we play games
, whether you're saving kingdoms, leading epic raids or just
vibing in cozy indie worlds.
Join me, dr Gamology and mygood friend Marcus as we search
for all the ways gaming andpersonal growth collide.
Grab your controllers and let'scontinue the journey Now.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
What do you get when you add an awesome guy and a
front page?
I have no idea 2,000 viewers onthe Twitch homepage.
That's what you get.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Oh wow, thanks Marcus .
That really is a lead into allthe different things we could
talk about today.
Is the lead into all thedifferent things we could talk
about today.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I think, no matter what to start off, we should
talk about that, because thatwas wild.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, it really was.
So.
For everyone that is catchingup or maybe jumped to the
current episode, this pastSunday was really special for me
because the Dr Gamology channelwas featured by Twitch on the
main page.
So anyone who just goes totwitchtv, they see a carousel of
(01:12):
different streamers that arebeing highlighted by Twitch and
they see a bunch of other thingstoo.
They're going to see theirfavorite people, they're going
to see games, they're interestedin things like that.
But I was in that top carouselfor eight hours on Sunday and I
did a stream for the whole eighthours, because you only show up
if you're actually doing it,and it was the most phenomenal
(01:36):
stream of my streaming career.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, I would say it was beyond awesome.
The one comment I'm going tomake about you was I loved how
you handled it so well.
You didn't get overwhelmed byviewers or chat, you just were
(02:00):
you and you kept your cool andit really showed who you were.
It's like you were.
You waited your whole life forthis moment.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah.
So I really think about, Ithink about presenting as a
performance, but I think aboutit in a way that sort of
unravels any opportunity to haveanxiety.
And so in the past, if you'veseen me uncomfortable on Twitch,
it's not because of the numberof people, it's probably because
(02:38):
I was trying to nightmare raidin a game that was
mathematically impossible.
But so when there's whenthere's two people versus 20
people, versus 2 000 people, Ido try to be roughly the same
person.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
isn't that the goal, marcus I would say I yes, but
you also have to do it, and alot of people get overwhelmed by
that because they're looking atthe view counter oh my God,
there's so many people watchingit.
But whether you did or youdidn't act like you did, sure,
(03:15):
and I guess the compliment ismore of that's how you've grown
in content creation.
If you got Twitch partner sixmonths after you became a twitch
streamer and then you were onthe front page at eight months,
it would have been a differentreaction.
It would have been a differentreaction to 2 000 viewers versus
(03:35):
years down the road 2 000viewers.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
You know what I mean that's true, because there's I
don't maybe 500 hours of mestreaming, maybe longer.
I don't know where I've learnedthings about how to think about
the process of streaming.
You're absolutely right.
If I saw 200 viewers in 2018 or2020, I don't think I would
(04:00):
have been at all what I was likeon Sunday.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
No way, that's right.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yep, right, the very beginning of the stream.
It feels like it was so longago and also so many things
happened during that streambecause I played four games and
did a full keynote lecture aboutgames being mythology.
So there's a lot in there.
There's no way for me toremember everything that I
talked about on Sunday, but Iremember the beginning of the
(04:27):
stream and usually the buildupof watching viewers come in, it
goes up, it goes down.
You're not sure what the streamis going to have going on in
the chat.
That's part of the randomnessof streaming on Twitch.
But usually I'll see the numbergo up and maybe get towards 100
, maybe get up over 50.
(04:47):
It really depends what kind ofday it's going to be, and that
takes 12 to 20 minutes beforethe number really settles down
and it just becomes about areany new viewers going to find me
and who has to leave?
And that started to happenexactly the way I'm used to,
because I went live about 12minutes before the top of the
(05:08):
hour to make sure the technologywas OK, so that I'm also
already live.
So the number is going up theway it normally does.
And then I remember I wasplaying Final Fantasy seven,
rebirth and the number just wasat sixteen hundred or something
like that in my OBS.
And when you first see that andyou've never seen that before
(05:29):
my first thought was something'sbroken in OBS, which is the
program that we use to send thevideo to Twitch from our
computer.
So I just thought this is not.
No, that's not how this, okay.
And then I went to Twitch andsaw that the numbers matched.
So I knew that it was going tobe that kind of stream and the
(05:55):
number going up and down fivepeople is what I'm used to.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
But when you're talking these numbers and I did
not know this until Sunday thenumber goes up and down in 500
or a thousand constantly butthat goes to show the value of
you, the value of you being on afront page, and that shows that
there's a couple thousandpeople that are going to click
(06:21):
on your page.
Whether they stay or they godoesn't matter.
There's going to be a couplethousand people that go to your
page to watch you because you'reon that carousel.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Yeah, a lot of people did say hey, I saw you through
the carousel or saw you throughthe homepage, right?
So it was a really greatoutreach opportunity for me and
by the end of the stream, myTwitch report says 224,000
different accounts saw mychannel that day, which is
astronomically different than aregular stream.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
That's insanity.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
It's, yeah, it's insane.
That's closer to a quarter of amillion than not.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
And in the fact that when, if I signed into the
carousel and let's say, you werethe fourth one in, like the
streamer that I wanted to catchwas the fifth, that's a they
would, as they scroll thatalmost like pauses on you and
they actually see your stream.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
The fact that the quarter of a million people saw
your stream is beyond insaneyeah, it really, because at the
end of the day, it's not justabout streaming on Twitch and
having people me watch gameplayinside the Dr Gamology title,
the name it's about video gamesimprove our mental health.
(07:37):
Let's talk about why and thatis so much bigger than Twitch
and YouTube because there'sother things that are inside of
that experience and so I wantpeople to find me that way and
enjoy me on Twitch and thingslike that.
But then also the goal is maybethe gamer's journey, getting
the book, or maybe it's findingmore videos on YouTube and being
(07:59):
able to talk to people abouttheir own video games and how
positive it can be, if you wantto interpret it that way you,
and it's everybody's dream to bethere.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
And the fact, here's the thing, you get all those
views, even if they didn't comeby your stream and they remember
your name.
Let's say, six months down theroad they're searching,
searching a game Final FantasyVII remake for the game maybe.
They see Dr Gameology.
Oh man, I remember him.
He was on the headline.
(08:34):
I remember that name.
Click on your thing.
Oh my God, I didn't watch youbecause Noob123 was streaming
and he's my guy.
I remember your name being onthe Twitch homepage.
It's the comebacks.
You know what I mean?
Right?
No matter what you did it, itwas your longest stream ever.
(08:54):
Yep, and you crushed it.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
It was fun.
My back hurt, though, which isbecause I'm older than I used to
be, and that's yeah.
No, seriously, that's the onlynegative is everything about.
It was fun.
It didn't even feel like eighthours, other than sometimes you
look at the counter to see whereyou're at, and so you know the
(09:19):
difference between two and thenthree and then four, but it
didn't.
Psychological flow, marcus, oneof my favorite things to talk
about from my own research.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I was waiting for this.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Yeah, it actually one of the key factors when you
experience it is the lostperception of time, and that
really did happen for me onSunday.
Eight hours felt long, but itdidn't feel like eight hours at
all.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Eight hours felt long , but it didn't feel like eight
hours at all.
I remember doing a subathon andit was I streamed for 17.
And yeah, and I said I wouldnever do that again I feel like
(10:05):
eight is even you could do 12,.
12 is not bad either, butanything more than that it's
just too much.
Yeah, I feel like you broke upyour games.
See, you're very structured,where I'm willy-nilly, I guess I
would call it.
So I was like I'm going to playfour different games, but then
I'm involved in a game and I'mjust jamming and I'm like I'm
not switching.
And you took your time.
(10:26):
You did your keynote, which wasawesome.
I actually went back andwatched the VOD of that because
I was playing hockey at thatpoint.
But how you switched from FinalFantasy VII, then you went to
Dead by Daylight, which I'm nota big Dead by Daylight guy.
I appreciate the game and thecommunity, but it's not really
for me.
You know what I mean.
And I enjoyed the fact that youwere switching through games
(10:47):
and it gave everybody anopportunity to come in and have
a chance to see you play theirgame.
If I first saw you on thetwitch page and you're final
fantasy 7, but then I cycle backand oh, he's playing dead by
daylight.
That's my jam.
Yeah, it gets more views and itgets people to be interested,
which is great yeah, I reallydid have fun with the game.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
selection dead by daylight is a horror game for
people that maybe haven't heardme talk about on the podcast
very much, but there is oneperson who plays as a killer and
four people that play as asurvivor, and just think michael
myers halloween movie, andthat's really what the setup is
is you try to hide and you tryto escape and not get killed by
(11:35):
the one overpowered that's right, killer.
You actually can play asMichael Myers, by the way, so
that was directly what you'regetting involved in with that
game.
I haven't played it, though,since before Halloween.
I didn't like their Halloweenevent.
It felt very grindy and I didn'tfeel like I had time to
participate, so I went fromtrying to get the groove back on
(11:59):
how not to get caught so easily, and it went really well.
I did survive two out of thefive matches that I played,
which is actually statisticallyhigher than the average survival
rate, think I actually am notsure.
I think it might be like, Idon't know, 60.
It's either 60, 40 or 40, 60,and that's what I'm not sure
(12:22):
about yeah, I, yeah, I don'tknow I.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I personally just don't like the game.
I don't, I think I just don'tlike horror and let's.
I guess it's weird because Ican play like a Call of Duty
type first person shooter whereI'm shooting people and killing
them, but anytime I'm playingsomething that is like a killer
and like people, or even theFriday, the 13th game from back
in the day or any of thosereally scary games where all you
have is a flashlight or a footfor time.
(12:50):
Scariest game I ever played wasDead space, one back from 2008,
but the other one was this gameit was a japanese game called
fatal frame.
Scariest game I ever played.
Like why would you ever putyourself through it?
And like I lost a bet withfriends and they made me play it
at 10 o'clock at night with allthe lights off back in the day
when we used to have sleepovers.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah, and it was the scariest shit ever I've wanted
to play fatal frame for a longtime now.
The newest one is on my wishlist on steam so we should start
a campaign.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Watch doc shit, his pants scared it won't happen.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
No, like I'm not scared of games, there's just
it's not gonna happen oh,challenge accepted, there's a
game.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Oh, hold on um while we're talking.
Scariest amnesia, the darkdescent.
You've got to play that onstream, we're done what year did
it come out?
Speaker 1 (13:50):
does it look good?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
it does not, I don't know when it came out, but that
is the scariest game evercreated.
If that game doesn't scare you,I don't know what will.
And does scare you mean jumpscare.
You won't even jump scare.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
I might get jump scared.
I'm still a human being.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
My brain still sends signals through my spinal cord
into the rest of my body Iunderstand that, but like you're
like you're so stoic that Idon't know if you would be
scared wait, did you say amnesiathe dark descent?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
yes, it's 85 off on steam right now sounds like
you're playing that in a nightstream with lights off I don't
stream at night, marcus okay,you're gonna play it in the
morning and it'll be night forsomebody in australia that's
true, and we do have listenersin australia thank you so much
for listening but also all theother countries and continents
(14:47):
as well.
So we mentioned last episodethat we were going to continue
talking about Elden Ring, and 15minutes into this recording we
have a decision to make.
Are we going to save our pastselves from lying to the
audience or do we care?
Speaker 2 (15:08):
what do?
Speaker 1 (15:08):
you mean, well, are we talking about Elden Ring we?
Speaker 2 (15:11):
We can mention it.
I have a couple talking points,but something I want to it's
going to lead.
All right, you got to bear withme in my sidebar.
Okay, bear with me in mysidebar.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
I'm with you.
Let's go.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Okay, this is going to circle back to Elden Ring.
I saw a video this week.
I sent it to doc and it was howto bring yourself back to video
games after you stop playingthem.
So real talk.
I've been in a little videogame drought.
I just.
I've been playing nhl 25, wwe2k 24 and minecraft with my son.
(15:47):
I and I've been dying to playElden Ring but I can't pull
myself to turn it on.
And this video it's like myphone knows me better than me
and I found this video and itwas talking about the
psychological reasons why it'sso hard to go back to a game.
And the guy used it as anexample of Tears of the Kingdom.
(16:09):
He said I was playing Tears ofthe Kingdom, I was 100 hours in
and monster hunter came out.
I knew I'm making up a datejanuary 1st.
Monster hunter was coming outor whatever game is.
I'm just using it as aplaceholder.
I'm gonna stop playing thisgame no matter what, because I
want to play this game.
And he was talking aboutbringing himself back to Tears
(16:36):
of the Kingdom because it's notthat he didn't like it, it's not
that he wasn't having fun, itwasn't that it was too hard, it
was just that he couldn't.
Now that he's done with saidMonster Hunter game, he's not
finding himself back to Tears ofthe Kingdom.
And that is me and Elden Ring.
I absolutely love elden ringbut I have done everything in my
(16:57):
power to just not play it.
Yeah, and and is it becauseit's hard and I get frustrated
and like my heart races becauseit's really hard, even though
the game is the best game I'veever second best game I I've
ever played, but like it'sunbelievable.
But I haven't gravitated backand I think it may be because
(17:24):
I'm sitting less at my computerand sitting more on my couch
playing said games or laptopwith my son, so it's harder.
It's been harder for me to comeinto this space, like for a
reason I don't know, it's hardgoing with that.
I really took this video toheart.
(17:46):
I sent it to doc and I was likedoc, watch this video.
You need to make a YouTubevideo on this because your
perspective will be amazing onthis, because you're going to
bring a different flavor to thiscandy shop you know what I mean
or ice cream shop.
And I came back to Elden Ringthis week.
(18:10):
I loaded in.
I was at Redmayne Yep, I wasgoing to Elden Ring this week.
I loaded in.
I was at Redmayne Yep, I wasgoing to do it.
I went to Redmayne Castle but Iwent back I've beaten Radon like
a long ago and I ended up inlike portals and it brought me
right to Redmayne.
There was all these enemies andI'm like, wait a minute here,
(18:30):
why are all these enemies here?
I've already beat Radon and I aminute here.
Why are all these enemies here?
I've already beat radon and Iwas like, all right, I'm gonna
go kill some people and explore.
So I just started exploring thiscastle and I ended up in a boss
room and there was another bossin red mane castle.
It was a lion.
And then, as soon as you'relike three quarters health on
this lion, a crucible knightshows up and you're like, oh
(18:52):
geez, but I beat it.
It's in the yeah, and it reallywasn't super hard, because I
think I'm super over leveled atthis point, but it was.
It brought me up and then Iwent exploring again through red
main and, like I had to find itup, finding items and stuff,
and it's wow, this is great.
(19:12):
But now I feel like I wish Icould play it on my couch yeah,
that's a real thing.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
I can't play on my couch right now either, so I can
relate directly to that point.
But I think that whenever youhave a hobby or a piece of your
routine and then you stop doingit, it becomes easier to stay
(19:42):
away than it is to come back,and you also have all of the
history and experience of therelief of not having to deal
with that.
And so you're arguing withyourself to go back into the
stress on purpose, and that'snot a very rational goal to have
(20:03):
.
Usually you want to avoid orovercome things that create
distress for you.
So I think that those are justa few things that you're
immediately facing when you havea difficult game that you step
away from.
But even you could experiencethose with different levels of
(20:23):
dread and chemical flow in yourbrain, even if the game is not
difficult, but it felt like achore to you.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yes, but at the same breath, now two, 26,.
What was that Four days ago?
Four days ago, doc sends me adiscord message that he a
hundred percent at Elden ringand I died laughing because I,
at the same time, I'm beatingred bean castle and he's.
I guess I am a completionist.
(20:51):
Hmm, doc really cares aboutachievements.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Yeah, no.
So when that moment happenedlast episode, I instantly knew
that I'm sitting on thisrevelation that I've completed
all of the official Steamachievements in Elden Ring.
There are bosses that I haven'tdowned yet, though that is
actually not an achievement todown every single boss on the
map, so that's just a sign ofhow much content is in Elden
(21:19):
Ring.
Yeah, that you can always findmore bosses.
I actually can't imagine whatthe world would feel like if,
walking around, that there'snone of the big scary things
that can get you.
That would be quite a differentexperience altogether.
Let me ask you a question.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
When you play Elden Ring.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Excuse me, Do you do everything possible in all of
the areas or do you leave thoseareas and move on to the next
thing?
Speaker 1 (21:56):
so in the first area.
For sure, my first time throughI was using a guide to find
every single boss in the areaand basically hunt them down,
and then you open it up and youget to.
You open it up and you get toLiurnia and the lake, and then I
started to really strugglegetting to every boss on the map
(22:20):
to play that way, because somethings that look like they're on
the map you actually can't getto until you've completed three
other areas and then go downtheir mountains so that you're
actually on the other side ofthe cliff face.
And that happens repeatedly inall of the areas of the game
(22:40):
except probably the first area.
So once I started running intothat, I realized I need to at
least in some way use the goldline of fate on the map that
shows you how to get to the Erdtree and start just trying to
kill as many bosses along thatroute as I can so that I
(23:01):
continue having the runes tolevel up.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
I'll give an example of where I'm at.
So I'm in.
I just beat Lindell.
What is that, godric?
No?
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Who's no?
God free?
Yeah, who's no?
Godric Godfrey?
Yeah, beat Godfrey.
Yeah, we didn't know that lastepisode.
Sorry, everyone Godfrey.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Yeah, so I beat Godfrey and I know there's
something called thesubterranean shutting grounds,
right, and I know that it'sreally hard down there.
And I know that it's reallyhard down there and I'm like can
I just skip it, Because I don'treally want to go down there
and like get out.
(23:39):
But then I feel like I'mleaving something behind because
I don't know who the boss is.
But it's one big boss that youfight again.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Is it Moog?
Yes, the Lord of Blood, yeah,yeah, boss that you fight again.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Um, I don't.
Is it mog?
Yes, the lord of blood, yeah,yeah, so you fight.
There's the blood omen, right,and I'm like do I really want to
put myself through that rightaway, or do I want to try to
move on to the mountaintops ofthe giants and and start moving
my way and backtrack after?
Speaker 1 (24:12):
you know what I'm saying and I don't really have
that answer yeah, well, youdon't have to go down there if
you don't want to.
I actually think you can makeit to the unlocked ur tree
without dealing with that yes,yes, it's a separate dungeon.
(24:39):
Yeah, the reason you go downthere is because you want other
things to happen on the map foryour playthrough or
completionism.
So there are areas that areunderground, though that are not
endgame super difficult toMarcus.
So I hope that you're at leastexploring, because some of those
places are beautiful and youcould oh, I love it there.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Easily I've done it like the most beautiful place in
the whole game so far is whenyou're in that city underground
yes, oh man, that's what I washoping.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
I didn't want to spoil it for you no, no, I've
done all that.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
I've done all ronnie's quest ronnie, ronnie,
ronanny, whatever her name is Ithink it just depends he's in
from boston.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
It's ronnie yeah ronnie.
If you're from florida, it'sronnie yeah, khakis, car keys
whatever khakis yeah, I can't doit but okay, okay, so moving on
.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
So with Elden Ring.
Now, I've never beat it.
Superstar over here is 100% ofit, but he has not beat the DLC.
So this is where we're going.
They created Shadow of theErdtree and people.
it was what, two years, twoyears after it came out, they
released the DLC yeah, so Ifigured, people have been
(25:55):
beating this game for two years,level 7,000, whatever it is and
they come out with this and Isaid how are they going to do
the leveling?
Because these people are crazyover leveled and they're going
to have to scale it.
And they came up with their newleveling system, which a lot of
people didn't like.
They really turned up thedifficulty.
(26:17):
Yeah, if it was like when youfought the elden beast is the
final boss in the main game, isthat 100?
They turned it up to 600 forthe dlc yeah, I'm not being
super successful.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
When I streamed it on Thursday, I did go back into
Shadow of the Earth Tree and Iwas able to defeat a small boss
and a great beast or whatever.
So I had one big boss win, butI was able to show off, trying
to keep a positive mindset andtry to problem solve.
(26:55):
The situation is what did I notdo well, what do I need to do
better, what do I need toprevent myself from doing and
what do I need to do faster?
And it's just a process ofseeing it slow down so that you
don't press your buttons tooearly or too late, and that just
takes repetition early or toolate, and that just takes
(27:16):
repetition.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Sure.
So they create this DLC and thebosses are at a hundred and the
only way you can get there isyou have to kill Moe, the Lord
of blood, which is not even amandatory boss in the game.
Nope.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Completely optional.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
And did you beat Moog ?
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Oh yeah of course you did, because you're 100%.
So fun fact, I did not beatMoog during my first playthrough
because I didn't even find him.
Wow, yeah, I had defeated Moogthe Blood Omen in my first
playthrough, and so when peoplewho have beaten this very
difficult fight are talking tome about it and they said, did
(28:03):
you beat Moog Doc?
I said yes, I did notunderstand that there was a
different, more difficultversion of him that had a whole
palace that I needed to visit,so I started going there.
My second playthrough, I see Anew game plus yeah, new game
plus.
And then I think I did itduring either the fourth or
(28:25):
fifth run too.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
So I've beaten him three times out of five when you
went into the DLC.
Are you standard issue or areyou in new game plus?
I'm in new game plus, oh shit,that's why it's really hard.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah, I don't have.
There is nothing that will evermake me happily want to play
level one as a.
I'm going to beat the game withthis character.
I actually did give my streamchatters the opportunity to vote
of whether they wanted shadowof the earth tree first time for
me or if they wanted newcharacter.
Let's see how far we canexperience this.
(29:01):
And they just all wanted to seeme do Shadow of the Earth Tree,
so that's what we did.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Yeah, I'd like to see .
Shadow of the Earth Tree is anew level of difficult.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
I did make it to Mesmer near the very end of the
stream and he's the red-robedfigure that they made the statue
for the Super Collectors Deluxeversion of Shadow of the Earth
Tree.
So I had no idea that he was inthe castle that I was pushing
through the whole stream.
So I did get a few attempts onhim.
(29:32):
Few attempts on him.
One time I hit zero percenthealth, but my spirit summon hit
him as I was falling down and I, before I, turned into ash, and
one of those hits put him to 50.
So we got to watch the video ofhim transitioning into his
phase two.
(29:53):
The problem is I was deadduring the entire cut scene so
as soon as it gave control backto the player, you just see me
continue like the death you diedyeah, exactly, I knew it was
coming.
I knew I didn't actually make itto 50, I'll say 51.
It's still fun.
I'm gonna take him down andit's an iconic boss fight.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
They say he's the hardest.
They're saying that Mesmer'sthe hardest boss in all of Elden
Ring period.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Oh, that makes me feel better about getting him to
51% on my first day of workingon him.
Not even first 25 minutes ofworking on him, actually it's
because you're a pro, you're apro.
I wish I had a little bitquicker reflexes for dodging,
but I am mostly a magic player,so it's all about creating
(30:46):
distance.
I think it's all about, when itcomes to elden ring, are you
playing a way that suits yourplay style?
And I'm just not a sword, armorand shield kind of person, and
once I stopped trying to impressother people with the way I
played Elden Ring and just waslike how do I want to play and
(31:06):
can I win that way?
That's why the game is soamazing.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
I don't, you know.
What's funny is I do do magic,but all I use is the moon veil.
Yeah, and people talk aboutbuilds and I have no idea what
that even means and like statsfor it.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Maybe I should fix my stats, I don't know marcus, I
would love to hop on discord andboth of us play the game
together and talk about builds,because that's literally my
favorite thing.
In fact, doesn't, elden Ring?
Speaker 2 (31:43):
builds make up part of my chapter in psychology but
yeah, but it doesn't tell mewhat my moon veil build is oh,
there's a lot of differentbuilds that prioritize the moon
veil.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Katana.
It's really about how you reactto battles.
What are your tendencies?
And die.
We need a little bit moreinformation.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Bad rolling okay hitting the boss, getting hit by
the boss, you died that's justplaying the game.
Yes, but that's yeah okay no,and but I going to go back to
something that you said aboutyour reaction time.
I think that is a great answerto what we talked about 10
(32:25):
minutes ago about getting backinto the games.
I think that's one thing thatmight deter me from coming back
to Elden Ring is that I haven'tplayed it in so long and you
instantly get into the game andyou are like you're, I'm not an
end game, but I'm deep in thegame.
So the they're expecting you tobe better and I haven't played
(32:48):
it in a while, so it's, I'mrusty.
Yeah, so I understand whatyou're saying.
It's like almost oh, should Igo back to to Lindell and just
fight the mobs there, just toget my reaction times back?
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Yeah, exactly it's.
Sometimes those small groups ofenemies are challenging enough
that you get stuck in the samehallways and then you get the
boss down very easily.
Sometimes it's harder to getthere than it is to do the big
mission goal.
It is a skill-based game andjust like your reflexes with
(33:22):
aiming if you're a Valorantplayer, and just like your speed
and decision-making reactionresponse time if you're playing
League of Legends.
If you take a game that isskill-based and separate from it
for a period of time, yourskills decrease, apathy diminish
.
So it is important, likegetting back into weights, you
(33:45):
don't go back to your peak, yougo back somewhere in a
manageable range and make sureyou're ready to handle it.
And I am not a fitness expertat all, so that was just me
trying to relate to a differentarea of life, but it makes sense
.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Yes, or me on hockey skates.
If I don't skate for a week,I'm definitely rusty.
This week I've been on the icefive times.
I'm at the peak of myrepetition and talent.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
I love that I'm at the peak.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Yes, just like your stream on the Twitch homepage
was your peak of streaming inevery category.
That is true yes every singleone and you deserve it.
People don't understand whenpeople are quitting and I stop
streaming because I'm busy withthe kids and life and everything
(34:34):
.
Doc has persevered.
He has gone through the ups,the downs I'm not doing it, I'm
doing it, I'm not doing it, I'mdoing it and then saying fuck it
.
I'm coming back, I'm doing itand then not putting the foot on
the gas pedal and doing it, andthen having your company that
you work for tell you to Dockeep doing it, keep doing it,
(34:55):
keep doing it.
It's only good for your brand,it's only good Then he's writing
a book.
Through it.
All your perseverance hasproved itself worth it.
Whether you're making a milliondollars a year from Twitch or
being on the Twitch homepage, tome that's the same thing.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
That is not happening yet, marcuscus.
If things could get to thatpoint, that would be by far the
best outcome out of anythingI've applied myself to, and I
think it's fun.
But it is a great way to spreadthe ideas that I'm all about.
And my ideas have become mywork, but I have them because of
(35:38):
all the research that I've donein that work that it gave me
the opportunity to share myvoice and let people know that
if I have anything I can helppeople with, that will not have
them struggle with the sameconversations about video games
that I have my whole life and somany others.
It is not just a me thing, it'sa cultural thing, and that
(36:00):
really is what it's all about.
And Twitch as a platform is agreat way to show that, because
oftentimes I'm playing or I havesomething up on my screen that
explains gameplay and thenpeople can start to recognize
what I'm doing and recognize thename Dr Gamology, and that is
(36:21):
going to open up even more doorsand I'm so excited to see what
is possible through thiscommunity.
I'm really appreciative to ourlisteners for this show as well.
So thank you so much, because Ithink, like Marcus listed a lot
of things I'm involved in, whenhe was saying that I deserve
this and what I had to gothrough to decide.
(36:42):
I'm going to stick with it.
It's just, if you aren't thatdedicated to something, then the
goal is just a hobby, which isfine.
I shouldn't say just a.
It is a hobby as opposed to apassion.
Maybe would be the other thing,and I can think about this a
(37:04):
little bit more after thisepisode.
But I just want to encouragepeople when there is something
that you're starting to regretthat you didn't do it, ask
yourself is that going to besomething that affects you
short-term or long-term?
If it's long-term, I wouldencourage you to look at places
(37:26):
in your life where you can saythis is part of my life now,
because if it's not, it's mucheasier to drop it again.
And that's just the beginningof this entire thought process.
That has a lot of other thingsthat can affect the way things
go for you.
But a lot of times there's thatvoice inside of us.
That's the call to adventuresaying hey, you want to get this
(37:48):
in your life.
And it's so easy to say no, andsometimes you just know if you
gave yourself the chance to dothat thing, it would be a huge
yes, so yes, Wow, okay, this ismy last question to you.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yeah, who's winning the Elimination Chamber?
Speaker 1 (38:12):
I don't know if I for sure want this to happen out of
the six people, but there'sjust something I felt when I
woke up this morning that Ithink it might be Seth Rollins
Interesting.
Who do you think is going towin the Elimination Chamber?
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Okay, true Blue, I think CM Punk Okay, but I don't
think it's's gonna happenbecause of everything going on.
You ready for this?
Okay?
Yeah, let's go.
John cena wins.
Cm punk calls in a favor.
With paul hayman night onewrestlemania cm punk, john cena
the winner there fights codyrhodes.
(38:53):
Cm punk wins because they don'tneed to give cena the title yet
.
Cm Punk beats Cody.
And then CM Punk is heel rockschampion SummerSlam.
Cm Punk loses to Cena.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
Cena loses to Cody Rhodes later oh wow, so you've
mapped out an entire fanficuniverse for 2025 because the
rock story has completelychanged everything and cody's
not turning heel.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Not a chance.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Cody is wwe's baby face and I know he acts like a
heel, but he's not taking therocks deal I agree with you on
that, but I have a verydifferent imagination about
what's going on with the rockand Cody Rhodes storyline and I
don't know if I'm ready to talkabout that on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Yeah, no, I hear you.
I think one of these times weshould do a wrestling podcast.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
That would be so interesting, but I don't have an
expertise in that it's.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
We don't need to be experts.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
I'm an expert at nothing except building cabinets
and dying melvin ring I everytime I put a plate or a cup in a
cabinet in my kitchen.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
I appreciate you, marcus, so don't sell yourself
short, sir all right, I'm gonnasay we're not gonna tell you
what we're talking about.
Next week Appreciate you,marcus, so don't sell yourself
short, sir.
All right, I'm going to saywe're not going to tell you what
we're talking about next week,because stay tuned.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
Okay, that sounds great, so continue the journey,
friends.
Thank you.
Welcome to the Gaming Persona podcast.
This is the show that exploreswho we become when we play games
, whether you're saving kingdoms, leading epic raids or just
vibing in cozy indie worlds.
Join me, dr Gamology and mygood friend Marcus as we search
for all the ways gaming andpersonal growth collide.
Grab your controllers and let'scontinue the journey Now.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
What do you get when you add an awesome guy and a
front page?
I have no idea 2,000 viewers onthe Twitch homepage.
That's what you get.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Oh wow, thanks Marcus .
That really is a lead into allthe different things we could
talk about today.
Is the lead into all thedifferent things we could talk
about today.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I think, no matter what to start off, we should
talk about that, because thatwas wild.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, it really was.
So.
For everyone that is catchingup or maybe jumped to the
current episode, this pastSunday was really special for me
because the Dr Gamology channelwas featured by Twitch on the
main page.
So anyone who just goes totwitchtv, they see a carousel of
(01:12):
different streamers that arebeing highlighted by Twitch and
they see a bunch of other thingstoo.
They're going to see theirfavorite people, they're going
to see games, they're interestedin things like that.
But I was in that top carouselfor eight hours on Sunday and I
did a stream for the whole eighthours, because you only show up
if you're actually doing it,and it was the most phenomenal
(01:36):
stream of my streaming career.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, I would say it was beyond awesome.
The one comment I'm going tomake about you was I loved how
you handled it so well.
You didn't get overwhelmed byviewers or chat, you just were
(02:00):
you and you kept your cool andit really showed who you were.
It's like you were.
You waited your whole life forthis moment.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah.
So I really think about, Ithink about presenting as a
performance, but I think aboutit in a way that sort of
unravels any opportunity to haveanxiety.
And so in the past, if you'veseen me uncomfortable on Twitch,
it's not because of the numberof people, it's probably because
(02:38):
I was trying to nightmare raidin a game that was
mathematically impossible.
But so when there's whenthere's two people versus 20
people, versus 2 000 people, Ido try to be roughly the same
person.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
isn't that the goal, marcus I would say I yes, but
you also have to do it, and alot of people get overwhelmed by
that because they're looking atthe view counter oh my God,
there's so many people watchingit.
But whether you did or youdidn't act like you did, sure,
(03:15):
and I guess the compliment ismore of that's how you've grown
in content creation.
If you got Twitch partner sixmonths after you became a twitch
streamer and then you were onthe front page at eight months,
it would have been a differentreaction.
It would have been a differentreaction to 2 000 viewers versus
(03:35):
years down the road 2 000viewers.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
You know what I mean that's true, because there's I
don't maybe 500 hours of mestreaming, maybe longer.
I don't know where I've learnedthings about how to think about
the process of streaming.
You're absolutely right.
If I saw 200 viewers in 2018 or2020, I don't think I would
(04:00):
have been at all what I was likeon Sunday.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
No way, that's right.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yep, right, the very beginning of the stream.
It feels like it was so longago and also so many things
happened during that streambecause I played four games and
did a full keynote lecture aboutgames being mythology.
So there's a lot in there.
There's no way for me toremember everything that I
talked about on Sunday, but Iremember the beginning of the
(04:27):
stream and usually the buildupof watching viewers come in, it
goes up, it goes down.
You're not sure what the streamis going to have going on in
the chat.
That's part of the randomnessof streaming on Twitch.
But usually I'll see the numbergo up and maybe get towards 100
, maybe get up over 50.
(04:47):
It really depends what kind ofday it's going to be, and that
takes 12 to 20 minutes beforethe number really settles down
and it just becomes about areany new viewers going to find me
and who has to leave?
And that started to happenexactly the way I'm used to,
because I went live about 12minutes before the top of the
(05:08):
hour to make sure the technologywas OK, so that I'm also
already live.
So the number is going up theway it normally does.
And then I remember I wasplaying Final Fantasy seven,
rebirth and the number just wasat sixteen hundred or something
like that in my OBS.
And when you first see that andyou've never seen that before
(05:29):
my first thought was something'sbroken in OBS, which is the
program that we use to send thevideo to Twitch from our
computer.
So I just thought this is not.
No, that's not how this, okay.
And then I went to Twitch andsaw that the numbers matched.
So I knew that it was going tobe that kind of stream and the
(05:55):
number going up and down fivepeople is what I'm used to.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
But when you're talking these numbers and I did
not know this until Sunday thenumber goes up and down in 500
or a thousand constantly butthat goes to show the value of
you, the value of you being on afront page, and that shows that
there's a couple thousandpeople that are going to click
(06:21):
on your page.
Whether they stay or they godoesn't matter.
There's going to be a couplethousand people that go to your
page to watch you because you'reon that carousel.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Yeah, a lot of people did say hey, I saw you through
the carousel or saw you throughthe homepage, right?
So it was a really greatoutreach opportunity for me and
by the end of the stream, myTwitch report says 224,000
different accounts saw mychannel that day, which is
astronomically different than aregular stream.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
That's insanity.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
It's, yeah, it's insane.
That's closer to a quarter of amillion than not.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
And in the fact that when, if I signed into the
carousel and let's say, you werethe fourth one in, like the
streamer that I wanted to catchwas the fifth, that's a they
would, as they scroll thatalmost like pauses on you and
they actually see your stream.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
The fact that the quarter of a million people saw
your stream is beyond insaneyeah, it really, because at the
end of the day, it's not justabout streaming on Twitch and
having people me watch gameplayinside the Dr Gamology title,
the name it's about video gamesimprove our mental health.
(07:37):
Let's talk about why and thatis so much bigger than Twitch
and YouTube because there'sother things that are inside of
that experience and so I wantpeople to find me that way and
enjoy me on Twitch and thingslike that.
But then also the goal is maybethe gamer's journey, getting
the book, or maybe it's findingmore videos on YouTube and being
(07:59):
able to talk to people abouttheir own video games and how
positive it can be, if you wantto interpret it that way you,
and it's everybody's dream to bethere.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
And the fact, here's the thing, you get all those
views, even if they didn't comeby your stream and they remember
your name.
Let's say, six months down theroad they're searching,
searching a game Final FantasyVII remake for the game maybe.
They see Dr Gameology.
Oh man, I remember him.
He was on the headline.
(08:34):
I remember that name.
Click on your thing.
Oh my God, I didn't watch youbecause Noob123 was streaming
and he's my guy.
I remember your name being onthe Twitch homepage.
It's the comebacks.
You know what I mean?
Right?
No matter what you did it, itwas your longest stream ever.
(08:54):
Yep, and you crushed it.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
It was fun.
My back hurt, though, which isbecause I'm older than I used to
be, and that's yeah.
No, seriously, that's the onlynegative is everything about.
It was fun.
It didn't even feel like eighthours, other than sometimes you
look at the counter to see whereyou're at, and so you know the
(09:19):
difference between two and thenthree and then four, but it
didn't.
Psychological flow, marcus, oneof my favorite things to talk
about from my own research.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I was waiting for this.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Yeah, it actually one of the key factors when you
experience it is the lostperception of time, and that
really did happen for me onSunday.
Eight hours felt long, but itdidn't feel like eight hours at
all.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Eight hours felt long , but it didn't feel like eight
hours at all.
I remember doing a subathon andit was I streamed for 17.
And yeah, and I said I wouldnever do that again I feel like
(10:05):
eight is even you could do 12,.
12 is not bad either, butanything more than that it's
just too much.
Yeah, I feel like you broke upyour games.
See, you're very structured,where I'm willy-nilly, I guess I
would call it.
So I was like I'm going to playfour different games, but then
I'm involved in a game and I'mjust jamming and I'm like I'm
not switching.
And you took your time.
(10:26):
You did your keynote, which wasawesome.
I actually went back andwatched the VOD of that because
I was playing hockey at thatpoint.
But how you switched from FinalFantasy VII, then you went to
Dead by Daylight, which I'm nota big Dead by Daylight guy.
I appreciate the game and thecommunity, but it's not really
for me.
You know what I mean.
And I enjoyed the fact that youwere switching through games
(10:47):
and it gave everybody anopportunity to come in and have
a chance to see you play theirgame.
If I first saw you on thetwitch page and you're final
fantasy 7, but then I cycle backand oh, he's playing dead by
daylight.
That's my jam.
Yeah, it gets more views and itgets people to be interested,
which is great yeah, I reallydid have fun with the game.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
selection dead by daylight is a horror game for
people that maybe haven't heardme talk about on the podcast
very much, but there is oneperson who plays as a killer and
four people that play as asurvivor, and just think michael
myers halloween movie, andthat's really what the setup is
is you try to hide and you tryto escape and not get killed by
(11:35):
the one overpowered that's right, killer.
You actually can play asMichael Myers, by the way, so
that was directly what you'regetting involved in with that
game.
I haven't played it, though,since before Halloween.
I didn't like their Halloweenevent.
It felt very grindy and I didn'tfeel like I had time to
participate, so I went fromtrying to get the groove back on
(11:59):
how not to get caught so easily, and it went really well.
I did survive two out of thefive matches that I played,
which is actually statisticallyhigher than the average survival
rate, think I actually am notsure.
I think it might be like, Idon't know, 60.
It's either 60, 40 or 40, 60,and that's what I'm not sure
(12:22):
about yeah, I, yeah, I don'tknow I.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I personally just don't like the game.
I don't, I think I just don'tlike horror and let's.
I guess it's weird because Ican play like a Call of Duty
type first person shooter whereI'm shooting people and killing
them, but anytime I'm playingsomething that is like a killer
and like people, or even theFriday, the 13th game from back
in the day or any of thosereally scary games where all you
have is a flashlight or a footfor time.
(12:50):
Scariest game I ever played wasDead space, one back from 2008,
but the other one was this gameit was a japanese game called
fatal frame.
Scariest game I ever played.
Like why would you ever putyourself through it?
And like I lost a bet withfriends and they made me play it
at 10 o'clock at night with allthe lights off back in the day
when we used to have sleepovers.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah, and it was the scariest shit ever I've wanted
to play fatal frame for a longtime now.
The newest one is on my wishlist on steam so we should start
a campaign.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Watch doc shit, his pants scared it won't happen.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
No, like I'm not scared of games, there's just
it's not gonna happen oh,challenge accepted, there's a
game.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Oh, hold on um while we're talking.
Scariest amnesia, the darkdescent.
You've got to play that onstream, we're done what year did
it come out?
Speaker 1 (13:50):
does it look good?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
it does not, I don't know when it came out, but that
is the scariest game evercreated.
If that game doesn't scare you,I don't know what will.
And does scare you mean jumpscare.
You won't even jump scare.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
I might get jump scared.
I'm still a human being.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
My brain still sends signals through my spinal cord
into the rest of my body Iunderstand that, but like you're
like you're so stoic that Idon't know if you would be
scared wait, did you say amnesiathe dark descent?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
yes, it's 85 off on steam right now sounds like
you're playing that in a nightstream with lights off I don't
stream at night, marcus okay,you're gonna play it in the
morning and it'll be night forsomebody in australia that's
true, and we do have listenersin australia thank you so much
for listening but also all theother countries and continents
(14:47):
as well.
So we mentioned last episodethat we were going to continue
talking about Elden Ring, and 15minutes into this recording we
have a decision to make.
Are we going to save our pastselves from lying to the
audience or do we care?
Speaker 2 (15:08):
what do?
Speaker 1 (15:08):
you mean, well, are we talking about Elden Ring we?
Speaker 2 (15:11):
We can mention it.
I have a couple talking points,but something I want to it's
going to lead.
All right, you got to bear withme in my sidebar.
Okay, bear with me in mysidebar.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
I'm with you.
Let's go.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Okay, this is going to circle back to Elden Ring.
I saw a video this week.
I sent it to doc and it was howto bring yourself back to video
games after you stop playingthem.
So real talk.
I've been in a little videogame drought.
I just.
I've been playing nhl 25, wwe2k 24 and minecraft with my son.
(15:47):
I and I've been dying to playElden Ring but I can't pull
myself to turn it on.
And this video it's like myphone knows me better than me
and I found this video and itwas talking about the
psychological reasons why it'sso hard to go back to a game.
And the guy used it as anexample of Tears of the Kingdom.
(16:09):
He said I was playing Tears ofthe Kingdom, I was 100 hours in
and monster hunter came out.
I knew I'm making up a datejanuary 1st.
Monster hunter was coming outor whatever game is.
I'm just using it as aplaceholder.
I'm gonna stop playing thisgame no matter what, because I
want to play this game.
And he was talking aboutbringing himself back to Tears
(16:36):
of the Kingdom because it's notthat he didn't like it, it's not
that he wasn't having fun, itwasn't that it was too hard, it
was just that he couldn't.
Now that he's done with saidMonster Hunter game, he's not
finding himself back to Tears ofthe Kingdom.
And that is me and Elden Ring.
I absolutely love elden ringbut I have done everything in my
(16:57):
power to just not play it.
Yeah, and and is it becauseit's hard and I get frustrated
and like my heart races becauseit's really hard, even though
the game is the best game I'veever second best game I I've
ever played, but like it'sunbelievable.
But I haven't gravitated backand I think it may be because
(17:24):
I'm sitting less at my computerand sitting more on my couch
playing said games or laptopwith my son, so it's harder.
It's been harder for me to comeinto this space, like for a
reason I don't know, it's hardgoing with that.
I really took this video toheart.
(17:46):
I sent it to doc and I was likedoc, watch this video.
You need to make a YouTubevideo on this because your
perspective will be amazing onthis, because you're going to
bring a different flavor to thiscandy shop you know what I mean
or ice cream shop.
And I came back to Elden Ringthis week.
(18:10):
I loaded in.
I was at Redmayne Yep, I wasgoing to Elden Ring this week.
I loaded in.
I was at Redmayne Yep, I wasgoing to do it.
I went to Redmayne Castle but Iwent back I've beaten Radon like
a long ago and I ended up inlike portals and it brought me
right to Redmayne.
There was all these enemies andI'm like, wait a minute here,
(18:30):
why are all these enemies here?
I've already beat Radon and I aminute here.
Why are all these enemies here?
I've already beat radon and Iwas like, all right, I'm gonna
go kill some people and explore.
So I just started exploring thiscastle and I ended up in a boss
room and there was another bossin red mane castle.
It was a lion.
And then, as soon as you'relike three quarters health on
this lion, a crucible knightshows up and you're like, oh
(18:52):
geez, but I beat it.
It's in the yeah, and it reallywasn't super hard, because I
think I'm super over leveled atthis point, but it was.
It brought me up and then Iwent exploring again through red
main and, like I had to find itup, finding items and stuff,
and it's wow, this is great.
(19:12):
But now I feel like I wish Icould play it on my couch yeah,
that's a real thing.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
I can't play on my couch right now either, so I can
relate directly to that point.
But I think that whenever youhave a hobby or a piece of your
routine and then you stop doingit, it becomes easier to stay
(19:42):
away than it is to come back,and you also have all of the
history and experience of therelief of not having to deal
with that.
And so you're arguing withyourself to go back into the
stress on purpose, and that'snot a very rational goal to have
(20:03):
.
Usually you want to avoid orovercome things that create
distress for you.
So I think that those are justa few things that you're
immediately facing when you havea difficult game that you step
away from.
But even you could experiencethose with different levels of
(20:23):
dread and chemical flow in yourbrain, even if the game is not
difficult, but it felt like achore to you.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yes, but at the same breath, now two, 26,.
What was that Four days ago?
Four days ago, doc sends me adiscord message that he a
hundred percent at Elden ringand I died laughing because I,
at the same time, I'm beatingred bean castle and he's.
I guess I am a completionist.
(20:51):
Hmm, doc really cares aboutachievements.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Yeah, no.
So when that moment happenedlast episode, I instantly knew
that I'm sitting on thisrevelation that I've completed
all of the official Steamachievements in Elden Ring.
There are bosses that I haven'tdowned yet, though that is
actually not an achievement todown every single boss on the
map, so that's just a sign ofhow much content is in Elden
(21:19):
Ring.
Yeah, that you can always findmore bosses.
I actually can't imagine whatthe world would feel like if,
walking around, that there'snone of the big scary things
that can get you.
That would be quite a differentexperience altogether.
Let me ask you a question.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
When you play Elden Ring.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Excuse me, Do you do everything possible in all of
the areas or do you leave thoseareas and move on to the next
thing?
Speaker 1 (21:56):
so in the first area.
For sure, my first time throughI was using a guide to find
every single boss in the areaand basically hunt them down,
and then you open it up and youget to.
You open it up and you get toLiurnia and the lake, and then I
started to really strugglegetting to every boss on the map
(22:20):
to play that way, because somethings that look like they're on
the map you actually can't getto until you've completed three
other areas and then go downtheir mountains so that you're
actually on the other side ofthe cliff face.
And that happens repeatedly inall of the areas of the game
(22:40):
except probably the first area.
So once I started running intothat, I realized I need to at
least in some way use the goldline of fate on the map that
shows you how to get to the Erdtree and start just trying to
kill as many bosses along thatroute as I can so that I
(23:01):
continue having the runes tolevel up.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
I'll give an example of where I'm at.
So I'm in.
I just beat Lindell.
What is that, godric?
No?
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Who's no?
God free?
Yeah, who's no?
Godric Godfrey?
Yeah, beat Godfrey.
Yeah, we didn't know that lastepisode.
Sorry, everyone Godfrey.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Yeah, so I beat Godfrey and I know there's
something called thesubterranean shutting grounds,
right, and I know that it'sreally hard down there.
And I know that it's reallyhard down there and I'm like can
I just skip it, Because I don'treally want to go down there
and like get out.
(23:39):
But then I feel like I'mleaving something behind because
I don't know who the boss is.
But it's one big boss that youfight again.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Is it Moog?
Yes, the Lord of Blood, yeah,yeah, boss that you fight again.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Um, I don't.
Is it mog?
Yes, the lord of blood, yeah,yeah, so you fight.
There's the blood omen, right,and I'm like do I really want to
put myself through that rightaway, or do I want to try to
move on to the mountaintops ofthe giants and and start moving
my way and backtrack after?
Speaker 1 (24:12):
you know what I'm saying and I don't really have
that answer yeah, well, youdon't have to go down there if
you don't want to.
I actually think you can makeit to the unlocked ur tree
without dealing with that yes,yes, it's a separate dungeon.
(24:39):
Yeah, the reason you go downthere is because you want other
things to happen on the map foryour playthrough or
completionism.
So there are areas that areunderground, though that are not
endgame super difficult toMarcus.
So I hope that you're at leastexploring, because some of those
places are beautiful and youcould oh, I love it there.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Easily I've done it like the most beautiful place in
the whole game so far is whenyou're in that city underground
yes, oh man, that's what I washoping.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
I didn't want to spoil it for you no, no, I've
done all that.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
I've done all ronnie's quest ronnie, ronnie,
ronanny, whatever her name is Ithink it just depends he's in
from boston.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
It's ronnie yeah ronnie.
If you're from florida, it'sronnie yeah, khakis, car keys
whatever khakis yeah, I can't doit but okay, okay, so moving on
.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
So with Elden Ring.
Now, I've never beat it.
Superstar over here is 100% ofit, but he has not beat the DLC.
So this is where we're going.
They created Shadow of theErdtree and people.
it was what, two years, twoyears after it came out, they
released the DLC yeah, so Ifigured, people have been
(25:55):
beating this game for two years,level 7,000, whatever it is and
they come out with this and Isaid how are they going to do
the leveling?
Because these people are crazyover leveled and they're going
to have to scale it.
And they came up with their newleveling system, which a lot of
people didn't like.
They really turned up thedifficulty.
(26:17):
Yeah, if it was like when youfought the elden beast is the
final boss in the main game, isthat 100?
They turned it up to 600 forthe dlc yeah, I'm not being
super successful.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
When I streamed it on Thursday, I did go back into
Shadow of the Earth Tree and Iwas able to defeat a small boss
and a great beast or whatever.
So I had one big boss win, butI was able to show off, trying
to keep a positive mindset andtry to problem solve.
(26:55):
The situation is what did I notdo well, what do I need to do
better, what do I need toprevent myself from doing and
what do I need to do faster?
And it's just a process ofseeing it slow down so that you
don't press your buttons tooearly or too late, and that just
takes repetition early or toolate, and that just takes
(27:16):
repetition.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Sure.
So they create this DLC and thebosses are at a hundred and the
only way you can get there isyou have to kill Moe, the Lord
of blood, which is not even amandatory boss in the game.
Nope.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Completely optional.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
And did you beat Moog ?
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Oh yeah of course you did, because you're 100%.
So fun fact, I did not beatMoog during my first playthrough
because I didn't even find him.
Wow, yeah, I had defeated Moogthe Blood Omen in my first
playthrough, and so when peoplewho have beaten this very
difficult fight are talking tome about it and they said, did
(28:03):
you beat Moog Doc?
I said yes, I did notunderstand that there was a
different, more difficultversion of him that had a whole
palace that I needed to visit,so I started going there.
My second playthrough, I see Anew game plus yeah, new game
plus.
And then I think I did itduring either the fourth or
(28:25):
fifth run too.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
So I've beaten him three times out of five when you
went into the DLC.
Are you standard issue or areyou in new game plus?
I'm in new game plus, oh shit,that's why it's really hard.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah, I don't have.
There is nothing that will evermake me happily want to play
level one as a.
I'm going to beat the game withthis character.
I actually did give my streamchatters the opportunity to vote
of whether they wanted shadowof the earth tree first time for
me or if they wanted newcharacter.
Let's see how far we canexperience this.
(29:01):
And they just all wanted to seeme do Shadow of the Earth Tree,
so that's what we did.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Yeah, I'd like to see .
Shadow of the Earth Tree is anew level of difficult.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
I did make it to Mesmer near the very end of the
stream and he's the red-robedfigure that they made the statue
for the Super Collectors Deluxeversion of Shadow of the Earth
Tree.
So I had no idea that he was inthe castle that I was pushing
through the whole stream.
So I did get a few attempts onhim.
(29:32):
Few attempts on him.
One time I hit zero percenthealth, but my spirit summon hit
him as I was falling down and I, before I, turned into ash, and
one of those hits put him to 50.
So we got to watch the video ofhim transitioning into his
phase two.
(29:53):
The problem is I was deadduring the entire cut scene so
as soon as it gave control backto the player, you just see me
continue like the death you diedyeah, exactly, I knew it was
coming.
I knew I didn't actually make itto 50, I'll say 51.
It's still fun.
I'm gonna take him down andit's an iconic boss fight.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
They say he's the hardest.
They're saying that Mesmer'sthe hardest boss in all of Elden
Ring period.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Oh, that makes me feel better about getting him to
51% on my first day of workingon him.
Not even first 25 minutes ofworking on him, actually it's
because you're a pro, you're apro.
I wish I had a little bitquicker reflexes for dodging,
but I am mostly a magic player,so it's all about creating
(30:46):
distance.
I think it's all about, when itcomes to elden ring, are you
playing a way that suits yourplay style?
And I'm just not a sword, armorand shield kind of person, and
once I stopped trying to impressother people with the way I
played Elden Ring and just waslike how do I want to play and
(31:06):
can I win that way?
That's why the game is soamazing.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
I don't, you know.
What's funny is I do do magic,but all I use is the moon veil.
Yeah, and people talk aboutbuilds and I have no idea what
that even means and like statsfor it.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Maybe I should fix my stats, I don't know marcus, I
would love to hop on discord andboth of us play the game
together and talk about builds,because that's literally my
favorite thing.
In fact, doesn't, elden Ring?
Speaker 2 (31:43):
builds make up part of my chapter in psychology but
yeah, but it doesn't tell mewhat my moon veil build is oh,
there's a lot of differentbuilds that prioritize the moon
veil.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Katana.
It's really about how you reactto battles.
What are your tendencies?
And die.
We need a little bit moreinformation.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Bad rolling okay hitting the boss, getting hit by
the boss, you died that's justplaying the game.
Yes, but that's yeah okay no,and but I going to go back to
something that you said aboutyour reaction time.
I think that is a great answerto what we talked about 10
(32:25):
minutes ago about getting backinto the games.
I think that's one thing thatmight deter me from coming back
to Elden Ring is that I haven'tplayed it in so long and you
instantly get into the game andyou are like you're, I'm not an
end game, but I'm deep in thegame.
So the they're expecting you tobe better and I haven't played
(32:48):
it in a while, so it's, I'mrusty.
Yeah, so I understand whatyou're saying.
It's like almost oh, should Igo back to to Lindell and just
fight the mobs there, just toget my reaction times back?
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Yeah, exactly it's.
Sometimes those small groups ofenemies are challenging enough
that you get stuck in the samehallways and then you get the
boss down very easily.
Sometimes it's harder to getthere than it is to do the big
mission goal.
It is a skill-based game andjust like your reflexes with
(33:22):
aiming if you're a Valorantplayer, and just like your speed
and decision-making reactionresponse time if you're playing
League of Legends.
If you take a game that isskill-based and separate from it
for a period of time, yourskills decrease, apathy diminish
.
So it is important, likegetting back into weights, you
(33:45):
don't go back to your peak, yougo back somewhere in a
manageable range and make sureyou're ready to handle it.
And I am not a fitness expertat all, so that was just me
trying to relate to a differentarea of life, but it makes sense
.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Yes, or me on hockey skates.
If I don't skate for a week,I'm definitely rusty.
This week I've been on the icefive times.
I'm at the peak of myrepetition and talent.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
I love that I'm at the peak.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Yes, just like your stream on the Twitch homepage
was your peak of streaming inevery category.
That is true yes every singleone and you deserve it.
People don't understand whenpeople are quitting and I stop
streaming because I'm busy withthe kids and life and everything
(34:34):
.
Doc has persevered.
He has gone through the ups,the downs I'm not doing it, I'm
doing it, I'm not doing it, I'mdoing it and then saying fuck it
.
I'm coming back, I'm doing itand then not putting the foot on
the gas pedal and doing it, andthen having your company that
you work for tell you to Dockeep doing it, keep doing it,
(34:55):
keep doing it.
It's only good for your brand,it's only good Then he's writing
a book.
Through it.
All your perseverance hasproved itself worth it.
Whether you're making a milliondollars a year from Twitch or
being on the Twitch homepage, tome that's the same thing.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
That is not happening yet, marcuscus.
If things could get to thatpoint, that would be by far the
best outcome out of anythingI've applied myself to, and I
think it's fun.
But it is a great way to spreadthe ideas that I'm all about.
And my ideas have become mywork, but I have them because of
(35:38):
all the research that I've donein that work that it gave me
the opportunity to share myvoice and let people know that
if I have anything I can helppeople with, that will not have
them struggle with the sameconversations about video games
that I have my whole life and somany others.
It is not just a me thing, it'sa cultural thing, and that
(36:00):
really is what it's all about.
And Twitch as a platform is agreat way to show that, because
oftentimes I'm playing or I havesomething up on my screen that
explains gameplay and thenpeople can start to recognize
what I'm doing and recognize thename Dr Gamology, and that is
(36:21):
going to open up even more doorsand I'm so excited to see what
is possible through thiscommunity.
I'm really appreciative to ourlisteners for this show as well.
So thank you so much, because Ithink, like Marcus listed a lot
of things I'm involved in, whenhe was saying that I deserve
this and what I had to gothrough to decide.
(36:42):
I'm going to stick with it.
It's just, if you aren't thatdedicated to something, then the
goal is just a hobby, which isfine.
I shouldn't say just a.
It is a hobby as opposed to apassion.
Maybe would be the other thing,and I can think about this a
(37:04):
little bit more after thisepisode.
But I just want to encouragepeople when there is something
that you're starting to regretthat you didn't do it, ask
yourself is that going to besomething that affects you
short-term or long-term?
If it's long-term, I wouldencourage you to look at places
(37:26):
in your life where you can saythis is part of my life now,
because if it's not, it's mucheasier to drop it again.
And that's just the beginningof this entire thought process.
That has a lot of other thingsthat can affect the way things
go for you.
But a lot of times there's thatvoice inside of us.
That's the call to adventuresaying hey, you want to get this
(37:48):
in your life.
And it's so easy to say no, andsometimes you just know if you
gave yourself the chance to dothat thing, it would be a huge
yes, so yes, Wow, okay, this ismy last question to you.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yeah, who's winning the Elimination Chamber?
Speaker 1 (38:12):
I don't know if I for sure want this to happen out of
the six people, but there'sjust something I felt when I
woke up this morning that Ithink it might be Seth Rollins
Interesting.
Who do you think is going towin the Elimination Chamber?
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Okay, true Blue, I think CM Punk Okay, but I don't
think it's's gonna happenbecause of everything going on.
You ready for this?
Okay?
Yeah, let's go.
John cena wins.
Cm punk calls in a favor.
With paul hayman night onewrestlemania cm punk, john cena
the winner there fights codyrhodes.
(38:53):
Cm punk wins because they don'tneed to give cena the title yet
.
Cm Punk beats Cody.
And then CM Punk is heel rockschampion SummerSlam.
Cm Punk loses to Cena.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
Cena loses to Cody Rhodes later oh wow, so you've
mapped out an entire fanficuniverse for 2025 because the
rock story has completelychanged everything and cody's
not turning heel.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Not a chance.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Cody is wwe's baby face and I know he acts like a
heel, but he's not taking therocks deal I agree with you on
that, but I have a verydifferent imagination about
what's going on with the rockand Cody Rhodes storyline and I
don't know if I'm ready to talkabout that on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Yeah, no, I hear you.
I think one of these times weshould do a wrestling podcast.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
That would be so interesting, but I don't have an
expertise in that it's.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
We don't need to be experts.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
I'm an expert at nothing except building cabinets
and dying melvin ring I everytime I put a plate or a cup in a
cabinet in my kitchen.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
I appreciate you, marcus, so don't sell yourself
short, sir all right, I'm gonnasay we're not gonna tell you
what we're talking about.
Next week Appreciate you,marcus, so don't sell yourself
short, sir.
All right, I'm going to saywe're not going to tell you what
we're talking about next week,because stay tuned.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
Okay, that sounds great, so continue the journey,
friends.
Thank you.
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