What Happens When Your Channel Hits the Front Page?

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 

Chapters

• 0:42 Welcome to the Gaming Persona Podcast
• 2:53 Exploring the Intersection of Gaming and Personal Growth
• 53:09 Dr. Gamology's Game
• 2:08:41 The Psychology of Streaming with Massive Viewers
• 6:40:00 Returning to Elden Ring After a Break
• 7:48:00 The Challenge of Boss Battles and New DLC

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Gaming Persona podcast. This is the show that explores who 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 my good friend Marcus as we search for all the ways gaming and personal growth collide. Grab your controllers and let's continue the journey Now.

Speaker 2: 0:23

What do you get when you add an awesome guy and a front page? I have no idea 2,000 viewers on the Twitch homepage. That's what you get.

Speaker 1: 0:36

Oh wow, thanks Marcus. That really is a lead into all the different things we could talk about today. Is the lead into all the different things we could talk about today.

Speaker 2: 0:44

I think, no matter what to start off, we should talk about that, because that was wild.

Speaker 1: 0:51

Yeah, it really was. So. For everyone that is catching up or maybe jumped to the current episode, this past Sunday was really special for me because the Dr Gamology channel was featured by Twitch on the main page. So anyone who just goes to twitchtv, they see a carousel of different streamers that are being highlighted by Twitch and they see a bunch of other things too. They're going to see their favorite people, they're going to see games, they're interested in things like that. But I was in that top carousel for eight hours on Sunday and I did a stream for the whole eight hours, because you only show up if you're actually doing it, and it was the most phenomenal stream of my streaming career.

Speaker 2: 1:40

Yeah, I would say it was beyond awesome. The one comment I'm going to make about you was I loved how you handled it so well. You didn't get overwhelmed by viewers or chat, you just were you and you kept your cool and it really showed who you were. It's like you were. You waited your whole life for this moment.

Speaker 1: 2:13

Yeah. So I really think about, I think about presenting as a performance, but I think about it in a way that sort of unravels any opportunity to have anxiety. And so in the past, if you've seen me uncomfortable on Twitch, it's not because of the number of people, it's probably because I was trying to nightmare raid in a game that was mathematically impossible. But so when there's when there's two people versus 20 people, versus 2 000 people, I do try to be roughly the same person.

Speaker 2: 2:55

isn't that the goal, marcus I would say I yes, but you also have to do it, and a lot of people get overwhelmed by that because they're looking at the view counter oh my God, there's so many people watching it. But whether you did or you didn't act like you did, sure, and I guess the compliment is more of that's how you've grown in content creation. If you got Twitch partner six months after you became a twitch streamer and then you were on the front page at eight months, it would have been a different reaction. It would have been a different reaction to 2 000 viewers versus years down the road 2 000 viewers.

Speaker 1: 3:37

You know what I mean that's true, because there's I don't maybe 500 hours of me streaming, maybe longer. I don't know where I've learned things about how to think about the process of streaming. You're absolutely right. If I saw 200 viewers in 2018 or 2020, I don't think I would have been at all what I was like on Sunday.

Speaker 2: 4:03

No way, that's right.

Speaker 1: 4:04

Yep, right, the very beginning of the stream. It feels like it was so long ago and also so many things happened during that stream because I played four games and did a full keynote lecture about games being mythology. So there's a lot in there. There's no way for me to remember everything that I talked about on Sunday, but I remember the beginning of the stream and usually the buildup of watching viewers come in, it goes up, it goes down. You're not sure what the stream is going to have going on in the chat. That's part of the randomness of streaming on Twitch. But usually I'll see the number go up and maybe get towards 100, maybe get up over 50. It really depends what kind of day it's going to be, and that takes 12 to 20 minutes before the number really settles down and it just becomes about are any new viewers going to find me and who has to leave?

Speaker 1: 5:00

And that started to happen exactly the way I'm used to, because I went live about 12 minutes before the top of the hour to make sure the technology was OK, so that I'm also already live. So the number is going up the way it normally does. And then I remember I was playing Final Fantasy seven, rebirth and the number just was at sixteen hundred or something like that in my OBS. And when you first see that and you've never seen that before my first thought was something's broken in OBS, which is the program that we use to send the video 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 and saw that the numbers matched. So I knew that it was going to be that kind of stream and the number going up and down five people is what I'm used to.

Speaker 2: 5:58

But when you're talking these numbers and I did not know this until Sunday the number goes up and down in 500 or a thousand constantly but that goes to show the value of you, the value of you being on a front page, and that shows that there's a couple thousand people that are going to click on your page. Whether they stay or they go doesn't matter. There's going to be a couple thousand people that go to your page to watch you because you're on that carousel.

Speaker 1: 6:32

Yeah, a lot of people did say hey, I saw you through the carousel or saw you through the homepage, right? So it was a really great outreach opportunity for me and by the end of the stream, my Twitch report says 224,000 different accounts saw my channel that day, which is astronomically different than a regular stream.

Speaker 2: 6:53

That's insanity.

Speaker 1: 6:55

It's, yeah, it's insane. That's closer to a quarter of a million than not.

Speaker 2: 7:01

And in the fact that when, if I signed into the carousel and let's say, you were the fourth one in, like the streamer that I wanted to catch was the fifth, that's a they would, as they scroll that almost like pauses on you and they actually see your stream.

Speaker 1: 7:15

The fact that the quarter of a million people saw your stream is beyond insane yeah, it really, because at the end of the day, it's not just about streaming on Twitch and having people me watch gameplay inside the Dr Gamology title, the name it's about video games improve our mental health. Let's talk about why and that is so much bigger than Twitch and YouTube because there's other things that are inside of that experience and so I want people to find me that way and enjoy me on Twitch and things like that. But then also the goal is maybe the gamer's journey, getting the book, or maybe it's finding more videos on YouTube and being able to talk to people about their own video games and how positive it can be, if you want to interpret it that way you, and it's everybody's dream to be there.

Speaker 2: 8:12

And the fact, here's the thing, you get all those views, even if they didn't come by your stream and they remember your name. Let's say, six months down the road they're searching, searching a game Final Fantasy VII remake for the game maybe.

Speaker 2: 8:29

They see Dr Gameology. Oh man, I remember him. He was on the headline. I remember that name. Click on your thing. Oh my God, I didn't watch you because Noob123 was streaming and he's my guy. I remember your name being on the Twitch homepage. It's the comebacks. You know what I mean? Right? No matter what you did it, it was your longest stream ever. Yep, and you crushed it.

Speaker 1: 8:56

It was fun. My back hurt, though, which is because I'm older than I used to be, and that's yeah. No, seriously, that's the only negative is everything about. It was fun. It didn't even feel like eight hours, other than sometimes you look at the counter to see where you're at, and so you know the difference between two and then three and then four, but it didn't. Psychological flow, marcus, one of my favorite things to talk about from my own research.

Speaker 2: 9:28

I was waiting for this.

Speaker 1: 9:30

Yeah, it actually one of the key factors when you experience it is the lost perception of time, and that really did happen for me on Sunday. Eight hours felt long, but it didn't feel like eight hours at all.

Speaker 2: 9:43

Eight hours felt long, but it didn't feel like eight hours at all. I remember doing a subathon and it was I streamed for 17. And yeah, and I said I would never do that again I feel like eight is even you could do 12,. 12 is not bad either, but anything more than that it's just too much.

Speaker 2: 10:08

Yeah, I feel like you broke up your 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 play four different games, but then I'm involved in a game and I'm just jamming and I'm like I'm not switching. And you took your time. You did your keynote, which was awesome. I actually went back and watched the VOD of that because I was playing hockey at that point.

Speaker 2: 10:34

But how you switched from Final Fantasy VII, then you went to Dead by Daylight, which I'm not a big Dead by Daylight guy. I appreciate the game and the community, but it's not really for me. You know what I mean. And I enjoyed the fact that you were switching through games and it gave everybody an opportunity to come in and have a chance to see you play their game. If I first saw you on the twitch page and you're final fantasy 7, but then I cycle back and oh, he's playing dead by daylight. That's my jam. Yeah, it gets more views and it gets people to be interested, which is great yeah, I really did have fun with the game.

Speaker 1: 11:12

selection dead by daylight is a horror game for people that maybe haven't heard me talk about on the podcast very much, but there is one person who plays as a killer and four people that play as a survivor, and just think michael myers halloween movie, and that's really what the setup is is you try to hide and you try to escape and not get killed by the one overpowered that's right, killer. You actually can play as Michael Myers, by the way, so that was directly what you're getting involved in with that game. I haven't played it, though, since before Halloween. I didn't like their Halloween event.

Speaker 1: 11:51

It felt very grindy and I didn't feel like I had time to participate, so I went from trying to get the groove back on how not to get caught so easily, and it went really well. I did survive two out of the five matches that I played, which is actually statistically higher than the average survival rate, think I actually am not sure. I think it might be like, I don't know, 60. It's either 60, 40 or 40, 60, and that's what I'm not sure about yeah, I, yeah, I don't know I.

Speaker 2: 12:28

I personally just don't like the game. I don't, I think I just don't like horror and let's. I guess it's weird because I can play like a Call of Duty type first person shooter where I'm shooting people and killing them, but anytime I'm playing something that is like a killer and like people, or even the Friday, the 13th game from back in the day or any of those really scary games where all you have is a flashlight or a foot for time. Scariest game I ever played was Dead space, one back from 2008, but the other one was this game it was a japanese game called fatal frame. Scariest game I ever played. Like why would you ever put yourself through it? And like I lost a bet with friends and they made me play it at 10 o'clock at night with all the 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 long time now. The newest one is on my wish list 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 dark descent. You've got to play that on stream, 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 ever created. If that game doesn't scare you, I don't know what will. And does scare you mean jump scare. 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 I understand that, but like you're like you're so stoic that I don't know if you would be scared wait, did you say amnesia the dark descent?

Speaker 1: 14:26

yes, it's 85 off on steam right now sounds like you're playing that in a night stream with lights off I don't stream at night, marcus okay, you're gonna play it in the morning and it'll be night for somebody in australia that's true, and we do have listeners in australia thank you so much for listening but also all the other countries and continents as well. So we mentioned last episode that we were going to continue talking about Elden Ring, and 15 minutes into this recording we have a decision to make. Are we going to save our past selves 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 with me in my sidebar. Okay, bear with me in my sidebar.

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 how to bring yourself back to video games after you stop playing them. So real talk. I've been in a little video game drought. I just. I've been playing nhl 25, wwe 2k 24 and minecraft with my son. I and I've been dying to play Elden Ring but I can't pull myself to turn it on. And this video it's like my phone knows me better than me and I found this video and it was talking about the psychological reasons why it's so hard to go back to a game. And the guy used it as an example of Tears of the Kingdom. He said I was playing Tears of the Kingdom, I was 100 hours in and monster hunter came out. I knew I'm making up a date january 1st. Monster hunter was coming out or whatever game is. I'm just using it as a placeholder. I'm gonna stop playing this game no matter what, because I want to play this game. And he was talking about bringing himself back to Tears of the Kingdom because it's not that he didn't like it, it's not that he wasn't having fun, it wasn't that it was too hard, it was just that he couldn't. Now that he's done with said Monster Hunter game, he's not finding himself back to Tears of the Kingdom. And that is me and Elden Ring. I absolutely love elden ring but I have done everything in my power to just not play it. Yeah, and and is it because it's hard and I get frustrated and like my heart races because it's really hard, even though the game is the best game I've ever second best game I I've ever played, but like it's unbelievable. But I haven't gravitated back and I think it may be because I'm sitting less at my computer and sitting more on my couch playing said games or laptop with my son, so it's harder. It's been harder for me to come into this space, like for a reason I don't know, it's hard going with that. I really took this video to heart. I sent it to doc and I was like doc, watch this video. You need to make a YouTube video on this because your perspective will be amazing on this, because you're going to bring a different flavor to this candy shop you know what I mean or ice cream shop. And I came back to Elden Ring this week. I loaded in. I was at Redmayne Yep, I was going to Elden Ring this week. I loaded in. I was at Redmayne Yep, I was going to do it.

Speaker 2: 18:15

I went to Redmayne Castle but I went back I've beaten Radon like a long ago and I ended up in like portals and it brought me right to Redmayne. There was all these enemies and I'm like, wait a minute here, why are all these enemies here? I've already beat Radon and I a minute here. Why are all these enemies here? I've already beat radon and I was like, all right, I'm gonna go kill some people and explore.

Speaker 2: 18:37

So I just started exploring this castle and I ended up in a boss room and there was another boss in red mane castle. It was a lion. And then, as soon as you're like three quarters health on this lion, a crucible knight shows up and you're like, oh geez, but I beat it. It's in the yeah, and it really wasn't super hard, because I think I'm super over leveled at this point, but it was. It brought me up and then I went exploring again through red main and, like I had to find it up, finding items and stuff, and it's wow, this is great. But now I feel like I wish I could 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 you have a hobby or a piece of your routine and then you stop doing it, it becomes easier to stay away than it is to come back, and you also have all of the history and experience of the relief of not having to deal with that. And so you're arguing with yourself to go back into the stress on purpose, and that's not a very rational goal to have. Usually you want to avoid or overcome things that create distress for you. So I think that those are just a few things that you're immediately facing when you have a difficult game that you step away from. But even you could experience those with different levels of dread and chemical flow in your brain, even if the game is not difficult, but it felt like a chore 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 a discord message that he a hundred percent at Elden ring and I died laughing because I, at the same time, I'm beating red bean castle and he's. I guess I am a completionist. Hmm, doc really cares about achievements.

Speaker 1: 20:55

Yeah, no. So when that moment happened last episode, I instantly knew that I'm sitting on this revelation that I've completed all of the official Steam achievements in Elden Ring. There are bosses that I haven't downed yet, though that is actually not an achievement to down every single boss on the map, so that's just a sign of how much content is in Elden Ring. Yeah, that you can always find more bosses. I actually can't imagine what the world would feel like if, walking around, that there's none of the big scary things that can get you. That would be quite a different experience 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 those areas and move on to the next thing?

Speaker 1: 21:56

so in the first area. For sure, my first time through I was using a guide to find every single boss in the area and basically hunt them down, and then you open it up and you get to. You open it up and you get to Liurnia and the lake, and then I started to really struggle getting to every boss on the map to play that way, because some things that look like they're on the map you actually can't get to until you've completed three other areas and then go down their mountains so that you're actually on the other side of the cliff face. And that happens repeatedly in all of the areas of the game except probably the first area. So once I started running into that, I realized I need to at least in some way use the gold line of fate on the map that shows you how to get to the Erd tree and start just trying to kill as many bosses along that route as I can so that I continue having the runes to level 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 last episode. Sorry, everyone Godfrey.

Speaker 2: 23:19

Yeah, so I beat Godfrey and I know there's something called the subterranean shutting grounds, right, and I know that it's really hard down there. And I know that it's really hard down there and I'm like can I just skip it, Because I don't really want to go down there and like get out. But then I feel like I'm leaving something behind because I don't know who the boss is. But it's one big boss that you fight 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 right away, or do I want to try to move on to the mountaintops of the 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, you don't have to go down there if you don't want to. I actually think you can make it to the unlocked ur tree without dealing with that yes, yes, it's a separate dungeon.

Speaker 1: 24:39

Yeah, the reason you go down there is because you want other things to happen on the map for your playthrough or completionism. So there are areas that are underground, though that are not endgame super difficult to Marcus. So I hope that you're at least exploring, because some of those places are beautiful and you could 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 when you're in that city underground yes, oh man, that's what I was hoping.

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 I think it just depends he's in from boston.

Speaker 1: 25:16

It's ronnie yeah ronnie. If you're from florida, it's ronnie yeah, khakis, car keys whatever khakis yeah, I can't do it 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% of it, but he has not beat the DLC. So this is where we're going. They created Shadow of the Erdtree and people.

Speaker 2: 25:49

it was what, two years, two years after it came out, they released the DLC yeah, so I figured, people have been beating this game for two years, level 7,000, whatever it is and they come out with this and I said how are they going to do the leveling? Because these people are crazy over leveled and they're going to have to scale it. And they came up with their new leveling system, which a lot of people didn't like. They really turned up the difficulty. Yeah, if it was like when you fought the elden beast is the final boss in the main game, is that 100? They turned it up to 600 for the 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 I was able to defeat a small boss and a great beast or whatever. So I had one big boss win, but I was able to show off, trying to keep a positive mindset and try to problem solve. The situation is what did I not do well, what do I need to do better, what do I need to prevent myself from doing and what do I need to do faster? And it's just a process of seeing it slow down so that you don't press your buttons too early or too late, and that just takes repetition early or too late, and that just takes repetition.

Speaker 2: 27:17

Sure. So they create this DLC and the bosses are at a hundred and the only way you can get there is you have to kill Moe, the Lord of blood, which is not even a mandatory 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 beat Moog during my first playthrough because I didn't even find him. Wow, yeah, I had defeated Moog the Blood Omen in my first playthrough, and so when people who have beaten this very difficult fight are talking to me about it and they said, did you beat Moog Doc? I said yes, I did not understand that there was a different, more difficult version of him that had a whole palace that I needed to visit, so I started going there. My second playthrough, I see A new game plus yeah, new game plus. And then I think I did it during either the fourth or 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 are you 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 ever make me happily want to play level one as a. I'm going to beat the game with this character. I actually did give my stream chatters the opportunity to vote of whether they wanted shadow of the earth tree first time for me or if they wanted new character. Let's see how far we can experience this. And they just all wanted to see me 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 a new 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-robed figure that they made the statue for the Super Collectors Deluxe version of Shadow of the Earth Tree. So I had no idea that he was in the castle that I was pushing through the whole stream. So I did get a few attempts on him. Few attempts on him. One time I hit zero percent health, 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 of him transitioning into his phase two. The problem is I was dead during the entire cut scene so as soon as it gave control back to the player, you just see me continue like the death you died yeah, exactly, I knew it was coming.

Speaker 1: 30:08

I knew I didn't actually make it to 50, I'll say 51. It's still fun. I'm gonna take him down and it's an iconic boss fight.

Speaker 2: 30:18

They say he's the hardest. They're saying that Mesmer's the 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 working on him. Not even first 25 minutes of working on him, actually it's because you're a pro, you're a pro.

Speaker 1: 30:38

I wish I had a little bit quicker reflexes for dodging, but I am mostly a magic player, so it's all about creating distance. I think it's all about, when it comes to elden ring, are you playing a way that suits your play style? And I'm just not a sword, armor and shield kind of person, and once I stopped trying to impress other people with the way I played Elden Ring and just was like how do I want to play and can I win that way? That's why the game is so amazing.

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 about builds and I have no idea what that even means and like stats for it.

Speaker 1: 31:29

Maybe I should fix my stats, I don't know marcus, I would love to hop on discord and both 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 me what my moon veil build is oh, there's a lot of different builds that prioritize the moon veil.

Speaker 1: 31:54

Katana. It's really about how you react to battles. What are your tendencies? And die. We need a little bit more information.

Speaker 2: 32:03

Bad rolling okay hitting the boss, getting hit by the boss, you died that's just playing the game.

Speaker 2: 32:14

Yes, but that's yeah okay no, and but I going to go back to something that you said about your reaction time. I think that is a great answer to what we talked about 10 minutes ago about getting back into the games. I think that's one thing that might deter me from coming back to Elden Ring is that I haven't played it in so long and you instantly get into the game and you are like you're, I'm not an end game, but I'm deep in the game. So the they're expecting you to be better and I haven't played it in a while, so it's, I'm rusty. Yeah, so I understand what you're saying. It's like almost oh, should I go back to to Lindell and just fight the mobs there, just to get my reaction times back? You know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 33:00

Yeah, exactly it's. Sometimes those small groups of enemies are challenging enough that you get stuck in the same hallways and then you get the boss down very easily. Sometimes it's harder to get there than it is to do the big mission goal. It is a skill-based game and just like your reflexes with aiming if you're a Valorant player, and just like your speed and decision-making reaction response time if you're playing League of Legends. If you take a game that is skill-based and separate from it for a period of time, your skills decrease, apathy diminish. So it is important, like getting back into weights, you don't go back to your peak, you go back somewhere in a manageable range and make sure you're ready to handle it. And I am not a fitness expert at all, so that was just me trying to relate to a different area 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 ice five times. I'm at the peak of my repetition 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 in every category.

Speaker 2: 34:20

That is true yes every single one and you deserve it. People don't understand when people are quitting and I stop streaming because I'm busy with the kids and life and everything. 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'm doing it and then saying fuck it. I'm coming back, I'm doing it and then not putting the foot on the gas pedal and doing it, and then having your company that you work for tell you to Doc keep doing it, keep doing it, 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 has proved itself worth it. Whether you're making a million dollars a year from Twitch or being on the Twitch homepage, to me that's the same thing.

Speaker 1: 35:15

That is not happening yet, marcuscus. If things could get to that point, that would be by far the best outcome out of anything I've applied myself to, and I think it's fun. But it is a great way to spread the ideas that I'm all about. And my ideas have become my work, but I have them because of all the research that I've done in that work that it gave me the opportunity to share my voice and let people know that if I have anything I can help people with, that will not have them struggle with the same conversations about video games that I have my whole life and so many others. It is not just a me thing, it's a cultural thing, and that really is what it's all about. And Twitch as a platform is a great way to show that, because oftentimes I'm playing or I have something up on my screen that explains gameplay and then people can start to recognize what I'm doing and recognize the name Dr Gamology, and that is going to open up even more doors and I'm so excited to see what is possible through this community. I'm really appreciative to our listeners for this show as well. So thank you so much, because I think, like Marcus listed a lot of things I'm involved in, when he was saying that I deserve this and what I had to go through to decide. I'm going to stick with it.

Speaker 1: 36:45

It's just, if you aren't that dedicated to something, then the goal is just a hobby, which is fine. I shouldn't say just a. It is a hobby as opposed to a passion. Maybe would be the other thing, and I can think about this a little bit more after this episode. But I just want to encourage people when there is something that you're starting to regret that you didn't do it, ask yourself is that going to be something that affects you short-term or long-term?

Speaker 1: 37:22

If it's long-term, I would encourage you to look at places in your life where you can say this is part of my life now, because if it's not, it's much easier to drop it again. And that's just the beginning of this entire thought process. That has a lot of other things that can affect the way things go for you. But a lot of times there's that voice inside of us. That's the call to adventure saying hey, you want to get this in your life. And it's so easy to say no, and sometimes you just know if you gave yourself the chance to do that thing, it would be a huge yes, so yes, Wow, okay, this is my 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's just something I felt when I woke up this morning that I think it might be Seth Rollins Interesting. Who do you think is going to win the Elimination Chamber?

Speaker 2: 38:33

Okay, true Blue, I think CM Punk Okay, but I don't think it's's gonna happen because 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 one wrestlemania cm punk, john cena the winner there fights cody rhodes. Cm punk wins because they don't need to give cena the title yet. Cm Punk beats Cody. And then CM Punk is heel rocks champion 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 fanfic universe for 2025 because the rock story has completely changed 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 the rocks deal I agree with you on that, but I have a very different imagination about what's going on with the rock and Cody Rhodes storyline and I don't know if I'm ready to talk about that on the podcast.

Speaker 2: 39:48

Yeah, no, I hear you. I think one of these times we should 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 every time 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 gonna say 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 say we'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.