Cold Open And Missing Marcus

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Yeah, like if we would have hit record eight minutes ago, this episode would be about a third over.

unknown 0:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

It was so good. And everyone that downloaded this episode will just have to imagine what it is we were talking about. Exactly. Yeah. But just like in Elden Rings, sometimes you go into an area of the map where things are much higher level than you, and you can't hang and you need to leave. So, Doritos, this conversation is going to be such a high level that Marcus had to run away and leave. Because he didn't have enough rooms for this conversation this week.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Didn't have enough rooms, but he did get to a side of grace, though. So it's okay.

Restarting Elden Ring On PS5

SPEAKER_00 1:03

So I started a very big game over again this week. I started playing Elden Ring again from the very beginning. And on the PS5. So I am a different character. I'm definitely trying to build her so that I can play the way I'm comfortable. But for right now, I'm experimenting with one of the two new starting classes. I did what what's it called? The the Ildis Knight or the IDIS night or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Oh, I don't know. I I saw there was an update, and I totally did not get into is that the new classes. I'm sorry. I guess I'd better do that. I can do that tomorrow. I'm off tomorrow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Yeah. There's two new classes for the tarnished edition, and this edition is because Elden Ring came out on the Switch 2, and the extra content is being added to all the other platforms via a $5 DLC. So you can also play the Tarnished Edition on other consoles. And so I switched over to PS5 because while I do have a hundred percent on Steam achievements, that's not me. It says Dr. Gameology on the account, but the real place that chronicles my biggest victories is the PlayStation Network. And I created a new character, and I spent about 90 minutes to two hours in character creation this week. Can you relate to that, Doritos? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Now, did you create a again because I usually I'll get like a character in my head of what I think I want to do and I'll see what happens or see how close I can make it. But sometimes I try to like if I create a look in say a SWOTOR, Star Wars Old Republic online, that I will do my best to recreate that look in other games. So are you talking like creating a new character out of your imagination or recreating another new new look?

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Well, I am creating a new character. This character I named Kira, which is close to Kirier, which is the name that I usually go with in my Final Fantasy games and other games that are generally more upbeat and happy worlds to try to save. But Kira also is a fun connection to one of my favorite animes, Death Note, where the main male character uses the code name Kira basically to say killer, and writes people's names in the Death Note to kill them. And it's a mystery kind of like catch the killer anime show. And he's just overpowered because he's using demons of death and a uh ancient magical book to kill people, and the humans trying to catch him are using mortal human means of investigation while he's you know killing bad people, right? It's it's a cool anime for the kinds of moral discussions that I'm fascinated by in philosophy and psychology classrooms. And so it starts with a K, like my last name. Phonetically, it's approaching Kirier, and Kyrie is like the mascot of my streaming channel. So all the movie does not start with a K. We don't need to talk in depth about this, but I I use Dr. G online or Dr. Gamology so much because it helps to avoid the confusion. And it's actually led it's led to a lot of people that are trying to find me to actually find me. Whereas in past years, when I would try to use my real initial, there's just a lot of the a lot of reasons that I don't want to be confused or affiliated with the other person that does that that channel and that work. So but yeah, so it's Dr. G, Dr. Gameology, Dr. Kaufman, those are all good. Once you go into the Dr. K category on social media stuff, it gets really confusing. Anyway, back to character creation. Kiri is back on topic, yes. Yeah, she's the mascot of my channel because she's my Final Fantasy XIV character, and she's really the first character that I had created in the period of time that my brand became Dr. Gamology. So all the emotes are either me in chibi cartoon form or her in chibi cartoon form, and then other Final Fantasy characters. So I do try to stick with that aesthetic when I create characters, and some games it's really hard to capture that kind of look, and other times it's pretty easy. So one game where I just cannot even approach a look that makes me feel like that is Baldur's Gate. There's just the facial choices they have in that game never give me the feeling that I've just created Kirier in this game. But Elden Ring uses a slider system, and sliders allow you to take each feature of the face and slide it rounded or pointed, soft and squishy, or thin and gaunt, you know, pointed forward, curving backward. And I usually don't do a very good job with character creation mastering every little detail. I usually create something that's good enough, and then I move on because I want to play the game. But recently, the characters I've created in 2026, I've actually opened up guides and watched YouTube videos and tried to figure out how do you create the different looks of like the face that I'm imagining, and then I'll just sit there moving things around until I get it. And I spent all this time making Hira in Elden Ring, gave her the pink pigtails, I did her makeup, blues and purples, I did the shape of her lips, I did what color is the lipstick, I did the blush and tried to make it so it blends in and looks kind of like a face instead of like clown paints because it's like too much. I really did my best. I was really proud of it. I put some pictures in Discord, I streamed the game today. I showed my wife a picture of this creation, and she's like, Why is she eight years old? And I I like died inside the Ritos. I I literally had upset feelings for hours. And then the next day when I booted up Elden Ring, I actually went to the mirror in the you know, the sanctuary, the hold. I tried to figure out how do I age her up so it's the same character, but definitely make sure she looks at least, you know, 28 or 34 or something like that. I couldn't do it. It's like you slide the things and you can make her look 70, but I could not figure out a way to just make her look like a mature young adult or you know middle-aged adult female at all.

When Your Avatar Feels Like Home

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

But but why so so why you know is it important to you to have that same look?

SPEAKER_00 9:40

At this point, I think having that character with me is a sense of built-in friendship. Like I feel like I've beaten so many games and done so many stories with a character that has that feel that it just feels like that's me in the game worlds. I I guess maybe there's like an allure to the idea of a female magic caster, you know, so that's my preferred aesthetic.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

I mean, that's part of like I said, it's your preferred aesthetic, and that's you know, we play games to for the enjoyment of them too, so that's part of how you I would enjoy the game, is I'm not gonna make something hit unless I'm making like a joke character. It's not necessarily gonna be a eyesore, because I'm gonna have to stare at it for however long I'm playing said game.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Yeah, and I don't actually play those characters as if I'm them, right? It's more like the feeling I get when I'm playing a Tomb Raider game where Lara Croft is on the screen, I'm holding the controller, I tell her what to do, I'm trying to help her get to the end of the game. So it's like I'm helping the character instead of me being the character. And there are games where I've created a version of me, and so the decisions feel like it's me making them. My very first character in Star Wars The Old Republic definitely fits that description, and that game really gave me a lot of cool experiences being the character that this is my story in Star Wars. And a lot of games where you have the chance to do that, I don't choose to inhabit a character that's supposed to be me anymore. You know, even the amount that I've played Mass Effect, uh, I got much farther in that game when I created Femme Commander Shepherd instead of you know the I guess. Yeah, the male protagonist version. The male Commander Shepherd, I don't really feel a deep connection to military service. You know, that's not something that's part of my journey. And so when the hook for a character in their situations is gonna be helped by that service, I think this is cool. Since that's not the kind of thing I would choose to do to be of service to society, it is really like I'm playing a separate identity than me. So I'm even more detached from the character. But that being said, I've seen a lot of I've seen a lot of positive conversation from my hosts on Threads this week with people commenting about Mass Effect. And when I read that, I just know if I could dive back into that series, I'd get to stuff that really makes me want to talk about video games. But for whatever reason, I always I always get stuck in the first Mass Effect, and if I picked up a controller and restarted that journey, I don't even remember what it is I was doing. So you can always begin again, but it's not the end of the world. Yeah, I don't want to play the first eight to ten hours of that game over again either.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Suck

Boss Walls And Build Decisions

SPEAKER_01 13:58

it up, Buttercup then.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

I just started Cyberpunk 2077 last week, and I create a female character there to be my version of V. And so far I'm having a really fun time in that game. I haven't played it this week since creating my Elden Ring character. I've only played a few short bursts of Elden Ring this week. I've been really focused on work, but the the gaming time I have had have gone into Elden Ring. So when I got to Margot, the very first boss that is on the path of the story, I could not beat him. There were a couple polls where I got him under 20%, and that's with summoning the wolves and the wizard guy. So I was not doing a very good job of dodging his combos, and it's been so long since I took on a boss with sword and shield that I needed to adjust to that play style back because I haven't done that play style since my playthrough one when the game was new, and then once I got to about level 50, I completely switched to magic. And so I wanted to beat him with my sword, so I went and found this farming spot, and then I leveled up about mid-20s, and then my son was visiting that afternoon from college. He was sitting on the couch watching me play, and he hasn't seen me play a lot of Elden Ring because it was a PC game. And that's the thing also about my house, is when I choose to play games on PC, they're solitary. I don't get to talk with my family about them as much because they don't know what the thing I'm talking about even looks like. So when I'm playing in the living room, I do get to initiate conversations with them about what I'm playing, and I like that.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

Cool.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

I'm playing in the living room, first poll, boss goes down, Margot is dead. And he's like, Well, that was easy. I was like, Yeah, well, you didn't see me die to him like 45 times yesterday. So I got that done, and then I went through Stormvale Castle, and that was rough. Again, I wasn't the right level, went and got about 15 more levels, made it to level 40, got through it, I beat that knight that's guarding the door to the ladder room, and that's how far I got with my first character when I switched from playing PS5 to playing on PC. So that was a big moment for me because it's like this is the part where I abandoned the PS5 version because I I switched to playing it on my computer. So I switched to playing on my computer so I could use my extra monitors to look things up and use maps and things because sitting on the couch, I just felt crushed by how open world the game is, and that's not really how I enjoy games. I don't I want to be on the rail of the story, and open world games kind of encourage you to just play a lot, you know. A lot and wander. Yeah. I like wondering if I know exactly where the thing I'm trying to find is. So I'm that person where you get to a new area of the map, and I put a little blue beacon on the rectangular icon that I know is the map, and I go straight to it. And then I go through the whole open area and I attempt to find all the sites of grace. So I have more options for resting, replenishing my health, and teleporting, and then I'm ready to start wandering around. My character, I'm slowly leveling her up, and I'm trying to stick with sword and shield, but I'm also realizing I need to level up intelligence, but I need to level up dexterity or strength. I have to decide what weapons do I want to be good at using, and I need to stick with it because I've spread my stats across so many categories that I feel weak in every area that I can access, except for places behind where I'm at.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

That's another conversation altogether is stat distribution and and to focus on one thing or to to do a very, very large spread.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

Yeah, I I don't usually play games with a strength-focused build, and I think if I'm gonna keep using this sword and shield that I started out with, or in that same weapon family, I have to prioritize those stats, but I also love being able to wield magic, so it's a distraction, you know. I'll I'll have to level up more than normal if I want to truly be powerful at both. But it's fun, it's fun to look at what the problem is with the fights you're having and figure out what is it I can do to make this character fit my strategy better. Right? So the fight in Stormvale Castle, I decided I need to go get a magic staff because I'm getting overwhelmed by people in close proximity to me, and I'm not living through when I get hit. So I need a bigger health bar and I need to be able to do some kind of ranged attack. So I went on a complete side quest, went into Kalid, found the Glintstone staff, and then I had to go grind runes to get a high enough intelligence level to wield it, and I just so happened to stumble on the chest without a guide or anything that gives you the meteor rock magic move, which is like a go-to move for the base game of Elden Ring. So I've actually created a character that feels like it's the baby version of my PC character that was maximum rune level, and so that's interesting. But I die, I'm dying a lot, and it's kind of just funny. Elden Ring really does teach you to shrug it off and learn from your setbacks, and that's that's neat.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

Yeah, I remember doing my because because you know it the of the difficulty level of Elden Ring. I went in a mile so far for only playthrough I've done, and I did not expect to live very long, most things, which was fine. That's that was you know to me as part of the experience. It's intended to be difficult, and it definitely pushed me to get much better at but I gotta I I I pray Spent a lot of time practicing parrying in the game so I could parry defensively.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

I was thinking about going and tracking down a shield that would allow me to do parries instead of the shield that you start with with this class, which is more of a take a hit, but then hit R2, you get like a sound effect for an extra two-hit heavy combo after a successful block. And that works, but the knight that I'm on, which is one of the knights that have a red name over them, and he's guarding a door, and you I have to get past him if I want to take on Renala. And I definitely want to take her out because she gives you the ability to redistribute your stats. And that might be very valuable to me. So I have to figure out how to take him out, and right now my hits are not hitting him very heavy. So it's either get a different shield and practice parrying him, because if he parries me, he gets to do the gut stab to me, and it takes out my whole health bar. So I could also, instead of switching my shield, I could go try to find one of the greatswords somewhere. Just try to crush his shield repeatedly and control him using power instead of finesse. Because that is how I killed him before. And it was very easy. But it's fun. I'm having fun with it. It's just it is hard to absorb the thought of I killed this guy on the third try four years ago. Or however long it's been.

Writing Books And Reaching Readers

SPEAKER_00 24:41

So that means Psychology of Villains will be published and distributed to the public. And I wrote my chapter about Darth Vader and his psychology. And so I'm really excited for people to get to read that next year, probably is when they will ship. And yeah, I've just been thinking about Yeah. I've I've just been thinking about all the different game franchises that I've been able to write on. And what they mean to me, and there's gonna be a couple more in just a little bit. I've been writing a lot for those four chapters, and you know, we're gonna we're gonna get to the point pretty soon. The next book will be ready. And it'll win another award. I mean, that's a really cool thing. But since the first book did that, Doritos, I'm gonna be honest, I would trade thousands more people reading the book than you know, critical raise. I think right. I think that it's really hard to get your name out there when you're still in that small creator kind of mode. You know, sometimes the internet picks up stuff that I put into it and pushes it to a bigger handful of people, but it's still a handful of people, it's not legions of people. So legions. Yeah, I'm trying to figure that out because I really do think the ideas can help people. That's why we've done so many episodes of this show and why we're still talking about stuff and why I'm still creating more things in each category and trying to create new categories too. You know, there I'm gonna tease something here. You know about it, a handful of people already know about it, but I have a crew of people that do all kinds of different work with video games in academic or clinical ways, and we're talking about starting either a new show or having special episodes that go into this show where it's like conference panels or fandom convention panels, like what I do when I go to pack things. Yeah, so people that do stuff like me, but they do it in a different way. So, you know, it when we get closer to having a finalized plan, I'll I'll share more about the roster of people and what exactly they do. But it's really cool, it's gonna open up the opportunity to talk about games in a way that other people play and not just how I play or how Doritos and Marcus play. And it's gonna even open up games that don't get talked about on the gaming persona very often to have a big spot, like could have focused conversations about League of Legends or some of the big leaderboard kinds of shooters, or talk about Savage Raiding more in depth from Final Fantasy, and I'm really excited to see where it goes just to have more shows to share with people.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

It'll definitely broaden the content for sure.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

I've learned too that live content, and I consider this live, even though it's just you and me right now, Doritos, but it's like there's another person here, therefore I will show up and do the thing.

New Panels Plus Resident Evil Take

SPEAKER_00 28:47

It's really hard for me to find time to just do stuff alone with myself for content creation in order to get the YouTube video out this week where I talked about Grace Ashcroft having the coolest hero's journey in Resident Evil history. And I think I mostly believe that, but you gotta be extreme and have a perspective in order for things to work on the internet. So, do I still love Leon and Ada Wong and Jill Valentine? Of course I do. But yeah, we can't stand them. All right, yeah. But Grace's Heroes Journey has very clear depictions of every stage in the monomyth, and I can't unsee it, which is something that I said in the video. And once someone starts pointing out these stages, it's so obvious, you know. She, you know, into the underworld, she literally goes under the care center, the hospital, and has to go retrieve the girl from a dark jail cell. Like it's it's literally when Odysseus has to descend into Hades to talk to his mentor again, who's died already. You know, it's all the stages are right there, and they're executed without even masking them. Man, Resident Evil Requiem was such a good game. I need to play the second half of it for the stream, because that's another game where I got into my own goals on the couch and I stopped doing them on stream. It's a problem. Yeah, it's a four-hour game. I could just pick that game on one week, get through the whole thing. It's four hours if you skip the cutscenes, right? If you watch the cutscenes, it's probably seven hours. But it's

Subscribe Plug And Closing Advice

SPEAKER_00 30:56

so good. Yeah, so anyone who's watching, make sure you go to YouTube, subscribe to my channel, Dr. Gamology channel, watch the video. I put a lot of behind the scenes content for all the different tiers on Patreon. So if you want to join any of the groups that way, I really put a lot of effort into chronicling what it was like to make this video. But if I said yes to that once a week, I'd have a new video every week. Because that's about how long it takes. You gotta enjoy life too, right? I suppose. Yeah. Well, everyone, don't be like me. You can relax, pick up your controller, put your feet up, enjoy your games, and continue the journey.