Deep Rock Galactic inspires the gamer to a wild new career

Key conclusions

• Playing Deep Rock Galactic inspired one fan to become an explosives miner.
• Three years later, he believes that this choice helped him completely turn his life around.
• Becoming a Miner in real life also gave the player a deeper understanding of the inspiration behind Deep Rock Galactic.

one Deep Rock Galactic a fan recently shared an incredible story about how the game inspired him to pursue a career in mining. Years later, the player still looks back fondly on that decision, counting Deep Rock Galactic for helping him completely change his life.

Developed by Danish company Ghost Ship Games, Deep Rock Galactic is a co-op shooter for four players. Since its release in 2020, the game has been a huge success, with PlayTracker and Gamalytic estimating its lifetime sales on Steam alone to be around seven million units by the end of 2024.

Among the millions who bought Deep Rock Galactic has been Reddit user Bulk-Detonator aka Mat for years. His experience with the game is as extraordinary as it was not least before Deep Rock Galactic inspired him to become a real miner. It was around 2021, when Matt says he was at the lowest point in his life, stuck in a “dead-end job” and suffering from low self-esteem. That's when he discovered Deep Rock Galacticwhich served as a kind of escape. A few months later, he came across a job listing for driller training and explosives extraction, which prompted him to wonder “if it wouldn't be fun to play video games IRL,” as he recalled in a recent Reddit post. It turned out to be a radical decision that helped him earn more, lose a lot of weight and become happier in general.

Speaking to GamesRadar+, Matt revealed that his team's day-to-day duties consist of drilling dozens or even hundreds of shafts in quarries, filling them with semi-liquid explosives, sealing them with rock, and detonating them when everyone is a safe distance away. The goal is to make gravel by breaking rocks, thus providing materials used for asphalt, concrete or drainage, among others. Matt is currently still a trainee driller but hopes to be promoted to a full driller position in the near future. “I just came into this job blind, and it ended up being not only a job that was really good for me, but I'm incredibly passionate about it,” he said.

Real mining inspired a lot of Deep Rock Galactic

Matt's new career made him realize that the world Deep Rock Galactic borrows much more from real mining than he originally thought. For example, the Glyphid Bulk Detonator monster was apparently named after the bulk explosives used in mining. Likewise, the spiders that the stone is primarily attracted to do exist in real life, even if they are nowhere near as large as the monsters found in the hit co-op game Ghost Ship.

I just came into this job blind, and it ended up being not only a job that was really good for me, but I'm incredibly passionate about it.

As for his gaming habits, Matt is still playing DRG whenever he can, considering he's already logged over 900 hours into the game. Although he has played actively in all classes so far, he is aiming to Deep Rock GalacticDrilling is a choice that seems natural for his current profession, which he says has completely changed his life.