Deep Rock Galactic inspires players to pursue a wild new career

Key points

• Playing Deep Rock Galactic inspired one fan to become an explosive miner.
• Three years later, he credits this choice with helping him completely change his life.
• Becoming a miner in real life also gave the player a deeper understanding of Deep Rock Galactic's inspirations.

A Deep Rock Galactic a fan recently shared an incredible story about how the game inspired him to pursue a mining career. Years later, the player still looks back on this decision fondly, crediting it Deep Rock Galactic for helping him completely transform his life.

Developed by Denmark-based Ghost Ship Games, Deep Rock Galactic is a cooperative shooter for up to four players. Since its release in 2020, the game has achieved massive success, with PlayTracker and Gamalytic estimating its overall sales on Steam alone to be in the region of seven million units by the end of 2024.

Among the millions who bought Deep Rock Galactic over the years Reddit user Bulk-Detonator, also known as Mat. His experience with the game is unusual, also because Deep Rock Galactic inspired him to become a real miner. This happened around 2021, when Mat says he was at a low point in his life, stuck in a “dead-end job” and suffering from low self-esteem. That's when he found out Deep Rock Galacticwhich served as a sort of escape. Months later, he came across a job ad for training rock drillers and extracting explosives, which prompted him to reflect “wouldn't it be fun to play the video game in real life,” as he recalled in a recent post on Reddit. This turned out to be a life-changing decision, helping him earn more, lose a lot of weight, and be happier overall.

Speaking to GamesRadar+, Mat revealed that his crew's daily responsibilities boil down to drilling dozens or even hundreds of holes into quarries, filling them with semi-liquid explosives, covering them with rocks, and detonating them once everyone is a safe distance away. The goal is to produce gravel by crumbling rock, thus providing materials used for asphalt, concrete or drainage, among other applications. Mat is currently still an apprentice driller, but hopes to be promoted to a full driller position in the near future. “I just went into this blindly, and in the end not only was it a job that was very good for me, but I'm incredibly passionate about it,” he said.

Real-life mining inspired a lot of Deep Rock Galactic

Mat's new career made him realize that the world of Deep Rock Galactic borrows a lot more from real-life mining than he initially thought. For example, the monster Glyphid Bulk Detonator is apparently named after the bulk explosives used in mines. Likewise, predominantly stone-attracted spiders exist in real life, though they're nowhere near as large as the monstrosities found in the hit co-op game Ghost Ship.

I just went into this blindly and in the end it not only turned out to be a job that was very good for me, but I'm incredibly passionate about it.

As for his gaming habits, Mat still plays DRG whenever he can, estimating he's already logged more than 900 hours of gameplay. Even though he has extensively played all classes by now, he gravitates towards Deep Rock Galactic's Driller, a choice that seems like a natural fit for his current profession, which he credits with completely transforming his life.