Rob Alvarez Bucholska
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What Gamers Can Teach Us About Motivation with Christopher Dattoli | Episode 382

 

If you’re struggling to keep people engaged and loyal in your product or business, check out my FREE gamification course to learn how to do just that: professorgame.com/freecommunity-web

What if your favorite video game could teach you more about life and career success than any classroom? 🎮🎙️ We explore the surprising connections between gaming, motivation, and professional growth. From mastering Starcraft strategies to navigating the world of voice acting, Chris shares how the principles of grit, iteration, and engagement in games helped him transition from corporate marketing to a thriving career behind the mic. They discuss the power of storytelling in games, how to design experiences that keep people engaged naturally, and why the best retention strategies mirror the mechanics of great games. Whether you’re an educator, community builder, or product designer, this episode is packed with actionable insights on gamification, engagement, and building loyalty—all inspired by the world of video games. 🚀

Chris Dattoli is an NJ-based voice actor who has been a part of various video games, audiobooks, anime’s, cartoons, & commercials, such as “Kon” in the fighter game Konsui Fighter, “Kuroki Maeba” in ReBite: The Psychopathic Chef, “Rower” in the animated series Handaria, Arthur, Marty, and all the male roles in the physiological video game IMAGO: Beyond the Nightmare, & in the video game Brigandine Grand Edition as Zemeckis, Cador & Paternus. He’s also voiced numerous commercials for brands like the NFL Network, Disney, Microsoft, Lowes, and more! In addition to his voice resume, Chris is also an On Camera actor and model. In 2024, Chris won a Voice Arts Award from the Society of Voice Arts & Sciences! Chris is a long-time fan of anime (back when they were on LaserDisc!) and video games and loves to keep up to date on the newest titles.

Rob is a host and consultant at Professor Game as well as an expert, international speaker and advocate for the use of gamification and games-based solutions, especially in education and learning. He’s also a professor and workshop facilitator for the topics of the podcast and LEGO SERIOUS PLAY (LSP) for top higher education institutions that include EFMD, IE Business School and EBS among others in Europe, America and Asia.

 

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Lets’s do stuff together!

Looking forward to reading or hearing from you,

Rob

 

Full episode transcription (AI Generated)

Rob (00:00.152)
Hey, this is Professor Game where we interview successful practitioners of games, gamification and game thinking to help us multiply engagement and loyalty. I’m Rob Alvarez. I’m a consultant, I’m a coach, and I’m the founder here at Professor Game. And I’m also a professor of gamification and game inspired solutions at IE University, IE Business School, EFMD, EBS University, and other places around the world. And before we dive into the interview, you’re struggling.

with engagement in your business and are looking to find out how to make your users stay with you. You will find a free community full of resources, quite useful. You can find it for free in the links below in the description. So, Engagers, welcome back to another episode of the Professor Game Podcast. We have Chris Dattoli. So we were joking right before we started right now, but Chris, we want to know, are you prepared to engage?

I’m very prepared to engage and thank you so much for having me. I’m very excited.

Absolutely very excited here to have you as well. Chris is a bit of an unconventional guest and you see why in a second because Chris is a New Jersey based voice actor who has been a part of various video games, audio books, anime, cartoons, commercials such as Khan in the fighter game Khan’s Sweet Fighter, Kuroki, Mayabai in Rebyte and the psychopathic chef rower in the animated series, Handaria, Arthur, Marty and all the male voices in the physiological game, Imago, Beyond the Nightmare.

and in the video game Brigandine Grand Edition as Zemeckis, Kador and Paternus. He’s voiced commercials for NFL, network, Disney, Microsoft, Lowe’s and more. And in addition to his voice resume, he’s also an on-camera actor and model. And since 2020, he won a voice arts award from the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences. He’s a long time fan of anime back when he worked on laserdisc and video games and loves to keep up with up to date on the newest titles.

Rob (01:56.526)
Chris, plenty of exciting stuff going on there. Is there anything that we’re missing you would like to mention before we kick off?

Yeah, just to clarify on those laser discs, way back when, before DVDs, you actually used to get these laser discs and they were like the size of a record that had maybe two or four episodes on it of an anime and that was the only way I can get like the Dragon Ball Z series shipped over when they were just the public junior saga, the trunk saga. So yeah, it was a, I still have those collections somewhere.

launching the Dragon Ball Z. I’m looking forward to the Dragon Ball original one. Yes. when my daughter’s old enough, I’ll sit her down, watch that together. Hopefully she’ll love it at some point or not. And then we’ll stop seeing it. But I’m looking forward to the original one because I mean, Dragon Ball has a lot of violence, course. Ball Z gets like a bit more heavy on violence and how it looks as well. Like the other one is more kid-like.

I think that would be more appropriate when she’s old enough. any case, she’s two years old, not even close to being old enough for that kind of stuff. But I’m looking forward to that as well. Absolute fan over here. So Chris, how do your days look? What are the kinds of things that you’re doing? You know, if it followed you around for a day, a week, I don’t know, whatever you want to go for, what would that look like? What would that feel like if we were around with you?

Yeah.

Chris Dattoli (03:22.904)
Sure. So every morning I wake up about 5 a.m. I spend a good half hour doing a like a little meditation, little stretching, little voice exercises. Then about six o’clock I usually have a cup of coffee and then I wait an hour before I record. Even though I take my coffee black. Then I record from about seven to… I should say record. I work from about seven to about four, five.

PM every day. then afterwards I’ll cook dinner for my family and spend time with my family at night. Once everyone’s asleep, I’ll squeeze in about two hours of video game or I call studying. So.

Sounds fantastic. seven, nine hours almost straight. I’m guessing you take a break for having lunch or something. Yeah. Of voice acting. I’m very curious at this point that this is something I’ve never like, I’ve considered voice acting before. fact, when I did my, I got certified to be a radio broadcaster back home in Venezuela. And I was seriously considering voice acting at some point, never did like never did anything about just considering beyond that.

Now having you here, like those eight hours, I’m guessing they’ve already sent you the stuff you need to read and you need to do, and you spend, you know, eight hours just talking through them. Like, what does that look like? I’m very curious at this point.

So sometimes, I try to get my auditions in as soon as possible, as soon as I get in, but because I have, a newborn at home, sometimes it doesn’t work out that way. so like, if there’s any that I missed that are due like a certain time the next day, I’ll make sure I knock them all out in the morning. then throughout the day I get auditions. have a number of agents that I use. Plus I do my own direct marketing and cold calling or cold email and some other casting directors that I network with that I say, Hey, you know, you got any work or Hey, listen,

Chris Dattoli (05:15.648)
I need money, please use me voice, things like that. Yeah, exactly. So I do a lot of, so it’s essentially running my business. And I always say, if you’re getting into voice acting, you have to treat it as a business. So you want to take a business class and marketing class and then understand what are the latest trends, you know, go out and networking with everyone. I’m part of a lot of chamber groups across my local hometown and in the state of New Jersey and some in New York that I’ll, you know, attend meetings with just like, Hey, you know, I’m Chris.

a newborn.

Chris Dattoli (05:45.934)
my voice actor, blah, blah. And, yeah, I do, I effectively try to run a business and also I have, cause I have three daughters. One is 15, one 16. The other one’s gonna be four months soon. I know it’s crazy. it’s, my daughters actually, work for me. They actually take care of the office, and they’ll tidy up and everything, help me with file management and I teach them little marketing. And also I got into coaching.

this year. So I coach a few students throughout the day too. So for, from like seven to four, seven to five, it’s actually, I I’m a big workaholic cause I also do on camera acting too. you know, sometimes like I’ll take, I have to force myself to take a break like at five. I’m like, all right, I got it. I got to feed everyone. So I’ll make dinner, spend time with the family and I’m like, all right, eight o’clock I’ll play a video game. Then I’m like, all right, you know, let me knock out these two auditions. So I may not go to bed till probably midnight or 1am.

depending, and then I start it all over the next day.

If, I’m definitely not going to be your therapist or anything, but I tell a lot of people, about the importance of sleep and how that can sip in slowly, but steadily. And you don’t realize until it’s, I don’t want to say too late, but until it’s the, these signs are more alarming than, you would like when you were, but, having said this, not everybody needs the same level and amount of sleep. you know, just things to keep, to keep in mind.

Thanks.

Rob (07:15.758)
Yeah, no, no, absolutely. And again, this is a very personal thing. Like I think sleep is crucial. I’m sleeping a lot less than I used to. Like I used to sleep eight to nine hours. And this was already in my late twenties. Like this is not when I was a kid, right? This is all in my late twenties. I tried to get in eight to nine hours. Now I do pretty well on seven. Um, uh, but I know people sort of switched around things and have that lesson. Then now I have more.

But it’s about finding where is that sweet spot for you, where you function well and get enough rest and so on. And especially sustainably, I had a family member who used to sleep something like three, four hours every single day. And that’s the way I functioned. You know, it didn’t end exactly the best way. again, up to you. Chris, let’s actually get into a story. You know, you’re a guy who’s telling…

talking, telling stories all the time, your stories, other people’s stories, you’re doing your marketing, you’re doing all sorts of stuff. But we want to get into a story of a time where you were trying to do something, again, as related to games, video games, as you can, where you were trying to achieve something through video games, what you learned on these two hours of practice that you get in almost every day. And things just did not go well. It was a first attempt at learning. Maybe it went well afterwards, you learned some stuff, but we want to be in that difficult moment and see what were the lessons learned essentially.

Absolutely. So I would have to go back to a time. played a video game called Catherine. It was kind of like a I want to say like an indie hit. I’m sure it was Catherine and a video game called Lapu Cell Tactics. So two completely different games, Strategy and Term-based RPG. And things were kind of going a little mess at the time. You know, I was I came from a

corporate marketing world. I was in like the big leagues, like a director of marketing, things like that. And I wasn’t happy at my job. And I would just kind of unwind by playing video games and just kind of, I realized I was always like not succeeding in the video game. I’m like, all right, something’s wrong. Like this is the way I relax and the way I’m relaxing, kind of like overtaking, I’m making silly mistakes. I’m like, all right, what, what’s going on here? I actually took that as something, it was something as simple as

Chris Dattoli (09:33.816)
playing the video game Lapu So Tactics, I got to the final boss and, spoiler alert, like one of the main characters is actually one of the main villains and another main character is actually the main, protagonist. And it just made me think like they went through their whole life thinking they were something and they turned out to be something completely different. And it made me think like that actually made me pause. don’t know why. I remember putting the controller down looking and thinking, I need to change careers. That was the first thing.

Like, to mind, I learned, like, I’m not happy what I’m doing. Like, I was making good money. I was able to support my family and everything, but it was just, I’m not, I’m not happy in what I’m doing. So, it was also another force that drove me to get into voice acting. It was a TV show called Avatar the Last Airbender, but it was really the video games that made me stop and go, my God, like.

I need to change what’s going on in my life. I need to be happy and I want to focus on happy and I literally the next day walked in and quit my job and pursued voice acting.

I was going to ask like, what was the process after that next day? It’s a pretty, you know, straight up and that’s it. didn’t have any, like, did you have a backup plan? how did you, I’m extra curious right now. How did you manage that? You know, and your family and financially like no, no necessarily details, just overall, did that look like for you?

Looking back, it was the smartest move I ever made, but it was also the dumbest move I ever made because a little backstory on my two oldest daughters. My wife is their stepmom. My girl’s mom, she took off when my youngest was almost a year and just took off. So I had to raise him on my own. So when I quit my job, all of a sudden I’m left raising two daughters and don’t have any income. So that’s when I started pursuing voice acting. got coaching.

Chris Dattoli (11:28.638)
made my demos. Then I started getting a job, little jobs here and there. Then I got a big job. and then like that kind of kept me afloat. one thing I pride myself on is being, except in that moment being somewhat financially smart, that I just put a lot of money away. again, it’s taking a lot of classes saying like, you know, you should have at least six months expenses ahead. saved about a year and a half. that

you know, kind of kept me afloat, but I was tapping to my savings. And plus I was getting coaching, which then it was expensive. Now it’s still, it’s even more expensive. So it just, that thought process was like, I remember woke up and go like, I literally walked after playing a video game. I put it down, went to bed, woke up, went in my office to say, I quit. I’m done working with you. And I just walked out and he’s going, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I’m like, no, literally walked in. had a little.

toy, cloud, from five or seven on my desk that, one of my former best friends gave me who sadly passed away. I took that with me and started my journey.

Heavy stuff, heavy stuff. And Chris, I think this is sort of a great mix of things were not going well and you know, that break moment where you shifted things. Is there a time with, again, related, especially with the games and whatnot, where things actually did go well? And I think there’s kind of a bit of that in this story, I’m guessing. But is there, again, do you want to share any sort of story of success or anything of that kind? Now would be a great time. We would like to follow you on that story and perhaps see some of the

Success factors, once again.

Chris Dattoli (13:10.496)
Absolutely. So this is a joke I had with my brother’s best friend. There was an old game released in the late nineties called Starcraft and then it was Starcraft 2 and you could play it online and face people and I sucked at the game. Like whenever I played my brothers or my, I have two older brothers and my brother’s best friend, like I was horrible. I just got decimated. And I remember my brother’s best friend saying like, listen, the day you beat me is a day something’s going good in your life.

And just, you know, when I started, you know, kind of losing a little bit of faith and, know, you know, voice acting, like, is this something I want to do? Like, can I really, cause I came very close to just, you know, getting a job and just getting another nine to five in the field. And I was getting offers and I’m just like, I really think this could be something. And I just kept at it. just kept at it over and over and over again. And then

You know, I started getting little jobs, like I said, and then one night unwinding, I was playing Starcraft, I’m my bro’s best friend. And I was actually trained, that’s how I winded. would play Starcraft and train, which was weird because I get so mad at losing and it would help me relax. And then one day I beat him and I’m like, my God. I’m like, Zerg for the win, Zerg against the Terran. I beat him and I don’t believe it. It only took you like 15, 20 years. I’m like, yeah. And then the next day.

I actually got a call from an agency I applied to and they said, want to have you on the roster. So that was my first, Oh, wow. That’s pretty cool. So then, um, I got a few jobs from that and then I got another agent and then I got a few more jobs and then like the momentum started going and I started, you know, getting job after job and I do a lot of corporate narration. that’s, uh, which is a lot, you know, jobs are pretty good paying and

Yeah.

Chris Dattoli (15:05.71)
one after another after another. I’m like, my God, this is kind of, this is incredible. And I just kind of rode that wave and just thought like, and then one day I said like, my God, it’s because I beat my brother’s best friend in aircraft. That was it. That was the.

That is the reason why this all happened. was a sign from the gods,

Yeah, and funny thing is I just released it was when they released the Starcraft 3 So everything was kind of completely different So I trained in that I molded myself in that to get better to be better than him and I beat him that one time and I’m like, all right and it also think like one day, know after You know completing a job I had to go into New York and it was actually on the train ride home and I home and I thought you know, it may be a little cliche, but I thought like

You know what, if I train as hard in voice acting as I did in Starcraft trying to be my brother’s best friend, he’s named Carmen, trying to be Carmen, then I can do good in life. Like if I focus that energy, of course, still play video games and have fun, because I’m a big nerd, but like put it towards other creative things, things that I’m really passionate about, I can make it.

And of course, you know, what’s a voice acting, there’s extreme highs is also extreme lows. There’s times where I didn’t book anything for months at a time. Um, but you know what? I never lost my momentum. I just kept it going. I just kept training now because I have a newborn things are slowing down a little bit. You mentioned sleep. actually am getting a little more sleep right now. Uh, in the last week, I didn’t get up past, uh, past 10 o’clock. So, uh, which is different for me. I still wake up the same time every morning. So.

Chris Dattoli (16:50.315)
Yeah, that’s my story. My success story.

Interesting. I, I, like initially I was going to say, well, I still hold it that, you know, beyond superstition, people might believe, not believe that that’s up to everyone. But I, I’d like to think that one, one of the things that helps there is they always talk about mindset, right? You know, in business and coaching and all these things, mindset is a, is a big thing and there’s science behind it. It’s not just woo woo, ah, you change your mindset and the world opens up and the universe like maybe, but

There’s also other things in your, in yourself that actually change when your mindset changes. So I was going to say like you want that and yeah, you know, maybe an opportunity came in, if that hadn’t happened, maybe for you and the attitude you would have had at it and the mindset you would have had might’ve not been the same one. So I would like to think at least that that moment when you beat your brother’s friend or your friend’s, your friend’s brother’s best friend.

That’s Bren, yeah. Bren. He preems like a brother to me too, so…

I want to think that that’s what unlocked that mindset and set you in doing that. you know, because of the gods or for other reasons, it happened at the right time where things were also happening. it’s again, I would, would, I would definitely like to think that, know, whether it was because of that or that actually set you going or that mindset, as you mentioned after, like if I can get so good at doing this on video games, how about I do it for something else? And one of the things we always talk about is

Rob (18:19.928)
How can we learn how to do the things that video games do great at and that’s keeping you engaged and wanting to actually do that training, not just because it’s going to benefit you. It’s just, you want to do it because you want to do it. Like you go into the game and sometimes you even grind and you enjoy the grinding eventually.

Like exactly. how can we.

We put ourselves in that situation or put our customers in that situation or our business in that situation so that you achieve those results without being in a game and taking it outside of the game. So you can achieve that kind of stuff outside. So it ties in pretty well to the topics we love to discuss.

Probably because, because I’m a big RPG guy, whenever I would play RPGs, I would just grind for literally hours on end. I would take the fun out of the game.

Unreasonably long hours. Yes.

Chris Dattoli (19:15.79)
Yes, and but like whenever I face the bosses and the side quests I would dominate I would dominate and my friends would be like, oh I’m having such a hard time beating this boss I go really and then I’ll play be like why is your level so low dude? Like you need to be at least 10 15 levels higher like what level you I’m like, oh I’m a little 70. I’m like dude You’re only like a quarter through the game. I’m like Yeah, so It was kind of like when Final Fantasy 16 came out

Uh, there was a little trick to find to jump like the night level 99 and me and my, me and my best friend, we were playing, um, and, uh, it was very early in the game. goes like, Oh, what part you’re at? I’m like, I’m here. I’m like, Oh, I’m all the way over here. He goes, we’ll level you out. I’m like, Oh, I’m 99. He goes, what? Like level nine. I’m like, I’m not afraid to go out at night anymore, man. I dominate. Uh, he’s like, dude, I’m level, I’m level 30. Like why I’m like,

It makes it a little easier that way when I play the story I don’t get so mad if I you know, you know, you Oh my god, there’s I used to be so bad throw like the worst temper tantrums when I lose that video games They asked you with playing Mega Man when I was a kid just those old school old school Scott side scrollers just Constantly lose I remember me and my brothers would huddle one another and just play those like oh my god, just Mega Man. I don’t know why I’m

I don’t

Chris Dattoli (20:43.32)
throwing out Mega Man, but maybe because Mega Man was always the hardest game every single one. And I remember like we would just jump, jump, and we jump and then like the brick would disappear or something like that. I’m like, all right, now they have like a Mario Maker and now we can make your own like extreme level. I’m like, I played that in Mega Man. I could probably do that. No, I’m horrible now. I lost my skills. Games nowadays definitely are a lot easier than how I used to play.

I’d like to think, like, one of things I’ve realized, I did have sort of a time when I was not playing, surprisingly. And now with, you know, I started once again, like, seriously, seriously, quote unquote, playing PlayStation 4. I realized that I can finish the games and it’s reasonably possible. Like I don’t have to become a madman to be able to get to the final boss and have a real chance at beating the final boss. So I do think it’s been different. It’s more accessible in that sense.

But you still face games like Dark Souls and Souls-like games and you know, there’s still all the drama and all the, you know, throwing your controller at the screen and stuff. I never did that. I had tantrums, but I never… In general, I tended to be a kid who was like very careful with stuff. I was very, I cared for my stuff very deeply. I’m not sure why, but I did. considering throwing my controller with something that was not…

Possibility such like I saw other people do it. It’s like dude, that’s your controller. What? are you doing that? and there are people who do it and I’m not judging. It’s like me. I don’t think I controlled myself better. It’s just that for me throwing the controller was something very, very important not to do. Whereas for other people, the important thing was, you know, something else. Maybe they broke the controller and got another one. I don’t know if it’s, it’s because of that, but anyways, for me, like it was a big thing not to throw the controller.

my god,

Rob (22:35.392)
Once I tried that and just throw it through like in the sofa, I knew it was super safe. I don’t even feel better about this. why would I do it? Like, I still feel very, very frustrated. So what’s the purpose of the controller? And I never did it again. So I can relate to that in a way.

So there were four words I always heard whenever I threw a tantrum when I was a kid and it made my, like took my anger level from like here all the way to the top. And it was, it’s just a game.

And I, was like, and like, couldn’t yell at my parents. So I have to sit there and just be so mad and just kind of let a boy on side me. I, I, again, never threw my controllers. the only thing I ever threw was my Nokia cell phone, plain snake. And those things are built like a workhouse. So, I, I never, except, know, I actually, I would actually take my pillows, line it up and throw the controller at the pillows. That way I knew.

Like it wouldn’t break and funny enough after there was one time it was I forget what video game it was, but I threw like a tantrum playing online. And then the next day I got a project record for a thing called the rage controller. Do with like, know, it can actually sense like if your anger is getting low, how to cool, how like to make you calm down and things like that. like, this is the universe telling me to calm down. now I.

I’ll have this on all day, least I’m playing, right?

Chris Dattoli (24:11.948)
Yeah, or if I’m playing and I get upset, my wife would go, Chris, stop. And it will make me even madder. But I go like, it’s not… Just be so angry.

Yeah, totally. So Chris, thinking in terms of video games and how they can help you build skills or whatever you’re thinking of, is there a best practice that you would say, well, do this and maybe it’ll help you more. I mean, besides of course, play more games. Is there something that you would say, well, do it this way or think about it this way, or when you’re facing a problem, think about it, I don’t know, in a certain way, would you say that there’s something along those lines?

Yes, whenever something creative, like to tell people, think of your favorite video game. Why do you like it? What is it about this video game that you love so much? For me, might be a little cliche, but it’s Final Fantasy 7, the original, one of my favorite video games. So I think, why do I like this game so much? And I think like, it’s a story. It makes a connection. And I think like, why am I connected to a polygon figure? Like, why should I care about that?

Like, yeah, why did I cry more times in this video game than like the movie Titanic or like other bad movies? And I think because it loops me in. So I try to think, you know, think your favorite game video game, why you like that game so much and how you could tell that story. So I love the story of Final Fantasy 7. How can I tell that? How can I do what they did without voices? You know, just a script and using music to kind of tell my story in life and apply that to my work.

So I try to think like I have to make people care. You know, when applying to when I’m doing video games or even just doing like e-learning, I have to make sure like I need to care. I need to make a connection with that audience. You know, so I apply that to my life. Also, I say play your favorite video game at least regardless if it’s on Nintendo, PlayStation 5, Xbox, play it for at least an hour and a half every day.

Chris Dattoli (26:15.552)
even if you already beat it, just to kind of relive that to be, to make you feel like how you were when you first played it the first time. And whenever I boot up the original 547, it takes me back to the 1990s, where I was playing in my room and I think like my brothers were next door, you know, my mom and dad were in the kitchen talking, my mom was cooking dinner and just, it’s like a sense of security. And you will find having that sense of security and being retro and reliving those memories.

will one way inspire you or make you feel good about yourself. It’s just like some sort of, releases the endorphins in your brain that make you go like, oh man, I’m happy. Like this is really cool. And that’s gonna inspire you. So I recommend those two things.

Absolutely, makes sense. So Chris, after hearing these questions, you have a bit of a vibe of the podcast already. Is there something, somebody that you would say, well, this would be a great guest. This is somebody I would like to listen to on the Professor Game Podcast.

Yes, actually, my friend, probably gonna butcher his name, but Simon Gatto, created the video game Amago Beyond the Nightmares. He’s an Italian based video game creator and video game publisher. He is wonderful. He is actually created a new game, new horror game right now. And he was probably one of the best people that I worked for and just to actually see his creation come to life. And he would just drop like throughout

And what made him really unique is throughout his progress, creating a game, would jump, would give me updates. Like, hey, you know, here’s what I’m doing with this. hey, here’s, and I never had a creator like keep me in the loop with that. I mean, I have others who gave me update throughout the year, but like just like, hey, here’s what I did with the character. And then he actually showed me like what I recorded and then brought it to the, you know, actually showed me like, you know, the scenes and everything. go, my God, man.

Chris Dattoli (28:07.406)
I’m like, remember recording that and it was just so cool. Like, and seeing the ending, like the emotion I felt and how he like brought that to the game. go, oh my God. I actually started tearing up. I’m like, dude, that’s incredible. did this, man. He’s like, well, you record the lines. I’m like, but you brought everything together. Like I just spoke, like I brought the emotion. You put everything together. Like that’s incredible. And just looking like the graphics of what he did in the video game.

As you can tell, I have a big passion for indie video game studios, just for the sheer fact is they put so much work and so much passion while working another nine to five or doing other work on top of it. And it’s just so incredible. sorry, it’s a long way to answer. think he would be, you know, a great guest to have. There are a few others. Probably my friend, James Clem, who made the machinima Rain.

He’s one of the very first people that I did a voice acting for for paid work and He’s he’s incredible. He’s a great guy another Jersey low local, although we never met in person, which is sad He just but like what made him unique was again his passion like it’s a it’s a machinima like, you know Back then when I started voice acting they were popular, but I thought you know, they all had like around the same energy

His was through the roof. He was so creative. would always end on top of that. He made like a video series, like detailing his process of like editing and you know, how we apply different things to the series and give updates about the story. And he would actually, he’s big on keeping everyone in the loop. And just again, his passion was incredible. Still is. He’s still to this day like updates me like, hey, you know, here’s the next episode I’m releasing. It’s on this date. You know, here’s the yada yada yada yada yada yada.

He’s doing marketing, man. And a good one because you’re involved, you’re invested in the project. makes sense. Like people don’t realize that kind of stuff actually makes sense from a marketing perspective.

Chris Dattoli (30:13.378)
Absolutely and you know a lot of, because I work with so many, lot of indie indie video game studios they’re just, again their their passion is there. Not like there’s anything wrong with like the big name companies or anything like that but like their main job is to create video games. The indie studios like their their passion is their video game and their job is probably doing something else so they can fund that video game or a lot of them will actually take out a loan and just you know

put themselves in debt to try to create their project to bring it to life. just, it’s just, their passion is just unmatched.

Absolutely. And Chris, how about a book? Is there a book that you recommend the Engagers? Which book would that be?

So there is a book I like called, I just picked it up, I it’s The Gift of Giftology, I think it’s called. It’s a book about business owners basically talking about for their employees how to properly reward them. And that is, don’t give them just a monetary value. Actually give them something they’re gonna keep forever. I was brought to this book by,

when someone in my chamber, he owns a restaurant called Burger 25, which is pretty popular in my hometown in like central Jersey area. And for those who know, there is a central Jersey. So, and it’s about, you know, he decided one day, you know, hey, you know, what would everyone like? He decided, you know what? I’m going to buy everyone brand new, like top of the line sneakers. I forget what kind they were Nike something. And he said like, here, everyone, you could, I’m buying everyone brand new sneakers, but.

Chris Dattoli (31:57.55)
the colors have to match the colors of the restaurant. So he, about 30, 40 employees, he gifted each of them $150, $200 shoes. And he said, I could have just given them, you know, money, but I wanted it to be something memorable and something to make him really proud to work here. And everyone at the time wanted those shoes. I’m out of the loop with style with the shoes and everything. I really need to brush up. My kids will laugh at me, my teenagers.

Um, but they’re like, Oh, is it easy? So I’m like, no, it’s, it’s this kind of like, Oh my God, they got that. I’m going to work there. I’m like, yeah. That kind of like helps you become, um, a better business owner, you know, on how to properly reward your employees. Uh, there’s also a lot of great, I’m going to say books, but a lot of articles written by Shaquille O’Neal, who is an incredibly intelligent business person. And he owns like the weirdest, like.

30 Papa John’s and like weird businesses, like.

He’s a big businessman. Yeah. He’s one of those who actually made all that money and managed to turn that into, I don’t know what to call it, generational wealth, but kind of in many ways. So absolutely.

He’s he’s anonymous actually I have this saved Give me one second

Chris Dattoli (33:20.738)
There was one I saw here that my friend just recommended. I think it was a course of video game encyclopedia I have here. the console. That’s a book, 50 Years of Gaming.

that talks about the evolution of video games and everything. And there’s another one I’m actually doing. I don’t know if I could talk about it though. That’s the only thing.

That’s okay. Two Books is a pretty good record of recommendations on books. We do one every week, so I’m pretty sure we are all well behind on our reading if we want to keep up with that. So that’s all good. Chris, we get to the difficult and final question. What is your favorite video game? And maybe it’s Final Fantasy VII, as you mentioned before.

That’s a tough one because I have so many Final Fantasy 7 is up there. I want to say Mega Man X

Chris Dattoli (34:29.87)
That is a tough one. Master Blaster. Definitely. Master Blaster. is it Blaster Master? It’s an old 90’s Nintendo game. If you look at it, it’s a weird story. It’s guy who has a pet frog. Frog jumps into a hole, gets on some radioactive goop, turns into a monster. So the kid jumps in the hole and now finds this big cybersuit and decides to go on a journey to save his pet frog.

Master Blaster.

Rob (34:58.03)
Bye.

So definitely Master Blaster, Zombies Ain’t My Neighbors, and am I? Yep. Yep. And Monster Party, which is another weird like, like low end video game. So definitely those are my, those are my favorite. Love playing them. Okay.

That’s the Super Nintendo one,

Rob (35:19.232)
So which one is at the top? mentioned five. missed the last one to be honest, but which of those guys was.

Monster Party was the last one, so… I guess it would have to be… It would have to be Final Fantasy VII. So, just for the sure fact of… I played it so many times and it was like the very first PlayStation game I ever got. I just like… It was a connection, you know. My other brother’s best friend told me about it. He was big into it, so just… That was like my first real introduction to RPGs.

I played, you know, Mega Man and Mario beforehand, but there were more side scrollers than, you know, RPGs. And just that. So I have to say that the original Final Fantasy 7, which is why I’m excited, you know, the remake came out and still haven’t played it because I need to get a PlayStation 5. But I just, I tend to go back and play a lot of MMOs, Guild Wars 2 to relax and everything. So yeah.

The long way to Sorry.

Absolutely love it. Love it. Great recommendations, great games. I’ll put them all down. Zombies ate my neighbors brought me back quite a bit. that was a very uncommon game for most people. when I even tried to remember the name, I couldn’t find it because nobody else played it essentially. I actually got stuck at some point. That’s when I stopped playing it because I remember I rented it. I never owned it. Yes. But I, but I stopped, I stopped playing it because I got stuck. It was like a, now I remember it was like a huge serpent coming up and down.

Chris Dattoli (36:40.824)
Yeah, it was, there was actually a

Rob (36:54.766)
And I, no matter how much I shot it, it never died. And I didn’t know, like maybe at the time now I’m thinking like, maybe I just to leave and survive the serpent. I don’t know. Like I just got stuck at that point. Anyways, anyways, Chris, we’re running out of time from this episode. I don’t want let you go without knowing where we can find out more about you, your work, what you’re doing, anywhere you want to lead us to. And of course, if you have any final quick piece of advice, this is your time.

Absolutely. So you can find me across all social media platforms. My name is pretty easy to find. It’s Chris D’Atolli, D-A-T-T-O-L-I-V-O, at Chris D’Atolli V-O, Instagram, TikTok, what have you. There’s my website, datollivoisovers.com. best piece of advice I can give everyone is growing old is inevitable. Growing up is optional. And that means, you know, we do have to be responsible.

throughout our life. I’m not saying, you know, instead of paying your mortgage, buy a PlayStation five and a couple other video games, you know, be mature, you know, make sure all your bills are paid, but also never lose that inner child, you know, play the video games, be a little weird. You know, I talk to myself in the padded room all day. You know, it’s, it’s a fun, thing to do.

Let’s do this. So Chris, thanks again for sharing your experience, your time, your knowledge, everything you’ve done with us. well, what you shared, of course, not everything. However, at least for now, Chris, at least for now, Engagers, as you know, it is time to say that it’s game over. Hey, Engagers, and thank you for listening to the Professor Game.

I guess and since you’re interested in this world of creating motivation, engagement, loyalty, using game inspired solutions, how about you join us on our free online community at Professor Game on School. You can find the link right below in the description, but the main thing is to click there. Join us. It’s a platform called School is for Free and you will find plenty of resources there will be up to date with everything that we’re doing, any opportunities that we might have for you.

Rob (39:00.034)
And of course, before you go into your next mission, before you click continue, please remember to subscribe using your favorite podcast app and listen to the next episode of Professor Game. See you there.

 

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