The No. 1 priority of Maximilian Dood’s Twitch channel couldn’t be clearer: “Getting excited for games and providing a maximum HYPE viewing experience.” The 38-year-old L.A. native is the most successful and prolific content creator in the fighting-game community: He’s posted at least one video per day on YouTube for over a decade, putting him at 5,761 videos (and counting) at the time of this writing. After being laid off from his job as an online video game producer in 2011, Dood—whose background is actually in illustration—got his big break as a creator when Capcom took notice of his channel and approached him with a request to make official game tutorials for Marvel vs. Capcom 3. He took the theatrical approach to the gig and created Assist Me!, a web series consisting of parody-meets-dramatic-character tutorials wherein Dood and his unwanted roommate, “Doom,” encounter various members of the game’s cast, guiding them through their respective mechanics, tactical specialties, and other strategies to help players excel.
Since then, the content creator has broadened the scope of his work to include commentaries, reaction videos, game playthroughs, and another weekly series called YoVideogames, which finds Dood and his friends playing games together. The increased desire for unscripted content aligned well with Dood’s entry into streaming. And the candid, personable approach to his commentaries, combined with his expertise in fighting games and his commitment to high production values, has only grown his viewership. Today he has 1.42 million subscribers on YouTube and another 973,000 on Twitch, to say nothing of his paid subscribers. While other creators might let those numbers get to their head, Dood is loath to consider himself an influencer. Internet fame isn’t what drives him—it’s his love of gaming itself that keeps him devoted to the grind. Perhaps that’s what makes his videos so special and keeps his audience coming back for more. It feels less like you’re watching a stream and more like you’re hanging out with a friend who’s equally as excited about a game as you are. At the end of the day, it’s about doods being doods.
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