Joe Rogan is what many people refer to as a ‘renaissance man’. The UFC commentator, apart from being an accomplished martial artist, is an established comedian, a podcaster with millions of followers, an entrepreneur who co-founded the nutrition brand Onnit (now sold to Unilever), the former host of the wildly popular reality TV show ‘Fear Factor’, and even an actor for brief stint. It doesn’t just stop there as Rogan is someone who sources his meat from the wild and raises his own chickens. It would come as a surprise to fans to know that Rogan found time for a certain recreational activity back in 1997. Opening up to Elon Musk, Rogan spoke about his gaming obsession.

During his conversation with Joe Rogan at ‘JRE #2223’, Elon Musk unveiled that he was one of the best Quake players back in the day. With Musk’s revelation, the podcaster chimed in, stating his past obsession with the first-person shooter, which may come as a surprise to many.

Here’s what the 57-year-old podcaster said to a surprised Elon Musk – “When I was on news radio, all of the writers were super nerds. They were very, very fun guys, and they had a lan set up at the studio where they all played Quake. I had never played video games, and I would go in with the writers, just kind of hang out with them,” said Joe Rogan.

He further added, “We’d get silly, and then we would all start playing video games and playing Quake against each other. I got addicted, like hardcore. I got a T1 line installed in my house. I went hardcore”. Adding to Rogan’s enthusiastic recollection, Musk added, “Yeah, exactly, you’re checking how many milliseconds of latency you.”, to which Rogan replied, “Oh yeah, I was fully addicted. I was making my own computers. I was going to fries hardware and buying motherboards and putting everything together, and you know, it was too much of a time suck though. I’m an obsessive person. I can’t get involved.”

For those unfamiliar, Quake is a pioneering first-person shooter games developed by ID Software. The game was originally released for MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, and Linux in 1996. The premise revolves around teleportation experiments, known as slipgates, which inadvertently lead to an invasion of Earth by a hostile force codenamed Quake. This force commands a vast army of monsters, posing a grave threat to humanity. Apart from Quake, Musk is also a fan of the game Diablo, claiming to Joe Rogan that he is among the top 20 players in the world. While Rogan pointed out that many people think video games are ‘frivolous’, Musk emphasized on the benefits of gaming on human cognition.

Elon Musk confesses about the effects of gaming to Joe Rogan

In the conversation about gaming, the $264.7 Billionaire, Elon Musk emphasized that gaming does have some positive effects on the body and mind. Musk unveiled that some of his gaming obsession might have shaped his future. The tech mogul stated that playing challenging video games contributes to ‘mental calibration’ and highlighted its effects on his productivity.

“If I play a video game on extreme difficulty… I have to concentrate fully on the game,” confessed Musk as he emphasizing challenging moments and extreme focus in gaming as having a calming effect on one’s mind. He further explained that certain video games help in sharpening the mental aptitude of humans – “If I…play badly…I’m like 10% below what I should be.” 

Joe Rogan chimed in, agreeing with Elon Musk, bringing forward a study showcasing the positive impact of gaming on medical surgeons. The study showed that surgeons who played video games made significantly fewer errors during surgery. Musk agreed with these studies as he said, “If somebody’s epic at video games, I’d say their surgical skill is going to be very good.” Well, gaming does increase some of the cognitive skills in one’s body: hand-eye coordination, rapid reaction time, and complex multitasking. Regardless, do you agree with Elon Mus and Joe Rogan’s thoght’s on gaming? State your opinion in the comments below.