“Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.”

Let me guess.

You’re an avid gamer who loves first person shooters, and what’s not to love? If you’re anything like me, your first experience with an FPS was the split-screen glory of Goldeneye 007 back during the glory days of the N64, the Attitude Era, and when the world had a little bit thicker skin (and was a lot less politically correct).

You think you’ve tried them all, from Call of Duty to Halo, but you haven’t experienced anything quite like Rainbow Six: Siege.

This is the beginning of a series I’m going to call Siege Synchronicities. These will be true life lessons derived from my favorite online multiplayer FPS of ALL TIME…

One that I've been playing (or at least following) for the better part of a decade now.

That’s saying a lot, because I was all in on Gears of War back in the day, but that’s 3rd person…it’s a different beast. I’m sure we’ll get to talking about Marcus Fenix and the gang, as well as, Splinter Cell, Mortal Kombat, Ghost Recon, among others soon enough.

It’s also going to be a showcase of how to set yourself up to win your game of life, by following a hilarious comedy of errors that you can enjoy at my expense. If it saves you some trouble…Hey! Worth it, but this is the start of so much more.

My name is Marty White. Some folks call me…DoubleAux6. That gamertag has so many easter eggs in it, Ed Boon would be proud. The 006 is a reference to good ole Ned Stark (or Sean Bean as it were) from Goldeneye, but also it’s a reference to Splinter Cell’s main man, the legendary Sam Fisher…the operator now known as Zero as a part of the Rainbow Operational Staff showing the youngsters how it’s done. And of course the 6 for Rainbow 6, duh.

Rainbow Six: Siege stands out from all other first person shooters for a number of reasons, and over the last 8 years has revolutionized the genre both in terms of gameplay and as a “gaming as a service” business model.

It features environmental destruction that is highly impactful on each and every round, allowing you to use your surroundings to your tactical advantage. It also offers a variety of customization options, giving you the opportunity to tailor your experience and create your own unique play style.

But what truly sets Siege apart is its intense, tactical approach to team-based combat with operators that have unique abilities, and perhaps more importantly, personality.

Its diverse cast and inclusive roster pushes the envelope of what is possible in modern gaming. There are no respawns in competitive play, and one bullet to the head from any gun is a kill, so every move and every decision counts. The game rewards strategic thinking and communication between team members, making it an ideal game for those looking to take their gaming sessions to the next level.

So why is Rainbow Six: Siege different from all other first person shooters? It’s the intense, strategic gameplay created around meaningful destruction, manipulation of sight lines, the ability to customize your experience, and the fact that no two rounds ever play out the same way that truly set it apart.

And finally, if you are open to it, Siege can teach many lessons that are applicable to life and business… but you can’t be a whiny, excuse-making little bitch whose vocabulary consists of almost only one word…bro.

I was inspired to share my personal story of what attracted me to Siege, after seeing many others doing the same.

We're quickly approaching year 10, as I update this post for the Rogue Consciousness website, and like our business, the game has changed a lot since launch.

This is a love letter to this game that has changed my life.

I’ve been playing Siege since the closed beta all the way back in 2015, and throughout his series you’re gonna see old gameplay and old marketing trailers. You’re gonna see old reviews, articles, and patch notes, and I’m going to leave the history, the stats, and explanation of ever evolving tactics to him, as the videos will accompany each article. There’s no need to rehash what he says in the videos. Rather, I’ll be letting you in on the real life stories that accompany each season, the lessons learned (in-game and IRL), AND how you can make your gameplay profitable all the way around.

Here’s what I mean…

Most people hear the word profitable and instantly think of money. While many people have used their gameplay to make money, that is only a small representation of what’s possible.

I understand you completely on that front too. I’m sure you’ve had a ton of naysayers, haters, and trolls in your life (some of them close) that called you a nerd and told you, you couldn’t do it… just like me, so this is a bit personal.

On the one hand you want to prove those roody-poo, candy ass bitches wrong. And why wouldn’t you? You know you have the drive, the knowledge, the gumption, and you’re willing to learn any and all skills if it means you can live life on your terms, play your own game, and not have to deal with others’ bullshit. You have the power to walk away and do it your way.

Especially since “they” and the rest of the dream killers have no drive to do anything to change their shitty situation. They just want to complain about the same old shit, over and over. They tell you to do what they did, what you NEED to do, and “play it safe”. Secretly, deep down…they want you to be as miserable as them.

Others might think that creating content or utilizing your passion for video games (or any other “hobby” you’ve lost sleep over) is just a pipe dream. Very few would risk a steady career to pursue it… and for good reason. This path is not for everyone, but if you feel the calling, you’re already in it.

Many people might wonder why a 37 year old business-owner would still be playing religiously 9+ years later after leaving a sure paycheck as a band director…

Well before I did that, I decided that getting into fistfights inside a cage would be a lot less painful than teaching…but that’s a story for another day.

Action Shot courtesy of Fight World and V3Fights from my first amateur MMA fight

Most wouldn’t be able to understand the correlation, and while I’m not here to convince anyone logically about why I’ve dedicated thousands of hours to a game I “don’t play professionally”… I am here to share my stories in the context of the many seasons of Siege to explain how anyone can have a more profitable gaming experience with a bit of an open mind towards what’s possible.

And maybe, I might throw in some tips that could help you in game if you don’t mind taking it from a gaming elder who sometimes misses shots, makes the wrong decisions, and drops the ball on occasion…but always gets back up…eventually.

The year was 2014. Battlefield 4 (and soon to be Destiny) were the dominant FPS games of that era for my friend group much to my chagrin, but I went along with it because otherwise I’d be on my own. Gaming is way better with friends…take it from an 8 year solo queue player at this point, but I was thirsty for something real, gritty, and tactical. For years, COD was the mainstay, and I always secretly hated it. There was no strategy. It was just a mindless run and gun repackaged as something new every year, sucking out another $64.19 with no real change in gameplay. I wasn’t a huge fan of doing moon jumps in Destiny, grinding for the legendary drops, over and over again…just to do it again.

The reveal of Rainbow Six: Siege at E3 2014 was a life changing moment.

This was the summer I left my career and college education as a band director behind.

I had absolutely no plan other than I wanted to take the summer to figure out who I was, and why had my life turned into some nightmare I had never imagined. I played their game, followed the rules, did what I was told… and now, here I was. The most broken version of myself I had ever been.

In case you couldn’t tell, I have been known to use video games to escape the world around me. When the real world told me, you can’t… video games said I could. They had taught me over and over again how to get good at something when you really wanted it. Rainbow Six was one of those games. I played ’em all at some point.

I had been looking forward to the single player, narrative-driven Rainbow Six: Patriots, but the trailer that dropped for Siege quickly changed my mind. It was unlike anything ever seen, and to this day…THERE IS NO OTHER SIEGE. It’s different from anything else out there.

The game has seen many, many METAs (most effective tactics available), and always seems to be reinventing itself when it begins to grow stale, whether it’s through the introduction of a new operator or a balancing patch that completely changes the playing field every couple of months.

From the first round of the BETA I played, I vividly remember telling everyone that would halfway listen to me that I had been waiting on this game my whole life.

I had just begun training in mixed martial arts, and the constant mix up of strategy and tactics in Siege was a way for me to flex the same high-level, problem solving that comes with MMA without the head trauma while I rested and recovered. (This would become a huge part of the story later on, as you’ll find out later.)

I was highly inspired and interested by its business model, which was one of the first of its kind and has become a cash-cow for Ubisoft, which from what I understand, is critical at this point in time for the developers survival. That’s another story to look at for another day.

As the BETA came to a close and the full-on launch was approaching, I vowed to NOT buy it until after my second (and unknown to me at the time, last) MMA fight, because I knew I would obsess over it and not have my head in the game come fight night.

Yeah, it was that serious… and still is.

Over the years, I have evolved right alongside the game, and here’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned along the way that I learned from the game.

Yes, Siege (just like every other game) has been plagued with bugs, imbalances, and cheaters. You get that in all areas of life that deal with imperfect humans, but I digress…

So what’s the lesson? Push the fuckin’ START BUTTON. Launch!

Almost 10 years later, the game today is no comparison to the game it was at launch, but one thing has remained the same. When it comes down to it, you are going to fail at some point...quite a lot actually.

The secret to playing for the love of the game (and your anti-tilt state of wellbeing) comes down to this one critical understanding. You can be good. You can be bad. You can get better. Hell, you could even be great if you let yourself, and the secret to that is taking those frustrating losses and extracting the lesson. I like to call it being a professional amateur.

The has evolved from a slow, methodical affair with the 20 pathfinder operators to a non-stop, chess-like barrage of plays, counters, and counters to the counters with over 70 operators.

There were times where utility and site setup ruled the day, and there’s been times where gunplay has been the center of attention. Through several patches, the game continues to find the sweet spot between the two while also delivering on the X-factor.

However, none of that would have happened if they had waited until the game was perfect. It’s still not, and that’s a good thing despite the people that play the game 16 hours a day that love to tell you about how it’s dying!

Honestly, I don’t know how many more years this version of Siege will be live due to technical limitations before a second iteration is made, but as long as the essence is preserved, I don’t think it’s going away for a long time. It has definitely already etched its name in history as one of the greatest games in history…at least from this guy’s perspective and from the undeniable profitability (or else it would not still be live).

So what’s this have to do with you?

Whether it’s your desire to create content from your favorite games, or you have other interests and business ideas, the important thing is that you start now, fail, learn lessons, patch holes, and keep hammering.

That’s what Siege offers. What x-factor will you bring for your team?

Siege holds you accountable for every decision you make.

The only thing that matters is wins and losses when it comes to rank. Your individual K/D doesn’t reflect the impact you have on any given round, and while you will be rewarded for the swing or be swung playstyle as a solo queue player…

Having an inflated K/D in exchange for giving up map control, exposing yourself (heh) and your teammates, and failure to play the objective rarely works out favorably in terms of wins and losses.

Sure, you WILL die to teammates who don’t cover your flank (or just plain don’t have the same understanding of the game that you do), but if you really want to take your mentality, competitiveness, and success to the next level, you must realize that you decided to stand there in the first place. Those who are willing to take the missed shots, the losses and learning experiences, exercise emotional intelligence, and crack on to the next round are the ones who shine in game and in life through building a next-level “adapt and overcome” muscle.

The real question is, “What can I learn from this?”.

Siege can make you a master communicator, and the most profitable people on the planet are the best communicators.

In short, if you are able to relay relevant information quickly and calmly (even after you just got your face deleted unexpectedly), you are just built different, because most people just lose their shit, blow off steam from their shitty day, and pass the blame onto someone or something else.

That will never result in improvement or getting the rank you want.

However, doing a job for the team and passing along relevant info quickly and calmly, will. Developing this skill alone will pay off exponentially in your real life relationships, bank account, and personal well-being… and you’ll be helping your teammates pick up kills, stay alive, and take pressure off you! That works IRL too, btw.

Siege is all about perspective and time efficiency.

3 minutes to do a job…It’s not a lot of time, but a lot can happen in those 3 minutes. If you’ve played Siege before, you’ve seen some amazing, heart pounding plays come down to the wire. You see a plant go down JUST in time.

Powerful things happen when you put a time limit on ANY objective. Got something coming up that’s important, but you don’t feel compelled to get it done? Set a deadline, and come at it with the same mentality of playing a round of Siege. There are many metaphors I could use, but I’ll save those lessons to go along with the appropriate season…and of course, you can use them yourself in Siege, in your game of life, and in your business.

Perspective is everything, and changing the way you’re looking at something could make all the difference.

Many times you can’t change what happens in game and in life, but you can change how you look at it. The difference between picking up an easy kill or blowing the round with an ill-advised peek comes down to understanding angles. Using cover, movement, and utility to see the enemy before they see you is the name of the game, and that means taking action, getting aggressive, or just playing passively and letting them walk into your sights when the infowar and positioning are in your favor.

Life is no different, and it’s no coincidence that the strongest angles come from taking a step back and seeing the bigger picture.

Next time, I’ll share with you my very own experience with feeling like walking on frozen concrete after suffering a brutal knee injury during Operation Black Ice, and of course how you can benefit from it!

By the way,

If you are a 30+ year old FPS and other tactical shooter gamer who wants to find a group of like-minded, business owners on a mission to have the best gameplay experience possible (and discover unorthodox ways to turn your passion to profit, I’d like to invite you to join the Rogue Consciousness/DoubleAux6 Discord Channel Here: https://discord.gg/SwdEjTm8Yx

This isn’t for everyone.

If you’re someone who is obsessed with grinding your way up to Pro League… this probably isn’t for you (unless you are a business-minded, emotionally mature player). Keep in mind, this group is for the aging veterans leaving their own Shadow Legacy like Zero himself, Sam Fisher. You don’t necessarily have to be a boomer, but you gotta have some chill for those who don’t have the reaction time or time commitment to be a world champion or rank star, because you know, you never make ANY mistakes.

And if you’re not down with that, I got two words for ya…

SUCK IT!

But if you want to find a solid team to rank up and grow with…

If you want to rise in the business world together through sharing your unique perspective on your favorite games, music, hobbies, shows, skills, past times, and knowledge…

If you want to make the most out of your game time, avoid fighting trolls on your own team, and experience heart-pumping, high paced action that you can use to promote your own products and services… then this is the place for you.

We might not be the best, but we are dedicated to being the best version of ourselves that we can be.

How you do one thing, is how you do everything. Will you join us and take your first steps to unlocking profitability from every second of pursuing your passions, exploring different strategies, and developing new skills?

Join Here: https://discord.gg/SwdEjTm8Yx

And that’s the bottom line, cause Stone Co-… I mean, DoubleAux(6) said so!

P.S. Man, Woman, or Otherwise… we’re inclusive here. Your wife/husband/partner doesn’t care about your rank, k/d, or whether you won or lost…

But if they’re the right one, they’ll care that you are enjoying yourself, nothing more.

Detach your sense of self-worth from the outcome.

I know, I know… Easier said than done.

That’s why Amanda and I are launching the Southern Renegade Cookbook, so you can fuel your fighting spirit, feed your rebel soul, and fortify your rogue path with TRUE FREEDOM of energy.

If you want to learn all about how you can take total charge of your entire well-being, win the war within, and break beliefs patterns that hold you back from embracing your true calling, then you’re not going to want to miss this!

Be on the lookout on our socials for info on the book launch!

https://rogueconsciousness.com/renegade-cookbook