Episode 7 - Stephen Machuga (Stack Up)

Captain Stephen Machuga is the founder and CEO of Stack Up, a non-profit organization that supports veterans' mental health by bringing people together around a shared love of gaming. In this episode, we explore the therapeutic power of gaming for veterans transitioning back to civilian life, and the meandering path that eventually led him to create a nonprofit.

Stephen also discusses Stack Up's charity programs, including recreational supply crates for soldiers, peer support groups, suicide prevention teams, and their Los Angeles headquarters that serves as a community center for veterans. The conversation touches on the many challenges of leading a veteran-focused nonprofit, and the importance of providing safe spaces for authentic conversation in our increasingly difficult world.

For more information on Stack Up, visit their website at: www.stackup.org or on social media: Discord, BlueSky, YouTube, or Twitch.

Transcript

Daniel Lipson (00:01)

Better Games, Better Gamers is a show that talks about how games shape and are shaped by the community and the people around them. today, I have Stephen Machuga, founder and CEO of Stack Up, a non-profit organization that supports veterans' mental health by bringing people together around a shared love of gaming.

with programs such as peer support groups, game donations, sponsored event tickets, studio tours, and peer-to-peer counseling. welcome to the show today, Stephen. Really, really glad to have you here. I'm really, really excited.

Stephen Machuga (00:32)

Hey, Thanks for having me on, Daniel. I appreciate it.

Daniel Lipson (00:38)

So I was actually watching one of your interviews, I think from a few years back. establishing a little bit of your gamer credibility. And also, I think for me, really exploring really what kind of gamer you are, I think, is really why it's so important. So actually, from that, just to get us started. I was curious to hear a little bit specifically what were some of your favorite arcade games growing up?

Stephen Machuga (01:02)

I had a real love affair with the FMV games, the Dragon's Lair, the Space Aces, the cliffhangers of the world. There was just something about first off, the cartooniness of them as a kid, like young kid. Like first off, Dragon's Lair terrified me. Like I was five, you know, and I was going in and watching this, this knight getting incinerated by a dragon or something. Like, my God. And like, they were not pulling any punches. Like, okay. It wasn't, it wasn't rated R, but it was also like,

I probably shouldn't be watching this. But yeah, there was something about it. I'm playing a cartoon. Like that blew me away as a kid. There's really nothing more I can say about it. Now, obviously as you grow up, you see behind the curtain and it's like, you know, I have the entire Dragons Lair collection and it's literally each game is like 20 minutes long.

Like from front to back, if you do all the quick time events for everything, it's like, never felt, it felt impossible. It felt like the, you know, getting over it in, video game form in 1980. So that was always this weird thing that I just have this. I love affair with in gaming is FMV and, uh, you know, stop motion graphics, the time travelers, like all those. wacky like stabs at games like that. So yeah.

Daniel Lipson (02:16)

That's so funny. Over here in San Jose. They have something called California extreme. for people that actually, including myself, who were not around in the 80s, I think the ways that stories were being told back then were really different. especially in the 80s as opposed to the 90s in the late 90s. The early 90s, 80s, early 90s and like late 90s game storytelling is really different.

Stephen Machuga (02:44)

it was tough back then. I mean, it wasn't even a thing back in the day where it's like, rescue the princess. That's as far as it got as far as deep seated. There were no Last of Us. There was no like real, you know, deep in depth. They were just stupid little things to put your kids in front of and keep them busy for a while. Only, know, only as we grew up that the games grew up with us like, maybe if we put an actual story behind this, It's pretty neat.

Daniel Lipson (03:10)

and then what was kind of your journey as a gamer and how over time?

Stephen Machuga (03:19)

I mean, as soon as I could hold the controller in my hand, I was playing video games. had my parents just found out this was a thing that I like doing real early on. Like my dad used to take me into the local arcade putt putt place, and I used to spend a lot of like that was the goal in my, you know, as a kid. So I was like, play video games, enjoy video games, video games, video games, video games.

evolved over the years and became, you know, what it is today where it's like, this is my full-time job now. So, but now it's spreading the love, the love affair of what I have with gaming into other people who

Use it, but don't know it's real powers. it's like, if you really sit and have somebody explain, it's like, no, this is actually helping your mental state. It's like, is it really? It's like, yes, because of the X, Y, and Z. It's like, okay. Well, that's, that's makes it more meaningful. I suppose like, I'm just wasting my time playing these dumb games. It's like, no, no, no, no. This is recreational therapy. It's like, is it like, yeah.

Daniel Lipson (04:12)

in your early adulthood, what was that journey from becoming, from being a player to working in the industry

Stephen Machuga (04:20)

it was never anything that I was going to do. that was never the plan. It was always work a day job. But then, you know, on the side, I was just going to, it was a super hobby for me. I come home from work, whatever I'm doing, whether it's being in the military or working at, you know, FBI or wherever I'm at, was

take the tie off, take the suit and tie off, immediately sit on the couch and play video games.

I recreationally did it. I hobby blog I had a podcast. I goofed around with that stuff, but there was no way this was actually going to become a thing. So in 2012, there was this thing called the sequestering that occurred where I was a government contractor at the time and I was bouncing between contracts and

It's usually 10 government contractors to one government employee because it takes like government employees two years to go through the process of being hired on. Whereas a government contractor, you can move them over in three weeks. They're way more expensive. and, but it's, that's the price you pay. It's good, fast and cheap and pick two. Right. So the government had had enough of the imbalance of government contractors that, okay, no more contractors for, we're not hiring any more contractors.

Which of course I was between contracts at the time. So I was like, well, I'll just wait a couple of weeks. I'm sure I'll have another job. A year went by. I wasn't working. During that time, I was running this charity called Operation Supply Drop. It was just like a funsies, I'm doing this for fun. But because I wasn't working, I was kind of treating it like my full-time job. And back in 2012, the country looked a lot different from where it looks today, where there was a lot more love for the military. There was a lot more disposable income. So, yeah, the charity took off in a way I wasn't expecting and I was able to make it my full time job. So when eventually it was like, I'm not getting another contracting job, clearly. this has to be the job. So we just literally be thrown out of a plane without a parachute and then just learning to fly on the way down and it, I actually know how to fly. I didn't know that. So it all worked itself out, in very weird ways. So yeah, that's, that's, that's my history of transitioning from recreational to full time is like, well, it just became full time by accident. And then. it just happened to work out.

Daniel Lipson (06:46)

And I'd love to hear a little bit more about the story of how your experience in the military and also kind of your experience as a gamer transitioned into first that first nonprofit and also into StackUp.

Stephen Machuga (07:00)

Sure. you'll never guess what, the original charity didn't work out. And so what ended up happening was because some bad actors had gotten involved and kind of gotten away from the spirit of the organization, it became about profits and,

widest reach and how can we sell this organization as quickly as possible? It's like, that's not what this is about, man. So it was like, okay, we're just going to start this over again. And this time we're not going to, you know, no outside help. just going to do it ourselves. And it worked out. Yeah. Surprise, you know, new game plus over here with Stack Up. And here we are going into our 10th year in November.

Daniel Lipson (07:35)

after your time in the military, how did that kind of inspire you towards this idea? ⁓

Stephen Machuga (07:41)

So 2008, 2009 timeframe, I was working for an organization called Extra, well, not Extra Life, Sarcastic Gamer. And Sarcastic Gamer, not everybody knows. It has come and passed into the ether as many game blogs from back then did. But one thing that it left in its wake is the guy who was running Sarcastic Gamer was an employee of Children's Miracle Network, which then went on to spawn Extra Life,

Now everybody knows what that is. I was working at that blog. recreational, just helping out volunteering where I could on the weekends and wherever I could, like I was going to conventions and doing reviews and all this silly stuff.

so that was obviously around sick kids and I didn't exactly have the same love for it. like I was doing it and it was like a thing we were doing, but I didn't have kids of my own. So it was just like, I didn't really have that spark. I was just kind of going through the motions and then a buddy of mine who was, I was in his wedding,

deployed forward to Afghanistan. And while he was over there, he knew I had some connections through, you know, Sarcastic Gamer and Extra Life. knew I was games industry adjacent. He was like, Hey, can you get us something? Like they, the guys who came through here absolutely destroyed the MWR facility, which is the morale welfare and recreation facilities. It's like the, all of the fun stuff to do while you're deployed. So the unit had ripped all that out of there and taken it back with them and leaving them nothing, which is a real dick move.

Um, but they were like, Hey, can you hook us up? And I was like, all right, let me see what I can do. And I reached out to the games industry and this is back in 2010 ish. So I reached out to all my contacts and back then it was way different. Oh yeah, we'll get you whatever you need. Palettes and palettes of games and gear. And they had this stuff like when you go to conventions and you'd get, you'd come home with a hundred T-shirts and just all kinds of tchotchkes and here, take this, all this pallets of stuff sent to us. So it turned into this like, Oh,

Okay, that was unexpected. I did not see that coming. I had boxed up a bunch of it, sent it over to my buddy. you know, Hey, check this out. Like we had a bunch of stuff from a bunch of different studios. How awesome is that? He sent back a bunch of pictures of them doing a guitar hero, competition on using a briefing projector that they were flashing up on the side of a trailer somewhere. It was fantastic. So we sent the pictures back to the studios.

And they were very much like, Hey, if you want to do this again, let us know. Of course you get one Joe an Xbox. Suddenly 41 Fires wants an Xbox and what about three, a two, you know, "A Two ADA" want, they want an Xbox too. And it turned out I had way more stuff than I had suddenly overnight a GameStop in my basement. So I was like, yeah, I got plenty of stuff. We can figure that out and I'll fill, I'll back, just send me over a wish list. I'll reach out to those developers, see what we can find.

then I'll backfill whatever I can because I was making pretty good money at the time. So I was like, yeah, I'll help out wherever I can. That was the start of how it all kind of took off. So yeah, that was it.

Daniel Lipson (10:40)

when you kind of transitioned into Stack Up was that when you kind of expanded what you're offering or had that been something that you'd been exploring before

Stephen Machuga (10:49)

So we had a series, so we had our Air Assault program. I don't remember what the rest of the programs were called, but it was a one for one, The only thing that was different was

When we transitioned over to StackUp, there was the conversation about Overwatch, which was our suicide prevention team online. That was kind of a different conversation, which is like, that's something we were not doing.

Trying to explain what we were doing to people, with people, with veterans and be like, hey, this is recreational therapy. you know how they have horses and take guys out on field, like camping trips and they go fishing and all that. That's what we're doing. We're just indoor kids. We don't do all that stuff. But the gaming has this like negative sentiment to it that we've just never really been able to get. Doesn't matter if Minecraft movie and, know, Last of Us is winning, you know, Emmys and things like that.

Doesn't matter. It's the dumb video game stuff for a lot of people who are holding the purse strings. When we brought the suicide prevention team online as like an active 24 seven, like, Hey, this is veterans that need someone to talk to and need someone to get them out of their head. That kind of changed the conversation a little bit. It didn't open up any, as many purse strings as I thought it would, because I guess as I've learned doing this job, a lot of people talk about helping the military, but when it comes to actually supporting the military.

much smaller number. also in 2022, we opened up our headquarters in Los Angeles, AKA Phalanx House, which was just supposed to be office space for the staff and has since turned as we got guys and gals over right now. have a

a team of female veterans from West LA VA that are a part of their drug and alcohol rehab group that are over today. our headquarters has turned into a community center for like post homeless veterans, which

Absolutely was not expected at all. This was just supposed to be a cool office that we had for guys and gals. And it's like, well, we've got this $2 million mansion in Los Angeles, we should probably do something cool with it. So we ended up outfitting it into this adult tree fort. And we have veterans come through and anytime a veteran who wants to come to Los Angeles wants to come hang out or needs a place, they're coming to Disney for a week and they need a place to stay and they don't want to spend a grand on.

hotels, we've got eight beds here at the house for them. So it's turned into this like cool new mission that we've been able to turn into a thing over the years. Like it's been in action. We moved in in February of 2022 and we've been helping veterans here ever since.

Daniel Lipson (13:21)

I don't think I'd heard about the mansion before

Stephen Machuga (13:23)

well, the original plan was to just get 400 square feet in a strip mall somewhere. We weren't expecting like, we're just going to let's get a two million dollar mansion. But our major benefactor, his name is Palmer Lucky. He's the guy behind the Oculus Rift from back in the day. And now he's running a military contracting organization called Anduril. They're doing very well for themselves.

And he was like, Hey, if there's ever anything you need, let us know and we'll see what we can do. And it was coming out of COVID. So I pitched him an office space idea and I was like, all right, this will be like a hundred grand a year.

And when I pitched it to him, he's like, yeah, I don't want to rent anything. That's a waste of money. I'm like, okay, what do you want to do now? And he's like, well, I'll just buy something and I'll let you use it.

was not expecting that, but that has been the evolution of stack up over what Operation Supply Drop was, where it was just a bunch of well-meaning volunteers working out of their homes and basements. And now it's like, no, we have office space and employees and came together pretty nicely.

Daniel Lipson (14:18)

Well, and kind of speaking on kind of the topic of Palmer, Who would you kind of want to thank for getting you where you are now?

Stephen Machuga (14:23)

me pull up the, this is one of those, like, this is one of those things like in your head, like, know exactly who I thank, but I'm like, I don't want this to be an Oscar speech and be like, Oh, you forgot your manager. obviously Palmer because none of this, we would, we would have closed like long time

So more recently, of the people who have the Ubisoft has helped us in the past. They provided us some Humble Bundle support back in the day when we were getting on our feet. That definitely helped out. One of our newer supporters that was definitely one of those people that I never would have gone to at a convention, but one of our media folks went over and did a review for one of their games are the Pirate 101 and Wizard 101 guys, the folks behind it's called Kings Isle. for the last two years in a row, they have done a mount skin for stack up. And both times it was like, well, how much could this, I mean, this, that's so cute. Your little mobile game. You kids, that's silly. The first year they raised us 35 grand and this year they raised a 30 grand with the same skin, by the way, which was also one of those, how in the hell did that happen?

Stephen Machuga (15:23)

I understood the first year was like that blew us away And then they were like, well, we're going to do it again this year. You're going to do it again? And like, yeah, we're going to do it again. And then they did it again. I'm like, what's going on over there? My holy sh, all right, mobile games, let's go. So they have been huge supporters of ours.

One of the things I appreciate from organizations is, hey, we see you doing good things. We're just going to help you guys out. Cohen Family Foundation, they're out of New York. That's a guy who loves Star Citizen. And he's just like, I heard what you guys are doing. I want to help you guys out. And he's been helping us for almost half a decade now that team has been fantastic. There's a new group out there called fun fund. it's brand new foundation that is all about helping people with play. organizations like that where it's like, I don't have to put a lot of time and energy into [fighting for] support. It's so few and far between, but God bless every single one of them.

Daniel Lipson (16:13)

I think when I was listening to your story on the other show you had this previous nonprofit and the reason why people were siding with you was because of your vision and the mission behind it. So I kind of wanted to hear almost more on the personal level who are kind of some of these people that were like we want to step up and continue to push.

Stephen Machuga (16:30)

Sure, and that was a very heartwarming but also heartbreaking time in my life because that was 2016. when that all went down, I did not want these other guys who were running my old organization to know I was gonna come roaring out of the gate with a new organization

90 % of the people came with me because it was ridiculous. It was like this non-veteran business guy who just came in as like a consultant, took everything over.

So when he came in with his creative direction, 90 % of the people came with me,

Operate Supply Drop was on the way up. Like we were doing very well for ourselves. We had done stuff with Rooster Teeth. We had done stuff with like some pretty major groups out there and me going scratch all that. We're going to start all over again. There were people that was like, nah, I'm going to stay with the boat. I'm going to stay with the ship.

like, you do understand what's going on, right? And so being the guy with the vision, the original vision and the, not just the original vision, but the desire to keep going after everything fell apart and then go, you know what? No, I'm not done. I still believe there's still something here to keep going, to keep that going and to keep that ball in the air. Like people felt that and saw that and come to find out being in the military and being an officer, you do learn a couple of things about leadership,

It was so funny. The old business guy, the number of things he did wrong where it's like, all right, we're not going to tell him like this is all secretive. We can't tell people this. This is a secret. Whereas in. Stack Up has prided itself over the years. Like we just had a major blow up two weeks ago where it's like, we have to tell everybody immediately about this. Like this has to be out in the open. We can't cover things up because the cover-up is always worse than the crime.

Tell everybody everything always, and then nobody can complain. And if people have a problem with it, then there's the door, You go to sleep at night and you can sleep well and you don't have to worry about the, I hope nobody finds out about this. Boy, there's going be a real problem if people find out about this. you don't have that concern. It's like either you're with us or not. you might not like everything we do. You might not like the direction we're going, but we're going to tell you about it. We're going to have meetings about it. We're going to have open meetings where you're welcome to come and ask questions.

Every Wednesday since we've started, it's open and transparent. You come to the meeting, you ask questions. We tell you what we're working on. There's no surprises. And then nobody has any like, we didn't know that was happening. Or we, why didn't you tell us? It's like every single Wednesday, five o'clock since the beginning of time, you could have come in and asked this question. You have no excuse period. That means you don't know what's going on. So, that was the transition period. And those people like,

My current director of operations, perfect example, he's been there since the beginning, since before the beginning. The guy who was running our veteran, veteran affair piece for over 10 years, he finally retired where he's like, look, I just can't do this. My kids are growing up. I need to be with my family. as somebody who's running their own thing can tell you it's not a nine to five job.

It never ends. It's always on. You're never really off. You're never really on vacation. There's never really a weekend because there's always an email to check or there's always somebody who needs something in the community or is, I got a message. So 10 years of that'll grind anybody. But he came with like, he came with me, all the people who was, who are on our staff currently, almost everybody transitioned over from that organization or was a volunteer back then. And now we're full-time staff. It was a pretty 90-10 split. which was a good feeling.

Daniel Lipson (19:57)

Well, and now it has been around for 10 years. I'd love to kind of have you go over what you're offering

Stephen Machuga (20:06)

we, so we send out a dozen supply crates a month and supply crates are our boxes full of games and gear and, consoles and games and headsets and controllers and whatever other little tchotchkes that get included in that, like t-shirts and little swag pieces and stuff like that. Those go to units overseas. They go to folks back home. And as a part of that, we tell everybody who applies, Hey, When you get this, please make sure you send back pictures and a thank you. And of course, I'd be like, yeah, don't worry about it. We'll take care of you, no worries. you're going to have pictures for days, videos. You're going to love it. Never hear from him again. it's a bummer. you just have to let it go. Cause there you get 12 a month.

Right now, we're at 70 % back of thank yous and stuff like that. So you just have to it's a numbers game. there are people who leave their shopping carts in the parking lot when they're done. They just kind of rip. done with this. we are in a society, sir. There's a transaction taking place. We give you two thousand dollars worth of games of gear. You send us a thank you. You think they could do that? Seems pretty reasonable.

you have to be the good guys on this. Like just turn and cheek and be like, all right, we'll get them next month. We do a lot of, we do a lot of like vetting before that. we let them know like, Hey, this is the expectation of you. but we don't hold people with the fire on it. That's definitely one where you just have to just let it go.

I'm a very democratic. a very huggy kind of boss. like being liked by people, which is a problem as a boss, but it also makes for pleasant working conditions. Cause generally we're all friends, but when you're, when your friends are your coworkers, there are definitely times when I've been kind of stepped on because I'm like, no, don't worry about it. got this. So don't you worry. I'll take care of this. You just go over there and you rest and I'll take care of this or whatever, or, okay. Your idea is better than mine. That's fine. That's. As opposed to sometimes just coming out and be like, no, this is my vision and we're moving forward with this. And if you have a problem with that, there's the door. I have a problem with that as a leader, which isn't great, but also I go back and forth on that one. That's kind of like one of those.

If I had to have a problem, it's being too nice of a guy, which, ha, ha, just too busy, too much of a, you know, it sounds funny to say. It's like one of those interview questions are like, tell us three things bad about yourself. It's like, I just worked too hard. Yeah, gosh, I just love this company too much. like, all right,

Daniel Lipson (22:26)

Your weakness is working too hard. Being too nice!

….So, you've talked a lot about leadership. You talked about the shopping cart of course the name of the show is better games better gamers and so one of my questions is really. What do you think being a better gamer would be?

Stephen Machuga (22:44)

boy in 2025, there's any number of things that you could be better about and you can't do all of it. So you have to pick a lane. You have to pick something that is meaningful for to you and then proceed to start helping people around you as best you can. If that's gay gaming, that's like LGBT gaming, black gaming, Latino gaming, disabled gaming, kids gaming, any number of things, gaming, like pick a lane and go.

work with somebody doing that. because really in 2025, everybody's capacity to help other people has shrunk dramatically because money is becoming a problem for everybody. so you just have to try to help out where you can with that. That's even that's just you being a better person in your chats and your discord clients and trying to help one person at a time. Like it's, it starts locally, right? Like don't

people get wrapped up in these big visions of what they want to do and if they don't hit it or they'd be like, oh, that's not realistic or I'm not going to bother. It's like, we'll just help one person. that's the, right now is the best you can ask for because you know, it's getting tough out there. So.

Daniel Lipson (23:55)

the other game you mentioned on that show was World of Warcraft. what was your experience who did you play with and what did you like about World of Warcraft

Stephen Machuga (24:05)

World of Warcraft is a very pretty list of things to do. And it was just like a, as somebody who, as I've learned over the years, having that...

that daily task list of things to go do. Like I'm accomplishing something. Is anything meaningful? No, not really. But it's something where I have a list of things and I check it off at the beginning of the day, I do my dailies, right? They're called dailies. And there's just something about that flow of getting, it's like when they say like, make your bed at the beginning, like make your bed and you'll set the tone for your day. I hate making my bed, I don't do it. But.

I can understand that spark of like getting a thing accomplished and being like, all right, yes, onto the next thing. So I can understand why a game like that is so addicting to so many people because they don't realize it, but they're kind of cleaning up their own brain and lives while they're doing it, including myself. So when I was playing, I got back from Iraq three weeks.

before the launch of the original World of Warcraft and that I knew that was going to be something because I was a Warcraft, like original RTS Warcraft guy. And I was like, the Warcraft guys are putting out an MMO. this is going to be all right. Well, little did I know, but I was sitting in a Walmart parking lot at six in the morning on release day, waiting to get my seven disc sleeve binder and you know,

head home and all boy, all boy. And it was fantastic. It was just the thing I needed from transitioning from Iraq to being back home and being like, because there was like a, you literally just get off the plane from Germany. it's like, all right, I'm going to go to the mall and get a chili dog. you're just free. They just let you loose And it's like, well,

not having that transition period of being home and like dealing with humans again was very weird. It would be like, yep, you're home and nobody's trying to kill you here and you're not getting mortared or shot at or anything. It's great. It's like, well, this is bizarre. So. Just being home again and turning my brain off for several hours a day like that became my second job for a while there. Like it was just this thing as I was transitioning out of the military.

Like playing World of Warcraft was a great, great way for me to kind of get my brain pan re-scrambled. And yeah, it was great. And so that was the original World of Warcraft and then used it back in 2010 with my wife at the time who I forced to play as a birthday gift to me. said, all right, because there's, you know, you hit

You hit a point in your life where you're like, if I want it, I'll just go buy the damn thing. I don't need a birthday gift. We're all adults here. What are we doing? And so I was like, you know what? This is what I want. I want you to play this with me for 10 levels. Give me 10 levels of this game, one through 10. It's like two hours. Right. And she blasted through that with me and kind of fell in love with it in a way that I wasn't even expecting. And the only thing that got her out of it was end game raiding because she was, she felt stressed about

She was a healer, of course. And it was the only thing that got her out of it. like, I can't do this. And I'm like, I totally get you. So, but for a long time, that was our thing. And we would do it and I like, Hey, you want to get in game? It like, yeah, it was fantastic. So that was the second phase of my World of Warcraft addiction. then most recently with the dragon flight came out a year ago, two years ago now, I,

joined up with an actual World of Warcraft raiding guild called Valor that is run by a veteran. And I was like, is it time I go back to World of Warcraft? Of course, they're like, yeah, of course. Yeah, jump in. We'll take care of you. Don't worry about it. It's going great. And I joined those guys and I started full time like raid guild nonsense again and played for a while. And I played as a healer this time

and I did okay. I was hardly competitive raid guild ready, you know, after a couple of runs, I'm like, okay, I see it. I can see the lines. I get it. But I was not going to be their prime bench kind of guy. Although I was reliable. I was dependable. I'd show up on and people would say, we got a thing. And I was like, okay, I'll be there. So that got me a lot of points, but

just not being able to put the numbers up. So I ended up burning out of it because It's a lot to be a full-time raider for a group, especially as a healer, because then everybody wants you in your group. But that was two years ago and I haven't gone back again. I don't know if when I'll go back again I have found another addiction in my life called magic, the gathering.

And it's become a real goddamn problem. like a real problem. One that I was like, I'm almost 50 years old. I didn't know I needed a new hobby in my life, but apparently I did and holy shit. And I'm heading to magic Atlanta here next month. And yeah, it's a problem.

Daniel Lipson (28:58)

how do you see your experience with World of Warcraft in some of the programs that you have at stack up and what you're doing there?

Stephen Machuga (29:07)

so we have our mental health game nights where we'll just get everybody together and set a date and time and like, Hey, we're going to get in this game. Like Minecraft, something innocuous, Fortnite, some of the other games that we've worked with, games that are a little bit more shooty. But then we have our Zen garden, like, all right, we got a bunch of people playing dune together or, something where it's just coming together and chopping down trees with an ax or something like something mindless

Let's just talk and bullshit or don't talk like do whatever. World of Warcraft's a great example of one of those games where you just like I'm doing random stuff while I'm listening to podcasts or I'm talking to you about my day And this is how Overwatch started where it was like we're just playing video games together and somebody pipes in like, hey, I'm going to kill myself. It's like, or hey, I don't think I want to be around anymore. I don't even know why I'm bothering. you get those

two hours into a World of Warcraft, that kind of experience where people are in their comfort zone, they're doing their comfortable thing in their comfy chairs and their comfy clothes. And then they just loosen up over the course of an hour or two, and then they start really talking. Or sometimes they don't, but every once in a while, somebody was like, yeah, I'm just not feeling it. I'm just, I dunno what's wrong with me lately. And then you go, what's going on? What's, how's everything going? And then it opens up a whole new can of worms.

I did an interview with Polygon back in the day and there was a Battlefield release. I forgot what the story was, but they were interviewing me And when I've done interviews, there's a very like dress, right dress. Here's your public relations face that you put on and you talk and here's your answer and here's what you want to say. And here's what you don't want to say. When I was playing Battlefield, I don't know if they did this on purpose or not, but when I was playing Battlefield,

My walls came down in a way that when I looked at that, it was a video interview. And so they were doing the whole multi shot thing where it's like to me doing, playing the game The things I was saying while I was playing the game were not the things I would have usually said in an interview. Like it was very, very more open. was like, son of a bitch. And I, hold on a second. Like I was just a more emotional, it was an interesting,

light that went on in my head, like, oh, there's something here. That's really interesting. Like, I don't know what that is, but because I'm distracted, I'm not as guarded in my speech. And sometimes the, the truth would come out in ways that were just like, oh, okay. I don't know why I said that. Or I don't know why I said it like that. because we're not defending ourselves because we're too busy, chop chopping down a tree in Minecraft or

There's a skeleton coming at me. I got to deal with this. So that's where that transitions over as far as our mental health game nights, our Overwatch program, just being around and having folks available to interact when somebody's having a bad day. It's really important.

Daniel Lipson (31:42)

Yeah, and it sounds like right now you guys are the arbiters of a lot of these coaching, a lot of these game nights. Have you spoken with researchers, mental health professionals? Do you work with them? What has that conversation been over the crisis?

Stephen Machuga (31:57)

We have a paper that was written by a researcher speaking of World of Warcraft. She's a big World of Warcraft head. But a couple years ago during COVID, we had a researcher from Carnegie Mellon put together a research document about the effectiveness of our programs and how they were, and it's on our website, it's on our transparency pages, like, hey, why video games?

If you're not a gamer, you don't get it. And you have to explain that to everybody. like, well, why gaming? It's like, well, you see. that's a couple of years old now, but still has that effect of like, okay, Carnegie Mellon, that's a serious research organization. and it was in concert with the CDC center for disease control because center for disease control sees veteran suicide as a non-infectious disease.

When I first heard that, was like, sure, okay, that's interesting, but yes. So that was where we fell into with the Center for Disease Control. So we had a good run with them for a while, very expensive. That was something we got a grant for from them. And then they immediately took all that money back and gave it to the researchers. at the end of the day, we got this cool,

thing out of it. More recently, the ESA, everybody's favorite DC based.

lobbying company has been, they put out on May 1st this veterans and video game.

paper, what's the word I'm looking for? Survey. the results for a survey. And it was overwhelmingly positive, obviously, surprise. Gaming good. Who would thought? it's something like 75 % of veterans are gamers and use gaming as like mental health support when the VA isn't supporting them in the Senate. It was ridiculous. Like it's one of those things that...

Anytime I can point people at it and send people that like, here's the one sheet. Look at this. here, look at these, look at these numbers. It's insane. Like why video game? This is why video game. Cause everybody's doing it now. It's a, you know, $200 billion a year industry. It's like, you can't argue with those numbers. It's outpacing Hollywood and sports and everything combined. So the music industry gaming outpaces all of them. So it's not just

the thing that kids are doing in their basement anymore. It's this global phenomenon. And so that's why video gaming.

Daniel Lipson (34:09)

what do you love most about working in the game industry?

Stephen Machuga (34:11)

when we do get breakthroughs, we don't get a lot of support from the games industry anymore. lot of the games industry exists in China and the EU. And, despite us working with us and allied veterans, they don't care. They just see us at American based company. And they're just like, imperialist war machine dogs. even the people who are supporting us are kind of like, we're going to give you a check

Don't put this on social media, please. Like, because, because obviously so much of their population comes from places where the U S military is not well liked in 2025. In the U S military, not real popular. So it sucks. So we kind of have to take care of our own right now. every now and again, like the Kings Isle thing I was talking about earlier, every now and again, we get somebody who says it with their full chest.

And man, is it a nice feeling it should be that way. Everybody talks about supporting the troops, but boy, when it comes down to it, the real, the real no shit supportive troops, a lot of like half measures and like, Hey, we'll help, maybe not so much. Like, so it's a shame, but that's just where we're at. So when, when we do get big swings or when we do get like, we got a, we got a skin from Ubisoft for a couple of years ago for, a rainbow six siege character Valkyrie. And that was fantastic. things like that. When, when we get real home runs, it's really nice. So, and then working with the people, course, like not the industry folks, but the gamers, gamers are, it's so much fun working with somebody that when we come to them and we're like, Hey, do you want to help us? And they're like, my God, you came to me and you asked me for help. we're no St. Jude's, but we, you know, we're still

known in the industry at this point. And so people get excited to work with us. It's really fun when it's like, No, thank you. it's always funny when somebody thank so thank you so much for letting me fundraise for you. I'm like, yeah, keep it up, man. That's you are most certainly welcome.

Daniel Lipson (36:02)

do you need to be a veteran to work and partner with stack up?

Stephen Machuga (36:04)

No, no, no, no, no, no. Fortunately, like it's veterans and then veteran supporters, like the folks who support the vet, like, because everybody has a veteran in their lives somewhere, whether it's like a family member or they served, or it's somebody who like friend or family, you have somebody who's a veteran that just out there. That's, that's, those are just the numbers. It's pretty good chance nowadays. So if a veteran, and we have that here at the house where we've had people be like, Hey, can I bring my friend with me to the house? Like, I would rather you come to the house with a non-veteran or civilian than go, ah, if I can't bring my friend, I don't want to come. It's like, so yeah, it's like, all right, as long as people aren't abusing the situation where it's like, all right, now it's 90 % civilians and what are we even doing over here? that's kind of an issue, but yeah,

We're happy to have you. And especially the people that are just like, no, I just support the troops. It's like, God bless you, because that number is getting smaller and smaller every year.

Daniel Lipson (37:05)

what are you playing now and why are you playing it? What do you like about it? And secondly, what are you anticipating?

Stephen Machuga (37:09)

Abiotic factor just hit 1.0 a couple of weeks back. I started playing it, because my buddy's running the PR for it he's like, Hey, we hit 1.0

I got tired of playing these survival crafter games like bellwether and things like that. They're just like, you know, this is version point zero to three. And it's like, and I'd play 12 hours of it and then be like, come back in six months and we'll have something new for you. And it was the game would just end. And so I made a deal with myself. Like no more survival crafters until one point now and then Abiotic factor hit one point. I'm like, I'm in. So great game. Wasn't expecting it. Fun.

Stephen Machuga (37:46)

game set in the not half life universe, wink, wink, and it's a survival crafter indoors, which is interesting. So it's just, it's a lot of fun. I just, like playing survival crafters by myself, which is weird. I stream them at night every, you know, again, hitting chopping tree with wood. Okay. Here's my check block for today. I need to build this thing. I need to craft this thing today. And then I have my voice chat up what was I playing? It's the new one that just came out. Wildgate. I tried streaming that with a buddy of mine the other day and it was just like so sweaty I couldn't focus on my stream at all. over and I missed 20 messages So a game like Abiotic Factor, it's low.

low stress, low threat, low maintenance. Like you're building stuff out. There are threats walking around the facility, but it's not like, no, like stop for 20 minutes. can't breathe. I have to focus on this. Like, all right, everybody shut up. that's. ⁓

Daniel Lipson (38:40)

have you played the Dune game? heard that one was another one like that,

Stephen Machuga (38:43)

Yeah, yeah. Dune was Dune was fun. Got a little samey there for a while, like towards the I got to my I got to my ornithopter and I was like, I think I'm done like they have a lot of end game stuff with the because I played through there. I played through Funcom's Conan same way. I want to get to the end of this game and walked out of the desert in effect. So, yeah, it worked out pretty well. But yeah, the new Dune's pretty good, especially with I didn't do it with multiple people. It seems like it would be a lot of fun.

but yeah, I just can't do it. I don't wanna come back from a day of work and somebody has been playing for eight hours and like, I built everything. It's like, well, what are we doing? That's no fun. The whole point of this is for me to like find things and build things. And if you've already done everything, then what am I, like, no reason for me to even be here.

Daniel Lipson (39:28)

what are some things you enjoy outside of work outside of games?

Stephen Machuga (39:33)

Working out, working out was a thing. I got to my fattest ever three years ago. And it was like, okay, if I ever want another human female to touch me again, I probably need to get myself back in control, under control of myself. And so I turned it into a online thing, working out. It worked out pretty nicely. I dropped almost down to 60 pounds and I'm back on the beat. back on the block again. So it worked out pretty nicely, but working out has been like six, seven days a week as like a, cause I'm also almost, as I said, almost 50 and I'm starting to get to the point where people around me are starting to drop like flies and have a lot of medical issues and problems and aches and pains and things like that. And I'm like, I'm not having those, but I'm also spending three hours a night at the gym. it's like, pick your poison where it's like, okay, It's not three hours a night at the gym, but it's the from the time you put your workout clothes on to the time you get out of the shower after you get home. It's like three hours of my day is like tied up with that stuff. It's like cool, but also that's a lot of time.

Daniel Lipson (40:40)

It's the real life grind on top of your game grind.

Stephen Machuga (40:42)

Yeah. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. So when they're like, why haven't you played this or why haven't watched this thing yet? And I'm like, give me another 12 hours of the day. And then maybe we could talk,

Daniel Lipson (40:52)

Where can people learn more about StackUp? How can people support you? How can they learn more about you as well?

Stephen Machuga (40:58)

All the socials at stackup.org, D-O-T-O-R-G, stackup.org, all spelled out on all of the socials, including Blue Sky.

That's the best place. Obviously you got the website stackup.org, stackup.org. Yeah, that's, we have a Discord channel. It's discord.gg/StackUpDOTORG That's where you can come hang out with all of our folks. We've got 8,000 people in our community. Of course, that's like 80 people that are actually active, but you know, you know how that goes. Yeah, that's, that's where you can find us. That's where we're at.

And yeah, we'd love to have you. you have a veteran you think you could nominate or need some help or something we can help out, let us know.

Daniel Lipson (41:39)

And then how can people support you or what are you looking for or hoping for in the future?

Stephen Machuga (41:49)

get the word out, let people know if you can't donate directly or you can't stream for us. Like, you know, just let people know that's, that's really all we ask. Like if you want to always use more volunteers out there in the field, helping out, you know, folks out there that are building local chapters, as it were, our stacks program.

Daniel Lipson (42:08)

Do you any parting words of wisdom, parting thoughts?

Stephen Machuga (42:12)

help those around you as best you can right now. It's not good out there, but if you can help one other person, that's all you can ask for right now. Do the best you can to be good in your own world and to those around you. And just keep your head down, man. It's rough out there.