Games with Deeper Meanings

Kolph

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Games with Deeper Meanings

Made this thread for the discussion of games that have interesting messages behind them; it being a political one, a societal, or even something as simple as reflecting on human nature.

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For my submission to this thread I'd like to discuss The Talos Principle, a fairly obscure puzzle game that divulges into what it means to be human and what we define as a conscious being. You awaken in a garden and are told by a being called Elohim you're allowed to roam the lands you see before you but you can not enter the tower for you will die, essentially playing off the Christian creation myth. Throughout the game you're prodded with questions regarding morality, philosophy, civilization, free will, etc, on computer terminals, primarily through the questions of a apparent library assistant (guess who this character is based off of), and the game does take you aback with a lot of the arguments and propositions that are put forward. Also, throughout the game there are many information snippets and audio tapes you can pick up that serve a similar role, encouraging you to think over what you actually know and how founded your belief system actually is. The game has many routes you can take that will reflect on your overall thought process and while the game is noted for pushing across a rather atheistic message, it does pay plenty of respect to religious concepts, and doesn't state them as being invalid ways to think. Oh, and the puzzles are good too I guess. Check the game out.

Would love to read your submissions about what gaming media really gripped you with the message it was trying to get across.
 
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Thanks for the recommendation, I'm not a huge gamer but I like to hear about interesting games that escape the mainstream radar.

For myself, if it's okay to mention a visual novel, I recommend Wonderful Everyday (Discontinuous Existence). It's literally a perspective shattering experience. The story takes place in the month of July 2012 and is told from the perspective of 5 different unreliable narrators. Some characters have different perspective on the same occurrences, and others have perspectives that explicitly contradict what other characters experience. The work itself makes references to Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophies and other wester authors and thinkers. One of Wittgenstein's famous conclusions about philosophy is that language itself is fundamentally flawed, and will always lead to misunderstanding. Wonderful Everyday takes this notion a step further by getting you to experience being inside the heads of multiple different characters and witnessing how they literally experience different realities based on their perspectives of the same events.

Also, the first chapter was made to filter/troll the reader. It will seem bad and completely unrelated to the whole work until you finally get to the true ending (End Sky 2), which will lead you back to the first chapter but with a completely new perspective. In other words the purpose of the first chapter is more to be reread than it is to be read. But of course the paradox is that you can't reread something without first having read it.

For those looking to sample the VN to see if it would interest you or not, I think this scene from Chapter 3 (It's my own Invention) does a good job showing how fucked some of the character perspectives can be:


View: https://youtu.be/VNUMXvFgsDo
 
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Kolph

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Thanks for the recommendation, I'm not a huge gamer but I like to hear about interesting games that escape the mainstream radar.

For myself, if it's okay to mention a visual novel, I recommend Wonderful Everyday (Discontinuous Existence). It's literally a perspective shattering experience. The story takes place in the month of July 2012 and is told from the perspective of 5 different unreliable narrators. Some characters have different perspective on the same occurrences, and others have perspectives that explicitly contradict what other characters experience. The work itself makes references to Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophies and other wester authors and thinkers. One of Wittgenstein's famous conclusions about philosophy is that language itself is fundamentally flawed, and will always lead to misunderstanding. Wonderful Everyday takes this notion a step further by getting you to experience being inside the heads of multiple different characters and witnessing how they literally experience different realities based on their perspectives of the same events.

Also, the first chapter was made to filter/troll the reader. It will seem bad and completely unrelated to the whole work until you finally get to the true ending (End Sky 2), which will lead you back to the first chapter but with a completely new perspective. In other words the purpose of the first chapter is more to be reread than it is to be read. But of course the paradox is that you can't reread something without first having read it.

For those looking to sample the VN to see if it would interest you or not, I think this scene from Chapter 3 (It's my own Invention) does a good job showing how fucked some of the character perspectives can be:


View: https://youtu.be/VNUMXvFgsDo

Here is a good video actually that goes into the game's core message though albeit some spoilers:
View: https://youtu.be/cnH4KyZ-5tc


Also interesting, so is the game essentially a troll VN that also delves into some deep subject matter then?
 
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Here is a good video actually that goes into the game's core message though albeit some spoilers:
View: https://youtu.be/cnH4KyZ-5tc


Also interesting, so is the game essentially a troll VN that also delves into some deep subject matter then?

Haha, funny story about the video you linked. I got into a somewhat heated argument with Max Derrat in the comments section of one of his videos years ago and I've avoided his content ever since (I know it's petty of me, but eh). Hopefully his opinion has changed since then, he was arguing that autistic people are objectively smarter than non-autists.

I wouldn't call Wonderful Everyday a troll VN, but the author is a hell of a troll himself and that does show in the story. If you are interested in it, I would recommend this blog post about it: (link here). As far as I'm concerned the guy who wrote that blog was the among the smartest people in the western VN scene, and I'm still shocked that he tragically died a couple years ago. I even exchanged messages with him a couple times and he was a really cool guy.
 
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Kolph

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Haha, funny story about the video you linked. I got into a somewhat heated argument with Max Derrat in the comments section of one of his videos years ago and I've avoided his content ever since (I know it's petty of me, but eh). Hopefully his opinion has changed since then, he was arguing that autistic people are objectively smarter than non-autists.
Fella is an autism supremacist? Thought you only found those types on /r9k/ lmao.
I wouldn't call Wonderful Everyday a troll VN, but the author is a hell of a troll himself and that does show in the story. If you are interested in it, I would recommend this blog post about it: (link here). As far as I'm concerned the guy who wrote that blog was the among the smartest people in the western VN scene, and I'm still shocked that he tragically died a couple years ago. I even exchanged messages with him a couple times and he was a really cool guy.
Oh sorry to hear about his passing. Will have to look into the blog. The western VN scene is rarely spoke about so it's good to see examples, such as the one you've given, having gained some prominence.
 
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The western VN scene is rarely spoke about so it's good to see examples, such as the one you've given, having gained some prominence.
I don't want to derail the thread too much, but one more thing I want to add is that what made him impressive wasn't just the fact that he was a really well read guy that had a huge passion for VNs. He was also translator of a couple really high profile VNs including Dies Irae, which for a long time was considered "untranslatable". It was him and a couple of other people who worked on it, but I think as far as translations go it's quality is stellar.
 
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SomaSpice

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For a very enjoyable experience that leaves you with something to ponder about I'd recommend "Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk", and its sequel "Milk outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milk". They're visual novels dealing with how a person with what I assume is schizophrenia tries to operate in the world. Very useful when interacting with people in this forum.


Here's some videos about the games
 
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Pathologic:
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I have no mouth and i must scream:
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Syndicate:
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Kenshi
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Phobos:
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Racing Lagoon:
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Meu Deu Sex (This is a really obvious one, but i want to spare another user from using it as an example)
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It's an upcoming game, but seems promising to be honest:
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and of course, big rigs over the road racing
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