29:12 - Shit, I've made fuck up, sorry. It was "H1Z1" that split into two products, not "H1Z1: Survivor Stories". I'm confusing it with "Infestation: Survivor Stories", which is what "WarZ" rebranded itself into. I've also used the wrong icon. My bad.
Also its Ring of Elysium not Rings. Otherwise an excellent video essay series, I know you have put a lot into these so maybe in a few months give us more! Really like your point of view and how you put it across in the sovietwomble way....
@@BlackWallMute If you use copyrighted music (there is Gun and Roses in this vid for example) sometimes the rights holder will put adverts on the video even if the YTer selects no ads. All the revenue goes to the rights holder, even if it’s one minute of music in a 40minute video.
@@raymondhu7720 well to be fair, it first appeared with the movies "Battle Royale", so the idea wasn't new. It's just that noone thought of making it into a game until it naturally did in DayZ.
@@RemizZ Well, the "Battle Royale" stories and movies just inspired and provided the necessary frame and form. The basic principle was always in shooting each other on sight.
TBH when PUBG was just starting out I was honestly thinking it's running on Arma 2 or 3 engine for quite a long time. Just the flexible anims and jumping were a bit suspicious to me, hahah. Seems like i wasn't all that wrong, just connected the wrong dots ;)
Someone: "damn, I love DayZ, I wonder how it came to be that way it is? Soviet Womble: "A long time ago, birds got lost in the galapagos..." Someone: "What does that have anything to do with the game" Soviet Womble: "WE GET THERE WHEN WE GET THERE"
(In reality) Rocket: Bet you I can make this much money in this much time Other guy: Aight, bet. Rocket: *wins* Cheers for the 40m, off to go start my own company, have fun.
I see a lot of videos about gaming market that say that games are made by businessman, not by players, and that this process ruins the games etc.. and then some company made the right thing, made a game as they would like to play it, instead of going for the money, and this is bad too apparently. No matter what you do, there always gonna be sad ppl.
I personally like classic much better than the battleroyale and I would never play Dayz if it was more like BR, so I completely don't understand why Bohemia's choice is shown here as so bad, just because they missed the billions dollars opportunity but simply went for other type of experience, as if making money is all that matters. lol
@@grzegorzkozinski2308 Oh yeah we really saw how well that choice worked out. They picked the lowest played, least populated mod type that had almost fuck all for features and player engagement and would you look at that? 8 years later the Standalone is seen as an effective failure that COMPLEATELY missed the mark and pissed it's biggest playerbase group away. It's *almost* like going for a 1 to 1 clone of the most *boring aspects* of the DayZ mod that barely anyone played was a terrible design choice and a bad business idea that EFFECTIVLY killed the Standalone the minute it hit the market. Who would have thought ya know!?
"Encounters with other players are fraught with tension because you don't know if they're friendly or secretly hostile." *Remembers a naked SovietWomble pulling an AK on two kids that were helping him because they thought he was a new player.*
All joking aside Womble do more shit like this. I know it's a headache, to put it mildly, but this was beyond excellent. You really have a niche for this.
Can we just take a few minutes here to process what just happened? Womble has created a 3 part, hour-long video essay on a mod of a Milsim game made back in 2012 complete with hilarious yet professional level editing and quality, and with in-depth well-researched talking points that grabbed our attention for a whole hour without letting us get bored for even a second. And he has received nothing but unanimous praise and applause for a video structure that he is passionate about.
The fact that Womble plays the entirety of “welcome to the jungle” means that he didn’t do this for profit at all, because all of it is definitely going to Guns N’ Roses’ record label, he’s honestly dedicated to this
Womble mentioned on streams, he doesn’t put ads on any of his videos, the reason being he hates advertisements. Any of his videos with ads on them are put there by companies who claim the video for one reason or another.
A) well worth it. B) he ABSOLUTELY paid for a license, or at least some permission, otherwise the video would have been blocked. Geffen (their label) flat out blocks and removes all videos with guns n roses content in it (studio recordings, at least), so womble must have had some form of permission or license to keep the video up.
actually most twitch subs and patreon already watched part 4 all the way to part 11, id say its basically finished just with errors here and there, i watched some of them and theres parts and points that he move to this video so he probably have to remove it from the next few video essays before releasing it
I'm a game Art & Design Student so being able to hear an insider's analysis of this phenomenon is BEYOND helpful. Knowing what happened, and where the devs went wrong, and the subsequent genre that exploded from it can really inform future game Development to make even better design roadmaps!
That visual representation of PlayerUnknown crashing his speed boat and it exploding with “Welcome to the Jungle” blasting in the background will forever be my favorite visual representation of the boom of the battle royale sub genre. Bless you Womble.
I personally find it mind blowing how it is possible to trace back from the dozens of modern battle royale games of today to the actions of a few key people. Dean Hall, with that basic DayZ mod, more or less is the reason why dozens of fully fledged games today are the way they are. (a lot of credit goes to PlayerUnknown as well). It must feel surreal to have affected gaming history in such a major way. And to think that we would probably not be were we are at if Dean Hall didn't have his experiences in the army to inspire him to create DayZ.
i think between dayz and minecraft hunger games, is where the modern battle royale could be traced from. it is fascinating to see what creates the next trend
@@jmjedi923yep Minecraft hunger games is definitely to be mentioned too. It's funny how we are all the incredibly small niche who experienced all of this before the genre turned into what it did.
Womble in the bullshittery episodes: bumbling buffoon who can't throw a grenade to save his life Womble in his essay: Gentleman, before delving into the core mechanics of this chargefree modification, let me illustrate my approach by drawing a frankly excessively detailed analogy to the fundamentals of evolution. I need more of this!
Intelligent people don't necessarily make skilled gamers, I'm not saying that he is unskilled, but I've watched brilliant people struggle to understand Minecraft, usually the biggest hurdle for them is that there's no concrete goal, there is technically an endgame, but it's not required in the slightest.
@@Kross8761 If youve ever watched Womble's streams you would know hes narrow minded and says a lot of dumb shit, but hes a perfectionist with the relevant qualifications to comment on the industry so when he makes these videos he has both high levels in production quality and content.
I'm worried that Womble might be so charismatic and intelligent that he might talk me into joining a radical insurgency fighting to destabilize a peaceful nation while committing war crimes and terrorizing the local population, but I guess it's not like he has a history of that kind of behavior.
@@blackmoon7668 in case you don't know. In the final antistasi episode SOMEHOW Petros, one of Womble's friends presumably, disappeared and when the server reset so they could be found, it erased everything they'd done in antistasi
@@foureye7058 you mean he took a few months to write the script, then dreamed of putting it together for years, before putting it all together in probably 2 months
That whole finale starting with "Welcome to the Jungle" for all the battle royales is still legitimately one of the best things to exist in all of RU-vid. Amazing stuff Womble
I can’t believe I’m 20 years old and I only just learned where the location of the Galápagos Islands were on the globe from a video about a computer game with zombies in it
Yeah, he needs to erect a paywall around the series to make all that sweet dev money! Lol Seriously great video essays. I was hooked and I never played DayZ.
Your reasoning is not random. Soviet used to be a quality tester for game developing/testing company located in London. Soviet talks a lot different aspects of games on his Twitch streams. So you are listening the reasoning of game developing worker. Soviet started his RU-vid career by playing games on his laptop while traveling between home and work (plus 1h). He started to share his clips with his friends and it began to bloom. Then came RU-vid channel, of which video you are watching, and Twitch streams. Streams are free. Only +20 s add in beginning added by Twitch and you can close them by becoming a patreon. www.twitch.tv/sovietwomble?sr=a . Highly recommended.
I find that so fascinating that PVP focused games like Fortnite and PUBG came from people who understood there was a gap in the market who wanted a pvp focused game
@@fort809 Aye, it was somehow too specific while being too broad. Which isn't helped by Federal standards and incredibly different State standards not meshing properly
@@cluanneyoula4634 from the clips shown at the end near end of the video, there is a Part 4 however it is simply in a short draft form & has not yet developed into a proper essay like these 3 that had been uploaded.
37:20 *"The DayZ Standalone really did leave the PVP Crowd high and dry. There was nothing that captured the spirit of what they really wanted."* Yeah, that kinda sucked. Aren't we glad that eventually... *"A big open map with random guns to find; with vehicles and airdrops..."* Huh, you know, that's funny. That sounds just like... *"With a strong emphasis on combat and getting there as quickly as possible..."* Wait a second... *"In order to provide lots of varied and unique combat encounters."* Hol' Up... Is this going where I think it's going?! *"That is, UNTIL..."* _(Welcome To the Jungle Theme starts playing)_ NO. FUCKING. WAY. *"Well... most of us know what happened next, don't we? :)"* OHH DAAAMNN!!
Let me say this, as a game lover, womble watcher for 6 years and an university graduate with a degree in Zoology and Conservation biology your explanation and essay on darwins finches was better than 90% of my professors' attempts. Great job Womble
Tells you all you need to know about college.lmao Random goofy gamer does a better job than someone with a teaching degree on explaining the subject. Love ya womble!
"I dont know if im good at making essays, im gonna give it a try"- SovietWomble, me after seeing the three essays, FFS, Give me more of this shit, i know you have it, just, GIVE IT TO ME xDDD
This video essay trilogy was a tremendous departure from your normal output, and I immensely enjoyed them. Please keep sharing your opinions, it's wonderful to see people talk about things they're passionate about!
same I love the essay type videos like NakeyJakey also does because the passion is really able to shine through.... gives me a warm feeling in my heart because I used to enjoy DayZ a lot
There is something so warm about listening to someone talk about something they’re passionate and knowledgeable in. For example, I’ve only ever played DayZ once, and I’ve never even seen this channel before. Yet here I am, hoping he makes more of these vids because I’m so invested.
The essay trilogy is surely quality content, and I like Womble's personality in general, so whatever video he makes, I'll enjoy it. His style, humour, manner of speaking, investment, he is so cool.
@@daemonvanmeir9697 I mean only a fool would believe in an unproven outdated asinine assumption!!!! Next thing you'll be telling me that something came from nothing!!!!! 🤦🏼♂️
I have a PhD in biochemistry and holy shit your 4 minute explanation of Darwin's finches is the greatest speed-run on divergent evolution I've ever come across. Always loved your bullshitteries, please do more video essays. They are worth the wait.
You are underestimating the influence of DayZ on Battle royale genre. It helped by making the successful template since without it, the battle royale genre would not be what it is today and might be just a niche game mode for FPS.
Wanted to say this. Was playing DayZ Mod from its early stage. The more mainstream it got, the more killing on sight / PvP it went. But still many cool moments with the squad
I mean seriously. Permission.Fucking.Granted. I love the bullshittery series, but I'm also a sucker for this kind of content too. It's a lot like Ralfidude on the DCS side. He can go from a Shits and Giggles video of them fucking around in DCS to an actual straight up educational master class on something like mastering the A-10C II.
@@spyderf16 thing is, I've never been *that* into video essays. Sure I liked some stuff, and even started on this crazy response of a response series on DS2 SotFS that lasted HOURS, but I think it just doesn't compare. A lot of these video essays are just big lumps of dry, hard to understand, complicated shit that overshadows high grade math by a mile. This? This is a masterpiece. I haven't lost interest ONCE. I laughed sometimes, every damn word had my absolute attention. Now granted this is mostly because I just love Womble as a content creator. But still. The video essays were pog as hell.
Ya know, usually when someone completely shifts gears with their content like this people get really mad, me too. Not here though. The way you presented this had all the comedy that your viewers usually want while also just being such a generally well formatted explanation piece that it's really just a treat to listen to whichever side of the fence people fall on. This isn't "good for someone who doesn't usually do this," it was just good. One of the best, really, so I hope you get to do more of these.
I wholeheartedly agree, in addition, the main reason why he has such a cult following are the personalities or THE personality that womble and his friends represents. Not strictly the content like most reaction channels do, which do not present their personality but the content being reacted itself.
Just a reminder: He got locked inside his bathroom and freed by firefighters thx to a woman calling emergency and saying "a woman is screaming for help"
On my second run through this essay series and I’ve gotta say the amount of work, understanding and research put in here by Soviet deserves SO MUCH MORE PRAISE.
i would say they maybe wouldn't go so big in such a short time. minecraft for example had and still has, a big server community with many variations of battle royale game modes. i don`t know i this had much to do with the arma battle royale but the minecraft battle royale starter to get popular roughly the same time.
Now that I think about it, battle royale would exist, but it would start as something more like hunger games, rather than zombie game with guns and huge map without zombies.
I mean Battle royale is not a unique game mode, never was, but Player unknown certainly was a DayZ modder, and got his original playerbase from that audience, and his was probably the most prominent Battle royale that really started the modern trend, so while it certainly expanded and catered to audiences from different games with similar tastes, the origin of it was DayZ
The concept, though, was in the air. In 1999 the Battle Royale book was published, and in 2000 they made the movie Battle Royale, where a bunch of kids were forced to kill each other in a battleground. In 2009 Collins wrote The Hunger Games which was basically the same book but she totally didn't crib from Battle Royale, honest. Two sequel books. In 2012 the Hunger Games film came out, the same year as the DayZ mod. I'd argue that the element of a successful BR vs. any other deathmatch shooter is the scavenging phase. Most BRs make this happen with a large starting area, weak characters at the start, looting to gain power, and constricting the arena to force players together. There are also gameplay features that increase the variety of worthwhile decisions; going to a place to scavenge ammo or food or medicine when you would otherwise have no reason to expose yourself by going there, or scampering for a supply drop for good gear when that creates interim vulnerability. Womble hit on this in one of the videos. With that scavenging phase we suddenly had a new game mode. The current popular implementation of the scavenging requires a huge map which is rare in deathmatch shooters; this means you can't just add a BR match style to a COD map because it won't work the same way. So a BR must be built from the bottom up and it feels like a new type of thing. If a deathmatch shooter figures out how to create a scavenging phase in smaller maps using some rule set then most/all shooters can be retroactively modded to gain a BR mode. It just hasn't happened yet. Although I'd propose that games like Natural Selection 2 are on the right track.
I sat and saw the video's lenght, saying: "There's no way I'll sit for 40 min just to watch a british ramble for a 8 years old game" But I did, and it was definitely worth it.
i got insomnia, cant sleep, but have a class at 12:00, decide to not sleep at all, then decide to watching all this 3 recommendation videos 8 am morning, i was like, "this 45 video is so long that maybe can make me fall asleep and miss my 12:00 class" but it worth it and the battle royale ending part was fun to watch
Having enough time to finally watch the series I came to a conclusion: it's underrated as hell. Sure, bullshitery series have more humouristic approach and are more appealing to a general audience, but the video essays have that something which they lack: high consistency of the topic. Sure, it may not have Cy's annoying yet oddly enough needed humour, ZF's chaos, but I'd love to see more of these. Sadly my interest in the series is late, and that sucks. Essays are gonna end definitely (if it didn't happen already) like that finch with adapting problem.
@@captain_e1052 It basically took it's PvP combat system (one of the things that made it more unique thanks to its focus on melee combat) and completely reworked it into something the fans didn't like, proceeded to keep reworking it until the population died and then they launched The Culling II which was a poor PUBG clone.
@@bluespart You left out the best part. The Culling II was such a terrible game that not long after it was released the devs un-released the game. So if anyone had previously bought The Culling II, they now basically have a collector's item sitting in their Steam game list.
These are actually quite old. The Closer Look talked about how these videos were available to a small audience of game critics, and that, when Closer Look saw these videos, he abandoned him Gaming critique channel as he realised that he was out of his league in terms of game reviews. I think its in the how to make a video essay video. From a year ago? Not sure
Imagine a video series where each and every video hits an often glossed over, tired subject but gets opened up from a completely different angle. And each video in the series is a continuous discussion. That's what this essay felt like, and I want more of it. It's like having those wonderful, satisfying conversations about gaming with friends but it just never fucking stops!
I feel as if Womble has hit upon an itch we need scratching. Video essays are probably one of the next big things, considering the success of channels like SummoningSalt and EmpLemon, and I'm here for Womble's style, inflection, humor and editing.
If Womble continues these he should do Elder Scrolls, Minecraft, Halo or anything he has experience with this is just fun to listen to even if you've never played the game which I never did but this is still a great watch.
I got literal goosebumps when the PlayerUnkown's PUBG speedboat landed on the cheering crowd of fans and "Welcome to the Jungle" started playing over a montage of the last few year's Battle Royale games. Please make more.
Baby Bird: "Mama, why does my brothers beak look different from mine?" Mama Bird: "We didn't want to tell you this, but your brother... he's adapted." Cool video, by the way.
17:40 - The concept of "The Big Nine" is interesting because if you think about it, the current Standalone only has the first 3 implemented in it's current state, with base-building still being something that is relatively new! In 2018, DayZ Standalone was perceived to be a "dead game" with player numbers very rarely peaking above 10k, now it has the 3rd of the 9 implemented the playerbase is in fact growing again - probably aided by everyone and their mum being inside all day due to the pandemic. The devs have probably missed the boat, I doubt the standalone will ever hit the original numbers that the mod did but there does seem like there is hope for it.
1 year later and DayZ peaks everyday at ~40.000 players on Steam. Being carried by the modding community which is trying as hard as they can to bring the big 9 into the game with the limited tooling they have from the devs. Base building arguably now being at the same level as it was back in the mod days. Crazy how these things correlate. :)
The fact that you were able to so eloquently explain and describe the process in each stage of its occurrence. While also breaking more complicated stages down to help the audience who never played DayZ. Is a departure that is very welcome and desired at least by me. From someone who played DayZ Mod for almost 3 years constantly and consistently. It brought back so many memories. so many last stands, attacks, loot runs gone south. vehicle ambushes, helping out fresh spawns. getting murdered by those same fresh spawns 2 hours later, 2 hour long PVE fights against AI. it brings back so much nostalgia and a smile to my face during such a dark time in humanities long history. Keep this up Womble!
Our class just started learning evolution in school, and our teacher showed us the first few minutes of this video to teach us. I found this hilarious and bragged to my friends later that my teacher showed us SovietWomble in class lmao
This is just genius. You reel us in with your sarcastic humor we all know and love, and then bash our faces in with informative content. In my opinion, you managed to walk the line of sarcasm and lecture perfectly where I was never bored and learned a lot along the way. I've been vaguely aware of a lot of the parts that you bring up, but to see how they all connect with each other was really interesting. Please make more of these.
I agree I have ADHD so this was one of the few times I was able to actually sit down and watch a 40+ min video without getting distracted I normally would be constantly pausing and getting distracted doing other things and end up taking hours just to fully watch a 20 min video
It's so interesting to continue applying a lot of the concepts outlined in the video to modern popular games. Escape from Tarkov is pretty huge these days which employs a heavy dose of PVP & classic survival elements with a healthy sprinkling of basebuilding. It seems like a divergent group of both survival and PVP focused players are begining to form a new super hardcore focused subgenre. I'm very interested to see how it starts to develope through upcoming games like Stalker 2. Amazing video essay though, I've watched it like 3 times now and it's so awesome to find such a passionate video about such a key and integral game.
_"If you'll permit me, I would love to keep doing that."_ I would also love for you to keep doing that! You've made a video that broke down the issue in a simple, entertaining way. Please, continue! Also I saw that at 29:40, you sneaky bugger.
Well holy shit, "the scales fell from my eyes" is a saying I now understand, I fully predicted the finches are mods thing, but I got completely suckerpunched with the "this is why battle royale exploded" segment Just amazing video
Yeah that completely blindsided me as well. I always knew that PUBG came from the old Dayz mods but never correlated to how the starved PvP players contributed to the explosion of battle royale games. When you think about it, BI literally had the formula and ability to be the first one to make a battle royale game right in front of them but they didn't, and literally lost on getting billions of dollars from not opening that market.
My god I was trying to piece everything together myself (mostly got the finches and DayZ comparison) but FUCK that Battle Royale Explosion was a twist i didn't expect and he nailed it right on the head. I'm extremely impressed.
This video should be titled: "Gaming: How did we get where we are today?" Because frankly, this video provides so much insight on things I was vaguely aware of, but never thought to put together into one mold, that I'm just mindblown at this point! It just goes to show, evolution is a very real thing, whether we're talking about life or games.
Ive tried explaining how BR games are all stemmed from DayZ to my friends so many fucking times, and they all just act like im an idiot and theres no connection. Thank you, Womble. Im not insane, after all.
I imagine that most of the people in your friend group have never played DayZ, mod or standalone. Taking one look from the footage would immediately make people click and say 'oh yeah, this is the grandfather of them all' I tell ya, people think that BR's just popped up outa nowhere.
I did a double-take when I realized how long this essay was. This just goes to show how something thoroughly entertaining (also deeply informative) presented professionally passes time quickly. This is evidence enough of quality over quantity, so please do continue with these and take as much time as you need. You've really outdone yourself with this one Womble. Cheers!
30:40 My man just had THE reaction that sums up everything you do when you re-watch a movie with a plot twist. Nicely done haha Fr, great vidéo essay, i loved it from start to finish
I‘ve stopped counting how often i‘ve watched this series, but i just wanted to say how much i love your essays. So please please continue to make them!
You guys DO realize that he just uploaded 3 years worth of content in a minute, so he just "pre-paid" all the content he'd need to put out for that time, right? See you all in 3 years folks 👋
This video is truly, truly genius. I played throughout this whole era and so many of us experienced exactly what this video outlines. Never could i have dreamed to summed it up so impressively well. That 2012-2015 era of dayz was truly a golden moment in gaming history.
@@KIMWEXLERGAMING Its not the point, Blizzard tried to cash in DotA but the resulting product is way different and way less popular. They also made changes to their Eula that makes them own any user generated custom content like maps while also killing Lan play.
I feel bad for them. Bohemia is one of the last studios i love and trust. they truly deserved the money. they built a foundation for many awesome gamemodes like KOTH, battle royal, Arma Life, DayZ and so on. they will always have a special place in my heart. but its hard to forgive the Standalone desaster
I find this interesting. When presented with the three main types of DayZ players, I thought to myself, "I'm sort of between types. I like a game where you have to struggle with survival, but have the option to build a base with options to create a better way to collect resources, automatic water generators and such, that offer a player more efficiency, freeing up time, and allowing more and more improvement in lifestyle (aka base building). Then I realized, I was describing perhaps my all-time favorite game, Don't Starve. Then I immediately realized that DS doesn't allow the construction of dwellable structures ( or at least did not used to) and immediately remembered that this was one of my strongest critiques of the game.
This Serie is so stockfull of information that a business -,history-, game design student could make an A grade report out of it. Something different but still a killer of a video Soviet!
Remenber when you were a Child and tried to explain to someone How cool that stick you found was Nice? That feeling of "I want to talk about this thing, because I like It". Those three videos are a mature version of that, grown up from life experience to basically academic analisis content.
This is why I subscribed. It's not just for bullshittery, but the fact that time and time again Womble's content clearly shows the love and passion that he puts into it. It's entertaining to watch *because* of the fact that it's well made. These essays really gave me that XboxAhoy vibe when he talks about video game industry history, it's professional yet still remaining humorous and entertaining. It really was interesting to learn about DayZ's history and how it became the way it did. Whenever your next video drops, whether its a bullshittery or another video essay, I'll be around to watch.
I don't know if I've commented something along these lines before, but I absolutely adore the analytical lens you use when talking about games. Thinking of the evolution of genres as literal evolution and speciation is something that I like to do myself and I rarely see online. Your narration is spot on, your editing is crisp and clean. I'd love to see more, and I'm genuinely considering becoming a patron or whatever it takes to get a look at the stuff you have in progress. Also, the way that you break things down in this video has me thinking about how I would make a game in this genre and now I genuinely want to try.
MOOORREEEE!! Seriously, this format really suits your set of skills, expertice and presentation style. Give us bullshitery and video essays both and we will continue to overlook your upload schedule and LOVE our quarterly dose of SovietWomble.
This man just explained evolution more thoroughly than my high school biology teacher. *On a DayZ video.* Granted, I do live in Alabama. Also, I don't think my teacher even really understood evolution, or was religious, and didn't want to "spread it".
man, that was GENIUS! You really opened my eyes on history of all this genre! This essay was really, really great. Metaphore with birds was also really, reaaly good :)
