Gaming and the Golden Record 

Me: "Tetris better be on this because it is the perfect difficulty curve and example of interactive media." Daryl: *Pushes up his 1,000IQ anime glasses* "Tetris deserves to be here because it is a microcosm of human existence."

An honor to be part of the project alongside so many others.

Big shoutout to Chariot Rider for putting in the work of organizing this. You da man, man

Holy shit I had no idea how many people were involved! This is a massive undertaking. Glad I got to be a part of this!

The whole way through the beginning of Errant Signal's part I was whispering to myself, "is it Minecraft?", losing a bit of hope every time I uttered it. When Chris actually confirmed my suspicions, I slightly jumped on my chair out of surprised happiness.

_(was supposed to post it when it was released but life happened. Finally finished the video and this comment)_ My individual comments to each of the participants (hope they see this) * Lord Faust - Thank you for putting in a text adventure game. One you've selected is an excellent pick for explaining "economics", which could potentially be an alien subject to... aliens. * hotcyder - Wow, Katamari is an excellent pick. Great depiction of our urge to gather/grab/collect things. * Daryl Talks Games - Goddamn, your thesis of Tetris kinda stopped me on my tracks. I knew Tetris as a game was metaphor for life, but you laid it out so well. * A Playing Field - THANK YOU SO MUCH! One of the things that bothers me the most about Golden Record is that it's very USA or western centric. The "rich" and empowered ones have the 'right' the tell the aliens who we are, when most of the world (esp East, Middle East, Africa) didn't get a chance. Sidenote - I wish more international games enthusiast were on RU-vid to make meaningful games videos. * Games Score Fanfare - You brought into words something I had in mind. And communication also applies to humans too, where unintended things happen if thoughts aren't (or can't) communicated well. * Lambhoot - I was expecting an unusual pick from you, and you delivered. Now that I think about it, Wii Fit does represent accurately what humanity is actually like.... * Transparency - Excellent pick. Toy like nature games means that an alien an experience the same emotions as humans without being blocked by a fail state. Also, it's first time I've heard of you guys. And subbed you immediately. * eurothug4000 - One thing your pick really captures is gaming, as in the medium itself. Aliens would _probably_ also be curious about is what is this "gaming" thingy. Plus it helps that the Bots are adorbs and everyone loves them. * VZedshows - That's a great pick. This a very good "fresh start" game, as in anyone (including non-gamers) are on equal playing field in order to understand its ruleset and discovery its secrets (a very human thing to do). * Darkfry - Game makers are a great pick. It'll allow any alien species to build up their own stuff and see how we do our own creative works. Also, first time I've heard of you. Insta subbed. * retrohistories - Didn't expect to be this moved by our piece. I've nothing more to add to what you've so beautifully written. Wow, I really felt that... * TectonicImprov - Don't worry, aliens won't care for silly human arguments like "Is X actually a video game?!?!". I think this is an underrated pick, because something as mundane is talking to other people is a very common human activity that's sadly underrepresented. Also it's the first time I've heard of you. Insta subbed. * MandaloreGaming - Straightforward * I Am Error - I was single-player gamer my whole life up until recently when I connected with my college Juniors and played coop/multi-player with them. The feeling was really new to me. SF2 is great embodiment of that. * TehSnakerer - Showing humanity's stupid side is excellent way of communicating with aliens. At least, we'd be honest. I'd also put stuff like Sonic R and other weird ones too. * Chariot Rider - Beautifully that Interactivity is universal. Florence is an excellent example of a human emotion conveyed purely through that. Also love how you pronounce "Krish". Very close to how we do here in Hindi. * DavidOZ - Wow. This is one of my favorite explanations in this video. I love how you strung together concept of Time with Stardew. * SocraTetris - When I played The Talos Principle, the experience was so overwhelming (in a good way) that I still struggle to find words to describe it. You've put a lot of my thoughts into words, and more. Side note - I wish someone would tackle Hindu philosophy and existentialism into a game that isn't Shin Megami Tensei. * Zac Frazier - Great choice. I'd be a little concerned how aliens would perceive art. But I think TBG will force them to get curious as to what art is. I wouldn't say their day would be ruined, haha. * KingK - I'd say something cheeky like "burning bushes lmao", but that is the pure Zelda 1 experience. Bashing your head against the wall until one of the walls turns out to be pike of weak rocks. Trial and Error is a powerful human experience. Aliens can learn a lot about us. * MML's Commentaries - I love how you combined with the thought of "clearing things up" + universality of the audio visuals created a totally singular experience. Aliens can learn a lot that way and put their own interpretations into it. * Errant Signal - A very "Errant Signal" explanation of your choice. I feel those anxieties, that's how well you express yourself. Great compilation and a very Thought provoking outro. My GR would probably a puzzle game, something with physics involved, to let them know how laws of physics are same/different than what they have. Something like Cut The Rope.

Great Job organising this epic project Chariot! I hope the universal message of the video finds an equally universal audience.

This video is a celebration of humanity’s ability to cooperate. I love everything about this video, even if I’m not done yet. I’m so sick of misanthropy. I just want to appreciate how cool humans are.

Super super hype to watch this, man! I scrubbed through real quick to get a sneak peek and saw someone else talked about the original Tetris, super super fun! Total blast being a part of this. Creating my single-take submission rejuvinated my love of video creation. Thank you!

The thought of aliens finding a copy of Outer Wilds and having to translate the text/language of a different species feels very meta.

Wonderful video, and an absolute unit too, plowing the aliens with raw content

Game design is what makes us human

I would add Tunic to the record, as it is a masterclass on teaching someone how to play itself, recontextualizing itself regularly and has a guidebook inplemented into the game, but one you have to translate, something the Aliens would have to be doing anyway. It would also be funny if they started sending messages in the Tunic script and we as a species had to actually learn the language.

this is so good, everyone’s pieces are fire 🛰👽🛸🧘‍♂️

Great video and a really cool idea for a collaborative project! It's interesting to see others jump to similar first picks to some I thought of immediately for whatever reason - both VA-11 HALL-A and Life is Strange both came to mind for me, but if I were to pick one I'd go with Outer Wilds. Not because it's a representation of humanity or of games at large, but rather because it's a representation of the best parts of humanity in an ideal world. I'd hope any sentient beings would recognise its abstractions, neither the Hearthians' attitudes nor the planets are particularly realistic in a general sense, but it does capture the emotional core of what would make me want to contact alien life (if it exists in a way we could understand) in the first place.

Myst/riven and minecraft! those are the perfect games in my opinion to send out and are the most universal. I’m glad their mentioned.

Why go to space if the stars are here already 🤩

Thank you and all the speakers in this video. It was a wonderful ride and a wonderful look at what we are and what we want to be.

Thanks for listing the time stamps for chapters in the description!

This video kinda explains why I enjoy life, by using something I find important to human existence and to be honest what I find to inexplicably be my favorite art form and connecting them in my favorite type of video.

This deserve at least 10M views, amazing video! Thanks for doing this, it was so amazing

Loved the bit about Life is Strange. It's such a special game.

This is a beautiful masterpiece. This should have 1,000 times the number of views it currently has.

In The Three-Body Problem, ailens send us a video game about uncovering the mystery behind their planetary system's orbit.

Incredible video, great work. Thanks to all the contributors as well, really thought provoking stuff.

I love the idea of an alien getting a good cry out of florence

I watched the V-Sauce video on the Golden Record, listened to an album with it on its cover, and now this video in one day.

ah, another rabbit hole of video game essays to watch just like the mixtape collab thing. I spent all day going through the channels here, and now it's 1pm and there's still five more channels to look through.... sleep first, though

What a wonderful idea this is.

amazing video, hope it gains traction over time!

The aliens would be so confused trying to understand whats real and whats not

Damn you got Lambhoot and Tehsnaker nice man I'll give it a watch

My pick is between Shadow of the Colossus, Minecraft, Majora's Mask, or Earthbound. And obviously Tetris, but that's expected. Put them on a wheel of fortune skewed toward SOTC and Majora, and that is what's in my head. All of these (imo) encapsulate the core concepts of the human condition.

I like how most of the answers dig really deep into the question while Improv just chose Va-11 Hall-a because alcohol and YIIK cosplayers lol.

A great idea and a great execution!

Amazing mate

14:45 seeing those guys jump around in ecstatic joy was just heartwarming

Holy crap this is a long video.... AWESOME!

Great video

Sad this hasn't blown up

That is one awesome video :)

Well, three tetrises and a good argument for Katamari. Interesting! May it become new genre on RU-vid?

I think a good inclusion would be the little big planet games. These games are rich in real world cultural references, albeit heavily exaggerated ones, and more importantly emphasize one of humanities most important traits and desire, unlimited creativity.

This was great

Damn, been a long time since I heard TPF speaking. Great job on the video everyone.

Glad to see Minecraft there, I'd have thought something was wrong if it wasn't.

I just want to say that this sentence is brilliant 57:32

There are some wonderful choices on here. Talos Principle is particularly inspired, as is Stardew Valley. But I saw a clip of Journey early on in the video and couldn't stop thinking of it. Journey, that's the game I would send. A game which requires no understanding of language, with a story of exploration and loneliness, of perseverance and wonder, which then becomes one of cooperation and companionship! It's the ideal experience to form an extension of friendship to another civilization.

I would pick the first Mario Party, so aliens can experience the pain that is control stick spinning.

This is beautiful

I'd probably put in The Incredible Machine. It's got no real violence, it showcases our technology and cultural concepts, and also is about insatiated human curiosity and revelation.

what a project. *nods and bows*

Amazing

amazing video of such a neat idea and concept! surprised that no one even mentioned the one game that is about humans; The Sims. assuming this golden disk would be a collection of games, the sims (preferrably sims2 and newer) would work as a …. somewhat maybe functional manual that explains the other games as well; in the game you can see sims play video games themselves after all. The sims encapsulates human behaviour from an outsiders perspective; its not too abstract than tetris. You dont need to read human thoughts in order to understand that we eat, shit, sleep, laugh, cooperate, fight, procreate (and many more!) the issues i can see with the sims is that the simlish language would confuse the aliens since its designed not to have any grammar pattern, as well as the fact that the sims games are based on western first-world cultures. So maybe an expansion pack or mods that added a more inclusive the sims world would solve it, as well as mod the speech to real languages. it would allow the aliens to experiment with human behaviour and see how we react to it, all without the need to kidnap any cows or farmers ;p

You know, sending this might cause adam Sandler's pixels to happen. Do we REALLY want that?

Slightly disappointed Mandy didn’t send limbo of the lost or droods up into space. Only slightly The chaos would have been interesting

Hohokum gang!

hi! this was a very fun video to watch, and an amazing monument to what makes videogames art. really liked who you picked to participate in, and it shows a great deal of dedication of how focused you were in doing your task. if you’ll allow me, i’d like to give a little bit of a critique. I feel that the intro and the outro were a little overwritten. the curation of the contributors was efficient enough to offer a lot of great perspectives and insights, and unfortunately the ending, although beautifully written, didn’t add much to what was said before, and I feel like that hurt a little bit the pacing. still, great work, amazing idea!

Holy shit! Over an hour and a half of chariot rider? Fuck yeah

I guess he equivalent of war sounds would be Big Rigs and ET.

Cool project.

insane this has sub-1k likes some really neat bits, will be checking out some of these folks

While I wish there had been a bit more variance so there wasn't so much Tetris overlap, a fantastic and thought-provoking video nonetheless. I especially enjoyed Socra's summation of the Talos Principle.

the witness is such a great pick

Excellent job on the video! tho i'm slightly sad nobody sent mario up there..

Wait hold up a second is that the music from outer wilds? The museum one

4:48 This description could also be used to describe the intro for Disconnected by Queensryche..!! (evillaugh)

Damn, humans really love squares huh, Tetris was chosen 3 times

If I were to put a game on the golden record, I would put Receiver 2, a game about what it is to be human and to cope with mental illness through the lens of a symbol of humanity's greatest failing, the gun.

With how simple tetris is, its possible that aliens if they were able to find it might already have created their own version. Its interesting that that was so common though, when in my opinion minecraft is the most obvious choice.

Minecraft, of course, came from space so it makes perfect sense for us to send it back up there

Metro 2033 might be good- a first contact story that shows our capacity for understanding and destruction. A nice encapsulation of humanity, I think.

The word "enormity" was used incorrectly exactly three times in this video.

I like to think of how alien games look The controls spesifycli the carter not diferent from the back ground.

What do you say to another species about your own? What COULD you say? The enormity of the task of expressing to another race what your own is like is simply too big to comprehend, let alone undertake.

Game of Life. I know, despite it's name it's on the verge of being defined as a game, but hear me out. First, it's the most realistic game to actually be experienced by aliens, since it's so simple (only a few lines of code). Almost any other game will just be too conplicated. But this is the pragmatic reason, which is always boring. The REAL reason I think Game of Life should be sent to aliens, is because it best represents us on tje meta level. Here ois a piece of code that doesn't *do* anything, and yet we sent it to space. Why? because it's important to us. We use our knowledge and logic to create stuff just for pure creation. If aliens will get that record ever, they will inderstand at least one thing: we love to play. And this is the purpose of this whole experiment, isn't it?

I haven’t played life is strange, but the reasons it was picked are similar to why I’d consider Night in the Woods one of the most beautiful pieces of interactive media I’ve ever seen. At the end of everything, hold onto anything.

A bunch of people living in a bubble deciding what would be worthwhile outside of their bubble without any awareness of the bubble. Exquisite choices, truly the best video games have to offer.

"Are we alone in the universe?" Yes. Video done. But seriously, yes, it's so OBVIOUS that we are. We've been putting ourselves out into the universe constantly for so long that anyone who could read our signals would have told us to shut up by now. And there's no way they wouldn't read our signals unless they had less advanced technology, in which case we would have picked up THEIRS by now.

I only clicked around out of curiosity to see the selections but I'm gonna guess life is strange was selected because that person wants the aliens to think we're not so different because the characters in that game were clearly written by an alien instead of some other, embarrassing reason

huh'?

Too many words, too little substance. Too many of these bits, seem to be games the contributors like or find unique and then they came up with a convoluted script and reasons why it should be on the golden record. Only a few provide compelling reasons why their game would teach aliens about humanity.