Special thanks to the VGATWTOE boys for lending me their voice talents. Twitter: / kayandskittles Patreon: / kayandskittles Twitch (we stream every weekend): / kayandskittles Renegade Cut's video: • Thanos Was Wrong - Eug...
@@abundantchemical6335 wat that is your hopeful idea? Becoming the butchers? Did I miss something - aren't we the pigs, the people the machine was made for?
Mustard gas: WWI Two brothers fall: 9/11 Holy wars: Arab-Israeli Conflict Autumnal fallout: Nuclear warfare Trenches for refugees: The Holocaust Murdered dissidents where the ground never thaws: The Cold War Starved the masses into faith: The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution A child's shadow: Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki House of skulls in the jungle: The Vietnam War Imagine you're exploring, touch some weird rock, and then suddenly see flashes of human horrors beyond your imagination. That's what happened to Mandus and his VA absolutely killed it in this ending speech.
@@michimatsch5862 I personally have a neutral idea of nihilism and would describe myself as a nihilist in terms of how I understand the world, but I don't think it's something that says you don't, can't, or shouldn't care about things.
Looking at reality isn't cowardice, but maturity. A thing is to use nihilism as a way to ignore your failures, another is to use it to destroy all the self imposed rules we have drilled in our brain since we are born: positive nihilism is realizing that the world makes no sense, so the only thing to do is what you enjoy doing.
There was a cut alternative ending for the game. (The few existing sound files are still easily accessible in the game's files.) In that ending, the ultimate function of that machine is a nuclear explosion which you then cause, to presumably nuke London. You cause this tragedy in hopes to prevent any further tragedy. Much like the character of Ozymandias in Watchmen. Your character's name is also Oswald Mandus.
It's even more extreme than that - the Machine implies that it is drilling down to the 'egg' at the core of the Earth in order to split it. Ergo it wants to ignite the entire planet.
Been dying to see someone tackle this game from the angle you have, this is by far one of the best essayist channels going at the minute. Can't wait for more content mate, it's thoroughly entertaining and informative.
When I started seriously studying XX century in high school and then college, I literally cried over history books. I still do, sometimes. So it was mortifying to play this game and relate So Damn Much to the main character. And I never thought that a positive message could be born out of such darkness. This video meant a lot for me, it brings hope to an exhausted heart. Thank you so much.
"Death to Utopia! Death to faith! Death to love! Death to hope!" thunders the twentieth century in salvos of fire and in the rumbling of guns. "Surrender, you pathetic dreamer. Here I am, your long awaited twentieth century, your 'future.'" "No," replies the unhumbled optimist: "You, you are only the present."
Thank you. I’ve had depression for about 2/3 of my life now. The past few years each stole the crown from the last one for “hardest years I’ve ever lived through” and the thought of 2021 terrifies me, because I have no idea what it’s going to take from us next. It’s so hard to see any light in the cracks. It is so hard to keep clinging on in the hope that maybe, if I grasp hard enough, maybe one day things might get easier. The things I struggle for might start happening or the things making my mind go to where it does might slip and fall away. But it is so so fucking hard to keep going. Thank you. Thank you for showing that you see me. We may never meet, but you have touched me and it’s helped. Thank you.
It feels so desperate when every next year gets "The worst year in my life" title. Currently going through that as well. I feel you. Keep going, friend.
I have some...very Doomeristic tendencies, and this year has only been making that worse. This video speaks to me a lot because of that - it really is terrible, the world honestly, truly, is awful right now. Everywhere I go there's a distinct, underlying, sense of stress, as dozens of masked people walk around, hoping they don't get sick. I love games with a lot of escapism for that exact purpose, but the games like Amnesia: Machine for Pigs, are really good for processing the strange and often nihilistic feelings that the world loves to create. I love them for that exact purpose. I've seen a few of lefttubers bring up A:AMFP recently, I'm glad it's getting the attention it deserves.
I guess doomerism is somewhat tied into the idea of suicide but having had those thoughts in the past and somewhat recently. I felt very understood if that makes any sense because having these thoughts and seeing how people react with such optimism most of the time like things will get better while good intentioned feels very invalidating especially in the world we find ourselves in. And having someone just saying yeah the world is dogshit instead of sidestepping it to try and instantly get to the optimism/hope convo. Just feels like what i needed today. So thank you.
Hey, I totally relate to that. Nothing like toxic positivity to spice up your suicidal tendencies. Acknowledging that everything is awful is a step to healing, if there's to be any healing at all.
I played this game when it came out and really liked it. It was a kind of horror I had never really seen up until that point. It does feel like you’re on a conveyor belt, but to me that enhanced the horror. You were slowly realising that all of this was your fault and then coming to terms with the decision to stop the machine all while it reminds you exactly what the consequences of that decision will be. It feels like inevitability. The kind of inevitability I’ve only felt with Lovecraftian horror. It made me feel small. I have a big streak of doomer in me - most of my generation does - but I am also very utopian. I misunderstood this game when I first played it. The decision felt like: “do I kill all of humanity or do I kill all of humanity.” Your comparison with capitalism here made me realise that what this game made me feel was what my fight against capitalism makes me feel. A sucking in. An inevitability. A feeling of helpless, hopeless grind. As I’ve got older though, I do see the ray of hope. If we can turn off the machine, we may suffer for a while but there will be hope for a different, better future.
Incredible vid. An interesting way to make a powerful point about how looking back can help us look forward. I've heard quite a few good things about this game too, and even though I've owned it for ages I've never actually played it myself. Should probably get around to changing that.
Fred Hampton - civil rights leader and socialist responsible for calling truces between street gangs in Chicago. He was openly assassinated by the US government in 1969.
You create some of the most insightful, entertaining and cohesive videos on this site. I swear to god every time I watch your content I come away with very intriguing thoughts. Thank you for all the hard work friend.
I love Machine for Pigs so much. I know that final monologue by heart - and it's... It's so tragic, isn't it, that we know the things he saw will actually happen. But if there is no future, then there will be no chance for good things to happen, either. And good things will happen in our future, too.
this is one of my favourite games to date. it's so raw and the storyline and music is simply amazing. i've replayed it multiple times just because i can't get enough of it. thank you for making a video about this game. i'm very happy someone tackled it
you don't move forward in the world as a doomer. Change happens when you look not at the terror, but the opportunity for positive action. One of Australia's best reformers, Gough Whitlam, set in place reforms that transformed an entire nation from a backwater to one of the best, not by complaining that the system is inherently "conservative" or that the tactics of the opposition was unfair, but by seeing a way to reform the country in spite of those restrictions. He was couped illegally halfway through his first term, and yet did more than the previous government that had the longest term in history.
6:48 So basically his position is that of an anti-natalist pushed to the extreme. He doesn't just believe that birth is immoral but also that everyone should die to prevent suffering.
"maybe this game should feel like it's suffocating and restricting, like it's taking away your agency and forcing you down a linear path" This is a very generous reading of the game and honestly, sure why not. But I would argue actually being able to struggle against such restrictions, only for them to prove stronger, could be more satisfying. It just doesn't really utilize the medium all too well. Even if you want to argue its greatest strength is just that, I feel it could've had a much bigger impact if it actually DID utilize the medium better.
Yeah i thought it was a bit dishonest to frame that criticism almost like it only came from COD fans. I loved the dark descent. I also love what remains of edith finch and the beginner's guide, walking simulators. Walking simulators have a particular form as well which you can use well or poorly like any other. I also don't think machine for pigs used its form all that well.
This is such an old video, and I usually don’t comment but thank you for this message. I found this game accidentally by playing a Minecraft horror map recreation and ended up playing the game myself. You’ve voiced a lot about my concerns and my cynicism for the future so well. I’m working in research regarding infectious disease and have a love for all things stem and history. I’m constantly going down rabbit holes of how humanity is killing itself, how there’s atrocities on the news, how divided people are on the system that is actively oppressing us, and not allowing us to look out for each other,and I’ve felt like I’ve lost hope for humanity. It’s these types of videos that give me faith that maybe the future may not be so bad, that there are people that still care and that there are others who have achieved victories in human rights and activism before me, and that I am not powerless. Thank you! I can’t wait to binge the rest of your content.
Sophie from Mars mentioned the concept of a comfort essay at some point or another and this is definitely mine. I see so many things pointing out different ways everything is fucked and then I come back and watch this again and remember that the future I dread isn’t actually inevitable
I think the poor reception might have also had to do with the trope of "you (the player character) are a horrible person" being really popular at the time. Capital-G gamer types were maybe picking up on a shift towards game stories that weren't just "lone badass saves princess" or whatever.
I liked the focus on how gaming CEOs pitch "agency" and "choice". It is ultimately what perpetuates the neoliberal hell and furthers doomerism. If we consider a game (really any media) as an interaction between one or more people, a game which gives total agential control to one person isn't a game at all. The idea of videogame in which the player is given omnipotence is both the epitome of neoliberal ideals and one with no artistic value. A toybox which never challenges or responds to the player and is fully slave to their desires is an empty prize that can only lead towards feelings of meaninglessness and suicidal ideation. Hey have you played Dragon's Dogma?
So glad to see someone tackle this game! I really loved it when I first played it (I think games are supposed to make you feel something, not have an iventory. Radical, I know) and I really enjoyed your interpretation of it and your analysis regarding doomers! :) Your content is always worth watching!
I turned into a pig a couple years ago working minimum wage jobs wasting away towards the inevitable slaughter house but when I've started watching leftist youtubers and reading books on socialism I turned back into a human being with hope for the future.
You just summed up the reasons I still cling to optimism. As bad as things seem now, I know we've gone through even worse and made it out the other side,
Re: the criticism, I have no issue with walking sims, but I have to admit I was pretty disappointed when this game came out because I was expecting something more like the first Amnesia. I think if it were an original IP it would have had a much better reception. Maybe I should actually go back and play it now
Fantastic video as always, and as the season gets colder and more gloomy, it's easy for even the most radically optimistic among us to become, even temporarily, Doomers. This video, I think, counteracts that ease by throwing back at us the hope that we can have. Thanks, Kay (and of course, Skittles).
Your description of the "machine", including the part that you left out, is the theory of evolution. It is the process of change from, what you were, through what you are, resulting in what you will become.
I know I am a bit late to the conversation. However, I think something really interesting to note is in Mandus views the only way to destroy the current system that led to those atrocities he saw he couldnt imagine a way that could fix those issues or that there was a different machine that could be made. He defaulted to making another machine that would destroy the world because he believed that detaching from that system he was raised in that had made him believe there was no other systems that could exist. You could say he made the machine since he had descended so far into the machine of our world that he couldnt see outside and believed that the system couldnt be taken down so we must be spared from its horrors through death.
i bet you'd enjoy soma. it's made by frictional games and it is, in my opinion, the scariest video game ever, but not in any obvious way. the deep dread the game left me has made me question so much about life, humanity, and the universe. please do check it out, it's way too underrated
On the topic of walking simulators, one game that stands out to me is That Dragon, Cancer. Such a good game and it just pulls at your heartstrings the whole time. Another example probably being The Beginner's Guide.
I always liked this game and this was a great critical read. Also very cathartic as I personally have been feeling ground down by the state of the world. Thanks for the video, your work is much appreciated!
Excellent video Kay. I hadn't seen anyone else so clearly connect the theme of the game with doomerism. The point of doomer mentalities stemming from caring too much instead of not caring at all gave me a new perspective.
The last 5 minutes of this video made me cry. I haven't cried that strongly in a long time. I know you probably won't see this comment but this video was extremely helpful. Not because I learned anything new, I wasn't aware of the video game but the analysis of our present existence under neoliberalism isn't anything new to me, neither is the uselessness of doomerism, but it still didn't prevent me from falling into a depressive episode and this hatred for this unjust society we live in. I was aware of all these things and so on but the mirror you were holding back at me really did something with me. Thank you.
God this channel is so good! I was a doomer. It was so painful! But I managed to get out of it when I looked more into Marx and worker movements in the U.S. and around the world.
Wow you are coming in hot with some absolutely awesome takes and observations. I can't but nod my head in agreement to, well, all of it. Doomerism is a natural individual reaction to what is a truly collective problem. It's part of our job as conscientious people to pull our comrades out of that pit of despair, and there's really only one tool at the disposal of those of us who have little else. Solidarity.
maybe this track is open source or something, but isn't this emotional track that plays during the mandus rants the same one from shane koyczan's "to this day" poetry video?
