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He had been corrupted by Milton and Elohim, believing in nothing except the puzzles because puzzles cannot lie.
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I feel like I’ve been through some sort of meta process here, reading Joel’s thoughts on Joe’s thoughts on the game.
(Do you know a Jo or a J to add to the chain?)
I somehow missed the big Talos series back in 2015, I think possibly because I hadn’t played it yet, or was playing it at the time. Or maybe I did read it and I just don’t remember. Either way, I’m looking forward to going back and reading or re-reading it.
The newsletter is full-spoilers, but I don’t know whether to spoil here, so the following statement will be a bit vague but slightly spoily…
I love The Talos Principle and wouldn’t change it, but I wonder about the efficacy of the choice you’re given near the end. One choice, which might present itself as the “Good”, or at least like happened to Joe, can be accidentally bypassed, is the outcome that differs significantly from the Edenic metaphor that the whole game is going for. I’m not a religious person, but I loved that part of the game … it seemed in my playthrough that the purpose of the simulation, the way that the child program achieved sentience and personhood, was to do the equivalent of the Eden thing… that’s Free Will baby! Don’t let the gate hit you on the ass on the way out. It’s part of being human that we might sometimes break programming and fancy an apple. So, in this practically perfect game I feel like the one flaw is that that choice doesn’t mean anything. I feel like by *not* breaking the rules, the program has not completed, and it’s time to run the next generation of the algo which might get a step closer.
I wonder if that was part of the original intention, but maybe discarded as it would feel like a cruel ending for non-apple-enjoyers.
Hello Mr B
I think I might be all J’d out and I’ve have to start mixing in other letters into this soup.
During the recent Croteam interview (a bit that wasn’t included I think?) Jonas talked about how the endings were a bit of a mess and that hardest ending to achieve leads to… well, it’s somewhat worse than the real ending. In the sequel, it sounds like they’re tackling this problem and the multiple endings all have their proper place. We’ll see, though! We’ll see.
Hello. Afraid I had to skip the Talos talk (one day I’ll play it) but did have one thought about your conflation of react content and streaming content. Speaking as a single (but opinionated) data point, I would say, don’t worry about needing to ‘go big’ with your reactions to stuff. While tthat might be important for a certain segment of the twitch audience – including the part that overlaps with the youtube reaction content crowd – I certainly don’t think it’s everyone watching twitch. Certainly not once you step aware from the big streamers.
Personally what I like is when I feel a streamer’s reaction to an element of a game, or occurence during it, matches my own – that serendipitous moment where they make a comment that matches a thought I’d just had a second prior. Gurning or yelping or shouting, or exaggerating thumbnailable faces isn’t a part of that kind of interaction. It’s far more subtle, and natural.
Being relatable often just means being yourself – I streamed my playthrough of Dark Souls 2 (finally exhumed from the Graveyard!) to a handful of friends, and we found it easy to be on the same page emotionally during its many (many) tribulations and triumphs.
People are natural sponges of emotion, and a shared experience has a beautiful intimacy that, if you let yourself just be in the moment, isn’t at all cynical or cheapened by concerns about google metrics. Like being at a theatre, a concert, a church even – it’s (whisper it) a kind of performance art.
Of course this begs a paradox about the authenticity of chasing authenticity (‘just try to be yourself!’)… but I figure with your PhD in Witness Studies, you should have an idea or two about how to tune out the externalities!
Thank you for this comment, CA. Sorry I left it fallow, I was too busy trying to garner likes and boosts from social media.
When I stream as Electron Dance, generally IDGAF, because I had already reached that zen balance. Why am I trying to drum up numbers? I like the small corner of the internet. I like the little club of people I know a little.
But when I stream for Thinky Games, my role – a role I am paid for – is to grow the channel. And there’s the rub. Twitch highlights tend to be dull unless there’s a something to them. Yet I flatten the edges of who I am for those streams because I don’t really know the audience that well and I naturally transform into Neutral Unoffensive Yet Possibly Boring Person in a real-world gathering; for an ED stream I feel like I know the ppl who gather.
I’ve always thought streams should be a little more than just “playing a game” and I guess I’m happy with the Thinky format I’ve ended up with, which is to do short previews and not long playthroughs. Try to make those minutes count – unless you’re playing Magicube and then all bets are off.
In the end, it’s about what the purpose of the stream is. I miss the IDGAF ED transmissions which are difficult to fit into the current schedule (there was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it bilattice stream recently). Still, Thinky streams have made me a lot better at streaming in turns of setup, it’s just I don’t think I’m projecting myself that much.
Joel do you need/want a bluesky invite
Is this a reference to my masto post? 🙂
I wouldn’t say no.
Check your email! Specifically the email on the reply-to on the notification for this comment.
It wasn’t a direct reference to the masto post, more that I find masto boring and I never check it anymore and I thought it would be fun to have you on Bluesky! (And I have a few more spares if anyone else wants.)
I have never played Talos Principle, because for some reason when it was free on Epic it did not have the Mac port, and though I could buy it this kinda makes me dubious about how reliable the Mac port will be, and looking at the Steam page there are all sorts of ominous compatibility notes, plus I just don’t have that much space on my hard drive. (Inscryption is still in suspension for that reason!) And yours is the only the stream I even occasionally watch. But I do have about two sentences about the Talos Principle that I could use as a springboard for some thoughts about A Monster’s Expedition in a bit!