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How People Get Turned Into Addicts · THINK BEFORE YOU SLEEP

0:00
Speaker 1: If it seems like every other reel features one or
0:02
Speaker 1: more half-naked 20-something girls shaking what their mamas gave them,
0:06
Speaker 1: you might just be a.
0:07
Speaker 2: Stage one gooner.
0:08
Speaker 1: But this isn't just about spicy sites being more accessible
0:11
Speaker 1: than ever. This is now about the safe for work
0:14
Speaker 1: content that we consume every day.
0:17
Speaker 3: So, uh, yeah, let's talk about one of the biggest
0:19
Speaker 3: problems in modern history, gooning. Originally, this term was about
0:23
Speaker 3: addiction to pornography. Gooning is basically when you delay gratification
0:26
Speaker 3: before you finish. Reportedly, people are bragging about having done
0:29
Speaker 3: this for hours at a time. But as that girl said,
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Speaker 3: this is not just about not-safe-for-work content that people do
0:35
Speaker 3: this with. This delayed gratification loop is actually the business
0:38
Speaker 3: strategy for many different companies, one of them being social media.
0:42
Speaker 1: What our brains actually want is satisfaction. But all social
0:46
Speaker 1: media seems to give us is a loop of desire
0:49
Speaker 1: with no end in sight. Short-form content is engineered to
0:52
Speaker 1: maximize wanting while minimizing satisfaction.
0:56
Speaker 2: So you're in a perpetual.
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Speaker 1: State of almost, almost satisfied, almost fulfilled, but you never
1:03
Speaker 1: really get there.
1:04
Speaker 2: So you keep scrolling.
1:05
Speaker 3: What she's saying is that social media websites are specifically
1:09
Speaker 3: engineered to make you an addict. I'm sure that's not
1:11
Speaker 3: a shock to most people these days, but I think
1:13
Speaker 3: people are less aware of all the other things that
1:15
Speaker 3: are designed with the same philosophy. For example, have you
1:18
Speaker 3: ever wondered why you can eat a ton of food
1:20
Speaker 3: and not feel satisfied or how you can eat something
1:23
Speaker 3: and be more hungry afterward? A lot of that is
1:25
Speaker 3: because the people who made cigarettes addictive partnered with ultra-processed
1:29
Speaker 3: food companies and did a bunch of science experiments to
1:31
Speaker 3: make food super addictive. This strategy is being repeated in
1:35
Speaker 3: industry after industry, and their goal is to do as
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Speaker 3: much as possible to put you in an addictive trance
1:40
Speaker 3: so that your engagement with their product will increase exponentially.
1:43
Speaker 1: The key here is the trance-like state. People describe losing
1:47
Speaker 1: track of time, being completely absorbed, chasing that next hit
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Speaker 1: without ever quite reaching satisfaction.
1:54
Speaker 2: It's a loop, an endless dopamine-fueled loop. But here's the twist.
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Speaker 1: That same physiological loop, that trance-like state, is baked into
2:04
Speaker 1: our short-form media feed, even without us going to the hub.
2:08
Speaker 2: Have you ever opened TikTok or.
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Speaker 1: Instagram Reels just for a second, and then suddenly it's
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Speaker 1: 45 minutes later and you don't even remember what you watched?
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Speaker 2: That's the goon state, just with your clothes on and
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Speaker 2: in public.
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Speaker 3: The worst thing about this trance state is that you
2:22
Speaker 3: may think you're relaxing, but because your experience doesn't end
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Speaker 3: in mental satisfaction or regular intervals of it, you actually
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Speaker 3: come out feeling mentally drained and unwilling to do anything.
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Speaker 3: So you move on to the easiest thing, which is
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Speaker 3: what you were just doing, and that's how you get
2:35
Speaker 3: 12-hour goon cycles. Like I said, this is the business
2:38
Speaker 3: strategy of numerous companies, and personally, I think it's one
2:41
Speaker 3: of the primary things that's ruining people's lives and making
2:44
Speaker 3: society worse. The unfortunate reality is that it's far easier
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Speaker 3: to throw you into this addictive trance than it is
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Speaker 3: to create a product that's actually satisfying. And as long
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Speaker 3: as these companies still make money, they don't care how
2:56
Speaker 3: many people they're using scientific research on to turn them
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Speaker 3: into degenerates for profit because they'll get all the monetary
3:02
Speaker 3: benefit in the present moment and they won't be allowed
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Speaker 3: to see the downstream negative consequences that it will have.
3:06
Speaker 4: On the culture.
3:07
Speaker 5: In most people, I'll be long gone, but look at that.
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Speaker 3: Like I said, there are many industries that do this.
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Speaker 3: The food industry, tobacco, credit cards, gambling, social media, and
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Speaker 3: for the purposes of this video, the gaming industry. One
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Speaker 3: of the ways they do this is by dopamine hacking you.
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Speaker 3: Dopamine is the chemical of anticipation, and if they can
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Speaker 3: keep you in anticipation, you will spend shitloads of time
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Speaker 3: and money on their product.
3:29
Speaker 1: These methods of providing content are designed with something very
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Speaker 1: important in mind.
3:35
Speaker 2: Variable reward schedules.
3:37
Speaker 1: If you've had even a basic psychology class, you'll know
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Speaker 1: that B.F. Skinner figured this out with pigeons in the 1950s.
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Speaker 1: If you reward a behavior randomly, sometimes yes, sometimes no.
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Speaker 2: The behavior becomes incredibly persistent. Slot machines use this. Social
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Speaker 2: media uses this.
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Speaker 1: Every swipe might be the one. The perfect video. The
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Speaker 1: perfect thirst trap. The perfect dopamine hit.
4:02
Speaker 2: So you keep swiping.
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Speaker 3: One of the ways that video games do this is
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Speaker 3: with loot boxes. They're randomly rewarding you to get the
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Speaker 3: persistent behavior of you buying more loot boxes. And of course,
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Speaker 3: the first hit is always free. Which is how you
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Speaker 3: get people spending like $ 30, 000 on a free game. I mean,
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Speaker 3: this is totally gambling, right?
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Speaker 4: Wait, I'm sorry. Surprise mechanics.
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Speaker 6: Do you consider loot boxes to be an ethical feature.
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Speaker 2: Of your games? Well, first, we don't call them loot boxes.
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Speaker 2: So what we look at as surprise mechanics.
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Speaker 3: The fact that this hearing was six years ago and
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Speaker 3: loot boxes are still legal is insane to me. Clearly
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Speaker 3: it's gambling for children. And there are a number of
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Speaker 3: anti-consumer things that gaming companies do on a regular basis
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Speaker 3: that just need to be legislated away, like having five
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Speaker 3: in-game currencies so they can distract you from how much
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Speaker 3: money you're actually spending on cosmetics and XP boosts.
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Speaker 7: Digital currency is bullshit. It's intentionally a scam. It's made
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Speaker 7: to scam you. It's made so you waste your money.
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Speaker 7: That's what it does. A lot of these companies make
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Speaker 7: a bunch of money because they're able to hoodwink stupid
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Speaker 7: kids into spending.
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Speaker 4: Their parents' money.
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Speaker 7: This is a predatory system. It's based off of something
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Speaker 7: that shouldn't be happening. It's fundamentally unethical. And there should
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Speaker 7: be laws and regulations that keep it in check.
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Speaker 4: Absolutely, these things need to be outlawed.
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Speaker 3: Not only does it have the effect of hiding how
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Speaker 3: much real money you're spending, but they also sell in
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Speaker 3: bundles that don't reflect the prices of the items that
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Speaker 3: you're trying to buy. So if an item is $ 20,
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Speaker 3: you might have to spend $ 25 to get enough in-game
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Speaker 3: cash to buy it.
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Speaker 4: That's called a scam.
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Speaker 5: You can only buy some tokens in massive bundles, bundles
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Speaker 5: that don't match the price of the product you're trying
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Speaker 5: to buy.
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Speaker 7: And also it's very important that the big difference between
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Speaker 7: this and let's say buying cigarettes, for example, is that
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Speaker 7: when you're buying cigarettes, you know what you're buying.
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Speaker 4: And it's that simple.
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Speaker 7: When you're buying this stuff, you're going through multiple levels
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Speaker 7: of intentional obfuscation in order to confuse you about how
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Speaker 7: much money you're spending. That is bad faith, unethical business.
6:02
Speaker 3: Now, I have no problem with online games selling cosmetics.
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Speaker 3: If they want to do that instead of charging a
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Speaker 3: monthly subscription to keep the servers running, then that's fine.
6:09
Speaker 3: But the problem is the anti-consumer and sleazy ways that
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Speaker 3: they do it, particularly when these games are marketed at children.
6:16
Speaker 3: It's a little scummy when all these games have a
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Speaker 3: battle pass on daily challenges, not to enhance the gameplay,
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Speaker 3: but to give you little chores to do every day
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Speaker 3: so that you remain exposed and addicted to the game.
6:26
Speaker 3: And if you don't do these chores... then you risk
6:28
Speaker 3: missing out on a special costume for your favorite hero
6:31
Speaker 3: that's only available for this season. I mean, if we're
6:33
Speaker 3: talking about a healthy interaction with a video game, daily
6:36
Speaker 3: challenges are like expecting an alcoholic to quit when his
6:39
Speaker 3: challenge is to go to a wine tasting. And also,
6:42
Speaker 3: these gooner traps are constantly being used at the expense
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Speaker 3: of good gameplay or things that players actually want. I
6:48
Speaker 3: remember playing Apex Legends, and they would spend more time
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Speaker 3: crafting the latest $ 20 skin than they would fixing crucial
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Speaker 3: bugs that players had complained about for multiple seasons.
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Speaker 7: Their goal isn't to make sure that the consumer experience
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Speaker 7: is as good as possible. Their goal is to make
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Speaker 7: as much money as possible.
7:04
Speaker 3: By the way, I'm not going to go over gacha games.
7:06
Speaker 3: I know those have a lot of the mechanics that
7:08
Speaker 3: I'm talking about, but I'm not qualified to talk about
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Speaker 3: them because I don't play those types of games. Nor
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Speaker 3: do I play MMORPGs because of how much time they take.
7:15
Speaker 3: And generally, I'm tired of playing games where the game
7:17
Speaker 3: is not the game. It's the leveling system. Like Pokemon,
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Speaker 3: for example. For most people... The game is not the
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Speaker 3: story or the battle system. For most people, the game
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Speaker 3: is leveling up your Pokémon and anticipating what it's going
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Speaker 3: to turn into. A lot of people are addicted to
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Speaker 3: collections and their numbers going higher. Though I have to say,
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Speaker 3: when it comes to games like these, if your goal
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Speaker 3: is to power level your characters so they one-shot everything,
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Speaker 3: then what you're actually saying is that the battle system
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Speaker 3: is not that fun to engage with. Good games are
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Speaker 3: completely ruined when your character is too powerful. Ultimately, you
7:46
Speaker 3: can play what you want, but just be aware of
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Speaker 3: what's going on from the developer's perspective. Though as for me,
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Speaker 3: Outside of often having to invest multiple hours into modern
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Speaker 3: games watching cutscenes and reading tutorials before you can get
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Speaker 3: to the part that's fun, I'm just kind of tired
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Speaker 3: of seeing these addiction mechanics being used at the sacrifice
8:01
Speaker 3: of good storytelling and good gameplay.
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Speaker 4: And what I mean by that.
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Speaker 3: Is that gaming in the 2020s is a lot like
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Speaker 3: if you took the good games from the 1990s and
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Speaker 3: the 2000s and had credit card companies make them instead
8:13
Speaker 3: of people who were inspired to give the audience a
8:14
Speaker 3: good experience. I know I crashed out about this two
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Speaker 3: years ago, but I am still mad about what Square
8:20
Speaker 3: Enix did to the Final Fantasy VII remake. And it's
8:22
Speaker 3: not so much this Sweet Baby Inc. DEI shit that
8:25
Speaker 3: was in the game. It's more so the, hey, let's
8:27
Speaker 3: take this wonderful commentary on environmental destruction and turn it
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Speaker 3: into a dating simulator full of nonsense filler content. And
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Speaker 3: I mean a lot of filler content. I could beat
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Speaker 3: the original game twice just in the time that it
8:38
Speaker 3: took me to finish Rebirth. Who has the time to
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Speaker 3: play this shit? So instead of getting one good game
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Speaker 3: that was well-paced and entertaining throughout, we get two bad
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Speaker 3: games that play on people's addiction to parasocial relationships while
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Speaker 3: destroying all the suspense and mystery of the original by
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Speaker 3: having massive spoilers being thrown in right at the start.
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Speaker 3: Instead of fun and good storytelling, you get wonderful scenes
9:00
Speaker 3: like this.
9:00
Speaker 2: You've got a great voice.
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Speaker 4: Oh, you flatter me. I didn't even know I was
9:06
Speaker 4: doing it. You see, this cat I feed sometimes has
9:09
Speaker 4: gone missing.
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Speaker 7: And when I worry, I cannot help but sing.
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Speaker 4: Delightful.
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Speaker 3: In the new Final Fantasy, you get full-on characters who
9:22
Speaker 3: are added to the story not because they fit well
9:24
Speaker 3: with the narrative, but because Square Enix wants to pad
9:27
Speaker 3: the runtime so they can sell the first 10 hours
9:29
Speaker 3: of a game for $ 60.
9:31
Speaker 4: Here's a guy who's.
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Speaker 3: Playing the original for the first time and is shocked
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Speaker 3: that remake and rebirth We're only disc one of three
9:37
Speaker 3: of Final Fantasy VII. The new fans are finding out
9:39
Speaker 3: how much Square Enix is milking this franchise instead of
9:42
Speaker 3: just making a good game. This is just a giant
9:44
Speaker 3: middle finger to the audience, and I'm glad to see
9:46
Speaker 3: that I'm not the only one who is unhappy with
9:48
Speaker 3: the direction that Square Enix has taken ever since Hironobu Sakaguchi,
9:52
Speaker 3: the creator of Final Fantasy, left the company. Even their
9:55
Speaker 3: main composer, Uematsu, is saying that the company went to
9:58
Speaker 3: shit afterwards, and what I mean by that is that
10:01
Speaker 3: this is what was created shortly after sakaguchi left all.
10:04
Speaker 5: Right chat it's time to find out if i can
10:07
Speaker 5: beat this boss without pressing a single button let's see
10:13
Speaker 5: if i can pull this off Is that it? Was
10:22
Speaker 5: that it?
10:22
Speaker 3: If you think that's bad, play Final Fantasy XIII. The
10:25
Speaker 3: company has been struggling ever since Sakaguchi left 20 years ago,
10:28
Speaker 3: and can we see why?
10:29
Speaker 4: Are the good games in the room with us? Does
10:31
Speaker 4: anyone who is not an.
10:32
Speaker 3: Avid Square Enix fan still talk about Final Fantasy XV?
10:36
Speaker 4: What about XVI?
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Speaker 3: It seems like these games are more so selling decently
10:40
Speaker 3: because of brand awareness and not because they're heavy hitters
10:42
Speaker 3: like their predecessors were. These games used to be what
10:45
Speaker 3: everyone was looking forward to, but now indie games are
10:47
Speaker 3: beating them in the cultural narrative.
10:49
Speaker 5: Anyone who lived through the 1990s to the FF7, 8, 9,
10:53
Speaker 5: 10 period, they know that Final Fantasy was considered a
10:57
Speaker 5: gold standard in gaming. It was its cutscenes, its cinematics
11:02
Speaker 5: from FF7, 8, 9, 10. These were considered the best
11:06
Speaker 5: in the world. FF7 to 10 were so insanely mainstream
11:10
Speaker 5: successful that the most normal of the most normal people
11:14
Speaker 5: played them.
11:15
Speaker 3: Also, don't look at how much Elden Ring sold compared
11:17
Speaker 3: to a mainline Final Fantasy. And if your game is
11:19
Speaker 3: so bad that you have to dress your characters in
11:21
Speaker 3: bikinis or stripper outfits just to get people to play.
11:24
Speaker 2: If there's one major rule in marketing, it's that sex sells.
11:27
Speaker 3: If you're relying on this for a AAA title just
11:29
Speaker 3: to get people to play, then maybe you should hit
11:31
Speaker 3: the drawing board again. Tighten up that outline. This is
11:34
Speaker 3: not exclusively a Final Fantasy thing, by the way. A
11:37
Speaker 3: lot of games do this. But if you want people
11:39
Speaker 3: to play your game without making it a girlfriend simulator,
11:41
Speaker 3: then maybe don't do a stupid multiverse plot. You already
11:44
Speaker 3: did that with Kingdom Hearts. Fans can go play that
11:46
Speaker 3: game if they want the story to be a confusing mess.
11:49
Speaker 3: Maybe don't take a beloved character and make him super cringe.
11:52
Speaker 5: What you're about to see is not a mod.
11:53
Speaker 4: It's not a troll.
11:55
Speaker 5: They actually did this.
11:57
Speaker 2: I appreciate all that you've done for me. Thank you.
12:01
Speaker 8: We're really gonna miss you, Red.
12:03
Speaker 4: Oh, don't say that.
12:04
Speaker 6: You're only making this harder.
12:06
Speaker 7: It is....
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Speaker 5: A travesty. The character assassination of the century, what they
12:12
Speaker 5: have done with Red XIII. He then makes every cutscene
12:15
Speaker 5: he's in impossible to take seriously.
12:18
Speaker 3: Also, just to be clear, I'm not saying that characters
12:20
Speaker 3: have to be ugly. I very much hate it when
12:22
Speaker 3: characters are intentionally made to look gross.
12:24
Speaker 6: Have we gotten so used to unattractive female characters that
12:28
Speaker 6: look like they were generated by an AI trained on
12:30
Speaker 6: solely mugshots that now a woman with a normal.
12:34
Speaker 4: Pretty face is considered gooner bait.
12:36
Speaker 3: Characters should be attractive because it makes you care about
12:38
Speaker 3: them more. Psychologically speaking, stay mad, feminists. Video games are fantasy,
12:42
Speaker 3: and people don't fantasize about being fat and ugly. However,
12:45
Speaker 3: if the main selling point of the game becomes what
12:47
Speaker 3: scantily dressed waifu are you going to get with instead
12:50
Speaker 3: of the actual gameplay or the story, then you don't
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Speaker 3: really have a game. And a part of the reason
12:54
Speaker 3: why we have so many bad games these days is
12:57
Speaker 3: because companies can still turn a profit by doing this stuff.
13:00
Speaker 3: Though the good news is that there are still games
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Speaker 3: out there that are not trying to get sales by
13:03
Speaker 3: preying on your brain chemistry to get you addicted, instead
13:06
Speaker 3: of genuinely making a good game. Which brings us to
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Speaker 3: 2025's game of the year, Expedition 33, a game that
13:13
Speaker 3: was built on less than $ 10 million and won a
13:15
Speaker 3: ton of awards.
13:16
Speaker 6: And the game of the year is.
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Speaker 4: Mon ami, Claire Obscure, Expedition 33!
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Speaker 6: I want to thank first the incredible team at Sunflow Interactive.
13:28
Speaker 6: And I'd like to send a personal thank you to
13:30
Speaker 6: an important man in my life, Mr. Hironobu Sakaguchi, who
13:34
Speaker 6: made me fall in love with games and inspired me
13:36
Speaker 6: to become a game dev.
13:37
Speaker 3: What an interesting name to mention there. I mean, that
13:40
Speaker 3: much should be obvious. Expedition 33 is basically a Final
13:43
Speaker 3: Fantasy game.
13:44
Speaker 7: You can easily see that this was inspired by Final Fantasy.
13:48
Speaker 3: If you don't know anything about Expedition 33, I'll try
13:51
Speaker 3: to be very vague so you can experience the mystery
13:53
Speaker 3: of the game for yourself. But it's basically a turn-based
13:56
Speaker 3: JRPG-style game made by a Western studio where your goal
14:00
Speaker 3: is to join up with your team of friends to
14:01
Speaker 3: take down a woman called the Paintress. This video is
14:04
Speaker 3: offensive to me. These two don't belong in the same room.
14:07
Speaker 3: I like to think that the entire Expedition 33 team
14:09
Speaker 3: hates everyone behind the FF7 remake, because really, I think
14:12
Speaker 3: Expedition 33 is a giant middle finger to Square Enix,
14:15
Speaker 3: saying that some random French guy and a woman who
14:18
Speaker 3: didn't even play video games before can make a Final
14:20
Speaker 3: Fantasy game better than the makers of Final Fantasy.
14:23
Speaker 6: And also, I want to extend a thank to the
14:25
Speaker 6: unsung heroes of this industry, the people who make tutorials
14:28
Speaker 6: on YouTube on how to make a game, because we
14:30
Speaker 6: had no idea how to make a game before. So,
14:33
Speaker 6: thank you.
14:34
Speaker 3: Oh no, they googled how to be a game designer
14:36
Speaker 3: and beat a AAA company at their own franchise for
14:38
Speaker 3: a fraction of the budget. Not to say that every
14:41
Speaker 3: team member was a complete beginner, but this game is
14:43
Speaker 3: a huge middle finger to Square Enix, and also the
14:46
Speaker 3: entire modern.
14:47
Speaker 4: Video game industry.
14:48
Speaker 3: There's no egregious filler content, no extensive grinding, there are
14:52
Speaker 3: no gooner bait waifu characters, well, except for the author's
14:55
Speaker 3: barely hidden foot fetish.
14:57
Speaker 6: What are you doing?
14:58
Speaker 2: I just need the foot.
15:01
Speaker 8: Aha!
15:02
Speaker 3: The characters actually feel like real people who are put
15:04
Speaker 3: up against harsh circumstances. There's also no microtransactions. There's no
15:08
Speaker 3: stupid season pass DLC tie-in. In fact, after they won
15:12
Speaker 3: Game of the Year, they released an entire DLC patch
15:14
Speaker 3: update for free.
15:15
Speaker 6: I think that actions are worth more than words. So
15:18
Speaker 6: if you remember, we promised some content a few months ago.
15:21
Speaker 6: So I'm very happy to say that it's releasing now.
15:26
Speaker 6: and you can just go home and play.
15:27
Speaker 1: It for free.
15:28
Speaker 3: Last, the game doesn't constantly hold your hand and throw
15:30
Speaker 3: a tutorial at you every five seconds. Like, that shit
15:33
Speaker 3: is so annoying that a guy named Dexter Manning made
15:36
Speaker 3: a video showing what Zelda The Ocarina of Time would
15:38
Speaker 3: look like as a modern game.
15:40
Speaker 7: Link, there's a gold skeleton!
15:42
Speaker 4: I can sense a skeleton nearby.
15:44
Speaker 7: Make sure to collect that gold skeleton. The more gold
15:47
Speaker 7: skeletons you collect, the more gold skeletons you'll have.
15:50
Speaker 4: This gold skeleton will help.
15:53
Speaker 3: I wish I had on film how much I laughed
16:03
Speaker 3: my ass off at that video. Stop making games like this.
16:06
Speaker 3: If you have to tutorialize waypoint and retard-proof your game
16:09
Speaker 3: this much, then you're just saying that you know it's bad,
16:12
Speaker 3: and you know that players won't want to figure it
16:14
Speaker 3: out for themselves. Good games are supposed to teach you something,
16:17
Speaker 3: not hold your hand the entire time. Hand-holdy games make
16:20
Speaker 3: people stupid. And I'd like to think the most incompetent
16:23
Speaker 3: people you know have game libraries full of content like this. Meanwhile,
16:26
Speaker 3: smart people are choosing content that's inspiring.
16:29
Speaker 8: For me personally, I find that sometimes seeing things through
16:35
Speaker 8: a same situation but in someone else's life helps me
16:39
Speaker 8: realize certain things about my own life, whether it's good
16:42
Speaker 8: or bad. Sometimes I recognize my own bad behaviors.
16:45
Speaker 3: That's the main writer for Expedition 33. I'm just going
16:47
Speaker 3: to call her Jennifer because I can't pronounce her last name.
16:50
Speaker 3: But this is exactly what I've said numerous times in
16:52
Speaker 3: my content. Be careful about the stories that you consume,
16:55
Speaker 3: because they will have a positive or negative effect on you.
16:58
Speaker 3: Though as for the Zelda parody, personally I think developers
17:01
Speaker 3: make games like that because they don't give a shit
17:03
Speaker 3: about the game, and they're just trying to print money
17:05
Speaker 3: from as wide of an audience as possible.
17:07
Speaker 4: They know their.
17:08
Speaker 3: Games aren't inherently interesting enough to inspire new players to
17:10
Speaker 3: learn how to game, or they're too lazy to develop
17:13
Speaker 3: progressive challenges that will teach players how to play... without
17:16
Speaker 3: having everything blatantly explained to them, which is why I
17:19
Speaker 3: can't wait until every one of these big studios doing
17:21
Speaker 3: this shit goes bankrupt. All these big studios who keep
17:24
Speaker 3: selling us bugged games, woke storylines, and addiction bait don't
17:28
Speaker 3: have the willpower or inspiration to make something great, so
17:31
Speaker 3: they don't belong in this industry. And to give an
17:33
Speaker 3: example of what it actually takes to make a good game,
17:36
Speaker 3: listen to the writers of Expedition 33. I'll try to
17:39
Speaker 3: do this without spoiling the game, but it was written
17:41
Speaker 3: by Jennifer, however you pronounce that.
17:43
Speaker 2: Jennifer Svedberg-Yen.
17:45
Speaker 4: And Guillaume Broche.
17:46
Speaker 3: Here's Jennifer talking about how much effort was put into
17:48
Speaker 3: just naming the main character.
17:50
Speaker 8: We went through 50 different names for Gustave, yeah. He
17:53
Speaker 8: was Frey, he was Rain, he was, like, Max for
17:58
Speaker 8: a hot second.
17:59
Speaker 4: That was just for one character.
18:00
Speaker 3: Even better, here's Guillaume talking about how they kept reworking
18:03
Speaker 3: the first 20 minutes of the game.
18:05
Speaker 4: Right up to the last moment. How did you know
18:07
Speaker 4: that this should be the right opening for the game?
18:10
Speaker 6: So the beginning of the game took quite a bit
18:13
Speaker 6: of trial and error to get really right. Actually, the
18:17
Speaker 6: final form that you see came very, very late in production.
18:20
Speaker 6: It was almost one of the last things.
18:22
Speaker 3: Again, I don't want to spoil it because the game
18:24
Speaker 3: is still relatively new, but I don't think I have
18:26
Speaker 3: words that are good enough to describe how much I
18:28
Speaker 3: liked the intro of Expedition 33. I think it's probably
18:31
Speaker 3: the best intro to a game that's ever been made.
18:33
Speaker 3: I'm on my second playthrough, and that first scene hits
18:36
Speaker 3: even harder when you know all the character relationships.
18:47
Speaker 4: It's stuff like this that makes all the difference.
18:49
Speaker 3: If you design a world map that's fun to explore,
18:52
Speaker 3: then you don't have to constantly put an arrow in
18:54
Speaker 3: front of players to tell them where to go. And
18:56
Speaker 3: if your characters are interesting, that will push players to
18:58
Speaker 3: complete more of the game to uncover who they are.
19:01
Speaker 8: Fundamentally, the starting point is that all the characters are
19:05
Speaker 8: generally good people. They are trying to do what they
19:09
Speaker 8: think is the right thing. So that's the part where
19:12
Speaker 8: we really dig into is why do they believe that
19:15
Speaker 8: what they're doing is right?
19:17
Speaker 3: This is why they don't have to tutorialize every aspect
19:20
Speaker 3: of the game because creating real characters makes you want
19:22
Speaker 3: to play. A part of the game is trying to
19:24
Speaker 3: discover why everyone thinks they're right. And after you've beaten
19:27
Speaker 3: the game, you can see that in all the fan
19:29
Speaker 3: theories where fans enjoy having complex discussions on the perspectives
19:32
Speaker 3: of each character. The setup to Expedition 33 was so
19:36
Speaker 3: good that I was hell-bent on learning all the mechanics
19:38
Speaker 3: of the game so I could get to the reveal
19:40
Speaker 3: of why the main villain does what she does. And honestly,
19:43
Speaker 3: after experiencing this, it only makes me more mad when
19:45
Speaker 3: I see developers saying they have to rely on anti-consumer
19:48
Speaker 3: practices to fund their games. or when I see constant
19:51
Speaker 3: cookie-cutter trope characters that feel nothing like real people being
19:54
Speaker 3: added to video games not because they make sense in
19:56
Speaker 3: the game's world, but because players have a fetish for
19:59
Speaker 3: that personality archetype. If Expedition 33 were like other modern games,
20:03
Speaker 3: the painters would not have a complex set of reasons
20:05
Speaker 3: behind her motivations. she would just be evil because she's
20:08
Speaker 3: like a demon lord goth mommy who's also sexually interested
20:11
Speaker 3: in the male protagonist. Oh my god, modern Sephiroth is
20:14
Speaker 3: actually not too far off from being the male version
20:16
Speaker 3: of that description.
20:17
Speaker 8: You're practically panting.
20:19
Speaker 2: I'm excited.
20:22
Speaker 5: Such a puppy.
20:23
Speaker 3: I mean, play what you want, I don't care, but
20:25
Speaker 3: it is annoying when so many properties are doing that
20:27
Speaker 3: to sell games that there aren't very many options for
20:30
Speaker 3: people who want to engage with content that's actually good. Or,
20:33
Speaker 3: there's the woke end of this where they just insert
20:35
Speaker 3: these poorly written characters and take the story in whatever
20:38
Speaker 3: direction they want to promote the message.
20:40
Speaker 8: In general, it's very hard when we want something to
20:44
Speaker 8: go a certain way for plot reasons, but the characters
20:48
Speaker 8: don't want to go that way. And it's just so
20:50
Speaker 8: frustrating and usually have to come back to it and think, okay,
20:55
Speaker 8: Is there a way to resolve this through thinking about
20:59
Speaker 8: the character in a different way or thinking about the
21:01
Speaker 8: circumstances in a different way? Or perhaps we have to
21:04
Speaker 8: change the plot point or we need to add a
21:06
Speaker 8: couple of other steps in the middle to get them
21:08
Speaker 8: to that point.
21:09
Speaker 3: In a woke game, they'll just do whatever they want,
21:12
Speaker 3: which is why all their stories fall flat and don't
21:14
Speaker 3: make sense. It's not because players don't like the political message.
21:17
Speaker 3: There are actual behind the scenes creative choices that they're
21:19
Speaker 3: making that make these games suck. Again, this is to
21:22
Speaker 3: the extent where major studios get beaten by people who
21:25
Speaker 3: have no experience in the medium. The head writer of
21:28
Speaker 3: Expedition 33 had never written for a video game before
21:31
Speaker 3: or even played games.
21:32
Speaker 5: When you're working on the game, you didn't play video
21:34
Speaker 5: games that much, but now you have.
21:36
Speaker 8: Yeah, I do play a lot of games these days,
21:38
Speaker 8: and so I very much appreciate the different forms of storytelling.
21:43
Speaker 3: Again, this should be embarrassing to veterans in this field.
21:47
Speaker 3: They got beaten by someone who doesn't play video games. Well,
21:50
Speaker 3: now she does.
21:51
Speaker 4: And here you are, not playing a single game, but here,
21:54
Speaker 4: flattening everything. That's crazy.
21:56
Speaker 8: For me, I think of it as a way to
22:00
Speaker 8: see all the different areas of a game. And so
22:04
Speaker 8: I can see how the developers are thinking about it.
22:07
Speaker 3: This is what gamers want. It doesn't matter if you're new.
22:10
Speaker 3: What matters is that you're good at your job, you
22:11
Speaker 3: care about the medium, you care about your fans, and
22:14
Speaker 3: you have a good foundation in the basics of making
22:16
Speaker 3: a creative work.
22:17
Speaker 4: Are you going.
22:18
Speaker 8: a bit further into the writing of the story and
22:21
Speaker 8: then thinking about the hook?
22:22
Speaker 4: Or does that come first?
22:24
Speaker 8: Comes first. Guillaume had come up with the idea of
22:27
Speaker 8: the hook with the Pinterest. But the question is, who
22:30
Speaker 8: is she? What is she doing? Why is she doing this?
22:33
Speaker 8: And to me, you can't really start writing the story
22:37
Speaker 8: if you don't know the answer to that fundamental question.
22:41
Speaker 8: It's one of my pet peeves is when You know,
22:43
Speaker 8: some shows, they're great at asking questions. They're terrible at
22:47
Speaker 8: answering them because, you know, they just kind of keep
22:49
Speaker 8: kicking the can down the road. And then season six
22:52
Speaker 8: or seven comes around and it's just like, oh, yeah,
22:55
Speaker 8: and this is why.
22:56
Speaker 2: And you're just like, what?
22:57
Speaker 3: I think she might have been talking about Lost. Does
23:00
Speaker 3: anyone still remember that show? Mystery box writing is cancer.
23:03
Speaker 3: But how many shows are written where it's obvious that
23:05
Speaker 3: nothing past season one was planned out? Stranger Things being
23:08
Speaker 3: the more recent example of that. They spent more time
23:11
Speaker 3: writing a coming out scene than figuring out how to
23:13
Speaker 3: end their show properly. This also seems to happen in
23:16
Speaker 3: anime quite frequently. Shows start out with a strong season
23:19
Speaker 3: 1 and then go completely retarded in season 2. I
23:22
Speaker 3: think when writers do that, they don't fundamentally care about
23:24
Speaker 3: the audience. Whereas when it comes to the makers of
23:27
Speaker 3: Expedition 33, you constantly get the sense that they are
23:29
Speaker 3: fed up with the industry preying on the audience through
23:32
Speaker 3: scammy monetization programs or by treating them like retards by
23:35
Speaker 3: tutorializing every second of the game, or by using their
23:39
Speaker 3: game as a political mouthpiece for their radical politics. This
23:42
Speaker 3: is selfish cannibalization of an industry that other people built.
23:45
Speaker 3: Whereas Expedition has really made a statement exposing how games
23:48
Speaker 3: don't have to do any of the prior bullshit, and
23:51
Speaker 3: games can be made in a way that inspires players
23:53
Speaker 3: and future creators. I mean, it's literally the motto of
23:56
Speaker 3: their game.
23:57
Speaker 6: For those who come after.
24:01
Speaker 8: Learn from the ones who came before. I lay the
24:05
Speaker 8: trail for the ones who come after.
24:07
Speaker 6: For those who come after.
24:08
Speaker 3: This is about the next generation, whether it's players who
24:11
Speaker 3: want to have fun, or competent creators who want to
24:13
Speaker 3: gift a good experience to the audience. I'm just tired
24:15
Speaker 3: of people taking their money, leaving everything in shambles, and
24:18
Speaker 3: then leaving the mess for someone else to clean up.
24:20
Speaker 3: So many industries are like this, and it's time to
24:22
Speaker 3: get rid of these people. Now, as for the first
24:24
Speaker 3: part of the video, how we engage with media does matter,
24:28
Speaker 3: because a lot of people do have a problem with
24:29
Speaker 3: not being able to pull themselves out.
24:31
Speaker 4: Of these gooner trance states.
24:33
Speaker 3: Like I said, it's not just porn, but also things
24:35
Speaker 3: like video games and social media, especially when many people
24:38
Speaker 3: are spending so much time engaging with those that they
24:40
Speaker 3: don't put any time into actual relationships, which makes them
24:43
Speaker 3: unsatisfied and depressed. And I will say that a lot
24:46
Speaker 3: of this is not your fault.
24:47
Speaker 2: Your feed isn't neutral.
24:49
Speaker 1: It's been A-B tested into oblivion to figure out exactly
24:52
Speaker 1: what makes our monkey brains light up with emotion.
24:55
Speaker 2: We're not weak, though.
24:56
Speaker 1: Our biology is being exploited. These are not neutral tools.
25:01
Speaker 1: And it's important for us to understand this. They're designed
25:04
Speaker 1: by teams of engineers, neuroscientists, and behavioral psychologists whose entire
25:09
Speaker 1: job is.
25:09
Speaker 2: To extract maximum attention from you. You're not failing at willpower.
25:15
Speaker 1: You're up against a multi-billion dollar industry that's literally engineered
25:19
Speaker 1: to bypass your prefrontal cortex.
25:21
Speaker 3: Some very smart people have researched the best possible ways
25:24
Speaker 3: to trap you. You aren't the only one. It's being
25:26
Speaker 3: done to all of us in some way. It's actually
25:28
Speaker 3: very hard in the modern day to avoid the minefield
25:31
Speaker 3: of possible vices that you could obtain. So I think
25:33
Speaker 3: the first step is just to recognize when you're being manipulated.
25:36
Speaker 3: The signs of being caught up in a goon trance
25:38
Speaker 3: are a loss of the sense of time, feeling drained
25:41
Speaker 3: after you engage with the content, constantly chasing but never
25:44
Speaker 3: actually feeling a sense of satisfaction like you do with
25:46
Speaker 3: a good movie or a good video game. And last,
25:49
Speaker 3: your behavior gets more and more extreme. This is how
25:52
Speaker 3: you get situations like this.
25:53
Speaker 6: Disgusting.
25:54
Speaker 8: And they're selling that shit in a public bookstore.
26:06
Speaker 3: These stories are very much mainstream, and I imagine that
26:09
Speaker 3: the readers initially had quite tame desires, but then over time,
26:13
Speaker 3: as they continuously failed to get the satisfaction that you
26:15
Speaker 3: would get from an actual relationship, their desires got more extreme. Now,
26:19
Speaker 3: if you do notice this behavior, that doesn't mean that
26:21
Speaker 3: you have to make a change right away. I think
26:23
Speaker 3: people only make changes when they can recognize a problem
26:25
Speaker 3: behavior they have, and when they can see how it
26:28
Speaker 3: negatively affects them in a way that they care about,
26:30
Speaker 3: and sometimes that takes a while. But if you do
26:32
Speaker 3: decide that this matters, this is going to sound weird,
26:35
Speaker 3: but the first step to change... is to clean your room.
26:37
Speaker 3: I'm not saying this because it's a philosophical metaphor. I'm
26:40
Speaker 3: saying it because tons of people are allergic to dust
26:43
Speaker 3: or mold or their pets and don't realize it. Allergic
26:46
Speaker 3: reactions will give you brain fog, headaches, make you tired
26:49
Speaker 3: all the time, or cause you to need excessive amounts
26:52
Speaker 3: of sleep, which may very well be the actual reason
26:55
Speaker 3: why you don't have the motivation to change yourself. Of course,
26:58
Speaker 3: you can consult a doctor, but you would be surprised
27:00
Speaker 3: how much of a difference vacuuming, washing your bedsheets regularly,
27:03
Speaker 3: changing your air filters, opening windows periodically, investing in an
27:07
Speaker 3: air purifier, and getting your air vents cleaned once every
27:10
Speaker 3: few years will make. Second, this will also sound like nonsense,
27:13
Speaker 3: but do cardio. One to two miles run or walk
27:16
Speaker 3: five days a week will increase your blood flow and
27:19
Speaker 3: give you more energy. I think these two things will
27:21
Speaker 3: probably give you the most benefit for the least amount
27:23
Speaker 3: of work. Outside of that, if you're suffering with these
27:26
Speaker 3: types of addictions, you've likely already searched for solutions on
27:29
Speaker 3: how to stop, so saying obvious stuff like curating your
27:32
Speaker 3: social media feed to not be full of OnlyFans models,
27:35
Speaker 3: I'm guessing is something that you've already heard.
27:37
Speaker 4: So I'll just say this.
27:38
Speaker 3: I do think limiting behavior is a part of it,
27:40
Speaker 3: but I also think the actual solution is to find
27:42
Speaker 3: something that you like better than the Gooner content. When
27:45
Speaker 3: it comes to video games, that's pretty easy. People never
27:48
Speaker 3: shut up when it comes to good games, so you
27:49
Speaker 3: know the top games are like Silksong, Wukong, and Expedition 33,
27:53
Speaker 3: and if you pick the correct game, then you should
27:55
Speaker 3: feel a sense of satisfaction out of it during each
27:57
Speaker 3: play session that you will prefer over the addictive Gooner
28:00
Speaker 3: content that will throw you into a multi-hour trance. And
28:03
Speaker 3: if you can repeat that over and over in small
28:05
Speaker 3: ways over time, and you start replacing addictive experiences with
28:09
Speaker 3: satisfying ones, then you'll start to get disgusted by things
28:12
Speaker 3: like fast food, gambling, and parasocial relationships. Anyway, thanks for watching,
28:16
Speaker 3: follow me on Twitter, and I'll see you in the
28:18
Speaker 3: next video.