I think Milton going into another world is even sadder in a way as there will never be closure for the family. I did find Gus' death a bit scary especially as you reenact it. I was always wary of being on a swing as a child.
Yes,I heard Milton has gone into another world,the THE UNFINISHED SWAN game world,and there he married a painter woman and they had a child(so another Finch)named Monroe
this game hit home hard on my recent playthrough. my father always reminded me he was gonna die as soon as I turned 10, kept telling me things like "when I die you take care of your mum" then in January 2022 my mother passed before him. I spent the past 2 decades prepared for my father and was not prepared at all for my mother. The obsession with death, the unpreparedness for my mother's death. having to learn how to greave. this whole game has just opened my eyes and has been helping me learn I needed help and have been getting it.
Psychology and Video Games, 2 of my favorite things together?! This is the best thing ever. I swear one day this channel will blow up, I bet my bananas on it.
What a great video! I absolutely adore this game and I have watched many video essays on it, but yours brings more insight, showing the psychology of it. Keep creating!
I run a game- and death-/grief-focused channel, and I've spent nearly the entire month of February writing the script to my own video essay about this game thinking I had made observations no one else had. Hearing several of them articulated so well in this video made me feel really validated that I'm not the only one questioning the popular narrative and thinking there's a lot more to this story, but it also made me a little self-conscious; you're far more organized than I am, and you thoroughly but efficiently flesh your ideas out here, getting to the heart of things in a lot less time than I'm going to end up taking. I guess it's self-defeating to compare an unfinished draft to a polished finished product that's ready for display, so I'll keep at it. If you'd consider allowing it, I'd definitely like to work in some references to points you make here and to recommend/plug your video hard at the end of mine. Yours is without a doubt the best video I've watched about this game, and it deserves way, way more views than it has. I got misty-eyed during the segment analyzing Edith at the end. I guess the elephant in the room here is Joseph Anderson, who is an excellent TH-camr and whose video on this game is enlightening, but it's borderline tragic to me that your video isn't as well-known and widely cited. Anyone talking about this game going forward needs to acknowledge your work here and build off of what you've brought to the table. If you read all this, thank you, and thanks for making this beautiful video essay.
Thank you very much for watching and for sharing your thoughts and insights here! First of all, congrats on starting your channel! It sounds like a great addition to the game essay community and I'll look forward to your future work. You're right that you dont need to worry about comparing your work with mine, I'm sure you will bring your own unique analyses to this and other games I've touched on. I've been writing and researching since 2017 and have grown a lot by writing a lot, but I'm still growing, lol. Also, as you can see, I've never been able to break out into a wider audience on TH-cam for whatever reason (I think it's my struggle to make engaging titles and thumbnails or not knowing where and how to share my videos). I've seen channels start after me and immediately skyrocket into 20x's of views and subscribers. So, no worries about that, either. You could see lots of success where I've been circling around aimlessly. Oh, and I also spent 3-4 months writing and editing this very slowly which is a long time, but it helped my writing, I think. Anyways, yes, please, I'd really appreciate you referencing my video in any way. I really believe in discussing these things openly - feel free to directly reference or challenge anything I've said here. Give me a shout out (on twitter is best) when you do! Congrats, again!
@@ScreenTherapy Thank you so much. I'll definitely let you know when it's done, probably via a comment here. (I don't have Twitter or else I'd have already shared your video there.) It really shows that you spent so long putting this one together. I seriously loved it. I'd like to think that slow and steady creation of content we really believe in will gradually build an audience that stays for-and often revisits-every video. Maybe this is just the back-patting sort of thing that the little people tell each other, but one thing that your channel will never, ever be is disposable. With that said, I do hope your channel explodes. More people should refine their TH-cam palates, and it'd be nice if the overall culture of TH-cam shifted to favor content like this.
I played WRoEF back in 2020, two years after my grandma died, while living in her old house. Fast forward to November 2022, when I moved in with my paternal grandparents to help my grandma take care of my grandpa on hospice. Yesterday, my grandpa came home from a three-day hospital stay, where we learned he's got a few weeks left to live, especially since he's chosen not to receive medical intervention. (He's nearly 80 years old, it's fine.) Watching this video back in 2020 helped kickstart my journey into the death positivity movement and helped me engage with death in a constructive manner. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with us.
Isn't it normal to be afraid of death? I mean, as long as you don't obsess over it and let this idea take over your life like Walter. I don't see why I have to accept it, let alone why I would want reminders of it displayed in my home...
Yes, an instinctive fear of death is definitely healthy. This was aimed for Death Anxiety, which is a debilitating phobia of thinking, hearing about, or talking about death. Many people with death anxiety are simultaneously terrified of death and also cant stop worrying about it and how to avoid any possible risk in life- leading to very painful cycles of worry, dread, and terror. When death is a normal part of our life cycles and we will all lose people or hear of death often in our lives, it's in our best interest to reduce our fears to just a healthy amount needed for self-preservation, etc. Any more fear than that can lead to long-term stress or suffering. Bringing down our fears to a healthy level takes consistent practice and, sometimes, reminders, especially if we are used to purposefully ignoring the topic of death out of fear (which is why some reminders around the house is useful). Others also choose to keep reminders around because they understand that keeping fear at bay is a lifelong practice that's easy to forget about during peaceful years until it's too late. I've had years of feeling calm about mortality and some years, where I went without practice and got used to ignoring the topic of death, when I've experienced death anxiety after a personal event made me think about mortality again. It can come and go depending on how you take care of your mind. Reminders can help keep a long-term balance. It's not for everyone, tho.
@@ScreenTherapy Thanks for the reply! I don't think I fully understand how this works, but then again I don't have a debilitating phobia. I often assume that everyone is like me (if I saw a reminder of death every day, it would just ruin my mood). But my reaction to mortality tends to be sadness and anger more than fear, so I'm not really in the same place as these people. I'm prone to forgetting that. Again, thanks for all the info.
@@vaiapatta8313 The worst part of it is loneliness. Living whilst knowing loved ones will before you. That would be more of an issue for me than myself dying. Grief makes people do strange things which can be good or bad.
Thank you so much for putting such a thoughtful insight of this game! After leaving America 4 years ago, my education of psychology had stopped for a long time. However your video brought back so many memories and also reminded be that how important and healing psychology is during our daily life for this special time (even in a video game!) I'm so grateful for finding out your channel! Please keep creating this screen therapy ☺️
I can't believe this video has so few likes and views! I loved it tremebdously, both because I like exploring the ways we can implement death positivity in our lives AND because this game is outstanding. Thank you so much for all the work you put into this video, it was very informative and interesting
You put out so much great work ! I discovered your blog a few days ago after searching for Animal Crossing and therapy, as i was curious to know why the game was making such a buzz during the quarantine. I'm glad to have found your channel because I instantly fell in love with the content on your blog. I didn't even know about the existence of media psychology before.. but now I want to dive into it, so I'm looking forward to your next videos ! Also, you have a very soothing voice and you make the concepts very easy to understand. Now, commenting on this one, it made me understand that I mostly use proximal defenses, but I also realized that I'm now slowly transiting towards distal defenses (if i get the concept right). It's weird because I've always thought that I wasn't scared of death, I'm very open about it but at the same time these past months I've acted like I was terrified about it (isolating myself, not making choices and taking responsabilities, not really living basically) so I'm reflecting on that. Anyways, I'm more of a movie/series person but I'm glad to see those type of games being put out. The last one I played was Persona 5 a few months ago and I really loved it (i haven't finished it yet but I will), and in case you need an idea for a video I would be curious to know your take on this one because it relates directly to psychological concepts like the persona and the shadows, and I guess to more deep stuff that I don't even know about.
Thank you so much for sharing and for your kind words! I'm happy you enjoy my videos and that you've found media psych because of them! :) I lean on Proximal Defenses a bit too much, myself, even though I try my best to be death positive. I'm working on embracing a better balance with Distal defenses to ease death anxiety. I'd be happy to give Persona 5 a look, everyone always says great things about it. I'm also hoping to start doing more videos about movies and shows, those are just so tough to edit for, but I hope to get there soon. If you ever have any suggestions, let me know! :D
@@ScreenTherapy I can only imagine how much time you have to invest to make those videos, from writing to editing.. they are lenghty and qualitive, that's why I wanted to give you feedback ! I'll be interested in any content you put honestly, wether it's about movies, games or even other media. I hope your channel will grow because it deserves it, and I'll let you know if I have other suggestions :)
This game is especially important to me, as I am thanatophobic. There are a lot of things that I don’t particularly like thinking about that this game confronted for me.
Thank you for watching and commenting, I appreciate it! Yes, I wanted to bring up Dawn since she was arguably the most "normal" - but the "normal" way people avoiding discussing or preparing family members to cope with mortality and death is not very helpful either. Thank you for catching that.
"Normal" isn't always the best. Dawn forced normal onto her family after Milton went to become king (I know he disappeared) and ignored the underlining grief that affected her son, Lewis by denying his creativity which withdrew him into substance abuse. That's how I got from it anyway cause Lewis is who I relate the most with (daydreaming to cope)
One more thing I wanted to point out of Lewis. That he suffered from symptoms of Maladaptive daydreaming. That's when your daydreams overtake and is used for coping. It's heartbreaking that his family (including his mother) didn't address his grief from losing Milton and his father. There was no outlet
@@mysouptoocold1656 Sorry dawn couldn't be a miracle worker. She did a lot with what she could do, she had a missing child while having to take on a grown man in lewis... And the rest of the family. She got him into therapy, got him a job to give him some grounding. What more can she do? Your statements just give no support for Dawn who shocker...also was dealing with a mountain of issues. And considering she did give her and Edith a few years of stability it's all she could do. At the end of the day Lewis was a grown man who did in fact have support from family but he failed to see that. Something the therapist and his mother couldn't force hims to change. He was given the tools, he simply made the choices he wanted.
I like the idea behind your channel and it sets it apart in the realm of video game essays, subbed because of that and am looking forward to your future videos!
This video comes is so handy/resuorceful!!!! I'm writing my master's thesis(still debating what game to choose as an experimental stimulus) on the potential of video games to provide eudaimonic entertainment experiences. Just wanted to drop in and say your channel is SO cool and the way you present content is so helpful and enjoyable!! Esp for someone like me who is interested in the medium and potential of VGs for well-being but unfortunately not skilled at/enjoy playing games themselves :") Will check out more stuff! :D
God I'm so glad I found this channel and am so excited to binge lol. Thank you for making these kinds of videos- sometimes I struggle to piece together narrative significance in games and this really helps to put words to the thoughts I already have for most games lol
I like this game and I've played it multiple times and I tend to like more dark and spooky videos games and such and I look at dark and spooky videos and such alot more then bright and colorful games and such and to be honest I think I may mostly watch more dark and spooky videos then bright and colorful videos and I don't have much fun with many games nowadays to the point that even with games I enjoy I don't feel much but with me I tend to feel nothing most of the time so its good if I feel something
I think Milton going into another world is even sadder in a way as there will never be closure for the family. I did find Gus' death a bit scary especially as you reenact it. I was always wary of being on a swing as a child.
You mean Calvin's death? Gus's the one with the kite
Yes,I heard Milton has gone into another world,the THE UNFINISHED SWAN game world,and there he married a painter woman and they had a child(so another Finch)named Monroe
As a new mother, this game shook me, especially Gregory's death. 😢
this game hit home hard on my recent playthrough. my father always reminded me he was gonna die as soon as I turned 10, kept telling me things like "when I die you take care of your mum" then in January 2022 my mother passed before him. I spent the past 2 decades prepared for my father and was not prepared at all for my mother.
The obsession with death, the unpreparedness for my mother's death. having to learn how to greave. this whole game has just opened my eyes and has been helping me learn I needed help and have been getting it.
Psychology and Video Games, 2 of my favorite things together?!
This is the best thing ever. I swear one day this channel will blow up, I bet my bananas on it.
Thank you!! 😁
What a great video! I absolutely adore this game and I have watched many video essays on it, but yours brings more insight, showing the psychology of it. Keep creating!
Thank you very much!!
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Come back with a video about Outer Wilds!!
We miss your essay full of amazingly amazing amazigness. You are greatly brilliant!
I run a game- and death-/grief-focused channel, and I've spent nearly the entire month of February writing the script to my own video essay about this game thinking I had made observations no one else had. Hearing several of them articulated so well in this video made me feel really validated that I'm not the only one questioning the popular narrative and thinking there's a lot more to this story, but it also made me a little self-conscious; you're far more organized than I am, and you thoroughly but efficiently flesh your ideas out here, getting to the heart of things in a lot less time than I'm going to end up taking. I guess it's self-defeating to compare an unfinished draft to a polished finished product that's ready for display, so I'll keep at it. If you'd consider allowing it, I'd definitely like to work in some references to points you make here and to recommend/plug your video hard at the end of mine. Yours is without a doubt the best video I've watched about this game, and it deserves way, way more views than it has. I got misty-eyed during the segment analyzing Edith at the end. I guess the elephant in the room here is Joseph Anderson, who is an excellent TH-camr and whose video on this game is enlightening, but it's borderline tragic to me that your video isn't as well-known and widely cited. Anyone talking about this game going forward needs to acknowledge your work here and build off of what you've brought to the table.
If you read all this, thank you, and thanks for making this beautiful video essay.
Thank you very much for watching and for sharing your thoughts and insights here! First of all, congrats on starting your channel! It sounds like a great addition to the game essay community and I'll look forward to your future work. You're right that you dont need to worry about comparing your work with mine, I'm sure you will bring your own unique analyses to this and other games I've touched on. I've been writing and researching since 2017 and have grown a lot by writing a lot, but I'm still growing, lol. Also, as you can see, I've never been able to break out into a wider audience on TH-cam for whatever reason (I think it's my struggle to make engaging titles and thumbnails or not knowing where and how to share my videos). I've seen channels start after me and immediately skyrocket into 20x's of views and subscribers. So, no worries about that, either. You could see lots of success where I've been circling around aimlessly.
Oh, and I also spent 3-4 months writing and editing this very slowly which is a long time, but it helped my writing, I think.
Anyways, yes, please, I'd really appreciate you referencing my video in any way. I really believe in discussing these things openly - feel free to directly reference or challenge anything I've said here. Give me a shout out (on twitter is best) when you do! Congrats, again!
@@ScreenTherapy Thank you so much. I'll definitely let you know when it's done, probably via a comment here. (I don't have Twitter or else I'd have already shared your video there.) It really shows that you spent so long putting this one together. I seriously loved it. I'd like to think that slow and steady creation of content we really believe in will gradually build an audience that stays for-and often revisits-every video. Maybe this is just the back-patting sort of thing that the little people tell each other, but one thing that your channel will never, ever be is disposable. With that said, I do hope your channel explodes. More people should refine their TH-cam palates, and it'd be nice if the overall culture of TH-cam shifted to favor content like this.
Calling it a "game" seems somehow inadequate. It's an interactive work of art.
I played WRoEF back in 2020, two years after my grandma died, while living in her old house. Fast forward to November 2022, when I moved in with my paternal grandparents to help my grandma take care of my grandpa on hospice. Yesterday, my grandpa came home from a three-day hospital stay, where we learned he's got a few weeks left to live, especially since he's chosen not to receive medical intervention. (He's nearly 80 years old, it's fine.)
Watching this video back in 2020 helped kickstart my journey into the death positivity movement and helped me engage with death in a constructive manner. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with us.
Why does this have less than 1000 views? Excellent analysis.
Isn't it normal to be afraid of death? I mean, as long as you don't obsess over it and let this idea take over your life like Walter. I don't see why I have to accept it, let alone why I would want reminders of it displayed in my home...
Yes, an instinctive fear of death is definitely healthy. This was aimed for Death Anxiety, which is a debilitating phobia of thinking, hearing about, or talking about death. Many people with death anxiety are simultaneously terrified of death and also cant stop worrying about it and how to avoid any possible risk in life- leading to very painful cycles of worry, dread, and terror.
When death is a normal part of our life cycles and we will all lose people or hear of death often in our lives, it's in our best interest to reduce our fears to just a healthy amount needed for self-preservation, etc. Any more fear than that can lead to long-term stress or suffering.
Bringing down our fears to a healthy level takes consistent practice and, sometimes, reminders, especially if we are used to purposefully ignoring the topic of death out of fear (which is why some reminders around the house is useful). Others also choose to keep reminders around because they understand that keeping fear at bay is a lifelong practice that's easy to forget about during peaceful years until it's too late. I've had years of feeling calm about mortality and some years, where I went without practice and got used to ignoring the topic of death, when I've experienced death anxiety after a personal event made me think about mortality again. It can come and go depending on how you take care of your mind.
Reminders can help keep a long-term balance. It's not for everyone, tho.
@@ScreenTherapy Thanks for the reply! I don't think I fully understand how this works, but then again I don't have a debilitating phobia. I often assume that everyone is like me (if I saw a reminder of death every day, it would just ruin my mood). But my reaction to mortality tends to be sadness and anger more than fear, so I'm not really in the same place as these people. I'm prone to forgetting that. Again, thanks for all the info.
@@vaiapatta8313 The worst part of it is loneliness. Living whilst knowing loved ones will before you. That would be more of an issue for me than myself dying. Grief makes people do strange things which can be good or bad.
I A D O R E this game, and it's great to see at least one more video about it is nice
Thank you so much for putting such a thoughtful insight of this game! After leaving America 4 years ago, my education of psychology had stopped for a long time. However your video brought back so many memories and also reminded be that how important and healing psychology is during our daily life for this special time (even in a video game!)
I'm so grateful for finding out your channel! Please keep creating this screen therapy ☺️
Thank you for watching and for your kind comment!! I'm glad you enjoyed the video! 😁
@@ScreenTherapy Thank you so much 💕 I feel like playing all the games in your playlist before I continue your screen therapy series 😉
I can't believe this video has so few likes and views! I loved it tremebdously, both because I like exploring the ways we can implement death positivity in our lives AND because this game is outstanding. Thank you so much for all the work you put into this video, it was very informative and interesting
Thank you so much for watching and commenting, it means a lot!
You put out so much great work ! I discovered your blog a few days ago after searching for Animal Crossing and therapy, as i was curious to know why the game was making such a buzz during the quarantine. I'm glad to have found your channel because I instantly fell in love with the content on your blog. I didn't even know about the existence of media psychology before.. but now I want to dive into it, so I'm looking forward to your next videos ! Also, you have a very soothing voice and you make the concepts very easy to understand. Now, commenting on this one, it made me understand that I mostly use proximal defenses, but I also realized that I'm now slowly transiting towards distal defenses (if i get the concept right). It's weird because I've always thought that I wasn't scared of death, I'm very open about it but at the same time these past months I've acted like I was terrified about it (isolating myself, not making choices and taking responsabilities, not really living basically) so I'm reflecting on that. Anyways, I'm more of a movie/series person but I'm glad to see those type of games being put out. The last one I played was Persona 5 a few months ago and I really loved it (i haven't finished it yet but I will), and in case you need an idea for a video I would be curious to know your take on this one because it relates directly to psychological concepts like the persona and the shadows, and I guess to more deep stuff that I don't even know about.
Thank you so much for sharing and for your kind words! I'm happy you enjoy my videos and that you've found media psych because of them! :) I lean on Proximal Defenses a bit too much, myself, even though I try my best to be death positive. I'm working on embracing a better balance with Distal defenses to ease death anxiety. I'd be happy to give Persona 5 a look, everyone always says great things about it. I'm also hoping to start doing more videos about movies and shows, those are just so tough to edit for, but I hope to get there soon. If you ever have any suggestions, let me know! :D
@@ScreenTherapy I can only imagine how much time you have to invest to make those videos, from writing to editing.. they are lenghty and qualitive, that's why I wanted to give you feedback ! I'll be interested in any content you put honestly, wether it's about movies, games or even other media. I hope your channel will grow because it deserves it, and I'll let you know if I have other suggestions :)
I really appreciate that, thank you very much! :D
This game is especially important to me, as I am thanatophobic. There are a lot of things that I don’t particularly like thinking about that this game confronted for me.
This video needs more views. I'm glad you brought up that Dawn wasn't in the right either too
Thank you for watching and commenting, I appreciate it! Yes, I wanted to bring up Dawn since she was arguably the most "normal" - but the "normal" way people avoiding discussing or preparing family members to cope with mortality and death is not very helpful either. Thank you for catching that.
"Normal" isn't always the best. Dawn forced normal onto her family after Milton went to become king (I know he disappeared) and ignored the underlining grief that affected her son, Lewis by denying his creativity which withdrew him into substance abuse. That's how I got from it anyway cause Lewis is who I relate the most with (daydreaming to cope)
One more thing I wanted to point out of Lewis. That he suffered from symptoms of Maladaptive daydreaming. That's when your daydreams overtake and is used for coping. It's heartbreaking that his family (including his mother) didn't address his grief from losing Milton and his father. There was no outlet
@@mysouptoocold1656 Sorry dawn couldn't be a miracle worker. She did a lot with what she could do, she had a missing child while having to take on a grown man in lewis... And the rest of the family. She got him into therapy, got him a job to give him some grounding. What more can she do? Your statements just give no support for Dawn who shocker...also was dealing with a mountain of issues. And considering she did give her and Edith a few years of stability it's all she could do.
At the end of the day Lewis was a grown man who did in fact have support from family but he failed to see that. Something the therapist and his mother couldn't force hims to change. He was given the tools, he simply made the choices he wanted.
I was hoping you would make a video about this game :). This is a moving treatment of the game’s message.
Thank you very much for your kind words! :D
@@ScreenTherapy Welcome :)
I like the idea behind your channel and it sets it apart in the realm of video game essays, subbed because of that and am looking forward to your future videos!
This video comes is so handy/resuorceful!!!! I'm writing my master's thesis(still debating what game to choose as an experimental stimulus) on the potential of video games to provide eudaimonic entertainment experiences. Just wanted to drop in and say your channel is SO cool and the way you present content is so helpful and enjoyable!! Esp for someone like me who is interested in the medium and potential of VGs for well-being but unfortunately not skilled at/enjoy playing games themselves :") Will check out more stuff! :D
What an insanely well done video, good job!
Thank you! This is one of my favorites I've made, that means a lot!
Plz do a video on the 4 silent hill games
Amazing video! Thank you so much for presenting this ideas!
fantastic video!! thank you
Thank you!! :)
God I'm so glad I found this channel and am so excited to binge lol. Thank you for making these kinds of videos- sometimes I struggle to piece together narrative significance in games and this really helps to put words to the thoughts I already have for most games lol
Welcome to the channel! I'm glad you found it! Hope you enjoy the videos 🙂
I like this game and I've played it multiple times and I tend to like more dark and spooky videos games and such and I look at dark and spooky videos and such alot more then bright and colorful games and such and to be honest I think I may mostly watch more dark and spooky videos then bright and colorful videos and I don't have much fun with many games nowadays to the point that even with games I enjoy I don't feel much but with me I tend to feel nothing most of the time so its good if I feel something
I think there’s a typo in the title, but the video is great!
Thanks so much for catching that! I'm glad you liked the video!