A point I often make to defend Walking Sims (especially the Chinese Room games like Dear Esther or Everybody's Gone To The Rapture) is that there IS interactivity. People tend to think of the sensory system and the brain as some sort of sponge that absorb the environment, but they often forget about a little something called "intentionality". The brain is actually always actively searching for things through your senses. It becomes really exuberant when you are confronted with art : When reading a book, you are searching for meanings, when you are watching a movie in theater, your eyes are exploring the frame. Sculptures are made to be walked around, same as artistic installations. It's an experience. So, when you are walking in a 3D space, would it be in real life or any type of real time generated world, you are, well ... walking. I mean you COULD CHOOSE NOT to move at all. But you are. You are walking, you are looking around and as you do the world around you continuously shifts perspective. This is what I like about walking sims. They strip down exploration to a minimum and bring back on the table a notion of experience. An architectural notion actually, called "déambulation" (words from LeCorbusier so its in french but it essentially means the experience of space by walking [yeah not surprising]). It's maybe the most important thing a human has a body for and why you are given a simulated one in a video game. To me this is why I love environment design in video game in general. It's about making you feel things about your place in space. Making you feel crushed, making you feel small, making you feel on top of the world or down in the abyss etc. The next step with the environment and the story coming together is an other chinese room game : Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. Which I recommend you playing. It's basically Dear Esther but in an open world and it works wonder. And the next step from that in my opinion is Tacoma from FullBright. Which is genius. This is one of the few instances where I can say the story IS the gameplay AND the experience of the environment. Play it if you haven't ! ^ - ^
Garance omg I can’t believe I missed this comment!! I’m so glad you raised the point that walking has a rich tradition in the arts - the game also makes me think of the Romantic tradition of walking nature as a philosophical and spiritual practice... I so agree re: interactivity - I actually wrote an article because I had too many thoughts on this: medium.com/@kat.pixeladay/gardening-with-a-chainsaw-thoughts-on-interactivity-in-games-65b638b98754 I also really liked Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture although whereas that was a sociological story, Dear Esther was more deeply psychological and so for me it’s still the more moving experience. I really want to play Tacoma, sounds like my cup of tea!
Interactivity isn't gameplay. I love Firewatch and What Remains Of Edith Finch, but they aren't games. These things are hurt by being labeled as such. a) people who actually don't play the games and aren't interested in them at all could still enjoy these things, if they had a proper name b) people who want to PLAY game (therefore using/honing/mastering some skills) won't bother. The issue boils down to "I've bought a GAME and this is a bad GAME, therefore I'll label it as such".
@@joedav67 Well, you cannot really get lost. Anyway, my argument is that "interaction" doesn't make "game". I don't want to define exact border, but not everything interactive is a game, the same way we don't label everything as movies.... we have dramatic movies, comedies, documentaries, series, long run series, news... Seeing Concert in cinema doesn't make it movie. Watching movie on TV doesn't make it series... We separate "content" from it's "form". Interactive medium is a "form". You can have interactive storytelling, painting, music making, etc... games are just one possible type of said content and the most meaningful definition for them is that there is some skill that's being tested and measured. You cannot be meaningfully better or worse at Firewatch. However, you can gamify Firewatch by trying to speedrun it, for example.
A few years ago, I got to see "Dear Esther Live" where the music and narration was delivered live with someone playing the music on a large projection in the concert hall and it's still one of my fondest memories of both art and games. I genuinely love Dear Esther (despite missing most of the finer points of it) since it acts as a nice bridge between traditional game experiences and art and allowed games to do more like that on a bigger scale
@@PixelaDay I'm in the UK! It went on a tour of venues around the country for a bit around when the remaster came out. It was honestly so good and I wish it would get replicated in other places
Me too! I'm actually in Ireland but I flew to Liverpool to see it there. I am unashamed to say I cried in public. It was exhilarating and sorrowful and beautiful. In the Q&A afterwards, I asked if they had many people come along to the tour who had never played Dear Esther, but who had just seen something different in their local concert hall, and they said yes, they actually had quite a few people come with no real idea of what they were coming to see. I'd love to hear those people's takes on the experience. Also, at that time they were trying to work out a way to do a similar tour with Rapture, but obviously they would have to develop an edited version of it to fit into a live play since it's much longer. I would be thrilled if they ever managed to pull that together.
I played the original Source mod before the commercial product was even an idea. After playing Half-Life 2 and episodes and other combat heavy Source mods, Stanley Parable and Dear Esther were breaths of fresh and meaningful air. The Half-Life series' fiction gives you a lot to ponder when the combat is done, and Dear Esther laser focuses on the writing and environmental space, putting the combat or puzzling off to the side. It's very unique like that, in a way very Fumito Ueda in how it subtracts mechanics rather than piles them on for "gameness'" sake. When we abandon our preconceived notions of what games are meant to be, games like Dear Esther and games trying to do different things can be very powerful.
JINORU I so agree regarding “gameness” for the sake of “gameness”. What more does Dear Esther need? What more did Shadow of the Colossus need? I actually wrote an entire article expressing my frustration with the blind demand for “more interactivity”: medium.com/@kat.pixeladay/gardening-with-a-chainsaw-thoughts-on-interactivity-in-games-65b638b98754 Looks like we’re of the same mind! I hope you’ll stick around and enjoy the other videos on the channel 😊
This video needs to have at least one million views. Why aren't there a million people out there who have realized how amazing this video analysis is!?! Of course -- It's only been a year since it was launched. Let time run its course, and a million viewers will yet come. Humanity will only grow more refined with time, after all - it's inevitable. Always has been, all along. This is an astounding analysis of a revolutionary game. Well done!
They are giving it away now for free at Steam so might reap new views ;) It is an intruiging concept so probably have to "play" it. Probably best with headphones...
I often feel quite drawn to stories like these but when I actually engage in them, I always feel completely lost. When I finished the story of Dear Esther, I understood nothing; not even the supposed obvious stuff about the car crash and the grief-stricken husband. Most poetry eludes me in the same way; the flowery language, strong metaphors, non-sequential timelines and unconventional sentence structures throw me off completely and utterly. I suppose I just have quite poor reading comprehension when it comes to poetry, but I don't really know how to improve it. At least Dear Esther had a beautiful soundtrack I could listen to while struggling to fit together the events and characters in the story.
Extraordinary investigation. Recently felt moved to revisit this game and wanted to dig in again to see what kind of video essays have been made to honor it as a poem. This was an awesome surprise. Still one of my favorite works of art to this day.
I just played Dear Esther for the first time today, and I didn't think at all that is was a bad game at all, or a game for that matter. I thought it was an experience of sorts, trying to figure out what the narrator meant, experiencing the environment, and feeling satisfied by the story even if I didn't understand it very much. I enjoyed my time, and I'm glad some people enjoy it for what it is rather than for what it isn't.
Lovely vid. Dear Esther is a game (sorry, poem) I keep returning to and thinking about. You pointed out several things I hadn't thought about before, like the links between Lot's wife, stuck looking at the past, and the strange pillars in the first chapter. I keep finding new layers to this work
Wow, I played Dear Esther a year or two ago since I heard it was one of the first ever walking simulators, but never looked too much into it, so I had no idea it got such a bad rep on release. I didn't mind the slow feel it had because I had played the Vanishing of Ethan Carter before and I kind of knew what I was getting into, even though, admittedly, that one has a bunch of puzzles scattered throughout to keep the player invested. As such, I was content with the literal interpretation of Dear Esther, so this video really shed a new light on things. From my point of view, this "game vs not game" debate stems from the popular belief that games are not supposed to be art and it really reminds me of the never-ending fight regarding whether visual novels should be seen as games or not. Really well-made video. Glad I found your channel.
The hate this game got was always super weird to me. It almost felt like people thought if they allowed this game to be called a game, it would infect the medium and everything would become walking sims. I don’t know how else to explain the overreaction that happened. It wasn’t just, “oh I didn’t like this,” it was, “I'm offended that this even exists.” Personally it wasn’t for me and I didn’t really enjoy it, but I don’t think that’s the fault of the game, especially now that I’ve watched a couple breakdowns of it. As someone who reads 100-150 books a year, some of them requiring a lot of mental work and research to even figure out the basics of what’s going on (Gene Wolfe’s entire ouvre for example) I guess I just want something totally different when I sit down to play a game. I tend towards things with interesting mechanics, fine-tuned challenge, astounding level design, etc. Things generally without a heavy focus on story, or that at least tell their story in a way that only works in a video game. Games more or less copying the storytelling techniques of literature and film are a bit of a turn off, which is why I mostly dislike non-interactive cutscenes and don’t play stuff like Until Dawn, and why a straight up piece of prose poetry that someone had voice acted and built a virtual environment for you to walk through while it's being narrated at you just doesn't really appeal. I feel like I have to do some self-examination here though, because the way this game presents itself, and the depth to which you had to dig to “figure it out,” are very similar to Gene Wolfe’s work, even down to the allusive religious symbolism and I’m wondering if I would’ve actually, maybe, had a good time doing that digging myself? If I had been presented with just the prose on its own, no video game, I probably would have. So why am I willing to put in the work necessary when reading (my google docs note file for Book of the New Sun is 40k words long), but not for a game? The only real defense I can come up with is that a book allows you to read at your own pace. You can go slow or skim through sections that are boring or straightforward, easily refer back to something that you read hundreds of pages ago to confirm a theory you just had. Dear Esther, like a lot of walking sims, doesn't even have a run button, which is just....ugh. Oh and uhhh....Dark Souls is my favorite game of all time so....I'm feeling incredibly called out here. Please take back the cameras you've installed in my home. P.S. There's a very good book about pretentiousness and how the word is misused and misunderstood and weaponized by various kinds of people against sincere artists called "Pretentiousness: Why it Matters" by Dan Fox. Highly recommend.
Thanks I will check it out! I’m glad my video sparked an interesting train of thought :) Ultimately the game has a certain pace and vibe that will either click with you or not, and both are totally fine and valid experiences! The ugly gatekeeping in this hobby is the only thing that truly comes off badly.
Interesting Ending of the video XD. But seriously, I think that this is kind of everything I had in my head after playing Dear Esther, but sorted out, instead of just flying around in my brain. So in long story short, Awesome video, thanks for making some things clear. Keep up the good work!
The funny thing about this is that there's an entire format of games in Japan, the so-called visual novel, that has the same goal and methodology (presenting a story through a game-like structure) that seems to go entirely unremarked-on despite generally being even less interactive (as well as less technologically and audiovisually impressive) than Dear Esther. It might just be that most of the critics who were confronted with Dear Esther didn't know about the existence of visual novels and so the idea threw them completely for a loop. Or it might be that while they had a mental category for a "game" that consist entirely of clicking through text boxes while being presented with static backdrops and character portraits, the ability to move a character with a first-person perspective through a 3-D rendered world threw them out of that space and into their "Shoot Man" space, achieving a sort of Uncanny Valley effect. Great work, by the way! I came here from Errant Signal and I'm liking the content so far.
HAH the Shoot Man space!! XD I find your theory very plausible! That and the fact that the story was inaccessible to a lot of people got it labelled "pretentious", whereas visual novels I guess are more straightforward and they have cute anime girls in them so all good ;)
Well said. Visual novels and point and click adventures are seen as games but games like Dear Esther and Death Stranding are dismissed as pretentious and boring because they are too similar to a traditional game...
Just discovered this and it's super well done! Analysis and professionalism is great. I played this as a teen and it really made an impact on me. I hope it goes on to inspire others to merge artistic platforms in the future.
Well, game critics still very much examine games through the lens of mechanical satisfaction because traditionally, that's the one thing that games offer. I think more contemplative experiences are a game genre that people are still getting used to. Journey was probably the first title to really introduce the gaming community to this kind of experience (to a lesser extent, Ico could also be considered as the first one) despite having a much more involved movement system and more vibrantly colourful settings. So game critics can appreciate these more minimalistic approaches to interactivity but, for now, only if the core message and themes are delivered in a straightforward way All in all, I think we just have to wait a bit for game journalism to mature. Otherwise, great video! I haven't played Dear Esther but it has definitely piqued my interest, I'll try to have a go at it
This is a very nice take on 'Dear Esther'. I enjoyed the experience of playing it a lot, however I do feel it was awfully short. Regarding the video, I would say that this is among those few ones where I went(20:53) "oh I didn't think of it in this way!" I never thought of 'Dear Esther' as a literature being lived. This is like an upgraded version of theaters and movies. Amazing!
You are the greatest discovery I made this year so far. Just finished my first Dear Esther run, and I was looking for a video with this exact, point by point, content. Really loved the last verses, too, so I liked and subscribed. Now excuse me while I binge-watch the rest of your videos.
I stumbled upon your writings and your videos and things similar to these. And I just love where it got me to. This place in time and space is beautiful, insightful, enlightened, poetic, philosophical and... kind. Surrounding myself with things that fulfill me with a constant soft feeling of awe is what makes me calm. Gives me inspiration. Lets me dream and be and not be stressed out about anything being unfinished, stressful or uncertain. Dear Esther is one of my personal favorites. I think you captured the meaning or the feeling and all the misunderstandings perfectly. I think I felt similar things when playing a small game called "The Old City: Leviathan". It's very poetic and grotesque from time to time. Surreal, I guess. Maybe you'd like that one too. Super late, I know. But it felt good to write this down nonetheless. Thank you for creating and sharing!
Thank you for reading/watching! I'd only vaguely heard about The Old City Leviathan but I hadn't realised it was so similar to games I like! It's definitely going on my list.
I guess it found it's audience eventually. And this gave way to masterpieces like The vanishing of Ethan Carter. As the first of its genre, the script is very poetic and hard to understand. So it was a tough start. And the production values were not that great. I play it through at least once yearly, it's absolutely relaxing and the music is beautiful.
Binging your older videos and I think this is my favorite one. Such a beautiful and misunderstood game. This game really helped me appreciate that games could be an artistic medium.
Hi, someone pointed me here after reading one of my comments in which I said similar stuff to what you articulated here. You pretty much nailed in your analysis the way I feel and understand Dear Esther. Except that I will insist on calling it a video game. Ultimately you get a puzzle to solve - the piecing together of the story in your mind, that's where the core gameplay takes place, fed with the clues from the exploration in the game itself. Also, does anyone else see the similarities between this and Silent Hill 2? Male protagonist exploring his loss and trauma in a half imagined decrepit area, surreal hallucinatory projections onto the place itself, communicating with the ghost of the deceased wife through letters, similar color palette, similar postrocky, droney soundtrack, overall ambiguity of the story with the game feeding you vague clues and letting you decipher them. Oh, and props for Tarkovski. I'm Polish so he does have a special place in my heart. As does Stanislaw Lem, the man who wrote Solaris.
K Denton Wonderful to read your comments, thank you! I actually had so much to say on the topic of interactivity I wrote an article about it: medium.com/@kat.pixeladay/gardening-with-a-chainsaw-thoughts-on-interactivity-in-games-65b638b98754 I missed out on Silent Hill, being the chicken that I am, but that is a lot of similarities! Is it too late for me to play it? I’d actually love to devote a month or two and dive into some horror games just for a change. I love hearing people talk about how awesome SH2 was. Poor Tarkovsky, I gave him a hard time... 😂 but I really intended myself to be the butt of the joke at the end of the day - for being a philistine who can’t appreciate high art!
@@PixelaDay Nah, I hear you, I got your joke :) I read your essay and it definitely applies to the design of SH2 and it's rather basic gameplay mechanics. It really stepped outside of the mediums conventions and limitations to create the unique experience but I don't want to spoil too much. I'd say if you play it go for either the PS2 or old PC version with mods, don't play the HD remaster as they managed to ruin it. I'd say SH2 and System Shock 2 are a must play for the horror genre, flawed as they might be. The first Thief, while not strictly a horror, as well. The first SH and SS and are worth playing too if you can swallow the primitive graphics.
Thanks for this excellent analysis of one of my favourite games. I love Dear Esther and have enjoyed introducing it to my non-gaming family and friends as an example of the artistic potential of video games. It portrays a sense of loss, grief and acceptance so poignantly.
I enjoy walking sims in general, but I gotta be honest... I didn't enjoy Dear Esther. I think your points are great, it is more an interactive poem, but at the same time it needs some sort of interactivity. Something to get you a little more invested... it's just not for me. Like I said, I think you made some great arguments, and you definitely interpreted the story much clearer than I did. I also love your little youtube poem at the end lol Keep up the great stuff!
Thanks, I’m so glad you liked the vid! On your point I actually just wrote a blog post on interactivity in games. IMO Dear Esther has plenty of mental interactivity but not much mechanical interactivity. Personally I love the former and think the latter is overrated. medium.com/@kat.pixeladay/gardening-with-a-chainsaw-thoughts-on-interactivity-in-games-65b638b98754
PHENOMENAL. Especially the ending (both the poem and the Tarkovsky revelation)! Had a little chuckle at the gamified Dear Esther spoof. All in all exactly the type of content that TH-cam tries its best to bury while I frantically dig in hopes I will outpace it. It's inspiring too, I would also like to throw gauntlet at the algorithm and try making some niche YT content of my own some day. Cast my own net into the empty lake. One small clarification though, you point to Totalbiscuit as an example of someone who did the reasoning "not a game therefore a bad game". Meanwhile, in his video "In defence of specific definitions" he says that he does not consider not being a game as a bad thing, and he labels Dear Esther as "virtual/interactive installation/experience" calls the games like it "the birth of a new medium" and says that "it's great that those exist". I'm not saying one has to agree with all his points, but it's clearly not the same kind of opinion as those Metacritic reviews you cited.
Glad you enjoyed it! :) I'd love for you to share your thoughts on the Outer Wilds/Rain World vid too (when you've played them, without spoilers!!). On Totalbiscuit, I hadn't seen the video you mentioned (only the video I screenshotted) and honestly it was ages ago and I could be misremembering this. He seemed to recognise that he wasn't approaching it in the right way, but didn't seem to know how to approach it and still ended up falling back on criticising it for not containing game-y enough elements, even as he was acknowledging that it maybe wasn't strictly a game. Thankfully he wasn't as harsh as some of those metacritic reviews, but I'd say some of the same misunderstanding and confusion was there in his review. But maybe his views evolved since then!
@@PixelaDay yeah, I checked the "WTF is" video and indeed it's much more crude. At least he says near the end that if it's literature or poetry he isn't qualified to talk about it. It was made 2 years before the one I mentioned so perhaps there was some refinement of thought in that time (maybe influenced by other "walking simulators" that emerged during that period, Proteus and Glitchhikers were mentioned). Sadly, I can only wonder what his views on it would be now, if he was still with us.
This was a great watch! I never understood why people hated this game so much. I never perceived it as the next big revolution or anything, but I really enjoyed its pacing and just having me walk around, listening to audio logs, trying to make sense of things. I will gladly admit that I never fully understood the game's story, but I honestly did not care that much. I felt that it was about pain, about loss and the inexplicable need to just... explore with nothing but your own thoughts and feelings. I actually admire the game's design in the way that, from the first minute, I saw the beacon in the distance and immediately knew "I must go there...". I know other games did the same before (for example Half-Life 2's citadel) but I still admire how well it worked in this more slow and thoughtful experience. About 14:40 (other people might have pointed that out before me, my apologies, I did not bother reading all the other comments) - don't forget that the game's soundtrack here, "Ascension", fades into a sine wave in the end, sounding like the a heart rate monitor detecting no more heart beats. I have left you my sub!
Great video, thanks for all the work you did researching "game" and making this. I played the game for the first time tonight, after the he I realised I'd just played through something special, the music was beautiful and so where some of the scenes, but not being too well read and familiar with literature speak I didn't understand to a great extent it's meaning. And I think that's the problem that people have found with Dear Esther, if one is not willing to retrospectively study and look into things after the first play through you're going to be left very empty. The average video game and gamer won't and is not expected to do this. I think what this boils down to is gaming is still in its infancy and is growing fast and can catch people out like a lippy teenager. Lots of different types of books and films and I'm just not into, but I sort of know which ones they are and steer clear, not sure why folk brought this thinking it was something that is isn't, maybe it's marketing could have been more revealing? Thanks again, subscribed
Thanks for subbing, I hope you enjoy the channel :) I think you're right, people felt a bit blindsided and were expecting more of a "gamey game". I also think people were quick to dismiss it as being vacuous and pretentious and not to, as you say, look into it a bit more. Not to harp on this point too much but there are much more traditional games that require you to play through multiple times and do lots of research to understand them fully *ahem Dark Souls* so Dear Esther isn't even unique in this regard
@@PixelaDay thanks for the fast reply xx The last game I played was Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice it's rightfully got rave reviews and yet it's mainly about a young girl with psychosis, I feel without the Norse mythology (everywhere WTF) and the combat side to the game it could have had a similar reaction to dear Esther, because the average gamer knows absolutely nothing about psychosis. That's why games like these are really great for opening people minds to deeper darker places, anything but love island 😁
when i played for the 1st time it was like watching one of those movies you get so invested in you need to remind yourself where you are when it ends, it was so melancholic, mystical, mysterious, and i kept having the feeling i was being watched until boom ghosts in the distance, so creepy
I was... frustrated, with Dear Esther. I've only played it today, long after the gripes about "walking sims" have died down. I came in knowing somewhat to expect, a narrative focused medium that isn't really a game so much as a story. An interactive poem as you put it. And I respect it for it doing so. Unfortunately, it still wasn't quite what I expected and wound up not for me. Honestly, my enjoyment was largely crippled by the fact that... I didn't get it. Everything went right over my head, and I didn't have the skills to comprehend this narrative- it kind of makes me feel dumb, tbh. I picked up bits and pieces, but nothing that really captivated me. So regardless of whether it was as I expected, I was at a disadvantage from the onset with what I actually got. This isn't a criticism of the game itself mind you, just expressing my personal experience. I think there was less interactivity than I expected even knowing all this. They gave me the ability to walk but exploration felt discouraging. I was frustrated in the first half of the game as the environment was very bleak and ran together in my mind, with not much to really explore- which might have been my largest misconception, that if they were going to give me the ability to control the character and tell their narrative through the medium of a video game, that the medium would mean something to the world and narrative, that there would be a reason for me to have this control. But what would happen the vast majority of the time is I'd wander off of the beaten path only to loop back in on itself or to reach a dead end and have to backtrack. On its own, that wouldn't have been an issue, but the movement speed feels like a snails pace, as I slowly wander back to the main road to continue the story. There was so much open space to these environments, but it felt _punishing_ to wander them, as there was so often nothing to be found and I'd only be rewarded with a slow trek back through that which I just explored. Eventually I just had to crush my wanderlust and tell myself that it's not worth it. Follow the path. (EDIT: Small note here, even so much as an auto-walk key might have really helped my frustrations here. I oft experience random pains in my hands and holding down the W key for an hour and a half was triggering those pains. The extra time being spent having to do so while dealing with physical pain probably aggravated my frustrations.) Once I got into the caves, the environment became far more captivating for me. Honestly, I was just about to quit the game entirely before I reached there, and the beautiful environment was the kick I needed to see the game through to its end. An "obtuse" story is by no means a negative quality in the context of literature like this. But it does ultimately become a barrier of entry to those who can enjoy it. Games like Dark Souls can be popular while having an obtuse narrative because it still has things to offer for those who don't understand or wish to understand it. But Dear Esther is absolutely raw in its purpose, it is here specifically to provide its narrative experience, so for those of us who cannot grasp it, or for those who can but simply cannot resonate with it, there isn't really anything left to work with. Which I suppose is a limitation of literature as a whole, not just walking simulators. But at least I got to look at some gorgeous watery caves. Anyway, thank you for this video. I may not have gotten or been able to enjoy Dear Esther properly for myself, but I still felt it important to try to see things from the perspective of those who did and to learn what I missed.
I had the same experience, down to the pain in my hands. I’m someone who likes to think deeply about both games and writing, enjoys walking simulators, and have actually dabbled in poetry myself, but this experience felt horrible from the get-go and crushed any curiosity and motivation I might’ve had to try and understand the text. The environment was beautiful but started triggering my depression early on so that was another barrier for me to slog through to get rewarded with extremely confusing blocks of paragraphs that I had to speed read through. At least the music was nice
The story of this game that is not a game reminds me of a book by JG Ballard: Concrete Island. Maitland, our protagonist, is trapped in an island after a car crash, but maybe it's his own mind playing tricks. I watched Solaris this year, perhaps 5 months ago, and I loved it! It's like Silent Hill 2 (aka the best game) in space.
One thing I found when I was researching the video is how many literary inspirations it has. Ghost stories and Romantic poetry and English literature ❤️
I've played the game yesterday (the last time was almost 9 years ago), the first time i was thinking wow just a guy who wants kill himself, but, this time i was thinking numerous ideas referred to the car crash and all the symbolisms in my playthrough.. it's just simply a classic for me and the music always amazed me, ...and then your video came out of nowhere answering all the doubts showing a lot of incredible ideas and theories, amazing analysis great humor and top notch production, subscribed right now!!!! :)
Thank you so much for this wonderful analysis! :D I always had a similar feeling(s) about this game in mind, but never could really phrase it that well.
@@derharlekin5205 Hey this is random but I need someone German (not sure if you're German but your name sounds Germanic!) to voice a couple of lines for the video I'm currently working on (acknowledgment in credits as thanks). If you'd be up for it, let me know how to contact you
You got me to subscribe not just because you did an excellent review. You got me to subscribe because before ever watching your review of Dear Ester. I came to the exact Analysis and conclusion of the Dear Ester. Being that I just played it for the first time a few hours ago. It's a work of art. No less but much more. Thank you
24:35. Using the same logic of ”it’s not a game, therefore it’s a shit game,” your metaphor should be ”this book isn’t a film, therefore it’s a shit film.”
Holy crap. This one was an even more massive spike in quality than the last! I'm wondering if there are now-unlisted videos that used to be on the channel, or if you've just been learning a whole load of improvements with each new video? I suppose I can find out soon enough, because this video was enough for me to become a patreon for your channel! So I can read the behind the scenes stuff now. ^w^ While there were many excellent moments throughout this video, I think the highlight was 15:25 - 16:25 for me. You sold the emotions of everything the, ah, poem(?) was going for, and with the kinda buildup and genuine emotional evocation in me that part produced... it reminds me of the same sorta transcendant moments of emotion that Jacob Geller's videos often have for me. And then the ending, with you bringing back Tarkofky for a final humourous twist, and the youtube promotion-based parody of Dear Esther afterwards, was just a great finale. Not every essay is improved with a comedy skit at the end, but this one was light-hearted and funny enough throughout for it to fit very well. Lovely work! I will watch the rest tomorrow probably. :)
Thank you for your super lovely comments 😎 A comparison to Jacob Geller is high praise indeed! He is definitely an inspiration! Re: the channel, what you see is what there is... I think I've just been steadily getting better and more ambitious as I get more confident with the video-making process.
A little late to the party but I really enjoyed this video. A refreshing common sense take, explained in a funny and entertaining way. After playing the game I wanted to watch a video to make sure I understood everything that happened properly and the themes I might've missed. I expected something mundane and simple, but I love the fully fleshed out jokes and bits that don't detract from any of the serious points, great work and wonderful humour. A true gem. 💎
Absolutely brilliant video. The game kind of left me scratching my head (and I like philosophical arthouse indie games), and I uninstalled it and a few others I figured I wouldn't play again (at least for a while). I might have to reinstall and give it another playthrough after this. This video should be included with the landmark edition along with the director's commentary. It's that well done. I've never sub'd anything video game related, but you have mine. I can't believe more people haven't watched it. Great job.
This game opened the door for walking simulators for me and to this day they are probably one of my favourite genres (yes really). I have watched quite a few videos about Dear Esther and I don't remember anyone else bringing up the points you did. In the hours I have spent in Dear Esther I never thought that I was an interactive poem I always saw it as an interactive piece of art. The graphics look great to be on source engine especially from 2012, the music is great and the story really got to me. But I can see an interactive poem tag fitting Dear Esther quite well. I was quite excited for this video to come out, and I'm really pleased with what you have delivered! Looking forwards to what you make next. *edit*: OH I just remembered that in 2017 they released Dear Esther: Landmark Edition that has achievements in it. Which kind of make it become more of a game I guess?
Oh my gosh these are such nice comments, thank you so much! Yeah there are those "urns" you can collect and you know what? They don't improve the game at all. I wonder why they put them in for that edition....? I have no problem believing that walking sims are among your favourite genres. That shouldn't be a controversial statement to make! I like walking sims and Dear Esther is still my favourite.
@@PixelaDay My guess is that it was a new team behind that version of the game as the original creator works for Valve now. If my memory serves me right they ported the game to Unity aswell.
augh yes thank you for this. There are phrases from this game that are lodged in my mind forever like song lyrics or, yes, lines of poetry. 'I have begun my ascent' 'Dear Esther; the gulls do not nest here any more' 'he was not drunk, Esther, he was not drunk at all' (not sure exact wording but you get what I mean) e: Just want to add - there's no contradiction between that last one and 'you have been rendered opaque by the car of a drunk'. Paul not being drunk does not mean there wasn't a drunk driver involved.:)
I only found out about Dear Esther recently. I've never played a walking sim before, so wasn't really expecting much from it. Being from Scotland, the idea of exploring a Scottish island is what attracted me to it initially. I loved Dear Esther more than I thought I would. The scenery, story and soundtrack are beautiful. The ending scene brought me close to tears. The only other game I've played which made me cry was The Last Of Us.
This video was very enjoyable. Especially the way you clocked yourself for not enjoying the Tarkovsky movie. Everybody has a different taste for how obtuse or obvious the themes of work come across. It can be inaccurate when anyone describes any piece of media in those terms since how easy it will be for someone to pick up on the meaning of a work depends on their experience with the medium, the author's body of work, and engaging with those kinds of themes in general.
I approached Dear Esther as literature; from the very start, it was clear to me that it was something other than a standard game. Since I have some experience studying contemporary experimental literature, it wasn't difficult for me to shift from game mentality to literature mentality. Dear Esther combines the text with environmental storytelling in a unique and fascinating way. It's been a while since I have "played" it. Maybe it is time to revisit it and see how many additional nuances I might pick up.
Me and a friend, aged 46, grew up on the Amiga platform in the 80's, and have been gamers all our lives. We enjoy playing through and experiencing walking simulators together. We do this instead of watching movies.
im glad i got the chance to play this game, i never had played one like it before, in some way i feel it touched my soul, the experience was very pleasant
So after more than 10 years after playing Dear Esther I think it's time for a replay. Not only my view on a lot of subjects have matured but seeing this game through the 'literature glass' will definitely change my feelings towards the story. Not even mentioning the soundtrack, the photography scenes and landmarks.. Gosh I can't wait to downloading it again!
I actually can't believe this has under 1000 views. I absolutely loved this 'interactive poem' (stealing this term as it seems the most accurate to describe it) back in my second year of a game design course and found almost no-one who shared my opinion. Thanks for finally putting in words how I was feeling for the past 7 years!
I think I'm also gaining a renewed sense of connection with the story of Dear Esther after a super tough 18 months with trauma and anxiety and that global pandemic. "It’s the story of a man trying to come to terms with grief and guilt. It’s about what trauma does to us, how it shatters our lives and splinters our minds. How it traps us in time, like frozen statues, pillars of salt, unable to look anywhere but back." Hitting hard
Thank you so much for your lovely comments. Would be interested to hear about why no one else in your course loved it and what that says about the prevailing attitudes in game design courses (if anything)? Anyway I hope you’ll stick around on the channel 😊
@@PixelaDay Don't worry I'm subbed and ready to binge everything that's already up ;) It was and still is an interesting time for games. Stuck between being desperate to consider them art whilst simultaneously being entirely resistant to engage with them as such. The comparison with Dark Souls which was dominating the zeitgeist when Dear Esther released gave me a great 'hah!' moment. I'll do some thinking and try to come up with an answer! Side note: another channel I just discovered is "Like Stories of Old", and I noticed he isn't in your liked channels! Not necessarily a gaming focussed channel, but looks at media - including games - with a similar style and framing as your own. If you haven't seen it I highly recommend! th-cam.com/users/LikeStoriesofOldvideos
Excellent video - just finished another play-through of Dear Esther… an “interactive poem” ;) that I’m very fond of. I think it’s quite a niche who can truly appreciate & enjoy it. I agreed with all the points you made and it (the video) was refreshing to watch. I’ve also got the soundtrack on vinyl (how very hipster I know).
I like the idea that the island is a manifestation of his psyche or whatever I didn’t really vibe with the game as a whole because I couldn’t deal with the walk speed (like even on a contemplative stroll who walks that slowly🗿) and the voiceover every 3 seconds reminded me of the stanley parable guy, but I appreciate what it did for the medium as a whole at the time it came out. The gameworld is really pretty too ofc It’s entirely probable that I just wasn’t in the right state of mind to like it, and I’m glad that other people found meaning in it but I just couldn’t Idk if this is a ridiculous comparison to make but it reminded me of tarkovsky’s solaris. Like a bootleg damaged vhs version of it dubbed in mandarin Edit: lmao I was halfway through the video when I wrote that, that’s such a strange coincidence tf
I deeply enjoyed your video and your take on it. I do agree that Dear Ester is more like a poem than a game, but to that I say that it's a bit odd as a poem as the narration is not the same each time, there is randomness in who was driving the car, who was drunk, and other such things that the narrator bemoans. It's more of a poem of vibes than anything else. A poem written in the form of a flow chart. The randomness element of it makes it hard for me to classify this as a piece of written literature since the experiences will vary greatly between two different people's playthroughs or replaying it a second time. The words of a poem aren't going to rearrange on a page when I go back and reread it and now Robert Frost is taking the road MORE traveled by this time. Does that make it a bad poem/game? No. It was moving and it is a piece of art that did stick with me. Was it an enjoyable experience playing thru it? Also no. It was painfully dreary and slow, but enjoyability shouldn't always be a factor when it comes to appreciating media. Not everything needs to make you feel good by the end. I have mixed feelings on the game overall, but I also think that is the point. Excellent analysis video and it definitely made me rethink a lot of things about Dear Esther.
I think it's not the gamer thats the blame everyone is into different thing's, I'm a hardcore gamer and I also love different kinds of game's and I would enjoy this, however on Xbox it's not call a interactive story it's under game and if a gamer is looking for something new it's not tell them it's a story so it's a bit underhanded, it's not giving people a choice so before you buy anything research to make sure it's your thing.
I think my biggest criticism of Dear Esther would be that it was difficult to fully appreciate it as the narrative it was going for (i.e., poem) without detaching it from what I knew were limitations of games as a medium. I really wanted to take the world in and meander around but I was always worried that as soon as I committed to a path I would be hit with a progression forward that I could not return from. The game actually does a pretty good job of making it clear where a level transition is that you can not return from, but it definitely influenced my first playthrough. It's not the fault of the developers, though. That's just decades of my brain being programmed by more traditional game structure.
I never liked this game, but I have to admit, this is a very good analysis of it. When it comes to walking sims in general, I like some of them, but it never feels right calling them good games, when they’re barely games at all. Describing this as an interactive poem does seem fitting, but does the experience really offer much an actual poem can’t?
That's a good question. I think the answer will be totally subjective. For me, being able to control the movement makes me feel closer to the narrator and helps put me in his shoes, and the gorgeous visuals and music are part of what moves me when I play it. But I can't argue with anyone who says it would do just as much for them as a written poem, or a film. In any case this is a much more interesting discussion to be having than "is it a game"
I had to search for this viedo to find at least ONE person that found this game enjoyable. I understanf=d what you mean now. Maybe I was a bit harsh... Anyways thank you for the essay. I liked , I subscribed and I hope you will still make videos
Excellent video. Ultimately I don't think Dear Esther was made for the majority of 'gamers', just like Dark Souls isn't for everybody. In the same way, usually, the movie with the most explosions and best looking cast does better at the box office, games with the most explosions, collectables and least challenge do better.
I really loved this game. My only criticism was that the save system was incomprehensible. I was well into it when I needed to take a break, and just assumed it autosaved. Lost all my progress and had to restart from the beginning... Quite annoying. Same problem with Vanishing of Ethan Carter. Another beautiful/spooky ambiance game. Great story and vibes, incredibly frustrating save points. "Hey I know you're deep in this tricky puzzle, we're not going to let you leave until you finish it! Or else get thrown back 25 minutes for no reason "
I think your criticisms of the criticisms this game received kind of caricature and straw-man the valid criticisms this game received. Came off a tad bit dishonest and dismissive. It's not just the obtuse plot, the pretentiousness of the writing, or the lack of gameplay. There no doubt were people taking issue with these things, but the bigger issue is why these were a problem in this instance and not in other games, and that reason is the high cost this game places on uncovering it's story. Let me elaborate. Your Dark Souls analogy was not valid in my opinion, because the means we have of uncovering the stories in these games is THE key difference, and it's a major factor in why the obtuseness of Dark Souls is beloved and in Dear Esther it is hated. Granted the games aren't remotely similar in gameplay, but even in how "obtuse" they are, the driving difference is the means players have of uncovering the story; and yes this matters in how well received the obtuseness of the story is. In Dark Souls, you get an overwhelming amount of information overall, and you gradually piece together bits and pieces of the lore as you play, collect items, visit new areas, read item descriptions. You can re-analyze all of these things at any time, and the means of getting around and gathering that information is extremely fun and incentivizes you to want to keep going and discover more. In Dear Esther, the obtuse plot would have been forgiven if the story were more accessible in a practical sense. You poo-poo'd the fact that you can't run or jump in this game, and you really kind of dismissed it as a laughable criticism. I'm here to say it is a PRIMARY criticism that matters, and here's why. I've played a ton of walking sims, and I love most of the ones I've played. I'm fine to go along for a ride, uncover a mystery and experience an excellent story. But if you fed me that story one word per day for 5 years, yeah I'm not investing in that; the cost of consuming that story is far too high. This is an extreme example, but this is the problem Dear Esther suffers from; the cost of uncovering this story is too high and it makes people jump off the ride before actually investing. Your walking speed in this game is far too slow. I started playing, and I thought "oh this looks cool, let me walk around and explore and find out what's going on." 10 minutes later I've heard one verse of the narrator's poem and I'm still walking along the starting coast at a snail's pace wondering why I just spent 10 dollars on the game. If you moved faster in this game and could more easily traverse the island and get to this story, more people would invest in it start to finish and more people would forgive the other points of criticism. The problem is you move so painfully slowly in this game, it makes the cost of uncovering the story far too high, and people jump off feeling frustrated and criticize the game 10 ways to Sunday. I believe the slow moving speed causes players to quit the game and leave frustrated and feeling cheated, and it truly amplifies all of the other criticisms levied at the game.
In my opinion it IS a bad game. You say it can't be judged as a game because of the (admittedly hyperbolic) assertion that it's not one, but it's sold as one, presented as one, and it uses the medium of one. Its use of that medium isn't completely worthless, but I do think it adds little, and hinders what could have been an excellent poem, short story or film. That's not to say it shouldn't exist in this form - it's experimental, it seeks to take the medium in a new artistic direction. But while it works well as an experimental piece of art, it doesn't work well as a game. It's not incorrect to assert that it's best viewed through the lens of literature, but I do think it's incorrect to say that calling it a bad game is wrong or misses the point. But it is unfair, perhaps, to judge it solely as a game while ignoring its other merits - especially since it did not seem to want to be a game at all.
Ok, as somebody who actually likes „Dear Esther“ I gotta say: I think it‘s a bit unfair to critique players who got sold a GAME, for wanting a game and not a poem. If it‘s a great poem, then the programers should have made a poem. Does it gain anything from being an „interactive poem“? Is it even „interactive“? Yeah, you walk… on a linear path. If it needs the visual element, then why not sell it as a „visual poem“, meaning a short movie where the camera walks travels over the island while you get the narration? Also… maybe we should consider the price point. Poems usually don‘t come with the kind of price tag „Dear Esther“ originally had. Small videogames do. If it wants to be more of a poem than a game and be judged as such… then it probably should have set a different price point.
I disagree, I absolutely can critique the belief that one can ever draw clear lines between anything in the (incredibly fuzzy and subjective) realm of art. No one has ever come up with a definition of "game" that clearly delineates "games" from "not games" in a way that would be agreed upon by everyone. Why not accept that a thing can exist that is halfway between a poem and a game, accept that it could reasonably called either thing, and move on to more interesting thoughts and discussion points.
If a customer were to go to a restaurant and order a salad but they were dissatisfied that they were served a balloon, would you say that the customer was wrong in their dissatosfaction because they just didn't understand the value of the balloon?
I get the temptation to try and draw hard boundaries but may I suggest that art is inherently a blurry thing, as are the boundaries between different forms of art, and different genres of art. Much more so than the boundaries between "salad" and "balloon". Are you that sure that Dear Esther is not, and could not conceivably be thought of, as a game? Is it clearly, qualitatively, different to The Beginner's Guide, or Night in the Woods, or P.T. (unless you are also sure that those are absolutely not games either)? I'd say a more correct analogy is ordering a salad, being served one of those contentious watermelon and mint salads and then complaining because "it's not a salad", when what you really mean is it's not a typical salad and you expected a typical salad.
@@PixelaDay I haven't played any of those but from what I've seen, PT would be a game as it has puzzles to solve. The Beginner's Guide would not be a game.
I wouldn't call this worth $10, or even $1, but I did very much enjoy getting to play it for free. It's not deep enough or satisfying enough to be worth investing in as part of your entertainment budget; it's worth experiencing the same way you check a comic book out of the library, read it once, return it, and occasionally think about it thereafter, but never read it again. The only part of the game that approaches being worth owning IMO is chapter 3, where you're in the cave, and the best music of the game plays. But even there, there's too little to do, too little control over your experience, too many invisible walls and impassible shores frustrating your efforts to move freely.
(I know this video is old but I'll comment anyways) I really enjoyed this video and I agree with you wholeheartedly on the misplaced criticism of Dear Ester, However I think some of your discussion of the larger medium of games comes off as unnecessarily derogatory. I assume this wasn't intentional, if you thought games were a lesser medium you probably wouldn't have dedicated your channel to discussions of games, I just wanted to share how it comes across as a viewer. At one point you essentially posit that the only difference between dark souls and dear ester is that dark souls has "demon skeletons". Again, I'm skeptical that you believe this in the first place, but it completely dismisses the reasons why dark souls is such a good and well-loved game. It's not just the demon skeletons that make it good, it's the fact that the experience of fighting said demon skeletons matches the narrative themes of the game and strengthens them that makes dark souls good. If one were to approach dear ester solely as a game then yes, it would be fair to argue that there should be more gameplay elements to work alongside the story (while you're correct that the current gameplay supports the narrative, there's also definitely ways to increase interactivity without losing that "trapped" feeling). It feels like, in this moment, you're switching from "game-centric critiques of dear ester are bad because dear ester isn't solely a game" to "game-centric critiques of dear ester are bad because the criteria for a good game are shallow and bad" which I feel ultimately works to weaken the argument. The other moment that frustrated me was when you were comparing the goals of games and literature. You essentially implied that only literature seeks to create a narrative and evoke emotions, which you so obviously don't think is true if your other videos are to be believed. You also take this part as an opportunity to make a lot of jabs at games/gamers and it ends up coming off as unnecessarily rude. It feels like in this moment you're saying "you gamers only care about your pew pew and your explosions, only literature has meaning and messages". I think this is especially frustrating to me because I'm fairly certain that you don't actually believe what you're implying. There isn't a particular purpose for this comment, I just wanted to articulate why certain parts of this video rubbed me the wrong way despite my overall enjoyment.
Thanks for your comment! I wonder what your thoughts will be on my next video, which will be probably close to an hour of me venting all my frustrations about the games industry XD You're absolutely correct, I don't believe "you gamers only care about your pew pew" but it's interesting you interpreted my frustration as something so extreme and simplistic. I don't believe ALL games, or even ALL mainstream games are any one thing (that would be ridiculous), but I do genuinely believe that most AAA games explore a boringly small range of mechanics and emotional experiences, that the big budget games industry caters to a needlessly narrow range of demographics and motivations to play, and that the gaming community is often wrong-headed in the criteria they use to judge games. If my frustration with all that comes out a bit in my stuff, I'm OK with that.
@@PixelaDay I definitely agree with you about frustrations with the gaming industry lol, before this I was watching your horizon zero dawn critique and nodding along the whole time. The "extreme interpretation" I got out of these moments was by no means the message I got out of the whole video, generally your message shined very clearly through, it was just a few moments where I think your anger at the industry ended up obscuring your points somewhat. I think I'll probably enjoy your next video as this critique is a nitpick about otherwise great video, I generally agree with your frustrations, and this video is pretty old so your ability to articulate your points has improved (and it was already really good when this video was made!). I look forward to getting to listen to you for an hour
I guess I just don’t understand why it had to be a game. It would’ve been much easier to understand if it was all written down. You could even put pictures next to it, if you like. As a game it feels frustrating, impossible, and depressing
I had to explore to think no no nope not even close this game is sophistry at its highest level. If it wasn't for the good music director they had which was a British woman whose name I don't remember this game wouldn't have gone as far as it did this is not a game this is a thing. I just finished it a minute ago and got every single achievement. And from what I've seen and when I played it's not a game the Chinese room had the same problem with amnesia Machine For Pigs Machine For Pigs was not a true Amnesia game because it had very little gameplay it wasn't scary at all it felt more like Dear Esther, and that's where we sit at a video game has to have some form of gameplay has to have a world has to have something real tangible this thing doesn't have any of that it's just a pretentious mess of a experience, sadly though I'm the type of person who likes to hurt themselves and I'll sit down and literally play through anything I can get my hands on that is horrendously bad just so I can have all of the achievements showing how much of a sadistic person I am by looking at my achievement list seeing that I have beaten some of the worst games ever made or in this case one of the worst things I've ever seen it tries to put on the skin of a video game it's trying to wear the skin of a game but it's not a game it's not even alive it's actively trying to kill itself throughout the game and that doesn't even make sense because it's a radio dish if you shut it off Engineers will come and fix it and you'll be saved or you can jump off trust me when I finally mastered this game I felt like jumping off
Completely disagree about the "Pretentious" bit. Pretentious means something is snobbish, arrogant, thinks its more than what it is. It isnt a lack of understanding, its actually the opposite. Its more like the story thinks its smarter than it really is and flawless
I've put loads of hour into Dear Esther, I liken it to reading a much love book. Is it a game? Who cares. I don't play modern long games because I find them too repetative and boring. Like a good book I don't get board of Dear Esther to this day.
I appreciate this analysis, and other "walking simulators" are some of my favorite games, but Dear Esther still really did come off as pretentious. The storytelling and the story itself wasn't particularly effective or relatable for me. I won't pretend I understood it right away, but I don't feel like it was worth the space it occupied in my head while I was contemplating it, and I feel like there are plenty of others who wouldn't feel compelled to think about it.
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A point I often make to defend Walking Sims (especially the Chinese Room games like Dear Esther or Everybody's Gone To The Rapture) is that there IS interactivity. People tend to think of the sensory system and the brain as some sort of sponge that absorb the environment, but they often forget about a little something called "intentionality". The brain is actually always actively searching for things through your senses. It becomes really exuberant when you are confronted with art : When reading a book, you are searching for meanings, when you are watching a movie in theater, your eyes are exploring the frame. Sculptures are made to be walked around, same as artistic installations. It's an experience.
So, when you are walking in a 3D space, would it be in real life or any type of real time generated world, you are, well ... walking. I mean you COULD CHOOSE NOT to move at all. But you are. You are walking, you are looking around and as you do the world around you continuously shifts perspective.
This is what I like about walking sims. They strip down exploration to a minimum and bring back on the table a notion of experience. An architectural notion actually, called "déambulation" (words from LeCorbusier so its in french but it essentially means the experience of space by walking [yeah not surprising]). It's maybe the most important thing a human has a body for and why you are given a simulated one in a video game.
To me this is why I love environment design in video game in general. It's about making you feel things about your place in space. Making you feel crushed, making you feel small, making you feel on top of the world or down in the abyss etc.
The next step with the environment and the story coming together is an other chinese room game : Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. Which I recommend you playing. It's basically Dear Esther but in an open world and it works wonder. And the next step from that in my opinion is Tacoma from FullBright. Which is genius. This is one of the few instances where I can say the story IS the gameplay AND the experience of the environment. Play it if you haven't ! ^ - ^
Garance omg I can’t believe I missed this comment!! I’m so glad you raised the point that walking has a rich tradition in the arts - the game also makes me think of the Romantic tradition of walking nature as a philosophical and spiritual practice... I so agree re: interactivity - I actually wrote an article because I had too many thoughts on this: medium.com/@kat.pixeladay/gardening-with-a-chainsaw-thoughts-on-interactivity-in-games-65b638b98754
I also really liked Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture although whereas that was a sociological story, Dear Esther was more deeply psychological and so for me it’s still the more moving experience. I really want to play Tacoma, sounds like my cup of tea!
Interactivity isn't gameplay. I love Firewatch and What Remains Of Edith Finch, but they aren't games. These things are hurt by being labeled as such. a) people who actually don't play the games and aren't interested in them at all could still enjoy these things, if they had a proper name b) people who want to PLAY game (therefore using/honing/mastering some skills) won't bother.
The issue boils down to "I've bought a GAME and this is a bad GAME, therefore I'll label it as such".
@@GonziHerehow is Firewatch not a game? Is orienteering not gameplay?
@@joedav67 Well, you cannot really get lost. Anyway, my argument is that "interaction" doesn't make "game". I don't want to define exact border, but not everything interactive is a game, the same way we don't label everything as movies.... we have dramatic movies, comedies, documentaries, series, long run series, news...
Seeing Concert in cinema doesn't make it movie. Watching movie on TV doesn't make it series... We separate "content" from it's "form".
Interactive medium is a "form". You can have interactive storytelling, painting, music making, etc... games are just one possible type of said content and the most meaningful definition for them is that there is some skill that's being tested and measured.
You cannot be meaningfully better or worse at Firewatch. However, you can gamify Firewatch by trying to speedrun it, for example.
A few years ago, I got to see "Dear Esther Live" where the music and narration was delivered live with someone playing the music on a large projection in the concert hall and it's still one of my fondest memories of both art and games. I genuinely love Dear Esther (despite missing most of the finer points of it) since it acts as a nice bridge between traditional game experiences and art and allowed games to do more like that on a bigger scale
This is incredible! Whereabouts are you located? I would cry a million tears of happiness if I got to see something like this
@@PixelaDay I'm in the UK! It went on a tour of venues around the country for a bit around when the remaster came out. It was honestly so good and I wish it would get replicated in other places
@@highkingnomnom This is amazing
Me too! I'm actually in Ireland but I flew to Liverpool to see it there. I am unashamed to say I cried in public. It was exhilarating and sorrowful and beautiful.
In the Q&A afterwards, I asked if they had many people come along to the tour who had never played Dear Esther, but who had just seen something different in their local concert hall, and they said yes, they actually had quite a few people come with no real idea of what they were coming to see. I'd love to hear those people's takes on the experience.
Also, at that time they were trying to work out a way to do a similar tour with Rapture, but obviously they would have to develop an edited version of it to fit into a live play since it's much longer. I would be thrilled if they ever managed to pull that together.
awesome. Do you know if there is any footage from one of these events?
I played the original Source mod before the commercial product was even an idea. After playing Half-Life 2 and episodes and other combat heavy Source mods, Stanley Parable and Dear Esther were breaths of fresh and meaningful air. The Half-Life series' fiction gives you a lot to ponder when the combat is done, and Dear Esther laser focuses on the writing and environmental space, putting the combat or puzzling off to the side. It's very unique like that, in a way very Fumito Ueda in how it subtracts mechanics rather than piles them on for "gameness'" sake.
When we abandon our preconceived notions of what games are meant to be, games like Dear Esther and games trying to do different things can be very powerful.
JINORU I so agree regarding “gameness” for the sake of “gameness”. What more does Dear Esther need? What more did Shadow of the Colossus need? I actually wrote an entire article expressing my frustration with the blind demand for “more interactivity”: medium.com/@kat.pixeladay/gardening-with-a-chainsaw-thoughts-on-interactivity-in-games-65b638b98754
Looks like we’re of the same mind! I hope you’ll stick around and enjoy the other videos on the channel 😊
This video needs to have at least one million views.
Why aren't there a million people out there who have realized how amazing this video analysis is!?!
Of course -- It's only been a year since it was launched. Let time run its course, and a million viewers will yet come. Humanity will only grow more refined with time, after all - it's inevitable. Always has been, all along.
This is an astounding analysis of a revolutionary game. Well done!
They are giving it away now for free at Steam so might reap new views ;) It is an intruiging concept so probably have to "play" it. Probably best with headphones...
Holy crap, I've played through Dear Esther 2 or 3 times and had never noticed actual ghosts in the distance!
I have a screenshot of the sighting 20:29 from just outside of the cave as a wallpaper. This game is so damn beautiful
I often feel quite drawn to stories like these but when I actually engage in them, I always feel completely lost. When I finished the story of Dear Esther, I understood nothing; not even the supposed obvious stuff about the car crash and the grief-stricken husband. Most poetry eludes me in the same way; the flowery language, strong metaphors, non-sequential timelines and unconventional sentence structures throw me off completely and utterly. I suppose I just have quite poor reading comprehension when it comes to poetry, but I don't really know how to improve it. At least Dear Esther had a beautiful soundtrack I could listen to while struggling to fit together the events and characters in the story.
Extraordinary investigation. Recently felt moved to revisit this game and wanted to dig in again to see what kind of video essays have been made to honor it as a poem. This was an awesome surprise. Still one of my favorite works of art to this day.
Welcome to the channel, great to have you :) Thanks for the lovely comment!
I always love a well-crafted deep dive into works that I en't interested in as such but still have a curiosity for.
I just played Dear Esther for the first time today, and I didn't think at all that is was a bad game at all, or a game for that matter.
I thought it was an experience of sorts, trying to figure out what the narrator meant, experiencing the environment, and feeling satisfied by the story even if I didn't understand it very much.
I enjoyed my time, and I'm glad some people enjoy it for what it is rather than for what it isn't.
Lovely vid. Dear Esther is a game (sorry, poem) I keep returning to and thinking about. You pointed out several things I hadn't thought about before, like the links between Lot's wife, stuck looking at the past, and the strange pillars in the first chapter. I keep finding new layers to this work
ANewPseudonym I’m so glad to hear the video helped you uncover some layers 😊
Excellent analysis and production! Dear Esther is definitely something special.
Wow, I played Dear Esther a year or two ago since I heard it was one of the first ever walking simulators, but never looked too much into it, so I had no idea it got such a bad rep on release.
I didn't mind the slow feel it had because I had played the Vanishing of Ethan Carter before and I kind of knew what I was getting into, even though, admittedly, that one has a bunch of puzzles scattered throughout to keep the player invested. As such, I was content with the literal interpretation of Dear Esther, so this video really shed a new light on things.
From my point of view, this "game vs not game" debate stems from the popular belief that games are not supposed to be art and it really reminds me of the never-ending fight regarding whether visual novels should be seen as games or not.
Really well-made video. Glad I found your channel.
Hope you enjoy the channel 😊
You are one of my favorite TH-camrs. I hope I can make a game one day that will get this kind of video about it.
The hate this game got was always super weird to me. It almost felt like people thought if they allowed this game to be called a game, it would infect the medium and everything would become walking sims. I don’t know how else to explain the overreaction that happened. It wasn’t just, “oh I didn’t like this,” it was, “I'm offended that this even exists.”
Personally it wasn’t for me and I didn’t really enjoy it, but I don’t think that’s the fault of the game, especially now that I’ve watched a couple breakdowns of it. As someone who reads 100-150 books a year, some of them requiring a lot of mental work and research to even figure out the basics of what’s going on (Gene Wolfe’s entire ouvre for example) I guess I just want something totally different when I sit down to play a game. I tend towards things with interesting mechanics, fine-tuned challenge, astounding level design, etc. Things generally without a heavy focus on story, or that at least tell their story in a way that only works in a video game. Games more or less copying the storytelling techniques of literature and film are a bit of a turn off, which is why I mostly dislike non-interactive cutscenes and don’t play stuff like Until Dawn, and why a straight up piece of prose poetry that someone had voice acted and built a virtual environment for you to walk through while it's being narrated at you just doesn't really appeal.
I feel like I have to do some self-examination here though, because the way this game presents itself, and the depth to which you had to dig to “figure it out,” are very similar to Gene Wolfe’s work, even down to the allusive religious symbolism and I’m wondering if I would’ve actually, maybe, had a good time doing that digging myself? If I had been presented with just the prose on its own, no video game, I probably would have. So why am I willing to put in the work necessary when reading (my google docs note file for Book of the New Sun is 40k words long), but not for a game? The only real defense I can come up with is that a book allows you to read at your own pace. You can go slow or skim through sections that are boring or straightforward, easily refer back to something that you read hundreds of pages ago to confirm a theory you just had. Dear Esther, like a lot of walking sims, doesn't even have a run button, which is just....ugh.
Oh and uhhh....Dark Souls is my favorite game of all time so....I'm feeling incredibly called out here. Please take back the cameras you've installed in my home.
P.S. There's a very good book about pretentiousness and how the word is misused and misunderstood and weaponized by various kinds of people against sincere artists called "Pretentiousness: Why it Matters" by Dan Fox. Highly recommend.
Thanks I will check it out! I’m glad my video sparked an interesting train of thought :) Ultimately the game has a certain pace and vibe that will either click with you or not, and both are totally fine and valid experiences! The ugly gatekeeping in this hobby is the only thing that truly comes off badly.
Interesting Ending of the video XD. But seriously, I think that this is kind of everything I had in my head after playing Dear Esther, but sorted out, instead of just flying around in my brain.
So in long story short, Awesome video, thanks for making some things clear.
Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much, that's really nice to hear :)
The funny thing about this is that there's an entire format of games in Japan, the so-called visual novel, that has the same goal and methodology (presenting a story through a game-like structure) that seems to go entirely unremarked-on despite generally being even less interactive (as well as less technologically and audiovisually impressive) than Dear Esther. It might just be that most of the critics who were confronted with Dear Esther didn't know about the existence of visual novels and so the idea threw them completely for a loop. Or it might be that while they had a mental category for a "game" that consist entirely of clicking through text boxes while being presented with static backdrops and character portraits, the ability to move a character with a first-person perspective through a 3-D rendered world threw them out of that space and into their "Shoot Man" space, achieving a sort of Uncanny Valley effect.
Great work, by the way! I came here from Errant Signal and I'm liking the content so far.
HAH the Shoot Man space!! XD I find your theory very plausible! That and the fact that the story was inaccessible to a lot of people got it labelled "pretentious", whereas visual novels I guess are more straightforward and they have cute anime girls in them so all good ;)
Well said. Visual novels and point and click adventures are seen as games but games like Dear Esther and Death Stranding are dismissed as pretentious and boring because they are too similar to a traditional game...
Just discovered this and it's super well done! Analysis and professionalism is great. I played this as a teen and it really made an impact on me. I hope it goes on to inspire others to merge artistic platforms in the future.
Well, game critics still very much examine games through the lens of mechanical satisfaction because traditionally, that's the one thing that games offer.
I think more contemplative experiences are a game genre that people are still getting used to. Journey was probably the first title to really introduce the gaming community to this kind of experience (to a lesser extent, Ico could also be considered as the first one) despite having a much more involved movement system and more vibrantly colourful settings. So game critics can appreciate these more minimalistic approaches to interactivity but, for now, only if the core message and themes are delivered in a straightforward way
All in all, I think we just have to wait a bit for game journalism to mature.
Otherwise, great video! I haven't played Dear Esther but it has definitely piqued my interest, I'll try to have a go at it
Simon His If I’m piquing interest I’m doing my job!
Every time I dip below sea level I hear the faint whispering... "Like and subscribe."
Great Explanation!
Hope to see more videos like this.
This is a very nice take on 'Dear Esther'. I enjoyed the experience of playing it a lot, however I do feel it was awfully short. Regarding the video, I would say that this is among those few ones where I went(20:53) "oh I didn't think of it in this way!"
I never thought of 'Dear Esther' as a literature being lived. This is like an upgraded version of theaters and movies. Amazing!
Holy shit! I love this video! Both hilarious and also great to see more content creators using literary analysis to discuss the medium
Thank you, I appreciate the comment!
You would enjoy Mr. BTongue.
A beautiful analysis and reading, thank you for putting this together.
You are the greatest discovery I made this year so far. Just finished my first Dear Esther run, and I was looking for a video with this exact, point by point, content. Really loved the last verses, too, so I liked and subscribed. Now excuse me while I binge-watch the rest of your videos.
This comment is too nice!! Hope you enjoy the rest of my stuff :)
What a masterpiece. I loved this video!!
That's so nice of you to say. Thank you so much
Woah, you are so talented! I was in shock when I noticed that this video had only less than 1k of views
Thank you so much! My channel is still fairly new, so if you like it, spread the word :)
I stumbled upon your writings and your videos and things similar to these. And I just love where it got me to. This place in time and space is beautiful, insightful, enlightened, poetic, philosophical and... kind. Surrounding myself with things that fulfill me with a constant soft feeling of awe is what makes me calm. Gives me inspiration. Lets me dream and be and not be stressed out about anything being unfinished, stressful or uncertain.
Dear Esther is one of my personal favorites. I think you captured the meaning or the feeling and all the misunderstandings perfectly.
I think I felt similar things when playing a small game called "The Old City: Leviathan". It's very poetic and grotesque from time to time.
Surreal, I guess.
Maybe you'd like that one too.
Super late, I know. But it felt good to write this down nonetheless. Thank you for creating and sharing!
Thank you for reading/watching! I'd only vaguely heard about The Old City Leviathan but I hadn't realised it was so similar to games I like! It's definitely going on my list.
it is an absolute shame that it took two years for me to find this video, but I'm glad I did! Incredible work.
I guess it found it's audience eventually. And this gave way to masterpieces like The vanishing of Ethan Carter. As the first of its genre, the script is very poetic and hard to understand. So it was a tough start. And the production values were not that great. I play it through at least once yearly, it's absolutely relaxing and the music is beautiful.
Binging your older videos and I think this is my favorite one. Such a beautiful and misunderstood game. This game really helped me appreciate that games could be an artistic medium.
Hi, someone pointed me here after reading one of my comments in which I said similar stuff to what you articulated here. You pretty much nailed in your analysis the way I feel and understand Dear Esther. Except that I will insist on calling it a video game. Ultimately you get a puzzle to solve - the piecing together of the story in your mind, that's where the core gameplay takes place, fed with the clues from the exploration in the game itself.
Also, does anyone else see the similarities between this and Silent Hill 2? Male protagonist exploring his loss and trauma in a half imagined decrepit area, surreal hallucinatory projections onto the place itself, communicating with the ghost of the deceased wife through letters, similar color palette, similar postrocky, droney soundtrack, overall ambiguity of the story with the game feeding you vague clues and letting you decipher them.
Oh, and props for Tarkovski. I'm Polish so he does have a special place in my heart. As does Stanislaw Lem, the man who wrote Solaris.
K Denton Wonderful to read your comments, thank you! I actually had so much to say on the topic of interactivity I wrote an article about it: medium.com/@kat.pixeladay/gardening-with-a-chainsaw-thoughts-on-interactivity-in-games-65b638b98754
I missed out on Silent Hill, being the chicken that I am, but that is a lot of similarities! Is it too late for me to play it? I’d actually love to devote a month or two and dive into some horror games just for a change. I love hearing people talk about how awesome SH2 was.
Poor Tarkovsky, I gave him a hard time... 😂 but I really intended myself to be the butt of the joke at the end of the day - for being a philistine who can’t appreciate high art!
@@PixelaDay Nah, I hear you, I got your joke :) I read your essay and it definitely applies to the design of SH2 and it's rather basic gameplay mechanics. It really stepped outside of the mediums conventions and limitations to create the unique experience but I don't want to spoil too much. I'd say if you play it go for either the PS2 or old PC version with mods, don't play the HD remaster as they managed to ruin it. I'd say SH2 and System Shock 2 are a must play for the horror genre, flawed as they might be. The first Thief, while not strictly a horror, as well. The first SH and SS and are worth playing too if you can swallow the primitive graphics.
Thanks for this excellent analysis of one of my favourite games. I love Dear Esther and have enjoyed introducing it to my non-gaming family and friends as an example of the artistic potential of video games. It portrays a sense of loss, grief and acceptance so poignantly.
that like and subscribe outro is a genuine piece of art 😻
i clipped it and will aggressive share it with all of my two friends. hope that helps ^^
It does! 😊
I enjoy walking sims in general, but I gotta be honest... I didn't enjoy Dear Esther. I think your points are great, it is more an interactive poem, but at the same time it needs some sort of interactivity. Something to get you a little more invested... it's just not for me. Like I said, I think you made some great arguments, and you definitely interpreted the story much clearer than I did. I also love your little youtube poem at the end lol Keep up the great stuff!
Thanks, I’m so glad you liked the vid! On your point I actually just wrote a blog post on interactivity in games. IMO Dear Esther has plenty of mental interactivity but not much mechanical interactivity. Personally I love the former and think the latter is overrated.
medium.com/@kat.pixeladay/gardening-with-a-chainsaw-thoughts-on-interactivity-in-games-65b638b98754
PHENOMENAL. Especially the ending (both the poem and the Tarkovsky revelation)! Had a little chuckle at the gamified Dear Esther spoof. All in all exactly the type of content that TH-cam tries its best to bury while I frantically dig in hopes I will outpace it. It's inspiring too, I would also like to throw gauntlet at the algorithm and try making some niche YT content of my own some day. Cast my own net into the empty lake.
One small clarification though, you point to Totalbiscuit as an example of someone who did the reasoning "not a game therefore a bad game". Meanwhile, in his video "In defence of specific definitions" he says that he does not consider not being a game as a bad thing, and he labels Dear Esther as "virtual/interactive installation/experience" calls the games like it "the birth of a new medium" and says that "it's great that those exist". I'm not saying one has to agree with all his points, but it's clearly not the same kind of opinion as those Metacritic reviews you cited.
Glad you enjoyed it! :) I'd love for you to share your thoughts on the Outer Wilds/Rain World vid too (when you've played them, without spoilers!!). On Totalbiscuit, I hadn't seen the video you mentioned (only the video I screenshotted) and honestly it was ages ago and I could be misremembering this. He seemed to recognise that he wasn't approaching it in the right way, but didn't seem to know how to approach it and still ended up falling back on criticising it for not containing game-y enough elements, even as he was acknowledging that it maybe wasn't strictly a game. Thankfully he wasn't as harsh as some of those metacritic reviews, but I'd say some of the same misunderstanding and confusion was there in his review. But maybe his views evolved since then!
@@PixelaDay yeah, I checked the "WTF is" video and indeed it's much more crude. At least he says near the end that if it's literature or poetry he isn't qualified to talk about it. It was made 2 years before the one I mentioned so perhaps there was some refinement of thought in that time (maybe influenced by other "walking simulators" that emerged during that period, Proteus and Glitchhikers were mentioned).
Sadly, I can only wonder what his views on it would be now, if he was still with us.
Oh I actually didn't know he'd passed away... 😥
This was a great watch! I never understood why people hated this game so much. I never perceived it as the next big revolution or anything, but I really enjoyed its pacing and just having me walk around, listening to audio logs, trying to make sense of things. I will gladly admit that I never fully understood the game's story, but I honestly did not care that much. I felt that it was about pain, about loss and the inexplicable need to just... explore with nothing but your own thoughts and feelings. I actually admire the game's design in the way that, from the first minute, I saw the beacon in the distance and immediately knew "I must go there...". I know other games did the same before (for example Half-Life 2's citadel) but I still admire how well it worked in this more slow and thoughtful experience.
About 14:40 (other people might have pointed that out before me, my apologies, I did not bother reading all the other comments) - don't forget that the game's soundtrack here, "Ascension", fades into a sine wave in the end, sounding like the a heart rate monitor detecting no more heart beats.
I have left you my sub!
Sub accepted! Nom nom!
Great video, thanks for all the work you did researching "game" and making this.
I played the game for the first time tonight, after the he I realised I'd just played through something special, the music was beautiful and so where some of the scenes, but not being too well read and familiar with literature speak I didn't understand to a great extent it's meaning.
And I think that's the problem that people have found with Dear Esther, if one is not willing to retrospectively study and look into things after the first play through you're going to be left very empty.
The average video game and gamer won't and is not expected to do this.
I think what this boils down to is gaming is still in its infancy and is growing fast and can catch people out like a lippy teenager. Lots of different types of books and films and I'm just not into, but I sort of know which ones they are and steer clear, not sure why folk brought this thinking it was something that is isn't, maybe it's marketing could have been more revealing?
Thanks again, subscribed
Thanks for subbing, I hope you enjoy the channel :) I think you're right, people felt a bit blindsided and were expecting more of a "gamey game". I also think people were quick to dismiss it as being vacuous and pretentious and not to, as you say, look into it a bit more. Not to harp on this point too much but there are much more traditional games that require you to play through multiple times and do lots of research to understand them fully *ahem Dark Souls* so Dear Esther isn't even unique in this regard
@@PixelaDay thanks for the fast reply xx
The last game I played was Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice it's rightfully got rave reviews and yet it's mainly about a young girl with psychosis, I feel without the Norse mythology (everywhere WTF) and the combat side to the game it could have had a similar reaction to dear Esther, because the average gamer knows absolutely nothing about psychosis.
That's why games like these are really great for opening people minds to deeper darker places, anything but love island 😁
I found it a quite emotional experience and I think I know what's going on, but I will not spoil it for others...
I really enjoyed your essay. Thank you!
Thank you for watching!
when i played for the 1st time it was like watching one of those movies you get so invested in you need to remind yourself where you are when it ends, it was so melancholic, mystical, mysterious, and i kept having the feeling i was being watched until boom ghosts in the distance, so creepy
I was... frustrated, with Dear Esther. I've only played it today, long after the gripes about "walking sims" have died down. I came in knowing somewhat to expect, a narrative focused medium that isn't really a game so much as a story. An interactive poem as you put it. And I respect it for it doing so. Unfortunately, it still wasn't quite what I expected and wound up not for me.
Honestly, my enjoyment was largely crippled by the fact that... I didn't get it. Everything went right over my head, and I didn't have the skills to comprehend this narrative- it kind of makes me feel dumb, tbh. I picked up bits and pieces, but nothing that really captivated me. So regardless of whether it was as I expected, I was at a disadvantage from the onset with what I actually got. This isn't a criticism of the game itself mind you, just expressing my personal experience.
I think there was less interactivity than I expected even knowing all this. They gave me the ability to walk but exploration felt discouraging. I was frustrated in the first half of the game as the environment was very bleak and ran together in my mind, with not much to really explore- which might have been my largest misconception, that if they were going to give me the ability to control the character and tell their narrative through the medium of a video game, that the medium would mean something to the world and narrative, that there would be a reason for me to have this control. But what would happen the vast majority of the time is I'd wander off of the beaten path only to loop back in on itself or to reach a dead end and have to backtrack. On its own, that wouldn't have been an issue, but the movement speed feels like a snails pace, as I slowly wander back to the main road to continue the story. There was so much open space to these environments, but it felt _punishing_ to wander them, as there was so often nothing to be found and I'd only be rewarded with a slow trek back through that which I just explored.
Eventually I just had to crush my wanderlust and tell myself that it's not worth it. Follow the path.
(EDIT: Small note here, even so much as an auto-walk key might have really helped my frustrations here. I oft experience random pains in my hands and holding down the W key for an hour and a half was triggering those pains. The extra time being spent having to do so while dealing with physical pain probably aggravated my frustrations.)
Once I got into the caves, the environment became far more captivating for me. Honestly, I was just about to quit the game entirely before I reached there, and the beautiful environment was the kick I needed to see the game through to its end.
An "obtuse" story is by no means a negative quality in the context of literature like this. But it does ultimately become a barrier of entry to those who can enjoy it. Games like Dark Souls can be popular while having an obtuse narrative because it still has things to offer for those who don't understand or wish to understand it. But Dear Esther is absolutely raw in its purpose, it is here specifically to provide its narrative experience, so for those of us who cannot grasp it, or for those who can but simply cannot resonate with it, there isn't really anything left to work with. Which I suppose is a limitation of literature as a whole, not just walking simulators. But at least I got to look at some gorgeous watery caves.
Anyway, thank you for this video. I may not have gotten or been able to enjoy Dear Esther properly for myself, but I still felt it important to try to see things from the perspective of those who did and to learn what I missed.
I had the same experience, down to the pain in my hands. I’m someone who likes to think deeply about both games and writing, enjoys walking simulators, and have actually dabbled in poetry myself, but this experience felt horrible from the get-go and crushed any curiosity and motivation I might’ve had to try and understand the text. The environment was beautiful but started triggering my depression early on so that was another barrier for me to slog through to get rewarded with extremely confusing blocks of paragraphs that I had to speed read through. At least the music was nice
The story of this game that is not a game reminds me of a book by JG Ballard: Concrete Island. Maitland, our protagonist, is trapped in an island after a car crash, but maybe it's his own mind playing tricks.
I watched Solaris this year, perhaps 5 months ago, and I loved it! It's like Silent Hill 2 (aka the best game) in space.
One thing I found when I was researching the video is how many literary inspirations it has. Ghost stories and Romantic poetry and English literature ❤️
I've played the game yesterday (the last time was almost 9 years ago), the first time i was thinking wow just a guy who wants kill himself, but, this time i was thinking numerous ideas referred to the car crash and all the symbolisms in my playthrough.. it's just simply a classic for me and the music always amazed me, ...and then your video came out of nowhere answering all the doubts showing a lot of incredible ideas and theories, amazing analysis great humor and top notch production, subscribed right now!!!! :)
Thank you! I hope you enjoy the channel 🥰
Thank you so much for this wonderful analysis! :D
I always had a similar feeling(s) about this game in mind, but never could really phrase it that well.
Yay, I love to hear that! I hope you stick around on the channel :)
@@PixelaDay Directly subscribed :)
@@derharlekin5205 Hey this is random but I need someone German (not sure if you're German but your name sounds Germanic!) to voice a couple of lines for the video I'm currently working on (acknowledgment in credits as thanks). If you'd be up for it, let me know how to contact you
@@PixelaDay Oh, sure I can help! :) You assume right that I'm German! Is it ok when I just DM you on Twitter? I have the same nickname there!
You got me to subscribe not just because you did an excellent review. You got me to subscribe because before ever watching your review of Dear Ester. I came to the exact Analysis and conclusion of the Dear Ester. Being that I just played it for the first time a few hours ago. It's a work of art. No less but much more. Thank you
24:35. Using the same logic of ”it’s not a game, therefore it’s a shit game,” your metaphor should be ”this book isn’t a film, therefore it’s a shit film.”
Great essay. Underrated channel dis. 👍
Holy crap. This one was an even more massive spike in quality than the last! I'm wondering if there are now-unlisted videos that used to be on the channel, or if you've just been learning a whole load of improvements with each new video? I suppose I can find out soon enough, because this video was enough for me to become a patreon for your channel! So I can read the behind the scenes stuff now. ^w^
While there were many excellent moments throughout this video, I think the highlight was 15:25 - 16:25 for me. You sold the emotions of everything the, ah, poem(?) was going for, and with the kinda buildup and genuine emotional evocation in me that part produced... it reminds me of the same sorta transcendant moments of emotion that Jacob Geller's videos often have for me.
And then the ending, with you bringing back Tarkofky for a final humourous twist, and the youtube promotion-based parody of Dear Esther afterwards, was just a great finale. Not every essay is improved with a comedy skit at the end, but this one was light-hearted and funny enough throughout for it to fit very well. Lovely work! I will watch the rest tomorrow probably. :)
Thank you for your super lovely comments 😎 A comparison to Jacob Geller is high praise indeed! He is definitely an inspiration! Re: the channel, what you see is what there is... I think I've just been steadily getting better and more ambitious as I get more confident with the video-making process.
@@PixelaDay You certainly have been yes! :D
A little late to the party but I really enjoyed this video. A refreshing common sense take, explained in a funny and entertaining way. After playing the game I wanted to watch a video to make sure I understood everything that happened properly and the themes I might've missed. I expected something mundane and simple, but I love the fully fleshed out jokes and bits that don't detract from any of the serious points, great work and wonderful humour. A true gem. 💎
Aw thank you! So glad you enjoyed it!
Absolutely brilliant video.
The game kind of left me scratching my head (and I like philosophical arthouse indie games), and I uninstalled it and a few others I figured I wouldn't play again (at least for a while). I might have to reinstall and give it another playthrough after this.
This video should be included with the landmark edition along with the director's commentary. It's that well done. I've never sub'd anything video game related, but you have mine. I can't believe more people haven't watched it. Great job.
This is just the loveliest comment ever, thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed the vid and were maybe inspired to revisit the island :)
This game opened the door for walking simulators for me and to this day they are probably one of my favourite genres (yes really). I have watched quite a few videos about Dear Esther and I don't remember anyone else bringing up the points you did. In the hours I have spent in Dear Esther I never thought that I was an interactive poem I always saw it as an interactive piece of art. The graphics look great to be on source engine especially from 2012, the music is great and the story really got to me. But I can see an interactive poem tag fitting Dear Esther quite well. I was quite excited for this video to come out, and I'm really pleased with what you have delivered! Looking forwards to what you make next.
*edit*: OH I just remembered that in 2017 they released Dear Esther: Landmark Edition that has achievements in it. Which kind of make it become more of a game I guess?
Oh my gosh these are such nice comments, thank you so much! Yeah there are those "urns" you can collect and you know what? They don't improve the game at all. I wonder why they put them in for that edition....?
I have no problem believing that walking sims are among your favourite genres. That shouldn't be a controversial statement to make! I like walking sims and Dear Esther is still my favourite.
@@PixelaDay My guess is that it was a new team behind that version of the game as the original creator works for Valve now. If my memory serves me right they ported the game to Unity aswell.
@@PixelaDay The Landmark Edition has developer commentary. The Landmark Edition was also made to give it a console release.
I love Dear Esther, it moved me and actually changed my perspective on life, I feel a lot more carefree and reflective on what I can do with my life
augh yes thank you for this. There are phrases from this game that are lodged in my mind forever like song lyrics or, yes, lines of poetry. 'I have begun my ascent' 'Dear Esther; the gulls do not nest here any more' 'he was not drunk, Esther, he was not drunk at all' (not sure exact wording but you get what I mean) e: Just want to add - there's no contradiction between that last one and 'you have been rendered opaque by the car of a drunk'. Paul not being drunk does not mean there wasn't a drunk driver involved.:)
I only found out about Dear Esther recently. I've never played a walking sim before, so wasn't really expecting much from it. Being from Scotland, the idea of exploring a Scottish island is what attracted me to it initially. I loved Dear Esther more than I thought I would. The scenery, story and soundtrack are beautiful. The ending scene brought me close to tears. The only other game I've played which made me cry was The Last Of Us.
Amazing!!
This video was very enjoyable. Especially the way you clocked yourself for not enjoying the Tarkovsky movie. Everybody has a different taste for how obtuse or obvious the themes of work come across. It can be inaccurate when anyone describes any piece of media in those terms since how easy it will be for someone to pick up on the meaning of a work depends on their experience with the medium, the author's body of work, and engaging with those kinds of themes in general.
I approached Dear Esther as literature; from the very start, it was clear to me that it was something other than a standard game. Since I have some experience studying contemporary experimental literature, it wasn't difficult for me to shift from game mentality to literature mentality. Dear Esther combines the text with environmental storytelling in a unique and fascinating way. It's been a while since I have "played" it. Maybe it is time to revisit it and see how many additional nuances I might pick up.
Thanks for your wonderful comments! You’ve been playing games for ages, maybe you should start a channel? ☺️
Me and a friend, aged 46, grew up on the Amiga platform in the 80's, and have been gamers all our lives. We enjoy playing through and experiencing walking simulators together. We do this instead of watching movies.
im glad i got the chance to play this game, i never had played one like it before, in some way i feel it touched my soul, the experience was very pleasant
So after more than 10 years after playing Dear Esther I think it's time for a replay. Not only my view on a lot of subjects have matured but seeing this game through the 'literature glass' will definitely change my feelings towards the story.
Not even mentioning the soundtrack, the photography scenes and landmarks.. Gosh I can't wait to downloading it again!
I’m excited for you! I hope you get more out of it on replay. Enjoy 😊
I actually can't believe this has under 1000 views. I absolutely loved this 'interactive poem' (stealing this term as it seems the most accurate to describe it) back in my second year of a game design course and found almost no-one who shared my opinion. Thanks for finally putting in words how I was feeling for the past 7 years!
I think I'm also gaining a renewed sense of connection with the story of Dear Esther after a super tough 18 months with trauma and anxiety and that global pandemic.
"It’s the story of a man trying to come to terms with grief and guilt. It’s about what trauma does to us, how it shatters our lives and splinters our minds. How it traps us in time, like frozen statues, pillars of salt, unable to look anywhere but back."
Hitting hard
Thank you so much for your lovely comments. Would be interested to hear about why no one else in your course loved it and what that says about the prevailing attitudes in game design courses (if anything)? Anyway I hope you’ll stick around on the channel 😊
@@PixelaDay Don't worry I'm subbed and ready to binge everything that's already up ;)
It was and still is an interesting time for games. Stuck between being desperate to consider them art whilst simultaneously being entirely resistant to engage with them as such. The comparison with Dark Souls which was dominating the zeitgeist when Dear Esther released gave me a great 'hah!' moment.
I'll do some thinking and try to come up with an answer!
Side note: another channel I just discovered is "Like Stories of Old", and I noticed he isn't in your liked channels!
Not necessarily a gaming focussed channel, but looks at media - including games - with a similar style and framing as your own. If you haven't seen it I highly recommend!
th-cam.com/users/LikeStoriesofOldvideos
@@aditboy oh yes I’ve seen a bit of their stuff, and really liked it!
Excellent video - just finished another play-through of Dear Esther… an “interactive poem” ;) that I’m very fond of. I think it’s quite a niche who can truly appreciate & enjoy it. I agreed with all the points you made and it (the video) was refreshing to watch. I’ve also got the soundtrack on vinyl (how very hipster I know).
GOD, I WILL FOREVER LOVE THIS GAME
Still listen to the OST
Me too!
I like the idea that the island is a manifestation of his psyche or whatever
I didn’t really vibe with the game as a whole because I couldn’t deal with the walk speed (like even on a contemplative stroll who walks that slowly🗿) and the voiceover every 3 seconds reminded me of the stanley parable guy, but I appreciate what it did for the medium as a whole at the time it came out. The gameworld is really pretty too ofc
It’s entirely probable that I just wasn’t in the right state of mind to like it, and I’m glad that other people found meaning in it but I just couldn’t
Idk if this is a ridiculous comparison to make but it reminded me of tarkovsky’s solaris. Like a bootleg damaged vhs version of it dubbed in mandarin
Edit: lmao I was halfway through the video when I wrote that, that’s such a strange coincidence tf
MIND MELD
Your voice is charm💝..thank you really enjoyed the video
Mona Lisa in the style of Picasso
Fur Elise in the style of Rachmaninov
27:05 Like & Subscribe in the style of Dear Esther. 👏
Thank you. This was very good.
Wonderful video
I deeply enjoyed your video and your take on it. I do agree that Dear Ester is more like a poem than a game, but to that I say that it's a bit odd as a poem as the narration is not the same each time, there is randomness in who was driving the car, who was drunk, and other such things that the narrator bemoans. It's more of a poem of vibes than anything else. A poem written in the form of a flow chart. The randomness element of it makes it hard for me to classify this as a piece of written literature since the experiences will vary greatly between two different people's playthroughs or replaying it a second time. The words of a poem aren't going to rearrange on a page when I go back and reread it and now Robert Frost is taking the road MORE traveled by this time.
Does that make it a bad poem/game? No. It was moving and it is a piece of art that did stick with me.
Was it an enjoyable experience playing thru it? Also no. It was painfully dreary and slow, but enjoyability shouldn't always be a factor when it comes to appreciating media. Not everything needs to make you feel good by the end.
I have mixed feelings on the game overall, but I also think that is the point. Excellent analysis video and it definitely made me rethink a lot of things about Dear Esther.
That's awesome to hear! Thanks for the comment :)
I love Andrei Tarkovsky! I'm glad you acknowledge how similar Solaris was to Dear Esther though 😂
Nothing to add, just wanted to say really enjoyed this.
Great video
I think it's not the gamer thats the blame everyone is into different thing's, I'm a hardcore gamer and I also love different kinds of game's and I would enjoy this, however on Xbox it's not call a interactive story it's under game and if a gamer is looking for something new it's not tell them it's a story so it's a bit underhanded, it's not giving people a choice so before you buy anything research to make sure it's your thing.
I think my biggest criticism of Dear Esther would be that it was difficult to fully appreciate it as the narrative it was going for (i.e., poem) without detaching it from what I knew were limitations of games as a medium. I really wanted to take the world in and meander around but I was always worried that as soon as I committed to a path I would be hit with a progression forward that I could not return from. The game actually does a pretty good job of making it clear where a level transition is that you can not return from, but it definitely influenced my first playthrough. It's not the fault of the developers, though. That's just decades of my brain being programmed by more traditional game structure.
I never liked this game, but I have to admit, this is a very good analysis of it. When it comes to walking sims in general, I like some of them, but it never feels right calling them good games, when they’re barely games at all. Describing this as an interactive poem does seem fitting, but does the experience really offer much an actual poem can’t?
That's a good question. I think the answer will be totally subjective. For me, being able to control the movement makes me feel closer to the narrator and helps put me in his shoes, and the gorgeous visuals and music are part of what moves me when I play it. But I can't argue with anyone who says it would do just as much for them as a written poem, or a film. In any case this is a much more interesting discussion to be having than "is it a game"
just played the game cause it was free. was not expecting what I got, dang good game to boot. also, thanks for explaining cause I was SOOO lost.
You’re very welcome!
I had to search for this viedo to find at least ONE person that found this game enjoyable. I understanf=d what you mean now. Maybe I was a bit harsh...
Anyways thank you for the essay.
I liked , I subscribed and I hope you will still make videos
Excellent video. Ultimately I don't think Dear Esther was made for the majority of 'gamers', just like Dark Souls isn't for everybody. In the same way, usually, the movie with the most explosions and best looking cast does better at the box office, games with the most explosions, collectables and least challenge do better.
Wonderful video! So glad I discovered this channel thanks to Errant Signal. I hope you get many more viewers.
Thank you! I hope you stick around on the channel 😊
I really loved this game. My only criticism was that the save system was incomprehensible. I was well into it when I needed to take a break, and just assumed it autosaved. Lost all my progress and had to restart from the beginning... Quite annoying.
Same problem with Vanishing of Ethan Carter. Another beautiful/spooky ambiance game. Great story and vibes, incredibly frustrating save points. "Hey I know you're deep in this tricky puzzle, we're not going to let you leave until you finish it! Or else get thrown back 25 minutes for no reason "
I think your criticisms of the criticisms this game received kind of caricature and straw-man the valid criticisms this game received. Came off a tad bit dishonest and dismissive.
It's not just the obtuse plot, the pretentiousness of the writing, or the lack of gameplay. There no doubt were people taking issue with these things, but the bigger issue is why these were a problem in this instance and not in other games, and that reason is the high cost this game places on uncovering it's story. Let me elaborate.
Your Dark Souls analogy was not valid in my opinion, because the means we have of uncovering the stories in these games is THE key difference, and it's a major factor in why the obtuseness of Dark Souls is beloved and in Dear Esther it is hated. Granted the games aren't remotely similar in gameplay, but even in how "obtuse" they are, the driving difference is the means players have of uncovering the story; and yes this matters in how well received the obtuseness of the story is. In Dark Souls, you get an overwhelming amount of information overall, and you gradually piece together bits and pieces of the lore as you play, collect items, visit new areas, read item descriptions. You can re-analyze all of these things at any time, and the means of getting around and gathering that information is extremely fun and incentivizes you to want to keep going and discover more.
In Dear Esther, the obtuse plot would have been forgiven if the story were more accessible in a practical sense. You poo-poo'd the fact that you can't run or jump in this game, and you really kind of dismissed it as a laughable criticism. I'm here to say it is a PRIMARY criticism that matters, and here's why.
I've played a ton of walking sims, and I love most of the ones I've played. I'm fine to go along for a ride, uncover a mystery and experience an excellent story. But if you fed me that story one word per day for 5 years, yeah I'm not investing in that; the cost of consuming that story is far too high. This is an extreme example, but this is the problem Dear Esther suffers from; the cost of uncovering this story is too high and it makes people jump off the ride before actually investing. Your walking speed in this game is far too slow. I started playing, and I thought "oh this looks cool, let me walk around and explore and find out what's going on." 10 minutes later I've heard one verse of the narrator's poem and I'm still walking along the starting coast at a snail's pace wondering why I just spent 10 dollars on the game.
If you moved faster in this game and could more easily traverse the island and get to this story, more people would invest in it start to finish and more people would forgive the other points of criticism. The problem is you move so painfully slowly in this game, it makes the cost of uncovering the story far too high, and people jump off feeling frustrated and criticize the game 10 ways to Sunday. I believe the slow moving speed causes players to quit the game and leave frustrated and feeling cheated, and it truly amplifies all of the other criticisms levied at the game.
In my opinion it IS a bad game. You say it can't be judged as a game because of the (admittedly hyperbolic) assertion that it's not one, but it's sold as one, presented as one, and it uses the medium of one. Its use of that medium isn't completely worthless, but I do think it adds little, and hinders what could have been an excellent poem, short story or film.
That's not to say it shouldn't exist in this form - it's experimental, it seeks to take the medium in a new artistic direction. But while it works well as an experimental piece of art, it doesn't work well as a game.
It's not incorrect to assert that it's best viewed through the lens of literature, but I do think it's incorrect to say that calling it a bad game is wrong or misses the point. But it is unfair, perhaps, to judge it solely as a game while ignoring its other merits - especially since it did not seem to want to be a game at all.
U are so precious! Loving your content
what a great yt video
Thank you!
Ok, as somebody who actually likes „Dear Esther“ I gotta say:
I think it‘s a bit unfair to critique players who got sold a GAME, for wanting a game and not a poem. If it‘s a great poem, then the programers should have made a poem. Does it gain anything from being an „interactive poem“? Is it even „interactive“? Yeah, you walk… on a linear path. If it needs the visual element, then why not sell it as a „visual poem“, meaning a short movie where the camera walks travels over the island while you get the narration?
Also… maybe we should consider the price point. Poems usually don‘t come with the kind of price tag „Dear Esther“ originally had. Small videogames do.
If it wants to be more of a poem than a game and be judged as such… then it probably should have set a different price point.
I disagree, I absolutely can critique the belief that one can ever draw clear lines between anything in the (incredibly fuzzy and subjective) realm of art. No one has ever come up with a definition of "game" that clearly delineates "games" from "not games" in a way that would be agreed upon by everyone. Why not accept that a thing can exist that is halfway between a poem and a game, accept that it could reasonably called either thing, and move on to more interesting thoughts and discussion points.
If a customer were to go to a restaurant and order a salad but they were dissatisfied that they were served a balloon, would you say that the customer was wrong in their dissatosfaction because they just didn't understand the value of the balloon?
I get the temptation to try and draw hard boundaries but may I suggest that art is inherently a blurry thing, as are the boundaries between different forms of art, and different genres of art. Much more so than the boundaries between "salad" and "balloon". Are you that sure that Dear Esther is not, and could not conceivably be thought of, as a game? Is it clearly, qualitatively, different to The Beginner's Guide, or Night in the Woods, or P.T. (unless you are also sure that those are absolutely not games either)? I'd say a more correct analogy is ordering a salad, being served one of those contentious watermelon and mint salads and then complaining because "it's not a salad", when what you really mean is it's not a typical salad and you expected a typical salad.
@@PixelaDay I haven't played any of those but from what I've seen, PT would be a game as it has puzzles to solve. The Beginner's Guide would not be a game.
Is Night in the Woods a game? How about VNs?
I liked it so I subscribed.
I love Solaris
I feel like a short film would have been a much better medium to convey the story they are trying to tell.
I wouldn't call this worth $10, or even $1, but I did very much enjoy getting to play it for free. It's not deep enough or satisfying enough to be worth investing in as part of your entertainment budget; it's worth experiencing the same way you check a comic book out of the library, read it once, return it, and occasionally think about it thereafter, but never read it again.
The only part of the game that approaches being worth owning IMO is chapter 3, where you're in the cave, and the best music of the game plays. But even there, there's too little to do, too little control over your experience, too many invisible walls and impassible shores frustrating your efforts to move freely.
(I know this video is old but I'll comment anyways) I really enjoyed this video and I agree with you wholeheartedly on the misplaced criticism of Dear Ester, However I think some of your discussion of the larger medium of games comes off as unnecessarily derogatory. I assume this wasn't intentional, if you thought games were a lesser medium you probably wouldn't have dedicated your channel to discussions of games, I just wanted to share how it comes across as a viewer.
At one point you essentially posit that the only difference between dark souls and dear ester is that dark souls has "demon skeletons". Again, I'm skeptical that you believe this in the first place, but it completely dismisses the reasons why dark souls is such a good and well-loved game. It's not just the demon skeletons that make it good, it's the fact that the experience of fighting said demon skeletons matches the narrative themes of the game and strengthens them that makes dark souls good. If one were to approach dear ester solely as a game then yes, it would be fair to argue that there should be more gameplay elements to work alongside the story (while you're correct that the current gameplay supports the narrative, there's also definitely ways to increase interactivity without losing that "trapped" feeling). It feels like, in this moment, you're switching from "game-centric critiques of dear ester are bad because dear ester isn't solely a game" to "game-centric critiques of dear ester are bad because the criteria for a good game are shallow and bad" which I feel ultimately works to weaken the argument.
The other moment that frustrated me was when you were comparing the goals of games and literature. You essentially implied that only literature seeks to create a narrative and evoke emotions, which you so obviously don't think is true if your other videos are to be believed. You also take this part as an opportunity to make a lot of jabs at games/gamers and it ends up coming off as unnecessarily rude. It feels like in this moment you're saying "you gamers only care about your pew pew and your explosions, only literature has meaning and messages". I think this is especially frustrating to me because I'm fairly certain that you don't actually believe what you're implying.
There isn't a particular purpose for this comment, I just wanted to articulate why certain parts of this video rubbed me the wrong way despite my overall enjoyment.
Thanks for your comment! I wonder what your thoughts will be on my next video, which will be probably close to an hour of me venting all my frustrations about the games industry XD You're absolutely correct, I don't believe "you gamers only care about your pew pew" but it's interesting you interpreted my frustration as something so extreme and simplistic. I don't believe ALL games, or even ALL mainstream games are any one thing (that would be ridiculous), but I do genuinely believe that most AAA games explore a boringly small range of mechanics and emotional experiences, that the big budget games industry caters to a needlessly narrow range of demographics and motivations to play, and that the gaming community is often wrong-headed in the criteria they use to judge games. If my frustration with all that comes out a bit in my stuff, I'm OK with that.
@@PixelaDay I definitely agree with you about frustrations with the gaming industry lol, before this I was watching your horizon zero dawn critique and nodding along the whole time. The "extreme interpretation" I got out of these moments was by no means the message I got out of the whole video, generally your message shined very clearly through, it was just a few moments where I think your anger at the industry ended up obscuring your points somewhat. I think I'll probably enjoy your next video as this critique is a nitpick about otherwise great video, I generally agree with your frustrations, and this video is pretty old so your ability to articulate your points has improved (and it was already really good when this video was made!). I look forward to getting to listen to you for an hour
I guess I just don’t understand why it had to be a game. It would’ve been much easier to understand if it was all written down. You could even put pictures next to it, if you like. As a game it feels frustrating, impossible, and depressing
I had to explore to think no no nope not even close this game is sophistry at its highest level. If it wasn't for the good music director they had which was a British woman whose name I don't remember this game wouldn't have gone as far as it did this is not a game this is a thing. I just finished it a minute ago and got every single achievement. And from what I've seen and when I played it's not a game the Chinese room had the same problem with amnesia Machine For Pigs Machine For Pigs was not a true Amnesia game because it had very little gameplay it wasn't scary at all it felt more like Dear Esther, and that's where we sit at a video game has to have some form of gameplay has to have a world has to have something real tangible this thing doesn't have any of that it's just a pretentious mess of a experience, sadly though I'm the type of person who likes to hurt themselves and I'll sit down and literally play through anything I can get my hands on that is horrendously bad just so I can have all of the achievements showing how much of a sadistic person I am by looking at my achievement list seeing that I have beaten some of the worst games ever made or in this case one of the worst things I've ever seen it tries to put on the skin of a video game it's trying to wear the skin of a game but it's not a game it's not even alive it's actively trying to kill itself throughout the game and that doesn't even make sense because it's a radio dish if you shut it off Engineers will come and fix it and you'll be saved or you can jump off trust me when I finally mastered this game I felt like jumping off
Completely disagree about the "Pretentious" bit. Pretentious means something is snobbish, arrogant, thinks its more than what it is. It isnt a lack of understanding, its actually the opposite. Its more like the story thinks its smarter than it really is and flawless
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I've put loads of hour into Dear Esther, I liken it to reading a much love book. Is it a game? Who cares. I don't play modern long games because I find them too repetative and boring. Like a good book I don't get board of Dear Esther to this day.
Nooooooo you can't say anything bad about tarkovsky
:)
Great video, that you don't have a larger audience as no one really does what you do.
He's a great director! I'm sure it's me who is wrong!
Thanks for watching :)
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I appreciate this analysis, and other "walking simulators" are some of my favorite games, but Dear Esther still really did come off as pretentious. The storytelling and the story itself wasn't particularly effective or relatable for me. I won't pretend I understood it right away, but I don't feel like it was worth the space it occupied in my head while I was contemplating it, and I feel like there are plenty of others who wouldn't feel compelled to think about it.