Notes From Along Kentucky Route Zero [Spoilers]
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ย. 2020
- This is a video review and critique of Cardboard Computer's groundbreaking work of surrealist Americana, Kentucky Route Zero. It attempts to describe a game that makes a herculean effort to thwart description. To do so, I try to go through some of the main themes and artisitic methodologies present in the work and try to argue that even the weirdest things in this game deserve to be there. Maybe especially the weirdest things. Spoilers throughout.
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If you enjoyed this video and want to contribute to the production of others like it, please consider donating through the crowdfunding website Patreon: / noahcaldwellgervais - เกม
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"perpetually home sick for a place I've never been" this quote has and continues to haunt me
as a recovering academic i am profoundly grateful for this video
Nerd
@@spencerdokes6056 You did it wrong. It's "NEEEEERD"
NEEEEEEEEEEERD
It is a cliche but this game really feels personal to me. I played it earlier this year during the months prior to being forced to leave the US, the country I had called home for 8 years, because COVID took away the job that kept me legal in the country. I got around midway through Act 4 and just couldn't go on any more. I gave it up for the exact reason I love it. The game's portrayal of average people being swept away by forces out of their control through a distinctively off-Broadway theatre lens juxtapose the mundane and ubiquitous nature in this experience in the grand scheme and its farcical theatricality for the individuals going through it. When the main crew found themselves literally drifting down a river, hoping to be back on track but only running into other drifters, the game ceased to be a distraction or escapism for me and I found myself having no more headspace for it when the last shred of stability was swept away right under me.
So thank you for talking about this game, although I'm not sure if I'm ready to listen to what you have to say.
I’m so sorry that happened to you. I hope that you are able to return back here, with a better job and under a better President soon!
I love to read all this flu related stories, meanwhile in my village live goes on peacefully as always.
@@daunbozq7076 Apparently neither literacy nor basic awareness of the fact Covid is not the flu goes on in your village. Maybe the internet connectivity should stop going on as well.
Dead Dinosaur way to be a rude dickhead
@@diegobrando6742 I'd argue daun is being ruder through sheer lack of empathy. They deserve to be called out
The ending of act 5 had me bawling like a baby, and I've never really been able to articulate why. This video does an excellent job of it.
For real though! Can’t get through I’m Going That Way without crying
I did too bud. The feelings and mindstate this game evokes will stay with so many of us here on.
I never wanted anyone other than you to cover this game.
It's so singularly "Americana", and given that you travel a lot, this would be to your liking.
I also highly recommend playing "Where Water Tastes Like Wine"
I had the same thought
So same. Noah or Jacob gellar are the only two people I'd want to hear talk about this beautiful crazy game
"̲W̲h̲e̲r̲e̲ ̲W̲a̲t̲e̲r̲ ̲T̲a̲s̲t̲e̲s̲ ̲L̲i̲k̲e̲ ̲W̲i̲n̲e̲"̲ ̲i̲s̲ ̲o̲p̲e̲n̲l̲y̲ ̲l̲e̲f̲t̲w̲i̲n̲g̲ ̲a̲n̲d̲ ̲n̲o̲t̲ ̲v̲e̲r̲y̲ ̲i̲n̲t̲e̲r̲e̲s̲t̲i̲n̲g̲ ̲t̲b̲h̲.̲ ̲K̲e̲n̲t̲u̲c̲k̲y̲ ̲R̲o̲u̲t̲e̲ ̲Z̲e̲r̲o̲ ̲w̲a̲s̲ ̲s̲o̲ ̲i̲n̲t̲e̲r̲e̲s̲t̲i̲n̲g̲ ̲B̲E̲C̲A̲U̲S̲E̲ ̲i̲t̲ ̲w̲a̲s̲ ̲a̲-̲p̲o̲l̲i̲t̲i̲c̲a̲l̲.̲
@@iron6672 No art is apolitical. What you consider outside of politics is itself a political stance. Whether your interpretation of KRZ may not be particularly left- or right-wing, it exists in the world and the conditions that lead to its creation inform its contents without a doubt.
Erika Kuykendall thank you 👏
4 minutes into this video I decided I needed to play this game. I'll watch the rest after, whenever that is.
same here. I started it today, and playing it in the silence of 4am just felt right.
haha same, finished it and im back, apparently missed a good amount of stuff. Noah, I love your writing and work for so many reasons, thank you for the content you create and share.
I'm also on the started about when the video came out train.
Just finished! Can't wait to watch
@@walrusman86808 i got up the the "leg" bit and got distracted. I have a week off work though so i;ll try and finish it this week!
Shits been depressing recently, thank you for the easy evening listening.
the way you described the end of act v put me right back into the moment i finished the game myself. the feeling of loss and sadness for not only The Neighbors, but for Conway, Americana, and all the other little tragedies of the game overwhelmed me. as the chorus joined into that final hymn, i found myself crying for all of this but i also felt like i was mourning the end of an era of my own life. i had recently graduated into the worst job market i could imagine and with all my job prospects dried up, i packed what i could onto the back of my bike and embarked on a solo tour that would last me a month. i had been playing kentucky route zero throughout my journey and, perhaps poetically, i played the final chapter on my final day of this trip. so when the final chorus of I'm Going That Way hit, it hit me hard. the stories in this game were coming to an end and a huge chapter in my own life had come to an end; in that moment i couldn't really say why i was crying, but you summed it up really nicely in the video: the developers managed to wordlessly convey a specific tone, mood, emotion, feeling that is so specific but that could not possibly be put into words. the poetry of this game and of that moment in particular is incredible.
krz does show why the whole " if you want a story read a book." mind set is short sighted. there are just some stories that can only be told in a video game format.
Given how a large part of videogames grew out of the cooperative storytelling of tabletop rpg's. Which are basically just brainstorming sessions where you write a story with a group. The argument that videogames don't lend themselves to telling good stories has always been a silly one anyway.
A good storyteller will find a way to tell a good, emotionally resonant, story. Regardless of the restrictions of the medium.
Never mind the fact that games can bring together a ton of other storytelling media to complement the interactive parts.
There's no way the Ezra and Cate's dual dialogue section in Episode 4 can be presented in the same manner in a book. Never.
@@RobinOttens Sillier still, the notion that games tell no tales, if you consider histories like Gina Bloom's 'Gaming The Stage'; Commercial pop narratives, getting their start in Elizabethan theatre, had to explicitly reference tavern gaming culture, its games, and the dramatics of play, for those theatre narratives to be understood as meaningful by an audience, and for those narratives to be deemed worth an admission price. Before we paid for fiction, people would have known heroic gambles, hidden strategies, cheating, watching competitions, but they wouldn't have known commercial fiction or why to care or pay for it.
Noah Gervais' thing here of KRZ being about choosing between indefinite interpretations of given events, all equally prescient as such, that does perfectly get at the core of why games do obviously tell stories.
but Kentucky Route Zero did nothing with this video game medium/format
@@thefebo8987 Like most of the rest of it (the characters, audiovisual style, worldbuilding...), I'd say the actionable stuff set a tone that paid off in the long run, more than offering literally meaningful short term goals or consequences.
I'm here from an errant comment in Jacob Geller's "the future of writing on games" and I could not be more excited for this new video! :)
Noah is exactly the kind of games writing person that Jacob had hoped for in that video.
And indeed, this work exactly the kind of work he praised.
@@hemangchauhan2864 Even mentions him and has a cameo of him.
check out Critical Distance and Deep Hell too for more good games writing
@@PassiveNights I've read some of critical distance, but I've heard of deep hell for the first time.
...and for the next hour and 15 minutes, life is perfect with Noahs sweet voice, a cool night and a lawn chair, i'm released from all of the stresses and sadness fo quarantine. On behalf of every single one of the 140,000 people, thank you Noah, for the beautiful content that makes my day.
Took shrooms yesterday and thought about KRZ a lot. Today, your video appeared for me and it was like I relieved every emotion the game made me feel, made me anxious to play and experience this wonderful bittersweet journey again.
Thank you so much for taking your time to write and produce this.
Noah: "I'm feeling self-conscious about a drop in the quality of my work and I'm feeling obligated to explain myself to my supporters."
Me: "Noah Caldwell-Gervais on a bad day, during a slump, after taking a massive blow to the head from a rampaging baboon with a cricket bat, would still be top three video game critics on the planet."
Jokes aside, Noah, I hope you're doing well. Absolutely love your work, even on the rare occasion I disagree with you or find some problems with it. You're a brilliant thinker, a captivating writer, a great narrator, and a rare voice of conscience and humanity in a community that is far too often a toxic hell. Don't let the bastards get you down.
I remember watching a playthrough of KRZ’s first act when it first came out and being intrigued, but because of the wait time in between acts and interludes, it slowly faded from my mind. Nearly a decade later, I paused this video at 4:15, bought the game, and played it in all one go. I absolutely do not regret it. Might be one of my favorite games of the decade.
Noah, after watching yet another excellent video (you never fail to disappoint in the quality of your retrospectives) and reading your Patreon update in full, I think it's important more now than ever to express the long-lasting support which I've had for you and your content. In the TH-cam landscape of banality and lackluster critical skills, your videos have always stood out as complete exceptions to everything I and many others expect of the usual gaming critique video. You've been far too hard on yourself recently, and I understand that the pressures of work and life, and your admirable need to feel accountable to your viewers, has taken a toll on you, but know that on this commune of the internet there's no shortage of petty critics and empty castigation for the sake of it. Keep doing what you're doing, and know that all the financial and community support that we put behind you is entirely voluntary, and that we expect you to work at your own pace and do whatever you like. I personally as a fan of you and your work demand nothing of you but to be yourself and do what you like, and I'm sure many others agree. Know that, regardless of where your self-destined creative or personal trajectory takes you, you will always have a pool of support because we recognize your talent and the special distinction with which your videos stand as works on game criticism and analysis.
This is really nice but you may have mistyped what’s in parenthesis, he never fails to disappoint you
Oh my god. YES! You cannot imagine how happy I am now that you covered this beautiful, beautiful sad gem. Thank you. This means a lot.
Grew up out in Harrodsburg, KY. This game hits hard, and got me good. Something about being down in a humid holler is very dreamlike. They nailed it. I don't think a game has ever got me feeling so many emotions so heavy. Great video, really had me putting together some of the pieces I hadn't connected before.
This was pure literal comfort food to me, like a home made grilled cheese sandwich accompanying a hot bowl of tomato soup, warm & wonderful commentary Noah, thank you.
Me want food
A road trip game through the American back roads laid out in the form of poetry released over the span of seven years using Spanish American visual storytelling techniques? Is this the gaming equivalent of Noah's spirit animal?
This is the best video essay I've ever seen. It's sparked many interesting conversations between me and my friends, and stuck with me through the days since I've watched it. Thank you so much for putting everything you have into something that has undeniably reached people!
"Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike, we've all come to look for America"
Just read your patreon update. We support you, it's your life! Go be free to do what you will, it's all good.
What did it say?
@@rustyshackleford6633 www.patreon.com/posts/state-of-channel-41405681 He is stressed that he isn't living up to the amount of money that he gets from patreon
Imposter syndrome man, gets to all of us.
I hope he knows he doesn't have a strict quality standard to meet ALL the time. He can have bad months.
@@Aggrofool I agree completely. Only I've never actually seen him do a bad video. Every one of them has been fantastic.
@@Aggrofool imposter syndrome so hard.
this is dude produces top tier content. i don't even like video games, but i still come here for what is essentially longform cultural critique
When you described poetry as the thoughts and feelings of a moment condensed into a few words, it was a revelation for me. I never saw it that way before. Thanks for teaching me something new today.
Okay you convinced me. I'll be back once I finish the game
Wow. If you announced this video a year ago I would've marked it on my calendar and counted the days in anticipation.
And out of nowhere, here it is on my subscription list.
Cheers brother
"It's a diss on the player that has to trickle down through, like, seven layers of academic pretense to reach you, it's amazing" might be my new favorite line in any video essay.
I never picked up on Hard Times Liquors using bodies and stealing souls, as I missed reading any of the tombstones. I just assumed that the yellow skeletons were a physical representation of debt - Conway's leg becomes skeletal once he is in medical debt, and I think it's no accident that he literally loses an arm and a leg. The full skeletons, then, are just people that are fully in debt to the company.
I've been a fan of the Slyvia Plath quote "Yes, my consuming desire is to mingle with road crews, sailors and soldiers, barroom regulars-to be a part of a scene, anonymous, listening, recording..." for a while. To me KRZ was a great embodiment of this.
I love that idea of the developers themselves not fully understanding what they were going for as the idea hadn't yet fully revealed itself. It sounds like a good example of the puzzle of consciousness.
If we bring something from unconsciousness into consciousness, we necessarily transform it by making it the focus of our attention. What we attend to doesn't just bring it to our awareness, it also changes what it is we are perceiving. In that sense consciousness is the White Whale of self-awareness. Whenever we think we've glimpsed it, it moves away, dives deeper, and we find ourselves having to learn something else, something new, about ourselves, and the chase continues.
In essence, it's the ongoing battle with our worst excesses and it's one that doesn't stop until we die. And even then we pass on, transfer, our psyches to those we meet and interact with, who in turn influenced us.
And then there's Jung: "People don't have ideas, ideas have people."
Kentucky Route Zero touched me in so many ways, I have never ever felt the way I do about a game then I do about KRZ. Thank you so much for this video. It is so personal to me and I don't even know how to explain how I feel about it. The last sentence you said in this video about Kentucky Route Zero is so correct. I hope the guys from Cardboard Computer see this video.
I bought this game in like November '19.
I guess I best go back and finally complete it. I'll be back here once I do that!
Thank you for continuing the work you do, Noah. I just finished reading your address to your Patreon supporters and this is the perfect way to follow that small slice of communication.
Love your content. Thank you for putting so much love and care into your analysis! Your hard work is much appreciated.
I’m going to need to watch this a few times, because I feel inspired by the descriptions of the game you gave even though I haven’t played itself.
There’s an art to describing art, and you’ve got the heart of an artist about you.
This commrnt is wonderful and true
This is literally the only video that matters now tbh
That is a mood
@@GreebusBleeb And this is a comment.
@@octav3k that's just your opinion man
Talk about perfect timing! I just completed K:RZ the other day and I can’t stop thinking about it.
I've been watching some of your older videos recently and I have to say: you've come a long long way in terms of quality. From the writing to the deliver, everything has improved so much. Great work!
Take heed, acolytes. The Noah has bestowed the eminence of His word upon us.
Rejoice.
Omg, perfect morning video. These videos are glorious road trips for my brain. The best part is how they're written, I can be in the mood to rewatch (or re-listen, Noah, your voice is very relaxing).
My favorite thing about KRZ is that the part that touched me the most is The Entertainment. Sometimes the image of the bar will pop into my head and I can't get it out and I will want to cry and I can't figure out why. I love The Entertainment in ways I cannot explain.
There's too much on-point analysis in this to mention. Every time I come back to this video, it stirs the same emotions in me as playing the game does. Thank you
Always happy when I get to watch a new video from you. Really enjoy your work, thank you! Stay safe and healthy!
Normally I watch the videos all the way through, but this was so heavy, I had to take a break. You do some powerful work Noah.
such beautiful beautiful work. your insistence on viewing kentucky route zero through a poetic frame is deeply appreciated-it’s a game that is a poem, and that’s part of what makes it great. your emphasis on the theatrical elements the game pulls on and then executes uniquely within the medium of a video game made me appreciate The Entertainment all the more-i was listening in the car and literally yelled “holy shit!” when you talked about how the perspective of the interlude could only be accomplished in a video game, even if the framing is the very old medium of theatre. one of my favorite videos of yours.
NOAHHH. WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO COVER DISCO ELYSIUM?
P.S. (About the patreon update)
Please stop thinking that you owe us anything. We are here for the ride. People who have disposable income and are willing to give it to you will continue to do so, until they don't. We are not your employers. Letting us know that you don't really depend on that money anymore is nice, but it won't change anything.
I don't know if I'm in the minority here ( i think i'm not) but your audience doesn't care about the technical aspect of your videos. I definitely don't care about better production qualities. You said it yourself. Your seemingly ''amateurish'' approach to making video essays is the reason so many people were drawn to your content in the first place. It makes it more personable. You managed to turn your shitty mic and audible mouse clicks ,in your older videos, into a part of your ''character'' with your exceptional writing and insights.
Please take your time with the uploads and focus on whatever it is you're struggling with.
I'm thankful for your content and I hope to see more, whenever you feel like it.
Stay safe
Speaking of his patreon. In the update he said that he's reviewing games in more professional way now. Would you happen to know where? I'd like to read more of his work if possible. Thank you in advance.
this ^
@Tel A He's been working as a freelance/professional game review critic. From what I've gathered in his Wildlands re-review video & patreon page, the channel has become more of a passion project instead of it being his main source of income. Since his surge in recognition over the past five years, he's gotten more job opportunities. Thing is, I haven't seen much of his work outside the channel & I'd like to read up on more of it.
RE The patreon note:
We did it folks we saved Noah lmao. now the trolls are eviscerating him woops
@@TheSoulHarvester What trolls?
Finally had a chance to watch this having played through the game myself, and I was delighted to see we ended up with different final house layouts.
just finished, i think this is one of my favorites of the videos you've made
Over the past two months I've slowly listened through most of your backlog, and your improvement is palpable and something I'm really happy to see. I look forward to every new video of yours, and your sharp writing and quick, 1950's-newscaster-like delivery make your videos unlike anybody else's.
Thank you for learning from your mistakes. Thank you for making these videos. I can't wait to see the next one!
Conway's end is one of the most disquieting and uncomfortable I've seen for any character
This just might be your best essay yet, Noah, top drawer, very enjoyable stuff! 👍
Finally finished the video. That ending quote has given me a lot to think on - thank you man
This might be your best video yet, congratulations. Absolutely beautiful and deep dissection of such an important work
Your review of this game, along with many others, encouraged me to purchase it because i genuinely felt like my soul needed this experience. I happily spent the money and once i got into the meat of the game and the story, it was downright transformative. After having driven down a good many deserted roads and seeing plenty of the things illustrated in this game, it was a reflection of those things in a way that I had not anticipated before. It struck so many emotional chords with me that all I can say is that I'm truly grateful for the work that you. Thank you for directing me towards this game that I will carry with me until, as you say, "You're dead in the ground and not much good for remembering anything anymore."
Oh, Noah, I genuinely love your content. It just. Moves me. I mean that.
Aww.
Really wanted to watch this.
But I am gonna listen to that advice because of Noah’s glowing recommendation.
He usually has a good feeling for those sorta things.
Gonna like and play it (the video) muted for the algorithm.
On this episode: Noah goes full meta by just playing and talking about KR0.
So happy we're finally here.
This videos was actually excellent, not contrived aloofness but a real artistic breakdown of varying components. I believe I spent a week after finishing the game trying to piece together what it meant to me and to have you linearly unpack that was a joy.
Noah, you writing is phenomenal, the way you work the words are really inspiring to me. If I had the money I'd support your work more directly. Thanks for the video, as always.
Just finished act 3. I was going to rewatch Jacob Geller's video on this game and then found yours in my search to my delight.
The entertainment lit my brain on fire. I loved it so much. The whole game is absolutely phenomenal. I have so many thoughts and you're echoing many of them. So glad to find this 2 years on 🎉
This has got to be the most American game ever made. Two episodes in (so as to be able to watch this video) and we've had:
-enigmatic old dudes
-crushing debt
-sad drunks
-dodgy painkillers
-abandoned mines
-repairing old machines
-driving around in a beat up truck with an old dog
It's like they set out to make a game for you specifically to make a video about.
I've watched this video 4 times now and every time it brings tears to me eyes. Fantastic writing.
I'm a new viewer and I just have to say that the amount of work that must go into these videos is insane. I couldn't imagine writing a script that had to last an hour much less multiple hours like some of your other videos. Good on you man. I wish you the best because that's what you deserve.
What a whirl of emotion. Exuberant surprise upon seeing a new upload, but it was not to last. I'd never heard of Kentucky Route Zero, and so I must play it before I watch. Saddened as I am to delay my viewing though, I am looking forward excitedly to play a game that NGC finds worth discussing at such length.
Noah, thank you for the phenomenal review. Just the same with some of your other videos, this one isn't really about a game, rather it's about the message and the experience of said game. Every time one of your uploads hits my subscription box, I start preparing myself, looking to steal a couple of hours of any given day to have a sit and watch your meditations in their entirety. Your videos always leave me feeling something different from whatever it was I felt before watching them. So by your own metrics for measuring the effectiveness of art, congratulations on yet another undisputably successful essay!
I'm so happy that this game is being covered, it's been one of my favorites over the course of its release
"Too soon the storm comes down and drowns those few things that were still wild and blameless. Leaving us to weakly apologize in the lengthening shadows of the day." Goddamn if that doesn't sum up my year.
Noah, I have been traveling with you a long time. You have the most unique, heartfelt understanding of what video games can mean than anyone out there.
And you are the only one, another American chasing that goddamn dream, that could do this game justice.
Dear Noah,
Ive watched your videos for years. Your stuff is great. When I started watching I was just a student. Im now a professional and there is no chance I will ever possibly have the time or patience to play this game. Thank you for your thoughtful observations on it and bringing it to my attention. You're great. Keep it up.
love,
a fan
Love your work Noah!
I'm currently stuck in several ways. Listening to this video, as with all the previous ones, makes me feel like a door has opened, a passage deep into the inner workings of a known or unknown work and in the exploration of it I feel free even if only for a hour or two.
Another solid video essay Noah, very enjoyable stuff mate 👍
Always happy to see a new video from this channel
Any location is bound by reference to a point in time as much as any landmarks. The earth is spinning, circling a solar system, circling a spiral galaxy, that is moving toward something and away from something else, and constantly expanding. Every destination is a mirage.
Just thanks. You think and write beautifully and it's a pleasure to hear.
One of the best video essays I've ever watched. I have such a newfound appreciation for this game.
I've never had even the briefest inclination to play this game, and I'm only 4 minutes into your video, but this? This is why I subscribe and tell my friends to.
Been waiting years for your take on this. Amazing.
I finally played this, just so i could finally watch Noah's new video. Conroy's ending was so bitter and beautiful and i didnt know i could feel those things at the same time.
What an incredible analysis, for a true masterpiece in visual media. Thank you!
Holy. Hell. Your analysis of Act V and why the emotions didn’t exactly click hit DEEP. Just, wow.
KRZ + NCG is a match made in heaven
THE EXACT TYPE OF VIDEO I WAS LOOKING FOR I LOVE YOU AND I LOVE KENTUCKY ROUTE ZERO
For the works I connected to Kentucky Route Zero, it was Night in the Woods and Over the Garden Wall.
I'd describe, and have described, Kentucky Route Zero as an uncle work to Night in the Woods: both have similar concerns, of the recession, of a town and a dream's slow, painful, but inevitable death, but different perspectives, the former is old, worn, tired, forlorn, the latter bristles with a youthful, disaffected energy; it's the difference between a twenty-something and a thirty- , maybe forty-something's perspective.
Kentucky Route Zero reminds me of Over the Garden Wall in the same way the Zero, and really all of goddamn Kentucky in this game, reminds me of the Unknown, and here I feel Zero is more of a father work to the miniseries. Over the Garden Wall has this neat divide between the normal and the Unknown, but it paints its world with vignettes the same that Zero paints its world. It's an old world, nostalgic even, a turned world, but ultimately a world safe for kids watching Cartoon Network. Zero's Unknown has been gentrified, bureaucratized, or it never really was a separate thing to the land and its many people, just a reflection of it where lives and livelihoods can be made below ground as easily as above. Both works thrive on Americana, OtGW recalls the Antebellum and the early Industrial period with its fashion and steamboats and bayous while Zero recalls a broader but more recent stretch of time with the open-floor offices of the Bureau of Reclaimed Spaces and the audacious horse's head at Equus Oils (and it too has a steamboat!), but there's a distance in OtGW that just isn't there in Zero.
Thank you so much for this. I finished the game last night and it left me feeling so many things all at once. At first this mess of emotions left me aimlessly wondering, I kept searching for some definite explanation of the game, some great metaphor I missed, a revelation that would make sense of why I'm feeling the way I'm feeling. But there's none. There's no need for one. It all felt right, and that's all that matters.
Now a good number of years ago I watched an LP of this game, back when only act one existed. What stuck with me most was the style and, the mood and the visuals. They are very abstract and not always easy to work with but very much strike a cord with you.
And very much a trend setter, with the amount of games after it that went for the same lowpoly, semi-glitchy, simply textured 3d rendered visuals, with the amount of games doing the same weird camera trickery with cutaway set pieces, sudden lighting changes. The cryptic multimedia style of writing, the poignant musical interludes... all stuff arguably popularized by this game over the years.
Act V's hymn made me cry great gut-wrenching sobs that took me by surprise, and you eloquently explained to me why that might have been. Thanks :)
I really hope Noah will review Pathologic 2 at some point. It is such a weird and thought provoking game with a setting and themes I have rarely, if ever seen, in a video game (or at least presented in such a way as it is in Pathologic).
the soundtrack reminds me of waking up in the middle of the night to my dad driving down an old dirt road listening to Johnny Cash and Hank Williams
Damn I can't watch this one yet. I have to go play this. I'll be back! I usually ignore spoiler warnings because that sort of thing doesn't bother me, but I feel more compelled with this one
By far one of my favorite games of all time. *some spoilers to follow*
I'd started on part 3, and those who played will recall its iconic ballad (which you partially write) - Too Late to Love Me. As a glorified teen in college, I'd read it as a kind of spurning rebuke toward earlier rejection, the song I'd want to pull out years down the line when so and so would come crawling back to me looking for the affections they'd rejected from me (embarrassing to remember being so naive and self-centered) As I found my heart, and had it broken, it became, for me, a lament indeed, of what I'd wanted to happen and how it couldn't quite be there. Of lost possibilities and lack of direction. Now it resounds of metaphor - as I wonder if the 'love that stole my heart away' was indeed even another person, and I expect its meaning to continue changing.
In just one song is written a lifetime of experience, and I can but wonder what it meant to the people who wrote it first, and to all those of you who played it in your way.
An unparalleled experience - an American classic - no better fit for Noah Caldwell-Gervais~
And a thumbs up before the video even loads as a thanks for providing me with an hour of thoughtful conversation on a rainy Thursday.
Noah, your personal struggle with your relationship to your viewers and especially your patrons is so fascinating to me. Under a lens critical of the "parasocial relationship", the concept that a one-directional relationship can exist between viewer and viewed, that takes the character of a social relationship where one person puts in emotional energy and the other doesn't know the first exists, your attitude and experience is like a perfect inversion of that principle. I hope you wont be offended by my presumption to psychoanalyze you now, it's really all in good faith, and like 99% based on things that you have said at least once.
In your recent patreon post you spoke at length about your struggle with your relationship with your patrons, that essentially took the character of your anxieties at fulfilling the contract your perceive yourself as having written in exchange for money. That is, that seemed to view your responsibilities as being indebted to 800 some creditors with contracts each hanging over your head. This is a terribly interesting way of rationalizing a situation in which you receive money from anonymous people, simply because they choose to give it to you. The character of this relationship in your mind is obviously opaque to me, but from the depth of your essay on the topic I feel I have reckoned something approximating the truth, but also, maybe not.
Anyway, assuming it is, the most common form of the parasocial relationship is that of the superfan. A person essentially connects to the personality of a cultural producer, and begins to take their content as a form of social relationship. They feel that they know the producer as if they knew someone in real life, who they had obligations to and expectations of. The producer, by contrast, is unaware of the fans existence except by their amalgamated support. In your case, the viewer may or may not carry on this relationship, but the Noah is carrying on an imagined relationship of his own. It seems to me that youve decided each and every one of us is someone who has equal insight into you, equal privilege to you, equal demands of you, and you in turn have an obligation to them and expectation of their support, I mean somewhere in there you actually expect to be supported for making good content I hope. At any rate, this relationship is imaginary. You don't know the vast majority of your patrons on an individual basis, and to attempt to would be beyond your capacity as a human being.
I think part of this rationalization is incorporated from the criticism you describe, that your "leaching off patrons." This is, literally by the nature of patreon, impossible. And yet, that someone had suggested it, and you took it as having meaning because someone felt it was true, made it true in your mind. That is, you incorporated their criticism as a rational data point in the graph of your relationship with patrons. This is clearly in error. Patreon, by its very design, cannot be parasitic. A parasitic relationship is one in which one party takes resources from the other, to the others detriment and against the others will. In an ideal world, we all agree, we would each be free of parasites. Patreon precludes parasitism because there is simply no circumstance in which you can keep peoples money against their will. One could argue you could conduct parasitism by taking their money and running, but even then, that assumes there is some contract that you can be held to.
This relationship is imagined, mostly by you, and partly by other people. But ultimately, from within my own subjective mind, I am going to say with objectivity that no relationship exists except between you and patrons that you actually know personally and talk to. Outside of that, no obligation can exist except the extremely abstract obligation that you are being patronized as an artist, and you should probably make something interesting, or at least something that you hope will be interesting. Besides that, you have no more a relationship to me as a donor than you have to a garbage man for paying into the government that writes his checks.
Reminds me of something that's discussed in "Debts the first 5000 years". Debts are not ONLY an economic phenomenon, but a social one. Debts are the chains that bind friends, family and communities. You help the people around you, because they would help you if you needed it. The only things that separate these debts from the ones to the banks is that very abstractness of these obligations.
That is the tragedy of the modern age that the artist shouldn't feel bad for taking money from his patrons just like the people that pay their government and that are paid by their government. But shouldn't it actually the other way around. Shouldn't a democratic government be more like these abstract social relationships? Paying the government should be the same as helping your fellow citizens. Everybody gripes about communism, but if the money given to our governments is not meant to be used to help the people it ostensibly serves... then what is it for?
Keep up the good work, Noah. You're one of the greats
best video yet, the last paragraph or so was my fave
Started Hooting and Hollering when I got the notification let’s GOOOOOOO
One of the only channels where I actually hit the bell
YESSS!! You took my suggestion! Thank you!
thank you for recommending this game it was truly an incredible experience
What you said at the end about searching for America, it made me cry
I forgot about this game but I grabbed it on the switch after this video dropped. Like so many of Noah, videos I gotta play the game first to appreciate the thought put into his writing.
YES!! I HOPED AND WISHED YOU WOULD MAKE THIS.
now time to replay it in one sitting