It's easy to forget that "good" in rpg's isn't the same as "nonviolent." This story really goes to show how quickly misinformation spreads and takes hild in people's minds, especially when no one looks further into it than what's on the surface level. You did journalism a great service, Frost.
One of the few criticisms I have of BG3 is the lack of the 'lawful/neutral evil' option. Like the 'selfish, clever bastard', rather than the 'refugee slaughtering nutjob' type. Given the slaughter you engage in as a matter of course, pretending you're good and virtuous seems kinda bizarre.
It's especially amusing how prone to misinformation that news about BG3 is. The biggest one was the "AAA devs attack BG3 because video game too big", which was a complete nothing burger promoted by garbage clickbait TH-cam channels that market to people who seemingly base their entire personality around being capital G gamers and perpetually offended.
Amazing how the response after finding out that the "serial killer's" mass grave was the usual number of bodies for that game was "oh, well that's alright, then" instead of "oh, god, we're all monsters and we have been the whole time". Great work, Frost!
Well its not quite the same number, at the very minimum that poor Teifling Bard did nothing to deserve such a horrible fate. But she is as far as I know always killed as kind of the opening act for The Dark Urge's plot arc. And there are others that didn't need to die but the Urge wants you to. I'd also point out that technically you don't have to kill, as far as I know you can win every fight you get into with them only knocked unconscious if you really want to try.
Well if it was a game about a war then even as a good guy hero you'd have stacks and stacks of murdered enemies around you. And considering it's a game... why should the reaction be "Oh no! We're monsters"? RPGs and action games in general focus heavily on combat. Mountains of corpses of enemies is standard. Nothing horrific.
“I wasn’t worried about whether or not I was going to flub the interview, I already knew I was. It was my first try.” There is something strangely inspiring and encouraging about that
Yeah, I figured this guy was going around killing quest givers and such like that, not just the assorted enemy NPCs most players kill in their playthrough.
Or most video games really. If you played through original Doom of Wolfenstein, you have killed enough virtual people to depopulate a small to medium-sized town.
I'd assume the method would be to pick them up, take them to camp, and drop them in the infinite chest until the end of the act, at which point you can pick them all up at once.
I think it’s the most surprising thing is that Frost actually talks like his vocal cords are coated in velvet naturally and it’s not a voice he’s putting on.
In 10 years of watching the Escapist this is the first series I look forward to apart from ZP. I would listen to this man describe the process of paint drying and enjoy it
I actually posted a slightly negative post before this just because I don't like them cribbing Yahtzees style in these other videos, BUT , they sure as hell have been making good content recently. They had some good stuff in the early days(Shamus comes to mind, rip) and they have made a huge comeback in the past few years. This was a good video. Still not a fan of them using the ol' Yahtzee imp art style.
Yahtzee has directly collaborated in making this the style of the channel. He looks forward to seeing what the team does with Adventure is Nigh as much as the community does. It's not a The Escapist vs Yahtzee, we're a team.@@Grummar
@@theescapistI never thought it was a you vs them situation, afaik you guys have always been a very good employer for Yahtzee, which is why he has stuck with you, it is just jarring to see the artstyle elsewhere, which is just my personal preference. I think the whole point of commenting on videos is to let you know my preferences. 😅
I'd go so far as to call this a fascinating piece of art. He piles up corpses in a house and claims it's NPCs, and people freak out, call him a monster, etc, but then it's revealed that these are merely Enemies that any player would kill, and he's not a monster anymore. It forces one to examine the violence and sadism inherent in any videogame where you mow people down unthinkingly, completely unexamined until you're forced to reflect on it by imagining your massive corpse pile as one of potential friends, companions, quest givers, and just friendly bystanders. The goblins were probably that to each other. To the gnolls and spiders, you still are the monster and the murderer.
Baldurs Gate takes that further, as the goblins themself are NPC's, quest givers and not so friendly bystanders. You can also side with them, although that would be considered the "evil" playthrough.
He said NPC's every one thought it was the non enemy NPC's. The children in that druid camp, the survivors of that fire ect. It's miscommunication at most. They thought he killed regular NPCs nor enemies NPC's witch as far as fantasy is concerned are straight up evil. If not evil than literal animals looking to eat you. Of course everyone is ok with it when it turns out to be evil NPCs. The real world isn't detective comics. Everyone knows that in a fight for your life you should kill your attacker.
Far Cry 3 had some really interesting parts where it examined how you take an "average" guy and then turn him into an unstoppable death machine. You're doing it to rescue your friends that captured by a criminal gang, but there's story beats where you're talking to your friends after rescuing them and the main character says he thinks he actually likes killing the enemy. You can see the concern in your friend's face when he said that. It's an fps, so that's the point of the game, but it does bring in some reality where if someone had to mow down hundreds of pirates it would definitely give them some mental damage. Spec ops the line also played with the theme very well.
I wouldn't say that you kill "unthinkingly". The encounters occur because you're now in a "kill or be killed" situation. If you don't wipe out those goblins, Sharites, or mindflayers for example, YOU'RE going to be added to THEIR pile. The deaths that are inevitable is what comes when you're existing in a society that lives By The Sword, where you mete out justice as it affects you. A player definitely could think about WHY they're getting involved in situations that don't affect them (for example, do you trust Mayrena's brothers, or Auntie Ethel? Why even get involved? By whose morality or ethics is one to judge?). Sadism REALLY enters the chat when the player starts to kill NPCs because they *can*, like in GTA where people just drive and run over nameless NPCs and not care. So ye, to the gnolls and spiders and goblins, sure, you're the monster, but they were DEFINITELY going to eat you first, and you just happened to survive their attack. But if you side with them and attack the tieflings (the defenseless children and bystanders most especially) and the druids... what does that say about your character?
@@Silvanfan The goblins also have defenseless children and bystanders and are mind controlled. They are essentially innocent. And you are not forced to kill anyone. You can simply knock them out, achieving the same result. Death is not inevitable in the situation, it's your choice to kill.
You're such a good writer, and I feel lucky that you're employing your skills on a semi-niche subject matter that I'm fond of. The creative themes, wit and execution of the narration is something that's (to me) previously unheard of in video game journalism.
This is an absolutely exciting piece, when I saw this on reddit I was like "man, I wish I could talk to this person more, found out exactly how this made them feel, there must be more to it". Redditors were not particularly nice in all their comments, some calling the person out to seek help (I mean they may have had a point, but in most cases you should not armchair diagnose people just based on a single post for a video game). In all the clutter he probably answered somewhere that those are not the actual interactable and (predominantly) friendly NPCs, that he didn't go out of his way to slaughter the grove or something, but are just enemies - but that never made it to a top comment. I absolutely love this episode, just like the other ones it transcends gaming and tries to analyze a community created through a separation by a virtual wall which has its layer of interference in any communication. Top notch stuff, really, kudos the Escapist team
I hate that the Slack notification sound set off a Pavlovian response in me to flinch and check my own Slack thinking "oh jeez, what does someone want now?"
During an actual D&D campaign I kept track of what my players killed. Really puts into context some stuff when the “good guys” each of a body count in the hundreds plus all the monsters
I'm kinda glad the campaign I'm in now does not have a lot of non-monstrous enemies. And the times we do have to fight other sapient beings we will usually try and talk our way out if possible. The first humanoid my character killed was part of a gang we were confronting and he had meant to just injure them and force them to submit, but he rolled max damage on fire bolt and killed the guy. He was not ok for a few in game days.
One of two reasons I'm glad the campaign I'm in is in a nation utterly teeming with undead. Almost all combat is entirely guilt-free. We've only fought other people twice, and took them in non-lethally both times. We even try to make them surrender, and the last one standing usually takes us up on that offer, once they realize that it's going to be 4 on 1 and they have no escape option. XD (The other reason I'm glad for the location is that Nabrok is the last country anyone would look for my character, and boy does he have a lot of people looking for him. XD)
love or hate spec ops: the line it is the only game I've played that shows you consequences of your violence in a way I will never forget not because it shows you the pile, but because it shows you the survivors, all in one room, saluting you this video reminded me of that moment a little, great video man
In MGS3, there’s a boss fight where you have to slowly traverse a river being confronted/avoiding all the things you’ve killed up to that point. Animals included. If you go for a complete stealth run, the area is empty and you “win” that encounter. It’s a genuinely great moment in video games
This is an amazing interview, and fantastic framing too. There's so much truth that gets lost in sensationalism that it's refreshing to see a story that gets grounded in a primary source. It doesn't make the story less interesting like one might think, it's actually way more enlightening. Imagine that - facts are better for journalism
This reminds me of how I play Cyberpunk 2077 and similar games that involve body carrying like Deus Ex HR. I like to roleplay by disposing of bodies immersively. Put in dumpster, throw off cliff, hide in vent. That sort of thing.
10:26 Staying silent to watch as other people hatch wild theories is definitely a favorite concept of mine. If I'd put in the time to round up every corpse of hostile characters and pile them into one place, I'd absolutely sit back and watch as people made wild assumptions about my motives and reasons! Also, absolutely love this video, from the way it built up assumptions, to how it revealed the truth, and ultimately to the important lessons we can all learn from it.
My god I love this narration. Please keep this series up, it is one of my favourites on your channel. So entertaining, but yet somehow relaxing and familiar. It's a beautiful way to tell a story and I am completely in love with it. Thanks for the hard work you are doing!
One of the best yet. A journalist that holds himself responsible. All of journalism is seriously lacking in this. Thanks, I loved it. The Killer who never was.
Shout out to Dorian from dragon age inquisition for this exchange with the player “ You kill a lot of people“ “I don’t kill that many people” “ are you kidding? I’m surprised you didn’t kill someone on the walk over here to talk to me”
My Dark Urge playthrough, was my first playthrough. A Dragonborn Paladin Oathbreak after the first night. I had a coin beside my keyboard and flipped it every time the troubling thoughts occurred. I wanted something more than a murder hobo killing everything. Because to me, consciously choosing only the negative options isn't roleplay, and choosing only positive options is the same. It's getting to the desired ending. I wanted to get an ending based on my actions, and not preexisting conditions ("I'm going to play a good character and save everybody.") so I replicated the core of the binary choice systems of morality, a coin flip. As a result some lived and some died. A paladin that encouraged the absolute worst in people, pushing for their own ambitions. Gale and the Crown, Astarion being a vampire lord, or finding compassion and helping them face the future. Shadowheart, she got the only happy ending in my game. By the end of the game, nearly everyone including party members died, my paladin fell from divinity, cavorted with demons, and mind flayers. Murdering and saving in equal measures. The coin decided their fates, and I carried them out without prejudice. Saved the tieflings in act I, only to murder them in act II, killed one old legend and then consoled the friend, expressing sorrow for his loss. Selling a divine being then killing the buyer. I wanted to break the morality of BG3. Create a game where everyone had an equal chance to live or die, some that lived deserved to die, while others that died deserved life. The only decision that wasn't a coin flip was my final choice, hell even Baldur's Gate was saved by the toss of a coin. The last and only non-flipped act of my paladin was to end her own life because I thought it thematically appropriate. A conflicted character to the end. Truly an amazing experience. Sometimes she'd resist her urges, and sometimes she failed, but she was, at one point, on the path of righteousness, and I wanted to reflect that struggle. Always owning up to her murders and fought through the consequences. Someone who wanted to do good and right by the people, but through a cruel twist of fate was compelled to do horrible things. I had 2 self imposed rules: No save scumming, (If I wiped, and loaded the file, I had to take the original choices chosen by the coin) and not being allowed to reclaim my oath until the urge was defeated within me (Don't know if this is possible, but it was core to the experience).
It's probably also influenced by when rt literally did kill every NPC in hitman and stuffed them in a room. Journalists probably assumed it was a repeat and didn't bother looking into it any further
The initial description as a room piled high with bodies made me have an immediate reaction of "That's what every level of Thief (original, late 90s) or Dishonored looks like after I've gone through it (I'm kinda OCD, not diagnostically, but casually, and also was extremely overly paranoid about not knowing everyone's long patrol routes, so I'd try to hide every unconscious body in the one spot I was sure wouldn't be checked)
If people are shocked at the body count of a single playthrough of BG3 just killing normal enemies, wait till they witness the grotesque spectacle of the body count of an average Skyrim player across a single playthrough.
When I play DnD with my friends, I nearly always play a non killing style. Literal monsters like zombies and the like are fair game, but outside of that, death is only as a last resort in extreme circumstances. And honestly, this video is a perfect representation of why.
You know I been watchin Zero Punctuation for must be at least ten years, bout a year ago I start seein these type of videos pop up. I took a short look sure but it wasn't what I was here for 'who is this new kid on the block' I thought 'and why should I care? Well I didn't for the longest time until one day I ran out of other stuff to watch and figured what the hell. And you know what folks? I'm glad I did
Congrats on the first wonderful year of games journalism Frost! And also congrats on your first interview! Glad you decided to bring your sultry tones to the medium, delighting our speakers with those divine detective noir notes as you parse out your packets of hard-won wisdom. You're doing an amazing job and I hope you'll continue to entertain and inform us for years to come!
I get a kick out of morality systems in RPG games. Kill 1000 unnamed NPCs: no problem. Choice to spare main villain and you kill him: *NEGATIVE KARMA!*
Really good one Frost! This speaks to my experience so much. I wanted to be a journalist a long time ago, I even graduated journalism and had some experience, but the environment threw me off. It got too hectic, frantic even, you always needed to have the next hot thing, you had to have a new thing every day, the background of the story often didn't matter. Nobody asked question. This seems to not have changed.
0:34: *_NEVER_* use that sound effect in a video again. An immediate sense of panic hit me as I instinctively turned to my work laptop to see what was wrong...
Always put on your socks before pants. They act as pants lubricant making it far easier to get your feet to the bottom smoothly, reducing the probability of falling over and headbutting the wardrobe.
That type of run in Hitman is so hard too. The amount of effort to wipe out everyone in a Hitman level given just how populated each one is is truly an amazing feat. I half did it once by accident. I screwed up in Dartmoor and ended up with a massive pile of security guards in that ground floor bathroom by the library and also in the hall outside the bathroom.
It's kinda funny, this concept was explored literally 20 years earlier in KotOR 2. One of the literal plot points of the story is how many people you kill and how you actually gain experience. The in-game mechanics are questioned by the narrative. I think that was the most meta commentary on videogame mechanics I ever saw until Undertale.
I'm really glad you reached out and actually spoke to this guy. Sometimes (often) the 24 hour news rotation drowns out the actual truth and refers to itself instead of primary sources to everyone's detriment. It's nice to see someone doing their job properly! He seems like a pretty chill guy, I'm glad his side of the story is out there now.
Honestly, that's a pretty interesting concept for a Dark Urge character: dealing with your pathological bloodlust by being as conscious as possible of all of the violence you commit. "Just look at everyone I've killed. (... Surely, this must be enough?)"
Now that I know the full story. Good on this character for actually cleaning up after himself! Players who don't do this are leaving a lot of litter behind that some unknown janitor NPC is going to have to clean up for them afterwards. (Although with the number of skeletons you see around, I feel like that doesn't happen too often in this world.)
I may have mentioned this before, but I would love an episode on Dick Tree, the guy who grinded to level 99 in the very first area of _Final Fantasy VII._ Also because it's a rather dark and existentialist insight into what motivates some people.
That might have been the biggest hook I've heard in years. Saying you caught a serial killer might have been slightly exaggerated but still interesting story. Was at the edge of my seat even more than normal from driving with short legs.
The Hotline Miami games do this deliberately. You slaughter your way through levels at break neck speed, with a pulsing soundtrack and then are forced to walk quietly back through the area to leave, past the dozens of bodies left in your wake
It's easy to forget that "good" in rpg's isn't the same as "nonviolent." This story really goes to show how quickly misinformation spreads and takes hild in people's minds, especially when no one looks further into it than what's on the surface level. You did journalism a great service, Frost.
Agreed
One of the few criticisms I have of BG3 is the lack of the 'lawful/neutral evil' option. Like the 'selfish, clever bastard', rather than the 'refugee slaughtering nutjob' type. Given the slaughter you engage in as a matter of course, pretending you're good and virtuous seems kinda bizarre.
Most RPGs, at least. There definitely are ones where not leaving a mountain of corpses in your wake is actually a reasonable and intended option.
It's especially amusing how prone to misinformation that news about BG3 is. The biggest one was the "AAA devs attack BG3 because video game too big", which was a complete nothing burger promoted by garbage clickbait TH-cam channels that market to people who seemingly base their entire personality around being capital G gamers and perpetually offended.
This game has no "Jail". Is either let them thrive or kill them.
Amazing how the response after finding out that the "serial killer's" mass grave was the usual number of bodies for that game was "oh, well that's alright, then" instead of "oh, god, we're all monsters and we have been the whole time".
Great work, Frost!
Well its not quite the same number, at the very minimum that poor Teifling Bard did nothing to deserve such a horrible fate. But she is as far as I know always killed as kind of the opening act for The Dark Urge's plot arc. And there are others that didn't need to die but the Urge wants you to. I'd also point out that technically you don't have to kill, as far as I know you can win every fight you get into with them only knocked unconscious if you really want to try.
Well if it was a game about a war then even as a good guy hero you'd have stacks and stacks of murdered enemies around you. And considering it's a game... why should the reaction be "Oh no! We're monsters"? RPGs and action games in general focus heavily on combat. Mountains of corpses of enemies is standard. Nothing horrific.
@@TheOneTrueMar Yeah, that's kind of the problem.
Oh, f*ck, we're all monsters! Quick, kill us in every RPG!
Cause if someone wants to kill you you fight back, how are you a monster for defending yourself?
Don't oversimplify stuff
“I wasn’t worried about whether or not I was going to flub the interview, I already knew I was. It was my first try.”
There is something strangely inspiring and encouraging about that
It is interesting how people seem to "forget" how much violence an RPG involves, even on a "good" playthrough.
Yeah, I figured this guy was going around killing quest givers and such like that, not just the assorted enemy NPCs most players kill in their playthrough.
Buddy I could not tell you how Pokemon I've left to die all to catch their shiny counterpart
Or most video games really. If you played through original Doom of Wolfenstein, you have killed enough virtual people to depopulate a small to medium-sized town.
An evil playthrough of Kotor, if I recall correctly, was basically same as good, but you extort money from the folks you help....
Someone should tally up Mario’s genocide against the Goombas.
I have to admit his patience transporting the bodies back and fort to the same building is really amazing.
I'd assume the method would be to pick them up, take them to camp, and drop them in the infinite chest until the end of the act, at which point you can pick them all up at once.
@@iorithgaming You don't even have to take them to camp. Just click "Send to Camp".
I think it’s the most surprising thing is that Frost actually talks like his vocal cords are coated in velvet naturally and it’s not a voice he’s putting on.
You never watched even a bit of their countless streams? It's not like it's rare to hear him talk casually.
@@TheMarkoSeke I'd say he has, otherwise it's unlikely he would know that, isn't it?
It's the storytelling, film noir style that really resonates.
In 10 years of watching the Escapist this is the first series I look forward to apart from ZP. I would listen to this man describe the process of paint drying and enjoy it
If you want more cold take is the same guy,
I actually posted a slightly negative post before this just because I don't like them cribbing Yahtzees style in these other videos, BUT , they sure as hell have been making good content recently. They had some good stuff in the early days(Shamus comes to mind, rip) and they have made a huge comeback in the past few years. This was a good video. Still not a fan of them using the ol' Yahtzee imp art style.
Yahtzee has directly collaborated in making this the style of the channel. He looks forward to seeing what the team does with Adventure is Nigh as much as the community does. It's not a The Escapist vs Yahtzee, we're a team.@@Grummar
@@theescapistI never thought it was a you vs them situation, afaik you guys have always been a very good employer for Yahtzee, which is why he has stuck with you, it is just jarring to see the artstyle elsewhere, which is just my personal preference. I think the whole point of commenting on videos is to let you know my preferences. 😅
hopped on board late, Ruiz makes some really amazing, inspiring content.
I'd go so far as to call this a fascinating piece of art. He piles up corpses in a house and claims it's NPCs, and people freak out, call him a monster, etc, but then it's revealed that these are merely Enemies that any player would kill, and he's not a monster anymore. It forces one to examine the violence and sadism inherent in any videogame where you mow people down unthinkingly, completely unexamined until you're forced to reflect on it by imagining your massive corpse pile as one of potential friends, companions, quest givers, and just friendly bystanders. The goblins were probably that to each other. To the gnolls and spiders, you still are the monster and the murderer.
Baldurs Gate takes that further, as the goblins themself are NPC's, quest givers and not so friendly bystanders.
You can also side with them, although that would be considered the "evil" playthrough.
He said NPC's every one thought it was the non enemy NPC's. The children in that druid camp, the survivors of that fire ect.
It's miscommunication at most. They thought he killed regular NPCs nor enemies NPC's witch as far as fantasy is concerned are straight up evil. If not evil than literal animals looking to eat you.
Of course everyone is ok with it when it turns out to be evil NPCs.
The real world isn't detective comics.
Everyone knows that in a fight for your life you should kill your attacker.
Far Cry 3 had some really interesting parts where it examined how you take an "average" guy and then turn him into an unstoppable death machine. You're doing it to rescue your friends that captured by a criminal gang, but there's story beats where you're talking to your friends after rescuing them and the main character says he thinks he actually likes killing the enemy. You can see the concern in your friend's face when he said that. It's an fps, so that's the point of the game, but it does bring in some reality where if someone had to mow down hundreds of pirates it would definitely give them some mental damage. Spec ops the line also played with the theme very well.
I wouldn't say that you kill "unthinkingly". The encounters occur because you're now in a "kill or be killed" situation. If you don't wipe out those goblins, Sharites, or mindflayers for example, YOU'RE going to be added to THEIR pile. The deaths that are inevitable is what comes when you're existing in a society that lives By The Sword, where you mete out justice as it affects you. A player definitely could think about WHY they're getting involved in situations that don't affect them (for example, do you trust Mayrena's brothers, or Auntie Ethel? Why even get involved? By whose morality or ethics is one to judge?). Sadism REALLY enters the chat when the player starts to kill NPCs because they *can*, like in GTA where people just drive and run over nameless NPCs and not care.
So ye, to the gnolls and spiders and goblins, sure, you're the monster, but they were DEFINITELY going to eat you first, and you just happened to survive their attack.
But if you side with them and attack the tieflings (the defenseless children and bystanders most especially) and the druids... what does that say about your character?
@@Silvanfan The goblins also have defenseless children and bystanders and are mind controlled. They are essentially innocent. And you are not forced to kill anyone. You can simply knock them out, achieving the same result.
Death is not inevitable in the situation, it's your choice to kill.
“We feel disgust. Not at ourselves but at the person who revealed to us the truth”
Such a great line!
👏 Frost nailed journalism on his first try despite being sure he wouldn’t
Was trying to confirm this was Frost there's no hiding that voice 😂
Never judge a book by its cover, even if it looks like it might be bound in human skin
beautifully said
That's what I keep telling people about my cookbook.
There's a wicked recipe for pizza in there. Though you do end up having to pick out the bones...
@@crushermach3263I would make a 🅱️oneless pizza reference if it was 2017.
-astarion after i gave him that necromancy book
Especially don't judge the cover if you haven't put an amethyst in the mouth, it really ties everything together.
You're such a good writer, and I feel lucky that you're employing your skills on a semi-niche subject matter that I'm fond of. The creative themes, wit and execution of the narration is something that's (to me) previously unheard of in video game journalism.
This is an absolutely exciting piece, when I saw this on reddit I was like "man, I wish I could talk to this person more, found out exactly how this made them feel, there must be more to it". Redditors were not particularly nice in all their comments, some calling the person out to seek help (I mean they may have had a point, but in most cases you should not armchair diagnose people just based on a single post for a video game). In all the clutter he probably answered somewhere that those are not the actual interactable and (predominantly) friendly NPCs, that he didn't go out of his way to slaughter the grove or something, but are just enemies - but that never made it to a top comment. I absolutely love this episode, just like the other ones it transcends gaming and tries to analyze a community created through a separation by a virtual wall which has its layer of interference in any communication. Top notch stuff, really, kudos the Escapist team
The pan over to a pic of Yahtzee when he said he wipes with originality was too perfect.
I hate that the Slack notification sound set off a Pavlovian response in me to flinch and check my own Slack thinking "oh jeez, what does someone want now?"
During an actual D&D campaign I kept track of what my players killed. Really puts into context some stuff when the “good guys” each of a body count in the hundreds plus all the monsters
I'm kinda glad the campaign I'm in now does not have a lot of non-monstrous enemies. And the times we do have to fight other sapient beings we will usually try and talk our way out if possible.
The first humanoid my character killed was part of a gang we were confronting and he had meant to just injure them and force them to submit, but he rolled max damage on fire bolt and killed the guy. He was not ok for a few in game days.
One of two reasons I'm glad the campaign I'm in is in a nation utterly teeming with undead. Almost all combat is entirely guilt-free.
We've only fought other people twice, and took them in non-lethally both times. We even try to make them surrender, and the last one standing usually takes us up on that offer, once they realize that it's going to be 4 on 1 and they have no escape option. XD
(The other reason I'm glad for the location is that Nabrok is the last country anyone would look for my character, and boy does he have a lot of people looking for him. XD)
Turns out the serial killer was in all of us all along!
Ya honestly I'm pretty sure my "good" Starfield character can fill up a town with all the corpses he's made at this point
yaaaaaay uhh wait
You did more journalism than the actual journalists. Bravo.
love or hate spec ops: the line
it is the only game I've played that shows you consequences of your violence in a way I will never forget
not because it shows you the pile, but because it shows you the survivors, all in one room, saluting you
this video reminded me of that moment a little, great video man
In MGS3, there’s a boss fight where you have to slowly traverse a river being confronted/avoiding all the things you’ve killed up to that point. Animals included. If you go for a complete stealth run, the area is empty and you “win” that encounter. It’s a genuinely great moment in video games
Easily my new favorite series on The Escapist. Keep it up, you do better journalism than most major news outlets.
This is an amazing interview, and fantastic framing too. There's so much truth that gets lost in sensationalism that it's refreshing to see a story that gets grounded in a primary source. It doesn't make the story less interesting like one might think, it's actually way more enlightening. Imagine that - facts are better for journalism
This reminds me of how I play Cyberpunk 2077 and similar games that involve body carrying like Deus Ex HR.
I like to roleplay by disposing of bodies immersively. Put in dumpster, throw off cliff, hide in vent. That sort of thing.
You should take a look at the Falador massacre, it’s a super interesting event from RuneScape history
Next episode!
@@theescapist Could you also do an episode on the WOW corrupted blood incident?
@@falloutboy1015They already did.
Yahtzee already did that for a Zero Punctuation episode, but maybe we'll revisit if we're short an idea for a week!@@falloutboy1015
@@theescapist Wooo! Glad to hear, sorry for commenting it in every one of these videos!
I have fully fallen in love with every one of Sebastian's videos. Captivating, well-written, and atmospheric. Keep it coming!
The Stuff of Legends is new to me, and quickly becoming one of my favorite mini series on YT.
And also that silky smooth PI voice 😩
10:26 Staying silent to watch as other people hatch wild theories is definitely a favorite concept of mine. If I'd put in the time to round up every corpse of hostile characters and pile them into one place, I'd absolutely sit back and watch as people made wild assumptions about my motives and reasons!
Also, absolutely love this video, from the way it built up assumptions, to how it revealed the truth, and ultimately to the important lessons we can all learn from it.
awesome job, to both of you. Honestly this is the better example of original games Journalism I've seen in a long while
I love the writing and narration of these, but shoutout to the animator for realizing the interview in such a wonderful and funny way!
Man does the honest legwork that real journalism requires, good stuff!
"It was a day like any other, except it wasnt, because it was." - I want this line on a shirt.
"He was candid and jovial...but so was Hannibal Lector."
That fuckin got me hahaha.
My god I love this narration. Please keep this series up, it is one of my favourites on your channel. So entertaining, but yet somehow relaxing and familiar. It's a beautiful way to tell a story and I am completely in love with it. Thanks for the hard work you are doing!
One of the best yet. A journalist that holds himself responsible. All of journalism is seriously lacking in this.
Thanks, I loved it.
The Killer who never was.
Shout out to Dorian from dragon age inquisition for this exchange with the player
“ You kill a lot of people“
“I don’t kill that many people”
“ are you kidding? I’m surprised you didn’t kill someone on the walk over here to talk to me”
Turning a screenshot of bg3 into a piece on sensational journalism is very impressive 10/10
My Dark Urge playthrough, was my first playthrough. A Dragonborn Paladin Oathbreak after the first night. I had a coin beside my keyboard and flipped it every time the troubling thoughts occurred. I wanted something more than a murder hobo killing everything. Because to me, consciously choosing only the negative options isn't roleplay, and choosing only positive options is the same. It's getting to the desired ending. I wanted to get an ending based on my actions, and not preexisting conditions ("I'm going to play a good character and save everybody.") so I replicated the core of the binary choice systems of morality, a coin flip. As a result some lived and some died. A paladin that encouraged the absolute worst in people, pushing for their own ambitions. Gale and the Crown, Astarion being a vampire lord, or finding compassion and helping them face the future. Shadowheart, she got the only happy ending in my game. By the end of the game, nearly everyone including party members died, my paladin fell from divinity, cavorted with demons, and mind flayers. Murdering and saving in equal measures. The coin decided their fates, and I carried them out without prejudice. Saved the tieflings in act I, only to murder them in act II, killed one old legend and then consoled the friend, expressing sorrow for his loss. Selling a divine being then killing the buyer. I wanted to break the morality of BG3. Create a game where everyone had an equal chance to live or die, some that lived deserved to die, while others that died deserved life.
The only decision that wasn't a coin flip was my final choice, hell even Baldur's Gate was saved by the toss of a coin. The last and only non-flipped act of my paladin was to end her own life because I thought it thematically appropriate. A conflicted character to the end. Truly an amazing experience. Sometimes she'd resist her urges, and sometimes she failed, but she was, at one point, on the path of righteousness, and I wanted to reflect that struggle. Always owning up to her murders and fought through the consequences. Someone who wanted to do good and right by the people, but through a cruel twist of fate was compelled to do horrible things. I had 2 self imposed rules: No save scumming, (If I wiped, and loaded the file, I had to take the original choices chosen by the coin) and not being allowed to reclaim my oath until the urge was defeated within me (Don't know if this is possible, but it was core to the experience).
This is the funniest case of "had us in the first half, not gonna lie" I've ever seen.
It's probably also influenced by when rt literally did kill every NPC in hitman and stuffed them in a room. Journalists probably assumed it was a repeat and didn't bother looking into it any further
Great use of lighting in the interview ❤
That sounds like a fun playthrough. The Dark Urge, but accepting every dark urge while accepting the good option otherwise.
The biggest mystery is how these keep just getting better and better. I love the unique spin these always take and this one is by far the best so far.
The initial description as a room piled high with bodies made me have an immediate reaction of "That's what every level of Thief (original, late 90s) or Dishonored looks like after I've gone through it (I'm kinda OCD, not diagnostically, but casually, and also was extremely overly paranoid about not knowing everyone's long patrol routes, so I'd try to hide every unconscious body in the one spot I was sure wouldn't be checked)
Amazing work. We all went on that roller coaster ride with you
This video needs more views LOL. Those big outlets didn't research in any way, shape or form. Thank God for Frost.
Frost falling in love with the player through the interview is a nice visual touch
These videos have gotten so good, I love Frost’s storytelling
Well done, more like a serial collector than a serial killer
The reveal that its not a complete genocide route, oh my god theres so many bodies
If people are shocked at the body count of a single playthrough of BG3 just killing normal enemies, wait till they witness the grotesque spectacle of the body count of an average Skyrim player across a single playthrough.
When I play DnD with my friends, I nearly always play a non killing style. Literal monsters like zombies and the like are fair game, but outside of that, death is only as a last resort in extreme circumstances. And honestly, this video is a perfect representation of why.
So I guess the real serial killer was the friends we made along the way?
This is an excellent video. Well structured, well written, and well executed.
You know I been watchin Zero Punctuation for must be at least ten years, bout a year ago I start seein these type of videos pop up. I took a short look sure but it wasn't what I was here for 'who is this new kid on the block' I thought 'and why should I care? Well I didn't for the longest time until one day I ran out of other stuff to watch and figured what the hell. And you know what folks? I'm glad I did
Congrats on the first wonderful year of games journalism Frost! And also congrats on your first interview! Glad you decided to bring your sultry tones to the medium, delighting our speakers with those divine detective noir notes as you parse out your packets of hard-won wisdom. You're doing an amazing job and I hope you'll continue to entertain and inform us for years to come!
Watching this unfold is just wonderful. Great journalism and great storytelling.
Frost was the greatest voice ever
This curious case felt like an unintentional social experiment to viewers and journalist.
I get a kick out of morality systems in RPG games. Kill 1000 unnamed NPCs: no problem. Choice to spare main villain and you kill him: *NEGATIVE KARMA!*
All great recommendations. I also love DnD Shorts and Nerd Immersion.
This was amazing. I'm so glad I stumbled across it.
I was about to type the screenshots look like a Hieronymus Bosch painting and then you show a snippet of one yourself. Well played.
Really good one Frost! This speaks to my experience so much. I wanted to be a journalist a long time ago, I even graduated journalism and had some experience, but the environment threw me off. It got too hectic, frantic even, you always needed to have the next hot thing, you had to have a new thing every day, the background of the story often didn't matter. Nobody asked question. This seems to not have changed.
These just keep getting better and better
0:34: *_NEVER_* use that sound effect in a video again. An immediate sense of panic hit me as I instinctively turned to my work laptop to see what was wrong...
Nice insight into it, and goes to show that only Escapist puts out the good old fashioned game journalism
Always put on your socks before pants. They act as pants lubricant making it far easier to get your feet to the bottom smoothly, reducing the probability of falling over and headbutting the wardrobe.
Also it significantly reduces the risk of getting an overtly long toenail stuck in the fabric while you hoist your pants up.
Did you hear of the Butcher of Sapienza?
That type of run in Hitman is so hard too. The amount of effort to wipe out everyone in a Hitman level given just how populated each one is is truly an amazing feat. I half did it once by accident. I screwed up in Dartmoor and ended up with a massive pile of security guards in that ground floor bathroom by the library and also in the hall outside the bathroom.
They used to call him the drift king back in college
It's kinda funny, this concept was explored literally 20 years earlier in KotOR 2. One of the literal plot points of the story is how many people you kill and how you actually gain experience. The in-game mechanics are questioned by the narrative. I think that was the most meta commentary on videogame mechanics I ever saw until Undertale.
Excellent narration, great storytelling, good subjects. Keet it up, it's top tier content.
How did I just find this series?! So good, hope yall make more
Continuing to show why this has become a favorite series.
Love the Danny Boyle’s Sunshine reference, one of my all time favorite space sci-if movies. Does not get the love it deserves.
man he told this quite nicely!
I love these mini-series you guys put out nowadays! Keep it up :D
This was an amazing storytelling, and I’m quite happy this was applied into a theme i’m fan of. Really excited for the next interview videos
The Devil's greatest trick was convincing the world he didn't exist
I've loved all of your stuff so far, Frost, but I think this might be your best work yet. At least, it's up there at the top.
The Stuff of Legends is my new favorite series over zero punctuation.
That's awesome! I remember reading those articles too!! Well done!
I'm really glad you reached out and actually spoke to this guy. Sometimes (often) the 24 hour news rotation drowns out the actual truth and refers to itself instead of primary sources to everyone's detriment. It's nice to see someone doing their job properly! He seems like a pretty chill guy, I'm glad his side of the story is out there now.
You should do a deep dive on the guy that made Magnasanti, this terrifying and insane build in Sim City 3000 that took him years to make.
Honestly, that's a pretty interesting concept for a Dark Urge character: dealing with your pathological bloodlust by being as conscious as possible of all of the violence you commit. "Just look at everyone I've killed. (... Surely, this must be enough?)"
Accountant Dark Urge
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder coping mechanisms Dark Urge.
This was a really nice story. Very well put together and the lesson leaned was powerful.
Now that I know the full story. Good on this character for actually cleaning up after himself!
Players who don't do this are leaving a lot of litter behind that some unknown janitor NPC is going to have to clean up for them afterwards. (Although with the number of skeletons you see around, I feel like that doesn't happen too often in this world.)
"maybe it's because i'm an everything bagel" is a very good joke.
A stuff of legends for a very _new_ game? AND YEWWW WERE THERE??? *NANI?!?*
I may have mentioned this before, but I would love an episode on Dick Tree, the guy who grinded to level 99 in the very first area of _Final Fantasy VII._ Also because it's a rather dark and existentialist insight into what motivates some people.
I had that Garfield phone!
The fun part about hearing these stories is the morbid curiosity you have throughout.
Nothing like Frost monologuing a Noir murder mystery.
Doing good work here, this feels like the start of something important.
Great content. Thanks as always.
Tav is your custom avatar, but Durge is the games custom character.
That might have been the biggest hook I've heard in years. Saying you caught a serial killer might have been slightly exaggerated but still interesting story. Was at the edge of my seat even more than normal from driving with short legs.
Dunno if you'd be a serial killer in an rpg, but def a mass murderer.
Malta, the cat, would be proud of this accurate depiction of Noir movies detective
Wow, that was....something. Amazing work Frost!
What a wonderful video
The Hotline Miami games do this deliberately. You slaughter your way through levels at break neck speed, with a pulsing soundtrack and then are forced to walk quietly back through the area to leave, past the dozens of bodies left in your wake
This was interesting to see and also I think the only video where you can say lesson from my seral killer to be a good thing. Nice one Frost.
I am inspired by this guy. I think I might implement a functioning graveyard so that players can haul corpses to the graveyard for proper burials.