DEFCON scares me and science says it will scare you too

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 พ.ย. 2024

ความคิดเห็น • 10K

  • @cityuser
    @cityuser 5 ปีที่แล้ว +38568

    You didn't mention the worst part about this game.
    When you "win", (all else is gone), you don't get a win screen.
    Just- nothing. Silence. The dreadful silence of millions upon millions of deaths.

    • @thorstend.888
      @thorstend.888 5 ปีที่แล้ว +3649

      They could have gone one step further by removing the Score/Point system. Just show the statistics of the casualties. No high score

    • @birdflox1337
      @birdflox1337 5 ปีที่แล้ว +3198

      @@thorstend.888 i think the scoring system was used as a metaphor for how the military can sometimes see these statistics as just being mindless numbers

    • @Ghost_of_Avalon
      @Ghost_of_Avalon 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1201

      Millions? Billions.

    • @TheFranciscoFm
      @TheFranciscoFm 5 ปีที่แล้ว +122

      @@Ghost_of_Avalon Nop

    • @lucianostizzoli2676
      @lucianostizzoli2676 5 ปีที่แล้ว +394

      @@Ghost_of_Avalon Billions? Trillions.

  • @ZvZd
    @ZvZd 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2911

    During the Cold War, the Soviet Nuclear Forces unofficial moto was "После нас - тишина" ("After us - silence")

    • @strakhovandrri
      @strakhovandrri 3 ปีที่แล้ว +217

      It was and still is Strategic Missile Forces motto.

    • @aliannamuhammedow358
      @aliannamuhammedow358 3 ปีที่แล้ว +13

      О! рашшн

    • @jinan_hwasal
      @jinan_hwasal 3 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Now i use that as my fam moto xaxaxaxaxa

    • @johncenaplayingstarcraft9580
      @johncenaplayingstarcraft9580 3 ปีที่แล้ว +18

      transliteration: Posle Nas - Tishina

    • @SSFFRRJJ
      @SSFFRRJJ 3 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      (-Krstit će se i ko neće-) motto

  • @jerguskrc
    @jerguskrc 5 ปีที่แล้ว +11897

    "No one would ever let it happen"
    Gandhi: *evil laugh*

    •  5 ปีที่แล้ว +71

      Why Gandhi?

    • @jerguskrc
      @jerguskrc 5 ปีที่แล้ว +589

      @ Because he nukes the shit out of everybody in Civ

    • @opfoca1oparrowmarinerecon154
      @opfoca1oparrowmarinerecon154 5 ปีที่แล้ว +729

      @ you wouldn't get it ;)

    • @BasedAlaric
      @BasedAlaric 5 ปีที่แล้ว +554

      @ You wouldn't get it *smokes*

    •  5 ปีที่แล้ว +74

      Yeah i really don't get it :(

  • @localcompanion
    @localcompanion 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2210

    In 1870, decades before the nuclear bomb was created, and English author by the name of Wilkie Collins was surveying the destruction caused by either the Franco-Prussian War or the American Civil War (I forget which one, both were horrible). He made the remark that one day humanity will make a "discovery…of a destructive agent so terrible that war shall mean annihilation, and men’s fears shall force them to keep the peace."

    • @Deathstroke-gd6kd
      @Deathstroke-gd6kd 2 ปีที่แล้ว +45

      He seems to have been wrong, or we haven't reached that stage yet. I don't know which is worse

    • @TK-5311
      @TK-5311 2 ปีที่แล้ว +217

      @@Deathstroke-gd6kd during the cold War russia and the US wanted to nuke each other very badly but they knew the world would end if either one did so, I believe we have hit that stage, we are still in it

    • @atif1538
      @atif1538 2 ปีที่แล้ว +28

      @@Deathstroke-gd6kd pretty sure we have with the atomic bomb

    • @ShiroCh_ID
      @ShiroCh_ID 2 ปีที่แล้ว +15

      @@pileofthoughts this is a possibility
      too much risk and less return
      while war give advantage to its victor nuclear war is totally didnt give advantage to its victor nor its victim
      its like "we won this war and now what?" and as to why is that all i can say that after war i bet theres no way to eat thing without dies due to nuclear mutation of things

    • @greenrithley5577
      @greenrithley5577 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@TK-5311 th-cam.com/video/0KiII_2qabk/w-d-xo.html

  • @NeMoCo45
    @NeMoCo45 3 ปีที่แล้ว +4455

    " There are no winners of war, only survivors and even they die inside from guilt. They only physically survive to warn us. To warn us that there is nothing more terrible than what they have done. "-Jake Fulton

    • @grenadier6483
      @grenadier6483 3 ปีที่แล้ว +73

      I'm 13 and this is deep...

    • @davidpanchev4465
      @davidpanchev4465 3 ปีที่แล้ว +34

      You can't be more accurate than this

    • @BrutuxMusic
      @BrutuxMusic 3 ปีที่แล้ว +120

      @Deo That's some nice coolaid you're drinking, hoping the money put in the military aren't detracting in any way from your inalienable human rights. What's that? You must pay for an education? What's a health insurance?

    • @lingxiuhan1982
      @lingxiuhan1982 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Now we know, the Deep States and some rich houses are behind these wars. There is a reason you have to suffer so much. Don’t like it? No worry, they offer cannibalism and corruption, if you want to end your misery. Guess what, you will take it just like you let the all the things happened in 2020.

    • @TheBauwssss
      @TheBauwssss 3 ปีที่แล้ว +39

      "nothing more terrible that what they *were forced to do* " is more accurate I think. When one is unfortunate enough to find oneself on an active battlefield, fighting for survival, the only true choice is kill or be killed. It sends a chill down my spine just to think about that proposition, about having to indiscriminately and in cold blood take the life of another human being. Another man who might very well have a beautiful wife, not to mention children who will now never get to know their father simply because I believed my life to be more valuable. Another man who, if only times had been different, might even have become my best friend, possibly for life.
      War truly has no winners, but only pitiful losers, forced to kill indiscriminately and without question, only for the unlucky survivors to end up damaged, broke, lonely and forgotten; rotting away in a veterans home. To use an already horribly overused saying; war never determines who is right, only who is left.

  • @luthofekisi1730
    @luthofekisi1730 3 ปีที่แล้ว +9042

    "War is a frightening concept, but this defcon shit scares the hell outta me"
    - Sun Tzu

    • @jameswilson2110
      @jameswilson2110 3 ปีที่แล้ว +25

      Deftly

    • @justshrimping742
      @justshrimping742 3 ปีที่แล้ว +30

      He didn't said that!!

    • @streamfroster
      @streamfroster 3 ปีที่แล้ว +111

      @@justshrimping742 "Do not trust quotes on the internet, they are fake, they are made-up"
      - Sun Tzu

    • @justshrimping742
      @justshrimping742 3 ปีที่แล้ว +44

      @@streamfroster wait? He said that as well !? WHATTT IS HAPPEENNINGGGG!!!!1!!1

    • @larrykapija3183
      @larrykapija3183 3 ปีที่แล้ว +209

      Stop quoting my brother
      -Moon Tzu

  • @jadenkaramanos7030
    @jadenkaramanos7030 5 ปีที่แล้ว +6345

    you can’t fool me i know the cassette voice is BDG

    • @Souleater787
      @Souleater787 5 ปีที่แล้ว +304

      I fall asleep to his voice every night before bed I cannot be swayed.

    • @emilylikesdonuts154
      @emilylikesdonuts154 5 ปีที่แล้ว +70

      I was thinking that too XD

    • @AbsolXGuardian
      @AbsolXGuardian 5 ปีที่แล้ว +219

      Probably because the study just had a transcript of the comment and polygon made it work better in this medium.

    • @jvfernandes
      @jvfernandes 5 ปีที่แล้ว +180

      It says "dramatic reading"

    • @albertgore7435
      @albertgore7435 5 ปีที่แล้ว +169

      Oh god he’s trapped in that cassette, how do we free him?!

  • @boxofcereal
    @boxofcereal ปีที่แล้ว +2088

    Destroying the world in Plague Inc: hehe I’m such a monster
    Destroying the world in Defcon: *what have I done*

    • @a0001521
      @a0001521 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +161

      Stellaris players: hehe ethnic cleansing lmao

    • @JackRogers-x9e
      @JackRogers-x9e 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +38

      Nah my reaction to the game is plague inc. Don’t know why people are put off or disturbed by this game. It’s just a silly map game with funny little numbers popping up.

    • @DEFC0NZER0
      @DEFC0NZER0 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +22

      ​@user-ez7ed7kd8e
      Same. I played Defcon, expecting to be scared or at least unnerved, but in truth I felt nothing. I had fun, it certainly wasn't boring, but I didn't feel any worse about it.

    • @threeheadedmonsterofficial
      @threeheadedmonsterofficial 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +25

      the difference between plague inc and defcon is you cant control where viruses go but you can control where nukes go

    • @sarubet8725
      @sarubet8725 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@JackRogers-x9e ok mr edge

  • @shironeko8971
    @shironeko8971 5 ปีที่แล้ว +48286

    When you turn off the PC but the siren doesn’t stop

    • @JaseyStudios
      @JaseyStudios 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1233

      OOF

    • @badmoth242xl3
      @badmoth242xl3 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1354

      Hol up

    • @its-amemegatron.9521
      @its-amemegatron.9521 5 ปีที่แล้ว +625

      @@badmoth242xl3
      [Last know post made on June 6th 1995 from a TH-cam user that lived in a city along the Waldreich mountains]

    • @jiggybaba786
      @jiggybaba786 5 ปีที่แล้ว +741

      That actually happened one time and I was scared running, tears in my eyes, busting down my parents door to there room...
      Luckily, I just moved to a different city that had a prison nearby, it was roll call

    • @epiknis3035
      @epiknis3035 5 ปีที่แล้ว +208

      Aight imma head out

  • @sebping7205
    @sebping7205 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2002

    Interesting and quite fitting sentence: "Everybody loses, but somebody loses the least"

    • @VJFranzK
      @VJFranzK 4 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      If they are not more alive, how is that measurable? And how does it actually matter?

    • @ursosexmachina
      @ursosexmachina 4 ปีที่แล้ว +40

      @@VJFranzK Whoever dies last, wins.

    • @VJFranzK
      @VJFranzK 4 ปีที่แล้ว +48

      @@ursosexmachina We're not talking highschool football, or your FPS here. It's not really a win if there's no one left, friend or foe, to congratulate you.
      The real, grown-up concept of victory of the human species has been our survival.
      Survival of future generations isn't possible in a world contaminated by radiation. The "winners" might suffer in the longest, most terrible way.

    • @aryanbhuta3382
      @aryanbhuta3382 3 ปีที่แล้ว +13

      @@VJFranzK More people are alive. If the US loses 100 million but Russia loses 150 million, the US has "won" the nuclear exchange.

    • @gabsleite5199
      @gabsleite5199 3 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      So somebody wins, because losing less than others in any sport = winning, what matters is score compared to the others. Hahaha

  • @naufalnq
    @naufalnq 4 ปีที่แล้ว +6246

    How to play Defcon
    First: install Defcon
    Second: start nuclear war
    Third: play defcon

    • @joskethegreat4154
      @joskethegreat4154 4 ปีที่แล้ว +180

      *HOL'UP*

    • @Walnut_yt
      @Walnut_yt 4 ปีที่แล้ว +24

      I think you need to see a psychologist

    • @acek2016
      @acek2016 4 ปีที่แล้ว +23

      Oh no-

    • @brothinkhecarti69
      @brothinkhecarti69 4 ปีที่แล้ว +47

      That's Funn... wait... SON OF A-

    • @joshcarter2310
      @joshcarter2310 4 ปีที่แล้ว +46

      You need to complete step 3 quickly if you did step two well enough

  • @CeapaCoolOfficial
    @CeapaCoolOfficial 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1172

    Yo someone's playing this on the wrong computer

    • @elizataylor1726
      @elizataylor1726 2 ปีที่แล้ว +17

      Play it on an off white CRT.. or like.. a projector screen

    • @golonkowiczpl
      @golonkowiczpl 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      And HE knows that

    • @coleisforrobot
      @coleisforrobot 2 ปีที่แล้ว +25

      ah f*ck I accidentally bought putin sim

    • @The_Looker
      @The_Looker 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      @@coleisforrobot, aw hell nah bro💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀

    • @-thanawat-8296
      @-thanawat-8296 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@coleisforrobot 💀💀💀💀💀

  • @lovaszaron3138
    @lovaszaron3138 4 ปีที่แล้ว +5951

    DEFCON 5: Peace.
    DEFCON 4: Ready for war.
    DEFCON 3: War.
    DEFCON 2: Total war.
    DEFCON 1: The peace of unburied dead.

    • @historymarshal2704
      @historymarshal2704 4 ปีที่แล้ว +314

      "To simulate Nuclear Strike, douse the table in kerosene and toss a match on it."
      -Official NATO Wargame, probably apocryphal

    • @archierockford1490
      @archierockford1490 4 ปีที่แล้ว +44

      That’s grim.

    • @lovaszaron3138
      @lovaszaron3138 4 ปีที่แล้ว +20

      @@historymarshal2704 Quite fitting.

    • @lovaszaron3138
      @lovaszaron3138 4 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@archierockford1490 Yes. It is.

    • @stalavosvergrimm9664
      @stalavosvergrimm9664 4 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      DEFCON 2:
      Rome has entered the chat

  • @MxAmericanPi
    @MxAmericanPi 5 ปีที่แล้ว +7603

    "Oh a new video from Polygon! I wonder what light-hearted video game humor Clayton has in store for me today!"
    *six minutes later*
    "oh."

    • @merezko4339
      @merezko4339 5 ปีที่แล้ว +31

      Oh No ...

    • @PuddleOfCats
      @PuddleOfCats 5 ปีที่แล้ว +30

      Life and how quickly we can die itself its humor

    • @mandernachluca3774
      @mandernachluca3774 5 ปีที่แล้ว +13

      Don't be to terrified tho, the game lacks geopolitical interactions, therefor it is as from reality as Fallout 4 for example.
      What they miss completely is the fact that eradicating a whole country by irradiating it completely is not an option for a war, as you always try to gain land, resources, food stock, to gain in power on the way.
      After we saw the effects of radiation ont the japanese population, nuclear weapons got a mere tool of fear, nothing more.
      One has note, that i come to this conclusion, because i know that russia and america for example have nuclear weapon technology, that is virtually unstoppable, i am talking about missiles that travel at multiple times the speed of sound for days or even weeks, releasing radioactive material in the process.

    • @kalebpinkston3495
      @kalebpinkston3495 5 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      Mandernach Luca that’s one thing I’ve noticed when people talk about nuclear Armageddon, they always leave out resources. Makes sense why the 2nd launcher would shoot, but the 1st launcher? What would they have to gain other than mutual destruction? And even if they could get away with “minimal “ damage, what then? You can’t conquer the area you nuked.not saying a nuclear war couldn’t happen but there’s a lot of questions I pose that no one cares to ask or answer other than, “cuz it’s inevitable”.well why is it? What could they gain?at the end of the day all countries want 2 things.1 self preservation 2 to conquer, dictate, or gain any sense of control for resources to benefit themselves.

    • @jwadaow
      @jwadaow 5 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      Kaleb Pinkston if you lost territory to an enemy then there is a point at which it becomes rational to attack them with nuclear weapons. That is the application of mutually assured destruction policy to conventional warfare and geopolitics. The storming of west Germany was expected to unfold that way.

  • @GlitchedBlox
    @GlitchedBlox 3 ปีที่แล้ว +14718

    "You see that city?"
    "Yes, sir."
    "I don't want to."
    "Yes, sir!"

    • @aureusknighstar2195
      @aureusknighstar2195 3 ปีที่แล้ว +213

      "Tachibana-san, why aren't we living?"

    • @JavaScrapper
      @JavaScrapper 3 ปีที่แล้ว +96

      @@aureusknighstar2195 cause
      MURICA FRICK YA

    • @leexcite2903
      @leexcite2903 3 ปีที่แล้ว +170

      **proceeds to make him blind**

    • @aninditapaul9291
      @aninditapaul9291 3 ปีที่แล้ว +72

      @@leexcite2903 **by making him see the nuclear blast on the city**

    • @ennieminymoo6675
      @ennieminymoo6675 3 ปีที่แล้ว +43

      @@aninditapaul9291 *and then stabbing him in the eyes just in case*

  • @xeanderman6688
    @xeanderman6688 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +82

    You know what the worst part about DEFCON is?
    When the game ends and you're shown the scoreboard. There is no fanfare, there is no "You win!". There's just... Silence. There's just you, being shown what you have done

  • @somedude8468
    @somedude8468 3 ปีที่แล้ว +5346

    "Yo 1v1 me"
    Cold war in a nutshell

    • @aekgir4698
      @aekgir4698 3 ปีที่แล้ว +20

      lmao

    • @Daniel_Lancelin
      @Daniel_Lancelin 3 ปีที่แล้ว +145

      It's more like if the two players with the highest scores on each team suddenly went spectator mode and started placing bets while their teams fought it out.

    • @gabbyn.3049
      @gabbyn.3049 3 ปีที่แล้ว +48

      @@Daniel_Lancelin No, its the tension of the two smartest kids in class waiting for the teacher to finish their question.

    • @muchotexto4248
      @muchotexto4248 3 ปีที่แล้ว +20

      Cold war is the typical hero VS evil villain lord but both sides are just villain lords. Like instead of the hero with the sword is just a blue version of the enemy dude and they both send pawns to do biddings and said pawns mirror match as noone moves foward cuz both sides are just lords sitting on differently coloured thrones

    • @MrBlack75922
      @MrBlack75922 3 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      Both just camping and hard scoping

  • @grandhierophantkhatep685
    @grandhierophantkhatep685 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1977

    Polygon:”which castlevania monster is sexiest”
    Also Polygon:”nuclear war”

  • @kiri4186
    @kiri4186 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2915

    "Somebody has to win" scares me.

    • @domersftw1503
      @domersftw1503 4 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      100th like

    • @Woodledude
      @Woodledude 4 ปีที่แล้ว +74

      What does winning mean when there's so little left?
      I wonder if they'll care. Because the only alternative is losing. Right?

    • @nothingbutlove4886
      @nothingbutlove4886 4 ปีที่แล้ว +18

      @@jh9981 Because that is the mentality of countries but in this scenario nobody wins

    • @ArchTazer
      @ArchTazer 4 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@Woodledude I imagine the situation as a situation you shouldn't really think about. If a country would attack you, you have to strike back and everyone loses. period. However, if you think about it, if the enemy already launched the missiles, you can't. Someone has to live, even if it means you don't.

    • @GunShocka
      @GunShocka 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Sombody has to win....but no one is willing to give up

  • @liminalmessaging
    @liminalmessaging 2 ปีที่แล้ว +519

    I was playing a round of Survivor mode (which is honestly the best way to play it, especially if you also do it in real time) and I felt real fear and panic as enemy nukes rained down on my territory while my missile defenses tried in vain to stop them. Seeing such enormous death counts in cities I know and have seen in person... it gave me this sinking feeling I can't quite describe. I kept all of my silos in defense mode while everyone else fired their nukes, scrambled every fighter I had to defend the mainland, prevented EVERY sub my enemy had from firing, and yet still I ended up losing about half of my population. Once I knew the other side was dry, I remember thinking, "Well... You asked for it," before targeting every city they had with every warhead in my arsenal. I ended up "winning" that round by a LOT, but it didn't even feel like victory. Like he said in the video, everybody loses.

    • @commandertoastcz6256
      @commandertoastcz6256 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +39

      This is what I was searching for. The fact that you can defend all you want, try to prevent casualties as much as possible, but in the end... it isn't a victory. Just a slightly lesser defeat.

    • @thiccchungo1041
      @thiccchungo1041 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +45

      @@commandertoastcz6256also shows how pathetically petty the retaliatory strike is, even though the enemy’s missile systems have been exhausted and their aircraft and fleets destroyed by your forces, you still end up launching an attack on the defenseless civilian centers for no other reason than “you had it coming”

    • @DarthHoosier3038
      @DarthHoosier3038 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +14

      It reminds me of Avengers Endgame. At the start of the movie, Thanos still won. They killed him, sure. But that didn’t solve anything. Everyone they knew still died. It’s hard to even call it a Pyrrhic Victory. Even Pyrrhus of Epirus would have been deadened and sick by that reality.

    • @derederekat9051
      @derederekat9051 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@thiccchungo1041 what more are you supposed to do? let their infrastructure and population intact so they can invade you 20-30 years later when you are barely rebuilding from the ruins and your young military-ready population is much smaller? nah, let them experience some good radiation rains for a couple of years and deformed babies for generations.

    • @MntDewEyes
      @MntDewEyes 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +15

      IRL refusing to launch your weapons would stop a full escalation because no other country would commit fully knowing that you still had strike capability which is why MAD works. No one wants to start a strike because waiting is the more beneficial move to make
      So knowing that you should wait for your enemy to launch and knowing that neither side will win if there is a launch is what brought all the nuclear powers to the negotiating table and cool off tensions

  • @sirdurtle9519
    @sirdurtle9519 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1495

    0:50 Actually, DEFCON 1 is like every finger and usable appendage mashing as many big red buttons as possible

    • @kathrynb.kavanagh2621
      @kathrynb.kavanagh2621 4 ปีที่แล้ว +165

      *bodyslams the nuke table*

    • @horrorbeyondhumancomprehension
      @horrorbeyondhumancomprehension 3 ปีที่แล้ว +61

      @@kathrynb.kavanagh2621 GIBBEH
      OOF

    • @stoicbubble5755
      @stoicbubble5755 3 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      No it’s actually having 100’s of robots at high speed pressing 100’s of buttons per second for each robot

    • @fnutarf2085
      @fnutarf2085 3 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      paniiiik!!! mode activated

    • @bluewardog
      @bluewardog 3 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Yeah DEFCON 1 is nuclear war. 2 is nuclear war is imminent

  • @SgtCrossHeals
    @SgtCrossHeals 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3943

    "That is what forgiveness sounds like: screaming and then silence."
    -A llama, probably

    • @wooblydooblygod3857
      @wooblydooblygod3857 4 ปีที่แล้ว +99

      CAAAAAAAARL

    • @SteamCase
      @SteamCase 4 ปีที่แล้ว +88

      CAAAARRRLLL, why did you point all of Russia's nukes at the U.S.?

    • @ValcronGaming
      @ValcronGaming 3 ปีที่แล้ว +29

      @lumpyheadgames Hey, I said I was going green didn’t I. I wanted to help the environment.

    • @konradsmith7904
      @konradsmith7904 3 ปีที่แล้ว +15

      Carl, why did you start WW3?

    • @paulbeardsley4095
      @paulbeardsley4095 3 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      Reading the Carl comments, I can actually hear his voice.

  • @cmd31220
    @cmd31220 3 ปีที่แล้ว +4480

    I love Defcon. The thing that shocked me the most about the AI in the game is that if you try to play "realistically", where the goal is hitting military targets instead of just taking out major cities, you get completely destroyed almost every time. It's like they purposefully designed the game to say "no, a nuclear war can only be won through mass murder.....so don't freaking do it"

    • @atigerclaw
      @atigerclaw 3 ปีที่แล้ว +117

      Hitting cities _is_ realistic in nuclear war. Industrialized warfare is dependent on manpower and production. You hit cities, you destroy factories, obliterate shipyards, kill off skilled workers, and their families... You're not just winning a war by defeating the enemy's existing forces and driving them back. You're destroying a population's ability to even _participate_ in anything even remotely approaching industrialized warfare for *generations*. Escalating to DEFCON 1 is All or Nothing. If you don't have the gumption to take a deep breath, and push the button, and make the opposition pay in equal blood to what they just launched on you,? Then you die. And nobody will be around to care since the only thing you're really doing is that the other guy is just as crippled as to have to spend just as much time as you to rebuild society.
      It's PURE retaliation logic. And it helps manage MAD by the concept that even if we know we're going to die, we're vindictive enough to take the other side with us.
      DEFCON operates on the simple assumption that for whatever reason, MAD has broken down, nations are on the edge, and the time for 'limited' warfare has passed you like a Porsche going the other way.
      It IS possible to actually... WIN a game of DEFCON. When I say win, I MEAN win. No losses of population. I've done it precisely once. It required some pretty fine-tuned management of your silos swapping from ABM and Silo mode and a little bit of praying to RNGeezus that the enemy nations distributed their ICBM launches juuuuuust right.

    • @ShawnJonesHellion
      @ShawnJonesHellion 3 ปีที่แล้ว +53

      why mass murder the ai if the point of the game is seeing they have been attacking you all along an you are their god

    • @garygrant91
      @garygrant91 3 ปีที่แล้ว +314

      Realistically, limiting targeting to only military assets could only work if you made a preemptive strike during DEFCON 5 or 4 on New Year's Eve when everyone is drunk. You might have some success at DEFCON 3 but you are still going to be hurt bad. At DEFCON 2 or 1 you will be hitting empty silos (their counter strike will be in the air, headed towards you) or conventional units which pose no threat to you. All that assumes that you launch first.
      If you are reacting to their launch, your only choice is to do nothing in the hopes that they survive or you can ensure that they burn with you.

    • @John_winston
      @John_winston 3 ปีที่แล้ว +39

      @@atigerclaw The winning with population intact sounds very interesting,is there any video or step to step to do it ?

    • @atigerclaw
      @atigerclaw 3 ปีที่แล้ว +145

      @@jamesbrendan5170
      There isn't. Like I said, I did it precisely once and I'm pretty sure I couldn't duplicate it on demand because it requires both crazy-good handling of when and where you switch your silos, and a good chunk of RNGeezus. Who shoots at who at what time and how much so as not to overwhelm your defenses. I'd think of it more like winning a card game. There's skill involved, but it comes down to what you're dealt.

  • @Goraata
    @Goraata ปีที่แล้ว +555

    “The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.” - Carl Sagan

    • @Cacowninja
      @Cacowninja 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      Yeah it's a crappy policy that doesn't really keep people safe.
      It just creates more instability.

    • @PATISLAV
      @PATISLAV 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +15

      And not having nuclear weapons now is like standing there with them, with no matches. You just watch what happens.

    • @elrusito5034
      @elrusito5034 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      ​@@PATISLAVthis made me think a bit.
      Because, sure, big manchildren with nukes have the matches and everyone is drenched in gas, what is the better position? Be powerless to their whims, and pray nothing happens? Or have matches of your own and take up space in the constant taunts and mocking to strike?
      Made me think of NK, and how their constant missile tests could be more of a "we are here, leave us alone" ploy, instead of a crazy threat to end the world.

    • @JohnDoe-wt9ek
      @JohnDoe-wt9ek 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      And yet, surprisingly, neither dropped their matches...

    • @Datan0de
      @Datan0de 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@@CacowninjaMAD kept the world from descending into nuclear war for 50 years. It's not ideal or comforting, and the number of times it all almost ended because of hardware or software glitches is enough to ensure you never sleep again, but it worked.
      The problem is that the more people have matches (to continue the metaphor), the greater the likelihood that one of them WON'T be a rational actor, or will have a "glitch". A world with 9 nuclear powers is far less safe than a world with only 2, and that's really saying something.

  • @Jellomancy
    @Jellomancy 5 ปีที่แล้ว +5736

    Polygon, my source for goofy video game articles and existential dread.

    • @spore4ever91
      @spore4ever91 5 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      I mean, they had Monster Factory.

    • @mountplusBladeequals
      @mountplusBladeequals 5 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      If they think DEFCON is spooky (it isn't), they should give Superpower 2 a whirl. [th-cam.com/video/HykWHkMtAzU/w-d-xo.html]
      Nothing quite like watching millions of your people die, and your economy crash because of a political blunder.

    • @mountplusBladeequals
      @mountplusBladeequals 5 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Also - can we stop peddling this "everybody dies" notion, it's making out politicians sloppy and it's just an inaccurate statement. Not even "most people" would die in the event of modern nuclear exchange. Nuclear warheads aren't all that powerful, and people are spread out - killing them, even with nukes, takes 'a lot' of work.
      China's arsenal for instance is so wimpy that it is mathematically incapable of killing a quarter of the US' populace.

    • @travisraveller
      @travisraveller 5 ปีที่แล้ว +29

      @@mountplusBladeequals but, there is the radiation poisoning, and the fact no life will be able to sustain itself for years, and the fact that most nuclear bomb shelters have been left unattended after the cold war, and that the survivors will die of cancer from the nuclear fallout in the atmosphere...
      ...
      Am I missing anything?
      Not everyone will die, but it will suck for the survivors, not to mention the survivor's guilt and the weakened governments
      I hope we can agree that we should never have a nuclear war

    • @co2mx
      @co2mx 5 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I'm glad how they didn't launched a single bomb in the Philippines.

  • @counter-terrordoge3335
    @counter-terrordoge3335 5 ปีที่แล้ว +8259

    *When you play DEFCON on an Area 51 computer and walk outsde*

    • @justinbiggs1005
      @justinbiggs1005 5 ปีที่แล้ว +195

      I guess there's only 5 days left till we get Nuclear Armageddon. Lmao

    • @JB-bd2th
      @JB-bd2th 5 ปีที่แล้ว +50

      Underrated comment😂😂

    • @benchmarking6875
      @benchmarking6875 5 ปีที่แล้ว +17

      Oh no

    • @counter-terrordoge3335
      @counter-terrordoge3335 5 ปีที่แล้ว +28

      Well we ain’t f*ckin dead yet so...

    • @seb3522
      @seb3522 5 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      There is no outside

  • @redhen2470
    @redhen2470 3 ปีที่แล้ว +3944

    "Peace is our Profession."
    "War is just a hobby"
    Strategic Air Command

    • @alexeyrodiontsev4978
      @alexeyrodiontsev4978 3 ปีที่แล้ว +157

      "After us - silence".
      © Strategic Missile Forces

    • @akhaaneb9710
      @akhaaneb9710 3 ปีที่แล้ว +69

      @@alexeyrodiontsev4978 well that's so much darker

    • @octo1894
      @octo1894 3 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      I agree; more countries need to make nukes to enforce the peace against a certain belligerent going around bombing, invading and spreading coups

    • @ThatSlovakGuy
      @ThatSlovakGuy 3 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      Hotel is Trivago

    • @Pabloto-dq3sx
      @Pabloto-dq3sx 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @Panzerkampfwagen VI ...deez

  • @misiekfid
    @misiekfid 2 ปีที่แล้ว +406

    Another terrifying version of a nuclear war is the thermonuclear war event in the TNO mod for Hearts of Iron IV. The event shows children playing, an EAS alarm, destroyed buildings and a child's black outline on a wall (like in hiroshima and nagasaki) while the entire world slowly turns black

    • @MaliciousIntent327
      @MaliciousIntent327 ปีที่แล้ว +28

      Not to mention your UIs are shattered and reduced to rubble.

    • @MaliciousIntent327
      @MaliciousIntent327 ปีที่แล้ว +23

      And it shows as "Anarchy" when clicking a state.

    • @jaredjosephsongheng372
      @jaredjosephsongheng372 ปีที่แล้ว +27

      ​@@MaliciousIntent327
      And also there is a bloody note on the side that says.
      "All Gone"

  • @charlieshaw1512
    @charlieshaw1512 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3345

    i love how Australia is just in the corner like *everything is fine*

    • @theslenderfox
      @theslenderfox 4 ปีที่แล้ว +120

      Everybody forgets Australia

    • @Ropetrick6
      @Ropetrick6 4 ปีที่แล้ว +114

      @@theslenderfox Eh, the starvation will get them if the natural disasters and wildlife don' t get them first

    • @TheGPR101
      @TheGPR101 4 ปีที่แล้ว +23

      en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beach_(novel)

    • @Ropetrick6
      @Ropetrick6 4 ปีที่แล้ว +26

      @UCXidC8Cir-T8RRKheZ0CeHA I was talking about in case of a nuclear winter, but I can understand where the confusion comes from. Outside of a nuclear winter, you are entirely correct.

    • @revelaitons3959
      @revelaitons3959 4 ปีที่แล้ว +34

      "So now we've got nuclear winter. Everyone's dead 'cept Australia and they're still like "WTF? ^^" But they'll be dead soon... F*ckin kangaroos..."

  • @V1kN1k
    @V1kN1k 4 ปีที่แล้ว +22682

    Plague inc: who are you
    Defcon: I'm you but scarier
    *this has seriously not aged well*

    • @Zeus-ud2jl
      @Zeus-ud2jl 4 ปีที่แล้ว +767

      They're both pretty scary

    • @Shadow_Witch
      @Shadow_Witch 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2602

      @@Zeus-ud2jl I mean, Plague Inc isn't scary after you get the message ''JOE MAMA killed over 5 million people'''

    • @killerfishe5092
      @killerfishe5092 4 ปีที่แล้ว +347

      @@Zeus-ud2jl yeah but plauge inc is more abstract

    • @Zeus-ud2jl
      @Zeus-ud2jl 4 ปีที่แล้ว +374

      @@Shadow_Witch lol yea but the atmosphere it gives and the noises it makes and you think this could happen

    • @Zeus-ud2jl
      @Zeus-ud2jl 4 ปีที่แล้ว +95

      @@killerfishe5092 still spooks me think it could happen

  • @crazywind3214
    @crazywind3214 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2213

    Plague inc: I fear no man, but that thing
    *DEFCON*
    plague inc: *it scares me*

    • @MediHusky
      @MediHusky 3 ปีที่แล้ว +33

      *stares at madagascar in a cold sweat* Yea that's what I'm scared of.

    • @ImKevax
      @ImKevax 3 ปีที่แล้ว +40

      In plague inc, the humanity dies by a sickness
      In DEFECON, the humanity dies by a war

    • @Cusi48
      @Cusi48 3 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      Defecon

    • @aegeanharrier6648
      @aegeanharrier6648 3 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      @@ImKevax At least sickness dies alongside us in defcon. A nucler explosion is like sun on earth. I doubt anything survives that heat

    • @stiflash
      @stiflash 3 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      @@ImKevax *In DEFCON, humanity dies by it's own hand
      FTFY

  • @kommiekoathanger1418
    @kommiekoathanger1418 2 ปีที่แล้ว +134

    I think the scariest part of this game is that god damn sound design, seriously just hearing that snippet of the audio sent fucking chills down my spine

  • @TheBurg229
    @TheBurg229 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1675

    Worldwide delivery in 30 minutes or less, or your next one is free!

  • @Nawrotsien
    @Nawrotsien 3 ปีที่แล้ว +5849

    Abraham Lincoln talking about scary game doesn't exist, he can't hurt you
    Abraham Lincoln talking about scary game:

    • @woda9291
      @woda9291 3 ปีที่แล้ว +34

      Underated comment

    • @andrewdiaz3529
      @andrewdiaz3529 3 ปีที่แล้ว +13

      Far Cry 5

    • @scparker6893
      @scparker6893 3 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      He has a moustache

    • @daman7805
      @daman7805 3 ปีที่แล้ว +15

      Omg I didn’t understand this comment until like 10 seconds in. Then I fell over and died.

    • @sleepyrowdy1826
      @sleepyrowdy1826 3 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@andrewdiaz3529 Joseph or John?

  • @Tobascodagama
    @Tobascodagama 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1102

    The subtle coughing and crying in the soundtrack is just so unbelievably perfect.

    • @clanofclams2720
      @clanofclams2720 5 ปีที่แล้ว +17

      ...isn't that plague Inc?

    • @screaming_ghoul
      @screaming_ghoul 5 ปีที่แล้ว +40

      @@clanofclams2720 in the video it talks about coughing and crying in the soundtrack.

    • @clanofclams2720
      @clanofclams2720 5 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@screaming_ghoul no it dudn't

    • @screaming_ghoul
      @screaming_ghoul 5 ปีที่แล้ว +34

      @@clanofclams2720 2:46 yes it did? here, he talks about.

    • @clanofclams2720
      @clanofclams2720 5 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@screaming_ghoul nah, he dudn't

  • @juksleo6257
    @juksleo6257 2 ปีที่แล้ว +65

    "People die when they are killed"
    Its a line from Fate Stay Night that got memed to oblivion due to how redundant it was but I think it bears a strong idea on just how valuable a life truly is. You can't "undo" a death. Once its gone, it doesn't come back. This is why its important to value life. Yours and those around you, so even if you don't have much to be grateful for, you can at least tale contempt on the fact that you are alive, and that many others are also alive. Cherish that thought, and try to live making the most of it

    • @APerson-ni1gb
      @APerson-ni1gb 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Yeah but then your just afraid of death it sounds, besides some people/animals have comeback from death technically and some explain what they experienced, since Every thing in this silly Universe ultimately dies it should be a comforting notion - like it’s a milestone

  • @ottovonweaboo6355
    @ottovonweaboo6355 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1200

    This whole concept is so damn scary.... reminds me of the Russian strategic missile forces moto
    ¨ _After us... silence_ ¨

    • @PhillyBoyBcn
      @PhillyBoyBcn 4 ปีที่แล้ว +75

      OttoVonWeaboo how about Putin’s very frank declaration that “Why would we [Russians] need a world if there’s no more Russia in it?”

    • @Psydvckthefirst
      @Psydvckthefirst 4 ปีที่แล้ว +48

      @@PhillyBoyBcn Well from Russian point of view it's pretty clear lol. Why would Russians need the world without home?

    • @admiralprince7925
      @admiralprince7925 4 ปีที่แล้ว +30

      Welcome to reality
      The scariest game to date

    • @magpineapple
      @magpineapple 4 ปีที่แล้ว +20

      a bunch of creatures with sentience grouping together, ending millions of lives for the feeling of power

    • @Sidewinder627
      @Sidewinder627 4 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      OttoVonWeaboo Woah, strong motto that one

  • @mikemar2002
    @mikemar2002 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1251

    I used to play this years ago as a kid, I had no idea scientists did studies on it that's dope

    • @El_Presidente_5337
      @El_Presidente_5337 5 ปีที่แล้ว +25

      As a kid? How old is the game?

    • @mikemar2002
      @mikemar2002 5 ปีที่แล้ว +81

      @@El_Presidente_5337 it came out in 06

    • @El_Presidente_5337
      @El_Presidente_5337 5 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      @@mikemar2002 O . O

    • @kurdonthego
      @kurdonthego 5 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Where do I get this?

    • @KingMoronProductions
      @KingMoronProductions 5 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      @@kurdonthego Steam! Great developer too, check out their other projects ^-^

  • @texan_commando
    @texan_commando 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2704

    "The things that's more terrifying than someone who wants to win, is someone who doesn't want to lose..."

    • @monad_tcp
      @monad_tcp 3 ปีที่แล้ว +56

      the only ever 2 bombs used was for that reason, its really terrifying. how you fight something who is not afraid of dying, they will never lose. it was really useful we had a thing to really put fear in their hearths (and it took 2, when only one should have sufficed, that level of not wanting to lose...).
      I would totally chose that option if I were in the same place, who wouldn't ? two splashes and it ended the war.
      people like to talk about the cost of lives, but with that enemy, nothing would stop it, that probably saved more lives than the never-ending thousand year war.
      The other option would be surrender, good luck with that, the imperator would just kill you, because of their moral code that punish deserters, and you deserted your country (an enemy of the enemy is not an ally), so you must die too , not to mention horrific things that would make literal hitler puke.

    • @brian14021994
      @brian14021994 3 ปีที่แล้ว +90

      @@monad_tcp if they didn't use nuclear weapons, the war in Japan would've extended by a few years, but the outcome would've been the same. Some argue that if they killed the god-emperor of Japan, they would've surrendered. Either way, nuking 2 cities like that, killing over 200k citizens...it's unforgiveable.

    • @duncanmcgee13
      @duncanmcgee13 3 ปีที่แล้ว +39

      @@brian14021994 so youd rather them invade and risk killing millions more than the nukes would have?

    • @coregontrail3481
      @coregontrail3481 3 ปีที่แล้ว +126

      What’s more terrifying than someone who doesn’t want to lose, is someone who doesn’t care if they do, as long as you don’t win.

    • @duncanmcgee13
      @duncanmcgee13 3 ปีที่แล้ว +18

      @@coregontrail3481 and thats why N.Korea having nukes has the world on edge

  • @Thesnakerox
    @Thesnakerox 2 ปีที่แล้ว +62

    One thing about this game that's masterfully done is the way the overall atmosphere slowly, subtly deteriorates as the death count rises. The screen gets darker and the soundscape becomes more desolate, and you don't consciously notice, but it has a powerful effect all the same.

  • @curiousteddie
    @curiousteddie 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1829

    Polygon: come for the funny stuff and stay for the existential dread! I guess I've got a new game on my list now

    • @shinluis
      @shinluis 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      same

    • @josephray459
      @josephray459 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      What can you play it on?

    • @redumulis2448
      @redumulis2448 5 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Oh, and body horror. Lots of body horror.

    • @shinluis
      @shinluis 5 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@josephray459 it's on steam! :)

    • @zackfreeland6420
      @zackfreeland6420 5 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      It’s free on steam, calls it the demo but it’s really not

  • @bismarckfamily277
    @bismarckfamily277 3 ปีที่แล้ว +4101

    I've counted every single nuke in defcon
    I think they're only around 650
    The world has more than 12.000 nukes

    • @finnlikesplanes7110
      @finnlikesplanes7110 3 ปีที่แล้ว +199

      uh oh

    • @havvayokus3200
      @havvayokus3200 3 ปีที่แล้ว +303

      the game is about cold war so ICBM's came out new in the cold war era

    • @carlredfield1693
      @carlredfield1693 3 ปีที่แล้ว +35

      12?

    • @MalikCarr
      @MalikCarr 3 ปีที่แล้ว +100

      The huge numbers - and it's far reduced from the height of the Cold War in the 80s - was a calculus between NATO and the Soviets that if the other side launched a pre-emptive strike most of the nuclear arsenal would be destroyed on the ground before it could launch. Therefore, even assuming you've lost the vast majority of your own nuclear weapons, you'd still theoretically have enough left to retaliate and destroy whoever attacked you. This acts as a deterrent against the other side launching that pre-emptive strike in the first place. Since no nuclear wars have started since, the theory works.

    • @specialoperationsunitalpha9737
      @specialoperationsunitalpha9737 3 ปีที่แล้ว +19

      Still enough to cause nuclear winter

  • @declanvanarkel9094
    @declanvanarkel9094 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1960

    Safe to see that us Australians are safe from total nuclear annihilation

    • @XxExCaLiBuRrXx
      @XxExCaLiBuRrXx 5 ปีที่แล้ว +437

      Declan Van Arkel they left you guys out because you already got terrifying animals that’s worse than even the nukes

    • @qas2644
      @qas2644 5 ปีที่แล้ว +103

      Come on your country loses to your own national animals....pretty sure you're no threat to the world yet lol(this a joke btw)

    • @declanvanarkel9094
      @declanvanarkel9094 5 ปีที่แล้ว +28

      Omega Storm ahaha I can’t argue with you there

    • @bigberther7368
      @bigberther7368 5 ปีที่แล้ว +19

      Incoming fallout for us Aussies.

    • @adisappointedfbiagent449
      @adisappointedfbiagent449 5 ปีที่แล้ว +63

      That's because the nukes just go to space rather then hit Australia because everything is upside-down.

  • @SeigeGoat
    @SeigeGoat 2 ปีที่แล้ว +95

    As a RTS player this is terrifying (BECAUSE YOU CAN'T COLLECT RESOURCES :( )

  • @donniemontoya9300
    @donniemontoya9300 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1283

    I remember the first time I played Defcon, I was so taken back by the messages when cities are destroyed. The first time I saw the score read "4.5 MILLION DEAD" and I instantly knew those were all civilian deaths, it put a knot in my stomach I wasn't prepared for at all.

    • @AdrianRO1918
      @AdrianRO1918 3 ปีที่แล้ว +69

      what were you expecting

    • @teletubiewithashotgun113
      @teletubiewithashotgun113 3 ปีที่แล้ว +19

      Remember

    • @teletubiewithashotgun113
      @teletubiewithashotgun113 3 ปีที่แล้ว +30

      No russian

    • @Lancor84
      @Lancor84 3 ปีที่แล้ว +17

      huh, I'm born 84 and for me watching the Simpsons episode with the nuclear plant meltdown at 8 years old was enough to already know how nuclear weapons would affect war. You must have grown up in a sweet bubble.

    • @boooster101
      @boooster101 3 ปีที่แล้ว +27

      Meanwhile I went through a Stellaris gameplay first enslaving and then genociding about three dozen races

  • @CommanderTornado
    @CommanderTornado 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2178

    This game is scary for the same reason the nuke cutscene in MW1 was so emotional and why people find The SCP Foundation so compelling. It's clinical, detached, and absolutely heartless. It describes complete evil in a way that makes it seem like one entry in a gigantic spreadsheet of genocidal tragedies and horrors. The implied existence of that list is what horrifies people so much.
    In MW1, your character died alongside an entire city's worth of civilians, whose deaths went unremarked upon. The Foundation in SCP lore commonly does things so completely detached from morality and ethics on a daily basis that seeing this in one article among literal thousands tells you that there could be (and is) far worse somewhere in that huge list of articles. DEFCON reduces millions to statistics, and shows them to you with a small and manageable number of digits. Millions compressed into megadeaths, billions into the low tens and hundreds of megadeaths.
    Excellent video for an excellent game.

    • @ecardenas814
      @ecardenas814 4 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      You just wrote a whole essay in a comment

    • @mrringneckbirb3556
      @mrringneckbirb3556 4 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      The SCP foundation focuses on mainly containing anomolies

    • @crapposter8201
      @crapposter8201 4 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      @@cibo889 The Foundation's purpose in SCPverse is to preserve normalcy, though, not to preserve humanity. If they have to choose between upkeeping the Veil by killing all slightly-changed-by-anomalous-stuff humans and replacing them with normal human clones or not doing that, they'd choose former.

    • @dankmemerino1473
      @dankmemerino1473 4 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      *executes 110-Montauk

    • @ashadeofblue6815
      @ashadeofblue6815 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@dankmemerino1473 the process of reading a history to a lady while making it sound incredible scary to others?

  • @brockmckelvey7327
    @brockmckelvey7327 5 ปีที่แล้ว +701

    Oh, a new Polygon video! I'll watch it on my lunch break.
    ...Hey boss, I'm gonna take the rest of the day off due to existential dread

  • @You_already_know937
    @You_already_know937 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +38

    The unfortunate thing is you were wrong about one thing. In the beginning you described DEFCON 1 as your finger hovering over the big red button. In truth, thats DEFCON 2. At DEFCON 1, the button has been pressed.

    • @Feshdan
      @Feshdan 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      @You_already_know937, that's why strategic air command has only moved into DEFCON 2 once if I'm not mistaken

  • @XenonPrimeSBSV
    @XenonPrimeSBSV 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1763

    Maybe playing DEFCON should be mandatory for politicians, just to hammer home the futility of nuclear warfare.

    • @silverish9081
      @silverish9081 5 ปีที่แล้ว +281

      Considering how a lot of politicians are likely to be actual psychopaths, I don't think it will help much.

    • @ollycoyote
      @ollycoyote 5 ปีที่แล้ว +198

      You act as if politicians care about people

    • @pbonfanti
      @pbonfanti 5 ปีที่แล้ว +33

      Will not make any difference or they would not be politicians themselves.

    • @papabear6431
      @papabear6431 5 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      I mean they probably know, and if they dont know about the consequences, 😂😂well we call them kim jong un

    • @tristantriton8115
      @tristantriton8115 5 ปีที่แล้ว +13

      why play this game if they can slowly perform it in real life?

  • @powerfulberry237
    @powerfulberry237 5 ปีที่แล้ว +7581

    " *DEFCON* stands for *Def* ense, Readiness and *Con* dition."
    Readiness: "Am I a joke to you"

    • @DTSephiroth
      @DTSephiroth 5 ปีที่แล้ว +803

      Yes... Readiness is always the joke... Because nobody is ready for the end of the world.

    • @huntexlee
      @huntexlee 5 ปีที่แล้ว +173

      @@DTSephiroth deep

    • @米空軍パイロット
      @米空軍パイロット 5 ปีที่แล้ว +95

      Because we don't want to say DEFRECON. That doesn't roll off the tongue as well

    • @vgman94
      @vgman94 5 ปีที่แล้ว +108

      米空軍パイロット We all prefer to use DECEPTICON instead.

    • @equintrinity8678
      @equintrinity8678 5 ปีที่แล้ว +106

      It should be *DREADCON* *D* efense *Read* iness *Con* dition

  • @nick8670
    @nick8670 5 ปีที่แล้ว +4566

    this is kinda like plegue inc. but nukes

    • @SuperHperTube
      @SuperHperTube 5 ปีที่แล้ว +138

      Plague*

    • @ravtail2781
      @ravtail2781 5 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      Exactly

    • @Saint_Wolf_
      @Saint_Wolf_ 5 ปีที่แล้ว +181

      In Plague Inc there's no fight, and you're just a bacteria trying to follow the circle of life but here it's actual humans cassuing mass deaths of one another through vaporizing each other's flesh

    • @jj.jayjay.
      @jj.jayjay. 5 ปีที่แล้ว +43

      @@Saint_Wolf_ Plague Inc Is Also Mass Human deaths If You win You Kill Every Single Human

    • @Saint_Wolf_
      @Saint_Wolf_ 5 ปีที่แล้ว +36

      @@jj.jayjay. Sure but in terms of how things work, one is just a bacteria/virus, here's the progress of technology halting itself through its own makers.

  • @mattsgrungy
    @mattsgrungy 2 ปีที่แล้ว +57

    Out of interest: did you ever play the diplomacy mode where all the players start as friends and allies and then scheme behind each other's back? That was my favourite way to play and it was probably the darkest existentially.

  • @highjumpstudios2384
    @highjumpstudios2384 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1122

    An interesting sound design choice would have been to have a pre determined “Base” where the player is located. You can’t see it, it might be close to a city, or maybe out in the countryside. But if a nuke lands close enough then you’ll hear it louder than the others.

    • @YexprilesteR
      @YexprilesteR 3 ปีที่แล้ว +48

      Scariest game +

    • @amistrophy
      @amistrophy 3 ปีที่แล้ว +46

      Would be cool to have it in Cheyenne mountain for the US, etc similarily for the RU and every other country having their irl counterpart be the base

    • @elliotclodfelter7792
      @elliotclodfelter7792 3 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      That would be pretty cool actually

    • @InvisiblerApple
      @InvisiblerApple 3 ปีที่แล้ว +61

      Imagine being removed and dealing with the abstract setup, then some bombs start sounding louder than others. You gradually piece together where you are, but it's already too late.

    • @MetaReplication
      @MetaReplication 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      That is honestly an amazing idea.

  • @milutinke
    @milutinke 5 ปีที่แล้ว +577

    Did you know what is the motto of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces ?
    "After us - silence"

    • @slavicboi425
      @slavicboi425 5 ปีที่แล้ว +41

      Damn that scary

    • @milutinke
      @milutinke 5 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@slavicboi425 indeed

    • @thehotdogman9317
      @thehotdogman9317 5 ปีที่แล้ว +18

      Besides the ticking of some geiger counters...

    • @Novasky2007
      @Novasky2007 5 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      Everyone is too afraid to use them now. Luckily.

    • @thehotdogman9317
      @thehotdogman9317 5 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      @@Novasky2007 Will they still be afraid in the heat of WW3? When the side that's losing is about to crumble, will they still be afraid to push the button?

  • @Redawesomeoby
    @Redawesomeoby 4 ปีที่แล้ว +6440

    America: Defcon
    China: Plague inc
    Australia: Firewatch

  • @ebubeynj
    @ebubeynj 2 ปีที่แล้ว +23

    One other thing that ties this topic to Chernobyl is when the nuclear plant explodes the guy in charge does not believe that the core has been exposed. The podcast about the tv show explains that his reaction was because if the core of the nuclear plant had exploded that meant they were all dead. His natural survival instinct caused him to exclude that from the realm of possibility in his mind. Just like the people in the study who thought they would die. If it means certain death we think it is impossible to happen.

  • @falloutrains2641
    @falloutrains2641 3 ปีที่แล้ว +758

    When bombs hit cities or bases in your territory you can actually hear muffled nuclear explosions.

    • @TheMare1989
      @TheMare1989 3 ปีที่แล้ว +15

      Its been 6 months, Gerald. He's dead.

  • @Siptom369
    @Siptom369 4 ปีที่แล้ว +681

    Imagine if the new guy in NORAD accidentally switches DEFCON to 1 because he thinks that's safe mode.

    • @v44n7
      @v44n7 4 ปีที่แล้ว +52

      I am always curious If nuclear powers actually need to select their targets during a nuclear war or they are just stored data and to avoid wasting time they just aim to every single city in the world

    • @Viraqua
      @Viraqua 4 ปีที่แล้ว +41

      @@v44n7 The more likely scenario is they have tactical targeting abilities so they can fire one or more missiles in a counter retaliatory or preemptive strike, and predetermined scenarios to target military, industrial, infrastructure, and civilian assets based on which country they're going to war with and where/when/how hard to strike in a given wave, from limited to total release.
      So a destination bar with an optional drop down country menu.

    • @robinhood5627
      @robinhood5627 4 ปีที่แล้ว +22

      @@v44n7 Aside from submarine based missiles all land silos have pre determined primary and secondary targets pre programmed into the launch systems.
      Sub based are more fluid and reactionary missile system where the commander can very quickly give them new coordinates as needed. Even so sub commanders will also have predetermined targets in his deployment orders package.
      Generally targets for multiple nuclear hits will be ports, major industrial sites, and military sites. Secondary targets are large population centers such as cities and large towns.

    • @jameshealer1395
      @jameshealer1395 4 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      that is exactly why there are no new people in places like these

    • @haroldthaf
      @haroldthaf 3 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      It was Mike again?

  • @shaftoe195
    @shaftoe195 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2042

    Plague Inc: _What... what are you?*_
    DEFCON: _The end. _*_Of the world._*

    • @eco1969
      @eco1969 4 ปีที่แล้ว +92

      the plague just kills humans, defcon kills life itself

    • @TheWulf899
      @TheWulf899 3 ปีที่แล้ว +21

      Except Australia, we're fine down here

    • @CarlosRuiz20
      @CarlosRuiz20 3 ปีที่แล้ว +36

      @@TheWulf899 until nuclear winter begins...

    • @edwintrinidadperazacaraban4650
      @edwintrinidadperazacaraban4650 3 ปีที่แล้ว +21

      @@CarlosRuiz20 thats right if fallaout teach something: "if the bo,b dont kill you the secondary effects will do it"

    • @agente7202
      @agente7202 3 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Imagine if they make second game mode where you...yes you become the UN leader (United Nations) and prevent the world from killing itself
      *Dictator gamemode:Can you destroy the world?*
      *Humanity last hope gamemode: Can you save the world?*

  • @AdsAreRuiningEverything
    @AdsAreRuiningEverything 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1106

    This is what happens when you give power to a bunch of old people that only have 10 years of life left

    • @slimkid206
      @slimkid206 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      😂😂😂

    • @cameroni6785
      @cameroni6785 2 ปีที่แล้ว +69

      And no kids.

    • @see4881
      @see4881 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Damn

    • @robertknight2615
      @robertknight2615 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      Ur probably 14

    • @see4881
      @see4881 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@robertknight2615 AND YOUR PROBABLY Away down south in the land of traitors
      Rattlesnakes and alligators
      Right away (come away)
      Right away (right away)
      Come away
      Where cotton’s king and men are chattles
      Union boys will win the battles
      Right away (come away)
      Right away (right away)
      Come away
      We’ll all go down to dixie
      Away, away
      Each dixie boy must understand
      That he must mind his uncle sam
      Away, away
      We’ll all go down to dixie
      Away, away
      I wish I was in baltimore
      I’d make secession traitors roar right away
      Right away (come away)
      Right away (right away)
      Come away
      We'll put the traitors all to route
      I'll bet my boots we'll whip 'em out
      Right away (come away)
      Right away (right away)
      Come away
      We'll all go down to dixie
      Away, away
      Each dixie boy must understand
      That he must mind his uncle sam
      Away, away
      We'll all go down to dixie
      Away, away
      We'll all go down to dixie
      Away, away
      We'll all go down to dixie
      O may our stars and stripes
      Still wave forever roar the free and brave
      Right away (come away)
      Right away (right away)
      Come away
      And let our motto forever be for union and for liberty
      Right away (come away)
      Right away (right away)
      Come away
      We'll all go down to dixie
      Away, away
      Each dixie boy must understand
      That he must mind his uncle sam
      Away, away
      We'll all go down to dixie!
      Away, away
      We’ll all go down
      To dixie

  • @zolikoff
    @zolikoff 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1177

    - How tough am I? I played this game DEFCON.
    - Yeah so?
    - Without getting scared.
    - ... Right this way

    • @echo12345ish
      @echo12345ish 5 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      So does that mean that Sandy would be the first person to send off nukes?

    • @Thlormby
      @Thlormby 5 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      The game isn’t even that scary. It’s actually great. Polygon reporters are just overdramatic

    • @zolikoff
      @zolikoff 5 ปีที่แล้ว

      I mean actually it's not scary at all, I know.

    • @pouzivateljutube2995
      @pouzivateljutube2995 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      That's the point. The scarry thing is that the game isn't scarry.

    • @Thlormby
      @Thlormby 5 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Používaťeľ JUtUbe no, it’s not the point. It’s just a fun strategy game where you launch nuclear missiles at each other. Everyone tries way too hard to get internet points by being a pseudo intellectual.

  • @camelbob8568
    @camelbob8568 5 ปีที่แล้ว +911

    DEFCON is the most terrifying game I have ever played. Scarier than any "scary" game has ever been.

    • @vr8652
      @vr8652 5 ปีที่แล้ว +19

      What about Metal Gear 2? That one has the ending that still worries us today

    • @summer-wb2ps
      @summer-wb2ps 5 ปีที่แล้ว +29

      Minecraft story mode.

    • @Reynevan100
      @Reynevan100 5 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      @@vr8652 MGS 2 even predicted memes and meme culture! Scary o.O

    • @supermeowskers
      @supermeowskers 5 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Spec ops the line?

    • @manictiger
      @manictiger 5 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      I found it to be somewhat depressing. Like, I'm in a bunker, completely safe from this shitstorm, but...
      Look at what we've done! Look at how much we've destroyed! There won't be anything to "conquer". It'll all be gone!

  • @AnimatorNinja
    @AnimatorNinja 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1254

    this is why i like plague inc cause it's all-natural organic death

    • @maddiequestionmark
      @maddiequestionmark 5 ปีที่แล้ว +109

      3AMNinja homegrown

    • @CraftyTeo
      @CraftyTeo 5 ปีที่แล้ว +82

      non gmo- wait...

    • @taakotuesdays
      @taakotuesdays 5 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      are you okay

    • @bread1958
      @bread1958 5 ปีที่แล้ว +76

      It's still a death. It's still literally the worst possible scenario. Nature is not inherently good. Though as a game, plague inc can't make you lose faith in humanity like defcon can.

    • @davidelmkies6343
      @davidelmkies6343 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Can't tell if you're serious. I like plague inc. too, but it's maybe half as effective at making you feel things.

  • @The31stcenturyfox
    @The31stcenturyfox 2 ปีที่แล้ว +21

    Only once did I come close to victory in this game. I was North America playing against a human driven South America. I had gotten lucky and eliminated his fleets and subs, his silos and one of his four airforce bases with very little losses on my side. I was trying damn hard to find the other three when he had a launched a full coordinated bomber swarm against new york. I scrambled my jets, my interceptors work marvelously , but no it wasn't enough. First nuke hit. 8.4 million dead popped up another hit shortly followed. No other hits landed, but I felt like I lost, even then. I always played as a fiercely survival based player. Sink their fleets. Down their bombers and stop their nukes, before they launch. Yet it never was enough. I'd always get hit, millions died. I would mop up the rest of that players bases and cities... but nobody ever wins in a nuclear war.

  • @carlthetuber4615
    @carlthetuber4615 5 ปีที่แล้ว +509

    notice how Australia doesn't get hit once nor does it have warnings on it.

    • @cezariusus7595
      @cezariusus7595 4 ปีที่แล้ว +54

      *MATE*

    • @carlthetuber4615
      @carlthetuber4615 4 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      @Vermin Supreme yeah i guess

    • @dragonhearted7761
      @dragonhearted7761 4 ปีที่แล้ว +19

      @Vermin Supreme assuming we werent already a wasteland before

    • @davidj3841
      @davidj3841 4 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      Emus are ready bad enough, they don't want mutated ones

    • @Nicolai0Nerland
      @Nicolai0Nerland 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      WTF ^^

  • @quangdo4238
    @quangdo4238 4 ปีที่แล้ว +725

    "After us, silence"
    Unofficial motto of the Russian Strategic Rocket Force

    • @MyrMerek
      @MyrMerek 4 ปีที่แล้ว +77

      Its another one actually "If we fall asleep you do not wake up"

    • @MyrMerek
      @MyrMerek 4 ปีที่แล้ว +22

      Если мы уснем вы не проснетесь

    • @icarus1847
      @icarus1847 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@macanaeh Spot on, my friend.

  • @JimmyJohnJahames
    @JimmyJohnJahames ปีที่แล้ว +13

    you know the worst part could be just being inside the ISS and just watching the earth slowly light up as bright lights flash through the atmosphere and the earth slowly fading to a red/black color of what is now left

  • @WackDakAttack
    @WackDakAttack 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3819

    This hits a hell of a lot harder with the current events that are beginning to unfold..
    Edit: One year later, and I don’t blame myself for thinking that. You CAN’T tell me that the people of America didn’t feel this way during the Second World War, or even during the Great War.

    • @vivaldismurder8779
      @vivaldismurder8779 2 ปีที่แล้ว +113

      Yeah, same. Part of me still believes in my heart of hearts that the people with the button know what an atomic bom´b strike really means. That they know of the consequences. The other part knows it doesnt matter to them and if they feel its justified, I will simply die.

    • @markbenjamin4270
      @markbenjamin4270 2 ปีที่แล้ว +124

      It really makes you consider how little your life means to the ones on the pedestal. We’re just collateral, a number on a board, a casualty toll.

    • @coffee_drinker2912
      @coffee_drinker2912 2 ปีที่แล้ว +18

      Dust off those ICBMs and let them fly...

    • @gigachad8425
      @gigachad8425 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      No one is gonna fire a nuclear missile becouse they know that enemy knows where they are if they fire a one missile enemy fires also one at its preside t or dictator if you think they will just hide somewhere you couldn't be more wro g the enemy exactly knows where the head of countty is and has always aim on it and then just half a meter is dividing end of world and world

    • @SgtLuke
      @SgtLuke 2 ปีที่แล้ว +13

      I was looking for a comment just like this in relation to the UK and Russia situation that is going on.

  • @jruler93
    @jruler93 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1339

    The scariest part of this game is that this is a very real threat that's been hanging over the heads of literally every single person on earth for decades.

    • @meemmahn2856
      @meemmahn2856 3 ปีที่แล้ว +38

      I was genuinely terrified when North Korea started being stupid. Now, I've grown to accept the fact that I could die at any moment with no hope or chance to save myself.

    • @protoborg
      @protoborg 3 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      That's stupid. Why would a game based on a real life issue be scarier than the issue itself? That's like saying that playing a game where you run a nuclear power plant is as scary as the real thing. You really need to seek professional help if that's the way your mind works. You have serious issues.

    • @jruler93
      @jruler93 3 ปีที่แล้ว +63

      @@protoborg You entirely missed my point. I was saying that the scariest part of the game is the fact that it is based on a real issue; that there has, for nearly a century, been a mostly small but always non-zero chance that that issue could come to a head at literally any given moment, and we the masses, who would pay for it in millions of our lives, would be utterly powerless to stop it. If you don't find that fundamentally existentially horrifying, then there's nothing more I can say to sway you on the matter one way or the other.

    • @gibusspy5544
      @gibusspy5544 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@jruler93
      If you are horrified by basically anything, then you are weak.

    • @tacoscatsandmangos512
      @tacoscatsandmangos512 3 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      @@gibusspy5544 sigma male grindset moment

  • @zildiun2327
    @zildiun2327 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2128

    “Peace was never an option.”
    -Some goose from a meme

    • @DerAykac
      @DerAykac 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Animalogic?

    • @zildiun2327
      @zildiun2327 3 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      @@DerAykac
      No, it’s a meme. Look up “peace was never an option goose” and you’ll find it

    • @lilchristuten7568
      @lilchristuten7568 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@zildiun2327
      You sure it's a goose?

    • @FordMustang66
      @FordMustang66 3 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@zildiun2327 it’s from a untitled goose game

    • @Pinkcircleguy
      @Pinkcircleguy 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@lilchristuten7568 ye

  • @MrOddlyFox
    @MrOddlyFox ปีที่แล้ว +10

    A game I had waited a long time to play, ever since seeing WarGames as a child and learning the nuclear lesson.

  • @acidsugarz
    @acidsugarz 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3294

    2 years ago: Oh wow, this is a cool yet terrifying game!
    2022: ........

  • @HardcoreHalo
    @HardcoreHalo 5 ปีที่แล้ว +848

    Plot twist: In reality the game you just played just gave the military's of the world a nuclear attack plan.

    • @CoolDrifty
      @CoolDrifty 5 ปีที่แล้ว +27

      Hardcore Halo That’s basically the plot of WarGames

    • @herculean616
      @herculean616 5 ปีที่แล้ว +106

      Military HQ:
      *Hmmm yes Noobmaster69 seems to have a unique and a high winrate strategy thou forth we shall use it, save that game match.*

    • @CipherVoheim
      @CipherVoheim 5 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      Ahh yes... Enslaved gamers

    • @whatisdis
      @whatisdis 5 ปีที่แล้ว +33

      Me : Nukes self
      Military : Ok next.

    • @jk1422
      @jk1422 5 ปีที่แล้ว +13

      an AI uses this data to create the "best" Strategy to win a war

  • @drusik
    @drusik 4 ปีที่แล้ว +370

    My girl was watching me play this and I told her "this is a really scary game" and she wouldn't believe me (she hasn't played it though). I 100% agree that this is a scary game without any cheap jump scare tricks.

    • @mr.bubbles6682
      @mr.bubbles6682 4 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      I agree completely, it shows the horror of destruction, without glorifying it with like mainstream games.
      Things like *Moscow Hit, 13.6 Million dead...* Is impactful, I never really was squeamish but It makes you sit there and think..

  • @normietwiceremoved
    @normietwiceremoved 2 ปีที่แล้ว +250

    Despite the horror of this, don't let this distract you from the fact that Mr krabs sold SpongeBobs soul for 62 cents.

    • @GypsyEveStVixen
      @GypsyEveStVixen 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Rofl

    • @-thanawat-8296
      @-thanawat-8296 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Damn

    • @faceboy1392
      @faceboy1392 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      TRUE, i was waiting for someone to point that out

    • @watchmychannelorelse
      @watchmychannelorelse 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      worth it! argargargargargargargargargargargargargargargargargrgargagrggargargragragragrag

  • @TheSlayerV1
    @TheSlayerV1 5 ปีที่แล้ว +711

    Polygon: Defcon is terrifying because of nuclear annihilation.
    Me: Launches a nuke back at that bastard Gandhi in Civ V

    • @andycheng4436
      @andycheng4436 4 ปีที่แล้ว +31

      AI: wants uranium
      also AI: 3 gold/turn. take it or leave it.

  • @tobitt_6028
    @tobitt_6028 4 ปีที่แล้ว +351

    What a lovely video to watch on Christmas

    • @jonathanrampersaud8464
      @jonathanrampersaud8464 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      Definently

    • @Hyde-dg7ef
      @Hyde-dg7ef 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      same

    • @memegumin
      @memegumin 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      I'm continuing down the rabbit hole, I can't stop myself

    • @directorelysium34
      @directorelysium34 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      A day after for me

    • @jmoney1139
      @jmoney1139 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      It’s perfect for one of those days right after Christmas like the 29th

  • @Jay-mq2ng
    @Jay-mq2ng 3 ปีที่แล้ว +709

    "I am become death... The Destroyer of Worlds."
    The guy who invented the A-Bomb knew he invented the weapon that will put an end to humanity, and I think he didn't want to. Destroyer of Worlds is alot different then Winner of Wars.

    • @louiesatterwhite3885
      @louiesatterwhite3885 3 ปีที่แล้ว +62

      The moment we split the atom, our fate was sealed.

    • @electron6825
      @electron6825 3 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      @Prototype10 The good ending

    • @louiesatterwhite3885
      @louiesatterwhite3885 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @VaderxG complete annihilation would be unrealistic, but in the event of a world-wide nuclear war large swaths of land would be rendered unin habitable and many would die. Applying Murphy's Law, someone will eventually be crazy or desperate enough to press the big red button. May not be in our lifetime, may not be in the lifetime of children sired during ours. May not be in their children's lifetime. But eventually, should humanity not go extinct by any other means, nuclear war is inevitable.

    • @jart1984
      @jart1984 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @Prototype10 a mimir 😴😴😴

    • @sammy430
      @sammy430 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @Prototype10 All was a nightmare. zZZ

  • @SCP--xi4xv
    @SCP--xi4xv 2 ปีที่แล้ว +179

    I love how the rest of the world is on a nuclear rampage and then there's Australia just vibin'
    As an Australian I am so glad we're an isolated island in the middle of nowhere

    • @Mobius_118
      @Mobius_118 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      End of Ze World was suprisingly accurate in this regard.

    • @fish-from-hell5976
      @fish-from-hell5976 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      There's a book about that called On The Beach, I recommend you read it.

    • @fish-from-hell5976
      @fish-from-hell5976 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @Alp Quite true

    • @wolfsfroth
      @wolfsfroth 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      Ya wasn’t the movie *Mad Max* all about that? ... should be fun

    • @chadfalkin6850
      @chadfalkin6850 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      worry anyway, I think you have some american nuke bases so they'll aim for you too

  • @hiddentreasure2161
    @hiddentreasure2161 5 ปีที่แล้ว +598

    DEFCON actually feels quite calm, even when nuking countries and killing millions of people feels really un-intense and dumbed down. It is actually more scary in the fact that if this is what an operator would have in terms of UI, it feels like they could just do this and feel so detached

    • @vivi-fe5rj
      @vivi-fe5rj 4 ปีที่แล้ว +47

      Yeah, like who is actually terrified of this type of game? I could play HOI4 as Soviets and Nazis and have a laugh at the global destruction I cause. Is anyone actually mortified my their actions in these games? This whole video is so overdramatic it's absurd.

    • @Griffonki
      @Griffonki 4 ปีที่แล้ว +66

      @@vivi-fe5rj I think it's the thoughts. You just think about it and you realise how casually you just keep launching those nukes.

    • @vivi-fe5rj
      @vivi-fe5rj 4 ปีที่แล้ว +17

      @@Griffonki I didn't feel much during the "No Russian," so I doubt I would feel anything launching imaginary nukes at imaginary cities.

    • @ireallygotnothing
      @ireallygotnothing 4 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Its calm at first. But when you see the hundred of nukes flying across the screen, i cant help but think "fuuuuuck me"

    • @Griffonki
      @Griffonki 4 ปีที่แล้ว +26

      @@vivi-fe5rj Me too. I think it's more for snowflakes who don't ever play video games. I mean it's Polygon you expect truth from a shitty journalist site? I mean Defcon is a great game but this vid is bad.

  • @RadionWave
    @RadionWave 5 ปีที่แล้ว +439

    Clayton how did you know I’ve been thinking about this game for several weeks now???????

  • @alexanderweeks4701
    @alexanderweeks4701 5 ปีที่แล้ว +408

    This is how I feel when I play plague inc on harder difficulties in a way.

    • @atlasbees
      @atlasbees 5 ปีที่แล้ว +28

      At least with plague you don't play as a person, you're just a disease that wants to spread and destroy. This game scares me in that you're supposed to be *people* making these decisions, against other people. I used to play plague all the time but I think I need to play defcon and be terrified before going back to it

    • @liver-failure
      @liver-failure 5 ปีที่แล้ว +13

      I used to intentionally fail in plague inc. because I always felt bad after I won

    • @defensivekobra3873
      @defensivekobra3873 5 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@liver-failure you sir....
      ....i like you

  • @microraptorguyxu_et_al2431
    @microraptorguyxu_et_al2431 2 ปีที่แล้ว +24

    Watching this video now makes it even more scarier and eerie

  • @possiblepsychopath6459
    @possiblepsychopath6459 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1577

    chess on steroids

    • @dickywicaksono4171
      @dickywicaksono4171 4 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      This is should be top comment 😂👌

    • @apexwar_
      @apexwar_ 4 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Ironically, check this out, some sort of Chess+Defcon hybrid
      th-cam.com/video/Ecy5QYPOLtA/w-d-xo.html

    • @LOWBORN-the-LOATHSOME
      @LOWBORN-the-LOATHSOME 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Xanatos Speed Chess

    • @thenuggernaut9084
      @thenuggernaut9084 4 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      Chess on sleep paralysis

    • @bobbodaskank
      @bobbodaskank 4 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Chess with a minor change in rules where any piece can take any other piece on the board from any position on the board along with all adjacent pieces, and every piece on the board moves simultaneously.

  • @kisaragi-hiu
    @kisaragi-hiu 3 ปีที่แล้ว +204

    There's a population density display, and it really dawns on you when at the end of the game you see once brightly lit areas become dim. It's harrowing.

  • @RAYTHEONGAMING
    @RAYTHEONGAMING 5 ปีที่แล้ว +417

    This is literally the hardest multi-player game I've ever played in 25 years.
    The tone of this game is absolutely perfect.

    • @apexwar_
      @apexwar_ 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Imagine this, some sort of Chess+Defcon hybrid
      th-cam.com/video/Ecy5QYPOLtA/w-d-xo.html

    • @joseywales1439
      @joseywales1439 4 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      And if I'm correct in assuming that you're the feller that taught me, you're also the best player in the entire game.
      (for those of you who aren't aware, the playerbase is so small that you can't play without seeing the same opponents)

    • @RAYTHEONGAMING
      @RAYTHEONGAMING 4 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@joseywales1439 busted

    • @joseywales1439
      @joseywales1439 4 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@RAYTHEONGAMING lol haven't seen you in a while, thought you might be dead

    • @monokoUwU
      @monokoUwU 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      Is this free?

  • @SketchyLizord
    @SketchyLizord 2 ปีที่แล้ว +22

    sometimes I lay down in bed and imagine that split second where my house would be blown away, my skin melted, everything I've known and loved is extinct all before even hearing the boom of the explosion... just because a man in a suit wanted his way.
    What if that's happening right now? I want to believe I'll be able to get a warning, maybe survive... but would I really want to? Maybe it's best I'm oblivious when I die.
    It's a whole new kind of fear.

    • @Uajd-hb1qs
      @Uajd-hb1qs 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      That’s what I’ve always said. The only thing I’d hope in a nuclear war is I get enough warning to get to a possible target so I can stand right under the fireball. You’ll be vaporised so quick, you wouldn’t technically die, just be instantly converted to a few basic elements, no pain, just gone. I hope we’ll never have to consider that though. But trust me, go out with the bang, not the fallout.

    • @snappy-IV
      @snappy-IV 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      If I saw a big flash and knew that it was a nuclear bomb and imminent death was coming. I'd crack a beer and make my peace.

  • @SimplyTheWorst
    @SimplyTheWorst 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2676

    "nobody wins"
    **ahem** switzerland.

    • @x3k258
      @x3k258 4 ปีที่แล้ว +19

      Lmao

    • @sweden7675
      @sweden7675 4 ปีที่แล้ว +324

      They actually have enough bunkers to fit their whole population, so they really could. Good luck colonizing and rebuilding the whole world though.

    • @ONESHOT92E
      @ONESHOT92E 4 ปีที่แล้ว +86

      Nope ,a year after they also die once food and water in the bunker ends and thirst drives everyone out to drink radioactive contaminated water then the cough ,cough gets real ...it is called acute leukemia ...

    • @fsands69
      @fsands69 4 ปีที่แล้ว +31

      if switzerland is coughing that's covid
      *dies*

    • @SimplyTheWorst
      @SimplyTheWorst 4 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@fsands69 ok i will edit it

  • @cosmichorizon3273
    @cosmichorizon3273 3 ปีที่แล้ว +912

    Its scary how this actually almost happened in the cold war

    • @drewjanus4643
      @drewjanus4643 3 ปีที่แล้ว +76

      The "almost happened" isn't over, we are closer to doomsday then ever before, the doomsday clock which measures how close we are to complete extinction or an apocalyptic event like a global climate collapse or nuclear winter (when the clock reached 12 we're all goners) is only 100 seconds from twelve. We are one crazed man with too much power away from total eradication.

    • @cosmichorizon3273
      @cosmichorizon3273 3 ปีที่แล้ว +87

      @@drewjanus4643 yeah but my point is that it legit almost happened before on a Russian sub lol
      Like really close

    • @MagikarpMan
      @MagikarpMan 3 ปีที่แล้ว +93

      @@cosmichorizon3273 not just on a Russian sub, in a Russian control room they got readings saying nukes were launched. The person In charge decided not to report it to higher ups and start a nuclear war. Turns out the readings were fake and caused by glare from the sun
      Shows how Russians are portrayed as the bad guys when they saved humanity of two different occasions

    • @cosmichorizon3273
      @cosmichorizon3273 3 ปีที่แล้ว +57

      @@MagikarpMan I honestly don’t believe in good or bad guys especially in the cold war. Both sides did their fair share of good and bad things at their own time and pace, it was merely won by the US due to the USSR’s collapse.

    • @ludoxz
      @ludoxz 3 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      @@cosmichorizon3273 yep, usa decided it is a god idea to drop depth charges on a non responding nuclear submarine, that nearly killed all of us

  • @lizardizzle
    @lizardizzle 5 ปีที่แล้ว +412

    DEFCON, the game, is by Introversion Software. I know that this video isn't really *about* the people who made the game, but I think they're good developers and something should be said about their other projects from the 2000s, Uplink and Darwinia. Introversion seem to have had a trilogy about interesting topics: War, Spies, and Life. I suggest anyone intrigued at all by this video should take a look at them, they're both on Steam.
    Darwinia works on its own as a very cool looking RTS. It's been over a decade since I played it, but it has nice ideas about simulations and life, if I recall.
    Uplink is more of a simulation of your own computer and what you would do for your job if your job was to literally steal and destroy information from the world's largest companies, payed for by other companies. You are an anonymous middleman hired by the anonymous sources to break into extremely sensitive and risky internet-connected devices, and if you get caught, the company who hired you has the ability to cut any and all ties with you to avoid detection, putting you at the most risk.
    I don't think either game has the impact that DEFCON does, but I was surprised to see Introversion's little game get such a cool video on it 13 years after its release. It made me a little sad that Introversion's name wasn't even mentioned. The description has no information on the game or its creators either. I think they deserve a bit more credit for their work.

    • @lizardizzle
      @lizardizzle 5 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@dumbasscentral1166 Thanks! After I wrote that post I looked up the company and discovered that they had released another small experimental games Scanner Sombre back in 2017 and immediately bought it and played it. It's definitely of the "Walking Simulator" variety, but its rendering technology, soundscape, and music was nice enough to carry its otherwise lackluster story beats.

    • @QuickQuips
      @QuickQuips 5 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      No kidding. Prison Architect is also pretty existential.
      Soma is also a great existential game.

    • @zelefant1482
      @zelefant1482 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Lizardizzle Introversion has made some good games. I enjoyed Uplink and I played Prison Architect recently as well

    • @Dremsilruth
      @Dremsilruth 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I f'ing loved Darwinia, such a fun little game.

    • @NiLi_
      @NiLi_ 5 ปีที่แล้ว

      I learned about Introversion through Prison Architect, their games really make you think about the circumstances of the decisions you make, definitely one of my favourite indie game companies

  • @maracachucho8701
    @maracachucho8701 2 ปีที่แล้ว +12

    I can see my younger self playing this game psychopathically trying to wipe out as many humans as possible. I feel like I now understand why most people in a position of power tend to be on the older side.

  • @toetotipthatsabart5048
    @toetotipthatsabart5048 5 ปีที่แล้ว +408

    I think this is also why playing Plague Inc. made me so uncomfortable, to the point where the most difficult settings made me cry. Staring at a map of the world, watching the atrocities happen without even seeing an image of who you’re hurting, it’s horrific.
    I wonder if it’s just universally horrific to play games where you stare at a map and annihilate the world.

    • @harrylane4
      @harrylane4 5 ปีที่แล้ว +34

      Plague inc was one of the most unnerving games I had ever played, and I couldnt stop. I'm assuming this will be the same

    • @jc-fx3rp
      @jc-fx3rp 5 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      when I play plague inc. i deactivate the sound because I can't listen to the laughs and coughs of people without feeling horribly bad

    • @jessicacole8404
      @jessicacole8404 5 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      *Plague inc is probably just a game, but we shouldn't play it because I bet the gov is monitoring (as they do everything), to see if civilians come up with something interesting. You might have just created a virus the gov knew about forever ago, or be that one in a million that creates a new killer, that really IS unleashed on that part of the world*

    • @jc-fx3rp
      @jc-fx3rp 5 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      @@jessicacole8404 Woahh, stop right there, that's way too out there

    • @xmus4023
      @xmus4023 5 ปีที่แล้ว +13

      Wiping out the planet's population: fun.
      Realizing your actions: hurtful.

  • @casual_ice_consumer4148
    @casual_ice_consumer4148 5 ปีที่แล้ว +2501

    4:02 "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic."
    -Joseph Stalin

    • @cyberpop1850
      @cyberpop1850 5 ปีที่แล้ว +270

      You know he never actually said that, a fictional depiction of Stalin said it,
      Never trust quotes or witty sayings.

    • @yeetusdeleteus1305
      @yeetusdeleteus1305 5 ปีที่แล้ว +92

      Cyber Pop while you are technically correct in saying that, it is still disputed whether he said it, as a columnist in 1947 did attribute that quote to Stalin in a meeting with his commissars.

    • @yes98272
      @yes98272 5 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Rockie Technically that isn’t theoretically a valid statement according to the proclamation of youtube back in 1529 therefore making thus making this quote impossible to human civilization

    • @formaltortoise6966
      @formaltortoise6966 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      STONKS

    • @Pfle2005
      @Pfle2005 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      Irony T It’s finest

  • @sanlorenzo7896
    @sanlorenzo7896 3 ปีที่แล้ว +918

    Looking at the stats, I can imagine GrayStillPlays yelling:
    “Rookie numbers!”

    • @Attaxalotl
      @Attaxalotl 3 ปีที่แล้ว +38

      OKay that is way to accurate.

    • @jacquechampagne5865
      @jacquechampagne5865 3 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      Yes

    • @rednoodleoffate
      @rednoodleoffate 3 ปีที่แล้ว +77

      "Okay, now that we've wiped out the resistance in Siberia we need to give them a few decades to get the population back up. YOU LITTLE SHITS AREN'T ALLOWED TO DIE OFF UNTIL I REACH ONE TRILLION DEATHS."
      I actually would like to see him play this game.

    • @sewkrazy
      @sewkrazy 3 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      All of the nuclear stuff is in Florida

    • @michaelramos2839
      @michaelramos2839 3 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@sewkrazy that's true.

  • @Постлеброн
    @Постлеброн 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    2020 year: Plague inc IRL
    2022 year: DEFCON IRL

  • @emperorpalpatine1441
    @emperorpalpatine1441 4 ปีที่แล้ว +540

    Defcon: a game about ending the earth
    Defqon: EDM festival that makes you want to end the earth

    • @rootabeta9015
      @rootabeta9015 4 ปีที่แล้ว +35

      DEF CON: A bunch of programmers drinking too much

    • @jforozco12
      @jforozco12 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Daq uan : ??

    • @Mrgamer7281
      @Mrgamer7281 4 ปีที่แล้ว +42

      Deaf con: nobody can hear shit lmao

    • @tk-756brony6
      @tk-756brony6 4 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      I'm pickin' up what you're puttin' down, Lord Emperor!
      You'll be happy to know we've already began construction of the DS-3 Orbital Battle Station!
      Peace, Stability, and Security by FORCE! Glory to the Empire. °^°

    • @emperorpalpatine1441
      @emperorpalpatine1441 4 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@tk-756brony6 thanks for the update lol. just don’t leave it half finished like the last one

  • @Phantomenace1
    @Phantomenace1 3 ปีที่แล้ว +301

    “ War does not assume who’s is right, but only WHO IS LEFT”
    -anais

    • @sergiorubens8475
      @sergiorubens8475 3 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      I am pretty sure the quote dosen't come from gumball

    • @wumbosaurus9121
      @wumbosaurus9121 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Ah, the Liberals were behind it all along!

    • @jumbotron2633
      @jumbotron2633 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@sergiorubens8475 R/WOOOOSH

    • @Слышьты-ф4ю
      @Слышьты-ф4ю 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      World seems to be leftist in that case...

    • @Ezbucks30
      @Ezbucks30 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@sergiorubens8475 same thoughts

  • @Roxor128
    @Roxor128 2 ปีที่แล้ว +241

    You forgot to mention DEFCON's ancestor: 1980's Missile Command from 26 years earlier, which also had the message of "You can't win a nuclear war."

    • @danpaz9485
      @danpaz9485 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Where can I get the game?

    • @Roxor128
      @Roxor128 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@danpaz9485 You'll have to sail the high seas for arcade ROMs to play in MAME for Missile Command, though it's simple enough that people have been cloning it for ages, as well.

    • @Roxor128
      @Roxor128 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@danpaz9485 It's an arcade game, so you're not going to be buying a copy. It has gotten many clones over the years, though.

  • @friedrichderhohevonweedman6093
    @friedrichderhohevonweedman6093 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

    Just looking at the game screen with all those missiles flying and "Launch Detected" popping up over and over all over the world is on it's own one of the most horrifying things I ever saw.

  • @epictetuskrakowski2070
    @epictetuskrakowski2070 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3644

    America: Defcon
    China: Plague inc
    Australia: Firewatch
    Hotel: Trivago

    • @SilentFox.
      @SilentFox. 4 ปีที่แล้ว +35

      Underrated comment

    • @OTSCasper
      @OTSCasper 4 ปีที่แล้ว +17

      done before but still funny

    • @yuuko6993
      @yuuko6993 4 ปีที่แล้ว +15

      @@SilentFox. overdone joke

    • @entityxkid244
      @entityxkid244 4 ปีที่แล้ว +25

      Meh. cut him some slack guys. Everyone needs some likes every once in a while.

    • @ZOCCOK
      @ZOCCOK 4 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      @@entityxkid244 sure, but that did make me smile. That's a well deserved like