0451

[@GMTK]

Thanks for the shout out, Chris. Great video, with a very unique focus on the narrative links of the immersive sim thing

[@CBusschaert]

Fancy seeing you here :D

[@aspermypreviousemail5907]

It's nice to see two of my favorite internet people here.

[@CreeperSlayer365]

Imagine trying to make an 0451 game in 48 hours that would be insane

[@tm8424]

Don't forget Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines. Everyone always seems to when this topic comes up. Troika had an interesting take on what Deus Ex did before them.

[@planescaped]

I was sad when Troika closed. As I was one of the dozen people who bought Arcanum and Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines when they came out. :P

[@Model_BT-7274]

I was playing prey and was told that the key card number was 0451 and typed it in the KZbin search bar so I would memorize it and this video came up. I ended up learning about this awesome Easter egg when I was just trying to memorize a code lol.

[@distantsea]

That's funny because Prey tells you the code if you "already know it" and are at the correct panel. Glad to see you here though.

[@svengali990]

Fun Fact: in RDR2, 0451 can be seen on the ground at Beecher's Hope after completing the mission "A New Jerusalem".

[@Robert399]

That's bizarre. I can't see any way in which RDR2 is relevant to the 0451 lineage.

[@Mateusz1234558]

It looks like the Zenless Zone Zero devs knew this reference. Hoyo keeps the memory of 0451 alive.

[@MrChainsawAardvark]

Another connection between these games - the protagonist does not start off soaked in blood, or even actually violent. Garret from Thief actively abhors violence, and views leaving a trail of bodies as unprofessional. JC is a police officer who hasn't killed anyone in the line of duty (yet), and the hacker of SS1 is a nonviolent criminal (so far as we know). Although character creation in System Shock Two is through the military, it can be through rear-area assignments, not combat. Most of the initial encounters with the enemy are self-defense. The first splicer/mutant/etc. engages the player simply for being present. Contrast this with games such as Wolfenstein and Call of Duty start the player off as a experienced agent/solder. The mission structure of the game is built around intentionally and aggressively entering the enemy's position.

[@Robert399]

Frequently yes. The (attempted) examination of ideologies relies on you being a normal-ish person. But that's not always true (Deus Ex, potentially System Shock 2, Dishonored). Sure, you may not start out as a serial killer but you can absolutely have a violent military background. They're not all Far Cry 3/This War of Mine.

[@jasonfenton8250]

Garrett pretty clearly straight up kills a dude in the opening cutscene of Thief and not for self defense. He also threatens violence on several occasions. I feel like fans have ghosted Thief so many times that they have created a fanon version of the pacifist Garrett. He carries a sword and lethal arrows to nearly every job, his best move is clubbing someone on the back of the head. Violence is only forbidden on higher difficulties and the logic is always that killing is sloppy or will reveal you were there. Not anything about "abhoring violence," which sounds more like a moral stance.

[@Arkenway]

Corvo is the bodyguard of the Empress... How is he not soaked in blood ?

[@BankaiEdje]

There is something to the fact that you combat dogmatic Ideologies with a strategy of constant improvisation and adaptation.

[@Yetipfote]

Funny coincidence: 451 is by far the most used chord progression in western music. This is since Baroque over classical music over Jazz to todays pop-music. It's usually written as IV-V-I in music theory.

[@AliansyahKevin]

IVVI

[@ytera8130]

II-V-I is more common in jazz though.

[@StratEdgyProductions]

This was a great video, but it should have been 4 minutes and 51 seconds long.

[@VictorAHunter]

it took me sec but i eventually got there

[@delbedinotti6622]

Strat-Edgy Productions I'm not surprised you listen to this guy. I really enjoy your reviews by the way and your insight into video games. Your content on the problem with open world games was one of the best I've ever seen.

[@netherin5844]

15:40 seconds just as well.

[@awlomthesheepermen]

Or 45 min and 10 seconds

[@SpecShadow]

4h51min or buts

[@LordOwenTheThird]

SHODAN's voice still gives me chills.

[@Levyathyn]

Lord Owen The Third Chills, and for me, a slight erection.

[@ezekielrose5173]

Good to know I'm not the only one...

[@Jolis_Parsec]

Wasn’t she voiced by the lead developer’s wife who at the time was a keyboardist for the band Tribe? I seem to recall hearing that somewhere, but I’m unsure whether it’s actually the case.

[@vodkaboy]

@@Jolis_Parsec yes en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terri_Brosius

[@TheRealSkeletor]

L-L-look at you, hacker. Panting and sweating as you run through my corridors...

[@LymusIll]

as time goes on, people will use 0451 more and more without meaning, just as a "i know that thingy you know"-gesture ...

[@thesquirtof8759]

*ahem* Modern Warfare *ahem*

[@Dev-nr4dw]

The Last of Us 2 did it too. That made me physically cringe. Game devs don't understand that it's not just an inside joke.

[@CanelaAguila]

Like 42 has as well

[@planescaped]

Didn't need a crystal ball to guess this was inevitable...

[@metaleggman18]

I doubt anyone using it isn't a fan of immersive sims and the devs for system shock and such. I wouldn't worry about it.

[@argenteus8314]

Magic doesn't increase chaos in Dishonored, just killing people. You can do a pacifist playthrough still using magic, and have no chaos.

[@GoshemGarble]

Larry Psuedonym The idea is that the magic powers that the outsider gives you are funner and easyer to use in lethal playthroughs. He interperpates this as the outsider having a preference for chaotic outcomes, which bears out in the way he describes the various endings. Even Emily's powers in the sequel, while more useful in a non-lethal playthrough, are really really fun in a lethal one. And so the main religion in the world of Dishonoured is centred around trying to remove his influence, to a fanatical extent, and the main character, in a position of power, in the low chaos endings, is a balancing force, trying to use the magic to restore things to a healthy kind of governance (of which the Spymaster and Duke, in the first and second games, represent bad governance)

[@Robert399]

I'm super late to the party but most of the powers are far more interesting and you only really get that beautiful emergent play with lethal play. If you go non-lethal, it's basically just blink, choke, blink, choke...

[@madmorgo6233]

... while killing zombies (or "Weepers") does count as killing people, and adds to your chaos. I'm still trying to sort out my feelings about this. Why am I so bloodthirsty... XD

[@vodkaboy]

@@GoshemGarble do players realize how good the world building in those games is ? everything makes sense, and everything have a purpose.

[@crisis8v88]

@9:16 "...to highlight the necessity of two extremes being in harmony." Yes... the extremes of the door being opened and the door being closed. And when they are in harmony, you can slip through and close the door quickly.

[@ToastyMixx]

Prey is one of, if not the best-written game in this subgenre so far, and addresses a lot of the criticisms here of the genre's... lacking contextual grace, let's say. The writers aren't afraid to express their own perspective and inflict actual judgement on the player, and they have a nuance of character and thematic writing that the genre's arguably grown more distant from as it's tried to demand more attention with more spectacle. Alex Yu is an ideologue, sure, but he's not a demonized extremist, he's much closer to someone that wants to be a humanist and philanthropist, but his upbringing in a position of power gives him too narrow of a perspective to be patient with his ideals, and that impatience ends in tragedy. He's an immensely smart person with a philosophically sound goal, the mechanics themselves reinforce (rather than contradict) what tempts him into rampantly pursuing his ambition to the eventual detriment of everyone. Neuromods/Typhon material allowing the player to truly transcend human boundaries, even human comprehension, as Morgan retains their full conscious mind while their body shifts into inhuman forms, with movement abilities that contradict all human understanding of physics and nature. Prey makes that unreality of the mechanics reinforce why Alex became so consumed by the idea of transcendence. The context of everything, from the broad worldbuilding to the base video-game-ass-video-game mechanics you engage with employ empathy for someone who, in any other game of the sort, would be a blind, screaming, one-note ideologue of one of the easier ideologies there is to throw vague shade at. Here, though, he's just a flawed dude with nuanced personal ideals, and he's not sure of how to safely and calmly achieve those ideals. Then, he's shown the greatest scientific discovery in human history, something that collectively recontextualizes all of human knowledge, and could propel humanity to unprecedented heights. He doesn't want the power all to himself, he wants the whole of humanity to lift themselves to this higher power. But, like one of the segmented books in the game repeatedly foreshadows, he goes Too Far, Too Fast. The culture he hails from and still finds himself and everyone around him shackled to (as highlighted by his father's distant intervention 2/3rds through the game) is still so far from being ready for this power that, even if they found a way to safely use Neuromods and the Typhon ceased to be a threat, those neuromods would only find their way to the rich and powerful, creating greater social divides that contradict Alex's very principals entirely. Their systems and standards of political power are still so flawed that they can have all the diversity in the world on that station, and dress it up to be a monolith of scientific and sociological progress, but if those idolized "smartest minds" fuck up in just the wrong way, there's still an old man a million miles away that claims to be their protector and nurturer, that would still rather hire a someone to quietly erase their existence if it's too inconvenient to help them, and from where he sits, he has no systemic incentive to bat an eye at quietly ordering such a heinous thing to be done to his own son. One of the most dangerous ideologies in the game is a backdrop of neoliberalism, and it thankfully avoids turning that into a fear of cultural diversity unto itself. This sense of humanism is even further reinforced by the crew of Talos-1 not being a grim ensemble of "oh wow look at how fucked up these people's lives were under X ideology!", but just being... People, doing their jobs, pursuing personal ambitions, fucking around with personal hobbies, pursuing relationships that run deep and diverse, having arguments and disagreements and overreactions. All this, in a towering, isolated, garish Greek-mythology-referencing art deco monument that still has the restraint to more subtly reflect the broader systemic problems of the society that made and maintains it, and that led to the attraction of its downfall. If anything, the closest to an extremist evil any character gets (besides the elder Yu and the Typhon, who represent a literal by-design unconsciously destructive ideology and EVEN THEN are given nuance (that doesn't erase or forgive the destruction they're wrought) by the end of the game) is Morgan, whose pre-player-controlled characterization plays into the game's interrogation of the player's power and their subconscious decisions made with that power, decisions that are only telegraphed if you're paying attention, rather than being big binary highlighted #ImportantDecisions. Those decisions are overtly analyzed, scrutinized and truly judged by several characters by the end of the game, rather than just patting the player on the back for whatever they chose to do under a pretense of "grey morality", or glorifying their explicit evil for funsies if they were needlessly cruel. All the claims of forward-thinking naturalism, depth, reactivity and philosophy that immersive sims pride themselves on are much more fully realized in Prey than they are in even its most modern contemporaries, including and especially Arkane's own Dishonored games. The resurgent Immersive Sim genre has had a major problem with balancing the design absolutism specific to this genre with a sense of true thematic identity. It's still a fairly unexplored genre, and our contemporary struggles to truly embrace long-neglected artistic responsibilities in games are amplified by the ways Immersive Sims are critically deified as "pure logic" systems first and foremost by the subculture most familiar with them, while paradoxically being held up as being the smartest and having the most to say. Immersive Sims speak to a medium-wide struggle to be deep and intelligent while giving the player the freedom and choice and power to boast just how important all those systems make all their choices. I fear that Prey's strides forward for the genre and arguably the whole medium will go largely ignored due to the extrinsic factors of Bethesda's terrible marketing for it, mixed with the weird pervasiveness of "Simpsons Did It" mentalities towards the game's most superficial elements in its public critical reception, mixed with a lot of its subtlety being, well, too subtle for a lot of people to immediately appreciate, but it at least stands on its own as a hint of where the genre could go when it pushes past its lineage that's no longer as "ahead of its time" as it's always purported itself to be. ...They really should have made female Morgan the default player character, tho, even the good side of Arkane has a weird reluctance to make the player dedicate to playing a lady, even if it's intensely obvious that they're the intended protagonist with the most care put into their version of the PC.

[@Erika-gn1tv]

Nice write-up!

[@etamr60]

Wow, very well thought-out comment! Oh is female Morgan better written? I regret my choice now...

[@pendelbembel]

I chose female Morgan also, but I don't know why you'd say that she was better written, I assumed that she'd be the exact same as male Morgan, just with a few lines of dialogue flipped around.

[@etamr60]

It does question our view of gender roles, what do we prefer seeing? Maybe female Morgan is more credible putting herself on the line for the experiment, as it is something women can do in a mostly masculine environment, as a lab can sure be. On the other hand I don't remember sexual harassment or other gender issues being addressed at any point in the game, and the roles are evenly distributed as far as I can tell. (Anyway, your secretary password !OMGHOTBOSS! is funny either way.) Are the lines strictly the same? Then it's down to the voice actors, and I can't judge I've just finished it as male Morgan.

[@pendelbembel]

I watched only the Markiplier playthrough of male Morgan because I honestly wasn't very interested in playing it myself, but it seems to be identical with only pronouns switched out. I'd say that bringing sexual harassment into the mix when everyone is fighting for their lives against ravenous alien monsters would have made the story slightly ridiculous.

[@luisdaniel9542]

I love all your videos, however I must say that I really enjoy this one more that the other ones, mostly because it feels fresh or new since you're talking about a specific idea in many games instead a single game with many ideas

[@stigoftdump]

Definitely. I hope he carries on making this sort of content where he pulls back the lens from his usual single-game-focused ludo-thematic conversation (which is always awesome by the way) to show how they're shared and how they differ across games and genres. His video on Civ is one of my favourites because of this sort of analysis. This is one of the better gaming channels on youtube without doubt.

[@Medytacjusz]

Can you not get goosebumps again when hearing, for a 100th time, Shodan or The Many, AKA The Best Sound Design in Game History?

[@maxscribner1743]

This video was so good! I'm really glad that you criticized your own conclusion. It's so important for analysts to be honest about the filter they put on the available data.

[@mohammadhijazi4498]

so i was playing transistor today after watching the video and guess what sequence of numbers i noticed? yep they reference it

[@yokokuramaful]

God I wish I could play System Shock 2 without having a heart attack and throwing my mouse across the room whenever an enemy shows up.

[@jasondoe2596]

Atticus M. haha, same here - I have it, everyone says it's a masterpiece (and they're probably right), I love the RPG elements and the flexibility... and *I just can't get into the horror aspect* of the game... Not my genre D:

[@cinntoastcrunch8]

I was chased into a corner by robots and never opened the game again

[@Saltine3022]

Best video I've seen from you in awhile. Immersive Sim is one of my favorite genres in gaming, and it's interesting to learn about their history.

[@scoutwags]

Coming back to this video after trying the code for the first door in deathloop and getting an achievement and a comment for it

[@aaronm.5063]

0451 is also a good chord progression

[@burningpapersun1]

Errant Signal is the interconnectedness of all things.

[@lalabox]

it's weird to hear that Bob Page speech and not have him talk about old men, running the world

[@Crocogator]

within six months

[@SidheKnight]

_Electric_ Old Men

[@phelanii4444]

I, for one, do not regret following you on Twitter. You will make the summer much more bearable with those 0451 videos, so thanks :D

[@ErikMm5]

an awesome video goes deeper than I thought. Really looking forward to this summers videos

[@viliussmproductions]

To be honest, "fantastic world gone wrong" describes most fps game world.

[@opticalmoose8091]

Williamz yeah, exactly. Hard to find a game with a narrative, which is set in a universe where nothing is wrong.

[@Robert399]

That's sort of true but there's more to it than that. These settings tend to have "gone wrong" internally from an extremist ideology built into the core structures of that society. So yes, any game with enemies needs to have some issues. But in most games, either the big existential threat is external (Doom, Half-Life, Halo, Mass Effect, Gears of War; any zombie apocalypse...) or it isn't really an existential threat at all, just a nuisance in that setting (pirates in Mass Effect; raiders in Fallout; bandits and goblins in most fantasy games; terrorists in modern military shooters).

[@freddiekruger3339]

@@Robert399 what's your take on the reapers then? I'd say mass effect handles them really fucking stupidly but at the core there's much the same deal of "synthetics overthrow organics" "organics oppress synthetics" with shepard as a possible balancing force between them

[@Robert399]

@@freddiekruger3339 ME3 is so bad I'm going to ignore it. In ME1 and ME2 the Reapers are very much an external, unknowable threat (Sovereign says as much in ME1, which I think is a cop-out - though given how bad the explanation was, I miss the days of not knowing). I don't consider the potential fall of the setting to be the result of an ideology. I get what you're saying about the Quarians and the Geth but I'd consider that more a point of interest than core to the setting. It doesn't really have anything to do with the Reapers; it's just a coincidence that the Reapers and the Geth happen to exist in this setting. (at least until ME3 tried, literally in the last 10 minutes, to make "organics will always create synthetic and then go to war and be destroyed by them but ooh there's a better way" the main point of the whole series - which again, so stupid I'm not even going to consider it)

[@freekashyyyk896]

A really fascinating subject i've never heard of before, i'm excited for this summer!

[@TheAgamemnon911]

0451? Strange, thats the same code as the lock on my luggage.

[@JohnnyEscopeta]

It's been so long since the last video!! Thank you!

[@cvc-gamingglitchrespositor9607]

You are by far one of the most underrated gaming youtube channels. I just don't find anyone talking about games in the way you do.

[@AegixDrakan]

You know, as a fan of the 0451 genre/style/etc, I really didn't know much of the history of it. This was a great video, thanks. :D

[@rmeddy]

Good to hear. I thought it was similar to A113 in Pixar, just a simple inside joke

[@olucaspc]

or maybe it is and people are giving it more meaning that it is worth because developers arent creative and make the same game all the time..

[@Siledas]

Pretty sure the connection to *Farenheit 451* was debunked by either Warren Spector or Harvey Smith during a postmortem, though. I recall one of them saying that it was just the door code for their office at the time.

[@ronnieDaking]

olucaspc if 0451 games ain't creative i don't wanna live anymore

[@BearOldcastle]

I saw that post Morten too, it was the office door code to a meeting room. The number was nothing special.

[@shenandoahologist6713]

I like how the last part of this video was essentially an in-depth review of this video.

[@Brian-tn4cd]

Farenheit 451 Ray Bradbury one of the few books that my schools have forced me to read that I enjoyed.

[@metaleggman18]

Sadly it has nothing to do with the origins. Warren Spector confirmed it just happened to be the door code to their office building.

[@GameCat16]

8:06 9:00 This is an unflattering and almost deliberately false portrayal of Infinite's themes. Infinite was written as a personal story. It's not about fighting for any ideologies, it's about two people who get caught in the middle of the conflict. In interviews leading up to the game's release, Ken Levine made it extremely clear that neither Booker nor Elizabeth want to save the world. Their goals are to get out of the city and live her life (Elizabeth)/ repay his debts (Booker). Infinite is not saying revolutions to racism are just as bad as racism, but that people are bad and can corrupt anything, even the purist ideology. You praised The Last of Us for making a similar point with Joel (Even though one could argue that the sacrifice at the end would have been for the greater good). The point of this narrative, for Infinite, is that both sides, if they fight long enough, will go over the deep end and enter tremendous extremes. You can argue that Infinite did not do the best job (personally, I think they could have done more with portraying the Vox Populi's corruption), but that's not the point. The point is that both sides became rotten and began to have negative effects on two people who wanted nothing to do with it. Two people who desperately want to escape it. That's the story.

[@jamesmeow3039]

You are the only fan of Infinite. Well done.

[@GameCat16]

@@jamesmeow3039 Back at you for refusing to acknowledge that Campster could be wrong about anything.

[@maxscribner1743]

A NEW ONE!! Yay! I just began following you a month or two ago

[@OktoberLynx]

I'm looking forward to what you'll further say about Neon Struct, that is for sure.

[@erradate6425]

This opening with the system shock 2 ost is amazing.. Engineering 2 is probably the best song of the whole ost and one of the best dnb track from the late 90s !! Amazing vid btw

[@HeDoesNotRow]

in the second chapter of Sanitarium, you open the pumpkin patch using "451"

[@DrazGames]

I'm not gonna lie Chris, seeing a new video has made my really bad day infinitely better.

[@noblebearaw]

This was pretty cool. It's something I was always a little curious about -- good stuff!

[@concrete_dog]

0451 memes aside, the immersive sim genre is probably my favourite genre of the last few years, right next to the 3d hyper combat of Platinum Games' games

[@UncleDeadly1031]

Nemo_K Wow are you me?

[@DanielBuckmaster]

That got really meta towards the end there where you started reviewing your own video. Loved it as usual!

[@Michael_Raymond]

I like the transition of doubt into "Summer of 0451!"

[@tomr1041]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I was literally writing an epic essay about this exact topic! I was spiffing it up and decided to take a break, saw the title of your new video, and then let out an audible "Shit!". And goddammit you summarized the topic way better than I ever could to! So i said to myself, in the middle of the video "Well okay, I guess ill look at each game individually and write about that, to differentiate myself" but nooooooo you had to say you're doing the exact thing at the end of the video! Over 400 dollars tracking down original copies of every immersive sim ever made, days upon days of meticulous research, and god knows how many hours playing and replaying each game! I even tracked down Warren fucking Spector's email and was gonna send him a few questions! I hate you so much right now. I also love you, you're my favorite youtuber but seriously, how the fuck did you read my mind!?!?!!?

[@ErrantSignal]

I mean, there's always room for more info on this topic! There's already the hotly debated idea of: Did 0451 originate as a reference to Fahrenheit 451, or was it just Looking Glass' door code coincidentally? And I'd love to hear what Spector and/or others have to say on the topic 20 years later! And hey, your opinion on these games would also be good to hear!

[@tomr1041]

Ha thanks! Ill restructure this essay quite a bit now, maybe have it focus a bit more on the level design of immersive sims. And since I know you actually read the comments now, I have to say, you are doing some really important work here. Ive cited several of your videos in research papers ive done for college and you are a huge influence in how I look at games . Please, keep up the good work

[@HelloMyNameisSol]

there was a 'devs play system shock 1' stream a couple of years back, and i'm sure the topic came up. Can't remember what they concluded though.

[@Agenta-df3gb]

I would personally say still go for it. Hearing more voices on subjects like this is always worth it. Hearing stuff on level design would also be interesting, since games like these have a distinct level design style that not many people talk about.

[@Welverin]

I agree with the others, just because someone else did something on the topic, doesn't mean yours shouldn't exist. Having another take on the topic is good, especially since it would be in a different format.

[@RyuRanXII]

To think there's a System Shock 3 in the works right now... sometimes dreams come true.

[@Craft2299]

I really want to work on a 0451 game. Dark messiah made me fall in love with the combat arenas of the games, but system shock 2 and dishonoured extended it across more than just one or few areas.

[@Megadeth7811]

I found 0451 outside of John's newly-built house in RDR2.

[@taylorsbicca3172]

Summer of 0451. So excited

[@benhillman8384]

I think there's often an underlying theme of the road to hell being paved with good intentions, with those good intentions being synonymous with traditional objective-chasing at the start of these titles. The recontextualisation that eventually reframes those good intentions is usually an expression of the possibility space for player agency through play that immersive sims represent. It's the "medium is the message" schtick all over I guess.

[@metaleggman18]

Warren Spector says the numbers just happened to be the keypad code for their building at looking glass. When you rent a building you don't necessarily choose your keypad code, since your landlord might choose it so they can get in. It's very possible it's literally just that and has nothing to do with the Bradbury book. I don't know why Spector wouldn't have explicitly said they chose it as a reference, rather than saying it was just the key code to their building.

[@metaleggman18]

And mind you, this video came out after Warren Spector spelled this out for people in 2015...

[@Usiema]

I really enjoy your videos, ever since getting directed to your channel from the guys at Extra Credits. I love listening, and understanding these topics, and hope to see way more from you in the future.

[@skazkatzroy3444]

Too bad about the guy from Extra Credits abusing the other writers and staff, real shame we all watched his videos and thought he was cool when he was actually hurting other people at work every day.

[@microwaveman1234]

Never stop making videos, they are great!

[@SkipToGame]

Great video as always! Looking forward to the rest of the Summer of 0451.

[@Rorschach003]

This video made me read Fahrenheit 451. It's amazing. Thank you, Errant Signal

[@Bletotum]

There's also a redefining twist in Prey, when Alex shows you the looking glass video in the Arboretum, but January calls it out just a couple of minutes later to monologue about the nature of purpose.

[@Biouke]

I was talking about 0451 just the other day in the comments section of a YT video about Dex. That's some level of zeitgeist there :p Also, ONLY 4 pages of notes on Deus Ex? I expected a whole year of videos on this game ;p Well, super-hyped by this upcoming 0451 themed videos anyway, thanks ES! :D ... PS: I stumbled upon an interesting thing for a school project some years ago, which is how the mid-late 90's saw a correlation between the resurgence of the cyperpunk genre and the hybridation of gameplays (until-then hermetic "genres" picking up and merging with others), of which immersive sims and Deus Ex particularly are a striking exemple / culminating point. Anyway I think that it would be interesting for you to look at how it has developed, with games like Strife, Bloodnet, Blade Runner, then culminated with immersive sims, then declined (I'd say VTMB-Bloodlines was the last representant for some years) to mostly see just specific borrowed elements (progression systems from RPG integrated to FPS and action games, without other elements like branching storylines, emphasis on player agency, etc.) until some recent return (timid at first with Alpha Protocol, FallOut 3 and Bioshock, then more prominently with DX-HR, Dishonored...) which coincides with a return of interest in cyberpunk settings, again.

[@hairoku]

As a long time fan of your work and as someone who is deeply appreciative of the measured and insightful way you analyse game narratives I cannot wait for your take on Deus Ex. I look at Planescape: Torment as the first real transcendent moment in gaming for myself, I often cite it as the reason why I majored in Philosophy for example, but Deus Ex is the Ur Text of my gaming existence. Very excited.

[@JaredEMitchell]

GOD YES. Gimme all the immersive sim analysis.

[@DiggerDeeper01]

3 years old video but I came back because I found another reference. It's in, of all games, Accounting Plus from Crows Crows Crows. It's on a dumpster in the alley way level.

[@strike171]

Meanwhile, Steam during the summer of 2020: "0451" Sale

Sounds like somebody will have a fun summer

[@earth.otherwise8657]

I am a simple man. I see a [insert (pro)noun here], I [insert verb here].

[@Lichalfred]

Fallout 4 has a 0451 entrance code in one hard-to-spot bunker

[@Calpsotoma]

I think that it basically says if you see this Easter egg, you are likely to be playing a game that was made by people who loved the games that originated it. Makes sense.

[@moonlyer]

It would be pretty hard to find that one thing that connects all 0451 games altogether. I believe it lies somewhere in the core gaming tastes of developers, so it's really up to individual to put 0451 mark on it. Moreover, ideas get twisted over time as people process them - it's like lifeforms change over generations. Looking forward to see future videos - 0451 legacy sure has lots of great games.

[@BiggDoggJake]

0451; the last digits of my cell ^.^

[@tjlnintendo]

cellphone or prison cell....

[@amacias2012]

Stick with the prod.

[@ErrantSignal]

Prod with the prod.

[@nekkowe]

Just in case, though: we're police.

[@camycamera]

The GEP GUN takedown is the most silent way to eliminate Manderly

[@ultrajari]

That's terror

[@SirRoderickThunderbottom]

why contain it? ..... s' cool

[@Hwyadylaw]

0451 has a personal meaning to me as well, for two different reasons

[@reginaldbarclay1637]

I find it interesting that technology is associated with individualism and nature with collectivism in System Shock 2. It's usually the other way around, especially in sci-fi.

[@Veolynn13]

Rewatching this as I'm planning to include an "0451" keycode reference in the tutorial of an RPG I'm working on. Interesting to see how my game differs in design ideology from the games being described here.

[@DimitriosDenton]

I've never clicked on a video as fast as when I saw 0451.

[@connorforce01]

1:36 Warren Spector said It's not a reference. It's the keycode to get into the offices at Looking Glass. 12:28: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l4W5c4auo9ycedE

[@Levyathyn]

I'm glad I found this video and your channel, it was an interesting watch that bears discussion. I feel like debating with you about Infinite woul be fun and productive.

[@EtCeteraTape]

One of the key aspects of immersive sims is emergent gameplay, which, I believe, is the most common feature of the games bearing 0451 mark. Oh, and I wrote this and thought it's pretty accurate: 0 wrong approaches 4 impendent threats 5 tools at your disposal 1 way to lose, it's death

[@Agenta-df3gb]

That is actually a REALLY good way of looking at 0451. Maybe it wasn't a reference from the office door or 451, but instead something like that?

[@EtCeteraTape]

It probably was a ref at some point, silly thing someone did in the office. But that doesn't mean it can't mutate to reflect what it means now better.

[@opticalmoose8091]

Ryan Ash wait, explain 4 and 5 then. Why exactly 4 threats and 5 tools?

[@EtCeteraTape]

four is the minimum amount of things a person can hold in their mind without forgetting -> suits well for emergent threats as if you can hold the vars in your held, you can also manage it and make a plan. five is about having more instruments to deal with threats, than the amount of threats -> basically, you always have several ways out of any situation you got yourself into.

[@MinosDaedalus]

'Backbone' is another, recent game that uses that very code for the first pad on a door.

[@WMitty2112]

Remnant 2 has 0451 as a safe code. I knew it was familiar when I found it!

[@AlexandreWarners]

Thanks for the late night upload Mr. Signal!

[@TehMastere]

The wilhelm scream of gaming

[@Larkinchance]

Excellent analysis. I've always regarded computer games as a form of evolving literature.

[@myilmazalper]

FUCK that Deus Ex dialogue at the end gave me eternal chills. They've been going for like 30 seconds. I feel uncomfortable.

[@ShinoSarna]

Square Enix needs to make an HD remaster of Deus Ex. Seriously.

[@MrIsaac95]

shinobody why? the new deus ex games play completely different from the original and if you design a remake to be just like the original then i doubt it'd sell well

[@QuestcastPenandPaper]

I am so glad you did that video! :)

[@TheSugarRay]

I was about half way through the video before I thought that there wasn't going to be a game called "0451."

[@austinsmith3011]

I found this video after I did a search for 0451 after I found it in Red Dead Redemption 2.

[@lemmingrad]

Fun fact, I animated on a kids show, and I got a shot where the boy enters the correct combination on a safe, so having the opportunity, I animated 0451.

[@bekkayya]

Good retrospective, thanks for that.

[@ultrajari]

I can't watch the Deus Ex intro anymore without thinking of electronic old men

[@BrorealeK]

Here's a similar memetic phrase: in 14th Century Central Asia, over more than 100 years, a series of black ink paintings inspired by both East Asian and Middle Eastern art styles. All were attributed to one individual: Muhammad of the Black Pen. Now, no one could have lived that long, so the open question is what Muhammad of the Black Pen means. This name could have belonged to a famous painter who either taught or inspired further generations of artists. The later paintings may have been reproductions or copies. It could be the marker not of a specific linear of artists, but a genre or school of art which had no other nomenclature--Mongol-influenced ink paintings. It could have been a way for artists to remain anonymous, their works impersonal. And many more paintings in the same style have no such name attributed to them. So Muhammad of the Black Pen, looked at today, is more the sign of a transition style prevalent during a turbulent time in medieval history, a useful phrase for critics and historians. After all, that's all specific terminology is good for. That's not a bad thing.

[@ShahStark]

Love this genre! Thanks for the video.

[@Nazrega]

I didn't think that Bioshock Infinite was saying that the truth was in the center. I thought it was trying to hold Booker responsible for his actions and forcing him to come to terms with all of the awful things he did. Booker wasn't ever trying to move people towards the center. And by making Comstock another Booker it calls into question all of Booker's own supposed beliefs and viewpoints. The game ends with him making sure that none of the events of the game would ever happen. At least in theory.

[@isletoflangerhans8281]

Correct. And even if it were, what is the problem with saying that the truth lies somewhere between white supremacy and "kill whitey"?

[@concrete_dog]

Bioshock Infinite's plot just kind of nullifies itself, though. If there is a new universe/timeline for every possible outcome of every event, then there are infinite universes where Elizabeth prevents Booker from doing those evil things and infinite universes where she doesn't, rendering the whole time travel thing kind of moot. For every Elizabeth that kills Booker, there will be one that doesn't.

[@ZPM7]

If by "kill whitey" you mean "kill the man who is the most responsible for my ongoing economic misery and class-based segregation." The game clearly paints the revolutionary violence of the oppressed working class of Columbia as both reprehensible and equally as wrong as the ongoing system of largely racialized economic exploitation and segregation. The game ignores that the latter is responsible for the former, and that the social system it's set up in Columbia leaves the working class with no other recourse short of waiting for some upper-class savior to come along and fight for them in high society.

[@isletoflangerhans8281]

The game doesn't "ignore" that at all. It's clear what the Vox Populi is revolting against. But history is replete with revolutions that were just in spirit but corrupt in action. Your argument is the same one Mao used to justify burning libraries and killing clerics.

[@AuspexAO]

I just said something incredibly similar and scrolled down to find your comment Nazrega. I don't see many people acknowledging this central theme, though. It's probably because in the time we live in, racism is the more juicy topic than personal responsibility.

[@AJmon]

Do not forget my name! Do not forget me, 0451.

[@Renken_]

Lol

[@delbedinotti6622]

0451 is the numeric expression of the 4D(igit) reality or immersive Sim we live in. It is the code or blueprint of the Matrix itself.

[@221b]

I just re-watched the intro to Another World and noticed that the code Lester uses to enter his lab is 4511932. Could that be the true originator of this lineage?

[@thedragoshi]

Mad props for mentioning Arx Fatalis. One of my favorite games growing up, and I based my college final project on it. Would love it if you did a review of the game!

[@UncleDeadly1031]

thedragoshi Would love to hear more about that college final!

[@chibikonatsu]

I'm really looking forward to this!

[@sophiaarbosa3980]

Get back to this. We need to talk about the future of Immersive Sims.

[@PavlosPapageorgiou]

interesting. I didn't know that this dystopic game genre went all the way back to Looking Glass.

[@TheLazyLazer]

campster-"hey heres this cool video i made!" me-"awesome!" campster-"also sorry for making it!" me-"....what?" I kid but that ending felt a little bit like that ;P looking forward to the summer of 0451 :D