Broken Reality, Vaporwave, and Irony

Broken Reality is a game about a futuristic virtual chatroom that borrows most of its aesthetics from the 90's! You'll almost feel like you're back in 2045!
It's also deeply tied up in the vaporwave subculture for good and for ill, and we talk a bit (as much as I can bear to, anyways) about what that means and how it impacts the game.
Game link: store.steampowered.com/app/75...
Sources, As Per My Statement I Would Include Sources:
The Music Theory of V A P O R W A V E : • The music theory of V ...
What Happened To Vaporwave? www.esquire.com/entertainment...
Adam Harper's Comment: Vaporwave and the pop-art of the virtual plaza: www.dummymag.com/news/adam-ha...
Dan Bell's KZbin: / @thisisdanbell
Dan Bell's TEDX Talk: • Inside America's dead ...
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This episode was made possible by generous support through Patreon!
/ errantsignal
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[@InnuendoXP]

Your video is responsible for me now being hopelessly stuck watching a seemingly neverending series of videos on dead malls.

[@mayayamato7351]

welcome to the club

[@alkmibeats2133]

Roxy Lalonde we have t shirts

[@powerfulaura5166]

Look into Andrew Yang's American Mall Act.

[@SharewareWizard]

Vaporwave is nostalgia for the past of a future we were promised and never got. For a moment we can look back and pretend we're back in our childhood in a world with infinite potential, and that by the time we're adults we'll have flying cars and robot friends instead of everything being exactly the same except everything is dirtier and older.

[@mrttripz3236]

Well well well someone’s been reading about hauntology.

[@ottowokeninger9617]

Welcome to egalitarian cloon world. It's boring and tiresome (and now we have no jobs too). Oh, and everything is meant to be perceived as some conditioned -ist and -ism, which even the video creator is guilty. It is as it was really intended to be.

[@CyberSpider35]

We have unlimited potentional now, but some always hateful, always depressed and overall toxic old farts just can't see that. I love my childhood, cause we have more democracy in Russia back then, but still - 90's suck. We should admit it.

[@StonerBaer]

This seems to be a much more brass-tax definition of the term ' Saudade' or 'Desiderium'. How interesting that a Genre of Music brought about as a mockery of Consumerism can evoke such feelings like this, especially with that of folks of the Millennial or Z Generations. No wonder I love the Genre.

[@GallowayJesse]

E

[@groupsounds4896]

As a vaporwave fan, i think you did a solid job summing it up despite your concerns. Also I appreciate the dan bell shout out.

[@xanaxodgrindcorelover9191]

it's hard not to talk about vaporwave alot without at best making oblique references and at worst sounding like a tool so yeah, citing the adam harper article and just going from there is a good way to do it imo

[@TheDolphinTuna]

Eh, the whole “vaporwave is a criticism of capitalism” shtick is a bit pretentious, but overall I’d say the man did a decent job

[@groupsounds4896]

@@TheDolphinTuna it may not be true for all vaporwave but especially near the beginning, that was the aesthetic impression a lot of vaporwave left on me - especially macintosh plus, internet club, and prismcorp virtual enterprise. It felt like satire, and a lot of people writing about it at the time shared similar sentiments. Of course, a lot of really good vaporwave, including classic stuff, is completely apolitical.

[@xanaxodgrindcorelover9191]

@@TheDolphinTuna well you need to factor in that the harper article was from like 2012, so alot of the vaporwave out at the time was actually trying to convey that alternate-universe utopia / skipping CD aesthetic. he also said it could be a celebration as well as a criticism, which it kind of is both, paradoxically

[@xanaxodgrindcorelover9191]

@@groupsounds4896 i wouldn't call alot of vaporwave "apolitical," it just evokes different things in different people, and some people won't see anything political in it. kind of redundant saying this tho because it can apply to literally all art

[@KnarfBlack]

A lot of the iffy jokes are probably the fault of Kickstarter backers. There were a lot of "make an ad" type rewards, so there is a lot of (appropriate, I guess) ambiguity about authorship in the details.

[@joshualane1716]

This makes sense but is also fitting. All of the ads, iconography, creators, people in chat rooms were obviously fron different people. Since the game is presenting a three dimensional representation of the echoes and ruins of 90s cyber space, I think this sort of mixed authorship only adds to it. If every aspect of the game was tonally similar, well, that wouldn't make for an immersive, believable internet at all.

[@Crispman_777]

​@@joshualane1716 Absolutely. It looks like it has encapsulated the popular idea of the monolithic internet, "The Internet", perfectly. Even the criticisms of discordant tonal shifts and questionable humour that may be in bad taste fits within the overarching aesthetic (pun intended) of the game because "The Internet" is everything from everyone all at once.

[@stevethepocket]

Looks like we found the _one game_ where "contribute content of your own with no rules" as a backer reward doesn't make the game worse.

[@KingBobXVI]

Lol, that's actually perfectly fitting here.

[@user-vh5pr8lo1x]

i'm a backer and if i remember correctly, barely anyone got to the "make an ad" tier i spoke w/ the devs on discord and they straight up told me that (at least some of) the games jokes are meant to illustrate how internet / gaming culture can be toxic although there were jokes that they cut out because they seemed to be broadcasting it rather than criticizing it, so i'm not sure how stuff like "loli pop" made it in

[@MaakaSakuranbo]

Reminds me partially of Second Life. Last I checked, it had a declining user count. By its nature it's also sort of a weird assembly of everything. Realistic NPCs next to anime characters, and then a flying dildo comes rushing through.

[@BobisOnlyBob]

"Broken Reality" isn't a bad descriptor of SL, either. I kinda miss it, but every now and then I'll do a flyby and it has more abandoned malls than the US itself - a critical failure of imagination, a sprawling expanse of attempted capitalism, housing everything from the mundane to the esoteric, but mostly in big grey boxes made to emulate the concrete and metal panels of real life flyover country malls.

[@MaakaSakuranbo]

@@BobisOnlyBob I like the concept of SL. Sadly it's laggy, has outdated tech/graphics, and a horrible scripting language. Not to mention the overpriced regions that are too small. And Linden Lab isn't really looking to fix it. Sansar is a different thing altogether imo.

[@_vallee_5190]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/joLOinWYgp6Mr68

[@Psy500]

@@BobisOnlyBob Second Life has a huge problem of uneven density where there are worlds where regulars normally hang and vast acres of land that are nearly dead if not abandoned. This comes from the whole land system of Second Life with everything being on a monolithic map (unlike VRChat where worlds are self-contained). The result is that people can lose interest in their virtual land since you get a chunk of land free with a premium subscription then simply ignore it after you build it (yet it still part of the same monolithic map), then you have 3rd party owners of land that rents it out and finally the fact abandoned land goes back to Linden Lab that could leave it as is for years.

[@RhysticStudies]

i love this video so much.

[@hoovy8081]

Me too

[@Fragenzeichenplatte]

I absolutely loved the aesthetics (Geocity is such a beautiful place) but never had an issue with the memes/jokes because they're exactly what you would find in such a place. Even if they are problematic it's realistic and it certainly fits the theme of the game.

[@kevinwillems8720]

But what purpose do they serve?

[@Fragenzeichenplatte]

@@kevinwillems8720 Worldbuilding.

[@lancesmith8298]

I look at this piece now, and all I can see in my rear view mirror is how much of the pop impact of vaporwave is the platonic ideal of a Bored Ape Yacht Club hodler. The talk of accelerationism, the talk of poorly communicated angst at capital, not just the clearly crass memes but the sheer quantity of doges and toothless parody of advertisements. Which is to say that it’s a good watch, but this game has absolutely nothing on Cruelty Squad

[@Fragenzeichenplatte]

@@lancesmith8298 Well, can't really blame the game for that.

[@chooseymomschoose]

Chronic the Hedgehog is almost as old as the Internet. I’m assuming he’s in there more as a reference than a joke...

[@Ch4oTiK]

Chronic the *Hemp*hog.

[@CCHSurTigres]

I spoke about that add with one of the developers that is teaching me game design in college They are joking about Sonic being exploded a lot to the point that he is wasted

[@TheInsaneWaluigi]

@@CCHSurTigresWait the devs of this game teach?

[@CCHSurTigres]

🅱️ohn 🅱️oltrane Rodrigo Saco the programmer is a teacher in my college and works in the sabe studio developing new games

[@TheInsaneWaluigi]

Erick Costa Rica shit that’s awesome

[@pencilquest9409]

The dead memes that you didn't like, to me, support the nihilism of the whole movement. A joke that doesn't work is the dead mall of today.

[@nathane.9286]

LOL

[@nathane.9286]

Honestly this remind me of the joke "first history presents itself as a tragedy, and through repetition, a farce"

[@hoovy8081]

More of a philosophical state ment that a joke but I can't be the judge

[@oPHILOSORAPTORo]

Something else I just caught on to... The "μ" in "μPay" is used as shorthand for "micro", as in "microseconds" (μs) or "micrometers" (μm). So it could be read as micro pay, aka, microtransaction.

[@sonicbro6446]

or its like μTorrent as in μPay - you pay

[@807D14M0ND5]

@@sonicbro6446 Doesn't they also just stand for micro or tiny? They always mention the program being small.

[@sonicbro6446]

@@807D14M0ND5 you do have point

[@SA-rb5xq]

@@sonicbro6446 It was supposed to be muTorrent

[@johncameron1935]

moo pay the cow matrix is real wake up

[@IC-xk4gi]

YOU WOULDN´T DOWNLOAD A CAR *literally downloads a car* Really enjoyed this game from start to end, also, there´s a hidden jumpscare, you must go out of your way to see it

[@chumblesthecheese8580]

"Things that are seen... cannot be unseen."

[@schufck5272]

Wait, what jump scare? I played through it but can't remember finding that.

[@chumblesthecheese8580]

@@schufck5272 that's because you played the last part correctly. If you don't follow the orb closely and get lost, you will come across a terrible evil.

[@schufck5272]

@@chumblesthecheese8580 Sounds ominous - is there Chronic dabbing?

[@chumblesthecheese8580]

@@schufck5272 no, nothing that evil.

[@bartz0rt928]

I feel like if it didn't have jokes that were out of line or just kinda stupid, it wouldn't feel like a good representation of social media.

[@ms.pirate]

Tbf, you'll find those same tastless jokes on social media anyways. So theres no difference

[@dafffodil]

Despite the preemptive warning, I think you've done a better job talking about what vaporwave is than most deliberately explanatory videos and articles on vaporwave. Really amazing seeing two of my favourite things come together, Your style of in depth video game writing, and my history immersed in the development of the vaporwave subcultures on the internet. Beautifully done. You have a knack for bringing ideas on a subject into consideration without reducing the subject to such ideas, which is incredibly refreshing.

[@gidzmalherbe2509]

Are they jokes or are they comments over saturation and desensitization. Jokes like the peephole and the loli sign could be metaphors for stumbling upon and diving down a whole and finding something unsettling or odd by accident. These things also are shocking to the uninformed but are known by people in internet culture.

[@cai6972]

Yeah, they're more like dark references that further contextualize (probably using the wrong word, dont hate) the cyper aesthetic. It cant be a game about the internet without some Pepe's, weird fetishes, or sex

[@gotgunpowder]

Something I'm surprised to see nobody else point out yet: This game is like an antithesis to a similar game with a similar aesthetic known as Cruelty Squad. They're both strange, incomprehensible games with equally incomprehensible themes and a very retro-inspired aesthetic. But they're polar opposites: Cruelty Squad is a tough-as-nails tactical FPS, Broken Reality is a fairly sedate exploration/puzzle/collectathon game. Cruelty Squad has an aesthetic designed to make you feel uncomfortable, uneasy and vaguely nauseous, Broken Reality has an aesthetic designed to be calming and nostalgic. Cruelty Squad presents a depressing, broken world with hope hiding at the end of a long tunnel of pain, Broken Reality presents a bright, colorful, and peaceful world with something dark lurking beneath it. They're so alike, yet different, that I'm surprised they are not made by the same developers. Both are quite good, though.

[@Mate_Antal_Zoltan]

uh, maybe because this video came out years before Cruelty Squad did? dumbass?

[@TheSugarRay]

I feel like I exclusively get into things when they are dying. This game might give me flashbacks.

[@jiffylou98]

geez, and I thought my sex life was bad...

[@TheSugarRay]

@@jiffylou98 It's the neopets forum all over again! I didn't know we were cybering. I gently nibble your earlobe as I loosen your buttons.

[@matthewthedark6013]

I love vaporwave and this game is pretty good in my opinion, and I feel you really nailed this game on the head. Its as serious as you make it really. Because Vaporwave is hard to gauge in its level of irony and this is no different. I personally recommend you treat it how I'd recommend you listen to Vaporwave: Just relax and enjoy.

[@BakaTheStruggler]

Thank you. Too many people get caught up in finding meanings and intentions and dissecting what probably isn't there instead of just enjoying the D O P E A R T and C H I L L M U S I C.

[@insomniac9278]

Critiques a game called "Broken Reality", and struggles to find a coherent meaning behind it. I like it.

[@vestigex]

What is ur profile pic

[@ms.pirate]

I think broken reality really means "detached from reality"

[@KuraiMuin]

I'm convinced that the only way to discuss the very serious modern anxiety is with layers and layers of irony and self-referencial humor and I'm totally okay with that. This looks right up my alley.

[@TheEvilCheesecake]

Maybe you're just not good at communicating your ideas. XDD

[@JBX07]

Broken Reality: Is it sincere or is it purely ironic. Answer: It doesn't matter nor does it care to matter.

[@jjuvior]

@Fernand The Fresh Why shouldn't he?

[@StHappyfaces]

@Fernand The Fresh As if that's somehow bad.

[@KingBobXVI]

@Fernand The Fresh "Oh no, someone had thoughts about something and shared them!"

[@PDubbler]

@Vapor Dissecting memes, much like dissecting frogs, may reveal the inner workings, but also kills them.

[@Slateproc]

tbqhwyf (to be quite honest with you family) the ambiguity about its meaning or purpose is what makes broken reality. If it were to have a concrete statement in one direction or the other it would be betraying what it set out ot do

[@spenceduggs]

I genuinely don't know why, but I end up rewatching this video at least once a month, if not more. Your writing is excellent, and I'm a "soft mark" for this style of game as well. Good stuff!

[@icarusinspace4413]

your comment about looking for meaning at 17:40 , reminds me of a Tarkovsky quote: “If you look for a meaning, you’ll miss everything that happens.”

[@ggggfan1]

"what_can_i_say_but_yikes.jpg" is a great touch

[@gigglysamentz2021]

I think there is a bit of love for L.S.D. Dream Emulator in this game ;)

[@vazzeg]

This looks like something right up my alley. I wrote some stuff on Vaporwave last year. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

[@mrf4ncyp4nts]

this game's messages, themes, and intended takeaways are the polar opposite of that of The Beginner's Guide - you really know how to pick 'em, huh.

[@WraithMagus]

... Is... it? If anything, the takeaway of The Beginner's Guide is that while "Every Painting Is a Self-portrait", you can never actually reach and know the artist entirely because your own personal biases and lenses through which you view the game get in the way and distort the narrator you have in your head as opposed to the artist that created the work. Broken Reality, meanwhile, seems to hover in a zone of "ironic" statements where it's extremely hard to discern what is earnest and what is just a joke, and maybe the creators don't know, either. In the core sense, their themes seem to be quite similar. Then again, I found the Innuendo Studios take on The Beginner's Guide to be more insightful than the Errant Signal that seemed to try to end in a meta joke instead of really getting to the core of the game's message. kzbin.info/www/bejne/an-ZqmmCetymgcU

[@Crispman_777]

@@WraithMagus I really like Innuendo Studios but I really miss his video game videos

[@loplopthebird1860]

E R R A N T S I G N A L /music plays

[@th4nkyoub3n]

@@WraithMagus for some reason i thought of the gaming side and the alt-right side of innuendo studios to be different channels. guess i was wrong

[@WraithMagus]

@@cartoonhanks1708 Way to not let anything I actually said stand in the way of taking down that strawman! Where does this false dichotomy of "only authorial intent matters" versus "only subjective reader opinion matters" come from? Especially if we're talking about The Beginner's Guide, where authorial intent is purposefully obscured?

[@michaelpattie9248]

Isn't not being able to distinguish between playful irony and disturbing sincerity exactly the internet in microcosm?

[@galamotshaku]

Thanks so much for the review!!. I Really like the approach/critique of it. I think more than trying to make a direct statement, the game was trying to portray the type of things you might stumble upon on the internet, and of course that includes some edgelord humor. In any case the most meaningful thing for me is to see how everyone makes their own conclusions out of the experience. Much love to everyone that played it ❤️

[@wayfarerzen3393]

As a genre, vaporwave seems bent on being as belligerently contradictory as possible, and for some reason that makes me love it even more. Like so much from the internet, it seems to have an almost zen-like humor towards being accurately described, and refuses to be so. Also, I want to play the fuck out of this game. I've never heard of it until now but this is my jam.

[@YungDelic]

These vaporwave video essays are the best form of entertainment on youtube for me💖🔮

[@theMimicsBox]

I was curious about this game for a while, but had to play it after watching this, I just finished, and I gotta say, that was really worth my time haha. It seems on the surface like a memey walking sim, but there was some real heart put into this thing I feel. It was nice

[@JoannaFalkowska]

What a great episode. I'm so thankful for this channel. Thanks for sharing your insights.

[@telnobynoyator_6183]

The adult jokes are a parody of what sort of stuff you can find in forums that are no longer moderated, abandoned by its creators

[@itsapplepai]

Spotted this video while I was still playing the game, pushed myself to finish the game so I could watch the video. I very much had the same feelings and conflicted emotion about the game while also in the bias of it playing to everything I would like on paper, but putting it into the deeper context of its genre makes it make a lot of sense. The sense of fond nostalgia and paralleled bitterness I felt by the end of the game feels like the essence itself of vaporwave along this definition. Thanks for this video! Your writing is beautiful.

[@jerrell1169]

Hey, the first Dan Bell video you showed is a local mall of mine (Marley Station) glad that we’re getting some representation here.

[@Gigas0101]

Aesthetics over values is vaporwave in a nutshell. Definitely giving this one a look, cheers!

[@CadgerChristmasLightShow]

As a super huge Dan Bell fan, I love that you mentioned him and even showed a couple of his videos! When I think of vaporwave, one of the first things that comes to mind is Dan Bell's dead mall videos. This video of yours made me want to get steam and see if my PC is good enough to play this game.... it looks like something I would really like. Keep up the awesome work!

[@irl_lizard7880]

Alright your intro sold me already, this is a game for me. Gonna have to go form my own opinion before watching the rest of this video

[@richard_franks]

I have a habit now of just buying the games you review before I watch the reviews. I love finishing up a game and coming to see your thoughts on it. Thanks for all the videos!

[@Waitwhat469]

"Everybody loud and clear But the truth comes out in riddles that are Safe enough to share" S.J. Tucker in Cheshire kitten

[@bidaubadeadieu]

Wow, did not expect to find another SJ Tucker fan here!

[@Crispman_777]

Out of all of the "experimental" indie titles that you've covered this is one I'll be picking up. It looks ingenious and hilarious. I know nothing about vapourwave but it looks like it has encapsulated the popular idea of the monolithic internet, "The Internet", perfectly. Even your criticisms of discordant tonal shifts and questionable humour that may be in bad taste fits within the overarching aesthetic (pun intended) of the game because "The Internet" is everything from everyone all at once. Also accelerationism sounds fucking terrifying and a horrible idea.

[@MiloDelMal]

It Is great. I hired one of the main devs once (pior learning about broken reality). He is quite an interesting guy who looks like white Jesus.

[@Crispman_777]

@@MiloDelMal What did you hire them for?

[@MiloDelMal]

@@Crispman_777 As a technical designer. He was looking for a job while Broken Reality made some cash. Right now he teaches at an University and He is working on another game he showed me recently.

[@Crispman_777]

@@MiloDelMal That's cool. What was the project you hired them to work on? Was it games related or something else?

[@MiloDelMal]

@@Crispman_777 I only hired one of the guys. It was a full time position, sadly, the company we used to work wasn't the best place to be at. We work together in an AR game for KFC México. We worked together like a month and then I quit. (I had resigned before I hired him, but I was management so I gave a 3 months notice). He stayed there for about 2 or 3 more months and moved on.

[@MaraK_dialmformara]

This is just Dave Strider the Game and it needs to admit that it needs a hug

[@LimeyLassen]

You mean Dirk Strider? All it's missing is muppet r34.

[@MaraK_dialmformara]

@@LimeyLassen no, I mean Dave. Dirk might have made it though.

[@PabbyPabbles]

@@MaraK_dialmformara Dirk is the one who pushes past the max(longInt) of irony and loops back to sincerity. At least that's something like what he said, probably ironically

[@ryeroyal]

Still one of my favorite videos. The prodding at themes that he is still processing makes this so easy to just be walk through his thought process and that's a really cool thing that a lot of other essays don't do. So often video essays are "Here my unique and fully formed take on this thing," so much of the process to get to that opinion is lost and it's the confusion and internal debate that's interesting that campster brings. I feel like this reads like an insalt but it's a writing style that I haven't seen elsewhere.

[@brianlong9100]

Would be interested in hearing your critique of Hypnospace Outlaw relative to this game.

[@Tygrysic]

Thank you for this great video. It really helped me out a lot on my final paper for "Introduction to game studies". Cheers!

[@AgentOracle]

Best explanation of vaporwave i've ever seen. THank you dude.

[@heysoular]

As someone who's tangentially interested in vaporwave, I really appreciated your look at the genre and its themes!

[@OctavioRedding]

I didn't take a lot of the sexual stuff as jokes. It seemed to be more of an acknowledgement that in online communities of bored or disillusioned people you'll casually encounter lots of weird sex stuff and nobody seems to care. A sort of commentary on the relaxed sensibilities of the users. That was my take, I'm not sure if that's what the developers intended, but I didn't really see it all as humor... Or at least not 'haha humor'. More like that sort of cynical humor response you express because the alternative is being sad and you're trying to stop yourself from being sad so you overcompensate and resort to irreverently coughing out a snarky laugh because that's better than crying.

[@DisplayLine6.13.9]

Feeling sad just because someone has a weird fetish is a bit...extreme don't you think ? Also the internet doesn't have borders or didn't used to have them, so one didn't really feel like enforcing the particular dogmas of ones society.

[@thematicschematic]

Yeah, it was just reminiscent of how the internet really was in the 90s, or how Second Life has always been. I experienced these things as verisimilitude, that NATEM was a product not only of its creators but of the users as well, so of course there's going to be weird shit, awful textures, sexual fetishes and so on.

[@Robb1977]

@@DisplayLine6.13.9 its less sad and more... broken. like youre fine until you find out people eat shit for fun, and then even though it doesn't hurt you in any way, you find yourself unable to reconcile reality and it just bothers you.

[@Matty002]

the rain drops turned into wifi symbols. i love it

[@diegowushu]

I honestly can't put a finger on why I find vaporware so utterly enthralling. I've seen it being criticized as shallow, simplistic and devoid of anything meaningful to say, but I still enjoy it a lot.

[@Crispman_777]

I think that's why it is meaningful

[@badradish2116]

floral shoppe's legacy is CRAZY. you can't find any vaporwave art that doesn't use at least one of the ideas from the floral shoppe cover (greco-roman sculpture, japanese, grids, or the pink and blue color scheme).

[@ClockwerkMan]

If there's one thing I'd add to your thoughts on vaporwave, it's vaporwaves reliance on nostalgia. It's a genre about simpler times in the past, about memories, and obsolescence. It's a layered statement about missing the past, acknowledging that the past wasn't great, and making it better. For me, it especially evokes a sense of processing pain. As a side note, if you haven't already, check out Sunday School simpsonswave.

[@TerrorBlades]

God yes I did not think this would end up in my inbox! Thank you!

[@aidan8473]

I need to play this, thanks for doing this video

[@FatalKitsune]

Just imagine being the guy that helped invent an entire genre of music. The weight of that knowledge that, even accidentally, you created a genre.

[@EverErebus]

Finally someone’s talking about this game. I need a reason to not be mad at the ending.

[@Cadllmn123]

You can harvest my like. Well done tying things together.

[@schufck5272]

I would like to thank you for this video - without it, I probably would have never found out about this game, and I absolutely love it. So much, indeed, that I played through it with at times, like, four frames per second because my computer couldn't handle it. Which was pretty hard considering the platforming stuff in the Intranet. It took many, waaay too many tries and luck that after the lag I would be positioned corecty. But in the end it worked out.

[@iabogoa]

ＭΞＴΛＭ♢ＤΣＲＮＩＳＭ　（ぎ演ヱ）

[@Gooshnads]

I eagerly wait for every single one of these essays you put out. I really hope you do a cyberpunk one because there's so much hype around it, but I wanna know if talents or map design is gonna be anything to be write home about.

[@lothrazar]

Wow fantastic video. I learned a ton and might get the game

[@z_bill]

Great video! I absolutely loved this game, my favorite of 2018. I kinda blew my mind, and there was some deep weird/glitchy gameplay at the end I think really elevated it. Like you, I'm into the glitch-hiking feel and exploring dead worlds, and less into the meme & pop culture stuff. But, to me, that's just the layer of trash you gotta sort through on the internet to find the stuff you are interested in underneath..like the video game equivalent of closing pop-ups or skipping youtube ads. As someone not especially aware of vapourwave, except through games, I especially appreciated your rundown. I recently discovered your channel and really dig your style and the time and care you take with everything!

[@AdamX21198]

Thanks for the game recommendation, will definitely buy soon.

[@lazonico9]

For somebody who isn't much into Vapourwave, you described perfectly.

[@DLWormwood]

I've had an interest in Vaporwave over the last few years, but not from an angle of irony, social jamming or political critique, but as a source of nostalgia. I rocked that rainbow cursor back in college on my Mac LC, and have a Sega CD collection I run in emulation on my current PC/Mac hybrid setup. I've not yet developed a "get off my lawn" mindset, but your mention of the subculture's more recent "accelerationism" tone is making me wonder if my developing a sense of crankiness about how my own life is being shadow mocked is inevitable.

[@Donyoku]

So you're saying it's Vaporwave Dark Souls

[@johnnydel2327]

It's the Dark Souls of Vaporwave E E E E EEEEE E E E E

[@rapidfart9579]

It really makes you feel like vaporware spiderman

[@Mate_Antal_Zoltan]

@@rapidfart9579 no no, that's Verlet Swing

[@deljohnston8956]

17:56 this looks like a pretty clear parody/reference to 80s supermodel and Bond Villain Grace Jones, known for her high-top haircut. You're overthinking it beyond "Grace Jones existed in the neon-soaked 80s and had a super-distinctive look, therefore put her in the vaporwave game"

[@gomezpovina]

Mate, may I recommend you reading "The Argentine writer and tradition"? It might give you a better undestandng about how we, South Americans, deal with what we perceive as an hegemonic culture, and how we read those cultures. I think it's on PDF if you Google it.

[@lucca_who]

I need a review like this but for cruelty squad, it almost seem like sibling games

[@LiosProsum]

I am watching this on 360p.

[@oPHILOSORAPTORo]

So two things... 1) Before watching this video, I thought vaporwave was only a visual medium. I had no idea it was also a music subgenre. 2) Vaporwave - both audio and visual - fits the neo-Dadaism aesthetic that has become so popular throughout internet culture, and this game fits the look and feel of that perfectly. If you're unfamiliar with Dadaism, neo or otherwise, this Tumblr post does a great job describing it. aint-that-kind-of-blog-bruv.tumblr.com/post/150209646443/bebeocho-mustangsally78-fringnubs

[@BvsMAcosh]

I vaguely remembered this video and it had eventually lead me to paradise killer.

[@mrsmiter]

I kind of feel like whether vaporware is a joke or a serious genre is the bad faith arguer turned into music. No matter how you think or talk about it, you are wrong and people will aggressively tell you you are wrong by using any angle they can understanding it isn't about finding truth, it's about proving the other false.

[@dotanuki3371]

I don't see how that matters. Why someone created something is much, much less interesting than what they created and what that does for you. People using irony as an alibi as if their intent actually mattered much. It follows from death of the author that ironic trash is exactly, completely equivalent to plain trash. I don't necessarily subscribe to a work being completely independent from its author, and you can discuss schools of criticism up and down, but in the end only one question matters, is the work worth *your* time? How much does it being a joke vs not being a joke impact that?

[@JamisonMyth]

@@dotanuki3371 the reason why "is it a joke" or not is important is because it completely flips the frame thru which the piece can be understood, which can completely change the answer to the question of "is it worth your time?". But ultimately I think the resolution to this is the realization that meaning is a personal and temporal thing that manifests in experience, not some essential timeless thing that persists after the human race is gone. When you realize that "is it a joke" remains important, but having a definitive answer that we can all agree on is not important

[@dotanuki3371]

@@JamisonMyth the only frame it flips is the one of authorial intent. I said that is not important to me.

[@JamisonMyth]

dotanuki regardless of authors intent, you must interpret it as a joke or as serious within your own mind, and so the question really isn’t “was the artist joking” it’s more “is this a joke to me”

[@JamisonMyth]

dotanuki also, the intent of one character in a novel imposes meaning on the dialogue from the readers perspective, so I think ignoring authorial intent is a mistake, but the much more common mistake is to think the authors intent is paramount.

[@Lucas-no7gp]

16:10 I laughed way too much with the way you said Loli Pop

[@Shootkicksass]

Great video!

[@JD-qq8fz]

This was excellent.

[@arroraseliant8482]

Ah, for heaven's sake. I was just trying to get back to a more varied diet of YT videos after spending so much time in the music part of the place and you link an Adam Neely video...

[@dotanuki3371]

I appreciate you deliberating some on the actual worth of this kind of ironic vapidity. Always comes off as a lack of ability to properly commit. "Is it a critique of capitalism?" It's not a critique of anything if it doesn't commit to a position.

[@entropino9928]

Eh I think people are projecting quite a bit with the capitalism thing. But as it is the internet, you can never really know why someone is appealed or creates something

[@erickschusterdeoliveira2662]

@@entropino9928 I mean, even if the game isn't going after capitalism, the vaporwave movement itself is, so it's not really projecting, just expectation.

[@entropino9928]

@@erickschusterdeoliveira2662 I think that is projecting too

[@joke-wo4ye]

@@entropino9928 Not really? The one thing it reliably and consistently holds is a mournful look at consumer culture, the artifacts it leaves behind, and the false futures we were promised. I don't know how you could see vaporwave as anything but anti-capitalist.

[@entropino9928]

Gabriel Ammerman I don’t see the mournful look though, I just see beauty.

[@thinkingrelated]

I knew when this game was announced people would be making 20 minute long video essays that would be recommended to me by the KZbin algorithm that I wouldn’t watch anyways, but good on you for promoting this cool game

[@typicalbootss586]

It's weird how different and similar synthwave/outrun is from vaporwave. I'm thoroughly enjoying my dive into the retrowave culture's.

[@pawechabrowicz2895]

That likes mechanic... Attention is the currency in the marketplace of ideas.

[@CommissionerC]

Really enjoyed the game up to the point in geocities where everything breaks apart if you don't find the mariachis in the correct order and you have to restart your entire game. I made the mistake of not asking the DJ for the tape first. The only game with a game breaking issue so common and big that I gave up beating it at all. To anyone trying to give this a chance, look at a walkthrough for geocities to not get locked out of the last chapter.

[@GrandHighGamer]

This makes me want a video on Hypnospace Outlaw.

[@sonicbro6446]

I also played Broken Reality and I think its a great game, its like the definition of "Vaporwave game", colorful graphics, atmospheric sound, relaxing and non violent gameplay.

[@jauxro]

One cool thing here is that you don't have to choose whether you're "lamenting" or "embracing" vaporwave when you participate in creating it.

[@lk0056]

I'm loving the visuals (mouse click) [LIKE]

[@uropig]

this might be my favorite game period

[@MaxLebled]

This is by far one of the most interesting game critiques I've watched in a while. Well done

[@Blairskirock]

I love games dude. Cool little stuff like this can be made by a few peeps and just be what it is and be cool. That simple, no corruption. That's dope.

[@12DAMDO]

the NPC's remind me of the current dead state of Habbo Hotel and it's really depressing

[@sirdryden42]

I feel like this video was about a year too early.

[@hish1238]

So I'm super late to the party, but hey maybe you read this and consider it or maybe you don't. I have a problem with the phrase "embraces aesthetics over values." To me, an applied aesthetic is a statement of value, maybe not the type of statement we're used to, but a statement nonetheless. The best analogy I can make is to your Far Cry 5 "Art of Saying Nothing" video, where I would say it is a missed opportunity at best and dangerous at worst to claim that the aesthetics are not part of a value statement. For example, as a teen I loved (and still do, but as a guilty pleasure) emo-punk music. Most, not all, but most of the lyrics were hollow and did not really make any large statement outside of "I'm sad," but the consistent embrace of the aesthetics of teen angst and sadness made an implicit argument that these were emotional states worth taking seriously, whether or not the lyrics themselves could produce anything we would typically consider "substantial." I take this to heart especially considering the depression and anxiety memes that continue to come from my generation, which only makes me wonder what may have happened if individuals read the emo trend aesthetically as a cry for help, albeit an admittedly whiny and self-important one as teenage shenanigans tend to be. Similarly, Quake's aesthetics could be read in much the same way, and Broken Reality could be read as embracing the vaporwave aesthetic, thus circulating it, making the implicit argument that it is, in fact, worth circulating, and therefore a sensibility to be taken seriously. Now that is a very surface-level read, and I am by no means an aesthetic scholar so I'm sure there is even more there, but I think it is worth bringing up. It could have also just been a wording oversight that I'm overreacting to, which if it was I hope this argument can at least be read in good faith :)

[@netherin5844]

A Magical Katana, a bookmarker that lets you teleport, a hookshot, a weird credit card, and just a camera

[@RawbeardX]

from the title I was expecting a video about Star Citizen.

[@TheG_Boy]

I need this

[@niccangiga41]

I hope someone creates a vaporwave metaverse like this

[@Tassanamm]

I dont' think I will ever forget the moment you went into aquanet

[@12DAMDO]

haven't played this in years but ever since Temptation Stairway i've been thinking about it again

[@TheVoiceOfChaos]

i dont know what it is but it is the coolest thing ive ever seen.