"smash is life" lmao yikes

[@CONEYZZ]

Get 20% OFF + Free Shipping with code CONEY at mnscpd.com/coney #teammanscaped

[@steakcrust558]

My students have either low key burned me or low key complimented me saying that I am very similar to you Coney when we are in the classroom

[@hunterculpepper1973]

Says the guy who fucked over smash 4 and 5 by making smash players look retarded though in not really a smash player really but I've played smash but I play alot games

[@josiahkrodel4656]

tbh the reason i don't see vr becoming the norm, is simply because of people like me. too lazy to me smoovin their whole body to every single game. If im playing minecraft, i personally don't want a workout. i just got off of work! im tired!

[@Captain_Bobvious]

Dude really said "McDonalds is gaslighting you with marketing" directly into an ad read like a true combo lmao

[@LeBlingKing]

KZbin Sponsor option select

[@Gwenbaruby]

The "obsession with being right" point is honestly the biggest issue with media analysis on the internet right now IMO, I think a lot of people are straight-up just afraid to give their opinions or interpretations of things because it's different to what the vocal people are saying and being 'wrong' on a platform like twitter means you're going to get clowned on endlessly due to how prevalent mob culture is (influencers def play a part in this). This usually leads into subtext just being whatever the smart people analyze it as with little room for interpretation. It's something even I fall in to, where I'm reluctant to state my opinions on something until I read the takes of people I trust to have good literacy to make sure my way of seeing it is 'valid'. Granted some people are straight up dumb but the modern internet is such a breeding ground for arguments that it feels like a death sentence to be seen as dumb, and the people who just interpreted a media in their own personal way get grouped with that when their experience is valid too. It's just very lame as someone who plays a lot of story-based games to have it feel like there's 1 way to interpret things now, if you're not someone with an audience it can feel like your opinion just isn't relevant. this got really long oh god

[@treedude4246]

I honestly agree And it sucks i feel like i xan only voice weird oppinons with close friends

[@wonderlandzer0]

THIS !!!!

[@Newby1]

I think an issue alongside not wanting to "swim upstream" or be "wrong" is that people are really dismissive of people who's opinions may differ or could lead to a different conclusion. And if they do end up in a conversation where it seems like their thoughts on a subject are being tested or may well be overturned they default to "well it's how I feel" or other things even when the conversation is about a definitive quantifiable thing like a story's structure or a games coding.

[@kachowabunga17]

ok

[@Razooooh]

It doesn’t mather if your opinion is relevant, just as much as the influencer’s opinion isn’t relevant. The author or director had an intention. But the masses or people who write about it in the future will probably have vastly different opinions than you, your friends, or the author. Just enjoy the entertainment as it is and don’t overthink it. At least this is my opinion on “topical” fictional content.

[@ODISeth]

I have never in my life felt distressed, nor have I believed a single thing I have been told on the internet

[@xavierlehew6746]

Youre straight.

[@Gingy1000]

Your mother loves you

[@elijahsimon2294]

Damn

[@leowolastname2250]

good for you king

[@paxcaster]

GIGAFRANK

[@epicmarschmallow5049]

Also re: "the curtains are fucking blue" I've always found it depends on context. Plenty of pieces of media are cranked out without any worries about depth or meaning simply to fill a quota, and in those cases the curtains probably are just blue. But lots of media (the actual good stuff) has intentionality and thought behind the decisions and choices made by the creator(s). It's also generally pretty obvious when a work has more thought put into it and therefore actually warrants that level of analysis. The meme completely ignores this distinction, and is the product of a group of students either too lazy or frustrated to engage with their English classes and instead argue that there isn't anything to engage with. It's really annoying

[@tymandude1510]

Beyond that just because a creator didn't intend the meaning you found in a piece of media doesn't mean that meaning is invalid. Experiencing media is a shared experience between the creator(s) and the audience.

[@sptflcrw8583]

FAXXXXX

[@czyu3361]

Music is one of the most important aspect to a game paired with visual designs imo. Especially when you're playing a jrpg or story heavy game, emotional music is there to set the mood up and battle themes are there to make you motivated to keep blasting through enemies. Music is also the easiest way for people to talk about moments in a game like just look up tragic decision from Xenoblade and you'll see people talking about the scenes where that song played because the music made those scenes memorable. Edit: That one guy who said "ace attorney without music" in chat nails it. The pursuit themes are so important into making a court reading game so hype and fun

[@satan-kun8974]

Might be the most important aspect of a game for me

[@dilobs]

@@satan-kun8974 more than gameplay or graphics?

[@satan-kun8974]

@@dilobs not that those aren’t important as well but yes. Looking at any of my favorite games: Nier, dkc2, ff7, super Metroid, earthbound. these are really solid games when it comes to gameplay, story or visuals but it’s the music that elevates them to being my favorites and without it they wouldn’t be anywhere near as strong of experiences for me. Music can do the most to elevate an experience from good to great for me but I know people who aren’t affected by music in media at all

[@Mon-Ki]

Hi Coney, long time watcher first time commenter. Just wanted to say that I really like it when people come out with those super long videos explaining themes and ideas explored in a piece of media. Im a big dumb boy who isnt the best at looking beyond surface level ideas, so seeing people explore different ideas and meanings they got from art is something I value a lot. I think it has caused me to change the way I look at media in general, I try and be more critical and thoughtful, which has ultimately deepened my enjoyment of things as a whole. I gues the criticism you had was that it was spoonfeeding and causing people not to think for themselves, but for me, the opposite is true.

[@twist22]

I agree with this, especially when I find multiple explainers, each expressing their own interpretive meanings on a specific creative work. Rather than giving me the conclusion that “oh so THIS is what it objectively means” such explainers encourage me to instead actively think on their conclusions, and either agree or disagree, but to further think to myself why I feel that way about it, and then even come up with my own interpretations beyond that. I say this primarily as a fan of Homestuck and Night in the Woods especially.

[@CONEYZZ]

to be clear I love those too and interpretation is at the heart of all of it, I just think there's a population of people who will wait for someone to tell them what a piece of media is about then cling onto it and shut out other ideas

[@J242D]

@@CONEYZZ is this coney or the editor …

[@excelsior7345]

In regards to "the curtain was fucking blue" meme, I've had a passion for writing since before I was even able to read. While sometimes, I just chose the color red because it goes with this charcter in particular, I, and plenty of other writers and artists in my circle, 100% have made parallels intentionally. I have also made those parallels unintentionally. "This color curtain representd this emotional state" is supposed to teach people how to read further than surface level. So many people can't do that anymore. Sometimes things aren't that deep, sure, but that isn't for you to decide for other people.

[@389OpiE]

I hate reading and always made the same conclusion Yeah it's annoying that teachers do this and force you to try and make meaning when you just can't but ateast think about it deeper or write how it made you feel that it specified the color

[@Sea-7]

Asking anyone on the internet to go past surface level is fruitless. unfortunately.

[@longbean5526]

allow me to present the concept of chekov’s gun

[@wonderlandzer0]

YES THIS EXACTLY

[@Futuristic271]

In writing, every word that is included was chosen by the author and if the writer is a strong writer then there will be at least some level of thought behind every word choice. There is little benefit to pointing out the color of a curtain for no other reason than to state the color of the curtain and it is at least worth considering why a certain color was specified.

[@Gwenbaruby]

ALSOOOOO i think a big point for video game music is the lasting impression. I don't go back and watch cutscenes or replay important fights of my favorite games constantly, but i DO go listen to music from them and I wouldn't do that if the music wasn't outstanding. It's because those songs are tied to good memories obviously but I think they're a part that sticks around long after the game is done like a famous quote.

[@someguy2350]

The dude at 16:36 who said "Crab vs Lava EXPLAINED" is my favorite chat member ever.

[@LumpyTouch]

wait lmao dat me

[@iamspikefire]

@@LumpyTouch HOOOOOLYYY SHIIIT Great vids btw :>

[@buzzedgalaxy]

In regards to "the curtains are fucking blue," I think another thing that contributes to the decline in media literacy is the fear of looking lame or "cringe." You get called a clown or nerd or get sarcastically told "you must be fun at parties" when you point out that something is factually wrong or inaccurate. People will say "too long; didn't read" to a tweet with more than twenty words. People are purposefully not engaging with any sort of discussion if they actually have to stop and think for a second. I had one of my own friends shut down a whole conversation about people going "hey, maybe this is kinda messed up" about The Rehearsal because she thought everyone who had any issue with it were just "nerds who hate fun."

[@moosesues8887]

Bro wrote a whole essay project aint due till tomorrow

[@Watburnt]

@@moosesues8887 holy shit you missed the whole point of the comment You are this issue this person is talking about

[@moosesues8887]

@@Watburnt I’m not wrong tho it ain’t that deep lmao

[@Phoenixmage50]

​@@moosesues8887 you are literally the problem

[@thatcomona]

I think we see a lot of people *obsessed* with objectivity, largely because it's one of the only ways you can feel 'protected' against what strangers think about you/have to say; and especially only the internet, oh my god do you interact with WAY WAY WAY more people who'll never be important to you than a human was ever meant to. when it comes to media literacy, the impact it has on you- especially in works of fiction- is often going to more important than what the author 'meant' to say, at least for any given individual. (The only exceptions to this are satire and nonfictional, biographical/scientific works, which should have a clear purpose and direction.) I always go back to the whole "Taking care of- and making a difference for- the people closest to you is always way more effective and meaningful than trying to change the entire world", and i.e. media literacy, you don't need to try to change what everyone thinks about a certain work: you just need to open yourself up to letting the things have an impact on you. (BONUS: If it doesn't even have a little bit of direct personal impact, that's ALSO worth thinking about!)

[@johnnytamale8676]

Good music elevates a game more than Coney is giving credit I think. But it's true that it's ok to have mediocre music

[@Shnep]

Yeah the first part of that tweet is true but I don’t like how they phrased the last part with the whole “phenomenal music MIGHT get attention” please name some games with phenomenal music where people just go “Eh” interest wise when it comes to the soundtrack.

[@Kingreed69420]

True, Metroid Dread would be a 10/10 game if the music was as good as Super Metroid or Zero Mission

[@BlackWat3rGTR]

Mick Gordon would like to know your location

[@czyu3361]

@@Shnep I agree. There are an amount of people who doesn't like Xenoblade 2 which is very understandable, but when it comes to the ost I haven't seen people who thinks of it as mediocre

[@micahbarrus8406]

@@czyu3361 Xenoblade 2 fan here. It might have the best soundtrack I've ever heard, which is part of the reason I adore the game as a whole.

[@ODISeth]

Coney teasing us at the end with the possibility of hearting a comment was mean, man’s has 0 intention of doing that

[@Newby1]

Especially since I'm pretty sure 95% or more of the time it's just Vince on Coney's account 😂

[@evanmiddlekauff5439]

Obsession of being right is a valid point. Literature can often be taken in many ways. While one person may attach the curtains being blue to depression, anxiety, loss of a will to live, etc, some others may just not see the relevance, and both answers are fine. The author has their intended answer, as always, but an author also should realize that their message may not always be understood or taken the same way. It also just depends from person to person. Someone who deals with anxiety, depression, all those emotions and feelings, may commonly empathize and see small intricacies in a story and see a deeper meaning behind it, where as a happy go lucky person, may not. Small example, but it has validity. Let people view and enjoy art as they see fit, and allow conversations and ideas to bounce around, there doesn’t necessarily always have to be a definitive answer.

[@TatoISR]

Genuinely nothing makes me happier than figures with the brash, masculine personality that Coney does being progressive and welcoming in a brash and masculine way. Idk if it's just me but I really enjoy it :)

[@moosesues8887]

I wouldn’t call coney masculine

[@moosesues8887]

More old head bbq unc

[@justicekidd9471]

I feel like the people that support “the curtains were just f*cking blue” school of thought are also the people that say they wish school taught more practical skills like taxes, and if that was implemented, most of them would not care for that either. Just let people enjoy and get what they want out of their own experience with whatever media, whether it’s the “intended” interpretation or not.

[@acetrainerben]

I was literally in the middle of typing a heated comment in response to the "music in games isn't important" part, and then coney pulls up the shadow of the colossus music and changed his mind LOL

[@mohaed96]

The "enjoy late stage capitalism" bit had me DYING!!!!

[@keyblitz_]

With the funny blue curtains meme, you hit the nail on the head as to why exactly I don't talk about "deep" story-based games with anyone nowadays; it feels like communities and fandoms build up one "correct" interpretation of events in the story, and that's it. We've "solved" the story, pack it up. It'll get paraded around endlessly in discussions and wikipedia pages and fan-made content and it's treated as gospel, any dissenting interpretations are struck down. Every now and then you mention Lisa being one of your favourite games, and it's one of mine as well. I love a lot of scuffed RPGMaker games like OFF, End Roll and Omori and they're all agonising to discuss with other sentient human beings because it feels less like you're talking about a really cool piece of art that resonated with you and more like they're trying to validate a specific viewpoint they probably didn't even come up with. I just wanna gush about the thing I like instead of getting into a battle of intellectual posturing for who's more "right" about ambiguous/subtextual elements in a work of fiction.

[@GlaceonBM]

I think an important thing about the "everything you missed in x media" videos is that they aren't just watched and forgotten. When people consume those videos, hopefully a part of them will start thinking about other media in the same way, increasing their media literacy. Eventually, they'll be better and better at critical thinking and interpretation, and some may even become creators themselves. I think the "explained" videos are an important starting point for that kind of learning. Also, they're just fun to watch!

[@GraveSterling]

The curtain just being fucking blue just makes fun of the scholastic mindset of every inane detail being worth being thought of critically, which obviously isn't true, but speaks to a greater recent divide over media having 'artistic value' vs. having 'entertainment value'. The border between the two has been fucking obliterated. Generally, people start consuming a piece of media ALREADY KNOWING whether or not they're going to/need to think critically about it. The divide now is greater than ever: media with mainly artistic value gets made fun of for being "messy, confusing, hipster-bait" while media with mainly entertainment value can be made fun of for being "dull, pointless, low-brow". Clarity very much has to do with this and I agree with you, sometimes wanting clarity overtakes wanting to find your own meaning in art. Video games just happen to be the form of media most affected by this rift, a middle ground hardly exists anymore.

[@trickytristan1]

16:48 I mostly hate the "curtains are blue" thing because it puts way too much importance on authorial intent, and assumes that art has one true meaning that can be solved by just asking the creator what they meant (and also puts this framing into the most reductive terms possible by insinuating a choice being made had little/no meaning in it's inclusion). It also takes away from some of the most interesting aspects of interpreting art. For example, this way of looking at art doesn't work at all if you apply it to theatre/acting. I cannot ask Shakespeare for his ideal depiction of the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia by the time they reach act 3 scene 1 (get thee to a nunnery scene), and what nuances between the two characters he would have at play. So it is up to me and the actress playing Ophelia to come to those conclusions and make choices around that. Certain aspects can affect the ways that these characters are played, such as how intense was their relationship before the events of the play, do they still feel as strongly for each other, is Hamlet suspicious of Ophelia from the beginning or does he end up catching on later in the scene, is Hamlet playing up his anger or is he being genuine. Considering these things will change the way the characters are played and the choices made during the scene. Two actors can come to very different answers about Hamlet that can greatly affect the way this scene feels. This scene is largely shaped by the interpretations and choices of the actors (realistically also probably the director), whereas the "curtains are blue" type of interpretation is only interested in what is explicitly happening without giving consideration to how and why it is happening. I feel like I kinda got ramble-y near the end there so TL;DR Curtains are blue sucks because it reduces details/moments/etc.. in art to "only focus on what is happening", while also insinuating that there is a correct answer to art that doesn't allow for any different interpretation entirely on the basis of if something was "what the author intended"

[@tigerking3297]

As someone who mostly played rhythm games, which you can have a whole set of opinions on, I think music is important in some games, depending on the game. Rhythm games of course, but if a series is known for music, then good music becomes important to its identity.

[@five_6_seven_8]

8:08 crazy that if you replace the crab with any other animal (bird, reptile, mammal, even fish) this is an insane example of animal abuse. I don’t got an agenda, its just kinda crazy.

[@Anthnax]

I don't think that the "curtains were just blue" thing is necessarily true, but I do hate how people call for less complex stories and say shit like "villians should be pure evil" nuance is my favorite part of most stories

[@VVheeli]

As someone who’s written an actual college paper on this subject and did 3 weeks of research, I think I can weigh in on the Media Literacy topic. Long comment ahead. The curtains meme hurt it a bit, sure, but it wasn’t the main killer of this subtle underlayer of stories. The things that really killed it were “correct interpretations” being more streamlined and modern publishers being… bad at this shit. Both picking out what to publish and flooding the market with it. Mass corrections is probably the biggest issue with this in that there’s now a “collective idea” where an aspect of a story is 100% influenced by a certain thing. Curtains are blue is that idea. Or how English teachers seem to focus very hard on figurative language in books when 99% of the time it’s a byproduct of the writer’s style. You don’t know what the author is thinking, and half the time they forget as well. Maybe the curtains were blue because it’s their favorite color, maybe it’s the character’s, it could have a deeper meaning. Half the fun in reading is having your own interpretation of the story, and making it so there’s only a handful of “correct ones” is a real killer. Along with shit like Sparknotes and online cheat sheets that let kids shortcut BSing their way through English classes, you get this newer generation I’m a part of where there is only a single narrative given to them and things they know 100% to be arguably true. You get kids that already have other people’s views said straight to them without the kids even having to pick up the book, compounded harder by high schools choosing old as fuck books that have pretty established “correct views”. And the modern publishers thing. It’s sort of a joke that JK Rowling failed 12 times to get Harry Potter published before finally succeeding. But the reason wasn’t because her story wasn’t necessarily bad, it’s that she wasn’t playing the game at the time. Modern publishers of any media have god awful, fucking terrible habits of bandwagoning. Book houses especially. Back then, the rage was all about throwaway books you could sell a 20-30 book series to one kid. That’s how we got Nancy Drew, Magic Tree House, Goosebumps, Animorphs, A to Z Mysteries. They were published because you could sell it like hotcakes and not have to hope the next book was good. Also it’s why those books usually had cheap ass paper; the publishers didn’t care. HP was the only outlier in that era. Even better example is the success of Hunger Games, how many Dystopia books suddenly flooded the market. Divergent, Maze Runner, Delirium, Matched, Uglies, all published within years of Hunger Games, all of them with authors that had trouble publishing them when suddenly they’re accepted in 2009-2010! Completely missing the fact that one of the parts that made HG as big as it was is how Veronica Roth intentionally wrote the books for EVERY chapter to be a cliffhanger and forced people to keep reading. It’s not just us with this new media illiteracy; it starts at the people ok’ing the stuff. The pool is already intentionally diluted by the publishers trying to “read the market” and usually failing to make a clone of arguably revolutionary pieces in modern days. It’s how we had the 50 Shades of Grey phase. It’s how Indie games had the FNaF horror clone phase. It’s how we have the Battle Royale phase. It also doesn’t help that we currently have a culture dominated by a lot of binge watching and consuming media at staggering rates. So companies will intentionally have shittier, surface level hooks to their franchises to give an illusion of depth. Happened to LOTR and the Hobbit movies, Star Wars and the Disney merger, Marvel and the Disney merger, Pixar and the Disney merger (seriously, fuck Disney). TL;DR as much as you want to blame the general public for enforcing this media illiteracy, the issue starts at the top. From how it’s taught in classrooms being pretty narrowminded (at least in the US), to how publishing houses try and follow the market and flood us with intentional shit to consume.

[@blitras8102]

If that was a blue crab, I think it would easily beat the lava

[@flaviogallardo2344]

Coney describing chimps as if they were vampires was so infuriating and funny at the same time

[@cryptpik2827]

12:33 The Yakuza music here is perfect because this dude was an irl random encounter

[@Birdfishluva71]

On “the curtains are blue” opinion. I think there is an obsession with wanting to know what the authors intent is. With such a dearth of information on the internet I think people don’t value figuring out what a piece of media means to them and would rather know what the “correct” opinion is so they no longer have to digest a piece of media. In short, I think content and social media in general has removed a lot of the nuance when it comes to media analysis.

[@Bone8380]

I love how "shadow of the colossus is bad actually" is such an obviously terrible take that all you really need to counter with is "shut the fuck up" and it's perfectly sufficient.

[@staticchimera44]

I would disagree with music being the easiest thing to not mess up. The ACTUAL easiest thing to not mess up is UI (user interface). Your menus and start screen can be just text box after text box and nobody will bat an eye.

[@theaa47]

Coney's title and thumbnail game has been ON POINT as of late

[@pivotguydc1149]

"Sonic's reputation will never be undone" Two ways this could go. 1.) Yes it can be undone, they just have to make good games lol 2.) they'll never make a good game, it will always be bad

[@colepalmer4744]

17:48 I second that, and raise you. If I have the choice, I would never play video games with the volume up. I just like to relax in the silence, evenin games with banger soundtracks like Pokémon.

[@jaredcrimm3472]

I have a friend when I was living in Taiwan who caught a snake one time. He's about 6' 5" and this thing was longer than he was. He wanted to cook the snake so he took it home, and had to figure out a way to kill and skin it so he could cook it. I forget if he killed it before this part (I'm pretty sure he did), but he ended up tying the snake's head around a pipe that he had on his balcony, figured out a way to skin it, and then cooked it and ate it. He said it was delicious and I'm kind of sad that I never got to taste it. The picture though after he tied it up was horrific though cause the snake's mouth was hanging open and it looked like it was in shock (even though I'm pretty sure it was dead at that time.) Taiwan's a wild place haha.

[@philcoast1031]

This might be a hot take, considering what I read in the other comments, but I think the "curtains were just fucking blue" meme is right, TO A CERTAIN EXTENT. Yes, some things that an author write in a story have a deeper meaning, but other things don't and are supposed to be taken literally. Different stories will have different balances of literal sense and symbolism, and that's fine. But I think applying meaning to everything is almost as problematic as taking everything literally, or people not understanding subtext. Also 4:46 oof, I hate it but I agree. I don't think the Sonic series will ever recover its old reputation, at least in terms of official games (other media and fangames have better reception). "Stigma" really is the right word here.

[@nintendope8837]

Coney is the greatest youtuber EVER... and that's no opinion, thats a FACT

[@phaedra._.]

i've never been more saddened in video games than realizing that some people genuinely don't care about music. i have favorite songs in games, ones that stick out because they feel poorly designed or out of place, and i put so much stock in whether a game uses its music wisely

[@Moneymancer]

With the return of some older series I can't wait to see if react wars comes back.

[@whotfiskove]

Music is fact one of the more important things in games. Its usually more of a subconscious thing though. The atmosphere of the game, usually, relies heavily on the soundtrack. The themes in Pokemon, the epic feeling of the Shadow of Colossus, the orchestra in the Mario Galaxy games, etc... all add a lot to the memories you make with a game. I still remember the first time I heard Yoshi's Story on FD and couldn't understand why Nintendo thought that letting any song play on that stage was a good idea. It even happens to you in real life. A lot of people have music they can tie into points of their lives. Hearing a song can bring back good, bad, or neutral memories. Even show/anime theme songs play heavy into how they're perceived at times. When a show has a song that plays whenever something epic or important is going to happen it usually makes you kind of hyped for what's about to happen next. Music especially helps sad moments. Music sets the tone for a lot of medias, and missing the mark on that can genuinely ruin big parts of projects.

[@renend1178]

Coney from 15:00 to 15:25 was the most real, and honest thing I have heard someone say all week long. I'm dying from laughter from that being the brutal truth unless things are done to change that. If your 10 or maybe even 15 right now. Good Luck. I'm 26 and had I not gone and got an Engineering degree. I have no clue where I'd be.

[@raputha1148]

Coney coming around on the music thing made me smile.

[@twiklexic]

pretty awesome that coney said “5th gen consoles did in fact NOT age the worst” and then laid out the fact that the growing pains in those games are impossible to ignore

[@andrew1007]

Online matchmaking is honestly so terrible. Games that implement it have no inner communities. If you were a pc gamer 20 years ago, you played with the same 4 - 500 people. I'd say 1 - 200 consistently over the course of years. I got to know them; even met a few in person. Now it's just about the game. I'm absolutely shocked when I see the same person 2 - 3 times. Not only that, but regardless of how memorable I found them, they were quickly forgotten. I'm sure the matchmaking algorithm actually STOPS you from seeing the same people. I played team fortress 2 for 1k hours and I made lifelong friends. I am a gamer everywhere else for +10k hours and have nothing to show for it. In an attempt to connect with many people, you connect with none. In modern gaming, I have never played with so many people. But I've never felt this alone

[@glitchz1]

I think in addition to clarity, a lot of younger people have lost perspective on gray characters and situations. I saw some teen with a paetron for her book reviews give the main character in catcher in the rye shit for not fucking the hooker he ordered because that wasted the sex workers time. And another complain why Deckard in Bladerunner is a beloved character when the plot is about him hunting down a future runaway slave labor. Some kids want max clarity but that clashes with stories that are about how gray and messy the world is and how you have to insert your own perspective, morales, and empathy into situations to make sense of them. Because despite what some of these kids want, there is no absolute correct stance on media interpretation.

[@yosha101]

On the media literacy topic, it's a complicated subject but I think that it wasn't killed, people have always been that stupid. Missing the point wasn't and isn't uncommon, coming out of a movie/game/book not understanding even the most basic of themes isn't THAT strange, the only difference is that now we can see the big dum dums missing the point live on twitter and youtube etc. instead of just reading a professional critic's review who (Most likely) will properly identify the themes and concepts.

[@bakedbuninvasion]

5th gen was the advent of 3d games as well as the apex of 2d gaming. Every experience was either a fresh new experience that felt completely different from anything you had ever player or some of the best 2d games that have ever been made. Worst console gen was 8th, but 9th is shaping up to be even worse. We are what, like 2 years in and we have like 3 games that actually need the new hardware? More like 8th and 1/2 gen am I right fellas?

[@ALloydRH]

I've seen an example or 2 where the difference between PS4 and 5 is just 1080p at 30fps vs 4k at 60fps. How many people are gonna buy a PS5 when I bet most homes won't have 4k TVs? The extra frames are nice, but they only matter for certain genres and the people who care about those specs are likely to own or invest in gaming PCs anyway.

[@Taraku43]

The VR point, I wholeheartedly agree with ya! But in a few other ways. If we get VR right, we might even learn how to do other VR experiences in the future. Like riding a car in VR, fine, being a gladiator in VR and beating up people, very fun, but becoming Goku or Iron Man or so and beating up people like that! Hell yeah! If game companies were to learn to perfect VR just the more, we could get VR fighting games and get them working WELL! Get some interesting Jump and Run's where we have to look for a hidden way everywhere, and it would even make games with realistic graphics feel the more special. Like Cyberpunk 2077, game looks amazing but, nothing more to me. But say if it were VR, it would feel like you traveled to the future, as if all around you were that time. And the most important thing, if VR became more centralised, we might even get cheaper VR Headsets for a better quality, that might be the best point for most

[@kellphone]

that's what i'm sayin'!

[@Taraku43]

@@kellphone Yee! GTA could also be REALLY fun in VR! Imagine having to hold the wheel with one arm while trying to hold your gun out the back of the window to shoot someone. We NEED better VR!

[@DMMegsie]

The whole "media literacy" bit has been really hitting the comic side of things as well as other sides of general media. I do typically feel a decline of general overall literacy when it comes to identifying themes, general symbolism, and meaning that the author wanted to convey. I will say an easy way to combat this would be to start having teachers allow their students to create their own constructive media analysis on topics that they're passionate about. When you see things like the 100 page analysis on the KH multiverse/time rewind theory for KH3 (tl:dr the game is on loop 2 after the hero party failed), the zelda timeline, or even manga panel deconstructions... it is apparent the passion is out there for that sort of analysis and skill but teachers aren't really wanting to expand outside of a single medium to compare ideas with their classmates to. I have seen in the past, being a B&N Bookseller, teachers using Maus and Persepolis as comics to use in their teachings... it's just not as wide spread.

[@saigesmart4167]

I've taken multiple creative writing classes for fun electives in high school/college and my biggest take away from all of them was intentionality. Everything you write holds a purpose. What that purpose is, however, varies a lot, and I think teachers over dissect famous work looking for meaning that doesn't have to be there. It might be, like there could be some deeper meaning to random details, but its way more likely the author was trying to set the mood or just paint a vivid picture. Like imagine if we tore apart all of Tolkien's work... bruh he wrote entire pages to detail a single aspect of a scene. Its not for hidden meaning, he just wants you to feel like you're there and leave no room for imagination in his world building. the depth in his stories is written directly on the paper. Obviously that's one end of the extremes, and he still has hidden things not directly told to the reader, but you get the idea of how details often work. Point is, from a writing standpoint, you are kinda supposed to have meaning behind everything, so mediocre grade school teachers and pompous college professors hunt it down thinking they are supposed to, but often time they are auxiliary to the actual intention of a passage. Yes they have a purpose, but not in the way they make it out to be

[@christianpr5]

On the competitive games thing I don't think its the numbers or SBMM thats at fault. I think its the fact that you can no longer cultivate your experience to what you want like before. In old games like TF2/Quake there was a server browsers and you can pick and choose what kind of experience you wanted. Do you want to actually play the game competitively? Here is a server. Do you want a more casual experience? Here is a server. Do you want to do a puzzle map? Here is a another server. Do you want to RP? Here is another server. Do you want a map that teaches a certain tech from the game like bunny hoping or a puzzle map that uses that tech? Here is another server. Now you are just told this is the only way you can interact with this game. In the media literacy one the point of those classes was to get you to think critically about what you are reading/watching and see how you feel about it. Now that there is an entire group of people who got mad that their teacher made them think and now are making memes about it and refusing to engage with a works on a deeper level. There is also an aspect that depending on when a piece of media was made, there is a trend to move away from subtext because people cant read it or refuse to acknowledge it. There is also a group of people that are say "show me where it explicitly say this" when you bring up a point/subtext of a piece of media and use that to undermine what you are talking about. Some authors have moved away from subtext for certain points and move into saying directly. You can look at the Bridget in Strive and how that entire thing ended up with Arc system works writing an entire post and saying "Yes, bridget is trans". There is more to talk about this subject and you can honestly write multiple thesis papers on this from different angles.

[@theturtleking2454]

For the “curtains were blue” thing. I think people are supposed to find meaning wherever they see it. Creators make deliberate choices in every piece of art they make, even subconsciously. All choices reflect an individuals past experiences and differences leading up to that moment, and where one author chooses red arbitrarily, one may choose blue. There is a choice that is made and the reader may be able to connect with that choice on a visceral level and extract meaning from it. Nothing is pointless in art, and if your teacher sees meaning within it, there is meaning there.

[@JacobPDeIiNoNi]

Coney in the intro: It's not just me deciding whether it's facts or opinions, all of chat does :) Coney immediately after: Goes against a vast majority on McDonald's breakfast This is a dictatorship pretending to be a democracy.

[@lektornese]

as an english teacher in training its important to see the hidden meaning but its art so the students interpretation is key as well :) 16:50

[@the_godbodor7026]

The music question at the end, I say it depends on the game. If it’s a Rhythm game or something tied to the music (Dark Souls if you really want to stretch it), but most other games the music doesn’t really add all that much.

[@skippythewonderchicken7511]

I do think there's a certain level of irony to the fact that Coney points out people just like parroting youtuber soundbites/other peoples opinions while The Curtains Are Blue Set Media Literacy For A Generation of People is more or less the verbatim tl;dr for a big tumblr post that was going around for a while. I think that most of what Coney said is true. But I don't think his point and the opinion are mutually exclusive. I'm sure thousands of english speaking social media users did internalize "Pulling a work apart for deeper themes and emotional nuance is smart people shit and being smart is dumb and cringe so I don't wanna get caught doing that," because I certainly did until my early twenties. I think a big factor was the first really big social media boom happened while a good chunk of us were in middle school, high school, and early college so we vented our frustration with the repetition of Read A Book Then Bullshit Some Themes Because We're All Tired And Bored And Don't Care Anymore. The problem being a lot of people get burned by 12 years of rote, uninspired public school approved analysis and for some, another 2-8 years of doing the same thing in college and then are more or less let loose into the world with no real impetus to relearn those skills we hated using for scantron tests, term papers, and essays. So like Coney says, people are obsessed with clarity but I'm going to posit it's because an ambiguous ending requires a skill they've either never learned or unlearned because it's tied to an annoying time in their lives. So a need for clarity because of learned aversion to media literacy and disassembling a narrative. Frankly I blame public school only getting us ready for working in a factory or a coal mine as the root cause of why people can't figure out the beginning, middle, or ending of Annihilation.

[@asophisticatedmonke822]

Coney is gonna go CATATONIC when he realizes baboons exist Objectively the most evil and demonic of the scary monkies

[@jisatsurai]

SPITTING SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS IS A FUCKIN MASTAPIECE

[@jukes4499]

Shadow of the Colossus would be legendary, albeit paralyzingly terrifying, in VR.

[@KeleuHerdley]

The music one is very dependent on the game it’s made for. Some games don’t need music to be good, but sometimes lack of additional sounds makes a game feel empty and odd. The real afterthought is sound design: it can be the most satisfying part of a game that no one will talk about, yet it’s necessary in every game ever. The sound design can be phenomenal, and the only ones who’d give a fuck are the people who are invested in sound design.

[@j-ar4806]

17:59 music really is important in a game you may not notice it a 1st but it will always be linked to how you remember it. (Just play any MH that has khezu in it and you'll get the difference)

[@whobee1754]

"Hashbrowns are just potatoes, what's so special about them" Me with intense Irish ancestry: Yeah they're potatoes. The best and most special kind of food.

[@theotherjared9824]

Welcome back to Coney's long contrarion rambles while chat roasts him with better jokes.

[@gabrielgalvis6697]

I feel like in the wake of Skyrim and other very detailed immersive fantasy worlds and a desire for others to replicate that success, it feels like games must often be made to match a similar degree of interconnection. I really enjoy that kind of world, but I also think that they are afraid that the audience will find a part of the story too convoluted and then begin to spell it out(like how it happens in the JRPG genre very often, much like how it happens a few times in Persona and Xenoblade). Most stories seem afraid of the audience missing the point or not exploring the game enough to then fully see the depth of their work. I think that developers should try their best to let the story and the game naturally lead players through and have that be the incentive. There’s no guarantee that players will see all there is left to see, but I think I enjoy more debating and trying to figure things out to some degree, as opposed to just have something shoved in my face to diminish pay off

[@SweetJP.]

that sonic can never be undone thing is NOT a fact, no matter how hard to discuss about it. If I get a position as a game dev and are allowed to do anything I want, I will make that franchise plummet INSTANTLY

[@buff00n3ry]

6:15 I can tell you for a fact that no one hates Sonic as much as the Sonic community/fandom does. I have the Sonic pfp, I know what I'm talking about.

[@ALloydRH]

I dunno about that one chief, some of the best fan projects I've seen have come from Sonic fans, no one can make something of Project 06's quality out of hate. The fanbase is just so widespread you're bound to get some Negative Nancys here and there.

[@goneyoes597]

Companies with icon titles (such as sonic, Mario, or Fortnite in general) are very privileged because they hold on to people and almost make people interested no matter how bad they are. They hope that the game/season will be good + even if it's bad, people MUST buy it to prove it.

[@FYGUnkleUrple]

I’m used to Coney reaching but goddamn that “Force next gen to play VR” killed my soul the longer it went on, I thought this man doesn’t even touch PlayStation lmao.

[@samsee_ca]

The N64/PS1/Saturn have aged poorly in the same way that the 1st Generation, 2007 iPhone has aged poorly. Yeah, it was game-changing tech. Yeah, it did a lot of new things that we now take for granted. But nostalgia glasses and being “ground-breaking” doesn’t change the fact that - for example - the original iPhone DIDN’T HAVE AN APP STORE, and it shouldn’t discount that fact either.

[@jakemcduffee3649]

The "Curtain's were blue" take is an OPINION. The meme is critiquing the idea that a person who experiences someone else's art can derive their own meaning from it. If I make a 3 hour video essay claiming that Bioshock is not a critique of Ayn Rand but is actually about depression, am I right? No, the authors original intent is more relevant than my "deep" take. Saying we don't always nail the subtext isn't saying that subtext = bad.

[@BigChump-mj9wt]

Even if an author didn't intend meaning, it's present. The job of the interpreter isn't to divine the intentional from the unintentional. You look at what's there and translate. I am not the author. I cannot know what they intended versus what they didn't intend. Sometimes you're wrong. Sometimes the curtains are just blue. But either way, you've just engaged with media in a deeper way. It's fun sometimes to just process words in front of you and take them at face value. But you aren't gaining as much that way, I don't think. Media that's worth your attention contains some semblance of the creator(s). And it's present in every part. It's absolutely good to be critical of media you consume, and that's looking at biases, themes, how you feel about them, whether or not you agree with the author and why. And that's what English class was trying to accomplish. This is admittedly a hastily-written and jumbled mess of ideas and concepts haphazardly thrown together, but I think I got my point across.

[@andrewguth2366]

Any snake (or most animals) could be defeated by just hiding behind an unlocked door. Scary animal outside, just go inside all is well. If there are chimps outside your house you are not safe almost anywhere. They can easily throw a rock through your window and come in and have the problem solving skills to do so. No interior door is stopping a chimp. Unless you have a saferoom in your house where are you going?

[@ZRSBW]

Counter to the scariest animal debate: gorillas. Gorillas are 4-9 times stronger than the average adult human😁

[@andrewroes7942]

6:50 I mean they laid the groundwork but that's not what aging poorly means. Like Street Fighter 1 laid the groundwork for the entire fighting game genre for like half of the mainstay mechanics, but I barely think you can call it a game let alone one that aged well

[@tenacity25]

My opinion on VR. VR is not and will not be a replacement for existing games. But what will be revolutionary is games that are absolute bangers both with and without VR, WITH affordable VR options available. Like, imagine more games that are as good with both inputs as Phasmaphobia is. But VR being a lot more affordable.

[@JMalaby89]

As a musician I believe that is a bad take. I think most games simply neglect music, so we have gotten used to mediocre music. When games like Undertale come out people realize for a while how good music is for games.

[@Eclipsmon8421]

I am sorry Coney, but saying the N64, PS1, and Saturn era actually aged well because it created a lot of things we take for granted in gaming today, and that it's revolutionary isn't at all an argument for why it aged well. If anything, it kind of prove the point of all the people who thinks this generation didn't age well, which is "people only like it because it was revolutionary for it's time". If I was trying to defend this generation, I would name the games I think are still amazing to play to this day, like the Crash Bandicoot trilogy and Crash Team Racing, Paper Mario, the Spyro trilogy, Banjo Kazooie, to a lesser extent Super Mario 64 which on one hand didn't age well on a lot of aspects, but on the other hand has an endless appeal that make it so we have people who still play it to this day, Star Fox 64, Klonoa Door to Phantomile, Diddy Kong Racing, etc. Heck, I can even "cheat" and name games from that era that stayed in 2D like Megaman X4 or Castlevania Symphony of the Night. I still think that era didn't age as well as newer eras or even the SNES and Genesis era, but I did defend that era better. Plus, the NES era aged even worse. I can count the number of games that aged in a near perfect way on only two hands, and 6 of those fingers would be the 6 NES Megaman games, so...

[@DrSwazz]

Coney ragging on Sonic while playing Sonic Mania music in the background is randomly iconic to me

[@LuigiFan1akaStar]

I think the part with how important the music is, depends a lot of what type of game it is to begin with. For a game like Among Us, the music probably doesn't even matter if it exists to begin with, but a game like Friday Night Funkin music is literally everything. So, the music being important is probably more which game we talk about before deciding if it's facts or opinion.

[@thesacredbeast2000]

its fine to play competitive games just for fun but the quest for mastery is a great way to extend your 60 dollars, especially since most competitive games these days don't have single player content or unlockables

[@paulthemailman9915]

Nah nah nah, I didn’t even exist when the N64 came out and some of those games are still peak when I go to them

[@d-lynnz7855]

The McDonald's one is 10/10 opinion: not because it isn't marketing, but because the normal menu is worse than breakfast. I will eat 10 plain Jane-ass hashbrowns before I'll even consider any of their dumb hamburgers.

[@rafaelblackman9879]

13:17 Video games should not go full VR and here’s why: Ever since the ps3 and xbox 360 games have been on a never ending journey for graphical perfection. Sure games look beautiful now, but that comes at the cost of good gameplay. There are too many AAA games that feel identical to each other because they’re too focused on showing you how good it looks rather than suppling a good gameplay experience. VR would just make everything worse because it’s way to young and new of a medium that it’ll take too long for gaming to be compatible with it.

[@Idranim]

McDonald’s pancakes and hash browns feel like crack at 7am and I can never tell if it’s because I’m tired or the foods actually good

[@RiotAlpental]

I know this video is a month old, but 18:00 the man is spitting facts about the realities of game development. When making a game, designers and engineers sadly leave music and audio as an afterthought, and games that perfect audio make the games leagues better, but audio might not see any recognition.

[@jakeswierdfriend7204]

"When you turn it on, it turns on," Manscaped really hit the jackpot with you, huh? (loved the vid coney!)

[@dominosdomino9617]

17:50 I mean like games like doom it’s like what’s it’s known for now also what about games completely based on music lmao seems kinda important also some games with bad music kills the game completely

[@Fluffalfan]

The music one would be fact if not for voice in the game probably something that makes the character rememberable but with so many games using Text boxes or something else to show that they are talking . Voice acting usual will be the first of the last thing for finishing a game . And music while not always needed to make games sets scenes gives feeling of your surroundings and can make certain games so much more enjoyable to go back to like guilty gear. While revisiting games or replaying games voice acting in the game might give you memories of pass things or nostalgia most of the time music does that but just more often. For instance Cynthia’s theme probably the most remembered soundtracks for players that have played through the game with her being the final battle before becoming champion.

[@blakeslone9820]

I am incredibly excited about the future of VR. I believe the biggest company we have on VR right now is Meta and they are cracking and burning a bit as well as not really being a tech giant. I feel like as soon as someone like Microsoft or Sony really goes in on VR then it's gonna be incredible... after they give it a bunch of years so that they have competition and have to make actually good stuff rather than just making something good enough cuz it's the only one.

[@anthonyrodriguez9232]

To me the competitiveness is ruining gaming thing comes down to the question of is it wrong for someone to have fun in their own way? It's easy to say no but for example me, I personally can't take games "casually" because they get super stale and boring really fast to me if people aren't actively trying their best to win. Is it wrong for me to want to play competitively in something if that is how I get fun out of it? Imo it isn't but the same goes for you, it is not wrong for you to not want to try super hard to win. Also it seems weird to me that someone is like "Wow you are beating me because you are better than me, man that's sweaty you loser how dare you try to win at this game" always seemed like backwards thinking to me.

[@kellphone]

idk, the jump to PS3 to PS4 was pretty noticeable. ESPECIALLY compared to PS4 to PS5

[@halbarroyzanty2931]

Vr is such an entirely different thing from regular gaming that i don't think it can replace it. Sort of like how tabletop games weren't replaced by videogames

[@laogon09]

I think some of the dissent from McDonald's is how different their food is because of franchising. I live in Canada and it was quite an experience when I first went to a McDonald's in the US. The food tastes a lot different, also it's a bit emptier (more bread, less sauce/meat) in the US, at least where I went, but it's also significantly cheaper. And the McNuggets taste like a different type of food entirely.

[@AKAProm]

"Music in video games is unimportant" Counterpoint: Tetris Effect. Snakes are adorable and good and every PvP game should have SBMM so everyone who wants to win plays against each other while I have fun with the dickhead squad in the lower ranks. I think the whole "bro literally sweating over a party game" type arguments are so stupid because it is always an assumption on how other people play a game. I've been called a sweaty try hard when I'm just pressing buttons. The more you play the better you get naturally. I remember playing DM with friends on overwatch (gross, I know) and I would do wacky ass tricks with Lucio and that's just because that's the character I played the most often.

[@stephendonovan9084]

Couldn’t disagree more on the idea of a “VR-only” console generation, it *would* cause adaptation but that doesn’t make it a good idea. VR as a medium has clear effects on user experience which make it desirable for some types of experiences and undesirable for others. It’s ultimately no different than 2D vs 3D, or choices between graphical quality: it can open doors for new gameplay styles, and it has potential for higher level of reality, but that doesn’t make it better for all types of games, and not better for gaming as a whole. Limiting an entire generation of consoles to only VR would only serve to limit the range of games which would make most sense on those consoles. It would be bad for creators and for consumers.

[@ExileOfSand]

I actually really do agree with the VR thing, right now we look at it like its garbage, but to be fair that was what the outlook was for many things we have now that was tried before in the past. What really does need to happen is that there needs to be a force into it so to speak so that way it can be perfected and it can receive actually good games

[@DissedRedEngie]

"snakes are the scariest animals" This is the type of person who asks questions like "who uses youtube" and "wait, people drink milk".

[@aggapuffin]

"Music is an afterthought" All 3 Rhythm Heaven fans are crying right now.