Everything

A videogame about a philosophy about everything.
Oh, and if you wanted to check out David O'Reilly's animated short The External World: vimeo.com/19723116
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This episode was made possible by generous support through Patreon!
/ errantsignal
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[@EdupopKONG]

In the last video, you said you "were behind on everything" I see what you have done here.

[@tysonasaurus6392]

Double entendre?

[@KINGJADEX]

Tyson Williams Something like that.

[@gelotologistgrandma3791]

i like the way it treats tree/plant movement

[@marcperrin5814]

"Certainly ... better than Mountain " It's not really hard to be be more enjoyable than Mountain

[@gab_gallard]

To be fair, I enjoy Mountain for what it is: a funny screensaver that throws surprises at you from time to time. It's cool to have it open while you are working on something else. From time to time you go back to it and see how much it has changed.

[@gelotologistgrandma3791]

probably a good game to play after trying psychedelics

[@alkmibeats2133]

No comments, just likes❤️🔥🙏

[@zeallust8542]

Or during

[@scarymovies7]

"One thing the game doesn't do so well is selling the interconnectivity of all things" lmaooooo realtalk tho i'd be surprised if a game ever fully realized this idea

[@HarmoniChris]

Thank you. This is the best Everything review out there; very comprehensive and focusing on what matters.

[@tysonasaurus6392]

I love that when you Re talking about how it conveys the idea of certain things we consider to define our lives is insignificant on a larger scale or something going beyond us. And then a trophy pops in the corner.

[@ErrantSignal]

Like I said, there are bits of tonal weirdness that contradict a lot of what the rest of the game's trying to do. But yeah, the cheevos are totally a part of that.

[@tysonasaurus6392]

Errant Signal hey! Great video, I just thought the irony was funny and imagining someone spending hours trying to get the platinum, completely unaware of what the game is about

[@bulldog300]

Pardon me for fanning too much, but your stuff is amazing. In a sea of snark and bile it is nice to see meaningful game commentary. Keep it up.

[@ErrantSignal]

I mean I can do bile too See: Bioshock Infinite, Dead Rising 4, Watch_Dogs. Also I've got an episode on the back-burner that's kinda bile-y. But I try not to focus on that stuff! I've also got lots of happy episodes planned!

[@TheAgamemnon911]

It is nice to see a game that isn't picking through the same old pile of human centered narrative structures, too.

[@slendy9600]

Errant Signal sometimes bile and snark on the critic's part is good for the consumer, its good to stay positive but dont treat a scathing review as a bad thing to make if thats what the product deserves

[@FoundationsofPause]

Bile can happen. Videogames are subjective and still in their infancy. As Bill Gates said over 10 years ago we're just now getting to the point everyone wanted to be back in the 80s.

[@d8J47QpR]

He usually reserves his bile and snark for mainstream games. Case in point: His love affair with "Gone Home", while trashing The Last of Us for not having a good enough link between its gameplay elements and story. Too much talking, observations and then shooting zombies I guess. "Gone Home" revolves around looking at items and listening to casettes about your gay sister. Perhaps the most overrated game of the last 10 years

[@dafffodil]

In hearing your issue with the presentation of Alan Watts' ideas of everything being Events in the face of the game presenting things, I was reminded of the dilemma I faced while studying Heidegger in parallel to learning Object Oriented Programming techniques. We're so thoroughly steeped in thinginess, down to the minutia of our language.

[@therealKINDLE]

Fascinating. 🤔 The first time I heard of this parallel was from the underappreciated Jacque Fresco - who made it perfectly clear that any time anything is beyond functionality, is due to fear driven motives. You can train a Dog to tear ppl to shreds or to help the Blind & save ppl from drowning. You an create a holistic system to created shared global abundance, or you can stock pile enough weaponry to wipe out all life as we know it. We are all as one. Currently at war with each other due to this irrational fear.

[@trnbutcher5780]

If this game is of interest to viewers, please read 'The Wisdom of Insecurity' by Alan Watts. Very readable, good sense of humour and life-changing.

[@rumelismorende8177]

I rather liked Mountain. It was weird, but easy to put in a corner while working to see what stuff it'd collect. That being said, if there was a meaning to it, I didn't find one outside of "I wonder what's going on with Mountain today"

[@ErrantSignal]

I'll be honest I'm surprised there aren't more comments re: The External World

[@pearofsalamanca]

The External World, I think, personally, is about how the seperation between fiction/artifice and reality works in the human mind. You clearly see the model boundaries for the buildings in the opening sequence, you clearly see interstitials stating the title of the video you are watching, as if to remind the viewer of the artifice's, well...artificiality. But, in the end, does that prevent you from being disturbed by the Retirement Home segment sequence? No. Does that prevent you from being disturbed by the aftermath of the man taking "Go Fuck Yourself"? No. Does the piece still haunt you? Yes. The line between fiction and _the external world_ does not truly exist in any mind fully. The External World knows that, and in a certain, subtle way, it horrifies you throughout its running time by playing with this concept. Yet you can't look away. There is some sort of bleedthrough here. And it is beautiful. In the same way that viewing a car crash is beautiful.

[@WraithMagus]

Honestly, what I think about is the mythos in Skyrim set up by James Kirkbride about the conflict between what is a fundamentally gnostic elven philosophy that hates the concept of causality and views all action and reality as a corruption of a perfect hypothetical fighting to destroy the existentialist Nietschian superman philosophy espoused by the empire of men and in particular as a contrast against the Vivec of Morrowind that epitomized that philosophy. ... but then again, that existed almost solely within the lore books that you don't actually play through.

[@hunterm1113]

Banksy.

[@Prophes0r]

I'm going to ignore the fact that this video is over a year old because I just recently discovered your channel, and I have been thoroughly enjoying your style of thoughtful critique. It just so happens that this particular video is the most clear example of the "Play vs Game" discussion. (And Yes, I realize that most people are just puppeting others instead of actually HAVING a discussion, which leads to nothing but stubbornness and hurt feelings for most, but the discussion itself still has value). Mountain is MOST DEFINITELY not a game. Even if you don't proscribe the the Chris Crawford style hierarchy definition of "game" I would challenge you to find a definition that Mountain did fit, but something like a screensaver (which we can likely say is not a game) would not. I'm not saying it has no value/worth. But calling it a game is a bit disingenuous. It is Art, or possible entertainment, but not a game.Interesting and pretentious? Yes. Game? no. Along the same lines, Everything is not a game either. I found it to be entertaining. It was clearly an "Experience" but it lacks many of the things that need to be there to be a "game". Am I just being a pedant when I bring this up? Sort of? But I do have a reason. We (as people) label things to allow us to relate them to other things. It is a useful tool that can often (though not always) help us make good decisions with our extremely limited time. Grouping Mountain or Everything in with other "games" does a disservice to those who are in the market to purchase a game. If someone were to purchase something like Proteus, thinking it was a game because it is listed with other games, and did so with their limited money, they would be justified in being angry at feeling misled. Can this be avoided by a potential customer researching a game before purchase? Probably. But even that requires a time commitment. And time is the resource here after all. This assumes that one could even find enough trustworthy sources that are willing to label a non-game as such. The vast majority of reviews are, by their nature as user reviews, inherently not useful. I'm not claiming that they all lack in quality. But the usefulness of a review is directly linked to how well you know the reviewers tastes, and whether or not you agree with the body of their previous work. If you don't already know your tastes align with a reviewer, their opinion doesn't really help you to decide. So, uh, anyway. I enjoy your videos. I think you should define for your self what you do, or do not consider a "game' (hopefully based on some research). And possibly make a video on it?

[@ConvincingPeople]

Errant Signal I prefer Please Say Something, personally. It's an absolute punch in the gut.

[@Dullface]

As someone who has read nearly all of Watt's books, I think you conveyed his ideas quite well. I didn't know about this game, and I am thankful that you made a video on it!

[@Dayglodaydreams]

I remember No Man's Sky came out at this time, and these mechanics were a reaction to the gigantic promise of No Man's Sky.

[@raytsh]

I love how the animals move!

[@IndirectCogs]

If you let go of the controls, you'll gently float back to your starting world.

[@colinr0380]

I remember saying that to my driving instructor once. Needless to say things did not go well.

[@superanimenerd13]

14:08 Someone call Noah Caldwell-Gervais so we can get an hour+ retrospective about the philosophies of Alan Watts!

[@kenblaney7031]

Done and done. twitter.com/mrchapel0203/status/851278160020688897

[@ESteckly]

I really enjoy all your videos, I don't comment often but I want you to know how much I love watching them and appreciate your work. I like that your channel isn't just ripping on games, you want to stay positive because you love what you're doing. It's very refreshing. Keep up the good work!

[@TheZorkiel]

I am that I am, achievement get! Trophy no more.

[@fernoveonelest9038]

It needs a multiplayer version.

[@adelarscheidt]

...and it's not like watching (these hordes?) of animals rotate 90-degree increments to move across the lands while you have a conversation with a house

[@busydadliving6380]

My first introduction to Alan Watts was the track "Japanese Ceremonial Tea" by Electric Sons. Thanks for giving me more to explore.

[@alwaysfallingshort]

I should note here for those of you who are like me, an atheist, and shy away from anything with the word "spiritual" in it: Alan Watts is pretty much a non-theist, and tries to put concepts like "God" and "spirituality" into a context that isn't predicated on believing in those things. It's difficult to explain, but to put it simply, he's inoffensive to atheists and theists alike. Despite being such a heady, conceptually verbose guy, all of his ideas are very mundane and easy to relate to for almost anyone. Listen to his speeches and don't feel bad if you zone in and out. You'll come back to him over and over again throughout your life and learn something new when you need it.

[@ShakinJamacian]

To expand on this, one would probably be better to listen to lectures from Watts than a video about a video game. Watts core views are to highlight the unity of reality, and that involves examining the conditioned self we make and ultimately identify with that blurs this unity into divisions. This is something we can say is more true about reality today than when Watts was alive, for he died in the 1970s. We know enough of the self from a neurological and psychological sense to know it's an illusion, so there's no need to see the points Watts makes as exclusive to Buddhist thought: it's accountable thought, factual thought, hence why his somewhat wooly words about God and spirituality don't even secret, spooky knowledge, games of authority, and blind belief. His philosophy, simply put, is self-inquiry: to find your ego is to see it as an image, not an entity. Many of us suffer in this world because we confuse images for reality, and that starts with all of us by identifying with a self. There's no "surfer" to the "wave" of your organism, and with enough discipline and inquiry, one can grasp this. There's no "looker" in addition to looking, no entity peeking in addition to what your eyes perceive. And yet, so long as we think in terms of dualism, to think we have a special snowflake soul or ego that has these attributes, we get caught in this warped lens of perception. Jiddu Krishnamurti, a friend of Watts, goes very hard on these issues to emphasize where divisions are created, suffering and conflict occur. One need not go too far in their lives to see this unfolds just from a first-person perspective of identification to concepts and thoughts.

[@alwaysfallingshort]

You really like words, eh? I think a videogame is a fine place to absorb watts. Like you, he's extremely wordy and hard to follow, and even myself, who's normally pretty thorough with texts and speeches, enjoy him when I'm doing something else and he's passively talking in the background. Makes it easier for his lessons to wash over me, and then when I am actually utilizing those ideas in practice later, I can go look up what he said and confirm the lesson.

[@ShakinJamacian]

I am a very wordy person, yes. ;)

[@alwaysfallingshort]

Good sport :D

[@KommissarBanx]

Always Falling Short Old comment but if you shy away from anything with the word “spiritual” in it, then you’re no better than a zealous theist. Replace “spiritual” with Yahweh, God, or Muhammad. Boom, crusade. All isolation and ignorance have given us are bloodshed and divide. There’s nothing wrong with trying a bite of a new food, or dipping your toe in the pool. You don’t have to become a monk to understand Buddhism, so you shouldn’t feel afraid to do research or try to see things from their point of view. I loved how civil the two of you were and it’s a great show of how simple communication can be a beautiful way of spreading ideas instead of outright ending the conversation at “Wow you talk too much”

[@tomservo110]

Damn I love this youtube channel. Thanks for the great content. "There was a young man who said 'Damn. For it certainly seems that I am, a creature that moves in determinate grooves, I'm not even a bus, I'm a tram.'"

[@COLDCHEMICALpresents]

Stellar analysis. I'll be sharing this video with others as a way of explaining what it is.

[@ShinoSarna]

I think Aliens 3 is primarily about a mechanical concept - an objective-driven run'gun that is also a metroidvania - and it's thematic elements are more of an afterthought. I'd assume that Probe Software was working on that title before getting Alien 3 license, and simply slapped it on to sell more copies (and not have to worry about story and concept art). Considering that it's one of 3 "Alien 3" different games by Probe, I think it's likely that it's exactly what happened. Faithful adaptation of Alien 3 would probably be a Myst-like FMV adventure horror game with emphasis on exploring the prison facility.

[@kylesweeney-stewart5358]

I love david's work so much!

[@GalleyThePirate]

Every episode inspires me to continue caring about gaming on a deeper level when it seems like everyone and everything just wants to take the most superficial subjective look at things. Stuff like this is why I still game and will do it my whole life.

[@KumaChrisVT]

This game got me interested in his lectures, so after that I went and looked up the ones put on youtube, and now they are what I listen to while going to sleep, his voice is just so soothing for some reason.

[@tithund]

I didn't think much of this game when I first saw it, but you sold me on it and now I want to play it.

[@ethancothran3188]

I'm hooked. I definitely want to check this out now

[@0TheWomboCombo]

As soon as I saw my guy Alan Watts I knew I had to not spoil any of this for myself

[@graefx]

Part of me hates that I watched this before I have a chance to dive into Everything, but at the same time, I'm happy that I'll be able to go to it with this insight

[@Shlooomth]

This is one of those times where you say what I would’ve said but far more thoroughly and somehow more succinctly than I would’ve done. Thank you for giving me a video I can show people to get them to play this game

[@highlonesomed]

Everything gives me a similar feeling that 4 grams of mushrooms in quiet darkness can give me.

[@charliemilroy6497]

this is a really good game to play with kids, they love the absurdity. thanks for your analysis I missed how time moved differently in each level and I didn't really think about why the game played itself on a philosophical level,I just thought it was like a screensaver and a way of making the trophies a little less of a grind

[@awfullyawful]

Like a dream. In a dream you are literally everything.

[@vexzal]

given the rest of the junk in the comments I feel like adding something more positive would be nice. though I don't have any meaningful to add but I can say I do really like these videos and really appreciate a more thoughtful and meaningful approach to criticizing and talking about games.

[@deahtwind]

A mountain... a game about being a mountain.... oh the humanity. oh the Everything...

[@EmotivePixels]

I left this video even more interested in this game than various writeups had me already. Finally! An approachable fun entry to Watts.

[@benlogan100]

Great video essay. Subscribed!

[@thekewpie353]

Thank you for this thoughtful review, it was quite useful.

[@Mcmos9000]

I really enjoyed this game. I think people need to get over the idea that just because something is heavy handed or wears its argument on its sleeve, that it's immediately "bad."

[@IgorKolar]

I liked Wats' view of things, and absolutely love that somebody did this. And thank you for exposing it to me. :)

[@bloodmachine6049]

Oh, would just like to note. Everything does have a little bit interactivity between the things, animals will get allerted by fire, and seen at least one other. They think fire, when fire nears them.

[@adelarscheidt]

Great review. Sums it all up without having to get deep into the philosophy of it

[@DmarsHeadshot]

... In its right place

[@MrMarcinDobrowolski]

Great analysis, as always.

[@iananderson12796]

Wow, I need this game

[@harney-barrow2036]

i like Everything (2017) besides Country and Rap

[@sblower9410]

it's like someone made a game with the idea you would review it in mind.

[@politure]

That last second SLAMDOWN tho lol

[@purpleblah2]

This game is like Christmas at Jackie Chan's house.

[@ZRovas117]

I feel so high watching this video. Whoa...

[@pineapplebanana9368]

best game to play while high, no cap

[@geriburrito]

Man, the quality of your videos increases significantly with each new one. I hope to see a collab between you and Mark Brown some day, that would be mind-blowing.

[@himethisisme]

So I picked up this game when this video first came out, and I never actually got around to playing it until today. It was so jarring and mystifying that I had to come back to this video and see what you thought. I completely agree the game's tone could've been more consistent, although I think the strange non-articulated art style, on top of being absurd, helps convey the metaphorical nature of the message. Abandoning the notion of the individual is made more stark when the game is overtly surreal. It's unique in that it gives you this agency by letting you do this strange stuff, and also tells you how your thoughts aren't really yours (at least not in the sense that you alone create them), but they're the product of other thoughts, and ultimately the circumstances of the world around you, and therefore all thought is the world thinking itself. So you can advance your will into the world and do whatever absurd thing you want, but only inasmuch as you're part of this absurd world (the game) yourself, and so your will is just another ingredient in the confluence of events that are taking place, no matter how wild it is. Now, I never did get back to the golden gate after I wandered off, and I never had the world be "destroyed by too much winning" and if I had, maybe I'd be more put off by the other absurdist elements. That absolutely clashed.

[@nkanyisoinnocentkhwane3752]

I liked that Alan Watts introduction

[@Skullkan6]

Dunkey's video on this really shows how much he cares about the idea that video games are art, not just fun toys.

[@MsLia32]

Sounds like playing this game is going to give you a headache.

[@alan2here]

Alan Watts sentiment, is perhaps?: We are everything we belong to as much as everything we belong to is us. Our cells act individually, and act with individuality, but also predictably form human like behaviour together which we call a human. We act individually, and act with individuality, but also predictably form an overlapping network of societies and even the galaxy we live in. In a very real sense, we are the galaxy we live in as much as our cells are us, a neutron is a creature in itself, a cell, but is also in its entirety and on a very different scale a small piece of a thought. A river "whirlpools" and a planet "cities", these verbs can be a more natural way to understand things though there process than nouns are a way of understanding things through there substance. Perhaps one in every 1,000,000,000,000,000 galaxies by the time it is 1,000,000,000,000 years old does something unusual like civilisations to the point where most of the matter in it is organised into a geometrically neat shape. Even this just a process that the process we call a galaxy occasionally goes through. And from there down (and up) can be thought of not as hierarchy, not in a stack of things, but an overlapping collection of processes we call "everything".

[@AJ-kj1go]

420 bro. how much for an eighth?

[@JavierSanchez-mo2ef]

Oh man, I started to laugh so much when I heard Alan Watts in the background.

[@CinemaBlocks]

Javier Sánchez why?

[@maxwell_young]

great game

[@cannonfodder4376]

Another fantastic video and analysis, I look forward to the next one. :)

[@Uriel238]

I never could get the rolling quadrupeds thing. Usually I'd switch over to something small enough or upright enough (penguins) that did the South Park hop.

[@harrison6082]

Tim Martin may write about art(which includes video game) and books for the Times, the Telegraph, and The Economist very well. But you are still better. Also, its really cool now that games are talked about in terms of art in well respected magazines like the Times, The Economist and etc. And now magazines about culture talk about games as well.

[@popular_dollars]

This game has 10/10 animation.

[@sblower9410]

sarcasm?

[@sblower9410]

sarcasm?

[@sblower9410]

sarcasm?

[@sblower9410]

I didn't mean to post that 3 times but now that I did I realize it just made the joke funnier (;

[@magentasound_]

As someone that makes and listens to chill music, the voice of Allan watts and his speeches are instantly recognisable :D

[@Alkerae]

I'm glad I watched this, but to be honest, I'm glad I watched episode 1 of game grumps playing it first.

[@AcidStoner69]

This is surely one of the best channels on youtube, please, never stop doing videos!

[@kawaiiconcept7479]

someone should do a slow run, where they start up the game and livestream how long it takes for the game to 100% itself

[@danielbat9887]

Imagine a game with the most complicated, incomprehensible and weird mechanics ever. That's Hegel's philosophy in a game.

[@Phrozenflame500]

This is one of those games that I'm glad exists but could never play or engage with myself because I'd be too bored asking what the point of it all is.

[@mr.incorporeal7642]

I'd love to hear your take on Undertale, it feels like there would be quite a bit to ponder and unpack with that one.

[@borisangelis8093]

This game is what i expected no mans sky to be

[@MrServantRider]

I'm not big into actual hardcore philosophy, so this kind of stuff goes right past me. If I had played this game, I'd have gotten bored with it very quickly. But through your video, I can understand it's meaning and it's actually very interesting to me. Still, probably not going to do any sort of philosophical research or anything.

[@intdoublecharbool]

I love this video, and the message, and having discovered this corner of everything, because, and I'm sure I speak for others here, I would never play this. I/me/everything am gonna go grind the everything that is Warframe for awhile now.

[@danielwareking]

Well, dang it. I was holding off on this game for now but you might have convinced me to get it. Great work, as always!

[@Darluk]

Oh so horses don't move using those useless, flabby leg things, they move by rolling like a tumble weed. Of course how could I be so blind?

[@Craft2299]

I find it that the message in "everything" and the philosophy it presents is a very 'neutral' way of seeing the ego-less universe. Everything we know as bad that the universe absolutely does not care about is also absolutely justified just as much as good and everything without ego. A lot of people find this profound, and it is, I'm happy for you but it just comes off as a step in no direction. I can be pessimistic or optimistic, either way this neutral philosophy just does not encourage anyone one way or another. It tries too, because the philosopher comes with good intention, saying were part of everything. But that everything only says OK, it does not say BE MORE or BE LESS. All it says is OK, which just does not ring the urge to git gud or learn, but just accept where you are... were humans, and we are abstract. I cannot be happy with just eating and sleeping, I want to create. I will want to make other humans happy. This is predictable to the universe and so it does not care, but "I" do and so does "They" and "We". I am not here (Current presence) without a reason. And that is what bugs me with "everything"s philosophy... were more than what everything is intending. Everyone likes to look at big bang as being huge and grand (Even if it is just a theory)... but anything else is much more complicated.

[@Skywardeyeprophet]

Amazing video

[@Mapmaker39]

I can't wait for that game from Her exist in VR. That would be hilarious and be much more hilarious if they hired Spike Jonze as the swearing alien creature. Either way, I will pick up Everything (the game) in two weeks.

[@Gordon519]

TOOK LONG ENOUGH

[@I-Rex232]

the orca's body is moving from side to side while swming, i cant deal with this its driving me crazy

[@TheSugarRay]

Available: April 21 This game will unlock in approximately 11 days

[@ErrantSignal]

's out now on the PS4

[@sprblk]

Could you say that your playing the game, and moving around in the world, causing new objects to be rendered/generated, is an example of things being defined by other things.

[@AnythingButTh1s]

The other comments dont seem to agree, but man I think this game looks fantastic!

[@hemangchauhan2864]

I had know about Alan Watts, but I didn't knew that he helped spreading Eastern philosophy in the West. My mom is into it a lot, and it's really interesting to think over.

[@LowenStrosst]

Thanks, Chris ^^

[@CinemaBlocks]

Simon Boots no prob

[@ChrisLam]

so glad to be learning about this game. this idea the game is based on immediately reminds me of evangelion, where it proposes humans are all only separated by the ego. and the goal of the angels were to return the world to a primordial soup where humans all become one again and ego is non existent

[@hemangchauhan2864]

You should let Kyle from Brows Held High try this game out. It seems very much his kind of deal.

[@ErrantSignal]

I would love for a crossover with Kyle Kallgren, but he's in a class above me. I'm like, a Great Lakes Avenger and he's, like, a genuine Avenger.

[@hemangchauhan2864]

Errant Signal Still.. At least you should try recommend it just for lulz. He likes to ponder into games from time to time, maybe he'll like it.

[@williamboily3057]

please do a video about the long dark

[@fingerless6568]

Errant Signal: I play artsy games so you don't have to.

[@pelucidar1]

Everything is on linux now, so you can, too! ;)

[@Redem10]

I thought a game everything woul be longer

[@tysonasaurus6392]

Redem10 when you are omnipotent you can do stuff relatively quickly

[@Disthron]

This guy sounds like a "deepity" generator.

[@bobenheimen]

please see: 1st 2nd and 3rd order cybernetics: specifcially anything by Heinz von Foerster or Ross Ashby.

[@hemangchauhan2864]

In Hindu philosophy, there is a belief that all the souls (aatma) in the universe are a part of a Greater Soul (param-aatma), and that through actions(karma), we purify our souls and all souls should strive to be "karma-ful" so that they can finally rejoin the Greater Soul.

[@timothymclean]

I find it hard to take any philosophy which insists that not following it's precepts leads to misery, and similarly for texts which insist the same about their philosophies. This is particularly true of Everything's portrayal of anchoring oneself to their identity and hence isolating oneself from Watts's philosophical musings as a broken hellscape. This is made worse by the fact that his philosophy is fundamentally at odds with my understanding of identity, leading to it coming off as nonsensical in the square triangle sense. Not a great first impression. Which is a shame, since a few of those ideas (like how you can't define things except in relation to other things) seem to merit consideration.

[@michelottens6083]

At least half of what you encounter in this game is incoherent or trivial thought fragments, it's comically crude animations and 3d models, bland navigation and socializing mechanics, the oddly limited ecosystems made weirder by the player's late-game capacity to transform into anything from anywhere and to grow and multiply at will... From having played a while, I'd say that the Alan Watts part of this game is only half of it, and that the lucidity and comprehensive scale of his concepts are balanced against these images of incoherence and limitation; against our incapacity to fully depict whatever Watts is talking about. The game is as much about the game's necessary failings and how a player might deal with those, than it is about our human capacity to capture everything in cultural artifacts and art objects. David O'Reilly's work, to me, has always had this self-deprecating style to it, used to charge his grandiose themes with a kind of desperate cry for recognition and validation.

[@Robovski]

Err, what? the game.