Narrative Mechanics - How Missile Command Tells a Story - Extra Credits

There's a surprising amount of ethical choices and moral depth you have to confront in a game of Missile Command. Good game design and game narrative are often intertwined. Deliberately choosing your game's mechanics and systems can actually reinforce the ideas you want your player to think about when they make choices. Subscribe for new episodes every Wednesday! bit.ly/SubToEC (---More below)
(Original air date: December 15, 2010)
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[@Tama-Hero]

The story about the creator of Missile Command made me tear up a little. That alone had profound impact

[@M0RTAL.]

hi

[@dannyhefer6791]

And this is why you should listen to people who "think too much"... until the end of the video, you can very well think "Oh come on it's really far fetched"... but then you realize the very author of the game meant it to be just like the 'far fetched' analysis, and bang, right in the ego. Sobering indeed.

[@Thorpinator]

As I watched this, then read the comments after, I'm reminded of a class I took early in my college experience about art. One of the topics was the avaunt garde movement involving color fields, and monochromatic art. I remember being shown a painting that was just a blue canvas, that was it. I laughed and thought, "seriously, that's pretentious art if I ever saw it. It's just a single color, no symbols, shapes, or anything. Could have just left the canvas blank, or just showed us nothing." But the teacher had us discuss this art, why it was or wasn't artistic, and what meaning it could have, or why it couldn't. And it that discussion, ideas began to emerge. Maybe the piece could represent depression, how everything looks and feels the same shade of dull blue. Or how humanity can paint another group all with a single stroke/color, or how we are really not all that different at our core. This didn't change anything about what I think about the piece. I still think it's pretentious as hell, and I would rarely actively seek out something like it. Even though I dislike it, I consider it fantastic art because it allowed me to see things differently, because it opened my mind to new possibilities. This video helped open my eyes to ways meaning can be shown through games, and I thank you for that. I played missile command again, and I don't feel that saving the missile bases over a city is much of a moral choice. All the bases come back the next round, so it felt more like it damaged my ability to save cities, rather than losing the base and all the people within. But the city dilemma was real. I tried to save all the cities at first, but by level 5, I'll usually end up losing at least 1. Some games, I screw up really bad, but somehow manage to keep one city. And suddenly, it's much easier to succeed. And suddenly I find myself rationalizing, in subsequent playthroughs, losing cities. "It's ok, the rest will survive, now that my load is lightened." And suddenly I found myself horrified, because I always thought a little less of leaders throughout history who would throw some people under the bus so they could have larger gains and help more people down the road. I thought it was a cop-out. But here I was, justifying the same actions. So, I hope that other people are able to find something to take away from this, even if they still don't agree with your analysis. Because if meaning can be found in a canvas with one color on it, it sure as hell can be found in a game about shooting missiles to keep cities from being blown up.

[@MossyQualia]

Thorpinator Sounds like you're talking about Yves Klein. What's interesting about that series is that he effectively exerted ownership over a color by inventing a technique in materializing it. It raises questions about creative identity and artists' ostensible ownership over a visual style by stretching the concept into a parody of itself. Context matters, and watching a room full of freshmen fumbling in the dark trying to dissect a modern to contemporary work will make the entire endeavor understandably appear pretentious. Your professor was very silly in showing that stripped of historical context (unless this was precisely their point). But I'm glad you turned it into a positive experience with an open mind.

[@Springheel01]

Thorpinator Yes, this very much sounds like a description of modern art. The problem is that the meaning of modern art is entirely subjective. There are plenty of examples of art critics going on about the deep understanding of the human condition an art piece displays, only to later learn it was created by an elephant or a machine. That's how this video strikes me. If you are willing to be creative, you can find that level of "narrative genius" in any game. You could turn tic tac toe into a compelling narrative of moral choice. When deep meaning can be applied to anything, its value disappears entirely.

[@MossyQualia]

Springheel01 Do examples of fraudulent scientific research also invalidate the entire discipline? "You could turn tic tac toe into a compelling narrative of moral choice." You could, but you'd obviously be wrong to anyone who doesn't subscribe to that sort of naive relativism as a means to justify their philistinism. Missile Command is literally about nuclear weapons and allowing cities to blow up. Tic Tac Toe is a completely abstract system.

[@Springheel01]

Abstraction is a sliding scale. If Tic Tac Toe is too abstract for you, replace it with chess. The point remains.

[@MossyQualia]

Springheel01 What would that prove? Modern chess wasn't conceived of as a narrative. Its medieval references are incidental. You can replace them with zoo animals and it would still be chess. On the other hand, you wouldn't have Missile Command if you replace nuclear missiles with water balloons. And it's not like chess is widely considered to be devoid of deeper meaning either. Its complexity and symmetrical design makes it a widely-used and ham-fisted metaphor in plenty of fiction.

[@gracefullynadine864]

I think it's also worth mentioning, the game came out in 1980, which is the height of the cold war. The possibility of nuclear war hung over everybody everyday. The way America fears terrorism today doesn't even come close to the fear of those times. Most have forgotten, or were born too late to understand.

[@SSardonic]

My parents remember the air raid drills from their school days. As a regular part of the public school day, sometimes an air raid siren would go off. This horrible sound meant they had to duck under their desks, tuck themselves into a ball with their hands on the back of their heads, and wait for the drill to end so that they'd be ready to perform these actions in case of nuclear disaster. When you're performing drills like that in school, I think it makes the threat feel very real, and it's hard to avoid living in constant fear.

[@patrickbeart7091]

I'm curious, how much do you think Americans fear terrorism? I feel like my country, the UK, has far more terrorist attacks in general, and I'm aware I may be involved in one, but I'm no more 'afraid' of terrorism than of a random mugging or car crash. I don't mean to mock anyone, it's quite difficult to convey what I mean without seeming like it

[@anon9579]

VeryAwkward Cake i think they'll have more to fear from terrorism by the next decade

[@SRGIProductions]

Yeah, I'm guilty of that myself and I LOVE Missile Command. In the 1999 remake on PS1 and PC(the former of which was how I was introduced to the game), the premise was changed to *Aliens* attacking your cities as opposed to the Russians. A far less emotionally impactful but very understandable change, given the times.

[@TooCooFoYou]

@@patrickbeart7091 9/11 had a pretty deep profound effect on the US which still lingers on today the same way as the effects of the Cold War.

[@mindfracture6591]

Oh my god. I remember playing Missile Command on computer in elementary school and I never realized this. I found the game deeply frustrating because I could never win. I always ended up sacrificing cities to save others, ran out of missiles, lost bases... no matter how hard I tried, I always, ALWAYS lost in the end. Now I know why. To paraphrase Joshua from War Games, "Nuclear war is a strange game. The only winning move is not to play". That is deeply chilling for a game made in 1980.

[@luislopez7220]

i never knew that a game that old could have such an impact as you explained it, that is deep

[@smitty3624]

When you were talking about this, I thought you were reading waaaaay too deep into the game. I mean, a game that simple couldn't have that much deeper meaning to it, right? But then, you mentioned that interview. Those few words changed everything, made all the stuff you said way more clear. Great video, guys.

[@TheIrishpsyco]

This actually reminds me of another game that made me stop and think without any story being actually told. when I played Hotline Miami, I would play the level tactically as the game basically demanded, and I enjoyed beating it. but the biggest part of the game actually came after I finished the challenge in each level. as anyone whose played the game knows, after you've killed the final enemy in a level, the level would still continue. to finish the level, you would walk back to where you started the stage. having to walk back through the murder spree I made really affected me more than I thought it would, especially when I considered myself a fan of fictional violence. It didn't matter that they were NPCs or lines of code, something about the fact that I had killed all of the men made me stop and simply forced me to consider "wow, i am a monster". in fact, the way I played made it worse. while I was killing my way through the bad guys, they were obstacles, challenges that had to be solved. they were the enemy when I killed them, but once I was done, they changed. they were not the bad guy I defeated, they were the person whose skull I crushed, or the man whose chest I blew open. the simple fact that I had seen them as just another obstacle just a little bit earlier really reinforced the idea of how beast like I was.

[@nikitaavramov6519]

Do you still play games? Hotline miami was such a banger. That period of games was fun for me. Shovel knight, bioshock infenite, spec ops, undertale. I havent played a game since 2020

[@LostScarf]

well damn, I've been playing missile command at a local arcade for over a decade and never thought of it that way.

[@fearsomeclarinet]

***** Wow, I must be in the five percent, I look for symbolism in EVERYTHING, I'm usually wrong. Recognizing symbolism just adds to the experience, at least for me.

[@TheRocketdrive]

fearsomeclarinet inb4 illuminati claims....

[@fearsomeclarinet]

TheRocketdrive No, Illuminati isn't symbolism, I look for emotion in things, how games represent humanity as a whole. But no Illuminati, the Illuminati conspiracy is just silly.

[@realevilcorgi]

I'm too stupid and afraid of introspection to admit that there might be deeper meaning behind an arcade game so I'm going to mock Extra Credits for trying to add depth to something instead

[@Kontonymous]

realevilcorgi Nice meme.

[@realevilcorgi]

Kontonymous Dank fuel can't melt steel beams

[@JohnSmith-hl6jc]

*jet fuel

[@ayporos]

+John Smith no I'm pretty sure it's Dank.

[@almicc]

+realevilcorgi Even though at the end they talked about how the designer really thought about all of that while making the game. Finish the video before you criticize it please :)

[@Alzzarla]

It might be the third time I have watched this episode, but it's the first time I cry. This episode is just really powerful.

[@shub125]

This is to me one of the best episodes of extra credit because it describes to me what other military people could be going through when making tough decisions and what feeling the game design must of had when making this game.

[@stefanb6539]

+Crash Sable +miller repin I think you both overlook a context, that was very clear to everyone playing the game, when it was first played. It were the height days of Mutually Assured Destruction. Everybody was very aware of the imminent danger of a nuclear war. Talking about what you would do, if you knew the world would end in 3 minutes seems like a bizarre topic today, it was a very common topic in casual conversation in the 1980s. The narrative of the game was not a stand-alone idea, that had to be explained. It was the talk of the day, and the fact that this game was a very bitter comment on that topic was imminently clear. The shock value of that comment did indeed add a lot to the street creds of the game. The game was a provocation, it was received as such and the usual "computer games are bad for kids" crowd used it as an example of cynicism in video games.

[@HajaeKo]

THAT WAS SO DEEP! I DID NOT SEE THIS COMING

[@Snowfireblues]

I was born in the 90's, so this game was not only difficult to find, but it was old and lacked charm in my eyes. However as a kid I did get to play this game. The game was simple to understand, however after playing it a few times I grew frustrated. What I hated about this game was the fact that despite my best efforts, there was no reward whatsoever. I realized that no matter what, I couldn't win. As a kid I wondered why would someone do something so stupid to a game. Now older and more learned, I still hate the game for the same reason. However I no longer think of the lack of a wining condition, as something stupid. Quite the opposite, I think it's rather genius. Nuclear War, no... WAR in general has no such thing as 'winners', there are only those who lose, and those who lose less.

[@thepinkestpigglet7529]

Don't shoot the message.

[@cogspace]

A decade later, I'm still coming back to this video. Thank you for introducing me to one of my favorite video games.

[@dracothuban]

It can't be coincidence that John Connor plays missile command in Terminator 2

[@ingonyama70]

This, I think, was James Cameron's exact intention.

[@rubberstack]

No he plays after burner 2

[@Soulsphere001]

He plays Missile Command first.

[@Gnarrkhaz]

One thing to keep in mind with the game in question is that the mechanics alone do not tell the story but instead reinforce what's already there. The fact that the pixels coming at you are ICBMs is crucial to the experience. Without the setup the mechanics themselves would be completely abstract. With the setup though the mechanics make sense all of a sudden. So in the end i don't think that mechanics alone can tell stories (in the way that we understand the word). However I think game mechanics must enforce or at the very least not go against the theme so i appreciate every game that does it right, like missile command, very much. These games are in a way so much more profound than any Uncharted or Bioshock: Infinite that wants to say something but can only do so in the form of cutscenes or scenic display. Missile Command obviously knows WHAT IT IS. Games are not books or movies or whatever will be all the rage a few years from now. They don't rely solely on cutscenes, instead the gameplay is just as important. They're GAMES and that degree of self respect has to be, well, respected. It shows, once again, how backwards a lot of games are nowadays (not that all games are better in that regard). This is one of the most important Extra Credits episodes.

[@davebrunker3399]

I played Missile Command when it first came out. I didn't feel that strongly about it. I didn't think of my bases as having people inside. I didn't think about the cities having people inside. The game could have made this more emotional by doing something like having a flashing speech bubble appear over a city that said, "HELP!" Maybe the developers didn't have enough storage for that. Video games at that time didn't have enough memory to store your average desktop icon that we have today. The game that gave strong moral choices was Defender. Defender, which came out a year after Missile Command, had individual people, invading aliens and a jet fighter with a laser weapon. People were on the ground, aliens would descent from the top of the screen, pick up the people, then carry them up and away. You had a radar and could see which people were being kidnapped off-screen. If alien was kidnapping a person and you shot the alien, the person would scream and fall to their death. You could catch the person and carry them around under your ship but if got blown up, so did they, so you felt responsible for them. You could set the people on the ground but they would be at risk of kidnapping again and you got a bonus at the end of the round for all the people you were carrying. You wanted to save people, not because of points, but because you were saving people, darn it! If you saw someone far away, being kidnapped you wanted to rush over and save them. The problem was you couldn't save everyone, if a person was taken away by aliens then alien would become far more powerful and their was friendly fire. You could shoot a person by "accident". The players with the highest scores knew that by killing all but one of the people, the game would be a LOT easier. So what do you do? Rush to the aid of a person who's going to get killed sooner or later anyway and risk getting yourself blown up? Murder every person in the game, except one, just so you can get a higher score? If there are two people on screen being kidnapped which one do you save? If a person is falling to their death, do you just let them go so another alien won't come along and kidnap them and become a far more powerful enemy?

[@Dionysus24779]

This is one of your finest episodes. I will never look the same way at missle command.

[@wait4tues]

My laundramat has this game in it. ive played it dozens of times but had no idea that the developer was from and had nightmares over my hometown. digs deeper than expected.

[@Resstarr]

One of the most inspiring episodes of Extra Credit and probably my favorite one to boot!

[@BlackJar72]

Interesting to hear this, because if you were a child during the golden age of arcade, if you played this as a seven or eight year old, without the broader context in place, then it was an abstraction and purely strategic challenge. What a different experience and understand of the world make to such experiences.

[@AXLplosion]

The more I dig into older games, the more I seem to find amazing and well done game design!

[@williambarnes5023]

Dear Dave Theurer, You may have _actually_ saved the world.

[@spindash64]

I played that game before, but I never realized what those things were. just....wow. This man is insuring that the next generation will not fall prey to the same mistakes of those before them. In general,I'd say it seems we respect each other more, even when we're on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. We look at war with disgust, and would rather negotiate with our enemies than try to wipe them off the face of the earth. Maybe I'm just projecting my ideals, but that's what I see

[@ObiWahnKnobi]

As always in life it's never that easy. But we also know: Every little bit counts. And maybe, just maybe, we will beat war one day.

[@Simalacrum]

This is easily my favourite Extra Credits episode of them all; thanks for re-posting here :)

[@mitzirocker7026]

The first console video game I ever played was the original Kingdom Hearts. I should maybe explain a little. I didn’t play it straight off the shelf in 2002. I played it on a second-hand decade-old PS2 in 2012. I was sixteen. My thinking, then and now, was that old games were cheaper. Also, every game had already been played by millions of people, and the bad ones had been decided on and forgotten. I loved Kingdom Hearts. I loved the swift, exhilarating combat. I loved the characters and story, and the change to finally beat the shit out of Jafar. Most of all, I loved the worlds. I loved searching every nook and cranny of Traverse Town for that last treasure chest. I loved dancing in the skies above Neverland, and squealed in glee when I unlocked Glide. I loved the long atmospheric climb up Hollow Bastion almost as much as I loved trying to trace the same route as a Heartless. From the time I ran up the tree in Destiny Islands, to the time I plunged into the depths of Chernabog’s crater in the End of the World, I loved exploring the beautiful Disney worlds. Naturally, I wanted more. For my seventeenth birthday, I got my sister’s old original-generation DS and a copy of the GBA Chain of Memories. I faffed around with chargers and registration for a bit until I could finally boot up the game. I started to play, and was immediately shocked by the genericness of it all. Instead of vast, carefully-designed landscapes, where I could go anywhere I could see, I was trapped in small, box-like, automatically-generated rooms painted to look like a world. Instead of hiding treasure chests, limits and extra content in general in every area, there was nothing to do in the worlds except go to the next room to progress the story. Instead of being followed everywhere by Donald and Goofy, and running into people on the streets, I was alone except for cutscenes and the Organization. The worlds all followed the same pattern, and I grew more and more detached from their stories. As I climbed the castle full of fake worlds made from my memories, I wondered if this was deliberate. I ran through the puppet-worlds like a rat in a maze, through cardboard cutouts of reality. Nothing was fixed; I could change what a room looked like easily. The claustrophobia and loneliness pressed down on me until I felt like the only real thing in the world. As bad as it was for me - introverted, shy, noise-hating me, with a world outside the game - it would have been even worse for the happy, friendly, excitable Sora, who would have been trapped in that mock-up world. I imagine that he broke down crying at least once, driving himself forward only by the thought of Naminé trapped in that hell forever. It would have driven him half-mad by the end, and it feels like mercy to let him forget that. Maybe this is all pareidolia. It is a GBA game and all of the concessions were made so that it could function on such a limited platform. Maybe. But if there’s one thing I’ve learnt while playing Kingdom Hearts, it’s to never underestimate Tetsuya Nomura.

[@redzgaming6880]

The remake for PS2 is way better. Everything is in 3D, the environments are open-ended and easy to get lost in (especially in Monstro's belly, where almost everything looks the same and it's a little dark), and the music is a bop!

[@nnovatakaren5515]

I want to know the result of the challenge between James vs Designer

[@muzzleflash6922]

This is kindof funny when I was younger I just thought the designers were jerks trying to take your money

[@Chuntachennel]

NEIN!

[@christiangarza8122]

Well I mean yes, but actually no.

[@BologneyT]

And like the message in the credits at the end says, I will never be able be able to play a cheerful round of Missile Command ever again. Thanks, Extra Credits.

[@Marcotonio]

LOOOOL, these encounters are getting broader.

[@Lugmillord]

Actually, yesterday I was thinking, "Can you make an enjoyable game where you cannot win?". Arcades with a high score system are the easy answer, but I mean a game for todays standards, where you don't just want to be in that score list. Can you make such a game and keep it interesting?

[@lordgeovan]

+Lugmillord You mean Candy Crush?

[@Lugmillord]

Raphael Montero I'm talking about a genuine game that isn't just about emptying a persons wallet ;)

[@lordgeovan]

Yes, of course it does this as a means of emptying your wallet, but it is absolutely unwinnable because they just keep adding more stuff. Many other casual games does this. On another note, I can see a Rogue-like become popular with a unwinnable mechanic if somehow the player feel awarded for reaching farther and farther and achieving more than last time. This, actually, is my experience with FTL and Spelunky. I love both games. And they do have endings and goals. But I have never been able to finish any of those. They are still fun, though.

[@Lugmillord]

Raphael Montero As for candy crush - I didn't know they constantly add new levels, since never played it. I was thinking of a fixed game content. Sure, the survival style gameplay would be one solution, but in the end, isn't it just like arcade games where you want to achieve some sort of high score? I'm wondering whether you can make a game that has both a fixed amount of contents as well as one or more endings but you can't reach a state of "you won everything. Everyone's happy". Can that be made enjoyable or does the player need to have a congratulating end to feel satisfied? Real life would be in that category, but that game has an unfun design (too long tutorials, etc).

[@lordgeovan]

+Lugmillord what you're talking about is a game with no happy ending? There are tons of those, I suspect. The game I have been developing is that. You know you and everyone you love are doomed. The point is: what do you do with the time that remains?

[@Sahfarry]

I always used to hate Missile Command, but this video gave me a new respect for it.

[@werdna1969]

Possibly the single best episode of Extra Credits.

[@halfmileride2072]

This game and it's desire to explain no-win scenarios makes me think about the Kobayashi Maru test.

[@razzigyrl]

This is my favorite EC, in fact, it was the one that brought me in as a fan. I really enjoy the thoughtful breakdown of the mechanics and the choices to be made. I'm so glad you were able to post this on KZbin so that I can share it with more people. :D

[@jonskowitz]

This episode; and the host of comments below demonstrate perfectly a point I've been trying to make on my friends for years. How much you take away from an experience often depends entirely on how much you bring to an experience; shallow or deep.

[@remorsefree2909]

I don't believe that games should use only mechanics to express an idea, although I do think that mechanics should very much reinforce the idea they are trying to express.

[@cedrickulacz8468]

RemorseFree This wasn't so much a case of they should ONLY use the mechanics to express the idea but they could. Granted your point is valid because using a variety of narrative tools makes the idea easier to get.

[@GamerFromJump]

Given the tools of the time, mechanics were often the best way to express narrative. Even today, it's a unique form that only games can do.

[@markrhodes9168]

I feel like Defcon also does a good job of telling a story through mechanics. Coincidentally, it also focuses on nuclear war.

[@sirsalty9516]

i played it and its true. I feeled like i dont wanna nuke the enemy but i cant just let the missiles come and wait for my defeat.

[@yongamer]

When you are dreaming about the game at the night. Then it's an amazing game.

[@TheSDB13]

I know I'm a few years late but another game that I feel captures the horror of nuclear war is Defcon with it's use of soundtrack, mechanics, presentation, and sheer anxiousness that comes when Defcon 1 approaches and you're thinking "please don't tick over" but it always does...

[@scoringsm1l3y]

im crying now.... fuck

[@DragonDePlatino]

My gosh...that was a fantastic analysis! I'm aware of communicating storyline solely through gameplay, but I didn't know Missile Command did it to such a degree!

[@AnActualRealPotato]

I played missile command at a convention. I must say, it is brilliant. Thing is that is it very subtle in the way it tells its narrative. Most will most likely not realize what this game is trying to tell, but it still reenfoces the moral dillema it trys to convey through it's subtle ways and in the end, everyone will get it one way or another. Most won't notice how it influences them, but I'm sure everyone who played that game took something home from it.

[@IronSalamander8]

I love Missile Command. Played it a lot as a kid when I went to the arcade back in the 80s and then on consoles and my Commodore 64. Never looked at it in this much depth however.

[@ThatFanBoyGuy]

one of my favorite videos of yours. It makes me think about how many stories I've overlooked in the games of the past. This game almost makes me wish someone did make a "Missile Command 2" that has this story more explicitly stated. But then again, maybe by doing so, it would miss the whole point.

[@Ranyore]

Really glad you found that interview.......good stuff, as always.

[@CrazyRiverOtter]

This is one of my favorite classic games. I've always loved the gameplay, and this take on the sides of a nuclear war is incredibly compelling.

[@WhoddaWhaddu]

I agree."The end" also has the added benefit of being a common term for death. You can fail a lot of things, from making a shot to a test, but when it's "the end", there simply is no more.

[@joesatmoes]

I thought that Papers, Please or Minecraft would be the best examples of this- but the way you explained Missile Command...damn that is dark stuff.

[@SephirothRyu]

For anyone with Half-Life 2 or its episodes, it comes with a commentary mode where the developers talk about how they developed the game's tutorials and narrative, and how they designed the levels and events of those levels in ways to combine tutorial and narrative with a story-telling style that has relatively little actual telling-the-player-what-to-do.

[@soylentgreenb]

As someone who loved Half-life, and thinks Half-life 2 is utterly mediocre; the did far too much talking in the game as is.

[@MossOwnsYouYT]

I'll never stop loving this channel.

[@malucart]

It said "Narrative Mechanics - How Missile..." and I thought it was going to be about Ghost Trick. I was so happy...

[@fishfishfish912]

extra credits inspires me so much you guys are so awesome, and I really hope you know how much you inspire people like me who are just about to jump in to this industry

[@MrServantRider]

I don't think even 90% of gamers walked away from that game with the feelings you're suggesting, but, I'll admit that it was pretty cool. Actually as a child I remember playing this game and getting really upset any time I lost even a single city or base. Not morally, but upset with myself for the failure of losing even one. When it came down to it I was upset about the gameplay but not the morals because I couldn't see the game as being very real. But, this was a very interesting take on the game, even more so when you say the game creator had nightmares about creating it. That's pretty spooky. This'll make me think pretty hard in the future.

[@inurokuwarz]

I played this game on a flip-phone and I still remember getting mad as hell whenever I lost a city. Every time I felt like it was something I could have prevented if I'd just been a little faster or had been paying closer attention. I hated how the rubble was a constant reminder of a time I wasn't good enough, and how that would push me to defend the other ones even harder until the screen was an unplayable mess and it would all come shattering down.

[@RPGtourguide]

I've never played Missile Command, but that definitely gives a lot to think about. How such a simple game can convey such a big idea. Great video!

[@grumpyturtle9682]

A similar sense of dread occurs when Gandhi completes the Manhattan project in Civilization V.

[@monstermash25]

I have to admit this episode made me think a lot more than any other episode. shoot I actually had to stop the video and actually think for a moment. that hasnt happened to me in a long time.

[@phoenix8604]

pac man's story is actually much darker than most people think at first glance. Pac man is abaout a man who had a hard life and is now trying to eat is guilt while also trying to avoid all the problems that still haunt him (represented by the ghosts) but it's impossible. he's trapped in a never ending maze called life……..wow…powerful stuff huh?

[@tsk5328]

without context for that comment, this reads (to me at least) like a personal interpretation: BUT that makes it no less meaningful! After reading that, i actually wouldn't mind playing this old classic again, because having that in the back of my mind will definitely deepen and improve my experience of this game. thanks for a great concept and and a new perspective.

[@NexGenration99]

i remember that game. i remember it being super hard. this video has given me a new found respect for it *takes hat off*

[@devilsadvocate22289]

Damn, everytime I watch this vid, I get a sobering reminder of how impactful games can be if you remotely think about it. This is one of my favorite EC vids, and that says a lot because I can't think of one that I remotely hate. :)

[@Blayzeing]

I always thought the finality of the destruction of the protective barriers in Space Invaders was quite striking. I knew that no matter how good I was, there was always going to be that one wave that'd beat me, and each dent in the barriers seemed to mark a step closer to that.

[@roguedogx]

okay that is quite interesting, when you started the video my first thought fell to something like at the end of "brothers a tale of two sons" after "a certain character" dies and specific actions taken with the controller trigger powerful responses from the characters on screen, and as a result, the player. but this is a much better example, and dam its dark.

[@magnusprime962]

I never played Missile Command, it was 17 years old by the time I was born. The only exposure I had to it was through an episode of Chuck. But it's really interesting to hear about how nuanced the game actually is, especially for an 80's arcade game. It makes me wonder how this might apply to RPG mechanics though, as in RPGs dialogue both affects the story and is a major part of the game mechanics. You guys do a great job of making me think after watching your videos, and while I don't always agree, I feel like I've come away with a better understanding of both your viewpoint and my own.

[@firebird646]

I played this game in my grandfathers basement as a young child for years. I never knew that there was so much depth to the game...

[@IdleDrifter]

Missile Command one of the first video games I ever played. As a child I never thought of why I had to keep defending those cities and bases. Only that I had to. To see that final MIRV slowly descend on my last city always filled me with rage especially after I fired my last missile at another cluster of MIRVs. To watch it vaporize my 6th city.

[@SteveChisnall]

"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play." - WarGames

[@ymeynot0405]

Thank you for putting a TSR/SSI Gold Box game up as an example of the good classics. I played those games over and over through out middle school on an Amiga. If it wasn't for Sid Meier's Civilization series turn based games would be almost dead. You get a few for the portables.

[@Noone-of-your-Business]

Well, I have never experienced the game like that. To me, it was always purely mechanic. It was only pixel mishmash, after all. I never felt involved or threatened. Actually, the only time I ever felt the full impact of a gruesome story being told in a game was when my grandma saw me playing "Commando" (C=64), explaining to my little brother, pointing to the screen: "See, they all get shot and die." This was when I remembered that she had witnessed WW2 first-hand. Other than moments like that, war games never involved me because it was something out of my experience...

[@Derpinator01]

For a more modern simple game with a deep story, I recommend Thomas Was Alone. You become attached to the characters, and by the end I felt their hardships as if they happened to me. I wonder if you could do an episode on that game, Extra Credits.

[@CptRusky69]

Though this may seem too deep, there's a point. And I remember playing similar games and saying, "NO!! It got hit!" Though the moral scope isn't as large to most players, I believe it's still relevant.

[@b0tster]

Well I just wanted to point out the according to this video, the game creator had nightmares for a year after completing missile command, so I'm sure it was created with these story elements in mind.

[@singingjonathan1518]

If anybody wants to play missile command type 1980 while the video is still in play.

[@snakepit000]

Nicely done, I think the most recent example of this kind of narrative would be that of The House of Horrors quest in Skyrim.

[@Ebvardh]

Sometimes the simplest games have the most solid messages. Pretty cool.

[@isthisajojoreference]

A Missile Command battle royal like Tetris 99 would actually be pretty cool. I think it would do pretty well and actually make people think about how it would feel to be on the receiving end of a nuclear attack.

[@The0ptimus]

Dayum, this game is insane, I really like the concept

[@jimbob3332]

And this is why John Connor playing Missile Command was an establishing character moment in Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

[@TheShadowToast]

This gave me goosebumps....*shiver*

[@Louelle93]

Wow, this episode. I can't even express myself. It's really powerful.

[@JaxxoonR]

Well, the weird puzzle game Irisu Syndrome had a very morbid back story that is slowly revealed to you as you play it in some eerily vague cut scenes. And even when you get the very best ending, Irisu remains a ticking time bomb...

[@angelcollina]

Wow. I never played missile command. But just watching this video brought tears to my eyes. How powerful! Wow...

[@humrH2360]

I remember my view of Missile Command completely changing when I watched this on The Escapist. Suddenly, all those games that made sacrifices look easy paled to MC.

[@macdongr]

Wow... That's... Really scary. A stressful game... Amazingly effective. Can't say I can think of another example of a game that has that kind of story without using any words at all...

[@TerminatorTX3]

You basically explained what pretty much every arcade game is designed to be with no real context created, it's solely relying on the player's imagination. I could probably say the same thing for Temple Run or Jetpack Joyride. I think narrative in game mechanics is something completely different but I don't want to type an essay using my phone, lol.

[@spindash64]

I think undertale did this brilliantly, personally. Yeah, I get it gets old hearing about it, but there was just so much crammed in there. One of the that even started the game in the first place was how most RPG battles are pointless to the story, merely simple warm ups for the bosses. And so, Toby created a game that took elements of RPG's that we would normally consider to just be something you have in an RPG, even (SPOILER ALERT) The save function itself. The fact that not only did the game break the fourth wall, but said fourth wall breaking was actually building the wall behind you, was simply glorious. Every character had reasons for doing what they did, with even the standard enemies having unique personalities.

[@CharacterString]

"And there were no multiple levels or screens. It was just ONE screen, forever, and you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and faster and until you died. Just like LIFE! Those video games built character, Sonny Jim!" -- Ernest Cline

[@BurntPavelow]

Great video.It shows how video games aren't just a children's pastime That video games can be just as good as any other form of media, probably even better. One of the best vids you've made. Keep up the good work.

[@rainingagain]

The thing about that is you can't have the message "you failed" without it being possible to "succeed". Missile Command was a game you were always going to lose. "The End" was always inevitable; which was the stark, scary thing about it.

[@Renorick1]

I could not have said that better with weeks to prepare and a book of after-dinner speeches!

[@marcgebbylauron]

I did not think this channel would ever make me feel stuff. Dammit extra credits. Gonna have to share this for me to move on.

[@ronkariessenpai2231]

those moments when u start thinking sooo deep about a topic u 1st thought had no meaning other to entertain. Then start reasling how u as a person affects other peoples lifes

[@caitlinbear]

Thaaaat actually gave me chills....

[@BeeryGamer]

Wow, that was really good and well done episode, even for your guyses standards it was excellently done! I mean how can I disagree with anything you just said, you shine light on such a simple game, which so much psychological details and although there really is never morality involved in the game (only rationality) the influence such a simple arcade game can have and where it comes from really is something very interesting for the game industry nowadays!

[@switchtalent123]

I never looked at this game like that....I find it hard to do so even after you laid it out so clearly, I don't really like it when people try to tell me they are seeing something in something that doesn't really have a message and I feel that way with this game (and most games) they are just fun to play, I play games to play them, not to get caught up in this battle of seeing games for more than they really are.

[@BenthiccBiomancer]

In the end what a piece of media is intended to be is largely irrelevant, what matters so much more is how it is interpreted. If you find a deeper meaning in a piece of pointless fun then your life is better for it, regardless if it's creator meant you to or not.

[@switchtalent123]

If you see something in it then that's fine, it's just that sometimes I feel like people push it quite a bit. It is kind of frustrating when I see something in something and no one else does. Most of the time I can see where they are coming from even if I don't agree with them but that isn't the case here, Here I see someone attempting to turn a fun game into a depressing mess. That's just my opinion, you can think what you want, I don't really want to start an argument

[@Casanuda]

Given how the creator was haunted by visions exactly like those posited here, I'd say your desire to ignore these concepts merely showcases your willful ignorance.

[@switchtalent123]

you got me, I'm just ignorant, my opinion is different than yours so it must be my fault for being ignorant. I'm sorry, I'll try to fix this problem in the future.

[@Casanuda]

Sorry, you aren't stating an opinion here. You're claiming that people are reading too much into a game that isn't what the designer intended. I'm pointing out why you're wrong. You can enjoy a game for the fun factor. But a designer should look deeper at where that enjoyment comes from. And like I said, this isn't a random interpretation of the game, this is what the developer was trying to convey, while making a fun experience too. Try to think about what you're saying if you want anyone to take your opinions seriously too.

[@kephas-media]

The missiles being fired at the 6 cities are IPBMs (interplanetary ballistic missiles) not ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles). The Game description of the Atari 5200 version of missile command is where I get this info from. And that cross-skull looking enemy that flies by is actually a satellite.

[@personman8590]

I will be genuinely shocked if nobody else brought it up, but Ace Attorney Investigations 2 actually implemented one of these. During investigation you will occasionally need to wrest information out of the hands of the witness, and it is represented as chess in a more way that doesn't take a long time.

[@ManyDeserts]

Wow. This is very interesting - I never saw Missile Command in this perspective before. Great job, guys. I'll never look at that ol' Atari game the same way ever again.

[@Somtaaw7]

That morality example brought a line of mass effect 3 to mind. "Ruthless calculus. 10 billion die over there so that 20 billion can live over here."

[@android19willpwn]

I feel that Undertale does a good job of using its mechanics to tell its story. Obviously it has actual characters and dialogue to do that, but the gameplay reinforces it greatly. The fact that pacifism is harder than violence, because if you never kill anybody you never gain any levels so you have less health and all the fights takes longer. The genocide rout is a story that can only be told effectively in an interactive medium, and to a fair extent so is the True Pacifist run. Also great at expressing its core idea with its mechanics: Dark Souls. The world is harsh and you a small within it, your only chance to overcome these seemingly insurmountable obstacles is to stay determined. Because if you lose hope, if you dispair and give up, then you'll never succeed. Because not giving up is the only thing between you and all the hollows you fight. If the foes you face are too strong, if you accept that you can't win and stop playing, you're just another hollow who couldn't make it.