Quick note: If you've watched this entire critique and you still think my main complaint is the mere fact that the game's story is not convincingly true---you've misunderstood. This video is not about the lie itself, but the obviousness of the lie; it's about how the problems for the coherence of the fictional story overlap with the causes of that obviousness.

I was watching my wife play this game, and one thing we thought about was how this game could be read as a critic of the idea of the "Outsider artist". The idea of the "outsider artist" stems from the idea that people who are not in the know how, such as people who are "outside" of the art world or are not trained professionals, (in otherwords people who are "uncultured") create works of art deemed more "authentic" because the artist themself is "naive" to the artworld. In this case the idea applies to gaming development and the games industry, which also holds indie artists as more "authentic" or at times "naive". The narrator takes our biases towards the "outsider artist" (In this case game developer) and turns it on it's head, completely demystifying our earlier impressions of the game for the farce it really is. The idea of an "outsider artist" is often a lable imposed onto less privilaged people, such as women, minorities, mentially ill people (Particuarly when Dubuffet idea of "Art Brut" was first coined), and disabled people by people (predominantly white/Eurocentric) who use the artist's percieved naivety as a marketing gimmick. In order to sell us the fiction of this hypethetical game designer (Koda) during the first half or third of the game, the narrator constructed this "outsider" underdog for the audience to be intrigued, and to be over-analyzed. The idea of the "outsider artist" is such a prevailing motif because it taps into something we all crave, to authentically and indiscriminately create, but similar to how people percieve Vincent vangogh (Who's statues as an early "outsider artist" is debated), Koda is a fantasy imposed by the viewer, or at the very least the narrator. To me, the obvious deception still works for me since I didn't have to suspend my disbelief in order to engage with the ideas. Then again, I've always been more of a themes > narrative kind of guy, which is probably why I had a better time with a game like Death Stranding than a lot of other people.

@TheGemsbok

2 жыл бұрын

Very interesting analysis! I've seen a lot of interpretations of this game at this point, and none of them have applied this specific lens of Davey's interest in Coda stemming from the latter being (apparently, to Davey) 'untainted' by exposure to mainstream/monocultural games. Definitely a worthwhile perspective to consider, thank you.

@SleepyMatt-zzz

11 ай бұрын

@@TheGemsbok Its been a year since I created this comment, and because of that I'm sure this reply won't reach you, however in the case that it does I wanted you to know that this video and comment thread motivated my wife and I to create a video essay on the Beginner's Guide and how it relates to Outsider art. Now we're looking into submitting the finished paper to an academic conference.

@TheGemsbok

11 ай бұрын

It did reach me! That's wonderful news. Congratulations on seeing that through, and I wish you the best of luck with the submissions.

I agree with the video's thesis, and I have to say I always found the narrative so silly and obvious that I completely headcanoned it to a version of "The narrator is the right side of the developer's brain and Coda is the left side of the developer's brain: one is the talker, the other the doer, it's a struggle between the artist and the ego, the desire to create pure things and the need to share them and be praised by them, even if to do so we have to change them to appease the crowd, etc". I completely headcanon it like this because that's how I think my brain goes through. It's how I create my things and it's how I end up talking abou them. I am both Coda and the Narrator. And in this story they are in a struggle.

@plopert6026

3 ай бұрын

Good job with that head cannon. I truly believe that the story this game tells is of two pieces of the same person. If you read up on what Davey has said about struggles with mental following the success of Stanley Parable, he talks about a toxic need for validation. He gave a lecture at Alato University about how there's and underlying reason people make games (or do most other things). Sometimes its for money, sometimes its for appreciation, sometimes its to be part of a community etc. For Davey, he states (in his lecture at Alato University) that it was for validation. The lack of communication of both Coda and Davey being the same person is due to "Coda's" influence in The Beginner's Guide. It isn't that accessible... and that's okay. The fact that game was even released at all is due to "Davey's" influence.

For most of the video, I was nodding along with your ideas but also thinking that I don't see how those problems with the story could be fixed without changing what the game is about. Then you got to your flash drive idea and it all clicked. Bloody clever, mate.

When I played, I also concluded that this was just a short story about a bad friend. The break of the kayfabe happened when the walls become translucent and you see a massive number of extra hallways beyond. I could immediately tell they were placed to look good from the player's position and not like someone made a level and then hid it.

@TheGemsbok

3 жыл бұрын

Excellent observation.

I don't entirely agree but damn this is a really interesting way of looking at it. Great video I'm subscribing :D

@TheGemsbok

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! Next new game video won't be available for a couple months, but I assure you it will be well worth the wait.

Loved your suggestion at the end!

Fantastic video, you have great insights, and can put into words which I could not. I'll just continue binge watching them.

Gotta disagree with your video for once. My understanding is that there's two criticisms you make: 1) The fictional story quickly breaks disbelief because of logical inconsistencies in the writing (Davey is friends with Coda yet never talks to them? Davey sells Coda's games on Steam without their permission which would be super illegal? Davey is addicted to sharing his thoughts on Coda's games for no reason?) That interpretation puts a *lot* of faith into what Davey says as a narrator. Personally I don't interpret them as friends at all, but rather Davey is a delusional stalker and Coda barely acknowledges him until he becomes too much of a pain in the ass at the end of the game. I guess I've read enough /r/HobbyDrama to find it completely believable that someone would spend years obsessing about another person and their works, so that story doesn't break disbelief for me. On my first playthrough, the slowly creeping inconsistencies in the "friends" story made me think "are they really friends?" rather than "this doesn't make sense", which made for a satisfying twist in that final level. 2) Trying to interpret the fictional story as a metaphor for Wreden's real life fails because of some things that don't match (Wreden did release successful games in the past unlike Davey or Coda. The possible gender fluidity of Coda doesn't match.) That seems too literal to me. There's several ways to interpret things on a meta level about who represents what and what the game's messages are (Davey and Coda are both parts of Wreden? Davey was Wreden in the past and Coda is inspired by a real person that he knew? The game is about critics putting too much meaning behind games and we shouldn't analyze it?) and they are of course subjective and we won't ever get an outright confirmation from Wreden. But I think it's undeniable, especially reading that post-Stanley Parable "Game of the Year" blog post that he wrote in 2014, that The Beginner's Guide contains a lot of Wreden's feelings and isn't just a fun story about a stalker for the sake of it. Let me know if I completely missed the mark.

@TheGemsbok

2 жыл бұрын

Your understanding of my argument---as well as of the game itself---is much stronger than almost all of the other objections to this video that can be found here and elsewhere. Along those lines, I am grateful to you; it is refreshing to be writing a comment back to someone with whom I seem to have a genuine difference of opinions (rather than someone who seems to have watched about half of the video before turning it off and writing a response). If you are satisfied with that praise and with what you got out of the video, you may take your leave here. But if you are curious about my (longwinded) thoughts on your two responses, read on: As to (1), in that point you clearly know exactly what I am arguing, and your justification for disagreeing with me is reasonable. But the exact way in which I am arguing that point is a bit different than is implied in your response to it. Details like the legal impossibility of the collection itself---and, to a lesser degree, the continued access that Davey has to Coda's games despite the simultaneous privacy of Coda and imposition of Davey---do not dissolve upon reflecting on the unreliability of Davey as narrator. In fact, addressing appeals to unreliable narration was what I originally did in my pinned comment for this video; I only changed it to its current form after the incoming responses implied there was a far more fundamental misunderstanding occurring among viewers. Whether or not Davey is accurately representing his relationship with Coda, or his reasons for making the collection, or how many minor adjustments to the games he personally made, or etc---it remains the case that a person can not sell someone else's work against their will, and that this (ultimately unresolved) contradiction sticks out to the player mere minutes into the game. Similarly, the tiny snippets of Coda's own perspective that we (arguably) get in the gallery at the end of 'The Tower' do represent a person who has some kind of genuine human relationship with Davey, however unsteady. If someone is willing to take the unreliable narrator point far enough to say that the collection may not actually be illegal and that those snippets may not actually be written by Coda . . . then their skepticism is sufficiently thorough to make it so they can not make a single positive claim about the story of The Beginner's Guide. That is, under those circumstances, every single solitary detail you see and hear, up to and including the mere existence of Coda, may be a fabrication by Davey *within the fiction of the game*. So, since I am unwilling to go quite that far (and despite the fact that I agree that Davey comes across as pushy to the point of being stalkerish), I accept enough of the background plot details of the story as presented for these logical issues to harm my suspension of disbelief. As to (2), here your understanding of my point is somewhat shakier, but after interaction with a few people who prioritize metaphorical readings of the game, I honestly think that's my own fault for not being clear enough. Personally, I do think metaphorical readings of the game are needlessly implausible. But not because they are inconsistent with Wreden's life---rather, because they are (a) inconsistent with *Davey's* life, and (b) seem to demand the discarding of the game's overwhelming fixation on Davey's efforts to interpret Coda's games. You may wonder how I maintain this point-of-view given the author's blog posts. Well, to put things in terms of literary theory, I'm a formalist much moreso than a historicist. In other words, the details of the work itself are by far the most important element in my final analysis of a work---and details like a creator's biography, a creator's public statements about their style or their work, a creator's culture, and so on are secondary (or, depending on my mood, possibly even irrelevant). So when the game spends enormous stretches of time focusing on something, that 'something' becomes a strong candidate for being what the work is actually about. In this case, Davey's biased and selective interpretation of Coda's games dominates the majority of the experience, while his relationship with Coda takes a backseat for the vast majority of it; many other notable 'internet analysts' have picked up on the same thing, and accordingly their analyses reflect a (somewhat more credulous) reading of the game as being about the relationship between developer and player. And, beyond that, yes, Davey talks about making The Stanley Parable *in The Beginner's Guide*. Whatever my own feelings about it, The Stanley Parable is not a game that almost anyone would say is solely chasing mass appeal or was created only in a quest for validation---yet it released after Davey and Coda entirely parted ways.

@Wiwiwab

2 жыл бұрын

@@TheGemsbok Ah, I was a bit off the mark, sorry about that. On 1), you're absolutely right that the mere fact that the game is sold on Steam should immediately clue players that this is not a true story, but a "found footage" story. To be honest I didn't even think about this on my first playthrough, I came with no expectations about the game and it took me until the stairs leading to the room full of ideas to realize this was a fictional story ("heh, that's a bit on the nose, I don't think someone would have actually made that"). But once the player realizes it is a fictional story, either from the very start like you did, or later, I don't think the real-life acquisition of the game is an inconsistency in the fictional story. In the same way that, when watching Cloverfield, I don't wonder "if this is from a VHS in the 90s how come I'm watching it on Netflix for 15$ a month?". I'll admit "found footage" movies have a stronger "veneer" in that you could imagine it was literally found and converted by someone, with some handwaving of details. Which is the basis of your idea of having Davey find a flash drive, making this literally a "found game", which I think is a good idea. But it personally didn't bother me either way. My "contract" as a player/viewer asks me to ignore the real-life fact that artists need to make money, for the sake of the story. Similar to how I also ignore that characters in stories speak my language when they shouldn't, and no two characters will ever share the same name. --- About the relationship between Davey and Coda (stalker or estranged friends?) I admit that in my memory of 5 years ago, the messages in the tower were more impersonal than they actually are after rewatching that part on KZread. Especially "When I am around you, I feel physically sick" does indicate they have met repeatedly in the past, and "Will you stop showing my games to other people" does indicate that he had special access to Coda's games in some way. So I am off in my "complete stranger stalker" theory but I think the general idea still stands. "Why didn't Davey talk to Coda while they were still in contact?" and "How is Davey getting Coda's games?" aren't answered by the game but I don't see that as a plot hole since it is easy to handwave it once you figure "they aren't as close friends as Davey pretends". Maybe they did talk and Coda told Davey to fuck off in increasingly less-polite ways. Maybe Coda was already ignoring Davey at this point. Maybe Coda's games were posted on a group and Davey ended up getting kicked from it. Maybe Davey got the games through a 3rd party or some other way. It is a personal thing, but for this type of story, I don't necessarily need a detailed timeline of events as long as the questions left open are minor and could be resonably explained in a few ways. --- For 2) you make a good point. When I was talking about the feelings of Wreden poured into The Beginner's Guide, I did focus on the "living for external validation" themes, at the expense of the "critique of art" themes which are more prominent. I don't have strong thoughts on the meta-analysis of The Beginner's Guide but you've convinced me that it's at least more than my simple thoughts on it. "And, beyond that, yes, Davey talks about making The Stanley Parable *in The Beginner's Guide*. Whatever my own feelings about it, The Stanley Parable is not a game that almost anyone would say is solely chasing mass appeal or was created only in a quest for validation---yet it released after Davey and Coda entirely parted ways." Can you expand on that bit? I don't think I understand the relation between Davey and The Stanley Parable.

@TheGemsbok

2 жыл бұрын

Sure, no problem: the crux of the metaphorical reading championed by some players seems to be that Davey and Coda represent two sides of a creative person (theoretically Wreden, but the identity of the creative person is not crucial to the reading). Thus, Coda would be the productive, creative, personal, insecure, intrinsically motivated part of the artist, whereas Davey would be the business-minded, simplistic, social, confident, externally motivated part of the artist. In brief, Coda is the creator and Davey is the publisher, and there is internal conflict between these parts of the individual. Over time, a creative may feel more and more pressure from their 'publishing' half to produce games with mass appeal---or to push ideas to market before they're ready. I think this is a fine reading. It's interesting, and some people have built valuable analysis out of it. But I don't think it's as well-founded in the details of the game as those readers would have you believe. My main reason for feeling this way is that Davey spends almost the entire narrative building a shoddy interpretation of Coda's games. Comparatively little time is spent discussing the relationship between the pair until the very end. These facts about the story are inconsistent with the reading described a moment ago (or at least make it a less desirable reading than one that matches those details more closely). But beyond that, and why I describe the metaphorical reading as 'needlessly implausible,' is that there are specific details in the story that blatantly contradict it. Davey opening the game by talking about his involvement in the development of The Stanley Parable (which, as I noted in the previous comment, really can not be construed as a game chasing mass appeal except by those most desperate to make the metaphor fit) after Coda had entirely stopped making games is one such detail.

Layer 1 - naive acceptance... what the narrator says is real Layer 2 - self-concious analysis... compares playing Beginner’s Guide to narrator playing games Layer 3 - craft of writing... looking at how game creates Layer 1 and 2 At this point I’ve seen 4 or 5 video essays about Layer 2 in BG. This is the first time I’ve ever seen someone talk about Layer 3. Impressive.

to me this was a step down from stanley parable. stanley parable takes common tropes and ideas from narrative games and flips them on their head to create an enjoyable parody. this was just a confusing narative focused game that left me thinking “was that real?” because in my mind if he is real? he is actively avoiding the game to avoid having any interaction with davey (taking the game down would force coda to reveal his location and identity to davey because of how the copyright system works). in which case davey is just an idiot with absolutely no self awareness about how much he is hurting others in his own selfishness.

@TheGemsbok

3 жыл бұрын

I could definitely understand someone preferring The Stanley Parable, depending on their tastes. Your point about disclosure is an interesting one. I think that would be a factor in a civil legal action between the parties, such as Coda suing Davey. But I'm fairly confident that kind of personal information and location reveal to Davey would not be necessary for Coda to have the game removed from private platforms and storefronts like Steam, GoG, Itch, Epic, Humble, etc. Coda would only have to prove ownership to the platform owners directly.

Very good Critique. My only gripe is that, in the conclusion, you imply that anyone who enjoys the game is naive for doing so. That felt like a needless addition that only really serves to anger those who did enjoy the game

@TheGemsbok

2 жыл бұрын

That line about how 'significant emotional resonance with the game is only possible for particularly credulous players' is a much softer version of the line from the first draft---where I did imply what you're describing. But I don't think that's quite the implication of the line that ended up there in the video, which specifies 'significant' emotional resonance and those who have completely bought into the conceivability/coherence of the narrative. This leaves a broad swathe of people (who enjoyed the game to some degree despite noticing its structural issues) untouched by the criticism.

This is a really cool concept for a game. The pitfalls you point out seem really obvious - I don't understand why the creator wouldn't have noticed in a game that took so much thought. Perhaps he just got caught up in the details and didn't notice some of these big picture stuff. Really well pointed out and analyzed. I want to see The Gemsbok version of this game!

@TheGemsbok

3 жыл бұрын

The biggest problem for its coherence (regarding the collection itself being a legal/logical impossibility) feels like the kind of mistake that it would be easy to make in the first draft of a script or novel. But yeah, by the second draft, an issue that glaring should be gone.

Very thoughtful analysis! The Beginner's Guide's issues remind me of another "story game" that I played called Quarantine Circular (fixed title). That one had almost the opposite issue. Rather than suffering under an unclear theme, it had a theme that was forced on the player, in spite of the logical issues that lead into it. I feel like many game scripts don't go through as many revisions as they should. Thank you for the video!

@TheGemsbok

3 жыл бұрын

Subsurface Circular, Quarantine Circular, or both? (I haven't played either of them; I'm just curious which one you're talking about.)

@obscure8176

3 жыл бұрын

@@TheGemsbok Quarantine Circular, I mixed up the titles and fixed it in the original comment, XD A prior choice locks the player into sending one of two to people to deal with the narrative's central conflict. However, you can make a choice that locks you into sending someone who has been actively unhelpful during the incident. This is probably to make the point that choices have unforeseen consequences, but there are other people who would make more sense to send and the story kind of disregards that.

@TheGemsbok

3 жыл бұрын

Ah, sorry about that; I hate it when people respond to my typos before I can fix them. Ha, my bad. Anyway, yeah, what you're describing there definitely sounds manipulative enough to feel forced. Thanks for the context.

I wouldn't say I was quite as bothered by the obvious lie that this game could exist in the framework given as you are (or seem to be), but certainly when I pieced together the situation early on, I did wish the story had been structured otherwise that this wasn't a gigantic glaring problem

@TheGemsbok

2 жыл бұрын

Well said. I am glad to hear that these issues were not as bothersome to some players, even if we can all collectively wish the game was free of them.

Personally for me and many others the game on a first play through feels profound and it’s flaws don’t become apparent until it is given some actual thought. For this reason I’m able to ignore its flaws to enjoy it more on a personal level as I feel what it is trying to be and almost succeeds at is amazing but on an objective level the majority of its flaws can’t be excused making it feel a lot more sloppy. Honestly with how close this game was to being great I feel as if the dev has a lot of potential and they recently joined a studio so I’m excited for future projects. I am gonna have to completely disagree with what you said about the Stanley parable however. Regarding the humor obviously humor is subjective but for the most part it was an enjoyable mix of absurdity and satire that I felt was quite funny but everyone finds different things humorous. More so than the humor though even if you don’t find it humorous it is undeniable the game is filled to the brim with charm that make seven unfunny jokes feel enjoyable to experience. Overall it was an enjoyable game that pokes fun at many concepts in gaming generally quite well while feeling varied and unique with every ending.

I wish The Gemsbok would do a video on Dark Souls

@TheGemsbok

2 жыл бұрын

I have some good news for you.

I'd watched a playthrough of this game rather than playing myself, and I remember being vaguely frustrated by what seemed to be the conclusion. It annoyed me that it seemed to be taking a stance against trying to draw lines between art and the artist by showing a very strange example of a guy who clearly had no understanding of what he was talking about or how to interact with others.

@TheGemsbok

3 жыл бұрын

Well said. It is definitely fair to say that the story of a person who is so bad at analyzing games that they incorporate their own extensive gameplay mods of those games into their analysis is not a very good representation of how most analysts actually approach games.

I always interpreted it in a way, where Coda and Davey are the same person. Coda is the creative energy that just loves to create for its own sake. Davey is the side that seek outside validation. And there was a point when the creativity stopped, because Davey started to focus more on the validation and less on the actual making of games. The artist struggling with becoming famous. The whole anthology narrative is only a metaphor to navigate the bond between the two sides that make up (real) Davey Wreden. That would also explain, why Davey cannot stop sharing Coda's games, or why they didn't talk about Coda's Depression. The part of Davey Wreden that seeks validation didn't vanish, just because he got depressed and stopped making games.

@TheGemsbok

3 жыл бұрын

As I say in the video, I think that could have been a worthwhile direction for the game to go, and that something along those lines may have been somewhere in Wreden's mind when he was composing it. But that reading is made needlessly implausible by many details: Coda had already made several games before the pair met; The Stanley Parable and The Beginner's Guide (which, regardless of my own opinions about them, almost couldn't be further from being works that are only chasing wide appeal) both released after the pair parted ways; Davey refers to Coda exclusively with masculine pronouns, although the female perspectives in the 'backwards walking' and 'mist islands' games imply that Coda's gender identity may not be so clear-cut (something Davey would know if they were the same person); and the narration's interest in the relationship between Davey and Coda takes a back seat for the majority of the tale, as it focuses instead on the topic of interpreting Coda's games (which Davey specifically describes receiving as .zip files). Ultimately, for that to be the final word on the game as presented, when the narration spends such an enormous length of time on Davey building up a selective and therefore erroneous interpretation of Coda's games, would make the work overall much more banal (and, as I imply in the video with the 'NSFW' bit, masturbatory) than its many positive evaluators have declared when interpreting it as a work about the relationship between player and developer.

@MrChocodemon

3 жыл бұрын

​@@TheGemsbok > The Stanley Parable and The Beginner's Guide [...] both released after the pair parted ways As I interpreted it as a loose autobiographical fiction, I don't think that the Davey/Coda characters are part of our literal world. > Coda had already made several games before the pair met Which makes sense. He might have created just for the fun of it at first. Davey existed only at the point he wanted to experience outside validation. >Coda exclusively with masculine pronouns [...] something Davey would know if they were the same person Only if you assume that all parts of a personality have the same need and understanding of gender identity. Maybe Coda doesn't care how he represents (because he's just Wredens creative self) and the extroverted Davey thinks that everything about Wreden is masculine. Because that is not only how he thinks of himself, but it is also how he wants to be perceived. (Davey is the part that cares how others perceive him) > and the narration's interest in the relationship between Davey and Coda takes a back seat for the majority of the tale, as it focuses instead on the topic of interpreting Coda's games. Good Point, though I feel like it was a neat way to organically create the divide. I think the intent from Wreden is that the player first perceives Davey and Coda to be two entities, but the longer the game goes on, notice the cracks in the writing and realise that they are parts of a whole. While it might be inelegant, it felt pretty fitting to me. > [...] when the narration spends such an enormous length of time on Davey building up a selective and therefore erroneous interpretation of Coda's games, would make the work overall much more banal [...] when interpreting it as a work about the relationship between player and developer. I totally disagree, but I lack the skill to properly express why. I don't feel the player/dev interpretation fits completely. It feels shallow and disregards the complete dichotomy of goals and views of Coda and Davey. As if devs don't create games to be played, or players aren't able to just play a game, without questioning everything. TLDR; I think it could be an expressionistic self portrait in video game form depicting the struggle of the dev to make peace between his creativity and need for external validation.

@TheGemsbok

3 жыл бұрын

Rather than digging in further line-by-line, I'll just say, to your TLDR: absolutely fair, and certainly an arguably valid interpretive track for the game. I am happy to agree to disagree with someone who has clearly put in a fair amount of careful consideration for their analysis.

@MrChocodemon

3 жыл бұрын

@@TheGemsbok Agreed. It was a joy to watch your video and I am glad I got to know your interpretation.

I remember instantly thinking "wait how is that legal", but somehow still suspended my disbelief enough for it not to really bother me. And yeah the fact that Davey and Coda know each other makes the whole thing less believable, but it's still necessary for the story the game was telling? I mean, you can't have the same breakdown, Davey way too implicated or that breach in trust if Davey's just looking for a creator. But in the end, I'd say that I loved the idea more than the execution, and I'm glad you made this video, because those are points that aren't often (or ever) talked about when it comes to The Beginner's Guide.

@TheGemsbok

3 жыл бұрын

I am glad to hear that these issues were not as damaging to your experience of the game as they were to mine. I imagine many of the people who have made more conventional reviews and analyses of the game feel similarly to you (i.e. that the problems are forgivable, or at least can be overlooked/ignored). But I do not think it's strictly true that the breakdown that ends the story would have been out of reach without the personal connection between the characters. I believe that it would have been possible to build up to that level of emotion solely through Davey's inability to understand how someone could be motivated without external validation---which ultimately constitutes most of Davey's climactic rant regardless (as it is revealed to underlie the breach of trust). It would have been a more challenging sequence to write convincingly, to be sure, but it would have made for a more consistent and believable whole if achieved.

I was very disappointed with the beginner's guide mainly due to actually wanting the game's original premise, a collection of short games with dev commentary in it, to be released by a big company like valve once a year or so. I guess I got about 50% of that later with collections from dread xp and haunted ps1.

Its intriguing seeing such a different perspective on this, which in itself is a compliment to both you and the game. Personally I just assumed when I first played it that the in text justification for its own existence was that Coda had cut all ties with Davey, that Davey was essentially desperate and distraught enough to pull this, and that Coda didn't care and wouldn't want to have to deal with Davey again so why would they want to go public for this. Beyond that I think the reception and contextualization as time goes on undersells how fervent and popular the confusion of Coda's reality was during its release. People aren't logical or knowledgeable about the law and that among many other reasons lead to a very large portion of the audience to believe this was a non-fictional piece. I think it was certainly made understanding that people would come to the conclusion that it was fiction at some point during the experience and that how long it takes you to realize this is itself a commentary on the relationship between author and audience. Though really its biggest success is just in making people talk about or adjacent to it. Innuendo Studios piece on it, acting as a breakdown of the nature of communication itself, is a good example of the Beginners Guide being a triumph in making people take hold it of it in a manner critiques don't always tend to do.

@TheGemsbok

3 жыл бұрын

I would agree, as I say in the conclusion, that whether or not it is ultimately deserving of the honor---it is nevertheless a game which has been honored through the production of quite a lot of discussion. This is its greatest virtue. On that point, you are exactly right. Regarding your comment about Coda not wanting to 'go public,' though, you are not the first person to respond to this video along those lines. Here is what I said on that topic previously: "I think that would be a factor in civil legal action between the parties, such as Coda suing Davey. But I'm fairly confident that kind of personal information and location reveal to Davey would not be necessary for Coda to have the game removed from private platforms and storefronts like Steam, GoG, Itch, Epic, Humble, etc. Coda would only have to prove ownership to the platform owners directly." And, to be frank, I don't think it takes any particularly sophisticated legal knowledge to know a person can't sell someone else's work without permission. I'd be fairly surprised if there are more than a handful of younger (or, as I put it in the video, credulous) players who paid money for The Beginner's Guide, got more than about three minutes in, and remained convinced that the narration was providing consistent truth.

If there were any justice in the world way more people would know about this channel.

just discorver your channel because of the amezing video on the witness, one of my top 3 favourites games of all time, to just see this video and see another one of my top3 games of all time being called disapointing and unfunny. Great annalysis of the begginer's guide tho

@TheGemsbok

Жыл бұрын

Ha, sorry to disappoint. Glad you've enjoyed the videos, at any rate. If it's any consolation, I have played a truly obscene number of games in my life, and yet The Witness is still in my personal top 20.

Maybe it's because of my feelings about my own creativity I felt like it was about was that relationship between the logical side and the creative side. I made stuff because I wanted to make it that was it. I didn't actually want to share it but it made sense to. Then I lost my creativity and tried to force it to come back doing stuff that I lost it doing

I don't understand that baby's first Borjes line, but somehow it still feels like the most savage thing I heard all week LMAO

You know this is not a bad video, is well made and has some points but I think your fixation of the idea that someone would think this is not a work of fiction kinda undermines the point of the whole critique, as if someone did not think that and did not care because of how engrossing the game is, what's left to critique? This kinda of subjectivity, while valid to a point, does forego the fact that people might not care, much like people might find The Stanley Parable funny and interesting, turns this into more of a "personal thoughts" than "critique".

@TheGemsbok

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for taking the time to comment, but what you're saying does not ring true with the content of this video. I take greats pains at two or more points in this script to explain that it does not matter whether someone believes the game is telling a true story. This video's main points are (1) that the internal logic of its plot is rendered incoherent by the writing decision to have the collection be illegal, and (2) that the internal logic of the relationship it depicts is rendered needlessly implausible by two other simultaneous writing decisions (Davey's continued access to Coda's new private games as they release---which would make no sense if they *were not* friends---and Davey's continuous failure to raise his concerns with Coda directly---which would make no sense if they *were* friends). In other words, that the game is a lie is not and has never been an issue for it. But the obviousness of that lie is a result of problems that do undermine the themes examined by other prominent critics. But setting that aside, it's not clear how or why you think a critique can ever be 'objective?' Of course this work is subjective, as is all art criticism. What do think would be included in a non-subjective critique?

@luismiguez7428

2 жыл бұрын

@@TheGemsbok I didn't say that. I will clarify: the video's insistence that the lie is so obviously wrong that feels like it's missing the forest for the trees, and thus ends up feeling like your own personal thoughts instead of a proper critique. That's a valid point to make, of course, that the game's plot holes - which include, by large, a number of assumptions. Considering the nature of the game, the games could be old enough to be from the moment where they had contact, and the last one was clearly when they were estranged - are important, but in the end they do not define the game, and there is enough of a study in critiques themselves in the game to offer up meat for the player to suspend their disbelief. It is, after all, fiction. You can justify them in a number of ways, but the status of their relationship is relevant only to establish the initial background. Thank you for taking the time to reply.

@TheGemsbok

2 жыл бұрын

I am still curious to hear what kind of material you think (distinct from personal thoughts) would be involved in a proper critique.

Ignorance is bliss in the my case (and my friend's case). Most people how play games are not aware of the name of it's creators (unless it's blatantly in the title like with Sid Meier). The weakness of the meta narrative is never noticed if you're not aware that it's meta in the first place XD I simply played the game thinking everything in it was inside a fictional story. (I now understand your frustration with the wasted potential The Beginner's Guide has, but I'll have to disagree with your take on their previous game being overrated)

Here is my virgin/chad meme for this video, I hope you like it: The virgin all other critics: "This game criticizes analyzing games for always getting it wrong, so I'll tiptoe around analysis and constantly apologize for doing what the game says is bad" The chad gemsbok: "People been writing metafiction like this for 200+ years, here's how this one could be written better"

@TheGemsbok

3 жыл бұрын

Haha, whoa there. The approach taken by more conventional analysts of this game (like Errant Signal, WSGAT, and whoever else) is fine by me. When it comes to the interpretation of art, I very much come down on the side of readers and viewers creating meaning out of the details of the work. Along those lines, to my mind, the mistake Davey makes is not analyzing the games. Rather (if we set aside his intellectual property crimes), the two mistakes he makes are: ignoring salient symbols and mechanics when building his interpretation, and assuming that his interpretation is giving him direct insight about the creator. That said, as you’ve noted, that’s not really what this video is about. Instead, I wanted to talk about how the first of those two mistakes is needlessly muddied by the impossibility/illegality of the collection as described, and how the second of those two mistakes is needlessly muddied by Wreden’s decision to have Davey know Coda personally as a ‘friend.’

The point I felt like this game failed in its fiction during the whole scene about the walls closing in with the smoke and Davey doing a crying breakdown, as if it was live or something, when the tower has been presented as a game Davey already hacked into. I didn't think it being a compilation of another person's game was immediately off though, I just assumed they must have got permission, and it wouldn't mean that the permission meant that Coda had to personally be looking at the game's development. I've felt this game was overhyped but also my opinion was unpopular so this video is an instant sub from me, lol 13:49 I really strongly disagree on this, my personal story as a designer/creator is accurate enough to these parts of the fictional depiction. I have shared my music privately to very few people because the few times I posted it publicly I got little validation and regretted it, and now make stuff mostly for intrinsic value, but would share it to people who are actually likely to respond and like it, rather than get underwhelmed by small public reception. Honestly I feel like this mindset has been toxic to me over the years, but it's what I have actually done. ...also the 'sharing work by another person who may no longer want it shared', that's kind of something I understand too. I've seen many creators who have nuked everything and I have personally archived some of them, then felt their work was so good I wanted to share them, although the motivation I would never say it is "intoxicating enjoyment from sharing others' work", it's more complicated than that, like wanting this amazing work to not be lost unknown forever. I also enjoyed the self-love NSFW joke, lol. good video, I'll go watch your other ones next :)

When I played through this game, there's a detail that I just assumed to be obviously true: Davey (the character) is mentally ill. Specifically, he's borderline (or possibly histrionic). Watching your video, nearly every critique you had can be easily responded to by just saying: "Well, yeah. He's borderline. Of course that's what he'd do." The broken logic, lack of communication, and terrible decision-making Davey exhibits are all textbook behaviors for someone with his condition without treatment - And I read the game's metanarrative as being ABOUT the slow realization of just how sick Davey actually is.

I didn't feel very strongly for your complaints, since it was my impression that Coda either made all of these games for game jams, or as CSGO mods to which Davey had access. I think your point is valid but it is so minor that it does not bother me. Your allusion to Borges was spot on, however, and your suggestion for the flash drive narrative certainly would promote more creative digressions in a Borgesian fashion. As it is, I think that Beginner's Guide is more of a straightforward and not very thoroughly drafted story about friends sacrificing relationship for fantasies of fame.

@TheGemsbok

2 жыл бұрын

When you say that it is "about friends sacrificing relationship for fantasies of fame," I'd be inclined to partially agree. That's certainly a theme that is present in the game. Yet the overwhelming majority of the narration concerns a specific effort of interpretation---Davey attempting to interpret the work of Coda. As a result, in my opinion a strong description of the themes of the game must account for that focus. At any rate, obviously, I completely agree with you about it being "a straightforward and not very thoroughly drafted story."

Ca. 8:50 I don't get your logic here - what you're saying is, like, trying to communicate with oneself to better understand (and then influence) own motivational structure is somehow unusual.

@TheGemsbok

Жыл бұрын

Not quite. The point made at that timestamp is that Davey is a fictional entity that has all of the public biographical details of Wreden. That includes the production of successful, broadly distributed games (the standalone mod and initial release versions of The Stanley Parable) between Coda's last title and the release of The Beginner's Guide. On a reading that sees them as the same person (where Coda is the creative side, and Davey the marketing side or somesuch), him imploring Coda to not have the tower game be his last makes no sense whatsoever.

Having never even heard of The Beginners Guide, I have to say this was the most confusing thing I've watched in a long time! Interesting nevertheless. I played The Stanley Parable and actually thought it was quite good. More accessible to average game players than The Beginners Guide perhaps. Would be interested to hear your critique on it.

@TheGemsbok

3 жыл бұрын

Haha, yeah, I could see how this would be a difficult game to hear about in this video for the first time; sorry to confuse you! Anyway, it's not outside the realm of possibility that I might write about The Stanley Parable some day, but (as you might imagine, having just finished this video) there are other projects I have lined up that feel more exciting to me right now.

You know, there is this thing called „suspension of disbelief“.... You have to pretend like the game is actually what it claims to be. You know it is not - but it wants you to think: imagine if someone were to do what he did.

@TheGemsbok

2 жыл бұрын

Of course. But that suspension has to be maintained by a baseline of coherence in the story. In this situation, my disbelief was fully suspended, for a few minutes. Then tentatively suspended, for about 45 minutes more. Then broken.

@gunsmithcat7542

2 жыл бұрын

​@@TheGemsbok Yea, I get your point. I, too, thought for a second: Wait, this 4th-wall breaking twist at the end doesn't make sense - but then I got over it and focused instead on what the game was actually triny to tell me. I would have totally been okay with you bringing it up as a minor complaint - but as the main premise for this video?

@TheGemsbok

2 жыл бұрын

Breaking the 4th wall isn't a twist in the game; breaking the 4th wall is the first thing that happens in the game, when the narrator introduces himself as Davey Wreden, and mentions his involvement in the development of The Stanley Parable. The twist, such as it is, is actually the _reconstruction_ of the 4th wall. At any rate, I consider the narrative problems highlighted in this video to be a fairly large distraction from 'what the game was actually trying to tell me.' Yet I think these issues could have been avoided with fairly minimal additional editing on the writing of the game. This disconnect---between the large plot holes introduced by these elements, and the small changes that would have dodged them---is why I made this video.

@gunsmithcat7542

2 жыл бұрын

@@TheGemsbok and because of the way the game starts, I legit saw it as a kind of playable documentary about a guy who really exists. It wasn’t until the end twist that I thought, just like you: wait ü, this doesn’t make any sense at all. Then I thought about it for a second and I was like: aahh, so that’s how it is. That’s what they were going for. Like, wait a minute. This isn’t a documentary. It’s a fictional story. Huh, you got me there.

this game paints uncharitable interpretations of art as very negative, which is why i really disagree with this video

@TheGemsbok

Жыл бұрын

Yes, it does, which is why I'm careful to clarify in the rebuttal section of this video that my criticisms proceed from a charitable interpretation of the work rather than an uncharitable one. Now, further than uncharitable interpretations, the story of The Beginner’s Guide also implies that any interpreters, indeed any critics, may sometimes be equivalent to myopic and egotistical stalkers, and that their descriptions of possible edits may be akin to directly modifying games to fit their preferences. Obviously, for the purpose of this video, I have ignored the game’s implicit declaration that every dissenting critic is by definition missing all or part of the point. And when drawn out like this directly, the childishness of saying a work is immune to criticism if it depicts misguided criticism---should be obvious to everyone.

@veagle1379

Жыл бұрын

@@TheGemsbok all interpretations of art are equal, pardon me for sounding incredulous, but i think you, being a critic, are a bit biased which doesn't make your criticism invalid, that's the whole point

@TheGemsbok

Жыл бұрын

The whole point of The Beginner's Guide is that all interpretations and criticisms are valid? While I myself agree that all interpretations and criticisms _can_ be valid, that doesn't seem to be the perspective of the game. Or, to put it another way, that is itself a very unusual interpretation of the game. Most people tend to agree that it tries to paint Davey's interpretations of Coda's games as invalid or misguided to some degree. I'd be interested to hear how your analysis of the game differs from that, as it sounds quite unique.

@veagle1379

Жыл бұрын

@@TheGemsbok i wouldn't say it's my analysis, unfortunately i can't share what this game means to me personally. my thoughts here mostly come from Big Joel's analysis of the game, check it out if you want.

Wow your interpretation falls apart, this is bad analysis