The other irritating thing about nihilistic, misanthropic loser-villains is that the lower the standard for a good hero/protagonist

Greg's "fuck it so much" has stayed a staple joke in my friend group to this day

The Pretender would have been far scarier if it didn't explain why it does what it does. If you were just left with a thing that just mimics people and erases them to replace them with no seeming reason? That's scary. Because your imagination of why it does that would be so much worse than the 'weh world bad' reason.

@ethribin4188

2 ай бұрын

The otber reason why no explenation is scary, is that the reasoning may be beyond you. Thats one of the reason eldritch beings are scary

Yeah I understand what the game was trying to say but it didn't feel passionate and more just complaining of something. That is the best way I can describe it because let's compare to two horror stories relatively recent the current remake of the invisible man and "don't feed the muse" from Alex bale on KZread. The invisible man is about a woman dealing with a abusive man that wants to kill her but people ignoring her. Yes this talks on larger issues of police, sexism, and toxic masculinity but the big threat is still personalized. That she is in danger and while all those issues enabled it there is a more immediate threat that is the focus. Something more similar to what this game tries to do is "don't feed the muse" where it is a monster version of the KZread algorithm specifically. Giving you success for niches but will cause you to fail once you step out of it. So do you stick with success and lose yourself or try to break free while constantly being pushed to give in and accept the muse. Now while both had monsters being representative of digital algorithms and losing yourself the muse has more passion behind it. In that it is creators frustrations between staying true to yourself or doing what is successful. For this game it is "people are so fake" and ironically looks like thousands of social media post I know exist because it isn't attacking the why. The why for the muse is the classic artist trouble of doing your passions or choosing success so there is a why behind it. They are angry you have to ignore your passions to be successful as a artist. Versus "it's annoying people are so fake on social media. I don't even know what's the real person and just the digital persona that was crafted" and then not having a why for the story. Not talking about the desires to appear to be doing better or more successful, not talking about parasocial relationships where people are connected to a fictional idea that doesn't exist, etc.

@RoseDragoness

3 ай бұрын

Thank you! I think with the video and your comment I learned something: of not tackling real life issues just on a surface level.

that bit about ashley had me nearly spit take. "extremely gay, is perfect and deserves the world" I love it🏳‍🌈

i'm so stealing "nihilism is for losers" ❤

The Simulacra's voice acting sounds like if the Master from Fallout 1 was a moody NEET who hated his dad.

I really hate pop culture version of nihilism :'D Nihilism as its base is idea that there is no such thing as intristic value, no metaphysical cosmic law, no value independent from value humans give to it. So seeing that as "nothing has value, so life sucks, nothing should exist because its pointless" is frustrating when I think idea that life has no inherent meaning outside of what you give it is beautifully freeing, there is no right or wrong way to live life if you are living life up to your values. (also its hypocritical as hell, idea that things without value are worthless is basically giving them negative value)

@josephwebster2319

2 ай бұрын

except both of those have always been arguments for nihilism. "Life has no meaning so everything is meaningless" and "Life has no meaning so you make your own meaning" have always been the two ends of nihilism its just how extreme are you wanting to take it and that's where pop culture takes it. And both end up always being near the same in the end because they make them some kind of degenerate with no self control or self perservation

@blackjoker2345

2 ай бұрын

@@josephwebster2319 No, one of those have always been arguments for misanthropic losers using nihilism as a shield to support their shitty world view and building a false equivalence between them is like when Boomers build a false equivalence between Atheism and Moral Decay/Degeneracy or between the LGBTQ+ community and child molesters.

PS. the simulacrum entity could have been done better- a copy of someone who wants to become the original because it can't stand that there is two, thinking itself to be the original. The threat being a fellow irrational being, reacting to irrational sittuation- there is two of me now, this cannot be "There cannot be two SIMONS!"

With the whole thing with Ai, I feel like you should play SOMA. Ever since I found it, it's become a personal favorite in messing with your mind when you play it. If you haven't played it, I really recomend it. Maybe you could even make a video about it too?

@khanlusa

27 күн бұрын

Oh I do love SOMA ❤

Khan! It's great to see you posting. I loved your WoW retelling storylines. Here's an idea - tell a WoW story through the eyes of your character from start to finish, selecting any time period (or multiple time periods - and the expansions that you may dislike - WoD and Shadowlands - can be periods in your character's life when they're participating in personal events or dealing with smaller matters instead of major expac events). I think you'd do amazing at it

This screams 14 year old edgelord.

@chizara1971

3 ай бұрын

ong

It's so refreshing to hear someone other than myself be sick of the "humanity is bad" narrative, its over done imo. A good story were a person is trying to wipe out humanity is the master from Fallout 1, He's not doing it because he's "I'm Evil bhahahaha", he's doing it because he truly believes that turning as many humans into supermutans and letting the rest die off is the only way the specie can survive. That my opinion anyways.

@animeotaku307

Ай бұрын

The Master was a great tragic villain. He is so sure that his plan is the only way for humanity to survive in this wasteland. But if you point out a crucial flaw (that supermutants can’t reproduce), he just succumbs to despair, seeing that all the awful things he did in the name of preserving life were for nothing. He even seems to feel that there isn’t hope for humanity either; if he thought his plan was the only way and it wasn’t going to work, then he must think that the world is doomed. Especially in his final line: “Leave now while you still have hope.” Way more interesting of a villain than “hur dur humans stupid.”

good recommendations at the end, a house with many doors is genuinely great; expansive and deep enough to easily get lost in. now to my actual point, the (obvious?) caveat to your main argument: that "humanity so bad, life has no meaning, gotta kill/destroy everything waaah" bullshit? that's not what nihilism is. that's what shitty hollywood writers who don't actually bother learning what words mean or read philosophical treatises *think* nihilism is. it's what shitty black metal dorks "I pretend I read nietzsche at 15 years old but even if I did I didn't understand a single word of it" edgelord losers *think* nihilism is. nihilism is supposed to be life-reaffirming. the realization that life has no inherent meaning is supposed to be *liberating*, free you from the shackles of supposed predestination (especially of the religious type) and to coincide with the realization that the only person who can give your life meaning is *you yourself*. it's supposed to be an encouragement to make the best out of whatever time you have on this planet, in whatever way you deem fit. not this "everything bad I hate everyone gonna nuke the world waaeeeh" whining. Nihilism is not cynicism or pessimism; it's just been turned into that in the public conscious by shitty dorks who conflate these things. apart from that, your point still stands.

@khanlusa

3 ай бұрын

In fairness I do try to live by the idea of "Nothing matters, so I'm gonna try and make people laugh and do good anyway" whether or not I achieve that is another matter but why not try, try, try again etc

What is nihilism next to indomitable human spirit?

@danyaljamil1677

3 ай бұрын

🤜🤛

@Wormy_fren

2 ай бұрын

A twig that is about to be snapped by mountain sized hands

Thank you for all the games suggestions, i'm looking at Duskers right now !

Love your videos as always :]

Ahh yes. Once again, an AI being written like a person, not an AI. Thats why Auto from Wall-E is great. That is why Hades from Zero Dawn feels overpowering. And why Skynet feels unbeatable. But why most AI are bad.

Now i just wanna fic where the player just absolutely roast simulacra

we desperately need more media that arent dommerist because it's literally molding our collective consciousness as we progress into the future and it affects us negatively, cyberpunk doesn't have to be all doom and gloom and I'm also sick of the world where it's survival of the fittest and people seem to turned into sociopaths, if we don't want to make it a self fulfilling prophecy we desperately need more optimistic media and not only they but many people are disappointed In cyberpunk being so meaningless at the end. Cyberpunk hammers down this doomeristic individualistic way of thinking into people's heads when facing climate crisis and possible society ending scenario we need any media that will be popular to show people and help visualise the future that based on collectivism and mutual aid not in individualism and violence, this is whats mature not what cyberpunk 2077 depicts, real maturity is when you realise that all this is fun but it's actually affected how people imagine future and that theres no mainstream media depicting it in a positive way where owipem live happily in a communes where of course there's struggle but people overcome difficulties and differences and help eachother, and it is such a good concept for a game, but every game I can think of puts you in a position of a person that destroys, that comes to ans outpost and completely wipes it of life, and EVERY SINGLE MISSION that is about helping a village or commune is a god damn boring fetch quest abojt picking carrots, of course people will prefer boom boom bwcause dopamine but its actually literally trough positive and negative reinforcement making people correlate mutual aid and cooperation with Boring and uneventful, meaningless, and killing with easy solution, visual change and overcoming the obstacles and progression, and having gwnerations of people growin up on this kind of thinking patterns,when were facing a reality of dealimg with climate change destrucion, is a bad idea, we need more games ans media where cooperation and positive change will be exciting and especially, possible.

@thisgoddamusernamestoodamnlong

15 күн бұрын

seems kinda cruel to give people false hope, no?

Whoo! Duskers!

5:46-6:01 In other words; The Rick Sanchezs of society.

please do a plot video of Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West I love both games and never fully understood the lore also loved all these videos.

So Simularca sounds like a lamer and nhilistic version of SHODAN, okay.

You have a good point about the lack of horror that is left centric & blames capitalism as the main evil device at least symbolically. Are there any horror movies that have a POV slant? If there are please let me know?! Genuinely curious.

@HiBuddyyyyyy

Ай бұрын

Resident Evil’s main villain are corporations, if that counts.

For most of my life, I have been struggling immensely with anxiety, existential dread, the injustice of our capitalist society AND too many humans not merely being ignorant or careless, but actively malicious or even sadistic. So misanthropy, doomerism, cynicism and nihilism creep into my worldview every once in a while. I can't say I feel particularly happy or proud about that, but sometimes it really is the only source of sanity available to me. I know that it is probably only a coping mechanism, a numbing, and perhaps it's even true that I am still struggling with stuff that I struggled with when I was fifteen. I have a whole lot of unresolved issues, I know that. However, please hear this: Your hateful comments about people like me being "pathetic losers" and your fantasies about sticking them into lockers is not especially kind either, is it? I agree with you that the villain in this game is not making a ton of sense and being quite shallow. But far too many comments here sound to me like "If you're not totally convinced about humans being intrinsically good beings, you're a sad loser". "If you hold worldview x, you deserve hate and misery." Don't get me wrong, I DO have moral standards, and I try to be at least not the worst person in the world and act responsibly and sustainably and all that. I have been to therapy, I try to work through my stuff every day. But too many comments here ironically spark the very misanthropy that I try to keep at bay. I cannot help that I feel dread, doom and despair every single day. It'd be great if you would consider not hating or threatening or dehumanizing me for it.

@khanlusa

Ай бұрын

I went through far too many years feeling bleak and misanthropic to get to where I am now and I cannot tolerate people who allow those feelings to take them over and motivate them to hurt people, THAT is when it becomes something for pathetic losers, when you let it lead you down a path of violence and use it as a justification for said violence. If you haven't hurt people because of that misanthropy, you aren't getting shoved in a locker.

@samaelsevanhadar

Ай бұрын

@@khanlusa Okay, thanks for the clarification. I think I can agree to that.

THIS PART! Really pathetic "durr hburr technology is bad fire is scary and thomas edison was a witch" energy. oh woooooow you have no faith in humanity, how boring and easy. Have you tried loving people? Have you tried working together for collective liberation? Have you tried laughing at a fart joke?!

good vid, been seeing this game pop up now and then and the premise looked interesting but with writing like that i'll give it a pass, ai sounds like SHODAN off wish without the self idolizing god complex that made her interesting, wanting to rule humanity instead of destroy it, she may be able to be reasoned with in theory but with her view that she is god she just doesnt have any desire or reason in her eyes to listen to humans

@reaperezekial5168

3 ай бұрын

Markiplier has a pretty thorough playthrough of Simulacra and its sequel buried in his archives. It’s pretty good, so check it out if you’re even slightly interested in this game.

I would have to disagree on the boomer energy thing, well 1. this wasn`t made by a boomer, but maybe by someone who has a certain idea of a boomer, i mean all one could muster is but dust in the galaxy right?, That simple nihilism is a true statement, but then i am also left with the fact that i can fill the void with anything, the only thing being my choice. And i can think utterly nihilistically and reach a consensus if i would just shut down the things that make me a person, but life of myself tells me otherwise, how ephemeral it may seem. So i am both? Nihilistic and i guess hopeful, either at the same time or so you would like to believe, but it rather comes in waves or simply just certain situations. If you are not really nihilistically inclined then the premise of nothing really mattering would at first shock you, but you would not let go so easily of your values, so when playing a game where it is either expected or tries to be thought provoking, it kind of leaves me with more room towards the opposite, if you can only click this or that but it is still got something you would not allow yourself, i think you would dislike a setting where you are forced to be as at maybe the same or similar point as the developer of the game, or at the point that the game would try to embedd onto you. I rarely go the evil route in games, not because i would not dare, but because i intrinsically maybe project my values onto what i am doing or playing or hearing, my personality just simply would not allow me to be nihilistic, even though i can see things from that end of this weird ass spectrum. In the end it is player's choice, if they leave that opening, otherwise you are just following inevitable choices made by force to some degree, and even then not every choice would be supported by your way of thinking, but rather by the game or developer's expectations. Maybe that`s why you see mods liven up games that are meant to pull you under i guess, or you simply avoid the thing all together. Gaming should be fun, period (yeah i could have just used the . but i just wanted to flesh it out a bit:P)

I played this game and I hate the nihilism that's infesting society. I don't see what that has to do with conservatives or boomers. I don't get pull yourself up by your bootstraps vibes. I get dissociated inhuman narcissist vibes. It knida worries me that your reaction to something that is inhuman and vile is to associate it with almost half the human populace's and an entire generation of people with it. Humanity being a plague is an idea that came from and is almost exclusively spouted by the fringe left. Nihilism has also been most commonly espoused by left wing philosophers. Nihilism has recently spouted in more "conservative" circles, like the cringe red pill movement for one example. Nihilism is a plague, but it's not really something to associate with one side or the other. It's a plague I believe most of us on both sides of the political spectrum find annoying and unhelpful.

@d0navan440

3 ай бұрын

This apsolutely hase everything to do whit boomers, here, this is what a good chunk of them sound like "youngsters now-a-days is lazy, we were so much better and smarter, the world is ruined by them, everything sucks, life sucks, because of the damned gays !" What would you call that it not nihilism ?

@Hadgerz

2 ай бұрын

​@@d0navan440 nihilism does not mean 'i disagree with progressives!' what the actual fk? I don't think i've ever heard a person beyond the hard left say 'life sucks and it's all because of people i disagree with politically' ...

@yourlifeinsurancehavebeeny4530

2 ай бұрын

You gotta understand tho that the people who started to develop a more apathetic or misanthropic view had face a lot procecution in the old age and literally saw violence rule over society and be cheered off( french revolution for example) however that was an exaggeration of a pessimistic view of nihilism however nihilism isn't simply explain as nothing matters belief it's covers it's subject in more details.

@d0navan440

2 ай бұрын

@@Hadgerz "nihilism disagrees whit progress" thats .... not what i said ? And im very glad you never heard that, and probably keep it that way, if you want to stay sane

@latlatko

2 ай бұрын

@@d0navan440 nothing about what you just described is nihilistic in nature. The fact that they consider the past to be better is in itself proof that they see meaning in life. The values of the past are good, modern values bad. This viewpoint is incompatible with nihilism, which would say that both of these are equally worthless. To remark on "pull yourself up by the bootstraps", there is a belief behind that there is something of value you can achieve by hard work and if you don't its because you're lazy. and ,while idiotic, that is not a nihilist position.

I agree with everything stated in the video, up until the blaming of capitalism for society's woes. I see that capitalism is notably used as an easy scapegoat, and the more we blame it, the less we actually find the root of the problem. It's like how the right wing conservative blames the collectivists' ideology for why taxes are so high without daring to delve further into human social discourse to reach a more concise conclusion