The Unbearable Now: An Interpretation of The Witness
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- Опубликовано: 11 июл 2016
- SPOILERS FOR THE WITNESS
Twitter: / electrondance
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FEATURED GAMES
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The Witness, Thelka - the-witness.net
Braid, Number None - braid-game.com
Sokobond, Hazelden & Lee - www.sokobond.com
* The Talos Principle, Croteam - www.croteam.com/talosprinciple
* Full Bore, Whole Hog Games - www.wholehog-games.com
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FOOTAGE
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The Last Mimzy
The Karate Kid
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
2001: A Space Odyssey
The Matrix
The Witness Consciousness - Vashishta Cave Talk With Anand [ • Go Beyond the Analysis... ]
MBSR Widening the Circle Video [ • MBSR Widening the Ci... ]
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MUSIC
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Worakls "Toi" - www.beatport.com/track/toi-or...
N'To "Trauma" (Worakls Remix) - / nto-trauma-worakls-remix
Fauré Requiem Op.48, Angus Dei (perf. by The Sixteen) - www.amazon.co.uk/Requiem-Sixt...
Worakls "Salzburg" - www.beatport.com/track/salzbu...
Edvard Greig, Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op 46, Anitra's Dance (perf. by Metropolitan Philharmonic Orchestra)
Edvard Greig, Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op 46, In the Hall of the Mountain King (perf. by Metropolitan Philharmonic Orchestra)
b.lakes "Cemetary Walk" - nowdefuncrecords.bandcamp.com...
The.madpix.project "Bad Chick" - www.jamendo.com/track/1111548...
Edvard Greig, Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op 46, Death of Åse (perf. by Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra) - www.amazon.com/Peer-Gynt-Suit...
Howlround "A Viewless Sea" - thefogsignals.com/track/a-view...
Mikael Fyrek "Bathing in a River of Discordant Music" - www.kahvi.org/releases.php?rel...
Push-Pull "Liquid Mountain" - www.jamendo.com/track/24884/p...
Lecyr "Luminautore" - www.jamendo.com/track/24890/l...
Teho "Ade" - www.beatport.com/track/ade-or...
Rémy Bourgeois "Nostalgic Memories" - remybourgeois.bandcamp.com/tr...
* Rémy Bourgeois "Few Minutes of Us" - www.jamendo.com/track/1314962...
* Boris Brejcha "Lost Memory" - www.beatport.com/track/lost-m...
Note: This video was monetized by the copyright holders of Toi & Requiem
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FURTHER READING
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Taming the Inexplicable, Liz Ryerson - thenewinquiry.com/essays/tamin...
The Meaning of the Witness, Sean Han-Tani-Chen-Hogan - www.destructoid.com/the-meanin...
The Witness: What It Means, Jeff Grubb - venturebeat.com/2016/03/06/the...
The Witness - A Great Game That You Shouldn't Play, Joseph Anderson (RUclips) - • The Witness - A Great ... 
Игры
I remembered this video a few weeks ago and finally got around to watching it again. The sequence following 23:15 strongly reminded me of a Cioran quote and since I don't remember it being in the game I wanted to share it.
"A zoologist who observed gorillas in their native habitat was amazed by the uniformity of their life and their vast idleness. Hours and hours without doing anything. Was boredom unknown to them? This is indeed a question raised by a human, a busy ape. Far from fleeing monotony, animals crave it, and what they most dread is to see it end. For it ends, only to be replaced by fear, the cause of all activity. Inaction is divine; yet it is against inaction that man has rebelled. Man alone, in nature, is incapable of enduring monotony, man alone wants something to happen at all costs - something, anything.... Thereby he shows himself unworthy of his ancestor: the need for novelty is the characteristic of an alienated gorilla." - Emil Cioran, The Trouble with Being Born
What a beautiful quote, thank you for sharing.
returning to monke may have its benefits
Ψγηψψφ
@@not_herobrine3752Agreed
Nothing short of astounding. Incredibly well put together video!
Thank you!
I can't believe that the absolute channel that is surreal entertainment could string together such a sentence and be a fan of The Witness. Pleasant surprise.
OMG, ITS SURREAL ENTERTAINMENT. I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS.SURPRISED TO SEE YOU HERE, though
Tf you doin, being a fan of the best game ever made?
Wonderful video. Thank you for taking what must have been an extraordinary amount of time to make it. I know how much work must have gone into all the careful jumps and timing in clips, especially when flipping from puzzle panel to puzzle panel. I think the payoff was worth it. It's going to be invisible to most. They'll enjoy it without realizing it.
I don't have much to say about the content itself because I already stated my case months ago. It's a great game that I am remembering more fondly as time goes by. Especially after playing the recent Inside.
I hope this does well. It's one of the best produced videos I've ever seen on youtube.
Joseph, the panel flipping was *the* very first scene I edited. It seemed like it would be "hard work" so wanted to get it out the way. But that kind of scene is always fun compared to the endless war with sound levels and transitions. "Oh no I have 0.5s less footage than I need for this bit, what do I do now?" I'm glad there a select few who recognise all that pain in the process :)
I have watched this video three times, I believe, and this video, philosophically speaking, is perfect. I felt a sense of clarity and content from beginning to end. I'm glad you included your sense of humor in this video. You did a great job into giving the content of the game a deeper meaning for the rest of us, deep thinkers.
J Crise - as you replying to Mr. Anderson I never saw this comment. UNTIL TODAY. Grateful for your kind words. When I released the video I was a little nervous whether anyone would enjoy this or simply call it pretentious rubbish. (Of course, a small minority did, but I can live with that!) Always good to hear it reached people.
You watched the video only three times? Oh that was 4 months ago. I have watched this videos so many times it is the perfect company while I work.
It fills me.
I feel I am going to cry. ;-;
IuliusPsicofactum, I used to think I held the record for "number of views" simply because I had to watch it during editing so many times! Honestly humbled that people such as yourself have got so much out of it.
This is the importance of critics. There is an art to appreciating art. And this kind of communication has to come from the audience, not the author. So I very much appreciate that you put this together!
Thank you! Glad that people are still discovering this film!
It takes mastery to recognize mastery. This world would be a much different place if this was not the case.
It takes a commenter to understand a commenter, therefore I do not understand this comment.
Holy fuck I can't remember the last time I saw a video on RUclips that was THAT good.
Thanks Francisco! I've seen some pretty good cat videos, though!
I've been in a state of hating what this game is and also fascinated by the fact that it bucks every modern game formula...and I never knew why I couldn't just let it go. This video is an incredible complement to what exactly the game is trying to convey and explains why I have this internal conflict within me. That moment you break through and show the intrusive sounds of modern life and connect it to the pervasive distractions we've welcomed into our day-to-day...I understand now. The Witness wasn't wasting my time. It was just reflecting my own frustrations on how my time *should be* spent. Thank you for making this.
Thank you, Mike. To be clear, I struggle with this too. There are plenty of games that are meant to be savoured - puzzle games are big on taking your time - yet the urge to progress and complete and achieve can be overpowering. You can feel frustrated instead of enlightened or lifted, far from the place you're supposed to be.
*shrugs* I guess we can all just try a little better to be a little slower.
Oh, so that's how the goddamn triangles work
At least that's how I act on them now... but yep the number of triangles indicates the number of sides of that square you *must* draw through to solve the puzzle.
A bunch of walkthroughs on steam and you're the one who gives the best explanation. Thanks.
Oh and I hate those sound and color puzzles. Especially when the internet goes out. Now wheres my graph paper....
Thank you! And on my bucket list: "to hear the sound puzzles properly". Probably will happen on my deathbed. "I get it, Blow, I get---akkkk"
@@Electrondance It's the pitch of the sound! It's really simple!
Hello L E I W Δ Δ N! I get that, the only problem is that particular one I had a problem with - which I highlighted at the start of Act III - just didn't seem to match up for me. The number of notes never seemed to match the number of steps in the puzzle.
I think this is the perfect companion piece to The Witness. I never finished the game myself but I don't feel "spoiled" by this video given its thoughtfulness and depth. Also... what an ending!
Ezra Knickelbine Thanks Ezra! It might seem strange after all this time but I was not sure the ending was going to work at all. Sometimes you're working so much in the dark you don't know whether you've actually disappeared up your own butt. My fave review some months ago was "sometime has actually managed to create a video about The Witness more pretentious than the game"
I gasped when I saw the rest of the link at the first frame, so I think it worked quite well! And now I've gone and looked at a bunch of your back catalog, and dang, you've got some compelling stuff. You might work on a slow schedule but I guarantee it will be a thrill when a new video of yours shows up in the ol' subscription box.
Ezra Knickelbine I switched to working on my book for the last few months and that's all but exhausted me! I'm probably switch back to working on A Field of Flowers (the next film) soon...
When playing The Witness for the first time, I never got to experience the “epiphany” of solving my first environmental puzzle. I noticed them from time to time, but I never thought to solve them until learning about them online after finishing the game. I really love this game, and I would do anything to be able to experience the game blindly again but with the addition of “that moment.”
I watched my family played and they, sadly, couldn't reach that epiphany without help either. I have a long Twitter thread on this tale over here: twitter.com/ElectronDance/status/1228362576322613250
This is one of the "hidden" gems on youtube. Incredible that probably one of the greatest interpretations of the game sits at 50,000 views. I am new to your videos, and find it amazing the amount of work you put into these, in order to create a great commentary on various games. Thank you, so much. :)
Thanks Chris. We can never understand the Mighty Algorithm of RUclips. We can only pray to it and hope it delivers us more views next time around.
Ive entered bamboo forest. Ha, easy puzzles, maby this guy have no musical skills. And then I proceded to the forth puzzle... You son of a... Im now crying and laughing at the same time.
It's nice to know I am not alone!
Sound puzzles were garbage. Much like the sound puzzle in Myst. Glad they paid homage
If the Witness was a gift, this was like the bow on top. Thank you for this!
You're welcome. I'm happy that so many people are really getting something out of the film.
Take a look at the volume bar...
Yes, that's actually where I got the idea for what happens in the very final seconds of the film...
Fantastic video man, I love this game and this was enjoyable all the way
Awesome! Thank you.
jon blow wants us to mute all videos... interesting
The progress bar too, though....
OMG... I'm one of the players that started playing this game by their own at first and then eventually got stuck and relied too much on RUclips videos later on until "finishing" the game and being disappointed (like most of the others) that it didn't have any deeper meaning or story.... but when I came across your video I had my mind completely blown away !!! I realize now how brilliant the developers of this game actually are.... I'm speechless !!!
Thank you so much for this video !
You're welcome! I daresay I haven't figured everything out and I should have probably made more of the implication of "Western tech adopting and packaging Eastern mysticism for its own ends" (thus it fails). But it's good enough!
- Sakshi bhava, "the witness consciousness", where you become the natural observer of your own mind. The Witness.
This sums up the whole meaning of this game.
Thank you for watching, Riccardo.
As someone who watches ungodly amounts of "highbrow" (and has even started making some analytical videos myself) let me tell you that this is one of the very best that I've seen. Truly remarkable in so many regards. You nailed the basics of analyzing the game and explaining its appeal, and most impressively you displayed a real understanding of and knack for utilizing the medium of RUclips to the fullest. Hats off to you.
Thank you, Lachlan. I've been doing the odd video for years but it's only recently I've found my groove. But every time I finish one I need to rest for 1,000 years. ;)
Electron Dance Trust me, as someone whose own content has not approached this level of ambition I completely understand that. :]
Sir, this is one of the best video I have ever watched on RUclips. I've played the game, watched many videos about it, speeches from Jonathan Blow, read articles etc. and this just made everything come together so well. I think I finally "got" what the game was all about.
Thank you for making this, a like and a sub is the least I can do!
Thank you for appreciating my short film! Well, not that short really. I hope to have something new out in the next month...
There are so many small choices of quotations, narration, music in this video that I can't begin to list all of them and how brilliant they were. You have produced your own work of art, and it is a beautiful tribute to what this game was and what the game tried to be. Please keep doing similar things, it's great to know there are similar souls out there! Thank you
Thank you Phil. I've been working on a brand new thing since December and I've already missed all my deadlines for the new one. I'd like to say "it'll be done when it's done" but that just encourages me to sit in front of Netflix and take a break all the time!
@@Electrondance I know the feeling - have you ever heard of the book The War of Art? It talks about "Resistance," a sort of shadow cast by the light of our creativity / desire to create great things that holds us back. As a creator you might find it quite interesting! Either way, I look forward to watching it when it comes out.
“Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work. It will perjure, fabricate, falsify; seduce, bully, cajole. Resistance is protean. It will assume any form, if that’s what it takes to deceive you. It will reason with you like a lawyer or jam a nine-millimeter in your face like a stickup man. Resistance has no conscience. It will pledge anything to get a deal, then double-cross you as soon as your back is turned. If you take Resistance at its word, you deserve everything you get. Resistance is always lying and always full of shit.”
@@philc494 Ha ha, I've not read the book - but I know this feeling! Progress is horribly slow. I spent several precious hours on a 30 second sequence yesterday and I'm still unhappy with it. I guess it did move forward, but it's dispiriting. Then again, it's not like I haven't seen this movie before...
Fun fact: it's faster to walk from the Quarry dock to the Symmetry dock than it is to take the boat on its default speed setting.
Yes I think I only used the boat for certain journeys. Just high tailing by foot was sometimes faster.
...and a dream.
The chills...
Want you to know that I still keep watching this, even after having completed the game years ago. Something very special about this game, I don't think it will ever leave me. And this video does it justice. Fantastic work
Thank you, Chris. I *knew* someone was pushing these views up to the 60,000s and now I know it was you all along. I try not to open the film these days because inevitably I get suckered in and watch the whole thing rather than the 30 seconds I was intending...
@@Electrondance you know you've done a good job when even you struggle not to watch it for I'm sure at least the hundredth time
I have to admit to watching all of my "babies" multiple times. There are ones I watch less and the difference usually is a sense of momentum that carries you along. Like Netflix automatically starting up the next episode, there's no downtime in which to reconsider the time you're spending. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing...
@@Electrondance guess who's back, back again
@@abanjoplayer There's always time for one more visit. I still get sucked into it occasionally :)
Man! Your music timing, and mood, is extremely good
Thank you, it takes a lot of time getting all of that right. (Oh and I am still not happy, even after publishing.)
If this isn't the best video that I have ever seen, it's one of the best, you helped me to understand almost all the game, when I first downloaded it (two weeks ago) I didn't think it was going to have meanings in literally ALL THE SMALLEST THINGS OF THE GAME, congratulations, I really loved it
Thank you! I found The Witness really meaty - I've not found satisfying explanations for everything however, such as much of the castle ruins - although the "servants" hidden *below* one of its puzzles did get me thinking on how "chasing the truth" is something that only the wealthy afford.
It really is one of those games where almost every piece of visual design is so deliberate that it might make one go mad looking for the purpose when perhaps there never was one to begin with. It does give you a goal of making it work eventually as a lot of things don't conveniently look like a puzzle for no reason after all. Like why is there a single dark cloud in the sky. Why is a laser not pointed at the mountain? What is the purpose of this machine here with no puzzle to be found? Why does this move this pedestal where a pot sits go up or down? It is basically "Easter Eggs: The Game".
best videogame youtube video ever
Damn it I knew I should've monetized :)
I even sat through your credits... what have you done to me? Great video
Oh no, you're going to sit through every Let's Play without skipping forward *forever*!!
Amazing film. My brother and I just finished this game and were in awe. We had so many questions and no answer and this took care of it for sure. Thank you
No, thank you for watching this half-hour beast! And I'm pretty sure I don't have all the answers - nice to leave a little room for mystery. Take care.
Just finished The Witness after 106 hours of gameplay spread over 8 months and no guide.
This is a very well produced video and I'm impressed with your amount of research into eastern spirituality to describe the game's inner concepts. I also really enjoyed the connection to 1983's Mountain King in your secret video. Fascinating stuff.
Thanks +Zamzummin! I think it would be possible to go even further to properly address the "Western appropriation of Eastern spirituality" angle... well, if I'd spent maybe another month on the film, but you have to draw a line somewhere...
The Mountain King bit was cut from the main film because it was just a bit of fun that didn't add anything substantial. But I'd spent a good week on that scene so wanted to release it somehow!
Huh. And I thought I was a slowpoke having taken 43 hours to solve everything, paint all obelisks white and scout for audio logs I might've missed... I'm still quite a bit disappointed with the game. This "message" Electron describes is so obscure it might be just a coincidence. Kinda like searching for hidden meanings in books or songs. You can interpret them a dozen different ways and they all kinda make sense. Then you ask the author about it, and they say "woah... uh... um... No, I meant exactly what I said. ...But I like your interpretations too."
"The Witness" is a game about learning, about seeing new perspectives, about the journey up the mountain and what we see when we look back down. They started with a small island, and as their ideas evolved, the island grew to accomodate them. "The Witness" as it exists today is the final point of that thought process - an island full of puzzle screens, cables, shores, and castles. It's a game about learning without a single tutorial. The key to unlocking the island's mysteries is all about perspective.
ruclips.net/video/YdSdvIRkkDY/видео.html
Every now and then I look for a new let's play of this game since I can't experience it from the start blind again myself. When I can't find one or I find one where the person is clearly just using a guide, I come back and watch this video instead. It's maybe the best video essay about a video game I've ever seen.
Gosh, thank you, ngwoo! There's been another surge of interest in the video again this week and I made the mistake of watching a little bit again and OH NO I CAN'T STOP
Wow, that was pretty phenomenal in terms of production value, depth of criticism, etc. I even encountered stuff hadn't seen even on forums hotly discussing the game's secrets, e.g. the source of the final lines before the game resets.
Thanks a lot for making this!
Thank you, that's great! I was hoping I could have surprises for even the most battle-hardened veteran of The Witness.
I saw this not long after it debuted. In the years since and the now dozens of times I've seen it, this remains one of the most impactful things I've ever witnessed. As a game developer, this, along with your video essay on video game exploration, has shaped my view of the medium. Thank you.
It's lovely to know, CCCD, that the rather-a-lot-of-hours I spent on the making the film has had such an effect on others and still does! Keeps nudging me on with the current project :)
This is one of my favorite youtube videos of all time. Criminally underrated.
Agree, even Dayo loves this video.
Just finished the game and the algorithm blessed me with this masterpiece! If the game is a journey of deep diving into the bellies of mindfulness, this video is like the perfect decompression chamber to help you re-balance and realign...In a sense, your video essay makes the experience whole. To me, this is the definitive ending of The Witness experience.
That is very high praise, I am humbled.
The ending was fantastic. Well done.
Thank you! Sometimes you just can't tell which side of the "pretentious"/"no, actually quite fine" line you're sitting on.
One of the best produced analysis videos I've seen on this site. Marvelous. Keep doing what you're doing, and I will surely watch.
Thank you, Zargy. Have a couple of ideas for the next film, but I won't start work on it for a little while. I have a lot of writing on hold and my brain needs a reboot after a recent intensive work on the film!
I come back and watch this video every year. It is as brilliant as the game itself.
Beautiful. Thank you for making this. I have just finished playing The Witness after a total of 139 hours (not including time thinking about it) and I have been reflecting on it a lot. This video really adds to my reflection. I especially enjoyed the last two and a half minutes.
Thank you, Paulo. I also spent a long time inside The Witness...
I've kept some videos on hold until I played The Witness and just finished it earlier. To my surprise, this random video that popped up besides them was the one that struck me the hardest. I don't know what specific praise I could give that wouldn't take away from the other aspects of the video, absolutely brilliant work.
Hello Johan! Thank you for saying so. People still finding this video two years on is really gratifying. Each film pushes me close to madness, because they feel like impossible to finish, that there is always one more thing to do, one more thing to change, one more thing that feels out of place. And then it's out and you're all "imposter syndrome" about it. Positive reaction to this has been far bigger than I expected. (I still wish I could change the intro sequence though!!)
Hi! I recently "uncompleted" The Witness (about one week ago) and I currently am in the "now that it's done and my mind is blown, let's watch every video about it and see what the other players thought" phase. Your video is AMAZING. It made me feel this sense of epiphany the game conveys again. Your video enlights me in many ways. Incredible job. I feel smart again after having uncompleted the game and felt very dumb and impatient (these words might be synonyms in the game's universe). Thanks a lot, really.
Thanks for dropping by and writing some nice things about my little RUclips adventure. Much appreciated, all of it.
As many others have said, this is the best video I've seen. It's only fitting that it's about one of the best games I've ever played.
I've watched it "a few" times already and will probably continue doing so. Not only did you nail what the game was about, but the presentation and pacing is flawless. Thank you for what you did.
Thank you :) Keeps me energised to work on the next film!
On watching more than once: I try not to start watching any of my films - particularly this one - because I have a horrible tendency to just watch them through when I was supposed to be doing something else! You know, like the next film...
Wow, I am so impressed by this video. Seriously, I felt like it captured all of the most valuable knowledge I learned about the subjects presented in this game and conveyed them in such a clear and concise, yet extremely thorough way. Truly a great video, keep up the great work man. I'd love to see you're interpretation of a game like Inside as well.
Thanks! I tend to write/make films about subjects I find interesting. They don't even need to be *great*. I've a few ideas for the next film but nothing decided yet...
"This video is unavailable." Why do I feel that the link has always been an unavailable video and that this is a deliberate point you're making. I may never know.
I fear you do not have the full link. There is something on the other side of the rainbow.
@@Electrondance I did see both sides of the rainbow, but perhaps it is the lens with which I view it that's leading me astray. One second...
Haha, it was neither. I had all the information but a cross became a zigzig in my fatigue-blurred mind. Thanks for the response. I enjoyed the videos and you've got another subscriber.
@@niallsb Wonderful. I thought for a moment I had to direct you to the other half of the link! I should learn my lesson. RUclips links are notoriously difficult to scribble down intact...
Just found these!!! I had hmfound the first part!!! Now to find out he second!
Definitely your best one yet... and that's saying something! Truly mesmerizing as always, can't wait for your next video
Thank you. I have a few ideas... we'll see what comes out in the wash!
I played The Witness after a friend sent it to me as a gift. I knew nothing about the game in advance, and read nothing about the game before finishing the cave challenge. It is, without doubt, the strongest gaming experience I've had as an adult. I finished the game a few months ago and have watched your video twice, once right after finishing the game, and once today. I also watched a bunch of reviews, interviews and so on, but your video distills the experience so much better than anything else I've seen. I very rarely watch, let alone re-watch, 30-minute video clips on RUclips by people I don't know anything about, so that's saying something. Thank you so much for creating the video and capturing the essence of the game!
Thanks Olle. I initially just set out to share a bit of my experience and express how much I got into The Witness, but it did seem to take on a life of its own. I never intended it to be 30 minutes either! I hear from a lot of commenters who rewatch. The amazing thing is that it's not just me who does that :)
This is great, I've just returned to this video for the fourth, maybe fifth time since you released it, and came here to say how much I enjoy coming back to it. It's my favourite video on a game I constantly feel like an apologist for. The complexity in your editing (as noted by Joseph above), and the deft touch you have in weaving your journey through the game hasn't gone unnoticed. I'm clearly not the only one! Love it.
Cheers, Rahul. It's appreciated. I'm working on the next one right now... spent half of this year on a house move so everything has sloooowed down!
I come back and watch this video once every month or two. One of the best pieces of content on RUclips, period. I love the way you use music and connect ideas, everything has such unique flow and voice and it’s such a rich game for analysis and abstraction. Hope to see more from your channel sometime in the future.
Thanks Joe. I've been working on a new film since Dec 2019 which I lie about every month, insisting it is "almost done".
just wanted to let you know how much your work is appreciated with this video. after watching a few others with millions of views, all of which dissed the game and sadly must have deterred people from playing it, it was great to see someone "get it" as much as you. and you have the video chops to back it up and make an entertaining video. keep up the good work!
Thank you! I was hoping the film would be interesting even for those who didn't/wouldn't play the game.
This video... something about it.... the editing, the narration style. It feels like it touches my soul. How dare you...? Truly, how?
I wish I knew! This one seemed to affect people more deeply than I had expected. I anticipated a lot more negative comments along the lines of vapid pretentiousness :) I was terribly let down by the RUclips community: seems the comments are mainly positive!
This is a phenomenal video. The Witness was my favorite game of this year so far and watching theories and all of the content produced surrounding it has really nailed it home for me.Keep up the great great work!
Thanks! I'm trying out No Man's Sky right now and I wondered if I should make a film about it but... it just doesn't excite me very much so far.
Fantastic video, probably one of the best pieces of art I've seen on RUclips ever.
Thank you Karl. Still a bit unreal to me to have so many people turn up and stay for the full half hour!
You are e genious transmiting your ideas and the feeling, I guess. I enjoyed every second, thanks. This is not fake, it's a real gratitude.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!
I spend a lot of time watching essays, critiques and reviews on RUclips, but this has got to be my favorite one. I keep coming back to it. Thank you so much.
Thank you for coming back all the time.
This is beyond any quality video I could find on RUclips. This video is fantastic. Always perfect moment for each joke, the video is less about the game than your perception and analysis of it, and at this level of analysis, presented in a comprehensive and meaningful way, this is just brilliant. The end with the little meta-joke is also brilliant. Even the little secret challenge make a reference to the game.
I could not handle your video without feeling overwhelmed emotionally, and your 20s of silence just finished me.
Thank you so much! The silence & boat was sketched out very early on and I wasn't sure it would work until it was in place. (You can't really tell unless you've got all that weight of content before it.) The original pause was actually meant to be a countdown with some dramatic music but I realised that silence was probably way more effective/appropriate. I'm really pleased you got something out of the ending; for me, it's the most important part of the film.
I had a little browse of the video! I tried out RUclips's unreliable English subtitles and it was pretty horrible :) But I get the point. Silence is, indeed, powerful in many films. My memory of watching Trois couleurs is lots of silences. That's not true, but strangely that's what I recall.
Sharp. And extremely well produced. Wish I could show this to everyone I know, but... first I somehow have to convince them to play the game... Nicely done.
Well, that's a puzzle in itself! I'm still waiting for my wife to come back to the game so she can finally watch herself slapping my face in the appropriate context.
I really enjoyed this video. The Witness has endured with me a long time since I first played it and I find myself thinking about it a lot. This is one of the best analyses of the game I've seen. Thank you very much for your work.
Thank you Steven. I, too, still reflect positively on the time I spent with the game.
Electron Dance I find myself thinking perhaps too much on how the game should be perceived. Obviously there is the construct idea, but I cannot help but be drawn to the notion that it is in a decayed state, but that state is too intentional to be true.
Some of the unanswered questions keep me up at night, too :) e.g. full meaning of the figures inside of the castle
When I was first playing the game I was tempted to go through and document all of the statues. I love their style and wonder what each of them means, or why they are where they are. I feel like there is so much more to pick through in The Witness, even if that's not the point.
And that's the thing, right? The Witness warns you to stop searching, that beyond a certain point you're grasping at truth straws: you're not actually achieving anything and constructing meaning from phantoms. That's why I don't do any more digging into The Witness, even though I haven't understood some parts of it. There are still players who think there might be another ending to the game and making "clues" out of the noise. I don't want to fall into that trap here, even though that can be fun at times - during my videogame childhood I could draw labyrinthine mysteries out of the smallest game glitches!
A criminally overlooked video for the quality it has
Thank you for the kindness, Yuri.
Just recently went on the witness journey, and saw a few vids on youtube talking about it (including this one, of course). This is the best one, because it blends your own style and love with the game. You express ideas so well that i think others on this platform may have missed. I think you get it right. I like this a lot.
Thank you! Still happy to be wrong about anything, really, although I do think I missed out on covering the McMindfulness critique.
I finally fucking understand, welcome to my subscription box, my friend.
This definitely rates as one of the most awesome responses to being told to watch a dead space for twenty seconds ;)
you just won a new subscriber! Wow, I didnt expect this much talent and effort in this video, but im glad I made the leap to watch it.
Fantastic stuff.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! It really wasn't supposed to be half an hour long, meant to be something like 10-15 minutes...
That was truly beautiful, most interesting and fascinating video I've seen in a while. Thank you sir for the amazing work you've done.
Much appreciated that you sat down and took the time to watch it.
Genuinely a great review. I look forward to watching more, and I appreciate your attempt to communicate more than what you said or showed, and instill a feeling in the viewer. It's taken me about three days of setting aside ten minutes each to watch this, and I really appreciate that you took so much time to put it together and post it.
Thanks Indijohnson. It's true, I tend to spend much more time in trying to convey a feeling instead rather than just presenting information for consumption. Somewhat the bane of my video work :S
@@Electrondance I think it's worth it, but that's just, like, my opinion, man.
this video is pure brilliance.
thank you very much for making it!
Thank you! It makes the months of grind putting this film together worth it :)
This video is so good. Glad I found it. Great job man!
Thanks!
I found this today and this video made me feel completely peaceful after. thank you so much for making this. it is absolutely beautiful
Thank you Jason.
I played this game when I was 14 years old. Back then I felt like my mind was enlightend. 2 years later I realized, that I only have strong memory back to when I was 14. That still holds true to this day and I also feel like I‘ve only started to gain real conciousness at that age.
This analysis gives me the feeling that The Witness had much more to do with it, than I realized. I was always a little introverted and reflective and just feeling the world from an outside perspective, while standing in the bus to school, was always a fun thing to do. At least fun as far as I can remember… when I was 14. Maybe it wasn‘t fun before playing The Witness.
You don‘t have to understand art to feel it…
What an awesome video. Loved the ending :) Thank you for this, I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Thank you, James. Two years after it was made, I'm still getting nice comments on this film. Sorry for the late response as I've been on holiday for a week!
The greatest video on RUclips for the greatest game I have played. Thank you so much for this and good job
I am humbled that you think so!
Found this video now and the witness has since it came out been my favorite game. I didn’t necessarily reflect on everything in such a deep manner but I sought truth and played the game for hours on repeat. The effort put into this video matched the effort put into the game. One of the best videos I’ve seen on RUclips! Thank you
Thanks Linus. I can confirm that this video was responsible for many late nights but I can also confirm I didn't take 7 years to make it!
I was curious how many times I have watched this video by now, so I checked my YT logs. I first watched it in January of this year (2021). I've since watched it at least once a month for a total of at least 20 times (it does not count immediate rewatches, I think). Sometimes in every-day-for-a-few-days spurts. I've recommended it to many people over these months and consider it to be part of the The Witness Canon.
I've just watched it again. Like The Witness, it is an Oasis of Calm and Thorough Contemplation that you want to return to in order to fire up those neurons once again. In these days, watching somebody just make sense for half an hour is an absolute treat.
One thing I have started to wonder in the past few rewatches - is that jump cut at 21:10 a transition that bugged out? (I mean the one from circle-and-line to zen circle.)
And thank you.
(also: Hey! I was the guy who got you hooked on Simons LP! ;-) Sorry!)
I've lost count of how many times I've watched the source mp4 on my PC :)
I'm sure you're not the only person to have noticed but you are the first to have mentioned it. The circle to zen motif switch is an entirely deliberate jump cut. :)
Can you refresh my memory - the Simons LP...?
Sorry I got it now! Cracking the Cryptic! I thought you were talking about music (LP)!!
@@Electrondance Hah! Did you see he recently moved on to The Challenge?
As for the jump cut: And I thought I had uncovered a flaw! Of course not!
@@skooore I checked out Cracking the Cryptic running through The Challenge after you mentioned it (while I was on holiday!). It was pretty fun, was amazed that he did figured out the puzzle=map aspect so quickly. I never worked that out! One of those things the internet told me while I was working on The Challenge.
@@Electrondance I'm only halfway through that video, but casually scrubbed over the timeline to see that he got through the whole thing. Just amazing. And a lot of the extra puzzles that took me many, many approaches - he just blazed through them... I think partly why I don't watch the rest is because I don't want to know whether it's the last video or whether he makes a commitment to explore further. Still - always a marvel to watch him play and his LP got me thinking a lot about the nature of spoilers on many levels and meta levels in the game. It's quite something.
What a fantastic breakdown of the themes in The Witness. Super well-produced!
Thank you RJ!
This video is incredible. Why it has only 4K views I will never understand. I went through your whole back catalog of videos and they are all thought-provoking.
Thank you Michael! It's always great for people to discover and, moreover, LIKE the previous films. Why does it only have 4,000 views? I do not know. The mysteries of the internet. Perhaps I do not appeal enough to people to share or retweet. But each new film I do seems to do better than the last. If I recall correctly, Into the Black got around 1,500 views in its first week - whereas The Unbearable Now got 3,000. Maybe the next film will do 6,000 during opening week...
Found your video in my ramp-up to a replay of this amazing piece of art. This is really well done criticism, taking the game for what it is and organically building your interpretation from the text itself. You've beautifully put to words things I felt while experiencing the game. Thanks for this video and your analysis!
Thank you, Nick. Almost four years on and people are still finding their way here.
I'm not quite sure what to make of this. I stumbled upon it quite by accident while watching The Witness playthroughs, and I loved it. I love the music you used and the somewhat cheeky but also overall introspective nature of your critique.
Thank you! I have an automatic reflex to undermine myself if I get too serious, it's an built-in safety feature in my writing to protect me from going full-frontal pretentious. I like to think even if viewers didn't learn anything, at least they were entertained.
I really love this game and since playing it have been looking for a video or piece of writing that aptly articulates why I loved it so much. finally found that in this excellent video!
Thank you, mineralzone!
Thank you for creating this. Watching it brought some more of those amazing feelings and thoughts that came while playing the game. I, like most people, consider anything on RUclips longer than a few minutes "too long", and yet at the end of this video I found myself wanting more. Just like with those 20 seconds, which I had to go back later and check they weren't 10, because you managed to make them feel precious, although I like most people, can't normally sit still for just a few. I think you really hit the nail on the head. Among everything I have seen, your analysis is by far the best - and closest to what I too got out of the game. Everyone who played the Witness needs to watch this; and everyone needs to play the Witness.
I'm glad others have managed to "feel" the game like I did and be able to experience it again through this film. I deliberately included that I didn't "get" Braid to clarify that I fully expected to bounce off any messages in The Witness. It won me over, as opposed to being some sort of Braid fanboy.
What I love about those 20 seconds - without any countdown which I'd considered in the early draft script - is how long they really feel. Just 20 seconds!
I don't know if everyone needs to play The Witness. Some people are absolutely terrible at logic puzzles and making them play the game would probably be a special kind of hell for them. Actually, if they led a bad life, I imagine Hell would involve being forced to play logic puzzles forever.
I watched this video long ago but didn't comment, and I wanted to come back here and let you know that it's one of the best videos I've ever seen.
Thank you for making it. It expanded my thoughts about this beautiful game and is an absolute pleasure to watch as well.
Thank you. I still dream of posting something new to this channel. It is not abandoned...
I think this is the closure that I needed after finishing The Witness. The 20 seconds of emptiness bit at the end was perfect. Thank you so much for this amazing work.
Thank you for being so kind.
Criminally underrated video, I love this
Thanks Alec, much appreciated.
I watched this video 3 or 4 times now, and this is still the best content I've ever seen on RUclips.
Thank you! Still amazed that this one gets replayed a lot.
Brilliant, in terms of both interpretation and production. Your narration is very easy to listen to. Thank you for putting so much time and attention into this, it greatly enhanced the whole experience.
Thank you! I'm glad you got something out of it.
Best sound design I have ever seen on RUclips, I love your use of music and sync!
Thank you so much Vojta. I think I'm more interested in making music videos than videogame essays! 🤔
I just finished the game and watching stuff online about it.
This is the first video of yours that I'm watching, and I gotta say, it so impressive that I had to pause to instant fave it and subscribe. I didnt manage to decipher the link in the end (cant make out the last letter is neither S or 8), but anyway, hope you post more in the future.
Im off to watch your other vids.
The link is not complete. You might need to go back to the beginning. The answer may have been in front of you all along.
@@Electrondance Ah, the clue I needed.
28:14 ruclips.net/video/XKu-UduZ8-c/видео.html
This is a really beautiful interpretation of this amazing game! There are so many people who don't like the game for a lot of reasons, but I absolutely love it.
Thanks, DaFuriouS. Glad you enjoyed the video.
such an incredible video! thanks so much for all the time this must have taken to create, it helped me finally "get" The Witness. definitely favourite YT thing in a while... now to check the rest of your stuff :)
Thank you! Yes, this one was a lot longer than it was intended to be but I kept having ideas of what I wanted to put across. Something new is coming out *hopefully* in the next week. And it clocks at a more reasonable time under ten minutes...
this is the best video on youtube. i keep coming back to it and it makes me feel awe every time. thank you for this
Still trying not to watch it myself and failing. I can't keep losing half hours like this :)
Thank you for this. You are an amazing person
Thank you! Although I can think of some people I know IRL who might disagree! :)
25:56 "How long does 25 seconds feel?"
I dunno, I read through some of the comments while waiting… hurrdydurr…
In all seriousness, I clapped for like 7 seconds after that. I think that the art of taking a pause is something we as a species is slowly unlearning. "Life is like a flash in a pan, and every moment counts", they said. But really, with the inevitability of "busy-ness" invading our lives, there's no guarantee of being able to make the most out of "mindfulness" or "meditation", unless you have all the time in the world. Heck, some even warp those activities, transforming them into "focus-finders", claiming increased productivity at work, the very thing that "a pause" is trying to detach you from.
By putting this into a game, the hidden truth is lost to the achievements, the collectibles, and the fame of walkthroughs, speedruns, and let's plays. But alas, having this as an audiobook would bore me too…
Welp. Excuse my rambling, just want to vent it out…
No, no, I think that's fair. One of the messages of The Witness which I missed initially - and I would have added it had I done the film later - was about the urge to distill Eastern spirituality into a Western-friendly package. That while machine of The Witness is attempting to better life, it is a reflection of how mindfulness is used to manage the stress of existence rather than ask questions about why that existence is so stressful. And the way we are driven to ultra-productivity and FOMO, to eliminate daydreaming in favour of purpose and action, is not a positive development.
The machines were meant to help us, but all they do is tell us where we are failing and how we could get better - by someone else's definition of better. Haven't you done your 10,000 steps? Did you achieve your personal targets today? How are your calorie levels? How are your anxiety levels? You should be worried about your anxiety levels, they are too high.
Incidentally - this is one of the reasons I did not 100% The Witness. I had learnt the lesson. I got from The Witness exactly what I needed and did not feel the importance of demonstrating my faith to a particular software.
@@Electrondance Thank you for taking the time to read my reply, and letting me ramble.
I honestly gave up halfway and used some walkthroughs to progress - only to lose interest afterwards. That could be why my mind is so disturbed by this game: it tries to give you a way to "take things slowly" but not exactly providing the right atmosphere to it. You need to keep your mind running and not allowing it to "rest through the maze"; solve puzzles, think, clear gauntlets of zones, think, analyze the theme of an area, think, use the theme to beat the area, think, clear more puzzles, think, think, think…
I agree with your perspective of "the game is trying to translate Eatern philosophies for a Western audience"; we were taught that "there's joy in the mundane", and while that's not necessarily true all of the time, it kept us working. A "pause" won't easily break that.
Totally fine to get bugged by the game. I'm having a long discussion with someone else who is working through The Witness for the first time and finding it annoying to have to go "find puzzles" and is getting lost. Whereas for me, this was one of the best things about the game, that enforced pause, the potential to get lost and not be directed at all times. But it doesn't matter at the end of the day. If it clicks for you, it clicks, if it don't - it don't.
@@Electrondance This is a fascinating thing to discover so recently. I may not directly reply to your comment or Reken's, but it relates to either.
I recently decided to watch videos and such on the ending as I felt it was time to move on to new games. I totally enjoyed the mystery, yet sometimes despised it. It is something beautiful that can be portrayed from something so simple. I feel after this video, I feel content. I feel able to move on and potentially come back to this game to rediscover it and contemplate its magnificence again. I hope to make games like this someday, ones that leave a long lasting change in perception of the world. I love how Jonathan Blow describes that exact thing in an interview he has with another channel.
Those are all the thoughts I have. A great video, one that allows to contemplate, wait, and....dream
My little asides about "pretentiousness" are based in my feelings when I spun up The Witness initially. I didn't like all those little clips. Nothing seemed to add up to anything. It was just a jumble with no coherent theme coming through. But I could dig the puzzles. The puzzles were great.
Somehow, through the process of the working through the game, I really fell in love with the thing. It all started with realising the journey up the mountain instantly resulted in a rapid vertical descent - you can't have one part of the mountain climb metaphor without the other half - and I was hooked.
I still thought the audio clips didn't quite do the game justice - there is something pompous about their delivery, like listening to earnest poetry on open mic night - but I could better appreciate them as part of the whole.
Thanks for watching the film and hanging out.
Absolutely brilliant. I watched a popular review of this game years ago and haven’t thought much of it. My life lead me to study non-duality and Rupert Spira, and it brought me back here. By far one of the greatest explorations of the piece, and you approach the game with such an innovative grace. I felt the peace and fulfillment of awareness within the finale of the video, the music was just lovely to simply watch a boat go by. The game isn’t for me but I adore everything that it stands for. I’ve uninstalled most of my social media apps and want to enjoy the world around me as it is. Thank you for this.
I'm glad you managed to get something out of my little film! Much appreciated that you stopped by to share.
After watching the video and the reactions of the viewers I got to feel one of the topics in the game: Aw.
Awesome to see such fine videomaking and at the same time explaining things so well informed and clear to everyone. Awesome to see that pretty much everyone who commented in the video had a similar reaction (on the side: 1300 likes also >>>>>> 13 dislikes :OO).
Not only that, noticing that you replied to almost all the comments feels awesome as well.
Thank you, really
Thank you, kntautsos. I think it was hardest keeping up with the comments when I was shared by top Spanish RUclipsr DayoScript. Wow, the comments came in thick and fast that day, and it was exhausting trying to keep up. There's always the possibility that the comments will eventually go south - if you reach a certain popularity threshold, you can end up with a comment avalanche which is difficult to respond to and maintain. Right now, I can still manage :)
Fun facts: This is not my most popular video (and actual top video is just game footage that has been embedded in many sites) but secondmost. And my most disliked video is the Bioshock Infinite one with some comments to match. I actually deleted one of its comments recently, which was not something I ever expected to do.
I can't believe it is August and I haven't released a proper new film yet! (Blame buying a house, which blew my life up for months.) I just have to keep plugging away at the new production...
This video is the best documentary so far, about the amazing feeling we feel when playing The WItness.
Thank you! Currently trying to add full English subtitles...
I played this game for hours and didn’t understand what I was experiencing or why. This video was incredibly well made and gave me the answers I sought
Thank you N W.
This video is incredibly thoughtful and the time and effort you must have put into it really shows. I really enjoyed the personal style. It's truly a short film with creative edits and good film-making skills on display. There are no shortage of video creators out there simply typing out a review or essay, reading it aloud, and showing random footage of the game and it's refreshing to find someone taking time to create something unique with a personal style. What you do takes much more effort and it doesn't go unnoticed. Subscribed for sure and I'm about to watch your previous videos right now.
edit: edited wording slightly
Thank you phantasos12, it's nice to hear. The particular structure/style is also why I cannot possibly match the output of others simply because each one takes so... many... hours. But rest assured something new is coming this month!
wow. this is one of the best produced videos i have ever watched. love the style - must have taken a while to edit but i think it was definitely worth it. Just finished this game and really enjoyed hearing another perspective on it. thanks for making this. have subscribed and will defo check out your other stuff
Thank you, Benjamin! Still amazed this film continues to find new viewers. Encourages me to keep going with making new stuff...
Really great. What's sad is that by half way through the video, I'd actually got a new email, FB message, and twitter mention... :/
After the Waypoint article, I can't ignore my phone which is buzzing with notifications...!
Amazing video. I'm working on my own interpretation video about The Witness and it's nice to find someone who agrees with a lot of the things I thought.
And thank you for those 20 seconds of silence. I'm a teenager with ADHD and a total wuss when it comes to even thinking about jumpscares, so both of those made me twitch my hand towards the mouse, but I sat through it nonetheless. Again, great video, thank you for making it!
Oh man, jumpscares would be totally inappropriate! (Although saying that there was something sudden at the end of the preview video which I did receive a complaint about.) Thanks for the kind thoughts and good luck with your own piece! I'm sure there's plenty more to be excavated! I didn't talk very much about individual statues or some of the landscape features, for example.
Also I wanted to ask: what's the creepy audio at the beginning?
Uh that would be my daughter's night terrors slowed down and played over itself a few times. And there's another sound effect on (rising to climax) which I cannot remember offhand.
I always return to this video at least once every year since 2017. Beautiful interpretation!
Thanks so much Mariana!
This interpretation is a bit beyond me. However this video is amazing in execution in my opinion. The last ten seconds, the audiolog thing you did at the beginning, the karate kid comparison and many more good ideas which are so well executed.
Thank you, RUclips account :) Thinking back, I was lucky with the Karate Kid bit because I've seen many critics make "wax on, wax off" comparisons with other games. Conceptually, it's not new, and I was probably just the first to make it visual!
I dont know why, but i just started crying in the 20 seconds pause, god i love this game so fucking much, it really changed my view of my surroudings, im not even american or raised in a native english country but being able to understand the whole game and fell it without the need to read a single word, jesus it's pure art.
Thank you for dropping by and sharing this. The Witness is definitely one of my all-time favourites also!
lol it's pretentious as hell, but don't worry, you'll grow out of it
A brilliant and inspired reiteration of the game. Thank you. Odd this need of constant and extensive reminders, for the simplest of truths.
Thank you Michel. I hope you received your RUclips reminder direct to your inbox or smartphone this morning to interrupt your day :)
Wouldn't have found the video otherwise, so yes I'm happy I did.
You've made some wonderful videos over the years, but this is hands down perhaps my favourite. Excellent, excellent work.
Thank you Felicity, so kind.
I'm joining the herd of admirers! Fantastic, fantastic video!
It is so detailed and meticulously done that I'm tempted to make an analysis of your analysis masterpiece. In fairness, I should leave it with my utmost praise.
Thank you for making this. In my eyes, one of the best on this domain.
Thank you, Berke! It... really wasn't supposed to be this long! And I had all this extra material about the design of The Witness I still had lying around so pushed all that into the secret video. I hope to get on with the next project soon.
I'll be following eagerly :) once again, well done!