gmod singleplayer: feels lonely in a strange, eerie way. you're alone, and that is the only feeling you really feel after you've run out of things to do gmod multiplayer: i do not know what map this is. i do not know what addons are installed. all i know is that i must kill.
Ever sense I was a kid, I never found gmod scary or lonely, even going into the dark room didn’t scare me (I was like 12 hear) but at the same time I always looked at creepy pasta videos and played horror games so idk
Fun fact: people who don't play source games all that often can experience this feeling in other ways. My dad describes waking up in the early morning before everyone else as "being like you've missed the rapture"
i got lost during a jog with my tour group in italy at 5am, trying to find my way back in a place i had no familiarity with, and having not a soul around was easily the most alone ive ever felt.
I used to work an early-riser warehouse job, got up at 3am and had to drive there by 4, the darkness and silence and stillness being interrupted by your commute made you feel like an unwelcome foreigner in a strange land... ...Source replicates this feeling all too well...
thinking about source just makes me sad because ive made so many friends in garrys mod and had so many great moments with them than those friends just slowly drifted away and i haven't seen them in years
I like to go out of my way to explore some custom maps on my own (Like most of the creators.tf ones since they usually have neat little details in them) but i would be lying if i said that i never get a little paranoid sometimes
@@thexylophone Imo 2fort is the worst one because of how claustrophobic it is, when alone it feels like im always voulnerable to get blind sighted by a previously unseen treat
Not only. I remember as a kid I launched cs 1.6 for the first time and loaded some map (I didn't even know the concept of multiplayer and singleplayer back then and I didn't know what I was doing). After a few minutes of running around an empty map I felt uneasy. And in games like GTA SA with "dead city"-like mods I didn't feel the same way
I've always felt creeped out by the whole concept of going out of bounds and no-clip in general. The world you're inhabiting feels big and full of life, until you step out of the map and realize that it is surrounded by nothing except darkness in an empty void. If i go too far back, I may end up loosing myself in the darkness. And that may be the worst fate anyone could ever suffer.
yo i have this feeling as long as i can remember, if im playing something and i encounter a bug and i find myself out of bounds i just get very spooked for some reason.
i think my feeling of unease in source is from the feeling of being "watched". think about how much you are being watched in source games. in half life 2 you can literally see the gman watching you. in portal, you are being watched by glados and the ratman. in tf2 the administrator is watching you. in the stanley parable the narrator is always watching you. playing all these games as a kid and getting used to being watched, then playing gmod where you're supposed to be completely alone. that's why I feel uneasy in gmod singeplayer.
With the tf2 part and Stanley part, I don't really think the Narrator watching you was really scary, he's a pretty friendly person when you don't really interfere with the story drastically or make him mad, what really is scary with Stanley is probably the ending where everything just breaks, now to TF2, I don't really get scared of the administrator watching the mercs because of how she isn't really scary to me, I know who she is and that she isn't really gonna do really anything wrong, and how it's already established in canon too makes it more well "regular" as in I don't feel scared, for me it feels like I'm being watched by something/someone that isn't really something or someone I recognize, it's the unknown, you don't know what a thing you don't recognize would do to you, and what's worse is that you don't know if it really even exists, or is really there. Oh by the way when I said Administrator wouldn't do anything wrong I meant she probably wouldn't just randomly appear out of nowhere like how some people probably have the paranoia of, she definitely has done several things wrong in canon though.
@@thexylophone Yeah those two aren't really scary but the point is that it still gets you used to the feeling of being watched in source games, bad or not.
An aspect of it unique to Garry's Mod is probably that the sandbox maps often look like places that would never exist in real life, because if they did they wouldn't be able to serve a practical purpose, the most obvious example being gm_construct. Even if we know why this is the case, it's slightly uncanny that there are empty facades of apartment blocks, and even the surrounding area wouldn't function as a city because there are no roads or other infrastructure, at least properly assembled, to make it work. It's like the category of liminal space images that are a combination of CG and edited outdoor areas with houses that don't fit right with the surrounding environment, or in which the sky looks weird. (Coincidentally, there's surely a case to be made the many liminal space images trigger kenopsia if not that it's one of the core components to generate the feelings associated with liminal space images). I guess there's also that many of these maps are structured in a way that someone could easily hide from you and peek around corners to spy on you and have plenty of time to disappear before you could investigate.
There is a city behind the walls of gm construct, it just that when you fly up to the top, the illusion breaks. Theres no need for overthinking, legit.
I make comics using Gmod and the feeling only ever hit me once. I had a scene posed, lit and ready for the page but I stopped and looked at it as I walked around it. It's a weird, indescribable feeling; all these "people" I'd given personalities and motivations were just 3d models on a stage. Nothing I saw was real in any tangible sense, none of these characters would exist when I logged off. Just outside my location was an empty map, devoid of life entirely, its streets empty and dead. But in the frame, things were alive, albeit in still form. I wonder if a director gets this feeling when they're looking at an empty set after a day of shooting.
Did you know that the guy who made/makes those terrible Control Alt Delete webcomics has a very lazy way of making them? He drags different parts on a background, which gives all the characters a terminal case of sameface, all looking like B^U (hence why some ma refer to him as Tim B^Uckley) I wonder if he feels that way when he has a blank image taken google images.
In CS:GO's case, it's a game that is very difficult with people dying in 3 to 4 bullets, and you begin to expect someone jumping around the corner and shooting you, but in a lonely server that wont happen, so that feeling builds up and lingers.
yeah, sometimes i feel like practicing my movement and bhop and stuff, and i always find myself checking corners unintentionally edit: and i hear some random glock noises as well idk why
This kenopsia feeling is definitely not limited to Source games. One of the games which gets really close to generating the same feeling is Duke Nukem 3D. When I started playing it I didn't like the music so I turned it off but kept the ambience on. What remained was a somewhat creepy feeling game that felt doomed and timeless in some way, and not like some fast paced action shooter game as it was probably intended to be.
I've definitely felt the loneliness. I particularly remember my first playthrough of Portal and how I was always looking at the observation rooms in the test chambers to see if anyone was watching me. At first it was a hopeful feeling. But as I progressed further into the game, the idea of a figure watching me through the blurry observation room glass would start making me feel more paranoid than hopeful.
When it comes to gmod, 99% of my playtime is in singleplayer, so I totally got used to the loneliness. Sometimes, I just load up gm_construct and start running like a maniac through the dark room without the flashlight on, just for the sake of it. But what really got me going, was the capacity of knowing most of the tools, so I just go to gmod and start thinking of stuff to build (most of the time vehicles with missle lauchers on them that fire explosive barrels, just because I like explosions.), and then slap some music and I get to building. Also I am a bit of a loner, with only 4 to 5 friends, so it feels more like a comfortable experience, than a creepy one.
I felt this in Minecraft and mirrors edge. Minecraft is self explanatory. But for mirrors edge it was because it's hard to see far, and what you see is just buildings. The older graphics make the effect bigger. The only people are the police, other NPC's and the narrator. The cars have opaque windows as well
Portal 1s atmosphere is just the best in my opinion. Any other valve game feels lonely but not as portal 1. Even half life 2 feels lonely during the chapters after the rebel rise. But portal 1 just feels so goddamn creepy and scary without any jumpscares at all
I think the unkemptness of HL2 adds to it as well. A clean map just feels artificial, so it doesn’t feel wrong. But HL2’s buildings and their wear and tear not falling over but not pristine makes it feel like a schrödiners cat situation where they simultaneously feel lived in and vacant at the same time.
I think how source engine is able to make an empty map to feel eerie is depends on theme itself. Real life texture such as half life 2 and portal has that feeling in each texture to make it desperate or unerving while cartoony texture like in team fortress 2 doesn't have the same creepy feeling with hl2/portal themed map. That also explain how source engine can be use to create horror game or even horror map that has the similiar feeling like in P.T or Resident Evil 8
@@Victor_Graves I hate Ravenholm. I've played scarier games overall, but that town and the fast zombies mess me up. Their sounds are just... Horrifying.
Meanwhile I had no fear in ravenholm because I play gmod version by spawning in a chicken from CS:GO and having it accompany me. When it dies. All my fears vanish. I just become consumed by rage they would kill me chicken. Then I begin genocide of every living thing that enters my sight. Or I spawn allies. Or I try Co-Op. Or I just do super charge and get within point blank to instantly kill with shotgun shell to face.
Minecraft and Garry's Mod's feeling to me is actually a positive-neutral effect to me. The dirtiness, the oldness, etc; reminds me of comfort of discovery, as ive always been a loner with few, no, and/or toxic friends; i found that feeling comfortable. I felt truly at ease with how lonely it is, and how my player character is all alone, yet overcomes obstacles and creates a satisfying thing of whatever you'd want
Minecraft is very self aware about it I think. That's why the music is so melancholic and the game has no friendly NPCs that are humans. Its just you vs. the world, free to build whatever you want but with no one to share it with (in single player at least).
I relate the comfort of loneliness and the power to entertain yourself, when I heard that Source games were known for a lonely feeling I had no idea what they meant, I've never felt alone or unsettled by the emptiness.
In my opinion, the eerie feeling doesn't come from loneliness itself, you can be alone in a forest, or a road, and it doesn't feel weird. The thing with portal for instance, is that you are inside an entire complex that seems to be kept somewhat clean, and as you said, there is electricity. So in my mind, the eerie feeling comes from the fact that you EXPECT to see people, but don't see any. Just like in big source cities, the city is clean, it doesn't feel abandonned, the grass is cut, and yet, no one is present, as if everyone was hiding. So yes, in my opinion it doesn't come from people being absent, it's from the fact that you simultaneously see signs of human presence, and no human present.
As an avid TF2 player, quite a few times I've been in casual Valve servers at just the right time: the last of the players quit and, for whatever reason, none come back, sometimes for a solid half an hour or more. It's an odd feeling when matchmaking forgets you still exist, and you're stuck in a lonely world with every visual cue hinting that you shouldn't be alone right now.
I always found I didn’t feel a sense of loneliness in portal due to the fact GLADOS is constantly talking to you implying comfort from continuous dialogue.
Having keno phobia is like being tortured, the feeling of nothingness is suffering, because you’re all alone by yourself until you think “Am I really alone?” This gets more stronger in just empty voids, and example of this is when you no-clip out of the map. The world you were invested get tored apart just for you to realize that you’re alone
There's another level of this for me - I've been playing source games since HL2 dropped, I was part of GMOD communities, played almost nothing but source games with people I only knew because of source games. Even when playing single player, it felt like you were part of a community of people enjoying the same experiences. I'm old now, and that's all gone. It's such an isolating feeling.
Such an in-depth explanation! I love this video just because it feels really relatable, being someone who loves source games like Garry's Mod. Nice work!
I had a Minecraft single player creative world that I spent absolute hours on, designing little houses and towns and parks. I had places to work, restaurants, everything. But after a while it started to creep me out. All these houses, all these places, and nobody else in the world but me. Now I have a name for that feeling.
I think a big part of the eerie kenopsia feeling you get from Valve games is how arcadey their game design is. Without enemies, an objective, or lots of props, the world or level feels so empty because it _is_ empty.
I have kenophobia(fear of endless/empty voids), especially when in source games. So whenever I noclip, my hairs stick up and I start sweating. I think this was traced back all the way to gmod, I was ten and I noclipped and went out of bounds when an NPC(I think an Ichthyosaur) instantly killed me. It scared the crap out of me and deepen my fear of the void along with water in source games. It sucks because I do make maps in source games and it just makes it a lot harder. (Don't ask me what map it was on because I don't remember)
I find the loneliness of source games comforting to a degree. Maybe it's just because of the throwback to when I was younger, to better days. The beautiful thing is that Source maps don't change. You load up a map and get to experience it like on day one. Source games / maps are a charming constant in an ever-changing world.
The sort of empty loveliness of source games is actually really COMFORTING to me. It's nostalgic and makes me feel peaceful and happy. Stuff like the backrooms and liminal space and empty source stuff I find really COMFORTING myself.
As a teenager I was big into a couple of RP servers as a gamemaster and admin. As such I would play after school for hours and until everybody else logged off trying to keep people entertained. I always felt this when everybody was gone and it was me left alone on the map I had been on for so long, just now empty and desolate. Beofre that, I used to play Gmod alone as a kid and would experience this messing around with addons and maps offline. Also got it even further back in games where you could load multiplayer maps alone, like CoD, gears of war and Halo and Far Cry especially.
Yep! I feel that sound design and ambiance also has a huge affect on the vibe and what you feel for the location. Many maps just alone can be eerie too, especially old halo maps and such! Good stuff, man 😅👍🏻
5:19 I think the reason why this image is creepy is because of the citadel in the background, a giant futuristic tower inside a "normal" city, the cables falling that seems connected to the whole city and controling it
I've seen other videos on this before and I had expected you to make one too some day. I'm glad to see another perspective on it from someone who specifically covers this type of thing. Neat video dude
I loved playing garry’s mod ever since I was little. Now that I’m all grown, garry’s mod is nothing but a nostalgic memory to me. When I play it after a long time, it doesn’t feel as exciting as when I was a kid. Instead, it feels lonely and melancholic.
The earliest i felt this feeling was when i used to play portal on my xbox, i would try and finish chambers as quickly as possible because it felt like some dark, evil entity would reach me and kill me.
It's amazing to see how Garry's Mod Nine in it's HL2 Mod format had a pretty dull and depressing tone to gm_construct in comparison to Gmod 13 and so on, it's like Garry realized the lonely factor and wanted one of the base maps to feel more alive while keeping the Source ambiance. I also find it amusing how Gmod had little supported games at the time by being created short after HL2's release so going from CSS and DoD to TF2 and beyond just expanded upon many new experiences for different times of Addon Creations (Steam Workshop), Machinima ARGs, Dupes and much more. The satisfaction of Source Games is something so unique in comparison to other games that don't use the engine, sometimes you can just feel but can't describe, it's that good.
I think it would cool and creepy to have a mod where on any map you load, a random NPC spawns. You could be walking down the street in rp_downtown and a Gman could be watching you from a window (creep). Or you could be on cs_office and find Alyx behind one of the desks (cool).
In fnaf 6 I remembered hearing the sounds of the pizzeria running, but it doesn’t seem like your in a pizzeria, when you die. No one hears your screams, you can only hear them during the day. And that’s a huge step in kenopsia
The lonesome part of portal makes source so interesting because the imagination around it like the backgrounds of default gmod backgrounds make it so interesting
Sometimes I work the nightshift at a really busy park/campground in my state, and I get this feeling when I'm puttering around at 3am. I find it comforting nowadays
Someone made a video called Ignis Solus that perfectly encapsulates the TF2 atmosphere alone. This video brings me back to the days in which I spent so much time in singleplayer. I would instantly spawn someone in and create a story to fill the space. Ultimately, not to feel lonely. Then, when my friends started joining in, I simply couldn't go back to playing alone.
Source kenopsia is weird, but there's no worse feeling than going to the place you and your best buds used to hang out, only to find it completely empty.
I've yet to watch the video and I love and appreciate the fact that people such as yourself notice the lonely and isolated vibe recieved from source maps. Liked and subbed
I remember playing a TF2 Community "Highertower" server where everybody got mad at each other and just left the server. I was the only one left, all alone. I decided that this was the only opportunity I would ever get to capping the point so I stepped on the cart, all alone, and silently, slowly, rode all the way up to the very top. It was an eerie, yet strangely sobering experience. The silence and the loneliness gave me time to just silently think. It was oddly kind of emotional. I might load up an empty map again someday. I know I need the mental space.
Good point about Half-Life 1. You always see friendly life, scientists and guards. I remember first playing Half-Life 2 and feeing relieved when you finally meet up with some rebels after a while
The word kenopsia alone has opened floodgates for me. I love the lonely feeling. In person and in video games. Halo ODST has some of this, and there is videos of cyberpunk 2077 as well, feeling lonely in a place where you should not be is so fun to me. thank you for showing me this word.
I've never felt alone on gmod, maybe it's because I get distracted by the little things I do in the game. it may well be but i'm basically terrified of entering the dark room and the mirror room on the map gm_construct
The ambient sounds in HL and Portal really are something else. "Sense of depth that hasn't been seen anywhere else" put it pretty well, I think. I find them comfy, odd and lonely at the same time.
I mean, everytime I'm playing portal and I'm in the test chambers, i don't feel lonely or afraid, because glados is there. but everytime i go to the easter eggs locations... I feel lonely, an intense dread because i know glados can't see me there I feel like someone was there, hiding from glados... and i feel like... something else is watching me
The reason why i still feel lonely when spawning npcs in gmod is that npcs are not real players, and you know they are just a programmed bots being in your computer. There is no soul behind NPCs
I once thought about writing a short story about a man who was taken into Garry's Mod and had to maintain his sanity wandering through the wastes we see in the skyboxes of each map, venturing from map to map, knowing in the back of his mind that any person he comes across is ultimately a farce of a person who isn't really there. The goal would be for him to seek out other people in this situation and find a way out. I think it would make for a spooky feeling. Hell, Kenopsia would be a pretty cool name for it. I think some of the default wallpapers in the game actually resemble this quite well, with citizens wandering apocalyptic environments with nothing but a physgun, toolgun and their ramshackle car or trailer. Strange, its almost like this was what the game was going for... Quick edit: Just came into my mind that the idea of the skyboxes being traversable came from the fact that when I was younger I thought that Big City was actually a default map in the game, and I made the false connection that the city we can see in the distance on Flatgrass is actually Bigcity. The Construct maps, however, with their strange archaic constructions and unnerving void rooms simply made me nervous.
Glad we're not the only one ones out here thinking this. I had the same feeling playing Garry's Mod (years ago back in 2010) in particular Construct or when I'm in a empty server on TF2 and I hear the sounds it turns a otherwise charming and chaotic game into something else. It just gave me so much anxiety when no NPCs were spawned to give you company and it was all silent. This feeling was even worse when I played those ship sinking maps like the Titanic. Nothing but pure ocean, once the ship's gone, you're even more alone as the ship felt like the closest thing to company you'd have... if you get what I'm saying and then you're floating in the water like: "Well... what now? And god this is creepy... this is worse". Theeeeeen you decide to swim under the waves to find the wreckage of the ship and it slowly comes into view in the murky water and theeen you realize sooo that's why 'submechanophobia' is a thing with some people; I get it now. The remains of the ship feel ghostly like a apparition slowly coming into view as the ship did. And as it's sinking you're running from the water and the water is creepily coming towards you; that sense of dread and such watching it 'chase' you is another feeling and then you see the ship slip under you going down. Even then, walking around onboard the ship still had it's own eeriness. It's interesting how there's varying degrees of this feeling... with some feeling worse than others like that. ... And yes, that fucking dark room in Construct. I avoided it like the plague. I hardly ever went to it unless I had a gun (preferably a Big Fuck Off Gun at times - it's like the BFG but for even worse situations. I call it the BFOG), a flash-light and a NPC with me. There was just something unnatural about it, on a spiritual level or some shite. Bad mojo I just felt all around. At times when playing these games alone like that I'd feel the same feeling in my room as well and I'd look up and look around and freak myself out like: "This energy, this feeling... it's like this is gonna cause something bad to happen in life itself". So at times I don't play Source games much anymore. It might sound silly but it is what it is. That being said, Source games aren't the only ones I get this feeling from but they have contributed quite abit to it. But the thing is I don't mind being alone, it's just that the kind of atmosphere and too much of being alone is the problem. Gotta be a balance ya see. And it's not just the lonely factor, but also the factor of someone watching you and also as some people pointed out like something super-natural about it. All of this converges together and bam the feeling is intensified ten-fold. It's a mix of feelings... Also, for those of you saying we're pussies I guess some of us just aren't 'robots' or 'manly men' like Hollywood portrays everything. Sorry being for being well, human I guess... I'm sure you all have some kind of fear and feeling of unease when you do a particular something we could say you're a pussy for but we don't.
Source games are desolate, devoid of meaningful interactions with others. The online games such as CS and TF2 also have this aura around them. You described why this is the case fairly well. I have a few things to add to the explanation: The source engine is mainly associated with games such as half-life and portal. both games that give this uneasy loneliness feeling on purpose. This alone supplies some of the feeling. The main thing is that all source games remind you that you are in control. It's not just as simple as giving you the control, they have to remind you. Such as the physics puzzles you encounter in both half-life and portal. These puzzles also exist in left for dead 1 and 2. Garry's mod sandbox was designed with this control in mind, so in this way the spawn menu and context menu remind you of your control. Source 1 has this realistic yet fake look to it. This look that source 1 has is hard to describe but easy to understand. The best way I can describe it: Everything looks like a tv set. Source games force you to think about your control. That on top of the fact that the setting of most source games is places that should be filled with people being entirely barren. With enemies being mostly non-human. This gives the dread that half-life one gives during the zen section. One of the reasons I think the zen section of half-life 1 is considered bad, is because it gives this sudden realization of existential dread. Giving you the long jump module, the low gravity, no human interaction, the dark/sullen atmosphere, and the combat becomes even more frantic. This is the feeling that valve wanted to recreate with the rest of their games. This dread is what makes all of valves games an experience.
5:24 The best example is Raven City. When you enter and the firsr thing you see is a hanged guy. That part still is spooky to me, even with all the action and etc...
Wow what a great video, well done man. The beginning few seconds made me feel exactly how I do when I play garrys mod alone. This video finally made me realize that other people have these experiences too! Awesome video dude. Also just for anyone reading this, go into a section of Half-Life 2 and get rid of all the enemies and then after the chaos is over, just sit... and wait... listen to the ambience... water splashing from the fish... nearby echoes from sirens... crickets chirping... howls from the undead... One of the creepiest experiences you can have in a video game in my opinion.
the Source engine gave me some chill. I remember exactly playing CS Source on one server alone without a Bot, and it feels so chilly and yet gave me goosebumps.
For some reason, I don't feel overly-lonely when playing SP in Gmod. only certain maps give an un-easy feeling (ambiance usually) However, I understand I'm on my own world by myself in my own sandbox, and I'm there to either Build in it, or tear it up! Single Player really can bring out the Imagination. I usually have music playing so maybe that helps too? ---Wall of Text--- My first days in Gmod, (End-game 2008) I tore up Peach's castle while imagining that Mario and co moved to a little shack I built while the castle got cleaned up. (I had actual characters in the house) Maybe you won't feel lonely when you let your imagination let loose. And even if not, Single player is a great way to Build in secret so when you have something awesome, hop back on your favorite server, then BAM! Blow them away! Today, well over a decade, when I play, It's almost exclusively SP. Usually nostalgic? Maybe I'm too old for online as Zoomies has fully taken over, kicking us Yoomies/Xoomies out, but I seem to have the most fun when I start building (stuff with Wiremod for example). I don't get that creepy feeling though. it's like I'm in my room alone just enjoying myself.
Hey, maybe I'm 1 year late but jeez, the feeling when you play alone on source engine maps, that feeling hits... Like something is watching you, maybe it's true or you going insane...
Had to walk to work through my usually lively downtown aread at 4:40 am for a couple months and it definitely has that "kenopsia" feel, the only living creatures around was an ocassional silent homeless person either asleep or just watching you. The coffee shop that was never open yet played a weird 70's, 80's and 90's radio quietly and had fluorescent lights always on and i dreaded passing it the most.. i suppose that makes the most sense now that i think about it, its the most lively feeling while still being dead.
I know a lot of people say its creepy because there alone, but for me it doesn't make me feel lonely, knowing most of these places were once populated and I've been there so many times it never feels like I'm alone. I feel comforted knowing of all of the memories I made there and the memories yet to come, its never lonely for me at least. If nothing else it makes me sad knowing all of those amazing times when I had less responsibility's in this world are now times past, and now I can only remember them and can't experience it ever again, I feel these maps kinda help teach that you need to keep those memorable times as close as possible because before you know it they'll be gone for ever...
Wow... great video, had me hooked from start to finish. It reminded me of a time recently that I got this exact same feeling... and for some reason it still fills me with a strange emotion. As for what happened exactly, I was browsing an old forum on the Internet Archive. More specifically, the VG Cats forum. I'm a fan of the comic and I wanted to see what the forum was like before the creator nuked it (long story, but to put it simply he's a knobhead). I found some backups of it on the Wayback Machine, and I went to the most recent backup, Feb 11, 2010. It was really creepy to look at... like you described it, a place frozen in time. Or a time that doesn't exist anymore. All the threads were there, with conversations going. The server time was frozen at 5:21 AM. 97 members were online, out of 3,753, and the forum had 1,137,574 total posts. It felt really forlorn and sorrowful to see what it once was, I was very late to the comic and therefore didn't get to participate in the rather large fandom it once had. The creepiest part by far is that everything appeared normal on the backup. Nothing about the forum shutting down. Every conversation was just... carrying on normally. I felt the same way looking at old backups of the VG Cats website itself. Although, I did get a little chuckle when old ads for new DS games and the like would appear.
the main thing for me is that a lot of early source games relied on textures for detail. buildings would just be cubes with textured windows on them, which lead to them feeling fake
@@fogfatigue4980 Exactly I mean I understand the feeling since I used to get it on my PS1 on games I only played with my brother (there was even a game show called buzz) and playing it by yourself gave me that scary feeling. But now I'm the opposite
source reminds me of areas like an apartment block when everybody is at work, it seems like nobody is around for miles.
Most say, “you are not afraid of being alone, you are afraid of not being alone”
engineer gaming
⛽ agomus
Yeah I guess so.
engineer gaming
@@Eternal_Sky_Tardis engi-near gaming
gmod singleplayer: feels lonely in a strange, eerie way. you're alone, and that is the only feeling you really feel after you've run out of things to do
gmod multiplayer: i do not know what map this is. i do not know what addons are installed. all i know is that i must kill.
And also run away from those with miniguns
BAN
then get banned for killing people in the pvp server
And also scream rdm
Ever sense I was a kid, I never found gmod scary or lonely, even going into the dark room didn’t scare me (I was like 12 hear) but at the same time I always looked at creepy pasta videos and played horror games so idk
Fun fact: people who don't play source games all that often can experience this feeling in other ways. My dad describes waking up in the early morning before everyone else as "being like you've missed the rapture"
Wise man! I like that.
i got lost during a jog with my tour group in italy at 5am, trying to find my way back in a place i had no familiarity with, and having not a soul around was easily the most alone ive ever felt.
I used to work an early-riser warehouse job, got up at 3am and had to drive there by 4, the darkness and silence and stillness being interrupted by your commute made you feel like an unwelcome foreigner in a strange land...
...Source replicates this feeling all too well...
I know that feeling lmao
I'm a night guard, and get this feel everyday basically, emptiness
The way he patches up the dark room on construct lol
**heavy breathing**
You can see a figure with glowing eyes in the dark room
nothing is scarier than that room
@@a-surfin-bird8182 like it or not he’s spitting facts
@@pkshox8880 true
thinking about source just makes me sad because ive made so many friends in garrys mod and had so many great moments with them than those friends just slowly drifted away and i haven't seen them in years
I feel ya
I've been apart of way too many now dead gmod communities :(
Source 2 is going to create more of this moments, or at least i hope so
Separated with mine recently, now like before I met those friends, I'm just alone, I have no friends that dm me anymore
Why'd ya hit me like that?
Reading this comment sent a chill down my spine thinking back to 7 years ago
having an empty server in tf2 feels wrong because its usually chaotic
I like to go out of my way to explore some custom maps on my own (Like most of the creators.tf ones since they usually have neat little details in them) but i would be lying if i said that i never get a little paranoid sometimes
Yeah, Foundry feels the worst alone in my opinion
I get this feeling playing Well.
@@thexylophone Imo 2fort is the worst one because of how claustrophobic it is, when alone it feels like im always voulnerable to get blind sighted by a previously unseen treat
Not only. I remember as a kid I launched cs 1.6 for the first time and loaded some map (I didn't even know the concept of multiplayer and singleplayer back then and I didn't know what I was doing). After a few minutes of running around an empty map I felt uneasy. And in games like GTA SA with "dead city"-like mods I didn't feel the same way
I've always felt creeped out by the whole concept of going out of bounds and no-clip in general. The world you're inhabiting feels big and full of life, until you step out of the map and realize that it is surrounded by nothing except darkness in an empty void. If i go too far back, I may end up loosing myself in the darkness. And that may be the worst fate anyone could ever suffer.
Bro just hit your killbind, its not hard.
Yeah, I get scared going out of bounds. I feel like some creepy face is gonna be there right outside of bounds and jumpscare me lmao
@@nottoofast
Worse off, G-Man appears for a split second and the game crashes.
Even creepier are the 3d skyboxes, they’re just a small area floating in space.
yo i have this feeling as long as i can remember, if im playing something and i encounter a bug and i find myself out of bounds i just get very spooked for some reason.
i think my feeling of unease in source is from the feeling of being "watched". think about how much you are being watched in source games. in half life 2 you can literally see the gman watching you. in portal, you are being watched by glados and the ratman. in tf2 the administrator is watching you. in the stanley parable the narrator is always watching you. playing all these games as a kid and getting used to being watched, then playing gmod where you're supposed to be completely alone. that's why I feel uneasy in gmod singeplayer.
With the tf2 part and Stanley part, I don't really think the Narrator watching you was really scary, he's a pretty friendly person when you don't really interfere with the story drastically or make him mad, what really is scary with Stanley is probably the ending where everything just breaks, now to TF2, I don't really get scared of the administrator watching the mercs because of how she isn't really scary to me, I know who she is and that she isn't really gonna do really anything wrong, and how it's already established in canon too makes it more well "regular" as in I don't feel scared, for me it feels like I'm being watched by something/someone that isn't really something or someone I recognize, it's the unknown, you don't know what a thing you don't recognize would do to you, and what's worse is that you don't know if it really even exists, or is really there.
Oh by the way when I said Administrator wouldn't do anything wrong I meant she probably wouldn't just randomly appear out of nowhere like how some people probably have the paranoia of, she definitely has done several things wrong in canon though.
@@thexylophone Yeah those two aren't really scary but the point is that it still gets you used to the feeling of being watched in source games, bad or not.
Exactly
An aspect of it unique to Garry's Mod is probably that the sandbox maps often look like places that would never exist in real life, because if they did they wouldn't be able to serve a practical purpose, the most obvious example being gm_construct. Even if we know why this is the case, it's slightly uncanny that there are empty facades of apartment blocks, and even the surrounding area wouldn't function as a city because there are no roads or other infrastructure, at least properly assembled, to make it work. It's like the category of liminal space images that are a combination of CG and edited outdoor areas with houses that don't fit right with the surrounding environment, or in which the sky looks weird. (Coincidentally, there's surely a case to be made the many liminal space images trigger kenopsia if not that it's one of the core components to generate the feelings associated with liminal space images).
I guess there's also that many of these maps are structured in a way that someone could easily hide from you and peek around corners to spy on you and have plenty of time to disappear before you could investigate.
I am the 69 🤡
There is a city behind the walls of gm construct, it just that when you fly up to the top, the illusion breaks. Theres no need for overthinking, legit.
The uncanny feeling relates to nuke towns and fake towns imo since thats the feeling they give off
yeah you're right, when i play much more recognizeable maps like malls,shops etc.
i fell like its alive for some reason
I just think like "people used to be happy and have good moments here, but now every one of them moved on and are not here anymore"
So basically "50,000 people used to live here...
now it's a ghost town."
as a reality?
pain
I make comics using Gmod and the feeling only ever hit me once. I had a scene posed, lit and ready for the page but I stopped and looked at it as I walked around it.
It's a weird, indescribable feeling; all these "people" I'd given personalities and motivations were just 3d models on a stage. Nothing I saw was real in any tangible sense, none of these characters would exist when I logged off. Just outside my location was an empty map, devoid of life entirely, its streets empty and dead. But in the frame, things were alive, albeit in still form.
I wonder if a director gets this feeling when they're looking at an empty set after a day of shooting.
Show comics
fr lol i make shitty ocs and it really does kinda tug on my balls to think that they are completely nonexistent in any sense
Someone finally put it into words
Did you know that the guy who made/makes those terrible Control Alt Delete webcomics has a very lazy way of making them? He drags different parts on a background, which gives all the characters a terminal case of sameface, all looking like B^U (hence why some ma refer to him as Tim B^Uckley)
I wonder if he feels that way when he has a blank image taken google images.
In CS:GO's case, it's a game that is very difficult with people dying in 3 to 4 bullets, and you begin to expect someone jumping around the corner and shooting you, but in a lonely server that wont happen, so that feeling builds up and lingers.
So basically paranoia because you never know when your gonna rage quit from some tryhard sniping you with a desert eagle
yeah, sometimes i feel like practicing my movement and bhop and stuff, and i always find myself checking corners unintentionally
edit: and i hear some random glock noises as well idk why
It’s all fun and games until it happens and yet still no one joined.
@@BatuhanDere if someone's sniping you from long with a desert eagle that's not a tryhard
This kenopsia feeling is definitely not limited to Source games. One of the games which gets really close to generating the same feeling is Duke Nukem 3D. When I started playing it I didn't like the music so I turned it off but kept the ambience on. What remained was a somewhat creepy feeling game that felt doomed and timeless in some way, and not like some fast paced action shooter game as it was probably intended to be.
*YOU WHAT*
I feel like this needs to be said once again.
*Y O U W H A T ?!?*
You have now made the Duke Nukem fanbase hate you, good job.
Hi Orfkip! 👋 I was just watching the vid on u
F.E.A.R. is another game that has this sort of atmosphere to it
I've definitely felt the loneliness.
I particularly remember my first playthrough of Portal and how I was always looking at the observation rooms in the test chambers to see if anyone was watching me. At first it was a hopeful feeling. But as I progressed further into the game, the idea of a figure watching me through the blurry observation room glass would start making me feel more paranoid than hopeful.
Eugh... that *would* be a bit unsettling.
atleast you have glados who always watching you
When I was playing Portal, I never thinked about it. I was always like "How do I solve this" more than "Why is this place empty"
imagine if the fucking gman was in one of those rooms.
@@llynxfyremusic Bruh I'll freak out
Spawning NPCs in Gmod is pretty much the same as spawning Villagers in Minecraft. It makes me feel lonelier than before the NPCs were spawned.
Valve makes the best horror games that were never meant to be horror games, change my mind.
Subnautica is the best horror game that wasn't ever made to be horror
Both Half Life and Portal are very dark. What are you talking about?
@@Breached18 I don't think so. Go to far away from spawn and the deeper you go, it becomes rather frightening.
I think portal was intended to have horror elements.
I dont have to change your mind because youre right
When it comes to gmod, 99% of my playtime is in singleplayer, so I totally got used to the loneliness. Sometimes, I just load up gm_construct and start running like a maniac through the dark room without the flashlight on, just for the sake of it. But what really got me going, was the capacity of knowing most of the tools, so I just go to gmod and start thinking of stuff to build (most of the time vehicles with missle lauchers on them that fire explosive barrels, just because I like explosions.), and then slap some music and I get to building.
Also I am a bit of a loner, with only 4 to 5 friends, so it feels more like a comfortable experience, than a creepy one.
Same.
It felt like this for me with halo 3 forge, just building bases and what not
Same, except I like to ragdoll off cliffs and attack the ground
I felt this in Minecraft and mirrors edge. Minecraft is self explanatory. But for mirrors edge it was because it's hard to see far, and what you see is just buildings. The older graphics make the effect bigger. The only people are the police, other NPC's and the narrator. The cars have opaque windows as well
felt this in minecraft? minecraft is at its best, when you're alone wdym
Portal 1s atmosphere is just the best in my opinion. Any other valve game feels lonely but not as portal 1. Even half life 2 feels lonely during the chapters after the rebel rise. But portal 1 just feels so goddamn creepy and scary without any jumpscares at all
Chapters 5 portal 2 is damn creepy
@@KucingS eh not really but it has some moments
Damn bro you got the whole squad crying and sad
sad
And sad
I think the unkemptness of HL2 adds to it as well. A clean map just feels artificial, so it doesn’t feel wrong. But HL2’s buildings and their wear and tear not falling over but not pristine makes it feel like a schrödiners cat situation where they simultaneously feel lived in and vacant at the same time.
Source games have this unique aesthetic that not many games have. The textures, the eerie ambience...
ahem ahem, *liminal spaces*
I think how source engine is able to make an empty map to feel eerie is depends on theme itself. Real life texture such as half life 2 and portal has that feeling in each texture to make it desperate or unerving while cartoony texture like in team fortress 2 doesn't have the same creepy feeling with hl2/portal themed map.
That also explain how source engine can be use to create horror game or even horror map that has the similiar feeling like in P.T or Resident Evil 8
i couldnt finish half life 2 when i was a kid because of this fear
ravenholm(sorry if i misspelled) is the scariest chapter on half life 2. the ambient, the music
@@alduinfr I just turned off enemy targeting for that part. I'm a huge pussy, can't lie.
@@Victor_Graves I hate Ravenholm. I've played scarier games overall, but that town and the fast zombies mess me up. Their sounds are just... Horrifying.
Meanwhile I had no fear in ravenholm because I play gmod version by spawning in a chicken from CS:GO and having it accompany me. When it dies. All my fears vanish. I just become consumed by rage they would kill me chicken. Then I begin genocide of every living thing that enters my sight. Or I spawn allies. Or I try Co-Op. Or I just do super charge and get within point blank to instantly kill with shotgun shell to face.
@@SgtHawk45 Now that's a mod I can get behind xD What's your chicken's name, mate?
Minecraft and Garry's Mod's feeling to me is actually a positive-neutral effect to me. The dirtiness, the oldness, etc; reminds me of comfort of discovery, as ive always been a loner with few, no, and/or toxic friends; i found that feeling comfortable. I felt truly at ease with how lonely it is, and how my player character is all alone, yet overcomes obstacles and creates a satisfying thing of whatever you'd want
Peace & Imagination.
Old Java versions of Minecraft especially, I find them to be more desaturated and cold giving them a lonely feeling
Minecraft is very self aware about it I think. That's why the music is so melancholic and the game has no friendly NPCs that are humans. Its just you vs. the world, free to build whatever you want but with no one to share it with (in single player at least).
I relate the comfort of loneliness and the power to entertain yourself, when I heard that Source games were known for a lonely feeling I had no idea what they meant, I've never felt alone or unsettled by the emptiness.
@@BloxnII exactly. they have a feeling of a lonely yet infinite god with a realm of creation and disocovery all your own
Everybody knows that the Source engine is haunted.
In my opinion, the eerie feeling doesn't come from loneliness itself, you can be alone in a forest, or a road, and it doesn't feel weird.
The thing with portal for instance, is that you are inside an entire complex that seems to be kept somewhat clean, and as you said, there is electricity.
So in my mind, the eerie feeling comes from the fact that you EXPECT to see people, but don't see any.
Just like in big source cities, the city is clean, it doesn't feel abandonned, the grass is cut, and yet, no one is present, as if everyone was hiding.
So yes, in my opinion it doesn't come from people being absent, it's from the fact that you simultaneously see signs of human presence, and no human present.
As an avid TF2 player, quite a few times I've been in casual Valve servers at just the right time: the last of the players quit and, for whatever reason, none come back, sometimes for a solid half an hour or more. It's an odd feeling when matchmaking forgets you still exist, and you're stuck in a lonely world with every visual cue hinting that you shouldn't be alone right now.
I know right. Running around on empty servers was such a strange thing to do but I did it for hours
These are some of the most entertaining videos I’m interested in rn
They're very well structured ngl
I always found I didn’t feel a sense of loneliness in portal due to the fact GLADOS is constantly talking to you implying comfort from continuous dialogue.
can't wait for source 2 loneliness
we have a good 13 years for that to happen
this just makes me sad
I used to spawn npcs in sandbox, i dont do it anymore cuz it began making me even more lonely with those robotic falty non living ai
yeah exactly
bro npcs are the thing that keep me insane in the game
i remember when i was younger id feel this playing on empty roblox servers
Having keno phobia is like being tortured, the feeling of nothingness is suffering, because you’re all alone by yourself until you think “Am I really alone?” This gets more stronger in just empty voids, and example of this is when you no-clip out of the map. The world you were invested get tored apart just for you to realize that you’re alone
There's another level of this for me - I've been playing source games since HL2 dropped, I was part of GMOD communities, played almost nothing but source games with people I only knew because of source games. Even when playing single player, it felt like you were part of a community of people enjoying the same experiences. I'm old now, and that's all gone. It's such an isolating feeling.
I think this is more due to the talent of valve's developers than anything else, a game engine is just a tool.
Such an in-depth explanation! I love this video just because it feels really relatable, being someone who loves source games like Garry's Mod. Nice work!
hell yeh
I had a Minecraft single player creative world that I spent absolute hours on, designing little houses and towns and parks. I had places to work, restaurants, everything. But after a while it started to creep me out. All these houses, all these places, and nobody else in the world but me. Now I have a name for that feeling.
We can all agree that revisiting your old favorite game and not seeing it the same or is simply dead is like a sharp stab in your heart
That happened in counter strike source for me
I think a big part of the eerie kenopsia feeling you get from Valve games is how arcadey their game design is. Without enemies, an objective, or lots of props, the world or level feels so empty because it _is_ empty.
playing on a left 4 dead map in gmod gives me this feeling, like some horrible events happened and you're now the only living thing around
I have kenophobia(fear of endless/empty voids), especially when in source games. So whenever I noclip, my hairs stick up and I start sweating. I think this was traced back all the way to gmod, I was ten and I noclipped and went out of bounds when an NPC(I think an Ichthyosaur) instantly killed me. It scared the crap out of me and deepen my fear of the void along with water in source games. It sucks because I do make maps in source games and it just makes it a lot harder. (Don't ask me what map it was on because I don't remember)
thats actually really interesting because i love the idea of voids they seem so comfortable tbh
That feeling happens to me when i swim in the sea. It sometimes feels like an endless pit with all the seaweed and stuff and I get panicked
the thing you should really be concerned about is why is an ichtyosaur out of bounds i would shit a monster shit and delete the game
I find the loneliness of source games comforting to a degree. Maybe it's just because of the throwback to when I was younger, to better days. The beautiful thing is that Source maps don't change. You load up a map and get to experience it like on day one. Source games / maps are a charming constant in an ever-changing world.
The sort of empty loveliness of source games is actually really COMFORTING to me. It's nostalgic and makes me feel peaceful and happy.
Stuff like the backrooms and liminal space and empty source stuff I find really COMFORTING myself.
As a teenager I was big into a couple of RP servers as a gamemaster and admin. As such I would play after school for hours and until everybody else logged off trying to keep people entertained. I always felt this when everybody was gone and it was me left alone on the map I had been on for so long, just now empty and desolate. Beofre that, I used to play Gmod alone as a kid and would experience this messing around with addons and maps offline. Also got it even further back in games where you could load multiplayer maps alone, like CoD, gears of war and Halo and Far Cry especially.
Yep! I feel that sound design and ambiance also has a huge affect on the vibe and what you feel for the location. Many maps just alone can be eerie too, especially old halo maps and such! Good stuff, man 😅👍🏻
5:19 I think the reason why this image is creepy is because of the citadel in the background, a giant futuristic tower inside a "normal" city, the cables falling that seems connected to the whole city and controling it
Welcome to Saint Petersburg lol
I've seen other videos on this before and I had expected you to make one too some day. I'm glad to see another perspective on it from someone who specifically covers this type of thing. Neat video dude
I loved playing garry’s mod ever since I was little. Now that I’m all grown, garry’s mod is nothing but a nostalgic memory to me. When I play it after a long time, it doesn’t feel as exciting as when I was a kid. Instead, it feels lonely and melancholic.
YES DUDE, I need more video essays about this feeling!
recently started playing half life 2 and holy shit the isolation feeling
it makes me just want to go with my friends and do some random stuff
The earliest i felt this feeling was when i used to play portal on my xbox, i would try and finish chambers as quickly as possible because it felt like some dark, evil entity would reach me and kill me.
It's amazing to see how Garry's Mod Nine in it's HL2 Mod format had a pretty dull and depressing tone to gm_construct in comparison to Gmod 13 and so on, it's like Garry realized the lonely factor and wanted one of the base maps to feel more alive while keeping the Source ambiance. I also find it amusing how Gmod had little supported games at the time by being created short after HL2's release so going from CSS and DoD to TF2 and beyond just expanded upon many new experiences for different times of Addon Creations (Steam Workshop), Machinima ARGs, Dupes and much more. The satisfaction of Source Games is something so unique in comparison to other games that don't use the engine, sometimes you can just feel but can't describe, it's that good.
I think it would cool and creepy to have a mod where on any map you load, a random NPC spawns. You could be walking down the street in rp_downtown and a Gman could be watching you from a window (creep). Or you could be on cs_office and find Alyx behind one of the desks (cool).
You deserve more subscribers, this vid was fantastic!
In fnaf 6 I remembered hearing the sounds of the pizzeria running, but it doesn’t seem like your in a pizzeria, when you die. No one hears your screams, you can only hear them during the day. And that’s a huge step in kenopsia
When you play bioShock 1, you feel you are the only regular human in this place. Which feel very lonely.
The lonesome part of portal makes source so interesting because the imagination around it like the backgrounds of default gmod backgrounds make it so interesting
I'm such a source fanatic that my kenopsia's so strong even ttt_minecraft_b5 is enough to make me paranoid
Sometimes I work the nightshift at a really busy park/campground in my state, and I get this feeling when I'm puttering around at 3am. I find it comforting nowadays
Wait, I have been alone the whole time?
Always has been.
*Proceeds to destroy that fear of loneliness*
I don't know why but there's something relaxing about a good youtube with not many subs. It's relaxing.
The map creator on Tony Hawk games always gave me this feeling tbh
Saaaaame. I clearly remember it going away when I’d make maps with friends. Those were the days.
Someone made a video called Ignis Solus that perfectly encapsulates the TF2 atmosphere alone. This video brings me back to the days in which I spent so much time in singleplayer. I would instantly spawn someone in and create a story to fill the space. Ultimately, not to feel lonely. Then, when my friends started joining in, I simply couldn't go back to playing alone.
Source kenopsia is weird, but there's no worse feeling than going to the place you and your best buds used to hang out, only to find it completely empty.
I've yet to watch the video and I love and appreciate the fact that people such as yourself notice the lonely and isolated vibe recieved from source maps. Liked and subbed
Man I feel this video so much, I love the quality.
I remember playing a TF2 Community "Highertower" server where everybody got mad at each other and just left the server. I was the only one left, all alone.
I decided that this was the only opportunity I would ever get to capping the point so I stepped on the cart, all alone, and silently, slowly, rode all the way up to the very top.
It was an eerie, yet strangely sobering experience. The silence and the loneliness gave me time to just silently think. It was oddly kind of emotional.
I might load up an empty map again someday. I know I need the mental space.
I kinda feel like this when playing an old singleplayer game that has multiplayer but no servers anymore. It feels uncomfortable in a way
Good point about Half-Life 1. You always see friendly life, scientists and guards. I remember first playing Half-Life 2 and feeing relieved when you finally meet up with some rebels after a while
I only get that feeling on gmod, on the games that have stories, characters and enemies I don't feel lonely.
The word kenopsia alone has opened floodgates for me. I love the lonely feeling. In person and in video games. Halo ODST has some of this, and there is videos of cyberpunk 2077 as well, feeling lonely in a place where you should not be is so fun to me. thank you for showing me this word.
I've never felt alone on gmod, maybe it's because I get distracted by the little things I do in the game. it may well be but i'm basically terrified of entering the dark room and the mirror room on the map gm_construct
The ambient sounds in HL and Portal really are something else. "Sense of depth that hasn't been seen anywhere else" put it pretty well, I think. I find them comfy, odd and lonely at the same time.
Im so used to the loneliness I dont think anything of it
I mean, everytime I'm playing portal and I'm in the test chambers, i don't feel lonely or afraid, because glados is there.
but everytime i go to the easter eggs locations... I feel lonely, an intense dread because i know glados can't see me there
I feel like someone was there, hiding from glados... and i feel like... something else is watching me
The reason why i still feel lonely when spawning npcs in gmod is that npcs are not real players, and you know they are just a programmed bots being in your computer. There is no soul behind NPCs
spawn in bots
i take npcs as my friends
Holy shit, finally a video that perfectly describes my feeling about source games. You have earned my sub good sir.
I once thought about writing a short story about a man who was taken into Garry's Mod and had to maintain his sanity wandering through the wastes we see in the skyboxes of each map, venturing from map to map, knowing in the back of his mind that any person he comes across is ultimately a farce of a person who isn't really there. The goal would be for him to seek out other people in this situation and find a way out. I think it would make for a spooky feeling. Hell, Kenopsia would be a pretty cool name for it. I think some of the default wallpapers in the game actually resemble this quite well, with citizens wandering apocalyptic environments with nothing but a physgun, toolgun and their ramshackle car or trailer. Strange, its almost like this was what the game was going for...
Quick edit: Just came into my mind that the idea of the skyboxes being traversable came from the fact that when I was younger I thought that Big City was actually a default map in the game, and I made the false connection that the city we can see in the distance on Flatgrass is actually Bigcity. The Construct maps, however, with their strange archaic constructions and unnerving void rooms simply made me nervous.
Make one and what's it name
10/10 editing man. Keep up the good work.
Glad we're not the only one ones out here thinking this.
I had the same feeling playing Garry's Mod (years ago back in 2010) in particular Construct or when I'm in a empty server on TF2 and I hear the sounds it turns a otherwise charming and chaotic game into something else. It just gave me so much anxiety when no NPCs were spawned to give you company and it was all silent. This feeling was even worse when I played those ship sinking maps like the Titanic.
Nothing but pure ocean, once the ship's gone, you're even more alone as the ship felt like the closest thing to company you'd have... if you get what I'm saying and then you're floating in the water like: "Well... what now? And god this is creepy... this is worse". Theeeeeen you decide to swim under the waves to find the wreckage of the ship and it slowly comes into view in the murky water and theeen you realize sooo that's why 'submechanophobia' is a thing with some people; I get it now. The remains of the ship feel ghostly like a apparition slowly coming into view as the ship did. And as it's sinking you're running from the water and the water is creepily coming towards you; that sense of dread and such watching it 'chase' you is another feeling and then you see the ship slip under you going down.
Even then, walking around onboard the ship still had it's own eeriness. It's interesting how there's varying degrees of this feeling... with some feeling worse than others like that.
... And yes, that fucking dark room in Construct. I avoided it like the plague. I hardly ever went to it unless I had a gun (preferably a Big Fuck Off Gun at times - it's like the BFG but for even worse situations. I call it the BFOG), a flash-light and a NPC with me. There was just something unnatural about it, on a spiritual level or some shite. Bad mojo I just felt all around.
At times when playing these games alone like that I'd feel the same feeling in my room as well and I'd look up and look around and freak myself out like: "This energy, this feeling... it's like this is gonna cause something bad to happen in life itself". So at times I don't play Source games much anymore. It might sound silly but it is what it is.
That being said, Source games aren't the only ones I get this feeling from but they have contributed quite abit to it. But the thing is I don't mind being alone, it's just that the kind of atmosphere and too much of being alone is the problem. Gotta be a balance ya see. And it's not just the lonely factor, but also the factor of someone watching you and also as some people pointed out like something super-natural about it. All of this converges together and bam the feeling is intensified ten-fold. It's a mix of feelings...
Also, for those of you saying we're pussies I guess some of us just aren't 'robots' or 'manly men' like Hollywood portrays everything. Sorry being for being well, human I guess... I'm sure you all have some kind of fear and feeling of unease when you do a particular something we could say you're a pussy for but we don't.
I love this comment.
dark room was used to test out lights
This was a very well put together video! I was surprised someone actually referenced the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows talking about this topic lol.
Source games are desolate, devoid of meaningful interactions with others. The online games such as CS and TF2 also have this aura around them. You described why this is the case fairly well.
I have a few things to add to the explanation:
The source engine is mainly associated with games such as half-life and portal. both games that give this uneasy loneliness feeling on purpose. This alone supplies some of the feeling.
The main thing is that all source games remind you that you are in control. It's not just as simple as giving you the control, they have to remind you. Such as the physics puzzles you encounter in both half-life and portal. These puzzles also exist in left for dead 1 and 2. Garry's mod sandbox was designed with this control in mind, so in this way the spawn menu and context menu remind you of your control. Source 1 has this realistic yet fake look to it. This look that source 1 has is hard to describe but easy to understand. The best way I can describe it: Everything looks like a tv set.
Source games force you to think about your control.
That on top of the fact that the setting of most source games is places that should be filled with people being entirely barren. With enemies being mostly non-human. This gives the dread that half-life one gives during the zen section.
One of the reasons I think the zen section of half-life 1 is considered bad, is because it gives this sudden realization of existential dread. Giving you the long jump module, the low gravity, no human interaction, the dark/sullen atmosphere, and the combat becomes even more frantic. This is the feeling that valve wanted to recreate with the rest of their games. This dread is what makes all of valves games an experience.
5:24 The best example is Raven City. When you enter and the firsr thing you see is a hanged guy. That part still is spooky to me, even with all the action and etc...
The funny thing is is how when he first opens the spawn menu the combines are labeled as ‘bad guys’ 😂
Wow what a great video, well done man. The beginning few seconds made me feel exactly how I do when I play garrys mod alone. This video finally made me realize that other people have these experiences too! Awesome video dude. Also just for anyone reading this, go into a section of Half-Life 2 and get rid of all the enemies and then after the chaos is over, just sit... and wait... listen to the ambience... water splashing from the fish... nearby echoes from sirens... crickets chirping... howls from the undead... One of the creepiest experiences you can have in a video game in my opinion.
Im not scared of the dark room, how did you know?
*Shows muscle man*
Pfft, everyone knows the true horror is the light room
you made me feel the light around me *you abomination of an entity*
the Source engine gave me some chill. I remember exactly playing CS Source on one server alone without a Bot, and it feels so chilly and yet gave me goosebumps.
For some reason, I don't feel overly-lonely when playing SP in Gmod. only certain maps give an un-easy feeling (ambiance usually) However, I understand I'm on my own world by myself in my own sandbox, and I'm there to either Build in it, or tear it up! Single Player really can bring out the Imagination. I usually have music playing so maybe that helps too?
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My first days in Gmod, (End-game 2008) I tore up Peach's castle while imagining that Mario and co moved to a little shack I built while the castle got cleaned up. (I had actual characters in the house) Maybe you won't feel lonely when you let your imagination let loose. And even if not, Single player is a great way to Build in secret so when you have something awesome, hop back on your favorite server, then BAM! Blow them away!
Today, well over a decade, when I play, It's almost exclusively SP. Usually nostalgic? Maybe I'm too old for online as Zoomies has fully taken over, kicking us Yoomies/Xoomies out, but I seem to have the most fun when I start building (stuff with Wiremod for example). I don't get that creepy feeling though. it's like I'm in my room alone just enjoying myself.
Hey, maybe I'm 1 year late but jeez, the feeling when you play alone on source engine maps, that feeling hits... Like something is watching you, maybe it's true or you going insane...
I actually found the isolation quite soothing.
You want to really feel a sense of loneliness? Play Orange Box's Tf2 and just listen/watch to the main menu. Even play it.
Had to walk to work through my usually lively downtown aread at 4:40 am for a couple months and it definitely has that "kenopsia" feel, the only living creatures around was an ocassional silent homeless person either asleep or just watching you. The coffee shop that was never open yet played a weird 70's, 80's and 90's radio quietly and had fluorescent lights always on and i dreaded passing it the most.. i suppose that makes the most sense now that i think about it, its the most lively feeling while still being dead.
Source reminds me of my life lonely and empty.
U good bruddah
Now when I see your face, I just think of this YTP when Walter says, “Gus Fring. Gus Fring. Gus Fring.” over and over again.
I know a lot of people say its creepy because there alone, but for me it doesn't make me feel lonely, knowing most of these places were once populated and I've been there so many times it never feels like I'm alone. I feel comforted knowing of all of the memories I made there and the memories yet to come, its never lonely for me at least. If nothing else it makes me sad knowing all of those amazing times when I had less responsibility's in this world are now times past, and now I can only remember them and can't experience it ever again, I feel these maps kinda help teach that you need to keep those memorable times as close as possible because before you know it they'll be gone for ever...
I would call it eerie, rather than lonely. It's frightening.
Wow... great video, had me hooked from start to finish. It reminded me of a time recently that I got this exact same feeling... and for some reason it still fills me with a strange emotion.
As for what happened exactly, I was browsing an old forum on the Internet Archive. More specifically, the VG Cats forum. I'm a fan of the comic and I wanted to see what the forum was like before the creator nuked it (long story, but to put it simply he's a knobhead). I found some backups of it on the Wayback Machine, and I went to the most recent backup, Feb 11, 2010. It was really creepy to look at... like you described it, a place frozen in time. Or a time that doesn't exist anymore. All the threads were there, with conversations going. The server time was frozen at 5:21 AM. 97 members were online, out of 3,753, and the forum had 1,137,574 total posts. It felt really forlorn and sorrowful to see what it once was, I was very late to the comic and therefore didn't get to participate in the rather large fandom it once had. The creepiest part by far is that everything appeared normal on the backup. Nothing about the forum shutting down. Every conversation was just... carrying on normally. I felt the same way looking at old backups of the VG Cats website itself. Although, I did get a little chuckle when old ads for new DS games and the like would appear.
The source engine is scary,cant change my mind
the main thing for me is that a lot of early source games relied on textures for detail. buildings would just be cubes with textured windows on them, which lead to them feeling fake
Am I the only one who finds ghost towns peaceful and calming or am I just a weirdo. When I was younger I had this feeling.
It's like you are free to explore them and do whatever you want, because there's noone to bother you
@@fogfatigue4980 Exactly I mean I understand the feeling since I used to get it on my PS1 on games I only played with my brother (there was even a game show called buzz) and playing it by yourself gave me that scary feeling. But now I'm the opposite