When Games Get Too Popular: The Portal Effect
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- Опубліковано 23 січ 2024
- What happens when a game gets so popular that the thing that made it popular is ruined?
Footage Used/Videos Mentioned:
Narbacular Drop: • Narbacular Drop - Full...
Portal Jank: • Portal Inbounds Speedr...
Mario Galaxy: • Super Mario 3D All Sta...
Markiplier (I shouldn't have to credit this one tbh): • WARNING: SCARIEST GAME...
Portal: Cracks in the System: • Portal | Cracks in the...
Portal is Perfect: • Portal Is Perfect
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Hi, I promise I didn't misgender Leadhead! I've gotten a handful of comments correcting me on her pronouns, which I am fully aware of, I'm a huge fan of her work. When I do use her pronouns, I say it rather quickly, which can be heard as me saying "he" instead of "she" which I did not intend. While editing I thought it was pretty clear but apparently not! Won't fuck that up again. Have a wonderful day!
That is SO WEIRD THOUGH because I literally was just about to make a comment about you misgendering her, but then I read this commend and went back and listened to your commentary again and although I didn't hear it the first time I HEAR IT NOW LIKE HOW XD
Crisis averted lol but if this comment didn't exist, I'd probably have been one of the people to mention it. So glad I'm wrong!
I wonder when this nonsense will stop...
@@buthow1437 ???
oh, i on the contrary wanted to thank you for NOT misgendering her, wouldn't have heard "he" there for the life of me
@@fantasybabydino people immediately complaining and cancelling others over someone misgendering some random person just a single time
I feel like this is very similar, if not exactly the same, to Star Wars. Knowing who Darth Vader is completely changes how people view the first two movies, and because “I am your father” is just such a common phrase no one can go into it blind
Absolutely. Like, the idea of Luke being a nobody and Vader being just a villain and then the reveal there's actually a connection between them and adds so much complexity
@@elizathegamer413 Luke was never supposed to be a nobody. His father was a war hero supposedly killed by Darth Vader. There's already a connection between them, and that's actually what makes the twist work
@@TheRenegade... >There's already a connection between them, and that's actually what makes the twist work
Except they did NOT know Darth Vader was Anakin, said phrase pretty much reveals the big twist that his Father *wasnt* Some Guy who died, but THE Darth Vader.
While true, the Prequels actually manage to build upon this knowledge that Anakin is Vader. We see the moments where the Dark Side shows, where his temper and compassion becomes entirely against the Jedi way.
Even though I haven’t fully watched The Clone Wars, I actually cried, my heart aching, when Anakin fought Obi-Wan. The entire third act of Revenge of the Sith works because, in terms of release order, an average viewer will know the end result: Anakin becomes Vader. And no matter how much they want Anakin to return to the Light Side of the Force, it will never happen. We are just along for the ride, unable to change what has already happened.
By establishing the end result, the “spoiler” we see how a story can build on someone’s history, but how that person fell from grace, and what emotions can be toyed with when the audience that rooted for Anakin now has to contend with him slaughtering people and fighting his master that he respected so much.
I went in to the comments to post that "The Portal Effect" is a much worse name than the Darth Vader effect. You have to show that movie to your child as a toddler to prevent it from being spoiled.
portal is genuinely influential to the point of convincing you it’s not, which reminds me of when in high school we read beowulf & realizing that it wasn’t just a garbage story full of tropes, but it was instead the originator of the tropes we’ve become accustomed to
very similar feeling when I watched mushoku tensei
People will say Seinfeld isn't funny because it laid so much groundwork for sitcoms that followed.
Exactly the reason I can't appreciate the Simpsons fully even as a 90s baby. Its literally the blueprint for modern animated family sitcoms, but I missed the boat.
I had that same realization reading it
“Seinfeld isn’t funny”
I actually wasn’t even fully aware “the cake is a lie” was from Portal. So I experienced the game blind, but when I found the rat man room I was less unsettled and more amused because it was an “ohhh, THATS what that’s from” moment
I had that kind of moment first playing MGSV with Kaz’s “Why are we still here” quote.
@@killemaIl I had that moment watching the monogatari series and hearing renai circulation
SAMEEE I first saw it in make a cake game in Roblox when I was little and at first I thought that's what portal was referencing till I realized it was actually FROM portal 😭
stop getting so emotional
SAMEEE
I was a child when Portal came out, and had no exposure to the memes prior to playing it. While I do see the point with "The Cake is a Lie" being a spoiler that could recontextualize things, I don't think there was ever a point where I thought GLaDOS was good and helpful and these were perfectly reasonable tests to be doing. From the very beginning, you wake up confined in a tiny cell, freed at the whims of an obviously malfunctioning computer voice. The use of broken templates like "[SUBJECT NAME HERE] must be the pride of [SUBJECT HOMETOWN HERE]" that happen pretty early on indicate that GLaDOS is, at the very best, apathetic about you. Basically everything in the test chambers, from the portal gun to the emancipation grills to even the buttons are stated to have various degrees of injury and death as side effects, and the offer of Cake is absurd on the face of it, just as patronizing as everything else GLaDOS says.
You're treated like a rat stuck in a maze from the start, you never really think GLaDOS and Aperture Science have your best interests at heart, at least not if you're paying attention. The discovery of Ratman isn't the discovery that you've been lied to and trapped here against your will. It's the discovery that you aren't the only one. That at least one other person has been here before you. The existence of the dens, and perhaps more importantly your discovery of them, isn't evidence GLaDOS is evil. That was never in question. But it IS evidence that she isn't omniscient. That you don't have to play her game. That escape is, at least theoretically, possible.
i think the real portal effect is that this game was so popular, that it significantly impacted gaming culture forever. Many games since have been influenced by Portal, so even toasters going in blind will subconciously know what to expect. The pacing of the plot, the references to a dystopian future, the lab chamber setup are several concepts used often nowadays in video games.
It's like when i watched Child's Play for the first time recently. All the camera angles made it so obvious what was about to happen. I had never seen the movie, but it had such an influence on the horror genre, that i had basically seen all the jumpscares because those film techniques have been copied and repurposed to hell, so i had already been exposed to them going in.
Also the "Thank you for helping us help you help us all" line
This is exactly how I felt. Thank you
For me it was a surprise but I kept feeling like "why do I get this feeling that GLaDOS might not be as friendly as I think?" and when the surprise happened it kind of made sense. I was reminded a little bit of Wario Land 3 with Rudy The Clown, where you realize you were being used all game by the villain who at the end decides you outlived your usefulness.
Agreed. To me, discovering Ratman has nothing to do with whether you trust GLaDOS, but instead gives hope that there is a way out. From there, the goal switches from just passing levels, to finding a way out of them entirely.
Never forget that the twist end of the original Jekyll and Hyde book was that Jekyll and Hyde were the same person.
precisely, it's still a good book
I got spoiled by Scooby Doo for that book haha
wait waht
SPOILERS BRUH come onnnn 😮
No waaaay, but Jekyll is a doctor and Hyde is just a mister
My favourite lightbulb moment came from Portal 2.
The trivial info about moon dust and then seeing "it" at the end.
In hindsight it's obvious but in that moment I instantly remembered that piece of trivia
Yeah, that moment was one of, if not the, best in all of videogames for me
I felt like an evil genius God that had maybe just destroyed the world. Best ending ever!
@@shadesoftimeI agree
I'm not a good gamer or critical thinker in general so it took me a while to get through portal 2. But when that moment happened I understood immediately and was so fucking hyped
same that moment of realization was beyond epic to me
I remember Portal quite differently and I think that's really interesting. GLaDOS was suspicious to me from the start so I distrusted everything she said almost from the beginning. Maybe it is because I was already 23 when it came out. Regardless, I basically knew her promise of cake was clearly meant as a carrot on a stick for me as Chelle and still Portal's story and twists remain some of my favorites in modern gaming.
I'm honestly not sure if knowing the meme beforehand would have taken much away from my enjoyment, a lot of which came from submitting myself to the flow of the narrative despite knowing I was up against a voice that clearly didn't have my wellbeing in mind. The part with the fire chamber where we break out of the test chambers was still a surprise to me, I was excited to find out there was so much more game after the twist, and knowing the meme wouldn't have spoiled that.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think it's an unfair assessment that knowing "the cake is a lie" cuts Portal's effectiveness in half. In fact I think the story was designed in a way that a twist could be foreseen fairly early on and its strength is that the story is resilient to that and still enjoyable when you can anticipate lightbulb moments.
Yeah i think the twist is more apparent that what's being told here, GLaDOS is supposed to come off as uncanny from the very beggining of the game which makes you wary of her.
Ya I never felt like the meme took away from the experience either. I got the orange box in late 08 when I was in high school about a year after it came out. I didn't play through the game until a year or so after that because my PC at the time couldn't handle a lot of games. I had a friend from school that would get me to play TF2 with him and I would just play engineer and make turrets because my fps was too bad to running around and aim at people! That is how bad my PC was.
When I finally got around to playing Portal it was easily on my list of favorite games and I bought portal 2 as soon as it came out!
The humor was the best part and the meme culture around it just fit into it and I think added to the experience. There was a song that someone made using glados's voice lines into an edm song, I would listen to that quite a bit before playing the game. I'm sure I heard the ending song before playing through the game too, but hearing it at the end of the game was still so hype.
Yeah, also there's a good chance someone might have heard the *phrase* "the cake is a lie" but not known it was from Portal until they played
I was 11 when the game came out, I was a little suspicious but I didn't think GLaDOS was an enemy, just not a friend either, but wasn't all that shocked by the surprise at the same time. I was oddly enough reminded of a game you'd least expect, Wario Land 3. GLaDOS reminded me in a lot of ways of Rudy The Clown, the villain uses you all game and disposes of you when you outlive your usefulness.
Yeah, you've gotta remember that this _thing_ "encourages" you by pointing out that it'll revive you by jamming a tube down your throat and pumping you full of "peptic salve", y'know, in case you pass out during this. And the fact that long before turrets become a thing, the test chambers are incredibly dangerous. And that the whole place seems to be abandoned. And that you start the game in what's effectively a prison cell, and for that matter you're wearing a prison jumpsuit. There's a pretty sinister vibe to Portal right from the start IMO. "Cake and grief counseling will be available at the end of the test" is _almost_ believable because it'd kinda fit how dissonant it all is, but...
The "cake is a lie" meme has become so widespread that, to many, its origins have been lost. I recently got to watch someone experience Portal for the first time. They knew the phrase, but they had no idea it had any relationship to the game! It was only upon reading the phrase written in-game did it dawn on them. Their moment of revelation was at the same time as those of us who did play it truly blind, even if the characteristics of the revelation were different.
I've never seen it referenced except when I played through portal 1 a couple of years ago.
@@cifey never made a cake in Minecraft?
Achievement unlocked. The cake is a lie. But cake hasn't been a good source of food ever since potatoes where added/meat became stackable. I sure haven't made a cake since the piston update, at least. So I'm sure there are a ton of people who never made cake in Minecraft
@@sjfs231
@@sjfs231 There is a cake day in RDDT?
I mean, it should be called 'The Vader Effect' since that is a much bigger example of what you're talking about
I mean, it's already generally called "Rosebud" or "It Was His Sled" given the prominence of the film Citizen Kane, its impact on film and the world as a whole, and the fact that the joke itself that everyone knows it was his sled has been beaten to death for decades in pop culture.
It could have many names, but I do believe the Vader Effect could work for movies while the Portal Effect is applied to videogames.
I am 6 minutes into the game and this man has figured out 20 different ways of saying the cake is a lie was a meme and a spoiler
For real though. The video kept going on and on and no new point was introduced. Just kept repeating the same adage in different words
Yeah, the video was very good overall. But the pacing was weird for that part. After that part he started moving through his points faster
Pngtubers succcckkk
Seeing this footage of someone putting the cube through the hole in the top of that wall, hurting themselves while doing so, instead of portalling the cube with themselves, but then busting out that backwards crouch bunnyhop really hurts my brain...
Many many years ago I learned the inbounds speedrun for this game, so I have ABHing drilled into my muscle memory, but I also kind of recorded this playthrough of portal on autopilot, so shit like that wasn't uncommon. I just found that moment in particular funny so left it in.
I have also never once in my life claimed to be good at video games.
@@WhaleMilk Speedruns - now there's something that will spoil any game if you watch one before playing - because no one enjoys slogging through something they already know others can bend to their will. Only Up is a great example. I spent about 2 hours, watched a speed run and uninstalled.
@@WhaleMilk It was as funny as confusing to witness, thanks for elaborating x)
I cant do the ABH at all i feel like so, there is that...
@@terrylandess6072I’ve never had that experience
@@FosukeLordOfError Life is full of different experiences.
The cake is a lie was so big that I knew of it before I knew what Portal was
I felt the same with minecraft, I watched soo many videos on my childhood that, when I first got the game on my PS3 I knew how to play and the core crafts for the tools, even tho I enjoyed every second of it I still didnt feel that pleasure of finding out what to do or how to get to the end and etc...
I feel like that's to its benefit. Minecraft's learning curve is pretty difficult, especially before the crafting book was added. If you didn't have a base knowledge of how to play you needed to have a wiki open on a separate device. There's so many essential mechanics that are impossible to grasp without outside knowledge. No one ever beat the enderdragon without being told how to make eyes of ender.
@@gulfgiggleanimations4472 Yeah that makes sence, but what I meant is that it would probably feel more legit if I had asked someone how to do something or learning by searching it myself, instead of steping into the game already knowing what to expect. Minecraft had that value to it back in the day because you had to talk to people, watch videos or even share experiences to learn the game, and sure enough what made me want to play it soo badly was watching others play it before, even tho it spoiled me the game. No fear of creepers cuz I know how to avoid them, no fear of endermans cuz I already knew to not look up, and no fear of hordes of zombies cuz I knew it was about getting the high ground.
I watched and played so much minecraft when I was younger I simply can't find any joy in it now
Dang, I'm sorry you missed out on that. It really was magical when it first came out. When the crafting update happened, there was a rush to try to figure out all the new recipes and gameplay. This was a little before the wikis were around, so me and my friends had a spreadsheet we kept around on a file server. It was a whole new world there for awhile. Especially when modding first hit the scene.
I played it when it was new. Rest assured there was never much pleasure in finding out what to do. That was always frustrating. At the time there was little explanation offered in the game as well. You basically had to play the game with the official Wiki or UA-cam tutorial videos open in the background (which could significantly reduce performance on 2011 computers) until you figured out how the game worked.
It's probably like the sans fight from undertale, the battle was been such an iconic moment but if you know killing all the monsters will lead to such a fight then it takes away a bit of the meaning. It was supposed to be a hidden consequence for the player's actions, the last ditch effort to make you stop playing the game.
I do love your videos a lot, I can't wait for more🙏
Yeah, the idea that it's a twist on rpgs is meant to be suprising, although pacifism is encouraged and therefore it's not as much of a suprise, for anyone who found the game challenging, they might think, hey, I should just do what I normally do in RPGs and grind, and then there's the surprise that this is an actual route.
Same with Delta runes chapter 2s twist although I'm not sure if it's as well known so I'll be vague here
Thanks for spoiling it
@@torquemada2 undertale came out like 8 years ago????
@@torquemada2how would you not know that happens by now?
it was actually the opposite for me. I had seen all the recommendations "go into this game blind", and I tried to, but too many memes and thumbnail-spoilers gave away the fact that sans was the final boss. When I eventually played the game, I saw all the early interactions with him and papyrus but I just couldn't get in to them because I knew it was an act. I eventually gave up on the whole game and uninstalled. It wasn't until much later I learned that he *wasn't* the final boss and was only fought by evil players, but by that point it was too late and I had already quit. Now of course the spoiler is doubly ruined and I haven't gone back since.
Doesn't the line "you will be baked, and then there will be cake" come before the ratman den?
nope. played it myself and its found later in the game.
As Alexis said, I think that line comes after. Specifically, I believe that dialogue is at the start of chamber 18, and the Ratman dens are in chambers 16, 17, and 18.
She means like weed
@@marky7110 unfunny addict joke
@@RealBasil143 Will you pray for him with me?
When portal one came out I was beginning HS. I didn’t know what Valve was but I knew the meme “the cake is a lie”. It was yelled everywhere for the next 4 years. I didn’t give any other thought to portal till many years later when my boyfriend at the time wanted to play the co-op mode in portal 2. I worked backwards from there. I do wonder if the meme is going to become so disconnected from the game portal it’s possible to circle back around and for a good percent of new people to have that completely blind experience back.
I think of it almost like sampling in music. Someone may like that new song just released that sampled but didn’t change a piece from 40-50 years ago. Food for thought
It is possible. I remember hearing "the cake is a lie" all the time. But, I didn't remember it had anything to do with Portal until I saw it in-game. I played Portal for the first time about a year ago.
I've done it. I completed the game only a few weeks ago and had no memory of it.
i've known the meme for years and know nothing of portal, and it took this video for me to finally find out that the meme comes from portal. kinda bummed the video spoiled portal for me HAHA but i probably would've never played it anyway. would've been a crazy reveal if i had though! so there are definitely many such cases
Guy who only ‘recently’ played portal here.
I’m probably not unique but in 2017 I had only heard that portal was a super great game, knew absolutely nothing about it because I wasn’t on that side of the internet much, and then played the game in one sitting back in 2017. I distinctly remember being apprehensive about all the turrets, death water, and overall dingy feel of the tests throughout the first part of the game. What really set me off was never seeing anyone observing me during the tests, and it gave a sort of backrooms vibe (the term backrooms had only barely been coined at the time). I was already set off since the game started off as a “he woke up in a room one day” kind of feel. Then I got into the rat people cave drawing spaces where I finally saw that phrase, no kidding, for the very first time: the cake is a lie. I remember being immediately suspicious of glados after that but I wasn’t 100% convinced of anything until the last couple levels when she kept building up the party that was about to happen. I also remember being absolutely floored at the second half of the game, going around catwalks and all that. I truly wasn’t expecting that part at all and I immediately thought to myself: “I didn’t sign up for a horror game!”
So I can say in my experience that yes, the twist of Portal really was as good as the creators intended, in the same way that Star Wars, Fight Club, the Shawshank redemption, the Prestige, and Shutter Island are all still fantastic movies.
Might I recommend another 'game' with less 'gimmick' while maintaining the same 'backrooms' feeling? The Stanley Parable.
My perspective on the story was always that the intrinsic motivation was escape. The emphasis placed on the cake was humorous because it was absurd. When I first saw “the cake is a lie” scrawled on a wall I thought to myself “well obviously, also cake should not be your priority right now.”
“I see dead people” comes to mind as well
The moment when you escape the fire pit and think you've cheated the game, and Glados's reaction is one of the top moments in gaming history. I didn't expect it at all
You point out Harry defeating Voldemort as being expected but not ruining, but you've forgotten that "Snape kills Dumbledore" was the Portal Effect for Harry Potter.
Thanks to Harry Potter already being so incredibly ingrained in all of pop culture, that infamous spoiler phrase became as widely known as "the cake is a lie" practically the day of the 6th book's release, and is still just as used as the cake line to this day.
*spoiler warning*
Snape kills trinity with rose bud
@@FosukeLordOfError
Snape kills his father Darth Vader with a rosebud
In a fun coincidence, I noticed this effect not long ago upon replaying Portal 1. I played 2 first and wasn't able to play 1 for years as I'd never really bought games online at the time and had to luck out in finding a used Orange Box in a physical store. I already knew all the twists about GLaDOS, the cake, and Aperture by then, even as someone whose popculture experience extended no further than UA-cam.
But it was only in the past few weeks or so that I realized... I've missed out on part of the Portal 1 experience. I still like the story well enough and appreciate the experience, but it was never able to really hit me. I even tried to explain this to my friend, though not nearly as extensively or well-phrased as this video.
17:58 I do try and analyze things I like, really figure out _why_ I like them, but to varying degrees of success. Sometimes I can go on for hours about the thing, sometimes all I can do is stammer and shrug and say I can't put my finger on it.
Another great example of The Portal Effect is the ending to Invincible. Memes of Mark "training" with his dad and him saying "Think Mark" spoiled the twist for everyone who hasn't already watched the show (myself included). I wish it didn't happen, I would be blown for sure.
I saw the “think mark” stuff before seeing the show, but I had a friend who not only hadn’t seen the memes but didn’t even know what the show was, so I was able to make her watch the pilot 100% blind (I didn’t even tell her what it was about).
Watching her experience every twist without any spoilers was as close as I could get to experiencing that myself. It was incredible
I disagree with this one. I watched it as it came out, and I wasn’t really surprised that they came to blows in the end.
I mean, after episode 1, you KNOW that Omniman has some stuff going on, you just don’t know why. After the invasion from the alternate dimension (and Omniman’s “Earth isn’t yours to conquer” line), I feel like you know all you need to know.
The end is sad to watch, sure, because you know Mark looks up to his dad until then, but it never came as a surprise.
Literally, when I started the show I was baffled as to why omniman was being shown as a good guy
Knowing Omni-Man is evil doesn't ruin the show; he's revealed to be a murderer in the very first episode. The intrigue of Invincible is not figuring out that Omni-Man IS evil but rather figuring out WHY he is evil. The memes only affect the first episode's ending, which is shocking regardless because it's a massive tonal shift from the rest of the episode.
niko pfp detected, deploying respect.
This actually happened with the 1940s film Citizen Kane, since the ending line is so well known now.
Very interesting to see this applied to Portal, as I feel that a similar effect happened to Undertale. I was one of the very few lucky people who managed to experience Undertale totally blind with no knowledge of the ending mechanics of different routes. So I did a full 'neutral' run before realising I could have saved Toriel, Papyrus and others. Reset, and got the Pacifist ending. I feel l got a unique experience going through that game blind, whereas I think it's impossible to experience that with undertale now due to it's popularity.
Undertale is nowhere near the same level of popularity as portal
Never said it was, just that a similar concept applies :)@@pyropulseIXXI
I always knew what undertale was but no actual details other than sans and papyrus being brothers. So I played blind and loved it, kept hearing songs and going “THATS FROM UNDERTALE????” because I had heard them in the background of UA-cam videos for years
I actually experienced it basically completely blind in 2020 lol, it was pretty great
I feel this is already how Toby Fox intended the game to be played. I wish I could have also played it this way, but we were kids, and my friends kept screaming in my ear to never kill anybody.
I first experienced portal 1 at age 5, sitting on my Dad's lap as he played. "The cake is a lie" was probably the first meme I was ever aware of... along with Badger badger badger and the gummy bear song! 😂
Ah yes classic gen Z nostalgia
@@carlelian real
I feel like Undertale got hit REALLY hard by the Portal effect. The Mercy button, resets being canon, the multiple routes, Flowey’s backstory, all the Genocide fights, and basically anything else in the game now seems so normal for something that had basically never been done before.
Everyone knows that Flowey is the central antagonist of the game now, but at the time the twist was a massive part of making it clear the game would be different from other RPGs.
Everyone knows about the Sans fight, but at the time people were shocked that grinding too hard starts an incredibly difficult fight with a character who, outside of a few lines of dialogue, was exclusively comic relief.
Luckily, unlike Portal, the original shock of the twists are at least still mentioned, but with time people will likely forget what it was ever like to play it for the first time.
And sans does have 1 in every stat but he always dodges and has many attacks
I am forever grateful that I got to play Undertale without having any of it spoiled for me, the fact that I didn't know where the game was going, that I didn't know that everyone could be spared, that everything that happened was a genuine surprise to me was crucial to why I enjoyed it so much
It broke my heart every time I recommended it to someone and they would casually talk about big twists as if they were part of the premise
Shame that several big UA-camrs and streamers had their first time experienced ruined by viewers.
I only read like the first sentence and some of the next one and was like "holy shit I didn't know any of this I should probably play the game before I do" lol I don't mean this in a rude way dw
@@eileen7072 accidentally forgetting to put a spoiler warning happened to prove my point
Portal was my first valve game that I got with a steam voucher for maybe my 15th birthday? I'm 19 now so a bit ago. But by some miracle I didn't know "The Cake Is A Lie" was from portal. So I was one of the lucky few in more recent times to have experienced the whole portal game without real spoilers. Though when I did get to the ratman hideout I did see it and just go "OHHHH". I love both the portal games and half life games and i'm so glad I got to experience them spoilerless.
As someone far older who also played Portal blind (got it in the orange box!), I'm curious: what did you think of Portal? How was playing it blind in modern day? You have a rare, unheard of experience and I genuinely want to know so much more.
Frankly, I think you should make a video about it.
@@trianglemoebius I really loved it when first playing, well actually the second time playing. Originally I bought it while I had a friend over and played a bit until the first turret level and stopped there to go do something else. At that point I liked it but nothing special. Then when I played it again (a few weeks? maybe) later I started again and binged the entire of portal 1 and 2 in one day, and I adored it! As soon as I finished the first game I was so hyped to start the next, not expecting it to be as in depth as it was in comparison. At the time I had only just upgraded from a laptop to an actual pc so its one of the first games other than minecraft that I actually played through. So part of it being a story game was so new to me, but playing it in the modern day it didn't feel out of place and still doesn't imo. It holds up so well.
I don't normally make videos explaining that sort of topic but I did a few months ago do some portal speed runs so it wouldn't be entirely unique to do something like that. So maybe i'll give that a go one day. If you have any more questions feel free to ask i'm happy to say more.
Idk i feel like GLADOS is sinister pretty much from the beginning
Yeah. It doesn't take rocket science to realize from the start something bad has happened and you are still part of some antiquated training system with the understanding one needs to use this opportunity to survive/escape. Because some AI is yapping at me doesn't give me any reason to view it as anything else. I had things to do.
I have seen newer professional television shows say the phrase "The cake is a lie". It is extremely well spread, as it should be. Even if it did ruin the blind experience.
Something I love re-telling is just the fact that when I first played Portal on release day I'd encountered a glitch where, for some reason, Glados' voice lines just did not play. I played through the entire game with no voice lines from Glados or the turrets. Then I went online to talk about the game and saw people talking about the narrative I'm like... What narrative? Because all I got was a neat puzzle game with a robot boss fight at the end.
I think a big example of this is with the book Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde where, for all purposes, literally everyone knows to some degree what the twist is going to somewhat look like, even though the entire book is meant to be building up this mystery and suspense as to this weird relationship between Dr. Jekyll and this random Mr. Hyde guy he's always covering for.
"design and technical innovation on the level of AAA games"
You give AAA too much credit lol
If you'd like to read more on this topic or see other tropes like it, I'd recommend checking out the TV Tropes page "It Was His Sled."
Personally, I think a good story should hold up even if you know a plot twist in advance, and Portal does that just fine for me. But it is a little sad that some of the intended experience is lost for a lot of newcomers. It's a price that comes with extreme popularity.
Quick little story: the first time I saw "the cake is a lie" meme, it was spelled out in the sand at an amusement park and I could see it from a rollercoaster I was riding. I had no idea what Portal was, and I assumed it was referring to Super Mario 64 (since Peach invited Mario to join her for cake, but she isn't at her castle when he arrives) and felt smart for figuring it out. Give me a break - I was like 10 years old! 😅
Great video!
First thing I thought after reading the comment was "Schrödinger's Reference", and I don't know why 😂
@@MCAlexisYT You don't know if there is cake or not until you go to the castle...😆
Funny you say that, it wouldn't be the first time Valve took some form of inspiration from Super Mario 64, seeing as that game singlehandedly inspired Valve into existence.
@@polkadi Who knows - maybe Super Mario 64 was the inspiration for the cake and I wasn't too far off with my guess? That'd be pretty funny
I was there when Portal released, had the Orange Box for the 360. Maybe I’m just an iconoclast but I didn’t trust the voice telling me what to do from the moment I woke up alone in a cage.
I think the idea that players trusted GLaDOS at the start is pretty oversold.
This is what I feel like the Sans fight and Megalovania have done to Undertale.
I feel like Undertale sort of does this too. The phrase "you're gonna have a bad time." was so popular back when Undertale first came out and to make it worse for new players, the OG fans began basically using it when quoting Sans while using him in comics and animations.
It isn't really a spoiler and it doesn't really affect anything, but just the surprise of finding out, especially in the Genocide Route where you one-shot thousands of enemies and bosses, that Sans is not only more powerful than you but also dodges most of your attacks until the very end is sort of taken away once you learn that Sans says that line right before he fights you.
Sans is meant to be a little twist to throw new players for a loop and get them thinking "woah, wait, there's a boss in this route that's ACTUALLY powerful and isn't some plaything I can brutally murder", but if you already know about that line and that Sans says it, the entire Genocide route has basically been spoiled for you.
I know many players that did Genocide first before True Pacifist and they have all said that the Sans fight was just "the fight they saw on UA-cam." and it completely ruins the Genocide route once you learn that line is said by Sans. it takes away all the dramatic tension newer, less experienced players experience when being judged by Sans.
I unintentionally avoided portal spoilers for my entire life and when i played it i had no idea what to expect. Between portal 1 and 2, the story is one of the best video game stories ive ever played.
I kinda regret watching Let's Plays of the Portal games. Sure, I might have never bought the games if I didn't already know about them, but I also remembered many of the puzzle solutions, so that joy of figuring it out was kind of taken from me. The moment I remember the most about playing Portal 2 is being stuck in a level and calling it a day and then coming up with the solution for it when I went to sleep
Life is strange is another example of how beautiful a game can be without outstanding gameplay, as it is just a story where you decide what happens.
You also have other lightbulb moments that get ruined if you spoil it, for example
the last choice
who actually runs the darkroom
the alternate reality and its consequences
and what happened to rachel
About at 13:00. I absolutely agree. Terror is way more affective than horror. And another game that specializes in that’s Subnautica. You always are scared of what could be out there. And have almost nothing to fight it off
Then you get the means to fight and feel like a God
This is why I stopped trying to play games like 'Outlast'. Even sitting quietly trying to listen for movement or other environmental dangers is impossible because the ambient sound is designed to unsettle and mask reality. That and jump scares - damn ninja jump scares - you can look, nothing there - move one foot and BOOM! Not fun.
It's kinda like special effect in the matrix, looking back at it a lot of them look like cheesy stereotypical action movie effects, but back then they completely redefined how action movies were made and they're only stereotypical because they inspired a lot of movies.
Bullet time Effect was so amazing but now has been done so much its effect has been lost. Shrek famously meme'd it.
I honestly work a lot with 3D graphics games like portal 1 & silent hill 2 & 3 honestly will hold up forever to me idc how far we get with unreal engine & making photo realistic 3D there is a certain charm these games have that will just never look outdated or old to me they hold up fine & when u look at the new portal remake & new silent hill remakes 4 the most part the originals still hold up just as good
@@twotamatos I mean it wasn't about graphics but about how certain effects (be them special effects or gameplay mechanics or other things used in art) can lose some of their power due to influencing others.
Also it's not about if the game hold up for you, if you played it when it came out you have an emotional connection to it so of course it'll hold up. It's about what experience a new audience that has been exposed to it's inspirations or cultural relevance will have.
@@Laezar1 yah there is a lot of times thoe where nowdays remakes and what not don’t even hold a candle light and feel like downgrades for modern audience to where I wish people who worked in the industry could have your insight because sentimentality towards games makes them timeless doesn’t matter what special effects or fresh coat of paint u put on it
I had the joy of watching my best friend play portal and portal 2 completely blind. Portal and Portal 2 has been my favorite video games for years now, and I actually speedrun Portal. For Christmas my best friend gifted me Stardew valley, and I decided to get him both portal games.
I wanna reiterate, he had no idea Portal or Portal 2 had a story, who GLaDOS was. Who Wheatley, Chell, and Cave Johnson was, and he didn't know what the Cake is a lie is. It was really fucking cool watching him play the games and discover the story from the perspective of someone who has completely no idea what portal or portal 2 is about.
We have seen/read so many rogue AI gone evil stories even before Portal that it's hard to imagine that someone could perceive GLaDOS as benevolent on a blind run. Just the pure absurdity of a cake as the promised reward for doing deadly tests is enough to reveal the truth. I don't think that the game's creators were trying to fool us to set up a major twist. You were supposed to know from the beginning, and that does not diminish the experience. The charm of the game comes from the pure funniness of the obviously evil AI.
I had this with "Fight Club." The movie has a massive twist reveal but gets spoiled so readily that it becomes hard to enjoy the film as intended.
I just made a comment saying that I thought Fight Club was the opposite of this effect! A very popular movie with a twist that could be easily spoiled, but it protects itself with the meme phrase "the first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club". this movie was referenced quite frequently growing up when I was in school and online, but the first reply would always be the "don't talk about Fight Club" meme, and the discussion would end. The twist remained unspoiled to me until I ended up watching the movie over a decade later.
I had this with fight club and the 3rd pirate move, but my brain was so bad at connecting the dots I didn’t realize it until right before the reveal. Just a moment of “oh that’s what they ment”
its part of what makes the story special after all, the fact that only a few people got to experience the game the way it was intended, it's a time capsule on its own
Plot twists are just a tool, what matters really is how you tell the story, and portal does that masterfully. It's not a huge twist anyway, it's very clear from the start that something is not right.
It's thick with atmosphere and that's why i still go back to it.
I don‘t agree with the premise that realising GlaDos is a baddie is a plot twist in the first place. Let alone a major one. I just can‘t imagine anyone starting the game blind could somehow think that this glitching AI isn’t sus from the start.
Also, the meme was already coined by Valve‘s advertising ARG leading to the release, actively promoting this tidbit of „knowledge“. And boy, did it spread… It was made part of known lore before the game was even out by the writers themselves. You could say they made it part of the experience. If anything it added to the „wth is going on here?“ atmosphere of the game right from the start.
The major plot twist IMO is when you realise that the game continues way further than the number of chambers indicates, and that you may actually get to fight the boss and escape the facility, instead of it being just a puzzle game with no real end phase like regular puzzle games back then.
I think another similar portal effect would be in FNAF 3 were you survive against an animatronic and at the end of the game you find out that the animatronic had a person inside that was the killer, you don't get that twist.
Another one would be regeneration in doctor who (NuWho), where people don't get that shock when seeing the doctor regenerate for the first time, the only genuine reaction to regeneration would have been failwhale34's reaction to parting of the ways.
not really, in fnaf 3 the teasers showed from the very beginning that there was a dude inside the suit
@@StalinkTz yeah but they didnt show who it was
What FNAF as a series did was new. Not necessarily the gameplay, but the way that the in game world, the lore is presented through and between games, books, media in general is (was) unique.
i’d have to agree with this; not only is it just kinda memed common knowledge now that springtrap is the killer, but the whole ‘was that the bite of 87’ meme, although being funny, still means that the buildup to that part in the fourth game was ruined because people went in expecting your character to die when that was supposed to be something only vaugley hinted at with the bedside table having flowers and pulls on it sometimes and the IV, but FNaF’s intense popularity made it so those things are pretty much known going into it nowadays
i know this is about portal but it really does make me think back to why my favorite fnaf game is fnaf 5 sister location. adding "moment" while super limited and now having to do what felt like hiding and running was a fresh twist on the new type of stress
I played the portal games for the first time completely out of order- a few years ago , my dad and I wanted to get a co-op game, so we started with portal 2’s co-op levels, having no idea who glados or chell were, just noting that the robotic voice talking to us was a little suspicious, more and more through each chamber. We ended up really loving the co-op levels, so we then played the campaign for the game. Clearly, we had history with glados. After that, we bought the first game. The atmosphere was very different, almost eerie.
The Orange Box was really the deal of a generation
im very lucky to have gone into portal late with no spoilers- its such a bummer how people drop spoilers for amazing stories with no warning. just trying to avoid the portal spoilers whilst i was playing was a challenge itself. its like if you wanna experience a game in its fullest, you have to avoid the internet as much as you can
Or Anything to it's fullest. In the past corporations vetted most all they transmitted to the public in a more controlled environment. Many thought it bad and the internet freed us to share at will - Spoilers are one of the prices we pay for this freedom besides typical misinformation from unqualified sources.
Absolute banger of a video! Very well made - I had always had a bit of an inkling of the general idea of The Portal Effect, but its just so satisfying to see it defined and backed up. You are excellent at these sort of video essays, and after this and the Beginners Guide analysis, its definitely something you should keep at, cause I am gripped!
This is an excellent video; it really collects a lot of things we've all known and puts it to reason.
As an example, for the later points about FNAF:
I remember back in 2014-2015 I was watching a video of people playing FNAF 2 on a charity-related thing, here's paraphrased what they said:
"It's scary until you get jump scared, the fear of the unknown makes it work."
"I like the lore, but not games. It's scary to imagine what the animatronics do to you but then you lose and it's just a jump scare."
"It's just the same thing as last time but more frustrating."
I like FNAF 2 but as they said, the unknown made FNAF work. People knew the game and the consequences after 1 loss in FNAF 1. Much of the lore was scary at the time because it was completely mysterious. We didn't even know who the Purple Guy was.
The way me watching this video spoiled the twist 😭 and I’ve been meaning to play
Ahem . . . . Why would you watch something like this then? I ignored every trailer and piece of media concerning Starfield before it launched - I wanted NO SPOLIERS. After launch the ruckus made it clear: The game was what I sadly expected from Todd and therefore would not be purchasing it - THEN I proceeded to begin watching clips and videos out of curiosity - since I knew I wouldn't spoil a thing. :)
@@terrylandess6072 dude it’s not that deep it was on auto play, no need to act to stuck up. Not to mention the fact that I thought it was just a puzzle game more or less, I wasn’t even aware there was a legit story with any possible twists.
My personak favorite you know you know ohrase is "There's Something behind you"
yeah its probably one of the more unique and original ones in the fandom. "hanging out" already practically belongs to ddlc and "ayo the pizza here" is just a vine
thank god we have something to call our very own :))))
The Sans fight in Undertale is like this. EVERYONE has seen that guy around, and everyone knows that he's at least..... more than a joke character. So the impact of seeing him at the end of a genocide run is just destroyed.
"Would you kindly" is one good example of the same effect, to a lesser extent.
Well, we'll have to see how that Bioshock movie does.
the fact that ive never seen or read harry potter and THIS is the video that spoils the ending for me is crazy
you cannot tell me you didn't know that the bad guy was gonna die
i haven't had it spoiled either its just obvious the good guys will win
@@KwikBR yeah nah ofc but i didnt even know who the hell voldemort was
@@officialkabithen you have an almost non spoiler piece of info.
@@officialkabi you learn it well enough in the first two chapters of a several books long series. Hard to call it a spoiler.
It is a spoiler - that's the nature of unfiltered internet. Just because others already know, ignore the smugness - they almost seem intent on making it worse.
Ironically enough I wasn’t aware of the link between the cake is a lie (I first came across that phrase in a minecraft video, and portal also through another one) and portal but even so getting into the game I’d probably put 2-2 together very quickly so it wouldn’t be as enjoyable
So yeah I agree it’s sad how the actual impact of a story is forever altered if everyone already “knows” it
It’s a blessing and a curse
this might be because im a little bit dumb and i odnt pay attention to thingz sometimez but when i first played portal 1 a few monthz ago, i had NO IDEA that "the cake is a lie" waz from portal at all. i knew it was from SOMETHING that waz popular enough to have "the cake is a lie" ringing in my brain when i was little, but i didnt know where it was from exactly because i never tried to look into it, so the plot twist/feeling of betrayal/distrust only clicked in my brain when glados tries to throw us into the fire (because i never saw the secret roomz)
this iz 100% not what everybody has gone through but i just wanted to mention it. i completely agree with what youve said here because if i had only investigated a liiittle bit further, my experience wouldnt have been nearly as fun as it was
How can you call this meme "the Portal Effect" when there are so many pop culture references that spoil the ending before it?
Darth Vader's "No! I am your father!" comes to mind as one.
Just finished your amazing video on the beginner's guide and now you've made a video on one of my fav games of all time? Damn, how the stars have alligned:P
Funny, also just now finished seeing/hearing his beginner's guide video as well. Tho, now that i'm typing this, perhaps should actually finish Portal before finishing this current video.
An excellent essay and analysis
Portal gun go brr
I had a very scattered experience with playing portal.
I knew of the "cake is a lie" line but I had no idea of its origin with Portal, so those two were very much seperate in my mind. And on the one hand, I never once felt like I was safe in the confines of Aperture Science, but on the other hand I rather blindly accepted the stuff like the acid pits and the turrets as just another day at the office. Like, I somehow did not piece together that this stuff was meant to actively kill me specifically.
Infact from my point of view, the bits where GLaDOS mentions cake at all was stuff that seemed rather inconsequential. Maybe that's just to do with my autism, but I genuinely don't think the average gamer was putting these pieces together on a first time playthrough.
I only found your channel recently because of the beginners guide video, and after this video you have very quickly become one of my favorite channels. I love portal and the beginners guide.
Also always nice to see someone who watches leadhead, love her stuff.
I always thought "the cake is a lie" was more of a joke than a twist.
The fnaf situation of people no longer being scared reminds of Rain World.
It's a game which throws you into a giant ecosystem and you have no idea which creatures are friendly, which want to kill you and what exactly are you even meant to do. But when you learn all of it, you are no longer so scared to interact with anything, and it's funny to watch new players being as scared as I was the first time I played it
I was thinking the same! The fact you adapt to the unusual gameplay and learn how creatures behave make it way less scary and stressfull, but it take a some time xD
I haven't gotten out to the outerwilds yet, and almost clicked off as soon as you mentioned it as i'm refusing to be spoiled. It gets mentioned SO often. I've dipped on so many game essays when they've started to use it as an example.
Don’t worry, the only thing I say regarding it is that fans hate spoiling the game! Love that you’re staying diligent tho
Yeah, you wrapped that part up quick enough that I stuck around. Solid video, thanks for putting it together.@@WhaleMilk
I ended up spoiling it for myself, but no worries because that had the effect of saving me considerable time, knowing then I really wasn't interested. But that's me - I'm old and the game is popular for a reason so check it out.
I think it's important to remember that if a twist being spoiled ruins the story, it wasn't a good enough story to begin with, it just makes a first viewing more akin to the second one. Hitchcock's famous shock vs suspense issue.
Portal despite the memes still holds up knowing the cake is a lie, because portal is a masterpiece, and you can appreciate the slow break down in real time, even if you aren't reaching those conclusions yourself.
glad that youre getting a nice start with this format of videos its nice to see your work get paid off so quickly
I originally subscribed to you because of your Genshin content but I’m really liking this new style as well. Keep up the great work!
I can't help but think this is one of those situations where you know it's a spoiler when you have the full context, but to someone that only knows 'the cake is a lie' it's not half the spoiler those with the full context think it is.
I was fairly new to gaming when I played Portal (and actually played the multiplayer part of Portal 2 with my partner first), but I did know about 'the cake is a lie', as it's one of the first things out of anyone's mouth when you mention the game. I went in pretty blind and when I stumbled upon the first ratman den, I was simply like "Oh,THAT'S where the line comes from. How weird." and thought nothing more of it. Cue the end of the game and I, like a good little employee, just stand on the platform and go to my demise lol. It wasn't until the gameover screen that I realised that Glados was lying about the cake all along.
For your first attempt as you said in the end, this was an amazing job! You did fantastic and hope to see more like this in the future
This also happened with Bioshock to some degree.
Knowing the twist at the end ruins the buildup. While before you go "it's a game" the idea it gives full context as to why you're following his orders is a huge impact. But if you know, it gets lost.
I played both Bioshocks but never finished them. Still I have no idea what twist you mention. It just depends on your life experiences whether you placed yourself in the path of knowledge which becomes a spoiler. The trend of spoiling in a pathetic attempt to be 'first' is a trend I despise.
@@terrylandess6072 there’s 3 Bioshock games.
The twist I’m referring to is in the first one. Without spoiling it recontextulizes everything you’ve done beforehand and gives reason to it, as well as expose a lie someone told you.
If you know the twist going in, it’s similar to Portal here. Your entire experience is different
@@melodicsatisfactionproductions I can do a quick search for it - I mostly remember the game pushed the 'morality' concept.
@terrylandess6072 spoilers:
TLDR you're a slave who was programmed with your trigger phrase being "would you kindly". Atlas is Frank Fontaine and sent a letter to you to get you there. The letter was saying "would you kindly crash the plane at *this coordinates*" Everything that happened was planned.
That's the major twist.
@@melodicsatisfactionproductions Aye - the gist.
While Portal is always the main example I think of when it comes to this phenomenon, it's only recently that I'm starting to recognize how *often* I see it happen.
I recall watching some of the first films ever created with my friends for a college class, and we all found them incredibly boring to sit through. I know this video's focus was more on how Portal's environmental storytelling got "bastardized" because the whole cake tidbit became an infamous mantra, but after the video did I begin to understand how much I'd probably never be able to experience anything before my time with the same reverence of those of past generations. I was fortunate enough to experience Portal with the awe that players had upon initial release, but old silent films like "A Trip to the Moon" I can never encounter feeling the same way. And this goes for anything ever innovative or inventive for its time: I, being born in the early 2000s, will never truly witness the birth of the internet, the technological wonders of instant long-distance communication, the first video game or singing computer-- straight to the creation of the wheel. Because not only was I, among any recent generation or of generations yet to come, born into a world with such things already made, but because I honestly can't grasp how revolutionary all of it is. Even down to the most basic parts of my everyday life. As you said, there was no impact of discovery or ingenuity for me to react to.
GST Channel's video "they keep saying these are the best graphics yet..." makes a profound video about these ideas by the way, but I digress.
I can't imagine what my reaction would've been if I only just discovered Portal today, just like how I can't fathom how household staples like a television or a fan are technological marvels. But I did kind of see that through several of my friends who played it for the first time, which honestly? The whole call, I was gushing about how cutting-edge the game was for 2007, from a design, storytelling and programming perspective. To them however, although fascinated and enjoying themselves being flung around, they didn't get why I was so obsessively impressed.
I sat on that for a good moment. They weren't wrong. We've had incredible titles released within the time since Valve's "Golden Age", whether it told a thoughtful story, implemented fun gameplay mechanics or displayed immense technical prowess. Yes, Portal is still a great blend of level & art design, code and unique narrative done miraculously by a small team of developers, a pressing deadline and even more pressing expectations-- similarly to how the Half-Life series was developed. And it still holds up comparatively well today despite the decade-long gap since. However, it's not as astounding anymore, approaching 2024. The feats achieved by those very Digipen hires, as all developers behind genuinely revolutionary games, don't simply begin and end as the pinnacle. Rather, it becomes a standard to reach or to learn from, for the creatives in the industry who still honestly care about high quality or originative work. And perhaps someday, these standards can gradually morph into the genre's baseline to the point we lose that reverence for the pioneers that allowed it in the first place.
I think that is why I regard the Portal series so highly and personally; I could see it beyond the puzzles and witty dialogue and catchy music. I saw the games creation and influence within my lifetime. I still see ripples of it today whenever I see a dorky comment about "making life take the lemons back" on a two week old UA-cam video, when "The Lie" achievement toast pops up on Minecraft, when creatives discuss their sources of inspiration in interviews. It's like watching a younger sibling grow up, almost.
Tangent aside, I really enjoyed this video that it was enough to prompt me typing out this sentimental text wall. I also found that one tweet about how "Portal 2 leans too much into 2012 internet culture" really, really funny LOL
Wonderfully put. I really enjoyed reading that.
Put the phone on the charger at home, leave and go do something outdoors or be active. Every time you think about your phone understand THAT feeling NEVER existed. We could check our messages at home upon return, use a payphone to make a call if needed, otherwise much was the same - really. People ate and pooped, you know - the usual. We went to movies, drove cars, watched cable TV (mmm, MTV), hung out doing stuff like playing cards - generally there was conversation for the most part. Learn to play an instrument - with intent!
At my age I'll never understand the impact smartphones and other social technology has on those whom always had it. I use my phone to make calls rarely and use my computer for everything else. I play games and UA-cam is the closest I get to online insanity. I also quit watching TV 20 years ago.
am i the only one who loves portal for the amount of bugs and glitches?
the unexpected DDLC comparison made me laugh so hard, which really just highlights the point of "iykyk" that you brought out
and, to bring out my own example, sans' fight in UNDERTALE was and is so heavily memed that everyone sees it coming now. the impact and surprise of *sans* of all people, the game's relaxed jokester, suddenly becoming extremely powerful and fighting you, is lost. thus, "The Portal Effect"
Did this man just call Amnesia the grandfather of Resident Evil?
The original Portal was *the* game for which I installed steam to play. And checking my Years of Service badge I appear to have played it almost exactly six months after release. So, thinking back, I don't recall ever seeing it as much of a spoiler. From the very first moment with the broken instructions there's this sense things are broken and something is deeply wrong and nothing can be trusted. I'm pretty sure I wasn't spoiled on it either.
YES! I got a Steam account expressly to play Portal. But I'm a little late to the party most times (har har) so it was like a year and a half after release. Honestly I can't remember if I knew about the cake or not - I played around a bit on somebody's laptop who'd already played through before I got my own.
One of my favorite stories is how weird it felt to beat Portal, and see it actually end (at least 3 times, probably more)... and then one day it was different... and suddenly I knew there would be a sequel. Totally surreal.
@@lilMissmAliceYeah. I remember the update that added the radios and the final cut scene update with the android dragging you after you enter the submission position. It was so hype.
This happens to a lot of things.
In Anime, we have the case of the moe culture: it was cooking like since 1980s, started blowing up in early late 1990s - early 2000s (thanks Evangelion), reached peak 2006 - 2010, stalled, and then slowly faded out as a specific culture, but it leaves marks to the anime industry and humanity in general.
A few important "footmark" to this culture:
1) the existence of K-On! in 2010, which back then WAS THE BIGGEST THING EVER. The style of visual in K-ON! (with a specific more rounded shape, more deformed, with certain plays on color layering) was quickly absorbed by animation, and today's visual style owes a lot to K-On!. Not to mention what K-On did to KyoAni specifically, since it was the peak of their 2000s era.
But K-On! was the peak product of moe culture. It's the ultimate product of what embodied moe culture back then: we just like our cute waifus doing cute things and saying cute things with laughs while hinting to us their real struggle that they don't put in main narrative at all... until a very short moment.
2) Waifuism/Husbadoism: the straight product of moe culture. I don't think I need to explain this. Back then it was a sacred term and, despite seasonal anime alr being there, people don't claim and change waifus that often. Also we were more militant, and would compete and argue for days to... "defend the honor" of our beloved characters (kinda akin to some people on twitter today, but we focus on the character/the idea behind the character).
Now we have gacha games which make factory-produced waifus. And that people often easily say they like a character -> "oh, my wife" when it requires a very special bond, a very special feeling for them to be your wife. But at the same time: the writing behind these characters get more... existentialist, for the lack of better term. Or maybe egoistic and selfish? idk how to put it.
So you can see how things evolve here. Things got more superficial while trying to make it seems as if it's deeper (and also it gets more expensive lol).
3) The "gap": the very foundation of moe is what we call the "gap": say we have a tsundere. First she acts like she is annoyed every time she sees you, but for some reason she hangs around you. Then you add some story between you and her, and then she just goes all shy as she starts getting more honest about her attraction to you. That's the simplest explanation of a "gap", but there are many variants.
Obvious now this is a standard in writing and also character visual design. You see gap, you go "oh okay" if you realize. (In most cases people don't, tho.) Same can be said about writing in general, actually.
DDLC is a "love letter" to this part of moe.
and now it's happened twice with the "fatty fatty no parents" line becoming a meme
I ADORE this video & absolutely agree with you and have always thought the same way about each IP you referenced here. Your video came up in my recommended & I hadn't even realized how few subscribers you have, which is SOO unreasonable you KILLED this video and I love how detailed your script was, you have so much talent for this.
one of the best non-portal examples of the portal effect is definitely Undertale, but not just the sans fight like most people are saying, but the entire game. if you go in blind, you would assume it's a normal RPG where you would kill monsters, only about half way through realising how much of a mistake it was, during Undyne's fight. same with the genocide run, you're supposed to not know of its existence, and then eventually if you want to test out everything in the game, you accidentally let that happen, though obviously now almost everyone knows about the consequenses
Never played it and it's on my list, so I stopped reading your comment after a sentence.
Q.U.B.E. Director's Cut (now known as Q.U.B.E. Anniversary) did this really cool thing called knowing the player has beaten Portal before, so it fakes being a Portal rip-off as part of its plot twist.
I won't spoil the rest, so go play Q.U.B.E Anniversary.
"Luke Skywalker, I am your Father" is another great example of the Portal effect
In both cases it is not just what happens, but the existence of a line people love to quote, that puts the spoilers into public consciousness.
“No, I am your father”
Congrats, this blew up (and deserves it). As your rite of passage into Video Game Essay UA-cam, we will be eagerly awaiting your Outer Wilds video :)
I would actually make the claim that the Portal Effect also extends to music. Just think about how many video essays contain music from like Undertale or Celeste als background noise. It's a shame how so many people can't experience and appreciate these banger tunes in the context of the game. At least fully.
Only if you played or even heard of those games. We are getting into generational knowledge or lack thereof. Like the Nintendo kids can hum most game tunes but frankly they mean nothing without context as they were written for reasons other than stand alone listening.
Portal 1 and 2 still affect my humor and way of playing games even after all this time.
(also yeah it is extremely impressive that Portal 1 runs so well, even on the Xbox 360)
The movie Star Trek II brilliantly anticipated it's own Spoiling by fans, and put an obviously faked satisfaction of the spoiler early in the film, so that viewers could say "Oh, that's what they were talking about -- no big deal. The rest of the movie will be new" only to to be surprised in the end, despite being told the ending.
I just wanted to say congrats on blowing up! Looking forward to seeing more of these types of videos from your channel
Wouldn't it be more appropriate to consider this The Fight Club Effect, The Sixth Sense (like you mentioned) Effect etc. seems like Portal is far from the biggest or earliest example of this
i think star wars is the biggest example of this, but i agree it feels like such a zoomer thing to attribute this to portal and fnaf lmao
@@thatisaduckand to people calling it the Skywalker effect, an older generation might have seen it as the Hitchcock effect (Psycho, Marnie, Rear Window), or the Twilight Zone effect ("there's .. something on the wing. Some .. thing .. is on the wing"). You can go back another 20 years and get things like M, which doesn't exactly have one moment, in particular, but is ruthlessly subversive, nonetheless... as one of the first talkies...
Go back a century before that, and people knew that The Monster was not "Frankenstein", but rather Frankenstein was the monster.
this is why we should gatekeep, chat
I honestly didn't know glados was evil until the last chamber where you're being lowered into fire
the casual drop of house of leaves i did NOT expect. New sub here, respect!
the portal effect is also found in fight club, already knew that tyler durden was just in the narrator's mind before I even watched the movie.
I just made a comment saying I felt Fight Club is the opposite of this effect! A very popular movie with a twist that could be easily spoiled, but it protects itself with the meme phrase "the first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club". this movie was referenced quite frequently growing up when I was in school and online, but the first reply would always be the "don't talk about Fight Club" meme, and the discussion would end. The twist remained unspoiled to me until I ended up watching the movie over a decade later.
I got to play portal for the first time only a few months ago, and while i have heard the phrase the cake is a lie before, to be honest, I never knew it came from portal, i thought it came from shakespeare or something. So I went into the game blind and when i saw the phrase in the rat dens, I thought oh theyre referencing the joke from shakespeare and as a result, the twist/betrayal was a complete surprise to me and I loved it
Made me think! And that’s all you need from a video essay! Extremely well done!