I have been informed that some people do not know what an ARG is. Here is a definition: ARGs, aka Alternate Reality Games, are interactive webseries' that often explore horror-specific topics and stories under the idea that these events are happening in our world, or a world exactly like ours. They often incorporate puzzle-solving elements as a means to progress the story, or simply to understand the story, as they are often cryptic in nature. Cryptography especially is one of the most common forms of puzzlesolving in these, but other methods can be used. I incorrectly labelled Petscop as an ARG, while it actually falls under the wider umbrella term of Unfiction. Unfiction is simply the practice of webseries that operate under the idea that this is happening in our world, without the necessity for direct interactivity. Petscop is isolated from our decisions, and so, while we do "solve" the puzzle that is the game, we don't actually interact with the story, disqualifying it from being a ARG. Regardless, the main take away is the idea of using an alternate world the exact same as ours except for the inserted fictional facts of the story being used as the method of storytelling.
Thank you for properly informing people and correcting yourself, people calling petscop an ‘ARG’ is a huge pet-peeve of mine Edit: Also, GREAT video as always!
No need to apologize, there once was only one term: ARG, makes me feel old remembering this but nowadays since people love their subgenres the term unfiction was added. Well Unfiction is such a recent term that wikipedia still doesn't have a page on it, they still use the term ARG (which is accurate, there is no need to differenciate the two really...)
@@thechugg4372 The specificity is because of the lack of a "game" for the audience to play in an Unfiction that isn't an ARG. This is an important distinction, because ARGs often have incredibly complex puzzles requiring a ludicrous amount of exclusive knowledge and a willingness to consistently engage with a community of others to solve it. Unfiction is significantly more approachable, so the audiences do not inherently overlap.
yeah, the chugg, i got into ARGs and Unfiction around 7 to 8 years ago at this point, and I do not remember Unfiction being a term back then. I do think it's a good term and even a pretty artful one, but I occasionally mess up due to it.
One major part of early creepepasta is that the technology was still new. Yes, there were already dedicated modders and programmers, but if you've told a person that your random version has weird things in it, who can say it doesn't? Also you don't need to be an expert to see that this crow game is using Mario64 assets.
Lovecraft invented a book his charavters would read in his stories, and people somehow were convinced that book was real. Borges went a step beyond, he wrote essays and analysis of books and encyclopedias that don't exist. Then there's Alucardos, a documentary about Juan López Moctezuma, creator of the movie Alucarda, and his two young friends who rescued him from an asylum, not to mention the original found footage movie Cannibal Holocaust, or the Guinea Pig series.
Ng is probably pronounced "ing" it's a common last name in Asian countries. It's a poor phonetic translation to English that only serves to confuse us.
@@TheCursedJudge The last name Ng 吳 comes from Cantonese (a variety of Chinese) and to native speakers it is supposed to pronounced exactly as it's written, like the ng portion of "ing" without the vowel. However, because it's pretty difficult to pronounce people (who speak cantonese) tend to pronounce it "mm" as in like. "mm this tastes great" LMAO it is definitely true that english speakers do tend to pronounce the last name ng as "ing" because english doesn't usually use vowels on its own though. note that this isn't a full explanation and may miss a few things for the sake of conciseness. extra note: 吳 is often romanized as Wu in mandarin speaking areas due to the difference in pronunciation, despite being the same last name. so someone from a cantonese-speaking area and someone from a mandarin-speaking area could have the same last name in chinese, but be considered to have a different one in an english speaking context. source: personal experience
You should take a look at Vermis as well-it’s a strategy guide for a souls-like that never existed, and has already gotten a sixth printing and sequel from Hollow Press. Beautiful pixel art and intriguing themes.
Great video and I appreciate that you explained really, really well what Petscop is, even if at the expense of Giftscop. To me, Petscop is the most genuine "creepypasta" there is, mostly because it does not claim or pretend to be a creepypasta. Outside of the fact that it relies on its own mechanics (both inside and outside the game) and does not fall into jumpscares and "hyper realistic blood", it's also just as you described: The game would be nonsensical and pointless without Paul, who sounds very genuine and is very much part of the game. And not just within this story, but outside too - the guy who came forward as the creator of it (@pressedyes) apparently brought in very personal feelings and elements into the game, sometimes "on a whim". Not everything has a deeper, interconnected meaning that gets resolved at the end of the story, some of it is just what it is. And what I love the most about it is that almost all of it seems so believable (even if there are things that aren't technically feasible and Paul even admits to it in the videos, which is hilarious but also makes it even more sincere and more believable still??) Until Petscop came around, Ben Drowned used to be like that for me in the beginning but it sadly fell apart with some really weird and comparatively shallow lore when it came back some years later for a second run. Which is what makes me appreciate Petscop all the more. I really hope we will someday get blessed with something like that again. It cannot be a Petscop 2, it has to be something entirely different. But I hope I'll be there for it. Also, just to clear that up: 10:01 Manfred Lorenz was German, his boat was not discovered off the French shore but the German shore. To me that's important, because I'm German and I can verify that Adam Butcher went above and beyond to make the whole thing feel authentic and believable, his "suicide note" is in proper (yet off-putting) German and you really get the feeling that this man existed. Adam's work is really underappreciated! ... it took me until this video to realize though that this map is very, VERY off. The blurry landmasses do not exist in real life. What the hell???
@@Conorator Oh my god they do. I thought this was some Mandela-effect-shenanigans going on but I realize these satellite images must be from a point when the tide wasn't in. I was about to lose my mind, I never thought about that
These videos are such a vibe. I wish I could play a game made by you, your understanding and breakdowns of what makes video games beloved for things that can be intentional or unintentional is amazing
A thought I've been having for a while is that it'd be interesting to see a story take all the typical narrative tropes of a haunted/cursed videogame creepypasta/ARG, and use them for a genre other than horror.
Yeah maybe it could be a love story and all the crazy convoluted things you need to do to progress are a metaphor for how far we're willing to go for the people we love
Honestly some of the highest quality content on the platform. Only creator I actively search up when I haven’t seen in a while to make sure I didn’t miss a post. Hope you don’t sell your soul. Great fascinating juxtaposition of games to real life questions while maintaining the idea you are exploring a subtle background.
Petscop is one of the most beautiful "video games" released in recent memory, especially with regards to how it tells its story and shows off its "mechanics." My favorite part of the entire series probably has to be this small little note from the beginning of the series which comes back into play in a later episode. Paul says he found a note with the game. Written by a child, it goes something along the lines of "I went down the stairs and took a right and became the Shadow Monster Man." This accomplishes two things: A, it pays tribute to the creepypasta environment which came before it, every "haunted" game MUST be accompanied by some creepy note, but B, it also creates intrigue. What is the Shadow Monster Man? Is it some evil entity which is stalking us and trapping players in the game? Is it a malignant piece of code? In a later episode, we finally find out what the Shadow Monster Man is. Paul goes down a set of stairs, but instead of continuing forward, he takes a right and... Becomes "The Shadow Monster Man." In reality, what this child perceived as "the shadow monster man" was just a glitched state in the game where the player character's texture disappears. I LOVE that a misunderstood glitch is somewhat integral to the story, especially as we find certain things are possible in this state that otherwise may not have been. It just makes Petscop feel like such a real experience, that this accidental bug was accidentally discovered and by a child we don't even interact with no less.
That Gungeon reference *hurts* - I cannot count the number of times that I accidentally left the Oubliette without grabbing the crest, or that I accidentally spent too much and couldn’t afford the rat key. But to actually focus on the video topic, there’s absolutely a wonderful sort of feel to these kinds of internet stories that games can achieve as a format while other media flounder, and I think that Moon Channel summed it up best when talking about Undertale and nihilism (fun combo) - that games, by means of requiring direct input to *do* things, generate a visceral understanding of their content: something that written and filmed media move heaven and earth just to try to achieve.
the point about the interactivity of games creating this weird personal relationship with the themes is really smart: i'd like to add how removing that personal input adds an extra layer in terms of *seeing* the interactions between player and game and being able to analyse that too
I've heard from a certain puppy you, are in fact, a good boy! And what a good boy you are!!! (That being said, I am in fact going to subscribe this video is good!)
Hey, I was sent here by Patricia, wanted to say you're a good boy! (also I was "infected" by her too, I was the first one she was made aware of, so I get how it feels)
Petscop is a game, that in our universe, makes absolutely no sense and not enough information is given to us to understand it, often at times too much bizarre red herrings are given that the truth is extremely obscured. Even the creator admits that he was just making stuff up as he went along. It was made moreso to be enjoyer and not to be thought about seriously, but when you do think about it seriously, the sheer amount of plot holes becomes... apparent. From arguing about how Lina died, whether she was ran over, stabbed or whether she even died at all to whether anyone in the game is even dead, is Rainer even dead? 2 versions of the game? Is Paul playing Petscop in a car? Did he get kidnapped? etc. The truth of Petscop is lost.
Honestly, its a logical hole for most ARGs and Unfiction for people to try and figure out the specifics of every tiny little thing. I think even FNAF has this same issue, where people hyperfocus on the wrong things for absolutely no reason.
No, not Catastrophe Crow: it seemed so real and I was a bit younger so I believed it and I was so scared until I realized it was fake a week later. But for that short time I was terrified!
I have watched a few of your videos now and You have a knack for articulating the elements of story telling found in video game structures that i dont think most people are able to break the threshold in their mind to do. You break barriers between how the human mind interprets information in a game, and the stand alone existence of a game in its organic state. (structure, code, intentional and non intentional details in a structure of a game.) My mind has always craved to find the “Unsettling, Cold, Unsure” feelings of abyss in games because no other form of art i feel is able to capture that kind of depth of thought and emotion; because paintings or movies dont offer the ‘Out of bounds’ ‘unintentional realizations’ that some games can. Kind of like finding an unfinished abandoned construction zone under a sewer grate, or a portal to an obscure alternate dimension, because it offers this feeling of something that is tangible, but the lack of understanding of the purpose, or if it has a purpose at all, is what gives it its own experience and sense of philosophy. Kind of like some breakthrough science experiments. Many times chemicals get mixed together to find a specific answer to a specific question made within a humans mind. But then, an unpredictable by-product of that experiment opens an entire new field of study that wasn’t even concieved of before. I think some games offer this same kind of potential for that genre of experience. Sorry for rambling, but basically saying youre itching at deep philosophy through video games and i think thats really original and creative in a world of people that mostly think within certain boundaries! Keep it up man, i subscribed!
Another series based on a fake game that I love to bring up is Fazbear Toddler Fun, an interesting take on the story of FNAF 2 and 4. What makes Fazbear Toddler Fun so interesting is how its story is told through old UA-cam era videos that were recorded during the mid-late 2000s. The "game" itself is a point and click kids game from the late 90s (Think of those Humongous Entertainment games from the early to late 90s).
Nice video. Ive knew most of these and you did a pretty decent coverage of them. Ofc, could be way more in depth of analysis, but yeah ,as dipling your toes in a new subject, its really good
i really like your videos and your voice. Your videos are fun to watch and your voice is great to sleep to I don't mean this in a weird way i just love these videos 👍
So happy to see someone talk about Ben Drowned beyond the original creepypasta. I feel like the story and scares and so much better in the middle section once the website is as introduced.
I recommend Diminish also as a video game that doesn't exist but is also really fucking interesting. Anyway, another great video as always. You continue to provide and present thoughtful analysis on something super interesting. Love your work man.
First off, banger video. This was pretty good. Second, I'm a kitty therian who saw Patricia Taxxon's tumblr post and I have to tell you what a good boy you are :)))
there is also an unfiction project called diminish which is also a video game made for only one person which tackles the subject of grief very well. i recommend you check it out if you havent seen it already
I still cant get over how funny it is that after people found this potentially huge source of info on the arg, someone else just immediately killed them
I come back to this video every so often. Probably one of my favourite videos on youtube, I fucking love the concept of fake videogames and I love how in depth you go.
giftscop used to be so much fun and had a lot of players with a multi player mode and custom sprite support but it all got permanently removed. im still waiting for another game like that to come out
Interestingly, you are the first creator that I discovered at Nebula first befor finding out your UA-cam channel. Saw your video popped up on Nebula, which is a nice change of pace for me because I usually only watch geopolitical stuff such as RealLifeLore and Polymatter on Nebula. Anyway, fantastic video! Easy instant subscription.
My main thoughts for petscope is if in universe, if someone else played the game, would it appear differently to them? or would it have the same things it showed to the player?
Catastrophe Crow and Petscop were both marvelous. And I'd love to see a developer take a game in progress, run an ARG with it, and then release the finished project.
holy shit this channel is amazing. ive watched the rick and morty video and the kakegurui video a while ago and i loved them, but have not realized it was from the same channel. today, the kakegurui video was recommended to me again and i thought to myself "what other great videos are on this channel". and i have to say, ur channel is fucking awesome. ive binged like 5 videos back to back and they were all awesome. keep up the great work
Augmented reality games are always interesting. Though, I feel that an ARG should be available to play in some form but also have things that cannot be experienced by regular players.
A small correction at 10:00 you say that Manfred's boat was found off the coast of France, however you show the coast as Germany, which is also mentioned in the newspaper clipping. Just wanted to mention it. Great video regardless! :)
amaazing, I remember i loved the warrior's franchise so much i replayed it so many times and for some reason little me just couldnt get sick of it, same with bully. it was hard to find bully's cd at that time so i played a broken cd that kept crashing , but i still tried to play it no matter how many times it crashed on me lol, now that im almost an adult i quickly wanna work earn my money and buy all the games i want that i used to have a hard time getting but still managing by. thanks for highlighting and playing this game!!
i found this video hard to follow until i googled what an ARG is. could you put some sort of brief unpacking of this term? even after a google i'm still quite confused lol
oh shoot, apologies. an ARG is an Alternate Reality Game, essentially a webseries that pretends like it is a part of our world (someone finding a random game), but then being confronted with things like serial killers or the paranormal. there is often puzzle solving elements to ARGs, through cryptography or just abstract analysis in order to progress or figure out what is going on and why. it's both a puzzle and a webseries that pretends to be in our world.
This is a very small thing and not related to the overall video, but I appreciate the small note in 7:36. As a recreational hypnotist, it's annoying seeing people present hypnosis as something it's not. Lovely video, Judge, keep up the great work!
have you thought about making videos about browser games and their forgotten legacy? for example: There are games that are just fun to play, for a quick round or two/ten , afterwards you get bored of them and stop playing, others you can even play it together with another friend, one player on WASD and the other at the directional keys, but there is another kind, my favorite, fully fleshed out games, platformers, rpg`s or 2D shooters, that have hours of content , secrets. Examples: Water Girl and Fire Boy, MIn-Hero Tower of Sages, Vulpin Adventures, Cactus McCoy, Raft Wars, Commando or Strike Force Heroes.
I have been informed that some people do not know what an ARG is. Here is a definition: ARGs, aka Alternate Reality Games, are interactive webseries' that often explore horror-specific topics and stories under the idea that these events are happening in our world, or a world exactly like ours. They often incorporate puzzle-solving elements as a means to progress the story, or simply to understand the story, as they are often cryptic in nature. Cryptography especially is one of the most common forms of puzzlesolving in these, but other methods can be used.
I incorrectly labelled Petscop as an ARG, while it actually falls under the wider umbrella term of Unfiction. Unfiction is simply the practice of webseries that operate under the idea that this is happening in our world, without the necessity for direct interactivity. Petscop is isolated from our decisions, and so, while we do "solve" the puzzle that is the game, we don't actually interact with the story, disqualifying it from being a ARG.
Regardless, the main take away is the idea of using an alternate world the exact same as ours except for the inserted fictional facts of the story being used as the method of storytelling.
Thank you for properly informing people and correcting yourself, people calling petscop an ‘ARG’ is a huge pet-peeve of mine
Edit: Also, GREAT video as always!
I appreciate the explanation
No need to apologize, there once was only one term: ARG, makes me feel old remembering this but nowadays since people love their subgenres the term unfiction was added.
Well Unfiction is such a recent term that wikipedia still doesn't have a page on it, they still use the term ARG (which is accurate, there is no need to differenciate the two really...)
@@thechugg4372 The specificity is because of the lack of a "game" for the audience to play in an Unfiction that isn't an ARG. This is an important distinction, because ARGs often have incredibly complex puzzles requiring a ludicrous amount of exclusive knowledge and a willingness to consistently engage with a community of others to solve it. Unfiction is significantly more approachable, so the audiences do not inherently overlap.
yeah, the chugg, i got into ARGs and Unfiction around 7 to 8 years ago at this point, and I do not remember Unfiction being a term back then. I do think it's a good term and even a pretty artful one, but I occasionally mess up due to it.
One major part of early creepepasta is that the technology was still new. Yes, there were already dedicated modders and programmers, but if you've told a person that your random version has weird things in it, who can say it doesn't?
Also you don't need to be an expert to see that this crow game is using Mario64 assets.
yeah crow64 looks like a mario64 TC
all that "every copy of Mario 64 is personalized" stuff would've done numbers on the early Internet, it has that exact kinda vibe
quickly becoming one of my new favorite creators. stay the path
thank you.
@@TheCursedJudge sorry to hear about your home catching fire. i hope everyone got out safely
@@TheCursedJudgenp
you are a vibeo game
Geomeyty dhas
best comment 10/10
This is objectively the best comment I've read on this channel
yes
@@fuery. fully agreed
Only you can me make have an existential crisis on things that don’t exist. Good job
in the future, i think historians will be most confused by all the videogames being made now
looking at you squirrel stapler
@@F4PhantomGamingGod is coming
@@Idfkwhyy committing sin... 🐿🐿
If there is a future
why? everythin we do is recorded
Lovecraft invented a book his charavters would read in his stories, and people somehow were convinced that book was real. Borges went a step beyond, he wrote essays and analysis of books and encyclopedias that don't exist. Then there's Alucardos, a documentary about Juan López Moctezuma, creator of the movie Alucarda, and his two young friends who rescued him from an asylum, not to mention the original found footage movie Cannibal Holocaust, or the Guinea Pig series.
Aguante Borges
Ng is probably pronounced "ing" it's a common last name in Asian countries. It's a poor phonetic translation to English that only serves to confuse us.
Noted for the future!
@@TheCursedJudge The last name Ng 吳 comes from Cantonese (a variety of Chinese) and to native speakers it is supposed to pronounced exactly as it's written, like the ng portion of "ing" without the vowel. However, because it's pretty difficult to pronounce people (who speak cantonese) tend to pronounce it "mm" as in like. "mm this tastes great" LMAO
it is definitely true that english speakers do tend to pronounce the last name ng as "ing" because english doesn't usually use vowels on its own though. note that this isn't a full explanation and may miss a few things for the sake of conciseness.
extra note: 吳 is often romanized as Wu in mandarin speaking areas due to the difference in pronunciation, despite being the same last name. so someone from a cantonese-speaking area and someone from a mandarin-speaking area could have the same last name in chinese, but be considered to have a different one in an english speaking context.
source: personal experience
@@kerenaho1031 oh I didn't know that! Thank you for enlightening me.
@@TheCursedJudge love your videos my man! Keep it up.
I worked with a Vietnamese woman with that name and she taught me how to pronounce it.
I have no idea how to spell it phonetically.
You should take a look at Vermis as well-it’s a strategy guide for a souls-like that never existed, and has already gotten a sixth printing and sequel from Hollow Press. Beautiful pixel art and intriguing themes.
Its sequel had just been released by them!
Great video and I appreciate that you explained really, really well what Petscop is, even if at the expense of Giftscop. To me, Petscop is the most genuine "creepypasta" there is, mostly because it does not claim or pretend to be a creepypasta. Outside of the fact that it relies on its own mechanics (both inside and outside the game) and does not fall into jumpscares and "hyper realistic blood", it's also just as you described: The game would be nonsensical and pointless without Paul, who sounds very genuine and is very much part of the game. And not just within this story, but outside too - the guy who came forward as the creator of it (@pressedyes) apparently brought in very personal feelings and elements into the game, sometimes "on a whim". Not everything has a deeper, interconnected meaning that gets resolved at the end of the story, some of it is just what it is. And what I love the most about it is that almost all of it seems so believable (even if there are things that aren't technically feasible and Paul even admits to it in the videos, which is hilarious but also makes it even more sincere and more believable still??)
Until Petscop came around, Ben Drowned used to be like that for me in the beginning but it sadly fell apart with some really weird and comparatively shallow lore when it came back some years later for a second run. Which is what makes me appreciate Petscop all the more. I really hope we will someday get blessed with something like that again. It cannot be a Petscop 2, it has to be something entirely different. But I hope I'll be there for it.
Also, just to clear that up: 10:01 Manfred Lorenz was German, his boat was not discovered off the French shore but the German shore. To me that's important, because I'm German and I can verify that Adam Butcher went above and beyond to make the whole thing feel authentic and believable, his "suicide note" is in proper (yet off-putting) German and you really get the feeling that this man existed. Adam's work is really underappreciated!
... it took me until this video to realize though that this map is very, VERY off. The blurry landmasses do not exist in real life. What the hell???
I dunno how I messed that up, that's very strange. I appreciate it
If you're talking about the map of Germany, those blurry landmasses do exist on Google Earth.
@@Conorator Oh my god they do. I thought this was some Mandela-effect-shenanigans going on but I realize these satellite images must be from a point when the tide wasn't in. I was about to lose my mind, I never thought about that
These videos are such a vibe. I wish I could play a game made by you, your understanding and breakdowns of what makes video games beloved for things that can be intentional or unintentional is amazing
A thought I've been having for a while is that it'd be interesting to see a story take all the typical narrative tropes of a haunted/cursed videogame creepypasta/ARG, and use them for a genre other than horror.
a game similar like that is portal, go play it if you havent. amazing game
You'd probably like the Angel Hare webseries.
Diminish does something like this. It's still horror-adjacent at first, but it's not primarily a horror series.
Yeah maybe it could be a love story and all the crazy convoluted things you need to do to progress are a metaphor for how far we're willing to go for the people we love
@@dimitribarronmore I checked it out, and yeah, it's really good.
Honestly some of the highest quality content on the platform. Only creator I actively search up when I haven’t seen in a while to make sure I didn’t miss a post. Hope you don’t sell your soul. Great fascinating juxtaposition of games to real life questions while maintaining the idea you are exploring a subtle background.
Watching a video made by this dude is like watching a documentary. I swear, this is S tier content.
Uhh... "SS" is an unfortunate acronym lol
Petscop is one of the most beautiful "video games" released in recent memory, especially with regards to how it tells its story and shows off its "mechanics."
My favorite part of the entire series probably has to be this small little note from the beginning of the series which comes back into play in a later episode. Paul says he found a note with the game. Written by a child, it goes something along the lines of "I went down the stairs and took a right and became the Shadow Monster Man."
This accomplishes two things: A, it pays tribute to the creepypasta environment which came before it, every "haunted" game MUST be accompanied by some creepy note, but B, it also creates intrigue. What is the Shadow Monster Man? Is it some evil entity which is stalking us and trapping players in the game? Is it a malignant piece of code?
In a later episode, we finally find out what the Shadow Monster Man is. Paul goes down a set of stairs, but instead of continuing forward, he takes a right and... Becomes "The Shadow Monster Man." In reality, what this child perceived as "the shadow monster man" was just a glitched state in the game where the player character's texture disappears. I LOVE that a misunderstood glitch is somewhat integral to the story, especially as we find certain things are possible in this state that otherwise may not have been. It just makes Petscop feel like such a real experience, that this accidental bug was accidentally discovered and by a child we don't even interact with no less.
That Gungeon reference *hurts* - I cannot count the number of times that I accidentally left the Oubliette without grabbing the crest, or that I accidentally spent too much and couldn’t afford the rat key.
But to actually focus on the video topic, there’s absolutely a wonderful sort of feel to these kinds of internet stories that games can achieve as a format while other media flounder, and I think that Moon Channel summed it up best when talking about Undertale and nihilism (fun combo) - that games, by means of requiring direct input to *do* things, generate a visceral understanding of their content: something that written and filmed media move heaven and earth just to try to achieve.
the point about the interactivity of games creating this weird personal relationship with the themes is really smart: i'd like to add how removing that personal input adds an extra layer in terms of *seeing* the interactions between player and game and being able to analyse that too
Man this channel’s so underrated, i love his videos so much
I've heard from a certain puppy you, are in fact, a good boy! And what a good boy you are!!! (That being said, I am in fact going to subscribe this video is good!)
Dude I just wanted to say how much I love your videos keep up the good work!
23:06 yo okay I love how you close out the video kind of reminds me of myself so yeah definitely check out more of your videos for sure
lets go, petscop 2
Like that's ever gonna happen
@@henrycrabs3497Pyrocynical shaking rn
Haven't even finished the video yet, but I already know it's going to be great!
Oh, I knew it’d be great when I saw who uploaded it
Exactly 👌
This was truly an unique experience. Thank you for this wonderful video essay.
Hey, I was sent here by Patricia, wanted to say you're a good boy! (also I was "infected" by her too, I was the first one she was made aware of, so I get how it feels)
Petscop is a game, that in our universe, makes absolutely no sense and not enough information is given to us to understand it, often at times too much bizarre red herrings are given that the truth is extremely obscured. Even the creator admits that he was just making stuff up as he went along. It was made moreso to be enjoyer and not to be thought about seriously, but when you do think about it seriously, the sheer amount of plot holes becomes... apparent. From arguing about how Lina died, whether she was ran over, stabbed or whether she even died at all to whether anyone in the game is even dead, is Rainer even dead? 2 versions of the game? Is Paul playing Petscop in a car? Did he get kidnapped? etc. The truth of Petscop is lost.
Honestly, its a logical hole for most ARGs and Unfiction for people to try and figure out the specifics of every tiny little thing. I think even FNAF has this same issue, where people hyperfocus on the wrong things for absolutely no reason.
strated watching your vids a few weeks ago. the best content i've seen in a while, keep going strong
This is honestly a genius way to combine commentary on horror with commentary on video games. Props!
Swedish Valhunds are super cute
No, not Catastrophe Crow: it seemed so real and I was a bit younger so I believed it and I was so scared until I realized it was fake a week later. But for that short time I was terrified!
Shoutout to the Sheriff Domestic team being fun to watch, even relaxing, to be a sort of ARG.
I love it.
I have watched a few of your videos now and You have a knack for articulating the elements of story telling found in video game structures that i dont think most people are able to break the threshold in their mind to do. You break barriers between how the human mind interprets information in a game, and the stand alone existence of a game in its organic state. (structure, code, intentional and non intentional details in a structure of a game.) My mind has always craved to find the “Unsettling, Cold, Unsure” feelings of abyss in games because no other form of art i feel is able to capture that kind of depth of thought and emotion; because paintings or movies dont offer the ‘Out of bounds’ ‘unintentional realizations’ that some games can. Kind of like finding an unfinished abandoned construction zone under a sewer grate, or a portal to an obscure alternate dimension, because it offers this feeling of something that is tangible, but the lack of understanding of the purpose, or if it has a purpose at all, is what gives it its own experience and sense of philosophy. Kind of like some breakthrough science experiments. Many times chemicals get mixed together to find a specific answer to a specific question made within a humans mind. But then, an unpredictable by-product of that experiment opens an entire new field of study that wasn’t even concieved of before. I think some games offer this same kind of potential for that genre of experience. Sorry for rambling, but basically saying youre itching at deep philosophy through video games and i think thats really original and creative in a world of people that mostly think within certain boundaries! Keep it up man, i subscribed!
Another series based on a fake game that I love to bring up is Fazbear Toddler Fun, an interesting take on the story of FNAF 2 and 4.
What makes Fazbear Toddler Fun so interesting is how its story is told through old UA-cam era videos that were recorded during the mid-late 2000s.
The "game" itself is a point and click kids game from the late 90s (Think of those Humongous Entertainment games from the early to late 90s).
This video is just like that one most popluar video you created 7 months ago and great video man :]
Literally the best upcoming channel, please keep scratching this specific itch for us.
Finally, Petscop 2
Just about to watch, really hope Vermis gets a mention.
Nice video. Ive knew most of these and you did a pretty decent coverage of them. Ofc, could be way more in depth of analysis, but yeah ,as dipling your toes in a new subject, its really good
i really like your videos and your voice. Your videos are fun to watch and your voice is great to sleep to
I don't mean this in a weird way i just love these videos 👍
a lil sad that diminish wasn't included but i love the vid!
I can listen to you talk about games all day long.
your kind of video makes me want to watch from start till the very end. Really good beard too
Commenting for the engagement youtube channels need to grow. (Great video)
ARGs are maybe my favourite type of modern media content its so good
This is neither the first nor, likely, the last video essay I've watched on games that don't actually exist.
So ummm, Catastrophe Crow IS a game now
Another amazing video just keep em coming
I like your content a lot! Keep it up
So happy to see someone talk about Ben Drowned beyond the original creepypasta. I feel like the story and scares and so much better in the middle section once the website is as introduced.
The feeling when The Cursed Judge takes up the father role and makes a petscop video because Pyrocynical refuses to do one.
this is such a refreshing analysis of recent unfiction. new sub :)
thank you! thats what i aimed for
i feel so blessed rn, ty for this video!
Petscop 2 LETS GOO! Wait wrong channel lol
You are without a doubt the most cerebral and insightful video game commentator ever.
I like how real you are dude. Love the vids. Definitely subbing!
I recommend Diminish also as a video game that doesn't exist but is also really fucking interesting. Anyway, another great video as always. You continue to provide and present thoughtful analysis on something super interesting. Love your work man.
First off, banger video. This was pretty good. Second, I'm a kitty therian who saw Patricia Taxxon's tumblr post and I have to tell you what a good boy you are :)))
there is also an unfiction project called diminish which is also a video game made for only one person which tackles the subject of grief very well. i recommend you check it out if you havent seen it already
whos a good boy? you are !!
luv ur videos man, always make me feel good
I still cant get over how funny it is that after people found this potentially huge source of info on the arg, someone else just immediately killed them
I come back to this video every so often. Probably one of my favourite videos on youtube, I fucking love the concept of fake videogames and I love how in depth you go.
Catastrophe crow is now a real game that we can play!
yet another amazing video essay from the cursed judge
giftscop used to be so much fun and had a lot of players with a multi player mode and custom sprite support but it all got permanently removed. im still waiting for another game like that to come out
"Maybe the game isn't on the computer but rather the game is on you"
Good boy! Such a good video!
Interestingly, you are the first creator that I discovered at Nebula first befor finding out your UA-cam channel. Saw your video popped up on Nebula, which is a nice change of pace for me because I usually only watch geopolitical stuff such as RealLifeLore and Polymatter on Nebula. Anyway, fantastic video! Easy instant subscription.
omg omg omg omg petscop 2 omg omg the long awaited sequal
My main thoughts for petscope is if in universe, if someone else played the game, would it appear differently to them? or would it have the same things it showed to the player?
Catastrophe Crow and Petscop were both marvelous. And I'd love to see a developer take a game in progress, run an ARG with it, and then release the finished project.
Well do I have news for you this week
Hello fellow dog!!!
hello
Aloha!
holy shit this channel is amazing. ive watched the rick and morty video and the kakegurui video a while ago and i loved them, but have not realized it was from the same channel. today, the kakegurui video was recommended to me again and i thought to myself "what other great videos are on this channel". and i have to say, ur channel is fucking awesome. ive binged like 5 videos back to back and they were all awesome. keep up the great work
thank you, truly.
@@TheCursedJudge no thank you for the awesome content
Augmented reality games are always interesting. Though, I feel that an ARG should be available to play in some form but also have things that cannot be experienced by regular players.
who's a good boy? you are! yes you are, yes you are!
A small correction at 10:00 you say that Manfred's boat was found off the coast of France, however you show the coast as Germany, which is also mentioned in the newspaper clipping. Just wanted to mention it. Great video regardless! :)
amaazing, I remember i loved the warrior's franchise so much i replayed it so many times and for some reason little me just couldnt get sick of it, same with bully. it was hard to find bully's cd at that time so i played a broken cd that kept crashing , but i still tried to play it no matter how many times it crashed on me lol, now that im almost an adult i quickly wanna work earn my money and buy all the games i want that i used to have a hard time getting but still managing by. thanks for highlighting and playing this game!!
i found this video hard to follow until i googled what an ARG is. could you put some sort of brief unpacking of this term? even after a google i'm still quite confused lol
oh shoot, apologies. an ARG is an Alternate Reality Game, essentially a webseries that pretends like it is a part of our world (someone finding a random game), but then being confronted with things like serial killers or the paranormal. there is often puzzle solving elements to ARGs, through cryptography or just abstract analysis in order to progress or figure out what is going on and why. it's both a puzzle and a webseries that pretends to be in our world.
Jacob Geller my dude you just keep getting better
LMAOOO
I’m so glad Valle Verde gets some time in the limelight here, that ARG is probably my favorite ever lol
Bro that “big fucking twist” had me dying
This is a very small thing and not related to the overall video, but I appreciate the small note in 7:36. As a recreational hypnotist, it's annoying seeing people present hypnosis as something it's not.
Lovely video, Judge, keep up the great work!
patricia sent me here to tell you "good boy"
lol, thank you!
I thought they all were real until now, im absolutely shaken, Dumbfounded even, Flabbergasted if you will
Petscop was a great game 10/10 would recommend to everyone (really hated the 3rd lvl's puzzles but still good)
have you thought about making videos about browser games and their forgotten legacy? for example: There are games that are just fun to play, for a quick round or two/ten , afterwards you get bored of them and stop playing, others you can even play it together with another friend, one player on WASD and the other at the directional keys, but there is another kind, my favorite, fully fleshed out games, platformers, rpg`s or 2D shooters, that have hours of content , secrets. Examples: Water Girl and Fire Boy, MIn-Hero Tower of Sages, Vulpin Adventures, Cactus McCoy, Raft Wars, Commando or Strike Force Heroes.
_[obligatory silksong not existing comment]_
Don't know if the video covers, but petscop was an app at one point, I remember playing it
Probably a ripoff ad?
@@QUBIQUBED unfinished for sure, as I never got beyond the windmill, but having watched the videos. It was identical down to all aspects
All these fake games make me feel like if a videogame you would see a character play in a cartoon or similar turned into a mistery or horror story.
My life is like a video game
trying hard to beat the stage
Every one of your videos is incredible
Badass setup 🔥🔥
this is the last video I expected to hear the beastars soundtrack in
Update on Catastrophe Crow, there is an actual playable game now
Was not expecting Rocket Robot on Wheels for "Rare but very real" lol. That was the first N64 game I owned.
Maybe the real video games were the friends we made along the way
congrats on making Petscop 2 before Pyro
Finally, cool, quality content on an interesting topic to watch for lunch at work 👏👏 thank you very much. God bless. Jesus loves you!
I remember following petscop episode by episode awaiting the next one to come out the discomfort but also excitement was interesting
If you haven't yet, I suggest checking out Diminish. It's another fake game unreality series - no arg, just a man and the game his sister made for him
Thank you! This gave me and idea!