Five years ago Minecraft got an ending and for five years That ending has either been misinterpreted or completely ignored Today we change that *Game Theory Intro Music* Hello Internet Welcome to game theory And welcome to 2016 In years past I have tended to start years off with a blue period Covering dark depressing or scary theory's But this year. This year is gonna be different It's 2016! So lets start things off with a message of love A message of hope A message of Minecraft Now if there is one thing youtube loves It's this game Just look at the success of Captain Sparkles Or SkyDoesMinecraft Or the recent explosion of channels like The Diamond Minecart PopularMMOS and SSundee It all points to one thing That years after it's release minecraft is just as strong as ever and the game continues to evolve Over on GT Live i was fortunate enough to play around with one of it's newest features A literal working phone built inside of the game Ordering a real-life pizza through a phone built of torches and red stone heh yeah and while we where at it we kidnapped the pizza girl. Yhanks again Dallas *whispering* We are going to hold her hostage its going to be amazing guys Anyway what all of this shows is that minecraft is quite literally an endless game Which is why when the full version of the game did come out It was a bit odd that it had an ending If felt strange But it wasn't just putting an ending on the game that got people upset It was how the game ended In a nearly 10 minute long text scroll of 2 god like beings talking about dreams within dreams Like they are analyzing inception It's very cryptic, very poetic, and to most gamers very weird We just got done surviving in a pixelated world Block world with zombies and exploding moss monsters and our reward is What Reading? ugh The only thing worse would have been to reward us with math To most players it was it was a 10 minute break to reload on snacks Before hopping into creative mode to build more towering monuments to the male genitalia To others they interpenetrated it as the game telling gamers to get out of the house and get a life and to me Well It was an episode waiting to happen Because the ending of minecraft has been tragically ignored. Written off as philisophical garbage When it is in fact a beautiful uplifting and thought provoking message to the legions of dedicated gamers Who've taken the time to step into the blockie shoes of Minecraft Steve and it's long past time that we give these credits the Credit they deserve First if you haven't read the ending to minecraft or just need a refresher on it I recommend doing that now Though it's definitely not necessary to understand the episode Regardless BOOM! Link in the Description and i suppose i could read it here right now But the thing IS 10 minutes and my videos already pretty darn long already Now let me start off by saying i can totally Understand why everyones initial interpretation to this wall of text was basically Get outside and get a life The thing is just begging for a Too long Didn't read Summary But in absence of that everyone latches on to key words Things like the final words of the poem Wake up As well as phrases like the player was alive you. You You Are Alive Lines like this coupled with naturalistic imagery Like shuffling leaves of the summer trees and crisp night sky of winter Seems to be the author telling us to wake up from the game and experience the greater world around us But then stop for a minute and consider this Don't you think it would be a bit odd for the game to be telling the player to stop playing the game Especially for a game that as we talked about earlier can be played endlessly Seems like it would be bad business strategy right? So let's take a look at the rest of the poem to get some context The voices we hear throughout the ending Speak a lot about two different dreams The short dream of the game minecraft and the long dream of life It's actually explicitly stated right here But what's it all mean Well many gamers have theorized that calling the game a dream is saying it's not worth their time Hence the get a life interpretation But notice here that the author calls life a dream too It's the long dream of life and this isn't just for literary effect It's meant to be taken literally Look at this line Quote "They see so little of reality in their long dream" End Quote this is the author explicitly telling us that there a layer of reality beyond what you or i think of as out everyday lives it would be like if Neo and Morphious and everyone in Zion where still in the matrix wait a min i had a theory about that exact thing huh Shameless cross promotion for the win anyway The world where we go to school go to work Sit in front of our computer to watch an episode of game theory Over and over and over again or just go outside to play with uh stick and a hoop I don't know Whatever you'd play outside with That's all part of just another dream Why does all of this confusing metaphysical mumbo jumbo matter? Well if life as we know it And Minecraft are both dreams It means that us playing the game is just as valid a use of our time as doing something in the Quote un Quote real world. both are equally important Because both are dreams Just on happens to be slightly longer than the other. in short it's the exact opposite of how everyone was interpreting this thing It's not saying that playing games is a waste of time and that we need to get a life it's saying that the choice to play games and engage in these virtual worlds is the same as engaging with the real world Because by their definition They are both virtual worlds but then that leaves us with one huge question if the ending the ending of minecraft is saying that this world is just another dream then what is reality? What are these glimpses of reality we see in the long dream of life What are we waking up too Well when you first read the poem it's not even clear whether we can answer that question Because there seems to be some critical information missing. and i don't mean these two figures are being weird and cryptic I mean there is literally information missing It's perhapse the most bizzare part of this already crazy convoluted ending The intentionally omitted words within the dialogue Quote "Sometimes i wish to tell them, this world you take for truth is merely *garbled sound* and *Garbled sound*, i wish to tell them that they are *Garbled sound* In the *Garbled sound*, They see so little of reality, in their long dream" End Quote ahhh What? They also talk about the universes original interface Which still works after a million years Quote"It worked, with a million others, to sculpt a true world in a fold of the *garbled sound* and created a *Garbled sound* for *Garbled sound* in the *Garbled sound*" It's like the lamest game of Mad Libs ever Quote" To Sculpt a true world in a fold of the" Penis "And created a" Penis for Penis in the penis Great... We're told that the reason these pieces are scrambled is that they are beyond our comprehension We haven't achieved the highest level in the long game of life yet UGH! I knew i should have leveled up my metaphysics skill tree But save those experience points to level up basket weaving or something cause let me tell you the words that fill in those blanks don't actually matter well they do but for purposes of the theory they don't You see the scrambled pieces are meant to be the answers to all those questions about life people have been asking themselves since the dawn of forever what are we who made us what's our reason for living and there are tons of different relegions and belief systems that have tried to explain it as humans we have so many origin stories and the minecraft poem leaves those pieces scrambled Because ultimately it doesn't care which one of those you believe in in an awesome way it's just like the game Minecraft doesn't limit you to any play style that's why some people create scale models of the Parthenon and others just create giant mountains of boobs when it comes to the ending of the game it's the same thing Whatever you believe in works whether it's God, Allah, the flying spaghetti monster, or the saving power of the BROFIST you're supposed to fill in the blanks for yourself soooooooo........ is that it a choose your own adventure religious experience at the end of the game are these just two god like figures casually conversing about the universe not at all they try to tell us what they are but like everything else in the ending it's really complicated because they basically seem to be everything quote "The Spirit of the mountain, ancestral spirits, animal spirits, Jinn, Ghosts, the green man, gods, demons, angels, poltergeists, aliens, extraterrestrials, Leptons, quarks. The words change We do not change. We are everything you think isn't you End Quote. So what are they in writing this episode i looked for what the things on the list had in common at first it seemed like they where all just magical beings ghosts angels and spirits or maybe stuff people imagine but aren't really real? but then they mention Quarks and Leptons Real scientific things that aren't mythology and when you factor those guys in the explanation doesn't hold no what they do have in common is they are all things people believe are driving forces in the universe gods, demons, subatomic particles Forces that change things whether the explanation is through science or religion they're the forces that pull the strings the things we believe craft the universe into what it is but then the poem takes it one step further it says that that these two speakers are the things we think aren't us we believe stuff like angels and ghosts are separate from us that they are influencing us from the outside but the poem says that we're wrong Quote let's go further back the seven billion billion billion atoms of the player's body were created long before this game in the heart of a star so the player, too, is, information from a star end quote what the poem is getting at is that everything in the universe is made up of the same stuff this is minecraft remember we are all made up of the same basic blocks the same set of elements the resources for crafting don't change the hydrogen in our bodies is no different from the hydrogen in stars or the water in our bodies is no different from the water on another planet and because we're all made up of the same stuff the poem also says that we can literally do anything this ain't no Shia LaBeouf speech this is way bigger than that in fact it's minecraft big in minecraft you can literally create anything from a cell phone to your own planet everything you create is just extending your imagination and the same set of basic tools to create something new Something real At the end of the poem it tells you that everything you need is already within you Since the universe is made up of the same basic stuff You already have everything you need You don't need angels or gods or quarks or anyone else to help you You're already connected to everything in the universe and its already a part of who you are and with that revelation we finally reach our answer That's the reality we only see a little bit of That's the real wake up call here The poem has nothing to do with waking up from minecraft It has to do with waking up to how important and powerful you are In crafting the world Be it in the short dream of the game or the long dream of life In the end the real truth Is this Everything you need is within you You are never alone You are stronger than you know Notch the creator of Minecraft has said that he agrees with the message of this poem He's made it very clear he's an athiest But what we've just shown is that nothing in the poem makes it so you have to ascribe to one belief or another As long as you recognize quite frankly Just how awesome you are Like the poem says Minecraft won't tell you how to live your life but it will remind you that you have the power to create whatever you want to dream whatever kind of dream you want for your life and then you have the power to make it a reality in the world minecraft is all about empowering the player giving them the tools they need to make anything they want and this controversial ending stays true to that theme reminding the player that whether it's in the game or without all of the power is theirs and no matter where your coming from last year it's a pretty awesome thought for the beginning of 2016 But hey That's Just a Theory A GAME THEORY Thanks For Watching i am litterally sitting under a desk in australia right now in a tent made of blankets and pillows it's very uncomfortable Stephanie is pretending not to hear me That's just a Theory A *Cough* ugh that's just a Cough Ahhh i gotta get out it is so hot i am dying i think im like passing out from Co2 build up under here *happy music* oh man it is good to be back home and in the closet recording this ending recording while abroad sucks and hey happy 2016 one more time guys there are a lot of big episodes and surprises in the works That i can't wait share with you over the coming weeks and months so get hyped it is going to be an incredible year I think you're going to be really excited By the way if you have not seen our Minecraft Pizza Girl Kidnapping video that i mentioned earlier in this episode Click here to check it out on the GT live channel It is amazing some of the new technology that people are coming up with in virtual worlds these days We had a blast and it was also a great chance to spotlight a lot of you theorists by playing along side you and crafting together although you did troll me a lot There was a lot of trolling happening in that stream anyway if you want some more theories check out one of my all time favorite game theories ever where i calculate how money a suit of diamond armor would actually be worth Hint its a lot also fun fact it was Ronnies first first ever episode that he edited which is why it looks so much better than anything that came before ugh I love that one So if you haven't seen it click here to check it out Now if you will excuse me Valentines day is coming up and i remember right i seem to remember promising you guys a dating sim episode a couple years ago huh i should get on writing that if all goes according to plan i will see you guys next week or tomorrow if you watch Film Theory whoo hype 2016!
Is it weird that that's EXACTLY how I interpreted the ending the first time I read it?
I never thought about the whole "stop wasting your time"; more like "you are a part of the universe and you have all the power you need to achieve what you want to achieve".
I think the "wake up" at the end just reminds you to stop thinking of the limits and just go for what you desire - it isn't in fact about the goal, it's about the journey - so even if you do not make it there, you'll still know that you tried and you did something to get there.
Thats a pretty cool new intro
Not really "decoded", more "interpreted".
Never the less, it was a very well thought out episode.
BTW if you wonder that maybe those random letters have any actual meaning behind them in the source code (since
§kformatting code doesn’t erase the text, just makes it render funny), Notch made really sure that there is nothing to read in the source:Very interesting. Glad to see a Game Theory video on this topic.
for those interested in the new(ish) intro theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sz3ptMfZLI
I thought the poem was quite nice. I liked it a lot. Oh, and a stick and a hoop? Pretty spot on, just missing a ball.
Video starts at 3:20
I'm getting major solipsism and motivational vibes from that ending.