The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo | Hacker News Reader

The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo

correlatedcontents.com

172 pointsmikeleeorg55 comments

That was fun! Spoiler-ish talk below.

I'm not entirely sure what to make out of the last ending - I personally got a feeling that this was a demonstration of trying to escape addiction. Stereotypically gamers enjoy games because they are empowered in the gaming world, which could be something that they lack in the physical world. Understanding that addiction and getting to the root of a friend's problems can help them break that.

I don't think that's exactly what the author intended, but that's what I got out of it. shrug

This is more or less what I got out of it. Perhaps moreso is the effect that portable devices (phones, gameboys, whatever new gameboys are called) have on people. You have the addiction but there isn't a place you can safely escape to. For instance, the bathroom ;)

More philosophically, and judging by the author's notes, they mention that video games "would keep [us] playing with them until it killed us".

I think the interesting thought here is that a video game character's world and life only exists as long as someone is playing the game. As soon as the off button is pressed, they cease to exist, so it makes sense for them to need the player to continue indefinitely to prolong their own existence.

Very thought-provoking piece of fiction.

Door opens, kids screaming, "Undefined Error". Hmmmm

THIS IS MY NIGHTMARE

Btw: The discussion with your friend (about games) is different (i.e. much more interesting) if your friend is female!

was the "bad expression" and "Undefined Error" part of the story?

Yes, keep playing.

I don't think these errors are part of the game:

Error executing macro stopsound: [Exception... "An attempt was made to use an object that is not, or is no longer, usable" code: "11" nsresult: "0x8053000b (InvalidStateError)" location: "<unknown>"]Error executing macro stopsound: [Exception... "An attempt was made to use an object that is not, or is no longer, usable" code: "11" nsresult: "0x8053000b (InvalidStateError)" location: "<unknown>"]

At the beginning during the dinner, you have the option to make an observation about the drink your friend's father is having. It says beer at first, but if you click it, you will realise its actually lemonade.

But what impact does this have on the story? I presume it does have an effect, because after reaching an ending, whenever you restart at the 7pm checkpoint, the game first asks if you thought the father was really drinking lemonade or beer.

But I didn't notice any difference in the process of getting all 6 endings.

I loved the audio. I started air playing to my stereo for more immersion. It was well done!

I also enjoyed how the site went fullscreen as soon as things started to happen.

Well done!

This was quite immersive. I think a little more content would've gone a long way to produce a more interesting story.

There are several endings and side branches. If you've only played it once, try it again. Also, hit up the kitchen right after dinner.

I really enjoyed the game, but (possible minor spoilers) the game crashed in Chrome Canary right when I think I was about to see an ending. On purpose?

It moves into full screen. That might do it. Worked on my chrome.

Yep if you're on Canary then that should happen. Otherwise it goes to full-screen and you see the ending dialogue.

I got the first 3 endings, not sure how to get the last 2.

Click on the LOCKED text to get hints. Once you get one of them the other is really easy to figure out.

Not really, you need to know when to play games to get to play alone and find the smiling man, and THEN guess what answers are right in response to the following conversation.

That's not the only way to get there (in fact I never saw the scene you are referring to). I would guess that any anomaly involving the uncle is sufficient to get into the conversation.

It took quite a while to load, I thought the page was broken. Your patience will be rewarded.

If you liked this game, check out the links listed as inspiration for the author:

http://correlatedcontents.com/?p=1868

There are several other similar games there.

Interesting. I got a lot of things that said "BAD EXPRESSION" and looked glitchy. I'm not sure if that was intentional, or if my browser was incompatible.

It was intentional.

Is there a sixth ending? I unlocked all 5 and I can click the ˄ſ̳Ɏ on the bottom... Is that a hint at a 6th ending or are there only 5?

Do everything you did for the last ending, except wait until it's too late for your mom to pick you up. When uncle shows up, run to the kitchen even though you're not allowed to go there.

Played one time. I liked the experience so far, but I got the "undefined error" ending and that was a complete disappointment.

I don't care about alternative endings if the first playthrough wasn't worth it. Give me one good ending, one good playthrough, and then I'll consider playing again to get to the alternative branches ...

You found an intentional glitch, the alternative endings are not alternative but rather continuations, keep playing.

I think his point is that the first ending isn't that interesting, so he didn't continue. I was pretty much the same way.

Only, the first ending isn't and `ending' but more like the first chapter.

It would have been good for the game to tell me that. I played another time and got a slightly different ending. It doesn't make much more sense.

The game is great the first time around, but it's absolutely boring the second time around. I'm just skipping through the text because it's stuff that I've read the first time around.

"Sorry to interrupt, but this page's code has got itself in a mess (Script error.)."

hm :) might want to somehow [tag] this.

There's a fairly hard-to-find scene where you go to the bathroom and it's all different. Does anyone know how to get back there reliably?

We should make a list of the interesting bits people might not have found, even after getting all 6 endings!

Spoilers follow.

I think you get there by going back after successfully conversing about the storm and learning about the uncle.

EDIT: Nope, just tried it and it's not that simple, at least.

My favorite is if you go straight back into the kitchen. Your friend's parents (or, their false avatars) are frozen in time.

I got there too, sadly, i found the same fate.

If the uncle arrives and you hide in the bathroom, it was different for me.

I got that scene after visiting the bathroom when it’s normal, then going to the kitchen and having a drink. When I returned to the den, my character needed to go to the bathroom, and I when I went again, the bathroom was different. This was around 10 PM I think, though that might not matter.

I don't normally like horror games but that was great!

Had to play this in IE11. Wouldn't work on any other browser i have installed.

Found a fun existential secret ending though.

Coolest thing I've seen in a while!

So, uh...how many endings are there?

6 that i found

How do you get any of the last 3?

Rot13 encoded to avoid spoilers, all six endings:

  1: Zrrg gur hapyr ng gur qbbe
  2: Jnvg sbe gur hapyr, uvqr va gur onguebbz
  3: Pnyy lbhe zbz rneyl rabhtu gb tb ubzr
  4: Ernq nobhg Zrj, nfx nobhg hapyr ohg qba'g svtug onpx, nfx nobhg gur fgbez naq yrnea nobhg gur hapyr, gura tb ubzr.  Qba'g cvpx hc gur Tnzrobl
  5: Fnzr ohg cvpx hc gur Tnzrobl
  6: Jnvg sbe gur hapyr, gura tb gb gur xvgpura (guvf bcgvba vf haninvynoyr orsber raqvat 5 vf haybpxrq)

If you already got the first three I'd say go for the spoilers, but if not definitely get a couple of them before you spoil it for yourself. Also the author's essays after everything is unlocked are very much worth reading.

So basically this game is creepypasta where you are supposed to get horrified about how violent and uncaring gamers are, have a meaningful conversation with your friend where you just try to understand his problems (video games?) without getting frustrated, then call your mom to save you in order to win. Then it lets you go back to save your friend from video games because you understand.

THEN you find out it's all just feminist propaganda to talk about how horrible the gaming industry is.

I thought it was pretty interesting in the end but it has not convinced me there is any issue with video games. I grew up on Nintendo since I was 3 years old and would certainly consider myself a gamer. I believe it has had very positive influences on my life, and I also believe that a lot of the power I have supposedly lost is superficial anyways.

There are plenty of good influences that can be gained from video games, and it's especially disheartening that the author blames Nintendo, which is not even responsible for the violent/repetitive gaming culture. I honestly don't have much of a say in this recent argument because most of my gaming was done from 1988~2011, and from 2002 and beyond it has been majority MMO and rhythm games (I have continued to play MMOs - FF14! - when I can, but I'm currently taking a break so I can progress in the game of life)...I did play through GTA4 with a friend and would like to play GTA5 when I have free time again. I suppose that people that are choosing to play these mainstream violent games a la Call of Duty and the ones the feminists are talking about may be negatively influenced by them, but I'm more in the camp that the video games let us immerse ourselves into worlds where we can just enjoy and challenge ourselves, and take part in amazing creative stories. They are sort of virtual reality books, and books have the same spectrum of playing with our human and animal mind, appeasing to us however we are instinctively prone to being appeased. They are a good way to relax and stimulate our brains. Meh, like I say, I'm not really part of the demographic that is playing these games that feminists have such a huge problem with anyways.

I'm sorry but I call BS. In the author notes it doesn't try to say that games are a bad influence at all. Nor does it try to shame the gaming industry.

The author notes go over why he created the game, and how his childhood experiences and the current state of the gaming industry both affected the creation of the game.

He doesn't even mention Nintendo what-so-ever in the notes, neither does he focus on violence.

You severely miss-interpreted what the author wanted to portray.

He focuses on how video games and their authors attempt to toy with our emotions, and how it can be a much more powerful medium to effect the way people think than with books, television or even social media.

I admit I could be misinterpreting a lot here. The author isn't being very straight forward about his opinions, but there is absolutely a negative light being cast on the gaming community, maybe because of exactly what you say, that it is a powerful medium.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but at least you could say that this entire creation is a response to the "gamergate" scandal that has been going on?

My take from this is that it is calling out mind controlled gamer zombies for attacking and persecuting women and minorities. This is precisely what is frustrating for me because my view is that video games are harmless and even stimulating for us, and that they are just a reflection of our inner instincts, not people manipulating us. The gaming industry is just giving us what we want. Here's the relevant part of the author's "On Topicalality" writing:

"We may not believe in the uncle who works for Nintendo anymore, but he is certainly still at work."

...[Edit:[I suppose I did misinterpret this as him attacking Nintendo, he's just using it as a line from the gamer community that they have secret ties into a hierarchy? He also mentions Nintendo Power, which I grew up with, and I suppose he is blaming these secrets and hierarchy for shutting out and attacking groups of people who aren't in the know. Nintendo touched my heart growing up and I'm glad to have been able to bond with other Nintendo gamers throughout my life. I never dealt with issues of people using this uncle line and I'm just a bit offended by the author's claim that the Nintendo/industry/capitalism is corrupted with people trying to control me. They have delivered much higher quality content than many other areas of industry]]...

"Women and minority voices are under attack. The finer details of this organized harassment campaign are, by this point, both fatiguing and immensely abhorrent. I will not bother to recount them here. Suffice it to say: the contingent of players taking up the flag of "gamers" are, in many ways, the realization of the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that constitute the "enemy" of this game."

And here are the links from the "Gamers Being Over" section, one of which does strongly focus on violence (not that that is the main issue even I was talking about, the main issue is feminism's argument about the negative aspects of games and the response from the gaming community):

http://ellaguro.blogspot.com/2014/09/on-gamers-and-identity....

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/224400/Gamers_dont_have_t...

"They don’t know how to dress or behave."

Thanks Gamasutra, it has been a long time since I read a opinion article this well argued.

go cry about women somewhere else

I got all the endings and I still don't really get it...

SPOILER

So she had a gaming addiction and we had to help her out?

Took too long to load. Left.

Willy Beamish?

The last ending is reminiscent of Giygas.

Definitely my impression as well. I was downright expecting a reference to someone's Mr. Baseball cap in there.

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