New Episode! How P.T. Got Under Our Collective Skin (Patreon)

Hey everyone! Just to let you know that the new episode is up! Big thanks to Jonathan who pledged at the level where he got to pick a topic for an episode - it also happened to be on a game I've been wanting to talk about for AAAAAGES.

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In this ~*sPoOkI hAlLoWeEn SpEcIaL~* of Writing on Games (suggested by one of my generous patrons, Jonathan, after pledging a certain amount), I take a look at a game that you will struggle to ever play unless you already have it, or a friend does.

P.T. was used to announce Silent Hills - the next instalment in the revered horror franchise directed by Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro. Unfortunately, Konami wasn't into it, and so cancelled Silent Hills and un-released P.T. from the PlayStation Store. This left a lot of people feeling like P.T. was the start of a sentence that was never finished - that something remained unsaid.

I would argue that this was maybe in the game's favour, however - P.T. is a game about not knowing, about subverting the reliability of details and narratives other games (even other horror games) have taught us are sacrosanct. There's a reason this short experience is so captivating. I only played it once, but it has stuck with me ever since. In this video, I analyse why that's the case.

In this episode of Writing on Games, I discuss how P.T. perhaps invokes the Imagist tradition of clarity of expression through economy of language, and how it uses this to truly get under your skin - both in the game and, in typical Kojima fashion, in real life too.

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Also, because this is the third video published in October, you won't be charged for it - just letting you know it's here! Thank you ALL for your continued support. Even though the channel has grown a lot in the last few weeks, you guys are the ones that really allow me to keep doing this. Thank you so much. Patron rewards will be sent out soon!

Thanks again,

Hamish

Writing on Games