What do you think happened in The Swapper?

[Urban Shaman]

I've just finished the game - quite awesome audio and visual design, and the game was outright creepy in a major way. Which was good!

But, having completed the game, there's a piece of the story that doesn't seem to make much sense. Or perhaps I've missed something from the logs.

Obviously, MAJOR SPOILER WARNING.

So... who IS the main character? In the ending scene it is suggested she is the clone of the scientist with the 3 personalities stuck in her head. BUT, how is it possible for a clone to operate on it's own then? Throughout the game clones (as creepy as it is) just repeat the actions of one, as evidenced by the very ending. And another thing - it appears that swapping into some...thing with a soul would create a disjointed combination. But in that case, swapping into someone from the rescue crew should also create someone with a disjoined personality, no?

In other words - I'm confused. Has anyone got a handle of what exactly happened?

[whythecynic]

Sometime in the game you hear this: "This is where we developed the device in your hands. We looked at the way the Watchers communicate and built a delivery system for it. To be frank with you we didn't know what on earth it was at first. It turns out it swaps people's souls about."

[TJ]

^^This.

[jimmyfou]

1st playthrough here, and I must say, awesome game! such a gem !

Loving how both the scenario and the game itself are puzzles, where sometimes the path taken can differs from one player to another, but the "main line" is here : reflexion

Thanks also to the people taking time to write their thoughts and some of the game facts as it helps assembling the plot-puzzle.

And i won't go over the 'identity' part of the plot, as it was well explained in previous posts.

My theory joins the one where the swapper doesn't actually "swap" souls (the soul being something from another dimension than ours -time/physical one- , thus immortal => cf. the watchers) but it can create a clone of the user, and/or allow his consciousness to travel, creating a link* between one physical and conscious entity (a person or a watcher) and :
1) an empty shell (clone)
2) another entity

*see it as the 'broadcast range' around the Head Watcher. Isolated, the clone will lack memory but be autonomous, the watcher will be disconnected and wont be able to sing with the rest anymore, but they will still have thoughts of their own.
=> explaining how the player/scavenger's clone as autonomy.

As for 2), an override occurs, merging the 2 consciousnesses (can it be written in plural like this? looks weird to me)
But in that case, the "host" has 2 (or more ;p) separated minds in one body, leading to obvious problems.
Except in the case where it happens between a human and a watcher. This will lead the merging of the minds into the watchers' chain of thoughts, where the schizophrenic aspect isn't relevant anymore as there isn't a body to share with other mind(s). But another kind of conflict will happen here: a problem of dimension. Some of the crew members must 've tried this type of "swapping", as we can read a watcher saying "i have been changed" "a will that could cut through my own", and other Rocks* explicitly saying stuff that makes you understand the one speaking was human.

As a side note, I'm enclined to think there is a notion of "power" of minds, to determine which one actually speaks and acts. The reason I'm thinking that is the fact that we can hear (very lightly but still) other conversations/person speaking when the brains/specimens are talking to the scavenger. Implying that their minds took the ascendant over the other minds that the brain is hosting.
=> watcher log "why does the other mind scream inside?", the other entity is still there, but cannot take control.
=> scavenger make a suicidal attempt at the waste disposal room, but Chalmers overrides the mind and take control, to then manipulates the scavenger clone (you), in order to take control of the Head watcher broadcast. (ambitious man, isn't he?)
She tells you at one moment "the mind is a fundamental part of the universe which is not physical, which we can now control" does chalmers wants to control the not-physical universe? did i say ambitious? or is it just controlling minds = mind slavery? either way, i don't like this guy ;p
=> the swapper becomes a weapon of mind and body hijacking, cf the watcher log asking how it allows to take control of another mind without "persuasion or argument, is it a weapon?" , "I've been changed, as if the other minds like yours had a will that could cut through my own"

Also i really enjoyed how the infection was shown through these blurs in the end. Showing that it is some kind of radiation that seems to damage the brain. Something no one seems to talk about, so i'll share it here. The said infection doesn't seem to be just physical (the end rescuer's scan proving it) but also mental.
=> something that is troubling me, is the fact that we see those radiation blurs happening when the scavenger is switching between the 3 personalities... but it's probably just a mean of the game to show us it's another personality that's talking, for those who didn't activate the subtitles.

Just before activating the 124 orbs console, a lot of Rocks* previously "visited" have something else to "say", like one of the scientific saying "everything is clear now, what were your questions?". Being a "completionist gamer" i like to see everything there is to see in an interesting game, so i checked the map before going to the 124 orbs console and a lot of those rocks had the green "?" on them again. And once you read those new thoughts, if you try to read them again, it will display a "HQAPKHVBNGQPOJSDNVWELSDJF" wall of text.
So I think it is :
1) you, infected by the watchers' radiation, that is "reading" thoughts less and less clearly? =>In order to prevent you from polluting their chain, as another watcher log said. => explaining those 'HOJSDLNSVPOE'
2) and them, the 3 minds of dennett, chalmers, the scavenger and the new entity (who doesnt remember being anything else than the combination of them 3, cf. log about experiments), who are trying to 'talk' through that new dimension, with difficulty at first. => explaining the first few messages hardly readable and the "HURTHURTHURT"

Edit : it is clearly a mental radiation produced by the watchers, as we can see in that room where the 'blur' is consistent. You can realise that this room is full of watchers' rock formation. The silkworm being mentioned several times was just misleading...? And the brain hosting Chalmers said "a lifeform that will kill us in a matter of minutes'.....? misleading too, as it probably refers to the watchers, but still... that made me thought about what could the threat be if not the watchers' radiation... (also the laser purging the 'non human organic" kinda led me to that other theory, why would they need this kind of security system...?)

Anyway, I really enjoyed that rising tension during the last minutes of gameplay.

That's why i love this game, so much to talk about!

* (still not calling them all watchers, as a matter of being a bit more comprehensible as to when a proper "watcher" is speaking or a former human. The watchers' realm, or "chain of thoughts" is probably the representation of the human souls' dimension, which would explain the Head Watcher's human form)

=>That would also suggest that both of the scientists theories are wrong: if you believe in the soul being immortal, the afterlife. Chalmers, the manipulative one, who says "life is worth living at any cost, the mind is not only a brain" => life to him, is the mind, the thoughts, the soul, the intangible, that need electric impulses to 'go on'. He thought that his 'life', his identity would be transferred into the rock, like it was transferred into a brain. And that dying would be the end of himself, just blackness and nothingness. Maybe in his 'survival instinct' state, he didn't see that dying would have almost the same result as swapping into the watchers...

Why I am saying that is because of the last sentences of the watcher: "it will cease to learn but retain its identity... for a short time at least" => i think the last part is for both "cease to learn" and "retain its identity", meaning she will be forgotten, but will learn again soon, as the soul is immortal.

N.B. : sorry if i'm not clear in exposing those ideas, but english isnt my mother tongue... i just couldn't resist the urge to participate in this topic!


Also i would love to hear if someone managed to find those secret logs, reaaaaaaally hard to find in a 1st playthrough, only got the nbr 2... :(

Thanks again for this very well made game! awesome plot, awesome atmosphere, it's rare for a game to give me chills, this one did.

Edit: i think i will change some stuff after the 2nd playthrough ;p

[Hohenheim]

I'll find the truth..in progress

[#holegang]

My personal opinion is that the protagonist is actually given consciousness by the Watchers, as a part of the chain. This would explain why:

She doesn't speak (not being aware of human language)

She can understand the Watchers telepathic signals immediately (unlike the people in the logs who talk of being able to hear the Watchers after getting sick)

She has consciousness (since the swapper device is based on the Watchers, surely they have the ability to swap as well)

She freaks out at the start (the sudden sensory overload of inhabiting a human body after millenia of no external stimuli would massively screw with your "mind")

Just my opinion.

[knephisto]

I guess I will have to play this game all over again :) Eheh!

[Coach McCann]

it seems pretty much established that the main character is the scavenger or her clone. The question is how did one or the other get to have a sovereign mind and I think I figured it out. Clones always did what they others did however there was another factor involved, the hive mind of the watchers.

Remember landing on the planet and getting the message that the other watchers have returned and rejoined the collective? I think it's safe to safe the clone did exactly what the scavenger wanted it to do until it got far enough away from the neural link that is being emitted from the watchers/head/swapper and after you are far enough away both the clone and original specimen are able to act independently.

Some confusion is about what happens with the swapper because charmers twice says that it will swap two different people once to be freed from being a brain ( he clearly said swap with you for a while to fix the situation) and secondly to get the protagonist to swap with the watcher head (saying the watcher will be useless in his body which did collapse after swapping)

This does beg the question about other evidence of minds being melded but it seems the obvious answer is that chalmers was lying both times doing whatever it took to survive and in fact all evidence points to the swapper only swapping control of clones and different minded people swapping results in a combined consciousness.

[Coach McCann]

The head watcher has a telepathic range that is affecting the whole ship and killed the crew, the brains had to "shield" themselves from it. This telepathic link with the watchers must be what allows the swappers holder to control the clones and once a set amount of distance is met ( like being jettisoned as the scavenger clone was or the breaking of the link between the watchers on the planet and the ship)

[Reality]

When I played through, I decided that all the watchers were one "person" with multiple bodies. In a similar way, your clones are not brainless, but all act as one, and to maintain your sanity only one can feel external stimuli (pain/aiming/sight), All the other clones think they are the one you are controlling atm. However, the clones all build off the same base. and when distance destroys the connection, you more or less both become independent, non compatible beings.

I think the player (as the scavenger's clone) starts stranded with her exact mind, and after being ejected, does not gain sentience (already having it) but loses its connection to the equal mind in the original body (which goes on to do the 3 merge) Therefore you develop sensory input (while other clones only have sensory output).

The watchers on board the ship have also been fragmented, but all have the same memory and desire, not becaue their society raised them all the same way, but because there was only one thinking watcher. With the loss of the grand connection, this mind has been copied into them all and they can now experience reality differently.

This even gives the clone destroying white beams a purpose, Any clone made by the swapper will become fully independent if it is active at the same time as the controller merges with someone else. In a way, the clone is more that person than the one who made the decision.

Onto the ending after the insane person talks you into landing the ship, the watchers fail to reestablish the grand connection and remain the independent, but still certain that they are in pain things they were throughout the game. The three minds find that swapping into the head has placed them in separate watchers which is a situation they all form their own theories about, but likely happened because the "sane" watchers were still part of a connection and only had 1 mind, and could stand to lose bodies when the device was used on them

Regardless of which decision the player makes their "whole" self will die (the rescuer will be in connection range long enough to throw him off the cliff. preventing the creation of a new independent clone.

[thedaydreamarchitect]

Originally posted by Boink:

The ship / whatever is called "Theseus" because that's the dude who went into the Labyrinth and defeated the Minotaur. (Get it? Game = Puzzles = yeah, it's that simple).

I think there's actually a different Theseus reference that's a lot more relevant and illuminatory than the whole Labyrinth/Minotaur story, and I'm honestly surprised it hasn't been brought up yet. It's a thought experiement called the Ship of Theseus and it goes as such:

Theseus has a ship. Over time, various parts of his ship wear down and need to be replaced: the boards, oars, the mast, etc. Piece-by-piece, Theseus replaces every single part of the ship. Throughout this whole process, someone follows Theseus, collects all the old pieces of his ship, and reassembles them. The question is, which ship is the same as the original Ship of Theseus: The one made of the new parts, the one made of the old parts, both, or neither?

I haven't quite worked out where this fits in the game, but I think there are definite connections to be made to some of the game's elements. There's the obvious, the whole creating-and-swapping-clones business, where it seems like all the clones share an identity or a consciousness (or at least that one identity/consciousness gets swapped between them). But in terms of the larger narrative, I think The Scavenger could be serving some purpose similar to the one who collects the old pieces of the ship in the Ship of Theseus. Thoughts?

[Notius]

Originally posted by thedaydreamarchitect:

I think there's actually a different Theseus reference that's a lot more relevant and illuminatory than the whole Labyrinth/Minotaur story, and I'm honestly surprised it hasn't been brought up yet. It's a thought experiement called the Ship of Theseus...

It could refer to the fact that when you swap into a clone of yourself and your "original" body (the ship's parts) dies, your conciousness remains in the clone (the new parts), essentially going with the "both are the original" answer since the conciousness isn't technically a part, more like Theseus himself, a captain.

Also, not sure if it has been brought up yet (as I don't feel like reading every reply), but the PLayer Character (PC) is most likely the clone of the Scavenger who was jettisoned through the airlock. And either because the original Scavenger became a combined conciousness or because of the extreme distance between original and clone, the PC gains autonomy.

This is reinforced by three things:

1. The fact that Theseus has been derelict for decades and nobody makes any reference to any other people on the station (not even that anyone else came with the Scavenger).

2. The Scavenger says somthing along the lines of "Why are you here? Stop following me!" when you first meet her, referring to the fact that clones follow the original.

3. The "swap" ending refers to the PC as female, which isn't too much of a hint, but then they mention that her "callout" (I assume this is the data stored in the suit) didn't say who she was. If the cloning mechanism just superficially creates a clone, then it's highly likely that the suit wouldn't have any data.

[Counsel]

Hi all.

I just finished this game last night here on Steam. Really interesting mechanics and the story got me thinking. Loved the discussion here, read through all 127 posts so far. Except for BOINK's crazy one, I skipped that one after the 4th or 5th paragraph haha.

Here's my take on some of the key issues:

How did the player gain separation/sentience?
First, I like what someone suggested that the character in the escape pod in the beginning is not struggling, they are miming the original Scavenger working the escape pod controls. Shortly after ejecting her clone, the Scavenger merges with the two brains of the scientists and becomes a new person; the clone (the player) is no longer a device using a router, she becomes the router, as she is the only one on her network now (to put it in network communication terms like the human scientists did on the Theseus).

What about the rescuer at the end?
We don't have any in-game proof against the above theory because we never see what happens to clones when a player swaps with/into another personality (outside of the "network") until the very end, when the player can swap into the rescuer. The theory would say that the swap would create a new, different, combination person in the rescuer, but also the "original" body would now be sentient on her own. And what does that sentient body inevitably do? It jumps off the cliff. Which is the same outcome if you, sentient as you are, choose to stay on the planet and... jump off the cliff. Hm...

Why do the white lights not kill the player character?
White lights do not kill all clones, nor do they leave all "originals." Think about it in game. Go stand 10 feet in front of a white light and spawn a clone 5 feet in front of you. Without swapping, if you walk forward 5 feet, your clone will die. But if you were to SWAP to your clone, then walk 5 feet, the "original" would die. The white light does not discriminate between clone and original, but maybe it knows which one on the network is the "router" and which are the "devices" and deactivates all the devices.

If I can get a little metaphysical, the game likes juxtaposing the idea of mind and body being separate. Maybe the player, the one constant between all the clones, is like the "mind" and the player chooses which "body" to inhabit at any point in time. The player is like the Head Watcher, but on a much smaller network. The clones are all part of the network, and they all take the same commands. They are not mindless in that they are all part of the same network, which is that weird stuff that goes on between/within the watchers.

This is exactly how we players are playing the game. Sure we pick a "primary" body during puzzles, but often we need to orchestrate the moves of the body + 3 or 4 clones all together in order to solve a puzzle. We are acting as much as the clones as we are the "primary" body when we do that. We are not one "original" + mindless clones... It's like growing extra sets of arms and legs, but being attached telepathically instead of physically.

Now, my questions:

If "Home" had stopped hearing from the research stations, and had no communication for 80 years... who are these scavengers? And these rescue teams? Are they the remnants of Home?

How exactly did the Watchers kill the crew? There is one log mentioning dreaming of "doing things with the drill I didn't want to do." Were these malicious acts? Were the Watchers possessing the crew and causing them to committ suicide or murder, albeit possibly accidentally, not understanding human existence?

What were the rammifications of the third solar array failing to be released successfully?

How are we to interpret the Watchers "speaking" jibberish following the merge of the Scientists/Scavenger mind with the Head Watcher? Before the merge, Watchers would repeat themselves, after the merge, they would say things once and then have (different) jibberish.

All in all, really interesting game and themes. Fun puzzles too. I solved the 4-button one on my own but I confess I had to look up the AE7 one in the steam guides :) I hope the Devs let us know if and when they decide to have an open discussion on the game. Maybe an AMA on reddit?

Cheers

[Projecticarus001]

I'm currently wondering if there was a far more intelligent alien species that decided to use a swapper device on their home planet itself to preserve themselves eternally as rocks and a collective mind and after millions of years humans discovered them.

[R@DIO]

Best reply,
you can close the tread now seriously.

Originally posted by Boink:

Actually, the game is kinda simple if you know the referents (please: this doesn't mean you're "stupid" for not understanding it, it's here to entice you into learning something).


Sisyphus Project. -- Originally (Greek myth) Sisyphus was cursed in the after life to endlessly push a large stone ball up a mountain, only for it to roll back down. It was a metaphor for Humans attempting to understand the world. Later (MUCH later, 4000 yrs), Albert Camus (a famous French writer, friend of Sartre and the extistentialists) adapted the myth and made it into a humanist parable: As a HUMAN you know you are endlessly pushing the ball up, but you do it as a sign of REVOLT. (And thus acquire freedom).

Dennet / Clones / Mind-sharing. Author has already given you links to their philosophy. It's fun to read them, but seriously: Dennet is wrong, and only interesting as a thought experiment (which a game is, get the joke?)

The ship / whatever is called "Theseus" because that's the dude who went into the Labyrinth and defeated the Minotaur. (Get it? Game = Puzzles = yeah, it's that simple).


Game Logic / Story:

Station arrives at desert planet with minimal organic life. (Lizards are mentioned; makes no sense if you've read Dune, but hey). Humans explore.

Discover Rocks with weird properties. Weird rocks consider "our dimension" unexplainable.

Scientists ship rocks on board and test them with lots of science.

Rocks get freaked out, especially as scientists are chipping / torturing them.

Rocks learn human language: tell Scientists they're sentient.

Scientists aren't moral, 'cause science and profits and stuff (handwave): SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND (it's a jackhammer)

Scientists ignore data that shows rocks are sentient to use their data to develop weird science stuff. SCIENTISTS LEARN ROCKS KILLED ALL ORGANIC LIFE ON PLANET!! Science team has no ecologist (yeah, DERP, not like you'd take one to explore a new planet or anything anyway, this was sponsored by BIG OIL corps) so ignore this REALLY IMPORTANT BIT OF DATA!

Scientists do their science stuff. Handwave, handwave, handwave. Yeah, they do it on an exploration ship without a CERN, but who cares?

SWAPPER TECH IS BORN (hand wave). Conciousness can be swapped! WAIT A MOMENT - YOU THINK SOMEONE OTHER THAN THE LAST CLONE WOULD HAVE USED IT ON THE SENTIENT ROCKS?

Game Devs: HUSSHSSSHSHHS. FFS, Just go with it.

Back to story....

Scientists are beholden to Corporation, keep shipping rocks up to ship against the human welfare of the crew.

BLAH BLAH BLAH

Rocks are a networked Mind structure, aka they're computers.

Rocks form a threshold network on ship, panick.

Scientists ship the BIG UBER LEAD ROCK (er, right: why does it look like a human head again? *hand wave*!) to ship. This is a Bad Move [tm]

Rocks don't like experiments, BIG UBER LEAD ROCK allows them to "network" and... trigger defensive response that's an atmospheric poison (ROCKS - > Atmospheric toxin! (er, WHAT? yeah, ok, ok, nice Climate Change reference but logically ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. They're ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ rocks. The WATCHERS turn out to be masters of organic biology WHILE BEING SILICON based. DERP DERP DERP. Yes, this is dumb).

Ship: ALL PEOPLE START DYING. Yeah, that's bad.

Scientists: RUN RUN RUN. Urk. Dying now.

Ship: Well, I'm gonna start breaking now, because obviously having tech to cross galaxies doesn't include any robotic self-repair systems at all. My design requires a couple of people to push the big buttons or I break. $5000 trillion to build me, but I break like this. Hand Wave! Hand Wave!

Scientists: ALL DYING. URRRGH.

Brains in VAT: HA HA! You were using us to test SWAPPER, now you're all dead. Oh, ♥♥♥♥, wait. CRAP. (Nah, but we totally volunteered for this life, being terminal cases and all)

Player: SRSLY? They can put you in a vat and endlessly prolong your life, but are too cheap to like put you in a robot body?!? That's WalMart level science.

Brains in VAT: Crap. You're right. Next time, we'll look at our contracts better.

Back to story...

Brains in VAT: ♥♥♥♥, dude, it's been like 3,000 yrs and we're still in our vats. Bugger bugger bugger.

Brains in VAT: Clone some of these scientists, use SWAPPER.

Clone #1: Urrrrgh.

Brains in VAT: Clone use swapper, we'll help you!!

Clone #1: Er, ok then... ARUUGGUFGFGUF Three of you in my mind!!

Brains no longer in VAT but in Clone: Muahahaha! Now eject your other clone to the planet!

Clone #1: MFGFUHUH> "ok".

Player (who is clone #2): Cool intro, looks like 2001: Space Odyssey!


YOU PLAY A CLONE OF A CLONE. SHOT TO THE SURFACE TO DO NOTHING BUT COME BACK TO THE SHIP TO RETURN THE WATCHERS TO THE PLANET.

You do this by breaking the ship, on the orders of your (now mentally challenged) clone so that the watchers can return to the surface.

Like a monkey, you solve puzzles to do this, and look happy as the Game gives you your peanuts (orbs) but never actually realize it's a REALLY BAD IDEA from a self-preservation viewpoint. Any sensible monkey would be ignoring all this ♥♥♥♥ and building their own rocket as soon as the insane clone #1 came along.

She's female, so you sympathised with her, without realizing you're female too, being a clone and all. >>>> GENDER SPANK! Mind blown!! <<<<

So, yeah, you help her, thinking you might save her (WHITE KNIGHT TROPE) but she SWAPS into the big head.

♥♥♥♥. There goes your only chance at poontang this side of Alpha Centuari.

Deus Ex Machina turns up, you don't reason with it, you cosh it over the head with your SWAPPER and then take over the rescue ship, a la ALIEN films.


In the end, you're a clone psychopath monkey.



tl;dr


It's an extended allegory about Humans, AI (Watchers = AI btw) and Climate Change. Everyone dies. Even the monkey (you're the monkey). There are no aliens. Sartre smokes another cigarette and Camus still dies in a tragic motorbike accident.



You're welcome. If you complete it fast enough you get encoded pages that might tell you how to survive. Or they might be adverts for Ovaltine. Who knows?



The hook dll may or may not be a tracker that's registering your time / progress and identifying the smart monkeys among you for "testing". Wurble Wurble Wurble.

[MartinX]

I don't really like how the story is presented - sure, you can view text logs from the terminals or the Watchers at any time, but voice lines from the Scavenger/Brains or important cutscenes? Noooo, you'd better start the game over and get to that point again if you want to mull over what was said! That would be like having no record of Alexandra Drennan's audio logs in The Talos Principle. Add to that the complete lack of a save feature and you are almost completely left in dark, unless maybe you beat the game in one go and manage to keep mental notes on everything that transpired, which I couldn't.

Was it your intention, Tom, to do it this way? For its ambiguity, The Swapper doesn't even let you piece the evidence together by hiding vital moments of the story from the player...

Anyway, something else I didn't see mentioned - if you use the Swapper on something, your mind is projected into that being - with empty clones that works great, with other people or Watchers, not so much. So, when the scavenger used the Swapper on the two brains(not sure it's explained how she did that simultaneously, were the brains connected to each other?) is she not supposed to get INTO the brains, her body becoming nothing but a lifeless shell? Why did the 3 consciousnesses(try saying that 5 times in a row) "bounce back" into the scavenger's body?

Also, what was the whole deal with those solar panels again? They were too heavy??? Really? You would think that with the ship breaking and all, you might at least want some backup POWER for the systems to handle life support/ other vital functions and the complex landing procedure??? (case in point - it may have been clearly explained by the woman, but I'll have to play the game again to see).

Finally, I consider myself very patient and eager to explore the environment in games, but never once did I even suspect that getting to the secret rooms(which I didn't even know existed until after I finished The Swapper and visited the forums) would involve CLIPPING through the damn walls. Some players may stumble upon them by sheer luck, but it's virtually impossible to just find them by playing normally, since they don't even appear on the map, not even a hint. Once again, I would like to give The Talos Principle as an example - some of the hidden "star areas" were extremely obscure, but at least the game made you aware of them being there and even how many there were in each puzzle area!!

Well, enough blabbering, I guess I'll go play the game again!