Is Coda kind of the big jerk? (spoilers)

[ZoeG]

I almost never used steam forums. I think that says something about this game. I kinda need to talk about it. Don't regrit playing this one bit. Super interesting.

For a few minutes after completeing it, I think I interupted the story being told as most people would, maybe as it was intended, as mostly being about the narrator "Daveys" short comings and self-loathing and I like that story. I can relate to those feelings as much as anyone.

I don't know how "real" the story is meant to be, or if that information is floating out there (people here seem confused too) but the more I think about the two main characters, the more I kinda dislike and distrust Coda.

Maybe I'm te only one, but does anyone else come to this conclusion? Like, if I were to act mysterious and aloof to those around me, and only allow them to see me through my art, how could I be surprised when they misunderstand me? How could I lay that all on them as if I'm not at all responsible?

What do you do when you feel wronged? Do you confront the person and have a straight forward honest disscussion? Or do you find their deepest insecurities and rub salt in their wounds?

I've written way too much, I'm probably overthinking it by now. Man, this game screwed me up.

[towwl]

I don't know, maybe Coda never really wanted to be friends with Davey and wasn't the kind of person that would outright say "Please leave me alone" at the time they met, putting Coda in this awkward situation where he's gone so long with this "friendship" because of his fear of hurting another person. Only until Davey released his work to the world without consent was Coda convinced that he wouldn't feel bad about leaving Davey in the dust. Seeing as Davey blatantly was using the relationship to just to feel good about himself, Coda was justified in the blunt dismissal.

It's debatable if that would be the best way to handle it in real life, but in a narrative it works well.

[Knave]

We can't really know exactly how Coda treated Davey, but interpreting Codas as kind of a jerk is far from unreasonable. Certainly there were gentler ways to say what needed to be said - but perhaps Coda tried and Davey never relays that information. So much of the actual relationship of the two characters and the character of Coda is left unsaid that we can really only guess.

[Heisenburger]

Coda is not real. This whole game is an experiment that works.

[ed]

Originally posted by guthrie:

Maybe I'm te only one, but does anyone else come to this conclusion? Like, if I were to act mysterious and aloof to those around me

I think it's important to remember that this is only Coda's interaction with one person specifically, at best a casual acquaintance he's keeping in contact with via the internet or something. Not only that, but a casual acquaintance with boundary issues who is projecting his own problems onto Coda and creating this elaborate fantasy version of a real person he doesn't actually know well at all. And then using that as a justification to alter Coda's work as he sees fit, then show it to other people without permission.

Like I said in another thread, Coda might be a kooky recluse but he's not the one in the wrong here. He didn't actually owe all his emotions and innermost thoughts to Random Guy He Met At A Game Jam Once. Showing somebody a map you made in a video game does not make you responsible for anything, nor is it a contract that leaves you owing them friendship and a personal bond with you.

I do have sympathy for both characters, but Davey's the one that messed up.

[ZoeG]

Originally posted by Knave:

We can't really know exactly how Coda treated Davey, but interpreting Codas as kind of a jerk is far from unreasonable. Certainly there were gentler ways to say what needed to be said - but perhaps Coda tried and Davey never relays that information. So much of the actual relationship of the two characters and the character of Coda is left unsaid that we can really only guess.

Good point. I think a huge part of this IS that we have the unreliable narrator- meaning we are probably not being told the whole story.

[ComeOnAndSam]

Misunderstanding someone can be easy, it Coda was obviouslly a bit odd mentally. Having a friend say they don't want to talk to you anymore is exactly the same as a breakup with a boy/girlfriend you didn't expect to happen. It comes out of nowhere, then you look back on it and THINK that you probably messed up there there and there and caused a big snowball effect you didn't even notice.

[Mikel S]

Obviously at some point Coda thought there was some reason to share his creations with Davey, which shows some amount of trust, you might correlate to a friendship. I think he just disliked Davey reading into them. He wanted Davey to like them as they were, not look for a deeper meaning. If there was one, it was so deep that he wanted to keep that much for himself.

(I know it's a fiction, and I don't know why, but contrary to every other game on this forum I feel I need to point that out here, or else I'll be reemed)

[Astrydax]

Yeah, CODA doesn't exist. Coda is an earlier version of himself (Davey), Kinda like the phone booth section where you're talking to your earlier self still trapped in the prison. Davey Made all of these games inside the Beginners Guide. If you're looking for closure after playing this game, I would highly suggest playing "The Stanley Parable" one of Davey's earlier games. You really get a feel for what he's touching on after you've played that game as well. (add me I have several extra copies of Stanley parable to give out for this exact reason). I've been following Davey for years now. So let me shed some light on a few things real quick.

1) Video games are a modern art form. Thousands of years ago you had sculptures, then you had paintings, then animated films, music and audio visuals. These were all creative outlets for artist made possible by the tools available to them at the time. In this present day, that art form is now video games. It's kind of hard to understand games in this way with titles like halo and call of duty even bioshock and any game with big name company on it, because those games are designed to SELL and to ENTERTAIN. But think of it like this, we used to have paintings because paint was an available tool at the time; computers were not. Leonardo da Vinci didn't create the Mona Lisa so that it could be sold and enjoyed, it was created to be taken as it was and appreciated for just that. This is exactly what The Beginners Guide is supposed to be, something to be taken for exactly what it is. It's not a game in the sense that you beat it or get a high score or anything. It is simply the product of an artists work manifested in the form of interactive audiovisuals known as video games.

2) After Davey released The Stanley Parable (his first huge success) he fell into a deep state of depression. I won't go into explaining it simply to avoid the great injustice it would be to misrepresent what was going on in his life. Instead, here is a link to his website under the name of his old company Galactic Cafe (the company name that Stanley Parable was released under). On the front page, its a bit of read, but he's goes into great detail as to what was going on in his life at the time. http://www.galactic-cafe.com/


These next points are going to be irrelevant if you haven't yet read the article from Davey on the above link.

3) Coda is not a real person. If when you load the game up, and look at the icon for it you will notice this symbol of a circle with a cross extending throughout the circles border. This symbol is called a Coda in music composition (don't look up a dictionary definition for this word Coda because most definitions are partially inaccurate) . A Coda is used to signify the end of a movement in a peace of music. For example, a Symphony is a type classical composition that has Four distinct movements, each movement has its own tone and feel with the first and last movements being nearly the same. The Coda symbol would be used on the sheet music to signify that the current movement has ended and likewise signifies that a new movement is beginning. If that sounds familiar, that's because this is exactly what the door puzzle is: You've reached the end of something, you take a brief moment and pause before continue to the next movement, or in this case, before opening the second door.

4) If you read the blog post you will see that this entire game:The Beginners Guide is Davey's own Coda, his own door puzzle. He was very depressed for a long time with game design, he's always strived for a connection between him and his audience and you'll notice that if you've played the Stanley Parable. at the end of The Tower level there's a quote from 'Coda' on the wall saying "I can't help you, and that's OK, you're not mine to fix". This is actually Davey passively SPEAKING TO YOU AS THE PLAYER. Davey felt very disconnected from his audience that played his games and very connected to his games himself. So for people to not understand his games and games being all he knows, he felt like he didn't know himself anymore. The Beginners Guide is Davey's attempt to bridge that gap, to help his audience better understand that you don't have to have a solution, to help people understand to just take his games for what they are. In part, by doing this Davey feels that if he can bridge that gap and bring people to understand his games, he can repair himself by gaining that connection with his audience. And by doing this, Davey's is walking through the door puzzle closing that second door on the depression filled part of his life and moving forward.


Please note that I have no external proof for any of this to be truth other than the examples I have provided. This is simply my interpretation of my favorite game developer that I believe to be true. All I can hope is that my interpretation of this is accurate and that I've reached a connection of understanding that Davey has strived for.


-Astrydax-

[ZoeG]

Wow. that theory does make a lot of sense, and sort of fits in thematically I men, I don't think we can be 100% sure about much of this- I've just heard he's planning to not talk about the game or do any sort of interview about it for a good long time. But still, that is a pretty satisfactory answer. My question was phrased just assuming it was meant to be a more literal story, but this kinda makes it all fit together better now.

this game remind me of the days when my depression get the absolute worst, and momments when I look back confused trying to figure outhow I was ever content with anything.

I do love gamey-games. I enjoy a first person shooter now and then, and am excited to have just picked up Rock Band 4, but I do hope we see some more games like this. In other forms of art its not uncommon for artists to show their ownvulnerablity. theres always something so profound about it, I think. I think it'd be a good thing to see in games more. It offers a sort ofemotional experience like nothing else.

I feel pretensious now.

[Astrydax]

Originally posted by guthrie:

Wow. that theory does make a lot of sense, and sort of fits in thematically I men, I don't think we can be 100% sure about much of this- I've just heard he's planning to not talk about the game or do any sort of interview about it for a good long time. But still, that is a pretty satisfactory answer. My question was phrased just assuming it was meant to be a more literal story, but this kinda makes it all fit together better now.

this game remind me of the days when my depression get the absolute worst, and momments when I look back confused trying to figure outhow I was ever content with anything.

I do love gamey-games. I enjoy a first person shooter now and then, and am excited to have just picked up Rock Band 4, but I do hope we see some more games like this. In other forms of art its not uncommon for artists to show their ownvulnerablity. theres always something so profound about it, I think. I think it'd be a good thing to see in games more. It offers a sort ofemotional experience like nothing else.

I feel pretensious now.

Dont feel pretentious. User response and opinions and picking the players mind is a huge reason why he made this. If you watch the video on the store page it says: "take all of these images, hold them in your mind and now try to imagine without having ever met this person who they are. Ok, lets do it. Lets find out if you're right."