Three Dots Meaning Possibly Explained

[Beepin]

This has some spoilers, but I'm going out on a limb here and going to assume that everyone who's played this game did it in one sitting.

The level with the notes has one in particular that when you come to the "dots" painting says "up close, it looks like just a bunch of dots." This note is located directly underneath the painting, and I believe this to be the answer to the 3 dots placed throughout the game.

Alone, up close, for the first time, when you come across the 3 dots.

You might think, "What is this? What a strange thing to be here." And think nothing of it, or possibly ignore it all-together.
But then you come across them same 3 dots again, and you might think, "Oh, so this is a conscious design choice to be placed in certain/random/secret locations." And wonder if you'll come across more.
And after seeing it the 5th time, you might have thought, "What do these mean? Are these important later? I keep seeing these again and again. What's the deal?"

My point is that the painting in the "notes" level is just a bunch of dots... When you stand up close to it... But...

When you stand away from it, you see a composition. You see a piece of art, something to be discussed, something that is more than just "dots"... A picture.

And every picture is worth a thousand words.

Which is why everyone keeps talking about the 3 dots. Alone, they're nothing special. If they were just in one of the levels, they might not mean anything. But because they're part of a composition that spreads across multiple levels, they become a piece... A set that begs for an answer as to why they are all over, and why 3 dots?

Unfortunately, I doubt the 3 dots themselves actually contain a meaning, but all the dots in all the levels are the actual meaning. Similar to how one brick is insignificant, but a house made of bricks is. The dots being an art-piece IS the secret.

[takua108]

I love this. This is the kind of stuff I hope to keep reading about this game. I had never connected the "three dots" with the painting.

[ed]

Messaggio originale di Beepin:

Unfortunately, I doubt the 3 dots themselves actually contain a meaning

IMO the implication is that they do, but it was something personal to Coda and none of Davey's business. Which is why Coda refused to ever tell him despite Davey's (apparently repeated) demands to be told the meaning.

Basically their relationship in miniature.

[Beepin]

Messaggio originale di ed:

Messaggio originale di Beepin:

Unfortunately, I doubt the 3 dots themselves actually contain a meaning

IMO the implication is that they do, but it was something personal to Coda and none of Davey's business. Which is why Coda refused to ever tell him despite Davey's (apparently repeated) demands to be told the meaning.

I understand that nobody is exactly sure who Coda is yet, but I think the general concensus is that Coda IS Davey, and/or Coda is a fictional character used to tell the story.

I think that Davey made the 3 dots piece as a way to get people thinking about art.

[BearPajamaGod!]

I thought it might stand for Davey's Inner Dialogue because also in the painting room level every note written by Coda (which in turn would be written by Davey) has three dots.

[Beepin]

Messaggio originale di SuaveDoof GET ALGÆ'D:

I thought it might stand for Davey's Inner Dialogue because also in the painting room level every note written by Coda (which in turn would be written by Davey) has three dots.

I'm starting to think that the 3 dots are actually a common icon used in web browsers (a unicode character that is 3 dots).

I think they might have something to do with an email icon or something, but I swear I've seen it as an indicative symbol on the internet before.

[BearPajamaGod!]

Messaggio originale di Beepin:

Messaggio originale di SuaveDoof GET ALGÆ'D:

I thought it might stand for Davey's Inner Dialogue because also in the painting room level every note written by Coda (which in turn would be written by Davey) has three dots.

I'm starting to think that the 3 dots are actually a common icon used in web browsers (a unicode character that is 3 dots).

I think they might have something to do with an email icon or something, but I swear I've seen it as an indicative symbol on the internet before.

Its the symbol you get in chats such as facebook wh3en someone is writing a message.

[ed]

Messaggio originale di Beepin:

I understand that nobody is exactly sure who Coda is yet, but I think the general concensus is that Coda IS Davey, and/or Coda is a fictional character used to tell the story.

I don't disagree, and that doesn't really negate what I was getting at. :P Which was:

Messaggio originale di Beepin:

I think that Davey made the 3 dots piece as a way to get people thinking about art.

The only time the three dots are acknowledged is as a reference to Davey's need for validation/to interfere with and make himself a part of Coda's work/the general audience tendency to say TELL ME WHAT IT MEANS.

It's basically predicting exactly how the audience is going to react to the three dots. Davey's the one always wanting to change the game to get validation from the audience (and find, invent or demand meaning and explanations in the process), and Coda's the one making the games for himself and saying "the dots are there for me, stop projecting, it's none of your business why I put them there."

[BearPajamaGod!]

Messaggio originale di ed:

Messaggio originale di Beepin:

I understand that nobody is exactly sure who Coda is yet, but I think the general concensus is that Coda IS Davey, and/or Coda is a fictional character used to tell the story.

I don't disagree, and that doesn't really negate what I was getting at. :P Which was:

Messaggio originale di Beepin:

I think that Davey made the 3 dots piece as a way to get people thinking about art.

The only time the three dots are acknowledged is as a reference to Davey's need for validation/to interfere with and make himself a part of Coda's work/the general audience tendency to say TELL ME WHAT IT MEANS.

It's basically predicting exactly how the audience is going to react to the three dots. Davey's the one always wanting to change the game to get validation from the audience (and find, invent or demand meaning and explanations in the process), and Coda's the one making the games for himself and saying "the dots are there for me, stop projecting, it's none of your business."

Bringing me to a point I made earlier this morning and that is we the consumers are Davey(obsessed with wanting to know what it all means) and Davey is Coda.

[ed]

Messaggio originale di SuaveDoof GET ALGÆ'D:

Bringing me to a point I made earlier this morning and that is we the consumers are Davey and Davey is Coda.

The real-life Davey has written too much about his personal problems for game Davey to not be mostly based on himself. But in this instance I think you're right, or at least it's that part of himself that compulsively wants to give the audience what they want in order to get that validation he struggles with, even if it ends in poisoning the thing that was making him happy. (He keeps wanting to give us explanations of everything else in Coda's games for the same reason, just like it drove him to show Coda's games to those other people in the story.)

EDIT: Basically, that's the Davey that his own personal problems PLUS the effect of the audience was turning him into.

[Snorlax Is H4x]

The three dots appear before the door puzzles and I believe they are linked. The door puzzles represent closing the door on a concept to pursue a new one. The game explores the idea of 2 doors and a "dark space" in between. It also explores concepts of past, present and future. I believe the dots are the 2 doors and the middle one is the space between the doors, the place for reflection. This is also a metaphor for the past present and future, the middle dot being the present.

The uniformity of the dots shape, size and color might be a reference to another concept the game explores which is how things are linked. One part of the game talks about how the future lies in the past and another part has you talk to "yourself" in a past version of a prison game. The game also has reoccurring themes and this is punctuated by the whisper machine from the beginning of the game being at the very end of the game. The past, present and future are all a continuum that constantly shape each other.

[Beepin]

Messaggio originale di Snorlax Is H4x:

The three dots appear before the door puzzles and I believe they are linked.

...

The uniformity of the dots shape, size and color might be a reference to another concept the game explores which is how things are linked.

While possible, I think that here's really no grounds to connect those things unless we look at everything in the game that relates to the number 3.

There's quite a few instances with 3 answers that you can choose from.
The game has 3 characters, including Coda, Davey, and the crying woman.
You walk through 3 doors on the last level.

It's simply too easy to say that 3 of anything in the game represents the 3 dots.

[Snorlax Is H4x]

Messaggio originale di Beepin:

Messaggio originale di Snorlax Is H4x:

The three dots appear before the door puzzles and I believe they are linked.

...

The uniformity of the dots shape, size and color might be a reference to another concept the game explores which is how things are linked.

While possible, I think that here's really no grounds to connect those things unless we look at everything in the game that relates to the number 3.

There's quite a few instances with 3 answers that you can choose from.
The game has 3 characters, including Coda, Davey, and the crying woman.
You walk through 3 doors on the last level.

It's simply too easy to say that 3 of anything in the game represents the 3 dots.

Umm I didnt just randomly list things that occur in threes in the game. These are important concepts the game explores that relate to the dots. The dots occur right before the puzzle doors and the puzzle doors represent a concept that visually relates to the dots, 3 spaces in a row and the middle one slightly offset representing the dark space which is slightly diffrent form the other two and lies between them. Its also mention that this space is for reflecting on the other two (which are also a metophor for past and future) this is why it's slightly offset. I don't know why you made this post, it's like you didnt read mine. I agree with your example of the people being a frivolous interpretation, but that does not discredit my theory in any way.

[takua108]

look I'll just say what we're all thinking

Half-Life 3 confirmed

ok that's out of the way nobody else needs to say it, back to actual discussion

[Beepin]

Messaggio originale di Snorlax Is H4x:

I don't know why you made this post, it's like you didnt read mine. I agree with your example of the people being a frivolous interpretation, but that does not discredit my theory in any way.

I apologize for any dicredit implied in my post towards your hypothesis. What I meant to convey is that, while possible, I feel as though that would be an unworthy explanation.
If what you're saying is true, then how great of an easter-egg is that? Aren't the chambers of the doors in each level anyways? Why make a symbol in each level that represents the thing in each level?

If it were the solution, it wouldn't be a very amazing one at that, and it may as well be 3 of anything at that point.

I think that the symbol is just TOO SIMPLE to mean anything, unless it is in direct reference to another object in the game. Maybe if we saw a dot in each chamber (the past[the level], the present [the darkness], the future[the next part of the level]), then it would make a direct correlation. As it stands, the dots are by themselves, are unrepresented in any other visual form than themselves.

This is why I believe the symbol has no meaning by itself, and is to be reflected upon after finding several of them throughout the game... Like looking at the painting in the note level. You don't look at each dot, you look at all of the dots together.

[Darkstar]

don't know if anyone mentioned it, but the machine at the end has 3 gears that are in the exact position of the 3 dots.