How Believable Is This Game?

[Twelvefield]

I read some of the threads on this forum, and it's like I understand the words but have no idea how to parse the context. It's arcane, but it's a videogame.

Why I ask is that I have distant childhood memories of my grandfather, and talking with him was much the same as dealing with the cards in the game. As I understand it now, he was fascinated by Zoroastrianism and then he became a Rosicrucean. He had some sort of work dealing with voice timbre, something like the wierding Voice from the Dune novels or maybe hypnosis, as well as stuff to do with colour powers and pyramids respectively.

I recall that he kept a library and I wasn't allowed to look at it, which meant that I snuck in and looked at the books when nobody was around. Some of the pictures were kinky, but the text was somewhat like what is described in this game, except boring and truly long-winded. After he passed, the library vanished, and I hadn't thought about it much until recently.

So does anybody have any experience with the themes in this game (that they are willing to admit to or at least lie about entertainingly)? I can't say I'm interested in studying the occult in any serious way. I recall those books, and while their ideas seem exotic and enticing, the work of slogging though all of that is something I would rather have someone else do. And I imagine the devs have done that, judging by the lore of the game. Unless it's all just made up...?

[Sintonir]

As far as I understood, devs made up all of the occult Lore in game, and tied it with real-life events(maybe also added some real world occult stuff). And also added "Secret Histories" to make it slightly more believable when it contradicts real life.

[Nick]

i've been approached by people who want me in their pyramid schemes.

[Twelvefield]

Different pyramid, my friend, but as far as I can tell the result is about the same, at least financially.

[Nakos]

The game is ... a kind of story (the main dev is after all, a writer).

The story is highly episodic, somewhat abstract, and ... shattered into a thousand pieces, none of which are in order and none of which have much in the way of indicators as to how they fit together.

It's a simulator. It sketches the shape of an occult group plumbing the mysterious depths of that which lies Beyond That Which Man Was Meant To Know.

It's ... you, sitting in a darkened room, by yourself, dealing out cards and telling yourself a story about them.

It has the shape, the tone, the je ne sais quoi of the occult, without actually being occult.

It's a quiet, thoughtful game about exploring. There's terrifying, nail-biting tension, there's exultation, there's mystery, there's boredom, tedium, there's work. Restlessness, Dread, and Fascination. Friends, enemies, colleagues ... patsies, dupes ... monsters.


Give it a try. Expect a lot of atmosphere, don't expect much action.

[Moon Mind]

Not terribly long ago, I started to listen to Lovecraft's own stories in podcast form, told by a variety of sources.

I am certain his work was a major inspiration for this game.
Being drawn to other worlds in dreams, the air thick with unseen promises and threats, the gradual alienation and disbelief of wider society... The weird pseudo-gods and the ability to summon outside things which can in turn help you complete greater rituals - all of these are themes in his works.

You can even make a painting of something summoned that by mundane accounts should not exist, which is the whole content of the short story "Pickman's Model".

And, to a modern sense of aesthetics, the original Lovecraft stories also tend to have an element of long tedium to them - they stretch on and on, repeating the same hints in slightly different ways, generally not really subtle but spoken of in veiled and excited terms (often a feel of not wanting to see, but being unable to look away) - and at the end, the inevitable revelation comes to the viewpoint character in a way which usually, from my personal perspective, makes the boredom of getting to that point fairly satisfying in retrospect, even if the reveal was no surprise to a modern reader (or listener) who has seen the influence of his work filter through society through the works and appreciation of others.

Whether or not it was intending to, the game mirrors that remarkably well - most likely, the essential basics, the different ways to navigate your abilities and resources, and even the text of the early books will become familiar and dull over time, but finding the newness of unfamiliar resources and endings is still a thrill.

On which subject - the ascension music track is awesome. I got to hear it for the first time just a couple days ago. <3

[Twelvefield]

HP Lovecraft wrote fiction, but the lore he worked from... how fictional was that? We're looking at the foundations of religious belief. Organized and orthodox religion approaches there origins one way, the occult in somewhat another, and science in yet a third, related way. Lovecraft was sensitive to all three approaches at once and successfully linked their mythologies through common themes of exploration, faith, and discovery.

I guess my original question boils down to how believable universal origins are. It's not an easy question to answer. The obvious take-away is that the forces of cosmic creation are simply too improbable to have the slightest chance to exist. Yet: here we are. It's a paradox.

Also, re-reading my OP, it does look like I'm searching for opinions as to the playability of the game as if I was new to it. That's my fault for not being clear. I am familiar enough with the mechanics of the game to have failed many times at it by now. What I was wondering was how loose or how strict the lore of the game adheres to established occult practice.

Of course Lovecraft would be an influence. There is very little today that can't be traced back to his stories in one form or another. But HP Lovecraft did't simply pull together all of his story threads out of his imagination, he was heavily influenced by nouveau movements at the turn of the previous century, which I imagine is the time period where this game is set.

Nouveau is fascinating, it's the last cultural movement that recognizes Nature as a legitimate and lethal force against Man. With Nouveau, chaos is assumed but by allying with nature perhaps chaos can be at least put into temporary abeyance. We don't think that way anymore, and it's like we've lost a sense, like going blind or deaf.

The game seems to suggest that it's possible to ascend against universal chaos, at least as an enlightened individual, but the cost is beyond measure and requires superhuman egomania.

[ficwriter79]

As I see it, the Hours are archetypes a la the Tarot (that's why there are Tarot cards featuring the Hours) and the work of Carl Jung. They are fictional, but only in the sense that their titles are made up, and they were put into pictorial/narrative form by the devs. Why do I not say "created"?

Lovecraft dreamed of Cthulhu. The Hours also have their origins in dreams, i.e. collective- unconscious imagery. That's why you spend so much time in the game dreaming, especially of a certain House. The verb doesn't say "Sleep." It says "Dream," for good reason.

For what it's worth, I follow my Dancer's path. I make wishes on the moon and meditate on the Meniscate when I need to still my soul. Do I believe she's real? Only in my mind and heart. I don't think for a second that the Hours are going to be the focus of an organized religion anytime soon.

This game has given me a fresh insight into what it means to ascend. Having grown up religious, I was taught that heaven meant unity with God and with other believers. Now I believe in ascension: transcending the boundaries of space and time, if only in your imagination.

[War Crimes Appreciator]

It is always a pain to assume something when talking with strangers on the Internet, but by growing up religious, I assume you mean Christian? Why did you stop believing in God then? Was it the corruption, the spiritual rot permeating your church, or something else?

[ficwriter79]

Yes, yes, and the whole Hell thing. I found it patently unfair that God would condemn so many people to everlasting torment for not believing certain doctrines. The Meniscate doesn't do that. ;) She favors balance in all things, and in order for it to exist, that means there must be elements TO balance, including what we call light and dark, good and evil.

There was no room for balance in my former faith. It was all or nothing, God or Satan, Paradise or Perdition. There was also no room for much questioning, inquiry, or mysticism, but that's a whole different can of worms to open. What I love about Cultist Simulator is that all the cults are equally powerful, game mechanics notwithstanding. Each cult is not mutually exclusive: you can be a member of the Temple Unceasing while also reading and appreciating the lore of the Mirror of Glory, for example. Heaven forbid we read the Kama Sutra AND the Bible in my old church!

[War Crimes Appreciator]

Your writing style suggests that you are a woman. I'm tempted to stop writing there, but let's pretend I didn't notice that for a moment.

First of all, it seems that all of humanity has a need for something to exist beyond the visible world. I'm a materialist, I do not agree with that. But, as a materialist, I cannot ignore the very obvious fact that humanity as a whole longes for some form of spiritual transcendence. From the primitive cannibal tribes in the parts of Africa where light doesn't reach to the highest nobility of Old World (and the latter can be more depraved and cruel than the former sometimes...).

This hole has to be filled with something. And it looks like, having left your old religion, you found your way into a new. The main reason organised religion exist is to satisfy that need in a lawful, controlled manner (but for the Aztecs, 'lawful' surely included a lot of murder!). Some Protestant denominations like to rail against organized churches, while being one themselves. What a bunch of hypocrites. But order is necessary to perpetuate society.

If you're the type of person who values mysticism and mystery - which is the third part of your post - there's a lot of that in the Christian tradition, mostly among Catholics though. There's also a rich thread of philosophy and theology to explore, running from Greeks to the foundations of the modern day scientific method - although, it seems that that particular thread was shattered into thousand pieces during the catastrophic events of the early XX century, but it might be just the aberration caused by our relatively close proximity.

It sounds like you had a pretty boring, uninspired church that failed to provide answers for well-known questions, such as theodicy. There are better ones out there, but frankly speaking, I left nominal Christianity over irreconcilable differences, so I'm not going to persuade you to find another church that'll likely just screw you over in a different manner. But please, do not dismiss two sound years of tradition, lore and passion just because local church sounds like it's stuffed with fools top-to-bottom.

[War Crimes Appreciator]

P.S The best Christian apologia I've come across are probably those written by C.S Lewis. I hated 'Narnia', but his short books - 'Mere Christianity', 'An abolition of Man', 'The Problem of Pain' and the others I've forgotten here are eloquent, easy to read, but nevertheless brilliant.