The Philosophy of Disco Elysium

This is a full-spoiler critique and analysis of Disco Elysium. While there are many videos that focus on the unique gameplay approach of Disco Elysium, this video attempts to analyze the game purely from a philosophical and psychoanalytic basis. This video will incorporate the philosophical inputs of these thinkers:
- Jacques Lacan
- Slavoj Zizek
- Alenka Zupancic
- G.W.F. Hegel
The video is dense in its usage of philosophical and psychoanalytic concepts, but hopefully I provide enough of a primer to familiarize you with the basics of the material. But, if you have any interest in further exploring these concepts, there is a works referenced page.
Finally, I had a bit of a cold during this recording, and my microphone set-up isn't great as it is, so I hope you can be patient with the sub-par recording. I do apologize and am working on solutions to fix this currently (sadly, there's nothing much that I could've done with the cold). Thank you for your patience and I hope you enjoy the video!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction - 00:00

Chapter I: Choices, Consequences, and a Preliminary Theory of the Role-Playing Game - 8:27

Chapter II: A Sentence of Sorts in Revachol - 21:27

Chapter III: A Zizekian Cut - 41:12

Chapter IV: Overcoming Planescape: The Contradiction of Disco Elysium - 52:57

Chapter V: What's In A Name? - 1:10:32

Conclusion - 01:15:30

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Works Referenced
Absolute Recoil by Slavoj Zizek: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2001-absolute-recoil
Absolute Recoil and Dialectical Reasoning Primer by Christian Fuchs: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Dialectic%3A-Not-just-the-Absolute-Recoil%2C-but-on-Fuchs/5ed0b094925d2f926c33ac7c0147a27e3ee784f9

Comments on the Zizek Subreddit by user Non-Author: https://www.reddit.com/r/zizek/comments/419843/%C5%BEi%C5%BEek_reading_group_absolute_recoil_introduction/cz2zgrt/
Death Drive by Todd McGowan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viYtgC5cL0E&t=44s
Joseph Anderson's Hollow Knight Critique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t1mxoMIDfY&t=182s
Less Than Nothing by Slavoj Zizek: https://www.versobooks.com/books/1523-less-than-nothing
Noah Caldwell-Gervais' Planescape Critique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_rHuBwaFdw
Reflections by R.S. Thomas: https://www.poeticous.com/r-s-thomas/reflections
The Portable Karl Marx w/ Introduction by Eugene Kamenka: https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Karl-Marx-Library/dp/014015096X
Theses on Feuerbach: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/
What is Sex? by Alenka Zupancic: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/what-sex

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On a final note, I would like to thank my friend Matt for coming up with the thumbnail for this video!

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