Games

21230 readers

197 users here now

Tabletop, DnD, board games, and minecraft. Also Animal Crossing.

Rules

No racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, or transphobia. Don't care if it's ironic don't post comments or content like that here.
Mark spoilers
No bad mouthing sonic games here :no-copyright:
No gamers allowed :soviet-huff:
No squabbling or petty arguments here. Remember to disengage and respect others choice to do so when an argument gets too much
Anti-Edelgard von Hresvelg trolling will result in an immediate ban from c/games and submitted to the site administrators for review. :silly-liberator:

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

jack@hexbear.net

RiotDoll@hexbear.net

Disco Elysium question: What was the point of the prion disease? (hexbear.net)

submitted 5 days ago by BanMeFromPosting@hexbear.net to c/games@hexbear.net

27 comments fedilink hide all child comments

In disco Elysium you live in a nation some time after a failed socialist revolution. Said revolution was sparked off, in part, due to an infectious Prion virus-disease-thing. I never really understood it, neither in game nor metatextually.
Was there actually a virus? Why did it make people socialist?
And metatextually: why make it part of the story? DE has a lot of esoteric stuff going on - the insulidian phasmid, the actual presence of divinity and weird holes in the world. But that stuff usually, to me at least, serves some sort of clear parallel to the real world and a way to critique it - Wonders and loss of nature, climate change, spirituality getting coopted by the state, so on and so forth. Or not exactly clear purposes, but it doesn't strike me as something that's coming completely out of the blue.
The prion disease kind of is. I can see how a plague could lead to social unrest, the game however makes an effort to make it clear it was the disease itself. And also, why make it prion if it was just regular old "plague makes people angry"? Even if that's part of the explanation, there must be more to it.

So whats your take?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Esoteir@hexbear.net 50 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (24 children)

dubois-depressed "What did this tzaraath do?"

joyce-messier "It made people overthrow their governments."

dubois-depressed "Wow, really?"

joyce-messier "Of course not. It was a highly infectious microorganism that destroyed brain tissue. The actual causes of the Revolution were material. The pandemic only provided the spark."

the game makes it pretty explicit it was the unrest caused by the government failing to contain the disease, and not the disease itself that caused the revolution, the person that says the revolution was caused by the disease itself is measurehead lmao

[–] BanMeFromPosting@hexbear.net 10 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (23 children)

That's also delivered to you by Joyce who is an agent of capital. I trust her as much as I trust Measurehead.

edit: and still: why Prion?

[–] Esoteir@hexbear.net 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I trust her as much as I trust Measurehead.

measurehead "THE REVOLUTION CAME TO REVACHOL FROM GRAAD, IN TZARAATH-RIDDEN POTATO CARTS -- IT IS LITERALLY AN ILLNESS. A PRION DISEASE THAT LEAVES THE PARIETAL AND FRONTAL LOBE RIDDEN WITH HOLES. A SOFT, SPONGELIKE MASS OF DEMENTIA, HALLUCINATIONS, AND PARANOIA... THE REVOLUTION IS FATAL FAMILIAL INSOMNIA. A HEREDITARY PRION CONDITION PASSED FROM THE KOJKO TO THE OCCIDENTALS..." He pauses in theoretic self-reflection. "BUT NOT SEXUALLY, PROBABLY THROUGH TRADE ROUTES AND POTATE-ACID, THE PRIME COMPONENT OF THE POTATO PLANT..."

well considering that the disease itself is only discussed by two people, measurehead and someone who is an awful person driven by capital but despite that still admits that the revolution wasn't a brain disease and that the communists might have built something better than the coalition if they had won, i think joyce is the much more reasonable source here lmao

[–] BanMeFromPosting@hexbear.net 4 points 5 days ago (2 children)

You're right, I'm being a bit of a dismissive dick. I'm sorry. I remembered it as if it was way weirder and didn't have a definitive answer thru Joyce like that - It just bothers me it basically boils down to "covid but revolution came". I like your literary explanation of the brainworms like that.
To me it still feels like there is some unanswered bit, but I can't put words to it, so who knows what it is. I just generally find the tzaraath a weird detail I suppose.

[–] Esoteir@hexbear.net 6 points 5 days ago

it's all good, im searching through the text using the disco elysium explorer site bc it's been like three years since i played DE so im working off of the literal text than what i barely remembered like an hour ago

i think purpleworm nailed it more than i did, the writers choosing a prion disease makes complete sense to me now under that lens

[–] Chronographs@lemmy.zip 5 points 5 days ago

I think they also just liked the imagery of a disease that literally puts holes in your brain for . Literal brainworms would be too on the nose

load more comments (21 replies)