Post by Weirdraptor mini™ on May 12, 2023 20:32:43 GMT -5
I've always loved insane game theories. Some of the ways people interpret art can be really out there, and gaming is no exception. And I don't mean weakass theories like the Indoctrination from Mass Effect 3, various Zelda theories and some meta ones like communist symbolism in Mario and that kind of nonsense. Or the Donkey Kong Country game symbolic of the Central American Banana Wars. No no, I go for the hard stuff. The Crystal Meth, Cream of the Crop among insane gaming theories. One of my favorites is one especially deranged one called "The Silent Hill Circumcision Theory". This one is just *chef's kiss*
The Silent Hill Circumcision Theory:
For reference,
The Silent Hill Circumcision Theory:
For reference,
{Silent Hill background}Silent Hill is a video game franchise created and produced by Konami. It is considered one of the defining examples of the Survival Horror AND the Psychological Horror genres, with the games being critically acclaimed for their story, atmosphere, sound design and soundtrack.
The series surrounds various events which occur in the eponymous fictional American lakeside resort town. Even before the location became known to a slew of disappearances, murders, and mysterious activity (mostly owing to the existence of a demon-worshipping cult called The Order), Native Americans called the area "land of the spirits" before it was cursed by the cult's activities.
It left unknown if the cult's actions are to blame, or if the land was already one big dimensional distortion, but Silent Hill is host to multiple layers of reality. To people who have never gone through something utterly traumatic and/or devastating, it's your average Americana tourist attraction. But to individuals who have suffered greatly and/or done horrible things, it becomes a long-abandoned, desolate town that's empty of any life save for other lost wanderers and horrific abominations which roam its streets. And beyond even that lies the crumbling ruin that is the Otherworld: a burning, rusty place that may as well be Hell itself.
In stark comparison to most games in the survival horror genre, the game focuses succinctly on psychological horror. Every protagonist has an internal struggle that the town itself takes hold of, altering its very environment and the creatures they'll encounter based on their psyche. As the result, no two games in the series (at least not when it was still being made by Team Silent, its creators) were alike, because the dev team would literally have to rebuild the game world from the ground to match whatever psychological damage the latest unfortunate protagonist had going on. The series is quite fond of using the fear of unknown and leading the player on to believe something is creeping around in the immediate vicinity without ever showing them what it is. The developers always made great use of surreal imagery and symbolism, often relying on the abstract instead of goriness. And no, none of it ever had anything to do with cutting foreskin off a baby's weewee.
The first four games in the Silent Hill franchise were developed by an internal team at Konami called "Team Silent", which consisted of "outcast" staff members who had failed to work well on other projects at the studio. Most of them had planned to leave the company due to clashing with the creative vision of the studio (something that would become a trend with the company until it threw in the towel with video game development and turned to making casinos). Work on the first Silent Hill even floundered because of Konami being Konami, with it only progressing after the company lost faith in the project and decided to leave the team to their own devices rather than cancel the game, thanks to the title's low budget. Team Silent used the newfound freedom to switch gears to a psychological horror experience inspired by director Keiichiro Toyama's interest in the occult and the works of David Lynch. Positive reception to early demos reinvigorated Konami's interest in the project, with the company giving Team Silent more money and personnel to finish the game, which would go on to be a global critical and commercial success. Althought director Keiichiro Toyama still left Konami regardless (becausr who wouldn't?) to create the Forbidden Siren franchise at Sony Computer Entertainment.
Following Silent Hill 4, Konami disbanded the Team Silent in favor of having various Western studios develop new games in the franchise, because that was the popular thing for Japanese game companies to attempt between 2005-2015 with the revamped Ninja Gaiden series being one of very, very few successes to come out of this attempted "Westernization".
Many of these American-made Silent Hill games, especially the spin-off entries, would see mixed critical and fan reception at best, but they never got anywhere close to mass acclaim of the original tetralogy. The last mainline game was released in 2012's Silent Hill: Downpour, and the last major project in development was Silent Hills, which would have been a collaboration between Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro. The game was announced in a stealth announcement via a surprise trailer unlocked at the end of a free, seemingly-unrelated horror game called P.T. (Playable Trailer) in 2014. P.T. was released to universal love and acclaim with literally millions clamoring to the finished game it would become, but then the project was cancelled because Konami could not play nice with Kojima, who wasn't just some random developer they hired, but was one of their top developers. These arguments led to Kojima leaving the company the following year, with the publisher removing the P.T. demo from distribution for good measure. From 2015 to 2021, the franchise has been in a limbo, with the only new content being Konami's slot machiens at their casinos, and crossovers with other horror games; specifically Dead by Daylight and Dark Deception.
We are allegedly getting new Silent Hill games soon, but I'm not holding my breath.
The series surrounds various events which occur in the eponymous fictional American lakeside resort town. Even before the location became known to a slew of disappearances, murders, and mysterious activity (mostly owing to the existence of a demon-worshipping cult called The Order), Native Americans called the area "land of the spirits" before it was cursed by the cult's activities.
It left unknown if the cult's actions are to blame, or if the land was already one big dimensional distortion, but Silent Hill is host to multiple layers of reality. To people who have never gone through something utterly traumatic and/or devastating, it's your average Americana tourist attraction. But to individuals who have suffered greatly and/or done horrible things, it becomes a long-abandoned, desolate town that's empty of any life save for other lost wanderers and horrific abominations which roam its streets. And beyond even that lies the crumbling ruin that is the Otherworld: a burning, rusty place that may as well be Hell itself.
In stark comparison to most games in the survival horror genre, the game focuses succinctly on psychological horror. Every protagonist has an internal struggle that the town itself takes hold of, altering its very environment and the creatures they'll encounter based on their psyche. As the result, no two games in the series (at least not when it was still being made by Team Silent, its creators) were alike, because the dev team would literally have to rebuild the game world from the ground to match whatever psychological damage the latest unfortunate protagonist had going on. The series is quite fond of using the fear of unknown and leading the player on to believe something is creeping around in the immediate vicinity without ever showing them what it is. The developers always made great use of surreal imagery and symbolism, often relying on the abstract instead of goriness. And no, none of it ever had anything to do with cutting foreskin off a baby's weewee.
The first four games in the Silent Hill franchise were developed by an internal team at Konami called "Team Silent", which consisted of "outcast" staff members who had failed to work well on other projects at the studio. Most of them had planned to leave the company due to clashing with the creative vision of the studio (something that would become a trend with the company until it threw in the towel with video game development and turned to making casinos). Work on the first Silent Hill even floundered because of Konami being Konami, with it only progressing after the company lost faith in the project and decided to leave the team to their own devices rather than cancel the game, thanks to the title's low budget. Team Silent used the newfound freedom to switch gears to a psychological horror experience inspired by director Keiichiro Toyama's interest in the occult and the works of David Lynch. Positive reception to early demos reinvigorated Konami's interest in the project, with the company giving Team Silent more money and personnel to finish the game, which would go on to be a global critical and commercial success. Althought director Keiichiro Toyama still left Konami regardless (becausr who wouldn't?) to create the Forbidden Siren franchise at Sony Computer Entertainment.
Following Silent Hill 4, Konami disbanded the Team Silent in favor of having various Western studios develop new games in the franchise, because that was the popular thing for Japanese game companies to attempt between 2005-2015 with the revamped Ninja Gaiden series being one of very, very few successes to come out of this attempted "Westernization".
Many of these American-made Silent Hill games, especially the spin-off entries, would see mixed critical and fan reception at best, but they never got anywhere close to mass acclaim of the original tetralogy. The last mainline game was released in 2012's Silent Hill: Downpour, and the last major project in development was Silent Hills, which would have been a collaboration between Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro. The game was announced in a stealth announcement via a surprise trailer unlocked at the end of a free, seemingly-unrelated horror game called P.T. (Playable Trailer) in 2014. P.T. was released to universal love and acclaim with literally millions clamoring to the finished game it would become, but then the project was cancelled because Konami could not play nice with Kojima, who wasn't just some random developer they hired, but was one of their top developers. These arguments led to Kojima leaving the company the following year, with the publisher removing the P.T. demo from distribution for good measure. From 2015 to 2021, the franchise has been in a limbo, with the only new content being Konami's slot machiens at their casinos, and crossovers with other horror games; specifically Dead by Daylight and Dark Deception.
We are allegedly getting new Silent Hill games soon, but I'm not holding my breath.