How to Beat Every DEATH GAME Ever

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If you were forced into a game of life or death, what would you do? Your answer may be more revealing than you think...

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[MinisDunyasi]

If I were in a life-and-death situation where I had lost my loved ones, which is often the case for main characters, I don’t think I would have the motivation, energy or courage to fight to survive.

[JeremyMaldonadoSTK]

Gotta be honest, it's easier to assume you would ace all these traps while you have minutes upon minutes to calmly and rationally dissect the traps which is something the characters never have

[Drewer]

"Because, as it turns out you are, already in, the most challenging Death Game, of them all" kudos, nice quote

[briankelly]

Ooof, opened with a hard line, "kind of already in a death game." Exactly, humans are wired to anticipate and overcome danger/death, but it finds us all eventually.

[TheDragonfriday]

A lot of asia shows has this death game thing. It just happens squad game got popular recently

[Bob-lrxp]

This self-insert into death games is very similar to self-insert into zombie apocalypses during the 2000s. "What's your zombie plan" was a popular topic among friends. The idea of coming up with a survival strategy to live in a world infested with undead was fun.

Part of it was the fun of problem-solving, but another part was human narcissism. All human civilization fell to the undead hordes and billions of people died, but NOT ME! Yes, I have a panic attack if I have to ask a waitress to correct a mistake with my meal, but I'd TOTALLY survive in a Mad Max wasteland!

[Crazor]

I think there is another reason why they are popular. The need to solve problems.

Not specifically risk, but the games are usually designed to at least have a chance to win.
A game/challenge that is designed to have no winner or can't be beaten, is usually considered to be bad design, and even if the chance is low, the games/challenges are most of the time designed to be beaten by an regular person. They present problems, and they usually have solutions, so the question becomes, how would you solve this problem? Other types of media have this less, because the situations they involve situations that are so much beyond (Most) human capacity that they can't realisitcally be solved by someone (without a particular set of skills at least), but games can are ussually designed to be beaten.

It's kind of like a riddle or puzzle, once we see a situation, we wonder what the anwser is, and we start to analyse, see if there are ways the makers of these stories forgot.
This is not exclusive to these kind of death games, but they are the one that pose the question the most loudly, due to it being asked of the character in the story. It asks the protagonist of the story to see the situation in front of them, and find a solution with these rules, and since we have all the same info, the viewer can ask this too.
It makes you reflect and think about the solution, similiarly to how a great mystery story makes you think about the mystery and wonder how to solve it.

[PossumsAreNice]

I feel like this video is missing times were the fact that it is a death game is used to add to story. Like in The Hunger Games, the fact that the wealthy and elite Capital is making a literal game out of the death of actual children from a lower class really cements how they see them as less then human and how warped their minds have become from their status. Same thing with Squid Game’s death game. And while I’m not as familiar with Japanese culture at the time of Battle Royal, I’ve heard it has a similar sort of commentary. This is not to say that ever death game story has to be some commentary on society to be good (see Danganronpa and Your Turn To Die) but anyone who watches these stories for the actual story will tell you, if you just make it a gory spectacle, the story will fall flat

[hmart]

So far, I survived ALL of them popcorn movies. -- Good work here!

[tomsmurf]

Id like to a series that focuses on the aftermath of the death game. Imagine the protagonist is in need of cash and joins a Squid game-esque death game where he can win a huge sum of money. Hes a selfish jerk who manages to win by tricking, lying, and killing the other contestants with little remorse. He wins a huge sum of money and is sent home... but then the game master releases video of him in the game that showcases his behavior, and he now has to deal with the repercussions of the awful things he did.

[Babbleplay]

I'd argue 'How To Beat', while they have covered many death games, is more about surviving horror movies.

[cagedcreature]

There is two death games that should get more attention. The manga, The gods will, and the video game, 999: 9 hours, 9 persons, 9 doors.

[Lis-ard]

I can never just "normally" consume media; I love to dig deeper and examine all its layers. I've only been a subscriber for a couple of months but I love your videos! I especially hope to see more character studies in the future ❤

[Schadrach]

One thing you don't see often is a death game that isn't actually the centerpiece of the plot. An exception is Pale by J.C. McCrae. In it there is a sort of sentient magical ritual known as the Hungry Choir by the main cast or the Devouring Song by most of the participants.

The prize? All injuries caused during the game are completely restored and you never have to worry about food, drink, or drugs again. No harm will befall you for anything you do or don't consume, you maintain your ideal weight regardless of how much or little you eat, and the universe bends over backwards to not get between you and indulging in whatever way you choose. Don't want to ever eat again? Sure thing. Want to do enough heroin to kill a herd of elephants? That's fine, you can't OD and the drugs always seem to find. Etc, etc.

The ritual itself is also engaged in a sort of death game - it requires power to sustain itself, and it gets that power by consuming losers and loses it by paying out to winners.

They eventually contain it by bringing a former winner back into the game and having them eat the being at the center of it - it can't stop them because that would be getting between them and their meal.

[Archonagon]

The funny thing about SAW, is the number of people who still don't know or get how all of the movies interconnect. Putting aside judging how well it may or may not be done, there is an overarching story throughout all of it.

[Hd]

9:57 you can probably go through the gaps and escape or go along the Z axis.

[CloudPhase]

Personally, I don't think it has to do with risk at all, in fact I think that's what stops people wanting to be in these scenarios at 'almost' is the risk. I think what really causes the self-insert fantasies is just the problem solving, building intuition for your own future; the same reason for what many people think the reason we dream is for.

[Talisguy]

The strangest version of this I saw was trying to apply "how to survive x" logic to a Junji Ito story.

Junji Ito.

The logic always comes secondary to the themes with Ito stories, and a recurring source of horror in his work is that the horrific things that happen to his protagonists _are not fair._ There is no comprehension, no justice, no catharsis and often no way to escape. If Saw was a Junji Ito story, then the key to unlock the trap you were stuck in would turn into a venomous snake as soon as you grabbed it. It's the worst kind of story to try to "outdo the protagonists" of.

[stetonwalters]

There's nothing more cruel than pure rationality. For there is no good or evil no morality only what is and what's not what you must do to survive and how far you are to go to survive

[jeffthepuppetYT]

Good timing on this upload, I'm a game designer asking this exact question at the moment. Definitely gave me more food for thought. :)