How To Forget A Game

We’ve all heard it before, maybe because we said it or someone around us said it… The phrase “I wish I could forget this game so I can play it for the first time again” … It’s a lovely thought, albeit an impossible request, to be able to re-experience your favorite game again completely blind. But IF we could… how would it be done? And realistically, what is the closest we could come to it? Let's take a look at a mountain of psych research that might give us as close of an answer as we can get.

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Like the first time... (0:00)
Become brilliant with Brilliant (2:55)
Ebbinghaus and letting it rest (4:28)
The science of lost details (10:06)
Okay, but how long? (12:06)
No really, HOW LONG? (15:40)
Here's your answer, don't do it (19:48)
XOXO, Gossip Girl (22:24)

▶Games Shown

Stellar Blade (2024)
Final Fantasy XIII (2009)
NieR:Automata (2017)
Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020)
Gris (2018)
Neon White (2022)
Hollow Knight (2017)
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (2023)
Tekken 8 (2024)
Elden Ring (2022)
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2024)
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (2024)
Persona 4 Golden (2012)
Final Fantasy X (2001)
Persona 5: Royal (2019)
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (2022)
Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2019)
Final Fantasy VII (1997)
Control (2019)
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim (2019)
Signalis (2022)
God of War (2018)
Hades (2020)
Alan Wake 2 (2023)
Metroid Dread (2021)
Ghost of Tsushima (2020)
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (2017)
The Last of Us (2013)
Firewatch (2016)
Death's Door (2021)
Haven (2021)
And many more… sorry didn’t have time to get title cards added to the video this time. Comment with a timestamp if you see one you want to know about!

▶Movies/TV/Anime Shown

Forrest Gump
Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo

▶Media/Clips/Considerations:

▶Music Sources (in Order):

Converging Emotions - Xenoblade Chronicles 3 OST
H U J I - Sierra's First Ride (Replay Selection).wav
Telescopic - There Came an Echo OST
Heartland - Metropolis Street Racer OST
Idealism - Nagashi
Photon - Enclosed
The Song of the Traveler - Stellar Blade OST
Eidos 7 Abandoned Station - Stellar Blade OST
Appearance of Imaginings - AI: The Somnium Files OST
Detective Pennington's on the Case - Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door Remake OST
The Snowboard - MAX speed [TURBO 002]
VS Nobodies - Kingdom Hearts II OST
Wandering Flame - Final Fantasy X OST
Main Theme - Super Smash Bros: Brawl OST
Online Menu - TEKKEN 8 OST
Infinite Azure Stage Theme - TEKKEN 7 OST
Kerusu - Drifting in Silence

▶Research Sources

(H) The Forgetting Curve

(A) Forgetting Curve

(B) Replication and Analysis of Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve

(C) Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis

(D) Flashbulb Memory: What to Know About Vivid Recall

(E) Flashbulb Memories

(F) How Long Term Memory Works

(G) The Representational Consequences of Intentional Forgetting: Impairments to Both the Probability and Fidelity of Long-Term Memory

(G2) Event-method directed forgetting: Forgetting a video segment is more effortful than remembering it

(I) A New Look at Memory Retention and Forgetting

(J) A ten-year follow-up of a study of memory for the attack of September 11, 2001: Flashbulb memories and memories for flashbulb events.

What Is The Forgetting Curve (And How Do You Combat It)?

[DarylTalksGames]

So I told him, "Hey, since Silksong ain't ever coming out, I'm just gonna pretend I've never played Hollow Knight and then play it again since it's been over 5 years" 🤷‍♂

[ethanwatercup]

And to “Seal in the Ignorance” I’ll set an alarm for 3 years just to watch this video again

[DED_C]

So, in short, what you're saying is...I should give myself a traumatic head injury? Great idea! Thanks for the inspiration as always Daryl :D

[tylerfortier]

I have memory loss from a brain injury and overdose. The silver lining to that is sometimes when I go through my backlog of played games, it really is like I'm playing the game for the first time again

[Yipper]

This is an interesting video. Its almost like the monkey's paw "I wish I could experience this game for the first time again, forget it, and fall in love with it again" and the answer is "ok, make sure you dont get attached, and you'll forget."
Which is fascinating. Because if you love something you wont forget it, but you'll in a sense, want to. But if you try to you cant really love it as much.

[lucasrondinele]

i like to see people playing it for the first time too, since you emphasize with the person first time experience and get a fraction of your original feeling too

[SuperMalachiDude]

My dad played more than 10 playthroughs of Demon Souls back when it came out. When the remake released, he could remember every detail. He might have forgotten certain things, but I watched him play his "first" playthrough of the remake and he knew exactly how to do some of the most convoluted things in that game. When I got around to playing it 2 years later, he told me about the most optimal route if I were to platinum the game.

[GameTalesHQ]

I'm happy you course-corrected at the end. I was thinking; I want to engage with the stuff I love, not just rush through it and stash it away in some dusty corner, only to revisit it years later. I really appreciated how you ended with the part about sharing—one of the greatest joys in my life is sharing my passion for video games with others, and I know it's the same for you. I really enjoyed this one—thanks!

[samquezada]

Moments in gaming i would like to play again blind:
- Coming down from the great plateau in Zelda BOTW
- Hearing the song of the City of Tears as I enter in it in Hollow Knight
- Hearing "Compass" as I ride towards my family in RDR 1
- Beating Ganon for the first time in Zelda OOT

[bassistheplace]

“Seal in the Ignorance” would be a dope ass slogan for Outer Wilds or Tunic. I would sell my left kidney to play those games blind for the first time again.

[mdgalib]

forgetting something you love and fall in love with it once again is something like a heavenly experience..

[litheq]

How to forget a game. Let enough time pass. It's what my brother and I do, and we replay the Myst games every 10 years. It's unfortunate that I will never be able to forget Outer Wilds, though... My favourite game of all.

[ChibiMalzahar]

For me its a timeline of
Play game->play other games in the same genre to change my perspective->grow and change as a person->"oh yeah I remember that game"->replay

[felixadler]

being able to forget outer wilds or undertale would go CRAZY id be neuralising myself daily

[ZeroUm_]

I feel that the best way to forget a game is to play many more unforgettable ones.

[GrimdourTheRampager]

I genuinely thought the "play it with someone new" was going to be the first answer - I didn't expect all the research so that's some amazing work my guy

[plaguedfrost]

0:14 Celeste
0:47 (probably Xenoblade 2-3)
0:57 Outer Wilds
1:03 FF10
1:07 Portal 2
1:19 Unsighted (in Why We Play Games We Hate) [Not Mentioned in other description either]
1:41 Control [Covered by clock]
1:45 Hades / RE4 / Danganronpa? / Honkai?
1:51 Persona 5
1:57 Bloodborne
2:14 Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask
2:20 FFVII
2:29 IDK
2:42 Stellar Blade
2:46 Dark Souls
2:49 IDK
2:54 LOZ: BOTW
2:59 Fire Emblem: Three Houses
4:33 Stellar Blade
5:46 Inside? [Covered by graph]
6:25 Last of Us
6:27 13 Sentinels
6:29 Pokemon Stadium 2
6:34 Journey
6:36 Elden Ring
6:39 IDK [Looks FF like? But with colorful fluff balls?]
6:40 Metroid Dread
7:11 Ghosts of Tsushima
7:29 DMCV
7:33 Persona 5
7:42 IDK [probably Signalis]
4:46 IDK
7:49 RE4
7:51 [I think Elden Ring]
7:53 IDK
7:57 IDK [Stellar Blade?]
8:02 Gravity Rush
8:57 Dark Souls
9:03 IDK
9:30 Persona 4
9:37 IDK
9:44 FF [IDK which]
9:56 IDK
9:57 GOW [PS4?]
10:00 IDK
10:01 IDK
10:03 IDK
10:20 The Last Guardian
11:34 Portal
11:37 Neir Automata
11:40 Hollow Knight
12:12 Disco Elysium
12:54 IDK [Hellblade?]
12:59 Celeste
13:15 Shadow of the Colossus
13:44 Undertale
13:49 FFX
16:45 Steel Beam Simulator
17:07 Neon White
17:08 Omori
17:10 Cross Code
18:07 Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door
18:39 Haven
20:04 Dead Space Remake [Credits]
20:39 IDK [Sorry guys, it’s probably something obscure like Class of ‘09]
21:02 Gris
21:06 Before Your Eyes
21:34 IDK
22:04 Pokemon Crystal

There are games I didn’t mention in the Description.
Hope this helps…

[KayMacheen]

My own method for replaying a game I've completed, is to forget about early boosts/skips, and play it back just as if you were new. Take in the environments, talk to all the NPCs, take some screenshots

[eb]

The one upside to having a poor memory, I can just let a game sit in my library for up to a few years and forget most of it. Some things I won’t forget, but I can forget the smaller details, and in a game like Outer Wilds that’s what I’ll want to forget. Did this with Subnautica a couple months ago, forgot most of the map, where monsters were, most of the stuff that made the game feel a little too practiced for me.

* Keeping in mind this was a game that I engaged with a ton after I first played it, knew the map like the back of my hand, etc. and that I always thought about and watched videos about even in the space between. Thats where the bad memory power comes in.

[amderrsom]

i always feel like im weird because i almost never replay games or rewatch shows, so whenever i watch someone experience them it feels different and new looking at all the details without needing to absorb them myself