Uploaded January 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
đź•ą Browser games FTW! Play more than 500 original games on GXC, like Table Tanks: https://opr.as/WritingonGames-TableTanks Thanks to GXC for sponsoring this video!
In revisiting Red Dead Redemption 2 recently, I found myself shocked at how little I was following the main plot this time around. Instead, I found myself spending hours and hours just wandering the plains of this open world—immersing myself in the most minor of side missions, the smallest of tasks, gleefully seeking out any minor encounter I could and loving every minute of it. The reason? The stakes in these scenarios was usually so much higher than anything found on the critical path—massive amounts of effort could amount to nothing—and this ended up speaking to the absurdist brutality of this world in a way that I found incredibly compelling. That is to say, in order to win, sometimes you've gotta lose.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Sponsor
1:03 - A Story of a Bear
3:03 - Losing a Winning Mission
5:14 - Subverting Open World Mission Design
6:27 - The Absurdist Chaos of RDR2's World
8:24 - Is RDR2 Frustrating?
9:03 - Sometimes to Win, You've Gotta Lose
10:57 - Outro/Thank you!
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Support the show on Patreon - patreon.com/writingongames
Podcast - http://anchor.fm/writingongamescast
Second Channel - youtube.com/channel/UC1xxfS_HILi09yaELQdmV1A
---
Raz's video on frustration in RDR2 - youtube.com/watch?v=xMNTNDRcQJI
Text intro by Isaac Holland - twitter.com/drazgames
đź•ą Browser games FTW! Play more than 500 original games on GXC, like Table Tanks: https://opr.as/WritingonGames-TableTanks Thanks to GXC for sponsoring this video!
In revisiting Red Dead Redemption 2 recently, I found myself shocked at how little I was following the main plot this time around. Instead, I found myself spending hours and hours just wandering the plains of this open world—immersing myself in the most minor of side missions, the smallest of tasks, gleefully seeking out any minor encounter I could and loving every minute of it. The reason? The stakes in these scenarios was usually so much higher than anything found on the critical path—massive amounts of effort could amount to nothing—and this ended up speaking to the absurdist brutality of this world in a way that I found incredibly compelling. That is to say, in order to win, sometimes you've gotta lose.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Sponsor
1:03 - A Story of a Bear
3:03 - Losing a Winning Mission
5:14 - Subverting Open World Mission Design
6:27 - The Absurdist Chaos of RDR2's World
8:24 - Is RDR2 Frustrating?
9:03 - Sometimes to Win, You've Gotta Lose
10:57 - Outro/Thank you!
---
Support the show on Patreon - patreon.com/writingongames
Podcast - http://anchor.fm/writingongamescast
Second Channel - youtube.com/channel/UC1xxfS_HILi09yaELQdmV1A
---
Raz's video on frustration in RDR2 - youtube.com/watch?v=xMNTNDRcQJI
Text intro by Isaac Holland - twitter.com/drazgames
