Game Theory - The TRUE Identity of the Player

Episode Date: March 27, 2026

One of the last remaining questions of Poppy Playtime is WHO are we playing as?! Join Game Theory host Tom as he finds out today!

Who do we play as in Poppy Playtime? It's a question we've had since day one of the franchise, but as the series slowly heads towards its inevitable end, we're running out of options. So let's take a look at our few remaining characters and solve this mystery once and for all. Hello internet! Welcome to Game Theory, the show that knows that for every theory we get right, we often get one wrong. And Poppy Playtime is no exception. There have been three key mysteries plaguing us.

I've actually been referring to them internally as the three Pee's POPI. Who is Poppy? Who is the prototype and who is the player? I'm sure Yossi is pleased, perhaps even palpitating at the plentiful, practically preposterous proliferation of punchy plosives I'm presently producing. Sorry, bud. Anyway, over the last five years, I have tried desperately to answer these three questions. One of them, we nailed pretty early on that Poppy was the daughter of Elliot Ludwig. The prototype we flipped and flopped over the next few years. Although technically, I was more right than I realized in my first episode as host. So long as you ignore the part where I also suggest it might be rich. But that just leaves us with one mystery left.

Who is the player character? This one has been the biggest enigma for me, mostly because we know so little about them. We know that they worked in the factory at some point, but they weren't important enough to be known by Harley Sawyer. But you... You worked here. I can't say I remember seeing your face before. However, despite being an employee, they weren't present during the hour of joy. Hence, they're still alive ten years later. and able to receive the note from Poppy telling them their colleagues had survived. Finally, they feel guilty about their involvement in what Playtime Co did,

as seen in their Chapter 3 hallucinations and the message we hear from Poppy when we're dumped into the vat of Poppy gel at the end of Chapter 5. Hence, why they returned to Playtime Co when told that there is someone they can still save. But despite the lack of evidence, I did put together an answer, one that I was convinced had to be the right one. My theory was that we were playing as P.W. Justin Willard, a scientist from Playtime Co and the owner of the Orientation Notebook. They fit everything pretty well.

Obviously, they worked for Playtime Co. They were involved in the experiments and felt very distressed at the concept. And while that means they may have known Harley, it doesn't necessarily mean he knew them. Harley was pretty up himself. I could see him not paying attention to just another scientist with a lack of drive for what they did. But then, the Chapter 5 ARG dropped just before the release of the game and... Now I can be there. Yep, PW was turned into a toy by the prototype.

This was supposedly a blessing because Breston was kind to him. But that does mean that PW is kind of out of commission. Even still, I refuse to believe that we are just a random character. Narratively, that would just be so unsatisfying and disappointing. You hear that, Bob? It would be so unsatisfying and disappointing. For our story, our dedication, our sacrifices to matter. We need to be someone that we as an audience have some kind of emotional attack.

to. Plus, let's be honest, the list of available options is getting smaller and smaller by the chapter. So, rather than wait around for the next chapter, or two or 12, to tell us who we are, I wanted to go down the list of suspects, put them up against our criteria, and see who is the most likely to be our player character. Grab your shiny new pressure hands theorists, because we're about to put the pressure on these characters to see which one fits that player-sized mold. First up, Stella Graber. Ah, Stella. one of the earliest characters we were introduced to in this franchise.

In fact, she's been referenced in every chapter up until Chapter 5, which felt a little odd to me. Why has this character who's been so prominent in notes, VHS tapes and ARGs, suddenly not been mentioned at all in this chapter? Like, guys, we thought she was poppy after the very first chapter she was that prominent. Also, I never mentioned this in a theory, but I was convinced that Stella was going to be Lily Lovebraids once we saw that Preston got turned into a toy.

The line she gave in the trailer, It just sounded like the OG Stella we heard back in Chapter 1, the one who was so excited about the concept of living forever. Playing with toys when I was young was so magical. I could go straight from my bedroom floor to anywhere in the world. But alas, it was Miss Gracie instead. Still a great character, but it means that we aren't sure of Stella's fate. Each could make her a viable candidate.

Think about it. She's one of the major executives at the company, so mummies, you work here line absolutely tracks. A VHS tape in Chapter 4 also shows us that she had knowledge of the experiments. I felt so badly, I still do, for the ones that go through the testing. But the big thing is that she really did care for the orphans and the staff. In the Chapter 3 ARG, there's a project report that shows Stella expressing displeasure at the use of catnap in the play care. And in Chapter 3 itself, we see she's really saddened when a child isn't getting adopted,

but instead experimented on. All this came to her head in the most recent ARG for Chapter 5. There's an email from Stella to Preston called End of My Rope, where she says she can't take it anymore. Later on, we got video evidence that Preston was involved in The Hour of Joy. I just couldn't stand by and watch it happen anymore. Which added credence to my theory that Stella was in fact a big part of making the Hour of Joy happen. So she not only would have felt guilty because of the experiments,

but she'd also have felt guilty about what happened to the employees. afterwards. She didn't want that to happen. She just wanted the toys and orphans to go free. Feels like pretty good motivational evidence. But motivation or story evidence isn't the be all and end all. And there are two things that make it so I don't think it can be stellar. Firstly, Harley. In chapter four, he says very distinctly that he doesn't recognize the player. But in that same chapter, we hear this line from Leith. You know, the project lead, Dr. Sawyer, wasn't sure about giving you that information in the first place. Harley knew who Stella was.

I mean, they were both executives at the company. It would be weird for them not to know each other, at least somewhat. But on top of that, Stella would have been in the factory to help make the hour of joy happen. And one of two things happened to the humans during that time. They were either killed and eaten, or they were turned into toys. Preston was quote unquote saved by the prototype for helping him. So Stella likely would have received that same fate. That's why there's no more audio of her in Chapter 5.

Much like Preston, her story is over. Eddie Ritterman. Eddie has been much more of a slow burn as a character. We saw his name on a single piece of paper in Chapter 2. We heard his voice in the Chapter 4, ARG, and then we saw more of his personality in that same chapter. I get paid to see that things get done. This, like everything else, will get done. So he's clearly evil.

But other than that, we don't have much to go off of, which would be perfect for our faceless protagonist. But what's more perfect is what we hear in this audio log between him and Leith from Chapter 5. And the park, renovations are underway. He's leaving for their theme park the day before the hour of joy. So Eddie Ritterman has survived, meaning he's able to return to the factory a decade later. He's also one of the executives, so an employee like Mummy said. Much like Stella, though, Harley likely knew who Eddie was. There is a chance he didn't in the Orientation Notebook press.

and writes about how Eddie is a bit of a mystery. Some even question his existence. So it's technically possible that Eddie was so aloof with everyone besides Leith that Harley just never met him face to face. But that feels unlikely. He also doesn't feel guilty about the experiments or the employees, and that's for damn sure. Not only was he willing to kill that construction worker to make sure the job got done, but in Chapter 5, we get one of the biggest reveals that explains his motivations. Eddie is sick. A medical note we can find tells us he has Kennedy. disease, a rare neurodegenerative disorder that affects low motor neurons in the spinal cord and brain stem, causing limb weakness and speech issues. The symptoms are apparently getting worse,

and so it makes sense that he would be all in on the experiments. They were seeing if they could live forever after all. Suddenly, Eddie's illness isn't so dire. He doesn't feel guilty. He is willing to sacrifice whoever he could to get what he needed. So a note telling him other employees were still alive likely doesn't mean much to him, especially when he's got access to the Tokyo factory, which is likely carrying on with the experiments. I smell a sequel. For the same reasons, I'm also going to rule out Leaf Pierre as our playable character, but I wanted to give him an honourable mention anyway. That means we're out of executives, so the Harley comment shouldn't be much of an issue going forward. But it also means there

aren't many characters left to choose from, so bear with me with some of these next options. Dr. Arkin's daughter. Now I know what you're you're thinking, who on earth is Dr. Arkinz, let alone her daughter? And you'd be completely justified in wondering that. We've never heard of this person before chapter 5, but the reason I and a few online have pointed them out is because in this chapter we receive not one, not two, but three letters addressed to this character. They're all written by Dr. Arkins to her husband David and her daughter Julie. They talk about her experience working in the factory, the scientists she meets, like those from the Young Geniuses Program, how she missed her daughter's

birthday, and how she was sold a vision of putting an end to death, which she then bought because she wanted that for her own daughter. But the final letter tells us that most of these letters never leave the factory, likely because Leith was paranoid that information about these experiments would get out. But that means Dr. Arkin's daughter would have been left completely in the dark about her mother. All she'd have known is one day a tragedy happened in the factory and all of the employees went missing, including her mother. So if she were to receive a note telling her that employees were still alive,

that might mean her mother was still alive. And that feels like pretty strong motivation to go and see. Alongside that, I would have literally no idea who she is. And she'd have also not been present for the hour of joy. But the reason she wasn't present or recognized is because she's not an employee. There is a world where you could argue maybe she took a spare employee, uniform and badge that her mum left behind. So, Mummy just thinks she used to work here based on that,

but one, that's really speculative. And two, during chapter three, when we hallucinate thanks to the Red Smoke, we see a message that says, your presence was demanded 10 years ago and you didn't show up. 8-8-1995. You were supposed to be here. Why weren't you here? The player wasn't just an employee. They were supposed to be there for the hour of joy in some way, which only makes sense in a few cases. Either we were an employee that was just meant to be there that day, we were an employee involved in the hour of joy like Preston or Stella, or we were something else that was expected to be there. An escaped toy. If you thought the last one was a bit out of left field, oh boy, just wait to you hear this one. During chapter 5, you can find this note

that is a little different from our usual suspect. Rather than a journal, entry or scientific report, this is a handwritten newspaper from The Better Press. This feels like a reference to The Better Place, a location we talked about last time where the prototype has taken all the orphans once he turned them into toys. And the paper itself seems to align with this fact.

It talks about a defecting group of 23 toys, The Joyless, who were being led by someone called Gentle John, and about how they were supposed to fight during the hour of joy, but didn't and instead looked to escape the factory. According to the paper, that didn't happen, and they ended up burning. However, someone has written on the paper the words, how convenient? Like, it's convenient that those who went up against the prototype and decided to leave the factory,

after he told everyone they couldn't, suddenly were found dead. It's almost like the prototype was trying to control the narrative, that those toys did escape, and now the prototype has to cover it up, to stop anyone from getting any ideas of escaping. This fits really nicely into that chapter 3 quote I mentioned. Your presence was demanded 10 years ago and you didn't show up. These toys were expected to be there but didn't and were instead focused on escape, which they might now feel guilty about.

They didn't want to kill any humans, so to find out there may be some still alive, as well as all of the toys they left behind, that might be good motivation to return to the factory. It would also explain something I've not yet really talked about, the player's ability to survive. We have survived falls, train crashes, explode, Pretty much anything you can think of, we've survived. If we're being honest, that doesn't feel like something a human should be able to do. But a living toy, yes, they still get injured, but as we've seen through characters like Huggy and Kissy, they are far more resilient.

It does raise the question of the grab pack and how much dexterity they'd physically have as a toy to be able to control it, but that would entirely depend on what toy they were made into. Maybe Playtime had a human looking toy, who knows. But then, any toys made before the Hour of Joy weren't, workers in the factory. I mean, technically they were. Most of them were given certain jobs in the factory, but they didn't deserve to die for their actions. But you, you worked here. So if anyone deserves to die alone, it's you. It's only after the prototype takes over that he turned some of the former employees into toys. Mummy also says the toys are going to eat you if you fail in the games,

which yes, they could eat fellow toys, but there are plenty of other toys around. If you're human, however, your meat would be fresh. It would be a good meal for them. One, they'd be excited for. Finally, when we meet the prototype in chapter 5, he says this. You repeat me by bringing in an outsider. We are considered an outsider. Could this be because we abandoned the prototype for the outside world? Possibly. But realistically, it's more likely because we were never part of the mission. A human, an employee? They were the enemy. They were outsiders that didn't belong in their better place. And with that, we're kind of running out of options at this point. Those last two felt like scraping the bottom of the barrel for possible answers, and even then,

they just don't fit the bill. Who am I missing? I know there's someone who puts the description, but I just can't remember. You guys got any ideas? Oh, of course. Rich, how could I forget about him? Richard Love it. He has always been a fascinating character to me.

Much like Stella, we'd found VHS tapes of him in every single chapter up until chapter 5. He was a disgruntled employee that got demoted for bad-mouthing playtime code to his colleague Avery. But after being taken under the wing of the head of shipping, he began to clean up his act, get control of his temper and eventually was promoted to the head of shipping himself. He became a real man of the people, looking after his employees, helping the younger ones who struggled with the same things he did. There are smarter ways to go about what you did. He even showed up again in the Fortnite collab, with notes between him and Avery burying the

hatchet, with Avery trying to confirm that he didn't rat out Rich, and Rich continuing to look out for his old colleague and friend. Frankly, his journey has been a nice ray of sunshine amidst the darkness that is the Playtime Go Experiment. But the reason we're being shown this is wholly unclear. It doesn't really play a part in the law. It's a side story about a random dude unrelated to everything that was until chapter 5. In Chapter 5, we don't get a VHS from Rich.

It's actually the first time he's been absent in this entire franchise, but he is mentioned in an audio log between Leith and Eddie. I think Mr. Lovitz is due for a promotion. You're serious? Oh, he can't be the people's champion if he's one of ours. Rich really was a man of the people, and that was causing Playtime Co. Issues, so they decided to promote him to the executive level. This would cause people to abandon him thinking he was a sellout.

But it would also have an unexpected consequence that ties in perfectly with our player character. This audiologue is the same one where Eddie mentions he's heading to the theme park next week. So this is early August 1995, which would mean Rich's promotion would have happened after Harley's transformation into a walking version of chat GPT for the other scientists to use in 1993. Therefore, Harley wouldn't have had any executive meetings with Rich to know who he is. And given his greater than now attitude, I also wouldn't be surprised if the two never interacted while Harley was still human, simply because Rich was just a lowly shipment worker. Even if Rich was the head of a department, anyone that wasn't working in the labs would have been seen as beneath Harley. But that's not all the timing helps prove.

It might explain how he could have missed the hour of joy. Now, bear with me, this is going to get a little more on the speculative side, but narratively, I do think it really makes sense. This situation in my mind goes one of two ways. With this discussion being only a week before the hour of joy, maybe Leif thinks about Eddie's idea for a bit, but then eventually heads over to Ridge and offers him the job. It's a big deal, a new parking spot, a new car, big salary bump, but what would his subordinates think?

Leith would likely be able to see the hesitancy, but he needed Rich to take the deal. So, hey, look, take tomorrow off. Think about it and let me know, only for tomorrow to be the day everyone was killed. This would lead to Rich feeling incredibly guilty about his people. He should have been there for them, but he wasn't. And so when he hears there's some people left in the factory, he has to go and see. The only issue is, the player's guilt seems to be tied to the experiments in some way, which at this point Rich wouldn't know about.

So this is my alternative suggestion. doesn't think too much about Eddie's suggestion. It's Eddie, he trusts him. And so Rich gets his promotion the week before the hour of joy. Rich is not as calculated as Leith, and so doesn't see the downsides of getting all this extra stuff, he takes the job and as one of the new executives, is given top-level access to everything. And so begins his tour of the real Playtime Code. He is informed of everything Leith, Eddie and Stella have been doing, how they've been experimenting on turning orphans into toys, just like their founder, Elliot Ludwig did years ago, creating Poppy and the prototype.

We know Rich has a big heart. He cares about the orphans. I get it. It's a nice program and a lot brand. Don't you think these kids deserve some real sunlight instead of bloodlights and painted skies? So, when he realizes what's been going on, he can't stomach it. But he's already signed up. He's stuck.

Maybe after learning all of this, he takes a sick day. Maybe he tries to quit. Or maybe Leith tells him to take the day to celebrate his promotion. Either way, he misses the hour of joy. This would mean he's not over. be feeling guilty about all the employees he left behind, but for the children that suffered because of the company he'd been working for this entire time. The prototype, however, wouldn't have seen Rich as any different from any of the others. He was an executive. He was just as responsible

for the experiments as anyone else. So, with Stella on side, he ensured that the ones responsible for these atrocities got their comeuppance. Maybe the prototype called an executive meeting for Lee. Eddie, Stella and Rich. However, Rich never showed up. He missed the meeting. And then, Therefore, the party that led to the death of his colleagues, only for a note to appear years later telling him that the employees were still alive. And being the people's champion that he was, he knew that if there was any chance they were still alive, he had to take it. He knew the factory inside and out. He'd practically worked at every department at this point. And he knew of the horrors that awaited him.

Which is why we never seem to react, scared or shocked, whenever we come face to face with these monsters. Even our biggest hater. And you. The outsider Ritchie, they call you Based on what we have, I think Rich is our best possible option for who the player character is.

Of course, there's always a chance Mob pulls a fast one on us and bring some random character we've never heard of before. It wouldn't be the first time. But hey, that's just a theory. A game theory. Thanks for watching.