Game Theory - You Are The REAL Monster In That's Not My Neighbor!

Episode Date: June 28, 2024

Join Game Theory Host Tom as he explains the That's Not My Neighbor nightmare mode code! *Credits:* Writers: Tom Robinson and Zach Stewart Editors: Dan "Cybert" Seibert, JayskiBean, Alex "Sedge" Sedgwick and Danial "BanditRants" Keristoufi Sound Designer: Yosi Berman

Okay, let me just see if you're on the list. Hello? Let me in. Hello internet, welcome to Game Theory. What's up with my face? Oh, I'm just trying something new. Yeah, gotta keep things fresh. All I have to do now is... Uh, who are you?

I'm Tom, the host of Game Theory. Right, and I suppose you also have a crippling Reese's addiction. Exactly! Ha! Trick question! I'm an Eminem guy. Get him out of here, boys! Sorry about that, these doppleggers are getting pretty out of control. They've been taking over my YouTube feed for weeks. Who knows how many YouTubers they're impersonating at this point?

And it's all because of the indie horror sensation, that is, That's Not My Neighbor. Very heavily inspired by Papers, please. That's Not My Neighbor is a game about checking paperwork to keep intruders out. But instead of working for a totalitarian government, you're working as a simple apartment doorman, trying to keep these horrible monstrosities from getting in and murdering everyone inside. These creatures are known as doppelgangers, or just a total gonger. just doples for short, and they can take the form of anyone.

Though, they can't seem to get everything right. Sometimes the mistake is as subtle as a wrong ID number. Other times, it's... more obvious. Luckily, you're not helpless against these monsters. You have the Department of Doppelganger detection or the DDD to help you out. If you suspect anyone of being a doppel, you can shut the doors, sound the alarms, and they'll be right by to clean up the mess. It's a simple premise, and the character designs are fun and memorable for both the humans and the doppelgangers,

which means it should come as no surprise to you that ever since this game came out, we've been receiving non-stop requests to cover it. By the way, if you have any suggestions for games to cover, please do let us know over on the Game Theorist's subreddit. I'm constantly checking it to find what kind of topics you guys are interested in. But the point is, this game has been on my radar for a hot minute. And with the recent release of its new Nightmare mode, I think it's the perfect time for us to dive a little deeper into this game

and figure out what's really going on in the neighbourhood. Where do the doppelgangers come from? What is the DDD hiding? And why, oh why, is Afton in this game? Seriously, I don't think I'll ever know peace from FNAF. Grab your hazmat suits theorists, because it's time for us to find the law hiding in the hallowed halls of That's Not My Neighbor. Let's start with the things that the game straight up tells us. Besides the whole doppelganger thing, we're told that this game takes place on February 9, 1955, thanks to a calendar that you find above your desk.

And that's basically all we're told. You see why it took me so long to make this video? However, even with just the date, we can start to figure. out context of what's going on in the world outside of our little apartment complex. I couldn't find anything specific that happened in history on February 9th of that year, other than the fact it's a Wednesday, which I call out because the game seems to suggest that it's either a Monday or a Tuesday, depending on the type of calendar you think this is. But minor details aside, the big picture here is that 1955 was the height of the second Red Scare.

The second wave of political propaganda about the risk of communism infiltrating the United States. This was especially true in 1955 because just one year earlier, the Soviet Union State Security Agency, otherwise known as the KGB, was formed, and espionage was a big part of their remit. That's one of the reasons why travel restrictions were instituted throughout various parts of the US to Soviet nationals from as early as, you guessed it, 1955. If you provided enough ID and paperwork to prove you were a US citizen, you'd be allowed to enter with no issue. However, if you were a Soviet, no dice. Sound familiar, right? So, am I just saying that this is more Cold War-style person? propaganda and that the doppels are just Soviet spies that are here to ruin our way of life.

No, of course not. What I am saying is that there are clear parallels between the two and so we can take a look at some other parts of Cold War history to help build a better picture of what's going on here. For example, the latest update for the game is known as a nightmare mode and in it, we are essentially living through a nightmare-like version of the game. All our usual neighbours are replaced with monsters and otherworldly beings. However, from the opening cut scene, we can see that there is more to this than just having a nightmare. It tells us that the DDD know exactly what these nightmares are, and that we should go and see a psychologist because they are trained to help us deal with them. But we're never told how these sessions are supposed to help, and this is where our Cold War

history comes into play. This scenario is identical to a technique that was used during the Cold War for soldiers who were traumatized by World War II. Military psychiatrists found that if they induced sleep using specific drugs in traumatized soldiers, they could either get them to essentially sleep off the trauma by putting them into a deep continuous sleep and then they'd wake up calm and restored, or they could induce what they called twilight sleep. Specifically, by using drugs like sodium amatol or sodium pentothal, the soldiers would get sleepy and as they did, they'd begin to speak openly about their trauma. This gave the therapists insight into what happened to them and allowed those therapists to then push the patients into reliving that trauma as if it were happening right

now, which would lead to a cathartic release of repressed emotions and allow the patient to move on from their trauma and readjust to civilian life. That is what I believe is happening in these sessions. We aren't just having nightmares because of trauma. We are actually being forced to relive the trauma by the DDD in order that we can be freed from it and go back to work as normal the next day. Or at least that's what the DDD wants us to think the result will be. See, while they claim it's to help us like these real world methods, the nightmares don't end.

They just go on and on and on. That's not just a game mechanic either. In the initial tape, it tells us that Henry approves of this method despite the nightmare's not ending. Which is the opposite of what these sessions are supposed to do. Or is it? While most of these real experiments were used with the intent to heal soldiers by getting them to relive past events, if the soldiers didn't remember the event exactly, the therapist would take some creative liberties. They'd give them a made-up scenario in order to draw out the same traumatic emotional response. This turned out to be just as effective at healing repressed trauma.

But it did mean that these soldiers, would start to remember these new fake scenarios as if they were the real source of trauma. Basically, while trying to heal people, they accidentally figured out how to brainwash someone. And of course, the CIA took notice and began using this method within their own operations. Now, everything about the DDD screams government agency, from the logo to their instructions, to the fact that they look like they're these guys straight out of Monsters Inc. Building clear, ready for decontamination. So, if they are encouraging these employees to go and use their psychologists, then I have a feeling

they're not actually going to be cured, but to be brainwashed. In nightmare mode, our neighbors are all replaced by monsters. We've got vampires, Eldrit's horrors, and... You! But here's the thing. In reality, our neighbors aren't monsters. They're just people. It's the doppels that are the monsters,

and yet in this mode, everyone appears to be a monster. That doesn't seem like we're reliving trauma that we've seen, but instead, a fabricated reality where our perception is being twisted into something else. By brainwashing us to believe everyone is a monster, we are more likely to press the big red button on our neighbours, because we see everyone as a threat, and we aren't willing to risk it. But that's not what the DDD wants, right? They want to catch the doppelgangers, not your neighbours. At the beginning of the game, Henry gets called out for not being excellent at his job, despite surviving. To survive, he can't let any of the doppels into the building, but to not be excellent, you also have to detain your neighbours as well as the dopples.

Why would they shame him for that if they want the neighbours detainers? I must just be paranoid, right? Ooh, look over here. Tom's on another one of his characters are lying to us trends. But honestly, it is games like this that are the reason I have trust issues. Because look at what happens when you finish the game. You get given your scores, which at first seem pretty normal, but notice the specific wording. Dopples captured and neighbours killed.

Two different things are happening when you call the DDD on a suspected doppel. Despite being told they're evil and scary, if we call them on a doppel, they're captured. But if they're actually human, they aren't released. They aren't sent back home. They're killed off. It actually reminds me a lot of another piece of 1950s media, invasion of the body snatchers, a sci-fi horror film that originally came out in 1956

and was based on a book that came out in 1954, perfectly straddling our main date there. The premise is that an alien species arrives in these seed-like pods that hatch and take on the identity of an already existing person. They will then go on to kill this person while they're sleeping in order to replace them. In some later adaptations, it's even revealed that high-ranking officials like police and members of the government have been replaced by these pod people, now able to push their own agenda of replacing the entire population. That seems to me like the DDD.

They aren't actually trying to get rid of the doples. They're trying to remove the humans that the doples are impersonating in order that they can more easily enter society. That's why they convince us that all of our neighbours are monsters within those therapy sessions. If they have a paranoid, desensitized doorman that basically sends everyone to the DDD, it allows them to more easily get their hands on the original neighbours and kill them, while the doples take their place, all disguised as an act of protection. But it's not just the doppelganger element that appears to be the same as the body snatchers. It's also the aliens.

Yeah, just when you thought this thing couldn't get any more conspiratorial. When you boot up nightmare mode, right at the start, we get a single frame of a DDD agent standing next to an alien. I'm not kidding. And this isn't even part of our nightmare. This is part of the instructional tape that's gone out to inform us about the psychology services. Aliens are officially involved in this whole thing. And they are working with the DDED to help the doppels take over. Fortunately, we're not the only ones that are suspicious of our hazmat wearing overlords.

There is someone else who is trying to help us survive everything we're going through and uncover the truth about what's going on. During nightmare mode, we encounter this guy wearing a hood. And he gives us a very, interesting note. It says don't trust them with the DDD logo crossed out a code and a website. This guy also appears to be the one who warns us about the nightmare clown that wants to kill us. He's wearing a mask in the base game, but if you go into the game's files, you can remove it and his facial features seem to match our hooded character. So he's clearly got our best interests

at heart. Plus, I love a good puzzle, so I'm willing to hear him out. We go to the website and oh, oh no, this might be a little more than I bargained for. We've only got five last. letters here, O, I, T, N and W. And we somehow have to convert that not only into a 26 letter alphabet, but into usable words and sentences. However, when in doubt, I know there is always one place that I can turn to in times of need, Reddit. And sure enough, over on the That's Not My Neighbor subreddit, Reddick, had figured something out. The code we were given was essentially a set of equations. The first one was I plus t equals n, then I plus n equals W, and so, going through the

each one like that, they figured out that I was 1, T was 2, N was 3, W was 4, and O was 5. If we convert that initial line of code into their corresponding numbers, we end up with this, which they also realized divided perfectly into groups of 3. Sadly, that's where their trail ran cold. But while they weren't sure what to do next, another Reddit user known as Digital Dino came in to save the day, because they realized that this is what is known as a base 5 number system. Basically, a system of numbers that only uses five digits, zero to four. The number system we typically use is known as base 10, because all of our numbers consist of 10 digits, zero to nine.

Now, you'll notice that base five doesn't use the number five, which shows up a lot in this code. So, what Digital Dino did was swap it out for the fifth digit of base five, zero. It feels like messy math and kind of flies in the face of that initial cipher. But when you look at the letters again, you can see there is a method there because they each use a set number of straight lines. I uses 1, T uses 2, N uses 3, W uses 4 and O uses 0. While I may not be super satisfied with the logical step there, I can't deny the results. Once Digital Dino made that change, they converted each set of three numbers from base 5 to base 10. You do this by multiplying the first number by 25, the second by 5 and the third by 1.

Then adding them all together. That means that each group of three numbers becomes one number in our traditional number system. And wouldn't you know it, all the new numbers we get fall between 1 and 26, which means they all can correspond with the letter of the alphabet. Once you convert the entire page of code, you end up with this. Confidential material, Trojan Horse Project, funded by the Military Department of the Government. General Director, Oswald D. Kepler. Lead researcher, Dr. Afton. Year of creation, 1945. Prominent results from some experimental models.

Verbal communication perfectly replicable regardless of language. Acceptable falsification capability. Determination to deceive. Physical assimilation still to be improved. Capacity to act under orders still nil. New project proposal. Evolutionary algorithm project. Massive training of experimental models.

Leak detected. Emergency protocol activated. Contingency plan. Foundation of the doppelganger detection department. Current state of the project. Active. Promising project results. First off, of course the character named Afton is involved here.

But the more important details are that the doppelganger operation wasn't meant to just be an invasion of the body snatchers 2.0. It was originally designed as a military operation. The project is called Trojan Horse, and in Greek mythology, the Trojan Horse was a gift given by the Greeks to the Trojans after the Greeks had been totally destroyed in battle. The Trojans saw it as an act of surrender and they took the new trophy into the city, only for a few Greeks to have stowed away inside the horse. horse. And that night, they snuck out of the horse, opened the gates to the Greek army, who then destroyed the entire city and won the war. Seems like the military was going to use these doppelgangers in the same way, to infiltrate enemy lines and help them win the Cold War. And while the use of a weird alien monster thing might be a bit out there, this type of espionage

where someone is disguised as someone else certainly isn't. During and after World War II, Britain's Secret Operations Executive would employ plastic surgeons to do operations. operations on the faces of their operatives so that they would be unrecognizable and blend in with the people around them in whatever part of the world they were going to be stationed in. Apparently it was so successful that the American government would send their spies to Britain to get the same surgeries. This was all revealed by a man called James Hutchison in get this. 1945. The same year the Trojan Horse project started in That's Not My Neighbor. Naturally, permanently disfiguring someone and having them give up their lives isn't the sort of thing that goes down great in the court of public opinion. So what if the government tried something else? Instead of trying to turn people into other people, why not create something that has the ability to mimic others? Falsify documents and then enter a country undetected.

This is where I believe the aliens come in. Because in 1945, there was also reports of an avocado-shaped UFO crashing. into Trinity Desert New Mexico. Just five weeks after the first atomic bomb was detonated there. Apparently, the ship was taken away by US military personnel, which would mean that they'd suddenly have access to all that alien tech, and maybe even an actual alien species that they could use as part of their new initiative for military espionage. However, clearly this idea didn't work in the long run. While things initially seemed good, this new life form wasn't really doing the whole taking orders thing. Some of them even managed to escape, leading to the creation.

of the DDD to try and detain them so that they could continue their experiments. But as we saw from the frame in the psychology video, it looks like the DDD has been compromised. They're working alongside the alien's body snatcher style, now eliminating the humans you detain and releasing the captured doppels back into the world to take the place of another unsuspecting human. Until one day, everyone, including you, is replaced by one of them. Maybe one day we'll get to peek behind their visors. And when we do, I wouldn't be surprised if we'll see a distorted voice. version of our own face, staring right back at us. But hey, that's just a theory. A game theory. Thanks for watching.