Game Theory - You're Missing The Point Of Dress To Impress *it's scary*

Episode Date: September 11, 2024

Join Game Theory Host Tom as he finds some deep dark LORE hidden in the Roblox game Dress to Impress! Credits: Writers: Tom Robinson and Eddie “NostalGamer” Robinson Editors: Tyler Mascola, Millie Ferris, Alex "Sedge" Sedgwick, Danial "BanditRants" Keristoufi and Shanon (Bomb0i) Sound Designer: Yosi Berman

This is the most requested episode of game theory ever. Over the last two months, we've received hundreds upon hundreds of requests to play this game. Our subreddit is practically bursting at the seams. Our comment section is overflowing. People are hungry for this game. So today, I will answer the call. Today, I will cover the game that you have all been dying to see. Today, I will be theorizing about stress to impress.

No, no, no, no, wait, it's scarier than it sounds. Trust me. Hello, internet. Welcome to Game Theory, the show that never goes out of style. Although, I became very unsure of my own personal style when I tried my hand at the Roblox game that everyone had been requesting I play, dressed to impress. It seemed simple enough, you just pick outfits, hairstyles, get your nails done,

all to try and match the chosen theme. Only for you to lose regardless, because people vote on what's cute rather than what's on theme. How on earth is this Kawai? So I have to say I was a little confused why this. was so requested. I thought maybe Amy and I could do a co-lab episode about the psychology behind why the theme didn't really seem to matter, but then your comments pointed something out. A book, and it would change everything. It turns out it's not just these outfits that are suss. What started as a simple April Fool's update has now become four months of nearly

daily updates across multiple games, all to tell a story of tragedy, betrayal and revenge. And so, I've been following along, writing down my thoughts with each new update, theory crafting in real time to try and solve it. So, sorry, Amy. No co-lab today because I got to take a peek behind the fashion show curtain myself and find out what hidden law is hiding inside of dress to impress. That's what you get for caking me. So, what is this random book that totally changed my perspective of the game?

On the surface, it's just a simple diary entry from an MPC nail technician that the community is dubbed Nail Lady. Although, she doesn't seem particularly fond of that name. Ahem. Fine, I guess we can still co-lab. You can do the voice. The world's not ready for my feminine voice anyway. Thank you, Tom.

They just call me nail lady when I am so much more than that. My name is Lana. But no one calls me that. I'm going to run away one day. Sounds pretty understandable, right? She just wants people to call her by her name. But that's not what got everyone's attention. What stood out was on the next page,

where she writes that she wants to set fire to the studio. and reveals a list of targets. She even has dealt with written next to some of the names. I mean, I'm sure we all have that one colleague we don't like, but offing them might be a bit over-dramatic, maybe. Though it turns out, these aren't her colleagues. If you take a closer look at the names, some of them are the names of the game's developers.

Okay, cool. We've got a murdery protagonist who is unhappy with the life the devs gave her, and so she is offering them one by one. Pretty straightforward, right? Well, it was... Until updates started rolling in, Lana's diary was no longer on full display, but instead was hidden at the top of a cabinet. However, it was still readable. And it said something new.

That isn't me. They replaced me with some doppelganger. That's not me. I'm Lana. She's not. But she's pretending to be me. I don't know where I am. Gigi is holding me somewhere so I can't escape.

Please help me. I am so scared. And I hope that that thing sitting in my salon chair doesn't. doesn't harm my image. I think she's the reason why all the players are going missing. And then, if you take a look at the wall, you'll see three missing posters, the names of which match three of the developers from Lana's target list. That person she mentions, Gigi, is also a developer and she has now taken Lana hostage, replacing her with this doppelganger and not the kind with extra eyes and missing mouths. All of this is to keep the game running smoothly,

so people wouldn't suspect she was gone. However, this is slightly confusing, Lana claims that these people are missing because of this doppelganger, but the target list that matches the missing posters came from her diary. Or was that actually the doppelganger's diary? I'm not entirely sure who I'm supposed to be trusting here, but the diary does give us a Roblox user ID that leads us to Lana's Roblox profile. Lana does nails. So we should probably start there and oh boy, this is where the fun begins. On her page is a link to a YouTube account with a handful of short videos. The first video is called Awakening.

A face appears and tells Lana, Oh dear you, Lana, spread our plans. Already we're off to a mysterious star. Lana has betrayed whatever this awakening is, I assume by telling us about the doppelganger. In a later video, Ode to Myself, she once again mentions this wretched group, but in the description tells us she's trying to warn us that we are next.

Is this group trying to take over the game to replace all the players with mindless doppelgangers that just follow the rules? Maybe they're also mad that people aren't playing it There is one more video, but it doesn't really give us anything new. So, I went back to Lana's Roblox page and looked around for more clues. If you look under the creations tab, you can see that Lana is actually making a game of our own. And it's called Forest.

It invites us to view the truth of Lana's story. Given that we're specifically looking for law, this is an enticing offer. But be warned, this game is nothing like Dress to Impress. A blood-red filter covers the screen. Eerie music plays in the back. ground and a human eye is constantly watching you. As you wander through the forest, you can find sentences that tell the story of Lana, that she was diagnosed with a terminal illness that left her and her family in debt, and that she now works in the salon just to get by. Given her diary

told us she hates it there so much, I suspect she turned to this awakening group for help. It would be classic cult-like manipulation. They promise her financial support only for them to turn on her when she doesn't fall in line. And I think I might be right, because as you explore the forest, Lana's doppelgangers try to kill you. This is the truth that they want hidden. But if you manage to avoid them, you can find a podium that requires four people to open a portal to a maze. Gets the end, and you'll receive a binary code that translates to... You may have finished your trials, but the evil lurks throughout.

This is not the end. There will be chaos. Well, chaos is usually bad, so I... I suppose we should probably help Lana stop it. Fortunately, when I returned to Lana's page, she had created a group called Saud, which is described as the birth of an uprising, a new dawn where we stand united against the forces of evil. All right, let's go. Inside the group, there were a few subgroups too, one of which is called coterie,

a word that means an exclusive group of persons with a unifying common interest or purpose. Lana is already out here building a rebellion, gathering people through the con. common goal of exposing the awakening. That is what led her to get locked up in the first place. There's also another group called Missing and it contains four people. But these aren't the developers. They're just people. These must be the missing people that Lana was referring to in her diary, the ones the Awakening caused to go missing. She was trying to stop others from disappearing by taking out the developers from the Awakening. I'm sorry that I doubted your innocence, Lana. Is what I would say if it wasn't for this missing person's

You see, it's not a normal bio like most of them. It contains a Caesar cipher. There are a few small mistakes in the translation, but cleaned up, it says this. My death was planned by Lana, not evil. The Corey's not just some group to help her. They're her sacrifices. Ha! I knew it.

Cancel my therapy, guys. My trust issues are well-founded. Lana has been convincing us this whole time that she is one of the good guys, that she was taken advantage of by the awakening, But no! These missing people aren't just missing. They've been sacrificed by The Awakening and by Lana. She was in on it the whole time. Also, I thought, if it wasn't for Lana's next game, questionnaire. Here, she'd appear for live events to set the record straight. She confirmed some things like how the awakening lured her in by promising to pay off her financial debts, but as these live streams kept happening, her answers began to contradict that truth. Suddenly, she actually loved the Nail Salon, which means she probably wouldn't have turned to the awakening for help in the first place. She also started saying that they weren't evil, but people have been murdered. That's pretty evil. Is she being coerced again? Nope. Red text appeared on screen and said,

Don't believe her. Please. That is not the real Lana. And everyone got booted out of the stream with the reason listed as, I am the real Lana. The Lana we've been talking to was another doppelganger. real Lana is innocent. But then questionnaire got an update that added a house with a new version of Lana's diary that said this. Jayla's eyes are gone. Nicholas's heart is gone. Jee's voice is gone.

And Sadie has been taken apart. I pray that this stays private. And no one finds out my true intentions with the Soudon. I cannot believe how easy it's been to make these players believe that I am the victim. And now they're all on my side. They will all pay for how they treated me. So that whole kicking us off to get rid of the doppelganger was also just a stunt. Lana has been playing the victim, making us believe anything bad was a doppelganger working for the awakening.

But really, Lana was the villain behind it all. I tell you, this story's got more twists than an M-night movie. After this reveal, Lana went full villain mode, executing three members of the coterie live. on air. But the last member, Nelly, wasn't going down so easily. Now what happened to Nicholas and all the people you killed, sacrifice, is going to happen to you? Seeing through Lana's deceit, Nellie flips the script and kills her instead. Finally, Lana's reign of tyranny and deceit would end. But I'm sure you could all figure out where this is going, right? Once the dust settles, Lana's YouTube account posted a video called

The Last Serenade, and it said, There's still more to come. This time it will be successful because I've opened the gate. The Lana that was just killed was a doppelganger. Again. But now she's achieved her goal, which was opening a gate, apparently. The keen-eyed among you will probably recognize it from the forest game. The gate that needed four people to activate it.

And we now have three dead coterie members and Lana's dead doppelganger, four bodies to help Lana open this name. new gate. Killing the Kotry members wasn't about protecting her own skin or defending the awakening. It was always part of her plan and it's likely why she had sacrificed the first four missing victims. But that ladies and gentlemen was the end of chapter one. And there were two major questions that everyone had. What is the portal and why did Lana need it? Well, before we dive into chapter two, here's what I think. Typically when it comes to cults sacrifices, portals would be used to summon some kind of evil entity. However, the portal in the forest that looked identical to this new one

took us to a new location instead. So, Lana and the Awakening aren't trying to summon something, but go somewhere. Lana's motivation still seemed tied to what we saw in her diary. She wants to burn the salon to the ground, and she likely still wants to destroy the devs who made her life so horrible. They designed her boring NPC life. They designed her tragic backstory. And so I suspect whatever lies beyond this portal will help her to achieve that. Maybe she needs to find some demonic monster to bring back and kill everyone, or maybe this new world has some kind of item that can make her an all-powerful being, able to transcend the game and destroy the devs completely. Maybe it'd even allow her to enter our world. All of this would certainly fit with the culty vibes. But whatever the answer is, I gotta say, I'm kind of hooked on this one.

I know I've been sighing about the constant back and forth of doppelgangers versus the real Lana, but I'm just really impressed that there's this many twists hidden inside of Roblox runway simulator. So I just wanted to take a minute to say, thank you guys for recommending this game to me. I'd have never known about this fascinating experience if it wasn't for you. I love getting exposed to new games, and I especially love covering games that I know that you guys want to see. But I should stop with all this mushy stuff because Chapter 2 is here, so it's time to see if I'm right.

After a little bit of time, the Saudad added a new group to its affiliate tab called Plague, showing the same portal that we'd seen in Lana's latest video. But the creator of the group, wasn't Lana. It's someone named Agamemnon. Oh, that is going to be the worst thing to say. I'm going to call you Aggie. Sound good. At the same time this new group was made, Lana also made a post saying, Agamemnon, I hear your call. I hear it well. I am following your voice, and perhaps it will lead me to the portal you told me about.

Sounds to me like this guy is trapped on the other side of the portal. In some kind of alternate world, or dimension. That's why Lana needs the portal. It's to free him or to be with him. Was this really just a tragic love story this whole time? Soundad does mean the nostalgic longing for a beloved yet absent person. So that kind of makes sense, but her words also feel a bit too culty for me. So we could still be on the right track if he turns out to be some kind of all-powerful demon. And we don't have to wait that long because Lana released another game called The Fortress. And the start of it is on the other side of the portal that Lana had opened. There are words written across the walls like plague, metamorphosis, and I finally feel free.

They're written over and over and over again, like the writings of a lunatic trapped in a room for years. So, basically me when the new Poppy Playtime ARG dropped. Across the map, there are notes from both Lana and Nellie, spelling out that while this is the real Lana, She's basically been brainwashed by the guy she's following. Good old Aggie. This stinks of classic cult leader behavior. A man who gathers others around him to worship him like he's the second coming of Christ, filling people's heads with promises that will all turn out to be lies in the end.

Lana isn't in love with this guy, or maybe she is, cult relationships are kind of weird. But it's more like she sees him as her savior and will help her to get revenge on the salon. Which never ends well in these kinds of things. Lana will likely end up betrayed at best or dead at worst. But now, ladies and gentlemen, it's finally time to hear from Aggie himself, because you can find two doors that require passwords to enter. The note next to the first one reads, Call it, open the door, bestow me the truth.

So we just repeat that second phrase, bestow me the truth. That leads to a second door which asks us, What is coming? The walls speak the truth. Well, we saw three things written on the walls earlier. Finally, I Feel Free, Metamorphosis, and Plague. And it's that last one that opens the door. Inside, we find Aggie's helmet in the corner, revealing this to be his office.

And several notes are pinned to the wall. What's wrong with my experiments and why won't it work? I created a new Lana a few days prior. Aggie has been the one creating the doppelgangers, which makes sense. Thanks to them, Lana deceived everyone and was able to open the gate. But what did he mean by Lana is? is perfect. Cult leaders like this always have ulterior motives, so what does her being perfect mean for him? Is it that she's the perfect follower? The perfect bride? This has to be important.

So I decided to look a little more into Aggie, more specifically his name. And no, not just because it's hard to pronounce. This game has already used a few words with deeper meaning, so I wondered if this would be the same for him. Turns out Agamemnon isn't just a random name. It comes from Greek mythology, specifically the trope. Trojan War. Agamemnon was leading an army to Troy by boat, and during the trip incurs the wrath of the goddess Artemis. He's told that the only way to appease her is to sacrifice his daughter. If he doesn't, then the army will continue to suffer misfortune.

Most notably, a plague, just like the door to Aggie's room said. It asked what is coming, and the answer was, a plague. So, if a plague is on the way, that would mean that Aggie needs to sacrifice someone to appease whoever he angered. someone that was perfect. Someone like Lana. But then why bother with the doppelgangers? Well, in some versions of the myth, Agamemnon tries to deceive Artemis with fake offerings,

to trick her into thinking he killed his daughter but never really did. That is what the doppelgangers are for. If he can create one that is a perfect copy, then he can sacrifice them and keep Lana alive. Is this guy actually a hero here? Trying to save humanity from a plague and save Lana from. her fate? Yeah, no. Another note in the fortress written by Aggie says, I need to create the perfect. And there it is. Thanks to Lana, he can kill her while also having a

perfect doppelganger that has all of her influence while also following his commands. He would have full control of the Saudad and all of the users that are a part of it. At this point, I was feeling pretty good about the story. It felt like we had a backstory, a motive, an idea of where the story was moving towards. That wasn't to I discovered this note hiding behind the bookcase. It's so easy to manipulate those that are blind to others tactics. While I feel bad, I just remember that Lana, the real one, is just a vessel that empowers me. Okay, so I guess he isn't going to sacrifice Lana?

At first, I thought of the vessel as a container, something that stores something else. And given my theorizing in the indie horror scene, I wondered if she was going to become a vessel for someone else's soul. Maybe Aggie's daughter from the Greek myth, or maybe Aggie himself, but it all just felt like too much of a stretch. Outside of the myth, there's been no mention of a daughter or really anything to do with souls. But then I remembered that Vessel has another meaning. It can also be referencing a ship like Agamemnon used to sail to Troy. Lana isn't going to contain Aggie's spirits.

She's just the metaphorical ship that he can use to escape this fortress. She's the one that opened the portal, something he couldn't. have done without her. And now, she's going to empower him to escape. But how? Well, in one note, he says this. I consume the parts Lana gives me. My true form will be victorious.

I just need more parts to fulfill me. We heard from Lana's diary that the missing people had their eyes and limbs taken out. Well, this is where they went. Aggie is using them to create his true form so that he can escape this dimension. On Lana's YouTube channel, a new video got posted showing security footage of Aggie and Lana sacrificing the last co-to-remember, Nelly. But instead of sacrificing her at a live event, Aggie unleashes a monster. We only catch glimpses of it, but it's a very tall and misshapen humanoid body covered in eyes and teeth.

Aggie remarks to Lana. Was it not what you were expecting? No, Aggie, this is not what any of us were expected when you said you were making your true form. I was expecting the most shadified Roblox character ever, but instead you went Full Vita Carnus on me. But while that reveal was confusing and a little disappointing, there was another reveal in this moment. Lana, out of nowhere, feels regret. Nellie, I'm so sorry.

In the live stream, she tried to kill Nellie with zero remorse. But in this video, she's apologizing. Later on, Larner begins sacrificing members of the Soudad group, Horizon, a group filled with real Roblox users. But if you look around the room during the stream, you can find some strange text above the chamber door, another Caesar cipher, and it says, I'm so sorry, I didn't want to do this to the horizon, but A made me do it. This feels like a big shift in her personality.

Until now, she's been freely killing people. Anyone that rebelled against Aggie, like the coterie, easy. But now, Aggie requires innocent people to be sacrificed, but suddenly his hold on her began to fade. And then she released one final game. Sanogen's Gallery, which in Swedish means gallery, of truth. As soon as you start the game, you are met with a list of rules, but the most important rule is everything you see here is truth. Lana, the real Lana, is finally giving

us her side of things. No more doppelgangers, no more lies, just her. There are a lot of photos of Lana in this gallery, but the deeper you go, you can start to find plaques next to them. Lana, the one who tells the truth, the one you should trust. Lana, the real one, the one that isn't in the chair. Vessel, you'll meet her soon. And Apple. One, once you'll see her soon. innocent, pure and serene. Most of these make sense. Lana is telling us the truth here. The Lana in the live stream chairs has always been a doppelganger, and we've talked about

how Lana is going to be Aggie's mean of escape, his vessel. But what is this Apple thing about? The quote about losing innocence matches the Christian symbolism for apples, the fruit that was eaten by Adam and Eve from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that made them lose their innocence. However, we've spent a bit of time looking at Greek mythology this episode, so I thought I'd have a look to see if apples had any importance there. And oh boy, do they?

Specifically, in the story with our good friend Aggie, the Trojan War. The story began because Paris of Troy had to choose who was the fairest goddess, Hera, Athena, or Aphrodite. He ends up choosing Aphrodite, but she actually bribed him by offering him Helen of Sparta as a bride. However, she was already married to none other than Agamemnon's brother, sending the two nations to war with each other. But the thing that forced Paris to choose between the goddesses in the first place was a golden apple that had to the fairest one inscribed upon it.

It became known as the apple of discord. And if you take a look at the badges for the fortress game, you'll find one called the Judgment of Paris, the same name given to the start of this Greek myth. For Lana to be described here as an apple, It could be referencing her sowing discourse amongst the community. The real Lana having regrets and changing her mind is ruining Aggie's plan. But you know what?

I'm going to take a bit of a swing here and say it's actually something bigger. If the apple is what caused Agamemnon to go to war and endure all that's suffering in the myth, what if Lana, as the apple here, is somehow responsible for Aggie being trapped in the first place? Aggie clearly doesn't care for Lana. He calls her a pawn in his game, someone he's okay with getting very. rid of once their usefulness is stopped. He even questions if she is perfect when he's making the doppelgangers. He doesn't want to use her, but he has to. And looking back through the fortress map, you can find an apple on Aggie's desk with an arrow going through it. He cannot help but telegraph

his disdain for her, and yet she is completely unaware. It would also be quite a poetic narrative, having the person who is somehow responsible for getting him trapped there being the only way that he can get out. It is a bit of a leap, I'll admit, but the leap, from chapter 1 to 2 was also quite big, so who knows with this series. But there you have it, theorists. After four months of waiting, we finally have uncovered the law of Dress to Impress. The story of a girl fallen on hard times, upset with her lot in life, and sought help from a cult that promised her the world.

She was swayed by the charms of its leader, who took her under his wing, using her to make doppelgangers to deceive everyone, sacrificing players to make his perfect form and free him from his prison. at least, that's what I think is happening right now. This game is still updating almost daily, which is really impressive, but as a little peek behind the theorist curtain, our scripts are usually written two to three weeks before you guys ever see a video. So, when a game like this is updating so often, it becomes nearly impossible to make a theory

that isn't going to get debunked just days after I finish recording. Hi, Future Tom here, that is exactly what happened. There weren't as many updates as I was expecting, seems they're mainly waiting for the Halloween update, but there was a live stream where Lana clarified one crucial detail that we were wrong about her being the vessel. Turns out, the vessel is actually this fleshy room that you can find hidden in the corner of Dress to Impress that the community is dubbed the Meat Room. I mean, we only thought that Lana was this vessel because, you know, she was literally referred to as the vessel by Aggie. But okay, if this room is the vessel,

what does that mean? Well, given all the references to the Trojan War, I think this is a This meat room, this vessel, must have to be related to the famous vessel from that story, the Trojan horse, something that was able to sneak the Greeks into enemy territory and destroy it. This meat room is the vessel that will transport Aggie from the fortress into the world of Dress to Impress, into his enemy's territory, where his true form will be able to take revenge and destroy everything, just like in the myth. But don't worry, Lana isn't totally useless now. In that weird meat room, a key has also been added.

one with the name Lana attached to it. So, while she may not be the actual vessel, she's definitely the key to it. In Lana's latest YouTube video, she shows the dress to impress world, only now it's dark, red, covered in eyes, and we see another portal. I could see Lana or her doppelgangers doing one final sacrifice, one that will open up the portal and allow Aggie to escape his prison through the vessel, the meat room, and then he will be able to enact his revenge and turn the world. into that hellscape we see in the video.

The only other thing I'll note is that Lana seems to have completely lost her sense of guilt and is back to being fully gung-ho about taking over dress to impress. Given her past changes like this, I wouldn't be at all surprised if we have another doppelganger on our hands, just lying to us. So, who knows? Maybe Lana will turn out to be the vessel after all. But regardless, I think we can all agree that this game is fascinating. I don't think anybody would have expected this level of storytelling from a game like this.

So, I tip my hat to you developers, keep it up. I, for one, am very excited to see where things go next. But in the meantime, remember, it's all just a theory. A game theory! Thanks for watching.