He's gonna take you back to the past
I'm gonna take him
to the psychiatric ward.
[upbeat Game Theory Intro]
Hello Internet,
welcome to Game Theory!
where our favorite f word is fu..nambulsim
Which means tight rope walking.
duh.
I'm also a fan of the word 'slangwhanger'
'widdershins'
and 'collywobbles'
but, now we're just indulging ourselves.
And turning into 'morosophs'.
[chuckle]
So, I'll stop my 'digressing'
Today, we're talking about the
angry video game nerd.
The internet's most famous gamer.
Uhhh
Angriest gamer?
but before him.
[longer chuckle]
[sigh] ahh now
you're just messing with me.
Nope!
That's /the/ happy video game nerd.
Ahh, there it is.
The original angry gamer.
Long before the
days of the bro-fist,
the Grumps,
and the Theorists
There was the nerd.
and shitpickle.
but everyone tries to forget about him.
In fact, the nerd
was the first gaming celebrity
I'd ever heard about
That wasn't Miyamoto
or some big game developer
Who was just, quite simply,
a gamer.
He was the one who
introduced me, and I think many of us,
to the world of online video
as a medium for game
discussion and comedy.
Quite frankly,
he was a pioneer of the field
and without him the
gaming landscape across the web would look
incredibly different.
Especially here on YouTube.
But for as much as we laugh at
the AVGN, and mind you we're talking about the AVGN character,
and not James Rolfe,
the creator.
When you come right down to it,
there's a disturbing trend across
his content.
With the nerd's archive of videos
documenting a string of alarming symptoms
pointing towards severe mental and physical illnesses,
Seriously! I'm
worried about this guy.
So, for his sake and for
the sake of all of us who love trash talking
glitch movie tie-ins and
oversized AC adaptors.
What's wrong with the Angry Video Game Nerd?
Let's diagnose!
First, his namesake
the Anger
well yes, anger is a natural emotion in everyone,
and yes, broken, poorly programmed
and excessively difficult games can make
anyone rage.
His reactions are, well,
a bit more extreme.
Rivaled only by this
"Russian" kid.
Yikes!
And while everyone might shout out the occasional
"darn" or "shucks"
while working their way through
a particularly challenging level,
his feelings are a bit more colorful.
"Now you're playing with f*cking sh*t
You're better off f*cking sh*t than
than f*cking with this f*cked up
sh*t. F*ck this sh*t
You don't know sh*t about how f*cking sh*tty this f*cking sh*t is."
MatPat: What you can't expect me to
actually air that stuff, can you?
I mean, come on now, this is a
family-friendly show after all.
Hey! That was from a different, more
confused time, okay?
Passed attempts at click-baiting
aside though,
having these sorts of intense reactions
in situations, where,
let's face it, he's still on level one of a
pretty mediocre video game.
Seems to suggest that the nerd suffers
from a condition called 'Intermittent Explosive Disorder'.
or 'IED' a completely real mental illness
that's characterized by
extreme expressions of anger.
Often to the point of uncontrollable rage.
That are disproportionate to the situation
at hand.
Muttering a mild curse because you
missed a jump? Normal.
Beating Bugs Bunny to the brink of death
then defecating on the victim? Abnormal.
Gnashing one's teeth and pulling their hair after
losing a critical in game moment? Normal.
Using a flaming crossbow to destroy
a decently functional gaming system? Abnormal.
The 'Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'
better known as the "DSM-5"
is the bible of abnormal psychology. According
to this document, to be properly diagnosed with
a disorder, you need to meet
three criteria.
The first, is that the anger needs to result
in damage to either a person or
property.
Uhhh, yeah.
The second is that the explosive
behavior needs to be disproportionate to
the inciting action.
I.E. big reactions to small events.
And while, yes, I agree that
the Jaguar was a lackluster
system. The normal response would not be
to pull down one's pants and relieve one's self upon it.
SO, definitely a big check mark there.
But it's the third that gives us a challenge,
you see, this one requires that the behavior cannot be
accounted for by another condition.
And in this case, I think there might be
an even better explanation for his erratic behavior.
This "Russian" kid on the other hand, total
case of IED.
Because when you come right down to it,
the nerd is a lot more than
simply an explosive rage addict.
Over and over, we see evidence that he experiences
intense symptoms of mental illness.
What I'm talking about are
his highly vivid hallucinations.
Ninjas, comic book characters, floating pickles of excrement,
even a cyborg religious figure he's named
"Super Mecha Death Christ".
The nerd reacts to these creations with such
vehemence that it seems
to suggest he may be suffering from
paranoid schizophrenia.
A mental illness defined by extreme
delusions and hallucinations.
It's a pretty extreme claim so
in order to fully diagnose him, we need to look
a bit closer. A common delusion
among paranoid schizophrenics is that
you've been singled out for harm.
And we see this time and time again.
The nerd's insistence that he was
tied up and punished by the joker,
or that he was actively pursued by
fictional nightmare creatures
like Freddy Kreuger and Jason Voorhees.
Paranoid schizophrenics may also have
delusions of grandeur, the belief that they
can fly, that they're famous, for example.
In the nerd's case, he repeatedly assumes the
role of an accessory clad super hero. Who
must defeat both the Devil and rampaging robots.
Calling to his side the help of Jesus Christ himself
and finally the delusions can result in aggression or violence
if you believe you must act in self defense
against those who want to harm you.
See also, Bugs Bunny, so the nerd
is clearly delusional
but there's more.
Paranoid schizophrenia also comes in a bundle pack with
auditory hallucinations.
The person suffering from the illness
hears unpleasant voices that are cruel,
making on-going criticisms of
what they're thinking or doing.
Throughout the nerd's videos,
no example is better than the glitch gremlin.
A creature who harasses the nerd mercilessly
throughout his play session. Other symptoms
of paranoid schizophrenia include extreme anger
and bursts of intense violence.
And we already know that the nerd has those.
In short, taking years' worth of
nerd videos into consideration, the diagnosis is
clear, what we've been laughing at
hasn't been a stereotyped character
of the gaming nerd persona. No,
what we've been laughing at for millions
upon millions of hours
is a mentally disturbed gamer, clearly
in need of psychiatric consultation.
Dear Theorists watching this video,
indulge me a moment while I reach out
directly to this man.
This individual in an attempt to correct the years of neglect
that we've shown him.
Nerd, if you're watching this
and I hope to Super Mecha Death Christ
that you are.
There's more.
Now, I'd hoped to tell you this
privately and I hate to bring this up
in a public forum, but you're twitter
unfortunately remained silent
to my requests.
So, this is the only option
I have left.
After observing the tapes,
something else rather concerning came to my attention.
Guess there's no beating around the bush
I'm worried about your bowel movements.
Across all of your tapes, I noticed a
disturbing trend in your
[sigh]
pardon the phrase, uh
anal excretions.
Uh, roll the tape.
You see here as you evacuate on to Bugs Bunny's face,
your fecal matter is incredibly loose.
Unable to form an actual stool.
The excrement here is practically the consistency of
melted chocolate mixed with water.
In short, the rapidity of evacuation, the volume
pouring out of your anus, and the way
your buttocks just seems to open
this veritable flood gate, is
cause for concern.
But that's not all, if you look here, as you defecate
onto this Jaguar CD it appears as though you're actually
experiencing the opposite problem.
Your feces is thick and sticky, the look on your face
seems to indicate that this is painful
and difficult to pass.
Almost as though you're constipated.
And examining the sample closer, or
at least as close as the medium of
online video will allow me to investigate.
Shows poor digestion of the contents of your stomach
personally, these symptoms make me worried
that you might be suffering from an inflammatory
bowel disease. Specifically, Chron's disease,
but without getting to examine the buttock region in person,
I can't 100% make that distinction.
[upbeat music]
Just be careful, okay?
The last thing you want is to develop an anal
blockage, or worse a fistula.
Which are these tunnels, connecting
anal abscesses to infected block glands.
It's icky.
Anyway, just watch your ass, literally.
In the end, both paranoid schizophrenia and
irritable bowel syndrome are treatable,
but you should get that treatment immediately, Nerd.
Or not, I mean we've all been laughing at your physical and
mental illnesses for the past 8 years, and it seems to have
made you quite successful sooo, I guess you can keep going with it.
But at the very least, you now know
what's going on.
If you didn't already.
So take that information and use it as you see fit.
And out here in the web-o'verse. Just rest assured
that one Theorist is paying attention to you.
But hey,
It's just a theory,
A game theory!
Thanks for watching!
Welcome back to the 'SUPER AMAZING END CARD TOURNAMENT'
Where last week Mega Man 2 took the cake, followed closely by Mega Man 3.
Thanks for not surprising me guys,
And Mega Man 8? C'mon, c'mon really??
REALLY?
Ugh
[sigh] Whatever.
In honor of the nerd today's question:
what is the worst game EVER?
Ranging from Link's CD-I Adventures and E.T. for the Atari to Superman 64 and Big Rig Racing.
There's so many to choose from, I can't leave it to click.
So leave a comment below to cast your vote for the worst game ever
and next episode we'll find out which one you thought was the #1
steaming turd.
[to the tune of bird is the word]
A nerd nerd nerd, nerd's the word. A nerd nerd nerd, nerd's the word.
A nerd nerd nerd, nerd is the word
[upbeat outro]