DEFCON is existentially terrifying. How about a nice game of chess?
Studies:
David L. Waddington et al.“Education from inside the bunker: Examining the effect of Defcon, a nuclear warfare simulation game, on nuclear attitudes and critical reflection.” Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association. vol. 7(12), Apr. 2014
Chong-U Lim. "An A.I. Player for DEFCON: An Evolutionary Approach Using Behavior Trees." Department of Computing Imperial College London. June 2009
Miguel Sicart "How I Learned to Love the Bomb: Defcon and the Ethics of Computer Games." Center for Computer Game Research IT University of Copenhagen. 2009
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How to play Defcon First: install Defcon Second: start nuclear war Third: play defcon
*HOL'UP*
I think you need to see a psychologist
Oh no-
That's Funn... wait... SON OF A-
You need to complete step 3 quickly if you did step two well enough
You didn't mention the worst part about this game. When you "win", (all else is gone), you don't get a win screen. Just- nothing. Silence. The dreadful silence of millions upon millions of deaths.
They could have gone one step further by removing the Score/Point system. Just show the statistics of the casualties. No high score
@@thorstend.888 i think the scoring system was used as a metaphor for how the military can sometimes see these statistics as just being mindless numbers
Millions? Billions.
@@Ghost_of_Avalon Nop
@@Ghost_of_Avalon Billions? Trillions.
Destroying the world in Plague Inc: hehe I’m such a monster Destroying the world in Defcon: *what have I done*
Stellaris players: hehe ethnic cleansing lmao
Nah my reaction to the game is plague inc. Don’t know why people are put off or disturbed by this game. It’s just a silly map game with funny little numbers popping up.
@user-ez7ed7kd8e Same. I played Defcon, expecting to be scared or at least unnerved, but in truth I felt nothing. I had fun, it certainly wasn't boring, but I didn't feel any worse about it.
the difference between plague inc and defcon is you cant control where viruses go but you can control where nukes go
In 1870, decades before the nuclear bomb was created, and English author by the name of Wilkie Collins was surveying the destruction caused by either the Franco-Prussian War or the American Civil War (I forget which one, both were horrible). He made the remark that one day humanity will make a "discovery…of a destructive agent so terrible that war shall mean annihilation, and men’s fears shall force them to keep the peace."
He seems to have been wrong, or we haven't reached that stage yet. I don't know which is worse
@@Deathstroke-gd6kd during the cold War russia and the US wanted to nuke each other very badly but they knew the world would end if either one did so, I believe we have hit that stage, we are still in it
@@Deathstroke-gd6kd pretty sure we have with the atomic bomb
@@pileofthoughts this is a possibility too much risk and less return while war give advantage to its victor nuclear war is totally didnt give advantage to its victor nor its victim its like "we won this war and now what?" and as to why is that all i can say that after war i bet theres no way to eat thing without dies due to nuclear mutation of things
@@TK-5311 kzhead.info/sun/Y6-iea2XaaOXlaM/bejne.html
"You see that city?" "Yes, sir." "I don't want to." "Yes, sir!"
"Tachibana-san, why aren't we living?"
@@aureusknighstar2195 cause MURICA FRICK YA
**proceeds to make him blind**
@@leexcite2903 **by making him see the nuclear blast on the city**
@@aninditapaul9291 *and then stabbing him in the eyes just in case*
"Oh a new video from Polygon! I wonder what light-hearted video game humor Clayton has in store for me today!" *six minutes later* "oh."
Oh No ...
Life and how quickly we can die itself its humor
Don't be to terrified tho, the game lacks geopolitical interactions, therefor it is as from reality as Fallout 4 for example. What they miss completely is the fact that eradicating a whole country by irradiating it completely is not an option for a war, as you always try to gain land, resources, food stock, to gain in power on the way. After we saw the effects of radiation ont the japanese population, nuclear weapons got a mere tool of fear, nothing more. One has note, that i come to this conclusion, because i know that russia and america for example have nuclear weapon technology, that is virtually unstoppable, i am talking about missiles that travel at multiple times the speed of sound for days or even weeks, releasing radioactive material in the process.
Mandernach Luca that’s one thing I’ve noticed when people talk about nuclear Armageddon, they always leave out resources. Makes sense why the 2nd launcher would shoot, but the 1st launcher? What would they have to gain other than mutual destruction? And even if they could get away with “minimal “ damage, what then? You can’t conquer the area you nuked.not saying a nuclear war couldn’t happen but there’s a lot of questions I pose that no one cares to ask or answer other than, “cuz it’s inevitable”.well why is it? What could they gain?at the end of the day all countries want 2 things.1 self preservation 2 to conquer, dictate, or gain any sense of control for resources to benefit themselves.
Kaleb Pinkston if you lost territory to an enemy then there is a point at which it becomes rational to attack them with nuclear weapons. That is the application of mutually assured destruction policy to conventional warfare and geopolitics. The storming of west Germany was expected to unfold that way.
Yo someone's playing this on the wrong computer
Play it on an off white CRT.. or like.. a projector screen
And HE knows that
ah f*ck I accidentally bought putin sim
@@coleisforrobot, aw hell nah bro💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀
@@coleisforrobot 💀💀💀💀💀
I was playing a round of Survivor mode (which is honestly the best way to play it, especially if you also do it in real time) and I felt real fear and panic as enemy nukes rained down on my territory while my missile defenses tried in vain to stop them. Seeing such enormous death counts in cities I know and have seen in person... it gave me this sinking feeling I can't quite describe. I kept all of my silos in defense mode while everyone else fired their nukes, scrambled every fighter I had to defend the mainland, prevented EVERY sub my enemy had from firing, and yet still I ended up losing about half of my population. Once I knew the other side was dry, I remember thinking, "Well... You asked for it," before targeting every city they had with every warhead in my arsenal. I ended up "winning" that round by a LOT, but it didn't even feel like victory. Like he said in the video, everybody loses.
This is what I was searching for. The fact that you can defend all you want, try to prevent casualties as much as possible, but in the end... it isn't a victory. Just a slightly lesser defeat.
@@commandertoastcz6256also shows how pathetically petty the retaliatory strike is, even though the enemy’s missile systems have been exhausted and their aircraft and fleets destroyed by your forces, you still end up launching an attack on the defenseless civilian centers for no other reason than “you had it coming”
It reminds me of Avengers Endgame. At the start of the movie, Thanos still won. They killed him, sure. But that didn’t solve anything. Everyone they knew still died. It’s hard to even call it a Pyrrhic Victory. Even Pyrrhus of Epirus would have been deadened and sick by that reality.
"No one would ever let it happen" Gandhi: *evil laugh*
Why Gandhi?
@ Because he nukes the shit out of everybody in Civ
@ you wouldn't get it ;)
@ You wouldn't get it *smokes*
Yeah i really don't get it :(
"Yo 1v1 me" Cold war in a nutshell
lmao
It's more like if the two players with the highest scores on each team suddenly went spectator mode and started placing bets while their teams fought it out.
@@Daniel_Lancelin No, its the tension of the two smartest kids in class waiting for the teacher to finish their question.
Cold war is the typical hero VS evil villain lord but both sides are just villain lords. Like instead of the hero with the sword is just a blue version of the enemy dude and they both send pawns to do biddings and said pawns mirror match as noone moves foward cuz both sides are just lords sitting on differently coloured thrones
Both just camping and hard scoping
“The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.” - Carl Sagan
You forgot to mention DEFCON's ancestor: 1980's Missile Command from 26 years earlier, which also had the message of "You can't win a nuclear war."
*When you play DEFCON on an Area 51 computer and walk outsde*
I guess there's only 5 days left till we get Nuclear Armageddon. Lmao
Underrated comment😂😂
Oh no
Well we ain’t f*ckin dead yet so...
There is no outside
DEFCON 5: Peace. DEFCON 4: Ready for war. DEFCON 3: War. DEFCON 2: Total war. DEFCON 1: The peace of unburied dead.
"To simulate Nuclear Strike, douse the table in kerosene and toss a match on it." -Official NATO Wargame, probably apocryphal
That’s grim.
@@historymarshal2704 Quite fitting.
@@archierockford1490 Yes. It is.
DEFCON 2: Rome has entered the chat
Another terrifying version of a nuclear war is the thermonuclear war event in the TNO mod for Hearts of Iron IV. The event shows children playing, an EAS alarm, destroyed buildings and a child's black outline on a wall (like in hiroshima and nagasaki) while the entire world slowly turns black
Not to mention your UIs are shattered and reduced to rubble.
And it shows as "Anarchy" when clicking a state.
@@MaliciousIntent327 And also there is a bloody note on the side that says. "All Gone"
I think the scariest part of this game is that god damn sound design, seriously just hearing that snippet of the audio sent fucking chills down my spine
When you turn off the PC but the siren doesn’t stop
OOF
Hol up
@@badmoth242xl3 [Last know post made on June 6th 1995 from a KZhead user that lived in a city along the Waldreich mountains]
That actually happened one time and I was scared running, tears in my eyes, busting down my parents door to there room... Luckily, I just moved to a different city that had a prison nearby, it was roll call
Aight imma head out
" *DEFCON* stands for *Def* ense, Readiness and *Con* dition." Readiness: "Am I a joke to you"
Yes... Readiness is always the joke... Because nobody is ready for the end of the world.
@@DTSephiroth deep
Because we don't want to say DEFRECON. That doesn't roll off the tongue as well
米空軍パイロット We all prefer to use DECEPTICON instead.
It should be *DREADCON* *D* efense *Read* iness *Con* dition
One thing about this game that's masterfully done is the way the overall atmosphere slowly, subtly deteriorates as the death count rises. The screen gets darker and the soundscape becomes more desolate, and you don't consciously notice, but it has a powerful effect all the same.
"People die when they are killed" Its a line from Fate Stay Night that got memed to oblivion due to how redundant it was but I think it bears a strong idea on just how valuable a life truly is. You can't "undo" a death. Once its gone, it doesn't come back. This is why its important to value life. Yours and those around you, so even if you don't have much to be grateful for, you can at least tale contempt on the fact that you are alive, and that many others are also alive. Cherish that thought, and try to live making the most of it
Yeah but then your just afraid of death it sounds, besides some people/animals have comeback from death technically and some explain what they experienced, since Every thing in this silly Universe ultimately dies it should be a comforting notion - like it’s a milestone
Polygon, my source for goofy video game articles and existential dread.
I mean, they had Monster Factory.
If they think DEFCON is spooky (it isn't), they should give Superpower 2 a whirl. [kzhead.info/sun/e92kh6yjhKZ3rY0/bejne.html] Nothing quite like watching millions of your people die, and your economy crash because of a political blunder.
Also - can we stop peddling this "everybody dies" notion, it's making out politicians sloppy and it's just an inaccurate statement. Not even "most people" would die in the event of modern nuclear exchange. Nuclear warheads aren't all that powerful, and people are spread out - killing them, even with nukes, takes 'a lot' of work. China's arsenal for instance is so wimpy that it is mathematically incapable of killing a quarter of the US' populace.
@@mountplusBladeequals but, there is the radiation poisoning, and the fact no life will be able to sustain itself for years, and the fact that most nuclear bomb shelters have been left unattended after the cold war, and that the survivors will die of cancer from the nuclear fallout in the atmosphere... ... Am I missing anything? Not everyone will die, but it will suck for the survivors, not to mention the survivor's guilt and the weakened governments I hope we can agree that we should never have a nuclear war
I'm glad how they didn't launched a single bomb in the Philippines.
Polygon:”which castlevania monster is sexiest” Also Polygon:”nuclear war”
My 2 moods
Dojyaaaaan~
President Valentine?
I know right
D4C
As a RTS player this is terrifying (BECAUSE YOU CAN'T COLLECT RESOURCES :( )
Out of interest: did you ever play the diplomacy mode where all the players start as friends and allies and then scheme behind each other's back? That was my favourite way to play and it was probably the darkest existentially.
Abraham Lincoln talking about scary game doesn't exist, he can't hurt you Abraham Lincoln talking about scary game:
Underated comment
Far Cry 5
He has a moustache
Omg I didn’t understand this comment until like 10 seconds in. Then I fell over and died.
@@andrewdiaz3529 Joseph or John?
you can’t fool me i know the cassette voice is BDG
I fall asleep to his voice every night before bed I cannot be swayed.
I was thinking that too XD
Probably because the study just had a transcript of the comment and polygon made it work better in this medium.
It says "dramatic reading"
Oh god he’s trapped in that cassette, how do we free him?!
One other thing that ties this topic to Chernobyl is when the nuclear plant explodes the guy in charge does not believe that the core has been exposed. The podcast about the tv show explains that his reaction was because if the core of the nuclear plant had exploded that meant they were all dead. His natural survival instinct caused him to exclude that from the realm of possibility in his mind. Just like the people in the study who thought they would die. If it means certain death we think it is impossible to happen.
This is what happens when you give power to a bunch of old people that only have 10 years of life left
😂😂😂
And no kids.
Damn
Ur probably 14
@@robertknight2615 AND YOUR PROBABLY Away down south in the land of traitors Rattlesnakes and alligators Right away (come away) Right away (right away) Come away Where cotton’s king and men are chattles Union boys will win the battles Right away (come away) Right away (right away) Come away We’ll all go down to dixie Away, away Each dixie boy must understand That he must mind his uncle sam Away, away We’ll all go down to dixie Away, away I wish I was in baltimore I’d make secession traitors roar right away Right away (come away) Right away (right away) Come away We'll put the traitors all to route I'll bet my boots we'll whip 'em out Right away (come away) Right away (right away) Come away We'll all go down to dixie Away, away Each dixie boy must understand That he must mind his uncle sam Away, away We'll all go down to dixie Away, away We'll all go down to dixie Away, away We'll all go down to dixie O may our stars and stripes Still wave forever roar the free and brave Right away (come away) Right away (right away) Come away And let our motto forever be for union and for liberty Right away (come away) Right away (right away) Come away We'll all go down to dixie Away, away Each dixie boy must understand That he must mind his uncle sam Away, away We'll all go down to dixie! Away, away We’ll all go down To dixie
"War is a frightening concept, but this defcon shit scares the hell outta me" - Sun Tzu
Deftly
He didn't said that!!
@@justshrimping742 "Do not trust quotes on the internet, they are fake, they are made-up" - Sun Tzu
@@streamfroster wait? He said that as well !? WHATTT IS HAPPEENNINGGGG!!!!1!!1
Stop quoting my brother -Moon Tzu
Plague inc: who are you Defcon: I'm you but scarier *this has seriously not aged well*
They're both pretty scary
@@Zeus-ud2jl I mean, Plague Inc isn't scary after you get the message ''JOE MAMA killed over 5 million people'''
@@Zeus-ud2jl yeah but plauge inc is more abstract
@@Shadow_Witch lol yea but the atmosphere it gives and the noises it makes and you think this could happen
@@killerfishe5092 still spooks me think it could happen
I love how the rest of the world is on a nuclear rampage and then there's Australia just vibin' As an Australian I am so glad we're an isolated island in the middle of nowhere
End of Ze World was suprisingly accurate in this regard.
There's a book about that called On The Beach, I recommend you read it.
@Alp Quite true
Ya wasn’t the movie *Mad Max* all about that? ... should be fun
worry anyway, I think you have some american nuke bases so they'll aim for you too
This game aged well, and that's not a good thing at all.
America: Defcon China: Plague inc Australia: Firewatch
Nooo
We're all Plague inc now
hol up
Brazil: Counter Strike
Middle East: cod
"That is what forgiveness sounds like: screaming and then silence." -A llama, probably
CAAAAAAAARL
CAAAARRRLLL, why did you point all of Russia's nukes at the U.S.?
Caaarrrllllll why did you commit mass nuclear destruction
@@papaahd7566 Hey, I said I was going green didn’t I. I wanted to help the environment.
Carl, why did you start WW3?
sometimes I lay down in bed and imagine that split second where my house would be blown away, my skin melted, everything I've known and loved is extinct all before even hearing the boom of the explosion... just because a man in a suit wanted his way. What if that's happening right now? I want to believe I'll be able to get a warning, maybe survive... but would I really want to? Maybe it's best I'm oblivious when I die. It's a whole new kind of fear.
You know what the worst part about DEFCON is? When the game ends and you're shown the scoreboard. There is no fanfare, there is no "You win!". There's just... Silence. There's just you, being shown what you have done
"Somebody has to win" scares me.
100th like
What does winning mean when there's so little left? I wonder if they'll care. Because the only alternative is losing. Right?
@@jh9981 Because that is the mentality of countries but in this scenario nobody wins
@@Woodledude I imagine the situation as a situation you shouldn't really think about. If a country would attack you, you have to strike back and everyone loses. period. However, if you think about it, if the enemy already launched the missiles, you can't. Someone has to live, even if it means you don't.
Sombody has to win....but no one is willing to give up
Interesting and quite fitting sentence: "Everybody loses, but somebody loses the least"
If they are not more alive, how is that measurable? And how does it actually matter?
@@VJFranzK Whoever dies last, wins.
@@ursosexmachina We're not talking highschool football, or your FPS here. It's not really a win if there's no one left, friend or foe, to congratulate you. The real, grown-up concept of victory of the human species has been our survival. Survival of future generations isn't possible in a world contaminated by radiation. The "winners" might suffer in the longest, most terrible way.
@@VJFranzK More people are alive. If the US loses 100 million but Russia loses 150 million, the US has "won" the nuclear exchange.
So somebody wins, because losing less than others in any sport = winning, what matters is score compared to the others. Hahaha
A game I had waited a long time to play, ever since seeing WarGames as a child and learning the nuclear lesson.
Only once did I come close to victory in this game. I was North America playing against a human driven South America. I had gotten lucky and eliminated his fleets and subs, his silos and one of his four airforce bases with very little losses on my side. I was trying damn hard to find the other three when he had a launched a full coordinated bomber swarm against new york. I scrambled my jets, my interceptors work marvelously , but no it wasn't enough. First nuke hit. 8.4 million dead popped up another hit shortly followed. No other hits landed, but I felt like I lost, even then. I always played as a fiercely survival based player. Sink their fleets. Down their bombers and stop their nukes, before they launch. Yet it never was enough. I'd always get hit, millions died. I would mop up the rest of that players bases and cities... but nobody ever wins in a nuclear war.
" There are no winners of war, only survivors and even they die inside from guilt. They only physically survive to warn us. To warn us that there is nothing more terrible than what they have done. "-Jake Fulton
I'm 13 and this is deep...
You can't be more accurate than this
@Deo That's some nice coolaid you're drinking, hoping the money put in the military aren't detracting in any way from your inalienable human rights. What's that? You must pay for an education? What's a health insurance?
Now we know, the Deep States and some rich houses are behind these wars. There is a reason you have to suffer so much. Don’t like it? No worry, they offer cannibalism and corruption, if you want to end your misery. Guess what, you will take it just like you let the all the things happened in 2020.
"nothing more terrible that what they *were forced to do* " is more accurate I think. When one is unfortunate enough to find oneself on an active battlefield, fighting for survival, the only true choice is kill or be killed. It sends a chill down my spine just to think about that proposition, about having to indiscriminately and in cold blood take the life of another human being. Another man who might very well have a beautiful wife, not to mention children who will now never get to know their father simply because I believed my life to be more valuable. Another man who, if only times had been different, might even have become my best friend, possibly for life. War truly has no winners, but only pitiful losers, forced to kill indiscriminately and without question, only for the unlucky survivors to end up damaged, broke, lonely and forgotten; rotting away in a veterans home. To use an already horribly overused saying; war never determines who is right, only who is left.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Nuclear Forces unofficial moto was "После нас - тишина" ("After us - silence")
It was and still is Strategic Missile Forces motto.
О! рашшн
Now i use that as my fam moto xaxaxaxaxa
transliteration: Posle Nas - Tishina
(-Krstit će se i ko neće-) motto
Despite the horror of this, don't let this distract you from the fact that Mr krabs sold SpongeBobs soul for 62 cents.
Rofl
Damn
TRUE, i was waiting for someone to point that out
worth it! argargargargargargargargargargargargargargargargargrgargagrggargargragragragrag
you know the worst part could be just being inside the ISS and just watching the earth slowly light up as bright lights flash through the atmosphere and the earth slowly fading to a red/black color of what is now left
Maybe playing DEFCON should be mandatory for politicians, just to hammer home the futility of nuclear warfare.
Considering how a lot of politicians are likely to be actual psychopaths, I don't think it will help much.
You act as if politicians care about people
Will not make any difference or they would not be politicians themselves.
I mean they probably know, and if they dont know about the consequences, 😂😂well we call them kim jong un
why play this game if they can slowly perform it in real life?
i love how Australia is just in the corner like *everything is fine*
Everybody forgets Australia
@@theslenderfox Eh, the starvation will get them if the natural disasters and wildlife don' t get them first
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beach_(novel)
@UCXidC8Cir-T8RRKheZ0CeHA I was talking about in case of a nuclear winter, but I can understand where the confusion comes from. Outside of a nuclear winter, you are entirely correct.
"So now we've got nuclear winter. Everyone's dead 'cept Australia and they're still like "WTF? ^^" But they'll be dead soon... F*ckin kangaroos..."
Watching this video now makes it even more scarier and eerie
Russian Nuclear Motto: "After us, only silence."
"Peace is our Profession." "War is just a hobby" Strategic Air Command
"After us - silence". © Strategic Missile Forces
@@alexeyrodiontsev4978 well that's so much darker
I agree; more countries need to make nukes to enforce the peace against a certain belligerent going around bombing, invading and spreading coups
Hotel is Trivago
@Panzerkampfwagen VI ...deez
Plague inc: I fear no man, but that thing *DEFCON* plague inc: *it scares me*
*stares at madagascar in a cold sweat* Yea that's what I'm scared of.
In plague inc, the humanity dies by a sickness In DEFECON, the humanity dies by a war
Defecon
@@ImKevax At least sickness dies alongside us in defcon. A nucler explosion is like sun on earth. I doubt anything survives that heat
@@ImKevax *In DEFCON, humanity dies by it's own hand FTFY
The algorithm really playin with us 💀
The thing is... The point of war is that you expect that if you win, the outcome will be worth the sacrifice and the risk of defeat is valued against the value of that positive outcome Now nuclear war... Even if you were to win it, it's marginally better for you as a ruler to keep ruling your superpower country despite having strong rivals than ruling over a wasteland with no ressources no economy and cataclysmic level issues no one ever had to deal with before MAD does work I think
I've counted every single nuke in defcon I think they're only around 650 The world has more than 12.000 nukes
uh oh
the game is about cold war so ICBM's came out new in the cold war era
12?
@@carlredfield1693 In continental Europe, it is common for commas and periods to be swapped e.g: 10,000.1 (ten thousand point one) is written as 10.000,1
The huge numbers - and it's far reduced from the height of the Cold War in the 80s - was a calculus between NATO and the Soviets that if the other side launched a pre-emptive strike most of the nuclear arsenal would be destroyed on the ground before it could launch. Therefore, even assuming you've lost the vast majority of your own nuclear weapons, you'd still theoretically have enough left to retaliate and destroy whoever attacked you. This acts as a deterrent against the other side launching that pre-emptive strike in the first place. Since no nuclear wars have started since, the theory works.
"A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic" - Joseph Stalin
So what is 7.8 Billion?
extinction
A killstreak
Salvation
@@LongandWeirdName /kill all
2020 year: Plague inc IRL 2022 year: DEFCON IRL
I can see my younger self playing this game psychopathically trying to wipe out as many humans as possible. I feel like I now understand why most people in a position of power tend to be on the older side.
Safe to see that us Australians are safe from total nuclear annihilation
Declan Van Arkel they left you guys out because you already got terrifying animals that’s worse than even the nukes
Come on your country loses to your own national animals....pretty sure you're no threat to the world yet lol(this a joke btw)
Omega Storm ahaha I can’t argue with you there
Incoming fallout for us Aussies.
That's because the nukes just go to space rather then hit Australia because everything is upside-down.
I love Defcon. The thing that shocked me the most about the AI in the game is that if you try to play "realistically", where the goal is hitting military targets instead of just taking out major cities, you get completely destroyed almost every time. It's like they purposefully designed the game to say "no, a nuclear war can only be won through mass murder.....so don't freaking do it"
Hitting cities _is_ realistic in nuclear war. Industrialized warfare is dependent on manpower and production. You hit cities, you destroy factories, obliterate shipyards, kill off skilled workers, and their families... You're not just winning a war by defeating the enemy's existing forces and driving them back. You're destroying a population's ability to even _participate_ in anything even remotely approaching industrialized warfare for *generations*. Escalating to DEFCON 1 is All or Nothing. If you don't have the gumption to take a deep breath, and push the button, and make the opposition pay in equal blood to what they just launched on you,? Then you die. And nobody will be around to care since the only thing you're really doing is that the other guy is just as crippled as to have to spend just as much time as you to rebuild society. It's PURE retaliation logic. And it helps manage MAD by the concept that even if we know we're going to die, we're vindictive enough to take the other side with us. DEFCON operates on the simple assumption that for whatever reason, MAD has broken down, nations are on the edge, and the time for 'limited' warfare has passed you like a Porsche going the other way. It IS possible to actually... WIN a game of DEFCON. When I say win, I MEAN win. No losses of population. I've done it precisely once. It required some pretty fine-tuned management of your silos swapping from ABM and Silo mode and a little bit of praying to RNGeezus that the enemy nations distributed their ICBM launches juuuuuust right.
why mass murder the ai if the point of the game is seeing they have been attacking you all along an you are their god
Realistically, limiting targeting to only military assets could only work if you made a preemptive strike during DEFCON 5 or 4 on New Year's Eve when everyone is drunk. You might have some success at DEFCON 3 but you are still going to be hurt bad. At DEFCON 2 or 1 you will be hitting empty silos (their counter strike will be in the air, headed towards you) or conventional units which pose no threat to you. All that assumes that you launch first. If you are reacting to their launch, your only choice is to do nothing in the hopes that they survive or you can ensure that they burn with you.
@@atigerclaw The winning with population intact sounds very interesting,is there any video or step to step to do it ?
@@jamesbrendan5170 There isn't. Like I said, I did it precisely once and I'm pretty sure I couldn't duplicate it on demand because it requires both crazy-good handling of when and where you switch your silos, and a good chunk of RNGeezus. Who shoots at who at what time and how much so as not to overwhelm your defenses. I'd think of it more like winning a card game. There's skill involved, but it comes down to what you're dealt.
The fact that this is getting recommended to me again is not very comforting.
For people wondering, the US is currently estimated to be at defcon 3. Estimated using open source intellignece or OSINT.
America: Defcon China: Plague inc Australia: Firewatch Hotel: Trivago
Underrated comment
done before but still funny
@@SilentFox. overdone joke
Meh. cut him some slack guys. Everyone needs some likes every once in a while.
@@entityxkid244 sure, but that did make me smile. That's a well deserved like
0:50 Actually, DEFCON 1 is like every finger and usable appendage mashing as many big red buttons as possible
*bodyslams the nuke table*
@@kathrynb.kavanagh2621 GIBBEH OOF
No it’s actually having 100’s of robots at high speed pressing 100’s of buttons per second for each robot
paniiiik!!! mode activated
Yeah DEFCON 1 is nuclear war. 2 is nuclear war is imminent
This video ages well
Lol
Just looking at the game screen with all those missiles flying and "Launch Detected" popping up over and over all over the world is on it's own one of the most horrifying things I ever saw.
- How tough am I? I played this game DEFCON. - Yeah so? - Without getting scared. - ... Right this way
So does that mean that Sandy would be the first person to send off nukes?
The game isn’t even that scary. It’s actually great. Polygon reporters are just overdramatic
I mean actually it's not scary at all, I know.
That's the point. The scarry thing is that the game isn't scarry.
Používaťeľ JUtUbe no, it’s not the point. It’s just a fun strategy game where you launch nuclear missiles at each other. Everyone tries way too hard to get internet points by being a pseudo intellectual.
The subtle coughing and crying in the soundtrack is just so unbelievably perfect.
...isn't that plague Inc?
@@clanofclams2720 in the video it talks about coughing and crying in the soundtrack.
@@screamingghoul4108 no it dudn't
@@clanofclams2720 2:46 yes it did? here, he talks about.
@@screamingghoul4108 nah, he dudn't
I think it's just a lesson for people that are older to understand that it's okay to be afraid
Scary how close we are to our lives turning into a statistic in a DEFCON game.
4:02 "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." -Joseph Stalin
You know he never actually said that, a fictional depiction of Stalin said it, Never trust quotes or witty sayings.
Cyber Pop while you are technically correct in saying that, it is still disputed whether he said it, as a columnist in 1947 did attribute that quote to Stalin in a meeting with his commissars.
@@yeetusdeleteus1305 I wouldn't say that exactly because it is a phrase that has been used multiple times dating back to 1759
Rockie Technically that isn’t theoretically a valid statement according to the proclamation of youtube back in 1529 therefore making thus making this quote impossible to human civilization
STONKS
Polygon: come for the funny stuff and stay for the existential dread! I guess I've got a new game on my list now
same
What can you play it on?
Oh, and body horror. Lots of body horror.
@@josephray459 it's on steam! :)
It’s free on steam, calls it the demo but it’s really not
KZhead, you seriously recommending this to us in a time where nuclear war is genuinely the closest it has been to happening since the cold war?
KZhead algorithm, the all seeing eye
The algorithm responds to trends. People search, it responds. Nothing more.
I just watched a documentary about the Japanese survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So freaking horrific and disturbing this carnage two nuclear bombs had caused. People’s skins were peeling and people were rotting alive due to radiation. The gameplay was super hard to watch after seeing that documentary
"The things that's more terrifying than someone who wants to win, is someone who doesn't want to lose..."
the only ever 2 bombs used was for that reason, its really terrifying. how you fight something who is not afraid of dying, they will never lose. it was really useful we had a thing to really put fear in their hearths (and it took 2, when only one should have sufficed, that level of not wanting to lose...). I would totally chose that option if I were in the same place, who wouldn't ? two splashes and it ended the war. people like to talk about the cost of lives, but with that enemy, nothing would stop it, that probably saved more lives than the never-ending thousand year war. The other option would be surrender, good luck with that, the imperator would just kill you, because of their moral code that punish deserters, and you deserted your country (an enemy of the enemy is not an ally), so you must die too , not to mention horrific things that would make literal hitler puke.
@@monad_tcp if they didn't use nuclear weapons, the war in Japan would've extended by a few years, but the outcome would've been the same. Some argue that if they killed the god-emperor of Japan, they would've surrendered. Either way, nuking 2 cities like that, killing over 200k citizens...it's unforgiveable.
@@brian14021994 so youd rather them invade and risk killing millions more than the nukes would have?
What’s more terrifying than someone who doesn’t want to lose, is someone who doesn’t care if they do, as long as you don’t win.
@@coregontrail3481 and thats why N.Korea having nukes has the world on edge
chess on steroids
This is should be top comment 😂👌
Ironically, check this out, some sort of Chess+Defcon hybrid kzhead.info/sun/eMeyZbWRh4GCp3k/bejne.html
Xanatos Speed Chess
Chess on sleep paralysis
Chess with a minor change in rules where any piece can take any other piece on the board from any position on the board along with all adjacent pieces, and every piece on the board moves simultaneously.
Bought this game many years ago and still have it on my shelf. It did make me think of Wargames and it was absolutely chilling to think about the prospects of a real nuclear war.
and then comes 2022
Plague Inc: _What... what are you?*_ DEFCON: _The end. _*_Of the world._*
the plague just kills humans, defcon kills life itself
Except Australia, we're fine down here
@@TheWulf899 until nuclear winter begins...
@@CarlosRuiz20 thats right if fallaout teach something: "if the bo,b dont kill you the secondary effects will do it"
Imagine if they make second game mode where you...yes you become the UN leader (United Nations) and prevent the world from killing itself *Dictator gamemode:Can you destroy the world?* *Humanity last hope gamemode: Can you save the world?*
this is kinda like plegue inc. but nukes
Plague*
Exactly
In Plague Inc there's no fight, and you're just a bacteria trying to follow the circle of life but here it's actual humans cassuing mass deaths of one another through vaporizing each other's flesh
@@Saint_Wolf_ Plague Inc Is Also Mass Human deaths If You win You Kill Every Single Human
@@jj.jayjay. Sure but in terms of how things work, one is just a bacteria/virus, here's the progress of technology halting itself through its own makers.
I stumbled into this game and it really does make you feel pessimistic.You don't hear anything, no alarms, no booms, no talking just the sounds of the computer and its alerts with people muttering every so often in the back ground as you watch nukes fly and say you killed 10 million people in a city.
looks like we bout to be playing this game in real life soon...
Polygon: Defcon is terrifying because of nuclear annihilation. Me: Launches a nuke back at that bastard Gandhi in Civ V
AI: wants uranium also AI: 3 gold/turn. take it or leave it.
Defcon : We Made such a unreal and scary Game.. *Stanislav Petrov : Hold my vodka*
The man that save the world
For those who don't understand: This is the person who played a key role during 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident and did not press the retaliatory attack button because he decided that was impossible and it was a failure of the warning system (he was right). Thus, he violated military protocol, but saved the world from nuclear war.
He is... Saviour of humanity...
@@NiketasIgnatius Petrov's story is largely inflated by journalists. In fact, he did not have any "retaliatory attack button". Petrov was the operational officer on duty at the Command Center of the OKO (ICBM launch detection satellite system), which was only one part of the Soviet missile attack warning system. And he only had to confirm (or not confirm) to his superiors the missile launch warning, received from his system. The final decision about the validity of the launch was made by the 820th Main Missile Attack Warning Center - basing on the analysis of all data from all USSR missile attack warning systems (including early warning radar network). In 1983, while Petrov was on duty, the automatic part of the OKO generated a launch warning: "one ICBM launch from the territory of the USA", and then three more launch warnings. The 820th Center, which automatically received this information, demanded confirmation from Petrov. The "manual" part of the OKO system (visual control operators at OKO Command Center) did not confirm the launches. Flares from engines of flying ICBMs were also not detected. Accordingly, Petrov did not confirm the launches and reported about a false triggering of the OKO system. Moreover, the OKO system at that time, although it was put into service in 1982, was considered unreliable. So, the data from it was initially considered as "confirmation required".
@Hatwox Because human beings have this need to create and exaggerate stories to make individuals heroic. No one wants to talk about a well-designed system working as intended. But a person going against the system to heroically save the day? Oh people will eat that up regardless of how close or far from reality it actually is. Look back at all the various exaggerated war stories of individual soldiers or commanders "going against orders" or otherwise bucking the system to "save the day".
the implication is that simply allowing nations to have nuclear weapons leads to a perpetually escalating arms race, and someone will eventually, inevitably use it. on a long enough timeline, as long as nuclear weapons exist, this is almost certain
Well, Here we are. The DEFCON countdown has started.
Worldwide delivery in 30 minutes or less, or your next one is free!
We are talking about colony delivery, yes?
We talking about big ass smoke mushrooms
lol minuteman III
Extra cheese please
felicianoabe I prefer extra mushrooms
This whole concept is so damn scary.... reminds me of the Russian strategic missile forces moto ¨ _After us... silence_ ¨
OttoVonWeaboo how about Putin’s very frank declaration that “Why would we [Russians] need a world if there’s no more Russia in it?”
@@PhillyBoyBcn Well from Russian point of view it's pretty clear lol. Why would Russians need the world without home?
Welcome to reality The scariest game to date
a bunch of creatures with sentience grouping together, ending millions of lives for the feeling of power
OttoVonWeaboo Woah, strong motto that one
I'd *love* a realistic nuclear war simulator. Like, you get a launch detection, but no idea where it's heading until your radar has calculated its freefall ballistic trajectory during it's terminal phase, so the first half of its flight, you're left in the dark. Thousands of weapons, interceptors, MIRVs, decoys, tactical weapons, counter force/value, first and second strikes, decapitations, loss of command and control, it'd be so COOL
i would love to see that
@@zekeyeager6444 Check out Espiocracy (comes out in 2024) - I don't know if it'll go super in depth with the actual nuking (It probably will though), but it's an awesome spy game and it WILL have nuclear war - And assuming some of your agents survive, you can even keep kicking and screaming after the exchange ends. In fact, the nuclear war will be less "Nuclear war" and more cold war era sabre rattling (with a chance of nuclear war if a LOT of mistakes are made), so it'll be even more realistic than what isbestlizard wants.
Check out Espiocracy. I go more in depth in my reply to the other commenter on your comment, so feel free to read it.
Who's here because of current world events?
Yeah, I'm also here because of Kanye
I came here after coldline
“Moscow has been hit” me: metro time
pls
[\^/] 343 Guilty Spark it’s the only good thing to come out of Russia being nuked. And for America it’s fallout
Ah,nothing like squatting with comrades in Metro Moscow
@Wee Pinbell ah, imagine a crossover, for both metro and fallout to meet. Old enemies, now just survival in a collapsed world, but is rebuilding or dieing out depends on how you see it.
I thought this was a reference to the secret KGB metro in Moscow that *100% doesn't exist*
I used to play this years ago as a kid, I had no idea scientists did studies on it that's dope
As a kid? How old is the game?
@@El_Presidente_5337 it came out in 06
@@mikemar2002 O . O
Where do I get this?
@@kurdonthego Steam! Great developer too, check out their other projects ^-^
Remember kids it's not a red button It's two keys 21 ft apart that are spring loaded that you have to hold for two seconds.
This is a super interesting video. Really well made and analyzed
“Peace was never an option.” -Some goose from a meme
Animalogic?
@@DerAykac No, it’s a meme. Look up “peace was never an option goose” and you’ll find it
@@zildiun2327 You sure it's a goose?
@@zildiun2327 it’s from a untitled goose game
@@lilchristuten7568 ye
Oh, a new Polygon video! I'll watch it on my lunch break. ...Hey boss, I'm gonna take the rest of the day off due to existential dread
I think the idea of mutual destruction is enough to keep people in line cause no matter how right you are that doesn't matter if you and your entire family is turned to ashes. Shits still pretty scary to think about though.
The unfortunate thing is you were wrong about one thing. In the beginning you described DEFCON 1 as your finger hovering over the big red button. In truth, thats DEFCON 2. At DEFCON 1, the button has been pressed.
DEFCON: *Exists* Australia: maybe if i stand still, they won't nuke me
Underrated
And it works...
if you wrote "they won't notice me" instead of that it would ve been funnier
Not until emus get the knowledge of nuclear weaponry
@@useroftheinternet8362 we’ve already had a war with the damn birds, don’t give them any ideas
Scientists: We have positive proof that video games actually *stop* violence! The media: *NO.*
@@Unknown_Genius if a guy needs to play some call of duty to go out and shoot people, he is already crazy. It is not the games fault. He would have commited the crime sooner or later. Bullying, child abuse, and mental health issues are what causes school shootings (and the reasons for other kinds of violent acts are also similar), but the media tend to ignore that sadly.
@@Unknown_Genius No I actually read your comment. And I was not even arguing with you. What I meant was, that games do not affect ones mind directly (unlike bullying and child abuse) and causing people to act violently. Yeah you might end up getting angry after losing in LOL, but that applies to any sport or real life game that requires effort to achieve something. Everything affects our actions one way or another, but not everything can be called a primary cause for ones actions.
... watch the video, or you know, have a less polerialized thinking?
@@Unknown_Genius Some games do make you more tolerant to violence but that doesn't mean the player is more likely to commit a violent act. I think it entirely depends on the person and if you do exert violence then something wasn't right from before you started playing video games.
@@georgetsoukalas1409 I saw a news a while back where a teenager went out to stole his mom's car and shooting a gun thinking he was playing gta 5..
"In DEFCON everyone loses" Oceania is having a laugh.
"Nuclear war is inevitable, because it's a game. Somebody has to win." Ngl this hit pretty hard
Yes but in nuclear war: everybody dies because in nuclear war there are no winners. First the alarms from the sirens and the screams from those who are panicking before the nukes go off and then silence and crying. Grim silence.