I was just playing Pathologic demo,

There is this scene where one runs through the tunnels and find the Rat Prophet hallucination. Immediately after this there is a kid in a rather obvious rat costume had set up rat races for gambling.

Thus, the game mixes the mundane and real with parallel meanings that are of equal or greater significance. There is one other place where I have routinely seen this: Dostoevsky loosens the boundaries between an object and what it symbolises until the two are interchangeable - one shared meaning.

Another parallel can be seen in a few of the poem's of Tyutchev, with their sense of an interconnected, living, conscious universe. It is not surprising that one gamer on this forum was compelled to write notes during the night, for someone drawn into the world of Pathologic will dream twice in one day, both times the same story.

For not only does it invade one's natural dreams but when playing one assumes a dream like mental state. Pathologic itself is like the Plague it tells about for it invades the mind until one begins to doubt one's own ability to judge instead of the designer's judgments.

Ice-pick lodge created a fevered dream that can be collectively shared by many. It is almost enough to make one believe that Russians have a unique gift.

I commend you.

Thank you very much, I was very touched by you post, and I'm sure the rest of the team will be. ))

Be sure to check out our next project - Tension - www.tension-game.com - the site is, unfortunately, still only available in Russian, but I hope to open the English section tomorrow. ))

And sorry for the rather brief reply - you've raised a topic I'd really like to discuss, but there's just too little time left - we're now finishing the second project. )

And welcome to the forums.
Hope to see you here again. )

Hehe! I was the person who wrote about Pathologic invading my dreams... and yes, I was compelled to write notes because the game caused me to think so deeply about it. It really wouldn't leave my head whether I was awake or asleep, during the two weeks when I first played it. This was both a good and a bad thing: Good, because the game obviously succeeded on such a deep level, unlike anything I had ever played before and bad, because I literally couldn't think of anything else at the time!

That's why I waited about 9 months 'til I played it for the second time, as I needed a couple of weeks when I knew nothing particularly important was happening, just in case it had the same effect! It wasn't so evident when I played the game again, though it still left me thinking about it a lot.

Yep... A fascinating game indeed. Glad you like it so much!

One of the reasons Pathologic succeeds is because it tingles the unconscious brain as much as the conscious one; atmosphere and metaphor are teh designer's trump cards.

Yes, it is the unconscious and it abilities that Pathologic allies with (for or against the conscious mind?)

Hydra9, nice to meet you.

LxR, thanks for the reply. I found myself extolling the qualities of this game/story and the techniques used to people in glowing terms. I then realised that I wasn't talking to the people who would benefit more from it. So, you can imagine how pleased I was to discover these forums.

I am looking forward to checking out Tension. I liked the Russian name though, Turgor, because it reminds me of plants (Turgor Pressure) and Tension has a negative connotation in Canadian English. I have also found it very hard to find references to Pathologic via internet searches. I commonly get textbooks on diseases. One word names are nice but it is good if they are almost unique and thus produce very few extra returns using a search engine...

Well, we're a small community. ) I've read your post in the alphabet, and I was surprised, how well you have pinpointed one of our key methods to adding a whole new level of reality to our games.
The problem with Turgor is that the term is a medical one, and quite an awkward one too - some might turn away from the game just because of it's name. On the other hand Tension has almost the same meaning that we meant to put into Turgor and even broadens the possible ways to understand the title. As for Pathologic (Path of logic ), try searching for "Pathologic Game" and all will go well. Are you from Canada? Home of Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, one of the best post-rock bands ever?

Yes, I am indeed from the second largest country on earth (right behind Russia in fact). I am one of the few people who's list of reasons for not playing TES:Morrowind was that the distances were ...well, too small.

Regarding the Alphabet: I was curious as to how conscious the decision was when it came to using such a technique. Most of who we are, and most of our thinking, is in the non-conscious mind and it often happens that it prompts the unconscious mind to bring into use novel approaches. So, these things are often discovered after the fact.

As for names: English is a very messed up (everything from Norman French, to Norse, to Dutch). So, in my experience, it is often better if any "play on words" is done in an over obvious way (I actually really like the title in the form "pathoflogic"). Not many people actually know the term "Turgor" in English. Just, my thinking.
As for the Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra: They apparently started a couple of hours away from where I live. Anyway, It is good to hear that you know of them. It is not unusual for Canadian bands to have to become famous overseas before they even get played here.

There is an ongoing tension between our indigenous culture and domination by cultural imports from our neighbors. It is interesting as this is probably the largest reason why I have read some works by authors who were influenced by the slavophile movement.

Well, I can't say that they are famous here... Actually, barely nobody heard of them, it's just that I've been lucky enough to stumble upon one of their concert recordings and it was love at first sight. )
I wasn't working on that part of the game, but I promise to ask about what was meant to be done, and what was just a lucky coincidence.

I received a copy I ordered on Christmas Eve (the Dec. 24th one as opposed to the one held on the second weak of January). I haven't had time to play it much but it certainly seems to be holding steady with the same or greater quality and psychological penetration than the demo.

I noticed that it had on the back of the case the opening line: "Pathologic is a unique example of a dramatic game, which directly affects the player's state of mind" (emphasis added).

I guess my observations at the start of this thread are a little redundant.
So, Thank you once again for a unique work of art.

You're once again welcome.

You know, I hadn't re-read that text since playing the game. It's amazing that, for once, a piece of seemingly overblown 'ad blurb' happens to be true.

Anyway, as I'm posting this on 31st December, happy new year to everyone! I hope 2008 will be an excellent time for all of us

This forum feels like some post-apocalyptic situation. Did all of you people die or something or I moved to 2008 alone?

Would like to sign up behind what Avimimus said. I do know how unique it feels to know you are doing something so special and then to receive appreciation. Well, you, guys, deserve it.

But don't count on that too much. Give us Tension!

The English forums have always been sparsely populated, but I know people are watching. Like myself, for instance

Yeah, I bet the popular merchandise games' forums never die. Too bad most people fight off any form of enlightenment for their stereotypes.

You know, the Russian forums are still alive and even better then ever - I think it's a good sign. Though I do agree with you about the enlighment and all - we've recieved mostly 2 kinds of responses to Pathologic - either sincere fanatical love or also fanatical hatred. It's nice to see that this game causes such reactions - when something just doesn't leave you indifferent it usually can't be bad.

Fanatical hatred? I must have missed this, why on Earth would someone HATE a computer game, an innovative one on that?!

Oh, it's certainly possible. I guess the majority of 'haters' just didn't understand the game, didn't try to understand it, thought it was 's*@t' because the graphics weren't cutting edge or mistakenly thought they were buying a first-person-shooter or something (I actually know someone who bought the game thinking that!).

For an example of how different people's opinions are, check out the reviews at MobyGames.