Night in the woods is a very interesting game.
And not one that I would just recommend to everyone.
Though I enjoyed it greatly myself, it's not the kind of game that just anyone can
enjoy.
Though if you are around the age of 20, and are at all depressed or empathetic or are
wondering your place in the world, this game is for you 100%.
But one of the most interesting things about this game to me, was Possum springs, the town
the game takes place in, it is one of the most interesting, unique, realistic, and relatable
settings in a video game I have played.
So yes, there will be spoilers here, but nothing major.
So lets learn about Possum Springs, and its inspiration from the sad reality that is the
Rust Belt.
Now, maybe it's just me and my west coast education, But I hadn't even heard the term
Rust Belt until about a year ago.
And as I think about this, I feel like this video may be common knowledge to those who
live in it, but for me and I assume many of the rest of this side of the country, its
all new information.
But even though I had no idea what a Rust Belt was when I first heard it, thankfully,
I was able to piece together where it was just by the name of it.
It's this area of the U.S, Mainly Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio, but also crossing into
Pennsylvania, Illinois, and western New York.
And it gets the name rust belt because… well, basically… it's falling apart.
The most famous city in the rust belt is of course Detroit.
So think of everything famous about Detroit, but spread throughout small towns scattered
across that part of the country.
Here we see the modern ruins of a prosperous past.
In the mid-20th century, this part of america was at its richest.
Its factories and mines were pumping out products left and right, and the big ones too.
Coal, Cars, construction equipment, machinery, steel, lumber, everything.
And this is reflected in Night in the woods well.
Possum springs was a mining town.
And the locals are proud of it.
Spanning murals of their prosperous time along walls, and erecting monuments.
Their local sports team are the Smelters, named after their once prosperous smelting
facilities in the area.
And the older citizens refer to the gold old days frequently.
These older citizens mostly would be from the Baby Boomer generation, the time when
this area WAS at its most prosperous, they grew up in an ever-improving world of high
middle class living.
Only for things to come crumbling down in their adulthood.
"And the kids these days don't understand that things used to be better," because
they grew up at its worst.
But why did it crumble?
Well that of course depends on the political views of who you are asking.
Those on the right will often say it's because Taxes and regulations got too costly, which
caused these businesses, mines and factories to either shut down, or relocate to where
it's cheaper.
And those on the left will tell you it's the greedy CEO's moving out to where they
can line their own pockets more.
And in reality, it's both, along with the added factor of technological improvement.
I mean, 1 miner with a machine can do the same work in a day that 10 miners could in
a week 60 years ago.
And yes, it became significantly cheaper to move these factories elsewhere because of
regulations and taxes.
But many, though not all of those regulations were for saftey's sake.
Afterall Mines and factories are dangerous places.
So It can be viewed as greedy CEO's wanting to just move instead of spending money on
guard rails and paperwork, but it also makes business sense.
Take me for example.
Just a few months ago I moved out of california because the cost of living is too high and
they tax me too much.
Being a Youtuber is considered running your own small business.
So I moved to Oregon for business reasons... and because the weather is much much nicer
here.
Factories, especially at the time, tend to have good wages.
Supporting tons of middle class families from 1 person, usually the father, working there.
So when these factories leave, suddenly these middle class families are stuck with middle
class bills to pay, but are stuck working for lower wages at retail jobs… and thats
if there are even any of those left!
This is also reflected by Mae's dad.
He used to work in the mines, but now works at a grocery store, and he hates it, Mae's
mom has to work now too.
And it sounds like, despite their efforts, something is going to happen to their house...
They probably cant afford to keep it anymore.
Beatrice and her father run a business together, but recently had to drastically downscale
to a small, worn down apartment, because they simply couldn't afford the nice house anymore.
The rust belt is full of empty houses, especially nicer empty houses, at least they used to
be nicer.
But all of the middle and higher class people left, or dropped into the lower class, foreclosures
skyrocketed, and most people could no longer afford to keep their houses.
The same goes for parks, schools, and businesses.
Because if people can barely afford their small houses and apartments, then they don't
have leftover money to spend at other businesses, so those businesses dont make enough money
to stay afloat, so they either fail, or move out to a more prosperous area.
LEaving the rust belt town even more empty and worn down.
At one point, you drive for an hour just to get to a mall, a nicer place to shop and hang
out, but even it is a bit run down and empty.
This is the point in the game that resonated with me the most, because this is happening
across the country, not just in the Rust belt.
Malls suck nowadays, at least compared to how they used to be.
And why?
Well beatrice says it pretty clearly.
Because of the internet.
There are many articles and predictions from economists that state that a "Mallpocolypse"
is just around the corner.
Multiple mall-chain stores can no longer afford to keep running.
They can't compete with internet prices and still pay Mall-rent.
Malls charge a lot for rent, and haven't really adapted to the times.
Most of them just don't realize that they are killing themselves.
And while its hitting malls hardest, the same thing is happening to outlet stores and small
businesses in general.
The internet is making them obsolete.
But while this is hitting the nation, it hits the rust belt especially hard, since its almost
all they have left.
Another point that gets brought up is that the small local businesses are closing first,
and they are being replaced with major chain businesses, like the Snack Falcon.
Seeing this made me relive a bit of culture shock I had a year ago, when I first visited
Oregon.
I had no idea that so many local businesses could exist in one area.
My hometown of Redding CA is 95% chain stores and restaurants, because the only places that
can afford to exist there are the ones with major backing.
But the problem with that is, when you say, buy a starbucks coffee at a walmart, most
of that money is going to another part of the country, where their headquarders are
based.
But when you buy a local thing from a local store, all of your money is going to be used
to further advance your own local area.
You are supporting your local area.
But at this point, the rust belt cant afford to support local, because there are so few
local businesses these days, only the major chains can afford to be there.
And so, its a cycle, and the people get poorer, and poorer.
And the effects are well shown in Night in the woods.
Firstly, everything is run down, but also, there are Lottery ads all over.
Notably, the poorer you are, the more likely you are to buy lottery tickets.
And lottery companies know this and prey on the poor for their dollar.
Lots of the young adults here, especially beatrice, wished they could have afforded
to go to college at all, but they can't, Too expensive.
New technology is expensive too, and even though this game takes place in 2017, most
of the tech in the world is outdated, from the early ot's.
People cant afford to keep up here.
One of the most prosperous and well kept local businesses in Possum springs is a pawn shop.
Likely because the poor citizens are selling their more valuable belongings to afford food.
Another interesting yet obvious statistic is that pawn shops also do better the more
poor a particular area is.
Also, the poorer it is, the more crime and drug use there is.
Which is also why the shadier of pawn shops do well.
And this is also referenced by Mae's friend Casey apparently being in the Meth making
business.
Another trait of the rust belt is sinkholes, which is a recurring point in night in the
woods too.
Its why there is so much construction going on, repairing the sinkholes.
The reason sinkholes are such a big problem in this part of the world is because of all
the old abandoned mines just sitting there, empty, slowly eroding holes underground.
The surface ground can only stay up for so long.
And this segways nicely into the spoiler-y-est part of the video, its about the underground
cult which, thoery: im pretty sure consists mostly of the city council members.
Though they are the antagonists of the game, I feel like they fit into the relatable category
of villains.
The ones that have a good point, good intentions, and are relatable and understandable, but
go about things in... not the best way.
In this case, they discovered that a sinkhole within one of the abandoned mines lead to,
EHEM, an eldritch horror known as the black goat, and when they sacrifice someone to it
their town prospers a bit for just a while.
So the connection between them and the city council is obvious, they are the only groups
you see in the game, and the both have the same goal.
Make the town great again.
And there we go, I said it.
Make the town great again.
Lets go political.
The way I found out about the term "Rust belt" is the same way many other people
found out about it.
The 2016 US presidential elections.
It was the unexpected twist of rust belt states turning red that caused Trump to be elected.
If you go back and look at these political maps, its easy to see that while the rust
belt contains a few swing states, they tend to be bluer, the few times they go red is
when the entire country has a very obvious preference.
But in recent years, people have been getting more and more polarized, so most media outlets
assumed these states would all be blue because of their more recent history.
Its why it was thrown left and right that clinton had a 90% chance to win, and then
she didnt.
Because of the Rust belt, a part of the country that is usually ignored.
And while places like Buzzfeed and popular tumblr blogs will tell you its because they
are sexist and racist, (even though they dominantly voted for Obama both times before, and have
been blue for most of history… so how and why would they suddenly become this….)
Anyway… the real reason is much more complicated, and much sadder than that.
Its because this part of the nation is called the rust belt for a reason.
*Video Clips *I voted for that obamer feller years back, I thought he would help* *Trumps
going to bring the jobs back, thats all I care about*
And a few journalists covered it very well.
This part of the country is experiencing all of those problems I mentioned earlier and
more.
Politicians of all kinds always promise more than they will ever give of course, but Obamas
campaign in particular was one of hope, hope, and change.
Which is exactly what the whole rust belt wanted at the time, and still wants, they
hope for a change that will make their part of the country, great again.
And after Obama made those promises, and fixed nothing... well..
Whats the point in voting for Hillary?
One of the major flaws that political analysers on ALL sides point to in Hillarys campaign,
was that she offered very little change.
She stood for basically everything obama did, little more, little less.
And since Obama did very little for this part of the country, why would hillary?
Meanwhile… Trump went out of his way to appeal to the rust belt.
Claiming that he wants to bring those jobs back.
Which is exactly what the people there want, it's what they want more than anything.
And they can look past the flaws that the media pounds upon constantly, because they
see voting for him as the greater good.
And even if he didn't campaign in that area exactly, many analysts still believe that
these states would have voted for him.
Because he still represents some form of change.
At least something will be different, at least there will be some, even if minor, some small
chance that things will get better...
And that's all these people want now… change for the better, instead of the constant
decline, and instead of being ignored…
And before the comments turn into a dumpster fire for me daring to say anything remotely,
vaguely, slightly, positive about trump.
*ehem* of course he isn't actually doing anything to help much at all, in fact a few of the
government programs that he is cutting the funding from are programs *specifically* made
to help that region do better.
Welcome to politics 101, every politician on every side promises more than they will
EVER be able to do.
Wow.
But the politics of the region and even the rest of the country are well portrayed in
Night in the Woods too.
Albeit subtly.
Both the rust belt and possum springs share a certain dynamic between conservatism and
liberalism.
The older generation is religious, with churches scattered about.
Christendom in the broadest sense, has both a form of conservatism, and generosity involved,
though not through liberal means.
What i mean is, politically speaking, christians and even just religious people in general,
tend to vote more conservatively.
Yet at the same time, tend to be involved much more heavily in charity organizations,
such as helping the homeless.
And you'll notice that the majority of the characters involved in the church even remotely,
are much older.
Meanwhile the discussions you have about spirituality with the younger characters reveal that they
tend to go either agnostic or atheist.
This along with the political ideologies we know of in the game, such as bea being part
of the young socialists, goes in line with what is currently happening.
Many in the older generations tend to be more conservative in general, while the younger
generation right now seems to be the most liberal they've been in modern history.
Part of it is due to polarization of course, but its also because of..well… everything.
Politics, especially in the broadest and generational sense, tends to be complicated.
Nobody is purely one thing, everyone is a shade of grey.
Near the end of the game we see Bea talk about the old cult people wanting to gain back the
"world of the past that barely existed".
Which is very accurate to how many younger people these days see the older generation.
You see on the news, older people talking about their glory days, about their booming
businesses, about Ronald Reagan, about a time where they could walk into a store with conviction
and get a job immediately.
A time where things were only getting better.
More than anything, the world you grow up in and spend your young adult life in becomes
your normal, it makes you who you are.
So "kids these days, they dont know" does have *some* merit to it.
Kids these days grew up in a post 9-11 world that was already falling apart, and ghost
towns are all over the place now.
This is the new normal, and many younger people cant even fathom it being any different.
Much like Bea, they have terrible childhoods, working extra hard just to be able to eat
tv dinners.
"If only those business had stayed, then things would be better.
But they are gone now, those businesses ruined everything, its their fault.
Forget the business sector, capitalism ruined everything! the government should help the
social sector so that my life would be better, so that its more fair."
And thus a socialist is born.
This is also exactly why we have phases and flip flopping political views through the
generations.
Kids grow up being raised by their parents from 1 or two generations behind.
Plus they grow up in a world that is being mainly effected and controlled by the previous
generation.
And because most of us are little rebels, at least on the inside, we want to be different,
unique, so we go against that.
While what classifies as conservative vs liberal has changed over the generations, its notable
that baby boomers were, for the time, very liberal.
But in turn, they raised generation X, a more balanced but leaning a bit towards conservatism
generation.
By today's standards though, both fall into conservatism much more, and that factor, along
with being raised by boomers and gen Xers, the Millennial generation is the most liberal
generation, possibly in history.
The Main characters in night in the woods would fall into the very tail end of this
generation.
And being raised in a more extreme environment of any kind affects your outcome too, in their
case, it makes sense that they would lean towards the left.
They are living in a falling apart city whose older inhabitants are all much more conservative
and, from their perspective, are stuck in the past.
And because the more conservative government doesn't seem to be interested in helping,
well, it just makes sense to do the opposite.
And tangential fun fact, the extreme left views of Millennials and early Gen Z kids
in general seems to be leading to the bulk of Generation Z being the most conservative
generation since the 1940s.
At least according to political, pop media trend, financial, and generational analysts.
And speaking of analysts, not to jump on any fear-trains, but I've read more than a few
times and even did my 6-month-long final project in High School on the prediction that California
is going to become the next sort of rust-belt.
Which looking at my home town, I can see 100%.
The politics and policies that *definitely* benefit southern california, are destroying
northern California.
And thus, more people and businesses are moving out of california, and moving to states like
Texas, Oklahoma, and Washington.
But thats a subject I could spend on hour on for another time.
To summarize, Often times, people who live in the area I do, the West coast, will have
no idea about the problems in the rust belt.
They are confused why and how they could even flip flop politically so much, especially
during the last election.
And to those people I say, Check out Night in the Woods.
It's easily the most accurate portrayal of that part of the country.
Desperate, yet strong and hopeful people of a once-prosperous part of the nation.
They are strong, and do everything they can to stay afloat, arm in arm they raise each
other up in their small towns.
Though, through seeing the continuous decline, some get desperate, and will overlook any
crimes or misdoings if it potentially works for the greater good of their area.
Sure, you could say some are stuck in the past, but at least they haven't given up.
And as on Ohioan, I've certainly experienced a lot of this first hand.
My home town was pretty much a cookie cutter rust belt area.
Oh hey, its Swankybox from the youtube channel Swankybox which has multiple awesomely in
depth videos about Night in the Woods, what brings you here?
Weeeeeell, you know, I just magically edited my voiceover into your finished video!
By the way, did you know that the stars and constellations in Night in the Woods and its
prequel games may have foreshadowed the events of the game?
I didn't!
But that sounds awesome!
Looks like the developers didn't only put details into the Rust belt aspect, but the
astrological aspect too!
I'll definitely check that out and encourage my viewers to also!
So what do all you think?
Is Possum springs an accurate portrayal of the Rust Belt?
And did you expect a big lesson in politics from a video about a game featuring cat-gods?
Let me know down below, and until next time, never stop using your gnoggin!
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