Nicky Case’s We Become What We Behold is only five minutes long, but it manages to say more about media, polarization, and human behavior than many full-length documentaries. It’s a simple loop: you play as a camera, capturing moments in a small square world. The people inside this world react to whatever you choose to broadcast. And slowly, inevitably, things fall apart.
What makes the game so effective is how it demonstrates feedback loops. At first, the world is calm, maybe even boring. But the moment you photograph something strange or confrontational, the broadcasted image sets off a chain reaction. People begin copying what they see, exaggerating it, and eventually defining themselves against those who look different. Hat-wearers and non-hat-wearers turn into symbolic enemies, not because of any real conflict, but because conflict gets attention.
The brilliance lies in how quietly the game indicts both the audience and the player. You could choose to photograph peaceful, ordinary moments, but the game nudges you toward the dramatic because that’s what “gets views.” You start enabling the very cycle that frustrates you. A quick, uncomfortable mirror of how modern media systems reward outrage, simplify identity, and turn individuals into caricatures.
By the end, the world collapses not because the inhabitants are inherently violent, but because the system incentivizes it. It’s a commentary on how narratives shape reality: we don’t just record the world, we help construct it. And the things we choose to magnify can become the forces that define entire communities.
