About

When The Game Won't Let You Explore refers to a skit trend on TikTok where users act out a common type of cutscene in Telltale style adventure games like Life Is Strange where they're rejected from exiting a room, presenting a comedic reason for the rejection displayed as an inner monologue. The trend is set to the song "The Sense Of Me" by Mud Flow from the Life Is Strange soundtrack and began around mid-September 2021, becoming notably popularized in October 2021.

Origin

On September 16th, 2021, TikToker^[1] @the_legend_of_kyo posted a video captioned "when a game won't let you explore" set to "Sense Of Me" where he walks up to a door to leave only to be forcibly turned around and say "I should head to my room for tonight" in an inner monologue (shown below). He does this two more times, saying "no time for exploring, I need to go to my room" and finally "this isn't my room." The video gained over 1.8 million views in a month and is a parody of what happens in some video games, typically adventure-style games like Life Is Strange and Telltale's The Walking Dead, when the character tries to progress into a room they can't yet.

Spread

The TikTok Original Sound^[2] for "Sense Of Me" became notably popularized over the course of the month, inspiring over 22,000 videos by October 18th, 2021. The majority of these are skits in the same style as the original, offering new comedic reasons for the character to stay in their room. For example, on October 5th, TikToker @ourkidlewis posted a video where he tries to leave but keeps saying he has to "bust a nut," gaining over 3.1 million views in just over a week (shown below).

On October 13th, TikToker^[3] @duncanyounot posted a video imagining a Karen in the same situation, gaining over 9.8 million views in five days (shown below).

On October 14th, TikToker^[4] @kellyoubresleftcheek began posting videos following the trend with interpretations of what people with specific names might say when trying to explore the game, the joke always being that the name is gay (examples shown below, left and right).

On October 16th, TikToker^[5] @waytooevil posted a version of the trend where a girlfriend repeatedly stops a man from leaving the house because he's left clothes on the ground, gaining over 11.4 million views in two days (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References