Lex Fridman

Like when you're done with Red Dead 2, is it like you're saying goodbye to Arthur?

Like the characters you created, you're walking away.

Yeah, it's funny from the player perspective.

It feels like an old friend that I miss, whether it's John or Arthur or Nico.

It's a real goodbye.

There's a real sadness to finishing a video game.

Legitimately a sad experience.

Not just because the story is sad.

Yeah, and it's a real goodbye to close it.

There's that feeling when you're sort of closed the video game.

And it's, I mean, it's like saying goodbye to a friend.

Yeah, the end of On the Road by Kerouac.

Forlorn rags have grown old.

I just remember closing that and thinking, what the fuck am I doing in this big world?

It's a melancholic feeling, but there's nothing like that feeling.

It's so rare in video games to be able to achieve that with Red Dead.

And for me, it was Grand Theft Auto IV with Nico.

I have to ask about in the 2018 interview, you talked about satirizing American culture, which I think Grand Theft Auto was trying to do.

And you've made, I think, a really powerful observation that on the political front, people are getting more divided.

It's getting more absurd and ridiculous and extreme.