So. Splatoon. The light-hearted third-person team shooter in which you are a kid, and a squid.
I do not own own the appropriate game hardware on which to play it. All I know of it is from what people post on the Internet. A friend who does own it was pondering why you can’t swim when you’re being a kid, only when you’re a squid. “Maybe it’s the price they paid for their sentience,” Ian wondered.
To which I replied:
Squids are actually all small clusters of the Paint that have split off into smaller minds. Eventually they will return. But really they are all thoughts that the Paint is having. It takes a lot of effort to swim within It without becoming It again.
Ian: It’s just one giant blob of Grey Goo coloring itself up and playing games with itself.
Me: Splatoon: the most colorful post-apocalypse ever. These arenas are all that remains of the world after the Incident. Squid kids: memories of the people from before coalescing out of the Paint. But all are co-opted into its games, lest they escape.
Ian: 
Me: Huh. I guess it really IS the most colorful post-apocalyptic scenario ever. AWESOME.
Ian: This would explain why so much focus is put on playing by its world’s rules– the relentless urge to “stay fresh”, style-wise. By distracting the memories with a fragmented, nonsensical facsimile of Shibuya centered around fashion and battling, the Paint can keep its inhabitants’ interests narrow.
Me: YES. But what are the real aims of the Paint? What happens when you break out of the endless game into the secret adventure?
Ian: I don’t think the goal is to break out, but to regain sentience by considering the sum of your experiences & extracting meaning. In that way every Miiverse post in the game is a tiny act of defiance.
Me: Is this an extended metaphor for the concept of Maya.
Ian: Possibly! Or a very very extended ARG for custom map editor DLC.
Me: Or Frog Fractions 2.
I couldn’t resist. I drew my squidsona. Her name is Only. She has seen the Tru7h and took the turquoise pill. Her favorite weapon is the spray-can.