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"Humour in games."

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Mon 08/10/01 at 22:30
Regular
Posts: 787
What was the last game you played, that really made you laugh? I mean REALLY had you in stitches? One of the Monkey Island games? Sam and Max Hit The Road? Or have you never laughed at a game in your life? What was the most recent, funny game? Grim Fandango?

Why is this?

Why are games going down the route of misery, paiting the picture black? "The year is 2145, the earth is about to be blown up by some nutter with a nuclear weapon. You are our only hope" Yadda yadda....

Who really wants this?

Why not have the intro go something like "The year is 2145, the earth is about to be eaten by a giant radioactive hamster. You have to save us. BUT as this is only a game, you have to do it in the most amusing way EVER. You inverntry consists of a plunger, and banana and half a bottle of vodka. GO FOR IT!"

See what I mean? Which would be more entertaining? Surely chasing a giant green radioactive hamster about, waving a plunger, would give you more comical value tan they standard "Here's enoguh weaponry to blast your way into some nun's knickers, go and get the bad guy."

Even if the whole game isn't comical, how about some amusing catchprases? The hardest I've laughed at a game recently was at Trickstyle on the DC. There was a big fat German character, and whenever he overtook someone, he'd shout something like "I am a natural born leader!", or "I am the MASTER of ALL". In a comical voice.

Why are there not more games that do this?

Why are games all so miserable? Surely gaming is there as a form of entertainment. Please don't tell me you get more enjoyment from killing a few people, or driving quciker than anyone else, than you do from sitting down and having a good laugh for half hour or so.

Maybe you get a greater sense of achievement from the other games, but that's different to enjoyment, in my opinion anyway.

It's like films. I personally prefer to watch a comedy, than a standard "Hard man saves the day in underacted, overrated way."

Laughter is the ultimate feel good factor. If you're laughing, you're not worrying about the rent, or exams, or your weight, or hair colour, or religion or anything else that may worry you slightly at other times.

So why don't games reflect this?

There's quite a few questions here, and not many answers. Hopefully you lot can answer them for me.

Cheers.
Tue 09/10/01 at 19:38
Regular
"You've upset me"
Posts: 21,152
Monkey Island II, Sam and Max Hit the Road and Day of the Tentacle always had me laughing.
Tue 09/10/01 at 19:00
Regular
"Whatever!"
Posts: 9,320
Ive never laughed at a game as much as I did Conkers BFD!!
Tue 09/10/01 at 10:30
Regular
"not dead"
Posts: 11,145
LOL Excellent.

Brothers just love the "you love so and so" line, don't they?
Tue 09/10/01 at 10:22
Regular
Posts: 9,848
Meka_Dragon wrote:
> What's funny on No Mercy is playing a Royal Rumble, you knock out your brother,
> and wait to see who he comes back in as....


...It's Mae Young!


Always
> hilarious.


I made a character called "Dan".

My brother made his own character and made "Dan" his worst enemy.

As a result, "Dan" would attack him and interfere in matches.

My brother used to love having matches to beat up Mae Young.
And naturally, his enemy would come out to beat him up - "Dan" - my character.

What did it look like?

That's right. I was helping Mae Young.

My brothers wouldn't live it down.

"Daniel fancies Mae Young!!!"

Damn little brats!

lol :-D
Tue 09/10/01 at 10:09
Posts: 0
It really depends on what sort of humour you are after. Conker is a laugh but gets a little on the predictable side. Now the sort of game humour I'm on about is like in a Goldeneye deathmatch or Mario kart linkup. The stupid mistakes there are far funnier than BFD, and you get to see your mates puzzled reaction as you take that checked flag or shoot them in the back of the head for the 31st time :)
In my opinion Conker is one of the funniest games but the multiplayer on any decent game will always be of the greater entertainment value to me.
Tue 09/10/01 at 10:01
Regular
Posts: 3,182
I agree, more humour is needed. One of the funniest games I've played is Broken Sword. George Stobbart - what a crackpot.
Tue 09/10/01 at 09:50
Regular
Posts: 14,117
Thing is, fighting games are always funny to start off with, but after a while, it wears off.

Like in driving games when you drive the wrong way around the track. Humerous initially, then soon wears off.

Why don't we see the gaming equivalent of American Pie? Or Road Trip? Games that make you laugh all the way through.

These films were popular around the world, so surely games based on the same style of humour, would be popular around the world also.
Tue 09/10/01 at 09:36
Regular
"not dead"
Posts: 11,145
What's funny on No Mercy is playing a Royal Rumble, you knock out your brother, and wait to see who he comes back in as....


...It's Mae Young!


Always hilarious.
Tue 09/10/01 at 09:30
Regular
Posts: 9,848
Yeah, Conker is the example YH is looking for, having said that, while it was fun and entertaining all the way through (with a surprisingly emotional ending), it rarely had me in stitches.

What did have me in stitches was No Mercy.
Playing that ladder match!

You climb up, the ladder gets knocked down, you fall.

As stupid as it sounds, when I first got the game, it was HILARIOUS.

I don't think that it was intentionally funny.
Tue 09/10/01 at 09:25
Regular
"not dead"
Posts: 11,145
Games were more humourous back in the early days of the home computer, back in the days of the 'bedroom programmer'. Games were made for personal amusement, and not necessarily profit.

Today games take so long to make, and cost so damn much that the MUST be mass-marketable. Humour isn't mass-marketable.

Well, that's not strictly true, but what 'us Brits' find funny, isn't, as a rule, what the rest of the world might laugh at.

If you make a game to appeal to the UK sense of humour, it probably won't sell in the US, and wouldn't be profitable, the only humour that seems to be universaal is toilet humour and observational humour - people tripping over and dashing their brains out on a rock always generates a laugh?!?!

Also, as games get more cinematic in look and feel they going to look more like action movies, due to their story driven nature. Comedy movies are less so story driven, more going for laughs, so it's hard to base a game on the same concepts.

A joke is hit or miss, a rocket launcher always seems to hit the target.

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