Slashdot Mirror
Humor in Games?
commiesubverter writes "Slate.com has an article up about humor in games. It's a decent summary of where the gaming industry has been and is going with its humor. From the article: 'Comedy is typically marginalized into background sight gags and interstitial cut scenes. Even games that generally strive to be funny incorporate humor into window dressing: In Grand Theft Auto, you can sow mayhem while listening to a mock-NPR that's broadcasting a roundtable discussion on violence.'"
Nothing beats the Monkey Island series!
That sounds to much like real life.
Dashboard Widgets
I play games because they're fun, and not for any other reason. Recently I've been playing GTA:SA, and I can see why WCTR is window dressing - because it gets old. It only has so much content, and after that, it becomes stale and repetitive. To make a good game that is genuinely funny the whole way through would take a LOT of work - and frankly, I'm not even sure it would be possible. It's much easier to make a game fun by allowing you to run over pedestrians or what not - this stays fun for awhile. But once you've heard a joke once, it's pretty much used up.
Cyde Weys Musings - Scrutinizing the inscrutable
I remember countless adventures from Lucasarts where the principle element is pure comedy. From Monkey Island to Day of the Tentacle to Sam and Max, these classic games were both funny and fun. They don't make many games like those any more ever since FPS's became popular (and hence, more profitable for the majority of game studios to develop).
"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
The Monkey Island series was one of the funn(i)est things I've seen in my life.
Computer games are less funny because they're interactive, and that's hard to do for comedy.
For the simple reason that the first couple of times you play it a joke is amusing, the 200th time you play, its a worn out fucking nuisance.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
I've only played the sequel and that has to be the funnies FPS I've played. Some of the conversations between the guards were priceless, and the overall goofiness was highly entertaining.
Actually I thought that a lot of the earlier games were firmly tongue in cheek.
Infocom's Zork and Enchanter series had a lot of gags. Planetfall and Hitchhiker's Guide were, too.
Bard's Tale, as the aticle mentioned. But Keef the Thief and Escape from Hell were funnier. There were quite a few funny cut scenes in one of the Duke Nukem games--I remember Duke ripped off a defeated alien's head and, uh, took care of business down its throat...
I think gaming used to be geekier and have more self-depracating and sarcastic humor. Later, console systems opened gaming up to a younger and less geeky population, and games became more fast-paced and serious.
These days, it seems that Blizzard is keeping up the humor tradition more than most other publishers.
not one mention of Zombies Ate My Neighbors...
stuff
where how the user plays creates the comedy? I laugh my ass off when I am playing Monkey Ball with friends because of some of the wonderfully random ways you can kill your monkey. The best comedy is usually unscripted, and the best games usually provide lots of unscripted comedy(whicih is also another reason why I don't play 1 player games or games on the internet, too boring)
Monstar L
... if you want an FPS which will make you laugh check out Giants: Citizen Kabuto. Absolutely hilarious plot as a bunch of Cockney Aliens end up on a planet with a magic using race of merfolk and a 300 foot tall beast.
The cutscenes are brilliant but the comedy is left out of the action with the exception of the various cockney aliens chiming in with progress reports and saying things like "Oooh my leg!".
And as for comedy being annoying upon repetition. I could play Monkey Island till Guybrush Threepwood actuall becomes a mighty pirate.
Come on people! Bob, Float, Drift? What's NOT to love about that series!?
Maybe the reason games are low on humour is because most jokes are only funny once or twice, whereas a game needs to be playable many, many times. If playing the game a second time is like watching reruns of Fresh Prince in Bel-Air, I'd rather not.
Of course, there is comedy that will always be funny, such as Monty Python, but who dares create a complete game hoping that all or most of the comedy will last?
The Incredible Machines and Day of the Tentacle are two of my favourite old games with lots humour. But I think the reason I still like them is because I haven't played them for a long time.
"Stop failing the Turing test!" -- Dilbert
... so why does humor seem like a distraction? Maybe it's because the game designers aren't comedians, they're geeks? Geeks can be funny, as seen on these very pages, but to step out and design a game that tries to be funny is way too risky. What if someone buys the game and doesn't laugh? Bad news.
Comedy takes a certain mindset. You have to program the user with a setup, then redirect them to the punch line. That's a different plot than blowing up an alien mother ship or whatever.
Comedy is usually only funny once. By the time the designer has seen it for the six hundredth time, it's not funny to them any more. By the time the user has seen the gag a few times, they're bored with it. By contrast, I still pull out Doom 2 now and then.
sigs, as if you care.
Lucasarts' classic adventure games have been mentioned already, and they are funny as hell. But, there still are a few actually funny games out there, the first one that comes to mind is No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way. A mix between James Bond and Austin Powers, this FPS had some hilarious moments. Of course, it's heavily story-driven - more open games like GTA would have to have huge amounts of scripted stuff that it just wouldn't be possible to make them thoroughly funny.
A game where you wantonly kill towelheads. Already been done. It's called "Operation Iraqi Freedom" by Bush! It's the best! And it has the best force-feedback hardware in the industry! They can shoot back, and you actuall feel it! Yee ha!
Mod down people who tell people how to mod in their sigs
Surely this depends on what you personally find amusing? I have fond memories of Dungeon Keeper & DK2, which I thought were wickedly funny... torture, anyone? Similarly, Carmageddon & Carmageddon 2 had me laughing out loud as zombies exploded around me whilst pulling off utterly insane stunts. A whole bunch of LucasArts games (Sam & Max, Day Of The Tentacle, etc) are funny. Grand Theft Auto's gouranga bonus. Simply playing Unreal Tournament and for example, jumping at an oppenent, emptying a weapon at them, completely missing, and they pick you off with one shot... I find that funny (or maybe I suck at UT ;)). Max Payne. Countless sub/side games in countless titles.
Maybe I'm just twisted.
I don't think traditional comedy will work in games... you tend to get in-jokes in games, which is ok because those playing the games will usually get it. Jokes that are scripted and get forced at you again and again as you replay, whilst they may have been funny the first few times, they almost certainly aren't after a few dozen.
In my opinion, scripted humour can not replace gameplay touches that allow the player to make their own fun.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"Run you pigeons, it's Robert Frost!"
Humor is in the eye of the beholder, however, I really like the humor in Duke Nukem 3D, even the online insults were great!
Life is to be experienced, not frowned upon. -Uknown
Someone set us up the bomb
or
The President has been kidnapped by ninjas. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the President?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I'm finding with my recent exposure to MMORPG's, that a good bit of the humor is coming from *surprise* other people in the game. Also, the games typically have some extremely funny things that designed to be there, but random, unintentional things tend to be hilarious (i.e. someone getting stuck in a column or an enemy materializing right next to you in a tree so that they can't attack).
So much room for sigs, so few sigs worthy of it.
Everyone knows if you click the people in Warcraft/Starcraft enough, you get some funny jokes, but my favorite was in WC3.
"I'll attract the enemy with my human mating call. I'm so wasted! I'm so wasted!" -- The Dryad
Straight up comedy games ala the original Lucasarts ones wont work now. A lot of those were filled with injokes and specifically geeky jokes. Now that the demographic has changed to the non-geek and general populace they don't work. Not only do they not work, but to create a game that would the humor would have to be so broad as to be either unfunny or work once.
I have seen some humor left but it is either background, in jokes, or specific. Case in point, alot of the quest givers in WoW have some funny stuff to say and the voice emotes are a riot but the game itself is pretty serious.
One thing that people fail to mention is the switch in humor in the games has worked. People are buying these games or subscribing to the serives in record numbers even in this declining economy. Weither or not any of us agree with humor in games in its current incarnation it moot really. Pander to the lowest common denominator and make lots of money. Sad but true.
Why exactly does a game need to be playable many, many times? Most single player games are only played once.As someone else pointed out, multiplayer games, on the other hand, can have player-created humour.
printf("Goodbye cruel world!\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b");
-1 Too scary
Examples:
Harm Guard: "Too late for that!"
Baron Dumas: Hmm...I would have to say....er....Beowulf.
Cate: Ah... I was thinking of historical rather than fictional individuals.
Baron Dumas: Beowulf is a historal character.
Cate: You mean the Beowulf who slew Grendel and is mother?
Baron Dumas: Ah, yes: thats the one.
Cate: He's a FICTIONAL character.
Baron Dumas: YES, I know that, but there was also an HISTORICAL one.
Cate: The Beowulf who fought the dragon?
Baron Dumas: Indeed.
Cate: But there AREN'T any dragons. Unless you count the dinosaurs of course, but there weren't any of those wondering around during the time that Beowulf WOULD have lived, had he been a REAL person instead of a fictional one.
Baron Dumas: Are you quite sure?
Cate: Yes.
Baron Dumas: I see...
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Both NOLF 1 & 2 are great FPS games where the humor is very well woven into the story line. It makes these games still stand out and fun to play, even now they're outdated technologically. A great game doesn't need the latest eye-candy, it needs great game-play.
They praise HHGTTG (text-based game), yet I know several people who found that game very, very unfun, due to the gameplay.
Its not enough to have gags if the gameplay has problems.
Just my $.02
Comment removed based on user account deletion
WARNING: SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED THE GAMES!!
Examples:
Harm Guard: "Too late for that!"
Baron Dumas: Hmm...I would have to say....er....Beowulf.
Cate: Ah... I was thinking of historical rather than fictional individuals.
Baron Dumas: Beowulf is a historal character.
Cate: You mean the Beowulf who slew Grendel and is mother?
Baron Dumas: Ah, yes: thats the one.
Cate: He's a FICTIONAL character.
Baron Dumas: YES, I know that, but there was also an HISTORICAL one.
Cate: The Beowulf who fought the dragon?
Baron Dumas: Indeed.
Cate: But there AREN'T any dragons. Unless you count the dinosaurs of course, but there weren't any of those wondering around during the time that Beowulf WOULD have lived, had he been a REAL person instead of a fictional one.
Baron Dumas: Are you quite sure?
Cate: Yes.
Baron Dumas: I see...
Thanks to NOLF Girl for a lot of these.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
That is incomplete. :P See post for the correct one.
;)
Remind me to sleep.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Tons of interactive user-created violent slapstick occurs in FPS/action games, especially during multiplayer. Everything from some guy rocket-jumping and exploding on impact, to accidentally driving the Hellbender off a cliff when two other teammates are riding on top is FUNNY. It's just very unsophisticated humor, which is part of what the article is complaining about.
Sadly, I always sucked at the funniest games - even Monkey Island had me reaching for a walkthrough every ten minutes or so, because while the game is brilliant, it's a little *too* brilliant for me to solve half the puzzles on my own. And being frustrated, or "cheating" are not so much fun even when you can appreciate the game's humour.
Freedom: "I won't!"
Triv
Might want to have a look...
http://www.omnytex.com/
Specifically:
http://omnytex.com/kgarcade/
and
http://omnytex.com/products_invasion_info.shtml/
They have two games for the PocketPC, Invasion: Trivia! and K&G Arcade. They both star two aliens named Krelmac and Gentoo. You could describe them as a cross between Kang/Kodos and Beavis/Butthead. The games are rather fun but most importantly are comedy-focused. Naturally as with all comedy whether you find it funny or not is subjective, but plenty if people do find them rather amusing.
The guys at Omnytex Technologies are actually getting started on K&G Arcade II (code-named "maybe this one will sell"), which they say is going to be even more comedy and story-driven.
I know mentioning something Microsoft-related (PocketPC) here on Slashdot is a no-no, but I think these two games are worth checking out if you own such a device.
If a pion (n-) collides with a proton in the woods & noone is there to hear it, does lamdba decay into the source pa
Space Quest and the Quest for Glory series are what really got me into gaming. Some of the later Icon based Sierra games were half-way decent, but in my mind the text-input games were the ones that really shined.
Most single player games are only played once.
Not if I have to waste 29 lives on a level to beat it.
One of the things I found very funny was that you could actually "use" the toilets in the game. If you walked up to one of the urinals and pressed the "use" button, Duke would do a wee wee and flush the toilet.
One day I was playing it over a direct modem connection with a friend. He shot me in the face with a rocket. I jumped up and backwards, breaking my chair in the process.
I don't have time to play games nowadays, and I don't have Windows, so my choice is severely limited anyway. Xbill is about my limit now.
Stick Men
Well at least he whom you call a "towelhead" knows where his towel is.
There is no doubt that the people at People Can Fly share a similar sense of humor of mine. Their game, Painkiller, doesn't really do anything at all to be humurous, it's just that the awesome physics engine causes some hilarious things to happen. Huge chain barrel explosions as well as the way the enemies look when you use the rotating blade.
Maybe they were watching Dead Alive (hence the similarity between the main weapon and that lawn mower from the movie) or some Troma movie when they came up with the idea of the game.
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
That wacky Minesweeper game just cracks me up!
From the beginning to the end, perhaps. The article does mention between-level humour, but (if I read it correctly) asks for in-game humour. That will drive you crazy if, for example, as tepples writes, you need 29 lives to complete a level, and the same joke is repeated each time.
Player-created humour, now that's something completely different, and unavoidable. It doesn't have much to do with the game itself, I think, but the players.
I just remembered the cow level of Diablo II. That's another kind of humour, a hidden level, and a reference to the Diablo fan-base created myths.
"Stop failing the Turing test!" -- Dilbert
Comment removed based on user account deletion
How to be a complete bast**d.
e /shots/gameId, 12456/
Some screenshots:
http://zxspectrum.mobygames.com/gam
What other game gives you the opportunity to pee on someone?
WR
For some reason, I find the original NES Super Mario Brothers jump sound to be hilarious. "Bleeeeeeeeee!" Hopefully that doesn't make me retarded or anything.
Similarly, the sound the 1-wood makes when you miss the ball while swinging in Lee Trevino's Fighting Gold is extremely funny to me.
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
You fight like a dairy farmer.
How appropriate, you fight like a cow.
One of the funniest games I have played in recent memory is "Simpsons: Hit And Run", a GTA-like game in The Simpsons universe. It's nothing but comedy wall-to-wall, and it's great. I replayed it several times and, at least to me, the humor didn't lessen.
Of course the Lucasarts classics are still the best, but in today's age where mass appeal is crucial, it's hard to find jokes that everyone will get, let alone find humorous.
That game contained a few of the most hilarious moments i have encountered in games. (of course my other favourites are the MI, SQ and QfG series)
For some reason, I used to find the "KillBill" game included with some versions of Linux very enjoyable. And then there was the "PieBill" game in which I racked up many hours of fun...
Backup not found: (A)bort (R)etry (P)anic
The author of the article probably has not experienced "emergent comedy" in a game. Take the Sims, for instance as a recent example -- it's funny when your party guests get stuck in a corner, fall asleep and urinate all over themselves. No, but being a writer for Slate, the author probably has only gone to real parties of this type.
... Let's make a reality show game!!" Which would then, of course, be designed with a linear storyline :)
What do you bet a producer somewhere is reading this and saying "A-ha! If unscripted comedy is funny
(sigh)
Some things never change, do they?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
The first one... the elevators played, well, elevator music. "The Girl from Ipanema" specifically.
you could be doing something better
it costs you a lot of money
eventually, you lose.
If you thought random clipping was fun (thanks Beacher!), modern (well, since the Hitman series) physics offer unintentional humor galore!
Is me the only one who thought that game had some pretty funny cinematics?
Ah yes. Thats a good point. Games shouldn't have such deliberate humour if you have to keep doing the same thing again and again. Guess thats a hard decision to make, but it makes you wonder if that sort of research goes into game development.
:P)
I've never been a big fan of single player games, although I must mention that Star Control II was awesome (yes, very old too
printf("Goodbye cruel world!\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b");
although I must mention that Star Control II was awesome (yes, very old too :P)
Was? It's still maintained.
I always loved the splattered whale reference, amoung others, in fallout 2 :)
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I thought these were done humorously.
From Half-life: "(Gorden, you should already be in) The test chamber!"
"All that target practice is going to come in handy today."
Zork Grand Inquizitor: Character drank poison. "I can't believe he fell for it." Wields shovel. Whamm!
--Brenda
That's OK. They'll come out with a special Eurepean version where you run over Jews. It'll be a big seller in France.
Go ahead. Accuse me of generalizing about whole nations based on the bigoted words of a few. I dare you.
--- Ban humanity.
Space Quest by Sierra was a funny game. You're travelling around in the crazy future universe that's kind of an odd combination of every future universe you've seen in movies and films. You'll occasionally see a Star Wars ship thrown on a trash dump or a reference to a Star Trek charachter.
The games were also very self referential. In one game (SP3) you had to save thinly veiled versions of the two guys who wrote the game. In another (SQ4) you travelled back in forth in time within the Space Quest series jumping from the original game into a game that hasn't yet been made like Space Quest 14).
My favorite line came from a moment when you asked to "get" a ladder and the game responded. "You get the ladder and put it in your pocket... Ouch."
Ah, the memories. That's some good abandonware.
--
RumorsDaily
A lot of the humor is accidental, usually caused by bad translation and localization. Things like Arngrim thanking the king from the bottom of his feet, wizards attacking spoony bards, and somebody setting up us the bomb.
But they forgot Spongebob Squarepants! Or.. hmm I'm not sure if it's funny or not, he talks really dumb, but there are non sequiturs for adults sprinkled in so the brain doesn't go to jelly when playing with kids. Though it is kinda nice as an environment to be in.. So I think there is something in common between the world created for Spongebob and the world of Nights (anyone remember?) the Sega game where you fly and do aerial acrobatics - lovely music and you can just toodle around without any goal necessary.
The infocom stuff was great, and with humor and mystery, since writers were involved at least as much as programmers (unbelievable but true I would expect).
Okay, how about a game where you are a clueless geek with an Internet connection. The entire society is on the brink with a presidential election, but the bought media lock out most of the challengers. Your task is to find their websites, download torrents of interviews with them on CSPAN, and launch a net campaign to get at least either your local politician or a challenger in the election to win, you have to fight your way past all kinds of gaffes, explosions in Iraq, Osama home movies, etc. etc. that would might strike some twisted people as humorous. Oh wait.. nevermind.
Maybe they aren't funny because the comics get paid for stage and tv but it costs too much to make a video game so nobody with a sense of humor is left anymore? So what is the current equivalent of "You are about to be eaten by a GRUE!" ?!?!
How is there no mention of Star Control 2? The dialog from this 1994 Accolade hit has kept me laughing for over a decade now. Open-source PC port of the 3DO version released under the title The Ur-Quan Masters.
...and Sierra Online. Gutbusting fun in Day of the Tentacle, Leisure Suit Larry, Zack McCracken etc etc. Those were the days.
I'm sorry if I haven't offended anyone
What's up with that? Something cute that has attitude. It's funny to squash them.
A better question might be: Which elements would make up best game humour, and WHY?
What if it is just turtles all the way down?
As you go alone in Grand Theft Auto, it gets a lot funnier. I would say a huge percentage of the jokes are inside jokes from the previous games. Catalina in San Andreas is a lot funnier as a character when you realize you killed her in GTA:3. So for a newcomer to the series, some of the jokes might not be all that funny.
I realize you may be thinking about LA games like Monkey Island and Sam&Max, but they had a history of smart and very funny games even before then.
the two that spring to mind most handily are Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Loom ("Do you know the name Bobbin Threadbare?" [#3])
These are the true classics. I agree, however, that these kind of games have lost any kind of marketability in the face of Dooms and Halos and GTAs. OMFG!! Monkey Island was leaked two weeks earlY!!
Oh well.
I found the original Blood by Monolith funny. There was funny dialogue from Clint Eastwood movies thrown in. Also I rememeber entering the mortuary and he would say "open for business." Also when the zombie heads came off you could kick them like footballs. That was the first fps I played on the pc, I would love to see another game like that. Blood2 was not the same.
Many a long talk since then I have had with the man in the moon; he had my confidence on the voyage. Joshua Slocum
This guy needs to keep track of the current game development. He should check out the remake of Bard's Tale for PS2 (boy am I old!). The remake is totally unlike the series back in the day.
Rather, this game mocks RPG games in generall such as doing rat killing quest or going to a lava level. The lines are funny and so are the stero typical female characters (e.g. bar maid with big pair of brests which the game keeps on focusing during the first few cut scenes).
Dungeon keeper 2 had some great moments in it if you watch carefully.
Havent seen anyone mention this so far but Postal and Postal 2 had some dark humor and smirk inducing one-liners (Kinda like duke nukem 3d but better)
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
Actually, they did make a series of Monty Python games. I have 3 of them, myself. Although, they weren't exactly prime examples of gaming or programming (I have yet to get them to work on my XP box.), they're fairly novel and incorporate a lot of the Monty Python humor.
Some choice Veloxi quotations:
The you aliens trespassing in ours the space. Most gracious grossness of august queen perhaps forgiving if you are pay tribute of 9 Arth energy crystals right away, by Jove. Agreeing?
I guess us is best friend. Perhaps we will eat together the slimy nodules a many the most delicious.
We is making you honorary Veloxi. Of course still the inferior alien but much the better I think so.
Best idea I have. We is exchange the many dirty joke and then much the laughing activity.
Not trying the funny stuff alien tresspassers, superior Veloxi the most powerful.
If you is showing proper respect for distinguished Veloxi charming then every-one is happy as a bivalve mollusk.
Zounds! I flabbergast! I not believing my sensory apparatus! Barbarian aliens is not recognize Veloxi are too much the superior.
You is try Veloxi patience. So much the secreting the many fluids and gnashing of the mandibles. Last chance a warning.
Greatest idea I have! I am make suggestion. The you aliens are not destroy ours the pretty spaceship. Yes, I think this is best idea certainly.
Enough the talking.
Hey! A giant petrified llama dropping.
I cannot believe no one has mentioned my favorite brain-addled barbarian and his Minature Giant Space Hamster, Boo! The voice acting in Baldur's Gate I and II was hilarious.
"Butt kicking for goodness!"
I never get tired of Chatterbox, my car radio is stuck on that station.
"Liberty City Cocks Rule!"
"Freddie needs a nanny, because Freddie's been a very naughty boy."
"C.R.A.P.??? Your organization is called C.R.A.P.?? What kind of moron are you??"
"You're listening to Chatterbox, where your opinion matters, or that's what we say anyway."
"You're listening to Chatterbox with me, Lazlow, with open ears and a closed mind."
"WHAT?? Not another one! The Australian-American war was the biggest war since the Big One."
"You know, that's a really good point. Countries that don't have guns are not American. If we had more guns, there would be less shootings."
"I work MIRACLES, senor!"
good times, good times!
NO CARRIER
Postal from Running With Scissors is a fun FPS http://www.gopostal.com/
No Fucking in the Recreation Area
Disconnect your television. Do your own research. Draw your own conclusions. They're probably lying. Don't be a sheep.
Speaking of in Jokes there are always the inside Llama jokes in Most of the early Maxis games. I never completley understood why they put them there though.
In a nation that's renowned for tolerance and equality and the premise that "all men are created equal" and whatnot, its _discouraging_ (I was trying to be ironic in my previous post) to see that some people still just don't get it.
By no means was I actually trying to make a generalization about the people of the nation as a whole.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
The text game had a lot of humor, and included scratch 'n sniff cards. The humor did get in the way of gameplay, though. The lame jokes plainly outnumbered the good, and the "sicker" jokes got tired very quickly. Games should have a good sense of humor, not be a single joke that a game revolves around. We have enough movies that do that.
The first thing I thought of when I saw this was the old king's quest games - I miss the old school sierra pythonesque humor.
If religous zealots don't believe in Evolution, then why are they so worried about bird flu?
Not a video game, but the MMORPG Kingdom of loathing does pretty well for humour. Although there are plenty of other attractions, I suspect that's the main thing for most beginning players.
I'm really going to miss Fallout if no one picks up the franchise. Both Fallout and Fallout 2 are littered with pop culture referances (such as the drugged out Star Trek away team ship crash landing) that are hillarious.
:).
My all time favorite is the beginning of one where it shows a TV flicking through channels. It pans to a huge hulking armored guy firing a minigun into the distance, then the caption blares "Our Boys, Keeping the Peace in Canada" while the armored guy waves to the camera. Classic
You're reading Slashdot. Of course you like Linux and pc hardware
Worms! If the idea of a worm with a bazooka isn't funny enough, you can blow up the other team with a sheep or banana bomb or the Holy Hand Grenade... not to mention the insane chain-reactions where you meant to kill the other guy's worm but ended up blowing up about three or four of your own instead, and then he finishes you off with the Prod.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Did you ever play Earthworm Jim?
One of my roommates rented it in college. We were laughing our ass off for days. We played the game through just to get to see the next joke. We weren't upset when you died, because we were usually laughing at _how_ we died.
I admit that it's really hard to come up with creative ideas to cover 40 hours of gameplay, and will happen less often when they spend their whole budget on engine and 3D artists instead of writers, but funny games can be done well.
My favorite game back in the Quakeworld days was a mod for Quake called Painkeep. The tradition is still alive with Painkeep Arena for Q3. One of the health powerups is a can of pork-n-beans which gives you +100 health when you eat them but the side effect is that you tend to fart alot. Your enemies can hear you coming and you "hop" when you fart which sometimes sends you headfirst into the lava or void. If you are quadded and farting you become a deadly methane weapon to those around you and yourself. Nothing better then killing someone close by with a fart. Period. It doesn't happen often but its something to relish. Makes for some very pretty fart bubbles underwater too.
PKA also has various goodies like beatraps, which leave you stumbling around with a huge trail of blood behind you. The gravity well makes the whole level rumble with an earthquake rattling people out of their cubbyhole who had scrambled to hide when they heard the well being deployed. With the dragon tongue, PKA's own unique grappling hook, you can place the beartrap or gravity well on the end of it and deploy with the hook to wherever you feel it will do the most carnage.
Someone coming at you like a maniac with a lightning gun? No problem. Keep an autosentry stashed in your inventory and bring it up as the chosen weapon... it reflects the lightning back at the perpetrator and zaps him until he knows better.
The guy wises up and decides to pelt you with a few rockets? His mistake. Pull out your airfist and blow the rockets right back in his face. One sure way to make your friends hate you is to deploy a gravity well into an open area then stand out of harm's way and blow unsuspecting victims toward the well.
Hell, I don't even need to play the upgrade game anymore with my PC. I should be fine for years to come With Painkeep Arena. Check it out here: http://sh.stonks.com/ and the official site here: http://www.planetquake.com/teamevolve/
Someone set you up, the mine!
"I know Karate, Kung-fu, Tae-Kwon-Do, Aikido and many other Chinese words!"
In the film Maria Full of Grace, Maria's walking in front of a sign that says, "It's what's inside that counts."
The first time the Mentor said "You have an excess of Mistresses. There's a word for Keepers like you..." I'll admit that I laughed.
"Mission Accomplished" -- George W. Bush May 1, 2003
For the most part, those Sierra adventure games had a serious story, but the backgrounds and item interactions were chock full of jokes (and in-jokes as the series progressed). I hope i'm not the only on this /. who has practiced lockpicking skill by "picking" my nose (often with deadly results). Or, when looking at a trophy-head unicorn (IIRC? QfG V?): You remember hearing a legend that only virgins can see unicorns. You pretend that you cannot see the unicorn.
I once shot a man in Reno 'cause they cancelled Firefly.
..is raw comedy: #1, because it's raw; #2, because it's comedy. The guys at Videlectrix really knew what they were doing when they put this together. (Check out the trailer too.) Haldo!
an article on humour in games that doesn't mention Earthworm Jim!??
A game where you get to fight lawyers with briefcases and jump into toilet-warps...
Some great humor in half life at the beginning of the game, after you initially blow things up. If you look through one of the windows as you run down the hallway after crawling back up the elevator shaft, you will see a scientist push a filing cabinet over onto one of the 'chicken crabs'. He jumps up and down and points at it, as if to say "ha ha ha! I got you!", and then one jumps on his face. I found that pretty humorous. It is easy to miss if you aren't looking for it :)
good old Berkeley System's original You Don't Know Jack was the funniest game I ever played. the host was friggin hilarious, there were jokes every 15 seconds in that game and a crap load of them. to bad the string of sequels squeezed that concept dry.... --no sig.
Please allow me to hate the creator of the 120-character limit: *HATES*. Thank you.
One that I had a lot of fun with is " Spellcasting 101 (a.k.a. Sorcerer Gets All the Girls)". But if you wanted to go *way* back to Apple ][ days, I remember "Softporn Adventure", where, for example, if you flush the toilet, it backs up, rapidly fills the room with raw sewage, and you die from the diseases you catch from the sewage. But all described in a very silly way...
Dungeon Keep also had some very silly moments, and of course, the classic *is* HHGTTG.
Wasn't there one called "Deer's Revenge" where the deers go around with high-powered rifles/scopes and shot hunters? I wanted to pick up a copy, but I think there was some sort of controversy, hunters complaining I think, and it kinda disappeared off the shelves. Too bad.
ttyl
Farrell
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
oh how that man has to start making games again. Some true classics, including one of my favorites, the little known Adventure/RPG Superhero League of Hoboken.
No One Lives Forever one and two had some great gags:
My personal favorite was chasing the midget mime on the unicycle, and Kate (you, the player) and Armstrong (muscle bound Scottsman) on a tricycle.
Mime ducks into an alley, and Armstrong says, "Hang on, sharp turn!" (with the wheels of the tricycle squeaking the whole time).
I had to pause for 15 minutes, I was laughing so hard I was crying.
Best guffaw, was the intro to the Morocco level:
Your contact is killed by the Mime/assasin, and you and Armstrong have to split up:
Kate: But how will I find you?
Armstrong: It's not like I blend in!.
Those were from NOLF2, the ending (spoilers ahead) of NOLF1 had the classic exchange:
Kate: Where were you?
Armstrong: I was shot!
Kate: I took care of an entire super-soldier invasion, and all you had to do was take care of a limp-wristed mommies boy with a target pistol.
Armstrong: I told you, I was shot!
Kate: Oooo, poor baby!
Armstrong: Don't you mock me, woman. Besides, it sting.
(I think that's how it went).
Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)
And games typically take a lot of time to solve. Every medium is different-- what works on stage doesn't in a movie, what works in a thirty second cartoon doesn't in a half-hour show. Games that try hard to be packed full o' laffs usually fail because "big jokes" are only funny once, kind of funny the second time and annoying the third. Humor in games simply has to be subtle. IMO it works best in games like Fallout where the setting is dark and twisted, and the details are funny and consistent but the actual gameplay is taken seriously.
my password is private, but unchanged.
This was a good action game that was downright comical. I mean, going after monsters with a toaster that shot out nuclear toast? A bad guy named Schwang Schwing, and another evil boss who's head looked like testicles? You won't be able to find this stuff in most blockbuster movies. I'm sure MDK was funny too, only I never got the chance to play it.
Go ahead. Accuse me of generalizing about whole nations based on the bigoted words of a few. I dare you.
You are a complete fucking bigot who are generalizing about whole nations based on the words of a few.
Why are people so uptight about humor? A lot of game as funny as it is subtle...Like when you can see through the wall when angled exactly right at the corner or FPS, or commentary to some 2nd string player being one of the elites, either planned or not, that's humor.
.. if you want an FPS which will make you laugh check out Giants: Citizen Kabuto. Absolutely hilarious plot as a bunch of Cockney Aliens end up on a planet with a magic using race of merfolk and a 300 foot tall beast.
SPOILER---
I loved the end scene. You are getting ready for the epic final fight, but the end of game monster dies after the first blow. The credits start to roll as you are sitting there thinking "What the hell!? A bug at the final fight, what idiots!". Then suddenly, the cockney aliens go "Aaah! He's not dead yet!" and the credits zip off the screen and the REAL final fight starts. Great game meta-humour.
---SPOILER
Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die
It wasn't a very good game (not terrible, but not exactly deep), but I kept playing Armed and Dangerous just to get to the next cutscene. THere they made humor the player's reward.
Then, after I beat the whole game, I found out there was a code to unlock them all.
Couldn't find a way to play them outside of the game, though.
from *many* years ago. It was a text adventure game, and the best thing you could buy in the market at the beginning was a shovel.
With that, you could dig for treasure, beat off lions in the jungle, bandits in the desert, sharks in the ocean, and, oh, yes, meteors in Outer Space.
mark "do you know where your shovel is?"
As for intended humour, I would have to agree with a few here that Warcraft has the most original one liners; they use references and spoofs from 'everything'.
*604x
Hint, game companies: People find adventure game funny and worth playing.
Sigh.
Aside from the classic Lucasarts games, I found Super Smash Bros. (the first one) to be absolutely hilarious. My little brother borrowed it and we knew nothing about it. So we started playing, with no computer players,punching each other in the face. It was just entertaining, until I found a giant hammer, grabbed it, and smashed Link into orbit, while the Donkey Kong hammer tune was playing in its retro glory.
We laughed to tears. And then we realized that wasn't even half the fun of playing a 4-player free-for-all. Too often would we pause the game to explain to each other how the most incredible thing just happened.
Who doesn't like Minsc, HK47, or Deekin? They crack me up.
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
Whiplash (by EIDOS) is a recent 3-D platformer type game where you play a team of a weasel named "Spanx" and a rabbit named "Redmond" chained together, trying to escaping from a crazy genetic testing facility.
This game was hilarious, *very* well written, fun, and highly rated. It proves that scripted comedy works, if you have good writers and it's well executed.
You can't look at a crappy network sit-com and say "scripted comedy is dead". Look at something good.
Unscripted games are often the funniest, either by design or by accident. For example:
- In the original C&C, using an ion cannon (superweapon) to decimate a lone HumVee that was up to no good. Somehow it was hilarious at the time, especially as this was played over modem and we talked the next day.
- The Worms series, especially #2, where you could crank up the weapon damage to ludicrous levels. The chain reactions are painful when you play alone, but hilarious with a group.
- Majesty, where your valiant knights, the last hope for your kingdom, flee in terror instead of attacking the sorceress queen.
- Roller Coaster Tycoon, launching a water slide raft (with rider) clear across the park.
Everything seems to be so carefully controlled these days... it's far easier to make a game with tried-and-tested, solid, easily-manipulated mechanics than to develop a new kind of play.
-- I prefer the term "karma escort."
/begin philosophical schtuff
/end philosophical schtuff
Games right now are very largely modernist (realist, seeking truth, striving for balance and perfection, using established metanarratives, consistent with known mechanics), as opposed to postmodernist (parody-infused, questioning the flow, aware that they are games, acknowledging their own flaws, incorporating many styles, possibly having random comedic semi-nonsense).
Modernist games are safe bets because you know what is expected... you know what happens in a shooter, and you know more or less what your perfect shooter would have. If, in making a game, you acknowledge that there is no perfect way to make it, I think it opens the door for some fantastic gameplay, but it also looks (and is) extremely dangerous for the corporate suits, who are, after all, footing the dev bill, to stomach.
While it could also validly be argued that most video games are postmodern by their very nature, I think that the modernist-postmodernist distincition I'm suggesting can be made regarding differences between games as well.
-- I prefer the term "karma escort."
Now squeal like a pig!
--- Ban humanity.
When games cost $5-50k to make, you can afford to take some big risks. When they're in the hundreds of thousands or millions, comedy is harder to sell to investors.
It's hard enough getting a game to work, not to mention coding "fun" into it. Putting "hilarious" in as well, especially as a core game mechanic, is unfortunately not very high-budget friendly.
Also, many "funny" game concepts probably come and go because there actually is no solid gameplay behind the catchy taglines.
Then again, the film industry has no qualms on spending bank on films along the lines of "Rob Schneider is... A CARROT!"
-- I prefer the term "karma escort."
used to be fun. Nowadays with war all around it gives second thoughts though.
Humor all over there - from the baddies waving their butts at you and chortling, carrying bullseye targets around and holding them in front of their faces, peering out behind them every now and then, to hefting huge bombs around they can barely carry, to faking injury and limping off after a few shots.
MAIN SCREEN TURN ON !!
:>
HOW ARE YOU GENTLEMEN !!
YOU HAVE NO CHANCE TO SURVIVE MAKE YOUR TIME !!
And what about games that people take seriously but only require laughable amounts of skill, like Counter-Strike?
Read the linked article or go straight to the Bard's Tale info site. Then touch the characters a lot, in particular, the barmaid. Do it enough and you get sent to
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
My god, does no one remember multiplayer LAN'd doom 2 with the hilarious animation death sequences for the marine? My god I remember having the most fun times of my life playing Doom 2 over the lan and hitting someone with a rocket before I see them and watch their body slide into view as the marine holds onto his throat while dying and his body falls apart/to the ground. So god damn hilarious too with the "drive by" shotgunnings where you are running towards one another and get stuck on one another and then you shotgun teh other guy really quick and he disappears "under the hood" so to speak, lol.
Others have mentioned the great Infocom and Lucasarts games, and all like that. I'm just surprised nobody's mentioned Nethack and its derivatives (and predecessors). For long-time players, one of the major goals in Nethack is to dredge up amusing messages.
... and so on.
Some of these are deliberate ("you hear a faint typing noise"), others a matter of circumstance ("The lawyer hits! It sucks your brains out!"), and still others an artifact of the interface ("What do you want to eat? BLT* or ?"). In any case, while the game itself is reasonably serious, its odd sense of humor is almost a bottomless well:
"You die. Do not pass Go. Do not collect 200 Zorkmids."
"The microscopic space fleet swallows the little dog!"
"The pit fiend falls into a pit! How pitiful. Isn't that the pits?"
I work for a game company that recently attempted a humorous game. It's absolutely true that you ignore the jokes after playing it a few hundred times, although I can't imagine that anyone but a developer would have the patience to replay that game as much as I have. It usually gets a laugh out of first-time players, so that's worth something.
At any rate, I think it might be the first attempt at a humorous simulation game -- it could have been called "Space Station Tycoon," but it seemed icky and unoriginal to give it a name like that. It's a pity, it might have sold better.
Be forewarned that I wrote more than half the jokes. If you lambast my game, I will probably cry.
Acius the unfamous
"Prince Peasly sure is in a pickle. I wonder if he'll come this way"
I showed that to a friend, and he was all like: "Man, is that intentional?"
"Princess Peach's sweet voice will soon be the bread that makes the sandwich of Cackletta's desires! And this battle shall be the delicious mustard on that bread! The mustard of your doom!"
The sound effects of Mario and Luigi mumbling in italian to each other is pretty crazy too. The minion of the main villian is quite the english speaker too. His metaphors must be seen to be believed.
Fawful: I have fury! Hah! Now taste the finale, when carelessness opens the door to a comeback not expected by you! Your lives that I spit on are now but a caricature of a cartoon drawn by a kid who is stupid. You shall all fall and vanish with your precious Beanbean Kingdom as I laugh heartily at you!
Just then, Prince Peasely appears and knocks Fawful down. (Mario and Luigi are still stunned.)
Peasely: HAH! In the finale of the finale, when negligence begets rashness, the comeback is come-back upon! Ah heh heh heh heh heh!
Fawful gets up and electrifies Prince Peasely.
Peasely: EE-YOUCH!
Fawful: I have fury! In the last moments of the finale of the finale, when relief leads to negligence that begets rashness, that is when the comeback that faltered comes back and beats your pathetic comeback that I scoff at!
I love that game.
SAILING MISHAP
to keep lost of fress content in the background... especially when it's the game devs who are usually adding it as they go...
All the torrents you could want.
Psychonauts by Double Fine (www.doublefine.com) is another funny game coming out from Tim Schafer. I think this article was fairly poor, as it failed to mention the many humorous games that have come out through the years. No One Lives Forever 1 and 2, The Neverhood/Skullmonkeys, Space Quest, MDK/Giants/Armed & Dangerous, Earthworm Jim, Grim Fandango/DOTT/Sam & Max/Full Throttle, Gobliiins 1-3, Planescape: Torment (dark sure but I laughed a lot), Lunar SSSC, Thousand Arms... and a lot more that I'm forgetting or have missed. If it wasn't for humor I wouldn't be the heavily addicted gamer I am today, so I hate to see all these funny games get overlooked.
I imagine the difficulty in making a funny game is related to how difficult it is to grasp the nature of videogame narrative. This is its own medium, with its own rules, its own way of thinking and behaving. Just as that leads to its own flavor of narrative unlike what you find in other media, it results in unique comical opportunities. It's the comedy which takes advantage of the medium which, as far as I can see, has the most potential to be effective.
2 04 2
You will see some discussion to this regard here:
http://forums.insertcredit.com/viewtopic.php?t=
On the PC version, in the bonus mission to protect the rebel freighters, when the imperial missile frigates fire Corris torpedoes, speed out and get a close look at the torpedoes as they're flying towards the freighters.
On one of them you'll find a droid astride the torpedo with a ten gallon hat, a la Dr Strangelove.
Well, actually he doesn't have a cowboy hat on, but it's easy to imagine.
"It's not your information. It's information about you" - John Ford, Vice President, Equifax
... when you fall out of the plane and forgot to pull your parachute, when land starts getting closer you hear a loud runny fart sound as the soldier has obviously crapped himself. My friend and I split our sides laughing over that one for ages!
"Just leave. When you come back i'll be waiting for you with a bat." And you can find some in Wolfenstein too!
Some of the funniest things i've seen while playing Vice City arent that various cut scenes or radio shows, but the little things that are hard to notice.
For example, in Vice City, on the second island I think, there is a building called 'fudge packing inc' (i think theres a similar one on GTA3 as well). Im pretty sure there are some other ones but I cant remember them at the moment.
In Ultima 9 you could find a rather, er, effemenate version of the Avatar hiding in the backwoods near Britain, complete with lisp and drawl.
In true fabulous party-boy style he ran up a huge bar tab, buying rounds for the whole house, whilst claiming to be the Avatar. The dialogue whereby you explain to him that impersonating famous people is wrong was absolutley hilarious.
On a side note, I can't believe people are actually arguing against humor in games. These people should be eliminated. And I know just the right inquisition for the job...
Insightful ?
I'm French, and I'm shocked.
This is not insightful, this is a fscking troll
I like ye olde Nintendo commercials:
But this is the best part, this is when they... START RAPPING! Bwahahaha. "It's The Ledged Of Zelda and it's really rad. Those creatures from Gondorf are pretty bad." That is just a snippet from the rhyming prodigy's in this commercial. I don't really know what Nintendo was thinking when they thought up the idea for portraying their customers as hopeless dorks, but this is by far my favorite Nintendo commercial.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Why not get the real ultimate power?
I think you're on the right lines...
The main problem with comedy in games is that it often doesn't travel well across borders. Word play, such as a level name "Tulips from Hamster Jam" (instead of Tulips from Amsterdam), will, I imagine, be completely lost when translated from English to Spanish.
Other jokes may rely heavily on local knowledge. You could add gameplay around touching Terry Wogan's knee, but it'd be more of a "huh?" than a "ha!" unless you're a familiar with 1980's UK talk show hosts. A good example of this is in the film Shrek 2, where Donkey (I think) suggests giving the cat the Bob Barker treatment. Without knowing who Bob Barker is, and what he recommends people do to their pets, the joke falls flat. I also believe that this scene was rescripted for some locations for this very reason.
For large, successful, high-budget titles, you'll be looking to sell internationally in multiple languages. You need to make sure the humor works universally, or go to the extra expense of producing different versions, rescripted each target location. Very few developers could afford to do the latter, hence it's very rare to find a game these days that relies on humor as it's primary selling point.