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Farklempt!

robotissues writes "Farklempt! is an online video game that challenges its players to manage their emotional-health through the skillful manipulation of feelings against other players trying to do the same. USA Today said: "You will not see another game like this one for many a day, we suspect, unless someone finds a way to squeeze a copy of The Sims until the pure essence comes out". Wired Online also covered the unveiling at Dorkbot NYC last week."

11 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. hmm. by thhamm · · Score: 3, Funny

    "You will not see another game like this one for many a day."

    i think there is something similar. it think it was like this: "slashdot is an online community that challenges its players to manage their emotional-health through the skillful manipulation of feelings against other players trying to do the same."

    or something. :)

  2. SNL by Xentor · · Score: 2, Funny

    Am I the only one who sees the name of this game and immediately thinks of Mike Myers's character on SNL, Linda Richman?

    "Excuse me, I'm getting a little faklempt... Talk amongst yourselves... I'll give you a topic. A peanut is neither a pea nor a nut. Discuss."

    --
    "The amount of intelligence on this planet is a constant. The population is growing." -Cole's Axiom
    1. Re:SNL by ALeavitt · · Score: 3, Informative

      The reason that you think of Linda Richman is because the words for all of the different gameplay components come from Yiddish, which Mike Myers' Jewish mother-in-law (upon whom Richman was based) used. Now, I'm no expert on Yiddish, but here are the meanings of some of the words:

      Mishegas (n) - Craziness
      Meshigina (n, adj) - Crazy person, or just crazy
      Meshugen (n) - Crazy person
      Filn (n) - Feeling
      Farklempt (adj) - Choked up, emotionally overwhelmed

      --
      This sig has been stolen. Return it to its original user for a reward.
  3. Re:pffft. by duggy_92127 · · Score: 2, Funny

    You're implying that the women in Los Angeles are skillful at managing their emotional health?

    ...

    Have you even been to Los Angeles?

    Doug

  4. Idi Amin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I know you meant that as a joke, but it turns out that Idi Amin was a great cook. His tandoori chicken was known throughout the continent.

  5. Where "farklempt" comes from by selfsealingstembolt · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Seems to be a play on the german word "verklemmt" which can be translated as "uptight". Just my 0,02...

    --
    Keep open minded - but not that open your brain falls out...
    1. Re:Where "farklempt" comes from by xtermin8 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Farklempt is Yiddish for "emotionally overwhelmed." Good try, though. Michael Meyers had a recurring role as a NY Jewish woman talk show host on Saturday Night Live for a while. He/she would pause and proclaim she was getting "fahklempt." I'm not sure if leaving out the "r" sound is the result of a NYC accent or the proper pronunciation. just FYI

  6. Ugh, pretentious art alert by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    My avant garde/pretentious art alarms are going off. This "game" that I just "played" maybe has some point. If I'm supposed to know what the point of it was, I guess I missed it.

    As far as I can tell, I just clicked on some circles and made them smaller.

    I mean, come on. What is this? Metafilter?

  7. This Game Is Not About Emotions... by DLWormwood · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Sad, Happy, Angry, and Anxious make about as much sense for the navigation controls in this game as Top, Bottom, Up, Down, Strange, and Charm do to describe the real world properties of quarks.

    The whole "emotion" angle is just hot air for a "rapid click to control" UI for moving the player's vehicle while it tries to collide with other players in the game arena.

    --
    Those who complain about affect & effect on /. should be disemvoweled
  8. It's Java, not Flash, but the real point... by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There's actually a glitch in the game. Or maybe it's intentional.

    Since the emotional state of a person determines their acceleration, not their position, the easy hack would be to have two people simply keep two adjacent circles larger than the two opposing circles, which accelerates them in the general direction of a corner. Eventually, they would be clipped and stop in that corner.

    That basically provides no challenge. Any group of people who want a higher score can all just go camp in the Happy/Sad corner. So, rather than allowing the size-of-the-circles to control position, rather than acceleration, the game now has the players wrap around the edge.

    This is even worse than allowing resource/stat/score whoring. This makes it so that if you get too happy, you instantly become sad. Maybe that's intentional -- on the left side, the same thing happens; when a bubble gets too big, it bursts.

    That's assuming the game was actually fun, interesting, or different. I'd rather go play Halo or MarioKart.

    But it's actually Java, not Flash. I never thought I'd say this, but there is something slower than Java -- it's called Flash.

    --
    Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
  9. Re:[gets out wallet] by Schemat1c · · Score: 2, Funny

    So when do I get to pay $5 a month and play TotalFarklempt!?
    --
    Help a poor college student get a free iPod! [freeipods.com]


    $5 dollars a month? You can't even afford to buy an iPod.

    --

    "Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better." - Unknown