Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Humor in movies and games

I would define humor levels in movies/games at 4 phases:

Max HUMOR Space Quest style: this would be where the main humor is parodies from other sources and jokes about the "game."
EXAMPLES!: You see Darth Vader and such running around, and you see all sorts of star trek borrowed references.
EXAMPLES2!: The game recognizes itself as a game, like: "You pick up the key because that's what you do in adventure games."
EXAMPLES3!: One of the characters in the game asks you if the game was worth 50$ to buy.
This humor does not take itself seriously and it just laid back crazy style, where anything can happen...

Funny HUMOR Monkey Island style: The jokes are hidden within dialogue and subtler references.
Examples: Various dialogues between characters...
This kind of humor however doesn't let everything get "too" crazy. The designers won't make too many jokes in space quest style where they talk about the "game." They try to keep a semi-"seriousness" while having crazy talks between the characters.

Light HUMOR: Lighter Indiana Jones style: The jokes are vaguer and just between characters. Nothing really outrageously crazy, just simple witty remarks. Also used in Cowboy Bebop.

No HUMOR: Dark style: No jokes here, just teeth gritting, darkness, and seriousness. THINK: Blade Runner.... again.

In my opinion, I prefer Funny-Light Humor. Max humor is not my taste. I just think you lose the atmospheric feeling when everything goes crazy and you start meeting luke skywalker and then you go appear in king's quest. Sure it's funny if the story goes like that, but if the game actually has a "story" than it's stupid to go in wierd directions.

Side note: Another thing I hate about stories in humor games is the way stories play out--but first, let me talk about monkey island. Monkey Island is a funny game. The story is pretty good and can be taken seriously (such as in Pirates of the Carribean style). Even with a serious"er" story, you can still keep the game funny.

But what I do HATE about stories in humor games is when they make the main problem in the story stupid just because the designer thought it was a funny pun.

I don't want to play a game where Roger Wilco loses his golden cleaning mop and must find it otherwise the aliens will build a death star with it. I would rather play a game about an intergalactic war between two alien races where rebels and dangerous virus' float through the galaxy and pirates try to kill all the settlers. You can still put humor in both games, but the second one would be way less quirky.

Note: this is my opinion, not a fact, thank you.

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1 Comments:

At 1/31/2006 8:17 PM, Blogger ifedajay said...

"I just think you lose the atmospheric feeling when everything goes crazy and you start meeting luke skywalker and then you go appear in king's quest."

hahahha

very funny JBurger

I think that you're right.

Though, if you're not very happy, you should play MAX humor games.

Or if you're bored.

But if you're trying to be more entertained, then....yea.

 

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