Can video games ever be funny?

HubertRonald

Hi folks
Here a link about subject wrote by BBC
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140320-are-these-video-games-funny

loucsam

It lost me in the heading: "Ever been tickled by a video game? Humour is rare in the world of shoot-em-ups and magical quests, but games that play for laughs are emerging, says Simon Parkin. Can they make you chuckle?"

Humour in games and in FPS has been around forever. Stupid title, and simply not true.

HubertRonald

Hi @loucsam
I have never thought consciously make a funny game, and I had never thought about it. But it is also true that some games you are stressed nerves also like Doom in 1993 it was a really cool game in its time.

Disciple

Interesting read but I don't totally agree. There are some relatively recent games like Portal 1 and 2 that made me laugh because of the simple yet clever jokes GLaDOS made. I also loved the humor from the Uncharted saga, which wasn't that abundant, but it was funny nevertheless. The Crash Bandicoot saga was kinda funny too. Super Meat Boy is another example I can think of. These are just some that come to mind right now.

Probably jokes aren't the main thing in gaming, but there are some games that have humor for sure.

HubertRonald

Nice feedback @Disciple
I must admit than I was core gamer in 90's and early years of the 2000.
And it's interesting to hear a fresh perspective on this subject. >-

loucsam

To me it read as though the author was maybe 20 years old and thought he knew everything about the history of gaming, and that humour was something knew.

Okay here is just one of so many examples from maybe more than 20 years ago.

Heard of Leisure Suit Larry, the game was completely about humour (dirty humour, but humour lol). The discworld games of many years ago were based on Terry Pratchett's crazy/funny novels. It is definitely not a new thing. I remember playing those sorts of games in the 1980s.

talis

Let's not forget about Lucasarts adventure games Monkey Island, Indiana Jones vs ..

But let me tell you there is so much thin line between to make a funny game or to ruin a game .

Once with my friends we discussed this subject and concluded 2 kinds of humor can be integrated in the game.
1-Character can be funny. When i said funny it shouldn't be like a clown, it can be serious in a way funny. (Like Indiana jones, ghost busters characters, 3cpo star wars- not jar jar wings please i hate him )
2-Character can be so much strict but always exist in an awkward funny scenario. Like in Big bang theory. (Like Sheldon Cooper, Like Kyle South park vs ..)

All the humor is possible with a good background scenario i guess. Of course again there is a thin line to kill people with so much details or to create something valuable and funny

OZApps

Have you play King Of The Opera? It is a FUN upto 4 player game for the iPad (though it fails at times due to the multi-touch gestures) for more than 2 players. Then there is Ring Run, now these are not games with Humour as the basis, but they are in a way funny (give them to a child ,the child will be entertained for a long time and giggle, laugh, etc)

The other funny is Sam & Max, Monkey Island, Neighbour From Hell, that have humour embedded in the game. Did you try the Cave or Stacking from Double Fine, they are othere examples of humour (but subtle).

HubertRonald

@loucsam: I remember Larry is a Classic, my cousins playing this kind of game.
@talis and OZApps: also remember Sam & Man, Monkey and Island.

But I want to share my experience with such games. English not being my native language, there were some expressions or jokes that I was not understood in the first moment, and as you know well in this time there was not internet, although it wasn't a big deal to find its real meaning. )

Even today, I'm in another country that speaks Spanish, but you believe me sometimes a joke can be offensive to one and vice versa :-S . I think it would go for funny pictures since it is difficult to know (a game developer indie) types of cultures and when a joke can be an insult or not.

@talis I could add another form of game funny:
I organized fifa tournaments and sometimes "street fighter" tournaments in my house (in 1995) and it was fun teasing each other or do anecdotes of our game. Worms was also funny with his creatures and again play with our friends before the Internet from entering hard in my country.

I think the above was well capitalized by nintendo with its Wii, I made a party and I and my friends played wii sport resort and we had funny moments.

A couple of years ago also at a pub known for my country became fashionable (karaoke-style) playing on stage: rock band, guitar hero, so on with friends while people were amused to the fullest how bad you played the drums LOL. )

OZApps

@HubertRonald,
I know what you mean, the most amazing feat is achieved by the writers of the Simpsons, where they translate the episodes and the jokes to Spanish, specially the ones when Bart makes the crank calls to Moe.

and yes, believe it or not, while Black and White is the colour used in Western weddings, they are used as colours for mourning in other cultures. so it is not just the words, it is the images, the colours, etc that change or represent different things in the world.

The simple gesture of making an OK/Good sign with the thumb and the first finger and the three fingers up is fine in the western world, in many other cultures it is from offensive to threatening. So you cannot avoid stepping on some toes accidentally.

this list can go on and on of how cultures associate animals with insults or how a good word in one language is a foul word in another.

HubertRonald

Yes @OZApps, in my country in some regions white is like death, so doctors don't dress so.

ernzo

Sam & Max surely made me laugh!